Hearthpwn

Thanks for the comment, I'll try it with Boneweb Egg!

Grand Lackey Erkh is essential, otherwise you often run out of value. The soul shard package is also essential for heals, and I found Soulciologist Malicia to be very useful.

Barista Lynchen is not a central piece, but it can give you a huge boost by giving you multiple extra lackeys, or extra Brittlebone Destroyer for the Paladin or Druid matchup.

I understand that when you get bad luck, and you get hit for 8-10 on turn 3 because you had a 50/50 at the end of the fight and you hit the rat instead of the other minion, it totally sucks. However, you have 7 other players who are also looking for the same card. I currently play at around 7,5k MMR, and I rarely see DW finish in the top four. He is a powerful hero, but when you have the others that know how to play around his hero power, he doesn't have enough steam to power through in the late game.

And if you ask me, I almost always buy Rat Pack at 5-6 coins, whether DW is in the game or not, just because it's a solid card and it scales well into the midgame. 

I also like the fact that Deathwing is in the game. It forces you to think about your matchup and to make the right choices in the recruitment phase. And he is not even that hard to counter: you can find rats and token yourself, which are good early game anyway. If the other players play around DW, this means the probability of him getting the stuff he needs is lower, which means his hero power can actually backfire.

It sure sucks when they do get the rat early game, but it's not like there are no counter plays.

Even though I agree that the class is overpowered at the moment, I think the most frustrating aspect of DH is the fact that it feels uninteractive. We had the same problem with Quest Rogue or Quest Mage back in the days, where the opponent plays his cards regardless of what you have on the board.

However, I feel slight tweaks should make the playing experience way more fun. I think that making the damage from Imprisoned Antaen and Priestess of Fury only target minions would create more interesting decision-making than while remaining strong.

A lot of good points have been made so far, and I would like to add only one thing.

I think the most important quality of a Battleground player is flexibility. I used to stick with minions that I should have sold a few turns ago because they had some stats, or, like someone said already, because I was attached to my buffed Righteous Protector that won me a few rounds early. There are so many variables in the game (Your hero, the other heroes, roll RNG, battle RNG, etc.) that you can't play every game the same. It means that sometimes, for example, you'll have to sell your Brann or your Lightfang for an Unstable Ghoul in the final stages because your opponent has a Divine Shield build. Some plays may seem counter intuitive, but they still are the right plays.

Then, when it comes to late game, like TheNameForgotten said, it's whether you want/have a 4th place or 1st place build. If you want a 1st place build, one word: scalability. The only way to finish 1st place is to have a build that snowballs, like Murlocs with Brann, Beasts with Riverdare, Menagerie if you get a Lightfang early enough, etc. Otherwise, you aim at 4th place, and hey, it's still a win!

Quote from Manuelo46 >>

How is your experience now after the nerfs? Seen mage winrate drop a fair amount, warrior remains roughly the same though.

Lot of decks having a much better winrate now too.

I find that the nerf opened a lot more space for new deck. It is true that hunter is pretty strong, but I think hunter will always stay strong since it is a tempo game and hunter is probably the best class at applying tempo.

Quote from Wingdude22 >>

Dude, you can’t just make a thread with positive content! 

Nobody will answer you, since this is unheard of!

 Damn, I didn't think about that!

After almost a month of playing with the new meta, I can say that I am enjoying myself a lot, and here is why.

I love puzzles. That's why I enjoyed the Boomsday solo content so much. What brings me back to the game daily are decks and cards that force you to think how you can maximize the value you get out of each play.

Previous metas were a bit boring to me. You pretty much just reapplied the same recipe over and over. Of course you had to make smart choices, but I found the depth of choice that was offered to be pretty limited. Since SoU and the comeback of highlander decks, you have to choose carefully when and how you use each one of your cards, because once you use it, you can't use it again (most of the time). I even have been fiddling with a Expired Merchant Discardlock and have had a lot of fun. It doesn't help me climb the ladder, but each game brings a new puzzle that makes my brains go to work.

I have to say that I like what Team 5 has done with the Year of the Dragon, even though there weren't any dragons in the last expansion (probably a narrative twist for the next expansion).

What do you think?

I think this would be a great addition to Recruit Warrior as a way to stop your opponent from playing cards right before you play Gather your Party.

Funny thing: I thought about this card while being unable to sleep last night.

I think that oversimplifying Hearthstone this way could have some negative impact on the way we see the game. Even Ramp Druid is now called Big Druid. People are talking about Big Spell Mage and Big Warrior for the upcoming expansion.

Don't get me wrong. I agree that HS, on some level, doesn't have the depth and complexity that other TCG have. Although, it seems that nowadays, every deck that present big late game threats, like control and ramp decks, are now called Big Decks, even though they aren't played the same way at all. Imo, it takes out the nuances of discussing these decks on forums like Hearthpwn, which in itself is part of the metagame.

There you go, good luck to everyone!

My idea for the week! What do you think? And is it clear that the Hero Power would cost 2?