I think it was Kungen who talked about this in WoW (so this is a common way Blizzard do stuff) its like running a 400 meter competition. But after running 100 meter you have to stop and wait for the other runners, then you can run 100 meters more but then you have to wait yet again (100 meter is a little more then 100 yards, so like Dashing over a Football field, but Kungen is Swedish pretty sure he used meters) . Not much of a race with those kind of rules.
Hearthstone got the same system, I dislike like it a lot. Card games first of all usually drop a big expansion with all the cards to everyone right away. For several reasons. But first of all I dislike this in for example I could have been the first in the world to beat Heroic Naxx, I am on vacation I got time over. Sounds like something I would actually try to do. But there is little to no point with this system as after I have quickly beaten the first 3 bosses I have to wait another week. So the last week I will have to beat 3 bosses before everyone else pretty much, thats boring and I don't think there is anything to be proud of being the first to beat those 3 last one when they are open. Especially as the game always lag a lot = disconnections etc the release day of a patch and as some bosses are easy to b eat with the right starting hand. With that short distance that everyone start out I would actually say luck is a huge factor.
This means the expansion features no real competition no real E-sport covering etc. Yes people will stream this and so on but who really cares who beat so few bosses first. Boring, lame.
The second reason which I think is a real big one is this causes game balance issues, I am game designer and my expertise is in balance and combat. This is a huge miss, in a card game to do something like this. A major reason why games like Magic the gathering release all cards at once is because the new card are balanced against each other.
Card X really good, Card Y counters card X.
Release X week 1 and Card Y week 5.
Clearly this means X is broken until 4 weeks later. Its so obvious, I will focus on Arena on my blog as Arena is the only mode I play really, while I do some constructed as well I think its just a farm-feast with a lot of meta boring decks. In arena My latest 11 runs has been over 7+ and 6 of these runs are with Rogue.
This is the worst offender for me by far. I asked Ben Brode (Lead Designer on the game) but he wouldn't really give me an answer. Rogue is the best class in arena, before the patch! People always whine about Mage but Rogue got the best consistence. By adding another card for them which is great in arena is not wrong if everyone else got a good card as well.
Well first of all they don't, this is one of the best arena cards in the whole patch. I would say second best after Death's bite(warrior). But now its also available before Death's bite and all other class cards expect poison seed which is much more of a constructed card.
This card clearly increase the win ratio of the rouge class. If rogue had 70% chance to go 7+ now you have the added probability for a great 4 drop. which is of Yeti quality. Everyone who plays HS a lot knows that Yeti is gold premium super good pick. Anub'ar can trade with Yeti and survive. Its an amazing card. The rogue player got this great card at a common pick level clearly increasing the % chance by at least 5%.
-on my personal runs I have never "lost" in this patch as Rogue.
I found it very obvious this card should not be in the game before other class cards, if some neutral cards are released before I think that can also fuck up the game for arena, constructed or both. But its very clear a class card and the others don't get anything yeah thats bad.
One reason is power creeping, while the new cards have different power levels, some of the new ones are really good like this one. Blizzard should have released all class cards on the same time.
Ok rank over, lets focus on how good in this card in Arena.
Like mentioned Anub'har Ambusher is a huge quality card its on the level of Yeti. With its huge body of 5.5 for 4 it will survive most removal and will almost always be a 2.1 for card. Which is what people should pick for arena. Cards that cost more then 1 card to get ride of.
The effect, some people say its bad because of it. This is absolute bullshit. You are playing Rogue, you likely comes into play effect cards like SI.Agent, Defias, charge minions etc. The effect is not always positive but its not always negative. And many games, as its in arena the board will be empty. Arena is a lot of trade, trade and more trades. The result is that most of the time, the effect wont have any effect.
So its a 5.5 for 4 most games, thats amazing. Thats better then Yeti. And the chance of the effect being negative versus positive are at worst equal so again a 5.5 for 4.
This card is a huge top priority pick. That being said, I personally play a very, very aggressive rogue type of style in arena and I prefer avoiding cards who cost more then 3. So it depends, if you cant create a huge aggro deck. Then this card is pick number 1. Mana curve deck, pick number 1-3. Aggro deck,,,maybe 5+ but still solid finisher. Aggro deck often has battlecry effects to so.
This card definitely solidifies Rogue as the top pick for Arena. The next quarter which will highly increase a class is Construct courters in 3 weeks later as it adds both the priest card and the warrior both which are very 2.1+ cards in arena.
Poison seeds, its new Druid card. By the same logic this card should make Druid a lot better in Arena. Well, this card is not that great in arena so its does not lift the Druid very much. Still its better then nothing for some deck t his card is really, really good. Hard to draft those deck but its still an increased probability to win as Druid overall. Just a very low increase.
Potion seed is clearly a good token/legion/dork Hearhtstone deck type of card. The popular cheap minion creation deck that run Force of nature and Savage roar can use this card to a great effect in constructed. The basic strategy behind the card is that you will kill your guys as well so make sure they have Deathrattle as more cards will come in the weeks with Deathrattle this card will become better and better to pick.
Right now its usually gonna be a really bad pick unless you already have a token deck, like you already got 2 Haunted Creepers, Harvest golem, combo it with Soul of the Forest etc.
This card also makes the fantastic Druid pick, Violet Teacher even better. Violet Teacher combos so greatly with a lot of Druid cards this being one of them so if anything that card is now +1 pick for Druid.
Nerubian Egg is a great card Design ( I actually proposed something similar last year and it was a Nerubian --- Activsion Blizzard always steals my ideas, note I did work on the company last year so I am only 95% paranoid)
This card is horrible in arena. Its a great card in constructed, one deck I play a lot is a Bloodlust based Shaman deck and this card fits great in it.
And thats the problem with picking this card, it requires support. I see it a lot in arena, which is not weird. Its the same in for example Marvel Avengers Alliance, were new Marvel Characters like Guardian of the Galaxy character right now are played a lot because they are NEW. Not because they are good.
This card is new, its fresh its cool. People pick it. But its extremely unreliable.
Nerubian Egg only works in specific decks, I actually have seen this card being drooped by ever class and often it just sits there. I don't really get peoples fascination over new stuff, I get it in like a fighting game a new character, one person master it and others are not that used to it so its hard to beat that player. But Hearthstone is not that complicated, especially what is not complicated is 1 single card. To me, it looks like a lot of people are just hoping people will attack it.
This card is great in Constructed, it works fine when you have a number of support cards for it. In Constructed anyone can easily calculate % of drawing a support card as you can decide the exact number of cards that can trigger this card to die or become useful e.g buffing.
However, it should be noted buffing nerubian egg with for example mark of the wild is not so great as its really putting all egg in one basket. Its a very weak to silence. Its much better with flametounge,Dark iron dwarf etc so it can trade with something and become a 4.4
All this still boils down to simple math the chance of drawing one of those are low in a arena deck. Even more so Nerubian Egg cant really be drafted in the early part of the draft as it will be up to luck then to get the support cards. While I would like to give this card a Shaman + I cant go and say its much better then a single + for shaman.
Other classes with buffs like Paladin, Druid etc It fairs even worse as then it potently wont even die thats not good.
However, the class it fits for is Warlock, and potently Rogue.
In zoolock arena, were the player can just pick any cheap cards to get a decent amount of 1-3 drops this is perfect. The math really speaks for it, having around 20 1-2 drops means that its a very, very low chance to not be able to fill the field. Filling the field means AoE has to be played, a consecration, lighting storm etc or the opponent likely will lose. After dropping 2-3 minions the Egg is perfect to place out.
Of course a Zoolock just like in constructed will try to pick support cards like Abusive sergeant, Dark Iron Dwarf, cleric etc all those cards are very important in Zoolock so they will be picked anyway and can then trigger Egg.
Rouge also can fill the board with minions and have like Zoolock can definitely focus on taking the same kind of support cards. Not as strong but it has its value, especially vs the ever so over picked mages which only saving grace against a quick attacking rouge is flamestrike, if they couldn't play a quick water elemental (and the rogue did not have sap -_-)
Warlock ++ for this card, Rouge + 1. Shaman + with the right cards already. Not recommended for buffing with stuff like Blessing of kings etc as it wont make it die and super weak to silence.
better then egg.
Everything that Egg do good Haunted Creeper does but better in arena. Its more reliable, it can trade itself. And by having 1 attack plus some buff it can easier trade up. Getting 2 1.1 can be harder to remove the a 4.4.
One thing that a lot of people wont agree with but - This card is better with Flametounge then Egg is.
This card function amazing well with Flametounge as then you can trade away the spider against a 3 life minion, get 2 1.1 which u can trade away as 3.1s so if the opponent don't have any removal but only minions this combo can potentially remove 3 cards.
Both cards work really good in constructed with token focused decks and in many cases this deck is better the egg as well then as it gives 2 minion which can be buffed by bloodlust/savage roar etc.
This card works better with Paladin and other buff focused drafter as well. Everyone knows to remove the paladin minion so he cant buff anything, this card is really annoying to remove as its minion in one card. Much better then egg for Paladin.
As mentioned this card also works great in Zoolock and Rouge for the same reason as Egg did.
Warlock ++, Rogue + Shaman + Paladin + Druid +. Hunter + (don't forget its a Beast)
Overall this is one good common card for mages etc as well but the other class don't really benefit from having it its just always a good card.
I quit like this card the Nerub'ar Weblord. Its not specially good for any class except priest for its high health, but it can be brutally stop some people from playing out anything.
I am veteran Magic The gathering player ok. I love hard control. Card that makes other stuff not work anymore, card that increase cost I love it. So I am little bias.
But its a lot of battlecry minions, let say you coin this card out. The opponent did not mulligan away his 2 drop a Panda Brewmaster, now he cant play anything and u just wasted is turn. His other card he kept was Cleric another battlecry. You Drop another minion, game is probably already over here.
Card that has a chance to win games alone by luck is awesome, playing for luck is not the way to go. But its not like this card can only do something with luck. Its of 4 means it can fight once with a 3.2 and not die and then the next turn kill it or you can kill it with a fireblast from a mage etc. Of course it might also die from a fireblast and so on.
Its big life pool also makes it good for buffing, its a pretty decent card but not fantastic for any class. One has to look out to not pick it if the deck is full of battlecry.
Priest +
Maexnna is literally a big Cobra, same effect but +5 more life.
She is not that easy to get rid of but she pose no treat at all.
She got a great combo with rhino just like Cobra but she survives (usually) after charging into something. Her huge life pool makes her good with Houndmaster as well but very weak to silence then. Clearly shes a pretty good beast for a Hunter Draft if the draft got some beast synergies going. She is good in priest with her high health, she is also very weak towards priest. They can both kill her easily and even steal her with Cabal.
But what really burnings this legendary down is she has some glaring weakness with stampeding kodo. It will kill her right off, just like a priest shadow word.
In the meta the Kodo is extremely common pick. Its one of the most picked rare cards. That's a huge risk playing her.
That being said, I think one of her major flaw is just that the opponent dont have to kill her. She does almost no damage. If she is played out an empty board turn 6, the opponent can sit and wait for better cards really.
Just like Cobra her ability does not kill of divine shield minions, which is very very common picked.
Overall not the best legendery.
Hunter + (++ if you got beast synergy cards already) Priest +
