Board 8 > Hearthstone Topic - Buffs, Nerfs, and Quilboars! Oh My!

(+) Yeah! (+)

You can drag the card to your deck (instead of the field) and for one mana you put it back in the deck and draw a new card.

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Do we feel any particular way about this mechanic?
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Its awesome

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Since it seems like a lot of the tradable cards are tech/situational cards, it's p good.

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I hope tradeable ends up like discover and not something locked to this one set.

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Okay this card is absolutely amazing and I never thought we'd see a South Park reference in Hearthstone

https://preview.redd.it/xj21zcq0vlc71.png?width=798&auto=webp&s=717119f82d88be2beaea3efcce2628e524883a5f

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Anyone else looking forward to seeing people screw themselves with Full Northshire: the card?

Cornelius Rhoame, 6 mana 4/5. At the start and end of each player's turn, draw a card

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skullbone posted...

Okay this card is absolutely amazing and I never thought we'd see a South Park reference in Hearthstone

https://preview.redd.it/xj21zcq0vlc71.png?width=798&auto=webp&s=717119f82d88be2beaea3efcce2628e524883a5f

That card is so dumb.

I'm 100% playing it if I open two copies of it.

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Yay Dude Paladin is back


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skullbone posted...

Okay this card is absolutely amazing and I never thought we'd see a South Park reference in Hearthstone

https://preview.redd.it/xj21zcq0vlc71.png?width=798&auto=webp&s=717119f82d88be2beaea3efcce2628e524883a5f

I mean, this isn't the first time it's appeared in a WoW card game.



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Rogue needed Evis to rotate out so they could have 2 mana deal 6 and now 2 mana deal 8.

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Card dump and theorycraft on the same day is cool even if the circumstances that caused it were much less so

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First impressions on the new set:

Handlock is going to be everywhere and very hard to deal with. Auto loss for other control decks and probably enough healing and board clears to stay out of aggro range.

Raza Hunter (0 mana hero power that refreshes after every spell after you finish the quest) might also be hard to deal with or it's too slow.

Hearthstone needs more cards like this even if I think it's pretty bad:

https://d15f34w2p8l1cc.cloudfront.net/hearthstone/618a795073b44d885cc0d2252943b69637c6be7595024b11db280c048bc33fb3.png

I think Ignite Mage could see potential as a sort of combo deck. There's a way to do 30+ damage with ignite, Sanctum Chandler, and Hot Streak at the end of the game. Your deck just needs to be completely out of spells and Ignite needs to start at 6 damage when you start the combo.

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I like the Rogue and Warrior quests the most out of all the quests but it could just be recency bias

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Oh actually I like Druid, its boring but boring is usually good, look at DK Malf

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My reaction: Muh? There's a new set?

Like, I was dimly aware, but the patch yesterday caught me by surprise because I had no idea we were getting close.

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Yeah a bunch of people cancelled their card reveals and the stream was cancelled because. Well, yeah

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...I don't know what "well yeah" is. Was this related to the workplace allegations filed?

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Most likely, yes

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Yep, it was.

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Knee-jerk reactions:
Elwynn Boar - stupid meme
Peasant - potentially good if you draw it and go first, but otherwise sucks
Stockades Guard - 1 mana give taunt seems like a very useful card, and it's 1/3 so playing on 1 seems good, too.
Auctioneer Jaxon - I have no idea what Trade is.
Encumbered Pack Mule - I can see a world where this is useful. Especially with Secret Passage.
Stockades Prisoner - oh, now everyone can play Fellmaw.
Enthusiastic Banker - do the stored cards leave your deck? It doesn't say "copy" anywhere.
Entrapped Sorceress - are there new quests? It's still a spider tank.
Northshire Farmer - I have a hunch there's a broken use here, especially if you can make them all 5/4 right after in hunter. Probably too slow, though.
Package Runner - the new Ancient Watcher
Two-Faced Investor - without seeing the rest of the set, this has got to be the worst card, right?
Cheesemonger - as if the ogremancer isn't bad enough...
various Tradeable cards - still don't know what this mechanic does
Spice Bread Baker - more healing for warlock
Battleground Battlemaster - really scary minion that probably sees no play...but damn if you can stick a good minion and this thing hits the table. Or use it with rush/charge?
Lion's Guard - 6/8 taunt when you're on life support might be too little too late, but it's pretty welcome.
Stormwind Guard - what Defender of Argus wishes it could be.
City Architect - geez, whole bunch of pricy neutral taunts in this. Architect seems more like a card designed to frustrate, though.
Cornelius Roame - well, that's a lot of card draw. Automatically draws 2, so I can't imagine this ever being bad...up until you overdraw/fatigue.
Lady Prestor - interesting back-up plan for an aggrodeck.
Mo'arg Forgefiend - It's the priest taunt, but for 8. And a demon.
Varian - there was once another card that drew keywards off them being in your deck and it was good. I suspect this one is not. Comes down much later, feels clunky. Too high a chance those keywords are drawn if you just have token representatives in the deck.
Goldshire Gnoll - 1 mana 5/4 rush seems good.

Final Showdown - seems easy for DH to finish. And oh look, related cards. Sure, just reward DH for doing what it does already which is spamming its whole deck in 5 turns.
Metamorfin - need to see what fel cards there are. A 1 mana 3/4 is good, but a Goldshire Footman is not.
Sigil of Alacrity - more deck cycling; does DH really need more?
Chaos Leech - oh goody, more Leech Life for 5 in DH. Can we ban the lifesteal legendary yet?
Lion's Frenzy - so...18 attack?
Irebound Brute - geez, they're really playing into this theme, aren't they?
Jace Darkweaver - again, I'd need to look at the fel line-up

Lost in the Park - I assume that doesn't have to be in one turn, right? Entire questline is basically "gain 23 armor," which is silly in multiple ways.
Sow the Soil - token druid support
Vibrant Squirrel - ditto
Composting - not sure this sees play. It's not Soul of the Forest, but it certainly has potential.
Wickerclaw - wait, is that permanent? This thing could be wretched if it sticks, and 4 health makes it hard to remove.
Oracle of Elune - they really want you to play token druid
Kodo Mount - I preferred the old 2/6 taunt variant. Strong card, but maybe not in druid?
Park Panther - so that's how you get all this attack, ig.
Best in Shell - oh hey, there's my stegadons.
Sheldras Moontree - seems potentially busted, but I feel like you'd want it in a deck with only ~6-8 really powerful spells. Obviously spells that don't require targeting, at that. After Survival of the Fittest, what do you also run and what archetype does that fit?

Devouring Swarm - both hilarious and probably incredibly powerful for board control
Defend the Dwarven District - hero power spell hunter, huh...this will either be stupidly broken or incredibly awful, and I doubt there's any in-between. I'm betting on the latter.
Leatherworking Kit - a support weapon in hunter? Not hard to get beasts dying, but still seems bad.
Aimed Shot - hero power support
Ramming Mount - 2/2 and *immune*? Ick. Also, what's the ram it summons, Blizzard?
Stormwind Piper - slow, but hard to remove, so could still be good. Definitely a card that can run away with the game if unchecked.
Rodent Nest - really weak up front, but 4 mana 7/7 baybee!
Imported Tarantula - the board clear potential is good, but weird card for hunter, other than being 3 beasts
The Rat King - Not the first time we've seen a resurrect trigger card. Most of them ended up being obnoxious. This one just looks slow to me.
Rats of Extraordinary Size - wait, what? lol, what? Are the 5/5's 1 mana? Because if so, that card is ridiculous and also about the only good card I see in hunter.

Hot Streak - seems like a poor use of a card slot unless it fits an OTK or you *really* need a Flamestrike on 5.
First Flame - should've just been doublecast.
Sorcerer's Gambit - interesting, but I'm betting at least one of the three spell schools will be hard to achieve
Celestial Ink Set - seems awful unless you can engineer what you get discounted. Pay 2 to make a random 2 mana spell free doesn't seem good.
Ignite - Jade Idol in mage.
Prestor's Pyromancer - crocolisk with a punch. The other card like this didn't see much use.
Fire Sale - board clear with tradeable
Sanctum Chandler - slow, especially in a low-minion count class like mage
Clumsy Courier - hey look, a 4/5 bonus to casting Flamestrike. Where have I seen this before?
Grand Magus Antonidas - scary, but only if you can pull it off in one turn. Between Hot Strike and the ink set, yeah, maybe. But regular Antonidas seems more effective.

Stopping there for now. This is long.

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Okay, let's keep going. I've looked at basically no coverage. This is just off-the-cuff.

Prismatic Jewel Kit - that's a really weird hand-buff tool. 1 mana to eventually, maybe, circumstantially buff your hand by 3/3?
Rise to the Occasion - strange quest. Are there enough 1-costs to justify, outside of bouncing Pen Flinger? Basically turns your deck into odd paladin, but is that enough? Also, I read the final reward as "Lightborn Cartel" and that image is just amusing to me.
City Tax - just seems bad unless 1-health aggro is a thing. Most token druid minions have at least 2, though.
Noble Mount - might be ridiculous...but what's the warhorse? It's not listed on-site.
Alliance Bannerman - more handbuff? Blizz, that just doesn't work unless it's extreme, like Conditioning.
Catacomb Guard - and a handbuff payoff card. Really bad without boosts.
Lightbringer's Hammer - Fiery War Axe with lifesteal, no face.
First Blade of Wrynn - 4 mana 3/5 DS. Without the rush, it's really slow. With it, this is really good.
Highlord Fordragon - Shades of Don Honcho. Not very powerful in general, but someone's going to make a really stupid combo with this guy. Book it.

Call of the Grave - Confused. You don't have to play the minion? Just if you *could* play it?
Seek Guidance - I am ***NOT*** a fan of alternate win conditions. Especially not in frustrating control classes like priest, warrior and warlock. (Mecha'thun says hi.) Once in a while this deck will go off deck 9, and for the rest, it will just piss you off with stupid control until it inevitably wins. No thank you. Get this shit out of here.
Shard of the Naaru - easy, low-cost silence. Seems good.
Voidtouched Attendant - If priest aggro were ever a thing, I'd be all about this. Or maybe if priest had a card that dealt 1 damage a bunch of times that could hit face.
Shadowcloth Needle - probably meh. Might combo well.
Twilight Deceptor - crocolisk that draws a spell. Probably okay as long as you're either ahead or have Raise Dead.
Psyfiend - Not the first mutual death shadow priest card we've ever seen, but the repeatability of this seems concerning.
Voidshard - So deal 4, heal 4. Overcosted.
Darkbishop Benedictus - Now THIS is cool. I have no idea if it's good. But it's at least fun. The idea of starting off with a hero power that is very proactive rather than super weak and reactive is interesting. I just need to see how restrictive the deckbuilding options are. But this could maybe push a priest zoo deck. So far this is the most exciting card I've seen.
Elekk Mount - oh good lawd. I know I joked about the Lightforged Steed earlier, but seriously? 8/14 taunt across two targets? This card's gonna single-handedly push silence back into the meta.

Find the Impostor - not sure if this is good or not. SI cards are maybe okay maybe terrible. But at least I have an excuse to run one of the hottest card-arts in the game. (Y'all probably forgot about SI:7 Infiltrator.)
SI Extortion - 1 mana backstab. Okay, I guess.
Garrote - pay 2 deal 8 over time. Seems good, maybe.
Maestra of the Masquerade - this card is absolutely hilarious. I heard it's already been banned from tournament play. Just the idea of maybe starting with a different hero power, let alone the possibility of fooling your opponent, is fantastic, though.
Loan Shark - bad unless you're setting up a combo.
SI Operative - I think this card is deceptively good. 2/4 is a mediocre statline for 3, but rush with stealth to protect it for a second attack is much better than I suspect people will give it credit for.
Sketchy Information - I'd need to look at the deathrattle pool. Is there anything particularly good at 4 or less worth triggering?
Counterfeit Blade - more deathrattle. Only card with deathrattle in this set is Loan Shark, though. Hmm...
SI Informant - bad unless you draw it late game.
SI Assassin - good with discounts, but it still requires combo. I guess that's not a problem with the quest, though.

Command the Elements - Are there even that many Overload cards right now? After Bloom and Bolt, what else are you eager to run? Glancing ahead, this set only has one. Like, Bru'kan looks devastating if you can get there, but I feel like the quest does very little along the way for NINE overload cards.
Investment Opportunity - Okay, I wasn't counting this one.
Overdraft - Interesting take on overload.
Auctionhouse Gavel - It "pays for itself," but unless the breakpoints work out well, I don't think this will be good.
Bolner Hammerbeak - Does it count for the first battlecry, too? Otherwise this just seems bad. If it does, it's a really weird Brann. Need to find the battlecry that's best to copy.
Charged Call - Also an interesting take on overload, helping to justify the quest. If you're halfway through the quest, this is 3 mana summon a random 6. So they're clearly pushing this angle...without making overload cards.
Canal Slogger - 6/4 rush lifesteal is obviously really good for stabilizing. Often takes two trades.
Granite Forgeborn - Elemental support card. I think people are going to forget about this until halfway through the expansion, and then start testing elemental decks...which were already seeing some success.
Spirit Alpha - More overload support...BUT WHERE IS THE OVERLOAD?
Tiny Toys - A hilarious card that I honestly don't understand. Just reads as "summon 4 2/2 tokens" to me unless the 5-cost pool has some interesting effects.

The Demon Seed - This seems REALLY cool...and also really hard to pull off. You have to deal 21 damage to yourself. How much self-deal and self-heal does a control lock deck go through now? And did they need this fatigue-based win condition?
Touch of the Nathrezim - Here's some of that healing. I'm sure this sees play.
Bloodbound Imp - Self-damage support. 2 mana 2/5 is overstatted while still being pretty freaking bad, TBH.
Dreaded Mount - looks like Dreadsteed is back. And cheaper, too.
Runed Mithril Rod - Warlock's never really been about price discounts, but this seems easy to satisfy and probably very effective.
Dark Alley Pact - Yay for 4 mana 9/9's?
Demonic Assault - Very bundled card. Will definitely represent mid-game swing against aggressive decks.
Shady Bartender - Being tradeable makes this card much better.
Anetheron - 1 mana 8/6, lol. But it can't be used to follow Twisting Nether, so I'm curious to see how this gets played.
Entitled Customer - freaking Karens. But seriously this is super expensive for a "2-drop." Is that worth also getting...uhh...that spell that zaps minions based on cards in hand? That cost 3, right?

Provoke - This card is absurdly good.
Raid the Docks - Looks stupidly good on paper. It can't really be that great, can it?
Shiver Their Timbers - Pay 1 deals . Seems balanced.
Harbor Scamp - Pirates that beget more pirates. Quest fodder.
Cargo Guard - For if you want your pirate game to go a bit longer. Is trying to head toward mid-range/control the way to go, though?
Heavy Plate - Shield Block was good because it drew a card. This is just...self-healing. It probably still gets run, but it's significantly less good.
Stormwind Freebooter - Battlecry seems mediocre.
Remote-Controlled Golem - talk about a card you'd prefer not to have to attack a bunch. Also one of the few warrior cards that isn't pirate-themed.
Cowardly Grunt - Silly card, but also potentially really powerful if this is the bottom end of your curve.
Lothar - Lothar gonna feed on some weenies, dayum. More likely he just gets removed since the effect only triggers on the EOT attack and not all damage.

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All the mounts are like spikeridge steed, whatever they initially give (stats and effects) is what they pop out as.

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I figured, but I didn't want to assume.

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Anetheron is played like a mountain giant in hand lock, except when you have a coin you can turn 3 tap and play him

Honesty the handlock cards all seem very good, gives the class the freedom from Tickatus

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Okay it's been less than 4 hours but questline Warlock is BUSTED

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I have to agree that quest mage is also pretty silly. You play Dawngrasp and then sometimes you can draw 10 cards for 0 mana (2 discounted cram sessions) and then shoot 30+ damage face.

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Still trying to think on whether the quest is worth running but I guess the freeze cards are great stall

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I've removed a flurry for a barrier since like half the classes aren't playing minions right now and that 8 armor has saved me against some druids.

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General consensus on Reddit (yes, I know) right now is that this is the worst expansion. Half of the quests are basically OTK solitaire decks and honestly I can't disagree with them. In the mage mirror the optimal play is to use your frost spells on your own minions so that your opponent doesn't have a target for their frost spells. It's the same for other classes and that's pretty awful design for a card game.

Rogue has an OTK they can do on turns 6-8
Warlock has an OTK from 7-9 with stealer of souls
Demon Hunter has (the same) OTK
Mage is basically OTK if you've cast double flow before finishing your quest
Even Shaman has a bad OTK deck right now!

Kripp thinks that they're going to completely Baku/Genn the questlines and remove them from standard in like a month or two because they're too oppressive and poorly designed. I can't realistically believe they would completely nuke this whole expansion like that but they botched these questlines so hard that maybe they will.

Obviously we're only a DAY into this expansion but I don't think any theorycrafting is going to fix these questlines.


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But the rogue one doesnt even use the quest line right?

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I'm not sure if the Shaman one does either but 5 viable OTK decks is pretty rough, quests or not. I don't think there's anything wrong with combo but it's a problem when it's dominating the meta.

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Honestly the mana discount thing probably needs to be reworked and then it could be fine

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Yeah mana cheat has always been the biggest problem in Hearthstone I think. I also think it's way past time to send auctioneer to wild.

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He plays standard for like a day or two whenever a new expansion releases. He made it about halfway through 1 day and then started playing arena and BGs. He said it was the least amount of fun he's ever had on day 1 of an expansion.

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That is such an Ulti deck, lol. Void Shard is enough at 4?

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I tried a few games last night before bed, except I had to replace Illucia. Out of four tries, I had one game I lost because I couldn't draw the shard and one I lost because I couldn't get a 4. Some of the cards weren't too helpful for me in the games I played, either, even though I get why they're there.

One of the games I lost was to a mage who had zero trouble running over me. Only win came in a mirror where I drew better. Small sample size, and interesting take, but I wish the answer to all the solitaire decks in the meta wasn't just to play another solitaire deck.

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I mean, from a logical perspective, they ways to beat a solitaire deck are:

A) Solitaire Faster
B) Slow them down by forcing them to respond to you
C) Disrupt their resources.

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Yeah honestly aggro shaman is probably the best deck in the meta but its not a shiny new toy like the quest decks or garrote rogue so yeah

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Actually wait Paladin has like a 58% win rate

Guess the hand buff stuff is op this expansion

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