JPHiP Forum

General => Akihabara => Video Games => Topic started by: Stryfe on January 28, 2014, 03:33:41 PM

Title: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Stryfe on January 28, 2014, 03:33:41 PM
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06931.png)

Official site (http://battle.net/hearthstone/) | Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearthstone:_Heroes_of_Warcraft) | Official Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/user/PlayHearthstone)


Some useful sites, feel free to suggest more:
I Hearth U (http://ihearthu.com/) - website with articles and some useful guides
Hearthhead (http://www.hearthhead.com/) - card database with tools and decklists
HS@gamepedia (http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Hearthstone_Wiki) - handy wiki with card strategies
Liquid Hearth (http://www.liquidhearth.com/) - a community site
r/hearthstone (http://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone) - the Hearthstone subreddit
Hearthpwn (http://www.hearthpwn.com/) - card database, deck builder and more
Hearthtracker (http://blog.hearthtracking.com/) - stats tracker tool
Hearthstats (http://www.hearthstats.net/) - web-based stats tracker
Hearthdecker (http://hearthdecker.blogspot.com/) - decklist utility tool

JPHiP battletag listing, post yours, let's friend!
Stryfe - Stryfe#2231 (EU)
Wuffer - Khend#2613 (EU)
Mage77 - Mage77#2920 (EU)
USS J.E.B. - PriestRoy#2661 (EU)
xyish - xyish#1424 (US)
Slack - Slackius#1483 (US)
thatonezombie - TOZ#1726 (US)
ziggurat - wormmox#6978 (US)



Hearthstone is an online collectible card game set in the, erm, world of Warcraft, currently in open beta. It's a bit like a fast-paced yet suitably complex variant of Magic: The Gathering. The games will not get too complicated or long, and there's even a time-limit on turns. The gameplay is nifty and entertaining, with plenty of animations and sounds for different cards and events. It's hellishly addictive and can be immense fun in short or longer bursts.


(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06932.jpg) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06933.jpg)

The objective of each game is to smash down the opposing hero using spells and minions you play from your hand. You draw cards from a deck of 30 and get an increasing amount of mana to spend each turn, which eliminates MTG-esque mana problems. You start with a single class, the mage. Other classes are unlocked by beating their AI-controlled deck. Each class has their own special ability (priest heals, mage deals damage, shaman summons totems etc) and a specific set of cards not available to the other classes. You unlock these class-specific cards by leveling up the class, simply achieved by playing matches with it. These cards are then complemented by a pool of cards available to all classes.

You can practice with different constructed decks against AI opponents. You can play casual or ranked online against real human opponents of similar caliber. For a price (of in-game or real currency) you can also play in the Arena, where you pick a class and then draft your deck by selecting one of three possible cards of equal rarity, a process that is then repeated until you've got a full deck of 30. Then you can start playing matches against other people in the arena, gaining increasingly better rewards with each win. Three losses and you're out.


(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06934.jpg) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06935.jpg)

It's also free-to-play, and so far it feels like a pretty FAIR free-to-play game. But I can't really say if it'll remain so in the long run, would need other opinions for that. Card boosters and arena runs cost gold (the in-game currency) or real money, but I haven't run out of gold yet. Successful arena runs can get you a lot of gold, and you gain even more doing daily quests and just simply winning matches. At least on the surface it seems like Blizzard has just concentrated on making the game as enjoyable as possible, so people will get hooked and eventually gladly spend shitloads of some money on it.

One downside of the game is Blizzard's implementation of the region system. Despite seeming like an easy enough thing to do, at least at the moment Eurotrash can't befriend or casual play against their 'Murican friends and vice versa. From what I've read this is probably not going to change, either.



Hearthstone Beginner's Video 1: An Introduction to the game. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3mV7y25mMI#ws)
This seemed like a nice little intro vid, for gameplay skip to 5:40.





I've been playing since the European open beta started a few days ago, and I know we have some people here with long closed beta experience. As a veteran MTG player (though I haven't played actively in years) I felt right at home with Hearthstone. The learning curve isn't steep at all, the tutorials are a blast and the basic gameplay is very easy to learn. There's also plenty of dynamics to figure out, mostly because of different classes and playstyle variants. And collecting... so addictive. All in all I've had a great time so far.

So, post your comments, experiences, favorite videos and maybe suggest some more useful sites.

We can also share battle-tags, I can compile a list for this first post. Remember to mention what server (US, EU etc) you play on. Mine is Stryfe#2231 on the EU servers.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on January 28, 2014, 06:57:56 PM
Battletag xyish#1424, region US. My collection is still pretty bad so expect more casual/gimmicky decks if you add me! Then again coming from other CCGs I've always been the one guy who runs every non-standard deck so :V

Personally don't use any so I'm not familiar with the sites but a few I know of are liquidhearth (http://www.liquidhearth.com/), hearthpwn (http://www.hearthpwn.com/), and of course there's always r/hearthstone (http://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone).

Other useful stuff:
HearthTracker (http://blog.hearthtracking.com/p/hearthtracker-client-download.html) is a personal stats tracker, use that info to identify your strengths/weaknesses
HearthStats (http://www.hearthstats.net/) is an site where you can track your personal stats online from anywhere, with the added advantage that you can see combined stats of all contributing users. Stats are manual entry but there is an automated app in the works, check out current alpha here (https://github.com/JeromeDane/HearthStats.net-Uploader/).
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Stryfe on January 28, 2014, 09:28:19 PM
I've done a total of 4 arena runs so far... I went 8-3 with the first, then 2-3 and 6-3... but for the fourth run, I got a REALLY good deck:

(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06937.jpg)

With the cards listed + 3 Flamestrikes and a Pyroblast, that didn't fit on the screen. Those cards really made this deck.



(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06938.jpg)

Lightforge Key, with 12 wins and 2 losses. On my fourth run, can't complain. Though I had some luck, at least one opponent practically gifted me the win because no-one seems to expect the Pyroblast. :P



(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06939.jpg)

And the rewards! The golden common card is a bit lulz there but at least I got a bunch more gold to use for the Arena again. :lol:
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Wuffer on January 28, 2014, 10:48:11 PM
^Pfft, 3 Flamestrikes... Of course you'd do well then. :P The time I did Mage in Arena I didn't get any Flamestrikes, and no Blizzards either.
I went 12 wins on Paladin a few days ago. Only got the minimum 230 gold, a golden Headcrack and a golden Explosive shot from that. x)

I don't play much constructed, just been trying to level the heroes to get the basic cards. In constructed I'd have to think about what kinda deck I want to build and then what kind of deck is my opponent having, and how to defend and so on... I don't have the mind to do that. :D Arena is even more nicely random, though sometimes quite infuriating. xD

My tag is Khend#2613 on EU.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on January 29, 2014, 03:54:45 PM
Another useful tool that can help improve your play, HearthDecker (http://hearthdecker.blogspot.com/p/download.html) is a decklist utility to keep track of cards left in your deck so you can make more informed plays. This is especially helpful in arena or when running decks you aren't very familiar with.

HearthDecker: Introduction and Instruction Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4prG5CpsiBE#ws)

Unlike previous apps recommended this doesn't use image recognition to identify cards and isn't much unlike crossing cards off a list, but with less actual work! Just take a screenshot (or two) of your decklist and the app is ready to go. Click on the button next to each card as you draw it and it will update the amount left (do note that the app does not recognize number of cards from screenshots, you will have to add as appropriate), and fade out completely if no copies of the card remain in your deck. It's full resizeable and works well as an overlay on top of the game with "always on top" checked, or alongside the game client if you wish (dem multidisplayz).

Note: Apparently the current version only takes screenshots that are either 1366x768 or 1920x1080, but more options will be supported in the future.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Wuffer on January 30, 2014, 04:54:04 PM
A couple Arena stories from today. I tried out Mage again, didn't get a very good draft. A bit too many spells and too many little minions.
Anyways, I was up against a Warlock and I was at 7 life, and he had lethal on board. I did have a secret, but it was only a Spellbender. So I passed the turn after doing what I could. And I don't know whether he didn't realize he had me dead, or whether he was still wary of the secret, but he decided to go after my minions. I couldn't believe my luck there. xD I then managed to maneuver his minions dead and he ran out of cards first being a Warlock, so I won with 3 life. :P It pays sometimes to see the games through all the way.

The other time it was me being slow. My opponent was at 10 life and I had lethal on board, but there I was just thinking "Hmm, I need to get rid of his minions... If I do this I'll have mana to do this and that..." And then realizing "...The hell.... I'VE BEEN SITTING HERE FOR A GOOD MINUTE BECAUSE I CAN'T ADD UP TO TEN?!... Idiot..." -_- Yeaahh... A bit embarrassing. xD

One game I was playing against a Hunter. I had Imp master and a bunch of imps on the board and I thought to myself that I'm running into some kinda Unleash the hounds combo here because he had not played any minions. So I put up taunt in hopes that it will soak up most of the hounds. It did not go well. xD He puts Hunter's mark on my taunt, then Knife juggler, then Unleash the hounds... And a Timber wolf on top. Pretty good for him, nothing I could do there anymore. :D
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Stryfe on January 30, 2014, 07:04:28 PM
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06941.jpg)

Oh baby gonna need a Scrooge McDuck style money bin for this shit soon! :P

--

I haven't been able to replicate my epic mage run yet. Had a few ok ones, a few bad ones. Currently running with a Paladin, got next to no stopping power from the draw tho, no Truesilver champions or Consecrates... just one Equality and a Hammer of Wrath . Just have to rush, at least I got three argent protectors and a bunch of alright minions... PLUS Ragnaros the Firelord.

Gotta say it doesn't feel too good to be on the receiving end of a crazy mage deck rampage in the Arena. After eating three flamestrikes, bunch of fireballs and polymorphs (one for Ragnaros, of course) I have to say I was feeling a little discouraged... xD

I've had a lot of fun playing my new starter Warlock and Hunter decks. I just hit the casual play from scratch and start leveling up. Just feels like more fun that way haha. So yeah, once I level up a couple of more classes... everyone at level 10, all basic cards unlocked which means... more of that sweet, sweet gold gonna be mine, all mine. :yep:
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on January 31, 2014, 12:18:39 AM
I've been a bit Shaman heavy in my recent arena runs (4 out of 7) despite it being my overall least played class. Pretty successful with the class despite having only 3 Hexes (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/270-hex) total in all of 4 Shaman drafts and averaging only 1 Fire Elemental (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/636-fire-elemental) (best basic/common minion card IMO) each. There was no Lightning Storm (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/676-lightning-storm). This is prolly the most of the game I've played in a short period besides the start of CBT.

Some interesting things I've noticed:
I have had some insane consistency of drawing high drops in my opening draws if I go first. Even with only six 5+ cost cards I often end up redrawing all of them in my mulligan. One game with that aforementioned deck I had no plays until turn 6. Usually going 2nd I get a more playable hand.

Earth Elemental (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/124-earth-elemental) straight up wins games. Dropping it turn 4 against a Druid or Warlock is a bit cruel, though some judgement required when dropping it against other classes. Seems like I pull it a lot even though I've only had one copy at most, but it usually does amazing work. No Black Knights (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/396-the-black-knight) or Big Game Hunters (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/73-big-game-hunter) on them yet! Interestingly in two of my drafts with Molten Giant (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/94-molten-giant) it was slain by Big Game Hunters about 7 times total. It was so consistently solid I've managed to pull off Windspeaker (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/151-windspeaker) on it 4 times, including once with Stormwind Champ (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/310-stormwind-champion) and Rockbiter (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/491-rockbiter-weapon) for lethal against 26 life and 3 armor. (last point from 1/3 Healing Totem (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/275-healing-totem)). Drafted 2 on different runs, and the runs I could pick up one I usually snagged a Doomhammer (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/172-doomhammer) instead.

Nat Pagle (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/19-nat-pagle) and Mana Tide Totem (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/613-mana-tide-totem) make people blind to the bigger threats, often people go out of their way to clear those out when I have 2 or more massive threats on the board. It's even funnier when my turn 1 Pagle didn't pay off for 7 turns straight yet they ignored the other stuff to get it off the board. Pagle/Mana Tide tunnel vision was prevalent even against opponents around the 8/9 win range. Drafted 1 Pagle and 2 Mana Tides total over 2 runs. Had both out in one game next to a Flametongue (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/390-flametongue-totem) for some extra threatening card draw value!

I was forced to pick up a Lightwarden (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/436-lightwarden) in two drafts, and only in one did I have a heal in Earthen Ring Farseer (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/557-earthen-ring-farseer)... yet this card does some massive work. I've dealt up to 20 damage after dropping it on turn 1 once, had another buffed up to over 10+ attack (via Healing Totem, though it couldn't attack because Mage frost) and have traded it up against stuff like a 7/3 Bloodsail Raider (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/637-bloodsail-raider) and Fen Creepers (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/476-fen-creeper) straight. One priest barely gave me board lethal from healing himself, though Priests weren't common matchups in my runs. Really surprising results for something I expected to only kill Silver Hand Recruits (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/268-silver-hand-recruit).

Biggest game upsets were AoE board clears, nothing else comes close. Constantly trying to play around them to decent success. Actually lost one game in doing so though (lacked that last bit of damage), otherwise only failures were against 2+ Flamestrikes (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/44-flamestrike) (which was every Mage, incidentally). Dumbest play was not clearing a Northshire Cleric (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/600-northshire-cleric) and forgetting about my own Healing Totem, allowing them to draw from 0->5 in a go when they'd otherwise be dead next turn.

Total of 1 Chillwind Yeti (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/31-chillwind-yeti) and 0 Harvest Golems (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/386-harvest-golem) offered in all of 7 drafts, 3 Dark Iron Dwarf (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/128-dark-iron-dwarf) and 2 Shattered Sun Clerics (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/434-shattered-sun-cleric). 1 Defender of Argus (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/542-defender-of-argus), 1 Azure Drake (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/280-azure-drake), 3 Argent Commanders (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/463-argent-commander) (2 were in same draft), 4 Arcane Golems (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/97-arcane-golem), 5 Lightwardens (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/436-lightwarden), and way too many Secretkeepers (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/483-secretkeeper) and Murloc Tidecallers (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/420-murloc-tidecaller). 2 drafts made it to 12 wins, 2 were so bad I opened 0-2 (though I managed to pull one to 8 and the other to 4), the rest were about 8 or 9. Gold rewards have been below average (even one below the minimum stated on wiki), but results were strong enough to profit a fair bit. Best card reward was a gold Blood Imp (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/196-blood-imp) since that DEs to 400 dust currently (same as a regular Legendary, though I wouldn't DE the Legendary), nothing above Rare.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Slack on January 31, 2014, 10:06:56 AM
Slackius#1483 on US

I haven't had much luck in Arena since the first time I played it and got 8-3.
Since then, I've had stuff like this happen:
(http://i.imgur.com/8oN2LA9l.jpg)
(This is pre-patch where they fixed arena rewards)


So as a result, I've played lots of constructed lately.
It's still fun cause you can pull off some stupidly BS combos like:

Warrior
Turn 1: coin, Amani Berserker (http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Amani_Berserker)
Turn 2: Inner Rage (http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Inner_Rage), Rampage (http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Rampage)
Swing to the face with a 10/5 on turn 2 -> opponent has 9 health by turn 4.


Priest
Turn 1: Shieldbearer (http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Shieldbearer)
Turn 2: coin, Divine Spirit (http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Divine_Spirit), Inner Fire (http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Inner_Fire)
Swing to the face with an 8/8 taunt on turn 2 -> opponent ragequits.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on January 31, 2014, 11:25:32 AM
So I did my first and only perfect Arena run! 12-0 THE DREAM!
The draft though, is far from the it and would have been disastrous if I hadn't drafted Archmage Antonidas (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/220-archmage-antonidas#gold), Flamestrike (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/44-flamestrike) and Archmage (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/545-archmage) on my last 3 cards.

Decklist as follows:
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06942.png)
Perhaps the deck wouldn't be so bad if the draft didn't roll so many rares?

I passed up Cairne Bloodhoof (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/498-cairne-bloodhoof#gold) (and The Beast (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/179-the-beast#gold)) for my 28th card seeing as I have pretty weak cards overall and don't believe I can win out any game with just Cairne (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/498-cairne-bloodhoof#gold). I thought Antonidas (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/220-archmage-antonidas#gold) would at least gave me some hope to win a couple of games, assuming it doesn't die outright when played (often saved a 1 or 2 mana spell just for the turn he drops). Almost every game was an uphill battle and required him for the win, in fact 6 of them were near losses with opponent getting me into lethal several times (others I was just losing, but not quite dying), and only 3 games were won without. I've had much stronger decks go 4 or 5 wins only so this was a huge surprise and a really stressful series of games.

In the very last game (DAT FINAL BOSS) I was against a Warrior who was pretty aggressive and put me into the red with multiple weapons and superior quality minions. I managed to use almost all my AoE nukes turn after turn to finally wipe the board, run out my Archmage (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/545-archmage) only to have him steal it with Mind Control Tech. I was at 5 life and without much answers. I managed to hold on between some taunt and freeze, trading creatures and my only fireball to ensure he doesn't have lethal. Eventually him trying to kill off my Acolyte of Pain (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/428-acolyte-of-pain) to deny me more than 1 card draw off the card sorta won me the game. I pulled a Mirror Image (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/30-mirror-image) and Antonidas (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/220-archmage-antonidas#gold). It was silenced but I bounced it back with Youthful Brewmaster (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/247-youthful-brewmaster) (after killing something first ofc). After dropping him again I had to spend every turn Fireballing (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/522-fireball) 2 of his creatures and killing off the rest with Antonidas (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/220-archmage-antonidas#gold) until the Warrior ran out of hand. Only then could I double Fireball (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/522-fireball) him for the win (He drew a Fiery War Axe (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/632-fiery-war-axe) the turn prior, barely missing lethal).

...With this I realized a number of my runs have relied heavily on very specific cards to win lol, even if most weren't drafted for that to happen consistently
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Stryfe on February 01, 2014, 11:30:01 AM
^ Flawless run, GJ man. :bow:

Noticed they've reset the ranks in ranked play, now's a good chance to play against completely bonkers decks as everyone has to rise from the bottom again. :P

--

(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06944.jpg)

I got this rather wacky mage draw that wasn't optimal, but potentially pretty great. The mana curve was a middle finger, which I took as a good omen. I went 7-0 until three super close defeats in a row against 2 paladins and a druid.

The seventh victory I got with this deck was my favorite play in the game so far. It was against a rogue, who rushed me pretty good. Eventually, I had two life, she had 30 and no doubt thought it was in the bag. I managed to clear the board and control the scraps with a sea giant and a blood knight. I clear her minions, hit her with a pyroblast and she's down to 20 life. Her turn, she stabs me with her dagger and casts a few more normal minions.

Well played, she says. I'm at 1 life, she has ~20. Then I hit her with the sea giant and blood knight, surely I can't do 9 more damage with a single card in my hand? What is the last card in my hand? Another pyroblast, of course. Gawd, it felt so good. :P
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Stryfe on February 02, 2014, 11:51:32 PM
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06952.jpg)(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06953.jpg)

Got my second 12 win run, 12-1 (so an improvement, really, from 12-2) with this Rogue rush deck.

It worked really, really well. Coin+defiant ringleader starts were a staple. Perdition's blade is an amazing clean-up card, often taking care of two minions the first turn I played it, another the second.

After rushing, I kept control with assassinates, sap, deadly poison, big game hunter etc, but mostly I just overwhelmed the opponent with creatures. No eviscerates, no backstabs, no big deal.

--

Oh btw my SECOND Southsea Captain... wtf, RNG, fuck you. :P
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on February 05, 2014, 03:24:36 PM
I thought I'd take a break from all of that arena talk and discuss some interesting constructed strategy.

So the Rogue spell Vanish was a topic on IRC a few days back, and since then I've been thinking about how one would build a deck around it, fully utilizing it to swing games instead of the terrible card it generally tends to be in most decks.
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06964.gif)
What I imagine I would run, had I the cards
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06961.png)

It's a fairly aggressive early-mid range deck with lots of card draw and easy early game removals. VanCleef (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/3-edwin-vancleef#gold) and Mukla (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/373-king-mukla#gold) provide huge bodies early on while removal ensures they can't trade efficiently with them. Lots of card draw to keep options open, and possibly to deny opponent's deck's options by flooding their hand and forcing them to discard instead. With the amount of card draw, Mountain Giants (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/264-mountain-giant) can be played cheaply, and works as a combo with Vanish if the game drags on. What I really love is the lockdown and bounce potential, reminds me of some of the Yuugiou/MtG stuff I used to run for lolz.


Other cards to consider (best first):
Shadowstep (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/550-shadowstep) seems like a pretty obvious one with the battlecries/combos, also for additional reach with Leeroy Jenkins (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/674-leeroy-jenkins#gold). I went for Brewmasters (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/247-youthful-brewmaster) instead because it's a decent 2-cost body which the deck could really use. Would definitely run if I could fit them in without sacrificing early game power.
Sap (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/385-sap) is a great tempo card, especially mid-late game by bouncing a big minion. This does lose you a card in the process but in this deck the disadvantage might even be negated by having your opponent unable to pick up the card on a full hand, or denying their next draw. I am excluding it because it's not that great earlier on and Vanish can finish games before they go on for too long.
Lorewalker Cho (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/456-lorewalker-cho#gold) is decent for aggressive play (that said, it can't attack) but restricts most of your removal use outside of Deadly Poison (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/87-deadly-poison). It also has the potential to flood their hands and lock up their options. Also, moar pandaz.
Wild Pyromancer (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/25-wild-pyromancer) is another decent 2-drop that has the potential to clear smaller minions for free allowing you to go for the face. Could replace some Brewmasters (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/247-youthful-brewmaster) though I'd feel less bad wasting a Brewmaster without using its ability.
Ancient Watcher (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/153-ancient-watcher) is a large, cheap body to taunt up so you can swing for face in full force with your other creatures. Would probably run a second Sunfury Protector (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/372-sunfury-protector) if playing Watchers.
Molten Giant (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/94-molten-giant) could potentially be cheaper to drop than Mountain Giants (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/264-mountain-giant) and that's great with Vanish (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/658-vanish), but given the nature of the rest of the deck wouldn't really make much sense, if any.

With all that said the deck has yet to see play and I'm not certain of its viability, but I think we could have something cool on lock if we bounced some ideas around.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: thatonezombie on February 07, 2014, 07:40:44 AM
After reading this thread, I realized I should step my game up, but probably won't.  :lol:

Also my tag is TOZ #1726 on the US server.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on February 07, 2014, 05:13:48 PM
Here's a simple userscript that makes links to HearthPwn card pages automatically generate a tooltip on mouseover, so you never have to leave the page to know what we're talking about! #gold for dat bling

Quote
// ==UserScript==
// @name            Hearthstone tooltips for JPH!P
// @version         1.0
// @description     Adds tooltips to HearthPwn DB links for JPH!P
// @include         *://*.jphip.com*
// @require         http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8.0/jquery.min.js (http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8.0/jquery.min.js)
// ==/UserScript==

$(document).ready(function() {
   
    $.getScript("http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8.0/jquery.min.js", function(){
        $.getScript("http://static-hearth.cursecdn.com/current/js/syndication/tt.js");
    });
})

Here be test links
Dem mindgaemz (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/582-shadow-of-nothing)
Not quite Barney (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/354-devilsaur)
WORTH (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/230-worthless-imp)
I need more mana (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/520-excess-mana)
OP 1-drop? (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/21-squire)
Dreams, or just dust? (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/129-dust-devil#gold)
Ishne'alo'porah (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/359-baine-bloodhoof)
Storm, Earth and Fire (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/717-power-of-the-horde)
Mind if I roll weed? (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/395-loot-hoarder#gold)
Boomkin (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/111-moonfire)


What it should look like

(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06968.png) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06968.png)(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06977.png) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip06977.png)
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on February 13, 2014, 11:19:25 AM
So this just happened in my Arena run as Shaman.

(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07007.png)
Imagine the buffs are in place, I couldn't get a screencap off before it all played out (dat charge).

I basically had the board, slight card advantage, but didn't expect to see a DOUBLE Timber Wolf (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/86-timber-wolf) Unleash (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/317-unleash-the-hounds), but they were the first 3 cards in his 4-card hand. I managed to win despite this devastating swing in the game, but the rest of his deck seemed pretty similar to the popular burn-unleash-rushdown Hunter deck in Constructed. It's pretty funny because I was getting a bit annoyed at all the similar Hunter decks on low ranked (~20) AND casual making quest completion a bit harder, but I faced 3 rush Hunters in 5 recent Arena games, so :V

Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: ziggurat on February 16, 2014, 02:14:30 PM
Just getting into Hearthstone after hearing Stryfe's rants in the IRC :P Add me, wormmox#6978 US region.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on February 16, 2014, 09:33:30 PM
Nice to see more players. Once we get enough people playing we could even have a league of sorts!
Common + Basic cards only would make it more accessible to newer players and possibly force us to come up with different decks than we're used to with some other creative rules perhaps?

--

Opened 20 packs earlier and I pulled a grand total of
3 Epics: Ice Block (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/28-ice-block), Preparation (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/364-preparation), Murloc Warleader (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/222-murloc-warleader)
2 Gold Commons: Silence (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/544-silence#gold), Earth Shock (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/77-earth-shock#gold)

No Legendaries or Rare piñatas, a bit disappointing. Overall that sorta puts me quite significantly under the curve, but it's all gonna have to even out at some point right? Gotta remain hopeful!
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Stryfe on February 17, 2014, 06:01:39 PM
Nice to see more players. Once we get enough people playing we could even have a league of sorts!
Common + Basic cards only would make it more accessible to newer players and possibly force us to come up with different decks than we're used to with some other creative rules perhaps?
That's a cool idea, at least US region players could have one of those already! EU jphipsters, need to step yo game up. Join the fun, we don't bite!


--

(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07027.jpg)

Got my third 12 win run, going 12-2 with this mage deck (http://www.hearthhead.com/deck=27811). Prior rewards for my 12 win runs were pretty ho-hum, but this time, I got a decent one.




(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07028.jpg)

And that's not all... from one of those packs I got my first legendary, so in the end, a really suitable reward for 12 wins. :P
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: TeriyakiBoi on February 24, 2014, 08:33:04 PM
My fellow classmates at my university play this game a lot and talk about it in the downtime before classes.  I could try to get into this but I already have an equally addictive card battle game on my Windows Phone that doesn't require registration.  Still, it looks like a great game nonetheless but just not my cup of joe.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Stryfe on February 26, 2014, 05:04:46 PM
I could try to get into this but I already have an equally addictive card battle game on my Windows Phone
What's that, Solitaire? :P


--

(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07057.jpg)

Got my first 1 epic + 3 rare booster... looks ok, but I still kinda got trolled by the RNG. Already had two captains, commanders and blade flurries...

So what I essentially got was a Murloc and a bunch of dust. XD
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Slack on March 03, 2014, 10:28:56 AM
Drafted a nice Mage deck in Arena just now, and started of 8-0 with it...
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07072.jpg)


Then I narrowly lost to a Shaman with Doomhammer...
Narrowly lost to a Warrior with Grommash...
Then I went first vs. a paladin with early draws while I mulliganed my whole hand into nothing below a 4-drop.

Since the last time I went 8-3, I started off 8-0, this makes me wonder if I'll ever get to see 9+ wins...
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: thatonezombie on March 05, 2014, 02:39:43 AM
Nooooo beta, don't go!

Quote
We’re drawing near to the end of the beta test of Hearthstone! We wanted to remind you that Golden Gelbin Mekkatorque, illustrious gnomish engineer and reward for helping us test our in-game shop, will no longer be available once the game is released.

In order to get your hands on this card for your Hearthstone collection, simply purchase an Arena entry or pack of cards from our in-game shop during the beta, and Golden Gelbin Mekkatorque will automatically be added to your collection. It’s that easy!

Once Hearthstone is released, you can still craft the non-Gold version of Gelbin Mekkatorque using Arcane Dust.

Grab this gilded gnome today, before he’s gone for good!

http://www.hearthpwn.com/news/362-hearthstone-beta-test-is-coming-to-an-end (http://www.hearthpwn.com/news/362-hearthstone-beta-test-is-coming-to-an-end)
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Stryfe on March 07, 2014, 05:31:51 PM
EU servers just got borked and ruined my Arena run when I was at 7-2 and had lethal for the 8th win. Right at that time, it just got stuck, then came back minutes later and gave the turn to the other guy, who proceeded to kill me, and then the servers borked again. Bummer, tho it was the first time it happened to me and I've won several games because of others having problems.

Anyway, I wasn't even that pissed about it... then I finally got back in the game and opened the booster I got from the Arena:





(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07075.jpg)

Lol, yeah, not too mad.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Stryfe on March 10, 2014, 08:39:20 PM
Nerf alert!

Quote from: http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/forum/topic/11985288985
Thank you for playing, testing and offering your feedback on Hearthstone as we’ve transitioned from closed beta to open beta. The release of Hearthstone is on the
horizon, and we have a couple of additional changes to certain cards we feel it is necessary to implement before the game goes live. As we’ve stated, we plan to make
very few card changes when the game goes live, and we will only make changes to cards if they are absolutely necessary. Making these changes now will ensure a
more balanced state of the overall game into release.

We will be making changes to the following cards: Tinkmaster Overspark and Nat Pagle.

--

Tinkmaster Overspark is now a 3/3 (up from 2/2) and now reads: Battlecry: Transform another random minion into a 5/5 Devilsaur or a 1/1 Squirrel.

Tinkmaster is a neutral card that silences and often shrinks big creatures. This reduces the amount of big, fun creatures in the environment. We think this change will
increase the amount fun creatures in the environment, and bring him more in-line with his cost and overall power. Tinkmaster should still show up in certain types of
decks, but will no longer be appearing in every high level deck.


Nat Pagle now reads: At the start of your turn, you have a 50% chance to draw an extra card.

Nat Pagle will now draw a card at the start of your turn rather than at the end. Nat had too much draw power for a card that is fairly hard to counter so early in the game,
making it almost an auto-include for many decks. This change reduces the power of the card and gives players more time to counter the card before it starts.

--

In addition to these balance changes, we have been monitoring your feedback on our Ranked Play system that we implemented with Closed Beta Patch 1.0.0.4217.
Many players have felt that the start of each Ranked Play season was particularly difficult due to the fact that rankings are reset for all players, regardless of how far
they progressed in rankings during that season.

After the next patch, you will receive bonus stars at the start of each season based on your performance from the previous season. This way, players that have progressed
far into any given Ranked Play season will not be challenging those potentially new to the game or jumping into Ranked Play for the first time.

For example, if you attained Legend, Innkeeper (Rank 1), or Black Knight (Rank 2) rank in any given season, at the start of next season you will start off at
Questing Adventurer (Rank 17) rather than Angry Chicken (Rank 25).
Tink got screwed pretty hard. Nat's gonna be a tad slower... went from amazing to just good, I guess.

Those ranked changes sound reasonable, at least.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: thatonezombie on March 12, 2014, 01:46:58 AM
Oh snap!

http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/13154924/hearthstone-patch-notes-1004944-all-that-glitters-3-11-2014 (http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/13154924/hearthstone-patch-notes-1004944-all-that-glitters-3-11-2014)
Quote
You can now connect to other regions (Americas, Europe, Korea, Taiwan) of Hearthstone regardless of the region that is set on your Battle.net account. Account progress and card collections are saved separately per region. This feature will become available once the patch is live in all regions.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Slack on March 12, 2014, 08:25:32 AM
I have a good feeling about this arena deck...
(http://i.imgur.com/N42JE3n.jpg)
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on March 13, 2014, 07:03:00 AM
I've always found it interesting to compare Arena drafts, and while HearthPwn has its own arena generator (http://www.hearthpwn.com/arena) which you can share your card pool to compare picks, ArenaValue (http://www.arenavalue.com/) lets you share your actual in-game draft pools and picks, alongside some sort of scoring system (which seems to be quite wildly off in some places, definitely use your better judgement).

Here (http://www.liquidhearth.com/forum/arena-strategy/1473-mock-arena-one-warrior-edition) we have a public draft excercise where the writers also share their drafts and their reasoning behind some of the picks. You can see what the readers chose (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ZQDx76GZs6ftW-i1CutFXF-Wxzvb_LldX6h8BQV9asA/viewanalytics) and how they compare against yours.

I made my picks on my phone over the toilet, so I had a bit of difficulty keeping track of my mana curve and picks, but it didn't turn out too badly, though there might be some questionable picks. For this draft I used ArenaValue to present my picks amongst the possible choices as it also shows decklist by cost as well as mana curve on the results page. Click here to view my picks, picks are in bold. (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07086.png)


My highlight picks and comments:
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
Pick #4 - Bloodfen Raptor (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/576-bloodfen-raptor#gold) / Abusive Sergeant (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/577-abusive-sergeant) / Ancient Brewmaster (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/572-ancient-brewmaster)
The first tough pick, I considered Abusive Sergeant over the Raptor because it was early in the draft and I might pick up Ooze (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/74-acidic-swamp-ooze)/Bomber (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/80-mad-bomber)/Faerie (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/213-faerie-dragon)/etc. later. Abusive is great for enabling trades and leaves a body, and is an okay turn 1 play as it secures board initiative the next few turns. I did not pick Brewmaster despite it having a good trade against Chillwind Yeti (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/31-chillwind-yeti) because it is early in the draft and I'd really rather have the Yeti instead. I picked up Abusive two picks later against cards I didn't value highly, and didn't get that many 2-drops overall, so it turned out okay.

Pick #16 -  Amani Berserker (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/641-amani-berserker#gold) / Shield Block (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/493-shield-block) / Spiteful Smith (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/627-spiteful-smith)
I normally like Spiteful Smith in arena, especially in weapon-wielding classes, but I only had an Arcanite Reaper (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/182-arcanite-reaper) at this point, and already have 2 Silver Hand Knights (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/648-silver-hand-knight) in the 5-slot and not many on 2, so the Amani is an easy choice here. The Inner Rage (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/366-inner-rage) I picked up on #3 combos well with it, and also any Taskmasters (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/328-cruel-taskmaster) I would pick up later (which I did the very next pick). Shield Block is an okay card, but is less valuable in arena, especially when you can't guarantee Shield Slams (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/50-shield-slam) (which ironically does show up later).

Pick #18 -  Shield Block (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/493-shield-block) / Inner Rage (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/366-inner-rage) / Lord of the Arena (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/414-lord-of-the-arena#gold)
I absolutely despise Lord of the Arena, but it is one of my first decent threats in the draft. Of course I wouldn't know how many of those the draft would later offer, but it's not the worst thing to have. It's also the only taunt I picked.

Pick #19 -  Shieldbearer (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/24-shieldbearer) / Ironfur Grizzly (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/519-ironfur-grizzly) / Silver Hand Knight (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/648-silver-hand-knight#gold)
As I had mentioned, I already have a few Knights, and the fact that I am low on 3-drops made this a really close one between the Grizzly and the Knight. I don't have any high value targets that are worth picking Shieldbearer for.

Pick #21 -  Kor'kron Elite (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/130-korkron-elite) / Ironfur Grizzly (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/519-ironfur-grizzly) / Ironbeak Owl (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/500-ironbeak-owl#gold)
The Owl is probably the worst card here, but I picked it as a means to bypass taunts for a finisher. It is a higher pick mainly because of how heavy I am on 5-drops and the hope is to play it on turn 7+. Note that If I weren't so heavy on the top end, I'd usually pass over Owls and hope for a Spellbreaker (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/42-spellbreaker) instead, as you'd usually want that silence around turn 4+ anyway. The other choices are both decent and despite being this deep into the draft I don't have that many 3s and 4s.

Pick #23 -  Booty Bay Bodyguard (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/27-booty-bay-bodyguard) / Fen Creeper (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/476-fen-creeper) / Stormwind Champion (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/310-stormwind-champion#gold)
Probably the most questionable pick for me seeing how many high costing cards the deck has, I mainly didn't pick Fen Creeper because I wanted to diversify and pick up something other than a 5-drop. Stormwind enables some neat trades particularly with the +1 health, but will often be a dead card especially with that many high cost minions already in the deck. It is most efficient when you have many smaller minions and will continue to play them even late into the game. It synergizes best with the 3 Silver Hand Knights here. The Bodyguard is terrible, and should almost never be picked.

I feel the rest of the picks were relatively easy for the draft despite some of them not being the most popular picks or in line with those of the writers. I feel like my draft would go 6+ wins, dropping games to really bad opening hands.

[/SPOILER]
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: thatonezombie on March 14, 2014, 04:19:37 AM
Speaking of the Arena, I'm curious how fellow HiPstas here pick their cards. I'm absolute garbage at Arena (and marginally better making decks when I have all the cards available to me  :lol:), and from looking at the screens of people posting of their arena runs, I wanna know yo secrets. Obviously whatever class you pick will influence your decision, but I want to learn more. Do you prioritize mana cost? Do you grab what you think is the best every turn? Are you taking every class-specific card that appears?

Reading the breakdown and links xyish posted does help me, but I'm curious if we have a general consensus on how to construct arena decks.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Mage77 on March 14, 2014, 08:39:35 AM
Battletag: Mage77 #2920
Region: EU

Haven't played a ton so I'm just yoloing Arena trying to learn all of the classes.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Stryfe on March 14, 2014, 08:48:40 AM
Also note that now you can log into EU, US and ASIA regions from the same client, so the tags will now work across servers.

Card collections are separate, as are friends lists (so you need to add everyone to each server). Let's just assume the reported Region (as in the first post) is your MAIN place of play.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on March 15, 2014, 10:39:58 AM
Speaking of the Arena, I'm curious how fellow HiPstas here pick their cards. I'm absolute garbage at Arena (and marginally better making decks when I have all the cards available to me  :lol:), and from looking at the screens of people posting of their arena runs, I wanna know yo secrets. Obviously whatever class you pick will influence your decision, but I want to learn more. Do you prioritize mana cost? Do you grab what you think is the best every turn? Are you taking every class-specific card that appears?

Reading the breakdown and links xyish posted does help me, but I'm curious if we have a general consensus on how to construct arena decks.

I think there are no hard and fast rules to stick to for drafts, and that the number of different opinions on a single pick even from strong players really proves this.
Generally though, you'd want to pick the best cards but more importantly you want a strong cohesive deck, and the best pick for that is not always immediately apparent. Remember that you can stop at any point of the draft, think it through and come back to the pick at any time so don't rush into a pick.

I tend to aim for a strong midrange decks since those are easier in construction from a random pool than building a solid lategame control or all-out aggro.
I tend to prioritize the early game FIRST, then the finishers, picking everything good in between to a balance while keeping the options open. Let's break that down to the different stages.

EARLY GAME
You want a good amount of 2-mana cards that you will play on turn 2, preferably minions.
This may include early game removal and weapons, or accelerators like Innervate (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/548-innervate).
Typically I aim for at least 3 playable cards on 2, but wouldn't mind more. I try not to overload on them lest I lose power in the later stages. The more you pick up, the more aggressive options you want to consider. I consider around 7 to be plenty.
This is more personal flavor, but I like maybe a couple of 1-mana minions, if nothing else for 2-drop denial. Worgen Infiltrator (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/112-worgen-infiltrator) and Abusive Sergeant (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/577-abusive-sergeant) are top picks in this slot. You lose card advantage to secure board initiative, which allows you to control how the game plays, often spiraling out of control if you are the first player. Mana Wyrm (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/263-mana-wyrm) is an excellent 1-drop and good for baiting out an overreaction, you'll often find them spending more to remove it than you have invested in it, and being able to trade up with it is often worth it even if it hasn't done much life damage.
3-mana drops are less important, as they are usually comparable to 2-mana ones. Barring strong class cards, you may even skip them completely. Always pick Harvest Golems (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/386-harvest-golem), and if available also Scarlet Crusaders (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/475-scarlet-crusader) because they are hard to remove and are guaranteed damage. Shattered Sun Clerics (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/434-shattered-sun-cleric) are great at enabling better trades, but very often won't have a target at 3. Farseer (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/557-earthen-ring-farseer) does similar, but for damaged minions.
Always mulligan for early game cards, typically toss back everything above 4 barring fringe situations like with Innervate and/or coin. If you toss everything you are statistically quite likely to draw into something you can play in the first 3 turns even without very many of them.
Once again if you have Innervate (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/548-innervate) you can pretty much skip this stage completely, a turn 1 or 2 Yeti (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/31-chillwind-yeti) can be unrecoverable from for many decks, especially in arena where these answers are less common.

MID GAME
4-mana is the first real turning point in the game, and is also the cost for everyone's favorite textless 4/5 minion, the Chillwind Yeti (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/31-chillwind-yeti). It is perfectly fine to overload on 4s, because often the only turns you won't get to saturate your mana are 5 and 7 in a 4-heavy deck. Pick the best, and as many as you need.
5-mana cards are somewhat less powerful, especially in neutral cards, but aren't the worst thing to have. Once again, take as many as required. One consideration is that on turns past 10, you could be playing 2 5-mana cards a turn while the opponent may only be playing two 4s, or often just one 6+ card a turn, which means you are putting more power on the board. Try not to overload just to prevent having bad mulligan situations.
Tempo cards are strongest in this stage, consider sapping (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/385-sap) or freezing (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/26-cone-of-cold) and losing card advantage for massive tempo plays.

LATE GAME
In the 6+ slot you are looking for big game ending threats that they will have trouble dealing with. You don't want too many because bad draws will lose you more games unless you have great ways to skip the early game, just have about as many as you expect them to have hard removal. Try not to play them out onto a board where they can trade out, or you might lose an out of the game. If you are halfway through your draft and don't have any real threats and your deck is not one that can beatdown opponents easily in the early game, start picking bad ones, even War Golems (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/323-war-golem) and Archmages (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/545-archmage). Frostwolf Warlords (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/604-frostwolf-warlord) and Frost Elementals (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/598-frost-elemental) aren't the worst options.

KEEPING OPTIONS OPEN
Try to have a good amount of removal/answers for every stage of play, but it's not the worst if you can't get many. It's worse to end up with a hand (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/366-inner-rage) with (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/50-shield-slam) no (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/1-heroic-strike) real (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/81-cleave) plays (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/161-whirlwind), and you usually want no more than just a couple on hand at any time. Take note of what you have used, and try to anticipate their plays. If you have the means to remove a Yeti by trading several cheaper minions, it's often a much better play than using your only Polymorph (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/595-polymorph) on it. The reverse is true, and you'll often want to bait premium removal out on your lower value minions, be it by committing minions on board to pressure, or via buffs. Avoid taking damage on large minions by trading out smaller ones, it makes their AoEs less impactful and makes it harder to rid of your bigger minions, even if it means losing damage. It's not always bad though, playing a huge minion the turn before they can Flamestrike (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/44-flamestrike) may make them rethink it and they may try to delay (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/30-mirror-image) and even play to your advantage if you already have the answers in hand. If you have many ways to remove something, consider even the worst ones, sometimes keeping the best ones for later IS the better option. When playing risky game closers like Venture Co. (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/509-venture-co-mercenary) and Earth Elemental (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/124-earth-elemental) consider whether there are other plays and whether you would lose the game straight up if you get hit with Humility (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/189-humility)/Peacekeeper (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/23-aldor-peacekeeper) and Black Knight (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/396-the-black-knight)/any (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/270-hex) hard (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/22-hunters-mark) removal (http://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/227-execute).

These are only general draft and play tips, but there's a lot more to it. I'd still say play to what you're most comfortable with even if there are widely accepted "stronger" options, as you'll be more confident in the plays and make less errors - they often aren't obvious until much later. And over time try to widen the range of styles you are comfortable with and pick up all the neat tricks you lost to. Try to see the reasoning behind others' picks, and you'll start making better drafts yourself.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: U.S.S. John E. Badass on March 30, 2014, 07:19:11 PM
I've already come out of the closet about liking this game on IRC, so I'll leave my tag here as well.

PriestRoy#2661 on EU.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on March 31, 2014, 10:45:18 AM
Haven't posted here in a while, just sharing a situation I found myself facing while doing quests on my EU account which has next to no expert cards.
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07138.png)
Can you figure out what play I made?

Side rant: EU casual seems to be all Miracle Rogues now, I faced 5 different ones in a row with my basic decks the other day, and the first game I played on casual yesterday was another one. I might be sticking to ranked for a while (don't even have the cards to Huntard them lol).



--

Ranked Season 1 begins soon, what are everyone's plans for it?
Will you try to hit Legendary status in the first ever official ranked season?
What decks will you run? Will you try to counter the meta or follow it?

Personally I have a few decks I'm fairly comfortable running on the ladder, and with some pretty experimental stuff in them. They might not be as consistent as the decks people are running but they're like my pet decks, and I have decent success with them even without legendaries. I've only been hovering around rank 5 (this is where I started dropping games to Hunters that Arcane Shot my face on turn 1 or 3) this season but I haven't played that many games overall, and most of it was Arena. A couple of my secretsauce cards are Mana Wraith and Alarm-o-Bot. I have other ideas but I'm not sure how to approach them now, especially since I'm lacking a whole bunch of epics and legendaries.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Stryfe on March 31, 2014, 07:30:44 PM
Can you figure out what play I made?
Pyro -> Backstab Argus -> Betrayal middle Molten -> Coin -> Stormpike Molten.... I assume lol


Ranked Season 1 begins soon, what are everyone's plans for it?
Will you try to hit Legendary status in the first ever official ranked season?
What decks will you run? Will you try to counter the meta or follow it?
I doubt I'll have the energy to grind Legendary anytime soon, since that shit takes time even for a skilled player. Lately I've found myself watching more Hearthstone than actually playing it, just handling dailies on EU and US and stuff like that.




(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07141.png) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07142.png)

So I'm content with getting the nice Pandaria back (left, legend on the right) for rank 20 and testing some wonky decks... while mostly playing arena again, I suppose.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on April 01, 2014, 03:25:33 AM
That is indeed the play, I guess I was just pretty excited that one of my only rares working out for me so nicely against such a powerful deck. And I had just enough to make that play, too.

I haven't played much constructed outside of finishing up dailies I didn't want to do in arena the past few seasons, and I got to rank 6 before I really started even losing games (dat extra star baby) with my current experimental stuff and even then it was mostly to Hunters, so if this keeps up for the new season I certainly don't see too much of an issue getting into Legend, though actually competing within legend? I don't see that happening any time soon unless I get a bunch of lucky pulls from packs. We will see though, maybe the lure of the card back AND it being the first official ranked season will put everyone in super tryhard mode and make it a lot tougher.

I think the biggest difference between Test Season 4 and the previous seasons for me was the ability (or bug :p) to reroll my quests more than I should have been able to so I could get Total Domination or just Domination quests for the classes that I'd rather play (and probably not lose stars at rank 16). This seemed to only be happening on NA, and I could do it a bit more often than once every 3 days (perhaps there was some trick to it that I never figured out), but it meant infinite rerolls across the 3 dailies within a certain pool for the day (not every day had 100g, and on bad days there weren't even any 60g quests in the pool)
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Slack on April 03, 2014, 09:35:03 AM
Was just randomly playing some arena, and look who I just ran into!
(http://i.imgur.com/SVAzEY2.jpg)
Won handily by drawing perfect responses to everything she had.

After going 1-3 in my previous draft, this made my night.
Well, this and getting Hogger in the pack from that 1-3 draft.

Edit:
Woohoo! First ever 10-win arena run for me!
Plus got a Baron Geddon in the pack!
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on April 05, 2014, 11:50:32 AM
Preview of some of my new strats to tackle this ranked season

(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07149.png)
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07150.png)
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: thatonezombie on April 07, 2014, 05:24:39 AM
I got a legendary!

(http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh63/slientzombie/Hearthstone_Screenshot_462014201703_zpscc6a35dd.png)
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Slack on April 15, 2014, 09:59:02 AM
What's the most of one card (http://www.hearthhead.com/deckbuilder#czkv7zbW7MkO7zid7Vki7zau7ziz7zdq7zfl7zmf7coY7zch7zhN7zB7MaZ7zaP7MaL7zzs7zbm7zjH7zkM8Rz) you've ever drafted in Arena?
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on April 22, 2014, 01:36:02 PM
What's the most of one card (http://www.hearthhead.com/deckbuilder#czkv7zbW7MkO7zid7Vki7zau7ziz7zdq7zfl7zmf7coY7zch7zhN7zB7MaZ7zaP7MaL7zzs7zbm7zjH7zkM8Rz) you've ever drafted in Arena?
6 of a weapon, I forgot which. It was done for the lulz and it went horribly as expected. One game I drew 5 in the first 7 cards (after mulling out a few), and picked up the last one in the next 3 or so cards.
On the other hand, the most of a card that I've been on the receiving end of is 7 Fireballs, but I won that game because I had the early game tempo and they had to spend a lot of them removing my minions. It got pretty close near the end when he started chain fireballing. If he would have gotten the board earlier I would have no answers since that particular draft was really mediocre.

Some of you guys may know that I've not been the luckiest guy when it comes to BUSTING PACKS OPEN!!!!! But recently I picked up a couple of new things for my collection..
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07182.png)
Thalnos is a nice one that I wouldn't even be thinking of crafting in a long time but could really use in some decks, so that's great. Also I don't usually open golds in my packs (they are mostly from arena award boxes), but when I do... :V
And oh what a great legendary, that Tinkmaster.

Oh, and about that Legend back.. I wasn't motivated enough to ladder this season, I stopped completely after the first week (R9) and mostly did Arenas. The few games I played it was pretty frustrating, with decks that are highly favored against the Hunter matchup losing to the ridiculous card draw + damage from double Unleash in the first 7 turns. So many times I had them low on life and next to no cards and they pull an Unleash and draw into the full combo and proceed to control the game until they can win with whatever legendary they run, whether it be King Krush, Onyxia, Ragnaros, Gruul or Ysera. Hunter is pretty much in a "play whatever, you can still win as long as you get to unleash twice". It was less frustrating when the Hunters were actually optimized and built to rush you down instead of depending on a single combo to win every unfavorable matchup. That said the new builds are favored against control and it seems Shamans are coming back (they are decent against the slower Hunters if they don't use their hero power) so aggro should do pretty well now although I haven't seen that many aggro Hunters or Warlocks. The fact that most of the Hunter lists don't run traps could benefit Warlock/Paladin aggro decks and the Murloc decks. Control Warriors are starting to incorporate silence and faster cards to counter the control Hunters. I also had moderate success running the most ridiculous cards (mostly bad cards because I had them in gold, and even stuff like Murlocs) in a Hunter deck with only the Unleash draw combo. I was gaining stars with those silly decks hah.

One of the many experiments with Buzzard draw engine rubbish
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/t/jphip07183.png) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07183.png)(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/t/jphip07184.png) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07184.png)(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/t/jphip07185.png) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07185.png)
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Slack on May 03, 2014, 01:32:14 PM
Just finished a couple arena runs with Priest and went 6-3 in both.
The only notable thing was that at 4-0 I beat a guy and gave him a "Well played.", which he apparently didn't take well.

Saw the dude was rank 19 when he PMed me right after.
He just wanted to inform me that "no one cares about a well played from a noob."
Also, I apparently am such a "lucky noob" that I should enjoy the luck now while I have it.
It should surprise no one that this was coming from a guy who picked Hunter, probably expecting insta-wins.

I'm half surprised that he didn't try to call me a hacker and threaten to report me.
That's what such people do, right?
That, and never improve due to making excuses?


Such sweet, delicious tears.
I love it.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on July 23, 2014, 08:09:10 AM
The doors to Naxxramas open today! If you login within the month, the first wing (Arachnid Quarter) is free to access forever! There will be five wings in total, one unlocking every week. Pricing for access to them are as follows (note that these are for the US):

(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07373.jpg)

Each wing comprises of about 3 unique boss encounters, each unlocking a new neutral card for your collection. Full completion of each wing further unlocks another neutral Legendary. Also included are class challenges for every class across the entire adventure, which will unlock an additional class card for the corresponding class. If you are up for the challenge, there are also Heroic versions of each encounter.

How will you tackle each encounter? Can you handle the Heroic encounters?
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on July 23, 2014, 04:10:29 PM
So I had a somewhat interesting experience with the Arachnid Quarter encounters. I went in blind and wanted to try out some of my best ladder decks against them, but failed quite spectacularly with some of them. Perhaps it was the bad draws, or the coincidence that the bosses had perfect draws and RNG against mine, or perhaps it was the fact that the servers were horrible at the time and took at least 10s between each action with no way to queue them, but it was quite frustrating facing them initially. I switched up to some of my pet decks since I was lazy to build new ones to counter them at the time, and had better results. Beat the first two with an Alarm-o-Bot deck, and since that was terrible against Maexxna's 2 mana removal and unlimited saps, I took her out with a variant of the Zoo.

Outswarming the swarm
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/t/jphip07367.png) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07367.png)


The Class Challenges were really easy though, particularly the Druid one seemed to be a Naxx combo tutorial more than anything. It made me appreciate the Stoneskin Gargoyle that I initially thought too gimmicky for play.

Gargoyle pretty good board control
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/t/jphip07366.png) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07366.png)

I attempted the Heroics many hours later, when the server lag was less of an issue. I wasn't going to attempt early board control against the improved Anub'Rekhan since Zoo failed me with that, but my AoB threats weren't quite good enough to challenge the 4/4 Nerubians, so I just rolled with one of my old pet Hunter decks. I got him to really low but I started running out of resources to control his Nerubians for a bit and it almost got a bit hairy, but fortunately even having both my Highmanes' attacks lowered by his Alchemists I was able to pull out a victory with a bit of a hoot. It was also around this time that I decided I would attempt all of Naxx, Heroic included without building a single counter deck based on the mechanics of each encounter. I wanted to beat all of them with the regular decks I already use, just for the fun of it.

A noob rekt on
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/t/jphip07368.png) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07368.png)

Whilst I had a bit of trouble with Regular Faerlina (lost lethal, and then board several times with insane RNG missles, she had a bit of a comeback), Heroic Faerlina just isn't that much more. The biggest difference is that her Worshippers now grant +3 attack each, but as long as you remove them immediately after she drops them it is an easy fight.

Maexxna though, she is the real challenge of the Arachnid Quarter Heroic encounters. Her hero ability to bounce your minions now affects 2, and has its cost reduced from 3... to zero. She also starts the battle with two Creepers in play, and with her health lead it is really easy to get really behind. You'll probably have a hard time summoning anything within the first 3 turns or so, as she uses her hero ability at the start of every turn. I quit out once I realized this (about T3 I believe), and switched to a deck where her hero ability would never affect me. It was ridiculously easy, probably my easiest encounter yet once I made the switch, but the game was pretty much decided even before turn 5 (where I first played ANY minions). I even made minor misplays and missed quite a few points of damage but it didn't matter.

Turns 5, 6 and 7.
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/t/jphip07369.png) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07369.png)(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/t/jphip07370.png) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07370.png)(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/t/jphip07371.png) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07371.png)



PS: I later did the wing on another account where I didn't have very many cards, and beat all the regular encounters easily (nearly undamaged throughout, Faerlina managed the most with her hero ability) with my "MindBLAST" priest deck. It was surprising considering my earlier experience.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on August 06, 2014, 04:35:20 PM
More Naxxramas! Covering Plague and Military Quarters together as I couldn't access Plague for most of release week (thanks, Blizz!). As before, my goal with Naxxramas (at least on my main account) was to beat all the encounters with my regular ladder decks, so I could not build decks specifically for them.

The regular encounters for Plague were so easy that I blazed through them without any real impression of the encounters. The Class Challenges were even easier though. I didn't lose a single point of health in the Mage Challenge but had card, board advantage AND secrets up, it was fairly ridiculous. Against Loatheb you were given a full Webspinner deck, but spores made sure that you'd have won even if it only pulled Captain's Parrots and Angry Chickens  (which I did several times).

Heroic Loatheb
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07416.png)
I attempted Loatheb first because I loved popping Spores, and as it turns out the only difficulty in the encounter was that he had a Fen Creeper on the board to begin with. This meant it was possible for him to coin into 2 Deathchargers and Necrotic for 10 damage on his very first turn. Once you have dealt with the initial Fen Creeper though (you don't even need to use cheap removal because of initial spore, Elven Archer will deal with the Fen Creeper if you shoot the Spore) the fight becomes extremely easy as long as you can put down minions to get Spore buffs on. I used my freshly made Spider Shaman deck that was really successful on ladder for this encounter.

Heroic Heigan the Unclean
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07412.png)
The Heroic version features a 0-cost Eruption hero power that he casts at the start of every turn. He also starts the fight with a Voidcaller on board. The key here is to keep his Voidcallers at bay, lest he summons a bunch of huge demons for next to no cost and overwhelms you. I liked keeping taunts up and ignoring the Voidcallers until you are ready to deal with a Doomguard or Infernal drop, and if he runs out his hand himself, quickly rid of the Voidcallers so their ability doesn't go off. I was quite low in this fight only because he got both a Doomguard and Infernal out by T3/4, and I could only deal with one promptly so I took many hits from the Infernal while building a board to kill it.

Heroic Noth the Plaguebringer
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07415.png)(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07414.png)(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07413.png)
I attempted Noth last because his hero power Raise Dead sounded like it would be rather problematic, so I had to think about which deck to bring. Ended up picking an experimental Miracle Rogue from over 3 months ago that I didn't even know the contents of (I had several experimental Miracle decks at the time, and when I had to make space for new decks I deleted most of them but didn't look through the decks before doing so). Noth was the hardest fight in my opinion because I knew he had Ice Block, but didn't know how many copies he had. You can see that I had lethal set up on him by turn 8, and was at close to full health. On turn 9 I got him down to 1 and triggered the Ice Block, but at 13HP and facing 19 damage on board, I could clear his board save for 10 damage and let him play a Secret from his deck, or leave him with 12 damage and hope he doesn't have another point for the next turn. I chose the latter and he didn't have that last point!

The Military Quarter released today, and coming off a Hunter Domination quest on ladder I jumped in with my Webspinner/Creeper Beast deck on Razuvious, followed by Zoolock against Gothik and back to Shaman on Rivendare. The Shaman Challenge felt exactly the same as my Spider Shaman, perhaps there were other cards that I had not seen but it went really quickly. The Warlock Challenge felt like it was completely up to luck, as the deck was filled to the brim with terrible terrible high cost cards that were downright unusable in the challenge. If the encounters against Heigan interested you into playing Voidcallers, this Warlock Challenge probably undid all of it.

Heroic Instructor Razuvious
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07411.png)
Razuvious, like the original WoW raid, hits hard. In Heroic mode he hits for 20 damage on your hero, or 10 on minions. As you are given two 0/7 Understudies for this fight, you could consider running Divine Spirit/Inner Fire. I did it with my Shaman and didn't lose a single point of health!

Heroic Four Horsemen (Baron Rivendare)
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07410.png)
This fight is once again, extremely luck-based. His Runeblade does 8 damage if the other 3 horsemen are down, but the trick is he is immune when the horsemen are around. He runs a ton of removal spells, including many that can be directed at your face for some pretty insane burst (He dealt 15+ damage in a turn to me once after I dropped his shield). He also runs a bunch of secrets, including Redemption which will prolong his immunity and Avenge which will spike the damage he is able to put out rapidly as well as make the encounter near impossible to beat. The trick to the fight is removing at least 2 of his horsemen ASAP, and possibly crippling the last but not removing it so his Runeblade cannot be used to full effect. I got him without his horsemen as early as turn 1 but after 6 times not being able to burst him down faster than he is able to do me I finally got him with Shapeshift double Swipe play with Innervate. Cards useful to take out his horsemen early include SW:P, Naturalize, Corruption, Execute, Hunter's Mark, Deadly Shot, Hex (won't trigger secrets). Flare, Deathlord (he doesn't run any minions, delays at turn at the worst if he plays Corruption on it) and any form of Silence is also good for the encounter. Even with a counter deck this fight could take several attempts.

Heroic Gothik the Harvester
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07409.png)
Heroic Gothik's Harvest ability is downright insane. It is autocast every turn and grants him an extra card as well as an additional mana crystal. This is basically like fighting Zoo if Zoo had thrice your mana. To make matters worse, he is more than happy to trade minions as his minions turn into spectral forms that clog up your side of the board and put you on a clock by draining away at your health. Watch your health carefully, and decide how many spectres and which ones you want to take in, as they all only deal 1 damage each but some are easier to rid of because of their lower health. Get some aura/buff minions and use the spectres to secure trades as you will not be able to match his rate of summoning. Fill up your board preemptively and you won't recieve another spectre when his minions die. Some healing might be helpful to give you more breathing space. Bloodlust on a full board is 21 damage for 5 mana while Savage Roar is 16 for 3.


----

On ladder and decks

I've not yet been able to experiment with most of the cards from the Naxx set yet, but I've done a lot of testing with Haunted Creepers and Nerubian Eggs. My opinion is that the cards are generally slow and work well in slower decks. In fast decks like Zoo or Token Druid slowing down your deck often gives the opponent a better chance to finish you off first, but in decks like Shaman and Hunter, the Creeper really shines.  Eggs are nice in Shaman as you have Rockbiter and Flametongues, and can be dropped before you get Bloodlust off so they will rethink an AoE sweeper play. The Egg Zoo variant often runs Voidterror to help activate it and make a big tempo play but that's another fairly inconsistent card.

Webspinner is great for Hunters as it allows you to put something relevant down on turn 1 instead of passing (or Flare/Tracking), and can be used for card draw with Buzzard and as a target for Houndmaster. As they often ignore the minion to avoid triggering its Deathrattle you can often get value out of Leokk the same turn it is summoned or buff a Hyena immediately. The same applies for Haunted Creeper but note that the Spectral Spiders summoned are not Beasts.

Poison Seeds has potential but isn't the best card to run right now, it has fairly limited use overall.

Nerub'ar Ambusher is just really hard to utilize, even with a deck that can make use of the bounce for Battlecries and Combos it is often too huge a tempo loss. Pandas are currently still better.

Sludge Belcher is a viable lower cost replacement for Sunwalker that is typically more durable (especially against aggro) but has significantly lower damage output, though Sunwalker has immunity to Shadow Words.

I haven't tested the rest of the cards as of yet, but Unstable Ghoul seems really nicely-costed for an anti-aggro taunter, and Spectral Knight is a fairly viable 5-drop that can dictate how the trades will be made (depending on initiative/board state). Nerub'ar Weblord has seen a lot of play but I doubt it is as good as people think, despite having great stats for its cost. Loatheb is clearly one of the top contenders for the 5-drop slot at the moment as it is a decent body with the potential to ruin someone else's day if timed well. Baron Rivendare still looks too gimmicky and Maexxna probably unplayable at 6 (would be better at 5 with appropriate stats).

Shaman feels really good right now, I've only been winning on ladder with it so far. None of the matchups have felt difficult yet, though I imagine Hunters will wreck it pretty hard. I also used the same deck on 4 of the Heroic encounters and almost beat the 5th several times.

I used to play a lot of Hunter with minimal minions because I felt that beasts were not consistent enough, but now with the addition of the spider cards it really feels like beasts are working out really nicely. With them Hunter's Mark is less of a dead draw even without Stonetusk Boars, and many of the other cards seem to work better too. Tough matchups include Priest and possibly Paladin as they have access to more board wipe with Wild Pyromancers, Auchenai/Circle and Holy Nova, removal with Shadow Words and even Silences and heals.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on August 16, 2014, 07:56:08 AM
So now that we've reached the wing I was most excited for (at least card-wise), instead of the usual adventure stuff let's talk decks!

So far we've seen how the small weekly injection of new cards into the card pool have affected standard decks and the meta, from Loatheb and Nerubian Eggs being run in next to every deck and Sludge Belchers and Spectral Knights really shaking up the midgame. Hunter got a lot more consistent with Webspinners and Haunted Creepers, and we've seen Zoo branch off in a new direction embracing Deathrattles by including the Voidterror that was previously thought to be terrible almost universally.

But especially with last two wing releases the potential for new decks has really gone up. Shaman with Ancestral Spirit and  Reincarnate? Druid Force of Nature into Wailing Soul? Priest with Zombie Chow and Auchenai Soulpriest? I set out to experiment with the crazy new combos.

As mentioned in earlier posts I was already running a Shaman with lots of Deathrattles that was really resilient and generally took over the game over time, but there was no place for the fancy new cards so I made another one that focused on making multiple copies of BIG DUDES. I included Rivendare, Earth Elementals, Feugen, Stalagg, Cairne and the like with both Ancestral Spirit and Reincarnate. It was fun to get the combos off but it was extremely gimmick and inconsistent. It does include a very potent combo that is easy to pull off and and swing games though - Sylvannas Windrunner + Reincarnate. Worst combo in the deck is using both Ancestral Spirit and Reincarnate on Nerubian Egg with Baron Rivendare out as you flood your side with 0/2s that you'll have a hard time popping later.

Priest is still really weird for me as after various iterations I'm still more comfortable with my older lists. I've gotten good value off Chow using it to both trade up for a higher cost minion WHILE dealing 5 damage several times but unless I draw him in the opening hand he still doesn't feel quite right, half the time I'd rather have another card instead - even Mind Blast. Dark Cultist is great but is still hard to get his Deathrattle off. Deathlord works wonders against the aggressive minion decks but not against much else. I wanted to try Wailing Soul in Priest but there are too many good buffs/abilities to make it seem really worth it, or I just haven't figure out a good list to run it in.

I had previously tested out the Nerubian Eggs and Haunted Creepers in a Zoo-style deck, but they slowed the deck down so significantly I was losing more to opponents having the breathing space to set up for burst combos. Now with the addition of Undertaker and Zombie Chow I tried it out again with double Power Overwhelming and Voidterrors. It sorta works, but only on a good draw. Undertaker and Zombie Chow can be really bad topdecks, worse than Flame Imps if you can believe it! I've seen some on ladder run all of these WITH Voidcallers but it seems really hard to to pull off when you're running so few actual Demons and Voidcaller without Deathrattle is just bad stats and a waste of mana, which is generally bad for a fast deck like Zoo. I think alongside Loatheb, Spectral Knight might be a decent include to strengthen the game in the later phase where Zoo generally runs out of steam. It would probably out perform something like Argent Commander or a Senjin/Yeti in most games and doesn't hurt you much as it can still receive all minion buffs.

Going back to the original Shaman idea, I decided to do something really weird, and instead run that deck on Warlock, using Shadowflame, Power Overwhelming, and Voidterror as well as well as Sunfury Protectors as my activators. I included Undertaker, Zombie Chow, Loot Hoarder, Unstable Ghouls, Haunted Creeper, Nerubian Eggs and Harvest Golems for the early game, and ended off the curve with the Deathrattle legendaries and the wights Feugen and Stalagg. Rivendare is thrown in to double up on Deathrattles and Loatheb to protect the board. It seemed like it would be really bad initially but after several games with it I am impressed at its performance. It can have really insane starts and the Chows' downsides seem less bad here (watch out that you don't have Baron Rivendare out while trading them though). Double Shadowflames means you can have huge comebacks even if you get a slow start and fall behind. It also makes for some of the most minions on board I've seen in a constructed game.

It's like Innervate Yeti or Watcher Silence.. with less cards wasted.
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07443.jpg)

I Can't Believe It's Not Arena!®
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07444.jpg)

I actually gave this guy the win just so I could get another Thaddius on board for this shot. WORTH.
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07445.jpg)

There are a few other deck ideas I'd really love to try but unfortunately lack too many cards to really run :<
Let me know if you have ideas! I'm really looking at Dancing Swords despite how much shit people give it, I think it is a bit better than Mukla now that I've had some experience with it, running it out on T2/3 is just such a massive tempo gain and it doesn't give your opponent the solution to it (i.e. Bananas).


EDIT: I gave a shot at building that Wailing Soul Priest. Still feels like it isn't consistent enough (Early game is often weaker than regular Watcher/Blademaster priest opening, loses steam pretty quickly trying to answer threats at times), but I've had some success so take a look!

Decent opening
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07447.png)
Allows you to snowball out of control
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07448.png)
Board looks scary but clearly a good Lightning Storm would wreck me here
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07449.png)
Pretty aggressive (for a Priest)
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07450.png)
SILENCE! I KEEL YOU!!
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07451.png)
The game was decided much earlier though
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07452.png)
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on August 21, 2014, 10:54:52 PM
So just last week I was saying how I pretty much abandoned the gimmicky Deathrattle Shaman in favor of Deathrattle Warlock which had better consistency overall, but with Kel'Thuzad now available for play with the release of the final wing of Naxx I revisted the deck, if only just because Kel'Thuzad + Reincarnate = easy double 6/8s that will rez each other or twice of every other minion that died. A 2 card combo for 10 mana that uses a card that is already in the deck but doesn't see a lot of use (Ancestral Spirit can be used on almost anything to deter opponents from killing your minion while Reincarnate has several uses but are all very situational)? Sounds like a perfect fit!

Initial impression of KT when the cards were revealed prior to release was that it is a powerful win more card, probably too gimmicky to ever see use, but the Naxx cards have really made minion-rich boards a thing now with all the new sticky minions, so he really isn't half bad at all! Especially for people who don't have very many legendaries, this is a decent option to run in control, and he does actually have an immediate effect if you are able to trade on the turn you drop him. In Shaman though, he is really hard to use as dropping him when your board is filled with totems (or Nerubian Eggs which I do run in the deck) limits your damage potential as your totems will continue to clog up your board, I often find myself not dropping KT as often or as soon as I am able to, and usually opting to only drop him after the opponent has cleared a bunch of my other threats or after some big AoE wipe. I usually pair him with Reincarnate so I get 2 copies straight away. Ancestral Spirit isn't too bad either as it allows you to get a bigger Reincarnate later although it is weaker to silence, and it is often used on other minions too so it isn't as readily available. If your opponent cannot remove a pair of 6/8s in the same turn you likely have the game won.

I got him to turn a game around against one of Shaman's most dreaded matchups, against a Hunter. This is one of the more current builds running Mad Scientists and Secrets for extra damage with Eaglehorn Bows and Webspinners and Haunted Creepers. I was able to restore my board after killing his and getting mine wiped in an explosive trap, which put me up in tempo slowing down his game. Unless he had enough direct burn in hand to kill me outright he was suddenly forced to play defensively against a board he had just removed. I used the next turn to Reincarnate KT twice to set up for lethal and a board that Hunters just cannot deal with. Of course, I would have lost the game had I not drawn both Feral Spirits and a Lightning Storm early, procced all his Secrets without giving him extra weapon charges and dealt with his minions pretty damn efficiently every turn, but KT was crucial to this win, something that I cannot say for most of my other games with him. If my 8-drop was a Ragnaros instead it'll probably have only done 8 damage to his face and died to Hunter's Mark (although Rag IS great against trap Hunter).

Losing the game, or am I?
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07468.png)
Where were you guys? I missed you!
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07467.png)
When you're ahead, get more ahead.
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07466.png)
Well I suppose KT probably played some part in this win. Just maybe.
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07469.png)
"Where is your god now, night elf?" KT so good that even KT uses it.
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07471.png)
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on September 16, 2014, 10:21:50 AM
Some of you may remember me talking about my former success with a Mana Wraith Hunter deck back in CBT when Hunters were considered the worst class and unplayable. It wasn't the greatest but when it worked it was spectacular. I've always been looking out to replicate that sort of success with Mana Wraith but Naxxramus out I wouldn't run it with the strong low drops available now in Undertaker, Zombie Chow, Haunted Creepers (and to some extent Webspinner, Unstable Ghoul and Mad Scientist) and how they all trade favorably against the Wraiths. We needed a new approach to the card and with Nerub'ar Weblord, Duplicate and Loatheb we could possibly go full on with the disruption. Here are some of the more interesting results of my testing.

VS Miracle Rogue (http://imgur.com/a/ga5sn)
I honestly didn't think this would go well, I have so many minion removal cards but Miracle doesn't play very many of them. Even the disruption effect from the Wraiths would only be minimal, or so I thought. I threw out a Wraith early for them to remove and to deny them from dropping a 3-drop to start hitting me with, played Belcher on T5 to draw out early Sap after which I simply replayed. On T8 I dropped Loatheb and Mana Wraith to limit their options AND start pushing out the damage. Watching them spend 8 mana to desperately heal up with double Farseer made me even more confident to win. Counterspell finally got their Cold Blood which denied them the kill on Loatheb giving me lethal (they'd still die if they used weapon to clear).

VS Handlock (http://imgur.com/a/mPXbC)
Another weird one, I had pretty good start if I had to fight aggro, but it turned out to be Handlock which I wasn't confident of playing with the deck, especially with strong comeback with burst and board wipes available in their arsenal. They opened with a Watcher response which is generally good against aggro (which my opening sort of resembled until the Mana Wraith drop following their Watcher). I was really fearful of a board wipe and put down a Counterspell for that. Unknowingly my Weblord play which was intended as a distraction from my burst in hand was a blind counter to their Sunfury Protector, making it cost 5 mana! They had a good but ultimately costly response in Soulfire (discarding a Giant too) and Coin and managed to taunt up his board, but it was already too late as I had 12 damage in hand and only needed 2 turns of my Fireblast Hero Power for lethal. I'm certain there's no 7 mana play that does an additional 24 damage but I got myself the Ice Block just in case I couldn't kill them in time.

Against control the deck usually runs into fatigue despite being really light on minions, sometimes with the right combination you can lock out so much of their mana that all their plays become so bad that you grind them out and win. Increased costs and having to play around your secrets really helps you by making them play suboptimally, and sometimes they give you the win simply because they cannot play around certain secrets like Duplicate/Mirror Entity/Counterspell. All matchups still require a lot of luck especially with how few minions the deck runs.


EDIT: Testing with Paladin because Recruits cost the same, Avenge and Divine Shields could keep Wraith and Weblords up and make them real threats on the board. Also Divine Favor seems like a good card when your opponent is paying so much more to play each card.

VS Miracle (http://imgur.com/a/cz3jY), what's with all the Rogues and Warlocks on casual!
Wanting to cash off my Divine Favor off their massive hand, I developed Truesilver Champion as an answer to coming threats (notably T5 Gadgetzan or Drake if they could remove Weblord with a Preparation). They played Sludge Belcher on which I used Humility so I could keep my board healthy while removing theirs. Divine Favor + Blessing of Wisdom for 6 cards. They had to spend a Sap on T7 just to be able to drop a Farseer without overpaying to start putting out threats on the board. Spent a good part of their hand building a Vancleef and burnt a Shadowstep in the process. Aldor made that play really bad. First Autioneer lands, cycles through cards but doesn't find a way to escape death. Big turn later when they dropped Auctioneer 2, went through few spells with Preparation and finishes the turn with a Loatheb drop. But an expensive Humility and a weapon swing neuters the threat completely. Lay on Hands puts me safely out of range and them horribly far behind on draws. I dropped Loatheb to finish along with setting up Avenge, but did not expect it to be run over immediately by Leeroy. Made a 10/1 Whelp to further annoy them because I can't imagine playing against this deck to be anything but that.

VS Zoolock (http://imgur.com/a/yvOan)
With as slow a start as T1 Avenge, T2 Reinforce Hero Power, I should be losing against Zoo. In fact I thought I would be with no minions in my initial hand and draws. On T6 they made a pressure play by pushing for damage to face, forcing me to clear or potentially face lethal soon... except Consecration 2 would mean I keep Loatheb at full health while clearing their board again. Hand of Protection allowed me to continue using Loatheb to maximum value, clearing a large taunt without any damage taken. Flooding the board with more Recruits and a Weblord to slow down his ability to flood the board rapidly, I hoped I would pull into more damage or maybe I'd have to burn some spells to try to get a good Divine Favor off. Passing the turn, they spent their turn making a surprising play trying to remove the non-so-threatening Weblord, which in turn triggers Avenge giving me lethal since they ignored Loatheb once again. Now who said Loatheb was useless against Zoo?

VS Hunter (Deathrattle) (http://imgur.com/a/cgsJV)
Opened fairly standard, Weblord first against Haunted Creeper on board since it doesn't trade directly unlike Wraith. Wanted to keep body for Wisdom, which was stopped short by Kill Command. Killed his Creeper with Truesilver to keep health high and expected him to trade Spectrals into Wraith, he didn't and pushed out Webspinner so punished with Consecration which would otherwise be saved for Unleash. Answered his Snapjaw with Hammer and weapon charge. He had no real plays at this point so started going aggressive with BoM on Wraith and Loatheb to protect it. Meanwhile trying to clear out hand for a good Divine Favor play. Finally closed out game by playing around Misdirection, if it was indeed Misdirection I could have lost lethal by attacking into Wraith. I had Consecreation in hand which allowed me to expend my entire board testing both his traps and still have lethal.

BONUS: VS Aggro Warrior (http://imgur.com/a/2Ng3P)
This one was just too funny. I've never played against an Aggro Warrior so neutered that they couldn't deal a single point of damage, but I ended up having killing him instead with what was supposed to be a lockdown/distruption deck? I played a total of 4 minions that game and he spent his entire game and so much potential damage removing those and a bunch of Recruits. Also if you notice I am using Reinforce almost every turn while on many turns I'm not even operating at full mana efficiency because of how low cost my cards are.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Slack on September 17, 2014, 07:26:14 AM
Just got my first 12-win arena run!

(screenshot from just before the final win)
(http://i.imgur.com/ZTtVBcT.jpg)

This proves beyond a doubt that 5 Truesilver Champions is NOT too many.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on September 18, 2014, 05:51:34 PM
So I decided to check out my alts for the first time in months and spend some of the gold I was probably never going to use on some packs. Since Naxx is already out and no adventures are coming really soon and even buying packs for the new expansion whenever that is out doesn't make a whole lot of sense if that collection barely has any Expert cards, so getting more cards to use should be fun, yeah! Also if I get any Leeroys I could turn it into a free Legendary or a bunch of useful epics/rares once the nerf hits next week.

(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07518.png)
...and I opened a bunch of Legendaries I don't even have on my main. And that's all the dust I have on that account, not having crafted anything yet haha. Not going to lie, but a little annoyed the legendaries are showing up here and not on my main where I can actually build decks to support them :<

Also pulled these guys on other alts/regions
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/t/jphip07519.png) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07519.png)(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/t/jphip07520.png) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07520.png)

No Leeroys but a lot better haul than I expected, even if I would rather have those on my main on NA.

Bonus: Putting the new cards to the test
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/t/jphip07521.png) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07521.png)
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: xyish on December 05, 2014, 11:23:19 PM
Goblins vs Gnomes prerelease is on, with all the cards available in arena, and random sources in constructed (Webspinner). Everyone gets a free arena run courtesy of Trade Prince Gallywix! Also the release long requested spectator mode feature!

Initially I thought it would be somewhat similar to my experience with early Naxx arena, that people would draft badly because they didn't know the cards too well or would overvalue combos, and that it would be an easier time than usual. I couldn't be more wrong. Every deck I've faced in arena during the event has been INSANE. The decks have had more synergy than the average constructed deck, with blowout combos and insane comebacks aplenty. Crazy games to be had all around, and your first go is free!

Some highlights:
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07755.png)
And you thought Coin Innervate Yeti was crazy.

(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07754.png)
Every Shaman I faced who ever got a spare part card got to Stealth some Windfury minion. Also the Whirling Zap-o-matic threatens so much damage that you have to have a 1 or 2-drop (with coin) to answer it preempt it. This particular played 4 Windfury cards in that game (including a Doomhammer), and got Finicky Cloakfield off on two (out of 2 total spare part draws). Ouch.



Cards I've really liked from my experience in the prerelease:

Spider Tank
I've played with Dark Cultist a lot, but arena is a whole different beast so a neutral 3/4 3-drop is amazing, especially if you have The Coin. Coining it out against your opponent's 2-drop (especially a 2/3) guarantees you get their 2-drop for free. Also great setup into..

Goblin Blastmage
4-drop 5/4 trades evenly with (Mechanical) Yeti, Sludge Belcher and the Slime. But if you also control a Mech, you get 4 free missles off, and that advantage can end games really quickly.

Lil' Exorcist
Basically it's a Spider Tank with taunt. There are just so many good arena picks in the new set that have Deathrattles that you are almost guaranteed to play this at a minimum of 3/4 stats, and that is anywhere from excellent to downright OP. The Light compels you to pick her.

Annoy-o-Tron
It's Sludge Belcher on 2. Play it in awkward spots, make your opponent overkill it and still risk not getting to your big threat. This is possibly one of the best low-drops in the late game. Always nice if you have Mech synergy. Also insane If you have a Hobgoblin.

Bomb Lobber
Card is insane. It's often more relevant and with bigger blowout potential than a Stampeding Kodo, which is still an amazing card.

Troggs
In arena you'd expect a lot more minions so Troggs don't seem as good, but with GvG everyone has spare parts and often that makes trading really awkward. You'll often see Troggs absorb removal that are usually better saved for other targets, making them more valuable than they seem. Earthinating the countryside, earthinating the peasants. Earthinating all the people. And their thatched-roof cottages! THATCHED-ROOF COTTAGES!

Ogres
To be fair I've only hit under 20% of my targets so the 50% is probably a lie, but their bulkier stats really make them worth the pick. They've worked really well for me.. except that one time my Ogre decided to hit a Stranglethorn Tiger and make me lose 4 damage and take 5 instead ;_; Dunemaul Shaman is the one I underestimated, thinking it has a weaker statline and thus too easy to remove for its higher cost, but after having it deal me upwards of 10 damage in multiple games from stealth, I've started to really respect the combo. After all it is only 14% chance to get stealth and 25% chance after to land both hits! 3.5% of the time it happens every time.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Stryfe on December 08, 2014, 01:35:58 PM
Man, GvG arena be tons of fun, so many unexpected happenings. Did a few ok runs and then drafted this priest:

(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07760.png) (http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07758.jpg)

The results were quite satisfactory. Didn't even get some of the new OP priest cards. Priest new mage in the arena?




(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip07759.jpg)

QUITE satisfactory indeed.  8)
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: thatonezombie on December 08, 2014, 10:19:03 PM
I wasn't very good at Arena anyway (highest number of wins I've gotten is 5), and with the GvG expansion, finding what works in arena just got harder for me, lol.

But from what I've played, these GvG cards have some good synergy with the basic cards, and since it's out officially it's gonna be fun to see what kinds of decks are gonna be built.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Amplifier on December 20, 2014, 09:07:34 PM
I was teaching myself how to use R, so I made a simple app to visualize Hearthstone card data. Check it yo (https://aoba.shinyapps.io/HearthR/). Set the sliders to -1 to see spells and weapons. Probably done working on it, unless someone has a suggestion.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Amplifier on April 15, 2015, 02:51:14 PM
Now available for cell phones:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blizzard.wtcg.hearthstone (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blizzard.wtcg.hearthstone)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hearthstone-heroes-warcraft/id625257520 (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hearthstone-heroes-warcraft/id625257520)
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Amplifier on March 01, 2016, 10:37:19 PM
Lots of changes coming soon: http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/19995505/a-new-way-to-play-2-2-2016 (http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/19995505/a-new-way-to-play-2-2-2016)

Looking forward to a slightly less crazy Standard mode, but wish old packs and adventures would remain available. Time to disenchant some random legendaries, I guess.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: thatonezombie on March 01, 2016, 11:14:34 PM
It's so weird for them to take away adventures. It's unique, single-player content that changes the game up a bit. I bet their economists and other money people crunched the numbers and said having old adventures for sale still was a waste.

I'm personally gonna go wild all the time. I like the craziness.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Amplifier on March 06, 2016, 01:52:14 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/WtUCFDGl.png) (http://imgur.com/WtUCFDG)

I'm pleased with this pack, especially because of the rumors that Knife Juggler will be nerfed.

Announcement set for March 11th: http://www.hearthhead.com/news=251646/hearthstone-announcement-coming-march-11 (http://www.hearthhead.com/news=251646/hearthstone-announcement-coming-march-11)
Rumors of something with the Old Gods: http://www.hearthhead.com/news=251667/whispers-of-old-gods-new-hearthstone-expansion (http://www.hearthhead.com/news=251667/whispers-of-old-gods-new-hearthstone-expansion)

There's a lot to work with, if this is the expansion, so I wonder what direction they'll take it. Seems like the Old Gods would have made for adventures instead.. Now to save up my shekels for it.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Amplifier on March 11, 2016, 11:32:43 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKjUgLrDEbI

http://www.hearthpwn.com/news/1215-whispers-of-the-old-gods-expansion-reveal-live (http://www.hearthpwn.com/news/1215-whispers-of-the-old-gods-expansion-reveal-live)

Looks pretty dandy, and the three free packs is nice. Shame that it doesn't come out for a few weeks, though. With C'Thun being free & fairly powerful, I wonder what the other three Old Gods will be like? Hopefully able to counter C'Thun, anyway. Validated Doomsayer and Corrupted Healbot are on my to-acquire list, for sure. Really hope they post the nerf list soon, so I can plan out my DE+crafting targets. Also: that card back is tight.

In other news, earlier this week I pulled three legendaries in five packs. Tirion Fordring and Hogger among them :cathappy:
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: thatonezombie on March 12, 2016, 02:59:25 AM
I like that Old Gods isn't out immediately. Gives me time to save up for gold. Yeah three free packs are nice, but I gotta get more. Also, I'm not gonna drop actual money for the preorder.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: thatonezombie on March 22, 2016, 01:41:07 AM
Finally got a Golden Rogue. While it's my favorite class, I think I'm done taking it into ranked matches.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Stryfe on April 25, 2016, 02:01:46 PM
Lots of stuff happening. Whispers of the Old Gods should be dropping tomorrow and Standard/Wild formats will start officially.

Ben Brode announced on a stream (https://www.twitch.tv/playhearthstone/v/61958673?t=30m) with Frodan that if you log in during the launch day, you will get three free Old Gods packs. Also everyone will get a copy of C'Thun and some cultists.

BUT not only that, you will get a quest: win two games of Standard for a reward of five Old Gods packs!
Wait, that's not all! After you finish that quest you get another: win seven more games of Standard for a reward of another five Old Gods packs!

If your quest log is full, the WotOG quests will replace your quest with the least progress, so no need to panic about that.

So that's a total of 13(!) packs. You can check what you might get with this neat simulator (http://speedodevo.github.io/packer/).

--

Classic set got a ton of nerfs (http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/20097355/), here's a synopsis:

Class cards (druid, hunter, rogue):
Ancient of Lore - Now only draws one card.
Force of Nature - Cost reduced from 6 to 5. Treants are permanent, but no longer have charge.
Keeper of the Grove - Health reduced from 4 to 2.
Hunter's Mark - Cost increased from 0 to 1.
Master of Disguise - Now only gives Stealth until your next turn.
Blade Flurry - Cost increased from 2 to 4. Only targets enemy minions.

Neutral cards:
Ironbeak Owl - Cost increased from 2 to 3.
Big Game Hunter - Cost increased from 3 to 5.
Knife Juggler - Attack reduced from 3 to 2.
Leper Gnome - Attack reduced from 2 to 1.
Arcane Golem - Health increased from 2 to 4. No longer has Charge.
Molten Giant - Cost increased from 20 to 25.

--

Druid, my staple class, got a huge nerf, aw. Well, I got a ton of dust, at least.

The nerfs are already active, and for a week(?) you can disenchant all these cards for their full price, so go and disenchant them all, even if you think you'd still use some of them later.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Amplifier on April 25, 2016, 02:47:16 PM
^That stream was hilarious, especially when Yogg Shadowstepped himself.

Even though I mostly played combo Druid, I'm glad they were nerfed hard. Staghelm looks like he'll be a fun card, though. Besides that, pleased that standard is finally dropping, because I'm tired of Loatheb & Dr. Boom popping up in every deck. I've only been playing Tavern Brawl because it's so annoying.

Have my pre-order and gold ready for tomorrow. With the free packs, I'm looking at about 80 packs this week. Dusted most of the nerfed cards, sitting on  ~4000 dust now, too :thumbup
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: thatonezombie on April 26, 2016, 01:30:02 AM
I've been saving gold for this. So far I can get 27 packs, plus the 3 free ones, then I could possibly get another 10. Fuck me, I should play standard then. I will probably default to wild, cause it's just my style.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Amplifier on May 11, 2016, 01:43:06 AM
C'thun Priest for best deck. Had a nice game with a warrior yesterday. After he killed my C'Thun, I Doomcaller'ed, then entombed his C'Thun. He conceded after that. :cathappy:

Shaman is pretty fun right now, too, but I can't quite get a win streak with my deck.
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Stryfe on June 18, 2016, 04:21:50 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJJjuYZyCnQ

Glorious. :lol:
Title: Re: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Post by: Amplifier on July 24, 2018, 07:43:08 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH0wacpNuDQ

Mostly play Hearthstone anymore. The new expansion looks pretty dope. Glad to see mechs back in a big way and Magnetic looks like a decent keyword.

edit: my first golden legendary was Duskfallen Aviana (https://www.hearthpwn.com/cards/89385-duskfallen-aviana). Coulda been better.