If I had to guess, they're probably figuring how to fix The Demon Seed, since it'll be unplayable in every format come April. Maybe they're also thinking about future-proofing Tome Tampering and Switcheroo.
That Varian portrait is so fucking hideous. It literally looks worse than his Heroes of the Storm model, which is from six years ago and also is primarily seen from top-down at a distance.
I hope they go the opposite way and make all Arcane Golems into Mechs for consistency. If you're not a WoW lore nerd, then you look at an Arcane Golem and you're gonna say that it's a Mech.
Also, I hope they make all the bog beasts Elementals like Bogshaper is. Some bog beasts used to be, but when they did the first round of minion type consistency updates they ruled that they shouldn't be, except they left it on Bogshaper because Elemental Shaman was a playable deck that used the card at the time. Bog beasts are classified as Elementals in WoW (and Mountain Giantisn't an Elemental), so again I don't understand why they went the opposite direction.
So, this kinda confirm that we will have a card that make druid pass 10 mana again, since guff hero card is rotating, right?
There's some *minor* chance we don't. High Exarch Yrel got printed one set before all the other Pure Paladin stuff rotated and didn't get more support until Castle Nathria. However, I think it's a safe bet that we will see something. Hopefully it's not a card that takes it all the way to 20 again.
Cards that Combo just to get big stats (Shado-Pan Rider, Bladed Cultist, and Coldtooth Yeti) have never seen play, so I'm a little hesitant to call this good. Obviously this is quite strong in that category, but I just don't know what deck runs this. Edwin and Sinstone Graveyard were so good because they could be a tempo play or an early lethal threat with the right hand, which this doesn't quite have the flexibility to do.
This is going to function very similarly to Unstable Evolution, where you can prevent some really disastrous evolves. It's obviously a lot less flexible than that card, but making power plays for only 1 mana will feel pretty good.
Seems pretty bad. Honestly, a 1-mana 2/3 with Rush and no other effects probably wouldn't be good enough to see play these days, and slapping a downside on it isn't helping. Maybe it goes into the Razorfen Beastmaster deck for one last hurrah before that rotates out, but you want to cheat out bigger stuff with that card, not 1-mana stuff.
The only consistently relevant case where this card is worse than Snipe is if you have four or more minions, which makes it summon less Zombees. As Hunter, that's not impossible, but it also shouldn't be too big of a worry.
I also like that it's just straight-up the MCU version rather than anything from the comics. Which is honestly great, because MCU Ghost is considerably more interesting.
You know what's really offensive? The fact that women are apparently not allowed to wear anything "revealing" in modern society anymore. The only statement I'm getting from these changes is that women should watch what they wear, lest they arouse or corrupt random men. Meanwhile, men can wear whatever the fuck they like
Except, Queen of Pain and Secretkeeper are wearing LESS CLOTHING now. Windfury Harpy is wearing a little bit more, but she's still basically naked. It's certainly not the winged aerobics teachers you see in western Yu-Gi-Oh.
I really doubt censorship or China had anything to do with these changes. If they did, they would've just region locked it they did for The Skeleton Knight, Abomination, and a bunch of other cards. They did this because Hearthstone's art has evolved. They don't want to depict blood and violent deaths anymore. They don't want women in stupid-looking poses. They probably don't want succubi because of the connotations. The game is very cartoony now, and they want to stay consistent with that theme.
If I may be so bold to suggest an improvement: Could you add a little number to each character so we can see how many portraits they got? Like 28 Nemsys, 1 King Rastakhan, ... and then add a sum at the top of the chart, next to the class icon with the total number of portraits for each class. That would complete the picture for me :)
Sure.
This looks considerably more jank because I made it in Paint.net (I made the first one in a sandbox using assets from the Hearthstone wiki). If I do this again next year, I'll put the base heroes on the original list.
If you want a visual list of every single portrait in this style, this page on the wiki has one, albeit not as cleanly arranged.
With 2022 coming to a close, I wanted to compile a nice presentation for every alternate hero skin. Alternate heroes are something I'm strangely passionate about, despite how inundated we are with them now and the fact that I don't even play Hearthstone anymore.
This is a visual list of every alternate hero skin organized by release order, as well as the year they were released. To qualify, the hero has to be a different character than the base hero, and only one character per portrait is counted. That's also including the two that are in the game but not currently obtainable.
EDIT: Apparently Whitemane and Mal'ganis are currently purchasable. My bad. Like I said, I'm not playing the game.
Consistency is a huge hit to combo decks. In the ideal case, yes you can still do the Anub'Rehkan Astalor combo. However, that's now only in the ideal case. You need to get the right mana first. You need the opponent to be at the right health. You need to only play only those cards. You need to have all the pieces line up, which takes more time, which opens the deck up to more losses.
They could also make Tamsin only redirect damage from your cards and powers, so you couldn't just turbo-fatigue yourself. Maybe even both.
If I had to guess, they're probably figuring how to fix The Demon Seed, since it'll be unplayable in every format come April. Maybe they're also thinking about future-proofing Tome Tampering and Switcheroo.
That Varian portrait is so fucking hideous. It literally looks worse than his Heroes of the Storm model, which is from six years ago and also is primarily seen from top-down at a distance.
Jesus H. Christ.
I hope they go the opposite way and make all Arcane Golems into Mechs for consistency. If you're not a WoW lore nerd, then you look at an Arcane Golem and you're gonna say that it's a Mech.
Also, I hope they make all the bog beasts Elementals like Bogshaper is. Some bog beasts used to be, but when they did the first round of minion type consistency updates they ruled that they shouldn't be, except they left it on Bogshaper because Elemental Shaman was a playable deck that used the card at the time. Bog beasts are classified as Elementals in WoW (and Mountain Giant isn't an Elemental), so again I don't understand why they went the opposite direction.
There's some *minor* chance we don't. High Exarch Yrel got printed one set before all the other Pure Paladin stuff rotated and didn't get more support until Castle Nathria. However, I think it's a safe bet that we will see something. Hopefully it's not a card that takes it all the way to 20 again.
Cards that Combo just to get big stats (Shado-Pan Rider, Bladed Cultist, and Coldtooth Yeti) have never seen play, so I'm a little hesitant to call this good. Obviously this is quite strong in that category, but I just don't know what deck runs this. Edwin and Sinstone Graveyard were so good because they could be a tempo play or an early lethal threat with the right hand, which this doesn't quite have the flexibility to do.
This is going to function very similarly to Unstable Evolution, where you can prevent some really disastrous evolves. It's obviously a lot less flexible than that card, but making power plays for only 1 mana will feel pretty good.
Shoutout to Tear Reality's flavour text:
"One time it gave me a black flower, a smiling pot, and a foil first edition Dracthyr."
Genius.
Seems pretty bad. Honestly, a 1-mana 2/3 with Rush and no other effects probably wouldn't be good enough to see play these days, and slapping a downside on it isn't helping. Maybe it goes into the Razorfen Beastmaster deck for one last hurrah before that rotates out, but you want to cheat out bigger stuff with that card, not 1-mana stuff.
Mana refreshes at the start of your turn, not the end. So if your opponent kills this, it will only drain your unspent mana crystals from last turn.
The only consistently relevant case where this card is worse than Snipe is if you have four or more minions, which makes it summon less Zombees. As Hunter, that's not impossible, but it also shouldn't be too big of a worry.
I hope Colossal becomes a deciduous keyword like Immune, where they can put it in any set where appropriate. It's such a thematic and flexible effect.
Really neat effect.
I also like that it's just straight-up the MCU version rather than anything from the comics. Which is honestly great, because MCU Ghost is considerably more interesting.
I'm gonna repost what I said at the time:
Link
It's not Scourge, it's Ardenweald.
I don't have a Reddit account, but you have my permission to post it for me if you give credit and a link back to here.
Sure.
This looks considerably more jank because I made it in Paint.net (I made the first one in a sandbox using assets from the Hearthstone wiki). If I do this again next year, I'll put the base heroes on the original list.
If you want a visual list of every single portrait in this style, this page on the wiki has one, albeit not as cleanly arranged.
TIL Kotori Lightblade is a 'she'. I'd never heard her voice before.
With 2022 coming to a close, I wanted to compile a nice presentation for every alternate hero skin. Alternate heroes are something I'm strangely passionate about, despite how inundated we are with them now and the fact that I don't even play Hearthstone anymore.
This is a visual list of every alternate hero skin organized by release order, as well as the year they were released. To qualify, the hero has to be a different character than the base hero, and only one character per portrait is counted. That's also including the two that are in the game but not currently obtainable.
EDIT: Apparently Whitemane and Mal'ganis are currently purchasable. My bad. Like I said, I'm not playing the game.
Consistency is a huge hit to combo decks. In the ideal case, yes you can still do the Anub'Rehkan Astalor combo. However, that's now only in the ideal case. You need to get the right mana first. You need the opponent to be at the right health. You need to only play only those cards. You need to have all the pieces line up, which takes more time, which opens the deck up to more losses.