Warlock, Druid, and Demon Hunter got the best Scholomance sets, and this puts them in the strongest position overall, along with Warrior.
Warrior’s set by itself isn’t particularly powerful, but the strong cards are really strong given what Warrior already has.
Hunter got the worst Scholomance set, but given its current power level, the class will likely remain strong.
Rogue and Paladin both have mid-tier sets in terms of power level. Interestingly, their sets work in opposite ways: Rogues are moving away from their existing archetypes (Galakrond), while Paladins are doubling down on more aggressive versions of current archetypes (Pure).
Priest and Mage are the big unknowns. Their Scholomance sets don’t really support existing archetypes all that much, but if the new archetypes pushed by the new expansion (Tempo Priest/Spell Damage Mage) work out, they could be big winners.
While Shaman didn’t get the worst set of the expansion, the set they got doesn’t do a lot to help them given the current state of the class. Yes, Totem Shaman is getting better, but that might be the only viable option for the class.
Favorite quote: “Galakrond Priest is a comic book villain that details his entire evil plan to the hero, giving him enough time to save the day.”
Were they wrong, though? When they rated Warblades at 1, you had Skull of Gul’dan, Antaen, Metamorphosis, and Glaivebound Adept all at 5. Warglaives only really became a thing after the first round of nerfs hit Skull of Gul’dan, Imprisoned Antaen, and Aldrachi Warblades.
Sure, overall assessments were off, but I don’t know that their Warblades rating was wrong given what we knew at the time.
That’s very different than how I rate the cards, personally I think demon hunters got the worst set, and warlock isn’t much better, and in turn I think hunter got some pretty nice stuff. Also the mage cards in this set seem to support cyclone mage quite well.
Warlock got huge support for quest lock via soul fragments counting as two draws for quest and polkelt giving zero cost malygos.
Warrior just got solid support for an already sold deck. Big warrior might be an interesting T 3/4 deck.
Secret passage by itself is a huge boost to galk rogue. I can’t see weapon rogue going higher than T3 because it’s way too easy to run tech cards for weapons.
Although I think Hunter got shafted this expansion, highlander Hunter I can’t see below T2 at the very worst.
Tempo DH is strong but I think it’s falling off. Token support is not enough reward for how top deck dependant the deck is, big demon is strong, but it is in a similar boat to big warrior and big paladin except probably worse, soul fragments are interesting but support warlock more than demon Hunter. Disruption cards are dependant on control being good, I think warlock will be the only strong control deck this expansion.
Paladin librams I think will be better than murlocs this expansion. I think the deck will have very polorizing match ups though.
Tempo Priest has draw issues, galk priest is solid because it substitutes draw for generation. Low curve tempo priest I see running out of fuel very fast, even by aggro deck standards.
Mage I think was already struggling. This expansion really isn’t helping. Exodia Is a meme because of disruption cards and the likely aggro meta we are entering. Spell damage burn is interesting but I don’t think will be enough with the healing in the game currently.
Shaman has basically identical issues to mage, but even worse.
Druid is a wild card, when that deck pops off, the game is unwinnable for your opponent. When it low rolls it looks like such a struggle to make it back. Sounds fun at least.
i have said this before and i ll say it again. i find it unlikely that quest lock utilizes soul shards. the deck has no issues completing the quest as it is, so the extra draw doesnt mean too much. the small extra healing is nice but they also completely screw up your hero power once the quest is completed.
Second plotwist can reduce this problem. I don’t see Qlock as more than tier 3 though, because atm Qlock is good vs Priest and DH, this won’t be the case anymore in SA.
I agree, and unlike bomb warrior, rogue can’t afford hoard pillager.
I think you underestimate spelldmg Shaman. Fireheart is an op finisher.
If drawing soul fragments with the quest reward is a huge issue the class has ways around it. Shadowlight Scholar, Void Drinker, Polkelt, Sphere of Sapience (Depending on how it interacts with tome.)
You might be tight with deck space if you add all of that, but it depends how worried you are that soul fragments might low roll with your quest.
I would also say certain matchups are losing for warlock right now because they can’t get quest online fast enough, I think you’re underestimating how fast quest gets competed with soul fragments. And how much that will matter in certain matchups.
is either used to complete quest or held for emergency healing with broodmother or to make keli’dan live.
DH is one of its worst matchups, you have to get an early combination of removal and burst healing or you just die before you have enough mana to play most of your cards.
polkelt will 100% be included if its still viable, the others are just more situational removal than whats already being played.
those matchups rarely depend in the quest, they are more about making sure you dont lose before you have enough mana to play your strong cards. getting to quet completion in those matchups mean you had enough removal and healing initially.
with 58% winrate over 2 seasons i have a pretty good idea how the deck works out in different matchup
Bomb warrior is dependant on how early you get quest completed because alexstrasza doesn’t do enough damage cause armor generation.
HL Hunter matchup gets effected more by the raw healing of soul fragments, but from my statistics early quest usually means I win the matchup.
The only matchup where I see soul fragments as detrimental to the deck is vs dragon/spell druid because they really don’t care about healing from soul fragments and (at least currently) how early I got quest completed didn’t make a huge difference in the matchup.
the armor is kinda irrelevant in that matchup the only thing that matter is how many bombs they shuffle into your deck and whether you draw the bombs before the your combo cards.
highlander hunter is all about contesting and removing their early board so they cant snowball.
“Hunter got the worst Skolo set, but given the current plevel, the class will likely remain strong”.
In wild, it’s like so:
“Hunter got absolutely nothing playable, and given it’s current unplayable status unless you go aggro only, so nothing fancy or self-thought, the class will no-doubt remain barely-played in wild, bc there’s no room to build w it, bc of releases like this, and lack of b for it’s wild only cards”.
Hunter not-aggro is trash in wild, and got crickets.
Not a biggie, but wild’s meta is smaller bc of this.
Apparently the best class in standard, is the worst class in wild.
it almost like they explicitly said that wild are supposed to be wild, a palce where all the powerful cards from hearthstones history exist and all you favorite old combos still are possible
), Demon Hunter in 3rd ( 
), Paladin 4th ( 
.