Update 8:10 a.m. Pacific: Added clarification on turn length, the turns needed to set up this combo, and that we’ve asked Blizzard for reaction to it –Ed.
Hearthstone players have finally found a use for Nozdormu the impatient dragon.
Above: Nozdormu the impatient dragon.
Blizzard’s popular free-to-play card-battler — which makes around $155,000 a day in the United States — has a new deck that you definitely don’t want to face. As detailed by Asuryan over at fan-site Hearthpwn, the Drunken Dragon deck makes Hearthstone into a completely one-sided affair by manipulating delayed animations.
This new deck, which essentially breaks any sense of competition, shows the battle Blizzard has on its hands to keep Hearthstone balanced, not just in terms of mechanics but also bugs and exploits as well. It also shows how smart gamers are when they spot a potential exploit.
Drunken Dragon relies on having three cards — the legendary Nozdormu and two Youthful Brewmasters (all cards from the classic deck, and they’ve been around since its March 2014 release). The expensive dragon — it costs 9 of your 10 mana crystals — cuts your turn down from 75 seconds to 15 seconds. The key is to then drop two Youthful Brewmasters (which cost 2 mana apiece, so it’s almost impossible that you can play all three cards on one turn) as quickly as possible. The resulting animations then stretch through their opponent’s 15 seconds, forcing them to miss their turn.
It’s effective, but it’s not what most people would consider fair play.
We reached out to Blizzard Entertainment and will update this post when we receive a response.
Responses on Heartpwn are mixed, with some players saying it’s so difficult to set up the combination that it should be allowed.
“Since this combo is so hilarious and hard to set up, I think it’s fair and shouldn’t be fixed,” said Derp_o_holic.
Others aren’t so impressed, though.
“I have an improvement for this deck,” said Faustonauta. “Why don’t you cut your opponent’s network connectivity? Instant win. Sorry, this is not playing.”
You can see the combination in action below: