Is good tempo. Quest Mage doesn't want this, even though it's a way to complete the Quest because the later parts are so expensive. I desperately don't want this to see play because I don't need songs from Frozen stuck in my head any more.
If you get the weapon early enough (and there are enough 2 Health minions in Standard (or if you feel like breaking Hunter's tradition and use your minions to, like, actually trade)) then it can snowball into an even scarier Eaglehorn Bow. It does keep you from playing Rinling's Rifle ("oh no, my weapon is growing bigger and bigger so I can't play another weapon :( i guess I'll just hit my opponent in the face with a big weapon ") A little dependent upon your opponent playing minions into it, but the fail-state is an ok weapon so it might make it into Face Hunter decks.
Another Secret payoff for Hunter. Here's the cool secret about Secret Hunter: it can make great use of Multicaster thanks to Explosive Trap, Freezing Trap, and Arcane Shot to go along with the Secret drawing spell. The question is: what are you drawing into? (Also, NEW HUNTER SECRET HYPE DON"T LET ME DOWN)
Petting Zoo is still in Standard, and this gives that style of deck enough Secrets to play cheaply into a Zoo turn. Probably too slow, but this gives me hope that we see a new Hunter Secret either in Alterac VAlley or the mini-set, so that's fun.
The Rat King Hunter has been making some noise, and this could go really great in that deck as a cheaper way to get back The Rat King than Jewel of N'Zoth. You'll just have to watch your Res pool and make sure it doesn't get filled with Rats and Wolpertinger.
Here's the thing: This is a Hunter card, and it costs 9 mana. That means it will never see play. (Remember when Call of the Wild went from 8 to 9 mana and that effectively deleted it from the game?)
Stealth Druid? A decently cheap way to discount Frostsaber Matriarch, but a little too inflexible if you find yourself on the wrong side of a beatdown. I don't think this is very good, but I'd love to be proven wrong.
Not entirely sure of the flavor, but I love me some tutors so I'm already on board with this. Druid has been getting a lot of interesting card draw tools recently, so I don't think this is an auto-include for just any deck, but it will have a place in some deck.
Comes down insanely early for a Hero card, so that could work in its favor. The ramp is useful, and I love the idea of Druid finally being able to work outside the bounds of a 10 mana limit. Great card for tinkerers and meme-lords who want to play a slow game with tons of expensive cards. I don't think this will be too powerful.
Like Darkshire Councilman, but the opposite. DH has already had cards that like it when it kills off small tokens, but none of those were good enough to make the deck work and I doubt this one will be any different.
Token DH has never really been a thing, and I don't think this will make it any better than Tier 4. Maybe if Aggro DH gets some more powerful early minions, this could make the cut? Probably not going to see play.
Could be an OK defensive Taunt for slower Big Demon decks, but DH already has a number of purely defensive Taunt minions, and none of them see play so I hardly think this one can make Big Demon Hunter a thing (especially since it interferes with Vanndar Stormpike, which is substantially stronger in that kind of deck).
Not a huge discount for getting a big Demon into play, considering most big Demons in DH are only 2 mana more. If you can discount this lady, then copy her with Felosophy, now we're talkin'.
I mean, Quest rewards are Legendary minions, right? Sure, once Tamsin or Varden comes down a 4/2 isn't really going to change things but it could have value if Pirate Warrior makes up a chunk of the meta. This will be a big part of the meta if Hearthstone ever goes back to being a minion-based game, so it probably won't see too much play.
In theory, these are decks designed more to be played by someone who doesn't have a lot of Legendaries or Epics and I certainly don't expect any of them to be the new Kings of the meta.
Dang, I wish you'd been on the initial design team for Mercenaries. I like your additions to the random events, and your approach to the "grinding overleveled bounties" problem.
I agree with you that Boons and Spirit Healer should be included in Random Events, and that those spots on the map should become Random Events. The only thing that I was thinking of to be different was that when you land on a mystery tile, it could give you a choice between multiple outcomes, and you get more choices the deeper you get in a map, and one option will always be a Boon (with the class chosen at random). So, if you land on a mystery tile within four steps from the start it gives you two choices: a random boon, then one of Stranger, Healer, Potato, or Sabotage. Then later tiles give you a choice from a Boon, then two of Stranger, Healer, Potato, Sabotage, or Portal.
That way, you technically aren't forced into anything (you always have a choice), and early mystery squares (like those on lower bounties like Air Elemental) are less likely to give Mysterious Stranger than later mystery squares. Obviously, it isn't likely my version can be implemented because it would require too much of an overhaul of the entire system, but in my opinion it just makes more sense to have mystery squares give players a choice.
"Intention of the change was to stop players from feeling like they have to farm the same low-level content over and over again to play optimally."
I find this quote interesting because, in my experience, a lot of the conversation around farming air elemental from those who were grinding it was, "I've got to get this grind in before Blizzard nerfs Mysterious Stranger." Thus it becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy: Blizzard nerfs the thing people felt that they "had" to grind because they wanted to get their grind in before Blizzard nerfed it. If there was no threat of Blizzard nerfing Mysterious Stranger, I think there would have been fewer people feeling like they "had" to grind air elemental to "play optimally." Most people probably would have just "grinded" the specific mercs they wanted, then moved on to the fun parts that they are grinding those mercs for.
(Not to mention that the people who abused the grind are actually being "rewarded" by the nerf: they've already got the grind in, so their teams are stronger than people who didn't abuse air elemental and who can no longer grind as efficiently as they did--which I believe a lot of people [I've seen at least Regis on Twitter] are pointing out)
Is good tempo. Quest Mage doesn't want this, even though it's a way to complete the Quest because the later parts are so expensive. I desperately don't want this to see play because I don't need songs from Frozen stuck in my head any more.
If you get the weapon early enough (and there are enough 2 Health minions in Standard (or if you feel like breaking Hunter's tradition and use your minions to, like, actually trade)) then it can snowball into an even scarier Eaglehorn Bow. It does keep you from playing Rinling's Rifle ("oh no, my weapon is growing bigger and bigger so I can't play another weapon :( i guess I'll just hit my opponent in the face with a big weapon ") A little dependent upon your opponent playing minions into it, but the fail-state is an ok weapon so it might make it into Face Hunter decks.
Another Secret payoff for Hunter. Here's the cool secret about Secret Hunter: it can make great use of Multicaster thanks to Explosive Trap, Freezing Trap, and Arcane Shot to go along with the Secret drawing spell. The question is: what are you drawing into? (Also, NEW HUNTER SECRET HYPE DON"T LET ME DOWN)
Petting Zoo is still in Standard, and this gives that style of deck enough Secrets to play cheaply into a Zoo turn. Probably too slow, but this gives me hope that we see a new Hunter Secret either in Alterac VAlley or the mini-set, so that's fun.
The Rat King Hunter has been making some noise, and this could go really great in that deck as a cheaper way to get back The Rat King than Jewel of N'Zoth. You'll just have to watch your Res pool and make sure it doesn't get filled with Rats and Wolpertinger.
Here's the thing: This is a Hunter card, and it costs 9 mana. That means it will never see play. (Remember when Call of the Wild went from 8 to 9 mana and that effectively deleted it from the game?)
Stealth Piloted Shredder. Likely too slow, but I'm willing to try it.
Stealth Druid? A decently cheap way to discount Frostsaber Matriarch, but a little too inflexible if you find yourself on the wrong side of a beatdown. I don't think this is very good, but I'd love to be proven wrong.
Not entirely sure of the flavor, but I love me some tutors so I'm already on board with this. Druid has been getting a lot of interesting card draw tools recently, so I don't think this is an auto-include for just any deck, but it will have a place in some deck.
Synergizes with Oracle of Elune once you've summoned enough Beasts. Druid already plays Druid of the Reef, Encumbered Pack Mule, and Vibrant Squirrel, so it's not too much of a stretch to imagine this in an Aggro Druid deck.
Comes down insanely early for a Hero card, so that could work in its favor. The ramp is useful, and I love the idea of Druid finally being able to work outside the bounds of a 10 mana limit. Great card for tinkerers and meme-lords who want to play a slow game with tons of expensive cards. I don't think this will be too powerful.
Like Darkshire Councilman, but the opposite. DH has already had cards that like it when it kills off small tokens, but none of those were good enough to make the deck work and I doubt this one will be any different.
Token DH has never really been a thing, and I don't think this will make it any better than Tier 4. Maybe if Aggro DH gets some more powerful early minions, this could make the cut? Probably not going to see play.
Could be an OK defensive Taunt for slower Big Demon decks, but DH already has a number of purely defensive Taunt minions, and none of them see play so I hardly think this one can make Big Demon Hunter a thing (especially since it interferes with Vanndar Stormpike, which is substantially stronger in that kind of deck).
Not a huge discount for getting a big Demon into play, considering most big Demons in DH are only 2 mana more. If you can discount this lady, then copy her with Felosophy, now we're talkin'.
I mean, Quest rewards are Legendary minions, right? Sure, once Tamsin or Varden comes down a 4/2 isn't really going to change things but it could have value if Pirate Warrior makes up a chunk of the meta. This will be a big part of the meta if Hearthstone ever goes back to being a minion-based game, so it probably won't see too much play.
In theory, these are decks designed more to be played by someone who doesn't have a lot of Legendaries or Epics and I certainly don't expect any of them to be the new Kings of the meta.
Dang, I wish you'd been on the initial design team for Mercenaries. I like your additions to the random events, and your approach to the "grinding overleveled bounties" problem.
I agree with you that Boons and Spirit Healer should be included in Random Events, and that those spots on the map should become Random Events. The only thing that I was thinking of to be different was that when you land on a mystery tile, it could give you a choice between multiple outcomes, and you get more choices the deeper you get in a map, and one option will always be a Boon (with the class chosen at random). So, if you land on a mystery tile within four steps from the start it gives you two choices: a random boon, then one of Stranger, Healer, Potato, or Sabotage. Then later tiles give you a choice from a Boon, then two of Stranger, Healer, Potato, Sabotage, or Portal.
That way, you technically aren't forced into anything (you always have a choice), and early mystery squares (like those on lower bounties like Air Elemental) are less likely to give Mysterious Stranger than later mystery squares. Obviously, it isn't likely my version can be implemented because it would require too much of an overhaul of the entire system, but in my opinion it just makes more sense to have mystery squares give players a choice.
"Intention of the change was to stop players from feeling like they have to farm the same low-level content over and over again to play optimally."
I find this quote interesting because, in my experience, a lot of the conversation around farming air elemental from those who were grinding it was, "I've got to get this grind in before Blizzard nerfs Mysterious Stranger." Thus it becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy: Blizzard nerfs the thing people felt that they "had" to grind because they wanted to get their grind in before Blizzard nerfed it. If there was no threat of Blizzard nerfing Mysterious Stranger, I think there would have been fewer people feeling like they "had" to grind air elemental to "play optimally." Most people probably would have just "grinded" the specific mercs they wanted, then moved on to the fun parts that they are grinding those mercs for.
(Not to mention that the people who abused the grind are actually being "rewarded" by the nerf: they've already got the grind in, so their teams are stronger than people who didn't abuse air elemental and who can no longer grind as efficiently as they did--which I believe a lot of people [I've seen at least Regis on Twitter] are pointing out)
You definitely want Darkspear Berserker.