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[Lumination]

Monthly balance changes along with their meta reports is great to see.

The new ToS doesn't seem to give existing followers ward, which is a strange functional change. If all they wanted to do was make Aegis not work with it, the end result is a bit off.

Still baffling that there is no Grimnir or more importantly, Eachtar nerf... My only remaining issues with TotG.

 

[fertygo]

No way they nerf Grimnir if their plan is pushing neutral

 

[Szadek]

Well well well. They are changing shadow reaper and test of strength in tomorrow's update, and card changes will become a monthly thing. This is fantastic news.

Shadow reaper is now 3 mana, and ToS now gives all followers that enter ward instead of its previous effect.

Awesome news.
Reaper is a stupid card, I'm glad that it is getting nerfed. ToS change is a bit strange, but whatever.
Monthly balance changes are even more important, That should really help the game more than anything else.

Also, they finally nerfed a golden card!

 

[Luigi87]

Fantastic changes to Reaper and ToS.

As fertygo mentioned, with the Neutral push of Wonderland Dreams, not too surprising it isn't getting nerfed. As for Eachtar, I feel one thing Cygames seems adamant about is not nerfing their legendaries, even if they absolutely should. Monthly balance changes are also extremely welcome,

Of course the real news is the end of July... Phoenix Roost is set to make it's lovely return! lol

 

[michaelius]

Reaper isn't even a core of issue with current Shadowcraft - you can steam roll oponent without ever drawing one.

Problem is Shadow creating full board and then dropping Eachtar next turn boosting what is left and refilling board.

 

[Luigi87]

Even so, I've faced a 6 and 5 damage Reapers together on turn 4 before, so it could get pretty ridiculous before Eachtar would even be close to dropping.

 

[Lumination]

In my experience, an early snowballing Reaper does not happen as consistently as T6 Breath -> T7 Eachtar.

 

[Luigi87]

In my experience, an early snowballing Reaper does not happen as consistently as T6 Breath -> T7 Eachtar.

Yes, but as we've seen, no matter how much we want it /it needs to happen, Cygames apparently doesn't want to nerf Legendaries.
I would love it if they finally changed that mindset of course.

 

[fertygo]

I also much prefer nerfing Reaper tbh.. I dunno man its much harder seeing it coming and there much less tool to deal insane reaper at early turn

 

[EndlessSky]

Yeah, I'd rather there be an insane 7 drop than there being a 2 drop that can be just insane especially if they get two of them buffed up. Plus with the new expansion, blood will likely be the new meta and shadow should drop of a bit.

Also, Grand Master ranked is going to be added, along with more special rewards for it.

 

[fertygo]

So we can get to grand master in 2 days?

Cause I had enough point

 

[EndlessSky]

So we can get to grand master in 2 days?

Cause I had enough point

It seems it's not being added until 5pm pt june 30th, which is when the new season starts I believe. Unfortunate, but I can prob reach 10k again since the new expansion seems fun enough.

 

[fertygo]

It seems it's not being added until 5pm pt june 30th, which is when the new season starts I believe. Unfortunate, but I can prob reach 10k again since the new expansion seems fun enough.

Aww..

Oh well.. I grind to top 1k this month.. if next season master reward only standard pack I'll just do this

 

[FlowersisBritish]

Hello ya'll. I just got into this and have binged through the game's story modes and about a dozen matches over the last three days. I think this game is pretty rad, it's kind of everything I'm looking for in a CCG right now.

Anyway, I was wondering if people had some advice on Forestcraft? I've messed around with all the other classes (Haven being my favorite) but I can't seem to wrap my head around how Forestcraft wins? Any advice is appreciated.

 

[EndlessSky]

Hello ya'll. I just got into this and have binged through the game's story modes and about a dozen matches over the last three days. I think this game is pretty rad, it's kind of everything I'm looking for in a CCG right now.

Anyway, I was wondering if people had some advice on Forestcraft? I've messed around with all the other classes (Haven being my favorite) but I can't seem to wrap my head around how Forestcraft wins? Any advice is appreciated.

Forest definitely requires some more skill to play than most other classes. For its most popular deck, the win condition relies on rhinoceroach. You go through the match saving combo pieces like roach, nature's guidance, 0 cost goblin mage from evolving feena and 0 cost fairies you get from evolving elven princess mage, and then turn 8-ish you play 0 and 1 cost stuff, play roach, bounce it back with nature's guidance and play two more roaches.

Doing a 21 damage combo with it isn't uncommon. The hard part of the deck is getting to turn 8, and keeping track of the math while you keep track of not losing, since sometimes you need to crash a roach into something to stay alive. Another possible addition to this type of deck is White Wolf and Silver bolt. White wolf tutors and reduces silver bolt to 0 so you can do 9 damage to face with a full hand, and then roach combo or another silverbolt for another 9. The White Wolf variation has really fallen out of favor this past expansion though.

Disclaimer that the new expansion comes out in about an hour, but the above mentioned deck will almost definitely still be good. The other type of deck that isn't as good now but may be better with this expansion is tempo forest. It relies on playing wide with a bunch of low cost followers and then using Cynthia or Wind God to buff those followers.

 

[fertygo]

very meh haul for 63 pack

not getting both blood gold follower either

 

[Szadek]

From 72 packs I got:
1 Fairy Dragon
1 Snow White
2 Alice
1 Wizadress of Oz
1 Dark Alice
1 Hero of Antiquity
2 Jabberwock
1 Spawn of thw Abyss
1 Wrym Gid
3 Queen of the Draed Sea

 

[Luigi87]

Won't be able to open packs until after work D=

 

[EndlessSky]

I actually got a very nice spread of from 80 ish packs:
2x fairy dragon (1 animated)
2x cinderella
3x wizardress of oz
2x Alice
1x Lion of the Golden City
1x Dread Queen

Going to mess around with Wizardress. I could go for nuetral sword, but I really don't think it's that good, especially the lists everyone is running around with. Blood is going to be a big headache this expansion, hopefully they nerf it a bit next month since they are doing monthly changes now. Also did 4 take two runs and was able to get a 4-1 with rune and 5-0 with forest. Maybe cause not every one picked shadow/dragon but take two definitely seems a bit more balanced now.

 

[fertygo]

anyone know core of control blood that I can mess around with?

so many aggro, ruining my chase for 1k spot and I got so close

 

[Uthred]

25 packs, 1 legendary (Fairy Dragon). The aggressive release schedule is not the friend of the militantly casual player

 

[fertygo]

Big Knuckle Bodyguard is really early nerf candidate

So fucking good

 

[Luigi87]

Probably my weakest pull from an expansion launch.

54 packs

Fairy Dragon x1
Cinderella x1
Alice, Wonderland Explorer x2
Corpselord of Woe x1
Lion of the Golden City x1
Hero of Antiquity x2
Queen of the Dread Sea x2

My last pack had both Alice and Queen of the Dread Sea in it for that extra push of Neutral, lol

Edit: My full pulls spreadsheet

 

[mrpallyguy]

8 legendaries in 20 packs was my haul. Hopefully I can brew a good neutral forestcraft list.

 

[Szadek]

I tried to make a Jabberwock deck, but it didn't work out all that well.
It was basically a neutral aggro deck with him as an alternative win condition, but he wasn't doing a whole lot.
Part of the reason is that his effect is too random. very often you just get junk.

Still, it has fun and his entrance animation is the shit . More people need to see it.

Right now I'm playing Earth Rune without spells and I'm doing pretty well with it for the moment.
I don't think Dragonlore is all that great, but I don't think that the deck has better late game options.
Levi and both Illusionist are working extremly well. The new 1 mana sigil very useful,too.
Professor of Taboos is as good as ever.

I replaced nightfall (never liked the card anyway) with Runic Gurdian.

 

[Luigi87]

Yeah with Jabberwock, you basically only want to play him when you have at least a 7pp on the field... As such I still don't know how I feel about that one.

Think I'm gonna be looking at Haven this exp., but time will tell. For Neutral it's great that I pulled at least two Alices, but still... May need to actually start vialing cards that no one plays, lol (considering I have a ton of useless cards from every set).

 

[Luigi87]

Many of them are so random such as Flame Destroyer and Imprisoned Dragon.
I kind of hope the win to see the emotes.

I voted for Anomoly, Otohime, Melvie, Genesis Dragon, Lord of the Flies, Belphegor and Eidolon.
Pretty such that only waifus will win, but I would like to see some of more monstrous cards win, because they would make for really awesome leaders.

Also, say hallo to your next nightmare:

Welp, I didn't realize how well this can combo with Urd.
With a perfect setup (Baphomet + Urd + Spawn), it's a Turn 6/7 OTK... Otherwise turn 9 if enemy has no wards. Not that Turn 9 wins are anything special, but well, OTK and all.

 

[Szadek]

Made it to master with my Earth Rite deck!
I was 3000 points away when I started yesterday. Today I had a 14(!) game win streak, so I decided to push all the way while the iron was hot.

Decklist (the one I talked about in my last post).

 

[fertygo]

I fell short for top 1k

Had terrible streak today and barely get any point to secure the spot

There is still time but I think I already too far behind after the slide

Feelsreallybadman

 

[QisTopTier]

Made it to master with my Earth Rite deck!
I was 3000 points away when I started yesterday. Today I had a 14(!) game win streak, so I decided to push all the way while the iron was hot.

Decklist (the one I talked about in my last post).

Any tips for this, I've been wanting to make a rite deck for a while now

 

[Szadek]

Any tips for this, I've been wanting to make a rite deck for a while now

Right now Rune is in a great spot and there are many ways to build it.
Without spells and grimoire,like me, or with Wizadress of Oz; an more aggressive deck or a control deck with healing and cards like Satan as you win condition.
Time will tell which build is the best.
If you play enough neutrals you can also play Falise.

For my build, manging your runes, espically with magic illusionist, and evoles, since I run 3 cards with evol effects, is very important.
Magic illusionist can be fantastic, but you need to know when to let him die.

You can win many match ups simply by controling the board early and keeping it until the other play runs out of cards.
From my experince ramp dragon and control shadow are pretty bad match ups, because if they can stall you long enough to summon thier big guys, it's not looking good for you.

 

[EndlessSky]

Congrats on reaching master Szadek. Just in time to join us for the grind to grand master lol. I tried your deck for like 10 matches, and I think it's really good. Since I pulled 3 wizardress of oz, I've been working with a faster burn dirt rune that is seeing some success, but I feel like your list is better.

I just want control blood to become the new meta so I can play dshift again lol.

 

[Szadek]

Congrats on reaching master Szadek. Just in time to join us for the grind to grand master lol. I tried your deck for like 10 matches, and I think it's really good. Since I pulled 3 wizardress of oz, I've been working with a faster burn dirt rune that is seeing some success, but I feel like your list is better.

I just want control blood to become the new meta so I can play dshift again lol.

Thanks!
I took a deck lists i found as inspiration and modified it to counter neutral decks.

 

[Kumubou]

Man, I'm wondering if this neutral emphasis was a good idea or not. Goblin Leader -> Alice -> Alice is just jokes right now.

I just want control blood to become the new meta so I can play dshift again lol.

Wouldn't control blood start running Baphomet if that started happening? Having that kind of tempo loss on turn 5 would normally be absolute death, but that wouldn't matter against a DShift deck (and whatever other control options stick around, to a lesser extent). That and it's not a completely dead card in other matchups, as you can play him on 2 if you end up with him and not be in a completely awful place (helping thin the deck a bit and guarantee you'll have an endgame play late).

 

[EndlessSky]

Yeah, highly unlikely dshift will be viable this expansion imo unless some serious nerfs take place.

 

[fertygo]

I wish I open Wizardess

My pack luck is always mediocre

 

[Pooya]

Best deck I have so far is levi craft, seems legit good. Clearing boards, developing and pushing face damage in one turn again and again seems good. this list http://game-ai.jp/39912/

I've been trying to make some forest deck work since it's my favorite class. B&B is very nice but I can't seem to make it work consistently enough and it's slow.

I think in a few days people realize vengeance blood is still broken AF and everyone plays that again. I don't know about this set. Haven cards seem good too. Probably some aggro stuff happens there.

I'm not exactly excited about these new cards so far. The mechanics aren't very fun. It's more of the same.

 

[Luigi87]

I'm at that point where I'm not sure what I want to make deck wise. Like I'm strongly leaning toward Storm Haven, but it'll cost me my vials (I own no Moons D=, never realized) and I'd need two more Snow Whites for Haven in general, so it's a commitment.

 

[QisTopTier]

Man, I'm wondering if this neutral emphasis was a good idea or not. Goblin Leader -> Alice -> Alice is just jokes right now.

LOL alice needs to get the defense up on her effect removed so people can at least trade and kill the stuff

 

[Szadek]

Looks like the game is still in a pretty bad spot, because now the most crafts play the same.
It's seems like a good time to jump ship for me, since I got to master and kicked asses with Dirt Rune for a few days.

I will at least keep an eye on the current meta and stick around for the next balance patch.
If it turns out that Cygames is (mostly) happy with the current state of the game, then there little reason for me to keep playing.

When I started playing I loved itbut, I was wondering how long the honeymoon period would last.
8 months ain't too bad.

 

[Pooya]

yeah, I feel even though they copy pasted the basis of this game from Hearthstone, they're not really following it to not repeat its mistakes. We saw how it was like to have too good neutrals in that game, turns out the game is a lot worse when everyone can play same package of cards no matter what. The idea that they push neutrals on purpose was alarming in itself. Neutrals should be support cards not the body and core of the decks that work no matter what. It makes the game boring.

The other thing is idea behind sets. The power level just goes up and up so much that whatever was good last set becomes obsolete next set rather than introducing new and interesting mechanics. While you could say the meta is changing and that's good, the meta changes because of powercreep not because of interesting new strategies. They just keep printing better and better version of same things. Now everyone can vomit lots of stats on board as early as possible, last year only sword could do it, then rune got to do it better than sword, then shadow and blood did the same thing better than rune. It's just boring.

When the game came out, we had combo, control , ptop decks, aggro, mid range. It's like the game is just becoming less varied with more cards added as there are a few cards every set that completely outclass everything else. I guess monthly changes are good to have but I'm not sure how sustainable this kind of design is.

And then there is arena which is a complete joke now. They're not even bothering to comment on if they're trying to balance it. It's been abandoned...

Playing this for 7 months now made me actually realize how rng in Hearthstone is needed to some degree. If every deck has 3 copy of every cards and there is this absurd curve, games just go exactly same way almost every time and you might not have any chance to fight back if you went second as you're already half dead. It's a huge issue with this game when the power level is going higher and higher. 2nd players used to be favored at DE after they made changes, now I'm pretty sure every deck wants to go first.

 

[Luigi87]

They said they wouldn't until the end of the year, but they absolutely need to start removing earlier sets from competitive already.

Of course most of my games are vs. Spawn, and so that doesn't affect that deck really, lol

 

[Kumubou]

The one thing that's surprised me so far with this expansion is how solid dirt rune ended up. I remember joking about the support they were giving it wondering how the hell it would actually close out games. I still don't think they have a true win condition, but "apply lots of burn to face" seems to be close enough to work. That and Oz might be one of the best designed cards in this expansion -- she is powerful (and fun!) but also needs to be planned around or you end up looking stupid. Reminds me of how Dark Jeanne ended up from the last expansion.

That and that class having the only real hard counter to Spawn helps a lot.

 

[Luigi87]

The one thing that's surprised me so far with this expansion is how solid dirt rune ended up. I remember joking about the support they were giving it wondering how the hell it would actually close out games. I still don't think they have a true win condition, but "apply lots of burn to face" seems to be close enough to work. That and Oz might be one of the best designed cards in this expansion -- she is powerful (and fun!) but also needs to be planned around or you end up looking stupid. Reminds me of how Dark Jeanne ended up from the last expansion.

That and that class having the only real hard counter to Spawn helps a lot.

lol, that's the main issue with Spawn. People say "well play dirt rune." One craft should not be the only one able to take out a specific card.
Ideally this expansion should have had at least one neutral card with "Fanfare: Take enemy follower out of Ambush."

 

[EndlessSky]

They said they wouldn't until the end of the year, but they absolutely need to start removing earlier sets from competitive already.

Of course most of my games are vs. Spawn, and so that doesn't affect that deck really, lol

Yeah, I never played Hearthstone so I don't really understand how rotations will help if they start by taking out standard. If they took away standard, and really even Darkness Evolved, the only relevant deck that gets hit by that is roach, isn't it? It won't be until they take out RoB and TotG that the meta will really get shaken.

Edit: I suppose it also allows for more powerful spellboost cards if they are avoiding making those so that dshift doesn't become too strong.

 

[Luigi87]

Famitsu's first week of July meta analysis

Top Class by Usage

Class Usage
Blood 55.4%
Haven 14.4%
Rune 8.4%
Forest 6.0%
Shadow 6.0%
Sword 4.8%
Dragon 4.8%

Almost makes one yearn for the Shadow/Dragon meta of early TotG, lol

 

[Szadek]

Famitsu's first week of July meta analysis



Almost makes one yearn for the Shadow/Dragon meta of early TotG, lol

Famitsu's stample size was very low, but shadowlog came out to day with way more data:
http://shadowlog.com/trend/2017/27/0/
(google translator is your friend)

Currently blood makes 40% of the meta and is the only craft with a positive winrate.
Neutral blood has a winrate of 56% (62,8% going first) and is by far the most popular deck.
Also,it has no counter: http://shadowlog.com/trend/2017/27/0/68

Dirt rune has a average winrate of 46,2%. Aegis and Storm heaven are barely above 50%

 

[Luigi87]

That is still really bad...

... on the upside, 10 Million download bonus! Login reward of a WD pack every day for 10 days!

 

[Szadek]

Good news:

We're planning changes to more than 5 cards, including Legendaries. More information will be announced on Jul 29.

https://twitter.com/shadowversegame/status/887244868245798913

Looks like they are working pretty hard on improving the game, which makes me hopeful for the future of this game.

 

[Luigi87]

Thank crap.
That they are yielding on their no rebalancing legendaries mentality is pretty major.