It is a heavily discussed subject for sure. I’m not sure what the right approach is either, but I’d like to see small touches attempted first, both to show that the issue is on the developers’ radar and to possibly maintain Even and Odd as options at least for tier 2 decks.

We had a Hero Power mechanic in The Grand Tournament – Inspire. It was a disaster. I think the memory of that attempt to make Hero Powers more central has kept cards focused on Hero Powers out of the limelight, we have only had one here and there, and of course Genn and Baku now. I’m not sure whether the designers can pull off good Hero Power cards, and without more such cards, anti tech also does not make a lot of sense other than as a pure counter to Baku and Genn.

Stats are one thing, feel is another. It is tricky to balance around both, but for casual or semi-casual players, feel might be even more important than statistical strength. That is a major part of the Baku/Genn issue – and yes, one option is to do nothing to the cards themselves.

This is a nerf suggestion I had not come across before, well done!

Justicar Trueheart says hi! The original design intent of Baku/Genn was to do Justicar-like cards but without the draw rng. Perhaps that goal is unattainable and the nerf you suggest is the way to go, not sure.

Removing Hero Power opens up a whole new bunch of issues – everything in the game is designed around their existence. Number of cards, draw mechanics, everything is balanced with Hero Powers in mind. That is not to say it is impossible, but it would be a huge redesign.

I’m not sure if this is the real problem. At every point in time, something is the best. There’s a level of rock-paper-scissors going on, but of two decks with the same main idea, one is always better than the other. The main issue is whether Baku/Genn will always remain too good and close out other options permanently.

Yeah, that’s the main issue. They were really fresh at the start, but now after almost a year the sustainability becomes a question.

There are very few ways to put stuff into the opponent’s deck though, so only some decks could viably tech against them – and Priest with Psychic Scream would have an anti-tech by default. If we’d get more library manipulation, it might be interesting.

This sort of reverse-Justicar has been proposed a few times on various forums. It’s interesting, although it also reverses the main design intent behind Baku/Genn: get rid of draw rng when it comes to the effect.

Play-on-curve could also be called tempo meta, and Hearthstone is by design a tempo-oriented game: attacker’s advantage in choosing targets, and no interaction on the opponent’s turn. Playing for good tempo will always remain a solid strategy in Hearthstone because of the way the game is designed. That is not necessarily bad, it’s just a feature of the game.

I don’t think it’s quite as clear-cut as that, because you know your deck will make the most out of your Hero Power. For example, Odd Warrior vs Rush Warrior – Rush Warrior gains nothing from the upgraded Hero Power. Still, it might be big enough of a drawback that Genn/Baku would largely become unplayable.

Mecha’thun Druid is as close as you can get to a budget Mecha’thun deck, it is far cheaper than the other alternatives. It’s a really hard deck to play, but it is very strong in the right hands.

It will lose Barkskin in the rotation, which will hurt its Wild Pyromancer clears a lot, but the main combo itself will remain intact at least. As you already have Mecha’thun, it’s only 2200 more dust, even if you have none of the other cards. If you want to save a little, you can substitute a second Oaken Summons for one of the Branching Paths, that saves 360 dust for a small performance hit, so it will only cost 1840 dust to get started with it, and four of the rares are from Classic set, too.

Obviously, crafting things this close to rotation can be scary, but the Druid deck might be a reasonable craft, as it does not leave you completely broke in the game.

With the new nerfs coming on Tuesday, nobody knows what the meta will look like. I would wait a week or two before crafting anything.

If you’re that tight on dust, it’s a tough call. Uther rotates out in April, Mecha’thun does not.

We do not know what the post-rotation decks will look like: can Shirvallah, Baleful Banker, and Holy Wrath still work even without Uther? Can Mecha’thun Druid survive without Barkskin (key card for Pyromancer combos)? Both concepts have their combo intact, but may not have the support cards for a good deck.

It depends on what you like to play. If you have the other pieces to build a Holy Wrath deck with Shirvallah and without Uther, you can try that, but it is weak against some of the meta. Mecha’thun is stronger, but even its prospects in the post-rotation meta are not certain.

Bearshark is too slow for what the deck wants to do. I also like the Automaton better than the Pixie, as I do not find myself playing the Pixie often on three, and Automaton is superior on seven, as it needs to be cleared, which can buy another turn.

From the article: “Odd Paladin is the strongest of the three and the most willing to go for a long game, Odd Face Hunter is the weakest and the most all-in of the three, and Odd Rogue is in between the two.”

I did my Legend climb this season with the budget Even decks and with this Odd Rogue and Odd Paladin (mostly with Paragons of Light, but I’m not sure if there is any real difference seeing the way I ended up using them was mostly for the 5 health and Taunt, which are the same as Tar Creeper). Could not test Hunter properly, as I already hit Legend by the time I got to it, but while I had >50% winrate with it in Legend, it felt the weakest.

If I were to rank all six decks, it would be roughly as follows:
1. Odd Paladin
2. Odd Rogue
3. Even Paladin
4. Even Shaman
5. Odd Hunter
6. Even Warlock

However, this depends on the meta. We have seen a lot more Mecha’thun decks as of late, for example, and Odd Rogue is clearly better against them than Odd Paladin, as they generally excel at clearing token boards. Meanwhile, Odd Paladin is great against Hunter. Even Paladin can also overtake the Odd decks and be the best one in the right meta, and it is the overall most reliable deck that cannot really be hurt too badly in just about any meta. The top-3 – Odd Paladin, Odd Rogue, Even Paladin – as such seems clear to me, the order may change depending on the meta.

It’s all in the article: https://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/all-you-need-is-genn-budget-even-decks-in-hearthstones-rastakhans-rumble/

Demonic Project and one Dread Infernal is my main recommendation. We’re starting to see a lot of combo decks in the meta though, so we’ll see if Demonic Project will be needed even with some decent firepower.

Whizbang decks are way, way worse than either Genn or Baku decks. Performance-wise, there is no competition there whatsoever. Sure, with Whizbang you get to play all classes and literally only need that one card, not even budget commons, but it does not allow you to win games at higher ranks.

My first impression is that Baku is indeed slightly stronger. Both can be used to climb to Legend, no problems with that. Baku decks are more aggressive, whereas Genn decks are more midrange-oriented, so it’s also a matter of which playstyle you enjoy.

If you’re really uncertain, maybe the follow-up article will help you decide.