Wild VS Report #18

https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/wild-vs-data-reaper-report-18/

Quest Mage rises in popularity and becomes another meta-definer (killing the Control side of the spectrum, as if BP wasn't enough). Yet its popularity rises on the very top only at Legend, where the meta is actually not as competitive as it is in previous ranks.

Also, about the age-old rethoric about "Priests in Wild are forced to Big Priest as the only decent deck for the Class, and that's why BP is so popular", well, there's the counter-proof:

https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/wild-vs-data-reaper-report-18/#Priest

https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/corbetts-inner-fire-priest/

I find the fall of Aggro Druid to be the greatest bummer of this report, I didn't expect it at all. It felt so consistent after RoS.

Overall, the meta can arguably be described by the relation: Tempo > Aggro > BP/QM ~ Tempo 

Quote From RavenSunHS

Also, about the age-old rethoric about "Priests in Wild are forced to Big Priest as the only decent deck for the Class, and that's why BP is so popular", well, there's the counter-proof:

https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/wild-vs-data-reaper-report-18/#Priest

https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/corbetts-inner-fire-priest/ 

Yup, said this in a different thread as well but people didn't seem to like it.

I'm surprised that miracle mage isn't tier 1 in any of the brackets. The deck seems so strong, even against most aggressive decks.

Also thought odd paladin would be overtaken by odd rogue and even shaman at least, as other lists suggested, but I guess Uther's upgraded hero power still can't be bested.

Agree about Odd Paladin. Maybe because I tend to play Tempo decks, but it doesn't feel unbeatable as the report suggests.

I guess it is the opposite with QMage: you see it capable of miraculously win nearly any matchup, but I guess the meta overall is more punishing than it seems (which is a good thing btw: as much as QMage is one of my preferred decks ever I wouldn't want it to be so powerful as to cancerize the meta).

Odd paladin has been tier 1 pretty much since its inception. It's a very strong deck with a very low skill requirement, just keep playing it and you'll reach legend eventually. For me it took about 2 days last season, starting from rank 5, playing about 4 hours each day I think.

odd paladin doestn seem as strong as they make it out to be. i lose with it regurlarly and beat it with various decks without much effort. dont understand all the fuss about it

Quote From Marega

odd paladin doestn seem as strong as they make it out to be. i lose with it regurlarly and beat it with various decks without much effort. dont understand all the fuss about it

You're right. Anytime I queue up as Odd Paladin and go against an Even Shaman (which are abundant) I almost always auto-lose. Low cost aoe's really screw this deck.

Quote From Risen

Quote From Marega

odd paladin doestn seem as strong as they make it out to be. i lose with it regurlarly and beat it with various decks without much effort. dont understand all the fuss about it

You're right. Anytime I queue up as Odd Paladin and go against an Even Shaman (which are abundant) I almost always auto-lose. Low cost aoe's really screw this deck.

Did you check the vS article at all? Even shaman is pretty much the only counter against odd paladin.

And a lot of people seem to misunderstand, odd paladin isn't this "tier 0 pls nerf asap" deck, it's just the best deck right now. It's consistent and has a good matchup spread, but is far from unbeatable. Which is good and indicates that the wild metagame is quite healthy overall.

Quote From RavenSunHS

Also, about the age-old rethoric about "Priests in Wild are forced to Big Priest as the only decent deck for the Class, and that's why BP is so popular", well, there's the counter-proof:

https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/wild-vs-data-reaper-report-18/#Priest

https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/corbetts-inner-fire-priest/ 

Here I am :)

It seems a bit contradictory to consider an Inner Fire deck "nearly T1" and in the same time call out the rise of Quest Mage: with all the freezing effect and Ice Block I don't know if a minion would be able to hit the killing blow, if you don't start with an explosive hand and close the match in the very early game. The Mind Blast variant seems more reliable in the actual shifting meta.

They're both pretty strong vs Even Shaman (thanks to the Dragon package) but against Odd Pala they may struggle in the mid game if they cannot close the match at that point: the endless army of Silver Hand Recruit buffed up may overwhelm them.

Imho, If I have to immagine a run from rank 15 to 5, I would probably suggest to go with Big Priest instead of any of those two other archetype: it requires far less effort anyway, even if it has a win rate a bit lower.

Quote From Lightspoon

Here I am :)

It seems a bit contradictory to consider an Inner Fire deck "nearly T1" and in the same time call out the rise of Quest Mage: with all the freezing effect and Ice Block I don't know if a minion would be able to hit the killing blow, if you don't start with an explosive hand and close the match in the very early game. The Mind Blast variant seems more reliable in the actual shifting meta.

They're both pretty strong vs Even Shaman (thanks to the Dragon package) but against Odd Pala they may struggle in the mid game if they cannot close the match at that point: the endless army of Silver Hand Recruit buffed up may overwhelm them.

Imho, If I have to immagine a run from rank 15 to 5, I would probably suggest to go with Big Priest instead of any of those two other archetype: it requires far less effort anyway, even if it has a win rate a bit lower.

The quest mage mentioned in the title doesn't run Ice Block? P.s.: The green color indicates that inner fire priest is favored against quest mage.

Inner fire priest is favored against odd paladin, whereas big priest is unfavored. What even is the point of that comparison then? 

"A bit lower"? Dragon priest is tier 1 at lower ranks and big priest is tier 3. You're just in denial at this point.

Quote From iWatchUSleep

You're just in denial at this point.

Yes, I am :P

I've played Inner Fire Priest both in the past and in more recent times, on different regions, from 25 to at last 5. I'm not saying that it's not a strong deck but I don't find it so overwhelmingly good. If it was that good more people would be playing it.

The combo has been there forever but it has never been too consistent (the last card that really had given the archetype a real improvement was [Hearthstone Card (Shadow Vision) Not Found]) and actually I don't see it as meta breaker.

Quote From doingtheobvious

About what I expected from playing around R5&4.

Curious if Team 5 even reads data like this or if they just bluntly do not care about Wild as a format. Probably the latter.

What do you mean the don't care?

They don't nerf stuff? It's actually good, because there is nothing OP right now. Did you see the report? 7 tier 1 decks? 

The thing I hate most is the "if deck / card is good -> nerf it" attitude. That's what keeps me out of standard, all these whiny kids that want nerfs whenever they lose against some deck.

Quote From Lightspoon

Yes, I am :P

I've played Inner Fire Priest both in the past and in more recent times, on different regions, from 25 to at last 5. I'm not saying that it's not a strong deck but I don't find it so overwhelmingly good. If it was that good more people would be playing it.

But yes, you're totally right: I just hate Big Priest too much and to me, it's always its fault for everything no matter what :(

What? Do you know what tier 1 means? It means the deck is one of the stronger decks. Tier 1 does not equal "overwhelmingly good". And compared to inner fire priest you find big priest overwhelmingly good? 

People don't play it much because of this misinformed opinion that you keep on clinging on to as well: "Big priest is the only viable priest deck because that's the only thing people play".

Quote From doingtheobvious

Again, I never said 'nerf X, shit is OP, yo' - you are putting words in my mouth again.

Sure, my apologies, I'm just tired of reading forum topics about how X card is too OP and stuff. And most of them started with "Blizzard doesn't care" which implied that Blizzard doesn't do what they want.

The worst thing I read some time ago- some guy wrote that Blizzard should nerf good cards very often to change the meta...

Imagine this, you create a well performing deck, and after two weeks Blizzard posts "Okay guys, let's nerf some cards from that deck to ruin it, so you can play something else".

Even better than reading these reports is just to play the game :)

Imho, I fell the wild meta didn't change much. And still, aggro decks rule. Period. 

I just hope that the new expansion bring some interesting stuff to synergize with wild decks (maybe these new Highlander legendaries?)