Hearthstone Players!

Rejiggered my suicide warlock based on the previous conversations.

Out:
Dread Infernal
Shadowbolt (1 out, 1 still in)
Baron Geddon

In:
Floating Watcher
Imp-losion
Dr. FuckThisIWin


So far two very good things have come about from this. One was destroying a Spider Tank for 4 with Imp-losion while I had a Knife Juggler out. The resulting blade explosion cleared his side of the board, and left me with a huge surplus of Imps. Had to suicide a few next turn just to clear space to summon.

Another was playing Boom while I had Baron Rivendare out. The only thing more annoying than Boombot explosions is doubled Boombot explosions. It was at the tail end of a Paladin game, and all he had out were two 1/1 scrubs. The first Boombot suicided one and bombed the other (plus an extra bomb to the face). The second was left with no target, so I juiced it with Power Overwhelming for 5 more to the face, plus two bombs at the end of the turn when the bot expired.

They could be doing all kinds of different play modes to shake things up:
- Little'uns Mode: No cards with a mana cost higher than 4.
- Big'uns Mode: No cards with a mana cost lower than 5 and both players start at 5 mana.
- Real-Time Draft: You get matched up with 3 other players and perform a draft in real time (with a timer on choosing) before playing each of those players once each to determine a winner.
- Low-Ball: You try and build a terrible deck and be the first player out in a match. The AI handles attacks but the players determine how their cards deal damage and assign buffs and penalties.
- Commander Mode: Only one copy of each card.

And that's just off the top of my head. I have no idea if any of those are viable but they could put them in a new area called something like "The Laboratory" where they test them out. There could also be noob-friendly pauper versions of the above modes: no rares/epics/legendaries, only X number of rares/epics/legendaries, only one copy of certain cards, etc.

Kripp did a tournament recently in a similar format with 8 of the top players (he got some sponsorship from Amazon.) The theme was evens and odds: All minions had to have odd attack values (i.e. 1, 3, 5) and all spells had to have even mana costs (i.e. 0, 2, 4, 6.) The players had 20 minutes to assemble 3 decks with those rules (opponents would only know classes, not decklists) and if they broke any of the rules or ran out of time, there was a list of "not good" cards to replace whatever they'd put in. Early rounds were best of 5, finals were best of 7, where Kibler beat Trump, 4-3.

Those are all decent ideas. Just requires a lot of programming time (and cost) above and beyond making new cards. Not sure Team 5 is equipped to handle that at the moment, although given that there are more people playing Hearthstone that any other Blizzard game, who knows? (I'm not even sure they are "Team 5" anymore, since Team 4 was dissolved.)

I swear, if I play against one more fucking Face Hunter today...

End of the month wrap-up:

Once again, haven't had much chance to play (heading to a funeral and a soccer game today, which pretty much ends my season) but started messing around a couple days ago with a Hobgoblin Paladin deck . I played one shortly after GvG came out but I think I was trying to go too midrange with it and this one is solidly aggro. It's pretty amazing when it finds its groove. The questionable slots are the Blood Knight, the Aldor, and the Avenge. The latter seems the most secure, as it reaffirms the purpose of the deck, but Avenge is also occasionally easy to play around. The Aldor is my one concession to dealing with the opponent's creatures, since I have no direct damage other than weapons and no Equality. It got me out of one jam against Handlock, but that decks is a bit of a problem, as you might expect. And the Blood Knight is kind of a tech card. With the Squires, Trons, and Coghammers, I'm generally fairly loaded with bubbles and a turn 3-5 6/6 or 9/9 is pretty difficult for a lot of decks to handle, especially since BGH has become less popular. Still, any of those three could be traded out for something else.

My last game was pretty quick and against a midrange/dragon Pally:
Opening draw was Wisp, Sergeant, Footman, and Ooze with the Coin. I kept it.
Turn 1:
He passes.
I draw Blessing of Might and play Footman.
Turn 2:
He summons a dude.
I play Ooze, Coin, Blessing and use the Footman to kill the dude. (Mistake. I should have hit him for 1. This is an aggro deck and that means getting wins ASAP. I had the Coin, so there's no way he could play BoK on turn 3.) My 1/1 Footman and 2 4/2 Oozes against his empty. Hand of Abusive, Jeeves, Wisp.
Turn 3:
He plays Aldor on one of the Oozes.
I draw Footman and play Abusive to boost the Ooze and kill the Aldor. (Questionable: I could just go face, but I figured that it's turn 4 coming up which means Consec. If that happens, I'm left with a 3/3 on the board against my empty.) I summon a dude and hit him with the Ooze and Footman. Hand of Jeeves, Wisp, Footman. 30-25.
Turn 4:
As expected, he Consecs and wipes my board, 28-25.
I draw Hobgoblin, play him, and follow with Footman and Wisp. (How sick is it that on turn 4, after a Consec, I can play a 2/3, 3/4 Taunt, and 3/3?) Hand of Jeeves, 28-25.
Turn 5:
He plays Blackwing Corruptor, killing the Hobgoblin.
I draw Blessing, play it on the Wisp, and hit face with that and the Footman. I play Jeeves, who draws me Abusive, Knife Juggler, Knife Juggler, 28-16.
Turn 6:
Corruptor kills the Footman and he plays Aldor on the Wisp and summons a dude.
I draw Hobgoblin and play Juggler, Abusive, Juggler (Mistake: Hand slipped and I grabbed the Sergeant before the Juggler, as I could have gotten two knives.) First knife kills the Corruptor, second wounds the Aldor. Abusive boosts the Wisp, who kills the Aldor. (Questionable: Should have gone face, as it likely would have ended the game sooner. Also, another Consec hurts badly here) Jeeves kills the dude (Questionable: Same reasoning.) He draws me Blood Knight and Wisp. Hand of Wisp, Blood Knight, Hobgoblin, 28-16.
Turn 7:
He plays Dr. Balanced.
I draw Divine Favor. I play Hobgoblin, first knife kills a Boom Bot that wounds Hob for 1. Second hits my opponent. Then play Wisp. First knife kills a Bot that kills the Hobgoblin, second hits my opponent. Both Jugglers, Sarge, and Jeeves go face. Cast Divine Favor, drawing Truesilver, Argent, Avenge, and Annoy-o. I play the Squire just to have another guy and setup a big Knight. Board of Abusive, 1/3 Jeeves, Juggler, Juggler, 3/3 Wisp to his Doctor, 28-5.
Turn 8:
He plays Lay on Hands (he now has 8 cards) and Boom kills a Juggler.
I draw Coghammer, play Truesilver, and kill him, 28-0.

Hearthstone decided to make up for the lack of Legendaries it's been giving me recently (quality is still an open question).

Bought three GvG packs, as my quest gold had been stacking up above the ~1000 I consider a minimum balance. First was pretty iffy, except I got a second Hobgoblin (which I've been wanting for similar reasons to Jack's deck.)

Second pack had an Imp-losion I needed, some junk, then the fourth card was Golden Mekengineer Thermaplug. Fifth card was Mimiron's Head. Pretty return.

Third pack, lots of crap (Ships's Cannon, another damn Glaivezooka). And a Trade Prince Gallywix. Fine haul.

Nice! As with all gold cards, that Mekgineer is an instant 1600 dust, which means a different legendary that you can actually use. I keep having visions of Control Rogue decks with Gallywix in them but, so far, nothing has really worked.

Gallywix could go in a Mill Rogue, no? Via the same principle as King Mukla, stuffing their hand with garbage cards instead of actual cards, making Vanish lethal, &c. I was watching Ryzen play Mill Rogue last night (no Mukla, no Gallywix), and the original thing he had was Doomsayer. He would Vanish everything back and then lay a Doomsayer and stall out yet another turn from the opponent. It was pretty cool.

I have 120 gold worth of Druid quests, so I have been trying out Dragon Druid. Basically Ramp Druid with dragons at the top end instead of good cards and Blackwing Corrupter. It's doing OK.

Gallywix fills up your hand too, which might make it more difficult. It's also no problem to drop coins as fast as you get them, while bananas require at least 1 minion out on the board.

I think he might be useful, but not quite sure how. Stealthing him like the mechmages do with Antonidas might be one way.

I'm not going to burn him for dust just yet. I might even try to use Thermalplugg, it seems like he must come in handy at some point. I could see a Hellfire board wipe with him out working in my suicide warlock deck. However, that implies he survives the turn, which is hard as a 9 drop.

This cracked me up for some reason

I got a Classic pack for spectating today and pulled a Millhouse Manastorm. I'm so tempted to disenchant him for the 400 dust so I can make some good commons/rares and I don't see myself kicking myself in a month or so because I didn't hold on to him... Should I keep him? Seriously, he looks awful.

He is awful. He's nothing but dust and 400 of it. Scrap him and build some real cards. The last thing you want to do in a card game is either a) give your opponent cards or b) make those cards cost less. That's why Thaurissan has Super Taunt. The only purpose MM serves in the game is as dust or as the best possible result from the deathrattle of your Piloted Shredder. Noxious had a riotously funny video last year from him playing MM in an aggro deck and then watching his opponent cast 6 or 7 cards for free (couple PWS, a Thoughtsteal, and a Mind Control among them.) Too funny.

Speaking of Priest, I was just on at the office and tried one game with my aforementioned aggro Pallie deck which ran into a Mage running dual Arcane Blast. Yep. Gotta retire that for a week until the Face Hunters either advance or clear out. So I decided to try a Mech Priest version. I dropped first-turn Cleric, figuring that I'd either bait the SWP or take advantage of him trying to keep his dudes alive. She stayed. My hand was slow, so I dropped a Cogmaster and just pinged away for a couple turns. Meanwhile, he Coined out a Thoughtsteal so he had massive card advantage. I dropped a Shredder and he finally played the SWP he'd been sitting on, killed the Cog, and played his own Cleric (for which he could have been drawing for the past two turns(?)) Then I played an Upgraded Repair Bot and killed the Cleric. He played his own Shredder, I killed it with mine, healed, drew Smite, killed the Pyromancer that had dropped out, played another Cog, and started going to work. His answer was to play Sen'jin and Divine Spirit it to a 3/10. My answer was to play Vol'jin and kill it with the Cog. He conceded.

BURN HIM. He's garbage. I don't say this lightly, I am all for keeping Legendaries. But he is a bad in a deep way.

Without any class considerations, the best neutral commons are: Piloted Shredder, Harvest Golem, Ironbeak Owl, Acolyte of Pain, Loot Hoarder, Antique Healbot. For Rares, I would go for Azure Drake, Violet Teacher, Mind Control Tech (1), Knife Juggler, Defender of Argus, and Sunfury Protector, edit: and Twilight Drake. And Wild Pyromancer.

Depending on how much Arena you play, you might want to focus your craft builds on Classic cards that are impossible to pull from GvG packs.

But, if you're buying more than you're opening from Arena, that might be completely the opposite. Your call, but think about the distribution while you're crafting.

I'm taking a break from Arena but I might buy a GvG pack or two to gamble and see if I can pull a Coghammer or Quartermaster. I'm missing so many staple rares and commons that I couldn't justify the 400 dust on a class-specific Epic when I could make several other cards that would make my other decks better for class-specific quests. I ended up crafting: Piloted Shredder (x2), Harvest Golem (x2), Knife Juggler (I already had one), Defender of Argus (x1), Azure Drake (x1), Ironbeak Owl (x1), an Aldor Peacekeeper (to go with the one in my Paladin deck), and a Dark Iron Dwarf (to put me at 2). I already have an Antique Healbot, Sunfury Protector, Acolyte of Pain, and Loot Hoarder (x2), so I ignored those.

I modified my Paladin deck with some of my new cards and immediately smashed a Warrior in a Casual match. I don't think my deck is optimized yet, I just happened to get perfect draws to go with his bad draws and put it out of reach early. He passed on his first 2 turns so I was able to coin into a Blessing of Kings on my Shielded Minibot on turn 3 to hit him for 6 in the face, and it was all downhill for him from there. I was also able to Knife Juggler + Muster for Battle when he had an empty board, which was fun. He conceded on turn 7 when he had about 15 health left.