Hearthstone
- Thread starter Azrayne
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While all of that's true, I'll still be surprised if it's actually viable. The hermit card might see play by itself, and people will definitely play with the "summon Al'Akir for free a lot" archetype, I just don't think it's broken enough to make constructed. I really like playing shaman though, so here's hoping something besides evolve will turn out to be viable
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You should set something up to Thrall not just use it on curve. IMO the totem hero power is almost just as good as Thrall. Thrall can just get nasty if you +2 to your board and if that +2 didn't give you great stuff you can +1 it with an evolve in hand. Bonus points if you manage to doppelgangster + evolve the previous turn and hopefully have 1-2 of those guys remaining and lay Thrall down. But single target evolve for 2 mana isn't exactly the best hero power ever.
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Ravishing
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While all of that's true, I'll still be surprised if it's actually viable. The hermit card might see play by itself, and people will definitely play with the "summon Al'Akir for free a lot" archetype, I just don't think it's broken enough to make constructed. I really like playing shaman though, so here's hoping something besides evolve will turn out to be viable
Primal Talismans probably won't see play, it's worse than spirit echo which doesn't see play. But maybe wicked witchdoctor can make it in to help generate more totems.
I won't be too surprised to see it work... we already had a totem deck that used a 6drop.. and token shaman is already a tier 2/3 deck. Even if you never actually summon Al'Akir that often, the fact totems all have taunt is going to be a big deal
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Ravishing
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2drop and 1 drop look like zoo cards, the 2drop seems good in any deck tbh...... the spell upgrades to 5 and 7 damage, would be good in control, but maybe won't have enough cards to upgrade it, I guess abyssal would be only other minion that's playable? Problem is you want to drop these early but might not have the spell in hand
Bloodbloom deck could run it too
Edit: honestly, the 2 minions seem like auto includes in every warlock deck
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Asshat Brando
Potato del Grande
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I think the issue is a lack of board clear for Evolve Shaman. I can devolve but the minions are still there. So I feel even if I don't have a perfect board if I at least have 1 or 2 minions out then I'll drop Thrall instead of waiting and continuing to lose board control. Maybe I'm wrong on this? I've spent very little money on this game so far, maybe $60?, and don't have great decks for any class. I'm missing Aya, another Saronite Chain Gang, Primalfin Totems and the class Taunt that drops in value based on totems played.
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Ah yeah if you're running a budget version of the deck my advice may not be accurate to your situation. In general with evo shaman I find I generally take control and keep control of the board early. Especially if I can turn 1 a pirate w/ patches and turn 2 a flametongue totem.
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brekk
Dancing Dino Superstar
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2drop and 1 drop look like zoo cards, the 2drop seems good in any deck tbh...... the spell upgrades to 5 and 7 damage, would be good in control, but maybe won't have enough cards to upgrade it, I guess abyssal would be only other minion that's playable? Problem is you want to drop these early but might not have the spell in hand
Bloodbloom deck could run it too
Edit: honestly, the 2 minions seem like auto includes in every warlock deck
Self damage + Life Steal is a much better and more viable direction for Warlock mechanics than discard. Maybe Blizzard is finally understanding that if your decks primary mechanic being discard runs the risk of removing the other cards you need for that mechanic to work it's not so good. Self Damage, and Lifesteal still runs some risk, but that comes down to your decision making and will at least have some consistency. Currently with discard you have 4-8 cards in your deck that if you have bad luck on the discard you're just fucked.
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If you're trying to play budget constructed, Hearthstone is really the wrong game. I tried that for the first 6 months I played or so, and it's basically impossible to win if you want to build more than 1 deck per expansion. That was also back just before whispers hit, a time when you didn't need 3 legendaries per competitive deck, since cheap aggro decks back then could and did win. If you're lucky and pick a deck that's going to last for months without being nerfed, outclassed, or slowly falling back to earth over time, you can get away with only crafting 1 deck per xpac, but good luck with that.
I'd say stick to arena, but arena blows IMO. I guess you can play tavern brawls over and over? Lol
Blizzard has really done everything they can to make this game as expensive as possible while it still has a lot popularity, it really is annoying.
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Enzee
Trakanon Raider
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Brando
Yea, your first post made it sound like you were just playing thrall on 5, even on an empty board. Thats why he said that.But, you should normally be aiming to do something like evolve a doppelgangster or saronite at least. Something that cheats the mana costs a bit. Thats where you get the big swings.
Also, why not play the shaman board clears? Maelstrom and lighting storm should both be enough in the early/mid game combined with your drops. Not to mention volcano.
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Ravishing
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edit: You know, for some reason I thought this summoned from deck, due to the Recruit theme going on and the fact Warrior already have Rotface... My Y'shaarj comparison is not accurate at all. So Rotface is 2 less health, and only summons Legendaries... This card can summon any minion and has 2 more health. 9+ cost non-Legendary minions can be much better than the Legendaries (pure stats). Maybe it's actually decent, but still wish it had taunt.
edit2: RNG Legendaries from Rotface can be anything from a 1/1 to a 12/12, at least this card has a mana cost target so you can get an idea of what stats to expect. The new 7 mana 1/1 will be an awesome result. But I think in most cases you're going to summon 10 mana minions.
Here are all the 10 mana Standard minions... Getting a 4/8 and one of these for 8 mana, seems OK
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Mahes
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If Wizards manages to finally pull off a great online version of Magic through their new game Magic Arena, that might be the nail that drives this game into the ground. Blizzard has had years to improve the actual game play and instead has chosen to just milk this game by only adding new cards with often times questionable testing. "Random" has gotten just about as annoying as "Soon" when it comes to Blizzard catch words. Blizzard would rather go with the Las Vegas model of business over the Competition model that gives the greatest chance of winning to the player that plays the best. Having the strongest cards should increase the chance of winning but just as important should be how the cards are used. The last card revealed "Geosculptor Yip", is a prime example of the "random" philosophy that Blizzard constantly pushes. This card could have been at least been designed to fetch cards from your deck. This in turn then allows for players to construct decks that take advantage of the mechanic. Instead we get more random anything can happen crap. The arena is yet another example of how bad random can be.Its a tired mechanic that I hope Wizards of the Coast does not follow to such extreme. I hope Magic Arena is the game it could be.
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LiquidDeath
Magnus Deadlift the Fucktiger
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I stopped playing Hearthstone earlier this year because Blizzard is fucking retarded and discard Warlock is one of the reasons why. How could any serious game designer think that basing gameplay off only completely random discards was viable in any way? The only reason it even kind of worked was when you mitigated the discard altogether as often as possible, which required serious luck to be successful.
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WoTC is going to have to abandon their current pricing and profit margin if they hope to compete in online TCG. Cost is the main thing keeping new players out of Magic. Hearthstone too, and it's much cheaper than Magic!
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Vaclav
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They've got the Direwolf Digital guys involved with Arena - I'm praying their theories of price modeling from Eternal/ESL rub off. (I'd prefer more on the Eternal side of the scale, but both are among the most tolerable out there)
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Ishad
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Asshat Brando
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But, you should normally be aiming to do something like evolve a doppelgangster or saronite at least. Something that cheats the mana costs a bit. Thats where you get the big swings.
Also, why not play the shaman board clears? Maelstrom and lighting storm should both be enough in the early/mid game combined with your drops. Not to mention volcano.
Pretty sure Lightning Storm has Overload with it right? Just like the discard mechanic the Overload mechanic is fucking retarded and I find it will lose you more games than the overpowered card you were able to play. The only card like that I run in my deck is Jade Claws just because of how good it is for early board control. I do run 2 Maelstrom but it's pretty shitty unless I get lucky with early totems and get a +spell damage one.
I'm not averse to spending money but so far I don't really care how far up the ladder I go and have better things to spend my money on. I'm fine with a couple of games a day and Arena runs when I have the gold saved up for it though for right now I'm saving everything for Arena runs when the Xpac drops.
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Ravishing
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Seriously though, i think we'll see a tempo or control deck for sure, this card is situated to land in either deck type. The spell that can dump 3x 5/5s on board as well... these cards are giving warriors a couple ways to put multiple threats at a time.
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