Hearthstone #7 - Knights of the Frozen Throne

[Wild11MN]

I've beaten Priest, Warlock, Druid so far. Druid's easy with the right strategy. Warlock I had a bit of difficulty with for whatever reason, even though Renolock might be my favorite deck ever. Not sure why I struggled there.

I couldn't beat Mage yesterday. Still want to come up with my own deck/strategy on that one. Hunter certainly sounds difficult.

 

[syz]

Some pretty good stuff.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Yep. Like I said, Hunter was definitely the hardest challenge to complete. Followed by Warrior and then Warlock, though those two may simply be because I don't play those two classes very often.

Spent an entire evening but sure got him. It was actually fun. Best was Kabal Lackey into Mana Bind in the Mage battle. Other than that Murloc variations are pretty strong, you just kill him before turn 7 lots of times.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

This is your daily reminder that DK Rexxar is the best Death Knight. Or rather, the most fun.

 

[LightningStrikes]

This is your daily reminder that DK Rexxar is the best Death Knight. Or rather, the most fun.

Pretty slow though.

 

[Hivemind]

DK Anduin is pretty darn fun.

 

[Seb]

DK Uther is best

 

[syz]

DK Druid is best. DK Hunter would be if it weren't a Hunter card.

 

[Wild11MN]

Well I enjoy DK Warlock...

I think the lesson here is bravo Blizzard on the DKs.

 

[Hivemind]

I really enjoy DK warlock as well, because it's both good as a short-term win condition (deal with my demons or die) and as long-term sustain (6 health swing each turn).

But Anduin's burn each turn is just so much fun. A lot of decision making in rationing out your cards and calculating potential damage each turn.

DK Druid is good, but not the best on its own. It just happens to be a playable card in the best deck.

 

[Hivemind]

I really wish Hearthstone had replays, because I had the most sensationally broken/amazing turn in history.

Turn 6, I'm playing Priest against Druid. For some reason his Druid list still has Auctioneer (AND Ultimate Infestation AND Nourish). His auctioneer is on board. I have a Radiant Elemental and Priest of the Feast on board already.

I already see the broken turn lined up as he plays. I have Lyra, coin, potion of madness, and Silence in hand, with a radiant elemental on board. I know I can do some fun stuff. Then I topdeck pintsize potion.

I play Lyra. Then I play pintsize. Then I steal his auctioneer with potion of madness. One of the Lyra cards is Mind Visions (0 mana cause of Radiant). That turns into an Innervate. I proceed to chain a ton of 0 mana spells (and mana gain spells) with both an Auctioneer and Lyra on board. Sure I overdraw next turn, but I end up buffing my Priest of the Feast to a 6/6 and smacking him in the face with it a couple times to kill him. It was amazing. It was so broken it was beautiful.'

Added the guy after the game. Turns out he only speaks Spanish. Google translate said that he said something about wanting my mother.

 

[firewagonHOCKEY]

I really wish Hearthstone had replays, because I had the most sensationally broken/amazing turn in history.

Turn 6, I'm playing Priest against Druid. For some reason his Druid list still has Auctioneer (AND Ultimate Infestation AND Nourish). His auctioneer is on board. I have a Radiant Elemental and Priest of the Feast on board already.

I already see the broken turn lined up as he plays. I have Lyra, coin, potion of madness, and Silence in hand, with a radiant elemental on board. I know I can do some fun stuff. Then I topdeck pintsize potion.

I play Lyra. Then I play pintsize. Then I steal his auctioneer with potion of madness. One of the Lyra cards is Mind Visions (0 mana cause of Radiant). That turns into an Innervate. I proceed to chain a ton of 0 mana spells (and mana gain spells) with both an Auctioneer and Lyra on board. Sure I overdraw next turn, but I end up buffing my Priest of the Feast to a 6/6 and smacking him in the face with it a couple times to kill him. It was amazing. It was so broken it was beautiful.'

Added the guy after the game. Turns out he only speaks Spanish. Google translate said that he said something about wanting my mother.

Use decktracker since it keeps the replays. Decktracker is great for normal games to. And kudos for smacking a druid around.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Went on a nice winning streak yesterday with Evolve Shaman (Shamy DK is fun too!) and my Handbuff Control Paladin. Something like 11-0.

Good times!

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Why would he have Auctioneer on board and keep the Innvervate in his hand?

 

[WarriorOfGandhi]

it was turn 6 so he probably wanted to save it for Y'Shaarj or another big minion

 

[Hivemind]

Why would he have Auctioneer on board and keep the Innvervate in his hand?

He used Innervate to get a turn 8 Ultimate Infestation. I presume that was the line he saw and decided it was worth more to leave that option open than to cycle innervate.

 

[sabresfan129103]

Haven't played ladder in a while, but it sounds like it's absolute cancer right now with all the Druid's. What the hell was Blizzard thinking making Ultimate Infestation.

 

[Wild11MN]

Haven't played ladder in a while, but it sounds like it's absolute cancer right now with all the Druid's. What the hell was Blizzard thinking making Ultimate Infestation.

I've basically just been logging in for the dailies and playing casual. If I see a Jade Druid, I just concede half the time these days. Ultimate Infestation by itself is not a problem. 10-cost cards need to really be powerful for them to have any chance to see play. The problem is UI with all of the other tools, mainly ramp.

I don't get why Blizzard doesn't step in earlier. There are absolutely times when they should wait for the meta to play out, but they waited WAY too long when Shaman was dominant last year, and they're waiting too long right now. Druid is probably the most powerful class at any point in Hearthstone's history right now. It was something like 73/73 players that brought Druid to some recent tournament. That's just not okay.

Arena is also in a terrible spot right now. The synergy cards to start are a disaster, and basically everyone has complained about it. Stop giving me Book Wyrm in each of the first two picks in every single draft!! With some classes getting synergy bonuses for DK cards, they're much easier to get in some classes than others. There are so many standalone cards with huge power level right now, that arena is pretty much "have one or two of those cards or lose". I have never been this consistently bad at arena before, mainly because it feels like every time you get to 3-4 wins, you play these insane decks.

I'm really not happy with any point of the game right now. Most of the expansion cards are awesome, but ladder sucks and arena sucks. Fix it.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

I don't really have an issue with the ladder at the moment. Yeah, Druid is abundant now, but it's not nearly as oppressive as people seem to believe. Jade Druid basically does nothing for its first 4 turns, and that's assuming they have an ideal opening hand. If they miss their ramp or miss their Jades, they're not anything to worry over.

Aggro Druid is a bit more annoying to deal with, but they're not that different from Evolve Shaman. Keep their board clear as best you can, and keep an AOE available for Living Mana. If you can make it past turn 5, you usually can win.

Evolve Shaman is actually the class I struggle the most with at the moment. Their ability to reload with Dopple/Evolve makes it difficult to win, even if you have the AOE for their early board.

I'm also annoyed at Big Priest, but that's just because of the high roll capability. They're not anything scary if they don't have Barnes on 4, but if they do, they basically win the game on the spot.

 

[Wild11MN]

I don't really have an issue with the ladder at the moment. Yeah, Druid is abundant now, but it's not nearly as oppressive as people seem to believe. Jade Druid basically does nothing for its first 4 turns, and that's assuming they have an ideal opening hand. If they miss their ramp or miss their Jades, they're not anything to worry over.

Aggro Druid is a bit more annoying to deal with, but they're not that different from Evolve Shaman. Keep their board clear as best you can, and keep an AOE available for Living Mana. If you can make it past turn 5, you usually can win.

Evolve Shaman is actually the class I struggle the most with at the moment. Their ability to reload with Dopple/Evolve makes it difficult to win, even if you have the AOE for their early board.

I'm also annoyed at Big Priest, but that's just because of the high roll capability. They're not anything scary if they don't have Barnes on 4, but if they do, they basically win the game on the spot.

And that is another major problem. A lot of the decks out there just straight up aren't fun to play against. Big Priest is fun to play, but how healthy is it for the game when having Barnes on turn 4 means win/loss every time. Exodia Mage is not fun to play against. Jade Druid is not fun to play against. Pirate Warrior is not fun to play against.

I love playing DK Warlock, and I also enjoy playing against it. The DK Priest is very powerful, but at least it's not BS to play against like some of these decks. I don't know, I'm just in the group that thinks the meta is not fun right now, despite a job well done on so many cards.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Man, I don't know what is up lately, but I've just had this string of bad luck. I must be like 2-16 today. Opponent always seems to have the right answers or my draws just don't line up. Tried switching decks over and over again, but it's just a bad day.

Also, I regret crafting DK Anduin. Because if you don't draw Raza, it's hard to win with that deck. And Raza is magnetically attracted to the bottom 5 cards of my deck.

 

[Wild11MN]

Man, I don't know what is up lately, but I've just had this string of bad luck. I must be like 2-16 today. Opponent always seems to have the right answers or my draws just don't line up. Tried switching decks over and over again, but it's just a bad day.

Also, I regret crafting DK Anduin. Because if you don't draw Raza, it's hard to win with that deck. And Raza is magnetically attracted to the bottom 5 cards of my deck.

Heh, just crafted DK Anduin today and haven't tried it yet. I mainly play for the fun, and it'll give me some crazy turns, so I won't regret it. Is Velen mandatory for the deck to work? I still don't have one of those.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Velen is there for the extra burst damage to finish the opponent off. It's not necessary, but it helps. Depending on what build you use, having Velen could burst an opponent down from 28. Hero power (2), Velen, HP (6), Smite (10), HP (14), Mind Blast (24), HP (28).

But I've found it's mostly a dead card until that extra burst, which means it's another card that's cluttering your hand, something Highlander Priest tends to have a lot of.

Finished the night with a good win (finally). Mill Rogue vs Murloc Paladin. Stopped the early aggression with Backstabs, Shadow Strike, and my dagger, and drew a Coldlight right after I dropped DK Valeera. From there it was just a matter of using saps and Vanishes to keep his board clear. Still took 10 to the face from his Ashbringer (Tar Creeper ate a hit), but it was enough to keep me alive for the sweet double Evis lethal.

 

[syz]

Just lost turn 5 to an aggro Druid. With an ice block.

 

[Wild11MN]

Just finished off all of the Lich King fights. Beat Priest, Warlock, and Druid with my own decks, but ended up caving and just looking up strategies for the rest. Used Murloc decks to win by turn 6 with Mage, Rogue and Paladin, used a giant Flappy Bird + Moltens for Hunter, and Scaled Nightmare for Warrior and Shaman.

Most of the aggros were pretty easy with a good opening. I got really lucky with Paladin, but I could see that being really difficult without an amazing start. Otherwise Hunter was a little tough.

Also, definitely not regretting crafting DK Anduin, but you're right, you really need Raza to have a good shot at winning.