Board 8 > Hearthstone Topic:Madness at the Darkmoon Faire

(+) Yeah! (+)

Please give me "turn timer is permanently halved" Nozdormu. And let it stack so I can shadowstep it and have the speediest games ever.

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I think Alex and Noz are gonna be pretty big changes given what they did to Maly

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Spell Schools:
Arcane, Fire, Nature, Fel, Frost, Holy, and Shadow

Annoy-o-Tron coming to standard
Assassinate to 4 mana,
Menagerie Warden in, now a 5 mana 4/4.

Kibler's hair is amazing

New cards:
Vanessa: 2 mana 2/3, Combo: Add the last card your opponent played to your hand.
1-mana Shaman 3/2 Spell Damage +1 Overload (1)
5 mana 3/6 neutral legendary, Rush, whenever it attacks handbuff your hand for +1/+1.
5 mana 4/6 warlock demon: battlecry: discard a card from your opponent's hand. Deathrattle: return it.

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Almost nothing for Arena, while not surprising, is always a bit sad. BGs changes generally look good. Glad to see Elistra gone, Khadgar needs to join her soon. Prizes finally gone!

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they just nerfed khadgar pretty hard though

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yeah honestly I dont think games will be as crazy with tickets gone and Khadgar both being not as effective.

Best Hero has to be Omu then like, Maeiv/Rafaam/good tempo heroes

For standard Im pretty down with the Alura nerf (that tip the scales deck is stupid) but I wish they just delete Pen Flinger

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And new tribe, Quillboars coming to BG! No new info yet but I wonder if they're going to completely disable a tribe (temporarily) or start adding 3 to the blocked list every game.

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Playing BGs, and while the game is clearly better without prizes, the matchup RNG is still a hinderance. I faced the same 3 people, who were top 3 the entire time, in a rotation for 6 rounds. I literally never faced the bottom 2 people. They died on turns 10 and 11, so it's not like they left early. You should face everyone in the lobby once before you face someone a second time. I have no idea why that isn't a thing. Yes matchup RNG will still be good for some people and bad for others, but at least this would make things more fair.

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Some buffs to basic/classic cards I haven't seen mentioned in this topic yet:

Lightning Storm -> deal 3 damage to all enemy minions (RNG removed)
Feral Spirit -> Overload 1 (no longer Overload 2)
Earth Elemental -> Overload 2 (no longer Overload 3).

And a hero power change

Shaman Hero Power: spell damage totem replaced by "Strength Totem"--end of your turn give a minion +1 attack.

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Makes sense to remove the spell damage totem as it was both too much of a boom/bust option and shaman is also getting that 1 mana spell damage minion. Anything to try to improve that wretched hero power is welcome.

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So the achievement to deal 100 damage to yourself with G'Huun just sent me over the edge. I'm at 96/100 so the next time I draw it I'm good. First game was against a Warlock who went afk, so his turns were all just rope length. On top of that, I had G'Huun on 8 so I could play it on curve. Perfect, easy, couldn't ask for anything more, this achievement is finally over with.

I draw Loot Hoarder and Depth Charge. Mildly annoying. Next game is against a Warrior and I'm now at 99/100.

It's another damn bot, all they do is armor up and sit pat for the rest of the turn, so I have to wait forever to get that final one damage I need. I could probably concede and finish quicker but this deck doesn't always make it to turn eight, or later if I haven't drawn it, so I stick with the sure thing.

A good 20+ minutes later I draw G'Huun. It's my bottom card. I was getting angrier and angrier from about seven cards left in my deck, absolutely sure of what was going to happen, all the while getting unintentionally trolled from my bot opponent who was making me wait out every single one of those turns.

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Ok I really like the Mankrik card, flavor text and everything


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Great episode, loved the reveal. But lol if the person Paul Bettany always wanted to work with, something that has been speculated upon a lot, was Kat Dennings

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ESY16 posted...

These are 3rd place boards in the current BGs meta:

You should see my finishes over the last few days, most of which were 5th place and below. I tanked 800 rating with often what I thought was a pretty good board, only to get hit for 30 by someone.

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UltimaterializerX posted...

This makes Shamans hero power strictly worse.

It really doesn't, though.

Like...I remember seeing statistics on totem summons back when spirit claws was 1 mana was in standard, and spell damage totem was on the lower end of win percentages. And...just to reiterate this was when spirit claws was 1 mana so this was a meta when you sometimes really wanted spell damage. Lowest win percentage was spell damage totem.

On the flip side, the thing this does do is that if both players are out of relevant cards in hand, like both players in fatigue, shaman hero power now becomes the straight up best hero power. Once you have all four totems on the field, none of the other hero powers can stop you. Your damage just scales up every turn (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) your totems heal so none of the other hero powers can kill them, and you have a taunt.

Maybe fatigue in particular won't come up, but the control shaman vs control warrior matchup WILL come up, and when shaman has the new totem out, Warrior has to spend a card from their hand clearing the totems, can't just ignore them. That's kind of a big deal.

Definitely not strictly worse, just...different.

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UltimaterializerX posted...

You are describing an incredibly rare spot. Fatigue does not happen as often as players think it does.

I mean, there's not a lot of control shaman right now, it's true, but, tempo decks that don't use a lot of damage spells are still just going to prefer this totem regardless.

Top shaman deck right now is evolve shaman. No damage spells in the deck (although you can generate them). Clearly prefers the new totem.

Second most played shaman deck right now is Totem Shaman, which also runs no damage spells in the deck (but can generate them). Clearly prefers the new totem.

Third most played shaman deck right now is an aggro shaman with a bunch of spells (serpentshrine portal, earth shock, lava burst, lightning bolt). And it's...not immediately clear to me which of these totems that deck would prefer. Obviously with the spells the spell damage totem can be good. But on the other hand, rolling an early strength totem when you have a 1/3 on the board is also going to be really good. It's not immediately obvious to me which totem is better for the deck overall.

Fourth most played shaman deck is spell damage shaman with rune dagger and stuff. Obviously hates the change, wants spell damage totem back.

Fifth most played shaman deck is Galakrond Quest shaman, which barely runs spells (2 dunk tank being the only cards that care, and by the time you corrupt them you may have replaced your hero power anyway). Definitely prefers the new totem.

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Im hearing that on a stream one of devs noted that Druid's going to be losing Wrath and Swipe with the new core set, in favor of using "feral" cards similar to Pounce

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GANON1025 posted...

Im hearing that on a stream one of devs noted that Druid's going to be losing Wrath and Swipe with the new core set, in favor of using "feral" cards similar to Pounce

I mean, on the one hand feral cards in the past have often been bad...but on the other hand they can obviously make good feral cards if they actually try. They could un-nerf bite back to 3 mana, for example. If you think about it, 3 mana bite would be kind-of like demon hunter's 3 mana relentless pursuit. They could also bring back Feral Rage from wild--that card was pretty good, and it's just a choose one card so it would fit fine in the core set.

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Just had one of my craziest BG games:

https://i.imgur.com/WNXpzhP.png

Kinda tough to see in this screenshot but the final stats of everything were 100/100+

https://i.imgur.com/ZHsmznz.png

The parrot kept buffing everything and giving the whole board divine shield.

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You double stole the fish. That's just gross.

It's funny you don't even bother leading with the parrot because you have so many goldrinn triggers. Second makes complete sense with the hero taunted; it's just funny to see.

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the problem with leading the parrot is that it could double trigger the selfless straight away which would be awful, but once the first goldrinn pops then both fish become new goldrinn triggers. so your chance of a +0-stat parrot go way down.

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This was my follow up duels run to the 12 win Demon Hunter. A 12 win Warlock run! Now featuring a more detailed write-up.



Class: Warlock
Hero Power: Dark Arts (discard 1, draw 1)
Signature Treasure: Demonology 1010 (never played it one time)

Passives:

Mysterious Tome on 1
Caltrops on 5

Both are decent tempo passives. Neither of them are my favorite passives to take for a tempo based run, but the free secrets still proved to be the most useful of the two. I got a 4/2 with stealth several times on my opponents Turn 1 when they used their coin! The caltrops made some trades line up nicely and killed a few Gibberlings against druids, but was the less impactful of the two.

Treasures:
Surly Mob on 3 (used it a couple times)
Hyperblaster on 7 (so good)
Loyal Sidekick on 9 (it was a 10/10 for 4 mana at this point, but I think I only played it once before the run ended)
Book of the Dead on 11 (never had a chance to play it)

Ending Deck:
1x Demonic Studies
2x Flame Imp
2x Malchezaar's Imp
1x Power Overwhelming
1x Sanguine Reveler
1x Soulfire
1x Spirit Jailer
2x Voidwalker
2x Boneweb Egg
1x Demonfire
1x Knife Juggler
1x Midway Maniac
1x Nerubian Egg
1x Soul Shear
1x Hyperblaster
1x Ironbeak Owl
1x Man'ari Mosher
1x Shadowlight Scholar
5x Silverware Golem
1x Surly Mob
1x Fire Breather
3x Fist of Jaraxxus
1x High Priestess Jeklik
1x Loyal Sidekick
1x Bane of Doom
1x Doomguard
1x Demonology 101
1x Book of the Dead

This deck really came together over the first 3 games. I had all 5 of my Silverware Golems and all 3 Fist of Jaraxxus after the first 3 buckets. If anything my deck only got more diluted throughout the run, but I did get fortunate and I was offered empty buckets twice which prevented me from diluting my deck further. As a result my deck was extremely consistent through the first 6-7 games and then only "very" consistent from there as I had to take knife jugglers and such. I would have continued to take silverware golems, but there just weren't any more offered after I had 5.

I encountered very few Priest and Mage which is different than my usual Duels experience lately, and the back half of the run was almost entirely Hunter and Druid opponents. Caltrops did the most work against druid because it prevented Gibberlings from going off and it prevented the turn 1 Tour Guide into hero power. I included the Ironbeak Owl with my base 16 cards and it served as the final nail in the coffin against a few Hunters that tried to stabilize with a turn 5 taunt. Very few of my games made it past 6 mana thanks to all the gas I had. My one loss came at 5-0 and if memory serves it was a priest who healed face every turn to stabilize with next to no health and then pulled out 3 consecutive board clears to run me out of resources.

Overall I'm quite pleased with the way this run turned out and that's another 12 win achievement out of the way. Eventually I'm sure I'll look back and be sad that I didn't get the "without losing a game" achievement on the run since I came so close, but for now I'm still pleased.

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Just had a 9-0 start with Druid.

Finished 10-3.

All 3 losses to Hunter.

F*** hunter.

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Playing a game in wild as Shaman, just minding my own business, and all of a sudden there's an Il'gynoth OTK deck. 27 damage later the game was over.

That Druid had no idea what hit him.

Don't ever let your Shaman opponent play Marshspawn into Haunting Visions into Big Bad Voodoo on the Marshspawn that summons an Il'gynoth on their next turn while there's nine minions on board and they have eight mana and a copy of Tidal Wave in their hand. Just not a smart play at all, truly a rookie mistake.

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I play around that all the time.

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I'm greedy and like to hoard gold. I won't spend said gold on packs any more than I think is necessary, often times stopping before I even have all of the rares. I won't spend it on battlegrounds perks. I won't spend it on arena runs once my tickets run out. I just want to have it, sitting there in the bottom right.

What's that, a hero skin was released for 1,500 gold? SIGN ME UP!

(But really, I'm totally buying that hero skin and then not ever using it.)

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Oh Thunder King is like the only purchased hero I got since it was actually a pretty good bundle

I kinda want Hamuul but it seems a little pricy

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Camden posted...

I'm greedy and like to hoard gold. I won't spend said gold on packs any more than I think is necessary, often times stopping before I even have all of the rares. I won't spend it on battlegrounds perks. I won't spend it on arena runs once my tickets run out. I just want to have it, sitting there in the bottom right.

What's that, a hero skin was released for 1,500 gold? SIGN ME UP!

(But really, I'm totally buying that hero skin and then not ever using it.)

Gold is for buying packs, imo, and buying packs is done by spending gold. If you're using your gold differently or buying packs via other currency, you're doing it wrong.

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I only buy packs with gold, but I have ~23,000 gold at the moment.

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Wow. My method is "Is it day 1 of expansion? Do I have gold left? Buy packs. Else, do not buy packs."

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I buy 50 packs, and if I've gone a while since opening a legendary I keep buying them in small chunks until I open one more. With the last expansion I stopped with something like 15 left over from the initial 50 since I knew the mini set was coming and I had already opened six or seven legendaries in the first 35, so at that point I figured I was already ahead. The one previous to that I chased the pity timer and opened something like 75?

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Outside of the five or six that require cards I don't have, I've only got three Darkmoon gameplay achievements left to go. Still need to play 18 Prime cards as Warlock, have Moonfang survive damage 30 times, and cause lethal with Oh My Yogg.

I honestly think I could do nothing but play Yogg Paladin until the next expansion while throwing every game I play by setting up lethal for my opponent... and I wouldn't come close to getting it.

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Should be able to edit your posts whenever...

Another reason why Control Priest is great: If you queue into one while trying to complete the achievement to play 18 Primes as Warlock, you can successfully play all 18 in a single game!

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The whole core set is being revealed today:

New Alexstraza: either heal a friendly char for 8 or damage an enemy for 8 (my exact prediction somehow)

New Nozdormu: if this card is in both player's deck at start of game then turns are 15 seconds long


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https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/cards?set=core

Wow they brought back and buffed a bunch of cool cards. Hello Lock and Load

Jaraxxus is a hero yay

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Charge all but completely eliminated.

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Looking through the cards and there's some pretty cool stuff. One thing that jumps out to me is Priest getting a 3 mana 4/3 with a deathrattle: deal 3 damage to the enemy hero. With Shadowform being added too are they trying to push an aggro Shadow Priest build?

This card is crazy for the stats and effect but maybe they can justify it because they're NOT building around aggro Shadow Priest?

Also wow they got rid of all of the giants except Clockwork Giant.

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New Jaraxxus and the Demon Hunter 9 mana 8/8 with Rush and Battlecry: Deal 9 damage to your opponents face seem pretty strong.

Priest still looks bad, and still doesn't have a good board clear in their base set.

Pour one out for all my ten card Boar combos...

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LiquidOshawott posted...

https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/cards?set=core

Wow they brought back and buffed a bunch of cool cards. Hello Lock and Load

Jaraxxus is a hero yay

Yep, been looking through this for a while. Biggest surprises at the moment:

Warglaives of Azzinoth are back at 5 mana (but 3/3 instead of 3/4). This'll have implications in both standard and wild.

Nourish is...not buffed; still 6 mana (why?)

Tracking no longer mills two cards out of your deck. This will make people who hated the idea of milling themselves happy.

King Krush is back with somehow no buffs. (The new 9 mana Alextraza is basically just better in every way, other than the beast tag).

Warhorse Trainer is a 3/4 now. (Reasonable change for standard, but oh wow wild is going to feel that one).

Fire Elemental deals 4 damage. (Good change; didn't see it coming).

Lakkari Felhound has been "buffed" to always discard your lowest cost cards (which is probably a nerf for wild).

Warsong Commander gives minions you summon rush (expected, but nice to have confirmation that Patron Warrior is probably back on the menu in wild).

Fiery War Axe is NOT buffed (I...expected them to either send this to wild or tweak it a little)

Nerubian Egg is back (I did NOT see this one coming)

Murloc Warleader is now wild-only with no replacement (didn't see this one coming either. Lowest support Murlocs have ever had from the core set).

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Honestly think Thrive in the Shadows is awesome for Priest, especially since it would let you tutor your Shadowform or whatever

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Twin Slice and Satyr are both gone from standard right, warglaives is probably weaker.

Also a few other staple cards (no wrath/swipe for Druid, no Frostbolt, Nova, Blizzard, or Sorc Apprentice for Mage, no Tundra Rhino/Unleash for Hunter, no Evis for Rogue, no Battle Rage for Warrior, no Voidwalker, no Doomsayer, probably others I forgot)

Equality at 3 will also test whether odd pally would run it

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Glad to see Jaraxxus made it, loving the Onyxia buff

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Oh we lose Huffer too

And Savage Roar

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