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The Mage Ice Block + Fireball deck is my most despised deck of this brawl, so this is how I'm amusing myself in the final hours. I pretty much auto-concede against anything but Mages because, c'mon, I'm hunting Mages.



I ran into a Paladin Unstable Ghoul + Ragnaros, Light Lord deck (and beat it) with this deck (all he played for the longest time were the Ghouls and I had to see what the other card was), and I also beat a Mana Wyrm + Arcane Missiles deck. Turns out 4 health is good for soaking up Arcane Missiles.

SebastianBludd wrote: The Mage Ice Block + Fireball deck is my most despised deck of this brawl, so this is how I'm amusing myself in the final hours. I pretty much auto-concede against anything but Mages because, c'mon, I'm hunting Mages.

Me too! I was using Hunter(Brave Archer + Flare). Ran into ANOTHER metagame killer, playing Shaman(Elemental Destruction + Volcanic Drake) to take out the Mechwarper/Murloc Rush decks. Then a Warlock trying to get Malganis down via Voidcallers, but I just ran my Archers int the first one and then left the board empty until I could kill in two turns with a pile of Archers and Hero Power--as long as I did it before turn 9, I would win, because the Archers are too small to kill a Voidcaller except over two turns.

My grinding deck for yesterday - before I played my Secret Eater deck - was a Murloc Warlock. It's still kind of cheese but it still requires thought regarding order of play and how to trade rather than just flopping a bunch of crap out on the board. I ran into a few Elemental Destruction Shamans and if they didn't play Tunnel Trogg on Turn 1 then I knew they were playing the anti-Warper ED deck. If that was the case I would only play two Murlocs until I could play a bunch of Grimscales and burst them down. It's tricky, though, because if you can't kill them outright then you need to make sure you have enough Murlocs left over in your hand, after your burst, to outnumber his Drakes the turn after he Elemental Destructions.

Another downside to the Elemental Destruction deck is that if you sandbag for too long then the opponent will see that you're milling ED's and Drakes and tip them to what you're running. That wasn't such a big deal yesterday when that was 90% of the Shaman decks being played. I always liked playing against the Shaman Evolve decks. They're fun and they're also one of the few Brawl decks that didn't annoy me when I lost to it.

Mechazod was back for the Brawl this week. This is the third time that I've seen him.

The first time, I thought it was super creative and fun. Take all of those "bad" cards that help your opponent and make it cooperative. And it was kind of hard with how Assassinate worked. I liked the dynamic between the Priest and Paladin. The Paladin was set up to cast spells in a mega turn set up by Millhouse, while the Priest had Troggs and stuff like that to take advantage of all of that spell casting.

Then they changed Assassinate to Prioritize- rather than killing the highest attack minion outright, it would deal damage equal to Mechazod's damage to the highest attack minion. The Druid/Mage one also seemed easier overall, and they put Millhouse and Cho in both decks, while also allowing ludicrous Cho shenanigans with Mirror Entity. Free Pyroblasts boosted by Moonkin... but without having to set up anything on the board, it felt really easy.

Paladin and Priest are back, and with the Prioritize nerf we can finally see Thaddius get a chance to attack, and the Paladin Divine Shields are great... but it's pretty easy now. I win pretty much every time unless I'm with someone who Coins out Milhouse or Cho on turn one.

I'm really not sure what else they can do, class-wise. Maybe a Rogue/Warrior combo that uses Fan of Knives/Blade Flurry plus all the Warrior Whirlwind effects, Grim Patrons, Acolyte of Pain, Frothing Berserkers, etc. Millhouse on the Warrior to set up some wacky van cleef turns? Give the rogue some enrage minions too...

Not a big fan of this brawl so of course I get win 5 tavern brawls for my reroll quest. And as the cherry on my crappy sundae I get a brawl where my partner (WarHawk) doesn't play a card. Actually made it to turn 8 which was shocking to me.

Tavern Brawl is a build-your-own style with the special rule: "All your played minions have Stealth their first turn." Combo Priest x2 and I was done. Doomsayer is generically good.

If you have quests:

• Priest: Combo (Divine Favor/Inner Fire), Deathlord, Mass Dispel, Lightbomb, Holy Nova
• Shaman: Windfury, Dust Devil, Rockbiter Weapon, Whirling Zap-o-matic, Mechwarper shenanigans
• Rogue: Fan of Knives, Betrayal, Dark Iron Skulker, Spell Damage, Edwin Van Cleef
• Mage: Flamestrike, Blizzard, Flamewaker, Spell Damage guys, Arcane Explosion, Mana Wyrm
• Warrior: Beats me. Pirate rush would work well I bet. You get an extra turn to exploit synergies
• Warlock: Shadowflame, Hellfire, Dreadsteed tricks
• Paladin: Just thinking about Muster for Battle with Steward of Darkshire makes me weepy. Equality.
• Druid: Uh. Good thing there are TWO Heroes on each quest.
• Hunter: Tundra Rhino. TUN. DRA. RHI. NO. I feel a Gahz'rilla combo deck.

On the ladder, I was 5-2 with Totem Shaman and the wins were close. I was 0-3 with Control Beast Hunter, so I switched to a Aggro-to-Midrange C'thun Mage and went 9-1, taking out 2x Shaman, 3x Warrior, Zoolock, a Hunter and a Priest. My only loss was to a Midrange Shaman who obliterated me.

I went with the Priest Deathlord and all the spells to buff him. Against a Druid and it was over turn 6 with 24/24 deathlord and two light wells behind him. Unless they have silence, or you don't draw a guy you can buff it seems hard to beat. I got my 2nd Unleash the Hounds and my first Doomcaller from the free pack!
Tavern Brawl with Patron Warrior could work... Warrior can handle buffed Deathlord as well.

Can anyone tell me they prefer to go first in Hearthstone. I think with most any deck I have I would prefer second.
1. More cards to mulligan = more chances to get the right early cards.
2. You can drop that coin at any time, so there is lots of options on any turn to get the right mana for a play
Those two are pretty good already, however....
3. The coin counts as a spell. Rogue/ Mage combos.... hello!!!!!!!!!

Seems like the coin should not count as a spell. Only thing that would balance it.

Ladder- Stuck on 12 with Weenie Warlock. Still have a Volcanic Drake and Cult Master in there. (and Leeroy Jenkins) The Volcanic Drake is a closer plenty of times. Maybe it's just me, but I get nervous with a board full of 1/1s since there are so many ways to wipe them. Trading a few into a 6/4 guy has really been sweet. I don't have the Sea Giant or whatever one is cheap when the board is full. I hate playing against Shaman right now. I never play Shaman but after being abuse by so many I made a Shaman deck with mostly Shaman commons and played 5 or so casual games. Shaman is SICK! Even with no Shaman experience or knowing that deck well I beat some folks down hard. Wolf Totems, Flametongue, the 7/7 guy, the guy who drops for nothing if you summoned some totems previously in the game all sick, sick cards.

@Jeb I am still trying the Earthen Far Seer as a 3 drop in my Rogue deck. I almost never can use it to heal a damaged minion, though it does not suck to heal my battered rogue face. I know I need a good 3 minion and just can't see crafting S-17 Agent. I threw the Emperor in there as I am usually sitting on a pile of cards turn 6 and he always draws lots of attention and really speeds up the endgame for me.

Last 2 arena runs... 3 win Warlock, 5 win Paladin. Just seeing some crazy decks though. One guy had 3 Grim Patrons in Warrior deck i handled two, which is not easy with a janky ass mishmash of randos that you get in arena. But he even had the combo cards to damage them himself. I see guys in the arena who could probably run their decks to Level 14 on the ladder. Just some crazy bad beats to be had in the Arena.

I had just been spending my coin on packs but decided to go back to the arena. Both times shaman was my best option and I got killed 1-3 both times.

Yeah, Arena is too much work for me now. There's enough goofy stuff in the other modes that I can find places to play. If I was still growing my collection, I would have to put more thought into this, but where I am at Arena is just too much for me to consider.

Got eaten alive on the Ladder today. Shot to 12.2 and dropped back to 14 with 4 losses in a row. Some of the losses were tough. I should have quit then, but I am dumb and the next couple made me so mad. Ugh. Had one Hunter in top deck mode at 1 life and he draws Call of the Wild to kill my Mage at 10 (he had a 2/2 Leokk out). Holy shit is there another card that would have killed me? Kill Command I guess. Jeez that was brutal.

Ooh hey, in the Tavern Brawl: Alarm-o-bot. I played Druid with that guy and ridiculous shit for a while, that was fun. I also goofed off with Hunter. 24 damage is most I have gotten my Gahz too though. In another game, I had the hand for 96, except I was missing Gahz. As noted, Tundra Rhino is pretty great. It makes Call of the Wild deal 12.

@MacDirk, The Coin is pretty cool. Most of my Rogue decks shoot for at least three Coins from Tomb Pillager, Cutpurse, &c. I am big on The Coin. With Mage ~eh~ it's OK. But Rogue makes it shine.

More evidence on Yogg. I have now played him 54 times and have won 45 times. So, a 45-9 record is not too bad. Especially because you should only play Yogg if you are behind, but you have to do it smartly. I follow the following different heuristics if you can help it.

1) You don't want your own life too low. It is rare, but it sucks to kill yourself.
2) Similarly, you want to have enough cards in your deck to draw. Don't want to fatigue yourself to death.
3) It doesn't hurt to have at least one other minion out for your spells to have a chance to boost.

I just beat a cthulhu warrior on the ladder today who actually gained 75 armor -- absurd (I played Yogg 3 times ftw). I spent most of the month tweaking my Mage/Yogg deck (I avoid looking at decklists as much as possible) -- just got it where I like it the last week or so (although, I would like to get Bloodmage Thalnos). I have been up to 12.4, but have now fallen down to around 14.4 -- I have a hell of a time against Shaman and Priest. I usually beat Rogue, Paladin, and Mage pretty easily. Warlock and Druid I beat about 75% of the time, but they can give fits. Highest I've been on the ladder since I made it up to Rank 4 with the Handlock before anyone else was playing it when all there was were the classic cards. The game has gotten too serious.

Coin is great in Mage, in my opinion:

1) Counts as a spell for Yogg
2) Gets 2 free damage if you have a Flamewaker out.
3) Generates a free fireball from Antonidas.

I almost never play it early unless it is to boost a Mana Wyrm. Just beat a Warlock where I played 2 Mana Wyrms on the 1st turn -- that shit is hard to deal with if not done immediately.

I have no interest in this Brawl. I got lucky with my first match where I, of course, missed the obvious best build for Priest and instead went with some N'Zoth thing. Both of my Shifting Shades stole a Blessing of Kings from my Paladin opponent who added me after he lost just so he could smack talk. He complained about me getting 2 BoK's (after leading off with "fuck off, mate"), not taking into account that my opening hand was garbage and that I had N'Zoth and Entomb in hand at the end, it's just that BoK made his defeat happen faster. The weirdest part was when he said my Ragnaros had "crappy aim" so he shouldn't have copied it with his Faceless Manipulator, as if I would be offended that he'd slandered my digital card. I've had lots of bad beats and shitty luck that has left me unreasonably angry at this stupid game, and yet I've never considered adding someone just to chew them out. It's bizarre.

I made Strifecro's N'Zoth Priest deck and I'll be damned if it isn't as fun to play as the pre WoG control Priest. I had a closely-contested game against an N'Zoth Paladin today that was one that I would rank as one of my favorite matches ever, even if I had lost. My opponent got Justicar out early so I was dealing with double SHR drops for most of the game. Things got super tricky midway through the game when he played Light Rag to go with a 4 attack minion and 4 SHR's and me not having any AOE or useful hard removal in hand. I stalled with a (previously Entombed) Cairne + Doomsayer play on my next turn, hit Rag with Cairne to get him to 8/4 and played 2x Darkshire Alchemist on my next turn to heal up before finally killing Light Rag with Cairne's spawn.

After that I semi-stabilized and I even survived a brain fart when I used Cabal Shadow Priest to steal one of his SHR's when his Sylvanas was at one health (derp), but Entomb ended up being the MVP. I stole his Tirion, played it later, lost both it and the Ashbringer (to Ooze) on the same turn, and top-decked N'Zoth on my next turn who brought back 2x Shifting Shades, Tirion, Cairne, Infested Tauren and Sylvanas. He played his a turn later and only got Loot Hoarder and Sylvanas and I was able to then swing with everything for the win.

Space Ghost wrote: Highest I've been on the ladder since I made it up to Rank 4 with the Handlock before anyone else was playing it when all there was were the classic cards. The game has gotten too serious.

Says the guy playing (and winning) with the randomest card in the game.

Space Ghost wrote: Coin is great in Mage, in my opinion:

1) Counts as a spell for Yogg
2) Gets 2 free damage if you have a Flamewaker out.
3) Generates a free fireball from Antonidas.

I almost never play it early unless it is to boost a Mana Wyrm. Just beat a Warlock where I played 2 Mana Wyrms on the 1st turn -- that shit is hard to deal with if not done immediately.

To comment on this and your previous post about Yogg...I agree completely with both. I just tweaked out a Mage Yogg deck that took me from 20 to 14.3 in a straight shot until I ran into my nemesis, which is apparently now All Things Shaman. I don't care which flavor of new shaman I face, either he overloads the shit out of Trogg/the other one or I'm facing a board with with a 7/7 and a bunch of buffed totems that I just can't get around fast enough. Every other class, I'm at least competitive with.

And, yea, Thalnos is pretty handy. I'm actually running a Nat Pagle of all things in my deck as, if I can get it out on my first or 2nd play, I either draw 2-4 extra cards before someone kills it, or my opponent uses some auto-kill card very early in game to get him off the board, which makes my life better down the road.

As far as the deck goes, mine started as a stock game-suggested Dragonfire deck that I hated after 2 plays and just kind of started filling with spells because, well, Yogg's impact makes me laugh like a mutha...

The other clear suggestion for playing yogg is, not only should you be behind, but your opponent needs to have some stuff on the board and it's usually best if you don't. I had Yogg launch Doom to clear 10 off the board [also emptying my deck and filling my hand] and then close out with 2xCall of the wild some 14 spells later. My opponent was already in gloat mode since he had a ton of cards and a 30-4 health difference when I dropped Yogg and then thought I could actually hear him cry over the speakers when Yogg blew up the world.

If I can get Yogg to the board, I've never had an opponent beat me. I've lost plenty of times, but it's because Yogg killed me dead. Most notable was the game where Yogg buffed my opponent back up from 5 to nearly full AND knocked me back from 22 to 2 before triggering the opponent's Eye for Eye secret and killing me.

Single best card in the game as far as I'm concerned.

Space Ghost wrote: I almost never play it early unless it is to boost a Mana Wyrm. Just beat a Warlock where I played 2 Mana Wyrms on the 1st turn -- that shit is hard to deal with if not done immediately.

RIP Darkbomb.

Folks: real talk time. Praise. Yogg. Making it to ten mana is an achievement in this game what with all the 7/7's for four and 7/5's for three out there you-fucking-piece-of-shit-Darkshire-Councilman. You make it to ten mana, and you've been casting all kinds of stuff and they have a decent board and you're down by like 7-12 life--here we goooooo. It's the best. That lonng dronniinnnggg mummblee as the sparks fly. Will he live? Is my hero able to attack? What color is the End Turn button? If I hover on the opponent do they have the skull? How many Secrets did I get--are they good ones? It's manic. I love it every time.

PRAISE HIM! PRAISE HIS SONG THAT ENDS THE WORLD!