Should Hearthstone add a ‘graveyard’ mechanism to treat Priests

What is the most unlucky thing that can happen to a Priest in the current Hearthstone? If you ask gamers, the answer is almost identical: Resurrection. The Resurrection mechanism is very annoying, especially when you are the opponent of the Priest. However, the current design for this class almost revolves around that mechanism. Throw a few strong Taunts on the table, then summon a copy of it. As soon as the opponent kills them, the Priest wakes them up from the grave, and summons more copies. Revive them again. Go on like that and you suddenly realize the match has lasted for 30-40 minutes (as long as no one presses surrender because they are too bored or angry).

The author understands this feeling, but instead of whining and waiting, maybe we can find a solution so that Blizzard can improve the situation.

Delete Priest.

— Garrett (@GarrettArt) May 20, 2020

The Priest class has always been a passive class. You mostly look at the turns to see what the opponent does, then use your tools to neutralize it. Rarely, deck Priest is the one who takes the initiative to go first. Perhaps the most memorable example is Razakus Priest, from the time of Mean Streets of Gadgetzan. It used to be a fun deck to play, but Blizzard doesn’t like this deck because it plays more like a Mage class than a Priest: where you keep shooting Shadows in the face of your opponent.

Therefore, Blizzard recently reworked Priest’s basic set: reducing “Shadow” effects – effects that deal direct damage to opponents. Instead, the team focused on their inherent Priest image: healing and buffing soldiers. This inadvertently makes the passive play even more doubled.

With an extremely passive class it shouldn’t be a problem in itself, as long as the opponent has the tools to counter it. But Hearthstone is not a game that allows for much counterplay. Each side has its own turn and on their turn, the opponent is completely unable to do anything. There is no back-and-forth in the usual turn of other popular card games like Magic: The Gathering, Legends of Runeterra or Yugioh. If a player wants to do something, they just do it carefree and you have to wait until your turn to respond. This is very difficult to stop the opponent, for example the opponent will use a spell to revive their strongest minions.

So what can be done so that meeting the Priest is not uncomfortable?

Put in the ‘graveyard’.

How does the ‘graveyard’ mechanic fix Priest?

As you can see from the three cards of Magic: The Gathering above, the game has a ‘graveyard’ mechanic. Basically, every time a minion is destroyed, or a card is cast, a card is discarded, etc., they go to the graveyard. While the player cannot do anything directly to the graveyard, the game has many cards that allow you to interact with the graveyard in a limited way.

The existence of the graveyard unlocks many effects for cards that Hearthstone does not: You can look at your graveyard and find something. You can destroy them in your opponent’s graveyard, so that these cards cannot be returned. If possible, you have the right to steal things in the opponent’s graveyard! This can be an extremely interesting mechanic in Hearthstone, since Priest also has many card loot effects.

If Hearthstone applies the graveyard mechanic, minion revival cards may be limited. For example:

• Only allows you to respawn the first minion (in battle or for a turn) instead of any. This creates a ton of counterplay, as your opponent can determine which of your minions goes to the graveyard first, depending on the order in which they were killed.
• Only allows you to revive minions up to a certain manacost. No longer respawns three 10 mana minions at once, causing opponents to ragequit and erase Hearthstone (possibly).
• A neutral minion can be added that allows you to find items in your opponent’s graveyard and destroy them without returning them. This is also a form of Counterplay!
• Perhaps we will add graveyard-related keywords to certain minions. Let’s imagine try it
  • Keyword like “Lingering” can ensure that the minion is always brought back when another minion is revived.
  • Keywords like “Obliterate” (roughly translated: destroy) not only destroy the minion, but also erase it from the game, instead of sending it to the graveyard. Another form of Counterplay.
  • And another keyword like “Phantasmal” (roughly translated: ghost) ensures those minions still retain their buff effects after death. If they are resurrected, those buffs will remain.

The Graveyard, or whatever you want to call it (Shadowland, for example) can be a unique mechanism for the Shadow array of the Priest class, like the Black decks in Magic: The Gathering. The Shadow cards have mostly lost their place in the Priest suit ever since Blizzard decided the class shouldn’t deal direct damage. Some mind-control effects still exist, but they are still as inhibiting as the resurrection mechanism. The development team can explore more interesting gameplay mechanics.

If respawning was reasonably limited, we would no longer have combos that last indefinitely and inhibit opponents. Instead, it should support Priest in the minion buff array. You will make your minions stronger, and then bring them back to life, possibly keeping the buffs to continue fighting. It will make the revival array fairer and more interesting.

Other classes like Warlock can benefit a lot from this because it will combine perfectly with the Discard mechanic (always had potential but never worked). We also have many other interesting possibilities for other classes, especially with effects like the revival in World of Warcraft (Shaman, Paladin, Druid), or related to other dimensions like Emerald Dream. However, it should be the first mechanism applied on Priest.

The article feels this could be an interesting area for Hearthstone to explore further. It can help Priest to be less inhibitory to opponents, as well as redefine the way Shadow plays, opening up new creative opportunities for classes other than Priest. Overall, it opens up a whole new area for the game, opening up many fascinating metas for players to explore.

According to blizzardwatch

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