Hearthstone Players!

That is... insane.

Ha. Excellent. I did the KT/Reincarnate/Taunt deck for a while and it was a lot of fun, although I know it was super-aggravating to my opponents since there were a lot of concedes when they still had more than half their life left. That card is insane if you can leverage it. I was playing a ramp Druid deck with him and Troggzor a couple days ago. A mage tossed a Fireball and a Frostbolt at KT to get rid of him but then was facing down a 6/6, 5/5, and 3/5.

I've been having the most fun with Priest lately, even though it's not the most viable on the ladder. Yes, I will gladly Shrinkmeister your Yeti and then steal it with Cabal Priest! Even better, I'll Shadow Madness your Sludge Belcher, hit you with it, and then Recombobulate it into a Spectral Knight that I get to keep. Also, Lightbomb and Vol'jin are the shit. Play a 6/5 and do 3 damage to your Loatheb and kill him with my Shrinkmeister? OK! Play another Shrinkmeister on Vol'jin next turn and follow with Lightbomb to clear the board? OK! So many tricks. So little time...

Actually, one of the best games I had recently was playing Priest against a Druid mill deck. For those of you who haven't seen them, they basically try to overfill your hand with Coldwater Oracle and Naturalize, making you burn cards and eventually die from fatigue while they constantly clear the board and heal themselves. Druid is normally one of Priest's worst matchups because of their mana acceleration that doesn't allow Priest to maintain control or recover. But mill Druid kinda lacks that and Priest creatures are better at resisting their clears (like Starfall) and can do a better job in the fatigue game because of the hero power. We hit fatigue when I had 5 minions on the board (2 Cabals, a Blademaster, a Shrinkmeister, and a Cleric that I wasn't using but wanted that last pip of damage from.) He had 18 health and conceded.

Man, the ladder is way better north of Rank 18 or so. The games are longer and more interesting. I wrote something up about this at Reddit, but it can go here as well for any folks in this thread dabbling in HEARTHSTONE.

• I committed to getting to Rank 15 this month after toiling away in the Rank 20 mines since I started playing in September. Other than Naxx purchase, I am F2P, and have been using crummy Arena runs (wipes sweat from brow at three wins) and quests to slowly accumulate cards. I want to relate some of my experience to others to know it gets better.


• Arena is a good time and a good way to get GvG packs. Using the tons of guidance out there, you can manage to put together and play a deck that should get three wins. That's the "break even" point for the Arena-run vs Just-buy-a-pack gold differential (i.e. 50 gold). Arena always gets you a pack, and three or more wins should get you 50 gold worth of stuff. You can have weird prizes like a pile of dust or a gold common that can mess this math up, but the quests will cover the difference easily. More importantly, it gets you play experience and exposure to cards you won't be able to craft up for ages.
• The quests! Don't be afraid to re-roll 40s that you have no progress on. You want those 60 and 100 gold quests. It doesn't always work out, but you should be able to get yourself to a about 100 gold per day between Arena runs and well-formed quests. It's nice if you can get quests to overlap with your Hero selection in Arena, or perhaps have Victory/Dominance quests that overlap.


• The Casual room is a goddamned bloodbath all day every day. It's basically folks trying to complete quests and every deck in there is crazy aggressive madness. You know this, because you go in there and get mauled all the time. I sent a Paladin deck in there to get some quests and went up against Face Hunter, Face Hunter, and a gold portrait warrior that laughed and laughed as he rolled me.


• Shockingly, Ranked is where it's at for Constructed play. The caveat is, it's Rank 17 or above. Ranks to 18 are filled with the same craziness you see in Casual as folks hop in and just jam jam jam to get that cardback. I managed to get through it and things are way more interesting in 17+. It might suck again in the rarefied realms of 5+, but we won't be there for a long time. After wending my way through MechMages and Hunters galore, I made it through and see things like Druids, some crazy MechPriest build, and even other Shamans(!). Each game is more interesting, and lasts longer and makes the whole thing a better experience.


• So if you like the game, and aren't super happy about how it's played, I can recommend weathering the early ranks and get to the 17+ portion of the ladder. It's worth it.

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I love playing Priest, too. And so do my kids. I made a CCCombo deck that tries to make something gigantic with Divine Favor/Inner Fire and it's usually hilarious. You have to play such janky minions (Deathlord?, Mogu'shan Warden?) to make it work, so even with a bad deck the balance is delicate. You haven't lived until a Shadowboxer buffed by Upgraded Repair Bot and Velen's Chosen goes to face though. Control Priest is obviously the better build, but I don't have the cards for that.

Here's my current progress on Reindeer Games:


The most recent changes are:

• -2 Earth Shock, +1 Knife Juggler, +1 Cult Master.
• -2 Clockwork Gnome, +2 Zombie Chow.
• -1 Piloted Shredder, +1 (crafted) Piloted Sky Golem.

I control the early game with Zombie Chow and Unstable Ghoul. Mid game with Sen'jin Shieldmasta, Sludge Belcher, and Lightning Storm, and try to set up for nice Kel-Thuzad or Sky Golem Reincarnate endgame. I am not afraid to burn Reincarnate in the midgame on a wounded Belcher or Sen'jin--it's important to keep those big taunts down. They usually allow me to set up a Spell Damage minion and get more value for Lightning Storm. I would love an Earth Elemental for Ancestral Spirit, but that has to wait while dust piles up.

And lo, Underatker was nerfed, and many a Hunter cried out and was silenced.

That was big news recently in HEARTHSTONE. Undertaker went from being mindbogglingly good to just pretty damn good. It was a 1/2 for {1} that got +1/+1 every time you played a minion with Deathrattle. So Hunter, which had the best synergy with the best cheap Deathrattle minions (Webspinner, Mad Scientist), would get this down early and it would grow and grow turn over turn eating whatever you played to account for it, or just generally smashing your face as their normal minions took out yours. It was a potent tempo play and Blizzard tweaked it to get +1 attack only. That makes it way more manageable. It's still good enough to run, but it's no longer so powerful you felt dumb for not playing it.

I didn't make it to Rank 15 with Reindeer Games , but I was one win away four times. Just couldn't quite climb that hill! It was a good time regardless. I finished at 16, which sent me to 21 and I already got back to 20 with a couple wins last night.

One thing I did discover last month was how good an insanely aggro Paladin deck can be. I made this stack of shitty 2/1's for cheap and have racked up 13 wins in 14 tries with it in the Casual room. Casual is a mix of brand new players I should stomp and totally juiced badasses that don't want to risk the Ladder with a new idea. I saw about 50:50 of each, so some of these wins are against legit decks like Oil Rogue, Mech Mage, Control Hunter and whatever Warlocks are doing these days. You poop out crappy weenies, hit the face, and refill with Divine Favor and Jeeves. That's the gameplan. It doesn't seem like it should work, but I think everyone is so obsessed with "value" that they have a tough time coming to grips with a deck that doesn't really care about that. It's not unusual for me to have seen 5 or 6 more cards than my opponent by turn 8.

Arena has been super frustrating for me of late. I am not in the right frame of mind or something, but I am 0-2 more than I am anything else. I get down there and eventually claw back to 3-3, but it's been so aggravating as my opponents just have answer after answer as I beg my deck for something good. I had a funny game at 1-2 last night though, with the opponent's early Fel Reaver was frozen with a Spare Part and sucked out 18 cards from her deck as I made Gnomes and played some small stuff. Good times.

Hm. I think Reindeer Games suffers from a lack of real threats other than KT. Sky Golem is played normally not because it's a finisher, but because it can take out big things and still leave a 4-cost. It's essentially slow removal and you already have a ton of removal in the deck (Rockbiter, Lightning, Hex, FE.) I think it's a viable strategy to try to stall until KT gets in place which means your taunts never die, but if you never draw KT, you're going to be pursuing half a strategy while your opponents pursue their main one. With the nerf to Undertaker, I'm betting you could drop the Ghouls for something more robust.

Paladin aggro is big right now. I've been playing one off and on that doesn't depend on quite as many small dudes in favor of the QuarterMuster play and some more control elements. With that in mind, I would definitely dump the Cogmaster in favor of another Juggler, since you're going to be playing so many guys that those knives will be doing a lot of work. You're right in the Ramp Druid would be a huge problem, since if they Innervate an Ancient of War, you're pretty much screwed without the Owl or Equality. I'm betting the other problem would be MechMage, since they can play superior guys backed up by the 2nd-best hero power in the game plus other removal. Have you run into those in Casual?

Jackwraith wrote: Hm. I think Reindeer Games suffers from a lack of real threats other than KT. Sky Golem is played normally not because it's a finisher, but because it can take out big things and still leave a 4-cost. It's essentially slow removal and you already have a ton of removal in the deck (Rockbiter, Lightning, Hex, FE.) I think it's a viable strategy to try to stall until KT gets in place which means your taunts never die, but if you never draw KT, you're going to be pursuing half a strategy while your opponents pursue their main one. With the nerf to Undertaker, I'm betting you could drop the Ghouls for something more robust.

Yeah, you are right about that. It lacks "gas" in the late game. I have access to about 2100 dust without much pain, so I think I will be looking around for some new juice. Maybe Earth Elemental? I could cook up Sylvanas or Cairne as well, and might do that, despite how it pains me.

Jackwraith wrote: Paladin aggro is big right now. I've been playing one off and on that doesn't depend on quite as many small dudes in favor of the QuarterMuster play and some more control elements. With that in mind, I would definitely dump the Cogmaster in favor of another Juggler, since you're going to be playing so many guys that those knives will be doing a lot of work. You're right in the Ramp Druid would be a huge problem, since if they Innervate an Ancient of War, you're pretty much screwed without the Owl or Equality. I'm betting the other problem would be MechMage, since they can play superior guys backed up by the 2nd-best hero power in the game plus other removal. Have you run into those in Casual?

If I go more control/Quartermaster, I think the deck ends up like a bad Control Pally, and then I will get wrecked. It really is a rushdown. I just played five more games. I lost to ControlHunter, but had misplayed and he won with 1 life. If I had followed my game plan and hit face instead of Highmane a turn earlier I would have won. I lost to a Mech Shaman deck because he got some good luck off the RNG and rolled Taunt guy three times, which was enough to slow me down. It was still close, but he was able to really buff that Windfury 3/2 (I got hit for 18 the last turn) the turn before I could punch through. I beat a Warrior (WAY too slow), a Demonlock (despite his pile of Voidwalkers and Annoy-o-trons), and another Pally. I am guessing control(?) but I had the nuts and it was over on Turn 6. I am a little afraid to swap Cogmaster for Knife Juggler, if only because it goes 1-drop to 2-drop. I will try it out, Cogmaster is a left over from a more Mechish version during development.

My Deathrattle Warlock deck is not pleased at the Undertaker nerfing.

However, since I don't think I've played in at least two weeks, I'm not sure it matters very much.

I liked that deck a lot. Undertaker, Coin, and Leper Gnome was such a great start. Considering how often I played it without seeing an Undertaker, it's likely to still do alright.

Arena dropping only GvG decks has also annoyed me, because I'm still missing a bunch of original Rares (and nearly all of the Legendaries). So it's fish for new cards, or spend gold hoping to finally pull a dragon or stupid Ragnaros out. Maybe they'll discount that stuff at some point, because the dust prices are simply beyond what I'm interested in grinding.

I think I'm still missing Commons from the original set, there were always some weird spots that I'd notice paging through.

Not Sure wrote: My Deathrattle Warlock deck is not pleased at the Undertaker nerfing.

However, since I don't think I've played in at least two weeks, I'm not sure it matters very much.

I liked that deck a lot. Undertaker, Coin, and Leper Gnome was such a great start. Considering how often I played it without seeing an Undertaker, it's likely to still do alright.

It's a gain for the game, in all. Hunter especially because it felt dumb to build your deck any other way. With only 30 cards in a deck, and that theme so obviously powerful, the "tech" was what, 8 cards? Maybe? It was dumb. With the nerf, that's still a viable strategy, but Control Hunter can actually compete in the idea space. Should open things up. Also increases the fun of Hearthstone, because the nuts Undertaker draw was such a dumb game to play against.

Not Sure wrote: Arena dropping only GvG decks has also annoyed me, because I'm still missing a bunch of original Rares (and nearly all of the Legendaries). So it's fish for new cards, or spend gold hoping to finally pull a dragon or stupid Ragnaros out. Maybe they'll discount that stuff at some point, because the dust prices are simply beyond what I'm interested in grinding.

I think I'm still missing Commons from the original set, there were always some weird spots that I'd notice paging through.

I am totally willing to dust GvG commons and rares without pause. I figure I will get them again in Arena and I use the dust to fill out the Classics I am missing. I got a Hemet Nesingwary the other day, and I just thought, "Nice! A free epic card!" I slowly accumulate gold testing things out and playing the ladder, and once I have 400 I spend 100 on a Classic pack. (I have 300 in reserve to account for a busted Arena run). I am missing some fundamental Rogue cards, to the extent it's basically unplayable. I need to build that out (Preparation, Eviscerate, &c) in order to make things more interesting in the short term. Missing a lot of Druid stuff too, but that shit's all super pricy. I am with you on the dust ratio being too high. I hope there is some magical Hearthstone birthday that cuts it to 4:1 instead of the usual 8:1.

--
I think I am going to beef up Reindeer Games a little. It's a solid deck, just needs a tweak to get over the hump. Maybe Sunwalkers? They don't have Battlecry to generate value and make a nice target for Reincarnate/Ancestral Spirit. Like Jackwraith says, with Undertaker less potent I think I can back off a turn of aggro management and look into a deeper game.

//edit: Had a game today on the ladder against a weird Priest build with Illidan and Mind Blasts. I almost missed lethal when he was at 23. I think he was setting up for a big Holy Fire and chipped my Earth Elementals (Ancestral Spirit --> Reincarnate) to 2 and 1 health with a pretty full board. But I drew Rockbiter Weapon (3) and was able to go to face with the Elementals (14), plus Fire Elemental shot (3), plus a Lightning Bolt (3) for the win. 7/8 is huge, geez. I was doing Nerubian Egg math with the Rockbiter when I realized lethal was in range.

ps. Pally took out Control Warrior on the ladder on Turn 6.

Still plugging away with Reindeer Games . I was able to take out the Zombie Chows and rebuild things for more late game with the toned-down meta on the ladder. Not as many Hunters trying to kill me on turn 6, so I can do more interesting stuff. Rolled from 19 to 16.1 in a streak and then took two on the chin this morning.

First was a Mech Mage that curved out perfectly. I wish I was piloting that on the other side, it must have been awesome.

1. Clockwork Gnome
2. Snowchugger
3. Tinkertown Technician
4. Frostbolt + Ping (missed the Yeti! Yay?)
5. Loatheb
6. Goblin Blastmage, Freeze my surviving guys

I was able to kill a guy here or there, but it didn't matter.

Next was a Freeze Mage! Old school! Might not even have any GvG cards--I felt like I was in a time warp to November 2014. I curved out like a champion, but it didn't matter either. His turn 7 was Archmage Antonidas. I used Faceless Manipulator to copy it, and played three 1cc spells to kill him, pound the opponent and get three Fireballs. I am going to win right?


Wrong. That's Alexstrasza coming down in the pic there. Sets me to 15. His secret is Ice Block, of course. Turn 9 was Fireball (6), Frostbolt (9), Ice Lance (13), Ice Lance (17). GG.

The new adventure expansion for Hearthstone has been announced at Pax, Blackrock Mountain.



Some information I got from Reddit below.

It will be similar to Naxx with weekly unlocks, class challenges and heroic bosses.

There will be five wings and 17 bosses.

New board: i.imgur.com/9duBS2Z.jpg

31 new cards.

"Dragon" is a new minion type.

Coming out in April!

Pricing: bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/gallery/QUO...2ZM1425590223024.jpg

New card backs: i.imgur.com/ptHOr6Z.jpg

Pre-order available March 19-20th.

Official Blizzard post: us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/181408...at-pax-east-3-6-2015

Hearthpwn post: www.hearthpwn.com/news/800-paxeast-blackrock-mountain-confirmed

5 New Cards Revealed:

i.imgur.com/Vq1KxeB.png
i.imgur.com/xZ9OCVM.png
i.imgur.com/9uzFG7r.png
i.imgur.com/uASsfDW.png
i.imgur.com/2t5cwjR.png

Dragons aren't new. Faerie Dragon, Alexstrasza, Ysera, Azure Drake and more are dragons. I think there will be a lot more interactions with them, akin to Beasts, Mechs, &c.

I liked NAXX a ton--it was a nice break from the high-stakes playing-against-people world that could get my heart pumping. And some of the cards out of it are such staples: Sludge Belcher, Zombie Chow, Loatheb, Mad Scientist and so forth. A couple of those spoiled cards have me thinking. That 3/3 for 5 that makes more 3/3's looks like a big win for Warrior. Their guys get damaged all the time. Could make Commanding Shout a cool card too. If they fix Warsong Commander, shit will be craaaay.

And guys. GUYS. Hungry Dragon? Guys. Pls.

jeb wrote: Dragons aren't new. Faerie Dragon, Alexstrasza, Ysera, Azure Drake and more are dragons. I think there will be a lot more interactions with them, akin to Beasts, Mechs, &c.

It's new in the sense that it will now be a meaningful minion type, before the "dragon" label was useless and not used.

I really want to play this more, but although I have an 8-inch tablet, Hearthstone tells me I can't play unless it is 6 inches or more. W. T. F.

Still love it though. Maybe I just need a more comfortable computer chair.

NotSure and I met up last night and played. I showed him an Oil Rogue deck--this is a super fun way to play if you are burnt out a little. It's a wonky wild ride to a hopefully sweet finish. I play the version listed here . Others make all kinds of different choices. Here's a Rogue deck that's not Prep --> Oil , per se, but has the same feel. Taking Novice Engineer to #1 Legend there, guys. You can do without the Bloodmage Thalnos and still have a good time. Super cheap.

I am driving a crazy Paladin deck in Arena right now . 4-0, and I haven't even had to cast Dr. Boom yet.

Couple more Burning BlackMountain Fire Rock cards announced. One is Lava Shock, Shaman Only, 2-mana, Deal 2 damage and clear all your Overload locks. That's a big deal for me. Shaman deck have cool cards, but Overload causes such a tempo loss that it can be hard to play a late-game deck for fear of screwing your late game turns. If I want to cast Kel-Thuzad + Reincarnate turn 10, it means no Lightning Bolt, Lightning Storm, or Earth Elemental on turn 9. It can really kill your plays in the late game. This is a welcome development. I might even break out the Doomhammer.

The other is a Warrior card that damages the opposing hero when it is damaged. 4-mana, 2/5 that deals 2 when damaged. ~eh~. Seems gimmicky in the extreme.

That's an excellent Arena deck. I have a mildly crazy Mage one sitting in the dock right now. I haven't played much so I've not been able to test it out, but it does have 4 Fireballs, 2 Polys, and a Flamestrike, so I'm expecting decent returns. Creatures are OK.

I've been playing constructed when I have been playing. Working through the lower ranks with a Shadow priest deck: www.hearthpwn.com/decks/206592-shadow
The Lightbombs are really important, so going down to one has me nervous, but Sylvanus is so good in Priest that I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to play her. That still leaves me without any BGH targets, which makes him nothing but an overpriced 4/2 (aka an ideal target for Mind Spike.) I had the dream play last night, when my opponent went turn 9 Ragnaros when I had only a Belcher in play. Rag hit the Belcher, so I went turn 9 Vol'jin, Mind Spike, and then PWS on Vol'jin to make him a 6/10. My opponent decided to Pyroblast Vol'jin and I just burned him down.

Lava Shock should be good, since it clears both current and future Overload. However, Shaman already has a ton of good low-cost cards, so what do you cut for something that may only be 2 damage for 2 half the time? No one will want to actually increase the amount of Overload in their deck, potentially hamstringing themselves if they don't draw Shock, in addition to getting rid of solid cards like Crackle and Rockbiter. I think what Shock embodies is that the Overload mechanic is simply bad, since most of the cards aren't the tempo gain that they're supposed to be (Is anyone really that frustrated by Spirit Wolves anymore now that super-fast Mechs are everywhere?) and really never were. That's why Shamans don't perform at the highest levels.

Axe Flinger is another "patch" card in that they're trying to address the fact that Warrior only plays Control, based on the fact that its hero power is solely control-based. It doesn't affect the board. It only changes the status of the hero. Hunter's power is similar in that it can't affect the board, but it fits perfectly with the current speed of the game (and is also why no viable Hunter control decks exist.) Axe Flinger is probably intended to fit into some kind of wilder, damage yourself and your guys deck archetype which they've been trying to build toward since the beta, but which everyone avoids like the plague because the name of the game is board control and damaging your own guys doesn't contribute to that, but instead works against it.

As much as I like the hero powers and the different identities they give the classes, I think they've created an interesting design problem for themselves in that the powers are inhibiting design and deck variations for many of the classes (No Warrior or Priest aggro, no Hunter control, etc.) and you can't go too overboard in trying to fix them because there's always the danger of fixing them too well and creating a situation that gets out of hand. So you have built-in design restraint not just in cards (which they've been fixing, as with the Undertaker nerf that re-enabled the introduction of deathrattle minions) but in the actual essence of the game. The most notable example of that was the first year of the game, which was largely dominated by the best hero power (Warlock) using mostly non-Warlock cards, which were slightly overcosted/detrimental likely because of Life Tap (for example, it took until the game's first major expansion for an actual demon-based Warlock deck to emerge and it's still not great.) It'll be interesting to see how they try to deal with it.