kerzain
2763
I’ve been thinking of the two health as a benefit, since I don’t see myself wanting it sticking around much longer than a single turn anyway. Two health makes it easier for me to ditch the thing once it has served its purpose. But if all the predictions hold true, yea, maybe he’ll just be sitting in the bleachers eating popcorn with Hemet here on out.
pyrhic
2764
from my perspective, here’s the thing…you only play him because your opponent is in control (serious control) of the board, and this necessitates some serious removal…at best, you’re sitting a large minion, to their (some multiple) of several minions, so you play your maw and you cleanse their board, and so you’re sitting a large minion and the maw, against their nothing…
but here’s where the card is a weakness, because for a single ping, they clear your large minion, and then i they have a reach of two, they can clear your maw(or alternatively, leave it as your next drop(s), and they have 7 mana to reestablish control of the board - you’re no further ahead…
- your board clear needs to be more efficient than 10
- for that cost, it can’t leave you vulnerable to easy counter…
The hunter doesn’t have many options to take control of the board early, but it does have several to shut the mage down until it can play the sticker minions. Though the mage can put minions on the board early, getting value out of those inspire cards often comes at a huge tempo cost in the early game. Hunter needs to aggressively keep the mage’s board clear, especially from the cards that buff the hero power so that they don’t get out of hand by the time turn 5 or 6 comes around. Preferably with bear trap and arcane shot, but there are other ways too. Freeze Trap, Snipe, Animal Companion, Unleash the Hounds (as a last resort). Use whatever cards you need even if you’re losing value, because you can probably make up card disadvantage later with Lock and Load. I’ve won 7 out of my last 9 with hunter so totally disagree that there’s a huge mage advantage here.
Acidmaw does suck. Mostly a dead card in this brawl, but maybe someone can get some use from it in constructed. Those 4/2 stats, though, are just brutal.
Only in that one Hunter win have I drawn a significant number of any of the board control cards you mention prior to the mage having massive advantage, and never has Lock and Load gained me any useful card advantage. The once I managed to use it to draw three cards, they were all awful. Anyway, everyone’s experience will obviously be different. Agree to disagree!
I will say that the hunter has almost nothing to get board control back once it is lost. That 5/3 joust charge minion can be good when it works, but you can’t count on it. Hunters Mark/Unleash the Hounds is OK for getting rid of a single big body. Acidmaw is garbage. The rhino is too expensive and weak to work in this deck.
Hansey
2768
Acidmaw/UtH is an amazing board clear, but it’s certainly situational. You really don’t want to leave Acidmaw on the board with anything else that you want to live, because a single ping from a mage will kill it. But if your board is already clear and your opponent’s isn’t… the Acidmaw/Unleash combo clears it no matter how much HP the minions have, and you’re left with a 4/2. Sure, your opponent may kill it next turn, but that’s probably what you want, really. Either your opponent kills it (fine), he plays something you can kill with Acidmaw, even if it dies (also fine) or he plays nothing and you get to go 4 to the face (sounds good to me). Worst case scenario is he plays a big body with more than 4 health, but you’re probably still better off than before you used Acidmaw/Unleash to clear.
Yeah, like the “if you can draw the damn thing” situation. Which happened against me three different times last night, versus once for me. I was trying to complete the “win 5 brawls” quest and it took me nearly 15 games. Didn’t help that I was 4-12 in joust pulls (after I lost the first 6 in a row I decided to keep count), including three different cases where I’d have won the game if it worked. I’m very glad to see the end of that quest.
Hansey
2770
So you think Dr. Boom is overpowered? Twitch streamer Moldran actually drafted THREE of them in a single Arena.
JoshL
2771
Well, I guess that just goes to show how completely, brutally luck-based Arena is. Why would it even give you three legendaries?
pyrhic
2772
Just had three legendaries on a hunter - boom, thaurissen and harrison jones…went 4/3. Legendaries aren’t necessarily the key to winning…
tryte
2773
Ended up overcoming my Arena paralysis: went 4-0 before dropping three straight. Got frustrated and tried to finish up some quests, lost three straight and dropped a rank. On the upside, I proceeded to clean my apartment instead of chucking my phone across the room, which was good.
It’s an effective combo for sure, but it also costs 2 cards and 10 frickin mana. That’s a high cost to reset the board to a mostly neutral state, but it can be a good emergency button play.
it’s two legendary cards too, right? A lot harder to pull off than a consecrate/equality for example where you COULD have 2 of each if you wanted.
Unleash the Hounds is a common. But yeah, 22 gives you much better odds than 21.
Acidmaw / UTH is a guaranteed board clear, which is has going for it as there aren’t that many of those (Equality + consecrate being the gold standard).
Obviously different classes are different situations, but compared to the many, many 90% board clear options, it’s pretty terrible. Thinking of them off the top of my head, things like Flamestrike + <something>, Brawl + <something>, power overwhelming + shadowflame (requires minion), 10 mana just isn’t good. When you have options to use with UTH like the alpha wolf, hunter’s mark, etc, the Acidmaw just doesn’t seem worth it.
Also, with UTH, you can eat bad effects from deathrattle effects (Boom Bots, Sylvanas, etc). I guess the flipside is true (e.g. you could potentially take the pilot of Sneed’s Old Shredder), but that seems less common off the top of my head.
Ninyu
2777
TGT is live! Don’t be in too big of a hurry though. Verrrrry laggy according to the streams I am watching.
Hansey
2778
Yeah, I didn’t really mean to imply that Acidmaw is a great card, simply that it can have its uses. Certainly it’s near (or even at) the bottom of Legendary quality for this expansion - I doubt seriously that anyone is going to rush out and craft it, and if you happen to open one in a pack, you’re probably going to be sad that it wasn’t… well, any other Legendary.
But I think it will occasionally get picked in arenas if it comes up when a hunter has already drafted an Unleash or two.
PantsVZ
2779
Yup, epic queue and crashing left and right. Business as usual for a Blizzard launch.
Not exactly. A divine shield will not get hit by Acidmaw, to my knowledge.
Actually, yeah, I can confirm it won’t (hit that in one of my Tavern Brawls). It works the same as Maexxna, etc, no damage = no effect.
Equality/Consecrate won’t get that either though, so that’s kind of a wash there, I guess.
PantsVZ
2782
Twisting Nether has no time for divine shields.
