Hearthpwn

If you know how to play, then pretty much any deck, even the lowest tier, won't make you loose 9/10 games on average. That said your investment decision really depends on your priorities, it certainly isn't, and I feel fairly confident saying also won't be, an easy deck to climb with. But games should be played for fun, unless you make a living off of playing them. I think I'll invest into Uther even though it rotates out soon and I'm not certain it will be a tier 1 deck, though admittedly I'm pretty sure it'll boast a significantly higher winrate than Discolock, and I'm likely to do so simply because I'm really keen on trying the deck out. Admittedly this approach can lead you to bad decisions at times as the case of me crafting both the warrior and the hunter quests would serve to illustrate, but I regret those decisions not because those decks were never tier 1, it's just because I didn't find them as fun to play as I expected them to be. Life is tough on a budget in HS, but just as in the real world, sometimes you end up regretting not having tried something more than having given it a go and it having failed.

If you are looking to do well in standard ranked than I would advise against opting for Dragon Warrior, it just doesn't do well against the currently most prevalent decks. That said, have fun and play whatever you want is the healthiest approach, most likely you can succeed with pretty much anything. Dragon Warrior just by a long shot isn't the easiest to succeed with.

Quote from IDBY >>

Quote from Mackie264 >>

Quote from IDBY >>

The poll is kind of useless considering the expansion is only a week old and the meta hasnt settled yet.

 How is it useless? it probably won't be a good picture of the meta in like a month (more than likely won't) but this kind of poll is extremely useful for someone trying to climb rn if you have info about what people is playing you can counter the ladder and then have a smoother climb.

 At the rate a week old meta changes 24 hours later some other class will likely take over any class in the lead. It also depends on rank, and when and where you are playing. Then the sample size compared to the number of hearthstone players is so low as to not be useful. All in all its a waste of time.

 The same argument could be made about any HS stay sites available online. They all have a limited not properly randomized sample size. In truth, I believe only Blizzard has proper insights into how each of the decks is actually doing at any given time. And there is good reason for not disclosing those to the public.

Fair point about Time Outs, that said, that's twice a single turn stall, while Zihi can delay opponent's OTK by whole 4 turns. In short, Zihi + two Time Outs => 6 extra turns vs certain combo decks, not to mention the fact that depending on the list you run, you might even be able to bounce Zihi back to delay it even further by which time you should most definitely have your DK out.

I'd rather have more clear against aggro such as a Second Dragonmaw Scorcher and two Doomsayers which can be pulled off by Call to Arms.

Quote from IDBY >>

The poll is kind of useless considering the expansion is only a week old and the meta hasnt settled yet.

 Will it reflect the state of standard mode a month from now? Most likely no. But useless, I disagree. If you wanna climb now, this info might be useful.

Quote from RazorKiller >>

I'm at Rank 8, and it's been mostly Secret/Spell Hunters, Kingsbane Rogues, Taunt Druids and Odd Mages, with a smattering of Priests and Warlocks. I faced some Discardlocks a few days after the expansion launch, but they've all but disappeared now. 

Warrior remains a dead class, sadly. Dragon decks don't seem to be catching on. I've been rocking an Odd Dragon Quest Warrior deck though, and it's doing fine so far. 

Quote from RazorKiller >>

I'm at Rank 8, and it's been mostly Secret/Spell Hunters, Kingsbane Rogues, Taunt Druids and Odd Mages, with a smattering of Priests and Warlocks. I faced some Discardlocks a few days after the expansion launch, but they've all but disappeared now. 

Warrior remains a dead class, sadly. Dragon decks don't seem to be catching on. I've been rocking an Odd Dragon Quest Warrior deck though, and it's doing fine so far. 

 Warrior just doesn't have good matchups in the current, mind you early, meta. This might change though, it's still hard to predict.

Quote from sundarkssh >>

Hunter, overwhelmingly. Beast hunters with spirits and Halazzi, and spell hunters, with or without Zul'Jin. A bit of Zoo/Even lock and Odd Rogues/Pallies. Encountered 1 Kingsbane rogue with all of the weapon tutors, got wrecked by him too.

 Which rank are you in? Why would anyone not include Zul'jin in spell hunter, or secret hunter for the matter?!

Quote from Talerlock >>

It would not be put as a condition of victory, but as a cleaning tool and tempo, just a 7/5 for 0 mana with LS and rush

 Then maybe, but I still think you're better off improving your aggro matchups with more clears or  your combo matchup with more draw. I kinda feel like Horseman Paladin doesn't need single target removal just because he has so many board clears available. In terms of heals, there are I believe better tools available too, which provide you card draw too or at least cycle.

Quote from Kissmealloveragain >>

Quote from D00Mster >>

Quote from Kissmealloveragain >>

Odd paladin is very strong, it has a 50%+ win-rate against every Rogue, Mage, Shaman, Paladin and Hunter deck so far. That's 5 whole classes out of 9. No deck should be that good, the best way to nerf it would be to nerf Level Up! to 6 mana.

I'd have to disagree with your statement, among these five classes I can name at least two decks that I'm willing to bet have favorable matchups vs Odd Paladin, namely Odd Mage and Kingsbane Rogue. I also think that Even Shaman, Deathrattle Hunter, Secret Hunter, Pirate Rogue, and Odd Rogue can put up a decent fight against Odd Paladin, that is to say that even if the matchup isn't favorable for them, it is also not that significantly below 50% win rate.

Also, on a different note, 5 classes not having decks that counter a particular tier 1 deck in HS is not a first-time ever and including the class that the deck comes from makes no sense, after all a mirror is a 50-50, so not 50%+. Finally 50%+ is an interval which frankly includes 51% and well, that's not an overly one-sided matchup, is it?

After thought, in regard to Paladin class, I reckon Horsemen Paladin has a good chance of beating Odd too. Just a guess though. Heck, do I wanna give that deck a try.

 According to hsreplay, Odd paladin beats kingsbane rogue about 74.5% of the time. Odd mage is a little more balanced out but odd paladin is slightly more favoured with 53.3% win-rate against odd mage. Here are the stats if you would like to browse it. https://hsreplay.net/archetypes/216/odd-paladin#tab=matchups

Sure, 51% isn't a major amount but it does still seem that one deck is favorable against the other, even if it is very slight.

Apparently the horsemen deck performs badly, with odd paladin boasting a 61.3% win-rate against it.

 Thanks for the stats, though tbph I'm not quite sure as to how much I trust hsreplay. Still, I think you will see this change, even as reflected in hsreplay data, once the meta settles.

Imo a single win condition Horseman OTK is better and the early data seems to support it.

I agree and stats show it being superior to Shrivalah OTK.

I'd actually include Zihi in the Horsemen deck, afterall you can activate your win condition with less than 10 mana, while most other combo decks can't. And combo seems to me like the archetype this deck would potentially be weakest again. Afterall Druid for one still has much better card draw than Paladin. I do think though that control matchups should obviously be in the deck's favor, and given all the new and shiny AoE tools added since Boomsday, I think aggro can be reliably kept in check.

I wouldn't include Shrivalah and personally I wouldn't include Kangor either.

As to people asking for making room for Shrivalah, I think including it makes no sense. Shrivalah is a win condition, which requires you to draw out all of your deck and plus one or two turn on top of that. And still you might not kill heavy armor classes (admittedly, most likely you will). More importantly though, if you have already drawn out your whole deck, then you can simply win with Horsemen, so what's the point of Shrivalah then?