Hearthstone Players!

Ha. Yeah. Shudderwock is the new cancer. I made it. 5-1 with Hotforms list. The game I lost was to the worst deck. Rogue with the blink fox. Stole a windspeaker and double cold blood otk me from 21 health while I had 2x healing rain in hand. The deck is one of the most defensive things ever. Crushes Cubelock and rush decks. Since it’s all battle cry stuff there is nothing to stop it’s inevitability besides punch through the board wipes, heal, and draw and kill the shaman before he gets twentysome odd cards out of his deck. I predict they nerf shudderwock to 10 mana.

### Shudder wok
# Class: Shaman
# Format: Standard
# Year of the Raven
#
# 2x (1) Earth Shock
# 2x (1) Unstable Evolution
# 1x (2) Bloodmage Thalnos
# 2x (2) Doomsayer
# 2x (2) Murmuring Elemental
# 2x (3) Far Sight
# 2x (3) Healing Rain
# 2x (3) Lightning Storm
# 2x (3) Mana Tide Totem
# 1x (4) Defender of Argus
# 2x (4) Hex
# 2x (4) Lifedrinker
# 2x (4) Saronite Chain Gang
# 1x (5) Harrison Jones
# 2x (5) Volcano
# 1x (6) Grumble, Worldshaker
# 1x (7) Bogshaper
# 1x (9) Shudderwock
#
AAECAaoIBu0F+wWQB6vnAoH2Au/3AgyKAYEE9QT+Bf8FsgbHwQKbywLz5wLf6QLg6gLv8QIA
#
# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

Spent an hour playing Shudderwock Shaman and Tempo Rogue with the new cards. Won nothing. Yay.

(Someone will inevitably asking how I lost games with Shudderwock. Both were against Baku Priest, which is probably one of the few decks that can reliably beat it at this point. You can't out-defend 4 healing per turn)

Anyone who asks you how you lost with Shudderwock doesn't have a clue. Like any combo deck, it's not something you can just log in and win with. It takes practice and it's easy to get beaten just by the draw. I'd spend some time with it.

Jackwraith wrote: Anyone who asks you how you lost with Shudderwock doesn't have a clue. Like any combo deck, it's not something you can just log in and win with. It takes practice and it's easy to get beaten just by the draw. I'd spend some time with it.

Quite a lot of time, it seems. Also now lost to a hideous paladin deck using necrotic geist. Still not got a win with anything.

Part of the problem is that it takes me a while to find a deck where I'm comfortable with the style. I'm not sure I've got the patience for Shudderwock. Part of the problem is that in all the post-expansion confusion I have a hard time telling whether I'm failing or the combos are failing. Most of the problem is that I'm bad at Hearthstone.

I quit a year ago, and I see there's a new set coming out. I really don't need the distraction, and I literally have no idea what you guys are talking about anymore, like I missed out on the language classes. (last deck I played was pirate warrior before it was cool and Patches came out. The format was super slow but I'd go for those turn 5 victories while druids tried to ramp to c'thun).

Should I get back into it or keep whistling and walking past?

112 packs, 8 legendaries (including the freebie) 23 epics. Legendary-wise I didn't really pull anything I wanted (Like Sebastian, I also pulled both Druid legendaries) but I had about 9000 dust so I was able to rectify that pretty quickly.

Being the little Timmy shithead that I am, I, of course, love Shudderwock, even though the deck is Bad.

Baku with the warrior quest is a lot of fun, especially when you add in Clockwork Automation to turn the rag fireball into a 16 damage bomb (or 32 if you can somehow get both out)

I'm starting to come around on this expansion, if only slightly. I play mostly Wild so I looked at the cards from what they'd add to my Wild options and there just isn't much since it's so combo focused and I feel like there's way too much control in Wild to really make any of that viable. That said, I'm going to build a wild version of the Druid control/fatigue deck that Jeb referenced and I can't wait.


As an aside the "Wow" emote is a thousand times more annoying than "Sorry" ever was.

### Midrange
# Class: Hunter
# Format: Standard
# Year of the Raven
#
# 1x (1) Candleshot
# 2x (1) Dire Mole
# 1x (1) Stonetusk Boar
# 2x (2) Crackling Razormaw
# 1x (2) Hunting Mastiff
# 1x (2) Scavenging Hyena
# 1x (2) Snake Trap
# 1x (2) Venomstrike Trap
# 1x (2) Wandering Monster
# 2x (3) Animal Companion
# 2x (3) Eaglehorn Bow
# 2x (3) Kill Command
# 2x (3) Unleash the Hounds
# 1x (4) Dire Frenzy
# 2x (4) Houndmaster
# 1x (4) Houndmaster Shaw
# 1x (5) Bittertide Hydra
# 2x (5) Lesser Emerald Spellstone
# 1x (5) Nesting Roc
# 1x (5) Tundra Rhino
# 1x (6) Deathstalker Rexxar
# 1x (6) Savannah Highmane
#
AAECAR8OxwOIBbsF7QmBCq/CAtnCAp3MAt/SAobTAuHjAoDzArr2Asn4AgioArUD6wfbCf4MjsMC49ICi+UCAA==

All those 1-ofs, heh. Still trying things out, obviously. This is working well so far though. At Rank 6, I took out a Greymane Hunter, a Taunty Baku Warrior, some weird bad Big Hand Druid (my Hyena got to 18/10) and got a Cubelock to 1 by turn 6 (after he'd gained 11 life!) before he killed me with Giant and Doomguards from 17 out.

//edit: I have since dialed back the Secret package and added more Silence back in. And only one Dire Frenzy, which I like a lot! 4/6 Dire Moles are good too, 5/5 Hyenas, what have you. It's a nice buff. It feels like Blessing of Kings with dividends. Theorycrafting in Casual got me this deck, which is hilarious:
### Quelementl
# Class: Hunter
# Format: Standard
# Year of the Raven
#
# 2x (1) Stonetusk Boar
# 1x (1) The Marsh Queen
# 1x (2) Prince Keleseth
# 2x (3) Deadly Shot
# 2x (3) Igneous Elemental
# 2x (3) Nightmare Amalgam
# 2x (3) Ravencaller
# 2x (4) Dire Frenzy
# 2x (4) Houndmaster
# 2x (4) Shroom Brewer
# 1x (4) Wing Blast
# 2x (5) Servant of Kalimos
# 2x (5) Tol'vir Warden
# 1x (5) Tundra Rhino
# 2x (5) Witchwood Grizzly
# 1x (6) Deathstalker Rexxar
# 1x (7) Blazecaller
# 1x (7) Crushing Walls
# 1x (9) Alexstrasza
#
AAECAR8IxQS7BZjDAsjHAobTApziAvLqAtzuAguIBesHxQiKwwLCwwLGxwLY5QLF7ALy8QLJ+ALeggMA

...which can access 16 1-drops (or more if Servant plays along) while only playing two in the deck.

Argh! No Toxmonger!

I switched over to Baku Paladin for a while. I won 4 or 5 straight and then started running into other Baku Paladin decks, which is a case of: "Who gets the better draw?" Mine's a bit more on the aggro side (Raid Leader) and I got beat by one that was totally midrange, with Rotten Applebaum and Ghostly Charger. The deck overall is insane. You can get cleared 3 or 4 times and just spit stuff back out there. And, unlike Shaman totem decks, it's actually useful stuff. Also, Witch's Cauldron is insanely good in it a lot of the time. What an aggro Paladin deck needs is Bloodlust, after all.

So, with other Bakus showing up, I switched back to my Control deck to win a couple before crashing. I hate trying to sleep after losing.

### Control
# Class: Paladin
# Format: Standard
# Year of the Raven
#
# 2x (1) Righteous Protector
# 2x (2) Equality
# 2x (2) Hydrologist
# 2x (2) Lesser Pearl Spellstone
# 1x (2) Sound the Bells!
# 2x (2) Wild Pyromancer
# 2x (3) Aldor Peacekeeper
# 2x (3) Benevolent Djinn
# 2x (3) Stonehill Defender
# 2x (4) Consecration
# 1x (4) Saronite Chain Gang
# 1x (4) The Glass Knight
# 2x (4) Truesilver Champion
# 2x (6) Spikeridged Steed
# 1x (6) Val'anyr
# 1x (7) Lynessa Sunsorrow
# 1x (8) Lay on Hands
# 1x (8) Tirion Fordring
# 1x (9) Uther of the Ebon Blade
#
AAECAZ8FCNIE+gabywKO0wLj4wK36QL57ALr9wIL3AP0Bc8G9gePCbPBApvCAojHAuPLAvbSArLpAgA=

It's only using Glass Knight from WW because most of the control cards that Paladin got in this set are crap. I can do what Control Paladin has always done: throw up speed bumps, pick off things with Truesilver while either gaining a little health or reducing damage, and finally closing my grip. It's a little disorganized at the top, since Lynessa only benefits from the Steeds and repeated applications of Bells (which I do ALL the time) and Val'anyr is generally most useful with Chain Gang, of course, although I have gotten some good use out of a Val'd Pyromancer. The Spellstone is still pretty useful as a speed bump and I've been able to turn it into kind of a monstrosity when it starts out as a 6/6 Taunt and I turn it into a 10/14 Taunt, usually quite late in the game the Hexes, etc. have been used. Speaking of Hex, I did turn a frog into a nice 4/9 roadblock. The weird thing is that, other than Stonehill, the entire thing is class cards. Not sure what that means. Also, Uther the DK still sucks, but he has saved me a couple times. Still haven't gotten the OTK, since I generally have a firm hold of the game and they concede before I can do it.

Woof. Priest is bad, man. It's like the old days where you just look at the board and say: "What do I do?" Heal self. Pass.

Lady in White is just too much RNG. Sometimes you draw her in the midgame and then everything past that is a bit brighter. Sometimes you don't see her at all and you're wishing you had something in your deck that was useful. Chameleos is still a really interesting card. Glitter Moth, put simply, sucks. I misread the card, thinking that it would double the health of everything in your deck or hand. It only doubles what's on the board. Good luck keeping anything alive and in decent enough shape to be worth that. I haven't had a chance to do anything with Vivid Nightmare yet. Nightscale Matriarch is really just too slow. You can contest the board against other control decks, but the ability of Priest decks to contest the board is (once again) so poor that she just doesn't matter a lot of the time. Also, the Whelps are just big enough to be killed by Duskbreaker... I was wrong about Coffin Crasher and Holy Water. They're both just too expensive for what they do. Quartz Elemental is just bad. You think: "Wow. A 5 mana 5/8 that I just have to keep healthy as Priest." Yep. And there are so many other things you have to do in order to try to keep tempo that trying to keep that undamaged is simply not worth it, even in a Baku deck. I haven't used Divine Hymn or Squashling yet, so maybe those are two of the key cards that makes the rest of the dreck work, but I haven't found space for them while trying to still dragons or make the Quest work (Newsflash: It still doesn't.) and neither can be included in a Baku deck. Hrm.

I never hear anyone else mention tourney HS so I don’t know if you guys care about it but....

There was an inn-vitational yesterday. 4 EU players vs 4 NA. EU won opening matches, 3-1 Orange over Alliestraza, 3-1 Tyler over HSDog, 3-1 RDU over Savijs (he is NA?). And 3-2 Sjow over Firebat. Firebat had been up and playing HS for 24 straight hours and nearly missed an easy lethal with his Elemental mage. Fireball plus life drinker and he only spotted it 70 seconds into his turn. Then they had to play afinal match and EU got to ban 4 classes because they had 4 wins. So it’s Firebat vs RDU and Firebat is woozy from sleep deprivation and they give him zero % chance to win with all the good shit banned. I only saw the final game because, you know, work responsibility and stuff. But Firebat is facing a lethal board and pulls 17 damage from hand with an Elemental mage deck for OTK. It’s hard to get off 17 with anything but an Archmage build with standard cards. But that is why Firebat is a god. So NA wins the inn-vitational 1-4. Haha.

Another combo deck that seems strong, maybe stronger than Shudderwock. Is HSDog new Meatlock. You get the portal off wagon and then throw questing adventurer and spam out the echo 2/4 taunt. Or Glinda and a few Sea Giants. Or some combo of those things. And run these cards in Skull demon package as fallback. Only good way to stop it is kill the wagon and the portal on your turn

Yeah, I saw Firebat running the Glinda Zoo deck with Portals and stuff like Wisp and other low-cost things that could just create instant horde boards from nothing. Seemed a little too niche to work consistently, but maybe. Glinda is a lot of fun. I've been playing a straight Zoo with her and she's ridiculous if she lives a turn. As long as you're not trying to Echo out a Flame Imp, you can be a late-game menace, which is not Zoo's normal forte.

My son got Emeriss - he got both Hunter legendaries, in fact, which was fortuitous considering he's a Hunter main - and after he saw that he was three cards short of a Dragon Hunter build he wanted to craft them and try it out. I was OK with him crafting 2x Primordial Drakes because it's a neutral and it can slot into the Control Paladin builds he likes, and he's been coveting King Krush since the moment he started playing and I've had a hell of a time talking him out of crafting it for decks that it doesn't go in, let alone one that actually uses it to help close out games. Anyway, I don't know if Dragon Hunter qualifies as a control deck but it's awfully close. Marsh Drake is a great follow-up to a Turn 1/2 Candleshot and Hunting Mastiff is an incredibly fun and flexible card that can wreck a wide aggro board, or provide enough damage to clear a troublesome minion or two.

It's also not too hard to proc Carrion Drake, Wyrmguard and Scaleworms' battlecries but their vanilla versions aren't horrible if you have to just play them on curve (though a 5/4 Scaleworm with Rush is an amazing counter to Tar Creeper), and Wing Blast is also handy for removal/board control. I've been surprised at how easily he's been able to get to Turns 7+ where he can either start getting serious value out of Rexxar, Emeriss, or both. The dream, of course, is Emeriss followed up by King Krush, and if you're putting Zombeasts on board you can keep your opponent occupied until you drop the 16/16.

This is a game he played against an Elemental Mage, which is a deck that it is so satisfying to beat down:

hsreplay.net/replay/GigYZzJbrYLx4GzM3RX5Gd

Also, here's the low point of all of my Dungeon Runs so far, a loss to A.F. Kaye as a Mage:

hsreplay.net/replay/JHZMguaQgqEKCm3Ef2QRu2

Been noodling with a bunch of decks over the weekend.

Rogue seems to be in a really bad place at the moment. For all folk are complaining about Priest being in the doldrums again, at least it still has some hope that some kind of control dragon deck is viable in the ashes. Rogue seems to have nothing. Tess Graymane does too little, too late and is too dependent on RNG.

I finally got Shudderwork to work with the inclusion of Fire Plume Harbinger, which enables you to reliably double up on its battlecry. The result is hideous. I'm not sure it's OP: although powerful, I'm not convinced it can survive concentrated aggro. But simply because it is so drawn out and boring to play against. Defend ... defend ... defend ... watch while everlasting battlecry effects repeat.

Paladin and Warlock remain top of the pile at the moment, with decks that are not dissimilar to their pre-expansion ones, either. They're joined by Face Hunter which is mostly using even older cards. I'm not sure how I feel about that. The consistency is kind of comforting, but at the same time you kind of hope to see more of a shake up after so many new cards.

I'm not sure rush or echo are up to much. Rush is just underwhelming, and the "stat swap" effects are actively annoying. Echo just needs too much mana to make good use of.

Baku is looking like that stand-out neutral legendary. Might craft one, even this early, as it's in a bunch of decks and I've got the dust to spare.

I am pro-Baku. I didn't think I was; but now that I have settled in to the set a little, I recommend it to anyone that likes deckbuilding. The restriction is fun to play around, if annoying; but the expansion factored in by the guaranteed enhanced Hero Power is awesome. The only deck I have built with it so far is Odd Priest, but I am seeing opportunities everywhere. That's a good card. Ironically, or likely, by design, you never ever want to actually draw it. It's a terrible card to actually play.

Speaking of Odd Priest, I will tell you how I use Glittermoth. Glittermoth checks your deck for "will this work" to get its glow, but the Battlecry itself is board-only. It will double the health of your minions on the board. For me, it sets up the big kill, powered by Inner Fire and/or Voidripper. I will lay out some minions with big butts: Injured Blademaster, Nightscale Matriarch, Wyrmguard, Quartz Elemental, what have you. They can pick at them, but likely they are too big to kill all the way turn over turn if I am working the board. Heal (for 4), Glittermoth, Voidripper is 10 mana and usually a LOT of damage. Wounded Quartz Elementals are "healed" by the Voidripper effect and can attack. You can swing for a lot.

How do you all use HSReplay.net? I still store decks at hearthpwn, but that site is ad-laden bullshit, behind the times, and such a toxic brew of bad UI that I hate myself for giving them eyeballs. I like how HSReplay.net a lot though, and it has all kinds of stats and goodies and decks, and all that. I use HSDeckTracker to interact with it and build replays, but they don't seem to be attached to my account in any meaningful way. I am a Mac user, and HDT is Beta, so maybe it's not as enabled as everyone else's? Maybe it's Premium only, but I can't imagine paying $5/mo for HS stats. Maybe it's Maybelline?

I am also pro-Baku. In the course of playing several different Baku or Genn decks, I've found the former to be superior. You can't count out Genn Handlock (T1: tap, T2: tap, T3: Mountain Giant. Yay?) and Genn Paladin is also good, since there's a certain level of symmetry between the two (it's either 2 Dudes for 2 mana or 1 Dude for 1 mana; either way, you're flooding the board with Dudes.) And, yes, both of them are awful, dead cards pretty much whenever you draw them. I had a Baku Hunter actually Tracking for Baku one time because I was beating his face in with Dudes and he couldn't keep anything on the board. But he summoned him and I just ran past him for the win.

My experience with Priest, as noted earlier, has been pretty poor. Most of the minions that you'd want to Moth are expensive and, thus, single targets for whatever abuse/answers your opponent wants to deliver to them. And Quartzes have been just bad, since my opponent can run 1 Dude into it to neutralize it and I'm often not in a position to spend the two mana to make it active again, since I'd fall way behind if I did so and still only kill one enemy minion.

I'm on PC/Windows, so I've never had a problem with HS Deck Tracker and have been using it for years. When he added the website with replays, it simply became that much better. I created an account a while back, the only advantage of which was being able to see all of your games at a glance. But I can do that with the app and call up the replays simply by clicking on them in the scroll below the deck's basic stats. I'm not paying monthly for anything, although I have tossed him some money in the past, simply because the app is so good and I think he deserves it.

In contrast to Matt, I've found Rush effects to be really effective, mostly against me. Similarly, I've found Echo to be great, not just for stunts like with Glinda, but with cards like Sound the Bells. I've also seen pretty awesome moves with cards like Hunting Mastiff, that use both. My supposition is that both mechanics, like the even/odd constructs, are less ANSWERS than they are tools in a wider framework. If you're expecting any of them to be game-winning, you'll be disappointed in the same way you will with the enhanced hero powers. But if you're able to locate and take advantage of the moments when they excel, you'll do really well with them. Still haven't seen any Warrior Rush decks, though.