That's wild for you. Its horribly unbalanced, and therefore despite the many, many variety of decks that could exist in wild its all completely outclassed by the few tier 1 decks around.
If you're looking to have some fun, just stick around the lower tiers.
To counter raza priest, there's no many ways to tech against it since they can easily remove bombs and albatrosses from their decks with Wyrmrest Purifier. The best way is to simply aggro them hard before they can get their ball rolling. OTK and aggro decks tend to do very well against Raza priest.
Another novel strategy is to allow them to assemble their combo, then remove their hero power with Grizzled Wizard+Sir Finley. At that point, all they have is a bunch of useless cards, Mind Blast and Kazakus. Survive that and youre in.
I used to use Paragon of Light in an old Handbuff Val'anyr list! It was pretty decent before the nerf to Saronite Chain Gang messed with my weapon copy synergy! I mostly played it as a wild deck though so I still had Doppelgangster and Echoing Ooze to get the value from the weapon deathrattle.
A version of that list can be found here if anyone is interested.
I don't play much Wild, but it looks like Pirate Warrior and Secret Mage are two good ways to pressure down Razakus Priest before it can assemble its combo.
The way the MMR system works is that it takes the highest historical rank or your previous rank, whichever higher, you've managed as the indicator. So you can be stuck at rank 20 last month but so long as you have historically got rank 15, that's where the MMR will match you with.
There's no mention on what is the time length for this measurement, or how exactly the MMR works. So it could be that repeated losses to a certain group might prompt the system to change your MMR.
The main reason for this is to prevent abuse by obviously high level players to grind lower levels for golden/1000 wins portraits. Now that there a new class, sporting an incredible 1000 wins portrait, it is more so important to have a MMR system like this to prevent such abuses.
Yeah I don't like this new system either. I've only been playing 6 months, and have a small collection, but I managed to reach 5 every month since I started, but now I keep facing Legend cardback players with top tier meta decks, and I just can't win (I have to improvise my own decks since I'm missing crucial cards). I played 10 games today and lost 9, and this is at Bronze 6 for crying out loud.
I think your issue may be one similar an issue I had a while back when I started a new account.
I wanted to start Hearthstone over on a new account to see how the new player experience had changed, and to see what it was like to climb through ranks 50-26. It was super easy for a good bit of it, but then by the time I got about rank 35-30 or so, I had a much harder time winning. I had climbed through a lot of ranks in only a few days, but my opponents had been playing a lot longer and so they had opened a lot more packs. They had way more legendarys and way better decks than me.
It could be a similar issue for you. You haven't been playing as long, but are still a good enough player to have a high MMR, so you are being paired with opponents of the same skill level as you, but they have bigger better collections because they have been playing for longer.
About my own personal opinion about the new ranked system: I don't give two mules for the climbing experience or how challenging it is to reach legend or whatever. I am earning more rewards, and therefore it is better.
I started playing HS after the nerf to Raza so never had to deal with this deck in a big way before.
I played 7 games on the wild ladder today at Bronze 10 and 6 of those games were this deck and I lost every game. Granted I was playing non-tier 1 decks like Spell Hunter & Quest Burgle Rogue, but still every game played out the same and I got completely destroyed.
For those who played it prenerf what worked? My only thought was bring back Bomb Warrior and just shuffle bombs like mad but aside from that (which is obviously inconsistent based on draws) I’m kind of at a loss. Any help would be appreciated - as much as I love the new ladder system quite frankly this was the single least fun day I’ve ever had with this game so if this is what Wild looks like now then I’ll just dust my Wild cards and jump back to standard.
Sword and Board - cheap 2 damage. But in my opinion the standard amount of damage a removal should have to be good is 3. But with dhunters being a thing, maybe its just good enough.
Scrap Golem - just one year too late. Had the magnetize effects still exist this would be insane. But guess its just a case of being in the wrong expansion at the wrong time.
Bloodboil Brute - doesnt really fit in control decks, so maybe midrange? The problem with this card is that it requires an activator to be good (minion trading rarely ever work out without something dead at the end), so its limited by that conundrum. And there are other cards that you generally want to use when there are damaged minions like Battle Rage. Chances are good you cant do both in one turn.
Bulwark of Azzinoth is deceptively good. Under specific circumstances, like against most mages, this is just amazing. And you can generate more with Hoard Pillager. Unfortunately, this is the kind of card that will likely only be good in tournaments, amazingly bad in ladder. But it can still take 4 attacks for you, possibly buying you a turn, so there's that I guess.
Warmaul Challenger - until a handbuff effects come along, there are better cards. Too bad. I love a battle to the death every now and then.
Keli'dan the Breaker - Interesting card, but its the sort of card I dont think would be all that useful. It always seem better to simply play the card you want the effect of. But hey, maybe the 3/3 stick is good enough for this to see play.
Enhanced Dreadlord - Good, but perhaps too slow. had this been a lifesteal taunt that generates a 5/5 on death it would be absolutely amazing, but its not. Maybe as fuel for Kanrethad Prime, it would be necessary to play this. Its still a 5/7 taunt if nothing else.
Unstable Felbolt - making a comparison with holy smite is apt. But warlock cards have never been that simple. I personally think this is trash; there's few warlock decks that can win without a board, and since Mountain Giant has rotated there's no reason to believe warlock will hold out until turn 4 without playing anything. So best case scenario, this card will be a 1 mana deal 3 damage with no trade off, or it pops your deathrattles, but majority of the time you will have a board and have to weigh a random shot at your own minions for a mere 3 damage. To illustrate further, Spirit Bomb deals 4 damage but has a trade-off that is at very least consistent (and which I personally think is better than the trade off from unstable felbolt), and that card's barely seen in standard since DoD launched.
Yeah I don't like this new system either. I've only been playing 6 months, and have a small collection, but I managed to reach 5 every month since I started, but now I keep facing Legend cardback players with top tier meta decks, and I just can't win (I have to improvise my own decks since I'm missing crucial cards). I played 10 games today and lost 9, and this is at Bronze 6 for crying out loud.
They have similar mmr than you, so they should be equally good, but I'm sure that if you lose a lot, you'll face "weaker" players eventually
Yeah I don't like this new system either. I've only been playing 6 months, and have a small collection, but I managed to reach 5 every month since I started, but now I keep facing Legend cardback players with top tier meta decks, and I just can't win (I have to improvise my own decks since I'm missing crucial cards). I played 10 games today and lost 9, and this is at Bronze 6 for crying out loud.
This matchmaker thing does not really work at all - I have a relative who has an account, but does not play, and hasn't purchased an expansion in some time. Has not even achieved rank 20 most months. There are few DoD cards and only first chapter Gala Awakening cards. For fun, I figured I'd play it, get away from all the disgusting meta decks I've been suffering through, see if I couldn't re-discover some of the fun of the game. Ha. Ridiculous.
From bronze 10 to bronze 9 I got matched against 1 golden portrait hunter high in the silver league, and then somehow 2 1000 win portrait hunters in the span of three matches, a golden warlock, a golden mage, and of course, Galakrond warriors and Galakrond rogues.
That's some high-level algorithm they worked up there. I seriously don't know how any new or "gee, I haven't played in awhile" players can ever get a win, lol.
Hir'eek deserved a buff much more than Dr. Morrigan. I like the card but there isn't enough support available and some of the cards that are meant for the Handbuff archetype are terrible (Spirit of the Bat mainly). It annoys me deeply that they printed another Handbuff card in the new set when the core of the archetype is leaving permanently. Oh well... At least, this card gave me one of the most fun games i have played since i started playing this game: Hir'eek vs Lucentbark, the battle of the memes! A board of 11/11 Hir'eeks against my opponent's wall of Lucentbarks. I won after killing his wall three times and having a single bat left to hit face. Big shouts to Leeroy Jenkins for landing the finishing blow.
I play a lot of Wild so the rotation isn't a devastating process for me like it can be for some, but that doesn't mean I won't miss some cards in Standard.
Cathedral Gargoyle - Dragon Paladin has finally become a thing once again, just in time to lose this card. The Gargoyle really was a random card for The Witchwood.
The Boomsday Treant package for the Druid - Treant Druid has been my go-to Druid deck now that Goru the Mightree exists; I'll be sad to lose it to Wild (where it will probably become junk). Goru will be left all alone in Standard :(
Zilliax - Zilliax is the main reason I'll have to fix all of my currently-Standard decks come rotation lol. He's in everything. I can understand why some people are ready to move on from him, though, given his ubiquitous nature.
...there weren't as many as I remembered *shrugs* Most of the other cards I like are being used in Wild - like Shudderwock in my Jade Shaman - so it doesn't matter.
Hey guys, i've really enjoyed the year of the dragon overall and want to know what you think.
What have been your favorite decks to climb or just play from each expansion meta?
What rotating cards from YotR are you going to miss most?
Favorite YotD cards not necessarily for power?
All of the year of the dragon cards will still be around in standard for the next year, but between raven cards rotating/nerfs/power level of future expansions a lot of them won't see the kind of play they have. So year of the dragon has had it's own unique meta.
My personal experience:
Witchwood/Year of the Raven was where I began hearthstone, so this year felt unique to me because it was the first one where every card being played was one I knew from it's release.
In Rise of Shadows my favorite deck for the ladder was bomb warrior. Both booms were nutty, and having a "control" deck that also could play as a sloppy midrange beat em up was really fun. I'm definitely in the minority but I even miss the warrior mirrors. Playing bomb vs control and bomb mirror was so ridiculous and its not something you really saw after the end of the RoS meta. My favorite card from that expansion was Muckmorpher. I really liked those two minutes where big shaman was a thing.
In Saviors of Uldum, and for the entire year of the dragon, my favorite deck was quest shaman. Now bludgeoned to death by nerfs (unjustly so imo), it used to be a super fun deck to play. Ridiculous value engine, interesting tempo lines, lots of rng effects like discovers and mutates to try to hedge, deck was nutty. Unfortunately the Wild cards event put an early end on my enjoyment of the deck because evolve made the deck broken and the center of the meta. About a week into the event I took the longest break i've ever taken from HS until it was over because the game was unplayable to me.
I also loved quest druid, and my favorite card from Uldum is Oasis Surger. I love elementals, the art, and the nutty power level. This deck is still very good nowadays and a go to climbing deck.
Descent of Dragons was a pretty huge spike in power, Pushing and rebuilding a lot of the other decks from the meta while adding Galakrond and another reason to play highlander. I loved Galakrond Shaman for the brief amount of time it was almost balanced between the two waves of nerfs but it was short lived because now the deck is fairly weak. I was really bummed how they handled Shaman this expansion, but it's still been quite enjoyable and a pretty decent meta with a lot of variety and not as much polarization. I've enjoyed highlander hunter, aggro hunter, highlander rogue, and quest druid. DoD added my favorite card from the expansion to quest druid, Ysera, Unleashed. Card is nuts. Mad flavor and closes out games in style.
Cards i'm going to miss from year of the raven
Shudderwock (favorite card of all time, opened it in my first WW pack),
How to beat unnerfed Highlander Priest?
That's wild for you. Its horribly unbalanced, and therefore despite the many, many variety of decks that could exist in wild its all completely outclassed by the few tier 1 decks around.
If you're looking to have some fun, just stick around the lower tiers.
To counter raza priest, there's no many ways to tech against it since they can easily remove bombs and albatrosses from their decks with Wyrmrest Purifier. The best way is to simply aggro them hard before they can get their ball rolling. OTK and aggro decks tend to do very well against Raza priest.
Another novel strategy is to allow them to assemble their combo, then remove their hero power with Grizzled Wizard+Sir Finley. At that point, all they have is a bunch of useless cards, Mind Blast and Kazakus. Survive that and youre in.
New Priest Minion - Reliquary of Souls
I played this card during unlisted fireside gathering and was totally in awe of the entry animation of the card when played. God’s job Team 5.
New Priest Minion - Reliquary of Souls
I got chance to play this card during private fireside gathering and love the entry animation! It’s beautiful!
Rotating Hearthstone Cards That Didn't Get a Chance to Shine - Decklists To Try Before Rotation
I used to use Paragon of Light in an old Handbuff Val'anyr list! It was pretty decent before the nerf to Saronite Chain Gang messed with my weapon copy synergy! I mostly played it as a wild deck though so I still had Doppelgangster and Echoing Ooze to get the value from the weapon deathrattle.
A version of that list can be found here if anyone is interested.
How to beat unnerfed Highlander Priest?
I don't play much Wild, but it looks like Pirate Warrior and Secret Mage are two good ways to pressure down Razakus Priest before it can assemble its combo.
The new ladder system
The way the MMR system works is that it takes the highest historical rank or your previous rank, whichever higher, you've managed as the indicator. So you can be stuck at rank 20 last month but so long as you have historically got rank 15, that's where the MMR will match you with.
There's no mention on what is the time length for this measurement, or how exactly the MMR works. So it could be that repeated losses to a certain group might prompt the system to change your MMR.
The main reason for this is to prevent abuse by obviously high level players to grind lower levels for golden/1000 wins portraits. Now that there a new class, sporting an incredible 1000 wins portrait, it is more so important to have a MMR system like this to prevent such abuses.
The new ladder system
I think your issue may be one similar an issue I had a while back when I started a new account.
I wanted to start Hearthstone over on a new account to see how the new player experience had changed, and to see what it was like to climb through ranks 50-26. It was super easy for a good bit of it, but then by the time I got about rank 35-30 or so, I had a much harder time winning. I had climbed through a lot of ranks in only a few days, but my opponents had been playing a lot longer and so they had opened a lot more packs. They had way more legendarys and way better decks than me.
It could be a similar issue for you. You haven't been playing as long, but are still a good enough player to have a high MMR, so you are being paired with opponents of the same skill level as you, but they have bigger better collections because they have been playing for longer.
About my own personal opinion about the new ranked system: I don't give two mules for the climbing experience or how challenging it is to reach legend or whatever. I am earning more rewards, and therefore it is better.
How to beat unnerfed Highlander Priest?
I started playing HS after the nerf to Raza so never had to deal with this deck in a big way before.
I played 7 games on the wild ladder today at Bronze 10 and 6 of those games were this deck and I lost every game. Granted I was playing non-tier 1 decks like Spell Hunter & Quest Burgle Rogue, but still every game played out the same and I got completely destroyed.
For those who played it prenerf what worked? My only thought was bring back Bomb Warrior and just shuffle bombs like mad but aside from that (which is obviously inconsistent based on draws) I’m kind of at a loss. Any help would be appreciated - as much as I love the new ladder system quite frankly this was the single least fun day I’ve ever had with this game so if this is what Wild looks like now then I’ll just dust my Wild cards and jump back to standard.
Our Thoughts on Hearthstone's Ashes of Outland Warrior Cards
Cards that are good and might see play;
- Corsair Cache, Bladestorm, Kargath Bladefist, Bonechewer Raider, Imprisoned Gan'arg
Others;
Sword and Board - cheap 2 damage. But in my opinion the standard amount of damage a removal should have to be good is 3. But with dhunters being a thing, maybe its just good enough.
Scrap Golem - just one year too late. Had the magnetize effects still exist this would be insane. But guess its just a case of being in the wrong expansion at the wrong time.
Bloodboil Brute - doesnt really fit in control decks, so maybe midrange? The problem with this card is that it requires an activator to be good (minion trading rarely ever work out without something dead at the end), so its limited by that conundrum. And there are other cards that you generally want to use when there are damaged minions like Battle Rage. Chances are good you cant do both in one turn.
Bulwark of Azzinoth is deceptively good. Under specific circumstances, like against most mages, this is just amazing. And you can generate more with Hoard Pillager. Unfortunately, this is the kind of card that will likely only be good in tournaments, amazingly bad in ladder. But it can still take 4 attacks for you, possibly buying you a turn, so there's that I guess.
Warmaul Challenger - until a handbuff effects come along, there are better cards. Too bad. I love a battle to the death every now and then.
Are we sure it works like that? Genn Greymane doesn't say "costs 1 less" he says, "it costs 1".
Our Thoughts on Hearthstone's Ashes of Outland Warlock Cards
Cards that are obviously good and will see some play at some point;
- Darkglare, Hand of Gul'dan, Nightshade Matron, Kanrethad Ebonlocke
Cards I'm personally most interested to build decks around;
- The Dark Portal, Imprisoned Scrap Imp, Shadow Council
Others;
Keli'dan the Breaker - Interesting card, but its the sort of card I dont think would be all that useful. It always seem better to simply play the card you want the effect of. But hey, maybe the 3/3 stick is good enough for this to see play.
Enhanced Dreadlord - Good, but perhaps too slow. had this been a lifesteal taunt that generates a 5/5 on death it would be absolutely amazing, but its not. Maybe as fuel for Kanrethad Prime, it would be necessary to play this. Its still a 5/7 taunt if nothing else.
Unstable Felbolt - making a comparison with holy smite is apt. But warlock cards have never been that simple. I personally think this is trash; there's few warlock decks that can win without a board, and since Mountain Giant has rotated there's no reason to believe warlock will hold out until turn 4 without playing anything. So best case scenario, this card will be a 1 mana deal 3 damage with no trade off, or it pops your deathrattles, but majority of the time you will have a board and have to weigh a random shot at your own minions for a mere 3 damage. To illustrate further, Spirit Bomb deals 4 damage but has a trade-off that is at very least consistent (and which I personally think is better than the trade off from unstable felbolt), and that card's barely seen in standard since DoD launched.
Abbreviation of Demon Hunter is DH, not DMH.
Sorry, having played too much WoW, that extra letter is really bothering me.
Our Thoughts on Hearthstone's Ashes of Outland Warrior Cards
Warrior is interesting, it has a lot of different ways to plays it seems. I wonder which archetype will be best :)
The new ladder system
They have similar mmr than you, so they should be equally good, but I'm sure that if you lose a lot, you'll face "weaker" players eventually
The new ladder system
Yeah I don't like this new system either. I've only been playing 6 months, and have a small collection, but I managed to reach 5 every month since I started, but now I keep facing Legend cardback players with top tier meta decks, and I just can't win (I have to improvise my own decks since I'm missing crucial cards). I played 10 games today and lost 9, and this is at Bronze 6 for crying out loud.
The new ladder system
This matchmaker thing does not really work at all - I have a relative who has an account, but does not play, and hasn't purchased an expansion in some time. Has not even achieved rank 20 most months. There are few DoD cards and only first chapter Gala Awakening cards. For fun, I figured I'd play it, get away from all the disgusting meta decks I've been suffering through, see if I couldn't re-discover some of the fun of the game. Ha. Ridiculous.
From bronze 10 to bronze 9 I got matched against 1 golden portrait hunter high in the silver league, and then somehow 2 1000 win portrait hunters in the span of three matches, a golden warlock, a golden mage, and of course, Galakrond warriors and Galakrond rogues.
That's some high-level algorithm they worked up there. I seriously don't know how any new or "gee, I haven't played in awhile" players can ever get a win, lol.
Group Therapy! Need to blow off some steam? Mega salty? Here's the place!
Hopefully rotation kills all these brain dead aggro swarm decks that every fucker seems to want to play right now
Beastmaster Leoroxx
thx Sir. This will be a fine addition to my collection
Try to make an Even version, it may solve draw issues, and free Hero Power tho
Rotating Hearthstone Cards That Didn't Get a Chance to Shine - Decklists To Try Before Rotation
Hir'eek deserved a buff much more than Dr. Morrigan. I like the card but there isn't enough support available and some of the cards that are meant for the Handbuff archetype are terrible (Spirit of the Bat mainly). It annoys me deeply that they printed another Handbuff card in the new set when the core of the archetype is leaving permanently. Oh well... At least, this card gave me one of the most fun games i have played since i started playing this game: Hir'eek vs Lucentbark, the battle of the memes! A board of 11/11 Hir'eeks against my opponent's wall of Lucentbarks. I won after killing his wall three times and having a single bat left to hit face. Big shouts to Leeroy Jenkins for landing the finishing blow.
Demonic Obsession - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Congrats and good luck to all the finalists!
Let's talk about Year of the Dragon/Raven cards!
I play a lot of Wild so the rotation isn't a devastating process for me like it can be for some, but that doesn't mean I won't miss some cards in Standard.
...there weren't as many as I remembered *shrugs* Most of the other cards I like are being used in Wild - like Shudderwock in my Jade Shaman - so it doesn't matter.
Let's talk about Year of the Dragon/Raven cards!
Hey guys, i've really enjoyed the year of the dragon overall and want to know what you think.
All of the year of the dragon cards will still be around in standard for the next year, but between raven cards rotating/nerfs/power level of future expansions a lot of them won't see the kind of play they have. So year of the dragon has had it's own unique meta.
My personal experience:
Witchwood/Year of the Raven was where I began hearthstone, so this year felt unique to me because it was the first one where every card being played was one I knew from it's release.
In Rise of Shadows my favorite deck for the ladder was bomb warrior. Both booms were nutty, and having a "control" deck that also could play as a sloppy midrange beat em up was really fun. I'm definitely in the minority but I even miss the warrior mirrors. Playing bomb vs control and bomb mirror was so ridiculous and its not something you really saw after the end of the RoS meta. My favorite card from that expansion was Muckmorpher. I really liked those two minutes where big shaman was a thing.
In Saviors of Uldum, and for the entire year of the dragon, my favorite deck was quest shaman. Now bludgeoned to death by nerfs (unjustly so imo), it used to be a super fun deck to play. Ridiculous value engine, interesting tempo lines, lots of rng effects like discovers and mutates to try to hedge, deck was nutty. Unfortunately the Wild cards event put an early end on my enjoyment of the deck because evolve made the deck broken and the center of the meta. About a week into the event I took the longest break i've ever taken from HS until it was over because the game was unplayable to me.
I also loved quest druid, and my favorite card from Uldum is Oasis Surger. I love elementals, the art, and the nutty power level. This deck is still very good nowadays and a go to climbing deck.
Descent of Dragons was a pretty huge spike in power, Pushing and rebuilding a lot of the other decks from the meta while adding Galakrond and another reason to play highlander. I loved Galakrond Shaman for the brief amount of time it was almost balanced between the two waves of nerfs but it was short lived because now the deck is fairly weak. I was really bummed how they handled Shaman this expansion, but it's still been quite enjoyable and a pretty decent meta with a lot of variety and not as much polarization. I've enjoyed highlander hunter, aggro hunter, highlander rogue, and quest druid. DoD added my favorite card from the expansion to quest druid, Ysera, Unleashed. Card is nuts. Mad flavor and closes out games in style.
Cards i'm going to miss from year of the raven
Shudderwock (favorite card of all time, opened it in my first WW pack),
Hagatha the Witch
Flobbidinous Floop
Electra Stormsurge
Wardruid Loti
I won't type too much more in case the thread flops but I really want to know other peoples experiences and feelings with the expansions.
Demonic Obsession - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Good luck to the finalists! Disappointed I didn’t get in, but next week I’ll try my best
Rotating Hearthstone Cards That Didn't Get a Chance to Shine - Decklists To Try Before Rotation
Shaman got very few bad cards in the whole Year of the Raven.
The other options were Beakered Lightning, Totem Cruncher and Krag'wa, the Frog but in the end we opted for Zentimo because it's the only one you can include in a deck without feeling too bad about it.