@bladededge: I don't think I have ever seen anyone be that commited to Tavern Brawl. The way I see it's just a "Hey lets try something crazy and not really care about balance" type of game mode, so to me it makes perfect sense that it's in Wild format. And I think plenty of people will play regular Wild as well since it will have it's own ladder and your old decks (that you presumable had fun playing) will still work there.

And the new cards are all quite good. It seems like 80% of the cards we got up until a couple of days ago, where pretty bad and unexciting, but now Blizzard is really pulling out the big guns.

@couldberolf: How many wins do you tend to rack up in tavern brawl in a given week when its a build your own deck? I've got at least 10+ for the last hmm, 8 or so, and I see net-deck level decks in their all the time.

The main issue though is, given tavern brawls are always random to a degree, the card combos and selection in wild will just be vastly better. The majority of people are not likely to even have any wildcards in their collection. Meaning the gulf between them and those who do is going to be very very vast. There are after all a ton of cards from Nax and GvG that are niche in use..but for a given tavern brawl might be great. Mana addict for example was pretty much the best card in the 'free spells" brawl a few weeks back..and if it were in one of the wild-only sets, that's 200 dust right there just to play with a card anyone who does have, would be using. I realize that specific example 'isn't' wild only. The point is, for any given tavern brawl the 'mana addict' of that brawl very well might be.

So..yah. I guess I just fundamentally disagree with you.

@bladededge: The build your decks has got to be my least favorite part of tavern brawls. So I agree with you when you say that naxx and gvg cards are going to give some people a huge advantage over others.

I always imagined that Tarvern Brawl was going to be a mode for new player but last week's where told me that it's closer to Blizzard's test lab for new game mechanics. Last brawl there were some players who couldn't make a deck because they did not have enough cards in their collection.

@bladededge: I'm not disputing that there not an advantage, but I just don't think it's as big as you make it out to be. Going back to the dr. boom example, while it's a strong card there's not a single decktype that wont be perfectly fine without it. And more to the point, if brawl is such a big priority for any player, then they should craft those cards. It's not different from playing ranked. If you really care about it, you'll craft the cards you're missing. And yeah, if you're a newer player, there's a good chance you'll need to play more matches to get the win, but again that's no different from ranked. I also find it hard to believe that only decks using a bunch of naxx and gvg cards will be relevant in those brawls.

It might turn out to be horrible and anyone who dusts the phased out cards will have a miserable time any and all times self built decks are up in brawls, but I guess I just don't see the point of being too down on something hypothetical before it's happening.

Here's hoping the advantage isn't as bad as it could be.

As to my love of tavern brawl. Let me put it this way. I've played MtG for many, many years. But not competitively. I've enjoyed various aspects of that game but the most fun I have from it is taking the small amount of cards I have, or the fun deck Idea I've come up with, and play against people with similar decks. Magic online has its "just for fun' room. Hearthstone is..ok maybe the casual 'option' is closer to that, but the vast majority of it is 'netdeck or get out'. Oh, and I love alternative formats. Shout out to Mormir, if anyone knows wth that is.

The other major alternative blizzard offers, Arena, IMO is completely broken. Random rarities, more cards=less chance at needed card types. It would be like doing a draft in magic a random assortment of every card they printed..only they remove any repeats. So there is only 1 doomblade(cheap removal spell) in 500 cards say, as opposed to 15 in a normal limited format. Its just..its bad. From how you choose cards onward.

Tavern Brawl? Well that is always always a crap shoot, and its something clearly most people are 'one and done' with. But for me, it is the best chance hearthstone offers to give me something great. Like where else am I going to play "Dominion:heartstone edition". (yet another card-game). Where else is the game I sit down to play going to be potentially differnt and excited every single time? Where else can I have a hero power that reads "2: put a helgen into play". (that ones bad btw but it was fun!)

So yah, I'm in the minority.

Don't get me wrong. I've got my 50 packs waiting to be opened. Hell, I bought at least that many packs of everything that is going to be standard legal. I absolutely want this new standard format to open up more options for me. But the end of april is a ways away, I can only play so many face-hunter vs the same 4-5 decks so many times in that time before going nuts, and Arena is..eh. Its just when I feel like I could design a better version of it in multiple ways from the ground up (cause I play limited in Mtg..) its hard to have fun with it.

Yah, finding out what they new format in tavern brawl is each wednesday is a lovely 'ohh I hope its good' moment. And just as often a "oh..its not, damn".

Also, sorry to seem too derail the thread a bit. But the addition of new cards to arena, the reset of formats and the changes blizzard are all parts of this dicussion IMO even if they are not much talked about.

And finally I have a question for everyone, so as to get on topic and stop my complaining from overtaking the thread.

Not only are they removing cards from Standard, but they are also likely to change anywhere from 10-20 cards in classic and beyond. Its not like MtG where all they can do is clarify a rule or two. See Warsong commander, they can effectively turn a card into something completely new, keeping only the name and picture. They have changed both entire text and mana cost after all.

So my question is, what do you think will change? What do you want to see changed? Two differnt things.

For my part, I'd like to seem the up the cost of the savage roar combo so its 11, and not doable. But also, give Druid enough of a buff to make any other build viable, since IMO that is more or less the only way that deck gets good. That said, 14 burst damage is pretty BS.

I'd also love to see them not nerf Facehunter into the ground. Mostly cause its the only deck I can actually afford (and mind you, this is after buying 50 packs of everything but GvG + all the solo stuff). Again, preping for standard. I fear however that this is the deck that will see the most nerf happening too it, since its the cheapest deck that is competitive, it gets played a lot and so ends up being the deck most complained about.

That said as for what I think they will do? Well, scientist is rotating out, but they are likely to make it a 1/1. The owl is likely to become the same and might have its cost upped to 3. (one or both) Unleash might get costed up.

As opposed to that. I think we are likely to see some changes when it comes to 'unfun' )as dictated by vocal minority) cards in general. You might see Flamestrike made a 8 or 9 mana card. You might see Fireball drop to 5. You could see them making Mysterious challenger say "Put any secrets from your hand into play" as opposed to deck. And so on.

What about everyone else? Any ideas on what you want to see? (I am sure my view is differnt then your after all). Any idea what you think they will actually do?

I just want Big Game Hunter gone, he has had the fun in his sights for too long.

I actually hate Blizzards way of revealing expansions, drip feeding like this just makes me lose interest. Also we can't know how good any card is without knowing the normal card changes. If BGH isn't changed, gods will just get countered by that.

I agree with the nerf to druid combo, it's not fun to play as or against and considering how strong it is you almost feel a little gimped not playing it (I still don't though).

As far as face decks go, I don't think they will ever be gone. Some cards will rotate out, only to be replaced by other cheap cards. As long as face decks aren't so strong it's all that's being played, I don't mind them. As for face hunters specifically they're also losing glaivezooka, but there will either be a new hunter weapon or they'll just shove eaglehorn bow back in there. From what we've seen so far, it might be a slightly weaker deck, but I think it will remain a good budget deck for newer players.

@bladededge: I only have rumors so I can only speculate. But Blizzard has hinted strongly that they are looking at BGH. So I expect him to be nerfed. Combo looks to be nerfed as well but I get a sense that they are really limited by how effective those 2 cards are. There's a reason we have been getting bad druid cards for a long time. Even that 2/3 we got from TGT is being used as only a tech card.

Other cards I predict based on some interviews I've read are knife juggler, leper gnome, ancient of lore and possibly even keeper of the grove. Knife juggler is like huge toad where you can activate the deathrattle multiple times. He's been relevant every season of hearthstone for a reason. Leper gnome is almost 4 damage for 1 mana every time; plus you might get to attack with him and make it 6 damage for 1 mana. I'm not so sure about keeper of the grove but ancient of lore is like a 5 mana 5/5 body plus an arcane intellect. That's pretty huge. Compare that to something like nourish which is just 5 mana draw 2 cards with no body.

Also here are two more cards. It's basically feugen/stalaag combo 2.0. The difference is that duplicate and echo of medivah will do wonders for the cards. Bad news is the starting card is 9 mana and you need around 2-3 turns to set up the combo before you can attack with the 30/30. Plus you the 30/30 will probably be removed with a 1 mana spell like execute or something.

Ooops, beaten to the punch. Seems like you're gonna have a hell of a time summoning him in a game that you're not already winning.

Which, I mean, a OHK minion SHOULD be that difficult to summon, but it seems like more of a novelty for now.

People are saying that The Ancient One is viable thanks to conceal. I really don't like how conceal has become the catch all answer for every slow card. Even if you do summon The Ancient One. What are the chances that your opponent has removal by turn 10 or does not straight up win the game because they have been going face the entire time.

I wonder if The Ancient One can attack right away once it comes out or if it has to wait a turn.

@noelle808: The card is summoned at the end of your turn. So even if you summon 2 Blood of the Ancient One on your opponent's turn, their effect won't activate until you end your turn. So your opponent will always have at last 1 turn to counter.

@atwa: Agreed, my interest wanes rather than increasing.

@noelle808: It has to wait. It would have Charge as card text otherwise like V-07-TR-0N.

Conceal also wouldn't help the Ancient One considering it shows up at the end of your turn. You don't have any opportunity to buff it or hide it.

Blood of the Ancient One into Herald Volaj combo! (Joking of course.)

Ancient one is interesting. It'll hardly ever win the game with the 30/30, but the threat of having both is significant. The synergy with faceless manipulator is pretty cool. You don't have to run 2 of these in your deck. Could run 1 to bait removals and force trades and if you happen to also have faceless in hand then congrats you get an even cheaper 30/30.

The biggest issue is the cost. How often can you actually afford to only play one card on turn 9 unless you have good board control. It may fall victim to the same fault as all the other high cost cards with delayed effects. If it doesn't affect the board immediately it's hard to say it will actually be playable. If your opponent answers it efficiently then you just wasted two turns for very possibly little.

This looks to be the best of this type of minion that they have made yet though.

When game informer revealed their card, they also said that the release date was April 26th and then edited out afterwards. Perhaps they had some good lintel and were asked by Blizzard to keep it under wraps. Perhaps they reported on wrong information and were asked to take it down. If you ask me, I would want the first one to be true because an early may release date would be dumb.

It's a cheaper echo of medivh for the price of only copying damaged minions. People are saying this will be good in patron. I guess this will mean better match ups for patron against control match ups.

Oh man that's a cool card. I'm going to have to play some warrior now.

@acura_max said:

It's a cheaper echo of medivh for the price of only copying damaged minions. People are saying this will be good in patron. I guess this will mean better match ups for patron against control match ups.

I don't see how. In patron decks, you want to save your low mana self damaging abilities for the actual patron cards. Blood Warriors would put a bunch of 5 mana 3/3s in your hands in that case, something that is rather worthless.

@turambar: The card was only revealed about 30 minutes ago. So I guess the kneejerk reaction is to think the archetype with the most damaged minions because you can get alot of cards out of it. In this case it's patron.

Shit.

At least Death's Bite is out of the picture.

But revenge and whirlwind are both still in. That said, I don't think control warriors play enough creatures to warrant this card. I suppose if you specifically want a second Sylvannas or Grom or something.

@turambar: It could be good in a reno deck. Alot of reno decks use discover cards to cheat the 1-card reno requirement. The warrior echo could be used to copy the discover cards and that would be alot more valuable than a hand of patrons.

@acura_max: I don't think that card will be good in patron. It makes little sense. What's the plan? Patron + Inner Rage + Whirlwind = 4 patrons > Blood Warriors: add four 5 mana 3 / 3's to your hand [6 mana, 3 card combo]. That seems pretty bad.

It makes more sense to me to use it in some form of Control Warrior. Just add a card that does damage to your minions on your turn, like Sea Reaver, then play Blood Warriors. It's not that uncommon for control warrior to have two legendaries on the board. Especially the ones that run Varian. You could potentially play Varian, then make trades and play Blood Warriors. Imagine getting like another copy of Varian and one of Ysera? Doesn't even sound that implausible. I have Ysera on the board along with another legendary all the time when I play control warrior.

New Hunter epic: Call of the Wild.

"Summon ALL the Animal Companions".

That looks insanely good.

Animal Companions themselves are worth at least 3 mana each. Which means that you're getting at least 9 mana worth of minions in one card. Not only that but combining cards greatly increases their value, meaning that this is easily 11 mana worth of cards in an 8 mana card.

The creatures summoned also immediately impact the board. You're getting 12/10 worth of stats divided among three bodies, with a 5/4 Taunt and 5 burst damage to either kill a minion or go face. Muster+Quartermuster pushed Midrange Paladin into being viable, and this is only 3 stats less but stacked in one card. On top of that Leokk also buffs your board. And you get beast synergy.

One of the best if not the best card shown so far if you ask me. An insane tool for Midrange Hunter (making it more top heavy). I'd say this might be the Dr Boom of the expansion. Simply such a steal value wise. Can't really think of a card that would counter this, and despite forcing BGH into every deck Boom was still OP.

Another card brought to you by the people from China! This card lets you play 3 animal companions at the same time for the price of 8 mana instead of 9 mana.

In arena this card will probably be fantastic. You're going the 2/4 for reach, 5/2 for removal and 5/4 for taunt (I added +1 attack because of the 2/4). It's pretty much what you want in a draft.

The pure value on that card is pretty insane. The animal companions are basically worth 3.5 mana each, and they're even better when combined.

Call of the Wild: Can someone pick my jaw up off the floor? Please? That card is...just...UNNNNNNNNNH. The companions themselves are already solid. Now we get all three at once for one less mana? Having a 5/2 that can act as removal with a 5/4 that forces your opponent to attack into it or force them to burn removal spells is just so goddamn nice. Do I think that hunters NEEDED this card? Not necessarily for the sub-rank-10 hunter decks out there (face hunter still hurts pretty consistently), but for the midrange beast decks, this is just godlike quality.

Blood Warriors: This card is just good. Period. Echo of Medivh is one of the more underrated cards in Hearthstone right now IMO, and this card is just a better (while more situational) version of that. Anything that puts cards in your hand is solid, and with this, you know exactly the cards you'll be getting. Grim Patron decks benefit heavily from this. Control warriors benefit heavily from this. Rampage warriors benefit heavily from this. Shove it as a one-of into every goddamn deck. Absolute value at 3 mana.

Blood of the Ancient One: If someone is playing the most lucksack Druid ramp deck in the world, this thing might get a chance to go off. Beyond that, it's dust.

Mire Keeper: VALUE VALUE VALUE! It's gorgeous, just beautiful. Quite the card for a Savage Roar combo, but just on its own, 5 power across two bodies for 4 mana is too good. This is certainly playable in Aggro Roar. Beyond that, it offers a unique thing for tempo decks by giving you the option of more power on board or a Wild Growth. This could easily replace Shade of Naxxramas for tempo decks.

Twilight Hammer: EXCELLENT! Holy SHIT, that card is great, especially when you consider the already-spoiled cards for Shamans. A good buff to them all around.

@bladededge: Wild will most certainly be played. That's like asking MTG players if Modern format is going to get played. For a guy like me that won't have much interest in Wild format (unless they offer some incentive to it, like card backs or something), then I most likely will dust non-Standard cards. However, that doesn't mean there won't be a hardcore meta around Wild format as well. Seriously, just look at the craziness of Modern format in MTG at some point if you want to see how ridiculous it can get. As for the Tavern Brawl situation, where are you getting this idea that the Tavern Brawls are going to be focused towards Wild format? I'm sure they will allow non-Standard cards in it, but you're going on this tangent about how you'll have to build your own decks and Wild format for Tavern Brawl and all that. I'm pretty sure Tavern Brawl is just staying the way that it's been forever: a "for fun" mode.

A 5-attack charge is worth 4 mana on it's own. There's basically no cost-efficient way of dealing with Call of the Wild that I can see.

@noelle808 said:

Play Counterspell just as Hunter is about to reach 8 mana. If you're not Mage, lose to Call of the Wild.

The art for Call of the Wild seems kinda cartoonish and bad. Doesn't match up with the style and tone of any of the art for the existing 3 companions. Then again, having read some articles about how they commission art for Magic cards, the artists just kinda do whatever as long as it isn't blatantly against the style guide.

Call of the wild is just an insanely good card. When the art was revealed most people guessed the effect, but I really thought it was going to be 10 mana, 8 seems almost broken. The fact that it isn't a legendary and control Hunter can run two copies will really make it a meta shifting card I think.

And in arena it's fighting it out with Tirion over who is litterally the most OP card in the game.

@jakob187: The comparison between wild and modern starts and stops with "They both have card sets that rotate out".

Wild is not going to be the format used in tournaments. It is not going to have its own prize payout independent from standard. It not going to be supported in the store, and that is important because there are no after-market card sellers. Unlike Mtg where I can buy modern cards, the only option in hearthstone is dust..and you can't buy dust effectively.

The better comparison is to Mtgs Extended, which was replaced with modern. Only the version of Extended that was abandon, not played and more or less a joke. No tournaments, no support, no format. Modern, as a counter example, has a lot of major tournaments. The cards in it are widely available, if not super cheap. Its got its own ban and restricted list, etc.

There is absolutely no way Blizzard does the same kind of 2 year in advance testing of their cards at Wotc, there is absolutely no way the balance of cards for the wild format is even going to enter their mind. Standard offers a new format full of interesting deck building ideas. New players won't even be able to easily acquire wild-format cards, it will have way less support (if any at all) from Blizzard and other groups in the tournament scene. Its dead on arrival.

Not cause I am doom and gloom. But cause I've been in the MtG community for years. We have seen what the lack of support a format gets makes of it. And that's MtG, which is, honestly, so different from hearthstone its not even funny, and in ways that are frankly very damning for the Wild format. MtG formats like wild at least have easy of purchase, some support, some ban lists and etc. Wild? Yah its not gonna have any of that.

As for the tavern-brawl stuff. It was mostly a "so is the 'build you own decks' gonna be wild format?" Cause if so..screw that. Given how I feel the wild-format is going to go (see above) I think -everyone- should dust their old cards. Turning what is suppose to be a 'just for fun' format into "oh hey, the 5-10% of people playing wild will wildly dominant this format cause there is just way more interactions available to them on weeks when its 'build your own deck. But again, that % is only gonna be the old guard, the super-rich and so on. I adore tavern-brawl, but I also don't think Blizzards things much about any of this stuff, Re:arena is a train wreck of bad design choices..Making the deck building tavern brawls wild is a terrible idea I wonder if they even realize. Someone on here said something that made me think that was their plan. If not, great, I'm fine. If it is, holy hell what a wreck of an idea.

@bladededge: Man, can we talk about how Arena is a terrible format when it comes to limited/drafting/sealed deck forms of play? Because it really is. It's like, they picked out just the worst parts of both Draft and Sealed, and combined them into one stupid mode. Also there's the argument to be made that even if you like the format, there are always like 1-3 classes that are just horrible at the format because their hero power is control-oriented and most of their common class cards kinda suck.

@bisonhero: That feeds into my pessimism overall (Re my whole rant about wild format). As your not wrong. Infact, with Arena being the wild format..it too will be even worse.

See, they don't reprint cards. So its like playing a draft in MtG, but the random card-pool your picks from are ever expanding, with no repeats. A well-crafted draft format has a good variety in creatures, removal, utility and etc. In Arena? There is only 1 polymorph, 1 fireball, 1 flamestrike. And as more cards get released, your options of getting them become less and less, while at the same time not being replaced by cards with similar effects.

Also, they don't handle card-quality right, at all. Given they force a rare or better at 1 and 30 prove to me they absolutely CAN make the system give everyone 5 rare, 2 epic/legendary 23 common, or something like that..but no. No, instead its complete random. One person can have 3 legendaries, someone else can have rares and nothing else. Its like Sealed in Magic, only the rate of rares, uncommons and commons are completely random. So one person gets 20 rares. The other only gets 5 uncommons. Now doesn't that sound awful?

The whole 'only see 3 choices at a time, is kinda stupid as well..but it -is- a lot easier. I can at least understand why they did it that way, its much more casual friendly. I would much rather some other system? But I could survive with that...except for the classes.

IMO, Mage, Paladin, Rogue. You want to see one of those 3 classes. If you don't? Sucks to be you, prepare to go >4 wins unless you luck into 'I got 20 rares!' mentioned above. None of those classes are auto-wins mind you. But it can't be confirmation bias when the 4+ win matches are 75% such classes. Some classes are just bad.

And..sadly that isn't going to change in this release. Blizzard's had plenty of time to fix Arena, and the stuff I wrote is not some great wealth of untapped knowledge, people with any experience with Limited/sealed from MtG could tell you the problems with Arena from the day it first got announced. Blizzard has different priorities for the format, (Casual, easy of use). And, frankly, don't seem to be capable or care to manage the format in the same way that WoTC makes a concerted effort to make each limited format fun and diverse.

Arena, I fear, is only going to get worse over time. When there are certain key cards your deck needs to be good, and your chances of getting them only ever get bigger, with no functional reprints? Yah. Arena isn't completely unfun? But its broke in ways that are hilariously awful.

@loamlife: That, I agree with. Much, much of the reason I am so down on wild format is the lack of support. A lot of the other issues can go out the window is Blizzard starts having money tournaments for that format. Hell if they just made the wild format give its own separate end of the month chest for ranked mode..a real small thing that does almost nothing too reduce their money-printing machine. Any of that would lead to interest and drive for the format.

In effect, stuff like that would turn wild from "extended Pre:retirement into..well what Modern in MtG is suppose to be. I won't say modern is perfect by any means (people solve it too quickly, wizards has to be ban the solution, rinse and repeat). And its not a "and thus wild will be great!" exactly..

I mean take Modern. For that to be as properly balanced as Standard is (usually) would take thousands of man-hours and extreme expertise. Right now, wizards has people who are playing future-future standard I believe. Consisting exclusively of cards which will be in standard 2 years from now..i.e nothing in the current game. They do that in order to refine and avoid as much Caw-Blade/Mindsculpter/Affinity as they can. To do that for modern? Imagine going from 6 sets to what, 40? So yah. So yah, even modern isn't perfect, and this is from a company that devotes as much time as they reasonable can to balance (and has a regular ban list update and etc)

Now Granted, Heartstone is not in any way the same size as MtG? But Blizzard also isn't WotC. Do they even have people testing what the new cards will do to the wild format? Or how they will interact with the cards that will be in standard? I'd guess so? But from what I've seen there response has been..well WotC pre 1998 (or 1996 or 2001, or whatever). Make a bunch of stuff, don't think too much about it, don't even bother trying to regulate things. Granted, HS wouldn't have a ban-list, they would just re-write the card in question completely..but whens the last time Blizzards did that to anything?

Yada Yada. Wild might prove me wrong. Maybe there is a hardcore of people who adore their Dr.Boom.dec's and wanna smash each other up with them. More power too them. Maybe Blizzards will 180 and have a different prize pay-out for both formats. Maybe third-parties will put support and money into wild-format tournaments? But right now, all of those are a big fat "uh no.". So, until then, my advice is "dust everything that's not standard, do no buy GvG." to anyone who isn't heavily invested. Like if you've got most of a full GvG collection? Make your own judgement call. But if your a newer player like me, wild is absolutely not interesting.

And that's the biggest death-knell of it. Old extended died not just cause of lack of support..but lack of ability)from cost) or interest(no one plays) for new players to enter the format.

I will also just edit in. I've got a lot of doom and gloom and 'boooo!!' and such. But in general? I am really looking forward to this new set. I want the cards to be good, I want the new standard to have range and fun for all play styles. I am a massive fan of Cthulhu games and Lovecraft inspired fiction (please see my avatar and note I've used that now for years (Shhh about it being a beholder and D20 not cuthulu)). I want it to be good I do. My nit-picks have been at the fringes.

I can't post the card art due to work, but Yogg-Saron, hopes end is revealed now.

Yogg-Sarong, hopes end:

10 mana 7/5, cast a random spell for each spell you've cast this game. (Targets chosen randomly)

It sounds pretty fun. Definitely going to try it out. Not sure it will be playable at competitions because you may just wipe your board, blessing of kings their minions, and Pyroblast your face. Also that hunter card is crazy. Control hunter may be more playable with this.

Oh and a new Warlock spell

Spreading madness: 3 mana, deal 9 damage randomly split among all characters

Seems alright. Not immediately sure where I would want to use it.

Yogg-Saron sounds good until you realize that you could give blessing of might/kings to an enemy minion. I also wonder if it works with Flamewaker's effect since it says "cast a spell." Probably does not matter since you're winning the game already if you have flamewaker on the board and play a 10 mana minion. .

That is absurd. I love it.

Yogg-Saron is the Old God of RNG, apparently.

The only time I could see myself playing it in a serious setting is as a I'm losing and we're going to roll dice to see if I win or not scenario. A last ditch effort in fatigue or if my win conditions are gone already. Not sure if that's worth one card slot, but it'll sure be fun.

@bladededge: I think the Tavern Brawl argument is blown out of proportion. They stated SOME Tavern Brawls would have Wild format legal cards. We don't know the extent of that at all, as they haven't stated. You're making assumptions based on no information other than them saying SOME Tavern Brawls. I'll wait until they give more information about that stuff, but even then, my investment in Tavern Brawl every week is "get my win, get my pack, and ignore it unless I can get a daily done quick and easy with it." If people want to invest more time into Tavern Brawl (and thus wish to invest for money and dust into it), then that's on them and that's their choice.

As for the Modern : Wild comparison, it's merely me saying both are formats that are right beyond what Standard offers. That's it. You went into a much larger comparison of the two, and that's not at all what I'm getting at. Standard includes these specific cards, and when they rotate out, they are only available in Wild. Does it suck that you can't buy the packs not in Standard anymore? Sure. However, you still have a way to acquire them, whether it's economically efficient or not. Gives me plenty of reason to use my dust if I want to, though, especially since the format itself will only be changing heavily over (I would guess) the next two years before the decks in the Wild format start settling. Also, you're right - they won't be used for tournaments and such, but it would also be foolish to do that this early in the game's life cycle. How long was it before Type 1.5 was introduced into MTG? 2004. It took them 11 years to even bring that format about. Modern was in 2011.

So Blizzard is jumping the gun a bit, but it's in order to get shit rolling right away. Wild is going to be exactly like it states it is for a little while: wild. It's going to be insane, and I'm excited to see the kind of crazy and broken decks that will come from it. However, like you said, it's not going to be used for tournaments or anything. It's for fun. People like fun. I like fun. Do you like fun? It's the thing you play when you are on a downhill slope in ranked and don't want to see more stars go away. In a few years, maybe they look at it for tournaments and stuff. I don't know.

Basically, Hearthstone has been good to me, so I'm not going to try throwing rocks at them while they mow the lawn. I'll let this all play out however it wants to. I'm only interested in Standard format anyways, so none of this stuff even honestly pertains to me in the least bit. I WILL be dusting everything that isn't Standard legal, just the same way my rare binder for MTG is only filled with Standard format cards. I don't keep ANYTHING that goes out of rotation (except my fetches, I'll be holding on to those for the price increase that will eventually come around again...just won't be worth nearly as much as they used to be).

So take a Xanax, relax, and let's just enjoy playing some cards, man.

Also... Caw-Blade? Mindsculptor? Affinity? No one that I know of even plays the first two in Modern right now. Affinity has picked up because of the Splinter Twins ban. Eldrazi has been ruling the world, but now that Eye of Ugin is banned, that won't be happening. We'll probably just see Tron, Delver, Infect, and RDW dominating again until someone finds a way to break the shit out of Sword of the Meek, which has been unbanned.

There's an FAQ that basically says that you can pyroblast your face with the new Old God.

Does Yogg Saron's battlecry target friendly characters ?

Yes, Yogg-Saron's Battlecry affects all potential targets, including your own hero. (Source)

Are the spells randomly chosen from the spells you've cast? Or are they completely randomly picked from all spells?

Yogg-Saron's spells are randomly selected from all collectible spells, and one is cast for each spell you've played. (Source)

Will the spells Yogg-Saron casts be from any class, or from your own? And I assume Standard-only spells in Standard.

Random effects in Standard will only use cards eligible for Standard play, so Yogg-Saron would only cast Standard spells. (Source)

Can Yogg-Saron hit himself?

Yes, Yogg-Saron can target himself, but even if he's destroyed or transformed, the full Battlecry still takes place. (Source)

If a card provides options, such as Raven Idol or Wrath, Yogg-Saron randomly selects one of those options when the spell is cast. (Source)

What if Yogg-Saron uses a card that can't activate on anything? like if it plays backstab but all minions are damaged?

In a case where one of Yogg-Saron's spells has no eligible targets, it fizzles. (Source)

How random is "random target?" Can spells that normally only affect enemy minions target yours instead?

Yogg-Saron follows the rules, so the spells will follow their card text as though your hero cast them. (Source)

Random targets means my fireballs can hit my own minions and my bufffs can land on the enemy?

That's correct! If a spell doesn't have text to prevent it, then any eligible target could be chosen. (Source)

@jakob187: Nah, I was mentioning the caw-blade stuff as an example of "Wizards is super super careful/diligent to try and avoid decks like that. I wasn't talking now, I was giving examples of cards or eras where bad management lead to very awful formats.

And yah, I'm in it to have fun. But you said yourself, your in the 'one and done' thing for tavern brawls. Where as, take the repeat of this week. I'm likely to wrack up 60+ games of it by the time it rotates out. I'm the dude who plays Mormir in Modo. I'm the guy who would love to have a dedicated group to play non-spike filled commander with, and so on.

So when I think A-Blizzards kinda doesn't have the skill/care to worry about not-standard/ranked and B-they are hinting at doing something to the formats I like that could turn south...my assumption is 'they will screw it up/just not think it through or care'. Given I've been shown no evidence to the contrary.

I'm right there with you in the prepping for standard. I'm gonna be building decks, I'm gonna be on the ladder ranking.

Oh and I do take xanex. I guess it shows given I wrote that about 6 hours before I needed to take the next dose, huh? Sorry to make you think I'm stomping all over your fun man. I'm pessimistic by nature is all.

Yogg-Saron is poop

too random, awful body

I finally got the answer to my question about Yagg-Saron. Blizzard says Yagg-Saron will be the one casting the spells and not the player. So Flamewaker, Archmage Antonidas, Lore Walker Cho and Troggzor the Earthinator will not activate their effects when the Old God comes down on the board.