Hearthpwn

Trying to decide between Malygos, Chillmaw, Leeroy, Rhonin and Nexus ChampionSaraad.  Play mostly mage, warrior and pally (and shaman when it's better in the meta). Anyone recommend any of these?

In terms of neutral, you have all the good, general use ones.  That means you're looking at class ones.  I would avoid the Warrior epics because you need a ton and if you aren't locking in, no sense wasting dust.  I would also avoid hunter and warlock as you don't really need any of them to form a class deck for either class.  That leaves druid, mage, paladin, rogue, priest, shaman.

Druid you would want Ancient of Lore immediately as it is a must play in every druid deck.  After that 1-2 force of natures would basically open up any sort of druid deck.

Mage, ice block is probably the only one I would grab, and it really only opens up freeze mage so I'd consider it a low priority (plus freeze mage needs 2 doomsayers that aren't going to get play anywhere else, so that's 4 epics for 1 deck)

Paladin, a single Lay on Hands goes a long way as it's used in a lot of paladin decks.  That said, if you aren't getting Tirion, I'm not sure I'd play Paladin, so if you don't have him yet, I'd put pally as a low priority as well.

Rogue, you'd get 2 Preparation and don't need the rest really, so in terms of value, you probably have to spend the least dust on class specific Rogue epics to unlock all the class decks.

Priest you'd want shadow priest and light bomb.  Rest can be skipped.

Finally, Shaman you would want doomhammer (and probably only 1) so not a big commitment there.

If I didn't want to commit to a class and had dust to spend, I would personally get the 2 druid ancients and 1 FoN, followed by 2 preparation.  Each of these are hugely necessary epics that allow a lot of different decks within a class and are played by classes that tend to be competitive in any environment.  PLUS, neither class really needs a lot of (or any) legendaries to be competitive, so you're saving on dust there too.  After that, hopefully you have a better feel for the classes you want to focus on and can go from there.

I think you are wrong regarding Divine Favor in midrange, as I find Solemn Vigil to be much more consistent.  Your argument in favor of divine favor seems to be entirely about how strong it is in the control matchup.   However, it completely discounts how awful the card is in the aggro matchup and why we need further help in the control matchup.   

1)  In an aggro game, divine favor is usually going to net you 1-2 cards for 3 mana and there is almost no likelihood of getting more than 2 cards and will often be a dead card in hand as midrange lacks the ability to dump its hand to keep up with an aggro deck.  By comparison, Solemn routinely nets me 2 cards for 0-1 mana as a consecrate against aggro almost always sets up a free Solemn, and a muster generally provides enough bodies to at least drop the cost by 2-3.  That's a huge added value over divine in the aggro matchup.

2)  In a control game, divine probably nets you 3+ cards for 3 mana while Solemn is only 2 cards for 3-4 mana.  So a strong advantage to divine as you discuss above.  However, control is one of the best matchups that midrange paladin has due to the many answers we run that can clear very expensive creatures and the ability to go wide which counters control warrior.  So, why would we sacrifice a strong card in the aggro matchup for an advantage in what is already one of our strongest matchups?  

I agree that in a VERY heavy control meta, divine will be a better card, but the current meta is loaded with aggro matchups where divine would be vastly worse than Solemn.  Given that one of the big strengths of midrange paladin is consistency, I can't see sacrificing some of that by playing divine which makes the deck less consistent. 

I've been running something similar, and while I like it at higher ranks, I don't like the way it matches up with Zoo or hunter.  Obviously the Corrupter hasn't been available so once that is released, it may help with those.   

Can you please give a brief write up on how to handle hunter?  At my spot in the ladder I'm seeing dozens of them, and while my win percent is slowly climbing against every other class, I'm making no progress at all against hunter which leaves me basically hanging out at the same rank all the time.  I'm sure I'm misplaying (maybe significantly), but a little advise would be appreciated.     

I'm trying to decide between Cenarius and Al'Akir.  I currently play both Shaman and Druid and enjoy both, so I'm wondering which you think will have a greater impact on its respective deck?

Quote from Raynor033198 »

I need some quick advice/opinions on DE'ing Leeroy Jenkins. I'm playing Handlock using the Leeroy+PO+Faceless combo as a finisher.  I'm thinking of DE'ing Leeroy and crafting a Rag to replace him. My deck would then have a Sylvannas, Ragnaros, 4 giants and a faceless as finishers.  Any thoughts about Leeroy vs. Ragnaros in this deck?

I don't like Rag in Handlock personally.  He's very expensive, has the same counters as the rest of our giants, and doesn't close out a game any quicker than a giant except in very limited circumstances.  (very taunt heavy deck)  I don't think he opens any new options for us and just seems to be more of the same.  Personally, I think Leeroy still works fairly well as a finisher for Handlock, and I wouldn't D/E him for Handlock.  This nerf hits Rogue a lot harder than Lock imo.  

If you really want to dust him, I think I prefer Alex or our class legend over Rag.

Personally, I've been at rank 8-9 for the last 3 days, and I've seen almost nothing but the new secret hunter decks.  At one point, I actually played 10 consecutive games against it.  (4-6 in that stretch).  Hunter is overwhelmingly the dominant deck in that stretch, and I can't remember the last time I saw zoo (or even a druid...)   This similar to what others are experiencing at different level ranges?  It's very annoying as I don't have the cards for control warrior which seems to be the counter to hunter, leaving me in bad shape trying to advance.

A token paladin deck doesn't have a group buff to act as a finisher.  So, any token pally deck is going to function a lot more like Zoo than a druid or shaman token deck, relying on using tokens and buffs to control the board.  In that regard, I think warlock's hero power is simply better than paladin and I don't think any paladin specific card gives it a leg up, so you'll be making an inferior zoo deck that focuses on buffing 1/1 minions instead of just playing stronger minions to begin with which is going to slow down the tempo and make it that much harder to close out a game before a control deck can stabilize the board.

In a traditional zoo, she's too expensive for a non-charge minion.  By that turn you're looking to finish someone off or to reestablish the board after a clear.  She doesn't really do either.  If you're trying to create some sort of mid-range zoo deck, I could see her working.

Midrange druid seems to have answers to everything this deck does and has better options to finish the game.  Are you not facing them or can you elaborate on your strategy?  Shockadin and aggro hunter also seem to have no trouble running across my board with 0 taunts and finishing me off before I can establish control.  I'd love a more thorough breakdown of how you're winning these matches because I'm just not seeing it.

I don't see it used, but I would save it if you like playing priest.  It may become more useful in Naxx than it has been, and I generally advise against disenchanting an epic to make a rare.  100 dust is about 2 days to earn versus 400 which is over a week, so you'll regret swapping them unless you absolutely want dust right this second to play a particular deck.  Also, if you don't play much priest, I definitely wouldn't disenchant it for another priest card.  At least pick a strong neutral that you'll get use out of.

Actually, I see a pretty healthy number of aggro warriors, aggro/midrange hunters and token druids mixed in with zoo and miracle.  I think the biggest issue is that the anti-zoo cards aren't out yet.  Once the full set is released, I think more than enough anti-zoo cards are available the help the meta stabilize itself with something other than zoo.

Cheaper than the equivalent number of packs ($7 per wing vs. $9.99 for 7 packs) which isn't too awful.

Quote from Branwarg »

In aggro decks leeroy is a dead card more often than not, and is only  used by a finisher. How you should use it, is as a combo card. Shaman windfury rockbiter stuff, warlocks PO+faceless or shadowflame, miracle with cold bloods and shadowsteps. But you are correct, it doesn't fit well into a mage or paladin deck.

So where would you suggest spending my extra dust then?