This was inevitable, had to happen sooner or later. I think it's probably a good idea that maxes out the lifespan of the game. I also think that this is a death knell for HS.
The classic set has become largely irrelevant at this point. Over the years, they nerfed or moved most of the good classic cards to wild, which just left a bunch of filler garbage. And it's annoying as a new player when they throw all these classic packs at you at the start of the game and then none of it is useful at all.
Though before people start cheering, "yay, we get 235 FREE cards every year!" the core set will have to be designed to be low power because expansions would be useless otherwise. But hopefully a reasonable amount of it will be playable, unlike what happened to the classic set.
The idea of a new core set every year, instead of the permanent basic/classic sets, seems like another good way to keep the game fresh. It's gonna be a nightmare to balance though. Every year they have a new set of core cards, plus the 4 expansions. So they have to balance 5 different sets that rotate in and out.
When does this rotation happen? In April? Maybe I'll try creating another account and see how it goes.
Last edited by synth_floyd; 02-09-2021 at 04:34 PM.
Holy **** that Paladin deck that cheats out the summon 7 murloc spell is insane, I'm losing to it over and over.
On the plus side, made Diamond for the first time last month and about to do it again, using a cheap but surprisingly effective Dragon Hunter deck. Maybe one day soon I'll join you guys in Legend.
Kinda seems like an admission of defeat if their cool new thing is the game they released seven years ago. I'd probably give it a go if unnerfed patron warrior was playable though. Got bored of BGs and tried the new Legends of Runeterra set and was again surprised at how good it is. I reckon we'd all have had a lot more fun and suffered a lot less from terrible metas had LoR been released in place of hs.
The new mode. Seems to be a single person type mode where you start with a hero, build a team of cards, and climb a ladder to defeat a boss at the end. At least, thats how I took it.
Swipe and wrath are gone. Frostbolt is gone. Blizzard and frost nova are gone. Kill Command is gone. Shadow Word: Pain is gone. Eviscerate is gone. Lava Burst is gone. Jaraxxus is now a hero card that doesn't have the 15 HP limit. Wisp got replaced by murloc tinyfin. Magma rager got replaced by ice rager. Doomsayer is gone. Twilight drake is gone. Sea giant is gone. Alexstraza got nerfed to "heal/deal 8 damage." Gadgetzan auctioneer IS STILL in the set. Loot hoarder is still in the set. A lot of the returning cards have gotten slight buffs. Most of the garbage cards that have never seen play are gone. The power level of the set seems good.
Last edited by synth_floyd; 02-25-2021 at 03:37 PM.
Some real weird decisions in the core set. Some thoughts:
Rogue: Evis out, but unbuffed cold blood and sinister strike in? Bladed cultist returns?
Paladin: Not bringing muster for battle back was surprising to me, especially when they included stand against darkness.
Shaman: Draenei Totemcarver back? But flametongue totem is out? Thought they would take this opportunity to unnerf and return it.
Warrior: Very disappointed to see armorsmith, shield slam, execute and brawl all back. Really thought one of those would go.
Neutral: Boar & Bluegill losing charge is kinda sad. Baron Rivendare back is interesting. BGH to 4 is hilarious. Gadgetzan returning is legit shocking. Love the new nozdormu. Love that old alexstraza is gone, have hated that card since forever.
I assume the reason for keeping Gadgetzan is that they have nerfed/removed a lot of the enabler cards. But who knows, it's nearly impossible to balance 10 classes + neutrals over 4 sets every year so stuff always gets through.
I just started testing out Highlander Druid. Needless to say I run against a lot of weapon rogues. I don't understand why Acidic Swamp Ooze isn't an option from Zephyrs. Sometimes I have 3 mana, sometimes 2. When I had 3 mana it even offered me Harrison Jones. It doesn't make any sense.
afaik zeph offers ooze? Unless they changed something recently. The discussion around zeph being frustrating is that it's weapon tech on demand. Idk about your situation tho, zeph does offer some really weird stuff sometimes. But ooze is def in the options it offers.