Hearthstone Players!

Jackwraith wrote: 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.

haha, that's nasty. 4 Fireballs. That's 24 damage, man. Just... come on. Ugh, I hate Mage sometimes. I ran into trouble against 5-Darkbomb.dec the other day. Good times.

Jackwraith wrote: 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.

Mind Spike is Holy Smite here, right? The shoot-for-2? I am missing some important cards to make me comfortable with a Priest deck. No Shadow Priests, only one Achunai, no Wild Pyro, no Lightbomb. I do have a Vol'jin, and want to get him out there. He's good times and has the best intro music in the game. I also don't like how reactive Priest decks have to be. I want to feel like I am doing something instead of waiting for them to do something I can exploit. I have been trying a Silence deck with Wailing Soul, but it's garbage.

Jackwraith wrote: 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.

Firebat made MechShaman all the rage for a little bit there. I agree that Feral Spirit is not a good card, I haven't ever played that. But even the good Overload cards like Lightning Storm have that tempo tax that just hurts. That said, Lightning Storm is playable, and I think Lava Shock makes it even more so, as it won't fuck up my next turn in the mid-game. Also, it makes Neptulon even grosser, for those that mmgrrgllrlglll.

Jackwraith wrote: 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.

I agree with this whoeheartedly. Warrior is SO much better as a Control deck that it feels weird to play it any other way. Hunter has this issue too, as you point out. I don't think there's a viable "Control" Hunter, per se, but BeastHunter is a solid midrange deck. WeaponWarrior is an agressive build I like, but it dies like a dog to about half the field right now and I get bounced out against even shitty decks sometimes.

Jackwraith wrote: 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.

Demonlock is eveeerryyyywhheerrrre right now, oh my god. Someone won a tourney with it and it's been pooped out by everyone. It's a solid deck, but it's not THAT much better than Zoo or Handlock.

And guys, come on. It's no Hobwargoblocklin deck.

jeb wrote: haha, that's nasty. 4 Fireballs. That's 24 damage, man. Just... come on. Ugh, I hate Mage sometimes. I ran into trouble against 5-Darkbomb.dec the other day. Good times.

Yeah. I'm kind of anticipating that I'll just run into someone with more durable creatures when I can't topdeck a Fireball or have a hand full of removal against untargetables, etc. It always seems to happen when I have a ton of removal that my opponent has no creatures and I can't make any progress until he drops something that I can't get rid of. Part of the reason I haven't played much Arena recently is because it's so random that it's annoying.

jeb wrote: Mind Spike is Holy Smite here, right? The shoot-for-2?

It becomes the equivalent of Smite with Shadowform, yes, albeit for two mana, rather than 1. If you cast the second Shadowform, it becomes Mind Shatter, which then gives you Darkbomb for a Hero Power. It is difficult to play Priest without cards like Pyromancer but it's possible. I think Auchenai/Circle is really the only key element for Control decks that simply can't be replaced and, as you can see, I'm not playing it in my Shadow deck because I don't have room and haven't included other elements that make Circle really worthwhile, like Blademaster.

jeb wrote: Also, it makes Neptulon even grosser, for those that mmgrrgllrlglll.

Ha. The only murloc deck I ever played was Warlock, not Shaman, because Life Tap is the OP way to keep drawing frogs. Neptulon is also one of the few legendaries that I don't own and, IMO, is simply too slow for the current environment. You play Neptulon, overload yourself, and hope you can cast a couple Murlocs that are durable. Meanwhile, your opponent respond with BGH and clears your board of frogs and totems and you're left overloaded. Ugh. I just don't see any good results from that.

jeb wrote: I agree with this whoeheartedly. Warrior is SO much better as a Control deck that it feels weird to play it any other way. Hunter has this issue too, as you point out. I don't think there's a viable "Control" Hunter, per se, but BeastHunter is a solid midrange deck. WeaponWarrior is an agressive build I like, but it dies like a dog to about half the field right now and I get bounced out against even shitty decks sometimes.

Yep. I have a control Hunter deck that I LOVE (Feign Death and Sniper), but it's just not viable and if I trade cards out to make it MidRange (and, thus, viable), it loses it's appeal to me. I run a Tempo Warrior deck at the moment that's a little faster than typical Control Warrior, but is still basically the same. Why you'd run it over Control, in the same vein as why you'd do Demonlock over regular Handlock, is mostly for surprise value.

jeb wrote: Demonlock is eveeerryyyywhheerrrre right now, oh my god. Someone won a tourney with it and it's been pooped out by everyone. It's a solid deck, but it's not THAT much better than Zoo or Handlock.

Exactly. I love Mal'Ganis and Floating Watcher, but they're just too slow or situational to really make use of on a regular basis.

I remembered someone posting about a Top 50 Legend [EU] with Shadowform Priest. Looks like he keyed around Prophet Velen though, is that an option for you? That would make your late game go from pretty fucking good to goddamned ridiculous.

I want to hear from NotSure about how he did with Oil Rogue, but NO BLADE FLURRY! Yikes.

Lost the first game, don't recall the details. I think it was with a druid where I couldn't keep the fatties down, but I might be confusing that with an earlier game.

Then I won three straight, including the 1-point-left near suicide you saw. That almost went wrong, but I was still learning it, and pulled it out.

Left for the night on a win streak. I've only played about eight matches in the last eight weeks, though, and most of those were last night.

Not having Blade Flurries is a definite handicap, but I managed to make it work in the scrub ranks. Maybe I'll just spend the dust for them. I also only have the one Prep, but it's been consistently coming up for me every game. Saved my ass once when I used it to Sprint (for only 4), then pulled an Eviscerate to take the last 4 health from an annoying Priest.

Oil Rogue is pretty crazy, that's for sure. Since it all flies out of your hand, there's not much anyone can do about it except hope really hard that the cards don't come.

The nice part about it is that there's really no Legendaries (Bloodmage is optional) in there, and only two key epics. It's not like Demonlock's "5 legendaries" deck. Who the fuck can afford that stuff? They and I have very different priorities.

Cheap is good. I still like playing my cheapass deathrattle warlock, even though I do run one good Legendary in it. I'll scroll back to see if I've posted it, and post it if not.

I only have the one Preparation myself, and the only dramatic downside for me is that I am afraid to mulligan it away. Yeah, the Prep --> Sprint and Prep --> Oil are the key plays in that deck. It can go in a lot of directions, and cheap is definitely one of them. My build is very card-draw focused with Shiv, because I do need to roll into that Preparation if I don't have it. Many folks run Goblin Auto-Barber there I think. The key cards, like don't build without this, I would say are:
1x Preparation (combo)
1x Tinker's Sharpsword Oil (combo)
1x Southsea Deckhand (combo)
2x SI:7 (minion management)
2x Deadly Poison (everything)
2x Backstab (minion management)
2x Eviscerate (minion management/combo)
2x Sap (Taunt management/combo)
1x Blade Flurry (minion management/combo)
1x Sprint (recovery/dig)

700 dust + commons. The rest is up to you. I like sticky minions (Piloted Shredder), spell damage (Azure Drake), and card draw (Shiv, Fan of Knives). You might prefer Go Big (Anubar Ambusher, Assassin's Blade) or more Mechs (Auto-Barber, Iron Sensei). It's a very flexible genre. Lots of math though. Turn 7 might see with this hand, with a full Knife and a 4/2 Azure Drake on the board--opponent has a Sludge Belcher and 25 life.

Tinker's Sharpsword Oil
The Coin
Preparation
Cold Blood
Sap
Eviscerate
Blade Flurry
Deadly Poison
Southsea Deckhand

Lemme see, Sap the Belcher, The Coin, Prep, Oil, Cold Blood, Poison, Southsea, Flurry = Attack for 11 + 2 + 6, Flurry for 6 more. You win. Didn't even need Eviscerate.

Velen is an option but I have a hard time imagining what I'd cut to fit him in. The most obvious candidate would be a Smite, but they're so useful in slowing down the early rush and in comboing with Pyromancer (so I can take out SI:7 agents, for example...) that I'd be reluctant to lose one. Also, Velen is a BGH target and isn't castable in turns 1-6 and isn't especially useful in turns 7 or 8, either, since you basically have to have the mana for the hero power to make him pay off. If he can stay on the board for a turn or two, he turns you into a god, but that's the whole trick. I just think he's too demanding.

www.hearthpwn.com/decks/194519-oil-rogue
That's the version of OIl that I was running for a little while. I don't really like combo decks, for the most part, and while that's on the lesser end of the spectrum where actual "combo" is concerned, I've never been a real fan of the "big finish"-type decks. It's fun, but just not really my style.

www.heartharena.com/arena-run/zk26jb
This was a real heartbreaker today.

rocketkiwi wrote: www.heartharena.com/arena-run/zk26jb
This was a real heartbreaker today.

What the actual fuck happened? Your turn 3 is garbage, but your late game is hnnnnnnnngh. You have enough taunts to hold them off while you starting Thrmoplugging and Ragnarosing, no? Man, I am so sad for you.

Jackwraith wrote: www.hearthpwn.com/decks/194519-oil-rogue
That's the version of OIl that I was running for a little while. I don't really like combo decks, for the most part, and while that's on the lesser end of the spectrum where actual "combo" is concerned, I've never been a real fan of the "big finish"-type decks. It's fun, but just not really my style.

Yes! The Violet Teacher. NotSure, if you have that, put her in. Synergies for days on Turns 6/7/8, &c. Sometimes she just wins you the game. This one is not nearly as bursty as mine, not running Southseas--this is actually pushing into value town with that Belcher.

jeb wrote: ]What the actual fuck happened? Your turn 3 is garbage, but your late game is hnnnnnnnngh. You have enough taunts to hold them off while you starting Thrmoplugging and Ragnarosing, no? Man, I am so sad for you.

The decks I faced were just too fast. I traded, put down taunts, did board clear but by the time I got to the turns where I would have been effective, I was usually finished off by some kind of direct damage. I put down Thermaplugg and he produced three leper gnomes in one turn - and then I got lethaled.

I don't recall if I have Violet Teacher or not. I'll look. I saw it in the builds, but forgot to put it in. I think I used Shade of Naxxramas instead, which shows up in some builds and not others.

I'm also only running one SI:7 at the moment. Another Rare I didn't want to buy, because I usually rarely play Rogue.

I'm on call this weekend, so I'll be home, and probably play a bit.

Have a Pally deck in Arena that is sick as hell . I went on a 5-0 tear this morning, and sitting at 9-1 right now. The 9-0 match was against a Mage, and I needed to apply pressure. I was doing OK, but couldn't overcome 3x Flamestrike, 1x Blizzard, along with the other spells. I needed to play around a late game Duplicate and couldn't manage it, netting him two Ironfur Grizzlies that I was never going to get through.

//edit
A 12-0 deck! With a 9-3 pilot. Oh well, it was cool while it lasted. I drafted another clearly inferior Paladin deck after and went 2-3, so back to normal. I am really shitty at aggro decks in Arena. Need to skew to tempo or control, because I just cannot get the timing down on aggro. I feel like I miss one tempo moment and I get obliterated. Still my best run ever. The 9-3 winnings: 150g, gold common, rare, and the pack (with a Legend in it, no less).

Set myself up with an incredibly annoying Priest deck this time. 3@ Shrinkmeister, 4@ Shadow Word:Pain. I hope you like the 2-drop beatdown!

In constructed, I am riding Beasts to rank 15 again. It's a solid deck and seems to have a chance against anything. I took out Ramp Druid and a MechPally just now to streak to 15.2.

Remember my 0-3 deck that was crazy? Well, I drafted a Paladin deck that has only two Hammer of Wrath for removal. No Equality, no weapons, no Consecrate. It's 4-1 so far, only losing to another Paladin who buffed a taunt minion out of the reach of my meager means.

God damn it.

Constructed I've been mechmaging it because my collection is puny.
Most memorable recent match went down like this:

I went first.
My Turn 2: Mechwarper
My Turn 3: Arcane Nullifier
My Turn 4: Mechwarper + Snowchugger + Junkbot
My Turn 5: Clockwork Giant, trade the Mechwarpers + Snowchugger
My Turn 6: Frostbolt to face + Cone of Cold to minions
Their Turn 6: Concede

There was also a fun one against a Paladin where I got an Antonidas out of an Unstable Portal. Not as cool as Prophet Velen, but close.

rocketkiwi wrote: Remember my 0-3 deck that was crazy? Well, I drafted a Paladin deck that has only two Hammer of Wrath for removal. No Equality, no weapons, no Consecrate. It's 4-1 so far, only losing to another Paladin who buffed a taunt minion out of the reach of my meager means.

Pally without removal can be aggressive as hell. If you can curve out you can be unstoppable.

I have a 5-2 Priest deck going right now . I lost my 3-0 game on a missed lethal! Ugh, I am terrible. Legit lost at 3-1 though, a Shaman that curved out and just obliterated me. It was pretty funny. The deck is really solid--only two legit turds in it. A Salty Dog and Neru'bar Weblord--and that one was a misclick--it was supposed to be Velen's Chosen #3!

I am averaging only 43 gold per Arena run, so i need to improve juuust a smidge to make it worth it from a pack farming perspective.

//EDIT: Deck finished 9-3 with 160 gold, bringing my average to 55.

In constructed, I am working a few decks. I finally found a Priest build I am happy with. Like Druid, I lack a lot of the cards needed to make the traditional versions of these decks viable, viz, Cabal Shadow Priests, Light of the Naarus, Wild Pyromancers, Lightbombs, even a second Auchenai. Someone posted a deck that inspired me to try out The ChOozen--putting Velen's Chosen on Echoing Ooze. It's hilarious! They become 3/6 bodies with +1 Spell Damage. Holy Nova becomes a better, cheaper Flamestrike. Holy Smite is a juiced Lightning Bolt with no Overload. The original build pairs this idea with Prophet Velen for ridiculous finishes with Mind Blast, but I don't have that guy, so it's just Kel-Thuzad into Mekgineer Thermoplugg (!?) into Mind Control on turns 8/9/10.

I built a Mech Mage deck and it's just nuts. It's so nuts I don't even think it's fun. Goblin Blastmage is just grotesque. The other stuff I can handle as the opponent, but that Blastmage is too much. I can't believe it's a 5/4 with that ability. Shoot everything and hey, kill a yeti or something next turn too. Sounds like 4 mana. Sure.

Sounds like Kiwi got the God draw. Those are always fun.

Seriously, the number of times I've gotten Legendaries off of Portal is ridiculous. I've gotten Grommash three times, Velen once, Al'Akir once, Nozdormu, etc., etc. It's just crazy. Of course, I've also gotten the free Deckhand. Woo.

Blastmage is OK. It's really effective and kind of makes MechMage what it is, but it's not OTT. I've had plenty dropped against me that either didn't have a Mech and the player was just trying to stay on curve or that dealt out 1 damage each to my 3 minions, accomplishing nothing. There's a half-size version (Flamewaker) coming in Blackrock that doesn't require a Mech, so you'll be seeing plenty of that next month.

I'm still tooling around with Shadow Priest and Control Hunter variations. Still not playing as much as I'd like.

Got the Naxxramas Heroic cardback. I am actually proud of this. Some of these are BALLS hard if you don't have awesome Priest cards. Finally got Sapphiron with a Warrior and Kel'Thuzad with a Paladin. Still needed a little RNG (had a board-clearing Brawl with the Warrior via NecroKnight and topdecked an Owl to make Abomination not awful for me).

Can't wait for Blackrock Mountain to make Arena easier again. A whole bunch of folks get in there when the new cards come out and some of them are terrible at Arena.