Hearthstone
- Thread starter Azrayne
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zzeris
King Turd of Shit Hill
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After testing without Patches a few games...Patches. The deck is ridiculous already but the speed he adds is crazy. Definitely my next dust target. I know I won't draw because my luck this expansion has be bad.
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Gavinmad
Mr. Poopybutthole
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I finally got around to buying the 5 dollar starter pack. The guaranteed legendary was a dupe, which was to be expected since I'm only missing King Krush and Al'akir. I then proceeded to get 2 more legendaries in my 10 packs, along with enough epics and rares that I essentially just paid 5 bucks for the legendary of my choice with some dust left over. Ain't bad.
So for all the complaining of the stagnant metagame for the last few months, I think the new meta is shaping up to be even worse than Whispers was. Kinda funny since Whispers was the worst metagame the game had ever seen, which means I'm proclaiming 'worst metagame ever' two expansions in a row. That being said I think it's a well reasoned proclamation, despite how early it is. They released several tools to support balls to the wall face aggro, while at the same time the mere existence of jade druid is enough to push slow control decks out of the meta entirely. Playing slow control right now is the equivalent of playing freeze mage in a heavy control warrior meta.
I don't see Renolock getting pushed out of the meta this time because aggro war/sham lack the sustained pressure of decks like zoo, and zoo itself gained nothing from Gadgetzan while Renolock gained multiple new options. Midrange shaman could make a resurgence once people get over their boredom of the deck and start tuning it again, since it should be favored against face aggro. Dragonpriest and Zoo will stay ladder viable due to being lightly favored against face aggro, but the presumably increasing popularity of Renolock will keep them from being optimal ladder choices. Tempo mage and anyfin are both capable of being viable (but suboptimal) ladder decks with some adjustment to their lists, although anyfin faces a crippling weakness to dragon priest courtesy of drakonid operative discovering an anyfin. Speaking from experience playing against thoughtsteal/shifting shade, a non-retarded priest getting anyfin is basically an autoloss unless you have a backup win condition because there is absolutely no way to play around it. A N'zoth package may be viable for anyfin now since dragon priests generally aren't running entomb.
Freeze mage is still favored against Renolock despite the possibility of armor gain from Kazakus, but without mad scientists the deck is simply too slow to answer face aggro, and will not be a meta presence. Control warrior is fucked by the twin pressures of face aggro and jade druid. A super greedy control warrior list can beat jade druid by running tons of bombs, but then you have almost no chance of beating face aggro. If you put in the tools you need to not get run over by face aggro, you have no chance at all of beating jade druid. Unless something happens to drive either face aggro or jade druid out of the meta entirely (not going to happen) control warrior is done until standard rotates, and then will still face the jade druid challenge for another year since the core of the deck is built around classic and Gadgetzan cards. Hunter is done too, midrange has no place in the meta and they don't have the cheap weapons needed to make pirates work.
So yeah even though the set hasn't even been out two weeks yet, I'm predicting that the meta will crystallize around aggro war, aggro shaman, renolock, and jade druid, with a few ladder viable decks that can take matches from some of the top tier decks but are still generally worse than just playing a top tier deck instead.
So for all the complaining of the stagnant metagame for the last few months, I think the new meta is shaping up to be even worse than Whispers was. Kinda funny since Whispers was the worst metagame the game had ever seen, which means I'm proclaiming 'worst metagame ever' two expansions in a row. That being said I think it's a well reasoned proclamation, despite how early it is. They released several tools to support balls to the wall face aggro, while at the same time the mere existence of jade druid is enough to push slow control decks out of the meta entirely. Playing slow control right now is the equivalent of playing freeze mage in a heavy control warrior meta.
I don't see Renolock getting pushed out of the meta this time because aggro war/sham lack the sustained pressure of decks like zoo, and zoo itself gained nothing from Gadgetzan while Renolock gained multiple new options. Midrange shaman could make a resurgence once people get over their boredom of the deck and start tuning it again, since it should be favored against face aggro. Dragonpriest and Zoo will stay ladder viable due to being lightly favored against face aggro, but the presumably increasing popularity of Renolock will keep them from being optimal ladder choices. Tempo mage and anyfin are both capable of being viable (but suboptimal) ladder decks with some adjustment to their lists, although anyfin faces a crippling weakness to dragon priest courtesy of drakonid operative discovering an anyfin. Speaking from experience playing against thoughtsteal/shifting shade, a non-retarded priest getting anyfin is basically an autoloss unless you have a backup win condition because there is absolutely no way to play around it. A N'zoth package may be viable for anyfin now since dragon priests generally aren't running entomb.
Freeze mage is still favored against Renolock despite the possibility of armor gain from Kazakus, but without mad scientists the deck is simply too slow to answer face aggro, and will not be a meta presence. Control warrior is fucked by the twin pressures of face aggro and jade druid. A super greedy control warrior list can beat jade druid by running tons of bombs, but then you have almost no chance of beating face aggro. If you put in the tools you need to not get run over by face aggro, you have no chance at all of beating jade druid. Unless something happens to drive either face aggro or jade druid out of the meta entirely (not going to happen) control warrior is done until standard rotates, and then will still face the jade druid challenge for another year since the core of the deck is built around classic and Gadgetzan cards. Hunter is done too, midrange has no place in the meta and they don't have the cheap weapons needed to make pirates work.
So yeah even though the set hasn't even been out two weeks yet, I'm predicting that the meta will crystallize around aggro war, aggro shaman, renolock, and jade druid, with a few ladder viable decks that can take matches from some of the top tier decks but are still generally worse than just playing a top tier deck instead.
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zzeris
King Turd of Shit Hill
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I agree Twilight. This meta is shaping up to be horrible. My belief of barely any testing done for a multi-million dollar product keeps being reinforced. They need to get some MtG testers. They aren't the best but this is ridiculous
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Famm
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Aggro is nothing new so it actually doesn't bother me. The pirate decks are a lot easier to tech for and handle than undertaker hunter and mad sci ever was. Jade Druid is a giant pile of bullshit, I have to think that the idol is going to get a nerf, its the latest "who the fuck thought this was a good idea?" card.
Although....they never nerfed MC, but this is a different level of stupidity in a lot of ways. They could have at least added more tech like Eater during MC's reign, what are you supposed to do against all that ramp plus Idol? We don't even have Loatheb or something like it anymore. Plus secret pal was as much about their nusto curve with minibot/muster/shredder/sludge > MC > boom/tirion as it was about only one broken card.
At least if reno gets out of wack you can look forward to it and Emp rotating out pretty soon. Like Gav said, most of druid's power is coming from the classic set combined with the jade cards which are so new that rotation seems like forever away.
Although....they never nerfed MC, but this is a different level of stupidity in a lot of ways. They could have at least added more tech like Eater during MC's reign, what are you supposed to do against all that ramp plus Idol? We don't even have Loatheb or something like it anymore. Plus secret pal was as much about their nusto curve with minibot/muster/shredder/sludge > MC > boom/tirion as it was about only one broken card.
At least if reno gets out of wack you can look forward to it and Emp rotating out pretty soon. Like Gav said, most of druid's power is coming from the classic set combined with the jade cards which are so new that rotation seems like forever away.
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Famm
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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I agree with this though, but I don't mind seeing the face decks in the mix even if I don't like to play them. Midrange shaman was (is) full of OP cards, but it least it played(s) an honest approach with board presence and removal. This meta is just full of cheesy shit (to me) right now with face/reno/jadetarded everywhere.
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Gavinmad
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Would be hard for a deck that jade druid is favored against to push it out of the meta.
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Mures
Blackwing Lair Raider
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Yeah, definitely Patches. Patches is already considered really strong. Patches with flametongue totem thrown into the mix and its just broken. Most games I don't get to play Aya because they are over by then.
Only thing that slows the deck down really are reno lists that get aoe damage/armor from a kazakus potion.
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Dashel
Blackwing Lair Raider
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Very early but I'm 4-1 with this deck. The guilt I feel for playing yet more Shaman is significantly decreased by the satisfaction of beating Pirate Warriors who spam me with Happy Feast of Winter Vail after an early lead.
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Mures
Blackwing Lair Raider
- 4,014
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Yeah, pirate warrior has all but disappeared for me because this deck crushes it so hard.
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Ravishing
Uninspiring Title
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Dashel
Blackwing Lair Raider
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10 and 5 with it now including 2 I really should have won but I messed up.
So with Agro decks what's the strategy if you think they are Reno? Go hard and hope you kill them before they draw Reno or pace yourself more.
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