- Hunter quest is slow, and I really feel that there needs to be more taunts in this deck.
- Druid quest is not optimized. At the moment, lots of guys are moving towards finishing the quest as soon as possible so they play it in the spell druid package without a top end. The result is that a singular taunt ruins your day. Oh, and Wickerclaw is not good.
- Shaman quest is amazing. There's an actual reason to push the quest completion as soon as possible because once it finishes the game is over. I've beaten elemental shaman fairly convincingly, and that's practically the most aggressive deck currently available. But Im still certain that Doomhammer on 5 will beat this quest to kingdom come.
- Mage doesn't need the quest to win. Spell mage all the way, because with cards like Ignite there's simply so much firepower it may be permissible to just skip the Fireballs too. Game seems to end right before or right after this quest is complete, and Im fairly convinced the 1st and 2nd tier rewards are the real attraction here. Incanter's Flow is way too overpowered and will in my opinion be in contention for nerfs.
- Paladin quest is funny. There are games where I finish it all on turn 5 and proceed to win. Or I dont finish by turn 5 because I got screwed by my draws and as a result I lose. Will be playing more of this to see exactly how consistent it can get. Mulligan for First Day of School or bust.
- Didnt get to try warrior, priest or faced any. My impression is that spell mage destroys it so we dont see much of it.
- Warlock can finish quest fairly reliably, and with spell mage being so popular there's an argument to play Runed Mithril Rod because without oozes this is just OP. Havent met or tried handlock yet, that's likely to be next on my list.
- Dhunter quest can be finished easily and quickly, but the payoff is a little hard to see. Often enough the game is simply over before they get to do much of anything except draw their deck out. Its a bit like lifesteal OTK dhunter but immensely weaker. In fact, just play OTK dhunter if combo is your thing.
- Havent tried rogue yet. But excited to do so later.
I'm really wondering wether I should last minute buy the cheaper bundle whilst I still can.
I feel like these quest cards will feature in many decks for some time and this is the only game i really play these days.Am I limiting myself by not purchasing the bundle when I can afford it.
To be honest, the real question would be whether or not you can afford to wait rather than the price tag of the bundles themselves. As the meta shapes you'll be making a more informed choice with your money by delaying your purchase, and there's always the usual 20 bucks for 20 packs + 2 legendaries offer - the main problem being that this offer usually comes around 2 months after release.
Competitively speaking, only a handful of cards from each expansion ever sees inclusion into decks. Looking at the barrens meta, unless you're playing priest, you can easily just craft less than 5 legendaries from the set and be duking it out with the best in diamond 5, with maybe 2-3 different decks.
Not that Im actively discouraging people from spending their money in a game they love. If you love the game and you have money to spare, why not? Just be aware that the average legendary pops out after 20 packs. And that's the average. Pity timer is set at 40 packs.
I'm of the mindset that Questlines and aggression don't mix. One less card in the mulligan and passing on turn 1 despite being tempo-focused will, in my mind, almost certainly leave Questline Paladin dead in the water.
It really depends on the reward you're getting. The reason why aggro-tempo decks need to get on board quickly is because they tend to lose out on value and reload in the mid-late game so every damage in the early game counts.
In quest paladin, its kinda permissible to have a slower start because the end reward gives you 2 mana two 3/3s every turn. Even control decks cant deal with that. The only problem with quest paladin would be to stay alive, in my opinion, and the slower start is kinda made up by the ridiculous hero power.
Call of the Grave is certainly not a flashy spell, and does come with some problems of its own. But I think people are really underestimating what this card can do.
There's 36 deathrattles in standard, and there's about 8 bad/situational ones. That means its about 22% of the time you'll get 1 bad option out of 3. Most of the good deathrattles are around 4-6 mana. In other words, if you play this on 7 (6 if it gets discounted) you're very likely to get a decent deathrattle trigger. Even if you dont get the trigger, you're spending 1 mana to get an option at a later point in the game. That's still entirely reasonable.
Also, the shadow spell tag shouldn't be ignored neither. With Shadowcloth Needle and Psyfiend, its possible to deal a good deal of damage out with Voidtouched Attendant. All you need are cheap shadow spells and this is a cheap shadowspell.
I think people are looking more into the fact that its a 3/3 rush for 3. Its probably the worst of all the tradeable cards, but tradeable being itself a broken keyword it might end up surprising everyone by being played in an actual competitive deck at some point.
Congrats to the winners. Its actually been more fun than I expected, especially reading through some of the decklist submitted through. Makes the pre release season a lot more enjoyable.
Looking forward to the release, when I'll certainly be testing out the decks Ive made all that writing for and hopefully to make them work for real.
Its likely better to complete them after the expansion has launched. Its not so much about getting a head start on the reward track, its largely because the reward track gifts out legendary cards, which often enough you'll get the first one fairly easily within the week.
Getting that legendary early means you'll be more likely to make a better choice when deciding what to craft after the first few days.
I personally feel Defend the Dwarven District is really overrated, it will probably be a good tier 2/3 deck until it gets more support from the miniset. Same with Battleground Battlemaster, because seriously, when has Windfury ever worked out (except the Doomhammer)
I think people are really sleeping on the Paladin quest as well as the handbuff variants of it. They just need some tweaks like a bit more draw and proactive stuff like Broomsticks to really pop off.
Hunter quest is never really going to be tier 1 simply because long games and hunter just never do well, ever. The only hope for it is that the meta is really slow enough, so it can go full value without getting destroyed midgame.
Battleground Battlemaster is a 5/5 for 5 that's a massive soft taunt and instantly makes any minion game winners. You can just slot in 1 in stealth rogue, and outside of a few decks its really not easy getting rid of minions like Burrowing Scorpid, which can deal 10 damage on turn 5 if left alive, leaving a 5/2 and 5/5 on board. We'll just have to see how the meta forms, but I still think its a relevant inclusion into aggro decks.
Is anyone really sleeping on handbuff paladin? Alliance Bannerman itself is already the best card of the set. Its likely going to be tier 1 on the first few weeks in my opinion.
Here's an attempt at shuffle rogue courtesy of the new deathrattle cards. Sad that we didn't get a new deathrattle marquee minion for rogue, but ticket master will still suffice.
Well, that's nice to know that outofcards will also be part of the new expansion cheer as well. Im glad that the winners will not be chosen based on upvotes or we'll be seeing more of the same with that infamous theorycraft incident back when blizz tried their hand at it.
Here's one of my decks, trying to somehow make the rats in hunter work.
- Devouring Swarm: Its reload, it allows for some initiative, its 0 mana. Face hunter is currently already playing resizing pouch, which can easily get this card. If this connects with Trampling Rhino for a 2nd hit and another rhino in hand, there's no doubt that face hunter will make it upwards.
- First Blade of Wrynn: Handbuff paladin will be tops. And this card will easily make the cut. To be honest, even without the rush trigger Id still need to be first convinced why this card isn't just an instant include into all forms of paladin.
- Auctionhouse Gavel: It just occurred to me that any form of combo with bolner will likely run this one just to get out the combo earlier than it should. No one is expecting this to ever be good enough, and for merely being playable this card has exceeded my expectations.
- Encumbered Pack Mule: I have a good feeling we'll be seeing plenty of this card in the next expansion. In hunter, this card is just so much value and goes well with stuff like Stormwind Piper on 3, Scavenger's Ingenuity, Warsong Wrangler. It'll fit into handbuff and handlock for sure. Its taunt, its value, and its a respectable statline for a 2 drop.
- Battleground Battlemaster: Its so niche but when it works it'll win the game for you. If stealth rogue comes back it'll be on this card's back.
Honorable mentions:
- Mo'arg Forgefiend: Will likely be one of the best 8 drops to be printed in this expansion.
- Deeprun Engineer: Current mech pool in neutrals is extremely small so that's something worth mentioning. Funny thing is, if handlock is 30% of the meta, then this card will instantly give you the best counter card available: Clockwork Giant. In all other cases, Darkmoon Dirigible is still a decent follow up to this honestly.
- Lady Prestor: Slot 3/4s of your quest paladin deck with 1 drops and then play this card on 6. What could possibly go wrong?
- Rustrot Viper and Royal Librarian - Its a tech card, so it really doesn't ever deserve to be called 'best'. But for flexibility, and for the fact that its basically countering two of the most common things in hearthstone, it'll deserve a mention by me if nothing else.
We'll have to agree to disagree then. Far as Im concerned saronite chain gang was fairly used during one of hearthstone's most overpowered metas so if nothing else Im willing to give it a chance.
Im not saying its going to take over the meta, because outside of paladin, hunter and warlock its fair enough to say there might be better cards available.
You'd need to elaborate more if you hope of convincing me, because the only downside to that card is if it ended up in your mulligan hand.
Its a beast, its practically Saronite Chain Gang, and it has that crucial taunt factor. In my view quest hunter needs to stay alive above all else, so even if this thing gets value traded thats not really a problem as long as it protects your face as you race towards completing the quest.
There might be some big brained decklist out there that will actually play quest mage with minions. Because I'm absolutely convinced that spell mage doesn't need the quest.
Spell mage already does pretty well on its own, with its only weakness being that it can actually run out of gas to kill, just as long as it doesn't get overrun by minions, and since Ignite happily allows near infinite amounts of damage and pretty much negates any fatigue issue, even against control I'd say that its just good enough without the quest.
Im not really sure whyd anyone would want to play the quest unless the point is to play the quest itself. Maybe the first and second tier rewards are good enough that people just run it because mage traditionally skips their first turn anyway.
Also, I think I'd swap Oasis Ally with Flurry (Rank 1). Secrets are too expensive, and if you are jamming the quest you'd rather be finishing it as soon as possible, and 0 mana freeze are almost always better than a secret.
I actually suspected as much the first time I saw this played on scabbs himself to ensure that not only can you hit for 9 the following turn but also secure a guaranteed Shadowstep reload at any point of time in the game.
But I'd expect at some point this will probably be corrected, because obviously this is probably broken in wild. In standard, what it amounts to is guaranteed board damage and that's honestly scary knowing how much burst rogue tends to have. At the immediate time, all Im dreaming of is to scam a few games using stealth rogue with Battleground Battlemaster. Maybe that card can be a one off in rogue to cheat games off.
Well its nice to know that all that words typed out over the course of the last week wasn't entirely for nothing. I would have done it anyway, but having a few rewards is definitely nice.
Put simply, there's more than enough fuel for the quest to finish around turn 5-7, bearing in mind that the 1st and 2nd reward will allow for some amount of control, and will reliably finish on turn 4-5. The main problem is staying alive, not the late game. I've a good feeling that we'll be seeing plenty of spell mages, shaman, druid and paladin on day 1, and I really dont think this deck can get away without including some semblance of a board or taunts.
Rustrot Viper is a flex. Its mostly because I think if shaman gets Doomhammer out you might as well just concede.
Opened 90 packs. 5 legendaries. 0 quests.
Much obliged hearthstone gods.
Okay, first impressions;
- Hunter quest is slow, and I really feel that there needs to be more taunts in this deck.
- Druid quest is not optimized. At the moment, lots of guys are moving towards finishing the quest as soon as possible so they play it in the spell druid package without a top end. The result is that a singular taunt ruins your day. Oh, and Wickerclaw is not good.
- Shaman quest is amazing. There's an actual reason to push the quest completion as soon as possible because once it finishes the game is over. I've beaten elemental shaman fairly convincingly, and that's practically the most aggressive deck currently available. But Im still certain that Doomhammer on 5 will beat this quest to kingdom come.
- Mage doesn't need the quest to win. Spell mage all the way, because with cards like Ignite there's simply so much firepower it may be permissible to just skip the Fireballs too. Game seems to end right before or right after this quest is complete, and Im fairly convinced the 1st and 2nd tier rewards are the real attraction here. Incanter's Flow is way too overpowered and will in my opinion be in contention for nerfs.
- Paladin quest is funny. There are games where I finish it all on turn 5 and proceed to win. Or I dont finish by turn 5 because I got screwed by my draws and as a result I lose. Will be playing more of this to see exactly how consistent it can get. Mulligan for First Day of School or bust.
- Didnt get to try warrior, priest or faced any. My impression is that spell mage destroys it so we dont see much of it.
- Warlock can finish quest fairly reliably, and with spell mage being so popular there's an argument to play Runed Mithril Rod because without oozes this is just OP. Havent met or tried handlock yet, that's likely to be next on my list.
- Dhunter quest can be finished easily and quickly, but the payoff is a little hard to see. Often enough the game is simply over before they get to do much of anything except draw their deck out. Its a bit like lifesteal OTK dhunter but immensely weaker. In fact, just play OTK dhunter if combo is your thing.
- Havent tried rogue yet. But excited to do so later.
Edit: Some obvious typos
To be honest, the real question would be whether or not you can afford to wait rather than the price tag of the bundles themselves. As the meta shapes you'll be making a more informed choice with your money by delaying your purchase, and there's always the usual 20 bucks for 20 packs + 2 legendaries offer - the main problem being that this offer usually comes around 2 months after release.
Competitively speaking, only a handful of cards from each expansion ever sees inclusion into decks. Looking at the barrens meta, unless you're playing priest, you can easily just craft less than 5 legendaries from the set and be duking it out with the best in diamond 5, with maybe 2-3 different decks.
Not that Im actively discouraging people from spending their money in a game they love. If you love the game and you have money to spare, why not? Just be aware that the average legendary pops out after 20 packs. And that's the average. Pity timer is set at 40 packs.
Hope it is a bug. Its supposed to be the chosen one in hunter this expansion.
It really depends on the reward you're getting. The reason why aggro-tempo decks need to get on board quickly is because they tend to lose out on value and reload in the mid-late game so every damage in the early game counts.
In quest paladin, its kinda permissible to have a slower start because the end reward gives you 2 mana two 3/3s every turn. Even control decks cant deal with that. The only problem with quest paladin would be to stay alive, in my opinion, and the slower start is kinda made up by the ridiculous hero power.
Call of the Grave is certainly not a flashy spell, and does come with some problems of its own. But I think people are really underestimating what this card can do.
There's 36 deathrattles in standard, and there's about 8 bad/situational ones. That means its about 22% of the time you'll get 1 bad option out of 3. Most of the good deathrattles are around 4-6 mana. In other words, if you play this on 7 (6 if it gets discounted) you're very likely to get a decent deathrattle trigger. Even if you dont get the trigger, you're spending 1 mana to get an option at a later point in the game. That's still entirely reasonable.
Also, the shadow spell tag shouldn't be ignored neither. With Shadowcloth Needle and Psyfiend, its possible to deal a good deal of damage out with Voidtouched Attendant. All you need are cheap shadow spells and this is a cheap shadowspell.
I think people are looking more into the fact that its a 3/3 rush for 3. Its probably the worst of all the tradeable cards, but tradeable being itself a broken keyword it might end up surprising everyone by being played in an actual competitive deck at some point.
Congrats to the winners. Its actually been more fun than I expected, especially reading through some of the decklist submitted through. Makes the pre release season a lot more enjoyable.
Looking forward to the release, when I'll certainly be testing out the decks Ive made all that writing for and hopefully to make them work for real.
My take on shadow priest. Let's see if we've just witnessed a new era of priest with actual win conditions.
Crosses fingers*
Its likely better to complete them after the expansion has launched. Its not so much about getting a head start on the reward track, its largely because the reward track gifts out legendary cards, which often enough you'll get the first one fairly easily within the week.
Getting that legendary early means you'll be more likely to make a better choice when deciding what to craft after the first few days.
Hunter quest is never really going to be tier 1 simply because long games and hunter just never do well, ever. The only hope for it is that the meta is really slow enough, so it can go full value without getting destroyed midgame.
Battleground Battlemaster is a 5/5 for 5 that's a massive soft taunt and instantly makes any minion game winners. You can just slot in 1 in stealth rogue, and outside of a few decks its really not easy getting rid of minions like Burrowing Scorpid, which can deal 10 damage on turn 5 if left alive, leaving a 5/2 and 5/5 on board. We'll just have to see how the meta forms, but I still think its a relevant inclusion into aggro decks.
Is anyone really sleeping on handbuff paladin? Alliance Bannerman itself is already the best card of the set. Its likely going to be tier 1 on the first few weeks in my opinion.
Here's an attempt at shuffle rogue courtesy of the new deathrattle cards. Sad that we didn't get a new deathrattle marquee minion for rogue, but ticket master will still suffice.
Well, that's nice to know that outofcards will also be part of the new expansion cheer as well. Im glad that the winners will not be chosen based on upvotes or we'll be seeing more of the same with that infamous theorycraft incident back when blizz tried their hand at it.
Here's one of my decks, trying to somehow make the rats in hunter work.
Might post a few more, depending on ideas in my head
Here's some of the best cards in my opinion, I won't go on to elaborate because its fairly obvious why they're on top here;
- Ignite, First Flame, Alliance Bannerman, Garrote, Bolner Hammerbeak, Canal Slogger, Provoke, Varian, King of Stormwind
Here's my list of sleeper hits;
- Devouring Swarm: Its reload, it allows for some initiative, its 0 mana. Face hunter is currently already playing resizing pouch, which can easily get this card. If this connects with Trampling Rhino for a 2nd hit and another rhino in hand, there's no doubt that face hunter will make it upwards.
- First Blade of Wrynn: Handbuff paladin will be tops. And this card will easily make the cut. To be honest, even without the rush trigger Id still need to be first convinced why this card isn't just an instant include into all forms of paladin.
- Auctionhouse Gavel: It just occurred to me that any form of combo with bolner will likely run this one just to get out the combo earlier than it should. No one is expecting this to ever be good enough, and for merely being playable this card has exceeded my expectations.
- Encumbered Pack Mule: I have a good feeling we'll be seeing plenty of this card in the next expansion. In hunter, this card is just so much value and goes well with stuff like Stormwind Piper on 3, Scavenger's Ingenuity, Warsong Wrangler. It'll fit into handbuff and handlock for sure. Its taunt, its value, and its a respectable statline for a 2 drop.
- Battleground Battlemaster: Its so niche but when it works it'll win the game for you. If stealth rogue comes back it'll be on this card's back.
Honorable mentions:
- Mo'arg Forgefiend: Will likely be one of the best 8 drops to be printed in this expansion.
- Deeprun Engineer: Current mech pool in neutrals is extremely small so that's something worth mentioning. Funny thing is, if handlock is 30% of the meta, then this card will instantly give you the best counter card available: Clockwork Giant. In all other cases, Darkmoon Dirigible is still a decent follow up to this honestly.
- Lady Prestor: Slot 3/4s of your quest paladin deck with 1 drops and then play this card on 6. What could possibly go wrong?
- Rustrot Viper and Royal Librarian - Its a tech card, so it really doesn't ever deserve to be called 'best'. But for flexibility, and for the fact that its basically countering two of the most common things in hearthstone, it'll deserve a mention by me if nothing else.
We'll have to agree to disagree then. Far as Im concerned saronite chain gang was fairly used during one of hearthstone's most overpowered metas so if nothing else Im willing to give it a chance.
Im not saying its going to take over the meta, because outside of paladin, hunter and warlock its fair enough to say there might be better cards available.
You'd need to elaborate more if you hope of convincing me, because the only downside to that card is if it ended up in your mulligan hand.
Its a beast, its practically Saronite Chain Gang, and it has that crucial taunt factor. In my view quest hunter needs to stay alive above all else, so even if this thing gets value traded thats not really a problem as long as it protects your face as you race towards completing the quest.
There might be some big brained decklist out there that will actually play quest mage with minions. Because I'm absolutely convinced that spell mage doesn't need the quest.
Spell mage already does pretty well on its own, with its only weakness being that it can actually run out of gas to kill, just as long as it doesn't get overrun by minions, and since Ignite happily allows near infinite amounts of damage and pretty much negates any fatigue issue, even against control I'd say that its just good enough without the quest.
Im not really sure whyd anyone would want to play the quest unless the point is to play the quest itself. Maybe the first and second tier rewards are good enough that people just run it because mage traditionally skips their first turn anyway.
Also, I think I'd swap Oasis Ally with Flurry (Rank 1). Secrets are too expensive, and if you are jamming the quest you'd rather be finishing it as soon as possible, and 0 mana freeze are almost always better than a secret.
I actually suspected as much the first time I saw this played on scabbs himself to ensure that not only can you hit for 9 the following turn but also secure a guaranteed Shadowstep reload at any point of time in the game.
But I'd expect at some point this will probably be corrected, because obviously this is probably broken in wild. In standard, what it amounts to is guaranteed board damage and that's honestly scary knowing how much burst rogue tends to have. At the immediate time, all Im dreaming of is to scam a few games using stealth rogue with Battleground Battlemaster. Maybe that card can be a one off in rogue to cheat games off.
Well its nice to know that all that words typed out over the course of the last week wasn't entirely for nothing. I would have done it anyway, but having a few rewards is definitely nice.
I'd personally remove the Mystery Winner, Explosive Trap and Bola Shot, in favor of Entrapped Sorceress, Encumbered Pack Mule, 1x Rustrot Viper, and 1x Death's Head Cultist.
Maybe remove Piercing Shot for Overwhelm instead.
Put simply, there's more than enough fuel for the quest to finish around turn 5-7, bearing in mind that the 1st and 2nd reward will allow for some amount of control, and will reliably finish on turn 4-5. The main problem is staying alive, not the late game. I've a good feeling that we'll be seeing plenty of spell mages, shaman, druid and paladin on day 1, and I really dont think this deck can get away without including some semblance of a board or taunts.
Rustrot Viper is a flex. Its mostly because I think if shaman gets Doomhammer out you might as well just concede.