The card would not be bad if not for the face damage it does when being hit by 2 that cost one Naralex, Herald of the Flights.
Naralax is the real issue. It has the Murmur problem. The design of making big things cost 1 is only ever useful for scamming games.
So why make these cards at all?
Because they are flashy is why but it isnt a good answer
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At least with Murmur anything you can play with it’s ability dies immediately, Naralex there is no tradeoff
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Yes, the problem is Naralex and Zarami for the dragons… not Briarspawn drake… however 7 HP is maybe too much for it. Maybe 4 would be better because that way it could be killed more easily. Even if we manage to force it out from the enemies hand by Dirty Rat… it is still not easy to kill it in the same turn with 7 HP… however as far as I saw… only 1 is enough for them to win anyway because of Zarami… this whole concept seems for me a fail design.
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i dont see a probem depnds on oponent minion stats
Because the rest of the deck might be bad. Zarimi is currently not even top 5 in any rank bracket. It’s mainly because it’s very bad until it has its big combo
Its biggest savior is none of that but that AOE clear. Without it it would have about 30% win rate against the fast board-based decks at best.
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You are absolutely right. Statistically its not a very good deck.
From a design perspective though, this is my least favorite kind of deck. Highly polarized where it loses to any kind of tempo, but at the same time it strangles out any deck it faces that dare play for a slow, late game win condition. Also decks that are this linear with no flexibility to win any other way become stale very fast. Especially when they are prevalent in the meta.
Overall im at least happy people are moving away from zarimi because i think this kind of design is bad for the game.
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Why not?
It’s perceived as normal that OTK includes a big spell doing a lot of dmg. Or that a big minion does it with charge. Why not let it be a big minion without the charge (Briarspawn Drake)?
It’s perceived as normal to discount spells to cost 0 or 1. Supernova does it. It’s the literal 1 to 1 bijective analogy, almost flawless, to Naralax.
I wouldn’t call these implementations flashy at all. Spells and windfury charge is flashy, to me. This is just minion-centric version of what has been perceived as a normal part of the game since the game’s inception.
EDIT: Nothing Team-5 ever does is in any way, shape or form new. But I’ll tell you one thing - they’re hella creative. Because that’s what it takes to make a copy-paste of something existing and make it so that almost noone recognizes it.
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For an otk to be healthy, in my opinion, it should require assembling 5 or more cards, be kind of clunky and challenging to play every turn on your way to getting there, and only come down before turn 10 on a rare highroll.
This deck does require you to assemble 5 or more pieces, but it has decent tempo along the way and a 3 mana aoe that will basically clear any board. Not to mention how much stronger tutor cards are in this day and age of hearthstone.
I dont want otks to be deleted. I just want the standard for when they end the game to be like turn 10 . If you are gonna kill someone in one turn, you should have to be challenged every turn leading up to that point. I enjoyed otks much more when they felt clunky and awkward like every turn was a puzzle and sometimes you had to sacrifice pieces to get by depending on the situation.
I also find them more fun when they are flexible enough to win the game in other ways other than their exodia play.
Also with a free turn and 20+ mana, icould otk with literally anything xD
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I don’t know if I would agree with that definition of healthy, but the type of a control OTK deck you just described is exactly my own preferred style, so I would definitely like to see more of those, for sure 
Rainbow Mage, in my experience, just like Freeze Mage, both fit neatly into that description, and both have been my (and a lot of players’) favorites in their respective times.
But then again, I’ve also abused Nature Shaman xD And that’s…well, let’s just say that we probably all agree that’s hella toxic, so the “healthy” border is somewhere in-between. None of these decks in question (Zarimi Priest, Murmur Shaman) OTK-s you turn 5, does it? It’s somewhere in-between Rainbow mage and Freeze mage, as the O.G. Rainbow mage seldom took more than 7-8 turns to OTK you, and turn 8 is the lowest Zarimi Priest can OTK-you.
And Zarimi priest also requires collecting 5 or more pieces, doesn’t it? If it doesn’t, it’s not an OTK, you just got aggroed down (or more precisely, midranged down xDD)
It requires playing Zarimi and 2 drakes at least, and it required drawing all of those as well as playing 7 dragons before that. I’m pretty sure it’s fair to say that playing 7 drakes in 7 turns is not much easier than collecting 2 additional combo pieces, but if we disagree anywhere, it’s probably on this little detail.
Ah, well that choice seems arbitraty, doesn’t it? xD We have to get realistic, the times are slightly faster than before in every aspect of our lives, not just Hearthstone, and IMO, could have been (and has been) much, much worse (faster).
Hey, ngl, that’s a great point xD I’m not gonna defend Zarimi at all. I was more interested in defending the new cards and health of the meta in general, but nothing’s perfect.
I do agree with majority of people when they keep saying that additional turn was “too much even for wild” that they had to kill Time Warp Mage, and yet somehow it’s still fine in Standard. It’s hypocritical. It does make some sense, since standard should be the much more stable mode, so the chaos can be more easily controlled, but still, not fair towards Wild mains at all.
I don’t play Wild so I seldom reply to those posts, but I’m in full agreement with their contention.
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I was playing buff dk and went from almost 40 hp to 0 in 2 turns, even after having a full board of tauntes and high damage cards.
I mean, it happens, but how often?
You can play my Draenei Mage and sometimes OTK people turn 6 with a bit of luck on your side, but how often does that happen? I did it once in 50 games. Average result is a bit different, and in an average result, the card that causes this lucky OTK at most helps me set up lethal, if that.
It’s about consistency, and Zarimi Priest is not it. It’s too easily countered, it’s way too one-dimensional, and as Hege said above, those kinds of decks don’t last even when they’re broken, and this one is far from broken.
There is a literal FORMULA/algorithm any player can use playing almost any type of deck which is a winning formula against those types of decks. Some people simply refuse to acknowledge that, let alone learn that.
P.S. Wait until they figure out that this deck actually CAN be broken with a bit of tweaking xD That’s what happened the last time Zarimi popped off and got nerfed - it was new, it was strong, there were calls for nerfs and the usual, and then someone figured out the deck is much stronger when it just goes all in on aggro, and plays without a single removal.
This version of Zarimi priest has way too many removal spells. It’s neither here, nor there. It’s nowhere.
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Nature shaman may have been a little too strong, but its much more in line with where i think otks should be. Flexible pieces that can be used on other turns other than your pop-off depending on the situation.
Garotte rogue would be an example of one i enjoy and is kind of similar to nature shaman.
I dont like the zarimi style “i have my pieces so now i win”
I like the “I have all these pieces so how do I use them to win based off the current situation” style. These decks have so many more decision points and resource management plays a bigger factor in the outcome of games.
It leads to more variety, usually is more skill testing and you have to work for the wins more often.
Order matters with these more intricate decks too. Garotte rogue could win on turn 8, but it required set-up on previous turns and playing cards in the right order as well as making the right decisions while taking a billion actions. It was satisfying watching someone fumble the play trying to pop-off with that deck in desparation to close a game out. You cant mess up the Zarimi otk because it is so simple and it is the same order of events every time it comes down.
Briarspawn is a cool card and youre right, maybe naralax should exist. I would be okay if the priest deck played those for a 20+ damage combo turn. Youve changed my mind on naralax’s right to exist lol… its really in combination with the Zarimi extra turn that makes the 40+ mana one turn play offensive.
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That’s how it should be, and if it’s not, it’s because a decent control deck hasn’t been established yet.
Idk why it’s not Succ DK, it’s severely underplayed, but I haven’t played it, so no idea how it fares against Zarimi and similar stuff
Possibly it’s too early in the rotation for a control deck to have good options. Perhaps the mini-set fixes that
Yes, the final, twice or thrice nerfed version when played in top 1k, sure xD
That ideal of a deck doesn’t exist anywhere else in this game, I guarantee you, as I’ve personally used the deck to reach legend on all 3 servers two seasons in a row. I clearly remember not even thinking, simply applying a formula, I got so automated in every decision, because every decision was too easy, my opponents were just too slow.
So yeah, I do understand the little details about the differences in ranks and metas, contrary to the popular opinion here. But that opinion doesn’t change the objective truth, and that truth is that there exists a formula which can be followed that can enable anyone to play in the highest ranks, the top quality hearthstone, if only they would follow it.
If they don’t, they really should not expect the game balance to follow anything that resembles logic they can understand. It cannot happen, or it will destroy the game in its purest, highest quality aspects.
You would punish the very people who should be rewarded because they took your product and made it a point of their pride.
Tl;Dr: I do not even think that Shaman was healthy, yet I think current Zarimi and meta in general pretty much is. I am perfectly inclined to cross over to your side of the argument and accept Shaman, even if you’re not willing to accept this. Because that’s the only thing which leads to long-term health of the game - acceptance of diversity for a healthy, competitive and progressive gaming.
It cant handle Demon Hunter deathrattles.
Also wheel lock bullies it and im not even sure it beats Zarimi because Zarimi can push well over 30 when it otks.
There is an impressive amount of diversity in the meta I will concede that point. I edited my previous post to further explain why i think specifically the Zarimi card is bad design.
To be fair it is being removed from the meta by the force of faster decks that bully it. That, in its own way, does show the meta is relatively healthy when it balances itself. I still dont like the design of the card regardless, but I do like that there is more variety now.
There are positives in a meta like this. That we can agree on
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Aah, seems as if I’ve missed a great deck! I haven’t been around at the times of Garrotte Rogue, as I’ve had multiple 9-18 month breaks
Yes, well, your agreeableness is contagious 
If you’re willing to agree on so many stuff you previously haven’t, I’m much more inclined to accept that Zarimi is in fact, not healthy at all, even if the deck is nothing special and is easily countered.
If that’s truly the opinion of the majority, I cheer for another nerf or whatever.
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Today is a good day to agree lol.
Dont worry ill be contrarion surely soon enough.
I miss Scrotie. its been a while since he posted. After the health scare, I was hoping he just moved on to other things rather than dissapear from this plane of existence.
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It’s incredible you just said this. I’ve been thinking the same for the last 3-4 days. Haven’t thought about him for months before that.
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my problem with Dragon Priest its the how you cant do nothing if you dont win by turn 6, even with full board and everything they box your minions then proceed to OTK
It needs a nerf but not the one most think it does. It needs to have its health lowered so it’s essentially a one shot effect then goes away and you cannot double dip on it.
When DH hits the nuts and get the Hog on curve and starts the train rolling there are few decks that can handle that kind of dmg output even with board presence to absorb some of it. I kind of feel like the BC part of the Hog needs removed but we probably need more data to see if that is needed.
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