Mana Burn is seen in play and Loatheb is still played in wild.

I’m not sure if that’s sarcastic. Either way, to netdeck means to basically copy/paste a decklist off an online tier list instead of creating your own deck. The term originally comes from when ccgs were physical and weaker players often just copied off the internet (I think).

So, we’re holding at 14/35 DH cards nerfed. Nearly half its cards in a single expansion.

Or stop netdecking

You give three examples of “cheating out” mana effects. You seem to hate the druid’s the most as can be implied from your closing paragraph. I ironically agree only to the other two. Box is pure RNG and cheating it out shouldn’t be more than a meme. Although rogue’s 7 cards drawn for 0 mana fits its class identity, the current build is literally a 28 mediocre cards and a 2 card win con (with RNG). In LoR there’s a term “get hearthstoned”.
Druid is another story. Let’s compare to DH. DH is a tempo based class that face tanks a lot. Check. Maybe summon/big DH will get support some day. Also fits class identity. He pays with his health for strong tempo. He can be hard countered with control tools.
Druid draws fast and ramps hard into swarm/tokens. Check. He used to ramp into big things (ungoro quest, embiggen, etc.). He pays with tempo for stronger tempo later. He can be hard countered with tempo, aoe, (and Nozdormu the Timeless).
DH and Druid are both decently strong and can be frustrating when they nut draw against you. They both currently have counters. Balanced? Maybe not. RNG? Low. Unique (thematic) playstyle? Definitely. In other words, exactly how it should be.

About synergy in decks; most tempo, token, aggro and big/recruit decks are highly synergistic. Highlander on the other hand… The old secret highlander Hunter was the only HL deck I didn’t mind. A lot of it’s synergy was precisely bc it was one offs.

“who pledged allegiance to the Bretayer, who eventually became the betrayed himself”
Betrayer

Only 10 weeks in and already over 2/3 home. Keep up the grind (and the articles).
Every class in HS has an “identity”, some being “unknown” (hi, priest). The official identity of HS is mage. Part of what makes HS more enjoyable than other CCGs to some players is great animations and nail biting RNG. This is probably why Specialist is less accepted by the community. HS is still a fun and skill based game, just that it’s skill can only be proven over many games. For example that secret maly hotfix buff. If you value consistency over drama, play LoR imo.
In other news, we didn’t get our weekly DH predictions this week. I’m waiting for your estimate on when Big DH or Token/Swarm DH will be a real deck.

I can understand why it’s not on the list, but after ~50 games this season, I decided Nozdormu the Timeless is pretty strong, given the right deck. I searched on hsreplay and only 1(!) deck ran it w/ 51.9% WR over 300 games. I teched it into pure pali and my (played)WR went up a lot. It hard counters druid’s ramp. The dream against aggro is T1 libram guy, T2 air raid, T4 coin+noz into lightforged blessing on T5. Aggro needs to beat you before you start healing for 8 every turn. In slower matches, a 4 mana giant isn’t that bad. (I see you, rogue).

I’m not the best HS player, so 60% WR seems good to me. I’m 100% against druid and face hunter. I lost only one each against DH and dragon hunter. 4-2 against warrior.

I disagree on having a one cost hero power being different “in a good way”. 2 mana to gain +2 attack makes sense. It’s strong like hunter, but needs to be face tanked like rogue. Flexible like mage, but taunt restricted like druid (ik, kayne). Sure, it would make cards like aldrachi warblades strong, but blizzard is always trying to push hero power synergy (hunter side quest, jan’alai the dragonhawk, inspire cards, erc.). Also, genn would at least make sense in wild.

I got cho x3. Since I was second, I filled his hand with coins and won by default. If he tried to empty his hand, he just helped me by giving me coins, and then I just refilled his hand.

I was wondering why most iterations of eggro don’t include it. My guess is that although it’s a great finisher, it requires combo pieces to work and is expensive. By 10 mana, the game is pretty much decided.
In short, the current versions are too fast for grommash.

I personally haven’t played this archetype since the HoF rotation (RIP leeroy and acolyte of pain) so take it with a grain of salt. Back then I played grommash in my pain warrior deck. It worked because 1) ~60% of my opponents (at rank 3!) didn’t know what risky skipper could do, 2) whip was in standard, 3) the meta wasn’t so aggro and 4) my deck was more control/mid-range.

Another theory I have, is good decks can carry somewhat if they’re busted enough. Tempo DH was so good early into the expansion, that someone in my friend list reached legend within a week. He never even reached rank 5 in the old system.

You’re right, my comment was written poorly. You hone your skill in anything by grinding it out.

Good decks don’t necessarily mean positive winrate as high rank. Especially in the current insanely diverse meta. But that wasn’t my point.

What I meant was, many players put in more time this month (thank you COVID-19). However, if ~280k players didn’t have the skill until now, it doesn’t make sense that so many people suddenly “got it”.

I was just addressing the 2nd (large) paragraph in this article.

Simply grinding doesn’t make you reach legend if you don’t have the skills. The system does seem easier to climb though, and shorter.

Meta specific

I’m surprised bronze herald didn’t make the cut in the first deck. It only has 5 3- drops (4 if you count aldor peacekeeper as removal). Obvious dragon synergy. Strong synergy with twilight drake (increases hand size) and dragonrider talritha (chains itself).

Also, what do you plan to faceless? Synergy with air raid, but anti- synergy with Finley.

I can’t see how nourish fits in this deck. Aeroponics (or whatever that 5 mana spell is called) is better draw. Overgrowth is better ramp. Sure, you have flexibility. But you’d probably use it most times for the same choice, depending on the meta and overall deck dynamic. Assuming this deck works. I like it though. Thanks for the post.

This is the biggest problem with these least two expansions imo. Minions used to be mana cost x2 in stats with slight upside. Sometimes they have have lower stats for utility. i.e. novice engineer for 2 mana gets 1 mana in stats and 1 mana worth of card draw.

Then Blizzard started integrating more keywords/ utility. This may have led to stronger synergies between cards, but not the pure power level of individual cards. i.e. saronite chain gang is just 4 mana 4/6 taunt over two bodies, but when my jaws bite and claws attach…

Over the last two expansions, Blizzard has straight power crept (to keep players involved?). They write vanilla cards with better stat lines at lower cost, or same stat line, but more utility. This just forces out the basic and classic sets.

In short, yes, I agree with your comment.

In a CCG that you don’t need to play mana from hand (like pokemon and MTG), 30 cards is probably the perfect balance between card consistency and deck complexity.

This article seems to be more about power level of cards in specific decks, than PL in general. Where true deck building skill lies is realizing when a card synergies enough with your deck AND against the majority of opponents to warrant inclusion. For example mct is usually a bad card. But in a draw heavy quest shaman with battlecry synergy, it was often a good inclusion, only because that was a token heavy meta. Shark was very strong in pogo rogue, not so in galakrond. I went 42-26 (61.76% WR) with a homemade pain warrior in the meta of embiggen, gala rogue, gala warrior and face hunter (from rank 5 to 2). Battle Rage was extremely strong in that deck, because my minions were cheap, almost always damaged and it countered many meta decks. Not so much in galakrond warrior. (I can write a whole article about that [HoF’ed] deck alone).

About “high/low skill cap”, I’ll give a macro example because it’s more famous. The principles apply to specific card inclusions as well though. Pogo rogue at its peak, had below average WR on HSreplay because it was a deck that needed to adapt its playstyle according to the matchup and required a lot of complex decisions. To many players ran without maxing its potential, lowering its supposed WR. Embiggen druid was the exact opposite. Buffed overall WR because it has a very linear gameplan. And can be successfully piloted by lesser skilled players.

By the way, I don’t consider myself a top tier player. Just someone with a decent understanding if HS principles. Did I never reach legend because I only have time for 100 games per season, max? Or because I never will, even during this COVID-19 pandemic, now that I have more time? I’ll probably never know.