Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft – the cheap and insanely addicting card game from Blizzard. Ever since the release of the first true expansion, Goblins vs Gnomes, the metagame has changed a lot…. but how good has it been?
I’ve been playing Hearthstone on and off since around April 2014. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in constructed and little bit of time in the arena. Before Goblins vs Gnomes (GvG) came out, my decks felt pretty standard. I sort of just “had” a deck for most classes, and then there was my Hunter/Undertaker deck that I had sort of made my own. After GvG came out, things changed a lot.
The first major thing GvG introduced was Mechs. These mechanical creatures could synergize with themselves or with other newly-added creatures. The second major thing was more Ogres, however these Ogres were a bit less tame than their previous buddies and like to hit random things at times. Also done at the same time as GvG’s release was 3 nerfs – Soulfire now cost 1, Gadgetzan Auctioneer now cost 6, and Flare also went up 1 in cost. Miracle Rogue was pretty killed 
that day.
Some of the stuff added in GvG was fantastic – it really made you think of new combinations. Or well, in most players cases… let others do the thinking for you and just copy their decks. One of the first things I ended up playing with was Mech Mage. The basis of this deck – Mechs and Goblin Blastmage, which I just so happened to open two of in my initial packs. There was also an Unstable Portal in there just for the fun of it (at the time).
At first, it was great. There was a lot of trying with new decks and combinations. I was able to beat quite a few with this deck I had formulated, but at the time I kinda just figured it was due to not many people knowing about mech Mage. And then… it exploded. Suddenly, someone Mech Maged their way through a tournament and then EVERYONE was playing it. Well… guess that idea I had was good.
Hearthstone in a post-GvG world is pretty… Mech Mage to say the least. Sure, there’s some variations out there. Things like Control Warrior still survive to this day. Hunter and Warlock (Zoo) have since taken a hit with a recent nerf to Undertaker. People claim Rogue is now pretty dead, though I beg to differ. It might not be a big-legendary tier as before, but it’s definitely not dead.
Arena hasn’t really changed much at all really. Mages and Paladins still dominate, though usually if you see other classes in the higher tiers (especially things like Rogues) you know they have a pretty good deck and are usually a pretty good player. Flamestrike is still pretty much everywhere. Truesilver Champion and Consecrate are still all over.
There are definitely some cards that need to be nerfed. As much fun as I had with it when it came out, Goblin Blastmage is on that list. As is Dr. Boom. He’s become the legendary that oh… EVERY deck plays pretty much. Yeah, so exciting… There are also some cards that people seem to overvalue on some classes in some decks (like Piloted Shredder in Mage, Water Elemental is just better).
I’ll continue to play Hearthstone, though after my big burst of play in December and Early January I’ve definitely dropped 
down a lot in playtime. I’ve recently made myself a new Rogue deck (since the game seems to want me to play Rogue, considering I have both class Legendaries for it) and have been having fun playing with it. I still have my Hunter and Mage decks around for quests. I really want to do a lot of work on my Hunter sometime if I can ever pick up Feign Death, but considering my pack luck…
Hopefully something will happen that will get people to expand out of Mech Mage again. It’s started to get to the point where if I see a Mage in constructed it’s like yup, they’re playing Mechs. Oh boy! Hopefully something is also done about Dr. Boom still, though considering it took something like 8 or 9 months for Undertaker to get nerfed… it may be awhile.
