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Glide - I thought this would be wildly OP, but it's been fairly innocuous so far. I've played a number of games as DH, and the draw is definitely nice, but more often than not, I've found the Outcast effect to be something I don't want to happen. So often my opponent had less than 4 cards in hand, so I was helping him/her by playing Glide. Obviously, this card would be much better if we had a control meta, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

Mindrender Illucia - I thought the hand disruption would be insane, but (at least in Standard) it's been...fine. Each time it has been played against me, I topdecked a good card off of the opponent's deck and I didn't feel too sad about it. Granted, my sample size is crazy small (like...2), but it didn't feel as bad as I thought it would to have my hand ganked.

 

Cards like Glide and Mindrender Illucia single-handedly make me, as a Wild Control or OTK player, auto-concede against any and every DH and Priest. It's just terrible design that disables opponent from playing the game. It makes for impossible, anti-fun and infuriating gameplay.

 I don't really play Wild, but I can definitely see how these cards would be pretty messed up in wild. I know wild is supposed to be the mode where you can do "really crazy stuff," but at some point, ultra-powerful decks just get too many tools and it becomes pointless. I actually think the solution is a third ladder where you get to use old cards (which is also kind of the point of Wild), but it is more limited. I've always thought a "Time Capsule" mode would be cool where you could only play with cards from certain points in time (ex: for the month of X, Time Capsule mode would be the Whispers of the Old Gods era). 

That’s a good point re: Animal Guardians. Whenever I play Druid and they have 7 mana, I just clinch up and pray.

I just want to call myself out on some incorrect predictions (at least currently) and also share some general thoughts I've had after these first few days with Scholomance.

Things I Was Wrong About

Glide - I thought this would be wildly OP, but it's been fairly innocuous so far. I've played a number of games as DH, and the draw is definitely nice, but more often than not, I've found the Outcast effect to be something I don't want to happen. So often my opponent had less than 4 cards in hand, so I was helping him/her by playing Glide. Obviously, this card would be much better if we had a control meta, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

Lorekeeper Polkelt - I thought this card would be devastatingly powerful in both Aggro and Control, but I haven't seen it even once on ladder (currently in Diamond ranks). I guess since it's a one-of, you can't really rely on it consistently. I thought it would be a Day 1 craft for me, but I still haven't crafted it yet. 

Mindrender Illucia - I thought the hand disruption would be insane, but (at least in Standard) it's been...fine. Each time it has been played against me, I topdecked a good card off of the opponent's deck and I didn't feel too sad about it. Granted, my sample size is crazy small (like...2), but it didn't feel as bad as I thought it would to have my hand ganked.

General State of the Meta

Seems really good! There are fun and at least semi-viable decks with every class, and the new cards are really enjoyable to play with. Most decks also FEEL beatable, even in a "bad" matchup, so I haven't found myself rolling my eyes as soon as I queue into X class. 

Druid

This gets its own section because the class seems quite prominent now. Before SA released, River Druid (or whatever you want to call the archetype that played Exotic Mountseller and tons of zero-cost spells was one of the most prominent decks in the meta. Now with the Guardian Animals package, the deck seems very strong. Especially since they can easily have 7 mana by turn 3 or 4 thanks to Lightning Bloom. Kael's ability to play Survival of the Fittest for zero mana is often bonkers. I would say that the turns where druid is playing 8+ cards in a turn do not feel fun. HOWEVER, I've found this deck to be very beatable, as long as you're playing a pretty fast aggressive deck like DH or Zoolock. 

Nerfs?

Everyone loves to talk about and predict nerfs, so I'd be remiss to not mention it here. I thought that we'd end up seeing a day 2 nerf of certain cards like Glide but that wasn't necessary (thankfully!). At this point, Druid is the only class with cards that feel like Blizzard might be (as they love to say) "watching it." I'm not calling for  or really saying I think these will happen, but  just throwing out some possibilities:

Kael'thas Sunstrider - given the recent changes to DQA and Rogue's Galakrond, it doesn't feel like a stretch to give Kael the same nerf so that the third spell costs 1. I've even seen it suggested over on the HS reddit that Blizz just do  this to any card that gives a blanket reduction to zero. (Cards like Wondrous Wand...not cards like Skull of Gul'dan that CAN reduce to zero, but don't always).

Lightning Bloom - I don't know how they would nerf it, but it's pretty much as strong as we all thought it would be. (Though I must admit, it hasn't really annoyed me to play against that much.)

Nozdormu - come on, Blizz! 9-mana 8/8 do nothing?????? OP.

Thanks for reading. Hope you all are enjoying the SA meta as much as I am. Your thoughts are welcome!