Greetings there! I'm here to present you my version of how I would change Shaman's Core Sets. I'm jumping the bandwagon a bit with the changes after seeing some other people trying their reworks and generally accepting classes may need some updates.

This time, I've put crossfire onto Shaman. While it's very hard to actually do them, please don't think I'm going to make changes for literally every class, altough if I get bored, I might do in near future. Also chose Shaman this time, because they need some refreshment in their cards.

Strengths and Weaknesses

New Sets

Explanations

Hall of Fame

Some cards that were considered, but didn't make the cut

Anyone else just wanna cry when you re-roll a daily quest and get Inspired?  Ugh...20 hero power uses....*sigh*

I commented on the latest news but I think this is worth the discussion.. I think arena has no real fun reason to play it, most of this OP will be a copy paste from that comment on the news article: but I reformatted parts of it to be more readable.

https://outof.cards/hearthstone/1792-the-arena-will-keep-separate-rewards-from-hearthstones-battle-pass

What is wrong in arena? (At least for me)

I don't like that the runs take a lot of time and you needs an insane win rate to actually profit from arena, I don't feel like sitting through 12 wins only to get trice the entry fee.. the arena feels unrewarding for the time poured into them.. I didn't play arena for over 2 years and I used to play more when I didn't had many resources it's feels like a chore..

I do enjoy the gameplay but it feels like such a big time and gold commitment to play.. I just hate playing it and losing too fast or make risky picks.

The reward system is the same since beta... SERIOUSLY.

Suggested estimated rewards that would feel better:

lower the entry fee, lower the max wins, increase the reward threshold.

I just threw numbers and rewards but something that will be exciting to earn and not just.. "value" it feels bad to play arena and get some value we want to get special rewards or get guaranteed rewards on good runs.. arena feels BAD to win at and feels bad to get less than 7 wins you get less than the fee.. and need insane win rates. About the cosmetics: it's not a hero skin (maybe as a rare 10 wins drop) but it's something to grind for like some alternate card art or some old card backs.. give players a good reason to play more arena the mode is fun the entry fee is discouraging and so are the rewards.

More improvements suggestions:

1.Would also enjoyed the mixture of the expansions in arena but it wasn't conveyed correctly had no idea what to play or not around there was no way in game to tell which expansions were available.. for that a new feature needs to be implemented which is a peek into the available pool just open a collection manager which shows you the expansion available and what cards are legit or not, from the draft screen no need to do in game.

2. Arena tickets as rewards from quests + exp since they are 40 gold quest for none arena players this way. people who don't want to play arena can start and exit just to get the 40 gold, it will intensify players to try arena more and experiment more.

I hope I formatted this post correctly so it's easy in the eyes.

Playing Kingsbane Rogue I discovered that Secret Passage will cause Shadow Reflection from Valeera the Hollow to not leave your hand at the end of your turn. Furthermore the Shadow Reflections becomes a reflection of Secret Passage. I think it is because the Shadow Reflection returns from the ‘passage’ after your turn ends so the hero power doesn’t remove it at the end of your turn.

This gives you an extra shadow reflection next turn OR infinite secret passages (one every turn if Its the first card you play each turn).

No idea if this is of any use in some weird combo deck? Probably not but it’s a weird interaction anyway

I'm suggesting the following changes to a few cards from this year, for classes that in my opinion could use a little help.

The aim of these buffs is to at least provide those classes with stronger options to consolidate some "non-oppressive" archetypes.

Do you think some other cards should be buffed ? Or do you think these buffs are exagerated ?

HUNTER CORE SET REVAMP

Introduction

Neoguli's post kickstarted me to finish my own

After Priest and Shaman, it is Hunter's turn to have its core sets revised. I have all classes ready. However, neoguli already dealt with Warlock, Druid, Rogue, Warrior, and Paladin. For the moment, I will focus on classes that weren't modified yet.

In terms of core set quality, Hunter is above average, although its sets aren't as good as Mage's or Rogue's. The main issue with Hunter's current set is its one-dimensionality. Up to 2017, Hunter was a one-dimensional class with an extremely linear gameplay. It had only one viable archetype (at best), oscillating between face and midrange.

After 2017, internal diversity increased: Egg, Cube, No-minion, Big, etc... Deathstalker Rexxar enabled late-game-oriented Hunter archetypes. Big Beast synergies enabled non-linear playstyles. One major constraint, as Blizz themselves noticed, is Hunter's lack of card draw. Lack of card draw intrinsically limits a class' design space. However Blizz developed workarounds such as card generation (Rhok'delar)or costly but powerful tutoring ([Hearthstone Card (Scavenger Ingenuity) Not Found], Ursatron) as opposed to general card draw, or "Recruit" mechanics.

Directions

The new core sets

If you would've told me a year ago that I would be hitting Legend I would have doubted you. I've never played to reach legend until this month, and the reason why? I was having fun.

I casually climbed the Wild ladder using Quest Mage up until Diamond 6-7, then Scholomance Academy came out and I went ALL the way back to Diamond 10. Then I stumbled across Discard Warlock which took me to Diamond 3, then loss after loss to a different kind of Warlock got my attention. The new, big, and scary Pain Warlock took me to Legend and I got that sweet, sweet card back.

Climbing the Wild ladder was fun, and I'm glad I got to see alot of old cards I've forgotten about while climbing. Now I'm hoping for a new Format so I can see more old cards get played again.

So what's next?

So back in the day I enjoyed Toast's content before he started losing interest in HS and was only doing it for a source of income. However, I just saw a Toast video pop up in my YT about toast being on some dating show and thought it was pretty random. So for any Toast fans out there, what does he even do nowadays on YT?

TL;DR - Does Discover give every card an equal probability of being displayed?

When the Discover effect was changed to "not favor class cards", I just naively assumed that every available card had an equal probabiltiy of being shown as an option. 

For example, Primordial Explorer gives you the option of 3 dragons and there are currently 20 Neutral Dragons and 2 Hunter class Dragons in Standard (not counting Primoridal Explorer itself given the recent change).  Without thinking about it, I just assumed that the probability of getting say Rotnest Drake was 1/22 for the 1st discover option, 1/21 for the 2nd discover option, and 1/20 for the 3rd discover option (I don't remember ever getting the same Dragon shown twice, but if that's possible then the probability would be 1/22 for each option).  

However, this video was randomly recommended to me on YouTube today (had never heard of them before) and I gave it a listen.  The hyperlink skips to the 43:45 mark where an argument is made that Discover instead works as a 2-stage gamble so-to-speak.  For each of the 3 options there's a 1/2 probability that the card will be drawn from the Neutral Pool or the Class Pool.  After this, another die is rolled where every card in the respective pool has an equal probability of being displayed (without replacement).

So in the example above the probability of Rotnest Drake would be 25% for each of the 3 discover options (50% to be a class card and then 50% to be Rotnest Drake given that it's a class card).  Is this really the case??

Just played a game where my Mugurgle Prime produced two Murgurs. Pretty sure that should fall into line of cards not generating themselves.

When Bad Luck Albatross was 3 mana it was used a lot, especially in Wild against Reno decks.

Then it got nerfed to 4 mana and nobody plays it since then - even when Reno Priest is "everywhere" and a top deck with an answer to everything and no real weaknesses anymore.

With Albatross  you often had enough time to kill the Priest until he heals for 20 or more HP for 6 Mana with a 4/6 body attached to it.

Maybe Albatross was and would still be too strong as a 3 mana 4/3 - but for 4 mana with the same stats it is way too weak.

---

So what do you think: Is Albatross fine at the moment as it is or should it be buffed in some way again?

Should it be a 3 Mana 4/3 again or how about other solutions, for example be a 3/3 for 3 mana or a 5/4 for 4 mana?

Hi there

Saw Lt. Eddy Raw play the Deck on Stream and it looked fun and also did pretty decent. I always liked the Idea about Big Demon Hunter so i wanted to share the Deck - i'll definitely gonna try this deck this weekend.

Ideas on how to improve the deck are pretty welcome!

Have fun!

I was playing some Galakrond priest deck, so I generate randomly 2 copies of Shadowy Figure. On other side I get Bandersmosh from Brightwing. At this point i could play a Rattlegore from a transformed Bandersmosh, so it was a 5/5 minion and copy it with both Shadowy Figure (2/2 copies).

What happen was that after killing both Shadowy Figure transformed into the Rattlegore, was summon an 8/8 Rattlegore instead of a 1/1.

Now I understant that Rattlegore works checking the original card and not the original stats of the minion, but seems a bit confusing.

The AoO solo adventure was a stroll through the park until I reached this boss. Then the difficulty level turns up to 11. What the hell! This guy summons huge threats or casts devastating spells for 1 mana. Meanwhile my deck Ive been given is garbage and in so little time to deal with the threats your outcast cards better be perfectly lined up.

Is there something i'm missing? This guy seems impossible to defeat.

https://youtu.be/95zSClt6vQw

Hello, it is I again, world renowned writer of the award winning thread I think I fixed Quest Hunter and creator of the critically acclaimed deck Hey now, you're a Zixor (results may vary). Now I'm usually not one to abuse the forums to promotes my half baked homebrews (that's a lie, I have done that quite a lot, but I'm trying to stop), but this is a very special occasion.

Now the backstory is that after trying (and achieving mild success) to build a functional Quest Hunter deck for this expansion I eventually was inspired by fellow user Pezman to incorporate the whacky King Krush, Beastmaster Leoroxx, and Ramkahen Wildtamer combo as a finisher. Despite being technically promising the deck kind of fell short in terms of consistency, mainly because having 4 combo pieces in a Hunter deck that starts off with one less card doesn'T really work too well when you're already struggling to fight for the board and stay alive.

Disappointed by own failures but not willing to give up yet I was trying to find other ways to incorporate the Krush combo (in the process of which I ended up crafting all remaining Hunter legendaries of the current rotation, don't ask). I ended up brainstorming a way to just leave out the quest and use bothArcane Fletcher and Professor Slate as a way to create a deck that both has the draw power of Quest Hunter (who can use Cult Master quite well) as well as the ability to actually deal with the board and not just taking face damage every single turn.

Naturally, Pen Flinger seemed like a natural fit having great cross synergy with both the small spells and Fletcher. Furthermore, Krolusk Barkstripper seemed to make sense as well, especially since it counters the many "I make big minion and you lose" strategies that currently prevail. I filled the rest of the deck with 1-cost minions and all the useful 1-mana spells I could find.

Now I going in I had basically no expectations. I fully expected to just brick every other game and barely even compete. In short, I expected complete failure...but that didn't happen.

For some reason and through what can only be explained as an unholy miracle brought about by the powers of an eldritch god of chaos and confusion...I actually won games...and not just a few cheesy steals...legitimate beatdowns against meta decks. I'm not even sure how exactly it works, but there is just so much cross synergy in this deck that not only do you have a clear plan to victory in almost every matchup, but also just enough consistency to make it work with a +50% margin.

I'm not gonna tell you how to exactly play this deck because it's so much more fun going in blind and seeing it work for no reason in particular, but let me just sum up a few things:

- Pen Flinger is the absolute MVP. That fella puts in so much work, from removal to straight up murdering opponents from 10 health. He basically does what Vereesa Windrunner couldn't and more.

- The Krush combo is essentially just a failsafe. I have won plenty games without even playing Leoroxx or Krush (and also won some where I did play them, sometimes independantly from each other). Don't play like a regular combo deck, play like a  burn/tempo deck trying to get in as much chip damage as you can. At the end of the day, Leo + a single Krush + Hero Power is 10 damage.

-Ramkahen Wildtamer was a dead draw in the Quest build, but here it's not only a combo piece but a value generator as well. Don't hold onto it if Krush is nowhere near. If you can copy something like a buffed [Hearthstone Card (Krolusk) Not Found], Wolpertinger or even just a Shimmerfly you're already doing well. The combo is only needed against control decks (such as Priest, Warrior, and the occasional Quest Shaman). Be careful not to accidentally hit the token from Adorable Infestation though

-Arcane Fletcher is your draw power, but, much like Cult Master, don't be afraid to just draw 2 cards (or even 1, depending on your situation). The key is being just greedy enough to not fall behind.

So anyways, after much hype, here's the list. While I believe there are still some potential improvements possible this is pretty much my finalized list. There aren't really any cards that need replacing. It's not gonna get any more consistent than this. Do note that first and foremost this is a fun deck. Don't craft any of these cards if you're short on dust expecting to get a nice winstreak to Legend. You can climb with it, but it mostly exists to confuse your opponent and make them question how in god's name they could have lost against this deck.

(I do recommend playing this now. Who knows how the meta shifts in the next expansion and after the rotation the deck falls apart without Arcane Fletcher anyways)

How have you been finding the Arena and what's the best strategy?

Thought I had a decent deck of good value stats and OP cards with a good curve but ended up going 1-3 as priest.
since classic, I've always spent 90% of my gold on arena runs, but I took a break over the last 2 expansions.

I hate this card. I hate it more than anything ever printed. It is worse than kaelthas in my opinion, but it's okay i fixed it.

"But won't they just play obsidian statue instead?"

hahahahahahah

I'm growing  bored with Runeterra.  I don't play ladder, Labs is incredibly random, and Expedition mode is, IMO, like Arena but worse.  That leaves Casual play, which is sometimes fun, but I have more Shards than I know what to do with and could craft enough Champions to have 3x of every existing one.  I've max leveled every region, and I'm just growing bored and frustrated with the mechanics and how much decks rely on a single Champion.

How is HS these days?  I haven't played in probably a year, but I've still watched my favorite streamers.  Battlegrounds looks really fun - is it free or do you have to pay?  How's the deck variety in regular play?  I do like what they've done with Ranked.  Playing LoR has made me really appreciate a lot of the mechanics of HS, believe it or not.