jdodson gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale
This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.
jdodson gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale
This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.
Last week the final wing of the new Hearthstone Adventure One Night in Karazhan was released wrapping up a full month of new cards. I like the way Blizzard launches Adventures in that they release one new wing of cards per week giving us a full month of new content. There have been a few complaints about the new adventure, the main one being that the campaign is way too easy. This is entirely accurate as I completed nearly each fight the first time. Even though the wings were easy I did enjoy the Adventure and have replayed quite a bit of it.
Each Hearthstone adventure is a bit of story mixed with with unique boss battles and new cards but for me the Adventures hang on the new cards.
My Favorite Karazhan Cards
In the last year I've really enjoyed playing Hunter decks and Karazhan added some new cards that will be a new staple of Hunter decks. Kindly Grandmother is a 1/1 beast card for 2 that's deathrattle summons a 3/2 beast. At first I wasn't sure this card would make it into my Hunter decks but at this point i'm not sure i'd ever make a Hunter deck without including it. Cloaked Huntress is another interesting card that lets you summon secrets for free while in play making it fun to play while not be overpowered. Cat Trick is a nice new Hunter secret that is a great counter against spell decks and board clears.
http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/42020-kindly-grandmother
http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/42050-cloaked-huntress
http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/42051-cat-trick
Paladin got a few cards that have really been fun to play one being Ivory Knight. Ivory Knight is a 4/4 for 6 that allows you do discover a spell and heals you for the spell cost. More healing for Paladin is incredible for control decks and this card found it's way into one of the most fun control decks I've played.
http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/42019-ivory-knight
Karazhan added some new neutral cards that have either improved a few of my decks or created new types entirely and one card that I add it to most of my Deathrattle decks is Barnes. Barnes is a 3/4 for 4 that randomly summons a 1/1 copy from a minion in your deck. So at it's worst it get Yeti stats and it it's best you can get out a 1/1 Deathrattle card like Sylvanis, Highmane or Ragnaros. Barnes is an interesting card and I haven't found it to be incredibly overpowered but does, at times, have a really fun effect on the board.
http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/42021-barnes
One new epic card from Karazhan I have had a blast playing with is Arcane Giant. Adding Arcane Giant to a spell heavy deck can give you a huge tempo swing when you drop the Giants for nearly no mana. Giants in Hearthstone can be summoned if you lose enough life, there are enough minons on the board or now based on the amount of spells you cast.
http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/42049-arcane-giant
Looking Forward To The New Meta And Next Expansion
People are still playing with the new cards and experimenting with decks and so far the meta is still working itself out. I've had lots of great games playing with the new cards and haven't personally seen a lot of the new cards show up yet. After the meta shakes out in a month we will start the wait for the next Hearthstone expansion that should drop sometime around the years end. Blizzard has a planned Standard mode cadence of 2 expansions and 1 adventure per year so 2016 should be getting one final expansion to seal up the year. And if it's anything like Whispers of the Old Gods it should be pretty awesome and like most things Hearthstone, i'll be talking about it a lot.
**note** I really enjoyed Travis's recent article title "We Really Need To Talk About Early Access DLC." It was a great article that prompted lots of interesting discussion and I wanted to sort of borrow that for this post. You know. Because titles are hard and it seemed like the right thing to do.
Each Hearthstone adventure is a bit of story mixed with with unique boss battles and new cards but for me the Adventures hang on the new cards.
My Favorite Karazhan Cards
In the last year I've really enjoyed playing Hunter decks and Karazhan added some new cards that will be a new staple of Hunter decks. Kindly Grandmother is a 1/1 beast card for 2 that's deathrattle summons a 3/2 beast. At first I wasn't sure this card would make it into my Hunter decks but at this point i'm not sure i'd ever make a Hunter deck without including it. Cloaked Huntress is another interesting card that lets you summon secrets for free while in play making it fun to play while not be overpowered. Cat Trick is a nice new Hunter secret that is a great counter against spell decks and board clears.
http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/42020-kindly-grandmother
http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/42050-cloaked-huntress
http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/42051-cat-trick
Paladin got a few cards that have really been fun to play one being Ivory Knight. Ivory Knight is a 4/4 for 6 that allows you do discover a spell and heals you for the spell cost. More healing for Paladin is incredible for control decks and this card found it's way into one of the most fun control decks I've played.
http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/42019-ivory-knight
Karazhan added some new neutral cards that have either improved a few of my decks or created new types entirely and one card that I add it to most of my Deathrattle decks is Barnes. Barnes is a 3/4 for 4 that randomly summons a 1/1 copy from a minion in your deck. So at it's worst it get Yeti stats and it it's best you can get out a 1/1 Deathrattle card like Sylvanis, Highmane or Ragnaros. Barnes is an interesting card and I haven't found it to be incredibly overpowered but does, at times, have a really fun effect on the board.
http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/42021-barnes
One new epic card from Karazhan I have had a blast playing with is Arcane Giant. Adding Arcane Giant to a spell heavy deck can give you a huge tempo swing when you drop the Giants for nearly no mana. Giants in Hearthstone can be summoned if you lose enough life, there are enough minons on the board or now based on the amount of spells you cast.
http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/42049-arcane-giant
Looking Forward To The New Meta And Next Expansion
People are still playing with the new cards and experimenting with decks and so far the meta is still working itself out. I've had lots of great games playing with the new cards and haven't personally seen a lot of the new cards show up yet. After the meta shakes out in a month we will start the wait for the next Hearthstone expansion that should drop sometime around the years end. Blizzard has a planned Standard mode cadence of 2 expansions and 1 adventure per year so 2016 should be getting one final expansion to seal up the year. And if it's anything like Whispers of the Old Gods it should be pretty awesome and like most things Hearthstone, i'll be talking about it a lot.
**note** I really enjoyed Travis's recent article title "We Really Need To Talk About Early Access DLC." It was a great article that prompted lots of interesting discussion and I wanted to sort of borrow that for this post. You know. Because titles are hard and it seemed like the right thing to do.
If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.
Sign Up / Log In
Priest of the Feast, Onyx Bishop, and Barnes have made a huge new priest resurrect deck. It can be a pain to play around. T2 coin-injured blademaster. Then either Circle of Healing it or they typically just want it to die. Then resurrect a 4/7 next turn. Or, I've seen T3 coin out Barnes, get Ysera or Sylvannas. You kill the 1/1 then T4 they double resurrect.
Best thing to do against this deck is polymorph something and kill a sheep on their side (or hex). Kill as many as the weak enemies as possible. The Loot Hoarders they sometimes run or Barnes himself.
The new warlock discard deck looks fun, excited to try that one at some point. It's really inconsistent though. I played it before the Imp was released and I had 4 cards in hand, 2 were free spells if discarded, 2 were discard when play. I played one (Soulfire) and discarded the other discard enabler, making me then lose a card plus have to pay mana for the other 2. Where as I could have basically got 4 cards played for only paying for 2 (plus getting +1/+1 on the one guy and drawing cards if Imp is out). So, it relies on praying to RNGesus.
Firelands Portal and Babbling Book are both great for Mage. I crafted golds of each (I love cards that produce other cards, so I tend to try to get gold versions because it then generates gold rando cards for you). Both were ok in Tempo Mage, the Babbling Book with Brann is great, and Brann isn't bad in Tempo Mage anyways.
Medivh is one I'm testing in reno-pally. It's pretty solid. 8 mana for a 7/7 is only 1 more than a war golem, plus you get that awesome weapon.
Medivh is a great card if you can get him out. During the Adventure and the first week after I had a blast playing new decks and did quite a bit of winning. That said, now that meta is solidifying people are going back to really fast aggro decks and I haven't done as well. I really was enjoying not having to netdeck as much for wins but I haven't won a single match today.
I find that really fun decks are not as well optimized as the netdeck aggro decks therefore you lose in a longer match because you can't out value your opponent. Hopefully quests can turn less into win based and more into playing based so people are less incentivized to simply play the most winningest decks and maybe try something a bit more fun. Because whereas I get how to play aggro Shaman or Aggro Pally, I really like other builds of that class more.
Yup, I'm fully with you there. I hate the aggro decks. Magic and Hearthstone both suffer from this problem. I tend to aim for the fun decks while trying to still be competitive, but it's a hard line to walk.
It is. I keep pace with the meta to have at least a couple decks then experiment outside that.
Hopefully the next expansion slows things down but that was what the thought was for WoToG and it didn't really.
Yeah, I always dreamt that magic would slow down. Every time the format changed it was only a matter of time until someone found a combo that could be a T3 win. I like winning, but I like interacting with the board and player more than just stomping damage in for the fastest win.
I am playing the discolock deck right now, tho. It's fun!
Share your deck! I'd love to see it.
Personally I like matches that go to fatigue and the. You have to manage when to play and when to hold.
http://hss.io/d/13884440
See if that links properly. I net decked it. I used to be completely against netdecking as I love designing my own decks. My tempo mage for instance is my own design and it's 60-70% win rate.
This warlock deck is crazy fun though.
Oh, here's a screenshot of the list: http://i.imgur.com/07mXmRq.png
I've had this happen:
2 Malchezaar Imps in play. Hand is Doomguard and 2 Silverware Golems. The dream, right? 5 mana to get a 5/7 charge, 2 3/3s and draw 4 cards? So good haha
Yeah, that is the discard dream. That and 4 opponent health and then discard cost of jaraxxus.