Hearthstone

[v8mark]

The reason it's possible to average 7+ is because Arena game states are really complicated to evaluate and even good players make mistakes all the time. I think most of the edge is in the play rather than the draft. Mulligans, deciding whether and how to trade, when to play for tempo vs card advantage, reading opponent's hand, playing risky vs safe, setting up strong/efficient future turns in advance all increase your win percentage. I probably missed some things.

Agreed. Recognising and playing to win conditions is something a lot of 3-5 win players miss I think; they know which cards are generally strong and which trades to make depending on what the opponent might have, but the more big-picture game--slow vs fast, when to commit vs a potential board clear, when to push for face damage, etc--is often missed.

[Kuro]

Nice Kuro! I still don't think I've ever gone 12 with a Druid, which is completely ridiculous given that it's my favourite class, or at least one of my two favourites with Rogue.

I finished this run last night, which was my first solo 12-win Shaman run. Something that I've seen bandied around a lot since TGT has been released, and that was borne out by this deck, is that spot removal is very strong in the current meta. I picked a lot of it in this deck, and I was never unhappy to see it.

Honourable mentions for some unglamorous cards: the Recruiter (5 mana 5/4, Inspire: add a Squire to your hand) and Lava Burst (several times I used it for 6 damage, and once for 7 with the Snobold to kill an Ogre outright). Some equally honourable mentions for some more glamorous cards: Fireguard Destroyer and Flametongue Totem are OP, and Lightning Storm is also a fabulous card.

Dishonourable mentions for Wailing Soul, Force Tank MAX (which sat dead in my hand twice as my Priest opponent held a single card on the left of his hand for the whole game... yep, it was a Mind Control on both occasions), and Mad Bomber, which lost me a game vs a Paladin on Turn 2 when it failed to hit either of his 1-health early drops.

That 12-win run puts my average to exactly 7 wins since I started recording my runs, with 22 arenas in total. I don't think I'm that good, and that number will come down a) as I branch out into more classes and b) as variance starts working against me.

Nice run! Of my 12 win runs, 8 are Mage, 2 are Druid, 4 are Shaman, and one each of Paladin, Hunter, Warlock, Rogue and Priest. The only class I have never gone 12 wins with is Warrior! Warrior pls. My only 12-0 run was a Shaman, which was an insane Naxx-era deck with three Flametongue Totems which just valued people into infinity. On the flipside, my only 0-3 Arena runs are 2 on Mage, 2 on Rogue, 2 on Shaman and 1 on Priest.

Your deck definitely doesn't feel 12 wins to me, so very good job getting it...Recruiter I feel is underrated sometimes, it pumps out really good value if you get it out even once (6 mana 7/6 if you assume the HEro Power would be used anyway) and can give insane card advantage if he stays out. Your Deck mostly would worry me because ith as a lot of dead draw potential. Very good job, though.

Also, what Uberfish said is very true: Arena board states are a lot harder to evaluate than Constructed ones because of more of the potential options, so better players get a larger edge. Arena drafting also is honestly pretty low variance.

[uberfish]

grats Terror! There are quite a few "meh" cards in that draft so you should really feel proud of the run.

I agree about the spot removal adding a lot to a deck's power. It's less common since TGT, and there are more cards that will snowball out of control if not stopped.

[Kuro]

The reason it's possible to average 7+ is because Arena game states are really complicated to evaluate and even good players make mistakes all the time. I think most of the edge is in the play rather than the draft. Mulligans, deciding whether and how to trade, when to play for tempo vs card advantage, reading opponent's hand, playing risky vs safe, setting up strong/efficient future turns in advance all increase your win percentage. I probably missed some things.

Agreed. Recognising and playing to win conditions is something a lot of 3-5 win players miss I think; they know which cards are generally strong and which trades to make depending on what the opponent might have, but the more big-picture game--slow vs fast, when to commit vs a potential board clear, when to push for face damage, etc--is often missed.

I'd say this is one of my weaknesses as someone who averages around just over 5 wins. I don't take enough time to think per turn and I end up missing a lot of big picture stuff.

[v8mark]

Your deck definitely doesn't feel 12 wins to me, so very good job getting it...Recruiter I feel is underrated sometimes, it pumps out really good value if you get it out even once (6 mana 7/6 if you assume the HEro Power would be used anyway) and can give insane card advantage if he stays out. Your Deck mostly would worry me because ith as a lot of dead draw potential. Very good job, though.

Agreed, on all counts. A few times I missed an early drop, but in most cases it didn't end up mattering because I had such good comeback mechanisms with the removal and the weapons. And on the flipside, it allowed me to channel my inner Trump and use the hero power a lot. Getting value from the Shaman's hero power is one of the most satisfying things to do in Hearthstone IMO.

[Kuro]

Your deck definitely doesn't feel 12 wins to me, so very good job getting it...Recruiter I feel is underrated sometimes, it pumps out really good value if you get it out even once (6 mana 7/6 if you assume the HEro Power would be used anyway) and can give insane card advantage if he stays out. Your Deck mostly would worry me because ith as a lot of dead draw potential. Very good job, though.

Agreed, on all counts. A few times I missed an early drop, but in most cases it didn't end up mattering because I had such good comeback mechanisms with the removal and the weapons. And on the flipside, it allowed me to channel my inner Trump and use the hero power a lot. Getting value from the Shaman's hero power is one of the most satisfying things to do in Hearthstone IMO.

Shaman is my personal favorite class (My second favorite is Druid), so I definitely agree. There's a reason I love my Thunder Bluffs so much, heh heh.

[uberfish]

Haven't drafted a recruiter myself yet, but it makes sense that it would be a pretty good late game card since you have lots of spare mana in the endgame anyway.

[Cheater Hater]

Yeah, it makes sense that the play would be a lot more important than in Magic, since you're playing a lot more games--if you're trying to win an 8-4 on MTGO, you only need six wins against three different decks, and 6-3 is good enough (though it has to be in a specific order), and of course the deck quality is more consistent in the pod. It's more like sealed in that way--Day 1 of a Sealed GP would need 12 wins to go 9-0 if you have three byes, and that is a lot more forgiving since it's 12-6, and you don't need to go 9-0 to be in good position.

[Kuro]

Me and Terror did yet another co-op Arena and ended up piloting this deck to 9 wins. Despite having almost no 4 drops (Just Armored Warhorse and Spellbreaker), it performed admirably in a LOT of close games. We were very surprised to get it to 9!

[uberfish]

One thing I really like about post TGT arena is that 4 drops don't dominate the game anymore like they used to previously. they balanced things out by adding 3/5 drops with good base stats and filling out the 4 slot with utility minions like Maiden and the guy who throws random carrots to heal 4. So there's no need to pick crap 4 drops just to fill the slot anymore.