Hearthpwn

The meta is kinda garbage right now. Only 3 archetype matters :

Hunter

Paladin 

Warrior.

And it's a rock paper scissor. Paladin beats warrior, warrior beats hunter, Hunter beats paladin.

Hunter and paladin are so busted they beat almost everything else. (control warrior is beatable, but it's just the least problematic out of the 3).

Sure there are other decks out there,like rainbow DK, Nature shaman,Razakus/dragon priest, highlander/tempo DH, whatever else... But they don't matter, since they lose to at least 2 out of the three above.

EDIT : Personaly, I think Hunter is also beatable with an anti aggro build, but those builds tend to lose to the OTKs from Paladin, shaman and Warrior, so they are not a viable option).

Quote from RendInFriend >>

Quote from Netw777 >>

Quote from RendInFriend >>

Calling for nerfs less than 24 hours after the expansion is never a good look. Try a deck that looks to win before the opponent can play and bounce a card 3 times. Dragon Druid is a much scarier deck and eats excavate warlocks.

 This time it's reasonable, bc the snake doesn't have any counterplay, you are forced to kill the warlock asap, there are no diverse tools to regain health(not heal). This kills all control or slow decks, which is unacceptable.

 That was the same thin said about at least one card that ended up not being the meta tyrant scourge. If you think there is no counter play, you’re doing it wrong. Why are you letting the warlock excavate 4 times, play a card, return it to hand and play it again? Do something different.

You know, I usualy tend to side with the "just adapt crowd", but on this one... what's the counter big guy?

Dirty rat has  probably a below 25% chance of hitting the right target on average. 25% chance to win the match-up isn't exactly great odds.

You'll probably reply "Just play aggro", but it's still the control warlock's core. That deck still had plenty of removals to even out the match-up vs aggro. At the moment,  mining warlock's worse match-up is aggro paladin and enrage warrior... and it's still 45% winrate

That's praticaly even. 

Armor doesn't protect from it, neither does solid alibi. Renethal forces them to use one more bounce, but you probably gave them that one more bounce needed by playing a 40 cards decks.

The only times I won vs mining warlock as a non aggro deck is when the warlock misplayed. (for exemple when they forgot they wouldn't be able to bounce the snake when reno's been played).

This card literaly has no effective counterplay. Sure you can try copying it with stuff like Cold Storage or priest, but if the warlock plays right he will win regardless.

Depends on what you like, I've been grinding Pizza tower lately while waiting for the expac. But it's a plateformer, and plateformers aren't everyone's cup of tea?

Keep in mind they still need to play a 3mana 3/3 on 3mana (basicaly nothing), followed by skipping their turn 4 (which is arguably the most important turn where you can be overwhelmed instantly). Then they have one draw to try to stabilise on 5 (meaning if they draw a 6+mana minion they still have to wait at least one more turn before being able to stabilise and benefits from blackrock. Current aggro decks (cough secret hunter) punishes you hard for that play.

It is, however, really insane against slower midrange and control decks. 

Why are we discussing aggro anyway? I dislike playing against aggro as much as the next guy when there's no counterplay to it, but current meta isn't imbalanced because of aggro. It's imbalanced because of combo (or ramp-"like" (by ramp like I mean decks like evolve shaman who uses ressources to cheat out giant minions way earlier just like a ramp deck)) decks that kills you as fast as the average aggro deck. There's plenty of control deck that beat all those aggro decks (imp warlock, burn mage, Pure paladin, ...).However those decks are unplayable because of the actual top decks on ladder. 

I don't think you can qualify decks that plays nothing the first three or four turns then does insane stuff to summon a full board with one or more giant minion(s) (or do a lot of damage) between turn 4 and turn 7 qualify as aggro, even if those decks kill you as fast as an average aggro deck. Maybe you could argue that quest demon hunter is an aggro/ burn deck and not a combo / burn deck (even though its strategy is to draw it's entire deck), but I don't think rogues, or ramp druids would ever qualify as aggro decks. 

Maybe shockspitter hunter would qualify as an aggro deck too, depending on how you build it, but the aggro part of shockspitter hunter never was the problem. The problem has always been the bran combo that would otk you.

I know aggro has been problematic in the past, and the game is too fast right now. But the game isn't too fast because of aggro. It's too fast because of combo (/or ramp), making control pointless and "killing your opponent before turn 8" before it summons giant minions or otk you the only other alternative strategy.

As for a balanced meta, I think the best balanced meta would be a meta with all playstyle (control, combo, aggro, midrange, ramp, and zoo) with at least one viable deck, and decent class representation (not all classes have to be viable, but the more the better, if possible with more than one good deck each). Un goro's meta was probably the closest we got for that.

As someone who's played almost exclusively quest demon hunter since launch, besides a few stops to play svalnna priest and plaguespreader priest : Quest demon hunter and (Miracle) Rogue absolutely needs to be nerfed.

For quest demon hunter, Unleash Fel is the main culprit. it's absolutely the mvp of the deck with Silvermoon Arcanist , even with its first nerf. +2 spell power is just too strong at 3 mana, even with the downside of not being able to target face (which hardly matters in Demon Hunter anyway). I could see a mana increase in either of these card. Or both in the worst case scenario.

For Rogue... As usual the culprit is Shadowstep . Such an iconic card, not sure blizzard is ready to axe the card yet. But it's probably the main culprit in why Miracle Rogue is so overpowered.
Alternatively they could try to hit multiple other key cards in Rogue ( Serrated Bone Spike (-1 damage to make it harder to trigger), Ghoulish Alchemist (+1 mana to make it not zero mana when played with shadowstep) ... Maybe Sinstone Graveyard again).

I could also see them nerfing Alastor, ramp druid, and / or Shock spitter Hunter (depending on how overboard they want to go, since i'm affraid hunter's going to be a problem again after rogue and DH are gone)

I'm not going to predict specific buffs, but I think priest warrior and death knight (again) probably deserve some. Shaman could go either way, shaman decks aren't too popular, but I think they are more underrated than bad.

I'm playing Quest Spell hunter with one Smothering Starfish and 2 Sinful Brand . I got to legend with it.

It does really well vs deathrattle Rogue (although the Rogue can still highroll) because you can just brand a 8 health taunt and watch the Rogue's health melts away. And starfish is here is you don't draw the right cards to stall and avoid too much insanity.

Miracle Rogue is pretty tough right now, but i'm pretty sure no deck beats miracle Rogue when they draw right. (maybe control warrior, but I tried and it's not consistent, and you lose to way too many other decks instead, so it's not worth it).

DK Feels Mediocre (in standard, but it's nuts in arena).

Scyte Demon Hunter is  strong imo, although people should really move away from relics and build fel instead. Especialy since it's immune to Patchwerk, mutanus and Theothar (as you can keep your win condition in sould form, so even if they steal one, you can use one of the other 2 instead)

I Don't know how I feel about Concoction Rogue yet. A lot of streamers say it's good, but i'm not that impressed when i'm the one facing it;

Big Shaman Feels way too greedy to be viable.

Rush Warrior still feels a bit clunky, but i might not have built the right list yet, and when it works, it's pretty disgusting

Haven't seen Paladin yet, i've only seen old warlock imp lists.

Control is a bit hard to build right now (besides Blood DK), as I don't really know what to build against. So I haven't really tried it yet.

I haven't seen any mage yet, surprisingly (currently diamond 10). Nor have I seen any priest.

I've seen one druid using the armor cards, not sure what it wanted to do, it died before being able to do anything relevant.

Not sure about hunter yet. I got stomped by a quest hunter, but that deck felt a bit too weak to face something like a Renathal deck (or a Blood DK). Also i've been rekt by a candleshot hunter otk, and that deck looks strong. Not sure how consistent it is yet.

I finished today with miracle Rogue. But until deciding myself on this deck, it wasn't a fun experience.

it's not a necessary card. You can play Denathrius, murloc holmes, or a 2nd starfish instead. Famished Fool is also a nice option.

Blademaster Okani and Zola the gorgon are also options.

Not really a new deck, but with the evolve package added to id, it's decently fun.

While  300$ a year is far from whale territory, it's still a lot. It's 100$/expansion (mini set included). You're paying for almost double the price of 2 new games every expansion. (more like a new AAA game and two expensive DLCs). I think it's dolphin territory at the very least. 

But I don't think there's anything wrong with that. As long as you can manage your finances, how much you spend on the game shouldn't mattter as long as you get at least as much enjoyment as you would spending on another media.

I did say "in standard". In wild it may be okay.

And I don't think buffing your hero power is good enough in standard anymore.

Not playable in standard, unless there's some seriously busted totem support  in this expansion, and half of shaman card have been revealed to support the evolve archetype, so I doubt a miracle will happen.

Everyone is phantamising about playing this battlecry 3 or 4 time, but summoning a Ice rager every turn for 2 mana doesn't seem that good anymore, especialy if you build your entire deck to make that happen, and it requires you to draw one specific card you can only run one of, and you do the combo after turn 6...

Just compare this with ... Grand Totem Eys'or
+1/+1 vs +2/0
3 mana vs 4 mana
activate every turn vs activate one time.
Can be comboed with Totemic Reflection (and double spells) vs can be comboed with bran and parrot.

And grand Totem Eys'or had trouble seeing play at a time when totem support was much higher than it is now.

I wish it was playable, but i'm not seeing it.

Freeze shaman is still pretty solid, it stomp on mech mage, and probably beats pirate warrior with the right list, which are two of the top decks right now. (I played it at rank2 for a while with a list that's probably suboptimal (with the multicaster package))