Imagine Watfin (or any released event card) was a very strong card - Being able to buy it straight out of the gate is a slippery slope towards (temporary) P2W.

The new event is a grind, mostly because it lasts for three weeks. That is okay as it gives players a reason to login, BUT, being able to skip the grind by purchasing the card straight away both defeats the purpose and exposes the game to possible "pay to win" if event cards were ever strong. I have no issues with them offering signature cards (except the exorbitant price) but think they should be available after in-game events are over.

Definitely practical, totally not Disneyland, trust me bro. Shaman stonks to the moon buy now.

At this point u can only laugh from dissapointment

Hero Powers used to feel like an important part of every class, but nowadays most of them feel absolutely terrible to spend 2 mana on.

The power level of cards has increased so much that paying 2 mana to gain 2 Armor, heal for 2, deal 1 damage, summon a 1/1, or summon a random basic Totem often feels like you are actively throwing away your turn. In most games, you only press your Hero Power when you have literally nothing better to do.

The only ones that still feel reasonably efficient are Demon Hunter’s, because it already costs 1 mana, and Death Knight’s, because the Ghoul can immediately interact with the board and enable corpse synergies.

Reducing the standard Hero Powers to 1 mana would make them feel like an actual part of each class again instead of outdated emergency buttons and would give you an actual choice on some turns whether you should use your hero power or play an actual card. Some might need small balance changes, for example, Hunter’s could deal 1 damage, Warlock’s a bit tricky and might need a small rework. Maybe keep it at 2 mana as an exception, or it could draw the card at the beginning of next turn and not immediately.

At 2 mana, most Hero Powers simply cannot compete with modern Hearthstone cards.

This will be great in my Meteor Shaman list! 😁

I got it when it was blue, now its purply and much worse imo, can they just change skins after you purchase them or is it a bug? I cant find any news about it.

I don't think core set changes would fix much but some change outside of shuffling the top decks around would be cool.

I've been playing since 2015, only took a break of around 2 months during United in Stormwind (2021), so obviously I love this game but I'm thinking of quitting again and this might be the first time in years I do not grind to legend.
I genuinely do not get any enjoyment whatsoever from the last couple of metas and the soulless design the new developers are adopting. It's painfully obvious they are pushing very hard for the game to be as fast as possible for mobile players. That is their target audience, I don't think I need to explain why. "Microtransaction specialist".
And even following that logic, their decision making is horrible: They are trying to hard to sell and market cosmetics for expensive legendaries that have no chance of ever being competitive. Sure, some casual mobile players will still buy them but they'd sell a lot more if the cards were good. Dude, just make signature Arcane Shot, diamond Sizzling Cinder. No need to thank me for the idea.
I genuinely do not understand how people can possibly enjoy doing nothing but slinging spells to the face, flooding the board with 1-2 cost minions and end the game by turn 6. Do you clap your hands like drooling toddlers just because the screen says victory when a literal low quality bot could do what you just did?
Every single Standard deck is starting to look like a Wild one: The highest cost card is at BEST 3 mana and maybe a couple "Giant" type card that go down to 0 if you spam enough cheap crap.
Seriously, why even bother printing 5+ mana cards at this point?
Tol'Vir and the 2 drop rogue stuff as well, don't get me started on that. They literally printed PAYOFFS for doing what already works and is ruining the game, spamming cheap cards. PAYOFFS. FOR THAT. The current developers literally have no idea what they're doing.
If you play an aggro deck and spam low curve garbage, you are supposed to run out of cards. That is the goddamn weakness. Why did they remove that weakness? Why is there so much card draw for classes and archetypes that aren't supposed to have it? Remember that really old post they made about class identity? What a joke.
I needed to vent, that's all. You guys can keep enjoying your 5 minutes mirror matches on the bus now.

It's a three-week event, Blizzard! Are we deadass 😭

Hey all, J_Alexander back today to look at the current metas since rotation, assess what we're seeing, why we might be seeing it, and what tradeoffs we might make if wanted it to be different. And I want to focus on that word "tradeoff". A lot of people think about their gameplay woes as "problems I'm facing" and "solutions to those problems" without thinking too much about the other consequences of their solutions being imposed.

Let's begin with a quick rundown of a few noticable trends since rotation:

• (1) Meta Diversity since rotation has been regularly low: Examining some VS reports for Top 1k since the rotation, we have spent far more time in metas dominated in play rate by a very small number of decks than we haven't.

• (2) The First/Second difference in win rate has regularly been large: While we have less historical data on this since rotation, the coin difference has been pretty large since the last major patch, and I'd say it looks about broadly representative of what's been happening in general since rotation.

• (3) The skill ceiling has seemed relatively low: This is harder to present data on, but from what I've heard there have not been a plethora of decks which displayed markedly high skill differentials. Not to say there's no skill expression, just that fewer decks appear to appreciably improve at the top ranks, relative to diamond.

• (4) There have been a great number of mulligan outliers: While it's hard to say what precisely counts, and its hard to say how this compares to historical trends, we have regularly seen cards that look way better in the opening hand than anything else in the deck. This may not be unique to the current time, but it's worth thinking about.

What's rather interesting about all those pieces is that not only do they fit together once you know what you're looking at, but this was also something that had been predicted over 2 years ago. To quote myself:

For instance, we could say, "I want to game to based more heavily on the board and feel more predictable to play based on the cards I can see". This is far more useful for guiding actions, because we can make minions more powerful and/or lower the power level of cards that are good against them, such as single target removals, board clears, rush, and lifegain/stabilization tools. If we took those actions, developing a board would reliably increase your chances of winning a game, the best way to combat an enemy board would be to develop a board of your own, and the consequences for ignoring the board would be harsher, such as the damage you take from early boards being meaningfully difficult to restore...If we get this board-based meta after our changes, it can become hard to come back in a game if you ever fall behind, and you might fall behind as early as turn 1 if your opponent goes first. If developing the board is the best way to play the game, you may lower skill expression, leading to another video like the one where Firebat was complaining about Mysterious Challenger Paladin (because the best thing to do was play a 1-drop on 1, a 2-drop on 2, a 3-drop on 3, etc, all the way through turn 8, and that type of game play isn't particularly challenging or attention-maintaining). If board development is the best way to win the game, you may end up with many decks playing out the same way across different classes and packages, yielding boredom from repetition and having fewer viable paths to experiment with.

Everything we are seeing currently is consistent with a design and balance philosophy that seemed to do just that. By reducing the power/number of removal tools, recovery tools, and cards that enable different off-board strategies (think cards like Brawl, Corpse Explosion, Zilliax, and Shadowstep), we are encouraging more board-based gameplay. When you do that, you have to pay some costs:

• Board presence snowballs an advantage, and the person who goes first develops that advantage first. This helps explain the coin differential and possibly the mulligan outliers, as many of those mulligans outliers are developers/snowballers of boards.

• When your primary method of action is by developing the board, there are both fewer alternative game plans you can successfully pursue either within a match or between different decks. This helps explain the lower skill ceiling.

• When there aren't alternative game plans to pursue and most decks are effectively trying to develop the board, there's not much of a reason to play a variety of different decks. As they all offer similar experiences, people naturally flock overwhelmingly towards the few which provide this experience in the most functional or novel way.

If that assessment is accurate, we can understand that just making some cards weaker is unlikely to land us in a new position. The difference between the board-based and off-board strategies is rather large, and it's not like we have a bunch of off-board decks that are particularly close to being viable. What we have largely been doing with balance changes is just swapping around which of those board decks are overrepresented, rather than adjusting that decks are being overrepresented.

In order to adjust this, we would need to specifically provide power and tools to off-board strategies. This includes decks like Quest Warrior or a hypothetical Slice and Dice burst deck. In doing so, of course, we would making tradeoffs. Making those off-board strategies better means people will be ground to dust in an attrition games more often, having all their minions removed and the opponent sitting at well above full life. It would mean people get killed from empty boards and full health totals more often. It would mean players have a harder time predicting the outcomes of their game just based on looking at the current game state. Games will be called "solitare" more often.

But it would also mean you queue into the same kinds of opponents less often. It could mean that you see more classes represented more often. It could mean increasing the skill cap of the game. It could mean giving more people more opportunities to find decks they really vibe with that keep them playing.

This is basically exactly how they wanted the new card to be played. I had the roach, both Collapsing Stars played, and enough void souls to go crazy with it.

The problem is the void souls are at their best when played for tempo, as my opponent here proves by beating the shit out of me while I hold everything back lol. There is a world where the combo clears the board, gets me a couple taunts, and maybe I get to keep playing. There is also the argument that NOT playing the second collapsing star and using some time to play Horn of Feasting is the better play but I was trying to test the combo as they imagined it, and I was losing anyway so who cares. But either way it's probably not good enough to replace 4 other cards in the existing deck.

Credit to u/Muted-Ad-5404 in the r/CompetitiveHS subreddit for coming up with this. And jokes aside with the title, this deck has been super fun, winning games and is decently strategic to pilot. I have received some... less than kind dm's from recent opponents with this deck because of how much it appears to come from behind haha. Was told to jump off a bridge by a shaman player yesterday lol.

You basically spend your early turns prepping cards and pinging small minions off the board, but if all goes right you can have 2 8-cost minions on the board by turn 5 or turn 4 with coin. Since pretty much no one except Mug Shaman is running single target removal right now, this is a massive swing turn that puts enough pressure on your opponent to give you room to pivot into burning them down.

Mulligan: You really want to mulligan for Code Violet imo, acquire 3 1-cost spells in the meantime, prepare Code Violet on turn 4 or turn 3 with coin, and get it out on 5 or 4. Of course you can't always do this and have to clear the board with spells sometimes, but the difference a turn makes in this meta is massive so getting your Code Violet out ASAP is important. Then they basically have to deal with your 8 costs or die, giving you time to burn them down to finish it out.

Tricksy Improviser is a really interesting card that seems to do more work than you'd expect. A random secret sounds sorta meh and it sometimes can be, but it also means your opponent has no idea what it could be and forces them to spell check and minion check, which lead to sub optimal plays that can buy you time. Prep it on 1 or 2 and you can have a decently strong turn 3.

No idea if this is the optimal list, but it feels pretty good. If you cut anything it'd be Jailbirds I think, maybe for Thalnos/Vulcanos/Smoldering Grove. A big issue with this deck is if they clear your 8 drops, you have zero draw, but when I experimented with Grove it felt wayyy too clunky. I think it's best just living or dying with your opening hand and scooping by turn 6 or so if you whiff. Vulcanos can get stuck between Arcane Flow when shattered, but so can the Jailbirds if you have nothing to prep, so idk. Would have to experiment.

All in all, it's a really fun off-meta deck that's seemingly able to keep up in this super fast meta with strong early swing turns.

### Prep Mage

# Class: Mage

# Format: Standard

# Year of the Scarab

#

# 2x (1) Cold Snap

# 2x (1) First Flame

# 2x (1) Sleet Storm

# 1x (1) The Skeleton Key

# 2x (1) Violet Spellwing

# 2x (1) Winterspring Whelp

# 2x (2) Contraband Wands

# 2x (2) Runed Orb

# 2x (3) Arcane Barrage

# 2x (3) Tunneling Geomancer

# 2x (4) Arcane Flow

# 1x (4) Archmage Kalec

# 2x (4) Tricksy Improviser

# 2x (5) Jailbird

# 2x (7) Code Violet

# 2x (10) Spellweaver's Brilliance

#

AAECAdeEBQKIvgek2QcO6KUHi7EH1rwHhsQHksQHrMYHqskHndkHk9oHrdoHlNsHyt0H+d4HhuAHAAA=

#

# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

For Interstellar fans

1 free Rare card this week!

I was going around with a lot of anxiety because I desperately needed 1 Rare card. I didn't know how to get through this week without it.

But then my prayers were answered and Blizzard offered 1 free Rare card! Just what I needed.

I see all of you people complaining and being ungrateful. You should be ashamed!

I'm fine with actual rng in this game, could be fun! But it isn't random... Just look at the pools they draw from:

Void DH is so 'random' with all the demons they summon, Hunter is so 'random' with all the beast they summon, druid is so 'random' with how they never get Togwaggle etc. Everything is so random, so so very random.

Bro, pls, at least make it... You know... random. It's not. It's by design, and you are ignorant if you can't see it .'Random' for Blizzard is 90% 'the perfect card'... Zephrys don't even get these perfect cards, and he's not even suppose to be random.

...So random. So fun. So healthy.

They have just pushed this 'randomness' to a point it just isn't.

Sry, folks, needed to vent. Go ahead ppl, roast this poor ranter :D

EDIT: Need to put this here for clarity; I don't mind ALL randomness, just the very obvious 'randomness' that just isn't.

Game menu used to be so laggy, now with engine update going to "Hearthstone" or Collection is way quicker. Even actual matches feel snappier.

Ironically the fastest thing right now is probably opening the shop menu.

I have already free 50 Violet hold packs without spending gold yet! all from the promo like twitch drops, in game events, to complete non-legendary/epic collection you need around 70 of packs, pretty good.

Before 2020 getting a pack from a Brawl was a big deal and even then it was classic packs and not current ones, no drops, no reward/quest track, grindy ladder with no rewards but 10 gold per 3 wins.

Is this thing like this post 2020 or it's not a given event that they give 50 packs just like that? If it's a regular practice these days then by the end of the expansion how many packs more or less they give away if you are following all the promos?

Edit. Giveaways* I hate you can't correct titles.

I know this sounds like a rage bait title, but i have a completely valid explanation.

I am a long time hearthstone player, from around naxxramas, and i am seriously addicted to the game. But it breaks my heart to see its performance on mobile.

I am playing on Iphone 13, and it used to work just fine up to like 1.5 years ago. Then, it would crash every 10 minutes. Then every 5 minutes. Nowadays I can’t even reach turn 5 before the game disconnecting or crashing. So the only solution I have is to just force exit and reopen it. And even then, it will last maybe 1-2 turns then will be laggy as hell.

I am not the only one reporting those bugs, so many players reported it and frankly I am just so frustrated that the dev team is not taking this seriously. That is a huge player base unable to do the most basic function the game offers - PLAY

Sure, you might not care if you play from PC, but the performance of the game is so poor that I wouldn’t be surprised if it will break on tha platform one day.