Hearthstone

[Fallen Kell]

bahahaha... FINALLY got a good card from a GvG deck. And it was on an awesome win too. Priest vs Priest. I went second and had coin. He started out with the cleric, for which I did not have a turn 1 counter, so I did nothing. Turn 2 he just attacks me. I pop the coin and play a 3/4 dark cultist (to counter his cleric). He plays an annoy-o-tron 1/2 +taunt+divine shield, and attacks my priest again with his cleric. I blap the shield of the annoy-o-tron play my own cleric and heal my cultist. He plays a kill 3 or less attack minion card on my cleric, and then attacks my priest again.

At this point I get it in my head that I can actually perform a card burn against this guy due to his cleric (especially since he killed mine) and I had both my 0 mana +4 heal all minions cards in my hand. I kill the annoy-o-tron and play a thoughtsteal and heal my dark cultist giving him another card (I got another thoughtsteal and a dark cultist). He then plays another annoy-o-tron, and a second cleric (right into my strategy), and attacks my hero. I kill the shield on the annoy-o-tron, and play an unstable ghoul, and heal my dark cultist giving him 2 cards. He uses 2 smites to kill my cultist (which I think he didn't think through the order of the kill, cause it gave my ghoul + 3 health) and attacked my ghoul with his annoy-o-tron and the 2 clerics, and he then healed the annoy-o-tron (getting 2 cards,to max his hand). I then attack his his annoy-o-tron with my ghoul, heal my ghoul with my hero power (giving him 2 cards which he couldn't hold), play a wounded swordsman, play a +4 heal all which draws him 10 cards (all 3 of his minions were damaged and both of mine were still damaged). He quits (I think he had like 2 cards left in his deck).

For my troubles, I actually get a good pack:

 

[JTsyo]

and a second cleric

That's almost always a mistake vs another priest.

 

[Firsttime]

That's almost always a mistake vs another priest.

Never go full Northshire.

 

[cbrunny]

Just starting out - first real "card game" of this sort. Any tips? Is it normal to lose a lot early on? I know its a deck building game so obviously that has a lot to do with it.

Suggestions on a class to start with to learn the game? Other than the mage..

 

[HumblePie]

Just starting out - first real "card game" of this sort. Any tips? Is it normal to lose a lot early on? I know its a deck building game so obviously that has a lot to do with it.

Suggestions on a class to start with to learn the game? Other than the mage..

Mage does well enough with mostly class cards and some neutral cards. Same with hunter as an agro low casting cost neutral minion setup with many of the class cards. Warlock does well with mostly cheap neutral minions as a "zoolock" setup. Paladins can do well with their cheap agro setup too.

Other classes or deck configurations for those classes mentioned thus far require a bunch of rarer cards that may take awhile to obtain unless you are willing to drop a bunch of money on the game.

 

[quikah]

Maybe not the best, but I learned a lot watching Trump's idraft series on YouTube.

 

[CalebRockeT]

Trump has an series for beginners/basics called "Trump's Teachings." The entire playlist is only 1h 44m.

 

[Vivendi]

So I used up all my remaining gold and bought 30 GvG packs and decided to track of which cards I got.
I don't know it's just bad luck or just how the cards are given from packs, but I picked up 0 legendaries, 7 epics and exactly 30 rares (including 1 golden). The rest being common (including 2 golden commons).

But my beef isn't so much with the card rarities but with me getting some cards way too often from packs. I picked up NINE shielded mini bots, 6 shrinkmeisters, 6 tinker's sharpsword oil, 5 goblin auto barbers, 5 crackles, 4 each of cogmasters, explosive sheep, kaizen mystic and force tank max.
That's 47 cards out of 150 opened...
Or another way: 9 cards being nearly 1/3rd of all opened...

 

[Firsttime]

So I used up all my remaining gold and bought 30 GvG packs and decided to track of which cards I got.
I don't know it's just bad luck or just how the cards are given from packs, but I picked up 0 legendaries, 7 epics and exactly 30 rares (including 1 golden). The rest being common (including 2 golden commons).

But my beef isn't so much with the card rarities but with me getting some cards way too often from packs. I picked up NINE shielded mini bots, 6 shrinkmeisters, 6 tinker's sharpsword oil, 5 goblin auto barbers, 5 crackles, 4 each of cogmasters, explosive sheep, kaizen mystic and force tank max.
That's 47 cards out of 150 opened...
Or another way: 9 cards being nearly 1/3rd of all opened...

Yeah the way the expansion was done (with roughly 120 cards, relatively a lot of legendaries compared to the classic set) means you get a ton of duplicates compared to the classic packs.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Yeah the way the expansion was done (with roughly 120 cards, relatively a lot of legendaries compared to the classic set) means you get a ton of duplicates compared to the classic packs.

Agreed. In terms of dust per pack, you are better off going classic packs if you ask me. The GvG packs seem to some reason give lots of the same crap cards, with very few packs that have more than just a single rare. The classic packs would many times have 2-3 rares in the pack (heck I had a classic pack that was 1 golden epic, 1 epic, 1 golden rare, 1 rare, 1 golden common).

I have opened a whole 4 GvG packs that have had more that just the single rare (and I have opened approx 60 packs). In probably another 5-10 packs, I am going to go back to just the classic (once I get a chance at a few more rares that I don't have yet), because I got on average 50-60 dust on the classic packs, and GvGs get me 20-40 (although I am still getting a rare out of most packs).

 

[Fallen Kell]

Well, looks like someone posted a weapon rogue to one of the major deck building sites. I have faced it 3 times today. It beat my shaman build, but I destroyed it in my mage. Weapons don't work so well when you are frozen the entire game

 

[Fallen Kell]

Wow!!! I just had an EPIC battle against a Warlock in my Druid. He was using the Handlock deck (and had it perfect from what I could see). We were going back and forth the entire game. My druid deck does have Deathwing in it, and I drew it around turn 7 (I also had an invertiate in my hand, meaning I could play it next turn if needed, I also had a poison seeds, a big game hunter, an ironbark (8/8+taunt), a Soul of the Forest, and a sludge beltcher).

Given that I recognized the handlock deck, I really didn't want to play the Deathwing until I absolutely had to. His next turn he pulls out both Mountain Giants. I drew a Sludge Beltcher, which I played and then killed one of the Giants with the Big Game Hunter. He kills the Sludge Beltcher with the Giant, and plays Lord Jaraxxus. I kill the Giant with the big game hunter (4 damage) and the 1/2 taunt (1 damage + the 3 that it already had), and play the Ironbark. He hits the Ironbark with a 4 damage spell (discard a card, which he lost a doomguard), played a darkbomb (3 damage), and a hellfire to kill my Ironbark, and attacked me with his hero. I draw my second Ironbark, and play it (and use my hero power to attack his hero). He uses a soulsiphon on the ironbark (which he drew and is his last, the first he used on turn 6 to kill a 4/5+shield+taunt I played), pops his hero power, and attacks me. I play another sludge beltcher. He pops his hero power to get a 6/6, attacks my beltcher, and empties his deck with both molten giants, and a doomguard (kills my beltcher with the doomguard), he is now at 11 health. I play Deathwing. He gets amazingly lucky and draws an Earthen Ring Farseer which heals him to 14 and pops a 6/6 and attacks me. I am down to 9 health, but I get lucky as well and draw a Mark of the Wild (+2/2+taunt a minion), Deathwing to the face.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Some of the new cards combined with the old ones are just so overpowering. I just utterly destroyed a Priest with my Warrior deck. It has a mix of some of the new mechs (the 4/3+deathrattle summon random 2 cost minion, the 4/5+deathrattle give each player 1 spare part), and the Enhance-o Mechano. The rest of my deck is based on minion death/damage cards/bonuses (charge, execute, inner rage, rampage, whirlwind, bouncing blade, frothing berserker, kor'kron elite, death's bite, flesheating ghoul, etc, basically cards which gain attack as other cards are damaged/destroyed or assist in damaging/destroying other cards to trigger those effects).

The first few rounds we just sat around (me buffing armor, him healing his fullhealth character). By turn 4 I get a flesheating ghoul out. He plays a yeti. I inner rage and rampage the ghoul (turning it into a 7/5), and smack the priest to the head. He double healths his yeti, uses a smite (or some other do 2 damage spell) and kills my ghoul with the yeti. I played a death's bite and kill his yeti. He plays a 3/2+do 1 damage all minions when friendly spell cast. I play a sludge beltcher (I have 2 in the deck as my only taunts). He casts one of the kill 3 attack or less spells on the beltcher, and a +2 health+draw a card spell on his minion which does another damage to kill the 1/2 taunt the beltcher summons, and smacks my hero. I get out the 4/3+deathrattle summon random 2 cost minion (and use my hero power). He plays the 5 cost AoE 2 damage+heal 2 damage spell, and heals his character, but then attacks my hero (and doesn't kill the now 4/2 minion I have out.

I play the frothing berserker and kill his minion with mine (which changes the beserker to 4/4 and gives me a stealth spare part) and play a 4/3+deathrattle summon random 2 cost minion and stealth my berserker. He plays a lightspawn, +2 healths it, plays a 1/2 slime and a taunt spare part on it (that doubles to 2 1/2's with taunt). I still have the second attack from the death's bite, and I play a Kor'korn Elite, the Enhance-o Mechano, which gives both my berserker and the 4/3 windfury(!!!), and the Elite a divine shield, and I use a whirlwind, which hits 7 minions making the berserker 11/3, kill one of the taunts with my death's bite, which whirlwinds 6 more minions, making the berserker 18/2, use the second attack from the now 4/1 to attack the 5/5 lightspawn (berserker now 20/2), kill the 1/1 lightspawn with the elite (berserker now 22/2), and smack the priest to the head 2 times with for 44 damage total killing his full health priest on a turn that began with me only have two 4 attack minions on the board with him having a 7/7 and two taunts (and full health). I mean, that is just overpowered.

 

[Kev]

I really wish they would come up with a game mode where you can use constructed decks that doesn't involve climbing a ladder. I'm so sick of ladder. All it is is a bunch of brain dead zoo and hunter decks trying to climb as quickly as possible, fun be damned. Month after month. It's been old for months now.

 

[nsafreak]

I really wish they would come up with a game mode where you can use constructed decks that doesn't involve climbing a ladder. I'm so sick of ladder. All it is is a bunch of brain dead zoo and hunter decks trying to climb as quickly as possible, fun be damned. Month after month. It's been old for months now.

Isn't that what casual mode is?

 

[darkewaffle]

My friend plays a pretty complete (eg: not really missing any of the important cards) control warrior deck and a ton of ladder, same thing. I think in the last 150 games he's played 40some matches vs hunters. Hunter/Lock make up almost/over half of them iirc. And most of them are facefaceface lol.

I still think aggro decks are able to win too easily/quickly. I'd love seeing hero health increased across the board or maybe minion damage reduced for certain cards/mana levels. Unless (assuming a more balanced deck) you have an exceptional starting hand or AoE right when you need it, it's a difficult task to take the board before you're already too low to really recover or get combod.

I also dislike how "control" matches are often decided just by just stalling and comboing for huge amounts of damage in a turn. Shaman spell spam, Alakir, Force of Nature/Savage Roar, Unleash The Hounds/Kill Command, etc.

And imo Spare Parts (and Coin) should not be counted as true spells. Very silly how that interacts with Antonidas.

 

[Fallen Kell]

I still think aggro decks are able to win too easily/quickly. I'd love seeing hero health increased across the board or maybe minion damage reduced for certain cards/mana levels. Unless (assuming a more balanced deck) you have an exceptional starting hand or AoE right when you need it, it's a difficult task to take the board before you're already too low to really recover or get combod.

Actually, the Druid has a full heal card that was released. I was playing against one with my agro warlock deck and he was able to simply outlast me, and I died because I ran out of cards. I did something like 70 damage to him, but he full healed 2 times (once when he had just 1 hp left that I simply couldn't do that round). Everything else he had was board control, both swipes, both starfall's, and a bunch of taunts, a few low cost +magic minions and some of the AoE minions like exploding sheep, doomsayer, Geddon, etc).

 

[Kev]

Isn't that what casual mode is?

I mean something that has a point. Like a tourney mode or something. Casual is stupid.

 

[Wardawg1001]

I mean something that has a point. Like a tourney mode or something. Casual is stupid.

Anything that has 'a point' is going to be comprised of largely the same types of decks that ladder is. If there is a prize, or an achievement, or a goal of any kind, then you will encounter try hards with copy/pasted decks almost exclusively - game mode is irrelevant. The only way to get away from those decks is to get away from decks being constructed. I suppose it could be slightly more interesting to play against those same decks in a tournament format... but only for a little while. In the end its still your same decks vs their same decks. The only way to really spice things up is with new cards, new mechanics, and new modes that enforce different rules on deck creation or composition.

 

[Concillian]

I really wish they would come up with a game mode where you can use constructed decks that doesn't involve climbing a ladder. I'm so sick of ladder. All it is is a bunch of brain dead zoo and hunter decks trying to climb as quickly as possible, fun be damned. Month after month. It's been old for months now.

There have been a couple fatigue decks that have emerged lately. Decent against aggro hunter and zoo. The mage and druid ones are pretty brutal. Tons of healing and they put the opponent ahead on draw so that they die of fatigue first.

I played a druid one for a while. Fun change of pace. Destroys control warrior and handlock. Okay against aggro. Auto loss to combo druid. Long games, lots of thinking each turn what the best play is.

I'm not sure how people play "trying to climb". I play to pass time and have fun. I try to change decks around to match what I'm seeing from time to time. Arena is most fun, but I'm not infinite so I have to ladder some.

 

[Kev]

Anything that has 'a point' is going to be comprised of largely the same types of decks that ladder is. If there is a prize, or an achievement, or a goal of any kind, then you will encounter try hards with copy/pasted decks almost exclusively - game mode is irrelevant. The only way to get away from those decks is to get away from decks being constructed. I suppose it could be slightly more interesting to play against those same decks in a tournament format... but only for a little while. In the end its still your same decks vs their same decks. The only way to really spice things up is with new cards, new mechanics, and new modes that enforce different rules on deck creation or composition.

Not necessarily. In order to climb to legend, most people will need several hundred games played each month. To do this, they end up playing aggro face decks like huntard, or zoo games where you either win quick or lose quick. Also most tournaments now have a ban feature where you can ban an opponents' class. So you could just ban hunter. That changes deck selection significantly.

 

[Kev]

There have been a couple fatigue decks that have emerged lately. Decent against aggro hunter and zoo. The mage and druid ones are pretty brutal. Tons of healing and they put the opponent ahead on draw so that they die of fatigue first.

I played a druid one for a while. Fun change of pace. Destroys control warrior and handlock. Okay against aggro. Auto loss to combo druid. Long games, lots of thinking each turn what the best play is.

I'm not sure how people play "trying to climb". I play to pass time and have fun. I try to change decks around to match what I'm seeing from time to time. Arena is most fun, but I'm not infinite so I have to ladder some.

That's why those decks will never last in the long run. Freeze mage was big awhile ago, but those games take forever and require actual thought. I haven't seen a freeze mage in forever.

I try to play my fun troll priest deck but when you end up losing to tryhard hunters and warlocks by turn 5, it doesn't really give you a chance to have "fun"

 

[Fallen Kell]

I think with the expansions, Priest has become a very good overall class if you have the cards. You can make a deck that can typically survive a rush deck, and will outright overpower anyone else with monster minions in the late game. Combined with healing powers to keep minions alive longer, it just takes full control and destroys. You can get killed by really bad RNG card draw, but typically not (since you almost always have decent card draw from the clerics and spells).

 

[Wardawg1001]

Not necessarily. In order to climb to legend, most people will need several hundred games played each month. To do this, they end up playing aggro face decks like huntard, or zoo games where you either win quick or lose quick. Also most tournaments now have a ban feature where you can ban an opponents' class. So you could just ban hunter. That changes deck selection significantly.

You can't ban hunter, warlock, and mage (imo the new aggro mech mage is nearly on the same level as zoolock and face hunter, though I'm not sure how well it holds up at higher level play yet). At least I haven't seen a tourny yet where you ban more than 1 deck.

Either way, I don't buy that people are only playing these decks to climb to legend. Only .5% of players reach legend rank in a given season (Blizz provided statistics, from Sep 2014). The vast majority of opponents you face on the road from rank 25 to rank 5 will never get to legend, and most of them probably know it - they've been hanging around those ranks for months now. No, people play these decks because they are simple, entertaining, and they make even the least skilled players feel like they are at least 'decent'. I say again, it doesn't matter what the game mode is, if there is incentive of any kind, people will play the easiest / most powerful decks they can, which in the current meta is going to be mostly aggro decks.

Now, I could see how something like a best of 7 with each player getting a ban could potentially cut down on the number of zoolocks and huntards you have to face. Each player has to bring 5 different decks, and you can ban at least one of those classes. But like I said before, mage aggro is becoming a real thing, and paladin isn't far behind. Lets be realistic though. Best of 7 is something reserved for the championship round of major tournaments. Most low level tournaments (which is exactly what a Blizzard tournament matchmaking system would be) are best of 3, with maybe a best of 5 for the final round (though this seems unlikely even, given the amount of time it takes to play so many Hearthstone matches in one sitting, I'd guess that the whole thing would be best of 3). How many people do you think will have a hard time putting together 3 aggro decks for their tourny lineup? I just don't see how this would cut down on the number of people running aggro decks, unless the tournament system were essentially a 'casual' mode where there are no prizes, rankings, achievements, or recognition at all.

 

[HumblePie]

Getting to legendary is pure dumb luck in this game. Once you are rank 10+ everyone plays decks capable of being in legendary. Everyone plays decently. It's a matter of card draw after that. Either you get the cards and your opponents doesn't which means you win or the opposite and then you lose. People play fast decks at most ranks because it means fast games for either winning or losing. Fast games means more chances for better card draws to climb the ladder with your deck of choice.

I've reached level 9 once and haven't bothered with ranked since. It's just annoying how the game plays. 99% is zoolock or agro hunter with a few control priests or warriors making up nearly the other 1%. It's the same deck you face almost every time. I know the plays that are going to be made almost every time before they are made because it is the same predictable setup every time. There is very little variation as most are playing the same suggested OP deck posted to Icy Veins as everyone else is.

So I just casual for my quests and that's about it. I don't even bother with arena anymore either. Only reason I play is because it's a game that I can still win at with the current cards as I have as well as be able to play it while holding a baby in my lap. That last part is key as there isn't too many games I can do that with. Because most of the time when I get home from work, my wife makes me deal with the baby the rest of the night until bed time.