After finishing the free card quests and spending just a bit of credits on card packs (I was considering leaving most of it in case I return at a better time for control players who like to face off against other control decks) ... yeah, this news just makes my planned walking away easier.
What's better than countering cards as a control deck? DISCARDING YOUR OPPONENTS CARDS BEFORE they can play them! Woe to OTK players in particular, as Gnomeferatu, Skulking Geist, Rin, the First Disciple and the Howlfiend + Treachery combo are in this deck, waiting to ruin the opponent's hand or deck.
This was a favorite of mine for the year it was in standard via Kobolds & Catacombs, and it got a second life in wild last year when I saw J4ckiechan reviving the concept and succeeding with it. I tinkered with his list and it's been in my rotation since.
Even in losses, there's a bit of glee that makes you look past the L when you see the Howlfiend + Treachery combo go off and your opponent's vital cards go up in smoke. I've actually turned on music for the extra evil laughs -- Disco Inferno and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture fit the bill.
There's a delicate balance of trying to get as much defense and managing health and hand size, while getting the board set up for the Howlfiend + Treachery combo or when you think your opponent can't effectively counter Rin, then safely walling yourself as you play her ritual cards.
This isn't a strong enough deck to carry you to legend in Wild, but it will make the journey on ladder more interesting, and it also works for some tavern brawls.
Ran into a Raza Priest using Archivist Elysiana last night when he ran out of ammo, er, cards; with that in play I thought my control mage was out of tricks to stay alive until he used Azalina Soulthief, sacrificing his four cards for my ... Skulking Geist. Maybe he thought I had a draw spell, frost nova, badass minion reduced to 1-mana cost or secret. Gave me the win on the following turn with the minions I had on board.
Talk about ruining tempo and shooting yourself in the ****. But I would say Archivist would make sense in wild Raza Priest. Just use better judgment than that guy :P
/one of the best 30 minute games I've had of the current meta and I enjoy the absurd long contests that seem to get rarer and rarer, but I had a lot of luck on my card draws as well as not losing Reno Jackson on his first card of the game, Dirty Rat
//don't use the un'goro quest for mage. Dishonorable thing.
I am wondering if the new Setthek card, along with Lyra the Sunshard, could generate a wild spell priest deck. Probably too chaotic to be successful compared to how Setthek is helping me out in standard.
Other than that, it's Razakus or Big Rez, both expensive. Run into the former far more than the latter at least.
Treachery Warlock vs. Handbuff/Libram of Wisdom-spam Paladin. It degenerated into a quality clown fiesta.
Went into fatigue, a lot of board clears, a Lorewalker Cho sighting, a use of Void Contract by the paladin, milling on both sides and some great cards provided to me by Anduin, who gave me a copy of Shirvallah, the Tiger for a useful removal and heal. And Valdris Felgorge being a d--k in my deck, as he was the last card.
Treachery + Howlfiend + a few minions to combo and send the Shirvallah in his hand off to the ether and win via rage quit. Guess you can't do anything when you have just a hand of libram buff spells and no minions.
/Treachery remains one of my favorite meme decks. No guarantees but have fun destroying the other guy's hand and/or deck.
Yeah, I'm wondering if it's still worth carrying Unseen Saboteur in my Wild highlander packages.
Useless in Standard at the moment, but in Wild it has been an all-star and worth pairing with Brann Bronzebeard. Card has won many games against warlocks (Cataclysm or Bloodbloom goes off, you win; even had a miracle against Darkest Hour Warlock having his Twisting Nether go off).
And it's very effective against druids, rogues, Shadowreaper Priest (milling the millers or screwing up some OTK shenanigans) and Control Warrior to a degree (one mass removal misused can make all the difference).
But it's almost impossible to use it against Quest Mage (had it snag a Time Warp about three times since August) or Big Priest now (too many rez spells in its latest form).
For one such as me who hates aggro and smorc and likes long control games, challenging OTK or off the wall memes, this is probably the lowest point in years. Just nothing BUT DH, hunters and rogue. Rez Priest is less exciting when you can't throw in Hakkar the Soulflayer to spice troll things up with highlanders and mirror matches and add risk and pressure to the late game.
The brief time I played Demon Hunter (opening days quest requirement) I felt that the deck was overcompensating. Dirty, all that.
Glad I didn't buy the expansion. Zetalot's meme deck (Dragon Egg Priest) was fun for a few days, but it finally fizzled this weekend.
I've noticed some Bomb Control warriors in Wild, but it's not enough to tempt me to craft old school Dr. Boom and that class legendary that puts a 10-damage bomb in a deck, not to mention that it's probably useless against Quest Mage (still the rage, still be the rage after upcoming nerfs) and Big Rez Priest 4.0 (who seems to shrug off attempts to junk up the rez pool where previous would concede, and RNG sides with those priests, no matter how many sheep or 1-mana minions you place in their lineup).
Oh, and congrats on King Mukla; he was the last classic legendary I needed too and I received him just before the new ladder hit. So motivation to reach legendary went out the window for me there (even though I had a feeling how bad the ladder would be this month).
Definitely 12. Mages can spawn spells and freeze the board pretty well in Wild.
We need a tech card that sets quests back in the next expansion. An epic or lower minion that takes two points away, that will help.
I've only succeeded in using Unseen Saboteur three times against mages who've completed the quest; and Dirty Rat ain't a guarantee in derailing the combo (and I've seen some mages carrying both the Antonidas package and giants).
/been using anti-OTK decks in Wild since Uldum; the trinity of Dirty Rat, Unseen Saboteur and Skulking Geist is VERY useful in wild -- except against Mages finishing the quest in like five turns and Darkest Hour Locks.
Not feeling that need for a Sac Pact nerf. It just got back into vogue because demons are everywhere and being played by more than one class, and Lord J (who has pining the bench since Frozen Throne) needs another weakness other than 15 health.
Don't diss Unseen Saboteur. It wins lots of games for me in Wild. Standard just doesn't run old-school style OTK decks or feature control vs. control anymore.
(Sees another warlock's Cataclysm going off, a druid milling his own cards or wasting a Big Priest Rez before they've dropped a minion)
So for those griping about being tired of Highlander or Rez, here's a new deck to try. Do mind the warnings (HSReplay at time of writing 49.6% of a small sample), but perhaps, it is the start of something wonderful if refined.
(I subbed Reliquary of Souls for A'lar, as I don't have it. Pretty much the same strategy. Just enjoyed a Spell Mage's turn 6 quit when he did the same mistake Regis' first opponent did in the video below)
Just watched Kripp get bored on Twitch; he was reading off stats. He faced 90% demon hunters and the class was according to meta statistics, with a 70-ish percent win rate, pushing every other class below 50 percent (Hunter was No. 2 with 49%).
He did have a nice streak using rez priest.
Have to say this might be in the running with Descent of Dragons and Rastakhan's Rumble as the worst launch day I can remember.
Wall of Text Incoming -- Hearthstone Opening Day Stats
Opened 90 Packs, all F2P. DID NOT BUY ANY SETS (1. Looked at the cards and just saw boring aggro, little support for control and no fun memes -- laughing as I see Kripp bored from endless demon hunter opponents and the class has pushed everything to less than 50% win rate at the time of this writing; 2. Playing more Wild than Standard, so need for new cards is less, esp. with the new pack rules, 3. My two cents back at the company for pandering to aggro. And for Blizz stiffing Blitzchung.)
90 packs, 5 legendaries (Pack No. 4, 18, 54 (x2), 82). Largest gap: 36. Added 3 Day 1 Crafts for 8 TOTAL. Not worst ever, but not good.
TOP 10 LEGENDARIES LANDED: 0 FOR 10 (worst for any expansion). TOP 10 WANTED EPICS: 7 for 10, with four pairs (1 pair crafted later).
Golden Cards: 10 common, 3 rare, 1 epic = 14. Dusted all but the epic for 800 dust. Dust from duplicates: 1,670. TOTAL DUST: 2,430.
40 & Dust Packs (one rare, four common, no golds): 49 out of 90.
No New Cards Packs: Had first at Pack No. 60 -- 23 of 90 packs.
Completed ALL COMMON: Pack 28. Completed ALL RARES: Pack 59. First Class to complete common: tie, Warrior and Hunter. First Class to complete rares: Demon Hunter First Class to complete epics: Priest via crafting. Classes with both legendaries: Priest (Crafting) and Hunter (from same pack!) Complete Set: Priest, Hunter (too bad I don't play the latter) Late for class: Took 10 packs till I got my first Warlock card. Missing school: No epics or legendaries for Mage, my second favorite class, but I'm not crafting anything until the nerfs.
This expansion underwhelmed me from its announcement, and I see it is one of the worst starting days (its challenging Rastakhan's Rumble as the worst). Plan to barely check in, just do daily and wait for the nerfs before I craft anything.
1-0 wild vs. an Odd-using Demon Hunter. Grants them +2 damage on hero power btw. I was using Highlander anti-OTK mage.
Once Frost Lich Jaina and the elementals started spawning, it was over. And summoning more 1-1s isn't smart against FLJ.
Illidan can silence taunts, but he can't do anything frozen. That new 8-mana freeze spell spawning two water elementals was made with Demon Hunter in mind, I think.
Yeah I got some success with stealing as Priest but I did come up blank with a time I tried to take a neutral card from AI Demon Hunter via Madam Lazul. Weird.
You can play against the Demon Hunter AI in practice.
Best way to describe it: runs out of cards fast, can pack the board like warlock while going face with weapons like warrior AI.
Relentless in trying to bring your health down like Hunter AI, but good taunts and board clears can pretty much make it easier than any of those AI matches.
Also, don't play Rogue with card copying/stealing strategies; you won't get any cards. Blizz really doesn't want you to play those cards right now. Don't know if Priest or other stealing mechanics work.
Something to add: A possible reason to carry Shadow Madness in the next expansion.
Most of the deathrattle cards that add a "Legendary PRIME" from the upcoming expansion can be stolen by the new, slimmer Shadow Madness, which historically shines against deathrattles (often in Hearthstone 3 attack or less) as you get the result if you kill the minion you briefly stole.
Nearly all the deathrattle "get a superOMGWTFBBQ prime shuffled into deck" can be stolen by Priest using Cabal Shadow Priest or the new, slimmer mana Shadow Madness. And Teron Gorefiend too.
Hope for control players still, but a lot of aggressive/tempo so far (as of 3/21).
Yeah lets print more cards that support a very funny and totally not broken archetype in wild.
Seriously, that archetype is so boring and overplayed
I play wild control mage WITHOUT QUEST and I'm getting compliments from opponents for not using that or secret mage after I've won, instead of snarling rage from Frost Lich Jaina or Unseen Saboteur plays (you have no idea how many decks that card can derail).
There is a code of honor in Hearthstone, and there should be a list of cards and decks (and an achievement) for not playing them.
After finishing the free card quests and spending just a bit of credits on card packs (I was considering leaving most of it in case I return at a better time for control players who like to face off against other control decks) ... yeah, this news just makes my planned walking away easier.
In your face grinds aren't fun.
What's better than countering cards as a control deck? DISCARDING YOUR OPPONENTS CARDS BEFORE they can play them! Woe to OTK players in particular, as Gnomeferatu, Skulking Geist, Rin, the First Disciple and the Howlfiend + Treachery combo are in this deck, waiting to ruin the opponent's hand or deck.
This was a favorite of mine for the year it was in standard via Kobolds & Catacombs, and it got a second life in wild last year when I saw J4ckiechan reviving the concept and succeeding with it. I tinkered with his list and it's been in my rotation since.
Even in losses, there's a bit of glee that makes you look past the L when you see the Howlfiend + Treachery combo go off and your opponent's vital cards go up in smoke. I've actually turned on music for the extra evil laughs -- Disco Inferno and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture fit the bill.
There's a delicate balance of trying to get as much defense and managing health and hand size, while getting the board set up for the Howlfiend + Treachery combo or when you think your opponent can't effectively counter Rin, then safely walling yourself as you play her ritual cards.
This isn't a strong enough deck to carry you to legend in Wild, but it will make the journey on ladder more interesting, and it also works for some tavern brawls.
And we can see it's Nemsy's top play :)
Thought you might list wild decks as well.
Ran into a Raza Priest using Archivist Elysiana last night when he ran out of ammo, er, cards; with that in play I thought my control mage was out of tricks to stay alive until he used Azalina Soulthief, sacrificing his four cards for my ... Skulking Geist. Maybe he thought I had a draw spell, frost nova, badass minion reduced to 1-mana cost or secret. Gave me the win on the following turn with the minions I had on board.
Talk about ruining tempo and shooting yourself in the ****. But I would say Archivist would make sense in wild Raza Priest. Just use better judgment than that guy :P
/one of the best 30 minute games I've had of the current meta and I enjoy the absurd long contests that seem to get rarer and rarer, but I had a lot of luck on my card draws as well as not losing Reno Jackson on his first card of the game, Dirty Rat
//don't use the un'goro quest for mage. Dishonorable thing.
I am wondering if the new Setthek card, along with Lyra the Sunshard, could generate a wild spell priest deck. Probably too chaotic to be successful compared to how Setthek is helping me out in standard.
Other than that, it's Razakus or Big Rez, both expensive. Run into the former far more than the latter at least.
Treachery Warlock vs. Handbuff/Libram of Wisdom-spam Paladin. It degenerated into a quality clown fiesta.
Went into fatigue, a lot of board clears, a Lorewalker Cho sighting, a use of Void Contract by the paladin, milling on both sides and some great cards provided to me by Anduin, who gave me a copy of Shirvallah, the Tiger for a useful removal and heal. And Valdris Felgorge being a d--k in my deck, as he was the last card.
Treachery + Howlfiend + a few minions to combo and send the Shirvallah in his hand off to the ether and win via rage quit. Guess you can't do anything when you have just a hand of libram buff spells and no minions.
/Treachery remains one of my favorite meme decks. No guarantees but have fun destroying the other guy's hand and/or deck.
### Treachery Brawl
# Class: Warlock
# Format: Wild
#
# 2x (1) Kobold Librarian
# 1x (1) Mistress of Mixtures
# 1x (1) Possessed Villager
# 2x (2) Defile
# 1x (2) Doomsayer
# 2x (2) Gnomeferatu
# 1x (2) Vulgar Homunculus
# 2x (3) Howlfiend
# 2x (3) Treachery
# 1x (4) Hellfire
# 2x (4) Lesser Amethyst Spellstone
# 1x (6) Rin, the First Disciple
# 2x (6) Siphon Soul
# 1x (7) Abyssal Enforcer
# 1x (7) Lord Godfrey
# 1x (7) Valdris Felgorge
# 2x (8) Enhanced Dreadlord
# 2x (8) Twisting Nether
# 2x (9) Voidlord
# 1x (10) Bloodreaver Gul'dan
#
AAEBAcn1AgqKAbYH9q4C3bwC3sQC8dACl9MC2OcCnPgC8KwDCtsGzAjnywLFzAKSzQKuzQLy0AKI0gLo5wLEuQMA
Yeah, I'm wondering if it's still worth carrying Unseen Saboteur in my Wild highlander packages.
Useless in Standard at the moment, but in Wild it has been an all-star and worth pairing with Brann Bronzebeard. Card has won many games against warlocks (Cataclysm or Bloodbloom goes off, you win; even had a miracle against Darkest Hour Warlock having his Twisting Nether go off).
And it's very effective against druids, rogues, Shadowreaper Priest (milling the millers or screwing up some OTK shenanigans) and Control Warrior to a degree (one mass removal misused can make all the difference).
But it's almost impossible to use it against Quest Mage (had it snag a Time Warp about three times since August) or Big Priest now (too many rez spells in its latest form).
For one such as me who hates aggro and smorc and likes long control games, challenging OTK or off the wall memes, this is probably the lowest point in years. Just nothing BUT DH, hunters and rogue. Rez Priest is less exciting when you can't throw in Hakkar the Soulflayer to spice troll things up with highlanders and mirror matches and add risk and pressure to the late game.
The brief time I played Demon Hunter (opening days quest requirement) I felt that the deck was overcompensating. Dirty, all that.
Glad I didn't buy the expansion. Zetalot's meme deck (Dragon Egg Priest) was fun for a few days, but it finally fizzled this weekend.
I've noticed some Bomb Control warriors in Wild, but it's not enough to tempt me to craft old school Dr. Boom and that class legendary that puts a 10-damage bomb in a deck, not to mention that it's probably useless against Quest Mage (still the rage, still be the rage after upcoming nerfs) and Big Rez Priest 4.0 (who seems to shrug off attempts to junk up the rez pool where previous would concede, and RNG sides with those priests, no matter how many sheep or 1-mana minions you place in their lineup).
Oh, and congrats on King Mukla; he was the last classic legendary I needed too and I received him just before the new ladder hit. So motivation to reach legendary went out the window for me there (even though I had a feeling how bad the ladder would be this month).
Definitely 12. Mages can spawn spells and freeze the board pretty well in Wild.
We need a tech card that sets quests back in the next expansion. An epic or lower minion that takes two points away, that will help.
I've only succeeded in using Unseen Saboteur three times against mages who've completed the quest; and Dirty Rat ain't a guarantee in derailing the combo (and I've seen some mages carrying both the Antonidas package and giants).
/been using anti-OTK decks in Wild since Uldum; the trinity of Dirty Rat, Unseen Saboteur and Skulking Geist is VERY useful in wild -- except against Mages finishing the quest in like five turns and Darkest Hour Locks.
Not feeling that need for a Sac Pact nerf. It just got back into vogue because demons are everywhere and being played by more than one class, and Lord J (who has pining the bench since Frozen Throne) needs another weakness other than 15 health.
And I'm not even playing warlock at the moment.
Don't diss Unseen Saboteur. It wins lots of games for me in Wild. Standard just doesn't run old-school style OTK decks or feature control vs. control anymore.
(Sees another warlock's Cataclysm going off, a druid milling his own cards or wasting a Big Priest Rez before they've dropped a minion)
Fellow Priest players, Zetalot has returned, and his meme deck is fun and unusual, and it's streaky enough to consider.
So for those griping about being tired of Highlander or Rez, here's a new deck to try. Do mind the warnings (HSReplay at time of writing 49.6% of a small sample), but perhaps, it is the start of something wonderful if refined.
(I subbed Reliquary of Souls for A'lar, as I don't have it. Pretty much the same strategy. Just enjoyed a Spell Mage's turn 6 quit when he did the same mistake Regis' first opponent did in the video below)
Regiskillbin giving Zetalot's deck a spin:
Just watched Kripp get bored on Twitch; he was reading off stats. He faced 90% demon hunters and the class was according to meta statistics, with a 70-ish percent win rate, pushing every other class below 50 percent (Hunter was No. 2 with 49%).
He did have a nice streak using rez priest.
Have to say this might be in the running with Descent of Dragons and Rastakhan's Rumble as the worst launch day I can remember.
Wall of Text Incoming -- Hearthstone Opening Day Stats
Opened 90 Packs, all F2P. DID NOT BUY ANY SETS (1. Looked at the cards and just saw boring aggro, little support for control and no fun memes -- laughing as I see Kripp bored from endless demon hunter opponents and the class has pushed everything to less than 50% win rate at the time of this writing; 2. Playing more Wild than Standard, so need for new cards is less, esp. with the new pack rules, 3. My two cents back at the company for pandering to aggro. And for Blizz stiffing Blitzchung.)
90 packs, 5 legendaries (Pack No. 4, 18, 54 (x2), 82). Largest gap: 36. Added 3 Day 1 Crafts for 8 TOTAL. Not worst ever, but not good.
Legendaries landed: [Hearthstone Card (Archspore Msshifn) Not Found], Metamorphosis, Beastmaster Leoroxx and Zixor, Apex Predator in the same pack, The Lurker Below.
Day 1 Crafts: Reliquary of Souls, [Hearthstone Card (Soul Mirror,) Not Found] Maiev Shadowsong. Also crafted Sethekk Veilweaver x2.
TOP 10 LEGENDARIES LANDED: 0 FOR 10 (worst for any expansion). TOP 10 WANTED EPICS: 7 for 10, with four pairs (1 pair crafted later).
Golden Cards: 10 common, 3 rare, 1 epic = 14. Dusted all but the epic for 800 dust. Dust from duplicates: 1,670. TOTAL DUST: 2,430.
40 & Dust Packs (one rare, four common, no golds): 49 out of 90.
No New Cards Packs: Had first at Pack No. 60 -- 23 of 90 packs.
Completed ALL COMMON: Pack 28.
Completed ALL RARES: Pack 59.
First Class to complete common: tie, Warrior and Hunter.
First Class to complete rares: Demon Hunter
First Class to complete epics: Priest via crafting.
Classes with both legendaries: Priest (Crafting) and Hunter (from same pack!)
Complete Set: Priest, Hunter (too bad I don't play the latter)
Late for class: Took 10 packs till I got my first Warlock card.
Missing school: No epics or legendaries for Mage, my second favorite class, but I'm not crafting anything until the nerfs.
This expansion underwhelmed me from its announcement, and I see it is one of the worst starting days (its challenging Rastakhan's Rumble as the worst). Plan to barely check in, just do daily and wait for the nerfs before I craft anything.
The damage after turn card and 10-damage on wake up minion do need to be greatly reduced.
Also, wasn't demon hunters identity weakness supposed to be card draw? Seems like they got a lot.
/can't let priest get card draw or face damage, though, that's the class identity
1-0 wild vs. an Odd-using Demon Hunter. Grants them +2 damage on hero power btw. I was using Highlander anti-OTK mage.
Once Frost Lich Jaina and the elementals started spawning, it was over. And summoning more 1-1s isn't smart against FLJ.
Illidan can silence taunts, but he can't do anything frozen. That new 8-mana freeze spell spawning two water elementals was made with Demon Hunter in mind, I think.
Yeah I got some success with stealing as Priest but I did come up blank with a time I tried to take a neutral card from AI Demon Hunter via Madam Lazul. Weird.
You can play against the Demon Hunter AI in practice.
Best way to describe it: runs out of cards fast, can pack the board like warlock while going face with weapons like warrior AI.
Relentless in trying to bring your health down like Hunter AI, but good taunts and board clears can pretty much make it easier than any of those AI matches.
Also, don't play Rogue with card copying/stealing strategies; you won't get any cards. Blizz really doesn't want you to play those cards right now. Don't know if Priest or other stealing mechanics work.
Something to add: A possible reason to carry Shadow Madness in the next expansion.
Most of the deathrattle cards that add a "Legendary PRIME" from the upcoming expansion can be stolen by the new, slimmer Shadow Madness, which historically shines against deathrattles (often in Hearthstone 3 attack or less) as you get the result if you kill the minion you briefly stole.
So hey, let's thank our Hunters for giving Priest decks Zixor, Apex Predator in upcoming games (and Zixor Prime).
Nearly all the deathrattle "get a superOMGWTFBBQ prime shuffled into deck" can be stolen by Priest using Cabal Shadow Priest or the new, slimmer mana Shadow Madness. And Teron Gorefiend too.
Hope for control players still, but a lot of aggressive/tempo so far (as of 3/21).
I play wild control mage WITHOUT QUEST and I'm getting compliments from opponents for not using that or secret mage after I've won, instead of snarling rage from Frost Lich Jaina or Unseen Saboteur plays (you have no idea how many decks that card can derail).
There is a code of honor in Hearthstone, and there should be a list of cards and decks (and an achievement) for not playing them.
/dust every murloc too