Hearthstone Players!

So what is the best way to deal with Boom?

Big Game Hunter as a neutral
Entomb for a Priest deck

Paladin options: Aldor Peacekeeper to reduce his attack to 1, Keeper of Uldaman to make him a 3/3 so you can kill him with a 3 attack minion, Equality to reduce his health to 1.

Hunter: Hunter's Mark to reduce his health to 1.

Warrior: Cruel Taskmaster + Execute, Whirlwind + Execute (but you'll take Boom Bot damage), Hit him with a weapon + Execute, Shield Slam if you've been armoring up, Brawl.

Priest: Shadow Word: Death. Entombed is better if it's late in the game and he's drawn most of his deck, otherwise it might be best to save it - if possible - because he might have other big threats. It's tricky because it depends on having an idea of what type of deck they're playing.

Big Game Hunter is easiest, obviously. It's an epic but it's so useful for other minions other than Dr. Boom (Giants, etc.) that I crafted one. Sludge Belcher can stall him if you haven't drawn your answer, but just having board presence helps a lot. Your opponent flopping Boom down on an empty board can be tough. Playing a "super taunt" minion - that is, a minion who's game effect is so powerful that your opponent will prioritize killing it, even though it doesn't have taunt, per se - can also serve to bait your opponent into attacking it with Boom, thus putting Boom's health in range of one of your lesser damage-dealing cards or minions. Emperor Thaurissan is perfect for this, provided your hand isn't otherwise empty.

I hate playing against Tempo Mage but love playing my Tempo Mage deck (without Antonidas) since Flamewaker is so ridiculous once it gets rolling. It was even worse in last week's Tavern Brawl where your Mana Wyrm and Flamewaker were safe behind your taunted hero. It also ran Animated Armor and I had at least one concession after having 3 out (after an Echo of Medivh) and he was only pinging me for 4-5 per turn despite having some beefy minions on the board.

I added Arch-Thief Rafaam as a finisher to my Control Priest deck and he's been fun. The artifact that gives a minion +10/+10 is a great fit more often than not since Priest usually has board control, so it ends up functioning as a persistent Pyroblast (as long as they don't have BGH in hand, that is).

Now I'm just waiting for more info about the new expansion before I decide how many packs I'm getting. I'm still missing a LOT of good-to-great Legendaries from the Classic set - Alexstrasza, Jaraxxus, Malygos, Ysera, Grommash, Ragnaros, Antonidas, Baron Geddon, Prophet Velen, Harrison Jones, Edwin VanCleef, Bloodmage Thalnos - so I'm considering just buying a ton of Classic packs and crafting cards from the new set. I also have a gold Troggzor that'll soon be rotated out of Standard that I might dust, but I hate to part with even a mediocre gold Legendary...

Yep--this is the list, Hex Sinsister. Dr. Boom is a great card. Those Boombots are a tremendous pain in the ass. Some card has to be the best 7-cost legendary, I'm just glad it's a neutral so we don't all feel obliged to play one particular hero or be forced to build around it.

I'll add some more:
Mage -- Mirror Entity, Fireball + ping, Frostbolt to stall, Frost Nova + Doomsayer
Shaman -- Hex
Warlock -- Siphon Soul
Druid and Rogue are in the worst spots to deal with it. Sap is not a great play unless the win is close (it might be, this is around when Oil explodes) and Druid usually just plays their own huge Taunts and rides it out while setting up combo (Force of Nature + Savage Roar).

Watch some streams and you'll see how many ways Dr. Boom gets handled. You'll hear the (good) streamers talk about what's happening and why they are doing things. Talk of dealing with Dr. Boom starts up around turn 5. A Mage might hang on to a Fireball or wait on a Mirror Entity play. A Paladin will opt to hang on to an Equality that might have seen use earlier or start digging for Big Game Hunter. A Hunter or Zoolock might stop controlling the board and start pressing for face damage to end the game before Boom matters--played on 7, he doesn't attack til 8, and they might be dead by then.

---

I also abused Animated Armor and Tempo Mage-style decks in that Tavern Brawl. I dumped Mirror Image for Arcane Explosion for more board control and rolled folks. I remember one game against a Paladin who hadn't tuned (still playing Shielded Minibots for example--Divine Shield isn't worth "extra" if you can't spend it on killing something for free), and I played Animated Armor. I saw them hover over it for a few seconds, thinking about the implications. Got a "Well played" and they conceded a couple turns later as they had no way to handle it outside of Equality combos, I guess.

---

I'm still enjoying Control Priest while I can in its current state. I watched Zetalot on stream handle a Control Warrior this AM and it was beautiful. I think the Warrior was around 30 life and 19 armor when they hit fatigue and fired the Golden Monkey. They lost 7 turns later when taking 9 to the face from Auchenai tricks and the fatigue damage.

Yeah, Animated Armor was the card. If your opponent didn't have any direct damage, GG.

Since most Heroic bosses like going face, it's very good there too.

So here's my non-Grommash Control Warrior Reno deck:
Execute
Whirlwind
Fiery War Axe
Cleave
Revenge
Acidic Swamp Ooze
Cruel Taskmaster
Garrison Commander
Bash
Bouncing Blade
Shield Block
Big Game Hunter
Blood Knight
Death's Bite
Defender of Argus
Kor'kron Elite
Piloted Shredder
Spellbreaker
Arcanite Reaper
Brawl
Loatheb
Sludge Belcher
Emperor Thaurissan
Justicar Trueheart
Reno Jackson
Sylvanas Windrunner
Gorehowl
Dr. Boom
Obsidian Destroyer
Arch-Thief Rafaam

Since it's not unusual for me to armor up for the first 3-4 turns I went with a Spellbreaker instead of an Owl, and I eschewed 1 mana minions altogether. Revenge (deal 1 damage to all minions, 3 damage if you're below 12 health) synergizes with Reno and it saved my bacon against a Secret Paladin tonight. The ooze could be replaced by Harrison (I don't have him) and it's a pure anti-Paladin/Warrior tech choice. Same for the Blood Knight, it's only in there to counter Secret Paladin and I can live with the 3/3 stat line if I'm playing against a different hero class.

I'm also not sure if the Garrison Commander really fits but it's a 2/3 for 2 cost and I like the Justicar synergy so I'm going to evaluate it some more. I'm also tempted to sub in a different choice instead of Bouncing Blade since it seems like I rarely get value out of it. Obsidian Destroyer is great in the late game and can give your opponent all sorts of problems if they're in top-deck mode. That goes double for Rafaam. He's also in my Control Priest deck and the +10/+10 artifact is an amazing burst where, unlike Pyroblast, the buffed minion has the possibility to stick around and do more damage. Against a Rogue tonight I went with the board full of 3/3 minions because he was top-decking and I was reasonably certain he couldn't pull off a Blade Flurry (he couldn't).

This is about the 4th iteration of this deck and it's the most consistent version so far but I'm still tweaking it and it's a lot of fun to play as long as you don't draw poorly against an aggro deck.

You've found the problem--you're too top heavy to handle aggro before it's too late. I would weigh including all those fatties and consider a world where some pare down to card draw like Acolyte of Pain and Slam and others are "subsumed" into Elise Starseeker. I don't think Gorehowl is doing much, or Reaper. And Bouncing Blade is really hard to work with, and doesn't always get you what you want. I think that could be swapped for Battle Rage. Drawing cards is my thing man. Even Crush might be OK over Bouncing Blade. Doesn't seem to be enough armor gain for a Control Warrior deck--no Armorsmith, no Shieldmaiden, and hence no Shield Slam.

Looks fun as hell though. Maybe think about Youthful Brewmeister to make Reno even more obnoxious. I played him five times in one game using YB, Echo of Medivh and a Duplicate. I won that one.

jeb wrote: You've found the problem--you're too top heavy to handle aggro before it's too late. I would weigh including all those fatties and consider a world where some pare down to card draw like Acolyte of Pain and Slam and others are "subsumed" into Elise Starseeker. I don't think Gorehowl is doing much, or Reaper. And Bouncing Blade is really hard to work with, and doesn't always get you what you want. I think that could be swapped for Battle Rage. Drawing cards is my thing man. Even Crush might be OK over Bouncing Blade. Doesn't seem to be enough armor gain for a Control Warrior deck--no Armorsmith, no Shieldmaiden, and hence no Shield Slam.

Looks fun as hell though. Maybe think about Youthful Brewmeister to make Reno even more obnoxious. I played him five times in one game using YB, Echo of Medivh and a Duplicate. I won that one.

Bouncing Blade, Garrison Commander and Sylvanas are out; Acolyte, Elise and Brewmeister - that's a good tip, such a dick move that's perfect for this deck and it works with a bunch of my other minions, too - are in. I have an Armorsmith but no Shieldmaidens and no Shield Slam (and I'm conserving dust for the new expansion), so that's why I went weapon-heavy with Arcanite and Gorehowl. I really like Gorehowl but I'm going to try subbing Battle Rage for the Arcanite and see how that does. Sometimes I forget about card draw in favor of tech when I make a deck.

This is one of my least favorite Tavern Brawls- it has been around before. "Crossroads." Random cards, random cost. In my last game I played Rhonin, Kel Thuzad, and Echo of Medivh. On turn 4. I'm guessing they're doing rehashes because of the upcoming announcements and release.

I'm gonna miss all the mech stuff when it rotates out. I always liked playing tribal decks in MtG. (During the insane $100 Jace the Expensive worldwake/mirrodin days I played the cheap Kuldotha Red deck that had tons of Goblins in it). I got whipped by a Mech Rogue one time, and have been running one since. I usually rocket up to about rank 14-12 before hitting a brick wall. The only deck that I've had more success with was pre-nerf Grim Patron, which I got to rank 10.

Backstab x2
Buccaneer x2
Clockwork Gnome x2
Cogmaster x2
Eviscerate x2
Annoy-o-Tron x2
Goblin Auto-Barber x2
Knife Juggler x2
Mechwarper x2
Iron Sensei x1
Spider Tank x2
TInkertown Technician x2
Tinker's Sharpsword Oil x2
Jeeves x1
Piloted Shredder x2
Dark Iron Skulker x2

I had played a lot of arena with Rogue and like I said, I lost to a mech rogue once and it made me want to try it. The goal here is to dominate the board early and then ride that to a round 6-8 kill. Sometime that means getting a 3 strength weapon with Buccaneer into Auto-barber. Jeeves is awesome when I get it- I only have 1x Jeeves and Iron Sensei. With Backstab and the other early game stuff (like the times that you can coin --> Mechwarper on turn one), sticking a Jeeves has been one of the few ways I can fight through those Reno-locks. Tinker's Sharpsword Oil is kind of awkward, although sometimes I can use the Spare Parts from a Technician or Clockwork Gnome to trigger the combo without the risk of putting the extra attack on a fresh minion. It gives the deck some much needed reach at times. Dark Iron Skulker has been excellent against Paladins and Hunters. I can crush a lot of their board and then keep going face. The aforementioned warlocks and control warriors are probably my worst match-ups, but sometimes I can burst them down quickly enough. Shamans also seem to take advantage of my decreased life total by lava bursting or doomhammering my face- it's a close one.

I don't even have that Cogmaster's Wrench. Seems decent, although I don't always have a mech on board. If it weren't for rotation I might make one and would probably have already crafted a 2nd Jeeves.

Same here. It's "Randomonium," not "Encounter at the Crossroads." The latter is marginally better as a skill tester as it doesn't randomize costs turn over turn. This one can be a real shit show. I looked in the archives here and noted last time I had a game where my opponent played T1: Old Murk-Eye AND Kirin Tor Mage, then T2: Archmage Antonidas. That's a solid start. That said, a lot of folks like this one because the games are concede-fests and go really fast. So if you are doing quests, it can be great. It ends up being a very popular Tavern Brawl on the metrics, but maybe not for the "right" reasons.

Some advice to folks as this transition to Wild & Standard approaches...

• If you are going to play Wild, and have some GvG commons, and even rares, you want--BUY GvG PACKS NOW. GvG packs will no longer be sold in the store. So, after the transition, if you don't have a Piloted Shredder, you can cook one up for 40 dust--the minimal dust from a pack of GvG. It makes more sense to buy GvG packs and maybe luck into a Shredder, plus some other stuff, than to cook up 40 dust for one after the switch.
• Similarly, if you don't have Naxx but will play Wild--obtain the first wing, at least. Again, it won't be sold after the switch. You can craft anything you want from it, but it's WAY more expensive to do this than just getting the first wing of Naxx and having the option to expand it afterwards. You don't have this option to expand unless you have a wing at the time of the switch.
• Don't dust any extra cards right now. They are going to nerf some stuff, and if they do, you get full dust value (ie, nerfed commons disenchant to 40 dust instead of 5).
• If you are comfortable with your GvG/Naxx collections... hoard gold. You want to get extra packs of the new expansion, right? Looks like the name is out there, folks are painting ads on walls in Brooklyn: Whispers of the Old Gods. WotOG? Same idea: hoard dust. Not every pack is a winner, and you'll want dust to get those rares and epics you neeeeeeed from WotOG.

jeb wrote: If you are comfortable with your GvG/Naxx collections... hoard gold. You want to get extra packs of the new expansion, right? Looks like the name is out there, folks are painting ads on walls in Brooklyn: Whispers of the Old Gods. WotOG? Same idea: hoard dust. Not every pack is a winner, and you'll want dust to get those rares and epics you neeeeeeed from WotOG.

I need to figure out the ratio of WotOG/Classic packs I'm going to buy. I have 13 Classic saved up from dailies and Brawls (gotta exploit that pity timer!) to add to the 11,200 gold I've been squirreling away since...October, maybe? I'm leaning toward getting 50 Classic and 75+ WotOG. Of course, I have more Classic cards so I would get more dust from the Classic packs...I need to decide. I did pretty well getting 70 packs of TGT, but I also lucked out and got a Justicar.

Here's the thing, if a Brawl is going to be RNG-heavy, make the matches fast. The Unstable Portals Brawl was brutal because you had to sit through that animation a hundred times and you still stood a good chance of getting screwed. In this one I can stomp someone by Turn 5 and it only takes a couple minutes. The skill comes in when you're pushing your luck and waiting for a minion to get cheap enough so you can exploit unusual interactions that are otherwise impossible or wildly improbable in vanilla Hearthstone. Like when I was playing Hunter and held onto my Djinn of Zephyrs until it was cheap enough that I could play it plus my Explorer's Hat on another minion in the same turn: Boom! Double Explorer's Hat! That also means putting up with moments like when I was playing a Hunter who had two Gahz'rillas on the board by Turn 3. Yeah, that's a concede.

My Jank-A-Reno Warrior deck is working pretty well after my edits. I got stomped a few times after some bad mulligans and draws but rebounded to win my next few. My most memorable game was against a Patron Warrior and it was one of those games where I not only started behind, but my opponent also had an answer for everything I did. It was a combination of him getting good draws and being a very good Warrior player. He even easily neutralized my Golden Monkey the turn it dropped. I had very little health by the time I took him to fatigue and the bastard had been hoarding a Kor'kron Elite for the very end to take me to one health. I had Mim-Iron in hand (really, Golden Monkey?), an empty board, a 3 attack Gorehowl, one health and two armor against his 23 health, 1/3 Armorsmith and Kor'kron Elite. Then I top-decked Hogger. GG.

SebastianBludd wrote: My Jank-A-Reno Warrior deck is working pretty well after my edits. I got stomped a few times after some bad mulligans and draws but rebounded to win my next few. My most memorable game was against a Patron Warrior and it was one of those games where I not only started behind, but my opponent also had an answer for everything I did. It was a combination of him getting good draws and being a very good Warrior player. He even easily neutralized my Golden Monkey the turn it dropped. I had very little health by the time I took him to fatigue and the bastard had been hoarding a Kor'kron Elite for the very end to take me to one health. I had Mim-Iron in hand (really, Golden Monkey?), an empty board, a 3 attack Gorehowl, one health and two armor against his 23 health, 1/3 Armorsmith and Kor'kron Elite. Then I top-decked Hogger. GG.

Glad to hear those changes helped. I played an epic Control v Control matchup last night on the ladder (at Rank 16, no less). Opponent was Control Warrior, I was Concede Priest. I've watch Zetalot enough to know how these games go, and I followed his gameplan.

1. Assume it'l go into fatigue, so be prudent about card draw.
2. Save your Entombs for Sylvanas and (Other Big Creature). Here it was Ysera, but Deathwing and Dr. Boom showed up too--work with what ya got.
3. Don't over extend into Brawl. My opponent at one point had to Brawl my Sylvanas (thanks Entomb) against her 6/2 Justicar Trueheart, Cruel Taskmaster, and Twilight Guardian. Justicar "won" and then came to my side the opponent had to hit it with Death's Bite. FeelsGoodMan.

Opponent gets to fatigue about 4 cards ahead of me. I think the life total is about 10, with about 35 armor. I am dealing with threats--my deck has double Lightbomb, double Holy Nova, a Vol'jin, a SW:D--I am handling things. Dr Boom comes down, he gets dealt with by a hit from Injured Blademaster and two hits from Deathlord! No downside to Deathlord when they are in fatigue.

Opponent has two cards left in hand. I have 2 Circles of Protection, a Nightmare from Ysera and a Zombie Chow in hand and one card in the deck. All those removals I mention up there? They're all gone. Opponent plays... Deathwing (tossing 2° Execute). I am a little concerned here--and remember what my last card is: Auchenai Soulpriest.

Play Soulpriest. "Heal" DW for 4 + CoP + CoP kills her. I debated playing the Zombie Chow out before to get 5 damage--but the warrior has no cards, and I can deal more with 2-per-turn than 5 at once. Opponent is at 4 fatigue now I think. She keeps armoring for 4, I am at about 15 life, I keep healing for 4 and poking with Chow. They take 9 fatigue, and I Nightmare the Chow, attack for 7, and the fatigue for 10 wins me the game.

TL, DR: Control Warrior takes 55 fatigue damage across 10 turns. Don't fuck with Priest.

Hmm, guess I better check my GvG collection. I think there's still a few commons I don't have, and there's certainly a lot of upper-level cards I never got.

I did the spreadsheet thing a while ago, but now I'ld have to go update it.

Been semi-retired, not even playing enough to knock out my dailies consistently.

The new expansion was announced -- Whispers of the Old Gods (I will call it WOG from now on). Spoilered description of the info and six revealed cards below: UPDATE: no spoilers, this shit is all over the internet.

134 cards, due late April/early May

Some cards are "corrupted" versions of cards we're familiar with:
Loot Hoarder --> Polluted Hoarder : Common : 4/2 for 2, Deathrattle: Draw a card.
Antique Healbot --> Corrupted Healbot : Rare : 6/6 for 5, Deathrattle: Restore 8 health to the enemy Hero.
Doomsayer --> Validated Doomsayer : Epic : 0/7 for 5, At the start of your turn, set this minion's attack to 7.

Other cards revolve around one of the four Old God Legendary cards in the set: C'Thun
Beckoner of Evil : Common: 2/3 for 2, Battlecry: Give C'Thun +2/+2 (no matter where it is).
Twilight Elder : Common : 3/4 for 3, At the end of your turn, give C'Thun +1/+1 (no matter where it is).
C'Thun : Legendary : 6/6 for 10, Battlecry: Deal damage equal to this minion's Attack randomly split among all enemies.

There will be a window during the rollout where just logging in gets you three free WOG packs and C'Thun. There will be a 50-pack pre-order as seen in earlier sets and it will come with an admittedly awesome cardback. It's totally sweet with this big eyeball looking around. Going to replace Heroic Naxx for me, I can't deny its majesty.

Some early thoughts on these cards: That Corrupted Healtbot is going to royally hump some people in Priest. Just HUMP them. HUMP THEM SO HARD. If you play Tirion on the board against it, they can respond with Auchenai, "heal" Tirion to strip the Shield, hit Tirion for 6, dealing 8, and then they are likely obliged to put their face on Auchenai for another 3. Playing Tirion and taking 11 is not a solid long-term strategy.

Validated Doomsayer is also obnoxious for Paladin, as it will reset its power after Aldor Peacekeeper or other Humility effects. Silence still works though.

Looks like I am re-upping my interest at a good time...guess I should catch up with the the last adventure...