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Hearthstone | Posted by | 6 years, 2 months ago
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What's the most broken deck EVER?

What, in your opinion, is the most broken deck in the history of Hearthstone? 2 parts to the question..:

1. Broken relative to the power level of the other decks at the time (i.e. had the best meta win rate ever)

2. Broken overall (i.e. most powerful deck that has ever existed)

I wonder, if you threw all the pre-nerf broken decks together in a Tavern Brawl, which would be the best performing deck? How would Quest Rogue do against Grim Patron Warrior, Cubelock, Raza Priest, Freeze Mage? Was Jade Druid really as powerful as it seemed? Do any of them hold a candle to Gala Shaman? Do golden oldies like Deathrattle Hunter or Combo Druid even stand a chance?

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  • What, in your opinion, is the most broken deck in the history of Hearthstone? 2 parts to the question..:

    1. Broken relative to the power level of the other decks at the time (i.e. had the best meta win rate ever)

    2. Broken overall (i.e. most powerful deck that has ever existed)

    I wonder, if you threw all the pre-nerf broken decks together in a Tavern Brawl, which would be the best performing deck? How would Quest Rogue do against Grim Patron Warrior, Cubelock, Raza Priest, Freeze Mage? Was Jade Druid really as powerful as it seemed? Do any of them hold a candle to Gala Shaman? Do golden oldies like Deathrattle Hunter or Combo Druid even stand a chance?

  • Star aligner druid in wild.

    • Quote From Marega

      Star aligner druid in wild.

      I second this.

      That deck was crazy powerful. It was very fast and consistent. Every deck was running Loathebs and Dirty Rats to try and counter the deck but most of the time that wasn't even enough.

      Friendly
    • Quote From Marega

      Star aligner druid in wild.

      Deck list please?

      • Quote From griffior
        Quote From Marega

        Star aligner druid in wild.

        Deck list please?

        The deck is not working anymore after Aviana nerf

  • Sn1p-Lock

    IMO, not even Star Aligner had such consistency

    And it would be even more broken nowadays with Dark Skies 

  • I guess I was thinking of Standard decks when I posted, it seemed like Wild had just too many broken things!

  • I think it's a head to head between Star Druid and Sniplock.

    To be honest I think that whereas the former was on average faster, the latter was a lot more consistent and annoying too (you had to put up with a ton of animations and see if you opponent had the proper APM in order to OTK you).

    Both busted, both stupid, both exploited the respective classes' strength (mana generation, card draw and combo potential for Star Druid; card draw, removal and again OTK potential for Sniplock).

    One thing that I remember with Star Druid is that sometimes not even aggro was an effective choice, since that deck has some insane tools against SMOrc (2 mana Wild Growth, Ferocious Howl and Branching Paths; all supported by Juicy Psychmelon).

    Aviana + Kun the Forgotten King didn't deserve the nerf for that exact deck (the problem was clearly a certain spell released a month before that was able to draw the whole combo for just 4 mana), but my opinion is that it would have become problematic sooner or later nonetheless.

  • In standard, unnerfed Galakrond shaman might well be it. It is certainly not the only time a deck/class has been completely dominant, but it was the only time I have ever chosen to avoid playing the game for a couple of weeks, and that was at the start of an expansion when I should have been making the most of all the new cards and an unrefined, diverse meta.

  • Both Star Aligner and Sn1plock come to mind. Both basically took over the meta the instant they were conceived and required an instant nerf to their core mechanics (in the case of Sn1p-Sn4p they had to implement a specific clause to prevent the combo from existing)

    Undertaker Hunter should also be mentioned. Granted, by today'S Standards it would probably be pretty average, but back then a 1-drop that snowballed you into submission without any real counterplay was pretty busted.

     

    Then there's the Razakus OTK Priest which was basically every OTK deck ever but combined with the ability to chip you down every turn to the point where even excessive armor stacking couldn't beat it (cue the infamous tournament game where Kolento I believe stacked thrice his health in armor as Druid and still lost)

    Finally there's Quest Rogue, a deck so strong it had to be nerfed twice and still came back both times. I would call that one the most broken purely because it ruled an entire meta and basically made Control decks impossible to play and forced even tempo decks to be more aggressive than they otherwise would. Conceptually it was probably was one of the worst designed decks ever (after Sniplock, which I believe was just the devs being idiots and not realizing that that combo even existed)

    Friendly

  • I just think about mtg.

    I know that's not what you asked for, but I immediately think about Oko, that was played in 61% of the decks before he was banned in every possible format. That's how powerful a card can be.

    But about hearthstone, I love the game just because the stupid, meme combos, and star aligner druid is exactly that combo. I don't know how it became the best deck in the meta. The problem with combo meme decks is consistency, but I really love combos

  • Star Aligner Druid is highly overrated. The moment the meta responded to it in any measure, be it through Deathlords, Dirty Rats or such, the deck completely fell to pieces since essentially the only minions it ran were the ones it needed for the combo. Druid's draw was so good that it really didn't need anything else, most card draw minions were severely subpar compared to the tools Druid had. Plus, the moment the Druid player used Psychmelon, they completely telegraphed they are open to getting Ratted. Once it became clear that Star Aligner Druids are a considerable part of the meta, control and combo decks started including Dirty Rats and all of a sudden, that deck became unplayable. I don't think there has been a single combo deck in the history of the game that has been that vulnerable to disruption.

    In that respect, Snip-Snap Lock seems to be a much better fit because it was much harder to counter, and even if they couldn't OTK you because you kept clearing their mechs every turn, they could still just generate a board you couldn't really recover from without an unconditional board clear like Plague of Death. And obviously, they'd do it much sooner than turn 9.

    I'd personally go much further back, and say that the most busted decks for their time were Combo Druid (Force of Nature + Savage Roar) and Patron OTK. Both decks were often waved off by idiots with the words "just play taunts and they're done, lol". That argument was bullshit. At the time, Druid's midgame minions were sufficiently hard to remove that it was nearly impossible to ensure that you can consistently keep their board clear or that you wouldn't take damage to your face to drop you to 14. Anything they had left on their board the turn they decide to OTK you just increased the damage potential of the combo and made sure no board of taunts you had could stop them. Essentially, all classes were playing against 30 health opponents, Druid was playing against 16 health opponents. As for Patron...your board didn't matter, the only thing that mattered was their APM. If they were fast enough, they'd kill you from no board and with you having full health and there wasn't shit you could do about it.

    Edit: Forgot about Machine Gun Priest. That was possibly the most unpleasant HS has ever been to play for me. And that's counting now when I'm getting constant disconnects for no reason. Better disconnects than getting pinged down for 0 mana.

    • Quote From lMarcusl

      Star Aligner Druid is highly overrated. The moment the meta responded to it in any measure, be it through Deathlords, Dirty Rats or such, the deck completely fell to pieces since essentially the only minions it ran were the ones it needed for the combo. Druid's draw was so good that it really didn't need anything else, most card draw minions were severely subpar compared to the tools Druid had. Plus, the moment the Druid player used Psychmelon, they completely telegraphed they are open to getting Ratted. Once it became clear that Star Aligner Druids are a considerable part of the meta, control and combo decks started including Dirty Rats and all of a sudden, that deck became unplayable. I don't think there has been a single combo deck in the history of the game that has been that vulnerable to disruption.

      Star Aligner druid was still a very strong deck even when every deck ran 2 copies of dirty rat. Really, the only thing they could pull that would destroy your combo was Aviana or Kun. And even when they pulled aviana sometimes you could just drop a combo right then. The thing that made the deck so strong is that you never actually needed the whole combo to kill your opponent. If you didn't have a second star aligner then you could play loatheb so that they couldn't cast a board clear and just sit there with 29/31 worth of stats and all of their spells cost 10 more mana. Sometimes they were already at low health and so you didn't even need brann.

      Another thing is that there was so much ramp that you could potentially get the OTK out on turn 4. Sure, playing psychmelon was a clear sign to your opponent that you were holding combo pieces, but at that point they may have easily only drawn 10 cards because you could get the combo online so fast. Also, as I mentioned above, if they pulled a star aligner, or brann, or loatheb, or in some cases aviana, you would still be okay.

      Friendly

  • I hated Jade Druid just for completely destroying any other control deck

    • Quote From Suchti0352

      I hated Jade Druid just for completely destroying any other control deck

      Jade Druid single handedly ruined the Gadgetzan meta IMO.

      • Quote From griffior
        Quote From Suchti0352

        I hated Jade Druid just for completely destroying any other control deck

        Jade Druid single handedly ruined the Gadgetzan meta IMO.

        Well, not single-handily. Pirate Warrior provided a nice double-dosage of lethal poison, just to really make sure the game was unplayable.

        Funnily enough, both of those decks (or at least shells of them) still exist in Wild.

  • Probably Star alligner Druid, that deck was just so insanely fast at comboing you down, another deck that comes to mind would be sniplock. 

     

    If standard only its between raza priest and unnerfed galakrond shaman 

  • For me personally I think Quest Rogue was probably one of the biggest offenders. Survived multiple (2?) big nerfs and was still a big problem. Pre nerf Grim Patron with Warsong Commander was also crazy strong.

    But those 2 decks had very high skill ceilings, and so I can kind of forgive them their faults.

    Whereas I thought Jade Druid, with its infinite armor gain, walls of taunts, and complete suffocation of control decks was just unpleasant. And Highlander Raza priest just lived or died on whether it drew Raza in time or not, which was silly.