Hearthstone: Boomsday and Puzzle Labs

How has Hearthstone been treating you? I’ve been travelling a fair bit these days, which is why there hasn’t actually been a lot of timely updates currently, with all of the current projects at least being written a couple of days to weeks in advance. As someone who’s travelling and not really putting too much thought, though, it’s neat to have a game that’s mobile to play through.


And Puzzle Labs just released, which is a [i]lot[/i] of fun to do! Probably my favourite part of the game mode is how fast-paced it is, and how most of the puzzles actually have multiple solutions, making solving them pretty satisfying. I’ve completed all of the ‘Lethal’ and ‘Mirror’ segments, and I have to say – Mirror puzzles really make me think about the game in a different way.

Also, while the Standard meta didn’t really change as much… since slightly prior to the release of Boomsday, I’ve been playing a whole lot of Wild, almost exclusively, since the beginning of Boomsday. And my god it's a lot of fun. It's a whole new meta out there, and as someone who has a not-insignificant portion of the cards in Wild (I'm still missing a huge chunk of TGT and GvG), it's been a blast playing around with old buddies.

And I've ranked up all the way up to rank three, and maybe I'll make a push for legend in this last week? Who knows. Wild's fun, though, with the balanced meta from Standard sort of leaking into wild.

I think one of the most powerful cards in the set is the neutral card Giggling Inventor, which is just an insanely powerful tool in any deck, with or without the ability to use mechs. Turns out Annoy-o-Tron? Really, really good when you summon a couple at the same time! Apparently in Standard it caused people to run Mossy Horror? Certainly didn't see any of those in Wild.

There are a bunch of cards I'm utterly surprised to see be good. Subject Nine isn't the best card, but she's not terrible, and saw some play, which is definitely more than I expected out of her. Mecha'thun saw some legitimate play, even more than Blood of the Ancient One or Death Knight Uther did, which makes me oh-so-happy! Also, as expected, not all the mechs saw play. In fact, a huge majority of them didn't, especially when Wild has another expansion's worth of mechs to play around with,but I am glad to see that my faith in Zilliax, Warbot, Mecharoo and Bronze Gatekeeper aren't misplaced. Explodinator ended up seeing a fair bit of play too in Wild's Hunter, although I'm not 100% sure if he's going to be super-good.


And my god there's a lot of insane shit that Druids can do in Wild! In addition to your normal Jade stuff, Wild is also home to a pretty insane combination of Aviana/Kun/some stuff combos. If you think Malygos Druid and Togwaggle Druid are oppressive in Standard... you ain't seen nothing yet. Aviana/Kun/Malygos/Floop is a simple one. Aviana/Kun/Togwaggle/Azalina is perhaps one of the more frustrating yet also challenging ones to fight against. Aviana/Kun/Brann Bronzebeard/Star Aligner/Star Aligner/Floop is a hilarious combo. I'm not even mad, I'm just happy Star Aligner found a home somewhere. And the fact that cards like Dirty Rat is still around in Wild actually gives me a way to fight against these sort of combo-centric decks, especially if they don't have any other end-game. I don't think I've ever seen the Treant package, and it really seems that Biology Project is the real big winner for Druid. Floop's not bad, though, and I've seen Psychmelon and Florist every now and then.

Hunter's... Hunter's mostly the same, although I did see a lot of experimentation with aggro mech hunter and deathrattle hunter, I don't think either are super-good. None are bad, though, it's just that there's a lot of better cards out there. I've seen a lot of attempts at making the Goblin Bomb style of Hunter work, but other than aggro mech with Explodinator,  I don't think Flark really ended up working. Fun that Explodinator ended up being somewhat great, though. Definitely slept on that card, but turns out that all Hunter needed was a full-board buff, which it has in Wild with Metaltooth Leaper and Feign Death. Not the best cards, but definitely okay.

Mage is also more or less the same, although Ice Block and the Secret package are naturally everywhere. As expected, spell damage and hand-mage didn't make it huge. The same clump of Control and Tempo Mage crowd the Wild ladder, with the addition of a long-lost friend, Reno Mage. I've actually obtained both Mage legendaries. Can't find one that the Pocket Galaxy really works well in, but Stargazer Luna is a neat -- if not necessary -- card in both Tempo and Reno mage. I'll probably cut her out, though, after her 'new card' vibe drops off.


Paladins.... I haven't actually seen a lot of Paladins since I entered the Rank 5 batch. Below that, Odd Paladin is insanely powerful, with the addition of TGT/GVG-era cards like Quartermaster and Warhorse Trainer really buffing it up. But I think it's just too reliant on swarming the board, and on higher ladder it just didn't manage to be that powerful. I don't think I've ever seen Mech Paladin and neither of the Kangor cards in Wild ladder, though.

Priest is enjoying a huge chunk of variety in Wild, too. I think there was a couple of meme-ish decks that enjoyed a fair bit of popularity, one that's ridiculously complex with Test Subject, Divine Spirit, Inner Fire and Boar, which I've never encountered once. And another one with Mecha'thun, Coffin Crasher and Ticking Abomination. I am just so happy that both Mecha'thun and Ticking Abomb found a home somewhere, even if it's a hilarious meme deck. Big Priest is probably still the way to go in Wild, though I've seen Reno, Dragon and Combo variants. I tried to use Zerek's Cloning Gallery, but turns out that at 9 mana it's too unwieldy for both Quest and Big Priest variants, whereas I don't think I've ever seen regular Zerek anywhere.

Rogue's still pretty fun. Odd Rogue's still top dog, and there are some truly degenerate Kingsbane/Mill variants of Rogue in Wild. I've seen a lot of fun variations of Rogue, though... Pogo-Hopper made it into a real deck, which I adore, and a variation of Deathrattle Rogue with Necrium Blade ended up being pretty dang neat in both Standard and Wild. I've been actually getting a pretty decent winrate with Deathrattle Rogue, although, again, Wild has a fair bit more choices for Deathrattle decks. One of  my first legendary pulls from Boomsday is Myra Rotspring, which is... perfectly serviceable as a decent card in Deathrattle and Odd decks, if not as powerful as your Ragnaros or Sylvanas.

Shaman's still basically just Even and Combo variants, although I've not seen a lot of success for Shudderwock in Wild. Not a lot of the Shaman cards really ended up working out other than Thunderhead which is... decent, if not super-powerful. Wild's Even Shaman makes some fun use of old cards like Flamewreathed Faceless and Thing From Below, though, which is neat. I've seen people use Electra and Storm Bringer every now and then, and Storm Bringer is... it's decent, but it's just so insanely wild. Sometimes you get a Lich King and a King Krush and just win a game with two totems. Sometimes you turn a full board of perfectly serviceable minions into utter trash.


Warlock's as powerful as ever in Wild. Zoo's tearing up Standard, as I get it, but in Wild, various versions of Warlock -- Control, Reno, Cube... Warlock's easily one of Hearthstone's most powerful classes right now, and I've never really realized just how utterly powerful Voidcaller and Mal'Ganis are with all the new tools that Warlock got in the past couple of expansions. You think K&C-era Cube Warlock is powerful? Yeah, go whine about your Voidlords; Wild's got Mal'Ganises dropping in to buff all those little demons alongside the Voidlords and Doomguards. Soularium (which I don't have, sadly) is utterly insane in Zoo. I opened Dr. Morrigan and every time I tried to use her she fails, and the only time I ever actually won thanks to Dr. Morrigan was when I played Cube Warlock and a Voidlord was devolved into Morrigan, who proceeded out to pull out the rest of my demons.

Warrior's... Warrior's fun, if nothing else. I crafted the Dr. Boom hero card day one, cracked open a Zilliax, and did not regret it. Control mech Warrior isn't the most powerful archetype, but it's definitely an insanely fun deck to play with, and I've actually even found a home for good old Geosculptor Yip -- in a control deck that will add 7 armour when it becomes a hero, suddenly having an engine that creates 8/8's and the odd 12/12's ends up being pretty dang good. It's one of the most fun decks to play, even if it doesn't quite have the highest win-rate.

Anyway, I've been having a whole lot of Wild fun with Boomsday. Lots of fun interactions with old cards and mechs, and unfair decks aren't that irritating to play against when you can just pull out one of your own.