This. I can’t believe this is an epic–its unplayable. If they had made it a discover, or summon 2, or an ongoing summon a beast at the end of each turn, or even a flat “summon a 3/3 beast” then at least it could maintain the illusion of not being auto-dust.

Blizzard: every class should have a weakness–for example, warrior should struggle with minion swarms.

Also Blizzard: hey, let’s give warrior Brawl, Warpath, Supercollider, AND Dynomatic!

I’ve been having a lot of fun with villain priest. I run a deck similar to the above with a few substitutions: notably: minus the scavenger and mass hysterias and hymns / plus a 2nd test subject and 2 grave horrors. Turn 4 Vargoth + Turn 5 Replicate is AMAZING.

Brian Kiebler has a decklist that also subs out Undatakah for Zerek which I think is even better because it opens early SMOrc opportunities, but I can’t bring myself to craft Zerek.

I never play Arena except when I get a free token, but I am interested in more formats. Here are my feelings, at a high level:

1.) I HATE the whole underrated/overrated bucket game–it rewards experienced players (or PC players running a 3rd party app) and punishes newer players. Or just display that information for everyone to see. I’m n00b enough in the match–don’t handicap my deckbuilding!

2.) I do really like the concept of building decks based on limited random options, just not the actual experience I have whenever I do queue HS arena.

3.) I’d like drafting to be more package-based–e.g., like Dalaran Heist, where you get a few cards that synergize together rather than just based on individual value a la “see a basilisk, pick a basilisk”

4.) After drafting, I want a way to take out anything that didn’t work and to plug any holes or mana-cost deficiencies–for example, access to all the basic cards.

5.) I have big loss aversion so the entry fees are a big turn-off for me. I usually go between 1-4 wins so mathematically its roughly equivalent to buying packs, but every game I fret that I made a bad investment. Emotionally, I feel less stress if I just buy packs. If I enjoyed the actual gameplay though I think I wouldn’t mind the fee.

I see you downgraded Harrison from “Best” to just “Good”, presumably because weapons have largely fallen out of favor… Any other major changes I’m missing?

I think the Gloop Sprayer buff is a call to promote Lucentbark which I totally support–right now, Druid is “token or nothing”–but I don’t think its nearly enough.

The Pogo Hopper change is interesting. Going from 2 to 1 doesn’t seem like a lot, but now its easy to guarantee a Witchwood Piper pull (before, a lot of decks would want to run cards like Lab Recruiter, Ooze, Engineering Novice, and Brewmaster, but those diluted the usefulness of the Piper) plus now you can pull of more same-turn shenanigans with Tak (e.g., Pogo + Tak + Scheme + 2nd Pogo so you don’t overdraw). Again, I don’t think its going to be enough–I love the Pogo dearly but it just seems to way slow even for midrange decks like Mage and Hunter much less aggro like Murloc or Token Druid–but at least its promising.

FINALLY. I’ve been so disappointed that they’ve never buffed cards before. It’s like: if you say you want a wide design space and diverse meta, why not foster less powerful cards?

That said, some classes (warrior, shaman, priest) are clearly getting a better deal than others (hunter, druid, mage). Warrior in particular frustrates me: no one is going actually run Rover, Nullifier, or SN1P, yet all the control decks are going to benefit via Omega Assembly and Drone Delivery. I would have much rather have seen them try to empower a different archetype like Rush Warrior or even Dragon Control Warrior.

re: you will no longer be able to establish your Waggle Pick + Dread Corsair setup on curve

You can still either Coin + Raiding Party on Turn 3 or Prep + Raiding Party on Turn 2 or 3 to ensure Waggle Pick + Dread Corsair on Turn 4–and if you’re lucky, Greenskin on Turn 5. The only real difference is that you won’t be able to Prep + Raiding Party + [Miscreant or Edwin] on Turn 3 which does hinder a little, but I don’t think it’s as significant as the former.

Thanks for including a few decks that WEREN’T tempo rogue, control warrior, or conjurer/cyclone mage.

My thoughts on each:

ELYSIANA: This really only impacts control mirror matchups–it’s not like anyone was playing Elysiana on curve or like you really needed a 2nd Elysiana if your opponent didn’t have any. Personally, I would have preferred to see the turn limit reduced from 89 total (=44.5 rounds) to say 65 (32.5), because I think the real problem is the game length.

MISCREANT: I think 4 health is still too much. I would have thought 3, although 2 or even 1 wouldn’t be unreasonable. For context, Cable Rat costs 1 less mana, gives 1 less Lackey (albeit with a battlecry instead of a combo), and only has a 1/1 body.

PREP: I get that Prep currently has tremendous swing potential in the early game, but this change feels like it’s going from a Must-Have in any rogue deck to just a niche card. I guess that’s fine, but it does taste bitter to me.

RAIDING PARTY: the change really should have been “Add random pirate/weapon” instead of tutor from you deck. The problem isn’t drawing; the problem is that rogues can practically guarantee playing a Waggle Pick + Corsair on Turn 4 and a Greenskin on Turn 5. With this mana increase, that combo is still going to be very feasible with the right draw; it’s just going to be slightly less consistent and leave a little less mana for establishing the early board.

In case anyone was curious about the “Wonderous Wisdomball”, its…flavorful. Basically, you’ll occasionally get effects like adding a copy of a minion that died to your deck, recasting a spell you just cast on a random target, and adding a card to your hand. Additionally, you’ll get the occasional humorous ‘advice’ emote such as “if you run out of hit points, you’ll lose”. The effects are total RNG, and in my experience they were always non-impactful, bordering on “I kind of wish you hadn’t done that”. Either pick it for the memes or because the other 2 options would hurt your deck.

Here are my opinions of all 5 decks:

MADAME LAZUL – seems like a variation of the “Whispers from the Grave” Whizbang deck, which only has a 40% winrate and is my least favorite WB deck by far. Shadequills are bad for SMORCing, and I don’t think you have the survivability to hold out for Divine Spirit + Inner Fire shenanigans. 1/5

TOGWAGGLE – basically shark tempo rogue but without Pick, Raiding Party, Deadly Poison, Greenskin, or Corsairs. It wouldn’t be so bad except there are so many better tempo rogue decks on ladder, and you’re probably going to lose most mirrors due to the aforementioned. 3/5

HAGATHA – interesting control deck. In the long run it’s probably not as good as current-meta Control Warrior, but between all the healing and Shudderwock potential at least its interesting. 5/5

RAFAAM – Betrug has poor stats on HsReplay, but at least this deck looks interesting and has the potential to pop off. 3/5

BOOM – No Warpath or Brawl so you’re going to struggle against wide boards, no Devastors or Shield Slams so you’re going to struggle against tall boards, and no Omega Assemblies or Elysiana so you’re going to struggle against control decks and mirror matches. Still: it’s bomb warrior. 4/5

I have a somewhat similar Shaman deck with Linecracker, the idea being that I drop Linecracker on one turn and then Windfury + Tempest to overkill a minion or two and then either go 3×10 or 2×20 face. I usually also cast Ancestral Recall on the Linecracker the same turn I drop it to try to help it stick. It’s a fun concept, but I don’t get much luck with it–warriors can still clear both Linecrackers on 10 mana, and most other decks either have a silence/sap or are aggro and have already either won or conceded by Round 10.

Do you actually have any success with this deck? I appreciate the intention, but in my experience these “Two-Turn Kill” decks don’t really work unless its something like Wall Priest, where you can try to setup your combo multiple times and eventually your opponent just can’t answer one.

Many people are speculating that there might not be any nerfs for this expansion. While Tempo Rogue and Control Warrior definitely feel unjustly powerful, they still aren’t as oppressive as say Level-Up Odd Paladin, turn 1 Mana Wyrm, or 0-hero-cost Raza. In fact, HsReplay currently lists them both as “Tier Two” decks, below Bomb Hunter and Secret Hunter.

For value-games, you’re suppose to seance your Undatakah. So if all goes according to plan, by Turn 10 you can drop a 8/5 who will spawn 3 more 8/5s when he dies. Yes the spawns don’t have their own deathrattles, but its still 24 damage on-board and you can repeat up to 2 more times. Most opponents will silence the Villains, and Undatakah just cares which minions with “native” DRs died–it doesn’t count DRs that are gained or lost by enchantments, so it will still gain the effect.

It is a really tough deck to play, though. Especially right now where there are so many tempo decks who won’t let you survive until 10. If you’re interested, I suggest you look up Dekkster’s recent YouTube videos before crafting it.

Could you go into a little more detail into how exactly you handle Rogue’s early game? Like: do you drop the Wild Pyro on curve for later usage and just hope they don’t have Backstab, Deckhand or Deadly Poison? Or do you save it until you can combo it same-turn, and if so, which turn? It won’t kill a Miscreant, and unless you get extremely lucky it seems like you won’t be able to kill Corsairs same-turn either… I’m just not understanding how this is “quite favorable”.

As long as you’re going all-in for meme-y deathrattles, might as well add Undatakah. 🙂

And 2x Divine Hymn + 2x Regenerate + Zilliax = 21 healing. But really, these games are fast. By turn 9, either you’ve drawn through your deck and are ready to drop Nomi + Seance on Turn 9 or you aren’t. Sure Bomb Warrior might get lucky, but remember it doesn’t have a great draw engine and most of its cards are creature-hate which are fairly useless in this matchup.

That Control Shaman deck is definitely different. I didn’t have a chance to watch, but I presume from the fact he won that that deck was pulling its weight? Like: how does it beat Control Warrior?