So far I suprisingly seem most interested in potential new Rogue decks/adjustments with these cards. It's my current least favorite class to play, but with the combination of Cutpurse, Burgle, and Beneath the Grounds, Rogues seem really really fun.

@imsh_pl: My problem with them is that Booty Bay Bodyguard and Magma Rager are still things you have sitting around uselessly in your collection, and are still things that can come up in Arena. Like, how about they save themselves two common slots in TGT and just buff those 2 Classic cards instead.

Well with all of the cards revealed, I am definitely interested in playing Druid, Hunter, Rogue, Shaman, and Priest. A lot of the Warlock cards make me sad, but I might still go back and play good ol' handlock every now and then. Taunt Warrior seems like it could be pretty cool as well so maybe I'll give that a shot.

@bisonhero: Buffing old cards would probably be too confusing for new players, although not as confusing as having more than 9 deck slots.

Agreed. I don't mind a "bad" card like Magma Rager existing when there's no other card like it, but having an objectively better version takes it from bad to completely irrelevant. I think they could have gotten away with just buffing the old cards.

@spunkyhepanda: They've been irrelevant since the day of their creation. I don't see how having an objectively better version of unplayable cards is bad. I see this as Blizzard realizing the mistakes they've made in designing some of the classic cards; it's not that people don't play them because they don't fit into current decks, it's that they are overcosted for what they do, which makes them inherently bad.

Ben Brode has actually made a great video response to Kripparian about why they don't want to buff old cards, and why he thinks that bad cards are needed for the game.

I did it guys, now the question is what happens when you get to 1000. Averaging a win every 5 minutes or so, pretty sure it's possible to get to 1000 in 5 days.

@fredchuckdave: I hit 100 wins on the Banana Brawl. I actually hate tempo mage in constructed but I really liked the options the bananas gave you, even though the decks were pretty much the same.

On a on-topic topic: there is a 'scheduled maintanance' on Wednesday for HS. Hpwever, this does not seem as an ordinary brawl update since it will take 8 hours. Obviously it's a card dump for the client, the question remains when will the actual expansion be released. My guess is that on Wednesday we'll either see a TGT themed Brawl or Arena (similar to GvG), possibly a combination of the two, with a release maybe in time for the weekend?

@imsh_pl: Yeah, they've really been milking this preview for almost 30 days now. Just release it, for christ's sake.

@bisonhero: I'm going on a week long vacation on the 25th so I'd probably rip all of my hair out if the release date was 24th. JUST GIVE ME A WEEK OF SWEET, SWEET TGT ARENA, that's all I ask.

I'd be stunned if the arena thing didn't happen again, great way to promote it and also a good way to get people to actually play arena.

Just played an Arena against a mage with 5 flamestrikes, to conclude the game he topdecked 2 Flamestrikes (after already playing 3) followed by 2 Sunwalkers. The skill.

@fredchuckdave: I once played an arena game that curved out starting on turn 3, coin+Water Elemental, Water Elemental, Spectral Knight, Boulderfist Ogre, War Golem. My Hunter opponent answered every single turn of mine with a Deadly Shot plus minions. I immediately started googling stuff like, "arena hacks" "arena card pick hack" "arena card hack reddit." I couldn't believe that anyone could get that lucky and was certain there was some way to cheat your cards in arena that I hadn't been aware of.

Looks like we're getting a brawl, so no arena this time I imagine. The two least important facets of the expansion will be explored.

Forsen is playing SC2 if people are curious, kind of fun to see the trolliness of his playstyle there.

Hmm, was actually expecting them to release the full thing this week, but ah well. I like this better than the arena thing, because I don't have to spend the gold I've been saving up on something that won't get me any of the new cards.

Hearthpwn just datamined the latest patch. It looks like we will be getting new quests.

• Everybody! Get in here! Win 5 Tavern Brawls. - Rewards: 60 Gold

• Druid Victory - Win 3 games with Druid. - Rewards: 50 Gold

• Hunter Victory - Win 3 games with Hunter. - Rewards: 50 Gold

• Mage Victory - Win 3 games with Mage. - Rewards: 50 Gold

• Paladin Victory - Win 3 games with Paladin. - Rewards: 50 Gold

• Priest Victory - Win 3 games with Priest. - Rewards: 50 Gold

• Rogue Victory - Win 3 games with Rogue. - Rewards: 50 Gold

• Shaman Victory - Win 3 games with Shaman. - Rewards: 50 Gold

• Warlock Victory - Win 3 games with Warlock. - Rewards: 50 Gold

• Warrior Victory - Win 3 games with Warrior. - Rewards: 50 Gold

@acura_max: So alongside Frostfire Rager (5/3 for 3) next expansion we'll have 4 win quests.

Trades evenly with the 3 mana Evil Bootyguard.

Patron is NOT getting nerfed. Kinda can't believe it. I'm a bit conflicted because even though I like the deck it feels like it's going to overshadow the new possible decks that always arise out of an expansion.

Yeah, I think I read on Polygon a couple weeks ago that Ben Brode had said there was no nerf coming. He seems fairly confident that the new cards can counter it on their own, which seems like bullshit to me. The amount of Patron Warriors on the ladder make the game kinda no fun to play. I hate them more than Face Hunter and thats saying something.

So the patch notes are "There are no patch notes"? Because all they did was add a card back, the new quests, and some minor bug fixes?

Maybe this will turn out similar to Undertaker, it was not nerfed until after it turned out that the new 'anti-undertaker' cards were not good enough.

Thing is, what are the 'anti-patron' cards of this expansion... Chillmaw? A legendary that fits only dedicated dragon control decks that usually area already the best at dealing with Patron? That's it?

I can't really see how the board centric and slow nature of inspire does anything but die to Patron.

First hearthhead draft I tried.

Expansion release confirmed for August 24th

The hunter brawl deck has North Sea Kraken in it.

This week's brawl is making a good case for how weak the new mechanics are.

Well with Nefarian vs Rag it was an OP deck vs an even more OP deck, now its a shitty deck vs an even shittier deck. It does let you dick around with some weird cards though, I'll give it that.

As bad as the decks are, some cards really show potential. Coining out Fallen hero is really good at denying a 2 drop. King's Ellek is actually pretty good. Lock and Load is pretty insane draw. Acidmaw still sucks.

2nd with hunter is around 80-90% win rate I think. 2nd with mage is probably a little closer to even.

I was just subjected to Spellslinger>Unstable Portal>Ragnaros. Yuck.

Oh, man. Skeleton Knight's sound effects are top notch. So good.

Really like Heartstone been playing for about two weeks or so and loving it. But man the expansions are expensive and yeah its free to play and you can slowly earn them but that grind is going to take awhile, wish they gave out more daily quest.

These decks feel very constructed-ey even if they suck and thus are pretty boring to play unlike most brawls.

Wow this Tavern Brawl might be the worst one they have done. These decks feel horrible, and seem to have almost no synergy. The mage one can sometimes work ok together, but the hunter one feels like a clunky pile of garbage thrown together.

I won't be playing this brawl besides the win for the pack. Kinda a buzzkill to all the TGT hype. I'm excited to build new decks using the new cards, but being straddled with these bad decks for a week takes a bit of the excitement out of me.

I don't know if anything will ever beat the all random decks brawl.

@hansolol: Any brawl you can win with any class is a good brawl, doesn't really matter what the specifications are.

@fredchuckdave: I like the brawls that provide a unique twist on the game while also incorporating a need for some amount of skill--whether that be skill in deck-building or in-game decision making. The all random one was lame because you couldn't play around anything, nor could you play towards any particular strategy. You basically mulliganed for an early curve and then played the value trading game 'til your opponent was dead.

This current brawl is ok in my opinion because the decks are known and thus you can play around a few things. Most of the brawls I find to be fun for about a day and then I go back to laddering. This one has been no different. It's been a nice little preview but I doubt I'll play it again.

The Mage deck is super fun to play, though you have to luck your way into you laying down the Hero Power synergies, and then hope that your opponent's (crappy) Hunter deck does not having the right removal at the right time.

The Hunter deck seems to only work if you go second, so that you can play Lock 'n Load, then use the coin, and Hunter's Mark, and a bunch of other stuff, and pray to god you actually get good cards, because oh boy, the default cards in that Hunter deck are a real piece of work. The Joust cards are fun, but even when you win the Joust, it's not THAT good, especially when Mage can just Hero Power the Sunwalker stand-in. Also Cobra Shot...

Also Acidmaw has no same-turn synergy with anything except for Arcane Shot, or Unleash the Hounds if you have a thousand mana.

Got Varian, Saraad and Eadric from 22 packs. Sure, I'll take that. What has everyone else opened?

I just opened a ridiculous pack