Hearthpwn

Percentage of decks I faced on ladder on my way to Legend (180 Games - Americas between 5/2 & 5/13):

Demon Hunter - 31.11%
Druid - 3.89%
Hunter - 12.22%
Mage - 5.56%
Paladin - 3.89%
Priest - 7.22%
Rogue - 18.33%
Shaman - 1.11%
Warlock - 7.22%
Warrior - 9.44%

Maybe you're just unlucky, but reeks of confirmation bias to me.

I can't speak about the wild meta, but I can offer my insights on the standard meta:

Currently, I'm sitting around 15K Legend in Americas, playing Demon Hunter, Druid, Hunter, Paladin, Warlock, & Warrior.  I played Tier 1 & 2 decks to climb to Legend, and have since been trying to make Tier 4 & 5 decks work (currently working on Dragon Lackey Warrior & Highlander Dragon / Murloc Paladin).

1. Since the most recent round of nerfs. I believe that the meta is mostly in a very good place.  Demon Hunter, Hunter, and Rogue are clearly the best 3 classes in the game (as a whole), but they're not nearly as oppressive as top classes in metas past (even as recently as a week ago).  From there, I believe Druid, Mage, Warlock, and Warrior have solid archetypes that can compete with the top of the meta, and solidly round of the "middle of the pack".  Finally, we come to Paladin, Priest, and Shaman, who each have 1 or two archetypes that seem to be just outside viability, either due to a high winrate and low popularity, or vice versa.

3. I'll use this section to not only talk about Priest, but Paladin and Shaman as well, since I feel like they all have similar problems.  The primary problem is (in my opinion) a lack of class-specific win conditions.  While Priest finds viability through Neutral Highlander cards, Paladin through Neutral murlocs, and Shaman through Neutral Galakrond support, the archetypes don't feel very unique or memorable.  Let's look at the other archetypes these classes are finding success with.  Galakrond Priest can grind opponents out with lots of class-specific removal, but is reliant on randomly generated minions to act as a win condition.  Paladins and Shamans are forced to utilize linear & aggressive tribal synergies for Murloc and Totems to pray for any chance of closing out games, because their own class-specific removal is laughable in comparison to their competition.

Note: Paladin only currently has a single deck even close to viability.  Just look at the most recent week of Hearthstone Grandmasters, where only a single competitor brought Paladin, and it was Murloc Paladin.

This is where I believe the issue lies with these three classes:  Many of their win conditions are no longer accessible as of the start of Year of the Phoenix and the Priest class rework.  Additionally, many of these classes rely on randomly generated cards, whether they're Lackeys, Murlocs, Priest Minions, or anything else.  These three classes have the weakest class identity in Hearthstone, and what identity they do have has been disliked by the community in the past.  Both Priest players and their opponents have expressed frustration at being forced into the resurrection gameplan.  Same thing with Paladins and Murlocs.  Same thing with Shamans and Aggro Overload Totems.

4: And the entire point can be wrapped up here.  Ashes of Outland is a fantastic expansion (after the nerfs), with interesting Neutral cards that allow for tech options without becoming game-breaking.  Additionally, we've seen revitalization of old archetypes with a bit of new flavor (see Discard Zoo Warlock), creation of new archetypes that are similar to old loves (see NoHands Pain Warrior), and entirely new archetypes that have potential to be expanded upon (see All Spell Mage).  There is currently no need for additional nerfs.  That being said, I would love to potentially see a few buffs for some of the "less-loved" classes in the current format.

Note: These are all purely theoretical buffs that I don't guarantee would work, but might be nice.  These are just off the top of my head, so don't judge too harshly.

Paladin: (Fully or partially) Revert the Equality nerf (2 or 3 mana instead of 4) & make Lightforged Crusader cost 6 (instead of 7 mana).

Priest: Make Skeletal Dragon cost 6 (instead of 7 mana).  Maybe make Chronobreaker a 4 mana 3/4 instead of a 5 mana 4/5.

Shaman: Make Lightning Storm cost 2 (instead of 3 mana).  Maybe if that's too much, increase the overload cost to 3.

In conclusion, the game is incredibly close to being incredible.  I think a few nudges at the bottom would help diversity and general power quite a bit, but I'm curious to see what others have to say as well!

Just hit Standard legend for the first time yesterday, played 7 archetypes across 5 classes on the path to do so, ending at 67W-27L.  My recipe for success was basically:

1. Find an archetype I want to play
2. Determine what cards are "core" in the deck (usually ends up being about 23-27 cards)
3. Research what the deck's bad matchups are
4. Tech the remaining cards accordingly

The best advice I can give is to just trust your decision making.  If you lose because of a decision, but you are certain that it was the right decision to make with the information you had at the time, don't be afraid to make a similar play in future games.  Other than that, just be excited about improving!  You'll get better over time, so focus on enjoying the climb and becoming better at the game rather than gaining rank.

I think the card is fine in principle, but I don't think it should be as aggressively statted as it is currently.  Think it should probably be a 3/3 or a 4/2 (maybe even a 3/2?), and then it would be fine.  Maybe in the future, cards designed in a similar fashion shouldn't have a relevant tribal tag?  Other than that, think the card is one stat change away from being totally fine, I really hope they don't gut the card.

I think it depends on how many classes you can realistically see yourself playing.  Personally, I tend to prefer archetypes (midrange / control) over classes, so it means that I jump around a lot and don't tend to craft golden cards.  If you see yourself playing deck archetypes that you think would fit Maiev (mostly aggro/tempo/midrange), then definitely!  Or, if you like classes that you think will use her (Demon Hunter/Hunter/Rogue/Others?) then she might be worth it for you.

I don't think you need to ask whether you want to spend the dust on Golden Maiev, you should ask yourself whether you think you'll want to spend the dust on something else instead.  Hope this helps!

I really loved Drakonid Operative, some of my favorite moments ever are Brann Bronzebeard + Drakonid Operative in a mirror match-up and discovering another one of each.

Honorable Mentions:

Corpsetaker

Genn Greymane

(I love the deck-building challenges of both!)

My personal thought process was to make it an 8 mana 4/5, though that might not have been enough.

That being said, considering the patches nerf, I believe that my line of thought would have relegated the card to decks that went wide (such as Call to Arms Paladin or Token Druid). 

Card's <expletive>-ing dead at this point though.

I would recommend Aluneth, the new mage legendary weapon.  This decision is because Aggro Mage is a very good, cheap deck, and you have some experience playing mage.

I remember a time back when Mean Streets of Gadgetzan first released, where there would be Dragon Priest mirror matches purely decided on the card you got from Drakonid Operative.  If you got another Brann Bronzebeard, or Drakonid Operative, your win chance increased dramatically.

That being said, is Zola the Gorgon the card Dragon Priest needs (along with their other new tools) to gain the value to outvalue Raza Priest and Jade Druid?

This is an open-ended question intentionally, as I want to open this topic up to discussion.

I'm curious to see the community's perception about the new Druid epic card, Ultimate Infestation.

A. Do you think it's too strong?

B. Do you think it needs to be nerfed?

C. If yes, how?

Oops!

I've been experimenting a lot with token shaman lists, and the cards that I seem to be cutting frequently are Devolve and Maelstrom Portal.  I understand the strength of Devolve against buff lists such as Token Druid and high value minions, however, I don't see the value of Maelstrom Portal.  Can someone explain to me the strengths of the card so I can properly evaluate the card when building decks?