My follow up question on the Core cards rotating out would be if we get to keep them when they go Wild only or would we need to craft them? I assume we keep them but you never know!
Benedictus made me very excited because I like the idea of having different hero powers for deck building to create the fantasy of different specs like in WoW. Along with discovering spells through the new Pandaren Importer and the Scorpid, one really good Shadow spell that can discover a spell and more is Palm Reading. Super excited to see what other Shadow spells Priest gets for Standard, and also excited to try out a Wild Shadow Priest with things like Mind Blast available.
Has anyone tested Brann + Dungar? I assume it works as long as you pick the same flight path, but feel like it would break the game if you picked two different paths. Or the other possibility: Pick Westfall and then Plaguelands, Dungar awakens in 2 turns but gets the Westfall and Plaguelands effect!
But no, they would have play tested for a Brann scenario to avoid such madness… right?
Without a dev clarifying there is no way to know. HS tries its best to be intuitive, so I would assume it gets shuffled randomly into your deck. It is also worth noting that Sphere of Sapience specifies that the card gets shuffled to the bottom of your deck so I would assume that any other mechanic that shuffles a card to the bottom of your deck would specify that it does that.
I can't remember when it was, but awhile back I think I remember hearing or reading somewhere how the way they write text changed over time from being super specific to cutting text for things that should seem more obvious and intuitive based on the mechanics. So yes, since it doesn't specify it's likely a shuffle effect. But was just curious if anyone had seen or heard a specific clarification.
I don't remember hearing this anywhere so I'm curious if anyone knows. When you use the tradeable effect does the card draw a random card and then shuffle into your deck, or is it placed on the bottom of the deck? It doesn't really specify on the HS website either, just saying "Cards with the Tradeable keyword can be played like normal, or traded with a random card in your deck for the low price of 1 Mana.". Thought that maybe it literally trades places with a card in your deck at random instead of shuffling, which if so could be interesting with Lorekeeper Polkelt in the game... But likely not since I think the game doesn't predetermine deck order and just picks a card at random to be the card you draw (unless you've played Polkelt).
So has anyone seen a Twitter post, or some other clarification out there from a dev? Since it doesn't specify that it goes to the bottom of the deck I'm going to assume it shuffles in, as the HS team's attitude on text the last 2-3 years has shifted to not always clarifying unless the effect does something different than expected.
The first thing that stood out to me was the lack of the swirl in the middle, but I think this is great! As more and more expansions are released I think having a center image/logo that represents the expansion in the middle while putting the swirl on another portion of the pack like we see in the Stormwind packs is a great idea. We'll see if they keep this trend moving forward.
This is the first time a pack outside of the Class or "Year of" packs that the swirl is not featured in the middle of the pack. I don't know why, because it probably doesn't mean a damn thing, but I find that to be a very interesting detail.
I typically play Noz all (or at least most) of the time I spend playing on the 15th, so just queue into me! Should be easy. :)
He's not the worst card really. I've even played him in Wild, which is harder to find a willing participant to match up with. I put him in decks where I have some "if you're holding a dragon" cards so he can just be the activator I never play.. Or if I've played Frizz then he's a 5 mana 8/8 dragon. Not bad! You could also run him in a Big/Duel Paladin.
Of course the suggestions I'm making are more meme than meta but whatever! I don't take this game too seriously so that it can remain fun and not burn me down. My only goal each month is Diamond in both formats, D5 if I can but it's not a necessity for me to call the month a success! But it's because I'm not pushing for Legend all the time that the decks I mentioned are viable to me.
It’s for Legendary quests which are quests you get once, and usually have bigger rewards.
This is a monthly recurring quest so it’s not in the Legendary Quest category. It’s more like a guaranteed 1500 xp quest each month, which after completing the rewards track that’s a 50gold quest…
Which is an entirely different issue for me! Going on a tangent here… Challenge a Friend used to award 80 gold. Spectate a Friend Win was a pack (100 gold). Now they are both 50 gold (when in bonus levels). Overall the new system is still much better, but when I think of it in those terms it irks me a little…
I was originally thinking Westfall/Deadmines since the area is about the same level as the Barrens/Wailing Caverns. But since they mention "you have leveled up" I start to wonder if maybe it's a place slightly higher in level than the Barrens and Westfall? But then again, since they'll likely want to use an Alliance controlled territory, I could still see Westfall as the destination with the Deadmines to follow as the mini set theme.
And for anyone still wanting to play Mecha’thun Warlock, there is still a combo with Shadowhunter Vol’jin that worked pretty well prior to Wailing Caverns release. With the right draws it could be done as early as turn 9, or 8 with The Coin. Hemet to kill the 3 or less cards after you have a 0 cost minion in hand. With the deck empty and the only minions in your hand being Vol’jin, Mecha’thun, and one or more 0 cost minions you play the 0 cost minion(s), Vol’jin one of your 0cost guys to pull your only remaining minion, Mecha’thun, then Cataclysm! No stealer required!
It will be harder against aggro because it takes at least 2-3 more turns to get there,but it still works! It might also be faster than the Dollmaster combo but I really don’t remember.
The Stealer ban is something I personally am fine with. I wasn’t really facing decks with it often, and both when I faced it and when I played it, I felt the animation times and unlucky draws kept it from being super consistent. I had many opponents lose because they drew the Illusionist too late to really go off, and then I just killed them next turn. But that said, the interaction was definitely problematic with all cards essentially becoming free, and getting easy wins when drawing certain cards early in the animations.
So yeah, a Wild ban while keeping it in the current form for the sake of Standard is fine. I don’t think it’s a super powerful card in Standard, but they plan ahead right? Warlock may have more draw planned in the next expansion, or expansion 3 for this year. So changing the card to fit Wild might kill it in Standard, ruining any planned Standard synergy from upcoming sets.
Can’t wait to see what Stealer turns into in April 2023! My guess is something like “At the end of your turn, draw a card. It costs health instead of mana.” or “Battlecry: The next X cards youdraw cost health instead of mana.” Another option is keep the same effect, raise the cost and stats. But with things like Skull and Voidcaller the cost increase doesn’t really solve anything so maybe a battlecry or change to the effect limiting how many cards can get their cost converted to HP
Was thinking as I opened the article that Elemental Shaman would work for this! Especially since I just got my first 1k portrait, and it’s Thrall! And what’s the first deck in the list?! Got to do it now!
I personally haven’t been playing a ton lately, but I kind of felt like this card wasn’t too big of a deal. I mean, I have been playing every day, but not always for long periods of time. MI wasn’t really seeing it a ton when I found the time to jump on.
Was I running into the Mecha’thun decks playing this as part of their combo? Yes, but not often. Where they winning on turn 5 or 6? A few times, but around half (or more) times they either took longer and gave me time to win or whiffed on what they needed to draw off of Twist. That or the animations were taking too long and they roped out!
I tried playing it myself and was maybe successful in around half or less of the games I played, due to the same problems listed above. I’d say that maybe I was playing it wrong but… come on! It’s a fairly simple deck to pilot. You just need to get the right draw order and you win. But with bad draw order, you can lose!
Anyway, with that said I’m fine with their decision. I know they want it to be available in Standard for now and anerf would kill it in that format. They maybe even have more draw planned to pair well with this guy in the next couple sets. If that’s the case, more draw and no action on the card suddenly makes this even more dangerous in Wild. So a ban may seem heavy handed to some, I think it’s fine! I’ll probably dust the guy for now and recraft later if they do make some good standard options to go with him in the next set or two.
I’m a little upset by this, but only because I wanted to run a counter deck to the Stealers using Stealer, Twist, and then Brann, Mutanus, Brewmasters, Stingers (the Warlock murloc that makesyour next murloc cost HP), replay Mutanus! Would have been fun watching the diabolical fish man just CHOMP away a bunch of needed combo pieces
It would also be really neat to have a unified meta...
Aside from just having a (potentially) more interesting meta, for NA Wild players (and maybe EU too) it would increase the player pool significantly as we've already established before that players in the East tend to play more Wild than Standard.
So if the cross region play eventually hits Hearthstone, what happens to players who have cards on two servers? I personally have only ever really played NA, but dabbled a little on the EU server as a F2P person there. I might have a few cards on there that I don't have on my main account. So would they merge? Or perhaps Hearthstone will stay regionalized in their servers, especially since they have their entire Grandmasters league set up by server regions. Who knows! Can't wait to see what happens with that though.
My follow up question on the Core cards rotating out would be if we get to keep them when they go Wild only or would we need to craft them? I assume we keep them but you never know!
I'm excited to see what I can do with this card (in Wild).
Benedictus made me very excited because I like the idea of having different hero powers for deck building to create the fantasy of different specs like in WoW. Along with discovering spells through the new Pandaren Importer and the Scorpid, one really good Shadow spell that can discover a spell and more is Palm Reading. Super excited to see what other Shadow spells Priest gets for Standard, and also excited to try out a Wild Shadow Priest with things like Mind Blast available.
UPDATE: Dungar goes dormant after completing one Battlecry. So even with Brann you can't get double Battlecry out of him. Should have expected that.
Has anyone tested Brann + Dungar? I assume it works as long as you pick the same flight path, but feel like it would break the game if you picked two different paths. Or the other possibility: Pick Westfall and then Plaguelands, Dungar awakens in 2 turns but gets the Westfall and Plaguelands effect!
But no, they would have play tested for a Brann scenario to avoid such madness… right?
I can't remember when it was, but awhile back I think I remember hearing or reading somewhere how the way they write text changed over time from being super specific to cutting text for things that should seem more obvious and intuitive based on the mechanics. So yes, since it doesn't specify it's likely a shuffle effect. But was just curious if anyone had seen or heard a specific clarification.
I don't remember hearing this anywhere so I'm curious if anyone knows. When you use the tradeable effect does the card draw a random card and then shuffle into your deck, or is it placed on the bottom of the deck? It doesn't really specify on the HS website either, just saying "Cards with the Tradeable keyword can be played like normal, or traded with a random card in your deck for the low price of 1 Mana.". Thought that maybe it literally trades places with a card in your deck at random instead of shuffling, which if so could be interesting with Lorekeeper Polkelt in the game... But likely not since I think the game doesn't predetermine deck order and just picks a card at random to be the card you draw (unless you've played Polkelt).
So has anyone seen a Twitter post, or some other clarification out there from a dev? Since it doesn't specify that it goes to the bottom of the deck I'm going to assume it shuffles in, as the HS team's attitude on text the last 2-3 years has shifted to not always clarifying unless the effect does something different than expected.
The first thing that stood out to me was the lack of the swirl in the middle, but I think this is great! As more and more expansions are released I think having a center image/logo that represents the expansion in the middle while putting the swirl on another portion of the pack like we see in the Stormwind packs is a great idea. We'll see if they keep this trend moving forward.
This is the first time a pack outside of the Class or "Year of" packs that the swirl is not featured in the middle of the pack. I don't know why, because it probably doesn't mean a damn thing, but I find that to be a very interesting detail.
I typically play Noz all (or at least most) of the time I spend playing on the 15th, so just queue into me! Should be easy. :)
He's not the worst card really. I've even played him in Wild, which is harder to find a willing participant to match up with. I put him in decks where I have some "if you're holding a dragon" cards so he can just be the activator I never play.. Or if I've played Frizz then he's a 5 mana 8/8 dragon. Not bad! You could also run him in a Big/Duel Paladin.
Of course the suggestions I'm making are more meme than meta but whatever! I don't take this game too seriously so that it can remain fun and not burn me down. My only goal each month is Diamond in both formats, D5 if I can but it's not a necessity for me to call the month a success! But it's because I'm not pushing for Legend all the time that the decks I mentioned are viable to me.
It’s for Legendary quests which are quests you get once, and usually have bigger rewards.
This is a monthly recurring quest so it’s not in the Legendary Quest category. It’s more like a guaranteed 1500 xp quest each month, which after completing the rewards track that’s a 50gold quest…
Which is an entirely different issue for me! Going on a tangent here… Challenge a Friend used to award 80 gold. Spectate a Friend Win was a pack (100 gold). Now they are both 50 gold (when in bonus levels). Overall the new system is still much better, but when I think of it in those terms it irks me a little…
MY MAN!!! That's what I'm talking about!
I was originally thinking Westfall/Deadmines since the area is about the same level as the Barrens/Wailing Caverns. But since they mention "you have leveled up" I start to wonder if maybe it's a place slightly higher in level than the Barrens and Westfall? But then again, since they'll likely want to use an Alliance controlled territory, I could still see Westfall as the destination with the Deadmines to follow as the mini set theme.
Still works! :)
And for anyone still wanting to play Mecha’thun Warlock, there is still a combo with Shadowhunter Vol’jin that worked pretty well prior to Wailing Caverns release. With the right draws it could be done as early as turn 9, or 8 with The Coin. Hemet to kill the 3 or less cards after you have a 0 cost minion in hand. With the deck empty and the only minions in your hand being Vol’jin, Mecha’thun, and one or more 0 cost minions you play the 0 cost minion(s), Vol’jin one of your 0cost guys to pull your only remaining minion, Mecha’thun, then Cataclysm! No stealer required!
It will be harder against aggro because it takes at least 2-3 more turns to get there,but it still works! It might also be faster than the Dollmaster combo but I really don’t remember.
The Stealer ban is something I personally am fine with. I wasn’t really facing decks with it often, and both when I faced it and when I played it, I felt the animation times and unlucky draws kept it from being super consistent. I had many opponents lose because they drew the Illusionist too late to really go off, and then I just killed them next turn. But that said, the interaction was definitely problematic with all cards essentially becoming free, and getting easy wins when drawing certain cards early in the animations.
So yeah, a Wild ban while keeping it in the current form for the sake of Standard is fine. I don’t think it’s a super powerful card in Standard, but they plan ahead right? Warlock may have more draw planned in the next expansion, or expansion 3 for this year. So changing the card to fit Wild might kill it in Standard, ruining any planned Standard synergy from upcoming sets.
Can’t wait to see what Stealer turns into in April 2023! My guess is something like “At the end of your turn, draw a card. It costs health instead of mana.” or “Battlecry: The next X cards youdraw cost health instead of mana.” Another option is keep the same effect, raise the cost and stats. But with things like Skull and Voidcaller the cost increase doesn’t really solve anything so maybe a battlecry or change to the effect limiting how many cards can get their cost converted to HP
Was thinking as I opened the article that Elemental Shaman would work for this! Especially since I just got my first 1k portrait, and it’s Thrall! And what’s the first deck in the list?! Got to do it now!
I personally haven’t been playing a ton lately, but I kind of felt like this card wasn’t too big of a deal. I mean, I have been playing every day, but not always for long periods of time. MI wasn’t really seeing it a ton when I found the time to jump on.
Was I running into the Mecha’thun decks playing this as part of their combo? Yes, but not often. Where they winning on turn 5 or 6? A few times, but around half (or more) times they either took longer and gave me time to win or whiffed on what they needed to draw off of Twist. That or the animations were taking too long and they roped out!
I tried playing it myself and was maybe successful in around half or less of the games I played, due to the same problems listed above. I’d say that maybe I was playing it wrong but… come on! It’s a fairly simple deck to pilot. You just need to get the right draw order and you win. But with bad draw order, you can lose!
Anyway, with that said I’m fine with their decision. I know they want it to be available in Standard for now and anerf would kill it in that format. They maybe even have more draw planned to pair well with this guy in the next couple sets. If that’s the case, more draw and no action on the card suddenly makes this even more dangerous in Wild. So a ban may seem heavy handed to some, I think it’s fine! I’ll probably dust the guy for now and recraft later if they do make some good standard options to go with him in the next set or two.
I’m a little upset by this, but only because I wanted to run a counter deck to the Stealers using Stealer, Twist, and then Brann, Mutanus, Brewmasters, Stingers (the Warlock murloc that makesyour next murloc cost HP), replay Mutanus! Would have been fun watching the diabolical fish man just CHOMP away a bunch of needed combo pieces
Aside from just having a (potentially) more interesting meta, for NA Wild players (and maybe EU too) it would increase the player pool significantly as we've already established before that players in the East tend to play more Wild than Standard.
So if the cross region play eventually hits Hearthstone, what happens to players who have cards on two servers? I personally have only ever really played NA, but dabbled a little on the EU server as a F2P person there. I might have a few cards on there that I don't have on my main account. So would they merge? Or perhaps Hearthstone will stay regionalized in their servers, especially since they have their entire Grandmasters league set up by server regions. Who knows! Can't wait to see what happens with that though.