I played Galakrond Zoo quite a bit at launch and it just doesn't seem that strong...I mean, not compared to anything else.
This is also the weirdest piece to hit...like, surely, Veiled Worshipper is the powerhouse of the deck.
It's already a pretty clunky card that only really gives you an edge against very passive decks. If this was +1/+1 but right now I fail to see the point. This is just a worse Dreamway Guardians for twice the cost whenever you're not ahead.
I'm not huge on Galakrond Zoo, but I was at the very least happy to see it not suck completely so seeing it having its legs snapped right away feels kind of...bad.
If they really wanted to fix this, they should have extended the nerf to ANY cards that CAN generate themselves.
Having it on just one card feels incredibly clumsy, and absolutely counterintuitive with how RNG has ALWAYS worked in HS.
have you considered for a second that it's for the explicit reason of there being only a handful of dragons in the pool and that potential of her infinitely cycling into herself (with a double chance, mind you). This is a card that reads: "If your deck has no duplicates, play 2 additional dragons". this is what people expect and can reasonably play around. They cannot play around twice that amount for absolutely no reason other than "lul random".
This is the best fix to a card that isn't even super op in most other contexts. In fact, this change should be applied to MORE cards, because infinite value generation by virtue of RNG looping is stupid.
those battleground changes are garbage. Literally no nerfs to any significant minion. Cobalt Guardian is still way too op at tier 3, as is Spawn of N'zoth at 2. Beasts are still basically playing russian roulette because if you don't highroll into Mama Bear or Godrinn you get run over. Not gonna touch that mode anymore until the next patch because right now it's basically just casino with very little to do outside of highrolling.
now the nerfs:
Fiendish Rites is probably the most puzzling. Like...it's a good card, way better than anyone could have expected...but seriously? Galakrond Zoolock is a good deck, but it's not nearly impressive enough to warrant nerfs right now....At least I don't think it does. Maybe they have data that proves me wrong. Either way, this really seems unnecessary,
Scion of Ruin is more than justified given how many ways there are to make more copies of the damn thing. Also helps that Galakrond Warrior can no longer luck into this on turn 10 with the Galakrond and instantly swing the board.
[Hearthstone Card (Ancharr) Not Found] I expected a mana change, but this also makes sense and emphasizes Upgrade and Hoard Pillager in the builds. At least I get my dust back, Pirate Warrior is boring as hell.
Dragon's Pack should have happened the first round and is still more than fair given the Arsenal Shaman still has...although it certainly will drop the deck's winrate by quite a bit, especially with the other Shaman nerf.
Invocation of Frost seems to be overdoing it. Not only does it ruin the Frog build because we don't have a good 1-mana spell anymore, but also the spell itself isn't even that broken. It's strong, sure, but it's not overpowering. It's a strong card that helped enable a load of even stronger cards in a deck that now has been gutted twice....and no I'm not salty because I had likie 10 of these and I dusted them thinking there's no way they'd ever nerf a spell as simple as this.
Necrium Apothecary is both deserved and fair. It breaks that immediate curve from Necrium Blade and it also delays the powerplay by one turn giving you more time to pressure (especially since Apothecary itself needs a turn to proc usually). This makes me really happy because it doesn't kill the card and keeps it around for future fun but doesn't make it a mandatory strategy for all Rogue decks anymore. Go Gral.
Dragonqueen Alexstrasza makes me unbelievably happy, simply because it finally breaks the taboo of changing card-specific mechanics for balance (I guess the echo changes did that already, wahtever). I hope they apply this fix to a lot more cards with a similar mechanic, but I guess this is just the most abusive one so far.
Overall a mixed bag. I wonder if they plan on reverting some of them if they go to far. Kinda regret crafting Zentimo now, didn't think they'd nuke Galakrond Shaman this hard again.
yeah, it's very fun, but depends very much on the core to be used successfully.
I'd say Halazzi and Veranus are optional, but Leeroy is basically 90% of your wins. The Leeroy Unleash combo is basically the old Force of NAture combo and it works just as well.
I feel Biology Project might be a mistake. Quest Druid has a hard time surviving as is and ramping your opponent really isn't a good idea now that most decks are much more top heavy.
I get that it works great with the quest but I think there's better options
They will never nerf Ancharrr and I wont complain about it.
Anubisath is literally a 9-drop that doesn't eve activate the turn it's played. Apothecary is 4-mana 2/5 that draws a cacrd and gains its deathrattle....yeah no Anubisath did nothing wrong.
Pirate Warrior is weird. I guess Ancharr would be the most sensible target. I originally thought Skybarge owuld be massively overpowered, but it'S really not.
Not sure if Shaman needs yet another nerf, but Dragon's pack is definitely a contender
Also, Rivendare needs to be yeeted out of tier 5, same goes for Cobalt Guardian and Spawn of N'zoth. The amount of "lul I go deathrattle mechs and win" games are just too many. Beasts still need some sort of midrange solution that doesn't involve donkeyrolling for Mama Bear.
Also, just add dragons, I'm tired of the same 3 tribes being recycled every game.
Unpopular opinion: Removing Amalgam was a huge mistake, because for all its faults it at least gave every tribe the ability to just fall back to buffing it up, whereas now it comes down to whether you can effectively snowball Murlocs or who gets Spawn of N'zoth triple + Rivendare first.
I actually agree with this. I didn't play when Amalgam was in it, but I can see the hole that is missing from it being removed. It's impossible to switch up your tribe, so you're truly just at the mercy of your rolls. Not to mention how completely useless Zoobot and Menagerie Magician feel. There is nothing with a dragon tag (except The Curator's Amalgam).
I'm excited to see what updates BG's gets this month. I think they hastily removed Nightmare Amalgam before they went on holiday, because of the community complaining about it. I think the next update will add it back in, or make some other changes to help fill the hole that it left. Maybe add new tribes too? Dragons?? Elementals?
They need a new tribe (or 2) if they want people to keep playing.
Demons need a proper tier 4 unit aside from Siegebreaker, because right now it's usually just better to just stay at 3 for as long as you can while also depending on getting Malganis later so your Gnomes don't end up killing you.
I do wonder whether Lightfang Enforcer will be updated for new tribes as well.
Oh and Mechs need to be nerfed again, there's just so many game winning minions in that tribe that go with multiple strategies. A buffed Security Rover + Cobalt Guardian is just so impossibly hard to get over if you don't have huge minions (or poison)
Also, Edwin needs to be nuked, that Hero power is so absurdly broken that if he gets a Hydra or Rover early enough there'S almost nothing you can do to stop him.
Spawn of N'zoth should be moved up a tier, as should Kaboom Bot....or at least make Rivendare a tier 6.
don't, it's mostly just a distraction and a complete RNG fest.
Games tend to feel samey after a while since you can only realistically run 3 main strategies, all of which pretty much depend on getting key minions at the right time.
As far as auto chess goes it's probably one of the weakest iterations, just because of how little variety there is. Teamfight Tactics was so much more fun because of how much variety in terms of builds there are....not to mention that it'S way easier to switch up strateegies there. In Battlegrounds you can't realsitically switch from one tribe to another because if you have invested a certain amount of ressources already you'll never be able to catch up again.
Unpopular opinion: Removing Amalgam was a huge mistake, because for all its faults it at least gave every tribe the ability to just fall back to buffing it up, whereas now it comes down to whether you can effectively snowball Murlocs or who gets Spawn of N'zoth triple + Rivendare first.
you can always just look up some of the old heroic decks on Hearthpwn.
Some of them still work really well.
A small tip: OTK strategies are pretty viable since most bosses are geared to outvalue you on the board but are very susceptible to stalling. (you can just oneshot Nefarian with Mecha'thun since his starting deck is pretty much just vanillas with a slightly better odd paladin hero power)
Honestly, It kind of neat to see the meta not being completely lopsided for once.
I still feel like Face Hunter should just be obliteratede form orbit because of how dumb of a deck it is.
I also feel like Necrium Apothecary will need to be hit at some point in time. It's just not really feasible to run both Ooze and Spellbreaker and draw them within the first 3 turns to get blown out completely.
Maybe the problem wilil fix itself once Necrium Blade rotates, but I fear that any new Deathrattle minion will be a problem in Rogue.
I tried the Nozdormu + Ysera Unleashed combo, where you could skip your opponent's turn by having the dream portal animations use all their time.
Wait, how does that work? Do you play Ysera unleashed and then hope your opponent plays nozdormu? Or do you try and get both Nozdormu and Ysera off of random effects and then do some weird something or other with Treachery as a warlock? Or . . .?
Nah you dicount either Ysera or NOz with Dreampetal, have an Innervate ready and then play them when your deck is empty. Then you wait until the rope is almost done and play Excess Mana that you got from Wild Growth at 10 mana. The ensuing 9 portals will skip your opponent's turn.
I'd be wary of doing that. Intentionally abusing animation issues like that is a surefire way to get the ban hammer from Blizz.
As for the OP, that is one of the stranger bugs I've heard of.
nah, this has been around forever and blizzard never bothered to fix it. It's not a bug, it's a feature at this point and tehy can't punish me for something they put in the game in the first place.
I tried the Nozdormu + Ysera Unleashed combo, where you could skip your opponent's turn by having the dream portal animations use all their time.
Wait, how does that work? Do you play Ysera unleashed and then hope your opponent plays nozdormu? Or do you try and get both Nozdormu and Ysera off of random effects and then do some weird something or other with Treachery as a warlock? Or . . .?
Nah you dicount either Ysera or NOz with Dreampetal, have an Innervate ready and then play them when your deck is empty. Then you wait until the rope is almost done and play Excess Mana that you got from Wild Growth at 10 mana. The ensuing 9 portals will skip your opponent's turn.
I tried the Nozdormu + Ysera Unleashed combo, where you could skip your opponent's turn by having the dream portal animations use all their time.
It worked as intended and the turn skipped back to me....but for some unholy reason I was unable to do any action. My minions were ready to attack, but I couldn't give commands or even end my turn. I had to watch the rope burn out only for my opponent to continue normally.
Now I would assume this was some intentional interaction to prevent cheese like this...but I saw a goddamn video that performed this very combo without issues so I have to assume the code just got fucked again.
Pretty mild nerf actually. I feel like a mana increase would have hit harder, especially givven that Hoard Pillager and Upgrade exist.
Either way, it should make Pirate Warrior feel less unfair when they get it in the mulligan....and I get my dust back. Sweet.
This is....puzzling.
I played Galakrond Zoo quite a bit at launch and it just doesn't seem that strong...I mean, not compared to anything else.
This is also the weirdest piece to hit...like, surely, Veiled Worshipper is the powerhouse of the deck.
It's already a pretty clunky card that only really gives you an edge against very passive decks. If this was +1/+1 but right now I fail to see the point. This is just a worse Dreamway Guardians for twice the cost whenever you're not ahead.
I'm not huge on Galakrond Zoo, but I was at the very least happy to see it not suck completely so seeing it having its legs snapped right away feels kind of...bad.
Maybe I'M just underestimating the deck though.
have you considered for a second that it's for the explicit reason of there being only a handful of dragons in the pool and that potential of her infinitely cycling into herself (with a double chance, mind you). This is a card that reads: "If your deck has no duplicates, play 2 additional dragons". this is what people expect and can reasonably play around. They cannot play around twice that amount for absolutely no reason other than "lul random".
This is the best fix to a card that isn't even super op in most other contexts. In fact, this change should be applied to MORE cards, because infinite value generation by virtue of RNG looping is stupid.
alright, so first of all:
those battleground changes are garbage. Literally no nerfs to any significant minion. Cobalt Guardian is still way too op at tier 3, as is Spawn of N'zoth at 2. Beasts are still basically playing russian roulette because if you don't highroll into Mama Bear or Godrinn you get run over. Not gonna touch that mode anymore until the next patch because right now it's basically just casino with very little to do outside of highrolling.
now the nerfs:
Fiendish Rites is probably the most puzzling. Like...it's a good card, way better than anyone could have expected...but seriously? Galakrond Zoolock is a good deck, but it's not nearly impressive enough to warrant nerfs right now....At least I don't think it does. Maybe they have data that proves me wrong. Either way, this really seems unnecessary,
Scion of Ruin is more than justified given how many ways there are to make more copies of the damn thing. Also helps that Galakrond Warrior can no longer luck into this on turn 10 with the Galakrond and instantly swing the board.
[Hearthstone Card (Ancharr) Not Found] I expected a mana change, but this also makes sense and emphasizes Upgrade and Hoard Pillager in the builds. At least I get my dust back, Pirate Warrior is boring as hell.
Dragon's Pack should have happened the first round and is still more than fair given the Arsenal Shaman still has...although it certainly will drop the deck's winrate by quite a bit, especially with the other Shaman nerf.
Invocation of Frost seems to be overdoing it. Not only does it ruin the Frog build because we don't have a good 1-mana spell anymore, but also the spell itself isn't even that broken. It's strong, sure, but it's not overpowering. It's a strong card that helped enable a load of even stronger cards in a deck that now has been gutted twice....and no I'm not salty because I had likie 10 of these and I dusted them thinking there's no way they'd ever nerf a spell as simple as this.
Necrium Apothecary is both deserved and fair. It breaks that immediate curve from Necrium Blade and it also delays the powerplay by one turn giving you more time to pressure (especially since Apothecary itself needs a turn to proc usually). This makes me really happy because it doesn't kill the card and keeps it around for future fun but doesn't make it a mandatory strategy for all Rogue decks anymore. Go Gral.
Dragonqueen Alexstrasza makes me unbelievably happy, simply because it finally breaks the taboo of changing card-specific mechanics for balance (I guess the echo changes did that already, wahtever). I hope they apply this fix to a lot more cards with a similar mechanic, but I guess this is just the most abusive one so far.
Overall a mixed bag. I wonder if they plan on reverting some of them if they go to far. Kinda regret crafting Zentimo now, didn't think they'd nuke Galakrond Shaman this hard again.
yeah, it's very fun, but depends very much on the core to be used successfully.
I'd say Halazzi and Veranus are optional, but Leeroy is basically 90% of your wins. The Leeroy Unleash combo is basically the old Force of NAture combo and it works just as well.
not needed because of Veiled Worshipper.
He's a staple in the normal version though.
I feel Biology Project might be a mistake. Quest Druid has a hard time surviving as is and ramping your opponent really isn't a good idea now that most decks are much more top heavy.
I get that it works great with the quest but I think there's better options
Anubisath is literally a 9-drop that doesn't eve activate the turn it's played. Apothecary is 4-mana 2/5 that draws a cacrd and gains its deathrattle....yeah no Anubisath did nothing wrong.
I hope Apothecary gets hit so I get 1600 from the golden one AND be able to build Highlander Rogue with Gral
oh yes, give me that sweet sweet Apothecary dust.
Pirate Warrior is weird. I guess Ancharr would be the most sensible target. I originally thought Skybarge owuld be massively overpowered, but it'S really not.
Not sure if Shaman needs yet another nerf, but Dragon's pack is definitely a contender
Also, Rivendare needs to be yeeted out of tier 5, same goes for Cobalt Guardian and Spawn of N'zoth. The amount of "lul I go deathrattle mechs and win" games are just too many. Beasts still need some sort of midrange solution that doesn't involve donkeyrolling for Mama Bear.
Also, just add dragons, I'm tired of the same 3 tribes being recycled every game.
My strategy was to stack up Reno's wand to one shot him....didn't work but I killed him anyways somehow.
The order of your heroes is important.
Starting off with Brann is usually the best since the first phase involves a lot of combat. Keep some removal for the Old Gods summon.
They need a new tribe (or 2) if they want people to keep playing.
Demons need a proper tier 4 unit aside from Siegebreaker, because right now it's usually just better to just stay at 3 for as long as you can while also depending on getting Malganis later so your Gnomes don't end up killing you.
I do wonder whether Lightfang Enforcer will be updated for new tribes as well.
Oh and Mechs need to be nerfed again, there's just so many game winning minions in that tribe that go with multiple strategies. A buffed Security Rover + Cobalt Guardian is just so impossibly hard to get over if you don't have huge minions (or poison)
Also, Edwin needs to be nuked, that Hero power is so absurdly broken that if he gets a Hydra or Rover early enough there'S almost nothing you can do to stop him.
Spawn of N'zoth should be moved up a tier, as should Kaboom Bot....or at least make Rivendare a tier 6.
don't, it's mostly just a distraction and a complete RNG fest.
Games tend to feel samey after a while since you can only realistically run 3 main strategies, all of which pretty much depend on getting key minions at the right time.
As far as auto chess goes it's probably one of the weakest iterations, just because of how little variety there is. Teamfight Tactics was so much more fun because of how much variety in terms of builds there are....not to mention that it'S way easier to switch up strateegies there. In Battlegrounds you can't realsitically switch from one tribe to another because if you have invested a certain amount of ressources already you'll never be able to catch up again.
Unpopular opinion: Removing Amalgam was a huge mistake, because for all its faults it at least gave every tribe the ability to just fall back to buffing it up, whereas now it comes down to whether you can effectively snowball Murlocs or who gets Spawn of N'zoth triple + Rivendare first.
dear god, why did you have to remind me of the card art changes...
you can always just look up some of the old heroic decks on Hearthpwn.
Some of them still work really well.
A small tip: OTK strategies are pretty viable since most bosses are geared to outvalue you on the board but are very susceptible to stalling. (you can just oneshot Nefarian with Mecha'thun since his starting deck is pretty much just vanillas with a slightly better odd paladin hero power)
Honestly, It kind of neat to see the meta not being completely lopsided for once.
I still feel like Face Hunter should just be obliteratede form orbit because of how dumb of a deck it is.
I also feel like Necrium Apothecary will need to be hit at some point in time. It's just not really feasible to run both Ooze and Spellbreaker and draw them within the first 3 turns to get blown out completely.
Maybe the problem wilil fix itself once Necrium Blade rotates, but I fear that any new Deathrattle minion will be a problem in Rogue.
I think Face HUnter is the most polarizing deck we've had in a long time.
Either it completely demolishes you because you have no healing or it just gets outhealed without a chance.
nah, this has been around forever and blizzard never bothered to fix it. It's not a bug, it's a feature at this point and tehy can't punish me for something they put in the game in the first place.
Nah you dicount either Ysera or NOz with Dreampetal, have an Innervate ready and then play them when your deck is empty. Then you wait until the rope is almost done and play Excess Mana that you got from Wild Growth at 10 mana. The ensuing 9 portals will skip your opponent's turn.
a lot of fuckery has been going on this expansion
I tried the Nozdormu + Ysera Unleashed combo, where you could skip your opponent's turn by having the dream portal animations use all their time.
It worked as intended and the turn skipped back to me....but for some unholy reason I was unable to do any action. My minions were ready to attack, but I couldn't give commands or even end my turn. I had to watch the rope burn out only for my opponent to continue normally.
Now I would assume this was some intentional interaction to prevent cheese like this...but I saw a goddamn video that performed this very combo without issues so I have to assume the code just got fucked again.