I agree with shuckie up there that Kayn Sunfury is probably overrated. Its best use is against priest and druid. In most cases, you can accomplish the same thing with Maiev Shadowsong. That's not to say its a bad card and will never see play, I'm just thinking of super safe options assuming youre crafting day 1.
I think Kayn is an auto include just because his stat value. 4-mana 3/5 with charge that goes through taunts is just a great minion even if you don't use him for lethal. You can just use him to value trade through taunts or pick off a specific minion.
There's absolutely no reason not to craft him if one plans to play any DH decks
Kayn Sunfury is really strong, but he's limited by the fact that he's a class legendary and if I'm low on dust he's probably not going to be a card I would want to craft, at least not until hes confirmed by pros as a vital part of the deck. In many ways he's like Dragonbane in dragon hunter. Its really strong in very specific points of matches, but in most cases you can probably still do well without em.
I agree with shuckie up there that Kayn Sunfury is probably overrated. Its best use is against priest and druid. In most cases, you can accomplish the same thing with Maiev Shadowsong. That's not to say its a bad card and will never see play, I'm just thinking of super safe options assuming youre crafting day 1.
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.
How is W. Pruifier a counter? You get random class cards, that means you can still get duplicates, I don't see how it is a good counter to Bombs or Albatross, because that Raza player still get some trash cards and this is the purpose of Bombs and Albatross.
Its being used as we speak in standard as a counter to bombs and albatrosses. Yeah, it can give you a duplicate, but chances are against it.
Outside of rogue, there's no way to tutor those cards out. And though its not entirely foolproof, it provides a possible out that may prove decisive. Aside from this, I much rather have a class card than an albatross or 5 to the face any day.
Certain decks and class work better with the coin, some don't. Aggro decks in particular enjoy massive advantages going first.
This have been argued for ages, but I think the last time I heard of any form of statistic from blizzard was that going first have a 1% advantage in terms of win rate. Since there's no way to balance the advantage afforded to the ones going first (minion attack initiative), I suppose its only fair that the advantages of the coin provides shouldnt be taken away neither.
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.
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.
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.
Its always funny to me how Open the Waygate tend to produce powerful, polarizing decks that nearly everyone except the one current playing it absolutely hates, and yet for some reason it dodges just about every little nerf to wild cards. At least the list added here doesnt have that retarded Archmage Vargoth synergy with waygate.
Not sure how The Lurker Below interacts with deathrattles, but if the second hit trigger AFTER the deathrattle, this might just be an auto include in any control shaman deck.
In my opinion, shaman got some real powerful cards for a control style deck. One of those cards will NOT be Lady Vashj, just about the worst of all the primes. Shaman already suffers from abysmal draws, to rely on drawing this one specific card, then draw the prime, and then pray you still have spells in your deck else the card just doesnt do anything for 7 mana. Its just too inconsistent for combo, and too slow to make an impact.
We know rogue is pretty good already, so there's no need for me to hammer it home. I'll just state some few observations;
Bamboozle is pretty much the strongest of all the secrets if you're playing for tempo since it effectively discourages opponents to trade into any minions. Even a 1 drop can be upgraded into a 4 drop that your opponent cant deal with, and thereby giving you an advantage. This is particularly effective when you have low health, high attack stuff like Spymistress. And if they feel like using a spell, then it might activate Dirty Tricks, giving you a card advantage. Not to mention that your opponent would need to commit resources to do all of that. So you might well see a spymistress simply surviving all 3 turns, best case scenario.
Akama is great, and is very likely better than his prime. My biggest problem with Akama Prime is, first you got to draw akama, then play akama, then allow akama to die, and only then you stand a chance to draw akama prime, and then you have to commit to a 6 mana do nothing. This is basically a slower Waxadred without infinite potential. In any aggro deck, where Akama Prime can possible be useful, even Wasteland Assassin seems like a better card. But because Akama himself is a decent stealth card, this will be seen in competitive play. The tragic thing is if akama gets silenced, that might actually come back to haunt your opponent, not you.
I am genuinely curious how many hours it took you to get this much up, even on those small pieces I wrote outside of this thread took around 20 minutes per article, and those were written per class.
I will address some interesting point you made in the article, and insert my own predictions.
Demon hunters - My prediction is that midrange and highlander dhunter will dominate the meta. Not so for aggressive dhunters, which suffers greatly from board clears.
I dont agree that aggressive hunters will kill off any sort of dhunters. To explain, Dhunters have one aspect that make them more resistant to both face hunter and dragon hunter, and that aspect is that they can heal, and are deceptively good at it. Aldrachi Warblades will be basically in every dhunter, and can heal for 3 with 1 mana hp, and can heal for even more thanks to cards like Chaos Strike and Twin Slice, never mind Inner Demon. As we have experienced, even healing for a mere 6 points tend to rubbish face hunter 50% of the time, and here's a card that heals for 3 every turn for 3 turns, with potential to do more. Also Ashtongue Battlelord is the new psuedo zilliax for dhunters, which guarantees to at least absorb 5 damage at minimum.
Dhunter has access to some of the best tempo cards in the game. Perhaps even better than dragon hunter's or rogue. For that reason, dragon hunter doesnt get a free win versus dhunters of any sort.
Also, Eye Beam. This card is so disgusting that I genuinely belief this to be the main reason NOT to run a highlander dhunter.
Paladin - Probably murloc paladin might make a comeback, but there is higher hopes for highlander dragon paladin. Overall, I dont think paladin can ever match up to dhunters, hunter or rogue, but will be competitive versus other classes. They will be stuck at tier 3 until further notice, is my prediction.
Also, in my opinion healing doesnt counter aggro decks that rely on tempo. Dragon hunter still destroys dragon paladin with double Amber Watcher, even now. Its only very good versus face hunter.
But enough with the memes. Dragon hunter and face hunter will probably be forefront on everyone's nightmares, gaining the powerful Pack Tactics and losing basically nothing. Face hunter in particular since the weakness of SN1P-SN4P+Zilliax is no longer a thing. I will be greatly surprised to see face hunter not nerfed in some way. It straight up counters half of all classes, and personally makes quest res priest a thing. Both abominable results of a face hunter meta.
Tier 1, dragon hunter + face hunter. Probably better bet on dragon hunter than face hunter.
Rogue - Will be tier 1 alongside dhunters, and will be the true competition to Illidan's midrange madness. Stealth aggro rogue looks really strong, almost too strong. We have seen what happens when aggro rogue gets draw cards, and Greyheart Sage is just that. Plus Dirty Tricks, this basically invalidates any reason to run both galakrond or togwaggle for draw and that's saying alot. It also allows rogue to use Cold Blood effectively again, perhaps its even good enough to replace Shadowstep now that Leeroy Jenkins is no longer here.
Secret rogue will likewise also find competitiveness. Bamboozle is a dangerous card, which protects tempo and discourages face/minion trading from your opponent. Blackjack stunner destroys embiggen druid, and Shadowjeweler Hanar looks to be as good as it was when it was first revealed. All in all, very strong support for secret rogue.
Dont underestimate Cursed Vagrant. This card basically ensures that the only way to avoid 7 to the face is with taunts and freezes. It comes expensive at 7, but drop this card and watch your opponent scramble for a taunt.
Warlock - Probably where we will disagree the most. I watched trump's very successful play against firebat using Shadow Council + Imprisoned Scrap Imp but am convinced that its just a highrolling meme at best.
In my opinion Shadow Council is perhaps best played in the 'trash' lock style deck that wins with alex+Nether Breath+Soulfire, since it cycles hard so its more consistent than controlock. Another place for this is discard zoolock, since Hand of Gul'dan+Expired Merchant allows for near infinite draw potential so there's consistency greater than controlock. Also, zoolock never tends to shy away from throwing their hand since its basically outvalued anywhere above turn 4 anyway.
Plot twist warlock, my very own love, will suffer from the loss of Dollmaster Dorian. Perhaps this will be the best time for quest lock to shine. But I'm not optimistic.
My prediction is galakrond controlock to still be the highest tier warlock can aspire to. Maybe shadow council trashlock can make a difference, fingers crossed.
Druid - We are in agreement. I will only add that quest druid can outvalue aggro dhunters and all types of rogue, and will likely see it in tier 2.
Shaman - Again, we are in agreement. Mostly because you brought up the shaman list which I have genuine hope can be tier 2. The creator of the list didnt see hope to put in The Lurker Below and instead opted for Lady Vashj. In my opinion that's a mistake. Vashj prime is the worst of all the primes, and The Lurker Below is at least a decent counter to aggro decks, and with shaman cards being as it is, that's probably good enough.
Priest - My opinion is that priest is good, and tempo priest has a decent chance against aggressive hunters and dhunters. Outside of that, priest gets out valued hard by nearly every other class that plays midrange and above. This might be the best time for galakrond priest to shine, with the hero power and invokes being more powerful since priest lost its ability to draw with Northshire Cleric, and the timely addition of stronger minions.
My prediction is for midrange galakrond priest to be a decent tier 2, and dragon priest as an effective counter to aggro dhunters and hunters, which is reason enough for priest to be on top, at least for a while.
Mage - There's a possibility for the archetype of freeze mage to come back to standard, mostly because of Incanter's Flow. If everything goes according to plan, you can easily get 2x Fireball + 2x [Hearthstone Card (frost bolt) Not Found] to hit face for 18, with a single Pyroblast as backup. Add this to an Alexstrasza + 1 mana Frost Nova, there's enough here to make freeze mage work.
Draw is an issue though, but you might still be able to buy some turns with Evocation, which is more than likely to give you a freeze spell somewhere. Added that Evocation can also generate burn cards, and can be generated by cards like Magic Trick, there's more than enough gas for the combo dream to live on.
I predict, boldly, that mage can actually be tier 1 at some point. Put down only by face hunter. But its likely going to be tier 2 at best or just plain tier 4 for lack of consistency.
I pretty much agree that priest isnt going to be tier 1, but there's a place in tier 2 for it. I am in particularly thinking that priest has a decent chance against dhunters, which is going to be everywhere, which was I why I thought dragon tempo priest can do well.
Initially I wasnt so impressed with Skeletal Dragon for its decent-ish statline with taunt, but priest has more dragon synergy cards and can actually do something about the board in a way that druid cannot, so a 4/7 taunt value generator is decent. There's pontential, but I can see your reasoning why this is just unplayable.
Coilfang Warlord is out of the spectrum. Let's not compare anything to that. This makes me want to run Faceless Manipulator so I can get him into as many decks and class as I can.
In my opinion, priest has some good cards in the expansion, but that shouldnt surprise anyone with the class's transition into a more tempoish class similar to paladin.
- Dragon tempo priest can actually do well, with cards like Skeletal Dragon and Dragonmaw Sentinel being very good synergy cards. The sentinal in particular since it has lifesteal and therefore every aggro class will proceed to waste resources on this card instead of hitting your face.
- Dragonmaw Overseer, [Hearthstone Card (Sethekk vielweaver) Not Found], and Renew, I'm much less optimistic. Dragonmaw overseer in particular is very slow and will die to anything more than a poke in the arm. Buffing something with 2/2 is very strong, especially with cards like Dragonmaw Sentinel, but that doesnt change the fact that Dragonmaw Overseer is just a 3 mana 2/2 that needs a board to work and doesnt allow a potential value trade the same turn you play it. In other words, just play Apotheosis instead.
- I think zetalot, pro priest player, remarked that he is impressed with Psyche Split. Not for me to doubt the priest king himself, but I dont see it. Perhaps he already has something in mind every one else cant see. I look forward to seeing if he's right on this one.
- Soul Mirror will cause quite a lot of raging and computer smashing to happen at some point.
Edit: Removed my opinion that priest having one of the best sets. Seriously, they have some good cards, but no way best.
Imprisoned Sungill, practically unloved by all, is a 1 mana Murloc Tidecaller that summons an extra 1/1 murloc, but comes 2 turns later. Its easy to see why its considered a weak card; its slow, the effect is subpar, and its weak all on its own. But theres something to be said about a card that swarms the board, happens to be in a class that needs a board to work, and is a murloc. This card curves well into Coldlight Seer, can be buffed by stuff like Scalelord, and Righteous Cause, and your opponent can't prevent it from being buffed. Three 1 health murlocs is not remotely threatening, but buffed up with 3 health or divine shield and the card is suddenly threatening a Murloc Warleader comeback. Im already concerned about paladin's ability to keep a board in the early game thanks to the new class demon hunter, which is why I think cards like Imprisoned Sungill and Imprisoned Vilefiend deserves a second look in the class.
On the other hand, while I do love the concept of a librarian paladin, I'm not as optimistic. Paladin has serious issues about maintaining tempo in the early game, which is exactly why rogue preys on the class even today. Add dhunters being everywhere day 1, there's got to be a way for paladin to make a comeback around turn 3-4 and in my opinion the librams aren't contributing to that cause. You need two attendants or 1 truthseeker to make Libram of Wisdom remotely playable and the famed Libram of Hope comes much much later, so if you drawn both of them but not your discount cards, its effectively a dead card. In short, I'm already having problems with paladin's consistency thanks to their abysmal draw cards (no Acolyte of Pain, Prismatic Lens and Crystology rotating) and now we're supposed to jam a few more value cards for a late game that does little to nothing on the early game. To illustrate further, the higher winrate card in pure pally is not the famed and frankly insane Lightforged Crusader, but good ol' reliable Lightforged Zealot. It doesnt take alot to understand why a mere additional 4/2 body with truesilver champion is the better card.
To be honest I have the same opinion that poor Imprisoned Sungill may turn out to surprise everyone, mostly because paladin happens to be a buff class and sungill swarms the board.
Well, if you're coming back then you would be at least able to tell us if blizzard has started giving away free decks like they said they would to returning players. Not so sure what's the time frame to receive the cards though.
if you left during the blitzchung controversy means you've not seen the DoD expansion yet. Meta has never been healthier in my opinion, so I would say its definitely better than it was prior to DoD. New ranking system too, which I think is better than the previous one.
Face hunter is probably the most toxic, mostly piloted by bm-heavy players, but I havent seen one since a month ago. So I guess if youre wanting to come back, nows a better time than ever it was or could be.
I think the new ranking system is supposed to allow players to climb ladder fast, back to where they were previously. It took me only 2 days to reach diamond, but I'm not complaining.
The new MMR system matches you to players around your actual rank. I've been facing high level decks all around my climb to diamond, and that hasnt stopped. A little disappointing that I dont get to know what their rank really was, but they were assuredly not anywhere below diamond.
If blizzard would change anything at all, I think they might consider increasing the star requirement for each rank up above gold or platinum. 3 stars is a little meh to be honest. Maybe increase gold and platinum to 4 stars and diamond to 5.
Still, if the MMR works as it should, nobody should be complaining since they're likely to be facing players more matching with their actual rank no matter what their current rank is anyway. If nothing else, this only make it easier to players to get better monthly rewards for less effort, and I would genuinely support that.
Kayn Sunfury is really strong, but he's limited by the fact that he's a class legendary and if I'm low on dust he's probably not going to be a card I would want to craft, at least not until hes confirmed by pros as a vital part of the deck. In many ways he's like Dragonbane in dragon hunter. Its really strong in very specific points of matches, but in most cases you can probably still do well without em.
Probable safe cards to craft assuming you want to rank up (just my opinion, dont crucify me)
Maiev Shadowsong
Astromancer Solarian
Metamorphosis
Shadowjeweler Hanar
Kanrethad Ebonlocke
I agree with shuckie up there that Kayn Sunfury is probably overrated. Its best use is against priest and druid. In most cases, you can accomplish the same thing with Maiev Shadowsong. That's not to say its a bad card and will never see play, I'm just thinking of super safe options assuming youre crafting day 1.
I will add that its a 1 mana 2 damage hero power.
Its being used as we speak in standard as a counter to bombs and albatrosses. Yeah, it can give you a duplicate, but chances are against it.
Outside of rogue, there's no way to tutor those cards out. And though its not entirely foolproof, it provides a possible out that may prove decisive. Aside from this, I much rather have a class card than an albatross or 5 to the face any day.
Certain decks and class work better with the coin, some don't. Aggro decks in particular enjoy massive advantages going first.
This have been argued for ages, but I think the last time I heard of any form of statistic from blizzard was that going first have a 1% advantage in terms of win rate. Since there's no way to balance the advantage afforded to the ones going first (minion attack initiative), I suppose its only fair that the advantages of the coin provides shouldnt be taken away neither.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Its always funny to me how Open the Waygate tend to produce powerful, polarizing decks that nearly everyone except the one current playing it absolutely hates, and yet for some reason it dodges just about every little nerf to wild cards. At least the list added here doesnt have that retarded Archmage Vargoth synergy with waygate.
Not sure how The Lurker Below interacts with deathrattles, but if the second hit trigger AFTER the deathrattle, this might just be an auto include in any control shaman deck.
In my opinion, shaman got some real powerful cards for a control style deck. One of those cards will NOT be Lady Vashj, just about the worst of all the primes. Shaman already suffers from abysmal draws, to rely on drawing this one specific card, then draw the prime, and then pray you still have spells in your deck else the card just doesnt do anything for 7 mana. Its just too inconsistent for combo, and too slow to make an impact.
We know rogue is pretty good already, so there's no need for me to hammer it home. I'll just state some few observations;
Bamboozle is pretty much the strongest of all the secrets if you're playing for tempo since it effectively discourages opponents to trade into any minions. Even a 1 drop can be upgraded into a 4 drop that your opponent cant deal with, and thereby giving you an advantage. This is particularly effective when you have low health, high attack stuff like Spymistress. And if they feel like using a spell, then it might activate Dirty Tricks, giving you a card advantage. Not to mention that your opponent would need to commit resources to do all of that. So you might well see a spymistress simply surviving all 3 turns, best case scenario.
Akama is great, and is very likely better than his prime. My biggest problem with Akama Prime is, first you got to draw akama, then play akama, then allow akama to die, and only then you stand a chance to draw akama prime, and then you have to commit to a 6 mana do nothing. This is basically a slower Waxadred without infinite potential. In any aggro deck, where Akama Prime can possible be useful, even Wasteland Assassin seems like a better card. But because Akama himself is a decent stealth card, this will be seen in competitive play. The tragic thing is if akama gets silenced, that might actually come back to haunt your opponent, not you.
I am genuinely curious how many hours it took you to get this much up, even on those small pieces I wrote outside of this thread took around 20 minutes per article, and those were written per class.
I will address some interesting point you made in the article, and insert my own predictions.
Demon hunters - My prediction is that midrange and highlander dhunter will dominate the meta. Not so for aggressive dhunters, which suffers greatly from board clears.
I dont agree that aggressive hunters will kill off any sort of dhunters. To explain, Dhunters have one aspect that make them more resistant to both face hunter and dragon hunter, and that aspect is that they can heal, and are deceptively good at it. Aldrachi Warblades will be basically in every dhunter, and can heal for 3 with 1 mana hp, and can heal for even more thanks to cards like Chaos Strike and Twin Slice, never mind Inner Demon. As we have experienced, even healing for a mere 6 points tend to rubbish face hunter 50% of the time, and here's a card that heals for 3 every turn for 3 turns, with potential to do more. Also Ashtongue Battlelord is the new psuedo zilliax for dhunters, which guarantees to at least absorb 5 damage at minimum.
Dhunter has access to some of the best tempo cards in the game. Perhaps even better than dragon hunter's or rogue. For that reason, dragon hunter doesnt get a free win versus dhunters of any sort.
Also, Eye Beam. This card is so disgusting that I genuinely belief this to be the main reason NOT to run a highlander dhunter.
Paladin - Probably murloc paladin might make a comeback, but there is higher hopes for highlander dragon paladin. Overall, I dont think paladin can ever match up to dhunters, hunter or rogue, but will be competitive versus other classes. They will be stuck at tier 3 until further notice, is my prediction.
Also, in my opinion healing doesnt counter aggro decks that rely on tempo. Dragon hunter still destroys dragon paladin with double Amber Watcher, even now. Its only very good versus face hunter.
Hunter - This is perhaps the one and only time I genuinely belief there's enough support for a tier 2 combo hunter. Play a semi defensive secret hunter built, draw your specific beasts (Savannah Highmane, King Krush, Tundra Rhino, Scarlet Webweaver, etc.) with tutor cards like Scavenger's Ingenuity, buff em with Scrap Shot, then play Beastmaster Leoroxx for the win, or play Hunting Party for discounted king krush for the win.
But enough with the memes. Dragon hunter and face hunter will probably be forefront on everyone's nightmares, gaining the powerful Pack Tactics and losing basically nothing. Face hunter in particular since the weakness of SN1P-SN4P+Zilliax is no longer a thing. I will be greatly surprised to see face hunter not nerfed in some way. It straight up counters half of all classes, and personally makes quest res priest a thing. Both abominable results of a face hunter meta.
Tier 1, dragon hunter + face hunter. Probably better bet on dragon hunter than face hunter.
Rogue - Will be tier 1 alongside dhunters, and will be the true competition to Illidan's midrange madness. Stealth aggro rogue looks really strong, almost too strong. We have seen what happens when aggro rogue gets draw cards, and Greyheart Sage is just that. Plus Dirty Tricks, this basically invalidates any reason to run both galakrond or togwaggle for draw and that's saying alot. It also allows rogue to use Cold Blood effectively again, perhaps its even good enough to replace Shadowstep now that Leeroy Jenkins is no longer here.
Secret rogue will likewise also find competitiveness. Bamboozle is a dangerous card, which protects tempo and discourages face/minion trading from your opponent. Blackjack stunner destroys embiggen druid, and Shadowjeweler Hanar looks to be as good as it was when it was first revealed. All in all, very strong support for secret rogue.
Dont underestimate Cursed Vagrant. This card basically ensures that the only way to avoid 7 to the face is with taunts and freezes. It comes expensive at 7, but drop this card and watch your opponent scramble for a taunt.
Warlock - Probably where we will disagree the most. I watched trump's very successful play against firebat using Shadow Council + Imprisoned Scrap Imp but am convinced that its just a highrolling meme at best.
In my opinion Shadow Council is perhaps best played in the 'trash' lock style deck that wins with alex+Nether Breath+Soulfire, since it cycles hard so its more consistent than controlock. Another place for this is discard zoolock, since Hand of Gul'dan+Expired Merchant allows for near infinite draw potential so there's consistency greater than controlock. Also, zoolock never tends to shy away from throwing their hand since its basically outvalued anywhere above turn 4 anyway.
Plot twist warlock, my very own love, will suffer from the loss of Dollmaster Dorian. Perhaps this will be the best time for quest lock to shine. But I'm not optimistic.
My prediction is galakrond controlock to still be the highest tier warlock can aspire to. Maybe shadow council trashlock can make a difference, fingers crossed.
Druid - We are in agreement. I will only add that quest druid can outvalue aggro dhunters and all types of rogue, and will likely see it in tier 2.
Shaman - Again, we are in agreement. Mostly because you brought up the shaman list which I have genuine hope can be tier 2. The creator of the list didnt see hope to put in The Lurker Below and instead opted for Lady Vashj. In my opinion that's a mistake. Vashj prime is the worst of all the primes, and The Lurker Below is at least a decent counter to aggro decks, and with shaman cards being as it is, that's probably good enough.
Priest - My opinion is that priest is good, and tempo priest has a decent chance against aggressive hunters and dhunters. Outside of that, priest gets out valued hard by nearly every other class that plays midrange and above. This might be the best time for galakrond priest to shine, with the hero power and invokes being more powerful since priest lost its ability to draw with Northshire Cleric, and the timely addition of stronger minions.
My prediction is for midrange galakrond priest to be a decent tier 2, and dragon priest as an effective counter to aggro dhunters and hunters, which is reason enough for priest to be on top, at least for a while.
Mage - There's a possibility for the archetype of freeze mage to come back to standard, mostly because of Incanter's Flow. If everything goes according to plan, you can easily get 2x Fireball + 2x [Hearthstone Card (frost bolt) Not Found] to hit face for 18, with a single Pyroblast as backup. Add this to an Alexstrasza + 1 mana Frost Nova, there's enough here to make freeze mage work.
Draw is an issue though, but you might still be able to buy some turns with Evocation, which is more than likely to give you a freeze spell somewhere. Added that Evocation can also generate burn cards, and can be generated by cards like Magic Trick, there's more than enough gas for the combo dream to live on.
I predict, boldly, that mage can actually be tier 1 at some point. Put down only by face hunter. But its likely going to be tier 2 at best or just plain tier 4 for lack of consistency.
Edit: Added Mage critique
I pretty much agree that priest isnt going to be tier 1, but there's a place in tier 2 for it. I am in particularly thinking that priest has a decent chance against dhunters, which is going to be everywhere, which was I why I thought dragon tempo priest can do well.
Initially I wasnt so impressed with Skeletal Dragon for its decent-ish statline with taunt, but priest has more dragon synergy cards and can actually do something about the board in a way that druid cannot, so a 4/7 taunt value generator is decent. There's pontential, but I can see your reasoning why this is just unplayable.
Coilfang Warlord is out of the spectrum. Let's not compare anything to that. This makes me want to run Faceless Manipulator so I can get him into as many decks and class as I can.
In my opinion, priest has some good cards in the expansion, but that shouldnt surprise anyone with the class's transition into a more tempoish class similar to paladin.
A few short thoughts;
- Imprisoned Homunculus curves into Apotheosis, which is why I think both cards will feature in a tempo priest. But I'm more interested in Imprisoned Vilefiend into Power Infusion. Can there be room for both? I dont see why not.
- Dragon tempo priest can actually do well, with cards like Skeletal Dragon and Dragonmaw Sentinel being very good synergy cards. The sentinal in particular since it has lifesteal and therefore every aggro class will proceed to waste resources on this card instead of hitting your face.
- Dragonmaw Overseer, [Hearthstone Card (Sethekk vielweaver) Not Found], and Renew, I'm much less optimistic. Dragonmaw overseer in particular is very slow and will die to anything more than a poke in the arm. Buffing something with 2/2 is very strong, especially with cards like Dragonmaw Sentinel, but that doesnt change the fact that Dragonmaw Overseer is just a 3 mana 2/2 that needs a board to work and doesnt allow a potential value trade the same turn you play it. In other words, just play Apotheosis instead.
- I think zetalot, pro priest player, remarked that he is impressed with Psyche Split. Not for me to doubt the priest king himself, but I dont see it. Perhaps he already has something in mind every one else cant see. I look forward to seeing if he's right on this one.
- Soul Mirror will cause quite a lot of raging and computer smashing to happen at some point.
Edit: Removed my opinion that priest having one of the best sets. Seriously, they have some good cards, but no way best.
Okay, good ol' Pally. Let's see;
Imprisoned Sungill, practically unloved by all, is a 1 mana Murloc Tidecaller that summons an extra 1/1 murloc, but comes 2 turns later. Its easy to see why its considered a weak card; its slow, the effect is subpar, and its weak all on its own. But theres something to be said about a card that swarms the board, happens to be in a class that needs a board to work, and is a murloc. This card curves well into Coldlight Seer, can be buffed by stuff like Scalelord, and Righteous Cause, and your opponent can't prevent it from being buffed. Three 1 health murlocs is not remotely threatening, but buffed up with 3 health or divine shield and the card is suddenly threatening a Murloc Warleader comeback. Im already concerned about paladin's ability to keep a board in the early game thanks to the new class demon hunter, which is why I think cards like Imprisoned Sungill and Imprisoned Vilefiend deserves a second look in the class.
On the other hand, while I do love the concept of a librarian paladin, I'm not as optimistic. Paladin has serious issues about maintaining tempo in the early game, which is exactly why rogue preys on the class even today. Add dhunters being everywhere day 1, there's got to be a way for paladin to make a comeback around turn 3-4 and in my opinion the librams aren't contributing to that cause. You need two attendants or 1 truthseeker to make Libram of Wisdom remotely playable and the famed Libram of Hope comes much much later, so if you drawn both of them but not your discount cards, its effectively a dead card. In short, I'm already having problems with paladin's consistency thanks to their abysmal draw cards (no Acolyte of Pain, Prismatic Lens and Crystology rotating) and now we're supposed to jam a few more value cards for a late game that does little to nothing on the early game. To illustrate further, the higher winrate card in pure pally is not the famed and frankly insane Lightforged Crusader, but good ol' reliable Lightforged Zealot. It doesnt take alot to understand why a mere additional 4/2 body with truesilver champion is the better card.
To be honest I have the same opinion that poor Imprisoned Sungill may turn out to surprise everyone, mostly because paladin happens to be a buff class and sungill swarms the board.
Well, if you're coming back then you would be at least able to tell us if blizzard has started giving away free decks like they said they would to returning players. Not so sure what's the time frame to receive the cards though.
if you left during the blitzchung controversy means you've not seen the DoD expansion yet. Meta has never been healthier in my opinion, so I would say its definitely better than it was prior to DoD. New ranking system too, which I think is better than the previous one.
Face hunter is probably the most toxic, mostly piloted by bm-heavy players, but I havent seen one since a month ago. So I guess if youre wanting to come back, nows a better time than ever it was or could be.
I think the new ranking system is supposed to allow players to climb ladder fast, back to where they were previously. It took me only 2 days to reach diamond, but I'm not complaining.
The new MMR system matches you to players around your actual rank. I've been facing high level decks all around my climb to diamond, and that hasnt stopped. A little disappointing that I dont get to know what their rank really was, but they were assuredly not anywhere below diamond.
If blizzard would change anything at all, I think they might consider increasing the star requirement for each rank up above gold or platinum. 3 stars is a little meh to be honest. Maybe increase gold and platinum to 4 stars and diamond to 5.
Still, if the MMR works as it should, nobody should be complaining since they're likely to be facing players more matching with their actual rank no matter what their current rank is anyway. If nothing else, this only make it easier to players to get better monthly rewards for less effort, and I would genuinely support that.
A little disappointed that the final battle with Cenarius wasnt a 'supposed to lose' fight.
At least we can see a little deeper how Maiev Shadowsong came to hate this guy.