My humble thoughts and opinions on this expansion.
I have not been playing standard very much because I felt that there was really only a couple decks that were playable. The Murloc madness decks (Shaman and Pally), the Reno mage decks, and the mech hunter decks. TBH, I found playing against these decks so frustrating I didn't even try to adjust my play to counter them. And I don't really have any desire to play as those decks.
So, I have been playing wild in the area of ranks 4-8. I have been playing as a kind of weird dinomancer/lackey warlock. I very much enjoy the deck. I enjoy decks that have a lot of versatility and different ways to win. I have found myself playing against secret mage/time warp mage 25% of the time...then big priest 20%, quest shaman 15%, and variety for the rest. Since I have been playing so much against secret mage, I've added two Kezan Mystics to my deck. That has helped immensely.
I don't carry a lot of CC so I pretty much auto-concede against the Baku Pally. Luckily, those are rare. I also auto-concede against the timewarp mage. Honestly, that is my most hated deck to play against. If there was one card I could banish from the game, the timewarp quest would be it. I'll leave it at that.
I don't know. I don't think that this expansion has changed the wild meta a whole lot. The deck types are still largely the same. Zephyr of course is a wild card. I have used it a few times...and if used correctly, it is a game winner. Anyway, that's my evaluation. Not a lot of change.
1) The Wild meta shouldn't drastically change from set to set because that's how eternal formats work. That said, I would count the meteoric rise of Secret Mage as a pretty significant change.
2) My read on the standard meta is very different than yours, it appears. Yes, the murloc decks are good, but they still mostly lose to Warrior. Mage is almost completely gone from the meta at the moment. In my opinion, Control Warrior is the centralizing deck of standard right now. It's not invulnerable, but I would wager is has some of the best match-up spreads at the moment.
Reno deck are meeting a new burst : Mage Reno is viable in multiple forms (Big Reno or classic), Reno Priest and Warlock are staples, Odd Pally has disappeared, Secret Mage is as said before a big threat, Even Shaman is less present, Quest Shaman is a serious thing, Quest Taunt Warrior is not that bad...
And Big Priest is still a pain in the ... ;)
In Standard, there are a variety of lists that are not agro, so it just seems you didn't play long enough in the season to see the diversity of it all. The best deck is currently a Priest Amet Combo, so not that agro :)
Interesting take. My personal feeling is that standard is better than it's been in ages. I've primarily played wild for a year, maybe 2, because I found the standard meta consistently had 1-2 utterly dominant decks that simply didn't get addressed but this xpac it's the opposite way round.
Wild has taken some hits this year as far as balance goes (particularly Snip Snap and Vargoth which have both had a severely negative impact there imo) while standard has some decent quests and highlander deck options (both of which I like) as well as a lot of viable options in general and none of wild's balance issues.
Certainly I don't think it's accurate to there's only 4 viable decks right now. A few decks I've both enjoyed and had some actual success with include quest rogue with lackey generation/ togwaggle, regular quest shaman, quest mage (yes I actually had this working ok), and currently I'm on Zephrys quest shaman which I am really enjoying (and historically shaman has been my least favourite class by far). But then there's quest priest, tempo priest, plot twist warlock, highlander hunter, combo paladin, quest druid, and Trump's highlander aggro paladin (which he was at top 100 legend with last I heard). Just an absolute wealth of options right now.
Thank you all for the constructive comments. Murloc Mage??? I'm going to have to look into that one! Good point that Wild format isn't supposed to change that much. I guess if it did that would be evidence of an overwhelming power creep. As for standard, I guess I just need to keep searching for an enjoyable deck. That priest/Amet combo is crazy. I got beat by it once that I can remember. Minions coming onto the board with 20-something health. Pretty rough to deal with.
i'm not sure about running Kezan Mystic over Eater of Secrets, sure it's nice when yous teal an ince block but for other secrets since the mage played them they already know what to play around, plus the amge will usually have a xmas tree anyways while eater just gives you a big body while destroying all the secrets
Edit: also your hated timewarp mage has soemthing in common with big priest: Vargoth, people pointing out at barnes were just standard saltlords that seriously dont understand Wild
Kezan Mystic seems to work well because it keeps them from getting into a rythm. Actually, I also decided to add an Eater of Secrets as well. So now I am running two Kezans and one Eater of Secrets. I have faced mages 30 percent of the time since and gone 3-1. 8-5 overall. Can't beat anything that runs a heavy board. I'm toying with the idea of throwing in a Shadowflame...but I'm not sure what I can afford to get rid of.
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My humble thoughts and opinions on this expansion.
I have not been playing standard very much because I felt that there was really only a couple decks that were playable. The Murloc madness decks (Shaman and Pally), the Reno mage decks, and the mech hunter decks. TBH, I found playing against these decks so frustrating I didn't even try to adjust my play to counter them. And I don't really have any desire to play as those decks.
So, I have been playing wild in the area of ranks 4-8. I have been playing as a kind of weird dinomancer/lackey warlock. I very much enjoy the deck. I enjoy decks that have a lot of versatility and different ways to win. I have found myself playing against secret mage/time warp mage 25% of the time...then big priest 20%, quest shaman 15%, and variety for the rest. Since I have been playing so much against secret mage, I've added two Kezan Mystics to my deck. That has helped immensely.
I don't carry a lot of CC so I pretty much auto-concede against the Baku Pally. Luckily, those are rare. I also auto-concede against the timewarp mage. Honestly, that is my most hated deck to play against. If there was one card I could banish from the game, the timewarp quest would be it. I'll leave it at that.
I don't know. I don't think that this expansion has changed the wild meta a whole lot. The deck types are still largely the same. Zephyr of course is a wild card. I have used it a few times...and if used correctly, it is a game winner. Anyway, that's my evaluation. Not a lot of change.
A few humble thoughts on your humble thoughts :)
1) The Wild meta shouldn't drastically change from set to set because that's how eternal formats work. That said, I would count the meteoric rise of Secret Mage as a pretty significant change.
2) My read on the standard meta is very different than yours, it appears. Yes, the murloc decks are good, but they still mostly lose to Warrior. Mage is almost completely gone from the meta at the moment. In my opinion, Control Warrior is the centralizing deck of standard right now. It's not invulnerable, but I would wager is has some of the best match-up spreads at the moment.
Ironically, my Murloc Mage is one of my strongest decks right now, lol
And that's not even a /kappa statement either! :-D
Reno deck are meeting a new burst : Mage Reno is viable in multiple forms (Big Reno or classic), Reno Priest and Warlock are staples, Odd Pally has disappeared, Secret Mage is as said before a big threat, Even Shaman is less present, Quest Shaman is a serious thing, Quest Taunt Warrior is not that bad...
And Big Priest is still a pain in the ... ;)
In Standard, there are a variety of lists that are not agro, so it just seems you didn't play long enough in the season to see the diversity of it all. The best deck is currently a Priest Amet Combo, so not that agro :)
Interesting take. My personal feeling is that standard is better than it's been in ages. I've primarily played wild for a year, maybe 2, because I found the standard meta consistently had 1-2 utterly dominant decks that simply didn't get addressed but this xpac it's the opposite way round.
Wild has taken some hits this year as far as balance goes (particularly Snip Snap and Vargoth which have both had a severely negative impact there imo) while standard has some decent quests and highlander deck options (both of which I like) as well as a lot of viable options in general and none of wild's balance issues.
Certainly I don't think it's accurate to there's only 4 viable decks right now. A few decks I've both enjoyed and had some actual success with include quest rogue with lackey generation/ togwaggle, regular quest shaman, quest mage (yes I actually had this working ok), and currently I'm on Zephrys quest shaman which I am really enjoying (and historically shaman has been my least favourite class by far). But then there's quest priest, tempo priest, plot twist warlock, highlander hunter, combo paladin, quest druid, and Trump's highlander aggro paladin (which he was at top 100 legend with last I heard). Just an absolute wealth of options right now.
Thank you all for the constructive comments. Murloc Mage??? I'm going to have to look into that one! Good point that Wild format isn't supposed to change that much. I guess if it did that would be evidence of an overwhelming power creep. As for standard, I guess I just need to keep searching for an enjoyable deck. That priest/Amet combo is crazy. I got beat by it once that I can remember. Minions coming onto the board with 20-something health. Pretty rough to deal with.
i'm not sure about running Kezan Mystic over Eater of Secrets, sure it's nice when yous teal an ince block but for other secrets since the mage played them they already know what to play around, plus the amge will usually have a xmas tree anyways while eater just gives you a big body while destroying all the secrets
Edit: also your hated timewarp mage has soemthing in common with big priest: Vargoth, people pointing out at barnes were just standard saltlords that seriously dont understand Wild
Kezan Mystic seems to work well because it keeps them from getting into a rythm. Actually, I also decided to add an Eater of Secrets as well. So now I am running two Kezans and one Eater of Secrets. I have faced mages 30 percent of the time since and gone 3-1. 8-5 overall. Can't beat anything that runs a heavy board. I'm toying with the idea of throwing in a Shadowflame...but I'm not sure what I can afford to get rid of.