[PC Game] Hearthstone (Practically Beta)

[Ravenpoe]

Ok I just got in this weekend and so far it is pretty fun. Against most opponents it feels very strategic with guessing how much they are willing to sacrifice to keep board control and playing around it. I've been playing a paladin deck and winning most of my matches. I play a lot of recruits and with all the buffs I have I always force out there big crowd control early leaving my late game creatures to wreck or my buffed up recruits. I've ended so many matches with a recruit buffed up to 8+ attack that they left on the board because it was a 1/1. So far the only trouble I've been having are with warlocks and the health priests. Last game against a priest I thought I was doing good but then he played a mogushan warrior which next turn got turned into a 28/28 beast. The warlocks I only have a chance to win if I get a consecrate in my opening hand. I think a silence or that card that turns minions health to one would fix most of my problems but I don't own any of those cards yet.

Anyway I'm looking forward to trying out the arena once I get used to playing a few more classes besides the paladin.

Yeah, if playing against a paladin, you can't ignore the recruits. Anything left on the board has the threat of having a blessing of kings dropped on it, you have to keep board control against a paladin.

With priests, if they buff a mogushan warrior up to 28/28 with two double healths and an inner fire, they're pretty much going all in on that one unit. Paladins' main weakness is they lack hard removal, but you will eventually get cards that can deal with this. Aldor peacekeeper is a decent unit whose battlecry is to reduce an enemy minion's attack to 1, and humility is a great card that reduces ALL minions (including your own) health to 1. Humility into a consecration is a powerful combination, and only costs 6 mana total.

 

[Gilgamesh]

@Ravenpoe - Equality + Consecration is the combo you're thinking of.
I'm fond of Pyromancer + Equality if you don't have any minions of your own for a total of 5mana. Then possible to still cast a couple minions of your own.

 

[Ravenpoe]

@Ravenpoe - Equality + Consecration is the combo you're thinking of.
I'm fond of Pyromancer + Equality if you don't have any minions of your own for a total of 5mana. Then possible to still cast a couple minions of your own.

Ahh, yeah, Equality, not humility. I don't play Paladin that often.

Humility is a spell that acts like the aldor peacekeeper, changing a minion's attack to 1.

 

[Ravenpoe]

Mages got a nerf today. All of the freeze cards had their mana cost increased by one, making them much slower to play.

We'll see if this does anything to stop the mage stall deck.

 

[Gilgamesh]

Mages got a nerf today. All of the freeze cards had their mana cost increased by one, making them much slower to play.

We'll see if this does anything to stop the mage stall deck.

Without an Alextraza fix, not really.

 

[Bowielee]

Played a great game today against a mage with my shaman deck. At the end, we were both top decking with a large chunk of health to go. It ended up being who ever was luckiest.

 

[PatrThom]

Just got accepted. Maybe I'll see y'all online.
That would be nice.

--Patrick

 

[Gilgamesh]

Just got accepted. Maybe I'll see y'all online.
That would be nice.

--Patrick

Add me anytime.
Gilgamesh #1151

So far the only forumite I've played against is @Ravenpoe but I'm happy to play with anyone.

 

[Frank]

I keep losing the crash battle. Still no fix in site too. The tech support forum is just piles of people with the same issue and mostly ignored.

I was really stoked to play too.

 

[Ravenpoe]

I really don't like one turn win gimmick decks. Except for @Gilgamesh because his gimmick deck is hilarious.

I was playing my priest deck against a warrior last night, and the warrior was doing nothing but crowd control and weapon stalls. I suspected he was going to do some sort of giant play, since he just kept taking damage and clearing the board without playing any minions, so I was keeping hold of a couple of shadow word deaths to deal with whatever big threat he would eventually lay down.

On turn 9 he equipped a gorehowl. I'd already used my oozes to clear his arcanite reapers, but hey, I'm still at 30 health, and he's at 10. He's going to have trouble clearing my minions without getting killed. I got this!

On turn 10, he played a warsong commander, giving his minions charge. And then a bloodsail buccaneer, which because of gorehowl got buffed up to huge attack. And then two molten giants for free. And then a faceless manipulator for ANOTHER molten giant.

Who all had charge.

So that's 31 damage in a single turn for 10 mana, with no way for the opponent to react.

 

[Gilgamesh]

I really don't like one turn win gimmick decks. Except for @Gilgamesh because his gimmick deck is hilarious.

I was playing my priest deck against a warrior last night, and the warrior was doing nothing but crowd control and weapon stalls. I suspected he was going to do some sort of giant play, since he just kept taking damage and clearing the board without playing any minions, so I was keeping hold of a couple of shadow word deaths to deal with whatever big threat he would eventually lay down.

On turn 9 he equipped a gorehowl. I'd already used my oozes to clear his arcanite reapers, but hey, I'm still at 30 health, and he's at 10. He's going to have trouble clearing my minions without getting killed. I got this!

On turn 10, he played a warsong commander, giving his minions charge. And then a bloodsail buccaneer, which because of gorehowl got buffed up to huge attack. And then two molten giants for free. And then a faceless manipulator for ANOTHER molten giant.

Who all had charge.

So that's 31 damage in a single turn for 10 mana, with no way for the opponent to react.

The current Warrior meta at high levels actually does something like this. The combo is allow yourself to get to 10health, all while using massive card draw/creature elimination, then drop Warsong + Two Molten Giants, attack, brewmaster them back and do it again. It's ridiculous and hard to stop unless you have some beefy taunts (this deck usually loses to druids). Since the combo only requires 7 mana to pull off (Warsong + Two Brewmasters) the only hard part for warrior is getting the 5 cards before losing.

It's really lame. I am glad to see a massive drop in Freeze decks though, even though it's still viable.

 

[Vrii]

Well, after the arena bug's forced break I had a horrible run of 2-4 win runs, then tonight I got 8 and 12 as paladin. Think I'm better off sticking to the classes I'm comfortable with instead of trying to get some levels on the lower ones.

As an aside, rewards at 12 wins are nice. 405g, 2 packs, 20 dust.

 

[Rovewin]

I just tried 2 rounds of arena and it was pretty fun. Tried playing paladin first time and no consecrate or truesilver champion and only one buff had me out pretty quickly. Next I tried Druid. 4 swipes was hilarious. I went 7-2. When the last game ended I clicked a few times for the game to end and accidentally started searching for a new one and when I hit cancel the game closed and I guess it counted it as a loss even though it had not found anyone yet. Oh well.

So are some common cards more common then others? I counted that I have 30 cards or 6 packs and I have 3 mad bombers and 3 noble sacrifices. With how many commons that exist I thought it would be a while before I had 2 of something let alone needing to disenchant.

 

[Bowielee]

I just disenchant anything over 2 cards seeing as they're useless beyond that because you can only have 2 in any given deck.

 

[Ravenpoe]

I just tried 2 rounds of arena and it was pretty fun. Tried playing paladin first time and no consecrate or truesilver champion and only one buff had me out pretty quickly. Next I tried Druid. 4 swipes was hilarious. I went 7-2. When the last game ended I clicked a few times for the game to end and accidentally started searching for a new one and when I hit cancel the game closed and I guess it counted it as a loss even though it had not found anyone yet. Oh well.

So are some common cards more common then others? I counted that I have 30 cards or 6 packs and I have 3 mad bombers and 3 noble sacrifices. With how many commons that exist I thought it would be a while before I had 2 of something let alone needing to disenchant.

I just use the auto disenchant button in the crafting window, it will disenchant anything you have more than 2 of.

Also, Mad Bombers are awesome.

Playing Arena is a lot different from constructed. Some cards are more valuable on others because you never know if you're going to get combo cards to support it. So you tend to look for cards that are powerful on their own, and halfway through the draft you can maybe start looking for combos, while also keeping track of your mana curve. It just takes experience before you know what to look for.

 

[Bowielee]

I literally try to avoid standardized decks. That's why I enjoy watching Day[9], TotalBiscuit and others build/try out weird ass decks. Seems like right now there's a "cookie cutter" deck out there that the bulk of people are using.

 

[Vrii]

There are always going to be cookie cutter decks, it's the nature of a CCG like this. The balance of the cards means that there are going to be optimal builds, then optimal builds to counter those, then maybe counter-counter decks or quirky combo decks that can slip in and pull out wins. It doesn't mean that you can't play whatever looks fun or interesting to you, but to win 60%+ of your games at the top of the ladder people need to optimize.

Of course, each balance patch changes things up enough for the popular decks to cycle out, or for a new counter to become viable, or a new class to jump up on top of the pile - at that point it's not so much about avoiding the popular setups as it is about identifying openings and opportunities to fill a gap.

 

[PatrThom]

it's not so much about avoiding the popular setups as it is about identifying openings and opportunities to fill a gap.

Right. With games like this, they start out like rock/paper/scissors, with a few dominant decks/strategies. But as balance gets reworked over time, they become more like rock/paper/scissors/lizard/spock, and ultimately end up something like this:

...where you try to build something that carries some sort of solid win condition while packing in some strong counters against the reigning strategy du jour.

--Patrick

 

[Gilgamesh]

@Ravenpoe - Thought you might find this amusing:
My gimmick deck did 75dmg in one turn

Spoiler

 

[Ravenpoe]

@Ravenpoe - Thought you might find this amusing:
My gimmick deck did 75dmg in one turn

That's disgusting.

 

[Rovewin]

Oh man I just had the funniest match. I was mage against a priest and we got down to where he had 3 cards left in his deck and I had 7. Him full health and me at 6. I knew he was sitting on a mind control and a shadow word death. So instead of playing my beefy creature I just played my novice engineer and later my footman. I had 2 fireballs in case he drew anything good and then just attacked with those two and my hero ability. It was hilarious, after he ran out of cards he used his mind control on my 1/2. Death by card draw.

 

[Ravenpoe]

Oh man I just had the funniest match. I was mage against a priest and we got down to where he had 3 cards left in his deck and I had 7. Him full health and me at 6. I knew he was sitting on a mind control and a shadow word death. So instead of playing my beefy creature I just played my novice engineer and later my footman. I had 2 fireballs in case he drew anything good and then just attacked with those two and my hero ability. It was hilarious, after he ran out of cards he used his mind control on my 1/2. Death by card draw.

Another good one is this one, five minute game.

 

[Bowielee]

Another good one is this one, five minute game.

How is that mage playing 4 ice lances?

 

[Ravenpoe]

How is that mage playing 4 ice lances?

Arena.

 

[Bowielee]

Arena.

So? What, you can have more than 2 of the same card in an arena draft deck?

 

[Ravenpoe]

So? What, you can have more than 2 of the same card in an arena draft deck?

Yep. Arena draft is random, so you can draft multiples of the same card if they come up.[DOUBLEPOST=1387745887,1387745842][/DOUBLEPOST]


Before the mind control nerf, I faced a priest in arena with 5 mind controls. It was... unkind.

 

[Bowielee]

Huh, I did not know that. I've never had more than 2 of the same card appear in a draft.

 

[Ravenpoe]

@Gilgamesh I just saw Koyuki Case use your disgusting warrior combo against Trump, except he threw in some 0 cost wisps to take hits as well.

 

[PatrThom]

I've managed to play three battles so far. I'm 1-2 and have unlocked the paladin.
Parenting + retail = no time

--Patrick

 

[Gilgamesh]

@Gilgamesh I just saw Koyuki Case use your disgusting warrior combo against Trump, except he threw in some 0 cost wisps to take hits as well.

I was watching too and Koyuki did not pull it off. The Wisps don't work. Damage doesn't count toward the Berserker if it's dropping below zero even with Commanding Shout. He sort of has the right idea, but definitely not the execution.

 

[Ravenpoe]

I was watching too and Koyuki did not pull it off. The Wisps don't work. Damage doesn't count toward the Berserker if it's dropping below zero even with Commanding Shout. He sort of has the right idea, but definitely not the execution.

Yeah, I think he was testing if the wisps would work. But it's definitely picking up traction.

Hate that combo so much

 

[Gilgamesh]

But it's definitely picking up traction.

I hope not, I have no way of proving I came up with it first!

 

[Ravenpoe]

So, big patch coming out with some crazy nerfs!

Pyroblast is being changed to 10 mana instead of 8. About time!

Blood Imp is now a 0/1 and instead of buffing all minions with 1 health, it buffs a random minion at the end of each turn with 1 health. That's a huge nerf.

Unleash the hounds being lowered to 2 mana instead of 4. Hey, it's actually useful again!

Warsong Commander only gives charge to minions with 3 or less attack. Sorry, Molten Giant one turn kill Warriors.

Dark Iron Dwarf's buff only lasts until the end of the turn now. WHAT? Oh well, not too bad, it's usually used to trade anyway.

Novice Engineer is now a 1/1. I don't agree with that nerf at all. Who ever said she was too good?

Sylvanas now costs 6 mana. I can understand this, she was pretty damn good as a 5/5 for 5 that takes control of an enemy on death.

I think that's all the big changes. Go check the patch notes for more.

 

[Gilgamesh]

I'm 100% for all the changes, they were seriously well thought out and balanced. When 90% of decks run the same cards, it's time to make some changes. When a deck can kill you in one turn while not having done a single thing the whole game, it's time to make some changes.

That said however... they killed my Frothing deck by accident @Ravenpoe

 

[Rovewin]

I'm 100% for all the changes, they were seriously well thought out and balanced. When 90% of decks run the same cards, it's time to make some changes. When a deck can kill you in one turn while not having done a single thing the whole game, it's time to make some changes.

That said however... they killed my Frothing deck by accident @Ravenpoe

I heard that for warsong commander it will be a buff instead of an aura now so it should still work since frothing is below 3 when entering play. What exactly was your deck?

So, big patch coming out with some crazy nerfs!

Dark Iron Dwarf's buff only lasts until the end of the turn now. WHAT? Oh well, not too bad, it's usually used to trade anyway.

Novice Engineer is now a 1/1. I don't agree with that nerf at all. Who ever said she was too good?

They changed the dark iron because it had to be cast on a minion so if you did not have board control you just doomed yourself more unless it was to use big game hunter which you can still do.

Yeah novice engineer is probably not going to be run by me anymore. Feels like too much of a waste of a card now. Used to be you were almost guaranteed to get one dmg in on something now it's just to try and stall their early game I guess by having them ping it off.

Also yay pyro nerf!