Without more card draw for hunter I don't feel this can work. And top decking a 3/4 is not great either.
Good news, everyone! Scavenger's Ingenuity provides targeted Beast draw AND an additional buff. AND it's from Ashes, so it will still be in Standard after rotation.
3+ spell damage is nuts, people will probably find some fun otk combo
I will be very surprised if the expansions hold any more Shaman Nature spells that can hit face, for this exact reason.
Just off the top of my head I can already get to 18 face damage from hand in a single turn without any mana discounts or other special setup. I don't think we want that number climbing any higher.
Also, there's a chance Apotheosis will become a Holy spell.
I'd say it's a certainty.
It looks like all spells that do not represent some sort of physical maneuver -- i.e., all the spells that actually represent magic -- are being assigned schools. Holy is the only possible school for most Priest spells, certainly for this one. (An argument can be made for Fire in some cases, but mostly in Wild.)
As cards that everyone has always gotten for free, Basic cards will not be craftable or disenchantable this year. They have never allowed you to dust free cards. You get all of Basic when you unlock Wild, and they stay in your collection, period.
I guess there is a possibility that next year they may stop giving these cards away and start selling Legacy packs in the shop, but demand would be fairly low, so maybe it's not worthwhile. They would actually lose money if the cards became disenchantable and no one was buying the packs.
I kinda wish they'd confine the reveals to playhearthstone.com.
Scouring the internet for spoilers and finding them only in foreign languages is a pain. It also leads to turmoil in the community when the translations are missing or inaccurate.
For balance, I find Druid to be difficult. Ramp is especially hard to balance because it's a core mechanic to the class, but it can feel pretty helpless to play against. Ramp and Barnes share a lot of similarities: big stuff coming out earlier than you can deal with it.
Dear Iksar,
Ramp would not feel so helpless to play against if you weren't constantly giving Druid a kajillion other ways to cheat mana on top of it. Give the class strong ramp OR a few good mana cheats, not both.
Or how about this: Mana cheats that work only when you have fewer than 6 mana crystals. After you've ramped, the cheats stop working.
The devs did consider this, and they decided it was not a workable addition to Hearthstone, probably for the reasons mentioned above.
I personally would not like it at all because it could only serve to further polarize games. Polarization is the biggest balance challenge in most CCGs, and Hearthstone is no exception. We need ideas that will make more games feel winnable, not cause more auto-concedes.
Part of that may be that it's a high-skill archetype with more RNG than most decks. That combination doesn't get traction because bad players don't know how to use it, and good players shy away from anything random. I had a fantastic win rate with it during Darkmoon (before Races). I haven't bothered since Races came out because Nitroboost OP.
The beauty of this card is that it's a Choose One card in disguise.
I've already used it to wreck some combos, and when I don't need it for that, I use it to replay my own Corrupted cards for Y'sharrj value. It never feels like a dead card in my hand.
Good news, everyone! Scavenger's Ingenuity provides targeted Beast draw AND an additional buff. AND it's from Ashes, so it will still be in Standard after rotation.
I will be very surprised if the expansions hold any more Shaman Nature spells that can hit face, for this exact reason.
Just off the top of my head I can already get to 18 face damage from hand in a single turn without any mana discounts or other special setup. I don't think we want that number climbing any higher.
I'd say it's a certainty.
It looks like all spells that do not represent some sort of physical maneuver -- i.e., all the spells that actually represent magic -- are being assigned schools. Holy is the only possible school for most Priest spells, certainly for this one. (An argument can be made for Fire in some cases, but mostly in Wild.)
Too bad this is just a River Crocolisk that never gives you a spell unless you sink additional resources into it.
And Peon isn't even a Beast, so River Croc is actually better in many cases.
Because no one is adding Rush to non-Rush minions these days?
The Miracle archetype is still technically possible if there's enough support, and this could easily make it into such a deck.
I'm not saying it's a great card, but it's too soon to call it unplayable.
As cards that everyone has always gotten for free, Basic cards will not be craftable or disenchantable this year. They have never allowed you to dust free cards. You get all of Basic when you unlock Wild, and they stay in your collection, period.
I guess there is a possibility that next year they may stop giving these cards away and start selling Legacy packs in the shop, but demand would be fairly low, so maybe it's not worthwhile. They would actually lose money if the cards became disenchantable and no one was buying the packs.
I kinda wish they'd confine the reveals to playhearthstone.com.
Scouring the internet for spoilers and finding them only in foreign languages is a pain. It also leads to turmoil in the community when the translations are missing or inaccurate.
This section of the forums is basically dead, so ...
Dear Iksar,
Ramp would not feel so helpless to play against if you weren't constantly giving Druid a kajillion other ways to cheat mana on top of it. Give the class strong ramp OR a few good mana cheats, not both.
Or how about this: Mana cheats that work only when you have fewer than 6 mana crystals. After you've ramped, the cheats stop working.
The devs did consider this, and they decided it was not a workable addition to Hearthstone, probably for the reasons mentioned above.
I personally would not like it at all because it could only serve to further polarize games. Polarization is the biggest balance challenge in most CCGs, and Hearthstone is no exception. We need ideas that will make more games feel winnable, not cause more auto-concedes.
Part of that may be that it's a high-skill archetype with more RNG than most decks. That combination doesn't get traction because bad players don't know how to use it, and good players shy away from anything random. I had a fantastic win rate with it during Darkmoon (before Races). I haven't bothered since Races came out because Nitroboost OP.
I don't duel often, but when I do, I get slaughtered by Overload Shaman.
So ... exactly like it always is.
I really hope we get another card like Stowaway.
A minion-heavy Priest will love this, if that can be a thing.
Maybe they will create a Tavern Brawl where you can't use class cards. That's where I see this card doing some work.
Or if you think a "7-mana 5/5 Battlecry: Attack a random enemy" is good, that's what this is in Mage.
Within the past few months, we've gone from one terrible Valeera skin to that plus three great ones!
I love having options, but that's enough of her. Let's get more skins of new heroes for a while.
(Yes, yes, Book of Heroes is going to be tied to skins of the original heroes, I get it. But the reward track doesn't need to do the same.)
P.S. Saving the packs until March 23!
Not a build-around, but the combos it enables are such fun!
The beauty of this card is that it's a Choose One card in disguise.
I've already used it to wreck some combos, and when I don't need it for that, I use it to replay my own Corrupted cards for Y'sharrj value. It never feels like a dead card in my hand.
I was always sad that Forked Lightning wasn't good enough. Now I'm happy.
Yes. All lightning and poison spells are Nature.