Thanks for writing this up! I watched this last night and being on mobile it's always such a pain to try to copy the deck codes haha. And Slizzle is a good dude so nice shout out to him as well
You should also look up Token Druid, Darkglare Zoolock, Even Shaman and Kingsbane's Pirate Rogue, all pretty broken too. Meta is diversified, and as great as Razacus/Reno Priest is, it is often too slow to compete with the above mentioned lists.
29th August update: Duwin's Reno N'Zoth Hunter PART 2: Swamp King OP (Scholomance Academy) (1080p)
Reno N'Zoth Hunter Part 2 - thanks to Duwin (https://twitter.com/DuwinHS). What was going on with the Big Priest? Double Shadow Essence into Mindrender?!
I've been playing the game for just 3 months. I missed the launch of Bilgewater. So, the question is: is it normal for the meta to be this completely saturated by a single deck right after an expansion? I'm seeing Trundle/Sol like 3 games out of 5, and some other Sol deck most of the rest of the time.
Fortunately, I'm very comfortable with aggro decks, and I think I can manage a positive winrate against the deck, but still - there is an absolutely massive percentage of the player base on one single deck right now, and I find that fairly un-fun overall.
Edit - I will add that I've never seen the meta this completely saturated by a single deck, even after balance changes.
New region, fun invoke mechanic, strong cards and since most of the other regions got nothing from this expansion makes sense to just see targon everywhere.
I don't find it to be too strong. Just annoying. Playing it and playing against it. It plays like you have a 50/50 chance to either pull useless crap or pull some game winning big d**k cards out your butt and its completely random as to which one it will be. It's kinda funny that the Celestial cards lore wise are basically miracles. You pray to the Gods of Torgon and hopefully they will help you out. So its kind of fitting that you are basically praying to the God of RNG that the draw goes your way. :P
I did some tweaking and I think I'm really getting somewhere now. It more or less goes for face with elusive then closes out with Jinx level up or over the top spell damage. Sometimes just the elusive buffing does the trick on its own. :P
PS: Didn't see you last two people advice till now. I was thinking of adding Zenith Blade but I felt like going more into elusive was better so I just added another map and I did add Hush because it is just to good not to have. Oh and I did end up cutting Augmented Experimenter. He is just to expensive and most of the time I could empty my hand without him since everything is so cheap. I am still debating though if I should run one or two Hush. Since most of the time I only need the one. So any more advice would be nice. Thanks.
I think he's referring to this list that's going to be pretty popular going forward. https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/bt37ehhh40qclfo1bdb0
While you fine folks might not care about meta shifts, the vast majority of players are just gonna see what streamers are playing and click copy deckcode and paste that bad boy right in, and cue into games.
To answer yes it's normal for there to be certain decks with higher play rates than others.
Ash Sej used to be absolutely dominate, it wasn't usual to hit 6 games in a row.
For what it's worth, I think this was a problem at the release of the Rising Tides expansion, first with the Deep Sea Monster decks and then with the Nox/P&Z Championless Aggro decks. Perhaps those examples were less extreme than what you're seeing, but they weren't great in terms of deck diversity.
To the extent that this expansion is resulting in more extreme skew relative to Rising Tides, I expect it is because of the shift away from traditional expansions and towards what Riot is calling "sets." I suspect the shift to releasing expansions in sets was designed to produce exactly this kind of overemphasis on Targon archetypes. Just thinking about the numbers for a second, with Rising Tides (which released 122 new cards) ~50% of the content was Bilgewater and the other ~50% was new content for other regions. When the Call of the Mountain set is done, Targon will have picked up around 72 or 73 cards, which will only be ~42% of the new content in the set. (Assuming they continue a pattern of adding more 13+ cards to each region in each set, the new region will always end up with less than 50% of the new content.)
But, in this first expansion of the Call of the Mountain set, Targon actually makes up ~57% of the new content, and the other major content released (Freljord, Shadow Isles, and Ionia) is specifically designed to pair with that Targon content. That probably won't be the case for every region they release - there are only two more Targon champions, but four more old regions left to reveal. So, the majority of new content pushes players to pick up exactly these few Targon archetypes, and Ramp Aurelion Sol happens to be the early front runner in terms of power level, so it's getting all the attention.
If you are talking about how there is too much of Ramp, then this kind of reminds me of the beta when Ramp Freljord was just as ridiculously strong. You run it with Tryndamere and splash in either SI or Ionia. SI for Aggro match-ups and Ionia for Control match-ups. Everyone was practically running this until everyone rejoiced when almost all the cards that made it good got nerfed to the ground (Wyrding Stones, Catalyst of Aeons, Avalanche, Tryndamere, She Who Wanders).
So for the start of the meta, this happens from time to time but I certainly did not expect Ramp Freljord to come back.
This particular ramp deck can actually handle even aggro, due to the absurdly strong healing, as well as midrange blockers. But they do need a bit of a "nut draw" to be able to both ramp into Sol AND handle aggro at the same time.
Against my taric deck this deck has about 35-40% Winrate and given how strong my taric deck is... that % value is kinda still to high given the questionable decisions many players make.
If every ramp player would pilot his pile correctly we would talk about 45% win against a deck that swarms giant elusives onto the battlefield on turn 7 where they might play aurelion too but can't level him before they are already dead
Just 1 Pen Flinger? But they're soooo good in a deck like this aren't they?
Also, have-you-tried/did-you-consider a Wandmaker or two? Maybe instead of the Crimson Sigil Runner. Wandmaker will net you a 1-cost spell from your class anyway. Although, if that battlecry pulled you a Felosophy you could only use is on Spirit Jailer, which kind of stinks.
Very good looking deck.
I am really new to Hearthstone -- so a grain of salt -- but I am not at all new to TCGs. Played PTCGO for a long time.
Thanks for the comment and suggestions! The pen flinger fits nicely in turns where you would otherwise float mana, but I'm not sure if you could play both pen flingers in a turn consistently. I usually rely on fast cycling to prioritize playing the hard-hitting cards first instead of gradually pinging the opponent if I can, but maybe I'm not playing the deck optimally. Wandmaker also sounds like a good suggestion, I haven't actually considered it since I usually prefer consistency over random-generating cards. The reason I run Crimson Sigil Runner is because it enables faster cycling and its cost is great for Altruis the Outcast.
This particular ramp deck can actually handle even aggro, due to the absurdly strong healing, as well as midrange blockers. But they do need a bit of a "nut draw" to be able to both ramp into Sol AND handle aggro at the same time.
Card Design Conversation - Back To School
WCDC is coming back? Yes! Finally! Super happy to hear it. Any news on the big comps by any chance?
I'm guessing from the banner it's gonna be the generic "make a card from the new expansion" theme.
9 Off-Meta Scholomance Decks for your Wildest Hearthstone Dreams - Part 1
Thanks for writing this up! I watched this last night and being on mobile it's always such a pain to try to copy the deck codes haha. And Slizzle is a good dude so nice shout out to him as well
9 Off-Meta Scholomance Decks for your Wildest Hearthstone Dreams - Part 1
You should also look up Token Druid, Darkglare Zoolock, Even Shaman and Kingsbane's Pirate Rogue, all pretty broken too.
Meta is diversified, and as great as Razacus/Reno Priest is, it is often too slow to compete with the above mentioned lists.
Do You Copy? - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
A stupid spambot chose this thread to make its presence known :/ It has been dealt with.
Reminder: Last Chance to Get the Felosophy Bundle With 2 Scholomance Legendaries!
I got Lord Barov (pretty good), Disciplinarian Gandling (good for experimentation) and Chenvaala (pretty good as well).
Do You Copy? - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Why tf is this on recents
Darkseeker's channel - 13th November update: KOtsosKOtsos' Reno Evolve Shudderwock Shaman - ft. Archivist Elysiana
29th August update: Duwin's Reno N'Zoth Hunter PART 2: Swamp King OP (Scholomance Academy) (1080p)
Reno N'Zoth Hunter Part 2 - thanks to Duwin (https://twitter.com/DuwinHS).
What was going on with the Big Priest? Double Shadow Essence into Mindrender?!
For more footage, check out Part 1: https://youtu.be/YsYdX4K_kjg
My key MVP cards: Swamp King Dred, Loatheb and of course, King Krush!!
Deck code: AAEBAR8eyQSXCPgIuQ33DfoOwxaFF+CsApbDAtPFAtPNAt/SAobTArbqAsPqAqbwAvLxAoDzArn4AqCAA/KWA6GhA7uhA/yjA6alA5LNA+HOA8HQA+PUAwAA
https://youtu.be/YsYdX4K_kjg
Zendikar Rising Teaser - Hints of Things to Come in the New Set
Think it's specifically enchantment or in the form of 'destroy target permanent'?
Pirate Kingsbane Rogue
Update: Now 19-0, went from Gold 2 to Diamond 4
9 Off-Meta Scholomance Decks for your Wildest Hearthstone Dreams - Part 1
Secret Mages are still fairly popular together with QMages.
The new dominant decks (in terms of both popularity and winrate) atm are Painlock and Reno Priest.
Trundle/Sol - is this normal?
New region, fun invoke mechanic, strong cards and since most of the other regions got nothing from this expansion makes sense to just see targon everywhere.
9 Off-Meta Scholomance Decks for your Wildest Hearthstone Dreams - Part 1
What is the wild meta anyway? Is it still Secret Mages and Raza Priests?
List of Runeterra Daily Quests
Reminder: Last Chance to Get the Felosophy Bundle With 2 Scholomance Legendaries!
Infiltrator Lilian
Star Student Stelina
Lady Liadrin
Greyheart Sage
Celestials - Is It Too Strong?
I don't find it to be too strong. Just annoying. Playing it and playing against it. It plays like you have a 50/50 chance to either pull useless crap or pull some game winning big d**k cards out your butt and its completely random as to which one it will be. It's kinda funny that the Celestial cards lore wise are basically miracles. You pray to the Gods of Torgon and hopefully they will help you out. So its kind of fitting that you are basically praying to the God of RNG that the draw goes your way. :P
I finally made a deck myself that actually works for once! :D
I did some tweaking and I think I'm really getting somewhere now. It more or less goes for face with elusive then closes out with Jinx level up or over the top spell damage. Sometimes just the elusive buffing does the trick on its own. :P
PS: Didn't see you last two people advice till now. I was thinking of adding Zenith Blade but I felt like going more into elusive was better so I just added another map and I did add Hush because it is just to good not to have. Oh and I did end up cutting Augmented Experimenter. He is just to expensive and most of the time I could empty my hand without him since everything is so cheap. I am still debating though if I should run one or two Hush. Since most of the time I only need the one. So any more advice would be nice. Thanks.
List of Runeterra Daily Quests
Yes, we should.
Trundle/Sol - is this normal?
I think he's referring to this list that's going to be pretty popular going forward. https://lor.mobalytics.gg/decks/bt37ehhh40qclfo1bdb0
While you fine folks might not care about meta shifts, the vast majority of players are just gonna see what streamers are playing and click copy deckcode and paste that bad boy right in, and cue into games.
To answer yes it's normal for there to be certain decks with higher play rates than others.
Ash Sej used to be absolutely dominate, it wasn't usual to hit 6 games in a row.
Trundle/Sol - is this normal?
For what it's worth, I think this was a problem at the release of the Rising Tides expansion, first with the Deep Sea Monster decks and then with the Nox/P&Z Championless Aggro decks. Perhaps those examples were less extreme than what you're seeing, but they weren't great in terms of deck diversity.
To the extent that this expansion is resulting in more extreme skew relative to Rising Tides, I expect it is because of the shift away from traditional expansions and towards what Riot is calling "sets." I suspect the shift to releasing expansions in sets was designed to produce exactly this kind of overemphasis on Targon archetypes. Just thinking about the numbers for a second, with Rising Tides (which released 122 new cards) ~50% of the content was Bilgewater and the other ~50% was new content for other regions. When the Call of the Mountain set is done, Targon will have picked up around 72 or 73 cards, which will only be ~42% of the new content in the set. (Assuming they continue a pattern of adding more 13+ cards to each region in each set, the new region will always end up with less than 50% of the new content.)
But, in this first expansion of the Call of the Mountain set, Targon actually makes up ~57% of the new content, and the other major content released (Freljord, Shadow Isles, and Ionia) is specifically designed to pair with that Targon content. That probably won't be the case for every region they release - there are only two more Targon champions, but four more old regions left to reveal. So, the majority of new content pushes players to pick up exactly these few Targon archetypes, and Ramp Aurelion Sol happens to be the early front runner in terms of power level, so it's getting all the attention.
Trundle/Sol - is this normal?
If you are talking about how there is too much of Ramp, then this kind of reminds me of the beta when Ramp Freljord was just as ridiculously strong. You run it with Tryndamere and splash in either SI or Ionia. SI for Aggro match-ups and Ionia for Control match-ups. Everyone was practically running this until everyone rejoiced when almost all the cards that made it good got nerfed to the ground (Wyrding Stones, Catalyst of Aeons, Avalanche, Tryndamere, She Who Wanders).
So for the start of the meta, this happens from time to time but I certainly did not expect Ramp Freljord to come back.
Trundle/Sol - is this normal?
Against my taric deck this deck has about 35-40% Winrate and given how strong my taric deck is... that % value is kinda still to high given the questionable decisions many players make.
If every ramp player would pilot his pile correctly we would talk about 45% win against a deck that swarms giant elusives onto the battlefield on turn 7 where they might play aurelion too but can't level him before they are already dead
Pen Storm
Maybe Spirit of the Shark could work well instead of Valanar?
Soul Slayer DH
Thanks for the comment and suggestions! The pen flinger fits nicely in turns where you would otherwise float mana, but I'm not sure if you could play both pen flingers in a turn consistently. I usually rely on fast cycling to prioritize playing the hard-hitting cards first instead of gradually pinging the opponent if I can, but maybe I'm not playing the deck optimally. Wandmaker also sounds like a good suggestion, I haven't actually considered it since I usually prefer consistency over random-generating cards. The reason I run Crimson Sigil Runner is because it enables faster cycling and its cost is great for Altruis the Outcast.
List of Runeterra Daily Quests
I guess we should be on the hunt for the new quests.
Trundle/Sol - is this normal?
This particular ramp deck can actually handle even aggro, due to the absurdly strong healing, as well as midrange blockers. But they do need a bit of a "nut draw" to be able to both ramp into Sol AND handle aggro at the same time.