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Hello everyone. It's almost time for a new Refined Sphere shop to appear on Global, so it's also time for me to make a new guide on the new shop.
This time, I will analyze the batch that will arrive in global DFFOO January 27th for Divine Diabolos. This batch will have RF spheres of Freya, Machina, Maria, Paine, Ramza and Yda.
This is mostly a guide about RF spheres that are powerful as a placeholder options for your characters that you do not plan to equip spheres. Thus, it may be on your best interest to craft enough to slot on everyone that fit the description. I'm here to list which units fulfill their requirements, and to whom they may be best RF option to slot there as placeholders until you decide to slot a proper sphere.
However, no matter how strong, a refined sphere is never as good as a proper sphere. So, if any of the characters I list below already have proper spheres slotted for them, please, don't overwrite your sphere with a refined one. The numbers I list are a cap, not a minimum. As in, if you craft more than that, probably you will run out of units that can even activate the sphere regularly.
Probably you will not be able to craft spheres for everyone, and need to pick and choose who will receive them. That's ok. Especially as the shops start having spheres that are good for a large amount of characters. Only you have knowledge of your own roster, and are in a better position to pick and choose who are the best picks when you need to choose.

• Machina (A-sphere, Black crystal):
• Raises INT BRV, ATK by 4% for 3 turns when inflicting Break or attacking target afflicted with Break
• Reoccurrence in shop: N/A at least for 8 months

How good is it? 4% ATK/IBRV is a decent boost, which I think rivalizes with 6% ATK spheres. It's an amazing sphere for the characters that benefit from high IBRV.
A is the most common slot in the game, and by giving straight stat buffs to two prime stats, it's useful for any character. Alongside Jecht (and the unreleased Yang) sphere, this is the best all-around generic placeholder sphere in the game. On top of that, Machina RF sphere requires black crystals, which will have zero usage for good spheres in the foreseeable future.
My advice is for you to go all in and craft as many Machina RF spheres as you can. Remember to keep just enough High Crystals to raise Machina, Caius and Palom to level 80. Everything else you can spend as if there is no tomorrow.

• Maria (C-sphere, Blue crystal):
• After recovering HP, raises party's INT BRV, ATK by 2% for 3 turns
• Reoccurrence in shop: N/A at least for 8 months

How good is it? Alongside Alphinaud, this is the most powerful party-wide RF C-sphere in the game. Pretty much everyone with a C slot have some kind of healing or buff, and they have the same effect, just with a different conditional.
This is a repeat from the Act 2 Finale Pt. 1 RF shop, so it's possible you already crafted all Maria spheres you needed then.
C slots are spread around a vast array of character types. That makes "generic usage" kinda hard to analyze. So, basically, I checked all C slot units that can heal themselves often.
My advice is for you to craft 16 Maria RF spheres, and use them for those characters: Agrias, Cait Sith, Caius, Cecil (Paladin), Eiko, Firion, Freya, Ignis, Lenna, Leo, Nine, Penelo, Porom, Rinoa, Rosa and Sherlotta. All of them have some kind of HP regen aura/buff, or can heal often enough using skills, EX, and HP++ actions. Basically, they will be healing themselves consistently during the fight, and thus, will trigger Maria RF sphere all the time.
Basch, Rude and Yuri can make use of both Maria and Alphinaud RF spheres for the same result. They buff and heal themselves very often, thus the conditional for both spheres are easily fulfilled. It's your call which sphere you want to slot on them.
Lenna, Penelo, Rosa, Sherlotta and Yuri have two C slots, and this sphere stack with itself. The info above assumes you'll be using a single RF sphere on them. If you want to slot both of their C slots with the recommended sphere, remember to craft the extras.

• Paine (E-sphere, Blue crystal):
• Raises party's ATK by 2%, lowers all enemies' ATK by 4% for 3 turns when attacking target's weakness
• Reoccurrence in shop: N/A at least for 8 months

How good is it? This is the only E-sphere that provides a party-wide ATK bonus, and the ATK debuff is an aura that don't fight for debuff slots.
In general, if you are able to hit for weakness damage consistently, this sphere is really interesting. You might prefer to prioritize the own unit ATK with Seymour, Kefka or Irvine, but if you prefer to spread the love, this is a perfectly valid sphere to use.
The main issue here is that Maria is a really good RF sphere, and they share the same crystal color. My advice is to invest more on Maria RF spheres than Paine, but it's your decision in the end, and you might even have some spare blue to invest here if you want.
There is a total of 15 E-slot units that can consistently hit weakness because they imperil their own element or attack type: Auron, Cater, Cecil (Dark Knight), Desch, Fran, Fujin, Gau, Golbez, Irvine, Kurasame, Palom, Raijin, Reno, Shantotto and Vincent
There is another list of 15 characters that can hit for weakness damage on some more specific conditionals. I think those characters are better served with another E sphere, but I present the list just so you can judge for yourself: Amidatelion, Arciela, Edgar, Fang, Faris, Kefka, Layle, Lion, Paine, Relm, Seifer, Seymour, Thancred, Vanille, and Zidane.
Regardless of how you decide to spend your blue crystals, remember to craft at least one Paine RF sphere, to fulfill the event mission and get the blue nuggets.

• Freya (D-sphere, Red crystal):
• Raises party's MAX HP by 4%
• Reoccurrence in shop: Kaiser Behemoth Raid (May)

How good is it? That's a unique bonus that is not found in any other sphere in the game. It can't be compared with other spheres because of that, requiring a more fine analysis.
Extra HP is usually a good thing. Most characters average around 15k~21k HP with all summon boards and max level. That means this sphere provides around 600~850 HP to each party member. While this value is mostly irrelevant, I've survived a fair number of fights because an HP attack left me with less than 1k HP and allowed me to heal back. But more often than not, we get a dead party member when we get broken during a big attack, or we get overwhelmed by an attack that deal more HP damage than we have MBRV.
I would not sacrifice 2% party ATK for 4% party MAX HP, and the sphere says that it do not stack with itself, which may imply that even if multiple party members have this RF sphere slotted, the party would only benefit from one sphere effect. It's a unique effect, but preventing a death at a narrow HP value is too niche to be a generically useful sphere. There is a reason why HP passives are what we unequip when we need 5 CP for something else.
My advice is to craft one single Freya RF sphere, to fulfill the event mission and get the blue nuggets.

• Ramza (D-sphere, Yellow crystal):
• With 3 or more buffs, raises party's INT BRV, MAX BRV by 2%
• Reoccurrence in shop: N/A at least for 8 months

How good is it? This sphere do not provide an ATK bonus, and thus is not a good placeholder sphere.
My advice is for you to craft one single Ramza RF sphere, to fulfill the event mission and get the blue nuggets. Don't bother crafting more.

• Yda (A-sphere, Green crystal):
• Increases BRV damage dealt by 4% when attacking enemy not targetting self
• Reoccurrence in shop: Kaiser Behemoth Raid (May)

How good is it? Straight buff to BRV damage, which counters BRV damage reduction from Chaos/Lufenia bosses, is a rare buff. Said that, it's roughly equivalent to a similar ATK bonus, which places this sphere on average tier.
4% ATK is baseline for a RF A sphere, with the good spheres providing something else on top of that bonus, or providing a better bonus. However, this sphere will be useless against bosses that have many ALL attacks, and have reduced effectiveness when playing without a lock tank on your team. Considering all that, it's a decent sphere, but being of average power alongside the inconsistent trigger make it not a good investment.
My advice is for you to craft one single Yda RF sphere, to fulfill the event mission and get the blue nuggets.
Next batch preview:
Next batch will come with Operation Airbone Interception at February 9th, and will feature the RF spheres of Cyan (A sphere, Blue), Palom (A sphere, Black), Papalymo (A sphere, Red), Penelo (C sphere, White), Thancred (E sphere, White), and Ultimecia (E sphere, Green).
Previous threads:

• Storm the Citadel (Mission Dungeon)
• Mechanized Sentry (Guard Scorpion Raid)
• The Sneering Demon (Heretics)
• Centaurion's Reign (Tyrant Raid)
• Roar of Ruin (Ultimate Bahamut)
• The Final Battlefield (Shinryu raid)
• Intercession of the Wicked (Heretics)
• Story Act 2 Finale pt 1
• Gabranth, Wakka, Irvine

So the other day, one of my friends and I were bouncing this idea off of each other for the best legendary of each set. Now, when mentioning the term the best, it is naturally going to be a bit subjective, but I think I have a decent enough criteria. This will be analyzing the broad strokes of each card being in the format. Both how versatile and how innately powerful each card will be considered. For example, lets say that somehow TGT came down to Eydis Darkbane and Justicar Truehart, humor me. Which is better? Well, it depends. Justicar in this theoretical scenario might have more decks she might pop up in, but Eydis might be in a stronger deck. Each will be looked at on a case by case basis. Also, this obviously is from a wild centered perspective. I know some of these might be stronger in Standard, but the rules stand.
Classic
Classic is a bit of a weird case, since most of its legendaries in Neutral are relatively plain in the grand scheme of things. Even the class legendaries are on the plainer side, often serving to show off the fantasy of each class and core design elements. That does not mean simple is always bad. Malygos is a simple card that due to the sheer power of his effect creates burst damage combos in many classes, such as Hunter, Shaman, Warlock, and most notably Druid. While the fact that Druid can tutor him and cheat crazy mana helps, Malygos is just overall the strongest legendary in the classic set. Honorable mentions go to Alexstraza, who is a good card in Reno Mage lists, Edwin Van Cleef, who repeatedly makes Standard mad with how much of an absolute unit he can be and sometimes shows up in Wild aggro rogue lists, and Bloodmage Thalnos, who offers Raza Priest another method of card draw and gives a good burst of damage and healing from Spirit Lash.
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Hall of Fame
Look most of the Hall of Fame is good cards, at least legendary wise. Every legendary in here except for ETC and Geblin is an honorable mention and while some like Rag and Sylvanas are not meta right now, they have very uniquely powerful effects and are worth holding onto. That being said, Baku the Mooneater is a clear head and shoulders above the rest of the pack. Baku is one of the most defining neutral cards of all time. Odd Demon Hunter, Paladin, Rogue, and Warrior all have been meta decks since they could exist. Odd Shaman, Hunter, and Mage also pop up as strong off meta choices every now and again. Genn Greymane was Baku's toughest competition, but Genn has only Even Shaman, Even Warlock, and Even Paladin in his back pocket as strong enough decks to comment on. Not only would I argue that outside of Even Shaman Genn's decks are weaker than Baku's, but Baku just has more decks that are even fringe viable. The fact that I am talking down a card as good as Genn tells you how absolutely insane Baku is. While she can be a dead draw sometimes, the power of your hero power is just worth it.
Naxx
Naxx was one of the easiest sets to talk about: Loatheb. While originally designed as a tech card for miracle rogue, Loatheb has outlived the deck he was designed to shut down for a turn. Neutering your opponent's spells for a turn while only giving up one health point in vanilla stats is absolutely insane. None of the honorable mentions come close. Kel'Thuzad is a niche card in big priest and big shaman. Feugan and Stalagg are fun for memes but are far from metagame staples.
GVG
GvG has a lot of wacky cards added, be it through weird design or rng effects. Ironically, one of the most boring cards out of the lot ends up as the best legendary. Mal'Ganis is just insane in any slower warlock deck. Giving your demons a passive buff is already good, but Mal'Ganis goes further and gives your hero immune, giving him a soft taunt on a big body. This is already strong, but this is amplified even further based on how easy it is for Warlocks to not pay mana for him. Voidcaller and Skull both make it so Mal'Ganis regularly will be on the field well before turn 9. The only honorable mention I could muster in good faith is Dr. Boom. While Dr. Balanced is not the juggernaut he was in old hearthstone, he still is a decent card to slot in Odd aggro decks and is still some of the best raw stats you can get for 7 Mana.
Blackrock
At the time, Blackrock was considered a bit of a dud due to only a few cards really popping off in terms of power, such as Quick Shot, Flamewaker, Imp Gang Boss, Grim Patron, and the only good Legendary of the set, Emperor Thaurissan. While other cards would come to blossom like Twilight Whelp and Resurrect, Emperor has always been a staple since his inclusion. Even if Emperor only sticks one turn, the cost reduction is huge for control and combo decks. Combo decks can either get their combo going earlier or have their combo exist. Control gains a good degree of flexibility with their resources. The other legendaries here are trash,even if Majordomo is a fun meme.
TGT
The Grand Tournament is arguably the worst set in Hearthstone history. Inspire is a failed keyword. It is one of the weakest sets of all time, with only a small fraction of its cards even being worth a second look. Aviana drew a lot of eyes at first due to the power of her effect. While she would not truly blossom until Druid had the tools to use her to her fullest, she is head and shoulders above the rest of the pack. Her synergy with Druid's survival shell , draw, and more importantly Kun the Forgotten King opens up a ton of combo opportunities to Druid. Be it meme combos like Cube Rag Deathwing or Gonk or metagame threats like Toggwaggle and more importantly Malygos, Aviana's talons will be your end. While nothing comes close to Aviana, that does not mean everything else is completely useless. Eydis Darkbane is actually pretty strong in non pure Libram Paladin, but that is a Tier 3 deck on a good day. Her sister is also playable in that deck, but is much more mediocre. Varian Wrynn is something to keep an eye on if Big Warrior does ever pick up more, although he is a fringe inclusion in a fringe deck. Justicar Trueheart is the closest to being usable. Both DMH and Dude Paladin can use her, but she is far from a staple.
LOE
League of Explorers introduced some of the most powerful - Reno Jackson. Yes Brann has a ton of cool synergies. Yes Finley lets you mess with Raza Priest and is a great card in aggro decks like Pirate Warrior and Aggro Druid. But Reno is one of the strongest cards in the format. There is a reason every aggro deck is looking either to kill you by turn 6 or be able to kill you very soon if unchecked. Reno offering a full heal can outright brick aggro decks. The singleton downside is not even as much of a downside in the wild meta, since we have so many cards it is easy to just live with the downside.
WOG
Whispers of the Old Gods is my personal favorite set. I love the flavor, its metas were amazing, and it brings back so many good memories. I could not put anything other than N'zoth on this spot though. Summoning a bunch of deathrattles makes N'zoth do everything. He can protect your face with taunts. He can offer value. Decks like Taunt Druid, Mill Rogue, some Reno LPG Mages, Dead Mans Hand Warrior, and perhaps most importantly Cubelock and Renolock live or die by this card. Summoning back Sticky deathrattles can make any deck without strong burn that goes over the top lose the opportunity to go for lethal for at least a turn, usually more. Yogg after his unnerf is the best meme card in the game that sees play in Jade Druid, so he is worth holding onto. Yssharj is a staple of multiple Big Decks like Big Shaman and some build of Big Priest. Speaking of which...
Karazhan
If I was doing the best card of each expansion, this would be much more competitive but Karazhan has a clear obvious victor. While he is nowhere near as powerful as he was in the past, Barnes is still as annoying as ever. Deathrattle Hunter and some builds of Big Priest thrive on this card, putting big minions into the res pool for cards like Jewel of N'zoth or all of priest's res spells. While Curator is a decent draw option that tutors and Malchazar should be in the classic set since he is so fun, it has to be Barnes.
MSG
I hate this set. Its meta was unfun, I do not like the theme, and plenty of cards from it still dominate the format to this day. That being said, it did give me the single hardest choice in terms of choosing the best legendary. My choices came down to Patches the Pirate, Raza the Chained, and Kazakus. While Kazakus gives Reno decks another get out of jail free card and Raza is part of the core behind the best deck in the format, I had to go with Patches the Pirate in the end. Don't get me wrong. Raza and Kazakus are broken cards. It is just Patches is the single most versatile aggro card in the game. Just to name a few decks that use him that are remotely meta, Odd DH, Aggro Druid, Odd Paladin, Odd Rogue, Kingsbane Rogue, Pirate Warrior, and Galakrond Warrior all commonly use Patches. Patches not only giving effectively Alleycat's effect combined with draw makes him have so much utility. Kazakus as said above gives Reno Mage in all its flavors, Renolock, and Raza Priest a strong swiss army knife of a card. Raza not only cheats so much mana but turns the best control deck into one of the best combo decks. I just have to go with Patches over these two though. Outside of these two, other honorable mentions include Aya Blackpaw for her use in Jade Shudderwock Shaman since no one runs her in Jade Druid anymore and Kun the Forgotten King for helping Aviana create so many combo decks.
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So what do you guys think? I would say outside of MSG, HOF, and maybe Classic I think I chose relatively non controversial picks. I hope you enjoyed this write up. Maybe later this week during the blizzard I will do the next few sets.

Introduction

Hi all, I recently saw a Reddit post on people discussing about the use of call abilities which got me thinking on putting together some sort of call abilities primer.
Call abilities are released in GL not too long ago and at the start they don't seem all that powerful due to the few limited characters who currently have access to Calls and the fact that you will likely still be using clvl 70 characters in your party still, thereby further limiting the use of Call abilities.
However as more and more characters get access to clvl80, we are going to transition into a stage where you can use 2-3 different call abilities per Lufenia battle. And of course, more call abilities also gets added to the roster making us more spoilt for choice. They CAN be a game changer on Lufenia fights.
So for this post I'll do a quick description of each call ability released so far in GL, and how useful I think they are.
Quick disclaimer though that a lot of the "how useful is it" is really based on my opinion and I do make mistakes here and there- so if you disagree please feel free to post a comment with your reasons and if it makes sense I'll update the post and credit you along the way.

Call Abilities as of 12 Jan 2021

Note the below assumes full clvl80 passives have been unlocked.

Ciaran

Call Ability Holyrastrike
What it does Batteries party, then does a 6-hit ST holy elemental + ST hp attack with 100% splash damage
Usefulness I'm not a big fan of this one. It's a straight up call for some some nice damage and.. that's it. It also requires you to have a well built Ciaran otherwise it's gonna hit like a wet noodle in Lufenia fights, AND it only does brave damage to one target. It does have a nice 100% hp splash and I guess in fights where there's a holy weakness it will do some nice numbers. But really, I think call slots are best used for calls that actually carry benefits beyond damage.

Yuri

Call Ability Crystal Power
What it does Reduces brave of all enemies by 50% followed by a 4 hit group brave + split damage hp attack
Usefulness Slightly better than Ciaran because it has some value in the 50% gravity shave before the attack and the brave hits are AoE. This may come in handy in some fights where the bosses will battery themselves to insane brave levels- for example in Clouds Lufenia where the scorpions can battery themselves to 99999 brave the call will shave a whopping 50k brave before it even does the brave hits. However it's still only 50% shave so it may not be enough and the call doesn't carry any lingering effects after.

Rem

Call Ability Cure
What it does Burst party heal + party brave battery. Provides a 6 turn slight increase to party attack aura after the call
Usefulness This is quite decent actually. We are still limited in Call healers and Rem is quite effective there. Her healing potency is quite high and is useful in situations when you need to top up quickly. Providing everyone brave after that gives you the opportunity to facetank the next boss attack without getting broken, and thereby reducing hp damage from the next hit. Getting a boost to Atk for 6 turns after is like icing on the cake.

Lightning

Call Ability Sparkstrike
What it does 3 hit lightning elemental ST brave + hp attack. Will refund brave to the caller equalling to 30% hp damage dealt and provides brv regen aura to the caller for 6 turns
Usefulness I like Lightning but her call ability is actually kinda meh. If you bring her it's more for the brave refund and regen than the actual attack. Her brave Regen isn't particularly strong to begin with and to me isn't worth wasting a valuable call slot for. It does have some value when you do the call right before hitting Burst mode- it gives you brave Regen for every turn you take in burst mode. But is that enough to warrant a call slot? To me, not really.

Penelo

Call Ability Regen waltz
What it does Batteries party and then provides the party with a 6 turn brave Regen and hp regen aura
Usefulness decent- the regen is granted as a call aura so it doesn't take up buff slots or gets dispelled by boss attacks. The hp healing is 10% per turn so it heals for 60% in total. Whether you bring Penelo or another call healer though depends on the fight. Penelo excels in fights where you take small hits of hp damage frequently- for example in Gau's Lufenia or in Xandes Lufenia where small aoe hp attacks are frequent. If you need burst heals though it's probably better to use someone else. Interestingly if Rude's LD effect is in play, her hp regen will provide you brave instead if you have max hp, which turns Penelo call effect into a very potent 6-turn brave battery.

Kam'lanaut

Call Ability Esoteric Region
What it does batteries self followed by 4 hit ST brave + hp ice elemental attack. Refunds brave to caller equalling to 30% hp damage dealt. Provides a 6 turn attack and magic attack down aura.
Usefulness if you're bringing Kam it's mainly for the call aura. I believe his attack/m attack down is 30% which is quite decent. I've even used it in Reno's CQ in a run without using both Reno or Kam'lanaut. The call enabled me to facetank the first mist attack and survive. Most of the time though it's probably better to just bring a tank if you're worried about big hp attacks. It's niche but in a pinch, it CAN save your run.

Wakka

Call Ability Brave reels
What it does batteries party up to 120% mbrv and provides the caller 3 turns of attack, def and mbrv up by 80% each as an aura
Usefulness this is one of the calls that I may have judged too quickly. The battery is actually quite strong especially since it can go past the brave cap but the main reason people use him as a call will mainly be for the very hefty boost to attack and mbrv. While the game limits the usefulness by allowing it only for 3 turns, the call still shines when you use it right before burst mode. Call auras don't reduce in duration during burst, so calling Wakka right before you hit burst mode allows your character the 6 turns in BT mode with an additional 80% attack and mbrv. Wakka does stand out mainly on the virtue of the huge potencies to attack and mbrv, higher than other calls. The fact that the buffs are an aura also mean it stacks with other attack/mbrv buffs. Imagine getting buffs from characters like Sazh or Ramza, then calling Wakka in and hitting BT mode....

Beatrix

Call Ability Saint cloth
What it does batteries party, followed by a 3 hit ST brave + hp attack. Provides party 6 turns of hp regen and def up buffs after. If you have her MLBed she also provides her framed Noble Loyalty buff to the party as well which is another juicy 30% attack and mbrv up, and a -30% brave damage taken.
Usefulness Her battery is not the best. Interestingly though in a co-op setting, if another Beatrix has used Shock, your Beatrix call will also do a follow up Rose petal attack which provides an addition juicy damaging hit followed by another party battery- in which case her battery is top tier. However this is only possible in a co-op setting. Beatrix call true value lies in it's buffs. It provides a total of 3 buffs, one of it framed, which can help push off debuffs. On the flip side though, it can also push off other more valuable buffs and it can get dispelled since it's not an aura. Don't forget with Noble Loyalty, in total the PARTY gets hp regen, def up, attack up, mbrv up AND 30% brave damage reduction for 6 turns. Not bad.

Raijin

Call Ability Fist
What it does batteries self, then 6 hit ST brave + hp lightning elemental attack. Provides party 6 turns of 35% physical attack up buff
Usefulness pretty average call ability. The attack itself is nothing special and is only single target and the buff is okay but nothing really groundbreaking. It's also a non framed buff so it has the risk of getting dispelled or getting pushed off. Unfortunately a pretty lackluster call. I don't think a call slot is worth sacrificing for the buff alone.

Cloud

Call Ability Finishing touch
What it does batteries self, then proceeds to do 5 brave-into-hp dumps ending in a launch sequence. 20% splash damage and inflicts launch status on all off targets.
Usefulness Clouds call is currently the only call ability that launches, although this may change as we get more call abilities, it becomes highly valuable as a result. Beyond the initial launch, you get the chance to do launches on the off-targets after. This is especially useful as a call ability. This means you can pair Cloud Call onto potent party batteries such as Rude. Have Rude call Cloud, then immediately use Rude's LD to launch another off target. Ohmygoodness the sweeeeet launch damage from that.

Vincent

Call Ability Deadly Beast Flare
What it does 4 hit group aoe fire elemental into ST hp damage. Debuffs 80%, (yes EIGHTY%) int brave down and fire imperil on all targets.
Usefulness Vincent's value is really in his debuffs. Int brave down remains a pretty rare debuff and is often overlooked by many. It does come into play in a number of Lufenia stages. For example in Xandes Lufenia, the shield on the assault dogs are based on int brave. So slapping this debuff on the dogs means that they actually get weaker shields. Fire resist can sometimes be useful too depending on the party comp but is a bit more situational. He can also be used as a call to complete a 100% int brave down party setup, which can shut down certain boss mechanics. The weakness to his call is that both debuffs are applied as a generic debuff which means that they can easily be pushed off or dispelled. And they last only for 4 turns which is rather limited.

Sephiroth

Call Ability Octaslash
What it does 7 hit ST brave + hp attack. Can overflow mbrv up to 180%. Provides a call aura that lowers enemy speed for 6 turns
Usefulness unfortunately.. I don't think Sephiroth's call brings despair (dispear?) at all. Yes it hits hard, and is an excellent brave shaver. But it requires him fully built up, and I'm never a fan of dedicating call slots just for brave shaving. IMO if your party has to rely on call abilities to reliably shave brave, then something is wrong somewhere. The speed down can be useful in terms of stacking speed down with other characters but it just doesn't really come into play in many, if any, Lufenia stages at all. If you want to cheese a stage, you don't need him, just bring Amidatelion and win.

Reno

Call Ability Electroprod
What it does 3 hit lightning element aoe brave attack followed by a 2 hit lightning elemental ST brave into hp attack. 50% splash damage. Applies Numb framed debuff. If you have his EX MLBed he also inflicts his EM triple shot framed debuff which provides an additional 20% attack/def down AND a Lightning imperil
Usefulness certainly one of the better call abilities, IF you have Reno MLBed. He brings so much to the table. I won't even talk about his damage, its decent but it's not the reason why he's given a call slot. First of all he provides 2 framed debuffs, which can be useful in filling enemies buffs slots. Most notably I've combo-ed it with an Amidatelion support unit to instantly inflict 6 framed debuffs in Sephiroth Lufenia stage which locks the imps from their brave shield. The lightning imperil is also sexy for characters such as well... Lightning. Numb is also no slouch either. It provides 2 turns delay if bosses do a physical attack. This makes a HUGE difference in fights where bosses primarily do physical attacks. If that's not enough, both debuffs combined you're looking at a total of 40% phys attack/def down, and another 20% attack/def down. Now THAT is loaded.

Rude

Call Ability Crush Hammer
What it does 5 hit aoe brave + aoe hp attack with split hp damage. Heals party based on hp damage dealt up to a max of 40% max HP. What the game doesn't tell you is that it also provides his c50 passive buff to the entire party. And, if you have him with 3 copies of his c50** arts the boost is even larger. Now that's just erm.. rude of the game.
Usefulness The healing alone already makes him very useful: 40% is quite a decent chunk and there's really not many call healers at the moment. You do have to take note that it scales off damage dealt, so if the bosses are protected eg red aura in Ciaran Lufenia, or brave shield in Xande Lufenia, he isn't gonna heal for much. What stands him apart though from other healers is his c50 effect. It gives a 20% boost to the max HP of the entire party and ANOTHER 5% per c50** artifact he has equipped, to a maximum of a whopping 35%. This effect is applied right before he does his attack, which means that he proceeds to heal everyone up to the new max HP levels before he leaves- which in a way gives a mini-Porom overheal type effect. There's also another sneaky bonus from this- if you have summons with extra blessings that activate when you hit 80% hp such as Odin, Leviathan or Diabolos- using Rude with enough c50 artifact passives equipped will trigger these blessings (thanks jhenaro for this tip). This is due to the fact that there's a brief moment before the heals where your current hp is less than 80% of the new max HP levels which is enough to flag the trigger. Do take note that for this extra benefit you do need to have at least two c50 artifacts on top of his c50 passive equipped.
Time to farm those 108/c50** artifacts!

Zack

Call Ability Chain slash
What it does 5 hit ST brave into hp attack, brave damage boosted if caller is targeted. Refunds 30% damage dealt as brave to the caller, inflicts 4 turns lock debuff on target and 6 turns physical resistance aura to the caller
Usefulness on paper it might look like this call does a lot, but this is yet another call ability that falls short. For one thing everything about this call is single target, from the damage it does, to the lock debuff and to the call aura. Also non-tanks do not actually appreciate the lock debuff, whereas tanks actually already has a way to mitigate damage without the need of this debuff. So the lock debuff doesn't actually add value. In Lufenia, the physical resistance falls into the same boat. It won't make much of a difference in non-tanks, and tanks won't really need it anyway. There's many many other more valuable calls.

Setzer

Call Ability Freeze joker
What it does 4 hit group brave and group hp attack with split hp damage. Applies 2 turns freeze joker debuff on all enemies. Grants slight attack up aura to the party for 6 turns
Usefulness Currently one of the best calls in the game. Similar to Reno, the damage it brings doesn't matter. In fact if you don't have him MLBed it's going to do absolutely poop damage. But even then it's still one of the best call abilities. Freeze joker prevents ALL brave gains and lasts for 2 turns. No brave also means no damage. If you bring him out when bosses are broken/low brave it essentially means you cannot die for two enemy turns. For example, he completely shuts down the Mariliths recast ability in Beatrix Lufenia. There are two exceptions though to the "cannot die" rule. It's applied as a debuff so anything that cleanses debuffs will still kill you, and it prevents brave gain but doesn't remove brave that's already there. So for example if they have 99999 brave and you hit them with freeze joker- you'll still die on the next turn unless you successfully shave them.

Celes

Call Ability Runic
What it does Batteries party, followed by 2 hit brave ST into hp attack. Inflicts 4 turns lock on all enemies, refunds brave to caller equalling to 30% damage dealt and provides caller a 6 turn magic brave absorb aura.
Usefulness this may sound a lot like Zack's call but Celes trumps Zack as a call ability. Firstly, lock debuff is inflicted on ALL enemies. Secondly she batteries the party. On top of that she provides magic brave absorb. Contrary to Zack, non- tanks can actually find this to be very useful. Find a fight where bosses do magic brave + hp attacks and Celes can actually save the callers life. The biggest drawback is the fact that most Lufenia fights nowadays have bosses batterying for insane amounts of brave before unleashing their killer attacks, which will still kill the character even if they absorb the brave hits. This makes Celes call very very niche. In most fights she's probably gonna get skipped, but in certain fights she can perhaps be considered the best call ability in the game. She does share the same trait with Setzer that she doesn't need to be MLBed to put in the work.

Edge

Call Ability Smoke
What it does Batteries party. Inflicts 4 turn att down debuff on all enemies and 1 turn lock. 2 turns ST brave lightning elemental into hp attack. Grants caller 3 turns 100% evasion aura.
Usefulness Edge call functions very similarly to Celes call except it trades magic brave absorb with evasion. This may sound better since it also works on physical attacks and hp damage but there are tradeoffs. For one thing Celes aura lasts for 6 turns and Edge only lasts for 3. For another thing, this won't work on attacks that are guaranteed hits, something that is increasingly common in Lufenia fights. Also the lock debuff only lasts for one turn. Find a fight where the big attacks are not guaranteed hits and Edge will serve you well.

Xande

Call Ability Libra combo
What it does 4 hit aoe brave fire/dark element into ST hp attack, with a 50% splash damage. Inflicts his signature framed debuff, Apprehension of Weakness, for 6 turns on all enemies
Usefulness triple framed imperil (earth/fire/dark) is certainly nice especially since earth and dark is rare. Xande will shine in party comps with elemental attacks that can make full use of his framed debuff. Otherwise he becomes pretty lackluster. In Lufenia fights, you always have to dedicate 1-2 party members that can counter the Lufenia mechanics, so it won't actually be often that you can make full use of his debuff though.
Phew... That's all for now. If this type of post is helpful, I will do updates every month or so to cover new call abilities that gets added to the game and will provide links to the older posts for future reference.

Hey all! I’m Kay and I’ve been a burgle rogue aficionado since Witchwood. Being home for the holidays this month has finally given me the time to push to legend for the first time ever with this Wild homebrew Cutlass deck. I think this deck has the chops to hit high legend if a better player with more time was able to pilot it. I had a lot of fun playing this list and got to learn it fairly well. I would love to see more Burgle Rogues in Hearthstone, and am writing this guide to hopefully inspire some of you to give it a whirl.
While I play on mobile without a deck tracker, here is my proof of Legend.
The Deck:
Margaret Thatcher
Class: Rogue
Format: Wild
# 2x (1) Deadly Poison
# 2x (1) Dragon's Hoard
# 1x (1) Patches the Pirate
# 2x (1) Secret Passage
# 2x (1) Swashburglar
# 2x (1) Wand Thief
# 2x (2) Cavern Shinyfinder
# 2x (2) Clever Disguise
# 2x (2) Sap
# 1x (2) Swindle
# 2x (2) Underbelly Fence
# 1x (3) Beneath the Grounds
# 2x (4) Spectral Cutlass
# 2x (4) Tinker's Sharpsword Oil
# 2x (4) Vendetta
# 2x (5) Cutting Class
# 1x (6) Vanish
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Why is a burgle rogue deck called Margret Thatcher?
My first Burgle Rogue deck ever was named “I will steal your shit.” Then I listened to Robin WIlliams last standup album, and it included this bit about the Falklands War. “I will sink your shit” sounded similar to “I will steal your shit” and thus Margret Thatcher has been the name of all of my burgle rogue decks since.
It makes sense in my head, I promise.
Why Cutlass Rogue?
I love playing Burgle Rogue and finally decided to put my time towards making a truly viable list and hitting legend. Playing Burgle Rogue gives you three paths. You can play it with the quest, which simply delays your demise against aggro decks (Rogue lacks both taunts and ways to heal) and doesn’t put combo or control decks on any kind of timer. If there were a hardcore midrange meta for some reason, the quest might be worth a look. But until then it’s on the back burner. Another tack you can take is a deck I affectionately refer to as Cheese Rogue. Put your normal burgles, Academic Espionage, Tess Graymane, both Yoggs, and anything that helps you not die, and you have a deck that will either pull out glorious wins out of nothing or draw three Totemic Mights in a row and sputter. The other problem is that when you run an Tesspionage based list, you’re totally punting aggro matchups. While a phenomenally fun deck, Tesspionage Rogue suffers from the simple problem of being very bad (it’s hovering around a 30% winrate on HSReplay) which makes it a poor choice to actually win games with.
Cutlass Rogue instead plays more like Kingsbane Rogue on mushrooms. You’re still trying to build an enormous weapon with lifesteal that lets you outheal aggro and chip decks as well as put slow decks on a clock with heavy damage every turn, but instead of doing it with normal cards, we do it by thieving random things from other classes.
How We Win:
By getting a Spectral Cutlass with 6+ Attack and using burgled cards to disrupt our opponent’s gameplan and pump up our weapon’s durability. Occasionally, we also pull off wins with hilariously bullshit burgle synergies.
Our ideal line of early play is something along the lines of:
T1: Swashburglar (and Patches)
T2: Cavern Shinyfinder or Underbelly Fence
T3: Shinyfinder or Fence with a 1 mana burgle card, or just coin Cutlass
T4: Cutlass or a barrage of burgling
T5: Deadly Poison and Tinker’s Sharpsword Oil
T6+: Imagination and RNG!
Strengths and Weaknesses of This List:
This deck outputs ridiculous amounts of healing. Once your weapon is at ten plus attack, you will eventually escape the range of any deck trying to burn you down. The weapon also gives us decent single-target board control, essentially allowing us to take out any must-kill minion while still gaining health. Fence and Vendetta give us efficient small removal. Value is easy to find despite the low curve of the deck, with burgles adding lots of stuff to your hand and Secret Passage and Cutting Class allowing you to find more cards whenever you’d like. Sap is a phenomenal card against the meta right now and will singlehandedly win you games.
This deck heavily struggles to clear wide boards. Occasionally your burgles will help you out a bit here, but the Odd Paladins and Even Shamans of the world will simply build another one and another one and another one until you can’t clear it. Weapon hate cards also give us fits, including Zephyrs the Great who is the single biggest reason that you’ll rage at your screen. It’s also a fairly draw-dependant deck. You need your weapon, your buffs, and your burgles. If you don’t find one of these, you will lose the game. I found myself doing okay on this front (thank God for Secret Passage) but sometimes both Shinyfinders and both Cutlasses will be the bottom four cards of your deck and you will lose.
Card Choices:
Weapon Package:
(2x) Deadly Poison
(2x) Cavern Shinyfinder
(2x) Spectral Cutlass
(2x) Tinker’s Sharpsword Oil
(2x) Cutting Class
The two Shinyfinders (and to a lesser extent Secret Passage) help us hit our win condition of Cutlass as soon as possible. Once we have a cutlass equipped, Deadly Poison and Tinker’s Sharpsword Oil give the weapon enough attack to kill any threat, put our opponent on a clock, and restore massive amounts of health at the same time. Because we’re aiming to equip a big weapon every game, Cutting Class is nearly always a 0 mana draw 2 in the mid to late game which is obviously phenomenal.
Burgle Package:
(2x) Dragon’s Hoard
(1x) Patches the Pirate
(2x) Swashburglar
(2x) Wand Thief
(2x) Clever Disguise
(2x) Underbelly Fence
(2x) Vendetta
Swashburglar is the only one mana burgle card with a body in the game. It thus gives us a free card that activates our synergies while also contesting the board on turn one. The inclusion of Patches thins the deck and allows us to play on even footing early with even board-centric aggro decks. An important note is if you’re against another rogue (I saw very few during my climb) Swashburglar will take a random rogue card, which won’t activate your Underbelly Fence or Vendetta, nor will it add durability to your cutlass.
I originally included only one Wand Thief but it turns out Mage has some very good tools for our purposes. The wide variety of AOE effects, card draw, and freezes were nice, but the strongest part of Wand Thief is that Mage has so much shit that costs 0, 1, or 2 mana. While burgling Flamestrike is fun and can be the correct choice in some matchups, most of the time I’ll find that I’d much rather have a Freezing Potion that I can squeeze on top of other cards than a big spell that will take up my whole turn. While Mage does have some dud spells (Glacial Mysteries anyone?), the discover aspect means that you can almost always find something that will serve your purposes. This deck generally wants spells over minions because spells tend to have initiative and we rarely need to build a board to win the game. All of these aspects raised Wand Thief from a fringe inclusion to one of the strongest cards in the deck. Beware of picking Brain Freeze or Potion of Illusion as dual-class cards will NOT activate your burgle synergies or add durability to your Cutlass.
Dragon’s Hoard was another card that I didn’t originally include two of. In fact, I didn’t have it at all in the deck’s first iteration. On the surface, it doesn’t make much sense. Hoard doesn’t help fight for board and gives us a minion not a spell. And not only a minion which might not have initiative, but legendary minions tend to be more expensive than average. So what was I thinking? Turns out legendary minions are powerful enough to justify the card. From Inara Stormcrash to Archmage Antonidas to Lucentbark, Dragon’s Hoard can simply win you the game off of one highroll. Just like with Wand Thief, there are plenty of terrible legendaries, but the discover aspect tends to offer at least one decent choice. Also, the card is damn fun and slamming down a King Krush for lethal as a rogue will never get old.
Clever Disguise is simply a volume burgle. You need enough cards from other classes to pump your Cutlass up with enough durability to kill your opponent, and Disguise gets you two of them for two mana. I don’t love this card but it’s sheer efficiency makes it impossible to drop.
Along with Cutlass, we use shockingly efficient removal tools Vendetta and Underbelly Fence as our burgle payoffs. Against board-centric decks like aggro druid, and decks with must-remove threats like Big Priest, these cards make a load of difference. Vendetta being zero mana nearly always gives it more flexibility as a combo activator for Wand Thief and Tinker’s. Fence is also a phenomenal play with Tinker’s - the six attack Rush minion will clear midgame threats while allowing your buffed weapon to swing face.
Other Stuff:
(2x) Secret Passage
(2x) Sap
(1x) Swindle
(1x) Beneath The Grounds
(1x) Vanish
Secret Passage is broken and should be in every rogue deck ever. In a draw-centric deck like this, it’s even better. Can't find Cutlass? Secret Passage got you. Don’t have weapon buffs? Secret Passage got you. Don’t have enough burgles? Secret Passage got you. Need Vanish immediately? Secret Passage has motherfucking got you.
Sap is our carry against Big Priest and any other deck that cheats out massive threats. Not killing the Blood of Ghuun, Walking Fountain, or Voidlord means that it can’t be rezzed and your opponent has to play it when they reach the appropriate turn. By which point, we hope that they’re dead. Sap also makes us one of the few classes that can deal with an early Edwin.
Swindle is a true 30th card. When I cut Fan of Knives (More on that below) I needed one more card to fill the deck, and Swindle felt like a generic good rogue card that would make my draws marginally more consistent.
Beneath The Grounds is my middle finger to highlander decks, especially Zephyrs the Great who gets his own section later. If you’re against a Reno Warlock or Machine Gun Priest, having this card will likely win you the game. If you aren’t, it’s probably a dead card unless you’re floating three mana for some reason. It says something about the Wild meta that I felt like this was a very worthy tradeoff and seriously considering putting two in.
Vanish is a last hail mary against a deck that does manage to build a board against you. It pulls its weight especially against Big Priest, Evolve Shaman, and any kind of Deathrattle deck that tries to build an impenetrable board. But it also costs six mana, which makes it a very expensive and very dead card a lot of the time. I’ve had one copy since the beginning and it feels like the perfect number. A thing to note is that Vanish can bounce your own cards too - make sure to play your Swashburglars and Wand Thieves before Vanishing if you have hand space and mana to do so. Another point to remember is that if your opponent has more minions than they have hand space, Vanish will return the cards to your opponent’s hand in the order they were played. When your opponent hits ten cards, any remaining minions will be destroyed and their deathrattles WILL be activated. This is especially important for Scrapyard Colossus and Voidlord, who deathrattle into more taunts which block your weapon swing into the face of your opponent. Either destroy the original bodies so Vanish kills the deathrattle spawns or kill enough minions played before that the deathrattle taunts are safely returned to your opponent’s hand.
Didn’t Make The Cut:
I included two copies of Fan of Knives once I realized how terribly I was doing against Aggro Druid and Odd Paladin. For a while, they felt decent. A boardwide ping is nice, and Fan also cycles itself so it doesn’t even take up a valuable card slot. But then I realized two things about these decks. Odd Paladin has infinite minion generation potential with their hero power. Killing a board of 1/1’s might delay their buffs a turn, but doesn’t run them out of board refills because they can generate dudes without using cards. And aggro druid would either have a board buffed out of Fan range by turn three (and I would be dead) or they would run out of steam and awkwardly flop. In neither case was Fan drastically changing the game, even if it felt nice to kill a board of dudes. So out the door they went. Replaced with BTG because I was facing Reno Priest every game and Swindle because it just seemed good.
It really hurt to cut Tess Graymane. She’s one of the most fun cards ever printed and slamming down waves of burgled shit never gets old. But as I transitioned to a spell-centric burgle deck, her random nature became more and more annoying. When Tess is slamming 8/8’s and 12/12’s, she’s phenomenal. When she Ice Lances your face, Fireballs herself, and gives your opponent’s minion a Blessing of Authority, she’s much less useful. Her cost of 8 mana simply made her far too expensive for the minimal number of times she was remotely useful.
One thing I was consistently wanting in this deck was more weapon buffs. I experimented with Goblin Auto-Barber and Vulpera Toxinblade but neither ended up making the cut. Auto-Barber was too minimal a buff to feel particularly useful, and Toxinblade’s temporary status made her not worth the slot. This deck doesn’t exactly run minion threats, so Toxinblade was always eating my opponent’s removal and never really surviving more than a turn, which she needed to in order to be a strong inclusion.
Of the other Burgle options, Hallucination and Blink Fox are the other ones that are even vaguely worth running. Hallucination would be a reasonable choice to experiment more with (potentially two over the Dragon’s Hoards) but I found them underwhelming due to the sheer number of dud or synergy-dependant cards in many classes. Oftentimes, I would have only one decent pick off a Hallucination with an expensive spell and an understated minion taking up the other two discover options. Blink Fox was too expensive for a Swashburglar effect and a 3/3 on turn 3 doesn’t cut it as a body in Wild. Both also suffer from the Swashburglar problem of being utterly cucked against Rogues.
I also briefly considered replacing Beneath the Grounds with Bad Luck Albatross in order to mess Big Priest up. However, I wasn’t having a huge Big Priest problem, and the only way to kill Albatross in the deck is with Vendetta, which is often better used to kill the minions the priest is cheating.
The Zeph Rules
Zephyrs The Great is a phenomenally powerful card and a staple in two of the best decks in Wild - Reno Priest and Renolock. It also utterly destroys this deck by generating an Acidic Swamp Ooze on command to send your weapon to an ignominious and oozy demise. While there’s no denying that Zeph really sucks for this deck, there’s a couple of things we can try.
Tactic 1: The Great Zeph Bait.
If you’re able to draw into both cutlasses fairly early (not an uncommon occurrence), you can go for this strategy. Play a cutlass, drop a Tinker’s or a Deadly Poison, and potentially play a Burgled card or two. If I’m trying to force Zeph specifically, I will usually follow this by skipping my next swing. Essentially, you’re trying to make your weapon look as threatening as possible without committing many resources to it. When your opponent plays Zeph and subsequently Ooze, you can play your second Cutlass and fearlessly toss all of your buffs on it. If you go for the Great Zeph Bait, make sure to kill both minions before developing your second weapon, as a fair number of Reno decks run either bounce or copy effects. If they’re simply able to add another ooze to their hand and save it for your second weapon, you will be sad.
Tactic 2: Make Zeph Whiff.
Zephyrs is a phenomenal card, but his inability to understand card text can be his downfall. While he understands that Spectral Cutlass is a big weapon, he doesn’t realize that it can gain infinite durability. He doesn’t generally seem to value Lifesteal as highly as he should either. He also can’t look at decks, so he doesn’t realize that our only win condition is to buff the weapon. My point is that while Zeph is strong, he doesn’t value killing Spectral Cutlass nearly as highly as he should (a priority above all else except avoiding direct lethal). But because Zeph is still a discover and offers three cards, it isn’t easy to get him to not offer weapon hate at all. Essentially, you have get Zeph to value three other things more highly than destroying your weapon. If you can do this, he will not offer Ooze, even when a cutlass is active on your side. Many opponents don’t recognize these whiff factors, and won’t take measures to maximize their likelihood of hitting an Ooze (like playing Zeph with exactly two mana remaining).
There are a few things you can do to maximize your chances of Zeph whiffing. These tips are roughly in order of effectiveness.

1. Keep your weapon as small as possible, both in Attack and Durability. Decreases the likelihood that Zeph will value weapon removal.
2. Build a board of minions. Increases the likelihood that Zeph will value AoE spells.
3. Play a Secret or two. Increases the likelihood that Zeph will offer Flare.
4. Play one large/must-kill minion. Increases the likelihood that Zeph will value removal.
5. Lower your opponent’s health. Increases the likelihood that Zeph will value healing.
6. Keep your opponent low on cards. Increases the likelihood that Zeph will offer draw. Careful about doing this if your weapon durability is more than one at 7+ mana as Zeph is more likely to offer Harrison Jones.
7. Niche cases. Keep an eye out for any conditions in the game that synergize perfectly with a basic/classic card that Zeph can offer. For example, if your opponent has a 1/10 minion, keep it alive as Zeph is more likely to offer Inner Fire. If they have three murlocs, Zeph is more likely to offer Coldlight Seer.

If you can create a game state where Zeph simply doesn’t offer ooze, you will be treated to a beautiful sight. Sex is great and all but a baffled opponent slowly mousing over each discover option before emoting and conceding is arguably the best feeling in the world.
Tactic 3: Fuck it.
Go balls to the wall and play like they don’t have Zeph. Throw all of your buffs on the weapon and come to terms with the fact that if they have him, you will lose. I will sometimes opt for this strategy if any of the following conditions are met.

1. At least two Beneath the Grounds Ambushes are still in the deck.
2. I have tried to bait Zeph and my opponent didn’t play him.
3. My opponent has played Lorekeeper Polkelt.
4. My opponent has very few cards or is topdecking.
5. If I don’t commit to the weapon now, I will definitely lose.

Zephyrs The Great is going to lose you a fair amount of games. But if you can pull off any of these strategies, you might sneak by him with some wins.
Matchups:
Odd Demon Hunter:
This deck is weird. The best builds seem to be made up of a glut of the best-statted one-cost minions, Stiltsteppers, Acrobatics, Leeroy, and Baku. Our early game generally lines up well against these minions, and Odd DH generally lacks the burst to power through our healing once Cutlass gets to a threatening size. However, if we don’t draw into our early answers or fail to burgle fairly well, Odd DH is a phenomenally consistent deck and will always run us over if they get any room to do so. Even matchup.
Soul DH:
This deck seemed to be mostly piloted by standard players trying to climb in Wild. The burst of a Soul DH that hits all of its pieces can be impressive. But these combos often come online late enough that our cutlass is healing us for 8+ health every turn. Find something to deal with a full Soulciologist board, look to burgle taunts and freezes to stop the huge attacks from going face, and you’re cruising. Favored matchup.
Aggro Druid:
By cutting Fan of Knives I was essentially conceding the matchup if the Druid drew well. This has held true - if Aggro Druid has an explosive opener, you will lose the game. If they don’t, the deck is fairly easy to run out of resources. Voracious Readers can refill once or twice, but if I’m not dead by turn four I can frequently use removals efficiently and prevent them from ever building a threatening board. A card that deserves special mention is Bloodsail Corsair. If you’re careless against Aggro Druid and leave your weapon at one durability, a well-timed Corsair can snipe it and lose you the game on the spot. Unfavored matchup.
Combo/Maly Druid:
They can’t really do anything about us loading our weapon up and killing them. I only faced a couple of druids that weren’t aggressive and none of them put up much of a fight. Favored matchup, not much to say here.
Hunter:
I think I faced fewer than five hunters my entire climb, and they were all hyper aggro or janky deathrattle decks. We can generally prevent aggro Hunter from building a board, and their hero powers, Kill Commands, and such generally aren’t enough burst to beat through our healing. Deathrattle Hunter with plenty of taunts could potentially be a problem but it’s rezzes are much slower than Big Priest and it gets arguably even more destroyed by a well-timed Sap or Vanish. It’s a good idea to play around Zephyrs in this matchup until you know you’re not facing a Reno Hunter. I honestly didn’t find enough hunters to even say what might be favorable or not. Poor Rexxar.
Quest Mage:
Quest Mage is an annoying matchup for one reason and one reason only. They can generate a lot of freezes, which keep us from swinging our weapon for a turn. The amount of Freezing Potions, Ice Lances, and Frostbolts that seem to come out of Evocation, Magic Trick, and Mana Cyclone makes me want to tear my hair out. Our healing is rarely relevant against the OTK potential this deck brings. Otherwise, save Vendetta or another removal for your opponent’s Flamewankers and bring them down to low health as quickly as possible. Quick note on this matchup - Hitting your opponent in the face for lethal damage while they have Ice Block active will NOT heal you for any health. This interaction is consistent with other Lifesteal effects but still annoying and you will sometimes have to choose between setting off Ice Block and healing for 12. Even matchup.
Secret Mage:
I think before this expansion, Secret Mage would’ve been a much worse matchup for us. The switch to Rigged Faire Game as a main draw engine has a serious downside against a deck that is able to hit your face with an infinite weapon every turn. I won a significant amount of games by chipping away at my opponent every turn and denying them the all-important three cards. Play around Counterspell and Explosive Runes whenever possible as most decks run two copies and cheat them early. If we can get our weapon big enough, or run them out of face damage, we can safely heal out of the deck’s damage range. However, a Secret Mage firing on all cylinders is one of the best decks in the game and will win with a combination of well-statted minions, free secrets, and burn. Slightly unfavorable matchup.
Odd Paladin:
We struggle the most against decks that can build wide boards without committing many resources. Odd Pally is the unquestioned king of this strategy and thus tailor-made to bork us. I was able to win against this deck a couple of times when they filled up their board with 1/1’s and had no way to buff them, which was funny but not a particularly consistent win-con. Play around Oh My Yogg and Never Surrender, try to burgle AoEs, and accept that this is probably a 20-80 matchup or worse for us. Very heavily unfavored, and the bogeyman of climbing ladder with this deck.
Not Odd Paladin:
I ran into a couple of Even Paladins here and there which seemed like Odd Pally but slightly worse, a few Pure Paladins which got defeated by timely saps, and a single Mech Paladin who blew me out on turn four. They were so drowned out by the sea of Odd Pally however that I can’t write about them in extreme detail.
Reno Priest:
Beneath The Grounds carries another matchup. If they are able to get Raza and Anduin online, your main priority becomes keeping Anduin’s health below half to ward off Spawn of Shadows burst turns. As long as you can do that, we can mostly heal through their turns of chip damage with the hero power and eventually beat them down. Developing any minions we can will help with this plan because the low-health Anduin will be forced to waste hero powers clearing the minions, buying us more time. Favored matchup.
Big Priest:
Sometimes when you’re playing against Big Priest, they cheat out a Vargoth and a Blood of Ghuun on turn 4 and you just lose. Sometimes, they do nothing for nine turns and you win. It’s the matches in between these extremes that we focus on. Keep your Saps and plan your Vanish turn wisely. Most Big Priests nowadays don’t run Obsidian Statue, but place the highest priority on sapping it if they do. The combination of lifesteal and taunt means that we essentially lose the game if it ends up in the rez pool. Even or slightly favored matchup.
Rogues:
I faced a hodgepodge of Rogue decks, none of which really felt like a complete list. Combo-style rogues lack taunts and healing and get subsequently demolished by our weapon before they can do anything interesting. Kingsbane Rogue does what we do, but slower and without Lifesteal on every turn. VS says Odd Rogue is a decent deck, but I only saw one on my climb which wasn’t able to do enough damage to burst through the Cutlass healing. Mill Rogue is cute but terrible. I also ran into another Burgle Rogue but he was playing a version with Blink Foxes and Hallucinations which performs very poorly against other rogues. Favored matchup against the entire class I suppose?
Even Shaman:
I barely faced any of these on my climb, but I think I lost every time I did. We can’t really clean up their wide and efficient boards, and Sea Giant and Thing From Below aren’t bothered by Sap. Unfavored matchup.
Big Shaman:
Sap is phenomenal in this matchup. Like any Big deck, there will be some games where you don’t draw what you need and get blown out on turn four. But much more often, you’ll find games where the deck puts out a big threat, it gets sapped, and they sputter for a couple turns while you make a giant weapon and start whacking them. Try to avoid playing minions in the mid-late game while pushing for lethal because Walking Fountain or Tidal Wave will allow them to find critical heals. Favored matchup.
Aggro Warlock (Pain/Zoo/Discolock):
We like this matchup because if your opponents lower their health total quickly enough, we can often start to threaten lethal with our weapon as soon as turn six. Our cheap and flexible removal generally lets us get priority targets like Darkglare, Malchezar’s Imp and Tiny Knight of Evil off the field before they kill us. Discolock doesn’t have the consistent board floods of the decks that really fuck us and Fence and Vendetta line up well against their threats. But at the end of the day, they are an aggro deck and will win if we whiff our draws at all. I faced few Pain and Zoolocks, but Discolock was one of my favorite matchups to play with this list and I felt like it was at worst even and potentially even slightly us-favored.
Cubelock:
A problem matchup. We simply aren’t able to kill waves of big demons. Vanish and Sap let us delay the threats but once we run out of stalling power Voidlord very effectively prevents us from swinging our weapon to face. Fortunately, Cubelock has an abysmal matchup against Priest and has thus fallen a bit out of the meta. I only saw a few on my climb, but if they start cheating Voidlords before we have them to sub-15 health, we are in huge trouble. Slightly unfavored matchup.
Renolock:
We stan Beneath The Grounds. Renolocks will generally play defensively and take damage fairly freely in the early game. Generally don’t play BTG on turn three because renolocks draw so much that they’re fairly likely to hit at least two ambushes if you give them enough time. If I have it in hand, I’ll hold it until I start buffing my weapon or until they’re sub fifteen health and might be feeling pressured enough to use Reno. If you don’t find BTG, follow the Zeph Rules and pray to God that you draw it quickly. Tickatus is rarely particularly relevant because if they find the time to corrupt and play it multiple times the game was lost a long time ago. Renolock will often have big taunt Demons also, but they come in more manageable waves than Cubelock. With BTG, this is a favored matchup.
Odd/Control Warrior:
This matchup is pretty simple. Make your weapon as big as possible as quickly as possible in order to chip through their armor. If they run weapon hate and are able to draw it, you will lose. If they don’t, you will eventually win - they don’t have much to stop you smacking them for 10+ damage every turn. I only ran into three of these decks on my climb and got Stickyfingered twice, so my gut says that it’s unfavorable.
Pirate Warrior:
Oh how the mighty have fallen. Pirate Warrior simply feels weaker than other aggro decks and its lack of boardwide buffs makes its minions much less threatening. Their highrolls are as scary as ever, but kill Ship’s Cannon and Skybarge on sight and be wary of burst coming in the form of Leeroy or Kragg, and the healing from your built-up weapon will generally outpace their damage. Their biggest strength (efficient trading with minion boards) isn’t particularly relevant against us. Slightly favored - one of our best aggro matchups. Beware of Bloodsail Corsair!
My Favorite Wins:
Playing a deck that runs on adding random cards to your hand will occasionally lead to hilarious victories with cards your opponent never expected to need to play around. There were too many to write about, but here were some highlights.

1. I played a Hunter and hit a terrible Dragon’s Hoard on turn one where my best option was a Knuckles. I reluctantly picked it and it sat in my hand until later in the game, where I pulled Houndmasters off both of my Swashburglars. Three houndmaster buffs (one got returned to my hand via Freezing Trap) and a Tinker’s Sharpsword Oil later, I beat my opponent into submission with an unkillable 12/13 Knuckles. I find it possible that it’s the only time Knuckles has actually won someone a game.
2. I found a Cloning Device off of a Clever Disguise and yoinked my Shaman opponent’s Shudderwock, followed by two Dragon’s Hoards that gave me Dinotamer Brann and a second Shudderwock. I waited until my deck was low enough that no duplicates remained, and played Brann, Shudderwock, second Shudderwock, and thwacked him with four large stompy dinos over three turns.
3. I burgled a Totem Goliath off Swashburglar, Totemic Might off Clever Disguise, and a Grand Totem Eys’or from Dragon’s Hoard. My poor Shaman opponent was beaten to death by a rogue’s board of basic totems.
4. While playing a Big Priest I got a Lucentbark off Dragon’s Hoard and a Seance and Power Word: Replicate off Clever Disguise. Turns out three 4/8 taunts that resurrect every turn will win you the game, even against Big Priest with a full rez pool.
5. A Pirate Warrior wrested board from me, beat me to two health with two cards in hand and one durability on my weapon, and began emoting aggressively. Fortunately, one of those two cards was an Inara Stormcrash which allowed me to deal 26 damage (and kill him) on turn 8.

This deck is by far the most fun I’ve ever had playing Hearthstone, and this list is viable at Legend ranks. I encourage everyone to give it a try. Thanks for making it to the end and please comment with questions!
Happy thieving!

First off, let me say thank you all for reading my first piece. It really made me smile that so many of you enjoyed part one of this series. So let me thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
Un'goro onward marks a bit of a shift in legendaries: we now have two class legendaries per class. I would also like to note that overall legendary quality as well has gone up from this point onwards...for the most part. So to recap, let's talk about what qualifies a card as the best legendary for the set. How viable is the card across multiple archetypes. If it is run in multiple archetypes, how strong is it in them? A great example of this is with Patches vs Kazakus and Raza. Ignoring unnerfed Patches, Patches sees consistent play in a variety of aggro decks and is so strong mediocre pirates like Bloodsail Corsair see play. Does the fact he sees play in a variety of decks trump Raza's dominance and Kazakus' utility? Well, it is a case by case basis. Basically, this is a mix of the overall meta we have had for a while and my opinion. I expect some sets will be a bit more controversial than others, especially TFT, but lets begin.
Also as one last aside, Leeroy was hall of famed this year. Two or three of you asked why he was not an honorable mention for classic.
Journey to Un'goro
Un'goro is a fan favorite set for many. The flavor is distinct, it introduced a new tribe (that never really worked as a tribal deck yet), and the new quests. Naturally, one of these new quests had to be broken right? While it took two years for it to become the 6 star card some people predicted, Open the Waygate is such a powerful wincon for Mage. The fact of the matter is Mage has so many tools that allow it to easily fulfill the quest. Spell generation has not slowed down, if anything it has only ramped up. This has turned Open the Waygate from a meme tier Antonidas exodia combo into one of the fastest combo decks in the format. Cheap spells and cheap spell generation combined with cards like Mana Cyclone , Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Flamewaker can lead to some truly frustrating games. Even after the neft mage can make the quest work in a Reno archetype by relying on one of the single most unfun synergies in the game: Vargoth Time Warp.
Honorable mentions from this point onward are going to be a bit longer since, well, blizzard listened to fans. No one wanted their legendaries for the set to be Borf Ramshield and Wilfred Fizzlebang (Although making a worst legendaries list might be fun...). As a result, more legendaries are viable from this point onward overall. This has come with it's downsides, namely the game is more expensive, in particular on the standard side, but overall I like the fact that when I open a pack I am less likely to get garbage. In terms of the other quests, the only ones I can recommend are Awaken the Makers and Fire Plume's Heart. Amara is a powerful sustain option for priest and leads to a bunch of fun strategies, even if all of them are not exactly meta. Fire Plume's Heart gives Taunt Warrior a powerful button to hit each turn, although the deck has seen better days. Unite the Murlocs can be played in Murloc Shaman but it is not that good in said deck. In terms of Class Legendaries, Sunkeeper Tarim and Clutchmother Zavas stand tall above all the rest. Clutchmother is a solid card in Discard Warlock, giving you another safe discard option while reaping the tempo rewards. While she is not exactly core to this deck, she is strong enough to mention. While Sunkeeper Tarim has taken a backseat for a while due to Odd Paladin being the best Paladin deck for a while, he is truly one of the most dangerous cards in the set. A mass Keeper of Ulduman is amazing for a class that naturally is going to have tokens. If Even Paladin, Dude Paladin, Libram Paladin, or Pure Paladin take off, keep an eye out for him. Finally in terms of neutrals, we got Spiritsinger Umbra and Hemet, Jungle Hunter. Hemet really only sees play in Mecha'thun decks, as nuking your deck to satisfy the mechanical old god is a powerful way to ensure your win condition works. Umbra sees play in Cubelock. While she is far from core in the list nowadays, she is strong enough when combined with Warlock's big demons and cube I had to mention her.
Knights of the Frozen Throne
KFT was bar none the hardest set to do for this list. It introduced one of the most powerful types of cards seen: Hero Cards. Hero cards as a whole can just turn a game on its head completely with how strong their battlecry and hero power are. While most of the time these cards are on the slower side, make no mistake: they are super dangerous. For the best, I was torn between Deathstalker Rexxar, Bloodreaver Gul'dan, and Shadowreaper Anduin. Deathstalker Rexxar is a one card win condition that flips Hunter's script completely from pushing face damage to outvaluing its opponent turn after turn with strong build a beasts. Shadowreaper Anduin combined with Raza is insane even without tossing Spawn of Shadows into the mix. Bloodreaver Gul'dan slots so nicely into the big demon package and can outright shut down aggro the second he comes down. God forbid they run Merchant and get to summon him again. Ultimately, I had to go with Shadowreaper Anduin here. While the Raza synergy is essential to making Shadowreaper as dangerous as he is, the power of the combo can not be understated. Before Raza was nerfed, Raza priest was considered Tier 1 in wild, and arguably the best deck in the format. Even after the nerf it was arguably tier 2, albeit way harder to pilot. The unnerf really brought priest back to the center of the metagame in a big way. I really wanted to put Gul'dan here as a warlock main, but ultimately I feel overall Anduin is the strongest legendary in the set.
Outside of Rexxar and Gul'dan, we have a lot of honorable mentions. Every death knight is at least worth holding onto. The weakest ones, namely Garrosh, Uther, and Thrall, all have niches. Thrall sometimes sees play in Evolve Shaman, Garrosh in DMH, and Uther OTK is somewhat viable. Valeera is great in any slow Rogue deck. Jaina can end the game vs Aggro on the spot if you live for more than a turn. Malfurian is a staple in every control and combo druid deck. Outside of the Death Knights, we still got a few honorable mentions. Hadronoxx makes Taunt druid a thing. Professor Putricide is a good card in Secret Hunter. Sindragossa is playable in LPG mages even if there are better cards than her. Archibishop Benedictus is a big meme but he is cool for the rare super control matchups you might experience. Prince Keleseth while not strong right now is something to keep an eye on, as his buff effect is super strong especially on turn 2. Taldaram has not seen as much play nowadays in Cubelock since many like to run Dark Skies but is still a powerful tempo play once the big demons show up. Finally, we got the Lich King, who is one of the single best overall big minions to throw in any deck. While Wild has strayed away from overall auto include legendaries like him, Boom, and Rag, he still is strong in any budget list or if you just want a cool control card. Also let me say this now to you big priest players: Lich King is the worst big card in the deck, don't run him. The only taunts you need nowadays are Blood, Statue, and Colossus.
Kobolds and Catacombs
I don't know what the overall strongest set in Hearthstone history is, but if I had to guess I would probably guess Kobolds. Kobolds introduced so many powerful cards. It even introduced legendary weapons into the mix. I feel this might be a bit controversial, but I am going with Kingsbane for this one. Outside of Kobold Stickyfinger, which is very bad, the usual tech options of weapons don't really work on Kingsbane. That Gluttonous Ooze you teched in stalls a turn where they have to tutor Kingsbane again. Over time and especially after the nerf to Leeching Poisin, Kingsbane evolved into a slow deck that just walled out control over time with a powerful weapon, to a fast deck that can give any control deck a strong headache with how consistent of a wincon Kingsbane is. While the deck is not as strong as it was in Rise of Shadows, Kingsbane Rogue is still one of the best ways to play Rogue in the format and has a ton fo flexibility in how to build it.
Honroable mentions include Skull of the Man'ari and Aluneth for legendary weapons. I never thought we would see Aluneth being cut from Secret Mage, but it still is playable in some builds of the deck instead of Sayge. Skull was a close contender for the best spot, but I went with Kingsbane because while Skull is a big threat for a period of the match from turn 5 onwards, Kingsbane is a big threat throughout the match. It was close between these two though, I almost went with Skull and had a paragraph praising Cubelock. Outside of the legendary weapons, we got a few cool cards to talk about. Grumble Worldshaker is a core card in Shudderwock decks that aim to go infinate, creating one of the most powerful wincons in the game. Lynessa Sunsorrow is a fun card in pure and libram paladin due to how strongly she synergizes with the libram mechanic. Keep an eye on Kathrena Whisperwisp, if a big beast cheating hunter ever exists again she will be in it. Zola the Gorgon is a bit of a cheesy card since it offers so much utility to slower decks in terms of getting extra copies of minions. King Togwaggle is my favorite card this set and one of the funniest combo cards in the game. No one likes watching some fat guy take your precious cards for the rest of the game and leave you with his bad deck.
Witchwood
I would like to say before anyone comments this, Baku and Genn were hall of famed. If Baku was here I would put it here in a heartbeat, but we need something else to choose and I am going with Shudderwock on this one. The amount of powerful late game strategies Shudderwock brings to the table is ridiculous. Jade scaling goes so much higher. You can gain infinate armor. You can OTK your opponet. You have a second N'zoth. A second Reno Jackson. A Second Yogg. The amount of end game strategies is insane. Combine that with how powerful he is when he goes infinate with Grumble or his battlecry is doubled, and you had the easiest choice out of any of these six sets.
Honorable mentions are a bit sparcer this time since Witchwood was...not the strongest set. I still love it though. Lord Godfrey was the closest to taking the crown, being one of the best board clears in the game. I went with Shudderwock though because while Godfrey is a strong tool in Warlock's control kit, Shudderwock is Shaman's control kit. Dollmaster Dorian lets Mechca'thun Warlock work after the Bloodbloom nerf (and was the stronger way to build the deck before its nerf in my opinion). Azalina Soulthief is a powerful combo card when combined with Togwaggle, while also offering utility in the control matchup for Odd Warrior. Houndmaster Shaw is a powerful body that lets midrangier hunter decks steal the board away, although he is far from a core card in any of these lists. Hagatha the Witch, while on the weaker end for Hero Cards, is a strong control option for Shudderwock decks that opt not to run Corrupt the Waters and seek extra milage out of their hero power. Finally, I have to mention Tess Greymane. Full disclose, Tess is not a good card because her deck is really bad, but she is one of if not my favorite cards in hearthstone. The day that thief rogue becomes a tier two deck will be one of the best days in my life.
The Boomsday Project
Boomsday was one of the harder sets because of how high quality it is. Trust me, the honorable mentions list is gonna be a bit long. Legandary spells were introduced in this set, so much like the Year of the Mammoth sets, you are likely expecting a legendary spell...which is what I would say if Zilliax did not exist. Zilliax is one of the most literal swiss army knife cards in hearthstone, as he can do almost anything. Do you need to heal? Zilliax guarantees you heal at least 3 health. Do you need a Taunt? Even with his mediocre body Zilliax still absorbs at least two attacks from aggro. Do you want initiative on the board? He can protect your board as well. While I advise overall to craft decks, not cards, Zilliax almost makes me think otherwise. There are so many lists that I see Zilliax in, likely because he is one of the best cards to craft on a budget. If I see a card in both Odd DH and Big Priest, even if objectively it might not work in both those deck as well as other cards, you know it has a ton of utility.
If I was looking at cards in their prime, Sn1p SnAp would have dominated since Sn1plock was arguably the best deck in the history of the format, but after the nerf it just exists as a strong card due to it having great vanilla stats on its own and being powerful in Mech decks. Mecha'thun is a powerful wincon for combo decks, although out of its iterations I would only suggest Warlock right now. Subject 9 is a powerful source of draw for Secret Hunter builds. Dr. Boom Mad Genius is another strong tool for control warriors, be they DMH or Odd. Electra Stormsurge is a great source of burst for Aggro and Odd Shaman. Stargazer Luna has an insane amount of draw, especially coupled wih LPG. Flobbinius Floop is a great card in some combo decks and Reno Druid, although the anti Oaken Summons synergy hurts the card a bit. And now we finally get to the legendary spells. Luna's Pocket Galaxy encourages an entire style of Reno Mage that is one of the format's best control decks. Floop's Gloop lets Linecracker Druid exist. Myra's Unstable Element can be run in Aggro rogue decks, although they often do not need that level of draw. The Soularium is a powerful draw option for any faster warlock deck. Finally, The Storm Bringer is an excellent card in Even Shaman, giving them a powerful board buffing effect.
Rastakhan's Rumble
I do not like this set. When a set is arguably on the level of TGT you know you messed up. If I did the best card overall it might be harder, but for legendaries I could not think of something other than Zul'jin for the best. Zul'jin's battlecry is effectively a controlled Yogg in many circumstances. If you want a board, he will get that for you. If you want secrets, have a christmas tree. He might even kill some minions on the other side of the board. While 10 mana in Hunter is on the steep side, I could not put anything else on this level of overall power.
Honorable mentions go to Shrivallah and Janali. Shrivallah is great in Holy Wrath Paladin and control paladin decks that play enough spells for her to work. Janali is a staple card in Odd Mage due to how easy it is to activate in that deck and the amount of tempo she provides. But yeah, most of the other loa either are pure meme tier decks rn like Gonk and Krag'wa, even if I love both of those cards. In terms of the champions, none of them really come close to Zul'jin. Thekal comes the closest, since his effect lets you cheat out Molten Giants relatively quickly while giving up nothing in terms of stats. I guess Loti is ok in Untapped Druid but that is not a great deck. Neutral wise, Da Undatakah works in bitter shaman but that is a meme. Oondasta works in Big Beast decks I guess. Mojomaster Zihi is good in Even Shaman and Evenlock as a bad Loatheb. Wow, this is a bit of a downer note...
Next time we should finish up, with Rise of Shadows to Darkmoon Faire. Once again thank you all so much for reading and I hope you have a good day.

So, with the recent NicoNico livestream we have a lot of information about everything with the coming fest. This Megathread will be listing out all the events and other things going on during fest and I'll try my best to capture everything I see put up about it, including rewards for stuff if I can get them. I'll do another separate post for the banners and put a link here so if you're looking for what's on the banners the link is here and I'll also link it below.
There's a lot here (mostly copied and pasted from S0litair3d on various GF Threads with additional inputs from the translations of onthefaultline and Leyroux here) so if I messed anything up please let me know. Also if you have any updates (like what specifically is given out each day in the login bonuses, Spiralling Floors (boss event), etc.) let me know and I'll add it.
Anything I could find a solid date for I haven't added though I'm sure there will be some things like Gem draws that's dates always come late. As I find dates or solid info I'll add it.
Thanks to onthefaultline and Leyroux for the translation work, dataminers like ElNinoFr (and other I'm sure), and S0litair3d as always for the posts on GameFaqs that allows me to do these and also thanks to Pyrotios for always checking my work and helping make sure these things are accurate.

Recent JP Megathreads

Fat Black Chocobo: Shocking Magicites A Sword to Sheathe (XI) Confounded Memories (III) The Deserting Kingdom (VI) Confounded Memories (XII) Journey through the Dark City (IX) Core Torment (Core/Beyond) Fat Black Chocobo: Shadowy Magicites Thrills and Treats/Dragonlord Bahamut (XIV) Clash of Gunblades (VIII)

Fantasy Fest 2020

Megathread Relics

Helpful Links

General JP Version Information FFRK Community Database
Game Updates:

• Assistive Touch Menu update (16 Dec)
  
  • A sub-menu will be brought up when you press and hold the icons for equipment, abilities, Magicite and Historia Crystals, allowing you quick access to their upgrading menu pages.
• Miscellaneous updates (16 Dec)
  
  • The Overdrive function will be added to the 6* Magicites and Dreambreaker dungeons.
  • The limit of 6* Ruby abilities transmutable from the Royal Crucible have been raised to two.
  • Similar to party templates, you can now register a template of equipment, ability, SB & Materias for every character
  • Maximum slots will be increased from 60 to 99
  • A filtering function will be added to Kite's Treasure Trove to ease the searching of actual items the players are currently looking for
  • Hero Artifacts will also be added to Kite's Treasure Trove for a limited time.
  • A new "Labyrinth" label will also be added
  • The Home Screen will be renewed and their existing icons rearranged to the following order:
    • Record Dungeons
    • Mote Dungeons
    • Power-up Dungeons
    • Realm Dungeons
    • Event Dungeons
    • Labyrinth Dungeons
    • Nightmare/Magicite Dungeons
    • Cardia Dungeons
  • The initial position of the active party will be reset to be in front of the Realm Dungeons.
• Wall Balance Update (16 Dec)
  
  • We’ve examined the game balance and made the following changes.
  • Changes to the power granted by Elarra and Dr Mog
  • We have made changes to the duration of the buff provided by Elarra's Fabula Guardian and Dr Mog's Sentinel's Tome found available in certain dungeons.
    • Before Change: 30 seconds
    • After Change: 45 seconds
  • As compensation for this maintenance, all players will be sent 1 Mythril.
  • Mythril will be sent to the Item Chest.

Items in the Item Chest are deleted after 30 days. Please be sure to claim them before the claim period ends.

• Limit Break Guardian Summoning (GF Link)
  
  • A new LB tier will arrive in the upcoming fest for Yuna & Eiko.
  • Limit Break Guardian Summoning: For a period of time, summons a Guardian to fight in place of the entire party
    • Guardian can be manually controlled, has its own HP/ATB bar, stats, abilities & Soul Break.
    • Stats of the Guardian is dependent on the number of LB bars consumed.
    • While the Guardian is in the field, time is stopped for the party.
    • The time for ATB bar, casting time, air time, status ailments, bonus effects from SB/abilities, etc will not move.
    • The Guardian will be treated as the same entity as its summoner.
    • Effects that consider number of actions taken, damage dealt, bonus based on certain surviving party members, etc will be shared.
    • However, the Guardian will not take on any active status ailments or bonus SB/ability effect that the summoner has.
    • Guardian will disappear when duration expires, HP is fully consumed, or Soul Break is used.
    • LBGS can only be used once per battle, and each character can only equip 1.
  • Yuna's LBGS [G. Valefor]: Instant Summons Valefor
    • G. Valefor (Passive): Protect, Shell, Haste, Max ATB 1, DEF/RES +200%, Lv.3 En-Holy and BDL+2
    • G. Sonic Wings (Ability): SUM?: Instant 1x single Holy/Wind/NE overflow, removes Haste; self no SB charge.
    • G. Energy Ray (Ability): SUM?: Instant 5x AoE Holy/Wind/NE, self no SB charge
    • G. Energy Blast (SB): SUM?: Instant 10x AoE Holy/Wind/NE, 1x AOE Holy/Wind/NE overflow; ends Guardian Summoning.
• Labyrinth Dungeons (GF Link) (16 Dec)
  
  • An entire new maze like dungeon inspired by Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy will be implemented into the game.
  • Face enemies of various difficulties from downright easy to many more times harder than those offered in the Magicites or Cardia Dungeons.
  • Accessible from the Home menu, the Labyrinth Dungeon has its own Labyrinth Party menu & Item Vault. As well as a link to Kite's Shop and Labyrinth related announcements.
  • You have to create 3 parties before challenging the Labyrinth Dungeon. Between the 3 parties, you cannot have a repeated character, Magicite & Historia Crystal.
    • When making the 3 parties for the first time, nothing can be shared. Characters, Magicite, Historia Crystal, equipment, abilities & even Record Materias.
    • However once you have properly entered the Labyrinth, you can interchange all of the above. But nothing else from your inventory.
    • In other words you can only play around with 15 characters/equipment/RM, 1-3 Historia Crystals, 1-15 Magicites, and 30 abilities.
    • While you only need 5 Wodin accessories this way, the fatigue system will force you to change your party setup very frequently. So hoard vs convenience. Either way you will very likely need to redo your RMs before every single fight.
  • On the bottom right of each character sprite, there is a number.
    • This refers to that character's "Record Fatigue".
    • This value will increase if you bring that character into battle. And decrease if you did not choose that character for the fight, or enter a Recovery Painting with him.
    • If the Record Fatigue exceeds 7, that character will enter Fatigue Mode and his stats will decrease.
    • If the Record Fatigue reaches 2 and below, he will enter Vigor Mode and gain additional stats.
    • Vigor Mode can also be triggered through special events in certain Paintings, as well as the item "Lethe's Drop".
  • Entering the actual Labyrinth Dungeon will bring you to a map with various tiles and you can only move to an adjacent tile one at a time.
    • The types of tiles are "Labyrinth Cloister", "Cloister Dimensional Gap", "Start of Cloister", "Teleportation Crystal" & "Locked".
    • If you reach a Teleportation Crystal, you can teleport back to that tile later on.
  • Labyrinth Cloister
    • The number of steps in the Cloister's icon will tell you how lengthy it is.
    • Once you have decided on your Cloister, confirm your parties and enter.
    • Each cloister has multiple floors.
    • Each floor has multiple sets of 3 paintings for you to choose 1.
    • Behind the painting can be a battle or special event.
    • Choices of paintings are random so repeated attempts of the same Cloister may not give you the same options.
    • Battle Painting
      • Contains a battle with a random enemy.
      • Select your party and challenge it.
      • There will be a guaranteed item drop, but randomly from a list.
    • Advancement Painting
      • Provides certain buffs to your characters.
      • Click the magnifying glass icon to select the buff you want.
    • Recovery Painting
      • Resets the Record Fatigue to your characters.
    • Exploration Painting
      • Can contain an item, a battle, or a mysterious door that you can choose to open or not to.
      • For the latter, either options will give you a positive or negative effect.
    • Treasury Painting
      • Contains 3 treasure chests for you to pick 1.
      • Inside all 3 will definitely be a Hero Artifact. (Need to verify if all three are artifacts or just 1 is guaranteed).
      • If you have a "Magic Key" or spend Mythril/Gem, you can open more than 1 chest.
      • The chest contents can be analyzed before opening by watching your network traffic (This is outside of the game).
    • Warp Painting
      • Will bring you to the next floor.
      • It serves as a shortcut for clearing the cloister faster.
    • Warden Painting
      • Lies at the end of the cloister.
      • Behind it is a boss battle, clear it to win and exit the cloister.
  • Dungeon Information & Rewards
    • The information menu of each floor has a list of paintings, enemy encounters, items, as well as the boss behind the Warden Painting.
    • Under Drop Reward, you can also see the list of Hero Artifacts that are available in that cloister.
    • So you can explore certain cloisters more thoroughly if it contains the Artifact that you want.
    • You have the option to escape in the middle of the cloister. However without the item "Teleport Stone", you will lose all items earned inside this cloister. So in order to retrieve all items in the cloister, you have to either defeat the Warden Painting, or exit with the Teleport Stone.
  • Quick Exploration
    • If you have the item "Record Bookmark", you can simply spend stamina to instantly complete a cloister that you have already cleared. EXP will not be earned, but this allows you to quickly gain items & Labyrinth Points.
  • Cloister Dimensional Gap (CDG)
    • In the Labyrinth Map, you can also find a Cloister Dimensional Gap. Inside contains a high difficulty battle. No exploration, just the fight. Cloister Dimensional Gap can contain either elemental or realm based battles.
    • In the first release of Labyrinth Dungeon, you can find [Labyrinth] Kalavinka Striker.
    • This boss favors Earth characters and there will be a physical and magic allowed variant.
    • Grade rewards of this boss contains a Hero Artifact with a rare passive.
    • Note that these Artifacts can also be obtained through normal cloister exploration.
  • Seasons
    • Labyrinth Dungeon is season-based.
    • New dungeons are periodically added and this addition will be treated as a Season. The title of each dungeon will contains the season it arrives in, eg. S1 for Season 1.
    • Cloister Dimensional Gaps are also added periodically, this is called a Group. At the start of Labyrinth Dungeon we will be in Season 1 Group A. When the second Dimensional Gap is added, we will move onto Season 1 Group B. If a new wave of dungeons are added (together with a new Dimensional Gap), we are at Season 2 Group C.
    • Each Group determines what Hero Artifacts will be dropped. They will belong to characters that are useful against the newest Dimensional Gap. First boss is Earth-weak, so Group A's list of Hero Artifact drops will belong to Earth characters.
    • Relics from expired groups will not be available until that season ends. * For example, let's say that Season 1 has 4 Groups (A-D).
      • Group A relics are gone when Group B starts, which are available until Group C.
      • But once Season 1 has ended, Group A-D will go on rotation within S1 dungeons.
  • Further Season Clarification from S0litair3d
    • Season refers to an addition of a bunch of dungeons.
      • They will be marked with S1, S2, S3, etc so that you can find them easily in the future when there is many.
      • Cloister Dimensional Gap is just a single boss fight.
      • If it is inserted into Season 1's batch of dungeons, then it belongs to Season 1.
      • The period between each CDG is called a Group.
    • From the debut of Labyrinth, it is Group A, which changes to Group B once the second CDG arrives.
    • Based on DeNA's initial schedule, it seems like there will be 4 Groups in each Season. (Season 1 Group A-D, Season 2 Group E-H, etc.).
      • The list of possible Hero Artifact drops is dependent on the Group.
      • Group A is Earth because the CDG is Earth-weak. If for example CDG2 is VII-weak, then Group B's relics will be for VII.
      • But once Group B starts, you can no longer grind for Group A relics until the season ends.
    • Season 2 will add another batch of dungeons, and Group E will start in there. At the same time, Season 1's dungeons will go back to Group A. Which goes onto Group B after a few days. And so on.
    • Example Season (Season 1) - 16th December 2020 to 23rd April 2021
      • 3x Tutorial Dungeon (D60~80)
      • 4x Low Difficulty Dungeon (D80~180)
      • 4x Mid Difficulty Dungeon (D220~350)
      • 3x High Difficulty Dungeon (D400~500)
      • 4x Cloister Dimensional Gap
      • Cloister Dimensional Gap S1-2, S1-3 & S1-4 will arrive on a later date
      • Overdrive is only available in Cloister Dimensional Gap S1-1
    • Group A - 16th December 2020 to 15th January 2021
      • Low Difficulty Dungeon
      • Cloister of Caves S1 (Rinoa, Emperor, Guy)
      • Cloister of Sorceress S1 (Red XIII, Tellah, Rude)
      • Cloister of Breeding S1 (Red XIII, Cinque, Guy)
      • Cloister of Escape S1 (Tifa, Cinque, Cid XIV)
      • Mid Difficulty Dungeon
      • Cloister of Trials (Rinoa, Emperor, Guy)
      • Cloister of Floating Castle S1 (Red XIII, Tellah, Rude)
      • Cloister of Waterfall Lake S1 (Red XIII, Cinque, Guy)
      • Cloister of Sunken Depths S1 (Tifa, Cinque, Cid XIV)
      • High Difficulty Dungeon
      • Cloister of Temple (Rinoa, Emperor, Guy)
      • Cloister of Electromagnetic Tower (Tifa, Cinque, Cid XIV)
      • Cloister of Volcano (Red XIII, Tellah, Rude)
    • Meanwhile in Kite's Shop.
    • When Group A starts, all relics inside are added to his shop.
    • Once Group B starts, his shop will also get these new additions on top of Group A's.
    • So near the end of Season 1, his shop will have relics from Group A-D, while the dungeons will only drop D.
    • But once Season 1 ends, all relics will be removed and his shop will only contain E.
    • Example Missions (Season 1)
      • Earn 2500 Labyrinth Points: 50 Rainbow Crystals
      • Earn 10000 Labyrinth Points: 10 Intellect Rosetta Stones
      • Earn 100000 Labyrinth Points: 3 Stamina Potions
      • Earn 300000 Labyrinth Points: 1000 Lv.1 Anima Lens
      • Earn 650000 Labyrinth Points: 3 Magic Keys
      • Earn 1000000 Labyrinth Points: 700 Lv.2 Anima Lens
      • Earn 2000000 Labyrinth Points: 1 Teleport Stone
      • Earn 3000000 Labyrinth Points: 500 Lv.3 Anima Lens
      • Earn 4000000 Labyrinth Points: 250 EX Anima Lens
      • Earn 5000000 Labyrinth Points: 30 Treasure Maps
      • Defeater [Labyrinth] Kalavinka Striker: 15 Treasure Maps
  • Labyrinth Point
    • This is earned based on the actions you take in the Labyrinth Dungeon.
    • Where from battles, picking certain paintings or seeing certain events, various amounts will be provided.
    • You can earn rewards based on the total amount of Labyrinth Points earned.
    • At the end of each Season, all Labyrinth Points are reset.
  • Labyrinth Tome
    • There are a set of limited missions that expires with each Season.
  • Kite's Shop
    • He will sell all Hero Artifacts that are featured in the current Season.
    • You have to spend "Treasure Maps" to purchase them, which can be obtained in the Labyrinth Dungeon.
    • Example Season (Season 1)
      • Regular:
      • 1x Intellect Rosetta Stone. Cost: 10 Rosetta Stones
      • 1x Intellect Rosetta Stone. Cost: 100 Major Growth Eggs
      • 1x Intellect Rosetta Stone. Cost: 100 Major Adamantites
      • 1x Intellect Rosetta Stone. Cost: 100 Major Scarletites
      • Each allow 5 purchases every week
      • Limited:
      • Each Hero Artifact costs 5 Treasure Maps, unlimited quantity
  • Chance to obtain various rewards, from random items to powerful Relics exclusive to these dungeons, in the form of Hero Artifacts.
• Hero Artifacts:
  
  • These are powerful Relics obtained from within the Labyrinth Dungeons or from trading them as limited time exclusive items from Kite's Treasure Trove.
  • Hero Artifacts can only be exclusively equipped by a particular hero (like Hero abilities) that the Artifact resonates with, and they come in three different categories, namely Weapon, Armor and Accessory.
  • Hero Artifacts have their own inventory.
  • Levels
    • A basic Hero Artifact will start from level 1/50.
    • At level 50, physical weapons have 266 ATK, magic has 258 MAG, ranged physical has 253 ATK, hybrid has 258 in both stats,
    • All weapon & armors have minor omni-elemental boost, all accessories have Wodin's effect.
    • Like regular Relics, Hero Artifacts can also be leveled up, and it is possible to level them up till lv99 by breaking its level cap by fusing copies of the same Hero Artifact.
    • Levels can be increased by spending Rainbow Crystals as usual. In addition you can feed them spare Hero Artifacts.
    • Hero Accessories has no levels.
    • Once a Hero Artifact has reached level 99, you can then raise its Augment level up to +99.
    • You can do so by fusing more copies of the same Hero Artifact, or use "Intellect Rosetta Stone" that can be obtained in the Labyrinth Dungeon.
  • Passives
    • Hero Artifacts can hold two special passive abilities, an Unique passive ability and an Inherited passive ability.
    • Unique passive abilities are always given to and shared across all similar Hero Artifacts.
    • Inherited passive abilities are random and can differ even for identical Hero Artifacts; they can be obtained by methods such as Reforging, Break their Level Cap, etc.
    • Higher difficulty dungeons will drop Hero Artifacts with better inherited passives.
    • Similar to Magicites, the Inherited passive can be replaced when you fuse the same equipment.
    • Unique passive is fixed and cannot be changed.
    • Inherited passive for Artifacts purchased from Kite's Shop is average, while Artifacts dropped by defeating Cloister Dimensional Gap are guaranteed to be strong.
    • An example of a Unique passive is Critical Damage +5% (Fist), and Inherited passive is Earth Damage +3%.
  • A set bonus effect can be unlocked when two or three Hero Artifacts are equipped together for a hero.
    • For example, Tifa gains 50% SB Booster for 1 turn if she equips her Hero Weapon & Hero Armor (any 2 of the 3 hero artifacts).
    • Instant Cast 1 if she equips her Hero Weapon & Hero Accessory or Hero Armor & Hero Accessory (all 3 hero artifacts).
    • She gets both Set Bonuses if all 3 are equipped.
  • Hero Artifact accessories are not eligible for Reforge, Breaking Level Caps or receive Inherited passive abilities.
  • In commemoration of the release of Labyrinth Dungeon Season 1, Overdrive is made available for free for the first Cloister Dimensional Gap, [Labyrinth] Kalavinka Striker.
  • However, an "Overdrive" marker will be shown in your time score if you utilize it.
  • Just for the first boss.
  • There are no determined date on when Overdrive will be unlocked for future bosses.
• In-game campaign
  
  • Gives reward based on the total Labyrinth Points the entire player base earned by 23rd December.
    • Tier 1: 5 Stamina Potions
    • Tier 2: 50 Rainbow Crystals
    • Tier 3: Red XIII Hero Weapon, Armor & Accessory
    • Tier 4: 3x Fest 10-pull tickets
• Magicite Support Campaign (25 Dec)
  
  • There will be limited missions from 25th December 2020 to 15th January 2021
  • Rewards include Realm (I've seen these can't be used on realms...?)/Elemental Relic Draw Ticket & New Year Relic Draw Ticket
• January Twitter Campaign
  
  • Achieving the milestones will earn another month-long campaign of 10-pull daily draws in Feb 2021.

Fantasy Fest 2020

Schedule as follows:

• 30/11: Banners release after this will have Stamp Sheets
• 04/12 ~ 18/12: Magicite Support Campaign
• 04/12: Vivid Omega Returns (No updates)
• 04/12: Confounded Memories (III)
• 08/12 ~ 11/01: Series Happy Relic Draws (RoP/LoTR)
• 09/12 ~ 08/01: Transcendent Ruins
• 09/12 ~ 14/12: 1/2 DU Stamina
• 09/12: Story Dungeon (FFVI, FFVII & FFVII-DC)
• 11/12: A Sword to Sheathe (XI)
• 11/12: Dragonlord Bahamut (XI)
• 16/12: New Year Banquet(Orbfest)
• 18/12: Christmas Login Bonus
• 18/12: Realm/Elemental Relic Draw Renewal
• 18/12: Fat Black Chocobo: Shocking Magicites
• 23/12: Fest Countdown Lucky #1 (Glint/Glint+/LMLBG 2G5)
• 24/12: Fest Countdown Lucky #2 (Physical AASB)
• 25/12: Fest Countdown Lucky #3 (Magical AASB)
• 25/12 ~ 15/01: 1/2 DU Stamina
• 25/12 ~ 15/01: Double Gyshal Greens
• 25/12 ~ 15/01: Daily Twitter Stamina Refresh
• 25/12 ~ 15/01: New Year Relic Draw
• 25/12: New Year Gift Dungeon
• 25/12: Spiralling Floors (Boss Event)
• 25/12: End/Start of Year Painting
• 25/12: Wandering Gilgamesh Returns
• 26/12 ~ 30/12: Extreme Fest Banner 1
• 27/12: Unlimited Throttle Dungeon
• 28/12 ~ 04/01: New Year Pick Up Relic Draw
• 29/12 ~ 02/01: Extreme Fest Banner 2
• 31/12: Confounded Memories (XV)(https://redd.it/kq0kkp)
• 31: Dragonlord Bahamut (XV)
• 01/01 ~ 05/01: Extreme Fest Banner 3
• 01/01: Happy New Year 2021 Relic Draw
• 01/01: New Year's Gift Login Bonus
• 01/01 ~ 15/01: Fortune Bag Relic Draw
• 04/01 ~ 08/01: Extreme Fest Banner 4
• 07/01 ~ 11/01: Extreme Fest Banner 5
  
• ?: Fest Dream Selection (None - Next select is with the XIII event.)
  

Magicite Support Campaign (4 Dec-18 Dec)

• From 4th to 18th December there will be limited missions involving various Magicite dungeons (except Lord of Knights)
• Rewards include Elemental Relic Draw Ticket, note that these can't be used in the realm banners
• End of Year Free Relic Draw x10 tickets can also be gotten here.
• Stamina cost for all Magicite dungeon except Lord of Knights will be halved

Series Happy Relic Draws (RoP/LoTR) (8 Dec-11 Jan)

• 17 banners total (one for each realm).
• One-time draw only. Each draw costs 5 Mythrils or 291 Gems.
• This is a triple pull that guarantees you at least one 5*+.
• Relic pool contains all BSB+ & LMRs in the game for the respective realms.

Trancendent Ruins (9 Dec-8 Jan)

• All previous Transcendent bosses will return.
• No New Transcendent boss

New Year Banquet (Orbfest) (16 Dec)

• 5 tickets per day over 10 days
• Earn Festival Coins that can be spent in a limited trade shop

Christmas Login Bonus (18 Dec)

• Rewards include Mythril, Crystal & Realm/Series Relic Draw Ticket

Fest Countdown Luckies (23, 24, 25 Dec)

• One lucky banner a day for 3 days, each half-priced for the first 11-pull.
• LMGlint/Glint+/LBG (2G5)
• Physical AASB
• Magical AASB

New Year Relic Draw (25 Dec)

• Can only be pulled with New Year Relic Draw Tickets
• Each ticket grants a 10-pull with 1G5
• Receive up too 100 Relics by spending the End of Year Free Relic Draw x10 tickets in this special Relic Draw.
• Log into the game during the holiday period to get the chance to receive up to ten End of Year Free Relic Draw x10 tickets.
• These tickets can be obtained as part of the New Year Party 2021 Login bonus and also from the New Year's Gift Login bonus.
• Additional tickets can also be obtained as part of the Magicites and Cardia Dungeon Events that are held simultaneously alongside these New Year Events.
• Rates
  • 7* - 1.042%
  • 6* - 8.977%
  • 5* - 4.019%

New Year Gift Dungeon (25 Dec)

• 14 dungeons in total
• Dungeon on 1st January will reward 30 Mythrils

Spiralling Floors (Boss Event) (25 Dec)

• Boss event of this fest.
• The central Royal Archives event of the fest.
• A mysterious spatial distortion has been uncovered by Tyro and co beyond the wall of the Royal Archives.
• A neverending flight of winding stairs have seemed to appeared in its stead.
• Test the limits of your party by forcing your way across the spiraling levels.

End/Start of Year Painting (25 Dec)

• Fight against a boss to commemorate the Year of the Rat
• Who will be swapped out on 1st January with another boss to celebrate the Year of the Cow
• Rewards include Job Motes
• (A silhouette of Giant Rat (III) representing the mascot of the Eastern Zodiac for the Year of the Rat (2020) and another pair of silhouettes of The Brothers - Sacred and Minotaur (VIII) representing the mascot of the Eastern Zodiac for the Year of the Ox (2021) are shown in the event banner).

Wandering Gilgamesh (25 Dec) (Thanks Pyrotios)

• Higher difficulty now includes XV.
• No New Missions.
• Current realm list: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15.
• Current missions: defeat 3/5/7/9 different realms.

Extreme Fest Banner Draws (26/29 Dec, 1/4/7 Jan).

• 5 banners in total starting from 26 December
• Introducing new TASB, SASB & LBGS
• Link to banner info is here.

Unlimited Throttle Dungeon (27 Dec)

• Fight against Garland (IX) with unlimited SB/LB bars

New Year Pick Up Relic Draw (28 Dec)

• Regular full priced banner.
• After making two 11-pulls, you get an AASB pick for free.
• Cutoff seems to be the this event. (Thanks C637 for this and the updated list below).
  
  • Banner
    • Firion Sync (Holy+ Katana)
    • Firion AASB (Holy+ Katana)
    • Bartz AASB2 (Wind+ Sword)
    • Rem AASB (Holy+ Daggers)
    • Vivi AASB2 (Ice+ Staff)
    • Noctis Flash+
    • Squall Flash+1
    • Ashe Flash+
    • Tifa Flash+
    • Alphinaud Flash+
    • Onion Knight Flash+
    • Lightning Flash+2
  • AASB Select
    • I: Warrior of Light, Garland, Sarah, Wol, Echo, Master, Matoya, Meia, Thief (I)
    • II: Firion, Maria, Guy, Leon, Minwu, Gordon, Leila, Richard, Josef 1, Josef 2, Emperor 1, Emperor 2, Hilda, Scott
    • III: Luneth 1, Arc 1, Refia, Ingus 1, Desch 1, Onion Knight 1, Onion Knight 2, Cloud of Darkness, Aria
    • IV: Dark Knight Cecil, Paladin Cecil, Kain 1, Kain 2, Rydia 1, Rydia 2, Rosa, Edward, Yang, Palom, Porom, Tellah 1, Edge, Fusoya, Golbez, Cid (IV), Ceodore, Rubicante, Ursula, Barbariccia
    • V: Lenna 1, Lenna 2, Galuf, Famed Mimic Gogo, Gilgamesh, Bartz 1, Bartz 2, Bartz 3, Bartz 4, Bartz 5, Faris 1, Faris 2, Dorgann, Exdeath, Krile, Xezat, Kelger
    • VI: Terra 1, Terra 2, Locke, Celes 1, Celes 2, Mog 1, Mog 2, Edgar, Sabin, Shadow, Cyan, Gau, Setzer, Strago 1, Strago 2, Relm, Gogo (VI), Umaro, Kefka, Leo
    • VII: Cloud 1, Cloud 2, Barret 1, Barret 2, Tifa, Aerith, Red XIII, Yuffie 1, Yuffie 2, Cait Sith, Vincent, Zack 1, Zack 2, Sephiroth 1, Sephiroth 2, Cid (VII), Reno, Angeal, Rufus, Shelke, Rude, Elena, Genesis
    • VIII: Squall 1, Squall 2, Rinoa 1, Rinoa 2, Quistis, Zell, Selphie, Irvine, Seifer 1, Laguna 1, Laguna 2, Edea, Raijin, Fujin, Kiros, Ward, Ultimecia
    • IX: Zidane, Garnet, Vivi 1, Vivi 2, Steiner 1, Steiner 2, Freya, Quina, Eiko 1, Eiko 2, Amarant, Beatrix, Kuja, Marcus
    • X: Tidus, Yuna 1, Yuna 2, Wakka 1, Wakka 2, Lulu 1, Kimahri, Rikku, Auron, Jecht, Brasca, Paine, Seymour
    • XI: Shantotto, Ayame, Curilla, Prishe, Lion, Aphmau, Zeid, Lilisette
    • XII: Vaan 1, Vaan 2, Balthier, Fran 1, Fran 2, Basche, Ashe, Penelo, Gabranth, Larsa, Vayne 1, Reks 1
    • XIII: Lightning 1, Lightning 2, Snow 1, Snow 2, Vanille, Sazh, Hope, Fang, Serah, Raines 1, Noel 1, Noel 2, Nabaat
    • XIV: Y'shtola 1, Y'shtola 2, Yda, Papalymo, Alphinaud, Minfilia, Ysayle, Haurchefant, Estinien, Alisaie
    • XV: Noctis, Gladiolus, Ignis 1, Ignis 2, Prompto, Iris, Aranea, Cor, Lunafreya, Ardyn
    • FFT: Ramza, Agrias, Ovelia, Orlandeau, Gaffgarion, Rapha, Marach, Marche, Alma, Orran
    • T0: Ace, Deuce, Nine, Machina, Rem, Queen, King, Cinque, Seven, Sice, Jack, Eight, Cater 1, Cater 2, Trey 1, Trey 2
    • Beyond: Lann, Tama 1, Enna Kros, Serafie, Rain, Fina, Lasswell
    • Core: Tyro, Elarra, Dr. Mog 1, Dr Mog 2

Happy New Year 2021 Relic Draw (1 Jan)

• Free 10-pull that guarantees 1 LBO, 2 6* & 7 5* relics

New Year's Gift Login Bonus (1 Jan)

• Log into the game during the beginning of the year holiday period to receive rewards such as Mythrils and the exclusive Elarra's Battledore 6* accessory.
• (Other than the rewards mentioned above, up to ten End of Year Free Relic Draw x10 tickets can also be obtained as part of the two login bonus events described above)

Fortune Bag Relic Draw (1 Jan - 15 Jan)
Fest Dream Selection (None)
*Next Dream selection was with the XIII event.
If you spot any mistakes or have suggestions on how to improve the quality of my guides, feel free to comment here and I'll do my best to address them ASAP!

Introduction

Since the dawn of time, Control Warrior has risen against the face decks. After encountering a slew of Demon Hunters and Totem Shamans, I decided to experiment with a pure survival deck, and predictably, it dominated against aggro but fell off hard against anything else. There was enough space open in the deck to shore up some of this weakness, though, and the end result is Rattlegore Warrior, so called because Rattlegore and his clones are the only win condition in the deck. If your opponent has a heavy deck that also contains a Rattlegore counter, you'll probably lose, but at the moment, this doesn't describe too much of the meta I saw. The result is a deck that still blows aggressive strategies out of the water, but has the juice to stand up against a lot of other archetypes with a bit of luck. It's obviously way too early to make any definitive statements about the deck, and it's exploiting a pocket in the meta where not too many people are teching Silence effects, which could obviously change. With that said, it treated me very well for my run. I played ~30 games from Diamond 5 to Legend and kept going to 41 total, with a final winrate of 68%.
Proof of Legend: https://imgur.com/a/2U3DkAw
Proof of winrate: https://imgur.com/a/iTDL4y4

The Deck

Easy visual reference: https://imgur.com/a/GhMku0h

RAAAAAAR

Class: Warrior

Format: Standard

Year of the Phoenix

2x (1) Athletic Studies

2x (1) Risky Skipper

2x (1) Shield Slam

2x (1) Sword and Board

2x (2) Armorsmith

1x (2) Corsair Cache

2x (2) Minefield

1x (3) Ancharrr

2x (3) Bloodsworn Mercenary

1x (3) Bulwark of Azzinoth

2x (3) Coerce

1x (3) Lord Barov

2x (3) Shield Block

1x (4) Kargath Bladefist

2x (4) Sword Eater

2x (5) Brawl

1x (7) Silas Darkmoon

1x (8) Deathwing, Mad Aspect

1x (9) Rattlegore

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Card Highlights

Risky SkippeArmorsmith/AncharrCorsair Cache/Sword Eater
The first 4 are your typical armour gain shell that's been in wide rotation ever since Warriors had the option, so of course they were going to be included in a survival deck. Sword Eater interferes with this to a degree, and there's an argument for not including him since Risky Skipper is responsible for a lot of the deck's most impactful turns...but the card is just so good. It's a fantastic board control and stall tool earlier on, while also being able to assist your Rattlegore pressure if drawn later. I've cut down to one Corsair Cache, as between Anchaaar, Bulwark of Azzinoth, and 2 Sword Eaters, that's already 4 weapons in similar mana slots. I didn't want to run more weapons, and the second Corsair Cache was often a dead card with only 2 targets in the deck.
Minefield
What an incredible tool Control Warrior was given this expansion. Minefield completely denies basically any early board your opponent tries to build, whether that's Phase Stalker, Lab Partner, an attempted Totem setup, any Demon Hunter card...it's an incredibly efficient removal tool that also has some additional utility, such as combos with Lord Barov, or bombing your own Armorsmiths in a pinch.
Bloodsworn Mercenary
There are a lot of good targets in this deck, the main ones being Rattlegore (against heavy decks with no reliable counter), Kargath Bladefist (heavy decks that can counter Rattlegore), and Armorsmith (Risky Skipper -> Armorsmith -> Mercenary is often a game-ending play against aggro). It also pairs well with a lot of Silas Darkmoon thefts, and sometimes that extra Taunt (Sword Eater) or pressure (Deathwing) is just what you need.
Bulwark of Azzinoth
A good card against many forms of aggressive strategy, but an absolute force of nature against Demon Hunter in particular. Pen Flinger is the obvious counter and I did see it in a few of them floating around, but a 3 mana heal 4 is still acceptable in that scenario, and in many instances I easily denied 20+ damage over the 4 turns it took them to ping the Bulwark down with their Hero Power, since this deck can very reliably prevent them from sticking a board.
Silas Darkmoon
There's a lot of mana cheat and big minions running around right now, many of which have Taunt or Rush. Silas acts as a Mind Control lite here, and even if you don't have a smaller minion than Silas to give away, you usually have enough health to not worry about the 4/4 you donated to your opponent. In all honesty, Silas probably wouldn't stick around in a hyper-optimized build, but I threw him in on a whim and he felt good enough to keep, and blindsiding opponents with a big Silas play never gets old. I also ended a game on the spot by stealing an opposing Rattlegore, so there's definitely potential depending on what you're facing. A couple important interactions to note:

• If you donate Risky Skipper, its effect doesn't trigger.
  
• Don't play Silas on an empty board, he still gets rotated to your opponent. I tried this in the name of science during a game I was winning handily, so now you don't have to.
  

Deathwing, Mad Aspect
There's anti-synergy between Deathwing and Rattlegore, so if I had any reasonable opportunity to play him in a slower matchup, I usually did. You could certainly make a case to cut it because of this, but it's still an extremely powerful standalone card that saved me many times.

Other Cards to Consider

Stage Dive
The only Rush minion in the deck is Kargath Bladefist, meaning that Stage Dive can draw Kargath Prime very reliably. I didn't know how many losing games would be won on the back of this though, the deck does very well against aggro already and it's a solid but not definitive play against slower opponents.
Battle Rage
You're running Risky Skipper combos and there were some games where I'd have liked a bit more draw. With that said, holding these combo pieces can already clog your hand a bit sometimes, and the deck is kind of light on other activators, both in terms of minions and damage effects.
Costumed EntertaineBanana VendoKing Mukla
It occurred to me that a lot of this deck's harder matchups are often holding onto 9 card hands, so an attempt to mill them and burn key cards might be doable, but probably not your highest priority.
Bladestorm
An obvious choice especially against Druid's clowns, but I was just finding too many logjams against larger boards and didn't feel the need for more removal against aggro decks. Dropping Silas for a copy is probably one of the more straightforward optimization attempts you could make, if a pretty boring one.
EVIL Quartermaster
During the transition to the final clone-focused build of the deck, at one point I was running a single Bloodsworn Mercenary and a single Quartermaster, and the card felt pretty good, just not nearly as good as the 30 in the deck for the most part.
Lorekeeper Polkelt
His main appeal is helping you find your Rattlegore earlier, so this would be a meta call and one that probably should go into the deck if you're seeing a lot of Control Warlock in particular. This run was done fairly early in the meta so I tended to opt for all-rounders rather than a ton of tech cards, and it does clunk your draws up pretty badly against Demon Hunter, which was by far my most common opponent.
Faceless Manipulator
Redundancy for Bloodsworn Mercenary in Control matchups, obviously aimed at Rattlegore but also viable with a decent amount of big minions from your opponent. Again, meta call, I think you'd want to run it and Lorekeeper in the same deck.
Plague of Wrath
Passable removal against aggro while also providing a potential out against Druids or out of control Totem Shamans, and a pretty reasonable choice, albeit hampered by the lack of Bladestorm.
Claw Machine
Removal and card draw, and a lot of the deck's key cards are minions. There are probably bigger priorities, but I'm curious about this one, it seems pretty solid.
Troublemaker
I think Troublemaker probably isn't impactful enough in a lot of matchups, but it is a reasonable compromise between a late game bomb that still offers some amount of utility.
C'Thun, the Shattered/Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate
If you feel that the deck needs another bomb, these would be some options, although they kind of oppose the principle of "anti-aggro deck that can still win thanks to Rattlegore." C'Thun makes it actively harder to draw into Rattlegore, and while I certainly did play games that went long enough to make use of it, there weren't that many, and this deck can't draw aggressively. Against slower decks that can reliably counter Rattlegore? Sure, I'd love to have C'Thun, but realistically, those were a pretty small percentage of games. Yogg-Saron is a much less deck-defining option, although if you're going to take that approach, you'd probably want to add a few more spells as well (probably Bladestorm).

Encounter Stats

Demon Hunter
Encounter Rate 20%, Won 88% of Games
Druid
Encounter Rate 12%, Won 80% of Games
Hunter
Encounter Rate 5%, Won 50% of Games
Mage
Encounter Rate 17%, Won 57% of Games
Paladin
Encounter Rate 2%, Won Game
Priest
Encounter Rate 2%, Lost Game
Rogue
Encounter Rate 10%, Won 75% of Games
Shaman
Encounter Rate 10%, Won 75% of Games
Warlock
Encounter Rate 15%, Won 50% of Games
Warrior
Encounter Rate 7%, Won 67% of Games

Strategy

As stated, this is a survival deck first and foremost, with the ability to build an oppressive board in the late game in appropriate matchups.
Demon Hunter
I encountered Soul Fragment, Face, and Outcast variants of Demon Hunter, all of which felt extremely favoured. You remove their minions easily, and can reliably heal out of their damage. Bulwark of Azzinoth is the standout card in the deck since so much of their burn relies on attacks from the hero, and I usually tried to play it out as soon as I had a clear board, or after they'd equipped a weapon with a single minion in play. Bloodsworn Mercenary is saved for Armorsmith, and it's usually best to resist the temptation to play Armorsmith on curve, but against specifically Umberwing it can be a passable play if you don't have a great hand. Mulligan for Athletic Studies, Armorsmith, Risky Skipper (with Armorsmith), Bloodsworn Mercenary (with the other 2), Sword and Board, Corsair Cache, Minefield, Anchaaar, Bulwark of Azzinoth.
Druid
I faced Clown Druid and Spell Druid, with Spell Druid feeling very reasonable and Clown Druid feeling a bit more manageable than expected, albeit largely being up to holding the right answers (I suspect with a larger sample size this would be a bad matchup). This is 100% a Rattlegore duplication matchup, and if you can get this up and running before they completely overwhelm you with more than a wave or two of clowns, you've got a fighting chance. Spell Druid is the same thing, win with Rattlegore, although you're on a much more manageable clock. Silas Darkmoon is a lifesaver after a Survival of the Fittest -> Strongman play, as it can immediately pressure them or force out a clown wave to be Brawled down. Mulligan for Corsair Cache, Anchaaar, Lord Barov, Brawl, Rattlegore
Hunter
A sample size of 2 isn't much to go off, but I encountered one Face Hunter and one Deathrattle Hunter, the results of which were largely as expected. The Face Hunter was convincingly crushed, while the Deathrattle Hunter was able to fire off too many missiles for survival thanks to Darkmoon Tonk, Jewel of N'Zoth, and Vectus. It's worth noting that they had a pretty ideal draw while mine was fairly poor, but I still intuitively think it's probably not a great matchup, while I'd bet good money that Face Hunter is. I didn't play any Highlander Hunter or the new Secret version. Mulligans (assuming aggressive strategy): Athletic Studies, Armorsmith, Risky Skipper (with Armorsmith), Bloodsworn Mercenary (with the other 2), Sword and Board, Corsair Cache, Minefield, Anchaaar, Bulwark of Azzinoth (with earlier plays), Sword Eater (with earlier plays).
Mage
Minionless C'Thun Mage was the most common version I fought, although there was also Tempo Secret Mage, as well as one Highlander. C'Thun felt very good, and your main goal is to press the Armour Up button every turn you can possibly get away with it. Corsair Cache on turn 2? Wrong, press the button. Rattlegore doesn't have much chance of sticking between Devolving Missiles and Polymorph, whether native or discovered, so save Bloodsworn Mercenary for Risky Skipper -> Armorsmith plays. It's very reasonable to be well above 30 health on the turn they play C'Thun, and if you can pull this off with some resources left, you've likely won. Bulwark of Azzinoth isn't going to do a lot of major damage blocking most of the time, although I still tried to save it for later in the game, and after they'd played Eye of C'Thun. Tempo Mage is a similar principle, but felt tougher since you're not as free to sit back and build armour. Highlander Mage is not one of the decks this is meant to fight, with Zephrys and The Amazing Reno piling onto the anti-Rattlegore tech, so I think saving for a 10 mana Kargath -> 2x Bloodsworn Mercenary is likely the play, although I strongly suspect it's still an uphill battle. In all matchups, don't just discard a dead Corsair Cache if you're floating mana, as it's still good for triggering Counterspell. Mulligan for Athletic Studies, Risky Skipper, Sword and Board, Armorsmith, Corsair Cache, Anchaaar, Shield Block (with other plays), Kargath (with other plays).
Paladin
I faced a single Pure Paladin, which I beat down handily thanks to Rattlegore duplication. There's not too much detail I can go into here in terms of strategy, but I think it's fair to say that you basically can't win without Rattlegore specifically, as their Librams will eventually wear you down, so hard mulliganing for him might be the best plan. I've seen both Pure and Penflinger Paladin across the expansion so far, but the aggro/Silver Hand Recruit variant doesn't seem like it's taken off, so you can probably assume you'll have at least a bit of time. Coerce might be another fair mulligan, as well as Silas to snipe their big Libram target later in the game (preferably after Lady Liadrin).
Priest
Again, one game fought, but I think the deck is pretty much brick walled here, as you can never play Rattlegore and have no other way of killing them. Pretty much tradition at this point for Control Warrior vs. Control Priest, and I don't know if the new Resurrect tools have gained any traction. If they have, Silas might be a small saving grace, but in general, go for Kargath -> 2x Bloodsword Mercenary and pray.
Rogue
I encountered C'Thun Rogue as well as Galakrond Rogue, and the win condition was similar to Mage, squeeze out as much armour as possible while keeping the board under control. Risky Skipper -> Sword Eater is a useful way to clear Shadowjeweler Hanar without using a spell, and I saw her in every match I fought, so keep that in mind, Counterspell and Spellbender are extremely common picks (the same Corsair Cache tip as for Mage applies here). An important tip to note for C'Thun Rogue specifically: I think the correct way to play this matchup on the Rogue's end is probably to save both Shadowsteps exclusively for C'Thun, which would result in a total damage output of 90. The implication here may be that you as the Warrior should be saving your Bloodsworn Mercenaries for armour combos, but I'm not so sure, since 3 (or even 2) Rattlegores can potentially body block most of that damage. This will be an interesting matchup going forward, although none of the opponents I saw on my run were actually using Shadowstep this way, likely assuming I was Bomb Warrior. Wand Thief can discover anti-Rattlegore effects though, which is a bit of a bummer. I didn't fight any Aggro Rogue, but between being a natural counter to aggression, multiple ways to kill stealth minions, and Bulwark to block their big weapons, I have to imagine it'd be very favoured. Mulligan for Athletic Studies, Armorsmith, Risky Skipper (with Armorsmith), Bloodsworn Mercenary (with the other 2), Sword and Board, Corsair Cache, Anchaaar, Coerce, Lord Barov (with another combo piece to deal with Edwin Van Cleef), Sword Eater (with earlier plays), Kargath (with earlier plays).
Shaman
While I saw a few Battlecry Shamans in the first few hours of the expansion, all the encounters I had with this deck were the Totem version. Their entire deck is built around sticking a board, and your entire deck is built around removal, so it's a pretty comfortable matchup provided you draw a decent answer or two. You've generally won or lost by the time Rattlegore comes down, so save Bloodsworn Mercenary for Risky Skipper plays or as another Rush minion to keep their board clear. The main priority against Totem Shaman is to kill everything, don't leave even a basic totem alive if you have the option not to. Mulligan for Athletic Studies, Risky Skipper, Sword and Board, Minefield, Anchaaar, Lord Barov, Kargath (with earlier plays), Sword Eater (with earlier plays), Brawl.
Warlock
Control Warlock is probably the deck that most relies on Rattlegore to save the day. If you can stick a Rattlegore and clone it, you can dole out enough pressure to get past their deck burning, but if you don't, there's very little hope. Even then, I played one game where I managed to get 2 Rattlegores out that the Warlock was able to whittle down until they were no longer threats, and I died in fatigue. It's a pretty rough matchup, and one where you need to try and apply a bit more pressure than usual with weapon face swings, etc. Luckily, Zoo decks are much more favoured, although Control seems like the matchup you should assume you're walking into right now. Which means a hard mulligan for Rattlegore, because if it's milled, you're done.
Warrior
There are a few Warrior archetypes out there, but I mostly ran into Bomb Warrior with a couple Menagerie builds as well. Against Bomb Warrior, Bloodsworn Mercenary has several valid uses, and I think in an ideal world you'd aim for one armour combo and one Rattlegore clone, although armour probably comes first since the deck tends to devolve into burn damage. Rattlegore isn't a core card, but I have seen it several times (maybe for the mirror?), so that's your ideal Silas target. Menagerie Warrior isn't that popular, but keeping up a board presence in order to delay your hard removal as long as possible is important, their minions keeping growing as the game goes on so being able to trade into their earlier ones rather than burning Coerce/Shield Block is very helpful, especially since this build doesn't run Bladestorm. I didn't face any of the new Rush OTK version, but have to assume you're going for armour combos, and saving Silas for their Rattlegore. Mulligan for Athletic Studies, Armorsmith, Risky Skipper (with Armorsmith), Bloodsworn Mercenary (with the other 2), Sword and Board, Corsair Cache, Anchaaar, Bulwark of Azzinoth, Kargath (with earlier plays), Sword Eater, Rattlegore (with earlier plays).

Closing Thoughts

I think Control Warrior has a lot of potential this expansion, and while this almost certainly isn't the most optimized version possible, it was a ton of fun to play, and scratched that classic control itch in a big way. Hope you found this helpful, and RAAAAAAR!

Merry Christmas! It has been a long month on the ladder. Most months, I start my climb with a Shudderwock deck, and when my bonus stars run out at D5, I switch to a more serious meta deck to try to climb. Often, that means a deck like CubeLock, Odd Warrior, or Reno Priest. Most months I try to complete the climb in the first few weeks, but this month I was pretty busy with work and also really struggling in a Meta that was mostly Big Priest, Reno Priest, Aggro Druid, Reno Warlock, and Odd Paladin. Then the nerfs happened, and the Meta constricted a little into mostly Secret Mage, Big Priest, Odd Paladin, Darkglare, and Reno Warlock. I saw a few Gal and Pirate Warriors, but mostly it was those decks. It really felt like a particularly acute Rock Paper Scissors, where each deck has good matchups, but also terrible matchups. I spent most of the month trying to get Big/Res Priest to work. Big/Res Priest can feel really powerful, but you have two very key spells and very expensive minions, and so draw is really important. Too important, maybe, and I found some ways to curve the deck lower because I was losing to Aggro. Of course your Aggro tools are mostly useless in the mirror and so the right tech package felt like a Catch-22 from game to game. I took Big/Res Priest all the way to D2 several times, but kept sliding back to D5 between misplays, bad draw, and poor matchups.
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So I decided to double down on RenoWock and see if I could eke out a legend climb. I know other people have done it before, but I always felt it was impossible in terms of the monthly ladder meta and my own play style and abilities. Something changed post nerf this month, and there was less faceblasting, high roll, aggro and more control decks. An important note is that the nerfs hit one of the top performing (and most busted) cards in this deck, Polkelt. He had been a must keep in the mulligan, always play T4 style card (a pivotal turn I describe as "the flip". The nerf to Polkelt was directed at Aggro, but it really hurt decks like this one which rely on tempo plays to keep up with faster decks. Anyway, a week or so after the nerfs as the mettle settled, it seemed like if I could queue into the right sort of decks - Big Priest, Reno Priest, Reno Mage, OTK Druid, etc, then maybe I had a shot, crippled Polkelt or not.
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What is RenoWock? RenoWock is a Highlander deck which features Shudderwock. You are attempting to capitalize on powerful healing via Reno, timely answers via Zephyr, and the ability to set up a powerful late game win condition in the form of multiple Shudderwock turns which, by replaying the battlecries of disruption cards like Loatheb and Boompistol Bully, limit the opponents ability to effectively respond. It is basically a slower, more cumbersome, Quest Mage, where instead of merely mashing the easy button each turn, you have to deliberately assemble a series of battlecries, respond to your opponent's board, keep your win condition from being disrupted, and try to deny your own opponent's win condition. It is fun, and frustrating, and runs a relatively low curve and decent draw as this deck really can't come back from behind, deal with a wide/tall board, and so depends on efficient trades and decently stetted minions.
To Grumble or Not to Grumble? This deck doesn't play Grumble, and so it really isn't a bounce deck. Grumble is an incredibly powerful card, but it also completely destroys your board, by bouncing all minions back to your hand. Earlier in the game, Grumble can be fantastic since replaying a strong battlecry for (1) mana is amazing. I think he is a liability later in the game as, against many decks, 3 6/6 Shudderwocks is a pretty huge threat. So, no Grumble here.
Quest? Yes. The argument against the Quest is the loss of a card and not playing a minion. This deck already has a lot of trouble keeping up on the board, but the Quest also gives you a ready T1 play and, upon completion, can give you a powerful mid game. Double Loatheb can be crushing. Double Sky General Krag is a lot of stats for (6) mana. The Quest can also help with your endgame, although, honestly, it was a pretty rare I was able to combine it with a Shudderwock card, either because I'd already spent the coin or because, after "the flip", Lightning Bloom was buried.
Mulligan. The general mulligan for this deck is low curve and draw. You are foregoing AOE, and hoping to establish an early board and complete your quest vs other control decks. Against Aggro, you are trying to get some trades in. So standouts are Sludge Slurper and Questing Explorer, your two best T2 plays. Sandstorm Elemental is really only a keep against Paladin or deck where you expect tokens. Polkelt is an always keep, but at 5, the card is a bit of an albatross early in the game. Zephyr is always a keep, but not usually a T2 play. Prize Vendor is a decent keep as well, although it is worth considering if you want your opponent to draw. Lightning Bloom can be a keep if you already have low curve or draw, or if you are holding something like Reno or the Lurker against aggro, and want the ability to cheat them out on T4. Finally, Ice Fishing can be a good keep as it gets your draw engine going. This deck is brutal if you don't know the meta. The meta is brutal when there are different, effective, decks for the same class (Priest!?!). For example, your mulligan against Res Priest is Loatheb and transform spells. Lacking that, you are looking for the same general, low curve cards listed above. But your mulligan against Reno Priest is totally different. Your best card, always keep, is The Darkness, one of the most criminally underused cards in the Wild meta. The Darkness generally throws off their game entirely from T4 to about T8 as they try to figure out whether or not they want to draw their candles. Reno Priest's control tools are geared toward buying them a few turns until the Anduin Gatling gun can start firing. So the Darkness checks that for a bit while you start piecing together your game plan.
Strategy. This deck is both a combo (vs. Control and Combo) and control (vs Aggro) deck.
Control. Against Aggro, you are trying to trade effectively, heal, and bounce. You have three bounce tools in this deck, Bog Slosher, Zola, and Barista. All are powerful and all have their place. None are usually a keep in the mulligan. Your transform spells are a form of AOE, but struggle to keep up with Odd Paladin's new 1 cost Counterspell. Your standout cards are Kragg, Reno, and The Lurker Below. Which raises the question - what happens if you can't get to T6? Well, you die, and that was the problem with the proliferation of hyper aggro. I would estimate I had a 40% win condition against Aggro, and the games I won were usually games I top decked Reno, my opponent then ignored him and started smashing face again, and I bounced him, and they realized the game was now out of reach. You can try to tech more AOE, but Shaman doesn't have access to cheap, reliable AOE, and the more expensive spells fill your hands when you are hoping to draw the disruptive cards that enable you to deal with Control and Combo decks. The secret to Aggro is to trade effectively and try to limit their draw. If Aggro is a huge part of the meta, pick a different deck. Against Aggro you are often ultimately playing Shudderwock simply to heal again, or generate some AOE, or otherwise buy time. Generally, against Aggro, you don't want to use Coldlight, until it is time to really use Coldlight, meaning T8 or T9 where you are ready to draw a bunch of answers and their board is empty. Mill can also be a win condition against certain aggro decks that draw fast.
Combo. When facing a slower deck, either combo, control, or midrange, you are looking to quickly complete your quest. That is the main goal T2-T5 - play cards they have to respond to, or play cards that delay their game by a turn or two. What you aren't able to do is build a very threatening board. With the nerf to Polkelt, your T5 is a little contested. Polkelt drives "the flip", where you know, each turn, almost exactly what you are drawing. Polkelt makes the deck very consistent, but it also means you need to trim any high cost cards that are not absolutely necessary. Even the Lurker Below has lost me games where I needed to draw Reno for healing. This deck runs (5) five drops - Polkelt, Barista, Loatheb, Boompistol, and Doppelgangster. All are essential to the gameplay, the way the deck is constructed. In order of importance, I would rank them 1) Polkelt, 2) Doppelgangster, 3) Loatheb, 4) Barista, 5) Boompistol. They can be very complementary. For example, against some control decks, you might be able to begin a bounce chain. T5 Loatheb, T6 Barista. T7 Hero Power + Loatheb (Double Loatheb). T8, Loatheb + Zola (bouncing Loatheb). T9 could then be another Double Loatheb, followed up a Boompistol and Doppelgangster on T10. Against many of the OTK druids you can win this game, even with 30+ armor down, because they simply can't respond. But all things equal, one of the most important cards to play is Doppelgangster, partially because there is almost never a good time to play this spectacularly bad card. My general advice is to get it out early because otherwise it can clog your hand and without it there is not consistent way to bounce Shudderwock, or threaten lethal. Against most control decks, I try to bounce Loatheb back into my hand at least once, so that on my Shudderwock turn, spells cost 10 more This is because a number of decks have access to AOE that can clear the board for 5 mana or less. Usually, one Boompistol is sufficient to block any battlecries that would turn the game around, such as an Old God or Bloodreaver Guldan. The other technique when facing Control is draw, and, particularly, overdraw. Many Control decks have very fat hands T6 on. Generally, you will be able to play out your low curve battlecries (even in non optimal scenarios - Mind Control Tech when your opponent has an empty board? Sure, if you need to empty your hand or get your quest completed). If you can overdraw them by two or three with a doubled Coldlight, that can sometime win you the game on the spot. Most of the time though, you'll burn a few non-key cards but the next turn they will start trying to clear out their hand). Your overall strategy against Control is to identify the deck they are playing, figure out if you have the tools in hand to disrupt it, and, if not, start looking for those tools. Dirty Rat can be game winning against certain decks, but you usually want to double it to get maximum value, as well as having an answer for whatever it pulls out. Dirty Rat is particularly effective against Reno Priest where pulling and killing certain cards makes their strategy slower or less consistent. Against most decks, Dirty Rat is an effective late game tool.
This deck has a 60-70% WR against Reno Priest and Big Priest, 50-60% against Reno Warlock and 40% or less against Odd Paladin, Secret Mage, and Darkglare. It is a lot of fun to play. You easily have 3-4 slots for tech. I think that the evolve versions are probably better decks since I would expect them to fair better vs. Aggro, but against Aggro, there are better decks, such as Odd Warrior.
I don't think a ladder full of Shudderwock decks is good for the meta, but luckily, Blizzard doesn't care what any of us think and so Priest has a 0 cost hero power, Mage gets a free turn, and Rogue can shuffle a million versions of whatever they want back into their deck. I think that this deck is a great contender for fun-to-play dumpster Legend, but hopefully this guide is useful if you want to try to take a spin on regular ladder, which, at least for me, worked this month. But probably not next month, or ever again.
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