From a dust economy point of view, if you're missing commons and rares, you're better off opening more packs from those sets instead of crafting them. Quest gold alone lets you to open a pack every other day and it won't take many packs before you have all commons.
So far the Demon Hunter decks that are good are too Smorcy for my tastes, but I must say that the highlander deck listed here looks interesting.
I had a quick look through the qualification results. It seems the main classes are Priest, Mage, Druid and Rogue. I saw two Warlocks as well, but while some people brought Warrior, I didn't see anyone who qualified with it (but I wasn't very thorough). In any case, it won't be all mirrors like the season when Specialist was introduced, so that's a relief.
I also saw some different names: for example in EU, Rdu and xBlyzes who did very well in the first two weeks didn't qualify, while Silvername qualified as #1 this time while not qualifying on previous weeks. Also in other regions there were new faces present and familiar faces absent.
I only reroll if I really don't want to do a particular quest, so almost always the quest after the reroll is better than what I had before. And if not, I can always reroll it again tomorrow.
Does this still work with the new Power Word: Shield that doesn't draw? You can probably get a 9/9 early, but I have some doubts that is enough to win in this brawl. In any case, Frazzled Freshman or Shieldbearer would likely be a better minion now that you don't need the mana discount for the Power Word: Shield.
I'm assuming the inclusion of Face Hunter in this article is also motivated by the fact that it is quick and cheap. The only card in the list that might be overpowered is Voracious Reader, but in a meta where Priest and Ramp Druid are very strong I don't expect a nerf to their natural predators.
It's not a big problem yet, but it's a difficult card to play optimally, so it will become better over time as players figure out what the right time is to play her and which cards of their opponent they should dump. So it's likely they were forced to nerf her sooner or later and they picked sooner.
I meant "unrealistic" not as it being impossible to meet, but in the sense of being very theoretical: in Eddie's example, there was 5.5 hours between the check-in time and the actual match.
Yeah, he took a risk by ignoring the formal check-in time and instead estimating when the match would start. But if he had gotten up early and had to play hours later while not being properly rested, he might have lost the match to that instead.
People are not machines though. Firebat played the last match on Saturday and that one went very late, so I don't blame him for ignoring what is usually an unrealistically early check-in time on Sunday.
The problem with the schedule is that unlike previous years, they broadcast APAC, Europe and Americas one after another with a minimal break between, so the starting time for Americas varies a lot depending on how long the other regions took. If Bunnyhoppor had been in the Europe top 4 instead of xBlyzes, Firebat would have been on time ;)
Priest absolutely cannot deal with it (unless you let them steal Zixor or are dumb enough to play into Mindrender)
So all you have to do is not play Zixor until you can trade it off, while also playing Zixor immediately to play around an early Mindrender... check! ;)
Warrior's only actual out is Rattlegore (which is actually pretty effective and you can't deal with it), [...] Paladin can be difficult if they snowball but I have put in the tools to somewhat deal with it.
Only Rogue is a truly terrible matchup based on the fact that Stealth counters Rush.
Since most of their stealth minions have 1 health, maybe Knife Juggler is a viable counter? It has synergy with the rest of the deck against other opponents as well.
Another option could be Flare, but that's probably too situational. Although Flare + Gryphon would counter Twilight Runner.
Last time I played Quest Hunter, Clear the Way was a bit of an awkward card, since you lose its benefit if it overlaps with Swarm of Locusts. Maybe one copy would be enough?
Is there a place for Tracking in this deck? Post-completion there are quite a few cards that you would rather skip, while in the early game it can be useful if you didn't draw a good curve.
I might give it a go, but I'm missing Veranus. Perhaps that's just worth crafting though, if it's good enough to be played outside of dragon decks as well.
I don't think it's a good idea to make the progression non-linear. The end of a season is already the least interesting time to play Hearthstone, since the meta is often stale, so increasing the time between rewards as the season progresses will make it more likely people drop out during the last month.
It could also be a competitive legendary like Archmage Vargoth or Kael'thas Sunstrider where everyone gets the normal version but the gold version is part of the paid battlepass rewards.
I tried Big Warrior, something similar to the deck recipe but with Scrapyard Colossus. It is playable at the moment, but there is very little margin to make it to Commencement (the cheapest of the Big cards), so as the other decks get refined it may end up being just too slow.
I mostly played Warlock. Started with a Soul Fragments deck with dragons, which was OK but it had neither consistent pressure nor a reliable finisher. I got a win vs Priest because the opponent forgot how Zzeraku the Warped worked and gave me two 6/6s for no good reason, otherwise I might have lost in fatigue.
However, one part of the Soul Fragments package is great: Void Drinker. So I made a different deck to maximize the potential of that card, which you can find in my signature.
On Twitch, I watched Alliestrasza building a Spell Power Shaman, which had moments when it worked great, but was a bit inconsistent overall. In particular, if you don't draw the weapon, you often end up with too few activators.
Kibler was playing a Spell Power Mage with Mana Cyclone and that was doing very well. However, Kibler has lots of experience piloting decks that generate random cards, so I don't know if the success was due to the deck's strength or whether he just played it better than most people play day 1 decks.
Echo wrote "I don't see this deck doing well considering it is so focused on doing one thing", but I actually think that the deck that might break the game will be more degenerate than this, focusing entirely on the early turns and not even playing ramp + Mountseller.
Reminds me of Burly Rockjaw Trogg. That one wasn't resilient enough to grow out of control. This has 2 health more, plus it still gets some benefit if it's killed by a spell. But it's also one mana extra, so I'm not convinced it is enough of an improvement.
From a dust economy point of view, if you're missing commons and rares, you're better off opening more packs from those sets instead of crafting them. Quest gold alone lets you to open a pack every other day and it won't take many packs before you have all commons.
So far the Demon Hunter decks that are good are too Smorcy for my tastes, but I must say that the highlander deck listed here looks interesting.
I had a quick look through the qualification results. It seems the main classes are Priest, Mage, Druid and Rogue. I saw two Warlocks as well, but while some people brought Warrior, I didn't see anyone who qualified with it (but I wasn't very thorough). In any case, it won't be all mirrors like the season when Specialist was introduced, so that's a relief.
I also saw some different names: for example in EU, Rdu and xBlyzes who did very well in the first two weeks didn't qualify, while Silvername qualified as #1 this time while not qualifying on previous weeks. Also in other regions there were new faces present and familiar faces absent.
I only reroll if I really don't want to do a particular quest, so almost always the quest after the reroll is better than what I had before. And if not, I can always reroll it again tomorrow.
Does this still work with the new Power Word: Shield that doesn't draw? You can probably get a 9/9 early, but I have some doubts that is enough to win in this brawl. In any case, Frazzled Freshman or Shieldbearer would likely be a better minion now that you don't need the mana discount for the Power Word: Shield.
I'm assuming the inclusion of Face Hunter in this article is also motivated by the fact that it is quick and cheap. The only card in the list that might be overpowered is Voracious Reader, but in a meta where Priest and Ramp Druid are very strong I don't expect a nerf to their natural predators.
It's not a big problem yet, but it's a difficult card to play optimally, so it will become better over time as players figure out what the right time is to play her and which cards of their opponent they should dump. So it's likely they were forced to nerf her sooner or later and they picked sooner.
I meant "unrealistic" not as it being impossible to meet, but in the sense of being very theoretical: in Eddie's example, there was 5.5 hours between the check-in time and the actual match.
Yeah, he took a risk by ignoring the formal check-in time and instead estimating when the match would start. But if he had gotten up early and had to play hours later while not being properly rested, he might have lost the match to that instead.
People are not machines though. Firebat played the last match on Saturday and that one went very late, so I don't blame him for ignoring what is usually an unrealistically early check-in time on Sunday.
The problem with the schedule is that unlike previous years, they broadcast APAC, Europe and Americas one after another with a minimal break between, so the starting time for Americas varies a lot depending on how long the other regions took. If Bunnyhoppor had been in the Europe top 4 instead of xBlyzes, Firebat would have been on time ;)
So all you have to do is not play Zixor until you can trade it off, while also playing Zixor immediately to play around an early Mindrender... check! ;)
Would it be an option to include Ironbeak Owl or would that mess up Scavenger's Ingenuity?
Since most of their stealth minions have 1 health, maybe Knife Juggler is a viable counter? It has synergy with the rest of the deck against other opponents as well.
Another option could be Flare, but that's probably too situational. Although Flare + Gryphon would counter Twilight Runner.
Last time I played Quest Hunter, Clear the Way was a bit of an awkward card, since you lose its benefit if it overlaps with Swarm of Locusts. Maybe one copy would be enough?
Is there a place for Tracking in this deck? Post-completion there are quite a few cards that you would rather skip, while in the early game it can be useful if you didn't draw a good curve.
I might give it a go, but I'm missing Veranus. Perhaps that's just worth crafting though, if it's good enough to be played outside of dragon decks as well.
No Potion of Madness?
I don't think it's a good idea to make the progression non-linear. The end of a season is already the least interesting time to play Hearthstone, since the meta is often stale, so increasing the time between rewards as the season progresses will make it more likely people drop out during the last month.
It could also be a competitive legendary like Archmage Vargoth or Kael'thas Sunstrider where everyone gets the normal version but the gold version is part of the paid battlepass rewards.
Yes, it happened on Thursday when I played myself and yesterday when I was watching Dog's stream.
I tried Big Warrior, something similar to the deck recipe but with Scrapyard Colossus. It is playable at the moment, but there is very little margin to make it to Commencement (the cheapest of the Big cards), so as the other decks get refined it may end up being just too slow.
I mostly played Warlock. Started with a Soul Fragments deck with dragons, which was OK but it had neither consistent pressure nor a reliable finisher. I got a win vs Priest because the opponent forgot how Zzeraku the Warped worked and gave me two 6/6s for no good reason, otherwise I might have lost in fatigue.
However, one part of the Soul Fragments package is great: Void Drinker. So I made a different deck to maximize the potential of that card, which you can find in my signature.
What also works very well is Raise Dead and Tour Guide to activate cards like Diseased Vulture, Brittlebone Destroyer and Zzeraku on the turn they are played. This makes a big difference in the power of those cards.
On Twitch, I watched Alliestrasza building a Spell Power Shaman, which had moments when it worked great, but was a bit inconsistent overall. In particular, if you don't draw the weapon, you often end up with too few activators.
Kibler was playing a Spell Power Mage with Mana Cyclone and that was doing very well. However, Kibler has lots of experience piloting decks that generate random cards, so I don't know if the success was due to the deck's strength or whether he just played it better than most people play day 1 decks.
I'm surprised to see Desk Imp rated so low. It has synergy with Imprisoned Scrap Imp, Felosophy and Disciplinarian Gandling and in the past 0-mana 1/1s have seen play if they fit into a deck.
Echo wrote "I don't see this deck doing well considering it is so focused on doing one thing", but I actually think that the deck that might break the game will be more degenerate than this, focusing entirely on the early turns and not even playing ramp + Mountseller.
In any case, don't disenchant your extra copies of Gibberling and Voracious Reader.
If you used your hero power on turn 2, you can clear a 3-health minion on turn 3, which increases the chance this lives to turn 4.
Combines well with Argent Braggart.
Reminds me of Burly Rockjaw Trogg. That one wasn't resilient enough to grow out of control. This has 2 health more, plus it still gets some benefit if it's killed by a spell. But it's also one mana extra, so I'm not convinced it is enough of an improvement.