Hearthstone Players!

Black Barney wrote:

Not Sure wrote: It works on computers too, Barney. Just sayin'.

.

Don't ...tempt me, NotSure! I dare not install it. Not even to play it casually. Understand, I would use this game from a desire to have fun... But through me, it would wield an addiction too great and terrible to imagine.


also I have an iMac so hopefully it doesn't even work on that

Uh. yeah. It doesn't work, Barney. The Mac is bad and Blizzard is dumb and it does not work on Macs so don't even try. It also doesn't work on iPads anymore or on phones and stuff. Strictly Palm Pilot, so it's a no go for you. Oh well. When does DUELS come out anyway?

^{(He needs our help guys, a Barney that likes HS will never shut up about it.)}

Running this right now: arenamastery.com/sNJl
It's 3-0, having beaten a Druid, Hunter, and Mage. The Hunter game was strange, as he Coined out a Glaivezooka to take down a 1st turn Chow. I figured he doesn't really know what he's doing, but then he produced two more Glaivezookas over the course of the game. So, it's 22-16, he has a Glaive equipped, and a 1/5 Spiteful Smith (Humility) and a Northshire Cleric (Hungry Dragon) in play. I have the Dragon and a Stormpike Commando down and a Light's Justice with 2 charges left on it. His hand is empty and all I have in mine is a Silver Hand Knight. It's his turn 9 and he topdecks Dr. Balanced. So he shoots me, hits the Dragon and sends both the Smith and Cleric in to kill it. It's me and the Commando against the good doctor. So I topdeck Abomination, play it, hit him with the Commando to bring him to 7 and Reinforce because I have the mana and I'm not playing the Knight into the coming storm. I hit him with the Justice as I figure I'm winning this race.

He draws King of Beasts and makes the mistake of playing it before he hits the Abom. It blows up, killing my guys and the bots drop 5 on me, plus he shoots me again, so I'm at 11 facing a 7/1 Boom and a 2/4 King. I draw Argent Commander, use him to clear the King, and then grit my teeth and take 7 to the face to clear out Boom with my last charge of Justice and reinforce again. We're both at 4 but unless he topdecks removal or direct damage, he can't get rid of the Argent. He draws Gnomish Inventor and plays it, but still doesn't get what he's looking for and concedes.

I've seen Ysera once in three games.

OK. Here's an Arena question for you:

You're Shaman (Trump) at 29 life. It's the bottom of turn 6. Your opponent is a Paladin (17 life) and has Avenge up and has already used a Silverlight and has just played Muster. You have a Scarlet Crusader in play against his 4 Dudes and have Earth Elemental, Piloted Sky Golem, Flametongue Totem, and Spider Tank in hand. What do you play?

Earth Elemental: You'll have 4 mana on turn 7, which means you can totem and play the Flametongue or play the tank with one mana remaining (he has two Rockbiters in the deck but no 1-cost minions) and let him drop his entire board and a weapon charge cutting it down by half but putting him at 10 life, which means the game is over because you still haven't dealt with the Crusader.
Sky Golem: You let him throw his entire board getting rid of it and/or taking 6 damage just to see what the 4-drop is or he deals with the Crusader first and takes the damage, regardless. If it drops Yeti or something similar, the game is over.
Flametongue and Tank seem out of the question here.

Answer:
He played Sky Golem. The opponent used two Dudes on the Crusader, 1 more on the Golem, and then hammered it. It did, in fact, drop a Yeti. Then the opponent played Solemn VIgil for free. Trump hit him with the Yeti, got a Searing Totem, and dropped the EE. Opponent had no answer and died. I bring this up just to highlight a couple things: 1) Overload sucks. 2) Trump's cautious play often serves him well, but could have extended the game another turn if his opponent didn't have the Hammer. 3) That's how close the game can be sometimes even in situations where you seem to be far ahead.

I really don't understand how Overload works.

stormseeker75 wrote: I really don't understand how Overload works.

The way it was originally intended to work was that you could play cards for cheaper than their "typical" cost by paying the rest of the cost in the next turn. So when you cast Lightning Bolt for 1, one of your mana crystals is going to be locked out next turn. So instead of having 2 mana on turn 2, you'd have 1. The problem is that most Overload cards haven't kept pace with the increased speed and efficiency of the game. Feral Spirit, for example, used to be the go-to Shaman spell: 2 2/3 Taunters for 3 mana. But it also means that on turn 4, when your opponent has 4 mana, you're only going to have 2. Given the ease with which many classes/decks can remove the Spirits now, it's a tempo-destroying card. On their turn 3, they're already dropping a Spider Tank while on turn 4 you get... Searing Totem. Even worse, on turn 3 they drop Blackwing Technician and remove both of your Spirits without the Technician even dying.

The mechanic was created for Shaman to give them some level of burst. The problem is that with the speed of the game and Shaman's other weaknesses (lack of a decent draw option and the RNG madness of its hero power) is just leaves the class trying to catch up with the more durable and efficient openings that other classes can get because of their ability to play at tempo. And the last thing you want if you're trying to catch up is to cast a bunch of things that will restrict your ability to keep catching up on the following turns.

stormseeker75 wrote: I really don't understand how Overload works.

I think they do an OK job depicting it in game, actually. You play a card with Overload (2), say, and two little "locks" appear under your mana for the turn. Then on your next turn, the little locks move up and lock a couple of crystals you would otherwise have had access to. There's no downside to Overload this turn. It's the next turn that gets you.

As Jackwraith notes, some cards have not aged well, like Feral Spirits, which was never great on curve and is now more like unplayable. It costs 5 mana: 3 this turn and 2 next turn. Essentially, you get a 4/6 Taunt, but in a form that is more vulnerable to board clear and trades with 3-mana commons (Spider Tank, amongst others). That's not so good. Sludge Belcher is 5 mana for 4/7 Taunt that's better in a bunch ways (stickyness for one).

Other Overload cards are still pretty good. Crackle is good value, 4-7 damage for 3 (2+1). Mage has to pay 4 mana for 6 damage, so half the time, this is strictly better. That new fella, Fireguard Destroyer costs 5 mana (4+1) and is a 4/6 to 7/6. That's a beast right there, at common. At worst, it has Druid of the Claw stats without Taunt and at best its a Venture Co Mercenary with no downside that you can cheat out a turn early. I still play Earth Elemental because he's a fucking house in a deck that has multiple BGH targets.

Lava Shock loosens some of this stuff too, because you can use it to clear all the locks, including those you have and those you set. E.g., It's turn 10, I play Earth Elemental (5) and Lightning Storm (3). I will only have five mana next turn, because they set five locks. Except I also have Lava Shock for whatever didn't die in the Storm, and now I have ten mana next turn. Or, I played Earth Elemental turn 9, locking three mana on turn 10. No Kel-Thuzad I guess (he costs 8). Ah but if I cast Lava Shock on turn 10, those three mana are resuscitated and I am back in necrotic business.

jeb wrote: Oh well. When does DUELS come out anyway?

^{(He needs our help guys, a Barney that likes HS will never shut up about it.)}

Duels comes out June on Xbox One and July on the other platforms. It's my most anticipated release this year

Black Barney wrote:

jeb wrote: Oh well. When does DUELS come out anyway?

^{(He needs our help guys, a Barney that likes HS will never shut up about it.)}

Duels comes out June on Xbox One and July on the other platforms. It's my most anticipated release this year

I've googled this and can't seem to find the answer. Will duels accounts transfer across platforms the way Hearthstone does? It's pretty much something that will make or break this game for me. If I can't use my collection on PS4 and PC and my phone I'm not playing it, full stop. If I can I'm going to be pretty heavily into it.

You know what I love about Grim Patron? People lose they minds when you lay one out. They'll drop all of their clearance cards on it. They'll bomb it with anything that's out there that can do 3 damage. It's a total magnet.

I put two in a silly warrior deck I knocked together for a quest and found out that their value was in covering up that the Gurubashis were the REAL strategy. I've had folks just wail on the GPs and then have nothing on the table or in hand to answer a 10/7 Gurubashi on the next turn.

Right now I'm running a MISERABLE Arena deck. So terrible.

Mike. Mike. Michael. Mickey. M Dog.

I have two words for you: Madder Bomber.

Make the Armorsmith, Grim Patron, Gurubashi Berserker, Acolyte of Pain, Mad Bomber, Madder Bomber deck a thing. MAKE IT YOUR THING. I got my cardbacks the first three months on the power of Warrior Stalagg/Feugen/Kel'Thuzad. I know from bad decks. This could totally work.

---

My Priest deck finished a respectable 6-3 in Arena, though I was 5 life away from 1-3. Just finished a Mage draft that opened with Dr. Boom . I am hollow at 2-drops, but my 4-drops are sick as hell: Yeti, Yeti, Ele, Dark Iron, and Hungry Dragon. I can lob bombs, I have three Fireballs, two Flamecannons, a Frostbolt, and I can make a cheap Volcanic Drake of the backs of my two Flamestrikes. This is a 12-win deck with a 7-win pilot.

I loathe the Grim Patron and have foresworn a Jihad on the Muthafucka.

Quick Story.

A few weeks ago I was playing my favorite fun Hero... the Shaman... when I was rudely introduced to the Grim Patron (I am relatively new to the game since I put it down after Beta). I had Minions from wall to wall, all my totems cast and pumped with Raid leader and Flametongue Totem. Forget what hero it was against, but it hardly matters. He wasn't doing much and here I had board dominance and a fistful of cards if he cleared it. But, he was just biding his time and setting me up.

.... for Grim Patron bomb. Turn 8 he drops Warsong Commander (gives haste/charge) and then Grim Patron. I watched with disbelief as one by one he popped all my minions and was left with 3 or 4 Grim Patrons and a Warsong on the board. It was a perfect fucking storm I tell you! I just imagined the bastard that did that on the other end of the interwebs laughing until tears rolled down his cheeks. I was likely a goner even if I started casting my ass off, but I opted for a speedy rage quit instead,

And to this day I always try and pop and Grim Patron that shows his face in my games.

Michael Barnes wrote: You know what I love about Grim Patron? People lose they minds when you lay one out. They'll drop all of their clearance cards on it. They'll bomb it with anything that's out there that can do 3 damage. It's a total magnet.

I mean... are you suggesting they do otherwise?

So I was on my laptop and decided to try tracking with Heartharena.

This is the rubbish I was dealt: Skronkadin

No legendaries, no epics, not even much in the way of rares.

I saw "Eye for an Eye" four times in that draft. No thanks. Really. There were also four Shielded Minibots and three Consecrations, but I only took two of each. Nice RNG, right?

Anyway, I'm 2-1 now, mostly through aggressive mulligans to get on the curve. If I have it, I can do okay. If not, it goes bad really fast. Story of my Hearthstone life.


edit: nope, out at 2-3. A Mage with Ysera can just stomp this pile of commons (although I fought him down to 4 health and had 1 more charge on my Truesilver. Drawing that a turn earlier might have helped). Then I made some dumb mistakes and lost to a Rogue when I probably shouldn't have.

Excellent interview with Yong Woo and Mike Donais (late of WotC): www.pcgamer.com/hearthstone-interview-gr...oom-balanced/#page-1

There’s obviously been a huge influx of new people with the phone versions rolling out. What's been the feedback in terms of people using the user interface? I think you’ve done a great job of cramming it onto phone screens, but I did notice a Hunter who Quick Shot-ed his own face last night who I think was probably on phone. I mean he had it coming obviously...

Mike Donais: That was a karma thing. We have that built into the game.

Hah. I Eviscerated my own face on my phone as a Rogue just the other day (C-c-c-c-combo for 4, of course.)

I still like the iPad best.