Is Hearthstone becoming too dominated by who can drop the most efficient minions on curve?

no

if that were the case one deck would dominate the format, and afaik that isn't the case

The question posed is "Is Hearthstone becoming too dominated by who can drop the most efficient minions on curve?"

There is nothing to say that this requires every deck to be the same, or for one deck to be dominant. All it requires is for cards like Shielded Minibot, Piloted Shredder, and Dr. Boom to be becoming too dominant in a very large number of decks.

Edit: For an example outside of what paladins can run, Twilight Whelp would be another good example.

the deck that has the most efficient minions to drop on curve would be the one everyone played, assuming it was the most effective strategy. for people to play multiple decks means that synergies, counters, and other strategies come into the equation when you talk about how to succeed at hearthstone.

Your logic is fatally flawed, because the best cards at each slot are not universally available.

What I am suggesting is that this is basically what people do within each class. Every top paladin deck runs Shielded Minibot, Muster for Battle, and Piloted Shredder for example. Similarly, dragon priest is the best priest deck because it exploits the idea that dragon synergy will let it drop overly large minions at each mana slot. There's a reason a better Zombie Chow, Wyrmrest Agent, and a 4 mana Fen Creeper are staples of the deck. We see a similar phenomena in Warlock, Shaman, Mage, Hunter, Druid, and Rogue. The only exceptions to this rule are Freeze Mage and Control Warrior, which are highly specialized exceptions for a reason, which are also tier 2.




This is what Hearthstone has become. The top 5 decks in Hearthstone for example, according to Tempostorm, right now are Secret Paladin, Midrange Paladin, Aggro Druid, Face Hunter, and Midrange Druid. This is not 100% agreed upon, but most professionals believe that paladin and druid make up tier 1 while everything else is tier 2 or worse.

No it's not really, but hearthstone is a game about minion combat so most of the time the strongest deck will be a midrange deck that can curve out on every turn. There's still control decks and aggro decks and there pretty much always will be. New cards come out and the format will change.

what's the difference between midrange paladin and secret paladin? Do they both play the most efficient creatures for each slot?

Secret palladin doesn't always. They trade consistency for the ability to explode and potentially win on turn 6, it also tends to curve out much lower so if you beat back the two mysterious guys you can beat it pretty easily. Its exploding potential is made more consistent because paladin has very strong early game.

Zombie Chow is the most efficient 1-drop.
A significant portion of decks don't play it.
ergo, no it isn't.

It also doesn't apply to any deck that isn't a midrange deck, such as face hunter, shockadin, oil rogue, freeze mage, control warrior, handlock, zoolock, tempo mage, token druid and a whole slew of other less viable decks as well that derive their power from card synergy. It also didn't apply to Miracle Rogue or Patron Warrior, two decks which have been nerfed because of their power level.

People play the best available cards in Constructed. If you want to call that "one-dimensional" then that's fine. If it bothers you, then just go play Arena.

No, if Blizzcon finals are of any indication. Combo decks (Oil Rogue, Freeze Mage, Slow Patron) stole the show from curve-outs.

No. No they are not. Tournament decks have little relevance on ladder or to the average user, since it's a different meta.

They're at least as relevant as the tier lists. Both are based on opinions of professional players and you might as well look at what they play themselves (especially when money is on the line) rather than what they tell others to play.

From practical laddering standpoint, I read your question as "Are there currently enough midrange decks on the ladder to prey upon?"
My answer is "Absolutely. Grab a Face Hunter or a Freeze Mage (whatever suits your temperament better) and cruise upwards."

No it's not?

Tier Lists are opinions of professionals based on the ladder environment. Tournament decks are a completely separate meta.



My question was if certain minions are becoming too dominant at each mana slot.

There is no doubt Hearthstone has become very one dimensional. VERY occasionally you will see a snowflake (mill) deck or get a newbie, but the other 90% of the time you know exactly what's in a deck from their first play. Heck, even the first activation of their hero power is a good indicator.

I still enjoy playing non-ranked. But ranked is just a chore. I usually get to around rank 10 and then just get bored playing Secret Paladin all the time.

As opposed to any serious magic format when you can't determine the opponent's deck based on the first one or two cards they play?

in most competitive games with customization there are ways of customizing that are better than other ways of customizing and people usually do those ones

Magic is likely just as one dimensional, but that's hard for me to comment on since I haven't actually played a game of magic in 3+ years.