Thanks for the answers. So … as I thought. Flexibility it is.

Still confused about Holy Fire … why no 2nd Crowd Roaster? Is face potential that important? Or heal 5? I always find this card to be very mediocre when I play it.

Long gone are the days of Wallet Warrior – hail Wallet Paladin!

‘… It lets you experience 18 different decks, some of which are actually quite viable. And it’s not limited to Boomsday Project – when the recipes get updated after a new expansion launches, you will get to play with all of the new builds. All of that for 1600 Arcane Dust.’

Level Up! wasn’t played before Baku. Not even in Wild, where there was lots of Silver Hand Support before.

So … is this card problematic or a card that guarantees a swarm of Silver Hand Recruits on turn 5?

Besides that … even if Level Up! gets nerfed … is Paladin supposed to not get good odd costed cards anymore?

Regarding a partial upgraded HP nerf for Baku – that would be very dowdy design, then. I’d reconfigure all HPs and call them differently to Justicar’s ability. Moon Power, or something like that. 😉

The point is that with Genn and Baku – in contrast to Justicar Trueheart – the upgrade is guaranteed 100% and available at the start of the game. That offers a level of consistency that makes up for all deck building restrictions and – even more important – restricts design space in a way it was never restricted before.

Thank god that this ‘only’ gets problematic with SOME classes right now.

Those two legendaries definitely are the problem. 😉

Yeah, we will get a ‘new’ meta around March/April 2019. Hopefully. Problem is, Genn and Baku will still be around for a loooong time.

Maybe we should first clarify which ranks we’re talking about!?

I’m a Wild player mostly, until I hit ‘dad legend’ (which isn’t very difficult to achive 😉 ). After that, I’m playing for golden heros, in both formats.

I’m lingering at Rank 8 in Standard and I so so wish I would face MORE Odd Paladins with Control Mage … sadly, I’m mostly paired against Hunters, Rogues and Shudderwo … sorry Shamans.

As it seems, every fight after Round 6 is like an endboss fight. I lost horribly to about any class at rounds 7 and 8 – before those rounds, the matches are very easy.

So … another Odd/Even deck without new cards … jupp, the odd even problem is real.

That looks … interesting.

Not so sure about Hexlord, though. 😀

I’m with you – Odd and Even they way they did it is a mistake that needs to be corrected.

Sadly, your options are very limited when it comes to the core design. What should be done (some Pros already pointed that out) is the actual cards (Baku and Genn) should be made unplayable – for example, Baku could be a 10 Mana 0/1. Problem is, even then the upgraded Hero power might make up for the chance of drawing a completely useless card …

I’m not saying it’s the majority – but you can’t deny that efficient-wise, investing in that deck was a good decision back when it arose.

And there ARE those who are strictly F2P and on a tight budget – in this case, a deck like Odd Paladin is a very good investment.

Hm.

I for myself play Control Mage and Combo Priest, because my priority is ‘getting all classes to 500 wins’ and those 2 are the only ones left.

All I wanted to say that different people have different priorities. And I believe that it’s not fair to judge others by your own standards because, you know … yours aren’t any better or worse than theirs. 😉

Besides that, I don’t see that bragging about Odd Paladin players is any better than playing the deck. Just relax and have fun playing HS?

So … if it’s an aggro deck that wins so fast … why not play Ship’s Cannon instead of Fan of Knifes? I know I repeat myself but the cycling from FoK can’t be that important then.

Besides that, I don’t think THIS version is THAT aggro (Leeching Poison, anyone? And Fan of Knives, because when the deck isn’t that fast, then the cycling makes a little more sense). Cannon would make the deck more aggro, though. Might cut the Leeching Poisons for Sharkfin Fan, then. And press in Southsea Captain …

Wait … isn’t that Control’s list?

But wouldn’t Cold Light Oracle be a better choice overall, then?

In my oppinion, you can’t blame no one for playing a good deck on ladder.

To be honest, I think (as harsh as this might sound) that laddering isn’t about fun, it’s about competition. And within any competition, you use the best possible combination of available ressources to achieve the best result possible.

Therefore, the reasons why there are so many Odd Paladins on the ladder are manifold … for some players, winning is more fun than trying new stuff. Others can’t afford all those fancy new cards, so they stick to what they got.

So, as I said in the beginning, you can’t really blame people for playing good decks in a competitive environment.

I think that for as long as HS exists, real metagame shifts (read: new decks with new or unexplored mechanics) will only happen with the standard rotation – or in Wild, where it is much easier to miss some broken interaktion with old and new cards …

Over time, Blizzard reduced their howlers per expansion to a minimum – yes, there are cards like Patches or Keleseth, but in my opinion, they’ve learned from those. So, if they don’t decide to delve deeply into power creeping and produce sets that are strictly superior to their predecessors, only few new cards will make it into trusted and working deck lists.

Besides that: Hearthstone is to ‘expensive’. Most of the time, trying new ideas requires owning the according cards. I for myself opened 140 packs of RR by now and I’m still missing

14 Legendaries
10 Epics
2 Rares (I didn’t get a single copy of Shriek and the Paladin Spirit)

So let’s say I’d want to test Dragon Warrior. To play a good version (and let’s be honest, it doesn’t make any sense to test a highly suboptimal list) I’d need to craft:

2 Smolderthorn Lancer
1 War Master Voone
plus older cards like 2 Reckless Flurry and some other cards that I didn’t open back then

Most players simply can’t afford all those ‘fun crafts’, so they stick to the decks they already own.

Another example for this is Discardlock – I’m pretty sure many people would like to test this deck right now – but look at how many ‘useless’ legendaries you’d need to craft for playing an optimal version – Lakkari Sacrifice, Clutchmother, Lana’thel. I’m sure many players couldn’t afford to safe those cards and dusted those them for what they actually needed. And so … most players stick to their Lifegain Zoo list for the time being.

tl;dr:

1. balanced set design decreases the amount of new archetypes
2 . serious metagame shifts only happen when Standard rotates
3. Most players don’t have the chance to play new cards because they don’t own them / can’t afford to craft all cards they want to test

Holy crap … this looks like the most complex single player content until now. Or am I overrating this?

Looking forward to it!

Meme confirmed. 😉