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How one card almost ruined Hearthstone (Pocket Gamer)

T

Tak3n

Banned
I really like HS but I simply don't have the time to compete with those who gladly pump money into it.


No-one saw it coming.

When the Goblins vs Gnomes expansion to Hearthstone introduced all its wonderful and wacky cards, we all wondered where the big swings in the meta were going to be.

More weapons? Mech decks? Viable warrior builds? All that came to pass. But who'd have predicted that the most transformative card of all would be a common five-mana 3/3 mech?

Step forward Antique Healbot.
Click to expand...


And it works as advertised. Games take a bit longer when someone pushes out a Healbot because of those extra eight health. But that's okay: the result is often a splendidly taut endgame between an aggro deck on its last gasp of energy and a control deck just starting to snowball.

What if two Healbots go down, though?

That's an extra couple of turns added, and will almost certainly mean the end of an aggro deck. I run one of those too: a classic Zoolock, which is great when you want a fast game to fill a small timeslot. I started to notice more Healbots were coming into play, games were getting longer, end turns becoming drained of tension.
Click to expand...

A lot of frustrated aggro players have taken to calling Antique Healbot a "broken" card. Which is patently absurd. A company with the reputation and resources of Blizzard isn't going to allow a card that genuinely ruins the game through the playtest process.

Healing effects, however, can't be countered. The only way to combat the creep of Antique Healbot stacks is to run bigger damage cards and hope for the best.

Which would be fine if it wasn't for the fact they they make matches drag out for so much longer. One of the joys of Hearthstone for me was the way it gave you a rich and satisfying slice of strategy gaming in a ten-minute slot. Games with lots of Healbots can run twenty, even thirty minutes.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that's exactly the effect some of these players are hoping for. A quick win for zero effort, based purely on the annoyance value of their cards.

That this has even become a viable approach to the game is dispiriting. And there doesn't look to be an easy solution, either.

Nerfing the card has the potential to spoil its reasonable use in getting control decks rolling, but unless it's a big nerf still leaves it open to multiplication abuse...
Click to expand...

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Android/Hearthstone:+Heroes+of+Warcraft/feature.asp?c=64075
 
I

Iceblade

Member
Antique Healbot isn't even used in many top decks. This is a pretty hyperbolic article that doesn't take into account the current meta.
 
M

Maximo

Member
Not like Agrro Decks have suddenly died out Healbot is a great card to counter Burst or Aggro Decks, I personally don't have a problem with it. Health as a resource isn't a big deal its Card Advantage and if your opponent is dropping Healbots without much else it makes it easier to build your board and gain a advantage.

IDK I don't play Ranked only got to Rank 4 and stopped purely because I don't have the time to rank any higher so maybe my opinion isn't the greatest on such topic but Really ? Didn't see a Article before Undertaker Nerf or even about *Dr Balance* Arguably the most overpowered card in the game. Seems like someone that plays aggro having a whine his Quick Mindless games are taking alittle longer and require alittle more brain function. I personally love long games.
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
I had a list of cards in mind that would warrant such a thread title (Dr. Balanced, Undertaker...)

Antique Healbot, though? C'mon now.
 
H

Hasney

Member
I don't understand this at all. It's just a battlecry effect and if you're doing a successful aggro rush, you really should be doing more than 8 damage a turn anyway.

I had to look it up to make sure there wasn't 2 Antique Healbots. I was beginning to think there was a second one tat healed 8 every turn or something the way this is written.
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
That's what happens when you're the only Hearthstone player writing for your site and you have no one to discuss your article ideas with.

Antique Healbot is totally fine.

A lot of frustrated aggro players have taken to calling Antique Healbot a "broken" card.
Click to expand...
This is basically made up.

Maybe he didn't expect the article to be read by Hearthstone players?
 
J

Jebusman

Banned
This is a man who I think is having his first taste of what happens when your deck/archtype straight up loses to something. It's very likely he's never had to experience this before or, more likely, he was willfully ignoring the reason why he was losing so much, and has now fixated on this card as the cause.

Give it 24 hours. He will see the error of his ways.

Edit: Reading his other news articles he's straight clickbaiting. "Magic 2015 deck building and strategy guide". Contents? "Pick a pre-made deck. Don't forget the lands!".
 
J

JSR_Cube

Member
Came in guessing that this was about Dr. Boom. Didn't expect Antique Healbot. Leaving disappointed.

Jebusman said:
Edit: Reading his other news articles he's straight clickbaiting. "Magic 2015 deck building and strategy guide". Contents? "Pick a pre-made deck. Don't forget the lands!".
Click to expand...

What? You didn't provide the link? I need those sorts of pro-tips to help my Magic game!
 
K

Kosma

Banned
Whaaaat

This guy clearly havent been really playing HS and are butthurt or something

Also there is something hilarious about a zoolock complaining

Dude should try to craft something else maybe after 1.5 years...
 
Gormless Noodle

Gormless Noodle

Member
Rank 25 journalist, confirmed.

No really, you have to be insanely bad to consider antique healbot "broken". Next he'll be complaining about Tree of Life.
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
Tekkie said:
Rank 25 journalist, confirmed.

No really, you have to be insanely bad to consider antique healbot "broken". Next he'll be complaining about Tree of Life.
Click to expand...
Tree of Life is insane! It's almost like 4 Antique Healbots in one card! Clearly the card that basically breaks Hearthstone. I've heard many* aggro players say it's completely broken.


*literally no one
 
J

Jenenser

Member
rly? healbot?

what a dumb article...
doctor balanced (a card that fits in every decktype, just because its value is to good) or the 2 mana mech that cheapens other mechs would make so much more sense....

but what would we expect from someone that plays only facedecks...
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
That...doesn't sound broken. In my experience cards that break TCGs tend to always be about bypassing resource restrictions in some way or another
 
O

orthodoxy1095

Banned
Tekkie said:
Rank 25 journalist, confirmed.

No really, you have to be insanely bad to consider antique healbot "broken". Next he'll be complaining about Tree of Life.
Click to expand...
That's an insult to those of us who are mere Rank 25 casuals. This guy is a step or two beyond us. Just clueless.
 
Blackage

Blackage

Member
I don't even know if this qualifies as clickbait, it's so inaccurate.

BooThisMan.gif
 
S

SatelliteOfLove

Member
It's the Little Mac or Sentinel of Hearthstone cards.

A company with the reputation and resources of Blizzard isn't going to allow a card that genuinely ruins the game through the playtest process.
Click to expand...

I find the above much more broken.
 
W

Won

Member
Feels like I got beamed into the mirror universe. Aggro player complaining about "quick win for zero effort"? Actually had to give the thing a click to see if I read that right.
 
terrisus

terrisus

Member
A lot of frustrated aggro players have taken to calling Antique Healbot a "broken" card. Which is patently absurd. A company with the reputation and resources of Blizzard isn't going to allow a card that genuinely ruins the game through the playtest process.
Click to expand...

Yeah, big companies never make oversights...
 
D

Dario ff

Banned
[...] and will almost certainly mean the end of an aggro deck. I run one of those too: a classic Zoolock
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure that's exactly the effect some of these players are hoping for. A quick win for zero effort, based purely on the annoyance value of their cards.
Click to expand...
Make your mind up already. :p

Dr. Boom is certainly the one getting the nerf stick next, if not for the insane value of the boom bots but rather that it's an expensive auto-include at the moment on almost all decks for every class. (Although BGH stops it from becoming too big of a problem yet)

Kibler's perspective on BGH actually affecting the meta a lot is pretty interesting as well.
 
D

dralla

Member
Came in expecting Dr Boom. Antique Healbot? What? The healbot is fine, it's one of the few defenses against rush down decks. And even still, it' not that great
 
P

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
That article is straight up making shit up, lol. I was fully expecting it to be about Dr. Boom, Healbot is perfectly fine.
 
D

dk_

Member
This is literally the first time I heard someone complain about Antique Healbot. The author has zero knowledge about Hearthstone.
 
M

Mutombo

Member
I played against a mechmage that had 2 healbots, 2 secrets that copied 2 destroyed minions, and that card that copies every friendly minion on board. AND FUCKING PANDA'S.

FUCK THAT MAGE
 
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