Board 8 > Hearthstone Topic #??: Time for Blizzcon

(+) Yeah! (+)

New set should be announced in...roughly 11 hours.

Also, log in bonuses:

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/hearthstone/22596837/hearthstone-at-blizzcon-2018

Nov 2 (today) 450 dust: golden Epic, golden Common (Secret Plan and Star Aligner)

Nov 3 (tomorrow) boomsday pack

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As for me, it's November, which meant a fresh climb to rank 5 from rank 8 (I mostly whizbanged last month, don't judge me). Got some daily quests out of the way (went 3-2 with Even Shaman) but I really didn't feel like climbing with an aggro deck, cause there's a lot of aggro mirror (which aggro mirror all feels like whoever gets board presence first wins) and also a lot of control warrior (which is a rough matchup for most aggro decks).

So...I pulled out my diet Cube Hunter (the one where I don't own Kathrena, don't own Shaw, and run Tar Creepers instead of that fancy shit, with Savannah Highmane as my top end. Also I cut Zilliax for Defender of Argus cause I felt Zilliax was underperforming).

Went nearly undefeated straight to rank 5. My only loss was to a control warrior where they had double boardclears to go through my multiple egg board, Rexxar was literally my last card and where I used tracking twice to try and find Rexxar and then died 5 turns into fatigue. Might have misplayed by cubing my egg early? Not sure.
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Quote from PCGamer

Once every generation, Azeroth's Troll tribes come together to compete for the blessings of the Loa and the favor of King Rastakhan. The no-holds-barred battle forms the basis for Rastakhan's Rumble, the next Hearthstone expansion, which was just revealed today as part of the BlizzCon opening ceremony.

Nine teams will take part in the latest iteration of this time-honored Troll-down, each led by a Legendary Troll Champion representing one of the Hearthstone classes. The Loa, ancient spirits worshipped by the Trolls, will also take part in the fighting as Legendary minions. Shirvallah the Tiger is the Paladin Loa, which costs a cool 25-Mana to cast. You can reduce that outlay by casting spells, but even so it seems like a restrictive price for an effect that's probably only going to be good in incredibly slow control decks.

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Rastakhans Rumble trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZc7EYyIDQE" data-time="
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New keywords
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https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/expansions-adventures/rastakhans-rumble/

New pre-order options!

$50 gets you 50 packs, the card back, and an alternate hero

$20 gets you 17 packs and the card back.

I'd rather have a free legendary.
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The Overkill weapon could be strong. It should definitely be a killer in arena, since its not much different from Fools Bane. You wont be able to burn down huge taunts like you could with bane, but it could easily be a board clear on 6.

Paladin Legendary is interesting - paladin has a divine shield tutor that could hit it, and countess Ashmore hits two of his keywords with Rush/Lifesteal. It does a lot when you play it, assuming your opponent has a board, so you need at least 15 manas worth of spells to play it, which seems doable.

I wonder if the Loa(?) will all cost >10 with a gimmick attached. Hope not but that's a thing I can see happening.

Edit: Never mind, Warlock Loa already disproved that.
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Wow, they revealed a lot of cards. I was expecting the usual 5 or 6 that they start off with, but theyre at 16 already.

I could see a lot of people running Void Contract just to spite combo players. Probably comes too late though, and I'm not sure there's much else use for it.
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Yeah, eight mana for deck disruption is too late, especially when the class you want to use it against has the best draw in the game. Maybe if it was targeted, like destroying the more expensive half of the deck for each player? Really hoping there's some new hand disruption but I highly doubt it.

First guarantee of the new expansion: Within the first week I'm going to get completely triggered by Prep into Cannon Barrage. I don't even know if the card is going to be good, I'm leaning towards no, but I know it's going to happen.
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I briefly looked at the cards.

The only two I can see being played after a while are Sharkfin Fan and Springpaw.
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Hopefully this set doesn't turn out too piratey. Overkill is a neat mechanic though. Defile-like effects were always kinda fun to play.
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KokoroAkechi posted...

The only two I can see being played after a while are Sharkfin Fan and Springpaw.

I'm not entirely sold on either of those, as they seem good in archetypes that are fairly fringe at the moment.

Sharkfin Fan goes right into Even Rogue. I've climbed with Even Rogue, I think it's solid, but it is like 0.1% of the meta. And...Sharkfin Fan is still like...kind of just a version of Defias Ringleader that doesn't require combo; that deck doesn't even run Defias Ringleader. I'm going to test it out in the deck, though; I don't think it's on the same level as Hench-Clan-Thug, but I'd still like to test a weaker Hench-Clan-Thug in Even Rogue.

Springpaw is good in Quest Hunter with Toxmonger. I'm not convinced it's good outside of that. 2 mana for deal 2 damage to minions is...meh.

Baited Arrow looks good, though. It's like Bane of Doom but more consistent (always a 5/5 beast). Except you can also deal 3 damage to a minion (or face) with it. Probably goes into spell hunter, which is really light on 5 drops right now (only the spellstone atm).

Hex Lord Malacrass looks like it could do something with the mage quest, particularly since any spells it adds won't have started in your deck.
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I think Sharkfin is just good in an aggressive rogue deck with like pirates. We'll have to see if we get any more pirate synergy. I kind of wish we could forget pirates existed, but you know.

Springpaw is also just good in midrange hunter, a deck that has been on the fringe of play like ever since it got kicked out of the meta when CotW was nerfed. It might not do much at first, but I can see it becoming more popular when the rotation happens.

I forgot about spell hunter, but right now I think Baited Arrow is maybe like a 30th card in the deck?

Also, Hex Lord is way too slow to be played in quest mage because it costs 8 mana. You can't even combo it with like frost nova. It's really for a heavy control vs control matchup. There are just too many situations where the card is a bad play.
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KokoroAkechi posted...

I think Sharkfin is just good in an aggressive rogue deck with like pirates. We'll have to see if we get any more pirate synergy. I kind of wish we could forget pirates existed, but you know.

Oh mmm...yeah, fair enough. Usually splitting into two bodies (a 2/2 and a 1/1) is worse than playing a 3/3 (Bloodsail Raider). But I guess if you're playing Southsea Captain then you want multiple bodies.

Running Southsea Captain means you're not running Even Rogue, though, which means this is a terrible turn 2 play since you won't have weapon up. I also don't like that this has 2 health (dies to Odd Rogue dagger, dies to Explosive Trap, trades with Keleseth).
KokoroAkechi posted...

Springpaw is also just good in midrange hunter, a deck that has been on the fringe of play like ever since it got kicked out of the meta when CotW was nerfed. It might not do much at first, but I can see it becoming more popular when the rotation happens.

I mean, three cards that jump to mind in comparison are Candleshot, which is 3 pings for 1 mana, Alleycat, which is two 1/1 beasts for 1 mana, and Hunting Mastiff, which is a 2/1 rush for 2 with Echo. These cards seem much better in their respective niches, but maybe Springpaw gets there with flexibility?

I might also just be mentally thinking "what happens if I open up with Springpaw and my opponent opens up with Firefly" (kind of a blowout for them) but maybe after Firefly rotates yeah.

KokoroAkechi posted...

Also, Hex Lord is way too slow to be played in quest mage because it costs 8 mana. You can't even combo it with like frost nova. It's really for a heavy control vs control matchup. There are just too many situations where the card is a bad play.

I mean, if you don't play first, then you can combo it with frost nova, cause I assume it'll give you the coin.

I dunno, the card reminds me a little of pre-nerf Ancient of Lore. Costing 8 instead of 7 hurts, but getting more cards (and sometimes the coin if I'm guessing right) might make up for that?
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With quest mage specifically you'll always get the quest back, which is interesting at the very least. Probably dead most of the time, but sometimes you can get a second quest done, which opens up a few things I think.
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Im really interested in a possible near OTK with the Tiger, Baleful Bunker, And Holy Wrath

But that also feels pretty clunky
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I'm conflicted here. Playing the game right now feels like a chore most of the time, even in casual mode where I'm not trying to win games and just want to complete quests. Based on that, I don't want to pre-order the next expansion.

On the other hand, the game will probably become fun again, at least for a little while, once the new expansion comes out. I'll definitely enjoy playing again, which means that it's probably a good idea to pre-order the expansion so that I can get more of the cards.
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Oh heres the new topic. People must be getting tired of listening to the usual dumbass trolls in this topic so theyve gone to other places for HS discussion. Kinda sad because without the handful of idiots board 8 HS discussion was really fun.

The new Loa look cool. Paladin OTK? I dont think itll be good but it looks hilarious.

https://www.twitch.tv/purple_hs

Purple is doing analysis on all the blizzcon games and plays he considers mistakes; been going for hours; interesting stuff.
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With Hexlord, you have to consider a few things. Like if you are quest mage and you are against a control deck you don't need Hexlord to really complete anything. If you are against aggro you can't play hexlord (unless you went second) and even then it might still be bad. If you're using it as a control deck against aggro if you can play it it's just a win more. Yes it's pretty good in control vs control, but you really have to bank on your opponent being control too to get the value you want a lot of times. Because against aggro you are keeping as much early game stuff as possible to help fend off the initial wave. So those cards combined might not be as impactful as if you'd replaced hexlord with a big threat.

Honestly, if Iceblock was still around I think the card would look a lot better.
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Also, been playing some arena. I've done 3 runs. 5 wins, 7 wins, and 8 wins. I've concluded that Warlock is absolutely busted in arena.
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Update notes: https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/blog/22596834/hearthstone-update-november-5-pre-purchase-rastakhan-s-rumble

Pre-orders are up in the client, the new classic cards are added, the twitch card back is in.

If you log in from the 7th to 11th, you get 6 Boomsday packs as a 100 million player celebration. There will also be a special play a friend event quest that you can complete 5x for 500 gold total.

That free stuff is for 100 million players.

Which is why its laughable when idiots say this game is dying or is about to die because of new card game.

I played the Rastakhan Rumble brawl in the demo area

The shrine mechanic is pretty interesting. When a strong mechanic is tied to it and it's going to revive in a couple turns it creates some planning around the next few turns, on both sides.

The armour one insanely powerful if he can attack, but the problem is that he revive s at the start of your turn and can't attack until next turn. So your opponent can answer. If he doesn't you'll probably just kill him

The double spell one is insane. It's a rogues dream.

The self damage one can do a ton of damage but it's pretty slow. I was one turn away from just killing my opponent both times I played but I had a hard time keeping any board presence without killing myself

Overall pretty fun brawl
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Unlike Challenge a Friend, only players with this quest in their log will receive the gold, so make sure you log in and get the quest!

Kind of sucks. Going to feel a bit awkward asking someone to play you for gold when they might not get anything if they've already finished the quests themselves.
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On the subject of revealed cards, Kripp of all people made an interesting point about Immortal Prelate. Basically, control paladin builds can't fight other control decks cause they run out of value. But if you put Spikeridge Steed on an Immortal Pelate, then you have endless value. You don't fatigue and draw endless 3/9 taunts (unless they ignore your taunt minions and don't kill them; then you can fatigue).

Obviously vulnerable to silence, but maybe it means that control buff paladin can sneak into the meta as a tier 3-4 deck. Good as long as people aren't teching against it.

UltimaterializerX posted...

and every metric shows traffic slowing down by a lot.

"Every" metric?

I mean, Boomsday had their highest number of preorders of any set of all time.

I don't think that's a particularly fair metric, cause a lot of people just wanted the new hero portrait. But it is a metric which looks good for the game.

The real test of course will be preorders of the next set. I feel like Witchwood was a very well-designed expansion, and Boomsday was pretty mediocre, so preorders for Boomsday probably reflected positive vibes from The Witchwood more than the quality of a set that nobody had played yet. Hence...I'm expecting a dip in preorders for Rhakastan (whether or not it's a good set). We'll see though.
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I'm in the middle of an arena draft and got this

https://imgur.com/a/iZUyUxy
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So...Paladins are getting a version of Ice Block:

https://old.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/9uqp5p/new_paladin_spell/

I really want to comment on how much I like the fact that it's common though. I don't think I ever opened an Ice Block when it was standard.
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Arena runs so far

Mage - 5 Wins
Paladin - 7 Wins
Rogue - 8 Wins
Mage - 5 Wins
Rogue - 10 Wins
Druid - 8 Wins

I drafted another rogue, but the deck is not really good so I'm expecting like 5 from it.
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Brawl pack gave me two epics I didn't actually have, got a golden Giggling while it's still full dust and two more epics I didn't have from the other six free packs, made 640 gold in a short amount of time. Solid day.
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I have the quest for the play a friend like everyone else. I'll be on sporadically throughout the day. I have the normal play a friend too so message me if you see me on.
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30 games of odd paladin this month, ONE skill based result. Hearthstone is skill abject trash.
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That's more than zero! Looks like things are improving after all.
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Blizzard haters on suicide watch this week as they gave out 1100 gold value of stuff for free. 100 million player celebration.

Lol the idiots never stop being entertaining on every platform. GameFAQS, Reddit, you name it.

Hearthstone will be popular for another 20 years

I think most Blizzard fans are too distracted by Diablo to give two shits about Hearthstone right now.
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it's amusing to me that people actually believe 1100 gold value is anything worthwhile or significant

Like they give out a few free packs and people think this somehow fixes the absurdly broken dust economy
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It's amazing how much pre-ordering nearly makes dust irrelevant. I used to treat dust like it was the most valuable substance in the world, carefully planning out how I'd use it and weighing whether a card was worth the investment.

I've pre-ordered the last two expansions as well as saved up gold in between expansions to get an extra 50 packs, while spending no money otherwise, and have essentially every card I would need to make any competitive deck and nearly 17 000 dust just sitting there.
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CoolCly posted...

it's amusing to me that people actually believe 1100 gold value is anything worthwhile or significant

Like they give out a few free packs and people think this somehow fixes the absurdly broken dust economy

Whats absurd is your claim the dust economy is broken.

Thats actually fucking laughable.

Do people still play this
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UItimaterializer posted...

30 games of odd paladin this month

Funnily enough, Ulti has played the most games out of everyone!
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They do say time flies when you're having fun
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oh, guess I should tag this.

Nothing I've seen so far wows me, but I might not have seen everything. I'm kinda tuned out of hearthstone right now.
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UltimaterializerX posted...

Hearthstone dust is BY FAR the worst economy return ratio (25%) in card game history. The standard in all card games is 50%. 25% is indefensible.

Um, "worst in history"? Have you heard of magic the gathering?

The best rares sell for $100. The worst rares sell for $0.2.

No really.

Here's a mythic rare selling for $0.17:

https://shop.tcgplayer.com/magic/media-promos/soul-of-zendikar?xid=ia9502e11e6e2473292c403a16ce84cf2

And here's a different mythic rare selling for $89.00

https://shop.tcgplayer.com/magic/from-the-vault-twenty/jace-the-mind-sculptor?xid=ic69052f1aba645b79a58b2d6bb1ff227

So...roughly a 400:1 conversion rate. If you open 400 Soul of Zendikars and sell them all, you can afford roughly a single Jace the Mind Sculptor.

Would I like a better dust conversion ratio in Hearthstone? Sure! But 4:1 is not bad, and literally a hundred times better than MtG. Means no matter what I open I can make a real deck.
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