Hearthpwn

Take my money Blizzard, use it for your funeral. 

To help understand the design space limitation between nerfing versus buffing cards, let's presume our controlled variable is equivalent to the amount of cards changed. For the sake of this example, let's set the control variable to 5.

If a new design space centralizes around the 5 buffed cards to counter the current tier 1 decks, then the variety of new decks that can theoretically challenge the current tier 1 lists will almost always utilize a combination of these 5 buffed cards. The complementary cards will most likely stay the same since we're simply shifting 5 cards from playable, to overpowered/build around pieces. Also, the designers will essentially 'choose' which class to buff through their select, limited changes. 

There's also a higher chance for the designers to receive more negative feedback if these 5 cards end up defining the meta (forcing archetypes) or failing to change the meta (useless balance patch, need of another patch, wasted time). 

If a new design space centralizes around nerfing 5 overpowered, suppressive cards to reduce the power of current tier 1 decks, then the variety of new decks that can theoretically challenge the current tier 1 lists extends beyond shifting 5 cards from playable to overpowered. Why? Because moving 1 card from overpowered to playable generally opens up the room for at least 2-3 new cards to enter the meta AND gives players a chance to autonomously play test a variety of cards to figure out the new tier 1 decks. 

There's also a lower chance for the game designers to receive backlash because at the very least, players will no longer lose to the same tier 1 decks even if another suppressive, tier 1 deck arise from the balance changes. That's more of a psychological factor, but a real marketing incentive nonetheless. 

Hope that helps!

Card seems really good, but not game changing enough where you build a deck around it such as Jade Druid. The N'Zoth kit is similar and pretty strong as well, but you don't see people using that in any tier 1 or 2 deck. However, if you stick this card into a preexisting deck where it can naturally pull strong monsters, such as Control Warlock, then I can see it elevating the overall deck. 

Even though Control Warrior has a lot of cards that can also provide synergy with this legendary, but that deck on a whole is just bad. There could be enough new removals to push Control Warrior into play, but good luck beating the new priest removal. 

I made a control variant of the midrange handbuff paladin with 2x mctech and late game value cards. It did alright between rank 5-3 last season, but it suffers from lack of doomsayer, consecration, equality, and dirty rat. It still worked, but closer to a midrange deck than control deck.. 

Thanks for introducing an innovative, yet throwback approach toward a classic Druid deck. When I first tested this deck, I felt reminiscent of the old Ancient Watcher Taunt Druid deck, although I understand that this modern version emphasizes much more on the silence aspect. 

In my opinion, I feel that given the fact that your deck is supposed to beat aggro/renolock, the turn 3 spot could use improvements. Would you consider Mind Control Tech, or perhaps a combo of the 2 sisters + other Druid's buff cards, such as Mark of the Wild or the 3 mana one?  

I don't think Priest is necessarily the King of the ladder since I personally play decks that destroy them. I run the new Pillager/Oil Rogue with 1 Sprint and 1 Gadgetzan, and I've currently been 6-0 against Priest in the ladder, albeit I'm only around rank 4 at the moment so I'll keep you updated if the Priest players get better in legend...

Would you say replacing the Jeeves for Sir Finley is a good enough choice where you won't try experimenting taking out other cards instead? I'm currently debating between 1 Innervate, Jeeves, or Pilot Shredder (suggested by the author). 

What do you think about replacing an Innervate with Sir Finley? 

Thanks for the suggestion. I've since gone 15-1 with your deck, and am about to hit rank 8 with the deck. I'm planning on using this egg druid to legend this season. 

Great deck! It's funny how a lot of people on this server aren't successful with this deck because they're probably not playing it correctly, and thus, criticizing your innovative deck. 

I would recommend looking at Kripp's version of his midrange death rattle rogue. I am a 3X legend player primarily with control warrior and midrange paladin, but after spending the last 2 days playing 3-5 different death rattle rogue build, I can say I like his version the most for ranks 15-5. 

Hope that helps! His stream is on twitch. 

Decks only lose to aggro by turn 5 if the player has an extremely bad draw/curve, or the opponent has perfect draw/curve. Obviously Reno Jackson isn't expected to save you in the extreme situations (10% of the time?) that you, or most of the people, are suggesting.

Reno, however, lets you play with your life total and use it as a more flexible source to leverage favorable trade against aggro if you are expecting a Reno. If you aren't drawing your Reno, then as long as you can play against aggro correctly, you'll win over 50% anyways if you deck your deck correctly built. Reno simply adds more % of victory in the matchups that your opponent has an above average draw/curve. 

Also, because of the amount of Expansions and Adventures added to the game, there are several classes that work with Reno far better than others because of their strong class cards. The classes I am referring to are Mage, Paladin, Warrior, and Warlock. 

If I'm in the lower ranks 15-5, then I'd mulligan for Healbot only as a slower midrange/control Paladin. It's a personal choice in regards to my playstyle and I have never had a problem with that decision since it's reflected in my above average win rate against Hunter. I do know that it's not an automatic or popular choice though so I am not defending it as the absolute best decision. 

In my opinion, whatever you need to do to get a 75% plus win rate against aggro to get into rank 5 and beyond, and finally legend, is all that matters. 

Wow, the majority of the people in this specific thread is either blissfully ignorant or extremely pessimistic. To be able to make claims that you won't see Reno Jackson 90% of the time until turn 5-6 is mathematically incorrect. To play Reno correctly, you can actually choose to mulligan for him against Face Hunter matchups, as you would do for Antique Healbot, depending on your other mulligans or playstyle. 

More importantly, the tradeoff of removing roughly 7 one ofs, transitioning my midrange Paladin deck into a Highlander Paladin deck, is not as consequential against control decks as you think. I'm a 3X legend player specializing in Paladin/Warrior, and my control Paladin is already sitting at rank 5 with 2 partial days of play time boasting over a 70% win rate. I have the matches recorded if you really want to examine it, but so far it's equally consistent to my midrange Paladin. 

If you don't want to listen to me, then just go watch the VODS of other pro players such as Lifecoach, Savj, or Strifecro, where they all use different Reno decks to climb the ladder successfully. Keep in mind, we are still at the early phase of testing, so Reno deck may not stay by the end of the adventure, but it's certainly making quite a dent on aggro at this moment. 

As a high legend Midrange Secret Paladin player that records all of my games (150+ for this season) for this class, I can tell you that my lowest winrates are against Aggro Druid (Gnimsh's version), Dragon Priest (Lightbomb tech), and Patron Warrior (high ranks). 

If you aren't looking for a match up answer, then it's really about playing against the secret correctly and setting up the board turn 4-5 so their Mysterious Challenger will be as least effective as possible. 

In this matchup it is mostly about the Emperor into warsong/frothing play for the OHKO burst. However, since everyone will probably be mentioning that, I'll include a few other ones.

1. Play 1 Patron with whirlwind/deathbite/inner rage (minimum 4 patron spawned) earlier in the game to bait out their brawl and establish board control. Don't use warsong in this scenario even if it's midgame unless for some reason they have a bunch of armor smith/cruel taskmaster out.

2. Recognize that 1 Warsong and 1 Patron with Inner Rage and Whirlwind effect is 14 damage. This number is critical b/c Warriors often armor a lot and you need a 2nd wave of burst because the OHKO combo at the end sometimes will not cut it. 

3. Use your cycle cards such as Slam and Battle Rage in the early game if your hand is clunky. Aim for a minimum of 2 draws for Battle Rage.