I used to enjoy playing a Metamorphosis DH, but after it changed to only dealing 4 damage the combo became a little harder to pull off if your opponent gained basically any armor and you weren't able to constantly chip away at it. It was mildly successful, setting up either a TTK or pulling off an OTK of 40 damage max (one or two turn depending on what cost reductions you got, often full combo was two turns because I had to set up Metamorphosis the turn prior). If Metamorphosis, Skull of Guldan, and Lorekeeper all got unnerfed, I could potentially see this deck working again due to getting key expensive pieces reduced in cost sooner in the game (if playing Lorekeeper on curve at 4) reaching the combo turn faster.
Admittedly, the combo win was always pretty rare though. I had to play for tempo while waiting to set up the combo pieces, and could often win with only 20 damage. Used things like Clockwork Automaton to increase damage, Garrison Commander for using Meta HP twice in a turn. If for any reason you wanted to reshuffle your cards after playing Polkelt, use a card that shuffles soul fragments. I enjoyed it for a while, but yeah... the nerfs to benefit Standard really hurt DH in Wild. I'm hoping a lot of the rotating cards see reverts as well to maybe make it more viable. Right now all I usually play in Wild DH is Odd. And with Druids gaining a shit ton of armor, or big priests with giant taunts, etc, the archetype isn't great!
Trying Garrote out again this time. Struggling to get a win against some interesting choices. Eventually got handed a win! Guessing the opponent just saw Rogue and auto-conceded expecting to see robo bunnies from me
Sure, but again, you are warping all strategies around one card, that removes one of basic HS limitations - fatique.
The meta will only be warped around the card if the deck is still powerful and top tier. But with a loss of multiple self damage/draw tools it is no guarantee to be a strong deck next year (depending on what is Core and what else is printed). And frankly, avoiding printing or including certain cards to avoid a class being too powerful is nothing new.
To be clear I am not, was not, nor have I ever argued the card is fine as printed. I personally think it should not deal fatigue damage to the opponent. But I am also hopeful that without certain tools it will drop in power level and barely be an issue. When it rotates they’ll be forced to address the effect because there are too many things in Wild that make the QL easy and fast. And they can’t leave a Wild only card banned in Wild.
So as I said before, I’m hopeful they will avoid adding too much new support for certain things while pushing for more midrange style and/or control strategies. And I am not going to freak out over any deck being too OP before any of this year’s cards are even announced, and I’m certainly not going to complain about a single card “warping” a future meta when no one outside the dev team knows what that meta might look like
I feel like the way you mention incentives in your post you think they are adding a reward for winning the board. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding what you are saying, or how you are saying it, but I can't imagine that being the case. The incentives seemed to clearly just be cards in the Core set and 2022 expansions that will (hopefully) gear the meta towards more board-centric strategies. So they could reduce the amount of burn spells and turn towards more control or minion generating spells. They can reduce or eliminate mana cheating shenanigans, maybe not give Druids any ramp outside of the Guff hero card, etc, to reduce the presence of OTK style decks.
In the example of Demon Seed Warlock, they are losing some of the cards that helped them really stand out, such as Backfire, Raise Dead, Flesh Giant for the sudden big threats, and even the neutral Tour Guide that helped by giving them a discount on the hero power. While they will still have some self damaging cards, they might have to try and get Bloodbound Imp to stick for quest advancement, which you then have at least a chance to remove it before they get the benefit of the self damage. They could potentially take Flame Imp out of Core as well if they feel it necessary to limit Warlock's self damage ability. Not to mention the deck also loses Hysteria as a board clear option, and all the Soul mechanics from Scholomance will be gone for added healing.
So I feel that there are potentially a lot of things that could come from the new year. Will some powerful stuff from this year's meta still exist? Of course! Anything that doesn't lose too much of the core it needs will find replacements and keep trucking along. But even just a few loses here and there could knock certain decks from T1 status to either T2 or even T3. Will some players always try to find the most broken deck possible with the new cards, no matter how hard the HS team tries to make a board centric meta? Of course! Cards may change, but people rarely do, and many will gravitate towards the fastest or strongest strategies rather than trying something new or fun. But that's their right to do so if it's what they want to do.
Regardless, I'm not going to judge next year too much until I see what they are printing. And realistically I play more Wild than Standard, so while I will appreciate their efforts for a more board centric meta in Standard, I can only hope that Wild gets more board centric too without too much crazy power creep going on.
... my opponents play cards nobody plays. I can't play around them.
... I'm just facing pros. Noobs are gone.
The game has been out since 2014, yes, you are most likely going to only face experienced players with very few new players coming in to the game now.
But doesn't your statement about people playing off meta cards that you aren't expecting show that not everyone is a pro as you claim? Because a pro would be playing the best, fine tuned deck they could to reach as high of a ladder rank as they can.
Also, people playing off meta is a good thing for the health of the game, at least in my opinion. Because it shows that at least some people are still willing to experiment and play their own stuff, and they must be able to get some wins with their off meta deck if they are playing an off meta deck. 50% or higher? Maybe, maybe not. But I feel like you're complaint with that statement was that not all of your opponents were net decking... That's very odd as usually the complaint is that everyone IS net decking!
Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to say too. Not sure.
I always kind of felt that non-odd version was better anyway, but people liked the Odd version because of the extra damage on the Hero Power. It just felt stronger.
Pet Collector could be a great meme card if Tavish Stormpike summoned beasts that cost 1 more. Summon a Tundra Rhino and then go nuts! But unfortunately he doesn't work that way...
When I saw Hit It Very Hard my first thought was “We’ll see this in a future Dane or Roffle video trying to go face!” But let’s be real, that’s probably more Mark’s territory!
Maybe, but as HuntardHuntard linked in another comment, a cycle of cards just means cards sharing a relationship or theme, so very likely they could have 3 more Spawn dragons or could be Deathwing's spawn growing up to get revenge for his dad's death in a second Cataclysm (second set next year).
However, seeing as Onyxia is "The Broodmother" it seems likely that the cycle is just 4 "Spawn of" dragons in this mini set. It could still be similar to what I had above, but maybe the forth is Spawn of Kazakusan now that we've seen that card. Neutral Dragon, Battlecry: Add a random Treasure to your hand. It's random instead of Discover for the Spawn because unlikely daddy Kazakusan, his spawn hasn't mastered use of his powers yet. So you just get whatever the dragonling is able to conjure! They could also have unique treasures for the Spawn as well if they go this route, so they are less powerful than the actual treasures.
Based on her Spawn of Deathwing comment I guess we can expect 3 more mini dragons. The real question is which ones, and what effect?
My guess: at first I was thinking mini Aspects. But I’m leaning mire towards mini versions of black dragons. So maybe the other three are Spawns of Nefarion, Onyxia, and Sinestra.
Nefarion: Rogue card, generates a spell from either your opponent’s class or just another class.
Onyxia: maybe Neutral, summon two 2/1 whelps with rush.
Sinestra: Not sure as we don’t have an actual Sinestra minion. Maybe we’ll see one this set and then the Spawn will just have a lesser version of her effect.
You’re not wrong! On one hand, she was responding to a funny Tweet. But maybe along with the laughing add a sentence or two to be like “Sorry if there was a miscommunication. SwayBae’s contributions are more to build up anticipation and not actual reveals.”
I used to enjoy playing a Metamorphosis DH, but after it changed to only dealing 4 damage the combo became a little harder to pull off if your opponent gained basically any armor and you weren't able to constantly chip away at it. It was mildly successful, setting up either a TTK or pulling off an OTK of 40 damage max (one or two turn depending on what cost reductions you got, often full combo was two turns because I had to set up Metamorphosis the turn prior). If Metamorphosis, Skull of Guldan, and Lorekeeper all got unnerfed, I could potentially see this deck working again due to getting key expensive pieces reduced in cost sooner in the game (if playing Lorekeeper on curve at 4) reaching the combo turn faster.
Admittedly, the combo win was always pretty rare though. I had to play for tempo while waiting to set up the combo pieces, and could often win with only 20 damage. Used things like Clockwork Automaton to increase damage, Garrison Commander for using Meta HP twice in a turn. If for any reason you wanted to reshuffle your cards after playing Polkelt, use a card that shuffles soul fragments. I enjoyed it for a while, but yeah... the nerfs to benefit Standard really hurt DH in Wild. I'm hoping a lot of the rotating cards see reverts as well to maybe make it more viable. Right now all I usually play in Wild DH is Odd. And with Druids gaining a shit ton of armor, or big priests with giant taunts, etc, the archetype isn't great!
Thought if that right away too.
Trying Garrote out again this time. Struggling to get a win against some interesting choices. Eventually got handed a win! Guessing the opponent just saw Rogue and auto-conceded expecting to see robo bunnies from me
JrsLoveStorm... What a name!
The meta will only be warped around the card if the deck is still powerful and top tier. But with a loss of multiple self damage/draw tools it is no guarantee to be a strong deck next year (depending on what is Core and what else is printed). And frankly, avoiding printing or including certain cards to avoid a class being too powerful is nothing new.
To be clear I am not, was not, nor have I ever argued the card is fine as printed. I personally think it should not deal fatigue damage to the opponent. But I am also hopeful that without certain tools it will drop in power level and barely be an issue. When it rotates they’ll be forced to address the effect because there are too many things in Wild that make the QL easy and fast. And they can’t leave a Wild only card banned in Wild.
So as I said before, I’m hopeful they will avoid adding too much new support for certain things while pushing for more midrange style and/or control strategies. And I am not going to freak out over any deck being too OP before any of this year’s cards are even announced, and I’m certainly not going to complain about a single card “warping” a future meta when no one outside the dev team knows what that meta might look like
I feel like the way you mention incentives in your post you think they are adding a reward for winning the board. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding what you are saying, or how you are saying it, but I can't imagine that being the case. The incentives seemed to clearly just be cards in the Core set and 2022 expansions that will (hopefully) gear the meta towards more board-centric strategies. So they could reduce the amount of burn spells and turn towards more control or minion generating spells. They can reduce or eliminate mana cheating shenanigans, maybe not give Druids any ramp outside of the Guff hero card, etc, to reduce the presence of OTK style decks.
In the example of Demon Seed Warlock, they are losing some of the cards that helped them really stand out, such as Backfire, Raise Dead, Flesh Giant for the sudden big threats, and even the neutral Tour Guide that helped by giving them a discount on the hero power. While they will still have some self damaging cards, they might have to try and get Bloodbound Imp to stick for quest advancement, which you then have at least a chance to remove it before they get the benefit of the self damage. They could potentially take Flame Imp out of Core as well if they feel it necessary to limit Warlock's self damage ability. Not to mention the deck also loses Hysteria as a board clear option, and all the Soul mechanics from Scholomance will be gone for added healing.
So I feel that there are potentially a lot of things that could come from the new year. Will some powerful stuff from this year's meta still exist? Of course! Anything that doesn't lose too much of the core it needs will find replacements and keep trucking along. But even just a few loses here and there could knock certain decks from T1 status to either T2 or even T3. Will some players always try to find the most broken deck possible with the new cards, no matter how hard the HS team tries to make a board centric meta? Of course! Cards may change, but people rarely do, and many will gravitate towards the fastest or strongest strategies rather than trying something new or fun. But that's their right to do so if it's what they want to do.
Regardless, I'm not going to judge next year too much until I see what they are printing. And realistically I play more Wild than Standard, so while I will appreciate their efforts for a more board centric meta in Standard, I can only hope that Wild gets more board centric too without too much crazy power creep going on.
The game has been out since 2014, yes, you are most likely going to only face experienced players with very few new players coming in to the game now.
But doesn't your statement about people playing off meta cards that you aren't expecting show that not everyone is a pro as you claim? Because a pro would be playing the best, fine tuned deck they could to reach as high of a ladder rank as they can.
Also, people playing off meta is a good thing for the health of the game, at least in my opinion. Because it shows that at least some people are still willing to experiment and play their own stuff, and they must be able to get some wins with their off meta deck if they are playing an off meta deck. 50% or higher? Maybe, maybe not. But I feel like you're complaint with that statement was that not all of your opponents were net decking... That's very odd as usually the complaint is that everyone IS net decking!
Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to say too. Not sure.
I always kind of felt that non-odd version was better anyway, but people liked the Odd version because of the extra damage on the Hero Power. It just felt stronger.
Pet Collector could be a great meme card if Tavish Stormpike summoned beasts that cost 1 more. Summon a Tundra Rhino and then go nuts! But unfortunately he doesn't work that way...
There are videos of Bladed Gauntlet lethal hits if you have never seen it. I’ve linked one here.
When I saw Hit It Very Hard my first thought was “We’ll see this in a future Dane or Roffle video trying to go face!” But let’s be real, that’s probably more Mark’s territory!
Yes, but I hadn't seen that reveal when I wrote my predictions.
Maybe, but as HuntardHuntard linked in another comment, a cycle of cards just means cards sharing a relationship or theme, so very likely they could have 3 more Spawn dragons or could be Deathwing's spawn growing up to get revenge for his dad's death in a second Cataclysm (second set next year).
However, seeing as Onyxia is "The Broodmother" it seems likely that the cycle is just 4 "Spawn of" dragons in this mini set. It could still be similar to what I had above, but maybe the forth is Spawn of Kazakusan now that we've seen that card. Neutral Dragon, Battlecry: Add a random Treasure to your hand. It's random instead of Discover for the Spawn because unlikely daddy Kazakusan, his spawn hasn't mastered use of his powers yet. So you just get whatever the dragonling is able to conjure! They could also have unique treasures for the Spawn as well if they go this route, so they are less powerful than the actual treasures.
Based on her Spawn of Deathwing comment I guess we can expect 3 more mini dragons. The real question is which ones, and what effect?
My guess: at first I was thinking mini Aspects. But I’m leaning mire towards mini versions of black dragons. So maybe the other three are Spawns of Nefarion, Onyxia, and Sinestra.
Nefarion: Rogue card, generates a spell from either your opponent’s class or just another class.
Onyxia: maybe Neutral, summon two 2/1 whelps with rush.
Sinestra: Not sure as we don’t have an actual Sinestra minion. Maybe we’ll see one this set and then the Spawn will just have a lesser version of her effect.
Am I the only one who saw this card and immediately thought of the mini Deathwing in the “Hearthstone is Home” music video?!
Reminds me of Volcano but reduced damage since it can’t hit friendlies.
You’re not wrong! On one hand, she was responding to a funny Tweet. But maybe along with the laughing add a sentence or two to be like “Sorry if there was a miscommunication. SwayBae’s contributions are more to build up anticipation and not actual reveals.”
Like you said, a little professionalism.
So they teased a trailer, the trailer came with teasing the teasers on reveals which is just a bunch of nonsense!
If they want to tell stories around cards, just do it in the reveal?! Just an idea.
Well played!
Are there any shoes being wagered if these speculations are way off? LOL