Hearthstone Frostwyrm Lair Review.

So the last cards in the curse of naxxramas set. And I have to say that I have quickly lost interest in Hearhtstone. Like many others I completely agree that it was to few new cards, constructed meta still feels very much the same. Luckily arena at least feels a little different. But it still an issue in this draft mode as well. Its simply not enough new cards. So comparing it to going and drafting in a Magic prerelease or just normal draft etc Most cards are new, its not like MTG is the perfect game or anything. On the contrary half cards are either reprints or just useless fooder cards you would only use in a draft so they are pretty much just 1.1 for 1 and so on.
 The ting in Hearthstone is that is so few new cards so you see them like 1 every 5 pick or so. And people don't alway pick them so gameplay wise later on its few new cards. So its a lot of the same.

One thing overall is that the class card are not game changing. Dark Cultist is amazing but its not big bang womp and suddenly all your minions were gone. No Class gained something that you have to think about. Warrior got his new weapon but it that just means warrior got more % chance to have a weapon that you overall would fear anyway. The only real removal spell is for Druid which of course no one ever picks in Arena. Thats one  big thing why the Arena meta is almost the same the new cards did not create any really new troublesome cards or combos for that matter that the player has to look out for.

Everyone hates Avenge but I think its a pretty nice card.

In constructed I been running a redemption deck with a lot of Divine shields and some Deathrattle. Avenge is really good with Divine sheild just like Blessing of Kings is.  And in arena it is pretty good card. People generally dont have removal they have to trade with minions. They dont have so much silence and to silence a small guy is not very good. 

This is the best secret in Arena. And in a way that actually does a lot. Because in arena one thing I have always assumed because its correct 90% of the time is that if a Paladin drops a secret it has to be Noble Sacrifice, its always Noble Sacrifice. Now then with 2 viable Paladin Secrets you cant any longer assume its Noble Sacrifice. 

Well then its not a lot more to say. It is a great card? No. Is any Paladin card great nope. They do cost 1 mana so its not expected ot be overall good. While a card should have 2n+1 in stats so a 1 drop should have 3. There exist so many "broken" 1 drops like Mana wyrm, Northshire Cleric etc with more then 3 stats and an ability...
 Because otehr wise 5 stats for 1 mana would be awesome even if uncontrolled. The real problem is more the tempo. If paladin would be able to drop a 5 stats for 1 mana e.g a Zombie Chow. That would be really good. So Avenge is decent.

Well it aren't so many good rare card in Hearthstone is it? Its kinda hard to say how good/bad Ooze is because obviously it needs some kind of buff to be good. But there are several bad epics like both the lords(stat boost for type) doomsayer hungry crab, Mountain giant and often Molten giant. The only 2 good Epics pre naxxramas are Sea giant and Blood Knight. And then several classes got pretty bad epics as well most notorious Rogue. Getting 1.2 x 2 stats (6) for 2 mana is really good so its not horrible compared to preparation...

I actually want to put this card in here right way:

Best way to look at Shade is first of all to like with Ooze to compare it with the other bad epics cards.
 People seem to hate this cad I think its pretty great. I have even read some people saying that Jungle Panther is better thats fucking retarded. This card is so much better then Jungle Panther.

This card is a 3.3 at your turn when it can attack. So its not a  2.2 for 3 mana  but a 3.3 thanks to its stealth. Sure it dies by consecration and other Aoe but most 3 drops dies by most aoes.

This card is easy to compare to the lords with their 3.3 stats for 3 and ability that likely will never do anything. This is at least a 3.3 with stealth but of course it also grows.

just like Ooze got more stats then those epics Shade is better as well.

Epic Breakdown:

Blood Knight is the best epic as divine sheild minions are heavily picked in arena. 

Sea Giant is the absolutely most solid giant and best pick by far of them. He is better for Shaman and Paladin then Blood knight is and if your deck has a lot of minion spawning stuff e.g Imp Master. He is better for the deck. But with n o information of your cards Blood knight is the best pick of all the epics (excluding for shaman and Paladin).

Then its both of these 2 new cards. They perform better then the others really.

As mentioned Ooze is 5 stats for 2 way better then 6 stats for 3 as both lord has. Shade is at least 6 stats for 3.

Mountain giant is unplayable in almost any arena deck. I main Handlock in Constructed so I know very well how this card works. And in Constructed u got a lot of Removal and Taunt so its "safe" to sit and Life tap to later wipe the board and then play MT or to Play it and then remove one minion with soulfire etc.  This will never happen in arena. Its absolutely the worst giant in arena by far,

Molten Giant I can say might be better then ooze in the right Priest deck or other similar heal classes or actually in Rogue were you self damage your self to get it out...but its very hard to play in arena. Ooze is at least a decent 2 drop with the potential of super good drop with a buff card. But for priest then who dont really have a good buff card is a little harder to make it work so they are kinda even for some classes.

Doomsayer is obviously unplayable in arena.

 Hungry Crab is better then Doomsayer but not by much.

Big Game Hunter is better for Decks who cant buff etc for Ooze but Shade is a lot better.
 Shade is really a solid 3 drop and very good coin drop at turn 2. 




The way shade usually works is that it will kill a 3 drop and stay alive still increasing it stats this will force the opponent to use a removal card on it (or trade 2 more minion) so it usually leads to a 2 for 1 card. Its a lot more worth to not attack with shade to just trade it and kil lit off as life points is not something one should care about. Dropping it at turn 2 especially can be great as then you can really sit there and wait. And I dont mean wait to kil la big guy like with Panther but just wait for a Trade were it will kill the minion but survive (with 2 hp if against Mage etc). 



Still both of these cards are better for buff classes mainly then Paladin and Druid. Which unfortunately already have really good class epics. Rogue can of course do Cold Blood on a Ooze turn 3 thats 2 5.2 for 3 mana and 2 cards. Thats pretty good but very vulnerable. 

Not much to say about ooze more then its really good with buffs especially for Paladin as Paladin got both Blessing of Kings and Blessing of might but even Blessing of Wisdom can be nice. It has a really neat combo with Sword of Justice. When played with SoJ the first ooze becomes a 2.3 and the other one copies that and then becomes a 3.4 thats a very good combo.






Then Shade like any other Stealth minion can be buffed in its stealth. 

Echoing Ooze:

Paladin +++. Druid ++. Rouge + (because Rouge also commonly take buffer minions like Defender of Argus also all Rouge Epics sucks...) Shaman + (Flametounge, bloodlust, Shaman also favors buffer cards like DoA)

Shade of Naxxramas.

Paladin ++, Druid ++, + The rest.

 

The Final last boss. Finally I can stop writing about Hearthstone really ;)

I was on a business trip last week but it really feels like I mentioned earukler that these cards are to few and did not change the gameplay enough. Doing Dailies until next expansion?

One thing I am thinking right away I want ot put it out here before I go into Kel'Thuzad. Is that the game might need the limited format system. Were if you go to arena we could pick - only new cards or vanilla cards. Yes obviously that does not work as its only 30 new cards. Well 30 + class cards. That would be interesting hopefully something like that happens next expansion with more cards and some sort of system that makes arena focus more on the newer cards. As otehr card gme does Just my 2 cent.

 Ok Kel'Thuzad. Its a lot of whine about this card in how broken it is in constructed. While all the Deathrattle shenanigans are hard to come by in Arena (e.g Sylvanas + Kel'Thuzad). Its still one of the better arena cards.

The reason why is because Arena is so heavy on the minions. Its trade, trade and more trades. Dropping this card and Trading an Ogre into something else big is really, really good in arena. More likely its probably 2 smaller low/medium drops traded into 2 other smaller or 2 medium/late. But that regardless causes a lot of issues for the opponent. As they will lake a lot of removal. Its veyr hard to get ride of Kel'Thuzad. The opponent pretty much needs a hard board wipe combo like Equality and X.

 Some people say hes a win more card, but not really he is not great on an empty board but just 1 medium trade is enough to get a pretty big lead in arena at turn 8.

His biggest downside is the general problem with having such a high mana cost card. Makes it harder for Rouge, Hunter etc other aggro classes or decks. Of course sometimes you do have a Rouge Control deck and then he is pretty good.

Some say hes bad because he cant do anything when you are down, in that sense that if they have several guys out and you have none he will do nothing expect be a big guy they ignore. Thats true for all the Legendary as well. Rag would random and maybe hit a big guy, Ysera will draw a card in end of turn and really do nothing. The only legendary that can turn that around is Deathwing. (Why strong removal cards usually are better to have then any Legendary).

 I don't think there is a class which is specially better with him, a little Paladin with his class ability but it don't fell like enough to really warrant that. However, its more on that Paladin can favour token creating cards, a token overall in arena is great. That helps.

To pick him over other good legendaries is mainly about - do you have a slow or fast deck. Fast mana cost automatically makes him rejected ( given that the otehr legendary is a cheap drop). Then how much Token creation do the deck have? The more the better and how much Deathrattle but I think that Divine sheild usually is more favorably.e Cards like Scarlet Crusader is really good being resurrected with its shield back. Place him behind a sunwalker --- thats really annoying.

Hearthstone The Construct Quarter Review.

This quarter introduced the 2 most waited Class cards. As both Warrior and Priest are 2 of the weakest classes in Arena them getting a massive high value card each can really make it easier to play them.

 And both of these cards fits perfect for what an arena deck usually lacks.

Death's bite - new weapon and Warrior's biggest issue in arena is not getting any weapon simply getting 1 more decent weapon increases the total chance and makes it easier playing Warrior. Now this weapon is pretty good too.

Death's Bite can trigger Enrage which warrior is know to pick. That's great in Constructed, fits perfect with cards like Acolyte of Pain and Armor Smith. Not so common in arena to get an Armor smith0. But Raging Worgen, Amani Berserker etc all those cards have always been extra good picks for a warrior so this card fits very good into the overall warrior arena prioritize picks. 

But if anything why it is so good is because it fits the void warrior had at 3-4 mana cost weapon and ---- It does 5 damage. IF there is anything that really lifts it up. Its that the second attack will do 5 damage to the minion you attack. This makes it be really strong at the medium range cost, play it turn 4 kill a turn 3 drop. Opponent drops (opponent turn 4) Yeti - Kill it.

What this leads to its that a warrior with a good start is ridiculous strong right now. If the warrior can use fiery war axe turn 2 and then Death's Bite. HUGE tempo. Even worse if the warrior can drop a Frothing Berserker in between at turn 3.

Its a very good pick for warrior. I would not pick it over Fiery War Axe as that card takes the early game so hard. But after that this card is the best. As it likewise taht the early-mid game easily. Its a lot better then Arcanite Reaper, it cost makes it less of a tempo / board adcantage card and more of a Finisher and the Death's bite as mentioned second attack do deal 5 damage so for 1 more mana to deal 1 more damage.

Death's Bite will sometimes backfire and injure something you control but as that can also be and advantage its a lot of a gray zone if that ability is good or bad looking at the overall board. The biggest issue and what one should think about its vs Mage/Rouge/Druid who might get a chance to kill a 3.2 (becoming a 3.1) after the weapon is used.

Dark Cultist  like Death's Bite fits amazing for the priest weakness. Priest has problems with early board presence and this card literately got the best 3 mana drop stats. Its alone being a 3.4 for 3 mana. 

At first there was images from Blizzard showing it as a 2.4 which it would still be a good card for priest. Just like even an unbuffed Unbound Elemental can get good trades of its 4 life.

So this card got high life, makes it be able to trade with almost any 2-3 drops and survive + its on priest so healing it will make it life longer. Then it got 3 attack....so it can kill any 3-2 drops And on top of that it got a Deathrattle effect which is pretty good.

This card would be amazing even just as a 3.4 no abilities.  Would be the Yeti of 3 drops. But only for priest. Obviously its a super high value card. Even if people play around it to not trigger its Deathrattle its still just a huge pain in the ass as it will almost always trade up.

And the Deathrattle is great for overall priest, increasing the life for more heals, easier trades and so on. But were it really shines if its followed by an Auchenai Soulpriest drop turn 4, kill it of to get a 3.8 Soulpriest. As you cant heal her she has always been very solid to combo with + life.

What is it to be said about this card? Not much its a very fun card in Constructed I am playing Mage Secret deck right now but its almost 100% useless in Arena. 2.2 for 2 its really bad. Its essentially just playing a Secret for 2, which you cant pick what secret it is. Well as its Arena you likely just got 1 secret so arguably you can. Its not horrible in Arena if you got the right Secrets for it but other wise its a huge Tempo loss. And Paladin secrets are just not worth the time to pick them....so it don't fit in there. Some mages secret do nothing in arena like Ice Armor and Vaporize will likely get a 1.1. For Hunter explosive Trap can be good and it can also do nothing. Well if the this 2.2 trades with a 2.3 and gets out a Explosive Trap that could mean it dies of it...but that would mean you need not play out any minion so the opponent cant trade it. 

The overall issue is that what Secrets are picked in Arena? Noble Sacrifice its a Paladin, Explosive and sometimes Frozen if Hunter. Mage Mirror or Counterspell. That's pretty much it. There is not a lot of guessing game ( well I guess duplicate is popular now to). Mad Scientist works great for a control Mage in constructed were its a bunch of different secrets and the mage can regain board control with a lot of different stuff + can win late game with cards like Archmage Antonidas.

Without the guessing game this card don't do much. And its absouly not worth picking bad arean secrets to make one card more valueable.

Of course its possible to get a heavy secret deck for mage primarily but the chance of that is slim to none.

Undertaker is a really good card in constructed I would go so far and say overpowered. A 1.2 that grows for pretty much all minions you play in a deck centered around the mechanic. 

Its a decent card in arena actually, just playing 1 more Deahtrattle with it means its a 2.3 for the price of 1 mana. If its silenced thats just great, losing 1.1 stats on one minion for a silence even 2.2 can be better then losing a real buff card etc. But obviously one can't do a deck and only have 1 Deathrattle and hope to get them on the same time. So its not that its amazing but if you have like 4-5 Deathrattle in the deck its not the worst pick in the game.

The class that can use it the best is Warlock, making a zoodeck its the common practice for arena. It has 2 things going for it to be in Zoo, it cost 1 mana. So great with life tap and overall flooding the field. But also the Zoodeck should take a lot of the cheap early minions such as Haunted Creeper, Leper Gnome, Loot Hoarder etc. Which will mean that the overall chance of getting Deahtrattle is higher. For Warlock its not to bad to take Undertaker even when having no Deathrattle. However, that do require one thing. That is a lot of cheap minions. Its not good to jut take Undertaker pick 2 for a Warlock if the rest of the deck happens to go towards mid range or even late game control. Sometimes that is just the only viable options but at pick 10+ when its clear the deck is going to be a cheap ass aggro deck. This card is a great pick.

Shaman can also value this card higher for the simple reason that shaman can value Deathrattle cards in general high regard. But its not that Shaman can pick in i an a vacuum just that it likelier will be better for the Shaman and that having a few cards who synergies could still make it worth picking.

Warlock ++, Shaman + 

Zombie Chow is really good in arena, a 2.3 for 1 its amazing and the drawback usually means nothing.  Life is something a lot of people overvalue, life means almost nothing in arena as people cant get enough direct damage or what is usually called burn cards.

  As that wont happen enough its not bad to have to heal the opponent, I guess the only class it will be bad is for Hunters. And possible mage who got huge number of fireballs etc. But even for that mage, the game likely will be won on board control and not on life. 

As it cost 1 mana and got huge stat it naturally fits in Zoolock.

But clearly were it is the best is Priest. First of all awesome in priest constructed as it can be played as one of my favorite Yu-gi-oh decks: Bad Reaction to Simochi. Simochi turns around all heals on the opponent making it a lot better then A Soulpriest but still its clear that with Soulpriest out huge amount of damage can be dealt with this card and other heal cards.

 While Soulpriest is not always available to be picked its the best rare for priest in the game and better then the epics as well. So one can at least assume there is the possibility the Deathrattle will be damage later on as priest.

But the biggest reason why its such a good priest card is because of time. The more turn you expect your average game to take, the less life is important. Priest being the obvious stall class who win late game clearly take the most turns on an average scale. Main reason why it work greats for priest. Similar Zombie Chow works for Paladin, who usually takes time on them and the same with Druid. For both Paladin and Druid it also adds an extra bonus of being bad to silence. Buff it with a Mark of the wild and like Ancient Watcher its slightly silence proof.

Priest +++, Warlock Druid Paladin ++. Shaman + Rogue +

IF we just ignore Wailing Soul's abilities and first look at this stats. It actually got pretty bad stats in away. Yes most people wil think I am crazy it got the same stats as Senjin. But Senjin really don't have so good stats either. In Hearthstone you want to follow the 2n+1 stat were N is the mana cost. So if a card cost 4 mana it should have 9 stats. They got 8 stats.  Typical for a Taunter to have 1 less. So its not like Senjin is bad in a Taunter sense he also got the high health being a defense taunter and not an aggressive taunter like Booty Bay which is a really bad  card. So all together Senjin is great. But its because he got the right medium stats with taunt. The other taunters later on like Fencreper got really bad stats and the others are attack oriented...

3.5 is still of course a lot better then 5.3 but I would say worse then 4.4 However, it all just shows how good Yeti is at 4.5

But what really makes Wailing Soul Bad, is that it got a bad ability. Even in constructed its hard building around it. There are some cute play like Equality and then playing it. That wont ever happen in Arena. In Arena you cant pick not to have minions who don't have ability. To play Wailing Soul its mainly as an anti Freeze mage or I guess is some kind of Vanilla/normal deck were one just focus on having good minions with no abilities (which don't really exist in Hearthstone maybe one day).

In arena, the deck will consist of really good cards like Harvest golem and other staple picks. Many of them will just be ruined by Wailing soul.

So decently bad stats and bad ability.

Stalagg --- What can I say. Its a terrible card anyone can figure that out. It do have 11 stats which is reasonable for a 5 drop ignoring its ability. Which one should as it absolutely never will happen in arena. The biggest chance if its happening if it the other player helps out dropping Feugen before hand...

Stalagg will die by pretty much removal. Frostbolt + fireblast. Swipe, wrath + shapeshift, Lightingbolt with spell damage or sac something small and so on. Its like a cheaper corehound.

Feugen on the other hand is a great card. Its like a big Yeti. + 2 more stats so good for its cost. 4.7 makes it really hard to remove and it can kill most stuff.

Really is the same in counstred as well. Stalag really feels like an appendix to Feugen, might as well play him to maybe get Thaddius. I would not be suprised in future top deck having just Feugen because hes a really solid 5 drop.

And thats what Feugen becomes in Arena, just a solid 5 drop. Better then many off putting arena picks with high RNG factor etc. But not the best, e.g Cairne is much better. 

Priest ++. Druid + Paladin +

Hearthstone The Military Quarter Review.

Not so much Arena quality cards in this Quarter but some really nice cards for Mill decks, feels like I should just spend all day long talking about how awesome Deathlord is for mill and of course the swords do help a mill deck somewhat as well. The only really good Arena card from this Quarter is Spectral knight a card many has already proclaimed to be the BEST card for 5 mana some even say for all mana cost. Absolutely rubbish, of course but its the best 5 drop for a neutral common level. Like can anyone really say its better then Loatheb, he is clearly much better but the player can't ever pick in between them.

 

I think this is one awesome card for constructed I talked a with Ben Brode about this card when it was released and al its combinations of potential effects (also note that the cards text I wanted back then are now in the game!!! especially my fix to  Ancestral Spirit)

Thats pretty much with Reincarnate is, its great with combo cards like AS or other similar effect cards e.g have a full deck of Deathrattle.Its not useless in Arena, mainly it can be used to remove buffs. Someone buffed a guy to get taunt - reincarnate it so the taunt goes away and finish them. This is the effect one can expect in arena. 

 What it can do otherwise is to heal big guys like Earth elemental. Its not useless in arena but absolutely low value card.

For constructed its a fun card, very strong in deathrattle decks with focus on late game finish with bloodlust. So like any other type of heavy synergy based card of course in the right deck it would be an awesome pick but don't count on it. 

 

Voidcaller is another almost 100% useless arena card. I would go so far and say tis worse then Reincarnate, its just no good. It needs a heavy synergy cards to be utilized, meaning a lot of demons. No chance for this in arena, then at first glance it looks to have decent stats but actually have really crappy stats. Its currently the only card with 3.4 but for 4 mana that stats is more suited for a 3 drop (ignoring abilities). Then 3.4 is bad. The major issue with Voidcaller is how almost all the otehr demons are so dam bad.

 People don't draft Demons they got way to big drawbacks. Flame Imp is the only demon who is drafted really. The occasional voidwalker and Infernal. Doomguard might be drafted as its pretty dam god card but its rare so wont have many and while it has a 2 discard effect its not to bad like Pit lord...who is just unplayable. Doomguard having charge makes it both combo really well with Voidcaller and sometimes really badly. If they force it out during their turn the charge effect is voided.  

On a constructed note I have been playing a lot of Demon decks to try it out. It performs decent a little to slow and some of the demon most notorious pit lord is just unplayable in ranked. Thats the big issue with this card in general, ok it can make you bypass paying the cost. But if you dont have this card some of the cards are then dead in hand. The deck becomes way to relying on this specific card.

Even weaker then in arena as the Demons drawback will be worse when the rest of the cards dont supplement them.


This 2 cards almost lowers the strength of their class. They are not on the level of eye for an eye for example if that card was removed from paladin drafts completely it would 100% boost the class performance but they are down there, they are only draftable late in the draft but they can be great then so not completely useless like some other class cards - well later today 2 massive boosting cards are coming Death's bite and Dark Culist. I have no problem with Warrior and Priest getting buffed but warlock surely need it to so in an Arena perspective Voidcaller was really not that card that Warlock needed.

 

Lets go to the new massive arena card. People love this card, I like it as well. Especially meta wise. If there is one thing people whine about its mages, I don't understand as Rogue is better in arena, but if anything I don't get it as the game is getting filled with Deathrattle all of those cards are anti mage. And this card is also anti mage, a lot. What that means is that this cards value is definitely high from just that a lot of people play mages so massive anti mage card is overall better in arena as so many mages will show up.

Pure game wise Spectral Knight is just a big Faerie Dragon. I am so disappointed in this, in magic the gathering. This game mechanic is called Shroud when a creature cant be target by any of the players. This mechanic is obsolete these days. The latest years magic has used Hexproff on all creatures who are supposed to be untargetable. Hexproff is that the opponent cant target but you can. I really hoped this card would be the massive card priest needs but as the priest cant heal it....It still a good card but I would rather see it with lower stats, 3.5 for 5 with your opponent cant target. That no one can target a minion seems outdated.

Now instead it got huge stats making it be an amazing coin drop as pretty much nothing can trade with it and it cant be killed a fireball etc, it survives aoe and then the player cant finish it why it so good vs both flamestrike and fireball. One thing that rally make it stand out from Faerie Dragon is the stats are focused on health, which is truly better in arena. A minion needs to have some attack but then health is more worth to get better 2.1 chances. Thats why Vengeful Smite is a decent cards even when playing a class don't have a weapon. Fairy Dragon just gets traded by any minion from 1 mana and up. While this card will survive any 5 drop and below in a fight. And then it cant be targeted- huge chance for 2.1 trade or to finish of people as they cant remove it.

Spectral Knight is a very high value card and likely almost always the best pick, only time it wont be is for a deck that is very heavy.

As it cant be targeted it dont favor any class really and it does not favor aggro or control as its a middle cost of 5 so either a finisher or a control card....which makes it not be better in any deck.

 Dancing Swords, a decent card in arena. As people have less removals then in constructed it can be hard to remove the swords. This means they usually trade for a 2.1 with 2 smaller guys or at least cost more mana, e.g killing a 3.2 and then dieing from a class ability. 

Horrible card for control as slow decks cant deal well with losing in card count. This makes this card suitable for aggro decks. Well nothing more to say about this card really its very simply. It a better stats card then anything else for it mana cost but got a huge drawback when it dies.

In constructed i play it of course in my mill decks (aims to remove all the opponents card from their deck). Were its drawback turns into an asset, this is typical for any card game where mill decks can be constructed. In those type of decks the opponent gets so many cards anyway so its drawback it none existing and actually just helps the overall plan of milling them. In this cases the card of course becomes pretty good as its then big stats for low mana and good ability. I jut want to point out that its the same effect in more ore less all other collectible card games when it comes to these type of cards and its constructed value will increase for ever mill card that is released.

Rogue + Warlock +  Mage + Warrior +  Hunter + I would say its best for tempo rogue and zoolock in arena.

 

Before I go into arena value on this card. I would like to mention how awesome it si for Mill decks I havent seen so many otehr note on this but I play a lot of Mill and this card is far better then the swords for my Rogue Mill (I do play both).

Deathlord is obviously a massive taunter, which helps to stall the game. Great for mill. But its Drawback of pulling out a random minion from their deck is just like drawing 1 more card! Its a mill effect, I do think people miss that a lot. Combine the 2 of them you get 4 mill, that only affects the opponent. Which is great as the big problem for mill in Hearhstone is how its usually done with Murloc Oracle and also mills your own deck. You always want to mill + their deck to fatigue them and not yourself which his really hard in Hearhstone with the current cards.  So this card with Swords and naturalize means 8 cards + very nice. But I do prefer it in Rogue as the drawback is easily dealt with. By using cards like Vanish first and foremost but also Sap if needed the minion they will get out usually don't mean anything and vanishing  their bigger board gives them 10 hands easier to make the next draw make them lose the card.

For both arena and construct it also works great with buff cards which makes it really dangerous but also hard to just silence. Like Ancient Watcher its inherently good vs silence. Buffing it with for example Mark of the wild makes it a 4.10 ridiculous hard to get rid of, but silencing it means removing the drawback effect. So it really fits in quite nicely for slower arena decks with some support cards. (and also then fits great for Druid control deck with 2 watchers etc)

The Drawback is also much better in Arena, people dont have a bunch of giants or rather said the chance of running into a heavy focused late deck e.g Handlock or Freeze mage in arena is pretty much 0% chance. And people in general wont have good late finisher legendaires like Ragnoros and so on. Instead people have a lot of crappy early drops that likeyl will get pulled out with this card. 

Furthermore, people lack removal so its hard to get rid of it expect by purely fighting it. So it can trade with several cards and even if another card later on is summoned out it will be a favorable card + many times.

The biggest Drawback of the card is its 2.x stats. Its actually so big I would say think twice before picking it. Like I talked about with Maexxna: Stampeding Kodo is so common in arena that its a huge danger. Drop this turn 3-4 and opponent coins a Kodo. That is very likely a game lost. (Deathlord just like Maexxna is also very weak vs Priest for obvious reasons).

 Mainly because of its own strength in arena its also its weakness, lack of removal.  When it dies in Constructed and they get lucky and get Rag or Ysera (which are the 2 worst to get out as their ability triggers right away) you can sap it away or something simialar. This means the game is not over but you are behind, in Arena when something big comes out --- its pretty much over as most games you can't remove it at all. It does not have to be legendary massive bomb, but something medium bomb at 5-6 mana and the game is over.

Its a heavy gamble card in the end I recommend staying away unless the deck suits it. Which means slow decks who have removal or extreme aggro were it tanks for the smaller guys (e.g Zooloock). The kicker rally is that just having a slow deck and play it wont be that great, a slow deck needs to have the necessary removal cards if something bad gets out.

Thats why in the end it works best for aggro were what ever you draw dont matter just drop it and attack their face. I always say the simpler strategy the better then less things can go wrong. I a way its a huge shieldbearer and works great with the same cards e.g Abusive sergeant, Dark Iron Dwarf etc.

Rogue ++, Warlock ++ Hunter ++ (aggro).  Druid + Paladin + (buffers) Priest + (heal it and well possible buff it massivly...) Warrior + aggro is a a little weaker. '

A lot of  the reasoning for aggro is very similar to Sludge Belcher. Put it there and start attacking their face.

 

 Lets be honest. The baron is barely good in Constructed, he is absolutely one of the worst legendaries in Arena.

Yes, he can do some mad combos in constructed, mainly in Shaman decks. But to be worht it it requires a lot of synergy card. Alone is his useless. Nothing wrong with that in constructed but in arena you will only get a few Deathrattle cards at best and even then he is barely good. The way he works is that he is a crazy overpowered snowball effect if he can be combined with for example Sylvanas and Reincarnate, Sylvanas is on the field, kill a small minion then drop Baron, Reincarnate her to grab 2 big minions. But all his awesome plays are based on the other minions having good abilities. Of this type of plays wont ever happen in Arena and he is the worst for arena of all the new cards.

Only class who might want to pick this card is Shaman, as shaman got his Ancestral Spirit card, Flametouneg that can boost its power at least makes it have some chance for combo but still a very low one. 

Quality Maniac: Hearthstone inconsistencies Part 4

Wow this bug really annoys me its a huge inconsistency which has likely been in the game for a year now.
 Its really bad becuase a lot of people already argue on what to call the game mode of not ranked play in arena. And while it is called Casual in the game it sometimes called unranked by others and so on. Thing is...the game actually calls it both unranked and casual!

I rarely play Casual I only do Arena pretty much with some rare ranked play when I want to finish some weird quest. But now with the new cards I am trying out some new decks in casual and bam I found this thing right away.

While it clearly says Casual in the game UI lobby here, the main reason people want ot call it something else is becasue they dont find it casual. Now I am not here to debate what the real name should be for the spefici game mode but

Disconnection (or Rage Quitting). Gets the user this screen when coming back into the game. It clearly calls the last game "unranked play" and not casual.

Its very obvious that this Game Result pop up should be changed from

You lost your last Unranked Play game.

to

You lost your last Casual game.


No wonders that the players still argue what the  game mode should be called, the game developers haven't even agreed.

Hearthstone The Plague Quarter Review.

This weeks card don't change arena meta that much. Clearly Loatheb is amazing in constructed and it would be redundant by me to cover him in that approach as pretty much everyone is running him by know but he is clearly weaker in arena so I will cover why.

 The only card that is good for arena of the new one is Sludge Belcher really but let start with the class cards.

 

Like most other secret Duplicate is pretty awful. The main issue with Secret in Hearthstone overall is that while one might think they are awesome and staple cards like in Yu-gi-oh. They suck... While a complete Secret deck can be quite annoying the main difference is the effects requirement and first of all that the player cant pick what it should affect.

Duplicate is an excellent showcase of why secret are mediocre on Hearthstone (Hunter Secret deck is the best by far. and only real viable right now while Secret like Ice block is good in freeze mage). If the player could decide what the secret should trigger on it would be pretty good. Right now how good is it to get 2 1.1 cards? Useless, sure Duplicate is great if you play out a Rag etc they cant kill rag with transformational cards like Hex but have to kill it then you get 2 Rags awesome. Also note that Duplicate is hard countered by cards like hex/poly. Means that the opponent will give u 2 1.1 when the kill the sheep...

 The big issue in Arena is of course that you wont even have cards which are barely worth having more off. The chance of Duplicating something of value is pretty low even in constructed but its clearly really low in Arena. 

Then Secrets cost 3 mana and are a huge Tempo lose in Arena. Then what people who pick this (as I have seen it a lot actually) seems to miss is that its one of the biggest tempo loss of secrets. Mirror Entity usually leads to a bad minion but at least you get a minion. Vaporize usually kills a 1,1 but at least something dies. With Duplicate you next turn have to play the cards, playing Duplicate at turn 3, get 2 copies of your 2 drops means u get the effect at turn 4 of playing them at they will be small minions at turn 4, amazingly huge tempo loss. 

This card is only good with strong support cards for Secrets. 

Webspinner is another lackluster arena class card. This one Duplicate and Voidcaller (very likely) is in the bottom of the new class cards.

The problem with Webspinner is the overall problem with Hunter. Do you have enough beast synergies?

 

I like Hunter, I always defended them before UTH was buffed and said I could easily go 7+ with them and I still do. But its because of their great removal, good functional secrets and strong class cards like Savannah highmane and Animal Companion.

 Hoping for beast cards is always a downer in Arena, sometimes it works out and you get a great deck sometimes it fails.

Webspinner is RNG on top of RNG. Its like eating ice cream of RNG with sprinkles of RNG on top.

In one way Webspinner is better in arena then in constructed as you can get any beast card, so even if your deck don't have a king krush etc you might get it. But getting a mediocre beast card is only good if it can be supported with Houndmaster, hyena etc.

In Constructed its a good card because if you do play a beast the deck will have all the support cards, you might have a few in arena.

That being said, this card is like a cheaper novice engineer but with a worse draw. But it also can be buffed etc. It has some value, but I would never recommend picking this card unless for 2 reasons.

You are going super aggro and just want cheap minions, might as well take this as your 1 drops.

You got a lot of beast synergy.

 

 

Wow --- I was thinking before hand on the cards and what to say and I could for the life of my not even remember this guy at first. Took me a while.

 

That speaks volumes really.

 

In my 30 or so Arena runs this week I have only seen this card once!

The Stoneskin Gargoyle clearly needs support cards. I think its a pretty funny card in constructed. buff it with something like Blessing of Kings and its super annoying. Its also pretty good versus the Zoolocks and similar cheap minion spam. Really good with taunt if they cant kill it one go.

But thats a recipe for disaster in Arena. Arena is all about 2 for 1 cards. Card the requires your opponent to lose 2 cards for it. This card does almost nothing alone and requires the player to instead pay 2 cards to make it do anything really. Double fail type of cards. Its a 1 for 2 card, which as mentioned is horrible. But its also a luck based card, its only functional if the draft gets enough support cards for it.

Clearly some classes should avoid this card like the plague as they barely can buff it but even the others like Druid should be wary. Placing it in a constructed deck for druid works fine with also adding in cards like Ancient Guarding creating 2 great buff targets for the druid taunt buffs. But how often does an arena deck has that? Very rarely. 

This card is not recommend for any class, but it might be pick-able if you already have a lot of support cards.

 

Ah finally a playable new Naxx Card. I love this card in constructed for control deck. Its a great anti weenie card, so great vs Zoo, tempo rouge etc. 

 

Unstable Ghoul is a really good priest card as its a way to get a cheap early aoe, which priest is in dire need of. It combos great with cards like Pyromancer and so on.

 

In Arena its, not as good. You likely got a lot of minions instead of having some type of late game focus. So it will hit your guys as well.

  That being said, this card for the most time is just another 2.3 Trade with a 3.2 and both dies. Fight a 2.3 and no one dies. Basically this card most games becomes just another 2 drop that can trade. Potentially it can kill of something extra but on the same time it can kill of your guys. 

 

So its a lot riding on what deck you are trying to Draft. Are you drafting towards a control warlock this is great card, zoolock this card is a big minus. For Rouge this card could be a staller for a control rogue but...how often do anyone attempt to draft that.

 

Its always decent in Priest as the lack of Aoe is so prevalent for priest. While its good for e.g Control paladin it also kills the paladin 1,.1 ruins it for shamans etc... so its a card that its definitely class dependable.

 

Its actually really good in Mage. Mage got a lot of Aoes already so its stacks with that, nice. But most of all it hurts several guys so you can finish them of with the mage class ability.  Somewhat works for Druid, combos with swipe especially. And lastly it can trigger enrage stuff so thats works in favor for warrior (and also works great in my priest deck)

 

Priest ++ Mage++, Druid + Warrior +, Hunter +(face hunter), -Rogue -Warlock -Shaman -Paladin

 

 

This is a real gem of this week. (of the lower Rarity ones) Its a great annoying card. A good comparison card ins Sunwalker. This card is pretty much  Sunwalker for 1 mana less. 

It stands as a very in the way taunt card, after kill it another taunter appearance. It actually got a great cost as well. Its Senjin and Goldshire footmen in 1, playing those two cards separately would cost 5 mana just like this card so the mana cost for this card could arguably be higher as its the same cards value but also the same mana value. 

Its a great control card as it slows down the opponent a lot and it easily earns a turn or sometimes even 2. Making it great in Priest,Paladin, Druid etc.

But actually its biggest strength just like Sunwalker is that late game it will require the opponent to at least hit it twice with (talking minions excluding spells like Polymorph) this means it slows down the opponent, yes I repeat that a lot as the real power is that its an amazing hunter card and a great aggro mage/rogue card.

When  you are playing a tempo rogue in arena dropping sunwalker turn 6 is huge as it will protect your smaller minions the opponent has to attack it at least twice to remove it and you can keep going for face. Same for Mage really.

But for hunter wow, Hunter who is soon to win by shooting at the face at + turn 10. This card like sunwalker is so good as it stops them from hitting you for 2 turns as they often only have 1 minion out and it has to kill this card and the left over slime alone. Thats another 4 damage in face, huge value. Of course the hunter also has more or less the same effect from dropping it turn 5 like with a Rogue. While both Rouge and Mage also has some face damaging in the late turns going as well.

The Deathrattle also makes it annoying VS aoe which also synergies with the aggro classes. Overall a very strong card for pretty much any class. It cost is great so really 5, not to overly expensive for aggro not overly to cheap for control.

Hunter ++ Mage ++ Rogue ++ Priest + Druid + Paladin + Warlock + Warrior + Shaman +

 

 

 

Loatheb is a huge game changer in Constructed, he don't hard counter Miracle Rogue etc. But he definitely makes them lose 1 turn which can be definitely be the difference from a win or lose.

 I play handlock in constructed so I think its a huge answer for me vs those kind of decks he is good against. Because he is usually not dropped at turn 5 but later, this means I can life tap, play him. And then the next turn life tap thats 3 extra card I can draw to get my next taunt buff for example. 

Its pretty obvious why he is not as good in arena, those type of deck he is made to counter like miracle or freeze mage simply never is drafted. Ergo his main strength is not existing.

But what he does do is protect VS Aoe. With mages being such a overrated class and everyone picking it all the time, Loatheb can definitely ensure victory being dropped when having a few minions out.

 Still I think it has to be said that Loatheb is a little of a win more card. Hes great when you are ahead and want to stay ahead.  Because of this he shines in tempo building aggro decks. E.g Rogue but also in Mid range power decks like a shaman with a bunch of fire elementals.

 

All that being said, I am betting my money on a nerf on Loatheb. Its simple math, he is a 5.5 with a great ability. That's 10 stats for 5 mana and no drawback. Easily compared to Sylvanas that is a 5.5 for 6 with a great ability. Sylvanas used to cost 5. Even if his ability does nothing he is still not overpriced with his stats. It would be boring if he gets to cost 6 like so many other legendaries, so a stat reduction is something I think will happen.

 That also means that of course hes a great pick in Arena, he is always at least a great turn 5 drop.

 

Hunter + Mage + Rogue + Warlock + Shaman +