I also thought the Quest Rogue was better. Maybe not top tier but viable.
Tbh, the meta includes so much insane power for Midrange and Control, that it may be just a contextual weakness. Maybe one extra Thief synergy card could fix it... But that's it for now.
If anything, it triggered more support to Thief Rogue in the form of Bazaar Mugger and Clever Disguise. Those cards are pretty cool in any Thief package, independently of the Quest.
How would this even compute since Zephrys is 'supposedly' unaware of what's in your hand?
Indeed, as Pezman suggested, I believe Zephrys simply chooses a strong/threatening 2-drop based on his big data knowledge (since the enemy board is empty, he doesn't have to look for removals)
I bought the Dalaran content because the adventure was cool, and because it was about the very Dalaran. Despite being sub-optimal in terms of gold/dust.
With Uldum i don't feel equally affectionate, by far, so i may actual spare the gold this time, if the reward value is not improved.
The amount of cards in your hand (for stuff like Mountain Giant)
The board state (minions, weapons, quests + secrets (but not what secret))
Your mana
Of all of these, your mana is the most important. If you wanted a counter against those Secrets, you probably wanted Flare which is 2 mana. To encourage Zephrys to give you that card (he can see there are secrets active) play him on 4 mana left. Zephrys himself costs 2 mana, leaving you with 2 mana, which is the same cost as Flare. If you were worried about Counterspell, you could use your Eviscerate on something else (even yourself) first to trigger it and then play Zephrys.
He gave me (4) and (2) cost options both when i was at (8) left and (6) left. ;)
We can stay here for ages speculating at all the options i could have played: there would still be a case left where i could have been countered for that turn (ie. If i played my own Evis first, i would have missed lethal: even assuming i could find a tech from Zephrys at that point, i would have had nothing left to actually hit the face).
The point is not what i could have done, but what he gave me (regardless of mana, clearly, since all his options were already at lower cost than mana left).
Otherwise said: could he fix my turn? Yes. Even moreso because he CAN and DOES skip the mana counter if he knows a more valuable option that is cheaper.
Did he give me ONE OUT OF THREE options to do so? No. So he actually whiffed. Independently of how i played him.
Once more, i repeat the points:
Zephrys can never be perfect.
He can't always solve a bad situation, both because the Basic/Classic set is limited, and because chain-reactions could still impair the original plan.
Yet he could definitely be better with more diversity of options, when he is summoned for answers (instead of giving 3 redundant ones, which makes the choice irrelevant).
It fares similarly to usual Even Shaman, but possibly faster. While staying a solid anti-Aggro counter.
The new totem package is basically a Dire Wolf Alpha on steroids. Stronger burst, not vulnerable to single target removal, and stacks up even more synergy with the old totem/token cards.
I still have to play it at high ranks, but i think this is clearly better than pre-SoU Even Shaman (which scares me a bit tbh).
I wonder if more cards with a mechanic similar to Aranasi Broodmother could make the Quest a futurable version of Handlock: cards that are high costed, and benefit from the Tome of Origination, but can also do something upon being drawn, that is while you still have to complete the Quest.
Cards that are basically useful in both phases of the game, making the deck stronger against a wider spectrum of matchups.
I'm sure the Quest is going to get more support in the future, with more cards that benefit from drawing and shuffling.
eg. Design like Aranasi Broodmother is great, even if the card itself isn't: they give you free benefit on draw, while being high-costed cards that require the Quest to be completed, in order to be efficiently played.
With more support, Questlock could become the future of Handlock.
If i click on decks or cards, i am redirected to a weird page where the usual content is not there, but a listing that is apparently derived from a search function based on the namestring of the object i clicked.
It's something that shouldn't be older than a few hours.
This is proof about how the Wild format isn't a dumpster for all the broken crap. Wins my confidence. Next time they sell a wild pack I'm ready to pony up. LOL not
However, I can say that Standard isn't a money grabber... Except, not.
Doesn’t Wild just mean that you’ve been giving Blizzard your money for longer?
time/money*
Wild is MUCH more F2P-friendly than Standard, as long as one can continuously select what they want to play. Wise crafts in Wild never become obsolete.
In-Topic: yeah, it's basically a sort of reverse OTK. It happens late enough, so that one can still prevent it by trying and winning first, no tech required. Additionally, you can still keep fighting, and eventually overcome the enemy, as long as you can delay fatigue (which you should be able to as a Control).
So, yeah, it looks overwhelming, but in practice it is not. Definitely not more than the average OTK deck in Wild.
I also thought the Quest Rogue was better. Maybe not top tier but viable.
Tbh, the meta includes so much insane power for Midrange and Control, that it may be just a contextual weakness. Maybe one extra Thief synergy card could fix it... But that's it for now.
If anything, it triggered more support to Thief Rogue in the form of Bazaar Mugger and Clever Disguise. Those cards are pretty cool in any Thief package, independently of the Quest.
That'd be HUGE. :)
Indeed, as Pezman suggested, I believe Zephrys simply chooses a strong/threatening 2-drop based on his big data knowledge (since the enemy board is empty, he doesn't have to look for removals)
I bought the Dalaran content because the adventure was cool, and because it was about the very Dalaran. Despite being sub-optimal in terms of gold/dust.
With Uldum i don't feel equally affectionate, by far, so i may actual spare the gold this time, if the reward value is not improved.
He gave me (4) and (2) cost options both when i was at (8) left and (6) left. ;)
We can stay here for ages speculating at all the options i could have played: there would still be a case left where i could have been countered for that turn (ie. If i played my own Evis first, i would have missed lethal: even assuming i could find a tech from Zephrys at that point, i would have had nothing left to actually hit the face).
The point is not what i could have done, but what he gave me (regardless of mana, clearly, since all his options were already at lower cost than mana left).
Otherwise said: could he fix my turn? Yes. Even moreso because he CAN and DOES skip the mana counter if he knows a more valuable option that is cheaper.
Did he give me ONE OUT OF THREE options to do so? No. So he actually whiffed. Independently of how i played him.
Once more, i repeat the points:
Even tho i knew already most of this stuff, it was still a pleasure to read through it.
Well done.
Winrates, deck tiers (according to winrates), and maybe frequency too yeah.
Well basically a meta report as the other sites do.
Not criticising the article, which is pretty insightful, but it doesn't feel like a 'report'.
This is cool, but i'm confused:
Where are the stats?
The axe is also strong here, and i believe it could find place in the deck as a 1-of.
However, this is only a strong move against decks you are already favoured: Aggro (with axe you can basically out-Aggro them).
Indeed, the axe does very little against those decks that can consistently and repeatedly AoE the board.
Namely, a properly tuned Secret Mage can now be devastating. Not always maybe, but enough to keep this deck under control.
Thanks to you!
I have an odi et amo relationship with the faceless, and i love the elemental instead, but i will try again!
TLK could still win some games i believe, but with so much power now turn-8 feels so incredibly late. :p
I definitely agree. The double win should reward more than single win. Even moreso since if forces the class choice to 1.
A 50-60 would feel more fair, as opposed to a 50-50.
Or remove the double win entirely, since we already have the triple win at 60.
It fares similarly to usual Even Shaman, but possibly faster. While staying a solid anti-Aggro counter.
The new totem package is basically a Dire Wolf Alpha on steroids. Stronger burst, not vulnerable to single target removal, and stacks up even more synergy with the old totem/token cards.
I still have to play it at high ranks, but i think this is clearly better than pre-SoU Even Shaman (which scares me a bit tbh).
I hope they planned for them already.
As it is, the Quest is basically fun/hardmode for usual Controllock, but i'd craft it immediately if more serious support was provided.
I wonder if more cards with a mechanic similar to Aranasi Broodmother could make the Quest a futurable version of Handlock: cards that are high costed, and benefit from the Tome of Origination, but can also do something upon being drawn, that is while you still have to complete the Quest.
Cards that are basically useful in both phases of the game, making the deck stronger against a wider spectrum of matchups.
I'm sure the Quest is going to get more support in the future, with more cards that benefit from drawing and shuffling.
eg. Design like Aranasi Broodmother is great, even if the card itself isn't: they give you free benefit on draw, while being high-costed cards that require the Quest to be completed, in order to be efficiently played.
With more support, Questlock could become the future of Handlock.
Well, it's apparently fixed now. 😅
If i click on decks or cards, i am redirected to a weird page where the usual content is not there, but a listing that is apparently derived from a search function based on the namestring of the object i clicked.
It's something that shouldn't be older than a few hours.
I didn't have the chance to test on desktop.
Cheers!
I'm going to link this post in my Highlander deck guides!
Pretty much. Even the name is a monster. :P
time/money*
Wild is MUCH more F2P-friendly than Standard, as long as one can continuously select what they want to play. Wise crafts in Wild never become obsolete.
In-Topic: yeah, it's basically a sort of reverse OTK. It happens late enough, so that one can still prevent it by trying and winning first, no tech required. Additionally, you can still keep fighting, and eventually overcome the enemy, as long as you can delay fatigue (which you should be able to as a Control).
So, yeah, it looks overwhelming, but in practice it is not. Definitely not more than the average OTK deck in Wild.