I don't know if I should be worried or not. It depends on who designed the new model: I trust the people working on Hearthstone, but I don't trust Acti-Blizz upper management.
A different currency alone won't satisfy lootbox laws: they'd have to change how packs work, for example showing what the next pack would contain and then refresh those contents every few hours.
Personally, I like the model that Faeria adopted: you get random cards, but no duplicates. So you can get a full collection by opening a few dozen instead of a few hundred packs.
Even if it's nerfed, it's probably still useful to have an increased chance of getting an Amalgam early. It's the only thing The Curator gets and that's considered a good hero pick. And if Rafaam gets multiple, buffs can be merged when it goes gold.
I haven't played since the patch, but reading Rafaam's battlecry it sounds really good: a better than average minion for just one gold. Often the first thing you kill is a Nightmare Amalgam, since those are good low-tier minions that can easily be given taunt.
Unless you have the Coin or Innervate, you're not going to get a quest tick on turn 1, so you might as well play this turn 1 and the quest on turn 2, that way you can attack with the Treant on turn 2.
How would Barnabus Druid (Jungle Giants) use this? After quest completion, you don't really need bigger minions, you just need card draw so you can draw multiple 0-cost minions. Buffing up 3-attack minions to 5 attack could be an option, but your quest will be super slow if you don't draw Embiggen early. Although if you hard-mulligan for it, you might find one in a reasonable percentage of games, after all hard-mulligan for Prince Keleseth was pretty effective and that is a one-of.
I don't think silence is much of a problem, because you still get a 3/3 for 3 mana and your opponent has to invest resources in the silencing. For example, versus Spellbreaker you can trade and have 1 less mana spent, versus Ironbeak Owl you can trade and keep a 3/1, versus the Silence spell you have spent 3 mana for a 3/3 while using the same number of cards as your opponent, so comparable to using an upgraded hero power.
This card indeed doesn't fit into any current Priest meta deck, but given the power level of the expansion I think the meta is going to be very different.
This wouldn't go in a deck that has to play him on turn 5 no matter what he morphed into. In a slower deck, you can afford to wait until he morphs into something good. Yes, there are a lot of bad legendaries, but not so many that you'd roll a bad one every turn.
I'm not convinced this goes into just any Shaman deck: you'd have to be ahead on board to have a decent chance of the eggs hatching. One egg hatching is still worth it, but if neither hatches you fall behind further on board.
But I agree that with quest it could be a different matter, since your opponent would have a hard time dealing with 4 eggs. Except with AoE of course, but if you force out AoE with a single card, that's good for a Quest Shaman.
To get the battlecry, you either have to be overloaded from the previous turn or you have to play an overload card this turn. So unless you have exactly Zap! in your hand (and a target for it), this comes on turn 6 at the soonest. I'd put it at roughly the same power level as Fire Elemental: slightly better when you can activate it, but more difficult to play.
It's not a hard immunity like Mal'Ganis: if your opponent can find a one-turn lethal or deals a lot of damage in a single burst, you can still be hit in the face. But if you're not close to dying, this minion indeed needs to be dealt with.
That could be an option. I was worried that it would fill up the board too quickly after quest completion when using Sul'thraze, but perhaps that doesn't happen often enough to matter. Having a few extra 1/1s early game is really useful.
I think it makes sense to have separate places to discuss the reveal (I often scan the comments to see if the video is worth watching) and the card itself. However, having a third place doesn't add much value and fragments the discussion, in my opinion.
It's dead now, but that could change when new weapon synergy cards are introduced. Remember how The Caverns Below came back twice after being nerfed. So I think it's good to have tech against Kingsbane just in case.
If you have your own weapon to override Aluneth after one or two turns, it's a good steal. Otherwise, Aluneth is going to fatigue you in no time. The only reason Aluneth is any good is that it's played in a deck full of cheap burn spells, so the opponent dies before the Mage does.
2 damage on turn 5 (Holy Nova) doesn't kill much because by then small minions have been buffed or larger minions have been summoned; 2 damage on turn 3 does clear a lot of wide boards.
I don't know if I should be worried or not. It depends on who designed the new model: I trust the people working on Hearthstone, but I don't trust Acti-Blizz upper management.
A different currency alone won't satisfy lootbox laws: they'd have to change how packs work, for example showing what the next pack would contain and then refresh those contents every few hours.
Personally, I like the model that Faeria adopted: you get random cards, but no duplicates. So you can get a full collection by opening a few dozen instead of a few hundred packs.
Even if it's nerfed, it's probably still useful to have an increased chance of getting an Amalgam early. It's the only thing The Curator gets and that's considered a good hero pick. And if Rafaam gets multiple, buffs can be merged when it goes gold.
I haven't played since the patch, but reading Rafaam's battlecry it sounds really good: a better than average minion for just one gold. Often the first thing you kill is a Nightmare Amalgam, since those are good low-tier minions that can easily be given taunt.
I fully agree. This would have been a great 2-week event for Halloween, but instead it took up half the Uldum meta.
Unless you have the Coin or Innervate, you're not going to get a quest tick on turn 1, so you might as well play this turn 1 and the quest on turn 2, that way you can attack with the Treant on turn 2.
How would Barnabus Druid (Jungle Giants) use this? After quest completion, you don't really need bigger minions, you just need card draw so you can draw multiple 0-cost minions. Buffing up 3-attack minions to 5 attack could be an option, but your quest will be super slow if you don't draw Embiggen early. Although if you hard-mulligan for it, you might find one in a reasonable percentage of games, after all hard-mulligan for Prince Keleseth was pretty effective and that is a one-of.
That depends on the kind of control deck. A deck like Control Warrior has very few good minions to copy.
I think this card is actually better against mid-range decks that rely more on minion pressure.
I don't think silence is much of a problem, because you still get a 3/3 for 3 mana and your opponent has to invest resources in the silencing. For example, versus Spellbreaker you can trade and have 1 less mana spent, versus Ironbeak Owl you can trade and keep a 3/1, versus the Silence spell you have spent 3 mana for a 3/3 while using the same number of cards as your opponent, so comparable to using an upgraded hero power.
This card indeed doesn't fit into any current Priest meta deck, but given the power level of the expansion I think the meta is going to be very different.
This wouldn't go in a deck that has to play him on turn 5 no matter what he morphed into. In a slower deck, you can afford to wait until he morphs into something good. Yes, there are a lot of bad legendaries, but not so many that you'd roll a bad one every turn.
It just hurts to not see Eureka! being played with that hand...
I'm not convinced this goes into just any Shaman deck: you'd have to be ahead on board to have a decent chance of the eggs hatching. One egg hatching is still worth it, but if neither hatches you fall behind further on board.
But I agree that with quest it could be a different matter, since your opponent would have a hard time dealing with 4 eggs. Except with AoE of course, but if you force out AoE with a single card, that's good for a Quest Shaman.
To get the battlecry, you either have to be overloaded from the previous turn or you have to play an overload card this turn. So unless you have exactly Zap! in your hand (and a target for it), this comes on turn 6 at the soonest. I'd put it at roughly the same power level as Fire Elemental: slightly better when you can activate it, but more difficult to play.
It's not a hard immunity like Mal'Ganis: if your opponent can find a one-turn lethal or deals a lot of damage in a single burst, you can still be hit in the face. But if you're not close to dying, this minion indeed needs to be dealt with.
That could be an option. I was worried that it would fill up the board too quickly after quest completion when using Sul'thraze, but perhaps that doesn't happen often enough to matter. Having a few extra 1/1s early game is really useful.
There is synergy with Ramkahen Wildtamer and Hunting Party. But I think the payoff is not enough to make it worth building a deck around.
I think it makes sense to have separate places to discuss the reveal (I often scan the comments to see if the video is worth watching) and the card itself. However, having a third place doesn't add much value and fragments the discussion, in my opinion.
It's dead now, but that could change when new weapon synergy cards are introduced. Remember how The Caverns Below came back twice after being nerfed. So I think it's good to have tech against Kingsbane just in case.
If you have your own weapon to override Aluneth after one or two turns, it's a good steal. Otherwise, Aluneth is going to fatigue you in no time. The only reason Aluneth is any good is that it's played in a deck full of cheap burn spells, so the opponent dies before the Mage does.
Consecration is borderline playable and this is 1 mana cheaper.
If it were 3 damage, it would be much better than Hellfire, which is a playable card.
2 damage on turn 5 (Holy Nova) doesn't kill much because by then small minions have been buffed or larger minions have been summoned; 2 damage on turn 3 does clear a lot of wide boards.