Stonekeep's Comments
Budget (Cheap) Hearthstone Decks for the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan Meta
I think that the target audience of such a post would be quite small :p However, I’d say that Reno decks are the most expensive ones right now. A lot of them cost ~10k dust, not to mention all the adventure cards. Oh, and any slow, N’Zoth deck like N’Zoth Warrior or N’Zoth Shaman.
apDrop's Kazakus Reno Mage (December 2016, Season 33)
Soggoth is a pretty interesting tech, it’s actually a great Dirty Rat counter. I don’t know if it’s not too slow against Aggro, though. Dropping it is often an auto-win, but turn 9 is really late.
Reno Kazakus Dragon Priest Deck List Guide (March 2017, Standard) - Season 36
What do you mean by OTK Priest? I haven’t seen any in a few months at least. You’re talking about the Kripp’s list with Spawn of Shadows?
I don’t think that Reno + Dragons is too messy. I won’t argue that the deck is better than non-Dragons Reno, but the power level is very similar. There are enough strong Dragons available to make a working Reno Dragon deck right now.
Budget (Cheap) Hearthstone Decks for the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan Meta
Like Evident has said, you can find me on reddit. You can also mail me: stonekeephs@gmail.com or send a direct message on Twitter: https://twitter.com/StonekeepHS
Budget (Cheap) Token Druid Deck List Guide - Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
The matchup is very hard, because of all the AoE clears RenoLock has. The key to win it is speed. You need to pretty much go all in and start to flood the board as soon as possible. The sooner you do that, the lower the chance for him to have AoE is. Savage Roar is also a key card, if you face a lot of RenoLocks, you might want to tech 2nd Savage Roar instead of Feral Rage. SR is amazing, because it allows you to burst him down. You just play minions every turn and at some point, when he doesn’t clear your 3-4 minions, you play SR (with possibly some more burn like Swipe or Living Roots) and kill him.
Budget (Cheap) Token Druid Deck List Guide - Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
Why? Old Token Druid decks used to run only 2x Power of the Wild for the buffs. This one has 2x Mark of the Lotus AND 1x Power of the Wild for 3 buff cards in total.
I haven’t seen any new Token Druid list that runs 2x Power of the Wild on top of 2x Mark of the Lotus – it’s just too many buffs. It’s either 3 in total like in this deck or only 2x Mark of the Lotus.
Budget (Cheap) Hearthstone Decks for the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan Meta
Because Kobold is a pretty bad card in general and people were playing it in non-budget list mostly to activate it more consistently. Since budget list doesn’t have Spirit Claws, the main reason to play Kobold is gone.
It’s still okay as a combo with AoE, but only for that. So I don’t think that the card is worth a slot.
I think that adding Kobold once you get Spirit Claws might be a good idea, but I’d say that it’s worth to save for Thalnos – the card is so flexible and goes into so much decks, including Midrange Shaman.
Budget (Cheap) C'Thun Priest Deck List Guide - Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
Well, the automatic counter on the site includes dust from the cards you get from free and the cards from adventures.
3260 – 1600 (C’Thun) – 80 (2x Beckoner of Evil) = 1580. So dust values in headings are the correct ones 🙂
Budget (Cheap) Token Druid Deck List Guide - Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
It certainly can, but only as a tech if you face a really slow meta. Auctioneer is dead against Aggro and unlike in Jade Druid, it’s not actually necessary in this deck.
Miracle Rogue Deck List Guide - Boomsday - August 2018
Because you really don’t want to get 2x Coin and 2x Prep in your starting hand.
Playing 2 is too greedy, because you’re going to run out of steam really quickly without Auctioneer.
Kazakus RenoLock Deck List Guide (March 2017, Standard) - Season 36
First expansion of this year – Whispers of the Old Gods – was released late in the April. I think it’s safe to assume that we still have 4 more months of Reno being in Standard.
And then, I suspect that they might release more Reno-like cards somewhere next year. After all, it would be pretty stupid to release Kazakus and all the new Legends just before Reno rotates out…
How-to Counter and Beat Aggro Pirate Warrior - Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
Yes, that’s exactly what I wrote in the article. Games with Aggro decks are faster, so they’re better to grind ladder with even if they win slightly less than Control decks.
How-to Counter and Beat Aggro Pirate Warrior - Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
There is a Beta version of Data Reaper Live that takes the stats from the last 24h. You can find it here: http://www.vicioussyndicate.com/data-reaper-live-beta/
However, take it with a grain of salt. Those are unfiltered stats from the last 24h. For example, right now the sample size is 8,286 games. Which would be great for a single deck and is probably enough for the most popular decks, but less popular decks have really too low sample size.
For example, Zoo’s representation is at 1.43%, so only 118 games in total. Let’s even say that 20 of those games were against Aggro Shaman, that’s still only 20 games sample size of the matchup.
If you want the sure data, I would wait for a full Data Reaper Report (which should be out in a few days, probably).
Kazakus RenoLock Deck List Guide (March 2017, Standard) - Season 36
@Tranztv
Ragnaros is definitely a great craft,, no matter if you will play it in RenoLock or not. It’s definitely in top 3 strongest classic Legendaries. It’s currently a bit out of meta, because of the Pirate Warrior/Aggro Shaman (8 mana Legendaries are a bit too slow + the effect is way better in slow matchups), but it will definitely finds its way back eventually.
When it comes to Reynad’s list, I personally like the Savjz’s one more. But his approach is also very viable. Instead of the late game combo win condition, he focuses on removal – Blastcrystal Potion, Big Game Hunter and Ragnaros is also a removal to a certain extent. It means that his list is more focused on dealing with the board, late game threats and outvaluing opponent with Jaraxxus. The list, however, has one big flaw – it works way worse against other RenoLock lists that do run combo (it’s really easy to get RenoLock down to 20 to kill him, it’s much harder to play a long, value game).
Ragnaros isn’t necessary in this list, but I’m pretty sure that more people will play it after the meta settles down. Right now most of the RenoLock lists (even Reynad’s to a certain extent) are aimed at fighting with fast decks. If you really want to get him as soon as possible, Chromaggus will probably be a good card to disenchant, I wouldn’t do the same thing with Nefarian, though, as he is played in some Dragon lists.
How-to Counter and Beat Aggro Pirate Warrior - Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
I wouldn’t say that Pirate Warrior is not a good deck. It is good, it’s one of the best Aggro decks. But it suffers from the same problems other Aggro decks do – they’re pretty easy to counter if you expect to face them all the time. That’s why I don’t think that any Aggro deck, unless it’s completely broken (like the old Undertaker Hunter), will ever be #1 deck in the meta for a longer period of time.
But yes, generally Shaman still holds the most powerful cards. But I think it will shift again soon. Blizzard was pumping strong Shaman cards pretty much since TGT and they’ve finally stopped. Right now it seems like they’re doing the same thing with Priest – if they will continue, I expect to see Priest dominating the meta next year with broken cards. Then probably another class… It’s pretty silly, but it looks like it’s their way to balance things.
How-to Counter and Beat Aggro Pirate Warrior - Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
When I was playtesting Aggro Buff Paladin, it worked really well against the Druids. I was usually taking the game a bit slower, even dropping a turn 3 (or 2 with Coin) Small-Time Recruits, then playing like 2 handbuffs. After that I’ve dropped full board of buffed minions, a lot of them were even awkward against Swipe – like 3/3 Divine Shields or 2/4 Dragon Eggs. They’ve usually managed to clear the first board somehow, but then I could refill quite easily.
Not to mention that they have to operate on low hands, because if they start cycling, you draw full hand with Divine Favor and do the same thing again.
Also, Zoo Warlock. I think that Zoo should work really well, by the time they snowball the Jade Golems, you’ve snowballed the board way more.
Jade Druid is definitely not uncounterable. When the meta settles, if people will still play it (and they probably will), people will find a way to stop it.
How-to Counter and Beat Aggro Pirate Warrior - Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
I don’t think that one needs a separate article. To counter Jade Druid, you need to put a lot of pressure on him. You can go for the full rush decks like Pirate Warrior/Aggro Shaman, but mid game pressure is also okay. Druid can sometimes handle Aggro decks, but I’d say that faster Midrange decks should be best. Midrange Shaman, maybe Dragon Warrior would probably work really well against Jade Druid.
You just need to play minion after minion every turn and don’t let Druid develop, make him answer your stuff all the time. And since his answers are inefficient against Midrange minions, you should outtempo him eventually and then punch the face and let him spawn small Jade Golems when you have board advantage.
How-to Counter and Beat Aggro Pirate Warrior - Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
According to vS Data Reaper Report, Tempo Mage was slightly unfavorable against Pirate Warrior pre-Gadgetzan. Tempo Mage deck didn’t really change, at least I don’t think it did, while Pirate Warrior got stronger – so the matchup should be even more in Warrior’s favor.
The problem with Tempo Mage vs Pirate Warrior is that the big removals are very, very inefficient. Your Fireballs and Firelands Portals are pretty bad, because you’re often forced to play them on minions that have 2-3 health. Then, if the deck gets quite slow start, it has no chance to comeback before getting rushed down.
In theory Frostbolt can stop the weapon damage, but you can’t afford to Frostbolt over killing a minion in the early game. The only great minion against Pirate Warrior is Water Elemental, and even it is slightly slow (considering that most of the games are finished around turn 6-7, 4-drops ARE pretty slow against Pirates :p).
The deck isn’t terrible against Pirate Warrior, but I honestly don’t think it’s a counter. The matchup should still be in Warrior’s favor.
Coldlight isn’t used in many meta decks, it’s mostly used in off-meta/fun decks. For example, it’s a basic card in mill/fatigue decks and it’s sometimes a tech in Aggro decks/Freeze Mage.
Right now I don’t think it’s worth crafting, it’s a much better tech card in slower metas. Right now it’s not used in Freeze Mage, because you basically give Aggro decks more fuel with it. But if you want to play Freeze Mage on budget, Aggro Freeze Mage is the only option and the card is necessary there.