Let's talk about Zephrys' interaction with Lord Jaraxxus

Multiplayer Discussion
1

I am proposing that the interaction between sacrificial pact and Lord Jaraxxus be removed.

For those of you who are not aware of this interaction, sacrificial pact (0 Mana - sacrifice a demon & restore 5 HP) is castable on a player once they have been replaced by Lord Jaraxxus, who is classified as a demon. This instantly wins the game. This interaction has been around a long time, but was extremely rare mainly because very few run Lord Jaraxxus and even fewer run sacrificial pact.

If your opponent has already been replaced by Lord Jaraxxus, Zephrys will offer sacrificial pact 100% of the time and you can end the game on the spot. As you all know, we have many, many decks running Zephrys.

Currently, as a warlock, if you are fighting against one of these decks, you absolutely CAN NOT play Lord Jaraxxus unless that Zephrys has come out, which will often be very late in the game, which is also when you will be wanting to play Jaraxxus. Hell, even some non-highlanders decks run Zephrys because he’s good enough to hold on to until your deck no longer has duplicates, so you can’t even really be sure. The card went from a cool, lore rich card with lots of history and flavor to an actually dead card.

Think about it from my perspective. Believe it or not, I am one of those people that used to run Jaraxxus because the card felt cool. No other reason. It would lose me plenty of games by being useless in my hand, or by me playing it and getting combo’d for 15 HP, but I didn’t care. I love the effects, the animations, the new voice lines, the new hero power, the cool weapon. The most satisfying way to finish out a game for me would be by playing Lord Jaraxxus, Eredar Lord of the Burning Legion, and crushing the enemy with my mighty 3/8 weapon “Blood Fury” and my army of infernals.

With that being said… why did you want to take this away from me, Blizzard? It’s not like it was a threatening card. Before Zephrys, the sac pact WAS a fun little counterplay that would rarely come up. Now, it is at people’s fingertips in way too many games. I just wanna play Jaraxxus, man.

Blizzard, please. #MakeJaraxxusGreatAgain

36 Likes
2

I second this. A cool card like Jaraxxus is 100% unplayable from a single card.

15 Likes
3

Weird that hasn’t been addressed before, but yeah definitely seems like a bug imo and should be fixed. Much in the same way stuff like poison or kill spells doesn’t work against the player, obv this shouldn’t either

3 Likes
4

Hmm, do any other hero cards have types?

2 Likes
5

I do not believe so. But, regardless, the fact that Zephrys and Sacrificial pact co-exist and that Zephrys is SO popular, it absolutely kills the card, so I don’t think sacrificial pact should be able to target Lord Jaraxxus if the hero has been replaced by him. If Dr. Boom was classified as a mech, Zephrys would hand out an E.M.P. operative which would end the game by destroying him. This would cause so much outrage among players who run Dr. Boom. Why let it happen to Lord Jaraxxus?

4 Likes
6

Except that it isn’t a bug and is working as intended. If it was a bug it would have been fixed years ago.

If they decided to change Jaraxxus so that he doesn’t count as Demon anymore but as a ‘Hero’ when played then great. But it’s not a bug. Never has been. So don’t try to claim otherwise.

9 Likes
7

Your tone is a bit harsh. Seems pretty obvious that the poster was unaware of this interaction and surprised by it. No other spells operate this way on the enemy hero so it doesn’t really seem logical or apparent, even if it is intended.

5 Likes
8

This is correct. It’s not a bug, but an outdated feature that I believe should be reworked in light of the SoU expansion.

4 Likes
9

Not to mention all the other hero cards and portraits that have been added to the game since then.

Imagine if hungry crab just killed any shaman using the morgle portrait

15 Likes
10

Did the Shaman ever play Morgle minion that replaced his hero?

No. Because, unlike Jaraxxus, Morgle is not a minion card, in this case a Murloc. It’s a portrait. Purely cosmetic thing. Jaraxxus is not. Even gives a new Hero Power.

Look, I personally don’t mind if Jaraxxus is changed in a way so he, and the player, won’t be killed by Sacrificial Pact. But please; try to offer comparisons and arguments that make sense.

3 Likes
11

I have long thought that Sacrificial Pact should only target friendly minions. It simply makes no sense flavor-wise to “sacrifice” an opposing minion, and it’s inconsistent with how the later Warlock sac-minion cards were done.

That, and it totally ruins my experience trying to play Bloodbloom Zoo in Wild against opposing Warlocks.

4 Likes
12

jaraxus isnt a hero card wasnt even changed into one with a keyword added to it

3 Likes
13

Personally, I don’t mind the fact that sac pact can affect enemy demons. Its a pretty bold move to run a deck with the card as it is, and it does make a nice Zephrys play if you’re up against a big bad demon. I don’t even hate the idea itself that it can be used against a hero who has been replaced with Jaraxxus. It makes for some fun moments. However, the problem only comes in when when every single class has access to sacrificial pact and they can use that to completely end the game if your opponent is silly enough to actually play Jaraxxus.

2 Likes
14

Zephyr is the ultimate tech card and severely punishes any specific strategy like demolishing quest paladin with mass dispel, flare vs secret hunter, ect. He makes all tech cards useless. He is just too good and needs a nerf. There is no way around it.

4 Likes
15

Hmm well maybe they SHOULD just make ol’ Jaraxxus a hero card and keep everything else the same. That would theoretically stop sac pact from insta-winning vs him. Maybe even throw in some armor for a little balance.

2 Likes
16

Hello @devilijho, I am a pro genji hearthstone player, and i personally take offense to this idea. SacPac works exactly as it is intended to, as does Jraxumus. If the combo (albeit gnarly for sure) wasn’t intended to exist, the Devs would have removed this.
Therefore, if you have a complaint about the mechanics of a card, instead of whining to the developers to “fix” the game, change your playstyle and adapt like a real pro genji would. @devilijho

1 Like
17

I agree with OP’s sentiment. Zephrys literally gives you an I-win-button and having just anybody be able to discover sac pact reliably is bad design in my opinion.
It seems in general rather easy to tutor the card you want with Zephrys and I’m starting to think this card is problematic.
Part of the fun is being able to outplay the opponent, and Zephrys takes this away.

Sure you might be able to find a way to bait out an early Zephrys but might I point out this would mean one single card is influencing how everybody builds their decks. Is that healthy for the game?

Now about Jaraxxus (sorry for the deviation there) I wouldn’t mind if they changed him to be an official hero. His being a demon and as such being able to be pulled from hand/deck or sacpact’ed was rather funny and lead to a lot of funny videos. I would look back to those situations with nostalgia but wouldn’t miss them. I surely wouldn’t miss seeing an opponent evolve/CC into a 3/15.

2 Likes
18

The problem isnt Sac Pact or LJ, its Mal’ganis. The former two show that the game recognises LJ as a demon, so wheres my damn Mal’ganis buff?!?

5 Likes
19

I don’t know how long you’ve been playing HS honestly, but you should know this was a debate long time ago over how an OTK worked with this combo.

This been around for ages, and the Dev said on the lines back then this is Risk they have to keep made so they’re not abused for how longer they are.

In this case it’s a 15 life Hero, with a weapon and Hero power that makes 6/6.

The fact they’re playing with lots of cards to changing with hero max HP in adventure mode, means they might be working on something like that in game, Quest Priest of old might be the best example of setting heros to X amount of HP , if Cards in the future made Like that for Warlock to use, it’ll break the power level LJ gives.

And this should not be change cause how rare of an interaction this’ll really come off. Much like the old OTK was. And I see nothing wrong with this, even when I had like maybe 120 + armor this is one the ways to make power gap on classes/cards to stay under control. Instead of picking LJ u could just got a heal from Zeph also. And You should be aware if they might have Zeph when u might want to play these, and use them only as a final push.

2 Likes
20

It is rare because not a lot of people play Jaraxxus and only warlocks had access to sac pact, and rogues and priests would have a slight chance of stealing it.
The problem isn’t the interaction itself, the problem is everyone having access to sac pact now that Zephrys is a card.

4 Likes