Hearthstone: Un'Goro, Week One!

Yay, Un'Goro is out! As sad as I am at seeing some of my favourite babies rotate out, I did get a crap-ton of new cards. Saved a lot of dust over the past period, and the extra dust from Ragnaros and Sylvanas moving out of standard is certainly a huge boon, but despite what I feared I actually hung around the rank 10-15 meta quite well while dicking around with new cards to hear how they sound.

Also it probably helped that the first couple dozen games I did in Un'Goro was in arena, which allowed me to recoup some extra gold. I'm horrible and I don't think I ever got above seven wins in the couple of runs I did, but shit, some cards are really good in arena! Bittertide Hydra and Primordial Drake are just amazing in that format, so long as no one sics a Volcano on your Hydra like someone did to me.

My card opening is a bit... unspectacular. I got around 25 packs total from the gold I have, and haven't spent any real money on it, and only got two legendaries. My first was a Sunkeeper Tarim, and he's fucking golden! And it turns out to be a lot better than I gave him credit for! My second was Ozruk, which sucked as badly as I gave him credit for actually, I have to rescind that, and Ozruk's actually quite decent! Like, not Ragnaros or Kalimos-level "holy shitballs this is awesome" but as one more extra threat in my elemental deck, it's actually pretty must impossible to deal if your enemy doesn't have Hex, and I've since grown a lot fonder of the big dude. But I got my very first Golden Legendary, ever, and it's a card that didn't completely suck and I'm happy. I crafted the Hunter quest, simply because I got a lot of hunter cards from the packs I opened. Probably I'll get to cracking on making other legendaries. Kalimos and the Rogue and Warrior quests both look very appealing, as far as I can tell.

So I've just been dicking around with different decks. Jade Druid is actually nowhere as good as it was, and neither is Pirate Warrior, simply because everyone and their mother are playing cheap taunts. And I'm happy about it. Both are still viable, of course, and I did crack out a revised edition of my old Jade Druid deck (now with 50% more dinosaurs!) but it's considerably harder to retain a board with Jade Druid when you're facing off against the onslaught of Zoo-locks and One-Mana-Hunters and 5/5 Rogues.

But the meta isn't aggro at all, which is amazing and not something I expected. We've got a lot of swarm-style decks like various versions of Warlock, Taunt Warrior, Quest Hunter and Deathrattle Priest, but the minions that they swarm the board with isn't actually as toxic as the worst aggro decks like pre-Standard Face Hunter or pre-nerf Patron Warrior or Old Gods Midrange Shaman or Gadgetzan Pirate Warrior. The early game is still strong, but it's not as damning as before, if it makes sense.

So from the meta I saw there's just so much decks being played around because things are still getting figured out. The Quests I saw a lot of people playing were Rogue, Pirate and Mage in that order... Rogue Quest is a lot better than I gave it credit for, because, shit, un-Hexable 5/5's? Or, worse, charging 5/5's or pre-existing minions that get transformed into 5/5's? Hoo boy. Suddenly Moroes is a nightmare instead of a joke.
It's not as undealable as most people give it credit for -- all you have to do is control the board faster than them, and try to push face damage to force them to control your board. Which is easier said than done, perhaps, but out of all the decks I've played around with I've never actually had any more trouble with Quest Rogue than any other deck I've met.

Quest Mage is actually not as good as I thought it would be, though I did get run over by a Quest Mage that managed to set up three Sorcerer's Apprentices and an Antonidas and Fireball me to death that way. It's a nice, fresh variation that feels like I'm playing against Freeze Mage without the annoying helplessness that that deck tends to cause me. Glyph is as gross as everyone thought it would be. Quest Warrior is pretty good, a nice, slow, unmovable deck. Well, that is until I got smart and tech'd in Black Knight, a Legendary that I cracked open in a dual-legendary pack with Edwin so long ago. Still, Quest Warrior looks like absolute fun and it's legitimately good, because, shit, shooting Ragnaros fireballs is absolutely awesome.

What else? All the classes are amazing to some degree. Paladins are in this very weird combination where they play Murlocs, hand-buffing and Silver Hand Recruit synergies all at once, reminiscent to the ultra-hybrid Jade-Totem-Overload Shaman we had in Gadgetzan, but nowhere as toxic. Priests aren't as dead as people thought they would be, and the Deathrattle ones I went up against tend to be a bit more powerful -- though obviously only having Cairne as the big dude brought back by N'Zoth is nowhere as devastating as Cairne, Sylvanas and Chillmaw. Maybe because people are playing their Amaras as soon as they complete the quest? You kinda want to treat your Amara like your Reno -- leave it until your HP is like in the tens and make your opponent exhaust themselves. Lyra is also surprisingly better than I gave her credit for in the weird Priest-spell deck I went up against. People are playing Purify decks with the new Razorleaf plant dude, but I absolutely crushed every single one I met. And the Quest Druid? Not that powerful, actually, though a very solid deck nonetheless.

Warlocks and Hunter, as I can see, have a lot of archetypes. You've got Quest Hunter, you've got full-beast Hunter, you've got Dinomancy Hunter, you've got Deathrattle N'Zoth Hunter... Warlocks have Discardlock with or without the quest, Zoolock, and, shit, I've even seen a couple of Handlocks here and there!

So with my relatively incomplete collection, I was still actually quite able to have a fair bit of fun with semi-complete decks, something that I don't think happened during the Gadgetzan launch because, shit, not having Aya or Kazakus really hurt your Jade/Kabal deck. Here I was able to enjoy some moderate success with an Elemental Shaman deck that didn't have Kalimos, Sentinels or Blazecallers, which is something I didn't think would happen at all. Turns out that, hey, Servant of Kalimos? A far better, if conditional, Azure Drake. I'm still removing things in and out of the deck to see what Elemental works the best (as I crack open even more Elementals and try to complete my collection), but Elemental Shaman's actually quite fun in that it feels so different than the variations of Midrange Shaman before it. I'll craft (or hopefully open) Kalimos some time later, though.

But after setting aside Shaman, I tried my hand at various decks. I haven't touched Druid or Warrior at all because I didn't actually open enough cards to really make the new ones. And I don't think I'll be touching Mage or Rogue until I actually get the Quests. And I'm still trying to figure out this weird Raza Priest deck that I'm trying so hard to make work... but I really have a lot of fun with Paladin, Warlock and Hunter. Which is surprising, because the latter two are classes that I historically didn't really have much success with. Hell, I don't think I actually have a Hunter deck on my 18-deck slot since Call of the Wild got nerfed.

I'm playing this weird version of Discolock where I don't have the Quest or the Felhounds (which actually aren't super-good as I thought it would be) yet, so while I run Silverware Golem the Discard mechanic takes a backseat to good old-fashioned zoo, and this expansion actually gave a lot of tools for zoo. Ravenous Pterrordax's "destroy a minion, adapt twice" effect? Actually pretty freaking good! Especially when he eats a Possessed Villager and triggers my Knife Jugglers. Tar Creeper? A cheap 3-mana Taunt that's actually a decent wall to protect my Darkshire Councilmen and Knife Jugglers and Imps? Pretty freaking good! Also balanced. Ravasaur? Holy fuck, the Ravasaur is the sleeper MVP of both my Discolock and Hunter decks, simply because of how easy it is to get his effect off, meaning I'm ensuring a Shielded Minibot or a 2-mana 3/3 on average, and sometimes I get a poison-tipped removal.

I'm playing two Hunter archetypes. One is a more straight-up midrange deck without the quest, where I plan on just piling Crackling Razormaws and Houndmasters up on my beasts, while using Jeweled Macaws and Stampede to generate more shit. And it's surprisingly effective, considering the great quality of cards Hunters got this expansion -- and I don't feel like a bully like I did when I drop 4-mana 7/7's and 0-mana 5/5 walls. Also, Ravasaur and Tar Creeper? Pretty great in this deck. Tar Creeper is a card that I knew would be amazing, just not this amazing.

The Quest Hunter was something I had trouble with figuring out, because sometimes I just run out of steam against Warriors and Priests. But then I realized that I didn't actually need that many one-drops, and actually including too much hurts my deck more than it helps it. Fiery Bat, Jeweled Macaw, Raptor Hatchling and Alley Cat obviously go in, because they are premier beast one-drops. And then Fire Fly. And that's all you need! Hell, I'm even cutting out Alley Cat from my newer list. The older version of this deck had things like Argent Squire, Glacial Shard, Timber Wolf and all that stuff, but turns out that both Raptor Hatchling and Fire Fly are really good at adding extra 1-drops for you to play. And if you don't draw them? Tol'vir Warden is a perfectly valid 5-drop that helps you fill out your curve and quest. No, I've been actually leaning on moving my deck more to include mid-range tools like Highmanes, Black Knights, Nesting Rocs and Houndmasters when the previous incarnation of this deck had no card that cost more than 3. That way when you activate Carnassa (which should happen relatively early too) and when the raptors draw into a card that isn't a raptor, at least it's, like, a Highmane or a Stampede instead of another 1-mana.

Again, Ravasaur? Pretty fucking good in this deck! Very, very easy to swarm the board, laughably so, and to drop a Ravasaur? That also counts towards Stampede and Houndmaster synergies? Stampede is a very awesome card, too, by the way, that single-handedly saved me from so many bad situations. Stampede into several one-mana raptors, and suddenly you get extra beasts... and this expansion has a lot of beasts. And Stampede can draw out of your class! That awesome Direhorn dude from Warrior that I really want but I haven't cracked open? Charged Devilsaur? Another Highmane? Ravenous Pterrordax? Hell, even if you get cheap-ass beasts like Hungry Crab or Angry Chicken, you can just play them for extra Stampede triggers! It's amazing. I am really in love with my hunter deck.

Paladins... I'm obligated to try and make it work because I have a fucking golden Sunkeeper Tarim, but I'm not there yet. Mostly because I don't have a lot of the new cards. No Hydrologists (which is surprisingly a lot better than I gave her credit for), no Lightfused Stegodons or the like, so I'm playing this weird variant of the Old Gods era Divine Shield Paladin. Which is actually a lot more viable now that Stand Against Darkness isn't just five weak-ass 1/1's, it's five weak-ass 1/1's that, if not dealt with all at once, suddenly all gets transformed into 3/3's. Maybe with Divine Shields if my Steward survives from turn 3. Maybe they trigger Knife Jugglers. If they get Divine Shields then my Blood Mage is a 3-mana 18/18. It's a blast as I just try to add stuff and remove stuff. And no, I'm not progressing really quickly in the ranks, but fuck that shit, I'm having fun. That's not something I actually has had with Hearthstone for a while now.