Hearthstone

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
44,420
53,867
I'm still tinkering with the list, but here's my take on Crusher.

2x Ancestral Healing
2x Earth Shock
2x Lightning Bolt
2x Rockbiter Weapon
2x Ancestral Spirit
1x Bloodmage Thalnos
2x Feral Spirit
2x Hex
2x Lightning Storm
2x Injured Blademaster
2x Sen'jin Shieldmasta
1x Earth Elemental
2x Faceless Manipulator
2x Fire Elemental
2x Sunwalker
1x Black Knight
1x Ragnaros

I think in the post Naxx meta you definitely want double earth shock against Zoo to shut down Deathrattle. I only have one Earth Ele, but I'm not convinced two is the right call since it's really only good against Zoo. I wouldn't mind cutting something for mana tide but it's hard to tell what. Maybe drop to a single Feral Spirit like the original Crusher list.
 

yimmien

Molten Core Raider
877
669
Thanks for linking the kibler article. His description of zoo made me laugh. Not a deck, just a pile of cards and a hero power. His issues with arena and why it goes stale so quickly are also spot on. I hope blizz revamps it at some point because once you have a decent card collection there is really no reason to go back.
 

Famm

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
11,041
794
Thanks for linking the kibler article. His description of zoo made me laugh. Not a deck, just a pile of cards and a hero power. His issues with arena and why it goes stale so quickly are also spot on. I hope blizz revamps it at some point because once you have a decent card collection there is really no reason to go back.
Going back to read his other two HS blog entries. Pretty interesting so far, still on the first one, but:

http://bmkgaming.com/look-hearthstone/#prettyPhoto_sl said:
This is the state that Hearthstone lives in. There are nine classes, each with a unique, reusable Hero power. One of these Hero powers, the Warrior's, is to give you two points of Armor, which essentially prevents the next two damage you'd take. Another, the Warlock's, allows you to pay two life to draw a card. While these may be "balanced" in the grand scheme of things (though that notion is itself questionable), they are certainly not remotely close to balanced when taken in the context of different potential matchup situations. Against a deck that is trying to kill you as fast as possible, gaining Armor is clearly a powerful effect, and paying two life for a card is clearly a real cost. But in a matchup between decks that are jockeying for resource advantage and winning with individually powerful effects, the Warrior ability is borderline useless while the Warlock ability is absolutely game defining.
Dude says the hero power concept is fundamentally broken from the beginning for a CCG and predicted the 'lock issue all the way back in beta.

Edit: second article is even better and more in depth.A Second Look at Hearthstone - BMK Gaming
 

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
44,420
53,867
I was complaining that the lock hero power was broken the moment I started playing Hearthstone, people said I was wrong/crazy/stupid. Anyone with any kind of CCG background, especially MTG, could tell the lock hero power was broken as fuck.
 

elidib

Vyemm Raider
2,498
4,742
I'm still tinkering with the list, but here's my take on Crusher.

2x Ancestral Healing
2x Earth Shock
2x Lightning Bolt
2x Rockbiter Weapon
2x Ancestral Spirit
1x Bloodmage Thalnos
2x Feral Spirit
2x Hex
2x Lightning Storm
2x Injured Blademaster
2x Sen'jin Shieldmasta
1x Earth Elemental
2x Faceless Manipulator
2x Fire Elemental
2x Sunwalker
1x Black Knight
1x Ragnaros

I think in the post Naxx meta you definitely want double earth shock against Zoo to shut down Deathrattle. I only have one Earth Ele, but I'm not convinced two is the right call since it's really only good against Zoo. I wouldn't mind cutting something for mana tide but it's hard to tell what. Maybe drop to a single Feral Spirit like the original Crusher list.
I like your list, but I traded 1 feral spirit for a second earth elemental. feels like feral spirit is just sometimes underpowered, and there are enough bigass taunts to survive another round or two without it early game. Also feel the overload on it totally fucks up turn 4 for this deck, as you can't play a senjin, or a thalnos+bolt/earth shock, or a 1 drop nuke+blademaster, whereas the 3 overload on turn 6 means you can still play hex, blademaster, or thalnos+1 mana nuke. Also the second earth ele really helps close out games and ensures you have big threats all the way through.
 

Angelwatch

Trakanon Raider
3,053
133
Went ahead and crafted Al'Akir. No funsy double Rockbiter moments yet but he's solid enough. Like I said, not all Rogue decks use VanCleef and Harrison Jones can be replaced by a simple Ooze.

I really like that Kibler guy's articles. He makes a lot of valid points and they're good reads. And I completely agree with him about the Lock Hero Power.

One thing I was thinking about is that Miracle is, effectively, dead once Naxx is fully released. Loatheb aside, a lot of people have brought up the idea of taunting the Spectral Knight guys. And think about the 3/8 Taunt guy as well. He has to be sapped because the worst thing for a Miracle Rogue to have happen is to get a minion on the battlefield that they're not ready for. Imagine getting Leeroy out as an example. The whole idea of Leeroy is to double Shadowstep and Cold Blood him but if you're at no mana and he hits the board due to a deathrattle, you have nothing left.
 

Caal

Lord Nagafen Raider
1,588
66
For those of you who don't know, Kibler's a magic HOFer. He's a pretty funny dude on top of being pretty smart.
 

Arch

Lord Nagafen Raider
1,036
25
I never got into Miracle but did manage to open a golden VanCleef as like my second legendary. I've debated dusting him for one of the big legendary cards (mainly Leeroy at this point since he would work in all but like 1 or 2 of my decks, or maybe Rag as I think those 2 are still some of the best) since I got him. My orange cards are slim atm Thalnos and Black Knight easily my best 2, just got Captain Greenskin which is fine for gimmicks, the VC which doesn't see much play and Malygos which I have never included in a deck. I doubt I ever get a lot of golden cards but still hate the idea of dusting him heh.
 

Angelwatch

Trakanon Raider
3,053
133
Can't really help you. On one hand if you dust him, he's a Legendary of your choice which will help you NOW. On the other hand, Golden Legendary cards are so rare it is doubtful that you'll ever see another one in a pack again. I've opened hundreds of packs at this point and only have one golden Legendary (Cairne). They're just really rare.
 

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
44,420
53,867
One thing I was thinking about is that Miracle is, effectively, dead once Naxx is fully released.
Nope. Miracle will still be a strong deck to play because most people will be focusing against zoo, which will be the strongest deck in the format after week 4. While it's true that miracle gains basically nothing from Naxx and the meta gains one hate card for it, it's still a fundamentally broken deck and will remain that way after all the Naxx cards are out.
 

Morrow

Trakanon Raider
3,341
948
Thanks for linking the kibler article. His description of zoo made me laugh. Not a deck, just a pile of cards and a hero power. His issues with arena and why it goes stale so quickly are also spot on. I hope blizz revamps it at some point because once you have a decent card collection there is really no reason to go back.
Where? I didn't see anything in the last couple pages. I'd love to read someone eloquently explaining why the Warlock ability is so fundamentally flawed. I've been playing card games for over 15 years and everyone knows that easy consistent card draw is always overpowered and always fucks shit up. It happened in Star Wars CCG, it's happened in Magic the Gathering multiple times, hell it's even happened in fucking Pokemon. The worst part is you start with a Bargaining Table as a Warlock, which is just a lul. I honestly believe as more cards come out, not only will the Warlock's hero power get stronger, but people will all just play Warlock. Any deck you want to make will be possibleas a Warlock (with enough card variety) and there'd be no reason to play any other class, as any of their class cards/abilities won't match up to the Warlock's.

And as I was joking about earlier, it's just far more FUN than any other ability.
 

drtyrm

Lord Nagafen Raider
1,991
155
Watch as balance forces Warlock class cards to be shittier and shittier from now unto the end of time.
 

Famm

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
11,041
794
A Look at Hearthstone - BMK Gaming

A Second Look at Hearthstone - BMK Gaming

That's what we're talking about, though I essentially linked both already.

To be fair, he also gushes on all the things HS did incrediblywell. Which is to say the usual Blizzard fun/polish/smoothness.

I wonder if they will be forced to do like he said and make the hero power three life and try to buff their class cards to compensate. I can't imagine Blizzard is happy with how ubiquitous locks/zoo are now. Its pretty amazing that the other hero powers are essentially as innocuous as they planned but somehow they completely shit the bed with this one class, despite the input of seasoned CCG vets.
 

drtyrm

Lord Nagafen Raider
1,991
155
On the esports angle, the standard tournament format saves them a bit. You have to bring 3-4 decks so at least we're not tortured by infinite warlock mirrors.
 

Famm

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
11,041
794
Yeah, and I know they have wanted a solid e-sports entry for awhile now but its also clear that they have balanced based on constructed above all else. Every nerf so far would fall in line with the thinking that locks are currently overrepresented and are just cruising to get hammered by Blizzard. Its not really out of character no matter how much they said they wanted to walk softly after launch. Basically every class has a version of aggro right now, maybe partially because of zoo, but none of them have that hero power synergy.
 

Duppin_sl

shitlord
3,785
3
It's a pretty clear outlier, I imagine it'll get nerfed.

I think people are overstating HOW imbalanced it is (Mr. Morrowhatever is pretty bad at games) but it's clearly the best hero power currently. If they don't want to balance it by nerfing the hero power, they can try to balance it with class cards but it seems like there are enough good neutral cards that that'd be hard to accompllish.

So far, I'm enjoying hunter and warrior the most. I just wish that grinding gold was a LITTLE faster.