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jeb wrote: Some early thoughts on these cards: That Corrupted Healtbot is going to royally hump some people in Priest. Just HUMP them. HUMP THEM SO HARD. If you play Tirion on the board against it, they can respond with Auchenai, "heal" Tirion to strip the Shield, hit Tirion for 6, dealing 8, and then they are likely obliged to put their face on Auchenai for another 3. Playing Tirion and taking 11 is not a solid long-term strategy.

I also thought about Priest first when I saw the Healbot. I want to send it into a 2-5 attack minion and then do the Auchenai + Circle of Healing combo for a tempo flip and burst, or even just Auchenai + hero power to kill it if you need that last bit of damage. Then people will catch on and you can use it as a bluff and/or super taunt because they'll suspect that you're trying to pull off some combo. It should be fun.

Ugh, late April/early May? Looks like I'll just keep puttering along until it drops. Probably won't do the preorder but that's what I thought last time and here I am with my TGT Preorder card back...

SebastianBludd wrote:

jeb wrote: Some early thoughts on these cards: That Corrupted Healtbot is going to royally hump some people in Priest. Just HUMP them. HUMP THEM SO HARD. If you play Tirion on the board against it, they can respond with Auchenai, "heal" Tirion to strip the Shield, hit Tirion for 6, dealing 8, and then they are likely obliged to put their face on Auchenai for another 3. Playing Tirion and taking 11 is not a solid long-term strategy.

I also thought about Priest first when I saw the Healbot. I want to send it into a 2-5 attack minion and then do the Auchenai + Circle of Healing combo for a tempo flip and burst, or even just Auchenai + hero power to kill it if you need that last bit of damage. Then people will catch on and you can use it as a bluff and/or super taunt because they'll suspect that you're trying to pull off some combo. It should be fun.

Ugh, late April/early May? Looks like I'll just keep puttering along until it drops. Probably won't do the preorder but that's what I thought last time and here I am with my TGT Preorder card back...

No kidding with Corrupted Healbot. I mean, Hey, it's a card that I can swap in for Vol'jin at least. I am just going to Entomb Tirion anyway. They said there are 16 cards that interact with C'Thun. Can't wait to see how big a C'Thun HysteriA can cook up. With Brann and Beckoner it can get pretty nuts.

I'm going in on the pre-order--HS is the game I play more than any other. My kids might want in too, they are into HS. They have money from report cards and birthdays, but it's still weird for me to charge $150 to Blizzard for some electrons.

Man, I am digging Camel Hunter. I have been beast-oriented midrange Hunter decks for more than a year--they are among my favorite decks to ladder with, but I was never into Traps. You really needed Traps to break Eaglehorn Bow and I am all for breaking things. But it always seemed like the wrong Trap was out at the wrong time. Plus, the push to include Mad Scientist becomes overwhelming. Hunter Traps are themselves a trap--your deck becomes more about them than it does whatever theme you were after.

So, Camel Hunter--forget the Traps. Forget the Bow and the Mad Scientist. Just dudes, and spells that make dudes and dudes that draw cards. With some utility thrown in, and you have a solid, solid deck that is all about accumulating resources on the board and in hand and just throttling the opponent down. This morning I took out, in order: Reno Warlock, Control Priest, Control Warrior, and Oil Rogue. I lost to a Face Hunter yesterday, who topdecked Kill Command and was dead the next turn without it. The triangle holds: Midrange beats Control beats Aggro beats Midrange, but this deck has a shot against Aggro by just joining them.

The curve is low, with a long tail, topping out with Lx Loatheb; 1x Sludge Belcher; 2x Savannah Highmane, and Lx Dr. Boom. The low end is pretty standard Hunter fare, Haunted Creepers, Knife Jugglers, Flame Jugglers, Animal Companion. The odd items--and the theme of the deck--are Desert Camel, and its targets: Webspinner and Injured Kvaldir. Desert Camel battlcries a 1-drop from each player's deck onto the table. You need to be a little careful against some decks, but getting a 2/4 Kvaldir is amazing--that's 4/8 in stats for 3--better than a healed Injured Blademaster! Webspinner isn't a shocker or anything, it's long been considered efficient in Beast Hunter, but you kind of don't want to pay for it. The deck is also running 2x Hunter's Mark to kill troublesome minions with your spiders or Glaivezooka'd face.

So where's the card draw? Cult Master with Unleash the Hounds, for the most part. You also get card advantage from plays like Houndmaster making minions last longer than they should. It's not always UtH, I drew some critical cards off Cult Master consuming some Spectral Spiders against that Control Priest that kept us even on cards. With Hunter's Mark you can get the dream of trading in a Webspinner for a big minion, drawing a card and getting a Beast. That is tough to rebound from.

I am playing the default J4CKIECHAN deck from here, with a tech move to swap a Haunted Creeper for Flare (God I hate Freeze Mage). He talks about matchups there and mulligans if interested. Streaking to 15.2 so far on this from 17 has been nice after struggling with Egg Druid recently. I think Hunter is just a better fit for me, generically.

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Some more revealed cards:
Hogger; Doom of Elwynn : 7 mana 6/6 Legend; Whenever this minion is damaged, summon a 2/2 Gnoll with Taunt.
Giant Sandworm: 8 mana 8/8 Epic Hunter Beast; If this minion attacks another minion and kills it, it can attack again.

I like the idea of these, but they suffer the same issues on the competitive ladder as other big drops that don't have a battlecry--you might get nothing. They don't have Taunt, so they can be ignored, and they can be dealt with (Fireball, Shadow Word: Death; BGH; &c) before they do anything. The same issues as Gruul or Troggzor faced. Compare to Tirion--has to be responded to or you can't get around, or Dr. Boom, whose Boombots are usually why you are playing him in the first place--the value is generated by the drop, not the attack or be-attacked effect. Giant Sandworm is totally great in Arena, though, jeez. And falling out of a Ram Wrangler is a pretty solid play.

Stand Against Darkness: 5 mana Common Paladin Spell; Summon five 1/1 Silver Hand Recruits.

Welp, looks like Blizzard noticed Muster for Battle is fucking sick as hell, and so we get this now. This is trash in Standard unless something like Quartermaster appears elsewhere in the set. It's not even that great in Wild with Quartermaster, but you could get thematic with it, I suppose.

Eater of Secrets: 4 mana 2/4 Rare; Battlecry: Destroy all enemy Secrets. Gain +1/+1 for each.

Hey folks, do you not like Secret Paladin? Well, don't worry, because folks won't play it anymore. If losing Avenge, Shielded Mini-bot; Muster For Battle; and Piloted Shredder in Standard doesn't make them move on, this will. That said, this is ruinous for Secret heavy decks, but kind of shitty on its own. Tough call in Wild, I guess we'll see how that format shapes up.

Goddamn patch broke my game.

Injured Camel Hunter is a brilliant twist on a Hunter deck. Too bad I don't have any Kvaldirs or else I'd totally be playing it right now.

And come on, Jeb, you know you're itching to run Call Pet x2 along with Giant Sandworm x2. There had better be some other synergistic cards with Corrupted Hogger because right now he's not very good. Too bad Blizzard is clamping down on the Charge mechanic because I think he'd be better with the same abilities but being a 5/7 with Charge or something like that.

I don't even understand Stand Against Darkness. It's too slow to work with Warhorse Trainer, and WT isn't that good to begin with. It's a slower, worse Unleash the Hounds that can be ignored by both aggro and control, it's so versatile! Hopefully some other Paladin cards are coming that make it work, especially since Paladin has, what, Murlocadin as its best deck once Standard hits?

Eater of Secrets is kind of like a more consistent but less powerful Blood Knight. Maybe it's meant to sub in for Muster for Battle in Paladin. I might run one in my Reno Warrior deck but I run a bunch of janky shit in that deck already so take that with a grain of salt. This is also a good time to mention my recent game against a Warlock who played double Argent Squire on Turn 3 and I followed that up with a top-decked Blood Knight. That was a short game.

Well, I just got back into playing after a three month or so hiatus.

I started out with League of Explorers. Loved it! But damn, it was SO EASY. The other adventures put up a fight, but this one was a cakewalk. I struggled against the Steel Sentinel a little, but then I just made a freeze mage deck and shut him down. Lots of really cool ideas that I hope they expand on.

I made one of those camel hunter decks, it is pretty good and fun to play so far. I figured I'd get back on to ladder and just be stomped by some new deck type but I won my first game out with that one.

Feels good to be back.

Hex Sinister wrote: Goddamn patch broke my game.

Mine too on my phone. PC is still working. All I see on my phone is a giant screen of pink.

Brewmiester wrote: Mine too on my phone. PC is still working. All I see on my phone is a giant screen of pink.

Apparently the fix is to go into your app manager and delete the app data. If that doesn't work, I've read that a full reinstall works, also.

SebastianBludd wrote:

Brewmiester wrote: Mine too on my phone. PC is still working. All I see on my phone is a giant screen of pink.

Apparently the fix is to go into your app manager and delete the app data. If that doesn't work, I've read that a full reinstall works, also.

Clearing the data did the trick. Thanks again!

Try out the deck recipes thing in this new update--those are pretty neat and a yuuuuuge step up from the basic decks that were there before. You pick a Hero and a theme and it lays the deck out, greying out items that you don't have. You can then one-by-one through suggested replacements. I haven't looked too deeply here, but it did recommend Madder Bomber as a replacement for Alexstrasza in Dragon Mage when I have Ysera. That seems odd. Still, the concept conveys theme and deckbuilding as ideas to folks that may not have directly experienced them before.

The deck-builder is neat but I haven't investigated the suggested replacements feature yet; I just move on when I see I'm missing the 3 most expensive cards in their Dragon Priest deck, or whatever. I'm going to check it out just to see if they pick something goofy like Troggzor or my poor, neglected Foe Reaper. Edit: A couple of the deckbuilder's suggested replacements for Chillmaw in Dragon Priest: Sunwalker and Stampeding Kodo (?).

Tempo Mage can be sick and I felt so dirty playing it yesterday when I got the dream: Turn 1 -> Coin, Mana Wyrm, Mana Wyrm - Turn 2 -> Sorcerer's Apprentice, Arcane Missiles - Turn 3 -> Frostbolt - Turn 4 -> Opponent concedes when I had a Fireball in hand. This only bears mention because not only did my opponent mulligan so badly that they didn't play a single card, but I'm usually the guy who starts the game with a handful of 5-7 mana cards while I'm absorbing the epic beatdown. My opponent was a Mage so I guess I don't feel too bad (unless they were new to the game).

I'm also enjoying the 9 extra deck slots and I'm finally getting around to finishing the adventures on Heroic since I no longer have to sacrifice some of my already-constructed decks to make room for a transitory Heroic adventure deck. I didn't do a Google Image search on the Blackrock Heroic cardback before I acquired it and was unpleasantly surprised to discover that the card back I thought I was getting is actually the cool one you get if you preordered the adventure. The Nefarian one is OK, I guess, but the Naxx one is much better. Now I'm stuck on Heroic Scarvarius in LoE because I don't have any Doomsayers to clear his Troggs. I'm thinking of cobbling together some freeze Mage thing with Annoy-o-tron, Explosive Sheep and Animated Armor.

SebastianBludd wrote: The deck-builder is neat but I haven't investigated the suggested replacements feature yet; I just move on when I see I'm missing the 3 most expensive cards in their Dragon Priest deck, or whatever. I'm going to check it out just to see if they pick something goofy like Troggzor or my poor, neglected Foe Reaper. Edit: A couple of the deckbuilder's suggested replacements for Chillmaw in Dragon Priest: Sunwalker and Stampeding Kodo (?).

I think those replacements kind of work! Sunwalker is a hard-to-remove big taunt at an equivalent cost. Stampeding Kodo has been tech'ing in here and there recently to deal with Imp Gang Boss and other little dudes on the Battlecry and then on the board (his big butt is solid in Priest). That's not too shabby.

Tempo Mage can be sick and I felt so dirty playing it yesterday when I got the dream: Turn 1 -> Coin, Mana Wyrm, Mana Wyrm - Turn 2 -> Sorcerer's Apprentice, Arcane Missiles - Turn 3 -> Frostbolt - Turn 4 -> Opponent concedes when I had a Fireball in hand. This only bears mention because not only did my opponent mulligan so badly that they didn't play a single card, but I'm usually the guy who starts the game with a handful of 5-7 mana cards while I'm absorbing the epic beatdown. My opponent was a Mage so I guess I don't feel too bad (unless they were new to the game).

Yeah, the nuts draw is a rough go against Tempo Mage. You just feel like you shouldn't have bothered. I was on the receiving end of back-to-back Zoo Warock obliterations on the ladder yesterday. Turn 6 the first game, turn 5 the second. Just.... destroyed. Laid out cheap minions, I was poking here and there (I was Camel Hunter). Both games saw my Glaivezooka killed by Acidic Swamp Ooze, both games saw early Sea Giant protected by Taunt, both games saw that Sea Giant get Windfury from Enhance-o-Mechano the next turn. Each of these guys had seen what, like 10 cards? Early pressure, check, deal with the weapon, check, play a fatty, check, deal 16. GG. What a fun and interactive experience.

I'm also enjoying the 9 extra deck slots and I'm finally getting around to finishing the adventures on Heroic since I no longer have to sacrifice some of my already-constructed decks to make room for a transitory Heroic adventure deck. I didn't do a Google Image search on the Blackrock Heroic cardback before I acquired it and was unpleasantly surprised to discover that the card back I thought I was getting is actually the cool one you get if you preordered the adventure. The Nefarian one is OK, I guess, but the Naxx one is much better. Now I'm stuck on Heroic Scarvarius in LoE because I don't have any Doomsayers to clear his Troggs. I'm thinking of cobbling together some freeze Mage thing with Annoy-o-tron, Explosive Sheep and Animated Armor.

You can preview all the cardbacks in the Collection Manager. Right-click (or tap them) to take a closer look and check out their majesty. Still jealous of that sweet ass all gold one only some attendees of an obscure Chinese tournament could get. I am going to work on Heroic LoE too. Just for completion's sake until the new set drops.

jeb wrote: You can preview all the cardbacks in the Collection Manager. Right-click (or tap them) to take a closer look and check out their majesty. Still jealous of that sweet ass all gold one only some attendees of an obscure Chinese tournament could get. I am going to work on Heroic LoE too. Just for completion's sake until the new set drops.

Thanks for the tip and yes, that gold one is sweet though I still prefer Molten Core (Blackrock preorder). As dumb as I think $10 for a hero portrait is, I would totally pay $2 or so for a card back. It wouldn't have to be for all of them (like the ones for getting to Legend or taking part in certain events) but It'd be fun to have some of the previous months' Rank 20 backs or some of the preorder ones. For instance, I love the Halloween one with the pumpkin and I'm bummed I'll never get a crack at it. Anyway, if they decided to sell them they could add a thin, different-colored border to indicate it was purchased rather than earned and I'd be OK with it.

This week's Tavern Brawl is: Battle of Tol Barad - Build your deck and every time you play a minion get a random spell of the same cost, but for free. Minions that cost 1-4 are impossible to predict what you'll get (well, not impossible, but more work than I want to put in) so it's basically an RNG-fest. But once you get to Minions that cost 5 to 10, a few things are apparent. First, here are the list of spells that cost 5-9:
Cost 5 (x17): Brawl, Demonheart, Bane of Doom, Excavated Evil, Blessed Champion, Solemn Vigil, Holy Wrath, Flame Lance, Explosive Shot, Cobra Shot, Nourish, Starfall, Starfire, Dragon's Breath, Holy Nova, Assassinate and Bloodlust.
Cost 6 (x13): Siphon Soul, Dark Bargain, Lightbomb, Entomb, Avenging Wrath, Enter the Colosseum, Blizzard, Ball of Spiders, Recycle, Force of Nature, Dark Whispers, Holy Fire and Vanish
Cost 7 (x4): Crush, Everyfin is Awesome, Flamestrike, Sprint
Cost 8 (x2): Twisting Nether, Lay on Hands
Cost 9 (x1): Tree of Life
Cost 10 (x3): Anyfin Can Happen, Pyroblast, Mind Control

The takeaway is that the 7 mana slot is clearly the best with no bad cards, followed by 6 and 5 (provided RNG is with you). You probably could fiddle around with 8 drops in case you think you'll want a 50% chance at a total board clear or healing + draw. Dr. Boom is even better in this Tavern Brawl than he usually is, and in fact I got Everyfin is Awesome today so after playing him I had a 9/9 Boom and two 3/3 Bots after my turn. There are a lot of good 7 cost minions, the best neutrals for this Brawl IMO would be Dr. Boom, Baron Geddon (with 1/4 chance for a 6 damage AOE) and Troggzor. Ramp Druid has it good with Ancient of War, Knight of the Wild, Malorne and Ancient of Lore in the 7 slot, and Paladin has Guardian of Kings and Eadric the Pure. Hunter has Acidmaw and Gahz'rilla and Priest has Confessor Paletress and Prophet Velen. Mage is really good if you have the 7 cost Antonidas, as well, and they also have Flame Leviathan. Shaman and Warlock only have Neptulon and Doomguard, respectively.

Warrior is very interesting because not only do they have a 7 drop (Obsidian Destroyer), but they also have Varian Wrynn which has a 2/3 chance of pulling Pyroblast or Mind Control.

Even though it's a "reverse Summoning Stone" Tavern Brawl, playing Summoning Stone is instant value in that it gives you a five mana spell which you can then immediately convert into a 5 mana minion (as well as any other spells you have stored up).

I just blew through the brawl today with camel hunter.