Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft Catch-all

Over the past year I've become a casual HS player. I used to be a hardcore HS player. I might also be considered a whale as I've spent about $250 on the game over the past 2 1/2 years. I know that I don't have the time that it takes to reach a high rank, so my focus Has shifted to tavern brawls, and inching my way very slowly towards a golden Warlock or Mage.

I feel myself wanting to play HS less and less. It really is starting to feel stale to me. Some new play modes would probably spark my interest back up, but I doubt that will happen any time soon.

Bleh, fell from rank 10 to 14 or 15 today. The decks I enjoy are not doing well in this meta. The only decks I might enjoy that might be okay are dragon or reno control priests, and I don't have the cards for those.

I made a taunt warrior deck just to annoy all the pirates, and then of course didn't face a pirate until I switched back. Sometimes it feels like Blizzard is watching just to give me the worst possible outcome

After really enjoying the meta variety earlier this month it seems to have staled on me for some reason. I didn't face quite as much variety tonight, and I guess losing all day doesn't help the feels!

I've been having a lot of success with my Anyfin Paladin lately, it's full of board clears, a few taunts, and some big heals which makes it pretty robust against aggro decks while the Anyfin combo makes it decent against Reno decks. It's got the same problems as all combo decks (lack of consistency), but it's been fun so far. Finja is likely going to be the first Legendary I craft after Kazakus.

Finally crafted Kazakus. Reno Mage is an amazing deck, though a little inconsistent against control in my games so far.

Between Kazakus and the pirates, MSOG might be the first time we've gotten major power creep in HS since League or Naxx.

Without Reno, Kazakus could easily go from great to unplayable (in standard). Really high skillcap card but I'm not convinced it's power creep.

Tyops wrote:

Without Reno, Kazakus could easily go from great to unplayable (in standard). Really high skillcap card but I'm not convinced it's power creep.

Losing Reno and Brann may make Reno Mage unplayably bad (Ice Wall + Reno or Brann + Kazakus are my win conditions), but until Reno and Brann drop out of standard Reno Mage (and possibly Renolock, but I lack the cards to play it) seem like they may be among the most powerful control decks HS has ever had.

Now, to get enough dust craft Finja and round out my Anyfin Paladin.

Strongest control deck of all time would be Handlock.

Kazakus is a great card (def OP), but the Highlander deck won't see play unless they print another Reno-esque card.

Tyops wrote:

Without Reno, Kazakus could easily go from great to unplayable (in standard). Really high skillcap card but I'm not convinced it's power creep.

I agree Kaz isn't clearly stronger than some of the past Standard centerpieces. Dr. Boom, for one, is hard to beat (with no deck-building constraints).

I'm not sure Power Creep is always a bad thing anyway. With the Standard rotation, Blizz has an opportunity to wax the relative power of different strategies.

I was afraid I would miss my favorite cards after rotation, but I'm already having a ton of fun with Reno and Kazakus in Wild. I'm just a filthy casual, but I think I'm going to do just fine mucking around with my old favorites on the Wild ladder.

Free wrote:

Strongest control deck of all time would be Handlock.

Kazakus is a great card (def OP), but the Highlander deck won't see play unless they print another Reno-esque card.

Those few months (pre-GvG) where fatigue Paladin was a deck people played on the ladder were miserable.

Today at 11 wins my opponent played the 6 cost murloc that does 2 damage to all minions except murlocs, forgetting that minor detail. I had a couple murlocs on the board. He went "oops".

This made me happy, as I did that once myself at high wins. Nice knowing I'm not the only one to lose a meaningful game to that little caveat.

With cards rotating out of standard each year, I think there will be a pattern of power creep being most noticeable in the last expansion of every year.

First match of the morning as I'm getting ready for work:

Turn 1 we both pass. Turn 2, I summon a Silver Hand Recruit. Opponent plays Dirty Rat and pulls out Tirion. Opponent concedes immediately.

I have a feeling that today is going to be a good day.

Tailsnake wrote:

First match of the morning as I'm getting ready for work:

Turn 1 we both pass. Turn 2, I summon a Silver Hand Recruit. Opponent plays Dirty Rat and pulls out Tirion. Opponent concedes immediately.

I have a feeling that today is going to be a good day.

Why... would you ever play Dirty Rat on a basically empty board... especially with no way to remove it? O_o

Demosthenes wrote:
Tailsnake wrote:

First match of the morning as I'm getting ready for work:

Turn 1 we both pass. Turn 2, I summon a Silver Hand Recruit. Opponent plays Dirty Rat and pulls out Tirion. Opponent concedes immediately.

I have a feeling that today is going to be a good day.

Why... would you ever play Dirty Rat on a basically empty board... especially with no way to remove it? O_o

Maybe he thought I was playing Buffadin and was hoping to pull out Grimestreet Outfitter or an unbuffed Meanstreet Marshal/Burnbristle? But even Buffadin runs Tirion so that wouldn't have been a great idea in that case either.

Yeah Dirty Rat on an empty board when you assume your oppnent is playing aggro isnt the worst. Most people will mulligan their high drops. Nobody plays Tirion in standard now.... (cant remember the last time I saw him).

Dirty Rat on T2 is 99% of the time a terrible play, even against aggro. People tend to think of the card that gets pulled instead of the context in which you pull it. You essentially gave them a free minion with Charge because they get a turn to use it (since you don't have any other minions most likely).

If the minion is anything more than a 2/2, you may have just lost the game on the spot. Remember that since you gave them the minion at the beginning of their turn, they can use buffs and things like Flametongue to make it even bigger.

Now if you pull a 7/7 or a Frothing, you've just lost the game.

It's a Hail Mary play and I always advise against it unless your hand is entirely 5+ drops and you have no heal.

Free wrote:

Dirty Rat on T2 is 99% of the time a terrible play, even against aggro. People tend to think of the card that gets pulled instead of the context in which you pull it. You essentially gave them a free minion with Charge because they get a turn to use it (since you don't have any other minions most likely).

If the minion is anything more than a 2/2, you may have just lost the game on the spot. Remember that since you gave them the minion at the beginning of their turn, they can use buffs and things like Flametongue to make it even bigger.

Now if you pull a 7/7 or a Frothing, you've just lost the game.

It's a Hail Mary play and I always advise against it unless your hand is entirely 5+ drops and you have no heal.

That said, always use a Dirty rat if your opponent just dropped a Doomsayer. ALWAYS worth it.

Taken out 3 Renos, 5 Kazakuses, and a few Jade Generators that way.

Free wrote:

Dirty Rat on T2 is 99% of the time a terrible play, even against aggro. People tend to think of the card that gets pulled instead of the context in which you pull it. You essentially gave them a free minion with Charge because they get a turn to use it (since you don't have any other minions most likely).

It's not ideal but it's not quite as bad as that either, especially against pirate warrior (depending on what their turn 1 was).

Tyops wrote:

Nobody plays Tirion in standard now.... ;)

Paladin's time will come again, mark my words!!!

I do think the community is underestimating Anyfin Paladin though, it's currently my favourite control deck despite recently getting my hands on a Kazakus for a Reno Mage deck (though this might be because I'm not playing the ladder and facing endless Aggro Shamans/Pirate Warriors which Reno Mage works better against).

Demosthenes wrote:

That said, always use a Dirty rat if your opponent just dropped a Doomsayer. ALWAYS worth it.

Taken out 3 Renos, 5 Kazakuses, and a few Jade Generators that way.

Oh wow, that is awesome. Too bad Dirty Rat can't be played in ShamanStone.

Callous Buddha wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:

That said, always use a Dirty rat if your opponent just dropped a Doomsayer. ALWAYS worth it.

Taken out 3 Renos, 5 Kazakuses, and a few Jade Generators that way.

Oh wow, that is awesome. Too bad Dirty Rat can't be played in ShamanStone.

Bah. If we weren't complaining about Shaman we'd be kvetching about something else. I have no reason not to believe the meta stats Brode cited last week which show Aggro Shaman is popular, but not particularly dominant from a win-rate perspective. We are all free to dislike the current Hearthstone experience, but I feel like Dirty Rat is doing just fine.

Also, the deck variety in Wild Casual is great!

I've found far more fun playing a Jade Golem control Shaman than anything else, really. Pirates are boring... and amusingly easy to counter when playing classes with a decent number of AOEs. Frankly, I'm surprised just an AOE crazy Warlock/Mage/Shaman deck isn't just destroy so many of the Rogue/Warrior/Shaman pirates that they've completely fallen out of the meta. You don't even need that many "win condition cards". Like 3 or 4 BIG value minions plus the removal and AOE. As long as you don't literally draw all four of those together, pretty much ok.

Oh yeah, I'm not complaining about the meta. Last month I started playing Wild and haven't looked back. I got to Rank 4 and faced a variety of interesting decks along the way. I haven't played much this month but I was having fun with a N'Zoth Priest, once again in Wild.

Callous Buddha wrote:

Oh yeah, I'm not complaining about the meta. Last month I started playing Wild and haven't looked back. I got to Rank 4 and faced a variety of interesting decks along the way. I haven't played much this month but I was having fun with a N'Zoth Priest, once again in Wild.

Ha. You're light years ahead of me!

Mistress of Pain also has this effect with Auchenai Soulpriest and/or Embrace the Shadow. I was lucky enough to see an opponent accidentally trigger this once.

Upcoming nerfs/changes:

Small-Time Buccaneer - Down to 1 Health.

Spirit Claws - Up to 2 Mana.

Ladder System -

Like level 20 and Legend, level 15, 10, and 5 will now be competition floors that you cannot drop below in a season after obtaining them, meaning any losses after you reach those levels will no longer drop your rank again. Fun!

Huge fan of the ranked floors in ladder. If this keeps better players from falling back down the ranks I might start bothering to rank to 10 rather than 15 at the end of the month.

The STB nerf is milder than I thought (I was expecting them to bump it to 2 mana), but it's fair and should weaken the pirate package enough to get everyone to stop complaining as much (it's a bigger nerf for Pirate Warrior than Shaman/Rouge though). I don't think they've done enough to Shaman in particular, the class still has too many useful minions/tools (Aggro, Midrange, Jade, and Control Shaman are all high Tier decks). Jade Claws and/or Maelstrom Portal almost certainly needed a nerf along with Spirit Claws.

Tailsnake wrote:

I don't think they've done enough to Shaman in particular, the class still has too many useful minions/tools (Aggro, Midrange, Jade, and Control Shaman are all high Tier decks). Jade Claws and/or Maelstrom Portal almost certainly needed a nerf along with Spirit Claws.

It might be "just enough" until rotation. Shaman loses quite a bit when TGT rotates.

Ladder floors are great but only a short term fix.

Tyops wrote:
Tailsnake wrote:

I don't think they've done enough to Shaman in particular, the class still has too many useful minions/tools (Aggro, Midrange, Jade, and Control Shaman are all high Tier decks). Jade Claws and/or Maelstrom Portal almost certainly needed a nerf along with Spirit Claws.

It might be "just enough" until rotation. Shaman loses quite a bit when TGT rotates.

Ladder floors are great but only a short term fix.

Meeeeh? I mean, from my current Jade Midrange/Control style deck, I think I'm losing 3 cards total? One of which is Brann? So a 1 drop and a 2 drop, something I suspect will mysteriously be included in Shaman cards for whatever is next with rotation?