Hearthpwn

It's not about going online and getting a deck. There's nothing inherently wrong with netdecking. It's simply that the community perceives that those who netdeck are lower skill than them, as if they're tier 8 homebrew makes them so special. To be sure, you shouldn't take it as a measure of pride to netdeck, and you really ought to try and experiment with deck design because it can be a lot of fun, but it's just people who want to win over anything else using the tools to win. You can't fault anyone for doing that.

I dunno, I think the only overhyped Hunter 2 drop was kindly grandmother, which is pretty slow. This is a pretty good card, giving Hunter a really easy way to establish board presence from turn two and onwards against slower decks. 

I completely wrote this off at first glance, but returning to it is good. While I still think it's final form is underwhelming, having a 2/2 and a 6/6 to activate elementals seems really good. Dropping a N'zoth to bring those back could actually mean you have a lot of elemental activators just in two cards, a total of 6 activators. Whether or not a midrange Elemental mage is powerful, I can't say, but I do think Pyros will be a staple in that deck.

Quote from AbusingKel >>

Quote from DJSoren >>

The quest only exists to hurt Rogue more. Like, Blizz keeps pushing archetypes that are difficult to build around for no reward. For example, the Rogue legendary gives you a 4 mana 5/3 that will come back if you play out your entire hand in a turn. It will probably trigger off of Miracle's big Gadgetzan turn. So you get a free 5/3 after already doing a massive turn. What does that do though? Is that worth a slot in your deck, being a non-draw, non-spellgranting minion? I really don't know if it's worth it. Does it work in literally any other rogue deck archetype? No, not really. Deathrattle Rogue will die without the strong drops it used to have in Raptor and Pillager. Aggro Rogue wants the game to end before they would get any value off. Jade Rogue wants to Jade. Is this one card good enough to build a deck around it? No, not really. Is this mechanic good enough to build a deck around? Maybe, if there were enough cards, but then you have tokens you can't remove that do nothing when not active. 

Same thing with this Rogue Quest. Does it fit into any existing archetypes? No. Is it good enough to make an archetype? No. I really hope any of Rogue's archetypes gets a boost

A good post, for sure. But I think there is definitely potential for the quest to be broken AF. Load up on draw & heal minions to speed through the deck to Brewmasters, Shadowstep, etc. while restoring health (a huge weakness for Rogue) and end up with weak minions that are suddenly all 5/5 for 1-3 mana. Restore slows the smorc, draw to get what you need, and even staples like SI:7 Agent become 5/5. Time will tell, I guess. 

so you strategically play a specific kind of deck for...a worse Soggoth. Soggoth is already considered unplayable, and while I think he has his niche the meta has effectively pushed him out. Soggoth has the big benefit of being immune to targeted removal, a big minions worst enemy. This does not. This can, potentially, have more health that Soggoth can. Unfortunately, that health is useless in control battles because it will just be removed with single target removal. In aggro battles, it's turn 9. If it is turn 9, you have either won the game or you're not playing against aggro. 

Really not feeling the big Elemental love here.

The quest only exists to hurt Rogue more. Like, Blizz keeps pushing archetypes that are difficult to build around for no reward. For example, the Rogue legendary gives you a 4 mana 5/3 that will come back if you play out your entire hand in a turn. It will probably trigger off of Miracle's big Gadgetzan turn. So you get a free 5/3 after already doing a massive turn. What does that do though? Is that worth a slot in your deck, being a non-draw, non-spellgranting minion? I really don't know if it's worth it. Does it work in literally any other rogue deck archetype? No, not really. Deathrattle Rogue will die without the strong drops it used to have in Raptor and Pillager. Aggro Rogue wants the game to end before they would get any value off. Jade Rogue wants to Jade. Is this one card good enough to build a deck around it? No, not really. Is this mechanic good enough to build a deck around? Maybe, if there were enough cards, but then you have tokens you can't remove that do nothing when not active. 

Same thing with this Rogue Quest. Does it fit into any existing archetypes? No. Is it good enough to make an archetype? No. I really hope any of Rogue's archetypes gets a boost

So it's a better Swashburglar in terms of the steal effect, with deathrattle synergy and Elemental synergy perhaps. Fuckin Blizzard.

I seem to remember a Thijs list that ran both Devolves, both Hexes and both Lightning Storms. It still relied on Jade to pump out the end game, but it certainly played like midrange. I think the real question is what do you consider midrange? A midrange deck is one that siezes board control early, and uses efficient trades or removal to mantain that control while dropping big threats. In that vein, Dragon Priest counts, since they usually have a few big value dragons, and Zoolock sometimes counts, depending on whether or not they run a few big late game threats. Midrange isn't wholly dead. A good opener can actually shutdown aggressors, since Midrange gets access to the same tools they have. It's certainly less consistent than Aggro, and maybe less than Reno, but it's certainly a playable archetype.

This is awesome! I've been sorely missing C'thun, ever since Karazhan it seemed like he just wasn't viable. I gave him another shot the other day, but completely forgot about the old Shaman lists! Evolve Shaman with C'thun is a very fun archetype, and the extra tools provided in gadgetzan make it even better. Really happy for this list!

Literally any deck under the sun can make it to rank 15 eventually. Right now especially, people are still kinda scrambling and haven't fallen back to Pirate Warrior. That means if you play the aggressor you can probably take advantage of good matchups. That being said, the "basic" premade decks that you start with are garbage, and you'll want to change them yourself if you want any chance at winning. You'll also probably need to play Hunter, since it can do the most with only basic cards. It will suck, it will be grindy, it won't really be fun, but it's certainly possible.

Maybe they just are gonna make it a Shaman heavy thing? Shaman is gonna need some support with the rotation, as they have a very weak classic set. Maybe elemental synergy is their key to keeping Midrange Shaman viable while slowing it down, as most elementals are expensive. 

Write up is good, deck is bad. Hunter just doesn't have the tools to compete in Standard. The goal of Hunter is an explosive start, then using your powerful hero power to finish off an opponent. However, your start won't beat that of Zoo, Pirate Warrior, or Jade Shaman. You don't run board clears, so if you fall behind you lose immediately, so any higher tempo deck or even higher tempo opening will make you lose. Control decks have a full heal on turn 6 and high tempo swing turns that can be devastating to try and recover from. The meta simply hates Hunter right now, and we would need a TON of sticky, horrible to deal with deathrattle cards to fix it in the current state Hunter is. Still, it'll win you some games, so if you need a quest done you might as well use this. The deck is kinda fun to play, lots of neat combos and fun decisions. Just sad that most of those decisions boil down to "If I don't do this, I fall behind and instantly lose."

It was more fun! Games at least lasted to 8, and even though it was mostly curve based there was counterplay. There were good board clears like Lightbomb, good neutral removal with Owl and BGH, big squishy taunts like Deathlord and Sludge Belcher, and Antique Healbot was a good enough neutral heal. Aggro was slower and beatable, Midrange was an archetype that could actually exist, control lists were fun to play, and Combo wasn't the worst thing ever. Sure, turn 7 Dr. Boom was kind of annoying, but BGH was good counterplay. It's not about nostalgia goggles, the game wasn't all that bad. Hell, before rotation the most oppressive decks were midrange, and even if the skill floor was the ceiling it was at least a bit winnable, and games lasted more than 6 turns.

If what Blizz said is true, and we're getting another deathrattle expansion (Dammit Blizzard, never learning their lesson.) Then I'd imagine Aya and Cairne will be the premium cards for the 6 slot. Our old god N'zoth, in his horrific glory, will be the powerhouse on the scene in terms of midrange and control, so those being deathrattles I can't see them going anywhere. Plus, Jade seems to be an archetype that got all the support it needs, so it'll stick around. This is all assuming we don't get a better, more powerful legendary 6 drop, of course. Which we probably will.

While I do hate the mentality of "eh if it's OP just let it rotate" because that means Wild will be a shitshow where one deck will rule them all, I'm glad they pointed that the comparison to Azure Drake is dumb. 5 mana 5/6 is baseline of a card, giving spell damage takes off one point and draw takes off two, making it a 5 mana 4/4. Drakonid Operative doesn't give spell damage, and it Discovers, not draws. That means if neutral it would be like a 5/5 with no tags, but it being a class it can afford the pretty costless dragon tag and the small cost of Discover. In terms of the algorithms used to determine a cards worth, Drakonid Operative is very fair.