Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

You know I just had a thought. with Reno rotating and they saying they will not make any more Reno cards anymore to make it viable, isn't that basically an FU to all the people who actually crafted and use highlander decks? I mean when you make a standard card you expect to use it in some fashion for two years but now not those.

I am rather peeved since I crafted Kazakus and I shouldn't have since he is useless come rotation.

edited 24th Jan '17 1:34:12 AM by Memers

Did they clarify the statement, or did they just say "Nothing else like Reno"? With three classes worth of legendary focusing on Highlander from the latest expansion, it seems like they have an interest in that style of deck. One way or another it would seem strange to just abandon it entirely. Perhaps they'll introduce more highlander cards with different effects, but none as deck-making as Reno? Either a set of normal highlander cards with less powerful effects (Although that runs into the issue of "the card may as well just have its effect automatically"), or they'll have more legendaries with significant but less game-changing effects.

Or it's possible they'll go the opposite way and alter the highlander cards to no longer trigger when there are no unique cards, but simply have those effects. In a lot of cases though, I think they'd have to do a lot of re-balancing.

They said they want to rotate ideas like that so Reno type cards might come back in a few years.

They also said that Priest is the only class that might be able to continue being a Highlander deck with emphasis on the might.

edited 24th Jan '17 2:11:23 AM by Memers

Fair enough.

Well, games like this tend to have a pretty healthy lifespan-look how long MTG has lasted—and Reno won't rotate out for a year and a half anyways. So I'd say, all things considered, there's a decent amount of possibility there.

Reno rotates out with the next release in ~3ish months, all the other Reno cards rotate the year after Reno goes.

Does't Blackrock still have to rotate out first? It came out first, after all. Or are they doing two at once this year?

Or... three, since Grand Tournament came between them?

Rotations are by year, so BRM, TGT and LOE all rotate out.

Well, for Highlander decks, we can look at the class-specific cards from strongest to weakest (and their strengths were deliberate according to Donais):

• Raza: Highlander Priest might have enough healing to ensure that the loss of Reno doesn't hit it too badly.
• Solia: Really conditional, not all Reno Mage decks run her.
• Krul: Never run.

That leaves us with Kazakus as a tri-class. Kazakus's post-rotation viability in Standard hinges on the viability of Highlander Priest because neither Renolock or Reno Mage have quite enough heal and may end up switching to other control Archetypes depending on the new cards that might be introduced. As for the other 29 cards in current Reno decks, it really depends on whether new value-based archetypes will evolve, and that's more an issue with the new expansion instead of the cards rotating out.

Also, there's always Wild.

edited 24th Jan '17 3:13:15 AM by Pyrite

Oh. I assumed they would rotate one set out when one set came out.

That is... a whole lot more cards leaving than will be introduced, unless the next pack is huuuuge.

You're right, but we'll still have more cards than when Standard first started off. Besides Basic and Classic:

• Start of Standard: BRM, TGT, LOE, WOTOG (2 Adventures, 2 Expansions);
• Next rotation: WOTOG, ONIK, Gadgetzan, new expansion (1 Adventure, 3 Expansions).

edited 24th Jan '17 5:18:10 AM by Pyrite

Yeah, Reno rotating out isn't a FU at all. Even without rotations there's no guarantee a card will be viable for as long as it is legal. That's just a risk you got to take. MSG isn't a FU to those that crafted Twin Emps for their C'Thun deck, either. Meta's change.

Besides, as Pyrite pointed out, Wild has been a thing for as long as Standard has been. If card rotation is such a big deal for you, you should play it. I like it better than Standard, anyway.

I did craft Kazakus with the understanding that I might end up playing it in Wild if the highlander archetype doesn't carry on past the next set. That said, what Blizz said was that they had no plans to issue a Reno reprint or to make Reno perma-standard. They might, however, keep doing things with the highlander mechanic.

With regard to Renolock: Krull would be played if Blizzard printed better Demons. I think it is played in the current Wild version where Void Caller and Mal'Ganas are a thing.

Request for clarification on information spread in this thread:

Has a Blizzard rep come out and clearly stated that they have no plans of printing cards with the Reno (Highlander) mechanic, aka. cards that have an effect that only comes into effect if there's no duplicates in the deck, in the foreseeable future and if so, is there a source I could click on that?

I know they've stated that Reno himself will rotate out, as he should, and that they won't be printing a straight up replacement for Reno and I'm wondering if that's just being confused or is this something new.

edited 24th Jan '17 10:28:35 AM by GabrieltheThird

Mike Donais in an interview with IGN a couple of weeks ago.

In context, "this effect" seems to refer to the Highlander mechanic as a whole, even if it's not explicitly stated.

edited 24th Jan '17 10:13:12 AM by Pyrite

Thanks.

Edit: To add some debatable value to an otherwise short post, I'll just state that in the last two days I've used Dirty Rat to draw three Jaraxxuses out of the hands of rogues. While that's not quite as unlikely as it may sound, it is still the only warlock minion I've pulled out as a result of the Rat when facing the said class.

edited 24th Jan '17 11:08:00 AM by GabrieltheThird

New OTK Priest

I've seen Toast running that. Quite the combo. The gimmick is pretty amazing: using a temporary control effect like Shadow Madness or Potion of Madness gives the targeted enemy minion Charge while it's in your control. Djinni of Zephyrs also gets the same buff, since it copies spells cast on your minions. Ridiculous, sexy, and highly counterintuitive.

New brawl, and it looks like a good one. You pick a class, and you get a corresponding Adventure mode boss's deck. It is PVP.

• Warrior - The Grim Guzzler
• Priest - Gothik the Harvester
• Mage - Curator
• Warlock - Noth the Plaguebringer
• Hunter - Skelesaurus Hex
• Paladin - White king
• Shaman - Lady Naz'jar
• Rogue - Grobbulus
• Druid - Razorgore the Untamed

Got my pack from a Razorgore Vs. Razorgore fight. Turns out your hero power affects both players eggs, which makes it a fun matchup. Have to be even more careful about getting rid of the enemy's eggs than in the regular fight.

Also played a round against the Skelesaurus Rex, as Gothik... maybe I just had bad luck, but it felt like the Rex's hero power was stacked to hive him much better cards than me. Which is reasonable, I suppose.

Either way, it's a fun brawl. I expect I'll be playing more of it.

Stuff I've noticed:

• Bosses are counted as your chosen class for quest purposes.
• The White King has the hero power from the adventure (discover a chess piece), not the one from the brawl (move a piece to the left).
• The White King is interesting, since you're using the chess pieces while your opponent isn't. (8/9ths of the time, anyway.) Turns out they ignore Taunt.
• The White King matches up well against Gothik, since you generally have a full board, leaving no room for his spectral dudes.
• Most bosses have only one emote, but the White King's are intact.
• The Grim Guzzler is a tad overpowered when you can't stuff your deck with big minions to take advantage of his hero power.
• Lady Naz'jar vs Gothik is a joke, since the spectral dudes get evolved into a normal minion at the end of your turn along with all the others.
• Grobulus's hero power ("Deal 1 damage to all minions. If any die, summon a slime.") is worded poorly. It summons one slime per minion that dies, not one slime period. The resultant slimes are 2/2.
• Grobulus's hero power summons the slimes before the dead minions leave play. If you have a board of six 1/1s and use the hero power, you'll only get one slime, because that's all you've got room for.
• Razorgore's hero power is pretty much useless. Just about everyone has ways to kill the eggs, and you don't have any taunt minions to protect them with.

I activated an egg...with a free Divine Spirit that Skelsauus gave me. ^__^

It was turn 4 - conceding happened shortly after

So I finally got a Legendary from a Pack!

.... It's Van Cleef.

FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU—

edited 27th Jan '17 8:13:16 AM by ChrisX

With all the talk about nerfing Small Time Buccaneer I was thinking what about making it more of a pirate synergy and still make it a 1 drop. Like change it to a battlecry where it gains +2 attack if you have 2 pirate cards in your hand.

Ben Brode has said that he likes buffs that change the mana cost, attack or health more than those that purely change card text. If they tweak the mana cost, they need to also increase at least one of the stats if they want STB to not become a joke (and with the saltiness about Molten Giant and Warsong Commander, they better not make a fool of themselves again.) An attack nerf doesn't make sense to me. Nerfing it to 1 health would make it an Leper Gnome or Abusive Sergeant of sorts. It probably won't see play after that, only if a deck is really lacking Turn 1 Patches Activators.

But really my vote goes towards making the current effect a battlecry (as in: 'Battlecry: gain +2 Attack if you have a weapon equipped'). That way it can remain a slightly stronger 1 drop, but you do not get all that amazing tempo on turn 1 at once (a 1/2 and a 1/1 with charge is still above average.) You do lose some of the strategic 'do I attack or do I keep my STB attack boost' moments, though. Compare it to Southsea Deckhand; sometimes you just need a vanilla 2/1 to get Patches out of your deck ASAP, and sometimes you need to hold it to get a 2/1 with charge later on when you do have a weapon equipped.

Can't say I agree with that idea, to be honest. Making it a Battlecry fundamentally changes the way the card works: a 1-mana 1/2 + 1/1 contests next-to-nothing in the current meta, and the classes which are most likely to activate it early enough for a 3/2 to matter are the ones with 1-mana weapons (Warrior and Shaman say hi, and Rogue wants to Hero Power on Turn 2.)

The least fiddly nerf I can think of is making its Attack buff provide +1 attack instead of +2. The caveat is that it then becomes harder to deal with 4-or-greater health minions on Turn 2 (most commonly Totem Golem and Wyrmrest Agent, both of which are rotating out next expansion, but also heavily decreases one's chances of being able to deal with a coined Doomsayer).

edited 28th Jan '17 11:40:08 PM by Pyrite

Battlecry +2 attack if you have a weapon equipped?

Makes it less of a turn 1 threat but a better than average turn 2. Makes it better in Rogue than other weapon classes.