Hearthpwn

Updated the decklist with Landslides instead of Guild Traders.

Four-hour countdown to test time!

Quote from Tikku82 >>

You included every other class but priest 

 Technically I left Rogue out too.

I just don't find the new cards from either class competitively compelling.

"Big Decks" like Big Demon DH, Big Beast Hunter, Big Paladin, Celestial Druid, Big Spell Mage, Deathrattle Control Priest, Control Warrior, Freeze Shaman might be fun with new cards strengthening them, but still won't be really prominent, especially in the OTK heavy meta.

Just what I think will dominate ladder in the expansion. Like the last few metas, I think it will actually be quite diverse even as it's frustrating in its repetitiveness, so I'm predicting lots of "good" decks. Not smart enough to predict their relative order of goodness though.

So in alphabetical order only, I think we'll see:

- some kind of Kurtrus DH. He's too strong to not see play, even though DH might be the weakest class right now. I doubt this will be the full blown token build, though. More likely just deathrattle DH with a few new cards.

- some aggro Druid, probably not too different from currently.

- face Hunter is the eternal ok deck, and it particularly feels strong with the new running of Arcane Anomaly.

- Mozaki mage, with Siphon.

- some kind of buff Paladin, not sure with librams or not and other details, but something. New cards including Cariel will strengthen an already strong archetype.

- elemental Shaman, pretty much the same as now except with Sleetbringer instead of Menacing Nimbus.

- some version of questlock will still be oppressive.

- deathrattle zoolock, a tempo version (rather than the Owl otk meme version).

- good old pirate questline warrior :P until it gets nerfed.

Quote from nielsenhanserik>>

 I would argue that Guild Trader is too much mana for the spell damage you get. An replace could be Novice Zapper which is more flexible as it is only 1 mana it would also make Landslide better if you fit that in the deck.

I do worry that 4 mana is a lot, yes. I put Guild Trader in with the idea that I would mostly just use it as 1-mana cycle. But it's entirely possible that that's just not good enough to warrant 2 deck slots.

Don't like Novice Zapper, it feels like the Overload always gets in the way on that card specifically for some reason.

I would also cut both Primal Dungeoneer. I think considering that is has 4/11 of a chance to draw two cards then Multicaster would be better considering you are already running 3 schools with a chance of finding a fire spell.
I also think you would have enough draw with Bloodmage Thalnos, Multicaster, Cagematch Custodian, Windchill.

Only reason I'm leaning towards Primal Dungeoneer over Multicaster is 3 mana vs 4. But I'm considering doing what you say, yes. I could even drop the Primals for 2nd Multicaster and one copy of Molten Blast, so I have a native Fire spell.

I think the deck is missing some kind of board clear or comeback card if the board gets overwhelmed. Landslide is properly not a bad idea. The new Snowball Fight! is also an interesting choice if you want to try out the new cards. Bru'kan of the Elements is also interesting, but I imagine that you fight for ending the game before turn 8.

Yes, trying to end the game before Bru'kan of the Elements would become good.

Landslide was amazing in the pre-Barrens run of the deck. I'm only considering cutting it because the meta has more no-minion decks now than it did back then.

I got a (new) theorycrafting friend to go over the deck in detail with me. He liked it except for the Guild Traders. Suggested I cut those for maybe Landslides.

Well I guess this is one way to bait people into contributing to your thread.

I really want to hope for Bru'kan to be awesome, but I'm skeptical.

So I had great success with Aggro Spell Damage Shaman before the Barrens rotation of cards ... and I think some of the new Alterac Frost stuff can bring the deck back to being good (particularly more card draw).

Here's my rough draft list:

But here are cards I'm considering trying to squeeze into the list:

• Guidance - 2nd copy
• Landslide x2 - (depends highly on how minion-heavy the meta is) 
• Molten Blast x2 - (if I include Multicaster) 
• Ethereal Augmerchant x2 - (probably not)
• Herald of Lokholar x2
• Multicaster - 2nd copy - (I currently run 2x Arcane, 4x Nature, and 4x Frost spells) 

What cuts and additions would you make to refine my deck concept?

Quote from skymarshall78 >>

I really don’t understand why this isn’t a stand alone game.

Shoehorning it into the HS client just feels like an attempt to trigger FOMO in existing HS veterans, but in reality there is - quite sensibly - very little connection between core HS and this mode.  If it turns out that there are massively intertwined rewards (i.e. there are repeatable non-cosmetic rewards for core HS buried in the Mercs mode) then players will get cross about being ‘forced’ to play.

TBH I’m wondering whether theyve realised that too many regular spenders and whales have been building up huge piles of gold and dust and are trying to create a huge sink for all those accumulated rewards that will otherwise eat into profits

 One thing I'm wondering is if there might be HS rewards (eg gold, Reward Track XP) for accomplishing things in Mercs. In fact, the video clips they showed included a Rewards Track icon appearing at the bottom of the screen at the conclusion of battles, so unless they're re-using icons this is pretty much confirmed.

We'll see, but it's possible that playing Mercs will actually be net-profitable to your Gold reserves.

Quote from The_George >>

I think you should go back to reddit, with the rest of the Blizzard shills and apologists.

 LOL you obviously haven't seen r/hearthstone since the Mercenaries announcement stream.

OP updated with Roles and Rarities of the revealed Mercs.

Without knowing more specifics of the characters' abilities, I'm most excited to build a team themed around Shamanic magic. Bru'kan for sure, probably Thrall if I can get him as a Protector. Maybe Shadow Hunter Vol'jin? But he might require Shadow synergies (rather than Nature) to be any good. Hmmm.

Nice, I'm going to use the Rarity information in the forum thread I made about this. Thanks!

Quote from The_Gentleman_Rexxar >>

I am just happy we got some of the most important and iconic WC characters like Blink Fox, Rathorian, Bru'kan and Diablo. 

 Haha, yeah, I don't even have any idea who Rathorian is. (I think all the others sans Diablo have appeared in Hearthstone. Or maybe I know them from War2 or War3.)

They announced that Mercenaries would initially feature over 50 characters, which sounds like a lot until you compare it to the number of iconic characters in the world of Azeroth. 50 actually means there will be a ton of characters left out. After all, just think how many Hearthstone (Standard) Legendary cards there are by now. Yikes.

So I'm curious who we will get. So I combed through the material that's already been released, keeping in mind that a few glimpses might have just been these same heroes with alternate skins. Here's who I've got confirmed:

• Cairne Bloodhoof - (*)
• Cariel Roame - (*) - (starter)
• Cornelius Roame - (*) - (starter)
• Garrosh Hellscream - (*)
• Grommash Hellscream - (*) - (starter)
• Gruul - (*)
• Guff Runetotem - (*)
• King Mukla - (*)
• Lord Jaraxxus - (*)
• Mannoroth - (*)
• Mutanus - (*)
• The Lich King - (*) - (bundle)
• Thrall - (*)
• Tirion Fordring - (*)
• Uther - (*)
• Varian Wrynn - (*)
• Baron Geddon - (*)
• Blademaster Samuro - (*) - (starter)
• Diablo - (*) - (bundle)
• Illidan Stormrage - (*)
• King Krush - (*)
• Kurtrus Ashfallen - (*)
• Old Murk-Eye - (*)
• Rathorian - (*)
• Rexxar - (*)
• Rokara - (*) - (starter)
• Saurfang - (*)
• Scabbs Cutterbutter - (*)
• Sylvanas Windrunner - (*) - (bundle)
• Tavish Stormpike - (*)
• Tyrande Whisperwind - (*) - (starter)
• Valeera Sanguinar - (*)
• Warmaster Voone - (*)
• Alexstrasza - (*)
• Anduin Wrynn - (*)
• Antonidas - (*)
• Blink Fox - (*)
• Brightwing - (*)
• Bru'kan - (*)
• Gul'dan - (*)
• Jaina Proudmoore - (*)
• Lady Anacondra - (*)
• Malfurion Stormrage - (*)
• Millhouse Manastorm - (*) - (starter)
• Morgl the Oracle - (*)
• Natalie Seline - (*)
• Prophet Velen - (*)
• Ragnaros - (*)
• Shadow Hunter Vol'jin - (*)
• Tamsin Roame - (*)
• Varden Dawngrasp - (*)
• Xyrella - (*) - (starter)

... wait that's already over 50. Huh. So maybe they revealed all of them in the video?

Who do you think is important and missing? We've got this year's 10 mercs of course, and the "original" 10 Heroes for each class all confirmed. But what about Medivh? Kel'Thuzad? etc.