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

[Rodin]

Huh. I didn't expect there wouldn't be differences between lower and higher level play of course, but I can't imagine why Jaraxxus would be that good at low-level play.

Best guess? At lower ranked play, most players will chase a specific tribe whether or not it's a good idea. Jaraxxus gives a specific tribe AND a steady set of buffs. Without advanced strategies (or even really basic ones like "leave a slot free to churn through buffs") the +5/+5 to +7/+7 every turn from Jaraxxus beats out the other tribes handily. I always pick Jaraxxus when it's offered and play it as a zoo deck. At my rank (around 5000ish) that's more than enough to get at least 4th place.

[Resileaf]

I'm starting to wonder if I even belong in rank 5. All I've been doing is losing.

[Thomas Cardew]

I'm starting to wonder if I even belong in rank 5. All I've been doing is losing.

I feel this. I've dropped about 1000 points in battlegrounds in 2 days. It's hard not to rage against the RNG but I just got offered Red Whelp, Dragon Spawn Lt, and Hangry Dragon or Hangry Dragon, Herald of Flame, and Red Whelp as my Alexestrza rank 5 dragons... Or the deathwing run before that where as the only beast player I rerolled 19 times in a row looking for a Mama Bear or anything useful and got nada.

[Stevesciguy]

So, uh, in other news: there was a leak.

Spoiler

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They're adding a tenth class.
https://hearthstone-decks.net/hearth...ak-16-03-2020/

[Rynjin]

So, uh, in other news: there was a leak.

Spoiler

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They're adding a tenth class.
https://hearthstone-decks.net/hearth...ak-16-03-2020/

I think I'll wait until tomorrow to comment on this, because that seems a little wild for a true leak.

[The Glyphstone]

Did they just strip Priest of all its single target removal?

[Rynjin]

Did they just strip Priest of all its single target removal?

If real, they basically gutted the entire class of being anything more than a Resurrect/Health buff monkey.

[Geno9999]

So, uh, in other news: there was a leak.

Spoiler

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They're adding a tenth class.
https://hearthstone-decks.net/hearth...ak-16-03-2020/

Spoiler

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Priest is also getting reworked. They only list the cards that have been changed, but they are replacing a lot of cards from Basic and Classic:

Changed cards:
Thoughtsteal Common Classic (3 Mana Spell, Copy 2 cards from your opponent's deck, add them to your hand.) Cost reduced from 3 to 2 Mana.
Temple Enforcer Common Classic (6 Mana 6/6 Minion, Battlecry: give a friendly minion +3 health.) Cost reduced from 6 mana to 5, stats changed from 6/6 to 5/6.
Shadow Word: Death Basic (3 Mana Spell, Destroy a minion with 5 or more attack.) Cost reduced from 3 to 2 Mana.
Shadow Madness Rare Classic (4 Mana Spell, Take control of a minion with 3 or less attack until the end of your turn.) Cost reduced from 4 Mana to 3.
Power Word: Shield Basic (1 Mana Spell, Give a Minion +2 Health. Draw a Card.) Cost reduced to 0 Mana, now reads "Give a Minion +2 Health."
Holy Smite Basic (1 Mana Spell, Deal 2 damage.) Now reads "Deal 3 damage to a minion."
Holy Nova Basic (5 Mana Spell, Deal 2 damage to all enemies. Restore 2 Health to all friendly characters.) Cost reduced to 4 Mana, now reads "Deal 2 damage to all enemy minions. Restore 2 Health to all friendly characters."

New Cards:
Shadow Word: Ruin Epic Classic (4 Mana Spell, Destroy all minions with 5 or more Attack.)
Scarlet Subjugator Rare Classic (1 Mana 2/1 Minion, Battlecry: Give an enemy minion -2 attack until the start of your next turn.)
Psychic Conjurer Basic (1 Mana 1/1 Minion, Battlecry: Copy a Card in your opponent's deck, and add it to your hand.)
Power Infusion Basic (4 Mana Spell, give a minion +2/+6.)
Kul Tiran Chaplain Rare Classic (2 Mana 2/3 Minion, Battlecry: Give a friendly minion +2 health.)
Natalie Seline Legendary Classic (8 Mana 8/1 Minion, Battlecry: Destroy a minion and gain its health.)

Spoiler: Greetings. Greetings. Greet- *squelched*

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Keep in mind, the leak didn't say which cards were getting replaced, but it's fairly obvious that Prophet Velen got the boot. I'd also wadger that Divine Spirit and/or Inner Fire also got kicked into the Hall of Fame, because there's a lot of new cards that increase a minion's health, and can easily be exploited, again, by the ancient combo of Divine Spirit and Inner Fire. I'm willing to bet both got HoF'd, but more so Inner Fire. Not sure if Northshire Cleric is getting HoF'd as well, especially when RIP Power Word: Shield. I'm actually thinking Mind Vision is getting replaced by Psychic Conjurer, since those two do the almost the same thing for the same cost but the latter has a 1/1 body (though Vision copies a card from hand, and Conjurer copies from the deck, that difference is relatively minor.)

But otherwise, I'm just gonna sit here having PTSD from fighting Shadowreaper Anduin, what with Shadow Word: Ruin in particular, but also Shadow Word: Death went from "yeah okay, that's playable" to "2 of in every deck, no questions asked."
Shadow Madness is actually playable, especially with Scarlet Subjugator.
Priest's Holy Nova went from being a joke to "Consecration but Better."
Sure, Priest may or may not have a Combo readily available from their Basic/Classic cards, but dear God, you're not going to be able to set up a board, and you're not going be able to chip down Priest's minions, you're just going to die from a thousand cuts of Priest's healthy bois.

[Zevox]

Did they just strip Priest of all its single target removal?

What would make you think that? According to that site, basically all of their removal removal got buffed. 2 mana Shadow Word: Death and 3 damage Holy Smite for single-target, and 3 mana Shadow Madness and 4 mana Holy Nova (minus face damage) for AoE, plus the new Shadow Word: Mass Death Ruin. The only thing from Classic that didn't get buff is Shadow Word: Pain, if I'm not forgetting something.

The only nerf in that entire batch is Power Word: Shield losing "draw a card," and even that at least goes down to 0 mana in exchange.

Anyway, all big stuff if true. Figures they'd finally add a new class right after I decide to ditch the game, doesn't it? Although I thought the expected tenth class if one was ever going to happen was Death Knight, not this Demon Hunter thing.

Edit: Okay, crazy thing just happened to me in the Battlegrounds: I got paired with the same guy twice in a row, and not when we down to the last two. One round there were still five of us left; the next it was down to the top 3, but we had the same pairing. Cost me a potential win, because this guy was in pretty good shape, and I could really have used a turn fighting the weaker third player or a ghost to power up. I thought they'd made it so that you couldn't fight someone more than once per three games until it was down to the last two, much less twice in a row?

[The Glyphstone]

What would make you think that? According to that site, basically all of their removal removal got buffed. 2 mana Shadow Word: Death and 3 damage Holy Smite for single-target, and 3 mana Shadow Madness and 4 mana Holy Nova (minus face damage) for AoE, plus the new Shadow Word: Mass Death Ruin. The only thing from Classic that didn't get buff is Shadow Word: Pain, if I'm not forgetting something.

The only nerf in that entire batch is Power Word: Shield losing "draw a card," and even that at least goes down to 0 mana in exchange.

Anyway, all big stuff if true. Figures they'd finally add a new class right after I decide to ditch the game, doesn't it? Although I thought the expected tenth class if one was ever going to happen was Death Knight, not this Demon Hunter thing.

Edit: Okay, crazy thing just happened to me in the Battlegrounds: I got paired with the same guy twice in a row, and not when we down to the last two. One round there were still five of us left; the next it was down to the top 3, but we had the same pairing. Cost me a potential win, because this guy was in pretty good shape, and I could really have used a turn fighting the weaker third player or a ghost to power up. I thought they'd made it so that you couldn't fight someone more than once per three games until it was down to the last two, much less twice in a row?

I misread. I saw the bit about HoF'ing cards that didnt 'fit priest class identity' followed by a big long list of their removal spells.

[Tvtyrant]

I misread. I saw the bit about HoF'ing cards that didnt 'fit priest class identity' followed by a big long list of their removal spells.

That's what I thought too. "Oh I see we are canceling Priest for the new class."

[Thomas Cardew]

I think I'll wait until tomorrow to comment on this, because that seems a little wild for a true leak.

Spoiler: Weird if true

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I have a feeling this will either be super aggro or useless. Given the quote from the dev's as the class having no card generation but card draw, I doubt it will be able to compete with the current absurdities of lackey/highlander/general created by any other way meta we're currently in.

[Rodin]

I misread. I saw the bit about HoF'ing cards that didnt 'fit priest class identity' followed by a big long list of their removal spells.

It looks like the only card to get HoF'd would be Prophet Velen, which is fair enough. Again, if true.

I still wish they would take down Malygos. He fits the exact same criteria for HoF'ing as Velen, and is even more dangerous due to being Neutral. It seems like every other expansion we have to deal with "Malygos InsertClassHere" and it's long past time he was put out to pasture. If he was seeing play otherwise it would be different, but right now his only use is OTKO decks and occasional getting randomly summoned out of Dream Portals.

[Divayth Fyr]

Demon Hunter confirmed. As are the Hall of Fame cards...

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Leeroy, Mountain Giant, Mind Control Tech, Acolyte of Pain, Spellbreaker
Auchenai Soulpriest, Divine Spirit, Holy Fire, Shadowform, Northshire Cleric, Velen

[Stevesciguy]

They're also adding duplicate protection to every rarity! As well as redoing the ranked system and its rewards

[The Glyphstone]

I won't be sad to see Shadowform and MCT go. MCT's effect only works if you are losing so badly it won't help, and Shadowform was always a dead-card for Priest. Leeroy makes sense if they're trying to kill mega-burst combo. No one ever played Spellbreaker anyways so it's a wash.

Auchenai baffles me, as does Mountain Giant and Acolyte.

[Rodin]

I won't be sad to see Shadowform and MCT go. MCT's effect only works if you are losing so badly it won't help, and Shadowform was always a dead-card for Priest. Leeroy makes sense if they're trying to kill mega-burst combo. No one ever played Spellbreaker anyways so it's a wash.

Auchenai baffles me, as does Mountain Giant and Acolyte.

Mountain Giant has been on my personal list for years. Every time a class gets a big control deck or a "do thing with big minion" combo Mountain Giant comes out of the woodwork to mess you up. It's also one of the classic feelbad cards. Sometimes you just can't deal with a 4 mana 8/8 and die on the spot. I won't miss it.

The reasoning given for Acolyte of Pain was the Neutral Card Draw package. Acolyte, Novice Engineer, and Loot Hoarder are all Classic card draw cards that get put into decks at the exclusion of any other form of card draw. Acolyte is the best at it, so it got the chop.

I don't have strong feelings either way on this one. I buy the reasoning, but it wasn't a card that irritated me so I would have been fine with keeping it around.

I think MCT and Spellbreaker are aimed more at Tournament play. MCT was constantly on the cusp of seeing play depending on the meta, and Spellbreaker almost always found its way in as the best Neutral Silence card.

The reason given for Auchenai is that they don't plan on supporting the "turn Priest healing into damage" archetype any more, and with Velen going that's doubly true. Auchenai goes to free up room for a better card, so I support it. It's not like anyone was using it.

And of course, Malygos stays. Oh, and would you look at that? One of the new Druid cards drops the cost of a minion by 5.

Say hello to your new Malygos Druid overlords, everyone!

*sigh*

[Stevesciguy]

If he was seeing play otherwise it would be different, but right now his only use is OTKO decks and occasional getting randomly summoned out of Dream Portals.

What other use could he possibly have?

And of course, Malygos stays. Oh, and would you look at that? One of the new Druid cards drops the cost of a minion by 5.

Say hello to your new Malygos Druid overlords, everyone!

*sigh*

I'm not sure that a combo class having combo enablers is much of a problem

[Thomas Cardew]

I won't be sad to see Shadowform and MCT go. MCT's effect only works if you are losing so badly it won't help, and Shadowform was always a dead-card for Priest. Leeroy makes sense if they're trying to kill mega-burst combo. No one ever played Spellbreaker anyways so it's a wash.

Auchenai baffles me, as does Mountain Giant and Acolyte.

I think they're just removing priest's ability to do any offensive damage. I'm a little bit sad to see MCT and Spellbreaker go, mostly because I don't see them being replaced with anything half way decent in whizzbang decks. MCT in really useful in the whizzbang shaman and spell breaker was a life saver in as the only available silence. Spell breaker has seen some play a one off in a few decks for silence.

I'm a little bit disappointed I already own max number of all of these though: so there's no point in crafting any golden.

I also feel bad. I got one my friends to come back literally 3 days ago. If she'd waited till today she get a free deck instead...

[Seerow]

I haven't had a chance to watch the announcement yet and won't until late tonight.

Was there any mention of arena at all, or is it remaining the red headed step child indefinitely?

[Thomas Cardew]

I didn't see anything in the written stuff beyond 4 tickets included in a p2w bundle. And the leaderboards announcement a week ago.

EDIT: Ysera feel much better in battle grounds now. Making her passive free really help her early game as you can stock up for the first few rounds by freezing for triples instead of having to reroll. Doesn't solve the mid game, I can't get a decent dragon or I rerolled 10g at tier 5 and found nothing problem but makes it easier to be in a better position to survive that stage.

[Rynjin]

Now that the leak is confirmed real I can express...I'm not a fan. Class identity for Demon Hunter looks way too narrow, and pigeonholing a class (Priest) SO COMPLETELY into a singular identity of "buff minion health, remove high attack minions" is ridiculous.

Some of the most fun decks in the game go off basic class identity; I'm playing a Control Hunter right now that's more fun than any of the Aggro flavors that exists ATM, as an example.

The Neutral Hall of Fame cards are bizarre. I understand Leeroy and Mountain Giant; they've been "must includes" in decks for too long. Acolyte is a bit weird, and makes me feel even more sorry for Priests, who lose their ENTIRE unique card draw engine with this. MCT and Spellbreaker are just baffling. MCT sees a fair amount of play because it's the only card that does what it does; Spellbreaker is one of two Neutral Silence options in the game, and it getting removed is going to make any future decks along the lines of Embiggen Druid and any future mechanics similar to Magnetic a nightmare to play against, since now the only other option is one with a garbage statline.

[Stevesciguy]

Oh, a small detail that got overlooked: cards that you disenchant still count towards the no duplicates thing. So if you open a legendary you don't want, you can disenchant it immediately without having to worry about opening it again until you have all the other legendaries.

[Zevox]

Auchenai baffles me, as does Mountain Giant and Acolyte.

Indeed. If I hadn't already quite non-Battlegrounds Hearthstone, this rotation might've done it, because geez. If friggin' Spellbreaker getting Hall of Famed doesn't show that the Classic set is being moved steadily towards uselessness over time, I don't know what does. That thing only ocassionally saw play as a tech choice because it was the only halfway-playable neutral silence left ever since the Ironbeak nerf way back when. I won't get into it any further, since, well, as mentioned, not playing non-Battlegrounds anymore anyway, but anyone who remembers my past remarks about how they handle the Classic set can probably guess most of what I'd have to say.

Focusing on the stuff that is relevant to me, Battlegrounds updates! Quite a big one. I will say, while I wouldn't have been before, I'm glad to see this Tavern Pass introduced, since it's more convenient for me now that I only want to play Battlegrounds. Cheaper to save up 2500 gold over the course of an expansion for this pass than 3k for 30 packs, and it comes with some arena tickets to give me a head start on gold for the next one too.

Heroes:
- New: Fungalmancer Flurgl - That's actually kind of scary. If this guy just picks up a Tidehunter or two in the early game and turns those tokens into easy Warleaders and Seers, that a solid start, and might lead to a stronger mid-game than the tribe usually has. I don't know, we'll see how he turns out, but I hope he's not OP.
- New: Illidan - Huh, odd power, but potentially quite potent, given it guarantees you the first attacks. It might make positioning a bit awkward, since minions you want to protect normally go in that right-most slot, but I'm sure that can be managed.
- Finley's new hero power is neat. You basically take him if your alternatives aren't good (or you just don't like them) and hope to discover a good option. He'll never be the worst hero around this way, at least.
- Putricide is probably still pretty bad, honestly, but at least he can buff a cleave minion that isn't in the first position, I guess?
- The Lich King gets a little better, but probably not that much. Still, he's okay.
- Ysera gets much improved and was honestly already okay, so that's awesome.
- Pyramad - oh come on! You give Putricide and the Lich King targeted hero powers, but just bump this guy's hero power up by 1 health again? Seriously, just make him targeted already. Might even be able to drop it back to the 2 health he originally gave if you did. Hitting random things with this sucks because you might be hitting your sell slot minion, or something like a Spawn of N'zoth that you don't want health on.
- Millhouse... is basically the same. Yeah, paying two per refresh was his problem, not starting at 2 gold instead of 3. Hell, he literally can't do anything with that extra gold at the start unless he gets a token minion as it is now. Granted, it's hard to see how you could let him have normal refresh prices without breaking him with that massive upside, but still, this is definitely not going to help him at all.
- The Rat got un-nerfed? Huh, awesome, glad to see that.
- And Millificent didn't, instead getting an extra point of attack for her mechs. Probably doesn't amount to much, I'm guessing.
- Deathwing nerfed as they said he'd be. Honestly not sure how big of an impact that will have though, as he still looks pretty busted with Rat Pack. We'll see I guess. Kind of sad I never actually got play him before they nerfed him though.
- Reno's hero power is cheaper, nice. Not sure it'll make a big difference, since it being limited to once per game is kind of the bigger power cap on it than the cost, but it's something.

Minions:
- Tier 4 Highmane, nice, that's bound to see more play now, just like Mechano-Egg did when it dropped.
- Herald of Flame gets some extra health, not bad. Not sure how much better it'll make it, but nice to see.
- Steward of Time getting extra attack might make it worth actually using in the early game now.
- Kalecgos - what the hell? They buffed him? He was already one of the best things about Dragons, why buff him? You basically either get him early enough to be good, in which case he's an excellent build-definer, or you get him too late, in which case his stats don't matter anyway because you'll be looking for something that can help whatever other build you wound up with.
- Nathrezim Overseer lost 1 health? Uh, okay I guess. Makes it a little worse in the early game I suppose, but you really mostly want it for the buff anyway, so eh.
- Twilight Emissary down to a tier 3 4/4 that gives a Dragon +2/+2 is a big change, and likely helps Dragons quite a bit with that lacking mid-game of theirs. Now they can get buffs online a lot earlier, and there will be a lot more of these in the pool since it dropped two tiers. Nice change to make Dragons a bit more solid and less dependent on finding a Razorgore/Kalecgos early enough.

All in all, mostly good stuff. Still wish they'd move Cobalt Guardian up to tier 4 though, that thing is still too easily available too early for such a strong build-defining card.

[Rodin]

What other use could he possibly have?

Probably nothing, which is even more reason to HoF him in my opinion. Same reason that Leeroy is getting memory holed - he is used solely as a finisher, and has been for over 5 years. Print other cards that fill the same role and get the boring cards out of there.

I'm not sure that a combo class having combo enablers is much of a problem

Is Druid a combo class? Or are they just a class with the only 0 mana spell that can go face?

Seriously, how many combo finishers has Druid had over the years that DON'T involve Malygos and Moonfire? There was Togwaggle Druid for a while, which demonstrates how awesome a combo can be if you take away the easy cheat of Malygos. Gonk Druid was experimented with but found to be impractical. Going way back there was Force of Nature/Savage Roar, but that isn't really a combo by the standard definition - that's just a routine finisher. Every other combo Druid deck I can find out there uses Malygos. Hell, Togwaggle Druid often included Malygos as a secondary finisher!

The argument is exactly the same as Priest getting Divine Spirit and Velen/Mind Blast stripped away from them. Exactly. Every time anything remotely combo related is released, Druid jumps on it because Malygos/Moonfire.

It's Blizzard's wishy-washy "don't want to rework Classic but we're going to one card at a time" thing again. If you're gonna have a policy about pushing new cards and enforcing class identities then freaking DO IT. Don't dribble the changes out over a period of years.

[Stevesciguy]

Probably nothing, which is even more reason to HoF him in my opinion. Same reason that Leeroy is getting memory holed - he is used solely as a finisher, and has been for over 5 years. Print other cards that fill the same role and get the boring cards out of there.

If the criteria is that he only has one use, HoFing him isn't going to fix anything. They'll just print another card that has... only one use. The only difference is that it'll be a slightly different one each rotation.

Is Druid a combo class? Or are they just a class with the only 0 mana spell that can go face?

We're talking about a class that consistently gets combo enablers of varying quality. Aviana/Kun, Twig of the World Tree, Flobbidinous Floop, Floop's Glorious Gloop, Dreampetal Florist, the newly revealed Imprisoned Satyr. If Druid isn't a combo class, then I don't know what is.

Seriously, how many combo finishers has Druid had over the years that DON'T involve Malygos and Moonfire? There was Togwaggle Druid for a while, which demonstrates how awesome a combo can be if you take away the easy cheat of Malygos. Gonk Druid was experimented with but found to be impractical. Going way back there was Force of Nature/Savage Roar, but that isn't really a combo by the standard definition - that's just a routine finisher. Every other combo Druid deck I can find out there uses Malygos. Hell, Togwaggle Druid often included Malygos as a secondary finisher!

Linecracker, Mecha'thun, AK47, Infinite Mill, and more that fall into varying levels of meme-ness.

The argument is exactly the same as Priest getting Divine Spirit and Velen/Mind Blast stripped away from them. Exactly. Every time anything remotely combo related is released, Druid jumps on it because Malygos/Moonfire.

Not exactly at all. Priest got Velen taken away because they wanted Priest to be a fatigue control class rather than a combo class. If Malygos ever gets Hall of Famed, it's not going to be because of class identity, since it's neutral, but some other reason.

[Zevox]

If the criteria is that he only has one use, HoFing him isn't going to fix anything. They'll just print another card that has... only one use. The only difference is that it'll be a slightly different one each rotation.

That's exactly what he, and many others who argue for these kinds of things, seems to want. It's not really what Malygos does that bothers him, it's that it's specifically Malygos doing it.

[Rodin]

That's exactly what he, and many others who argue for these kinds of things, seems to want. It's not really what Malygos does that bothers him, it's that it's specifically Malygos doing it.

More specifically, it's because it's the same darned combo over and over again. And because Maylgos is Neutral, it happens across multiple classes.

If you're rotating through Malygos/Togwaggle/Mecha'Thun/Hakkar/insert combo here, then I don't have an issue with it. Well...that's not quite true. I hate combo decks, and so I dislike playing against whatever the flavor of the week one is. But I can accept that combo decks are part of the game and just put up with it.

When it's the same thing each time though? Then it's annoying and BORING. I want new cards and decks flowing at all times, and Malygos encourages building a "core" to the deck that is identical because all the key cards don't change. Malygos, cheap class spell (Moonfire/Sinister Strike), and then one card from the current expansion to activate it by cheating out Malygos. The rest of the cards are either filler or card draw...and as I mentioned earlier, Acolyte just got HoF'd because every class was putting in the same card draw engine. So the decks always look pretty similar.

My view is (and has been for a long time now) is that the evergreen Classic stuff needs to go. The upcoming changes to Priest highlight why pretty well - the Classic set may not be suitable for class identities that have shifted over 6 years. Change to a rotating yearly set of cards that fill the same role and give some of the older cards a rest. Move some of the totally useless Classic cards into Wild and bring some Wild ones in that are better suited to the current rotation. By all means make sure that Free-to-Play players are impacted as little as possible.

It's slowly happening anyway. Looking at the current set, there's only a few remaining on my hit list. Alexstrasza. Malygos. Edwin. Novice Engineer. That's about it.

Finish the job already and then start improving the Basic and Classic sets. The changes to Priest are a nice start. Let's hope they actually support the changes in Priest this time, unlike every other time they've screwed Priest over.

[Geno9999]

Thoughts on new Priest... I'm kind of excited actually, because they might not feel the need to create a new integral AoE spell with every expansion cycle. Sure cards like Plague of Wrath and Warpath were created, and Mage had received numerous combinations of AoE and Single minion damage spells, but Warrior always had Brawl to lean back on, Mage always had Fireballs, Polymorphs, Flamestrikes, and Frost Novas. Priest on the other hand, well, when was the last time you legitimately thought "Oh man, Holy Nova is gonna ruin me." or "I hope they don't have Auchenai and Circle of Healing." I sure can't, because all I can remember is the Priest AoE of the Year, like Psychic Scream or Mass Hysteria.

I also like that Blizzard is moving Northshire Cleric to HoF, because playing any minion that wasn't named Flame Imp into it felt bad. And then, because you don't have a minion on board to contest, it all to easily became a 5/5 because the Priest mulliganed for Power Word: Shield and Inner Fire and now the Cleric is an unstoppable snowball.

The problem that I do have with new Priest is that all of this plays directly into Obelisk Quest and Resurrect Priests; the grindy control decks that historically only one player in any given match enjoys. Though, one could say the same about Aggro Decks like Face Hunter.


As for Demon Hunter, I'm worried that it's going to get pigeonholed into just Token Aggro decks. Sure, there's big demons available to them, but aside from maybe Pit Commander (Epic Demon Hunter AoO card, 9 Mana 7/9 Demon, Taunt, At the end of your turn summon a random Demon from your deck.) I'm not seeing a lot of pay-off for building a Control or even a Midrange deck for Demon Hunter. Otherwise it's going to be "Hit fast, hit hard. If I don't win, Welp, Guess I'll Just Fatigue Myself."

Demon Hunter won't have a Classic set yet, but does have the 20 card Initiate Set that's free with the Prologue. It has been mentioned on Twitter that down the line they'll take some Demon Hunter cards from Expansions and integrate them into Classic, but that's one or two years down the line. Hopefully that means that the team is considering a more complete overhaul of the Classic and even Basic sets.

[Thomas Cardew]

I got the new murloc champ for battlegrounds. I need a Fry.gif of 'Not sure if op, or I just got lucky'. 3 other champs were going murlocs but selling the token from tide hunters got me a potential triple next round at t3. So I froze went up to t4 and bought it. I pulled Bran. After that it was over. I never got a Triple Bran or Mega (and believed me I rerolled more than I should have trying since I felt safe) but I still finished with a 2/4 bran, 6/3 king bargule, 32/54 golden poison king bargule, 36/77 poison golden Rockpool, 38/67 poison golden seer, 38/45 poison golden mackeral, and 130/79 golden tidecaller. Toxicfins are a no brain buy since you're essentially paying 1 for poison, since selling it gives one and an effective reroll. This meant I could focus on getting either health buffs or lookouts since damage wasn't a concern at all.