@captain_max707: C'thun decks seem fun, but like mech and murloc, it's pretty much "Here, Blizzard made the deck for you!" Similar to mech or murloc, whatever the popular C'thun deck ends up being, I imagine it will somehow end up in 1-2 particular classes pretty quickly. At least they're all neutral cards this time, seemingly. I still can't believe how many class cards were wasted in GvG on completely terrible class mechs that were never going to be good.
@acura_max: I think my point still stands. It's extremely conditional for this card to be better than an existing card that is not good enough to be played.
Skeram since okayish. Dies to BGH, but that means big minions you care about won't (and Skeram has already given you value w/ the battlecry). If there are no good 6 drops releases you'll probably put it in your C'Thun deck. And we still have to see how viable those will be.
I like Cabalist's Tome as an arena card. The meta is going to be slowing down a lot based on what we know about Whispers so far, so I think there's definitely room for a spell version of Nourish.
I think the 4/6 sees some play since it's not that easy to remove. Y'Shaarj probably not unless you just throw him in some deck running another Old God Theme for the hell of it.
Y'Shaarj is pretty disappointing. He's just a big body that summons other random minions. I don't see how this is a "build around me" card, unless we're talking some kind of ramp druid with lots of big minions, but even that seems kind of weak and limited. As someone who mostly plays arena though, he's without a doubt going to be a beast there.
The tome seems pretty good. Fights fatigue, helps card advantage, and mage spells in general are pretty good, so it's not that easy to go wrong. What kind of deck will use it is the question. I don't see any early or tempo mage running this because of its cost.
New old god seems bad. Definitely don't want to open this one in a pack. Maybe other cards will make it better, but I doubt it.
Harbinger also seems bad. Basically just here to guarantee you draw your god, so if you already have its a 4-6 for 6. Will act as a soft taunt, but for its costs the stats are horrible. It has to survive til your next turn and barring bad draw luck for your opponent it is not hard to remove a 6 health minion after turn 6.
Cabalist's Tome: Just what the Tempo mage ordered! This thing is about as underrated right now as Echo of Medivh! I'm pretty excited about that. Five mana for three spell cards? There's only about an 18% chance you'll get something that's worthless for what you are trying to do. That's free removal spells that you didn't have to put into your deck. I'm more than okay with that.
Y'Shaarj: I kind of agree that he's lackluster. Granted, he's immediately viable, so you pay 10 to drop him and then get something else at the end of your turn, which could make him highly mana-efficient...or more of a detriment than he should be.
Ancient Harbinger: Alright, so you can get the one 10-drop Old God into your hand. Anything that lets you pull a specific card to hand is good, no matter what card game you are playing. This, however, just feels clunky. 6-drop 4/6 is a decent body, but we have to see how the 10-drop Old Gods play out in practice. On paper, it's cool. I'll reserve final judgment when I get to tool around with the cards a bit more.
Ragnaros, Lightlord: Standard bomb that is playable for days. It makes sense: there needs to be a non-neutral replacement for Healbot, and this serves that purpose without being so cheap and direct.
Infest: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YES! Card draw is what Face Hunter has needed to stop running out of gas so hard and then rely on topdecking. Being able to refill the hand is great! I'm excited as hell about this card, and especially at a rare slot.
Cultist Apothecary: Anti-aggro card, and a ridiculously strong one at that. This is actually much better than what Healbot offered. Expect this to go into damn near every deck, and also expect to start yelling at your computer screen every time it hits the board.
Mukla, Tyrant: Solid card for any midrange setup.
Shadow Word: Fear: Fuck priests and their AoE murder.
Mark of Y'Shaarj: Won't see much play most likely, but eh. It's cool.
Nightmare Dragon: Dies to Shadow Word: Fear, then Shadow Word: Pain, then Shadow Word: Death. There are three reasons to never play that card in a deck...ever.
Steward of Darkshire: Really? Like...fucking really? Did this actually need to exist? Silver Hand Recruits all get Divine Shield on entry. Charge Murlocs gets Divine Shield. Twilight Drake gets Divine Shield. Fuck this card and the horse it rode in on. Paladins are about to have so much strength, even with a potential Muster nerf.
Prophet Skeram: Still gonna wait to see if C'Thun is worth all this specific shit for him. Seriously, the guy will be able to die to Big Game Hunter. Think about that.
Tentacles for Arms: I needed something to guaranteed dust every time I see it. Thank you, Blizzard!
@jakob187: Keep in mind Blizzard has hinted at a BGH nerf because it restricts their design so much and in general is too good of a card. If BGH is as it is now then Blizzard really doesn't have a clue with this expansion.
@acura_max: Y'Shaarj looks bad for a control deck. It doesn't impact the board state except for putting a ton of stats out. The fact that it pulls out a minion from your deck is a huge detriment:
-the battlecries don't trigger
-you overextend into removal
and most importantly
-you are one card closer to fatigue and don't get to play a potential threat when you want to, which is a HUGE DEAL in control vs control matchups nowadays when minions in hand are often times more valuable than those on the board. There's a reason that Varian isn't being played since LoE; control vs control matchups almost always hit fatigue and every card matter because of Elise.
The potential fit for this card is in some kind of midrange or top-heavy tempo deck as a finisher. It fits that role really well. However, I struggle to think of such a deck existing except for Secret Paladin (which we won't be seeing in standard anymore). Possibly a good fit in Ramp Druid (essentially a better Aviana) if that deck becomes competitive (and if Force+Roar is nerfed).
Ancient Harbringer certainly has a powerful effect; however, I worry that C'Thun decks will have a tough time staying alive until turn 10, and that's with the optimistic outcome of drawing C'Thun. All of the C'Thun synergy cards offer sub-par tempo (they have to, since they would be OP otherwise) and don't really help you stay alive (except for the Shieldsomething, which is a turn 7 conditional heal... not that reliable).
It just looks like Blackrock and Dragons all over again... really cool and powerful lategame value, failing to take off because you actually have to get to the late game. Yes, the aggressive cards are being phased out, but still.
Murloc Paladin hype! This one probably looks like it does not fit into anyfin can happen paladin because you wouldn't want to accidentally summon a bunch of 1/1s without the warleader and old murk eye (who is being rotated out of standard)
@bisonhero: Because he's part of the reward set. And blizzard decided that the reward set was not going to make it into the new format for some reason. I'm not sure why but they did it real quietly by sneaking it into the FAQ of the standard format announcement.
Will Reward set cards such as Gelbin Mekkatorque and Old Murk-Eye be part of Wild or Standard format?
All current Reward set cards, including Promo cards, will be restricted to Wild format.
When Standard format arrives, the Captain’s Parrot and Old Murk-Eye cards won’t be given for collecting their associated classic cards, but can instead be crafted (and disenchanted).
Acquiring the Promo cards Gelbin Mekkatorque and Elite Tauren Chieftain remains unchanged: the normal versions of these cards can still be crafted or disenchanted, while the golden versions were acquired via special events and cannot be disenchanted or crafted.
@acura_max: Bizarre, since most of those cards are not even remotely relevant to anything, other than Old Murk-Eye being pretty helpful for Murloc decks.
Also the new card back for this month is pretty cool! Bad news is that it is means the expansion might be released in May rather than late April since I bet Blizzard would want to release the expansion and this cardback at the same time.
Murloc Paladin hype! This one probably looks like it does not fit into anyfin can happen paladin because you wouldn't want to accidentally summon a bunch of 1/1s without the warleader and old murk eye (who is being rotated out of standard)
.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck that bullsssssssssssssssssssssssssssshit. Sure, Murk-Eye won't be around for Standard, but that doesn't make this any less bullshiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. Also, what does Justicar Trueheart do to the hero power? Two 1/1's? FOR REAL, THIS CARD IS DUMB AS FUCK! It will definitely get played in an Anyfin deck, as the power of Anyfin is more in what you are capable of controlling down with your murloc minions in the early game so you can get to the late game for one big ass swing of doom on your opponent to win. Being able to get murlocs that get buffed by your other murlocs is ridiculous. This also makes Tidecaller a MUCH stronger card than before.
Thing From Below: Sure, why not give Shamans a 5/5 taunt for next to nothing? I mean, that's almost a turn 3 play for Standard format. Druids have to at least have an Innervate in hand to make that happen with a Druid of the Claw. UGH!
@jakob187:Thing from Below is really strong but I can't imagine summoning it before turn 4. Even if you coin hero power on turn 1 and summon something 2 cost something 2 cost like totem golem (overload 1) or vitality totem, the Thing will still be 4 mana.
@noelle808: Actually once standard format gets here, you will only be able to get standard packs from arena and the end of season chest.
Can I earn rewards in both formats?
You can earn gold, complete quests, level your heroes, and earn wins toward Golden heroes in both formats in exactly the same way. Your end of season Ranked Play bonus and card back will be awarded based on the highest rank you obtained in either Wild or Standard, but not both. End of season bonuses and Arena rewards will only include cards that are usable in Standard format.
@jakob187: You realize, very much like the last Brawl and KT's ability, adding more dead murlocks too your pool of potential summons is..bad? Like sure the 1/1s being murlocks instead of silverhand recruits is not a bad thing, but for an anyfin combo deck? This is pretty awful. Trueheart would make it even worse. Who wants anyfin to read "summon 7 1/1 murlocks" after all.
As a card that goes into a more casual murlock deck I could see..but hearthstone doesn't actually have 'a 'lets just play with some cards for fun' format so..its bad? Like kinda really bad. Maybe we get a new aggro murlock deck..but baring that. This does not, in any way, fit into the anyfin combo/control deck.
And..almost a turn 3 play? By which you mean a turn 4 play.(calculate it, with just that card in hand its turn 4 going first or second) At that rate its just a shieldmaster with 2 more attack, at the cost of doing nothing but summoning totems for the first 3 turns of the game. Not saying it won't see play..but its not this broken mess of a card.
I want to get excited about this because I loved HS when it came out but the more I played the more I realized the matches are the same a lot, people using the same cards and combo's, the mage still spell spams you in to submission etc. It got stale pretty much and it lacks the reward for playing in my opinion.
@bladededge: My problem with this line of thinking is that you're concentrating on a deck that the Vilefin is clearly not designed to be used in. It seems to me Blizzard wants to move the game away from decks that rely on massive burst damage, and Vilefin is the kind of card that might enable that different style of play. It's easiest to think of these new cards in terms of how they affect the game as it stands right now, but unless you're talking strictly wild play that seems to be the wrong way to go about things.
The reveal of Vilefin and now learning that Old Murk Eye is being rotated out are two pieces of information that give me a lot of hope when taken together. Vilefin might encourage players to build a new kind of murloc deck and the death of Murk Eye might discourage players from building an Anyfin deck without nerfing it so hard that it's unusable for those that still want to play that way. In the case that that's how it shakes out everybody wins. It's all theoretical but the idea of widening the breadth of usable decks is very exciting to me.
@bladededge: The current Murloc Paladin meta deck (at least majority that I've seen played) is only playing five Murloc cards in the main deck as it stands (2x Bluegill / 2x Warleader / 1x Murk-Eye). Zombie Chow and Murk-Eye are leaving Standard. Paladins will need a 1 drop to replace Zombie Chow for their Anyfin deck. I don't see how Vilefin isn't the replacement for that, as it offers more synergy to their deck overall and fills in spaces where they may not have gotten murlocs out to make a full 7 on the Anyfin drop. You say "7 1/1s," but no one is summoning that many of them. Just one of them is enough to matter a ton. It's a Murloc...that gets buffed by Warleader...making it a 3/2. That's significant synergy when swinging at someone's face.
So I disagree wholeheartedly. It's a solid card for the Anyfin deck, can bring about a strong Pally Murloc Aggro archetype, and fits into a Wild format Murloc Inspire deck if need be.
As for Thing From Below, I hadn't mathed well on that one, so turn 4 would be correct. However, it's a 5/5 with taunt, and that is still stupid strong. Don't believe me? Just the first part of Sludge Belcher (the 3/5 part, not the Deathrattle part) is strong. Hell, it's basically a Druid of the Claw with 1 more attack and 1 less health for a potential 4. Shaman have better plays that they are making before turn 4? Again, totem shaman is losing a 4-drop with Piloted Shredder, so they'll need a replacement. Putting a high damage/high health taunt on the board for 4 is solid. You are speaking like Totem Shaman isn't currently a thing that already exists and plays totems on the first three turns anyways (Totem Golem? Tuskarr Totemic? Flametongue? Mana Tide?). The card is solid as a replacement for the loss of Piloted Shredder until something significantly greater shows up in the spoilers. If anything, the question that needs to be asked is why Totem Shamans get so screwed over when they are on the play, as the 1-drop slot is too few and far between for them.
It's an auto pick for shaman in arena. Not sure about constructed. Usually 3 mana minions are bad but 4 mana minions are usually game changers. Not only that but your 3 mana minion (assuming that it is the only one on the board) gets a full heal as well when it transforms.
Stats are also on par with yeti. but it has a great effect, so it's better than yeti by far.
@ravelle: That's absolutely fair, a lot of archetypes that have worked since vanilla are still prominent. But with 150 cards rotating out of the game, 130 new cards being added, and a bunch of vanilla cards being rebalanced, this should easily be the biggest shake-up the game has seen.
It's an auto pick for shaman in arena. Not sure about constructed. Usually 3 mana minions are bad but 4 mana minions are usually game changers. Not only that but your 3 mana minion (assuming that it is the only one on the board) gets a full heal as well when it transforms.
Stats are also on par with yeti. but it has a great effect, so it's better than yeti by far.
Holy fuckballs. Definitely agree that this is an Arena bomb!
@ravelle: That's absolutely fair, a lot of archetypes that have worked since vanilla are still prominent. But with 150 cards rotating out of the game, 130 new cards being added, and a bunch of vanilla cards being rebalanced, this should easily be the biggest shake-up the game has seen.
Yeah, I'm going to give it another shot and see if it's refreshing enough. I do think they need to work on the daily's and maybe award players gold after each win and not every 3 wins.
@ravelle: That's absolutely fair, a lot of archetypes that have worked since vanilla are still prominent. But with 150 cards rotating out of the game, 130 new cards being added, and a bunch of vanilla cards being rebalanced, this should easily be the biggest shake-up the game has seen.
Yeah, I'm going to give it another shot and see if it's refreshing enough. I do think they need to work on the daily's and maybe award players gold after each win and not every 3 wins.
They cap you at 100 gold per day from ranked/casual/tavern brawl wins, but yeah, it's super tedious that you have to rack up 30 wins to get all of said gold. I'd love if it were just 10 gold per win, still with the 100 gold per day cap, but I doubt they're ever going to change that.
@bladededge: The current Murloc Paladin meta deck (at least majority that I've seen played) is only playing five Murloc cards in the main deck as it stands (2x Bluegill / 2x Warleader / 1x Murk-Eye). Zombie Chow and Murk-Eye are leaving Standard. (...)
So I disagree wholeheartedly. It's a solid card for the Anyfin deck, can bring about a strong Pally Murloc Aggro archetype, and fits into a Wild format Murloc Inspire deck if need be.
Murloc Paladin is a burst combo deck. Without Murk-Eye, which is the best piece of the combo, the deck will no longer exist. You go from dealing 22 and then ~50 the turn after to dealing 12 and then ~30. Unlike other combo decks like Combo Druid or Oil Rogue which rely on keeping up the pressure the whole game and use burst combos as finishers, Anyfin is Murloc Paladin's only way to deal damage; the rest of the deck is pure removal and stalling. So it won't see any play in standard.
Maybe Vilefin will bring about a Zoo Murloc Paladin deck, because the ability is quite strong, but it won't have anyfin (heh) to do with the currently played version.
It's an auto pick for shaman in arena. Not sure about constructed. Usually 3 mana minions are bad but 4 mana minions are usually game changers. Not only that but your 3 mana minion (assuming that it is the only one on the board) gets a full heal as well when it transforms.
Stats are also on par with yeti. but it has a great effect, so it's better than yeti by far.
Yeah, that's insanely good. I think this might be the best card revealed so far. It's Yeti with a significant upside that's relevant throughout the game and is almost always guaranteed to hit something, and it's coming into a meta without Shredder. Sick.
Shamans are getting a bunch of good mid range cards.
Also pretty good. Totem Shaman didn't quite catch on because of Secret Paladin, but this and the fact that the deck loses almost no cards and the overall quality of aggro is going down, this might just make the deck work. One blunder I think would be the unlikelihood of playing it on turn 4 (when you would really want to play it), and instead it being a catch-up and 'keep up the pressure' type card, and I'm wandering whether Shaman has enough good card draw to sustain that type of tempo deck.
In arena Master of evolution is simply one of the best 4 drops in the game. Better than Shredder and probably about on par with Keeper of Uldamon and Arathi Weaponsmith.
I'm sure it's quite as strong as Forbidden Shaping in terms of cards revealed so far, but it's definitely up there and miles better than the average WotOG cards it seems. Thing from below is also quite good since it triggers on every totem and totem cards are usually pretty high picks in arena. So you should expect to have a few (besides hero power) and it shouldn't be unreasonable to be able to cast it turn 5, which is quite strong.
I want to get excited about this because I loved HS when it came out but the more I played the more I realized the matches are the same a lot, people using the same cards and combo's, the mage still spell spams you in to submission etc. It got stale pretty much and it lacks the reward for playing in my opinion.
Yeah, Hearthstone is a tedious game to jump into late to be sure. Having a decent collection and learning to play basically requires playing nothing but arena for the first few months... or buying a bunch of packs (or both). It does get better though, since when you finally have 'a' good deck you can pretty much sustain yourself and purchase the upcoming adventures and expansions with gold earned from daily quests.
We finally have a release date. It's April 26th. According to the battle.net shop, the Naxx adventure bundle now has a warning that says that the cards purchased will be only playable in Wild mode starting on April 26th. Since we know the expansion will come with standard mode, we can conclude that April 26th is the date. Plus, there are at least 2 weeks worth streamers who want to reveal their cards for the expansion. So that we will certainly not see the expansion before April 18th. It's sooner than what I have expected but later than what I would have liked.
The Standard format announcement got me back into the game in a big way, so I'm looking forward to dusting all my Naxx and GvG cards so I can shore up the most glaring holes in my decks.
@acura_max: Wait a minute... That says that Naxx is still playable in Arenas. Are Arenas only Wild format, or are they going to have a Wild and Standard setup? Does anyone know that info? Arenas are still only rewarding Standard format packs, right?
Also, I'm ready to get these 50 packs opened up. They're taking up my damn space!!!
@jakob187: Arena is wild format and will have every card in the game (still not promo cards though), expect the new C'Thun cards because Blizzard apparently thought that would be weird, when you probably won't get to draft C'Thun as well.
You won't get packs only useable in Wild as rewards though. So no more GvG packs as soon as standard hits, but you can still get classic, Grand Tournament and Whispers packs.
It's somewhat of a better unstable ghoul but a worse death's bite for sure. People are saying this will be great in Patron but it seems rather clunky. The benefit of death's bite was that I could use the weapon to clear out a 4 health minion and curve out into patron while dealing another 5 damage. This requires you to already have patron out or at least wait until turn 8 to play both at the same time.
Druids already have pretty good turn-4 options, but this looks solid. Since Wild Growth costs 2 mana, you're basically getting the 3/3 body for 2 mana, or you're getting 5/5 in stats for 4 mana. Either option is decent.
@noelle808: And now Shaman gets a weapon. It's not death's bite but it seems good since 4 attack weapons are usually good in the mid game. Plus you get a minion towards the end. I wonder what the mana cost for the minion will be. If it's around 5 mana, you can swing with the weapon for 4 and change the 5 cost 4/2 minion into a 6 drop minion with master of evolution. As well use up the 2 remaining 2 mana for something like a spell or hero power.
Also the weapon is pretty good for clearing out Harrison Jones if your opponent spends his entire turn to use it.
.@Rein4Clunks Justicar Trueheart has no effect on the Hero Power granted by Vilefin Inquisitor's Battlecry effect.
So..it seems like any tavern brawls that make you build your own deck are going to be wild format? which really..really sucks. Like, does anyone expect to play wild? Does anyone see any reason not to dust every single nax+GvG card and move to standard as soon as its open? If so, that's got to be the minority right? Especially since you don't get separate rewards for each format.
Which means tavern brawl is going to end up being "well I could craft the handful of wild-only cards I need to make a proper deck for this weeks tavern brawl..or I could slog through the 10% of the player-base who still have all their nax and etc cards until I get my win, then never touch the tavern brawl again" anytime its construct your own deck.
Given it was already that a good deal of the time, the idea that all I have to look forward too is "you must spend 3600 dust in order to craft the right deck for this tavern brawl' moving forward is utterly awful, Just awful. When its "craft dr.boom or lose 70% of the tavern brawl games you play" even someone like me, who finds tavern brawl to be the best format in heartstone, way out in the cold.
I already lament the 'build your own deck' since it usually turns my favorite format into "he who has the most time/money wins" i.e. the same as the exact formats I want to get a break from. Now..now its going to be even worse. Blah.
Here's hoping they change that (or I am reading their statement wrong) and instead its just wild format cards in their own crafted decks/random card selection. I absolutely do not want to see tavern brawl decks you build yourself being wild format, not at all.
@bladededge: Most tavern brawls where you craft your own deck don't use "normal" decks though, it's usually weird gimmick decks. I don't know that I've used dr. Boom a single time in a tavern brawl. While completionists and wild players will have a bigger pool of cards to choose from, I seriously doubt it will be any less of a crap shoot compared to prebuildt deck brawls.
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