Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Hmm, it develops some nice synergy with the hand-buff mechanic from Mean Streets of Gadgetzan. Some of them are very expensive for cards that buff other cards, so board control will be paramount if you want to run a Magnetic deck.

HS Dev: That's a very sticky minion don't you think.

Me: YOUR MAGIC SHALL NOT SAVE YOU!

How many silence cards are present in the current Standard Rotation?

Edited by fasoman1996 on Jul 17th 2018 at 2:54:08 PM

Six, IIRC: Ironbeak Owl, Spellbreaker, Earth Shock, Silence, Mass Dispel, and Keeper of the Grove. Also: Hex, Polymorph, and Tinkmaster Overspark's transform effect all act as silences.

I'm thinking of how I can use Overspark to screw-up Taunt Druid. I almost miss his initial design^note targeted battlecry. Almost.

I figure it'll probably wind up like Gadgetzan, with different sets of classes focusing on the different unique elements. Druid will almost certainly have a focus on Omega Minions... or maybe it'll turn out combining that with ramp is too much of a recipe for disaster.

RE: Randomness: At the end of the day all Card Games have an element of randomness to them in the form of deck shuffling and draw. In some regards Hearthstone is actually better in that regard, since it dodges the possibility of being mana starved or mana bloated.

But it's electronic format means that 'create-a-card' effects are kind of unique to Hearthstone, and Dice-Roll effects (like Shaman HP) are easier to pull off. It's only natural that Blizzard would want to take advantage of the things that could possibly make their game unique.

Buuuuuuut, random effects do, in essence, mean random power. Sometimes you'll generate a mediocre card, but sometimes you'll generate exactly what you need to win.

Then again, sometimes you'll draw exactly what you need to win, too. And that's not unique to Hearthstone. Hell, the Yu-gi-oh anime made topdecking a plot point. Because it's the reality of card games: inherently random elements mean that there's always a chance you'll get shafted, or get lucky. But that chance is the same for both players which is why, ultimately, you're right. Random effects doesn't ultimately impact balance that much. Just like MTG or, say, Poker, for a seemingly 'random' game you tend to see the same champs—because those are the people who are best at predicting and dealing with random outcomes.

However, on the other hand, just because something is fair doesn't mean it's fun. Card generation victories may be ultimately balanced, but that doesn't mean they don't still kinda feel like bullshit sometimes.

tl;dr All games have an element of randomness and it doesn't ultimately impact whether a game can be competitive until the randomness overwhelms the ability to plan, and that's certainly not the case for Hearthstone. However, an over-reliance on random effects can make the game frustrating to play and alienate people.

Card draw adds a large amount of randomness to the game, and skilled players account for this to best control the randomness (manipulating draw, thinning the deck). Many times draw can decide a game, and turn a losing match into a victory.

However, that is something that effects players more evenly. Individual RNG cards do not. Not everyone will be playing the same RNG cards or want to rely on such heavy RNG effects. Losing the game because your opponent made an uncontrolled gamble and it paid off feels really bad, especially when you were playing favourably.

Card draw is RNG, but you can still play around your opponent's options. However when your opponent starts playing random cards you can't play around that. Any knowledge you have of their deck is useless, and they can go beyond the normal deck limit for individual cards so you can't be assured to bait key cards out. That is the antithesis of skill.

Discover is in some ways better, being offering only in-class cards and requiring a choice (demanding more skill, while being more consistent for those with skill). It still has the issue of letting players get additional copies of key cards, which can be a huge power shift.

But pure randomness, like Nimbus, can be totally unfair. Earthern Might is similar while having an activation requirement, and getting basically any legendary elemental off it has been hugely advantageous to me when it has happened. And I have won games off my Bone Drakes giving me some fantastic dragons.

Skill is definitely one of the most important factors, next to collection size, but RNG is still potentially a problem. More skill makes it more likely that the more skilled player wins. More RNG makes it less likely that skill will decide the match.

Also, when you're less skilled (and lower ranked) you're going to deal with more players relying on extreme RNG to win, as skilled players rely less on that. So as a lower ranked player, it can be really frustrating having to deal with that quite often.

There is controlled RNG, like adapt, and there is large scale RNG like the ‘generated X out of 24+ cards’. Controlled RNG is fine, you are able to leverage your odds both ways. The Large Scale randomness is the big issue, you can’t leverage or play around anything.

The big problem is the large scale gamble cards are always better than anything else.

Focusing Light into lasers? Must be Paladin Lab!

Card Reveal Schedule. Do I spy with my eye an even bigger mechanical eye in there? Mecha C'Thun? I didn't know I want this, but I do now!

Edited by googlebot on Jul 18th 2018 at 10:06:54 PM

And the first part of this schedule is...

Annoy-o-Module - Rare Paladin Minion; 4 mana 2/4 Mech; Magnetic; Divine Shield; Taunt

Here be the reveals for this week. The train starts come Monday, but for now please welcome:

• Supercollider - Epic Warrior Weapon; 5 mana 1/3; After you attack a minion, force it to attack one of its neighbors.
• Flobbidinous Floop - Legendary Druid Minion; 4 mana 3/4; While in your hand, this is a 3/4 copy of a minion you last played.
  • Presumably it still costs 4 mana.
• Whizbang the Wonderful - Legendary Neutral Minion; 4 mana 4/5; You start the game with one of Whizbang's Wonderful Decks!
  • How it works: When you add Whizbang to your deck, it replaces your hero, your deck and renames it to "Whizbang is Wonderful".
    • Each game you play, one random currently available deck recipe is chosen as your deck. There are 18 choices, 2 for each class.

Edited by FergardStratoavis on Jul 19th 2018 at 7:39:42 PM

I hope they give Whizzbang for free like they did with C'Thun and Marin

Whizbang memes aside, Floop should not exist. Double Malygos? Double Hadronox? (though you lose Oaken Summons) Double Lich King? Double Oakheart?

It all is going to cost 4 mana, and there's nothing that can be done about it beyond preparing for the inevitable next Legendary.

I think it would be better if it's a copy of the last minion you played this turn instead.

Holy crap, more stuff! It's all Druid cards and it's about... Treants.

• Dendrologist - Rare Druid Minion; 2 mana 2/3; If you control a Treant, Discover a spell.
• Landscaping - Common Druid Spell; 3 mana; Summon two 2/2 Treants.
• Mulchmuncher - Rare Druid Minion; 10 mana 8/8 Mech; Rush; Costs (1) less for each friendly Treant that died this game.
  • According to Blizzard, Mana Treants from Living Mana also count for the discount which makes this a scary proposition for Token Druid.

Edited by FergardStratoavis on Jul 19th 2018 at 10:32:55 AM

I can't stop giggling at the idea that Paladin Engineers focus the Holy Light into lasers.

Wow, Whizbang is something new. Only one card to play 18 decks.

It's been confirmed that Whizbang won't be draftable in Arena.

Is Whizbang answer to the new player's entry problem? It sure has potential. You get to play around with cards you don't have and in different decks to boot.

Edit: I wonder how the win credit works in this case. Can I get wins on a class I don't like to play using Whizbang?

Edited by googlebot on Jul 20th 2018 at 8:51:16 PM

More changes to Minion types coming up

If you mean for dailies, that's probably inadvisable: Whizbang will always randomly select the class and deck, which means you have a 1/9 chance of getting the class you want with it.

Well, you need to pick a class before you can begin making a deck, so... all credit would most likely go to the respective class.

• I didn't even realize Ghostly Charger is a Beast. The change seems inconsequential to me; about the only place where it mattered was whenever Jeweled Macaw showed up; then again, I guess Bonemare is not a Beast, so it checks out.
• If Ixlid is fungal, that means he's not a plant creature I don't particularly care for that change much. If anything, having a fairly mediocre Elemental off Earthen Might (or the upcoming Menacing Nimbus) is welcome.
• Justification behind not changing Arcane Giant and Arcane Golem feels like hogwash to me, but the one behind Bogshaper is just outrageous. "because some guy made a successful deck with it" is not an excuse. Don't care if he's the champion or the King of England.
• I guess I'll get 200 dust off my Shadowboxers then.

This whole tag thing reminds me that I hate Omega Defender; not just because it's busted but because it's not consistent (as it should have a Mech tag, but doesn't on account of being too strong if it did).

How does that even work? You need to build a deck and slap Whizbang into it first, unless owners of him will simply have a "random" class available to them in the choice menu.

Edited by FergardStratoavis on Jul 20th 2018 at 12:37:27 PM

Thermaplugg and the Shredders should drop the mech tag if that's the case

Whizbang takes up the entire deck by himself, renames the deck to 'Whizbang is Wonderful', and is the hero class until the start of a game, when it randomly assigns both the class and recipe.

It's really freaking weird.

Edited by EviIPaladin on Jul 20th 2018 at 7:50:22 AM

Now that i think about it, what about Blink Fox? Is it a ghostly creature or a teal coloured fox?

I bet that card will be brought up eventually

Today I went on to do a 5-win quest for 200 gold. Since I'd been doing fairly well in arena recently, and the current brawl is pretty shit, I decided to go on and do the quest in arena.

I proceeded to go 0-3 with mage. Followed immediately by 0-3 with warlock. Then 1-3 with hunter, 3-3 with druid, and finally finished the quest on my fifth run with mage (currently sitting at 1-0).

Why, Blizzard? Just...why? What did I do to deserve this? Why are other people allowed to have nice things and I'm not?

Autodefense Matrix - Common Paladin Spell; 1 mana; Secret: Whenever one of your minions is attacked, give it Divine Shield.

The opening card stream starts in about ten minutes.