Hearthstone Players!

And Sac Pact is officially dead, once again: www.hearthpwn.com/news/7398-17-0-2-balan...-the-nerfs-and-buffs

I was playing this Tempo Rogue deck on ladder at Silver 3 or so:

### tempo
# Class: Rogue
# Format: Standard
# Year of the Phoenix
#
# 2x (0) Backstab
# 1x (0) Shadowstep
# 2x (1) Pharaoh Cat
# 2x (1) Spymistress
# 2x (1) Worgen Infiltrator
# 2x (2) Ashtongue Slayer
# 2x (2) Eviscerate
# 1x (2) Patient Assassin
# 2x (2) Sap
# 1x (3) Edwin VanCleef
# 2x (3) EVIL Miscreant
# 1x (3) Fan of Knives
# 2x (3) Greyheart Sage
# 1x (3) Hooked Scimitar
# 2x (3) SI:7 Agent
# 2x (4) Dread Corsair
# 2x (4) Waggle Pick
# 1x (6) Heistbaron Togwaggle
#
AAECAYO6AgayAu0CmwXtCJKXA/+lAwy0Ac0D7gaIB+IH3QiPlwOJmwP1pwO5uAO6uAPPuQMA

It's not great, but it's fun. Recommend changes! I don't mind! That said, I played last night and a Demon Hunter got me down to 2, with an empty board. I had a Treasure to make two Legendaries on my turn, but no Taunts showed up (I took Octowhatever the 8/8 is; the DH was at 20 or so). I make the dudes, poke for 3 or 4 and hover over the Concede button. They have about 5 cards.

They hero power up. They think. I hover. They draw 3 cards with reduced costs. I hover even harder. They hit me for 1. Pass the turn and get killed. What happened there? How can a DH with 5 cards look at 4 more and not be able to kill me there?

I have seen two builds of DH in my admittedly limited time back:

• Make a lotta guys Zoo
• Control the board unit your spells are free and OTK

Either of these should be able to generate ONE extra damage in the late game across nine cards. I was floored. Mercy maybe?

----
I am playing Battlegrounds, and it's pretty fun! This is one of things I really missed about Blizzard. Their throwaway ideas are some of the best games of the last few years on iOS. The rogue-like adventuring in the Dungeon Runs are still fucking great solo entertainments, and now this auto-battler for some light PVP is just amazing. The polish here is just remarkable. ELDER SCROLLS, SLAY THE SPIRE, and other folks make cool games, but they don't have the same build quality as Blizzard, not even close.

I decided to go with a Dragon/Demon/Warlock/Removal deck....so far it has gotten me to Platinum 10. Generally, I think it just catches people by surprise since it isn't Galkarond or straight dragons. Can be a bit slow against Demon Hunter, Hunter, and Druid -- but not too bad. Lot's of legendaries though...I only play Warlock and Mage, usually.

Kibler was doing something like that over the last couple days with his Shaman Highlander "DragonQuest" deck. It's Quest Shaman, but with dragons so it can do all kinds of tricks, plus the doubling effect, and still put decent bodies on the field. He put it together in 20 minutes and was bragging about his 80% win rate. Of course, part of that is being Kibler, but it looked interesting. But, yeah, a lot of legendaries.

I feel like Demon/Vulture Zoo is maybe trying too hard. You're so tempted to hold on to your two key guys (Vulture and Darkglare), instead of just putting bodies down and winning the board, that I'm wondering if those are more suited to a kind of midrange deck? I decided that I hadn't seen enough of Tekahn and Co., so I went back to a Lackey version for a few games:

# 2x (1) Argent Squire
# 2x (1) Fiendish Servant
# 2x (1) Flame Imp
# 1x (1) Guardian Augmerchant
# 2x (1) Sinister Deal
# 2x (1) Voidwalker
# 2x (2) EVIL Cable Rat
# 2x (2) EVIL Genius
# 2x (2) Expired Merchant
# 2x (2) Imprisoned Scrap Imp
# 1x (2) Kanrethad Ebonlocke
# 2x (3) EVIL Recruiter
# 2x (3) Magic Carpet
# 1x (4) Grand Lackey Erkh
# 2x (4) Nightshade Matron
# 1x (5) Dark Pharaoh Tekahn
# 2x (6) Hand of Gul'dan
#
AAECAf0GBIKlA8e2A9a5A96+Aw0w9QXCCLSRA4idA7WfA/qkA/ykA/2kA7C2A7W5A7a5A8e5AwA=

I'd also never tried Erkh. A version of this was one of my all-time favorite decks when I stopped playing. The inclusion of the good stuff from Ashes (Scrap Imp, Hand, Matron, Servant, Augmerchant) just makes it that much more focused. Of course, finding Tekahn is still quite important and I feel like the Rats and Sinister Deal are slow early on, but it's a Lackey deck, so... It beats Demon Hunters silly, but Spell Druid gives it issues.

I have been messing with a greedy Quest Shaman deck that goes about 50:50. If they can stitch together about 20 dmg in a turn they will probably get me in the late game, but outside of that it just makes huge guys turn after turn. I'm Highlander now to abuse double-battlecries on Zephyrus and to access Dragonqueen Alexstrasza, but I wish I could go for more consistency. There just isn't enough high-end threats in the Shaman toolbox that don't crush you with Overload. Back in the Shudderwork domain there were more options, but now it's like a Taunt guy with Reborn or something that the whole world can go through.

One of the reasons that Kibler put the deck together is that he wanted to try to abuse the quest with Lurker Below, so that even if someone put out a huge board of dragons, he could probably clear it. I'm inclined to believe that the SFX on Lurker (a constant stream of water from minion to minion) was based on the presence of the quest, so you didn't to see the whole "fireball warm up" doubled as it moves down the row, which would probably have eaten up a lot of turn time.

I don't own either Zephyrus or DQ Alex and I've never been hugely fond of highlander decks to begin with, so I think I'm keeping my dust and staying out of that.

Like I said before, I haven't played much with Demon Hunter because I'm not that enamored of the playstyle of the two major decks I've seen: Face and OTK. The only games I've played have been with one of the standard pre-mades that's a lot more midrange-y. It has some interesting cards that don't get seen that often. So I had Play 3 as Any and Play 3 as Priest/Rogue/DH today, plus Use your Hero Power 20 times, so I figured I'd run through three games with it. The first was a turn 5 concede by a Paladin against whom I had the board, but the game was far from over. I think he'd just had his fill of Demon Hunters. But the next two were actually good games:

hsreplay.net/replay/2BsLukJ8p64ZiqwkhjADtm

That's Spell Druid, which is one of the top decks in the current moment. I think he may have played his second Glowfly a little early as he didn't want to surrender the board to me. It's also encouraging to know that I can put out a horde of tokens in preparation for later turns and know that it's unlikely that they'll be erased by Swipe, since a lot of Druid decks have cut back on their use of it since Glowfly lets them contest the board. The key card in this game, as it has been in multiple games with this deck, was Wrathscale Naga. That card is an Epic for a reason.

The next one was just as interesting:

hsreplay.net/replay/nDtbYk3sWHg64KY8PVWcw7

This is Galakrond Rogue with Secrets. Right away, my opponent made a mistake on turn 2, deciding to dagger up and kill the Fiend instead of trading with the Cat, thinking he had an advantage. But, as a DH, I'm almost assuredly playing something bigger on turn 3, so why not Ambush and give yourself more options? It's the difference between immediate board control and building into a much more solid form of control. And, of course, on turn 3, I drop the Overseer and suddenly have total control of the board. (Just a side note: Shadowjeweler Hanar is AMAZING. I've seen a couple streamers WRECK people with that card. It's too bad it's not seeing more play.)

The Naga again proves its value, clearing my opponent's board, but also setting up for the other card that was valuable in both games: Feast of Souls. I could have Eye Beamed the Wraith, rather than lose my last Satyr, but I figured the draw was worth it and I could get better value out of the Beam later. That Kargath may be the best result I've seen on a Witchy Lackey in many, many games, too. I played a little aggressively with the Altruis because I had him down to single digits in health and I was trying to press the advantage. However, the tables turned with a 0-mana Kargath Prime (here's where I thought about Jeb's rant about cheating mana costs) and Edwin. That's when he gave me the "Well played", too. Sorry! Eight more turns to go! But, once Galakrond was played and he got the 3/9 taunt off the 2nd Witchy (another great result), it was pretty much over and I just played it out. Great game, though.

Secret Galakrond Rogue is pretty out of control. I romped from Silver 4 to Gold 9 and am still streaking as I type this. Playing a secret on Turn 2 is pretty bad tempo unless it's the one that makes a snake (Ambush), so Jackwraith's opponent probably knifed up to save the secret for a big Hanan turn or a Blackjack Stunner bounce. Makes me think of Shadowreaper Anduin back in the day, where the biggest struggle in the game was figuring how not to overdraw. The opponent is there doing stuff; I am sure, but that'll work itself out.

In Casual, I am enjoying a Ramp Druid that just makes big fat fatties. Opponents so far can only handle the first three or four 7/7s. It's that fifth one that gets ya! (Also it's a 4/12 and is Malygos).

In Battlegrounds, I am slowing climbing in MMR (~4450 now) and now trying to get wins with each hero I can access. So far: George the Divine Shield Guy, Dragon Lady who buffs one from each tribe, and The Curator (I remembered one!).

LOL. This deck is insane.

hsreplay.net/replay/tT6pa9cLuAaxy36PRAqnC7

In my usual HS pattern, I basically just try to keep myself amused with various decks. I had Play 3 Warlock (or Rogue or Priest) and Cast 25 Spells this morning, so I figured I'd mess around with Darkest Scheme:

# 2x (1) Mortal Coil
# 1x (1) Plague of Flames
# 2x (1) Unstable Felbolt
# 2x (2) Twisted Knowledge
# 2x (3) Dark Skies
# 2x (3) Rafaam's Scheme
# 2x (4) Hellfire
# 2x (4) The Dark Portal
# 2x (6) Blatant Decoy
# 2x (6) Darkest Hour
# 2x (6) Khartut Defender
# 2x (7) Evasive Drakonid
# 2x (8) Enhanced Dreadlord
# 2x (8) Twisting Nether
# 1x (10) Colossus of the Moon
# 2x (10) Scrapyard Colossus
#
AAECAf0GAp2pA9+pAw7bBrYHxAirkQP+lQOhoQOYqAPrrAOXrQOttgO/uQPEuQPzuwO9vgMA

It's a mild combo: Leave Scheme in your hand for 4 or 5 turns and then cast that plus Darkest Hour and put your opponent in an impossible situation. It's also been around for- what? 3 or 4 sets now? What makes it work NOW as opposed to the last 3 or 4 sets where it just didn't? I dunno. More early control tools like Unstable Felbolt? Twisted Knowledge to find even more early control tools? (I've had games where I tossed out 4 Dark Skies and needed every one of them.) More double-your-money DR guys than just Khartut so that when you do pull off your big combo, your opponent doesn't just cast a clear and leave you feeling stupid? It's also a turn 9 (or 8 with Coin) combo, so it's not degenerate... until it actually works when you drop 30 mana of creatures on the board for, y'know, 9 mana.

It also doesn't go off that often. I end up playing a lot more games where I'm just bog-standard control Warlock than actually doing the "you should just concede now" turn. The best thing about it is that it's a really cheap deck: 1 legendary (from 3(?) sets ago) and 6 epics, two of which are Classic. Everything else is rares and commons. I do think Enhanced Dreadlord is kind of an underrated card, but it's also a pretty narrow card for just this kind of deck.

hsreplay.net/replay/KyVfF9AuFZMkXvMqWzLQiM