[WesleyC]

I'm not a fan of the new arena meta. The addition of inspire is a big buff to all the classes with board influencing hero powers which has made them even stronger than they already were. Warrior, Hunter and to a lesser extent Priest and Shaman are at an even bigger disadvantage now and with Murloc Knight as a common, Pally is just ridiculous.

Speaking of Paly, I did have a lot of fun grinding to legend over the past couple days with my version of a Mysterious Challenger Pally Deck:

Decklist

The main objective when constructing my deck was to ensure a great match-up against other secret based paladin strategies, which make up a huge chunk of the US server meta.

The main differences between my list and a typical Secret Paly is no secret-keeper and only 6 secrets. Avenge and Noble Sacrifice are legitimately playable by themselves so including 2 of each is a no-brainer. Competitive Spirit is big if you have a board presence and Redemption is valuable on Minibots/Shredders/Belchers but mixed otherwise. The other secrets are easily played around by any competent opponent.

Against other Secret Paly decks, Zombies Chow helps to avoid getting overrun, Aldor counters a challenger, Consecration is a silver bullet and Sludge-Belchers plus a chunkier top end guarantee that you win the long game.

Most of my games were on mobile, so I don't have precise stats but from rank 3 to legendary my W/L ratio was about 20:5, only losing 2 games to other paladins (out of about 10).

[Antrax]

I think Rogue also got screwed by the inspire cards. Shaman got even better (it was always a second tier class IMO) since the totems are board presence and Thunder Bluff Valiant is a rare.

That Mysterious Challenger deck is like nothing I've ever seen, everybody and his sister ladder to legend with it in a matter of hours the past few days. I'd try it out but it seems a bit bland, and also I only have one challenger after opening 35 TGT packs (and 1 legendary, the bouncing skeleton guy).
I'm probably going to try out the dragon priest for a bit later today.

[Fluffy]

I've got my first legendary, Saarad nexus champion or something like. Don't thikn it has much play in constructed although it is not bad.

[Antrax]

It might still see play in a grinder-style deck. I don't think it's likely since its value is too unpredictable, but who knows.

[Cyberyeti]

 Antrax, on 2015-August-30, 03:48, said:

I think Rogue also got screwed by the inspire cards. Shaman got even better (it was always a second tier class IMO) since the totems are board presence and Thunder Bluff Valiant is a rare.

That Mysterious Challenger deck is like nothing I've ever seen, everybody and his sister ladder to legend with it in a matter of hours the past few days. I'd try it out but it seems a bit bland, and also I only have one challenger after opening 35 TGT packs (and 1 legendary, the bouncing skeleton guy).
I'm probably going to try out the dragon priest for a bit later today.

Have flares come back into fashion ?

[ahydra]

If the prevalence of secret paladin is anything to go by (watched a streamer get ~5 of them in a row earlier) then yes hunter with 2x unleash and at least one flare will be very much in fashion. Kezan Mystic just doesn't quite cut it against that many secrets IMHO.

The TGT cards are pretty good for the most part, and it's great to see new viable decks - dragon priest, dragon warrior, all sorts of druids from beast to double combo, totem shaman, even slower hunter decks with Lock and Load. But unfortunately as Antrax mentioned, rogue got somewhat screwed over.

ahydra

[Antrax]

 Cyberyeti, on 2015-August-30, 10:36, said:

Have flares come back into fashion ?

Yeah, one of the popular decks now is a midrange hunter with flare. I don't think it's auto-win against the challenger deck (still leaves up a 6/6 and a thinned deck, and some of them run divine favor for extra aggression when running out of steam), but it sure screws Freeze Mage over

I played some dragon priest / warrior yesterday. Dragon Priest was strong but I was crushed by a shaman who got two Totem Golems from his 3/2 fish dude. Not sure if that's indicative of much, though. Dragon Warrior got run over by aggro but crushed a classic control warrior by fatigue since he just had less threats and less answers in favor of more card draw, which is awful in a warrior mirror. He also played somewhat poorly, playing alex into a board with my Sylvannas to try and rush me down, but in general I think my midgame is much stronger than his, so he has to waste premium removal on mediocre minions.

[Antrax]

 Fluffy, on 2015-August-30, 08:43, said:

I've got my first legendary, Saarad nexus champion or something like. Don't thikn it has much play in constructed although it is not bad.

http://www.hearthpwn...mage-by-hotform

Here's the guide he posted on reddit:
https://www.reddit.c...the_secretdins/

[Antrax]

Yep, Paladin being strongest in arena now confirmed: https://www.reddit.c..._its_throne_in/
Interesting that Mage dropped two ranks though. I haven't done a rogue run yet but as I recall they got mostly chaff.

[Fluffy]

I've got Tyrion more times from the Great Crusade in Arena (Twice) than ever with Paladin Decks (once).

But there is never a bad drop from Great Crusade, Truesilver Champion on a druid was hilarious, aldor peacekeeper is incredible, consecration, guardian of kings, I only ever got 2 bad cards and I could even use them.

[Antrax]

Forgot to update, I hit legend again this season, playing Dragon Warrior from Rank 3 (Tempo mage until 5, then Tempo Mage / Dragon Priest / Midrange Hunter based on daily quests until 3).
Spent my legend-ness gate-keeping secret paladins out by playing control priest and echo mage. Fun times.

[Fluffy]

I wanna watch you on those levels I think the best I got was rank 5 with control warrior long ago. But I don't find you as Antrax.

I had one of my most funny games ever on arena when I did miracle mage getting a 3 mana gadgetarian trader from portal and 2 sorceress on the board. I drew 7 cards on turn 5 or 6 (including arcane intellect)

[Antrax]

Just post your battle tag (name + number) or PM it to me, I'll add you (my name on HS is Buch, I chose a random nickname I call my kid when signing up because I didn't expect to like it)

[edit]
BTW currently I'm not that hot. Still learning decks, so yesterday I went 24-19 around rank 8 (playing Midrange paladin) for instance. I'm probably still making mistakes and the deck's not yet optimized (only re-added belchers after 40 games or so, after realizing taunts are key against secret paladin, which is a whopping 50% of the meta I see)

[Fluffy]

FluffyDog #2570

[Antrax]

RIP Patron: http://us.battle.net...pic/19288409377

[Fluffy]

I am amazed it took them so long. Patron has been since the mountain. Did they expect it to die in TGT?

Also I hate that they nerf the warsong, not nerf but rather kill it. Its the same as with undertaker and the eagle, one thing is to nerf it and the other is to make it totally useless.

[Antrax]

I assume you mean buzzard, since the Eaglehorn Bow nerf didn't really make it unplayable.

I must say, until that announcement, I played a little over 200 games games and saw 7 patron. The deck didn't really feel like a problem on the ladder, but it did warp the entire tournament scene.

[WesleyC]

I read somewhere that below a certain rank, patron was by far the least successful deck (of all the main archetypes) with a win rate below 40%.

Having tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to play patron, I gained a lot of respect for top patron players because the skill cap is extremely high. The deck forces you to make complex strategic choices almost instantly so that you actually have the time to mechanically make them happen. Although I can appreciate that it skewed the high-level tournament scene, I'm still a little sad to see it go.

[Antrax]

I actually avoided picking up Patron because I was pretty sure it'll get nerfed at some point. The deck seemed fun and challenging, but investing all that effort for short-lived victories seemed like a bummer.

[Zelandakh]

Anything that requires "complex strategic choices" seems to be contrary to the spirit of Hearthstone!