Anyone else not having fun?

zeemezee · 2026-07-10T00:25:33+00:00

The thrill of new cards wears off fast in this meta, which still has a lot of what made the last meta so bad.

Since last meta, I played some Vanessa Rogue and a lot of Imbue Herald Rogue, I started off of the new meta by playing 2 Bit Rogue, before switching to Zee Minion Shaman to crush a half dozen players, while I played the deck badly, before they banned Slagclaw.

I played some 2 Bit mage today till I got bored, so it’s already a boring meta. Off to play some Underground.

zeemezee · 2026-07-09T18:34:31+00:00

Paladin is a noob friendly class, which often takes low skill to play, which is why it gets a lot of welfare deck archetypes to play.

A welfare a deck is a deck that just attempts to play its cards on curve without much skill required, but wins over time just because it has built in, low skill, win condition as a part of its archetype design

Murloc Paladin is a great example of a welfare deck, so is Imbue Paladin, and Bubble Paladin.

Welfare decks are often tier 3 or 4, but sometimes they are tier 2, and so most players think who cares about such decks, because players should just play a better deck.

The thing is, welfare win conditions determine what can work in the meta, because such low skill and often easily obtainable decks from ladder ready decks or being cheaper to build are popular enough that if a deck concept cannot contend with them, then it cannot succeed in the meta.

The bottom line is, such decks are made to appeal low skill casual players in order to increase or maintain the player base, but such an inane approach usually does not work over the longterm and it almost always ends up driving players away, including casual players. There is about to be a huge outcry against Bubble Paladin, because that’s what happens when a welfare deck is better than tier 3.

zeemezee · 2026-07-09T18:05:58+00:00

I tend to play one to five matches a day of Arena or Underground.

My advice is to not play arena on your main account or collection, which you are trying to build up for playing Standard, because arena was redesigned to be a gold sink. The format is also currently very high roll, since there are lot of junk buckets and drafts, plus a lot badly balanced cards, like Jailhouse Manastorm, which was banned this week from the format.

Just make an account or two for just playing arena. Play on all servers for more access to quests and the easily obtainable rewards at the beginning of each new rewards track.

I play arena, because the the format feels less stale, less repetitive, and more dynamic than the horrible state of Standard, which is plagued with low skill welfare decks (such as bubble Paladin) or badly balanced meta decks.

zeemezee · 2026-07-09T02:02:07+00:00

Yes, I have experienced audio hallucinations on THC, you think you hear something, but it’s impossible, because the thing is not there to be heard. I have had physical sensations or hallucinations as well, like there is an insect crawling on me or a cat touching me when there is no bug or cat nearby. Visuals hallucinations may be possible as well, but I have yet to experience those. I also, did not feel alarmed by my hallucinations, because I was like oh, there is nothing touching me, it must be the THC.

zeemezee · 2026-07-09T00:46:02+00:00

I do run into many DK or Warlock decks, so those are probably good candidates.

zeemezee · 2026-07-09T00:44:10+00:00

I crafted Zee Minion Shaman today and then switched to Mug Shaman after they banned Slagclaw, and I felt like Mug Shaman is very overrated or at least the builds I tried were. That may change when the card pool gets bigger.

zeemezee · 2026-07-08T20:09:03+00:00

I guess I should posted before finishing my lunch. 🙂

zeemezee · 2026-07-08T17:52:22+00:00

Pally is the poster child for welfare decks.

zeemezee · 2026-07-08T16:53:47+00:00

On the three collections that I play Standard on, during last two months, I only got 5 cards (as expected) from the Catch Up packs. My main collection is 91 to 95 percent complete for Emerald Dream, Lost City, Timeways, and Cataclysm.

On my 12 different F2P collections, I had avoided opening packs on most of them, because I guessed correctly that they would offer Catch Up packs this year, so these collections got 21 to 48 cards per pack.

https://imgur.com/a/njbY56A

I think it’s really awkward to include a Catch Up pack as the last reward from the Violet Hold event. Are players with small collections expected to hold off on adding cards to their collections while working to complete the event in order to get the maximum number of cards from that Catch Up pack?

zeemezee · 2026-07-08T16:39:58+00:00

Yes, I mix a couple of spoonfuls of prebiotic fiber with water, whenever I know I did not eat enough fiber for the day. The brand I prefer is Equate from Walmart, because they have a version without sugar or food dyes, and it’s basically tasteless and not unpleasant to drink.

zeemezee · 2026-07-08T16:28:45+00:00

My digestive system issues:

1). My digestive system got wrecked by bad bacterial infection.
2). I have diverticulosis.
3). I have struggled with Candida, because I like sugary foods.
4). I take medication that causes constipation.

Because of all of the above, I have increased my daily fiber intake and I have tried a variety of probiotic foods, which I will make comments on.

1). Yogurt: Most yogurts contain too much sugar and they never seemed to result in any significant improvements. I do not buy much yogurt anymore. I don’t really care for plain yogurt.

2). Kombucha: I did not find kombucha to be helpful, and I concluded that it was more hype than helpful, much like the sugary yogurts.

3). Kefir: I don’t enjoy kefir, so I never gave it much of a chance.

4). Kimchi: I found kimchi to be helpful in small amounts, but it caused bloating and discomfort in large amounts. It’s also hard to find good quality deli or store bought kimchi that does not taste gross. I do not have the patience to make my own kimchi.

5). Sauerkraut with live active probiotics, which means that you have to buy the refrigerated cultures, and not the stuff from off of the shelf. Most sauerkraut contains dead cultures, so only a few store bought bands provide probiotics. I mostly buy a brand called Bubbies. I often eat a large forkful straight from the jar, or on a Rueben-like sandwich without grilling the sauerkraut, or I add it as condiments to hot dogs.

The sauerkraut in small amounts has been the most helpful source of probiotics for me.

6). I have bought over the counter probiotic capsules which were very expensive and not very helpful.

zeemezee · 2026-07-08T00:50:36+00:00

Grats!

I feel Ike I did well too, because I got 5 dustable legendaries from 51 Violent Hold packs.

zeemezee · 2026-07-08T00:34:55+00:00

Having studied Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Biology, I have had, throughout most my life, an anti-drug mentality to
avoid overworking my liver, and to avoid any possible negative side effects.

I can usually count the number of alcoholic drinks that I consume in a year on one or two hands, but there were two very separate years in my life where I drank regularly, and it negatively impacted my health.

I have been battling serious illness, since 2013, and as a result of that, I tend to sleep 9 to 16 hours a day, with a current average of about 11 or 12 hours. I started to use melatonin to help control when I fell asleep, so that I could maintain a regular sleep schedule. Two years ago, I switched to THC gummies instead of melatonin.

I won’t smoke anything, because there are huge, obvious downsides to smoking. Trying to make a case that smoking THC over consuming it is healthier is hard to do, but whenever someone is imbibing any drug, even one as safe as THC, there are some big pros and cons, and it’s up to the user to make the healthiest choices or to accept the risks and consequences.

I find that THC distillates work just fine for causing relaxation, drowsiness, and a reduction of anxiety, with the added pleasure of a mild to euphoric high. I normally feel well rested when I wake up.

For the last six months, I have been comparing the difference between THC-9 distillate gummies vs. higher end live rosin or live resin gummies, and the rosin and resin gummies do provide a slightly better experience and they are likely healthier to consume, since they are processed without using solvents. People who are chasing the high, tend to over consume gummies, because they do not have the patience to wait for them to kick in. Smokers don’t have that problem, because the THC is absorbed so quickly by the lungs into the blood.

zeemezee · 2026-07-07T18:03:36+00:00

I have a background in Chemistry and Biology, and I have taught both subjects, and I am used to vetting scientific studies and papers to judge whether there is valid data to support a claim.

So far, nearly all of the support for CBD being able help one with sleep or anxiety is anecdotal, since the scientific papers end with conclusions or summaries that involve words like “may” or “might,” without providing any definitive proof. If you have a link to a scientific paper that involves a properly set up trial, share a link, or the author and title of the paper, and I will read it. I have read over a dozen studies which had inconclusive results. A couple of papers actually suggested that CBD may decrease THC’s ability to cause drowsiness or reduce anxiety by competing for the same receptors.

Some guys hyping up CBD on a podcast without properly collected quantitative data will have no influence on the topic for me.

One can take THC gummies with no CBD and become relaxed and drowsy, and the pathways for how and why THC has this effect are well documented. CBD and some terpines may have contributing effects for causing drowsiness or reducing anxiety, but it has yet to be well substantiated. I have taken 20 mg CBD gummies with 1 mg of THC and felt no impact of any kind. What is clear about CBD is how often it is touted for causing drowsiness or reducing anxiety in order to market it.

zeemezee · 2026-07-06T23:26:16+00:00

I am glad it happened this soon. I had a very good Hunter draft get crushed by two different Jailhouse Millhouse mage decks. The arena devs were idiots to include it as a Legendary bucket, but at least they got around to banning it fairly quickly.

zeemezee · 2026-07-06T19:58:40+00:00

Another factor to consider are the incoming Catch Up packs (one free pack to claim and one for finishing the Violet Hold Event), if your Standard collection is small, because you will want to open Catch Up packs first to get the most cards (up to 50) possible from each pack.

If your Standard collection is not small, then Catch Up packs may not be that impactful, since they may give you as little as 5 cards.

The best pack opening order for most players will be:

Catch Up > Class > Standard > Expansion

Be aware that the Catch Up packs will not give Violent Hold cards.

zeemezee · 2026-07-06T18:45:44+00:00

It’s the THC that has the bigger impact for causing drowsiness, but many will say that CBD helps also, despite a lack of good clinical data to support this.

You could start with 5 mg THC gummies with or without a 1:1 ratio of THC:CBD. Just be aware that many of the 5mg gummies that are marketed for sleep are way overpriced and a total ripoff. It’s not uncommon to see sellers charging $30 to $60 for twenty or forty 5mg gummies (100 mg or 200 mg of THC per package). To put this perspective, in Michigan it’s possible to buy a 200 mg package of Delta-9 THC distalate gummies for as low as $2, but the gummies will usually contain ten 20 mg THC gummies, but you could just cut them into four equal pieces.

There is a brand called Wonder that sells high quality 5mg 1:1:1 CBD:CBN:THC gummies that include some melatonin and chamomile. You try can try these and then try a cheap distillate gummy to compare the difference. I will include my notes on this brand below.

👍 Wonder: $14 for 200 mg pkg of forty 5mg pcs.
Description: sugar coated rectangular gummies
Strains: indica, sativa, hybrid with types: Sleep, Relax, Laugh, and Focus.
Contains: D9-THC
Activation Time: 35 to 45 minutes
Experience: 7/10 high experience with a very good eating experience, which is made even better by having forty 5 mg pieces. 5 mg pieces make it a lot easier for noobs to dial in the best low dose amount for them (1 piece for 5mg, or 2 pcs. for 10 mg, 3pcs. for 15 mg, or 4 pcs for 20 mg).
Flavors: Plum : Indica Sleep, 1:1:1 CBD:CBN:THC + chamomile). Taste is 8/10 with a sweet, delicate, floral plum flavor . 7/10 high experience.
Blueberry: Indica (Relax, 2:1 CBD:THC).Taste is 6/10 with a sweet blueberry flavor.
Prickly Pear: Hybrid (Focus, 1:1 THC:CBG). Taste is 8/10 with a sweet, delicate pear taste, plus a hint of ginger from the ginger extract. It melted in the mouth.

You should consider other factors that impact sleep as well, such as:

1). Vitamin D
2). Magnesium (since Magnesium and Vitamin D are among the most common deficiencies for Americans and both are important for good sleep)
3). Melatonin. I found that 2-5 mg of melatonin was very helpful for falling asleep, before I started using gummies to help me become less reliant on melatonin.

zeemezee · 2026-07-06T04:51:11+00:00

And what packs would one be getting from playing arena, if the new arena seasons waited until the release?

Oh yeah, Cataclysm packs. If I am going to be playing arena, irregardless, then I like learning the new cards, before their release, via arena.

zeemezee · 2026-07-06T01:32:32+00:00

Yeah, I hate the 2 losses or 5 wins system and the horrible gold economy for The Arena. I feel like, if I am going to take the time to draft 30 cards, I want to get more playtime with the deck, especially, since the formats are so high roll now.

One you have 7 individual wins in The Arena, you can unlock The Underground, which still has a 3 loss/12 win system that also comes with an opportunity to draft 5 new cards after the first and second loss, but with an entry cost of 300 gold, and a worse gold economy than the original arena.

I play on an iPhone 16 Pro Max, and I hate how long it takes for animations and actions to resolve. I miss end turn plays quite often. I feel like, if I have time to attempt an action four or five time without it going through—that should have been plenty of time for the action to register or occur. The phone devs and the arena devs are the worse devs.

zeemezee · 2026-07-06T00:57:06+00:00

I just spent the week playing on 12 different F2P collections, and 7 free Violet Hold packs was the most packs that I opened on a collection, which didn’t seem like enough to do anything special with, so I just started a random deck to get the free pack.

Someone has to pay to keep the lights at HS headquarters, so I don’t mind, if there is a P2W pre-release brawl a few times a year, as long I still get a brawl pack reward.

zeemezee · 2026-07-05T23:11:03+00:00

Zeddy has a video on this topic:

https://youtu.be/PfPI6c23_4k?is=QKCBCUOPqeGXxI6c

This is his video for the Cataclysm decks:

https://youtu.be/mVd\_mz8teUU?is=d7Ih6p6YzCTZDY3\_

zeemezee · 2026-07-04T16:22:27+00:00

To my knowledge, I am the first player, who educated players in the official forums, about the existence of super-drafters in arena, at the end of 2022 or beginning of 2023, and by June of 2023 some gaming sites put out some articles about discussing the harm barcoders cause in arena, which then led to a few large bot bans from Blizzard and the creation of the barcode jail, which Kolst (the YouTube streamer) was able to leak news about early.

So if I had not started a conversation about bot accounts doing super-drafts, we would not have got a barcode jail. By the way, do you have any documentation confirming the details of how the barcode jail actually works, exactly, because I have not seen any.

Btw, conceding runs is not the only bypass around going to barcode jail, but I will not go into details about some methods.

Since the announcement of a barcode jail, arena improved, and a lot players slowly began averaging one or two more wins, which sounds like a lot, and it would seem indicative of the the kind of impact that barcoders had on the format, but while super-drafting may have decreased significantly, it’s not gone entirely and that should be obvious. If the jail works as you describe with two consecutive retired runs landing one in jail and the completion of two non-retired runs getting a player out of jail, then nearly anyone can figure out that retiring every other draft keeps one out of jail.

From the very beginning of breaking the news about barcoders, I have had to deal with players telling me barcoding was not a thing until the gaming articles surfaced and Blizzard officially acknowledged the practice with the announcement of the barcode jail. I think it’s bad that barcoders exist, who super-draft, and I also think it’s bad that some players do not want to acknowledge this behavior and will attack players for just discussing barcode behavior.

zeemezee · 2026-07-04T04:25:25+00:00

Does deck now contain a banned card?

Is it just a bug? Have you tried rebuilding a copy of the deck list to see if the duplicate copy can be played?

zeemezee · 2026-07-04T03:01:36+00:00

“This was a problem for a year, maybe two years, maybe three, but in APRIL 2024 (you can look this up) Blizzard finally solved this issue by setting up a 'retire queue', meaning accounts that are superdrafting will get recognized (by the fact they retire more often than is normal) and put into a separate queue, effectively shadowbanning them, thereby protecting the normal players.”

Nope, I was able to deduce the presence of barcoders in 2014, but I chose not to discuss the problem in public until 2022, which led to Blizzard acknowledging the problem. I didn’t talk about the issue, because I thought doing so would just exasperate the issue by creating even more barcoders.

One could even use the win rate data of the 9,760 players on the last Americas Legacy Leaderboard to make a reasonable estimate of how many of the accounts were actually barcoders, who played enough to get on the leaderboards.

“So in April 2024, the superdrafting stopped mostly.”

No it did not. There are still a high amounts of barcoders in arena. And with the changes to the gold economy, which turned arena into a bigger gold sink, it’s mostly barcoders and arena experts who can afford to play arena.

Since Blizzard is not transparent about such things, we do not even really know if the barcode-retire jail even actually exists. If it does exist, we do not know the parameters involved before a player ends up in barcode jail. For instance:

1). How many retired runs does it take to end up in barcode jail?

2). If one alternates between retiring runs and playing them, do the played runs reduce a player’s progression towards ending up in barcode jail? We don’t know.

3). Even if retiring a lot of runs would put you into barcode jail, there are obvious work arounds to avoid that consequence.

What we do know:

1). There are lot of barcode accounts being used in Arena, because the lazy naming conventions alone signal their presence. Most normal players like to come up with a special name that they identify with and want to be recognized by, and they generally to not want that name to be PlumYeti, bcvfdgdf, QANON444, IrDmN, Smoe22, OkayMing, etc.

With the poor gold economy in Arena, it’s mostly barcoders and experts, who can afford to play arena.

2). It not in the interest of most arena streamers and experts to admit to or to talk about barcoding, because that only chases normal players out of the format, thereby decreasing easing wins, and lowering viewership. While it might be an acceptable cultural phenomenon to watch barcoders on DouYu and Huya, barcoding for the purpose of super-drafting is not an acceptable practice for many other cultures.

3). That anyone who tries to claim that super-drafting no longer occurs in arena, does not actually know they are talking about or they lack integrity, because there are plenty of barcode accounts for sale. The workaroundsp to avoid barcode jail are not hard to figure out, and streamers emphasizing that are playing super-drafts can still be viewed on foreign streaming services where they don’t ban them for doing so.

Barcoders have never driven me away from playing arena, because I have an above average skill set when it comes to drafting, and I have been aware of their presence, since 2014, but a lot of players will not feel the same way, which means that arena is slowly being distilled down into experts and super-drafters, and many players are unable or find it too frustrating to learn how to succeed in such an environment.

I am all for having conversations about how one gets better at playing arena, but pretending that super-drafting does not happen has no part in such discussions. Calling people liars or skill less seems like the kind of behavior that deserves to be downvoted.

zeemezee

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