Curiosity wrote:
I'm only playing in Casual, but it seems like I face the Rogue deck more games than I don't. 4 of the last 5 have played the quest card on turn 5. Turn 6 then sees the 5/5 charges coming into play.
I'm playing ladder , and bouncing around the 17 - 20 mark so nowhere special and i'm seeing a wide range of decks
Curiosity wrote:
I shall look at the Dirty Rat. I don't think they end up with much missing in terms of strength on the board. If they're using glacial shard then your minions can't attack, and they end up with at least a 2/3 or a 3/2 or whatever each turn from the Boatman or Brewmaster. Maybe I've just been unlucky.
I think you probably have just been unlucky , remember they can only have 2 of the shard cards in total , if they play first the need to keep the quest so they have 2 other cards to mulligan which they will want to be a bounce card so even having one of them in hand if you dont have the brewmaster or boatman you'll swap it out (shadowstep is their strongest card and is what you really want from the start because your replays of the cards is basically free)
If you've not used Dirty Rat , it pulls a card out of their deck onto the board , turn 2 its a big gamble but once they have started bouncing the cards its got a good chance of pulling something and even if your not up against the rogue it stops a useful battlecry (although sometimes its pulled some massive card out of their deck which has lost me the game before - swings and roundabouts :-)
Curiosity wrote:
There's been some big ol' power creep on some of the cards too. A 2/2 for 1 mana? 1 mana to give +1/+1 to all minions? 2 mana to give you a 1/1 with +1/+1 to all minions in your hand? 1 mana for a mini-shadow madness? Vol-freaking-cano? Those are some nasty cards.
I have a Murlock / Padadin deck which uses a lot of those 'boost all cards in deck' and again if it hits the right cards is unstoppable - the problem is that it uses a lot of unique cards and a lot of epics so its not the type of thing to just craft on a whim (I'll try and remember to post a list of it tonight its not going to work very well snapping it from my phone).
I agree power creep is a big thing and again back to my complaint above that they only ever nerf cards , they never buff something that needed just a little change to be better (look at that hunter raven card that was everywhere a year or so back - it got changed to a 5 drop and its a piece of crap - i hate when i draw it at random from a 'find a beast' power)
The advantage is that there are some new plays and combos that come out and make other decks usable again.
I have played a lot of priests recently who use one of the first tricks I ever did in the game , get cheap minion out with a high heath , buff it , double it , and then make attack = health
Some of those cheap 2 and 3 point minions with 7 or 8 health are perfect for that - game over at turn 5 when they hit you for 36 points :-)
My most consistently winning deck at the moment is the Warrior quest one , and that's really because every turn your dropping a taunt minion on the deck to block them from hitting you , you get the quest off normally around round 8 or 9 and can start smashing stuff up (again though an expensive deck to craft)