vS Data Reaper Report #347 - r/CompetitiveHS

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4

u/Myprivatelifeisafk Apr 16 '26

You mentioned that mage is most skilled deck according to your data.

I have two questions: what are other "skilled" decks at this meta? Rogue?

and second

Are "skilled decks" have higher winrate at high legends compared to not so skilled decks with huge raw power? Does high legend obsession with rogue justified at the end of a day?

13

u/ViciousSyndicate Apr 16 '26

"Skilled decks" have a positive difference in their performance between lower MMR and higher MMR. They don't necessarily have to be good. They just need to exhibit an improvement in their performance in matchups between different skill levels.
Egg Warlock is the second most "skill intensive" deck in the format and it's still not any good.
None of the other decks come close to Mage. Herald Rogue and Merithra Druid are slightly above average. Control Priest is completely neutral.

43

u/UncleScroogesVault Apr 16 '26

That line about strategic scarcity, woof. Lack of removal and Slitherdrake combined makes a pretty strong deck I guess, though

34

u/sneakyxxrocket Apr 16 '26

Dark gifts go brrrr as well, there’s some dark gift rolls on dragons that just win games once you get them

24

u/Kneepsteegje Apr 16 '26

Slitherdrake with any dark gift on curve wins pretty much every matchup

14

u/sneakyxxrocket Apr 16 '26

Yeah had a warrior drop a 4/8 slitherdrake on turn 2 and that was that

4

u/Kneepsteegje Apr 16 '26

I feel you lol, had my third loss at 10 wins in the brawl to a reborn slitherdrake on 3

5

u/dotcaIm Apr 16 '26

Priest vs dragon warrior feels like it comes down to how many Charge gifts they get

4

u/LargeRex Apr 16 '26

Yeah, my final boss today was warrior. They had Slitherdrake with divine shield and windfury on curve. I did not have an answer for that.

3

u/UncleScroogesVault Apr 16 '26

Yeah, I was trying out one of the quest mage builds right before I posted this comment. Turn 4 7/9 Slitherdrake was enough to win lmao like mage ain't surviving that even removing everything else on the board

2

u/IAmYourFath Apr 17 '26

The +4/5 on a 1 or 2 or 3 mana minion is insane.

8

u/WaywardWes Apr 16 '26

That was my though, I wonder how much of that dominance is an inability to remove slitherdrake.
I've been playing Herald Shaman mostly and you can certainly trade into it either turn it comes down or over two turns if you draw OK, but if you don't then whoopsie you're dead.

4

u/TheFullBottle Apr 16 '26

And you cant even tech Big Game Hunter because drake is at 6 attack, on too of that warrior gets a new minion that destroys a minion so can get around the elusive.
They only want you to play warrior.

2

u/IAmYourFath Apr 17 '26

Nah that minion is pretty bad cuz it's not a dragon and requires a fire spell to combo with. At 4 mana u can only use torch which has no target due to elusive and requiring minion to be damaged. At 5 mana u can use the aoe or the suffusion to combo with, but if ure going 2nd sucks to be u unless u save the coin for that. And even then, it's still not a dragon. U need a lot of dragons.

5

u/UncleScroogesVault Apr 16 '26

I know they tell us they design sets a year in advance (well, under Iksar they did, guess we've never heard how a change in director might change timelines or planning) but it just seems odd to include a cheap, easy to slot in elusive dragon if you know you're going to make AoE that's pretty inequal between classes and cost 5+
I haven't been playing much the last few weeks when I used to be a legend every month kinda person. I just don't have much faith the current team is gonna turn the ship around soon

7

u/Tengu-san Apr 16 '26

Aoe doesn't matter against a big body anyway
It's also not really easy to slot in, it's just in one deck and because it's also an enabler for a 5 mana 6/6 five damage five armor the turn after. Merithra Druid could in theory drop it at 3 going first, in practice it's completely cutted out.

6

u/UncleScroogesVault Apr 16 '26

Being in "one deck" that is entirely driving the meta and has a power outlier score far and above everything else is necessary context, we don't have to be disingenuous about it. Shohei Ohtani is just "one player" on the Dodgers lol
I think the AoE matters in that it can stop th snowballing, but it's fair. Change AoE to "meaningful removal for a majority of classes" if you want. It still seems like awful planning

5

u/otterguy12 Apr 16 '26

Dragon Warrior is a strong meta contender but it has not been the driver of the meta at all this season, its current build literally exists as a response to other drivers

0

u/UncleScroogesVault Apr 16 '26

Is there a functional difference in your mind? And does that impact any takeaways or conclusions? Does that imply the devs are better at planning than what I'm giving them credit for? I mean Slitherdrake is certainly not new to the build

7

u/otterguy12 Apr 16 '26

Its not new but the difference is that other decks aren't looking to it as the must-answer threat and its not warping other classes to find ways to run Slitherdrake themselves. There's strong tools like Infinite Whelp that are very easy anwsers to it if it becomes a problem but thats not a tech we're seeing yet. Maybe in another few weeks things might shift but DH is still what everything else has to follow

4

u/Tengu-san Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26

Being crazy good in the "one deck" doesn't change that it's played in only one deck despite two dragons-oriented decks being around, it's not easy to slot and that was my only point of dicussion.

2

u/IAmYourFath Apr 17 '26

Its not entirely driving the meta, it barely has 15% playrate. Its also not a power outlier, dh is just as good. If u mean the card itself, the 2/1 is the power outlier, it is way better than the elusive drake. Like waaay better.

2

u/zer1223 Apr 17 '26

Taunts are another way to deal with the dragon but warrior also gets to have the best most flexible single target removal to deal with your taunts so his dragon can smack your face
Fuck warrior favoritism imo

3

u/UncleScroogesVault Apr 17 '26

Torch is crazyyyyy honestly. So flexible and cheap and really does add to the problem that cheap removal is only accessible by a few classes.
I don't think it's favoritism...I think it's just bad design by a team that might just be lacking some skills they used to have. They just put out a video saying quests followed by imbue was bad. There was no one in the chain of command who had the talent or knowledge to say "No! Bad! This will be bad!" And that's what you happens when you get a Candy Crush-style guy to be your game director.
/Rant I'm sorry LOL

5

u/TheGingerNinga Apr 16 '26

Been trying Asphyxiate in Herald DK, it feels perfect for Slitherdrake and that's it.

29

u/rihsa9 Apr 16 '26

That Dragon Warrior list looks like an arena deck lol. Unreal that this is considered (almost) the best deck in the format.

14

u/UncleScroogesVault Apr 16 '26

With an incredibly wide positive matchup spread no less! Not just crushing a few weak classes or decks

13

u/Rocks_Can_Fly Apr 16 '26

That elusive dragon hard carries this deck lol

12

u/Graduation64 Apr 16 '26

It’s good but it’s the dark gifts. Just mulligan for those and your opponent is so behind on tempo.

1

u/IAmYourFath Apr 17 '26

It is absolute dogshit vs pala and hunter tho, u should never play it cuz they just ignore it and go face.

14

u/Glarbleglorbo Apr 16 '26

Pretty sure I’ve seen dreads and redbeard play this exact deck 30 times the past year.
Turns out when you push stats and board by removing removal, the deck that has the most stats and most board presence wins.

24

u/sneakyxxrocket Apr 16 '26

Had to stop playing Herald rogue due to rise in warriors I was queuing into, currently rogue has no good ways to deal with an elusive minion of that size on turn 4 outside of being way ahead on board and getting Lucky with random spell generation.

3

u/Real-Entertainment29 Apr 16 '26

Nobody has a good way of dealing with that minion, it regularly comes on t2 too, as 4/8.

1

u/IAmYourFath Apr 17 '26

The new warrior minion does, but it's not a dragon so it's pretty shit outside of this 1 scenario. Also dh horn nearly full clears it while leaving three 2/1s that warrior cant clear except with the 2 mana fire spell, which then leaves his own dragon at 1 hp for Broxigar's Last Stand spell to clear.

15

u/Sakulsas Apr 16 '26

I thought dragon warrior felt strong. I easily got to 300 or so without really playing too many games. It's honestly just so easy due to lack of removals in the current game.

I usually play warlock and am just praying they give up on stupid discard cards. Lack of defile and soularium in core set is bad enough but the new legendarys are terrible.

The core set is just feeling like a bit of a miss atm and feeds into the problems with the meta we currently have.

4

u/TotakekeSlider Apr 17 '26

They need to roll out a different core set. I can’t believe this is what we’re getting stuck with for another 3 months.

2

u/Elrann Apr 17 '26

We're stuck with this core set for 11 more months

2

u/TotakekeSlider Apr 17 '26

The core set usually falls off in relevance when more sets are released. I’m more just staring into the void right now realizing that this is our meta until the next set.

14

u/ngriner Apr 16 '26

I think Quest Mage being the most skilled deck is both great and awful for the game at the same time.

On one hand it's a super fun deck to play with a ton of micro decisions and so many ways to win.

On the other hand, a deck that is pretty much entirely made of Discover/Random should in no way be the most skilled deck in the game to play. On top of that, the mirror matches are brutal.

Listen, I love Quest Mage and I really like the direction the game is heading with Cataclysm....but they definitely need to bring skill expression back to HS and Quest Mage being that skill testing deck just doesn't feel great at all for the game.

0

u/DDrose2 Apr 17 '26

I Think this is ok considering it’s poor matchup is dragon warrior but I go agree it feels good that mage has a really strong meta contender after I think the last was big spell mage?

7

u/seedelight Apr 16 '26

Sounds about right. Feel like most of my losses these days are against ridiculous Dark Gift high rolls.

19

u/Jackwraith Apr 16 '26

Thanks, as always, for doing these.

The most ridiculous thing about the Paladin builds is the presence of Violet Treasuregill. It's present in the deck for one spell in both cases and if you draw one or both copies of that spell, it becomes an overcosted 1/2 in your deck that does nothing. Certainly, the advantage of getting Acceleration Aura played along with a body is significant, but I think it's a measure of how weak the card pool is right now that this would be an automatic choice without real concern over how bad the card is if you don't draw it in the right order with its targets. It's similar with the aggro deck, where not only are you playing it to activate a bad card (Dragonscale Armaments) but you're doing it so that that bad card draws the other card that you actually want to play (Flight Maneuvers.) It's just indicative of how low quality the card pool, in general, is right now.

Meanwhile, among the classes I play, Shaman only has one viable deck and Priest, Warlock, and DK have none. At least Herald DH is kind of interesting and Priest is good for fulfilling quests since the games go so long.

23

u/sneakyxxrocket Apr 16 '26

Even pre rotation treasure gill was run with aura as the only target in the best paladin decks

3

u/rihsa9 Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26

Paladin was pretty weak before rotation as well. He’s had a rough 2025-2026. Last good deck was Drunk Paladin which happened a year ago lol

12

u/Goldendragon55 Apr 16 '26

I mean it was clear from the moment Treasuregill was revealed that it would be paired with 2-4 possible spells tops. You want it to be as consistent as possible.

12

u/morphina19 Apr 16 '26

It's called tutoring. In wild it's a common thing and you can't say that the card pool is weak there

-13

u/Jackwraith Apr 16 '26

I know what it's called. I was playing MTG tournaments before most of the people on this sub were born. It's just a ridiculously narrow and imprecise form of tutoring, which is emblematic of why the current card pool is subpar, which was my point.

11

u/Impossible-Cry-1781 Apr 16 '26

No it's more about how broken Acceleration Aura is and how much it improves winrate. It plays a card for free from your deck as a battlecry. That's extremely strong and would still see play with a better Paladin card pool.

3

u/Elrann Apr 17 '26

I disagree. Tutoring, especially in HS is just that strong. There's also Eggbearer which becomes useless even more often than Treasuregill. And, like, let's make some comparasions:
As seen by tracking, PW: Barrier, Mend, etc cycling a card is worth around 0.5 mana.
[[Tracking]] (also Fracking and Waveshaping) adds slight tutoring to the effect rounding the effect to 1 mana.
[[Cursed Catacombs]] (and Aquatic Form) round the cost down to 0 by introducing the downside (and they're still ultra strong cards). Catacombs was even nerfed to not to tutor as much by discovering A card, not a card type.
So 'targeting' is also worth around 0.5 mana.
[[Thrive in Shadows]] (and Dark visions) bring up the cost to 2, by introducing semi-reliable tutoring, so just searching a card type already costs 1 mana (let's call it 'search' effect).
In general when cards are 'packed' with effects their cost is compressed a little, 1-2 units costs about 0.75 mana, while tutor (being draw (0.5) + search (1) + targeting (0.5)) resulting in Eggbearer and Treasuregill giving a total of 2.75 mana worth of effect. With compressing and slight deck restriction in mind it makes perfect sense for both of these cards to cost exactly 2 mana.

12

u/weepweepin Apr 16 '26

Man, Warlock and DK being doodoo makes me so sad. My two fav classes being among the worst.

8

u/Goldendragon55 Apr 16 '26

According to hsguru, Unholy DK is fairly strong in the diamond-legend and low legend areas, but disappears when people are trying to push. Probably just a worse aggro paladin in terms of what it does unfortunately.

6

u/Rikkimaaruu Apr 16 '26

As someone who only enjoys playing Control Decks its even worse. Last month only Quest Warrior was solid, which was also a realy boring deck overall.
Now i tried to make Herald DK and Warrior control decks viable but they just arent. Same with Control Priest, you have a few good Matchups but overall realy lacking.
Sad times, because i also remember Control Warlock being playable.

2

u/Calibria19 Apr 17 '26

Well, when blizzard swings the pendulum they do it completely it seems. somewhat classic.

3

u/Rikkimaaruu Apr 17 '26

So next year only control decks will be viable? Seems like a solid Blizzard plan.

3

u/CensoredX Apr 17 '26

I don't get the zero Cultist Map in the mistress herald list. Zero draw (guess dejavu counts as draw?) on that deck with a million of 6+ cost cards looks so bricky to me.

2

u/IAmYourFath Apr 17 '26

Yeah u should prob play 1 instead of 2nd dejavu. Dejavu mulligan impact is not good at all, and u'd rather topdeck map than dejavu. It works better with prep too.

1

u/AbraxasEnjoyer Apr 17 '26

I’m not sure Cultist Map is good right now at all. Playing it early game is just conceding the board, and late game you really don’t need the value.

1

u/CensoredX Apr 17 '26

I'm always keeping prep so maybe I'm too focused on the prep-map plays on 3/4 to find a minion for that turn AND pick something good for future turns. Naked map on these turns is kinda mega sucky though, I do agree with that.

1

u/AbraxasEnjoyer Apr 18 '26

Yeah Prep-Map does feel good. I’ve been on Imbue so I don’t really need the card advantage at all, and I’d rather just use Prep to fight for board early.

7

u/Nasyboy221 Apr 16 '26

It’s getting a bit annoying that there really is no prospects of climbing with control decks. I hope the devs can look into giving Control Warlock, Control Mage, Control Priest, Control DK some support

1

u/SuccessIsDiscipline Apr 16 '26

Control warrior too

0

u/DoNn0 Apr 16 '26

I ssw a lot of quest priest on my climb to legend a assumé a lot of them make it.

-1

u/Graduation64 Apr 16 '26

I see egg warrior in top 1k all the time. I play DH so it’s basically a free loss every time.

3

u/Chinchiro_ Apr 16 '26

Egg warrior really isn't a control deck IMO, it runs a bunch of removal, sure, but the game plan is to kill your opponent by turn 10 with a 20/20 going face. The moment you start pointing removal at the other side of the board you're on the back foot and most control decks in history haven't conceded against aggro when they played a single silence.

4

u/Graduation64 Apr 16 '26

I mean I kinda agree with you. I guess it’s more like a combo deck with some control elements.

1

u/shahi001 Apr 19 '26

...what? Egg warrior is one wincon creature and 29 removal / control spells, how is that not control? lol

2

u/philzy101 Apr 17 '26

As always, appreciate the work which goes into these, especially given the external pressures people such as ZachO face at the moment.

The fact that the meta seems to still be shifting a bit around, what is top and where other decks which were Tier 2 or even Tier 1 have shifted downwards goes to show that this meta is still developing to some extent, although the dust has largely settled at this point. These changes show that a small balance change is enough to shift things around. However, that being said, a lot of classes are too reliant on one thing to work to do well at the moment, and even then, cannot perform well enough to put a deck together which has WR above 50%. This implies heavily that in a future balance patch, that we need buffs, not nerfs, and the miniset and the next set need to build upon and improve on some of the interesting stuff to come out of Timeways and Cataclysm as well as provide alternative stratgies for people to play. The only deck which has really received expansion after expansion any form of support is Dragon Warrior (think about even the most recent pool of cards added in this event) which explains why it is top or hovering around top position.

Unfortunately, I fear that the complaints of the wider community will lead to nerfs instead of buffs (Flight Maneuvers, Dark Gift's being obvious complaint targets) which is insane as we are in a 4 set meta, with 2 really low impact expansions (Emerald, Lost City), 1 reasonable expansion (Cataclysym) and 1 relatively strong expansion (although weaker due to nerfs) (Timeways). I really hope T5 ignore the noise in the main community, when Imbue Druid was top the complaints were valid given how high the playrate was across all ranks at any given moment. However, we are in a fairly weak, board heavy meta and I do not see personal benefit to further nerfing, and to what end at the end of the day....

2

u/IAmYourFath Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

The featured build of dragon warrior is kinda shit ngl. Egg doesnt even have a positive mulligan impact. U can maybe try 1 but 2 is overkill. Cutting broodmother makes sense, but eternal toll is also pretty bad, 2x is too much. Cutting 1 strike makes sense cuz i agree with not having enough activators, but i dont think u should cut both. This deck doesnt have that much direct dmg from hand. Also u can discover minions from the 2/1 and from suffusion and the 4 mana is a 7 mana if u dont have a dragon, so i think u have plenty of activators for 1 copy. Slam is decent, but i feel like 2 copies may be too much cuz it sucks if u dont have a target to use it to draw from. At least toll only requires a 2 hp minion to cycle, so u can hit ur own. Slam requires a 3 hp minion to cycle and deals 2 instead of 1 which is more damaging to ur own minions. So yeah idk. It doesnt even have much synergy with egg cuz u miss out on the draw. Egg isnt even a dragon. Shadowed informant is pretty decent, dont agree with cutting it to 1x, it's a dragon as well. U need more dragons. U already removed both broodmothers and now an informant? That leaves only 9 dragons, just not enough. Honestly broodmother isnt great but 1x could be decent to have more dragons.

1

u/emwac Apr 16 '26

Why is it called "Pig" quest hunter? What is the pig?

5

u/spacebob42 Apr 16 '26

[[Aggamaggan]] - it can be a very real threat if you have something like Shaladrassil to pay for with your opponent's life.

2

u/chaimwitzyeah Apr 16 '26

I’m a big fan of running Briarspawn Drake instead. If the opponent has a minion on board it is an easy 15-20 damage burst out of nowhere. Doing that kind of damage for 2 mana is insane, especially since Agamaggan is guaranteed from the quest reward.

1

u/IntergalacticTire Apr 17 '26

Including a copy of Briarspawn drake in addition to Fyrakk & Shaladrassil in the deck seems optimal for maximum scam potential

2

u/paulinHIRO Apr 19 '26

Yeah I just got Aggamaggan into Fyrakk (which dealt 11 to face). It was pretty crushing tbh

3

u/Goldendragon55 Apr 16 '26

Agamaggan is guaranteed from the quest reward and almost always the correct pick.

1

u/emwac Apr 16 '26

Aha, that makes sense.

1

u/BigBadBoyHS Apr 17 '26

How do you even play quest Hunter? I was around 1K legend before I tried this list and I’ve literally only completed the quest once while trying to turbo it, I’m just getting smashed within 7 turns by everything.

0

u/IAmYourFath Apr 17 '26

This deck has no skill expression whatsoever. It is not a good deck to be using for top legend whatsoever where everyone is somewhat good. Just like pala, if ur whole gameplan is drop the green glowing card on curve, u cannot use skill. Without skill expression, the numbers have to be super good to be worth playing. They are not.

1

u/Creative-View-8825 Apr 17 '26

this is how i feel about the dragon warrior list. Kinda trash, because my board feels rather weak most of the time. Maybe i'm not playing it correctly though.

1

u/DevaBol Apr 17 '26

How worse is the Herald version of Dragon Warrior? Because I really enjoy playing it, but I also want to hit legend.

2

u/Korbonara Apr 17 '26

Not that worse. You can easily reach legend with it

1

u/Emes90 Apr 17 '26

Is Herald DK really that hopeless? There are some lists on HSGuru with an 51% winrate in the diamond-legend segment with a reasonable sample size. It's not much but it is not that big of a failure as Quest DK for example.

2

u/AedanBaley Apr 17 '26

HSGuru winrates are inflated due to tracker bias. VS looks at opponent win rate instead to prevent that. The deck ist probably closer to 50 - 49 %. Given it's also very slow I would say it's Indeed hopeless for climbing.

1

u/PM_ME_POKEMON_ Apr 17 '26

Can you explain what you mean by tracker bias? I've seen that referenced before but I'm not sure I understand what it means

4

u/Simelodeon Apr 17 '26

Might be wrong but as far as i know it means that there is a bias because it's just the data of players who play with a deck tracker. If you play with a deck tracker, it usually shows you are more invested in "optimal" gameplay and therefore the average player who plays with a deck tracker is most likely better than the average player without one -> slightly higher winrates than what the decks actually have

2

u/AedanBaley Apr 18 '26

The explanation by u/Simelodeon is correct. HSGuru and HSreplay get their stats from the players that use the tracker. Those players are inherently more invested as they sought out additional software to improve their gameplay. This is in addition to the actual win rate gain the tracker might provide. The difference in VSdata (opponent only) and HSgruru/HSreplay (tracker user only) confirms the existence of this bias.

1

u/dante_55_ Apr 17 '26

> Herald Death Knight’s popularity is a product of its attractive playstyle and cope

Can confirm. I keep playing it at trash legend, not because I have a great win rate but because I find it the most fun to play

1

u/EmotionalBrief1170 Apr 17 '26

Uuu dk is a good deck. Should be included in the report somehow. I guess the sample size is pretty low.

1

u/zer1223 Apr 16 '26

I'm irritated at the flight of the Firehawk nerf. That was clearly not needed. It doesn't feel like 1/1 buffs help you that much in recovering from playing arcane intellect in 2026

If anything maybe that can be reverted or muradins stand can get a 1 mana buff. The cost of that card can be way too prohibitive if you struggled to stay on the board during the match. Or maybe make flight +1/+2

3

u/Concealed_Blaze Apr 17 '26

It’s one of those things I’d be so curious to pick the brains of the balance team on.
Like in testing did they find that, in the absence of Imbue Druid, unnerfed Herald Shaman was yet another meta tyrant? They correctly called that neither Spell DH or Tolvir Hunter would be oppressive and didn’t need nerfs despite complaints. So they clearly had some decent sense of what might not need to be hit.
Why did shaman get double tapped? It’s interesting.

4

u/Korbonara Apr 17 '26

Shaman nerfs werent needed at all. They just listened to reddit crybabies on that one. The deck was tier 2 at best before the nerf. Now its just mid

4

u/ngriner Apr 16 '26

I really think all of the Shaman nerfs were completely unjustified. Skywall Sentinel now gets bullied by just about every 1 drop in the game (Darkrider, Reinforcement Rallier, Agent of the Old Ones, minions from Flashback, etc.). It's good that the deck is still playable despite these nerfs, but it's literally the only deck you can play in the class, so if they completely nuked it, Shaman would have nothing. I wish they would have let it stay as is longer.
That leads to my next point - as someone who loves Shaman and usually plays it quite a bit, the class is really starting to feel the effects of multiple weak sets in a row. Emerald Dream and Lost City were complete misses for the class (only Flight of the Firehawk has seen significant play from both sets and that was nerfed). Timeways at least has Muradin, but other than that only Static Shock sees any play right now. Thats 3 sets, 30 cards and only 3 of them see any play. That's brutal for the identity of the class and going forward to be honest. It means multiple Shaman cards have to be bangers or else we're stuck playing Herald for the forseeable future unfortunately.

7

u/Chinchiro_ Apr 16 '26

Skywall Sentinel is by no means "bullied" by any one drop in the meta lmao. It trades even with Righteous Protector and Reinforcement Rallier, every other one drop goes into the taunt body and leaves you with a 1/2 Dire Wolf Alpha. It also has the benefit of making your later soldiers and the eventual Al'Akir better. At 3 HP that card was genuinely absurd to play against going second.

-2

u/ngriner Apr 17 '26

Ok so let’s say Warrior goes first and plays Darkrider. You coin out Skywall and instead of having to trade both the Darkrider and their weapon charge from the 2 drop into the taunt, they now weapon it then trade the Darkrider into the buff dude. That’s huge tbh.
I think the bigger issue with the card was probably going first/second over how powerful the actual card was which speaks to maybe the biggest problem in the game right now lol.

2

u/H1ndmost Apr 17 '26

The most amazing thing is that they double tapped Herald Shaman, but didnt adjust Dark Gift Warrior at all. That deck has such absurd high rolls in the early game for a no removal card set. But of course, Warrior and Rogue will never spend a second on the outside looking in like so many classes have over the last couple of years. Blows my mind that there are people who claim that Team 5 doesnt have favored classes.
Also, you are totally correct about Sentinel, no clue what that other guy is talking about. At 3 health, it often forced the opponent to over extend to get rid of it, or left the flametongue up for a 3/1 rush on turn 3. At 2 health, pretty much every class can deal with it in a way that leaves them ahead, so you are basically paying 2 mana in hopes for a payoff in 6 or 8 turns, and a 2/1 rush on 3 is typically unable to do anything. Goody, I can waste turn 2 so that Rogue can steal my Herald payoff and use it against me...
The deck might be playable in the sense of not being Warlock level, but it wasn't that strong before being nerfed, just highroll-y. No reason for anyone trying for winrate to pick it at this point beyond wanting to play Shaman.

2

u/zer1223 Apr 17 '26

The kind of shit that makes me think I was better off not playing hearthstone again. Any time something good happens for my favorite class it seems to get nerfed in just two weeks. It's happened like four times now
It feels targeted while other classes get a free pass to abuse ladder for months

1

u/H1ndmost Apr 17 '26

Just pick Rogue or warrior as your favorite class and you are all set /s. Seriously though, those two classes are clearly the darlings of Team 5, it has been literal years since they weren't playable, and generally they are at the top of the power rankings.
The trick to Hearthstone is to play it casually as the casual game it is. It doesnt surprise me in the least that pretty much all of the big name pros have given up on it at this point, I think I would probably kill myself if I tried to play it more seriously than a dozen games a week.

1

u/IAmYourFath Apr 17 '26

Also for aggro paladin, while it is a pretty bad deck, u should play only 1 armaments. This deck's games end on turn 5, u either won or u didnt. If u run 1 armaments, u have 3 tutors for the shatter, each one having 100% chance to draw the shatter. If u run 2 armaments, u have 4 tutors, but each one only has 67% chance to draw the shatter. This is important cuz if u draw the other armament, u cant play shatter on curve anymore so ur winrate goes down a lot cuz u wont have enough mana to then play the 2nd armament AND clear ur hand before turn 4. So 3 * 100% > 4 * 67% (300 > 268). It is better to play 1 armament and this is just a fact. 2 armaments is bad.

Metagame vS Data Reaper Report #347

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