hearthstone Two New Echo Cards Revealed In Hearthside Chat

[Aleco 252]

Two new Echo cards, as well as some of the history of The Witchwood, were revealed today in a video with game designer Peter Whalen.

 

Today's Hearthside Chat with game designer Peter Whalen revealed two new Echo cards as it discussed the design history of The Witchwood, which apparently started out as "Murder On The Gilnean Express". You can view the entire Hearthside Chat here, where Peter discusses some of the things that the design team tried out before settling on Echo:

 

Hearthside Chat Video

 

Warpath and Face Collector

Card Images courtesy of Hearthpwn.com

 

Warpath strikes me as a flexible tool for aggressive decks and an enabler for while damaged effects. Sleep with the Fishes will rotate from standard when Warpath becomes legal, but this card doesn't strike me as a direct replacement for it. Warpath doesn't do a great job of cleaning up midsize boards before they get out hand, and has a lot of overlap with Scourgelord Garrosh's Hero Power. However, it has much more utility with cards like Acolyte of Pain, and can be used on its own in the late game to handle most threats. It might not be as efficient as Defile, but I expect this one to see play.

Face Collector is the first truly dynamic Echo card we've seen, as its random Battlecry can put players in a position where they are forced to choose between playing additional copies of Face Collector or playing one of the random Legendary minions it just drew them. Rogue decks tend not to be slow or controlling in nature, which makes me a bit suspect as to how strong this card will actually be in practice. It doesn't buy you a lot of tempo when played on curve, but it has the ability to provide INSANE value if you can cast 3 times in a single turn. If there's a value-oriented Rogue deck to be had when the new set comes out, I expect Face Collector to be a part of it.

 

Murder on the Gilnean Express

 

As much as I love new card spoilers, my favorite part of today's video was when Peter Whalen discussed the design history of The Witchwood. He shared that the set was initially themed as a murder mystery titled "Murder on the Gilnean Express", and included a number of designs which played up this theme.

 

 

One ability they tried out was called "Investigate", where you built a minion's abilities up over a series of Discover effects. This design sounds fun and skill testing, but it may have proved to be a bit too time consuming in practice.

 

 

Another ability they tried out was called "Mystery", which is explained on card image above. I really like the design behind Mystery and hope to see it show up in a future set, even if only on a single card and not as a new keyword ability.

 

 

Ghostly cards were one of the precursors to Echo. They tried out several designs of Ghostly while the set was still murder mystery themed, and at one point Ghostly read as "discard this card at the end of your turn". As they moved away from the old theme and towards the new one, they eventually settled on Echo as the new keyword ability for a variety of reasons. It fit well with the set's new theme, and it provided players with interesting decisions to make throughout the game.

If you'd like to learn more about The Witchwood, check out our expansion hub right here!

[Synesthesy 114]

Warpath in wild means.... Everyone, get in here!

 

 

[Migol 433]

I think Warpath is being a bit underestimated by the author.    It's a "Ping" at two mana to combo with an execute.    At 4 mana it destroys most murlocadin fields.     At 8 mana it's a flamestrike costing 1 extra mana.

TLDR it's flexible boardwipe which is something Warrior is sorely short of compared to other classes, Brawl has been their mainstay but otherwise it's usually some combo that costs 2 cards.      This is a slightly expensive but flexible alternative.

Edited March 22, 2018 by Migol

[Rhondis 148]

3 hours ago, Migol said:

I think Warpath is being a bit underestimated by the author.    It's a "Ping" at two mana to combo with an execute.    At 4 mana it destroys most murlocadin fields.     At 8 mana it's a flamestrike costing 1 extra mana.

TLDR it's flexible boardwipe which is something Warrior is sorely short of compared to other classes, Brawl has been their mainstay but otherwise it's usually some combo that costs 2 cards.      This is a slightly expensive but flexible alternative.

That's what I was thinking. 

 

Pretty interesting cards, I imagine Face Collector will have a major impact in Arena for Rogues.

[Caldyrvan 377]

Not sure about Warpath but if it will be any good warrior can really use some tools.

I don't like Face Collector for constructed, getting a random legend has always been bad in the past. There are so many bad/situational legends, which makes it totally unreliable, and I assume they will release more. Additionally it's again a "let the idiot win" card. by being damn lucky and getting awesome legends with high impact and winning with that even though one played actually bad.

Looks a bit like Prince Malchezaar (even though it's a different mechanic) which can theoretically improve your deck with useful legends (and as well getting lucky by doing so even though the deck and player are bad) but most of the time using him just screwed up your deck.

For the Video: I really wish they would stop with their artificial/robot like smiling. Very disgusting.

This guy looks by far more natural and personable:

Edited March 22, 2018 by Caldyrvan

[Bozonik 94]

8 hours ago, Synesthesy said:

Warpath in wild means.... Everyone, get in here!

 

 

Hmm. It’s not like Warrior is short of whirlwind effects as it is. Been playing wild for the last three seasons, not seen anybody getting in there yet ;)

[Bozonik 94]

8 hours ago, Migol said:

I think Warpath is being a bit underestimated by the author.    It's a "Ping" at two mana to combo with an execute.    At 4 mana it destroys most murlocadin fields.     At 8 mana it's a flamestrike costing 1 extra mana.

TLDR it's flexible boardwipe which is something Warrior is sorely short of compared to other classes, Brawl has been their mainstay but otherwise it's usually some combo that costs 2 cards.      This is a slightly expensive but flexible alternative.

Flamestrike only damages enemy minions. It’s more like a 6 mana hellfire, or 10 mana felfire. It is flexible though.

Not convinced it’d see play currently (sure it’s great against Paladin, but my stats email from Blizzard last month tells me DMH warrior has 90% win rate against Paladin as it stands anyway) but let’s see the rest of the cards.

Face collector, hmm. At 3 mana it’s a really bad version of kabal courier, which only largely saw play in Reno decks. At 9 mana its doppelgangster plus draw three random legendaries for 4 mana, which is great value. So slow though. You don’t want it when you’re facing aggro. And do current control decks care much about you adding three random legendaries to your hand? Not convinced.

Edited March 23, 2018 by Bozonik

[VaraTreledees 138]

Shaku saw play in tempo decks as a value card and face collector is comparable.  Also it is disgusting with shadow step.  But it will be tech at best in those sort of decks.  Obvious inclusion if control or value rogue becomes a thing.  The value might even be high enough to put in miracle, but I doubt it, while having a Mana sink can be nice a lot of the time, I think it will just come off too awkwardly in most scenarios.  Warpath is great.  I think it will be a 1 of in every control warrior, with the option to cut 1 whirlwind for a second.  Not getting geisted is also important if that remains a strong tech card as well.

[Bozonik 94]

10 hours ago, VaraTreledees said:

Also it is disgusting with shadow step.

You only get the discount the first time you play it. Does mean you could potentially play 4 in one turn, but not convinced that you’d want to often. Unless the meta is very slow anyway.

Edited March 23, 2018 by Bozonik

[BlakeArmentrout 29]

So lets recap a sec, First Rogues were OP as hell with the Quest Card, now there Invincible with the renewable Kingsbane weapon, and next expansion they will be even MORE OP with a infinite card that summons Legendary cards? yeah I am starting to think the game should be called Rogues Gambit instead of Hearthstone because the last 3 to 4 expansions they have been the dominate force in the ranked mode. As much as I love this game I kind of think they need to balance it more before constantly releasing all these brokenly OP cards to make it even more of a nightmare to go through ranked play, I have never gone higher then rank 15 EVER because every time I think I have a deck that can make it they add all kinds of new shit that makes my deck look like garbage and I will win 1 out a 20 matches if i'm lucky.

[VaraTreledees 138]

6 hours ago, Bozonik said:

You only get the discount the first time you play it. Does mean you could potentially play 4 in one turn, but not convinced that you’d want to often. Unless the meta is very slow anyway.

You misunderstand.  You play 2 or 3, shadow step one, then later on in the game play a bunch more of them.  That is some disgusting value.  Can do something similar with Sonya if any stick around.  Although I do agree, meta probably won't be slow enough.  Man can dream though.

[Keizoku 185]

17 hours ago, BlakeArmentrout said:

 yeah I am starting to think the game should be called Rogues Gambit instead of Hearthstone because the last 3 to 4 expansions they have been the dominate force in the ranked mode. 

No. No, they have not. Either Warrior, Druid, Priest and/or Warlock have all been way more dominant than Rogue, even with the pre-nerf quest. Rogue works well as a meta counter to prey on netdeckers, but that's it.

[FanOfValeera 253]

17 hours ago, BlakeArmentrout said:

So lets recap a sec, First Rogues were OP as hell with the Quest Card, now there Invincible with the renewable Kingsbane weapon, and next expansion they will be even MORE OP with a infinite card that summons Legendary cards? yeah I am starting to think the game should be called Rogues Gambit instead of Hearthstone because the last 3 to 4 expansions they have been the dominate force in the ranked mode. As much as I love this game I kind of think they need to balance it more before constantly releasing all these brokenly OP cards to make it even more of a nightmare to go through ranked play, I have never gone higher then rank 15 EVER because every time I think I have a deck that can make it they add all kinds of new shit that makes my deck look like garbage and I will win 1 out a 20 matches if i'm lucky.

Right now, rogue has the 2nd worst winrate of all classes. Its even worse than shaman. 

Rogue always starts with a dominant archetype, then something got nerfed and class sees no play after that point. Miracle rogue was tier 1 until StB nerfed. 

Quest rogue was very dominant in Un'Goro meta until the quest is nerfed.

Tempo rogue was one of the best decks in the game until the last nerfs.

Blizzard rarely has any idea about what to do with the class, they make it broken then nerf it to oblivion.

[BlakeArmentrout 29]

10 hours ago, Keizoku said:

No. No, they have not. Either Warrior, Druid, Priest and/or Warlock have all been way more dominant than Rogue, even with the pre-nerf quest. Rogue works well as a meta counter to prey on netdeckers, but that's it.

 

10 hours ago, FanOfValeera said:

Right now, rogue has the 2nd worst winrate of all classes. Its even worse than shaman. 

Rogue always starts with a dominant archetype, then something got nerfed and class sees no play after that point. Miracle rogue was tier 1 until StB nerfed. 

Quest rogue was very dominant in Un'Goro meta until the quest is nerfed.

Tempo rogue was one of the best decks in the game until the last nerfs.

Blizzard rarely has any idea about what to do with the class, they make it broken then nerf it to oblivion.

well then I guess I just have really bad luck against them then, practice makes perfect or so they say.

[Bozonik 94]

On 23/03/2018 at 8:33 PM, VaraTreledees said:

You misunderstand.  You play 2 or 3, shadow step one, then later on in the game play a bunch more of them.  That is some disgusting value.  Can do something similar with Sonya if any stick around.  Although I do agree, meta probably won't be slow enough.  Man can dream though.

Yeah, it has huge value potential for sure. But even in a slow meta, I’m not that convinced it’s that strong. Sure you might even get over 10 free random legendaries if you run two and shadowsteps. But how do they stack up against the free, and ultra tempo, doomguards, voidlords etc that warlocks get from NZoth and Guldan?

Well, maybe if Rogue gets a 10mana summon all legendary minions that died this game card or something similar.

[Caldyrvan 377]

At least N'Zoth, the Corruptor leaves standard soon, I'm pretty happy about that.

[Bozonik 94]

On 23/03/2018 at 3:06 AM, Bozonik said:

Hmm. It’s not like Warrior is short of whirlwind effects as it is. Been playing wild for the last three seasons, not seen anybody getting in there yet ;)

Haha, no longer can say this, ran into someone playing a tempo warrior who tried to get everyone in there at fairly high legend yesterday. Nice that you run into completely off-meta but viable decks in wild from time to time.

[Taan 46]

On 23.3.2018 at 5:54 PM, BlakeArmentrout said:

and next expansion they will be even MORE OP with a infinite card that summons Legendary cards?

Wait...what card are you talking about?

Face Collector only gives you Legendaries on your hand, it does not sommon them.

Talking about Face Collector: I agree with Bozonik. This thing is waaaay to slow. You can't afford to play a 3-mana 2/2 in a normal game of Hearthstone. You are probably better of putting the legendary you want in your deck to begin with.

But the biggest concern i got is, that there are a LOT of Legendaries that are bad. Not necessarily bad in general, but bad if you get them in a random deck. Lynessa Sunsorrow, Lorewalker Cho, King Togwaggle to only name a few. And if they are not bad, they are often very expensive.

Bottomline: getting completely random Lagendaries is not worth the loss of tempo of a 3-mana 2/2 (x2 or x3)....it is not as bad as Prince Malchezaar though :P

Edited March 26, 2018 by Taan

[Caldyrvan 377]

Are you guys only reading the last one or two posts? that is pretty much what I said, several posts ago. But I still agree :D