Legend of the Innkeeper : A Hearthstone Podcast for Casual Players

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Quests?  Ranked play?  Fun Guaranteed with friends?

Espo – Rank 16, 297 Shaman wins, 1000 gold

Vast – Rank 20 (was 22), 383 Mage wins, 385 gold

News

* Lunar New Year* Begins Feb 5th* $20 Bundle – 30 packs (10 The Witchwood, 10 The Boomsday Project, 10 from Rastakhan’s Rumble) – available now* At the start you get a free golden Fireworks Tech for logging in* Special Lunar New Year quests that award both gold and dust* New festive firework-filled emote* Upcoming Card Changes (most are Classic cards) – Feb 5th * Cold Blood – Cost increased to 2 mana, up from 1* Flametongue Totem – Cost increased to 3 mana, up from 2* Equality – Cost increased to 4 mana, up from 2* Hunter’s Mark – Cost increased to 2 mana, up from 1* Emerald Spellstone – Cost increased to 6 mana, up from 5* Iksar had a few comments – Equality at (3) mana in our playtesting didn’t really solve this. The change to (4) was actually very jarring to us, but we wanted to try playtesting it in current and future environments anyway. After all those games, we felt like it was a reasonable option at (4) in control archetypes (now and in the future) but less reasonable in aggressive decks. That ideally where we’d like most cards to be, so (4) ended up being where we landed. If we thought (3) removed it from being in all paladin archetypes for the foreseeable future but Odd Paladin would get better in the short term, we would have just done that.* We like Control Paladin, I expect it to do just fine in the future. We’ve been playtesting a lot of the first set of this year with Equality at (4) and there are still powerful Control Paladin archetypes.

Espo Mode

Void Singularity

How it Works

* Choose a class and build your own deck.* At the end of each turn, all your minions have their cost, attack, and health combined into one creature – Void Singularity.* The maximum mana cost of Void Singularity is 10.* Cards like Ethereal Arcanist which do something at the end of turn, won’t work here as they get merged into the Void Singularity before they can use their effects.* Deathrattle effects work as they should and can be a great way the flood the board for your next turn.* Removal and Freeze are huge in this brawl. The Void Singularity can build up frighteningly fast, so get rid of it!* Another neat thing one could do is return the Void to their opponent’s hand through a card like Sap. It effectively slows them down an entire turn.

Shaman

Hints and Tips/Top 3

Espo – Bog Slosher, Haunting Visions, Big Bad Voodoo

Vast – Big Bad Voodoo, Zentimo, Krag’wa the Frog

Reviews and Emails

iTunes Reviews:

Emails:

Twitter:

Facebook Shoutout:

Legendary Patron Shoutout: Deadpool and Chris Vannaken

Next Week : Mage

Outro

That does it for this episode.  You can email the show at [email protected].  You can also visit our website at legendoftheinnkeeper.com where we will post the show notes with the episode that has links to ...

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Quests?  Ranked play?  Fun Guaranteed with friends?

Espo:  Rank 18, 275 Shaman wins, 580 gold

Vast: Rank 22, 382 Mage wins, 215 gold

News

Quality of Life Update – Rank changes (source)

* Starting in February, they are introducing a new QoL change, reducing the number of Stars required to advance in many of the Ranks.* Rank 50 to 16 – 3 Stars per Rank* Rank 15 to 11 – 4 Stars per Rank* Rank 10 to 1 – 5 Stars per Rank

Espo Mode

Shiftcon West

Shiftcon has gotten so big it’s had to expand! Shiftcon West brings all the same fun but now includes commemorative Shifting Scrolls!

How it Works

* Choose a Class.* Your deck is filled with Shifter Zerus and Shifting Scroll.

Warlock

NEXT WEEK : SHAMAN

Hints and Tips/Top 3

Espo:  High Priestess Jeklik, Soulwarden, Shriek

Reviews and Emails

iTunes Reviews:

Emails:

Twitter:

Facebook Shoutout:

Legendary Patron Shoutout: Deadpool and Chris Vannaken

Outro

That does it for this episode.  You can email the show at [email protected].  You can also visit our website at legendoftheinnkeeper.com where we will post the show notes with the episode that has links to all the information we discussed.

Our YouTube channel is www.legendoftheinnkeeper.com/YouTube

You can follow us on Twitter

LOTI Podcast – @LOTIpodcast.  

Espo – @Xcmtbgamer

You can support the show through Patreon at :  www.patreon.com/Legendoftheinnkeeper

Be sure to subscribe and rate us on iTunes!

Until next show, Happy gaming!

Credits:Music by James Marantette – https://soundcloud.com/james-marantette

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Quests?  Ranked play?  Fun Guaranteed with friends?

Espo: Rank 17, 271 Shaman wins, Hunter in Brawl and done

Vast : Rank 22, 383 wins with Mage, finished Brawl on 1st try

We got our Hearthstone Month Review email today

News

Wild Deck Report

Espo Mode

A Chance Encounter

How it Works

* Choose a hero and get given a deck.* Most of the cards will have random effects. Praise Yogg!

Priest

NEXT WEEK : Warlock

Hints and Tips/Top 3

Espo: Seance, Spirit of the Dead, Bwonsamdi, The Dead

Reviews and Emails

iTunes Reviews:

Emails:

Twitter:

Facebook Shoutout:

Legendary Patron Shoutout: Deadpool and Chris Vannaken

Outro

That does it for this episode.  You can email the show at [email protected].  You can also visit our website at legendoftheinnkeeper.com where we will post the show notes with the episode that has links to all the information we discussed.

Our YouTube channel is www.legendoftheinnkeeper.com/YouTube

You can follow us on Twitter

LOTI Podcast – @LOTIpodcast.  

Espo – @Xcmtbgamer

You can support the show through Patreon at :  www.patreon.com/Legendoftheinnkeeper

Be sure to subscribe and rate us on iTunes!

Until next show, Happy gaming!

Credits:Music by James Marantette – https://soundcloud.com/james-marantette

What did you do this week?

Updates:

Quests?  Ranked play?  Fun Guaranteed with friends?

Espo:  Rank 18, 271 Shaman wins, 0 Rumble Runs

Vast :  Rank 22, 382 Mage wins, but I did win a few with Druid

News

* Hearthstone Wild Card Pack Bundle available now – 40 packs from TGT, GvG, WOG and MSG.  $24.99 US* Blizzard’s WILD Off-Meta deck spotlight – https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/blog/22827635/off-meta-report-wild-edition-january-3-2019 * Mech Hunter – 63.3% win rate / 30* Fatigue Warrior – 60.0% win rate / 30* Hearthstone Update: January* Dust refunds from last month’s nerf’s are done* All class cards have had their pick quality either lowered or raised to get win-rates to as close to 50% as possible in Arena.* Rumble Run Changes* There is a higher chance to see card synergy with your shrine in card picks within Rumble Run* Rumble Run bosses should be more fair. They used internal data to tone down heavy hitters.* When you lose in Rumble Run, your next run will offer your current shrine and the shrine from the boss you lost to in shrine selection.

Espo Mode

Brawl Block : Old and New

A new twist on Hearthstone! Construct a deck using ONLY cards from Goblins vs Gnomes, The Grand Tournament, The Witchwood, and The Boomsday Project.

How it Works

Build yourself a deck using cards in your own collection from the following four expansions:

* Goblins vs Gnomes* The Grand Tournament* The Witchwood* The Boomsday Project

Reward : 1 classic card pack

Espo:  Mech Priest??

AAEBAZ/HAgSLEJ8Q/BOggAMN3A/1D4IQgxCFEI0Qn/UCtPYCmfcCqPsC9v0Cof4C3oIDAA==

Vast: Mech Hunter

AAEBAR8CmxCggAMOjA+UD+APhRCOEOL1Apn3Arn4ApH7Apj7Avb9Atf+AomAA8yBAwA=

Paladin Cards

HS Recipe Shirvallah’s Tigers… added extra A New Challenger and Dino-Size

Hints and Tips/Top 3

Espo: Spirit of the Tiger, Shirvallah, the Tiger, A New Challenger…

Vast: Spirit of the Tiger, A New Challenger…, Flash of Light

Reviews and Emails

iTunes Reviews:

Emails:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ben_heathstone/status/1078992712743960576

Facebook Shoutout:

Legendary Patron Shoutout: Deadpool and Chris Vannaken

NEXT WEEK : Priest

Outro

That does it for this episode.  You can email the show at [email protected].  You can also visit our website at legendoftheinnkeeper.com where we will post the show notes with the episode that has links to all the information we discussed.

Our YouTube channel is www.legendoftheinnkeeper.com/YouTube

You can follow us on Twitter

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Quests?  Ranked play?  Fun Guaranteed with friends?

Espo: Last month ended at 16, 263 Shaman wins, Still at 0 RR wins =(

Vast : Last month ended at 22, 382 Mage wins, Still at 0 RR wins =(  OON

News

Off Meta Report

How the Pros Fight Tilt

* Update – Ben Brode’s new company, Second Dinner made a fun announcement today. They are fully funded for their upcoming game AND they have announced that the game is being created for Marvel. They are looking for a Unity Client Engineer and a Technical Artist if you are interested.  https://youtu.be/te7QFZCBudY * JoeMag (Joseph Magdalena) posted on his Twitter account a retrospective on the Brawls from 2018. https://www.hearthpwn.com/news/6355-hearthstone-tavern-brawl-designer-gives

Espo Mode

Just a Hallucination

How it Works

* No deckbuilding this week, you’ll be simply choosing a class.* Be warned! Your class choice will determine the cards your opponent can select. Pick Warlock.* You start out with 3 mana on your first turn.* Your deck is filled with random spells from your class and the Rogue spell Hallucination.*

Druid card slideshow

### Animal Style

# Class: Druid

# Format: Standard

# Year of the Raven

#

# 2x (1) Lesser Jasper Spellstone

# 2x (1) Naturalize

# 1x (3) Greedy Sprite

# 2x (3) Witching Hour

# 2x (4) Branching Paths

# 2x (4) Ironwood Golem

# 2x (4) Oaken Summons

# 1x (4) Predatory Instincts

# 2x (4) Swipe

# 2x (5) Witchwood Grizzly

# 2x (6) Stampeding Roar

# 2x (7) Amani War Bear

# 2x (7) Ironhide Direhorn

# 1x (7) Malfurion the Pestilent

# 1x (8) Charged Devilsaur

# 1x (9) Hadronox

# 1x (9) Oondasta

# 2x (10) Ultimate Infestation

#

AAECAbSKAwbGwgKZ0wKv0wL55gLKhgObigMMQOkBh84ClNICmNICntIChOYCjfAC8vECtYYD/IYD2IwDAA==

#

# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

Hints and Tips/Top 3

Espo: Stampeding Roar, Ironhide Direhorn, Gonk, the Raptor

Reviews and Emails

iTunes Reviews:

Emails:

Twitter:

Facebook Shoutout:

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Quests?  Ranked play?  Fun Guaranteed with friends?

Espo:  Rank 17, 242 Shaman wins, 0 Rumble Run wins

News

Balance Changes are live

* 5 card changes were announced and pushed live in the time we’ve been gone.* Wild Growth now costs 3, up from 2* Nourish now costs 6, up from 5* Level Up! Now costs 6, up from 5* Saronite Chain Gang now summons another Saronite Chain Gang, instead of a copy of the minion.* Leeching Poison now costs 1, down from 2, and only gives Lifesteam for 1 turn

Arena changes are live

* Appearance rates for Rastakhan’s Rumble cards now have a +50% appearance rate* The following cards will be available once again in Arena* Druid* Savagery* Soul of the Forest* Mark of Nature* Hunter* Starving Buzzard* Timber Wolf* Snipe* Priest* Mind Blast* Lightwell* Inner Fire* Shaman* Dust Devil* Totemic Might* Ancestral Healing* Windspeaker* Warlock* Sacrificial Pact* Sense Demons* Succubus* Warrior* Warsong Commander* Charge* Rampage* And Mind Control Tech will no longer be available.* Also the following cards will remain unavailable:* Hero Cards* Quests* Whizbang the Wonderful* Vicious Fledgling* Ancient Watcher* Humongous Razorleaf* Odd/Even cards

Hearthstone Wild Open returns

* Qualifiers will take place from January 1 through January 30* The Playoffs are on February 16* The finals will be on February 23rd. * Qualify for your region’s playoffs by hitting Top 100 on ladder for the month of January* 1st prize – $11,000, 2nd $7,000, 3-4 $3,000, 5-8 $1,500* Total prize pool of $30,000

2018 All Star Invitational Controversy

https://thegamehaus.com/hearthstone-2018-all-star-invitational-controversy/2018/12/26/

Espo Mode

The Gift Exchange

Great Father is dropping crates on the battlefield! Get a gift each time you smash your opponent’s crate… or your own!

How it Works

* Build a custom deck using cards from your own collection.* At the start of your turn, provided there is not a Winter’s Veil Gift on your side of the field, Greatfather Winter will drop one off.* Destroying a Gift will give you a Stolen Winter’s Veil Gift.* Stolen Winter’s Veil Gift allows you to Discover a card from the class of the player the originating Gift minion came from.* You are only able to receive cards which initially cost at least 5 mana.* The cost of the card is reduced by 5 mana.* You are unable to Discover weapons.* If you obtain a Stolen Gift through a card like Mind Vision, it will only pull cards from the neutral set.* You have a chance of seeing Hardpacked Snowballs in the Discover mechanic.

Warrior

Reviews and Emails

iTunes Reviews:

Emails:

Twitter:

Facebook Shoutout:

Legendary Patron Shoutout: Deadpool and Chris Vannaken

Next Week : Druid

Outro

That does it for this episode.  You can email the show at [email protected].

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Quests?  Ranked play?  Fun Guaranteed with friends?

News

Hotfixes Rolled In

Reduced Zentimo’s animation times when combined with certain spells.

Doubling Jan’alai, the Dragonhawk’s Battlecry will no longer cause instability.

Zentimo’s text has been clarified. Zentimo now reads “Whenever you target a minion with a spell, cast it again on its neighbors.”

All of Warlord Loti’s forms now have the Legendary border.

Fixed an issue that could cause Overkill minions to trigger incorrectly.

Addressed some text and animation issues.

[Android] Fixed an issue that could cause the game to get “stuck” after installation.

Rumble Run is Live!

You start off every run as a young troll named Rikkar.

Since Rikkar has not yet joined one of the Rumble factions, you get to choose one for him.

Choose your class/team by picking a shrine. 3 shrines will be presented to you at random at the start of your run.

Your opponents during the run will be the other 8 classes in the game.

Like Dungeon Run and Monster Hunt, your deck will get bigger over time.

In addition to being able to add new special minions to your deck (fighters from your team) there are also powerful passive abilities.

There is a card back reward if you can defeat Rumble Run once with any class.

What are Shrines?

Shrines are like the passives we saw back in Dungeon Run during the Kobolds & Catacombs expansion.

You get one shrine per run. This is chosen at the start of your run.

Shrines start on the board and act as minions.

When a Shrine dies, it goes dormant for 3 turns and no longer has their power active.

Espo Mode

A Royal Recipe

King Rastakhan is cookin’ up da good stuff! Choose a class and enjoy the latest deck recipes!

How it Works

Pick yourself a class and get the deck recipe shown below that corresponds to your class.

Getting Better

Hints and Tips

To Opt-In to Receive Emails:

* Login to your account on the Battle.net site.

* Navigate to your Communication Preferences under, Account Settings, Account Details.

* Make sure the box next to “News and Special Offers from Blizzard” is checked.

Reviews and Emails

iTunes Reviews:

Emails:

Twitter:

Facebook Shoutout:

Legendary Patron Shoutout: Deadpool and Chris Vannaken

Next Week Warrior

Outro

That does it for this episode.  You can email the show at [email protected].  You can also visit our website at legendoftheinnkeeper.com where we will post the show notes with the episode that has links to all the information we discussed.

Our YouTube channel is www.legendoftheinnkeeper.com/YouTube

You can follow us on Twitter

LOTI Podcast – @LOTIpodcast.  

Espo – @Xcmtbgamer

You can support the show through Patreon at :  www.patreon.com/Legendoftheinnkeeper

Be sure to subscribe and rate us on iTunes!

Until next show, Happy gaming!

Credits:

Music by James Marantette – https://soundcloud.com/james-marantette

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Quests?  Ranked play?  Fun Guaranteed with friends?

Espo 499 Druid Wins (spent all my gold on the failing Legendary lottery)

### Animal Style

# Class: Druid

# Format: Standard

# Year of the Raven

#

# 2x (1) Lesser Jasper Spellstone

# 1x (1) Naturalize

# 2x (2) Wild Growth

# 2x (3) Witching Hour

# 2x (4) Branching Paths

# 2x (4) Ironwood Golem

# 2x (4) Oaken Summons

# 2x (4) Swipe

# 2x (5) Nourish

# 2x (5) Witchwood Grizzly

# 2x (6) Stampeding Roar

# 2x (7) Amani War Bear

# 2x (7) Ironhide Direhorn

# 1x (7) Malfurion the Pestilent

# 1x (8) Charged Devilsaur

# 1x (9) Hadronox

# 2x (10) Ultimate Infestation

#

AAECAbSKAwTpAcbCApnTAq/TAg1AX+QIh84ClNICmNICntIChOYCjfAC8vECtYYD/IYD2IwDAA==

#

# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

Vast – 382 Mage Wins – All the Legendaries

News

How Pros Master Mulligans

Hearthside Chat with Paul Nguyen: A Tussle of Trolls

Starts December 13th

When you start you choose from 1 of 3 different team shrines. Each team (and therefore each class) has 3 different Shrines that can appear. You always choose from 3 different teams.

You get a cardback for your first successful run.

Espo Mode

No.  Stand at the door.

Hunter Cards

Hints and Tips/Top 3 Hunter Cards

Espo: Baited Arrow, Spirit of the Lynx, Zul’Jin

Reviews and Emails

iTunes Reviews:

Emails:

Twitter:

Facebook Shoutout:

Legendary Patrons Shoutout: Deadpool and Chris Vannaken

Next Week: Rogue

Outro

That does it for this episode.  You can email the show at [email protected].  You can also visit our website at legendoftheinnkeeper.com where we will post the show notes with the episode that has links to all the information we discussed.

Our YouTube channel is www.legendoftheinnkeeper.com/YouTube

You can follow us on Twitter

LOTI Podcast – @LOTIpodcast.  

Espo – @Xcmtbgamer

You can support the show through Patreon at :  www.patreon.com/Legendoftheinnkeeper

Be sure to subscribe and rate us on iTunes!

Until next show, Happy gaming!

Credits:

Music by James Marantette – https://soundcloud.com/james-marantette

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Quests?  Ranked play?  Fun Guaranteed with friends?

Espo: Druid Wins 473, 3190 Gold

News

Want a free Rastakhan’s Rumble card pack? Show your team spirit by picking one of 9 teams. It’s easy and free. You have until Dec 4th to pick. https://playhearthstone.com/expansions-adventures/rastakhans-rumble/vote

In a new blog post, Blizzard has announced new details for the upcoming 2019 HCT season.  https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveHS/comments/a1hqnc/hearthstone_esports_next_big_turn/

New 3-Tier System

Tier 1 – Online Qualifiers – 3rd party, primarily online. Winning moves you up to next tier.

Tier 2 – Live Global Tournaments – No more tour stops. Invite-only events including those coming from Tier 1. $250,000 prize pool per event. 3 events planned in 2019. Winning opens up next tier.

Tier 3 – Premier Play – Top level of competition will be composed of weekly Round-Robin online events, split into regional divisions. Players at this level will receive performance-based bonuses, as well as automatic invites to Tier 2 events. More details to come.

Conquest is being retired as the official HCT format. More details to come, but this format is guaranteed to be used across the board for all Tier 1 and Tier 2 events.

Updated Hearthstone Masters System for 2019

New 120 Point Tier – Invite to a live global tournament

150 Point Tier – Invite to two live global tournaments.

175 Point Tier – Invite to all three live global tournaments, $1,000 appearance bonus for each event.

200 Point Tier – Invite to all three live global tournaments, $2,500 appearance bonus for each event.

2018 points will not expire on December 1st. Players have until March 31st, 2019 to rack up bonus points for the new season.

During the transition period, players can earn points at Tour Stops, the HCT Winter Playoffs, and the HCT Winter Championship, but not on the ladder.

Patch 13.0 is live.  This includes pre-loading the new expansion and a few other things.

Rastakhan’s Rumble launches December 4th!  So get ready! (Next Tuesday)

Winter Veil returns on December 18th. There will be a special quest with rewards you with 8 Boomsday packs once you play 100 cards in play mode.

Rank 20 Floor – Players that achieve Rank 15 or higher during their Hearthstone career will no longer fall below Rank 20. This should help players in the 20-25 ranks.

Added a black and purple sparkle effect to indicate when cards and powers that normally provide healing will do damage instead.

The Rogue Quest card, Crystal Core, now applies to minions in your deck, rather than applying after they are drawn. (Apparently this is to help situations like Togwaggle. When he takes your cards, the minions will all be 4/4 minions now.)

Espo Mode

Return of Mechazod!

Co-Op battle against Taunted up Mechazod.

It took Rezz and Spo 4 tries to tackle this robot.

Rastakhan’s Rumble final card reveal!

Hints and Tips/Top Class and cards!

Priest/Princess Talanji

Hunter/Zul’Jin Hero Card

First Week: Hunter

Reviews and Emails

iTunes Reviews:

Emails:

Twitter:

Facebook Shoutout:

Legendary Patron Shoutout: Deadpool and Chris Vannaken

Outro

That does it for this episode.  You can email the show at [email protected].  You can also visit our website at legendoftheinnkeeper.com where we will post the show notes with the episode that has links to all the information we discussed.

Updates:

What did you do this week?

Quests?  Ranked play?  Fun Guaranteed with friends?

Espo: 2580 gold, 470 Druid wins

Vast: 1650 gold

News

Espo Mode

When Clones Attack!

Zerek’s cloning technology is out of control!!! Choose a class and get a random deck, every minion you play will generate a 1/1 clone!

New Cards

Hints and Top 3

Reviews and Emails

iTunes Reviews:

Emails:

Twitter:

Facebook Shoutout:

Legendary Patron Shoutout: Deadpool and Chris Vannaken

Outro

That does it for this episode.  You can email the show at [email protected].  You can also visit our website at legendoftheinnkeeper.com where we will post the show notes with the episode that has links to all the information we discussed.

Our YouTube channel is www.legendoftheinnkeeper.com/YouTube

You can follow us on Twitter

LOTI Podcast – @LOTIpodcast.  

Espo – @Xcmtbgamer

You can support the show through Patreon at :  www.patreon.com/Legendoftheinnkeeper

Be sure to subscribe and rate us on iTunes!

Until next show, Happy gaming!

Credits:

Music by James Marantette – https://soundcloud.com/james-marantette

Liked it? Take a second to support Legend of the Innkeeper on Patreon!