I've played two decks so far--Odd Dragon Warrior and Secret Hunter with Zul'jin. Here's my reactions:
1) Odd Dragon Warrior looks like an improvement over normal Odd Warrior, because you can put down a lot of high-attack dragons that have immediately useful effects like Crowd Roaster, Emberscale Drake, and Dragonmaw Scorcher, not to mention Smolderthorn Lancer. Though the deck I made is a control deck, it's not just stall, stall, and survive anymore, though the deck still has great survivability while putting some form of pressure on your opponent. I faced a very aggressive Hunter in casual who got me down to 7 health, until I was saved by Emberscale Drake's 5 armor. Can't wait to tinker with this deck some more, maybe I'll try a tempo version.
2) Zul'jin is insane in Secret Hunter, as I expected. Against control decks, which Secret Hunter struggles with, all you need to do is bait out their board clears then play Zul'jin to immediately refill the board, then watch them concede. It's still a risky DK though, since the Kill Commands and Flanking Strikes can hit your face or minions. I'm 6-1 with the deck so far which took me to the rank 10 floor, so now I can experiment with a couple of decks. Thanks, Zul'jin!
3) Da Undatakah looks slow and vulnerable to silence. I saw it being played in Astral Tiger and Taunt Druid decks, and both times I just sent it back with Freezing Trap or straight up silenced it before it could be naturalized. Though I'm sure this card will be oppressive in the future, once it finds a deck it can fit in.
Played Odd Druid, MIdrange Hunter, and Spell Hunter today. Here are my thoughts on some of the new cards:
Gonk, the Raptor is highly matchup dependent. Against stuff like Odd Paladin hes insane, but against decks like Deathrattle Hunter that run mostly big minions its unplayable. Also works slightly better when you can combo him with upgraded hero power + Claw. 5/10
Wardruid Loti is exactly what I thought she'd be: mediocre. Sure, shes ok in most situations, but thats it. Just ok. And in constructed, you need to do better than that. Its probably too early to say she won't see play, but I don't think she'll make the cut in most decks. 4/10
Halazzi, the Lynx can bring back MIdrange Hunter by herself imo. Its great value that isn't a complete tempo loss like Deathstalker Rexxar. Beast Hunter is definently going to be at least a tier 2 deck, imo. 9/10
Last thing: Odd Mage is insane. It just seems like a better version of the current Big Spell Mage. Wow.
Zul'jin doesn't impress me that much, honestly. Maybe its because the only times i've used it so far were against odd/control mage, but it just seems really slow. I also don't like how you can't really play it if you already have rexxar, because oftentimes against control they just play a removal spell and clear all your beasts (and of course they're never going to trigger the secrets anyway). I'm sure its great against faster decks, but so far I don't see it being OP or anything. 6/10
I like this expansion because there are lots of card interactions going on, seems like more than other recent sets (witchwood and kobold). I am ready to start brewing up different new decks and seeing what results I can come up with. I have only faced one deck so far using lots of Rumble cards, it was pirate rogue and I lost, I was playing a pally odd dude deck.
Played against a Quest Hunter. That deck looks like it would fun. Then played a tempo Priest deck with the RR cards. It looked good as well. Of course, it could be that I was playing a recipe deck missing four cards. This is always a tough time for me in Hearthstone. I try not to craft anything for the first two weeks and cobble together what I can, but it seems like everyone I play has full decks.
Played with a quest warlock list, definately still some tweaks I can do but its feeling good, the High Priestess feels good when she gets rolling and makes me feel a lot better about using a cataclysm in the late game. First time quest warlock felt like an actual deck to me.
Gonk, the Raptor is highly matchup dependent. Against stuff like Odd Paladin hes insane, but against decks like Deathrattle Hunter that run mostly big minions its unplayable. Also works slightly better when you can combo him with upgraded hero power + Claw. 5/10
Played a Gonk Maly druid to rank 3 so far. He won a few games via clearing the board or OTK. I'm not sure if he's really worth running but the Pounces that go with him are really good even by themselves. They're high tempo removal vs early garbage and you can toss it out on your UI turn to avoid milling when your hand is a bit full. Really loving the deck
Played with a quest warlock list, definately still some tweaks I can do but its feeling good, the High Priestess feels good when she gets rolling and makes me feel a lot better about using a cataclysm in the late game. First time quest warlock felt like an actual deck to me.
Dont forget that high priestress keeps buffs when she duplicate herself :D
My first reaction is I can't bring myself to craft Clutchmother and the quest, even though discard lock looks fun and quite strong. :/
On the same boat.
Means that it does not look fun for you.
It does. However, I only have so much dust, there are a few more decks I wanna try, and nearly all of the discard legendaries are rotating out. I might still try it, but will wait a bit more this time around.
Odd Mage feels good right now, but I'm not so certain that the slower version being played right now will really overtake standard Big Spell Mage once things settle. It just seems very limited in terms of singe target removal. There's something to be said for Doomsayer, Polymorph, Blizzard, Meteor, etc. I'll be curious to see how the deck evolves over the next few weeks.
Warlock, I think probably settles back to a faster heal zoo deck, as well. Hir'eek, the Bat is a fun splash play, but those heal zoo openers are still pretty nuts. I can't tell on discard... It couldn't possibly have more support than it does currently, but I'm still not sure where it fits into the meta.
I'm a little bit worried by how much Kingsbane I'm seeing. Hopefully some faster decks start to creep back in to get rid of that plague, otherwise I'll never get the value control meta of my dreams.
I've played two decks so far--Odd Dragon Warrior and Secret Hunter with Zul'jin. Here's my reactions:
1) Odd Dragon Warrior looks like an improvement over normal Odd Warrior, because you can put down a lot of high-attack dragons that have immediately useful effects like Crowd Roaster, Emberscale Drake, and Dragonmaw Scorcher, not to mention Smolderthorn Lancer. Though the deck I made is a control deck, it's not just stall, stall, and survive anymore, though the deck still has great survivability while putting some form of pressure on your opponent. I faced a very aggressive Hunter in casual who got me down to 7 health, until I was saved by Emberscale Drake's 5 armor. Can't wait to tinker with this deck some more, maybe I'll try a tempo version.
2) Zul'jin is insane in Secret Hunter, as I expected. Against control decks, which Secret Hunter struggles with, all you need to do is bait out their board clears then play Zul'jin to immediately refill the board, then watch them concede. It's still a risky DK though, since the Kill Commands and Flanking Strikes can hit your face or minions. I'm 6-1 with the deck so far which took me to the rank 10 floor, so now I can experiment with a couple of decks. Thanks, Zul'jin!
3) Da Undatakah looks slow and vulnerable to silence. I saw it being played in Astral Tiger and Taunt Druid decks, and both times I just sent it back with Freezing Trap or straight up silenced it before it could be naturalized. Though I'm sure this card will be oppressive in the future, once it finds a deck it can fit in.
This has nothing to do with any decks, but my favorite part of this expansion is the sick legendary card animations. They're just so awesome!
Played Odd Druid, MIdrange Hunter, and Spell Hunter today. Here are my thoughts on some of the new cards:
Gonk, the Raptor is highly matchup dependent. Against stuff like Odd Paladin hes insane, but against decks like Deathrattle Hunter that run mostly big minions its unplayable. Also works slightly better when you can combo him with upgraded hero power + Claw. 5/10
Wardruid Loti is exactly what I thought she'd be: mediocre. Sure, shes ok in most situations, but thats it. Just ok. And in constructed, you need to do better than that. Its probably too early to say she won't see play, but I don't think she'll make the cut in most decks. 4/10
Halazzi, the Lynx can bring back MIdrange Hunter by herself imo. Its great value that isn't a complete tempo loss like Deathstalker Rexxar. Beast Hunter is definently going to be at least a tier 2 deck, imo. 9/10
Last thing: Odd Mage is insane. It just seems like a better version of the current Big Spell Mage. Wow.
Zul'jin doesn't impress me that much, honestly. Maybe its because the only times i've used it so far were against odd/control mage, but it just seems really slow. I also don't like how you can't really play it if you already have rexxar, because oftentimes against control they just play a removal spell and clear all your beasts (and of course they're never going to trigger the secrets anyway). I'm sure its great against faster decks, but so far I don't see it being OP or anything. 6/10
Unpopular opinion: Rogue is OP
My first reaction is I can't bring myself to craft Clutchmother and the quest, even though discard lock looks fun and quite strong. :/
The hunter spirit card mixed with unleash the hounds + hyena was a pretty cool combo
I like this expansion because there are lots of card interactions going on, seems like more than other recent sets (witchwood and kobold). I am ready to start brewing up different new decks and seeing what results I can come up with. I have only faced one deck so far using lots of Rumble cards, it was pirate rogue and I lost, I was playing a pally odd dude deck.
I'm not dead yet!
Even Shaman - Even Shaman - Odd Rogue - Big Priest - Even Shaman - Even Shaman - Odd Rogue - Odd Rogue - Big Priest...
My last games in wild... there is no new set there for now. Same exp as in Boomsday... they need to do something about this even/odd aggro decks...
Played against a Quest Hunter. That deck looks like it would fun. Then played a tempo Priest deck with the RR cards. It looked good as well. Of course, it could be that I was playing a recipe deck missing four cards. This is always a tough time for me in Hearthstone. I try not to craft anything for the first two weeks and cobble together what I can, but it seems like everyone I play has full decks.
Gaming Blog (WoW, Hearthstone, etc.) - http://honorscode.blogspot.com
Played with a quest warlock list, definately still some tweaks I can do but its feeling good, the High Priestess feels good when she gets rolling and makes me feel a lot better about using a cataclysm in the late game. First time quest warlock felt like an actual deck to me.
Played a Gonk Maly druid to rank 3 so far. He won a few games via clearing the board or OTK. I'm not sure if he's really worth running but the Pounces that go with him are really good even by themselves. They're high tempo removal vs early garbage and you can toss it out on your UI turn to avoid milling when your hand is a bit full. Really loving the deck
Legend with : S65 Freeze Mage, S57 Maly Gonk Druid, S57 "Okay" Shaman, S53 Boom-zooka Hunter, S53 Maly Tog Druid, S52 Wild Tog Druid ft.Blingtron, S50 Quest Rogue, S49 Dead Man's Warrior, S41 Wild Clown Fiesta Druid, S41 Hadronox Jade Druid, S40 Wild OTK Dragon Druid, S35 SMOrc Shaman, S33 Jade Druid, S22 Control Priest, S19 Control Priest
Dont forget that high priestress keeps buffs when she duplicate herself :D
Otk all day
She does? Good to know.
I can't be the only one who can't figure out what happened here... how did you get a 20/22 minion in your deck by turn 5?
The Darkness
On the same boat.
Means that it does not look fun for you.
spell hunter with zul'jin is really really strong
of course I opened up a hakkar...any ideas on a deck with him? maybe deathrattle rogue with espionage ?
It does. However, I only have so much dust, there are a few more decks I wanna try, and nearly all of the discard legendaries are rotating out. I might still try it, but will wait a bit more this time around.
Odd Mage feels good right now, but I'm not so certain that the slower version being played right now will really overtake standard Big Spell Mage once things settle. It just seems very limited in terms of singe target removal. There's something to be said for Doomsayer, Polymorph, Blizzard, Meteor, etc. I'll be curious to see how the deck evolves over the next few weeks.
Warlock, I think probably settles back to a faster heal zoo deck, as well. Hir'eek, the Bat is a fun splash play, but those heal zoo openers are still pretty nuts. I can't tell on discard... It couldn't possibly have more support than it does currently, but I'm still not sure where it fits into the meta.
I'm a little bit worried by how much Kingsbane I'm seeing. Hopefully some faster decks start to creep back in to get rid of that plague, otherwise I'll never get the value control meta of my dreams.