Hearthpwn

Quote from grimsaw >>

I just lost 8 games in a row taking me from 18 and 3 stars down to 20. 

I'm uninstalling and never playing this game again.

I've played every daily quest and tavern brawls for 5 months, and every deck that beat me tonight was chalk full of legendaries purchased by 'whales' who spend money far better than they play.

This game is so shamefully Pay 2 Win that it's simply a contest of who has the most disposable income. I'm sorry I wasted my time with this game. If you find this thread, don't even bother trying to compete without sinking at least $200-$500 dollars into this game. I got lucky last month that I was able to find a 'cheap' deck and get to 15, then a key card from that deck was nerfed (no coincidence) and nothing I can do will get me to even 17 now with this jade druid deck, or any variation suggested in this thread.

I've been playing computer games since the age of Atari consoles, and it saddens me deeply that the spirit of a level playing field is all but dead. This game is 9/10 P2W, 1/10 skill. If you make a lot of money and want to buy a sense of accomplishment, look no further than Hearthstone.

I think Malygos Shaman will remain a viable alternative to Freeze Mage in Wild for the foreseeable future.  That is, unless Blizzard decides to nerf it, like so many other combo decks in the past.  Fortunately for Malygos Shaman, it didn't become a highly competitive deck until after the introduction of the Standard format, and Blizzard hasn't shown any interest in Wild balance so far.  

The strength of Malygos Shaman, like any other deck, is dependent on the meta.  The main advantage it has over Freeze Mage is that it's significantly better against aggro, particularly Pirate Warrior.  Mage doesn't have access to one of the best heals in the game in Healing Wave, and has limited resources to deal with weapon damage, as Frost Nova doesn't hit face and you have limited amounts of Frostbolts and Ice Lances.  Also, the fact that Malygos Shaman does all of it's burst in a single turn renders Reno Jackson completely useless except against Reno Mage, which is an equally bad matchup for Freeze Mage as well.

Freeze Mage has the advantage of being far less susceptible to Dirty Rat and Deathlord.  More importantly, Freeze Mage is less draw dependent, as you generally don't have to wait to draw Alexstrasza the way Shaman does in order to draw Malygos, Ancestor's Call, or Emperor Thaurissan.  In general, I would say that Freeze Mage excels in a midrange meta as a counter to decks like Secret Paladin, while Malygos Shaman is the combo deck of choice in an aggro meta.  Regardless of the meta, though, both of these decks will remain highly competitive, especially at Legend and high ranks, as they have been heavily optimized already.

It's too early to determine how the new expansion will affect Malygos Shaman as we haven't seen all the cards yet. Based on what has been revealed, though, it seems the Priest matchup may become far less favorable, as the new Quest that sets the Priest's health to 40 means that it will require far more burst in hand before 40 damage can be assembled.  The new card Volcano seems like it could have potential as another massive board clear, similar to Elemental Destruction.  It doesn't really combo well with Hallazeal the Ascended the way ED does, but it does have the advantage of being able to be played earlier, without needing Lava Shock to offset the steep Overload cost.

To be fair, Chillinon is the only one with a guide.  I really only have a decklist; any useful information I might be provided comes from the comments section of this deck and Chillinon's deck.  Unfortunately I couldn't find the time to write a guide for this deck when it was released, and a month later, Chillinon did a far better job at providing comprehensive information on this deck than I could have possibly done.

Yes.  Why wouldn't it be?  Not much has changed since I first posted it, except it's more popular now so people know what to expect.

Bloodmage Thalnos and Azure Drake aren't in my deck because it's a fatigue deck.  Your win condition is your opponent running out of cards, thus you want to draw as few cards as possible to ensure they hit fatigue first.  The deck uses card generation effects like Babbling Book and Ethereal Conjurer as substitutes for these cards.

Coldlight Oracle is in the deck to accelerate its win condition.  Also with a little luck, you can force your opponent to overdraw some important threats in their deck.  You'll notice that my deck runs few threats of its own, such as Dr. Boom, and is mostly reactive.  In most decks, you'll want to draw cards so you can reach your win condition before your opponent does.  Therefore, in a N'Zoth or burn-orientated Reno Mage, Arcane Intellect is much, much better than Coldlight Oracle since you don't want your opponents to draw their own threats or answers to your own threats.  As a fatigue deck, though, you win when your opponent runs out of threats, and thus your opponent drawing more cards is not an issue.

I hit Legend with Reno Mage in Wild in the January season, so hopefully I can provide some insight here.

Quote from TheKrazyKat >>

 

Question/Hypothesis: Although Snowchugger is often indicated as a high value card for crafting, at this point few run it. Does snowchugger have enough value in reno mage?

Question 2: Why does no one (or so few) run Youthful Brewmaster? Is the primary fear that it will be a 'dead card' since one of the chief fears is a turn 6 pirate death/bloodlust death? Or is Manic Soulcaster just too much better?

Question 3: Has Kabal Courier completely removed Jeweled Scarab from the wild meta?

Question 4: Deathlord vs. Dirty Rat. It seems like each has its strengths and weaknesses, but some run neither. Which do you see as less risky or more valuable?

Question 5: Will you still run Flamecannon after the conceal nerf? (Is the primary reason to run it over other removals to kill concealed Gadgetzan Auctioneers?)

Yeah, I just replaced Ice Block with Duplicate for this reason.  You won't be able to cast spells unless you have the health for it, even when immune, so Ice Block really doesn't do much here.

I just tested it out and it works.  Archmage Antonidas + Violet Illusionist is an infinite damage combo.  Have these two cards in your hand by turn 10 and you instantly win unless your opponent has Ice Block up.

Quote from ruipxPT >>

Quote from TheGamer765 >>

Mostly she has the basic Rogue skillset in the game, and instead of 5 combo points she uses 3, and there is even a voice line why it's only 3.

Her trait is Vanish, which equals as the Stealth ability of Rogues in WoW. 

There is also Eviscerate, which uses combo points as a scale factor, the second one is Assassinate, and there is also Thistle Tea, which refills her Energy.

She has a bunch of references to Hearthstone as well: Some emotes, and two lines about her current state in Hearthstone.

She also has many character interaction voice lines.

 Best, the dialog with Rexxar: "Have you ever aimed from somewhere else other than the face? Just curious!"

Priceless!

Steamwheedle Sniper though...

Feel free to amend anything I write into your guide.  I appreciate the time and effort you spent in writing this comprehensive guide, and if there is anything I can add to improve it, well, the pleasure is mine.

Regarding Reno Mage, it's still heavily unfavored if they get an Ice Block up, but if you have assembled your combo pieces, you do need to watch your card draw to ensure you don't hit fatigue way before they do.  A large portion of their deck is removal and other defensive tools, so it's not too difficult to clear their major threats and survive before fatigue.

As for the differences between our decks, I think it's rather remarkable that we've come up with such similar lists independently, in our attempts to optimize this archetype.  I do think that in this current meta, a second Maelstrom Portal is better than Spirit Claws, due to how prevalent weapon removal is.  Even some Pirate Warriors are running Acidic Swamp Ooze.  Another thing that has shifted between last season and this one is the rise of Egg Druid.  Devolve may very well be a tech choice worth considering.

Quote from airalert3 >>

@MetricTrout

Your deck looks awesome, I'm going to try it out. I'm super curious how Yogg is supposed to function in this deck however, obviously he will quite often draw you multiple cards so that would hurt your fatigue win condition? Is he just a sheer desperation play when you're getting overwhelmed and have no board clears/stall available?

Yogg-Saron, Hope's End is indeed the most interesting inclusion in this deck.  It does seem counter-intuitive to include Yogg in a deck based around fatigue.  However, in most matchups, you're far enough ahead in fatigue that card draw from Yogg is rarely detrimental.  As most decks innately pack card draw, being around 8 cards ahead in fatigue isn't uncommon, and it's unlikely that Yogg draws you that many cards. 

Playing Yogg-Saron is generally a last resort, due to his high variance.  However, having Yogg as an option can allow you to stabilize an unmanageable board state, turning around an otherwise lost game.  Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether you’re 2 cards ahead in fatigue or 10, as long as you make it to that point. 

Yogg-Saron is a worthwhile inclusion for this deck in particular, as you don’t have any threats of your own to close the game out.  Your win condition is to survive 30 cards from your opponent, and having one final maneuver at your disposal can make all the difference.

Here is the deck I used to hit Legend rank this season.  It's Reno Mage, but it's my own unique variant of Reno Mage. In fact, the most similar deck on Hearthpwn has a 73.3% similarity, which means that my deck differs from every other deck on this site by at least 8 cards.

While there are many Reno Mages decklists available for both Standard and Wild, I haven't quite seen one, either on Hearthpwn or on ladder, that uses fatigue as a win condition.  My personal variant of Reno Mage focuses heavily on removal and survival over presenting any late-game threats of its own.  Meanwhile, card draw is largely eschewed in favor of card generation effects, ensuring that the opposing player runs out of cards first.

Congratulations on hitting Legend with Malygos Shaman!  I played Malygos Shaman to Legend as well last season.  My decklist is in fact the first entry on the Similar Decks tab; as you can see, our decks are almost identical, differing by only 3 cards.  The meta is probably a bit more difficult for Malygos Shaman this season, as there are a lot more Reno Mages and Control Warriors compared to last season.  In any case, I would argue that Malygos Shaman is still the strongest combo deck in the current Wild meta.

I appreciate the effort you took to write your detailed guide on this deck.  I'll link to it in my deck, as you did a great job in presenting an overview on the fundamentals of the deck.

I do have a few notes to add regarding the matchups section of the guide:

Freeze Mage:

Freeze Mages aren't particularly common in the current meta, but I am familiar with the matchup, having played a few games on both sides of the matchup.  It is slightly favored for the Malygos Shaman, but not for the reasons you mentioned above.  Freeze Mages pack far more card draw than you can as a Malygos Shaman, including Mad Scientist, and it's almost impossible to assemble your combo before they have Ice Block up and are ready to burst you down.  The main drawback of Freeze Mage, though, is that their burst come over several turns.  Your main win condition in this matchup is to outheal the Freeze Mage and to win through fatigue, as the Freeze Mage will inevitably draw more cards.  As a result, it's important to keep track of deck size and to avoid drawing once you have both Healing Wave and Hallazeal the Ascended.

For the mulligans, if you know it's Freeze Mage, keep any of the 3 healing cards in the deck.  Card draw should also be kept, as it helps you dig through your deck to find your healing.  The Malygos combo can be played whenever you assemble it to pop Ice Block, as it forces them to use their some of their burn to remove it.  In addition, using Ancestor's Call to eliminate combo pieces is often another win condition.

Reno Mage:

Reno Mage is an unfavorable matchup, since the combination of Ice Block, Reno Jackson, and Polymorph completely nullifies your win condition.  As you mentioned above, the best chance is the simply hope that they don't draw the Ice Block before you assemble your combo.  Because this is Wild and they have access to Mad Scientist along with their other spell generation tools, though, this is unlikely.

I would like to add, however, that there is a certain method to defeat a Reno Mage after they have their Ice Block up.  Again, it involves fatigue.  Your goal is to survive until their deck runs out of cards.  Once that happens, you summon Malygos and hit the Reno Mage with exactly 2x Lightning Bolt + 1x Lava Shock + 1x Frost Shock.  Assuming no additional spell damage, this combination does exactly 29 damage.  At the start of the Mage's turn, they will take 1 fatigue damage for exact lethal, since damage taken on your own turn ignores Ice Block.

Secret Paladin:

You listed this as a very unfavorable matchup, which I disagree with.  I would say it's about even.  One thing to note about Secret Paladin is that can't much burst from hand.  The most damage they can typically do is 6 damage more than what's on board, from Truesilver Champion + Consecration.  This lack of burst makes them predictable, and you can use that to your advantage by being greedy with your board clears.  In addition, Secret Paladins don't typically run healing (outside of the negligible 4 health from Truesilver), and also don't have much hard removal outside of Keeper of Uldaman.  This allows you to safely summon Malygos early with Ancestor's Call, if needed, to combo with Maelstrom Portal or Lightning Storm to clear their board.  Unload any burn spells you have left at face.  It's nearly impossible for a Secret Paladin to come back after that, as they lack removal and don't function well without board advantage.

Lava Shock isn't replaceable in this deck.  It's ability to unlock overload is essential considering how much overload this deck runs, especially by eliminating the steep overload cost of Elemental Destruction.  The only other card with its effect, Eternal Sentinel, isn't a suitable replacement since it doesn't function as burst or removal and also interferes with Healing Wave.

I'm surprised the rest of the deck isn't cost prohibitive for you, as it runs 2 legendaries and quite a few epics.  The good news is that Lava Shock is unlocked in the second wing of Blackrock Mountain, which means it will only take 700 more gold to get it.  The second wing of BRM is well worth unlocking anyway, as you also get Imp Gang Boss from that wing, which is a staple in the majority of Warlock decks.

I do recall that Arcane Giant was a common card in the Karazhan-era Malygos Druid deck.  That deck isn't really a pure combo deck, though, but more of a standard Ramp Druid with Malygos as one of the win conditions.

This really isn't that type of deck.  Because it runs so few other minions, Arcane Giants merely give midrange and control decks a target to use their removal on.  Furthermore, you would have to use spells to lower to cost of the Arcane Giants, and most of the direct damage spells are ideally saved for burst with Malygos.  The Arcane Giants are also useless with Barnes, and can interfere with an early Ancestor's Call combo if you haven't cast enough spells by that point.