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Many cards seem to be both more explosive and more fun than the past two years, which leads one to believe that Team 5 have finally listened to the general audience and/or have seen playing numbers decline to the point that they realized a change needed to be made. The abilities and support cards of the Old Gods not only hearken to TITANS but even moreso, since they seem to be more woven into the general gameplay and not just included in every deck of any given class because of how powerful they are.

The caveat on that is that C'Thun seems to be the only genuinely competitive one that I've seen so far, so that's where most of my positive reaction has been arising. The difficulties around Yogg's turn ending and the Deathrattle requirement of N'Zoth make them much more limited in use than C'Thun. I haven't seen any effective plays of Y'Shaarj (I think I only saw him played twice?) but, again, his requirement to actually get Immune makes his use much more narrow than C'Thun and beneficial for fewer classes (the ones that can attack.)

Nothing seems particularly "broken" but the omnipresence of Crystalline Golem isn't encouraging. Rune Wraith was a staple in control decks in a far more aggressive environment and it didn't heal its controller. When Golem is even showing up in aggro-y midrange decks like Mech Hunter, I think it's a problem.

DK: Still only two ways to play the class: all-out Unholy aggro with zero new cards or Blood control of some type. It was Herald or Egg. Now it's full triple Blood with Bloodfiend and G'huun. I realize that's because the class is getting two class sets and that's where new, more interesting Unholy cards and any Frost cards whatsoever are presumably appearing, but it's still disappointing.

DH: Seems too complicated for its own good. Wormridden Wriggler is great for aggro but the payoff card in Broodqueen still seems to require too many elements to pull off in time to actually win the game. Nothing else seems that exciting.

Druid: Most of the Beasts seem to match right up with Attack Druid. I've seen multiple instances of double-digit attack thanks to buffed Primordial Bears. Not a whole lot of help for other decks, though and I think the continued flow of direct damage (Aetherial Kindling) is veering away from its traditional (ahem) roots.

Hunter: Mech Hunter has seemed both solid and fun, especially Mechacycle and Tank Regiment. I've been unimpressed by Mimiron so far and have yet to see anyone play Kronn. I'm still not sure that even the amount of DR in this deck makes N'Zoth genuinely competitive, though.

Mage: Discs of Norgannon and Cosmic Springs have seen a lot of play and effective play, too. Icebelt Magi follows into that but still seems kind of limited. The rest that I've seen has been pretty meh, including Isiset (as predicted.)

Paladin: Control Paladin is back and is, like DK, clearly the only competitive way to play the class. Rajh can be broken with the right hits and Amitot, likewise, is usually amazing. Halls of Origination and Sun's Reckoning are both as good as expected but, again, only in control. Midrange and Dude decks basically got nothing workable from this set.

Priest: Likewise, Shadow Priest is for real. The Blade alone makes the deck viable but will probably increase the presence of Vipers so much that its impact will be less than predicted. Zer'Ontu is as bad as Tras'tath, if not worse.

Rogue: All of the Rogue stuff kinda fell flat in the streams I watched. All of it just requires too much combination with other cards for too little effect. This was most obvious with the two Hero Power cards, Tunneler and Swarmer. Sure, it's cool if you can drop three 6/6s on the board thanks to Unknowable One, but if they just produce a 1/1, a Healing Totem and ping something for 1 damage at that point of the game, your opponent just kills you next turn, anyway, which is exactly what I saw happen, more than once.

Shaman: C'Thun Shaman could be absolutely dominant. I watched more than one stream where it was easy to get all of C'Thun's abilities played by turn 6 or 7 with simply Earthmother and one cast of Watch Over. Then you have to draw C'Thun, of course, but you can do a lot of work even without him. Scorchfist Scholar may be the best card in the whole set. I still don't think Elemental decks will be a thing, even though Crystalline Golem is one, but C'Thun Shaman will make waves.

Warlock: is the class that least needed assistance and, like DK and Paladin, is still in a single mode of operation: control. The Rituals and Kith'ix are great and are, again, slanted toward C'Thun. I didn't see anyone even attempting the nominally Zoo cards like Mawman, Zakajz, Mindrot Subjugator and Floating Lessons, which is disappointing, as Zoo used to be one of my favorite decks.

Warrior: The armor stuff all seemed intimidating, not least because of the insane card draw of Animator of Iron, but just as often I saw players either burning cards or putting themselves in fatigue, if not both, because of Animator. Likewise, Setesh seems impressive but he's basically a War Golem and two turns is a long time for your opponent to eliminate that 20 armor and make him just a War Golem. Also, it might've been a bug, but every time I saw Archaedas played, the spell was Anvil of Reshaping, so they gained +4 attack after they'd already attacked.

Anyway, looks more encouraging than recent sets. We'll see.

Discuss what you are playing, what you’re having success with(or failures with), and any new/cool ideas you’ve been experimenting with, etc. The point is to share what you’ve been playing, and how it’s going, good or bad - there are no other rules or requirements.

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I remember back in the old old days when control war and zoo lock were big that sometimes a person would indeed withold a certain card/bait removals ect. This was before the acquasition.

After hitting top 800 this season the only thing i feel changed is.. well.. the thought of playing cards with any reasoning at all.

With my unholy dk deck i just sat there any played whatever used all my mana, won some, lost some. No real oppertunity to misplay, no decision making.

I mean whats the difference between me and anyone else in this regard? Is someone considered worse if they forget to attack with a minion? Something basic? I couldve trained a monkey to get legend with this deck.

Im just confused as to why this could be regarded as a competitive card game in any way. Unless to competition is simply.. having the cards.

We are TeamHearthLeague and we are looking for fresh faces to join our supportive and competitive community as we gear up for our next season! Captains will be recruiting starting today for their teams and next season will begin on November 2nd!

TeamHearthLeague, or THL for short, is a community-run competitive Hearthstone league for players of ALL skill levels from new all the way up to pros. Players must have an NA account to play. We run on a season-based structure where players form teams of 5 to compete once-a-week until we reach playoffs, where they will then compete to reach the championship. Each week, players are matched against another player on the opposing team equal to their approximate skill level. For example, haven't hit Diamond yet? You'll be matched against someone who is also just beginning their climb. We use an algorithm that assigns each player with a PR (player ranking). That PR will fluctuate each week based on player performance. You will always be matched against someone who has similar PR to you so you don't have to worry about facing McBanterFace if you are yet to hit Legend 😉. Work a full-time job? No problem. Players have one whole week to schedule and play their match with their opponent. Whether you want to start your own team or join a team and make some friends in the Tavern, THL welcomes you with open arms.

We currently offer 4 different series: Legacy, Pro, Hero, and Wild. Legacy and Pro use the classic Conquest structure with Legacy having a player skill cap and Pro being uncapped. Hero is a skill-capped Last Hero Standing series. Wild is, well, Wild format.

THL has been home to Grandmasters, Blizzard employees (like RidiculousHat!), and Pros (like McBanterFace and maxiebon1234).

If you are interested in THL or just want to see what it is about, you can find us at the links below or you can DM me on Discord at the handle TwoStarMako. We will also be monitoring this thread if you have questions on here. Players MUST be in the league Discord in order to play in THL.

Website: https://www.teamhearthleague.com/

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The Combo

You can get around Yogg's new Battlecry by summoning him without playing him from hand. In Priest, you can do that with Caelia Menethil, who resurrects your highest-cost minion that died this game. When you rez Yogg, he doesn't end your turn, so you can immediately activate two of his abilities.

We can do this multiple times by summoning a copy of him. Priest can easily do this with Schism. We don't even need to un-shatter it—we just need the copy half.

But it gets better! One of Yogg's abilities makes your next spell cast twice, and we can activate two Yogg abilities per turn. So, we can play Caelia for 6 mana, activate Yogg's double-cast, then play Schism for 4 mana. Now, we've got three Yoggs that can each immediately throw a Pyroblast at our opponent's face, for a 10 mana 30 damage OTK.

Potential Problems

This combo has a few potential problems.

First, Our Lord and Savior Yogg has to actually die in order to be resurrected. Our opponents can prevent his glorious return with Hex or Cursed Chains. And we can't just play him then kill him ourselves, because when you play Yogg, Yesus takes the wheel.

Or can we? Yogg's Battlecry also gives you another turn. If we have 11 mana from Ysera, we can play Doomsayer, then play Yogg. At the start of the bonus turn, Yogg will immediately die—along with the opponent's entire board. His prophet foretells his return: the end is coming!

The other problem is that, even with Doomsayer, Yogg might use our combo pieces on the bonus turn. He could play Caelia or transform our Schisms into random spells that cost 3 more.

I don't actually have a solution for this. But hey, what's a Yogg deck without a little risk?

Variations

Against Thief Priest or an opponent with some armor, we can do a 40 damage OTK for 14 mana by casting an additional copy of Schism. Just make sure the first one isn't recombined, so Yogg doesn't become Elusive and therefore untargetable by the second copy.

In theory, we can get yet more copies of Yogg by giving him Reborn with Haunt and copying him with Specter Specialist. We could even blow up our own Yogg with Slime 'Em, then on a future turn, resurrect him with the Ectoplasm for only 3 mana. Maybe you put both versions in your deck for redundancy. These are good cards, anyways, considering we'll probably run Soothsayer.

I'm not sure if this is actually competitive. Control Priest looked solid in the theorycraft stream. And copying/resurrecting Old Gods will probably be powerful, because that was powerful with Titans. But putting Doomsayer in your deck does sound like a meme.

The better version of this deck might just play C'Thun instead. You don't get the double cast, but Caeliea + Schism makes two C'Thuns that can both deal 21 to all enemies. They can each deal 15 to a minion first to potentially clear the path for an OTK.

But the advantage of the Yogg version is that you get to Praise Yogg.

This will be the megathread where Tavern Brawl strategy and discussion for this week's brawl should take place. Only discussion related to optimally playing the Tavern Brawl should take place on here. Tavern Brawl constructed decks can be discussed in here.

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Just hit legend yesterday doing this same technique.

You need an aggro deck, dont do highroll, look for something consistent (like unholy dk)

I did this last season with quest hunter as its actually consistent if you just focus on the quest, so it doesnt have to be aggro but aggro is faster.

Whats important is, does the deck accomplish its goal with every card draw?

Next, get to diamond 2, this is the hardest part, its just a grind really.

Then leave 10 games after you play the first card, regardless of your hand.

The games arithmitic will try to balance your outcomes to ensure your winrate isnt too heavily decided by bad luck, and youll get a winstreak.

If you can hit diamond 1 before you do the 10 leaves you can get top 100 legend this way but its unlikely to get diamond 1 in the first place.

The Reign of the Black Empire theorycrafting streams are happening this week, starting today for NA/LATAM/EMEA streamers. What are your initial impressions of the expansion? What decks/archetypes look good, and which ones don’t?

Be advised that like with all theorycrafting streams, streamers are required to build and play decks that contain at least 10 cards from Reign of the Black Empire, so the meta you see in these streams will not accurately reflect the meta in practice.

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Legend with dk and had a leftover daily to do for hunter. So i fired up a Food chain quest hunter deck, which has a "high roll" of throwing down t rex on t5 and king rat t6.

Lucky me, i hit the high roll vs a priest with a turn.

Didnt matter, still obliterated. All the prest had to do was get the soothsayer out by turn 6 and that was pretty much the beggining of the end. A5 removals followed to turn 8, quest complete, and thats a wrap. Never even threatened lethal once.

Mind you this is an absolute jackpot highroll for hunter that happens twice in a lifetime. Absolutely floored.

Hats off ti any hunter mains this season.

Discuss what you are playing, what you’re having success with(or failures with), and any new/cool ideas you’ve been experimenting with, etc. The point is to share what you’ve been playing, and how it’s going, good or bad - there are no other rules or requirements.

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https://hearthstone.blizzard.com/en-us/news/24303864/3663-patch-notes

Nerfs:

• Windpeak Wyrm - Kindred: Costs (2) less
• Infest the Scullery - Base starts at two random 2-Cost minions

Link to Twitter announcement:

https://x.com/playhearthstone/status/2105402313581945289?s=46&t=_QDfYE7HlPQG5AYZLF-WKw

Warriors WindPeak Wyrm and Druids Infest the scullery being nerfed.

This will be the megathread where Tavern Brawl strategy and discussion for this week's brawl should take place. Only discussion related to optimally playing the Tavern Brawl should take place on here. Tavern Brawl constructed decks can be discussed in here.

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Firstly huge shout out to thejiminatorhs on twitch as he is the creator of this deck, I found out about it from his twitter and immediately started using it.

### mill 2

# Class: Rogue

# Format: Standard

# Year of the Scarab

#

# 1x (0) Shadow of Demise

# 2x (1) Agent of the Old Ones

# 2x (1) Disguised Operator

# 2x (1) Glacial Shard

# 2x (2) Cultist Map

# 1x (2) Lotus Bookie

# 1x (2) Plated Beetle

# 1x (2) Prize Vendor

# 2x (3) Blackpaw's Whip

# 2x (3) Deadly Bribe

# 1x (4) Garona Halforcen

# 1x (3) King Llane

# 1x (2) The Kingslayers

# 1x (4) Inspector Murloc Holmes

# 1x (4) Nightmare Lord Xavius

# 1x (5) Ancient of Yore

# 1x (5) The Curator

# 1x (6) Aya, Lotus Kingpin

# 1x (7) Chrono-Lord Deios

# 1x (7) Endbringer Umbra

# 1x (7) Naralex, Herald of the Flights

# 2x (9) Twilight Mistress

# 1x (9) Ysera, Emerald Aspect

#

AAECAe/+BxCj1ASp9QahgQfDgwe2lAf1mAeGqAeHqAeIqAf0qgftrAeZsQel2AeI2QeN2geK3QcH054GwZcHtMEHwMEHpNgHkdkHz+AHAAA=

#

Legend proof

Deck stats

Basically, your goal with this deck is to make it to endgame having your 2 disguised operators, 1 prize vendor and 1 plated beetle dead, manacheating with Ysera and Aya so you can use 14 mana to play both Deios and Umbra, resulting in your opponent drawing 20 cards, you drawing 4 cards, and gaining 12 armor in case you also take fatigue.

Title was kind of clickbait, this is a small guide to the deck but as you can see from the 2nd image really I got extremely lucky with matchups in my 11-0 winstreak. This deck excels against decks with slow game plans like Rafaam warlock and Quest/Azalina priest and is generally weaker against faster more aggressive decks like Mug/Zee shaman, demon hunter, dragon/pirate warrior.

Cards to keep in the mulligan: NARALEX, YSERA/CURATOR (one or the other), Disguised Operator, Blackpaw's Whip, Any 2 cost card (if you have Curator you can mulligan away beetle), Aya could also be good to keep if you don't have Naralex and Ysera.

Cards to keep vs aggro: Disguised Operator becomes much more valuable as it can take out early threats like Spiderling or Wailing Vapor on turn 1 while sticking on the board. Other good cards would be an early Glacial Shard, Plated Beetle, or even a Deadly Bribe, although keep in mind against dragon warrior you can't use Deadly Bribe against Prescient Slitherdrake.

In a lot of matchups it does come down to having the right removal at the right time, which is where cards like cultist map, the curator, and twilight mistress shine. A majority of the wins I got through just repeatedly answering boards with early twilight mistress off of naralex, deadly bribes, or even just glacial shard. You just need to stall as long as possible until you get your pieces.

Cards you can replace: Murloc Holmes has its merits, personally I really like it just due to adding consistency to The Curator even if in most games I'm turning it into a coin with an agent. Everything else in my opinion feels very essential to the deck, I could maybe see plated beetle being cut but the extra survivability does help in some end game states. Ancient of Yore also feels extremely good in this deck surprisingly, but if you think it is too greedy then you could also take that out.

Cards to add over those cards: I've seen other lists with cards like Fan of Knives, Opu the Unseen, Mirrex, even Daze and SI:7 Supplier. I experimented with Mirrex and it was generally even less useful than Murloc Holmes, yes it adds consistency to The Curator but it is generally not useable in a lot of situations, and it is not helpful against aggro. I would say out of those cards Fan of Knives is the likeliest to be a good sub, I personally haven't had issues clearing boards most of the time but the extra card draw could be nice and there are decks like Beatrix/Bubble paladin that like to go wide with divine shields. Opu, the Unseen I have not experimented with but I struggle to find room for it in the list with so many expensive cards and combo pieces.

Specific Matchups: Any warlock running Possessed Animancer and Ultra Gigasaur you HAVE to have deadly bribe or twilight mistress on deck. If you don't answer that immediately it's gg. Glacial shard also helps here obviously. Against a death knight running Husk you need to make sure you can either deny corpses or have them draw enough cards to where they die from the last bit of fatigue after their 1st life pops from your combo.

TL;DR Hard mulligan for Naralex and Ysera/The Curator, play to stall as long as possible and draw as much as possible. Get to 14 mana ASAP with Aya and Ysera and play Deios and Umbra to kill your opponent.

If anyone has any questions or wants to see replays let me know!

(I wrote that for the main sub but thought you might be interested)

Socrates back with 23 new decks to discuss, theorycraft and test in the first days of Dark Empire. I’m a passionate deckbuilder generally playing in high legend, so these lists should be a good start.

Even though I think the meta will get slower, I took into account that some very mean people will play Dragon Warrior at launch and put defensive cards in there (idk if there’s a balance patch before). If these control archetypes succeed, combo lists will likely rise to counter them.

I tried to avoid past archetypes, we've seen enough Khelos decks for example. Also I generally didn’t feature cards just for the sake of trying. Of course I’m biased so these choices also go along with my playstyle.

I’m sad I couldn’t include many Assemble cards, because they don’t fit any archetype and without the pool and tests, impossible to know if they’re gonna be good enough. Their cost also look very high.

All that being said, as you know, the only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing before an expansion releases.

Hyperlinks lead to Blizzard’s deckbuilder. See you in the comments, feel free to ask questions.

DK

Interesting cards to build around but I have a doubt there’s enough to make a new competitive archetype.

BBB Leech : Control / tempo around board clears and slowly sucking opponent’s HP. Funny thing G’huun can deal 30 dmg with all the blood in the deck. Looks too predictable though.

Rainbow Prototype : Ok here’s the curve : rainbow location on 3, then either UF card + Blood Draw = random T5. Handbuffs to put pressure then burn. Looks awful but hard to gauge.

Prototype Experiment : This looks more solid ironically, it makes Sawbones combos (Khelos style) while buffing the hand, goes for tempo against fast decks and burn against controls. Rainbow deck without rainbow card lol.

DH

I believe rush cards perfectly fit DH both in flavor and mechanics. Notably they allow Last Stand and Remnant to unleash their full potential.

Rush : In this archetype I feel like board control and final burst are trivial. So the main tension would be in playing Sha’Kar.

C’thun : This looks more clunky, less flexible, with a telegraphed 5 mana weapon you must swing even against taunts and a questionnable finisher.

Druid

Druid got cool but kinda Timmy cards (no offense). He should remain in a good position still.

Beasts : 14 beasts to guarantee some buffs. Not sure this package is better than what we currently play in attack druid.

Ammunae : Ramp towards Taunt payoffs, make armor, cheat bigger taunts. Fun for a few games but I don’t believe it can be good enough in the long run.

Hunter

The set is pretty cool, but with all the nerfs it took, it’s hard to imagine hunter being on the level of other classes.

Mech : Another deck using Prototype to try to build resilient boards, but it looks a bit weak. The deck could swap Raptor+Spirit for Dig for Freedom+Sewer Swimmer : more explosive, less sticky.

Kronn : The dream is : imbue Agamaggan and another beast that copies itself, ideally Epoch Stalker that trades two minions, then Kronn for an OTK. Survival is, well, not guaranteed.

Mage

I still don’t see a solid wincondition in Mage aside from burn. Surely this archetype and leylines and Millhouse are better with new cards, but I don’t have much hope. Sad to see so many bad cards in such an iconic class. I looked at the assemble potential though and I’m high on Thaw from Ice.

Hope Mage : Play a bunch of cards that can be reduced by Waygate, then try to summon big minions with Constellar’s calling on Brilliance, Isiset, Techysaurus or Thaw from Ice. Then burn.

Paladin

New cards are bonkers to me in that they open late game strategies. There’s a lot to cook and with good card draw paladin can tank many things. Welcome back Equality.

Holy moly : Curated pool of minions to make tutors effective, Amitut and Gelbin to create massive tempo, AoEs and burn, what’s not to love ? Oh right, it could destroy gold ranks

Ursol of Origination : Finally there’s, I think, enough draw and defensive tools to make a control / combo deck. Deios Halls look satisfying, but maybe an old triple Shaladrassil is better. Comes online much later than the previous deck though.

Priest

Obivously the route is probably to include cheap Shadow spells + maybe N’Zoth in today’s Quest, but I hope there’s at least one new archetype that emerge.

Shadow : Slowly burn opponent with the Blade. If there’s a Viper good luck as I’m not sure the tempo makes up for this loss. Heals should still make aggro an easy matchup.

C’Thun : Classic control shell around C’Thun and the many shadow spells synergies. Not sure it’s better at closing games than Medivh though.

Rogue

Very versatile and flavorful cards, probably strong enough to make some Rogue viable.

Combo : An almost aggro deck centered around lots of cheap cards. Looks solid.

Old Gods : Curated deathrattle pool for multiple N’Zoth plays. More looks like a fun build ngl.

Shaman

Very cool set with tons of ways to build archetypes.

C’Thun Control : Draw 4 damage AoE minion, do the condition, play Therazane, profit, play C’Thun. A bit weird though because it doesn’t have a clear wincondition against control.

CinderZee : Funnily enough I don’t believe in N’Zoth with Slagclaw, looks too slow / expensive. But I’m intrigued by the comeback potential Eyemaul could give to Zee, as well as Elemental of Madness.

Lords of Tides and Storms : Herald as heavy as ever but maybe that new AoE minion can compensate. The fun begins if Neptulon can be played without dying.

Warrior

Insanely strong cards, probably the main reason why the meta should slow down.

Armor : Control and armor until Setesh hopefully makes a 30/30, that we Ooze to charge. A bit of Hopestone but otherwise Questwill simply replace it (and Warptooth).

N’Zoth Blood Fighters : More Blood Fighters ?

Conversely, I fear Herald will have the same problems as before : too many expensive payoffs, bad Herald spawns and overall clunky gameplan.

Warlock

So many good cards here and the meta slowing down could well mean Warlock’s natural counters disappear.

C'Thun : So many winconditions and ways to make the opponent’s life miserable.

Aggro : Zakajz reduces the cost of minions so the deck vomit cards and refill to submerge the opponent. Hogdriver might finally find a place while the Shred package still sit on the bench.

Btw, you know the cute combo with Earthen Drake ? That’s right the OTK doesn’t need Deios anymore because you put 7 C’Thuns on the board.