Hearthstone Cards Discussion

[Talavaj]

Hello there, I made this topic to discus which cards do people like or otherwise.
Do you have a card that you quite literally build your deck around ?
Do you have a card you see people using but you can't quite tap its potential ? Do you have a card that you simply hate ? That is flatout junk or instead overpowered ?
Or did you just get a card you have no idea about and want to know what the other people think ?

Be it a spell/minion/weapon what ever !
So here goes a few of mine:

Savannah Highmane (link) - really good card a 6/5 for 6 cost is about as much as you would expect with its deathrattle. When compared to Cairne (one of the higher ranked legendaries) you get a 6/5 and double 2/2 compared to two 4/5 with Cairne.
Now I'm gonna say Highmane is a better card, with Cairne you get two yetis which essentially equals 8 cost. Savannah gives you a so-so something like a 5.5 coster and two so-so 1.5 costers but when silenced gives you a clearly better 6/5.
Not to mention it synergyzes with the rest of the hunter deck just so well.

Aldor Peacekeeper(link) - at 3/3 for 3 cost this card would be simple enough but it also gives you a free humility ! Essentially a poor-man's Tinkmaster that can turn that 8/8 giant into a 1/8 meatwall.

Defender of Argus (link) - 2/3 is a tad weak for a 4 drop but with 1/1 AND taunt to adjacent minions this card becomes extremely obnoxious. Essentially an upgraded Sunfury Protector.

Now some things I have very mixed opinions about.
Doomhammer (link) - at 5(+2) cost this thing looks expensive enough, sure it gives a total 16 damage output but in silly 2 damage bursts.
Using it on minions does not sound like an option because at turn 5+ hardly anything will have 2 health and hitting things twice on a class with no armor or heals sounds like a really stupid idea.
Thus the card becomes a direct damage arsenal abusing rockbiter for 10 damage hits per turn but as great as that sounds it is very limited.
It is one of the cards I see very polarized opinions about, some think it is among the best shaman cards ever, some think the opposite.

Now what are the cards you love/hate ?

 

[PurgeandFire]

I agree with your list. I even run 2 highmanes in my hunter deck. Peacekeeper is ridiculously good for shifting momentum, and if the other player plays venture co. mercenary, they can be really screwed (either through that or humility). And I always try to get at least one argus for arenas/decks. As for doomhammer, it is only good paired with rockbiter-otherwise it is usually too much damage to take. And rockbiter can usually be served in better ways.

Sunwalker (link) - The taunt + divine shield is just great. This card usually trades for 2-3 enemy units, or it provokes a removal. It works pretty well in arena decks overall, especially considering some people might not have removals or silences. It isn't all to great in constructed though due to The Black Knight. Speaking of which...

The Black Knight (http://www.hearthhead.com/card=1656/the-black-knight) - Nothing is better than getting a removal and bringing out a minion (essentially a yeti with a 2-mana removal!). He eats ironbark protectors for breakfast. I'd play him in most of my decks (if only I had him ;-.

Frothing Berserker (link) - Easily my favorite warrior unit. I'm always afraid to put it out because he usually baits a removal--but otherwise he is really, really strong. For only 3 mana, you get this ticking time bomb. If you have a lot of minions, you can combine it with whirlwind to rack up insane damage. It is even better if you have a warsong commander on the field.

Lightning Storm (link) - This card is painful. I literally have to be so careful against shamans (esp. with wrath of air totem) to make sure they can't dish this out. Some shammy tactics revolve around turtling/spawning totems and saving cards, and then doing a thalnos + lightning storm. It is essentially a mini-flamestrike.

Divine Favor (link) - It is always nice to have this in your hand. It lets you go all-out without worrying about falling super short on cards (that is, unless your opponent falls short too). Even then, it is really strong. I think I've drawn up to 6 cards with it (it is pretty good against locks, esp. ones who focus on mountain giants or the drakes).

Shadow Word: Death (link) - It is a cheap removal for big units. What else is there to say? Priests may get screwed over by 4 hp units, but it isn't too bad of a trade-off considering how cheap their removals are.

Flamestrike just kinda goes without saying. I've learned to manage with it, even as frustrating as it is (it is still really difficult to deal with it).

Sword of Justice (link) - It is just wonderful. I literally got screwed over by this + a get down, where it buffed the unit out of my weapon attack range. So I took a free 3 damage.

Gorehowl (link) - Great for board control. It is screwed over by oozes, but it can either be a good finisher or you can just take out some strong unit. I did really well when I had this in arena.

The Bad/Strange:

Moonfire (link) - It just doesn't seem like an effective use of a card. It can definitely work in a spell deck, but that is about it. In all other cases, I'd choose wrath (hero power can usually deal the 1 damage anyway). It just seems so situational. It makes moonkins happy, that's about it.

Tracking (link) - I see this spell all the time, and I'll even go for it occasionally, but it can be really risky. In most cases, it should be used in emergencies or when you really need to get some momentum. I see some people use it in the early-game just "bcuz i have nothing else to do lol". It is 1 card + 2 discarded cards, making it take away essentially 3 cards for 1. It is a pretty tough decision to even use the ability in the first place.

Holy Wrath (link) - While this card can be good with some lucky RNG (last time it was used on me, it dealt 8 damage), it also seems like it can be replaced by hammer of wrath. Heck, imagine getting 1 or 2 damage. It is basically a waste of a turn, apart from the card draw (unless you are late in the game). 5 mana is quite a bit. It might be fun in arena, but I wouldn't go for it in constructed.

Phew. That was quite a post.

 

[Tonex]

Water Elemental is one of the most op cards, as when it is comboed with the Mage hero ability, it can kill roughly 80% of all four drops for free, and Freeze is pretty powerful as it is.

 

[Talavaj]

@PurgeandFire
Yeah ! Those are all very good cards. Sunwalker is a great card, very much a weaker FFA Tirion always worth drawing in the arena.
The black knight is one of the best Legendaries IMO, no gimmicky RNG effects, simple removal and that's it, though arguably the effect is somewhat limited but in a shaman or a druid deck you can taunt the enemy minion and destroy it regardless, many druid decks run the card for this reason, especially because they lack good unconditional removal.
Sword of Justice is a great weapon, best coined early game and is even pretty cost effective.
Lighting storm is one of the few shaman spells with overload that actually consider to have more than justifiable mana cost, very good board wipe IMO also about the best overload card.

The gimmicky ones, I personally play hunter a lot but I never use tracking. Buzzard has to be enough for your draws especially with UTH.
Tracking is just morbidly RNG, I mean it can arguably be useful for eliminating the less useful cards so you can draw quicker into what you need but still.
I'm actually very surprised by the amount of hunter decks that use this, not because it is that bad but because there are just so much better cards to pick from.
Holy wrath is another crazy RNG which I wouldn't use lol.

Another grail of RNG nonsense cards is:
Far Sight (link) - Firstly, it boggles my mind this thing is epic rarity.
Secondly, you are using a card to draw a card ... because you only have this card and not anything useful on hand uh, WHAT ?! Might as well be worth not placing this card in your deck so you have higher chance of having the useful cards on hand.
If it costed 0~1 mana or allowed you to play that card free then I can see it being useful but,.. what ?

And water elemental ? Yeah. 3/6 as a 4 drop is good enough plus freeze ? That essentially guarantees you a 2 - 1 trade because nothing at 4 can trade for it except for Leeroy and what will attempt to do so will either die or get frozen.
It is also a stupidly good counter for warriors/rogues and other weapon wielding heroes.

 

[Chaosy]

on the bad cards I fully agree with you purge. Aswell as some of the legendaries, like Millhouse and lorewalker cho.

best of each class card I like,
Druid - Nourish
Hunter - Explosive Shot
Mage - Polymorph
Paladin - Avengers Wrath
Priest - Shadowform
Rogue - Cold blood
Shaman - Feral spirit
Warlock - Power overwhelming
Warrior - Brawl

 

[PurgeandFire]

@Talavaj: Far Sight is such a strange card. People have posted all of its possible uses. Apparently you can use it to play a high card a little earlier than usual (so you're kinda *investing* your mana now to play the card early), but I still think it is such a weird RNG card. It'll probably be useless late in the game (except if you have Gadgetzan up), and in the early game, it is usually just a waste of potential momentum (unless you rly have nothing to do).

And water elemental is lovely. It is incredibly annoying, but I have 2 in my deck as a mage. It literally just destroys people's strategy. Likewise, I really like the Frost Elemental. He is a really solid 5/5 for 6 mana--his battlecry is just great to keep some unit on hold for a turn. I used it on a gadgetzan auctioneer in arena, and it won me the game (he just conceded afterward). And I did a really clutch freeze on a druid (I was debating whether or not to use it). We were both on killing turns, and it turned out that he had two savage roars. I ended up with about 3 hp left and his face sat there frozen with 4 unusable damage.

@Chaosy: Explosive shot is one of my favorite abilities. It is actually a really strong clear. And brawl is an incredibly strong ability. It is still RNG-based, but you'll usually like the outcome either way.

 

[defskull]

Ironbeak Owl
I run this cards on every cards on my deck (well maybe except Priest at higher level when I have Silence Spell Cards, but not atm).
It has helped me several times in crucial moment, hell, I can even silence my own Ancient Watcher, opponent would scramble to death.

UTH + Starving + Hyena
When I got 3 pieces of this puzzle, I usually outrun them with board control with just only minions being the agent of the control.
But it's quite hard to stall until 6 turns to fully unleash this combo, so when in danger, I usually let out only UTH + Starving, for card draws, I can delay the Hyena first, because I need Card Removal at that time first more than anything.

Mind Control
Yes, I know that this card is really into the late game state, but because of this card, it let me own Hogger and win the game

Lightning Storm
This is suppose to be omgwtfbbqpanda card because the amount of damage it can cost + Air Totem (the one +1 Spell Damage), you can clear a mid (even late) game minions on the board for a mere amount of Mana Cost use (I know it's overloaded, but still, you gain lot of advantage for that turn)

Flametongue Totem + Bloodlust
Similar to my Shaman tactic, make the enemies attack my Heroes until I plant all my totems for OTK, aaand wham !
I ended the game with only my Totems @@

 

[Tonex]

The use of Far Sight is to get through your deck more quickly to find your good cards. Unless you draw a 0, 1, or 2 mana ability, it's a net 0 cost for a free draw. Imo its value is inversely proportional to the number of cards left in your deck, since it's really good if you're at the end of your deck and you need some single card to win. Rather than a 1/5 chance to draw the card at the start of the turn, if you fail you get an additional 1/4 chance.

 

[Talavaj]

The use of Far Sight is to get through your deck more quickly to find your good cards.

Which you don't have because Far Sight landed in your hand.

Rather than a 1/5 chance to draw the card at the start of the turn, if you fail you get an additional 1/4 chance.

And you fail because Far Sight landed in your hand, not the good card.

The only use for this card I see is to play big minions ahead their turn but even that is morbidly RNG and you are spending 3 mana early game giving opponent the advantage while having little odds for things going in your favor.
I'm actually very sad they decided to replace mana tide totem with this.

 

[Tonex]

It's not a fail to draw. Using the card costs 3 mana. The mana of the next card is reduced by 3. The net bonus/cost is 0. Thus, whenever you use the card, you can use the drawn card just as if you had drawn it at the start of your turn.

 

[Talavaj]

Anyway.

One card, possibly my biggest disappointment since "nerf closed beta patch" is Savagery (link) - which used to be such a good card, for 3 cost (originally even 2 !) it dealt hero's damage to ALL enemy minions now it is a weird thing that allows you to "attack" twice bypassing taking damage once but can only target minions which is overall just "meh".
Not a horrible card but it was just so much better before the nerf.

And on topic of Holy Wrath...

 

[Tonex]

On the other hand...

 

[PurgeandFire]

@Talavaj: That video was epic.

And I agree that savagery is a little lack-luster. It is pretty cool with bite, but even then it relies heavily on other cards, which isn't always the best idea. I'd take wrath over it. Maybe I'd go with savagery if it is affected by sp or I'm doing some weird thing, but idk i'd probably only consider it in arena.

 

[Tonex]

Moonfire (link) - It just doesn't seem like an effective use of a card. It can definitely work in a spell deck, but that is about it. In all other cases, I'd choose wrath (hero power can usually deal the 1 damage anyway). It just seems so situational. It makes moonkins happy, that's about it.\

If used as a standalone card, it really is pretty situational, but there are still a bunch of cases where you need that extra 1 damage, for instance, maybe against a turn 2 3/2 you have to use that Hero abil + Moonfire. However, I notice that the skilled players that I run in to with Moonfire usually combo it really well with +Spell Damage, most notably Malygos. (Free fireballs, anyone?) Once, I had an amazing board, but the next turn they did Malygos, double Moonfire to face for 12 damage and I died.

 

[PurgeandFire]

Yes, it works well with +spell power (especially on a turn 9 malygos). I suppose it just isn't a card I would rely on. While there are examples where it could benefit you (e.g. finish a unit off, kill a 2 hp minion, etc.), it can also be a wasteful card to be stuck with if you can't find an immediate use for it. I would run it as boomkin, but without any +sp cards it is a waste (IMO).

In general, there are always cases where a particular card can come in handy. The key thing to figure out is whether those situations arise often enough. You can also make it work with unorthodox decks, but those tend to be unreliable for winning.

 

[Tonex]

Yeah, it's pretty dangerous to have dead cards in your hand. I sometimes hesitate to pick Big Game Hunter for fear of just sitting around on turn 12+ just saving it while the opponent chips down my hp with a Boulderfist.

Btw going back to Malygos, one of the craziest things I went up against was someone saving the coin to Malygos + Coin + Fire Trap, essentially Fireballing all enemies on an attack, which I think is only second to Malygos + 2x Innervate + Swipe, essentially a two in one Pyroblast to one enemy + Flamestrike to the rest.

 

[Talavaj]

Random question of the day.
Do you have experience with Ancient Mage ? Specifically with whether he applies the buff to cards that already have +1 Spell Power ? Does it stack ?
I'm playing with an idea of a pure + Spell power mage deck still.

 

[Tonex]

It stacks.

 

[PurgeandFire]

Harvest golems have found a place among my favorite cards (especially for arena). For most classes, it is rather annoying to take out. Even when they are AoE'd down, you'll get the unit back so it allows you to retain some board presence after a big hit. Mages do fairly well against them (and rogues/druids), but it is really annoying for the other classes, and sometimes someone will even blow a silence on it (which is arguably worth it, in some cases).

After all, what could be scarier than this?

Image

(this deck was quite decent because of the early game advantage)

And I bet they'll be even more popular once we see decks trying to synergize with the new Naxxramas cards.

 

[Tonex]

I forsee synergy with Undertaker, since there are so many other low deathrattle drops as well.

Turn 1 Undertaker (+ Coin + Leper Gnome), Turn 2 Loot Hoarder, Turn 3 Harvest Golem, etc.