How much has ladder been affected by the recent card modifications?

Due to the recent modification of the cards starving buzzard and Leeroy Jenkins, the class which has obviously been affected the most is hunter, but exactly how much has this caused the class to be less effective on ladder, and how has this caused other classes to thrive?

Since the Hunter class card Starving Buzzard has been modified it has become obvious that it has decreased in popularity, this may be because of how the classic "Midrange Hunter" arguably revolves around the combination of the cards Starving Buzzard and Unleash the Hounds, not only does this combo have the ability to neutralise any early game aggression but also is capable, of drawing cards which should last you till late in the game.

However since this combo now costs 8 mana in total, it is now near impossible to play as at that stage in the game it is likely that your opponent has built up enough of a board which cannot simply be removed wiped by this combo, even if you are holding both Hunter's Marks (which causes a minions health to equal zero) it may be insufficient to clear something like a Sludge Belcher. So by increasing the mana cost of the Starving Buzzard (from 2 to 5 mana) it has made the card very close to unplayable, thus also decreasing the value of Unleash The Hounds as it is no longer a strong draw method.

Because of this the dedicated hunter players have attempted to find alternatives to replace the starving buzzard, for example the cult master has been trailed and tested, however cult master although it does allow you to draw cards by killing off none beasts as well as beasts, for example spectral spiders, but still is only one mana better than the starving buzzard. So most avid hunter players have no averted back to the classic aggro hunter which consists of applying much earlier pressure and making the most of Undertaker by utilising the mass amounts of Deathrattle minions within the deck, but this version of hunter only has Loot Hoarder as its card draw method, meaning a maximum of two extra cards can be drawn.

Therefore hunter is now lacking much late game as by the time turn 8 is reached the chances are Hunter has ran out cards in its hand and is totally relying on the one card that is to be drawn each turn. This allowing more control decks like Handlock and Paladin to thrive as now once they survive the initial onslaught of the hunters aggression they will then have very few threats to deal with and will be able to capitalise on their board control as it will be near impossible for the Hunter to retain control of the game. This has seen a greater increase in these types of "control" decks which very much rely on their late game.

Not only that but Mage is making a slow but sure return. Since "Freeze Mage" lost its dominance many months ago the decks popularity is next to none, this is because decks like Hunter which are capable of aggression throughout the whole game were easy counters to the "Freeze" Mage as it was not capable of dealing with early game minions efficiently, pair that with the recent popularity in the card "Flare" Freeze Mage probably suffered most as their Secret "Ice Block" which was very crucial to the decks structure would simply be destroyed and Mage killed instantly.

But since flare is no longer a serious threat to Mage it can begin to return to the Meta as a common occurrence on ladder. Also after watching Hyped perform at the Blizzcon qualifiers you can begin to see why Mage once ruled the meta, as his "Miants Gage" deck was very close to undefeatable across multiple competitions, some believe that this was due to his technique of banning Hunter from all opponents who had it on their choice of classes.

So by making this change to Starving Buzzard it has managed to widen the variety of decks which are being played on ladder, as now deck lists no longer have to ask the question "How well will this deck do against Hunter?" as if the answer to that question was no, it simply would not be played, however now as long as a deck is strong against the majority of decks it will have great success on ladder.

So now onto the subject of Leeroy Jenkins.

It was believed that by making the modification of upping the mana cost by one, that it will totally ruin the deck Miracle Rogue, as by doing this it is preventing the possibility of being able to double Shadow Step the card and deal 18 damage to the opponents face without any board presence. But since this nerf Miracle Rogue has only become stronger, as now there is multiple varieties of what was a deck that was replicated by all experienced players almost card for card. Now there is Violet Teacher variety which thrives off of the decks ability to draw multiple cards from Gadgetzan Auctioneer. Then there is the more control orientated decks which use Big Game Hunter and The Black Knight to help combat the increase in control decks.

Not only that but Malygos Rogue is also one of the types of Rogue in rotation at the moment. As the amount of low mana cost spells allows Malygos to cause mass amounts of damage in one turn. However since Malygos is a 9 mana cost minion which gives plus 5 spell damage, it means that it is near impossible for the deck to have a win condition before turn 9. And even if you play Malygos on turn 10 then there is only 1 mana left over for burn spells so unless Preparations have been saved (which decrease the mana cost of the next spell you play by 3) then a maximum of 8 damage can be dealt by using the spell Sinister Strike.

So personally I believe that Malygos is way too late game for Rogue and the only way to take advantage of Malygos is to conceal it and prevent it from being killed. Otherwise Malygos will not be utilised fully.

However since the release of Naxxramas Miracle Rogue has received a decline in players, due to "sticky" minions like Sludge Belcher and Haunted Creeper which requires much more removal to be used on one minion in order to fully remove it.

Also Miracle rogue is the only deck which has been really affected by the Leeroy Jenkins modification, as all other decks which run the card are generally decks which rely only on early aggression, and not big combos like Miracle, this makes the cost of the card a very small factor in its strength.

So overall ladder has been much more affected by the Starving Buzzard nerf as no longer is ladder 80% Hunter, and now many more decks are thriving. On the other hand Leeroy Jenkins has without a doubt made a very small impact due to the discovery of other methods for Rogue to have a condition of winning.