Topic: Hearthstone

Oh my GOSH. Just played a Druid that played Innervate, the Coin, and then a Chillwind Yeti on his first turn. There was basically nothing to do against that, haha.

Well, this sucks. I have unlocked one copy of one multi-target damage spell for Shaman, so this guy playing a Warlock deck with Knife Juggler and every cheap character in existence just rolled over me because he had a better card collection. Then I play against one of the brokener Hunter decks I've played. The "your beasts have charge" guy seems so ridiculous. He plays the death hyena next turn for three hastened creatures in one card. GG.

I wish they had not chosen the CCG model. I would pay actual money for a pack of all Shaman cards and be on an even playing field with other players.

I think I have done that before, haha. Maybe I should just give up on Shaman for now and play Druid again.

I really need to get back into this.

Think I used Priest a lot, but boy did I did suck.

Aha! Forgot about crafting. Was able to get a couple cards to shore up my glaring weakness to braindead raaar swarm decks (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Haha yeah, that's the Warlock "Zoo" deck that's been popular lately. I think it's finally becoming obsolete, I used it a few times yesterday and lost all of my matches to druid decks with amazing taunts.

If you're playing Shaman you pretty much have to have Lightning Storm (2-3 damage to all enemy minions) and Feral Spirit (summon two 2/3 taunts), which kinda sucks since they're both rare cards.

I'm saving all of my dust for a Legendary. I'm thinking I'll craft Leeroy Jenkins, because he's good with pretty much anyone.

Oh of COURSE you play Priest, they're the most annoying. smh avi.

Only to annoy you.

Yes, I have the wolves, crafted one of the Forked Lightning card, and just need fifteen dust for another. I also have the spell that does damage to two random minions but I find it is sometimes very useful and more often useless. Needs very specific situations to be good.

I assumed for the longest time that priest would be a boring heal fest like in most fantasy games, so I saved it for last. Well, I was partly right. But he also has some very fun spells for copying and stealing cards. I could see playing priest a lot if there were more tricky cards so I don't have to feel dirty and play that annoying creature who draws whenever you heal.

Priest matches usually take forever, and their card stealing cards are ridiculously cheap. It also makes any decks that have minions with anything other than an attack of 4 pretty much useless since they can shadow word those in the early game, and by the end game they can mind control your big minions. (Oh yeah, and there's also shadow madness which turns to friendlies against each other). It's interesting in that it kind of forces you to design your decks so that you can a) bait shadow words and b) kill any of your own minions you play late-game, but I don't think it's particularly fun.

Edit: and yeah Northshire Cleric is the worst. It's uncanny how often Priests are able to play them on their first turns...

I'm starting to really like playing as Rogue now. Shadowstep is really fun (not just for charge minions... I used one on a Dark Iron Dwarf to basically heal it and reuse its battlecry). I also stuck a Ravenholdt Assassin in my deck, and it's been performing really well. I really like it because its Stealth attribute means it's immune to the fireballs/starfires/shadow words/etc until it attacks, AND it can eat the damage from almost every AOE spell in the book (it survived a flamestrike in my last game).

I need to browse the entire card set soon so I can speak more educatedly on the game if nothing else. The only theft card I have costs 10 to steal one minion, which is certainly appropriate for the cost. I probably already posted this because the story amuses me, but once in a priest on priest battle we stole the same minion four or five turns in a row using that card and a copy of that card gained through another effect. Copying cards is another mechanic I enjoy quite a bit.

Theft definitely needs to be priced accordingly, but if it is, it can create some big turn around and fun moments, at least from my experience playing physical CCGs.

Sure, playing as priests can be fun, it's going up against them that's irritating. I just hate pretty much everything about their playstyle, lol.

I built a new Druid deck last night and I won two games in a row with it... it's really, really fun. I love playing big minions early with Innervate, and I like that so many of his class-specific minions let you choose between taunt/charge. Super versatile class.

2x Innervate
2x Moonfire
2x Claw
2x Power of the Wild
2x Wild Growth
2x Wrath
1x Kobold Geomancer
2x Savage Roar
2x Swipe
1x Chillwind Yeti
2x Keeper of the Grove
1x Azure Drake
2x Druid of the Claw
2x Gadgetzan Auctioneer
1x Stampeding Kodo
1x Force of Nature
1x Archmage
1x Ancient of Lore
1x Ancient of War

Well, the game I mentioned was priest versus priest. So playing as and against. I enjoyed playing against similar decks in similar games, so it is just a matter of if Hearthstone balances it, for me.

So it's basically less in depth MTG?

The main thing that makes it less complex is the lack of instants and therefore the lack of a stack. In its place are Secrets which are cards you play facedown and activate during your opponent's turn if a certain effect triggers it. Otherwise it is Magic except:
1) You get a land each turn automatically.
2) You can attack their creatures directly instead of always targeting player.
2a) You cannot choose your blockers but some creatures have a keyword that forces them to be targeted before anything without the keyword.
3) There is no flying.
4) There are no phases. You can attack, cast, attack, etc.
5) Each color has a special ability they can use once a turn for 2 mana.
6) There are nine colors. You can't mix colors.

Based on the differences you can decide if there is less depth. I don't think so myself. It has a far smaller card pool of course, but that will be remedied in time, and there are quite a few really nest cards already that show they aren't trying to dumb it down. I like the variety of the nine heroes. The hero powers are simple but give them a strong sense of identity and uniqueness.

I'm 5-0 with the Druid deck I posted above, and it's got me up to Rank 13. Druid's my new favorite hero. In my last match (I was up against a Warlock murloc deck — he had Ragnaros + the murloc legendary), on turn 10, I already had a Gadgetzan Auctioneer and Azure Drake down, so I played two Wild Growths, then two Excess Manas, then Innervate, then an Archmage, then Power of the Wild (+1/+1 to all minions), then Moonfire, and ended up drawing like 9 cards before finishing the guy off. So much fun.

Well, I did it.

I finally won an arena match.

And it only took me 7 tries!

I just hit rank 14, my personal best. Been playing as Shaman the whole month, I believe. Starting to get the hang of this now that I have more cards. I disenchanted a golden Tirion (I cried a little on the inside because he looked beautiful, but I don't play Paladin) and got Al'Akir the Windlord who has been a big help finishing games. Windfury and Charge make for so much instant damage if he's buffed by Flametongue or whatever.

Haven't had as much luck in arena recently. I got my second or third 6-win run not long ago, but mostly I've had 3-3s on average. Still a very fun way to play and get more stuff. I just wish I didn't sometimes get stuck with heroes I am not practiced with.

I'd just recommend not picking Hunter or Warlock in Arena. Most of the time you cant make a good deck with random chance. Paladin is the safest; followed by Mage and Shaman (At least I think so). Luckily the new update is coming out soon, so we have that to look forward to (Sometime this month, but it's Blizzard - a delay is always possible).

When I first started out with Arena's I used this as a general guide to maximise my wins. Its quite useful if you find yourself losing a bit too often. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AifXEOqTcGcLdFVv...

My best Arena runs were with Priest, if I recall correctly. I try to avoid Paladin, Hunter, Warlock, Rogue, and Warrior because I am just not used to playing them. Of course, sometimes those are my options, but no one said life was going to be easy.

I've never used pick lists. They don't take into account what kind of deck you're building or what you've already bought. I feel like I usually draft well but am just in a slump. Maybe I'll take a look at it for my first few picks next time though. Thanks for sharing.