Intro (~10 min)

Welcome to Episode 376 of Coin Concede, a Hearthstone podcast dedicated to making the competitive side of the game more accessible to you.

It is Fri 12/30/2022 in the evening!

Joining us from Gadgetzan, New York, it’s RidiculousHat!

Also joining us -from Karazhan, California it’s Botticus!

And joining us from Gnomeregan, Ohio, it's Edelweiss!

And joining us from Northrend, Massachusetts, it's WickedGood!

Thanks for reviews

How's life and ladder? -

Hat -

Botticus -

Edelweiss -

Wickedgood -

News Highlights - (~30 min)

Shop update: Malganis and Sally Whitemane
Worlds viewership stats

https://escharts.com/news/hearthstone-world-championship-2022-recap

Update on future of Hearthstone in China

https://esports.gg/news/hearthstone/blizzard-talks-future-of-hearthstone-in-china

Tournaments and the meta YEAR END RETROSPECTIVE

One year ago today, VS report 216 came out. This was immediately after the 22.0.2 balance changes. Celestial (the first time), Bannerman, Octobot, Snowfall (the first time), Touch, Rod (the second time), Deckhand, Trogg, Mo'arg. Buffs were applied to Tavish Hero, Grey Sage Parrot, Dawngrasp Hero, and Wildfire.

The best deck in the game was Wildpaw Gnoll Thief Rogue, followed closely by Quest Rogue, Libram Paladin, Face Hunter, Quest Warrior, and Handlock. Poison Rogue also seemed quite powerful but sample size was too low.

In January, Scabs, Gnoll, Cloak, Raid the Docks, Incanter's Flow, Sorc Apprentice, and Rapid Fire were nerfed and Rokara hero was buffed. This was the same patch as the Battlegrounds update which introduced Buddies! Book of Mercs were coming out btw, and they get released throughout the year along with Book of Heroes.
February brought us Onyxia's Lair, with Kazakusan and also other cards. This was also the patch where BGs cosmetics rolled out, including… Finishers. They are now known as strikes. Eek. Locusts got nerfed a month later but it still defined the rest of the year before rotation in April.
In early March, Ben Lee joined us on Coin Concede to say goodbye to Hearthstone. Thanks for everything, Ben!
Voyage to the Sunken City came out in April with a big rotation, a crazy core set, and a bumping soundtrack. Druid was ridiculous right out of the gate, but the first set of nerfs on April 26th reworked Kazakusan's conditional, pushed Miracle Growth to 8, nerfed Secure the Supplies along with Pufferfist, and nerfed Switcheroo and Kael'Thas Sunstrider (the original).
Post patch, Demon Hunter, Quest Hunter, and Control Warrior became the trifecta, thanks to Drek'Thar, Drek'Thar, and From the Dep'Thar. On May 19th, The Great Churn began with a massive change that nerfed Drek'Thar, Multi-Strike, and Dragonbane Shot while buffing double digit other cards, including Harpoon Gun, Xhilag, Blackwater Behemoth, Serpent Wig, Whirlpool, Wildpaw Gnoll, Tooth of Nefarian, all the Curse cards, and some Warlock Murlocs. They can't all be winners, kid. Thief Rogue immediately became the most popular deck in the game while Control Warrior became dominant…
And got even better thanks to the mini-set Throne of the Tides. But that deck didn't last because of another massive set of changes, this time hitting SIX cards in the warrior deck, including Shield Shatter, Depths, and Nellie. Gnoll got toned back down, DH lost some power with Caria, Earthen Scales got an extra mana, and Naga got demolished as School Teacher lost a full 1/1 in stats and Spitelash Siren went to 5. Naga… spell… naga… spell……..
Speaking of which, Naga had been added to BGs and were completely busted while also being completely fun. They got toned down pretty aggressively pretty quickly, though Stormscale Siren turned out to be the main problem.
In 23.6, Renathal was added to Standard. Hoo boy. This changed everything in such a massive way that everyone has already heard about quite a bit… and this was late June. We are barely halfway through the year.
Nathria came out on August 2nd and it was hard to tell what felt over the line - Imp Warlock seemed too strong early on, but the Wildseeds were sneaky broken and Celestial Alignment was seeing way more play than anyone wanted. Snowfall Guardian was also still unpleasant (says Hat) while a few classes just had nothing going on - DH, Warrior, and Paladin all missed the mark pretty hard on their new mechanics.
There was a HUGE balance change shortly after that toned down some of these cards while making a bunch of buffs - and this was only two weeks after set release! Buffs were handed out like crazy, though maybe that Edwin buff might end up being problematic… oh, yeah. It was.
The following month was pretty unpleasant, but thankfully we got quests in BGs, which was one of the best things the BG team has ever done. And for standard, a good patch came after with Guff losing his full mana crystals, Dawngrasp scaling slower, Starfish moving from 3 to 4, Kaelthas going to 8, and the Hunter quest getting slowed down again. Also Bannerman and School Teacher gained some health. Nice. This was early September, and later that month, we'd get Maw and Disorder.
Maw was limited in its impact, mostly helping out paladin with a couple other role player cards here and there - but shortly after Maw, we saw nerfs to hunter cards and Theotar. Late Nathria opened up until we heard about March of the Lich King. We spied a Theotar nerf and an Ice Revenant nerf (lol) until the patch came out, and the month of November also included the entire KFT set in standard. Many memorable cards made their return, like Spreading Plague, Defile, and… Animated Berserker.
And here we are!
FEATURES ADDED THIS YEAR https://www.hearthpwn.com/news/9782-new-features-improvements-cosmetic-additions

January: Friends list defaulting to highest rank/current mode
February: Early concede quest warning
March: Play from mini-hand on mobile
April: Recently completed achievements column
May: Upgrade to golden
Share deck codes in client
Multiple card backs
Frame rate selection
June: Overcapped decks
Expanded recent players list
In-game reporting
July: Multiple hero skins
Spacebar for packs
Improved returning player experience
BG squelch all
August: Uncapped leaderboards
September: AI bots for low MMR
November: Mercs renown+task rework
Loaner decks
New event system
Battle bashes
Legendary hero skins
Tutorial skip
Reroll for dupes
Signature cards
Duels bucket rework
Collection filtering checkboxes

Decksplanations

Poppin off! For decks with pop-off turns, when do you "go in" and when do you hold back?

Historical examples - Miracle Rogue in classic, combo priest in Uldum or something, Mana Wyrm Tempo Mage
Pre-nerf - Miracle Rogue, Boon Priest, quest DH, Shockspitter Hunter
Now - Arcane Mage, Frost DK

Understanding what you need to do - plan A

Quest DH doesn't need to finish the quest, it wins with spell damage
Boon priest is all about loading up handmaiden/switcheroo and then popping off ASAP
Etc, etc

Spending resources before closing the game as needed - plan A and a half

Use an arcanist and an unleash fel to clear and survive first
Boon priest can boon+silence an enemy minion to not die
Spitter can kill minons with Devo Swarm
You get the idea

Alternating from main plan - plan B

Quest DH can win by attacking with 7/7s
Miracle Rogue can generate stuff with potion belts to hit people
Shockspitter is still just beast hunter

When do I need to make these calls?

Understanding pressure
Does your pop-off end the game
How vulnerable are you to damage off the board even if you make a big board with taunts

Outro (~5min) - Thanks and contact!

We have many folks we'd like to thank - check out our THANKS! section on the website at www.coinconcede.com, where you can also find our contact info, our show notes, and our Patreon information!

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BIG THANKS to our producers nmbrthry, DogeTK, Kresh, Cap, Beefsquatch, David P, Fade2Black, Waalou, Jeremy T, bottlecaps, Lucky, GrumpyMonk, Krebmart!!!

Coin Concedes (Shout Outs):

RAIDS -

SUBS -

Hat - MIDGAME, Copa, Brookewerm

Edelweiss - Pylet, fade2black, washinthewind, Hustle

WickedGood - Edel, DividedSky

Keep Calm and

And if you see us on ladder…

“Coin Concede” Hat

“Coin Concede” Botticus

“Coin Concede” Edelweiss

“Coin Concede” WickedGood