#451 - The Angry Chicken: “Aka-whatever-the-cluck”
24/01/2022
• Garrett • Jocelyn • Hat
Tracking Link:
https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/
Future Topics / Saved Emails
Intro
Welcome to The Angry Chicken!
Iksar’s Meta Stats
Iksar put some stats out there this week, looking back at the past Hearthstone metas.
Links
Thanks to the Patrons over at Patreon.com/TAC
TAC is supported by our epic Patrons. You can become a TAC Patron by going to Patreon.com/tac. Becoming a TAC patron gives you access to the TAC Discord Server, early sign ups for our tournaments, as well as the Deck Code for next week’s strategy section.
- Mehter
- MadK17
- Gary Power
- Eollin
- Enraged Chicken upped their pledge
- Tyler R also upped their pledge
News
22.2 Patch Notes
Standard Changes
- Old: [Costs 7] → New: [Costs 8]
- Dev Comment: Rogue has seen significant increases in playrate and winrate since the last patch, and Scabbs is a pretty clear outlier in terms of power. We expect this change to make a fairly large impact in the strength of Rogue archetypes across the board.
- Old: [Costs 5] 4 Attack, 5 Health → New: [Costs 6] 3 Attack, 5 Health
- Dev Comment: Wildpaw Gnoll was intended to be a strong payoff for Maestra of the Masquerade’s fun effect, but it has been overperforming in this role—even in decks that don’t have dedicated Burgle strategies. We’re adjusting Gnoll to both come down a bit later, as a slightly smaller threat when it does.
- Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 4]
- Dev Comment: We’re happy with Poison Rogue when it’s a niche player in the metagame, but the current playrate of the archetype is much higher than intended. Cloak of Shadows also combined with Shadowcrafter Scabbs for frustrating play experiences. Reducing the power levels of both these pieces should bring Poison Rogue’s overall power level back in line.
- Raid the Docks -> Create a Distraction (the second part of the Questline)
- Old: Questline: Play 2 Pirates. Reward: Deal 2 damage to a random enemy twice. New: Questline: Play 3 Pirates. Reward: Deal 2 damage to a random enemy twice.
- Dev Comment: Pirate Warrior is not a power outlier at the highest ranks of play, but it is overperforming at many of the lower ranks of play. Going from 7 total Pirates to 8 total will promote deck diversity in the Bronze through Diamond ranks.
- Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 4]
- Dev Comment: When combo Mages play Incanter’s Flow on an early turn, they can assemble their game winning combo at a very fast rate. Similar to our goals for combo-based decks in the previous patch, pushing Incanter’s Flow up a Mana will slow down combo Mages by a turn or two, giving slower strategies a better chance to thrive in the overall meta.
- Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 4]
- Old: [Costs 1] → New: [Costs 2]
- Old: Twinspell Deal 1 damage. → New: Twinspell Deal 2 damage.
- Dev Comment: The Rapid Fire and Sorcerer’s Apprentice changes are targeted at some of the strongest decks in the current Wild metagame, to improve the long-term, overall health of the format. Both of these balance adjustments are aimed at decks with extremely efficient from-hand damage, which puts big constraints on which strategies can find success in Wild. By removing power here, the format should open up for a few more viable archetypes to see play, and for the Wild format to slightly slow down overall.
- Old: [5 Armor] → New: [10 Armor]
- Dev Comment: Rokara is one of the less viable Hero cards right now. We want each class to have exciting play options, so we’re increasing her Armor to give her more leeway in swinging into high-Attack minions, and to better synergize with some of Warrior's Armor-focused cards.
Links
Honey - JoinHoney.com/tac
Blog blurb:
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Battlegrounds
Overall Changes
- Battlegrounds Buddies
- The Battlegrounds Armor System will be deactivated while we try out the new Buddy System
- Hero selection has also been temporarily extended by 10 seconds (to a total of 70 seconds) while players learn the new Buddy System.
- The Cost to upgrade to Tavern Tier 5 has been increased by 2 Gold. Its Cost now starts at 11 Gold.
- On January 25, the current Battlegrounds season will end, ratings will be reset to zero, and the new season will begin.
Hero Updates
- Odds for Tier 6 Dragons are no longer reduced.
- Bob’s Tavern no longer counts as being Refreshed at the start of turn if no new minions are added.
- Hero power now reads: “Give a minion Divine Shield.”
- Developer Note: This allows you to target shop minions as well as your minions.
- Kael’thas, Silas Darkmoon, and Chenvaala will be temporarily disabled when the 22.2 patch launches, while we address a bug found late in testing. They will be added back into the Hero Pool in a future update.
Minion Update
- Text now reads: “Battlecry: Gain +1 Health for each Health your Hero is missing.”
- Developer Note: This text change more accurately describes how the card currently works (specifically, in games where the Hero had Armor at some point). This is not a functional change to the card.
Emails
You can send your emails to TACpodcast@gmail.com | Future Topics / Saved Emails
Mr Calwell
Now that we know all BG buddies, who are you most looking forward to playing and/or what is your favorite new piece of art?
- Joce’s notes to help Garrett get to buddy art faster
- Sous Chef (Cookie)
- Baby Kodo (Guff)
- Lil KT (Mr. B)
- Weebomination (Patchwerk)
- Arfus Best Boi (Lich King)
- Flight Trainer (Galewing)
- Living Nightmare (Kurtrus)
- Mishmash (Curator)
- Street Magician (Aka-whatever-the-fuck)
- Acolyte of Yogg (Yogg)
CrazyPenguin
What could be done to make off-meta decks more accessible? I feel like there is a craving for variety in the community, but also this perception that you have to play tier 1 decks if you want to win games of Hearthstone.
Netdecking from HSR or vS has the advantage of being an easy way to play something solid - not everyone wants to dig or build or experiment and that makes sense.
My question is: would it be possible to provide a similar level of accessibility for weird tier-2-or-3-ish decks that might not be viable in high legend, but fine everywhere else?
HSR and vS already have some of these decks, but they are (understandably so) pushed down on lists - could something be done there perhaps?
Love you all, mad flightless birds forever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPL3zMPVklY
Outro
Patreon Thanks
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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