February 20th, 2014, 15:04
(This post was last modified: February 20th, 2014, 15:05 by WilliamLP.)
Posts: 3,199
Threads: 11
Joined: Jan 2010
Anyone watching any of Trump's attempt to climb to legendary rank as a mage with just free cards and what he gets out of packs and dust from daily quests and the single free arena run? He was 1 win away from legendary last night and it's pretty interesting to me because his deck doesn't look that good on the face of it.
I just had a 12 win arena run that surprised me with this Warlock deck:
I didn't even think I had a good draft, but the control decks I ran into couldn't really deal with the speed and tempo of this deck. It could do some damage and then finish with Siphon and Owl to remove taunts and deal the final points of damage with Soulfire / Power Overwhelming / Hellfires. And it could keep up with all the aggro decks with the 1 drops, then hellfire when behind for a very decent late game. The acolyte drew tons of cards with the Pyromancer (especially if I had the coin) and even Dread Infernal synergized with it a lot.
I like Blood Knight more and more, just because the arena metagame is so full of paladins that it gets to eat divine shields a lot which makes them sad.
February 20th, 2014, 16:09
Posts: 468
Threads: 2
Joined: Dec 2009
(February 20th, 2014, 15:04)WilliamLP Wrote: Anyone watching any of Trump's attempt to climb to legendary rank as a mage with just free cards and what he gets out of packs and dust from daily quests and the single free arena run? He was 1 win away from legendary last night and it's pretty interesting to me because his deck doesn't look that good on the face of it.
As near as I can tell it's just a vanilla Arena-style value/control deck. It's not very good at the top end but Trump is savvy enough that he probably plays it slightly above 50% which can get to legendary if you grind it out. Hasn't he been bouncing around ranks 1-4 for like 24 hours of play? He'll get there eventually.
February 20th, 2014, 16:33
Posts: 3,924
Threads: 19
Joined: May 2011
(February 20th, 2014, 10:40)Sir Bruce Wrote: I'm curious what your deck's gameplan is against standard deck-types. Say Warlock Rush (either murloc or not) and Warrior Control. What do you mulligan towards? What's your dream starting hand? What do you plan to play on turns 2 and 3?
My guess would be aim for Innvervate->Swipe for aggro? Pyro/Claw would be okay too. You'd definitely be the control deck in that matchup and you have good removal and then late-game engine. I'm not sure I see how this plays against control decks though. Do you try for Innervate->Golem/Violet Teacher? Do you play Pyro or Power of the Wild turn 2 against them? The golem seems strong but the teacher or a 2-drop seem kinda weak although I guess it draws some of their early removal.
An ideal starting hand against Warrior Control, I say without really remembering the exavt decklist, would probably be something like...Violet Teacher or Gadgetzan, probably Teacher for earlier play Power of the Wild, Innervate, opening draw Wrath. Especially if going second: Play would be Innervate, Coin, Violet Teacher, too strong to really Fiery War Axe effectively (They have to hit it twice for 6 damage, I'll take it). If they played a creature on their Turn 2, Wrath. If not, Power of the Wild -> Panther. The exception is if my opponent Slams the Violet Teacher, in which case I will probably use Power of the Wild's +1/+1 because it takes Teacher out of Fiery War Axe one hit range, meaning they'll need Execute. This also works on Turn 2 if I go first and only have Innervate and not the Coin, though it is more dicey if my opponent plays a monster...but in that case I have Wrath to probably kill their monster. This will usually push through at least 6 total damage and give you board presence with the Teacher, if they don't deal with it early they'll probably die quick (The dream, but probably unlikely, would be: Go second, T1 Teacher, T2 Wrath a 1 health minion for the draw though a 3 works fine, T3 Power of the Wild with it being +1/+1 against Mage and such and Panther otherwise, T4 Savage Roar. Assuming this all went according to plan, at least 22 damage is pushed through and getting the last in is usually trivial). In general, I will want to mulligan for either an Innervate combo or a strong midgame against control decks, though an early drop is good.
Against Warlock Aggro, probably something like...Swipe, Keeper of the Grove, Wild Pyromancer, draw is Innervate. After that, watch to see if their monsters will be cleared by Wild Pyro. If they will be, Wild Pyro -> Innervate -> Hero Ability or card you drew is good. If you're in a real pinch, you can Innervate out a Swipe. Keeper of the Grove is an odd one, but it can easily ping a low toughness creature like Flame Imp or a Murloc and use it's 2/4 to kill more, it also importantly deals with Voidwalkers. If you survive the first 4 mana you have a huge advantage as you can deal large amounts of damage and replenish your hand in a pinch with Gadgetzan and Nourish, which sorta negates Warlock's replenishing. Something else to remember is that, if you clear the board, Claw/Bite/Hero Ability to the face can be a fine dry play later if you're low just for the armor.
February 20th, 2014, 23:00
Posts: 3,924
Threads: 19
Joined: May 2011
![[Image: LduTtxQ.png]](http://i.imgur.com/LduTtxQ.png)
Just pulled a Nat Pagle! And for kicks, a gold Spellbreaker too.
February 21st, 2014, 04:15
Posts: 8,293
Threads: 83
Joined: Oct 2009
Congrats  Very high chance that Pagle is gonna get changed soon, so that's basically a free legendary of your choice.
February 21st, 2014, 16:50
Posts: 83
Threads: 0
Joined: Nov 2011
Had my second 7-3 arena playing Paladin yesterday and man I had to play four Paladin mirror matches, three of them in a row, and managed to win all of them.  However, that fourth mirror match ended up being one of the most obnoxious games I've ever played with the amount of plays that my opponent did with his Aldor Peacekeepers, an Equality, and a Repentance. I don't exactly remember the match that well, but one prime example is when I play my Boulderfist Ogre while ignoring the secret that he played and it turns out to be a Repentance. Then on his next turn, he used his Aldor Peacekeeper to make my ogre a 1/1. 
After losing my last game to an impossible to win aggro early Mage deck, I got rewarded an expert pack and 175 gold.
Arena Deck:
February 22nd, 2014, 12:08
Posts: 1,834
Threads: 34
Joined: Feb 2006
Had a really strong Priest draft but only 7-3 (one game was decided probably by a bad mulligan of a SW: Pain). Well the game decided to give me this from the pack.
![[Image: Hearthstone_Screenshot_2222014170449.png~original]](http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e42/Dante2585/Hearthstone_Screenshot_2222014170449.png~original)
Shieldbearer's ruining packs since 2013.
"We are open to all opinions as long as they are the same as ours."
February 22nd, 2014, 13:19
Posts: 83
Threads: 0
Joined: Nov 2011
(February 22nd, 2014, 12:08)Dantski Wrote: Shieldbearer's ruining packs since 2013. I guess he doing his job by not letting another rare card go "past" him into that pack. 
February 22nd, 2014, 17:56
Posts: 3,251
Threads: 18
Joined: Nov 2010
No, he is just crap defending packs as in real game. How else did he let an EPIC & LEGENDARY slip through?
"None shall pass...."
Not quite as scary when coming from a guy with a shield who forgot to bring his sword to a swordfight...
February 23rd, 2014, 12:40
(This post was last modified: February 23rd, 2014, 12:41 by WilliamLP.)
Posts: 3,199
Threads: 11
Joined: Jan 2010
I wonder if Blizzard will ever do something to balance Arena classes better? It's kind of frustrating to try and make Warrior or Priest or Hunter work, and then after 5 wins it always comes down to facing a gauntlet of mages and paladins. Maybe they could just add a special arena-only rarity for some of the key cards so they show up less often? E.g. Flamestrike, Fireball, Truesilver, Consecrate, maybe Swipe and Fire Elemental.
The way I like to play Arena is to pick Rogue / Warrior / Hunter / Warlock / Priest if available, depending on my mood and daily quests. Then I'd take Druid or Shaman second, and never play Mage or Paladin. But I had Mage show up for a daily quest so I thought I'd pick it... and it was a coast to 12 wins.
Both the losses (against another Mage and a Shaman) were razor thin and came down to draws. I just tried to imitate the style of Trump's "free" mage deck, and the power of mage is so apparent. The Mana Wyrm is maybe the best 1-drop in the game and Water Elemental is maybe the best 4-drop. Flamestrike always kills more than 7 mana worth of stuff. Fireball always trades up if it doesn't outright win. But the key is the hero ability just gives so much flexibility in adding damage and determining exactly where all your damage goes so you don't waste points, e.g. you can kill Yetis with 4 attack. And the ability to ping your own creatures makes some decent neutrals into amazing cards, like both Berserkers and Acolyte of Pain. And Bomber gets amplified because he means you have an extremely good chance of killing any 2-health creature with the hero ability.
|
![[Image: Hearthstone_Screenshot_2222014170449.png~original]](http://s36.photobucket.com/user/Dante2585/media/Hearthstone_Screenshot_2222014170449.png.html)
