Hearthstone

Vaclav · Feb 3, 2015

Priest with tons of early sweeping support seems to be the best matchup I've found to play - the early game shell can pretty much go with anything.

["Do you like to play with fire?!" dude, lots of the effective 1 mana spells, Auchenai, Word of Healing, maybe Shadowboxer (I use him, YMMV)]

It was also my most effective matchup for Zoo and decent for face hunter when they were both more common. Perhaps there's something better - but massive amount of AE like that allows has been my kryptonite for them.

slippery · Feb 3, 2015

Valderen_sl said:
I'm stuck in the 18-20 range too, usually have no problem getting to about 15, I struggle to go lower than that, but usually when at that level I still win 50-50...right now I just got back to 20, I've never struggle so hard in a beginning of a season before.

And this is a small rant...but fuck Mech Mage decks, they must comprise of 50% of what I face since the new season started. I've never personally experienced seeing one particular deck so much before...

What's a good counter for Mech Mages...I'll do one, even if I hate playing it.

[Justsaiyan] First NA Legend - Farming Mech Mages with Demon Lock! : hearthstone

Mures · Feb 3, 2015

Priest and/or druid w/ lots of taunts match up decent against mech mage.

In a slump myself losing to the most random shit, like aggro warrior with turn 5 arcanite + turn 6 double upgrade + turn 7 heroic/mortal strike; miracle rogue w/ no miracle just fucking haha + double cold blood + faceless turn 8, they had 17 cards left in their deck, their whole card draw consisted of 1 shiv; or double power overwhelming + arcane + faceless. Its bad enough losing to this shit as it is, but at least if they draw through their whole deck I feel like I maybe could have done something differently throughout the game and/or if you can stall me long enough to get your combo off, kudos to you; but I somehow keep losing to the dumbest shit by turn 7.

Gavinmad · Feb 3, 2015

I was wrecking mech mages with priest earlier. probably 80% win rate. Deathlord absolutely fucking destroys their tempo.

Famm · Feb 3, 2015

slippery_sl said:
[Justsaiyan] First NA Legend - Farming Mech Mages with Demon Lock! : hearthstone

I've been seeing that pop up yesterday and today and beaten the hell out of it with mech mage every time. Handlock is much harder. Warrior and Druid is pretty good to counter too, though not an instant win either.

Valderen · Feb 3, 2015

Thanks I'll try that Demonlock, have all the cards for it.

Gavinmad · Feb 3, 2015

Coming up on 400 ranked wins with warrior and my god is this shit a slog.

AngryGerbil · Feb 3, 2015

A keeper. Yes I won this game.

Alexzander · Feb 3, 2015

Column_sl said:
I checked out Tempostorm today, that is a really good site, I would recommend it to all new players.

I hope it catches on because it filters out all the garbage that is on hearthpwn, and teaches new players why you are playing certain cards

Yup. I've gotten to like tempo storm as well. Between it, liquid hearth, and ihearthu (mostly for the pod casts), you get a lot better infos.

Hearthpwn is an awful, awful website.

Gilgamel · Feb 3, 2015

The Master_sl said:
Agro decks in arena generally do very poorly. If you try and draft one on purpose and get unlucky in your later picks, that is an easy 0-3. Generally up to ~5 wins in arena a lot of people go face and sometimes they win as a result, but those aren't agro decks, those are players who don't know how to do anything but go face. You never see that shit at 7+ wins, except for the occasional insane Hunter or Warlock draft. Keep playing the value game and eventually you'll stop losing to the face players.

This is the entire problem I have with arena right now. I have always been a control player since I started MTG. I played a passive/conservative style when hearthstone first came out to great success. Now, it feels like there are just too many ways to get fucked. The number of cards you have to play around to play "correctly" is so high you might as well not even worry about it. We went from having a majority generic creatures with typical power curves to almost everything having something specific that makes it better and requires an even more specific answer. The amazing shaman deck I drafted a couple of pages ago only got 9 wins. One was the result of avenge+back to back divine shield 2/2 guys with a truesilver already on the board, one was a ridiculous Deathwing game, and the other one I just lost somehow. The point is there are a shit ton of people just drafting aggro so they can faceroll to 4 wins and with the new cards it is very difficult to just continuously make good trades. So many games come down to whether you draw a 3 toughness creature or two toughness as your two drop or something equally asinine which turns into an unrecoverable deficit. Once you are on the back foot something has to happen to give you the initiative back or the other person will continuously make favorable trades and just run you over. The MTG system of attackers and blockers was far superior in that a minor advantage couldn't just snowball due to summoning sickness and create a crushing card advantage. This game has no way for a clever player to utilize another resource(in MTG it was your health pool) to buy time to make more favorable trades. Once someone gets to be the aggressor something major has to happen to shift the intiiative back to you and allow you to control those trades again.

It feels like a massive flaw of game design to me more than anything, and the more cards they add the less capable you are of playing in a strategically correct manner. There aren't just a few swing cards that require higher level though, almost every hill giant has his own potential upside or downside, be it a deathrattle or just randomly higher numbers on one side or the other and the player has no tool with which to combat this power variance once the initiative is lost.

AngryGerbil · Feb 3, 2015

Welcome to CCGs.

Vaclav · Feb 3, 2015

Gavinmad_sl said:
I was wrecking mech mages with priest earlier. probably 80% win rate. Deathlord absolutely fucking destroys their tempo.

Good call - yea, all their stuff is small and they have to waste a ton on the Deathlord - really low risk to using him and with heals he'll take down a ton.

Vaclav · Feb 3, 2015

Gilgamel_sl said:
This is the entire problem I have with arena right now. I have always been a control player since I started MTG. I played a passive/conservative style when hearthstone first came out to great success. Now, it feels like there are just too many ways to get fucked. The number of cards you have to play around to play "correctly" is so high you might as well not even worry about it. We went from having a majority generic creatures with typical power curves to almost everything having something specific that makes it better and requires an even more specific answer. The amazing shaman deck I drafted a couple of pages ago only got 9 wins. One was the result of avenge+back to back divine shield 2/2 guys with a truesilver already on the board, one was a ridiculous Deathwing game, and the other one I just lost somehow. The point is there are a shit ton of people just drafting aggro so they can faceroll to 4 wins and with the new cards it is very difficult to just continuously make good trades. So many games come down to whether you draw a 3 toughness creature or two toughness as your two drop or something equally asinine which turns into an unrecoverable deficit. Once you are on the back foot something has to happen to give you the initiative back or the other person will continuously make favorable trades and just run you over. The MTG system of attackers and blockers was far superior in that a minor advantage couldn't just snowball due to summoning sickness and create a crushing card advantage. This game has no way for a clever player to utilize another resource(in MTG it was your health pool) to buy time to make more favorable trades. Once someone gets to be the aggressor something major has to happen to shift the intiiative back to you and allow you to control those trades again.

It feels like a massive flaw of game design to me more than anything, and the more cards they add the less capable you are of playing in a strategically correct manner. There aren't just a few swing cards that require higher level though, almost every hill giant has his own potential upside or downside, be it a deathrattle or just randomly higher numbers on one side or the other and the player has no tool with which to combat this power variance once the initiative is lost.

In short, you're speaking to why they need to incorporate sideboarding and best of 3 into things. (And probably extra arena picks - maybe 5-10 to cover sideboard)

Valderen · Feb 3, 2015

Well it was predictable, I make a deck to counter Mech Mage and I don't see a single one tonight. Demon Lock did ok, but I don't really like it. Went back to my Mage deck, and went like 7-1 and went from 20 to 17. I saw usual diversity in decks tonight, not sure if it was just luck or if things are back to normal.

Ichu · Feb 3, 2015

I ran into a shit ton of mech mages today. 3 in a row at one point. They chew up the deck I am playing ATM.

Gilgamel · Feb 3, 2015

AngryGerbil_sl said:
Welcome to CCGs.

Thanks, but welcomes don't generally come 20 years after you arrive. It's like someone took the homosexuality of cursed scroll and decided that building an entire game around that obnoxious fucking card would be fun. I will guarantee you they are intentionally designing it to keep winrates as cloistered as possible. That means giving simplistic styles a way to overcome superior play, which is what arena is currently all about. Due to the explosive and unpredictable nature of Hearthstone openings even a seemingly optimal draw can just get annihilated. I have made it a point since I came back a month or so ago to consciously try and adjust/improve my play, which means considering every game in retrospect and trying to play as perfectly as possible. Most of the time that review period is wasted, because either no play would have made a difference, or a different play would have changed the outcome but at the time you are making a choice based upon what is essentially a 50/50 proposition(do they drop a 3 toughness or 3 attack 2 drop, will their 4 drop recycle itself or not, etc).

From over 3k gold down to like 600, now back to 1350. If I ever hit 0 I am uninstalling, for as long as I can hold out.

Gavinmad · Feb 4, 2015

I'd rather have an entire game based around Cursed Scroll than an entire game based around Emrakul the Aeons Torn.

Morrow · Feb 4, 2015

Gilgamel_sl said:
Thanks, but welcomes don't generally come 20 years after you arrive. It's like someone took the homosexuality of cursed scroll and decided that building an entire game around that obnoxious fucking card would be fun. I will guarantee you they are intentionally designing it to keep winrates as cloistered as possible. That means giving simplistic styles a way to overcome superior play, which is what arena is currently all about. Due to the explosive and unpredictable nature of Hearthstone openings even a seemingly optimal draw can just get annihilated. I have made it a point since I came back a month or so ago to consciously try and adjust/improve my play, which means considering every game in retrospect and trying to play as perfectly as possible. Most of the time that review period is wasted, because either no play would have made a difference, or a different play would have changed the outcome but at the time you are making a choice based upon what is essentially a 50/50 proposition(do they drop a 3 toughness or 3 attack 2 drop, will their 4 drop recycle itself or not, etc).

From over 3k gold down to like 600, now back to 1350. If I ever hit 0 I am uninstalling, for as long as I can hold out.

I love how we all have such a twisted love/hate relationship for this game. It makes me feel better about my bi-polar attitude toward it... I'm not alone! Haha.

Hehe I just got a Rogue draft with x2 Southsea Captain, x2 Greenskin, x2 Assassin's Blades, and a couple other misc. pirates and weapon buffs. Edit: Just had 4 cards left in my deck while my Priest opponent had 16 cards left. I've never had such a ridiculous card advantage in arena before without some insane Auctioneer combo. I didn't even use any Sprints, just ridiculous Cult Master shenanigans. I never pick more than 1 Cult Master, but have 2 in this deck. Hot damn I forgot how insane Cult Master can be under the right circumstances.

Famm · Feb 4, 2015

This mage in arena that played four fucking healbots and two frost novas in one game thought he was hot shit until I mind controled his Ragnaros.

Sabbat · Feb 4, 2015

Added a gold portrait hunter to my list of things I've conquered. Feels good.

ps: I did screenshot it for proof! but hit the button too late as I whacked him for lethal so you can't see it =(

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