Vicious Syndicate Report 169: Return of Paladin and Shaman

Multiplayer Discussion
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This will be the final report for Ashes of Outland. The recent balance changes made a significant impact on the meta. By the time the new expansion comes, the meta may still not be solved.

Hunter: Hunter is the new king of the meta. Its three archetypes all have strong winrates. Highlander Hunter appears to be the strongest deck now.

Druid: When the nerfs were announced, many believed that the nerf to Fungal Fortunes was insignificant. However, Druid was actually the most affected class by the nerfs. Now it may be the worst class.

Priest: Due to increased meta hostility, Priest became worse even though it received no nerfs. The Cube Priest became worse as a result of the decline in Warrior and Demon Hunter. This makes the original thief build better.

Warrior: The class fell outside of legend, but in legend the class is improving. It will likely return in the future. When Demon Hunter rises, Warrior should improve even more. Galakrond and Kronx have returned in Bomb Warrior to help end the game. Pirate Warrior is vanishing.

Demon Hunter: After five sets of balance changes, Demon Hunter has finally taken a significant hit. Once a new build for Aggro Demon Hunter is optimized, it is expected to return as a tier 1 deck.

Rogue: The class became much weaker in slower matchups. Highlander Rogue was most affected by the changes.

Warlock: Warlock delights at the results of the balance changes. Quest Warlock looks to be a strong deck. Other forms of Warlock like Zoo and Galakrond Control have made a comeback.

Mage: Mage is still good against many of the top decks. Transfer Student is an excellent card for the deck and should be run over Acidic Swamp Ooze.

Paladin: With the decline in Demon Hunter and Warrior, the light has returned! Murloc Paladin crushes the unrefined decks and is expected to continue being competitive as the meta is refined. Pure Paladin has a promising matchup spread and is now better than ever.

Shaman: Shaman seems to be back. Galakrond Shaman sees the most play, but it appears to be inferior to Totem Shaman. Totem Shaman is now a tier 2 deck.

With so much of the meta changed, I think we should alter how we look at some of the new cards. Paladin and Shaman are certainly not as weak as they once were.

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Link for those interested: https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/vs-data-reaper-report-169/

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Called it.

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I’ve had good results against hunter with pure Paladin, get the bran crush to trade and the game is pretty much in the bag. That Alex dragon dump is just not as EZ of a play anymore and lots of people are still net decking that version.

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And Transfer Student is a great card.

It looked pretty good to me, I slotted it into HL Hunter the moment it popped into my collection. I don’t know why people were hating on it.

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I’ve found pure pally gives Hunters of all types nightmares. Often times, a libram of hope on turn 6 ends the game dead. They either concede or run out of steam and time trying to break through.

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so, p2w hunter is the best deck of the meta but somehow, some people are still going to deny that the game isn’t p2w

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And people were already whining that Priest would be OP :slight_smile:

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Why wouldn’t they? You’re ignoring the whole “DH will probably go back to Tier 1” argument to push the idea the game is P2W.

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???
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This report states that HL Hunter is the top deck in the game, which to you makes Hearthstone P2W. But the very same report argues that once people get over the nerfs, their aggro DH list (or something similar) will likely go back to Tier 1. Given that the latest DH list is cheaper than the old ones (no Metamorphosis, for one), that would suggest the game is, if anything, more F2P friendly than it was before the nerfs.

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okay dr strange, it might happen, maybe…but for now, p2w hunter is the best deck, it’s not just a “maybe”

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Another meta where Hunter has three tier 1 decks…