Hearthpwn

Honestly, bro-- I'm no pro by any means (never hit legend) and you are probably more capable of figuring out an alternative than me, however I can give some insight into how I have utilized both cards and based on what are now about 60 games (my WR is still at 76%) and you can decide if there are worthwhile alts for these two, or if you need to figure out a way to scrounge up dust and craft them. Your point about dust before an expansion makes sense, however, Siamat and Astromancer are pretty solid cards. Without any other considerations, the fact that Siamat can be used in basically any deck makes it a safe craft. If the expansion destroys Mage, well, then the opposite might be true for Solarian.

So, my thoughts on the two cards:

Siamat- I thought I was going to be using this card in the traditional way.  Turn 7, last grasp shot at stopping aggro decks (taunt, divine shield). That really hasn't been the case, however. I've been using this card with most effectiveness when I am preparing to set up a surprise Alexstraza turn, with a threatening board. This has been huge against priests, who think they are sitting pretty at 30 health and only have to worry about me posing a threat on the board, and against Demon Hunters and Hunters after I have been able to put down a taunt or two. So, divine shield and windfury, usually. This has worked to my advantage in more ways than one. With priests I learned that you aren't going to get through them with a traditional game of value trades and board management. I wait until I have a decent board (even better when you have minions on board that won't die to Soul Mirror), I drop Siamat with WF and DS and "OTK" them on the next turn with Alexstraza. Generally speaking, putting a windfury Siamat on board is going to accomplish 1 of 2 things: opponent focuses on it and leaves your already threatening board alive and maintains your tempo, or, an opponent that thinks they're safe in health leaves Siamat up because they think they'll kill you in 1 or 2 turns from there anyway and force YOU to trade, thereby opening the door the the Alexs play. Siamat is more versatile than I expected. Prior to this Mage deck, I almost exclusively used him with DS and Rush, or WF and Rush to clear the board or to clear a high health minion. It worked of course, but it didn't always enable me to keep tempo since after Siamat you only have 3 mana left to mess with.

Solarian- I like Solarian, but I don't think it's THAT strong that I protect it at all costs. So, I like to get it in hand early game to serve as bait- basically, keeping demon hunters from going face for a turn or two.  Same with hunters. Against priests, if I drop a Solarian early I leave him up and try not to play minions after wards-- Priests LOVE to try and trap you with a shadow madness, thus stealing your solarian and popping the deathrattle for themselves. It's a nice, early way to contest Setthek and almost every opponent you play is going to go expend resources killing it, which helps mess with their card options for future turns, and it also gives us a strong 7/7 back into our deck with an RNG, but fun battlecry. The battle cry of the 7/7 has won me a few games with some key frost novas and stuff, but it's not something I try to rely on with this deck. Good card, though..does a job.

Hope this helped provide some perspective.

Well, it took about 30 minutes but I beat my first opponent, a Mage, which was a surprise to come up against. Dude didn't know what to do next, as I was playing just about no minions and beating him down with his own cards.  Good times.

Editing my Vargoth opinion a bit now. I didn't even realize what a Vargoth-Shadow Madness combo would do until it happened to me (with two Vargoths up by my enemy). Didn't even know that was the interaction. Nice.

Don't get me wrong. I love the deck. Anything that fucks over highlanders and just screws with people relentlessly is A+ in my book. If I am forcing aggro decks into 45 minute long games, I consider it a win even if I lose.

Deck has been OK to me..more or less 50/50 with it and find that there a few decks out there straight up stomping me.  but one card I am curious about its inclusion that I am surprised I am questioning its inclusion is VARGOTH. While I understand there's relative strength in its power, so long as my own face and my own minions (incl. Varg himself) are potential targets, I feel like it's less than a 50% chance that the spells he repeats work in our own favor. Now for later game spells, assuming Vargoth sticks, I understand there's great power in him, but I am just not seeing minions with staying power in this meta without a deathrattle or reborn bringing them back into play. In my games (about 20), I've only had Vargoth stay on the board if I played him on 4 or early with coin.  Never at any other time does he stick long enough to be used with the mega spells...

Maybe it's just me.

You know you can just click "copy deck" on the right, right?  It's under the deck list...

Not seeing the power here.  3-9 with this so far.  Haven't even seen a DH. Just a bunch of OTK meme decks stomping this.

I hardly ever post comments on these, but I have to say, without making any substitutions on this deck, I've absolutely thrashed people with it.

If you "Semi-commit" to a full board, you're going to have a lot of Priests scratching their heads as to when it's the right time to Psychic Scream or not. Even took out a spell hunter after a poor opening and mid-game.  It's a lot of fun to play this, and you'll find that a lot of people just don't know what to expect here.

...kind of.

I don't post often but wanted to say that the guide posted by the forum member who finally made legend is excellent.  if you haven't read it, do so.

That being said, this month was a bit unique for me, and wanted to share my experience.  

I have never broken rank 11 before.  I play a ton of Hearthstone (casually), and watch many pro streamers, but things just never clicked.  I have always gone on tilt, gotten angry at RNG, and then I switched up decks with every game just trying to find something that would wreck an opponent by turn 5.  Yeah, I eve tried the cancer of pirate warrior, and it was fun for a bit.  But when it fails, it fails hard, and it's almost embarrassing.

Back about 2 years ago I nearly broke into rank 10 with the old Undertaker and/or Face Hunter deck.  In fact, I might have gotten to rank 10 but it was so short-lived that I can't even remember for sure.  Over time, and after hundreds (probably a few thousands) bucks spent on cards, something snapped in me this month where I decided it wasn't worth getting angry over, to laugh a bit at the RNG and to most importantly:  STICK TO A DECK I LIKED AND REFUSE TO TURN MY BACK ON IT.

I did this with Dragon Priest.  I went on some bad losing streaks and teetered around rank 11 as usual.  I somehow managed to get rank 9 and I thought I better just quit and accept my rank 9 treasure chest.  This was yesterday.  But, more importantly than anything else, I was having FUN with dragon priest, laughing off the losses by turn 4 to warrior or to a board full of 8/8 and higher Jades.  

I decided to keep playing.  I hit rank 8.  Then 7.  This has to be the end, right?  Everyone's so much better than I am.  

But I was wrong.  I quit tonight to start drinking for New Year's but I will enjoy a rank 3 treasure chest tomorrow.  I was even one star away from rank 2, but a few people got the best of me and I've decided to lay down my guns.  If I had more time, I'd have tried to push through to legend.  Never did I imagine that I would EVER have a shot at it-- but now, I've learned a few things:

1- stop tilting.  I used to play poker for what were pretty high stakes for a college kid- winning or losing 3,000-5,000 dollars per night.  I was good because I never played on tilt.  For some reason it took me almost 3 years of Hearthstone to cut this habit.

2- I stuck to the deck I liked.  I've always loved priest, even if it was weak at times.  Oddly, what drew me to priest as a class was the original Randuin deck.  I started to play Hearthstone then to troll, basically.  This month (really, the last two days), I just put my faith in Dragon Priest and rolled with it.  

3- I didn't use my deck tracker for this run to rank 3, surprisingly, but more importantly than tracking I learned that it's important to put a LOT of effort into thinking about the opponent's next turn.  That leads me to point 4

4- In addition to thinking about the opponent, plan your moves 2, 3 turns in advance.  Have backup plans, if possible.  Take some chances.  I took some of Trump's videos about board control perhaps TOO much to heart, and because of that I have always had the mindset of clearing minions before going face.  This wasn't even Trump's lesson, but I have always had a phobia about some harmless 1/1 getting buffed and taking out my 3/6 4-drop.  This really makes no sense and only limits your options in the end game.

5- Have some fun.  If you get spanked, throw your opponent a "well played" and concede or let them throw down their ridiculous BM for lethal.  I used to have a habit of rage quitting.  I don't know why, but I got over it, and it made these last two or three days a blast.

6- Believe that you can do it.  You can climb to the better ranks.  Trust me, if I can, anyone can.  Yes, I have been studying the game somewhat passively for a few years, and we all have our moments where the game feels like a rigged RNG mess, but in the end, through some level-headed play and forethought, you'll find yourself on some streaks and you'll get to ranks you never thought possible.

Next month, I look forward to writing a similar post about my noob self making it to Legend.  

Happy New Year to all.

...and "wow" winds up meaning the exact same thing, and people emote about 200% more often now.

Anyone else squelching everyone these days?

Mind you I've only played once with the deck, but N'Zoth proved quite valuable.  Was able to Brann out my Curators and play many low cost, but valuable deathrattle minions.  It helped that I also entombed a Raptor from a rogue that had some buffs on it, so I removed a serious threat and was able to use the card again myself as +1 deathrattle minion.

To be honest, the deck is strong enough w/o N'Zoth, at least in my one trial.  Drawing N'zoth just made it win more at that point.

I removed a Cutting Class for a Harrison Jones, lately many bomb warriors and weapon Rogues, also to get something more on the board.

4 dragons only and you have to have dragons in hand to activate 2 cards, i think is not that great, I would rather remove Manasaber instead