I think this would have been much stronger if it hit minions only. If you play this on curve, face damage is not yet relevant but getting board control is.
For decks that care about spell damage, Thalnos may be an option. But drawing two instead of one is the difference between expanding your hand and the card only replacing itself; that difference is generally worth more than 1 mana. I don't think Arcane Intellect would see play outside the greediest of combo decks if it was 2 mana draw 1.
I'm assuming the Risen Groom will be Undead, but that's based just on flavor and on Corpse Bride being Undead herself. Summoning two 4/4's for 5 mana seems plausible and pretty good.
Malignant Horror consumes 5 corpses but eventually gives you 4 back, so it's not too bad in the long term. But 5 corpses by turn 4 seems ambitious, unless there are a lot of minions that provide more than 1 corpse a piece. Another option is buffing it, but a 4 mana base cost makes it difficult to buff on board while handbuff requires a lot of support. Probably the weakest card of the bunch.
The small body of Chillfallen Baron is both a downside and an upside: if it dies, you'll have one more corpse and you don't have to wait long for your second card.
The downside though is the risk. If you are a very casual Battlegrounds player, there is a chance you don't get the full value out of your purchase. The random nature of Bashes means that if you only win 5 games, there is a chance that you don't even get the Legendary Strike or Board, which would not feel great.
Getting a top-four finish isn't that hard, as in my low-MMR experience there are often one or two players dropping out because they didn't get the hero or early minions they were hoping for. If you play one game every other day, you'll probably get to 7 top-four finishes in 22 days. If you play less than that, you probably shouldn't buy Battlegrounds cosmetics in the first place.
Following my own advice, I'll probably just collect the freebie and move on.
I think Doom in the Tomb would have been fine if it ran for only a week. People would have appreciated the Uldum meta even more if it had returned after the event. Instead, the "limited time" event ran until the next expansion, lasting almost two months.
The offer I got after reaching Gold on ladder was 35 Standard packs for 2000 Runestones. Basically twice the Silver offer, which makes it even less attractive to me.
The accusations aren't terrible, but they are outclassed by other options: early game you'd rather have AoE to deal with wide boards from aggro decks and late game you can use Sylvanas, the Accused or Insatiable Devourer instead to get more value per card.
Shadehound is very good, I expect it to see more play in the future.
I'm seeing a Tavern Special bundle with 50 Nathria packs and 2 legendaries for 4000 Runestones, maybe because I bought the smaller bundle earlier. Compared to usual Hearthstone prices, this bundle is a good deal, but this far into the expansion I don't really want to spend that much money.
There is also new type of bundle that appears after you have ranked up on ladder. For me it was 17 Standard packs for 1000 Runestones after reaching Silver, not sure if it's different per player. I'm not a fan of them trying to suggest some kind of connection between ladder achievements and shop offers, as that connection is entirely artificial and only there to try and create some kind of emotional link that makes the offer feel more appealing that it actually is.
I also saw a pre-made Fel Demon Hunter deck in my shop, but as I already have all the cards, it's not very attractive. I did play a lot of DH recently, but if that was the logic for selecting this offer, it's flawed, since the fact that I'm playing it a lot means that I have a sufficient number of cards for that class.
Somehow, despite them trying so many different things, none of it is appealing to me. Mercenaries is still ridiculously overpriced. I don't play enough Battlegrounds to care about cosmetics for that. Hero skins now come with packs but are also more expensive than before. They're also pushing golden cards a lot recently, but I'd rather have more cards than golden cards.
What I would be interested in is small bundles with guaranteed legendaries, but after buying a bundle in that category, they're only trying to sell larger bundles, while selling more of the same would have a better chance of success, at least with me.
I did buy the mini set as soon as it came out, with gold.
It's not just the maxed merc stats buff that's missing, the entire concept of "maxed" seems to be gone: it doesn't say "maxed" in the collection anymore and if you finish the last available update, there is no animation saying that the merc has been maxed out.
As for riptide, I dont see anything wrong because its coded to trigger each time there's an attack, and mr smite is attacking when overboard triggers.
Riptide seems fine, but is Overboard working correctly? Its trigger is formulated as "after another friendly character is damaged this turn", but should a character be able to take damage when their health is not positive?
Theotar will only be dropped from decks after Sire gets dropped from other decks; I don't know if that will happen but if it does, it will take some time.
For my Token Demon Hunter deck, I dropped Sire because the games often ended before turn 10 and against decks where the games would last 10 turns, half the time he'd be stolen before I could play him. So I'm not defending Theotar, I'm just trying to understand Blizzard's thoughts behind not nerfing him.
The last time one of its key cards was nerfed, questline hunter almost disappeared from Wild. Unfortunately, it returned when new cards became available for it. On the one hand it makes me hopeful that if its win rate dips even slightly from this nerf, players will abandon the deck. On the other hand there is always the risk it might come back as more damage spells are added to the game.
A while back I unpacked a golden copy of the card, that I never played because I despise the archetype. I happily collected 3200 dust tonight.
Starfish countered some decks that didn't see much play, in particular Paladin, as it neutralizes buffs and disables the inherited deathrattle from Stewart the Steward.
Theotar is mostly a counter to Denathrius, which did see a lot of play. With the Kael'thas nerf, fewer decks will be able to infuse Denathrius to lethal levels, so there will be less of a need to play Theotar. My guess is that they expect his play rate to go down in the new meta and therefore decided not to nerf.
I got a win with Warlock on my second try playing Nozdormu early: I did get Pyroblasted in the face, but discovered some good cards, won the board and drew healing so there wasn't enough other damage to kill me off. But I agree that if draw and discover RNG isn't on your side, you don't stand a chance.
I can't remember which expansion it was, but one of these times they had this Brawl the first week and it was perfect :/ There's no excuse for it beyond "we want you to waste dust creating things you might regret".
I think you're overestimating the amount of effort that they're putting into Brawls these days.
It's a pity they don't have a dedicated Brawl developer anymore, because it used to be something to look forward to each week and it led to several innovations as well.
It's at that time that you realize "this card is still in Standard."
Even as a fringe card, it wasn't played for long, as the questline provides a much better incentive for going through your entire deck in record speed.
I think this would have been much stronger if it hit minions only. If you play this on curve, face damage is not yet relevant but getting board control is.
For decks that care about spell damage, Thalnos may be an option. But drawing two instead of one is the difference between expanding your hand and the card only replacing itself; that difference is generally worth more than 1 mana. I don't think Arcane Intellect would see play outside the greediest of combo decks if it was 2 mana draw 1.
I'm assuming the Risen Groom will be Undead, but that's based just on flavor and on Corpse Bride being Undead herself. Summoning two 4/4's for 5 mana seems plausible and pretty good.
Malignant Horror consumes 5 corpses but eventually gives you 4 back, so it's not too bad in the long term. But 5 corpses by turn 4 seems ambitious, unless there are a lot of minions that provide more than 1 corpse a piece. Another option is buffing it, but a 4 mana base cost makes it difficult to buff on board while handbuff requires a lot of support. Probably the weakest card of the bunch.
The small body of Chillfallen Baron is both a downside and an upside: if it dies, you'll have one more corpse and you don't have to wait long for your second card.
Getting a top-four finish isn't that hard, as in my low-MMR experience there are often one or two players dropping out because they didn't get the hero or early minions they were hoping for. If you play one game every other day, you'll probably get to 7 top-four finishes in 22 days. If you play less than that, you probably shouldn't buy Battlegrounds cosmetics in the first place.
Following my own advice, I'll probably just collect the freebie and move on.
I think Doom in the Tomb would have been fine if it ran for only a week. People would have appreciated the Uldum meta even more if it had returned after the event. Instead, the "limited time" event ran until the next expansion, lasting almost two months.
Cast Convoke the Spirits -> get a 7-minion board with Composting on all of them, also Miracle Growth and Dew Process -> lose in fatigue -> queue second game to get my pack
Yes, Big Druid is broken, but it can be a double-edged sword as so many Druid spells draw cards.
The offer I got after reaching Gold on ladder was 35 Standard packs for 2000 Runestones. Basically twice the Silver offer, which makes it even less attractive to me.
The accusations aren't terrible, but they are outclassed by other options: early game you'd rather have AoE to deal with wide boards from aggro decks and late game you can use Sylvanas, the Accused or Insatiable Devourer instead to get more value per card.
Shadehound is very good, I expect it to see more play in the future.
I'll probably hit level 100 this weekend, when I complete the remaining weekly quests.
I'm seeing a Tavern Special bundle with 50 Nathria packs and 2 legendaries for 4000 Runestones, maybe because I bought the smaller bundle earlier. Compared to usual Hearthstone prices, this bundle is a good deal, but this far into the expansion I don't really want to spend that much money.
There is also new type of bundle that appears after you have ranked up on ladder. For me it was 17 Standard packs for 1000 Runestones after reaching Silver, not sure if it's different per player. I'm not a fan of them trying to suggest some kind of connection between ladder achievements and shop offers, as that connection is entirely artificial and only there to try and create some kind of emotional link that makes the offer feel more appealing that it actually is.
I also saw a pre-made Fel Demon Hunter deck in my shop, but as I already have all the cards, it's not very attractive. I did play a lot of DH recently, but if that was the logic for selecting this offer, it's flawed, since the fact that I'm playing it a lot means that I have a sufficient number of cards for that class.
Somehow, despite them trying so many different things, none of it is appealing to me. Mercenaries is still ridiculously overpriced. I don't play enough Battlegrounds to care about cosmetics for that. Hero skins now come with packs but are also more expensive than before. They're also pushing golden cards a lot recently, but I'd rather have more cards than golden cards.
What I would be interested in is small bundles with guaranteed legendaries, but after buying a bundle in that category, they're only trying to sell larger bundles, while selling more of the same would have a better chance of success, at least with me.
I did buy the mini set as soon as it came out, with gold.
It's not just the maxed merc stats buff that's missing, the entire concept of "maxed" seems to be gone: it doesn't say "maxed" in the collection anymore and if you finish the last available update, there is no animation saying that the merc has been maxed out.
Does Gruul have a tribe now? He was tribeless for as long as I can remember.
For lore purposes they are Half-Orcs, but for game play purposes at least Rexxar counts as a full Orc.
Maybe one day they'll implement true multi-tribe, so we can have the Lich King as an Undead Human and Hooktusk as a Troll Pirate.
Riptide seems fine, but is Overboard working correctly? Its trigger is formulated as "after another friendly character is damaged this turn", but should a character be able to take damage when their health is not positive?
Theotar will only be dropped from decks after Sire gets dropped from other decks; I don't know if that will happen but if it does, it will take some time.
For my Token Demon Hunter deck, I dropped Sire because the games often ended before turn 10 and against decks where the games would last 10 turns, half the time he'd be stolen before I could play him. So I'm not defending Theotar, I'm just trying to understand Blizzard's thoughts behind not nerfing him.
The last time one of its key cards was nerfed, questline hunter almost disappeared from Wild. Unfortunately, it returned when new cards became available for it. On the one hand it makes me hopeful that if its win rate dips even slightly from this nerf, players will abandon the deck. On the other hand there is always the risk it might come back as more damage spells are added to the game.
A while back I unpacked a golden copy of the card, that I never played because I despise the archetype. I happily collected 3200 dust tonight.
Starfish countered some decks that didn't see much play, in particular Paladin, as it neutralizes buffs and disables the inherited deathrattle from Stewart the Steward.
Theotar is mostly a counter to Denathrius, which did see a lot of play. With the Kael'thas nerf, fewer decks will be able to infuse Denathrius to lethal levels, so there will be less of a need to play Theotar. My guess is that they expect his play rate to go down in the new meta and therefore decided not to nerf.
I've got the "5 wins in Brawl / Arena / Duels" weekly quest, so I think I'll try to get a win with all classes.
In any case, I'm happy to see a new brawl instead of another repeat.
I got a win with Warlock on my second try playing Nozdormu early: I did get Pyroblasted in the face, but discovered some good cards, won the board and drew healing so there wasn't enough other damage to kill me off. But I agree that if draw and discover RNG isn't on your side, you don't stand a chance.
I think you're overestimating the amount of effort that they're putting into Brawls these days.
It's a pity they don't have a dedicated Brawl developer anymore, because it used to be something to look forward to each week and it led to several innovations as well.
It's at that time that you realize "this card is still in Standard."
Even as a fringe card, it wasn't played for long, as the questline provides a much better incentive for going through your entire deck in record speed.