Hearthstone

[WhiteGuts]

Because they know it'll be consequence free

 

[Zed]

guys did you see trumps misplay haha he could have healed before attacking into hunter trap at 2 hp but he didn't
haha what a RETARD!!!

 

[Metro]

Because they know it'll be consequence free

This is the driving force behind all of Blizzard's decisions since 2005.

 

[AMG]

Cards revaled so far seem rather subpar. There are some Arena monsters(I already look forward to getting my 3/2 pinged by mages), but for constructed I don't really see a single card that is guaranteed to be played.
Effigy seems rather good, kinda like a reverse mirror entity, although it doesn't really fit too well into any current mage deck. Maybe that Grinder Mage that some people play.
Kodo Rider is maybe playable, but two 3/5 on turn 8 just doesn't really seem that strong. Good in Arena, but not unfair enough for constructed.
Fallen Hero, as I said scary in Arena, but otherwise nothing special.
Nexus Champion doesn' seem good enough, chance of getting something useless is too high.
Totem Golem is obviously good, but is it good enough? It's 2 mana version of Fireguard Destroyer and that thing changed nothing, so I think we need more card reveals to know if it does anything.
Rest of the cards look useless so far. But I like the Inspire mechanic, hopefully there are some actually playable cards with it.

 

[AMG]

Arena Reward Update

Beginning with the launch of The Grand Tournament, the Arena will no longer award players only Goblins vs Gnomes card packs. Instead, players will have a chance to receive a Grand Tournament card pack, Goblins vs Gnomes card pack, or a Classic card pack whenever a pack is awarded.

Wow, this fucking sucks. Jewzzard finally cracking down on Arena being basically free shit. Now if you want cards from new xpack you need to shell out for packs.

 

[Metro]

Good, f'eck all you Arena pros.

 

[sser]

Is there a list of cards out there? I saw the Trump clip and noticed they were playing with new cards; I guess that's how they 'reveal' now?

Nevermind, managed to track some stuff down. Happy to see the Shaman finally getting some love. That legendary pirate is the only card that really looked bad when taken at face value.

 

[Jozoz]

HHNNNHNGHGNHGNHNNNNNNNNNNHNGN

I was laughing so hard at those moans he kept making.

 

[Phage]

So after actually thinking things over...

Kodo Rider really isn't that good. Would rather just play a Sky Golem. It's not bad though, and there are certain board states where it's a house. Problem is getting to those board states.

The Totem Deck might be a thing. Depends on if there are other strong totems added. Tuskarr Totemic is the real deal. Sure, if he gets an ill-timed spell power or vitality totem he kinda blows, bu consider that he can draw Flame Tongue, Mana Spring, Totem Golem or even just a Stoneclaw Totem he suddenly appears great. I think the idea is you build a huge board of totems then win by buffing them with the Valiant. Problem is a solitary Flamestrike or even Hellfire blows this up - so, it probably won't actually be a thing. I'm not even sure if this deck will be stronger than Mech Shaman. Day 0 of spoiler season prediction: Mech/Midrange Shaman just incorporates cards like Totem Golem and Tuskar.

Effigy is decent but Tempo Mage would have to change some things. For instance, I'm not too sure if running Mirror Image will be viable if you want to run Effigy. Fallen Hero doesn't have a space in constructed. Too slow for tempo/aggro, too unimpactful for control. Strong card for arena though - on curve plays with flexible upsides are great.

Saraad is really... He's really not that great. On turn 5 most constructed decks can handle a 4/5, and if you wait for Turn 7 to pair him with a hero power you're better off just playing a Dr. Boom.

A lot of these cards like Coldarra Drake, Poisoned Blade, Ball of Spiders, Frost Giant, Lowly Squire... they're fucking terrible. If you think those cards are good you need to go back to Trump Teachings, watch some Ratsmah full drafts and reevaluate the game as a whole. I really don't know why Blizzard showed them off other than maybe the obvious Coldarra + Maiden of the Lake Synergy. I think a lot of people are going to overvalue Inspire because of MotL and in reality she's a worse Oasis Snapjaw (an almost unplayable card) with a marginal benefit.

I will say that Lock and Load is either going to be unbelievably powerful or complete shit. Either a "miracle hunter" deck will emerge that uses L+L to combo out a win on turn 6, or it will just be too inconsistent to even consider. I'm prone to lean towards shit. You're gunking up your deck with an overabundance of Arcane Shot, Hunter's Mark, Tracking, etc just to cycle for entirely random cards.

It's easy to write off Kragg, but do keep in mind that the Grand Tournament site mentions how "lol pirates can be knights!! we're so quirky XDDD" so if we get something ridiculous like Muster for Pirates then this guy could be a neutral doomguard. Just imagine, Turn 2 Ship's Cannon, Turn 3 Muster for Pirates, Turn 4 Kragg. Dream world scenario requiring a card that doesn't exist, but, yeah.

But hey, we've seen 16 out of 130 cards. I'm sure there will be plenty of OP bullshit that we need to dump money/dust on to be competitive day one. I'm just really perplexed why they chose such schlocky shit cards to start off the spoiler season with.

 

[Metro]

Oh, they're going to drag out the reveals over a month again? How annoying.

 

[Jozoz]

The 3/4 totem for Shaman is absolutely amazing.

Shaman really needed something to fend off aggro and this is it. Cards like Hex are so great at countering greedy decks, but the trouble with Shaman has been that they have all these great reactive cards like Hex, Earth Shock and Fire Elemental and almost nothing in terms of proactive cards. Now with the new 3/4 and Fireguard Destroyer Shaman has some great proactive cards.

Especially this new 3/4 is instrumental to making Shaman viable class again (aside from the gimmicky mech deck). It's like Zombie Chow's big brother. It's exactly what Shaman needed.

 

[Phage]

Well, it should be noted that it can hurt your curve pretty badly.

The real question is going Totem Golem into random 2 drop (or possible hero power...) actually better than Mech Warper / Annoy o Tron into Power Mace? Is the value worth the potential curve loss? That's something deck builders will have to mull on.

In arena I think it's pretty clearly great - though there you may still have some awkward situations as well. So overall - still not as good as SHIELDED GODBOT, but it could be a nice addition for Shamans.

 

[Andhaira]

Not OP at all.

When combined with Maiden:

Spoiler

I could see this being an ok card. Combined with Emperor could bring cost down, if it comes out from unstable portal though it could be a really good card thought that is out of the players control.

First brawl this week, faced off against......Andhaira! THE Andhaira? WTF!

...Lost

Owl'd his turn 1 Chromaggus and BHG'd his turn 2 Onyxia. Goddamn Tirion is what got me, or rather the blade that he leaves behind. Was a good match though

Haha I knew your username seemed familiar. It was my first match too. The Deathwing after Tirion and equality + Ashbringer combination is what won me. Good match indeed though. Give me your battlenet ID and I will add you bro.

 

[Jozoz]

This card is awful design.

No risk and extremely high reward if you're lucky.

At worst it's comparable to Razorfen Hunter, which is definitely not a great card but it does pretty well on the vanilla test.

At best it summons a 3/4, which on turn 3 will bring you incredibly far ahead. Sometimes to the point where you win the game on the spot.

It has a chance of summoning Flametongue and Vitality, which are both really good and do something immediatly though Flametongue is much better in most situations especially on turn 3.

Then it also has the potential to summon the 3/4 and Mana Tide Totem, which both are absolutely crazy in terms of value.

This is bad rng. Kind of reminds me of Crackle, although Crackle is awful damage for the mana if you're unlucky while this is still alright even in the worst scenario.

Top top top top top tier arena card for sure.

 

[Phage]

Andhaira you're falling for a very common trap that a lot of newish card game players get sucked into - it's often called derogatory terms like "Christmas Wonderland" basically, judging cards off of what happens when everything goes perfectly. Sure, if you hit turn 7 and you have your Maiden of the Lake and Coldarra both out on the field that's pretty strong - can usually use your hero power to remove most of the enemy's board without spending a card - nice stuff. Problem is that's such a ridiculously low chance of occurring that running a sub-optimal 6 drop and 4 drop for the off chance that the cards survive or you lower it enough with Emperor is not worth it. Like... you'd be better off trying to goldfish for Emperor lowering the cost of Sorc's Apprentice and Antonidis for the infinite fireball OTK - at least those cards are independently strong.

Jozoz yes that is what I just said 2 posts ago. gotta read the 100% OBJECTIVELY CORRECT PHAGE BREAKDOWN. Also Piloted Shredder is still stronger in both constructed and arena (UNLESS we get roughly 2 more totems similar to Totem Golem). You guys need to understand how ass-rapingly powerful Shredder is, and yes, Shredder is a pretty poorly designed card all things considered.

 

[Grubba]

Haha I knew your username seemed familiar. It was my first match too. The Deathwing after Tirion and equality + Ashbringer combination is what won me. Good match indeed though. Give me your battlenet ID and I will add you bro.

I'm pretty sure you didn't play Deathwing (or Equality). You did play Emperor though, which I took out with a mistress of pain that spawned from my turn 2 Bane of Doom. I played stuff like Mal'Ganis, Anima Golem, nerubian eggs, imp gang boss, and Sneed's Old Shredder. I had a Power Overwhelming in my hand and missed lethal by 1 a turn or two before you got me.

I did send a friend request after the match, but my info is Grubba #1536. Anyone else should send a request as well.

Taking a look at some of the individual cards and discussions on hearthpwn...seems like there's a bunch of hype built up already for shaman totem decks (kinda reminds me of the pre-GvG hype for murloc shaman). Totem Golem looks very nice and I do primarily play shaman (mech) but...i'm not buying it yet, gotta see more cards. Just seems like it would be too slow.

And ya, that presenter had a very funny groan/laugh. Reminded me of the he/she Pat character from SNL.

 

[Jozoz]

Yep. This game would be so much better without Shredder.

 

[sser]

Anyway, some brawl stuff. Thought this was funny...

Spoiler

Nailed it.

 

[Andhaira]

Haha I knew your username seemed familiar. It was my first match too. The Deathwing after Tirion and equality + Ashbringer combination is what won me. Good match indeed though. Give me your battlenet ID and I will add you bro.

I'm pretty sure you didn't play Deathwing (or Equality). You did play Emperor though, which I took out with a mistress of pain that spawned from my turn 2 Bane of Doom. I played stuff like Mal'Ganis, Anima Golem, nerubian eggs, imp gang boss, and Sneed's Old Shredder. I had a Power Overwhelming in my hand and missed lethal by 1 a turn or two before you got me.

I did send a friend request after the match, but my info is Grubba #1536. Anyone else should send a request as well.

Taking a look at some of the individual cards and discussions on hearthpwn...seems like there's a bunch of hype built up already for shaman totem decks (kinda reminds me of the pre-GvG hype for murloc shaman). Totem Golem looks very nice and I do primarily play shaman (mech) but...i'm not buying it yet, gotta see more cards. Just seems like it would be too slow.

And ya, that presenter had a very funny groan/laugh. Reminded me of the he/she Pat character from SNL.

Ah ok, I had a match right after yours which I won with Ashbringer + Deathwing + Equality.

Will add you as soon as I log in.

 

[hivemind]

what happened
I was asleep

was the expansion announcement just a few new cards?

 

[Jozoz]

150 I think. They just showed a few of them.

 

[Zed]

132 new cards.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Funny that they changed the way arena awards packs. Everybody was asking for the ability to choose the pack and oh did they listen and in true Hearthstone fashion packs are now random.

 

[Explorerbc]

The random arena pack reward is complete bullshit.

I guess they figured the game is not pay 2 win enough because there are still a few players who can do well in arena and don't need to buy packs.

Better close that loophole, now you are gonna get shit from arena, better buy our 40 pack deal today!

 

[hivemind]

What' wrong with the random packs?

Like sure picking one of your own choosing would be better but even this is an improvement over just pure GvG.