Hearthstone Players!

If you have an Android device Amazon is offering 5000 coins for $40, that's enough to purchase the 50pck preorder on Hearthstone.

They are also offering 20% of your coins back, so 1000 back in coins. Challengestone is this weekend, they might offer 30% coins back during that event.

The $40 price is only good for tonight though.



This video explains how you can get in on it if you don't have an Android device.

So I'm playing Paladin against a Mage in the Tavern Brawl and I finally get significant board advantage after my UP spit out a Harvest Golem and I was able to combo my Goblin Blastmage with it (literally the first time I've been able to pull off any synergy or combo in one of these RNG-mad Brawls) to take out his 3 one health minions. He's at 9 health and in dire straits, so on his next turn he drops Deathwing, leaving me with 24 health, a Damaged Golem and a problem on my hands. UP gives me a Dread Infernal so I play it after I go face with the Damaged Golem, dropping him to 6 health (me to 23) and putting him in lethal range to the Infernal. He takes out the Infernal with Deathwing and plays some small minion, buying me another turn. I then draw and play Muster for Battle, summon a Silver Hand Recruit, and hit him for 1 damage with my weapon, putting him at 5 health and within lethal range again on his next turn. I'm thinking that he'll use the weenie to kill a recruit and gamble on being reduced to 1 health and go for the victory by going face twice with Deathwing, when my opponent draws a Burrowing Mine, the Mine that my Iron Juggernaut put there on turn 2 or 3 and that I immediately forgot about until he drew it. A game of Hearthstone has never made me laugh as hard as I did when my opponent drew into 10 damage and exploded.

It's always awesome when the Mine actually works. When GvG first dropped, that was one of the first legendaries I pulled (along with Mal'Ganis) and I immediately set about trying to make it work in Control Warrior, but it was just never reliable enough. It's good to have wacky cards like that in the game for those moments, though.

Was waiting for my GF to get organized last night and I decided to draft an Arena deck. I was thinking of holding off until the Tournament arrived, since it'd be more interesting to draft the new stuff, but when I realized that Kripp is probably right about when it will show, I figured I'd go ahead and try one. I'm not hurting for gold, so I'll still have plenty to spend on packs for TGT. I was offered Mage, Warrior, and Rogue. I like Rogue in Arena IF you land a ton of direct damage. Otherwise, it has issues and Warrior is still not great, so I went with the default: Mage. I ended up with a deck that has a ton of removal (2 Frostbolts, Flamecannon, 2 Fireballs, 3(!) Flamestrikes) but has jack-all for end game (nothing that costs more than 5 except a lone Force Tank Max.) It wasn't like I was stockpiling removal, either, because I've been down that road (i.e. you end up with a handful of removal and no targets or facing bigger creatures than your removal can handle.) It's just that every time a Flamestrike came up, it was up against awful cards like Target Dummy. I do have 3 or 4 mechs and a Junkbot, as well as two Injured Blademasters and a couple taunts, so my early and midgame are solid. I just have to win before we get to 10 mana.

Last night, both games did just that. I just kept the pressure on, largely ignoring my opponent's board, and winning on turn 7 and then turn 8. Drawing into both Fireballs in both games was helpful, but I also had a Flamestrike in hand in both games and never felt compelled to use it, because neither opponent (Warrior and then Hunter) got themselves into a threatening position until I was going in for the kill. The win in game one was far more entertaining, since he was at 4 and dropped a Yeti, a Worgen, and armored up and I was down to one Blademaster on the board. He probably figured he was about to take control and do the comeback, since Fireblast will fall behind Armor Up. But I had the humble Stormpike Commando sitting in hand...

Seriously awesome game:

Ha, that was awesome! I've faced several boards like that during this Brawl but I never top-decked anything for a miracle win. It's weird, I've played this Brawl way more than any of the others. I'm going to end up with 29 wins and I wouldn't be surprised if my final record was something like 29-37. I've seen so many cool card combinations and interactions and it's fun to try and figure out how to play around your opponent's RNG garbage. Of course every third game I face someone who plays 4 different Legendaries and I'm dead by turn 6, but still, it's been really fun.

For my 29th win I played Paladin (which I played almost exclusively for the 1 mana spells and secrets that can use the remainder after casting UP on odd turns) against a Warlock. Things went back and forth for a bit but he was about 7-8 health ahead midway through the game and he'd reduced me to about 14. I played Chromaggus and he gave me 2 Holy Lights before my opponent killed him. I was then able to play an Achenai Soulpriest and some other mid-sized minion. Then my opponent made a huge mistake and ignored the Soulpriest for the remainder of the game. He played Siphon on the Soulpriest's neighbor, and on my next turn I played a Molten Giant. The Soulpriest and Giant took out his Pirate's Ship Cannon and a newly-played Burly Rockjaw Trogg and I played a Kezan Mystic. On his next turn he played some weenie, a Foe Reaper 4000, and a Screwjank Clunker to make it 9/11, figuring that he had me dead to rights. Unfortunately for my opponent, I was holding Lay on Hands. Lay on Hands hit the Reaper for 8, the Mystic finished him off, I took out the Clunker with the Molten Giant, and I played Stalagg. He was at about 9 health and he ignored the Soulpriest again and now it was all hands on deck: he played 5 minions behind a 7/8 Taunt Earth Elemental intending to deliver the coup de grace on his next turn. He had enough on the board to wipe out my 14 health about twice over, but lucky for me I still had the 2 Holy Lights. I cast both to take out the Elemental and Stalagg and the Giant went face for the win.

This weekend I continued my trend of opening a pack to get a gold card that's too good to dust, but not so good that I didn't consider it. First it was my only copy of Cabal Shadowpriest, then it was Troggzor the Earthinator (not great, but not bad enough to dust, especially since I've since crafted Dr. Boom), and on Saturday my son opened a pack to get a gold Mal'Ganis. I probably won't even put him in a deck until I get more demons since I don't have any Shadowflames, Mistresses of Pain, or Doomguards, and I don't know if a Mal'Ganis demon deck will work without them. I'm also hoping I can get by without those cards once I open my 50 TGT packs.

SebastianBludd wrote: For my 29th win I played Paladin (which I played almost exclusively for the 1 mana spells and secrets that can use the remainder after casting UP on odd turns) against a Warlock. Things went back and forth for a bit but he was about 7-8 health ahead midway through the game and he'd reduced me to about 14. I played Chromaggus and he gave me 2 Holy Lights before my opponent killed him. I was then able to play an Achenai Soulpriest and some other mid-sized minion. Then my opponent made a huge mistake and ignored the Soulpriest for the remainder of the game. He played Siphon on the Soulpriest's neighbor, and on my next turn I played a Molten Giant. The Soulpriest and Giant took out his Pirate's Ship Cannon and a newly-played Burly Rockjaw Trogg and I played a Kezan Mystic. On his next turn he played some weenie, a Foe Reaper 4000, and a Screwjank Clunker to make it 9/11, figuring that he had me dead to rights. Unfortunately for my opponent, I was holding Lay on Hands. Lay on Hands hit the Reaper for 8, the Mystic finished him off, I took out the Clunker with the Molten Giant, and I played Stalagg. He was at about 9 health and he ignored the Soulpriest again and now it was all hands on deck: he played 5 minions behind a 7/8 Taunt Earth Elemental intending to deliver the coup de grace on his next turn. He had enough on the board to wipe out my 14 health about twice over, but lucky for me I still had the 2 Holy Lights. I cast both to take out the Elemental and Stalagg and the Giant went face for the win.

Find the lethal puzzle! Don't feel bad, Sebastien, Auchenai is super confusing.

This Brawl was fun. These Brawls are basically ads for the Solo Adventures--both this one and the Webspinner one are Class Challenges in the Adventures. They are tons of fun.

jeb wrote: Find the lethal puzzle! Don't feel bad, Sebastien, Auchenai is super confusing.

Hmmm, I might have missed lethal a couple of turns when I could have gone face with the Giant along with the two Holy Lights, or maybe even on the turn when I played Lay on Hands. I get so focused on board control and creature removal that I forget when I can target an opponent directly. What's weird is that as soon as I played the Soulpriest I calculated and realized that the Holy Light left me short of lethal (his health was in the low 20's), but then I forgot about it afterward.

I've been way more confused with Soulpriest than I was yesterday, however. In one of the earliest Brawls - one where you play with your chosen hero's preconstructed deck - I chose Priest and played with a Soulpriest for the first time. I believe that match ended when I had the Soulpriest out, I was at 2 health, and I tried to use my hero power on myself. I was going to lose anyway but it was still embarrassing.

Cool visual design interview on Tavern Brawl: www.ign.com/articles/2015/08/04/hearthst...ern-brawls-interface

New ranked rewards given at the end of each season,

Highest Rank Bonus

We love receiving feedback from the Hearthstone community. One thing that we’ve been hearing a fair bit of is that, when playing on the Ranked Play ladder, people often feel hesitant to continue playing after reaching a particularly good rank. It simply feels like too much of a step backwards if they lose a rank or two. Based on that feedback, we’re making a change that we think will help put players’ minds at ease so that they can continue enjoying Ranked Play and pursuing even greater heights.

Beginning this month, each player’s Quest Log will display the highest rank they have reached during the month and recognize their accomplishment. Additionally, we’ll be awarding players who progress past rank 20 with some minor rewards as a way of congratulating them for their achievements. Eligible players will receive a treasure chest at the end of each season containing the season’s Ranked Play card back, one or more golden cards, and some Arcane Dust. What’s in the chest is determined by your highest rank over the course of the season. For example, a player whose highest rank was 17 will receive a golden common card, 20 dust, and the season card back.

Example of Rank 5 reward



Also, a lot of new cards shown us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/198179...at-gamescom-8-5-2015

Step in the right direction. Just FYI, Hearthpwn keeps a running tally of all revealed cards: www.hearthpwn.com/cards?filter-unrelease...-premium=1&display=3

THAT RANKED REWARDS THING IS FUCKING BADASS. I was going to poke away at Ranked this month, trying to get 2-a-day to see how far I could go, but this puts a whole new spin on it. That Rank 5 reward is a Legendary-of-your-choice, as golden Epics disenchant for 1600 dust. Want to try a Prophet Velen/Holy Fire deck? Make it to Rank 5. wow. Folks will be flooding the place. Time to get meta all up ins. What humps Zoo and FaceHunter?*

I am avoiding the spoilers for TGT, sort of. I don't hide my eyes or anything, but I kind of like seeing the cards on my own without the comments and forced context of others. Everyone seems to "review" each card with a "How does this fit in the meta right now" mindset and that's just wrong. Some cards are generically amazing, a la Dr. Boom, but others need to be seen in the gestalt; or as cards to build around, not to socket in. Everyone shit on Grim Patron, and with good reason, it does not fit well into Control Warrior or even Face Warrior, which were the only competitive Warrior decks. But it's obviously the fucking bomb in concert with weird shit like Unstable Ghoul and Gnomish Inventors. Folks crapping all over every card that comes out because it doesn't go in FaceHunter as an overpowered addition are missing the point.

From what I have seen so far, Druid looks to be getting some pretty good stuff, and I like what they are doing with the Shaman design space. Totems are interesting, and I am glad to see them getting more cards that interact with them as a "tribe" than just buffing their health.


//edit
* Rolling with Controllish Priest build I watched SjoW use the other day
2x Power Word: Shield
2x Northshire Cleric
2x Shrinkmeister
2x Shadow Word: Death
1x Thoughtsteal
1x Velen's Chosen
2x Shadow Madness
2x Holy Nova
2x Cabal Shadow Priest
1x Lightbomb (wish it was 2!)

2x Wild Pyromancer
2x Deathlord
2x Sen'jin Shieldmasta
Lx Harrison Jones
2x Sludge Belcher
Lx Emperor Thaurissan
Lx Sylvanas Windrunner
Lx Dr. Boom
Lx Chromaggus (Ysera would be better)

Remember that the pic there is "example of what a player who reaches rank 5 might receive." I'm betting that the pull will be as random as anything that comes out of Arena, which means that there's a good possibility of some good dust, but far from guaranteed.

That link I posted for Hearthpwn is just a page of the cards. There are links in each image to forum discussion about them (which is, as you say, almost universally "This won't work!!" because the world is full of unimaginative fools) but that's easily avoided. I just like getting insight into what's coming down the road. The Jousting thing is weird. It's the first mechanic that's based on another mechanic (Battlecry or Deathrattle) so it has a name, but isn't identified except in the names of most of the cards.

I've been running this since yesterday:
2 x Innervate
1 x Claw
2 x Wild Growth
2 x Wild Pyromancer
2 x Wrath
1 x Acolyte of Pain
1 x Big Game Hunter
2 x Savage Roar
2 x Keeper of the Grove
1 x Kezan Mystic
2 x Swipe
2 x Druid of the Claw
2 x Force of Nature
2 x Gadgetzan Auctioneer
2 x Mech-Bear-Cat
2 x Ancient of Lore
1 x Dr. Boom
1 X Nefarian

So, it's just a combo deck with the addition of a ridiculous amount of draw to try to get the combo. Certainly, there are better options than Mech-Bear-Cat available to Druid, but you'd be amazed how often he gets silenced, protecting my Auctioneers and Druids from the same fate. And, even silenced, he's a 7/6, which means I can take out a taunted Molten and draw a card with Wrath. I did have only one Gadg in there and was running Thaurissan, but I've become far less enchanted with the latter over the past couple months. His impact CAN be enormous, but with the mana acceleration already available to Druids, he ended up being kind of superfluous, in that there was almost always a better play even with a handful of cards. It's kind of funny in that this deck hearkens back to the original "miracle" decks, which were Druids, not Rogues (in part because you could draw 3 cards off a late-game Wild Growth.) I don't think this is super-competitive or anything, but it's hilarious watching my opponents hover over Mech-Bear-Cat, trying to figure out why he's on the board.

I like Mech Bear Cat. Should be a Beast Mech! I have tried to make Mech Druid work a few times. I can never pull it off. Bad AoE, maybe? Maybe bad card draw? Eh. Ramp is the way to go; flavor is defined by the top end. Got me thinking about this now... maybe Wild Pyros in there... hmm....

This line makes me think the prize pools are "fixed" by type: For example, a player whose highest rank was 17 will receive a golden common card, 20 dust, and the season card back. It'd be kind of shitty to show an extremely awesome prize pool for Rank 5 as the example, no? "Buy a pack of cards for $1! Why, here's one with five golden Legendaries in it!"

//edit

The Jousting thing is weird. It's the first mechanic that's based on another mechanic (Battlecry or Deathrattle) so it has a name, but isn't identified except in the names of most of the cards.

I think this is a nice attempt at slowing down the pointless aggro decks. A deck that tops out at 3 mana minions like FaceHunter or Zoo is going to lose every Joust. If they have cheap Joust cards that get Taunt or shoot stuff for winning it should compel these decks to curve higher and engage in the game a little more.

jeb wrote: That Rank 5 reward is a Legendary-of-your-choice, as golden Epics disenchant for 1600 dust.

Golden epics dust for 400, golden legendaries dust for 1600. Still cool though.

Awww, yeah! Go ahead and Ooze me. I don't care.