Yep, it’s that Sparky here, who, with some small exceptions, hasn’t been a regular Standard player since Un’Goro’s launch, contemplating a return to the mode now and looking for some constructive feedback. I know what you might be thinking: the ‘meta’ right now isn’t really the best (we’ll get back to it), but let me lay out my case first nevertheless.
It’s Whizbang (the ‘Splendiferous’ one) that promted me to try the mode again. It’s simple, it’s accessible, some of those decks are just bad, some are wacky, some are fun, but there’s only so much you can do with them, so I’ve been thinking whether I could try some more and play some actual deck(s), especially given a new Standard year and thus a smaller card pool at the moment.
The first thing to consider is the budget. If the crafting interface is to be believed, I’ve got (or could get after mass disenchanting) sligtly less than 15k dust at the moment. Could have had more, had I not crafted wacky cards for whimsical purposes, which I don’t regret at all, by the way — it’s just a game for me (and that puzzle had been fun… before they broke it, so it was dust well spent), could have probaly got some more by disenchanting something and so on, but it’s a starting point.
While writing this, I realised that I probably should also describe my attitude to playing this game. While I’m not necessarily interested in playing whatever the most ‘broken’, ‘busted’ and ‘OP’ decks at the moment is for some cheap wins, and I’d rather choose something that is more fun or ‘right’ to play for me, I’d still want a ‘playable’, i.e. competitive, decks or archetype, no ‘troll’ (or ‘meme’, whatever that might mean, as some people say) decks and such rubbish, please. Thus, I’m asking what a reasonable dust investment in something playable would be. While I don’t advocate excessive netdecking at all, I suppose it’s not unreasonable for a new or returning player with a limited budget to seek some guidance in this aspect.
Finally, another point to consider: of the original nine classes, I played most at some more point to a more or less considerable extent, except for Shaman, which hasn’t been my favourite at all (by the way, judging by some recent topics such as this, some of the original problems of the class still emerge: if it’s not outright ‘broken’, which has happend in the game’s history, it could be highly inconsistent and awful to play with, but also horrible to play against due to potential ‘high rolls’ and ridiculous ‘combo-wombos’, among other things) and with which I only experimented a bit without much success. The new ones, however, are a different story, and experiencing them in Ranked — so long as it’s playable, as noted above — would be a ‘bonus’, especially the Demon Hunter, which just seems more cool to me, less so — the Death Knight.
So, I’ve played with Whizbang a bit in the lower Standard ranks, taken a look at some meta reviews (e.g. at hearthstonetopdecks.com or by Old Guardian), and here are my preliminary impressions and considerations.
I’ve been slightly tempted to try the Plague Death Knight, which is more or less a natural counter to some other decks that I find irritating, such as the singleton ones or annoying Warriors (Odyn and stuff)… But, one the one hand, those are apparently not even the worst offenders in the meta (more on that below), on the other hand, the deck could be considered irritating or annoying itself, so I dunno…
There are some other considerations in favour of the DK, though. As far as I understand, a bunch of DK Legendary cards, e.g. The Primus and others, are more or less in every playable deck and could be used with other archetypes, e.g. some ‘rainbow’ decks. I even happen to have the legendary rainbow spell (CNE) already in my collection, unlike most craftable Standard legendaries, so in theory I could try out different DK decks, but I dunno: is it alone a good reason to invest in these cards, as opposed to some other choices?
Then there’s the Demon Hunter… An aggro deck — not my most preferred archetype in HS, perhaps, but also an option and not wrong per se, besides, it could be considered a part of class identity. Window Shoppers are cool, although this whole strategy (with the Umpire’s Grasp and so on) doesn’t seem to be the most consistent one… Besides, the deck has been evolving and becoming cheaper, if you look at some ‘meta’ lists, which is also a plus. As said above, the DH is a class I’d be most interested to try out, but my question is: is it worth it or would it be an utter disappointment for a first impression, when it comes to playability (reportedly, its worst matchups are against some of the classes I’d consider annoying, as noted earlier)? In this light, I’d even appreciate some refined ‘meta’ lists, considering the limited resources for crafting cards. Oh, by the way: a number of those lists featured Pozzik — can somebody explain to me what he’s doing there? Is he supposed to be played with Rush for extra tempo from those bots or what?
You might be wondering: what’s he going on about when the talk of the town, so to speak, is something like the Paladin — especially the handbuff version with Leeroy and Shroomcavate, and it’s the reason why now might not be a good time and a good meta to play Standard? Gotta say, while the class itself might not necessarily be terrible, this particular play style doesn’t fall under my definition of ‘fun’, so I’d rather not jump on the bandwagon.
However, there’s also the aggro Hunter… Playing some Beasts, hitting the face — isn’t that Hearthstone? 
Maybe I could try that?
To sum up, I’ve been considering investing either in the DK or in a couple of less expensive and more ‘cool’ decks like aggro DH and Hunter, and I’d appreciate some concrete advice on the reasonableness of that, as well as some crafting tips (apart from Zilliax, which’d probably be the safest choice right now).
One more thing: they say that a balance patch could be released soon, so the meta might change — something to look forward to. Should I wait for it, or could it be safe to craft and play something even now?
