Hearthstone Players!

There have been some super cool interactions in this Brawl. My opponent jousted out that big 6/6 Divine Shield Taunt guy to face down my board of 2/6-who-makes-pinging-cost-1 and Colderra Drake who lets me ping a lot each turn. I used Polymorph: Boar on his dude, pinged it twice, hit face for 8, pinged face three more times and dropped a Frost Giant for 0. Masterful, she gave up.

With the Huntress, I was able to turn 10 play Acid Maw (whenever another minion is damaged, destroy it) and Unleash the Hounds to clear some big mofos over on their end. I still lost though to some hasty Huffer to the face after a a couple of pings.

The decks both run pretty "fat" so don't worry about some dudes in the early game. The potential for burst is pretty small until 9 or 10 mana.

Thanks for listening to me whine, Jakewraith & Jeb. You're both right that I need to not play on tilt. No good can come of that.

I don't play Paladin very often just because I don't really like the style. I prefer Mage, Priest, and Druid, even though I've never done the research necessary to hone my decks for serious contention. Oh, and I love my Pirate Rogue deck, which does surprisingly well more often than not. I haven't played Warlock, Warrior, or Hunter since getting them to level 10 for the card rewards.

One thing I like about the Brawls (and to a lesser extent Arena) is that it (generally) rewards creative play and strategy more than access to great cards. It reminds me of Fischerandom Chess, the variant that forces players to abandon their memorized openings and explore the game itself. I think that's why I get so frustrated when playing a "pre-built" deck. It's like playing against a script instead of a real player, and I could just be playing against AI for that experience.

So far, I am 3-0 in brawl. Is there a benefit from getting more wins?

Both decks seem to be ok -- I have had more luck with the mage (2-0) then the huntress (1-0). The mage has just been able to steamroll the hunter both times I have played him. It can play very fast, at least so far.

Now, I am 3-1 (lost with the hunter).

I think Inspire is just a better mechanic than Joust

Gregarius wrote: I don't play Paladin very often just because I don't really like the style. I prefer Mage, Priest, and Druid, even though I've never done the research necessary to hone my decks for serious contention. Oh, and I love my Pirate Rogue deck, which does surprisingly well more often than not. I haven't played Warlock, Warrior, or Hunter since getting them to level 10 for the card rewards.

One thing I like about the Brawls (and to a lesser extent Arena) is that it (generally) rewards creative play and strategy more than access to great cards. It reminds me of Fischerandom Chess, the variant that forces players to abandon their memorized openings and explore the game itself. I think that's why I get so frustrated when playing a "pre-built" deck. It's like playing against a script instead of a real player, and I could just be playing against AI for that experience.

Same feelings here. I really like the chance to think outside the box and express myself with "non-optimal" card choices. Someone needs to like Hobgoblin, right?! Take heart in that folks like us find the cool stuff before others. I was playing Razor Hobo (a Warrior Tempo deck using mechs and Hobgoblin to great effect) and swapped in a Grim Patron for Screwjank Clunker the week BRM came out. Even then I thought it was a house. I was able to see where it could go and actually played a proto Patron Warrior for a while. Then it got all tuned and boring. I'd been playing Beast Hunter for months (and was steadily shedding Beasts) when everyone decided Midrange Hunter was best Hunter. What're you gonna do? The metagame moves on and we stay a step ahead.

There are lots of ways to build Paladin effectively, as compared to how narrow some Heroes are at making effective archetypes. Maybe you just need a flavor that fits your mindset. The Classic Paladin is that midrange one with Tirion and Equality/Consecrate and all that. I don't have the cards for that, so I end up with Aggro builds like the one posted earlier in the thread. I have seen Hobo Paladins with Hobgoblins, Coghammer, Sword of Justice; Miracle Paladin with Mana Addict, Blessed Champion, and tons of 1-cc spells, really bizarre Giant Paladins that finish with big Holy Wraths; and Dragon Paladins that can be downright unfair.

There's no bonus to winning more in Brawl, SG, as yet. I think some Brawl-themed quests are possible now? I agree with your assessment, I think the Mage deck is easier to win with. The Hunter deck can really struggle with dealing with 3+ health and it's so top heavy that a patient Mage will wreck them with Polymorph:Boar.

Inspire is the base mechanic of the set. Joust is kind of incidental so, yeah,. Inspire is going to be far more prevalent, since they really want people to value their hero powers. There's been a lot of theorizing by various pro players that the hero powers actually constrain design, since all class cards have to address them as possibilities, leaving less room for moving a class in one direction or another. Inspire is kind of their answer to that, wherein the use of the hero power becomes a notable benefit, rather than something you just do because you have 2 mana left.

Joust, OTOH, was included as a way to slow down the meta. With the growing disdain for aggro decks that utterly dominate the ladder for the first week of every month (if you didn't watch the announcement feed on Twitch, when they revealed the first card of the set to be a Hunter one (Lock and Load; actually a control Hunter card), the boos were loud and long.) With control and midrange decks generally having higher minion costs, the idea is that every time you play a Joust card, you'll get an additional benefit for being willing to play bigger creatures. Unfortunately, most of the Joust cards are fairly subpar (No one wants to pay 4 for a 5/3 and the gamble that it has Charge, since said 5/3 can be taken out by your opponent's 2-drop.) The two exceptions are Tuskarr Jouster for Paladin, which has a significant benefit for control and is a 5/5 for 5, and King's Elekk for Hunter, which is a great 2 drop for control because it addresses the main problems of control Hunter: card draw and tempo.

I've won with each hero in the Brawl. You have to play the Hunter side verrrry slowwwwly. To my knowledge, the Mage deck lacks the cards that would make that a dangerous proposition 90% of the time (read: Fireball.) I won both games with Alleria in single digits of health, but had absolute control of the board.

3-1 so far with the Hunter (some crappy draws in the loss. 3 Release the Hounds is a bit excessive).

1-0 with the Mage. I'm used to the goofy RNG on these. Played so much Ragnaros it wasn't funny, I'd get surprised when I played Nefarian.

The Hunter deck is so clearly a plea *not* to play Face it's hilarious.

Just hit rank 5 for my monthly chest with mech mage.

TGT releases tomorrow, probably around noon pst. Between the preorder and gold I'm looking at 90 packs to open. 100 packs on average will give you about 75% of the expansion content.

I'm looking forward to making some dragon decks!

Has anyone pulled anything amazing while cracking packs? My sons want to help me open mine so I'm not opening them until tonight. I just saw my first TGT card in the wild while completing a Paladin quest. My opponent was a Druid and played Aviana into Ragnaros but it was far too late to make a difference.

I busted open 54 packs...I had the preorder and 400 gold. Three Legendaries- Skeleton King, Sky Capnnn' (whatever) and Rhonin. Skeleton King is going right into my Hoss Ass Druid deck, Rhonin I'm trying to put into my Flamewaker deck. Sky Capnnn' (whatever) might be dust in the wind...

First pack I had two gold commons. Whoopty shit. One was a Lowly Squire, so I already felt sort of ripped off on the first one.

TONS of Brave Archers, my god how many of those did I grind away. And that 9-drop Kraken. I think all told I had about 150 cards out of 250 that weren't duplicates.

I dunno, sort of feel the same kind of emptiness I used to feel after opening a booster box of Magic. You want to feel like you just got MOST of the cards, but you know that you didn't. Just got a lot of BULK.

In terms of play, it's hard to say right now...I rotated in some cards to my stabby Rogue deck to make it almost all combos and that worked pretty well...the Druid deck is doing OK too today. I tried to use that Astral Communion thing (gain 10 crystals, but discard your hand...on turn 4) but it's got to have some card draws to back it up. I used quite a few jousting cards in it, I like that mechanic. It's kind of dumb, but it's fun. However, as Jack stated, the effects of it are really kind of lackluster. It's kind of like Overload...a good idea that just isn't balanced into real effectiveness yet.

Haven't messed with Inspire too much yet, will probably do something with my Paladin's Dragons deck with that and the new dragon stuff.

I don't think I'm touching my Patron deck yet...I didn't see much to really add to it, which I think was kind of the point.

I'll be back with a beefier post. I opened 74 packs (50, plus 2405 gold saved up). Got CHILLLLLMMAAAAAWWWWWW so suck it Patrons. I also have Skycap'n Crag, Eadric the Pure, Anub'arak, and Bolf Ramshield. Going to open 100 more with the kids tonight and tally things up. But for just my stuff I am missing only 1 Fearsome Doomguard and 1 Tournament Medic for a complete 2x at common. For rares, I got at least one of each except Ram Wrangler, Argent Lance, Wyrmrest Agent, Tiny Knight of Evil, and Saboteur. I have 10+ for a few commons, and SIX Dranei Totemcarver and Argent Watchmans. Plus a gold one of each to boot! Blz, pls nerf randomness.

1485 dust just in dupes.

Got my Healing Wave on though and have gained 42 life so far in three games.

//Don't forget, you can search for "New" in your collection to see all the highlighted ones without having to page by page. To see what you are missing, filter on The Grand Tournament and search for "Common" (for example) while in Crafting mode.

I opened 93 packs today, not bad overall. I pulled 5 legendaries, Varian Wrynn, Chillmaw, Anu'barak, Justicar Trueheart and Confessor Paletress.

I seem to have most of the commons and rares. I'll have to craft a few epics and I'm missing most of the legendaries.

It'll be 3-4 months till the next adventure and then another 3-4 months till the next major expansion hits. I'll have enough time to grind out anything else I want to craft. I have close to 9k dust right now that I saved up so I don't need to buy any more packs.

I have 3 Classic packs to open that I received for installing Hearthstone on my new phone (even though I previously had it installed on my old phone, plus I got an exclusive card back, whatever, I'll take it), 4 GvG packs (still looking for my first Coghammer or Quartermaster), and my 50 TGT packs. I opened one GvG after work and what's this, a rare, an epic, and a legendary?!?! The rare was an Iron Sensei (OK, I guess), the epic was a Junkbot (WTF, really?), and the legendary was... Blingtron?!?! (insert Price Is Right fail trombone) At least I already have Dr. Boom...

25 for me, using my available gold. I didn't spring for the $50 pack because my relationship with HS has been tenuous and the first view of this expansion wasn't helping.

No huge Legendaries, but I got Eydis Darkbane and a Gormok the Impaler.

Epics: Crowd Favorite, Garrison Commander, Dark Bargain, Beneath the Grounds (yay Nerubians)

A lot of 4x commons, but the big winner was 6x Power Word: Glory. Thanks, guys. That's a lot of Glory.

Now, to go get my ass stomped by the folks who bought $500 worth of new cards.

Opened 88 packs (the discounted 50 plus a shitload of gold; held onto 300 for rebuilding the Arena fund) but, alas, only 3 legendaries: Chillmaw (seems popular), Anub'arak, and Varian Wrynn.) Of course, I don't play dragons, control Rogue, or control Warrior. I have about 3500 dust at the moment, so I'm thinking about legendaries. I got every common and Rare from TGT and have at least one of a majority of the Epics, several of which I dusted right away (Poisoned Blade!) Built a couple decks, including Totem Shaman and won 6 games straight against other control stuff, including two Priests, which is unusual for Shaman. This is the list of the moment:

2 x Earth Shock
2 x Rockbiter Weapon
2 x Crackle
2 x Lava Shock
2 x Flametongue Totem
2 x Totem Golem
1 x Healing Wave
2 x Lightning Storm
2 x Tuskarr Totemic
1 x Charged Hammer
2 x Arcane Nullifier X-21
2 x Defender of Argus
1 x Bloodlust
2 x Earth Elemental
2 x Thunder Bluff Valiant
2 x Fire Elemental
1 x Al'Akir the Windlord

Yes, the Nullifiers are weird. I included them largely to smooth the curve and to have Taunts that couldn't be targeted by silence. It's a midrange deck, so I'm still thinking about dealing with aggro. The EEs are there just because I expect the environment to slow down enough to make the execrable Lava Shock actually usable and what better card to play it on? Tuskarr Totemic is... not very good. The RNG factor is just too high to make me comfortable playing a 3/2 for 3, especially because half the time he just spits out a Searing Totem. What's missing, though? That's right: Draw. I did get the Tuskarr to drop me a Mana Tide a couple times, so that worked. For a turn. Like usual. Ancestral Knowledge is bloody awful and not worth the space in the deck, so I'm still kinda stuck in that respect. If the meta has truly slowed down, I'll probably switch the Nullifiers back to Shredders. Man, I wish Dunemaul Shaman wasn't an Ogre... Thunder Bluff Valiant, as expected, has been the shit.