Here's my first shot at trying a "minion" version of strongholds. I honestly have no clue what I'm doing, lol. I think I like the "quest" idea better, but I still can't figure out how to design their ability to be removed without making it some sort of insta-win if your opponent doesn't have those specific cards in their deck. For example, let's say I made one defeatable by playing a card like a dragon or elemental. If they don't have one of those cards, I'm perfectly safe and they don't stand a chance.
Personally I think something like Blackhowl Gunspire or Portable Ice Wall are what you would want for minion based "Stronghold" cards. This type of effect would be better as a temporary dormant token idea like what Demonx had above. Also, this Chapel card's effect would be much better if it were an Evencosted card, please! LOL
Here's my first shot at trying a "minion" version of strongholds. I honestly have no clue what I'm doing, lol. I think I like the "quest" idea better, but I still can't figure out how to design their ability to be removed without making it some sort of insta-win if your opponent doesn't have those specific cards in their deck. For example, let's say I made one defeatable by playing a card like a dragon or elemental. If they don't have one of those cards, I'm perfectly safe and they don't stand a chance.
Still one of the really fun cards I try to build a deck around every so often. So satisfying if you are able to get it to work. And usually not really teched against these days so it happen fairly often.
I'm with HULKBiceps and I play a lot of fun, wacky C'Thun things in Wild. Currently around 10-9 playing a Reno Galaxy C'Thun deck. It has the current Standard Reno Mage shell updated with a few Wild spells and putting in a small handful of C'Thun buffers and the Eye himself, with the ideal play being Galaxy with C'Thun still in the deck, then later you can play Brann Bronzebeard, C'Thun, and Zola the Gorgon to get two golden C'Thun's in hand. If you draw C'Thun before Galaxy you can also just use Brann for doubling some of your C'Thun buffers' battlecry effects or just try to win with a crazy King Phaoris board, etc, much like the current Standard version of Reno Mage. I think I'm currently 7-6 with it so not great, but a lot of fun!
Anyway, at these ranks I'm seeing a more diverse range of opponents, nothing sticks out as super oppressive in terms of facing a specific deck(s) over and over again. One big thing I've noticed since the expansion released: There has been a huge decline in the Time Warp Mages! This is likely due to the Secret Mage rising in popularity and just winning faster than the slower, but often guaranteed win of Archmage Vargoth, Time Warp, 2x Arcane Giant.
I'm happy about this change, because with the deck I described above I at least have a chance to maybe survive against Mages, gain some semblance of board control, and play Reno Jackson after they've used a large amount of burst. If you can pull that off they often don't have enough steam left to kill you quick enough, where as the Time Warp Mages just stall stall stall until you're helpless to stop their win condition.
I know this card gets a lot of hate, but like it's mechanics and the options it brings. Something many decks/classes can use and something that has be protected against.
It is definitely not so strong as before against Secret Mage (but maybe some adjustments may help), and it may suffer against properly tuned Renodecks (although i have beaten some, despite their Reno Jackson, they were probably too greedy builds). Not sure of how it performs at higher ranks, as I am trying homebrews from r5-r4.
Same, I haven't lost against secret mages with a Vessina even shaman build either. Although I have seen pro players say that even shaman is unfavored in this matchup. Also usually managed to burst down reno decks before they could stabilize (or even after they've played a reno) so the deck won't be falling down anytime soon.
More cards! For Kobolds I decided to add more Dragon synergy and buffs to fit with the DnD themes of the expansion. The Dungeon Master is a really powerful card if you get one of the big dragons, but not as much with a Faerie Dragon. For Witchwood I really wanted to make a bunch of Rush cards because I think it really fits the Tactician theme of board control. Let me know what you think!
At rank 4 it's mostly Burn Mage or Reno Mage. Mage is the #1 class I see.
Lots of Reno Locks. Zephrys the Great has really brought Reno decks back in full swing. Pre-SoU, Reno decks weren't very viable anymore.
Hunter I'm seeing a lot of different variants of Reno, surprisingly haven't ran against a single Mech Hunter
Priest mostly Big Priest still, but the numbers have dropped. (no complaints) See a few people experimenting with the new quest.
Odd Taunt warrior is back and feels more powerful.
Shaman I have been playing the most since I'm trying to make the final push for my golden hero. Even Totem Shaman is powerful, but get wrecked by Burn Mage. Quest Jade decks I think are in a refinement phase, but have potential. I've been running a Quest Elemental Tempo deck (see signature) that feels amazing, but I need more testing with it still to determine if it is ladder viable. It seems Everyfin Shaman may still be the best ladder deck for Shaman. The couple new murlocs work great in the deck.
Rogue still mostly just Odd Rogue, but not very many that I've seen
Odd Paladin is still there, but not as many as before (which is a breath of fresh air!)
Druid has mostly been Jade or Token. I've ran into a couple of Quest Druids, but I usually beat them before I see what their deck is like.
SoU has definitely shaken up the Wild Meta, which is nice after RoS basically did nothing. My biggest concern is Burn Mage. The tools they received have made them have little to no weakness. Flame Ward in particular has made it so they can't be out-aggroed anymore. Secret tech is awful, doesn't help the matchup and just makes your other matchups worse.
Even Shaman performs well, slightly better than before I think, with Totemic Surge and the likes. I haven't tried the weapon, but I tried Vessina, and she's good enough (not sure I would reccomment the craft tho, you can probably replace her with the axe, which I haven't tried tho). This was from r9 to r5.
It is definitely not so strong as before against Secret Mage (but maybe some adjustments may help), and it may suffer against properly tuned Renodecks (although i have beaten some, despite their Reno Jackson, they were probably too greedy builds). Not sure of how it performs at higher ranks, as I am trying homebrews from r5-r4.
Went from rank 4 to 1 in a few days (27 games) because I thought odd warrior would be a good choice given the influx of secret mages (spoiler alert: it was).
40% of the games I've played were against mages, at ranks 4-3 most of them were secret, then at ranks 2-1 they mostly turned into reno mages, in addition to reno warlocks.
I've seen only a single odd paladin and a single even shaman. One odd warrior, one battlecry shaman, one mech hunter, one jade druid. No odd rogue, no big priest.
My two cents: Reno decks and secret mage got big buffs and are seeing higher amounts of play because of that. Probably too much play. Odd rogue, odd paladin and even shaman are still top decks but didn't really get much exciting new stuff, bar even shaman perhaps, which is why not many people are playing them right now.
If you wanna cruise to legend, play something that beats secret mages and reno decks. Odd warrior works, but prepare for long games against the reno decks. I heard that bolster warrior is also a pretty solid option and probably a lot faster.
My impression between ranks 10-4 was about the same as yours. Secret Mage is the new cockroach... I suspect that BP players got tired of it and adhered to this new plague. The problem is that we have to tech against it, losing one, or even two cards in our deck, even when not playing a control deck.
I think people are sleeping on Reno decks, for two reasons: 1 - BP and other anti-control decks are more sparse now and 2 - Zephrys is THAT good! And, since secret mage is not so aggresive in early game, Reno decks may get the tools to withstand the burst power of those fireballs and Cloud Princes.
About secret mage, I was so sad when I opened hsreplay.net and found that it represented more then 20% of all archetypes. Since I try to climb with my homebrews, I crafted Aluneth as soon as the new secret synergy cards were revealed (I couldn't guess everybody would do the same). So I stopped playing it (hate mirror matches) and I'm now experimenting some other stuff. FYI, I climbed from 10 to 4 with an even pirate Rogue, but it wasn't enough to beat Secret Mage nor Reno decks. I was trying (and having fun with) some aggro priests but it was just a brief summer dream due to the Extra-Arms unbuff (Thanks, DS/IF misconception!!!)
My next experiment will probably be even (totem/overload/jade) shaman. OP, how is it performing? I still didn't play with it since I have to save some dust for the new weapon that copies the totems (BTW, did you try this weapon? Is it good enough?)
Here's my first shot at trying a "minion" version of strongholds. I honestly have no clue what I'm doing, lol. I think I like the "quest" idea better, but I still can't figure out how to design their ability to be removed without making it some sort of insta-win if your opponent doesn't have those specific cards in their deck. For example, let's say I made one defeatable by playing a card like a dragon or elemental. If they don't have one of those cards, I'm perfectly safe and they don't stand a chance.
@YourPrivateNightmare : so you want those 12(the video didn't include Brightwing) cards to be viable? I actually highlighted it because I believe people put too much weight into legendaaries, you know how warrior could be nerfed harder than nerfing boom? nerfing Eternium Rover 1 mana 1/3 premium stats it's a mech so it has rush late game and magnetic and really powerful passive, this card would be played just if it was a 1/3 mech for 1 or if it costed 2 mana, but it wasn't nerfed although it's the reason why warrior is so strong in the early game, why wasn't it nerfed? cause the community only remembers losing to boom or galaxy but losing to a 1 drop that shut down your aggro plan by removing 2 tokens and gaining 2~4 armor? nah.
I disagree that so many of the classic legendaries should remain as they are now. Opening a legendary card and playing with it should be one of the most exciting parts of Hearthstone, but many new players will be disappointed with their first and possibly second, third, etc. legendaries because not only are many of them useless, many have such boring effects that many rare cards nowadays are more exciting. Compare for example Gruul, Hogger, The Beast, King Mukla, Illidan Stormrage and Nat Pagle to cards like Dune Sculptor, Expired Merchant, Underbelly Angler and Kirin Tor Tricaster.
it is difficult to find the right power level for legendaries. You want them to feel exciting to open and play, and you want to feel like saving up 1600 dust is worth it. but on the other hand, if they are too good then you make it to hard for new/f2p players to keep up. no matter what you do, you cannot appease everyone. you have to make a choice between the casual players or the dedicated players and try and please them, you can't make both groups happy.
I usually bounce around R1-5 every month since I have no interest in reaching Legend again and most of the Meta decks just dont appeal to me.. I mostly play Reno Decks or stuff like C'thun.
The class which I have faced most the last couple of weeks has to be Mage. Some of them are Quest Mages but most of them are the new Tempo/Secret type and I really do not enjoy playing against neither of these archtypes.
Second highest has to still be priest.. Some of it put Quests in the deck and vary a little bit in the exact build but in the end its always the same Res stuff.. zZzZz
I would remove skaterbot and Sandbinder and add Kangor and the 3 mana draw cheapest minion spell instead (keep forgetting it’s name, would give you better card draw and add value to the deck in general.
Why does everyone keep putting Sandbinder in their highlander decks? This card is so bad in terms of tempo. And if you draw Siamat before playing it, it’s basically dead. Also it screams “Hey, I have Siamat in hand now”, so your opponent knows it as well.
As I said in the write-up, I don't have Kangor. Sandbinder is good because he also draws Zephyrs, which is the best card in our deck
G-Day - Operation: Gnomeregan
Lorewise, the gnomish capital Gnomeregan was taken over by troggs so gnomes definitely hate them.
G-Day - Operation: Gnomeregan
I am IN!
Where do I sign up?!?
Help me refine a Strongholds concept
Personally I think something like Blackhowl Gunspire or Portable Ice Wall are what you would want for minion based "Stronghold" cards. This type of effect would be better as a temporary dormant token idea like what Demonx had above. Also, this Chapel card's effect would be much better if it were an Even costed card, please! LOL
Help me refine a Strongholds concept
Do you mean Silver Hand Recruit?:)
Kel'Thuzad
This is a really fun card. Works great in wild. One of those cards that can exist because of the power of wild.
The Boogeymonster
Give this guy RUSH and you would have a great card... came out a bit to early :)
Tortollan Pilgrim
This can be really good card in the right deck. I like the idea of having it. Is/will be great in Wild as well.
Zul'jin
I like this card. Very good in the right kind of deck. Fits nicely into Hunter.
C'Thun
Still one of the really fun cards I try to build a deck around every so often. So satisfying if you are able to get it to work. And usually not really teched against these days so it happen fairly often.
Deathwing, Dragonlord
I am speculating that we will get a bunch of dragons in the last set of Year of the Dragon. If so, this card will be fantastic in Wild.
SoU Wild meta
I'm with HULKBiceps and I play a lot of fun, wacky C'Thun things in Wild. Currently around 10-9 playing a Reno Galaxy C'Thun deck. It has the current Standard Reno Mage shell updated with a few Wild spells and putting in a small handful of C'Thun buffers and the Eye himself, with the ideal play being Galaxy with C'Thun still in the deck, then later you can play Brann Bronzebeard, C'Thun, and Zola the Gorgon to get two golden C'Thun's in hand. If you draw C'Thun before Galaxy you can also just use Brann for doubling some of your C'Thun buffers' battlecry effects or just try to win with a crazy King Phaoris board, etc, much like the current Standard version of Reno Mage. I think I'm currently 7-6 with it so not great, but a lot of fun!
Anyway, at these ranks I'm seeing a more diverse range of opponents, nothing sticks out as super oppressive in terms of facing a specific deck(s) over and over again. One big thing I've noticed since the expansion released: There has been a huge decline in the Time Warp Mages! This is likely due to the Secret Mage rising in popularity and just winning faster than the slower, but often guaranteed win of Archmage Vargoth, Time Warp, 2x Arcane Giant.
I'm happy about this change, because with the deck I described above I at least have a chance to maybe survive against Mages, gain some semblance of board control, and play Reno Jackson after they've used a large amount of burst. If you can pull that off they often don't have enough steam left to kill you quick enough, where as the Time Warp Mages just stall stall stall until you're helpless to stop their win condition.
Mountain Giant
I know this card gets a lot of hate, but like it's mechanics and the options it brings. Something many decks/classes can use and something that has be protected against.
SoU Wild meta
Same, I haven't lost against secret mages with a Vessina even shaman build either. Although I have seen pro players say that even shaman is unfavored in this matchup. Also usually managed to burst down reno decks before they could stabilize (or even after they've played a reno) so the deck won't be falling down anytime soon.
Tactician Custom Class (4/12/20 - Ashes of Outland)
More cards! For Kobolds I decided to add more Dragon synergy and buffs to fit with the DnD themes of the expansion. The Dungeon Master is a really powerful card if you get one of the big dragons, but not as much with a Faerie Dragon. For Witchwood I really wanted to make a bunch of Rush cards because I think it really fits the Tactician theme of board control. Let me know what you think!
More in the main post!
SoU Wild meta
At rank 4 it's mostly Burn Mage or Reno Mage. Mage is the #1 class I see.
Lots of Reno Locks. Zephrys the Great has really brought Reno decks back in full swing. Pre-SoU, Reno decks weren't very viable anymore.
Hunter I'm seeing a lot of different variants of Reno, surprisingly haven't ran against a single Mech Hunter
Priest mostly Big Priest still, but the numbers have dropped. (no complaints) See a few people experimenting with the new quest.
Odd Taunt warrior is back and feels more powerful.
Shaman I have been playing the most since I'm trying to make the final push for my golden hero. Even Totem Shaman is powerful, but get wrecked by Burn Mage. Quest Jade decks I think are in a refinement phase, but have potential. I've been running a Quest Elemental Tempo deck (see signature) that feels amazing, but I need more testing with it still to determine if it is ladder viable. It seems Everyfin Shaman may still be the best ladder deck for Shaman. The couple new murlocs work great in the deck.
Rogue still mostly just Odd Rogue, but not very many that I've seen
Odd Paladin is still there, but not as many as before (which is a breath of fresh air!)
Druid has mostly been Jade or Token. I've ran into a couple of Quest Druids, but I usually beat them before I see what their deck is like.
SoU has definitely shaken up the Wild Meta, which is nice after RoS basically did nothing. My biggest concern is Burn Mage. The tools they received have made them have little to no weakness. Flame Ward in particular has made it so they can't be out-aggroed anymore. Secret tech is awful, doesn't help the matchup and just makes your other matchups worse.
SoU Wild meta
Even Shaman performs well, slightly better than before I think, with Totemic Surge and the likes. I haven't tried the weapon, but I tried Vessina, and she's good enough (not sure I would reccomment the craft tho, you can probably replace her with the axe, which I haven't tried tho). This was from r9 to r5.
It is definitely not so strong as before against Secret Mage (but maybe some adjustments may help), and it may suffer against properly tuned Renodecks (although i have beaten some, despite their Reno Jackson, they were probably too greedy builds). Not sure of how it performs at higher ranks, as I am trying homebrews from r5-r4.
SoU Wild meta
Went from rank 4 to 1 in a few days (27 games) because I thought odd warrior would be a good choice given the influx of secret mages (spoiler alert: it was).
40% of the games I've played were against mages, at ranks 4-3 most of them were secret, then at ranks 2-1 they mostly turned into reno mages, in addition to reno warlocks.
I've seen only a single odd paladin and a single even shaman. One odd warrior, one battlecry shaman, one mech hunter, one jade druid. No odd rogue, no big priest.
My two cents: Reno decks and secret mage got big buffs and are seeing higher amounts of play because of that. Probably too much play. Odd rogue, odd paladin and even shaman are still top decks but didn't really get much exciting new stuff, bar even shaman perhaps, which is why not many people are playing them right now.
If you wanna cruise to legend, play something that beats secret mages and reno decks. Odd warrior works, but prepare for long games against the reno decks. I heard that bolster warrior is also a pretty solid option and probably a lot faster.
Quest Trading - Play A Friend!
Done!
SoU Wild meta
My impression between ranks 10-4 was about the same as yours. Secret Mage is the new cockroach... I suspect that BP players got tired of it and adhered to this new plague. The problem is that we have to tech against it, losing one, or even two cards in our deck, even when not playing a control deck.
I think people are sleeping on Reno decks, for two reasons: 1 - BP and other anti-control decks are more sparse now and 2 - Zephrys is THAT good! And, since secret mage is not so aggresive in early game, Reno decks may get the tools to withstand the burst power of those fireballs and Cloud Princes.
About secret mage, I was so sad when I opened hsreplay.net and found that it represented more then 20% of all archetypes. Since I try to climb with my homebrews, I crafted Aluneth as soon as the new secret synergy cards were revealed (I couldn't guess everybody would do the same). So I stopped playing it (hate mirror matches) and I'm now experimenting some other stuff. FYI, I climbed from 10 to 4 with an even pirate Rogue, but it wasn't enough to beat Secret Mage nor Reno decks. I was trying (and having fun with) some aggro priests but it was just a brief summer dream due to the Extra-Arms unbuff (Thanks, DS/IF misconception!!!)
My next experiment will probably be even (totem/overload/jade) shaman. OP, how is it performing? I still didn't play with it since I have to save some dust for the new weapon that copies the totems (BTW, did you try this weapon? Is it good enough?)
Help me refine a Strongholds concept
Here's my first shot at trying a "minion" version of strongholds. I honestly have no clue what I'm doing, lol. I think I like the "quest" idea better, but I still can't figure out how to design their ability to be removed without making it some sort of insta-win if your opponent doesn't have those specific cards in their deck. For example, let's say I made one defeatable by playing a card like a dragon or elemental. If they don't have one of those cards, I'm perfectly safe and they don't stand a chance.
Here's some art, make a card! [Legacy Game]
Now Paladin can get in on that Mad Genius power!
Next up, I know this has nothing to do with Warcraft but make a Rogue Legendary out of Moon Knight.
If you play Hearthstone you need to see this
it is difficult to find the right power level for legendaries. You want them to feel exciting to open and play, and you want to feel like saving up 1600 dust is worth it. but on the other hand, if they are too good then you make it to hard for new/f2p players to keep up. no matter what you do, you cannot appease everyone. you have to make a choice between the casual players or the dedicated players and try and please them, you can't make both groups happy.
If you play Hearthstone you need to see this
Papa Gros <3
SoU Wild meta
I usually bounce around R1-5 every month since I have no interest in reaching Legend again and most of the Meta decks just dont appeal to me.. I mostly play Reno Decks or stuff like C'thun.
The class which I have faced most the last couple of weeks has to be Mage. Some of them are Quest Mages but most of them are the new Tempo/Secret type and I really do not enjoy playing against neither of these archtypes.
Second highest has to still be priest.. Some of it put Quests in the deck and vary a little bit in the exact build but in the end its always the same Res stuff.. zZzZz
Making Highlander Paladin Work
As I said in the write-up, I don't have Kangor. Sandbinder is good because he also draws Zephyrs, which is the best card in our deck