Hearthstone Players!

So, I wrote something on the incoming nerfs. It's showing up in the display menu above the forum, but not on the front page and it didn't create a topic in the forum, so I'm not sure what's up there. But since I didn't write it until today and it's not making it to the front, I guess it will be kind of a wasted effort, since it's old news after tomorrow.

therewillbe.games/articles-electronic-ga...s-they-are-a-changin

All I can say for the actual news is: Fucking finally. I am so, so tired of playing against Warlock every game and I'm really hoping that these changes to Pact and Lackey have the impact that they think they'll have. I'm seriously doubtful since, having played no less than 5 Warlocks in 6 games in the last hour, they'll still be able to do everything- and I mean EVERYTHING -better than any other class. Pact will still exist, as will Spellstone and Siphon Soul, which means they still do a combo of single-target removal and healing better than anyone else. Defile, Hellfire, Godfrey, and Twist are all still present, which means they'll still clear boards better than anyone else. And Librarian and Life Tap are still present, which means they'll still draw better than anyone else. Oh, and they still have the best weapon from Kobolds, the best burst from Doomguard, and the best Taunt minion the game has ever seen. So, yeah.

Tried putting together an Odd Shaman deck the other day. It sucks ass, at least in part because it lacks Hex and involves so much Overload. I know that the Snowfury deck is being promoted as a thing now on Hearthpwn. You ever notice how those seemingly fringe decks get a ton of approbation from accounts created in the last couple days so that they end up on the front page as "popular"? Right now the Snowfury deck is being touted as "the answer" to Warlock because of that 1 or 2 times every 10 games you can get 4 Giants down with Ancestral. Good luck with that.

And since it's just me echoing in here again: I did decide to try some Overload Shaman again in Casual. It's still pretty clunky and I wasn't going up against anything really optimal, other than a couple Spiteful Druid decks. I am playing Feral Spirit, though, believe it or not, which just revealed to me the OTHER shitty aspect of Sapphire Spellstone (other than the fact that it requires Overload to function and costs 7, which means you can never use it on its best target (EE), blah, blah, blah; you've heard it all before): It doesn't carry over Overload payments. In other words, if you need 1 more Overload to get from Lesser to Sapphire and you Overload 2, you still need 3 to reach Greater. Just unbelievably awful. It's the second-worst mechanic in the game. You'd think they could give you a break at some point. I'm still amazed that Snowfury isn't required to be in your hand to get the discount.

Anyway, it's basically the same thing it's been since Knights: a control deck with a mild combo that you'll occasionally pull off and make people concede. I had one slot open, so I decided to throw Hagatha in there, which is probably stupid, since there are only 11 minions in the deck. I've won at least a couple games just by topdecking Healing Rain. I was likely dead to any direct damage in both games, otherwise. Drakkari Defender is just SO miserable with all the Spellbreakers. You end up paying six for a vanilla 2/8 a good chunk of the time. I did win one game when one of my EEs got silenced and I went ahead and Ancestraled him, anyway. The next turn's Sapphire made my opponent concede because there was no way a Hunter could deal with that much beef and I was still in the high teens for health. Class identity. Woo.

Jackwraith wrote: So, I wrote something on the incoming nerfs. It's showing up in the display menu above the forum, but not on the front page and it didn't create a topic in the forum, so I'm not sure what's up there. But since I didn't write it until today and it's not making it to the front, I guess it will be kind of a wasted effort, since it's old news after tomorrow.

therewillbe.games/articles-electronic-ga...s-they-are-a-changin

All I can say for the actual news is: Fucking finally. I am so, so tired of playing against Warlock every game and I'm really hoping that these changes to Pact and Lackey have the impact that they think they'll have.

It's on the front page now, and I think if you post to the discussion it will create a thread. And the patch hasn't landed in the EU yet so it's still relevant.

(It may be an echo chamber, but I regularly read the thread whenever there are posts)

I haven't been as unlucky meeting Warlocks, but I'm likely playing at a lower rank than you, yet I'll still be very thankful to see any flavour of Control Warlock gone. The infuriating thing about the deck is that unless you're tooled up to beat it, it's pretty much unbeatable. If they get a turn 6 Voidlord and you've not drawn a Spellbreaker, you're toast. That's not a fun game. And I still find it pretty shocking that even after months of seeing Cubelock in play, they added a card like Lord Godfrey.

It's a shame in a way, as it's actually a pretty fun deck to play. But I gave up inflicting it on people.

At the moment, I can't gather much enthusiasm for Hearthstone. I'm still playing daily and enjoying my games, but I've kind of given up on ranked play. So far this month I've got 13 wins vs 8 losses on ranked play and I've still only climbed one rank. I'm just not sure I can be bothered with the rigmarole of earning 20 stars every month.

OK. Cool. Thanks. I'm an idiot. I just thought that articles were automatically bouncing to the forum, rather than appearing when, you know, someone actually responded to them(!) And I realize people are reading the thread. It's just funny to me when it seems like I'm here talking to myself.

I'm not ranked that much higher than you, if at all. And, yes, as much as I appreciate the way they decided to change the month-end system (dropping four ranks instead of the entire player base dropping into the nether reaches), the increase in star requirements has become a bit annoying. It's harder to feel any kind of progress if you play only an hour a day or something like that. I guess that's Blizzard finally drawing a line between "casuals" and "gamers" in one of their games?

I agree that Cubelock is a fun deck to play. But Voidlords are just oppressive. Full stop. No one enjoys facing them and the absolute requirement of Spellbreaker or Owl in every, single deck has to be the largest deckbuilding limitation HS has been presented with in quite some time. You can't even consider janky cards like Totem Chewer (still an awful idea to begin with) because of the Voidlord anticipation. And it's going to be another year of this...

That's straight up bullshit that excess Overload doesn't count toward the next Sapphire Spellstone upgrade, especially when one considers that Kobold Librarian upgrades Amethyst Spellstone if you draw it off KL's Battlecry.

As for Voidlords, they're seeming more and more like a card that was made because Team 5 liked the symmetry of the design - with a 3/9 spitting out three 1/3's - rather than because it was a well-balanced addition to the game.

The only time I've seen Totem Cruncher played was last week when my son put it in his Tavern Brawl deck with Flametongue Totem. It was a fun deck and he won handily but the next time I see TC hit the board I fully expect it to be followed by the befuddled reaction of an Arena player (i.e., "That's a card?", etc.).

The increased star requirement for laddering has proven to be more of a disincentive to rank up if, like me, you like playing slower decks. Oh well, at least my losses will be faster to all the Aggro Paladin decks out there.

Played a few games today. I think the Even Shaman thing is a fad that will blow over once everyone realizes that it's basically a weenie deck without Bloodlust. You basically deal with it the same way you dealt with Even/Odd Paladin. There are a couple more complicating factors (Earthen Might being one; how much you want to bet that card was 3 mana before testing finally revealed that "Oh. Shaman kinda sucks here, doesn't it? And we really need to give people an excuse to actually play something other than Tar Creeper for Elementals.") but there are still plenty of games when I see people with 3 totems and a 2/3 on the board on turn 9 and basically nothing else. I play Duskbreaker and... yeah, so, how's it goin'?!

Had a great game with MacDirk today, though. He brought the new Benedict- um, Quest Priest deck and I brought my Revive Priest. His draw was godlike, but then he slowed down, whereas my draw was brutal and I slid into how my deck is going to operate. I haven't tried the new Quest Priest because I don't own Benedictus who is, almost without argument, the win condition in a majority of the games it will play. That's because the quest, as I've noted probably enough times for all of you to roll your eyes by now, is not a win condition. It just delays the end of the game until you can find another one. That win condition is fatigue. Benedictus staves off fatigue for a long time and often gives you access to your opponent's win condition. MD had to play his earlier than he wanted, but he didn't have any other play. Regardless, we still ended up going 26(!) turns with both of us on Shadowreaper. I had him to 6, but the last two cards in my hand that were cheap enough to cast and burn him out were Shadow Word Pain and Faerie Dragon (from a Bone Drake.) Any other combo of 2 costs and the game, she is over. But he ended it the next turn because he'd gotten me to 5. Was a great game.

My other interesting game was me dragging out Control Paladin again, because this time it'll work, right? Kinda? I was playing what, from all appearances, was a Shudderwock deck. Except that there was no Shudderwock. He was down to the last three cards in his deck and had taking fatigue for three turns before he conceded. He'd hit me with both Lifedrinkers, played both Saronites, the whole nine yards. He had one card in his hand he'd held since turn 2 and I figured that was the jaws that bite and claws that catch. But he gave up. Dunno.

I don’t have huge sample size to go on for quest priest w benedictus. Saw Firebat coaching Zalae who was pilot and it looked like fun. I like fun. Had to use my last dust to craft the quest and archbishop.

3/4 of games you complete quest they concede next turn. Not that fun. A few matchups like quest rogue and combo otk you lost as soon as it starts. Not that fun. But the others that don’t fall into one of those groups are half hour brain busters. Fun!

The win condition is usually not fatigue once I complete. Get Anduin online and slowly grind them out before their last card has been the usual

Nutty games with quest benedictus priest. Got the mirror, the guy had more dragons. He Benedictus first and gets 20 or so cards that made my deck and my Benedictus. I complete the quest super early which my deck is better at than most I feel. I hold onto my 40 point heal Amara because I know he has no way to pressure me down. He completes, heals up to 40and Zolas Amara back to his hand. I buckle in. I play Benedictus and add his deck to mine and Zola my Benedictus back to hand because I know neither of will die any time soon. We each played many copies of twilights call because there were copies flipping back and forth with the decks. That rez’d many 1/1 oracle that give you a copy of card in the other players deck. I got ANOTHER Zola from this and finally played my Amara healed to 40 and bounced a copy back to hand hoping he would be demoralized and quit. Instead he plays the Benedictus he got from my deck and bounces a copy back to hand with ANOTHER Zola he got off an Oracle. I could see where this was headed so I figured fuckit and played a Temporus I got off random dragon death rattle guy. Temporus is good when you know the other guy can’t kill you and you are DK Anduin. You will have the board after your two turns. So I have like 3 decently started minions on the board for couple of turns and force his second Amara. And then.... the game turn timer blows us both up. My first.

Very next game. Is against control mage. I run Chamelios and like it in the deck a lot. Had him on spy duty from the opener and could see my opponent may be the greediest Jaina Mage ever. I could see Lich King, Dragoncaller Alana, and Sindragosa all long before they got played. I knew enough to save Anduin to blow out Dragoncaller Alana board. I only run one copy SWP needed it for Lich King. I had to visions for psychic scream and use it on Sindragosa. I was able to Benedictus early enough to get his Jaina but not those 3 legendaries I mentioned. I played at least 10 turns as Jaina until he did finally Alana. I had no choice but to scream some boards filled with Water Elemntals so our decks were pretty even. I had no fatigue advantage. But I got Alexstraza from random dragon death rattle or I had no win condition. Beat this guy about turn 25.

This deck is nuts

Ha. Awesome. I'm impressed that people have finally found a way to win with Quest Priest although, like I said, it bugs me that Benedictus seems to be an essential ingredient to the deck. I wonder if it's possible to get Dragon Soul to work...?

The issue with Quest Priest is the same issue it's always been—it does not help you win, it only delays your loss. It'a always been like this with Heal effects in these kinds of games. Until Ped Bun cooked up an unlimited life gain in MtG, no amount of it mattered. In HS, you can use Benedictus to handily win the fatigue race and if lucky, find some good creatures to help out with the cause along the way. I like Screaming away big boards and then Benedictus to "get them back" as it were.

LOL Burn Mage

hsreplay.net/replay/j5cFxXh8ymgQRxJ27KuyN5

Thought for SURE they'd go over the top and burn you out. GOod on you, man. That's how I hope games work out. Heartbeaking to Hex a Mana Wyrm, but you do what you gotta.

I am going to (cue AdRock:) nnnnnDuhROP in rankings this season. I could never really connect to the metagame in a fun way and I tumbled to 10. I clawed back to 9 with Egg Quest Priest, but no higher. I need Hunter to be good or I get so bored. Shudderwock Control is still fun, but folks have it figured out now and it's a slog. Plus it can't beat Hadronox, which is ridiculous.

Heh. I keep waiting for the one burn spell that would end it, which is why I played the EE and Ancestral on turn 7, rather than the Rain. The Rain would just delay the end and I'd still take a beating. The EE would potentially win the game right there as long as he didn't topdeck Fireball, Cinderstorm, Frostbolt, or a lucky Missiles. I was just laughing because he was so monomaniacal in his approach.

I also didn't do much playing. I found in my few games that I really kind of liked the latest version of Even Shaman that I was playing, but not much else. Despite Quest Priest actually working, playing the deck is kind of a slog. Toss out random Deathrattle thing, not caring whether it lives or dies. One step closer to my 40 life so that you then have to burn me back down through that while I find some way to kill you; likely from your deck via Benedictus. I even crafted the latter with the last of my dust and have barely played him. I think I'm just off the game at the moment.

As I mentioned in the What Videogames thread, I stood for a friend's wedding and he got all the groomsmen one of those SNES boxes. It's the original console at about 1/4 size with 20 games pre-loaded on it. I've been playing a lot of Zelda and Street Fighter, which has occupied my attention moreso than the magical cards.

Haha, so the ladder changes I was so excited about have pretty much killed me in ranked play.

Didn't get a lot of play in during the last month, basic questing only, so in spite of having a big win-loss ratio I only made one rank total. The four rank loss was thus a big bust and, after a mean losing streak this morning, I'm now languishing at 18. First time I've been down here in a long old time, but it looks like what I'll just have to get used to nowadays. Oh well.

Thing is, even down here everyone's running top-tier decks full of legendary cards. Which suggests we've hit a problem I saw coming a while ago: the ranking system isn't really doing what it's supposed to at all. Anything above rank 20 is essentially a no-go area for players without a big collection. Not sure what the new blood are doing nowadays, or even if there is any new blood, but it's going to take them months of work or a big spend on card bundles to break into ladder play.

It takes a while to climb. Those five stars seem like a huge obstacle sometimes.

Had a frustrating game today--just one time could they not "have it?" Druid has 10 cards left in deck but none of them are the Witching Hour, Carnivorous Cube, and Naturalize (they had left, having used one of each earlier) she needed to kill me at 20 life with her empty board. I am so fucking tired of 20+ damage from hand.