Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Saying Blizzard doesn't QA any of their cards is pretty extreme.

And the Baron Riverdare interaction makes perfect sense. If a card switches possession twice, it ends up with the original owner. Just because the Weasel is in the deck after the first trigger doesn't mean that the effect can't trigger a second time - card effects can trigger while said card is in the deck. Just see Patches for prove of that. It would be weird if that interaction worked any other way.

You're going to tell me "Weasel in your deck causes the deck to always show up as full" makes sense too or was tested for? It's something you'd catch playing the game once with the card.

No. I'm saying your judgement is a too harsh. There's obviously some major bugs going on, but calling a non-obvious interaction that Blizzard has zero QA is rather extreme.

Notice I didn't mention that particular bug, or the soul of the forest one, or any of the friendly minion death triggers in my other post. Those are bugs, and need fixing. The Baron Riverdare interaction is not.

Well, with the tavern brawl over I'm gonna start buying Gadgetzan packs. I've got 13735 gold, screenshotted for posterity◊ because it's the most I've ever had in this game. Having already opened the 6 packs from the intro quests, I'll probably buy ~20 packs and see where that puts me on the pity timers, then I might buy more depending on how the timers look. At the very least I mean to go for my first legendary (max 34 packs).

Just fought a mage who played a c'thun near the end of the match, not having played a single synergy card beforehand. Earlier in the match, they also played Fjola Lightbane, then used their hero power on it (weakening it enough for me to kill it). I guess they thought hero powers counted as spells.

I'll stand by what I say: Blizzard does not QA Hearthstone. Or if they do QA, that QA is so minimal as to be borderline non-existent.

Just look last week and the the "Triple Class card bugs". It was so obvious streamers were noticing it on stream just from opening their own pack. Kripp at one point stopped opening packs to see he'd gotten some triple class cards over 40 times. It means at no point Blizzard had someone just open a bunch of packs and see what they got. This went well coz everyone affected got a bunch of bonus packs out of the experience. But it wasn't a bug that required alien card combination or who was only visible once millions of people were opening packs. Anyone just sitting down would go "I keep getting the same 10 cards over and over".

Or Tyrande being able to get the Priest hero power from Sir Finnley. It'd be the one obvious thing to test when introducing a new hero portrait: All the cards that affect her hero power. Blizzard didn't feel like doing that.

Holy crap. Wow. Bravo.

edited 5th Dec '16 6:14:38 PM by Ghilz

Arena is still a clown fiesta. Having said that... I got Kun, the Forgotten King from my latest pack. I hear a 0-mana 7/7 is decent. (Also, apparently there's an Aviana-Kun-Alex-Maly-Faceless-Starfire OTK list making the rounds.)

edited 6th Dec '16 7:14:16 AM by Pyrite

@Pyrii: Modifications to that one Tempo Rogue list. -2 Argent Square, +2 Small-Time Buccaneer. -2 Gnomish Inventor, -2 Undercity Huckster, +1 Loot Hoarder, +1 Patches, +2 Sap, and if my count is off I think I either shored up or cut some other one-of.

It might be better if I rebuilt it from the ground up or from a newer list but those changes are pretty good.

I think Rogue, not Warrior, may be what keeps me from dusting Patches. I've tried a newer Pirate Warrior list and I still do not like it much.

This list is really more of a Pirate Rogue, but it's still got that Tempo Rogue playstyle. Don't know if there are good Sap targets in the current meta. Replace Legendaries to taste. Also, don't dust Patches.

edited 6th Dec '16 8:28:01 AM by Pyrite

Well it's a golden. I get why everyone is so fired up about it but if I hate playing the decks he's used in I reserve the right to turn him into a Kazakus or somesuch.

And if were talking about "break in case of nerf", I'm not sure what they can nerf about him. Can't lower his stats. Increasing his cost won't do much. Taking away Charge, well charge is only a big deal if you're building late game combos around him. Taking away his summon kills the uniqueness of the card.

edited 6th Dec '16 8:42:15 AM by Elle

Yeah, it's your prerogative. Just saying that if you're taking dust efficiency and meta calls into account, holding on to Patches (golden or not) for a while longer might be safer, because there are a fair number of decks that Patches could work in - typically the ones a) with early weapons to support Pirates; and b) which want early tempo (i.e. nearly any aggressive deck and Rogue). (Edited because deck thinning is really only a major factor if you intend to draw your whole deck, which probably only applies to Miracle-esque Rogues in this context.)

Remember, you don't choose the SMOrc life, the SMOrc life chooses you.

edited 8th Dec '16 7:11:24 AM by Pyrite

Well if it comes down to a choice of smorc decks, I think I like Rogue better than Warrior. And if I'm going to play any rogue decks it's likely to be tempo/face until I decide to build the cards I'm missing for Miracle.

I may be lacking sample size for Warrior though. I happened to hit a streak of either bad draws or opponents with hard counters and I probably don't have the most refined version of the deck..

Patches is a big part of why I'm playing Rogue again. I'm a huge Tempo Rogue fan ever since beta, and this expansion does somewhat provide Rogues the tool it needs for that archetype (even if it's mostly through neutral cards.)

I shamelessly copied this Tempo Pirate Rogue deck from Reddit◊ (I think it's from Reynad but I haven't watched his stream, so I can't verify that.) It's pretty cool and utilizes Patches well without being oppressive. Shaku, I'm pretty sure, is just for the memes. But if you have it, you might as well play it, right? If you don't have it, craft it. What are you waiting for? ^* Alternatively replace Shaku with a random card from your collection. Chances are it'll be better than Shaku, anyway.

I'm also playing around with Patches Miracle, but it gets hard countered by the Wild Rank 21 meta. You know the type of decks those players like to run. Stuff like hyper aggressive Mech Mage with Prince Malchezaar, Midrange Shaman with Prince Malchezaar and Pirate Warrior with Prince Malchezaar. You know what ... my last 5 games in Wild have all been against a Malchezaar deck. (I should totally start teching Rend Blackhand into all of my decks.)

I've got a Dragon Priest deck going that's been fairly successful so far. I even crafted Wrathion for it. That card is ridiculous.

Though Draconic Operative imho is the MVP of new Dragon Priest.

Agreed. It's absolutely nuts. Netherspite Historian keeps giving me Ysera and Deathwing, though. That's some premium value.

edited 6th Dec '16 1:36:30 PM by Fighteer

Netherspite always was awesome, but Draconic OP, on top of giving you cards, can let you know what your opponent has not drawn yet. Knowing someone's removal or win condition is still in their deck can be amazing.

edited 6th Dec '16 1:42:50 PM by Ghilz

Oi. I'm not arguing with you. This Dragon Priest is kicking all kinds of ass.

edited 6th Dec '16 2:14:10 PM by Fighteer

Is Wrathion really worth it, though? Somebody did the math and it seems that you draw 1-2 cards on average.

Apropos of nothing:

In game development, because of the need to fix game-breaking bugs, you usually have to rush patches.

In Soviet Hearthstone, Patches rush YOU!

edited 6th Dec '16 4:01:52 PM by Pyrite

So that makes him an OG ancient of Lore with 1 less stat for 1 less mana. It sounds good. Plus the thing is that it's an average. You always draw at least 1. Sometimes 3.

If I wanted to draw 1, I'd run Azure Drakes.

But you already have two in the deck to begin with and can't add a third :-P

Wrathion has many advantages over Azure Drake:

• He has Taunt. This is hard to overstate — Taunt affects the board state directly, forcing your opponent to get through it some way. This makes it hugely superior to Azure Drake (or Ancient of Lore) when facing aggressive opponents.
• He can draw more than one card. Sometimes a lot of cards.
• Dragon Priest doesn't run many damaging spells — the only ones are AoEs, in fact — so Azure Drake's spell power is almost unimportant.
• He occupies the 6-mana slot, which is important as the 5-mana slot on Dragon Priest gets very crowded.

edited 6th Dec '16 4:50:10 PM by Fighteer

I'm gonna go out on a limb there and say that a 4/5 for 6 mana that has Taunt and draws a card is a fairly good deal nevertheless, with a possibility of drawing more. I could probably see him in non-Dragon decks as well.

edited 6th Dec '16 4:43:57 PM by FergardStratoavis

EDIT: Wow, lots of Wrathion fans. Got ed.

Wrathion is certainly not critical to the running of a Dragon Priest deck, for sure, but I guess the question is whether or not there are more impactful 6-drop options. More commentary to follow.

EDIT: Okay. From a pure theorycrafting standpoint: I have my doubts about Wrathion in the current version of Dragon Priest.

• Body/Cost: 6 mana for 4/5 with Taunt is definitely suboptimal, so his value has to lie elsewhere.
• Is drawing 1-2 cards on average worth it? Questionable. Dragon Priest is a slow deck: there's no game-ending combo that you're hoping to draw into like pre-nerf Combo Druid, to make the Ancient of Lore comparison. And you're already running at least 6 sources of card "draw" (2-4 Discover and 4-2 Draw) from other sources. There is a serious risk of clogging up your hand with too much late-game draw.
• What other competition is there for the 6-mana slot? Dragon Priest already runs Dragonfire Potion and Book Wyrm (4 cards). I think some are cutting Entomb, but if you run double Entomb it goes up to 6, which makes your deck even more top-heavy. If you need a 5th / 7th, I can think of a certain lady who has no time for games...
• Other considerations: Dies to Dragonfire Potion.

edited 6th Dec '16 6:56:08 PM by Pyrite