Hearthstone Theory: The Rastakhan Meta, and Nerfs 

Blizzard balance philosophy: If we make Hunter so good that 100% of players play it, then it will have a 50% win rate.

Rastakhan may be a failure, but you can't deny it has one of the best trailers ever. At least in my opinion. BY EARTH, BY AIR, RAIN AND FIRE!

Power creep was getting out of control, Mammoth was just too strong of a year. And doubling down by releasing an even stronger Raven year would be a mistake. Its good that blizzard decided to hold back, but I think the same Mammoth cards should have been nerfed long ago. We would have had a less frustrating 2018.

This year was pretty awesome, to be honest. We experienced one of the most diverse, if not polarized, metas ever. And they did it while putting in very low power expansions in preparation for rotation. They could NOT afford to one-up Kobolds/KotFT in power, because those were SO batshit crazy that we'd just have powercreep on powercreep on powercreep. I am happy to have dealt with the 'staleness' (which, in my opinion, was still fun) in exchange for a HUGE reset in the upcoming year. Also, I'm happy to see the decks they nerfed. Druids have been top of the meta for a LONG, LONG time. Yes, they're SUPER weak now, but now blizzard can comfortably make ramp cards without them spiraling out of control (looking at you, Ultimate Infestation/Combo druid). And the Shudderwock combo had counters in only HYPER aggro or Warlock (gnomeferatu, void contract, demonic project, etc). It just had very little counterplay, whereas even though I'm losing to Odd/Even paladin, Odd Warrior, Hunter, I know WHY I'm losing and what I CAN do. Yes, the Rock Paper Scissors still exists, but you have a LOT more room to decide what to do, compared to before, AND they opened up design space. Shudderwock's combo probably made the upcoming 3 expansions a NIGHTMARE to balance with the infinite combo. Druid ramp was probably hindering ANYTHING from being made in druid that wasn't treant or aggro based. TL;DR, I like the power level, I like the changes. They opened up design space for the future, and it's going to make this upcoming year SUPER fresh. The next expansion could release 130 wisps and snowflipper penguins and it'd feel like a brand new game still. Me likey.

I'm going to be pessimistic here and say "what comes next" will be more of the same. Even and Odd decks dominating since the card quality will be lower, which will make the stronger hero powers better in comparison.

I don't know why they nerf permanent druid cards, which are fundamental for most druid decks, while let broken cards like Ultimate Infestation be broken for 2 years without any nerf. It's almost like they don't know what to do with that class

Great video as always. I’m glad you are getting more sponsors now!

Honestly I think despite the increased variety of decks, modern Hearthstone has fallen a lot in terms of gameplay quality. Obviously super-aggro pirate warrior and overload shaman were pretty toxic, but many decks from 1-2 years ago, decks such as Reno warlock, Raza priest, cubelock, miracle druid/rogue and mill warrior were so much more interesting to play as/against, even if there was a reduced number of viable deck archetypes, each game felt more distinct and fun than it does now. I can't wait for the rotation this year... I probably won't play much of this crappy hunter meta until then.

The meta can be summed up in one word: Hunter

Everyone is praising Blizzard for weakening this year's sets to hold off on power creep, but we have to remember that Blizzard caused the problem in the first place. I personally would much rather have had 6 balanced expansions, than 1 strong, 2 bat shit crazy, and 3 weak expansions.

you have no idea how long ive been waiting for this to come out

I feel odd mage and rush warrior are decks to look out for post-roation. They don't lose many of their key pieces.

There's LITERALLY one single deck I played since Rastakan came out. It's just a shitty Prelate Paladin I made myself and, although it surely isn't good, this is my favorite deck since the beginning of Hearthstone (I've played since Naxxramas so it's a long time). I don't know and I don't care if the meta has been balanced or polarized, this deck just made the current set my favorite set of all time.

Another interesting question is: "What will be the *theme* of the next expansions ?" We had Northrend, the Old Gods, Kobold stuff, Un'Goro, a ton of Mechs... But what other interesting stuff has Blizzard to bring us ?

"Odd rogue loses hard to spell hunter but I have no idea why" it's because spell hunter summons 4 3/3 minions on turn 5 and odd rogue can't deal with that board very easily.

Congrats on the sponsorship!

good to have you back

Grats on the sponsor you're a real RU-vidr now! :)

I really enjoy your videos, your humor and the way that you make them, really makes my day.

Nice job on landing a sponsor

i always enjoy these videos, and gives an understanding of how the game works. the only video i would dare to ask for is something on the wild meta

I like the enthusiasm in your voice.

Wish I could still have 4 quarter master effects in my wild odd paledin

this new and exciting meta for the next year might be full of odd warriors, calling it now.

Michael Jackson possessed the speaker at 11:53

Odd Rogue literally can't handle spellstone in my experience. So I started to play a Kingsbane aggro variant and did waaaay better vs spell hunter.

I was completing a pirate quest yesterday. Random the rest of deck and won 6 in a row with rogue.

Depending on the next set il probaly go wild since the mamoth sets are just way more fun then the raven

6:54 Nourish gives 2 mana per turn, so delaying it by a turn actually costs 2, meaning the total mana loss caused by increasing nourish by one mana point is a net loss of 3 mana.

i just love this channel

About your odd rogue vs spell hunter I play spell hunter and I think not only the kinda control spells that contain the heat of odd rogue if hunter draws well he's able to last turn 10 and then zul jin to have a full BOARd It is, still, a difficult match. Great videos and keep up!

and obviously not link in the description and it has to be spell in a position so the link can be obscure by the video timer screen

You know you kinda fucked up though when more people are excited for the upcoming rotation and what new things that will bring than actually playing the game in this expansion for the next 3 months

I just hope that shaman is good after the rotation since it died from the nerfs

Let's just wait for the rotation. I hope everything would change

Really can't wait for rotation

The Shuderwock nerf was a joke, bliz mostly did that because of the complains of players without a global view of the meta and who couldn't even realise the deck was weak. The Kingsbane nerf was a beatrayal: the only reason kingsbane got a decent win rate was because they added this overpowered draw card and instead of nerfing this poorlly designed thing they burn the archetype to the ground for no reason. And when you think about it, the only thing that was'nt really nerf was, guess what, agro palladin. In conclusion, blizz destroyed an entire class, wich was overpowered (but a ultimate infestation nerf would have worked without killing taunt druids), destroyed 2 interesting archetipes, brought upon us a disgusting meta and mearly touched the deck of a winrate over 58% for now 9 months

I appreciate the hitchikers guide to the galaxy reference

The next standard rotation will be the first time I feel bad about cards rotating out rather than feel good about never seeing certain cards again. (Unless MCT rotates, then I'd be pretty happy)

I like to think that odd warrior is stopped by the hunter dk alone.

The Penniless Player is the new masked Disguised Toast.

So when knights of the frozen throne rotates out won't that leave only 3 classes with hero cards? Unless they plan on doing another expansion with different hero cards which would be great

Rastakhan seems to have just been worsening the meta from the Boomsday. Boomsday wasn't nearly as polarized towards one deck archetype as the Boomsday.

The thing is Heartstone's meta will always be definined in this way and there will always be only a tiny amount of actually top tier decks in any meta because that's the way the game was designed from day 1. They can't ever change that fact. With the way the class system works, severely limiting the actual creative possibilities of deck building means it doesn't matter if Blizzard only ever print average power cards because some classes will always have ways to make certain themes of cards work. Like you compare Hearthstone to other competitive card games around right now and you find that the actual meta grows incredibly stagnant and unchanging so much faster than in other games. I'm playing a lot of Eternal lately and their latest set came out November 21st and we've only just really found one deck that could be considered tier 1 and even that deck loses to a lot of possible combinations and strategies. It's a game of building what works for you then playing that until it no longer works then changing it a little at a time so it continues to win games. Hearthstone is just find out what's the best deck day 1 then play that for the next 3-6 months without having to change a single card.

As a wild player I actually really liked the nerfs and the meta feels like the best that it's ever been. Before there was only Big Priest, then Kingsbane countering Big Priest and countering all control decks and there was the unholy trinity of Odd Rouge, Odd Pally and Even Shaman. Now there are still a few popular decks, but most of the time I have no idea what I'm up against until my opponent starts playing his cards. There are a lot of interesting and fun decks that were able to surface, and if you are a standart player, this might be one of the best times to get into wild.

Well there will at least be a big change next expansion Lookout for a bunch of new decks or just odd rogue and paladin

It's been a month, I'd like to say my take on Rastakhan being underwhelming was correct.

The reason I like the Druid card nerf is it’s now easier to figure out what Druid you are playing against. Since if you were playing control you would not know what Druid you were up against until like turn 15.

Will Frozen Throne, Un'Goro, and Catacombs be rotated out at the same time or will it be exactly 2 years after their release?

1:51 Because I'm not a terrifying warmonger that wants to nuke the entire planet and rule over its ashes with an iron fist?

ive already began hoarding my dust for the rotation, trying to look ahead at what will be good without knowing the new expansion. Sadly, bake genn decks will prob still be rampant, the hero powers are just so good.

hmm maybe don't have an op af base set so you have room for expansions?

Odd rogue loses to spell hunter because of flanking strike, wandering monster, baited arrow, the spellstone, candleshot, and rexxar. Secrets, candleshot and flanking strike cover the early game so things like fledgling and the 3/3 that gets bigger on hero attack don’t get out of control, where the hunter then plays stronger finishers - to my side and the spellstone are both extremely high stats for the mana, rogue loses the board a little too early to finish the game by going face. Also, sometimes rexxar just nukes the board and makes taunt or lifesteal while taking the board back. Basically, rogue struggles to get far ahead early, and gets hit by big tempo swings in the mid game.

i Wasnt surprised rumble felt so weak. The past few expansions had some crazy power levels and I believe the next xpac will be a bit stronger and the end of the year one will be even stronger

since odd star aligner priest became a deck I can't doubt anything

Love ur videos

Going forward they need to reverse one of the two nerfs on druid, theyve made the ramp window way too narrow since nourish loses its ramp value after turn 7, wild growth after turn 4. Just fixing one fixes the other to still being playable if not as powerful. Druid players werent exactly complaining about these cards, nor were they the problematic pieces, which are all leaving.

I am kind of hoping that blizzard reverts all or most of the nerfs after the new year rotation.

I'm still really mad about the nerfs. Kingsbane was my favorite deck to play in Standard, and because of a nerf to a common card I ended up losing thousands of dust on cards that have never seen play in any other deck. And that dust would be REALLY nice, because right now everything playable is expensive as shit. The cheapest deck out there is likely Odd Rogue, and even that sucks dong without cards like Leeroy and Myra's.

Psychic scream, I will miss you.

i believe that HS will always be rock paper scissors because there will always be 3 types of decks which are 1.control with some degenerate combo in the end 2. aggro 3. midrange i honestly cant think of a way blizzard could possibly add another archetype into the mix (while yes they can remove one of them that will leave us with only rock and paper which is even worse)

(whispers) Quest Paladin is a mix of all the meta and is good for any situation besides Maaaage

One question:How are spell hunter and midrange hunter any good? I have played both for a while but theyre pathetic. I lost to mech hunter, whizbang mech pally, quest priest, odd mage, murloc warrior and many other decks. I dont make many mistakes and all that my spell hunter is missing is Zuljin and maaaaybe a crushing walls. How can these decks be meta if theyre so useless at rank 20? From 17 I dropped to 20 and have not been able to rank up since. Also, the same goes for odd paladin( before the nerf). I used the classic deck and it was absolutely useless. Would lose to anything.

odd rogue loses to hunter because spellstone, since it cant run betrayal or vanish

I don't blame you. The lure of gnarly pow is irresistible.

I think they already dropped the ball. I haven't been having as much fun with the game and am regretting investing money and a lot of time in it

Odd and Even are just TOO GOOD.

Where is the spell Hunter as the best deck?

I’m gonna miss spell hunter and hunter secrets. It’s what Iv been playing most of 2018.

Odd rogue loses to spell hunter because from turns 1-4, you are locked out of attacking (wandering monster, freezing trap) from turn 5 to ~turn 10 you are forced to attack minions ( spellstone, to my side) while your board is being removed (flanking strike, baited arrow, explo trap, deathstalker). After turn 10,you have hardly any board, hardly any hand, and hardly any health while the hunter is outvaluing you every turn. And since you can hardly go face, the hunter's health is usually very high, so you cant burst with leeroy.

RIP Saronite Chain Gang, I can’t use it in wild Armagedillo Taunt Warrior

Was planning to climb rank with my druid deck haha oh well :P would have been nice to get higher then rank 17

I feel like you ignored the negative consequences of Shudderwock and Druid decks being dominant. By having many many combo decks in the meta that have essentially a guaranteed win vs control, it shuts out control almost entirely. We still have some OTK decks left, but nowhere near as many as we used to, so control decks now have a shot at winning. I don’t think it’s really fair to see the meta has become more Rock Paper Scissors-y, it’s just lost the combo part of that tactical wheel and replaced it with control. Without the nerfs we wouldn’t have decks like Control Priest/Odd Warrior (reminder that Odd warrior was literally like tier 4 in the first two weeks prior to the nerfs) so I’m not sure your criticism is totally valid.

Omg you Channel is so good

God i'm so excited for the hearthstone thanos snap.

I somewhat just have 1 problem with the sets. Most of the cards from the year of the raven were similar to support cards for most decks in the mammoth year, which is, pretty true with how strong hero cards are. BUT THEN WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY R GONE .-. The remaining cards would be like healers and supports in a MMORPG without a main tank to support >_> If the new year packs don't meet expectations, then we can really start yelling at blizzard for how stupid they are.

I was just looking on hsreplay "meta" and clicked on odd palladyn, on hs replay you can look at worst and best matchup which and i looked at worst mach up for odd palladyn it was odd warrior for odd warrior it was deathrattle hunter and for deathrattle hunter guess who, odd palladyn. And the cycle starts again. Ps. Nice work Blizzard

Spell Hunter wins against odd rogue because of tempo, wandering monster and freezing trap are really strong cards that disrupt your opponent's tempo and boost yours

12:25 Was that a hitchhikers's reference?

Interesting video. One thing to point out though is that the deck triangle laid out in the video is the standard for basically all card games, even in games like MTG. Aggro usually beats midrange, midrange usually beats control, and control usually beats aggro. And designing these decks to counter each other in such a way is important because it keeps the metagame balanced.

shudderwock in wild is just not viable, the gangsters are too slow, cost 1 more mana and doesnt have taunt, so is not a good idea.

Druid is honestly still fine, yes they are now the worst classic only class but they still have viable decks for a few months, its no longer just a case of Druid always has double your mana for the 1st 5 turns and then plays UI on turn 6/7. Druid decks are going to need to be much more board centric and run cards like tar creeper, wardruid loti and doomsayer to get through the early game.

As dumb as it sounds, Odd Druid is losing next to no key cards and is already performing shockingly well against a lot of things. I actually wouldn't be surprised if that deck managed to get its foot in the door, considering its odd pay-off Elk is incredibly overstatted, it can run an Oondasta package and can push for a lot of incremental life swing with how much damage its hero power deals AND heals.

I don't even play hearthstone anymore

The whole game is build on the Rock Paper scissors. That aspect won‘t go away that soon. Also as long as Baku is in Standard, Aggro will always be a thing that can be Top Tier

I like rumble not to bad

I AM SO PISSED THAT THEY NERFED SARONITE CHANG GANG

I’m a tier three good person woo

Penniless i must thank you. You are the only one i know who agrees with me that Shudderwock Nerf was impactful in a wrong way 👌

Mesopredator: A second tier predator that rises dominance due to the fall of top tier predators i.e. Hyenas Coyote *Hunter*

Woah, they nerfed olive Druid!?!??!?

Odd rogue loses to spell hunter because of spellstone The meta was not varied before, when you picked up a deck you just asked "How good it is against druid?". Nowadays, you have OTK Paladin, Odd Warior, Odd Rogue, Odd mage, Control Priest, Even Shaman, 5 different hunters and Mecha'thun druid. All of them are vieble decks. Blizzard's tring to have all classes have at least one vieble deck. And Shudderwock and kingsbane were nerfed because they were slidly OP. Having the abillity to remove anything on the board for essentially free or to reapet all battlecries (freze most minions, deal 8 damage, heal for 8) was too much for a 1 mana minion that reprodused itself constantly

Druids completely fine now

Blizzard's gonna drop the ball very hard

"any deck that utilized Saronite Chain gang" no... only decks who use it with Shudderwock or Prince Keleseth

I wish my father would invite me to skiing trips, or show up to my 5th birthday

only liked and subbed cus of the fuckign list, love it dude

I for one, am glad to see shudderwock gone. By turn 10, you may as well concede.

I actually prefered the Jade Druid era over the Hunter's existance being significant meta

Actually your video is mistaken in so many ways.I ll just mention the biggest one which is Control counter midrange and aggro.midrange vs aggro is matchup dependant and usually can go either way,Control lose to otk,otk loses to aggro midrange .In the history of hearthstone midrange always lost to control while aggro sometimes would beat it.