Hearthstone

[Mánagarmr]

Yet I seem to remember competent "high level" HS players claiming Jaraxxus is terribad. Terribad as in "should never ever be played." I don't play HS so I can't tell, I just remember that being the idea. I'm also amused there is such a thing as "high level play" in HS. Personally it's *too* simple for me to enjoy it. There aren't any options beyond "that one ultimate deck". No resource mechanic, no saccing mechanic...I just feel it lacks compared to other card games.


That said, I personally find MTG to be too complicated and has a very odd resource system.

[Wingflier]

Jaraxxus may be terrible in high level play (it probably is), but then again, high level play is LITERALLY dominated by a handful of decks (say 5 or so) with very little variation between them. When you have access to EVERY card, as the high level players who have spent thousands on the game do, most cards, by comparison to the best, are terribad by their very nature.

However, Jaraxxus against a person who only has access to the F2P cards and whatever else they've won simply by playing is Terrigood.

Also, on Misery's point: Deathwing seems like a balanced Legendary to me. It costs 10 mana, and when played, clears the entire board AND forces the player to discard his hand. It's also considered worthless in competitive play, so there's that.

[Mánagarmr]

Jaraxxus may be terrible in high level play (it probably is), but then again, high level play is LITERALLY dominated by a handful of decks (say 5 or so) with very little variation between them. When you have access to EVERY card, as the high level players who have spent thousands on the game do, most cards, by comparison to the best, are terribad by their very nature.

However, Jaraxxus against a person who only has access to the F2P cards and whatever else they've won simply by playing is Terrigood.

Also, on Misery's point: Deathwing seems like a balanced Legendary to me. It costs 10 mana, and when played, clears the entire board AND forces the player to discard his hand. It's also considered worthless in competitive play, so there's that.

Probably the same as with Jaraxxus. If you get to the point where you can play him, you have probably already won, so the card doesn't actually do anything, and if you are behind, it won't save you regardless.

[Misery]

Jaraxxus may be terrible in high level play (it probably is), but then again, high level play is LITERALLY dominated by a handful of decks (say 5 or so) with very little variation between them. When you have access to EVERY card, as the high level players who have spent thousands on the game do, most cards, by comparison to the best, are terribad by their very nature.

However, Jaraxxus against a person who only has access to the F2P cards and whatever else they've won simply by playing is Terrigood.

Also, on Misery's point: Deathwing seems like a balanced Legendary to me. It costs 10 mana, and when played, clears the entire board AND forces the player to discard his hand. It's also considered worthless in competitive play, so there's that.

Agreed on everything.  Except Deathwing, I dont know much about that.

And the problem for me is... honestly, I'd rather play at the level where Jaraxxus is crazy good, because it's interesting, then the level where there are like 2 and a half different decks that people ever use.  It ends up feeling like playing a fighting game ranked... everyone just does the same boring things, over and over....  the difference is, in a fighter, I can do MY own thing and win anyway.  But a CCG just doesnt work that way, as a rule.   I'd be bored in high level play in this, honestly.  I like variety.  Sure, Arena can definitely provide that, but.... again, restricted entry.   Among other issues.   Even in unranked play though some things are getting overly frequent and thus getting on my nerves, like the blasted "mech mage", which I'm already tired of. 

[Wingflier]

For me in unranked it's Ragnoros Firelord. I'm not even exaggerating, it's in EVERY SINGLE DECK. It's basically the "I win" button deals 8 damage in the same turn and you better hope you have a Big Game Hunter in your hand or GG.

[Mánagarmr]

For me in unranked it's Ragnoros Firelord. I'm not even exaggerating, it's in EVERY SINGLE DECK. It's basically the "I win" button deals 8 damage in the same turn and you better hope you have a Big Game Hunter in your hand or GG.

Yeah, since Rag fires on the end of your turn, that's 8 guaranteed damage straight out of the box. And since he has 8 health, he's really hard to get rid of without some epic kind of removal.

[Mick]

It appears that Undertaker was just nerfed. A reasonable change I think.

[Wingflier]

It appears that Undertaker was just nerfed. A reasonable change I think.

Holy hell, they MEGA nerfed him. They changed it from +1 attack and +1 life per deathrattle creature to just +1 attack, without altering his base stats. I'm surprised that they didn't at least give him an extra life point to compensate, in which case he would have been almost identical to the Mage's Mana Wyrm which also starts with 1/3, and gets +1 attack per spell cast. Though, in fairness I suppose, it's much easier to play early game deathrattle creatures than it is to play early game spells, which are generally more expensive, at least the good ones. So all in all, I guess it was a decent change, though I don't much expect to see Undertaker played anymore.

What a complete balance blunder on Blizzard's part.

Constructed is what I'm used to with these, so I'll end up doing it the most.  Arena has a cost to it, which annoys me a bit;  typically when I'm interested in a particular mode in a particular game, I'm probably going to want to play it like 20 times in a row;  cannot do that with Arena.  So I've ended up just not having very much interest and have just been using gold on card packs. 

Technically you *can* do that with Arena. There's a technique called "infinite arena" which allows you to keep playing Arena again and again as long as you obtain enough wins on each run to either break even or above 7 wins.

Without playing hundreds of Arena runs (or being some sort of card game genius) this would be difficult at best, however there's a nifty little tool that drafts Arena decks for you, giving you the best possible combinations of decks based on the cards you have to choose from. It's an awesome free utility. You do have to sign up for it but it's free.

With the help of that and from watching some pros stream Arena (Hafu is my favorite, just watch some of her), I've become an infinite arena player. I'd like to hit the big 12 but 11 is the best I've done so far. However, I commonly get 7 or more, enough to pay for my run and get the 'free' deck at the very least.

In terms of constructed decks, that would probably only be fun for me about a month after a new expansion was added. Anything after that has already most likely been figured out by the best players, given the simplistic nature of the card game itself, and the best decks at that point can simply be googled online and then crafted at will.

[Mick]

I don't think it is a balance blunder. Undertaker is still solid as a 1/2 for one, and his change simply brings his extra ability in line with other one drops. The mana warm is not a correct comparison because class specific cards are balanced differently.

[Misery]

In terms of constructed decks, that would probably only be fun for me about a month after a new expansion was added. Anything after that has already most likely been figured out by the best players, given the simplistic nature of the card game itself, and the best decks at that point can simply be googled online and then crafted at will.

Ugh, yeah, that's why I havent really bothered with the ranked mode.  Because inevitably, it just becomes the same thing over and over, and then it's like, what's the point?  And I hate just using decks others have constructed anyway.  Boring.

That arena thing though... ehhh.  On one hand, I'm surprised a tool like that exists.  On the other hand, it doesnt speak well about the game's depth.   Really wish it was a deeper game, really... it'd be so much more interesting and hold my attention alot better.  Currently my interest in it just rises and falls at random, I dont end up completely sticking to it.   Buuuuut, it being a game of this type that actually has a large playerbase, thus meaning it's super easy to find matches, it's the one to play.  Particularly as I am only awake during the night, so it's typically impossible to get matches going in any game that has a smallish population to it. 


I swear, outside of the moba genre, and the FPS genre that I typically wont touch, it's bloody impossible to find much in the way of really good multiplayer games.  Selection ends up so limited.  As it is I'll probably end up jumping back into Magic Online soon here.

[Mánagarmr]

I agree with you there Misery. My multiplayer experience right now is limited to SMITE for MOBAs, Age of Wonders III for TBS and Supreme Commander for RTS. Though I might replace or supplement that last one with Grey Goo, if it turns out well enough.


Cards I still stick to Shadow Era for.

[Wingflier]

Hey mana, King got me into FAF recently, I'm looking for people to play with. Fancy adding me to your friends list? It's Wingflier on Steam.

[Mánagarmr]

Hey mana, King got me into FAF recently, I'm looking for people to play with. Fancy adding me to your friends list? It's Wingflier on Steam.

I just recently uninstalled FAF/SupCom due to lack of time to play. But I might get back to it later if GreyGoo turns out to be meh.

[Wingflier]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=forbes+cthun (Direct link not working, use this link and it's the first result)

In the spirit of being a Necromancer, I decided I'd rez this one to talk about this new mechanic, C'thun. This Forbes writer seems to find this mechanic to be very frustrating, to say the least.

[TheVampire100]

I played it when it came out and I was probably one of the few who didn't jump on C'thun on release day. To be honest, this expansion is the sole reason I stopped playing Hearthstone.
The whole thing is a mess and no, the fair chance that everyone gets C'thun does not even this out. The thing is, even if you get C'thun for free, he himself is not that powerful to begin with. It are his minions/servants, that make him so powerful. People who preordered the expansion got of course all the servants they needed on day 1 and dominated from that day the ranked play. It does not matter what you do, the enemy will always use a stall tactic (which works pretty good in most cases) and then summon C'thun as soon as he can. If he does, you are done for. Even if you survive his onslaught, there is only a barren wasteland left where your minions have been before. You have no fair chance of countering him. well, there are of course SOME counters but they all react when he is already in play, not when he enters, so he still will unleash his powerful fury.
Polymorph can at least make him harmless after that (if you have it) but what then? You have barely enough HP left and probably all your minions used already because the enemy stalled you so long. There is currently (in my case) no good counter for those types of decks, so I stopped playing.
The grind for new card packs isn't worth the bulshit you have to deal with.
And yes, absolut everyone had those types of decks, no exception. This is understandable because he was new, he was free and he was easy to use but it's still bullshit. I could get a C'thun deck myself but what is the point?
Nerf Now did a very good one-shot comic about this topic which somes it all up:

Spoiler for Hiden:

If both players have a C'thun deck, the player who can feed C'thun more will win. And I'm not doing this kind of nonsense. I really hate it when a game has no varity left anymore and this release did exactly that. Maybe it is better now, people could be bored of him already and start playing their old decks again. But I won't come back. I'm done!

I cannot open your link btw, it just sends me on the front page.