Hearthstone Players!

Outside of Mill Rogue, you have the foundation for every spell-heavy build with these cards:
Backstab x2
Preparation x2
Deadly Poison x2
Eviscerate x2
Tomb Pillager x2 (best 4-drop in the Standard game?)
Everything about these cards is good. Deal with the board, cheat stuff out, advance the agenda. The agenda is where the balance of the deckbuilding lies:

Do you have a card you need to draw, like in a Malygos build?
Gadgetzan Auctioneer x2
Bloodmage Thalnos xL
Fan of Knives x2
Sprint x1 or x2
maaaaybe Cutpurse for more coins
maaaaybe Conceal to hide the Auctioneer

The Malygos build makes you want
Emperor Thaurissan xL
Malygos xL
Xaril xL (that Holy Smite Toxin is the dream)
Some combination of Sinister Strike x2 and Shiv x2

A N'Zoth build is more minion focused, you can probably drop Preparation/Sprint from the spell-heavy stuff above
N/Zoth xL
Xaril xL
SI:7 Agent x2
Sylvanas Windrunner xL
Earthen Ring Farseer x2
Huge Toad x2
Undercity Huckster x2
Maaaaybe Journey Below x2
Maaaaybe Unearthed Raptor x2

I think you could pick some aspect above and fill out with
C'Thun xL
Blade of C'Thun x2
Shadowcaster x2
....and it would be an effective C'Thun deck. Blade of C'Thun is HUGE.

For what you're after with BotAO, Shadowcaster and Conceal are things I would look to include. Faceless Manipulator should probably be a one-of.

Ugh, I can't get that damn Rogue deck to work. I had to switch to my non-N'Zoth Deathrattle Hunter to get my 7 wins for my 5 additional packs. No secrets, just a bunch of Beast deathrattle minions - Fiery Bat, Huge Toad, Infested Wolf - with direct damage and removal to round it out. I have Huhuran to proc the deathrattles so I'm also running singletons of Anubisath Sentinel, Spawn of N'Zoth and Sylvanas; along with Forlorn Stalker x2.

SebastianBludd wrote: Ugh, I can't get that damn Rogue deck to work. I had to switch to my non-N'Zoth Deathrattle Hunter to get my 7 wins for my 5 additional packs. No secrets, just a bunch of Beast deathrattle minions - Fiery Bat, Huge Toad, Infested Wolf - with direct damage and removal to round it out. I have Huhuran to proc the deathrattles so I'm also running singletons of Anubisath Sentinel, Spawn of N'Zoth and Sylvanas; along with Forlorn Stalker x2.

If I had to guess, I would argue your Rogue deck is punished by its theme. BotAO is a 9-drop, a target in every way, and you need TWO of them. Add on the fact that the outcome of them is known (a 30/30) so folks can hold hard removal for that if they can't deal with BotAO #1 right away. It plays to the opponent, and it does it in late game (9+ mana) when they have drawn answers or are going for their own win condition. Face Hunter plays to the opponent too, laying out some really shitty minions that get obliterated by any kind of mass removal--but it does it over turns 1-5, when the opponent might not "get lucky." You have the same style of deck that is trying to do this turns 8-12--you're going to be punished.

The theme of BotAO is awesome. But I think you need to cheat the play. RARE is the deck that will let you play a 9/9, wait a turn, and play another one. Assume that will never happen. Build your deck to cheat. See if you can keep a Naga Sea Witch alive for a turn. BAM, both down, let's goooo. Use Conceal or Xaril's stealth toxin to hide the first one after you play it, making its removal difficult. Use a Thaurissan tick and some Coins to play one for 8 and a Shadowcaster for 4 to set up a 9+1 when they deal with BotAO #1. Or as you noted, the BotAO for 8 and a Faceless Manipulator for 4. It's tough.

I got my Win 7 done with Totem Battlecry Shaman and Dragon Priest. I miss Lightbomb, folks. It would be SO GOOD. I might have to play Wild just to Lightbomb people. Dragon Priest is still really really solid. Playing with 2x SW:P and SW:D, along with Brann and all those Taunts to protect him makes for some swingy turns. The Dragon butts are so big that C'Thun is just pretty good, and might not even clear the board before I SW:D it. Played a Secret Paladin who got me to 3 before I came back and throttled him (at 24). No Avenge is making a difference there, I assure you.

Sebastian, everything that Jeb said about Rogue is accurate. If you want to play spell-heavy Rogue, then you want Auctioneer and Malygos. If you want to try to make a Blood deck, well... I just wouldn't. Blood is a trap card. It's a card that looks good in very specific situations, but will actually never, ever pay off in a competitive sense. (Hallazeal may be one of these, too.) I'd keep that list stashed away to knock around with in Casual, but if you want to ladder, you want to lean on Malygos or try a really aggressive minion deck, paving the way with direct damage. That's basically what Rogue has at the moment. But especially if you're going to play Xaril and the Shadowcasters, you want something that takes advantage of all those spells, and that something is both Gadg and Maly. Sorry.

I had some time before my girlfriend showed up but maybe not enough to play a game, so I went through and cashiered the rest of my Naxx and GvG cards. Got enough dust to fill out the missing parts of Strifeco's Paladin deck. I love it. It reminds me of playing Stasis back in the day. I just hang and hang and hang, wiping the board, maybe sneaking in some damage here and there, healing, and then drop N'Zoth and the game is over. I played 3 games in Casual to try it out. All three opponents conceded as soon as N'Zoth and 6 minions hit the table, twice including Tirion. Sick.

I have C'Thun Priest, Evolve Shaman, C'Thun Druid, Shield Pallie, N'Zoth Pallie, and Yogg Mage to keep me busy. I think I'm set for the foreseeable future.

Jackwraith wrote: Sebastian, everything that Jeb said about Rogue is accurate. If you want to play spell-heavy Rogue, then you want Auctioneer and Malygos. If you want to try to make a Blood deck, well... I just wouldn't. Blood is a trap card. It's a card that looks good in very specific situations, but will actually never, ever pay off in a competitive sense. (Hallazeal may be one of these, too.) I'd keep that list stashed away to knock around with in Casual, but if you want to ladder, you want to lean on Malygos or try a really aggressive minion deck, paving the way with direct damage. That's basically what Rogue has at the moment. But especially if you're going to play Xaril and the Shadowcasters, you want something that takes advantage of all those spells, and that something is both Gadg and Maly. Sorry.

I had some time before my girlfriend showed up but maybe not enough to play a game, so I went through and cashiered the rest of my Naxx and GvG cards. Got enough dust to fill out the missing parts of Strifeco's Paladin deck. I love it. It reminds me of playing Stasis back in the day. I just hang and hang and hang, wiping the board, maybe sneaking in some damage here and there, healing, and then drop N'Zoth and the game is over. I played 3 games in Casual to try it out. All three opponents conceded as soon as N'Zoth and 6 minions hit the table, twice including Tirion. Sick.

I have C'Thun Priest, Evolve Shaman, C'Thun Druid, Shield Pallie, N'Zoth Pallie, and Yogg Mage to keep me busy. I think I'm set for the foreseeable future.

That's harsh man! He just wants to put a 30/30 into play, is that so wrong? Haha, this game is amazing. SHINE ON YOU BLOOD OF THE ANCIENT ONE DIAMOND! I believe in your mission!

But, yeah, your mission is going to be tough on the Ladder. Casual can be nice sometimes. Sea Witch is the way to go I think. Maybe. Ooh. You could Sea Witch and copy Sea Witch with Shadowcaster. That would let you Sea Witch and 2x BotAO on one turn with a Coin and 10 mana. Hmm. Gotta think about this.

Pirate Warrior is bad. It can almost win any game, but it loses all of them. I don't have Greenskin though, or the Parrot. That's what I need right? Or that Epic one.

I did pretty good with this Hunter deck tonight. I actually won 6 in a row in casual. Tuning advice welcome but I don't have a lot of cards. Infest is really good if you can get 3+ weenies on the table. Call of the Wild is a lot of fun and has saved my butt a few times.

Hunter's Mark 2
On the Hunt 2
Fiery Bat 2
Leper Gnome
Zealous Initiate 2
Explosive Trap
Bilefin Tidehunter 2
Loot Hoarder
Infest
Unleash the Hounds
Carrion Grub
Forlorn Stalker 2
Spawn of N'Zoth 2
Eater of Secrets
Infested Tauren 2
Infested Wolf 2
Polluted Hoarder
Twilight Summoner
Savannah Highmane
Call of the Wild
N'Zoth the Corrupter

jeb wrote: Pirate Warrior is bad. It can almost win any game, but it loses all of them. I don't have Greenskin though, or the Parrot. That's what I need right? Or that Epic one.

Even Greenskin won't help, unfortunately. Pirate decks have always played like a midrange deck but without the bigger bodies of midrange later game stuff to really trade effectively. That's why Sky Cap'n Kragg is considered unplayable: not only does his effective casting cost depend on keeping small minions into the later game, but he also only has 4 attack, which isn't effective in that later game. So, then you try to play a swarm deck and realize that most pirates aren't fast or cheap enough to pull that off or, even if they are, there are other neutral minions that are FAR better at it so you end up with a "Pirate" deck that has maybe 4 or 5 pirates in it. What's even worse is that one of the better Pirate deck cards, Ship's Cannon, has now rotated out but the Cannon itself was never actually a Pirate, so the Parrot couldn't be used to find it. Incidentally, the Parrot also isn't a Pirate, so you don't gain any bonuses for having the Parrot on your board. It's an Epic 1-drop that often doesn't help the very deck it was created to serve. The story of Pirates is the story of the second-most misaligned development path of the game, next to Shaman.

@Hex: My Face/Beast Hunter advice won't be very good, as I've never played the archetype, other than to say "Get X cards because that's what I see all the time as people are trying to run me down." If you're playing N'Zoth deathrattle, I'd say cards like Bilefin and On the Hunt could be replaced with something more focused, if you have them. Your comment about Infest is why I'd avoid it, actually. It's conditional (you need to have a board to make it worthwhile), it's random (you don't know what beast will end up in your hand; you may get a Captain's Parrot), and it doesn't make your minions count as Deathrattle dudes that can be resummond by N'Zoth. But, again, I ain't no expert on Hunter. I tried for several expansions to make control Hunter work and it never came together.

jeb wrote: That's harsh man! He just wants to put a 30/30 into play, is that so wrong? Haha, this game is amazing. SHINE ON YOU BLOOD OF THE ANCIENT ONE DIAMOND! I believe in your mission!

But, yeah, your mission is going to be tough on the Ladder. Casual can be nice sometimes. Sea Witch is the way to go I think. Maybe. Ooh. You could Sea Witch and copy Sea Witch with Shadowcaster. That would let you Sea Witch and 2x BotAO on one turn with a Coin and 10 mana. Hmm. Gotta think about this.

You knuckleheads, I never said I wanted to play this deck on ladder! I may have been raised Catholic but my masochism and self-hate has its limits. No, I just wanted to see if there was a way to make a semi-consistent Blood of the Ancient One-based deck to spring on people in Casual, kind of like the guy I played a few weeks ago that wrecked my Zoolock with a non-meta taunt, Poison Seeds and Volcanic Lumberer-based Druid deck.

I never considered them but I think you're onto something with Thaurissan and Sea Witch. They'll definitely be what I try next once I feel like banging my head against that particular wall again.

Poor Troggzor, I think he and Foe Reaper have little time left in my collection after Jackwraith mentioned that N'Zoth Paladin deck...

Hex Sinister wrote: Tuning advice welcome but I don't have a lot of cards.

I would ditch the Leper Gnome, Fiery Bat is amazing and x2 is enough for your 1 drop. Drop Zealous Initiate for x2 Kill Command; that card is great with Infested Wolf since it spits out Beasts. Last night I was even fooling around with Tundra Rhino + Hunter's Mark to assassinate minions with the spiders. I might be crafting Call of the Wild, that cards looks super fun. I would also drop Twilight Summoner and Loot Hoarder for x2 Houndmasters. You'll want to try another Unleash the Hounds in place of one of your On the Hunts when you have enough dust. Those substitutions eliminate some of the low-impact deathrattle weenies while leaving you plenty for N'Zoth to summon due to your limited card pool.

Heh. I was kinda wondering when Jeb was responding like you were serious. I looked back in the thread and thought: "I'm all for trying to bust out the new archetype and all that but... he's not thinking this is viable, right?" Of course, people looked at Grim Patron in the preview and said: "Pffft. That'll never work. Might be a decent Arena card." Oy. Incidentally, Patron is still quite viable these days and benefits from things like Ravaging Ghoul, Blood to Ichor, and Blood Warriors. You have to play it as more of a constant swarm deck, rather than the combo OTK of yore, but it seems like it would still work pretty well against aggro and maybe against control if you can still get the Frothings home. (Sea Reaver! No, not really...)

That Paladin deck is the shit. Be warned, though. The games are LONG. In most of the games I've played with it, I'm down to 3 or 4 cards by the end (aka when N'Zoth awakens.) So, I'm not sure it's really ladder viable unless people have the time to be on for hours at a time on a regular basis, which is the same reason the mill decks never really succeeded in being a force. You can snowball, at times, especially when people get confused by Twilight Summoner and you suddenly have a 5/5 and a 6/6 and a Silverlight loaded up.

jeb wrote: Pirate Warrior is bad. It can almost win any game, but it loses all of them. I don't have Greenskin though, or the Parrot. That's what I need right? Or that Epic one.

You guys are full of it! I went from rank 12 to rank 9 exclusively playing Pirate Warrior. The parrot isn't standard for some reason... I guess because it's not craftable or from a specific set really?

My deck right now:

2x Execute
2x Upgrade!
1x Bloodsail Corsair
2x N'zoth's First Mate
2x Southsea Deckhand
2x Fiery War Axe
2x Heroic Strike
2x Slam
2x Bloodsail Raider
2x Bloodsail Cultist
L Brann Bronzebeard
2x Southsea Captain
2x Arathi Weaponsmith
2x Dread Corsair
2x Kor'kron Elite
L Captain Greenskin
L Skycap'n Kragg

I'd never go out of my way to craft this, but it has been super fun. In a world without healbot, this deck can do well. There are some things I don't like about this current version. Brann might not be worth it- I thought he'd be good for the Bloodsail Raiders/Cultists, but that's kind of tricky to actually set up. The 1x Corsair can probably go. The weaponsmith can be kind of awkward when I'm still playing around with a 4/2 Hook. I haven't seen a single Harrison yet- he's just not there. I'm contemplating finding a space for Bash to help get me over sometimes, or perhaps a more standard aggro card like Wolfrider. I was going a good 80% until I hit rank 9, and I'm still winning at least 50% of the time now.

Hex Sinister wrote: I did pretty good with this Hunter deck tonight. I actually won 6 in a row in casual. Tuning advice welcome but I don't have a lot of cards. Infest is really good if you can get 3+ weenies on the table. Call of the Wild is a lot of fun and has saved my butt a few times.

Hunter's Mark 2
On the Hunt 2
Fiery Bat 2
Leper Gnome
Zealous Initiate 2
Explosive Trap
Bilefin Tidehunter 2
Loot Hoarder
Infest
Unleash the Hounds
Carrion Grub
Forlorn Stalker 2
Spawn of N'Zoth 2
Eater of Secrets
Infested Tauren 2
Infested Wolf 2
Polluted Hoarder
Twilight Summoner
Savannah Highmane
Call of the Wild
N'Zoth the Corrupter

What Jackwraith said, with some more commentary. You are a Midrange deck--not Aggro. So out goes Leper Gnome. You want the game to last until Call of the Wild and N'Zoth are playable, so you need to go Midrange. The idea of the Midrange deck is to control the early game, then start playing threat after threat after threat until they get overwhelmed. I've mentioned it here before, but StrifeCro noted, "You can't lifegain away from Savannah Highmane." You'll see this once your deck is a little more tuned--all the grief about Reno Jackson fades away because even gaining 20+ doesn't really disrupt the game that much. You'll have 4/5 cards in hand and minions dealing 10+ a turn. So they gain 20? Big whoop. Smash smash smash.

You need to recognize the limitations of Hunter: Card draw. Small creature removal. Last one first: Hunter's Mark is BIG creature removal. Small creatures need your creatures to trade efficiently, or you need to weapon up (RIP Glaivezooka). If available, consider Wild Pyromancer. This card is staple enough in a lot of decks that it's worth the 80 dust to make 2. Here, it combines with Hunter's Mark to kill a creature of your choice (barring Divine Shield). His bangs can clear out other small stuff too. Weapons don't count as spells, so Eaglehorn Bow is a safe play, but Unleash the Hounds.... less so. He's also a 3/2 for 2, which, even without the card text is pretty good when they play Northshire Cleric or Mana Wyrm. Explosive Trap is also really good for weenie control, as is Snake Trap (Epic tho). If you have those cards, then craft Eaglehorn Bow(s) to go with. It's one of the best cards in the game, honestly, and it SO IMMENSELY helps Hunter in the absence of other decent small weapons like Glaivezooka. The other way to control weenies is to have your own weenies for trading. That's why Desert Camel is a thing. I don't think you have the Injured Kvaldirs or LoE, right? So pass on that. Here's where we mourn Webspinner and Haunted Creeper too. RIP. So we're looking at Fiery Bats, Zealous Inititiates and Tentacles of N'Zoth. Honestly, pick two here, or you might have a sad N'Zoth bringing these guys back instead of something much bigger. Consider Knife Juggler too, has combo quality with Hunter's Mark and Unleash the Hounds. I.e., it's NOT a 2-drop. Carrion Grub is great here.

Card draw! Hunter runs out of cards. Turns 5/6/7, you will be desperate to get them. Cult Master with Unleash the Hounds feels really good. Even if it only gets one card, it's usually worth it, as Cult Master draws a lot of heat to get it removed. Tomb Spider works here. Polluted Hoarder is thematic. I would invest in another Savannah Highmane too, it counts as three cards. Notice how I am not saying "Lock and Load?" I like Lock and Load, but it's not good, and it's officially worse with the change to Hunter's Mark. I want to like Infest, but I don't think it's going to be consistent and it's a terrible topdeck in a game where they have the board.

Specifically about your deck? I would drop Infest, Bilefin Hunters, Infested Wolf, and Eater of Secrets (hardly any out there that you care about) to make room for Eaglehorn Bows, Wild Pyros, and Cult Masters. I would swap a Spawn of N'Zoth for another Savannah Highmane too, if able.

@Jexik: Cool. So I've seen a different version with Toads, Jugglers, and Berzerkers in place of the Slams and Weaponsmiths, but I like your ideas a little better. I agree that Brann is probably OTT. Do you ever find yourself in a situation with too many weapons in hand or destroying weapons before you get the full use out of them? And does Kragg really pay off? My thing with him is that you're paying 7 mana for 4 attack when you could do the same thing with the Elite for four mana. And even if Kragg survives hitting a Crazed Worshipper or a Shieldmasta, he's still not getting through it.

I wrote: I don't have Greenskin though, or the Parrot. That's what I need right? Or that Epic one.

Jexik wrote: You guys are full of it! I went from rank 12 to rank 9 exclusively playing Pirate Warrior. The parrot isn't standard for some reason... I guess because it's not craftable or from a specific set really?

My deck right now:
...
2x Southsea Captain
L Captain Greenskin
.

I knew it!

That's awesome. My build was less aggressive--trying to set up a Raider/Gorehowl/Brann/Charge thing. This looks way better. Especially now as the whole damn world wants to see 3/4 of their deck to make the big OG play. Nice work!

Just started playing yesterday and I have no idea what these words you are using mean, but I did pull Blood of the Ancients and was going to try and figure out what cards can copy/dupe it to try and get the Ancient One out in play.

Also pulled Yogg-Saron as the last card in the last of the free packs (it was raining down packs! Now it's grinding time), but am not sure I want to play a game to round 10 just to flip a coin to see who wins.

Yeah, you definitely don't want to run Yogg unless you just want to see fireworks. I pulled one, too, and immediately built a Mage deck around it. I've played a few games with it in Casual. It's kinda fun, but there are many times when I just don't draw Yogg, either. Meh.

Tried to put together a Beast Druid deck and it works OK. I think it'd be cool to have a Fandral, but I'm out of dust. So, Cenarius is a decent replacement and, actually, might serve the deck even better, since he follows right in theme with the Power of the Wild/Savage Roar nature of it. www.hearthpwn.com/decks/513994-beast-druid Had a game against a Mage C'Thun player yesterday where it seemed like he should have known what was happening when I dropped the Saplings and Saber and used Power to boost them, but he kept right on curve, dropping his minions, boosting C'Thun, and hitting face. Until I dropped the Teacher and put Mark of Y'shaarj on the Saber.... Then he cut a couple dudes down, but Savage Roar was in my hand and it was over. Turn 5 kill. I think it's the first deck I've ever made with a perfectly even split between minions and spells, which doesn't seem right for a Beast deck.. But with Idol, all the draw off Mark, Wrath, and Azures, plus the Raptors and Teachers spitting out dudes, it seems like I'm covered.