Yeah, of course, I also hope that the cards won’t be broken. But it’s actually pretty difficult to balance the worst class without giving it broken tools.

For example, Kobolds & Catacombs was a great expansion for Warrior. It got multiple good tools and yet it was still bad. Sometimes you need to go over the board to revive a dead class, but going over board also comes with a risk of overdoing it.

Also, the old gaming saying goes like this – “if everything is broken, then nothing is broken”. So printing broken cards is not always bad for the balance. The problem starts when some of the classes have broken cards and others don’t.

I honestly don’t understand people who dislike this deal. This is actually really great. Between this pre-order and packs from gold, you don’t really need more and you should be able to play most of the decks from the expansion.

If they keep it up (I mean, 70 packs instead of 50), $50 per 4 months is not really much if you’re into Hearthstone. It’s like buying one AAA game per 4 months, which is like nothing. Majority of the hobbies cost way more.

People complain that the game is too expensive – and for a good reason. But when we get deals like Mammooth Bundle or this one, they still complain that Blizzard wants to milk cash. Well duh, of course they want, they’re running a business not a charity. But having deals with 40-50% discount on the packs is never bad for the players. Those who don’t want to pay can still not pay, but those who don’t mind spending some money get a better offer.

Amazon is notorious for being late with the updates. They sometimes push it out after a day or two. You should most likely just wait.

You know. Given that Evolve Shaman was a rather cheap deck, if you didn’t have Dust to craft it, you’d most likely don’t have Dust to craft more expensive decks that utilize cards like Shadowreaperr Anduin or Bloodreaver Gul’dan :p

And “less play” is really tricky – I really don’t think that the new Hero card will be just a straight up upgrade, it would be silly. It will most likely do something completely different. So if Evolve Shaman will still be a thing somehow, then Thrall, Deathseer will be a viable card.

I’m also happy that they’ve decided to print another Hero for Shaman. With Evolve, Doppelgangster AND Jades gone from Standard, the deck doesn’t look great unless they decide to push the archetype further. But I feel like it had its time already. A good Hero and a few more support cards is all Shaman needs to have another strong archetype, even if not now, then after an expansion or two (just look how Control Warlock or Priest got stronger and stronger every expansion).

I hope that Warrior and Shaman will get some strong cards this expansion, because Kobolds & Catacombs felt like we had 7 classes instead of 9. To be honest, higher ranks feel like there are only 4 classes right now – Paladin, Priest, Warlock and Mage are roughly 85% of the ladder there!

It’s just a template, don’t pay too much attention to it. All of the 2017 expansions had 3 Commons + 3 Rares + 2 Epics + 2 Legendaries for each class, so I’d assume that it will be the case with The Witchwood too. Edited it to be more clear.

It was already confirmed that it doesn’t. And that’s pretty logical, otherwise Echo cards would be pretty broken.

We would need a 1 mana Echo minion for it to be broken. Or maybe a 2 mana one if it would be strong enough. The Phantom Militia is REALLY bad in Quest Rogue.

The 20 bonus packs are part of the pre-order, and pre-orders can usually be bought until the day before the expansion’s launch. So you should still have a lot of time to get it.

We still don’t know. They are most likely hinting at something, and it might be a real card. But after asking Ben Brode, he didn’t say anything about it. We’ll just have to wait!

Edit: As it turned out, it is now officially confirmed – Shaman will get a new Hero card. But only Shaman.

Thank you!

Shadowreaper Anduin, as useful as it is, is not absolutely necessary and you shouldn’t have a lot of problems replacing it. You can look at the list of potential replacement at the bottom of the guide, but I’d generally lean towards a slower replacement – since Anduin is most useful in slow matchups, you might need something extra to win in those. I’d go for something like Elise, Alex or Ysera. Medivh is probably not a good option, since you run only a single expensive spell – Mind Control. Lich King can also be good, but Ysera or Alex might be better in this slot, simply because they’re Dragons (so even if you draw them early, they can act as a Dragon activator and you don’t have to worry about running out of Dragons).

Unless you face a lot of fast decks, then something like another Primordial Drake or Priest of the Feast might actually be a better replacement.

That’s why the list runs only one, because there aren’t THAT many targets and you can take some other things through different means.

Mind Control works really well in most of the slow matchups, actually. Obviously, Voidlord is one of the best targets, but that’s not all. Doomguard, Cube (if they don’t pop it right away) and Rin are other great targets in thoe matchups. Against Spiteful Summoner decks, you can MC whatever big they summon (there will probably be a few targets of the course of the game). Against Big Priest, any minion besides Barnes. Against Jade Druid, either Aya (if you can’t Silence her) or a big Jade Golem. Against Big Spell / Control Mage, you can steal Medivh, or even a Water Elemental after they play Frost Lich Jaina (it doesn’t seem like much, but if you’re putting a lot of pressure on them, that’s a great steal so they can’t heal). And of course, in the mirror, Drakonid Operative, Primordial Drake, or Alex/Ysera if they run one.

Minions can already be stolen other way, but I still prefer to run one, as I seem to face awful lot of Cube and Control Warlock. However, if your matchup distribution looks differently, like you face a lot of Dude Paladins etc. then you might actually consider cutting it. It’s really up to you. This list is already pretty anti-Aggro, but you can always make it even more!

Those are general replacements, not necessarily BUDGET replacements 🙂

But anyway, since Ysera and Alex are from the Classic set, a lot of people who don’t own the Primordial Drake own them.

About Nature’s Champion – I forgot 🙂 Yes, it also works well if you want to replay Battlecries. However, the thing is that relevant Battlecry minions tend to be expensive anyway, which still makes small minions the best targets. But I’ll mention Battlecries!

About Hand of Salvataion, well, it’s not always that easy. Just to give you a random example, your opponent has Bone Drake and some small minion on the board + a Secret. Now, which one do you kill first? If you kill Bone Drake first to play around Hand of Salvation, and it turns out to be Redemption, it sucks, because they get a 6/1 back and another Dragon for free. Now if you kill the small minion first, it sucks if it turned out to be Hand of Salvation.

Yes, sometimes you can leave that Bone Drake up, but that’s often already a win for your opponent, as they get either 6 damage or can dictate how the trading goes now.

There will be situations like that. Sometimes it’s impossible to play around both at the same time, and you have to pick which one you play around. With Redemption, you ALWAYS started by clearing the small minion without Deathrattle, now it might not be the best option.

Not to mention that it might mess up with your AoE turn. Let’s say that your opponent has some Deathrattle/Stealth/whatever minion played first and you want to AoE down the whole board. Right now when you see a Secret, you try to proc the Redemption first by killing something small (usually pinging it) and THEN AoE, so the Deathrattle/Stealth one doesn’t get revived. Right now it might not be that obvious. If it’s Redemption, then clearing minion first is the right play – if it’s Hand of Salvation, then (depending on what was the second minion on the board), it might be better to AoE everything.

I mean, sometimes playing around them will be easy, but there will be some situations in which you will have to think hard (or just go for whatever option screws you less). It will make Redemption stronger, because people will usually put a higher priority on playing around Hand of Salvation, as it’s more deadly if it works.

Or maybe I’m just overcomplicating it 🙂

From the guide:

This specific list doesn’t run Elise the Trailblazer, as she’s pretty useless in the fast matchups. But if you do run her, she plays a vital role in the slow matchups, when you’re going for the value play. Try to save your Shadow Visions for after Elise. Since Un’Goro pack is a spell, you need to get an extra copy through Shadow Visions. Having two, or possibly even three packs gives you so much extra value that it’s hard to lose the value war if you play everything correctly.

You’re right, I completely forgot about it, fixing it now!

Sorry! I’ve mostly focused on adding the last few sets, and didn’t fix all of the outdated information. Should be good now, thanks 🙂

Sorry for the late reply. You get her by simply winning 10 Standard games (Ranked or Casual). Most of the players got her by just playing the game – I know some people who didn’t even know they have her 🙂

Eh, it’s pretty simple.

Let’s say that you have a regular copy right now.

You disenchant it for +100 Dust. You craft Golden copy for 1,600 Dust (you’re at -1,500). You get a full refund for your Golden copy (you’re at +100). You disenchant your Golden copy for 400 (you’re at +500). You gain +500 Dust for doing that.

And now, if you just keep your regular copy you get 400 Dust for it rotating and you disenchant it for 100, for a total of… exactly, +500 Dust.

It’s literally the same thing. If you feel like doing it, of course you can, but you won’t gain anything that way.