It's a new day and new expansion. How are we feeling about it?

The Old Gods have descended upon us, and their special brand of armageddon has surely left us battered and beaten after tremendous amounts of battle yesterday. I'm curious what the community thinks about the set so far, the Standard format change, and whether you see yourself playing more or less Hearthstone because of any of it. I'm also stoked to hear about everyone's rips. Did you get nutso pulls, or did you get shafted?

First thing that I did when I logged on was dust my playsets of Force of Nature and Ancient of Lore, because that was 1600 free dust (any cards that were changed are dusting for their create value, not the typical D/E value). Afterwards, I opened my 54 packs (50 from the pre-order, 3 from log-in, and 1 from the 100g I had). Out of those 54 packs, I pulled:

• 1 double Legendary pack (Xaril & Malorok)
• Y'Shaarj
• Huhuran
• Five double Epic packs
• Golden Disciple of C'Thun, Fiery Bat, and other ones that didn't matter

After I picked up my other 10 packs from Standard wins, I pulled Anomalus and another double epic pack.

Once I finished my pulls, I watched a buddy win a match for a classic pack and ripped Harrison Jones out of that.

Right now, I'm playing a couple of decks: C'Thun shadow priest (my own build, it's hilarious and terrible all at the same time), Aggro Paladin (which is surprisingly strong), and Dragon Priest (as I ended up with enough dust to craft Ysera and the new Deathwing, seems like a solid deck).

The Standard format is weird, though. It's seldom that I get to be a part of a rotation as random as this afterwards. Typically, in the world of something like MTG, there is some kind of SCG Open or some type of tournament or some type of heavy theorycrafting that will help dictate what you can expect the meta to look like. Right now, though, it basically just seems like "shove a bunch of good cards together and C'Thun things." C'Thun, for all the shit I've talked about him up to this point...is still a shit card. The strategy of C'Thun as a card is essentially "build control shell and hope C'Thun hits and kills." I had a match this morning with my C'Thun priest deck (where my C'Thun only ever gets up to maybe a 15/15) and a C'Thun Warrior deck that had his up to 25/25. My deck is a Reno deck, as well as his. He dropped C'Thun while I had a huge board, only dealt a total of about 5 damage to me overall. I dropped a Bilefin after wiping his C'Thun down to about 12 health, and the warrior was out of cards and going into fatigue. I dropped my C'Thun, killed his C'Thun, and that was the game. So yeah, I'm not sold on C'Thun as a viable strategy beyond the first few weeks of figuring shit out.

However, there are a ton of cards that I thought were merely "meh" which turned out to be INCREDIBLE! For instance:

• Infested Tauren - surprisingly strong alternative to Sludge Belcher for minion replacement, despite the 2/2 slime not having taunt
• Bilefin - great value for any aggro deck, as that 1/1 taunt is a real asshole
• Psych-O-Tron - even though he's 3 more mana than his GvG counterpart, he's still annoying as hell and quite the hinderance
• Infest (hunter card) - seriously, you need to do this with Ball of Spiders. That shit is FUUUUUUUUUUNNY!
• Deathwing - wasn't expecting him to be a genuinely solid choice for Dragon Priest the way that he is, to the point that I can't believe we've had Dragon Priest decks WITHOUT this guy in them
• Xaril - HOLY SHIT HE'S INCREDIBLE...solid value across the board
• Warped Worgen - didn't know how valuable a 2 drop 3/1 version of a 1 drop 2/1 would be, but he's far more worthwhile than his counterpart.

So what about all of you? How are you enjoying/not enjoying the changes and new set?

Shaman is awesome. Aggro Shaman survived the nerfs and gained a lot of great tools, Flamewreathed is a card that folks have to recognize, Stormcrack is an amazing spell too.

Evolution Shaman is hilarious and can lead to fun situations. Was able to play the new 6-cost Thing From Below for only 2 (because I played 4 totems in the game), evolved it to Prophet Velen, then next turn did 16 damage for 4 mana (Lava Burst and Lightning Bolt).

C'Thun feels like I'm playing against an Exodia deck in Yugioh. "Oh, that's your gimmick, I need to beat you by turn 10." Yogg-Saron is hilarious and amazing

I stopped playing before Naxx (didn't even get the free wing) and started again in December. Kinda want to make a Murloc Paladin deck next, but resources.

Every time I go to open a new pack on my phone (iPhone 5) it crashes now, so that's pretty cool. I still get the cards but none of the JOY of flipping each card, then I have to go into my collection to see what I actually received.

Out of 8 packs (Free packs/quest packs), I received 1 Legendary, which was Hogger, Doom of Elwynn, which is pretty good! 6/6 for 7 Mana; his flavor text is "Whenever this minion takes damage, summon a 2/2 Gnoll with Taunt". Ping him yourself if you're a mage for more value. I've got him in a C'Thun themed Shaman deck, but I'll likely put him in others as well.

Other than a few matches so far, I haven't dug too much deeper into the expansion but it did make me want to get back into Hearthstone after being away for a while, despite the crashing issues. I have a tablet I prefer to play on, anyhow.

Does this update seem like a good jumping on point for newish players?

I used to play pretty regularly but I never got deep into custom decks and the like.

@tanookisuit: That Hogger card is LEGIT in a Grim Patron deck. Like, SUPER legit! I played against one yesterday, and it was so thoroughly annoying to try and eat through so many 2/2 taunters.

@recspec:I was watching Polygon's stream yesterday, and Phil was playing Yogg-Saron in a mage deck...and that shit was hilarious! Yogg might be the COOLEST card in the set in terms of general idiocy and hilarity, but I'll wait to see what his actual VIABILITY is. Also, yeah....Flamewreathed...that guy is beyond legit. I ripped a golden version of that. He dies to Shadow Word: Death, but I hate burning that on him.

Really liking it right now. It's nice playing against decks where I don't quite know whats coming next (although I am seeing that damn aggro shaman everywhere). I played a game in Casual where a dude was just trying to use face hunter, nerfed Golem and all, and it was awful. I am super glad that the deck is actually dead.

Also I've been fucking wrecking C'thun Priests. That is a bad deck and you're bad for playing it.

64 packs, I got Anomalus, Fandral Staghelm, Yogg-Saron, Nzoth and quite a few golden cards. I am happy I got the gods. Yogg is fun, but has absolutely no viability, its just so incredibly random and you will end up screwed as often as you you will gain from it. First time I played it I got a pyroblast in my own face. Forbidden Shaping might be my favorite card, it has so much flexibility and you can almost always get value from it, either as a 2 drop if you have nothing else, or dump it out as a huge minion in the end. I got Cthun with it twice, and it pulls the current stats of my Cthun onto it.

As for OP, I don't think the new Deathwing has any room in a dragon priest, its just very slow and when you play it you probably wont have many dragons left. The #1 ranked guy in US plays Dragon Priest, with this deck http://puu.sh/oy1SA/f604b27932.png , I have been running the same one and got a 65% win rate, seems solid.

@bigmess said:

Yes, it's a perfect time to jump in. You get 3 free packs of the new expansion just for logging in, and you can get 10 more just from winning 9 games (5 after 2 wins, the other 5 after 7 more)

They also removed the first adventure and expansion from standard play, removing a lot of the old powerful cards. Right now people are just messing around with new decks and trying to figure stuff out, so it's as good of a time as any to get back into it.

@recspec: Sweet thanks for the info!

@planetfunksquad: I increasingly don't think that any of the C'thun decks are good at all. They're just funny when they actually live long enough to play C'thun, like 1 in 10 games.

Evolution Shaman seems fucked up, and I routinely lose to it.

Also, I opened Soggoth the Slitherer, who is like the most vanilla legendary ever printed aside from maybe King Krush. Really not sure what deck I would ever bother putting him in.

I actually think Cthun decks are good, but only on Warrior/Druid/Priest, because they can actually survive long enough to play him.

I wasn't all that excited when I opened the new Mukla but I've been liking it so far. Fits in nicely in a slower hunter deck and I'm thinking I should slot it into my tempo mage as well.

C'thun seems ok. Face shamans are everywhere and that's a bummer.

How does the Wild meta look right now? Whispers cards having much of an impact, or a lot of the usual stuff still doing well in Wild? It's weird, because I keep thinking that Wild is all the old decks, but it's not, because all of the Classic nerfs apply in both formats, so anything that relied on Force Savage combo, or Blade Flurry combo, is basically dead forever. Blade Flurry deserved better than that.

@atwa: I played 4 games with a Shaman C'Thun deck I threw together with what I received from the 8 old Gods packs and my standard-viable Shaman cards and I won 3 of those 4 games, C'Thun came out for 2 of them. I dunno, might have been dumb luck but I do usually reach 10 Mana unless I get a perfect draw from the start and wreck them before that, or the 1 time I got wrecked hard by a Rogue...

C'Thun decks are pretty good as long as all the non-C'Thun cards are making up for the lack of stuff like mass board clearing, Silence and taunt.

I thought this was a wrestling thread.

new day rocks

@tanookisuit I don't know why you would ever play C'thun Shaman when Shaman outright got the best class cards in the ENTIRE expansion, and none is centered around C'thun. You can do it, but you will undoubtedly make a worse deck, since Shaman looks to be one of the strongest classes in this expansion.

C'thun decks is just, buff your C'thun and survive until you can play it.

Meanwhile Druid/Priest/Warrior get these, which are incredibly strong cards that roughly perform actions with the same goals of just delaying until C'thun can be played.

I popped like a hundred packs today. Got Mukla, golden Hogger, N'Zoth, Fendral(?), and Cho'Gall. Nothing special but not too shabby either. I got absolutely screwed on epics though since out of lik a dozen I got only like two weren't complete trash.

Went ahead and crafted Forbidden Healing, Twilight Summonner and Ragnaros for my Doom Paladin. It's been crushing midrange and control so far, but can struggle against Zoo Warlocks and Tempo Mage. It's been fun to pilot though. Aside from that I roll with C'thun Druid, and the C'thun archetype already seems like my cup of tea. I especially love how you don't feel like you're sacrificing too much by having C'thun minions in your deck. They are naturally defensive and designed for longevity and to actually get you to the great eyed one himself. The deck feels like it's strong in itself and just has an alternate win condition.

When it comes to standard, I already feel like it's the best thing that's happened to Hearthstone. The sheer number of archetypes that are popping up is only possible because you can actually make experimental decks that don't have to play from behind the first half of the game. So much deck space is freed up for you to experiment with. The nerfs have also done a great deal to reduce the viability of Silences, making for more exciting combat.

Overall I'm super happy with how the current state of Hearthstone has turned out to be, and I'm really excited for the future sets.

Also: yes, there's already a Trolden video with Yogg, and yes it is amazing.

One thing I noticed is how much more annoying "wow" is than "sorry" when used sarcastically. Some people have been saying "wow" to every misplay I made and it's the worst.

I got a golden Mukla Tyrant of the Vale and dusted it. Hoping that wasn't a mistake, the other legendaries just seem better. Not sure what to craft instead though.

One thing I'm almost sure of after playing for a while is that the blade flurry nerf has killed any chance of rogue becoming a good class again. They just don't have the removal without it. Raising the mana cost by 2 on top of the removal of face damage is just too harsh. Rogue got some decent cards this expansion, but I really don't think it'll amount to anything based on that alone.

I've been playing with WOW too. Like, that's supposed to be better? Also, you can still "thank you" sarcastically. Why have emotes at all? Or just let us chat and turn it off if we want. Blizz is like Nintendo when it comes to HS player communication.

I got very few packs of Grand Tourney, so regardless of Cthun being good or not I had mostly basic and classic cards to work with. I used the deck creator cause I'm a lazy casual that's only ever gotten to rank 13. Their Cthun combo built up to 25 while a struggled to stay in the first match. It sucked and was unfun. Sticking to non-ranked for now.

I saved up to get 50 packs this time expansion. Ended up with about 2000 dust, but I'll wait to figure out what I want to craft. I still don't have Sylvannas or Rag, but maybe the new Deathwing would be cool to stick in my Dragon Priest deck. I'll probably stick with wild for now. We'll see what happens.

@wwen: you can turn off emotes. click the other player and the click 'squelch'

I already dusted my Force of Natures, and my Arcane Golems, because I just can't imagine any scenario where those cards are playable ever again.

Can anyone offer a compelling reason I shouldn't also dust my Ancient of Lores and Blade Flurries, since they were also more or less nerfed into the ground?

Yogg-Saron is so dumb. It's funny the first time it is played, but when it involves spending the entire turn just watching complete bullshit unfold, it gets old real quick.

@imsh_pl: The guy who lost to Eye for an Eye is legit the funniest loss I've ever seen.

I won my first 10 matches after the expansion dropped (those quests went down fast last night.)

My deck was the trusty secret paladin with my Cthun cards thrown in to replace the GvG and Nax cards. I honestly cannot believe that worked.

I'm 21-3 with C'Thun Druid (not a netdeck), was rank 23 yesterday now I'm rank 7 (Edit: Rank 5, 29-6 or so)

Feels like skill actually matters for a little bit at least.

@bisonhero: what if they un-nerf blade flurry? I mean they could see the error of their ways right? Blizzard are pretty good about fixing bullshit right? RIGHT?

I've been playing a Yogg-Saron/Summoning Stone Hunter deck and have been having a blast (and a surprising amount of success). Yogg-Saron has been used as mostly a last resort but what a dumb and fun card it is.

Call of the Wild is amazing.

Loving loving love Deathrattle Rogue. Disappointed to see the ladder still infested with aggro but what are ya' gonna do?

I've mostly been playing an aggro beast druid with Fandral Staghelm that's been doing really well. I've also been messing around a bit with deathrattle Rogue and Hunter, as well as a more traditional Control Warrior with the new Hogger as a counter to C'thun decks. The most satisfying moment I've had so far was backstabbing my own Undercity Huckster as Deathrattle Rogue and getting Counterspell against Freeze Mage, who would have had lethal otherwise.

Hey guys! So far I've been trying mostly C'Thun Priest. The C'thun Healing synergies feel good, but I'm still working it out. It still feels kind of reactive like Priest normally does. Meanwhile Druid gets a 4 drop that becomes a 4/10 if your C'thun has at least 10 attack. That's very tough for a Priest to deal with. Feel free to add me. Just hit me up and say you're from GB: Blargonaut#1742

@blargonaut: Filthy priest player!

@c0v3rt: You know that light is gonna burn you, kid.

@blargonaut: That's incredible!

@c0v3rt: Actually C'thun tempo mage is strong. Playing that currently.

Aggro Shaman is a great deck. It survived with no cards missing it got some nifty new additions (7/7 for 4, yes please) and in general is not that much more expensive dust-wise then the now dead (IMO) face-hunter was. I expect we are going to see a lot more of that as new players come in and try to find a deck that they can actually get the cards for, and win with.

C'thn is.. I am not sure. Like my main deck atm is Reno Warrior..and I sorta tromp all over the C'thun decks I play. Its not a 100% win rate, but I am up in the 65%+. It is absolutely one of my decks best match ups. C'thun hits, clear a few minions, breaks my 4-7 armor, brings me to beween 18-10..then I BGH it and armor up and my opponent is out of burst damage/gas. The best response I've seen is the "random spells for days!' legendary (name escapes me) and that is as likely to starfall my opponent to death as it is to do anything to me (happen, funny)

I do wonder if we will see some kind of control shell that uses the death-rattle legendary. Like Cairne, Sylvie, we've got a few obvious 'fine to bring back' legendaries already. I am sure I am forgetting of a few more. And either-or. If not now, by the time the next set of cards hits, that is the legendary from this set I think might begin to see the most traction/tournament worthy. Its got nothing to setup beyond playing good creatures in your deck. We just need the needed depth of said creatures. If they don't exist yet, they will.

@bladededge: Yogg-Saron is the spell master. I got a golden one in a pack, but its SO random. I really want C'thun to work because I'm tired of Aggro Shaman and Control Warrior. Armor is still OP and way better than healing, as it can be weaponized.

Aggro Shaman got better, I can't fault anyone wanting to win for playing it. I haven't dicked around with C'Thun yet, but I think we're all still trying to figure out what an appropriate sized C'Thun is. Everyone seems intent on making a really huge one but I'm not sure that's the right answer. I'll play Yogg-Saron at the start of the season when I just want to dick around, but too many times I've witness it kill itself, the player, or give the opponent a much better board state. N'Zoth though in deathrattle rogue with double Shadowcaster is AMAZING.

@bisonhero: There's absolutely no reason not to dust all of the cards that are nerfed. Even if you dust them and in two months it turns out all the best Druid decks are running AoL, you can always craft them again for the exact amount of dust you gained from disenchanting them. Same with BGH, Owl or Juggler. So dust away!

Totem shaman with the Evolve/Onyxia combo is pretty funny. Shame my precious Kel'Thuzad/Reincarnate deck is out of standard, but I think I can transform it a little bit into Evolve/Onyxia control.

I played the heck out of Hearthstone from alpha, up until a few months ago (got heavily into Heroes of the Storm since then) and haven't touched it in quite some time.

However, this is making me consider coming back. I like the fact you basically get 8 packs right off the bat (3 for logging in, 5 for getting 2 wins).

Man reading your guys legendary rates is making me sad. As I said in another thread, over 100 packs at this point and got 3 of them =(

As for the expansion, I've had my up and downs (hey, it's Hearthstone). Done my usual bash in arena and while I was really down on it at one point (had just spent 2 hours trying to finish brawl quest and then went 0-2, losing to someone MC teching my Kraken) I've had a much better experience than after TGT. There's just much less bullshit going around, and the new reward boost certainly helps. I even went 7 wins with a really bad warrior deck (got forced into 80% 2 and 3 drops).

When it comes to constructed it feels really disjointed for me at the moment. When I try to build decks there's a lot of "oh, I can't use those card anymore, what the hell am I gonna put in to fill up this deck?". I've had a lot of fun with my Rogue tempo deck though (I absolutely love crushing shamans with Shadow Strike), but it feels like I'm getting away with a lot of things because of the meta. My trials with C'thun is giving me bad BRM dragon flashbacks, It's just the same problem with slamming down "good" minions and never doing anything special. Sure, you win a fair amount of the time (especially with druid because mana cheating), but I can't really see it going far once other decks get refined. Overall it feels like freeze mage is gonna do insanely well with the loss of Loatheb and good neutral healing, almost every deck I've played I've run into the issue of not being able to recover because I can't heal.

Overall the expansion has been good, albeit sorta disappointing when it comes to arena as it's very "muted" and probably won't make too much of an impact there. I'm looking forward to watching upcoming tournaments and see what kinda decks will rise to the top.

@atwa: I just cobbled the C'Thun deck together, wasn't intending on using it seriously and was just surprised with the results. Shaman definitely received the best class cards this time around, which is great because I play Shaman almost exclusively except in Arena if he's not an option. I haven't made anything from dust so far in this expansion, so I just went with what I had, which just happened to work.

@robbparris: You actually get 13 free packs (3 for logging in, 5 for winning 2 games, and another 5 for winning 7 games) and a free C'Thun!

So many dumb decks to play with now. Cthun Priest and Evolution Shaman have been fun, and I've tried an all pirates Warrior and an all divine shield Paladin.

Back on the Hearthstone train. Having a really good time, but I seriously need to rebuild my deck. Playing a pretty simple/cheap Hunter build with middling results.

Debating catching up on the adventures, but gonna see if I can still be competitive without.

@c0v3rt said:

Also 2 free Beckoner of Evil with the C'thun. I guess they must've realized that if they just gave away C'thun, to the super casual player that doesn't realize there are a bunch of C'thun buffs, C'thun would seem terrible.