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After Jeb said that Druid was wrecked by the nerfs I had to fire up my Weenie Druid and see how that would go. I had topped that deck out 13.3 on the ladder which is good for me because I am missing so many essential cards for most builds. I use two Silencers to deal with taunt (mostly Deathlord). I took out the Treant with charge spell. It still can compete at level 14 pretty well. You get the right draw and it's hard to stop without Reno-ing. Was this morning against Control Warrior. He silenced an Egg w/ Mark of the wild AND played a healbot turn 5. I killed him on my turn 5. Nothing he could do about it.

Thanks for posting the disappointment with opening 50 packs. I was teetering on plunging on that and now am avowed to get everything from playing Arena. If you are old enough to remember the John Houseman Smith Barney commercials.... get them the old fashioned way..... earn it. I haven't done any homework to have any sense of how the new cards affect the Meta or what the missing cards do to my chances in Standard with my current decks needing reworking. But I never was one for homework, even in grade school, and look how that turned out....

Edit: Reworked the Weenie Druid for standard. Lost ten great cards. Replaced minions that spawned other minions with minions that drew cards. Jeweled scarab and the other two cost cards that draw. It still does OK but not the force it was.... at all. My best win was against C thun warrior that Renoed and I took him down and killed him a few turns later. Still have not seen a single C thun hit the table probably because one way or the other my games don't last long enough. It does seem that standard will get boring quickly. I got the carrot of winning some games in standard and then it keeps giving me a new carrot to play more gsmes in standard to earn more packs. Once they lift the incentive I will probably go back to wild. I don't like what they have done with the game. Even though I have not met a single C thun, I am already tired of the concept. It seems like they are trying to force him into my life, and while I am happy to be rid of Dr Boom for a minute..... Ugh. Can C thun be silenced? I can't wait to see him and silence him the second he drops.

I didn't pre-order the bundle this time. I had 6000 gold and 20k dust. I figure I'd save some money and see if I can go f2p this expansion.

With 73 free packs from gold and quests I got:

Xaril Poisoned Mind - Rogue legendary
Nzoth The Corruptor
Twin Emperor Veklor
Herald Volaj - Priest legendary

I wanted all of those except the priest one, though the priest one might be fun to play around with. I figure I can craft most of the other stuff I want with dust and more free packs over the next couple months.

MacDirk Diggler wrote: Can C thun be silenced? I can't wait to see him and silence him the second he drops.

In theory he could be silenced (back to a 6/6), but you're still going to take the initial wham-wham-wham when he drops, you can't silence him in hand.

The Rogue that hit me with him three times is on to something.

I know this might be boring, but Grim Patron is alive and well. At least while everyone else is screwing around, it is. It sucks to lose Unstable Ghoul and Death's Bite, but Rampaging Ghoul is quite good. 3/3 for 3 and it whirlwinds everything but itself. I've got two of them, a Mad Bomber and a Wild Pyromancer in there for additional enablers. My one loss that I can think of was when I got Brawl'd by an 8-life warrior when I had 6 minions on board and he had an Obsidian Destroyer. Guess what survived? Brawl is the least fun card to play against in the game. Powerful and random, yippee. There's also that crazy new 3-mana epic for warrior that Echo of Medivh's all of your wounded minions. I think that'll be good in Grim Patron at least as a 1-of.

I got most of my other quest wins by playing Hunter. I got the "summon all 3 animal companions" spell, which is fun but not as potent as I expected, and at 8 mana it can be too late for the type of Hunter I was playing.

I opened about 35 packs today and I think I got 2 legendaries- Xaril and the shaman legendary that heals you when you play direct damage spells.

I crafted Yogg-Saron and it's everything I hoped it would be.

Got 13 free packs from Standard wins and 1 more from Arena. 3 epics and one legendary. Two of the epics were Hunters Call. I figure I can survive with one of those so it's dust. That Yogg looks like a solid dust expenditure. I want one.

After I won the first two games with the Priest C'Thun deck, I decided to make a Shaman Evolve deck and highlight all of the stuff I've been bitching about (Overload, randomness of Evolve, etc.) I used Blizzard's suggested model and tweaked it: www.hearthpwn.com/decks/503434-overevolve

The Overload hasn't been as bad as I expected because Eternal Sentinel (the card that should have been made in, say, Naxxramas) is that good. I've been able to make all kinds of proper sequence plays with him in hand. IIRC, Blizzard's model trended more towards the control approach, where mine is as midrange as you can get because it tries to straddle the fence between aggro and the long game. I've run people over with troggs and golems on turn 5 and I've had games go 15-16 turns and survived a C'Thun. The problem I've occasionally run into (in my two losses out of about a dozen games, that is) is that I can dump my hand quickly like an aggro deck and then not have much of a way to recover. If I draw into Storm or Destruction or Wolves, then I can stabilize. If not, there are issues. Those two losses came to Mage, so it may just be a class weakness (Mage C'Thun decks were, by far, the best I saw all day because of the removal inherent to the class.) One thing that would alleviate the potential midgame imbalance is some kind of draw and a couple candidates for replacement with Ancestral and/or Mana Tide are the Unbound and Hallazeal.

Unbound is still just too clunky. I dropped him in to take advantage of all the Overload and he does become target #1 on the board for my opponents, but trying to get him out of my hand AND get a good Overload spell down before he dies is probably more trouble than it's worth. Hallazeal is, for the most part, underwhelming because by the time you get him on the board, you've often used a lot of the damage spells that make him work. Don't get me wrong: a couple times he's paid off spectacularly (Wrath of Air + Lightning Storm = full heal) but I question his viability in the same way I do Mistcaller: he's great in very specific circumstances but a slightly larger Yeti in many, many others. However, the deck is very fun and I'm happy to say that I was wrong about Evolve and the tide may have finally turned on Overload, as well. Scarab remains one of the best cards ever for Shaman: extra Hex for all the Old Gods hitting the table, extra Storm if you need it, Mana Tide Totem after you've cleared the board; so much good stuff on the 3 for Shaman right now.

This is the C'Thun Priest list: www.hearthpwn.com/decks/504394-cthuns-clutch
It's basically Blizzard's model but I replaced the Flame Jugglers with Embrace the Shadow. I tried the first couple games with the Jugglers figuring that they're a two-drop minion that helps the curve and the early game and might have a good side effect, but they just don't have enough impact outside of Arena. What ETS also helps with is the fact that, without Lightbomb, Priest has some board clear issues. Embrace the Shadow makes those possible without a) requiring the easily removed Auchenai to be on the board (after all, you can't heal her), b) trapping you behind the Auchenai if you do suddenly need to heal next turn; and, c) costing 4 mana. I played against Vek'lor a lot more often than I actually got to play him. He's cool and all, but far from a lockdown. Still, tough to beat two 4/6 taunters for 7 mana. Nothing stood out as particularly poor in the deck, although I ran into a few games where I hadn't taken any damage and was kind of frustrated to be wanting to play Alchemist or Darkmender on curve. I'd be interested in hearing the opinions of more Priest players as far as alternate choices, though.

But probably the most viscerally entertaining deck of the night was Shields Up!: www.hearthpwn.com/decks/504376-shields-up
It's Blizzard's model with one exception: to my eternal shame, I switched out a Worgen for Divine Favor. I even pulled off the disgusting "5 cards for 3 mana" play 3 times last night. That card is beyond broken, but if they're leaving it in the game and I'm playing Pallie aggro, why would I turn it down? I mean, this deck presumably doesn't need as much draw as other aggro decks, since your guys will last longer... if you can get (and keep) the shields on them. The 3 times I played DF, I needed the midgame help because my board was weak. It reloaded me and I sailed to victory. What is it with Paladins and stupid good minions at the 3/4 slot, too? Peacekeeper, Keeper, and now Steward. Fjola, OTOH, is kind of a conceit, since there's only two cards in the deck that really exploit her ability, since the other two spells (Seal) already give her the shield. The sisters were always kind of underwhelming in my Priest deck, too, and she remains that way. The card that I thought was going to be a disappointment, Huge Toad, was actually excellent. It's a 3/2 for 2, which are almost always good, anyway, but the number of Twilight Elders I took down with his deathrattle was impressive. Also, Coin, Toad, followed by Argent remains as good as that play ever was with Juggler. Blood Knight remains one of the most conflicted cards in the game. I mean, sure, I can play a 9/9 for 3 mana but when I have two decent-sized minions on the board with bubbles, do I really want to give that up? OTOH, the one game where Steward was doing work and he took bubbles off a couple Dudes was OK, since the Hunter had no answer for said 9/9. First Paladin deck I've ever made without Silverlight Champion. Feels weird.

Also, get rekt:

Opened a Yogg. Ridiculous spell Mage might be next.

One kid opened Cursed Hogger and Anomalous. Yeesh. All positive vibes though, he's over the moon.

Other kid opened Xaril, N'Zoth, Cursed Nat Pagle. She hates Rogue though! Man alive, that deathrattle Rogue deck is dangerous.

I opened a total of 50 + 3 + 5 + 17 packs from all the quests, gold, and pre-order so far: 75 packs. Got Anomalous, Hallazeal, Cursed Nat Pagle, The Boogeymonster, and Shifter Zerus. I am ahead of the curve. I crafted Yogg Saron, because I'm no fool. Mostly kitted out in Rares, only missing a couple of wanted ones: the Paladin ones that make that good deck Jackwraith is onto and a second Corrupted Healbot, and the only Epic is am missing out on and really want is the Shaman weapon, Hammer of Twilight.

I am actually missing a couple of commons too, which seems insane, but that's RNG for ya.

• I've played Midrange Totem Shaman--which could be great. I need to figure out the mid-game, maybe build a better defense.
• C'thun Priest is hot garbage. Think I need to go N'zoth route here, and get one of those copy-all-your-dudes guys.
• Maly/Yogg Rogue is solid and hilarious, even without the boost I would get from Xaril. Killed a Yogg Mage with some combination of Frostbolt, Mass Dispel, Pyroblast Yogg, several Deadly Shots, DOOM! (board was empty), and Avenging Wrath for the coup de grace. Crazy card is crazy.
• C'Thun Mage is good--that 3/2 with Spell Damage and C'Thun buff for 2 is really good.

I've pulled a Xaril and now a Yogg this morning. I'm going to have to spend some dust on Preparation and try that out. Or get N'zoth and try the Deathrattle thing.

I already had the Pirate Legendaries and 2 Southsea Captains, and I got two N'zoth's First Mate and Bloodsail Cultist. I think that deck will do well against all of these slow decks.

jeb wrote: I opened a total of 50 + 3 + 5 + 17 packs from all the quests, gold, and pre-order so far: 75 packs. Got Anomalous, Hallazeal, Cursed Nat Pagle, The Boogeymonster, and Shifter Zerus.

Um, ouch? A solid Control Mage guy, which is a class that doesn't really need help with control. A legendary that may be a trap ("This will be great if these perfect circumstances happen every game!"; that said, I was wrong about C'Thun, but my experience with Hallazeal to date leads me to believe I'm not wrong here.) The bad Nat. The bad Gruul. And the very definition of RNG ("Look! He's a Ragnaros! On turn 2." ... "Now he's a Loremaster Cho. On turn 8."). Sounds like a lot of good dust!

jeb wrote: C'Thun Mage is good--that 3/2 with Spell Damage and C'Thun buff for 2 is really good.

Yeah, man. I can see that deck going places. So much damage and so much synchronicity. I think C'Thun Priest is better than you do, though. It's not as good as C'Thun Mage or C'Thun Druid, but it has a place. Control Paladin may be where it's at, though. It's a monstrous dust cost if you don't already have The Man and others: www.hearthpwn.com/decks/508756-strifecros-control

At the risk of coming off as more of an idiot as I already do. How does one come by C thun? Is he a gift? I didn't have one yesterday. Won a pack in the Arena this AM. Now I have a C thun. He was not in that pack. I am not complaining. Did everyone get one?

Yesterday, when I started opening packs there was a quick message that announced that I now had C'Thun. Almost missed it.

Legendary Pulls out of 83 packs
Regular Boogey - dusted
Golden Boogey
Dark Nat - dusted
Herald Volazj
Ragnaros

Crafted Yogg-Saron and Xaril

C'Thun, two of the little dudes that +2/+2 it and the three packs all hit collections yesterday. That's automatic. Not everyone got the notices because the server was buried in requests, but everyone got the stuff.

@Jackwraith: Yeah, underwhelmed by my Legendaries. Anomolous is not a good card. Unlike some people, I am not obsessed with The Boogeymonster. But I like Hallazeal ("He hallazeals all your dallazamage,") a lot. It's not a Midrange card--it's a control card. he will be slow and wonky in Midrange, but I am turning an Evolve Control deck over in my head that he will factor in. I feel like the Cursed Nat Pagle is some kind of joke at Blizzard. Haha, how can we shitty up a card even more? Maybe it's broken at 2-mana 3/4?--I would debate playing that. But 2/4 is bad in a 1000+ ways. Shifter Zerus... trying to think about this one is painful. it could? Maybe? Do... what? Something? Ouch.

Warrior has the Pirates. We have reached critical Pirate. I think it can be done, Jackwraith and Jexik. Be brave. Show us The Way.

Going to earn my next six packs (have Win 7 games anywhere and the Win 7 in Standard quests) and then make the hard choices on
Legendaries, Epics, Rares I need. For TGT it was Twilight Guardians (worth it! I was killing with Dragon Priest for ages). This time around, I am looking long and hard at Hammer of Twilight, Xaril, and N'Zoth.

---This video is everything Jackwraith hates about Hearthstone and everything he probably loves about it too--
Guy gets the Yogg Saron dream. He's played tons of spells as a Mage, Yogg Saron will cast a random spell (with random targets) for each spell cast by you earlier in the game--AND he gets it out with Brann Bronzebeard in play, which doubles the effect.

I'm still burned by the fact that I only got 5 legendaries in 150 packs, and I got two copies of Xaril, no less! My pulls: Xaril x2, Princess Huhuran, Boogeymonster and Hallazeal. I had nearly 9000 dust so I've crafted a few Epics (which are my first priority) like Preparation x2 and Faceless Manipulator x2. At least I pulled most of the epics and a full set of rares and commons.

I built what I'm calling my "Blood Rogue" deck since I pulled 3x Blood of the Ancient One (including a gold which has already been dusted) and I also got 2x Shadowcaster (Rogue Epic: Battlecry: Choose a friendly minion. Put a 1/1 copy in your hand that costs 1). Here's my decklist:

Backstab x2
Preparation x2
Deadly Poison x2
Bladed Cultist x2
Eviscerate x2
Gang Up
Shadow Strike
Earthen Ring Farseer x2
Blade Flurry
Infested Tauren x2
Tomb Pillager x2
Xaril
Big Game Hunter
Faceless Manipulator x2
Shadowcaster x2
Sunwalker x2
Sprint
Blood of the Ancient One x2

I've never built a Rogue deck from the ground up and didn't even have one until in my collection until I built this one so any advice (other than, "Play deathrattle Rogue with N'Zoth!" or "Play mill Rogue!" ) would be appreciated. The name of the game is stall but it's hard without Belcher and Healbot. I'm not completely convinced I even need Xaril in this deck but she's nice to have one of the Shadowcasters proc off of. This deck can work, I'd just like to make it more consistent since I have no idea how many of each removal is a good amount.

Here's me living the dream against a C'thun Druid a short while ago. I cheated BotAO out on Turn 7 with two coins and he had an Azure Drake and taunted Druid of the Claw on the board. I killed the Druid of the Claw with BotAO, Faceless Manipulator on BotAO, and Eviscerated the Drake. The Ancient One formed, he played the double taunt Emperor and I dropped my other BotAO that was already in my hand, resulting in the board you see below. It was GG shortly thereafter.