There is build variance, but not enough to make matchups look seriously varied each week.
Most Warriors and Priests are Control, DH is Soul, Mage is Small Spell, Druid is Ramp-Guardian. Rogue is Miracle. And that's it. That's the meta in Tournament, barred few outsider decks with limited success.
Older popular decks like Face Hunter and Aggro Rogue are fading away already, and there seems to be no new rookie list at the horizon.
Glad you enjoy it, I still watch some games, I still enjoy pro plays, but I am unable to stick to the screen for too long.
Well, I don't know about now, but a lot (if not most) of forum activity in HPwn was about people crying for nerfs for no reasons. I don't think we need that.
Pretty quiet about decks too, I quite agree and maybe we should come up with something about it.
What if we simply started posting VS reports on the news and related decks? Maybe popular/effective decks from HSR each week?
Or spicy open articles generating discussion, ie. Do you like created-by meta?
While I understand your pov, I don't think it is entirely true, and I believe your own expectations are making real premises more relevant than they are.
At least, not in Wild, as paradoxical as it sounds.
Barred the temporary Darkglare shitfest, Wild meta allows virtually any well-rounded deck to have a chance in most situations.
In particular, you can build Reno decks with Zephrys the Great, and you can tune them from Tempo to Control, as you like. As long as you include other cards to go with the incoming new meta.
Infectious Sporeling is another incredibly underrated card to get out of cheesy situations, and you can easily Rush it up as well.
At the end of the day, even in Standard, if pop-off turns are common across most classes, you can use your own pop-off turns to answer those of your opponent.
The back-and-forth is still there, just on steroids due to powercreep.
I think you are making nostalgia a bigger factor than it objectively should be. And you are entitled to think it as you do ofc, but I mean you are kinda generating your own problem.
Well I'd rather leave Apprentice as is than completely ruin QMage. As I said, I am ok with QMage keeping Reno Priests in check.
Lightning Bloom can be nerfed to have it 'refresh' mana only, so that it cannot be used to break the Curve anymore, which is the only problem of the card (allowing insane early spikes, and I refer to Big Shaman as well).
In particular, I like the fact Secret Passage was given the softest nerf possible, as anything else would have crippled the card to unplayability - despite what all the non-Rogue players keep saying and incorrectly comparing the card with The Soularium.
btw, it's still a nerf by 20%, which is HUGE.
What I don't like is the cards that didn't receive a nerf, that is Lightning Bloom, Tortollan Pilgrim and Sorcerer's Apprentice (although I'm kinda happy I can rely on QMage to contain Reno Priests while I can still efficiently tech against QMage with Neutral cards).
I've been trying my way up the ladder with out of meta decks and I still don't find anything wrong with the cards you listed for nerfs.
Voracious Reader is hardly a problem. Its been a while since I saw someone play this for a draw more than 1, a testament to how difficult it is to get value out of this card, especially in the early game.
Secret Passage is probably the most deserving in your list, but even then it doesn't really seem like a problem card. The real problem at the moment is how rogue abuses the many stealth minions they have, and the lack of a good healing card in standard right now. That's why most hunter decks just bulldozes aggro rogue with Explosive Trap. I like how secret passage allows rogue to play stuff that until now never saw the light of day, and if nerfing it means its all back to galakrond rogue, then I'm okay with secret passage staying unnerfed until the next expansion.
And finally Libram of Wisdom. Despite what you read in hsreplay or other stats, paladin is neither oppressive or hard to counter. If anything, its the most fair of all the classes, and any nerf to its core cards will instantly relegate paladin to unplayable for yet another expansion. On the discussion of whether libram of wisdom is broken? The real question would be would you keep this in your mulligan if you don't get to play Aldor Attendant on 1? The answer is no, and that is why it remains fair at 2 mana.
Most people use secret passage to find lethal thats why people don't like it the ability to easily find lethal. Basically zephrys in aggro rogue
Nope. Zephrys offers you versatile tools for diverse situations. Aggro Rogues have little to none of that in their decks.
More like Leeroy Jenkins back in Aggro Rogue - which is honestly perfectly fitting an Aggro deck.
Aggro Rogue can be dealt with in different ways: out-Aggro, Taunt/Tempo, Armor/Heal, cheap board clears (or a mix of these). Ofc it takes people to adjust their decks instead of netdecking stuff that is already obsolete the moment it is popular.
But apparently it's easier to complain of "1-munah-drhuw-5!!!11!1!" without even stopping to think...
As if we had never faced Aggro in the meta before btw.
The nerf you suggested for Secret Passage outright kills the card. It's not conservative at all.
Because The Soularium DRAWS cards (they are ADDED to your previous hand, and you can then calculate the best synergies after that), while Secret Passage REPLACES WITH 5 cards (this means you cannot calculate synergies with your hands, you can only GAMBLE).
SP equalled to draw 5 is just wrong.
Also the soularium a draw engine historically did quite poorly. It works now in Wild because of Discard and Pain synergies - which Passage doesn't have.
Additionally, this is entirely new level of powercreep with Scholomance, comparing with cards from the past will only show part of the truth.
Decks regularly dieing to Sinister Strike says nothing about Secret Passage - it's telling instead of how these decks provide poor counterstrategy to chip damage: sinister strike becomes useful ONLY IF you let the Rogue deal 27 damage to your face before. It's a dead card in hand before that.
Ofc SP is a very good card, but given the powerlevel of the meta, it's actually a pretty fair one.
None of the nerfs you suggested is actually neccessary atm (nor are they good anyway imo, except possibly that of the Reader).
PS: even with just the stats you reported, there's no need for a nerf: anything below 60% is perfectly fine, especially in a yet dynamic meta.
PPS: bare Sinister Strike is a BAD card, and decks that regularly die at some unbuffed Sinister Strike are BAD decks, that absolutely need to be refined. There are no excuses for that.
I've been playing since LoE and finally hit standard legend earlier this year after being a dad legend player for a good while before. It's nice to be able to mess around with less competitive decks in dumpster legend without that niggling voice telling to focus on climbing, and to know you've maxed out your rewards for the season. I'm also having a go at the wild ladder now - hit r5 this morning - and just enjoying the game before next week's ladder reset.
And now that I've hit it I don't feel like I need to ever again. I could go after the rewards but I don't want to play to the point where I experience burnout.
Same feeling here. However, Legend is luring me back for my homebrew decks (to prove they are decent). I don't like the stress of the grind tho, so I am there, at D1 with Aggro Reno Paladin, slowly climbing, playing 1-2 ranked matches every 3 days or so because that's the maximum stress I can afford. Jeez...
Luckily, the new ranked system with shorter stilts between floors helps a lot with competitive anxiety.
There is build variance, but not enough to make matchups look seriously varied each week.
Most Warriors and Priests are Control, DH is Soul, Mage is Small Spell, Druid is Ramp-Guardian. Rogue is Miracle. And that's it. That's the meta in Tournament, barred few outsider decks with limited success.
Older popular decks like Face Hunter and Aggro Rogue are fading away already, and there seems to be no new rookie list at the horizon.
Glad you enjoy it, I still watch some games, I still enjoy pro plays, but I am unable to stick to the screen for too long.
Consistently getting hooked up by these... If you see what I mean. 😎
Well, I don't know about now, but a lot (if not most) of forum activity in HPwn was about people crying for nerfs for no reasons. I don't think we need that.
Pretty quiet about decks too, I quite agree and maybe we should come up with something about it.
What if we simply started posting VS reports on the news and related decks? Maybe popular/effective decks from HSR each week?
Or spicy open articles generating discussion, ie. Do you like created-by meta?
Meta needs some shakeup I believe, or different format.
Even when archetypes vary even significantly enough, most classes seem to be quite pigeonholed into one functional playstyle each.
Been following GM for some weeks now, and it feels too much the same thing. I get bored after few series right now.
Indeed I'm afraid of Big Shaman in the post-nerf meta.
At first I thought Tortollan Mage might be the new threat, but I like to think that Aggro decks can keep it in check. Or Flik Skyshiv.
But what can effectively counter Big Shaman powered by Lightning Bloom?
While I understand your pov, I don't think it is entirely true, and I believe your own expectations are making real premises more relevant than they are.
At least, not in Wild, as paradoxical as it sounds.
Barred the temporary Darkglare shitfest, Wild meta allows virtually any well-rounded deck to have a chance in most situations.
In particular, you can build Reno decks with Zephrys the Great, and you can tune them from Tempo to Control, as you like. As long as you include other cards to go with the incoming new meta.
Infectious Sporeling is another incredibly underrated card to get out of cheesy situations, and you can easily Rush it up as well.
At the end of the day, even in Standard, if pop-off turns are common across most classes, you can use your own pop-off turns to answer those of your opponent.
The back-and-forth is still there, just on steroids due to powercreep.
I think you are making nostalgia a bigger factor than it objectively should be. And you are entitled to think it as you do ofc, but I mean you are kinda generating your own problem.
Well I'd rather leave Apprentice as is than completely ruin QMage. As I said, I am ok with QMage keeping Reno Priests in check.
Lightning Bloom can be nerfed to have it 'refresh' mana only, so that it cannot be used to break the Curve anymore, which is the only problem of the card (allowing insane early spikes, and I refer to Big Shaman as well).
I think all the changes are correct.
In particular, I like the fact Secret Passage was given the softest nerf possible, as anything else would have crippled the card to unplayability - despite what all the non-Rogue players keep saying and incorrectly comparing the card with The Soularium.
btw, it's still a nerf by 20%, which is HUGE.
What I don't like is the cards that didn't receive a nerf, that is Lightning Bloom, Tortollan Pilgrim and Sorcerer's Apprentice (although I'm kinda happy I can rely on QMage to contain Reno Priests while I can still efficiently tech against QMage with Neutral cards).
Indeed I updated with the Secret Package instead of Stealth!
Not completely sure it is for the best, but it is surely for the most fun, since Secrets can generate shenanigans capable of winning nearly any games.
I also added more Combo power.
I'm glad SP was nerfed in the only possible way without killing the card.
I hope I can still profit from it in Miracle and Oil.
Nope. Zephrys offers you versatile tools for diverse situations. Aggro Rogues have little to none of that in their decks.
More like Leeroy Jenkins back in Aggro Rogue - which is honestly perfectly fitting an Aggro deck.
Aggro Rogue can be dealt with in different ways: out-Aggro, Taunt/Tempo, Armor/Heal, cheap board clears (or a mix of these). Ofc it takes people to adjust their decks instead of netdecking stuff that is already obsolete the moment it is popular.
But apparently it's easier to complain of "1-munah-drhuw-5!!!11!1!" without even stopping to think...
As if we had never faced Aggro in the meta before btw.
Secret Mages are still fairly popular together with QMages.
The new dominant decks (in terms of both popularity and winrate) atm are Painlock and Reno Priest.
The nerf you suggested for Secret Passage outright kills the card. It's not conservative at all.
Because The Soularium DRAWS cards (they are ADDED to your previous hand, and you can then calculate the best synergies after that), while Secret Passage REPLACES WITH 5 cards (this means you cannot calculate synergies with your hands, you can only GAMBLE).
SP equalled to draw 5 is just wrong.
Also the soularium a draw engine historically did quite poorly. It works now in Wild because of Discard and Pain synergies - which Passage doesn't have.
Additionally, this is entirely new level of powercreep with Scholomance, comparing with cards from the past will only show part of the truth.
Decks regularly dieing to Sinister Strike says nothing about Secret Passage - it's telling instead of how these decks provide poor counterstrategy to chip damage: sinister strike becomes useful ONLY IF you let the Rogue deal 27 damage to your face before. It's a dead card in hand before that.
Ofc SP is a very good card, but given the powerlevel of the meta, it's actually a pretty fair one.
Please have a read at the latest VS report.
None of the nerfs you suggested is actually neccessary atm (nor are they good anyway imo, except possibly that of the Reader).
PS: even with just the stats you reported, there's no need for a nerf: anything below 60% is perfectly fine, especially in a yet dynamic meta.
PPS: bare Sinister Strike is a BAD card, and decks that regularly die at some unbuffed Sinister Strike are BAD decks, that absolutely need to be refined. There are no excuses for that.
I have a golden Glide I'd love to disenchant for full value.
I still think the card is broken on paper, it's just that no DH with the card seems to show signs of being OP enough to trigger the nerf...
I am inherently bound to constructed and building against a known meta, so I am biased against Arena.
What makes it not appealing to me is the fact I have to spend resources for a bet, which I am likely to lose, especially as a beginner in Arena.
Resources I prefer to spend for something that I can keep for sure (cards or dust).
If one arena run per week was free, like Brawl, I'd play it more.
And rewards should probably have a steeper curve.
Same feeling here. However, Legend is luring me back for my homebrew decks (to prove they are decent). I don't like the stress of the grind tho, so I am there, at D1 with Aggro Reno Paladin, slowly climbing, playing 1-2 ranked matches every 3 days or so because that's the maximum stress I can afford. Jeez...
Luckily, the new ranked system with shorter stilts between floors helps a lot with competitive anxiety.
Anyway, congrats on your first climb!
Well, now that F2P is safe, I'm all in for the new system.
Mmh, not a particularly interesting tribe to me.
That's NOT card generation, but body generation.
Also, Murgur Murgurgle and Murgurgle Prime are NOT the same card, despite being clearly tied to each other.
Recent hotfix "only" prevents cards from generating directly themselves into your hand.
Anything else can still happen, with body generation, and with indirect generation (via a middle-card).