For what it’s worth, I’ve seen three decks surfacing more frequently over the past day that are pretty much hard counters to triple blood control DK.
1:) Tony druid – It plays the hero package of cheap stuff, includes the typical draw nourish ramp, then finishes with the anubrikhan, tony + jailer combo to delete the blood DKs entire deck.
2:) Lightshow mage – this isn’t a great deck into anything aggressive, but its burn plan has phylactery warlock levels of finisher power. With rommath replaying 10 lightshows and eggwins spell damage buff, coupled with skeletons and frozen touches, along with astralor it has more burn than even triple blood can withstand
Pirate hooktusk rogue, some running 30 cards, others running XL size lists. The game plan is simple. Play a bunch of pirates, then play hooktusk 5 or 6 times and bounce it with their numerous shadowsteps and other bounces. Each time he steals 5 cards from the blood DKs deck, or takes cards from their hand… so the blood DK decks out really quickly.
They aren’t good into aggro, but they do well into triple blood. I ran into a gut of them this morning at like 5 am. I was quite happy to see them actually, cause I was playing around with overheal priest,. Turns out overheal is pretty good into that type of deck (loses miserably to paladin and triple blood, so its unplayable during standard hours)
It’s almost like, and I want you all to hear me out because this is a crazy idea, but it’s almost like if a specific deck becomes dominant enough in a meta then people will find a deck or decks that counter that deck, the new countering decks will gain in popularity, and the dominant deck won’t be so dominant anymore.
It’s almost like, and trust me,.what I’m about to say might really blow peoples minds, it’s almost like you can’t predict how a new meta will settle based on the first week or two after a new expansion or new round of nerfs and buffs.
The problem is that none of the decks I listed are well rounded decks in and of themselves. When the meta is filled with narrow decks that counter a very specific thing, but are targeted by the rest of the field themselves you enter into a rock paper scissors meta. And while some RPS is fine and expected, the degree of polarity between the decks is extreme. When games are decided based on whether you queued into the thing you’re trying to target, or the thing that’s trying to target you, it leaves an unsatisfying feeling even when you win, and an even worse one when you lose.
The fact of the matter is that blood DK and paladin have clear and obvious power level issues that only balance changes can address. They are simply too good at locking out any other class from playing the board early. That kind of matchup spread is not healthy for a format, so balance changes are not optional. I will acknowledge that we have the best post-rotation meta we’ve had in 2 years though, and I’m having fun with it. But I can see how and why you can’t let the current state of affairs ride for too lengthy a period of time.
The whole point of a control deck is to play more efficiently and accumulate more resources than the opponent. The fact that there is so much resource generation that control decks can never do that is a huge weakness of the modern game and a big part of why people ARE nostalgic for things like Knights of the Frozen Throne or Un’goro or whatever, because back then you actually could do that.
What do you mean? DH drawing literally half to 2/3 of its deck by turn 5 is fine and dandy and doesn’t shut out most other classes, let alone decks.
Paladin being able to play 90% of the cards in its deck by turn 3 and lethal you with flippin’ 1- and 2-cost minions by turn 5 because you can’t constantly remove Divine Shields and bodies simultaneously is definitely fine.
There’s a reason why Blood is the only non-aggro deck in the top tier at the moment, and it’s not because nothing can stop it…it’s because nothing else can survive Frost DK, Pure Paladin, and Outcast DH.
Pure control decks were very much a part of the game back in the day, the first point where they really started being pushed out of the game was Mean Streets with the release of Jade Druid. What made Jade Druid such a hated deck was the fact it was impossible to grind it out to fatigue because it had a 1 mana spell that allowed the deck to go infinite.
I’m glad to see support being given to a pure control archetype. I miss the days of decks like Tank Up Warrior or Hadronox Druid. I like that there is something in the game now that appeals to more than just combo and aggro players. I think a good CCG should cater to multiple different styles of play.
I think that one part of what makes a meta feel balanced is that there should be at least one viable deck for each of the playstyles.
Are awful game play. It’s a good thing for the game that these decks have been pushed out of the meta. ’
But more to the point, the idea of “pure” is just a euphemism for boring af.
I think what needs to happen is that people need to update their ideas about what makes a control deck. Blood dk is the first deck in a while that basically just stalls, discovers, and pisses people off. It’s an awful, awful game. Unplayable bad.
It bores you. It obviously doesn’t bore the people playing it. But I guess the only decks that should be allowed in HS are ones you approve of and that there should be nothing for people who want to play a style of deck you don’t like.
No, they are objectively dumb and boring as decks. It’s like playing soccer and trying not to score or playing football and not trying to tackle anyone.
If you find waiting around doing nothing fun then you have issues beyond the game.
Seriously, if they want to have a game, blood dk can’t be among the strongest and most popular decks or half their player base just walks.
I mean, you played paladin and justicar and eventually that seven damage a turn was just too much for tank up warrior to keep up with…
Which isn’t even remotely close to the discover bonanza that is blood dk. Which deck do you think would win? Seriously, get out with your nonsense about “golden age” because all that means is most players were noobs and the information wasn’t as good as it is now.
I did a bit of digging and my conclusions are the last two super annoying control decks were brutally nerfed into oblivion - control priest in barrens and control warrior most recently.
Let’s also consider priest shard, warlock quest, tickatus, kazakusan, astalor, your boy sire, etc., have all been put in the game specifically to get rid of bore everyone into submission control lists like blood dk.
So, very logically, if decks like blood dk actually grew the game and increased engagement, they wouldn’t have been targeted for abusive nerfs and hard counters, yet here we are.
The evidence very clearly points to decks like blood dk are toxic to the player base.