The new Druid cards are really cool, they have revitalised a bunch of already existing archetypes which we haven't seen in quite some times. Besides the three linked above, Feno has had a lot of success with his Spell-based token druid, and I love my own Embiggen Druid:

A few years ago, during World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion, the titular raid boss got defeated for the first time by a guild which employed a certain unintended interaction. The boss broke the edges off his platform, making positioning-based mechanics more difficult. This guild discovered that using a specific bomb-type item would bring these edges back, making the boss a lot easier. Blizzard, who was very unhappy with this, banned them for exploiting. The guild defended itself citing it was "clever use of game mechanics".

The reason I bring this up, is because you could make the same arguments for the firewall skip. Clearly, this was not intended by the developers and you need to actively turn the firewall on and off for the cheat, which point towards it being an exploit. On the other hand, they did code it this way, and certain strategies go from practically unplayable to very strong by using this method, which might point to it being clever use of game mechanics. Personally, I think it's exploiting, but I can't blame people for using it. At very high MMRs you put yourself at a serious disadvantage if you don't use it, and in a competitive game-mode I understand people doing anything legal to win. And since Blizzard does not take any measures against it, you'd be a fool not to utilise it.

This paywall has killed Duels mere weeks after its release, and I don't see it being brought back to life even if they are removed. I had tons of fun with it in early access, but when it got officially released and I couldn't play with any of the new treasures because they required 20 Scholomance Epics, I dropped it like a hot potato. I bought the freaking 80 euro pre-order for Scholomance, and I couldn't even use them. This, combined with the aborrent balancing, drove tons of people away. These new treasures will do the same thing to plenty of people who were still left.

It's really sad, because it's actually a really fun mode with great potential. Shame Blizzard had to ruin it through utter lack of balancing and the worst paywall I've ever seen in HS.

I'm glad to hear it works for you! Maybe it will be even better once Wretched Tiller gets nerfed. Sorcerer's Apprentice is definitely the card to cut for Fireball, thanks for your suggestion!

Awesomenauts has some of the most creative character design I've ever seen in gaming. Every single character is completely unique, from art design to combat kit to even how they jump, but still fits perfectly into the universe. It's like the high points of Hearthstone card designs, but for every single hero. Truly a shame that the game is dying.

Damn, DH getting wrecked hard. Don't really agree with the Brann nerf, also sad to see the Polkelt nerf since it's such an interesting card for deckbuilding. Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge mistake not nerfing warrior

Nice to see this return. Having followed all of these guys fpr a while, I'd say go for Jarla, Bloodyface or XiaoT, I went for Jarla myself. SilverName is safest pick if you don't like getting packs.

I'd say Jarla, Bloodyface or XiaoT.

Is that an Awesomenauts reference I see in the Humming Droid? I didn't expect to see that game referenced here, it's super underrated and underplayed.

I think this article mainly shows how unrefined the meta still is. Three of these decks have no new cards, which to me shows that there is still a lot of room to explore and refine new decks. I wonder how this list will look in a week, I hope you guys will make an article comparing the two. Small question though: which ranks do these winrates into account? Is it all ranks or something else?

I like that all three Old Gods have strong decks and lead to interesting deck-building decisions. Can't wait to see what you have in store for us with N'zoth and Y'Shaarj!

Why did you spend your gold on Scholomance packs (15 of them, taking the average of 1 epic per 5 packs) for duels and then complain that you don't have enough Darkmoon Faire cards to play standard? You made the conscious decision to spend most of your gold in order to gain a new treasure in duels, why don't you just play duels then and wait until you have enough gold to buy more Darkmoon Faire packs to play standard? Frankly, I'm a bit surprised you only had enough gold to buy 20 packs, and I'm a bit baffled that you chose to spend the vast majority of that gold to buy old packs in order to gain a bonus in a game mode that is apparently not your priority.

Curious as to why you chose not to include some of the better secret pay-off cards like Arcane Flakmage, Kirin Tor Mage, Game Master and Occult Conjurer. I also think you could make a clearer decision as to whether you're a more tempo-based deck, with the Mana Cyclone shell and secrets like Netherwind Portal, or a more control-oriented list with secrets like Ice Barrier. I think either could work, but in its current form this decklist seems to awkwardly float in the middle, not really succeeding at either goal.

This gives me hope for a slower hunter deck, but as usual with that deck it probably will crash and burn without any cards in hand. Won't stop me from trying it out though!

3 mana for 7 damage, compared to 4 mana for 8 with Marrowslicer. I actually think that an agressive DH deck has a lot of potential, with this, Acrobatics and Stiltstepper as its only 3-drops.

I can see this topping the curve together with Acrobatics in a low-curve agressive DH deck. Strong turn 4 or 5 play in that deck.

In a low curve deck, this can easily be a 3 mana sprint as soon as turn 6. This card has insane potential, if aggro DH is possible to exist in a world with Soul DH this card will be one of the best cards in the deck.

A worse Ashtongue Battlelord, which does not see play. Cute to combine with Felosophy, but does not fit in any existing DH deck and I do not see any new DH deck coming up that wants cards like this.

Reasonably easy to corrupt, hard to remove, annoying to be revived, strong synergy with other priest cards. Will probably see play.

If demon zoo will be a real deck, this card will be in it for its synergies with cards like Man'ari Mosher. However, it does not do enough by itself and will only be played in dedicated demon zoo decks.