My win condition is patches bcos it allows me to thin out my deck.

Instructions unclear, made beast rogue and am destroying at rank 26

'I haven't played a lot only about 4 hours each day.' We have very different ideas on what 'a lot' of games are. I get sick of playing after about 6 matches.

But whats Reno Lock's thin-condition?

Reynad actually happy? this isn't what i subbed for

I thought he was talking about savjz on his stream when a handsome fellow got to rank one

There are card games where deck thinning exists as a meaningful concept. In Yu-Gi-Oh people run "Upstart Goblin", a spell that literally draws one card and heals your opponent for 1000. It does nothing, it combos with nothing, it just removes one slot from the deck. And in that game that card is good - and the reason is deck thinning, pure and simple.

"Because of its' incredible potential, I put Lock and Load as my #1 most OP card in The Grand Tournament." -- Reynad 2015

Only people as handsome as Reynad can get Rank 1 legend, can code tempo give me 10% more handsomeness?

After reaching rank 1 legend, Reynad gives his analysis of the current meta game.

i miss the handlock meta the mirror match up was my fav and all around my favorite deck

Of course Finja is good in murloc Paladin, it thins your deck by 2 when the effect goes off! Really helps you reach your win condition much faster!

One of the OG deck builders, respect man. Haven't watched you in a while

Keep making ones like this its a video form of the meta snapshot.

When Reno goes out everyone will cry :)

Congratulations on Rank 1! It must feel very rewarding! It's great seeing people enjoy what they do

I wanna see a rant video on how people are using "Win Condition" incorrectly.

I think renolock is the best example of how this game should be played. You have go think, its back and forth, you have multiple options on situations, you have great tech cards, you have healing and board clears and able to completely change your hero into a badass

Love these kind of videos man, keep them coming!

Really good video, Reynad, interesting and informative. Would love to see some gameplay of the two decks you mentioned as being your most useful during your climb, Aggro Shaman for lower ranks and Renolock for higher ranks. Might serve as a good way to teach us plebs a little about the decks, their matchups and what makes them powerful.

Thanks for the vid Reydad. I already knew ur a cardgame doctor but look at you going over all those possible options. Good luck in the future!

You hate the term deck thinning, but i know for a fact, in yugioh, if you do not have ways to thin your deck or have a million searches, your deck is probably to slow and isn't played.

Very good video! Looking forward to seeing how the meta goes XD

Thanks Reynad. This exact Reno lock of yours got me to legend first time ever. Greetings from Holland.

I love your videos and your thoughts about the game man. You are actually the only popular Hearthstone streamer that actually seems to know something about card games. Thank you a lot for your videos. Keep up the great work Reynyboo :)

Thanks for droppin' this hot knowledge on us!

Awesome video. Best Reynad content in a while

Great job Reynad! Video was very informative as always. While watching Batstone I think most of the audience was also coming up with the same sort of conclusions even when the format wasn't an exact mirror of the ladder meta (Renolock being the best deck, Pirate decks being able to steal a couple wins, Dragon Priest being slightly underwhelming, Paladin being basically unplayable). Anyway, I would love to see a video where you go more in depth in those pet peeves that you mentioned regarding terms like 'win condition" and "thinning".

This is pretty what I have seen evidenced on streams to the word. Nice analysis.

"Once the metagame gets refined." Funny way of saying, "Once everyone netdecks.."

Great vid and congrats on rank 1. Any chance you'll put up any Renolock vids on KZfaq maybe some kind of guide? Whatever the case well played sir.

OMG I saw this deck so many times last night. Thanks Reynad.

Old Giant HandLock and Oil Rogue were my favorite decks in the game...Most fun, most skill oriented decks this game has ever had. Haven't played game in a year i have no idea what's happening now tbh

As a Heavy control player...all those jade decks make me want to uninstall the Game. Rip my control warrior. switched to combo renolock instead.

13:18 Check Out Kripp's Reno Priest list (Chansey Priest) with an OTK. It changes what the control lists win and lose to, it's actually pretty nice.

"mostly yes.." lmao keeping it real reynad. Love it.

Great renowarlock decklist, Reynad. Mucho gracias.

Savjz used Krul in his renolock deck when he was chilling at rank one. Confirmed playable.

Thinning was definitely relevant in secret paladin. taking 5 secrets out of the deck on turn 6 made draws significantly better throughout the game

I usually don't care about the meta snapshot. I rather find it out ingame what decks are being played, then to read something that's slightly after the meta unfolds. But seeing it in a video form is very interesting. Thanks for giving your thoughts, it's very informative and helpful! Also lowkey taking ideas for card choices :P

Handbuff Paladin is WAY better than Handbuff Hunter.

Video on thinning and win condition, lets go!

Thanks a lot for the analysis!

"I don't know why anyone would play X Deck, Reno Lock is objectively better." "I don't know why anyone would play X Deck, Reno Lock is objectively better." "I don't know why anyone would play X Deck, Reno Lock is objectively better." We get it. And Faace/Midrange Shaman was objectively better last meta, but a lot of people play this game for fun. That is why jade shaman is so big right now, and after seeing Kripp's jade rogue, it's getting big as well. Pirate warrior is also fast, you blow your load and usually win, or you fuck up and die. It makes it great for climbing latter. I feel like you know this, but you keep saying you don't know why people are playing other decks.

Reynad, would you consider putting together a tutorial video on reno Warlock, on how to mulligan for it and the trickier decisions?

Tried a version of the Reno-Lock deck, except subbed Sylvan and Jarax for Arch-Thief and Black Knight since I lack both them. Deck is great, also it's really interesting how helpful Arch-Thief has been. Ended up getting a 10+/10+ Black Knight and then copying it with Shambles, very brutal.

grats on 1! thats why youre the man... keep doing what you do breh! and thanks for the vid!

Halfway in and I got a few questions. Why don't you play Leeroy + PO + Faceless in your reno lock ? Also, I personally don't struggle much with my reno priest against reno lock, without burst shenanigans even though I tried it (some stormwind knight + divine spirit + inner fire + faceless combos, for 20 damage, also a velen variant), but I kinda stuck with a double shadowform priest, recent addition was garrison commander for a possible 10 dmg burst just in case. Could probably weave in a velen for 12 damage. Medivh + Mind control / Kazakus potion for 10 mana can be devastating too, they usally play their oozes early. Currently sitting at 67% winrate, but the warrior matchup sucks sadly. Also, I always thought the jade druid decks are meant to counter controll decks / reno decks, endless threats and so on, its rather slow, but without leeroy combo, how do you out tempo them ?

Thanks for sharing! I use to love handlock back in the day, i'll have to give RenoLock a chance. Maybe i'll enjoy it too :)

Thank you for you're list reynad, i've tryed it out and im 8/1 so far, keep it up!

Good analysis! Any idea when you'll release the next Meta Snapshot?

Do you think reno style decks, specifically renolock, will remain tier 1 after LOE rotates out or will they fall out of favor without a reliable heal?

Really insightful vid. Make more like this you handsome man

Hey Reynad, in your opinion would Shaku see play given the current meta of mostly Jade Druid and Pirate Warrior. I think that it'd have some synergy with Shadow Sensei, and could survive lots of turns with the use of conceal and shadow steps. Thoughts of a thief rogue in the meta?

hey reynad. can you give your thoughts on leeroy+po+faceless in renolock vs your deck? i thought the combo especially wins in the mirror but it doesnt seem that way considering your winrate.

Hey Reynad have you tried a gadgetzan edited/modified violet teacher druid deck? I've been experimenting with a cheap version with the new gadgetz's card that gives you mana crystals for how many minions you have on board to help you ramp up fast, and then auctioneer for card draw etc. Also, it would be really nice if you had music on your end screen like a lot of youtubers, just feels better i guess.

Great rant! Thank you for explaining that the reason why Patches is so good or broken is because you get him as a free resource. It doesn't take up a card in your hand. Otherwise everyone would be running boar. I like your explanation that basically when you play a 1 drop pirate that patches is a flame imp with no down side. Looking forward to more of these videos.

Can you give a video explaining why decks shouldn't focus on a win condition? I always thought it was good to have a way to finish off a game with combo/late game cards to avoid a dead late game (with control decks).

win condition is a very relevant term, but in other games like magic the gathering, in HS only few decks have their specific win conditions, like a super greedy hard control deck, freeze mage and some weird combos usually in HS everything is a win condition, you can slam your opponent 10 times in a row with a 3/3 that heals 3 and win the game with it if you have proper board control

Thinning as a concept makes sense, but I'm not sure it does in this case. I mean if your objective is to kill your opponent as fast as possible you would want the most efficient cards to do so. Let's just say 20 of the 30 cards in your deck are more efficient at killing your opponent than the other 10. So now if you remove 1 card from the less efficient 10 cards that means that your deck is now better at killing your opponent.

Krul is good in the sense that he has synergy with the add x random demons to your hand off of the Kazakus potion, but the deck doesn't need that to win and it's pretty shaky anyways. So at least some thought went into his design. Inkmaster Solia again seems to synergize mostly with Kazakus. She has synergy with flamestrike and firelands portal as well but then she's just a 0 mana 5/5, and that's been done better a few times.

very informative, thanks

Really enjoyed this video.

What is the issue with using the phrase "win condition"? I find it to be useful when outlining a deck's strengths and weaknesses versus other decks.

More Videos talking about this kind of Stuff man, it´s awesome content

What do you think about Krips combo reno priest? I know he's not a top legend player, but he seems to steamroll reno lock pretty hard with it.

grats man. keep doing your thing.

i've been absolutely crushing priest and pirate warrior at legend with a hand buff paladin deck. more a control style deck dependent on 1) buffing acolyte of pain for a lot of draw, and 2) baiting out removal with big cards so the grimestreet enforcer can go unremoved for more than one turn. i tried an aggro style hand buff deck and it just sucked ass, too dependent on getting a good divine favor, which sucks in an aggro meta. but yeah i'm shocked you find the grimestreet paladin cards unplayable, my win rate is much higher with these decks than it was with any other paladin archetype. wickerflame burnbristle is also pretty good against pirate warrior. but one issue is my win rate is extremely low against reno lock. i haven't played THAT many reno locks so it could be just a coincidence, i remember not having equality + consecrate several times when i needed it, shit like that. doesn't seem like it should be a bad matchup - the reno lock doesn't have enough copies of removal to beat tirion, rag-lightlord, a bunch of uber buffed cards, AND 2 grimestreet enforcers. but the issue i was having was simply running out of steam because they found a way to deny card draw from my buffed acolytes, allowing them to put the pressure on me. paladin has notoriously shitty single-target removal for effect minions like sylvanas and emperor and this is exactly what fucked me in the matchup. aldor peacekeeper is a great card against turn 4 mountain giant but a terrible card against turn 6 emperor thaurissan. in so many situations i had to blow an equality just to remove emperor, and then i was screwed by turn 10 jaraxxus. but the deck absolutely crushed every priest i played, even a weird arcane giant + medivh list that ran 2x mind control (stole my 10/10 tirion and 12/12 rag-lightlord, AND got a sylvanas and a n'zoth from thoughtsteal). that was the only game that was even remotely close, every dragon priest or reno priest simply got wrecked by stats, card draw, and eq + cons, and quickly ran out of ways to deal with my value cards. this is pretty unusual considering the only control paladin deck that hasn't historically been hard countered by priest for the last year is anyfin due to its OTK potential. n'zoth paladin always got crushed by entomb so it's a really good sign i'm able to beat priest consistently, at legend, with a PALADIN deck. but i think this is partially a manifestation of the fact that the meta is less diverse right now, and 2x entomb is just not being run in most decks. the deck still relies on tirion so it's still weak to entomb, but control priest has been basically replaced by dragon priest and reno priest. the former tends to run no entombs and the latter can only run one, so it's a better matchup than it has been in the past. that said, i think hand buff paladin would still have a much better matchup against the traditional control priest with 2x entomb. it's just less susceptible to the card, since the deck's value is not 100% dependent on a murloc or a sylvanas/tirion dying and being resurrected. the deck can still have n'zoth or even anyfin; there are only 3 core hand buff cards, so that's 6 slots. my win rate is actually highest with n'zoth, but that's in wild where i can run belchers and shredders. anyway the advantage is simply that the deck obtains huge tempo & value from battlecries and static effects, not just deathrattles, so it can't be hard countered by entomb. even if your grimestreet enforcer is stolen, it's still gotten its effect off at least once and it's not gonna be as hard for you to counter when they eventually play it. plus there are still 4 other buff cards in the deck that can't be stolen. definitely doesn't seem unplayable to me, although it's definitely got polarized matchups. it either absolutely crushes the opponent or gets absolutely shit on; never any close games, except against that arcane giant priest. and by the way it tends to shit on jade druid in particular as well. it does pretty much the same thing they do: play progressively bigger and bigger minions and threaten continuous value. only it does it a lot faster, often before they can react, and it can be a lot harder for them to counter you than it is for you to counter them. not only can you buff your power minions (acolyte of pain in particular) a lot faster than they can start buffing their jade golems, but jade golems are wrecked by aldor peacekeeper, keeper of uldaman, and equality. druid's only way to deal with a 12/12 ragnaros lightlord is mulch, and most decks just don't have it. and that's just one minion, the deck ends up playing 1-drops that you'd have to mulch. so you can play giant minions before they can, and even when they finally get their 7/7s and 8/8s and 9/9s on board, you can counter their giant minions for 2-4 mana while they can't even kill yours for 10 mana. i'm not even sure why people are playing jade golems right now tbh. doesn't beat dragon priest, doesn't beat reno priest or reno lock, doesn't come close to beating hand buff pally, and sure as hell doesn't beat pirate warrior. its earliest taunt is 6 fucking mana, and its only heal is maybe 1 copy of feral rage, and somehow people think this is a good deck in the meta lol. that said, i built a stolen goods/taunt control warrior deck and got absolutely crushed by jade golems. so i guess it doesn't lose to everything. so yeah clearly control warrior has been pushed out of the meta, and hard countering control warrior was supposed to be the whole point of playing a card like jade idol. maybe jade golems can be strong if refined a bit, activating the early jade golem tokens with sunfury protector and defender of argus so the matchup against pirate warrior isn't so terrible. that's the main problem as i see it, the deck has infinite value with the right card draw engine (auctioneer) but that's only if it can survive the early game onslaught from dragon priest and pirate warrior. the first 3 or 4 jade golems are basically worthless if they're not activated by sunfury or argus so i think those would be good, but yeah even if you smooth out the matchup against pirate warrior, with only cards like living roots, wrath, and swipe, you still have no way to punch through a priest's high health minions if they remove your board. the fact that you can't distribute the damage over two turns due to priest's healing is exactly what i anticipated would eventually make priest oppressive. with the right high health minions, priest is just absurd against any class without hard removal, and druid is exactly that. but with many of the strongest dragon synergy cards rotating out of the format, this oppression might be short lived

Your point on the thinning with patches is 100 percent correct but to say that its always an irrelevant thing to consider is just flat out wrong. For instance consider secret paladin, which often ran 6-7 secrets and would play the challenger on turn six if possible. In that deck you would see anywhere from 3-5 secrets being pulled from your deck. By turn six, assuming no outside draw, you've drawn 9 total cards, leaving you with 21 cards. Assuming you get 5 secrets (best result) you've removed 23% of your remaining cards- each of which is a bad draw. On what planet is that statistically insignificant?

Awesome video. What is the definition of "thinning"? I noticed you addressed the term and you dislike it, but I'm not sure I understand what it means.

Hey man, what is your streaming schedule? I wanna watch u whenever u are online but I live in the netherlands so its kind of a mess for me n stuff.

Your rant videos are the best. Actually the only ones I even bother watching ;)

What card/cards do you think are needed for Reno Mage to be good?

Thinning isn't a good reason, but it makes your decks more consistent overall. It's a small detail, and it rarely defines the game, but every time you draw a good card when you would draw a 30th average card is % points. Small points, but running a 29 card deck is pretty good, especially when it just adds +1/+1 with charge to your one drop. Especially when it costs you nothing.

WOW, this Renolock deck of Reynad is AMAZING. Holy shit, why isnt that deck on hearth pawn or tempo-storm?

9:59 I never thought i should say this, but i am actually triggered :D Fetchlands in MTG are so good not only for their ability to fix your manabase, but also for their ability to 'thin out' your lands. You can play with a high number of lands to secure you get lands on your starting hand, while thinning out the other land cards of your deck for the late game. Playing fetchlands basically says: On your first turns, have a high chance of getting lands, but not drawing them later in the game, cause you 'thinned' them out. Playing 24 lands is a control-ish land-count, with played 4 fetchlands, you're drawing like aggro. I might be wrong, i just don't see how yet.

thanks for that shaman deck, streak of 14 wins straight to rank 5

patches is called a 0 mana 1/1 but what makes it special is that its a 0 mana 1/1 charge that is playable on turn one not like other cards which need more mana so basically most decks cant deal 1 damage to it on 1 mana

This meta is the most fun I've had playing hearthstone in a long time, I always feel like I always have control over the outcome of the game. Wins feel earned, losses feel deserved. I

Thanks KZfaq, for recommending me this video after TWO YEARS.

I wish Reno was a classic card its gonna be sad to see him rotate out.

What's a good replacement for big game hunter?

Great video Reynad!

agree with reynad here, except I feel like reno mage is the ultimate deck right now in this meta (the list i have right now anyway), once again it does exactly the same as the other reno decks, but it beats priest and warlock, I think it is purely due to iceblock. You play it and keep it up the whole game against other reno decks which is not too hard, and it completely nullifies some of the finisher combos they use, and then you can set up to have like inkmaster pyroblast + raging torch or fireball if you have played thaurissan as a finisher move of your own (completely wrecks if they ever play jaraxxus). I'd imagine you can also put in alexstraza to further make the finisher happen, but I can't test it since i don't have that card. it works without it anyway.

Great breakdown.

Honestly, due to cards like Manic Soulcaster, reno mage gets quite the high win-rate vs the other renos. It just get a sub par shell vs fast decks, but it can be worked around. As for card draw, babbling book, both kabal cards, azure drake, arcane intelect manic soulcaster (kinda, if it hits on of the big daddys), conjurer, cabalist tome makes you get way more reach than priest, and go on par with draws vs lock. Excluding the mandatory early game cards, like the mixtures gal, twilight flamecaller is great vs pirate, so is volcanic potion (is way better than demonwrath vs a lock,specialy a zoo). Solia is stupidly underrated, the tempo swings do matter a lot. both for kaz, flamestrike board recover, or even free firelands or tomes, not overpowered, but above average for sure. Lastly, you have ice block, so you literaly can hold on reno forever, and get some manic value. Kazakus in the control mirror is just played vs other reno decks at least 2 times, with or without brann... honestly, reno mage is not taking the credit it deserves. You can argue that jaraxxus wins the game vs mage, but noone is gonna play a jaraxxus vs a class that has 50% of it's spells as burn damage, and you'll always hold to ooze for it anyway.

you may be right that thinning and win conditions are not good terms in hearthstone however they are extremely relevant in other card games like magic

Kripp made a Reno OTK Priest he called "Chansey Priest." Possibly the counter to renolock?

Secret Paladin is good because it thins out a shit ton of secrets so you only draw your 7+ minions. There you go an applicable and correct use of the word thinning in the context of a card game.

im farming reno decks like crazy with jade druid, so thanks i guess for promoting more reno

Druid's c'thun, king, aviana, brann combo deck crushes that deck. Doesn't matter if you're at full health c'thun does over 40 dmg and if thats not enough it gets bounced back with brew and immediately played again for 1 mana.

Do the Reno decks really perform well against the jade decks? Doesn't the fact that they apply so little pressure early on allow the jade decks to spiral out of control?

Thinning may be a small effect but it's not nothing. And win conditions are an important thing to understand, if the only way you win the match up is with Jaraxus to get through their removal... Jaraxus is your win condition. Understanding this is important.

Thinning in mtg is actual a very relevant thing. I agree that patches barely does anything to affect probability, but you can't say that thinning has no sway over all card games.

Is kazakus even worth crafting since reno is gonna be gone in the near future?

i made a pally deck with leeroy that beats the reno decks like %70 of the time but it's match ups vs druid rouge and shaman are only round %50

Re: Thinning. There is a 16-land 60-card MtG deck, which playes 8 fetches because the curve ends at 3. You don't want to draw the 4th land ever. It is the only example I can think of though.

hey by how you describe finja, its almost like deck thinning is good, drawing your win condition faster and also developing the setup faster... :)

I'm surprised you didn't touch on jade shaman at all. I dont think its a tier 1 deck, but it has a really high winrate against some really popular decks. It beats renolock and dragonpriest pretty badly. It goes 50/50 with jade druid and pirate warrior (as long as you have draw a jinyu or a maelstrom)

What about freeze mage? Isn't it good with this aggressive meta?