My motivation to write this thread is a post by Dean Ayala that really tickles me in the wrong way. According to him, the meta is healthy and the mini set is coming. I find these claims either incorrect or irrelevant.
Although there are several viable archetypes, one class reigns supreme and that is Paladin. At about 57% WR, there’s always a Paladin archetype running the show at very high winrates. When Forged in the Barrens was released, it was Secret Paladin. When the Sword of the Fallen was nerfed, it was Aggro Paladin. And now that the meta slowed down with the nerf of Crabrider, Libram Paladin owns the show. If one single class has 3 archetypes that are over 55% WR depending on the state of the meta, then the meta is not healthy.
But the ultimate problem, in my opinion, is not even if the meta is healthy. Does anyone remember the Journey to Ungoro meta? Now that was healthy! No T1 decks, not one! The single most balanced meta I ever witnessed in Hearthstone. The question then and now is the same: is it fun? Back in Journey to Ungoro it wasn’t fun because of Quest Rogue. It was so polarizing that control decks were dead. Hearthstone is a game.
I disagree that the meta is healthy because of Paladin, but even if I agreed that it is healthy, I would still think it isn’t fun. Why?
- Warlock has a genuine win condition in Lord Jaraxxus. Tickatus on the other hand, while not a good card in the current meta, basically shuts down all other control decks win conditions. I don’t mind Tickatus, but it is an extremely polarizing card. It seriously needs reviewing.
- Because of Tickatus, Priest isn’t viable without generating dozens of extra resources, which means that losing to Priest is often losing to dozens of “Created by” cards that always feel bad. And it still loses to Tickatus. Yeah, Priest is bad… well… Priest has all the tools and it still sucks at low levels. That should sound the alarms, I think.
- Many archetypes have extremely high damage output before turn 10. Although many of these archetypes actually imply considerable skill, being able to pull of 20+ damage in turn 9 in Standard is something I only heard once in Hearthstone’s life: Quest Rogue. Now we have multiple archetypes able to do it.
And the icing on the cake… who cares about the mini set? Why is that being waved as an excuse to the state of the meta? There was one opportunity to sort this: the balance patch. It did very little. What upsets me is that this kind of language has been used regarding Wild for many years, will that become a thing in Standard too? I really hope not.
Sorry about the rant but I find the devs positions rather complicated to accept. Maybe it’s me, maybe everything is fantastic, but that’s not how I feel it and to be honest, that’s not what data shows.
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I agree insofar that many people are just too inclined to use the same decks. So you see lots of Secret Paladins and Control Warlocks.
I loved the meta when the Highlander decks were still part of Standard.You faced more diverse opponents.
I have stuck with it, and reached Diamond 5 recently in Standard with Secret Miracle Rogue, It’s a fun deck to play, has a good winrate against the other meta-decks. A correct mulligan will win you the game against most of them, Secret Paladin included. If my opponent goes for tempo, I mulligan for tempo. If I need lots of removal, I’ll keep removal.
I’m using Yogg here instead of C’Thun. C’Thun just slows down the deck with unwieldy 5 drops.
Secret Barrens
Class: Rogue
Format: Standard
Year of the Gryphon
2x (0) Backstab
1x (1) Blackjack Stunner
2x (1) Prize Plunderer
2x (1) Wand Thief
2x (2) Ambush
2x (2) Dirty Tricks
2x (2) Foxy Fraud
1x (2) Plagiarize
1x (2) Shadowjeweler Hanar
2x (2) Swindle
1x (2) Vanessa VanCleef
1x (2) Wandmaker
2x (2) Wicked Stab (Rank 1)
2x (3) Sparkjoy Cheat
2x (3) Ticket Master
1x (4) Kazakus, Golem Shaper
1x (6) Grand Empress Shek’zara
1x (6) Jandice Barov
1x (9) Alexstrasza the Life-Binder
1x (10) Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate
AAECAYaSBArQuQP7xAPZ0QP+0QPl0wOd2APq3QOX5wP86AOwigQKzLkDzrkDpNED390D5d0D590D890DguQDqusDkZ8EAA==
To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone
@SashaFleyder, yeah, if there’s a meta, people will flock around it. Apart from a handful of good deck builders, the crowd is generally concentrated on what works according to their personal taste, not that much innovation. However, I don’t think the issue with fun is not what your deck does or what you do with it but rather the very repetitive game losing actions that occur in this meta.
@Rival, lol. Yeah, Ayala’s post felt to me like parents try to make kids stop crying with car key noises.
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Paladin:
They have been in a tier of their own since Librams were introduced.
Why are they strong? Because they have a constant flow of cheap minions that they can boost and protect with secrets and Divine Shields.
All they need is to keep a few minions on the board to use 2xConviction - an easy +12 extra damage for 2 mana at 5 crystals.
Token Druid and Rush Warrior fall into a similar category - producing many buffed minions fast.
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Priest, Mage, Warlock
I bundled these together since they all share something - and that is the so called “control” archetype. What I mean by that, is that they have very effective ways of clearing the board from minions over and over.
Control decks have always been around, but it is a problem when there are too many spells that clear (either base or from discovery / generation). It becomes a game where these classes always have an answer to every situation, and they never have to wonder if they should hold a spell a turn, or if they should fill out their decks with some minions etc.
Tickatus and the discard playstyle is another topic on its own. While it fits the “evil” theme of Warlock, it is a really toxic playstyle. Also, the Jaraxxus card is bonkers OP.
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Face Hunter
As an answer to the “control” type decks, we have the type that just goes all in face damage, trying to kill the opponent before they have the time to heal. Similarly to Paladin, they can produce a lot of smaller minions on the board.
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OTK decks, Battlecries
Another answer to the above mentioned are the “one turn kill” decks, or those that focus on a lot of Battlecry minions or spells to deal damage to the enemy hero. Since it is close to impossible to actually keep anything on the board, players try to workaround that by dealing damage without having anything stick for longer than 1 turn.
This is the meta as I experience it. It is fun when my OTK / workaround / counter deck actually works, but most of the time it is frustrating to just get run over by these classes or having to play until fatigue.
Libram Paladin was bad when when it got added. All the stuff that you put that makes them strong was added after (plus penflinger). Then added to the fact they lost next to nothing at rotation and got a strong secret package sees them sitting at the top on their own, with the top 3 archetypes (broadly).
Other than forgetting that first 4 months of Librams sucking, you’re pretty much spot on 
The one “fun” thing I’ve been experiencing in standard, is a lot of people playing no minion mage, but I really don’t get why. My achievement decks keep crushing them to the point where I don’t even understand how they’re supposed to win. Maybe it’s just my low rank/mmr but I mean I beat 1 who got Lake Thresher back-to-back off Apexis Blast against my minion centric deck 
Can’t speak for everyone, but as far as I’m concerned, I play No Minion Mage because it’s fun to play if I don’t draw the nuts, even if that means losing the game. Just writing this sounds weird.
Current state of the meta is still very unbalanced. As a current Paladin player I feel I have been rewarded for the extra minion in First Day of School. When you have two paladin decks at tier 1 and Shaman’s highest deck at tier 3 with a win rate of 48% after the latest nerfs, you still have a problem.
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I have not played Paladin since the nerfs so my experience is at the receiving end. What I feel is that mid-game board floods are a lot more consistent. I understand this is not necessarily an issue but rather that the nerf just moved the power of deck from the beginning (with Aggro Paladin) to the mid/end game with Libram Paladin.
Maybe this is the reason why the class didn’t suffer from the balance patch.
