There's lots of potential with this one, but Stormhammer it is definitely not. Because the attack scales when upgraded you'll reach a point where your weapon simply can't gain any more durability simply because your opponent's minions either get too far ahead, or have too little health.
I'd expect this to see play simply because it discourages people from playing 2 health minions on 2 just so this card cant snowball the early game and make up a massive weapon in the late game. But since we already know Rustrot Viper will be everywhere - courtesy of Lightforged Cariel - it makes it even less likely this will ever get more than 2 attacks in.
Its an interesting card because we never have limited time persisting effects before. Kinda have the feeling that this is what the shrines in Rastakhans should've been.
As far as this goes, its alot of mana for an advantage the following turn. And because paladin don't have too many rush minions, its really a hit and miss as far as surviving long enough to take advantage of the effect.
Probably not going to see much play, to be honest. Lightforged Cariel is the clear winner in 90% of paladins now, so where does this fit in?
The effect is powerful, the weapon is powerful, the hero power is...powerful. This is one very powerful card all in one that essentially fits into every paladin deck until rotation.
Its basically an auto craft if you're playing paladin, because even if this card rarely ever features, you wouldn't ever want to play a game without the knowledge that this card exist in your deck. Likewise, every opponent will be playing around this card, via Rustrot Viper or otherwise, because if you get this out and your opponent cant respond by terminating your weapon, you just win the game.
The only problem with this card is rustrot viper exists, and the fact that its a 7 mana card that will not save your arse in the early game. And paladin losing its early game is essentially death. At least this card does ensure that you need not play too many late game cards, because as long as you have Mr. Smite in hand that's really all you need to finish up.
Bonus points given because mage needs to actually play minions to get rid of this weapon. There's that at least. Because even with infinite Ignites, its going to take quite a while to kill paladin with this on.
Once again team5 have outdone themselves by essentially printing broken cards that discourages anyone from playing minions. I can see it now. Mage playing Wand Thief just so they can octobot their hand, and also because no one wants to play minions because mage is bs.
Because in a class that can discover spells, and with plenty of cheap spells to boot, what is team5 really expecting would happen other than people getting upset at playing the game, when playing the game gives your opponent an advantage straight out the bat. Wouldn't be surprising if this card gets a week one nerf, after yet another reddit explosion, and people giving up because mage is bullshitting them to death.
The only true play around this card offers is that most mage spells deal even damage, so we'll all just play odd health cards, forcing them to hero power just to proct this shit. Unless of course, they just discover a minion with 2 health (not exactly impossible given how many cards in mage have 2 health) and 'honor' kill their own shit just to octobot their hand.
Can't even play Cult Neophyte because this essentially nullifies it. Great work. Im praying to god this card isn't meta, because Im getting distinct impressions of yet another week 1 stormwind mage bs a-coming.
This one is a little hard, because Im certain this card isn't really as good as the other hero cards.
I can see this one being a fit for most non-aggro druid decks simply because its ramp, and the hero power allows you to basically do something while you're waiting for your heavy cards. Just dont expect this card to save your arse when things go awry. And that's the main problem Im having with this card. Its slower than Overgrowth, and the hero power don't really do much on board. Unless there's support cards that essentially fill your mana crystals for a turn, what is all these additional mana going to do?
Probably Vanndar Stormpike for me. Because his effect is stronger but its likely Drek'Thar will see more success, which means I'll likely get a diamond copy of the stronger card. And because Vanndar is simply the more challenging one to deckbuild.
Also because without choosing I can't play the game. Nice move team5. I was actually thinking of waiting for reddit to explode before choosing.
Paladin just been given one very powerful ender, as well as basically making Rustrot Viper a mandatory card, because if cariel comes out and you dont have viper you're technically dead. Rounding up damage you take is one thing, being able to essentially turn the tide with that massive hero power is quite another.
Guff is quite another thing. Im not seeing it. Pretty sure there's plenty of support cards yet to be revealed, but it doesn't really look that good, does it? Fact of the matter is druid has plenty of ways to take advantage of extra mana, but games rarely get to the point where they have an insurmountable mana advantage. Half the time, or indeed most of the time, you'll much rather be drawing cards.
It'll have to be judged on a card to card basis, because if the card has too high or too low an attack value, it might be worthless trying to make it work unless the effect is so powerful it cannot be ignored (much like how octobot is to frenzy).
Besides, its actually easier to accomplish an overkill than otherwise. The idea of wasted damage only works if you get nothing out for your effort. The main problem with overkill, and likely to honorable kill as well, is that unless the card itself has rush its unlikely to ever trigger (and the spell overkill cards being largely shit doesn't help). However we do have Animated Broomstick for another 4 months, so we'll have to see if its worth anyone's while to even bother with it.
The horde and alliance thing is certainly very interesting but you'd think this kind of faction fights should have been introduced at the first not the third expansion of the year. That way we get a whole year at thumbing our noses at our filthy neighbors.
I somewhat admire team5's decision to let us choose between two legendaries. A risky proposal given that they've shied away from this approach with the understandable reason that people will feel bad having chose poorly, or the fact that 90% of the players will just choose the stronger or more viable legendary and so that's all we'll be seeing for the first 2 weeks.
I would assume that no matter the choice, you can ultimately play whatever you like, so you can paradoxically play and win using alliance decks whilst having chose for the horde.
Bring on the hero cards team5. I'd like to know how they balance these ones, or will this be yet another repeat of stormwind, only now everyone's playing going to be playing like druid - literally draw this card and win or die.
Still better having hero cards than not having hero cards eh?
One last comment. That honorable fight keyword will likely end up like overkill. Unless of course, they ramp up the powerlevel on this one.
What will likely happen would be the winning team gets the diamond legendary while the losers suck their thumbs and sit around the corner. I doubt team5 will allow something like this to happen, because its fairly obvious most players will just opt for the stronger side, so smart guys will just pick the weaker one and score a freebie. It creates this scenario where players will band up and basically throw the contest and as unlikely as it is to work, Im sure team5 wouldn't want something like this happening.
Its going to be the name reveal tomorrow, plus 6 cards, then announcing the card reveal schedule that will start next week :P
We've been here before. While there are some that prefer shorter reveal seasons, I prefer them 2 weeks at least. None of that 1 week rush like the last time please.
Isn't every Mercs pack supposed to contain at least one merc? I just opened 5 coins.
Its not well explained by blizz, but the idea is that in each pack there's a slot having a chance to roll a merc, portrait, or coin according to a random rarity. If it rolls a rare, and you have all mercs in rare, then it'll either give a portrait or coins. Seems like you rolled coins, which is definitely better than portraits most of the time.
I like the current duels. Its as close as it gets to a restricted wild format, and I'll take anything I can get from that. Haven't played Cthun decks in a long time, and them being viable in duels is a good sign to me. Casual duels from wins 1-7 is pretty much a diverse, and largely inconsequential, mode that allows for fun without the dread of loss familiar in ranked.
That said, there are some things that I feel needs some changes:
- Please just let us choose any hero we like. Its always been bad before not being able to choose the hero we want, but when diablo was introduced that's where the familiar concede on 1 is almost near universal, at least earlier on. And I can honestly sympathize, because its incredible bs. It was so ridiculous that I nearly thought getting diablo in duels needed some kind of achievement or code to get.
- Mind tether is not really a problem. Its this plus fireshaper that's really the issue here. Maybe its time team5 limits certain treasures according to the hero power/treasure we choose? That way, not only can we remove useless passives/treasures (I mean, getting something like hagatha's embrace when its clear your deck has no minions is certainly annoying) we can curb some of the most broken interactions there is in the format.
- Setting health from 20 to 30? Its really only because burn strats in the first few matches are near impossible to stop. Part of the reason why mind tether and weapon rogue is so oppressive is not because the decks are top tier (I dont think Ive seen much of them past 7 wins) its because they often just get cheap wins in the first 3 games.
- And yeah, general improvements in offered card buckets. I can run a spell only druid or mage deck only to constantly having my plans thwarted because the game thinks I needed some minions. Some buckets just plainly make no sense, like the ones that offer triple of the same minion (for some reason its usually Mankrik or amalgams). There are other ways to be funny without making us cover our faces in disbelief
Im actually looking past the current quest mage and more into how spell mage can utilize something like this. One of the main problems with spell mage has always been the limited damage, which requires Mask of C'Thun to be played just as a burn option. Now with the inevitability of ignite, there's more you can fit into the spell mage deck, which may or may not make it more flexible against decks that do well against quest mage, especially considering that without the quest there's simply more room for better cards than something like Ice Barrier.
And of course we're heading towards the new expansion. Infinite cards like ignite are always on the brink of tearing the meta apart.
The only thing accomplished by nerfing quest mage is essentially allowing players to dust the fking thing and therefore reducing its play rate, which in reality is the real problem with this deck.
Hopefully it completely removes this deck from existence, although Im sure some form of spell mage will still come back one way or another. Ignite is still just too powerful to ignore, and honestly mage has some really good spells like Devolving Missiles that can usually turn the tide really quick.
I do find it slightly funny that anyone can take specific umbrage over a mere highlight. Could be that the opponent's just planning his moves ahead of his turn, which wouldn't be surprising or unheard of.
I think the story will continue without tamsin, cariel and kurtrus. All three have reached the end of their storylines, and theres no reason why any of them will continue on barring the usual power of friendship bs. It'll be especially weird if kurtrus went along, seeing that both Anatheron is dealt with, and Cariel's arc is complete. What, are they going to introduce another demon for him to vent his vengeance on just so he can appear in the third expansion?
While I would be praying that none of them would, it would be strange if there wasn't at least one frost spell from shaman that doesn't freeze. There's only so many things you can design as a frost spell that would not freeze or combo with freezes.
I'll be eagerly waiting for the reveals. But if they can print bs like Ray of Frost and Flurry (Rank 1), I wouldn't put it past them to do something similar with a shaman spell.
There's lots of potential with this one, but Stormhammer it is definitely not. Because the attack scales when upgraded you'll reach a point where your weapon simply can't gain any more durability simply because your opponent's minions either get too far ahead, or have too little health.
I'd expect this to see play simply because it discourages people from playing 2 health minions on 2 just so this card cant snowball the early game and make up a massive weapon in the late game. But since we already know Rustrot Viper will be everywhere - courtesy of Lightforged Cariel - it makes it even less likely this will ever get more than 2 attacks in.
Its an interesting card because we never have limited time persisting effects before. Kinda have the feeling that this is what the shrines in Rastakhans should've been.
As far as this goes, its alot of mana for an advantage the following turn. And because paladin don't have too many rush minions, its really a hit and miss as far as surviving long enough to take advantage of the effect.
Probably not going to see much play, to be honest. Lightforged Cariel is the clear winner in 90% of paladins now, so where does this fit in?
The effect is powerful, the weapon is powerful, the hero power is...powerful. This is one very powerful card all in one that essentially fits into every paladin deck until rotation.
Its basically an auto craft if you're playing paladin, because even if this card rarely ever features, you wouldn't ever want to play a game without the knowledge that this card exist in your deck. Likewise, every opponent will be playing around this card, via Rustrot Viper or otherwise, because if you get this out and your opponent cant respond by terminating your weapon, you just win the game.
The only problem with this card is rustrot viper exists, and the fact that its a 7 mana card that will not save your arse in the early game. And paladin losing its early game is essentially death. At least this card does ensure that you need not play too many late game cards, because as long as you have Mr. Smite in hand that's really all you need to finish up.
Bonus points given because mage needs to actually play minions to get rid of this weapon. There's that at least. Because even with infinite Ignites, its going to take quite a while to kill paladin with this on.
Once again team5 have outdone themselves by essentially printing broken cards that discourages anyone from playing minions. I can see it now. Mage playing Wand Thief just so they can octobot their hand, and also because no one wants to play minions because mage is bs.
Because in a class that can discover spells, and with plenty of cheap spells to boot, what is team5 really expecting would happen other than people getting upset at playing the game, when playing the game gives your opponent an advantage straight out the bat. Wouldn't be surprising if this card gets a week one nerf, after yet another reddit explosion, and people giving up because mage is bullshitting them to death.
The only true play around this card offers is that most mage spells deal even damage, so we'll all just play odd health cards, forcing them to hero power just to proct this shit. Unless of course, they just discover a minion with 2 health (not exactly impossible given how many cards in mage have 2 health) and 'honor' kill their own shit just to octobot their hand.
Can't even play Cult Neophyte because this essentially nullifies it. Great work. Im praying to god this card isn't meta, because Im getting distinct impressions of yet another week 1 stormwind mage bs a-coming.
This one is a little hard, because Im certain this card isn't really as good as the other hero cards.
I can see this one being a fit for most non-aggro druid decks simply because its ramp, and the hero power allows you to basically do something while you're waiting for your heavy cards. Just dont expect this card to save your arse when things go awry. And that's the main problem Im having with this card. Its slower than Overgrowth, and the hero power don't really do much on board. Unless there's support cards that essentially fill your mana crystals for a turn, what is all these additional mana going to do?
Probably Vanndar Stormpike for me. Because his effect is stronger but its likely Drek'Thar will see more success, which means I'll likely get a diamond copy of the stronger card. And because Vanndar is simply the more challenging one to deckbuild.
Also because without choosing I can't play the game. Nice move team5. I was actually thinking of waiting for reddit to explode before choosing.
Happy for those who like it, but honestly, the first time they're letting us buy them individually and the skins simply dont interest me.
Paladin just been given one very powerful ender, as well as basically making Rustrot Viper a mandatory card, because if cariel comes out and you dont have viper you're technically dead. Rounding up damage you take is one thing, being able to essentially turn the tide with that massive hero power is quite another.
Guff is quite another thing. Im not seeing it. Pretty sure there's plenty of support cards yet to be revealed, but it doesn't really look that good, does it? Fact of the matter is druid has plenty of ways to take advantage of extra mana, but games rarely get to the point where they have an insurmountable mana advantage. Half the time, or indeed most of the time, you'll much rather be drawing cards.
Honorable kill gets a good start, because Siphon Mana and Bloodseeker looks sick.
It'll have to be judged on a card to card basis, because if the card has too high or too low an attack value, it might be worthless trying to make it work unless the effect is so powerful it cannot be ignored (much like how octobot is to frenzy).
Besides, its actually easier to accomplish an overkill than otherwise. The idea of wasted damage only works if you get nothing out for your effort. The main problem with overkill, and likely to honorable kill as well, is that unless the card itself has rush its unlikely to ever trigger (and the spell overkill cards being largely shit doesn't help). However we do have Animated Broomstick for another 4 months, so we'll have to see if its worth anyone's while to even bother with it.
We'll that's all my assumptions thrown out the window. Im looking forward to the reddit and discords on the mass turn 1 concedes events already.
"Horde players go as warrior, alliance as paladin. The signal is a combinations of emotes, which will indicate who will concede"
The horde and alliance thing is certainly very interesting but you'd think this kind of faction fights should have been introduced at the first not the third expansion of the year. That way we get a whole year at thumbing our noses at our filthy neighbors.
I somewhat admire team5's decision to let us choose between two legendaries. A risky proposal given that they've shied away from this approach with the understandable reason that people will feel bad having chose poorly, or the fact that 90% of the players will just choose the stronger or more viable legendary and so that's all we'll be seeing for the first 2 weeks.
I would assume that no matter the choice, you can ultimately play whatever you like, so you can paradoxically play and win using alliance decks whilst having chose for the horde.
Bring on the hero cards team5. I'd like to know how they balance these ones, or will this be yet another repeat of stormwind, only now everyone's playing going to be playing like druid - literally draw this card and win or die.
Still better having hero cards than not having hero cards eh?
One last comment. That honorable fight keyword will likely end up like overkill. Unless of course, they ramp up the powerlevel on this one.
What will likely happen would be the winning team gets the diamond legendary while the losers suck their thumbs and sit around the corner. I doubt team5 will allow something like this to happen, because its fairly obvious most players will just opt for the stronger side, so smart guys will just pick the weaker one and score a freebie. It creates this scenario where players will band up and basically throw the contest and as unlikely as it is to work, Im sure team5 wouldn't want something like this happening.
Its going to be the name reveal tomorrow, plus 6 cards, then announcing the card reveal schedule that will start next week :P
We've been here before. While there are some that prefer shorter reveal seasons, I prefer them 2 weeks at least. None of that 1 week rush like the last time please.
Its not well explained by blizz, but the idea is that in each pack there's a slot having a chance to roll a merc, portrait, or coin according to a random rarity. If it rolls a rare, and you have all mercs in rare, then it'll either give a portrait or coins. Seems like you rolled coins, which is definitely better than portraits most of the time.
I like the current duels. Its as close as it gets to a restricted wild format, and I'll take anything I can get from that. Haven't played Cthun decks in a long time, and them being viable in duels is a good sign to me. Casual duels from wins 1-7 is pretty much a diverse, and largely inconsequential, mode that allows for fun without the dread of loss familiar in ranked.
That said, there are some things that I feel needs some changes:
- Please just let us choose any hero we like. Its always been bad before not being able to choose the hero we want, but when diablo was introduced that's where the familiar concede on 1 is almost near universal, at least earlier on. And I can honestly sympathize, because its incredible bs. It was so ridiculous that I nearly thought getting diablo in duels needed some kind of achievement or code to get.
- Mind tether is not really a problem. Its this plus fireshaper that's really the issue here. Maybe its time team5 limits certain treasures according to the hero power/treasure we choose? That way, not only can we remove useless passives/treasures (I mean, getting something like hagatha's embrace when its clear your deck has no minions is certainly annoying) we can curb some of the most broken interactions there is in the format.
- Setting health from 20 to 30? Its really only because burn strats in the first few matches are near impossible to stop. Part of the reason why mind tether and weapon rogue is so oppressive is not because the decks are top tier (I dont think Ive seen much of them past 7 wins) its because they often just get cheap wins in the first 3 games.
- And yeah, general improvements in offered card buckets. I can run a spell only druid or mage deck only to constantly having my plans thwarted because the game thinks I needed some minions. Some buckets just plainly make no sense, like the ones that offer triple of the same minion (for some reason its usually Mankrik or amalgams). There are other ways to be funny without making us cover our faces in disbelief
Im actually looking past the current quest mage and more into how spell mage can utilize something like this. One of the main problems with spell mage has always been the limited damage, which requires Mask of C'Thun to be played just as a burn option. Now with the inevitability of ignite, there's more you can fit into the spell mage deck, which may or may not make it more flexible against decks that do well against quest mage, especially considering that without the quest there's simply more room for better cards than something like Ice Barrier.
And of course we're heading towards the new expansion. Infinite cards like ignite are always on the brink of tearing the meta apart.
The only thing accomplished by nerfing quest mage is essentially allowing players to dust the fking thing and therefore reducing its play rate, which in reality is the real problem with this deck.
Hopefully it completely removes this deck from existence, although Im sure some form of spell mage will still come back one way or another. Ignite is still just too powerful to ignore, and honestly mage has some really good spells like Devolving Missiles that can usually turn the tide really quick.
Proper thread created for venting one's rage:-
https://outof.cards/forums/hearthstone/hearthstone-general/27-group-therapy-need-to-blow-off-some-steam-mega-salty-heres-the-place?page=50
I do find it slightly funny that anyone can take specific umbrage over a mere highlight. Could be that the opponent's just planning his moves ahead of his turn, which wouldn't be surprising or unheard of.
I think the story will continue without tamsin, cariel and kurtrus. All three have reached the end of their storylines, and theres no reason why any of them will continue on barring the usual power of friendship bs. It'll be especially weird if kurtrus went along, seeing that both Anatheron is dealt with, and Cariel's arc is complete. What, are they going to introduce another demon for him to vent his vengeance on just so he can appear in the third expansion?
While I would be praying that none of them would, it would be strange if there wasn't at least one frost spell from shaman that doesn't freeze. There's only so many things you can design as a frost spell that would not freeze or combo with freezes.
I'll be eagerly waiting for the reveals. But if they can print bs like Ray of Frost and Flurry (Rank 1), I wouldn't put it past them to do something similar with a shaman spell.