Hearthpwn

It was op back in the days when you can buff you own hero power dagger into absurd amount. It is still too easy to abuse with other weapon buffing cards like Spiteful Smith, Captain Greenskin and whatnot. And miracle can draw out those 5 card combo with ease.  Assassin's Blade + Deadly + Envenom + Blade Flurry can deals 20 damage to enemy hero and clearing the board, that is very impressive for a 4 card combo that cost 6 mana (provided that you play Assassin's Blade at another turn). There may be other ways to abuse this card and it will limits Blizzard's ability to introduce more cards that interact with weapon without breaking the game, so it should stay gone IMO.

About the animate death secrets...is a secrets that benefits your opponent? From the wording, if your opponent ram a 3/3 into your 6/6,  your secret triggers bringing his minion back and he can attack again to kill your 6/6? Also secrets won't trigger during your own turn, so the charge thing is pointless anyway since you can't attack during your opponent's turn (unless you want to help your opponent to win?XD).

People already said that if you played sub-optimally to test secret it also means that your opponent's secret triggers sub-optimally. Your opponent gain nothing significant in value while you lose nothing. That in turns, means that you are playing optimally against their secrets. It is the same as to not commit too much on your field while facing Paladins in fear of Equality + Pyromancer, not dropping a giant in turn 4 in fear of a hex, not taunting up a giant in fear of The Black Knight. See? You ARE still playing optimally, just not as originally planned. The optimal play always switches depending on the board and your opponent cards. If you are really that lazy to think about checking secrets before playing something than i doubt handlock is suitable for you. Zoo and tempo priest can trigger all mage secrets without losing too much value, go play them instead.

Rogue can still shadowstep leeroy once + cold blood for 20 damage at turn 10 + more if he prep Eviscerate, Sinister Strike, dagger hit, ect.

Zoo is not dead IMO, they are still quite strong, and may even become stronger with the addition of Zombie Chow and Undertaker. It is just that everyone is running some Zoo counter in every deck, plus the increasing amount of hunters in the ladder makes Zoo falls out of favor.

Against hunters, I found that Unstable Ghoul act pretty much like a pseudo Loatheb because it stops the UtH + Buzzard combo. As long as you manage to control the board, he will have to waste mana to kill your Unstable Ghoul first before unleashing, this delays the combo and may even causes them to a waste premium removal or silences on it, The most frustrating things when facing a hunter is his traps, which Mad Scientist makes it even more deadlier. I have never been so despise of Freezing Trap as it massively screw up my tempo.

A priest that Mindgames out a [card]Ragnaros the Firelord[/card] from my deck on turn 4, then proceed to Faceless Manipulator that Rag next turn. And then his two Rags keep shooting fireballs at my face even when I have 4 minions out.

Also the same priest coined out a Mindgames which pulled Lord Jaraxxus from my deck, Next turn, he Divine Spirit + Inner Fire that Jaraxxus and swings for 30 damage at turn 4. Best OTK ever? I really wish I have recorded that match though...

I disagree about Duplicate being better than Arcane Intellect. You have no control over what minions you are going to get. A good opponent will make sure you get the least value out of this card, and even if you get something good, it is still too much of a tempo lost since you have to replay the cards again. While Arcane Intellect card draw is random, you get new options to deal with the situation, where in duplicate, the value you get is determine from how well your board is (and how incompetent your opponent is), if you are already in a losing position, Duplicate simply do not do enough to save you from that situation.

Quote from SmashBoxxx »

It depends at what rank you are. at the higher ranks, there are a lot of them & they're usually aggro decks & pretty hard too. It's like they have an answer for every single card you play. That aside, it's still cheating to get to legend that way.

I have to ask...What do you mean that they have all the answer for our play? Did bots have the ability to control what cards they draw into?

Like everyone above mentioned, Haunted Creeper was played because it is a sticky minion (either your opponent ignores it, or you get tokens when your opponent clears your board, giving you some much needed tempo) that can benefits from various buff like Abusive Sergeant, Flametongue Totem, Argus, ect. It is the same reason why so many people runs Argent Squire in Zoo or Shaman deck, as it is a horrible card on it's own but are able to trade very well when buffed.

Mind if I ask what cards that are available to you? And what class that you played the most? Druid of the Claw is a safe investment since he is a VERY good card on its own and is only a common rarity. The same goes with Sunwalker and Doomguard (but for Doomguard, it depends on whether you like running Zoo or not).

Run a mana ramp druid and keep pumping out large taunters. Anub has no real way to deal with high health minions other than to trade his entire board plus some occasional frostbolt and locust swarm. Cards like Sunwalker, Druid of the Claw, Ancient of War (if you have it), Shieldmasta and Ironbark protector pretty much stop any of his minions in it's track. Once you have board control, smash at his face and he goes down pretty quickly. If you still find yourself getting overwhelm, try tech in some poison seed. (The main page already have some pretty nice FTP decklist)

This deck works great! Win 4 games out of 6. And both losses are due to me armoring up too much, and are unable to finish my opponent with mortal strike because I have 13 health left. So yeah, don't armor up unless absolutely necessary.

For minions, get rid off Booty Bay Bodyguard, Reckless Rocketeer , Bluegill Warrior, Priestess of Elune, Flesheating Ghoul,Wild Pyromancer, Gnomish Inventor, Stampeding Kodo, Ironforge Rifleman and Novice Engineer. For spells, remove Mass Dispel, Mindgames and probably Thoughtsteal.

Now put in 2x Auchenai Soulpriest, 2x Circle of Healing, 2x Injured Blademaster, 1x Northshire Cleric, 2x Sen'jin Shieldmasta, 2x Earthen Ring Farseer /Harvest Golem,  1x Argent Commander, 1x Shadow Word: Death. Go nuke your opponent's face with Velen + Mind Blast. Let them waste removal on your baits, then bring death to them with Deathwing!

I would probably remove the Shadowflame for Mortal Coil, it is a tempo lost on early games, and its nearly useless in late game since you do not run a high amount of high attack minions. Argent Squire, Harvest Golem or Scarlet Crusade are sticky minions that can trade reasonably well in the early game, so replace Shattered Sun Cleric with them. (I prefer Harvest Golem since it is a sturdy body even when silenced.).

I am facing a lot more control Warriors, Druids and Shaman compared to hunters now (I guess people started to jump ship after UtH nerf?). Only ever faced 1 Miracle rogue and 1 Handlocks from my last 11 games (all the other 3 Warlock I faced are using Zoo, and most rogue I face in rank are tempo rogues) . I am currently rank 10 using a handlock deck atm. So yeah, 90%? Not quite accurate.

But in answering your question, yes. People will net deck the most efficient and auto-pilot deck out there for an easy win.