Today's reddit AMA has been full of great replies from the Hearthstone team, and that includes talking about the usually forgotten Wild format.
Alec Dawson of the game design team says that we should expect changes to two problematic decks in the Wild format - Quest Mage and Darkest Hour Warlock. This will be done by making adjustments to Open the Waygate and Bloodbloom, the details of which are not yet known but will be announced soon.
How would you change the cards?
Quote From HS_Alec For Wild, we know there has been a lot of very strong reactions to Quest Mage and Darkest Hour Warlock. These decks play in a one-player fashion similar to other decks we've nerfed in the past. There's going to be crazy combos in Wild, but we don't think these two decks in particular are healthy. Expect to see changes to Open the Waygate and Bloodbloom.
Comments
Balanced and honest? Seriously? Draw, draw, heal, draw more, destroy with eggs and plague of flames and hope my opponent doesn't have dirty rat and if he does, that he doesn't hit mechathun? I hate that deck so much
Hating the deck is fine. I hate all decks that beat me honestly lol but Mecha'Thun Lock is pretty beatable. What you're defining is a generic control/combo hybrid, all of them work similarly and have their weaknesses
Ok, now I'm in love with Alec Dawson.
My bet:
Open the Waygate to require 8 spells (or maybe even 10).
Bloodbloom to (4).
As much as I love generating spells in Mage, QMage has grown to be an abomination since Uldum.
Just no! Bloodbloom to 4 destroys Mecha'Thun lock and only slightly delays Darkest Hour. Bloodbloom needs to stay at 2 mana, but should be changed to work on spells that cost 5 or less. That would completely kill the problem deck and leave good ol' Mechalock untouched.
Guys, Drakkari Enchanter.
Why would you run double Galvanizer, and Mecha'Thun, and Cataclysm, and Emperor (5 cards to reduce 4 mana & execute the combo) when you can accomplish the same thing without the Galvanizers for one card less in the combo?
You can replace Bloodbloom with Galvanizer, then find one extra deck spot for the second Galvanizer.
It's actually better Tempo during the game, since galvanizers are not dead cards during the game, especially if you consider synergy with Zilliax and possibly Antique Healbot too.
I think you underestimate the effect having to draw 2 cards in place of 1 has on the consistency and winrate of the deck.
You're running Mechathun. Your plan is to draw your whole deck anyway. It's not like you're going to combo your opponent to death on turn 9. It will disincentivise the use of Hemet, but most variants don't run that. About the biggest opportunity cost is the one deck slot. And of course, the telegraphing that you have Mechathun in hand for any Dirty Rats roaming around. With having to pop 2 Galvanizers and a Thaurissan on Mechathun to go for that combo without Bloodbloom, you give opposing control ample opportunity to catch you with low minion count in hand.
Tbh ever since we got albatross, I lost interest in running the rat. I prefer to play the albatross a few turns before the opponent goes for the combo, so that I deny the 10/10's deathrattle. This is way more reliable.
If you're interested in simply delaying Mechathun, then you're better off with Mojomaster Zihi than Albatross. Albatross delays them two turns at best, probably less if they have access to card draw. There's no way for them to manoeuvre around the fact they just got dropped to 6 mana and need to live for 4 more turns, there's a 5/5 on the board and their Bloodreaver or Twisting Nether is now unplayable.
I wasn't talking about delaying, but rather cancelling Mecha'thun's deathrattle entirely. A few days ago I played against this archtype. What I did was, that I waited on my opponent to draw their deck before I played the albatross. Since I was playing a control N'zoth priest, I had some seances in my hand to make extra copies of the bird. But those weren't even necessary - as soon as my opponent reached the bottom 4 cards of their deck and used the soularium prematurely (imho that was a misplay), I just played the albatross behind a taunt and denied Mecha'thun's deathrattle. The opponent didn't have ways to clear it, so they went for the Mecha'thun failed combo & concede play - the albatross's deathrattle triggered first, which denied the 10/10's deathrattle. That's what I meant.
I was surprised, that that deck didn't run Gul'dan. If they had included it, the opponent would have been able to clear my albatrosses, to stall the game, to draw the remaining cards of their deck and quite possibly to win. I don't know if the current Mecha'thun lock runs the dk or my opponent had a different build, but the albatrosses can really screw up our opponents if we time them correctly.