Seriously, Life Steal is stronger than Charge and its being treated like its a lesser ability. It is just a little weaker than Windfury unless conditions are met. It is also one of the least fun mechanics to play against because a deck with Life Steal in it can both run away with a game and draw into unbelievable turnarounds. The only thing I care for less in this meta is how unbelievably slow the nerfs to Life Steal cards are taking. This is Wild Seed Hunter all over again, the game is completely blocked until they fix it.
1 Like
Disagree. Lifesteal is useless against OTKs whereas charge can actually put your opponent on a clock. I could see an argument for it being situationally stronger in Standard (because it’s actually useless in Wild) in formats that don’t have OTKs (which isn’t super often even for Standard), but overall charge allows you to trade minions immediately and deal damage.
Lifesteal doesn’t give immediate board presence, doesn’t stop OTKs, and is useless is you’re already topped off. In some situations it’s EXTREMELY powerful, game-winning even, but generally it’s weaker than charge.
2 Likes
I think life steal operates incorrectly.
It should heal for what your target’s health is, not what your cards’ attack is.
ie: you hit a 1/3, it should do one damage to you and heal you for three.
After all; you aren’t stealing attack, Right?
2 Likes
It should upper-bounded by the target’s remaining health limit. This will be a minor nerf.
7 Likes
It doesn’t need a nerf. It’s one of the weakest mechanics in the game. It’s considered one of the weakest mechanics in MTG and in that game you can actually go above your starting life. It’s even worse in HS
4 Likes
Yeah… Not dying isn’t nearly as good as winning…
4 Likes
… what? you’ve never seen DH reno with that stuff? Watched blood dk live forever? I mean, there’s not a universe where it’s remote “weakest” mechanics in this game. Overheal wants a word, bro.
When the attack is higher than the health, yes, I agree.
I don’t think you should be able to steal life that isn’t there.
What’s your point? Pretty much everything is useless against otk except killing them first.
Charge is often a component of otk… so I’m not seeing how this is a fair comparison? Yes, killing people is better than healing. That’s how the game is supposed to work.
No. It’s too strong for what it is, but I would rather smash your face than heal if given a choice. Your death renders healing moot.
DH pulling a reno against board based decks after basically ignoring that game is the epitome of bad lifesteal mechanics. Priest was nerfed for less.
2 Likes
I feel the same way about overheal. How can you overheal something that is at full health? #stupid
With how much burst damage there is in this game (and how that tends to be hearthstone’s most power crept mechanic), you wish to strongly nerf the main stabilization mechanic the game has? While you’re at it, you might as well lower starting health to 15.
Lifesteal is fine.
Lifesteal on a minion with rush and cleave in two classes that both have access to significant hand buffs is not.
10 Likes
What?
Lifegain decks are some of the most busted things ever conceived in MTG. Wizards Coast created a new mechanic called poison counters because lifegain was so strong at one point.
2 Likes
classic wizards, inventing new kinds of power creep to not nerf broken cards
1 Like
I think Lifesteal + Rush on a minion is almost always a mistake, and lifesteal effects attached to any AoE at all. But otherwise lifesteal is whatever.
3 Likes
Tell me you hate Hollow Hound without telling me you hate Hollow Hound.
7 Likes
OK and there are cards in MTG that are TECHNICALLY weaker than lifesteal, but talking about mainline keywords (or everygreen if you want to call them that), it’s the weakest of the…
Reno isn’t lifesteal and as for DK lifesteal cards, I’ve already said it can situationally be good. Obviously efficient healing is strong against aggro, but the game isn’t only aggro.
Combo is an important part of the archetype pie and being largely bad against both control and combo means it’s really only effective against aggro and decent against midrange. So really only being strong against one archetype of deck and serviceable at best against another doesn’t make it great.
Charge being seen as an OTK component is a very narrow way to look at the charge mechanic. It’s about getting immediate damage on the board and makes summoning minions very ineffective against it unless they also have either charge or rush. Taunt and spot removal aren’t really counters against charge when playing reactively because the minion has already utilized the keyword. Ergo, charge is especially good against basically everything else in the game especially in HS because you can’t respond to your opponent during their turns.
So charge is on the of very good keywords, lifesteal is arguably weaker than taunt because unless it has another keyword that makes it useful the turn it’s played your opponent can altogether ignore it. It will EVENTUALLY need to be removed, but is technically less versatile than taunt because taunt can impact damage mitigation on your opponent’s next turn. Lifesteal is also good with taunt but again becomes an instance where the only immediate impact it was is in association with other keywords. So yes, lifesteal is arguably the worst evergreen mechanic in the game and overall just one of the weakest mechanics in general.
Deathrattle is also pretty bad but you can attach more broken abilities onto a deathrattle minion whereas lifesteal can only ever scale with the stats of the minion it’s on.
2 Likes
Ha, that isn’t even the worst of it.
Allow me to introduce you to a single card that turned MTG unlimited into Yugioh 2.0 in 2019.
Omniscience
- 7 Colorless + 3 islands
- Enchantment
- Card Text: You may cast spells from your hand without paying their mana costs.
For anyone unsure what this applies to. All cards are considered spells when the player casts them, yes that includes creatures.
2 Likes
This has to be the most correct statement here. How are you “Stealing Life” when you are actually gaining the “life” of your own minion’s stats. The keyword just doesn’t make sense.
If it was that you heal based on your target’s health, it would at least give you the chance to somewhat play around it. But i guess then, the boneheaded Hunter players would have to actually think how to play rather than just playing on curve.
Yeah, because if it is weak in MTG then it has to be weak in Hearthstone …
There are way too many variables between the games to be able to have a fair comparison on the keyword.
How about just toning down both, so we can have meaningful back to back interaction between the players?
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Anyone that hates on Hollow Hound has every right to do so. If you are playing Aggro and you get “Selective Breeder” dropped on you on 2, just concede to save yourself the time because the Hunter will 10 → 30 at least 4+ times in the game.
1 Like
Sadly… we need Life Steal to survive the insane fast and strong aggro… :\
1 Like
That’s a first, complaining about the Lifesteal keyword. In 2023 no less.
what’s next? complaining about Inspire?
Lifesteal is nowhere near as powerful, dividing and trigerring as other keywords like Discover, Charge or Counter
1 Like
This is something I’ve always advocated for. Per the name, it should simply steal the HP available
2 Likes