The Vicious Syndicate Data Reaper Podcast

The miniset has arrived and a balance patch is already on the way! A certain Old God is taking over, but there's an even bigger monster at top ranks...

In this episode we discuss two important topics: what to do in a power outage and how the classes are fighting things out after the nerfs to Hunter.

Hound Hunter's reign of terror has ended, giving Standard a fresh look. A new most popular class, hidden meta-breakers, and the return of an archetype many thought was dead.

A monstrous patch brought new content, new expansion, new buffs, and an old archetype. In this episode we breakdown the meta of a post-patch world - starting with the incredibly popular Control Warrior!

Hunter's dominance in the post-patch meta is no surprise, but a class written-off by many is ready to shake things up. We discuss everything going on after a very exciting launch to TITANS!

It's time for the first podcast of TITANS! We take a look at the numbers and tell you what's working, what isn't, and why ZachO was secretly right about Mech Rogue all along.

Today is the day! The TITANS expansion has arrived, and we give one final overview of the set...

The Festivals of Legends is ready for a final encore. A major discovery might shake up the entire meta. Is there really a new best deck? We also discuss some of the freshly revealed cards from the next expansion!

The nerf to Whomper has made a huge impact on the Standard meta and we discuss all the ramifications. It's also time to rate the new Titans! These cards are strong... but which is the best?

A NEW FORMAT. A NEW EXPANSION. A NEW THREAT TO THE META? Let's talk about everything that's happening after the latest Hearthstone content patch.

A new mode is coming soon!! But first we have to talk about the twists and turns of Standard Hearthstone...

The Audiopocalypse mini-set has shaken things up, and we discuss where things have landed. Beyond the purely obvious, there are a few big surprises...

A miniset has been released! Up is down, down is up, Hunter has healing, and Paladin has DAMAGE.

We have a miniset announcement! But first let's discuss current Standard and perhaps the most interesting class... Warrior?!

We're looking at an early snapshot of the post-nerfs meta! The format is looking balanced with lots to experiment with... until the next mini-set arrives.

In corbett's first episode of the show we find out that Blue is out and Green is in, for a new-look Death Knight. We also speculate on upcoming balance changes!

For one last time, Hat will tell us. And he's doing fine even though this is his last episode - though don't worry, the show will be back with a new host soon.

We just put a little smorc over here and a little board over there...

He'll be nice. Promise. Hat has some big personal news and the meta has some recent developments, so what are you waiting for? Start listening!

We only have an early snapshot of the meta right now, and while some classes are flourishing, others are fizzling out. But maybe some ideas just need more exposure...

Our final podcast episode of Year of the Hydra is here to cover core set changes and the revealed cards so far.

Festival of Legends has been revealed and we have a lot of cards to talk through, especially some neutrals that may (or may not) be bait!

It's like the launch meta, but it's in March now! Get it? Get it??? The 1 mana nerfs brought back a number of archetypes that could not function under the pressure of Gnoll and Quarter. Things are pretty good!

The nerfs dramatically opened up available space for strategies new and old. Hat's pretty happy with the new best deck...

We have some things to talk about, but this isn't a format that yields a lot of deep conversation. Frost DK is broken. Play it until it's gone. 

Chaddius is not the way to win games unless you get him off evolves on turn 2. But there are ways to win games beyond evolve scams in Return to Naxx! And we talk about them!

Who would've thought that Wildpaw Gnoll was oppressing minion strategies that are now flourishing?

Do you really wanna see what the space between tempo and midrange looks like? Memes aside, we got a new balance patch and have some insights into the early data from 25.2.2.

Seriously, if that thing lives, what do you even do? Zach has some other meta developments too. 

Is this meta broken on a fundamental level? Is this a balance issue or a larger design problem? Are these questions clickbait? (Yes.)

Play more one drops in your Frost DK, add one mana cyclers to your Miracle Rogue, kill people with one mana spells in your Quest DH, and buff one drops to make undead decks playable. Hat is happy. 

They nerfed Renathal! Plus a whole bunch of other cards. We have a whole new format to talk to you about. 

March of the Lich King is out and we have our early impressions before the first report! 

Since last week, we've had quite a few class cards revealed. The hosts talk through what we've seen at the halfway point of the reveal season. 

We have all the Death Knight cards, so let's talk about them! 

Team 5 announced a lot of new stuff coming to the game with the next expansion, but in the meantime they dropped 125 cards into standard with the re-release of Knights of the Frozen Throne. What changed? Is Big Priest OP?

Seriously, there are so many rogue decks right now - they're not busted but they're all being played a lot and we have some insights. 

If you don't play Naga Priest you'll be proving Zach right. Is that what you want?

Oh you know it's a clickbait title. And we mean it - but not for the reasons you might think! Check out our early impressions of the 24.4.3 balance patch and see if Theotar going to 5 actually changed anything.

There's more content in the podcast than just what's in the title! Come listen to our analysis of the early miniset meta. 

It's time for a special mini-set review edition of the podcast where we go over all the cards coming out in tomorrow's patch! 

We have our first report after the balance changes. There are a lot of interesting changes to the format and it seems like the dream of board-based strategies has come true!

The newest balance patch changed things once again and it's time to lower those curves and bring out some minions! Hat's happy at least. 

A hundred episodes in! Thank you for being there with us along the way. We take a little walk down memory lane before discussing our hopes for the upcoming balance patch. 

Zach has thoughts on general balance philosophy and translates them to what happened with the first patch in Nathria. 

Who would've expected a meta where a 9 drop removal minion is highly played? Not us. There are plenty of other things to learn from the first data reaper report of the expansion before the nerfs. 

Welcome to Murder at Castle Nathria! We don't have a full report yet, but we have early impressions and you're going to want to hear them in our longest episode ever.

All the cards are out and we have over a week until we get to play with them... so what do we do? We theorychat! Zach has been deep in the lab making decklist drafts and Hat got to play on the theorycrafting stream--tune in to hear where our perspectives overlap.