Hearthstone Players!

Maybe a third or so of my games I get Druid. You know what they have so you can just concede and start another. I tried the cheap taunt/ bolster Warrior with moderate success. The metal tooth Hunter rapes mill Druid.
Here is a deck I run when I want to soecificly punish the douches that okay mill Druid all day.

Rogue- gang up, prep, beneath the grounds.

Does that work? Empty the Grounds pads their deck, and Naturalize punishes you asymmetrically. I feel like they would win this. Another popular counter is Malchezaar, who puts like 30 extra cards in your deck. Makes the mill strat less effective.

We're a day in, I hope most of the Mill Druid and Mech Hunters have moved on with their pack. Kind of a drag to see them later in the week. I've done:

• Lightwell, Divine Favor, Inner Fire: Pretty good.
• Jeweled Scarab, Tuskarr Totemic, Evolve: Bad, but can be hilarious
• Upgrade, Bolster, Protect the King: Does OK.
• Mad Scientist, Medivh's Valet, Duplicate: Bad, but interesting
• Malchazaar's Imp, Soulfire, Fist of Jaraxxus: Totally solid, can beat Metaltooth easily

Does Paladin have anything interesting to do? Blessing of Might shenanigans? Muster for Battle with Steward of Darkshire?

One fun one that I tried was N'Zoth's First Mate, Upgrade, Bloodsail Cultist. it worked alright, but got wrecked by the golem/soulfire/imp Warlock deck. That one seems quite good.

Another deck that works against Druid and most anything except Hunter metal tooth. Dragon hawk 1/1 wind fury. Cold blood conceal. You need to mulligan for conceal and once you have a few you are good

I used the pirate 2/1 w haste . Upgrade Shield block. Against mill Druid you wait until he has a couple of murlocs out and suicide the Pirates into them. Leave him no minion targets. Kill him with the weapon.

BatStone is an Invitational tournament put on by Firebat (2015 HS World Champion). He's got a unique ruleset: 4 deck Conquest with 1 ban and the decks must be Standard-legal with the following cards BANNED:

• Yogg-Saron
• Tuskarr Totemic
• Fiery War Axe
• Barnes
• Call of the Wild
• Darkshire Councilman
• Ice Block
• Innervate
• Fandral Staghelm
• Doomguard
• Ragnaros Firelord
• Preparation

I've been watching StrifeCro v Kolento and it's been great! Games aren't determined by the mulligan, and you don't see decks rebounding with ridiculous Yogg RNG or Turn 8 Turn9 Calls of the Wild.

www.youtube.com/channel/UC8bO8-HqjMwCOqGoALOyZBg

Really good HS plays. Check them out.

That tournament is a great idea and it's nice to see someone take up the mantle of alternate formats since, for whatever reason, Blizzard hasn't yet.

Anyone get the Welcome Bundle? According to pitytracker.com my Legendary pulls are lagging well behind the average (average is 1.2%, my average is just under 1%) but between my Tavern Brawl pack yesterday and the bundle I did pretty well.

I got Onyxia yesterday from the Brawl, and in the Bundle I got the following Epics: Big Game Hunter, Ice Block and Murloc Warleader (I can do a Murloc Paladin deck now!). My class Legendary was Archmage Antonidas, and I also got Prophet Velen and a gold Gruul (AKA a Legendary of my choice, probably Yogg).

Edit: Druid - Innervate, Barnes and Ragnaros is a pretty good counter to Mill Druid, even if your Barnes spits out another Barnes 4 times in a row like I just did.

jeb wrote: Does that work? Empty the Grounds pads their deck, and Naturalize punishes you asymmetrically. I feel like they would win this. Another popular counter is Malchezaar, who puts like 30 extra cards in your deck. Makes the mill strat less effective.

Beneath the Grounds doesn't really pad their deck, because every added card is a "Draw a Card". Gang Up does pad your deck, though. And while Naturalize is asymmetric, there are only 10 of those, while you can create up to 30 minions with Beneath and Gang Up creates up to 30 more as cards (minus what you lose to overflow, of course).

If you can survive the 10 Innervates, you're gold against that shitbag deck. Surviving the 10 Innervates has alway been the problem.

I've played the lock Soulfire/Jaraxxus/Mal Imp, that's pretty beastly with a good draw.
My son has been playing Rogue: Sinister Strike, Kobold, Fan of Blades, which is quite solid as well, especially against zoo decks.

The only way I won with Paladin was a straight Murloc deck, never really using my power. Everything in Paladin is too damn slow.

Still grinding away on 10 gold for 3 wins with my Innervate/Barnes/Rag deck while I can. I'm surprised at how well my deck does when Barnes pulls nothing but Barnes, but it's undoubtedly Innervate doing the heavy lifting: Two 3/4's and two 1/1's on Turn 1 (going second) is nothing to sneeze at.

Funniest moment? A shaman running Tunnel Trogg/Lightning Bolt/Earth Shock decided to Earth Shock my 1/1 Rag...turning it into an 8/7 that can now attack. Thanks!

Favorite deck I've seen? I played against a Druid using Innervate and Deathwing, Dragonlord (I never did see the third card). He got lucky with his Innervates and got DW out early and my first Barnes pulled a Barnes. I got lucky with my draws and was able to play a regular Rag, but Rag attacked face twice instead of killing DW. It wouldn't have mattered. A turn after hitting me for 12, my opponent suicided his DW into Rag, killing them both, and DW's deathrattle pulled two more DW's from his hand. GG.

Not Sure wrote: The only way I won with Paladin was a straight Murloc deck, never really using my power. Everything in Paladin is too damn slow.

Paladin is my favourite class but it's not been doing too well recently. However I've had some success with a Divine Shield aggro deck. How's this for fast?

Turn 1: Selfless Hero
Turn 2: 2 x Argent Squire
Turn 3: Rallying Blade
Turn 4: Defender of Argus on the Squires
... opponent surrenders on 8 health facing down a 2/3 and two 3/3 minions with Taunt and Divine Shield.

He's noting that Paladin is weak in this week's Tavern Brawl, where you pick three cards. Not really weak, per se, but not degenerate like a lot of decks are. I think the best Paladin deck in Standard is a controlling Murloc deck that wins with ridiculous damage off a massive Anyfin Can Happen or two. But the one I like to play is like yours, Matt. Spam tiny bubbled guys, buff them, re-draw your hand with Divine Favor.

Yeah, Paladin is fine in standard play. The "tiny bubbles" decks are plenty strong. I still have good success with my "Buff ALL THE THINGS!" deck in Wild as well.

But in this three-card format, there's nothing from Paladin I've seen that's remotely competitive. And by competitive, I'm effectively meaning degenerate like Jeb said.

Okay, now I feel stupid.

Although Paladin isn't competitive in standard compared with Warrior and Shaman.

Murloc Paladin is top tier, or very nearly so. It's just stone boring to play. Runs all the removal in the world, heals for 20 life at a time, Zzzzzzzz BLAM I WIN. It's just a snoozer. The little bubble one is more fun and the games are quick. You can go nuts, and win easily or die like a dog to a well-timed removal. Very edge-of-your-seat Hearthstone.

I coughed up for the Welcome pack. Gave me a "King Krush", which I didn't have. Would have liked a few other things over that, but whatevs. Hearthstone legendaries hate me and always have. Last two classic Legendaries have been Millhouse and Mukla. Yeesh.

I used it to make a fun Hunter 3-card deck, though.
Call Pet, Giant Sandworm, King Krush.

Needless to say, it doesn't function against a degenerate hyperspeed deck. However, it does pretty well against the zoos and other people having fun with slow stuff.
Dropping a Sandworm on T4 and a Krush on T5 is grand.

I pulled Edwin from the deal. Stoked about it. I am all about Rogue and not having Edwin was killing me inside. Not much else I really needed but some foil cards and everything else lets me add another epic with all the dust I pulled. So if it's just Edwin and maybe the second Prep I have been wanting, I am pleased. Is there anything better than a fat turn with Auctioneer in Hearthstone? I don't think so. Celebrated by bingeing on Miracle Rogue deck. I run 2x Arcane Giant and 1x Gang up. If you get to about 10 cards, have Auctioneer out, play 0 cost Giant then gang up, then a few more spells.... I have played 4 Giants in one turn. Fun for me, don't know about how the opponent feels.