I'd love to have all-spell Mage as an archetype! I've played some in the past for spell quests but it's safe to say it wasn't super competitive. If Blizzard starts supporting an archetype, it will surely be viable at some point right? *cough* Freeze Shaman *cough*
Based on the dust math I did on the comments below in a spoiler that sounds like a legit plan. Crafting "extra" goldens and then disenchanting them will lead to an effective ±0, but if they do give you dust for 2 regular and 2 golden then it could give you some serious profit. But I do think you need to own the regular copies, or at least not crafting the regulars, for this to be worth it.
Your assumptions are correct. However, crafting something in golden when you already own regular copies of and then disenchanting the golden copies will result in an effective ±0 situation for all rarities (except Commons like people have pointed out in the comments; sorry that I missed that on the guide).
I'll put an example in spoiler (although it seems you figured it out while I was writing this).
Show Spoiler
1. You craft the extra golden and disenchant it later. For legendaries it would mean
You use 3200 dust crafting the card.
You get 3200 dust back when it rotates.
You disenchant the card and gain 1600 dust.
Net profit = 1600 dust.
2. You don't craft the extra copy as you own a regular one i.e. you do nothing. For legendaries again
You get 1600 dust when it rotates.
Net profit = 1600 dust.
So basically you're doing the same thing with more steps. Not to mention the potential temptation of actually keeping that awesome, shiny copy…
Yes, they tweeted couple of hours ago that the stream is cancelled and they're looking for a way to showcase the Top 8 matches on Sunday. I'll edit the post to reflect that shortly.
HSReplay's current stats for him don't look very promising, but they are still likely affected by very unrefined decklists and various OTK attempts. But I'd imagine he'll find a permanent place somewhere. It would've been interesting to see if anyone brought him to Masters Tour but it turns out he was not eligible.
So I played some more and used my first expedition token last night.
I ended up going 3 wins on my first trial. My final loss was to a guy who had Ashe and a TON of frostbite synergy to the point that I couldn't do anything against him.
I drafted my 2nd trial with Shen and Thresh. Not sure how good it's gonna be but it has a lot of "revive" synergy in it.
What's a good number of wins for each trial? It looks like 12 wins is the total between both trials? So I'm assuming 7 wins is the "break even" point? (Is it similar to Hearthstone where if you get 7+ wins you essentially can re-buy an arena/expedition?)
As BlueSpark already said (while I was writing this) you will only get rewards based on your better trial. 7 wins, which is the maximum per trial, will give you 3000 shards which is the cost of one expedition. Anything less and you'll get nothing near that. In that sense going infinite is really hard but at least I'm personally getting so much shards from various sources that my shard amount hasn't been dropping despite the full 3 expeditions in a week (went 0+0 wins yesterday though so maybe this week I'll end up losing shards).
Therefore I wouldn't give a single number to "a good amount of wins" as it would feel daunting to think that you'd have to reach 7 every time. I also can't remember the reward structure by heart so I'm not sure if there's another sweet spot for xp/shards in addition to the full 7. My first ever trial was 1 win so you're already doing better :) I have to scare you a bit though and say that Shen/Thresh might give you some difficult games (unless you went full Elusive with Ionia picks).
If she's one of the new Prime Legendaries, the Prime form could be a big Demon since she turns into a voidwalker. Then again the Primes seem to be mechanically altered versions of the original minion so that theory is unlikely to be correct.
Can't wait to find out the effect anyway, already love the art.
Terrible as in weak? Fair stats with Rush and a guaranteed on-curve play for next turn (strength of 8-drops may vary), so is it though? It doesn't currently have a deck where it would be auto-included (unless Embiggen wants it) but I don't see the card itself as weak.
The effect is very much the same than Anivia has in Legends of Runeterra: you want to kill the token so the infinite resurrect chain stops. I just fear that 3+3 damage is quite easy to do in Hearthstone so Al'ar may turn out to be quite weak.
Craft...decks? So how do I do that? Are there pre-built decks that I can craft or am I missing something here?
Also, zoolock/aggro has never appealed to me. Is there a good semi-control deck that is viable for low cost crafting? I liked the Braum/buff deck (plus I always liked Braum in LoL). Is there a decent Braum/Friejlord deck that is viable for low level usage while I'm still learning the game and stuff?
I think what he meant was that you shouldn't be looking for cards to craft, but rather decks you want to play and then check what you need to craft. At least I don't know about a deck crafting option.
In low levels almost everything goes if you have at least some idea behind the deck. I won't link you this notoriously Elusive deck since you didn't like aggro, but maybe this self-damage deck would be what you're looking for (wouldn't craft all the epics you're missing but rather think what else could you do with what you have).
So I installed the game last night. I do see some underlying issues with the mechanics but it does seem fun, and it brings back some memories of the fun I had in League of Legends with some classic champions.
Given that, what are some good cards I should craft with my wildcard tokens I've earned?
Also, someone mentioned mechanics that conflict with each other.
Also, what are expeditions? Is that like the equivalent of Hearthstone's Arena mode?
I'm still trying to understand how certain things resolve. (spells, attacks, etc).
For example the tutorial mission where you use overwhelm to kill the nexus with specific cards, it wasn't very intuitive on the attack order, I just naturally assumed units attacked left from right, but it didn't clarify that anywhere, so I felt like I was just randomly using the order of cards until I completed the tutorial "mission" so Draven leveled up and killed the nexus.
I haven't crafted anything with my wildcards yet, I still have every single one of them. If you're not aiming to go Ranked and all the way to the top, I don't think you need to use them right away.
I guess the conflicting mechanic talk was mostly about Elusive. In a game where blocking units is a key aspect of the gameplay, units that cannot be blocked will cause a lot of negative feelings. I hate them as well, oh how many games I've lost with board control but unable to block Elusives...
I love expeditions. The format is so much better than Hearthstone's Arena in my opinion. It's also the best way of getting those Champions, so be sure to play it every week (up to 3 runs with rewards). The synergy picks allow you to build actually functioning decks, and the two-trial system helps to minimize the effect of unlucky drafts.
Spells resolve before attacks. Burst spells resolve immediately, fast spells resolve latest first. That's why it's important so save your strongest counterplay last, so you minimize the chance of wasting it if they have an answer to your first spell. Slow spells cannot be played during combat so them resolving should be quite clear. Attacks resolve from left to right, cannot think of any exceptions. You can use the Oracle's Eye to check combat results if you want to.
Do you mind sharing the link to the official post re: copy protection?
Additionally, when does the protection take effect?
Is it when you get the pack or when you open the pack?
For example, if I get the classic pack in this week's brawl and open it post release, will it be protected?
It's a long blog but luckily it's mentioned quite early on. And yes it's 26th.
What we know about pack openings (even right now) is that the rarities of the cards are determined when acquiring the pack (purchased/rewarded) but the exact contents when you open it. Therefore if you save your packs until 26th (or let's say 27th so we're on the safe side; I don't think it'll flip on right away in the morning) the rarity protection should apply.
TL;DR Save your pack openings until March 26th (or 27th to play it safe).
Sunday's games are still on and the Top 8 looks pretty strong. There should be some good games for you to watch.
Correct, assuming that you dusted your non-golden copy.
I'd love to have all-spell Mage as an archetype! I've played some in the past for spell quests but it's safe to say it wasn't super competitive. If Blizzard starts supporting an archetype, it will surely be viable at some point right? *cough* Freeze Shaman *cough*
Based on the dust math I did on the comments below in a spoiler that sounds like a legit plan. Crafting "extra" goldens and then disenchanting them will lead to an effective ±0, but if they do give you dust for 2 regular and 2 golden then it could give you some serious profit. But I do think you need to own the regular copies, or at least not crafting the regulars, for this to be worth it.
Your assumptions are correct. However, crafting something in golden when you already own regular copies of and then disenchanting the golden copies will result in an effective ±0 situation for all rarities (except Commons like people have pointed out in the comments; sorry that I missed that on the guide).
I'll put an example in spoiler (although it seems you figured it out while I was writing this).
1. You craft the extra golden and disenchant it later. For legendaries it would mean
2. You don't craft the extra copy as you own a regular one i.e. you do nothing. For legendaries again
So basically you're doing the same thing with more steps. Not to mention the potential temptation of actually keeping that awesome, shiny copy…
But you haven't wasted your dust, so no worries.
Here's the link to brackets for those interested.
I believe Flux is working on a guide for this year's Hall of Fame so that's coming soon™.
Yes, they tweeted couple of hours ago that the stream is cancelled and they're looking for a way to showcase the Top 8 matches on Sunday. I'll edit the post to reflect that shortly.
HSReplay's current stats for him don't look very promising, but they are still likely affected by very unrefined decklists and various OTK attempts. But I'd imagine he'll find a permanent place somewhere. It would've been interesting to see if anyone brought him to Masters Tour but it turns out he was not eligible.
As BlueSpark already said (while I was writing this) you will only get rewards based on your better trial. 7 wins, which is the maximum per trial, will give you 3000 shards which is the cost of one expedition. Anything less and you'll get nothing near that. In that sense going infinite is really hard but at least I'm personally getting so much shards from various sources that my shard amount hasn't been dropping despite the full 3 expeditions in a week (went 0+0 wins yesterday though so maybe this week I'll end up losing shards).
Therefore I wouldn't give a single number to "a good amount of wins" as it would feel daunting to think that you'd have to reach 7 every time. I also can't remember the reward structure by heart so I'm not sure if there's another sweet spot for xp/shards in addition to the full 7. My first ever trial was 1 win so you're already doing better :) I have to scare you a bit though and say that Shen/Thresh might give you some difficult games (unless you went full Elusive with Ionia picks).
If she's one of the new Prime Legendaries, the Prime form could be a big Demon since she turns into a voidwalker. Then again the Primes seem to be mechanically altered versions of the original minion so that theory is unlikely to be correct.
Can't wait to find out the effect anyway, already love the art.
Terrible as in weak? Fair stats with Rush and a guaranteed on-curve play for next turn (strength of 8-drops may vary), so is it though? It doesn't currently have a deck where it would be auto-included (unless Embiggen wants it) but I don't see the card itself as weak.
The effect is very much the same than Anivia has in Legends of Runeterra: you want to kill the token so the infinite resurrect chain stops. I just fear that 3+3 damage is quite easy to do in Hearthstone so Al'ar may turn out to be quite weak.
The rarities are, the exact contents are not. So the rarity protection should occur if you save the packs.
I don't know if it's the art or what but this card just seems fun. It doesn't seem super competitive but will surely feature in highlight videos.
I think what he meant was that you shouldn't be looking for cards to craft, but rather decks you want to play and then check what you need to craft. At least I don't know about a deck crafting option.
In low levels almost everything goes if you have at least some idea behind the deck. I won't link you this notoriously Elusive deck since you didn't like aggro, but maybe this self-damage deck would be what you're looking for (wouldn't craft all the epics you're missing but rather think what else could you do with what you have).
I haven't crafted anything with my wildcards yet, I still have every single one of them. If you're not aiming to go Ranked and all the way to the top, I don't think you need to use them right away.
I guess the conflicting mechanic talk was mostly about Elusive. In a game where blocking units is a key aspect of the gameplay, units that cannot be blocked will cause a lot of negative feelings. I hate them as well, oh how many games I've lost with board control but unable to block Elusives...
I love expeditions. The format is so much better than Hearthstone's Arena in my opinion. It's also the best way of getting those Champions, so be sure to play it every week (up to 3 runs with rewards). The synergy picks allow you to build actually functioning decks, and the two-trial system helps to minimize the effect of unlucky drafts.
Spells resolve before attacks. Burst spells resolve immediately, fast spells resolve latest first. That's why it's important so save your strongest counterplay last, so you minimize the chance of wasting it if they have an answer to your first spell. Slow spells cannot be played during combat so them resolving should be quite clear. Attacks resolve from left to right, cannot think of any exceptions. You can use the Oracle's Eye to check combat results if you want to.
There's a lot on information out there so it's easy to get confused. A short summary:
A prologue campaign for unlocking the class will begin April 2nd (5 days before expansion launch). This will unlock
However, the class will not be playable until April 7th when the expansion releases.
More information can be found on our article and Blizzard's blog.
It's a long blog but luckily it's mentioned quite early on. And yes it's 26th.
What we know about pack openings (even right now) is that the rarities of the cards are determined when acquiring the pack (purchased/rewarded) but the exact contents when you open it. Therefore if you save your packs until 26th (or let's say 27th so we're on the safe side; I don't think it'll flip on right away in the morning) the rarity protection should apply.
TL;DR Save your pack openings until March 26th (or 27th to play it safe).
There will be other solo content about the battle against the Rusted Legion, an organization led by Mecha-Jaraxxus.