First update of the year with the first goal for 2024 already in the bag: 1.000 wins with Priest! I would never have gotten there without the introduction of Darkbishop Benedictus, Shadow Priest just really clicks with me :-)

I've also managed to reach an optional goal for this year in January already by improving my best ever rank by more than 100:

I will now focus on Demon Hunter as that awesome 1.000 wins portrait is finally coming into reach. If I can keep up my pace from January, I'll get there next month!

GG to you too man, I was sure you had me when I first ran out of snow.

Whats next? Any duties that come with being the snowman of the year? Do I get a sash and have to open malls or something?

(honestly, a forum title or something would be nice :D) 

Heyyyyy Lemushki!! Congrats to you and your spouse, may you have a wonderful wedding day with all the people you care about and a loving, supporting and happy marriage! I don't know but knowing you have such a special day today just makes me smile all over the place so thanks for that :-)

Gamingwise no news from my side, I still haven't cleaned up God of War Ragnarok after having finished the main story a month ago. I'm busy playing Hearthstone and reading books, but I'm still pondering my next big game... It will either be Horizon: Forbidden West or Diablo IV, depending on if I want to go with old reliable or try something completely new.

Has Snowpocalypse already ended? I can still buy and throw snowballs but the leaderboard and the recently thrown table don't get updatet anymore...

One more thing: The initial reaction of a lot of pro players and other experts on Twitter has been very negative while most "ordinary" players seem to be happy with the changes. I'm very interested to see who's right here in the long run.

I think the most simple answer is that the card is too new to get nerfed, especially being the poster boy of the Mini set. Somehow they always seem to deliver something broken with those... If it ends up truely warping the meta, we'll get a nerf before the next expansion drops for sure.

That said, I'm not sure if it's needed. As you've said yourself, aggro is able to get underneath a deck that depends on playing a 6 Mana do nothing card that needs to be found in a singleton deck and most importantly, Plague DK is still viable. I'm surprised your list doesn't run Steamcleaner to be honest since if you can't trigger Brann's battlecry, you will have a very hard time winning your game.

Please take the above as the single opinion of the Wild player I am ;-) Maybe I'm just disappointed because I haven't been able to make use of Brann in my mode so far...

Huh, it definitely changes your perspective a lot when you're playing different game modes (and servers?). I'm a Wild main playing on EU, most months climbing to Standard D10 or D5 depending on the meta and how much time I have. Here are my thoughts:

• Velarok, the Deceiver: I'm surprised you're surprised Pezman, Hat had announced that nerf during the holidays. I'm very happy with it because I do not care about the guy's stats at all and the effect has not been touched. I have never been a Thief Rogue player, but the Badlands expansion made me fall in love with a fun version of Excavate Rogue (no Shattershambler, no Scourge Illusionist, but 2x Wishing Well). Great nerf!
• Shattershambler, Cactus Construct, Herald of Nature, The Garden's Grace: What Pezman said.
• Pendant of Earth: Thank Yogg for this nerf. This has been absolutely absurd from the perspective of an aggro player. I have seen a lot of this in Wild, where it's mainly used to discover Naga Giant or Crypt Keeper. Good nerf from a balance perspective and also flavour-wise imo! Some people also use it in Standard for a better chance of Eonar, the Life-Binder shenanigans with...
• Shattered Reflections. Seems to be fair in Priest, but said combo with Eonar leads to very crazy turns, especially if the Druid was able to ramp before that. Good nerf target, not sure if it's enough though.
• Dew Process has been the center piece of Mill Druid in Wild which was a very viable archetype there. I hear it got some traction in Standard as well and believe me when I say you're lucky they nuked it before it became popular. I guess there's a high chance they'll revert it upon rotation, but I'm glad about the breathing room we got in the meantime, however short it may last.
• Boogie Down: Losing Taunt is huge imo, I'm not sure if the card survives this. Might have been enough to just adjust the cost. Overnerf for the sake of not touching Shroomscavate (yet)?
• Thaddius, Monstrosity: I've hated this card since the first time I saw it. Let's hope it stays dead this time.

Deepminer Brann? I will read your deck spotlight article next but from my limited perspective I don't see much of a problem here (maybe because my favorite Standard deck is Excavate Plague DK). I'm more concerned about Sludge Warlock and maybe Naga DH but let's wait and see how the meta shakes out.

Most important change for me: The Mine Rogue bug got fixed, Wild is playable again!!

What a spectacle! Y'all are

s

I'd like to add The Witcher 3 to the list. Amazing soundtracks, especially on Skellige!

Hey Pezman, 

don't give up just yet! Truth be told I have been outof.snow for almost two weeks, but I have made it a habit to visit the site like 5 or 6 times a day and browse a bit which amounts to 5-10 snowballs. If I can do it, you can do it! Let's fight this out like real snowmen for the remaining week!

Your friendly rival,

anchorm4n 

Giving Windfury to Paladin is a terrible idea. Wouldn't be surprised if this got nerfed to 5 after a week or two.

Oh my god you've basically predicted the actual card!! 

All aboard the snowtrain! Chooooochooooooo

Odyn will hate this :D

Congrats, Wailor!

That new theme is very cool and there are already some awesome submissions :-)

Shattered Reflections is going to be horrible with Eonar.

Also more Seedlock support?! Thanks, I hate it. 

Happy and healthy New Year to you too! Glad to see you, it's been some time :-)

Battletag: anchorm4n#2478

Region: EU

Trade Only?: Yes, you go first

Usually online around 19:00 - 20:00 CET. Let me know if you're up for some fun games or just want to do these quickly!

I only have strong feelings about a handful of players here...

• Haaland is an obvious pick and I'm still mad he didn't get the golden ball
• Bellingham for sure
• Van Dijk has had an insane year and should defintely be in there
• Same goes for Rodri
• Kane has managed to produce a lot of goals in a mid team and even more of them at Bayern. I say he has more than earned a spot but probably won't get one because he's not meta enough in EAFC
• I expect Frimpong to get in because he has been playing well enough to get noticed and in contrast to Kane should make for a strong meta card (at least when it comes to stats, his chem is another question)

Let's try some predicitons y'all!

• The second silhoette definitely looks like Brann. Since he's very likely going to be the Demon Hunter / Warrior crossover legendary, I'd expect some kind of weapon related effect. Another powerful highlander condition would be cool but I'm not so sure about that one since Warrior isn't among the highlander classes in Badlands.
• Hunter/Mage initially made me think "Secrets!" but I guess that's not going to happen because Hunter secrets cost 2 and Mage secrets cost 3 so for one of the classes playing these wouldn't be much of a secret after all... So I guess we're just going with good old damaging spells here. I'm fine with that, Halduron is one of my favorite cards from last year.
• I'd love for Hunter/DK to be Deathrattle themed, be it as strong Deathrattle minion or an activator.
• DH/Rogue would also fit weapon support that goes along with the DH/Warrior legendary mentioned above.
• Rogue/Priest = more thiefing.

I'm pretty clueless about the rest though, do you guys and gals have any ideas for them or thoughts about my predictions?