With the upcoming Year of the Mammoth, Reno Jackson will rotate out of Standard play.
With this change, the Reno archetype becomes a thing of the past.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Reno decks only work because having Reno compensates for the inconsistency by allowing you to survive long enough to draw into a greater variety of powerful cards. So when Reno rotates out, what happens to Kazakus, arguably one of the most powerful cards in the current meta?
Perhaps Blizzard has something in the pipeline to keep Reno type decks viable?
An interesting thought to be sure, and one I've been thinking over since MSOG went on air. Honestly, I too am worried about the fate of highlander decks when Reno is gone.
Honestly, though, we simply can't say for sure whether or not highlander decks will see play from here on out in standard - the next expansion will be absolutely critical to whether highlander decks continue to see standard play, or fade into obscurity.
Depends of state of meta after next expansion. If the meta somehow slows down Kabal decks will be strong. But if we will have aggro fest, and we always have since start of this game it will probably not happen.
(note warlock may also go back to zoo or just not be viable)
As I was saying, You won't see Kazakus in decks anymore. This will literally be the bulk of warlock decks post rotation unless new mechanics are added to the game.
Obviously idk if there will be doubles of certain things like siphon but generally you will see a list like this which is just taunt enablers and big health minions in order to get to jaraxus. Alex will basically be a turn 9 heal from like 1 hp if you can get away with that.
Essentially unless its priest, unfortunately kazakus will probably not see play
P.S.I've played matches vs warlock where they don't even get to their reno and just go straight for jarax so i wouldn't be surprised if they find themselves not needing reno as much as they thought they did.
My guess is highlander decks will all but completely disappear because there will be better stronger options for control minded players. If Kazakus pops back into the meta, it's most likely to happen with the release of the third expansion this year when the card pool is largest.
My recommendation is if you enjoy highlander decks, wild is by far your best option. I played almost exclusively Reno Mage in Wild this month, and it's IMHO far more flexible and fun than it's standard counterpart.
What? Is this some kind of joke? Kazakus is pretty RNG based cause there's a chance to pull some useless potion (+6 hp minions\ draw 3 cards etc.) wich won't help you in any case. And don't forget Brann gone as well.
How about a fatigue deck where you keep kazakus till the end, when you are sure you have no duplicates left?
I've had a similar idea. Kazakus by himself can be game winning in control matchups, and they're the matches that often go to fatigue or close to it. I wouldn't be surprised to see some non-highlander decks running Kazakus as a late game option.
Depending on the new set, there will be some playtesting to do in order to find out:
a) How many matches against aggro would you lose by playing an early Kazakus with no effect in a non-highlander deck?
b) How many games against midrange/control would you lose by playing an early Kazakus with no effect in a non-highlander deck? (probably not as many as against aggro)
c) With two nearly identical non-highlander lists (some more highlander-ish changes replacements often have little impact on the overall winning rate of a deck), how many games against control are you going to win by having a late game Kazakus?
It will take a lot of testing imho, and of course it's impossible to make any predictions without knowing any of the new 130 cards.
It is not necessarily card with no dupes text that can save highlander archetype. Greater healing potion will do the trick for Raza priest. Wlock tho heavily relies on Reno and will be playable only in wild. I think highlander mage shares same fate as wlock. That leaves only priest. And with dragons rotating out and TGT (all the inspire cards) I don't really see what to build Raza priest around. So I hope some cool new cards are to be released so we can play it.
Highlander priest gets a lot stronger since it doesn't need to compete with its big brothers Reno mage/lock.
Mage I feel gets hit the hardest since they are losing so many tempo tools, lock still has two viable archetypes though.
I am serious about priest though highlander is already a thing without Reno and competitive. When I went to R3 with it my lowest wr were against lock and mage Reno since they have so much more late value and hard removal.
We'll really just have to wait and see the Un'guro set though. I am most interested in what new cards mage gets and if priest gets more early game or survival tools strengthening it's control archetype. Dragons are highly unlikely with this expansion so...
I think there is place for highland decks without Reno Jackson. Reno pushed these highlander decks into being pure control very slow decks. But it is equally possible to build a highlander deck with more early game minions and board presence which game plan is't to stall and win the late game.
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With the upcoming Year of the Mammoth, Reno Jackson will rotate out of Standard play.
With this change, the Reno archetype becomes a thing of the past.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Reno decks only work because having Reno compensates for the inconsistency by allowing you to survive long enough to draw into a greater variety of powerful cards. So when Reno rotates out, what happens to Kazakus, arguably one of the most powerful cards in the current meta?
Perhaps Blizzard has something in the pipeline to keep Reno type decks viable?
Any thoughts?
An interesting thought to be sure, and one I've been thinking over since MSOG went on air. Honestly, I too am worried about the fate of highlander decks when Reno is gone.
Honestly, though, we simply can't say for sure whether or not highlander decks will see play from here on out in standard - the next expansion will be absolutely critical to whether highlander decks continue to see standard play, or fade into obscurity.
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Depends of state of meta after next expansion. If the meta somehow slows down Kabal decks will be strong. But if we will have aggro fest, and we always have since start of this game it will probably not happen.
it goes with reno... they are brothers in arms
To be honest I'm not convinced that it's just the end.
Kazakus only arrived with MSOG, I'd be very surprised if Blizzard had no plans to keep it alive after the next rotation.
Assuming that to be true, do you have any ideas for viable cards that could replace Reno?
Priest will still be viable as a highlander deck due to all the healing available to them. The other two are in a wait and see scenario.
Well realistically, Priest is the only thing that can probably get away with being renoless. Mage not so much and the same with warlock.
greater heal potion and the 5 mana 4/5 that heals for 5 and Raza + other cards. Mage won't have much of a way to shell up and neither will warlock.
Warlock will probably transition back to double mountain giant double twilight drakes with a ton of taunt enablers like pre reno
People need to stop focusing on one line of thought for a deck archetype ... Reno was simply a heal.... a big heal, but still just a heal.
We'll have to see what the new expansions offer, but I'm sure there will be new cards like antique healbot or mini Reno style cards.
Another direction they could go would be 'draw a duplicate from your deck' or 'draw x duplicates' to improve consistency.
Or cards like kazakus, krul, or ink master will be saved for control heavy decks at fatigue when you can use the abilities.
Overall I don't think Kazakus is going anywhere for year of the mammoth, but the way we use the cards could quite possibly.
(note warlock may also go back to zoo or just not be viable)
As I was saying, You won't see Kazakus in decks anymore. This will literally be the bulk of warlock decks post rotation unless new mechanics are added to the game.
Obviously idk if there will be doubles of certain things like siphon but generally you will see a list like this which is just taunt enablers and big health minions in order to get to jaraxus. Alex will basically be a turn 9 heal from like 1 hp if you can get away with that.
Essentially unless its priest, unfortunately kazakus will probably not see play
P.S.I've played matches vs warlock where they don't even get to their reno and just go straight for jarax so i wouldn't be surprised if they find themselves not needing reno as much as they thought they did.
My guess is highlander decks will all but completely disappear because there will be better stronger options for control minded players. If Kazakus pops back into the meta, it's most likely to happen with the release of the third expansion this year when the card pool is largest.
My recommendation is if you enjoy highlander decks, wild is by far your best option. I played almost exclusively Reno Mage in Wild this month, and it's IMHO far more flexible and fun than it's standard counterpart.
kazakus is stronger than reno
reno decks will outlive their namesake
Vvreeeew.
Reno pries have great healing cards like Raza and greater heals.so i think its can survive without reno
It is not necessarily card with no dupes text that can save highlander archetype. Greater healing potion will do the trick for Raza priest. Wlock tho heavily relies on Reno and will be playable only in wild. I think highlander mage shares same fate as wlock. That leaves only priest. And with dragons rotating out and TGT (all the inspire cards) I don't really see what to build Raza priest around. So I hope some cool new cards are to be released so we can play it.
Highlander priest gets a lot stronger since it doesn't need to compete with its big brothers Reno mage/lock.
Mage I feel gets hit the hardest since they are losing so many tempo tools, lock still has two viable archetypes though.
I am serious about priest though highlander is already a thing without Reno and competitive. When I went to R3 with it my lowest wr were against lock and mage Reno since they have so much more late value and hard removal.
We'll really just have to wait and see the Un'guro set though. I am most interested in what new cards mage gets and if priest gets more early game or survival tools strengthening it's control archetype. Dragons are highly unlikely with this expansion so...
I think there is place for highland decks without Reno Jackson. Reno pushed these highlander decks into being pure control very slow decks. But it is equally possible to build a highlander deck with more early game minions and board presence which game plan is't to stall and win the late game.
無敵のゲルマン魂#2276