It took me longer than I'd like to admit, but the second card should be Hobart Grapplehammer.
I'm pretty sure the first card is from Goblins vs Gnomes and I wasn't around at that time. There are five Weapons in that set plus 5 more cards that interact with Weapons. The one that stands out to me is Tinker's Sharpsword Oil because it still sees some use in Kingsbane Rogue lists. No idea if it was good in the past.
The third card should be from The Boomsday Project and there are only 6 of those in Battlegrounds, but I never play BG and have no clue which of them could be considered a tech card. None of them prevents Deathrattles at first glance. Annoy-o-Module has a weapon in hand, but that's all I found which might have anything to do with Hobart Grapplehammer.
Since I'm not sure anymore if my mime card isn't too close to Chameleos, I've been thinking about Demon's idea to give it a silence effect. After all, that's the major trait of a mime: they're mute/silent but exaggerate everything else. This is how I'd translate this into a HS cars:
I was talking about the Warlock lists in Standard. Raise Dead will be around for some time and if my suggestion for a nerf was implemented, Warlock needs tools to compensate the increased damage. Wild is another thing, but maybe 2 more damage could help to keep Darkglare Warlock in check.
Showerthought: What about making Raise Dead deal 5 damage to your hero? 3 damage is a joke for Priest and Warlock has the Soul Fragment mechanic as well as Man'ari Mosher.
Thanks for your feedback everybody! I'll go with the mime. I was wondering if it should be a legendary like Chameleos and I'm still debating if it should be Neutral or a Priest card. What do you think?
("Gazleau" is a pun made of Gazlowe and Marcel Marceau, the world's most famous mime. Another option would be "Bap, the Clown" since "Bip the Clown" was the role Marceau was famous for.)
More feedback:
DavnanKillder
Show Spoiler
I prefer the original version of the Puppeteer. It should be obvious that you can't give back a dead minion, there are quite a few cards in the game that have a drawback that can be avoided (like playing Unstable Felbolt when you have no minions). You need to change the wording though: look at Potion of Madness or Shadow Madness for guidance.
Wailor
Show Spoiler
Wow, this really hard to decide now! Felfire Juggler is super flavorful, but the effect is a bit wordy indeed. On the other hand, Grim Fortune's artwork is very cool. I think I'd go with the Jugger because it's more interesting.
So it's a standard minion with a mechanic attached to it that rarely triggers because it's a meme card with low Health. That rules out Battlecry, Rush, Combo, Discover, Invoke, Outcast, Overload, Poisonous, Taunt because all of those trigger regardless of the minion's Health or can't be "triggered" (like Taunt). Deathrattle has been ruled out, too. It really screams Spellburst but I can't find a card that fits the criteria, all of them have been used for some time. Windfury might work although that doesn't really "proc" either. I'll go with Headmaster Kel'Thuzad for the sake of making a guess. Maybe someone else can build upon my thoughts.
This time I didn't get one, but two stupid battlegrounds weekly quests. Ugh.
To add insult to injury, I got screwed by animations in Ranked of all places. My opponent had played a weird Spell Damage Druid and was happily milling himself to death with two Auctioneers in play. My problem was that they had managed to reduce my Health a lot and clear my board. So let's roll with Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate! And sure enough, Yogg gave me a game-winning solution with Curse of Flesh. But lo and behold, one of the summoned minions was Nozdormu. My turn was over when Yogg's wheel stopped spinning and I lost the game.
Two ideas so far. Goblin Mime could be really crazy or completely worthless. It might be a Priest card as well, but I wouldn't want the other classes to miss out on the chaos it creates. Not sure if E.T.C. Groupie's effect is OP, but I like how it combines the Rush and the Menagerie archetypes. What do you think?
Feedback:
Show Spoiler
shatterstar1998: I prefer Knife Trick. It provides very situational AOE to Rogue without being too strong. At the same time, we know that Bladestorm is good and your card adds draw to the business. That said, I'm not sure if you couldn't lower the cost a bit. At 7 Mana you're pretty much stuck between killing only small stuff or milling your cards. Hit the Bullseye! is okay, but not as flavorful as Knife Trick. The art isn't fitting imho and "deal" needs an -s at the end.
ChickyChick: Flavor-wise, Exotic Species is the worst of the three. I also don't like the concept of Zombeasts very much. Circus Trickster and Darkmoon Race are cool ideas in my opinion. I think you should definitely go with a Darkmoon Race card, that's great flavor and an area of entertainment that is present on the WoW Faire but hasn't made it into the expansion (yet). That said, you've given the card a quite creative effect which didn't work out well in the last competition. Also, sidequests aren't a thing in Darkmoon Faire, so that might cost you points in general. Maybe you have another idea for a Darkmoon Race card?
Wailor: Like you've said yourself, there isn't much flavor yet. Grim Fortune is the better card for this competition imho, but it should be "At the start" instead of "the beginning".
Demon: It's certainly flavorful, but not very exciting. It's probably perfectly fine, but I'm worrying if it fits the current insane powerlevels. Summoning might be a way to do something about that, but then you face the problem of King Krush and Dinotamer Brann. Hmmm. Anyway, I'm curious to see if you have more luck than me with this great piece of art ;-)
linkblade: I actually prefer the first iteration. Loatheb might prove me wrong, but I think 5 Mana is the spot where cards like this become a big enough Tempo loss that aggro can't abuse them too much wothout consequence. Nice one!
Nirast: Quite a cool idea in general, but there are two issues I'd like to point out. One, Demon Hunter isn't known to be a buffing class as of now. Two, having Expendable Performers, Command the Illidari, Coordinated Strike and your card in standard at the same time seems a little too much.
DestroyerR: An interesting and creative idea for sure. You might make it a bit more expensive to avoid some shenanigans like cheating out two Leeroys in one turn.
Cool article! I love that the hammer looks a little alive as well. The hammer heads have eyeslits and in the middle of it, there's a piece that might be a mouth. So the hammer is present in the shape of the Murloc's head and the Murloc is present in the design of the hammer. So cool!
The coloring is very impressive, too. Using orange as the complimentary color to the green of the forest is genius!
(side note: I get that this isn't the focus of the article, but that custom card really needs a Murloc tribe)
Is it possible your hunter list is somehow better against them than the standard one or you are playing it better than most people? Based on vicious syndicate stats secret mage is highly favored but maybe most people misplay in that matchup. Any specific suggestions for how to play deathrattle hunter in that matchup or any cards you use different than their list?
I'm not really sure what the standard list is, to be honest. While VS has Deathrattle Hunter in their Tier list, they only provide a Secret Hunter decklist at the class section. So let's start with what I'm currently using:
Please note that I don't run Petting Zoo which ruins your Zul'jin turn. If you can provide me with another list I can try to explain any differences between them.
How to play against Secret Mage:
- We are the control deck in this matchup. No exceptions.
- The key to win this is that Secret Mage usually can't kill you with Fireballs and Cloud Princes alone. They need to go face. And we're good at preventing that once we've survived the early game.
- Check for Counterspell before playing Nine Lives, Flark's Boom-Zooka or Jewel of N'Zoth. You can do this the turn before you want to play one of those cards. The best way to do this is by playing Carrion Studies, but I'd rather waste a Play Dead, a secret or anything else before running into that massive tempo loss of a Counterspell stopping one of your swing cards.
- Keep track of their secrets in general. Don't slam a low Health Deathrattle minion from Carrion Studies on the board if you suspect there's an Explosive Runes in play. Try to hit face every turn to deny them their Rigged Faire Game. You get the idea.
- There's some general advice in the guide to the deck, but this should get you started in this specific matchup.
All that said, I can't tell if I'm playing it better than most people, but I do have both Hunter and Mage over 1.000 wins and knowing both decks very well certainly helps. If you truly want to understand a certain deck in order to beat it more consistently, it usually pays off to try it out yourself. Good luck!
Wow, that's still tough even with these hints.
It took me longer than I'd like to admit, but the second card should be Hobart Grapplehammer.
I'm pretty sure the first card is from Goblins vs Gnomes and I wasn't around at that time. There are five Weapons in that set plus 5 more cards that interact with Weapons. The one that stands out to me is Tinker's Sharpsword Oil because it still sees some use in Kingsbane Rogue lists. No idea if it was good in the past.
The third card should be from The Boomsday Project and there are only 6 of those in Battlegrounds, but I never play BG and have no clue which of them could be considered a tech card. None of them prevents Deathrattles at first glance. Annoy-o-Module has a weapon in hand, but that's all I found which might have anything to do with Hobart Grapplehammer.
Conclusion: Tinker's Sharpsword Oil + Hobart Grapplehammer + Annoy-o-Module = no idea. Probably Nr. 1 and/or Nr. 3 are wrong.
Again, I hope my thought process helps someone else. I'm out of my league here because of the GvG meta and BG parts.
I had it in my Bomb Hunter deck for a while. Was a nice method to trigger the Goblin Bombs from Boommaster Flark.
Since I'm not sure anymore if my mime card isn't too close to Chameleos, I've been thinking about Demon's idea to give it a silence effect. After all, that's the major trait of a mime: they're mute/silent but exaggerate everything else. This is how I'd translate this into a HS cars:
Better or worse than the original idea?
True, thanks for the explanation.
I was talking about the Warlock lists in Standard. Raise Dead will be around for some time and if my suggestion for a nerf was implemented, Warlock needs tools to compensate the increased damage. Wild is another thing, but maybe 2 more damage could help to keep Darkglare Warlock in check.
So the third one's a battlegrounds card, I thought so.
One used me and found success
But now he's valued much less
Boggspine Knuckles after the nerf
One tried to improve all of us
But it was too small of a plus
Revolve
One uses me now in battle
Usually to prevent nasty rattle
Devolve
And the solution to the riddle is the OG offender, Evolve.
Showerthought: What about making Raise Dead deal 5 damage to your hero? 3 damage is a joke for Priest and Warlock has the Soul Fragment mechanic as well as Man'ari Mosher.
Thanks for your feedback everybody! I'll go with the mime. I was wondering if it should be a legendary like Chameleos and I'm still debating if it should be Neutral or a Priest card. What do you think?
("Gazleau" is a pun made of Gazlowe and Marcel Marceau, the world's most famous mime. Another option would be "Bap, the Clown" since "Bip the Clown" was the role Marceau was famous for.)
More feedback:
DavnanKillder
Wailor
shatterstar1998
Mogu Cultist?
So it's a standard minion with a mechanic attached to it that rarely triggers because it's a meme card with low Health. That rules out Battlecry, Rush, Combo, Discover, Invoke, Outcast, Overload, Poisonous, Taunt because all of those trigger regardless of the minion's Health or can't be "triggered" (like Taunt). Deathrattle has been ruled out, too. It really screams Spellburst but I can't find a card that fits the criteria, all of them have been used for some time. Windfury might work although that doesn't really "proc" either. I'll go with Headmaster Kel'Thuzad for the sake of making a guess. Maybe someone else can build upon my thoughts.
This time I didn't get one, but two stupid battlegrounds weekly quests. Ugh.
To add insult to injury, I got screwed by animations in Ranked of all places. My opponent had played a weird Spell Damage Druid and was happily milling himself to death with two Auctioneers in play. My problem was that they had managed to reduce my Health a lot and clear my board. So let's roll with Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate! And sure enough, Yogg gave me a game-winning solution with Curse of Flesh. But lo and behold, one of the summoned minions was Nozdormu. My turn was over when Yogg's wheel stopped spinning and I lost the game.
Duskfallen Aviana?
Two ideas so far. Goblin Mime could be really crazy or completely worthless. It might be a Priest card as well, but I wouldn't want the other classes to miss out on the chaos it creates. Not sure if E.T.C. Groupie's effect is OP, but I like how it combines the Rush and the Menagerie archetypes. What do you think?
Feedback:
shatterstar1998: I prefer Knife Trick. It provides very situational AOE to Rogue without being too strong. At the same time, we know that Bladestorm is good and your card adds draw to the business. That said, I'm not sure if you couldn't lower the cost a bit. At 7 Mana you're pretty much stuck between killing only small stuff or milling your cards. Hit the Bullseye! is okay, but not as flavorful as Knife Trick. The art isn't fitting imho and "deal" needs an -s at the end.
ChickyChick: Flavor-wise, Exotic Species is the worst of the three. I also don't like the concept of Zombeasts very much. Circus Trickster and Darkmoon Race are cool ideas in my opinion. I think you should definitely go with a Darkmoon Race card, that's great flavor and an area of entertainment that is present on the WoW Faire but hasn't made it into the expansion (yet). That said, you've given the card a quite creative effect which didn't work out well in the last competition. Also, sidequests aren't a thing in Darkmoon Faire, so that might cost you points in general. Maybe you have another idea for a Darkmoon Race card?
Wailor: Like you've said yourself, there isn't much flavor yet. Grim Fortune is the better card for this competition imho, but it should be "At the start" instead of "the beginning".
Demon: It's certainly flavorful, but not very exciting. It's probably perfectly fine, but I'm worrying if it fits the current insane powerlevels. Summoning might be a way to do something about that, but then you face the problem of King Krush and Dinotamer Brann. Hmmm. Anyway, I'm curious to see if you have more luck than me with this great piece of art ;-)
linkblade: I actually prefer the first iteration. Loatheb might prove me wrong, but I think 5 Mana is the spot where cards like this become a big enough Tempo loss that aggro can't abuse them too much wothout consequence. Nice one!
Nirast: Quite a cool idea in general, but there are two issues I'd like to point out. One, Demon Hunter isn't known to be a buffing class as of now. Two, having Expendable Performers, Command the Illidari, Coordinated Strike and your card in standard at the same time seems a little too much.
DestroyerR: An interesting and creative idea for sure. You might make it a bit more expensive to avoid some shenanigans like cheating out two Leeroys in one turn.
Congrats Wailor!
Cool article! I love that the hammer looks a little alive as well. The hammer heads have eyeslits and in the middle of it, there's a piece that might be a mouth. So the hammer is present in the shape of the Murloc's head and the Murloc is present in the design of the hammer. So cool!
The coloring is very impressive, too. Using orange as the complimentary color to the green of the forest is genius!
(side note: I get that this isn't the focus of the article, but that custom card really needs a Murloc tribe)
I'm not really sure what the standard list is, to be honest. While VS has Deathrattle Hunter in their Tier list, they only provide a Secret Hunter decklist at the class section. So let's start with what I'm currently using:
Please note that I don't run Petting Zoo which ruins your Zul'jin turn. If you can provide me with another list I can try to explain any differences between them.
How to play against Secret Mage:
- We are the control deck in this matchup. No exceptions.
- The key to win this is that Secret Mage usually can't kill you with Fireballs and Cloud Princes alone. They need to go face. And we're good at preventing that once we've survived the early game.
- We should avoid procing Duplicate on their Kirin Tor Mage, Kabal Crystal Runner or Cloud Prince at any cost. Same goes for Occult Conjurer, this card is a real problem for us. Just kill smaller stuff first.
- Mulligan for Candleshot, secrets, Quick Shot, Grievous Bite. If you have two solid options, you can keep a value card like Master's Call, Barnes or Flark's Boom-Zooka. You can keep Rinling's Rifle as well, but be careful what you hit it with. If in doubt, go face and try to find an Explosive Trap, a Freezing Trap, a Misdirection or a Pressure Plate.
- Check for Counterspell before playing Nine Lives, Flark's Boom-Zooka or Jewel of N'Zoth. You can do this the turn before you want to play one of those cards. The best way to do this is by playing Carrion Studies, but I'd rather waste a Play Dead, a secret or anything else before running into that massive tempo loss of a Counterspell stopping one of your swing cards.
- Keep track of their secrets in general. Don't slam a low Health Deathrattle minion from Carrion Studies on the board if you suspect there's an Explosive Runes in play. Try to hit face every turn to deny them their Rigged Faire Game. You get the idea.
- There's some general advice in the guide to the deck, but this should get you started in this specific matchup.
All that said, I can't tell if I'm playing it better than most people, but I do have both Hunter and Mage over 1.000 wins and knowing both decks very well certainly helps. If you truly want to understand a certain deck in order to beat it more consistently, it usually pays off to try it out yourself. Good luck!
Good luck to the finalists! No Dragon-Goat though :((
Coinflip with Deathrattle Hunter. If they don't draw like a god, they really have to work for their win.
All hail to our new overlord, the Dragon-Goat! Hands down 5 stars from me.