Quote From Mathemagical

Can’t believe they’re not going to change Maestra’s interaction with gnolls and undercover agent. I mean, they’re generally good at nerfing what needs to be nerfed, so I foresee a much better meta than the current roguestone, but as long as Maestra still finds a place in rogue decks I’m gonna be pissed. For me, it’s simply not fun when I’m facing an opponent and they turn out to be a rogue. All in all, even though the changes will likely be sufficient, I’m not satisfied with them.

My guesses why they didn't change this interaction is because:

1. This would mean they had to push out a Maestra of the Masquerade dust refund as well.

2. This would possibly kill the whole Burgle rogue archetype completely, and they don't want to completely wreck a "brand new" archetype. This would be bad from a $$$ standpoint.

3. This change would make it so rogue only has the questline, Garrote or weapon rogue as their only viable archetypes. 2/3 of them are completely un-interactive and unfun to play against. At least a nerfed Burgle rogue is an interactive deck, because you actually have to fight for board. They probably don't want to return to stormwinds uninteractive OTK vs OTK meta if i had to guess. Also some of the Questline rogue decks also run Maestra because it's more of a fun deck, and for the "haha i'm sus" meme. So that would also mean that maestra still sees play.

I understand that this might be a bit less fun for you to hear, but there is a very large community that absolutely loves Maestra of the Masquerade no matter if she is good or bad. People just really like the flavor she brings, which means that she will always see play as long as she disguises players as a hero of another class. After all, other cards with insane flavor like Unite the Murlocs still see play no matter how good or bad it is, just because of its flavor. And that's the same with Maestra of the Masquerade. She will see play in any burgle rogue deck as long as she is in standard, even if the effects interaction was changed. All i truly hope for you is that these changes make it so you encounter less rogues with Maestra in their deck.

Sorcerer's Apprentice: YES. They didnt brutally murder Sorcerer's Apprentice completely, Archmage Antonidas OTKS survive! That's a relief, and now you cant use Sorcerer's Apprentice alongside cards like Drek'Thar. This means that Flamewaker like OTKs (And Ignite Mage) are taking a HUGE blow. Those decks wont be able to OTK anymore on turn 4-5, instead your probably happy around turn 8-9 which is a huge deal, now most aggro decks can completely stomp those decks.

Rapid Fire: Nice. Defend the Dwarven District is NOT a problematic card in wild i.m.o. because it relied HEAVELY on Rapid Fire. Rapid Fire was the best card in ODD Questline Hunter, and now it lost its best card. ODD Questline Hunter really relied on Rapid Fire and now the deck will be slowed down a LOT, which will weaken it against aggro decks. It will also run out of fuel a lot faster too, which means less burst damage. Also this change also makes it so that Rapid Fire can't be generated from Wandmakers, Which might affect some non-ODD Questline Hunter decks. Really good chance.

Incanter's Flow: Great change, this nerfs Mozaki, Master Duelist decks, AND it's another HUGE blow to Wild Turn 4-5 OTK decks such as Ignite mage and Wild Mozaki, Master Duelist mage. 

Raid the Docks: Good change. Sure Questline warrior isn't that strong in standard currently, but it's VERY popular around bronze-gold. This change will make it so your not taking 4 damage face as quickly, and it might make it so some of your minions might survive more often. This is i.m.o. just a solid change. (And probably from blizz POV this nerf was to prevent Questline warrior from running amock after rogue is basically gone.)

Rogue nerfs:

Cloak of Shadows: Good. 2x Cloak of Shadows into Shadowcrafter Scabbs wasn't fun, but this entire thing is still possible, but has been delayed by 1 turn. Which opens up more opportunities to deal some more damage or end the game. Solid change. This will really affect Weapon Rogue and Garrote rogue.

Wildpaw Gnoll: As a burgle rogue enjoyer, i love that Wildpaw Gnoll got nerfed. The "burgle" rogue deck we saw before wasn't a Burgle deck, it abused Wildpaw Gnoll while being a normal tempo deck. There was no "Burgle" in "burgle Rogue". Now i really hope the deck returns to an actual burgle shell. The 1 extra mana is pretty big, because if i'm right you can't scam it out as early with Secret Passage anymore. Also Secret Passage rotates next expansion, so it would have been nerfed too hard with a +2 mana change. Also the -1 attack will also be a lot more important than most might think. Now it will be a lot harder to remove your opponents minions, that 4 attack was a pretty big breakpoint.

Shadowcrafter Scabbs: Deserved. If you looked at Shadowcrafter Scabbs stats on a site like HSreplay, you could see that it had a 70+% Winrate when kept IN MULLIGAN. That's the biggest red flag there is. Just for reference, the last time we had a 7 cost hero card with such a high mulligan winrate, it was Dr. Boom, Mad Genius during the Rise of Shadows control warrior meta. 

Buff: Rokara, the Valorous: Good chance. This makes Rokara a lot better. Rokara wasn't that good mainly because the only way to gain life with her is by getting a honorable kill, which let's be honest is a keyword that isn't that good. But now Rokara will have a bit more lifegain, which is nice. This will boost the cards winrate a bit... i think. Tbh i was expecting a weapon rework but this is fine. (My guess was: make the weapon infinite durability just like Lightforged Cariel in exchange for a "Can't attack heroes" effect, or a stat nerf such as less attack.)

I really hope these datamined changes will go through, because they look solid to me... And i really hope this returns "burgle" rogue back to the fun ACTUAL burgle deck it was before. (With cards like Contraband Stash)

Quote From dapperdog

Just wanted to comment on two parts of your prediction;

- Wildpaw Gnoll at 6 is significant, because that means without Secret Passage shenanigans, its going to be 4 mana without further support, which means the card is just vanilla with rush. At 7 mana, it's just plain weak without an extra reduction at which point its just vanilla. In other words, 7 mana is overkill. With secret passage due to disappear in 3 months, I doubt team5 would ever go that far.

Especially if their intention is also to nerf scabbs. They'll never do two nerfs to thief rogue, and even if they do, the nerf will never be as far as you suggest.

I'm going to be honest here, when i did my prediction i still had Secret Passage in mind but i forgot the part where it rotates in 3 months. So yeah i completely agree that nerfing Wildpaw Gnoll by 2 mana is overkill, 1 mana should be more than plenty. The main reason i did my +2 mana prediction was also a bit of a burgle rogue "bias", because i would love to see "burgle" rogue go back to an actual burgle package.

I still think that its possible that they could nerf both Gnoll and scabbs. +1 mana on Gnoll alone would have a decent impact, but doesn't solve the problem that people keep Scabbs in their hand during mulligan AND have a high winrate by doing that. 

I will also agree that a Defias Cannoneer nerf might be a bit too early. I still think it should be nerfed someday, but this might not be the time. The main reason i thought of this nerf prediction is because of all the "feels bad" moments it generates, especially when summoned by The Juggernaut.

I'm a bit late to the "party" but my nerf predictions are:

- Standard:

Rogue: I might be a burgle rogue fan, but this... monstrocity in standard is NOT a burgle deck. It just abuses Wildpaw Gnoll and destroys the "burgle" rogue name. So i hope it gets nerfed...HARD. My guess is from 5 to 7 mana. A +1 mana cost nerf would change nothing, just look at the Flesh Giant nerf some time ago. I'm pretty sure they wont change the effect, because that would make Maestra of the Masquerade useless. (And they would have to give Maestra a full dust refund as well) The other nerf is 100% going to be Shadowcrafter Scabbs. Last time a 7 cost hero card had a high winrate when kept IN MULLIGAN was during the Dr. Boom, Mad Genius RoS days. And a 7 mana hero card being kept IN MULLIGAN is i.m.o. not healthy for the game. My guess is probably a +1 mana cost nerf. Would prefer +2 mana cost, but it's a hero card from the newest expansion, so they wouldn't nerf it this hard.. yet.

Mage: Mozaki, Master Duelist probably. It's not the best deck, but it generates a lot of "feels bad" moments. My guess for the nerf is either +1 or +2 mana cost.

Warrior: Defias Cannoneer either down to a 2/2 or it only shoots 1 cannon instead of 2. Connoneer getting nerfed would nerf both standard and wild pirate warrior.

- Wild

Sorcerer's Apprentice: Apprentice got it coming for a long time, but i really hope they wont KILL the card completely. Personally i hope for a +2 mana cost nerf. Apprentice at 4 mana means that Archmage Antonidas OTKs are still possible, but it would kill a lot of Flamewaker mage decks. Also at 4 mana apprentice wont work with Drek'Thar in turn 4-5 OTK decks. Also with Apprentice decks gone, the cheaters will lose their "favorite deck". Which i.m.o. is always a good thing.

Raid the Docks: Banned from wild. This will make Pirate Warrior a bit weaker, but not too much. It was a tier 1 deck before stormwind, so i bet it will remain tier 1 even without Raid the Docks. Also i don't think they will nerf Raid the Docks YET. i would love to see it nerfed, but they wont nerf it just because of wild.

Last of all, ODD Hunter has to be addressed. But i feel like Banning Defend the Dwarven District is unnecesary atm. Instead i expect Rapid Fire to get nerfed from 1 mana to 2 mana. ODD Hunter without Rapid Fire will need more time to complete the quest and OTKing their opponent without Rapid Fire is going to be a lot harder. Especially considering Rapid Fire is the highest winrate card in ODD Hunter. (According to HSreplay it has a 73.9% Winrate when kept in mulligan, 72.3% drawn winrate and a 72.1% Played winrate. Which makes it the best card in the deck in terms of winrate. Most other winrates are around 67-68%.)

Quote From Brandon

Oh and apparently i'm the #5 top commenter in 2021? That's surprising. I guess taking part in discussions during every HS card reveal season helped a lot.

Okay i just looked at my profile, and noticed that in my profile i say: "You might not see me comment too much, because i'm a bit shy and prefer to "lurk" around, but i gladly take part in discussions about new cards, theory-crafts, and sometimes some other discussions when i find them interesting."

So being the #5 top commenter in 2021 is kinda ironic to me. lol. I guess that HS card reveal seasons still helped a lot, and other than that there must have been plenty of interesting discussions i guess?

Congrats Flux and the team on the growth of the site! I hope 2022 will be even better!!!

Oh and apparently i'm the #5 top commenter in 2021? That's surprising. I guess taking part in discussions during every HS card reveal season helped a lot.

Maybe i should get a non-default actual avatar. I was planning on doing this right after i made my account, but kept delaying it lol.

Edit: Got a non-default avatar. (Good 'ol blinkfox, one of my fave cards!)

Buffs: Those mage buffs are AMAZING. I love ping mage, and Wildfires buff is incredible. Now you can play Wildfire into Magister Dawngrasp without losing the damage. ALSO this is a BIG buff for ODD Mage because Frost Lich Jaina also gets buffed because of the Wildfire buff. 

As someone who plays a lot of Magister Dawngrasps, the hero powers starting damage wasn't that big of a problem. The problem was mostly that it felt bad to play Magister Dawngrasp without playing a bunch of spells to re-cast. (And the mana cost) The +1 dmg buff is nice, but also kind of a nerf at the same time. This "buff" now means you want to honorably kill a 2-4-6-8-etc. minion, instead of a 1-3-5-7-etc. minion. And in all the times i played Magister Dawngrasp finding a 3-5-7 health minion to honorably kill is a LOT easier than 4-6-8 health minion. Still with some more experience of playing around with the buffed version of Magister Dawngrasp, i might change opinion on this. The +1 dmg could potentially snowball a bit faster. BUT the one thing that might be the most interesting thing about this change, is that Magister Dawngrasp can now be played in a ODD mage deck. (Not sure how good that will be, but it's going to be fun experimenting with it.)

Grey Sage Parrot buff is also solid i.m.o. It was way too expensive, and now it might show up in some Big Spell Mage lists. You just know this card was garbage based on the fact that it didn't see much play within the first 2 days of the Altarac release. 

Beaststalker Tavish "buff" is how he should have been from the get-go. I already found it weird that some hero cards such as Lightforged Cariels Blessing of Queens is a cheaper Blessing of Kings, but you have to pay the full cost for Beaststalker Tavishs Summon Pet. This was just odd to me, and it made Beaststalker Tavish so much harder to use. I have played Beaststalker Tavish A LOT during the 80+ games of Secret BIG Hunter that i played since expansion release, and having to pay 3 mana for the hero power was often way too difficult to slot into a turn. (Often meant playing 1 less secret each turn) But now that it costs 2 you can summon a lot more Huffers. (Always Huffer) with the hero power. And you can now hero power AND Beastmaster Leoroxx on the same turn, so that's nice.

Nerfs: Most nerfs were to be expected, but i'm still kinda surprised they went with "+1 mana" nerf so much. I had personally expected things like : -1 durability on Runed Mithril Rod. 

However i'm honestly the most surprised about the Alliance Bannerman, Bloodsail Deckhand and Irondeep Trogg nerfs. Alliance Bannerman is good, but i didn't expect it to get nerfed. Also this is basicly a pointless nerf i.m.o. because the battlecry is why you play it. Even as a 1/1 minion Alliance Bannerman will still see play.

Bloodsail Deckhand gets it's buff reverted. I kinda like this change, because it makes it harder for Pirate warrior to lock down the board right away. However i'm surprised that Raid the Docks itself managed to dodge the nerf. (Expected that to get a similar treatment as the shaman questline)

Irondeep Trogg nerf is also something i knew could happen, but was also kinda hoping it wouldn't because i feared that non-questline decks would become a lot weaker if Trogg got nerfed. However this Saronite Chain Gang like treatment shouldn't affect Trogg too much. It will remain super strong against spell-heavy decks, but it will become a bit easier to remove buffed up Troggs. Which i.m.o. is a good change. Just look at buff paladin decks, where the person who gets a trogg down first insta-wins. That is i.m.o. was not healthy for the game. (But at the same time the questlines mostly aren't healthy for the game either.)

Community before expansion released: "These combo decks are too strong, The new altarac decks and archetypes won't see play if you don't nerf the OTKs"

Blizzard: "Don't worry about that, we expect Shattered in Altarac valley to change the meta in a big way."

Pro players: "Keep playing stormwind OTK decks during THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP!" (And sometimes an aggro deck that also already existed in stormwind)

Blizzard when they see the decks that pro players are bringing: "*insert surprised pikachu face*"

Wow blizz REALLY got embarrased with this. These are THE best HS players, and their using only a couple new cards. This really shows how little of an impact Shattered in altarac valley made, how little Blizzard understands the word "balanced", and how Stormwind was way too powerful of a set. And also, were talking about the decks the best HS players are bringing to THE WORLD CHAMIONSHIP 2021! And the only "new" Deck is OwlTK warlock and that deck uses the same "shell" as the Demon seed warlock.

The world championship is supposed to get people into playing HS and show how much fun HS is. But instead this will just scare them away when they see this uninteractive gameplay. This is such a big blunder on Blizzards part. It honestly makes me feel sad to see the game in this state. :(

Let's hope the upcoming balance changes make a huge impact, otherwise i fear that Altarac might become Rastakhan's Rumble 2.0

Another "bug" i've noticed is not really gameplay impacting, but the Edwin Vancleef hero portrait shows up as either an empty slot or as a default jaina when selecting your deck. Only when your ingame you will see the correct edwin portrait.

I originally thought maybe it might be a "feature" because i had Maestra of the Masquerade in my deck (which i.m.o. would have been a pretty cool feature honestly), but after some testing this "theory" proved wrong. When i switched to other valeera/scabbs portraits or Maiev it did work normally, BUT whenever i switch to the edwin portrait it keeps bugging out. And yes i also removed Maestra from my deck during testing, and the Edwin skin kept bugging out so it's not maestra related. They somehow managed to break a hero skin/portrait.

Played my first game of the expansion, and i was playing Secret BIG Hunter against a spell mage. (One without questline, but still spell-only because they ran Apexis Blast. They also didn't run any new cards.) I was afraid i lost the game when i noticed them playing turn 2 Coin into Incanter's Flow but decided not to concede and play the game regardless, and i'm so happy i did! I kept bouncing spells such as the 2nd Incanter's Flow and all their Apexis Blasts back to their hand with Ice Trap, and i kept discovering more from Rinling's Rifle and Improved Ice Trap from Beaststalker Tavish. This managed to stall long enough for me to play Beastmaster Leoroxx for a huge stat bomb and win the game. Ice Trap has instantly become one of my favorite cards from this expansion!

I did the "small" pre-order (first time buying a pre-order in a LONG time) and i got Magister Dawngrasp and Captain Galvangar as my free legendaries. (I like both, but i'm especially happy with Magister Dawngrasp!)

Opened 114 packs total, and got Ivus, the Forest Lord, Xyrella, the Devout, Wing Commander Ichman, Dreadlich Tamsin, Caria Felsoul and a pity-timer Najak Hexxen (Which also is THE one leggy i didn't want..) :[

I'm not sure if they boosted the chance to get epics, or if i was this luckely this time around. But i did get 26 epics, which surprised me a lot. I also unpacked 1 golden epic, 8 golden rares and 8 golden commons. Outside of the pity timer Najak Hexxen my pack opening went very well, and i'm looking forward to playing around with lots of decks in just a bit!

I really hope everyone else also had/have good pack openings, because this expansion looks very fun on paper and i hope everyone gets to have a LOT of fun the coming days and hopefully the entire expansion! For anyone reading this before opening packs: Good luck, and i hope you unpack the cards you want most! :D

Yeah there are a LOT of bugs right now. Also i accidentally found out about the Dr. Boom, Mad Genius crash ingame. Let's say i was.. not happy about my game crashing. But on the other hand i thought it was hilarious and ironic that a HERO card crashes your game, while the main gimmick of the next expansion is new Hero cards. 

Also has anyone ever mentioned that Flightmaster Dungar has been broken/bugged for a while? The westfall option doesn't give you the 2/2 adventurer with a random effect after you wait 1 turn. Flightmaster Dungar wakes up and nothing happens when picking the westfall option.

I was playing Deathrattle Ress shadow priest in standard against a questline warrior. (The things this game makes me do in order to play a control deck...) I barely managed to hold on for the majority of the game, and managed to turn the game around into my favor despite The Juggernaut giving them lots of value. But then it happened, the questline warrior got Bulwark of Azzinoth from The Juggernaut 3 times IN A ROW, which helped them stabalize the board back into their favor. So right now you might think that this comment would better fit into the salt thread, but luckely not. Because i BARELY managed to win the game with only 1 health remaining! (And no armor) That was the closest game i've had in months!

Quote From YourPrivateNightmare

Also big sad for no Vanessa hero skin. Would have killed for that one, but Dragon Mage thingy is cool too.

Yeah same. A Vanessa hero skin would have been AMAZING, and it would have made sense considering the Book of mercenaries storyline so far. And it would have been really cool if we got both Edwin and Vanessa as hero skins shortly after each other. However i do agree that the dragon mage skin looks great! Also considering it's a fire dragon it better have some special voicelines when your casting fire spells! 

That's a LOT of stuff. And as long as the price remains the same, then it's a really good deal if you play Hearthstone AND BGs. Lots of cosmetics, and i'm surprised were getting Lokholar, the Ice Lord as the free legendary, that's really nice. Korrak the Bloodrager seems like it has potential to be a pretty sick diamon card, lets hope the animation is good! Glad to see that they finally added BG stuff to the tavern pass, and i guess mercenaries stuff. Iksarr already said they were planning this in a AMA some time ago, and i'm happy to see that they actually did it.

Also i'm pretty sure we also get a legendary quest chain or something at launch which gives us golden versions of some cards, so that's great too. (With the honor stuff) From what i can tell at first glance this tavern pass is looks generous. (let's hope they didn't lower the amount of earnable gold, but i guess we will hear about it once people finish with the calcs.) The free version looks great on first glance, and paid version seem very stacked. The tavern pass looks really good... as long as they don't up the price. 

Really excited for the new cards, but i dont feel like too much will change. A lot of meta decks will remain good, as most classes mainly got late game stuff but not too much "survival" tools for early game. And even if the meta slows down, all the game ending OTK (questline) decks will force out a hyper aggro meta again. Of course there will be a few control decks: BIG warrior was already good, so i think it will still see play and Questline control warrior will probably still see play. But most of the meta will remain the same, however you will face of against a newer archetype every so often. People like playing new stuff, and their favorite decks. No matter how good/bad it is, just look at how popular Elwynn Boar decks still are, despite the bad winrate.

But i still feel like 1 decks might have game breaking potential: Celestial Alignment druid could be tier 1, and super obnoxious to play against... IF Pride Seekers battlecry works on Nourish AFTER you play Celestial Alignment. Because that could remove Celestial Alignments "drawback" and allow them to instantly pop off with Lady Anacondra plays on the same turn. IF this is the case, then it will be nerfed quickly because "mean cards" like Celestial Alignment have almost always been nerfed if they become too problematic and popular. If this interaction does not work, then meh just aggro as always with a side of OTK and the rare control deck..

I REALLY hope i'm wrong and we get a very fun meta, where the fun is for everyone and not for only 1/2 players each game. BUT we do still have the stormwind set in standard AND only next expansion will Ashes, Scholomance and darkmoon rotate. I'm personally a lot more hopeful of the meta after rotation, because ashes, Scholomance and Darkmoon have been really strong sets, with lots of key cards for currently powerfull archetypes.

Xyrella, the Devout because i really want to have fun with all kinds of deathrattle priest combos. This just seems really fun! she is basicly Shudderwock for deathrattles.

Tamsin's Phylactery Because Tamsin's Phylactery + Wicked Shipment into the Envoy Rustwix deathrattle sounds fun.

[insert any big spell mage stuff + Magister Dawngrasp] because i want to play that archetype, and i need it for a BIG spell CASINO mage deck in wild.

Cera'thine Fleetrunner and Contraband Stash because burgle rogue is one of my favorite archetypes in the game.

Lightforged Cariel because i want to play around with BIG paladin and N'Zoth, God of the Deep paladin.

Kurtrus, Demon-Render because it fits into nearly every DH deck ever, it's so flexible that you can't go wrong with him.

Of course i'm predicting that i will get Bearon Gla'shear, just because i pulled Moorabi at least twice. So obviously the next freeze shaman card will be one of the first legendaries i get, whether i like it or not. (I know "flawless" logic lol.)

I'm really looking forward to Alterac, so many control tools and late game strategies. I love it!

ODD DH hero power with a side of Raza the Chained. This effect seems insane, and i bet that Felfire Deadeye will be nerfed pretty quickly. Because Felfire Deadeye + Expendable Performers seems broken, even if performers rotates next expansion. Actually, i'm certain Felfire Deadeye + ANY DH card that summons things with rush is super strong. What a powerhouse of a her card. I guess they really wanted to give DH a strong wincondition that's not lifesteal OTK.

Flanking Maneuver? That's a "interesting maneuver". Really good for BIG DH, and refreshes Kurtrus, Demon-Renders hero power twice AND it could remove a big taunt minion when facing a BIG deck.

Amazing minion for Token DH. Will see play because of Kurtrus, Demon-Render, and will probably be Animated Broomstickd later into the game.