Hearthstone

I do pretty well with my own custom decks (as long as they're not mages. fuck that i just concede to save time).

But I do horribly in arena, building decks on the fly with no foresight of future cards sucks. Synergy matters or should I just get the best card everytime?

And goddamn having to win 45 games to play in arena when you're free-moding. My arena game glitched once too, game didn't freeze but timer stopped working and opponent couldn't click END i guess.

Trump just picks the best value card the first ~20 picks. The last 10 he pays attention to the mana curve. I basically do something close to that, I might value 2-drops alittleless on Paladin and Shaman due to their hero ability. Kind of Druid to, but not really. Currently you need 7 wins of arena to guarantee enough gold to do another arena. Anything past that is just a bonus.

It really seems like card advantage is the key to winning. I've played really aggressive aggro decks that simply run out of cards, so even though I was winning, the game turned around on me. So cycling, picking cards that draw other cards, is really important. This is actually a huge part of why Warlock is such a strong class right now. Because of their hero ability they can draw without needing to clog their deck with cycling cards. Also trading minions is usually slight better than using removal, if those are your options. I'll usually kill 3 things with a Venture Co. Mercenary for instance, just because it is a big card early. A lot of times I could use removal on what he played and go to his face for 7, but I'd rather trade down.

3rd Mage in a row that had a Pyroblast. This last Mage had 4 Fireballs and a Pyro. Such bullshit. Literally every single Mage I play lately has a Pyroblast. What the fuck? Pyroblast is such a lame, no skill card. That's not rage, it's truth. Skillless fucks. mages just spam whatever pops into their hand and they win. 28 damage directly to the face that you can't do a damn thing about...

They could maybe tone it down by making nukes do only half damage if directed at the player. I also get annoyed playing against mages recently. You can be ahead and controlling the board, but they just sit back and nuke/freeze and there's nothing you can do about it unless you also play mage for counterspell (which isn't even that good of an answer).

@Sinzar exactly. That game above I was dominating by making better trades and being effecient and actually thinking about what I played. My opponent did nothing of the sort, and the only reason I was at 9 life was because he Fireball'd me 3 times in the past 2 turns. No skill whatsoever. It's like playing a totally different game against Mages, basically the only thing you can do is blindly rush them without using any thought process, which is exactly what they do, except they get to ignore taunt, which puts you on an even lower playing field. Mages are ruining any fun I used to get out of this game. As dramatic as that sounds, it's true, specially since around 55% of people I play seem to be a Mage, either in constructed or Arena these days. Pyroblast just simply shouldn't exist, although that's only one issue. Mages have WAY too much freeze for a mere basic set.

Has anyone ever had a problem syncing Paypal to your Battle.net account? It's been driving me nuts. I've googled a thousand things, filed a ticket, etc and I still haven't found a solution. The Paypal account is verified, and I added SMS and confirmed it on Battle.net as well, but then when I try to add a Paypal account (I've tried 3 different Paypals) and I go to pay a certain amount of money to add to the account, I get a sync error. I really, really wanna give Blizzard my money, but they don't want it. please help

Also please help, why can't I win with Druid? What am I doing wrong. The 2 missing cards in this screenshot are x2 Innervate and x1 Claw. Any suggestions? Keeping in mind I've never bought a pack so don't have a huge collection. I have enough dust for a few cards, but can't add stuff like Ancients etc. Mainly looking to change commons/rares. Took out Cult Master for Acolyte of Pain, don't know how that got in there.

There needs to be an Ancient of Wind (7)

Choose one: 3/9; Battlecry: Deal 2 Damage, Spellpower +2 --(OR)-- 8/4, Stealth

Pyros_sl said:

Sword of justice is possibly the best paladin card you can get. Unless it gets oozed the value is ridiculous, just don't swing it unless you can get a good card. Avenging Wrath is alright but it's nowhere near imo, the sword gives you huge momentum since there's pretty much no way to keep up with a paladin who plays a sword(or worse, coins a sword) if you don't ooze it.

Click to expand...

Equality + AA is a killer board clearing combo though

Hate complaining about bad luck in arena and all that jazz but getting Flamestriked literally three times in a row is pretty fucking lame.

Teron D'Amun_sl said:

Equality + AA is a killer board clearing combo though

Click to expand...

Yeah and I'd already drafted x2 Equality so it was a no brainer for me. I'm still not convinced Sword of Justice would be better even without a Consecrate or Avenging Wrath though. It's a tough call because you can't simply reduce Sword of Justice to "3 Mana for a 5/5" which if you do, it wouldn't seem "that" amazing. Because it's so cheap it allows you to get a really quick tempo, but I dunno. I have one for my constructed deck and I love it and all, but fuck me, Avenging Wrath is so versatile and it synergizes with so much of the Paladin arsenal so well.

So I put together a Druid spell power deck and actually won not one game, but TWO OMFG. Are there any high end Druids that run spell power? Edit: Christ Baron Geddon is so fucking good in a spell power Druid deck.

I am so confused how these new ranks work. I was rank 19 2 stars, Novice Engineer, then I won 2 games in a row and I was rank 20 3 stars in Shieldbearer. Wtf?

Mr. MorrowGirl_sl said:

@Sinzar exactly. That game above I was dominating by making better trades and being effecient and actually thinking about what I played. My opponent did nothing of the sort, and the only reason I was at 9 life was because he Fireball'd me 3 times in the past 2 turns. No skill whatsoever. It's like playing a totally different game against Mages, basically the only thing you can do is blindly rush them without using any thought process, which is exactly what they do, except they get to ignore taunt, which puts you on an even lower playing field. Mages are ruining any fun I used to get out of this game. As dramatic as that sounds, it's true, specially since around 55% of people I play seem to be a Mage, either in constructed or Arena these days. Pyroblast just simply shouldn't exist

Click to expand...

You were making better trades because you had better cards. Half his cards were stuck in his hand waiting to burn you out.

There is nothing wrong with burn decks existing. They have always existed in MTG as well, in varying forms. Pyroblast (33% of your life for 8 mana) isn't that much crazier than Lava Axe in MTG (25% of your life for 5 mana), and that has always been a pretty trashy card. It feels unfair when the guy blasts you for 16 in the face out of nowhere, but you have to remember that he gave up board control for the opportunity to do that.

The problem isn't Pyroblast, or Fireball, or the freeze spells. The problem is that Hearthstone's mechanics are so simple that there will always be only a limited number of answers to the top threats in the format. If you want to beat Pyroblast, you need to outrace it, with or without the help of heals. That's it, that is your only option. The mage can focus all his non-killing spells on countering that exact approach.

In MTG, you would be able to race it with any color, counter it (as blue), discard it (as black), prevent it (as white) or deny him the mana to cast it (as red or green). You would be able to sideboard in those cards, giving you an upper hand in games 2 and 3 even if your maindeck couldn't deal with it. The number of different approaches would make it very hard for the burn deck to protect its win condition against all challengers.

They can nerf mages, but this will ALWAYS be an issue until they develop the game into a deeper, more competitive game.

Elerion_sl said:

You were making better trades because you had better cards. Half his cards were stuck in his hand waiting to burn you out.

There is nothing wrong with burn decks existing. They have always existed in MTG as well, in varying forms. Pyroblast (33% of your life for 8 mana) isn't that much crazier than Lava Axe in MTG (25% of your life for 5 mana), and that has always been a pretty trashy card. It feels unfair when the guy blasts you for 16 in the face out of nowhere, but you have to remember that he gave up board control for the opportunity to do that.

The problem isn't Pyroblast, or Fireball, or the freeze spells. The problem is that Hearthstone's mechanics are so simple that there will always be only a limited number of answers to the top threats in the format. If you want to beat Pyroblast, you need to outrace it, with or without the help of heals. That's it, that is your only option. The mage can focus all his non-killing spells on countering that exact approach.

In MTG, you would be able to race it with any color, counter it (as blue), discard it (as black), prevent it (as white) or deny him the mana to cast it (as red or green). You would be able to sideboard in those cards, giving you an upper hand in games 2 and 3 even if your maindeck couldn't deal with it. The number of different approaches would make it very hard for the burn deck to protect its win condition against all challengers.

They can nerf mages, but this will ALWAYS be an issue until they develop the game into a deeper, more competitive game.

Click to expand...

It's not just the point of making better trades, it's that there is 0 strategy involved with a Mage burn deck and there is little thought process or planning. It requires the lowest amount of skill and it's absolutely dreadfully boring to play against. Burn decks in MTG are similar, but not as bad because you have a wider variety of threats you have to account for and there are a larger amount of counters. Where in Hearthstone you can play terribly, make loads of mistakes and bad decisions and still win the game just by drawing enough of your burn. It just comes down to pure math and statistics and RNG and that is simply boring. If they draw enough burn spells in the first 12-14 turns, they win, end of story. Doesn't really matter what you do, unless you have a really quick rush/agro Warlock deck or get extremely lucky, you're done for. There should be more than one counter to any one deck and right now there isn't with a Mage, not if they draw even half of what they need. Maybe if we started with 40 life or if the burn did less damage to players, but as it stands right now, it's too rough.

So I'm 5-0 with this Druid deck, finally something Druid that wins! I threw it together really quickly though. Any suggestions? The cards that are missing on this list are Baron Geddon and Ancient of Lore. I want to find room for Argent Commander. I wish I had a Bloodmage Thalnos, so OP. I just got a Nourish out on turn 2 and it was so much fun. I took out both Ironbark Protectors because I feel like they can really lose you a game if it gets removed or mind controlled and I have so much other taunt. 14 Spells, 16 Creatures. Do you guys think it'd be worth crafting another Auctioneer? Having an Acolyte of Pain out, with a buff on it, and then casting a Moonfire/Wrath on it with an Auctioneer out = 6-7 cards. So good.

In constructed it does matter what you do - in the deckbuilding stage. You know about the decks/cards, you can build to deal with them, it might leave you more vulnerable to other tactics. That's the whole ccg genre. In limited drafts/sealed/arena , you literally play the cards you're dealt so yea, it might suck having to deal with some card pools, better luck next time.

It is kinda interesting to read this thread if you ignore every other post that's another "whaaa bad mages touched me".

Mr Creed_sl said:

In constructed it does matter what you do - in the deckbuilding stage. You know about the decks/cards, you can build to deal with them, it might leave you more vulnerable to other tactics. That's the whole ccg genre. In limited drafts/sealed/arena , you literally play the cards you're dealt so yea, it might suck having to deal with some card pools, better luck next time.

It is kinda interesting to read this thread if you ignore every other post that's another "whaaa bad mages touched me".

Click to expand...

Haha well raging is a part of gaming I guess. Mages will get a nerf or at least some class changes soon though, I guarantee it. They just aren't fun to play against and as far as developers are concerned, that is a bigger threat than anything else, including imbalance. Ironically enough, this new Druid deck dominates the Mages I've been playing because your creatures are so big they are forced to burn them rather than you. I am loving this deck, like 7-0 win streak right now, gogo stars.

I don't particularly like mark of the wild and mark of nature, if you don't have board control they are more often then not just dead cards in your hand. Why would you drop power of the wild?!? Its versatility makes it one of the most op cards in the game, I'd drop the two mark of the wilds and put in 2 power of the wilds. You have no 1 drops and your only options at two drop are kobold and novice so it will also help in that regard. Not sure if you have ancient mage, but I've found running him to be a lot better than running dolaran mages, that way you can use minions that actually do something other than just +1 spell power and the ancient mage himself at 2/5 makes him hard to remove/good target for buffs himself. I like the versatility of keeper of the grove personally and would run that over twilight drake, actually now that I think about it, his 2 damage and silence abilities count as spells so I'm pretty sure the 2 damage would be affected by spell power also and would make it very powerful in a spell power deck. If you want to run ac I'd drop archmage.

mures_sl said:

I don't particularly like mark of the wild and mark of nature, if you don't have board control they are more often then not just dead cards in your hand. Why would you drop power of the wild?!? Its versatility makes it one of the most op cards in the game, I'd drop the two mark of the wilds and put in 2 power of the wilds. You have no 1 drops and your only options at two drop are kobold and novice so it will also help in that regard. Not sure if you have ancient mage, but I've found running him to be a lot better than running dolaran mages, that way you can use minions that actually do something other than just +1 spell power and the ancient mage himself at 2/5 makes him hard to remove/good target for buffs himself. I like the versatility of keeper of the grove personally and would run that over twilight drake, actually now that I think about it, his 2 damage and silence abilities count as spells so I'm pretty sure the 2 damage would be affected by spell power also and would make it very powerful in a spell power deck. If you want to run ac I'd drop archmage.

Click to expand...

I dropped Power of the Wild because I only have 16 creatures and I've never used the +1/+1 effect so it's not really versatile for me; it's just a basic 3/2 which I don't have room for. I don't really like Mark of Nature either and think I might remove it. Mark of the Wild I am in love with though, you just have to use it properly/time it properly. But it can turn a Novice Engineer into a threat and combined with the class ability you are suddenly able to do 4 damage with an Engineer and this deck basically needs to delay until I can get my fatties out so it really helps to stay alive early on. Late game it's pretty dead though. I am loving all the Spell Power I have and it's allowing me to do some really neat stuff and I'm now 8-0. I always thought Moonfire was shit, but it can be ridiculous really quick and it combines with the Hero Ability and also works wonders with Auctioneer and/or on Acolyte of Pain.

I would put a Keeper of the Grove in if I had one, but I'm not sure if it's worth crafting (I don't really have any dust) I just crafted an Auctioneer (first one) and an Azure Drake. I think you're right about putting Grove in over Twilight drake tho, for sure. But I do find that in this slow deck that Twilight Drake is almost always a huge fatty and can come out really quickly. I don't have an Ancient Mage, but I've considered crafting one for a variety of decks. I don't think it'd be very strong in this one though with how few creatures I have. I find that my Spell Power is pretty solid right now, but I'm sure there's a few variations that are better, such as obviously Thalanos or maybe some others I'm not thinking of.

Cards I'm considering:
Violet Teacher
Ancient Mage
Azure Drake (2nd one)
Gadgetzen Auctioneer (2nd one)
Questing Adventurer (lots of ways to keep it alive and cast several spells in one turn)
Keeper of the Grove
Starfall (2nd one)

Atm I'm thinking the best value would be either Grove or 2nd Starfall. With all the Spellpower Starfall is just amazing. Starfall vs. Grove, hmm. Do any strong decks use the Rogue headcrack? I need to DE a few things to make something. I have x2 of them, they seem worthless except in one very niche, expensive deck.

The Master_sl said:

So around rank 14 I ran into 3 Warriors in a row running a variant of ek0p's Warrior deck. I honestly didn't expect anyone running that deck to do well atm. Beat it with Rogue, Priest, and Druid... it doesn't win against anything. Wondering how they got so far up.

Click to expand...

Is that the molten giants charge deck? I lost a game to one last night, such a dumb deck, its all or nothing like hunter's otk deck, but lower odds at getting all the cards you need. You get both giants in hand by turn ~8 you win, you don't, and you lose. Would rather truesilver attack then heal , was at 27 life because I killed two gnomish with a truesilver and 3 giant attacks + brewmaster = 27 life.

mures_sl said:

Is that the molten giants charge deck? I lost a game to one last night, such a dumb deck, its all or nothing like hunter's otk deck, but lower odds at getting all the cards you need. You get both giants in hand by turn ~8 you win, you don't, and you lose. Would rather truesilver attack then heal

, was at 27 life because I killed two gnomish with a truesilver and 3 giant attacks + brewmaster = 27 life.

Click to expand...

It's so frustrating to play against a Warrior that gets out an early Warsong Commander. If you don't deal with it immediately, you'll be playing from behind the entire damn game. Molten Giant charge sounds interesting. Is there a pic of the deck list?

Btw Hearthstone keys are down to $9.99 buy it now on Ebay. I don't think open beta is happening this month based on the number of keys they're still giving out. I think they're worried about how popular the game is, so they're doing a stealth open beta where they toss out 3,000 keys here and there to certain websites etc. I bet they continue that until the influx of players logging on and creating beta accounts stabilizes. I'd bet we won't see open beta until late January, unfortunately.

mures_sl said:

Is that the molten giants charge deck? I lost a game to one last night, such a dumb deck, its all or nothing like hunter's otk deck, but lower odds at getting all the cards you need. You get both giants in hand by turn ~8 you win, you don't, and you lose. Would rather truesilver attack then heal

, was at 27 life because I killed two gnomish with a truesilver and 3 giant attacks + brewmaster = 27 life.

Click to expand...

No, you can see an outdated variant of it by checking out the Warrior deck Artosis used for the invitational at Blizzcon. ek0p built it, but he kept evolving it whereas Blizzard required deck lists like two weeks in advance so what you submitted was what you had to play. It is pretty dead in the meta now (loses to Warlock, Rogue, and both Mage pretty hard).

The Molten Charge deck is pretty basic. 2x Molten Giants, 2x Warsong Commander, 2x Youthful Brewmaster. That is the combo. Everything else is about delaying and card draw. So you have weapons (two-fer, keeps the board clear and lets you damage yourself semi-reliably, because ideally you want to get down to 10 health) For me that means 2x Fiery War Axe, 2x Arcanite Reaper, 1x Gorehowl, 2x Upgrade, 1x Captain Greenskin, and 1-2 Arathi Weaponsmiths right off the bat. Shield Block (only use if you're already low enough to play combo but don't have all the pieces in hand). Add in the the rest as appropriate. I'd probably but a bunch of stuff with charge in there (Argents, Elites). That is already 20-25 cards, you can fill in the rest. This will lose hard to Mages though, because inevitably they'll have Ice Block up. They should be more than halfway through their deck by the time you can pull off the combo. Odds of them not having at least one Iceblock are pretty slim and they'll have enough freezes in hand kill you. Plus any smart Mage will Frostbolt the Warsong Commander, so you should wait to play it till you can do it all in one turn, but that means extending their reach into their deck, which means more likely to have Iceblock, etc.

Tried playing Druid for arena. Went 1-3, it was bad. So far my best drafts since patch were Mage, Paladin, Rogue, Warlock (12 wins each). Haven't tried the rest. My Shaman deck actually beat a giant Mage in ranked. I was mostly playing it for a change of pace, I didn't expect to win, but turn 9 and he didn't have an Iceblock out. He was at 13. Argent+Rockbiter+Lightning Boltx2 is 13 damage.

Man this Druid deck is dominating. If I had a Ysera it'd be perfect. I won't be crafting another Auctioneer, as I seem to have TOO much card draw. Last couple games I had to suicide Auctioneer on purpose or draw too much. My only weakness is sometimes finishing some classes and running out of cards. This last game I was down to 0 cards, none in hand and fatigue at 4, it got to where I only had 1 creature left on the board, a Venture Co with 1 health, but I won. My opponent had 9 cards left lol. I need a good way to do damage once I've cleared the board several times. I wish I had a Ragnoros instead of a Baron Geddon. A mountain giant or two would be grand, as my hand is often at 5+, sometimes almost full.

I played against a Gruul in the arena last night. I have seriously been underestimating him. He gets big so fast. Nobody plays him seriously tho in constructed huh? I am surprised not to see Illidan in various tournaments or high end constructed decks. Seems like he could be really, really sick.