Hearthstone

[theSTEREO.]

Looks like Blizzard is gonna keep adding to Grand Tournament.

Today they announced a new mechanic: Jousting!

Pretty clever. Here's an example.

More details here. http://www.polygon.com/2015/8/5/9099459/hearthstone-joust-ranked-rewards-blizzard-gamescom

Also, you're going to start getting rewards at the end of each season based on the highest rank you achieved, whether you end there or not. Dust, gold cards and other things.

 

[Cassity14]

Thre rewards system is amazing. I had actually begun to stop climbing ladder each month because 5-legend takes more time than I'm willing to devote to a card game. Now I'll be back to making sure I hit rank 5 every month because that's where the rewards cap.

Really liking the expansion so far. It's definitely going to further shape the meta, and from what it looks like, 'face' decks are going to struggle to adapt.

 

[Casualties14]

Thre rewards system is amazing. I had actually begun to stop climbing ladder each month because 5-legend takes more time than I'm willing to devote to a card game. Now I'll be back to making sure I hit rank 5 every month because that's where the rewards cap.

Really liking the expansion so far. It's definitely going to further shape the meta, and from what it looks like, 'face' decks are going to struggle to adapt.

I also like the new rewards system that gives some incentive to rank up other than going for legend. The number of games required to reach legend are just too much. Rank 5 to legend takes 200-300 games for most people.

Rogue is my favorite class and this expansion is a bit disappointing for that class, every card shown for them is completely unplayable.

 

[theSTEREO.]

Rogue is my favorite class and this expansion is a bit disappointing for that class, every card shown for them is completely unplayable.

On the flip side, Shaman is gonna be crazy powerful if all of these totem buffs work out like they should.

I feel like Priest might get a pretty decent boost depending on what other cards are released, considering how much that hero powere can get used.

 

[Cassity14]

I'm excited to play shaman. I think it's one of the coolest classes, I've just never had interest in bashing my head against a wall. It'll probably be the first thing I play post launch.

 

[theSTEREO.]

Same.

Also, side note, maybe I'm missing something, but I feel like Aggro Paladin sucks. Maybe I'm just not doing it right, but it's more dependent on card draw than even Patron Warrior. If you don't get a Divine Favor you're absolute toast. Maybe I need to watch some streams or something.

Grim Patron is hard to play but the challenge is really fun. You've gotta think and think fast. I've got around a 60% win rate with it but when you lose you lose bad. I go on about a 4 game win streak and then a four game losing streak. Gets infuriating but the stars make it a net positive.

 

[Casualties14]

Aggro Paladin is an okay deck. The hunter match up is fine as long as they don't run explosive trap. The deck gets played due to its ease of play because you are all in from turn one and don't worry around playing around cards your opponent may have.

 

[Casualties14]

Every card from TGT has been revealed now. Very disappointed that Rogue did not get any cards to add to their current deck archetype or to create a new archetype. Shado-Pan Cavalry may be playable but I have my doubts. Best case scenario is that it is a 5 mana Boulderfist Ogre, I don't believe 1 mana is what prevents Boulderfist Ogre from being played. The new Warlock cards are also a bit disappointing but it is already a very strong class that has multiple consistent decks due to its hero power.

 

[Cassity14]

I love all of the new tools I'll have available in warrior! Hunter got some interesting stuff as well.

They're really pushing beast druid, but I don't think it'll be good enough to dethrone current archetypes. I'm excited to use the new two drop though.

DRAGON PRIEST IS A THING NOW.

Can't wait to play a viable Shaman list in competitive play!

Those were a lot of my gut reactions.

 

[theSTEREO.]

Dragon Priest sounds like a ton of fun. There's some interesting Priest uses for the Light/Darkbane sisters too.

And Warrior got some insanely powerful tools. Curious to see if they're used to boost Patron decks, or if a whole new archetype shows up.

Still think Shaman got the biggest boost. Totem Shaman might be a tier 1 deck sooner than later.

 

[Cassity14]

I'm hopeful with shaman, but I'm not sure if it'll be a meta-defining staple on ladder. I definitely think we'll continue to see it in tournaments and sprinkle through ranked.

Warrior's tools don't do much for Patron. There's a lot of taunt interactions, but I don't see a 'taunt' warrior coming out of all of this.

The 3/2 taunt whose battle cry can give ANY minion taunt is a freaking awesome card. You want to taunt your armor smith against an aggro deck? Go for it.

Your opponent is hiding one of their most important cards behind taunts? Give said card taunt, then kill it.

Out of removal? Give something taunt, and then Black Knight its ass.

That utility card and the bomb that is Varian have me so hyped as a control warrior lover.

 

[theSTEREO.]

I'm just hoping I get a decent set of these new cards. I was originally planning to do FTP except for the adventures, but turns out I really like this game a lot so I preordered the TGT set.

My biggest issue right now is just trying to build up this collection. There are so many decks that I wanna try and play and am getting a good sense how to do it, but I just flat out don't have the cards. Hard to play something like Control Warrior or some of these other relevant decks when I don't have Ragnaros or Dr. Boom or Alextrasza. I've been focusing just getting the commons and epics and a few rares that everyone uses rather than blow all my dust on legendaries.

Also, after my rant about not liking Aggro Paladin, I went 11-4 since last night with it and leapt 5 ranks.

 

[Cassity14]

You definitely want to save dust for legendaries just because of the odds involved with pulling a specific one. Dr. Boom should be your top priority atm because it's crazy good and as the meta slows down, it'll only be more important.

 

[theSTEREO.]

You definitely want to save dust for legendaries just because of the odds involved with pulling a specific one. Dr. Boom should be your top priority atm because it's crazy good and as the meta slows down, it'll only be more important.

He's my first legendary target. My first round of dust was to basically make a Grim Patron Warrior, Mech Mage, and an Aggro Palladin. They were the cheapest and only used Legendaries I already had, and the cards I didn't have I was able to make substitutes.

But I'm guessing I'll have enough dust after TGT to probably make 2 or three. I've got a Hogger and a Baron Rivendare that I held on to just in case something in TGT made them relevant again (doesn't look like it). So after disenchanting those two plus my current reserves, I'll have enough to make one Legendary and go from there.

 

[Cassity14]

He's my first legendary target. My first round of dust was to basically make a Grim Patron Warrior, Mech Mage, and an Aggro Palladin. They were the cheapest and only used Legendaries I already had, and the cards I didn't have I was able to make substitutes.

But I'm guessing I'll have enough dust after TGT to probably make 2 or three. I've got a Hogger and a Baron Rivendare that I held on to just in case something in TGT made them relevant again (doesn't look like it). So after disenchanting those two plus my current reserves, I'll have enough to make one Legendary and go from there.

Rivendare is from Naxx, so you can't dust him. Hogger you certainly can (and should) though. Hogger is such a cool card, he's just a 6 drop in a game where so many of the game's best cards cost 6 mana.