Hearthstone

[Aikouka]

Priests have traditionally been the worst matchup for shamans. Thankfully it seems people have begun to remove shadow madness and cabal shadow priests from their deck lists, the two cards which absolutely reck shamans.

The Priest had both of those cards and used 'em. Fortunately, he didn't get Shadow Madness early enough to use it on my Thunder Bluff Brave. I think he eventually killed the one, and conceded once I tossed down the second one.

Just took a look at trump's totem deck. It looks like he's running 2x azure drakes instead of 2x mana tide totems. 2x zombie chows instead of Big game hunter and sylvanas. Rest of the deck is identical.
Just goes to show, most decent decks look 99% same in this game. And also, it makes me happy with my deck building skills

You must be looking at a different Trump deck, as it has a few differences from the one that I'm using. I pulled his deck from some YouTube videos (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7bJYoGL0LE ), and it doesn't have a heal.

 

[Vivendi]

I believe he ran quite a few variations with some small changes.
Trump's totem shaman
This isn't the one I looked at earlier but it seems to be his most recent version. Or somebody's version of trump's deck.

 

[quikah]

Man, seems like everyone is playing paladin or priest in arena. I picked warlock, thought I had the absolute worst deck in existence (only drafted 2 spells!), sort of a zoo deck, I wound up doing OK, got to 5 wins.

8 games I went against 4 paladins, 2 priests, 1 mage, 1 shaman. I beat all but one paladin but the 2 priests crushed me. Both times Holy Champion and Spawn of Shadows wrecked me since I didn't really have any removal.

 

[Fallen Kell]

I need to make all new decks this weekend. I only made 1 new deck (a muloc paladin) since the new cards came out. Only played one game with it. It ended when I played a muloc rider, used my hero power, and it summoned another muloc rider, at which time the Druid I was playing against conceeded (he had already used both his swipes and one 6 damage+draw card spells).

I modified one of my mage decks, but it isn't really a "new deck" just swapped 2 minions for new ones.


I also spent some of my dust last night crafting some of the epic/ultra rares that are useful which I still have not received. I am debating on several others, but really want to get 1 or 2 legendaries as well (or save enough dust to craft them in case they become a big part of the new meta). I have a feeling that Black Knight is going to show up a lot more again with several of the new taunts that were added.

 

[Wardawg1001]

The new face rush secret paladin is out of control. The value from Mysterious Challenger (6 mana 6/6 that puts one of each secret that is in your deck into play) is just insane. I'm frequently seeing opponents draw 3-5 secrets. While these secrets are all just 1 mana cards, the ability to play a 6/6 on turn 6 (or 5 with the coin) that not only draws 3-5 cards but also plays them for free, is just crazy. Throw in Paladin's ability to flood the board early with tokens and sticky minions, which several of the secrets synergize with, and it's nearly impossible to do anything to stop them.

Obviously there are some downsides to the deck - you have so many secrets in your deck you can occasionally get flooded with nothing but secrets in your hand in the early game, and if you don't draw your Mysterious Challenger before mid-game he can start to lose value (though not a lot, he's still a freaking 6/6 for 6 mana even if he doesn't draw any secrets).

Maybe I've just hit a bad streak against this deck - I'm frequently having opponents drop the Mysterious Challenger right on curve, which is definitely an abnormality, it just shouldn't be this common that they have that card in their hand on turn 6 so often. The only times I have been able to beat this deck is by keeping their board relatively clear (which is hard to do against so many small minions and divine shields), or if they simply don't draw Mysterious Challenger soon enough (and even then, neither of those conditions are immediate wins - this is a powerful deck and can win simply by flooding the board and playing the secrets they draw).

Anyway, I feel like this card needs a nerf. Cap the number of secrets it can draw (3 is probably a good number), decrease its stats to 4/4, and its still a damn good card. Or maybe leave the mechanic as is, but for each secret that it draws it decreases the stats of the card when its played - so make it a natural 7/7, and for each secret it draws when played it loses 1/1.

 

[Vivendi]

The new face rush secret paladin is out of control. The value from Mysterious Challenger (6 mana 6/6 that puts one of each secret that is in your deck into play) is just insane

....

Anyway, I feel like this card needs a nerf. Cap the number of secrets it can draw (3 is probably a good number), decrease its stats to 4/4, and its still a damn good card. Or maybe leave the mechanic as is, but for each secret that it draws it decreases the stats of the card when its played - so make it a natural 7/7, and for each secret it draws when played it loses 1/1.

I do agree it is a very powerful card. Comparing it to the Boulderfist Ogre, it has only 1 less HP for its battlecry. Sylvanas, the best 6 drop, is only a 5/5, with a deathrattle that can be avoided unlike a battlecry.

HOWEVER,
1) Paladin needs a "OP" card like this to make secrets viable, because paladin secrets are simply the worst secrets in the game as of yet.
2) I believe people haven't yet figured out the most efficient method of triggering paladin secrets, simply because they've never been really popular.


On the other hand... turn 5 Sludge belcher into turn 6 Mysterious Challenger LOL.

 

[Vivendi]

I would also like to mention that drawing secrets first in this deck, while unfortunate, is not that big of a deal. First of all, a 6 mana 6/6 isn't that bad. Secondly, you can dump the 1 mana secrets and play divine favour to refill your hand.

Also if you're facing of a lot of paladin secret decks, maybe it's time to go midrange hunter with some flares included.

 

[Chiropteran]

I'm frequently having opponents drop the Mysterious Challenger right on curve, which is definitely an abnormality, it just shouldn't be this common that they have that card in their hand on turn 6 so often.

It's not that abnormal- turn 6, you have seen 9 or 10 cards of a 30 card deck, possibly more if you are activly trying to mulligan for it. If you run two copies, the chances of seeing at least one by turn 6 is well above 50%.

 

[Firsttime]

So I tilted last night trying to make Control Rogue work so I can play the Gold Anub'arak I got from my opening. But it wasn't very good, need to tweak that more. Got all it back and more though with Tempo Mage. Effigy is the most broken card of the expansion so far imo. The tempo swing is massive if you play it under any 5+ mana creature. This is the deck I've been running, except I cut the Scientist for a second Apprentice.

 

[HumblePie]

I have a similar deck, love the Murloc Knight. Added a few other Murlocs in the deck to boost what I have. I removed Muster for Battle but added a Sword of Justice and another card I don't recall.

At first I had 2 Warhorse Trainers with my Muster for Battle but it's too combo dependant to be a sound strategy. When I could pull it off it was nice but otherwise a bit too slow.

My deck is pretty heavy in the 2 to 4 man cards, mid rangy and really fun. I'll try to post it soon when I get home.

Mine is pretty much an agro paladin deck with what I have. I am sure with better cards that I don't have it could be better, but since I don't spend money on this game I make do with what I have. Here is the deck I use. For a cheapie deck it does well enough I suppose.

 

[Aikouka]

Yeah, I got destroyed by that secret Paladin last night. The Paladin is really only going to work if he can keep the board out of your control. That doesn't mean that he has to be in control, but it can't be too easy to use up those secrets. When he played it against me the first time, he only had that Mysterious Challenger and I think I only had two minions with no removal. That latter part was the huge problem. He was able to create those minions, get the buffed, and I was stuck trying to catch up. :\

 

[Wardawg1001]

HOWEVER,
1) Paladin needs a "OP" card like this to make secrets viable, because paladin secrets are simply the worst secrets in the game as of yet.

They really aren't bad cards individually (well a couple of them are), they have pretty decent effects for their 1 mana cost. I'd say the real reason that they have seen so little use in constructed play until now is simply an issue of card draw vs value. Any given deck has a generally finite amount of card draw, and spending mana to draw cards is a negative tempo play which often means you can't afford it until mid to late game without giving your opponent a significant advantage. In Midrange and Control decks, Paladin really has no good class-based card draw, relying on neutrals like Acolyte of Pain and Gnomish Inventor, and maybe one Lay On Hands, so they can't afford to run a lot of low cost, low value cards cause they'll run out of steam too quickly. Solemn Vigil was a decent attempt at giving Paladin some cheap card draw, but Dragon Paladin decks just aren't strong enough for high level play.

As for Aggro Paladin, which was a pretty strong deck even before this expansion, Divine Favor is a great draw mechanic for them, and running out of cards quickly by playing a bunch of 1-mana cards works in its favor, so why didn't they run secrets (some variants ran Avenge, but that's it)? Well because Paladin secrets aren't designed for dealing lots of face damage quickly. The new Mysterious Challenger card has made them viable in Aggro decks simply by how insanely powerful he is.

I would also like to mention that drawing secrets first in this deck, while unfortunate, is not that big of a deal. First of all, a 6 mana 6/6 isn't that bad. Secondly, you can dump the 1 mana secrets and play divine favour to refill your hand.

Also if you're facing of a lot of paladin secret decks, maybe it's time to go midrange hunter with some flares included.

Haha, ya I was thinking the same thing, but I was trying to get my Shaman to level 60 so I was refusing to play anything else. I love the idea of wiping out 5 secrets while drawing a card, all for 2 mana.

Unfortunately, no other class has anything even remotely similar to Flare. Even running 2 Kezan Mystics would barely faze this Paladin deck, and would put you at a severe disadvantage in a lot of other matchups.

It's not that abnormal- turn 6, you have seen 9 or 10 cards of a 30 card deck, possibly more if you are activly trying to mulligan for it. If you run two copies, the chances of seeing at least one by turn 6 is well above 50%.

Hmm, I've never been too good with probabilities, so that's pretty interesting. It's also a bit depressing, I was really hoping it was just bad luck that I was running into so many Paladins dropping a Mysterious Challenger right on curve.

 

[Fallen Kell]

I spent the better part of today trying to get a rogue deck that even wins anything. It really took a huge beating with the new cards since it really didn't get anything very useful (really the best card is the 4/3+battlecry 2 damange all undamaged enemy minions). Nothing else really helped Rogue decks, but almost all other decks received a huge bonus. I had the unfortunate new 3 wins from a specific class (in my case Rogue) daily, which took forever (13 games to win 3, and 1 of them was a disconnect).

 

[Aikouka]

Ugh, I don't know what the hell I'm doing wrong with this totem deck, but I literally lose about 80% of my games. It's just awful. The deck has absolutely no momentum. The new Totem Golem card actually hurts your momentum, and all of my opponents are perfectly capable of removing it, which leaves me with nothing to do the next turn because god forbid I draw another 2-cost. I mean... fuck... I lost to this shitty Hunter that traded Dr. Boom into my Fire Elemental when he could've traded a single Boom Bot to kill it. I LOST TO THAT IDIOT! The funny thing is... it's more of an aggro deck, but almost every single game that I win has always been a long, drawn-out game.

EDIT:

First game with Mech Shaman? Easy win. Okay, maybe not that easy, but Rockbiter on Dr. Boom + two Crackles usually makes short work of an opponent.

 

[Vivendi]

It's not an aggro deck. It's got strong early game but you have to fight for the board and clear minions. Also, NEVER coin out totem golem turn 1, unless you have a play for the next turn already in hand.

Totem shaman has a very hard time winning against paladins, both secret and midrange, so might want to switch to something else if you're facing a lot of those decks.

I would suggest playing either midrange hunter right now or an aggressive druid. I've had >60% winrates with both last few days.

 

[Rhezuss]

Mine is pretty much an agro paladin deck with what I have. I am sure with better cards that I don't have it could be better, but since I don't spend money on this game I make do with what I have. Here is the deck I use. For a cheapie deck it does well enough I suppose.

Mice goes like this:

(2) Equality x2
(2) Argent Protector x1
(2) Shielded Minibot x2
(3) Coghammer x1
(3) Sword of Justice x1
(3) Aldor Peacekeeper x2
(3) Big Game Hunter x1
(3) Murloc Warleader x2
(4) Truesilver Champion x2
(4) Consecration x2
(4) Kezan Mystic x1
(4) Murloc Knight x2
(4) Old Murk-Eye x1
(5) Nexus-Champion Saraad x1
(5) Sludge Belcher x2
(6) Avenging Wrath x1
(6) Emperor Thaurissan x1
(6) Sunwalker x2
(7) Guardian of Kings x1
(8) Lay on Hands x1
(8) Tirion Fordring x1

Works well at lower Ranks and have some nice combo and synergy. I wanted to try Saraad and it's a nice addition even though really random.

 

[Aikouka]

It's not an aggro deck. It's got strong early game but you have to fight for the board and clear minions

That's one of the problems... most aggro decks can easily overwhelm you. One of my games stood out to me as an interesting example of how I should handle certain decks. I played second against a Mech Mage. It was pretty obvious what he was when he tossed out that 1/2 that gains +2 attack with a mech. Now, I've got a Zombie Chow in my hand that I can easily play, but here's what was going through my head...

1) If he puts down a mech on turn 2, he can easily trade for the chow.
2) I have a coin and a rockbiter, I could easily put down the chow and kill his minion.
3) However, killing the minion seems almost overkill given that the 3 damage would better suit something like the 2/3 Mechwarper.

I just put out the Chow and didn't kill the minion, and the next turn went just as I suspected; however, I couldn't kill the Mechwarper, because he put out an Annoy-o-Tron. Given my utter lack of cards to play on curve, I had no real answer until far later into the game. In hindsight, killing the 1/2 seems like a decent idea, but I'm still not sure if it was.

Also, NEVER coin out totem golem turn 1, unless you have a play for the next turn already in hand.

I've never coined out a Totem Golem. The problem that I have with the Totem Golem is usually that I don't have another 2-cost minion to play on turn 3 after I'm locked down to 2 mana.

Totem shaman has a very hard time winning against paladins, both secret and midrange, so might want to switch to something else if you're facing a lot of those decks.

I would suggest playing either midrange hunter right now or an aggressive druid. I've had >60% winrates with both last few days.

I could look into the decks to see if I have the cards to play them. That's usually the biggest problem -- I just don't have all the cards to build the decks. I have a lot of cards, but just not what I need. I also don't like the idea of disenchanting cards just to get cards for a new deck. It seems like what's going to happen is that I disenchant a card because I don't need it now, but I'll need it later on, and then I'll have to craft it again for more dust than I got from destroying it to begin with.

I did finally craft two Ancients of Lore the other day. I'm still missing both Ancients of War though.

 

[nageov3t]

my friends are trying to get me back into this game (I played when it first came out, got the achievement needed for that one WoW mount, and never played again).

should I be using my gold to buy starter decks, or should I buy from the latest expansion?

 

[Aikouka]

should I be using my gold to buy starter decks, or should I buy from the latest expansion?

It sounds like you don't really have any extra vanilla cards or any from any of the expansions. With that, I think vanilla is still your best bet. At least from what I've seen, which may not be much, most decks still include a lot of cards from the original game. Now, don't get me wrong as there are still some good cards in the expansions and the adventures, which also shows the hardest part for you... you've got two expansions and two adventures to catch up on. At a point, playing constructed (Play - Ranked) will be frustrating, because decks with simple cards just won't be that viable. To be fair, you could probably get to about Rank 10-12 with a deck full of good cards.

 

[nageov3t]

It sounds like you don't really have any extra vanilla cards or any from any of the expansions. With that, I think vanilla is still your best bet. At least from what I've seen, which may not be much, most decks still include a lot of cards from the original game. Now, don't get me wrong as there are still some good cards in the expansions and the adventures, which also shows the hardest part for you... you've got two expansions and two adventures to catch up on. At a point, playing constructed (Play - Ranked) will be frustrating, because decks with simple cards just won't be that viable. To be fair, you could probably get to about Rank 10-12 with a deck full of good cards.

thanks!

I'm not looking to be world-ranked or anything, just to be able to play with and talk about the game with my friends.

 

[quikah]

thanks!

I'm not looking to be world-ranked or anything, just to be able to play with and talk about the game with my friends.

I don't know if I would start playing now from scratch. You are VERY far behind for constructed. 2 expansion and 2 adventures. That is a lot of gold/$ you need to catch up.

I wonder when they will got the MtG direction and start retiring expansions from ranked play...

 

[Fallen Kell]

I wonder when they will got the MtG direction and start retiring expansions from ranked play...

I don't see that happening for a long time. All the current cards were formulated with respect to the previous cards out there to avoid some real nasty unintended affects/combos.

 

[AgentUnknown]

Just spend money on regular packs and buy expansions. Play brawl. You have a lot to do. Dust cards and try to make cards from regular deck. Try to make a face hunter deck and use it to earn gold.

 

[Vivendi]

My rank 8 rewards:

I don't dust my gold cards, so I'll be keeping these.

 

[lupi]

Finally remembered to dust my stuff from the release, ended up with 745 so you could say I ended up with 2 legendaries from the 60 packs.


Looks like this week's brawl is that mana between turns goes up by 2, so be prepared to get rofl stomped by those packing the legendaries.