Today marks the release of Dota 6.88e, putting a final end to the summer meta prior to the arrival of the next Major and 6.89. Some big takeaways from this patch include a doubled mana leak cost for Keeper of the Light and Faceless Void’s Time Dilation only freezing casted previously instead of any abilities casted after.

• Dragon Lance strength reduced from 14 to 13
• Infused Raindrop cooldown increased from 4 to 6
• Illusions attack damage reduction against buildings increased from 25% to 30%
• Diffusal Blade cooldown increased from 2 to 4
• Outworld Devourer base armor reduced by 1.5
• Shadow Poison initial damage reduced from 50 to 26/34/42/50
• Flamebreak cooldown increased from 14 to 17
• Drow base damage reduced by 4
• Torrent damage reduced from 120/180/240/300 to 75/150/225/300
• Echo Stomp channel time increased from 1.2 to 1.3
• Oracle base damage reduced by 6
• Morphling intelligence gain reduced from 1.5 to 1.1
• Starstorm Scepter cooldown increased from 8 to 9
• Time Dilation now only freezes abilities that are on cooldown, rather than also affecting abilities cast afterwards
• Time Dilation slow per frozen ability increased from 8% to 10%
• Tempest Double gold and XP bounty increased from 140 to 160
• Juggernaut base damage reduced by 2
• Counter Helix damage reduced from 90/120/150/180 to 75/110/145/180
• Repel cast point improved from 0.5 to 0.35
• Repel duration reduced from 6/8/10/12 to 4/6/8/10
• Relocate delay increased from 2.5/2.25/2 to 2.7/2.35/2
• Inner Vitality bonus regeneration threshhold reduced from 40% to 35%
• Stifling Dagger cast range reduced from 1200 to 825/950/1075/1200
• Smokescreen slow reduced from 25% to 19/21/23/25%
• Track manacost increased from 50 to 65
• Mana Leak manacost increased from 75 to 150
• Illuminate radius increased from 350 to 375
• Blinding Light knockback distance increased from 400 to 525
• Sand King movement speed reduced by 5
• Timbersaw base strength reduced by 1

What do you think about this patch? Tell us below or via social media @compLexityLIVE on Twitter and compLexityGaming on Facebook.

By Simon “Sottle” Welch

In my fairly extensive time being involved in the Hearthstone scene, I have never quite seen a time where the vocal minority of the Pro and Semi-Pro scene was quite as upset about the state of the game and the balance of the classes in Hearthstone. Thankfully, Team 5 has heard our pleas and has seen fit to take it upon themselves to usher us into a new fabulous world of Hearthstone. I know for many the default stance when reading anything I write is to assume sarcasm, so just to clarify: I’m serious. These changes are GREAT!

Some general themes first. Firstly, the targeting of the nerfs seems to indicate that Blizzard is going to continue to look at the Classic set on an ongoing basis, which is a great sign for the future. The danger of leaving the Classic set intact in Standard is that discrepancies in power level of those core cards—designed in a world where really nobody, developers included, really understood how Hearthstone was going to be played at a high level—would forever bleed through and dictate the power level of classes as a whole. Cards in more recent expansions, like Totem Golem, that have become a problem can be seen to take care of themselves when they rotate out, but Rockbiter and Abusive Sergeant were going to continue hanging around forever, like a drunk party guest refusing to leave at 5am while urinating into your flowerpots.

Secondly, they listen guys! And specifically, they care about the competitive scene. The esports scene is not a big money vehicle for Blizzard right now so the nerf to Yogg, which is clearly and explicitly stated to be a nerf, with the competitive scene in mind is a clear nod to the fact that they care about the experience of high level players. Sure they react a little slowly sometimes and their communication leaves a lot to be desired, but in the end, they do care.

Alright, enough preamble, let’s dig in.

Rockbiter Weapon

We start with a Shaman card. Are you surprised? I’m surprised. Rockbiter Weapon is simply one of the most efficient cards in the game and operates way above the established power curve. There is no other card in the game that offers damage at a three-to-one damage/Mana ratio and on top of that it has additional upside in terms of Windfury synergy. That is just too good.

But let’s be clear on where this nerf is targeted. It is not a huge nerf to the burst damage combos with Doomhammer. Rarely are kill combos involving Rockbiter Mana restrictive with the notable exception of Lava Burst + Rockbiter on an Overloaded turn six following a Doomhammer on 5. More often this nerf is going to target the early game turns, which is in fact much, much more important.

Shamans are a snowball class. This is a big reason why they’re so powerful in the game right now, because snowballing early board states is the strongest thing you can do in Hearthstone due to the way initiative is rewarded while catch-up mechanisms like AoE spells are generally underpowered. Because of this, once they reach critical mass in terms of being able to grab the board early, all of their snowball tools become way too strong and they are able to consistently run away with games.

By nerfing Rockbiter, Shaman’s early-game package is now more in line with other classes in terms of early-game board dominance and they will therefore find it more difficult to consistently grab the board in the early turns, which means less of a platform for Flametongue, Primal Fusion, Thunder Bluff, Bloodlust, or whatever your snowball mechanics are. That’s a big deal. The nerf goes as far to as to nerf the power of one of the most openings in the game: Coin Totem Golem, since Shaman now less consistently has access to a 1 Mana follow up.

Tuskarr Totemic

The card that more or less gave birth to the term “highroll” in the common Hearthstone lexicon, neck and neck with Yogg in the imaginary poll that i’ve just made up entitled “most tilting card to lose to.” I present to you: Tuskarr Totemic.

Early-game match defining RNG is one of the most unpleasant things in the game. Knife Juggler, Flame Juggler, Fiery Bat, Huge Toad, Animal Companion, all of these things CAN define a winner as early as turn three, but none of them do it with the devastating consistency that Tuskarr did. A Mana Tide or Totem Golem outcome (two out of seven options) from this card on turn three is usually just the end of the game and that is the very definition of “non-interactive gameplay”. So it is no great surprise to see that the card has received an adjustment, but just how good is it in its new form?

First off, if you are one of those people that i’ve seen saying they should have made it a 3/3: stop that immediately you bizarre, crazy, twisted person. Tuskarr is still a stronger card in its weaker form. The potential synergy it presents with Spell Damage effects (Spirit Claws, Maelstrom Portal, Lightning Storm), Totem Synergy (Wicked Witchdoctor, Thing from Below, Thunder Bluff Valiant, Primal Fusion), and general Shaman strategy (Flametongue Totem, Bloodlust) should be more than enough to make up for the slight weakness it has in terms of raw value. It does come into more direct competition now with Unbound Elemental in an Overload heavy deck, but overall this is a benchmark for a sensible nerf. A problematic card has been addressed but remains very playable.

Call of the Wild

Let’s take a trip back to the pre-release of Whispers of the Old Gods. If you don’t remember the hype strategy, Blizzard release card art and said that certain community members would get to reveal the card details in periodic intervals. The image for Call of the Wild was revealed and people started to guess that the card would summon all three Companions. I immediately fired back and said that there was no way that could happen because even at 10 Mana, it was still arguably above the power curve.

Let me explain: When you combine effects into a single card in Hearthstone, you pay a Mana cost for that combined effect. For example: Fireball deals six damage for 4 Mana, but when you scale that to Pyroblast, a card that should deal twelve damage if you take it in its original 8 Mana form, only deals ten because in comparison to two Fireballs you are only paying one card.

So in Call of the Wild’s case, you are getting three 3 Mana minions which are all individually overpowered for 3-drops and then removing the drawback that balances them (you don’t know which one you’ll get). So you take the original 3 Mana cost, you triple it, you factor in the removal of the only drawback of Animal Companion, and then you add the established extra cost for combining multiple cards into one. I don’t know you about you guys, but my calculator does not output “8” as the answer to that equation.

This discrepancy between the power level of Call of the Wild and the power of every other card in their deck is so high that the class just simply became way too linear. Nearly every game is decided by whether or not they draw Call of the Wild, and cards like Tracking were introduced more commonly to ensure that one crucial card was drawn more often, that is just not a good design for a class and I hope to see Hunter becoming more well-rounded in future.

Even at 9 Mana this card remains—by the strict and literal definition of the word—overpowered. It is still above the established Hearthstone power curve as outline above. However, it does remove your ability to ever Hero Power in the same turn as playing it, which is a big deal (See: King Krush vs Leeroy). Overall though, this badboy is still seeing play.

Execute

Another card that reached critical mass due to ongoing additions to the game. The ability to kill a minion for 1 Mana seems like a ridiculous tool and begs the question why it was able to last this long without being addressed. The reason really, is that in the past Execute could never really be used effectively as a Tempo tool. Firstly because Warrior didn’t really have too many Tempo focused archetypes, but secondly because it didn’t have any Tempo-focused activators. Previously if you wanted to Execute a minion you needed to spend Mana on a slow card like Taskmaster or Slam to activate it. However, starting with Death’s Bite, a dangerous slope started to form where Warriors had access to too many strong Tempo positive ways to activate the card. Recently even more tools like Blood to Ichor and Ravaging Ghoul have hit the scene and created even more methods to use Execute to leverage the board.

These are the decks that this nerf is targeted at. Dragon Warrior, Patron Warrior and other Tempo focused tools are going to suffer from the increased Mana cost, whereas Control based strategies will take this one on the chin since Control Warrior is famously able to float huge amounts of Mana on each turn by simply Tanking Up and laughing at your puny damage output. A sensible change again and one that will limit the diversity of the most diverse class in the game.

Charge

Not much to say on this one. It looks a little strange at face value, as Worgen OTK and other Warrior OTK strategies have not really reached the level of dominance to justify being ripped out of the game like this. Therefore I can only assume that we will see something in an upcoming expansion that will make this make more sense.

Blizzard have constantly being terrorised by the presence of Charge effects in the game. Dreadsteed was originally slated to be a neutral card in the Naxxramas set but was quickly ruled out because it was way too broken with Warsong Commander. I expect this nerf to be along the same lines and would expect something to be revealed in the near future that gives us our moment of clarity.

Look out for Magnataur Alpha + Charge coming to a meme streamer near you very soon!

Abusive Sergeant

This one is long overdue in my mind. Going all the way back to the original nerfs to Class set cards as we led into Standard, everyone knew that some Aggro tools were going to need to be targeted, and this bad boy was top of my list. Leper Gnome got a bad rep as the frontman of the 

SMOrc band, but behind the scenes, Abusive Sergeant was the under-appreciated drummer, keeping perfect Tempo and driving the engine of the rest of the deck forward.

Perhaps the very definition of a “Zoo card”, Abusive is cheap, efficient, high tempo, and reasonably statted in isolation. This combination meant that it was a no brainer to include in decks that cared about fighting for early board Control and it introduced very linear deckbuilding to the game. With Abusive nerfed, it is now a much more difficult consideration as to whether you want it in you deck.

I don’t expect Abusive to melt away as Leper Gnome did, it’s probably still good enough to see play in Zoo at least, but the Squire/Abusive package will no longer be the automatic go to solution to early board control that it has been for the longest time.

Yogg-Saron, Hopes End

Praise Jesus! Praise Allah, Vishnu, Buddah, Krishna, and literally everyone else. Just don’t praise Yogg.

While my personal selfish nerf to Yogg would have been to target a large nuclear device at it and blow it into orbit, I can understand that the card needed a more delicate touch for the greater picture. Casual players and Brian Kibler need to be able to make “sweet” decks that do cool things and create entertaining games of Hearthstone. In its adapted form, Yogg still does Yogg things, and if your goal is just to goof around on the ladder and make nutty things happen, Yogg is still the card for you. However, the reduced power will probably stop it from having too much of an impact on competitive play and that is a very, very good thing.

I, on this very site, was one of the first people to raise alarm bells about Yogg’s long term impact on the competitive scene and over the last few weeks and months we have seen the clear and obvious damage that it has caused reaching critical mass. The big problem is one of perception more so than actual game impact. Even as a staunch critic of the card, I think its impact on games of Hearthstone in terms of winrate is probably overstated. The problem however, is that it is such an overtly random card that the perception of what is in fact an extremely skill based game is reduced to the point of ridicule. This became very clear after America Summer Championships where in the Grand Final two Yoggs were played that had zero impact on the outcome of the game, but were still being maligned on Twitter and Reddit, even by extremely smart and knowledgeable players like Thijs.

Much experimentation will need to done as to exactly how good Yogg is now as although Yogg regularly removes itself from play, if it does so on average after seven or eight spells, it may still be strong enough to see some play. Personally, I hope not, and I’ll be happy if I never have to cast a game of Hearthstone involving Yogg-Saron ever again.

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About the Author

Sottle is no stranger to the competitive environment. The compLexity Hearthstone player comes from an unorthodox background of being a Yoyo Champion in Great Britain, as well as virtually beating people up as a competitive fighting game player. Nerve-damage in his hand forced him to exchange the button mashing for the virtual card game Hearthstone. As a pro player he made his mark in the scene, as a caster he is a rising force, now the next step for him is to build up his name as a personality in the scene as well. Follow the Brit cast tournaments, play games, interact with his stream and have fun in Arena, the ladder or just Q&A sessions – Sottle is always the perfect mix between entertainment and education.

• Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/sottle
• Twitter: @coL_sottle

by Jordan “TheJordude” Hong Tai

Last time, we saw Druid become one of the most dominating forces post Karazhan, as well as how Hunter, Mage, and Paladin evolved. Let’s continue to look at how Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior have been impacted from the release of all the new cards.

Priest

Priest continues to be the most underplayed and underperforming class post Karazhan. The class did get some decent support through Priest of the Feast and Onyx Bishop, making Resurrection Priest the best type of archetype for the class at the moment. What the class is lacking is an efficient way to dealing with threats. There is plenty of removal through Shadow Words, Wild Pyromancer, and Excavated Evil, yet the class still struggles to deal with threats as drawing removal can be unreliable and they can fall behind quickly. Priest needs to find a playstyle where it can be more proactive, especially in the early game, but with a defensive hero power it will be hard. Resurrection Priest looks like it is going in the right direction, and we will need to see over time and with more cards how Priest can develop.

Rogue

The new cards from Karazhan push toward a “thief” archetype, which revolves around getting cards from your opponent’s class and reducing their cost with Ethereal Peddler. The deck works similar to a tempo playstyle, as there is no finisher or win condition in the deck. As the deck is more fun than competitive, it does have good matchups similar to Miracle Rogue, except against control. It has good matchups against Zoo and midrange decks because of the tempo the Rogue can generate, but is weak to aggressive decks like Shaman and Dragon Warrior.

Traditional Miracle Rogue is in a pretty good spot post Karazhan. Players have been incorporating Swashburgler in their decks as a 1-drop that cycles as well as having a body to help trade with the dagger on turn two. Arcane Giant has also been included in some player’s decks as Rogue utilizes a lot of spells anyways. With all these new options at Rogue’s disposal, it is actually a standard Questing Adventurer list with the inclusion of Barnes that gets the spotlight. Fr0zen won the ONOG circuit with this list, having good matchups against midrange, control, and combo decks. Like Paladin, Rogue is better in the tournament format as it fits into a specific strategy, not against the aggressiveness we see on ladder.

Shaman

Face Shaman continues to be the dominant deck in the meta post Karazhan due to their ability to play lots of stats early on and the opponent having limited options to deal with them. Maelstrom Portal was included into the deck right after its release in the first wing, being piloted to #1 Legend as well as performing well in the NA Summer Preliminaries. The card fits into the deck as it can help fight for board early on and build up the board as well. Spirit Claws is also a great aggressive weapon, as it represents nine damage for one mana if you can meet the spell damage condition. In order to work Spirit Claws into the deck, players have been experimenting with what is needed to make it consistent, with Azure Drakes and Bloodmage Thalnos. It is yet to be determined if Spirit Claws will stay in Face Shaman, or it will fall out due to the conditions not aligning as well as traditional Face Shaman.

Recently players have been trying out variants of Midrange Shaman as well including totems and Evolve. Totem Shaman has been more popular recently, focusing on filling the board with totems and finishing the game off with Thunder Bluff Valiant or Bloodlust. This archetype has been possible with the Wicked Witchdoctor, having synergy with Shamans cheap spells. Though the deck can go off, it still lacks some consistency when you don’t draw the burst in the right time before all your totems die. Definitely look out for this deck in the future if more totem support is released in the future.

Warlock

Control Warlocks get next to zero support from Karazhan, however Zoo gets a new playstyle through the discard mechanic. Malchezaar’s Imp as well as Silverware Golem fits perfectly into a Zoo strategy by getting onto board early. Malchezaar’s Imp not only allows cards like Soulfire to be essentially played without a cost, but also being a 1/3 body on turn one is very powerful, especially with all the buff cards Zoo uses. Silverware Golem is a great way of gaining tempo as you will often be able to manipulate your discards. With the power of these synergies, it looks like this is the direction Zoo has headed and has replaced the pre Karazhan Zoo build. Zoo continues to be a dominant deck in the meta, having great matchups against Shaman and the growing popularity of Hunter.

Zoobot and Menagerie Magician are cards to consider in the future of Zoo. On paper they look like great cards in Zoo as they have the potential to buff three minions at a time. The condition however is hard to meet, especially with the current options that Beast, Dragon, Murlocs Warlock has access to. If the next set releases decent low cost minions of those types, we can definitely see those cards work into Zoo.

Warrior

Warrior continues to be one of the most powerful and versatile classes. Dragon Warrior continues to be dominant as it has such a power curve and tempo swings. The Curator has added to the fuel, making the deck more consistent and less likely to run out of resources. Book Wyrm is also a solid addition as it substitutes out the Drakonid Crushers; adding towards tempo swings while still producing a strong body. Dragon Warrior also has great matchups against Shaman, Druid, Rogue and Zoo, making it Tier 1 in the current meta.

With Fool’s Bane and Ironforge Portal, players have been moving away from C’thun builds and experimenting with “kill everything” control builds, using a deck full of removal and armor spells and including Yogg-Saron. Many players recently have been finding a lot of ladder success with these types of builds, however there is a lot of changes and fluctuations between lists so it is yet to be fully refined. One thing to look out for is seeing if Prince Malchezaar is actually good in Control Warrior, or if Elise Starseeker is just better. With this style of Warrior, the spells are often used, and so Elise does not generate as many legendaries; making the five additional cards from Prince Malchezaar a little more appealing to myself personally.

As Karazhan is still fresh in the meta, it is guaranteed things will shift over the course of time. There are a lot of different options in classes and card choices in decks that are yet to be tested and refined. Players have a lot of time to experiment as it is off season, so we most likely will find a stabilized meta come around last call and Blizzcon time.

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About the Author

Jordan Hong Tai, also known as “TheJordude”, is a developing player for compLexity Gaming. For over a year he has enriched the coL.HS squad with his presence while becoming a fierce grinder on ladder and a threat in every collegiate competition. Apart from his business studies and the ladder grind, the youngster from Vancouver, Canada is a warrior in Open tournaments, a coach and the organizer and host of local tavern get-togethers. Monthly he delivers though-provoking pieces like for compLexity Gaming and other outlets. Follow him on:

• Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/TheJordude
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/TheJordude
• Twitter: @coL_TheJordude

by Jordan “TheJordude” Hong Tai

Only a week after the completion of One Night in Karazhan, we’re already seeing many innovative and refined decklists performing well on ladder and the tournament scene. Karazhan has done a good job in supporting many classes, giving big boosts to Hunter, Druid, and Shaman for example. However some classes still seem to be left behind, such as Priest. Let’s go through each class, and examine why some classes are becoming more powerful in the current meta, why some are falling behind, and if there is some potential that is yet to be found or is yet to be available.

Druid

Druid has been seeing a lot of play among pro players and ladder post Karazhan, placing it as a Tier 1 class at the moment. However, Beast Druid, with the new support of Enchanted Raven and Menagerie Warden, is not the dominant archetype as many had predicted. Though the deck did get the right support it was looking for, it is too reliant on getting a strong curve, and if that curve is disrupted or the game gets drawn out, the deck falls behind. Regardless, Beast Druid can still be a Tier 2 deck simply due to the fact that Menagerie Warden is an insane swing value card when played on curve following a Druid of the Claw or Stranglethorn Tiger. It seems Beast Druid will always be at Tier 2 at best, and if there is anything the deck needs for support, it’s having some late game or card draw so that it does not fall so far behind from a bad curve or running out of resources.

The type of Druid many have been more focused on and has been producing stronger results through tournaments, even piloting to #1 Legend, is Malygos Druid. With the release of Arcane Giant, a powerful tempo card, the old Yogg-Saron Token Druid has evolved to include the Malygos-and-Moonfire combo for unexpected burst damage. The inclusion of Malygos makes perfect sense as a win condition, as there were already a lot of spells in the deck for Yogg-Saron, Violet Teachers, and now even Arcane Giants. Unlike Beast Druid, Malygos Druid does not run out of gas, has a comeback mechanic in Yogg-Saron, and has multiple win conditions through tokens, tempo, and burst. Malygos Druid also has a more balanced matchup across the field, being able to take down control and aggro.

Hunter

Midrange Hunter still seems to be the best archetype for Hunter post Karazhan. Pure Face Hunter is just simply worse than Aggro Shaman and has been hurting since the lost of Mad Scientist, and Yogg-Saron/Secret Hunter has not proved to be consistently strong enough in competitive play. Kindly Grandmother and Barnes have been the biggest support for Hunter in pushing the deck from a low Tier 2 deck to high Tier 2. Before Karazhan, Midrange Hunter was a decent pick as Call of the Wild and Savannah Highmane were very powerful cards, but the deck still lacked luster as it had to play lower quality low drops such as Huge Toad and King Elekk, compared to the previous Haunted Creeper, Mad Scientist and Piloted Shredder. As a result, the deck struggled fighting for early board against Zoo, Shaman, and even Warrior, a class which it was favoured against in the past. With the inclusion of Kindly Grandmother, Hunter has a minion that can survive early cards like Fiery War Axe and Possessed Villager, and Barnes can be a huge blowout if you roll a Savannah Highmane or Infested Wolf. Because of the new deathrattle supports, Hunter now has a stronger board presence and has a greater chance to snowball their lead into the win, similar to what it could do post GVG. Finally Hunter has come back in power level to keep those pesky Warriors in check.

A card to look out for in Hunter is Cloaked Huntress. This card has great synergy in decks built with a lot of secrets, and can often get big tempo swings or have an insane combo with Lock and Load. Huntress is not only limited to Lock and Load decks, but also has potential in Hybrid or Midrange Hunters that just want to include a few secrets like Freezing Trap or Snake Trap. If these type of Hunters move away from the deathrattle core, we can see Cloaked Huntress and some secrets work their way in the Hunter meta.

Mage

The new cards from Karazhan mainly fit into the Tempo Mage archetype, as Freeze Mage did not receive anything for synergy and Reno Control is still too janky. Babbling Book has been approved by all prominent Tempo Mage pros as it is a 1/1 body that cycles a spell, which most of the time is useful and adds to the Yogg-Saron count. Firelands Portal, thought to be only good in arena, has been seeing a lot of competitive use, as it both deals with a threat and spawns a body which on average is of value. Players have taken different routes on approaching the Tempo build, either going more spell-heavy or focusing more on minions. From what we currently see, the spell-heavy build has been performing better, as the spells can be used for utility in gaining tempo, increasing the power of Yogg-Saron, or by having burn to finish off the opponent. Spell-heavy Tempo Mage has the removal to deal with aggro and midrange, and also a lot of fuel to burn down control, placing the deck as a solid Tier 2 option. Thijs recently hit #1 Legend with a slower build that features Medivh, The Guardian for extra value.

As for the Freeze Mage players, even though the deck has yet to evolve with any new inclusions to the deck, it is still a strong deck to play. Every card in the set does not pose a significant threat for the Freeze Mage to handle, so the matchups are more or less the same.

Something to look out for in the future of this class is Control Mage variants such as Reno, Control, and Dragon. Currently these decks are on the edge of being playable, missing a few support cards. Reno Mage can fill up twenty to twenty five cards easily, but missing the last few slots of having solid options and without the Warlock lifetap, it makes more sense to play Warlock for the hero power and better one-of options. Control Mage is similar to Reno, except it exchanges the burst of heal for more consistency. Medivh’s Valet and and Avian Watcher are worth noting as they both work extremely well with the Ice Block sitting on your board throughout the game, to guarantee the benefits of their battlecries. Dragon Mage can also benefit with Medivh’s Valet as the deck will run Ice Block. Dragon Mage also got good support from this set with Netherspite Historian, Book Wyrm, and The Curator being solid control cards.

Paladin

Paladin has probably received the most potential from Karazhan, as the new cards support all of its archetypes. Time will tell which Paladin archetype is superior, however people are testing with Murlocs, N’Zoth, and Dragons.

From my testing, I was personally inclined toward Murloc Paladin. With the addition of Ivory Knight, the deck received additional healing and the potential to grab extra utility from the discovered spell. The Curator has also supported the deck quite nicely. Before Karazhan, it sometimes had inconsistent draws and trouble finding the combo it needed to clear the board, or murlocs when you had your Anyfin Can Happen ready in your hand. The Curator fixes all these problems. Not only does it thin down the deck to get closer to assembling your combo, it finds specifically the murloc, the dragon (often Azure Drakes, which cycles even more), and the Stampeding Kodo to combo with Humility or Aldor Peacekeeper. The card also fits well into the missing 7 Mana slot and is a strong taunt, which the deck was lacking. Overall, the deck has become much more consistent and has solid matchups across the field aside from Freeze Mage.

N’Zoth Paladin, similar to Murloc Paladin, has received Ivory Knight for added healing and utility as well as being able to use The Curator if the deck is tuned to it. The strongest addition is Barnes, with an insane high roll potential for Ragnaros or the deathrattle Legendaries Tirion, Sylvanas, and Cairne.  N’Zoth Paladin has been more popular as a tournament deck choice, where it fits into a specific strategy. As the deck does well against control and midrange, it can sometimes struggle against aggressive decks as it relies on having board clears and heals to stabilize against those matchups, which often does not happen and the hand is too clunky. This is the reason why you do not see it often on ladder, as most of the matchups will be against aggressive ones.

Dragon Paladin has yet to be discovered or touched by many players. Nightbane Templar is a great aggressive or midrange card, however Netherspite Historian and Book Wyrm have more of a late game strategy. Because of the latter cards, Paladin looks like it can work better at the midrange strategy, having tempo gains through Aldor Peacekeeper + Book Wyrm, and Dragon Consort. The main reason why Dragon Paladin has yet to make an impact on the meta is mainly due to Murloc and N’Zoth Paladin just being safer and stronger options. Over time we will see how players evolve Dragon Paladin and if it can match up to the superior Murloc and N’Zoth builds.

Let’s cut it here for now and give you guys a break… in part 2 we will look at the remaining classes and how they have changed or what their potential is from the result of Karazhan!

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About the Author

Jordan Hong Tai, also known as “TheJordude”, is a developing player for compLexity Gaming. For over a year he has enriched the coL.HS squad with his presence while becoming a fierce grinder on ladder and a threat in every collegiate competition. Apart from his business studies and the ladder grind, the youngster from Vancouver, Canada is a warrior in Open tournaments, a coach and the organizer and host of local tavern get-togethers. Monthly he delivers though-provoking pieces like for compLexity Gaming and other outlets. Follow him on:

• Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/TheJordude
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/TheJordude
• Twitter: @coL_TheJordude

It’s another week of travel for compLexity, as our Hearthstone division takes to the sky once again. coL.HS’s Jan “superjj” Janßen and Simon “crane” Raunholst head to Bucharest, Romania for Dreamhack Bucharest 2016, where 16 of the worlds best players will compete for $20,000 in prizes.

superjj will begin his run in Group B along with Ekop, Rdu and Tessin, while crane begins in Group A with Xixo, Kolento and angeloshaggy.

Prizes

• 1st: $10,000
• 2nd: $4,000
• 3rd-4th: $2,000
• Top 8: $500

Format

• Round of 16: Double Elimination Group Stage
• Round of 8: Double Elimination Bracket
• Last Hero Standing
• Best of 5
• Each player must bring all 9 classes

 Location

Join us in withing both players the best of luck as they travel to Bucharest this weekend!

It’s exciting times for Hearthstone competitors everywhere, as recently the calendar is stacked with events. compLexity Gaming’s cardslingers have their work cut for them in the next few days with superjj, Crane, and Loyan all competing in various high-stakes tournaments for glory.

The compLexity squad has found success in the regional qualifiers for WESG. Loyan, Crane and superjj have managed to advance to the Top 4 of their respective countries, with JJ and Crane only a win away from qualifying and Polish juggernaut Loyan needing two wins to make it to Kiev. The chance to represent their nations and their teams is close though, and the prestigious WESG tournament might have three coL players present.

However those qualifiers will end, two coL players will be present in Bucharest over the weekend for certain. Both Crane and superjj have been invited to participate in the 16-man tournament at DreamHack Bucharest, trying to continue their good performances. Crane will be trying to build off of the Silver medal at DreamHack Valencia, while JJ tries to continue on the road of success last seen with his dominant Swiss performance at Insomnia58. The tournament will kick off on Friday, September 16th.

Last but not least, compLexity Gaming will also be a part of perhaps the most special tournament of the year – the inaugural BatStone event. Organizer Firebat, 2014 World Champion of Hearthstone, is challenging the meta and dominant formats with his own take on it. The first edition will feature several card banned from competition, giving the Hearthstone community a glimpse into the “What would happen if…” world. After the community was asked to voice their opinions, the five most hated cards in the game were cast to sideline. Those included hated Legendary cards like Yogg-Saron and Barnes, but also class staples like Fiery War Axe, Tuskarr Totemic and Call of the Wild. In addition to the five banned cards from the community, each player could also ban a card from the tournament. That list was revealed earlier today and featured “mana cheat” cards like Innervate and Preparation, Zoo favorites like Doomguard and Darkshire Councilman, Thrall’s favorite weapon Doomhammer, Mage’s Ice Block, as well as two legendary cards in Ragnaros Firelord and Fandral.

Without those cards in the mix, expect the meta to look wildly different as several of the staple decks of the current meta like ZooLock, all Druid decks, aggressive Shaman, Rogue, Hunter and clown fiesta decks featuring Yogg have been eliminated from contention. Who of the top players will be able to adjust best to the new circumstances? coL player superjj will be matched up with the elite players of Hearthstone, including World Champion Ostkaka, multiple time European Champion Thijs, DreamHack Austin winner Chakki, Insomnia57 champion Ness, as well as the three amigos from Cloud 9 in Kolento, StrifeCro and Tidesoftimes.

So support compLexity.Hearthstone throughout their adventures this week in multiple tournaments, starting tonight with the QuickDraw Team League spectacular.

Image courtesy of Firebat