We've been waiting a very, very long time for this particular Mini-Set to deliver us from what became an overly familiar United in Stormwind metagame. Was it worth all that anticipation, were the hopeful prayers answered? Will the Pirates & Parrots rise to the occasion as somewhat unlikely saviors? Can Edwin, Defias Kingpin live up to the notorious fame of his previous incarnation? How many Questlines still remain? Is Mr. Smite in charge literally everywhere?
These and other burning questions may not all have immediate answers (except, well, you can certainly find this one crewmate around a lot), but we've already witnessed some creative takes on the new card additions. At this point you can probably guess which one has garnered the highest amount of "absolutely must nerf!!!" Day 1 votes. That Leeroy Jenkins wannabe, eh.
The first 24 hours of any new metagame are always quite volatile, so the usual disclaimers apply: except that mini-sets tend to be worth their weight in gold, as it's still faster and cheaper to collect everything at once rather than try to get there through crafting or pack openings. In any case, the refreshed United in Stormwind + Deadmines decks of today may go through several iterations by the time the weekend rolls around. We'll be keeping an eye on further developments.
For now, let's see who's been leading the early charge.
Otsuna's Aggro Druid
Aggro/Taunt Druid took a liking to a couple of new toys: Jerry Rig Carpenter pairs rather nicely with Sow the Soil for a valuable extra minion and a mini Arbor Up, while Druid of the Reef offers versatility (Park Panther was the only Rush minion otherwise). The rest of the package should be very familiar. The deck certainly remains strong in capable hands - as Otsuna piloted it all the way to Rank 1 Legend.
Orange's OTK Celestial Druid
On one hand, an unlikely mix of cards. On the other hand, where does our new Pirate Leeroy not fit? Moonlit Guidance is such a versatile addition for various Druid archetypes, expect to see it around a ton from now on. Both Feno and Orange were having some good fun with it.
McBanterFace's Proving Grounds Demon Hunter
A curious experiment to make Big Demon Hunter work (once again). It usually refuses to come together, and it could very well just be a bait before the deck moves into meme territory. But for now, McBanterFace found a way to get a lot of mileage out of the new Proving Grounds inclusion.
Dmoney's Deathrattle Hunter
Not Questline or Face focus! Monstrous Parrot re-awakening Deathrattle dreams for Hunter, who would've thought. It's hard to keep track how many times those hopes were dashed in the past, but each new set means yet another try. Dmoney has found some early success with this particular mixture. We should probably expect further refinement.
Gle's Aggro Paladin
Parrot power! This time with Sunwing Squawker. The rest of the plan is what we know well by now. Set up some sticky and/or stealthy minions, some buffs, go face with the assistance of Battleground Battlemaster. Oh, and that charging Mr. Smite might lend a hand as well. Worked out for Gle early on.
Bunnyhoppor's Brilliant Doomhammer Shaman
Let the parrot jokes commence! That's truly brilliant. Like a Brilliant Macaw. Besides, we get not-so-brilliant Elemental package and Bolner Hammerbeak pretending to be another parrot (ha, "beak"!). Also the familiar Doomhammer support to truly smash all opposing faces.
D0nkey's SI:7 Edwin/Mr. Smite Rogue
D0nkey was on such a good winning streak, he literally had to ask for somebody to put an end to it just so he could get some rest. That sounds pretty promising. Edwin, Defias Kingpin and Mr. Smite join the known SI:7 composition of cards. Can Questline Rogue prove Garrote isn't all that superior?
MadThanos' Questlock
MadThanos was recommending a more focused "turbo" approach to completing the Questline and discounting everyone's favorite Flesh Giant. Shadowblade Slinger is trying to become a new Prize Plunderer, doing some solid work.
NoHandsGamer's Quest Pirate Warrior
The one everyone's been expecting with the arrival of Mr. Smite. Where better than with a bunch of friendly pirates? Blacksmithing Hammer is the other new toy. The list includes that Lord Barov plus Rancor combo, and beyond that it's about the same rowdy bunch as before. Except now they can charge faces. NoHandsGamer finds it best.
This isn't necessarily everything that can be found out there, as that's so many variations to begin with. Perhaps there will even be enough new material for another look in a day or two. As you can probably guess, Mr. Smite is being included in many other decks as well. Even Shadow Priest is trying to make a comeback with such semi-finisher potential.
And how about the rest of you - tried to parrot and charge people on ladder or instead opted for the variety of options in other game modes? Did you have enough gold to spare for the Mini-Set in the first place? Personally I was still a little bit away when the patch went live (damn you, Mercenaries!).
Comments
the rogue deck is a lot of fun!
nice!
Pirate Warrior is absolutely bonkers. It's so obvious that someone from HS team has a bias towards that archetype and is pushing for it lol.
The deck is not expensive so y'all better craft it if you want those easy Warrior wins.
Honestly, Mr.Smite has not warped the wild meta at all and I imagine is a bad inclusion in a deck whose early turns really matter against decks like ignite mage or quest hunter. I have yet to try to try standard but I can't imagine that Mr.Smite could make an aggro oriented meta even worse.
Hmm, since Druid of the Reef is a minion it shouldn't have this synergy since the carpenter draw spells, or have I missed something?
You most certainly haven't, somebody (cough cough) sucked at not correcting the early draft while falling asleep at 2 am. Jagu has pointed it out just a moment ago as well, so all that should make more sense now. Thanks for keeping a watchful eye!
How? Druid of the Reef isn't a spell.
Doh, I could've sworn I iterated upon that line before going through with it; there was more to talk about. Thanks for pointing out, corrected to properly reflect the interactions!
Thanks for this good article.
Anyone else has the feeling Mage and Priest are being left behind with this expansion ?
Especially quest Mage ...
I havent tried mage yet, but I have a feeling that Multicaster can help it along with ping mage. Priest has definitely not featured much, but we can never tell, since Mr. Smite is a good aggro card after all
I appreciate that some people actually like playing quest mage. But to be honest, fk that deck. One good thing coming out of this midset is that we'll likely not see it until the next expansion.
My pleasure. I've seen somebody adding Multicaster, but it was on top of the usual Quest Spell Mage package (so not much different than having those slots saved for a Wand Thief or another minion before). There wasn't much success to report yet. Man, I do miss a proper minion Mage mixed with some spells.
And yes, not much love for Priest currently either, since I don't believe just adding Mr. Smite to Shadow counts as a great novelty. The Control one could live again if there are more board based decks to stop, but... always OTK combo counters to be wary of.
Try this deck: I've been piloting it last season and this season with some moderate success
It's shell is a bunch of value minions, discover effects, combined with the hero power package. I haven't really updated it in regards to the latest miniset because the cards don't really change anything in it. The "big spell" cards in the miniset are not relevant at all, and the multicaster is unnecessary IMO since we have spell tutors in the deck as is.
The only card I'm on the fence about trying to squeeze in (for fun) is Deeprun Engineer. Simply put there's only 9 mechs that mage can discover. Out of those mechs, only two are holistically bad discovers (replicat-o-tron, and clockwork giant). The rest are either great cards to cheat out 1 mana earlier, or can be game changing at a 1 mana discount. (I'm sure deeprun engineer works better in classes that have good mechs, but honestly having such a small pool of mechs to discover from isn't the worst thing in the world)
Initially I didn't include Crossroads Watch Post, but I added one copy and it's been pretty good against quest mages. The problem is trying to fit another one in for consistency, because honestly against every other deck out there it's a relatively bad card (hunter and pirate warrior don't run a ton of spells and therefore the minion is usually dead weight in those matchups).
That's a very creative take! You make good points about the post and Deeprun Engineer.
I wish I actually had all the cards to give it a spin for fun. No copies of Wildfire and Jandice Barov is MIA for me ever since the dust refund (I'm not sure about the epic watchpost, may be missing Varden Dawngrasp as well). Eh, just never enough dust to spare for everything...
Good? Quest mage becoming even more popular would be disastrous. No one wants to play against that polarizing mess of a deck.
Long live OoC. Thank you for this well written article. Now to play a new deck@
I played 3 games, two of them were against pirate warrior who destroyed me completely with fun and interactive mr.Smite. I decided not to play anymore until it is nerfed.
To be fair - if a pair of games are all it takes for you to quit the game, you weren't very heavily invested to begin with . . .
Quest hunter in wild was doing better for me today because all the pirate warriors were trying new cards and doing worse :)
I got killed by a huge new Edwin though on turn 5or 6 after using my removal on a 10/10 original Edwin the prior turn.
Can always count to capitalize on the early messy metagame days. ;) And ouch, so now you've got double Edwin punches over there.