Hearthstone Huddle

I’m back! I was on vacation last week, in case you were missing me, so I took a week off from opinionating as well. I thought, since I spent a decent amount of time playing while I was off, I would discuss some of the decks I encountered during ranked play. So here goes.

First of all, Control Warrior is dominant. Shieldmaiden adds a big 5/5 body and five armor for six mana. Bouncing Blade has seen some play along with Warbot on occasion. If allowed, the armor buildup gets out of control quickly.

Control Priest is still a great deck adding Shrinkmeister to combo with Cabal Shadow Priest to steal four attack creatures. Lightbomb has seen some play as well as the new class legendary, Vol’Jin.

Ramp Druid is still a viable class adding Grove Tender as another card draw. I have also seen some people playing Tree of Life late in the game after you’ve burned all your cards.

Mage may be dominating most of all. The build known as MechMage has been really rolling on the ranked circuit. These decks are using Archmage Antonidas with parts generators to cast lots of Fireballs. Snowchugger, Unstable Portal, and Goblin Blastmage have been showing up in all these decks.

Hunter is rambling along with the “cancer” build from before. It adds Clockwork Gnome and Piloted Shredder to the deathrattle fray. The downside is that all deck builds are running some sort of early removal to counter the undertaker builds. Feign Death is super overpowered when coupled with cards like Sylvannas or Savanah Highmane. Glaivezooka has also been showing up here and there as an alternative to Eaglehorn Bow.

Paladin decks are mostly running Muster For Battle along with Quartermaster for big board presence. And all of them are running Shielded Minibot as a solid two drop.

I’ve not noticed very much Rogue play as of late. Since the Gadgetzan Auctioneer nerf, it’s almost a dead class. Occasionally I’ve seen mech builds featuring Iron Sensei and Goblin Auto Barber.

Shaman decks haven’t changed a great deal. Crackle is being used in all formats and I’ve seen the occasional Murloc build as well. There is also a Malygos deck that features Ancestors Call to play Malygos for four mana and then uses massive spell damage to finish the game in one turn.

And finally, Warlock gets a couple of spells to improve the arsenal, most of which is being played in Zoo decks. Implosion is a two function card giving you damage and board presence for a reasonable cost, ideally being played with a Knife Juggler down. I’ve seen dark bomb being played in all manner of Warlock decks, from Handlock to Zoo to Demonlock.

That’s it for this week. Enjoy!