Ah, I see what they did there. And cheese is a nice golden color.

Gorgon normally turn people into stone. Perhaps this one turns people into gold…?

Maybe it’s because they make these cool Gold card animations and people don’t want to spend all their dust crafting them.

Yikes! Yes, that would be a great pull from the thief.

Mm… except Midevh is a turn 8 play, so it buys you one turn and he’s a one-of in any case. You can already beat that by playing it on turn 4 and then attacking and ensuring you attack each turn until turn 8 when it breaks, buying you two turns.

TBH: Unless there’s a better way to destroy this weapon, the likelihood of drawing it early enough to make a difference (before turn 4) is fairly small, so I don’t know why you’d take up a card slot with it.

True, but you still need to play ENOUGH beasts so that you don’t whiff in the late game when you top deck this lady. Plan on playing at least five beasts, if not a few more, just to ensure you get maximum benefit from her.

I can see the Kobold Illusionist seeing play in Jade Rogue, but it will have a short lifespan considering how quickly we’ll be losing that set. Of course, it’s a common, so it will probably see play more in Arena and RNG brawls than anywhere else.

Will we be able to complete quests with the new dungeon runs?

I got golden junk (rare plus four commons).

Just play Crazed Alchemist and his big brother, Kooky Chemist. Problem solved.

So, it has an attack of 0. If you never attack, it never loses a charge, and this will happen every time you cast three spells in a turn…? Or does it lose a charge every time you meet the requirements…?

I love the fact that we’re getting new card mechanics and that other hero classes are getting weapons/magic items. Very cool! It will breath new life into the weapon destruction cards.

The first cards shown from new sets are typically lackluster. Give it time.

So… does the loot go to the person that breaks it, or only to the Marin player?

This has been very entertaining to follow. Thank you for doing this and sharing the experience.

With the kobold, I’m thinking Deadmines. Pirates (and Captain Cookie himself) are part of that adventure, as are kobolds. There aren’t any kobolds in Booty Bay.

It could mean there are four that are being given away. If you click on the 0/4 it shows a 0%, so I’m thinking they may be giving them away over a period of four days and this is an indicator of how many have been given away…? Just a guess.

?

Queue RNG rage comments…. now!

This has been true about CCGs ever since net decking was invented. Here’s how it works:

(1) New set released.
(2) All of the people with money and time on their hands (many of them pros) scramble to define the “next meta”.
(3) All of the less active players watch the first few weeks to see how the meta unfolds and then net deck for the best deck(s) they can play based on the cards they have available; the more rare cards increase in value based on those that are needed to complete the net decks.
(4) Some of the less active players who don’t want to/can’t put the time into obtaining a ranking whine about how horrible the new meta is because there are only 2-3 competitive decks (and they can’t afford to build them).
(5) Manufacturer bans/nerfs some of the more popular cards (generally from older sets, so as not to impact current sales) that make the competitive decks work.
(6) Some of the less active players who managed to finally assemble one or more of the competitive decks whine because their deck just got nerfed.
(7) Return to Step #1.

This has always been true. M:tG, Yo-Gi-Oh!, WoW (the original CCG), and all the others fell into this regime once they crossed into competitive play. It is the nature of the beast.

Does it take time to earn ranks? Yes; this is true of ANY competitive sport.
Is there skill involved? Yes; every game requires some modicum of skill.
Is there luck involved? Yes; it’s a card game, so luck is inherent. Some have more luck than others (Pokémon, Hearthstone, etc.), but they all have luck.
Is there an element of P2W? Yes; and this is true of EVERY CCG/TCG ever created. The best (Hearthstone being one of them) allow you to “dust” your unused/undesirable cards to create those you do want/need. The worst (Yu-Gi-Oh!) create new sets where there are only a handful (typically 1-3) of chase cards per set (the rest being complete junk), and if you don’t get lucky enough to draw them, then you can end up paying hundreds of dollars to stay competitive.

TLDR version: If you don’t want to PAY to have the cards needed to be competitive then play a non-CCG game, lower your expectations on your ability to consistently compete, or do the dailies/put in the time to build the card base you need. Blizzard is a BUSINESS and if they didn’t monetize their games then they would cease to exist.

Just my experience, for what it is worth.

It seems fast, but (1) he’s experienced, so no learning curve, (2) he’s playing a faster deck, so shorter games, and (3) it seems like players in the 15-25 range tend to take less time on their turns/higher likelihood to rage quit than those at lower ranks, but I can’t say that I have any data to back that observation up. If he is conceding early (which I doubt) to cycle no-win games quicker to maximize wins for the time played then that could also be a factor.

I find this experiment fascinating and I appreciate the effort and write up. Thanks for sharing your journey!

Whatever. Blizzard doesn’t nerf a “cancerous deck” and everyone complains. Blizzard does provide nerfs and people complain it didn’t happen soon enough, it happened too quickly, or it shouldn’t have happened at all.

People complain the meta is stale while complaining Blizzard is providing too many expansions for the F2P people to stay competitive.

People complain the game costs too much while not paying anything at all.

People complain Blizzard doesn’t listen to its user base and then complain when they try to explain their reasoning. (Listening is a two-way activity.)

Really? Appreciate the fact Blizzard isn’t letting the game stagnate, other people are willing to pay for the content (since Blizzard is not a charity, nor are they pushing advertising), and they seem genuinely interested in adding new ideas to the game.

Just my two cents, for what it’s worth.