Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

This may be my cue to get back to HS now that the meta probably is more stable after the reshuffling of the prev period.

Just as long as Rogue (and Leeroy) still viable.

The missions will probably be a lot harder because you're not locked out of content if you can't complete them. Heroic bosses in adventures could also take a while to do.

Looks like we've got new card reveals already:

• Chillblade Champion - Common Paladin Minion; 4 mana 3/2; Charge, Lifesteal (whenever this minion attacks, restore minion's attack's worth of health back to your hero)
  • Notably, it doesn't need to deal damage, so it will go off even when attacking something with Divine Shield or proccing Vaporize.
• Shallow Gravedigger - Rare Neutral Minion; 3 mana 3/1; Deathrattle: add a random Deathrattle minion to your hand.
• Prince Keleseth - Legendary Neutral Minion; 2 mana 2/2; Battlecry: if your deck has no 2-cost Cards, give all minions in your deck +1/+1.
• Spirit Lash - Common Priest Spell; 2 mana; Lifesteal; deal 1 damage to all minions
  • I imagine it heals 1 for every minion it hits, and more if you have Spell Damage up.

And last, but not least...

Deathstalker Rexxar - Hero Card for 6 mana; when you play it it replaces your hero, adds the armor value on top of it, procs the battlecry attached to it and gives you a brand new Hero Power.

• Armor: 5
• Battlecry: Deal 2 damage to all enemy minions
• Hero Power: Build-a-Beast: create a custom Zombeast
  • Zombeast: You'll discover a beast with card text, and then discover another beast which is either vanilla or only has keywords, and it will stich them together. You'll combine the mana-cost, health, attack and the card texts together into one card. All minions available are 5-mana and below. There's no preference between Hunter and neutral Beasts. (ie it's not like Discover where class cards are weighted.)

Example: stitching together Stubborn Gastropod and Alleycat gives you a 3 mana 2/3 Taunt with Poisonous that also summons a 1/1 Cat.

edited 7th Jul '17 2:19:40 AM by FergardStratoavis

Stonetusk Boar + Vicious Fledgling

Truly, we've strayed from the Old Gods' light. ;-;

Somebody suggested Stubborn Gastropod + Dispatch Kodo.

Considering Poisonous works with Wild Pyromancer...

Oh, who am I kidding? We're entering a new era of aggro, with face being the place even more than ever before.

edited 7th Jul '17 2:21:38 AM by DrunkenNordmann

Not sure if joking, but it's a 6-mana card with a mini-board clear and a card-generating hero power. That's a Midrange card if anything.

Also, Keleseth is just strange. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but it's a strange deck that doesn't run any other 2-mana cards (or at least, so few as to reliably trigger his ability - EZ Big EZ Druid EZ comes to mind). And the ones that might probably don't need the stat points (see above). We'll see if any new archetypes come out of this expansion, though.

edited 7th Jul '17 3:14:29 AM by Pyrite

Could Quest Hunter benefit from Keleseth? You probably wouldn't run traps in it, and protecting the smol 1-cost minions from pings and minor AOE could be beneficial.

Tricky, I think, because 1.) Hunter's 2-drops are really high-quality, even if playing Quest Hunter, and 2.) No good pre-quest card draw makes drawing Keleseth (or thinning 2-drops) rather unreliable. Mistcaller never saw play and this is probably more conditional.

Also 3.) ...Quest Hunter. But that's a little premature.

edited 7th Jul '17 4:56:06 AM by Pyrite

It might go well in a non-murloc Paladin, Hydrologist is like the only 2 drop it runs.

It's 2-cost cards. I don't see Control Paladin working without Doomsayers, Equality or Wild Pyromancers. Midrange will be tricky too because you really want 2-drops in those decks.

edited 7th Jul '17 4:59:14 AM by Pyrite

Some Redditors suggested Aggro Paladin (non-Mrrrrgggl). You miss out on the Grimestreet Outfitters though.

I'm actually wondering how the DK Hunter will fare. It's a VERY slow card, and Control Hunter is not a thing. 6 mana for armor and a 2 dmg AOE isn't great. Then you need to spend 2 mana to make your zombeast (with no guaranteed results), and then you need to pay that zombeast's mana cost (which is gonna be fairly large potentially).

When you think about it, all the zombeast cost 2 mana more than their constituents would, if played separately.

I can very much see Deathstalker Rexxar being too slow to see play.

edited 7th Jul '17 5:14:11 AM by Ghilz

It will beat Fatigue decks, if they still exist in the next expansion. Against everything else, it really goes back to the question of whether or not Hunter will get good board clears and card draw.

I have my doubts.

edited 7th Jul '17 5:49:29 AM by Pyrite

Plus there's a lot of bad choices for Zombeast. Only the first card is garanteed text, the 2nd can be keyword or vanilla. alley cat on turn 7 isn't good (especially factoring the cost of the hero power). River Crocolisk, Bloodfen Raptor, Ravasaur runt (without a board), Zavas, thunder lizard, to name a few. Weasel Tunneler is pretty bad as it'd give your Zombeast to the other player :-P

I mean, there's fun choices too. Viscious Fledgling and Stonetusk Boar. Angry Chicken and stegodon

Actually trying to think, beside fledgling and Stonetusk boar, what are the "golden" scenarios for Zombeast? (Mana cost not counting the 2 cost to make them, real cost is 2 higher)

Young Dragonhawk and Jungle Panther or Stranglethorn Tiger.... (5/3 stealth windfury, 6/6 stealth windfury)

Bittertide Hydra + Stonetusk boar (9/9 Charge 6 mana)

Bittertide + Dispatch Kodo ( 10/12 10 dmg battlecry 9 mana)

Oasis Snapjaw + Stubborn Gastropod (3/9, Poisonous, Taunt, 6 mana)

edited 7th Jul '17 6:37:53 AM by Ghilz

It's a Pyroblast for 1 less mana (assuming you don't count the hero power) and a massive body.

Still, a lot of the beast are pretty bad choices. Considering you're not doing much for the turn you play Deathstalker rexxar, all the beasts who depend on you playing other beasts or minions (Thundra Rhino, Dire Wolf Alpha, Timber Wolf) are weak pick.

I think 90% of the time it'll be "try to generate big bodies without caring too much about the abilities, but if I can give it stealth or charge that'd be cool too"

It will all depend on what else we get for the xpac.

Also while watching streams I have seen hunters start running Deathwing now, this is one hero power that can support the past Deathwing lack of hand weakness.

You lose the regular Hunter Hero Power after playing the Hero Power, so extra burst might be what you need to close out games.

Realistically speaking though? Highrolls aside, you are guaranteed to lose a LOT of tempo from playing the Hero Card and then Hero Powering to generate it, so ideally you want something that allows you to regain board control. Obviously a Vicious Fledgling-Stonetusk Boar combo will help, but you want something of moderate cost that can swing the board more reliably - EDIT: it's going to be very situational, e.g. Tundra Rhino + Young Dragonhawk against wide Aggro.

edited 7th Jul '17 7:06:41 AM by Pyrite

I wonder what impact Justicar Trueheart would have on these new hero powers, if any. We'd only ever find out in Wild situations, but still...

Well, Justicar only works on Basic Hero Powers, so she's unlikely to interact with these new ones.

None, seeing as she doesn't improve INFERNO! or DIE INSECT

Plus she's no longer in Standard so that guarantee they didn't bother to code Justicar-empowerer DK powers.

Wait, if the first card is "text" and the second is "keywords or vanilla only", then you can't get Bittertide Hydra + Dispatch Kodo, right?

edited 7th Jul '17 7:12:40 AM by Pyrite

That's possible.