Hearthpwn

I don't have any analysis about the fact stated in the title but merely reflections really. It's kind of boring (being an avid hunter player before) that two classes are not played at all basically. Surely that must be seen as a failure to Blizzard?

Welcome to 2017

Once you hit rank 10 they disappear almost completely.  I tracked 200 games last season ranks 15-5 and played 3 Paladins and 7 hunters (though 100% of my games had a Paladin, since I was playing it).  This season seems even worse.  I've given up on the higher levels of the ladder until balance changes or new cards come.  It's just not fun playing the same decks over and over.

Anyway, I've been having insane fun back around rank 16 with this wacky Paladin deck.  If you have the cards, and want a good laugh, I suggest you give it try:

7 out of 9 classes in top tier is pretty good relative to CCGs, you can't really expect much better most of the time. As long as it isn't always the same class on bottom, this is just how it goes.

the people that you queue against in ladder now are all the players who netdecks to win

for the rest who enjoy making fun WORKING decks, this is simply not the meta to do it. We're all waiting for the nerf later this month

Just switch to wild. Hunter is a strong class there.

I have played 226 this month on ranked, from rank 16 to rank 2,  and I haven't faced a single Hunter

Nice job blizz.

I only play against priest or shaman 90% of the time. It's realy boring -.-

20-10 is fun zone. I play dragon paladin or buff hunter and yo-yo up and down. So funny destroying spuds playing net decks with 'just for laughs' decks

Im playing hunter in wild.

Currently Im on R3 and have a good winrate: 14-6 (70%) today from R5 to R3.

5-0 Warrior | 6-3 Shaman |1-0 Warlock and Druid | 0-1 Mage | 1-2 Priest

Played 41 matches in the last couple of days, climbing from rank 9 to rank 5 with dragon warrior (Yeah, pretty good win rate). I was queued against 1 pally, 2 rogues, 3 druids, 3 priests, 14 warriors and 18(!) Shamens. No hunters, mages, or warlocks. That means 83% of decks played the pirate package. Maybe thats a micro-meta pocket of tryhard aggro players, but still... defenatly not in a mood for the big grind to legend.

Quote from sagi1246 >>

Played 41 matches in the last couple of days, climbing from rank 9 to rank 5 with dragon warrior (Yeah, pretty good win rate). I was queued against 1 pally, 2 rogues, 3 druids, 3 priests, 14 warriors and 18(!) Shamens. No hunters, mages, or warlocks. That means 83% of decks played the pirate package. Maybe thats a micro-meta pocket of tryhard aggro players, but still... defenatly not in a mood for the big grind to legend.

I haven't seen any one interact with the board in over 90 games. Smorc and pray, if it doesn't work. Queue up again and do the same thing. 

At rank 7 and 88 games in, I have played 4 games vs Paladin and hunter. 4-0 :/

I haven't been counting, and I don't play a ton, but Paladin is alive and well at rank 13 in Standard. In fact, Anyfin is a really poor matchup for my Dragon Priest deck. I've been crushed enough that I added an Entomb to my deck specifically to deal with Murloc Warleader.

The ladder isn't representative of anything these days anyway. Very lopsided matchups, decks requiring only tiny amounts of skill, and good players not even caring any longer. Meeting legendary card backs+golden hero dudes at low is extremely common this season: those guys are burned out and since skill doesn't help, why bother.