Hmmm – we’ve had plenty of Dragon support, now this… I wonder if I can make a Coldarra Drake deck work in Wild again.

Sidequests count as Quests don’t they?
Would Sharkbait count as a summon for Hunter’s Clear the Way Sidequest?

Sharkbait – Hooo HA HA!

I actually find metas themselves kind of boring… back in ye olde days, when I played physical MtG against friends, half the fun was caused by card scarcity – there was no meta, you built what you could with what you had. Well, I suppose there was sort of a meta, if I was playing mono-Black the odds were I’d be using a sacrifice deck with Breeding Pit and Lord of the Pit – because I had them – and my friends would know that I guess.

… but the number of games of HS I’ve had where one or the other of us has conceded just based on the opening one or two turns of a game, is ridiculous. “That’s a strong start for Face Hunter” – concede. “Oh, Priest” – concede (note: I hate playing priest, for or against).

Once the meta has settled you can often know whether you’ve won or lost within the first few turns – the rest of the game is just going through the motions. I guess that’s why I like my home-brewed combo decks so much… OTK is the ultimate swing if they don’t see it coming.

I reckon there’s about a 1/30 chance of that happening…

There are a lot of cards that are complete garbage and only a few that are overpowered – it’s far easier to balance the game by nerfing the OP cards than buffing everything else.

Besides, to quote The Incredibles, “when everyone’s Super… no one will be.” – buffing has much the same effect as nerfing, it’s just a crap-tonne more work and nobody gets full-dust refunds.

The problem with *not* balancing anything is that the meta completely stagnates around a couple of OP decks and we get Shamanstone v3 (I remember the original Shamanstone era with Tunnel Trogg and Totem Golem) … which is pretty boring all round.

> I thought that all paired players are more or less equal in MMR *shrug*

That’s the ideal yeah, but it takes your “variance” into account … and I’d guess queue times as well. There’s more info in the Developer Insight that Blizzard released a little while ago: https://playhearthstone.com/en-gb/blog/23239989/

It depends on who you’ve been matched with and how you perform in comparison to how the game *expects* you to perform. So in one game, if you’re matched with people who have a lower MMR than you, the game would expect you to finish higher so your gains for finishing in the top 4 would be less than the penalties for finishing in the bottom 4.

So, losing 67 “points” when finishing 6th and gaining 1 when finishing 4th – *sounds* like you were matched with people who have a lower MMR than you. At 4900 you’re actually at the upper end of the average distribution so *most* people have a lower MMR than you. So it sounds like it’s working as intended.

At least, that’s how I understand it.

Best … card … ever!
That flavour… so tasty. Geddit, geddit? Eh? Eh?

I’ve probably only got 1 that I like (quite enjoyed the “basic cards only” one) – I normally just chalk off one win to get the pack and that’s more than enough 😐

… actually, thinking about it, I’m pretty sure I don’t really like Hearthstone I just seem to play it a lot 😀

Token decks just got a buff… and it looks like they’re pushing Treants again for Druid.

This is pretty much a “choose both” Oasis Surger for token decks – expect to see it in Token Druid, Shaman and Zoolock. With potential in Pally and any Lackey-oriented deck.

I already hate playing against Priest BS and will generally just insta-concede in casual games… this isn’t making me any better disposed towards them 😐

… and that pretty much sums it up.
I’m guessing that this will have less impact than Skulking Geist.

Remember there are only 6 Megasaurs in the pool. If you’ve got 2 people going for them, plus possibly people nabbing them to stop someone else having one – it’ll deplete the pool quickly.

… and as people get knocked out, the pool will get diluted with their cards, making it less likely you’ll get the ones you really want; unless the person knocked out had a copy (or copies) of it.

Currently, it seems the strongest strategy in Battlegrounds is Menagerie, which isn’t really reliant on any specific tier 6 card. It’ll be interesting to see if the Lightfang nerf weakens the strategy significantly – I suspect it’ll just make Voidlord or Annihilan Battlemaster more popular picks for the Demon slot.

There are other similar cards that exist:

– Skulking Geist vs Jade Druid (also killed Miracle Maly-Rogue): 6 mana 4/6
– Chief Inspector vs Secret Mage, Pally and Hunter: 5 mana 4/6
– Dirty Rat, Gnomeferatu and Hecklebot can all potentially destroy key cards in combo decks.

Control Warrior is hardly the first deck to get trounced by a single, easy-to-play card… and this doesn’t even kill control Warrior really, you just need to not go “all in” on armour – hold some back if possible.

I prefer ridiculous combo decks personally and Blizzard have been printing anti-combo tech for yonks – it’s about time there was something to target armour.

At tier 6 though, there would only be 6 Lightfang Enforcers in the pool and there are fewer tier 6 cards… so that would boost the power of golden/triple cards at tier 5. Not only are you more likely to get offered an Enforcer but you’d also deplete the pool for everyone else left.

I think I’d prefer just dropping it to +1 / +1 and leaving it at tier 5.

Actually Finley is OK – but you have to play a bit weird to get the most out of his hero power. I got a first place finish with him last night using a menagerie board and at the end of the game I still had several early-game cards still on the board including a Murloc Tidehunter (sold the scout) and a golden Rockpool Hunter (literally the only triple I managed to make all game).

It’s all about keeping 5 or 6 core cards and cycling buff minions… and getting Lightfang Enforcer can really, really push the menagerie finish – I had Murlocs that would give the Ancient One pause for thought 😉

Hmmm – maybe that explains why you can never find that third Cave Hydra (or whatever) when the Murloc players are wiped out; the minion pool is suddenly diluted so your end-game choices are mostly trash.

Fun is subjective though – I’ll happily loose 80% of my casual games just for those few where I empty my deck then Mogu Cultist > Shadow of Death x2 > Shadowstep > End Turn… If I survive to my next turn, odds are, you lose instantly when I Highkeeper Ra > Faceless Manipulator.

Or in wild, playing all 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse in one turn with Thaurissan/Beardo … or Mecha’thun > Bloodbloom > Cataclysm Warlock…

… basically, I just prefer combo decks.

Except combo priest – the combo is too easy… just get something with big health to stick a turn and win. Combo decks should be glass cannons IMO; good against control, weak against aggro.

I honestly think playing “the minion game” is about as boring as HS can get… which is probably why I can’t stand Arena.

“… the winner will only be determined by who drew better.”

Getting a decent draw is possibly even more important in MTG than HS; mana flood/drought can properly scupper your game – even with a “safe” (from the drought perspective) mono-coloured deck.