Taunt Warrior and Murloc Control Paladin were (still are maybe?) Tier 1.

If anything, they might have dropped off after Quest Rogue nerf, lol.

Control Mage went T1 after the nerf though tbf.

 

Burn Mage was T1 before nerf. Taunt Warrior had a mediocre-at-best matchup vs QR, probably 45-55 or maybe 40-60 for some lists. It was decently high T2 with a claim to T1 for the first two weeks, I think, on account of being good vs unrefined aggro decks. Will grant that Murloc Control Paladin around May/June, but I haven't seen one of those in a while. I think it devolved into a midrange version and then fell out.

Meanwhile, do I need to expand on Pirate, Aggro Druid, and its barely midrange cousins of Secret Mage and Token Shaman?

 

Is secret mage considered aggro? Token Shaman and Pirate Warrior are t1 obviously, but freeze mage and midrange paladin are t1 too right now. I'd say token druid is t2 atm, but it definitely had it's time.

Control Paladin fell away as Mage rose in prominence after the Rogue nerf, at least that's what it felt like.

The assertion that aggro reigns supreme is what I contest, I feel un'goro was one of the most balanced metas I can remember - provided we forget quest rogue happened, but even then it wasn't tier 1 anyway, just annoying af.

 

I rated Secret Mage midrange. Certainly it is more preoccupied with going face than some other decks that were aggro in days of yore, but it tends to have additions that weren't all-out face in various iterations. Zoo was a lot more about keeping the board empty than Secret Mage is, thanks to the swamp of 'is it Counterspell or Mirror Entity or maybe Vaporize or perhaps even Mana Bind or a Babbling Book'd Potion of Polymorph' that you needed to traverse. That fucked with removal options. It's still midrange, though, albeit on the more aggro-y side of it.

Conversely, I would argue that early iterations of Taunt Warrior - basically prior to the Sleep w/t Fishes double Primordial Drake package became commonplace - were midrange as well, albeit close to Control. It's a spectrum etc.

Also, forgetting Quest Rogue happened is blatant revisionism. It was there, and it affected the meta severely despite having a <50 % WR. You can't just take it out and discuss past meta in a vacuum. This isn't some theory that is only discussed in the abstract...

I agree that the meta is fairly balanced and has been since QR got the boot. Before that, it was not as bad as some other expansions (see also pre-nerf Shaman), but the fact that QR was a thing incentivised faster decks over slower, with most Control decks that had decent to good matchups vs those faster decks faltering on the back of QR's prevalence. That isn't to say they were bad decks and I'm sure there were myriad T2 Control decks even with QR active, but rarely T1.

 

Did someone say secret Mage?


I am 8 wins away from Golden Warlock so I be climbing rank with zoo.

 

This card is gonna be fun.

 

Eh.. man, I don't know. It depends on how it the whole set shakes out, obviously, but I'm just not sure what type of deck this would be utilized in. Maybe ramp will come back?

But even then, utilizing an entire turn for such a varied result seems iffy. I think I would've enjoyed seeing the usual Druid style on this, like "Deal 8 damage and summon an 8/8 ghoul OR Gain 10 armor and draw 5 cards." Just to give it a more focused element of offense/defense or something.

I hope it gets some play and people experiment with it.

 

I think that card is super brilliant in ramp, where you have such a mana advantage that doing all that in one turn is just unfair.

I love the DK Valeera card btw. Super fun implications and it looks like Rogue may actually have a lot of tools to play a more controlly/value game effectively.

Just...need...moar...healing

 

My new Golden Warlock looks so good!

Wild Sets and Card Pack Changes Now Live

 

Haha. Welcome our new control fatigue warrior overlords!

 

The salt is flowing @ r/hearthstone!!!!

I will say this about the Jade Druid deck, I had the Druid Mastery daily yesterday so I made a budget jade deck that only had 1 Jade Idol yet in my 1st game I managed to get a 10/10 Golem and incidentally won the game.

 

A fatigue warrior laughs at your puny, limited in supply 10/10. Then he drinks your tears.

Been thinking about other one drops and decks his card fucks over and can't think of any. Maybe Maly Rogue.

 

Hallucination, Evolve, Earthen Scales, the Paladin secrets (if you use Hydrologist and have no mana left), Inner Fire, Power Word: Shield, Soulfire, Whirlwind, and that's the list of cards I've seen played recently in constructed (standard). Could add Shield Slam, Lightning Bolt, Arcane Missiles to the list, but SS and LB are out of the meta, and Arcane Missiles only come off of one of the 549 different spell generators anyway. Maybe Deadly Poison too...

Of the list, I think it fucks the Evolve decks most along with Druid. Combo Priest would be hurt, but the expected amount of PW:S's hit is lower than 2 for sure, and same for Hallucination. Losing Whirlwind isn't the absolute worst either.

 

Yeah there are losses, but nothing as calamitous as JI for druids vs control.

Maybe PWS for combo if/ds priest. Slows it down a hell of a lot.

 

Slows it down? Inner Fire is a 1 mana spell. It stops it entirely unless they run Lightspawn or get lucky on Lyra.

 

Confuse and alchemist are still cards, that deck needs draw though.

But yeah, if you don't run them you just insta lose without IF

 

Release date is the 10th for NA and the 11th for EU.

 

Holy shit. The Paladin Death Knight is powerful. The hero power is "You win the game if you summon the 4 Horsemen".

 

It is, but I feel like you're focusing on the wrong part. Very rarely will you get all 4 up, but a hero power that's 2m 2/2 that your opponent has to kill? Ridiculous.