Hearthstone recently released this, a fully-3D-animated cartoon about the general concept of Hearthstone, a magical card game in the world of Azeroth in a mysterious inn. It's glorious! And considering the amount of salt that the Hearthstone fanbase has, it's neat and heartwarming to see what Hearthstone is created in mind. It's definitely goofy, but it's freaking Hearthstone. How can it not be? It is kinda weird to see the Innkeeper's mouse sidekick, though. That felt super weird to me and distinctly non-Azerothian. Also, I loved the cameos of Hearthstone characters and cards throughout the background.The Frozen Throne Adventures have been amazing, easily one of the best adventures full stop I've seen in Hearthstone since... oh, Blackrock Mountain, I think? There is also a gigantic amount of Easter Egg interactions that the adventure mode has, which is surprising, even by Hearthstone's standards. The second wing of Icecrown does feel a bit too easy, even if the mechanics are pretty cool. Sindragosa and Lana'thel in particular felt not particularly difficult, which is a bit of a shame... but all in all, the missions are difficult enough to be a challenge, but not too difficult that they're insanely frustrating like heroic BRM/Naxxramas. And the Lich King final battle? God, that was entertaining and hilarious. It has the perfect balance of being difficult yet not too frustrating, with the Lich King's unique cheating between all nine classes making the boss fight pretty entertaining to figure out. So far I'm 2 out of 9 classes in my progress to getting that majestic Arthas skin. Oh, and the freaking voice lines and easter egg voice lines are just bomb.
The meta is insanely dominated by Druid, and I have to respectfully take back what I said about Crypt Lord -- god damn, turns out that a taunt minion that heals as you swarm the board? Pretty amazing. Ultimate Infestation is as awesome as everyone thought it was going to be, and then some. Spreading Plague also ends up as one of the most insane board-securing tools I've ever seen in the game. And I kind of knew that Malfurion the Pestilent wasn't shit, but the sheer amount of power that it lends Druid? God damn. Both Jade and Aggro Druid are insanely powerful in the ladder right now, yet at the same time still quite fun to try to counter. Skulking Geist alternates between working amazingly and flopping, though, which is a shame.
Priest is the class I've been working with a lot, and so are Shaman and Paladin. Priest's Raza/Anduin/Lyra combo works amazingly well, and is easily one of the most fun decks I've ever played. Another variant that showed up recently is a deck that only has big minions, Barnes and Shadow Reflection to pull them out, which is insanely gamble-y, but pretty hilariously insane if you get the combo off.
I've ranked all the way to rank 3 and trying to push legend in these last two or three days with a combination of Raza Priest and Evolve Shaman... plus joining the druid horde at several points when I tried both Aggro and Jade Druid and found out that it is as insane as it looks, and my decks are missing several key pieces. Druids are pretty awesome, even if I feel dirty whenever I win with them.
And, by god, the simple addition of Thrall Deathseer and the Saronite Chain Gang buffed Evolve Shaman so much and gives the deck so much more consistency because I can more reliably do evolve shenanigans instead of evolve being a side-thing that's nice to get while the deck traditionally relies of bloodlust.
Paladin's amazing. Between the various Murloc Paladins and this weird midrange thing I've got going with Uther of the Ebon Blade, it's not as rampant as the mages, druids and priests in the ladder, but still pretty fun and consistently good. Also, Skelemancer + Spikeridged Steed is insanely great, so I take back every horrblbe thing I said about Skelemancer. Bonemare's also pretty awesome in the already taunt-and-buff-everything midrange paladin decks, and I'm pleasantly happy that a neutral card end up finding a home in multiple decks.
Exodia Mages are insanely annoying, but now I pack a Dirty Rat in control decks to pull out their Sorcerer's Apprentices and make them cry, whereas aggro decks just crushes them entirely. It's very interesting how the addition of two cards -- Simulacrum and Ghastly Conjurer -- suddenly made the deck's combo so much more consistent when before it's a meme deck.
Warlock Death Knight decks showed up a lot in the earlier weeks (both the death knight and Despicable Dreadlord are... despicable!), but seemed to have been shunted away. There was a Warlock deck that used Prince Keleseth that is reasonably decent, actually, and I'm happy that one of the 'useless' princes actually saw marginal play. Hunters, which I don't see a single one of in the first week, end up showing with a new midrange version that switches from 'swarm the board' to 'Deathstalker Rexxar mega value' in the mid-game, which looks insanely fun. Rogue... there's some miracle Rogue lists running around, which is cool but something that I always beat handily. Warriors are weird. I see pirate lists every now and then, but never as rampant as they were in Gadgetzan since aggro druid and paladins are better. Control lists use Scourgelord Garrosh pretty well, but I kinda think the list isn't as figured out as people would like. I saw a C'Thun variant that uses Dead Man's Hand to get extra C'Thuns and Shieldbearers and I thought that was pretty cool.
Despite the Druid infestation I actually probably played Hearthstone far, far more than I did in any prior expansion, going for a Legend push in ranked and ranking 10's and 12's in Arena runs. Do think Druid needs to be reined in, though... personally agree withe dev feedback that it's not Ultimate Infestation that's the problem, it's Spreading Plague and the ramping tools that's the problem. Maybe make Spreading Plague generate 1/3 or 1/4 Taunt tokens instead? Or make Innervate cost 1 mana but give 3 mana crystals? I dunno. Something.
The Death Knights in general are all pretty good -- I think Valeera and Garrosh are the most inconsistent ones at actually gaining you value, but there aren't things that are borderline unplayable like the paladin and warlock quests. I realy like that.
General thoughts on crafting cards (epic and legendary) in general... the death knights all seem generally good. Prince Keleseth sees play in Warlock decks. The other two princes suck. Corpsetaker is pretty amazing in Paladin lists. Rattling Rascal is nowhere as good as I thought he was. One Skulking Geist is all you need. The Lich King is amazing, and Arfus is great in Hunters. Ultimate Infestation and Malfurion the Pestilent are amazing, but Hadronox is a disappointment and Fatespinner predictably doesn't see play. Deathstalker Rexxar is great, Putricide is okay but unessential, Toxic Arrow and the Abominable Bowman don't see much play. Both Frost Lich Jaina and Sindragosa are very solid cards for elemental control mage -- Sindragosa looks so much fun that I really want to craft one just for kicks, and Jaina is a lot better because, shit, it's actually hard to play around her hero power at times. Glacial Mysteries doesn't see play, as predicted, but Simulacrum unexpectedly does in Exodia Mage. Paladins... Bolvar Fireblood is actually good! Uther is also good. Light's Sorrow is bad, as predicted, and Blackguard is... not bad, but doesn't see much play, I think. I really love Shadowreaper Anduin, and Obsidian Statue is an insanely great fit for priest decks. Embrace Darkness is kinda poop and Benedictus is a meme card.
I don't think I've seen Lilian Voss ever, yet, neither did I ever see Doomerang or the Spectral Pillager, but Valeera the Hollow, if you get to pull her off, is quite decent. All the freeze Shaman cards didn't work, so neither Cryostasis or Moorabi sees play. Overload is kinda dead in standard, so the new giant doesn't see play either. Thrall Deathseer is insanely great, though. Bloodreaver Gul'dan is one of the more popular Death Knights for good reason -- even with the lackluster demons available to Warlock in standard right now (though a bunch of 6/6's aren't anything to laugh at) Gul'dan manages to be decent. Blood-Queen Lana'thel saw no play as predicted and neither did discard Warlock. Gnomeferatu doesn't see play, and Treachery only exists for the memes -- I did have someone try to do the Howlfiend-Treachery-Spreading Madness combo, but I win because even though he succeeded in discarding my Shadowreaper Anduin he did play a deck with 6 bad cards. Warriors... Bring it On seems bad anytime it comes up, Scourgelord Garrosh is decent if not spectacular, Rotface is truly fun the rare times I saw him on play (Rotface into Doom Hogger is actually insane) and Dead Man's Hand, while not that good, is actually quite a neat tool that I see some lists using well.
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