C0V3RT

I kind of mentioned it before but I played too much Hearthstone last month grinding for legend (in addition to finishing up my golden Hunter and Druid hero portraits) so this month I wanted to play my least played classes for the first couple weeks then just climb up to 5 near the end of the season to get the chest. Week one mercifully came to a close which was Shaman week. It was the class I was most excited about post TGT so I dove in and played 4 versions of the class.

-Mech Shaman
- Midrange Shaman (w/ no emphasis on totems)
- Midrange Shaman (w/ emphasis on totems)
- Totem Shaman

Mech Shaman didn't really get anything in TGT so I stopped playing it after a couple games. Midrange Shaman with no totem synergy left me feeling like I was just playing a midrange deck with a class that had a hero power that was crappy. Midrange Shaman with totems did the worst because it was too far in the middle between Midrange and Totem - so I primarily played Totem Shaman. The only real difference in the two was Totem Shaman runs Thunder Bluff Valiant, Tuskarr Totemic, and Bloodlust in place of other midrangey cards. Every game I played felt like the game was on the precipice of slipping away from me. Playing around every AOE is rough, and trying to take back the board late game is near impossible. There were only maybe two or three games where I was able to just snowball board control and win by turn 7 or 8 with Bloodlust.

I don't feel like I'm too bad of a player. I know how to play every deck archetype, and usually finish a season with a win rate between 60 and 70 percent. Shaman finished with a 48% win rate for me going 25-30. So that's a thing. I don't think I'll be playing Shaman anytime soon until I get the cards needed for "Zeus Shaman" which is just cycle and stall until you can use Emperor to discount your hand, use Ancestor's Call to pull out Malygos, and damage face for 30+.

Next week is Rogue and am kind of bummed I don't have a few cards I want to make Pirate Rogue. Instead, I'm going to spend the first part of the week trying Aggro Rogue and seeing how far that will take me then switch to Oil Rogue and work on that.

Secret Paladin certainly takes an understanding of sequencing to play around the secrets in an optimal manner. If you don't have any removal, you're kind of boned. I agree it though, it will go away soon. Knock on wood, I don't have problems with Patron anymore. Once you know it's Patron, it's the green light to turn up the tempo and race or get them low before they can go off. Justicar in Warrior feels really strong and once it hits, it feels difficult to come back against in most cases.

I've been dicking around with Rogue and Shaman (my least two played classes) and Shaman has been a surprise. I used to be of the mindset that Bloodlust was just win more card. It still might be, but with the addition of Thunder Bluff Valiant, totems pack a punch. My prediction that Rogue would become the worst class in the game seems to hold true. There isn't really any viable build outside of Oil. Reynad built a new take on Miracle using Cutpurse that was neat, but lacked consistency. Beneath the Grounds feels almost good, but seldom see a single ambush get cycled into play.

@hansolol: It might be. The other pro is with mill, you seldom have anything on your side of the board with the exception of Coldlights, Deathlords, or Doomsayer. You still run into consistency problems with the deck, and if you don't mill Frothing you're still probably boned. If you try, let me know how it goes!

The value in joust for me remains the information you gain from the joust. I ran midrange hunter for much of last season and Kings Elekk on turn 2 dictated my line of play. It's so valuable to reveal if you're playing against Patron or Control, Ramp or Combo - it influenced so many games.

Another counter to the Secret Paladin I've been kicking around is Mill Rogue. The deck pulls out chunks of cards at a time, and seems like would be advantageous to clog up your opponents hand with garbage minions and mill away.

Pre-TGT tempo mage seems to hold its own too.

It was the second real ranked push I've made too. The last time I did was when Miracle Rogue was still broken and Handlock was a hard counter. I finished at Rank 1/ 3 stars but never got over the hump. My goal for next season is to learn Oil Rogue and work on Shaman. I feel like Shaman was given too many tools not to succeed.

Side note - though we all probably have card backs coming out the ass by now, September's is amazing.

Secret Paladin is the answer to a question that no one asked. It's like Ben Brode sat in a room and said, "Let's make Paladin secrets finally playable by giving them a 6 mana card that plays all of their secrets for free." Just like with any fad, the meta will adapt and you'll learn how to counter it - just frustrating. I got up to rank 2 - 4 stars before I tanked because literally the main 3 decks I ran this month can't answer it.

@hansolol: It's absolutely a good thing. :) The only Legendary on your list I'm personally still out on is Chillmaw. It feels a lot like Sylvannas in that it seems really easy to play it at the wrong time and negate it's value. Most decks that run it (Dragon Priest) don't have a ton of great silence targets, making it a great candidate. It's not a huge body, and 3 damage across the board isn't going to do a ton against something that's not Patron or Aggro.

I don't know if I'd put Varian that high just yet. He's a mixed bag and with the meta in it's current state, you're probably dead by turn 10 if you're trying to play greedy. I think the sisters have a ton of untapped potential.

The two big archetypes that seem to have come from the expansion were Dragon Priest and Totem Shaman. Dragon Priest seems solid against aggro, but lacks the bodies to hang with control. Totem Shaman seems super unrefined right now, but have faith that over the next few months - a viable combination will surface. Token Paladin with the Murloc Knight seems to have the most promise to me.

There doesn't seem to be a broken, must craft legendary either. So that's a plus. Justicar Trueheart and Gormok the Impaler seem to be the more useful Legendary neutrals. Nexus-Champion Saraad seems to have potential too.

I'll counter a few of your points and tie them in with a few of my own. :)

1 - I don't think Hunter is going anywhere. I don't think a true face hunter has been tier 1 for a long while as the game got progressively faster. As a result, we've gotten hybrid hunter that only has a real weakness to face hunter because in the mirror, the aggressor should prevail. With the likes of Lock and Load and Ball of Spiders, I think you'll see a new archetype in combo hunter become a thing, but don't think the pieces are out there to become viable. I think aggro paladin is a flavor of the month aggro deck that comes and goes as slower warrior and druid decks creep onto ladder.

2 - There will be no hard nerfs to any cards. I think Patron is a broken deck, but Patron and Emperor are also the only real reason for you to purchase BRM. Dr Boom is another example of being broken, but it being a cash grab. I'd venture to guess a substantial number of people ran out and purchased packs for dust after it became how obvious how strong he was, or disenchanted a lot of their collection to get him. You'd alienate a big segment of your crowd if you nerf.

3 - Blizzard is rather trying to give us the tools to come up with answers, but don't see any. I like the joust mechanic in theory, but I just see your buffed minions as an owl target. The big perk I take away from joust is the ability to get information on what your opponent is playing. Inspire feels too slow. If you play a 4 drop with inspire on curve, you don't do anything really to the board until next turn, giving your opponent time to answer. If you're playing that 4 drop as a 6 drop, you're not getting a ton of body for the cost and would rather just play a 6 drop.

4 - Rogue and Priest will be swapped on tier lists. I haven't seen any great new combo cards for Rogue, and Oil isn't as strong as it once was. Priest on the other hand feels like it's gotten insanely strong. Confuse is the finisher that the class was sorely lacking. Shaman is going to remain on bottom because Blizzard doesn't know how to treat overload properly.

5 - Aviana is going to be the Troggzor of the set, where it generates the most buzz pre-release then seldom sees use. I think it's a cool card mechanically, but it feels like a win-more card. Lightbane and Darkbane are deceptively great cards that will get some amazing combos over time. Justicar Trueheart will see the most play out of any of the neutral legendaries after released.