Welcome to another weekly roundup of all things Hearthstone (Free). This has been a relatively quiet week in the world of Hearthstone; call it a pre-BlizzCon lull if you wish. The dust from the nerfs has settled, and the results aren’t that encouraging in terms of meta variety. I’m hoping that the upcoming expansion (?) news during BlizzCon will usher a crazier meta than the one we have currently. Speaking of BlizzCon, we now have the full lineup for the upcoming World Championship, and I’m hoping we get some great matches this year. There’s also talk of new features coming to the game, although we’ll see how accurate that is. So, please, step right in.
Expansion News Might be Coming November 4th at BlizzCon
We usually get some kind of Hearthstone news at BlizzCon, and I don’t expect this time to be any different. According to the schedule, we should be hearing more about the game’s future in the “Hearthstone – What’s Next" panel taking place November 4th at 12:30 PST. The panel’s description declares they have some news to share on what’s coming down the road, but the question will be how firm that news will be. Hopefully we’ll get news about the next expansion and then have the expansion release soon after.
Blizzard Survey Points to New Features
Blizzard has recently sent out a survey testing the waters for possible future features. Hard to know how seriously these features are being considered or which ones are more possible than others, but the list is still interesting. As we wrote about in our story, there are features such as a campaign mode, a new co-op mode, an offline mode, better ways to play with friends, a new tournament mode, and more. There were even questions regarding satisfaction with Standard and Wild. I have no idea what will come out of this survey, but it’s good to know that Blizzard is looking at ways to expand the game.
Top 5 Post-Karazhan Legendaries
If you’ve been itching to use some of that stored dust, this guide will help you craft the right Legendaries in the post-Karazhan world. As the video instructs, you should go with Ragnaros the Firelord, Bloodmage Thanos, Sylvanas, Harrison Jones, and Yogg-Saron, the last one being a surprise choice post-nerf. Check out the video for a more detailed analysis behind those choices.
Wacky Wild Decks
If you’re tired of playing Standard all the time and wish to live a bit on the wild side of life, check out these Wild decks. You can play a Pirate Rogue with Tinker’s Sharpsword Oil, an N’Zoth Priest with Lightbomb and Justicar, or the much-maligned Secret Paladin with Dr. Boom. There are even more decks to choose from, so check them all out here.
Discardlock Guide
Blizzard has been trying to make Discrardlock a thing for some time, and this guide tries to give you a leg up in making this deck work for you. Discardlock floods the board with cheap minions just like Zoolock and is a deck you can put together relatively cheaply. The deck in this guide costs 1280 dust, which is pretty good, but it does use two Karazhan cards. The guide is on the short side but it does give you some mulligan advice and general strategy tips.
Remembering Warsong Commander and Patron Warrior
Do you remember the olden days when you got hit by Grim Patrons in the face repeatedly until you quit from frustration or lost? Don’t you miss those times? No? Well, neither do I. This story looks back at the time before Warsong Commander was nerfed to near-irrelevancy and talks about the kinds of things Patron Warrior could pull off. If you have nostalgia-tinted glasses about this deck, watching the video below will make you take them off and step on them.
Hearthstone World Championship Lineup Complete
It’s been a long year for the pro community, but the journey to BlizzCon 2016 and the World Championship has reached the end (almost). We now have the full list of the players ready to challenge each other over the title of World Champion and the accompanying prize. The Americas will be represented by bbgungun, Amnesiac, Cydonia, HotMeowth, Europe by Pavel, Thijs, Naiman, and DrHippi, Korea by Kim Cheonsu, DDaHyooNi, Yulsic, and handsomeguy, and China by Breath, Jason Zhou, OmegaZero, and Hamster. Good luck to all of them and I hope they put on a great show.
Americas Last Call 2016 Decks
If you want a treasure trove of information about Americas Last Call, check this story. Here you can study all 40 decklists along with some interesting infographics that break down various distributions. For instance, there is an equal number of Shaman, Druid, and Mage decks, with Hunter and Warrior close behind. Rogue, Paladin, and Priest are way down the list, unsurprisingly. In terms of archetypes, Tempo Mage and Midrange Shaman lead the way with Spell Druid right behind them followed by Discard Warlock and Midrange Hunter. Ragnaros the Firelord is the most used Legendary with Barnes and Thalnos tied for second. And finally, the recently-nerfed cards are still around excluding Charge and Tuskarr Totemic. You can read even more detailed information here.
Celestial Invitational NSL Brings Innovative Formats
Team Celestial, Tempo Storm, and other organizations have partnered up to organize a tournament where the format will change each week, making for some fun viewing. Four of the five weeks will use the Last Hero Standing format with different sets of cards allowed each week. The fifth week will be Conquest mode. Players will have to bring decks from all classes to every match and play a best of seventeen, which means each series will take quite some time to complete but will also force pros to showcase their skills with all classes. Players invited to the tournament are Rdu, Lifecoach, Xixo, Dog, Thijs, and more. I like the idea of this tournament, and I’ll be checking it out to see how it works in practice.
Meta Report
When Blizzard announce the latest nerfs, Reynad came out and said that all the nerfs were doing is making Shaman even stronger by nerfing the classes that could compete with it. And, as the Tempo Storm meta report points out, he was right. The gap between Midrange Shaman and the other decks hasn’t narrowed but, actually, has increased to the point where Midrange Shaman is the only Tier 1 class right now. As a result, the meta is now all about either playing Midrange Shaman or a deck that counters it well. Dragon Warrior and Aggro Shaman have dropped post-nerf while Freeze Mage has risen again. In other words, all hail King Midrange Shaman, again.
Mythbusters #23
Fail Moments #22
Epic Plays #133
Best of Babbling Book
Kripparian on Prince Malchezaar
6 Ragnaros (Ragnari?) in a Game
Trump on Patron in 2016
Trolden’s Videos #188
Reasons to Play Medivh
Kolento on Knowing Your Win Condition
As always, we have some good resources on the site for you in case you are new to the game or simply want to sharpen up your game. There’s never such a thing as too much help in Hearthstone, so check out our guides.
One Night in Karazhan Prologue Guide
One Night in Karazhan Wing 1 Normal and Heroic Guide
One Night in Karazhan Wing 2 Normal and Heroic Guide
One Night in Karazhan Wing 3 Normal and Heroic Guide
One Night in Karazhan Wing 4 Normal and Heroic Guide
Hearthstone Deck-building Guide
