I agree that Sprint is a great option after Myra’s + Espionage combo, so you can actually draw all those cheap cards at once instead of 1 by 1. But since that combo is just an extra thing in the deck, not an actual main win condition, and since Raiding Party should be enough of a card draw for the early tempo game plan, I decided against it.

But you’re right that it might turn out to be necessary – we’ll see!

You might have noticed that I’m doing it most of the time lately… forgot this time around lol. I’m adding it now.

I wish there was a more elegant way to do it but I don’t really know one other than deleting all of the comments every time I update something (but that’s also not a good idea, since often a lot of them are still relevant + it’s a lot of work on posts with lots of comments).

But I still don’t understand it, for me it’s obvious to look at when the comment was made before replying to it.

Also, no pro, streamer & Legend decks, right?

That MIGHT be because the expansion is not out yet and we already created a post with deck lists so everyone can save the link, bookmark it etc. We just added the theorycrafts we have right now.

I’ll add Boomsday & Rastakhan avatars too once I find more time. Probably a week or two after the expansion’s release when things slow down a bit 🙂

The comment was made 4 months ago.

Sorry, I must have missed it then 🙁 I was looking only for the decks labeled “theorycraft”, “year of the dragon” and such.

Was it a Year of the Raven deck? If yes, then sorry, but we focused on theorycrafts from new expansion for the last 2 weeks.

4 mana for 10 Armor is only okay-ish at best, the base line is 12 “life gain” for 4 mana. Druid had Branching Paths, which could gain 12 Armor OR do other things too (or even mix between e.g. Armor + card draw). Priest had greater Healing Potion, which gained 12 life, but it could also target one of the minions to heal it up instead (a slight upside compared to Druid, but still).

Just think about it this way – if you draw it in the late game, then hold it for FOUR more turns (which is a long time, especially in matchups in which you need that life gain), then it becomes a 4 mana gain 5 Armor… which is Iron Hide, a 1 mana card. So you need to hold your 4 mana card for FOUR turns in order to get a 1 mana worth of value out of it.

Most Schemes are very powerful when you draw them in mulligan. By the mid/late game, they have insane effects. Even if you draw Dr. Boom’s Scheme in your mulligan and keep it as a completely dead card until TURN 10, you still end up with a card that is below average.

It’s just a bad card. I’ll even say more – outside obvious filler cards (like vanilla minions with no upside), it’s one of the worst cards I’ve seen in a long while. As to why you don’t want to play bad card – simply because you can play better ones. While a lot of the Armor gain cards rotate out, you still have options like Armorsmith + Whirlwind, for example. Not to mention that Shield Slam will be the only good card that really “cares” about Armor now that Reckless Flurry, Yip and Bladed Gauntlet rotate out. There’s still “Heavy Metal”, but the card is mediocre at best.

This post was updated with Rise of Shadows deck recipes. Comments below this one might be outdated!

We still have a bunch of decks to showcase before the expansion’s launch. Hard to say if Zoo will be one of them – it depends on how much time me (and the rest of our writers) will have.

You need to keep one thing in mind – it’s an Aggro deck. You will want to close out most of your games around, I don’t know, Turn 6-8. If you went for longer games, then the negative synergy (pulling out all Secrets from your deck) would come relevant more often. But in reality, given the length of your games, you will rarely run out of Secrets in your deck. Of course – there will be games like that, but they should be a minority, and the number of games you win by having more ways to put Secrets “for free” on the battlefield should overshadow them. In theory, at least.

E.g. old Secret Paladin usually played enough Secrets to fuel only a single Mysterious Challenger. The second one often didn’t pull ANYTHING from the deck. That’s because in your average game, you didn’t get to play both of them anyway.

It will require play testing, but Subject 9 might be cut from the deck after all, because it might be too much. It’s really difficult to know without actually playing around with the deck for a bit.

Omega Minds have massive late game potential with Hagatha’s Scheme. Play those two together and usually heal to full. But the problem is that Turn 10 might be too late in the faster matchups to take advantage of that.

That’s correct, which is kind of obvious (she’s dead already when Redemption triggers, so her effect is no longer active) – but any other minion that will die will revive itself twice. It can be quite interesting with Noble Sacrifice, for example. If you have her + Noble Sac + Redemption, when someone attacks, you will get a 2/1 blocker, then another 2/1, then when 2/1 blocker dies it revives twice. So you end up with a blocked attack AND 3x 2/1 on the board!

Source? Because it’s Roger who was caught stream-sniping (or rather ghosting) and win trading, lol. Not being invited to Grandmasters is his punishment. And I haven’t heard about Tyler doing that too, but I might have missed it.

King Mukla is not a key card in the deck, you can easily replace it with another 3-drop. While not the most optimal, I think that Scarlet Crusader could actually be a nice option, because it works very well with Redemption. Stealth minion such as Jungle Panther or the new Hench-Clan Sneak can be okay too – they are almost guaranteed damage and your opponent can’t pick a trade in the early game. I think that Hench-Clan sneak would be better, since it trades better into 2/3’s and doesn’t die to 2 damage AoEs. You can also try out Ironbeak Owl – I didn’t add Silence to this theorycraft, because I have no clue how the meta will look like and whether it will be necessary. But it might be a good addition if you will run into a lot of Taunts (pushing those last few points of damage through Taunt can be important).

Plus, I would advice you to wait before you start crafting cards. Rhyssa is a very powerful card, that’s for sure, but if the deck will turn out to be weak in the meta, she will be useless (since her effect works ONLY in Secret Paladin). I always say to give the meta 2 weeks before crafting stuff, and if you aren’t very patient, at least a week. I know what I’m talking about, since I craft A LOT Legendaries early for the playtesting sake (to write guides etc.) and then half of that turns out to be useless.

Magnetic is basically a buff. Once you Magnetize into something, Magnetic minion no longer exists.

If you play Pogo-Hopper and Magnetize something onto it, then Silence the whole package, you will be left with a 1/1 (Silenced) version of Pogo-Hopper.

I would kindly ask to not spread false information. If you aren’t absolutely sure about something, check it first or at least don’t state it as a fact.

I agree, I would love an option to randomize card back, but only from the ones I select. I would be able to pick 10-15 of my favorites and have them on all the time.

But maybe the technology will be there in the future 🙂

Really subjective, I like it the least. It’s still cool, but for me it’s Legion Schemes (Android) -> Machine Dreams (PC) -> Pristine Scenes (iOS).

I think he meant that Even Shaman is rotating, not that Al’Akir is rotating.

I agree with your point, but Hagatha is not going to save you in that case. You never put an 8 mana value mechanic in an Aggro deck that curves out at 4-5 mana.

It would win you some games, but lose you even more games where you draw it early instead of an actual card you can play.

I mean, feel free to test it out, but Aggro decks and late game, slow, value cards just don’t go hand in hand. Like, Face Hunter wouldn’t play Deathstalker Rexxar even though it’s much better than Hagatha (costs 2 mana less + damages only opponent’s board on Battlecry). Even some Midrange builds cut it.

If anything, you would probably try adding 2nd Cauldron or Cult Master first, since those are much cheaper ways to refill.