Hearthpwn

Earlier tonight, I was one win away from Legend. I was in a winning position, but suffered connection issues, and ultimately lost to a disconnect.

Took a break, then came back. Went on to win two very close games and reclaim the rank I felt was stolen from me. What I mean to say, is keep going, hang in there! Sometimes it seems bad, but it turns around, and it's a great feeling!

Since the nerfs, Hunter has been among the top 3 performing classes, but it's slowly slipping down as the top decks get more refined. Of course the current data does not distinguish between different archetypes in the same class, which kinda helps classes with one obvious archetype (Hunter, Shaman) and drags down those who experiment with different builds (Warrior, Priest, Rogue).

(source : https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/data-reaper-live-beta/?utm_source=main-nav&utm_medium=link)

I'd wager, once an actual report goes live, that Hunter will stabilize at high tier 2. Solid deck to punish most Control lists, but not tier 1 material. We'll see how it goes this week.

In my opinion, Jade Druid will remain the best deck in the game. The Spreading Plague nerfs makes them slower to react... to decks that were nerfed and got slower anyway. Innervate will just get replaced with either hard ramp (that 3/3 that ramps) or tech cards and the deck won't change much.

Priest will probably get better, as its most threatening opponents got weaker, but won't actually take the top spot.

Tempo Elemental Rogue might get a little more playable. One can hope.

I've been playing with variations of this deck, trying out different things on my way to Rank 8. Here are a few observations, for those who'd like to tweak it.

I've tried playing with more Giants, but went back to 6, which felt like a sweet spot. Arcane Giant worked okay, but never had the full discount on turn 5, which made it inferior to the six already there. He'd be my choice if you want to run more. Sea Giant was only good when the board was full... which meant that either I couldn't stabilize or I just went even more all-in, which I recommend against. I rarely wanted to play more than two Giants, and Sea Giant basically was never played as one of the first two... It's okay however when you don't get a Naga Sea Witch, as it's the wasiest one to hardcast.

I've tried Sunfury Protector to help stabilize post-Giants, but it felt clunky, and screwed both King's Elekk and Stitched Tracker.

Stitched Tracker is the most important card in the deck. If you didn't catch it from the deckbuilding choices, you want to maximize the chance that it lets you choose between Naga Sea Witch (if you don't have it) or a Giant (if you have it).

Deathstalker Rexxar has been borderline useless for me. In over 30 games, it hasn't even won me one. I guess it does work against some top tier decks, but climbing from Rank 20 to 8, I haven't felt it was worth a deck slot.

Bear Trap has disappointed me. I often didn't want to play it on curve, so my hand size remained big enough for a free Mountain Giant, and even when I did, it didn't do much. I currently run none.

Deadly Shot hasn't impressed me either. I kept running into swarm decks (Token Druid, Token Shaman, Pirates, etc.) so I've replaced them with two copies of Unleash the Hounds - and with a second Hunter's Mark in the deck, they've proven useful even against non-swarm decks. This also allowed me to cut one Explosive Trap, which wasn't as useful with the amount of proactive answers I used,

I usually run one or two copies of Flare. Screws over all popular Mage builds and many Hunters, and it's a cycle that isn't a creature.

I also carry one (or very rarely two) Call of the Wild. It punishes hard those who choose to answer your Giant(s) while leaving the Naga Sea Witch on board, and it has stolen quite a few games, even on turn 9.

I've toyed with Cat Trick and Kill Command. Both were okay, especially run together. However, Cat Trick is mostly useless against Pirates, so it felt clunky. With Unleash the Hounds, Kill Command has more enablers... but not nearly enough to my taste, so I sticked with only Eaglehorn Bow and Quick Shot as removal / reach.

Good climbing all, and drink the tears of your enemies! I've gotten a LOT of hate adds postgame and disconnects ingame with this, which amuses me, and makes this fun deck even more fun!

 The deck looks great! I have a few questions on some card choices.

Why Acherus Veteran? Has it proven itself useful?

I'm guessing Faerie Dragon is there to enable Dragon synergy and defend the board early. How critical is early board presence? Wouldn't another, beefier dragon give better results?

Why Devour Mind and no Thoughtsteal? Isn't it a little clunky?

How comfortable do you feel not playing weapon removal? Have you tried making room for it?

Why no Netherspite Historian? Should the deck run a few more dragons if it wanted to add it in?

I actually only started playing Pirate Warrior with the expansion launch (built it a few days before just for this), so I'm not tired of playing it.

I particularly enjoy drinking the tears of players copying the super greedy experimental control lists of some streamers and having no idea how to pilot them. They taste of free, fast gold and ranks.

Okay card, but its worst case scenario being soooo bad (no targets) makes it a likely dud. Its saving grace is its low mana cost, which could make it playable with powerful effects... But hey, if Feign Death + Sylvannas never caught on, I don't see why Play Dead + Sylvannas would.

Being a common spell means we'll get offered way too many of these in Arena, although some decks might want to pick up one or two.

Apparently it reads "at the end of your turn, give a random friendly minion +1 +1" (seen on reddit).

If it can buff itself, it's very good. If it cannot, it's merely good. Don't know about Ranked, but Priest needs another good 2-drop in Arena and this one is welcome.

Edit : And it seems it's "another" friendly minion. Still a decent Arena pick, although it's not very good as a turn 2 play, unless you had a one-drop survive.

Let's say your opponent has 15 cards left in his deck and needs to draw a specific card to combo off / win.

By playing this you have a 1/15 chance to deny the card and 14/15 chance to bring your opponent closer to drawing it.

This is a statistically awful battlecry effect. Yet people will play it and remember only the one in a million games it won them.

It has potential. 

Ice Block + Ice Barrier + Counterspell (add others if you want, Vaporize and Mirror Entity could be useful) dictates the opponent's next turn pretty hard, and on most boards gets an Ice Block out with a guarantee that it won't pop on that turn - which sets up your endgame.

It costs a lot, but I can see it as a one-of. And it's got potential if you get it from Primordial Glyph.

Quote from Jak_Sparrow >>

Are people out of their minds!? This card isn't just meant for fatigue warrior. This is a meta defining card. You can copy 9 cards back into your deck at 2 mana cost!!! 

Get some acolyte of pain, some raging worgen, some animated berserker, frothing berserker, some faceless manipulater, grommash hellscream, some whirlwind, some blood warrior's, some sudden genesis.

This card instantly makes Warrior top tier in the next expansion. Hands down.

Probably playable in Pirate Warrior as a curve topper, but does the deck really need it? I mean, I feel it'd rather play cards that offer reach at this mana cost. 

Let's see. A five-cost minion with no immediate impact on the board, no way to protect itself, who requires some other minion to grant its full value and lets the opponent decide on how best to deal with it and the potentially buffed minion?

Yeah, no thanks. The Dragon tag might make it playable because there aren't too many good dragons in Standard, and it'll be okay in Arena. 

Most likely insanely overrated. This is Gang Up for Warrior - not that Gang Up never saw play, but it's hardy been meta-definig.

It is a card that can only give value against other extremely slow decks. Unless we're headed into a glacially slow meta, I don't see how playing a card that is literally value and tempo negative is going to accomplish anything. 

I'm sure someone will find a way to use it... but I don't think this card is what Control Warrior needs. Jade Druid will still outvalue them most of the time, Freeze will still lose to them, and the card only dilutes the deck against Tempo, Midrange and Aggro strategies (as in, like, almost every deck ever).

Props for doing this, it's fun to have a one-stop place for thus discussion!

Here are my thoughts on a few ratings I disagree with (mind, I ain't a pro or anything, so I'm certainly wrong on a few of these).

I think the power of Spikeridged Steed has proven that having a minion alive for a late game drop to be effective is not that hard (at least for Paladin). Bonemare is (at least in some classes) an insane arena card, limited only by decks usually not wanting too many 7+ drops. It is the Bog Creeper of this set - I expect to see way way too many of these in the coming months.

Ticking Abomination is average at best. It can backfire, a lot, and doesn't offer enough in return, in my opinion.

Blood Queen Lana'thel will usually be pretty bad. She requires synergy to even reach what I'd consider a playable rate (3 attack). With the right deck she could shine, but I'd rate her as below average for now.

Bearshark and Abominable Snowman sound good, and they're definitely above average, but I don't feel either deserves a 5-star. Bearshark trades with most 2-drops, and the Snowman requires synergy and is somewhat slow.

Comparing Ghastly Conjurer to Hozen Healer is not a good thing for it. The Healer is an awful card if you don't get value from its battlecry... I feel like it's easier to get value out of a Mirror Image than out of a minion heal, but I'd be hesitant to put Ghastly Conjurer as being better than average, for now.