The previewed cards in the above link are largely unremarkable, but I feel the need to make comment on some of the rules changes that have been covered in this first article.
Equipment is now a card type
This is pretty sensible. Amusingly the first thing I thought of was King Varian Wrynn's nerf - he gives -1/-1 to the opposing board for each card type you have in play, so he will theoretically be 'worse' as a result of this change.
Cards that reference 'Equipment' have been around for ages, whereas the cards themselves have always been divided into separate categories - Weapon, Armour and Item. Changing those to subtypes (so cards will now read 'Equipment - Weapon' will be very useful in helping teach new players about card definitions.
Combo/Finishing Move changes
The new way these cards will work is great - especially for limited play, which can be quite depressing when you open six packs of cards, crack a rare Finishing Move and no Combo cards to go with it. The fact that no further Combo cards will be printed could potentially be an issue for Overkill-based decks though.
ADDENDUM: Oopsie! Of course, Overkill requires you to remove Finishing Moves from your deck, not Combo cards.
Could this also lead to an overall decrease in power of finishing moves, now any Rogue ability card can be used as part of their bonus payment? Only time will tell, though Steal Steel is looking pretty powerful against the right sort of decks.
Also, in Icecrown, the first Druid Finishing Move was printed. Now it is redundant. Whoops!
Druid Forms
Form of the Serpent is notorious for having one fundamental difference over other Druid Forms - it doesn't break if you strike with a weapon or do non-Feral things. While I find the idea of a bear wielding a mace slightly preposterous, a snake wielding a mace is not much better so this is definitely a change for the better gameplay-wise, even if it completely eschews sensibilities taken from the game itself.
Feral Druid hasn't really been a top-tier deck for a while, and while these rules will help make the Feral spec more viable again, a magic-chucking, weapon-swinging cat is going to take a little getting used to!
Striking with weapons
On the one hand, I'm glad that striking with weapons is now simpler - however, I built a deck a couple of months back that let you strike with a weapon four times in a single combat. It is a bit silly though! I will put up the decklist shortly as I won't be using it this time next month...
Again, most of these changes are relatively straightforward, and while I can't say I'm necessarily pleased with the way hero combat will work come Worldbreaker due to the removal of ability to fake an attack and then ready with something like Quickstrider Moccasins, it's definitely going to be easier to explain. Want to attack? Declare target, exhaust hero, exhaust weapon, pay strike costs, done.
There is still scope for combat tricks while defending, such as playing instant weapons and striking with them whilst defending. Shame you can no longer do this while attacking, but it's a sensible sacrifice considering the new attacking rules.
Totems
I love Totems - my first real deck all that time ago was a Phadalus the Enlightened Totem Control deck. It would simply stall to turn 10 with the aid of Totemic Mastery, then play Gorehowl to finish. One swing was generally all it took as Myriam Starcaller would generally do the rest of the damage in fits and spurts throughout the game.
Everybody hated playing against it. Despite this, I didn't win all that often, but the crazy Totem rules made every game a slog for my opponent. Let's run over a few of the best ones:
- Totems are abilities, but when they are in play, they can be targeted or attacked as if they were allies
- When in the graveyard, Totems are abilities, and so cannot be eaten with Undercity
- Totems are invulnerable to Area of Effect attacks like Engulfing Blaze, and also effects like Flint Shadowmore's redirection effect that don't target
- Any attachments that are attached to a Totem are destroyed during the next Pre-Priority Processing (so, immediately then)
Now all of the above bullshit is no longer relevant. Again, this is at the expense of keeping canon with the way Totems work in World of Warcraft, but removes so many stupid rules from the game that even a die-hard Totem fan like me can accept the changes happily enough.
An interesting benefit to this change is that it appears that Totems can now be given ATK bonuses, which they previously could not under the old rules - so while you lose some benefits you gain others, even if you are likely to get horribly dicked by anyone running Corpse Explosion.
New Cards are a bit ugly
Yeah.
That's your lot for now - This set of rules changes will likely divide opinion for a while but I can't wait for the day I don't have to explain a million caveats about Totems to a new player.
More stuff from CZE tomorrow apparently!
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