Just say it: you have nightmares with Quest Rogue and want it to be deleted. 😉 I personally believe they should come back to the Quest mechanics at some point, and this time give them all a reward aimed at Control. It’s a shame that all quests except Warrior, Druid and Rogue are not viable, especially with such a cool mechanic. Hunter and Shaman quests are aimed at aggro, which is counter-intuitive when you have to give up Turn 1. Warlock is just laughably bad with a mechanic that is irritating to play. Paladin’s reward is underwhelming. Mage is too RNG dependant and without Exodia or Molten Giants it’s too inconsistent. Priest makes games last 50 turns with no win condition. I’ve opened Warlock and Rogue Quest and I’m glad I’m getting dust back for Rogue at least. Didn’t have Sonia so I couldn’t play the Rogue Quest competitively anyway.

Really happy for these nerfs, and all are reasonable (unlike Corridor Creeper from 5 to 2 attack, I think they should have changed it to 8 mana 5/4 and it would have still been a good/decent card).

I think Quest Rogue should have required 4 minions again, though. That way it’s easy: 4 minions for 4/4, and it would have a better chance against aggro, thus being a bit less polarizing.

I’m netting quite a good bunch of dust, so all in all I’m very happy. =) See you all in the new ladder at the end of May!

Again, great analysis. I would never have thought that Book of Specters would be so underperforming and Cinderstorm so overperforming. Apxvoid’s Murloc Mage is a very fun deck to play, though. I’m sure Arugal + Book of Specters can make it to at least a T3 deck in the future.

I opened Lady in White and it’s a shame she’s not so powerful. The most success I’ve had with her was in a Dragon Combo deck. She’s an alternative win condition which turns Wyrmguards, Nightscales and Yseras into monsters. However in that deck you have to run quite a lot of spells to combo, and so even when I do get to play her on curve, I only draw about two or three impactful minions afterwards. Those minions CAN seal the deal, especially if you stabilize. But yeah, she’s not the powerhouse we thought.

I must admit I rated Rebuke as OP. It’s clear to me now why it’s not. Loatheb’s body was a big difference. Also, I thought you would love the card as Paladin against a Warlock with a good board, because then it can’t AOE you. And then they revealed Godfrey… At that moment I knew Rebuke would not be that good. Also, we’re in a very low spell meta, with Spiteful decks all over the place, and so Rebuke is a waste of a card right now.

Dire Frenzy was obvious it wasn’t going to work. Low tempo, and Hunter has no card draw. I wish Blizzard stopped trying to push Control Hunter, it feels like when they were pushing Discolock.

Don’t you guys find it funny that a cute Bunny can trade for three Silver Hand Recruits?

An idea I had several weeks ago was to change it to “Silence and destroy a friendly minion. Restore 8 Health to your Hero”. That way it would fill the flavor of the card better, since right now you’re not sacrificing too much for all the upsides. It could then even be used to sacrifice minions with bad Deathrattles (Hoarding Dragon, Corrupted Healbot…), which I believe is a much more interesting synergy.

Hey, thanks for sharing this deck! I was short on several cards, but I had opened Dollmaster and Umbra in packs and I’ve had a blast with the deck playing them! What I did was to substitute Thalnos, Cairne, Cursed Castaway, Vilespine, Edwin & Sonja (because I don’t have them) and instead add more Deathrattles. I introduced Kobold Illusionist (love that card), substituted the Festeroot for Violet Wurm (similar effect and it’s not unplayable from hand). I also added The Lich King and Deranged Doctor, and one copy of Silver Vanguard. Many times I’ve been able to recruit those beefy 8 drops, and it always felt great. I also added Plated Beetles for extra early game and defense, and 2x Sap (the card is really good in this meta). I’ve had a blast and it’s so satisfying when Roll the Bones draws you 4 cards, or when you can upgrade the Onyx Spellstone. Sure, I must have had around 30% WR, but I had a lot of fun. Once I played Umbra into Illusionist, which put a 1/1 Silver Vanguard, which recruited the Violet Wurm and filled the rest of the board with 1/1s. My opponent emoted for several seconds. =)

Have you tried piloting Tempo Mage yourself? Really, it’s not as easy as it seems. The mulligan is already very important (most other aggro decks have plenty of 1-drops, and you need to consider whether to keep certain spells or not). Also, having the Secret you want by Turn 3 only happens 30% of the time. You have to consider putting down the undesired secret or not. And if you don’t get Aluneth or Arcane Intellect by Turn 5 you run out of steam. “T2 Arcanologist -> T3 Kirin Tor Mage is pretty much game over.” is absolutely not a true statement.

I think Tempo Mage is also good because I’ve seen many people misplay into it, even in Rank 5. Like using the Coin before I put down a Secret (you 90% of the time need it to proc the first secret). Another time I saw a Druid of the Scythe in Rush form when Explosive Runes was up – you always put the Taunt form in that case. Sure, it sucks when you don’t know which secret it is, but that’s when you have to weigh the risks! Personally I believe every class should have access to secrets, since HS in general is an uninteractive card game and secrets are the only way to immediately interact with your opponent during their turn.

Just because something doesn’t have a big winrate doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be nerfed. Quest Rogue pre-nerf also didn’t have the biggest winrate. The “skill” argument is also not very convincing, Patron Warrior was very skillful and yet we all agree that giving them Charge was broken. Lackey into Dark Pact into Voidlord is broken, period. Upping the mana cost of Lackey to 6 and Dark Pact to 2 would help a great deal and I believe the deck would be much more fair.

The nerfs are long due. When Corridor Creeper, Raza and Patches were nerfed, we were all expecting some nerf to some Cubelock piece, and to CtA. But just like with Patches, it’s incredible that Blizzard has taken so long to act on cards that are obviously unhealthy for the meta.

I prey on Warlocks and Quest Rogues, yes. It’s satisfying to punish them for playing those decks. 😉

If you play Druid, Warrior and Priest you can definitely interact by healing your face. Paladins don’t usually run healing but they’re slightly favored anyway. Tempo Mage matches are always very interesting, it’s not as trivial to trade minions or not, and how you interact with Counterspells and Explosive Runes is always exciting.

I very much agree with this list. I play Tempo Mage and I rated Cinderstorm very poorly. It has become one of my favorite cards. It turns out dealing with Paladin boards is good. 5 damage for 3 mana to face is good. And basically, you just need more burn damage spells since others rotated out. I also never thought Lifedrinker would be a competitive card, and there I am using it in the deck. I’m also using Black Cat in a non-Odd deck (!).

I don’t know who could rate Hench-Clan Thug lowly. For me it was a clear 5/5 stars from just seeing it. A 3 mana 4/4 would already be very solid. The snowballing potential it carries aditionally makes it super strong.

And Vicious Scalehide… We all thought it would be another Swamp Leech. It turns out that killing Dudes immediately and gaining a lot of life after being buffed is actually really good.

Cubelock Tier 2? Control lock Tier 3? Come on… Cubelock is Tier 1 and Control Lock Tier 2. The Kobolds cards for Warlock have totally warped the meta. Because of them everyone has to run silences and some have to run weapon removal, or else Cubelock gets an easy win vs them. I used to play Midrange Hunter before Kobolds but after it I had nothing to do competitively once Voidlord comes on Turn 6. You know a deck is bad when it warps the meta (Aggro Pirate with Patches, Jade Druid…). And Paladin is OP because it has too many busted cards. Nerfs are needed to both, and to Spiteful too, and the meta will be healthier.

How is Grievous Bite going to deal with Dire Wolf Alpha in Odd Paladin? I mean, the wolf costs 2 mana…

I just climbed up to Rank 5 with this exact deck, except I changed one Arcane Explosion for a Fire Fly and one Black Cat for a Zealot. The Zealot was actually very useful in the mid-late game because the opponent has to commit one extra ping to eliminate it (when compared to Thalnos or Black Cat), which ups the chances of it sticking on the board. And this deck REALLY benefits from Spell Damage. I’ve enjoyed the tears of opponents who had a wall of Taunts by turn 8, yet two Fireballs to face dealt 14 damage instead of 12 for lethal. 🙂 Also, Arcane Explosion, Arcane Missiles and Cinderstorm counter those pesky Odd Paladins perfectly.

Hadrodruid: almost certain win if you draw Skulking Geist before 10. You destroy the Naturalizes, then Polymorph Hadronox, then outvalue hard with AOE removals and Water Elementals. If you don’t draw Geist before 10 and they DO draw Hadronox before 10 (this scenario may happen like 30% of the time) this does get more complicated, but I still believe the Mage is favored. I usually Polymorph their Lich King. This achieves two things: take LK out of resurrect pool (very important because it generates a lot of value and it also has a high attack) and it makes Witching Hour 50% to low roll on a Sheep. Really, Control Mage is quite favored vs Hadrodruid.

Hunter: you need to survive. Turn 2 Doomsayer, Turn 3 Stonehill, Turn 5 Dragon’s Fury. Turns 6-8 some combination of Arcane Artificer + Big Spell to gain Armor. Turn 9 DK Jaina. If by Turn 9 you are the DK and you’re not super low on Health, you start to heal back and freeze his Face, by that point you win easily. Otherwise Taunts from Stonehill Defender are tough for a Hunter, they only have Ironbeak Owl to directly deal with them.

It’s kind of an instant loss against the heavy-combo Shudderwock deck, but that deck is very rare to see nowadays because Aggro counters it hard. The ladder right now is Hadrodruids, Cubelocks and Paladins, and Big Spell Mage reliably wins against those except Cubelock, which is a close matchup.

This seems like a very fun deck to play which will catch people off guard. Unfortunately I have none of the 4 legendaries in the deck, so I can’t play it. But I wish you a lot of fun!

I really want to play this deck because I got Alanna back at the start of KnC and I have never been able to use her effectively in ladder. Alas, I’m missing Jaina and a bunch of other epics… =( People complain that aggro is brainless, but in the end it’s the only early option for budget players.

Well Ysera is not even an option, since it costs 9 mana.

The deck should have been nerfed before, glad to see it gets punished now.

Well I just got my ass beat by Odd Paladin several times in Wild now. They have Muster for battle and many other buff Silver Hand Recruit cards that totally overwhelm you. My Wild Secret Tempo Mage appears to be obsolete after the release of Baku…