Hello everyone, and welcome to a slightly-delayed Touchstone Tavern, our weekly Hearthstone (Free) roundup of great news and videos. As was to be expected, last week was pretty much all about Journey to Un’Goro, the latest expansion, but this time around not everyone was happy about what the expansion has brought to the game. In terms of gameplay, though, people are enjoying putting together new and, occasionally, silly decks. Unsurprisingly, players are already calling for the nerf of some cards, which is always the case when new cards enter the game. We also got a sense of where the meta stands right now, although the top deck might surprise you unpleasantly. Let’s jump into the Un’Goro crater and get started.
The Rogue Quest Raised Power Concerns
By now most players know that the Rogue Quest is a very powerful one because of how quickly players can complete it, and it looks like the designers were also weary of its power. Dean Ayala said that Rogue was one of the scariest quests (along with Mage), but at the same time they wanted to push new decks to the limits. He doesn’t seem to be too worries about Rogue dominating because he thinks aggro decks and Taunt Warrior can take down Rogues relatively easily. Very interesting interview that you should check out.
The Rogue Quest is Broken
While initially players thought that playing 4 minions with the same name would be tedious, it has turned out that it’s very easy to do, which means players get to see the Rogue Quest very often. Thijs has played against a player who completed the Quest on the very first turn of the game. And when that actually happens, the game becomes pretty much unwinnable, although there are some instances when pros have turned it around. According to the writer of this article, Blizzard should probably nerf the Quest by making it 5 rather than 4 minions, but it remains to be seen whether any action will be taken and if yes, when that will happen.
Un’Goro Expects Players to Spend Too Much
I’m sure you’ve heard the complaints about Un’Goro being too expensive, and this story is all about those complaints. The writer says that while “Hearthstone costs too much" is not a recent complaint, players might be right this time around. If you want to win, you have to spend too much money in the post-Un’Goro era. The pre-order packs were disappointing for most, especially in terms of legendaries, and with Quests being a big focus of the expansion, players who haven’t put a lot of money in the game feel left out. The article then brings in Kripparian, who’s recently pointed out that Hearthstone is much more stingy with its packs than other digital card games. You can read the whole story here.
Journey to Un’Goro Has Put Off the Casual Player
According to this story, Hearthstone has become too expensive for casuals to keep up, especially since there aren’t any Adventures anymore. Adventures gave stability because players knew that they could occasionally get their hands on all released cards without spending too much. Now, that sense of stability has been corroded because of the shift to expansions only. Add to that how the Legendary Quests are dominating card decks (the first time single cards have dominated archetypes), and you can see why the game isn’t as attractive to casuals anymore according to this writer. What do you think? If you’re a casual player, are you feeling like the writer of this article?
5 Un’Goro Cards That Already Need a Nerf
Although it’s still early in the Un’Goro meta, this article is all about which 5 cards should face the nerf hammer in their near future. The first is, of course, The Caverns Below Rogue quest, for reasons discussed all over the internet. The second is Ravenous Pterrordax, which lets you destroy a card like Devilsaur Egg and get to Adapt twice. That gives you two really strong minions on the board for relatively cheap. Arcanologist comes in at number 3, with Crackling Razormaw and Tar Creeper 4 and 5. Do you agree, or do you think these cards shouldn’t be candidates for nerfing?
Blizzard Weighs in on Five Favorite Un’Goro Decks
The writer of this article had Peter Whalen, Hearthstone Senior Designer, judge five Un’Goro decks ranging from the ridiculous to the competitive. As to be expected, this idea resulted in a very interesting video, which you can check out below.
Hearthstone Fans Add New Classes and Hundreds of Cards to the Game
There’s been a long discussion over the need or not of new classes in Hearthstone. The developers have said they’re happy with how the game looks right now, but fans always want more. So, some fans of the game used Unity to create an alternate version of the game with more classes and hundreds of new cards. This new Hearthstone has Death Knight, Demon Hunter, and Monk, and the new mechanics are very interesting. Check out the story for more on this new Hearthstone game.
Blizzard Patches Locked-Turn Exploit
As we talked about in last week’s Touchstone, players had discovered that the new spell Shadow Visions could create a pretty big discovery animation loop that would force opponents to miss their turn. Fortunately for those who don’t enjoy exploits, Blizzard came in and patched Shadow Visions so it cannot create copies of itself anymore. So, no worries; from now on, you’ll only have your own skills to blame for losing and not Shadow Visions.
Hearthstone Art Book Coming October 15th
Players always say they really like Hearthstone‘s art, so Blizzard obliged and is creating a book called The Art of Hearthstone, scheduled to come out October 15th. The book will be close to 300 pages long and will offer all kinds of previously-unseen art. This is definitely a must-have for Hearthstone fans. Check out the book here.
Global Games Week 2 Is Underway
The Global Games tournament, which has national teams face each other, is in its second week, and you can watch it all on Hearthstone‘s official Twitch Channel. Today sees countries like Japan and Korea enter the fray while tomorrow, April 19th, sees USA back in action. Check out the standings and the schedule here.
Top Decks of the Week
If you’re looking for some good netdecking, check out the Top Decks of the Week for both Standard and Wild. There is, of course, a Quest Rogue, but also Purify Priest, Taunt Warrior Quest, Reno Sulfuras, and many more. Check them all out here, and happy netdecking.
Meta Report
It’s been a while since we’ve needed Tempo Storm’s Snapshot to tell us what’s going on in the meta, given that the pre-Un’Goro meta was stale for a very long time. According to Tempo Storm’s experts, Un’Goro has brought plenty of changes to the game, but Pirate Warrior remains the top deck, especially since it can easily punish ambitious and unrefined decks. Miracle Rogue comes second because of the many new cards that fit the deck well. Quest Warrior and Quest Rogue complete the Tier 1 decks.
Tier 2 contains plenty of unrefined decks—Murloc Paladin, Purify Priest, and Mid-Range Hunter among them. What’s promising is the ton of decks of all kinds of classes in the first three Tiers, something that, hopefully, means we’ll have many solid and viable decks even a few weeks from now.
Trump’s Midrange Hunter
Kripp Really Hates Meteor
Un’Goro Daily Moments #385
WTF Moments #126
Sherazin is Amazing
Parody of The Caverns Below
Biggest Un’Goro Fails
Quest Priest is Amazing
Midrange Hunter on a Budget
Best of Adapt
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.
Hearthstone Deck-building Guide
