I really don't understand why they thought it'd be a good idea to have so many of these be unplayable meme cards like renounce the darkness, lock and load, astral communion, etc.
It's not that difficult to understand. Meme's are fun. End of Story
From my experience the golden portrait players at rank 15 aren't farming, they're just bad. They play meme decks and so they don't progress. they aren't farming your friend, they are just as stuck as he is. Just for different reasons.
I wouldn't call it spoiling, The Nightmare Amalgam feels no worse to draw than the other two due to the fact that it is a solid magnetize target in the deck allowing you to buy into the 'one big minion' strategy when needed. It feels better than it looks I promise.
Great minds think alike. I just posted a slightly different Highlander Pally deck a few hours ago before seeing it here on the homepage. Main difference is I'm running a Sandbinder tutor package similar to Highlander Hunter. My list is over here:
I find it best to do two things. Firstly, accept that the combo exists. Secondly, build your decks accordingly. You're statement about playing around it by having no minions on board is, in my experience the worst way to play around it. I have had much better time playing around it by flooding the board and holding buffs in hand. If you flood the board they will play the Fleshshaper, take a VT into one minion and then evolve. Leaving them with an 8/8 on average and you with a few minions ready to turn pump spells into kill spells. For example if he leaves me 4 attack on minions on board my Blessing of Kings is now sacrifice those minions, destroy his eight drop. There are other options in other classes, this is just the one that comes up most often for me as I've been playing lots of paladin.
TLDR; Fleshshaper + Mutate is powerful, but not overpowered. It can be played into and punished, as long as you're expecting it.
Mad Genius can definitely be replaced if you don't need a late game powerhouse in your meta, but if you're against a lot of druids and warriors I'd recommend leaving him in. Beefed up tomb wardens with rush are incredibly good to close out games.
"Unlike [Hearthstone Card (Luna’s Pocket Galaxy) Not Found], Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron doesn’t deserve to be in your deck."
I disagree with this statement completely. Puzzle Box can't be evaluated strictly by winrate because at any given moment it's possibilities are endless. If Puzzle Box has a winrate of 10% then when played you have a 10% chance of winning the game from that point. Sure, when already ahead and about to win don't play it, because you have a 9 out of 10 chance to throw the game. However, if your opponent has lethal set up and is about to end you, you can play Puzzle Box and go for a 0 out of 10 chance to win to a 1 out of 10. For this reason I think Puzzle Box belongs in the deck.
TLDR; Puzzle Box occasionally makes an unwinnable game a winnable one and for that it belongs in the deck.
After the nerfs Hearthstone has felt much less exciting on a game to game basis. I think I expected a bigger change after the nerfs, but everything feels the same. The only thing I've really stopped seeing is Luna's Pocket Galaxy and everything else is the same. Does anybody have any suggestions? I'll take a deck to play, a card to build around, even just half an idea, I just want to enjoy the game.
Is the idea behind a nerf really that we should be removing an archetype from the ladder? I feel like the point should be to make those archetypes weaker, but still playable, not to completely invalidate the strategy.
A mana nerf may be boring but you can't argue against the effectiveness. Besides, the issue with every one of these cards is that they came down too soon in the game. How do you solve that problem if not a mana nerf?
This nerf should've been Mountain Giant. These two still curve into each other and so they will remain a problem. Mountain Giant to 15 would've been a better nerf to Conjurer's Calling than this.
This is fair. 2 more turns to pressure with an aggro deck will do wonders. And if you're playing the control mirror you already had ways to beat it. This is what the card deserved.
I play my own decks all the way through each expac. The only thing is that the deck becomes less and less 'memey' as I go. I start with Quest Rogue with 2x Violet Haze and 2x Clever Disguise so I can get an early Mountain Giant. Then I cut the fun and add 'removal' and 'card draw' slowly over time.
It's not that difficult to understand. Meme's are fun. End of Story
From my experience the golden portrait players at rank 15 aren't farming, they're just bad. They play meme decks and so they don't progress. they aren't farming your friend, they are just as stuck as he is. Just for different reasons.
But even in that case, you get a full dust refund, so you can just turn him into something else
Leeroy Jenkins is a relevant card now, he was relevant in the past, and he will be relevant in the future. Give him a craft, he is worth the dust.
I wouldn't call it spoiling, The Nightmare Amalgam feels no worse to draw than the other two due to the fact that it is a solid magnetize target in the deck allowing you to buy into the 'one big minion' strategy when needed. It feels better than it looks I promise.
Great minds think alike. I just posted a slightly different Highlander Pally deck a few hours ago before seeing it here on the homepage. Main difference is I'm running a Sandbinder tutor package similar to Highlander Hunter. My list is over here:
Edit:Just noticed the Sandbinder in the posted decklist, honestly don't know how I missed it. Not my best moment.
I find it best to do two things. Firstly, accept that the combo exists. Secondly, build your decks accordingly. You're statement about playing around it by having no minions on board is, in my experience the worst way to play around it. I have had much better time playing around it by flooding the board and holding buffs in hand. If you flood the board they will play the Fleshshaper, take a VT into one minion and then evolve. Leaving them with an 8/8 on average and you with a few minions ready to turn pump spells into kill spells. For example if he leaves me 4 attack on minions on board my Blessing of Kings is now sacrifice those minions, destroy his eight drop. There are other options in other classes, this is just the one that comes up most often for me as I've been playing lots of paladin.
TLDR; Fleshshaper + Mutate is powerful, but not overpowered. It can be played into and punished, as long as you're expecting it.
Imagine how amazing it would be if Zayle, Shadow Cloak and Whizbang the Wonderful costed 12. absolutely 0 impact on those two cards, while completely invalidating the Mountain Giant + Conjurer's Calling strategy
Mad Genius can definitely be replaced if you don't need a late game powerhouse in your meta, but if you're against a lot of druids and warriors I'd recommend leaving him in. Beefed up tomb wardens with rush are incredibly good to close out games.
"Unlike [Hearthstone Card (Luna’s Pocket Galaxy) Not Found], Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron doesn’t deserve to be in your deck."
I disagree with this statement completely. Puzzle Box can't be evaluated strictly by winrate because at any given moment it's possibilities are endless. If Puzzle Box has a winrate of 10% then when played you have a 10% chance of winning the game from that point. Sure, when already ahead and about to win don't play it, because you have a 9 out of 10 chance to throw the game. However, if your opponent has lethal set up and is about to end you, you can play Puzzle Box and go for a 0 out of 10 chance to win to a 1 out of 10. For this reason I think Puzzle Box belongs in the deck.
TLDR; Puzzle Box occasionally makes an unwinnable game a winnable one and for that it belongs in the deck.
Well I did it, I found a deck that has me enjoying the game again.
I put it together and posted it, thanks for everyone not encouraging me to quit for the day lol
After the nerfs Hearthstone has felt much less exciting on a game to game basis. I think I expected a bigger change after the nerfs, but everything feels the same. The only thing I've really stopped seeing is Luna's Pocket Galaxy and everything else is the same. Does anybody have any suggestions? I'll take a deck to play, a card to build around, even just half an idea, I just want to enjoy the game.
Is the idea behind a nerf really that we should be removing an archetype from the ladder? I feel like the point should be to make those archetypes weaker, but still playable, not to completely invalidate the strategy.
A mana nerf may be boring but you can't argue against the effectiveness. Besides, the issue with every one of these cards is that they came down too soon in the game. How do you solve that problem if not a mana nerf?
This nerf should've been Mountain Giant. These two still curve into each other and so they will remain a problem. Mountain Giant to 15 would've been a better nerf to Conjurer's Calling than this.
I'm glad this uncounterable mistake of a card and I will never cross paths again
This is fair. 2 more turns to pressure with an aggro deck will do wonders. And if you're playing the control mirror you already had ways to beat it. This is what the card deserved.
This nerf should have been Northshire Cleric, Extra Arms was a good tool for Priest but not the reason the class is overtuned currently
Eh, I think the buffs were a good change as a whole. They overtuned 2 cards and they recognize the problem and are fixing it now.
I play my own decks all the way through each expac. The only thing is that the deck becomes less and less 'memey' as I go. I start with Quest Rogue with 2x Violet Haze and 2x Clever Disguise so I can get an early Mountain Giant. Then I cut the fun and add 'removal' and 'card draw' slowly over time.