Alright so first off, I have to disagree with the notion that combo decks are everywhere on ladder, at least from my subjective experience (at rank 5-1, I see more aggro and deathrattle decks then combo). HSreplay stats won’t be too helpful, so until VS releases publishes their first report it’s impossible to have a more objective look at what the played percentages are. And I’m sure there are plenty of BAD combo decks that are being experimented with that will fall off soon. Some of which you mention.

Malygos Rogue is a tier 3 deck. Yes, it can potentially dish out something like 114 damage in optimal conditions, but lacks the stall and card draw to consistently pull it off before dying. Heck, Necrium Vial is even being cut since it’s too slow. If you want to beat up control decks as Rogue just play Miracle or Quest.

Eureka! Shaman is like… a tier 5 deck. It is objectively bad, and the most “effective” lists don’t even run Malygos.

Druid is the only class which can use Malygos and have an overall winrate above 50%. And yes, Maly Druid is one of the most frustrating decks to face in the game right now. However, that’s more due to Druid’s fantastic stall tools and armor gain. Malygos Druid just happens to be one of, if not the, best win condition for that powerful shell.

Tl;dr, Malygos isn’t the problem, Druid’s enabling tools are.

As for Shudderwock, I generally agree. Luckily, the potential to OTK with it will (hopefully) go away when the year of the Mammoth rotate.

And for Mecha’thun…. I disagree that 5 classes can RELIABLY pull it off. Only 3 can. Mecha’thun Rogue is like a 10 card combo or more. It sucks harder then Maly Rogue. Mecha’thun Warrior also sucks. Putting the Mecha’thun package in Warlock generally drops it’s winrate in both Even and Control variants, and in Warlock it feels more like a tech choice to beat grindy control decks in a tournament lineup. But this is something Even Warlock can do without Mecha’thun (though including it means you have to think less about the fatigue gameplan), and regular Control Warlock has Rin which serves a similar purpose.

That leaves Mecha’thun Druid and Priest. Druid can draw really quick and on paper looks the scariest but after playing it and looking at some stats I don’t really think it’s good, especially when Druid has much more powerful, consistent options.

That leaves Priest, and yeah, it’s annoying in Priest. But idk if it’s any stronger then OTK paladin was in KnC, and both decks have a similar gameplan.

And don’t forget that the biggest enablers of the actually viable Mecha’thun decks rotate out next year. Bloodbloom, Cataclysm, Hemet, Branching Paths, Ticking Abomination… all out the window. And that should put Mecha’thun into a similar place as current OTK paladin: sometimes good, but pretty bad overall.

Afaik Azalina is anti-Shudderwock tech

That’s true, but this card is much more all-in then inner fire. Sometimes making a 5/5 northshire on turn 2 is the best play vs aggro, or buffing a steambot to hopefully survive. This card has limited utility outside of the final push

Probably worse in Odd Rogue then Cobalt Scalebane, a card some pros were cutting because it was only good when you’re ahead. This suffers from the same problem, as well as being a combo card, making it even slower. Really you’d only want to run this if you couldn’t run Cold Blood, but why wouldn’t you? I doubt Spiteful Rogue will ever be a thing that works so… this isn’t good.

Ya know, I thought they were giving the Grimy Goons classes mechs to atone for the Handbuff mechanic not being good for basically the entire standard life of MSoG. But apparently we haven’t seen the last of it. Oh boy.

MEAT WAGON INTENSIFIES. By god I hope it works lol.

Fun for the arena and maybe sometimes off of Primordial Glyphs. Guaranteed to end up on Trolden at some point.

Midrange Amalgam Hunter, the dream is real! lol

I would consider this similar to Arcane Keysmith; both make the secret cost one more, and both are discover effects. Keysmith sees play partly because Big Mage doesn’t want to low roll Dragon’s Fury, and party because random secrets are difficult to play around. This being a discover allows you to tailor it as best you can to the situation or deck you’re facing, and flexibility is always good. Right now some Spell Hunters run Rat Trap, but what if that Rat Trap had the potential to be 2 other traps depending on the matchup? This is also a pretty good card to get off of Rhok’delar.

So I think it has potential.

When Geist was a popular anti-Inner Fire deck, people would tech in one copy of Crazed Alchemist (and StrifeCro ran a version with Void Rippers). The biggest upside here is the ability to get it off of Shadow Visions, obviously, and the 0 mana cost.

However, you usually don’t want to look for Inner Fires with Shadow Visions, you want more Divine Spirits since they’re more integral to the combo, especially against opponents with armor, so I’m not sure if running 4 Inner Fires would be worth it.

Potentially another deathrattle activator, but it seems a little slow and maybe not worth a deck slot.

More ways to trigger deathrattles for Hunter, seems interesting.

A somewhat worse Goblin Auto-barber, but Neutral. Seems okay, probably replaces the buff pirate in Kingsbane Rogue since it’s easier to trigger. Also would be a good target for Lab Recruiter in that deck.

I feel like it’s better to throw this into a deck which isn’t aiming to abuse it to avoid awkward low rolls. Like some sort of Midrange Paladin or Even Paladin, both of which would like more card draw.

Getting random legendaries is generally bad because a lot of them are garbage or garbage if your deck isn’t built around them or their battlecry doesn’t trigger.

That said, I’m sure someone will get it off of Hagatha and it’ll end up on Trolden lol.

Possibly good in arena and maybe okay in Quest Mage as another way to proc the quest. The body is reallllyyyy bad though.

First off, I love this card’s name and design, even if it was what most people suspected. But this effect… is crazy! Even if it never works consistently, simply having alternate win conditions is fun for the game and promotes creative deckbuilding. Up until now, the only other alternate win condition is Exodia Paladin, and I suspect this will be just as hard, if not harder, to pull off.

What classes can pull it off? Druid comes to mind first, since they have insane draw potential and can Innervate a Naturalize in order to kill Mecha’thun. I wouldn’t be surprised if this became an addition to Maly or Togwaggle decks, simply as an alternate way to win should plan A fail. Druid also has other tools to help them proc Mecha’thun in the same turn, like the Twig of the World Tree or cost reduction through Jungle Giants.

Second is Warlock. Tapping aggressively burns through the deck, and you can use Cataclysm to discard your entire hard. Unfortunately, they would have to leave Mecha’thun around for a turn or try to rely on Alarm o’bot, neither of which is particularly great. In Wild, Warlock can reduce the cost of things with Emperor Thaurissan, allowing you to play Mecha’thun and then Bloodbloom into Cataclysm. on the next turn.

Due to Myra’s Unstable Element, Rogue can proc the first condition fairly easily. You’ll probably have to Shadowstep it (which means you spend a turn doing nothing) and then blow it up with a bunch of Preparations, Eviscerates, and a backstab which is… pretty unlikely.

Lots of different applications + guaranteed card draw + an above average body for what it does. This seems like a pretty good card.

Seems interesting, but I’m not sure if there are enough good Deathrattles in Standard for this. This miiiight find a home if more are released, but Deathrattle Rogue always seems to be something they push and it hasn’t really worked for a while. Wild is a completely different story though.

Definitely a little weird but when it works, it’s super cool. All your Recruit effects bringing out big threats when they cost 0 is fun.