Stuff that worked and how much based on my play so far
+ Soul Shard Zoo - It's quite decent. You can now play minions while trying to pull scrap imp as there are many more ways that you can re-stock your hand that synergizes with the deck. The soul shards also help offset all the self-damage you can do. I didn't have the zombie giants yet but the deck was working nicely. The raise dead 0 cost spell works great in this deck. It can blow out unrefined decks.
- Soul Shard Agro Demon Hunter - It's not good, but it doesn't gell as the soul shard cards slow its early game too much and it lacks finishing power.
+ Pure paladin - It was good and it's been boosted. It is versatile and powerful with strong offense, healing, and removal.
+ Buff paladin- If blessings of authority hit unopposed, it's game over. You have to have an answer for this play or you are in deep trouble. This is a scary good deck but might be easy for other decks to target in the meta.
+ Buff Priest - It snowballs like mad if you can't stop it. It has a deeper bench than a paladin, but it also feels like a deck you can target to beat and be successful in denying it because it's a bit limited in its deck building.
+ Spell Druid - It's stronger and more consistent than ever before, but I think people need to adjust their old builds. I've seen many fail to take good advantage of the new card selection.
I think the early meta will center around paladin and priest buff decks along with druid (which variant I'm not sure yet as I don't have the cards for the beast ramp deck).
Control decks will need some time to formulate the best reaction to these decks but I think control could still find a way. Shaman may have the best tooks to but a hard block on priest/paladin. Warrior needs a shift in perspective I think. The defenses from the last meta are not well suited to this meta but I think they have all the tools they need to find a way, it just need to find a way to close out the game while staying alive.
I'd suggest a sticky 3 drop instead, or just a strong aggressive 2 drop that isn't so sticky. Mostly the Shotbot is there to contest the early board and micro mummy isn't very good at that
It's really pretty solid. It's weak against Mage and Rogue because it can only counter one explosive turn per game and they can do multiple explosive turns. But... against everything else, it has real legs. It can put a lot of pressure on and keep it coming turn after turn while also having robust healing. I've got a slightly better than 50% rate with it at high diamond ranks. It's also fairly enjoyable to play. It's the only paladin deck I can say that about. The cost change on the little labrum guy actually makes a big difference in the decks curve out.
Flyfish with 3 dragons seems too inconsistent even if the payout can be big. I've been playing a more agro version of Gala Warrior since day 1 and I really like it. It sometimes blows out games, and sometimes fights the good fight. I quite enjoy it.
If you can invoke into a turn 7 Gala fully stocked its almost always game-over. That doesn't happen every time but it happens. In the agro version old Leroy is also quite good for finishing out games and the tokens he makes are generally inconsequential for this deck.
Sure do. Though really, I'm playing a version I think is a little more fun even it if is a little weaker. I'd say I'll take up to a 10% increase in loss rate for a deck I really enjoy playing.
I'm probably out of touch with the current state of "Big Priest". I played it when Banes first went into Wild and there were a lot of crazy interactions and fun combos to pull off. It's fun to make huge impact plays and swing the game state dramatically. Big Priest does just that.
Wild meta is... well it isn't very balanced most of the time except that hopefully there are lots of imbalanced decks running around that can counteract one another. If you really hate it you can target it and likely beat it consistently.
If someone can sort out how to get the deck consistently into the late game, then it's a killer as its near impossible to out-value it. But, getting it past the wall of agro isn't easy. It's easy to end up with a hand full of no-answer and get steamrolled.
It is fun to play though. All the rogue-lackey decks are.
What sort of things lead you to construct the decks that you do?
New cards, combos I see others pull off, the desire to be creative.
What are some common strategies and combinations that you really enjoy playing and iterating on?
I like cycling draw effects. Lots of card plays that result in a big impact. Those tend to please me the most. I love combos, especially when a deck has lots of different synergies in it so it can go in many different directions.
Do you prefer building new lists from the ground up, or iterating on existing archetypes?
I prefer doing it from the ground up, but folks are so creative they tend to beat me to the cool ideas so I often lift combos and mechanics from other decks and then tweak them to my own playstyle.
Has the meta ever influenced you to try building something new to counter it?
Oh yes. If a deck is really obnoxious I will almost always build counters for it even if they aren't that great overall in the meta.
When you get an idea, does it typically involve a particular strategy, or do you focus on a card you like to build around?
Its usually for a given card. But sometimes I just try an old stand by and see how it works using the current card set. Some decks like spell damage druid are almost always fun to play around with due to the core card set supporting the archetype.
Do you make use of tech cards often, or just play a particular list as is?
I tech for the meta somewhat. It sucks to have no answer to a popular deck.
The only times I don't "Well Played" is when my opponent clearly made some big mistakes and lost the game because of them. It seems like the wrong thing to say in that situation. But otherwise, it just seems like saying "Thanks for playing with me." Perhaps that's what they need as an emote...
People can seem to take nearly anything in a bad light. Those folks should all mute emotes by default.
The only emoting that rubs me wrong is when they spam emotes at me. Then I just mute them. But this is really rare.
Stuff that worked and how much based on my play so far
+ Soul Shard Zoo - It's quite decent. You can now play minions while trying to pull scrap imp as there are many more ways that you can re-stock your hand that synergizes with the deck. The soul shards also help offset all the self-damage you can do. I didn't have the zombie giants yet but the deck was working nicely. The raise dead 0 cost spell works great in this deck. It can blow out unrefined decks.
- Soul Shard Agro Demon Hunter - It's not good, but it doesn't gell as the soul shard cards slow its early game too much and it lacks finishing power.
+ Pure paladin - It was good and it's been boosted. It is versatile and powerful with strong offense, healing, and removal.
+ Buff paladin- If blessings of authority hit unopposed, it's game over. You have to have an answer for this play or you are in deep trouble. This is a scary good deck but might be easy for other decks to target in the meta.
+ Buff Priest - It snowballs like mad if you can't stop it. It has a deeper bench than a paladin, but it also feels like a deck you can target to beat and be successful in denying it because it's a bit limited in its deck building.
+ Spell Druid - It's stronger and more consistent than ever before, but I think people need to adjust their old builds. I've seen many fail to take good advantage of the new card selection.
I think the early meta will center around paladin and priest buff decks along with druid (which variant I'm not sure yet as I don't have the cards for the beast ramp deck).
Control decks will need some time to formulate the best reaction to these decks but I think control could still find a way. Shaman may have the best tooks to but a hard block on priest/paladin. Warrior needs a shift in perspective I think. The defenses from the last meta are not well suited to this meta but I think they have all the tools they need to find a way, it just need to find a way to close out the game while staying alive.
I'd suggest a sticky 3 drop instead, or just a strong aggressive 2 drop that isn't so sticky. Mostly the Shotbot is there to contest the early board and micro mummy isn't very good at that
It's really pretty solid. It's weak against Mage and Rogue because it can only counter one explosive turn per game and they can do multiple explosive turns. But... against everything else, it has real legs. It can put a lot of pressure on and keep it coming turn after turn while also having robust healing. I've got a slightly better than 50% rate with it at high diamond ranks. It's also fairly enjoyable to play. It's the only paladin deck I can say that about. The cost change on the little labrum guy actually makes a big difference in the decks curve out.
Flyfish with 3 dragons seems too inconsistent even if the payout can be big. I've been playing a more agro version of Gala Warrior since day 1 and I really like it. It sometimes blows out games, and sometimes fights the good fight. I quite enjoy it.
If you can invoke into a turn 7 Gala fully stocked its almost always game-over. That doesn't happen every time but it happens. In the agro version old Leroy is also quite good for finishing out games and the tokens he makes are generally inconsequential for this deck.
Wow, that's unprecedented. I'm pretty sure nerfs are based on the data they collect, so they are clearly seeing something wildly out of control.
But it's rather shocking that this escaped from playtest.
Sure do. Though really, I'm playing a version I think is a little more fun even it if is a little weaker. I'd say I'll take up to a 10% increase in loss rate for a deck I really enjoy playing.
I'm probably out of touch with the current state of "Big Priest". I played it when Banes first went into Wild and there were a lot of crazy interactions and fun combos to pull off. It's fun to make huge impact plays and swing the game state dramatically. Big Priest does just that.
Wild meta is... well it isn't very balanced most of the time except that hopefully there are lots of imbalanced decks running around that can counteract one another. If you really hate it you can target it and likely beat it consistently.
If someone can sort out how to get the deck consistently into the late game, then it's a killer as its near impossible to out-value it. But, getting it past the wall of agro isn't easy. It's easy to end up with a hand full of no-answer and get steamrolled.
It is fun to play though. All the rogue-lackey decks are.
Silence is going to make a comeback I think.
New cards, combos I see others pull off, the desire to be creative.
I like cycling draw effects. Lots of card plays that result in a big impact. Those tend to please me the most. I love combos, especially when a deck has lots of different synergies in it so it can go in many different directions.
I prefer doing it from the ground up, but folks are so creative they tend to beat me to the cool ideas so I often lift combos and mechanics from other decks and then tweak them to my own playstyle.
Oh yes. If a deck is really obnoxious I will almost always build counters for it even if they aren't that great overall in the meta.
Its usually for a given card. But sometimes I just try an old stand by and see how it works using the current card set. Some decks like spell damage druid are almost always fun to play around with due to the core card set supporting the archetype.
I tech for the meta somewhat. It sucks to have no answer to a popular deck.
The only times I don't "Well Played" is when my opponent clearly made some big mistakes and lost the game because of them. It seems like the wrong thing to say in that situation. But otherwise, it just seems like saying "Thanks for playing with me." Perhaps that's what they need as an emote...
People can seem to take nearly anything in a bad light. Those folks should all mute emotes by default.
The only emoting that rubs me wrong is when they spam emotes at me. Then I just mute them. But this is really rare.