Hearthpwn

Quote from Pullaa >>

Even shaman? Control? Deck is fully aggro what are you talking about? 

 Reliant on board control =/= a control deck. Even Shaman falls to pieces if it can't keep board control.

As most will be aware, the nerfs to Cold Blood, Flametongue Totem, Equality, Hunter's Mark and Lesser Emerald Spellstone are being implemented today. What are your guys thoughts on how it will impact the format, and which decks do you think will take advantage of it the most and which will find the changes most challenging to overcome? My thoughts below.

Strongest Decks

Odd Paladin was not directly affected by the nerfs and already a strong class. Unlike many others, I don't feel like Hunter will see a significant drop in play so Odd Paladin continues to shine in this regard. It also had bad matchups against the other Paladin builds, all of which have received a nerf which could potentially reduce their play rate, as well as increasing Odd Paladin's win % in the matchups slightly. Additionally another poor matchup, the sparsely represented Even Shaman is likely to become even less popular (and weaker). I do expect to see Odd Rogue (a great matchup for Odd Paladin) to fall off the map completely and an increase in the number of Even Warlocks and Priests, which could cause issues but in general things look decent for Odd Paladin.

Even Warlock looks like it may be able to take advantage of the changes as well. Hunters Mark and Equality are big cards against this Warlock strategy and both were nerfed. While the nerfs aren't particularly extreme given the power level of "reduce health to 1" against Even Warlock's playstyle, it may be enough, along with slightly reduced Hunter numbers expected on ladder, to give Even Warlock a boost back towards tier 2. In addition to this, Even Warlocks main predator, Odd Rogue, has pretty much been gutted and should all but disappear from ranked play. I feel the performance of Even Warlock will hinge a little on the popularity of OTK Paladin decks, both versions of which should become favourable matchups after the equality nerf if the Warlock is running Nerubian Unraveler and Mojomaster Zihi, and an expected uptick in Odd Paladins is also good news for any Warlock decks packing defile. To Even Warlock's detriment however, I think the number of Priests on ladder will rise considerably (although with the aforementioned heavily teched build, Gallery Priest can be shut down very fast).

Control Priest only stands to gain from the changes. Midrange Hunter is probably the least affected of the nerfed decks, a bad matchup for the Priest, but that's about the only bit of bad news. Holy Wrath Paladin is nerfed, Odd Rogue is nerfed, Odd Warrior doesn't seem to gain anything significant from the changes and everything else is a good matchup already, including the other decks that seem to benefit from the changes. Unless something new (or old) comes out of the void to challenge Control Priest it should be pretty dominant. I think if anything, we are to look to oldschool Malygos Druid to be the deck to rise up and challenge Control Priest.

Gallery Priest looks in a really favourable position with a bunch of its counters receiving nerfs. Or finding their likely matchup spreads weakend. Looking strong for the same reasons as Control Priest, albeit not AS strong.

Hybrid Hunter what? Yes, its favoured against both common builds of Priest and only loses Hunter's Mark (possibly). Even Paladin is going in the bin and I'm expecting an increase in a bunch of its good matchups. To its detriment I think Odd Paladin will rise and give it some grief but I strongly suspect Priest will be the most represented class.

Malygos Druid maybe? This is something I'd like to see because I really appreciate this deck. Potentially challenges a priest-heavy meta and is good against Priest's aggressive counters. It has lost a lot of speed but maybe this new shift is enough to bring the meta down to its power level. Probably just a dream.

Weakest Decks

Odd Rogue loses Cold Blood and I don't think it can recover. Early pressure against slow decks gone, burst finisher significantly weakened. I just don't think this deck can compete at all anymore.

Even Shaman loses Flametongue Totem and as a deck that is completely reliant on board control, this is too devastating a loss to recover from.

Those are my thoughts and as an honourable mention I think an aggressive Mage could be very strong but I've seen and played so little of it I'm not really sure how to rate it right now.