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

[Stevesciguy]

4560 dust, woooo. Don't know what I'll do with it though

[Seerow]

4560 dust, woooo. Don't know what I'll do with it though

Use it to craft the new priest cards?

[Tvtyrant]

Use it to craft the new priest cards?

I'm using mine on Yogsothoth now that they have unnerfed my favorite deck. Combined with quest Mage and I think it has a shot to at least be meme worthy.
Edit: Or not at Cthun, Yog and friends have all disappeared from both my collection and craftable area...

[Rynjin]

I'm using mine on Yogsothoth now that they have unnerfed my favorite deck. Combined with quest Mage and I think it has a shot to at least be meme worthy.
Edit: Or not at Cthun, Yog and friends have all disappeared from both my collection and craftable area...

Are you filtering by Wild cards?

[Tvtyrant]

Are you filtering by Wild cards?

I set it to the Old Gods set and they showed up.

[Geno9999]

Use it to craft the new priest cards?

I'm holding off on crafting those, especially with the new duplicate protection. Maybe the Epic and Legendary, but should very quickly get the new Rares.

[Stevesciguy]

Use it to craft the new priest cards?

Nah, I don't play enough priest for those to be worth it. I'll probably just wait for the expansion so that if a cool deck shows up, I'll be able to craft what I'm missing.

I set it to the Old Gods set and they showed up.

There's some pretty weird bugs showing up. Living Roots somehow got changed to Epic rarity - and it's not just a visual glitch, people are disenchanting it for the usual epic value. Kingsbane is apparently keeping the durability it has when it breaks - AKA, 0, which means that on playing it the second time, it instantly dies and shuffles itself. I wouldn't be surprised if wonky search functions are also happening.

[otakuryoga]

yes..now is a very good time to disenchant Living Roots

[Thomas Cardew]

So I've run into a couple Dr. Boom control warrior's now that he's been released. I've had one or two really good games against them now as Galakrond Rogue. Both went to fatigue. In the first, I had gotten off 2 Sky Shivs and 4 Togwaggles, I ended up going Fill your hand-> Golden Monkey but my Galakrond and Kronx were in the last 5 cards of my deck. A lucky Alexstrrza Nozari pulled him out of lethal and then I kept wiffing on lackey's.

The second I was prepared for, I picked up academic espionage off a spell lackey about 8 turns before fatigue since it was the best option and I knew it was coming. I kept wiffing on lackeys to get anything good, I desperately needed dragon to use a Smolderthorn Lancer but never got it. After about6 turns of clear or die, he was at 27 hp 7 Armor and fatiguing while I was at 14hp/5 and 5 cards away from it thanks to academic espionage. I thought he had it with Waxadred on the board and 2 other minions on the board. But the last card in my deck was Grommash which combined with the taunt lackeys I pulled was just enough hp to stop him from going face. Super satisfying game.

Of course the end result of all the last 5 days is I'm back were I started. Rank 2 1 star, I've gotten up to max stars once but can't quite seem to break into 1.

[Rodin]

A different class.

I get it, that's the problem. The only good cards they get are rez priest ones. I just hate that archetype: I find it horrible to play against and don't enjoy playing it. I can't blame priest players for playing it since it's their only priest option. I mean I can and I do since it hate it so much but I recognize that's a personal issue. I don't want it getting any more popular since I hate playing it. Since Blizzard is going to rework the classic priest cards, it'd be nice if they actually gave them other options instead of just removing one.

Priest used to be my favorite class, it's the only one I have 500 wins on, I enjoyed trying to find efficient ways to trade and using the hero power to get extra value. I loved the archetypes that were more midrangey, whether it was the original mid-range priest with injured blademaster+circle of healing or spiteful summoner that only ran mind control and free from amber. Heck I even enjoyed the silence/combo priest with humongous razorleaf which was never great. My all time favorite was probably tempo dragon priest that had 2X Mindblast and Holy Fire as a finishers. I wish they'd gotten cards to support those archetypes, instead it's just boring unfun rez decks. So I switched classes.

I hear ya. I started this game with Midrange Dragon Priest way back in Grand Tournament. Spiteful Summoner Priest was fun too, as was Raza Priest.

Blizzard has turned me into a Rogue player, which is something I never thought would happen. I would love to get back into Midrange or Control Priest, but the decks for that have either not existed or not appealed for a long, long time.

[Stevesciguy]

Man, that was dirty

Playing Kael'thas Miracle Druid in casual Wild to get the hang of it. Queue into a Zoolock. He's drawing relatively well, I'm drawing relatively poorly - mostly spells that are there just to trigger Kael'thas or the big spells you want to cheat out.

Eventually, it's turn 7, I'm down to 4 health, he's got a board full of 2/2s and 3/3s. Only card I can draw with is a Wrath. I try it, I draw Kael'thas, I play Innervate, get him on the board.

One flurry of spells later, I'm back to 26 health, he's only got a 2/2 Imp and an unbuffed Nerubian Egg left, I've got a 4/7, two 5/5s, and a full hand.

"Your opponent left."

[heronbpv]

Man, that was dirty

Playing Kael'thas Miracle Druid in casual Wild to get the hang of it. Queue into a Zoolock. He's drawing relatively well, I'm drawing relatively poorly - mostly spells that are there just to trigger Kael'thas or the big spells you want to cheat out.

Eventually, it's turn 7, I'm down to 4 health, he's got a board full of 2/2s and 3/3s. Only card I can draw with is a Wrath. I try it, I draw Kael'thas, I play Innervate, get him on the board.

One flurry of spells later, I'm back to 26 health, he's only got a 2/2 Imp and an unbuffed Nerubian Egg left, I've got a 4/7, two 5/5s, and a full hand.

"Your opponent left."

Reminds me of these two videos, by Chump:

Spoiler

Show

This one in particular, but also this one as well.
It's a unnerfed Yogg deck, btw.

[Zevox]

New Murloc card: Felfin Navigator: 3 star, 4/4, +1/+1 to all other Murlocs.

So, did they actually add this to the Battlegrounds? I've played like, ten games since the update, and have yet to even see it offered, or see any other players who had it.

Also, holy **** my luck has been abysmal lately. I keep getting things sniped so bad. As just one example, the match that killed me in my most recent run: I have a taunted Guldrin, followed by two Hydras. My opponent's opening card is a golden Bomb. He attacks first, and then both bombs hit exactly my two Hydras, killing them before they can get buffed. There are just no words for moments like that...

[Tvtyrant]

So, did they actually add this to the Battlegrounds? I've played like, ten games since the update, and have yet to even see it offered, or see any other players who had it.

Also, holy **** my luck has been abysmal lately. I keep getting things sniped so bad. As just one example, the match that killed me in my most recent run: I have a taunted Guldrin, followed by two Hydras. My opponent's opening card is a golden Bomb. He attacks first, and then both bombs hit exactly my two Hydras, killing them before they can get buffed. There are just no words for moments like that...

I dropped from 5.5k to 4.5 k during this update, I can't get a handle on the new meta. I have also not seen the new murloc.

[heronbpv]

From what I gathered from twitch streams commentary, the new murloc is not available.
Also, I got back to 6.8k pos-update after reaching 7.3k pre-update, so that makes for three unlucky playgrounders! :p
At least I started today with a 1st place Rafam. Let's see how it goes from here on out. Pray for Luck!

[Thomas Cardew]

From what I gathered from twitch streams commentary, the new murloc is not available.
Also, I got back to 6.8k pos-update after reaching 7.3k pre-update, so that makes for three unlucky playgrounders! :p
At least I started today with a 1st place Rafam. Let's see how it goes from here on out. Pray for Luck!

4, I basically dropped like a stone to rank 5. I've clawed my way back to 4 but I can't catch a break. My rogue galakrond's or toggwaggles just pull shadow step or sap. If I play hunter I mulligan and get 5 cost cards or tracking. I can't finish a game. I can't count the number of games I've lost with the enemy at 1 hp. Or against a MFing priest who just healed from 1 hp to full.

JFC my last rogue mirror discovered alextrasza in fatigue to discover lackeys to shadowstep it twice to get nozari. I'm so done.

[Gandariel]

Well, i guess i'm the one that's taking some of the luck, i've been climbing fairly well recently. (@7.1k right now).

My go to used to be Cobalt. Now it's Rivendare Deathrattle stuff.

Edit: 7.3k now, i'm on a roll :)

[Thomas Cardew]

I'd pulled Dragonqueen Alextrasza from a pack awhile back so I decided to craft Zephrys and swap to highlander rogue. It's working a lot better for me. It FEELS more inconsistent than regular Galakrond Rogue but I win more consistently so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I'm still learning Zephyrs card pool, some times it's failed me: like when I wanted earthquake to deal with a treant druid but it offered me flamestrike, nova, or [something bad] or failing to give fireball for lethal when I have eviscerate in hand but need to play zephyrs first for the combo. It's definitely better against priests and control warrior which I occasionally see. I'm back up to rank 2. Since the ranking system bonus system is going to depend on where you place, I'll probably try to push for legend today otherwise I wouldn't bother. But I saw a reddit post showing how drastically each bonus star cuts the required games to climb and it's pretty ridiculous.

Also in case people missed it in the hotfix notes:

There are several known issues that will self-resolve on 4/7 when the Demon Hunter and Ashes of Outland unlock:

Felfin Navigator will correctly appear in the Battlegrounds minion pool.

[Zevox]

I'm still learning Zephyrs card pool, some times it's failed me: like when I wanted earthquake to deal with a treant druid but it offered me flamestrike, nova, or [something bad] or failing to give fireball for lethal when I have eviscerate in hand but need to play zephyrs first for the combo.

Zephryus only gives basic/classic cards, so he could never give you earthquake, which is an expansion card, regardless of circumstances on the board.

[Rodin]

I'd pulled Dragonqueen Alextrasza from a pack awhile back so I decided to craft Zephrys and swap to highlander rogue. It's working a lot better for me. It FEELS more inconsistent than regular Galakrond Rogue but I win more consistently so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I'm still learning Zephyrs card pool, some times it's failed me: like when I wanted earthquake to deal with a treant druid but it offered me flamestrike, nova, or [something bad] or failing to give fireball for lethal when I have eviscerate in hand but need to play zephyrs first for the combo. It's definitely better against priests and control warrior which I occasionally see. I'm back up to rank 2. Since the ranking system bonus system is going to depend on where you place, I'll probably try to push for legend today otherwise I wouldn't bother. But I saw a reddit post showing how drastically each bonus star cuts the required games to climb and it's pretty ridiculous.

Also in case people missed it in the hotfix notes:

There are several known issues that will self-resolve on 4/7 when the Demon Hunter and Ashes of Outland unlock:

Felfin Navigator will correctly appear in the Battlegrounds minion pool.

You can never get Earthquake off of Zephrys. He only pulls from Basic and Classic cards, which makes his card pool easy to remember. The harder part is learning what logic he uses for his offering.

[Thomas Cardew]

Ah, my mistake then. But even mass dispel would have been better than flame strike as several of the minions were at 5 hp. But now I know to lower my mana even more next time.

[Geno9999]

Ah, my mistake then. But even mass dispel would have been better than flame strike as several of the minions were at 5 hp. But now I know to lower my mana even more next time.

Yeah, 5 HP is kind of awkward to deal with Zephyrs. He also tend to shy away from using silence effects to turn off Deathrattles, and Deathrattles in general I've heard makes him avoid AoEs to avoid triggering them entirely (because he basically only looks at the Keywords, not the whole text. So Leper Gnomes, Mechanical Whelps, and Kartut Defenders are equally bad.) But if the enemy board has been buffed in someway, he'll sometimes offer a Mass Dispel if an AoE doesn't quite cut it.

Rules for Zephyrs' card options are:
1. Classic and Basic only
2. Doesn't know what's in your or your opponent's hand, BUT knows how many cards in each player's hand and deck (hence why he offers Twilight Drake/used to offer Mountain Giant.)
3. Because of Rule 2, Zephyrs doesn't know about deck archetypes; he won't know that your opponent is a Res Priest, so he won't offer Polymorph or Hex over Assassinate for example, even though you might reasonably guess that Priest wants to Resurrect that Khartut Defender over and over again.
4. Similarly, Zephyrs won't offer lethal options unless immediately playing that card (or the next turn in the general case of Pyroblast) will produce lethal.
5. Zephyrs knows what keywords do, but not the full text of each card. (Doomsayer is an exception to the rule, so he'll offer cards like Crazed Alchemist to remove the Doomsayer.)

[Resileaf]

2. Doesn't know what's in your or your opponent's hand, BUT knows how many cards in each player's hand and deck (hence why he offers Twilight Drake/used to offer Mountain Giant.)

Just want to comment on that, Zephrys does know what is in your hand. Recently, he pulled a pyroblast for me because I had the minion that reduces the cost of the next spell you cast this turn to 0, and pyroblast + hero power ping was lethal.

I think the reason he did not give fireball for lethal for Thomas is that as long as Zephrys is not finished playing, the combo requirement has not triggered yet for eviscerate, and so he does not know that there is lethal in your hand.

[Stevesciguy]

Just want to comment on that, Zephrys does know what is in your hand. Recently, he pulled a pyroblast for me because I had the minion that reduces the cost of the next spell you cast this turn to 0, and pyroblast + hero power ping was lethal.

I think the reason he did not give fireball for lethal for Thomas is that as long as Zephrys is not finished playing, the combo requirement has not triggered yet for eviscerate, and so he does not know that there is lethal in your hand.

Zephrys doesn't know what's in your hand, and doesn't know about active effects. If your opponent is on low enough health, Zephrys will give you Pyroblast so that you can use it for lethal next turn. He would've offered the Pyro even if you didn't have Dragoncaster/Inkmaster

[Zevox]

Just want to comment on that, Zephrys does know what is in your hand. Recently, he pulled a pyroblast for me because I had the minion that reduces the cost of the next spell you cast this turn to 0, and pyroblast + hero power ping was lethal.

Yeah, unless I'm misinformed, the whole "Zephyrus doesn't know what's in your hand" thing isn't mere speculation, it's something the devs have told us outright. Just because you had the ability to play that Pyroblast on that turn doesn't mean that's the reason he gave it to you - much more likely there just weren't three options that he thought were better than having 10 damage to face in hand for next turn.

[Thomas Cardew]

Whoo made it to legend just in time! Basically all Highlander Galakrond Rogue with a game or two of Dragon Hunter or Embiggen Druid when I needed a palette cleanser / un-tiliting match. It will be interesting to see where this places me for the win streak bonus stars in the new system. Also I wonder what number I'll end up at given that I'm not going to play ranked at all tomorrow.

[Rodin]

I wish they would ban Embiggen and Dragonqueen Alexstrasza from Arena. I'm currently 10-2 with an Embiggen Druid Arena deck and the wins are directly tied to whether I draw Embiggen in the first few turns, with a couple of wins shored up by discovering Alexstrasza from Emerald Explorer.

I don't feel like there's any skill involved here. Most Arena decks are not capable of keeping up with +2/+2 to all minions. Most Arena decks are not capable of dealing with 20+ mana worth of Dragon coming down on a single turn.

I suppose I might get lucky and the arrival of Demon Hunter in Arena will cause such an aggro meta that those cards are no longer viable. I kinda doubt it though - pure aggro rarely sticks in Arena, which leaves Curvestone as the best way to play. And Embiggen still beats that.

I dunno, maybe I'm overreacting. It just feels like Embiggen is a Death Knight - once you play it, your opponent has no realistic way of fighting back without a Constructed deck. It's why the original Death Knights got banned, after all.

The only other option is waiting several months for the Arena rotation to change and hopefully Descent of Dragons will rotate out.

[Resileaf]

I'm up to platinum rank now. I think I like the new ranking system (although I'll miss the free goldens at the end of the month, the extra packs and cards should make up for it), although I'm not entirely sure how the new ranks match up to the old ones. I assume diamond 10 is equivalent to old rank 5?

[Seerow]

I'm up to platinum rank now. I think I like the new ranking system (although I'll miss the free goldens at the end of the month, the extra packs and cards should make up for it), although I'm not entirely sure how the new ranks match up to the old ones. I assume diamond 10 is equivalent to old rank 5?

That seems about right. I ended last month around rank 8 and got enough star multiplier to carry me to Platinum 5. So Diamond league being the rank 5 to legend range seems fitting.

I hope they release stats in a month or two with how many players wound up in each rank grouping. I'd like to see how it hashed out.

I wish they would ban Embiggen and Dragonqueen Alexstrasza from Arena. I'm currently 10-2 with an Embiggen Druid Arena deck and the wins are directly tied to whether I draw Embiggen in the first few turns, with a couple of wins shored up by discovering Alexstrasza from Emerald Explorer.

I don't feel like there's any skill involved here. Most Arena decks are not capable of keeping up with +2/+2 to all minions. Most Arena decks are not capable of dealing with 20+ mana worth of Dragon coming down on a single turn.

I suppose I might get lucky and the arrival of Demon Hunter in Arena will cause such an aggro meta that those cards are no longer viable. I kinda doubt it though - pure aggro rarely sticks in Arena, which leaves Curvestone as the best way to play. And Embiggen still beats that.

I dunno, maybe I'm overreacting. It just feels like Embiggen is a Death Knight - once you play it, your opponent has no realistic way of fighting back without a Constructed deck. It's why the original Death Knights got banned, after all.

The only other option is waiting several months for the Arena rotation to change and hopefully Descent of Dragons will rotate out.

I don't really think Embiggen is the problem child in Arena. Dragon Queen Alexstraza maybe. But a quick look at HS replay shows Embiggen is great but isn't sitting on top of either deck win rate or played win rates.

Looking at the Lightforge Embiggen is rated as a 174, which is a very powerful card (In ADWCTA's opinion anything over 150 shouldn't exist), but it is only the 5th highest rated card for Druids, behind Zephrys, Octosari, Oasis Surger, and Siamat. (Interestingly Lightforge does put Embiggen ahead of Winged Guardian and Emerald Explorer, but looking at the HSReplay stats I would have said both of those were better).

Hearth Arena looks even more poorly at Embiggen, placing it as a low premium card (81 on their scale, just barely above the cutoff for a "Great" card. By comparison there's about 26 cards rated above Embiggen for Druid on the Hearth Arena tier list)

[Stevesciguy]

Those who preordered, did you guys get anything good from your packs? Mine were kinda meh