Hearthstone Players!

Duels is DOA on digital formats. They really should have scrapped their entire engine, looked at Hearthstone, and did it that way. Because Hearthstone just destroys it as a piece of software, regardless of which game you prefer.

I really, really tried to get into it but after Hearthstone, even with all the animations off it was agonizingly slow.

I settled on Fatty Priest as the way to go for this week's Start-With-10-Mana Brawl format. I have a Dragon build so I can get some extra draw from Azure Drake and some extra removal with Rend Blackhand.

1x Mind Vision
2x Resurrect
2x Shadow Word:Death
2x Thoughtsteal
1x Mass Dispel
2x Holy Nova
Lx Vol'jin
1x Lightbomb (play two if you have them, I do not)
2x Mind Control

2x Azure Drake
Lx Loatheb
2x Sludge Belcher
2x Drakonid Crusher
Lx Emperor Thaurissan
1x Sunwalker (two? I only have one)
Lx Sylvanas Windrunner
Lx Rend Blackhand
Lx Troggzor the Earthinator
Lx Chromaggus
Lx Foe Reaper 4000
Lx Kel'Thuzad
Lx Nefarian

Obviously work with the dudes you've got. If I had all the cards, I would probably drop the dragon theme (Rend, Drakonids) for Prophet Velen and Mind Blasts. Foe Reaper 4000 has been MVP--he does a ton of work and/or draw an inordinate amount of removal. Troggzor has also been really good, as removal tends to be spell-based and you'll get at least one 3/5 out of it. Ysera is better than Chromaggus, and I would have played her instead for sure. Or even in addition and dropped the Mass Dispel.

This is the Rogue mess I've been running.

Decidedly inferior to Priests, but I've pulled a few surprise victories. It also could be improved, but I'm pretty lazy. Like Jeb, it's card-limited.

2x Backstab
1x Preparation (I only have 1)
1x Conceal
1x Deadly Poison
1x Sinister Strike
(most of the stuff above this line exists to start comboing with or otherwise be cheap.)
1x Betrayal
1x Blade Flurry (this should be doubled, but I only have 1)
2x Eviscerate
2x Gang Up (this tries to cover for a general lack of minions, pick a good one)
2x Sap
2x Tinker's Sharpsword Oil
1x Dark Iron Skulker
2x Vanish
1x Emperor Thaurissian
1x Gadgetzan Auctioneer (this should be doubled, but I had to buy one just to play Rogue in this)
1x Sunwalker
1x Trade Prince Gallywix
1x Dr. Boom
1x Ravenholdt Assassin
1x Chromaggus
1x Kel-Thuzad
1x Mekengineer Thermaplugg (I'm not sure I've ever *played* him...)

Hmm, just typing that out leads to some obvious improvements. Anyway, it halfway works, if you have some Rogue quests. Substitute whatever huge minions you have, and for some reason I left out Assassinate, which is dumb. Put two of those in. A second Auctioneer would also be a huge improvement.

The best recent Priest matchup I saw derailed when he Mind-Controlled my boosted 10/8 Kel-Thuzad while I had Gallywix out. I just took it back next turn, and he was still down on the board.

jeb wrote: The Grand Tournament is a new expansion that releases in a month, Barney--this was just the announcement and some sneak peak stuff. Your friends might be distracted by Tavern Brawl, which is a weekly (Wed --> Sun) "themed" variant game.

I watched some guy playing DUELS:ORIGINS and it at that short glance it has some issues. He'd turned down all animations he could but it's still slow as hell with the big sweeping, "I plaayed a laaaaand" animations. And just that MAGIC itself is inherently slower.

You can speed up that shit though. You can do super quick animations.

But I think you and Barnes are right that interface-wise, it can't even have the smooth feel of Hearthstone. Partly because it's Magic but mostly cuz Stainless is p00p


Ok so the Grand Tournament announcement is even better. It'll grab players out of Magic just as they're starting the worst part of the game, the grind. By that date, everyone should be done the campaigns and are now trying to unlock gold via MP or solo battles against AI. That's an easy time to poach players.

Not Sure wrote: The best recent Priest matchup I saw derailed when he Mind-Controlled my boosted 10/8 Kel-Thuzad while I had Gallywix out. I just took it back next turn, and he was still down on the board.

Gallywix! That's a great idea. I played a mirror match against another Priest (he did have Ragnaros to kill me though, eventually) and we went back and forth with:

1. Sylvanas.
2. Mind Control on Sylvanas.
3. Mind Control on Sylvanas.
4. SW: Death Sylvanas (nothing to steal), Loatheb.
5. Chromaggus.
6. Sylvanas, SW:D on Sylvanas (steal Chromaggus)

...and so on.

My Rogue deck was:
2x Gadgetzan Auctioneer
2x Arcane Golem
2x Tinker's Sharpsword Oil
2x Sprint

22x Cheap Rogue spells

It was sick.


//
Assuming they can make the non-essential stuff less draggy, really, the worst part of that MAGIC game is just that MAGIC takes a long time to play (comparatively). The defender has the control of combat, basically, and that can be exploited to make things take a while. A lot of real-life MAGIC games are over when someone shows their hand and the it's obvious they have the combo or the kill, or whatever. That's not even a thing that can be done in the online game, so folks will have to play that shit out and that's a drag.

The funny thing is even when you are playing against good players and they realize you have the game, they concede.... but you have to bring the game to completion against the AI replacement. Which makes combo decks BRUTAL to play in this medium. Way too long.

Holy crap, my (what I thought was a) janky Paladin deck is absolutely wrecking the Brawl right now. I had two reasons for picking Paladin: 1. I'm familiar with the cards since that's my main deck and 2. Tirion Fordring is my only class-specific Legendary. The idea behind my deck is simple: throw out some big guys and have a lot of cheap spells to either reduce my opponent's minions' health or attack to 1. Then I can either ignore them and go for face (1 attack) or easily dispose of them (1 health). Here's my deck:

Humility x2
Repentance x2
Equality x2
Holy Light x2
Ironbeak Owl
Wild Pyromancer
Aldor Peacekeeper x2
Blessing of Kings x2
Consecration x2
Loatheb
Sludge Belcher x2
Stampeding Kodo x2
Sunwalker
Sylvanas Windrunner
Guardian of Kings x2
Troggzor the Earthinator
Lay on Hands
Foe Reaper 4000
Kel'Thuzad
Tirion Fordring

I played a Priest and since I was wary of Mind Control I tested the waters with my Guardian, no MC, so then I dropped KT behind a Belcher. He burned a couple minions and a card or two to kill the Belcher and conceded after it was resurrected at the end of his turn. I think it was turn three.

The game before that I played a Hunter and drew Troggzor in my opening hand. I played him on my first turn and watched my opponent try to figure out how to handle him. After all was said and done, Troggzor was dead and I had 3 Troggs on the board: 3/5, 5/3, and 7/3. I swung for 15, played Tirion, and he conceded at the beginning of Turn 3. Troggzor has been really good for my deck in this format. I usually get at least one Trogg (which is crucial due to the rate I burn through cards) and he eats a Silence at the very least. My hero power also helps me with my board presence, especially in conjunction with Equality/Repentance and Blessing of Kings. I don't know if Sylvanas or the Sunwalker are helpful since I haven't seen either one yet.

jeb wrote:

Not Sure wrote: The best recent Priest matchup I saw derailed when he Mind-Controlled my boosted 10/8 Kel-Thuzad while I had Gallywix out. I just took it back next turn, and he was still down on the board.

Gallywix! That's a great idea.

Gallywix was a good early minion in this format. He really defuses Mind Control, and jacks up the general spell-crazy format.

The other surprisingly good thing in that deck was the Ravenholdt Assassin. Putting a 7/5 that can't be targeted initially is a great thing. Combining it with a Kel-Thuzad on T2 to have a 7-point restealthing suicide attack is great. I got off to some big starts with Ravenholdt and Conceal combos to keep stuff hidden on T2 or T3.

Today I was rolling Shaman, because I had a 5-win Mage/Shaman quest, and Mage seemed boring. Kel-Thuzad and instant Reincarnate on T1 caused a few early concessions, especially if I could follow it with Dr. Boom and Hex on whatever they played.

Seems the legendary was legit but the stats were wrong,





Nice low cost legendaries for buffing classes like priest, paladin, maybe even shaman and druid.

3/4's for three are pretty good and 3/4 for three with a good ability is sick, cf. Dark Cultist. This ability is a little narrow, but man, getting attacked by a turn 4 7/8 with Divine Shield is going to fuck my life a up a few times I can tell.

Consider slotting the latter into TempoMage that uses Spare Parts (i.e., Clockwork Gnomes and Toshley). That's like a thick Flamewaker.

Hmmm Ragnaros v Nefarian the sequel. I am shocked they already ran out of ideas. I have this one all figured out already and picked up where I left off last time they ran it. I am a savant at this matchup and incredibly average otherwise.

I have written them a letter suggesting they hire Sebastian Bludd full time to help brainstorm new Tavern Brawl concepts.

Alastair MacDirk wrote: Hmmm Ragnaros v Nefarian the sequel.

Really? I've got the All-Unstable-Portals version.

The one from last week was easily the most fun I've had with a Brawl. I was somewhere around 10-3 and I would have won something like 7 straight but I ran into a Mage that successfully Counterspelled me twice. Anyway, the best part of the 10 mana start was that matches were fast. I don't mind losing a Brawl match but I hate losing when, like earlier tonight, I get slowly ground down because my RNG is worse than my opponent's. With the 10 mana Brawl most of the matches were like the last few rounds of a fight in a Rocky movie with both sides pummeling each other with everything they've got. And if I lost I didn't feel like I got screwed, I'd just fire it up again and see if I could play better with my deck. With most of these Brawls I'm just hoping RNG falls my way so that I can collect my pack, I don't feel like my skill is the difference. Man, I loved my deck from last week. I might save it for posterity and name it "Bob Barker" because it felt like it could neuter any minion you could throw at it.

Alastair MacDirk wrote: Hmmm Ragnaros v Nefarian the sequel. I am shocked they already ran out of ideas. I have this one all figured out already and picked up where I left off last time they ran it. I am a savant at this matchup and incredibly average otherwise.

This was a mistake--somehow that older one got published to some folks--Blizzard fixed it late yesterday, there were many apologies and recriminations. I didn't mind, I liked that Nef v Rag one, and got two more Nef wins. 17-1 folks. Nef is brooooooke.

The planned one--Portals-a-Poppin' or whatever went live for me in the afternoon. From what I can tell, you pick a hero and get a deck that's about 8-10 hero spells (or weapons) and the rest are Unstable Portals. Here's my thoughts on each hero:

• Priest is good if only because Priest spells are all pretty good--the only real clunker is Mind Games.
• Warlock's Hero Power is still awesome, but UP makes for big minions quick and I am not sure the defense is there to take the most advantage. Plus, like me, you might get Sense Demons.
• Rogues might get Sap, which is great in this format as it turns cheap UP'd minions into pricey have-to-be-paid-for minions.
• Warrior spells are all pretty good too, and if you are patient, a Brawl can win you the game. Might get Shield Slam though.
• Paladin, as always, is awesome. Dropping Hands of Protection or cool lifegain effects or Equality or something. Pick Paladin.
• Druid can get Savage Roar and that's a game winner. If your RNG is sucking, maybe Poison Seeds will show up. Then again... Savagery. (shudder)
• Mage is maybe the worst class. The spells are really good in a normal game, but when huge things hit early and you get Arcane Explosion.... bleh. Pinging is great for early game control, but there might not be any early game in this week's Brawl.
• Shaman is really hurting without AoE removal. Lightning Storm can't cut it when Yetis cost 2.
• Hunter has Freezing Trap, which is a big tempo play. But they also have Call Pet, which is dog shit. This does give you a chance to play with Hunter spells no one ever sees like Explosive Shot and Gladiator's Longbow.

//
I am around 15 on the ladder and not willing to push too much higher this month. Just no drive there. I am hoarding gold/dust for the next release, not even willing to dangle in Arena waters, which are shark-filled. I got some Blizzard GCs from a friend and will spend them on that Pre-Release deal.

I played a bunch of Warlock for a daily quest (and inadvertently completed my second 40 Gold quest today even though I didn't want to because I'm an idiot) for this Brawl and I think I got Sense Demons every time. I also got Demonheart and Shadowflame, too, so it sort of evened out.

I bit the bullet and got the TGT 50 pack pre-order. I'm averaging a pack every two days with the daily quest grind so it comes to a little over 3 months' worth of packs. I could have saved up or switched to buying TGT packs but I'm still short on Classic and GvG. Of course I'll probably only pull one Legendary but I really want to play around with the new cards in my decks and I couldn't resist.

Kripp is suggesting that the release date for TGT will be August 24th, based on the old Windows clock prediction system.