The problem with Darkclaw

[kamman13]

Darkclaw is a problem, he does the things the developers said they were going to avoid- long, boring games, mill/stall tactics, and reducing the focus from allies. Some people say his ability is the problem, some say Shadow font is the problem because it makes his ability spammable. I disagree. Lone wolf is the real culprit here.

This card more than anything else ONLY promotes allyless play. Whether it was originally intended this way or not, this is the reality. With crippling blow being so common nowadays, no one in their right mind runs allies with Lone Wolf- a crippled alliy makes Lone wolf useless. Sure, EA helps to kill some of these crippled allies over time, but not for garg or bad wolf, which are the allies you are most likely to run with EA. Moonstalker is clearly a competitive deck, but no one sees moonstalker running Lone wolf, because he has to use allies. Also, no one sees darkclaw running allies, because he is better off running lone wolf.

Sure SF+DC's ability helps him a bit, but if he didn't have lone wolf healing, imagine how much easier he'd be to kill. You don't need to build up for 28 damage in a single turn, because any early game damage you do will stick, and won't be healed away.

So, given that DC will run Lone wolf, and therefore won't run allies, where does this leave things? Well, without allies, DC only has two ways to outdamage the opposing hero, weapon damage and mill damage. With good item destruction, weapon damage becomes less viable, meaning DC has to be ready to switch to mill damage if needed, a strategy which is complemented by lone wolf.

Thus, because of lone wolf, you have DC decks that run allyless, stall/mill decks. I'm not saying Lone wolf is OP, clearly people have still found way to beat DC, I'm just saying Lone wolf has, more than anything else, contributed to the unwanted elements in this meta (moreso than Shadow font, which I like). If you include Lone wolf in your deck, you will end up with a allyless, mill/stall deck. If these are unwanted elements, then why does a card like lone wolf exist?

[Scion]

It exists because before the game went live, i think the developers overrated healing. Mind you both wolves were made to be about getting damaged difficult, full moon was there to heal whatever damage you got while you were behind on board control. Health was kind of a resource to them so they thought full moon would be that defensive card that will make you regain the field. Though with the first strike mechanism and shadow era's pace healing is less important of what they originally thought of imo. And that explains cards like campfire stories.

[iClipse]

Imo, it's still the abiloty that's the problem. You can deal with items, you can quickly do damage, but there is no way to prevent his ability, and there is no way to counter abilities that add to SE. In the future, they can almost not add more cards that will let your hero gain shadowera because it will completely unbalance him, whereas now he's still somewhat counterable.

[CodeDomination]

I do agree that DC ability with SF can be a problem, mill decks are not. Reducing the game's strategies is something I'm not in favor of.

[N3rd4Christ]

I do agree that DC ability with SF can be a problem, mill decks are not. Reducing the game's strategies is something I'm not in favor of.

I agree, however I also don't see DC as such a problem. He is strong vs some decks but weak against others (which should be typical of any deck)

[MattOG]

I do agree that DC ability with SF can be a problem, mill decks are not. Reducing the game's strategies is something I'm not in favor of.

This. Mill decks can be boring, but they are, and always have been, a part of c/tcgs. The more ways there are to play a game, the better.

That said, lone wolf IS the factor behind mill decks, I just don't see them as a problem, they are, and always have been, beatable.

[Dima]

i think the main thing is teeth and here poor quality + not giving him draw engine just owns him, though for mages allyless(except elad) that healing can be a trouble.

[N3rd4Christ]

This. Mill decks can be boring, but they are, and always have been, a part of c/tcgs. The more ways there are to play a game, the better.

That said, lone wolf IS the factor behind mill decks, I just don't see them as a problem, they are, and always have been, beatable.

I don't want all decks to be rush based. It's nice to play something diff for a change.

[iClipse]

I don't want all decks to be rush based. It's nice to play something diff for a change.

Same here. And right now it sucks.

[Osbourne]

I agree that Lone Wolf is a contributing factor. Combine that card with DC's ability and basically you have a person playing DC that does very little with the board. If the DC player can't win with the teeth and the ability he or she will switch to mill mode with Lone Wolf. Mages are not the only heroes susceptible to this. It is a problem because it often can become extremely boring.

I also agree with everyone who says that mill decks can be defeated. I say: so what? It gets really boring. That is the main issue. Yes, it's important to make the game so that winning can be achieved in as many ways as possible. But no, making a player's deck design choices, whatever they may be, irrelevant because the opposing deck can just mill it is not ideal. In fact, there are other heroes with milling possibilities besides Darkclaw (therefore, there are more ways to win with the other heroes). For Darkclaw, it seems that the milling option is built into every single Darkclaw deck and that option comes with the Lone Wolf card.

Btw, the new Moonstalker is awesome. He is extremely fun to play against and if a game against him lasts twenty minutes, it's a fun, interesting, and intense twenty minutes. Can't say the same for Darkclaw.