I never accept the request immediately, because these BM get their negative satisfaction from the bare utterance, independently of your reaction (some remove friendship before you can reply).
So I deny them that permission.
I can never laugh from such a behavior anyway.
BUT I add them in my next session, hours later, just in case they are actually smart people (I periodically clean my list from inactives).
It's kinda false tho that Paladin gets zero card draw.
After the HoF of divine favour, they've got very little left in the evergreen set, but they consistently received card draw through the expansions, some of which are very good cards.
Finally, Paladin tends to play for Tempo, turn by turn through good standalone cards (Lightforged Zealot is a clear example), so there's or there should be little room for card draw.
If anything, Paladin lacks consistency in Tempo, that is, not enough good cards to play each turn, despite having some great ones here and there. That's a much bigger fraud IMHO.
And that's also why you feel like you could use more card draw: because most of the cards you can play are too weak against the current meta (ie DH, Rogue, Warrior having both better Tempo AND Card Draw than Paladin).
It's much harder to replace Sunkeeper. It's not the best card ever, but it's one of the best for how this deck works (small but large boards). You can try with a Fungalmancer or maybe a Sword of Justice but that's really far from what Tarim does.Alternatively, you can overhaul the deck entirely with a Murloc setup, with Murloc Warleader, Gentle Megasaur, Felfin Navigator, but then you need Old Murk-Eye for optimality.
Ofc I've won games without either of them (in the same way I've won without playing the Highlander cards), but they help a lot with the consistency.
Btw, Platinum3 with 67% wr atm.
Overall, I think you can still try the deck without them, from a rank floor: just know you're playing a suboptimal list, and the deck itself is pretty challenging to pilot (so many times I misplayed both Zephrys and Finley...).
Trying my climb with this archetype this month. With 10 starting stars, I'm back to Gold with a 71% wr (5 in 7 games, already facing full-blown meta decks). Obviously I expect the wr to lower significantly, but hopefully I should also be able to find decent adjustments.
I will report my full data if and when I reach Diamond (if I fail I will just hide in silence haha).
PS: I play from mobile and I am not willing to install a tracker, sorry.
I didn't know Team RankStar is taking form elsewhere, it's good to know, thanks.
I still think VS reports are better, because they are data-based, but since they make Wild Reports only every now and then, it's always good to hear the opinion of dedicated Wild players trying to write up regular reports in a team (individual reports are inevitably biased IMO, at least a team can give a more reliable insight, even if their tiers might not actually represent the reality of the meta).
At the end of the day, the much hyped Spell Druid seems to be unable to hold its own against the field. Ramping is strong but its payoff seems to be unreliable.
And basically the old-style Control decks seem to be too limited at what they're supposed to be good at.
I can understand your fears, but is Murloc Paladin that threatening in Standard, considering other better aggressive decks like Zoolock or DH himself are allowed there? And considering Finley is a legendary?
(I have no idea actually, I've just seen some streamers)
As for Highlander Murloc, I kinda agree, Consistency of Doubleton tends to be superior for Aggro tribes (they certainly are atm). Indeed, the Aggro Highlander deck I am trying in Wild just uses good standalone cards in order to generate Tempo and create large boards for finishers, and I think this is the way to go for Highlander until Murlocs in Paladin can go wide as fast as Silver Hand Recruits can (which is unlikely I think because it would be redundant).
I have just realized we have discussed the possibility of an Aldor Attendant treatment for Sir Finley of the Sands (ie buffing him to 1/3 for (1)) in terms of Highlander Paladin.
That was indeed the main point of my suggestion,but I have realized the same buff would also impact Murloc Paladin (using Finley as a premium early body), which is already a solid meta deck, both in Wild and Standard.
What about that point?
As I see it, the impact would probably be minor in Wild Murloc, but it would be pretty interesting for Standard Murloc.
Given the situation, I'd go for gold farming with an Aggro deck in Casual. Possibly in Wild. Like Pirate Warrior, Discolock, Odd DH.
You can concede as soon as you see things are compromised, and that would also lower your MMR and improve your chances to get an easy match on the next one.
The cap is 100g per day tho + Quests. So that's gonna take about 4-5 days.
(I admittedly didn't check about the current Brawl, so I don't know if that's faster in terms of playtime, but the gold cap is the same)
Well, Zephrys the Great fits the Aggro archetype (mainly with lethals), although Aggro and Highlander don't fit very well together, because Highlander kills Consistency, even in Wild.
But Sir Finley of the Sands is an additional card that goes in the same direction of sheer versatility (instead of just Highlander = Midgame Swing/Value): Paladin might be the only class with a viable (just viable) Highlander Aggro archetype (we could argue about Secret Mage, but a deck with just 2x 1-drops doesn't really classify as Aggro, so far).
I mean, Sir Finley of the Sands was/is exactly the card that can make Highlander Paladin a peculiar deck in its own (despite being still a worse Aggro deck compared with, say, Murloc, Mech, Odd Paladin). The fact it actually is peculiar, but clearly unoptimized for curve purposes is really baffling.
And Aggro needs less extra support, as opposed to some Self-Shuffling archetype (we see it in Warlock just because shuffling goes on par with draw, and I argue no buff to Takk would ever make it into a working archetype, you'd need several Shuffle cards buffed together, and probably new small ones costing little mana, as you can't really afford to waste turns shuffling stuff in the Midgame, when big swing turns happen).
Tbh, I'm actually sure we'll see Finley buffed to (1) 1/3 before the next Rotation kicks in. Because it's just too reasonable, and such a small innocent buff would feed many people (not just for homebrew junkies like me) with new deckbuildings in the same way the buff to Libram Paladin did (I mean, it's not like the buff renewed the deck in any significant way other than a better curve, but look at all the deckbuilding attempts made after the buff), without seriously altering the meta. It would be a terrible mistake otherwise, since the card is already there, especially if it's not a (1) probably just because of past Odd/Even reactions from the playerbase.
Surely I'd take a Secret-based Highlander Paladin in future.
You brought the concept of "hearthstone recipe" to the next level here.
I never accept the request immediately, because these BM get their negative satisfaction from the bare utterance, independently of your reaction (some remove friendship before you can reply).
So I deny them that permission.
I can never laugh from such a behavior anyway.
BUT I add them in my next session, hours later, just in case they are actually smart people (I periodically clean my list from inactives).
It's kinda false tho that Paladin gets zero card draw.
After the HoF of divine favour, they've got very little left in the evergreen set, but they consistently received card draw through the expansions, some of which are very good cards.
Flash of Light, Crystology, Hand of A'dal are great cards.
You've got Call to Adventure too, which is kinda slow (the card should cost (2) ie Scavenger's Ingenuity), but still decent and reliable.
Finally, Paladin tends to play for Tempo, turn by turn through good standalone cards (Lightforged Zealot is a clear example), so there's or there should be little room for card draw.
If anything, Paladin lacks consistency in Tempo, that is, not enough good cards to play each turn, despite having some great ones here and there. That's a much bigger fraud IMHO.
And that's also why you feel like you could use more card draw: because most of the cards you can play are too weak against the current meta (ie DH, Rogue, Warrior having both better Tempo AND Card Draw than Paladin).
Back to Diamond10 in 19 games and 13 victories. That is 68,4% wr. The vast majority of matchups were against meta mecks.
Some games I used Highlander cards, some games I didn't draw them at all but won nonetheless. (Some games I played them but lost)
I've gotta say I am quite pleased with the deck. Better than I thought. It doesn't feel like an offmeta deck, like AT ALL. More like a t3-t2 deck.
(but I am even more surprised of my skillz at piloting it like woah man how did I even manage! xD)
I'll keep playing this until my wr falls flat to about 50%.
Stay tuned! #letsmakehighlanderaggrogreat
FYI I can tell you I've got consistently 10 stars for Diamond5.
And then this month 10 stars again despite Legend.
The reason is I start playing offmeta when I reach my goal, so I lower my MMR significantly enough.
So you need both ranks and good MMR in order to maximize stars.
I daresay they are key cards here.
Both act as winconditions and/or lifesavers.
You can try to replace Maiev with Frozen Shadoweaver, or Spellbreaker (if meta is taunt/deathrattle).
It's much harder to replace Sunkeeper. It's not the best card ever, but it's one of the best for how this deck works (small but large boards). You can try with a Fungalmancer or maybe a Sword of Justice but that's really far from what Tarim does.Alternatively, you can overhaul the deck entirely with a Murloc setup, with Murloc Warleader, Gentle Megasaur, Felfin Navigator, but then you need Old Murk-Eye for optimality.
Ofc I've won games without either of them (in the same way I've won without playing the Highlander cards), but they help a lot with the consistency.
Btw, Platinum3 with 67% wr atm.
Overall, I think you can still try the deck without them, from a rank floor: just know you're playing a suboptimal list, and the deck itself is pretty challenging to pilot (so many times I misplayed both Zephrys and Finley...).
Trying my climb with this archetype this month. With 10 starting stars, I'm back to Gold with a 71% wr (5 in 7 games, already facing full-blown meta decks). Obviously I expect the wr to lower significantly, but hopefully I should also be able to find decent adjustments.
I will report my full data if and when I reach Diamond (if I fail I will just hide in silence haha).
PS: I play from mobile and I am not willing to install a tracker, sorry.
I didn't know Team RankStar is taking form elsewhere, it's good to know, thanks.
I still think VS reports are better, because they are data-based, but since they make Wild Reports only every now and then, it's always good to hear the opinion of dedicated Wild players trying to write up regular reports in a team (individual reports are inevitably biased IMO, at least a team can give a more reliable insight, even if their tiers might not actually represent the reality of the meta).
I just read Vicious Syndicate for data-based reports.
I used to read Team Rankstar too, but that's not there anymore.
HSR is a good website for glimpses here and there on raw dat, but Wild is not very well covered, especially if you don't have Gold subscription.
At the end of the day, the much hyped Spell Druid seems to be unable to hold its own against the field. Ramping is strong but its payoff seems to be unreliable.
And basically the old-style Control decks seem to be too limited at what they're supposed to be good at.
I wonder how next phases will develop.
I can understand your fears, but is Murloc Paladin that threatening in Standard, considering other better aggressive decks like Zoolock or DH himself are allowed there? And considering Finley is a legendary?
(I have no idea actually, I've just seen some streamers)
As for Highlander Murloc, I kinda agree, Consistency of Doubleton tends to be superior for Aggro tribes (they certainly are atm). Indeed, the Aggro Highlander deck I am trying in Wild just uses good standalone cards in order to generate Tempo and create large boards for finishers, and I think this is the way to go for Highlander until Murlocs in Paladin can go wide as fast as Silver Hand Recruits can (which is unlikely I think because it would be redundant).
One of the coolest ones in a long while, if not one of the best ever.
If only Lucentbark cardback had moving lights...
I have just realized we have discussed the possibility of an Aldor Attendant treatment for Sir Finley of the Sands (ie buffing him to 1/3 for (1)) in terms of Highlander Paladin.
That was indeed the main point of my suggestion,but I have realized the same buff would also impact Murloc Paladin (using Finley as a premium early body), which is already a solid meta deck, both in Wild and Standard.
What about that point?
As I see it, the impact would probably be minor in Wild Murloc, but it would be pretty interesting for Standard Murloc.
Join Wild for next season. ;)
Well, TartaMagica said it all for me.
Cheers man.
Cheers man!
The new ladder system is surely great to invite decent players to try the climb at least once.
Now you can chill with off-meta laddering from now on, until it appeals you to do otherwise.
I am watching some games here and there, and I feel DH is still too dominant.
Rogue and Warrior can also do ridiculous things, so I dunno.
I just feel some matchups in this tournament are too doomed, for such a high level of players.
Given the situation, I'd go for gold farming with an Aggro deck in Casual. Possibly in Wild. Like Pirate Warrior, Discolock, Odd DH.
You can concede as soon as you see things are compromised, and that would also lower your MMR and improve your chances to get an easy match on the next one.
The cap is 100g per day tho + Quests. So that's gonna take about 4-5 days.
(I admittedly didn't check about the current Brawl, so I don't know if that's faster in terms of playtime, but the gold cap is the same)
Yeah, I had to play Kanrethad too often on his own, with no synergy (although it's pretty nice when you can combo him).
I keep Maiev here just because that is the list I used for L, but indeed Loatheb is better overall atm.
DH are already applying the Shadoweaver for similar purposes, so I decided to extend that further with early Shards.
As they say, fight Ice with Ice, I guess.
Well, Zephrys the Great fits the Aggro archetype (mainly with lethals), although Aggro and Highlander don't fit very well together, because Highlander kills Consistency, even in Wild.
But Sir Finley of the Sands is an additional card that goes in the same direction of sheer versatility (instead of just Highlander = Midgame Swing/Value): Paladin might be the only class with a viable (just viable) Highlander Aggro archetype (we could argue about Secret Mage, but a deck with just 2x 1-drops doesn't really classify as Aggro, so far).
I mean, Sir Finley of the Sands was/is exactly the card that can make Highlander Paladin a peculiar deck in its own (despite being still a worse Aggro deck compared with, say, Murloc, Mech, Odd Paladin). The fact it actually is peculiar, but clearly unoptimized for curve purposes is really baffling.
And Aggro needs less extra support, as opposed to some Self-Shuffling archetype (we see it in Warlock just because shuffling goes on par with draw, and I argue no buff to Takk would ever make it into a working archetype, you'd need several Shuffle cards buffed together, and probably new small ones costing little mana, as you can't really afford to waste turns shuffling stuff in the Midgame, when big swing turns happen).
Tbh, I'm actually sure we'll see Finley buffed to (1) 1/3 before the next Rotation kicks in. Because it's just too reasonable, and such a small innocent buff would feed many people (not just for homebrew junkies like me) with new deckbuildings in the same way the buff to Libram Paladin did (I mean, it's not like the buff renewed the deck in any significant way other than a better curve, but look at all the deckbuilding attempts made after the buff), without seriously altering the meta. It would be a terrible mistake otherwise, since the card is already there, especially if it's not a (1) probably just because of past Odd/Even reactions from the playerbase.
Surely I'd take a Secret-based Highlander Paladin in future.