Classic - Every opponent is a Warlock

Playing as Control Hunter.

As I move up the ranking I inevitably encounter more Warlocks. It gets to the point where 9 out of 10 are Warlocks. I am lucky to win 30% of battles. They all play aggro and we are lucky to get to round 6.

Voidwalker, Doomguard are my greatest nemeses.

Warlocks attain board control in the early stages with ease.

I want to play an actual game of strategy. What is the point of having 10 rounds or more when you can never get there?

Does this deck even exist in classic or did you create it?
I never heard of control hunter

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The classic meta is solved.

Zoolock is just about the best strategy for the format.

Not shocked you see lots of it.

More bots, probably, that’s why.

Well, you could attune your deck to these enemies. In fact, Hunter is quite good at that. Look for Explosive Traps, which you should definitely have for this matchup, and elements of the combo (Starving Buzzard + UTH) or ways to get them (Tracking, for instance) in your opening hand, mulligan the rest.

In fact, Hunter (my own build, which I’ll probably not post — it’s neither the ‘face’ nor ‘Beast’ deck you might encounter) is probably my preferred way of farming these ‘players’ (or bots… Bots would probably be smarter than the actual players, anyway) if I meet plenty of those (other matchups may be less favourable, e.g. all kinds of Rogues) when climbing the ranks, especially on the way towards Legend. Of course, sometimes you get unlucky and not find what you want even after drawing a substantial part of your deck (unlike these topdecking clowns with true skill, of course), but that’s how this game is.

:rofl: Another ‘expert’, probably ‘solving the meta’ by copying net-decks from some list, too.

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What is meant by “Solved”. If every opponent is of same class doesnt this suggest an imbalance, i.e. favouritism for one class?

Does this mean game devs are not likely to revisit this obvious disparity in future?

They aren’t changing anything, people wanted nostalgia and now they have a permanent game mode supporting a locked in game.

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If you are playing classic hunter, shouldn’t you be playing an aggressive face deck?
“Control Hunter?” huh.

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i dont understand if you think it isnt the best strategy why dont you try to explain why and which one is ?

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I have kind of wondered how fixed classic is lately, but I concluded that it has the potential to have a few meta changes within a cycle. So I think it should have a few main metas that it gets stuck at because there are key strong decks that everybody already know exist, I have seen players in the legend 1000-3000 bracket piloting aggro mage and aggro warrior as well though, for pretty obvious reasons actually and they are not very different from the zoolock, but they have a few cards that make the matchup quite favourable for them.

Zoolock is very cheap and everybody knows about it, it’s not really meta dependant because it is fairly suited to most metas with it’s hero power giving it sustain that a lot of other classes don’t have in classic, but also with it’s zoo package giving it access to some decent charge minions, a 1 mana ping draw… etc, well it is obvious why it is good, but I think people are playing it in response to all of the hyperaggro hunter that people have been playing that also scares away a good amount of the druids/rogues if I am correct on that matter. Actually classic hasn’t had a VS report in a long time and back then zoolock was only like the 4th or 5th best deck so there has to be that reason why it’s become better into the meta.

Then also I wonder now why you are playing control hunter, I just climbed with control paladin to diamond 4 and it is legend worthy, warrior is legend worthy, priest and mage also hold reasons to play control, the hero power for hunter doesn’t help you control board at all, it’s purely best in aggro/midrange for closing out, sure the trap is nice if the opponent is terrible and floods the board, but most good players wouldn’t flood a board into a hunter in classic anyway. In essence you can play whatever you like classic is good like that, there are about 30 viable decks, but if you try to push something janky and wonder if warlock will ever get nerfed because they want to cycle around what janky deck becomes the next best, well that is not classic.

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Solved as in we know how all of the puzzle pieces fit together.

What homebrew heroes don’t ever want to believe is that there are right and wrong choices in competitive decks.

Over time, data accumulates about how decks perform with and without certain pieces, leading to decisions about what are the best cards in a given deck with a given meta.

Classic mode hasn’t changed in years, so there are clear choices of what to play if you like winning - this is what happens when a meta is solved.

Zoolock is an extrememely cheap and extrememly effective list that plays quick games. It’s ideal for someone wanting to climb in a different mode. It’s also fun, imo.

If you don’t understand what I mean, then no one here can help you. There’s no reason to be rude, though.

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But truthfully when most people say that classic is a fixed meta, they have looked at one meta report, don’t have the foresight to predict what the change will be or what will become strong after those changes. To be fair you have not really cracked the classic meta if you have not been playing since like beta, only that I believe some people play the game too much to let the meta change around naturally and get bored. If you have some kind of control over how much you play, like limit it to 30 minutes a day or something then each deck could be enjoyable for at least a month and even if you only play the best 3-4 decks of every meta then there would still be 10 decks that see some time being on top.

The expansions that get released in standard give most people about a week of excitement from the general comments you see on these forums as in people already claim to have solved the meta often and even during the nerfs the meta has not been solved it is cycling around indefinitely, however the devs have their reasons for speeding up change. If you play as little as I do walls of patch notes and new additions are not really a welcomed feature if you take a break from the game, so I think classic is very refreshing in that way.

It means the forum ‘expert’ has deigned to read some ‘meta guide’. :grinning: You can safely ignore that.

Do you mean the typical rock-paper-scissor ‘meta cycles’? It’s not new, really.

They are. People probably want to counter the annoying goblin rogue with direct face damage, and trash warlock is mostly about minions.

I think it’s popular because, first, one doesn’t need much brain to use this deck, second, because bots are programmed to do that, in a way reminiscent of the era of shaman bots, if anyone remembers that.

Are they, though?

Except they’re not very good, sadly.

:rofl: How many good players, rather than bots, clowns and netdeckers, have you seen (well, there are some, of course, but I was thinking of what the topic-starter is probably facing when climbing the ranks)… Besides, that aggro warlock is all about flooding the board, and if you don’t, the hunter might eventually hunt you down — even considering the hero power, yes, speaking of which…

True enough, by the way. Some people still attempt to play the dreaded combo of the Wild Pyromancer and UTH — the ultimate tools of control hunter, however. :grinning:

Exactly. Using one’s own brain even a bit, for instance, doesn’t exist in their ‘meta’ at all — virtually every one of them considers oneself an ‘expert’ who has ‘solved the meta’, though. :smirk:

Yeah, the infamous cycle of hype and disappointment [1]…

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUpsudGHiRU

PS No offense but there’s such a thing as punctuation you know of course you can write like this without it however reading it let alone deciphering your train of thoughts can be quite a daunting challenge not everyone might be willing to undertake it using puntuation however would gratly facilitate the process I hope this example is self-evident.

That it may be but it ain’t fun to play against. I don’t mind a few games against a particular class but not every one! I say to myself as each opponent appears, “Oh look, another Warlock. What a surprise.”

I used the term “control” incorrectly. What I actually want is to just pay the long game, i.e. get to round 10 once in a while. With 90+% of my opponents being aggro Warlocks I am afraid what I wish for cannot happen.

Perhaps they could rename “Classic” mode to “A variety of different classes until you reach Diamond 3 where it is all Warlocks”? It really is that prevalent. I cannot imagine this is what game devs wanted. For us to all play as Warlocks. That would only make some lose interest in what is otherwise a great game.

Well I got to diamond 4 with control paladin with like 70% winrate, so it’s just a matter that’s based on my sample, I think it is not a very bad deck, it has 6 board wipes, I believe it’s main strength is that it outvalues control warrior and it should go about 50/50 into a really good zoolock player, but most zoolock players don’t play it perfectly. It’s kinda really bad into druid, but I didn’t see many, again it’s terrible into rogue, but I didn’t see any of those either. Only that sometimes a knife juggler into 2 one drops can drop you too low that even a consecration killing 5 minions won’t save you, but zoolock has to get their dream draw for that to happen.

Control priest is heavily favoured into zoolock, so I am surprised you don’t think it is good. It kind of counters control decks because of the 10 mana minion steal, just a one off copy of this stealing a ragnaros or something big, basically gifts you the game.

If OP is lucky to win 30% of his battles, yet I am coasting along with 70% winrate, then how can you say that your control deck is good and that my control deck is bad? Maybe you have had a completely different experience than the OP with control hunter then share your experience.

That’s hardly a representative feat, and might have been a lucky streak (these happen, as well as unlucky ones). A ‘legend-worthy’ deck, in my opinion, is something you can climb with to Legend every season, more or less, given that Classic is immutable.

Sorry to spoil it for you, but that’s hardly a feat: many things beat control warrior, and it’s hardly a good (tier 1 or 2) deck, too; it’s decent against face hunter, perhaps, very good against freeze mage — which, as said, is a ‘tier 3’ (I don’t get all those ‘tiers’, but if people are comfortable using these terms, so be it) niche deck, but that’s about it, more or less; it’s beaten by druids, has a tough match-up against rogues (which is quite important) and midrange hunters (these are less common at higher ranks, though), strives to equalise against trash (‘zoo’) warlocks and even struggles against such outsiders as slow paladin or even midrange shaman — so it’s hardly as good a deck as many people imagine it to be. It became really big only in Naxx, with all those unstable ghouls, axes (Death’s Bites) and sludge belchers and the aggro meta defined by the Undertaker.

I’m not sure about the exact odds for such an exotic match-up, but that’s hardly impressive, considering that it’s probably the best one against ‘tier 1’ (or 2… depends how you count… once again, I’d take all those ‘tiers’ with a pinch of salt) decks.

I don’t know how you count, but it’s more or less two combos with equality, and that’s about it. Oh, and if you don’t draw the one with pyromancer against aggro (or rather the aggro warlock in particular), you’re probably toast (by turn six plus-minus). :grinning:

Oh, but it is. Slow, clumsy, reactive and very vulnerable to all those burst-damage, high-tempo combos that are prevalent in the Classic meta.

Exactly. Oh, and these are ‘tier 1’ decks, if you will, by the way (of course, I play completely different versions for these classes from what you’ll probably meet with all those netdeckers: I play a ‘Taunt druid’ with a single combo and extra healing, mostly when I face a lot of aggro or something like it, and an aggro rogue — the classic version with Coldlight Oracles — if I meet a lot of clowns with the goblin rogue and such, however, it’s rather bad against zoo; my other go-to deck is a custom hunter; I generally don’t play decks I don’t like and consider trash — not from the ‘tier’ perspective, but subjectively, if you will).

You might have encountered a bot streak, as mentioned earlier — that’s been a thing recently. On the other hand, there are probably better decks for farming botlocks (maybe even freeze mage?), if that’s the current climbing strategy, too.

PS I think you tend to meet some actual players now when you get higher into the Legend rank.

Another virtually nonexistent thing, more or less for the same reasons mentioned above as the slow paladin. :grinning:

If it were Classic arena, then yes, perhaps, but in constructed play you’re unlikely to even get an opportunity to play a 10-mana card, and value doesn’t matter. I’ve written in detail about Ysera, which would be the best legendary in the game, but sadly isn’t, for example, this is even more true for cards like Mind Control. Just forget them. :grinning:

What’s his deck got to do with mine? I think you’re really confusing two things here. :grinning:

I believe I’ve hinted above at what I think about ‘control hunter’, isn’t that obvious enough? :grinning:

PS Mine is more of a ‘hybrid’, by the way, but I’m probably not gonna post the details, because there are few who can actually create something and, on the other hands, many copycats, netdeckers and clowns.

That’s why I report all of them as bots, which they probably are.

Well, with a good defensive deck you can actually prolong that matchup that far, provided that the game goes your way.

No, better to ‘Botstone’ — I’ve already written about the recent influx of bots, have I really got to repeat it again?

Do you mind sharing your decklist? I thought that control Hunter with explosive trap, pyromancer, hunters mark, deadly shot, etc. would have little issue with zoo, especially since they are bot-piloted. Mulligan for removal tools like bow and traps, and swing the board on turn 5 with buzzard, unleash, hunters mark(s). You can keep tracking as well. I would say don’t keep deadly shot or kill command though, those are inefficient against zoo, although deadly shot is great if you can land it on a lone doomguard after you’ve swung the board.

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miracle rogue, control warrior, and combo druid are all certainly stronger

Now I haven’t played classic since it was the whole game in 2014, but Hunter probably isn’t the right class for this as it’s card set and hero power are designed around aggressive gameplay and burning the opponent down quickly. King Krush and that really bad weapon aside, I’m pretty sure Hunter’s class cards topped out at 6 mana in classic with Savannah Highmane.

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Eaglehorn isn’t that great against it, in my opinion, because it isn’t a Fiery War Axe.

Yeah, as said above, the dreaded Pyromancer + UTH combo. :smirk:

Another ‘expert’…

That’s right, and I don’t think you would play King Krush (unless you’re one of those clowns who play face hunter with Ragnaros the Snipelord or the like :rofl:).

Haven’t played classic in over a year, but I believe miracle rogue is tier 0, then there is everything else.

So if you want to play the best deck in that format, I believe it’s miracle rogue.

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