Hearthpwn

Disclaimer: These aren't dogmatic decrees against these cards, as I hope you'll see in my explanations, I just think these are either badly timed releases or bad/toxic designs.

Zephyrs
- I think if this was introduced on its own instead of alongside DqA, I wouldn't dislike it so much. Even with the broken algorithm that's come in since the last two patches, it still brings huge swings to a deck style that used to rely a bit more on resource management. Now, alongside some other very powerful cards that aren't singleton synergy, you just need to get to a Fireball lethal or just flood the board enough to get a Bloodlust finisher. It's not a bad card, but alongside the other power available, Zephyrs has become the answer to lacking win conditions for a lot of decks. One card shouldn't become a frequent win condition AND be this successful. 

Dragonqueen Alexstraza
- Ah, the turn 9 win more / swing turn. Although Blizzard finally (partially) addressed the issue of card self-discovery with DqA, she can still offer value so far beyond the deck she's in is capable of. The argument of RNG goes out the window when the results show that the majority of her times played result in wins. A great example of her being overvalued is a recent match I spectated. Dragon highlander hunter vs control warrior, in which the hunter was able to transition all their existing aggro tools into control solely because DqA gave them Ysera Awakened and allowed a huge swing turn, draining the warrior of all AoE and board control tools. The aggro deck suddenly became a control deck, a very similar problem to midrange hunter back in Rastakhan's Rumble, which went from pure aggro to control through the use of one card: Deathstalker Rexxar.
DqA manages to make turn 9 overvalued.

Edwin
- This guy has dodged nerfs since the beginning (maybe not since beta, I can't remember). The argument has always been "but class identity!" and that always crumbles when rogue uses Edwin to either blow out early games or win more later. Not sure when that became rogue's class identity, a class which can currently play at least 4-7 0-cost cards (Galakrond + Wand discounts) in a game. More, if they Shadowstep for greed. Edwin is the ultimate rogue; he can't be touched! But it's not so much his skills as it is Blizzard's affinity for the card. He's one of the golden boys, and has yet to find himself out of their good graces.

There are more but these three have bothered me the most in standard.

It's a bad nerf. Restricting to friendly minions on Sac Pact gives demon hunter more power, and it was already tier 1 and defining aggro.

I used OTK DH to hit platinum and now I'm trying out warrior to counter DH, since it's over 50% of the classes played right now. Best time to farm!

mmmmm fair point, I have to agree

Farming with warrior

So you're telling me I can add extra card draw in place of Kael and still play my busted OTK demon hunter?

ah wait, already did that an hour ago.

bad timing for this brawl, otherwise it would be interesting. Right now most everyone is druid, mage, or obviously demon hunter

Not perfect, but an improvement for sure, imo.

It definitely improves your initial experience every season with the star bonuses. Gaining 8-11 stars for a single win without even starting a win streak is gonna make most players' (definitely including me... I know myself, and it feels good when it happens!) brains dump dopamine like crazy, regardless of it being in bronze where you can't lose rank anyways.

Getting a start that doesn't punish you will help people who start off on a bad foot to not give up on ladder so quickly, since all it can take is 4-5 losses in a row to misplays or draw rng, or even a ridiculous discovery string that swings against you, and suddenly Hearthstone is the worst game ever and why did you ever think you could enjoy this stupid pile of garbage.

Getting some initial boosters can mitigate those feelings with "at least I'm not tanking my rank" and "just one win netted me X stars!" It's mind games, but it works.

Also, the MMR seems to feel extremely fair, and anyone who complains about it seems to say the same thing: "They're just as good as me!" which is the stupidest argument I've ever seen. It's complaining about an even playing field.

Quote from Macinstosh >>

Yogg-Saron, Hope's End is still the best legendary in the game. You can't change my mind. 

 Like arguing the sky is blue: an established fact that cannot be disputed, for there is no logic that stands against it. Hail Yogg

Ever see a man's life fade from his eyes?

First things first, this will happen every month. Everyone gets set back to bronze and matchmaking will take a bit to really refine as everyone's MMR is composed based on games played.

So far, I've spoken with a few players who have done some testing and here's how the matchmaking seems to work (unofficially, of course):

Based on your skill, efficiency, deck composition, and rank, you'll get matched with people who best line up with you. 

For example, you'll face a player who makes a lot of mistakes if you make a lot of mistakes, too. You'll face a lot more meta decks if you run meta decks, too. Running off-meta? Your opponent is likely to be doing the same. Win streak? Your opponent probably has one going, too.

Don't let the initial newness/weirdness of ladder turn you off from it. Get a feel for how it works and how you can best approach it.

Best of luck!

As much as I enjoyed Zill, he's gotta go. His saturation in the meta from day 1 has been off the charts. Even if you wanted to put him in a face hunter or similar deck, he wouldn't be awful because he's outrageously good. If for no other reason than he instantly became the new Ragnaros/Sylvanas/Azure, he's had his time in the sun and now it's off into wild where he'll continue to be an excellent card.

SN1P-SN4P can eat my whole butt. I hate that card and couldn't be happier that it's leaving.

Libram of Hope is outrageous. Get all our libram discounts in and you have a two card 6-mana heal for 16 with two 8/8's. And you can discover another that will get the discount since the effect is for "that game" and not for librams in your hand or deck; any libram you get will be discounted.

Incredibly powerful, but we'll see how paladin fares in reality once the whole set drops and we can see the full potential of the set.

Better if you discover it, might end up being a niche play, but that's a solid 12 to the face if there's no opposing minions 

This was the best use of 1600 dust I've ever spent. Time to lose 7 times in a row on ladder, baybeeeee

Worth not trying to out-value turn 1 8/8's with taunt.

Small note: it's faster to do the combo with Topsy than with Smite. Smite's animation is longer