A lot of the stuff we’re seeing so far seems to be really strong on the aggro end, particularly Outcast Demon Hunter with their mana cheating.
I’m predicting we see Aggrostone like we’ve probably never seen it before.
Frost Aggro DK
Unholy Aggro DK
Outcast DH
That’s probably what our Tier 1 will look like if we’re being honest.
No worries, Rancor solos those decks.
oh no
The funny thing is that Rancor was actually really good at 4 mana. Now, if you’re playing Rancor for 4 mana on turn 4, you’re killing nothing. The board will be filled with 3 health+ minions lol
Rancor would have to be a 2 mana spell nowadays just to be considered good.
Proceeds to name 2 decks that we have seen for an entire expansion
I never said we’d see all new decks. I was talking about how much aggro, not specific aggro decks. The tier 1 list is just to show how strong it will be.
This is very likely going to be the most aggro heavy meta we’ve ever seen. Is that clearer?
This feels like an exaggeration repeated every expansion. Yet I dont think anything can beat day 1 DH release as most aggro heavy
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
DH day 1 wasn’t really “aggro heavy” as it was just DH really. “Aggro heavy” isn’t meant as a term to represent “top deck is aggro” but rather a meta dominated by mostly aggro decks.
Id argue that a bigger factor in determining if a meta is aggro heavy is determining what % of players are playing an aggro deck, and if 40% of players are playing the same aggro deck, not taking into account any other decks, the meta is pretty aggro heavy
I can see your point, but I’d disagree. Just because 1 deck is busted and everyone is playing it doesn’t constitute calling the entire meta a >insert deck type< heavy meta. The deck type isn’t busted, the deck itself is busted.
The entire aggro archetype is going to take over the meta, not a specific aggro deck. This is because aggro support is very strong, and control tools are very weak.
We’ll see, Aggro is losing a lot of good neutral 1 drops (Peasent and Trogg) with no obvious replacements.
I also think Blood DK is a pretty hard counter to the aggro decks, along with the new Pure Paladin package with Kangor that I think could be insane
I’m hoping so. Blood DK might be the deck to run come expansion release as many people will be running aggro packages. The problem is that a lot of the Blood DK board control tools might not come on board in time. Even now, against Frost aggro DK, the win rate is still hovering around 50%.
Also the new druid Legendary can be a massive f**k u to any aggro deck if comboed with Anub’Rekhan and the big armor minions. Good luck getting through 2 20+ Health Taunt minions on top of a ridiculous amount of armor the druid will be getting.
I think there will be a fair amount of control and disruption tools available in the upcoming meta, so I wouldn’t say it will be a hopeless aggro situation. If only just because Blood DK still exists. Also, even tho control warrior is going to be a questionable archetype, it does have the Kodo drums, which are a pretty strong control tool. We will soon see I guess.
Vicious syndicate posted a worrying play pattern about tony in Druid in their card review article today. There’s a way for Druid to destroy their opponents deck with a tony + jailer combo. The order in which the Druid plays them depends on if it’s facing an opponent that can clear jailer with hard removal.
If the opponent is a blood death knight or control priest type deck that will kill jailer then Druid Combos Anubrikan and plays tony first, which swaps decks. Then he plays Jailer on the same turn. This is basically the same effect as tony + fires of zim Ashanti + steam cleaner. It instantly destroys the opponents deck. If the control player doesn’t kill jailer they die to pressure from 20 damage minions going face every turn, and if they do they die to fatigue.
The alternate play is against a deck that can not hard remove tony. If the Druid knows their opponent can’t clear the immune minions he combines anubrikan and plays jailer first to instead destroy his own deck rather than his opponents, then he plays tony to swap. Since the opponent can’t ever kill the jailer the opponent is again left with an empty deck.
So it’s probably well and good if aggressive stuff happens out the gate. You dont want armor ramp Druid to be doing that all day. I’m pretty sure tony gets nerfed pretty quickly. Druid can leverage tony better than warrior since he can mana cheat more than 10 mana worth of minions Comboes on the same turn with anubrikan.
My God I got shivers just reading this. Druid would need a reliable way to tutor both Tony and Anub’Rekhan tho. Maybe flowerchilds?
The Jailer/Delete your deck combo already exists in wild and it sucks to play against if you’re anything but aggro. The new version with Tony will definitely be better, and I believe this is why they were forced to make Dirty Rat standard because there is almost no counterplay to it other than aggro or play Warrior and pull it out.
Between Dirty Rats and Theotar, you should be able to disrupt the deck as it can’t ramp as fast as it used to.
Losing Moonlit Guidance is pretty huge for Druid. No more copies of your combo cards to stop counter play.
The problem is that Control is likely not going to make it this far because the control tools look terrible. So if Druid can reliably beat all the aggro stuff (which I don’t think it can) then the deck you mentioned will be a major problem. Thus, aggro will just be rampant. It’s going to put a stop to a lot of these combo strategies and the decks keeping aggro in check (control) will likely be few and far between.
Just watching different streamers run Outcast DH it seems incredibly strong. It’s hard to tell what the meta will look like based on these streamers because of the inclusion rule, but it does look like it has legs to stand on.
Without a shadow of a doubt, Frost DK and Unholy DK take center stage. Very few decks will be able to deal with them. Even the PURE control decks struggle with Frost DK.
Frost DK’s main counters almost all rotate out…Control Priest gone. Quest Druid gone. Very little stands in its way. It’s hard to imagine anything beating Frost DK come rotation…and it even gets a new damage support so its getting stronger.
Yeah, never. ‘Bring ouch your ded!’
I haven’t played Standard for years, so I might have missed something, but I’d rather ask: since when has this game not been ever faster and faster to-da-face Aggrostone?
Druid has armor gain and tons of card draw. They don’t need a tutor when they can draw their whole deck through turn 10. The fact that druid can leverage 25+ mana worth of minions in a single turn with the armor anubrikan package allows him to break the game with comboes that no other class can do. It’s basically the same thing as Bran + Astalor. It’s literally just a matter of reversing the order based on whether or not the opponent has the ability to clear the jailer.
Druid playing against control – Swap decks first, then jailer to destroy his opponents deck forever
Druid playing against non-control – Destroy his own deck before swapping, then play an immune tony that can never be killed which has the same result.
And yes, the anubrikan armor package comboed with flower child provides him with a reliable way of getting the cards he wants early. Flower child is a tutor that specifically pulls only high cost cards, so the druid can deckbuild himself into a way where flower child always gives him his combo on curve…
It might even get nerfed just for wild, TBH. Togwaggle Druid is already extremely strong in wild. Tony is basically a massively buffed Togwaggle for less mana. That combo comes down like 4-5 turns earlier now in Wild.
Thank you for reminding me. Every time I remember that Trogg is leaving, I feel a little more hopeful.