Hearthstone Players!

Well, it took all of 4 hours for a lot of people to decide that Mage is the class to play in this Brawl, though it may have been just luck that I faced 3 of them in a row. It's not so much the cheap spells that are a problem (though they are), but the Mage Counterspells can really mess things up. I lost 2 in a row to Mages before I started playing 1 mana Secrets to burn my opponent's Counterspells in the third game. That was also the game where I played Lay on Hands, RNG gave me a Chromaggus, and one of the duplicated cards I got was Avenging Wrath.

It's Repoman 1961

Yah I toggle between level 20 and 19. I get to 19 and run into people with three or four epic cards, the ones with the dragon frames around the oval. That makes it tough as I've got none of those yet.

The card I hate most is that fucking dwarf who clones himself every time he takes damage. Just wait until I get a copy of that card.

HEY, EVERYONE! GET IN HERE!

That's Grim Patron. You can get him from the Blackrock Mountain adventure. Honestly, if you want to pick up one of the adventures, I'd go for Naxxramas first. It has FAR more competitive cards in it than BRM did (which basically had Patron and Emperor Thaurissan.) Naxxramas, OTOH, has Sludge Belcher, Haunted Creeper, Mad Scientist, Zombie Chow, Deathlord, Nerubian Egg, Shade of Naxxramas, and Loatheb, all of which are regularly used in every class in the game.

The cards with the dragon border and the orange gem in the center are actually Legendary. There's 4 classes of cards: Common (white gem), Rare (blue gem), Epic (purplish gem), legendary (orange gem.) Then there are class cards like Fiery War Axe for Warrior and Fire Elemental for Shaman that don't have a gem and are gained by leveling that class, The trick to Patron is holding back on that card that can do the 3 damage needed to take him out. So, if you're playing Warlock, try to hold on to that Hellfire until he drops a Patron and then sweep the board. What a lot of combo decks like that will try to do is hold on to those key cards until they can execute their whole combo, so holding out won't always work, but it's better than letting him chain new dudes if you can prevent it. The other option is to just play a fatter deck and remove the Patron with your dudes.

repoman wrote: It's Repoman 1961

Yah I toggle between level 20 and 19. I get to 19 and run into people with three or four epic cards, the ones with the dragon frames around the oval. That makes it tough as I've got none of those yet.

The card I hate most is that fucking dwarf who clones himself every time he takes damage. Just wait until I get a copy of that card.

Don't worry, everyone hates that card. I mostly shake my fist at the screen when he gets played. I do have a nice sense of moral superiority I guess.

Ranked play is kind of a drag until north of 17 or so and Casual can be even worse. Once you get settled in on the mechanics you can start to dabble in Arena (akin to Sealed Deck). Once you can figure out how to go ~3 wins in Arena or better, it "pays" off to use that get packs instead of via the store. That is, in the store a pack is 100 gold. An Arena run costs 150 gold, with a pack guaranteed as a prize. But once you get 3 or more wins, you get a pack along with extra prizes that are worth more than 50 gold.

Like Jackwraith says, if you ever spend $$ on the game, spend it on that Naxxramas Adventure. It's really well done and you get some totally sweet cards you can't get via other means.

//addendum
I want to apologize to folks that have been spectating and seeing me drop out. My iPad 2 is the lowest possible rung of compatible for this game and HS crashes if two out these things happen simultaneously:

• I am being spectated
• I message someone
• The game goes a long time and there are a lot of animations
• Someone uses a big global animation like Shadowflame or Lightbomb.

It just goes black and it takes at least two minutes to get back in. I am usually dead by then. So, sorry!

ps. Shaman doesn't work in Brawl this week. So bad.

jeb wrote: I want to apologize to folks that have been spectating and seeing me drop out.

That's hilarious, I just figured that you heard your boss coming.

I'd also recommend Naxxramas if you have the funds.

I would also caution against diving right into Arena. If you're card poor the extra 50 gold is much better spent on packs because at first you're going to go 1-3 and 0-3 in Arena a lot. Top Arena players know the cards and their interactions inside and out so they can make chicken salad out of chicken shit, and even then they might go 1-3. If you don't know the cards that well you might get unduly frustrated, and to make it more confusing good Arena cards aren't necessarily good constructed cards.

I switched from Arena to daily quests + packs early on, and since April 30 I've collected about 2,300 dust. After I got my first 400 I crafted several common staples and a few rares, the next 1,600 went to Dr. Boom and I currently have 300 on hand.

I just bought the $50/50 pack preorder. Goddamighty.

I bought it three times, Barnes. No complaints from my quarter. (I bought it for me, and the kids whose accounts I manage also bought it--spending report card money!!)

It'll be huge. So, as a family, we'll be opening 150 packs. That's a decent n for some stats. I might a little Google spreadsheet to track some rarity distributions because I am a huge fucking nerd.

Full card list for TGT: www.hearthpwn.com/cards?filter-unrelease...-premium=1&display=3

A lot of interesting 3/2s. Doesn't seem to contain a direct answer to Patron combo other than a proliferation of Taunt and heal effects. It's interesting to see them print cards like Evil Heckler, which is exactly the same as Booty Bay Bodyguard, except 1 mana cheaper. Clearly it's an effort to slow down the game. So far, one of the best cards I've seen is Convert for Priest.

Jackwraith wrote: Full card list for TGT: www.hearthpwn.com/cards?filter-unrelease...-premium=1&display=3

A lot of interesting 3/2s. Doesn't seem to contain a direct answer to Patron combo other than a proliferation of Taunt and heal effects. It's interesting to see them print cards like Evil Heckler, which is exactly the same as Booty Bay Bodyguard, except 1 mana cheaper. Clearly it's an effort to slow down the game. So far, one of the best cards I've seen is Convert for Priest.

The fix for the Patron deck will be a nerfed Battle Rage. The design of the game should tolerate turn 8/9/10 one-turn-kill (OTK) combos. To have deck that can do that; it should have to be a little janky, using some sketchy cards, and it should fail if key cards can't be assembled in hand. The real problem with the Patron deck is that it can literally draw its whole deck, and that pretty consistently. That's what broken here. Every one of those Reddit threads bemoaning someone losing to an empty board with 30 life and Sludge Belcher should take a long look at that empty Warrior deck on Turn 9 and know what's up.

A deck that OTKs on turn 8 isn't a problem, a deck that OTKs on turn 8 all the time is.

//
I wonder how that Beneath the Grounds card works.
"Shuffle 3 Ambushes into your opponent's deck. When drawn, you summon a 4/4 Nerubian."
It's worded like the Mines from Iron Juggernaut, so I assume they draw again after your Nerubian appears.

What's a copy of a minion, per Convert? An exact copy, a la Face Manipulator or a copy of the minion card itself?

Those Priest cards are pretty sick in general. The 5/4 Sneed's lady is odd, but that will be crazy in my Resurrekt deck. Man, folks are going to be hating on Priest so much. Need to theorycraft a little...

You know, what this game needed was some people to hate playing against Priests more.

Just sayin'...

jeb wrote: I wonder how that Beneath the Grounds card works.
"Shuffle 3 Ambushes into your opponent's deck. When drawn, you summon a 4/4 Nerubian."
It's worded like the Mines from Iron Juggernaut, so I assume they draw again after your Nerubian appears.

Yep. I bet it works exactly like the mine from Iron Juggernaut, so you draw the Ambush and then you draw your card.

jeb wrote: What's a copy of a minion, per Convert? An exact copy, a la Face Manipulator or a copy of the minion card itself?

Good question. If we're going by strict language, it works like Faceless, which means it's a copy of whatever is on the board.

Jackwraith wrote: Good question. If we're going by strict language, it works like Faceless, which means it's a copy of whatever is on the board.

I hope not, but I fear this will probably be the case. So a Priest could make a copy of and play my 5/5 BoK Silver Hand Knight for 3 mana. Great. I'd be okay with Blizzard adding Convert to the Priest class only if they added a "Get fucked" emote for when you play against them. Seriously, fuck those guys. Of course I'm still bitter after yesterday when Thoughtsteal gave my opponent a copy of my only Avenging Wrath.

Yeah, I want a "Whatevs" emote. Less serious than "Get Fucked", but for when the time comes up that the game capriciously hoses you and you know the other player thinks it was a genius play.

I'd spam the shit out of it in Tavern Brawl.

Not Sure wrote: Yeah, I want a "Whatevs" emote. Less serious than "Get Fucked", but for when the time comes up that the game capriciously hoses you and you know the other player thinks it was a genius play.

I was being facetious, of course, but some way to express sarcasm or frustration would be nice. Like if I could make my Paladin say something like, "The gods have forsaken me!," or something else in-character like that.

My quests lined up this AM, have two 60-gold Paladin missions and a shitty rank, so in I go with Aggro Paladin. I have been playing this kind of deck since GvG, my old builds using Mad Scientists, secrets and Mech synergies. This one is less combo-y, just playing quality minions and spells. Vulnerable to boardclear, so be savvy. Ideally Divine Favor will let you recover.
2x Blessing of Might
2x Argent Protector
2x Shielded Minibot
2x Divine Favor
2x Muster for Battle
1x Truesilver Champion
1x Blessing of Kings
2x Consecration

2x Abusive Sergeant
2x Argent Squire
2x Leper Gnome
1x Southsea Deckhand
1x Ironbeak Owl
2x Knife Juggler
2x Wolfrider
2x Defender of Argus
2x Piloted Shredder

• Druid--not sure of the build here, but he had a lot of Taunts I had to hurdle. Sludge Belcher x2, Rooted Ancient of War. I got through them. If he was combo, he had a shot on Turn 9 as I had 20 life and left him a Piloted Sky-Golem the turn before, but he was missing something and died.
• Hunter--Mid-range, kind of janky (Multi-shot?). Again with the Sludge Belchers. I just silenced it and raced for the win.
• Warlock--Again, build was unclear--he tapped like Handlock, but I never saw a Molten. Many Arguses were Defended that day, but I just overwhelmed with a tide of dudes.
• Mage--Mech Mage. Got me with a Turn 5 Fel Reaver I couldn't handle. Antique Healbot put him out of range before I could win the race. This deck can't handle vanilla huge guys very well.
• Mage--Freeze Mage. I was chipping, chipping, chipping and had really good reach with a 6/1 Wolfrider to set off the first Ice Block. They kept Freezing, Ice Barrier, and all that, but I got through the second Ice Block finally and finished the next turn with a Light's Justice and Consecration as all my frozen dudes watched.
• Priest---Pretty tame Control Priest. I just kept pressuring, and I managed to get a Lightwarden out of a Shredder to make his math bad for a few turns. Again, punching through Sludge Belchers, using Consecration to control the board. I was probably one Holy Nova away from dying for about half this game, but he never found it. We were in a top-decking war in the endgame, with me making two weenies a turn (the one I drew and my Hero power) and digging for a Truesilver for burst. He was making Zombie Chows, Dark Cultists, Sylvanas, and healing trying to stave off the damage. I finally drew a Blessing of Kings to stick on a Recruit and win.

Got my 120 gold, climbed from 18.2 to 16.3, and recovered some ego, as Ranked had been kicking my ass recently.