Hearthstone 24: Don't tell the others, but I'm rooting for you!

[Rynjin]

I think the only change Sac Pact really needs is to not kill Jaraxxus. It's a bad habit to nerf things that are historically niche just because now, TEMPORARILY, it's very good.

[Resileaf]

I think the only change Sac Pact really needs is to not kill Jaraxxus. It's a bad habit to nerf things that are historically niche just because now, TEMPORARILY, it's very good.

I don't know about temporary. Demon hunter's core tribe will probably stay demon.

[Zevox]

Rather funny that Sacrificial pact is suddenly not that niche of a card when more than one class uses demons in their deck.

Well, yeah, that's pretty predictable. It's a potent card when it has a target - it's just never had plentiful targets, because Warlock has been the only class that made much use of Demons, and few Demon-heavy Warlock decks were ever so prominent in the meta that they'd consider running it just for the mirror match. But add a second class that makes heavy use of them and is suddenly the most common one to see because it's new and exciting? Of course Sacrificial Pact became really good under those conditions.

It'll disappear from the meta again once Demon Hunter's novelty wears off and it's nerfed enough not to be the clear best thing - assuming Blizzard doesn't nerf it before then, since they're apparently extremely reactionary these days.

(Aside: if they actually want to see more Jaraxxus, they're going to need to buff him. Setting your health to 15 is just no good anymore - hasn't been for a long time. Well, either buff him, or stop making it so easy for decks to burst down 15 health, anyway. But the last time they even tried to do that was when Leeroy was nerfed back in year 1.)

[Rynjin]

I don't know about temporary. Demon hunter's core tribe will probably stay demon.

It will, but a card that is (generously) only good 20% of the time is still niche. Only two classes are going to consistently get demons, and next year Galakrond will be rotating, so the other benefit of Sac Pact being run so much now will be gone. I don't think it would be run so consistently if it weren't multi-modal; having a card that's excellent in 2/10 matchups and COMPLETELY DEAD in the other ones ain't so hot.

[Thomas Cardew]

I'd agree other than it's part of the classic set which means EVERY class highlander deck has easy access to it off Zephrys which makes it so consistently back breaking. It's one of the few cases where I'd support changing a classic card, either to be a 0 cost restricted to a friendly demon (possibly even buffed to just minion) or making it 3/4 mana targets any demon. Or 3/4 mana destroy a demon, if it's friendly gain 3/4 mana crystals this turn.

[Rynjin]

I'd agree other than it's part of the classic set which means EVERY class highlander deck has easy access to it off Zephrys which makes it so consistently back breaking. It's one of the few cases where I'd support changing a classic card, either to be a 0 cost restricted to a friendly demon (possibly even buffed to just minion) or making it 3/4 mana targets any demon. Or 3/4 mana destroy a demon, if it's friendly gain 3/4 mana crystals this turn.

Counterpoint: Zephrys is MEANT to be consistently backbreaking, it's the entire point of the card. It's little different than if it offers you the new Shadow Word Death and quite a bit LESS impactful than some of the other options (Shadow Word: Ruin is now a Classic card as well).

It even introduces more decision making for the card over the course of a game than previously existed; do you play it for early tempo (destroying a 3/2 or so, on average) or hold it for later? Previously the answer used to be almost universally to hold it for later, unless you REALLY had a need fro Wild Growth or Animal Companion, but now it's a bit more up in the air.

This is good design.

[Zevox]

Played some Battlegrounds tonight, and got over 8k rank for the first time taking a Curator Menagerie with Golden Lightfang to first!

...then promptly dropped below it again by getting 8th trying to play Ysera, because the only other hero I was offered that I liked was the Curator again . Shows me for trying to play something different, I guess.

[Joran]

Hit over 9000 in Battlegrounds, played again today and queued into Zalae, a Hearthstone GM. I ended up winning the lobby with a Holy Mackerel Divine Shield build.

I still don't know how to play Deathwing; I tend to easily hit top 4 by prioritizing deathrattles (Ratpack OP), but never pick up a win condition when I hit tier 5 or 6.

I tend to be pretty boring by playing strong early commanders like Yogg and then playing for top 4 by being strong mid-game. I had Reno as a choice a couple of times and passed him up for Deathwing and Yogg, because I knew I could play them better for a higher placement while Reno is more fun, interesting, and more likely to have a crap early game which leads to a bottom finish.

[Lord Raziere]

decided to get back into this game after nine months.

of course all my decks are pretty much wild now. great.

but that doesn't seem to matter since the game seems to have become Illidanstone for the time being. not that I'm complaining, because I'm actually having fun beating people with the starter demon hunter deck, winning most of my games with it. and its strong, if this is how demon hunters are after nerfs, oh boy, pre-nerfed ones must've been crazy. but then, Demon Hunters seem to fit my natural "attack relentlessly" style. hunters seem patient in comparison to how much a demon hunter goes on the offensive.

I have now gotten two puzzle boxes of yogg-saron to add to my randomancer deck. it is now complete.

but I have this problem of apparently having a quest to defeat 3 challengers given to people returning, but this quest is supposed to be completed BEFORE I get back to regular play by beating 3 AIs, but somehow I never went through the returning experience and I don't know how to get into that menu to face them to get my returning card packs. I don't know how I skipped it or if its a bug, but I hope that I can switch it for some other quest or that I will go into the return challenge at some point.

[Rodin]

Whew!

I finally made it to Diamond 5. Pretty sure this is the highest rank I've ever been, and I've got the safety of the rank floor to try other decks. Heal/Resurrect Priest is highly effective but the games are a real grind.

I played the final stretch in full tilt mode too. I got to the last match I needed to win and was pleased to see a Demon Hunter. Since my deck is teched heavily against them I have a pretty good winrate against them, and this matchup was no different. I was in total control until the DH hit fatigue and played a discounted Priestess of Fury along with a Kayn to clear the board and make sure the damage went face.

At this point I had two options. I could Soul Mirror and hero power for an extra minion, or I could Shadow Madness the Kayn first to guarantee a kill on the Priestess. The downside of the second play is that I would not get his Priestess and he would be free to play onto an empty board. Technically I could also cast Plague of Death, but that's a strictly worse play.

I decided on the first play. After all, only one bolt from my Priestess needed to hit his Priestess for me to be left with an uncontested 6/1. I did the math - the chance of missing is 1/64, or 1.56%.

I missed. He played a second Priestess, and I died in a hail of gunfire.

After that, I went on a losing streak that took me back down to rank 7. I spent the entire rest of the day grinding matches out to climb back up to rank 6 and 3 stars.

Final opponent was Galakrond Warlock. And this time, RNG decided to make it up to me. I topdecked 5 turns in a row as he dropped powerful board after powerful board. This included getting Renew into a Plague of Death as well as Galakrond selecting the pair of 8/8s out of a board full of 1/1s.

I'm exhausted. I don't think I want to play that Priest deck for a long, long time. It was too damn stressful grinding out those final few games.

[Stevesciguy]

They've stated what cards are getting nerfed, though they haven't stated exactly what those nerfs will look like. They are:

• Battlefiend
• Altruis
• Glaivebound Adept
• Kael'thas
• Bad Luck Albatross
• Frenzied Felwing
• Open the Waygate(Wild)
• Bloodbloom(Wild)
• Sacrificial Pact

From some interviews, we can get a vague idea of what some of the nerfs will look like:

• Sac Pact will probably only target friendlies
• Battlefiend might go to 1/2
• Kael'thas will probably be getting a mana nerf, not an effect nerf

RIP Kael'thas/Togwaggle Druid, I'm gonna miss you

[Rodin]

They've stated what cards are getting nerfed, though they haven't stated exactly what those nerfs will look like. They are:

• Battlefiend
• Altruis
• Glaivebound Adept
• Kael'thas
• Bad Luck Albatross
• Frenzied Felwing
• Open the Waygate(Wild)
• Bloodbloom(Wild)
• Sacrificial Pact

List is about what I'd expect. I'm a bit surprised Priestess isn't on there and that Glaivebound Adept is. Adept is a bit stronger than Fire Elemental, a card which hasn't seen play in some time. He's a good card but very much not on my nerf list.

I'm betting the Altruis nerf will be that he no longer hits face. Allowing him to still clear the board would leave him as a powerful Legendary while making it so he doesn't ALSO deal 4-5 damage to face when he's played.

From some interviews, we can get a vague idea of what some of the nerfs will look like:

• Sac Pact will probably only target friendlies
• Battlefiend might go to 1/2
• Kael'thas will probably be getting a mana nerf, not an effect nerf

RIP Kael'thas/Togwaggle Druid, I'm gonna miss you

That Kael'thas nerf is bad and the Hearthstone team should feel bad. The problem with Kael'thas is entirely that he can chain multiple high cost spells together in a single turn. Making him cost more doesn't help because the combos that use him aren't spending mana on the secondary spells! It's all Demon Hunter and Druid decks making use of Twin Slice and Bog Beam/Moonfire. Kael'thas allowing you to cheat out 6-10 mana worth of spell would be more than enough for him to see play. He cheats out a big spell while also putting a 4/7 on the board that MUST be removed lest the same thing happen the following turn.

Even if you made him cost 8 I don't see a nerf having any effect. He'd have to cost 9 or 10 to seriously impact the ability to throw out huge combos. That seems a far inferior solution to simply fixing the broken interaction.

[Rynjin]

That Kael'thas nerf is bad and the Hearthstone team should feel bad. The problem with Kael'thas is entirely that he can chain multiple high cost spells together in a single turn. Making him cost more doesn't help because the combos that use him aren't spending mana on the secondary spells! It's all Demon Hunter and Druid decks making use of Twin Slice and Bog Beam/Moonfire. Kael'thas allowing you to cheat out 6-10 mana worth of spell would be more than enough for him to see play. He cheats out a big spell while also putting a 4/7 on the board that MUST be removed lest the same thing happen the following turn.

Even if you made him cost 8 I don't see a nerf having any effect. He'd have to cost 9 or 10 to seriously impact the ability to throw out huge combos. That seems a far inferior solution to simply fixing the broken interaction.

Well, yes. The entire point of the card is that he's a combo enabler. The problem was that the combo was executable on turn 6, where combos traditionally have the drawback of needing 9-10 mana to pull off instead.

[Joran]

Well, yes. The entire point of the card is that he's a combo enabler. The problem was that the combo was executable on turn 6, where combos traditionally have the drawback of needing 9-10 mana to pull off instead.

Could even be turn 4 with Druid.

Delaying the Kael'thas power turn by a couple of turns would give Control decks more time to prepare and have an answer and also give Aggro decks time to put more pressure. Also, it makes the combo harder to chain together since it'll limit the number of non-zero cost spells that can be used to maintain it.

Pushing the card to 8 mana would limit the power sufficiently, while still allowing Kael'thas decks to exist. That said, we don't know the nerf yet (an alternative I saw was increasing the spell cost to 1) and if the decks are still overbearing, then they can always Warsong Commander the card.

Edit:

Looks like the nerfs are in. Kael'Thas to 7 mana doesn't seem like a big enough change; 8 would have been better. But we'll see. Felwing nerf seems a little light too, 2 instead of 3 health is pretty big, but it still means you can see an annoyingly big board out of nowhere and you need the AoE in your hand.

Kael’Thas Sunstrider
Old: Cost 6 mana → New: Cost 7 mana.

Bad Luck Albatross
Old: Cost 3 mana → New: Cost 4 mana.

Frenzied Felwing
Old: 3 Attack / 3 Health → New: 3 Attack / 2 Health.

Demon Hunter
Altruis the Outcast
Old: Cost 3 mana, 3 Attack / 2 Health → New: Cost 4 mana. 4 Attack / 2 Health.

Battlefiend:
Old: 2 Attack / 2 Health → New: 1 Attack / 2 Health.

Glaivebound Adept
Old: 7 Attack / 4 Health → New: 6 Attack / 4 Health.

Warlock –
Sacrificial Pact
Old: Destroy a Demon. Restore 5 Health to your hero. → New: Destroy a friendly Demon. Restore 5 Health to your hero.

Bloodbloom
Old: Cost 2 mana → New: Cost 4 mana.

Paladin –
Libram of Justice
Old: Cost 6 mana → New: Cost 5 mana.

Mage –
Open the Waygate
Old: Cast 6 spells that didn’t start in your deck. Reward: Time Warp. → New: Cast 8 spells that didn’t start in your deck. Reward: Time Warp.

Battlegrounds
Millhouse Manastorm
Old: Minions cost 2 Gold. Refresh costs 2 Gold. Start with 3 Gold. → New: Minions cost 2 Gold. Refresh costs 2 Gold. Tavern Tiers cost (1) more. Start with 3 Gold.

[Stevesciguy]

Welp, that Waygate nerf won't do jack. At least DH Warlock will be gone.

Altruis' mana cost wasn't the problem, really would've liked to see them make it minion-only damage.

I think Albatross should've gone to 3 attack instead of 4 mana, but sure.

Glaivebound Adept feels like a pretty puny nerf, but I'm not sure it was one of the problem cards.

Battlefiend was expected and makes sense.

Haven't seen enough of Felwing to really comment.

Sac Pact was expected and makes sense.

Kael'thas wouldn't be a big nerf, but his new mana cost means piper won't tutor him, which kills my new favorite deck. RIP

[Requizen]

All these DH nerfs and no touches to Priestess of Fury, though that's not surprising because it isn't in every version of the the S-tier Aggro DH decks. Which is nuts, because that card is so good. Imagine a class where every class card is so good that you could nerf half a dozen in the first 2 weeks and still have frustrating power cards left over.

[Rynjin]

All these DH nerfs and no touches to Priestess of Fury, though that's not surprising because it isn't in every version of the the S-tier Aggro DH decks. Which is nuts, because that card is so good. Imagine a class where every class card is so good that you could nerf half a dozen in the first 2 weeks and still have frustrating power cards left over.

It's pretty consistent for Hearthstone, and card games in general.

Typically, CARDS are not OP. SYNERGIES are OP.

Priestess of Fury is a really good individual card, but it doesn't really synergize with anything. It's just an independently solid turn 6 play.

The rest of the cards that were nerfed were either so outside the power scale that they needed a tweak (Skull of Gul'dan), enabled synergies, or both. Nerfing Priestess of Fury doesn't really do anything but make Priestess of Fury weaker. Nerfing Battlefiend makes DH weaker turn 1, nerfing Glaivebound Adept makes them overall weaker on turn 5, etc. because what makes those cards good is their ability to unilaterally grab tempo or snowball forward into an unrelenting lead if you don't have a way to deal with them, because they synergize well with Demon Hunter's overall kit of "attack with weapon/Hero Power, get cool stuff".

[Zevox]

Battlegrounds
Millhouse Manastorm
Old: Minions cost 2 Gold. Refresh costs 2 Gold. Start with 3 Gold. → New: Minions cost 2 Gold. Refresh costs 2 Gold. Tavern Tiers cost (1) more. Start with 3 Gold.

Oh? Interesting. That means that Millhouse is back to having worse tavern tier break points than everyone else, but can still get a strong start if he opens with a token minion. I wonder if that will send him right back down to being the worst hero again, or if they've finally hit a point where he'll be somewhere in the middle of the pack? Really hard to tell with him, I wasn't expecting the buff to starting with 3 gold to matter nearly as much as it did.

[Geno9999]

All these DH nerfs and no touches to Priestess of Fury, though that's not surprising because it isn't in every version of the the S-tier Aggro DH decks. Which is nuts, because that card is so good. Imagine a class where every class card is so good that you could nerf half a dozen in the first 2 weeks and still have frustrating power cards left over.

It's pretty consistent for Hearthstone, and card games in general.

Typically, CARDS are not OP. SYNERGIES are OP.

Priestess of Fury is a really good individual card, but it doesn't really synergize with anything. It's just an independently solid turn 6 play.

The rest of the cards that were nerfed were either so outside the power scale that they needed a tweak (Skull of Gul'dan), enabled synergies, or both. Nerfing Priestess of Fury doesn't really do anything but make Priestess of Fury weaker. Nerfing Battlefiend makes DH weaker turn 1, nerfing Glaivebound Adept makes them overall weaker on turn 5, etc. because what makes those cards good is their ability to unilaterally grab tempo or snowball forward into an unrelenting lead if you don't have a way to deal with them, because they synergize well with Demon Hunter's overall kit of "attack with weapon/Hero Power, get cool stuff".

I agree, the nerfs to Skull of Gul'dan and Imprisoned Antaen made Priestess of Fury a bit awkward all things considered. Powerful yes, but one of the factors that made Priestess OP was that she used to come out on curve with Antaen's awakening turn, mopping up most boards. Now that it's been delayed by a turn, opposing decks have more time to set up a board to soak up damage and also remove the demons in response.

But I think we will see Priestess of Fury make a comeback anyway because of the Sacrificial Pact change: Galakrond Control Warlock has a decent matchup against Tempo Demon Hunter, being able to remove early boards and then swing with Galakrond, Kronx, and/or either Alexstrazas. Sacrificial Pact was already run in DoD, but was mostly used on the 1/1 Imps or used against the mirror match. Today, being able to remove Priestess or Antaen for free AND regain 5 HP is too good to pass up, so most Tempo Demon Hunter decks have instead opted for Glaivebound Adept (who is notably ISN'T a demon, but serves a similar purpose of late game burst on threatening body.)

As for the other changes:

Kael'thas: Eh, still feels like he'll be a problem as long as 0-cost spells exist. Makes it slightly harder/awkward with 1 or 2 cost spells to proc the discount though.

Bad Luck Albatross: I think the only deck this effects is Resurrect Priest, maybe Galakrond Warlock? Otherwise, it's a tech card, it'll see play while Highlander decks exist.

Frenzied Felwing: Huh. I expected it to go to 5 mana, make it harder to cheat out, but making it a 3/2 works too.

Altruis: Wat. Mana increase... AND an attack buff? Same story as Kael'thas, still powerful with 0-cost stuff, though have to wait till Skull discounts anyway, still stomps everything.

Battlefiend: Expected, will still see play, just makes turn 1 play slightly weaker.

Glaivebound Adept: Meh. Battlecry was what mattered, 7 attack would have mattered more if Priestess was still being played... though since she might have a comeback, she might push Adept out of deck lists.

[Rodin]

The reasoning behind Felwing I've heard is that 2 health is very important in the meta right now. There's a lot of 2 health minions out there right now, and Demon Hunter in particular has a flipping ton. The nerf means that early DH boards will be cleared by cards like Immolation Aura, Holy Nova, Consecration, etc.

Whether it's enough remains to be seen, but I can at least respect what they're trying to do. Same with Battlefiend. The rest of the nerfs? Utterly worthless. It's one of the worst balance changes I've ever seen in Hearthstone. The changes don't match with what I've seen streamers suggesting. They don't match with what "feels" correct either. Increasing the cost of Kael'thas and Altruis by one does literally nothing to stop the broken crap they can do. Increasing the cost of Albatross by one has zero impact on Rez Priests that often don't have another minion less than 5 cost in their deck. It doesn't stop Albatross from entirely breaking one of the new decks Blizzard is trying to push - 2 decks if you count Pure Paladin as well.

I'm starting to understand why they normally take 2-3 months to push out a balance patch. This is just terrible. What's worse is that we'll probably wind up with double-nerfed cards - a 4 cost Altruis that doesn't go face, and a 7-mana Kael'thas that only triggers once per turn.

I guess I'm going back to Arena for a month or two until they get this mess sorted.

[Hamste]

Just saw the most insane battlegrounds start yet. Here is what I think happened. Sir Finley got Galakrond's Greed. Did Galakrond's greed on tavern tier 1 two turns in a row (Staying at 1) to get a tier 3 minion which was Shifter Zerus. Which then next turn shifted into a voidlord played the turn I faced them (Turn 4). They still ended up 5th (They tried to go demons) but it was brutal early game.

[Rynjin]

Trying to crack through to Diamond with Dragon Murloc Paladin, and capped off my last winning streak with a brutal losing streak. Still ultimately gained more stars than I lost, but going from Plat 5 to Plat 2 (2 stars) and then back down to Plat 3 hurt a lot. Lot of Priests and Mages all of a sudden instead of the Demon Hunters and...literally everything else in the game which I've been farming for wins. The last game I played burned me out for the rest of the night because the sheer disgusting highrolls my opponents have been getting. I expect it from Mage, but the second Priest was the last straw; my Fishflinger gave them Underlight Angler, which they used gain an early game tempo they otherwise wouldn't have, and Thoughtsteal gave them the exact two cards from my deck they needed to win (Warleader and Angling Rod).

Still think I can crack at least Diamond 5 this season though, so long as my luck turns.

[Gandariel]

Small update from me: Only been playing a bit of battlegrounds, finally reached 8k MMR, which is nice.

Did thought experiment regarding the best possible early turns:

T1 is Malygos (or Milhouse) with 2/1 tidehunter + 2/4 Vulgar Homunculus.

Best turn 2 I could think of is also Milhouse: Turn one you do the same as before, turn two you buy two more Homunculi, get a triple, and pick Nathrezim Overseer, ending up with a 2/1, 6/10, and 2/3.

My best turn three is again Milhouse.
T1: Alley cat, sell the Alley cat, buy another Alley cat.
T2: Buy one more Alley cat, and play it. The 1/1 Tabby cats triple. Sell the two Alley cats, tier up, play the triple into Shifter Zerus.
T3: Zerus turns into Mama Bear, play it. Buy two Alley Cats, sell one, buy third alley cat and play it, tripling the Tabby cats.
Play the triple, get a 3 star minion (Infested Wolf or The Beast)

V2: Sell the 2/2 golden Tabby cat and one of the 6/6 Alley cats, buy a Pack Rat.
V3: Pick Houndmaster as your 3 star, and buff whatever you want (i'll buff the 17/17 golden Tabby). Sell the 2/2 golden Tabby cat and the Houndmaster, buy a fourth and final Alley cat. Play it and Triple it. Get a three star minion (Infested Wolf or The Beast)

Your board is now:
2/2 golden Tabby cat
5/5 Mama Bear
6/6 Alley Cat
6/6 Alley Cat
17/17 golden Tabby Cat
8/8 Infested Wolf (or 14/12 The Beast)

V2:
7/7 Pack Rat
5/5 Mama Bear
6/6 Alley Cat
17/17 golden Tabby Cat
8/8 Infested Wolf (or 14/12 The Beast)

V3:
5/5 Mama Bear
19/19 golden Tabby Cat
17/17 Golden Alley Cat
8/8 Infested Wolf (or 14/12 The Beast)

I also had an idea with Tidehunters, Zerus into Gentle Megasaur, and you'd end up with a few Poison murlocs, or one with demons (Zerus into Imp Mama / Voidlord + Soul Juggler)

I suppose it would also be possible to do the same setup and get Ghastcoiler + Deflect-o-bot, so that in combat the Ghastcoiler spawns BS amounts of value like Sneed's (into Maexxna/Foe Reaper) / Kangor's apprentice / Robosaur Egg

[Tvtyrant]

Just saw the most insane battlegrounds start yet. Here is what I think happened. Sir Finley got Galakrond's Greed. Did Galakrond's greed on tavern tier 1 two turns in a row (Staying at 1) to get a tier 3 minion which was Shifter Zerus. Which then next turn shifted into a voidlord played the turn I faced them (Turn 4). They still ended up 5th (They tried to go demons) but it was brutal early game.

They really reached for the stars there, rewarded for massive risk taking.

[Hamste]

Yeah, it was an insane play. It's too bad only people who can't capitalize on it will take the types of risks to get that outcome.



As for the best turn
Yogg ties the Millhouse and Malygos play with a hero power Vulgar.

Turn 2 best turn is death wing. Turn 1 you get a tide Hunter, turn 2 you get another tide hunter sell both tokens to get a third tide hunter which triples and the triple gives you a rat pack so your board is a 6/2 murloc and a 4/2 that summons 4 3/1. Worst case ties that Millhouse idea.


Another good turn 2 is Dancing Darryl pick 2 tide hunters, sell the minions with all 8 hitting a vulgar (This brings you up to 5 mana), buy another another tide hunter, sell them with all 4 hats hitting the vulgar. Then pick the Vulgar who is now a 14/16. Against that deathwing start it loses every time but beats that Millhouse start every time.

You could also get a 12/14 vulgar and a 2/3 demon if you instead triple the the tide hunters and get the right choice. It depends on which you think is better. This start can tie the death wing start sometimes though it can never win. I guess it is technically better on turn 2 than the other option as it doesn't always lose to another of the the theoretical best turn 2s.

[Geno9999]

I made it to Reno Diamond 5, thanks to Tempo Demon Hunter, though I did play with Galakrond Control Warlock.

My Galakrond Rogue deck from Descent of Dragons still felt good last week, literally carried me out of Platinum with an unbroken win streak, and the only card I added was Akama. Haven't really taken the time to play my Stealth Galakrond Rogue deck, despite it showing potential with surprise lethal against a Demon Hunter.

[The Glyphstone]

So I just fought a Brawl against someone named 'Kripp', and actually won by the skin of my teeth - 13 to 2, he topdecks an Obsidian Statue but I topdeck a Fireball for lethal. Is that the streamer, or does he go by another name and I met a knockoff?

[Hamste]

He is actually streaming so we can check the logs. You posted an hour and a half ago it seems so let me see.

Afraid it was not him, he was in the middle of a tournament during that time.

[Seerow]

Pretty sure if you run into krip in game, his username is "LettuceKing" or something along those lines rather than krip.

[Gandariel]

Yeah, it was an insane play. It's too bad only people who can't capitalize on it will take the types of risks to get that outcome.



As for the best turn
Yogg ties the Millhouse and Malygos play with a hero power Vulgar.

Turn 2 best turn is death wing. Turn 1 you get a tide Hunter, turn 2 you get another tide hunter sell both tokens to get a third tide hunter which triples and the triple gives you a rat pack so your board is a 6/2 murloc and a 4/2 that summons 4 3/1. Worst case ties that Millhouse idea.


Another good turn 2 is Dancing Darryl pick 2 tide hunters, sell the minions with all 8 hitting a vulgar (This brings you up to 5 mana), buy another another tide hunter, sell them with all 4 hats hitting the vulgar. Then pick the Vulgar who is now a 14/16. Against that deathwing start it loses every time but beats that Millhouse start every time.

You could also get a 12/14 vulgar and a 2/3 demon if you instead triple the the tide hunters and get the right choice. It depends on which you think is better. This start can tie the death wing start sometimes though it can never win. I guess it is technically better on turn 2 than the other option as it doesn't always lose to another of the the theoretical best turn 2s.

Holy cow that's interesting, i never thought of that!
Thanks!