Albatross might only be nerfed to 3/3: if it's not statted aggressively, I think aggro decks will be looking for replacements.
Isn't the point of Bloodbloom in Mecha'thun Warlock to discount Cataclysm? In that case, it would not contribute anything to the combo at 4 mana. What they could do is make it work like Preparation: 0 mana, take two damage, discount your next spell this turn by 2 mana.
Tom60229 is a former World Champion, while Surrender and Tyler have won HCT events. They're not familiar outside their region as streamers perhaps, although Tyler does stream in English.
Blizzard signed a contract with Google to broadcast their eSports on YouTube. Perhaps disappointed by the lower viewer numbers, it seems they moved all their promotional streams back to Twitch, but I don't think they'll be able to do that for Grandmasters until the contract expires.
If the other thing is useful, as in the case of Diving Gryphon, or cheap like the pre-nerf Power Word: Shield, replacement-only is fine. But for example a Novice Engineer effectively lets you use the Paladin hero power once, which isn't terribly exciting. Few decks currently use the card, unless they're a combo deck (OTK Demon Hunter) or can get additional value from battlecries (Quest Shaman).
Those cards only replace themselves. They can be used to find specific cards in your deck quicker, which is why you see them a lot in combo decks. But they cannot be used to refill your hand and putting a small body on the board isn't particularly useful for most decks past turn 2.
I'd expect that if the target of an attack becomes dormant during the attack, the attack would fizzle since the target is no longer valid. So this feels to me like a bug.
Is there a place for Chillblade Champion in this deck? I used to run one in my older Val'anyr handbuff decks because it can act as either an emergency heal or a surprise lethal.
On second thought, perhaps it is not so great here since this deck is very all-in on cloning Val'anyr.
Every 5 ranks you climb, you lose one bonus star. I ended last season at rank 12 and my bonus stars ran out when I reached Gold 5, if I'm not mistaken.
I haven't been too impressed with the primes so far. Maybe the right deck for them hasn't been found yet, but it seems they're at least not strong enough to just include in every deck. I am experimenting with Akama + Stowaway for example, but the deck isn't consistent (yet?). The Warlock prime can be played in a Imprisoned Scrap Imp deck, which seems to be powerful, but it's still early in the meta.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to craft Flik now and save the rest of your dust until the meta has settled a bit more and you know whether you want to craft a prime or craft Maiev instead.
Hir'eek might have had more of a chance if he was a demon instead of a beast: then Void Analyst could be used for additional buffs, plus there are some cards that buff demons once they are on the board. Probably still not good enough, but it would at least have encouraged more experimentation.
Glinda was nice in Wild with Molten Giant, but the nerf to echo made that combo less explosive.
I had Da Undatakah in my quest paladin deck for a while, but cut him because an additional deathrattle minion is easier to play and often enough of a threat to win. I do still run Countess Ashmore though.
I played Krag'wa in Malygos Shaman; it allowed me to use my cheap spells for removal without breaking up my win condition. He's also nice in Control Shaman, but I don't enjoy playing a deck that has fatigue as its only win condition. Instead I played a version of Muckmorpher Shaman without the shrine, which had fatigue as a secondary win condition, but Krag'wa didn't fit there.
Star Aligner obviously, but fortunately Chump is doing a "Star Aligner in Every Class" series to give him a proper farewell.
I actually played Arcanosaur in an elemental mage deck last year; it was an OK card back then. But right now you need something of the caliber of Crazed Netherwing for a clear + body to be playable.
I figured there would be some niche deck that could get value out of Gral, the Shark, but it didn't happen.
Soulwarden is a very strong card in my opinion, but after Doomguard was Hall-of-Famed there wasn't enough of a reason to play Discolock. Even the memers flocked to Plot Twist instead.
I finish most of the "difficult" quests, but there are some cases where I reroll. For example, I once got "win 3 tavern brawls" on a week that the brawl was slow random nonsense and I really didn't want to play it again. Also I always reroll the "play N murlocs" quests because I'd rather miss out on 10 gold than be forced to play a murloc deck.
I agree with most of your predictions.
Albatross might only be nerfed to 3/3: if it's not statted aggressively, I think aggro decks will be looking for replacements.
Isn't the point of Bloodbloom in Mecha'thun Warlock to discount Cataclysm? In that case, it would not contribute anything to the combo at 4 mana. What they could do is make it work like Preparation: 0 mana, take two damage, discount your next spell this turn by 2 mana.
Tom60229 is a former World Champion, while Surrender and Tyler have won HCT events. They're not familiar outside their region as streamers perhaps, although Tyler does stream in English.
Blizzard signed a contract with Google to broadcast their eSports on YouTube. Perhaps disappointed by the lower viewer numbers, it seems they moved all their promotional streams back to Twitch, but I don't think they'll be able to do that for Grandmasters until the contract expires.
And why isn't Kripp in the Salty team?
If the other thing is useful, as in the case of Diving Gryphon, or cheap like the pre-nerf Power Word: Shield, replacement-only is fine. But for example a Novice Engineer effectively lets you use the Paladin hero power once, which isn't terribly exciting. Few decks currently use the card, unless they're a combo deck (OTK Demon Hunter) or can get additional value from battlecries (Quest Shaman).
Those cards only replace themselves. They can be used to find specific cards in your deck quicker, which is why you see them a lot in combo decks. But they cannot be used to refill your hand and putting a small body on the board isn't particularly useful for most decks past turn 2.
I think it's the mouse-over text for Chromatic Egg, since its deathrattle is hidden to the opponent.
I'd expect that if the target of an attack becomes dormant during the attack, the attack would fizzle since the target is no longer valid. So this feels to me like a bug.
Is there a place for Chillblade Champion in this deck? I used to run one in my older Val'anyr handbuff decks because it can act as either an emergency heal or a surprise lethal.
On second thought, perhaps it is not so great here since this deck is very all-in on cloning Val'anyr.
Every 5 ranks you climb, you lose one bonus star. I ended last season at rank 12 and my bonus stars ran out when I reached Gold 5, if I'm not mistaken.
I haven't been too impressed with the primes so far. Maybe the right deck for them hasn't been found yet, but it seems they're at least not strong enough to just include in every deck. I am experimenting with Akama + Stowaway for example, but the deck isn't consistent (yet?). The Warlock prime can be played in a Imprisoned Scrap Imp deck, which seems to be powerful, but it's still early in the meta.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to craft Flik now and save the rest of your dust until the meta has settled a bit more and you know whether you want to craft a prime or craft Maiev instead.
Not anymore; read the nerfs list at the top of the page.
Also there are some ways to cheat out dragons, such as Frizz Kindleroost, The Dark Portal and Escaped Manasaber, in the deck I was playing yesterday. But while the Manasaber is good in other decks as well, Frizz and the Portal are rather specific.
If you happen to play Warlock, Zzeraku the Warped is a great counter.
Hir'eek might have had more of a chance if he was a demon instead of a beast: then Void Analyst could be used for additional buffs, plus there are some cards that buff demons once they are on the board. Probably still not good enough, but it would at least have encouraged more experimentation.
That deck might be worth revisiting now that we have Faceless Corruptor.
Glinda was nice in Wild with Molten Giant, but the nerf to echo made that combo less explosive.
I had Da Undatakah in my quest paladin deck for a while, but cut him because an additional deathrattle minion is easier to play and often enough of a threat to win. I do still run Countess Ashmore though.
I played Krag'wa in Malygos Shaman; it allowed me to use my cheap spells for removal without breaking up my win condition. He's also nice in Control Shaman, but I don't enjoy playing a deck that has fatigue as its only win condition. Instead I played a version of Muckmorpher Shaman without the shrine, which had fatigue as a secondary win condition, but Krag'wa didn't fit there.
Star Aligner obviously, but fortunately Chump is doing a "Star Aligner in Every Class" series to give him a proper farewell.
I actually played Arcanosaur in an elemental mage deck last year; it was an OK card back then. But right now you need something of the caliber of Crazed Netherwing for a clear + body to be playable.
I figured there would be some niche deck that could get value out of Gral, the Shark, but it didn't happen.
Soulwarden is a very strong card in my opinion, but after Doomguard was Hall-of-Famed there wasn't enough of a reason to play Discolock. Even the memers flocked to Plot Twist instead.
How do you compare dust value? I don't think there is any rank where the new reward is worse than the old system if you count disenchant value.
I finish most of the "difficult" quests, but there are some cases where I reroll. For example, I once got "win 3 tavern brawls" on a week that the brawl was slow random nonsense and I really didn't want to play it again. Also I always reroll the "play N murlocs" quests because I'd rather miss out on 10 gold than be forced to play a murloc deck.
Yes, it was a common before. I don't know when it changed, but I quickly disenchanted my third copy in case they change it back.
Druid now has 3 epics in TGT while the other classes still have 2; it seems it is just this one card that was changed.