This topic was initially to link to a video in which Hearthstone player and content creator Zeddy talks about his take on the current Alterac Valley meta in standard, which is that not much and not enough has changed. The “same decks” continue to plague and rule the meta. After many replies I’ve realized he is wrong and that I was also wrong in sharing his sentiment. The truth is that the meta has changed, and many of the newly released cards are being used to success. And so I’ve edited this post to reflect that I now disagree and would rather not advertise his video any longer. Should you like to see it, it’s very easy to find on YouTube.
I don’t know much of anything about Zeddy and I understand how youtube works well enough to know why his title is worded the way it is, I just don’t know that he can ever be genuine when discussing what is effectively his job because he needs things to change to make new content.
I suppose you can say the same about most Hearthstone content creators. There’s certainly a potential for a conflict of interest. Forgive me, but I only wanted to share this piece of content with y’all in hopes of sparking a discussion about what is discussed in the video. I’m not really trying to have a discussion of Zeddy personally. You are entirely free to question him, however, and if what he says is incorrect.
Having watched the video I have a few things to say about his take. Well, one big thing really. He seems to want standard to basically rotate every expansion. That is a ridiculous stance to take and is not sustainable for anything but content creators and whales.
One thing about Zeddy is he is required to always be a downer Debby because that’s what his fans want. And so there’s probably never been a meta he actually publicly enjoyed. Hence, his tagline, ‘stay salty, my friends.’
However, despite that, I believe he makes a good point in that the meta has virtually remained the same. There’s not much different now than there was a few weeks ago pre-AV. While I agree, we cannot expect everything to entirely change in regard to the meta, I would like to see more difference than we are now. Perhaps, come the first round of nerfs, we will see some change. I really hope so.
And maybe a large part of the problem is the power level of the SW cards, disallowing for new cards to be played. But, then again, I’m really hoping the next round of nerfs mixes things up some.
Edit: And I forgot to mention (I’ll add this to the OP) that he’s having a giveaway which anyone can enter by liking his video, subscribing, and commenting.
I don’t know, I can’t really get behind this. People like Zeddy and Kibler live off of standard basically rotating every patch or expansion, but that just isn’t healthy for the game no matter how you feel about the current powerlevel.
Plenty of new cards see play, but some are also just bad and nerfing old cards isn’t going to suddenly make them good. It is just going to make the old cards bad as well. If you are playing on ladder you kind of forfeit your ability to be salty about the best decks. You are playing in a competitive environment, what you find fun doesn’t really matter anymore.
That’s a very astute observation. Although, I think the best case scenario might be one in which we can both play on ladder and genuinely enjoy the deck(s) we choose to use. Of course, this varies in degree based on how high you wanna climb, I think.
Sure, but complaining about the best decks when you opt into a competitive environment isn’t OK unless they are sitting at such an absurd winrate (60-70% even when the meta has developed counters) that they are clearly an issue. That just isn’t really the case right now despite how much people like to complain.
You are allowed to be upset that the deck you find fun isn’t viable but when you opt into a competitive environment you don’t get to complain about something having a 55% winrate or something. That is something a lot of people forget or choose to ignore (in the case of content creators because all they care about is views and money).
I 100% agree with your take here. There’s always going to be a deck that sits at the top of the meta and 55% winrate is honestly about as balanced as it’s ever going to get. For all the complaining, no deck got above 60% in the Stormwind meta unlike Barrens which actually had Paladin dominating very briefly for a couple weeks before the secret sword was nerfed.
The current meta is shaping up to be about as balanced as the last one was, and there are a handful of new decks that are seeing modest success on ladder right now. Freeze shaman in particular seems like it could be really good actually.
It’s funny how people are jealous of a person making a living on social media. You gotta create content with thumbnails and all the stuff if you want to make money on youtube. He is honest, he got the guts to tell the truth about the state of the game in his videos. And one day or another, he’ll probably quit playing the game he/we used to love.
To all those jealous people : If you don’t like the guy , don’t watch him. Just make your own videos and see what happens if you think you’re smart It’s simple as that.
But as far as Zeddy posting a video with a negative view of the game? Wow, shocking, never would’ve expected that. Can’t imagine what he’s saying, better click. >.>
He’s basically saying what I said before the expansion release.
Every expansion release, top decks will stay on top if:
No new tech comes out to deal with top decks or no counters
Top decks get support, any support
Bottom tier decks, or newer decks, don’t get strong support to bring them in line with the current top decks
Did any counter to Fatigue lock come? Nope.
Did Fatigue lock get support? Yup.
Did a new deck come along that rivals Fatigue Lock? Yeah…Fatigue Lock 2.0 OwlTK Warlock…not exactly what people were thinking.
Did Libram Paladin/Buff Paladin get a counter? Nope.
Did Paladin get support? Yup.
Did a new deck come along that rivals Libram Paladin? Not really.
Did we get any counter to OTK decks? Nope.
Did OTK decks get support? Tons.
Did a new deck come along that helps rival and counter OTK decks? Yeah…other OTK decks.
We’ve never had this many OTK decks in 1 meta before, it’s absurd.
His presence alone as streamer turned into something Very negative for the game already.
While he is really talking about what is happening he has a total lack of responsability for what he says and total lack of consistency on his “opnions” because he is Just talking what people want to hear.
If i was blizzard i would strike him so hard he would think twice about even posting anything blizzard related again.
And yes. There are many legal ways to do that since his videos and streams are about blizzard intelectual property.
