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[theelkspeaks]

Started playing about a week and a half ago (NA server). Name is theelkspeaks #1397

Played in time to get as low as rank 17 in the October season, though I finished at 19, and I have one basic deck for each class with maybe a few cards from packs thrown in, also did the first chapter of Naxx. Done a couple Arenas, best on my own is 3-3, though on a Skype Co-Op with my buddy CCC (from EtG) I was able to get an 11-3 (thanks to a godly draft as Druid and some lucky topdecks).

Current progress:

[theelkspeaks]

Watching Worlds was awesome, and the expansion looks sweet too!

[theelkspeaks]

My extremely official prediction is madder bomber will be in its own top tier in arena.

Mad Bomber is hard enough to use. Madder Bomber is just going to be utter chaos.

[theelkspeaks]

My extremely official prediction is madder bomber will be in its own top tier in arena.

Mad Bomber is hard enough to use. Madder Bomber is just going to be utter chaos.

Actually there wre recent stats posted on reddit indicating that Mad Bomber appears proportionately more in 12 win arena decks than any other card.

Maybe (read: probably) I'm just still bad at this game, but I feel like the risk of Mad Bomber killing your 1HP minion or putting it in range of something nasty (Tazdingo in range of Flamestrike, Ooze in range of Mage Hero Power, etc.) is too high to justify playing it, so when I draft it, it often sits in my hand. How do you use it well/why is it so strong?
?

[theelkspeaks]

Opened my first non-Naxx legendary today, and went looking for decks I could build. This was the best I saw, but not sure how legit it really is - advice?

http://www.hearthhead.com/deck=6084/magone

I could build this if I crafted a sunwalker, unless there's a good replacement for sunwalker. I own the other 29 cards.

Also, got a nice 8 win streak in ranked on my zoo, which took me to rank 15 with full stars (then the loss dropped me by one), so I'm excited about that!

[theelkspeaks]

Also congrats to AngryPidgeon, who I see at rank #140 or so of Legend now!!

[theelkspeaks]

Madder Bomber value is insane, along with a couple other buffs.

[theelkspeaks]

2 GVG Legendaries so far here as well - Flame Leviathan (lol) and Toshley (yay)

[theelkspeaks]

I think it might be usable, I just have to find the deck for it.

[theelkspeaks]

ogre brute is actually pretty nice, but I assume you already have 2.

[theelkspeaks]

I love when crazy stuff works out the right way.

I had a kinda strange draft this arena, and this game just showed how nuts things could get. He conceded right after I took this since he had no way to block that damage.

[theelkspeaks]

Opened my EU account I almost never play on just to get the 3 packs. Steamwheedle Sniper!

[theelkspeaks]

Is Gruul playable? I opened him today but can't decide how worth using he is.

[theelkspeaks]

decided to get into this. any tips for me, starting out?

As counter-intuitive as it might seem, you'll get fairer matchmaking in ranked than in casual play as a new player. Casual play just throws you against anyone it finds, practically, where ranked play tries to find a close match of skill.

There's no ranking penalty for a loss until you reach "rank 20", but you still get gains for a win. It takes 11 wins total to get to rank 20, but if you have 3 or more in a row, each win counts double.

Best overall tip I can think of is that unless you're playing a full out rush deck, you generally want to prioritize keeping their board clear over doing damage. It's hard to describe the right balance of affirmative trading (using your creatures to kill theirs), negative trading (making the opponent use their creatures to kill yours), and damaging the "face" (life points) in generalized words, but if you add me as a friend (theelkspeaks #1397), I can spectate a game or two and give my opinion (note: my best rank so far is "rank 9", far lower than AngryPidgeon)

[theelkspeaks]

My update: I opened The Black Knight and my second molten giant from an extremely lucky pack, so I went ahead and crafted the last two cards I needed to make the "pineapple handlock" (a BGH and a second mountain giant). It's been working pretty well for me so far, though Hunter is huge pain.

Also have nearly all the cards for the "burning light" aggro priest that's been going around, I tried subbing in two Velen's Chosens for the Shadowbombers but it's not doing so hot for me so far. Might need to either craft those or try playing something else.

Anyone having any luck with control hunter? I feel like I want to try it, but don't especially want to craft the second steamwheedle unless the deck gets good results (I have one so far).

[theelkspeaks]

posting some calculations here, feel free to ignore them

Spoiler: Class Cards needed GVG

Druid - 1 Grove Tender - 100
Druid - 1 Dark Wispers - 400
Druid - 1 MechBearCat - 100
Druid - 1 Malorne - 1600
Druid - 2 Tree of Life - 800
Hunter - 2 Steamwheedle Sniper - 800
Hunter - 1 Gahz'rilla - 1600
Mage - 1 Soot Spewer - 100
Mage - 1 Echo of Medivh - 400
Mage - 1 Wee Spellstopper - 400
Paladin - 1 Coghammer - 400
Paladin - 1 Bolvar Fordragon - 1600
Paladin - 1 Quartermaster - 400
Priest - 2 Shadowboxer - 200
Priest - 2 Upgraded Repair Bot - 200
Priest - 1 Lightbomb - 400
Rogue - 1 Cogmaster's Wrench - 400
Rogue - 1 Sabotage - 400
Rogue - 2 Ogre Ninja - 200
Rogue - 1 Trade Prince Gallywix - 1600
Shaman - 2 Ancestor's Call - 800
Shaman - 1 Dunemaul Shaman - 100
Shaman - 2 Siltfin Spiritwalker - 800
Shaman - 1 Neptulon - 1600
Warlock - 1 Mistress of Pain - 100
Warlock - 1 Demonheart - 400
Warlock - 1 Anima Golem - 400
Warlock - 1 Mal'Ganis - 1600
Warrior - 1 Bouncing Blade - 400
Warrior - 2 Crush - 800

19100 dust; avg of 40 dust per pack = 840 packs

Using my spreadsheet for calculating average dust value of a pack, (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing - feel free to File->Make a Copy if you want to use this yourself) - you'll get 159 or 184 dust on average from a pack with the current state of your collection. (The former number assumes you keep any gold cards you get, the latter assumes you DE all gold cards on sight.)

To anyone who wants to use a copy of the spreadsheet, just enter the number of

unique

commons, rares, epics, and legs you want on lines 6, 9, 12, and 15. I use it for comparing whether I want Classic or GVG packs occasionally.

[theelkspeaks]

Coolest lethal I've ever had.

[theelkspeaks]

He's standard in both main Warlock decks. I assume that's still the case now.

Both main Warlock decks?

Never seen him in Zoo, but he's amazing in Handlock!

I guess you could maybe stick him in Zoo as late-game insurance? I guess? Not sure if I'm sold on it.

But my main deck is handlock, and JAR is amazing in that deck.

[theelkspeaks]

Love the spreadsheet enough to make it the 4th place I keep track of my collection! (damn, that's a lot of tracking).

One comment on it though: Shouldn't the pack value be based on the number of cards you need at least one copy of over the total number of cards (at a given rarity), rather than total copies over total copies? There's much higher potential value within say GVG commons if I own one of each of the 40 options than if I own 2 of 20 of the options and 0 of the other 20.

[theelkspeaks]

Oh, the code for that would actually be fairly simple. I'll duplicate your sheet real quick and try to make the formulas.

EDIT: Didn't realize you intermixed classic and GVG cards on the rarities tab when I said that. That actually makes my original formula not work, I'll have to try later.

[theelkspeaks]

I too thought you could get to 12 temporarily even though 10 was max of actual crystals in the tray until I tried it. I figured I'd either get to 12 or get the "excess mana" card. Instead, I just blew my Innervate for nothing!

[theelkspeaks]

The only way you get the Excess Mana is if it gives you a Crystal (Wild Growth and friends)

Yeah, I wish that were more obvious - would've saved me a few newbie mistakes a couple months ago. Arcane Golem doesn't give the opponent Excess Mana, also, (for anyone who hasn't tested this). Not sure about the new give each player a crystal druid card.

[theelkspeaks]

zoolock will be realbad after UT nerfs tho?

I mean Xixo's zoo isn't 100% undertaker reliant - While undertaker is nice, it's got loads of other wincons. I expect it'll still do well.

[theelkspeaks]

Or they could just nerf BGH to be less cost-efficient, so you actually have to decide if having it for the matchups it helps is worth having a weak card in other matchups.

If I were on the balance team, I'd look at the impact of making it a 4|1 for 4, with the same battlecry.

[theelkspeaks]

i'd support making BGH legendary. I think the card cost is around what it should be

I have two big objections with the card:
1. It's a bit TOO meta gamey. It's ONLY ever a good card if your opponent plays a 7+ attack card, obviously, so it's this pretty huge meta game outguessing that feels kind of... petty. This objection isn't solved by changing its health to 1, it's only increased.
2. The stated weirdness where 6 attack cards are better than 7 attack cards all else equal.

I actually think making it more meta gamey is the answer. I see it as a classic "hate card", a card you can tech in to deal with certain matchups but isn't good for general inclusion.

4|2 for 3 is too good when the battlecry isn't used, however (only one point off efficient), so including BGH is a low risk decision for every deck. If it were a risky inclusion, it'd be more appropriate to use it only when you expect to need it, and be healthier for the metagame.

Spoiler: Elements the Game comparison

In another CCG I play, Elements, there's a card called Rain of Fire. It's basically like flamestrike, a pricey board wipe. There's another card called Fractal that gives its user tons of creatures. Rain of Fire doesn't see much use in the general case, but when a player expects some sort of Fractal based deck with lots of small creatures, Rain of Fire is a powerful and devasting inclusion.

[theelkspeaks]

1) Whether your deck does well enough against other matchups to make including it for some matchups worth it.
2) Tournament play. I'm of the opinion that any competitive game including Hearthstone should be balanced around tournament play.

[theelkspeaks]

I do see your point there, and think there's a lot of ways Blizzard could step up promoting tournament play (if that is indeed their goal). I think they do want it to be a fairly high part of their goals, and judging by the recently announced path to the 2015 World Championship it looks like they want points to come mostly from tournaments though also somewhat from ladder.

For now, most tournaments are 3rd party, but I think Blizzard's ok with that.

Miracle Rogue and the associated nerfs seem like the best example so far of balancing for tournament play over balancing for ladder. Gadgetzan wasn't especially cancerous for the ladder, but its power in tournament decks made it need a nerf with the GVG release.

[theelkspeaks]

So much Rogue Aggro, everywhere Rogue Aggro on ladder!

Also, my Hearthstone Mafia is now in sign-ups in the Mini Theme queue if anyone's interested!

[theelkspeaks]

Trying to rotate among these decks currently - the last 5 are directly from the tempostorm tier list, the pally one has a couple substitutions because I'm poor, the Handlock is from the streamer Joey (I think that was his name, something like that), the Zoo is an old Xixo list, and the Warrior is my personal creation.

[theelkspeaks]

At my current level (been up to 11 with two stars as my highest this season, right before 3 straight losses last night to the point you see in the SS), I see mostly mechmage and oil rogue, probably 35% each, with 20% face hunter and 10% everything else.

[theelkspeaks]

Any gameplay tips for playing oil rogue? I've been struggling trying to play it a little.

[theelkspeaks]

What's antikill bot in that pally list above?

[theelkspeaks]

Antique Healbot

Oh duh I should know that one (handlock player), just never heard that nickname for it before

[theelkspeaks]

I'd go Harrison from those, but TBK even above him.

[theelkspeaks]

When I feel like playing control, I mostly play Handlock, which loves to have TBK for dealing with anything annoying that comes up as part of its host of control cards. I see it pretty regularly in Warriors and Priests too. Harrison I mostly only see in Priests, and sometimes Druid. I crafted it for use in Druid not long ago, but it's mostly just been another passable topdeck for me and hasn't come in clutch yet.

[theelkspeaks]

Any thoughts on this deck of mine?

[theelkspeaks]

Elk, I'm guessing FTM is a Boom replacement?

@Glork: Yeah, I mean, both are really situational meta calls, though. I'd say right now, I'm seeing a ton of Mage, Shaman, and Warlock... and only one of those uses weapons, and the weapons that Shamans do use is limited to basically Doomhammer and Powermace. Doomhammer is a good Harrison target, but Powermace isn't. Although, nothing sucks more than playing Handlock and watching your opponent drop Harrison on your Jaraxxus, drawing 9 cards.

I actually have Boom but made that deck before I did; I liked FTM at the time for its status as a "big" lategame thing that I could potentially Mechwarp out early. I agree I should probably add Boom, but not sure whether that's what to cut or not. As it is, I generally run out of steam late in the game when topdecking unless I can keep Jeeves in play, so adding more late power via Boom and cutting something early might be better than cutting FTM

[theelkspeaks]

Why would Harrison have unique synergy with certain classes when its utility is based mainly on the opponent?

It doesn't have synergy with classes you play, it has synergy based on what the most common matchups are. For example, I'm at Rank 12 right now. I played for about two hours today, and I came up against Mech Mage and Druid a LOT. In both of those matchups, Harrison is useless, while The Black Knight is incredible, so for me where I am, I would craft TBK 100% of the time.

I'm basing it on TES saying that it's a more common card in Priest and Druid.

It's not that those classes have special synergy for it - it's that it has synergy with medium to slow decks tempo wise, and most other classes are playing fast.

It probably fits in slow Warrior decks too, I just haven't seen it much in them - not sure why.

[theelkspeaks]

Best turn 2 I've ever had (I think) came using that Warrior deck on ladder right now - Mechwarper Coin Mechwarper Annoy-o-Tron with Cogmaster already on board. My opponent was a handlock and conceded on turn 6 facing a likely one turn lethal.

[theelkspeaks]

Oh yeah, it can happen in Mech-anything, as those are basically core mech cards whether you're playing mechzoo, mechdruid, mechmage, mechshaman, or whatever.

I just hadn't been lucky enough to have that full combo in my hand before that game.

[theelkspeaks]

Hunter question: If you have an abusive sarg but no other T1 play, do you play it or save it for when you can use its battlecry against non-mage opponents? (Against mage you obviously don't play it, right?)

[theelkspeaks]

Yeah, I meant face hunter. I've had a lot of starting hands like Abusive-Creeper-Creeper or Abusive-Glaive-Creeper post mulligan lately

[theelkspeaks]

Finally going to start attempting Heroic Naxx. Trying to do this without looking up decklists online, but any suggestions as to which bosses are easiest to start with? I feel like Loatheb won't be too bad, so I'll probably start there.

[theelkspeaks]

Theelk, maexxna is pretty easy to beat.

I also found noth noth that hard. They both have very specific requirements to play around their hero power, but if you can do a deck like that they don't have much else troubling.

Personally loatheb was a nightmare. He really rushes you - you have 10 turns assuming you take 0 damage from his minions. Healing is kinda key, just so that you actually get to lengthen his clock.

Patchwerk is annoying, but simple.

The big issue with heroic naxx is every boss requires a deck tuned to beat them, and these decks are mostly unique.

Isn't Loatheb the one that makes lots of spores that boost your minions into insanity?

[theelkspeaks]

Also, I wrote up a nice little rank tracker to use for myself. Anyone can feel free to File->Duplicate to make a copy for themself!

I'll probably be adding more stuff as it goes on. For now, filling out columns A-F makes everything else populate, and that's the way I plan to keep it.

Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

[theelkspeaks]

Beat the first installment of BRM with my standard decks, all 3 on the first try. Info in spoiler if you want the fun of doing it yourself without hearing about decks.

Coren Direbrew: My normal handlock worked amazingly, I just got extreme value off an early giant and off shadowflaming an ancient watcher into a reasonably sized board of his from the summon 4 taunts thing. If I were making a specialized deck for him, I'd cut some of the battlecry minions like Twilight, Healbot, Sunfury - though BGH is probably still worth keeping, given his deck.

Grimstone - I played my normal mechmage and rushed face as hard as I could. Goblin Blastmage was an amazing drop here, and occasionally hero-powering his hero power stuff worked pretty well.

Thaurissan - used the mechwarrior list I posted here a while ago, just didn't play my demolishers or annoyotron. Rush face as hard as possible with standard mechs.

[theelkspeaks]

Apparently you can unlock the expansion floors one at a time for 700 gold. But, erm. I can't find that option? Is it being unlocked later?

You go directly to the adventures menu as though you were going to play it and the option to buy with gold is there, it's not in the shop.

[theelkspeaks]

elk's Heroic BRM Progress

Spoiler: Coran Direbrew

Succeeded on first try, basically just tossed my biggest minions into a deck with a couple cheap and useful things.

Spoiler: Emperor Thaurissan

Also first try against Emperor Thaurissan, got two cultist Deathrattles onto a stealthed tiger, then Divine Spirit/Inner Fire for 44 damage in 2 turns.

Spoiler: High Justice Grimstone

Tried many lists, including fatigue druid, gang up mill rogue, polymorph mage, and healer priest, before finally finding the hilarious traffic jam, where you make your opponent have no room to play more minions.



decklist

Spoiler: Garr

Used a rage warrior for the normal, tried this for the Heroic which I made up on the spot after the warrior failed.

Spoiler: Baron Geddon

This was the main downfall of my attempt at the Race for BRM. I finally cleared it with this deck to drop him by 35 health in one go with Alex, courtesy of reddit.

Tap early and often, spend your mana, brewmaster to deal with Living Bomb.

I got ignited twice in the game I won, once on turn one, and once on the turn I played Alex (at which point I had destroyed his armor the previous turn, I had 19 HP against his 50 and he had no board against my pair of 7/6s. I took him to 1 HP with that play, got ignited, he didn't play a taunt (and I even had one Owl in hand), GG.

Spoiler: Majordomo/Ragnaros

I decided to go for a Bane of Doom deck - lots of ways to hold off, then burst at the end. It's actually a Demonlock that's pretty standard - and in this fight, killing Majordomo with Bane of Doom instantly kills Ragnaros as well.

Spoiler: Highlord Omokk

Not the most interesting deck, but it worked pretty thoroughly. Flood the board, use positive deathrattles, win game.

[theelkspeaks]

Highlight from my heroic completion for those not checking the edits of post 1772.

[theelkspeaks]

Bounced Divine Spirit Back and forth with his Cho, then waited to draw into Inner Fire + Mass Dispel.

[theelkspeaks]

I was the second streamer in the Race for BRM event to clear the normal difficulty, but I struggled with the heroics and got bottlenecked there.

I'll continue updating my heroic decklist on the existing post throughout BRM.

[theelkspeaks]

What. The HELL. is heroic. baron. geddon.

My best go got him to 46 health. It just feels like it's impossible to be constantly curving out, so it really feels like you just die.

Now down to 29 health... with 3 cards left in his deck and 6 in mine. This feels so dumb.

If you have Alexstraza it really helps - if not, I've heard both Druid and Priest to have decent odds - the priest deck has no epics or above, and uses lightwells and Clerics to minimize damage taken while buffing a deathlord to giant size.

[theelkspeaks]

I tend to be a pretty fast player (sometimes too fast), and my games when playing as Hunter/Zoo last about 5-7 mins, whereas my games with Handlock/Control Warrior tend to take like 10-15.

[theelkspeaks]

Won my first Skive tournament last night, going a combined 10-3 with my Midrange Paladin (non-Dragon) and Control Warrior, something like 7-2 with Paladin, 3-1 with Warrior though I don't remember the exact breakdown. For those unfamiliar with skive format, it's Bo3, first game blind pick, winners keep decks, losers must change hero - individuals can bring up to 9 decks in total though (no sideboarding/building during the match). I'd also prepped a Fast Druid and a Mechmage as hypothetical counterpicks but never played either. Most common decks I faced were Druids and Control Warriors, also saw a decent amount of Oil Rogue or Tempo Mage by people trying to deal with my Pally. In the final, I had a pretty standard Pally beats CW in the first game, but game 2 was a really tense win over his Druid - I played Muster for Battle on T4 with two Quartermasters in hand, got swiped, then topdecked a second muster for T5, allowing me a massive 4 guy Quartermaster T6 that snowballed the game out of control.

My five opponents were Legend ~1000, rank 14, rank 12, legend ~300, rank 3.

My decks are all netdecked - I'm a tweaker, not a builder in both this and the other main CCG I play (Elements) - and as a player who's never gotten past rank 9 myself, this felt pretty awesome!

[theelkspeaks]

Looking to clean up my play a bit this month, in particular my mulligans but also in general - I've been using strong decks I get from the net, so I know my decks CAN play well, I'm just not always doing it right.

[theelkspeaks]

Account update:

Spoiler: Current Decks

Spoiler: Levels and stuff

Currently climbing ladder mostly with Druid and Handlock, but mixing in the others as I see fit.

[theelkspeaks]

I started playing a few months ago and have gotten really into this game, I'd love to help out some of the newer players!

It can be a little intimidating at first, but it's really exciting once the pieces come together!

[theelkspeaks]

Battle.net automatically adds a number after your name in order to prevent conflicts over chosen usernames - multiple individuals can have the same username and will just be assigned different numbers. The numbers don't display to other players in game, but uniquely identify you.

[theelkspeaks]

In fact, when I was first starting out, my opponents were BETTER in unranked than in ranked - unranked seems to prioritize quickly finding an opponent over actually balancing the skill levels.

[theelkspeaks]

Got level 10 with Paladin for Blessing of Kings, decided to jump in the ranked play, see what's up. I'm really enjoying it, so far. Simple to play, yet with a surprising depth of strategy, and it doesn't take forever to play. Could wind up spending a lot of money on it, I fear, but I'll see how far I can get with the basic cards...

If you want to reliably get good cards, spending your gold on the expansions is pretty solid.

RIP Undertaker, though.

Undertaker's still kinda playable, just not dominant - especially for a new player. I didn't cut it from my zoo until Imp Gang Boss came out, and would still recommend using it if you're missing some of zoo's early game cards.

[theelkspeaks]

Starting my clear of Heroic Naxx because I gave up on Heroic BRM for now - I still have one or two more decks to add to that post but will go back to it later. Just like with my Heroic BRM post, I'll keep updating this one with decks for each boss I clear instead of making a new post each time.

Spoiler: Patchwerk

Chose Patchy first because he's got pretty straightforward strategy - taunt and freeze, taunt and freeze, as much as you can. Beat him pretty easily with this deck. For players with budget concerns, Ice Block can probably be dropped, as I didn't end up needing it, and just replaced for more freeze or charge damage sources. The deck is mostly common/rare with no legendaries and few epics, so it should be pretty playable for anyone who's cleared the original Naxx wing.

[theelkspeaks]

http://www.hearthpwn.com/guides/574-nax ... enge-guide was the guide I used to beat it - it's really frustrating though.

[theelkspeaks]

How do I get dust?

Go into your collection and click crafting mode, then click on a card to craft or disenchant that card. The first time you D/E a card, you get a bonus.

[theelkspeaks]

Commons (white gem) are 5 to dust and 40 to craft
Rares (blue gem) are 20 to dust and 100 to craft
Epics (purple gem) are 100 to dust and 400 to craft
Legendary (gold gem) are 400 to dust and 1600 to craft.

For golden (foil) cards, the values are something like
40/80
100/400
400/1600
1600/3200

It makes it kinda inefficient but you can get the cards you want. Generally by dusting stuff you end up with like 12 copies of (looking at you, GVG commons)

[theelkspeaks]

I kinda want to try making a Bloodlust Shaman with Onyxia. Is that a terrible idea?

[theelkspeaks]

Yes. Why are you waiting for 9 mana to bloodlust them?

Idea was to try to build some sort of token Shaman to bloodlust, with Onyxia as a potential board re-creator for a bloodlust (and using bloodlust like a druid uses combo - whenever it gives you lethal.)

[theelkspeaks]

Yeah, that sounds like a pretty solid Patron Warrior start, running some extra draw if you have it like Loot Hoarders makes it easier to draw into your combo early.

[theelkspeaks]

without armorsmith though you just die to aggro, generally. Agree that Commander is more important, but Armorsmith is probably one of the best cards to add when you get the chance.

[theelkspeaks]

I think Hungry Dragon and Slam are the only things you probably want to cut, for Armorsmiths and Frothings when you can get them. Rest looks pretty good as far as I can tell.

[theelkspeaks]

Revenge is generally not advised in that deck as far as I've seen, Loot Horder can fit in if you want to. I'm not really a fan of bomber there, but it's not bad either! Worgen would be first on my cutting block for Hoarder, and then maybe one of the Ghouls, but it's pretty wide open.

[theelkspeaks]

Doomsayer is really good in certain stall/combo decks like Freeze Mage, I'd hang onto it.

[theelkspeaks]

Hogger was one of my first legendaries too! (I think Illidan was first, Hogger second, IIRC).


@Venmar - I still don't have Cairne but can play your deck otherwise. Suggested replacement for Cairne? I have most of the playable legendaries.

[theelkspeaks]

I love Sylvanas and that sounds pretty good for replacement there! Thanks!

[theelkspeaks]

Audiotsunami#1173
Anyone have any friendly noob advice?

If you hurry and get to rank 20 (you can't go down in rank before you hit it) by the end of the month, you get a special card back for the month! Ranked tends to give fairer matches than Unranked for new players, too.

[theelkspeaks]

From what I've heard and from my experience, Unranked cares little to none for actually giving a balanced match and just tries to match you ASAP.

[theelkspeaks]

Though Bloodlust (Token) Shaman is pretty playable with basic cards IIRC.

[theelkspeaks]

Played arena all day yesterday because I went 1 day infinite. Got enough gold to go back in today, hopefully I can do it again. Someone tell me how to not make a druid deck that gets overrun by mid sized creatures before i drop trees.

Druid, especially early in your collection, is about aggressively ramping out creatures larger than your opponents' using cards like Wild Growth and Innervate. Something like Piloted Shredder (a Common card from the GVG Expansion - the one you currently get Arena packs from) can often trade for 2 or 3 of your opponent's minions, especially if you get it out early.

Additionally, Swipe is a very high value card both on its own and in setting your minions up for favorable trades.

Generally, avoid Naturalize - the drawback is too steep.

[theelkspeaks]

Naturalize is a great card.

Against the heroic bosses in solo adventure, because typically they're unfair in a way thats not dependent on card advantage, so you can turn a minion on the board into two cards in their hand for one mana, which is usually a good deal against the ones that rush the hell out of you with their hero power.

Except they were talking about Arena, not solo adventures.

Naturalize is only a viable option in Arena if you're late in your draft, short on removal, and desperately need the ability to stop auto-win cards. It's also a card you should basically never take more than one of.

I was mostly thinking constructed since he was talking about making Druid decks (as opposed to Arena), but yeah - Naturalize works in gimmicks like adventures but that's about it.

[theelkspeaks]

As far as I know, there's no such thing as a clan?

[theelkspeaks]

Gonna play in a Fireside Gathering on Saturday, Conquest format.

Trying to decide which decks I want to bring still, got it narrowed down to my Handlock, Control Warrior, Midrange Paladin (the three I'm currently leaning towards), Mech Shaman, and Fast Druid.

[theelkspeaks]

http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/251498-x ... e-1-legend - This is the list I'm currently using, and it's been fairly successful - Blessing of Kings in particular does a lot of work, despite my initial skepticism at it being in the list.

http://imgur.com/YXYMG6F - that's my current Druid list, nothing too exciting, pretty standard. I don't play it as much on ladder as I used to, but it's a good enough all-around deck that I'm thinking about it for Conquest.

[theelkspeaks]

hi guys
can I make a token deck work w/o sea giant, using Frostwolf Warlord / Stormwind Champion?

also how viable is a deathrattle control hunter build
I want to play alleria but I don't want to be facehunter

For the token deck, what class are you thinking? Not a huge fan of Frostwolf, but Stormwind is always a nice choice in token.

Deathrattle control hunter isn't common, but is probably playable? Beast hunter and/or midrange hunter is another option if you want to play non-face hunter.

[theelkspeaks]

Grats to Ellibereth!


I managed to win a fireside gathering tournament yesterday playing Midrange Pally, Handlock, and Control Warrior (Bo5 Conquest)! Waiting to see information about the Fireside Championship - anyone else here know anything about it?

[theelkspeaks]

Honestly I might cut the Technician for a Shredder or something. Even with the buff activated, Technician's just kind of underwhelming in most matchups.

[theelkspeaks]

Shaman is unpopular right now. Mech Shaman is pretty playable, I'm not sure the status of midrange shaman, but it continues to be unpopular.

[theelkspeaks]

There's a new expansion coming soon (full announcement July 22 IIRC), not sure what will happen to arena packs then, but people are thinking it might be a mix among GvG, Classic, and new set.

[theelkspeaks]

I got a Sylvanas and a Dr. Boom. Are those good?

Arguably the two best cards in the game, in fact.

[theelkspeaks]

I'm probably going to be making a couple videos tonight - the first will be trying to complete 2 special challenges (1. Win a game with Rogue without any cards with the combo mechanic, and 2. Summon a Shadow of Nothing (bonus points for delivering lethal with it), and the second will be laddering with Patron.

I have some but not a lot of experience with Patron, so I'd appreciate any feedback on my play if anyone can give it! On the opposite end, anyone looking to learn Patron might also benefit from either my play or the critiques of it.

[theelkspeaks]

How do I zoolock?

Which kind, Demon or regular?

[theelkspeaks]

I went and updated RECK's collection tracker for TGT, anyone can make a copy and use their own collection in it!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

[theelkspeaks]

Back when I played a decent amount of Arena (Naxx era), Mage and Druid gave me the most success. Post-GVG, Paladin and Rogue have become more in-demand in Arena, though Rogue has a very high skill floor to succeed with in Arena.

[theelkspeaks]

What do you like best about playing Mage? (Tempo, Mech, Freeze?)

[theelkspeaks]

where do i go 2 enter things

skive.io used to have daily free-entry tournaments and it was pretty great. The regular tournaments have been down for site upgrading for a few weeks, but when they come back it'll be a great place to start.

r/bloodstone is a pretty friendly community with Leagues and Tournaments too.

[theelkspeaks]

Other ones that come to mind for me

Darnassus Aspirant has helped make Druid more consistent
Brave Hunter replaced Worgen Infiltrator in some aggressive Hunter decks
Some instances of Totem cards in Midrange Shaman (and midrange Shaman in a much better spot than it was, even if still not top of the meta)

[theelkspeaks]

I played a match the other day where I lost 3-1 and all four had at least one player go to fatigue. The match took about 70 minutes.

[theelkspeaks]

It's what happens when you design a game with 2-3 nontrivial decisions per 30 minute match.

uh what are you playing that is taking 30 minutes

I play very average game length decks like Mechmage and Secretadin. I'm just awful at making time estimates. I stand corrected here.

Those decks, especially mechmage, have almost no decisions and just count on cancer draws. Don't complain about lack of decision points if thats what you are playing?

If I could play control warrior and force my opponent to control warrior ditto me, I would. But if I play control Warrior or Patron warrior and may opponent shows up with Facehunter and Mechmage, then it feels like I'm playing solitaire, and then after I'm done with solitaire we both get a match result off of it. Still doesn't feel good.

Have you met your new favorite deck, Non-Demon Handlock? Decisions every turn, even against aggro! Reacting carefully to the board!

[theelkspeaks]

Yeah playing handlock doesn't make my opponent have to make any decisions. The only kind of deck that can force your opponent's deck to become skill intensive is like, Spellslinger? But you can only run up to two Spellslingers.

I play Mechmage way more than Secretadin because Secretadin is definitely the more brainless of the two.

Arena is my favorite mode because my opponent is, in fact, forced to play decks that are at least more difficult to play than facehunter, and arguably more difficult to play optimally than a whole lot of other high tier constructed decks. Unfortunately they are not fleshing out Arena into a really good mode of play because they are monetizing it in a way that doesn't encourage them to expand it, right now.

Decks with taunts and heals to some extent give your opponent nontrivial decisions about how to cash in their minions, removal, and burn. I used to think similarly to what you're saying about the aggro decks, but then I played them for a while and realized that certain creatures are worth removing while others aren't and found it more skill-intensive than I thought (and I'm even talking about Face Hunter levels of Aggro). I still tend to prefer playing more control decks though, as nothing says fun to me like asking the implicit question "Yeah, you have a nice deck, but how are you ever going to kill me?"

[theelkspeaks]

You also don't have shit like counterspells to protect your wincon.

This too, even if you continually keep them off your board there's nothing stopping the other guy from just BGH'ing your wincon.

I mean if your wincon is something like KT Belcher Belcher, they can't 1-for-1 remove any of it without barely playable cards like assassinate.

Going the opposite direction (from being an HS player to being a Magic player), I had the realization that Control decks in Hearthstone feel a lot like more finely tuned Control decks of Limited Magic. Big Blockers that kill things (except instead of blocking you even get to attack them), one for one removal spells, card draw, and a stream of top-end that ensures you win the game if you live.

I still play my 3x Control Conquest lineup of Control Warrior, Handlock, and Druid (with the Druid coming down a bit into midrange but still a very controlling build compared to the average Druid), and it still wins a decent percentage of matches.

Taunting up Giants or even Ancient Watcher is much more like putting a blocker in the way than a sludge belcher, because they take serious damage when they attack into it.

[theelkspeaks]

turn 2 deathwing is sweet but rarely works out

Double innervate into Astral Communion?

And you'd need to topdeck deathwing, yea

I believe it also works if you go second, coin Loot Horder, opponent plays something on 2, you innervate astral communion and draw deathwing off the loothoarder trading into their 2 drop.

[theelkspeaks]

This brawl is pretty great, got to make a shenanigans deathrattle warlock that I'd never play normally.