Hearthstone

[Chiropteran]

The mage deck has a very low mana curve, if it's not over by turn 9 or so I've usually lost.

2 arcane missiles
2 ice lance
2 mirror image
1 abusive sergeant
1 argent squire
2 leper gnome
2 mana wyrm
2 frost bolt
2 knife juggler
2 sorcerer's apprentice
1 vaporize
2 acolyte of pain
1 shattered sun cleric
2 fireball
2 defender of argus
2 water elemental
2 azure drake

Main strategy is to play an early knife juggler and spam minions over it. I try to mulligan for a solid 1 drop (leper gnome or argent are best), but will almost always keep a knife juggler + mirror image combo. People tend to kill knife juggler instantly when they can, so I won't usually cast him alone, I'll wait until turn 3 (or turn 2 + coin) so I can play him and play a mirror image also in the same turn, getting immediate value. sorcerer's apprentice fits with this, because she pushes mirror image's mana cost down to 0.

Given the option between playing a card or killing an x/1 enemy minion, I almost always kill the enemy minion, unless of course playing the card has a high chance of killing the minion for free due to a knife juggler.

A dream hand of sorcerer's apprentice knife juggler mirror image mirror image when going second is pretty amazing.

I try to save direct damage spells for nuking the face. Basically it's a two part strategy. Part 1, is rush with minions and knife juggler abuse to get my opponent somewhat low, and then Part 2 is to play a fireball to the face followed by frost bolt+ice lance.

NEVER cast ice lance just to freeze a target, unless it's the only way to survive one more turn. Use it with a frost bolt to deal a lot of burst damage (even more if you have an azure drake out), or use a water elemental to provide the freeze.

Sometimes you need to save a mirror image to get good value from a defender of argus. when your opponent is killing everything you play as soon as you play it, it's hard to have to minions to buff. Mirror image solves this problem, since you can cast it and defender in the same turn for a mere 5 mana, and get some solid board presence with 2 1/3 taunts plus a 2/3. I don't usually cast mirror image unless there is some synergy with defender, knife juggler, or the shattered sun cleric.

Main weakness is life gain cards, or a very early heavy taunt wall (which is what makes warlocks and druids tough- warlocks play the 0/4 taunt guys and druids play turn 2 shieldmasta via innervate).

Vaporize mainly exists for rogues. It's a fairly strong way to protect against leeroy jenkins, and rogues can't remove secrets.

I don't stick with the exact same card list, the deck previously included polymorph (tempted to put 1 or both back in, but the deck is loaded with 4 drops), cone of cold, even antonidas (but he was too slow). If do try a similar deck, let me know how it works.

edit: Bloodmage thalnos would be an obvious addition, I just haven't pulled or crafted one yet.

 

[Hacp]

As a side note, I had 6 unleash the hounds and it got nerfed. Dusted those right away. That's 15% of a legendary right there for a mere common. Nice.

 

[JTsyo]

As a side note, I had 6 unleash the hounds and it got nerfed. Dusted those right away. That's 15% of a legendary right there for a mere common. Nice.

I had a golden UtH that I dusted. Then I crafted 2 regular UtH and have over 300 dust left over.

 

[JTsyo]

All 4 wings will be 2000 gold total.

I have 1.6K gold saved up but if the DLC is less than $10, I'll give them some money for the fun I've had so far. I guess it'll also depend on the if the gold - $ ratio is better for buying cards or the DLC.

 

[v8envy]

Been playing the Paladin "go for the face, Boo!" charge deck lately. Works decently well against everything, seems like the meta today is shooting for turn 6-7 blowouts.

 

[VashHT]

So I started playing this yesterday and I was having quite a bit of fun with it, what would you guys recommend for someone starting out? I've unlocked all of the basic cards for a few classes, should I just start playing people at this point?

 

[lupi]

I'd try and play to get each class to 10. That will give you the standard version of all class cards and give you an idea of what classes you like. Then just play to complete quest and get extra gold from the per 3 wins so you can buy extra card packs or arena runs.


Did notice the other day that this was on a yahoo list of top free ios games.

 

[Aikouka]

So I started playing this yesterday and I was having quite a bit of fun with it, what would you guys recommend for someone starting out? I've unlocked all of the basic cards for a few classes, should I just start playing people at this point?

Do you play against the Expert AI using a custom deck? I would recommend to move on to players if you can beat at least half the Expert AIs with your own deck. I would focus a little more on whatever class you enjoy playing.

Also, keep in mind that your first arena run is free! ..and you get a card pack for finishing it.

 

[VashHT]

I was playing versus expert AI and winning most of the games but I wasn't using a custom deck (I didn't see the option so I just figured you couldn't in practice). I've unlocked all of the basic cards for rogue/druid/paladin and so far I'm leaning towards rogue, I'll have to try building a custom rogue deck tonight and see how I like it. Do you get anything for unlocking all of the basic cards for all of the classes, like a free pack or something?

 

[Aikouka]

Do you get anything for unlocking all of the basic cards for all of the classes, like a free pack or something?

I don't think so. I don't play half the classes, so I can't tell you for certain.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Poor rush deck Warlock... He didn't know what hit him when he played my hunter, well I guess he did when it killed him.

So, I was dealt "the" combo (UtH + Savaging Hyena + Timber Wolf + Boar + coin). I am almost giddy. And it gets better when he plays a 1/2 soldier+taunt and a whisp on the first turn (at which point I knew he had a rush deck). So I just start biding my time to turn 4 or 5. And he doesn't disapoint. Now I could have killed all but one of his minions on turn 3 as I had an explosive trap, but decided against it because he wouldn't know what hit him with the combo. And sure enough, at the end of his turn 5 he fills his entire side of the board with 2 1/2+taunts, a 0/4 taunt (that was only 0/1 since I hit it with a 3 damage spell the previous turn), and 5 more various 1/1, 2/1 minions. Well, plop goes the savaging hyena and then suddenly 7 hounds, I kill 1 hound against one of the 1/2 taunts, and pop the coin and plop out a timber wolf. With my remaining 6 hounds I kill the 0/1 taunt, the now 1/1 taunt, the 1/2 taunt and then all but 2 of his minions, giving me a 15/8 hyena, a 2/1 hound, and a 1/1 timber wolf on the board.

And wouldn't you know, he FILLS the board again with 2/1 and 1/1 cards! I guess he didn't learn his lesson last round. I plop down the second unleash the hounds that I had pulled, kill all but 2 of his minions again, giving me a 29/15 hyena which I hit him with, and then use my hero's hunter skill to kill the last 1 hp he had. Round 6 victory.

 

[Hacp]

Got my first 12 win arena last week. I had gotten to 10-11 wins a couple of times, but always faced nuts decks when I didn't have a nuts deck.

This time, I was the one with the nuts deck. Deck was 2 wraths, 1 keeper, 3 swipes, 2 druid of the claws, 3 ironbarks, and Rag. Lost 2 games in the early rounds to rush decks, then proceeded to own the control decks I faced in games 8-12. Games basically was me stalling to turn 8, then playing ironbark, ironbark, rag.

 

[Danimal1209]

Have to say that priest seems to be the funnest class to play. Auchenai soulpriest is probably the reason why. Priest is so versatile with it + circle of healing. Sooo much fun.

 

[Rage187]

Priest is op. That's why it is fun ^^

It'll get nerves though. Probably change the hero ability to 1 health instead of 2.

 

[Aikouka]

Man, I barely won that match against the Hunter while on my Mage. I'm not sure if you could say he screwed himself over a bit by playing all of his removal (both Deadly Shots) at the beginning to keep his Secret Keeper alive. It did get my health to drop quite a bit and destroy my momentum, but when I have two big creatures on the board (6/7, 7/5), and you're stuck with a 1/1... GG. All in all, it made the Final Fantasy 6 Victory Theme that much more sweet when I played it after the win!! (Yes, I take it to extremely cheesy levels.)

Oh, and I really wish they would add an "Ugh..." emote to the game. You know... for those times when you just drew absolute garbage from your deck, and you really want to let your opponent know that you're not an idiot... you just have awful luck. ...or it could be used when your opponent top decks like a pro, and wipes out your awesome setup. Makes me "Ugh..." just thinking about it!

 

[Kev]

Priest is op. That's why it is fun ^^

It'll get nerves though. Probably change the hero ability to 1 health instead of 2.

Not sure if serious?

Priest is the weakest class in the game.

 

[Fallen Kell]

A priest with the right cards is hard to beat. You absolutely need the priest legendary (I forget the card name, but it doubles the healing/attack power of the priest). Combine that with the cards that change the priest's ability from healing to damage and you have instant 4 damage against anything for just 2 mana each and every turn. Add in the 1 mana cost do 2 damage (which now does 4 damage) and you can do some serious attacking for very little mana usage to kill enemy minions or character without your own minions taking any damage.

 

[Rage187]

Not sure if serious?

Priest is the weakest class in the game.

What meta game are you playing or what ranks?

 

[Kev]

What meta game are you playing or what ranks?

I'm at rank 4 right now and all you see are Rogues, Warlocks, Mages and Shaman.

The 2 priests I played against in the past month, I absolutely stomped. Throw a couple 4 attack guys down, and the priest has no answer.

 

[lupi]

Rank 4, god that is a lot of games.

 

[Fallen Kell]

I'm at rank 4 right now and all you see are Rogues, Warlocks, Mages and Shaman.

The 2 priests I played against in the past month, I absolutely stomped. Throw a couple 4 attack guys down, and the priest has no answer.

The priest's answer is a couple 2/7 gain 2 attack when damaged cards + lightwells...

I stomped all over a thief last night with the 2/7 guys. He was forced to use an assassinate on a tazsdinga when I plopped down the first 2/7 on the 5th turn because I was beating his character with him. On the next turn I plopped down the second 2/6. He killed the first one with a combination of his minions and a 4 damage card. But the next turn I +2 healthed, doubled health, doubled health, set attack = health and killed him with a 36 attack.

 

[Kev]

Rank 4, god that is a lot of games.

Not as many as you'd think... the winstreak bonuses up until 5 really help speed it up. And I got boosted to 17 at the beginning of the month.

 

[Kev]

The priest's answer is a couple 2/7 gain 2 attack when damaged cards + lightwells...

I never see anyone use those other than arena... the 2/7 guy costs 5 so he's too slow against rush decks and too weak against control decks. The lightwells are nice if you can buff them with those ridiculous health gain spells but they are usually either silenced or removed instantly.

Priest is definitely the most fun class to play IMO. I use it when I want to annoy people by stealing all their shit. But it's just too inconsistent.

 

[EDUSAN]

how is warlocks? i started playing yesterday and i always liked the dark forces in TCG so i went directly to a warlock, i like the drawing card skill but i feel like losing 2 health is too much

 

[Aikouka]

I'm at rank 4 right now and all you see are Rogues, Warlocks, Mages and Shaman.

The 2 priests I played against in the past month, I absolutely stomped. Throw a couple 4 attack guys down, and the priest has no answer.

I had a Priest use an Inner Fire on one of my minions (I think it was the 4/5 Yeti) just to insta-kill it. It was clever, but I still beat him.

At least from what I've seen from playing a Priest, the biggest problem is the obsession with gimmicks. Everyone has seen the gimmick once, and it's some combination of Power Word: Shield, Divine Spirit and Inner Fire to create some ridiculous minion that cries at the sight of a 2/1 Owl. The problem with this is the setup. Lightwells work so well because of their high initial health and very low mana cost. That usually allows you to get it out quickly without as much worry that the opponent will simply destroy it. Not to mention, the Lightwell can heal itself even if it takes some damage. However, it doesn't help that a lot of the current popular decks focus heavily on tons of low-cost minions (the zoo or murloc decks), which means your minion (that you're intending to buff) most likely will not be on the board alone. Some of the decks also feature a lot of low cost removal.

That makes me wonder why there isn't such a high push with Charge minions. Now, I realize that someone is going to say, "aikouka, that's because charge minions have such horrible health!" Yes, pretty much all of them do... except the 4-cost 2/5 Stormwind Knight, which actually has pretty decent health for its cost (as a comparison, the Yeti is 4/5). The only thing that worries me about that is the relatively high cost of the overall setup. The minion costs 4, Divine Spirit costs 2 and Inner Fire costs 1. So, to perform this all on the same turn, you need 7 mana. You can gain the same end result as the Lightwell, but with a +2 mana cost. I'm tempted to toss it into a deck just to try it out.

Anyway, so in my experience with the Priest, most opponents are painfully aware of what you're trying to do with your minions. Most players will try to keep your minion count as low as possible or as low of health as possible (the abilities mentioned above only work on current health not max health). My deck doesn't rely on the buff gimmick (it has them though), but I've had a lot of trouble with decks that have high amounts of low cost removal. The priest lacks a lot of AoE removal. Holy Nova deals 2 damage (and heals for 2), but it costs 5 mana. So, what happens is that the opponent uses low cost removal (Warlocks are particularly nasty with this) to kill my early minions while playing lots of cheap ones (i.e. typical zoo garbage), and I have nothing to counter that with.

EDIT:

how is warlocks? i started playing yesterday and i always liked the dark forces in TCG so i went directly to a warlock, i like the drawing card skill but i feel like losing 2 health is too much

It does seem bad at first, but when you're playing a deck that relies on spamming (Zoo Warlock or Mur-lock) low cost minions, you need to be able to keep your deck filled. When I have a really bad draw against a Warlock, it isn't uncommon that the majority of the damage dealt to the Warlock was from his own card drawing.