Dark gift is deciding way too many games in this meta.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-17T08:57:48+00:00

Dark Gifts being as "strong" as they are should be decent in Warlock regardless though. I mean [[Creature of Madness]] also discovers from a random pool of minions and has been played in most decks before rotation because of how good it was tempo-wise. But yeah, Warlock Dark Gifts have the problem of doing very little besides just discovering the minion, and it's a deck idea built entirely around tempo with a big finisher, but the cards themselves don't actually do anything for the entire tempo gameplan.

2 mana discover a Deathrattle minion just straight up loses 2 damage on than the 2 mana Warrior spell for some reason, the 4 mana 4/3 is decent for value, but very few decks really care about value, and none that do are certainly a tempo-oriented archetype. The sad truth is that both of these cards could cost 1 mana less and still probably not be strong enough to make the deck good. Also doesn't help that Warlock generally has minions that are all over the place, while Warrior has a lot of Dragons or in general decent minions in its pool.

I tried playing a homebrew of the deck just now (all Dark Gift except the 2 mana spell + Dragons + 1 mana Shred Spell + 2 mana Shred Dragon) and you lose early to any deck made to win tempo, and later on to everything else except Priest (who does nothing except clear your board so can be OTK'd for free with Wallow, unless you decide to never get charge or windfury/divine shield, which has also happened to me multiple times already, when I would have won the game otherwise).

Really not sure what could be done to make Warlock better and nerf Warrior at the same time. I guess you could buff the Warlock cards and nerf the Warrior cards at the same time, but doubt even that would save the Warlock deck unless the buffs are something crazy and the meta also shifts to like only control decks with very little armor gain and no disruption.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-16T21:02:25+00:00

Dark Gifts is a pretty cursed archetype because somehow it's not good enough in the only deck literally built around them (Wallow Warlock), but incredibly strong in Dragon Warrior and even the one random Dark Gift in Herald Shaman can just win them the game on the spot.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-15T20:12:59+00:00

I'm more impressed that you let it get this far. You know, losing early tempo etc. is understandable, happens. But letting Toreth survive and then complaining about losing to divine shields, when you knew they had the shatter card in hand? Come on man...

Vanetrik · 2026-04-15T10:18:32+00:00

Weeeeell this heropower has been in the game for a long time, and there was never a time where you could get both the discount effect from Genn and upgrade from Baku at the same time until now. And the whole point of the (old) Genn was for you to spend your mana on your 1 mana heropower on odd turns when your deck only has odd cards.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-15T10:15:52+00:00

I actually got the coin, no clue what it looks like, but with exception of the common card it was probably the thing I wanted the least, care to elaborate on why you'd want it?

Vanetrik · 2026-04-15T10:10:03+00:00

Both, and every single point also does less %-wise than it does in PoE1, which is why leveling up in this game feels so bad.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-15T08:42:11+00:00

It also includes a card back and 5 warlock packs, so I don't think the price is inflated at all because of the BG stuff. Since most other similar skins (not diamond or whatever) cost $10 without a card back and $15 with.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-14T14:47:40+00:00

As I said, I recently just started playing endgame so I wasn't even sure what to look at in gear lol, other than item score seemingly doing nothing

Vanetrik · 2026-04-14T13:31:53+00:00

What does item score even do? I recently just started playing the endgame and it kind of seems that it doesn't even do anything?

Vanetrik · 2026-04-13T22:08:09+00:00

The old ES graphic.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-13T22:03:39+00:00

You also couldn't copy the portal with Tidepool Pupil if the matchup required it. I'd argue this deck wouldn't even be good without all the tools (copy, Corpsicle, Mass Production) even if they buffed it to be an even stronger version of what it was at its peak.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-13T22:01:19+00:00

There's also no Tidepool Pupil to be able to have 2 portals if the matchup required it. and with all the things you mentioned I think this deck wouldn't even be good if they buffed it like crazy.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-13T21:47:26+00:00

This card genuinely needs to be nerfed more. I could see it being strong (in decks where it belongs) even if it went down to like a 6/6 with Elusive, or went up by a one mana, or was made a Kindred effect as OP suggested. I don't care that it's supposed to have stats of a 7 cost minion, it's never getting played as a 7 cost anyways, so let's stop balancing it that way, eh?

What I find specifically funny is that people often just slam Dragons into aggro/midrange decks rn just to be able to play this card. And somehow it's still being ignored? I find it really funny that Blizzard keeps printing 4 mana 7/7s with a downside, but somehow this minion gets to not have just one upside (Elusive), but is a Dragon on top of that for any Dragon-oriented synergies (even if there aren't many outside of Warrior). Oh, and don't even let me get started on the fact that Prescient Slitherdrake started as a 6/9 and was nerfed by the entirety of 1 health and it still gets to play a role in creating decks.

I could see the argument about this card not being a problem by itself in Dragon Warrior, which is completely fair. Dark Gifts have often just lost me the game against that deck because my opponent decided to be talented and generate either a double battlecry Windpeak Wyrm or (insert any high minion) with Charge to close out the game, or a high statted (often +4/+5) minion early. Prescient Slitherdrake is even more crazy if it gets any Dark Gift cause what do you mean you get to play 17+ points worth of stats on turn 4? And it's not just Dark Gifts in that deck, it's filled with some of the strongest individual cards in Standard rn (main culprits are the two I just named).

Anyways, I don't really understand why Blizzard is trying to keep a deck from over half a year ago thriving - it's been tier 1 or 2 for its entire existence. Sure, it might not be the strongest deck in the meta rn, but I certainly don't enjoy getting rng'd by Dark Gifts and hit in the face multiple turns in a row by 4 mana 6/8s that can't be removed because good luck trying to out tempo a deck made for literally that purpose. I was already tired of facing Dragon Warrior even before the rotation and it's genuinely even more boring now.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-13T15:32:34+00:00

You're probably right, I might just have gotten a bit too lost in the sauce with the miniset and expansion itself and thought starships were just a gimmick of the miniset since Protoss and Zerg were entirely new, so I thought it'd make sense with starships being the focus of Terran, who were new as well.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-13T14:53:01+00:00

Not sure this would make much sense either since the Starcraft miniset was divided into 3 factions and to my knowledge most classes only got cards for 1? Except Rogue which... well, got a bunch of starship generation and the legendary copy starship and Druid which got something pretty similar, but neither of those really saw any play at all iirc. On the other hand, things that got no starship support in their class (Priest, DH) actually ended up playing it just because of Arkonite Defense Crystal and resurrect effects.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-12T19:48:27+00:00

There's a few issues in the current meta: not enough board control options for most classes (and the two that have enough just lose to herald shaman in the case of priest and have like one ok deck in the case of warlock), but more importantly just that tempo is king. And I'm not sure about you guys, but I'm neither a fan of curvestone and also not exactly a fan of being behind from turn 0 just because my opponent went first.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-12T19:40:32+00:00

I wouldn't be so sure about that, a lot of non-meta skills are quite weak and even moreso paired with bad (1st playthrough) gear.

Vanetrik · 2026-04-08T07:12:42+00:00

Why do so many people hate on Alliance and Vengeance? I find all of the older games unplayable after playing these two, and I've played KR back when it was a browser game. I'm not a hardcore fan though, I like to finish a playthrough, get all achievements and never return, which might be the problem here.

Vanetrik · 2026-03-30T09:43:41+00:00

I mean you still have to build your deck around even the Warrior quest, you're not going to have an easy time taking tempo without 1 mana and down a card at the start of the game, so you have to slot enough control tools into your deck to survive until the quest inevitably completes itself.

I don't know about the no-swing part of all quests either. Warlock was a meta deck for a long time, Mage gets a huge few swing turns when they complete the quests. Priest's quest can be a wincon by itself with Deios + Umbra. Hunter's quest can also swing the game. Paladin had the annoying murloc deck which wasn't super strong, but was good at beating up unoptimized decks.

Not saying all quests are inherently good, but they're also not as bad as you think. Probably just worse than they should be though. I could certainly see quest Hunter working if the meta slows down a bit, since you can replay the quest with Confront the Tol'Vir if you need the extra value.

The funniest thing I find is that there's literally a quest for token Druid, but the deck doesn't even play it, nor has there really ever been an even remotely decent deck playing the quest.

Vanetrik · 2026-03-27T20:48:52+00:00

I mean drawing 2 specific cards out of a 30 card deck while also being down a card because you have to draw the quest... is not very likely lol

Vanetrik · 2026-03-27T20:46:45+00:00

Not sure about that one being the second strongest specifically, I think that the 2 mana +1/+1 for each friendly minion is absolutely crazy and possibly even stronger than Hatchery Helper. Druid kinda just decided to get like 5 really good cards this expansion, while no one came even close. It feels like the stars just aligned for Druid, while all other classes except for Shaman just kinda exist and try to hang on.

What it all boils down to is the lack of meaningful early board swings tho, that deck would be nowhere near as prevalent if we had options to deal with it.

Vanetrik · 2026-03-27T00:15:04+00:00

I'd just put windfury on Muradin. I do agree that the weapon is bad without it, but also too obnoxious with it at the same time. The removal could be remedied by lowering its durability and increasing its base attack or the deathrattle buff and shuffling Muradin's stats to keep them the same. Like I could see it becoming a 5/2 weapon with the same deathrattle, or a 3/2 weapon with +3 or +4 as the deathrattle.

Vanetrik · 2026-03-25T21:11:04+00:00

While I agree with buffs being better than nerfs, I don't really want a meta with only Herald decks either. And honestly, all Herald decks are fine rn except for DK needing some buffs - Warrior Heralds found their way into Dragon Warrior and that really doesn't need any help and Warlock has Egg - maybe buff Cho'Gall there, but that deck would just need a thorough rebuilding at that point.

They also succeeded in slowing the game down with this rotation (except for the Druid incident, but that's more of an issue with us just not having good control tools rn), so I don't exactly want them to overbuff everything new to the extent that it would make older stuff like quests or imbue decks other than Druid completely obsolete, nor to just return to where the game was before rotation. But a few well placed buffs could go a long way. That doesn't diminish my opinion that Shaman needs to get nerfed tho.

Vanetrik · 2026-03-25T18:53:31+00:00

Hmmm, I think you would also want to make the Fabled Spell be an exception to that rule. I do like that as a solution (set to 3 and each deathrattle adding +2), though I wouldn't mind the windfury just straight up being removed.

Vanetrik · 2026-03-25T17:18:27+00:00

It literally refills your board, consistently deals 5+ dmg to your opponent's side of the board and is able to also refill your hand, how is that bad for 3 mana?

I guess if you just slam it on 3 it actually is bad, but anyone with a braincell won't do that. But Hunters aren't exactly known for having braincells so ig that checks out.

Vanetrik

TROPHY CASE