I forgot to mention earlier for those who might be interested, but Ben Brode, and Hamilton Chu (possibly others?), are no longer working for Blizzard, and no one really knows why. Brode claims he was leaving to create his own company, but didn't really explain what his goals would be, why he chose to, or what type of games he'd be making, and it's a pretty awkward timing. Blizzard hasn't said anything afaik, just Brode, and up until the 17th-18th he was promoting stuff for Hearthstone on his Twitter. So who knows what's going on lol. Blizzard hasn't announced a new lead game designer yet, but given that Brode apparently had little to do with actual game design at the point of his leaving, this could mean a lot for the team because a potentially influential member of the development team could end up being new lead and doing less actual game design, which could be for the better or worse. Brode was public about his disappointment with Shudderwock + Grumble + Saronite all being in Standard and he considered it way too strong apparently; he said that it needed to change immediately, and "they" said no, it's shipping to Witchwood. So maybe he was boxed out or something, who knows, less people probably care. Hopefully Hearthstone can progress forward in the future, it's at a point of really rapid blossoming in terms of card and game design, so perhaps they'll expand the game further under new leadership.
In other news, I went to a Magic the Gathering: Dominaria prerelease event Friday, my first one actually, and it was fantastic--some of the best fun I've had in a card game to date (pulling 3 cards that cost $40 in total for a $20 event was a big plus), if you've never done it before look into it. This one has come and gone this weekend but there's always future ones. The Dominaria draft is mostly starting next weekend, for those who only played Hearthstone-style games, it's kinda like a group arena draft, here's some info on them:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/event-types/draft-weekendI really encourage trying it, you don't need to be an expert at the game but it definitely helps to learn the basics, and there's plenty of introductions on how to play around the internet (I learned the basics playing Magic Duels, though it's arguably a pretty bad introduction). The reason I'm encouraging it so strongly is that this set is just an AMAZING limited set (aka building a deck exclusively with the packs you have available to you for the event), one that people will be talking about and continuing to do drafts of for years, and it's a great introduction to the game. You can find local places to play through that link.
