#412 - The Angry Chicken: “Deck is a 4 letter word”
04/12/2021
• Garrett • Jocelyn • Hat
Tracking Link:
https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/
Intro
Welcome to The Angry Chicken!
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News
Deck of Lunacy
Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 4]
Dev (Alec) Comment: Deck of Lunacy moves up to 4 mana, removing its ability to provide a game-warping effect on turn 1 or 2. When we create cards like Deck of Lunacy, we're aiming for an experience that lets you do wacky, over-the-top things at the cost of power. There's a large audience for that (Spell Mage's play-rate shows!), but Deck of Lunacy very clearly crosses the power threshold we set for these types of cards.
Sword of the Fallen
Old: 1 Attack, 3 Durability → New: 1 Attack, 2 Durability
Dev Comment: Sword of the Fallen is not only powerful, but also creates early-game situations with too many Secrets in play. We're moving Sword of the Fallen down to 2 durability to reduce the overall value of the card and make those turns against 3-4 Secrets less common.
Jandice Barov
Old: [Costs 5] → New: [Costs 6]
Dev Comment: Jandice Barov benefited greatly from the Core Set refresh and the rotation of weaker 5-Cost minions. Looking ahead, we don't intend to dilute Jandice's pool of summoned minions and that's not something we'd want to rely on for her balance. With that in mind, we are nerfing Jandice Barov to 6 mana where her total stat output is much more appropriate.
Pen Flinger
Old: Battlecry: Deal 1 damage. Spellburst: Return this to your hand.
→ New: Battlecry: Deal 1 damage to a minion. Spellburst: Return this to your hand.
Dev Comment: Pen Flinger equips some classes with large amounts of chip damage, whether it be to minions or to the opposing hero. This flexibility makes Pen Flinger an attractive option for many decks, but when that utility is combined with repetition it takes over the story of a match. Pen Flinger takes out your minions, might deal 10 damage to your face over multiple turns, and even had the gall to call you names throughout all of it. We're nerfing Pen Flinger to now only target minions, positioning it as a removal option rather than a dual-threat card.-
> Talking watch posts in unison
Far Watch Post
Old: 2 Attack, 4 Health → New: 2 Attack, 3 Health
Mor’shan Watch Post
Old: 3 Attack, 5 Health → New: 3 Attack, 4 Health
Dev Comment: Watch Posts are meant to act as an interesting tech-package when dealing with certain gameplans. Currently though, they act as go-to options in many classes, sporting quite high winrates for disruption-based cards. In order to cut into their power, we're reducing the Health of both Far Watch Post and Mor'shan Watch Post. This change will make them easier to deal with on turns 2 + 3, lowering the investment barrier for removal to better match the options available on those early turns.
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To Dust or Not to Dust?
Deck of Lunacy?
Jandice?
Rest are Rares or Commons.
Battlegrounds
Hero Changes
- Queen Wagtoggle
- Wax Warband: Old: Give a friendly minion of each minion type +2/+1 → New: Give a friendly minion of each minion type +1/+1.
- Captain Hooktusk
- Trash for Treasure: Old: [Costs 1] Remove a friendly minion. Discover a random one from a Tavern Tier lower. → New: [Costs 0] Remove a friendly minion. Choose one of two from a Tavern Tier lower to keep.
Minion Updates
- Steward of Time
- Old: 3 Attack, 4 Health. When you sell this minion, give all minions in Bob’s Tavern +1/+1. → New: 3 Attack, 3 Health. When you sell this minion, give all minions in Bob’s Tavern +2/+1.
- Pack Leader
- Old: 2 Attack, 3 Health → New: 3 Attack, 3 Health
- Monstrous Macaw
- Old: 4 Attack, 3 Health → New: 5 Attack, 3 Health
- Herald of Flame
- Old: 5 Attack, 6 Health → New: 6 Attack, 6 Health
- Wildfire Elemental
- Old: 7 Attack, 3 Health → New: 7 Attack, 4 Health
- Lieutenant Garr
- Old: 5 Attack, 1 Health → New: 8 Attack, 1 Health
- Lil’ Rag
- Old: 4 Attack, 4 Health → New: 6 Attack, 6 Health
DEAN AMA STUFF
TICKATUS
Typical story. Card that generates a lot of feels from both perspective confirms it generates a lot of feels from both perspectives. These decks are always a question of population and severity of gameplay change. Shudderwock was similar, though it's population was much higher. Naga Sea Witch is in the same camp, but felt much less like you were playing a normal game of Hearthstone than Tickatus.
Tickatus isn't a huge population card, most of the games it plays it loses, and even in the games the deck wins, it doesn't always get played. The reason bad decks see high play rates is because people love them so much they are willing to sacrifice win rate. There is some upside to having decks like that around. My one concern is that we really don't want it to be the best way to play, but Control Warlock outside of Tickatus is a pretty fun and healthy play experience- Meaning that I wouldn't want Tickatus existing stop us from promoting power in Control Warlock in future sets. If that happens we would probably nerf Tickatus to give us some room to build more powerful pieces rather than be scared of it.
We've nerfed many cards for primary sentiment reasons. Shudderwock, Naga Sea Witch, Warsong Commander, Charge, Mage Freeze Cards, Mind Control, Tinkmaster Overspark…. Sentiment is the only reason you should make changes. Data only helps us inform what sentiment actually might be rather than listening to one specific community.
We'll look at tickatus after nerfs like we do with all decks, though there are plenty of decks of all archetypes that beat tickatus warlock. I think the flip side doesn't get talked about enough. There is a deck that is so appealing to some players they are willing to lose most of their games to play it. That has to count for something.
PATCHES
Balance patches are pretty taxing on a bunch of individuals that make the patch. Next week was what we planned for even before the expansion released and the meta didn't feel like it was in a place where an emergency fix was necessary. In retrospect, I think mid-late this week was probably a better timing to plan for. We usually know enough to make a choice after 3-5 days of gameplay. Planning and releasing a patch on all platforms takes another 3-5 days. If we release on a Tuesday, I think next time we'll plan on having a patch release by end of week the following week. It gives us the weekend to mull options and check out data, make a choice and implement Monday, release later in the week.
BUFFS
Is there any chance that we might see some buffs in near future?
Yeah, we'd like to first evaluate how any nerfs affect the meta before injecting a second variable changes at the same time. We plan to make a decision around buffs after the dust has settled, though. (Source)
Outro
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Personal Stuff
Joce where can you be found?
Follow Jocelyn @JocePlays
The Gamers’ Inn
Follow Garrett @GarrettArt
NOMOONart.com for Garrett’s stream designs.
Amove.tv: Into the Nexus | Let’s Talk About Star Wars | WoW Killer
Hat stuff
http://twitter.com/RidiculousHat
Coin Concede, Vicious Syndicate, Hidden Aspects