It's not only the balance between classes that needs to be addressed, the power spikes from certain cards need to be toned down as well. I just got crushed by 3 Snowfall Guardians in a row. From turn 6 to 8 one of these got played. It's hard not to get salty as something like this happens so many times. Whether it's this or a discovered Ysera, Hollow Abomination clearing your entire board, Abominable Lieutenant being discovered from a Glaciate, and I could go on. Arena has always had moments like this and they are fun as long as it's a rare occurrence, but Alterac Valley brought in an awful lot of these moments. You can't always afford it play around a Knight-Captain or a Bunker Sergeant on curve, but these cards can be instantly game winning and are among the most commonly picked cards.

Good to see this series is still around! Yes, I do think more refined lists are out there after seeing gameplay footage from Dane, but this version looks fun too! And more importantly Anka finally found a home. I think I'll give this a try.

Oh, and I'll have to tinker on a deck first, but I wouldn't mind contributing to this series at all.

Quote From Author

• Abominable Lieutenant is no longer draftable in Arena.

This is very welcome news! I wonder if this also means that the button is getting pushed at an attempt to bring the class winrates closer together.

In Wild this could even be considered a buff as Alliance Bannerman can now be drawn by Salhet's Pride.

I don't care what streamers request. This feature for me would be the single most important QoL feature they could implement and I know I'm not the only one. Half of the comments under this article are about auto-squelch while that's only a fraction of the article. This is what people want.

Auto-squelch could happen. Just do it already, please! I know they've said the game feels more immersive without it, but to me it's only more immersive in a negative way.

Yep, as expected, all great arena cards!

Arena: Especially nice with along with some frost spells, but not essential since it already has a vanilla statline.

Constructed: Best Frost Shaman card after Snowball Fight!. Mandatory card for that deck.

Arena: Nope, don't even think about it!

Constructed: Meant to be cheated out early by cards like Clumsy Courier or Balinda Stonehearth. But still, what are you doing in the turns prior to that? I can only hope it's going to be viable.

Arena: 6 mana draw 2 with a body can be good. With some luck the body doesn't even suck. What would be worse than a terrible body is having your cheaper spells costing 5 mana all of a sudden.

Constructed: Balinda Stonehearth alongside Magister Dawngrasp, Iceblood Tower and Rune of the Archmage is a deck builders galore for Big Spell Mage! Please, let it be viable!

Arena: It's a trap, even if you have so synergy.

Constructed: Great flavor, but I can't see Frozen Mammoth being anything more than a meme.

Arena: Freaking insane! Best card ever! Questionmark?

Constructed: Is this better than Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron? It is, right?

But what if I told you that Rune of the Archmage can also cast Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron?

Magister Dawngrasp alongside Balinda Stonehearth, Iceblood Tower and Rune of the Archmage is a deck builders galore for Big Spell Mage! Please, let it be viable! The hero power is a nice addition, but you primarily run this for the battlecry of course.

Arcanite Reaper + Shadowform = Rokara, the Valorous. Great for aggressive decks, although 7 mana is a bit slow and the fastest Warrior deck, Pirate Warrior, might not want it because of interference with The Juggernaut. I feel like the effect on the weapon and the Honorable Kill are merely a bonus to adds some extra flavor but doesn't make Rokara much stronger. Or does the effect of The Unstoppable Force still trigger even if the minion has 5 or less health?

Arena: Obviously great if you have already drafted some secrets.

Constructed: Already good without the honorable kill and amazing with it. But to be critical, the randomness of Spring the Trap is a small downside. Therefore, you might want to include secrets that are consistently good like Cat Trick instead of more conditionally good secrets like Pressure Plate.

I'm curious to see what the go-to Wild version of Secret Hunter is going to look like. Subject 9, Phase Stalker, Mad Scientist, Spring the Trap, and Dun Baldar Bunker can't all be in the same deck. Inconspicuous Rider and Masked Contender are already on the sidelines, so what cards are joining them? Probably Subject 9 and Mad Scientist.

Arena: Livewire Lance is crazy good in Arena partly because lackeys are broken, but also because it represents both value and tempo in one card. With The Lobotomizer you're not guaranteed the value but is one mana cheaper than its comparison. However, it's in rogue which means we have to factor in that we decrease the value of our hero power by drafting weapons. My bet is that it's ever so slightly weaker than Livewire Lance, but still one of the best cards you can draft in rogue.

Constructed: Unless you're playing Burgle Rogue you don't care about cards in your opponents deck.

Arena: Yikes!

Constructed: Is it fair to compare this to Skull of the Man'ari? Skull looks much better of course, but is in Warlock and the most aggressive minion it can pull is Doomguard. Instead, Sigil of Reckoning can pull an Illidari Inquisitor. It all depends on if the critical mass for Big Demon Hunter is there to be viable. If so, this card is in there, but it won't make the deck viable on its own.

I don't think you need loads and loads of deathrattles for this to be worth it. As soon as you got decent value of the battlecry you should just play Xyrella, the Devout. Yes, repeating all those deathrattles is great and of course the more the better, but that new hero power is even better. You want to spam that Void Spike as soon as possible.

In Wild Reno decks specifically, I wonder if she's strong enough to push out the Shadowreaper Anduin & Spawn of Shadows combo as a finisher for a Xyrella, the Devout & Auctionmaster Beardo combo.

Arena: Ignore the battlecry. This is just a 6 mana 6/6 without any text.

Constructed: An OTK might be possible that can't be done with Grommash Hellscream (as easily). If not, at least you want to close out games when you drop Captain Galvangar, otherwise I don't know why he's in your deck. The 9/9 body can be seen as tempo, but at the same time, to some extend your deck is filled with cards that generate armor and that counters the tempo of the 9/9 body, so playing him for tempo isn't really an option most of the time.