I think the interaction they are hoping for is that Renferal will force this to get locked in the opponent’s hand, forcing them to hold it. Still, that’s a pretty ass chance to go on and you only get 3 choices out of their hand. Value decks will eat this combo alive – but someone will meme it.

This one’s easy. Pick Druid, put an Irondeep Trogg in there, typical Token Druid cheap buffs like Power of the Wild and mulligan hard. After your opponent generates an army of Trogg for you from their random minions generation, you’ll likely cruise to victory unless they highroll.

They should just call the card “400 Dust.”

I just went old-school Beast Hunter. Worked well.

2x Adorable Infestation
2x Alleycat
2x Fetch!
2x On the Hunt
2x Springpaw
2x Timber Wolf
2x Wolpertinger
2x Bestial Madness
2x Jungle Gym
2x Patchwork Pals
2x Scavenging Hyena
2x Starving Buzzard
2x ZOMBEES!!
2x Animal Companion
2x Kill Command

I’m not terribly excited about this mini-set – not because I have anything against StarCraft but they leaned so hard into the flavor that they seemed to not think how this set would work with others (future planned expansions not withstanding). I’ve always loved the multiclass cards but this deck was just a weird way to do it.

While the Mech tags at least will have tribal synergy with some Wild decks, nearly all of the minions in the three factions have no minion tribe to speak of. Meaning that Zerg cards only work with Zerg cards, Protoss with Protoss…. you’re not mixing these into existing decks unless someone figures out a busted combo.

I get WHY they did this. It likely helps with balancing and worrying less about interactions with the ever-growing tail of legacy cards. The fact that even nearly all the Neutrals will be locked each to specific classes is really gonna chomp down on creativity and deck variety. I have a feeling none of this will see play in Wild. I could be wrong but nothing screams “play me!” in this set. The Archon for Rogue might be a combo-in-waiting, but you’re talking twelve mana for a single creature in the end.

Hell, even the cards that reduce cost …. are the same mana cost are what they are reducing at best. (Looking at you, Blink.) And the more powerful cards have mana costs so high for their class (Mothership) you’ll likely have to use the poor mana cheats to get them out (unless you’re Druid). I know this is how synergy works but it feels really more forced than usual.

Of course, with how little the Starship mechanic is used now, people might just blink and move on. Warlock looks downright unplayable. Which I don’t mind because I was cheering the Demon Seed nerf in Wild but…

Also, the 2 Blood rune requirement will really limit the tools available to it. The fact it will leave most Reno decks stronger tools almost guarantees no play in Wild.

The Apprentice nerf can be blamed on Chalice Mage. Stalling with Ice Block, copying Apprentice then spells to the face seems pretty nasty to lose against. I know “fun and interactive” is essentially a meme now but this deck is not either. It’s stall then Kill and if Rogue drops, this deck may pull forward. Either way, pretty sure it’s pissing enough gamers off for Blizzard to do something about it.

Glad to see some nerfs in Wild, Rogue has been suppressing the format for some time. Also, Pack Rogue is boring to play and boring to play against.

The Mystery Egg buff sounds interesting though. Egg Hunter is quite sturdy in Wild currently – with fast Rogues nerfed, the class is due for an upswing. However, Pirate DH, which is scary (finally! A good DH deck in Wild!) may have something to say about that. Time to sideboard Hungry Crab (not really).

Yeah the Seed deck can suck to play against but Rogue is a bigger priority in Wild at the moment. It’s had three tier 1 decks sitting there for months. Long overdue. Most of the more powerful Warlock Seed decks are running Giants, not really Mass Production because while it can trigger the Quest, adding cards to your deck can conflict with the fatigue finisher.

Note: as of today, there seems to be a bug with claiming the free Golden Perils pack. (Can claim in shop but it does not appear in the opening packs section.) Blizzard is aware and working to fix the issue.

I expect that Pirate Rogue will be the new tempo deck that everyone bitches about next in Wild.

The deck’s been competitive in Wild for a bit now. Rewind and Rommath made for infinite Time Warp and Ice Block loops. Good riddance.

I am particularly excited about the Wild changes – it’s been overdue but I have to say: the Wild meta has had way more variety since the bot bans. Even Shaman is almost non-existent. But there are some cards that are very frustrating to play against. The Zarimi nerf does not surprise me – Priest is powerful in Wild now with Dragon tempo decks. Reno will surely get upped by one on cost. The same action ruined Odyn for Warrior to be sure.

My money is on Open the Waygate getting the Zarimi treatment and only allowing “once per game” but that would destroy the deck, which Blizzard *usually* tries not to do.

But the fanbase hates playing against it so maybe they up the cost of Time Warp or better yet, nerf or ban Grey Sage Parrot, which has an annoying infinite uninteractive loop with Galactic Projection Orb and Ice Block. I didn’t think Miracle Mage could be more annoying to play against…. But alas.

I am also betting hard on some small Rogue nerf. The class is doing well at the top 2 tiers with lots of variety – one wonders if an enabler like say, Secret Passage, will be nerfed to slow down the class consistency.

Demon Hunter, Death Knight, Hunter, Warrior are all suffering in Wild with their best decks rotting in Tier 3. One wonders if buffs are in order but with how DH is doing in Standard, that will be difficult. The last time they balanced Standard a nerf to Order in the Court led to Holy Wrath Paladin’s return. It’s a needle to thread for sure. And I certainly don’t want to see Tony DH again.

All in all – exciting times. Wild is really fun right now, maybe this will curb some of the uninteractive power outliers that scare newcomers out of the format.

I won in a single turn with Mage. Played two Arcane Missiles, then a Fireball, then Sunset Volley then played a Galactic Projection Orb to recast all. Turn 1 Lethal.

Yup. Just sit on them.

So this is NOT Honorable Kill because…… ?

Kingsbane Rogue laughs at you.

I have to agree. I enjoyed learning much of the lore even if I knew some of it already – and some of them are pretty good too (Uther’s is – obviously if you know Warcraft/WoW – quite dark). I think there just aren’t enough people playing it. Hell, I wouldn’t mind some Showdown storyline, honestly, just because of the Western flavor of the set. But with even single-player Mercenaries failing, I think Blizzard is wary of dumping more labor there. Of course, with Microsoft signing the checks now… that *could* change but I’m not holding my breath. They’re just owned by a bigger company now.

I honestly miss some of the paid adventures. I enjoyed One Night in Karazhan and liked the feeling of unlocking cards as I went. I didn’t like that the adventures were $20 but at least I earned something while doing it. A measly single-class pack (unless you luck out and hit that pity timer for Legendaries) seems like a weak reward even for a free mode. I’d personally love to see something like Shadowverse does: they always have huge single-player content. Legends of Runeterra is even getting with it on single-player.

I think they are putting more effort into event trees because players seem to chase rewards more and it keeps players engaged – which is what any game developer aims for. If you ask some kid who just picked up HS if he wants to gruel through a 30-min to 1-hour story for a single pack, he’d tell you to pound sand. Most people are doing the quest trees for events because they’re easy, some rewards even in a single match. Not saying its right or I agree, but the decision seems economical – even if it sucks.

My point exactly. No one plays it.

To be fair, as much as I enjoyed Duels, it was a mode built on the ashes on the Dungeon Run single-player randomness that I don’t think anyone seriously enjoyed either.

Nothing’s worse than building a great deck than getting rolled by someone who scored better treasures than you did, or someone who was offered cards with better synergy than you.

I feel they’ve been phoning in Duels long since Scholomance, just sort of throwing in heroes and seeing what sticks. Not great for balance, especially with Dual Classes having more of a card pool to use than the original hero pool.

Honestly if they use these wasted resources to make the rest of the game better? Good riddance.