Welcome to another Touchstone Tavern, our weekly roundup of Hearthstone (Free) news and videos. This week we saw even more emphasis on Wild, with Blizzard giving us the first Wild Heroic Brawl ever. Add to that the recent announcement about the upcoming Wild tournament, and it’s pretty clear that Blizzard is starting to increasingly look at the Wild side of the game, which is positive for the game since it offers another entertaining mode. We also have more verdicts on Journey to Un’Goro as well as updated card evaluations. And, as always, we have the best, craziest, and most interesting videos of the week. Let’s jump over the image below and begin.
Behind the Scenes of Hearthstone Development
This story is an interview with Mike Donais and gets into what happens behind the scenes of Hearthstone development. The story talks about how they go about balancing cards, how they went about changing the meta with Un’Goro to help it get out of its stagnancy, how they use data to make predictions and run models to see how the game will develop, and more. Check out the whole story here.
Pros on Un’Goro and Whether the Game’s Getting Too Expensive
This article includes interviews with Reynad, Trump, Amnesiac, and other pros. The pros talk about their impressions of Un’Goro and also about the main complaint of many that the game has become too expensive. Definitely a video worth watching.
Blizzard Unveils Card Rarity Drop Rates
Blizzard’s Chinese Hearthstone website had to reveal the card rarity drop rates due to a new Chinese law, and now we know for sure that what players had guessed in the past so pretty accurate. Every pack contains at least one card of rare of better quality, epic cards appear around once every five packs, and legendaries around one every twenty packs. There’s also confirmation of the “pity timer," which “fixes" the odds in your favor if you’re opening many packs and not getting good cards.
Pros Pick Un’Goros Most Over and Underrated Cards
In this video, eight of the best Hearthstone players look back on their pre-release predictions to see whether they were correct or not. They also talk about some of the most overrated cards and some of the cards that might soon become very popular.
5 Signs of a Bad Player
This story is about how to know you’re up against a bad player, which is good info to have since it can help you plan your plays better. The signs are a player roping pretty much every single turn, spamming emotes, playing cards in the wrong order, playing a deck with the wrong cards, and sending you a friend request after the game. Do you agree with this story, and if yes, have you encountered many such players?
Hearthstone‘s Failure to Innovate
As this title points out, this writer sees Hearthstone as failing to innovate throughout its history. Every cycle, the game ends up with a few established archetypes and most players just following decklists. You can usually predict 90% of the cards in any given deck. And while he doesn’t think this predictability is necessarily a bad thing, it is definitely a sign of meta trends that stifle creativity and innovation. A factor behind this lack of innovation is cards that are clearly stronger than others, which means they’re never played in decks. Check out the whole article here.
Un’Goro’s Misjudged Cards
This article goes into the various cards that people misjudged prior to release. The writer talks about Lakkari Sacrifice, which was way overrated, Fire Plume’s Heart, which was considered junk but ended up being necessary for Taunt Warrior, Stonehill Defender, Gluttonous Ooze, The Caverns Below, Glacial Shard, and Lyra the Sunshard. Check out the reasoning behind the choices here.
Midrange Hunter Deck Guide
If you’re been itching to play Rexxar after Un’Goro, this is a useful guide for you. The guide goes into why Midrange Hunter works so well in the current meta and then talks about decklist and strategies. A pretty good guide that should help you up your Midrange Hunter game.
The Best Wild Decks for May 2017
Wild seems to be picking up steam recently, so this might be a great time to take a walk on the Wild side. This list includes some of the stronger Wild decks out there, like Wild Pirate Warrior, but also slightly weaker ones, such as Wild Reno Mage. The list is long and quite inclusive, so you should definitely check it out if you’re planning on playing some Wild in the near future.
Blizzard Giving Away 3 Packs to Celebrate 70 Million Players
Hearthstone continues to grow and is currently at 70 million registered players, which is a pretty huge number. In celebration, Blizzard is giving players 3 Un’Goro packs throughout the month of May. You’ll get the packs even if you are a new player, so jump into the game to grab them. The game also saw the most concurrent players ever after Un’Goro released, which points to a growing game. Read the whole story here.
Wild Meta Report
As I’ve pointed out earlier, it’s Wild time in the Hearthstone world, so Tempo Storm’s Snapshot is all about the Wild meta. Since the release of Un’Goro, Wild has been moving further away from Standard. Brand new decks are starting to appear and previous Wild decks now come in two or three different versions. Control Shaman continues to be a very powerful deck as is Pirate Warrior. According to the snapshot, the dominance of Pirate Warrior on the Wild ladder is keeping the Wild meta in a consistent state. Midrange decks are nowhere to be found, which allows control decks to do well. The Un’Goro decks haven’t had much impact yet, although Secret Mage and Inner Fire Priest are competitive on the ladder. Check out the whole snapshot here.
WTF Moments #131
Craziest Quest Moments
Saltiest Moments #22
Bots are Back
Kripp Makes a Deck Instead of a Meme
Disguised Toast Misplays
Kripp’s Wild Heroic Brawl
Best Un’Goro Fails #41
That was a Huge Mistake
Insane Arena Deck
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
