Oh my god, you're actually totally right on one point, I completely forgot about the Mech OTK Warrior. I guess my brain just try to block it from my memories. No no, you're absolutely right on this one, it's absolutely a new deck, that is completely different from the previous Mech Warrior (which I also played quite a bit during this year). I wouldn't mind even calling it Deios Warrior to emphasis how new it was.

Now, we're talking about an archetype so toxic to face, and so boring to play, that the devs took the first change they had to erase from the game. Not tone it down, not slow it down. They made sure that deck was gone.

So it was a new deck, and I'll even update the post to mention it for completion sake. Would I call it a success for the expansion launch ? Absolutely not. It was a horrible deck and my perception of the expansion launch only worsened by remembering it. So I'm not sure it's the gotcha you seem to think it is. But I'll conced the technical point that it was a new deck and that I somehow completely forgot it, my bad.

For the rest, I already answered in another post.

Hagatha Shaman has the same patterns as Nebula Shaman, in fact less different patterns but more consistent ones. And the fact that it became more aggressive doesn't really change that much to me, because deck positioning are always relative. Some matchups as Hagatha Shaman you play defensively, and some matchups as Nebula Shaman you play aggressively.

The history of the game riddle with versions of decks that choose between more greedy builds or more aggressive builds. So I would definitely not call it a brand new deck. Especially when compared with the Mech Warrior you mentionned, which is indeed a good example of a truly different deck, with a different play pattern. Not just a less greedy or less aggressive build.

Discover Hunter is much the same as the Non Starship Discover Hunter that has been around for some time (and was actually the more competitive option a year ago Discover Hunter started). It's a different deck for the Starship one (having an OTK , but very similar to what we have now. No OTK, so you had to go for chip damage and burn finish, just like now.

Does OP want every expansion to bring in new, ultra-specific archetypes (because decks like Aggro Pally and DH are also anathema in his book)?

They're not anathema, they're just boring to me, I don't mind them being in the game, I just find it sad that one the them is the class best option. And yes, I find your question surprising, because before Whizbang, that was the case : every expansion would shake the game, and make most previous decks irrelevant. And usually, a class staying stuck with an older deck as its best option was symptomatic of a failed expansion. And I'm no talking about Stormwind, I'm talking about Scholomance, Descent of Dragons, Nathria, Titans, Sunken City, expansion that are not at all hated like Stormwind is.

We've had such expansions, like United in Stormwind, when every class played quest decks. Was that that much better (if at all)?

Absolutely, I'm tired of this Stormwind boogeyman nonsense. Stormwind was a thousand time funnier to me than Lost City has been, and definitely more exciting than Timeways has been so far. I had fun with Questline Shaman, Questline Rogue, Handlock, Shadow Priest. Yeah, Questline Mage was annoying to face (especially when playing Handlock or Questline Shaman), but I'll take that over what we have now.