> No wishing for more wishes

Well, save for Augmented Elekk topdecks.

“Now,” thundered Rafaam, “What have we learned?”

The members of EVIL glanced at each other before responding in perfect four-part harmony:

“I will not face when Flame Ward is cast or the board blows up…”

Pandaren commanding mogu was previously seen in Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, to be fair, with Aya Blackpaw calling on Kun the Forgotten King to spawn mogu Jade Golems.

It looks like Mr. Chu, the Warrior minion in Dalaran Heist is leading this fray, so it makes sense for him in villainous context?

“What doesn’t blook you, will grook you… twice!”

I had a vague hunch that Boomsday and subsequent expansions were revisiting themes of previous sets – Boomsday to GvG, Rastakhan’s to TGT, Rise of Shadows referencing Old Gods with Lazul. With handbuffing returning it’s fun to see Mean Streets of Gadgetzan getting referenced – and at least Blizzard hasn’t revisited the degeneracy of Jade Golems.

Shadowy Figure only copies Deathrattle minions, mind you, so that won’t be your cloning engine.

Mixed feelings about this one. It took me a few moments to realise that it’s not impossible to pull off, but is it unplayable? Star Aligner was never expected to be a thing, after all. Slow control decks will probably have a few means of removing minions so you can expect a good amount of damage to hit face, and classes without easy 5 damage to respond will be frantically trying to attack into this. I fully expect a Trolden video of Alexstrasza one turn, then Desert Obelisk + Coin + 2x Vivid Nightmare for the win at some point.

Personally I’m glad I’m not skilled enough to have ever been in the blast radius of Star Aligner degeneracy.

Thinking about it, I get the idea that Priest wants to be a sort of Spell-driven class the way it used to be with Radiant Elemental/Lyra the Sunshard. Sand Drudge is a thing, after all. The problem is that so far we don’t have anything else that would benefit from such a synergy or activate it, since Mage and Rogue have all the cheap removal spells, and similar spells for mana cost or board clears that Priest needs for survivability have mostly rotated. Sure, Test Subject/Grave Horror are already things, but haven’t really helped Priest stand out enough, and Grave Horror moonlights as a Mage minion more often than not.

I’d say it’s time Anduin revisited some of the ideas that made Priest a great class in the Gadgetzan-Un’Goro era, or at least other concepts that seemed they could be a wincon like Holy Champion. Maybe a Rare/Epic weaker reprint of Lyra, a la Princess Huhuran to Terrorscale Stalker. Maybe a Mana Geode variant of Sand Drudge that spawns more minions when healing effects are triggered. Maybe more cards that synergise with stolen cards like Rogue received, or Silence synergies attempted with Purify and Dalaran Librarian.

Or maybe just give Priest cheaper options to work with instead of playing passively and dropping big removals, when it’s likelier that the Priest will have his hindquarters kicked before he gets to use them…

In retrospect, it makes sense for Reno to be the new Mage.

Reno was one of the first cards to embody the Highlander archetype, and the Kabal from Mean Streets of Gadgetzan was (kinda) built around that archetype. What was one of the classes featured in the Kabal? Mages!

Whether the design team actually factored this convenient alignment of the planets in is anyone’s guess…

Yep. The recent AMA explained it as:

– Elise is a Druid; her attack quote indicates her Druid heritage by attacking with plants
– Brann’s gun usage is a fit for Hunter
– “Sir” Finley Mrrrglton was knighted as a Paladin
– Reno… gets Mage as the final hero class, and gets to wield wicked-looking spell gatling guns

I get the idea that Mage’s quest this time might have been to compensate for Open the Waygate’s dominance in Wild, thanks to Mana Cyclone’s synergy with Flamewaker and Arcane Giant. Won’t have been the first time a Mage Legendary was shafted due to a previous Mage Legendary already being fantastic; see Flame Leviathan in GvG to compensate for Archmage Antonidas’ synergy with Spare Parts from the same set.

I guess Mage doesn’t have too many useless spells, but seeing that we don’t have the Waygate synergies from previous sets (e.g. Leyline Manipulator), it’ll be up to the rest of Mage’s cards this set to see if Reno’s quest is worth it. But I can’t help but be reminded of how Mages nearly had Hero Power synergy for Rastakhan’s Rumble, drawing parallels with how Rumble appeared to be a throwback to The Grand Tournament and Hero Power/Inspire synergies, none of which really took off beyond Baku being an instant Justicar Trueheart.

Maybe some madman will run both Mage quests in Wild just so Raid the Sky Temple can be a “win more” card.

It’s pretty funny (though arguably unsurprising, depending on how you look at it) how the two decks I used most frequently – Big Priest and Kingsbane Rogue – continue to be such concerns.

Big Priest is pretty degenerate, but I’ve found that the popularity of it has painted huge targets on its back that no one build can account for all the threats or counterplays. Mirror matches tech in Potion of Madness or Entomb. Other decks drop transformative effects or Leeroy Jenkins. Hell, one Warlock I played on Rank 12 fed me a Treachery + Doomsayer combo and that killed most resurrection shenanigans I could pull for the rest of the match. Stats I’ve seen on another site have seen Big Priest fall out of favour over Odd Rogue/Paladin and Quest Mage.

The role played by Kingsbane has always felt strange to me, but it could stem from my dissatisfaction of Rogue getting all the quick nerfs because the developers think it polarises certain matchups too much. The Leeching Poison nerf was probably deserved, but I don’t remember the last time I saw a Kingsbane Rogue on ladder. The deck is nowhere to be found on usage stats, the top reason being the nerfs to Preparation + Raiding Party.

Which brings me to the problem I find piloting the decks: compared to aggressive/tempo, they just flat out die if they can’t draw into important cards. Big Priest, at least, actually has board clears, but with the exception of Spirit Lash they’re usually too expensive, and drawing Shadow Visions isn’t a complete solution since it doesn’t always discover the board clear you need. Kingsbane Rogue makes up for it with tutors, but then it just dies even harder if you don’t draw into the five of them, since there’s no reason to drop Buccaneer or Naga Corsair without Kingsbane. And since “healing” isn’t a part of Rogue’s class identity, you’re playing with a lot of fire by using Valeera’s health as a board control resource, which aggro just wipes the floor with.

tl;dr: I suppose I’m pretty miffed about the decks I’ve loved getting no… love, but on the other hand, I’m the sort of weirdo who enjoyed Mill Rogue since Gang Up was a thing, so my opinion should probably be taken with a shaker of salt.

Personally, I do like the idea that there are rewards for playing through the brawls quickly, but the rewards aren’t so need-to-have that you feel discouraged if you fail to meet the requirements. Well, unless Dragon/Handbuff Paladin becomes meta in the new set…

This, pretty much. Goodness knows why Team 5 decided to take a shotgun to the kneecaps of two decks that were never doing all that well, but at this point I get the idea that Team 5’s tradition is to take a crap on Rogue decks that punish slow/control decks while completely dying to aggro. Kingsbane Rogue? Nope, gotta nerf that Leeching Poison. Mill Rogue? Wave goodbye to your Coldlight memes! Pogo Rogue? Well, we’re all very fond of Daring Escape…

Then again “class identity” is something I feel they never got right for Boomsday. I like how Priest was supposed to be the “Cloning” specialist, yet Druid was the class to vomit out multiple ways of cheating out Malygos…

I haven’t spent a single cent on Hearthstone and was lucky enough to get/craft enough cards for functional Wild decks, so I can’t say I share a similar sense of excitement for Blizzard’s Wild support.

Is it a nice gesture from Blizzard? Possibly, if you’re open to spending money on virtual cards. But then you run into the same issue in Standard: few cards in any expansion being inherently useful. And you don’t get a choice of what sets you want to focus on either, so… have fun unwrapping all the Inspire synergy and C’Thun support you never wanted. And for critical cards that came from adventures such as Barnes, you’d still have to spend dust on those.

It’s arguable that buying packs would provide you with a new source of dust anyway, and it’s a good thing Blizzard has made these packs cheaper than usual, but it still feels like a huge gamble with questionable payoff even in the context of a virtual CCG.

As for whether Wild is a lot more diverse than Standard, your mileage may vary. If I see another Priest on the Wild ladder, odds are it’s going to be a mirror match to see who can topdeck Barnes first.

Preparation feels like Team 5’s traditional “extra kick in the teeth of Rogue” for good measure. Raiding Party aside, which of Rogue’s spells that benefit from the 3-mana reduction are commonly run? As ZEeoN pointed out, Sprint at 5 mana for 4 cards, for which two cards have to be invested in, is terrible. Not sure about higher level play, but I haven’t seen things like Vanish, Assassinate or Walk the Plank getting run either.

Maybe it’s my Kingsbane/Mill Rogue nostalgia talking, but the Preparation nerf seems excessive in that it makes other Rogue decks less viable, and it’s not as though the other decks that were dependent on Preparation were dominant for the time. It reminds me of the Leeching Poison hit; Kingsbane in the Year of the Raven was barely a thing even with Leeching Poison, and Wild Mill Rogue continues to be a pipe dream. Was it that necessary to make the Turn 6 Coldlight Oracle + Preparation + Vanish combo even slower?

Apparently Kingsbane is now one of the terrors of the Wild format, but to me, it mostly sounds like a Raiding Party problem, not a Preparation problem. Maybe leaving Preparation as is and nerfing Raiding Party to 5 mana would have been better? (Then again, it might kill the card; won’t be the first time a 2-mana increase did that to a card…)

Eudora, Rogue Fur Hire

I’ll see myself out…

I might go in and farm the brawl; using WingedScribe’s list for my free run, I went 12-1. Only loss was from not drawing into any Auctioneers, card draw or Giggling Inventors, so I got thrashed by Giggling Inventor + Bonemare.

The deck even gets a OTK as early as Turn 3, which I had for my last 3 wins. Gadgetzan Auctioneer, Spirit of the Shark, Coin, Prep + Spell, Prep + Spell, Spectral Pillager, Shadowstep, Spectral Pillager. Turn 1 Spirit of the Shark, followed by at least 1 Bonemare on the next turn is pretty silly too.

On the other hand, you could have terrible luck and not draw into anything and waste 150 gold…