Once again, my lack of HSR Premium keeps me from the good data. However, based on the facts I can discern…
- Checking Hound Hunter, Blood DK, Pure Paladin and Enrage Warrior gives average game lengths of 9.0, 11.5, 8.0 and 8.0 at Bronze-Gold for the most popular decklists
- Average game length tends to go down as rank increases
…I am willing to bet that chia’s claim is an exaggeration. Average game length is probably closer to 8.5 in lower ranks and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s below 8 in top Legend. Of course, it wasn’t 5 before. It’s essentially impossible for me to pull old meta data even with a subscription, but I guarantee FoL shifted the average game length less than one full turn.
For reference, back in United in Stormwind — considered by many to be frustratingly fast — I did a thorough breakdown of average game length. Back then, top 1000 Legend was 7.36 turns and Diamond 4-1 was 7.66. I really don’t think the current meta is far off from that; it might be slightly slower, but just slightly.
I think it is fair to say that the rise of Hound Hunter slowed down the meta generally. But let’s not exaggerate that impact.