The meta right now is Face Hunter, Evolve Shaman, Aggro Demon Hunter (is there another kind?), Totem Shaman, "Enhancement" (Face) Shaman, "Soul" Demon Hunter (uh, be real and just call it Face DH), Highlander Hunter, Silver Hand Paladin (board flood).....and Pure Paladin.
Every single one of those decks is ultra aggro/face with the exception of the Paladin decks, which are aggressive midrange. I don't know of a single viable control deck right now. Druid's trying to make big clowns but that deck's gotta be getting wrecked by these face decks. Same thing with any controlling Warrior, Priest or Mage. If you look at Tiers 3 and 4 on HSReplay you'll see all the control decks. Tiers 1 and 2 are all aggro with a few midrange decks in the bottom half of Tier 2, and Paladin.
I first discovered Hearthstone during the Kobold and Catacombs meta, which was very controlling. It was all the great control decks and epic games you could have with them that made me fall in love with the game. I feel like we're as far as can be from that. There's a lot of talk about Blizzard's business practices and the restrictiveness of the the new rewards track. I'm on board with most of that but the lack of control decks is a much bigger problem for me than any of that. Anyone having the same experience? I've been willing to pay for Hearthstone. I'd love to pay less and all that, but if I buy in and all I can do is a) play an aggro/face deck, b) play Pure Paladin, or c) play the kind of control deck that I love and feel impotent as aggro rushes me down....then...I hate to say it but what am I doing here?
In fact I can't even play a control deck that I enjoy because I enjoy playing good control decks that have a decent chance to at least win over 50% of their games. There's not a single one right now. Not one.
Demon Hunter has obviously pushed the game in an aggro direction. They said they didn't want to print more charge cards, yet they flood DH with powerful damage from hand every expansion. What is that if not charge??? They give hunter meme deathrattle cards and meta-defining face cards like Toxic Reinforcements. They pushed Shaman towards aggro with this expansion. They gave Zoo Warlock powerful tools like Revenant Rascal and Wriggling Horror. They even gave Paladin an aggro deck with all the silver hand cards!
Meanwhile what did control players get to work with? Tickatus? Control Warlock isn't even in the meta as far as I can see. Warrior got control tools right? Nope. The menagerie stuff is all oriented to aggressive midrange lists. Only Priest got some decent control tools. But they're not enough to make the deck even Tier 2. Maybe Big Priest can just eke out a 50% winrate.
I was actually kinda hoping this meta would slow down due to the old gods and the corrupt mechanic but it's actually worse than ever!! So what it is going on? Why is control being squeezed out? Because the people shouting on Reddit are mostly F2P aggro players and Blizzard thinks everyone hates control? Because they did market research and found out most players don't have the attention span for control? Because they made some toxic control decks that took too long to lose to like Quest Priest and now they're playing it safe by letting every lose quickly to aggro...so that they can lose quickly to aggro again or just play aggro? Because only whales play control decks and most people that play the game just have one cheap aggro deck that they can run?
I need answers. If the game is going to be like this from now on then, all theatrics and denunciations aside, this is just not Hearthstone anymore. Not for me and players like me. I'm not an aggro player. I'm not into rushing face damage and flooding boards. I'm into reacting and carefully executing my plan. I'm into cool combos and synergies and fun interactions. I'm into mid-length games and the occasional long game, not races. I'm into epic, awesome, control matches. That's my thing. Is it just me? Has the game and the community left me behind? If Hearthstone is all about aggression now and control is a thing of the past someone please let me know and at least put me out of my misery!