Hearthstone

[Cheater Hater]

I value tempo highly over card advantage compared to you guys apparently

Btw the rogue deck has some obvious weaknesses in lack of actual weapons/DP and the 1-drops being crap. As a result I went 7-0 before losing to Swipe that I couldn't play around, Flamestrike that I couldn't play around, and triple murloc knight (rapidly becoming a contender for the most annoying card in arena)

Kodorider was very strong, Betrayal terrible (it's a very hit and miss card), and Master of disguise won a couple games by restealthing Ravenholdt Assassin or something to sneak lethal. Sap was also great every time it was drawn, I even took a line of play twice where I sapped something big, intending to assassinate it if it was replayed, in order to push for the kill.

The biggest problem with tempo in Arena is that even if you can delay the opponent, your stuff will generally be small enough (since you're using mana on tempo spells) to be ruined by board clears. Of course, they're very hit or miss, so it can be a good strategy.

Yes, Murloc Knight is awful for the draft environment, but that can be said for all the inspire guys that affect the board--the epic that makes 3/5's is Murloc Knight that never whiffs, and the 3/3 that makes 1/1's should have been a Paladin class card. Of course, the biggest problem is that it can summon itself--it would be too hard to retrofit removing its type, right? Or maybe it could only summon neutral Murlocs, which would also remove the 2/5 Cult Master variant. Is there a Paladin Murloc deck this would be nerfing? I know I saw a swarm deck that used it and the 3/3, but that was early in the format.

[uberfish]

Actually it's the opposite with regards to board clears. If you have tempo and have the board completely it's not that hard to play around one board clear. It will take most of their mana to clear and you can play more stuff and put them in a spot again next turn. If you can't keep their board empty then the AOEs (especially medium sized ones like Swipe and Consecration) are even stronger because they can trade minions in such a way as to maximise the effect of their spell.

[uberfish]

Obviously I then get forced to draft a card advantage deck and argue with HA some more.

featuring Boom(!) and a bunch of weird cards like Lightwarden with synergy in... mage? And obviously acolyte of pain since I don't like it, haha

http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/7goxof

[uberfish]

6-2 so far

loss 1: first game, hunter wins about five 50-50's
loss 2: I get into the late game with board control and card advantage. Paladin opponent: Onyxia into Mukla's Champion, game over because I didn't draft any AOE

I think card advantage decks are by nature more unreliable than more aggressive strategies because the longer the game goes on the more chance the opponent has to pull off some crazy power play that can't be answered properly.

[uberfish]

And 6-3 with the third loss being to a shaman that dropped Malygos (couldn't remove) into a bunch of spells next turn Too bad, there were a lot of fun cards in that deck

[Cheater Hater]

Actually it's the opposite with regards to board clears. If you have tempo and have the board completely it's not that hard to play around one board clear. It will take most of their mana to clear and you can play more stuff and put them in a spot again next turn. If you can't keep their board empty then the AOEs (especially medium sized ones like Swipe and Consecration) are even stronger because they can trade minions in such a way as to maximise the effect of their spell.

I missed where you have infinite cards--even if a board clear is "only" a 2 for 1 (especially the cheap ones) you're still spending cards to get your tempo, so you're still down on cards in the end. Maybe I'm misevaluating it since you have infinite value from your hero powers (even if Rogue's is fairly minor, and that's the most tempo-oriented class), but saying board clear isn't good against tempo decks feels wrong.

Going back to my Magic analogies, Delver is the best tempo deck by far, but it has a lot more than just cheap creatures and Unsummons (Sap), especially in Legacy. It has counterspells (many of them free or cheap), stopping ETB effects (Battlecry) and spells. It can attack the opponent's mana base with Stifle, stopping them from casting the big spells (and expensive boardclears). It has crazy card selection with Brainstorm, Ponder, and Preordain, so it can find what it needs (creatures, disruption) while putting back and/or avoiding extra lands. Obviously that's constructed, but that's where tempo works best: when you can dedicate a full deck to it.

[Kuro]

Though I'd link this run not for anything special (it's a kinda boring run), but for the amusing opponent's: 3 Priests in a row, a Paladin, then 6 Mages.

[uberfish]

When you have board control and they don't have AOE that turn you tend to naturally gain card advantage. This is because you dictate any trades so it's easy to get 2 for 1's or trade lower value stuff into higher value stuff, before even counting Inspire mechanics or cards that allow you to cash in on having the board like Cult Master, Stormwind Champion, Frostwolf. Then you can do things like 1 big/2 small against mage to minimise the Flamestrike impact.

[Cheater Hater]

That meh Druid run turned in a 3-3 record, and now I have an interesting Mage run. On one hand, double-Flamestrike combined with a bunch of other removal is probably going to be good regardless. On the other, HearthArena said I had become a control deck and started valuing Force-Tank MAX extremely highly. Yes I had some Mech synergies, and I'm probably undervaluing it a bit (under the "expensive creature that doesn't do anything when it enters" metric), but that still seems high.

[uberfish]

It's clearly a control deck with 2 flame lance and 2 flame strike and it does need some large drops to finish the game. I would not award any points for mech synergy on an 8-drop though...