DHs don't play their one, Mage plays only Reno, Shaman barely plays Hex too, Priest does play Plague but only in Rez, Galakrond does not, Rogue runs only Stunner.
Per hsreplay:
Sap: 4.7% of decks
Stunner: 7%
Reno: 7.5%
Polymorph: 4.6%
Hex: 1.9%
Plague: 8.1%
Comsume Magic: 3%
Zephrys: 24.6%
So, yeah, they are fairly common. I think the prevalence of silence in this meta is at least part of the reason buffs and deathrattles are not very common.
We have different definitions of "common" then. Please note tons of people play this game at low ranks or even in casual, not having all cards to build a deck and searching for replacements. Yes, suboptimal Mage will run Polymorph and I believe very, very few would tech it (I used to even this format, but not in this meta). However if you take a look at common Mage lists, you won't find Poly anywhere. Same goes for Sap in Rogue - I can understand some budget versions run it if they miss cards. But the list pretty much everybody apart from budget players at low ranks play does not run Sap.
Consume Magic I assume is meant to be a budget replacement for Kayn + Highlander runs it. There was also this deck focused on very cheap spells to build Questing Adventurer up, but it has proved itself to be not very good. So 3% is very low ratio in itself and if you add to it that Highlander exists... Yeah, you can pretty safely say no one plays it unless they have to. I'll give you a pass on this, because probably like half of this 3% may actually be a legit choice to run in a Highlander and not just a budget Kayn, but it's still a very low number, I wouldn't call it "Fairly common" by any means.
Shaman I didn't play a single game with this expansion, also it's the worst class, so you shouldn't really worry about it. But! Without my own experience I just had to take a look at top 10 best performing lists and none of them runs Hex. Once again - it probably goes to the budget decks at low ranks, because in itself it's a pretty good card, one of the first candidates from the basic set in Shaman, if you need to replace something.
Plague I said myself is played, so nothing to argue with here.
All in all this game at Gold+ is a game of netdecks. You play Rogue - go to hsreplay.com and you know your opponent's deck. Entire deck, card by card. Same goes for every class. And I am sorry, but none of the cards you listed (apart from Plague) is actually played in any common deck.
I know a lot of people don't care about Wild, but many of us enjoy this format a lot. My issues with highlander decks is that over time, they continue to accumulate power without sufficient counter cards. That's what I love about Bad Luck Albatross. Maybe there could be more cards like this... plant 5 spores in a deck. Every time a spore is draw, remove another spore. Just thinking off the top of my head, but there's plenty of potential tech cards. a 4 cost 4/3 just doesn't seem enough these days.
Hearthstone is a game of power spikes, which is usually done with combo cards. Highlander cards DRAMATICALLY reduce the ability to combo, so they put the power in single cards instead. It's just a different way to have a power spike. As Syndrom said "When everybody's super... no one is".
Now in wild... that might be different because theoretically EVENTUALLY you could have 30 highlander cards in a deck and it would just be mega busted. Maybe highlander decks should also have a limit of 4 per deck or something like that.
I don't think this card "Punishes good play." It is good either way and should be seen from the other side as a control card. Playing against a mage you can't be winning with a large board and say flamestrike is punishing your good play. Zephrys is just like any other good control card its one that must be played around and acknowledged as something that needs to be taken from their hand before you can play bolder. If zephrys was being used over and over I would get it but I disagree with this.
I hate the way you worded your poll options. How hard would it be to just go: Complete disagree, partially disagree, neutral, partially agree, completely agre?
Why did you have to editorialize it with all that useless fluff?
Edit: Also the fact that 4 out 5 of your poll options are some degree of agreeing with you invalidates your entire post and makes it quite clear you had no intention of being objective from the start but rather just tried to mask your agenda of trying to turn people against the card with well-structured writing instead of facts.
DHs don't play their one, Mage plays only Reno, Shaman barely plays Hex too, Priest does play Plague but only in Rez, Galakrond does not, Rogue runs only Stunner.
Per hsreplay:
Sap: 4.7% of decks
Stunner: 7%
Reno: 7.5%
Polymorph: 4.6%
Hex: 1.9%
Plague: 8.1%
Comsume Magic: 3%
Zephrys: 24.6%
So, yeah, they are fairly common. I think the prevalence of silence in this meta is at least part of the reason buffs and deathrattles are not very common.
I play a highlander deck and I rarely use it to find a silence. An aoe/big minion removal, a card for lethal or sometimes a threat are most common choices. In fact against small deathrattles mass dispel is not offered, because zeprys don't detect different deathrattles. Opponent can play a teron in a board full of minions but zephyrs not consider a 3/4 as a threat
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We have different definitions of "common" then. Please note tons of people play this game at low ranks or even in casual, not having all cards to build a deck and searching for replacements. Yes, suboptimal Mage will run Polymorph and I believe very, very few would tech it (I used to even this format, but not in this meta). However if you take a look at common Mage lists, you won't find Poly anywhere. Same goes for Sap in Rogue - I can understand some budget versions run it if they miss cards. But the list pretty much everybody apart from budget players at low ranks play does not run Sap.
Consume Magic I assume is meant to be a budget replacement for Kayn + Highlander runs it. There was also this deck focused on very cheap spells to build Questing Adventurer up, but it has proved itself to be not very good. So 3% is very low ratio in itself and if you add to it that Highlander exists... Yeah, you can pretty safely say no one plays it unless they have to. I'll give you a pass on this, because probably like half of this 3% may actually be a legit choice to run in a Highlander and not just a budget Kayn, but it's still a very low number, I wouldn't call it "Fairly common" by any means.
Shaman I didn't play a single game with this expansion, also it's the worst class, so you shouldn't really worry about it. But! Without my own experience I just had to take a look at top 10 best performing lists and none of them runs Hex. Once again - it probably goes to the budget decks at low ranks, because in itself it's a pretty good card, one of the first candidates from the basic set in Shaman, if you need to replace something.
Plague I said myself is played, so nothing to argue with here.
All in all this game at Gold+ is a game of netdecks. You play Rogue - go to hsreplay.com and you know your opponent's deck. Entire deck, card by card. Same goes for every class. And I am sorry, but none of the cards you listed (apart from Plague) is actually played in any common deck.
I know a lot of people don't care about Wild, but many of us enjoy this format a lot. My issues with highlander decks is that over time, they continue to accumulate power without sufficient counter cards. That's what I love about Bad Luck Albatross. Maybe there could be more cards like this... plant 5 spores in a deck. Every time a spore is draw, remove another spore. Just thinking off the top of my head, but there's plenty of potential tech cards. a 4 cost 4/3 just doesn't seem enough these days.
Hearthstone is a game of power spikes, which is usually done with combo cards. Highlander cards DRAMATICALLY reduce the ability to combo, so they put the power in single cards instead. It's just a different way to have a power spike. As Syndrom said "When everybody's super... no one is".
Now in wild... that might be different because theoretically EVENTUALLY you could have 30 highlander cards in a deck and it would just be mega busted. Maybe highlander decks should also have a limit of 4 per deck or something like that.
I don't think this card "Punishes good play." It is good either way and should be seen from the other side as a control card. Playing against a mage you can't be winning with a large board and say flamestrike is punishing your good play. Zephrys is just like any other good control card its one that must be played around and acknowledged as something that needs to be taken from their hand before you can play bolder. If zephrys was being used over and over I would get it but I disagree with this.
...
Ironic. Someone crying about reporting a crying person.
I hate the way you worded your poll options. How hard would it be to just go: Complete disagree, partially disagree, neutral, partially agree, completely agre?
Why did you have to editorialize it with all that useless fluff?
Edit: Also the fact that 4 out 5 of your poll options are some degree of agreeing with you invalidates your entire post and makes it quite clear you had no intention of being objective from the start but rather just tried to mask your agenda of trying to turn people against the card with well-structured writing instead of facts.
In summary: troll post.
I play a highlander deck and I rarely use it to find a silence. An aoe/big minion removal, a card for lethal or sometimes a threat are most common choices. In fact against small deathrattles mass dispel is not offered, because zeprys don't detect different deathrattles. Opponent can play a teron in a board full of minions but zephyrs not consider a 3/4 as a threat