Be Excellent To Each Other

Gallery of all GvG cards: http://imgur.com/a/GCNo4

In a word, fuck me. It'll be a whole new game.

Also three nerfs coming with the patch. Get your dusting wands ready:

The following balance changes will be made in an upcoming patch:

Soulfire now costs 1 (up from 0)
Soulfire, along with fast and powerful minions, allowed Warlock rush decks to get ahead on the board and stay ahead. We’ve upped Soulfire’s mana cost by 1 to slow down the Warlock rush deck just a bit and allow more players time to react and interact against the Warlock.

Gadgetzan Auctioneer now costs 6 (up from 5)
Gadgetzan Auctioneer’s ability allows for a player to potentially draw many cards for little cost. Card draw and card advantage are important to the game—overall, games are less interesting when a player draws their entire deck. This change brings Gadgetzan Auctioneer’s cost more in line with its power level.

Flare now costs 2 (up from 1)
Flare allowed the Hunter an advantage versus decks that revolve around Secrets, while also allowing the Hunter to draw a card for little cost. We want to encourage a variety of decks in Hearthstone. With this change, Flare will continue to be useful against decks playing Secrets, but will be weaker against other decks

Cheerio Miracle Rogue, Hunter slightly less bullshit, and Warlock slowed down a bit.

Also a card that steals secrets! About fucking time. Fuck you fucking secret mage/hunter.

WTF

Cant link but about card 5 in the list is 'V-07-TR-0N'

7 point card , with charge and mega windfury - attacks 4 times - its a 4 / 8 so on turn 7 if you dont have a block out this card by itself can hit you for 16 points , if you can buff it in some way to add a few more points it could be an instant kill ?

It's only called by Mirimon's Head, which needs 3 mechs on the board and destroys them. Hard combo to pull off.

Now about card 20 and got to Mimi - iron , which seems to suggest that V-07-TR-0N is a card created if you have 3 mechs + this so I guess thats better to stop it than it being an actual card to play

Soulfire change seems reasonable, if you get the right hand early on the free Soulfire (i.e. you don't discard anything) can be seriously nasty. It won't destroy Zoo that's for sure.

Auctioneer nerf is a shitter, Miracle Rogue has already been nobbled in various ways without the need to do that IMO. It's not exactly rampant on the ladder after all......

Flare is a very powerful card in the right context but I'm not convinced it was that much of a problem.

But yeah, overall the game is going to get turned upside down, I will rely on folks like Trump to explain it all to me.

Flare change is fine - its one of those cards you *need* to have as a hunter if your facing enemies with secret cards but if you are facing anyone without its a 'waste' of a draw - the mech to steal secrets may work out as a better card overall (I do like firing off flare when a mage has stacked secrets or its great when they are almost dead and you use it to knock out that 'dont die' secret card and then finish them off - in that way having it as a 2 point card stops me playing it along with King Krush :-( )

Saw an interesting statistical breakdown of the GvG set on reddit about how on average, accounting for probability, you'll need to open 272 packs on average to complete the set. I think this also took into account disenchanting dust along the way and putting it back into getting the last few cards.

Apparently we'll get a free Arena run and 3 GvG packs to start us off, so that's at least 4 packs as a starter. Roll on 8th Dec!

I'm really fucked off about the Auctioneer nerf, for a laugh I decided to try and do my daily quest out in Ranked with Miracle Rogue, two wins with Rogue required.

Dropped from one win off Rank 17 to Rank 20 before I got the two wins, got absolutely fucking destroyed, and I know how to play this deck reasonably well. The meta has turned against this deck massively, the Naxx cards did the job.

What the fuck are they nerfing this card for? Even before the nerf it's mostly a dead (but fun to play!) deck, with Auctioneer at 6 they may as well just delete Miracle Rogue from the game.

It seems to me like a pre-emptive nerf because all the spare parts are spells in GvG, which is shoddy work on Blizz's part IMO.

Blizz aren't getting any more fucking money out of me for this game, they can just have my cash for WoW instead, which has come back for Warlords of Draenor in excellent shape, unlike Hearthstone which they seem to be trying to fuck up.

Yeah, that'll show 'em

Well actually it's two lots of WoW cash, because Mrs Hearthly and Hearthly Jnr are playing it on their own account, so instead of no cash spent on Hearthstone for seven months and now NO MORE, they're getting a steady £18 per month instead.

I did have my tongue in cheek when I wrote that sentence BTW

Very funny start to the month. I probably played 100 games before I hit rank 16 in November, and now I'm there after 9 games and only 1 loss.

The card is *not* a rouge special card , I've had it played against me for long chains of cards in many other decks (recently it seems to be a warrior favorite) so I dont see how bad adding another mana point to it is ?

Well that's kind of the point, for other classes that run Auctioneer (and not many will run with two), they can make use of him in a far wider range of circumstances and don't need to pile through their deck like Miracle Rogue does. (My shammy deck uses an Auctioneer but he's a 'nice bonus' rather than a pivotal element like he is in Miracle Rogue.)

The only deck the increase to 6 really hurts is Miracle Rogue, which is a deck that already got knackered by Naxx and the Leeroy nerf, Blizz are trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist any more, and if they really did want to fix it when it was a problem, they needed to act months ago.

Kripp reviews the last batch of cards :-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBCmW9Y ... e=youtu.be

** Please note - You need an hour to spare but it is worth it **

I like the way you mithered and mithered me to play this game and as soon as got in to it you sacked it off. Cheers for that.

You know fine well that next week when he opens his free cards and gets one really special one that he'll be back into it and playing 18 hours a day.

Just imagine its a Fruit machine that caned him for £200 before dropping a jackpot and he says "I'll never touch that f*cker again" , and you know that the next day when you pass by he'll be standing there shoveling coins in the slot.

I sent you a WoW invite!

Anyway as zaphod says, new cards here in a few days which will shake it all up again. (Plus I still do play Hearthstone every day, just not as much as I used to.)

Goblins Vs Gnomes cards are now live in the Arena - and you get a free Arena run

Heh, great way of getting people to spend all their saved gold before the gvg card packs are available

INTEREST PIQUED - I'm drawing for my free Arena run now

Crazy new cards!

3:3 on the free Arena run, won three and then lost three, but I conceded the last two before I lost, the next to last it was probably all over, but the last one was on about Turn 5 and could have gone either way, but it was just pissing me off, I remember now why I don't play Arena any more - it's supremely annoying.

Then again so is Ranked these days with the state of the meta.

Hopefully GvG can fix it and get back to it being fun, but considering what Blizz chose to do with the Auctioneer, I'm not betting on it.

That card that gains 2/2 every time your hero takes damage? It's a fucking monster card for warlock. My prediction is that is the only deck in ranked for the foreseeable future until it gets nerfed.

I'm going to wait until the whole thing settles down before getting properly involved again, (may even drop the daily quests if they're taking too long to do), I watch a Trump video most nights before I go to bed anyway (I find him calming and tranquil), so that'll give me a good lead-in with where to go with the GvG cards.

I'm at 2000 gold now so that's 20 packs minimum to kick into the new cards with, which will hopefully give me a decent foundation to start with, and of course I have a very solid collection of original cards, and all the Naxx cards.

With WoW on the go once more Hearthstone is very much Game #2, and will be allocated time appropriately!

What's your issue with the ranked meta? I practically never see Rush decks there any more. Getting a real mix of different decks to play against and enjoying it a lot.

Whenever he goes into a WoW frenzy you can ignore anything he types, it is all nonsense.

I'll try and did out my posts from earlier in this thread about it (before I got back into WoW again Nemmie ) but it's basically the way it breaks the established mechanics of the game (no more than two of each card per deck, for example) and is so violently random, and the way it adapts to how you're doing on the run.

So like last night for example I put together a pretty sensible Warrior deck, picking a few of the new cards that looked like they'd work OK with the class, and won three on the trot.

Then I had the most appalling draw against a Warlock who must have been gifted his hand by Jesus himself (a rushy style deck with spookily good mech synergy), but then I'm thinking 'well maybe it's the adaptive skill level or maybe I've just been unlucky or has he just been lucky.....' - and at that point I got annoyed so I conceded when I'd clearly lost.

So then I got annoyed so I damn near chucked the fifth game and for the sixth game I was just pissed off so despite me getting off to a strong start and having great cards in my hand his responses were really annoying me because they were so perfect and I conceded in anger whilst arguably in the better position.

This is why I haven't played Arena for months.

There's no way I'm playing Arena until the reward changes to the GvG packs, otherwise it's entirely pointless. Being able to play with them early is, as said above, just a cheeky way to try to tempt some of your gold out of you.

I'm holding fast until the proper release, and all of the money will be sunk into Arena where on average I'll get more than 1 pack per 100g. Based on my historical Arena play I'm getting 1 pack per 75g plus other bonuses like one-off card rewards and dust.

Normally I might think this is too much grind when just buying a pack is easier (and I've been doing that lately because I haven't had the time), but with the new cards in Arena it'll be more fun to play, plus the reward of the GvG pack on top.

I've tediously updated my spreadsheet to incorporate the new cards. It boils down to 8 new class cards each, 2 common, 3 rare, 2 epic and a legendary, and then 52 new neutrals. Cheerfully I finish work for Christmas on the 8th, so while I do have other stuff to do, I should have some time to plough through all my gold in Arena, at least.

Have you got a handy card list so I can nerd out and do the same?

I did my free arena last night, and had terrible luck. Ending on 1/3.
Bit the bullet and did another run this morning, much better card draw (including a lot more GvG cards than the last one this time!) and came out at 6/3, so got my money back Plus I got a gadgetzan auctioneer in the pack, so that was a nice bonus.

I'm currently at 1300ish gold and 4300ish dust.

I said ranked meta, not Arena, Hearthly! The ranked meta is now way more about control decks than rush (from my experience), so surprised you don't like it.

Lazy buggers.

I've put the class-specific cards in their own tabs rather than in one GvG list.

You've stripped all the bloody costs out again So now I can't sort them properly.

Ooops, sorry

TBH I may be a bit out of date on the Ranked meta because I've almost exclusively been playing Casual for weeks now, that said I have played a fair few Ranked games this season and there's no shortage of hunters and zoo locks out there as best I can tell.

A slower, more considered Ranked meta would be excellent though, so if that's the way it's gone/going and/or the GvG cards push it even more in that direction, then that's good news IMO.

Having loads of fun with the new cards. I feel like a noob all over again

But what a pain that the devs have, once again, broken ALT-TAB ...........

I got that one in my arena run as a Warlock - so tapping it gains 2/2 , playing a flame imp it gains 2/2 , killing an enemies leper gnome it gains 2/2 - both times i got to play it i won (one game it was a 10/10 by the end the other an 8/8)

I also got the 'weird portal' card which drops a random minion into your hand that costs 2 less and got 2 new legendaries , one of which was the one which goes back into your deck when it dies and the other was a Hunter only so with this you could get any card which you can play early

There is a theory that the portal card is bugged, as it is bringing back way too many legendaries for everyone at the moment.

Well I only drew the card twice , played it twice and got a legendary twice :-)

My version of the spreadsheet, updated for GvG. I've done a separate summary page for Classic and GvG and combined, for both normal and gold cards...

Mildly interesting stat of the day. Once GvG is released, you will need to collect 1008 cards in total, for a full collection...

I've used the Asia and NA accounts to do the free GvG Arenas. Middling success, many of the new cards do unexpected things, making the losses even more top-decking reversal bullshit.

Also had some stonking wins.

Also that 5-cost 8/8 that discards 3 cards when your opponent plays a card. DO NOT PICK IT. IT DOESN'T WORK GOOD.

Well Miracle Rogue is fucked. More fucked than it was before the Gadgetzan nerf of evil pointlessness.

Going from 5 to 6 mana doesn't sound like it'd necessarily be a big deal but it really is, especially with all the extra stuff the deck already has to deal with since Naxx (Loatheb, more taunts, Leeroy nerf, and suchlike).

A straight Gadgetzan > Conceal play is now Turn 7, and as you can imagine, that's often too late. On top of that you need to burn through more cards to maintain control early on, which leaves you less spells to play later in the game.

Also of course, your opponent knows early on he's up against Miracle, and Loatheb is an auto-include in so many decks, and your opponent knows when you can play Gadgetzan. Whereas before Loatheb was very dangerous to Miracle, now he's absolutely a game-breaker.

Also, in the past you could sacrifice one Gadgetzan or at least let him go for cheap if you had the other one in hand, but now the requirement for two 6 drops as opposed to two 5 drops, makes a major impact on the viability of the play.

Total exercise in frustration to play now, even in Casual.

So that's bye bye Miracle Rogue, one of most fun and skilful decks to play IMO, and congratulations to Blizzard for responding to the meta as it was about six fucking months ago. In the meantime Huntards get a fucking Flare nerf, amazeballs.

As such I've had to find a replacement deck for quests that demand Druid/Rogue wins, and I've decided to have a pop with this fast-ish Druid Naxx style deck (pinched from Icy Veins). Had to dust my golden Bloodmage Thalnos to make the Ancient of Lores (which amazingly I had zero of!), but it's a fun deck to play and seems pretty effective too.

Well, I've played four or five free Arenas and haven't gotten past a 3/3.

The match-up system seems to be, if you get to three wins, give nothing but fucking bullshit opponents that you can't beat, after the first three wins were very easy.

That's one of the MANY REASONS why Arena just does my nut in.

There's already a lot of RNG in this game, Arena introduces more to an unacceptably biblical extent IMO.

I've had games where I've won with awful decks and even awful plays, just because my opponent appeared to be a blind idiot. Then I've had an epic deck and played it well, only to be beaten by a deck and card draw bestowed upon my opponent by God himself. (And similarly I've had wins where I've thought to myself, 'Jesus, that was so damn perfect, no one in the world could have beaten me, but I just got lucky'.)

You also don't know how Blizzard are doing the adaptive shit behind the scenes, or when they're changing it, or how they're changing it, so in effect you're not even sure what the rules are. Maybe they have tightened up the match-making, or you just had a bad run - who knows? At least in Casual/Ranked the rules for the cards are the same for everyone, a mage isn't going to turn up with five fucking fireballs or three polys.

One thing I will say is Curio is right about the meta in Ranked, it does seem to have slowed down a fair bit, got some great games out in Ranked yesterday with that Druid deck (once I'd mostly got my head around it in Casual, that game you came into spectate was not a good example ), which isn't a deck I've had fancied last month with all the rampant hunters and zoo.

Looking forward to the GvG cards, got 2200 gold ready to spend on packs and putting on 50-80 per day depending on the quest I get, haven't had the 100 quest for ages now though.

I love the unpredictability of Arena, that's why I play it as it keeps the game interesting, rather than just facing the same cookie cutters builds game after game.
I've played a lot of Arena games and average over 3 wins, so skill does play a small part...

I'm 1-2 in the Arena, but have a lousy deck - my fault as I got some good cards at the start, but aimed to get some synergy and ended up failing miserably.

I'm normally 5 or 6 wins, but at the moment I'm dead at 3. Even watching Trump play GvG Arena, estimating 7, 8 wins, and he also gets 3.

Things are different, yes, but I think the match-up system has also been fiddled to be far more punishing.

Surely it can't be more punishing for everyone at once?

I could have been fiddled with to make it fairer. 3/3 should be the average for everyone, so if you regularly get above that and are now pushed down to that sort of level, then it would seem more punishing...

I think more like, if you get to 3-0 or 3-1, you're now put up against someone who is also 3-0, except they have a 12-0 deck and you have a 7-3 deck. Or they might put you up against someone who is already 7-0 because neither of you have lost yet.

Either way, the match-ups seem more disparate and go from 'challenging but managed to win it' to 'Fucking steamrollered without a chance in hell'.

Trump was blaming bad variance, but I'm not so sure. The release tomorrow is sure to be fun, as I'm only spending my gold on Arenas for maximum GvG play/pack value. You're all welcome to snoop on my progress in the new Observation mode

GvG now live in America!

Battle.net servers now down in America!

Every. Single. Time.

2310 gold is my final tally ready for tomorrow, so that's 23 packs of GvG cards to open, which will be rather exciting. Except I have no real idea of what's good and bad when I'm opening them, apart from the odd one that's stuck in my mind from the Trump commentary.

Should be an interesting few weeks in the game!