N’Zoth one isn’t good in this meta. Leeroy combo is just more flexible – since it takes less “pieces” in total (you only need 3 cards to make it work, since you run Emperor anyway), you can add more anti-Aggro techs to your deck.

If the meta would get slower, N’Zoth version might become better.

So I’d say to for Leeroy.

I’d say that Loot Hoarder if you want another early cycle, but it’s already in the deck. So probably Cult Sorcerer, Spell Damage is pretty useful in the deck and instead of the cycle you get a stronger body. Thalnos is still better, but it’s an alright replacement.

Well, not only Jade Druid is great against slow decks, this deck is also more equipped to fight against Aggro.

The bes way against Jade Druid is to add a little more punch to your deck – especially some finisher like Antonidas or Ragnaros. And then the way to play against Jade Druid is putting as much early/mid game pressure as possible. You just need to kill him before he can start summoning the 8/8+ Jade Golems. Druid struggles with board clear – it’s hard for Druid to kill both single big threats and multiple medium-sized threats. But some games you just can’t win, if he gets great ramp into cycle into Jade Golem cards, you can’t help that.

Although much weaker, Imp Gang Boss can be subbed with Harvest Golem. If you want to go for a more value option, try Kabal Courier.

There is no direct replacement for Demonwrath and as much as the card wasn’t THAT important pre-Gadgetzan, right now it’s amazing because of all the Aggro decks on the ladder. Spreading Madness is pretty good against Warrior, but it’s kinda RNG and you will probably take some face damage for no reason. The card can be great, but can also backfire horribly. I’d just replace it with some solid anti-Aggro minion, like Mistress of Mixtures or Sen’jin Shieldmasta.

When it comes to this deck, definitely Leeroy. The 20 damage combo is really strong, for example it’s the main way to win a mirror matchup.

But you should probably look at the other decks too, which ones you play more. Kazakus is also strong in other Reno decks – Reno Mage and Reno Priest – even stronger than in RenoLock. On the other hand, Leeroy is a good finisher in Aggro decks like Pirate Warrior. It’s also a Classic card, so it should stay in Standard forever.

Thank you! I’ve shared my thoughts about Wild on the reddit, so I will just copy & paste my comment here:

“I don’t really think much about Wild, because it would be just guessing. I have no clue how Wild meta looks like, what people play there at different ranks, if certain techs are necessary or not etc. To really determine which cards would fit there, I would have to playtest it carefully.

But yes, some cards would definitely fit into the deck. I’d 100% play Lightbomb instead of Excavated Evil, the card is so much better. Especially against Giants (2x 0 mana Arcane Giant are really hard to deal with) and Jade decks.

Loatheb too, it’s an amazing tech card. The 5 mana Kazakus potion that spawns stuff + Loatheb would be a great combo, you would be able to flood the board and stop the potential AoE clears. Great finisher in some matchups in which it’s hard to stick the board in (CW, RenoLock).

I’d probably play Dark Cultist instead of Blackwing Tech too. One less health, but a great Deathrattle + doesn’t require Dragon synergy.

Probably Zombie Chow too. Maybe instead of Holy Smite.

And I’d definitely fit Dr. 7 somewhere in there. No way to pass on that card, it’s too strong, especially after the BGH nerf.

Actually, there would be a lot of Wild cards I would want to test in this deck. Vol’jin (probably should leave Holy Smite then, but still great turn 10 removal with Corruptor or Nova), Belcher, Deathlord, Velen’s Chosen.

But like I’ve said, without playtesting it’s mostly just guessing.”

Ooze goes in instead of the Faerie Dragon. It reduces the early Dragon consistency a bit, but gives you a way to deal with the weapons (obviously ;p) I think it’s a nice trade. It also helps a bit in RenoLock matchup, because destroying that Jaraxxus weapon is a big deal (you can survive a turn or two longer if you don’t take the extra 20+ damage).

That’s how I’m playing it right now. I was doing fine with Faerie Dragon, but after facing Pirate Warrior and Aggro Shamans all the time, Ooze was a better choice.

That’s a good question and really no one knows that. It all depends on what they give us next expansion. Reno Priest is the only one to likely still play Highlander deck, because self-healing is less of a problem in the deck.

But they might release more cards like Kazakus etc. or more Neutral healing that will make the decks viable even with Reno rotating out.

I’m not saying that StrifeCro’s version is terrible against Pirate Warrior, it’s just not as optimized vs Aggro as this one. 5 games sample size is way too low to compare.

I’ve faced J4CKIECHAN (inventor of the original Egg Druid) yesterday around rank 2-3. He was playing a new version of Egg Druid 😀 If he was playing it on stream too, that might be the reason why some people started netdecking it.

It didn’t seem as strong as the old one, though.

If you mostly face slower decks like Jade Golems or N’Zoth, go for the more end-game heavy list instead. For example, StrifeCro’s one (linked in the Closing). Savjz was also playing Reno Mage in Legend recently – he was playing the Brann + Dirty Rat combo instead to improve Control matchups by pulling a win condition out of their hands. For example, pulling out a N’Zoth against Deathrattle deck is a huge hit.

Dog’s list is meant as an anti-Aggro deck to counter the Pirate Warriors, who are all over the rank 5-Legend ladder.

I don’t think you should compare those two to begin with, because they’re completely different decks. But if you want one solid reason, it’s the Pirate Warrior matchup. Pirate Warrior eats Freeze Mage, the matchup was terrible for Freeze Mage even before Gadgetzan and now that Freeze Mage didn’t get anything this expansion and Pirate Warrior got even stronger, I can’t imagine how bad the matchup must be now.

This, on the other hand, is anti-Aggro build aimed to deal with those pesky Warriors that are all over the ladder. Freeze Mage was one of the worst decks to ladder with pre-Gadgetzan, because it had so many bad and only a few good matchups. This hasn’t changed in Gadgetzan – right now if you want to play the slower Mage, Reno is the way to go. Freeze Mage is much better in a tournament environment when you pretty much know what you will be facing, so you can pick it as a counter, and you can ban something you don’t want to play against.

Sure, you’re right. But I won a lot of games without ever drawing Reno. Hitting some early game plays into board clear is another way to win it. The deck also has enough Taunts + other ways of healing to prevent some of the damage. Turn 5 Raza is good, because then you can heal every turn, especially if you follow it with Justicar.

My score with the deck against Warriors is 23-10 right now. Since 90% of them are Pirate, I think that I can say that it’s a solid matchup with a lot of confidence. But it’s also a hard matchup to play correctly.

On the other hand, my worst matchups are RenoLock (almost impossible to win, they need to draw REALLY badly so you can rush them down or Jaraxxus needs to be their last card) and Jade Druid (same thing – they need to draw poorly and you need to rush them down, you can’t win the late game). Oh, and Miracle Rogue, but that’s a given against Priest, however I only faced 2 of them with the deck, so it’s not a big deal.

Thanks! I’m glad that you like it. Yes, there is definitely a place for Shadowform, but you need to choose between Shadowform and Justicar, as those two don’t synergize with each other. It depends on whether you prefer 2 damage (3 if you want to go extreme and play one duplicate, which is pretty risky, but might still be good) or 4 healing in the long run. I think that both strategies have their merits and are viable. Some players are even going all-in on the Shadowform/Hero Power synergy, I don’t have exact lists right now, but I know that some people were playing it. Stuff like Garrison Commander, Confessor Paletress, Prophet Velen and even Auctionmaster Beardo (the one that resets your Hero Power). Pretty fun deck, but I’m not sure if it’s stronger than this one.

About Kazakus being neutral, it’s a hard thing to judge. In theory, tri-class cards are under Neutral, because they don’t belong into only one specific class. But on the other hand, you can discover them with Kabal Courier (which clearly states that it discovers class cards) and it gets higher offering rate in other discover effects (just like class cards). So while in the collection it’s listed under Neutrals, when it comes to in game mechanics it’s closer to Class card.

Yes, sadly, just like Darkseid said – I think you would be better off playing a normal Dragon Priest with the Raza. I’d argue that it might be the most important card in the deck and the main reason why you run Highlander version of the deck instead of the normal one. You CAN sub it, but the deck won’t be that effective.

If you want to drop Raza, you probably want to drop Justicar Trueheart too. But if you really want to test it, you can try the Acidic Swamp Ooze/Harrison jones + Sylvanas Windrunner combo instead of those two. Another option is to play Forbidden Shaping instead of one of them.

What decks are you playing? I’d say that against Pirate Warrior, your build is more important than what you do. You need to be able to quite consistently draw the early game curve / removals so they won’t snowball the board. Then in the mid game you need to back it up with Taunts or health gain.

Dragon Priest seems quite alright against Pirate Warrior. You have early game plays, you have Taunts, you have heals. As long as the Warrior doesn’t rush you down, you should manage the matchup. I’ll be writing a guide about Reno Dragon Priest soon if you’re interested!

Yep, this one was really important. It was the first time I’ve seen Hearthstone as the #1 game on Twitch in a while. It’s a great event for the streamers, because most of the players can’t afford to play HTB themselves, but they like to watch their favorites in the competitive environment, especially with such a huge rewards on the line. So I’ll have to give them that – more exciting events like that would be great for the game in the future.

But hey, now imagine how many viewers if would attract right after new expansion… One can only dream.

Went 8-3 with the wtyBill’s Tempo Mage. http://i.imgur.com/ZSH8tjY.jpg

Even though I have quite a lot of gold and I’m confident that I would at least break even, I won’t probably play more. In my 11 games, I’ve faced 7 Midrange Shamans – 30% Midrange Shaman frequency on the ladder is already too much for me, from what I’ve seen on the streams and my own experience, in this Brawl it’s over 50%. It’s fun as an one time experience, it’s also fun to watch other people play it, but I don’t think I can handle more Shamanfest.

Also, it would be SO MUCH BETTER after the Gadgetzan release. When the meta isn’t figured out yet it would be much more fun. And the Gadgetzan packs are way better than the WoG packs – pretty much every at least semi-competitive player has all the necessary WoG cards already, so it’s all dust. I mean, this decision makes sense from the business perspective – less gold before the new expansion, rewarding old packs which are much less useful… But I bet that the Brawl would attract WAY more people if if wasn’t Shaman all the time. I like the idea and I would like to play more, but facing Shaman after Shaman just isn’t fun for me.

I seriously think this should be a 2/2. In this state it’s bad even in the Murloc decks.

Actually yes, you’re right. Hamster was at 27 and he had up to 28 dmg available with Flametongue, Bloodlust, Lightning Bolt and Spirit Claws.

But to be fair, I might have missed that lethal too. I didn’t even count for it. It’s just hard to notice lethal when you have 5 damage on the board and opponent is at 27 health, but well.. Bloodlust.