Hearthpwn

Onyxia

Even before GvG, Onyxia had almost no Constructed play. Now, with Dr. Boom around, you have kind of no incentive to play Onyxia as 1) people run BGH all over the place 2) Dr. Boom provides kind of the same thing that Onyxia does but from a much lower mana cost. Even though quite inferior to Dr. Boom in terms of mana efficiency, she is still better than Dr. Boom in raw value.

I think people underestimate this card A LOT, like people did in the beta with Al'Akir the Windlord, which now is a staple in most non-mech Shamans. Onyxia puts a lot of pressure on your opponent suddenly and, if the opponent doesn't have a board clear, too bad, he is dead. And even if it has, good for you, as the board clear will be wasted on one single card and not on lots of your cards. Apart from Brawl (and Twisting Nether, but people don't use this card), Onyxia always require at least 2 cards to remove her: a single damage removal and an AoE.

In Arena, this is one of the top top legendaries: I rank it at the third position for neutral legendaries (I rank Tirion Fordring and Vol'jin over her), just behind Dr. Boom and Ragnaros the Firelord, respectively. At least to me, she is better than Ysera and Sneed's Old Shredder IN ARENA because 1) she is much less vulnerable to single target removal 2) she puts a lot of pressure instantly 3) not silenceable .

In Constructed, though, many combos can kill her, like Death's Bite + Execute or 2x Swipe, making her not that good compared to other legendaries. Someday, though, I want to make a Druid deck with Onyxia which abuses the combos with Cenarius, Savage Roar and Power of the Wild. That would be a Dark Wispers deck... it would be really fun!

I love the idea of the class and some of the cards but... there are lot of things wrong in here in terms of balancing and mechanics.

• Choose One. This is Druid specific... that's all. No reason to even say how absurd it is to have a class-specific mechanic in another class. Versatility is what makes Druid so strong and if you add it other class, then Druid is no more Druid... You already have roll, which is your class specific mechanic, so why steal one from another class?
• Hero power. Insane power creep over Druid's hero power. Is this class Monk or OP Druid? I don't know... The value you're getting is so huge, specifally considering the huge amount of minions with valuable battlecries or that can now be played for free or almost for free. Make it read: Return a friendly minion to your hand. It costs (1) less. Much more balanced this way.
• Complexity. The class is too complex compared to the other ones... The text is too big and the effects are too powerful. Make the cards simpler and the class will become much more fluid and balanced.
• In-hand buffing. Even though in theory seems a great mechanic, this is way too powerful because it allows plays that shouldn't be possible due to mana limitations. It works like a reverse overload, meaning that you pay some mana a turn earlier to have a huge play the next turn, which suddenly become way too powerful.
• Balancing itself. I will probably have to be really rude on this one so I already apologise but... your cards make no sense if compared to cards that already exist in the game. When you create a card, one of the best things to do is to compare it to other cards that fit similar roles and see if the card is not much better or much worse than the card you are comparing. You didn't do this... your cards aren't even close to balanced as many of them are insane power creep over other cards. Let me just say a few:

1. Shado-pan Assault. Have you ever heard of a card called... Charge? It doesn't seem so... you card costs 2 less and gives charge TO ALL MINIONS IN HAND... this by itself should cost about 4 mana. But no... they COST 1 LESS! So basically this card means that even if you have only 1 minion in hand, it is already strictly better than charge as it gives charge for 1 mana... which, for anyone that played HS during its beta, know it means OP. But being strictly better than Charge isn't enough... if you have more than 1 minion in hand, this card gets insane value. It basically means that all of your one drops are now free and have charge... do you even realise how op that is? Now all of your big cards have charge... now you can play your hand very fast and with charge... now this card is the most broken card I've ever seen in my entire life.
2. Veteran of Pandaria. Have you ever heard of two cards called... Shattered Sun Cleric and Pint-Sized Summoner? Now your card is guaranteed to get the summoner's effect and the shattered's effect, all packed with a body that's already very good for the cost... vanilla 3 mana 2/5 is already very good, but a 2/5 that gets both shattered's and summoner's effect EVERY TURN is too op to be a a card... You play this card and then a random minion in your hand suddenly becomes a value beast, this without you sacrificing anything as you get an above average body for the cost. Compare it to Iron Sensei for a second... but this one is a 2/2 and only affects mechs, while this panda is a 2/5, affects anyone and the cost (1) effect is arguably much better than +1/+1. So this card is basically strictly better than those 3 cards, which are already quite good cards... no need to even say how good this one is.
3. Golden Lotus Warrior. Have you ever heard of... Stormpike Commando? It is a 5 mana 4/2 that deal 2 damage... HOW THE FUCK YOUR CARD IS A 4/5 DEAL 4 DAMAGE? OMG OMG OMG! But no... the insane power creep doesn't stop there. You can arguably say ''...but Fire Elemental is a 6/5 that deals 3 damage''... then why does your card deal 1 more damage for 1 less mana and even has a better stat distribution...??? But no... this card would be run in every single deck if it was just this but NO THE OPNESS DOESN'T STOP HERE! When you return it, it deals 2 damage to whatever you want... so by returning it you get a Holy Smite without spending a card... do you know how op that is? You deal 4 dmaage and then 2 damage... and then THE CARD COSTS 4 LESS! Then you can deal 4 damage for 1 mana and again get the 4/5 body... THIS IS SO BROKEN... Comapre it to even Bomb Lobber... -1/-2 stats and the damage is random... in which world do you live in which this card is balanced????????????????????????????????

I think I got too exhalted but... those cards are cancerous. And I mentioned just the 3 most OP ones... Song of Xuen, Shado-Pan Trainee, Li-Li... just to mention some. I think you should rework your class...

Before I start, I noticed you are using the word ''mana'' incorrectly... I think you mean ''dust'',  which is used to craft cards. Mana is a resource in matches... it's that thing that increases every turn, starting at 1 at turn 1. And it writes ''better'', not ''bether'' haha.

Well, the best way by far to spend gold is on Arena, but that really depends on how good you are at it. Consistently achieving 3+ wins is enough to get Arenas over packs as it is much more gold efficient... however, the GvG packs are a bit worse for new players than the Classic packs as the Classic cards are overall strong cards that don't purely rely on synergies to work as the whole Mech subtype does. If you can get 5+ wins consistently, then you can on average make an Arena run per day. Finally, if you can get 7+ wins consistently, then you can do ''infinite Arena''... which is very desirable if you can do it. However, as a new player, you're probably not that good at Arena so play as much as you can to improve your Arena skills. Watching/reading guides or videos help a lot as well. Buying Classic packs is a fine option too if you can't do well in Arena.

About dust, as you're a new player dust is very rare to get as most cards you get are new, which is quite good as you don't have to pay a lot of dust to get them. However, if you're missing specific/staple cards, then it becomes a problem as you're short on dust. A good advice for new players is: try to avoid crafting commons, as they will be gotten from a pack eventually, and focus on rares, which are not as expensive as epics and legendaries. For new players, neutral rares with overall good utility are very good options... Azure Drake and Argent Commander are very good options if you can't craft a legendary instead. Class specific rares can be very good too if you plan to main a class... Lightning Storm, SI:7 Agent and Keeper of the Grove are staples in about every deck of their respective classes. Sometimes, though, it's worth saving up some dust to craft an epic... Big Game Hunter is certainly a very good option.

PS: That rumour is false. The contents of a pack are decided at the time of the purchase, not when you open them, making opening packs all at once equally as good as opening them each at once.

Very nice to see a post from you again, my friend. I really apreciated the class concept and it seems much more balanced than the Blademaster class you did some time ago. However, you know how I'm picky so... let me add somethings about balancing.

• Sisters of Seduction: Too good for the cost... for 8 you basically get a 4/4 with taunts (4 mana), 4/3 with that effect (3 mana) and a 3/4 with charge (4 mana)... that adds up to 11 mana, not 8. And the 4/3 and the 3/4 sisters have a synergy, meaning that you get a Fireball that can only be cast on minions and a 3/1... this should cost 4 mana. Then you get a 4/4 and a 4/3 for 4 mana, which is quite op. My idea is reducing the main sister to a 2/2 with taunt.
• Mindbender Ghur'sha:  9 mana please. 7 mana Mind Control + 2/8... that's the most broken Mind Control cost of all time. That would be THE nightmare... remember in the early beta when Mind Control costed 8... Doesn't matter if you get damaged in the process or can't bypass taunts... the effect is just too good and you get a solid body.

Why Alexstrasza? Why Betrayal? Why Clockwork Gnome? Why Kezan Mystic? Why two Ironbeak Owl(one is good enough)? Why Loatheb? Why Mountain Giant?

Take out all those cards I mentioned. Add 2 Backstab, 2 SI:7 Agent and 2 Eviscerate. Your early game will be much stronger this way. Azure Drake will help too... take out one Shadowstep and add two of them because you have no card draw apart from Coldlight Oracle.

Also, Goblin Sapper fit the deck pretty well but the problem is that I can't think of a card to take out and put him instead... maybe one Youthful Brewmaster and one Dancing Swords?

Well, if it didn't put you in a good spot any time, like a spot in which you're ahead enough to win in a couple turns, you're playing it wrongly. Think about the trades: your opponent often has to spend more than a card to kill him... that's already value... both in terms of tempo and card advantage... And, well, it kinda has an implicit immediate effect. Being 3 bodies and not only 1, your opponent can't get a value trade with any conventional hard removal and the boom bots, if dealt with, will deal damage. Even if you get 1 damage every time with the boom bots that's almost a free Arcane Missiles... Dr. Boom is just insane. Just the fact that almost every Control and Midrange decks run him proves the point that he is very good, and very good cards shouldn't be a disappointment for you.

Sonserf369 already answered the questions concerning Midrange and Tempo so I guess I should tell you about the mulligan and the matchups, which are good and which are bad.

Let's start with the mulligan. Well, there are ways to get information, even though they normally aren't 100% accurate, from the mulligan. An example: you're up against a Druid on ladder. In this case, you should assume it is a Ramp Druid, as it is the most popular and consistent type of Druid out there. Therefore, you are getting information based on THE CLASS, which can be seen in the mulligan stage. However, if you're up against a Warlock, you might ask: is it Zoo(Aggro Warlock) or Handlock(Control Warlock that uses giants and stuff)? This question can most of the time be answered by 2 factors: the first, and the simplest, is the rank in which your opponent is... the lower, the higher the chance it is Zoo, as Zoo is easier to play and faster to climb the lower ranks; the second, and most important, is the number of cards replaced... if the Warlock replaces 0 or 1 of its cards it's most likely Zoo, and if it replaces 3 or 4 it's most likely Handlock. That applies to most classes that have both Aggro and Control archetypes.

Now about the matchups. Well, it would last forever for me to tell you which decks are good against which other decks. Instead, I should explain you how to figure out how to know which decks are good/bad against which other decks. The process is quite simple: you choose two decks, find their weaknesses and strenghts, their aims and win conditions. After that, you clearly see how good a deck is against another. Let me choose two decks: Ramp Druid and Handlock, just as an example. I'll list their ponts below:

• Ramp Druid: Tempo-Control Deck. Focused on ramping up as fast as possible to play powerful minions ahead of time, sacrificing card advantage for tempo advantage (means you have an advantage on the board state). Has powerful counters to hardly any minions played on the early and mid game. Lacks, though, answers in the long run(no hard counters). Tends to finish the game by turn 9-15 with the Force of Nature + Savage Roar to compensate the lack of survivability on the late game. It runs utility cards like Ancient of Lore and Keeper of the Grove. Conclusion: Tends to be good against decks that try to win by having favourable trades, this includes most types of Midrange and slow Control decks with no way to block the combo. Weak against decks with powerful late games or a super strong early game.
• Handlock: Control Deck. Focused on playing massive minions on turn 4, for this sacrificing their t1-t3 in order to play their hero power and gain cards. Finishes its curve with Lord Jaraxxus, which puts the opponent on the clock. Their massive minions are vulnerable to hard counters, Big Game Hunter and silences. Has powerful board clearers if given time to set them up. They use taunt givers on their massive minions to stop any agression. Conclusion: Tends to be good against slow decks or slower Aggro decks. Weak against super fast decks or decks that have lots of hard counters/answers, for example Shaman.

It's noticeable that Handlock counters Ramp Druid. That happens because Druids don't have many ways to counter those massive minions(Twilight Drake, Mountain Giant and Molten Giant) and, even though it has ramping abilities, the minions played aren't fast enough to kill the Warlock before it plays its minions and taunt them up. The Druid's chance to win relies mostly on the combo in situations in which the Warlock has no taunters on the board, which is quite rare. Another example is how Handlock counters Priest, as Priest is too slow.

Hope it helps :)

Handlock is fine as it is. You seem to never have played Handlock in your life to say that it is OP or easy to play. Hunters and Zoo destroy Handlock if you don't draw the right cards and even against Control the giants and Twilight Drake have well-defined counters, which are Big Game Hunter and silences respectively. It's just an overall consistent Control deck... and what's really wrong about that? It's a deck made to counter Control, and it does it very well, but if you don't draw Hellfire or Molten Giant against Aggro you're pretty dead... Hunter is a really hard matchup, and they are pretty popular on ladder atm. And it's not that easy to play... there are lots of decisions to make concerning mainly Shadowflame, Ancient Watcher, taunt givers and Lord Jaraxxus. And for some people the deck might even be stressful because you are constantly in danger of dying due to being constantly low in health. Control Warrior has mostly a fair matchup against this deck, Mech Mage is insane against this deck and Druid and Priest gained some tools to try to improve their poor matchups against this deck. By no means Handlock is OP. Miracle Rogue... if something was ever OP in this game, was that deck!

I personally really hope that you make more sets like these because it was awesome to look at those cards and discuss with you about them.

Just as a last thing, I think Seiza is now a bit too good against Control... the draw a card effect is pretty important. What prevents Innervate from being OP is exactly the fact that you need two cards to play... with Seiza, you only need one card and you replenish even more mana later on. I think it will be fine being a 0 mana spell with the text: Refill 2 empty mana crystals. Flow(2) Refill 4 instead. This way this card would still be greater than Innervate later on but it wouldn't be OP... drawing a card would make it really good because you actually get a 4 mana discount without even paying a card... it's basically free. It would be an Innervate that is a worse earlier on and better later on... I think it gets balanced this way.

NOW I really didn't see that you've made Starcraft cards and I REALLY REALLY REALLY love that game... I MUST see them NOW!

Dude, seriously... even if people couldn't netdeck they would probably play similar decks just with minor differences, as VeiledSyn said. It's quite simple: the objetive of the game is winning, so, in order to win, people try to build the best decks they can. To make that, you choose a class and a playstyle that fits that class.

Let's suppose someone chooses Paladin and decides to play Control. Then the person would have to add cards to the deck and try to figure out some synergy to put on the deck. Then the person would find Quartermaster + Muster for Battle an excellent combo to control the board and Equality + Wild Pyromancer as a way to clear it... maybe the person could run Aldor Peacekeeper + Stampeding Kodo too. Then the person would try to find the best cards for each stage of the game... Shielded Minibot and Zombie Chow as early game, Cairne Bloodhoof and Sylvanas Windrunner as midgame(maybe Bolvar Fordragon too), Tirion Fordring and Sneed's Old Shredder as late game. Add some removal like Truesilver Champion and Consecration and some other good minions and the deck is ready.

Let's suppose now that someone else chooses Paladin and decides to play Control. Then it would have to make the same steps mentioned before and therefore would pick at least cards that fit similar roles if not the same cards. This person might prefer Ragnaros the Firelord over Tirion Fordring, or decide to run Feugen + Stalagg instead of the Stampeding Kodos, but they'll probably agree, given that they have some experience with the game, that Shielded Minibot is an excellent 2 drop so therefore they should put it in the deck as Paladin lacks early game. This reasoning applies to most cards. In the end their decks would be quite similar, just with some differences regarding preferences or cards available in each one's collection.

That reasoning applies to almost every deck, even with netdecking. Almost every deck with the same purpose(for example two Ramp Druids or Aggro Hunter) tend to share about at least 20 cards of the deck. Without netdecking the numbers wouldn't change much given the reasoning given above. Agreed, there would be some crazy decks that only one or two people could think of, and these decks would be completely different from whatever they face, but this kind of deck already exists... Noxious is one of the players that do such things, just watch his Pirate Mage video and be happy.

Hope you understand my point.

I like the deck, but here are my criticisms:

• The obvious mistake of having only a single Big Game Hunter target, in the form of your Alexstrasza
• I love Alexstrasza in combo-based Ramp decks (I run her in mine), but I don't really think that she fits in this deck. I feel like a lot of the time she will sit and rot in your hand. Running only one copy of the Force of Nature/Savage Roar combo really limits her utility, and if you use her without the combo in hand and she gets removed, you essentially just wasted an entire turn, which can really set you behind as a Druid. I suggest replacing her with Cenarius.
• You need more taunt to get consistent value out of Kel'Thuzad. I'd swap out the Azure Drake for a second Sludge Belcher and take out one of the Piloted Shredders for a second Sen'jin Shieldmasta.
• Troggzor the Earthinator probably isn't good in this deck. While I really like him in some of the decks that can fight for board early in the game, this deck is more focused on ramping in the first few turns and then fighting for board in turns 4-8.
• No Ancient of War? That's a bit surprising. Even without the abundance of aggro, it's still a good, high-value taunt. I'd remove a Shade of Naxxramas and Troggzor the Earthinator to include two Ancient of War.

Other than that, it looks like a decent list.

There are two main ways to get 12 wins with Warlock: draft like Zoo or draft a Demonlock with good Voidcaller synergy. The beauty of drafting Zoo Warlock in Arena is you can tap if you don't want to play a bad card and dump your hand just like constructed Zoo. If you drafted enough decent low curve minions you will win. 

The demonlock Arena strategy has become less consistent with GvG as the only common demon added was Floating Watcher, and the card collection is more saturated meaning it is harder to draft synergies. Still, when you get the lucky draft, Arena demonlock wins hard. The tempo of Voidcaller calling out a 4/4, a 6/6, or even another Voidcaller is just too much for most decks to deal with. Just remember to not draft Voidcaller in a deck with a lot of Flame Imps and Voidcallers as the Void Callers has to call out at least itself or better to be worth it.  

Overall, the power of Warlock in Arena is still its power to tap. Bad hands mean nothing as you can just tap for better cards.

Aggro is a deck that aims at trying to beat you with speed. Think of Face Hunter: deck is completely focused on damage output and not much else. They have no late game and so they try and kill you before that stage of the game comes since they are guaranteed to lose at that point.

Tempo is deck that wants to be ahead early and stay ahead. Think of Zoo: they have tons of strong early game plays, and cheap value minions to keep trading efficiently and keep staying ahead. Unlike Hunter, they are not focused solely on damage but on trading efficiently in order to stay ahead on board and win that way.

Midrange is a deck that focuses on being flexible. They are a jack-of-all-trades, switching between playing aggro and playing control depending on the matchup and the draw. As such, they aren't that great against either one. think of Shaman: Lots of all-around cards that either good against aggro (Lightning Storm, Feral Spirit) or against control (Hex, Fire Elemental).

Actually look at the packs that you're buying maybe? I mean jeez, I've never bought the incorrect ones, and I have a difficult time imagining how much of a hurry someone needs to be in to click a "buy" button without looking at what they're buying...

You people would all max your credit cards within seconds of opening Amazon.com

Even if there were no websites sharing decks, people on their own would find out the most optimal builds... Sure a few differences here or there, but majority of decks would still be the same. People of average intelligence can clearly see which cards are better and how they work together on a whole to make the best decks. This argument is invalid, and makes no real sense. Were social creatures, get over it or go live in a cave somewhere.

Edit: I find it odd your complaining about people wanting to win in a competitive game.

I think you answered your own question. Harrison Jones is good in a weapon heavy meta and his usefulness fluctuates with time. Right now control warrior is really popular which makes Harrison Jones more desirable. GvG also brought a lot of new weapon cards giving Harrisson more targets to take to the museum.

No one can predict for how long Control Warrior will retain it's current popularity or if a new weapon heavy class will take it's place so you will have to craft Harrison Jones at your own risk. However, I would say that much like The Black Knight it's always nice to have a meta card like Harrison at your disposal, so if you do not have any cards you really want to craft and have the dust to spare I don't see why you would regret your decision. Be warned though, I think you will probably find out Harrison's effect doesn't trigger as often as you think it will.

The only reason I would caution against making him more powerful is that with a mechwarper he's free.  That's a pretty big advantage.  Yeah, he's not exactly dangerous at an enraged 2/2, but if you draw one or two of hi, the coin, and a mechwarper dropping that many creatures on turn 1 can help mitigate his kinda disappointing statline.  If the costs stayed the same but he suddenly did more damage I feel like that would unbalance things.  Turn 1 Mechwarper and two Warbots, turn two Whirlwind and you're swinging for eight on turn 2.  You think people carp about the Undertaker, imagine the rage if THIS started happening all the time.

Looks great for ranks 25-23~

I find it kind of odd that in ANY other CCG out there, people asking whether they could be competitive players without buying any cards would be laughed out of the Forum, but in Hearthstone it's actually a thing you can do. 

Blizzard is INCREDIBLY generous with this game's FTP model, giving all that gold from quests, and just 10 per 3 wins in general, and letting you buy packs with it. That is insane. Blizzard gives its players free cards. (I wish that I could play a few games of YuGiOh in exchange for a new booster pack) 

Will players who never pay for cards like normal people be as competitive as them? No, of course not. But can they still play the game to some degree of success without a single penny out of pocket? Yes.