Hearthpwn

Personally.  Neither version of Alex seems terribly oppressive to me.  They are both legendary 9 mana minions so, while they are both powerful and potentially game winning cards, the decks that run them have to not only survive until turn 9 but also create a board state where they can safely be played.  Sometimes you just can't afford to play either Alex because you'll likely die if you do.  If a control/highlander deck manages to survive until the late game with enough health and a sufficiently equal board state such that they can offensively Alex you then they DESERVE to win the game.  It's just that simple.

Quote from Nefine1337 >>

I dont have the patience to learn bomb warrior/egg warrior it takes too much practice and on D2-1 I do not want to play around. WL/Priest would be my only option (have all cards) I havent faced any Warlocks though.

The last 7 games were 6 DH (2 wins) and 1 Hunter (1win)

You: "Hey guys, what beats DH and Face hunter."

Also you:  "I don't want to learn to play that."

I think the issue with DH is that outcast isn't as restrictive as Blizzard thought it would be.  If you play a slower and more controlling type of deck with big heavy hitter cards that can often clog your hand then it becomes considerably harder to reliably outcast your key cards the turn you need to.  But this doesn't balance those effects like Blizzard intended, instead, it's an issue that DH players solve in the deck building process.  They build around a bunch of low cost stuff that allows them to easily empty their hand and gain the early game tempo advantage, which then in turn allows them to abuse the outcast effects on spectral sight and skull of gul'dan to cost effectively reload or dig for burn to end the game.  This has lead to the cancerous Tempo DH archetype that people hate so much.

Trust me when I say this.  Highlander DH is way more fun to play and I'm sure it's more fun to play against too.  But it doesn't have the super high win rate of tempo DH so it doesn't get played nearly as often.  It's just a shame.

For me, the problem isn't so much the power level of the deck as it is the fact that it drags games on for 30-40 minutes at a time.  If you want to climb ladder effectively you really need to do it with some sort of tempo deck that looks to win the game somewhere between turn 5 and turn 9.  That way, win or lose, your games are over within 5-7 minutes and you can play the 200+ games you need to get to legend.  Running into this cancer on the ladder is so maddening because, from a time investment standpoint, I'm often better off taking the L instantly than spending 40 minutes earning a W.

My strategy is to just try and rush them down before turn 9.  If they manage to pop off a mass rez and I can't burn them over the top I just concede and move on because my odds of winning drop to almost nothing at that point anyway so there's no point continuing to fight.

Rogue has a hard time staying on top, due to some hard counters, including Demon Hunter.  It's 1 day after the nerfs, and DH is still stupid strong, as a Rogue main if you think we'll be on top till the next expansion you're dreaming buds.

Still a strong deck though, easy Tier 2.

 Rogue seemingly always finds a way.  The classic set for Rogue is just so tempo driven with cards like backstab, SI7, sap, prep and Edwin that the class always seems to find a way to return to prominence.

The tip about sticking to one deck is really important.  I made my climb with Aggro DH (before the 2nd round of nerfs).  Would you believe that my last 4 wins including final boss were ALL against Galakrond Warlock?  I won all 4 of those matches because I knew the matchup better than my opponent.  I knew exactly how to mulligan, exactly how to dodge certain board clears, and exactly when to start prioritizing face damage over fighting for the board.

Additionally, when you know your own deck inside and out it allows you to play for your outs.  You start to intuitively understand the state of the game and when you need to end it quickly.  (speaking as DH) When that priest plays his Khartut Defender, sure you can trade 2 minions and a hero power into it and then reload the board.  But that gives him back 8 health and puts Khartut in his rez pool.  This all means that your window to kill the priest is closing very fast and you're a huge underdog if the game goes longer than 8-9 turns.  So, instead of trading into it and reloading the board, maybe you take a risk.  You let it rip with Skull of Gul'dan and you draw a 1 mana Kayn Sunfury along with a 0 mana Chaos Strike.  Instead of you pushing 0 face damage and your opponent healing for 8, you push like 10 face damage.  Furthermore, your opponent has no way to kill his own Khartut so, unless he can remove Kayn, he might very well be pretty handcuffed.  That's just one example of how knowledge of one's own deck can help turn a potentially losing situation into a win.

My final piece of advice is to take your time.  Practice REALLY thinking about plays.  Without win streaks to aid your climb, the value of every win and every loss is amplified.  Just 1 careless error every couple of games could be the difference between reaching legend in 50 games or it taking 100+ games.

You left out one important detail.  Zephrys does NOT know what's in your hand.  So, if you're looking for Zephrys to provide you with a lethal option through burn, you first need to use the burn in your hand to lower your opponent's life total and then Zephrys can do the rest.

I'll give an example.  Let's say you're playing hunter.  Your opponent has 11 health and 4 minions in play (no taunts).  Your board is empty but, you have 10 mana and in your hand you have Unleash the Hounds and Zephrys the Great.

In this scenario.  If you jam Zephrys first, he is likely to give you options that help stabilize the board state since there is no card he can give you that does 11 damage to face.  However, if you unleash and go face for 4, then hero power for 2 more.  Your opponent will have 5 health remaining and you'll have 5 mana remaining.  So, if you play Zephrys with this new board state, he will recognize that Kill Command or Lava Burst is lethal and he'll offer you one or both of them.

It's the same concept as manipulating your mana to affect the choices Zephrys gives you.  From what I can tell, lethal is always his top priority; however, for best results, you must first spot the lethal yourself and then do the majority of the work before playing Zephrys to make his job as easy as possible.

Great guide though.

Altruis the Outcast is still powerful and any deck that was running him will still run him.  The nerf will just make it a little harder for him to completely go off on people and also reduce his ability to clear boards so effectively in the early game.

Battlefiend on the other hand, is a different story.  I predict that this card will no longer see play by the end of the week.  As a base 2/2, it was the best 1 drop in the entire game.  But as a 1/2, this has to survive a minimum of 2 turns to even be on the same level as Blazing Battlemage.  With the nerf to Frenzied Felwing making it easier to clear those early game DH boards, this will be a crushing blow to aggressive DH decks.  These 2 nerfs combined will actually make aggro DH quite inviable.  This is going to push DH back toward a midrange style that looks to curve out to Priestess of Fury.

Quote from Nicodemus >>

Quote from Geoff >>

Quote from TwistedCardmaster >>

Quote from Geoff >>

before DH no one was playing Pact with intention of destroying opponent's minions. Yes, it was played to some extent and sometimes in the mirror you could get some value destroying opponent's monster. But it wasn't an intended use.

 So? what in your opinion should influence their balance decisions more: intention of use or actual effect of the particular card? I would say, that any card should be fixed when something is not right, regardless of its popularity or intention of use.

 But how was it a problem if it destroyed something once in 200 games? From time to time you were getting it off Zeph to destroy an opposing Demon. So what?

It's a card game, numbers are everything. Yes, Sac Pact should never under any circumstances be able to destroy an opponent's monster. But there are so many other flaws in the game to fix, so why on earth would they care about 1 game in 200 being affected by this? And, from their perspective, affected positively, because as I said, they find occasional gamechanging swings a good thing?

Now, because of DH, Sac Pact started destroying thousands of opposing Demons everyday, so it became an issue that HAD TO be addressed.

 And I think it was making a control DH unviable, which they didn't want. now Demon hunter can afford to play priestess etc again. 

 

 This is really the issue.  DH started out with some awesome midgame demons like Priestess of Fury and Imprisoned Antaen and the most dominant DH decks in the beginning included those cards.  Then Warlocks started running double Sacrificial Pact and highlander decks started pulling it off Zephrys the Great and DH had to COMPLETELY STOP playing those cards because they couldn't afford to invest 6 or 7 mana into a card that would die for free and heal the enemy.  So then DH decks just got faster and faster and faster and now they're killing people turn 4.  So now they're nerfing Battlefiend and Frenzied Felwing to stop DH from running over people in the early game.

The problem would have become that people who want to play DH would have had no viable archetypes.  They wouldn't be able to play aggro because the aggro nerfs are a VERY big deal.  And, if Sacrificial Pact remained unchanged then they could't play midrange either for fear of getting absolutely cucked every time they played a big demon.  So playing DH would have been the most un-fun experience in the world if something wasn't done about Sacrificial Pact.

These balance changes will push Tempo DH back towards midrange where it belongs without completely neutering the class.

Quote from BA5 >>

Quote from Sarlatan >>

Stupid swing cards like Dragonqueen Alexstrasza and Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron to a lesser extent where my opponent is winning games he otherwise had no business winning

 I just lost to Dragonqueen Alexstrasza into double Kalecgos into Power of Creation. Before that the mage was losing bad. Stuff like this shouldn't be happening. And more often then not stuff like this happens. 

A few games later Azure Explorer into Dragonqueen Alexstrasza into Ysera, Unleashed. The Mage was on fatigue that turn! I kid you not!

 Yet whenever YOU play Dragonqueen Alexstrasza you get Faerie Dragon and Cobalt Spellkin.