I think that Aggro DH is not going to be a problem. It gets wrecked by control decks and those are going to have more space if Ramp Druid isn’t so oppressive. For me the meta’s been fun but I’ve definitely been getting sick of all the Druids!

Questlock (at least in its current form) is going to be hit hard by rotation. Think of Backfire, if nothing else. That is one of the key cards that makes the current deck work. Many of the OTK decks will be rotated, as well.

No. This card should not exist.

These are good changes. Inevitability is not a problem per se–the problem is OTKs on turn 6 and 7, and the two decks that could do that have now been nerfed. This will make strategies that focus on life/armor gain and removal (Control Warrior, Libram Paladin) stronger, and those can balance out the strength of Face Hunter and Handlock.

As for Renew, the previous change can and should be reverted because the context is different. In Barrens, where lethality was historically low, cheap resource generation was a problem. Now Priest won’t be able to win through resource generation alone. It needs help to be able to keep up with what other classes can do.

As for people calling for nerfs to Pirate Warrior–it’s not actually that good!

As ZachO explained in the Vicious Syndicate podcast, all of these “solitaire” strategies (the first four decks) are falling off hard. People were trying stuff in the early days, and they worked against unrefined strategies, but they aren’t going to define the game going forward.

It’s true that you can’t play an attrition strategy with no win condition now (as in Control Priest or Control Warrior) but that’s what everyone was complaining about a month ago!

Yes, things are very Aggro now but aggro always does well at the beginning of a meta. Let’s see whether people adjust. The real issue, it seems to me, is with Battleground Battlemaster. That card is insane. It’s like the Zephrys win condition of giving a minion windfury, except you can do it to two minions at once. Windfury hasn’t been problematic in Shaman, but when you give Paladin and Rogue access to windfury, that’s when you can have issues!

Discover isn’t brainless, though. It takes a lot of skill and knowledge of the meta to know what to take and when and how to use it. That’s why Priest is really good at top legend, and pretty bad at lower levels. It’s a very high-skill deck.

I don’t know if this is what they’ll do, but here’s what I think would be good:

The obvious ones:
–Sword of the Fallen to 2 durability
–Deck of Lunacy to 4 mana
–Far Watch Post to 2/3

Less obvious:
–Aldor Attendant to 1/2
–Pen Flinger only targets minions, but still at 1 mana
–Morshan Watch Post to 3/4
–Jandice summons 4 drops

I’m not sure if other Rogue or Mage stuff needs to be adjusted yet. Without Deck of Lunacy, No-Minion Mage is actually a pretty fair deck, and I worry that nerfing either Incanter’s Flow or Refreshing Spring Water would kill it. And Rogue would be less annoying with weaker watch posts and less Pen Flinger versatility. A Pen Flinger that targets only minions is still useful, but not an auto-include.

Paladin needs more general steps to reduce power level, but I think a slow and incremental approach is best. They can always do more in a bit if needed.

I’m a mostly FTP player (I’ve spend $20 once or twice a year, like for the Galakrond’s Awakening adventure), and I haven’t had too much trouble getting enough cards to have fun and play several high level decks in every meta. It’s true you can’t just try out anything that comes up–for example, I haven’t collected Warrior cards for the most part and can’t throw together an ETC Control Warrior–but if you make smart choices and manage your dust, you can have fun with a lot of options.

There are two downsides to this strategy. First, it did take a while to get my collection established. The first several months were a lot of losing, and I could see how that could be frustrating. Second, I never have much to work with in the first couple of weeks of an expansion. It takes time to collect the basics of a set, and because of the need to be efficient, you have to wait before things settle down before you can commit your dust.

So in my experience, it simply isn’t true that you can’t have a fun experience without paying a lot. You have fewer options, but that seems fair. Now, I agree that the _paid_ options should be a lot better. I’ve never considered buying the big packages because it doesn’t seem like you get enough for the price, as JAlexander said. Ironically, I might be willing to pay if the options for paying were a better deal!

Maybe they should just pre-emptively ban Yogg-Saron for tournaments. As you say, it’s just a different kind of circumstance than playing on ladder. Have they ever done that before?

Jaina has one of the best 1000 win portraits, IMO.

Just a note, I was able to play Ragnaros and I don’t have Tavern Pass. I think he’s open to everyone because he was in Battlegrounds before. The same thing happened with Patches when pirates were added.

You can definitely highroll with it. I got a 10/10 Edwin on turn 2 once. Coin, Backstab, Prep, Secret, Edwin. I don’t think my opponent was happy.

I’ve been highrolled by enough druids that I don’t feel too bad about it, though.

Good guide! Thanks!

I don’t think nerfs are needed right now. Even the powerful decks have counters, and the decks that were really strong initially (Guardian Animals Druid, Pure Paladin) have been trending down in win rate naturally as other decks target them. That wasn’t the case with Tempo Demon Hunter a couple of months ago–it just kept getting better and better and only one deck (Enrage Warrior) had a chance.

My thoughts on Druid were (a) reduce Twilight Runner’s statline. A minion with that powerful of an effect should have correspondingly weak stats. (b) Make the reduced Kael’thas cards cost 1 instead of 0 (like with Rogue Galakrond). You could still make big plays with Innervate and Lightning Bloom, but it would take more careful management to pull it off.

Ethereal Augmerchant?

I think it is more fun for me, for two reasons: First, you actually have a more dynamic climb. Before I’d spend most of my time within a pretty small range (Rank 5-3) since I am a solid but not great player and I don’t play for hours at a time. Second, as you said, it’s just a bit easier to get to Legend. That is, it’s still hard, but it’s in reach for a more casual player. Before, making it to Legend seemed impossible unless I spent hours and hours grinding.

I never had this problem when I was playing at rank 3 or 4, but my friend plays at lower ranks, and it was pretty ridiculous that he’d sometimes get matched up against really high level players and decks. The new matchmaking system is more fair.

Are people being tricked to play the game? Isn’t the whole point of an incentive system to incentivize playing? If the ranking and reward system gives you reason to play more, that’s what it’s for.

I like that they’re adjusting stats slightly for the nerfs rather than changing costs. When you change the cost of a card it is often just dead (like Invocation of Frost). But changing the stats a bit leaves them viable, but just reduces their power level a bit (think of Evil Miscreant and Faceless Corrupter). I also like that they’re buffing Paladin and Shaman cards. I was hoping they would do that.

I predicted the Scrap Imp change, since many people worried that Zoo Warlock would be oppressive if Warrior and Demon Hunter were nerfed. Giving the units less health makes it more possible for the opponent to clear them and survive the wave.

Really getting tired of playing against 1/3 Demon Hunter and 1/3 Galakrond Warlock! I hope the nerfs make a difference and lead to more diversity.

Galakrond Warlock is a top deck because it does really well vs. Tempo Demon Hunter, and there are a lot of people playing Tempo Demon Hunter on ladder right now. Otherwise, it didn’t get any great new cards that would have elevated it from mid-Tier 2 to top of the meta so suddenly. If the percentage of Tempo Demon Hunter goes down the win rate of Galakrond Warlock will go down too.

It might seem sloppy that they’d have to nerf Demon Hunter so fast, but I think you have to keep in mind just how hard it is to balance an entire new class with so many new cards. It’s one of the reasons they haven’t done it before. No matter how much you playtest, it’s impossible to predict all of the interactions and possibilities. When a new card is introduced to an existing class, you have previous cards to compare it to, a previous environment that helps you to predict. Plus, tiny changes can make huge differences: 5 mana vs. 7 mana Luna’s Pocket Galaxy; 5/6 vs. 4/5 wolves from Dragon’s Pack. They playtested a lot, and made a lot of changes in playtesting. But then on the first day when it is live you get millions of games worth of new data.

I think we should have expected a sort of “Beta testing” period as Demon Hunter is phased in. There will probably be a series of adjustments over the next couple of weeks. That’s not a bad thing, but part of the process. More than that, if you open these DH cards, you can get a lot of dust as they’re nerfed!