Taskmaster has some clear advantages too. For example, turning your Eternium Rover into a 3/2 can allow it to trade more effectively in the early game, and you can use Taskmaster to finish off minions and still get the body. I’m not sure which one is better, but I wanted the guaranteed early game tempo over a random effect.

There will be tons of ways to build a Token Druid in Rise of Shadows too, if that’s something you’d consider. I can think of Heal Token, Egg Druid, Treant Token, and Exotic Mountseller Token Druid off the top of my head.

I don’t believe I will have enough damaged minions on the board to make good use of Potion Vendor.

Peasant isn’t that bad actually, I played with it in some Rastakhan era decks and it was undervalued during that era. With a lot of powerful cards moving out and the 3-drop slot being pretty difficult to fill right now, I really look forward to trying it out in the new meta. My main alternative for that slot was another MCT – but that is meta-dependent, could work as a 2-off, but also might end up cut altogether if it lack targets.

I considered the token approach too, but it seemed to me that tokens are better off without the heal synergies. Hard to say prior to testing, of course.

Defender of Argus may turn out to be better in the end, yes. Bronze Gatekeeper’s upsides are the cheaper cost and extra health, which make it possible to play it earlier on a single Pogo. I don’t know how fast the meta will turn out to be yet, so it’s hard to evaluate them.

That’s the difference between then and now: now you create much more copies instead of merely shuffling.

Leeroy is always an option. For this particular build, I wanted a steadier and slightly slower approach, so it tops out with Grom. Leeroy is a pure finisher, so it will end up sitting in hand for some time, which is why I was reluctant to use it here. Leeroy instead of Grom would be an option though.

There have also been some faster builds around where Blastmaster Boom is the lone 7-drop and the second-most expensive card is Leeroy at 5 mana. Those are just trying to go in so fast that there is very little time for the opponent to draw any bombs, so in practice they are relying more on the Boombots.

Adding Pogo-Hoppers as an alternative win condition is basically what has sometimes been done in Specialist tournaments as well. For such a tech package to be worth it, you have to be facing an extremely slow meta, otherwise you’re usually just better off using other cards and no Pogo-Hoppers at all.

However, with all the new tools Pogo Rogue gets, the question I set out to answer is whether you could now build a Pogo Rogue deck, where Pogo-Hopper is the central win condition, and succeed. While the answer is still unclear, the chances look better now than before.

There are definitely strong card from 2018 that will see more play after the rotation. The problem for budget decks is that those cards are, for the most part, Epics and Legendaries, especially any cards even remotely related to win conditions. Full-cost decks will be fine.

No, all Schemes scale indefinitely. You can steal anything with this and Cabal Shadow Priest, if you’ve had the Scheme in your hand long enough.

The article does not aim to provide a comprehensive list of all the recognized archetypes. That said, only fairly popular ones seem to be recognized, based on all the ones that are not.

The developers said that it takes a couple of days for it to gather enough data for a new set. But this is not a new set, the meta is stable. Here’s the interview: https://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/upcoming-hearthstone-game-updates-smarter-deck-builder-random-card-backs-arena-seasons-sneak-peek-at-the-new-single-player-experience/

Yes, that is exactly how it works. I too was expecting off-meta insights based on Blizzard data, although I guess that would have taken some of the creativity away from deck building. Alas, the way it works is that it steers you towards established meta archetypes.

Even Paladin was the first of the nerfed decks to see serious play again, signs of that were already up when I wrote this piece, and it has only increased in popularity since. I would still expect to see more Rogues and Shamans before the meta is fully stable.

I survived the Undertaker meta, Midrange Shaman meta, and Jade Druid meta. This is nowhere near as bad. That said, I have high hopes for the next rotation, lots of powerful cards are going away from Standard.

I felt the Chemist Odd Rogue list played quite similar to the old one, but of course, the early turn Cold Blood is gone, so it can never be completely the same.

I actually played against an Elemental Shaman the other day, and have faced a fair number of different decks and classes, although Midrange Hunter is very, very popular. I think the variety has been worse before.

Here’s a recent #1 Legend list with both Equality and Pyromancer: https://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/even-paladin-rastakhan-2nd-nerf-1-legend-nohandsgamer/

There have been some Hero Power related tech cards over the years. A card is not the same as removing Hero Powers altogether. A card that would permanently disable the opponent’s Hero Power would be crazy strong though.

It is a heavily discussed subject for sure. I’m not sure what the right approach is either, but I’d like to see small touches attempted first, both to show that the issue is on the developers’ radar and to possibly maintain Even and Odd as options at least for tier 2 decks.

We had a Hero Power mechanic in The Grand Tournament – Inspire. It was a disaster. I think the memory of that attempt to make Hero Powers more central has kept cards focused on Hero Powers out of the limelight, we have only had one here and there, and of course Genn and Baku now. I’m not sure whether the designers can pull off good Hero Power cards, and without more such cards, anti tech also does not make a lot of sense other than as a pure counter to Baku and Genn.