You are right if we are talking about historic MTGA, where you need to ton of cards to build a proper deck (Jumpstart isn't standard and includes around 700 cards), but we are talking about just standard progression.
It's worse than MTGA by a long shot. You get up to 5,250 gold per week in MTGA (quest + wins), which equals 5.25 packs per week, while also leveling by 5 levels and earning the rewards on the reward track; additionally, you can earn multiple individual card rewards for winning games, not to mention other game modes and festivals. Even on the back end, you earn wildcards, which have a 1:1 conversion rate, as opposed to the fractional conversion rate of Hearthstone dust.
If you're interested, here is my list for the deck you are describing. As I said before, I don't know how this will match up with the meta, although it is an extremely cheap deck.
I didn't try to place it because I honestly don't know where Warlock will be. It appears to have a fairly strong demon zoolock core now (if you can reliably hit the bonus on Free Admission, you can really catapult yourself into a tempo game), but I'm worried that Demon Hunters get so much burn that the life-sacrificing strategies that enable these decks will be suicide; that said, I agree with you that we will likely see at least one high tier 2 aggressive Warlock deck. Unfortunately, control warlock hasn't been a thing for a while now and the "best" non-aggro Warlock decks are sitting at around 35%-40% winrate. I would LIKE to see questlock as a viable deck, but am not really hopeful, despite the fact that Plot Twist can power you through the quest and then you can draw up free old gods (ie. free C'thun played on the same turn as Twisting Nether to ensure all 30 goes face).
They should have made Deck of Chaos hit everything in hand as well--this would actually make it a very powerful combo enabler that could do some really strange things in a control matchup--for example, they could run a deck similar to an old Malygos Druid which controls and draws towards a finisher of Malygos + 2x Nether Fire + Soulfire = 9 mana for 27 damage. Ironically, it would also enable a 3-cost Jaraxxus, which is pretty good as a final health stabilization tool.
The goal of this deck is to set up an OTK where you complete the quest and play Tour Guide to make your next hero power free; then, you play Y'Shaarj, the Defiler to get back two free copies of each corrupted card you played, which amounts to up to four Dunk Tank and four Circus Medic. As each Medic's battlecry triggers twice, your four copies hit the opponent for 32, while the Dunk Tanks hit them for 16. If you only played one Medic and one Dunk Tank, you get two of each from Y'shaarj, which only deals 24 damage, but this should be enough to close out a late game.
I DO NOT think that this will be a significant meta deck, but it should be fun given the dumpster fire that Shaman has been handed this expansion. It should do reasonably well against midrange and control, but I'm concerned that aggressive Demon Hunters are going to be everywhere and this deck won't be able to keep up.
Unfortunately, Shaman no longer has anything it really does better than Demon Hunter in regards to aggro. Its minions are less aggressive, it lacks healing and draw, its hero power is just inferior, its weapons are worse, and, while the new legendary is powerful, it will die the turn it is played if you play it anywhere near on-curve; if you wait to play it off-curve, you are already dead to burn before it is useful.
The reason I put the C'thun into the priest deck is two-fold. First, for most of the game, the C'thun is just four control spells (basically an Assassinate, Unearthed Evil, and Avenging Wrath) that can be used against aggro but won't be a win condition; however, in a control matchup, it gives you 5 extra cards in your deck, putting you ahead on fatigue and can act as a finisher.
After the full reveal, I've done some theorycrafting and predict that the top of the coming meta will be a soulshard-based Demon Hunter, a pure libram Paladin, and a big resurrection Priest. Here are my early decklists for each:
Sadly, I think that this will polarize the meta, with decks trying to outrace the Demon Hunters or out-control the priests, so midrange decks will have a very hard time surviving in the meta. I do think a highlander mage might have an opening to be high-A Tier along with a very aggressive face Hunter. B Tier will likely have a menagerie (possibly highlander) Warrior along with some sort of big Druid and stealth Rogue. Shaman will likely be in absolute oblivion, stuck in mostly meme territory and D Tier (their identity right now is basically worse Demon Hunter with no draw).
I like the idea, but you are going to get absolutely mauled by full aggro Demon Hunter and full control Priest; you don't have any draw or resource generation and these classes will just run you over. That said, seeing your deck did cause me to develop an OTK. You use Tour Guide to make your post-quest battlecry doubling hero power (Corrupt the Waters) free for a turn, which lets you drop Y'Shaarj, the Defiler to create 4x corrupted Circus Medic and 4x Dunk Tank that cost 0 that turn--this lets you hit them in the face for up to 48 in a single turn.
It's different, as divine shield is powerful but doesn't improve the offensive power of a unit. Also, we now have Lothraxion the Redeemed, which means that Steward could become largely redundant in a lot of odd lists.
Is this good...probably not. Will it stop me from trying to build a deck based on hitting an Archmage Vargoth or Underbelly Ooze with this to start flooding the board with giant threats...certainly not.
Is this good...probably not. Will it stop me from trying to build a deck based on hitting an Archmage Vargoth or Underbelly Ooze with this to start flooding the board with giant threats...certainly not.
0
You are right if we are talking about historic MTGA, where you need to ton of cards to build a proper deck (Jumpstart isn't standard and includes around 700 cards), but we are talking about just standard progression.
5
It's worse than MTGA by a long shot. You get up to 5,250 gold per week in MTGA (quest + wins), which equals 5.25 packs per week, while also leveling by 5 levels and earning the rewards on the reward track; additionally, you can earn multiple individual card rewards for winning games, not to mention other game modes and festivals. Even on the back end, you earn wildcards, which have a 1:1 conversion rate, as opposed to the fractional conversion rate of Hearthstone dust.
1
No, you just "earned" the three packs and random legendary that we used to get for free, along with a pack and a random epic.
1
If you're interested, here is my list for the deck you are describing. As I said before, I don't know how this will match up with the meta, although it is an extremely cheap deck.
1
I didn't try to place it because I honestly don't know where Warlock will be. It appears to have a fairly strong demon zoolock core now (if you can reliably hit the bonus on Free Admission, you can really catapult yourself into a tempo game), but I'm worried that Demon Hunters get so much burn that the life-sacrificing strategies that enable these decks will be suicide; that said, I agree with you that we will likely see at least one high tier 2 aggressive Warlock deck. Unfortunately, control warlock hasn't been a thing for a while now and the "best" non-aggro Warlock decks are sitting at around 35%-40% winrate. I would LIKE to see questlock as a viable deck, but am not really hopeful, despite the fact that Plot Twist can power you through the quest and then you can draw up free old gods (ie. free C'thun played on the same turn as Twisting Nether to ensure all 30 goes face).
They should have made Deck of Chaos hit everything in hand as well--this would actually make it a very powerful combo enabler that could do some really strange things in a control matchup--for example, they could run a deck similar to an old Malygos Druid which controls and draws towards a finisher of Malygos + 2x Nether Fire + Soulfire = 9 mana for 27 damage. Ironically, it would also enable a 3-cost Jaraxxus, which is pretty good as a final health stabilization tool.
0
C'thun Quest Shaman isn't likely to be a thing, but there IS a really cool OTK with Y'shaarj and the quest. Here is my list on that:
The goal of this deck is to set up an OTK where you complete the quest and play Tour Guide to make your next hero power free; then, you play Y'Shaarj, the Defiler to get back two free copies of each corrupted card you played, which amounts to up to four Dunk Tank and four Circus Medic. As each Medic's battlecry triggers twice, your four copies hit the opponent for 32, while the Dunk Tanks hit them for 16. If you only played one Medic and one Dunk Tank, you get two of each from Y'shaarj, which only deals 24 damage, but this should be enough to close out a late game.
I DO NOT think that this will be a significant meta deck, but it should be fun given the dumpster fire that Shaman has been handed this expansion. It should do reasonably well against midrange and control, but I'm concerned that aggressive Demon Hunters are going to be everywhere and this deck won't be able to keep up.
2
I look forward to it.
0
Unfortunately, Shaman no longer has anything it really does better than Demon Hunter in regards to aggro. Its minions are less aggressive, it lacks healing and draw, its hero power is just inferior, its weapons are worse, and, while the new legendary is powerful, it will die the turn it is played if you play it anywhere near on-curve; if you wait to play it off-curve, you are already dead to burn before it is useful.
1
The reason I put the C'thun into the priest deck is two-fold. First, for most of the game, the C'thun is just four control spells (basically an Assassinate, Unearthed Evil, and Avenging Wrath) that can be used against aggro but won't be a win condition; however, in a control matchup, it gives you 5 extra cards in your deck, putting you ahead on fatigue and can act as a finisher.
1
After the full reveal, I've done some theorycrafting and predict that the top of the coming meta will be a soulshard-based Demon Hunter, a pure libram Paladin, and a big resurrection Priest. Here are my early decklists for each:
Sadly, I think that this will polarize the meta, with decks trying to outrace the Demon Hunters or out-control the priests, so midrange decks will have a very hard time surviving in the meta. I do think a highlander mage might have an opening to be high-A Tier along with a very aggressive face Hunter. B Tier will likely have a menagerie (possibly highlander) Warrior along with some sort of big Druid and stealth Rogue. Shaman will likely be in absolute oblivion, stuck in mostly meme territory and D Tier (their identity right now is basically worse Demon Hunter with no draw).
1
I agree that soul demon hunter is going to be very scary, but I'm more worried about a hard-control resurrect priest. At least DH kills you quickly.
2
I like the idea, but you are going to get absolutely mauled by full aggro Demon Hunter and full control Priest; you don't have any draw or resource generation and these classes will just run you over. That said, seeing your deck did cause me to develop an OTK. You use Tour Guide to make your post-quest battlecry doubling hero power (Corrupt the Waters) free for a turn, which lets you drop Y'Shaarj, the Defiler to create 4x corrupted Circus Medic and 4x Dunk Tank that cost 0 that turn--this lets you hit them in the face for up to 48 in a single turn.
2
It's different, as divine shield is powerful but doesn't improve the offensive power of a unit. Also, we now have Lothraxion the Redeemed, which means that Steward could become largely redundant in a lot of odd lists.
1
Is this good...probably not. Will it stop me from trying to build a deck based on hitting an Archmage Vargoth or Underbelly Ooze with this to start flooding the board with giant threats...certainly not.
-3
Is this good...probably not. Will it stop me from trying to build a deck based on hitting an Archmage Vargoth or Underbelly Ooze with this to start flooding the board with giant threats...certainly not.