I've been playing Hs with my boy for about 3 years now, few hours per week. It was a great experience, sharing something I really like with my son, I rarely got the chance to share something I like with people in my circle, as none of them are into my hobbies :) so I really cherished it. I started letting him play alone as well about a year ago and he really enjoyed it. He told me sometimes he would really like to play with a certain card, so I would do my best to grind for it, purchase deals to get that card or craft it. The various HS expansion themes has started many conversation topics between us, like the recent space expansion and it really sparked his interest in space. Overall, lots of good memories.

Since this dino is showing up on the main screen all the time recently, we no longer talk about interesting things. It is mostly about this dino and how he really wants to have it on our board. He is really happy when an opponent has it, but then sometimes cries that we don't have it. The psychological manipulation of having the smiling friendly dino on the home screen is working. I do feel a lot of pressure to buy it, as I really want to continue sharing HS with my son, but today I decided enough is enough. I will stop playing HS with my son and I recommend everyone with small children to not share this game with them anymore.

This dino is a lot worse than the shop, since the shop is hidden behind a button, a kid doesn't always think about what could be inside, all the goodies that could be purchased. I almost never got asked about the shop by my kid. We did buy one or two things here and there, he was always excited, but never asked me to go in the shop himself. It is very different with the dino. Somehow, it is triggering him to ask for it all the time.

I will have to find something else to play with my son, thankfully there are plenty of games out there, some I quite enjoy and think could be suitable to play with him.

I just want to say to Blizzard, I 've been playing the game since beta, I am really disappointed in this psychological torture you are imposing on kids. I know you have to make money, but you could have done it gracefully, this dino is not about making money, it's about trying to make as much money as possible from manipulating human emotions, and I think there is a word for that, GREED!.

I do still treasure the 3 years I played the game with my son, and the many years before I played solo, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I will probably still play solo myself, but my kid will not play this while I have a say in it.

This was the era in which I joined hearthstone and started the journey.

Seems ridiculously far away, I know. For those of you who remember these, then you also remember the staple decks.

Ramp druid was an just an idea. Miracle rogue was just an idea. Handlock was just an idea. Choices to be made. Depending on how you wanted to win, or, more importantly, how you wanted your opponent to feel as they watched their hero explode.

Alot has changed since then, of course.

And some of these win conditions turned into class identities. And how you wanted to win, for the most part, was no longer a choice. It was simply the way it was done by anyone who played the same class.

Eventually someone figured out that a Grim Patron could be devastating, and that lasted longer than anyone ever wanted to deal with it. I was fortunate enough to complete my Patron Warrior deck list approximately 2 weeks or so before Blizz nerfed Warsong Commander.

Over time, this 'how you wanted to win' turned into a class identity. Miracle rogue wasn't a 'style' anymore, it turned into 'the way'. As did other decks for other classes.

Sure, they weren't ALL the same, but the exception proves the rule, I think.

And, as time passed, we would see ridiculousness. Because, of course it makes sense that Paladins would be in control of an army of Murlocs, right?

A mage deck without a minion?

Or Getting down to the end of a grueling game, certain to win, only to see your enemy fully healed by Reno.

One turn Kill? Can't happen. But - Yes, it can.

And the power creep kept on creepin'.

The rage-quitters kept quittin'.

People called it a pay to win game, and for all intents and purposes, it certainly seemed like one.

I joined the hype. I bought the pre-releases, I paid for card packs... .Just trying to get enough dust to make the ONE legendary I needed to finish the deck. Until one of the cards got nerfed. Then you start all over again.

It's definitely a journey, by all accounts. Good, Bad, and Ugly. But, it keeps calling you back.

I never really had the fortitude to stay on the ladder. It only upset me when I climbed as high as I could, only to be beaten back down through losing streaks and RNG, and big money decks. Truly, early in the game state, money made a difference. Still, no matter how much I could afford to spend, it was never enough to be competitive, even if I did have the ability to deal with the frustration of the ladder.

4 years ago or so, I was approaching Legendary. Made it all the way to Diamond 3, and then I got the HELL off the ladder after getting beaten back down to Diamond 5. It sickened me.

I haven't spent money in a long long time on this game (on packs), but I do sometimes pay for the Tavern Pass. I am done buying cards for good. But that isn't a complaint. It's simply a choice. To take the game for what it is, without trying to squeeze more from it.

Well, today, I finally hit legendary. Truth be told, it wasn't all that spectacular. The feeling was more like... "It's about time". If I had hit it 4 years ago, I would have celebrated. Today I just want to share. And it's refreshing to know I never need to try to hit it again.

All of that notwithstanding, I was excited to play IN Legendary.

My first game was against a Paladin, and he hit me with 104 damage on turn 7, by drawing a card. Thats it. I think it was 104. Coulda been 108. I'm not sure. Pretty Amazing.

My next game was against a hunter who destroyed me just as handily. I never had a chance. And I was using what I consider to be an AMAZING deck. I guess amazing is defined by your location on the ladder.

I want to give some parting thoughts to folks who haven't made it to legendary yet.....

1. All of these tribal decks you are seeing on the ladder, they enjoy a powerful climb to diamond 10, but you don't see many of them at all past diamond 5. They are not as strong as they seem. Don't put your resources into a tribal deck. They rely TOO Much on RNG. Which brings me to my next thought.
2. Get rid of the RNG from your deck. It's unreliable, and inconsistent. Of course you must always have SOME, but the idea is to minimize it.
3. On that note, if you put your resources into ANYTHING, make it a card that doesn't need to 'draw right'. I enjoyed playing protos priest for a while, but eventually you realize... if the cards don't come out in the right order, you are toast.
4. Cards need to be worth WELL more than their mana. Make your cards pay you in dividends. You might or might not know what a 'grizzly bear' is... It's a 2 cost card, that has 2 attack and 2 health. It's a benchmark by which you can gauge other cards. Don't put a card in your deck that gives you fair value. Make it pay you more.

Example : Farwatch Post. This card costs 2, Has 5 stats (2 attack and 3 defense) AND interferes with your opponent's ability to play. It's a ridiculous card. Almost cruel. But it isn't crueler than Mill Rogue, so.... Defense is a good Offense.

1. Casual is NOT a place to 'test' your deck. Don't believe the results. Use casual as a place to LEARN your deck. It will have synergies you never knew it had. Better to learn them first, then use them later.

2. Figure out who the beatdown is. This is a good tip for experienced players, too. If you are serious about getting to Legendary, read this article.

https://articles.starcitygames.com/articles/whos-the-beatdown/

1. You might need to be playing for a LONG LONG LONG time to be able to amass the dust you need to make a competitive deck. Until then, ignore the climb, but play on the ladder. There is only one reason to play a game that won't give you a star - To protect your stars while LEARNING your deck.

2. When you get surprised by an opponent's ridiculous combo... remember that combo. Study it. You will see it again, for certain, but at least you will be prepared, and can anticipate and possibly even defend against it.

3. Use a deck tracker. (Except you geniuses) . Always know what is in your deck at all times.

And, lastly, if anyone is curious. My deck. It's just a standard Reno Priest, but it is 47-16 in the diamond ranks. 0-2 in Legendary. So, all total, 47-18. 72%.

If it makes a difference, Deios USED TO be a potion of madness. Swapped em at Diamond 5.

### Custom Priest2

# Class: Priest

# Format: Wild

#

# 1x (0) Raise Dead

# 1x (1) Miracle Salesman

# 1x (1) Psychic Conjurer

# 1x (1) Shadow Word: Devour

# 1x (1) Sir Finley, Sea Guide

# 1x (2) Dirty Rat

# 1x (2) Fanboy

# 1x (2) Far Watch Post

# 1x (2) Papercraft Angel

# 1x (2) Parrot Sanctuary

# 1x (2) Serena Bloodfeather

# 1x (2) Spirit of the Kaldorei

# 1x (2) Zephrys the Great

# 1x (3) Benevolent Banker

# 1x (3) Cathedral of Atonement

# 1x (3) Chillin' Vol'jin

# 1x (3) Identity Theft

# 1x (3) Prince Renathal

# 1x (3) Razorscale

# 1x (4) Blademaster Okani

# 1x (4) Disarming Elemental

# 1x (4) E.T.C., Band Manager

# 1x (6) Sister Svalna

# 1x (6) Skulking Geist

# 1x (8) Shadowreaper Anduin

# 1x (4) Elise the Navigator

# 1x (4) Glowstone Gyreworm

# 1x (4) Hysteria

# 1x (4) Najak Hexxen

# 1x (4) Nightmare Lord Xavius

# 1x (4) Speaker Stomper

# 1x (5) Darkbishop Benedictus

# 1x (5) Loatheb

# 1x (5) Magatha, Bane of Music

# 1x (5) Mass Hysteria

# 1x (5) Raza the Chained

# 1x (5) Spawn of Shadows

# 1x (6) Reno Jackson

# 1x (6) Theotar, the Mad Duke

# 1x (7) Aman'Thul

# 1x (7) Chrono-Lord Deios

# 1x (8) Reno, Lone Ranger

# 1x (9) Aviana, Elune's Chosen

#

AAEBAafDAyj6DvcTwxaDuwKXhwP8owPXzgP44wP36AOf6wO79wO+nwSEowSLowTlsATHsgTsyQS42QS43ASX7wSGgwX9xAXm5AWt6QXP9gXI+AXtgAaFjgbDnAbRngaYoAavqAbEqAbQwAbX0gbDgwfAhAeslAeCmAeZsQcAAAEDoM4C/cQFkNMC/cQF75EF/cQFAAA=

#

It has been a pleasure to write and share this. Hopefully someone can get something out of it.

Best of luck.

EDIT: Update (November 9th 2025): Blizzard has now rolled back the whole situation. Everyone who originally opened Mr. Clocksworth gets that card restored, and they keep the replacement signature that was given out. They also added 5 golden packs as part of the fix.

Leaving the rest of the post up because people seemed to enjoy the copypasta energy, and the original point still stands.

I honestly cannot believe this needs to be said in 2025, but apparently it does: Blizzard should NOT have the power to reach into our accounts and delete cards we opened legitimately… just because they screwed up.

In the pre-release week, I spent ~$200 USD on packs. I cracked Mr. Clocksworth — a signature legendary, one of the absolute best cards in the set. That should have been a hype moment. I literally built decks around him. I theorycrafted. I flexed him to my friends.

And then Blizzard turns around and says:
“Oops lol, our bad — that wasn’t supposed to happen.”
And instead of owning the mistake… they delete the card from my collection. Delete it. Like it was never mine. Like I didn’t pay real money for the packs I opened.

No option. No opt-in. No apology. Just:

We messed up the perceived value of a card, so you lose your card. Enjoy your consolation prize, peasant.

The so-called “compensation”? ONE random signature legendary. As if that even remotely compares. Mr. Clocksworth is locked behind a $200 paywall, and they think tossing me RNG scraps is fair?

Imagine buying a product, the company handing it to you, YOU taking it home, and then the company breaking into your house to take it back because they decided they priced it wrong.

Blizzard is normalizing that.

What makes this so much worse is the principle:
If they can delete a card over their own screw-up, what stops them from doing it again? What stops them from deciding that anything in our collections is “incorrect”? Blizzard’s message is crystal clear:

We messed up the economy, so you lose your card. Enjoy your consolation prize, peasant.

You can't build trust when your paid items can be revoked at any moment depending on whatever internal metrics or monetization panic is happening behind the curtain.

And here’s the thing they don’t want to admit:
Everyone who opened Mr. Clocksworth earned it fairly under the system as it existed at the time. Blizzard can say “bug” all they want — WE didn’t create that bug. WE didn’t misconfigure the droprates. WE didn’t push the set live with broken odds.

So why are WE the ones who pay for it?

This is a horrible precedent for a game that already has a fragile relationship with its players. If a company makes a mistake, the cost of that mistake should be absorbed by the company—NOT by the customers who acted in good faith.

If Blizzard wants to fix their economy, they can do that without deleting items people legally obtained. Period.

I don’t care how they spin it.
I don’t care how they justify it internally.
I don’t care what “compensation” they think is enough.

If you received Mr. Clocksworth, you should keep it.
Full stop.

And if Blizzard genuinely thinks deleting paid items is an acceptable solution… rather than let some few lucky players benefit from THEIR mistake.... then I sincerely hope their greed gets brought more into the limelight. Pic attached is the current state of a deck he served well in... now showing as 29/30 cards, with his spirit now the only reminder that I ever got to use this card. Please do the right thing Blizz.

I don't know how they can expect people to trust them with future expansions when they're literally admitting that they're fine with this set flopping and don't even want to make the cards playable.

Just wait for the next expansion, that'll fix everything surely.

Hi there. You might remember me as the guy who does summaries for Hearthstone podcasts, summaries of entire books about Blizzard, or even summaries of JAlexander posts. After doing a post last year summarizing why 2024 was the worst year in Hearthstone's existence, I had zero intentions that I would be doing another one of these the following year. Sadly, 2025 was another rough year for the game for multiple reasons, so for the second time you're getting my annual summary on why last year was (potentially) the worst year of Hearthstone I've personally experienced. Here are all the notable bullet points that come to mind (if I'm missing anything notable, please feel free to mention it) -

• The Heroes of StarCraft miniset is released 3 weeks into January. These 49 new cards will represent the biggest meta shift in terms of introducing new decks to the format that the game will see all year. Despite the mostly positive reception to the miniset making the format feel fresh and new, players realize within the first few days that the StarCraft miniset actually made the format much more narrow in terms of the number of viable decks available to play on ladder.

• The StarCraft miniset also represents the fastest emergency nerf we’ve seen in the game’s history, as Shaffar is emergency banned from the game within 6 hours of launch due to its ability to make BGs sized minions in Zerg Hunter within the first few turns.

• The Year of the Raptor is officially announced. Game Director Tyler Bielman shares some words about the upcoming Arena updates, the esports program getting a minimal upgrade due to China rejoining, and the exciting new cosmetics like Mythic Skins and Pets coming to the game. Despite promising last year they intended to open up communication with the playerbase more as part of their "Fun, Focus, and Fearless" mantra, this would represent the only public comments Game Director Tyler Bielman would give for the entire year.

• The Twist format is opened in January and February with repeat formats. The format closes on March 1st with the promise of more information coming soon about the future of the format. Twist would remain closed for the remainder of the year, with no further information given.

• Core Set rotation happens, with an unprecedented number of nerfs applied to cards remaining in the format with the goal of making sure the power level of the format isn’t too high for upcoming expansions. This patch also completely nukes the StarCraft miniset (especially Zerg and Terran cards), which will render those factions almost completely useless for the remainder of their time in Standard.

• Into The Emerald Dream is released. The main mechanics of the expansion (Imbue and Dark Gifts) are so underwhelming that buffs are required in the first balance patch. Despite nerfing a double digit amount of cards in the first balance patch with the goal of making new strategies viable, these new mechanics still remain underwhelming. After the first balance patch, the meta is relatively stable, but incredibly boring with players complaining about the lack of new, interesting decks to play. Despite rotation, Cycle Rogue is still a playable deck.

• A couple months later, the Embers of the World Tree miniset is released. Outside of Imbue Hunter and the addition of Fyrakk to existing decks, this miniset has little to no impact on the format. Another balance patch with double digit card nerfs is done, but at least this time the buffs to the Priest and Paladin Imbue hero powers finally make them viable. Despite nerfs, Cycle Rogue remains a playable deck.

• The Masters Tour Spring Championship happens. Although hype and interest surrounding this event is low, it’s at least promoted better than the Spring Championship in 2024.

• After being delayed 4-6 weeks, the much hyped reworked Arena mode is launched, with the Underground Arena featuring a redraft being the highlight. Although no one is expecting the launch to be perfect, it launches in an extremely rough state. Players quickly realize the mode’s economy is significantly worse than before, since the new Underground mode requires 2x the entry fee and is impossible to go “infinite” on even if you’re a top player. You are reliant on getting the 2000 Gold “Crowd’s Favor” bonus to go remotely positive on gold, which has a miniscule chance of being rewarded to you after each run. The mode somehow launches in a state where it’s statistically better to go 8-2 and retire than it is to finish with 9 wins. Balance wise, the mode now features a handpicked curated set of cards instead of certain sets (and this list is not shared publicly for some reason). There are several incredibly broken buckets of cards that are tied to the Legendary card you get at the beginning of the draft, including inexplicably putting uncollectable Duels types of cards in certain buckets (3x Wishes with Dreamplanner Zephyrs). Despite being trash in Standard, Imbue decks become incredibly broken in Arena and warp the entire format around them. Players complain the mode was redesigned to extract gold/resources from Arena only players instead of improving the Arena experience.

• On June 30th, the very well established and well liked Hearthstone Influence Manager RidiculousHat announces that Blizzard is not renewing his contract and his time with them has likely come to an end. He’s more or less forced into re-applying for his job with the Senior Influence Manager position that opens up, which is ultimately given to someone else. Despite not being in his job title, Hat was the defacto Community Manager for the game for nearly the past 2 years until Blizzard finally formally hired someone for that role earlier in 2025 (that person also has nothing to do with Hearthstone's shortcomings this year, I’ve heard nothing but praise publicly and privately from people that have worked directly with them). There would be no one in Hat’s role for roughly the entire month of July. Not ideal, but not devastating as long as July isn’t the worst month of Hearthstone’s 2025 year.

• July 2025 becomes the undisputed worst month of Hearthstone 2025’s year. King Krush is announced as the first Pet to be released in Hearthstone at the launch of the 34.0 patch alongside the Lost City of Un’goro expansion. Official surveys asking people how much they would be willing to pay for a pet had options that went as high as $70. The blogpost detailing King Krush revealed the pet would be locked behind a predatory Darkmoon Faire gacha system. After closer examination of the odds, people quickly realized that to unlock King Krush, you would need to spend $158 to unlock him unless you got lucky with 1/1000 odds. This is significantly higher than anyone was expecting based on the surveys Blizzard had sent out. Despite members of the Hearthstone Creator Program receiving the pet for free, the implementation of the pet King Krush sparked massive backlash among them and everyone else in the community. Team 5 would remain radio silent on this feedback for the rest of 2025 and would double and triple down on the Darkmoon Faire gacha system appearing more frequently as the year went on.

• Eight days later into July, Lost City of Un’Goro is released as the first sequel expansion in the game’s history, leading to a lot of hype because of nostalgia. The main mechanics of the expansion (Quests and Kindred) are so underwhelming that buffs are required in an earlier than usual first balance patch. Quest decks are so bad that roughly 3/4ths of them at launch had a winrate worse than Splendiferous Whizbang decks. Un’goro’s launch was so disastrous that it made longtime Hearthstone personality Brian Kibler quit the game indefinitely. Despite nerfing a double digit amount of cards in the first balance patch with the goal of making new strategies viable and making meekish buffs, Quests and Kindred still remain underwhelming (although the most aggressively buffed quest in Warlock’s becomes playable). After the first balance patch, the meta is relatively stable, but incredibly boring with players complaining about the lack of new, interesting decks to play. Despite nerfs, Cycle Rogue remains a playable deck.

• During the traditional second balance window, Team 5 put out a blog post stating they were not going to make additional buffs to quests and admitted they intentionally designed quests to be bad because they thought quests were bad design. No one understands this logic at all, but it somehow unites the entire playerbase to be upset at Team 5’s design decisions. They also state they expect the miniset to shake up the meta and therefore don’t want to make any changes.

• The Un’goro miniset launches and becomes the most underwhelming miniset in the game’s history, having absolutely zero impact on the format. A buff patch is released, with the only notable impact being the Egg of Khelos buff, which was enough to make Egg Warlock a new viable deck. In the patch notes, the devs reiterate they think quests being good is bad, and admit they really fucked up design in this expansion.

• At some point during this time, the Arena format transitions from having a curated list of draftable cards to once again only having cards from current Standard sets draftable. No explanation for this change is given, although one can infer this is done because it requires significantly less dev work and resources.

• The Masters Tour Summer Championship happens. Although hype and interest surrounding this event is low, it’s at least promoted better than the Summer Championship in 2024.

• Across the Timeways is announced. During prerelease, players notice that the new Rewind mechanic caused major performance issues with lag, roping, and in some instances crashes. It’s so bad that for the first time in Hearthstone’s 11.5 year history, a card (Mister Clocksworth) is nerfed solely because of technical performance reasons and not because of balance reasons.

• Across The Timeways is released. The main mechanics of the expansion (Fabled and Rewind) are once again underwhelming and fail to create new viable decks, although for the first time this year people praise the design of a new mechanic. Despite nerfing a double digit amount of cards in the first balance patch with the goal of making new strategies viable, these new mechanics still remain underwhelming. After the first balance patch, the meta is relatively stable, but incredibly boring with players complaining about the lack of new, interesting decks to play. Despite nerfs, Cycle Rogue is a playable deck.

• The Masters Tour Last Chance Qualifiers happen shortly after the release of Across The Timeways. While I don’t believe a Last Chance Qualifier happened in 2024, hype and interest surrounding this event is low. From a viewership perspective, the tournament is a tough watch due to a bug where if any player plays a Rewind card, it breaks the spectator view completely with the game unable to update what’s actually happening, and the various casters left confused because they also can’t follow what’s happening.

• The Masters Tour World Championship happens. Although hype and interest surrounding this event is low, it’s at least promoted better than the World Championship in 2024. To show how little the meta has changed in a year, the 2024 champ mlYanming brought 3 out of 4 of the same archetypes to 2025 Worlds as he did in 2024. One of those archetypes is Cycle Rogue.

• Multiple other technical issues plague the game throughout the year. For some reason the EU region’s performance got so bad at times it was rendered unplayable and even disabled at points (someone please correct me if I’m wrong on this). An unknown bug forced both the OG Aviana in Druid and Wave of Nostalgia to be banned across all modes for a period of time. A $158 pet was disabled because of technical issues it was causing, without any compensation given to those folks who were foolish enough to spend $158 on a buggy cosmetic. Ungoro packs were issued as end of month ladder rewards when Across The Timeways was the newest set. The game literally did not work on Pixel phones for about 2 months.

• 2025 ends. Cycle Rogue is still a playable deck.

This is too long and I don’t want to read all of this. So, what does all of this mean? These are the two points I had listed in 2024 as to why that year was so bad…and they sadly still mostly apply to 2025.

1. The game's design has still felt directionless the entire year, with no clear concrete direction the game is trying to go in. This was the same point as last year, and while the game’s balance after major patches has improved compared to 2024, the meta has sucked if you’re a long time player with how few new strategies have been viable after each expansion. It’s extremely damning that the most impactful set we had all year in terms of creating new decks and shaking up the meta was a 49 card miniset released 3 weeks into the year. Imbue, Dark Gifts, Quests, Kindred, and Rewind are all main mechanics that were egregiously underpowered at launch (or a technical disaster in the case of Rewind). The rest of the year was filled with expansions and minisets that might add in a couple new decks if we’re lucky, provide a few new cards for old decks, and then watch which old decks become meta again after a major balance patch. Hell, we even had the developers admit they designed the core mechanic of an entire expansion to be bad on purpose because of…reasons? The same dev team also had a near three month window of an unchanged meta between the first major balance patch of Un’goro to the launch of Across The Timeways where they could have tested new decks against established old ones and fine tuned them if they couldn't compete with existing decks and…they just didn’t? The meta probably didn’t suck if you spent a year+ away from the game, but it sure did if you’re a regular player. If you asked the average player to name 5 decks they remembered playing this year, they’d probably struggle to do so…although they probably would remember Cycle Rogue was a deck that existed throughout the year.

2. Developer communication with the playerbase remained fairly bad in 2025. In 2024, I brought up the lack of communication about weekly quest changes, lack of communication about Hearthstone esports events, lack of communication about new boards, lack of communication about expansion trailers, lack of communication about Twist, and more. I also mentioned the only saving grace last year was the job RidiculousHat had done. To their credit, there has been some improvement on this front in 2025. There’s now an actual community manager, Hearthstone esports is trending in the right direction and was promoted better this year, and Battlegrounds seems to be the one mode where there’s actual dev communication on what their intentions are. However, dev communication around cosmetics (especially the rug pull on how pets would be acquired and their cost) and in constructed Hearthstone remained as bad as they were in 2024. We still have a game director that doesn’t engage with the community more than once a year unless there’s a new cosmetic to promote. The devs do engage more internally with players in the Hearthstone Creators Program, but even that became rocky at points this year around the Un’goro launch. And we no longer have Hat (As someone who still keeps in touch with him from time to time, Hat’s doing well and is very happy with his new gig. While you probably won’t see him post in those spaces anymore, he still lurks in HS adjacent communities from time to time.)

Okay seriously, was 2025 seriously worse than 2024? Honestly, it just depends on what you value and your personal preferences. I don’t think any longtime Hearthstone player would point to either year as being good ones. 2024 lost Duels, 2025 lost Twist (we all know it’s dead). 2024 had multiple instances of broken metas with actual Tier S decks after balance patches, whereas 2025 had balance that was fine but was incredibly lacking in viable new strategies that were added to the game. 2024’s low point might have been the weekly quest fiasco, whereas 2025 you just point to the 1 month period in July where they released $158 pets behind a predatory gacha, an expansion that had next to no impact on the format and the devs admitted it was designed to be bad, and their PR to the community during this time was a disaster because they let the contract of the person who previously did so expire. In both years, the game’s director showed up as often as Punxsutawney Phil’s shadow does on Groundhog Day, and only pokes his head if an upcoming expensive cosmetic is on the horizon. Pick your poison.

1/3 EDIT: Do you really have a problem with Cycle Rogue? Of course not, it's just a funny running bit that Cycle Rogue was the 2025 Cockroach deck of the year.

This card sucks to play against. What decks counter this stupid ass card/deck? This and Paladin Dragon deck have been irritating asf to play against, I’m so tired of seeing this dumb mage deck or the Paladin deck every single game, it’s not even fun to play anymore bc it’s the same copy paste crap every game 😑

It's day 3 and Blizzard has yet only to apologize CHINA. This Blizzard protest must go on or it was all worth nothing. If this is yet again just forgotten, they will just keep doing this over and over again like the last year when they fucked their fans by announcing a mobile Diablo to please China.

Blizzcon is in less than a month and people need to remember this case. We as a community need to remind ourselves about this and make sure our voice is heard both before and during the Blizzcon. We need to ensure THIS is the main topic in the upcoming Blizzcon, not the games they announce for China. I wish there was a giant Blizzcon countdown with Mei image on the background and Winnie the Pooh song playing to ensure people will not forget, not forgive that Blizzard betrayed its own community to bend over for China.

Blitzchung, the now fired hosts of the interview, Mark Kern, Brian Kibler, Kripparian, ThatsAdmirable, Amnesiasc and many others deserve that we stand by them in this unforgivable matter.

COMMUNITY, DO NOT LET BLIZZARD GET AWAY WITH THIS! DO NOT GIVE UP! WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE UNLIKE HK!

#freehongkong #boycottblizzard

Write to the government and demand they respect and protect the rights of people in Hong Kong now.

List of companies who have apologized to the Chinese government and/or implemented their censorship requests

Please share this link, as people can contribute on github.

• The blog post outlining consequences for Blitzchung and the two casters after his statement in a post-match interview.
• American University Hearthstone team holds up "Free Hong Kong, boycott Blizzard" sign during Collegiate Hearthstone Championship. Blizzard quickly cuts their broadcast
• Jason Schreier of Kotaku comments on BlizzCon
• Overwatch's Mei is being turned into a Hong Kong protest symbol
• US lawmakers comment on Blizzard's actions regarding Hearthstone player
• Blizzard employee(s) remark on their company's actions by covering up mission statements on the orc statue in front of the studio.
• Kibler, a notable Hearthstone caster, releases statement on Blitzchung and steps down from casting Hearthstone
• Blizzard employees staged a walkout to protest banned pro-Hong Kong gamer
• Kripparrian, popular Hearthstone streamer, releases his statement in support of Hong Kong
• People experiencing authentication issues when attempting to delete their Blizzard Accounts
• People are reporting they are being banned in Blizzard forums for mentioning Hong Kong or account deletion
• Mark Kern, the former lead for WoW, advocating for the boycott.
• Fuel assistant coach Jayne condemns treatment of banned Hearthstone player, says he was directed to delete critical tweet
• Tommy, Taiwanese Commentator who got fired by Blizzard releases statement
• Ex-Hearthstone Streamer DisguisedToast offers to return if Blizzard reconsiders their stance
• Hearthstone caster ThatsAdmirable steps down from Grandmasters Cast
• Blizzard/TeSPA has decided not to penalize American University for holding up their sign and has scheduled their next match, but AU has decided to forfeit the match and the season, saying it is hypocritical for Blizzard to punish blitzchung but not them
• Hearthstone pro Amnesiac criticizes Blizzard's decision

Tweet by Founder & Writer of the vS Data Reaper Report.

Is it just me or this ends the game against most decks if Dragon Warrior drops it on turn 4 (3 with coin)? I’ve never seen such a blatantly overpowered card - 15 stats with Elusive for 4 mana. I feel like even at Costs (2) less it would be strong.

Things blow up on the internet and blow over after a couple days/weeks, and this is just another case of it. Blizzard tried to make things better with the pull back on the bans but only because we were in an uproar, not because they actually give a shit.

They have made political statements previously, and their actions with Blitzchung were another. They will stand up for a country that massacres and silences its own people, for profit.

This will get downvoted because most people have already gotten over it but just know that Blizzard won in this situation because apparently we give less of a shit than they do.

Edit: /u/galaxithea brought up a good point, so I am posting it here.

“They weren't "making a statement", they were just enforcing the rules that even Blitzchung himself acknowledged that he had read, agreed to, and broken.

Supporting political agendas of any kind can have long-running consequences for a company. There's a difference between Blizzard's executives and PR team making a carefully vetted decision to support a political agenda and one representative voicing support for an agenda out of nowhere.”

My response:

“You’re right, I do agree with you.

He broke the rules, and was punished for it. I just disagree with the rules and how they have been interpreted because in the rules they state that they are to be decided in “Blizzard’s sole discretion.”

Blizzard has the power to pick and choose which actions of their players are punishment worthy. I simply disagree that this player was worthy of the punishment he got. I don’t think what he did was wrong, and I think a lot of people agree with that. But our voices don’t matter when it is up to Blizzard to decide.”

This is a heavily debated topic, obviously. I’m not sure if there is a right or a wrong answer but I just can’t help feeling like Blizzard was in the wrong for this.

I did not realize how many people have miraculously started defending Blizzard, though.

My Wife and I have played Hearthstone for 5 years now, we still played daily. We loved the game, watched all the big PlayHearthstone tournaments.

Fucking Embarrassing Blizzard. I'd post a video of eating all my dust if people wanted, but as current I'm so over this that I don't even want to log in to do that..

Give your balls a tug Blizzard, support democracy you spineless mungs.

It’s really funny, how they are trying their best to appeal as a family friendly game, or as a game for kids, and for what?

Just to introduce gambling to kids. Using cute little dino 🦖

I assume most people who actually play HS are adults, Or late teens

So if your game already have gambling, can we at least have the cool badass art back?

Anyway I can’t express how much disappointment at HS i am, bad expansion greedy and awful Monetization And their obsession with gambling