Classic set will most likely have new leaves

WIRED recently asked Ben Brode a lot of questions on Twitter in a Tech Support video series. Here is a brief summary:

• Lord Jaraxxus existed because of Horde and Alliance heroes in the early days of Hearthstone and a question from a WoW engineer.
• Blizzard has more Wilds coming back to the shop in the future, the team would love to hear from players
• The old card backs will return one day, Blizzard is just finding a balance so players can get them.
• Hero leveling system to keep players satisfied and expand is a good idea in the future. But still don’t know how to do it yet.

Summary of Video content

Here is a summary of everything. Some of the answers here are probably well known, but maybe not for new players.

• The Coin is not the only idea that the team uses to balance the latecomers
  • Allowing the second player to draw an extra card results in a 60:40 win, with player 1’s advantage.
  • Giving extra health to the second person is also not okay, because they also have to go later.
  • Giving 1/1 minion on the table or increasing the second player’s first minion to 1/1 can gain an advantage on turn 1.
  • Blizzard used The Coin because of its flexibility. You can use it when you want. The win rate is 51/49, with the advantage still going to player 1 but it’s not as bad as the other options
• Blizzard must carefully consider adding new cards in the Classic set to fill the void left by the Hall of Fame. They don’t want to create the same problem where the decks don’t change much because the cards in Classic are too strong.
• Several cards can be moved from Wild to Classic to make each class stronger and distinguish each other from what it is.
• Lord Jaraxxus can appear in the game due to an event in Hearthstone’s past
  • At first, there was only one Horde hero and one Alliance hero per class
  • Warlock’s original hero for the Horde was Cho’Gall and the Alliance was Wildfred Fizzlebang.
  • They had a hard time finding a suitable Warlock hero for Alliance.
  • Wildfred Fizzlebang is famous for summoning Lord Jaraxxus, EREDAR LORD OF THE BURNING LEGIONS, in World of Warcraft’s The Argent Tournament boss hunt.
  • Pat Dawson, an engineer on the WoW team, was playing Hearthstoen with Wilfdred Fizzlebang and wondered if he could have Lord Jaraxxus in his deck.
  • Ben Brode immediately designed Lord Jaraxxus to destroy your current hero Wildfred and replace it.

• Ben agrees that a lot of cards need to be buffed, but the goal is not to have all cards equally powerful. Some leaves are intentionally weak. They like to create challenges for players
• Current weak cards may not be weak in the future with the arrival of new cards.
• There are no plans for Wild to appear in the in-game shop: They want to keep things simple. A lot of people are asking for this and it’s something Blizzard might consider.
• Tournament mode will be the starting point. Conquest, Last Hero Standing, and select some decks from the tournament. Feedback will help shape these modes in the future.
• There are also female Kobolds, “But hard to tell, maybe.”
• Inspire may return one day but Blizzard has other ideas they want to bring into the game, and they want a whole new and exciting set.
• There will be a way to get old card backs. However, Blizzard still doesn’t know how to do this as past recipients will find these card backs unique. Getting old card backs needs to be made hard to get.
• The Golden card that Ben likes the most is Crushing Walls.

• Decks with 60 cards have been tested in the past. It makes building a stable deck very difficult.
• Increasing the number of cards in the deck can be an interesting Tavern Brawn, but will not apply to the main part of the game.
• No plans to follow random players, watch streams on Twitch instead.
• Ben likes the hero leveling system and makes the player feel satisfied. Stretching it out from where it is now would be great, but Blizzard is running out of ideas.
• Molten Giant was nerfed to set Standard apart, not balance. They want to change the decks that depend on it. With the rotation coming to the Hall of Fame, Blizzard is bringing it back as it no longer affects the Standard.
• Changing cards to their original state will be considered on a case-by-case basis if that card is sent to Wild.

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