Pretty stupid question. Combo decks are very different in nature. Druid combo is absolutely easy to pull off - just look at the green cards in your hand and summ the damage. Thats all. Control decks are very different too like there is a huge difference in play between frost mage and handlock.
Here's the thing man. I agree with your sentiment that aggro isn't completely braindead and actually involves a good amount of strategy, but it is fairly simple to play compared to the other ones.
Aggro: It is easy to play because you do go face most of the time. While the strategy lies in when to not go face, you can usually win the game if you do go face and make completely,blatantly obvioustrades.
Control: It's a cruise-control sort of thing, it's pretty easy. Control decks have a 'thing' that they do, so just go do the thing and you should be fine.
Midrange: This is kinda tough, because trading is pretty much the entire playstyle. More trades = more decisions = wider margin for error.
Combo: I think this is the most difficult because drawing the correct cards isn't easy, and figuring out how to just barely survive until your combo comes out is tough.
Easiest is Midrange, Hardest is Combo.. Simple as that..
This answer is for a deck to be pilloted to its 100% cause it is pretty obvious that by playing an aggro deck is simpler than all the others but that doesn't mean you play it on its full potential..
Usually combo is the hardest. Except from force of nature combo druid, who can play almost whatever the f*ck it wants every turn. But others may have trouble getting their combo pieces (that was specially true in miracle rogue, where you had little to no other ways of winning if that failed you, depending on the match up).
Aggro still the easiest most of the time. Little hands lead to few choices, and many of them are quite straightforward, many controls are very easy to pull off though. Dragon control, control warrior are the most obvious. Handlock on the other hand is one of the hardest things to play, as you always have to play with much less safe heals, and anyone who can bypass the taunts/play around them so you can't pile on excessive amounts of tanks will put you in huge problems.
Wow people are oversimplifying Control decks too much, it's not about playing on curve, like does someone actually plays control decks on high ranks? control decks are about CONTROLING the board and dropping big minions on late game, not of playing on curve. Control decks are the second most hardest decks to play because you need to know how to use your removal efficiently(and yes if you mindlessly waste your removal and weapons you are playin control the wrong way) and control the board. If you play things on curve you will get punish most of the time simply because the aggresor will have a somewhat easy removal and can continue doing damage to you, the only semi-safe drop is dr boom and that is because of boom bots.
Aggro decks are the easiest, some say it is difficult because of the early choices you make, which is not difficult, you just need to make the play that guarantees you a stronger board and how to use your mana efficiently the early game. it is SIMPLE, just create a strong board, do not overextent and go face.
i have ranked with oil, control warrior, secret paladin and midrange druid this season and pala is certainly the easiest deck to play.
Every deck in this game is easy except for patron warrior, freeze mage and arguably handlock which is really not that hard but compared to the other decks, it's still in the top 3.
Easiest for me is control then midrange then combo then aggro (As long as I am not playing paladin aggro). Because I have played at least 50 games with face hunter and won less than 30% so yeah I'm suited to control/late game decks.
Every good deck has a win condition, or multiple win conditions, that it tries to draw and execute. There are some matchups that are difficult because the opposing hero/deck has multiple ways of removing/restricting your win condition, but that happens with all decks: aggro, midrange, control and combo.
HS is a game of playing around matchups; the better you can play around the matchups, the more you will win. It has nothing to do with one archtype being 'easier' or 'harder' than the others.
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I opted for "aggro's the easiest" option, but gave it a long thought. Turns out, no, not really the easiest. From one perspective it is right. Aggro is the easiest at first glance because you have the fewest choice possible. You draw fewer cards, you play fewer cards, you have fewer turns, your opponents have fewer plays before the game ends. These gives pilots of aggro decks some distinct advantages. You expend less energy and focus, which means less pressure. Your choices are few, so you have fewer chances to screw up, so to speak (this is not entirely true, I will explain). Your opponents have fewer plays, so you don't need as much "answers" to these plays. The games end in fewer turns, so whatever your opponents do, the impact is much smaller than in a long game.
However, this also means that there are fewer choices that contributes to your victory. So you will have to get all the choices right in order to win. Imagine a test with 30 multiple choices questions, and another with 3. On the surface, the 3 questions test will be easier since you don't have to answer as many, but if you get 2 questions wrong, you are out. For the 30 questions one, if you get say... 10 questions wrong, you still have a chance if you get the remaining questions correct. Of course you may be saying "the ratio is not correct", but I am not talking about the skill level of a player. Even veterans can make chains of mistakes, either because of tiredness or some other reasons. Getting 2 wrong plays in a role is not uncommon. With aggro decks this could translate directly into a defeat. So aggro decks actually punishes bad play much more severely compared to other decks.
Midrange, on the other hand, is much more fault-tolerant. The deck is built with resilience and value in mind. They can mount initial assault, and if that fails, they can scramble what's left of that assault and build towards the midgame. Even if they don't have the ability to mount an offense right at the start, they can still contest the board in the early game, and draw into their meaty value minions (*cough* Dr. Boom *cough*) to out-value its opponent and close out the game. It doesn't require as much focus or thinking power from the pilot, since the deck simply is very resilient in itself and can out-value the opponents with card quality. Of course there are still choices to be made, but the power to out-value sometimes can cover/offset the loss from some previous misplay. Sure, if they move into the very late game, they get dominated by control/lategame-oriented decks, but that is the reason it is called a Midrange deck.
Control decks are decks I will call the "you get it or you don't" kinda deck. On the surface they look very difficult to pilot. The "you need to have the right answer" clause gives everyone a headache. But the only real choice you have to answer in a control deck is, "Do I answer the question right now, or do I save my answer for another day?". This involves knowledge to the metagame (obtainable through the internet), understanding of the opponents' deck composition (also obtainable through the internet), and anticipating the opponents' play (obtainable through watching video/playing against opponents). Not that I am saying control decks are easy, I play a lot of those myself. But the design of the deck is kinda simple. Don't die from turn 1 to turn 9, then start vomiting threats your opponent will have no way to answer. Card draws, card cycling, life-gain, stall, these are all tools to help, but the idea is the same. With this single goal in mind, the pilot can have a clear goal to work towards.
Combo decks. I don't think that we as a community has a very clear definition of what "combo decks" really means. We seem to talk a lot about them. OTK. Grim Patron. Freeze mage. Miracle. Dreadsteed. Combo comes in too many forms. Aggro combo - Secret paladin; Control combo - Freeze Mage, Worgen OTK, Malygos; Midrange combo - Grim Patron warrior; Strong synergy - Dreadsteed, Oil Rogue. (I am just trying to name a few, so please don't ask why -insert certain combo deck here- does not appear on the list. It is not even really a list, anyway.) All these have very different characteristics and thus result in varied difficulties in piloting. For example, Freeze mage may face the same problem as control decks since at its heart it's really a control deck, but in addition also have to think about resembling the combo (Alexstrasza - Frostbolt-Ice Lance-Ice Lance-Fireball). The same also goes with Worgen OTK, where you have to choose between giving up control to save a combo piece, or burn it to save your ass. Grim Patron decks doesn't care about controlling the board as much. The effectiveness of card cycling within the deck and the nature of Whirlwind being also an excellent tool to handle early aggro, combined with a little cheap removal and the sustaining power in the form of Shield, allows Grim Patron Warrior to dominate in the meta for a very long time. What I am trying to say is, depending on what kinds of combo decks it is, the difficulty may vary.
The difficulty of piloting combo decks comes from several factors. One is the fact that not only do you need to care about the game status, you also have to stick to a game plan. Losing all your combo pieces to control a board is clearly a very wrong decision which will left you bled dry without a win con while your opponent simply grinds you out with his/her topdeck. Another factor is that combo decks usually involves a lot of maths. Since combo pieces are like cogs, they function very alike and therefore, it is not usually very obvious the correct line of play is. Calculation will be required. Lots of calculation. To a point that some of the Grim Patron warrior deck guide simply reads: "since you have so many lines of play and calculation, sometimes you will just have to pick one you feel right and just play it". A combo deck pilot can be paralyzed into inaction simply because there are so many lines of play, and it is very difficult to choose the right one. This also contributes to a lot of psychological stress, and will have impact on your gameplay after a certain amount of time.
Although this is a wall of text, I do not claim to be any expert, nor do I claim the above absolute truth. This is only one piece of my humble opinion, and hopefully will give you a different view on what aggro-control-midrange-combo actually means.
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overall aggro is easier bc its like you are day 1 of HS going face and trying to make appropriate trades every once in a while but just going face and just praying there isnt a board clear the next turn. control is just easier for me bc i think i am so used to it. or maybe it was bc i would play 15 hatch zerg for so many years. combo is just hard for me and in general because i feel like its so important to have 4 specific cards in your hand or youre screwed.
overall aggro is easier bc its like you are day 1 of HS going face and trying to make appropriate trades every once in a while but just going face and just praying there isnt a board clear the next turn. control is just easier for me bc i think i am so used to it. or maybe it was bc i would play 15 hatch zerg for so many years. combo is just hard for me and in general because i feel like its so important to have 4 specific cards in your hand or youre screwed.
Let me say that this is a very common mentality for a lot of Hearthstone, or in general, card game players. They think back on day one, when they are learning the game. People tell them about damage the opponent and considering blockers / trades. Then they will start to learn about mana curve. Followed by card advantages and tempo.
All these builds a little network of "ifs" conditions.
myMinionPower = 2; myMinionHealth = 2;
if (enemyMinionPower > 2 && enemyMinionHealth < 3)
{ myMinion.trade();}
else {myMinion.goFace()}
Because there are so many people that think this way, this "ifs" condition network actually works, because what could go wrong if we all follow the ifs and elses? They are not to blame. Card game IS hard. You need to know the rules. You need to know the cards. You need to know the meta. You need to know the players. You need to know their decks. You need to know their mentality. And so on and so on. Lots of tiny little details that if we don't build mental shortcuts, we are likely to take 3 minutes to take a turn.
However, this mentality hurts a player's growth. They are trying to program themselves into a card playing machine. Every victory means the program works nicely. Every defeat means the program has bugs, and in need of a fix, in the form of more conditions, or amending existing conditions. But the problem is, this way of thinking makes this kind of players very predictable. Predictable players never reach high level plays.
"Aggro decks are easy" - this statement is partly built on this mentality. Writing a bot for aggro decks is easier than writing one for say... Malygos Shaman. But a bot with an aggro deck can only achieve mediocre results. You can't constantly beat an experienced player with an aggro deck, because they can anticipate your play, and counter them accordingly. They will know when to play minions, when to play card draw, when to kill you minions.
I will concede to the point that "Aggro decks will never be the hardest to play". Aggro decks exploit a very fundamental concept - the Sligh deck concept. With sufficiently abundant low mana creatures, distributed so that you can use up every mana crystal per turn, you can build up a tempo advantage such that your opponent will be unable to recover. Also Aggro versus Control is like "Questions" versus "Answer". A famous saying is that "There is no wrong questions, only wrong answers".
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Easiest is facedecks. I've played them, choises are pretty obvious after you played other archetypes and know what can be throwed against you.
If control means control warrior, then it's second easiest thing to play. Good thing other control decks actually harder to play.
Combo is not as hard as ppl claim. Draw into stuff, play stuff, win game. It's not MTG, opponent can't do a shit against you drawing into your OTK, except he can kill you faster.
The hardest is probably midranges of sorts. I'm not talking about hunter midrange, cuz that one is actually easy. Playing midrange involves different gameplays for different types of opponents (you play aggroish against control/combo, play control against fast decks). And this decks actually involve a CHOISE between trade and face, and which one is right isn't obvious, you need to guess, count your lethat possibilities and your opponent's lethal options.
The decks that (I hate/lose to) are easy to play, and could be played by every retard in the world. The decks that I love is fucking-genius-rubiks-cube-level every turn, and can only be played to perfection by the absolute elite!
But on a serious note. I think it is wrong to say that an archtype is hard to play, since there is a big differents between the decks.
Why?
Becouse why not ? 4Head
The easiest is aggro.
Hardest are control and combo.
Why, tell me why control is so hard
Eveything I lose to is easy mode.
2troll4me
Pretty stupid question. Combo decks are very different in nature. Druid combo is absolutely easy to pull off - just look at the green cards in your hand and summ the damage. Thats all.
Control decks are very different too like there is a huge difference in play between frost mage and handlock.
Here's the thing man. I agree with your sentiment that aggro isn't completely braindead and actually involves a good amount of strategy, but it is fairly simple to play compared to the other ones.
Aggro: It is easy to play because you do go face most of the time. While the strategy lies in when to not go face, you can usually win the game if you do go face and make completely, blatantly obvious trades.
Control: It's a cruise-control sort of thing, it's pretty easy. Control decks have a 'thing' that they do, so just go do the thing and you should be fine.
Midrange: This is kinda tough, because trading is pretty much the entire playstyle. More trades = more decisions = wider margin for error.
Combo: I think this is the most difficult because drawing the correct cards isn't easy, and figuring out how to just barely survive until your combo comes out is tough.
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Easiest is Midrange, Hardest is Combo.. Simple as that..
This answer is for a deck to be pilloted to its 100% cause it is pretty obvious that by playing an aggro deck is simpler than all the others but that doesn't mean you play it on its full potential..
Usually combo is the hardest. Except from force of nature combo druid, who can play almost whatever the f*ck it wants every turn. But others may have trouble getting their combo pieces (that was specially true in miracle rogue, where you had little to no other ways of winning if that failed you, depending on the match up).
Aggro still the easiest most of the time. Little hands lead to few choices, and many of them are quite straightforward, many controls are very easy to pull off though. Dragon control, control warrior are the most obvious. Handlock on the other hand is one of the hardest things to play, as you always have to play with much less safe heals, and anyone who can bypass the taunts/play around them so you can't pile on excessive amounts of tanks will put you in huge problems.
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Wow people are oversimplifying Control decks too much, it's not about playing on curve, like does someone actually plays control decks on high ranks? control decks are about CONTROLING the board and dropping big minions on late game, not of playing on curve. Control decks are the second most hardest decks to play because you need to know how to use your removal efficiently(and yes if you mindlessly waste your removal and weapons you are playin control the wrong way) and control the board. If you play things on curve you will get punish most of the time simply because the aggresor will have a somewhat easy removal and can continue doing damage to you, the only semi-safe drop is dr boom and that is because of boom bots.
Aggro decks are the easiest, some say it is difficult because of the early choices you make, which is not difficult, you just need to make the play that guarantees you a stronger board and how to use your mana efficiently the early game. it is SIMPLE, just create a strong board, do not overextent and go face.
i have ranked with oil, control warrior, secret paladin and midrange druid this season and pala is certainly the easiest deck to play.
Every deck in this game is easy except for patron warrior, freeze mage and arguably handlock which is really not that hard but compared to the other decks, it's still in the top 3.
Combo decks are the only hard deck IMO. People say control is hard but in reality it's not that much harder than aggro
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Easiest for me is control then midrange then combo then aggro (As long as I am not playing paladin aggro). Because I have played at least 50 games with face hunter and won less than 30% so yeah I'm suited to control/late game decks.
Nothing in HS is hard to play.
Every good deck has a win condition, or multiple win conditions, that it tries to draw and execute. There are some matchups that are difficult because the opposing hero/deck has multiple ways of removing/restricting your win condition, but that happens with all decks: aggro, midrange, control and combo.
HS is a game of playing around matchups; the better you can play around the matchups, the more you will win. It has nothing to do with one archtype being 'easier' or 'harder' than the others.
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Vote: Easiest - Midrange; Difficult - Combo.
I opted for "aggro's the easiest" option, but gave it a long thought. Turns out, no, not really the easiest. From one perspective it is right. Aggro is the easiest at first glance because you have the fewest choice possible. You draw fewer cards, you play fewer cards, you have fewer turns, your opponents have fewer plays before the game ends. These gives pilots of aggro decks some distinct advantages. You expend less energy and focus, which means less pressure. Your choices are few, so you have fewer chances to screw up, so to speak (this is not entirely true, I will explain). Your opponents have fewer plays, so you don't need as much "answers" to these plays. The games end in fewer turns, so whatever your opponents do, the impact is much smaller than in a long game.
However, this also means that there are fewer choices that contributes to your victory. So you will have to get all the choices right in order to win. Imagine a test with 30 multiple choices questions, and another with 3. On the surface, the 3 questions test will be easier since you don't have to answer as many, but if you get 2 questions wrong, you are out. For the 30 questions one, if you get say... 10 questions wrong, you still have a chance if you get the remaining questions correct. Of course you may be saying "the ratio is not correct", but I am not talking about the skill level of a player. Even veterans can make chains of mistakes, either because of tiredness or some other reasons. Getting 2 wrong plays in a role is not uncommon. With aggro decks this could translate directly into a defeat. So aggro decks actually punishes bad play much more severely compared to other decks.
Midrange, on the other hand, is much more fault-tolerant. The deck is built with resilience and value in mind. They can mount initial assault, and if that fails, they can scramble what's left of that assault and build towards the midgame. Even if they don't have the ability to mount an offense right at the start, they can still contest the board in the early game, and draw into their meaty value minions (*cough* Dr. Boom *cough*) to out-value its opponent and close out the game. It doesn't require as much focus or thinking power from the pilot, since the deck simply is very resilient in itself and can out-value the opponents with card quality. Of course there are still choices to be made, but the power to out-value sometimes can cover/offset the loss from some previous misplay. Sure, if they move into the very late game, they get dominated by control/lategame-oriented decks, but that is the reason it is called a Midrange deck.
Control decks are decks I will call the "you get it or you don't" kinda deck. On the surface they look very difficult to pilot. The "you need to have the right answer" clause gives everyone a headache. But the only real choice you have to answer in a control deck is, "Do I answer the question right now, or do I save my answer for another day?". This involves knowledge to the metagame (obtainable through the internet), understanding of the opponents' deck composition (also obtainable through the internet), and anticipating the opponents' play (obtainable through watching video/playing against opponents). Not that I am saying control decks are easy, I play a lot of those myself. But the design of the deck is kinda simple. Don't die from turn 1 to turn 9, then start vomiting threats your opponent will have no way to answer. Card draws, card cycling, life-gain, stall, these are all tools to help, but the idea is the same. With this single goal in mind, the pilot can have a clear goal to work towards.
Combo decks. I don't think that we as a community has a very clear definition of what "combo decks" really means. We seem to talk a lot about them. OTK. Grim Patron. Freeze mage. Miracle. Dreadsteed. Combo comes in too many forms. Aggro combo - Secret paladin; Control combo - Freeze Mage, Worgen OTK, Malygos; Midrange combo - Grim Patron warrior; Strong synergy - Dreadsteed, Oil Rogue. (I am just trying to name a few, so please don't ask why -insert certain combo deck here- does not appear on the list. It is not even really a list, anyway.) All these have very different characteristics and thus result in varied difficulties in piloting. For example, Freeze mage may face the same problem as control decks since at its heart it's really a control deck, but in addition also have to think about resembling the combo (Alexstrasza - Frostbolt-Ice Lance-Ice Lance-Fireball). The same also goes with Worgen OTK, where you have to choose between giving up control to save a combo piece, or burn it to save your ass. Grim Patron decks doesn't care about controlling the board as much. The effectiveness of card cycling within the deck and the nature of Whirlwind being also an excellent tool to handle early aggro, combined with a little cheap removal and the sustaining power in the form of Shield, allows Grim Patron Warrior to dominate in the meta for a very long time. What I am trying to say is, depending on what kinds of combo decks it is, the difficulty may vary.
The difficulty of piloting combo decks comes from several factors. One is the fact that not only do you need to care about the game status, you also have to stick to a game plan. Losing all your combo pieces to control a board is clearly a very wrong decision which will left you bled dry without a win con while your opponent simply grinds you out with his/her topdeck. Another factor is that combo decks usually involves a lot of maths. Since combo pieces are like cogs, they function very alike and therefore, it is not usually very obvious the correct line of play is. Calculation will be required. Lots of calculation. To a point that some of the Grim Patron warrior deck guide simply reads: "since you have so many lines of play and calculation, sometimes you will just have to pick one you feel right and just play it". A combo deck pilot can be paralyzed into inaction simply because there are so many lines of play, and it is very difficult to choose the right one. This also contributes to a lot of psychological stress, and will have impact on your gameplay after a certain amount of time.
Although this is a wall of text, I do not claim to be any expert, nor do I claim the above absolute truth. This is only one piece of my humble opinion, and hopefully will give you a different view on what aggro-control-midrange-combo actually means.
"Are you not entertained?! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!"
"What we do in life, echoes in eternity." - Maximus Decimus Meridius
overall aggro is easier bc its like you are day 1 of HS going face and trying to make appropriate trades every once in a while but just going face and just praying there isnt a board clear the next turn. control is just easier for me bc i think i am so used to it. or maybe it was bc i would play 15 hatch zerg for so many years. combo is just hard for me and in general because i feel like its so important to have 4 specific cards in your hand or youre screwed.
In terms of difficulty: Combo > Mid-range > Control > Aggro > Face (yes, it's a different deck type).
Meta changes the moment you switch your deck.
Let me say that this is a very common mentality for a lot of Hearthstone, or in general, card game players. They think back on day one, when they are learning the game. People tell them about damage the opponent and considering blockers / trades. Then they will start to learn about mana curve. Followed by card advantages and tempo.
All these builds a little network of "ifs" conditions.
myMinionPower = 2; myMinionHealth = 2;
if (enemyMinionPower > 2 && enemyMinionHealth < 3)
{ myMinion.trade();}
else {myMinion.goFace()}
Because there are so many people that think this way, this "ifs" condition network actually works, because what could go wrong if we all follow the ifs and elses? They are not to blame. Card game IS hard. You need to know the rules. You need to know the cards. You need to know the meta. You need to know the players. You need to know their decks. You need to know their mentality. And so on and so on. Lots of tiny little details that if we don't build mental shortcuts, we are likely to take 3 minutes to take a turn.
However, this mentality hurts a player's growth. They are trying to program themselves into a card playing machine. Every victory means the program works nicely. Every defeat means the program has bugs, and in need of a fix, in the form of more conditions, or amending existing conditions. But the problem is, this way of thinking makes this kind of players very predictable. Predictable players never reach high level plays.
"Aggro decks are easy" - this statement is partly built on this mentality. Writing a bot for aggro decks is easier than writing one for say... Malygos Shaman. But a bot with an aggro deck can only achieve mediocre results. You can't constantly beat an experienced player with an aggro deck, because they can anticipate your play, and counter them accordingly. They will know when to play minions, when to play card draw, when to kill you minions.
I will concede to the point that "Aggro decks will never be the hardest to play". Aggro decks exploit a very fundamental concept - the Sligh deck concept. With sufficiently abundant low mana creatures, distributed so that you can use up every mana crystal per turn, you can build up a tempo advantage such that your opponent will be unable to recover. Also Aggro versus Control is like "Questions" versus "Answer". A famous saying is that "There is no wrong questions, only wrong answers".
"Are you not entertained?! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!"
"What we do in life, echoes in eternity." - Maximus Decimus Meridius
Easiest is facedecks. I've played them, choises are pretty obvious after you played other archetypes and know what can be throwed against you.
If control means control warrior, then it's second easiest thing to play. Good thing other control decks actually harder to play.
Combo is not as hard as ppl claim. Draw into stuff, play stuff, win game. It's not MTG, opponent can't do a shit against you drawing into your OTK, except he can kill you faster.
The hardest is probably midranges of sorts. I'm not talking about hunter midrange, cuz that one is actually easy. Playing midrange involves different gameplays for different types of opponents (you play aggroish against control/combo, play control against fast decks). And this decks actually involve a CHOISE between trade and face, and which one is right isn't obvious, you need to guess, count your lethat possibilities and your opponent's lethal options.
The decks that (I hate/lose to) are easy to play, and could be played by every retard in the world. The decks that I love is fucking-genius-rubiks-cube-level every turn, and can only be played to perfection by the absolute elite!
But on a serious note. I think it is wrong to say that an archtype is hard to play, since there is a big differents between the decks.