Hearthpwn

The problem isn't mysterious challenger itself.  Making the card a 3/3 wouldn't really change the outcome all that much since you usually have some minions on the board which is enough to overpower most opponents with all the secrets. 

I think the best nerf would be to make any secrets in your hand free to play.  Then you would be more likely to collect secrets as the game went on and could play what you have on turn 6 at no extra mana cost.  You could get lucky and flood the board, or you might not have any and you still get a 6/6 for 6 mana (damn reasonable).  Mage has a similar guy for secrets and this would be a bigger version and allow multiple secrets to be played. 

of course any deck is beatable and secret paly is not unbeatable, but it's absolutely overpowered.  If I have important combinations or key cards to get to then any other deck has to play for card draw to cycle into what you want.  to cycle through 5 cards to get what you want takes a lot of mana and cards (even spring takes either 7 mana for 4 cards or preparation and 4 mana and then you likely have to wait a turn before playing anything.  With secret paly you play a 6/6 and cycle 5 cards out of your deck that immediately go into f'n play.  Then you are left with 5 less cards in the way of what you want which dramatically increases your odds of picking up something else valuable to play.  So you can play it and you can love/hate it, but don't defend it.  It's horseplop and you cannot ladder consistently with any deck that you want no matter how good you are with it because you will run into multiple secret paladins.  you have to account for what you will play on ladder.  You can get lucky with the classes you face or against some matchups, but if you don't have a deck that consistently can beat SP, then you will not likely rise far on the ladder.

gratz on number one and all, but I see a kel thuzad on your board.  curse you and unstable portal. 

to avoid a novel, I'll just say I think "good" is rank 10 give or take.  even with all the cards, there is a wall to get past from about 16 down to 10.  A million different random decks to painfully claw through and you need to be pretty good (and have a good deck) to get past that.  After 10, I'd say someone is "very good" down to 5.  I think after 5 you are excellent.  To get to Legendary, you have to be in the top 1% (or less) so in anything in life, the top 1% is incredible (even if you play op decks).  The word "good" should not be so godly.  If you have all the cards at your disposal and spend some reasonable time on the game, you shouldn't be stuck above 15 all season long.  In that case, you're probably a "bad" hearthstone player :)

that being said, without some bad players, we have no way to measure the "good" and better.

Sheesh, give shaman a break.  Yes it has incredible burst but at a cost every turn. Overload limits what can be played most turns and a few taunts can slow you down early and it's over.  It's a good deck but needs a fast start.  

I made a Reno Warrior deck and jumped from 19 to 10 and then hit a wall with it.  This season I haven't left 18 with it as there have been adjustments.  I've beaten MORE mage mechs and other agro decks, but there have been plenty of games where the race to pummel me to zero ends with death as no reno comes to the rescue.  Aggro decks are still viable and if you run into reno, then suck it up and try again like anything else.  Just because some people love playing agro doesn't mean everyone loves it. 

yeah, the counter is flare.  so let's counter the most annoying deck in the game by only playing one other possible class with one possible counter card.  Gosh, I sure hope I get flare by turn 6 or even my midrange hunter will lose to the goofiness of MC.  The answer to an OP card cannot ever be 1 card in a class specific deck.  If that's  the answer then it is necessary to nerf.  MC is ridiculous.  period

It isn't even important that people weren't playing paladin secrets.  one card should never (once again) be the answer to a problem for an entire deck or concept. 

some very interesting ideas.  you've certainly given it some thought.  I'm a long time warrior player so I understand the frustration of playing against a fatigue warrior.  It's the only class I've been able to maintain success with (if you call rank 8 "success" this season...and I do because legendary is a pipe dream for my schedule haha).  But except for secret paladin and druid, I consistently beat other classes on using the ability to climb above 30 life and avoid otk's without worrying about having a sustainable taunt out.  It is pretty unfair and classes like Priest which I find so strategic and to be a "deep" play, get screwed.  I think priests should be able to stack life over their starting total and shouldn't be handcuffed in that area.  Or mages could have some sort of mana-shield type effect as well.  Lots of room for creativity and evolution for sure but certainly before messing with the spirit of each class, I'd like to see balance of mechanics a bit, like weapon and secrets as I already posted.

anyway, good post Habitat

she needed to go.  they had to completely redo the card.  This is the second otk unstoppable deck (at least in terms of meta changing that I remember) WSC was the centerpiece for.  It would just be a matter of time before someone used another new card to do the same thing.  Let the game evolve and get over ONE card change.

Frankly I want Mysterious Challenger out too.  It doesn't matter whether SOME decks can overcome the effect, or if I should just play a deck that beats it.  The point is that no other card lets you play 6 cards for the cost of one (and only 6 to boot) and cycle through all of your other cards so easily.  It's horseplop.  Show me another card that lets you draw 5 cards and put them into play.  I'd love to have any other class card that takes out 5 filler cards, and put them into play to make getting my tougher cards quicker.  Every time I spend removal and clear out MC when played, the next turn I either get a second MC, Boom, or sometimes Tyrion, and the turn after that I get whichever one is still left.  It can be manageable, but it shouldn't have to be.

so many egomaniacs around games.  easy legend?  I don't care which deck you use, there's a lot of skill, good decisions, big time luck, and matchup luck that goes into winning consistently. 

and anyone who "casually" gets 9 golden heroes doesn't know what casual means.  4500 WINS in 3 months with 9 different classes needs a reality check.  and maybe some help with game addiction.

Te concept is a great idea.  I think each class should have weapons and secrets for sure.  They can benefit the class such as a 0-1 damage Mage weapon that increases spell power or similar for healing with priests, but every class uses weapons in WoW, so why not add them to HS?

the same for secrets.  Each class should have a trick or two up their sleeves like for warrior they could have (for lack of a better word) under-armor or something like that.  

Classes with a proficiency in weapons or secrets still have an advantage but it's something each should have available.

Really?  Well Played is bad manners?  If you played a good game, why wouldn't you say so.  I always say well played after a good game win or lose.  What I dislike is when I say hello at the beginning of the game an get nothing.  If someone taunts me when I say hello ten its squelch and if they don't return a common courtesy of saying hello tobegin a game then I squelch them...and probably taunt them at the end :)

but as long as someone has te courtesy to say hello I will be gracious win or lose.

Right, that also includes priest in shadowform.  I made a priest aggro deck and played Justicar when I was in shadowform to see if anything would happen but no luck.  Only "starting hero power".  Makes me think I should try READING the dang cards once in awhile.

well, I admittedly hate seeing a shredder dropped regardless of the deck i'm playing, but the same can be said for a lot of cards.  At least the expansion added another card aside from doomsayer that you USUALLY don't want to drop from the shredder and that is the druid card with :deathrattle - destroy one mana crystal.  if that drops from a destroyed shredder turn 4 or 5 it's about as bad as it comes. 

In the end though, despite being hard to play around, shouldn't the game have cards that are hard to play around?  if you didn't have any sticky minions, it wouldn't be possible for some decks to get to play interesting combos.  This game is so often "play, remove, play, remove..." that you never get to combo cards unless they have charge.

just be thankful it only has 3 health and is pretty easy to take off the board

Personally when I hear a non-wallet player ask how to counter an expensive deck my advice is to spend some money or accept your place in the hierarchy of life.  That's not to sound arrogant but if I don't have access to money or certain cards then I accept that there are decks and players I simply don't have the resources to be in that class...unless there is a way to be creative with the cards I do have access to.