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- Matt Thrower
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Wetworks wrote: Thanks! The season floors really help since you can work on it over time.
Congratulations! I'm so jealous, that if I could seethe any harder, I'd turn into one.
Season floors don't help if you're crap. I'm rolling in the doldrums after the new expansion, feels like I'm still getting to grips with the new decks. Spiteful Druid is my current weapon of choice, too.
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- Jackwraith
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# 2x (1) Righteous Protector
# 1x (2) Acidic Swamp Ooze
# 2x (2) Cathedral Gargoyle
# 2x (2) Dire Wolf Alpha
# 2x (2) Loot Hoarder
# 2x (2) Sound the Bells!
# 1x (3) Benevolent Djinn
# 2x (3) Nightmare Amalgam
# 2x (3) Paragon of Light
# 2x (3) Unidentified Maul
# 2x (4) Call to Arms
# 2x (4) Ebon Dragonsmith
# 2x (4) Truesilver Champion
# 2x (5) Cobalt Scalebane
# 1x (6) Sunkeeper Tarim
# 1x (6) Val'anyr
# 1x (8) Silver Sword
# 1x (9) Alexstrasza
#
AAECAZ8FBsUEige5wQKy6QK36QLh8AIM+wHPBtkHyssC48sC+NICydMC1uUC+ewCuPIC/vMC3oIDAA==
Now, why one would base an entire deck around a not overly impressive 2-cost 2/2? I dunno. I'm just doing it because people were so convinced that Gargoyle was the shit for Paladin in this set. Of course, the three utterly dominant decks for Paladin in the current meta are Odd, Even, and Murloc, all of which use almost no Witchwood cards (Glass Knight and Silver Sword being the exceptions in Even, other than the prerequisite Baku or Genn) and none of which use Gargoyle because you'd have to play dragons and, unlike Priest, Paladin has zero current dragons to play, never mind them actually being useful.
So, like many Paladin decks (i.e. all but Odd), you kind of have to base the early game around the best card in the game: Call to Arms. That's why Righteous Protector, Dire Wolf, and Loot Hoarder are all present, since they've been standard since Kobolds introduced Call. The downside in this situation- and people strenuously argued that this was OK on CompetitiveHS -is that Gargoyle's value is based in its Battlecry, which doesn't occur if he's pulled with Call. That means that you could potentially hit turn 4 and pull two vanilla 2/2s (one step worse than a Grey Ogre to you long-timer MTG players) along with another random minion and get nothing out of it other than pulling 6/6 in stats for 4 mana across three minions, which is still good, but hardly mindblowing. Their argument was that on the turns you did play it from hand, it would make up for all the times you pulled it with Call. Remember, you've based your whole deck around playing other minions that activate this minion and now you don't even get the expected value of this minion on a regular basis. Does this sound wise?
This is a high range Midrange deck, bordering on Control, which is why certain elements are present (Djinn, Alex, Paragon) but it's designed to control the board with minions, which means it lacks the famous Equality combos that every Paladin Control deck since the Beta has contained. It's also designed to control the board with weapons, which is why the Ebon Dragonsmith is present, since it's a dragon to activate Gargoyle and hopefully makes your Silver Sword or Val'anyr cheap enough to actually play. There are 7 dragons (Amalgam, Ebon, Cobalt, Alex) which should be enough to activate the Gargoyle. There are multiple ways to make the Paragon worth her cost (Bells, Dire Wolf, Maul (1 in 4), Sword, Cobalt, Val.) There's cheap weapon removal, although since it's also subject to being pulled by Call, plus the high number of 2s and lack of 5s, perhaps that should be switched out for Harrison, which would be another form of card draw, something the deck lacks (like most Paladin decks) other than Hoarders. There are multiple healing methods (Djinn, Truesilver, activated Paragon, Alex), which are necessary to stay alive to reach the later game, since you'll be using your face for so much removal. And then there's Tarim because he's Tarim.
I haven't had an opportunity to play today, so I haven't tested it. Feel free to cast opinions of scorn. I already know it's unlikely to work.
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- Jackwraith
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OTOH, the next game was also against Taunt Druid. My draw was poor (1st turn pass, 2nd turn Dude) but then I got a board down of Cobalt, Ebon, and Protector and he wasn't able to draw anything, apparently, He Innervated on turn 8 (he was at 9) and then burned another one to make space while he UI'd my 9/3 Ebon, but that still left 2 Cobalts and a couple other minions on board and I'd just drawn into Silver Sword. I lost to OTK Priest as he Screamed me and kept reviving Velens and then did the Vivid Nightmare thing and Blasted me for 1000 or whatever. Then I beat Odd Hunter against someone who really didn't understand the whole even/odd thing (as in, you'll generally be using that 3 damage hero power on even turns.) Finally, I lost to Spiteful Priest because, again, he Screamed me and I just have no way to recover from that (it both removes my board AND emphasizes the lack of draw.)
The Gargoyles came into play quite often with their BC functioning, so there's enough dragons in the deck. The Gargs themselves are as underwhelming as I expected, in most cases. I mean, Righteous Protector does essentially the same thing (i.e. absorbs two hits and dies nobly) no matter what's in your hand and for one less mana. They might have been brilliant with Rallying Blade and/or Dragon Consort and perhaps it was intended to be a Wild card. If so, it will eventually just be dust to me, which is basically what it is now.
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- Jackwraith
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Don't get me wrong: I agree that it's annoying. The board swings can be ridiculous, depending on whether RNGesus favors you or your opponent. But I think the perception of value may be greater than the actual value. Spiteful works in Priest because they can stay alive long enough to pull it off and heal the big bodies that they're using to clear. It works in Druid now because of all the new armor and Taunt cards. I'm not sure it's that valuable in many other situations. But it's the hot thing of the moment because, like always, people remember the bad beats they've taken more than they remember rushing past their opponent's inert minions on turn 7 to beat their face in.
Since you play a lot of Hunter, I know it's probably of particular annoyance to you, since Hunter still lacks good single-target removal that isn't Random Shot or Hunter's Mark and a body. I guess they do have Wing Blast now, if that's paying off...? When I've seen it used against me, I haven't been that impressed, especially because mana cost reduction has never really been an issue with Hunter; a class that often strains to maximize mana usage in the mid- to late-game. That's in complete contrast to the other "do 4 damage to minion" card in Witchwood: Holy Water. One of the cards I've been resoundingly wrong about, it's just too expensive and slow for what it does, since it puts the (probably costly) minion in your hand. Swap Holy Water for Wing Blast and most Priests would be thrilled.
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There is an element of interaction that is absent in most games these days. You are either "face face face and who cares about the board" or you are "setup setup setup look at this big thing I got for free." Or Quest Rogue, which is both.
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Turn 7: Resurrect Malygos. I Silence it. Put opponent at 1 life.
Turn 8: Resurrect Malygos, Spirit Lash for 29 life.
Turn 9: Get 2 4/1 Malygoses, hit me for Mind Blast for 20, Holy Smite for 17.
IT'S A NINE MANA CARD. HE HAD FIVE OF THEM BY TURN 9 WITH THREE MANA TO SPARE.
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Inner Fire Priest. A return to the classics. Just dudes and sweeps and pings and dodges and they're dead. Warlock can be tough if they get more than one Voidwalker out at a time. (If only one? Shadow Madness --> Divine Favor --> Divine Favor --> Inner Fire is 36.) If they get multiples you need to add on Radiant Elemental + Mass Dispel (2 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 1 + 0).
It's nice to see Wild Pyromancer again, just wrecking all these insane Paladin boards.
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- Jackwraith
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- Jackwraith
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Key to both that deck and one of the Tess ones was having double health and Small Knapsack, too. I barely used Crowley's Cannon hero power. It's so ineffective in the late game, especially because positioning is so important, that it feels like playing Shaman half the time ("If he doesn't play a minion, this'll be great! Oh...") The one time it was useful was when I got the power that gave all of my minions +1 attack that turn when I fired the cannon. I learned to really enjoy Festeroot Hulk, too. Makes me kinda wish I still had Warrior cards. But only kinda.
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Decks I don’t like to face in the current meta with any deck because I find them unfun to play against... quest rogue, hadronox Druid. My favorite deck to play for fun is a weird shudderwock deck I found.
I beat the kings bane boss on my second run the first time I faced him. I had gotten Edwin and questing early bundle and doubled down on that got some Edwins, Questings, a special minion that fills your hand with coins and several cold lights.. The kings bane guy drops Felreaver and next turn I go double cold light on his dumb ass. Burned so many good cards there. The AI doesn’t understand need to dump hand to make space and some cold lights milled some more cards later. He never stuck a single buff on Kingsbane and I killed him with an 18 attack questing on turn. Haven’t done as well with Cannoneer but it’s interesting hero power for sure.
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- Jackwraith
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He had an interesting Control Warrior deck, while I've been messing around with Even Shaman (5-0, surprisingly.) I just kept refilling the board, holding on to Al'Akir to the latest possible moment, and finally getting good use out of Army of the Dead. I had been expecting Garrosh around turn 8, so I'd continued to place my minions to best neutralize Shadowmourne leading up to it. It's not easy, though, when you're just spewing out totems every turn. The ridiculous thing about this deck is that, as always, 1/4 of your totem results are useless, since there are no spells in the deck until you can play Hagatha. The upside to that downside is that your opponent often doesn't know that and will still pursue Wrath of Air totems like they have supertaunt.
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Need to add that he played it on turn 8. If it was NZoth or Hadronox come down turn 20 they had to play all the minions to fill the board and you have chance. Maybe build your own board by then to contest it. And his hero power is Shaman Deathknight except it costs zero. So each of those minions must cleared off the board If you leave any wounded he can just evolve them into Tyrantus or whatever
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- Black Barney
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