Hi, I have been experimenting for a while now! This is the result:

This new meta report https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/wild-vs-data-reaper-report-25/ just came out today which is stat based, not opinion based, and it shows secret mage as the best deck by a large margin and having favored or highly favored matchups into every other deck except pirate warrior, where the matchup is neutral.  So there is no meta counter to this deck.  I wonder what experiences everyone is having with wild ladder related to secret mage?

Competition Theme: The Price Is Right

The market is fluctuating - these Costs are all over the place!

• You must create a card which changes the Cost of a card
  • Whether it changes its own Cost or that of another card is up to you
• Your card cannot change the card, only its Cost
  • What this means is that Evolve effects or things like Deck of Lunacy do not count for the prompt - keep the card the same, just change the price tag!

DavnanKillder wants us to manipulate the market this week and send some card Costs into a frenzy!

As always, I can be reached through Discord or here on the site via PM if you have any issues to report.

Competition Phases

Here are the phases of this card design competition

• Submission Phase: Starts on Mon, Jan 4 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Sat, Jan 9 17:00 EST (GMT -0500)
• Voting Phase: Starts on Sat, Jan 9 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Sun, Jan 10 16:00 EST (GMT -0500)
• Finalist Phase: Starts on Sun, Jan 10 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Mon, Jan 11 17:00 EST (GMT -0500)
• Winner Selected: After finalist voting concludes and we validate votes.

Discussion Thread Rules

No thread rules were added to this season. Please populate and manually edit this thread with them.

Hi folks, 

Just wanted to chit chat a little about the impact of the nerfs in standard.
They are online for a couple days now and first statistics are rolling in.

A quick look on HS Replay shows a rather balanced playfield (i don't have access to diamond and legend data though).
The clear winners this time are paladin and hunter, followed by a majority of the classes pivoting around the 50% mark with only druids and priests at the bottom.

What amazes me the most is the huge decline of shamans. What a single attack point on a weapon can do is truly impressive.
This decline in winrate might be biaised though since many people disenchanted their bonespine knuckels and picked up more experimental shaman decks like aggro, highlander or OTK. 

However, this shows how cutthroat the fight for the top of the tierlist is and how little the differences in powerlevel can be.
A multitude of decks have popped up in diamond wich results in a surprisingly entertaining ladder experience (for me).
Different versions of warlocks, hunters, paladins, warriors ... A ton of decks seem viable. 

My prefered lists right now are OTK/deck of lunacy mage and ETC warrior.
It's been quit a while since some true OTK decks have been this viable! 

What are your first impressions and what decks work best for you? 
Do you think Hunters and/or Paladins will become as opressive as shamans were? 

This is a pretty simple idea: somebody makes some flavor text, then the next person makes a card out of it, then repeat.

I'll go first!

Side effects include: Dying horribly, a fate worse than dying horribly, and a fate worse than a fate worse than dying horribly... seems perfectly safe to me!

A new Uncommon Orobos Creature, Sunken Acolyte, has been revealed!

Discuss this card below or head on over to the card page!

Learn more about Expansion 2

Head on over to our dedicated guide for Expansion 2!

A new Common Harmony Creature, Dragon Slayer, has been revealed!

Discuss this card below or head on over to the card page!

Learn more about Expansion 2

Head on over to our dedicated guide for Expansion 2!

A new Common Targon Spell, Gifts From Beyond, has been revealed!

Discuss this card below or head on over to the card page to give it a rating!

Learn more about Call of the Mountain

Head on over to our dedicated guide for Call of the Mountain!

What level 50 reward portrait are you going to choose, or have already chosen?

I hit 50 last night, and can't make up my mind between Garrosh, Valeera, Gul'Dan and possibly Rexxar. Would be interested to know what everyone else is going for, and the thinking behind it.

A new Champion Targon Unit, Aphelios, has been revealed!

Discuss this card below or head on over to the card page to give it a rating!

Learn more about Call of the Mountain

Head on over to our dedicated guide for Call of the Mountain!

I haven't played while, ever but I am bored of standard and wanted to give it a try after 3 years.

I played a few games but on the 4th someone had Dinotamer Brann, that they played from there Shaman deck.

How did that happen, did he cheat/use a bug and is this common occurrence because it guarantied my loss and it was a bit unfair.

Proof is here: https://hsreplay.net/replay/PuvAcapMMs8gLK9CxcJikC

Hey everyone @ Outof.Cards

My friend Mike and I have been wanting a way to better (more smoothly and seamlessly) review each others’ VODs. The current options out there are either clunky, makes sharing POVs with friends difficult, or are missing key decision points (eg: discover options). So we came up with SquadOV: our (humble) attempt to make sharing easier with friends and to ensure that no bit of information is missed when watching replays. It's also totally free, no ads or anything.

Here are some sample pictures

Check us out now at SquadOV.gg!

Summary of Features:

• No need for other screen capturing software such as OBS! Records games automatically.
• View your matches anywhere, anytime! Match History and VODs are stored online for free.
• Saving match highlights from games has never been easier! Make a sick play? Can't remember what the discover options were? Re-watch it by clicking it on the event log. 
• Rating is recorded online after every game to make tracking progression easy! Automatically keep track of your Competitive Rating for Battlegrounds. No need to buy the tavern brawl pass to see your Battlegrounds match history! 
• Squad mode allows you to share and browse other users’ games within the same Squad! If you are both in the same game, the same game is synchronized to allow switching from one point of view to another with just a click of a button!

FAQ:

• I installed SquadOV and it’s running. Now what? Hop into a game! It’ll automatically detect what game you’re playing and record in the background. You can change the record quality on the bottom left.
• Difference between SquadOV and HSReplay / Firestone. Currently HSReplay and Firestone have post game stats but limited replay capability (for example battlegrounds and discover options are not captured). SquadOV keeps a clean VOD of the game play and syncs the match history to the VOD to allow you to go through replays much easier with defined events and timestamps. It also tracks personal rating on a per game basis.
• Is this Mac compatible? Currently not but we do plan to in the future!

Thanks again guys and please let us know what you think :)

https://youtu.be/yDbO14P0-b0

Howdy again! I've got another champion attempt idea, this time for Sion. I've been tempted to try and do things like Renekton and Xerath but seeing as I have no idea what the mechanics they have in mind for the faction as a whole are, figuring out even a vague approximation of balance can be rather tricky. That said I might at least take a swing at it if they haven't already done the reveals for them by the point that I get around to it.

In regards to Sion himself I tried my best to make him exactly what he is meant to be; a massive juggernaut that gives off a feeling of impending doom. That said I'm very much under the impression that he is rather weak. I got stuck in this awkward middle ground with him where I couldn't give him spellshield without feeling slightly off the brand for Noxus, but without it he feels like he would be too slow and awkward to get on the board. Whether I'm right though is hard to say so feel free to give me your view on the matter. On the more important theming end of things I think I did pretty alright.

Greetings, all! I wanted to share a little bit about what we're looking to do for Runeterra content for the new year.

• New weekly series, Wednesday Deck Spotlights, which go in-depth to a specific deck including mulligan guides, card substitutions, etc
• More deck roundup articles that cover specific topics -- e.g., "Viktor decks"
• A complete set of beginner guides for new players. I realize these guides will be beneath everyone who's reading this forum post right now, but I think it's really important for OoC to have a solid knowledge base to help introduce new players to the game and lure them to our site
• More content for Labs and Gauntlets
• More engagement/recognition for community decks. Specifically, I'm thinking about something like a new monthly series that highlights some of the LoR decks submitted during that month.

Is there anything in particular you'd like to see more of? Meta decks? Off-meta decks? Please let us know in this thread.

The last time I've seen people doing this on ladder was at the start of AoO when it was clear that dhunters were extremely broken and its cards were widely available to everyone. Play was around 70% of the meta then, I think

Otherwise, I can't see why anyone would do it. In most cases, even now, tier 1 decks probably only make up somewhere around 20 - 30% of meta. So if you, for example, put double Kobold Stickyfingers, Acidic Swamp Ooze, and Frozen Shadoweaver into your deck in anticipation of evolve shaman, what are you going to do about the games when its not evolve shaman? Its sort of like creating a deck that hard counters the current tier 1 deck whilst being hard countered by every other deck around it.

Sure its satisfying to beat the current top dog. Not so much when you're being beaten by the tiniest runt of the litter.

Edit: If anyone is wondering why my post is worded like this, its because its supposed to be a response to OP, who apparently have removed his post

So I was just knocked out of battlegrounds, but I was sitting first with 40HP (no hits on me yet) and 6 players left. N the next round I lost and hit for 12 damage and it ‘killed’ me and I was knocked our hit of the match. Glitch? Big? What in the heck?! 

I haven't played as much the last few months and just wanted to hear what off-meta Hunter builds folks have been having (moderate) success with this expansion.

Things I've been exploring so far:

• Various types of Quest Hunter which still seems viable
• Have had moderate success with a taunt heavy Control deck centered around N'zoth + Jewel of N'Zoth
• Failed miserably at getting Spell Hunter off the ground featuring Jepetto Joybuzz + Malygos, Yogg, and C'thun...both a highlander version and a more robust duplicate deck 
• Also haven't had much success getting a Maxima Blastenheimer + Darkmoon Tonk deck to work with any consistency
• Oh, and I've tried out the decks from Mark McKz on this site and they were fun combos to try to pull off :) 

Has anyone had success with these archetypes or anything else off-meta like Highlander Beast Hunter, Corrupt (Y'shaaraj) Hunter, Dragon Hunter, etc.?  Thanks in advance!

Anyone rumors yet about when the fabled Darkmoon mini set is likely to come out?  Or at least when it’ll be revealed?

Hoping sometime soon we’ll get a reveal with a release in like 2 weeks, but who knows!

Competition Theme: Oops! All Spells!

We better not see any minions in your deck - or at least, none when you play these cards!

• You must create a card which has an effect when your deck has no minions
  • Remember that your deck just needs to have no minions - weapons and Hero Cards are allowed as well as spells if you want to try something interesting
• Your card cannot be a Hunter or Mage card
  • We've seen how these classes tackle this idea - let's give a different class a chance!

DavnanKillder and grumpymonk come together to give us a magical prompt this week - just make sure there's no minions lingering around!

As always, I can be reached through Discord or here on the site via PM if you have any issues to report.

Competition Phases

Here are the phases of this card design competition

• Submission Phase: Starts on Mon, Dec 28 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Sat, Jan 2 17:00 EST (GMT -0500)
• Voting Phase: Starts on Sat, Jan 2 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Sun, Jan 3 16:00 EST (GMT -0500)
• Finalist Phase: Starts on Sun, Jan 3 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Mon, Jan 4 17:00 EST (GMT -0500)
• Winner Selected: After finalist voting concludes and we validate votes.

Discussion Thread Rules

No thread rules were added to this season. Please populate and manually edit this thread with them.

The last patch has just exacerbated what I think was the biggest annoyance with battlegrounds: the timer is too short! It really limits the plays you're able to make during your turn. The latest patch introduces prizes that you have to pick from, leaving you with even less time to make your play.

I say the minimum time for the recruitment phase in Battlegrounds should be extended by 5 or 10 seconds. What do you think?

The next gamemode will be called World PvP.

We gotta have the full set.

A new Rare Noxus Spell, Survival Skills, has been revealed!

Discuss this card below or head on over to the card page to give it a rating!

Learn more about Call of the Mountain

Head on over to our dedicated guide for Call of the Mountain!

Have you opened up some crazy awesome card pack? Did RNG screw you over so hard you are in disbelief?

Share your pack opening screenshots and videos below!

Is it just me or has anyone else had trouble getting the Hearthstone client to launch on Android after the patch today? Tried multiple times but the game freezes at the title screen or immediately thereafter. Uninstalled and reinstalled with no change. Hoping it's not just me because I'm about out of troubleshooting ideas.