I think Envoy Rustwix could make a nice package with Aranasi Broodmother and Sense Demons. Sense Demons can tutor Rustwix, can get you healing and protection via Broodmother and sometimes can tutor the primes as well, since two of them are demons (Kanrethad Prime and Solarian Prime). The main question is whether you'd play one copy of Sense Demons or you'd play two and some additional demons.
Ice Lance was a problem in particular when played the turn after Alexstrasza. As long as those two cards aren't in Standard at the same time, I don't think it would be overpowered. It would still rate low on the "fun and interactive" scale, in my opinion, but if they want to do something about that, they could just change "character" to "minion" to make it a less flexible but more mana-efficient version of Ray of Frost.
I have used Power Overwhelming in egg decks, together with Void Terror. But those decks were never consistent enough, so in the meta it was indeed only used for burst. I would argue though that Soulfire is a bigger problem, since Power Overwhelming requires a minion in play and can be stopped by a taunt.
The best system, in my opinion, would be to make a combined rotating core set from Basic + Classic + Wild cards and make that core set quick to unlock by game play, like Basic currently is. That would give new and returning players a good base to build decks from. And since the set would be rotating, it won't lead to the same strong cards being played in every meta.
That would be uncharacteristically generous for Hearthstone, so I'm not betting on it happening. But it's not impossible either.
You can't craft extra copies of cards anyway: the game won't let you. So I think he meant there is no benefit to just "crafting" and not "crafting extra".
I think it's safer to not craft a golden Edwin right now, at least if you're doing it for dust value. There will be an announcement of the new system at some point and likely you'll still be able to craft one then if that will be beneficial dust-wise.
The new rewards track launched the week before the expansion. I played a lot in the first week to complete the weekly quests, which means the gold from the first levels of the track was among the gold I spent on DMF packs. So it's certainly possible to not have opened any packs since launch day and be at a lower gold total.
There are other ways to do that, that don't require as much user interaction. For example, they could make a list of the most recent achievements, like Steam's "post-game summary" display.
I usually keep my duplicates around unless I'm out of dust, in case they get nerfed or rotated to the hall of fame. I think I have 7 Panthara in my collection, but that seemed like overkill.
As I wrote in the guide, the list is far from refined, so you can just substitute additional copies of some of the other cards in the deck and test what works best.
I think the core of the problem is the same as it has always been: the high crafting costs for epic and legendaries. The first ~50 packs you open of an expansion are great value, but once you have all the commons and rares, you're mostly getting dust from packs and you need a lot of dust to be able to craft one legendary. The duplicate protection does help, that was a great move. However, I don't think it's enough to fix the issue.
Preorders are about $1 per pack (regular price is much worse) and packs contain about 100 dust, so if you want to craft a 10k dust deck (not uncommon for control decks), that's a $100 deck. Of course you don't need to craft every single card; some you will have pulled from packs. But even if you're only missing 2 legendaries and 4 epics, that's almost $50 worth of dust. I think that's a lot of money when I can get full indie games for $10 to $20, or even AAA games from a few years ago.
I'm not sure yet whether the progression track is better or worse than the old system for me, since I never used to grind for 10 gold per 3 wins anyway. I complete almost all my quests and then occasionally play more when I'm fine-tuning a deck. But I think it is safe to say that, apart from the first few levels, the new system is not significantly better than the old system.
I think a lot of people were tolerating the old system because they had gotten used to it, not because they actually liked it. So even if the new system is roughly equal in terms of rewards (as Blizzard claims), it's still not going to give them a good impression.
Assuming the MMR is doing its job, 1 in 4 games should be top 2. For people that play Battlegrounds, it shouldn't be a problem to play rough4 games 1 week.
While the system doesn't punish ropers, it doesn't really reward them either, since any time played gains XP, so they might as well actually play the game during that time and maybe have some fun.
When it says "resets next expansion", does that mean next week when Darkmoon comes out, or at the end of Darkmoon? Since you can already unlock Darkmoon cards from the progression track, I'm guessing they set Darkmoon as the current expansion and "next" means the first expansion of 2021. But if I'm wrong, it would be really worthwhile to grind this week.
Vendetta gets played, so there is a demand for removal in Rogue.
Sap isn't always better: for battlecry minions, you'd rather remove them than return them to hand. It depends on the meta; currently we have a lot of battlecries, but with Darkmoon deathrattles could make a comeback.
They're nerfing the Basic and Classic sets to make sure there is more variation in decks as cards come in and out of Standard. So yes, they are weakening the ever-present cards while still putting powerful cards in new expansions, but that is deliberate.
I think Envoy Rustwix could make a nice package with Aranasi Broodmother and Sense Demons. Sense Demons can tutor Rustwix, can get you healing and protection via Broodmother and sometimes can tutor the primes as well, since two of them are demons (Kanrethad Prime and Solarian Prime). The main question is whether you'd play one copy of Sense Demons or you'd play two and some additional demons.
Ice Lance was a problem in particular when played the turn after Alexstrasza. As long as those two cards aren't in Standard at the same time, I don't think it would be overpowered. It would still rate low on the "fun and interactive" scale, in my opinion, but if they want to do something about that, they could just change "character" to "minion" to make it a less flexible but more mana-efficient version of Ray of Frost.
I have used Power Overwhelming in egg decks, together with Void Terror. But those decks were never consistent enough, so in the meta it was indeed only used for burst. I would argue though that Soulfire is a bigger problem, since Power Overwhelming requires a minion in play and can be stopped by a taunt.
The best system, in my opinion, would be to make a combined rotating core set from Basic + Classic + Wild cards and make that core set quick to unlock by game play, like Basic currently is. That would give new and returning players a good base to build decks from. And since the set would be rotating, it won't lead to the same strong cards being played in every meta.
That would be uncharacteristically generous for Hearthstone, so I'm not betting on it happening. But it's not impossible either.
You can't craft extra copies of cards anyway: the game won't let you. So I think he meant there is no benefit to just "crafting" and not "crafting extra".
I think it's safer to not craft a golden Edwin right now, at least if you're doing it for dust value. There will be an announcement of the new system at some point and likely you'll still be able to craft one then if that will be beneficial dust-wise.
The new rewards track launched the week before the expansion. I played a lot in the first week to complete the weekly quests, which means the gold from the first levels of the track was among the gold I spent on DMF packs. So it's certainly possible to not have opened any packs since launch day and be at a lower gold total.
There are other ways to do that, that don't require as much user interaction. For example, they could make a list of the most recent achievements, like Steam's "post-game summary" display.
I didn't know that.
I usually keep my duplicates around unless I'm out of dust, in case they get nerfed or rotated to the hall of fame. I think I have 7 Panthara in my collection, but that seemed like overkill.
As I wrote in the guide, the list is far from refined, so you can just substitute additional copies of some of the other cards in the deck and test what works best.
I think the core of the problem is the same as it has always been: the high crafting costs for epic and legendaries. The first ~50 packs you open of an expansion are great value, but once you have all the commons and rares, you're mostly getting dust from packs and you need a lot of dust to be able to craft one legendary. The duplicate protection does help, that was a great move. However, I don't think it's enough to fix the issue.
Preorders are about $1 per pack (regular price is much worse) and packs contain about 100 dust, so if you want to craft a 10k dust deck (not uncommon for control decks), that's a $100 deck. Of course you don't need to craft every single card; some you will have pulled from packs. But even if you're only missing 2 legendaries and 4 epics, that's almost $50 worth of dust. I think that's a lot of money when I can get full indie games for $10 to $20, or even AAA games from a few years ago.
I'm not sure yet whether the progression track is better or worse than the old system for me, since I never used to grind for 10 gold per 3 wins anyway. I complete almost all my quests and then occasionally play more when I'm fine-tuning a deck. But I think it is safe to say that, apart from the first few levels, the new system is not significantly better than the old system.
I think a lot of people were tolerating the old system because they had gotten used to it, not because they actually liked it. So even if the new system is roughly equal in terms of rewards (as Blizzard claims), it's still not going to give them a good impression.
I tried with Genn and 14 other even cards; didn't work.
I guess it would work if you happen to queue into another odd/even deck, but that's pretty unlikely and still wouldn't give you an advantage.
Something that has good synergy with your hero power. This is what I came up with:
This looks more like a combo deck than a control deck: Il'gynoth + Eye Beam + Mo'arg Artificer = lots of damage.
Assuming the MMR is doing its job, 1 in 4 games should be top 2. For people that play Battlegrounds, it shouldn't be a problem to play rough4 games 1 week.
I got the Pure Paladin legendary from Darkmoon. Also the epic at level 5 was from Darkmoon.
While the system doesn't punish ropers, it doesn't really reward them either, since any time played gains XP, so they might as well actually play the game during that time and maybe have some fun.
When it says "resets next expansion", does that mean next week when Darkmoon comes out, or at the end of Darkmoon? Since you can already unlock Darkmoon cards from the progression track, I'm guessing they set Darkmoon as the current expansion and "next" means the first expansion of 2021. But if I'm wrong, it would be really worthwhile to grind this week.
I think you always get the 4/3 weapon shown under "Related Cards", so that's a good weapon.
As Yogg himself and Puzzle Box have shown, on average a random spell is beneficial for the caster, so Rhyssa would have anti-synergy.
Vendetta gets played, so there is a demand for removal in Rogue.
Sap isn't always better: for battlecry minions, you'd rather remove them than return them to hand. It depends on the meta; currently we have a lot of battlecries, but with Darkmoon deathrattles could make a comeback.
They're nerfing the Basic and Classic sets to make sure there is more variation in decks as cards come in and out of Standard. So yes, they are weakening the ever-present cards while still putting powerful cards in new expansions, but that is deliberate.
It's not even all that weak against silence, since you'd still have a 4/6 left.