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Something worth mention is that, while 2 drops have been lacking, the most played card in standard (acording to HSreplay) is Firefly, a one drop that can be played "twice" in turn 2 if you have no plays.
Yeah, a lot of people sleep on cards like Fire Fly being one of those more important/defining cards of the last few sets. It's in my top 10 of best cards rotating out. Along with tar Creeper, Keleseth and Stonehill Defender. All cards mentioned (or the focus of) in this video. Infact most of my list is neutral minions not surprisingly. The 3 sets rotating out had so many neutral minions in it that found their way into almost all decks of certain types and none were 2 drops.
Rogue after 2019 rotation: Turn 3: blink fox -> Toki, Time Tinker Turn 6: "Lets get it right this time!" Valeera: "incredible!" Turn 7: "TRUTH IS FOUND IN DEATH!" Opponent: "You win this one"
Sean Davis Turn 2 hero power is only an acceptable play because there are no good 2 drops. With the exception of rogue and warlock, turn 2 hero power is almost entirely useless, and has no impact on the outcome of the game
I'd also like to add that we've been getting a lot of good 1-drops too to give classes an early game since sufficient numbers of 1-drops can substitute for a lack of 2-drops in a tempo deck. Firefly is the number one standout here, but also things like Dire Mole, Argent Squire, and technically Bloodsail Corsair for Patches in the last rotation.
i use a warlock with 15 1 drops, keleseth, aggresive 3 drops, fungalmancer and doomgaurd, pretty fast deck its nasty :P like you said, dire mole, fire fly, argent squire, archerus veteran, kobold librarian and flame imp etc
I think that it's important to mention that strong 1-drops are another reason why Keleseth is so successful. Instead of curving 1 - 2 - 3, you can just curve 1 - 1,1 - 3 when you don't draw Keleseth on 2. Fire Fly is obviously a huge factor in this 1 - 1, 1 - 3 curve, but there are just enough strong 1-drops to make Keleseth good (Dire Mole, Acherus Veteran, Fire Fly, and Argent Squire for neutral, plus all the great class 1-drops)
Also in the worst possible scenario just press the button or even just coin to 3 sometimes. There are so many workarounds around using mana crystals efficienctly with only one 2 mana drop
Now, I couldn't agree more. 3-drops have been really powered up and the poor 2-drops have been pretty crappy. Keleseth feels like an instant add in most any deck that runs a few unneeded 2 cost cards. I love the idea of limiting the deck, but Hearthstone could fo without a Keleseth 2.0
I play mainly wild format, and in the last Brawliseum I didn't know what deck to play. I tried to create a Deathrattle Hunter deck because I didn't have to spend a lot of dust to craft it and it seems pretty fun; I also decided to not craft Keleseth. But when I was searching for decent 2 drops, man, I was shocked with how shitty the options were and I understand why all the lists ran this minion. The third reason of this video describes perfectly what crossed my mind in that moment.
@@alejandrom. Exactly. Keleseth is pretty weak for wild since there are tons of good two-drops there, but standard pretty much has none except Razormaw (and it's rotating out). I'm kind of curious to see what happens when Keleseth rotates too, I'm not sure how aggro decks will manage to do well.
Eliot Johnston I'd say odd rogue will be around in some form, but with firefly, dire mole, fungalmancer and vilespine slayer rotating out in april, they'll have a though time. Zoo might still be viable though, with the 2/4 homonculus and a little more support. Tempo mage died with mana wyrm and murloc mage probably won't like losing aluneth. Thunder head shaman could end up viable. Odd paladin won't have level up, creeper or fungalmancer and any other aggressive paladin died with cta. Hunter will be fun to watch scramble around without spellstone, cube and rexxar, no good 2 drops and limited one drops, but maybe they'll go for mechs? Warrior, priest and druid haven't been terribly aggressive classes as of late, though druid could end up as a faster class again without malfurion, the 4 mana spell, spreading plague and spellstone, what with savage roar in classic.
jkagkajsdftubes I understand where you get that impression from, but the fact that he called the most recent druid 2 drop strong in his prediction (even when we were yet to see all cards) is enough for me to lose almost all faith in his understanding of the game, so I disagree. CGP grey tends to not do that regardless of the subject.
Takeda Last name was bait I'm aware, I'm just saying that calling a river crokolisk+ strong knowing the other five expansions that will exist in the next meta game seems like really stupid thing to do, 120 unrevealed cards or not.
Your content is as always an intriguing study into the hows and whys of hearthstone, but this video really stands out with its comedy that while being entertaining doesn't troll about with clarity of your points (and at times accents them too!). Love it Penniless, keep it up! My rating for this video: 4 mana, "Meta Defining", Deathrattle: Gain insights into what shapes the current meta.
Another reason Keleseth is worth sacrificing your 2 drops for is the existence of hero powers. Although not ideal, you *always* have something to play on turn two. (Unless you're priest.) By always having something to do turn two, dropping two drops hurts severely less than dropping three or one drops would, because even without Keleseth on turn two you won't have a completely dead turn. (It's worth noting that paladin, druid, and rogue all have fairly good hero powers for early game tempo. Unlike warrior and priest, who are coincidentally less successful with Keleseth.)
Then in rise of shadows, blizzard was like "ok, never mind" and gave us cable rat, underbelly angler, dreamway guardians, underbelly fence, Keeper Staladris, Kadghar, and hench-clan hogsteed.
One important point you missed: hero powers. A lot of classes aren’t heartbroken after not playing a 2 if keleseth isn’t in their hand because they can just press the button (notably rogue and sorta hunter). Especially since having a weapon equipped can provide defense for the superior 3 drops you talked about
I'd also add that, compared to the other princes, Keleseth is in the best mana slot to fill with your hero power. Especially rogue really doesn't mind hero power on 2 - even better if you had (pre nerf) small time buccaneer on 1.
i think its good to note, that hearthstone tries to draw you cards that are playable, blizz figured put people like to play things and not do nothing, so you have an extremely high chance of drawing or having the prince in your openning hand
REASON 4: A lot of minions with the extra health stat have enough HP to survive a huge ammount of boardclears while staying alive with 1 hp. So getting out of boardclear range is also an important reason about why keleseth is too strong. Since it makes balanced boardclears just too weak to deal with the minions.
Tainted zealot saw play in control warlock during frozen throne, though warlock wasn't really great until kobolds & catacombs. Golacka crawler also saw in journey to Un'goro, though that was before frozen throne and keleseth.
You made no mention of the most important component to Keleseth’s success. Every class in HS has access to a 2 mana play on every turn: the Hero power. This makes the games where you whiff on your single 2 drop more manageable and allows you to fill similar holes in the curve as your 2 drops might
it becomes slower, but if you shadowstep or sonya bounce a kele with shadow shark on the board, it's really funny. Your 1 drops quickly become absolute monsters. I am working on a tempo rogue at the minute which aims to play and shadowstep kelseth early, and then hold him to use with a shark again a few turns later. if you can set up the sonya with some elven minstrels for draw as well it's pretty sick. at the moment the deck isn't performing all that well though compared to my odd paladin variants... (the mech odd paladin has eventually gained some footing I feel, and the liam/cauldron one is a blast if you actually draw those 2 cards) I definitely feel I need to get this keleseth tempo rogue in a good place before the rotation though. I just need to nail the right balance and then get better with the deck. I know it can be a 55+% deck with a little work... hell it might already be, as I know pretty much everyone comes up with the same deck in the end. as optimal is optimal and all points naturally converge. This is the nature of optimizing something within boundaries I think. There isn't much room for divergence in the end. (but then it all depends on the particular meta, so this is another factor. decks will differ depending what particular meta they face, there are sub meta pockets throughout the ladder)
@@NA-nz9lv any deck can be thing if given enough synergy, if priest could make a tempo or aggro deck work pirate warrior can be a thing. aslo its pretty good in wild.
Also because your hero power costs 2 mana so you don't have to waste mana by not drowing him. You can simply click hero power for lesser effect but weak effect is better than no effect
i think blizzard is getting a better idea of how to handle 2 drops. good stats to cost (basically 5 total) with effects that are situational rather than good in any circumstance is a good middle ground for making them relevant but not game winning on turn 2.
i knew it would be good. I was like "wtf thats broke" just by thinking about how many stats you can get out of it, specially when you play it turn 2...
If Hearthstone didn't want games to be decided on turn 2, they wouldn't have printed Keleseth. I think it's far more accurate to say HS didn't want games being decided on turn 2 by strong commons and rares.
One of the most funny videos you've ever made. You need to do this to other cards (TROGGS RULE or I WILL NOT BE TRIFLED WITH) and classes (shamanstone and druidstone)
@@leobastian_during frozen throne, control warlock did use tainted zealot for 2 ,2dmg ticks from defile. but since godfrey and spellstone its really not as needed anymore.
I remember exactly how they announced Keleseth. It was in a Livestream with Ben Brode, and the exact words they used were: "I DON'T KNOW WHAT WE WERE THINKING!" - "I DON'T KNOW EITHER!!" And literally everyone laughed at them. Me included, by the way, just so you know I'm not trying to sound smarter than everyone else. Nobody could picture a deck with no 2-drops working. But oh BOY, were they wrong.
Honestly I wouldn’t mind if they change patches back because he’s in wild now and I don’t think that many people will care anymore(and I miss his voice line)
You missed a reason, Penniless. The other reason that 2-drops are the most worthless slot in a deck is because that deck can still just hero power if Keleseth isn't in hand.
He's also really good bc he doesn't allow you to use 2 drops but guess what else costs 2 hero power and thanks to that you could still use mana pretty efficiently without any 2 drops except Kelly.
Keleseth being 2 mana was a mistake as well as just letting him get tossed back into a rouges hand. I'll avoid saying bad things about shadowstep, it helps rogue make good use of their combo minions and fits their theme decently. But Keleseth almost breaks the game giving the rest of your deck a big tempo boost if he gets played early while either only asking you give up a few viable spells or sometimes just giving up the 1 pair that would fit that mana slot (and just as you said, they had been cutting back on the power of 2 drops so even more reason to build 3 mana focused tempo/zoo deck). In practice you either have a decent tempo deck with minions or you have a massive advantage, or in rogues case you could just win the game in the first couple turns through dumb luck. I enjoy a good Yogg or Renounce Darkness but it's a special kind of frustrating when an already good deck gets their winning combo out at the start of the game, at least Secret Paladin let you play 6 turns before everything went wrong (mostly) Patches was already a problem and deserved a nerf, and Saronite is just a godlike card on it's own in the same section as Tar Creeper but still balanced to play around, it just gets even more absurd with hand/deck buff shenanigans
The shadowstep was mentioned,and The rogue Hero Power is The strongest agressive one The reason its 4 damage(Druid 2 and hunter 3 ) and that it can trade into Most 1+2 Drops because 2 drops got nerfed. Thats The Same reason oddladin exists,it Is simply Not an face Deck but a pressure Deck,which means it plays all its treats against your treats,and Than it overvalues you,while still being agressive enough to kill combo.
Now, this is a story all about how The meta got flipped-turned upside down And I'd like to take a turn Just sit right there I'll tell you how I became the king of a game called Hearth
Seems a bit excessive. Plus the advantage of not losing tempo when u play Kaleseth is quickly squandered by doing nothing in two turns (assuming your playing on curve) but summoning a 2/2 and destroying your mana crystals. It'd take too long before you can drop those fat 3 drops. Which is really the crux of the problem with surrender as a whole. Destroying your own crystals has anti synergy in the early game when you try to tempo out big value, and isn't worth much in the late game when more removal is available and good stats aren't worth as much. The card should have made you discard/remove cards from your hand or deck or make you take a health hit like set your max health total to 20. These are things you can afford to sacrifice for tempo advantages but using mana crystals is tempo itself, and to destroy that is to give up what you seek to begin with. Surrender to madness: 2/5 stars imo and that's generous.
3 mana 3/2 Battlecry: Someone a random (basic) totem. Blizzard: This card is not OP as per stats, but it often decides games by turn 3 which sucks, so we nerf it. Also Blizzard: Prints Patches and Keleseth. The cards that decide games on turn 1 (draw patch on turn 1 vs s/o who doesn't -> your winchance is now 5%.) and turn 2 (vice versa with Keleseth) and them only nerd one more of these cards. Keleseth has been the most important card to nerf since it's release. It was not always OP, but it always created very unfair battles.
Touched on it earlier in the video, but the synergies section in the video should definitely have touched on that deathrattle hunter idea more. It's not just the chain gangs or such, it's the eggs that go from 0/3 to 1/4 and can now self activate. It's the 2/1's that turn into 3/2's that don't die to hero powers anymore. But yep, first 'viable' deck I ever dumped all my dust on instead of moshing together a mishmash control deck was Deathrattle Hunter, with the katrina package and keleseth. Went from pushing rank 15 to legend four months in a row at one point. And even though I CAN'T FUCKING DRAW HIM EVER, Keleseth makes his nice little home in my 2 drop slot. :^)
@@tecwynwilliams1323 I think there are enough interesting cards in the game that allow some interesting plays or tempo swings. The the overall powerlevel and limited counterplay options makes some of them unplayable. The cards I mentioned are either completely overpowered, limit designs space or decide the game on t2 imo.
Plated beetle os actually a good 2 drop and even more so Vulgar Humunculus. Sure a lot of 2 drops are below average in strength but not as many as you present it here