I am in love with this card, and I am not alone. However, I am beginning to wonder if this card is changing Hearthstone into a less enjoyable experience. This minion, Prince Renathal, in the last day in diamond one through diamond four, is in 48.1% of decks. In legend, again in the past day, Prince Renathal is in 41.5% of decks. Is this a problem? That’s what I’d like to discuss.
I realize that players like me, that enjoy longer matches and having a new and interesting way to build decks, adore this card immensely. However, there is a substantial amount of players that are disgusted by this. Many players prefer shorter games, not ones that can drag on and last ten minutes, or more. So, how do we solve this dissatisfaction? This is also what I’d like to discuss.
What do you guys think? How is this new meta affecting you? Is this good for Hearthstone?
It is quite a change from the norm, and whether it is a mechanic that should be its own gamemode is its own debate that I don’t really know the answer to
I personally think it’s a good addition, the game was reaching a critical point (arguably already has) of aggro or otk decks winning by turn 3 or 4, which yes is fast and maybe that’s what people prefer, but I wouldn’t say that it’s a healthy pace for the game to be at
I play decks I construct to play the cards I put into it, but if I die before I get to use 75% of my deck then I’m not gonna have a good time; that’s obviously not the same case for everyone but it is a good reason why Renathal is a welcome addition (assuming others also think the same way I do)
I think the issue with Renathal is its abuse in quest hunter. First of all, quest hunter is the last deck one would think should make good use of Renathal, but it turns out, the extra (cheap spell cards) along with the extra 10 life is exactly what quest hunter needs to push it further along.
This, in my mind, is a design failure, but not one that is easy to foresee so I don’t blame Blizzard for this. The actual problem is with the hunter’s quest (easier to blame Blizzard for this), in particular, how uninteractive it is. Effectively games against this deck become the hunter drawing through their deck, delaying game via secrets and cheap spells long enough to get off quest, then just going face. There is very little you as an opponent do to interactive with the deck.
Basically, I think Renathal is a fun/balanced card as long as the deck using it does not greatly benefit from both of its effects. Most decks that use it only benefit mostly from only one of the effects, but not both. Some decks tend to suffer from a larger card pool.
This card doesn’t need to be balanced, the outlier deck that uses this card inappropriately (quest hunter) needs to be rebalanced.
Ofc, but I just like playing the snazzy cards with the cool effects to please my 5 year old brain. Old C’thun go brr, Shellfish go chhhh, stuff like that y’know
I don’t much like aggo decks, just clicking face is boring
When designing this card I doubt Blizzard wanted any competitive deck to benefit from both effects. Unfortunately, this is what is happening, so probably needs to be addressed sooner rather than later, especially since the deck abusing this card is one of the least interactive decks in Hearthstone’s history.
Prestor druid benefits primarily from the 40 cards, and very little from the extra health.
Hunter benefits greatly from both. 40 health buys it an extra turn or two vs more aggressive decks which greatly improves it’s mu spread. The 40 cards greatly improves it’s longer MU vs control.
Quest priest I’m not too familiar with but playing against it, generally they suffer from the 40 cards.
Alignment druid is about 50 50, generally suffer from the 40 cards but the extra health helps alot vs aggro.
All decks expect quest hunter make a trade of running this card, or at least don’t benefit tremendously from both effects.
Indeed, the card might be a bit too good vs aggro so it’s imperative that T5 make more adjustments to balance things out. Maybe some reverts are in order like Smite and Drek’Thar (he could recruit a minion and draw the other for example) and they print new powerful neutral aggro minions. Zoo Warlock is another new aggro deck that’s shaping up nicely.
Maybe we’re traveling down a different path that changes up what archetype is good versus other archetypes. Maybe, aggro shouldn’t be effective against control decks. I thought that is how this is meant to be, anyway. Aggro < Control < Combo.
I suspect the emphasis we have seen on aggro performing well has probably been a result of market research on Blizzard’s part, perhaps focus groups. A lot of TCG out there provide short game experiences and are sort of resetting the standard for a game to last a few minutes as opposed to the 10s of minutes hearthstone games can drag on for.
Maybe they’ve taken a step back now from that line of thinking and deciding that they want to differentiate hearthstone from other TCGs and offer longer game experience to the user, who knows, ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I have been sitting at platinum 10 for a few months just playing meme decks ever since making legend for the first time. Since this card came out, I am now at diamond 2 and might make legend for only my second time ever :). This card has definitely given me enough design space for my greedy decks that are trying to do too many things and I love it. Also just starting off with 40 health compared to 30 health is huge.
Dont get me wrong but i like playing longer games that goes back and forth.
And i loved the control warrior deck before it got destroyed.
That being said, i hate Prince Renathal to such an extent that im seriously thinking of quiting the game.
Its the worst card design ever made in hearthstone imo and whoever thought it would be a good idea to print the card should be locked away forever and have the key thrown away.
This is how i feel about the card and i wont change my opinion on the subject.
Flashback to almost a year ago when the people that loved a very short Hearthstone game were getting it and were very unsympathetic to those that liked longer ones.
No… No I don’t think there is ANY reason to feel bad for those people. If they’re suffering because of this meta then I say good, they deserve it because they were all too happy to rub it in when the shoe was on the other foot.
