So it's been a week since Hearthstone's newest expansion, Whispers of the Old Gods, was released. Overall, I'm pretty happy with how things have turned out. Not so much the cards themselves, but rather in the way Blizzard is making the game more accessible to newer players. From handing out new packs to giving everyone C'thun to rotating out old sets, Blizzard has given just about everyone another reason to play this game, if only for a week. So kudos on Blizzard on giving Hearthstone the longevity it needs to be a really successful game in the years to come.

Overall, I've been fairly happy with the nerfs. I've never been a fan of nerfing cards, simply because I think it's a really lazy way of altering player behavior. For example, the nerf on Leper Gnome (from a 2/1 to a 1/1) was clearly intended to hurt aggro. Now that we're a week into the new meta, however, the ladder is still full of aggro, early-game board control decks like Zoo and Shaman. Obviously cards like Leper Gnome facilitate aggro, but the real root cause in my view is the ladder system, and the fact that Hearthstone disproportionately rewards fast games.

With that said, I think that the nerfs have overall been pretty reasonable. The nerf on Knife Juggler is warranted and has effectively turned it into a combo card rather than an automatic 2 drop. And the change on Force of Nature, again, is a great decision to counter Druid while still keeping the card relatively playable (at least in Arena). The biggest 'nerf' to classes like Druid and Paladin is the decision to rotate out cards like Dr. Boom and Piloted Shredder. Those cards have honestly caused a lot of unnecessary havoc and I think we're all better seeing less of them in the future.

Now, let's talk deck lists, starting with Hunter. Barring the occasional Face Hunter (designed to kill Secret Paladins), Hunter has been pretty underrepresented on ladder. As a Hunter main, I've been crafting a Hunter list that would be good in a meta that will probably be dominated by Zoo and Shaman. Although Hunter lost Mad Scientist, Fiery Bat is a great one-drop and Infested Wolf is a decent curve-filler. Princess Huhuran can find value in a slower meta where cards like Sylvanas might see play in a Midrange Hunter list, and Call of the Wild is again a great card, definitely at least a one-of in just about any Hunter deck that isn't pure aggro.

The real problem with Hunter, I think, is that the deck has no inherent card draw. Just about every tier-one deck has ways of cycling/drawing cards - Arcane Intellect in Mage, Ancestral Knowledge in Shaman, and many decks run Azure Drake as well. Hunter doesn't have that type of draw power, however. I think Cult Master and Loot Hoarder are the only decent draw options Hunter has, and both cards have their problems - Cult Master requires a solid board, while Loot Hoarder is on its own a weak 2-drop. I think 1 copy of Tracking, as a deck thinner, is correct in Hunter. In all, Midrange Hunter just feels like a weaker version of Shaman.

The Shaman list is fairly standard. If I wasn't missing a few cards, I would probably prefer playing Midrange Shaman instead, which is a lot more versatile than the Face variety and packs just as big of a punch with a tech copy of Bloodlust. I think that Shaman is definitely the best class right now, kind of like how Druid was about a month ago. The class is just so incredibly versatile - hard removal, burst, strong curve, 4-mana 7/7, the deck has everything.. I think we'll be seeing a lot more Shaman in the future and whether a deck can beat Shaman will be the litmus test for any new decks.

Finally, the Mage list. I don't own Arcane Blasts, which are probably better than Mirror Image especially since Cult Sorcerer is now the go-to 2-drop for Tempo Mage. I have a lot of hope for Tempo Mage. For one, I think it should have a good match-up versus Zoo, which runs a lot of 1-health minions and are far more prone to board clears. Now that Mage can safely run Flamestrike without so many Deathrattles around, Mage can also be pretty decent versus Shaman. I am pretty iffy on the Spellslingers however, and that's probably the first card I'll take out in practice.

2016 is well under way. It's amazing to see how quickly the year has passed, really, considering that my last post was on New Year's Eve and we're already in the middle of March. Not a lot of things happened in between. I will be graduating in September, so right now I'm basically looking to secure myself a full-time offer before graduation. Honestly, it is a tough job market out there, but I'm pretty confident about my chances. I managed to land a relevant internship last semester, I have extracurricular experiences, and I studied abroad as well. I've also done a fair share of networking throughout last semester, although I didn't meet as many people as I wanted to. 

So overall things are okay. My grades for last semester had been pretty decent. The dissertation (which I literally wrote two weeks before it was due) managed to receive an A+, which (according to my lecturer) is a really rare grade. I was told that no-one had gotten that grade in two years and I must have been the first person to get it in a while. To be fair I really didn't think the dissertation was that good. In retrospect it looked a bit rushed, I hadn't fully thought through my arguments, and I hadn't done enough primary research. But I managed to somehow pull it out and they seemed happy. I guess I can't really complain, can't I? Can't hide the fact that I still feel a tad incompetent, though.

My lecturer and I met up about two weeks ago over coffee on where my career is supposed to go. To be honest I already knew where I wanted to work, but I wanted her opinion on how a career in academia might look like. She said that academia is really tough to break into, and that getting a PhD is basically the same as flushing 80k down the toilet at this point (well, she didn't literally say that, but you know what I mean). Then she briefly congratulated me on my grades before she subtly hinted me to take on the Masters program at my university. I really don't have any intentions of staying at university, though. I like doing research and all, but I want to start working full-time.

So I guess that's it for my share of real-life stories. I've met some pretty amazing people over last semester, and overall school had actually been really enjoyable. The transition into work life is going to be tough, though. I'll have to get used to walking around in a suit, setting up a decent-looking LinkedIn, and be ready to have conversations with people I may or may not like. I think the reality of working in a corporate environment is that you get used to doing things like that, and you learn to do everything in a professional (i.e. slightly polite yet generally emotionless) manner. And the scary thing is that I'm sort of getting used to that. I'm getting used to getting along like that.

Besides that, nothing really happened. My private life has also been fairly mundane. I came pretty close to having a girlfriend last semester. She's an accounting student, and basically PM'd me on how much she liked me and so on. I didn't really feel anything and while we're still friends, nothing overly emotional happened thereafter. I don't really know why I don't feel that romantically attracted to anyone. I don't think there's a void in my heart that needs to be filled by someone else, anytime soon. I have friends who basically can't get along without their arms around a girl, and I can't really comprehend that. I just don't understand why women or companionship is all that important.

I did end up going out with another, Japanese girl, though. Her story is actually really, really screwed up. I was introduced to her via a friend of mine, who works at the same company as her. My friend really likes her - she's timid, she's a really shy, which I guess makes her kind of cute in a weird way. So one day, I asked this Japanese girl if she wanted to go to a convention (i.e. date) with me. She instantly agreed. It was really fun. I gave her some pocket money and she spent it like the irresponsible kitten she is (and did I mention she wore cat ears to the convention as well?). Then we went into the city and ate ramen and told lots of jokes and laughed. Things started getting cuddly between me and her really, really quickly. It was a really, really weird feeling.

That night, I saw her walking in the city. She told me earlier that she was going home, but she was actually in the city for the whole time. She cuddled me. I asked her if things were going fine and she said yes. After that, she went drinking with my friend. She got wasted. She made out with my friend in the back of the car. She got home, and encountered her boyfriend. I don't know what happened after that. My friend told me, about a month later, that her boyfriend is Japanese and is really, really abusive. He hits her quite often and I'm sure that she must have been beaten up that night because she went out with two guys. After that encounter, I met her one more time. Then we broke off all contacts.

Sorry. There's just so much I wanted to take off my chest. The story is just so unbelievably screwed up. You can probably make a soap drama out of the whole fiasco. And the reality was, I actually felt awful for taking her out. If I had known she had an abusive boyfriend who wouldn't let her get close to another guy (even if he has the romantic attraction of a rock), I wouldn't have taken her out. It was just an awful experience overall and it nearly destroyed my semester. I actually have no idea how I managed to survive through last year when there was so much random stuff going on.

I finally got a new hobby, and I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't gotten this hobby I wouldn't have made it through last semester. I was hoping to take up a new, 'better' hobby like running or exercising, but K-pop ended up being a very therapeutic thing that helped me a lot. It's funny because K-pop is actually just as awful as anything I've liked previously, but I just really like some of the girl groups. A-pink is great, Lovelyz is great, and some of the newer groups are also good as well. I think Lovelyz is fantastic - For You has got to be the most beautiful video that's come out all year. Definitely worth a watch - it's filmed in Okinawa and makes me want to go there.