Hearthstone Players!

This Brawl must be super frustrating for folks that don't have Naxx. The Naxx cards are just ridiculous here: Unstable Ghoul, Leper Gnome, Nerubian Egg, Sludge Belcher, Haunted Creeper, Mad Scientist--I am seeing these almost every game. Not even counting class cards like Webspinner, Dark Cultist, and Reincarnate. I think some of these early concedes are just folks tired of getting killed by cheap Nerubians they can't play themselves.

I might make a Mill Rogue deck for it. Deathlord gets double the minions out, Dancing Swords helps them draw, and Loot Hoarders are everywhere. I don't think I can stay alive long enough though.

jeb wrote: This Brawl must be super frustrating for folks that don't have Naxx.

If this Brawl is a back-door sales pitch for Naxx, it's a damned good one. If I were Blizzard I'd do a Dragon-themed or Thaurissan-themed Brawl to push sales of Blackrock.

Ugh, tough Brawl for me this week. Everyone's deck is half Unstable Portals, which means every game ends on turn 8 because my iPad 2 explodes under the weight of all the animations. I finally managed to get to endgame and win a few of them, but I need to beg off. I can't even play my Reincarnate Shaman deck now because of the instability. Losing a Brawl, who cares, but I lost Ranked games I was feeling good about yesterday. Blarg.

Saw a cool Dragonlock deck this AM that wasn't so focused on ridiculous Malygos wins. Just a solid deck that has a Dragon theme. I think I'll give it a shot. I don't have the Giants for Handlock and I don't have the mindset for Zoo. Mind you, I don't have the Malygos for this deck, swapping in Ysera, but I don't think it comes down to "the combo" every game like some decks do.

2x Mortal Coil
1x Soulfire
2x Darkbomb
2x Imp Gang Boss
1x Hellfire
2x Imp-losion
1x Shadowflame

1x Abusive Sergeant
1x Ironbeak Owl
1x Big Game Hunter
1x Defender of Argus
2x Twilight Drake
2x Twilight Guardian
2x Antique Healbot
2x Azure Drake
2x Blackwing Corrupter
Lx Harrison Jones
Lx. Emperor Thaurissan
Lx Sylvanas Windrunner
Lx Dr. Boom
Lx Malygos

Cool. I think Twilight Guardian was the missing element in BRM that might have made Dragon decks viable. You just need that breathing space because they ramp up so slowly. However, I still think that they're most successful in Priest because of their Hero Power and Wyrmrest Agent, which is yet another slowdown. The combo of Guardian, Sparring Partner, and Bolster makes slow/taunt-heavy Dragon decks in Warrior possible, too, but who would play anything other than Patron or Control these days, since both are so proven?

I was theorizing about just such a Warrior list the other day, though. Something like:
Execute x2
Fiery Win Axe x2
Bolster x1
Slam x2
Alexstrasza's Champion x2
Sparring Partner x2
Bash x2
Deathlord x2
Death's Bite x2
Defender of Argus x1
Hungry Dragon x2
Twilight Guardian x2
Brawl x1
Azure Drake x2
Blackwing Corruptor x2
Chillmaw x1
Chromaggus x1
Alexstrasza x1

Basic idea is taunt synergies plus dragon synergies plus removal = Profit! The curve is high at 2 and weak at 3 (the reason for the Deathlords, in addition to taunt synergies.) Figured Hungry was an OK risk because of the high level of removal available (weapons, Bash, Slam.) Slam is present for draw, as there's little otherwise other than Chromaggus. I'm hoping the latter will stick around for a turn or two given the high number of taunts in the decks, but I know it's not very likely. In some cases, it's about testing out various subpar TGT cards (like Champion) and seeing how they work together. I'll give it a spin tonight and see what happens.

So, I played 4 games and won three. I lost against a standard midrangey Mage deck when I got what seemed to be an uneven draw. I ended up with a couple early cards and had good tempo going with a Champion. I kept topdecking everything I needed for removal and had him down to 12, but then I couldn't get past a couple Sludge Belchers (I drew neither of my Executes) and Ysera gave him a couple Emerald Drakes that I just couldn't keep up with. I seriously considered Ysera instead of Chromaggus, because the deck CAN play slow enough to make Ysera useful. OTOH, it can also go gangbusters right out of the gate and just run people over with tempo, as I did to my next two opponents: a Face Hunter and a control Warrior. My last was a combo Druid and, between removal and creatures, I was able to keep his board relatively clear and keep myself out of combo range. I had next to no Dragon synergy issues, which means I have enough lizards in the deck. The taunts were solid enough. Bolster did solid work a couple times, turning a Deathlord into a 4/10 that cleared the Druid's whole board and spit out an Ancient of Lore without the card draw, which I dealt with on my next turn with an Execute. It's kind of a weird midrange deck that can play either way, but seems to lack real recovery because Warrior still lacks proper board clear. My one cast of Brawl was against the Warrior when he dropped the good Doctor with an Ooze in play. All I had on my side was another Ooze. His Ooze won the Brawl and I only took 2 from the bombs, so it turned out pretty well. Next turn was a Blackwing Corruptor that I taunted with a Sparring Partner and I was on my way. I'll keep working on it, as it gives me a break from my incessant dirty Priest habit....

Having a good run with the Dragon Warlock deck above. Taken down Zoo, Danksteed, Tempo Mage, and Mid-range Paladin all in a row. It starts sloooooow, but it slowly builds this board and hand that just answer everything they were throwing out there. I even stole the Dreadsteed with a Shadowflame'd Sylvanas. That game went down to fatigue. They were waiting and waiting on Mal'Ganis, and I had them down to 3, then they'd bounce up, then I would beat down, and so forth. In the end game:

• They killed my Ysera (who'd pooped out two Laughing Sisters and a Dream), and played Mal'Ganis.
• I drew my last card (Implosion) and Dream'd Mal'Ganis back up and played Dr. Boom to my board of Imp Gang Boss and Dreadsteed, attacking them to 1. They had two Imps and two Steeds. I was out of direct damage at around 18 life, I'd played BGH, so I'd need that Implosion to hit Mal'Ganis HARD for a chance at this. Azure Drake in hand and some other junk.
• Mal'Ganis comes back down, spend a Power Overwhelming to kill Dr. Boom with a Dreadsteed, use the other Steed and an Imp to kill the Boombots--one of them harmlessly pings a Dreadsteed, the other hits Mal'Ganis for 4, putting it at 3 health. My board is Dreadsteed and Imp Gang Boss.
• Take a fatigue, play Azure Drake (guaranteeing 3 on Mal'Ganis from Implosion), Dreadsteed attacks for the win. Whew.

Shaman still sucks. There's no way around it. There's simply a lack of synergy in the class and it centers around its two basic mechanics: Overload and the RNG hero power. Shaman has some of the more powerful class cards in the game with Fire Elemental, Hex, Totem Golem, and so on. But the problem is two-fold: none of those cards function well with the hero power in the same way that other classes' do (think Deadly Poison, Paladin Seals and Blessings, Shield Slam and Armorsmith, etc.) which makes them individually more powerful, but in order to have effect, you must draw them at the appropriate time and can't depend on the hero power to buttress them. FE is a great card, but if your opponent's board is populated by a bunch of weenies, it's less effective. If you roll Stoneclaw Totem, you're in business. If you roll Healing Stream totem, you're not. I've tried several formulations of Shaman decks, from extremely totem heavy to standard midrange. They all run into the same problem as before: inconsistency, defined by wild swings. Sometimes I use Lightning Storm and the Overload doesn't cripple my next turn and I win. Most of the time it does and I don't. You can't get much better in terms of raw mana value than a 3/4 on turn one. But when that 3/4 means you do nothing on turn 2? It's telling when the best Shaman decks currently on the ladder completely ignore TGT cards and just go standard Mech., which kinda leads into my other observation.

TGT has been pretty underwhelming from a competitive standpoint. Certainly, Paladin Secret decks have taken over the meta and Dragon Priest is making a strong showing, but that's about it for decks that are really shaped around TGT cards. Tempo Mage has made a resurgence, but not because of new Mage cards, but rather because it's good against Secret Paladin. Ben Brode mentioned in an interview the other day that one of the chief concerns from a design standpoint is power creep. They don't want to have to keep making more and more powerful cards in order to shake the meta and/or get people excited. But they do have to make cards that get people interested enough to buy them and I think they've done that with things like Murloc Knight. He singled out Mysterious Challenger in particular as a really powerful card that was necessary to get people playing Paladin secrets, rather than buffing all of the secrets individually. I think that's a hallmark of good design, actually. You take one card that's unremarkable in itself, but when combined with other subpar cards, becomes a powerful tool. That's exactly what didn't happen with Shaman. Thunder Bluff Valiant seems good, but the fact is that it's too slow and is essentially a 7 mana 3/6 that doesn't enable the kind of game-changing effect that Challenger does. You play your Valiant and hit the button and your one or two totems still left on turn 7 get +2 attack. Next turn, your opponent employs the vast majority of AoE in the game and clears your board and you're left with a wounded 3/6 (maybe.) That's assuming that you had any totems left or that your opponent, a Face Hunter, even cares that they exist, since you haven't managed to roll Stoneclaw once and the others are irrelevant to that game.

That's a similar state for other decks. Patron gained nothing from TGT. Control Warrior gained Varian as an alternative and Bash as an alternative, neither transformative. Face Hunter got nothing (thankfully...) Tempo Mage can use Frost Giant, but it's far from essential. I have 3 Priest decks in ready rotation. All of them use 2-4 TGT cards total (Flash Heal, Holy Champion, Justicar Trueheart.) Not different cards, but 2-4 actual cards (i.e. 2 copies of Flash Heal may make up the 2 TGT cards in the deck.) The game is still entertaining, but it's not even close to the rush that I got when GvG came out and every class changed in huge ways. Granted, that was the first big expansion for the game, so of course things would markedly change. But when you compare TGT to GvG in the same way that BRM is compared to Naxx, the last few months have had high expectations that didn't really pan out. I think I'm going to be spending more of my dwindling game time on other things.

I've been playing a Warlock deck in ranked play -- got up to level 13, but am stalling out. I go through streaks where I will lose 4 or 5 in a row and fall back to 15 then I will win 4 or 5 and get back up to 13.

I am severely tired of Paladin decks.

Tavern brawl this week you get a free minion if you are down 3 health. That has led to lots of warlock decks. People can draw and get their health below you... Flame imp themselves etc. I been messing with mill rogue lately so I drafted one up for this. It rules. Some people quit as soon as the first Cpldlight oracle comes out. I had a priest thinking he was clever when he thought stole one and played it. Then I played one back and he saw some key cards turn to dust as he overdrew his hand. Man, that never gets old, watching people's cards go up in smoke.

But rogue has a lot of good ways to clear and wipe whatever pops out. I don't even use healbot. Coldlights, deathlords, iceholwl, kel thuzad are about it.

Priest could be super interesting in this Brawl. Healing the opponent for cheap 3-drops sounds nice.

@Jackwraith--I think it's still too early for TGT verdicts. The meta is still shifting. I think that Secretkeeper sees play in a viable deck is pretty amazing. I think Dragon builds are officially a thing, with Dragon Mage getting a lot of time from Kibler, and Dragon Priest seeing attention from everyone. I saw a Dragon Rogue on Massan's stream that looked amazing. Eloise piloted that Dragon Warlock deck to legend without much trouble and she's a Druid player. What's been a boon for me, personally, is the game has slowed down. I am seeing WAY less Smorc/Zoo than in seasons past and my goofy ideas can have more of a shot.

Shaman decks that rely on Overload will always be jank. It can't be trusted. I have shifted gears to late-game there with 28 points of healing and looking for swingy tricks with Reincarnated everything. I have played a Totem Shaman to couple of wins, but it's still late-game focused. And don't mock Healing Totem! It is the only one that actually negates Mage/Rogue hero powers.

The decks I've been trying aren't relying on Overload. I detest it. It's an awful mechanic and one of the only real design flaws of the game, which has become progressively more obvious as new cards are released and Overload diminishes on increasingly powerful cards. Compare Feral Spirit to Fireguard Destroyer and Totem Golem. But, then, they create Ancestral Knowledge... I find it odd that the class that already has a couple marked weaknesses (lack of reliable draw mechanics; more reliance on RNG) also has a mechanic intended to compensate for those by increasing speed but which still can't even come close to competing with genuine speed classes like Hunter, Rogue, and Paladin. Again, I think the RNG of the basic ability (the Hero Power) is just too much to overcome. I wasn't trying to bash Healing Stream totem, as it does have amazing uses. I was just trying to give an example of things that can go awry other than Searing totem, which almost no one ever wants to see because it lacks the versatility of the other totems and Shaman has few ways to exploit it, unlike Paladin.

One of my Priest decks is Eloise's classic control model. I liked the way she tried to really emphasize the versatility of Flash Heal. I've been using a tempo variant of sorts and knocking around with Justicar Trueheart, as well. I don't see the slowdown that you mention. In my limited playing time, I still see probably 60-70% aggro. Of course, "limited playing time" also means hovering in the mid-teens on the ladder, as that stuff dies out in the higher ranks.

I was used to seeing more like 80% Aggro, so 60% is progress! Maybe I am just better at playing against Aggro; it just doesn't bother me as much. I had one game as Midrange Hunter against SMOrc, and that is basically a race. He played an early Knife Juggler and got so greedy, hitting face with a 7/2 (buffed by Abusives) KJ, instead of killing my KJ. Unleash the Hounds destroyed his board, 4/4 taunt bear held him off. I'd had a Snake Trap out that he was dodging for a while, but he had to kill that Bear--with Arcane Golem--who got shot by the KJ before he could hit it. He still got me to 1, but it was ovahhhh when he skipped out on killing that KJ on the cheap.

Ha. Nice. Had one of those the other day, too. He got me to 1, but he'd ignored my Totem Golem when he had an easy clear with the first strike of a Bow. That thing 3-for-1d him thanks to Healing Stream totem (RNG!) and he couldn't get over the top. It was after that game that I started running dual Healing Wave but it still didn't help. Just like with most other heal spells, it's suboptimal because it doesn't do anything other than delay, unlike things like Healbot, which put a 3/3 on the board. Wave would probably be excellent in a pure control deck, but why would you play that in a class afflicted by RNG and when there are so many better classes to play that style with (Handlock, Freeze Mage, etc.)?

but why would you play that in a class afflicted by RNG and when there are so many better classes to play that style with (Handlock, Freeze Mage, etc.)?

Because this one is Shaman! Come on, Shaman rules. That's why you keep playing it. It makes the game super interesting. You, as pilot, need to know how to work with what you get, and what you get isn't always ideal. While it's true that I never wish for a Silver Hand Recruit, I do wish for the others about equally. Even from the Totemic--if you can get out double Healing Totems things can get pretty sick. There's a ton of nuance in knowing when to Rockbiter them for the kill on some weenie, or leaving them out to get juiced, or praying, please-god-let-Spell-Totem-drop-so-my-Crackle-is-statistically-less-shitty. If you talk while you play, there isn't a more conversational Hero than Thrall. Every turn can be a "Come on, baby, one time one TIMMMMMMM--damn it."

We play Shaman not because it's easiest class to win with, we play because it's the hardest class to win with.

Meh. I play it because my main in WoW was a Shaman, so there's still a baseline appeal. But I have so much more fun playing Paladin and Priest (two of my other favorite classes from WoW; playing a Sunwalker when Cataclysm dropped was so much fun...)