Board 8 > Hearthstone: New Core Set and an expansion I guess

(+) Yeah! (+)

I dumped some dust into elemental shaman and I'm liking it so far down the doldrums of bronze. Need to play it a bit more before I decide to dump the rest (sstill have a couple epics and maybe a legend to craft)
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I tried elemental shaman too and it was okay but it felt a little too fair for the meta right now. The curve was nice when it happened but it just didn't feel like I was actually doing anything in the few games I played.

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Dipping my toes back into the game after about 4 years away. So far I've unlocked demon hunter and played a few games of arena, which used to be my jam but seems way swingier now. Other than the demon hunter prologue, do any of the other solo adventures give standard cards as rewards?

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Yeah elemental shaman seems way too mediocre to me, I tried like 10 games of it. Aggro shaman is definitely the way

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SirBinro posted...

Dipping my toes back into the game after about 4 years away. So far I've unlocked demon hunter and played a few games of arena, which used to be my jam but seems way swingier now. Other than the demon hunter prologue, do any of the other solo adventures give standard cards as rewards?

Each Book of Heroes solo adventure gives a pack for that class. They're pretty quick and mindless but some battles can be fun.

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The biggest thing against book of heroes for me is the dialogue is... so... slow. and so constant.

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Anyone else feeling disappointed with this expansion so far? I know it's only been a week but I feel like I've been having zero fun. This game was the straw that broke my back:

https://hsreplay.net/replay/2Lxow5ncApPXHZ8uTT8EpS

Maybe I could have played that out but I'm completely demoralized right now. Just to put this turn into words

Mage drew 9 cards, summoned 2 2/2 minions, played two secrets, and hero powered me on turn 4.

Between this garbage, secret paladin, and control warlock there is no fun allowed right now.

I was feeling so hyped for this expansion and the core set and I'm beyond frustrated with the entire game right now.

How are you guys finding fun right now because I'm struggling

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Decks that generate a bunch of resources you cant play around are what ruins hearthstone for me, is why I quit for about a year until this set I tried it again. Prolly wont be playing much longer

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I'm having tons of fun this expansion.

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For anyone interested in BGs - Nicholena's tournament is tomorrow and honestly may be one of the most competitive BGs tournament ever put on. Multiple leaderboard players (including 2 top 10 NA players) and streamers (Sunglitters, TeamAmerica, Slyssa) will be competing. It's a duo tournament where teams are split and results combined to determine finals - with finals being 1 part of the duo playing and the other can give advice. I'll be partnered with TeamAmerica. Honestly not getting dead last would be an accomplishment for me, haha. It's tomorrow at 3PM Eastern for anyone interested.

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skullbone posted...

Anyone else feeling disappointed with this expansion so far?

Deck of Lunacy hasn't bothered me at all, but I'm guessing that's probably because rng has been on my side and I think I'm 2-0 against it so far. Not sure I've played against Control Warlock or Secret Paladin more than once. Libram Paladin and whatever you call the Rogue deck that's been going around have been the most annoying to me, though that's probably just because I'm beyond tired of Pen Flinger.

I always get kind of depressed playing against the same two or three decks over and over even though I'm never remotely close to the top. Seems like there should be less homogenization at the end of the month when you're still in bronze or silver but there's not. I think the reason I'm extra down this expansion is a combination of my favorite class being garbage, which to be honest is par for the course with Priest most of the time even though everyone has spent the last two years whinging about Convincing Infiltrator, and not being able to find any decks that I find fun to play without spending a lot of dust just to give it a test drive. I've got plenty of dust to spend but I don't want to spend a lot of it and then find out the deck is either terrible or just boring to play.

I miss Whizbang.

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skullbone posted...

Anyone else feeling disappointed with this expansion so far? I know it's only been a week but I feel like I've been having zero fun. This game was the straw that broke my back:

https://hsreplay.net/replay/2Lxow5ncApPXHZ8uTT8EpS

Maybe I could have played that out but I'm completely demoralized right now. Just to put this turn into words

Mage drew 9 cards, summoned 2 2/2 minions, played two secrets, and hero powered me on turn 4.

I definitely found myself playing a lot less once lunacy mage took over the ladder. Just not a deck I enjoy playing against.

That said, I think the expansion itself is great, and most of the problem cards are cards from last year (Deck of Lunacy, Warlock value cards in general being way higher value than other slow classes, and Oh My Yogg being pretty frustrating to play against). Usually when old cards are dominating a meta right after rotation they step in with nerfs, because they want people to get excited about the shiny new cards, so I'm assuming that's what's going to happen here.

That said, probably won't happen for a few days, cause it's the weekend, so I'll probably mess around in wild for a bit. (Wild is actually the healthiest it's been in quite a while, since Far Watch Post punishes the problem decks that draw 6 cards in a turn).

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Camden posted...

I miss Whizbang.

Me too. I'll probably play some Whizbabg in wild for a bit after I hit legend in standard.

And while I agree that Lunacy mage feels oppressive right now the fact remains that many people are not piloting it very well and there are a few aggro decks that can just get to lethal more often than not so Lunacy mage can be farmed.

I'd prefer to be playing control warlock personally but shaman has fit the opposition decks very nicely and I enjoy winning.

And I'm just realizing the all the secret paladins I'm running into are probably simply trying to auto win by hitting Lunacy with Oh My Yogg against mages who aren't competent enough to check first with another spell.

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I'm just waiting for that juicy 3200 dust refund from my gold Deck of Lunacy that will surely be coming next week.

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That's also true, anyone who was at all interested in playing lunacy should definitely try it before it disappears.

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Yeah I should probably use that deck (I haven't played a single game of constructed since the release came out) before the nerf since I have the legendary already and can maybe get some quick climb in.

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So what's a good replacement for Tickatus in this deck? Milling opponents is fun but my dude is just too out of place at this point.

### Zombie Lillard
# Class: Warlock
# Format: Standard
# Year of the Gryphon
#
# 2x (1) Armor Vendor
# 2x (1) Unstable Felbolt
# 2x (2) Drain Soul
# 1x (2) Kanrethad Ebonlocke
# 2x (3) Backfire
# 2x (3) Death's Head Cultist
# 1x (3) Horde Operative
# 2x (3) Hysteria
# 1x (3) Mankrik
# 2x (3) Mor'shan Watch Post
# 2x (3) School Spirits
# 2x (3) Venomous Scorpid
# 1x (4) Kazakus, Golem Shaper
# 1x (5) Envoy Rustwix
# 2x (5) Siphon Soul
# 1x (6) Tickatus
# 2x (8) Twisting Nether
# 1x (9) Lord Jaraxxus
# 1x (10) C'Thun, the Shattered
#
AAECAcn1AgjWuQO/4APO4QP24wP86APn8APu8QOFoAQLvb4DrMsD+OMD kuQDk+QDlugD+egDmOoDgqAEg6AE56AEAA==

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Last expansion I was never upset drawing Void Drinker or Abyssal Summoner if you're looking for similar mana cost.

Soulciologist Malicia would also be nice since you're running a few soul fragment cards.

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I'd prefer something I can actively play on the board before I hit 3 and half my deck becomes available, but I'm not sure what early drops to put in there. That's the whole reason Kanrethad is here since it isn't even particularly good. Well, not the whole reason since there's always Rustwix shenanigans. Horde Operative is just something I threw in there since I needed 1x of something, it's probably not there for the long run either..

Ooze feels weak with Warrior nowhere to be found. The legendary that gives you 0-cost Shadow spells looks good in this deck but I really don't need any more 3s. I don't have Artificers. Soul Shear feels out of place with Felbolt and Drain Soul already doing the same thing. Wandmaker is more likely to give me a card I don't want than one I do.

Explosive Sheep? Other Warlocks actually seem to be running it.


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If you want a card to play early Cult Neophyte is my suggestion. 2 mana 3/2 makes your opponents spells cost 1 more next turn. It's great on any turn vs mage and basically guarantees a turn where they will either do nothing or not as much as they otherwise would.

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My early game recommendations: Raise dead, Shadowlight Scholar, Deaths' Head Cultist, Far Watch Post

You could also try Horde Operative to counter Secret Paladins. 3 mana 3/4: copy your opponents secrets and put them into play. Even if you're against a class with no secrets a 3 mana 3/4 is okay

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Honestly in control lock the best thing to do on 2 is tap

but if you want to add like, Spirit Jailer or the 1/3 lady thats 3 mana (shes great) go ahead

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Made Finals of Nich's tournament with TeamAmerica. Wish us luck.

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Nice! Good luck and get it done!

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ESY16 posted...

Made Finals of Nich's tournament with TeamAmerica. Wish us luck.

Congrats!

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Killing someone with dunk tank is hilarious cause you just pelt them with a rock and then they asplode
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Emeraldegg posted...

Killing someone with dunk tank is hilarious cause you just pelt them with a rock and then they asplode

Especially uncorrupted dunk tank. It's so anti climactic seeming.

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Ive played about 3 runs of duels in the last two days. It's more fun then I thought it'd be

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I've been playing a bit of Celestial Druid and I have a bad feeling that if they nerf mage and paladin this deck is going to dominate the ladder. The only bad matchup right now is Paladin

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skullbone posted...

I've been playing a bit of Celestial Druid and I have a bad feeling that if they nerf mage and paladin this deck is going to dominate the ladder. The only bad matchup right now is Paladin

Seems...unlikely based on matchup data I've seen:

https://hsreplay.net/archetypes/440/celestial-druid#tab=matchups

Loses to stuff rarely seen right now like Token Druid and Murloc Shaman and hunter decks. Apparently loses to control warlock too.

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When are they going to fix the Oh my Yogg animation bug

Forceful_Dragon posted...

Especially uncorrupted dunk tank. It's so anti climactic seeming.

Yeah that's the one I meant specifically. Nailed it last night and I was just like pffft!
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Forceful_Dragon posted...

new page:
Up to diamond 3 with doomhammer shaman. Currently on an 8 game win streak.

I hit a bit of a stall around here due mostly do an uptick in paladins. I tech'd in 1 copy of devolving missiles which has proved valuable a couple of times and generally started getting better match-ups. Sitting at Diamond 1 now.

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Well that didn't take long! Been quite some time since i've made the push, and it was particularly painless this time. I'm starting to feel like I understand Lunacy Spell Mage better than my opponents who are piloting it, or they simply don't understand the shaman matchup because they are playing to all the wrong outs. Deck Tracker says i'm 64% in the matchup vs mage, but I've probably played 15-20 games on mobile so the exact stats are difficult to know.



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Congrats :)

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Congrats, FD!

I just started my constructed season today and haven't played too much yet, but some random things:

• I have drawn Deck of Lunacy a single time in a game. Thankfully playing Incanter's and burning face is quite good.
• Getting a 1/1 from Apexis makes me sad.
• Even in the dregs where I play everyone is playing the same 2 decks. Lunacy is obviously getting the nerf hammer - but what will they nerf in Pally?
• Speaking of, I continue to shake my head at the HS boomers who still complain about Demon Hunter (no skill, OP cards, etc.). For someone newer to the game, Paladin has been Tier 1 in standard and wild for nearly my entire experience and was tier 1 in Arena for the majority of it. The top 3 decks in the lower ranks are all Paladin decks. Secret Paladin has exactly 1 sub-50% matchup in the garbo ranks. That class is dumb.
• If you are playing Arena and get Priest you should be drafting every single Draconic Studies you see. The quality of dragons, especially in Arena, is absolutely through the roof with DoD gone and the Core Set in.
• Speaking of Arena - micro adjusts are going to be coming soon. Blizzard is going to do what they always do and make DH unplayable and buff a couple cards for bad classes to get them to be better. What they really need to do is, other than with legendaries, stop using the rarity of a card as the most important (and sometimes if feels like only) factor when figuring in offering rates. Why are class cards that happen to be Epics like Nagrand Slam and Warsong Wrangler in under 8% of Hunter decks yet Protodrake (which is better than Wrangler and slightly worse than Nagrand Slam) is in over 20%. Give classes in Arena identity so games don't feel so same-y (one of the appeals to the format) and stop putting the too-strong neutrals (Proto, Claw Machine, Magescribe, Far Watch Post) in 20-25% of all decks.
• In BGs, I would like to see them take the opportunity that adding Quillboars into the format gives to temporarily remove Demons (or perhaps Mechs) and give them a full overhaul. Also, for the love of all that is good add a damn PTR so we can playtest changes and keep things a bit more dynamic. I will say though that, while a lot of people seem to be down on this meta, I am having a good time and still find it so much better than the wretched spells meta.
• Lastly, participating in tournaments lately has been a lot of fun. Blizzard implement a tournament mode in all formats you lazy goons.

Don't want this to seem like a list of complains (rather than just discussion) as overall I'm enjoying HS lately.

P.S. Oh, does anyone know if golden packs (like the golden classic mega bundle) adhere to the guaranteed legendary in the first 10 rule? Not planning on getting it, but if it did then getting ~7500-8000 dust makes it not the worst value I've ever seen from Blizz.

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ESY16 posted...

but what will they nerf in Pally?

My dream list...

Librams can't cost less than 1.
First Day of School costs 1.
Pen Flinger costs 11.

I'm not familiar enough with the Secret Paladin list yet to know what exactly is busted in that one, but I'd guess it's the 4/3 that gets +2/+2, which could easily be nerfed in different ways.

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It's the combination of a variety of factors.

It's the 2 mana 1/3 weapon that casts a secret from your deck. Thinning 3 cards on turn 2/3/4 is massive.

It's the 1 mana 1/1 that draws a holy spell from your deck. Getting the librams into your hand so they aren't just kicking dust in the middle of your deck is big.

It's the 3 mana 3/4 that draws a minion from your deck if you have a secret in play, which let's face it you will because your opponents HAVE to play around the "play 3 cards in a turn summons a 3/4". Even if you WANT to trigger that secret (which sometimes you might it if you have a convenient answer) chances are you wont be playing 3 cards in a turn for a bit so that one will linger and active the condition on the 3/4.

And then the minion you draw will no doubt be the 3/3 taunt/divine shield legendary which will pull your most expensive minion (Liadrin) from your deck to make sure you can get your Libram of Hopes back after you play them.

It's a finely tuned ultra consistent machine of a deck that any deck relying on minion or weapon attacks cannot hope to defeat more than 20% of the time.

It can have dead draws, like any deck, but it has so many tools to PREVENT the super dead draws that it is far less likely to have a bad early game.

I hate it.

Also it might be why i've been seeing in uptick on OTK DH? I guess DH with a good draw can assemble the pieces for a 32 damage OTK before secret paladin can kill you? :shrug:

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Playing Celestial Druid against lunacy mage. He floods his board and buffs them all and then plays Celestial himself. Next turn he plays survival of the fittest and BMs me before killing me.

That's about a wrap on Hearthstone unless they announce some nerfs soon.

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Forceful_Dragon posted...

Also it might be why i've been seeing in uptick on OTK DH? I guess DH with a good draw can assemble the pieces for a 32 damage OTK before secret paladin can kill you? :shrug:

This is extremely untrue for the aggro version. Even without Oh My Yogg


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Libram Secret Paladin's worst matchup is the mirror. Hopefully we get some nerfs today. I've been playing Clown Druid partly because it's "only" a 45-55 matchup and Mage is 50-50ish so it's one of the only decks that has fight against both.

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Can we hold on the nerfs until i hit legend with the deck, thanks.

If you are going to play Lunacy Mage then please don't be the dummy that casts both incanter's flow BEFORE lunacy.

The reason that deck runs four 7 cost spells (double flamestrike, double mask of c'thun) is so when you cast lunacy you KNOW there will be up to four 10 cost spells in your deck. And hopefully they will all be Nagrand Slam, but if they are Survival of the Fittest it might still be okay if you get minions from other sources.

But when you reduce your 7 cost spells to 5 cost spells and THEN cast lunacy, suddenly you are getting 3-8 cost spells instead of 5-10 cost spells. And yeah you can still get the job done if RNG favors you, but you've made your deck worse.

So it's better to cast lunacy and THEN incanter's flow because now you will be getting Nagrand and Survival (still 10 mana spells) for 5-6 mana instead of 7.

OR if you just didn't draw your deck so you play your 2 incanter's flow as you go (because why wouldn't you?) then you should think long and hard before playing that lunacy you topdeck. You have to remember that your deck has a LOT of burn and a LOT of draw that you just made cost 2 less. You will be drawing 2 cards and GAINING 2 MANA for playing Refreshing Spring Water once it has been discounted twice.

Runed Orb x2 = 4
Fireball x2 = 12
Apexis Blast x2 = 10
Mask of C'thun x2 = 0-20

So not counting any spells you generate or any spell power (that you will certainly get from Primordial Studies and/or Font of Power) you can count on 26 face damage plus up to 20 from mask. So maybe just use your absurd card draw to kill your opponent with the burn that is already in your deck instead of turning your burn deck into a randomly generated NOT burn deck.

This message has been brought to you by FD's frustration at seeing people play decks wrong.

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Forceful_Dragon posted...

If you are going to play Lunacy Mage then please don't be the dummy that casts both incanter's flow BEFORE lunacy.

The reason that deck runs four 7 cost spells (double flamestrike, double mask of c'thun) is so when you cast lunacy you KNOW there will be up to four 10 cost spells in your deck. And hopefully they will all be Nagrand Slam, but if they are Survival of the Fittest it might still be okay if you get minions from other sources.

But when you reduce your 7 cost spells to 5 cost spells and THEN cast lunacy, suddenly you are getting 3-8 cost spells instead of 5-10 cost spells. And yeah you can still get the job done if RNG favors you, but you've made your deck worse.

So it's better to cast lunacy and THEN incanter's flow because now you will be getting Nagrand and Survival (still 10 mana spells) for 5-6 mana instead of 7.

10 mana spells are good (only nagrand slam and survival)

9 mana spells can also be good (literally only Libram of Hope at 9 mana; if you're up against an aggro deck, there is an argument to incanters exactly once and then lunacy to get 4x Libram of Hope in your deck).

8 mana spells suck, there's like four of them that literally do nothing. (Jewel of N'Zoth, Idol of Y'Sharrj, Guardian Animals, and also Power Word Fortitude is bugged with Deck of Lunacy so effectively does nothing). If you incanters twice, you should think long and hard about whether you want to lunacy--basically comes down to whether you've already drawn the burn out of your deck.

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Yeah I think a deck tracker is a good way to think about how you want to use it

By the way Spring Water would probably have to be nerfed with Lunacy IMO but thats just me speaking

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3 mana, refund 1 per spell seems more balanced. It means it's "on line" 1 turn earlier, but then you are spending 1 mana to draw 2 cards instead of 0 mana to draw 2 cards. And it would take 2 cost reductions to gain mana by casting it instead of only 1 cost reduction.

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What are everyone's opinions on this newer rendition of yogg saron? I hate it even more tbh because almost all of the outcomes tend to favor the user rather than the old one of "just cast a bunch of **** and see what happens"
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I have not seen a single person play the new Yogg in the latest expansion. It's basically just a board clear that can high roll with the rush spell right now.

It's a little awkward to actually fit into a deck at the moment though.

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https://twitter.com/GW_Alec/status/1379532174324461569

Balance changes to go out early next week with 20.0.2. We'll be targeting some cards in Mage, Paladin, Rogue, and Neutral. Hoping to create more space for experimentation in the early Barrens meta and have a more diverse field of classes. 6 changes in total, details coming soon.

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Flinger
Lunacy
Sword
The 2 mana Watchpost
Springwater
Either Field Contact or Jandice

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