Again this Tickatus thread.....Tickatus Warlock loses to aggro (most of the time), gets obliterated by midrange decks, and loses to most control decks that have a reliable win condition outside of fatigue. It only beats some ultra-greedy weird control decks and priests. And even priests, they used to be auto-win for Ticklock, now with Mutanus and all Priests running the Southsea Scoundrels, it's at best 70-30 for Warlock, probably less. So Tickatus isn't strong, isn't oppressive, doesn't have any meta implications whatsoever (if there is no control meta it has absolutely nothing to do with Tickatus) and there is absolutely no reason to nerf the card
I play games with multiple decks each month, especially for the climb to d5 where I have the multiplier, win streak bonuses etc....For the grind from d5 to legend I usually play 80-85% of my games with the same deck, whichever I feel like works best that particular month. Afterwards I go back to deck roulette, switching every 3-5 games
The Priest 'mirror' is often not really a mirror. Priest decks optimized to destroy aggro will almost always lose the 'mirror' versus the greedier Priest decks. In true mirror matches there is indeed quite a lot of skill involved, but it often comes down to who can play more Southsea Scoundrels (it's not unheard of to play 7-8 in a single match...)
Actually if it was an aggro meta then control decks would rise in popularity and WR.
But it isn't. It is almost fully a midrange deck meta: Deathrattle DH, Elemental Shaman, Rush Warrior are all midrange decks and they are 3 of the best decks in the game right now
Frankly I wouldn't run any of the 3 in Deathrattle DH. Al'ar is in the deck only because of the elemental tag (which means you get him back from N'Zoth), but he is too slow and greedy. At 5-mana he has no immediate impact on the board when played (no rush, taunt or battlecry), dies to pretty much any 1-mana spell out there and then the 0/3 can be cleanly traded by anything. Also when you drop N'Zoth you mostly care about getting some rush and taunt minions to stabilise, as well as the 8/8 to push some more face damage, Al'ar would once again be just some stats with no immediate impact. As for Vectus, similar: at 5-mana with no immediate impact when played he is a bit too slow (and too greedy), and the deathrattles are random, could be good (cheat out a 4-cost deathrattle minion), or could be low impact like 'add a 4/3 murloc with rush to your hand' and 'heal your hero for 4' Finally, I was running Kurtrus in my deck before the mini-set, but he was one of the cards I cut to add the new deathrattle 3-drops. While a great card for board control when outcast, with the deck running many expensive cards it is often very hard/impossible to outcast which makes Kurtrus a much better 'discover by' card off Illidari Studies, rather than hard running it
I only disagree on Zixor. While too slow for Face Hunter (which is the most popular Hunter deck by far), the card is still very good and more or less auto-include in all the slower, off-meta Hunter archetypes
The Amalgams seem like filler cards and don't really have any synergies with the deck. I'd replace them with Cagematch Custodian to tutor the Rune Dagger
Given how powerful (a) card draw and (b) scaling one-drops are, I expect all Shaman decks over the next 1.5 years to be built around Nature Spells (to take full advantage of Primal Dungeoneer) and a small or large elemental package that includes Wailing Vapor and Cagematch Custodian to tutor some weapon. So you really can't go wrong with Elemental Shaman right now.
As for Deathrattle Demon Hunter, the deck got some good stuff and is strong right now, but a new expansion can easily change that and see DH move towards other builds (aggro, soul, weapon, OTK with Il'Gynoth, outcast, big demon - whatever gets some good support)
To be fair to VS they've also been shouting (and quite loud) for a long time that C'Thun is trash and fills your deck with bad cards which slow down your draws. But as they only analyze the data available, if all CW decks run C'Thun there is not much they can do...
We must be playing a completely different meta because I haven't seen any Spell Mages or any Paladins in days. Deathrattle DH, Face Hunter, Doom and Elemental Shaman, Control Priests, Rush Warriors, Token Druids and some Miracle Rogues, these are the main decks I see.
Ooze can only really shine vs Doomhammer. The problem with Ooze is that it is a 2-drop that you can't really play on turn 2. Instead, if you draw it early (or keep it in mulligan) it is a dead card in your hand until your opponent equips a weapon. For example let's say you play vs Face Hunter. Do you keep it in your mulligan and hold it hoping they play the Rifle on t4 and you can drop Ooze on t5 to deny them a 2nd secret? Or do you mulligan it away and hope to draw it when/if you need it? If you topdeck it on t2 do you play it on curve or keep it? Surviving vs Face Hunter is all about denying them an overwhelming early tempo and Ooze on t2 is simply not good enough tempo, while Ooze as a keep in your hand early is even worse tempo. Same principle applies for a matchup against Rush Warrior.
So you say Ooze is useful 60% of the time, I say it is an awkward card to have in your deck that leads to bad tempo plays 50-55% of the time and only really useful vs Doomhammer
Shaman is good and Doom Shaman is probably better than Elemental Shaman, however I cannot imagine a deck, other than OTK Demon Hunter perhaps, that wants to waste a deck slot to run Ooze in the current meta
That Rogue deck has no comeback, but a Reno Shaman who had played Ice Fishing the turn before can now play Firemancer Flurgl into Toxfin. A control (DMH) Warrior can play Risky Skipper into Lord Barov. Both very situational, but theoretically game-winning answers to such a Stealer of Souls board. That's the difference between 'technically' not dead and being actually dead: there can be some (however extreme/remote) comeback possibility
Are you 100% sure about this? I've been finishing at a pretty decent legend rank in wild in the last two months and getting an 11x bonus. This month I made legend again with a positive W/R and my current rank is also pretty good (around 250 which I guess translates to an end-of-month rank in the top500 if I were to stop playing). If I now start playing meme decks all the way to dumpster legend, will I still get to keep my 11x bonus based on my early season rank?
1
Again this Tickatus thread.....Tickatus Warlock loses to aggro (most of the time), gets obliterated by midrange decks, and loses to most control decks that have a reliable win condition outside of fatigue. It only beats some ultra-greedy weird control decks and priests. And even priests, they used to be auto-win for Ticklock, now with Mutanus and all Priests running the Southsea Scoundrels, it's at best 70-30 for Warlock, probably less.
So Tickatus isn't strong, isn't oppressive, doesn't have any meta implications whatsoever (if there is no control meta it has absolutely nothing to do with Tickatus) and there is absolutely no reason to nerf the card
0
I play games with multiple decks each month, especially for the climb to d5 where I have the multiplier, win streak bonuses etc....For the grind from d5 to legend I usually play 80-85% of my games with the same deck, whichever I feel like works best that particular month. Afterwards I go back to deck roulette, switching every 3-5 games
0
The Priest 'mirror' is often not really a mirror. Priest decks optimized to destroy aggro will almost always lose the 'mirror' versus the greedier Priest decks. In true mirror matches there is indeed quite a lot of skill involved, but it often comes down to who can play more Southsea Scoundrels (it's not unheard of to play 7-8 in a single match...)
2
Actually if it was an aggro meta then control decks would rise in popularity and WR.
But it isn't. It is almost fully a midrange deck meta: Deathrattle DH, Elemental Shaman, Rush Warrior are all midrange decks and they are 3 of the best decks in the game right now
1
Frankly I wouldn't run any of the 3 in Deathrattle DH. Al'ar is in the deck only because of the elemental tag (which means you get him back from N'Zoth), but he is too slow and greedy. At 5-mana he has no immediate impact on the board when played (no rush, taunt or battlecry), dies to pretty much any 1-mana spell out there and then the 0/3 can be cleanly traded by anything. Also when you drop N'Zoth you mostly care about getting some rush and taunt minions to stabilise, as well as the 8/8 to push some more face damage, Al'ar would once again be just some stats with no immediate impact.
As for Vectus, similar: at 5-mana with no immediate impact when played he is a bit too slow (and too greedy), and the deathrattles are random, could be good (cheat out a 4-cost deathrattle minion), or could be low impact like 'add a 4/3 murloc with rush to your hand' and 'heal your hero for 4'
Finally, I was running Kurtrus in my deck before the mini-set, but he was one of the cards I cut to add the new deathrattle 3-drops. While a great card for board control when outcast, with the deck running many expensive cards it is often very hard/impossible to outcast which makes Kurtrus a much better 'discover by' card off Illidari Studies, rather than hard running it
1
I only disagree on Zixor. While too slow for Face Hunter (which is the most popular Hunter deck by far), the card is still very good and more or less auto-include in all the slower, off-meta Hunter archetypes
0
The Amalgams seem like filler cards and don't really have any synergies with the deck. I'd replace them with Cagematch Custodian to tutor the Rune Dagger
1
I think that's different as the card says 'lose one health' and not 'deal X damage'
1
Given how powerful (a) card draw and (b) scaling one-drops are, I expect all Shaman decks over the next 1.5 years to be built around Nature Spells (to take full advantage of Primal Dungeoneer) and a small or large elemental package that includes Wailing Vapor and Cagematch Custodian to tutor some weapon. So you really can't go wrong with Elemental Shaman right now.
As for Deathrattle Demon Hunter, the deck got some good stuff and is strong right now, but a new expansion can easily change that and see DH move towards other builds (aggro, soul, weapon, OTK with Il'Gynoth, outcast, big demon - whatever gets some good support)
1
I was about to suggest a Galakrond Shaman myself as the deck is good and a ton of fun to play. My list has the following modifications though:
I cut Shudderwock as he feels too slow and not too high-impact in this deck. I cut 1 Lilypad Lurker as she is also a bit slow and irrelevant in a largely aggro meta and finally I cut 1x Devolve. Instead I run 2x Serpentshrine Portal and Zentimo who has insane synergy with the Portal, Invocation of Frost and Earthen Might
0
To be fair to VS they've also been shouting (and quite loud) for a long time that C'Thun is trash and fills your deck with bad cards which slow down your draws. But as they only analyze the data available, if all CW decks run C'Thun there is not much they can do...
0
We must be playing a completely different meta because I haven't seen any Spell Mages or any Paladins in days. Deathrattle DH, Face Hunter, Doom and Elemental Shaman, Control Priests, Rush Warriors, Token Druids and some Miracle Rogues, these are the main decks I see.
Ooze can only really shine vs Doomhammer. The problem with Ooze is that it is a 2-drop that you can't really play on turn 2. Instead, if you draw it early (or keep it in mulligan) it is a dead card in your hand until your opponent equips a weapon. For example let's say you play vs Face Hunter. Do you keep it in your mulligan and hold it hoping they play the Rifle on t4 and you can drop Ooze on t5 to deny them a 2nd secret? Or do you mulligan it away and hope to draw it when/if you need it? If you topdeck it on t2 do you play it on curve or keep it? Surviving vs Face Hunter is all about denying them an overwhelming early tempo and Ooze on t2 is simply not good enough tempo, while Ooze as a keep in your hand early is even worse tempo. Same principle applies for a matchup against Rush Warrior.
So you say Ooze is useful 60% of the time, I say it is an awkward card to have in your deck that leads to bad tempo plays 50-55% of the time and only really useful vs Doomhammer
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Shaman is good and Doom Shaman is probably better than Elemental Shaman, however I cannot imagine a deck, other than OTK Demon Hunter perhaps, that wants to waste a deck slot to run Ooze in the current meta
1
That Rogue deck has no comeback, but a Reno Shaman who had played Ice Fishing the turn before can now play Firemancer Flurgl into Toxfin. A control (DMH) Warrior can play Risky Skipper into Lord Barov. Both very situational, but theoretically game-winning answers to such a Stealer of Souls board. That's the difference between 'technically' not dead and being actually dead: there can be some (however extreme/remote) comeback possibility
0
Are you 100% sure about this? I've been finishing at a pretty decent legend rank in wild in the last two months and getting an 11x bonus. This month I made legend again with a positive W/R and my current rank is also pretty good (around 250 which I guess translates to an end-of-month rank in the top500 if I were to stop playing). If I now start playing meme decks all the way to dumpster legend, will I still get to keep my 11x bonus based on my early season rank?