This card can be used with or over Grommash Hellscream in a "if this is damaged don't call it Enrage" deck as another finisher, though that deck doesn't have a huge need for one.
Still a pretty good realtively fast big threat with a continuous effect.
Sethekk Veilweaver is a very powerful card with a similiar effect. Sure, Diligent Notetaker won't go infinite, but you have full control over what you get, making it more consistent.
Keep in mind that this is a Druid card, which means it will likely be played at around turn 5. Its biggest issue is that the current token Druid runs mostly spells, so this card would just be a clunky Savage Roar in that deck. If druids can shift into a more minion centric approach to token druid, this can work there.
Well, Zoo Priest has a couple of interesting cards that can snowball. If Zoo Priest exists, this card will be in it, and the deck can be an anti-aggro aggro deck if you add stuff like Apotheosis to the deck, for example.
This card can add amazing consistency curvewise and boardwise. That being said, I don't like it. Not because it's weak (it's actually really a really good card), but because this kind of RNG swings this early in the game can lead to a lot of frustration. But, since Paladin seems like it's the only fair class in standard right now, this card will most likely end up being ignored (even considering how good it can be) unless more support for aggro Pally or more proactive options for midrange builds show up.
Btw, here's a list of outcomes this card can pull that we know (most of my ratings for these outcomes will be first impressions, they might not be very accurate, so feel free to make your own judgements).
So, overall each card given by First Day of School has a 75% chance of being atleast decent, and you only have a 6,25% chance of getting two bad cards (if Disciple of Galakrond isn't on the pool, the chance of getting a bad card is slightly lower).
Curving this card into Blessing of Kings is bonkers. And yet I'm still not so sold on the card. It's an aggressive card in a class whose best aggro tools live in Wild.
That being said, If this card plus some more aggressively stated cards are released in Paladin, they can make Librams into more of a aggressive Midrange deck rather than the slow Midrange deck we currently have that can't find a consistent spot on the metagame right now. This also synergises really well with First Day of School, which I also believe is a more aggressive oriented card.
We'll see if aggro Pally resurfaces again next expansion, but I believe this card is not the card that will make the deck but rather a card that's splashed in the deck for curve purposes (and will most likely do an amazing job at it).
I can see this card being played mostly for the discount effect, since it doesn't seem like a 1 turn only thing. Slapping this on 3 can get you Glowfly Swarm one turn earlier, for example, while maintaining hand and spell size and possibly generating a resource fitting to your match-up.
Is that game breaking? I don't think so, but the board swings coming one turn earlier can definitely catch people off guard.
I can confirm you can now get the quest done after replaying the final game of chapter 1. Also, as a side note, the Year of the Dragon Pack gave me Shu'ma, so that's always fun.
It's good for competitive players to keep things fresh, and it's good for brewers like me who like to have things to discover and figure out constantly. It's just good for the health of the game to have an active development team rather than one that releases a 100 % guaranteed balanced and fine tuned set and the next time you hear of them is when the next one is coming up 4 months later. We've been there. We've seen it. We don't need to go back to it cause we know where it leads: the game gets boring and stale about a month into the new expansion.
If you check my opinion of Blackjack Stunner on the card's page, I said the card would be good at 3 mana with the current stats and effect, because the tempo swing of what could be described as a 1 mana 1/2 Sap would still be decent if the overall power level of the game would grow linearly rather than exponencially, which is what it feels right now.
That's why over tuning cards you know will end up scaled back should not be a goal of an expansion, even for the sake of keeping things fresh. Last year proved you can do that in many different ways, from releasing a handful of cards from wild to buffs for every class. Sure, said ideas would be more challenging when a new class is introduced, but that would be the point of a DH beta state (I mean, look at Battlegrounds, that mode is still in beta and was released before DH). In fact, when you consider there are 4 ranked seasons for each expansion, we could have something along the likes of, quick example, first two seasons with just the new cards, third season with extra cards thrown in and/or a couple cards banned and a final season with temporary buffs/changes before, like, a final week of that season to play with cards from the next expansion as a test run.
You don't need to show activity by constant nerfs. Or by giving Paladin their version of Northshire Cleric into 2 mana Extra Arms because their major expansion theme flopped yet again. These constant changes show that Blizzard have less than ideal control over their product under the disguise of activity.
One last thing: the whole deck brewer thing was possible in the older metas. In fact, I would argue it was, in my experience, much less punishing to go with cards and ideas that were on the weaker side because, again, the power level of the stronger cards was much more in line with them (example: I would try to put at least one copy of my favorite card Bomb Lobber in virtually every deck, even decks that got little to no benefit to having that card and I would have some degree of success with it. Last expansion, I slapped two Troll Batriders [basically a more powerful version of Bomb Lobber] in my Quest non-Galakrond Shaman as an early game tool/extra board control for Shudderwock and I quickly ended up scrapping it as it just couldn't compete with the overall powerlevel of the game).
My reaction was mostly over the game's overall powercreep and how DH should have had a beta stage rather than released as it was. Hearthstone feels frustrating right now because of those factors, at least to me.
I believe a more sensible design process could be made, mostly because it was made throughout HS's early history. I welcomed DH as something new and exciting for example, and I will welcome more bold ideas like these as long as they do it in a manner that allows for the game to react to those changes.
If DH was released as a beta like I said, all the changes announced would have been fine by me. The class needs games and time to be balanced.
PS: Do you mind me asking what do you mean by "eternal PTR"?
Wasn't trying to make it sound like balancing was just a cash grab but upon rereading my comment I can see what you mean, maybe my reaction was a bit hotheaded.
I'm just not a fan of having around 19 nerfs in half an expansion cycle for standard alone (I could have miscounted) nor am I a fan of insane powercreeping (I recognize powercreep is a part of virtually every card game, but it appears a bit over the top these last 4 to 6 expansions). Even the buffs seem more like T5 is forcing archetypes right now rather than bringing more stuff or more interactions over more expansions. Just look at Libram Paladin: the archetype is relatively well balanced, but's not that great right now because of the overall powerlevel of the game. 3 years ago, however, it would have been borderline broken.
EDIT: I also gave an idea on how to get some data for balancing purposes without disrupting ranked or tournament gameplay. Losing a game that decided you're getting 100$ or 10000$ on a tournament because you just got steamrolled by broken cards over and over again seems very unfair.
Here's my two cents regarding the current policy on balance: it sucks. No sugarcoating it, the current design process on Hearthstone sucks.
Back when people would get angry over no changes and broken cards running rampant for months and months on end, there was a clear design policy: try and design cards that were balanced. T5 would sometimes fail on that policy (hello, Undertaker who lived without its nerf for 6 months, for example), but they tried to actually follow a path of balancing cards for the sake of having a balanced game.
Currently, however, the design seems more like "let's make a brutal amount of broken cards and slowly nerf them all so we don't need to try and balance the game and, as a bonus, get that sweet extra money". And the sad part is that people prefer this method, apparently. I mean, why focus money and time on balancing, for example, Priestess of Fury or Skull of Gul'dan and perhaps get criticized for doing it poorly, when you can release it as a clearly broken card, have the criticism anyway and, when you finally work around balancing, you get praised and people give you more money because you "listen to criticism and acted on it". That is not trying to make a competitive and balanced card game, that is us, Hearthstone's playerbase, spending money to do the balancing team's job.
And I know adding one new class means new class interactions that can shift the meta forever and in completely unpredictable ways, but what about the possibility of releasing Demon Hunter as a beta class instead? And you you're wondering how that could be done, it's simple: anyone can try on casual so T5 can still have the numbers on how the class plays out against other archetypes instead of releasing it fully to destroy ranked mode for two months. Hell, if T5 were to do it that way, they would have even more veried numbers, as playing on casual means people are more apt to experiment, giving some insight on how the class works against weaker archetypes like, for example, Heal Druid (yeah, that's something that was pushed by Blizzard for one expansion, remember?). And if they were afraid people wouldn't play in casual because they don't want to play for no rewards, just throw a couple of carrots on a stick like special card backs or unlocking new emotes (they have the "Sorry" emote on hold, at the very least), something that they can do with minimal effort and minimal downside in revenue and actually keep the game competitive without being completely broken.
So, here's my 2 cents regarding nerfs so those cards won't become completely worthless:
Battlefiend - Starts as a 1/2. On an unrelated note, I need to finish my Arena with 3 Battlefiends on my deck.
Altruis the Outcast - Will only target minions. Still a control tool, but much less of an aggro tool this way.
Glaivebound Adept - Becomes a 5/4. 7 attack is so huge for a 5 drop with such an easy requirement to achieve. At 5 attack, it keeps being aggressively stated without chunking out 25% of the opponent's Health with every attack.
Kael'thas Sunstrider - "Every third spell costs (5) less". This card's issue is it's effect along with it's stats, so I'm guessing they will tackle the most unfair part of it's arsenal. the "5 less" part I suggested allows the card to still fulfill it's mana ceating properties without cheating out top end spells.
Bad Luck Albatross - Tough one. Either it will shuffle only 1 Albatross making it a card for resurrect decks only or it will lose it's premium stats aspect, making it a anti-Highlander tech. I'm guessing it becomes a 2/3.
Frenzied Felwing - Becomes a 2/2. Yes, the card will be completely gutted, but it's a snowball effect card, so it's hard to change it without completely killing it. Either that or it becomes something like "If you dealt 5-6 damage to the opponent this turn, it costs (0)"
Open the Waygate - 10 spells as a requirement to finish the quest. The number was just thrown there, it just seems like a much more reasonable requirement.
The best secret of the bunch. VAlue trade a minion, watch it get unanswered because there is a "?" over your head. Value trade it again and watch your opponent crumble. And yet, as a standalone card, it's strong but balanced. It's Blackjack Stunner that makes the tempo swings go out of control.
This on 2. It survives, because it has 5 Health. Play a Secret on 3, have a leftover mana and play a Paladin Secret with it. Yes, the Paladin Secret will probably suck, but such powerful snowball value generation makes this card so good. And yet, it's not the most powerful card in Secret Rogue.
This card can be used with or over Grommash Hellscream in a "if this is damaged don't call it Enrage" deck as another finisher, though that deck doesn't have a huge need for one.
Still a pretty good realtively fast big threat with a continuous effect.
Who would win?
A gigantic guy that's insanely sticky and can win games by itself
or
A small genie boi
Sethekk Veilweaver is a very powerful card with a similiar effect. Sure, Diligent Notetaker won't go infinite, but you have full control over what you get, making it more consistent.
Keep in mind that this is a Druid card, which means it will likely be played at around turn 5. Its biggest issue is that the current token Druid runs mostly spells, so this card would just be a clunky Savage Roar in that deck. If druids can shift into a more minion centric approach to token druid, this can work there.
Well, Zoo Priest has a couple of interesting cards that can snowball. If Zoo Priest exists, this card will be in it, and the deck can be an anti-aggro aggro deck if you add stuff like Apotheosis to the deck, for example.
EDIT: They also got Power Word: Feast and, to a certain extent, Gift of Luminance. Tempo priest can definitely be a thing.
This card can add amazing consistency curvewise and boardwise. That being said, I don't like it. Not because it's weak (it's actually really a really good card), but because this kind of RNG swings this early in the game can lead to a lot of frustration. But, since Paladin seems like it's the only fair class in standard right now, this card will most likely end up being ignored (even considering how good it can be) unless more support for aggro Pally or more proactive options for midrange builds show up.
Btw, here's a list of outcomes this card can pull that we know (most of my ratings for these outcomes will be first impressions, they might not be very accurate, so feel free to make your own judgements).
Generally good cards:
Total: 22 (32,35%)
Cards that can be good depending on the situation you’re in, but overall aren’t as good:
Total: 24 (35,30%)
Cards with decent stats but not much more (basically all 1/3 and similar cards):
Total: 5 (7,35%)
Overall bad cards:
Total: 17 (25%)
So, overall each card given by First Day of School has a 75% chance of being atleast decent, and you only have a 6,25% chance of getting two bad cards (if Disciple of Galakrond isn't on the pool, the chance of getting a bad card is slightly lower).
Considering the new druid card has the placeholder "Fluffy Fight" name, could someone photoshop some pillows into the art?
Curving this card into Blessing of Kings is bonkers. And yet I'm still not so sold on the card. It's an aggressive card in a class whose best aggro tools live in Wild.
That being said, If this card plus some more aggressively stated cards are released in Paladin, they can make Librams into more of a aggressive Midrange deck rather than the slow Midrange deck we currently have that can't find a consistent spot on the metagame right now. This also synergises really well with First Day of School, which I also believe is a more aggressive oriented card.
We'll see if aggro Pally resurfaces again next expansion, but I believe this card is not the card that will make the deck but rather a card that's splashed in the deck for curve purposes (and will most likely do an amazing job at it).
I can see this card being played mostly for the discount effect, since it doesn't seem like a 1 turn only thing. Slapping this on 3 can get you Glowfly Swarm one turn earlier, for example, while maintaining hand and spell size and possibly generating a resource fitting to your match-up.
Is that game breaking? I don't think so, but the board swings coming one turn earlier can definitely catch people off guard.
I can confirm you can now get the quest done after replaying the final game of chapter 1. Also, as a side note, the Year of the Dragon Pack gave me Shu'ma, so that's always fun.
If you check my opinion of Blackjack Stunner on the card's page, I said the card would be good at 3 mana with the current stats and effect, because the tempo swing of what could be described as a 1 mana 1/2 Sap would still be decent if the overall power level of the game would grow linearly rather than exponencially, which is what it feels right now.
That's why over tuning cards you know will end up scaled back should not be a goal of an expansion, even for the sake of keeping things fresh. Last year proved you can do that in many different ways, from releasing a handful of cards from wild to buffs for every class. Sure, said ideas would be more challenging when a new class is introduced, but that would be the point of a DH beta state (I mean, look at Battlegrounds, that mode is still in beta and was released before DH). In fact, when you consider there are 4 ranked seasons for each expansion, we could have something along the likes of, quick example, first two seasons with just the new cards, third season with extra cards thrown in and/or a couple cards banned and a final season with temporary buffs/changes before, like, a final week of that season to play with cards from the next expansion as a test run.
You don't need to show activity by constant nerfs. Or by giving Paladin their version of Northshire Cleric into 2 mana Extra Arms because their major expansion theme flopped yet again. These constant changes show that Blizzard have less than ideal control over their product under the disguise of activity.
One last thing: the whole deck brewer thing was possible in the older metas. In fact, I would argue it was, in my experience, much less punishing to go with cards and ideas that were on the weaker side because, again, the power level of the stronger cards was much more in line with them (example: I would try to put at least one copy of my favorite card Bomb Lobber in virtually every deck, even decks that got little to no benefit to having that card and I would have some degree of success with it. Last expansion, I slapped two Troll Batriders [basically a more powerful version of Bomb Lobber] in my Quest non-Galakrond Shaman as an early game tool/extra board control for Shudderwock and I quickly ended up scrapping it as it just couldn't compete with the overall powerlevel of the game).
My reaction was mostly over the game's overall powercreep and how DH should have had a beta stage rather than released as it was. Hearthstone feels frustrating right now because of those factors, at least to me.
I believe a more sensible design process could be made, mostly because it was made throughout HS's early history. I welcomed DH as something new and exciting for example, and I will welcome more bold ideas like these as long as they do it in a manner that allows for the game to react to those changes.
If DH was released as a beta like I said, all the changes announced would have been fine by me. The class needs games and time to be balanced.
PS: Do you mind me asking what do you mean by "eternal PTR"?
Wasn't trying to make it sound like balancing was just a cash grab but upon rereading my comment I can see what you mean, maybe my reaction was a bit hotheaded.
I'm just not a fan of having around 19 nerfs in half an expansion cycle for standard alone (I could have miscounted) nor am I a fan of insane powercreeping (I recognize powercreep is a part of virtually every card game, but it appears a bit over the top these last 4 to 6 expansions). Even the buffs seem more like T5 is forcing archetypes right now rather than bringing more stuff or more interactions over more expansions. Just look at Libram Paladin: the archetype is relatively well balanced, but's not that great right now because of the overall powerlevel of the game. 3 years ago, however, it would have been borderline broken.
EDIT: I also gave an idea on how to get some data for balancing purposes without disrupting ranked or tournament gameplay. Losing a game that decided you're getting 100$ or 10000$ on a tournament because you just got steamrolled by broken cards over and over again seems very unfair.
Here's my two cents regarding the current policy on balance: it sucks. No sugarcoating it, the current design process on Hearthstone sucks.
Back when people would get angry over no changes and broken cards running rampant for months and months on end, there was a clear design policy: try and design cards that were balanced. T5 would sometimes fail on that policy (hello, Undertaker who lived without its nerf for 6 months, for example), but they tried to actually follow a path of balancing cards for the sake of having a balanced game.
Currently, however, the design seems more like "let's make a brutal amount of broken cards and slowly nerf them all so we don't need to try and balance the game and, as a bonus, get that sweet extra money". And the sad part is that people prefer this method, apparently. I mean, why focus money and time on balancing, for example, Priestess of Fury or Skull of Gul'dan and perhaps get criticized for doing it poorly, when you can release it as a clearly broken card, have the criticism anyway and, when you finally work around balancing, you get praised and people give you more money because you "listen to criticism and acted on it". That is not trying to make a competitive and balanced card game, that is us, Hearthstone's playerbase, spending money to do the balancing team's job.
And I know adding one new class means new class interactions that can shift the meta forever and in completely unpredictable ways, but what about the possibility of releasing Demon Hunter as a beta class instead? And you you're wondering how that could be done, it's simple: anyone can try on casual so T5 can still have the numbers on how the class plays out against other archetypes instead of releasing it fully to destroy ranked mode for two months. Hell, if T5 were to do it that way, they would have even more veried numbers, as playing on casual means people are more apt to experiment, giving some insight on how the class works against weaker archetypes like, for example, Heal Druid (yeah, that's something that was pushed by Blizzard for one expansion, remember?). And if they were afraid people wouldn't play in casual because they don't want to play for no rewards, just throw a couple of carrots on a stick like special card backs or unlocking new emotes (they have the "Sorry" emote on hold, at the very least), something that they can do with minimal effort and minimal downside in revenue and actually keep the game competitive without being completely broken.
So, here's my 2 cents regarding nerfs so those cards won't become completely worthless:
Battlefiend - Starts as a 1/2. On an unrelated note, I need to finish my Arena with 3 Battlefiends on my deck.
Altruis the Outcast - Will only target minions. Still a control tool, but much less of an aggro tool this way.
Glaivebound Adept - Becomes a 5/4. 7 attack is so huge for a 5 drop with such an easy requirement to achieve. At 5 attack, it keeps being aggressively stated without chunking out 25% of the opponent's Health with every attack.
Kael'thas Sunstrider - "Every third spell costs (5) less". This card's issue is it's effect along with it's stats, so I'm guessing they will tackle the most unfair part of it's arsenal. the "5 less" part I suggested allows the card to still fulfill it's mana ceating properties without cheating out top end spells.
Bad Luck Albatross - Tough one. Either it will shuffle only 1 Albatross making it a card for resurrect decks only or it will lose it's premium stats aspect, making it a anti-Highlander tech. I'm guessing it becomes a 2/3.
Frenzied Felwing - Becomes a 2/2. Yes, the card will be completely gutted, but it's a snowball effect card, so it's hard to change it without completely killing it. Either that or it becomes something like "If you dealt 5-6 damage to the opponent this turn, it costs (0)"
Open the Waygate - 10 spells as a requirement to finish the quest. The number was just thrown there, it just seems like a much more reasonable requirement.
Bloodbloom - Guessing a mana change. And considering Emperor Thaurissan exists, I'm guessing to 4 mana.
Sacrificial Pact - Only targets friendly demons. Seems an obvious change to give it the fantasy of sacrificing your own board for something.
Not amazing, but good enough to round out the secret package. Extra draw is always nice.
It's a 2 mana 2/3 Poisonous. So easy to activate. So mandatory to activate. It's balanced because 2/3 is OK levels of stats.
The best secret of the bunch. VAlue trade a minion, watch it get unanswered because there is a "?" over your head. Value trade it again and watch your opponent crumble. And yet, as a standalone card, it's strong but balanced. It's Blackjack Stunner that makes the tempo swings go out of control.
Yeah, no, this will be nerfed eventually. It's a really good card at 3(!!!) mana. The amount of tempo this card gives is insane.
This on 2. It survives, because it has 5 Health. Play a Secret on 3, have a leftover mana and play a Paladin Secret with it. Yes, the Paladin Secret will probably suck, but such powerful snowball value generation makes this card so good. And yet, it's not the most powerful card in Secret Rogue.