Hearthstone Players!

Nah, I'm cool with Naturalize. I see it often. Hard removal is needed, and Mulch is still bad. What can ya do?

Stranglethorn Tiger... can you believe how often this card is showing up now? I don't think I saw it outside of Arena for almost two years. Now it's in Hunter, Druid, and I've seen it in Paladin! I think you've got the combo though--that Stealth has such powerful effect with Warden and Mark of Yshaarj. Nice deck!

Want to piss folks off? Saw HSDogDog trying something like this the other day...
2x Backstab
2x Preparation
2x Shadowstep (Novice or Van Cleef I guess?)
2x Cold Blood
2x Conceal
2x Journey Into Darkness
2x Sinister Strike
2x Eviscerate
1x Sap
1x Shiv
Lx Edwin Van Cleef
1x Fan of Knives
1x SI:7 Agent
2x Tomb Pillager

Lx Bloodmage Thalnos
2x Novice Engineer
2x Gadgetzan Auctioneer
2x Arcane Giant

The deck is complete shit until you draw your whole deck, drop like 24 damage on the board and Conceal it over the next couple turns as you smash them. Early game is spent on drawing cards, drawing cards, and drawing cards. You might die in this stage of the game. If you don't, it gets interesting. Around turn 8, you should have a Gadgetzan and a fist of cheap (like 0 and 1cc) spells. Start the engine and draw into your now free Arcane Giants and make sure you save a mana for Conceal. You probably have 24 damage on the board and 6 more in hand to finish up.

Eviscerate is too expansive (!!) to use in the "late" game--spend it early to get rid of something obnoxious. Van Cleef is a ruse--you just want them to not hit your face for a bit, so go ahead and leave him out there as a 6/6 or whatever.

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Ok, now I am pissed. Priest plays Thaurissan, I kill it, gets it off Onyx Bishop, kill it, gets it off Resurrect, kill it again, gets it off Resurrect again (mind you, he's lost a Loot Hoarder, a Priest of the Feast, the Onyx Bishop, and Barnes as well at this point), I kill it again, but his whole hand is free, right? So he poops out everything and I kill his whole board with a huge C'Thun, he has one card in hand. Topdecks Entomb.

HEARTHSTONE.

Continuing to fine tune my Hunter Rattle deck. Have reached Rank 9 so far this month with this:

2x Firey Bat
2x Hunter's Mark
2x Tracking
1x Bear Trap
2x Huge Toad
1x Kindly Grandmother
2x Animal Companion
1x Carrion Grub
2x Kill Command
1x Power Shot
1x Barnes
2x Hound Master
1x Infested Tauren
2x Infested Wolf
1x Princess Huruhan
2x Highman
1x Sylvanus
1x Black Knight
2x Call of the Wild
1x Nzoth

Latest changes are the additions of Barnes and Kindly Grandmother. Jury is still out on these, but Barnes hitting anything with Death Rattle is awesome because (A) you get the Death Rattle and ( They come back full strength with N'Zoth.

This deck has great hitting power through the entire game. Back-to-back Call of the Wilds is usually enough to take people out. And I frequently get to play Sylvanus, they do something clever and avoid killing her (like low attack minions), followed up by Huruhan to grab a minion.

Geoff

It's nice to see someone using Huhuran. I got bored with my Deathrattle Hunter deck but it's still competitive and certainly good enough for daily Quests. Also kudos on the Black Knight inclusion as I have a soft spot for oddball tech minions in decks.

I rolled a 60 Gold Warrior quest today and since my Tempo Warrior deck was out of date I decided to check out some netdecks. I realized that, yet again, I didn't want to spend the dust on Grommash (and Twilight Guardian, and...) for Dragon Warrior, nor did I want to spend the thousands of dust for the cards I didn't have for Control Warrior (plus I hate that deck), so I did the only sensible thing and tweaked my old Tempo Warrior deck to accommodate The Curator.

It's actually not bad, I think I went 5-1 or 5-2 tonight against a variety of classes. The only Murloc I put in was a Bluegill Warrior, the Beasts are Fierce Monkey, Kodo and Stranglethorn Tiger, and the Dragon is Nefarian because I don't really like Alex or Chromaggus (no Chillmaw or Ysera) in this kind of deck. Not only does Nefarian give me Mage and Priest spells to mess with my opponents, but his and The Curator's battlecries mean that I have a pretty full hand going into Turn 10 and beyond.

Here's my New Tempo Warrior deck:

Blood to Ichor x2
Execute x2
Whirlwind
Armorsmith x2
Battle Rage x2
Bluegill Warrior x1
Fiery War Axe x2
Slam x2
Fierce Monkey x2
Frothing Berserker x2
Ravaging Ghoul x2
Arathi Weaponsmith x1
Bloodhoof Brave x2
Kor'kron Elite x2
Leeroy Jenkins xL
Stampeding Kodo x1
Stranglethorn Tiger x1
The Curator xL
Nefarian xL

Leeroy's an odd add, but he kind of works. If Leeroy won't deal lethal on the turn he's played, I sometimes like to do a Leeroy + Ghoul combo to clear the whelps, especially if I have a Berserker out. I pulled that off tonight on Turn 8 so my Berserker jumped from a 2/4 to a 6/3 where I ended the turn with a 6/3, 6/1 and 3/3 on the board. That's an uncommon combo, of course, but he's nice burst.

Beating people with Mill Rogue in the year of your lord two thousand and sixteen:

2x Backstab
2x Preparation
2x Shadowstep
2x Eviscerate
2x Gang Up
2x Sap
1x Fan of Knives
2x Shadow Strike
2x Vanish

Lx Bloodmage Thalnos
2x Doomsayer
Lx Brann Bronzebeard
2x Coldlight Oracle
2x Earthen Ring Farseer
1x Arcanosmith
1x Refreshment Vendor
2x Azure Drake
Lx The Curator

Things folks should know about mill:

• The endgame is Fatigue. You are going to use Gang Up to plump up your deck by six cards and "be ahead" on Fatigue. You want a point where you take no damage from a Coldlight Oracle, but your opponent does. Or where you take 1 & 2, and she takes 4 & 5. (Or Brann + Coldlight just kills them). Remember that the opponent will take an "extra" fatigue when she draws the card for her turn. This also helps you beat Ice Block.
• A minion on the board can't be returned to a 10-card hand (via Sap or Vanish). It will die (triggers Deathrattle). You can check the opponents hand size by mousing or holding on it. If some could be returned, they are returned in the order they were played. Sap and Vanish are removal--like they should be killing stuff, not used as Tempo unless you are in a bad spot.
• Minions that are "burned" by being drawn into a 10-card hand do not die (or trigger Deathrattle) or count as discarded. They are just gone. I am not even sure if Doomcaller can get C'Thun back from this...
• Shadowstep is for Coldlight Oracle in the endgame, but is often used for Earthen Ring Farseer in the midgame to climb your life total back up.
• Gang Up is for Coldlight Oracle unless things have gone totally sideways.
• You don't need to "tip your hand" that your are mill right away. Your turns all look like generic Rogue shenanigans until you play a Coldlight or Gang Up. Doomsayer seems weird, but everyone is playing those now. Arcanosmith might make people think, but it's so new no one will connect it. Nothing warms my heart like seeing Mage playing Arcane Intellect and Loot Hoarders.

SebastianBludd wrote: It's nice to see someone using Huhuran. I got bored with my Deathrattle Hunter deck but it's still competitive and certainly good enough for daily Quests. Also kudos on the Black Knight inclusion as I have a soft spot for oddball tech minions in decks.

Worst case Huhuran is 6-5 for 5 mana, which is solid. And if you can combo it with Sylvanus (which I'm able to do about 25% of games) it can be devastating.

Black Knight is invaluable against Druids with big taunts, and Warriors. In general I find it really good for maintaining tempo.

I didn't get do too well last season in rankings. I would make solid headway and get to 12 and then fall back to 19. That happened several times. I spent a lot of time with experimental decks and Karazan stuff. It's a waste of time to tear anything too long in casual. If you beat someone who has Pit Fighter in their deck it tells you nothing. You gotta fight against the meta and see what's up. However, I know the mets all too well now. Somebody playing Paladin drops a Bluegill warrior and I feel like I know every card coming in their list Or Purify Priest or Beast Druid or whatever. It's so much about match ups now. Maybe it always was and I was less aware. At least impossible to kill warrior and priest builds have dropped out. And less C thun now too. Thank Gods on that.
I have vowed to take this season more seriously and play in "Try Hard" mode as is the vernacular of the streamers. I saw Lifecoach and Thijs have race to legend this season. I dropped in on both their streams this morning and saw them "grinding" in their race both playing the same deck! Was Dragon Warrior. I have that. I hadn't updated it with Curator as they have. Just need some Fierce Monkeys (beast) as I already run Finley anyway. It's my most consistent deck and if they feel it's the deck to race to legend with. I gotta try that. I don't have Hellscream and run Nefarian instead. But Nef is slow at 9 mana to finish. Maybe Leeroy is the answer??

But Mill Rogue? I have loads of experience with that and quit when you could no longer break your weapon and splatter the board and their face. I think that new Lurker card is interestin in Mill. Swallow their minion and shadowstep? But after Jebs post I was inspired to throw together a Mill Rogue deck for old times sake. Played two games and drew no Coldlights 18 cards in. It's just too gimmicky and flukey and more brittle than ever with out healbot. I double dog dare you to take Mill Rogue below rank 10. It's so matchup and draw dependant and too inconsistent to achieve greatness. I know it can't be good because since I quit Mill Rogue maybe 20 times it was tried on me with probably less than 20% success. Best chance is like Jeb mentioned where you take someone by surprise 12 cards in. But milling is a fun diversion nonetheless and a good way to learn the other deck types.

Aside from Curator what Karazan cards are you finding to be strong? I agree that Arcane Golem seems like a great card, but if you have a spell heavy deck by the time you play it they have a kill shot ready. I like the Warrior build where you replace Worgen with Arcane Golem and also run Patrons as mid game threats. It's a hard deck to play though. You need disciple to hold onto your inner rages until the Golem hits. Great deck against aggro and control. Not enough removal to deal with minion heavy mid range.

I still hate Priest Hunter Shaman. I tried the current purify Priest. Not for me. Hunter and Shaman are both so straightforward to play. Boring. Very few streamers play shaman because of that. Ya watching streams totally changed my Hearthstone. I blame you Jeb. And Jackwraith for posting the Firebat YouTube clip. That was the taste that got me addicted.

Edit to add: 10 hours since I watched Lifecoach over breakfast. He is still grinding with Dragon Warrior and 4 ranks lower to 4 now

Haha, you take it much more seriosuly than I. I got to 15.3 last month and didn't have the time to move higher. I never bust all the way back down though, I don't think my fragile ego could handle that. I fend my way to 15 (used to 12, sniff), and then 50:50 for the balance of the month. But I am having a good time. I am going to try harder to keep track, at least, and note where things are weak. Took a couple of game with Yogg Hunter to realize I am terrible at that deck and move to Camel Hunter, which worked much better for me. Most of my wins were with Stupid Bubble Paladin though. Spam the board, ignore their stuff, cast unfair cards (Divine Favooooor) and win.

No Coldlights in 18 cards?! What the hell? No The Curator either? Sorry, that is piss poor. I swapped out Fan of Knives for Price Malchazaar(sp?), giving me 5 more cards and they might be sick! I never showed my Millness today in my one game with it--opponent just got killed by Illidan. Rank 20 things. Ah.

Zetalot, still struggling with Priest. He was probably first to that Priest of the Feast Rez build, and I watched him make rounds with Purify, but that card is such utter shit. I saw Thijs this AM, and he was playing some kind of aggressive Hunter. I just watch for a moment, but he had Abusive Sergeant. Once they hit the rest of the tryhards, I bet they switched.

I recall not loving the tavern brawl where they gave you a pre made deck of random minions and every time you cast one it had servant of yogg effect.... It cast a random spell. It was retarded. This brawl is the same but the opposite. You cast a portal spell and get a random minion. What is the point of this exercise exactly?

It has inspired me to come up with a new card for the game.... Rando Portal. Can be used with any class... It costs a random amount of mana when you draw it. It casts a random class spell for whatever you are using, then it summons a minion with random attack random health random battle cry effect and random death rattle. They can of course then make a tavern brawl where you choose your class and you draw from a deck full of Rando Portals. How awesome would that be. Fun squared or maybe even fun to the power of fun!

Seems like too many of their new ideas revolve around Random keyword. Dunno how many cards came in KaraZan. But 10 of them use Random. I just checked.

Jeb. Don't be too hard on yourself. Try that daily affirmation where you look in the mirror and say, "I am good enough. I am smart enough. And doggone it, people like me". I know I do. You're aces with me.

Yo dawg, &c on this Tavern Brawl. I don't like these.... Kind of sucks to lose when your portals get Lance Carrier and they play turn 4 Ragnaros. What's my response there? "I hope I get a Kidnapper!" Ugh.*

Boy, HS is easier when you netdeck. I went 1-4-1 with Barney Miller, busting back down to 20.1. That deck is unforgiving---you can make ZERO mistakes. I lost two games and tied a third instead of winning because of single mistakes. I needed Warrior wins, fired up Lifecoach.dec and went 8-1, streaking to 17.3. The games are boring, but they are quick. Had a close call against another Warrior, but drew Fiery War Axe for the win. The only Karazan card in there is The Curator. Card's legit.

Broke out an untuned Nzoth Priest in Wild. Went up against a Paladin who got me down to 2 life and started spamming "Well played, well played, well played." Yeah, dude, I know you have the Consecrate, let me think for a second... Hmm. Excavated Evil clears the board, Flash Heal myself to 7. He plays more stuff, those get handled (Lorewalker Cho out of my Shredder is making some of this harder), and I start turning the boat around and come back for the "Greetings" win. It's tough out there at 24.2.
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*That said: Tavern Brawls like these let folks with smaller collections play with all kinds of shit they won't see for ages. I speak about these Brawls as a guy with access to pretty much every card I want in Constructed formats. I would probably like them a lot more if I was still doing my best with Ancient Watcher and the other two Rares I had.

Might need to think about Discard Zoo a little the next time they think about balancing stuff....





Aftermath of my turn 4 shown.

• O1: Voidwalker.
• M1: Flame Imp. I take 3.
• O2: Dire Wolf Alpha, attacks my face with Voidwalker, I take 2, opponent assumes Imp dies to Voidwalker.
• M2: Malchezaar's Imp, Possessed Villager, The Coin, Soulfire the Wolf, Discard/Summon Silverware Golem (and draw a card), attack Voidwalker
• O3: Hero Power, takes 2.
• M3: Dire Wold Alpha, attack for 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 10.
• O4: Dark Iron Dwarf
• M4: Dark Peddler for Corruption, Corruption on the Dwarf, Voidwalker, attack for another 10.

Salt: Just lost to a Tempo Mage who was in top deck mode. I killed his Walkers, his Sorcerers, his stupid books, and picked him down to 1, setting off his Secret. ind you, he'd topdecked Babbling Book to get Mirror Image that delayed me a turn. A top decked Mirror Image buys him another turn. He topdecked Flamestrike to buy him a couple turns as I rebuilt. He got me to 5, so I had to stop Hero Powering, or I'd die to Frostbolt + ping. I saw a Forgotten Torch, both Fireballs, an Arcane Missiles, and a Frostbolt. I peck away, peck away, he's out of stuff. Arcane Intellect into Arcane Intellect into Roaring Torch FTW. This was to get me to Rank 13, dammit.

HO. LEE. SHIT. Discolock is ridiculous. As luck would have it I got a 60 gold Warlock/Shaman quest today so I built Xixo's version of Discolock and went 5-0 from 20 to 17, and none of the games were even that close. The scary thing is, a few times I had the worst possible discard (failing to discard Silverware Golem with only a few cards in hand, playing Soulfire and discarding Doomguard with 6 cards in hand, etc.) and I still won handily. I coined out 2 Malchezar's Imps in one game and Imp + Soulfire wrecks Shaman. Oh, you want to play Totem Golem? How about I kill it and draw a card and you can have an empty board and some Overload next turn. I handled a Rogue, too, but no Warriors or Mages.

I'm so sick of Tempo Mages and they've given me a new appreciation for Tempo/Control/Dragon/OTK/C'thun Warriors, and C'thun decks in general. At least there's some back-and-forth against other decks whereas I always feel like I'm being held down and pummeled whenever I play against a Tempo Mage.

I made my way through heroic Karazhan... it might be the easiest yet, but I guess that's to be expected considering that I have cards way back from Naxx and they probably have to assume that some people are playing with a standard-ish card pool. Most of the bosses had some little quirk, which once you found a way around it wasn't too hard to power your way through. Often some kind of super-late game Old God thing with or without Reno would do it with some slight modifications.

Heroic Maloriak from Blackrock Mountain continues to be the hardest boss ever, and that was the toughest dungeon overall. It also had the most bosses.

I haven't really gone too much into Standard yet. When does the BRM stuff rotate out? It'll be nice when Thaurissan and some of that dragon stuff duck out to let some new cards in. Now might be the best time to live the draconic dream by playing BRM plus menagerie cards. My Pirate Warrior will probably still be fine, although it didn't really get a lot of new stuff. That 4/3 immune hero on your turn gal (Violet Illusionist?) seems to have some nice implications for Rogue and Warrior. Fool's Bane, ho!

I have been doing some Arenas, usually with Rogue or Mage. I didn't realize how awesome Journey Below is for Rogue. 1-drops are often a passed turn in Arena anyway, but it can help you smooth out your curve or get some ridiculous card. I had a Moat Lurker one game that just ended up being a lifesaver thanks to some brewmasters... I like the Deadly Fork too. Some of those slow, expensive, but "value" cards can be decent in arena. I've got a warrior right now with some weird stuff like Tentacles for Arms, Fool's Bane, and that Violet Illusionist. Just 1-1 so far.

I haven't done Arena in ages. I have like 3500 gold, I could spare some, jeez. It was just so sharky last time I went in. I drafted a solid-as-hell deck and 1-3d against some CRAZY shit. Down in 1-2 and getting rolllllled, I thought, "this is not for me." I don't imagine it's gotten any better with Firelands Portal and so forth.

The Karazhan cards I am messing with are The Curator, who's great, Medivh, who's probably too slow for my tastes (as in, he's probably sick as hell in Tempo Mage and other decks I despise), and Arcane Giants, who are the best! I use those big fellas everywhere. Moonkin Druid is better for them (replaces Justicar Trueheart and Elise Starseeker--they are basically free around turn 7), any Yogg deck should make room for them, and a lot of Reno decks too, because those games go long and the discount pays off over time. There's a hang up some have about Giants, that they should be free or not played. That's nuts. Any other time you drew an 8/8 for 5 you'd play it. But with Giants, folks get so greedy.

In terms of decks, Discard Warlock is a way to play. The cards are very one-dimensional (Malchezaar's Imp and Silverware Golem), but if you work to exploit that dimension, you have a solid deck. Don't go nuts and include bad cards like Succubus. Just the high-impact hasty plays: Soulfire and Doomguard. I have been using the 3/2 with Battlecry: Discard a card and Deathrattle: Draw a card, but I think I will pitch it for Flame Jugglers or Bloated Toads.

I would assess any deck and see if The Curator should be included. 7 mana for a 4/6 Taunt is not great, but is OK. But the tutoring power is amazing. As noted above, you can singleton for ping with Bluegill Warrior, silence with Ironbeak Owl, and oh shit with Deathwing or Just Good Cards. Put Malygos in your hand, Alexstrasza, that pingy Murloc (for Execute?), and all that. Worth a look is what I am saying.

Curator makes me want to do something really goofy like Mysterious Challenger and Elise Starseeker. Throw in Divine Favor and whatever the name of that card that draws 2 and costs less the more stuff died that turn.

The dream opponent for your mill rogue, lol.

FWIW, Blizzard just released a list of cards for each class that they're removing from Arena:

Mage
Forgotten Torch
Snowchugger
Faceless Summoner

Rogue
Goblin Auto Barber
Undercity Valiant

Paladin
- No changes

Shaman
Vitality Totem
Dust Devil
Totemic Might
Ancestral Healing
Dunemaul Shaman
Windspeaker

Warlock
Anima Golem
Sacrificial Pact
Curse of Rafaam
Sense Demons
Void Crusher
Reliquary Seeker
Succubus

Druid
Savagery
Poison Seeds
Soul of the Forest
Mark of Nature
Tree of Life
Astral Communion

Warrior
Warsong Commander
Bolster
Charge
Bouncing Blade
Axe Flinger
Rampage
Ogre Warmaul

Hunter
Starving Buzzard
Call Pet
Timber Wolf
Cobra Shot
Lock and Load
Dart Trap
Snipe

Priest
Mind Blast
Shadowbomber
Lightwell
Power Word: Glory
Confuse
Convert
Inner Fire