Hearthstone

[WilliamLP]

Hmm, I don't play much constructed, but when I do I mostly play aggro warrior and see some others. On streams warrior is still very popular at very high ranks, but it's the control kind that doesn't work without 5-6 legends in the deck, so maybe that's why you don't see it much until you rank up?

[antisocialmunky]

The armor based Warrior deck that seems to be the most effective warrior build is super expensive so you only see it near the top of the ranks. I did notice a massive dearth in aggro warrior below 7 and above 10.

Actually once you get above 10, you mostly face turn 10 miracle/burst decks. I'm getting really sick and tired of T10 Leroy, +4 buff, Faceless manipulator wins.

[Jowy]

Put some taunts in your deck

[pindicator]

My mage laughs at your mana curve

Such a silly deck, I thought the lack of early game would be its downfall. I had 4 or 5 wins that ended with a pyroblast to the face. Most games weren't even close. I'd trade cards in the early game and wait for my midgame creatures and removal to take over. It probably should have lost more but whether I just lucked out against not playing rushy decks, or maybe they just had bad draws against me.

After taking that screenshot, I lost my last two. So close to my second 12-win arena! Fittingly the final loss was against a Mage where I had lethal on board, only to be Pyroblasted.

[Gaspar]

The armor based Warrior deck that seems to be the most effective warrior build is super expensive so you only see it near the top of the ranks. I did notice a massive dearth in aggro warrior below 7 and above 10.

Actually once you get above 10, you mostly face turn 10 miracle/burst decks. I'm getting really sick and tired of T10 Leroy, +4 buff, Faceless manipulator wins.

Yeah, current meta is very much all about the big combos - Leeroy/Shadowstep for rogues, Leeroy/Power Overwhelming for locks, Force of Nature/Savage Roar for druids, Al-Akir/Rockbiter for Shamans are probably the 4 most common archetypes seen at the top of the ladder. Normal sized taunts don't really help you against them because for the most part, the rest of the deck is just card draw and removal. Handlock counters the combo decks pretty well though of course it runs the combo itself.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. I really disliked the Hunter-centric meta because playing around it meant not playing minions, which is punitive in an unfun way. There's at least enough variety in the classes playing these decks that its not quite as annoying, though obviously Rogue is the current king. You certainly get to a point where just hearing Leeroy come out makes you want to put your fist through your monitor, though.

(This is all voyeuristic for me of course, since I've played very little ladder this season. At my low rank its zoo or misplayed netdecking and I don't quite have the stamina to play something consistent and push through it to start getting my face mashed in by miracle rogues. )

[Bacchus]

I can't quite get over the fact that people are satisfied with playing combo decks for days on end on the ladder, especially when the winning play is so similar from game to game. Draw-remove-draw-remove-draw-I got it, next one. Draw-draw-draw-remove-haven't got it, next one. The one combo deck I had some sympathy for was MtG's Mind's Desire back from Onslaught/Mirrodin times, at least you never knew exactly what would happen when it fired.

[Sir Bruce]

I think you're underrating all the tough decisions that combo decks face before they play the combo. Sure, the strategy is "stall till combo" but that is much easier said than done. Missing out on a couple points of face damage or using the wrong removal can easily lose you the game. I don't play Miracle Rogue but I have a combo Mage deck and the decisions I face when I play it are often more challenging than a "standard deck" where you often just look for a solid 2-for-1 and trade minions.

I guess I don't play days on end (only a few games a day) but that challenge keeps the deck interesting to me.

[Kuro]

Combo decks are fairly challenging to play, definitely. (I just hope people start to learn aggro ain't easy to play too)

I think this meta is fine enough and it will be interesting when Curse of Naxxramas comes out what changes. I do think Gadgetzan should be nerfed, but not due to Miracle Rogue. (Infinite draw engines like that tend to end up making an unhealthy game)

[Sir Bruce]

Combo decks are fairly challenging to play, definitely. (I just hope people start to learn aggro ain't easy to play too)

I think this meta is fine enough and it will be interesting when Curse of Naxxramas comes out what changes. I do think Gadgetzan should be nerfed, but not due to Miracle Rogue. (Infinite draw engines like that tend to end up making an unhealthy game)

I've gone back and forth on this and right now I think Gadgetzan is fine but the problem is balancing 0-mana cards. Miracle Rogue wouldn't be a thing without Preparation (and Backstab to a lesser extent). Drawing cards should cost mana; doing it for 0 is problematic. Several previous nerfs are fundamentally due to this as well. UTH wasn't just the problem, it was that + Hunter's Mark dealing up to 9 damage for 0 mana. Same with Warrior charge. So nerfing Prep makes the most sense if you want to nerf Miracle Rogue (although it's not clear to me that they should).

That being said a slight Gadgetzan nerf seems the most likely outcome at the moment. A few possibilities: It takes 1 damage every time it draws a card. Or it can only draw 1 card a turn (would probably need +1 health to balance). Or make it a 4/2 so it dies to most AOE even in stealth.

[WilliamLP]

To me, if there's only one very specific deck archetype where a neutral card (Auctioneer) is a balance problem, the problem isn't with that neutral card. If Miracle Rogue dominance is a problem, then I'd much rather see a tweak to it directly than to a card that is interesting (but perfectly balanced) in many other decks. E.g. it could be a tweak (or even rework) to Preparation or even Shadowstep. Or maybe just tweaking Leeroy would do it and it would also shuffle the rest of the metagame around in interesting ways.