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Hearthstone Players!

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13 Dec 2017 22:23 - 13 Dec 2017 22:32 #259068 by MacDirk Diggler
Call to arms. Knife juggler. You MUST run corridor creeper in almost any deck especially aggro or you will get abused by your opponents corridor creeper. It is said to be the meta defining card of this set with more power than bone Mare. 5/5 on turn 3 does not suck. Call puts 3 guys out AND thins your deck so you can draw your Tarims and BOKs. Couple that with divine favor and go nuts with tempo. Firebat claims he has seen a paladin draw to couple of cards left in deck by turn 8. That's the one I would make

It's been all about Cubelock last two days. I made the deck and zoomed from 15-10 with only one loss. That was to aggro Pally built with Call. He had oozes as two drops and broke my Manari Skull weapon. Then he had to have double equality in hand to clear double Void Lords and kill me. In other words. He had to have his tech cards on time. The only thing that beats Cubelock is other Warlock and Razakus priest if you don't draw your cubes
Last edit: 13 Dec 2017 22:32 by MacDirk Diggler.

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13 Dec 2017 22:39 #259069 by jeb
Replied by jeb on topic Hearthstone Players!
Does anything beat Razakus if they draw well? Quest Mage, I suppose... Anything else have a chance? That deck seems disgusting.

Call to Arms should be in the deck over SAD I would think, and probably over Vinecleaver if you can't give them both up.

I am playing Big Spell Priest and it is neat as hell. And a Hunter without Secrets, don't tell Jackwraith, he will talk about how much I suck. (It's Keleseth Beasts).

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14 Dec 2017 00:35 #259072 by Jackwraith
Replied by Jackwraith on topic Hearthstone Players!
Hey, play what you want to play, man. I do weird decks all the time (witness the totems...) But if you want to actually move up the ladder with Hunter, you play Secrets. I did swap around stuff in the Dude deck to include Call and Knife Juggler and,,, shhh,,, don't tell jeb... Unidentified Maul, which is quite good. I cut SAD and Level Up back to 1 each. I put in another Vinecleaver, though (six weapons!) since I don't have a Vala'nyr. I also have no Creepers although I know that's been all the rage of the past couple days. Got about 500 dust, so I can forge one.

I have all the parts for Cubelock except Skull, which seems to be fairly crucial to get the early Voidlord-Cube chain going; hopefully with Umbra. I kept trying to play Umbra in various Quest Priest decks and she never worked. Glad I didn't dust her, though.

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14 Dec 2017 11:06 #259088 by jeb
Replied by jeb on topic Hearthstone Players!
After a week, things are still in flux all over the Standard Ladder. The decks du jour are:
  • Cubelock, leveraging Carnivorous Cube, Possessed Lackey, and fat Demons triggered in by some tricks (Skull of the Man'ari, Prince-3, Dark Pact what have you).
  • Razakus, same old thing, except now with Psychic Scream, so Jesus wept.
  • Jungle Giants OTK, not even kidding. Just utterly SMASHES anything that can't kill you by turns 5,6,7, barring an unlucky draw. It finishes the Druid Quest then kills you with some pile of Kun, Alexstrasza, Malygos (perhaps 2 from Ixilid) and massive Swipes to your face.
  • CtA Paladin, the deck that can kill you by turn 5. Abuses Call to Arms and the Murloc package to send bubbled, buffed frogs at your dome.
Decks are crazy, crazy expensive in terms of Dust. Nothing I am seeing at high ranks isn't packing 2x Epics and multiple Legendaries. Tough go out there for F2P right now.
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14 Dec 2017 12:07 #259091 by Jackwraith
Replied by Jackwraith on topic Hearthstone Players!
That's what I was thinking, too. I only play 4 classes and I'm having a tough time getting the dust I need to craft all these cards that are essential to making the decks work. It was bad enough when it was one or two key legendaries. Now it's those AND several epics. I'm making do in a couple spots without legendary weapons, but most of the epics are just flat out why the deck exists (Cube, Call, etc.) I'm already kind of recoiling from the game again, as I have precisely zero cash to dole out.
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15 Dec 2017 00:05 - 15 Dec 2017 00:07 #259126 by Jackwraith
Replied by Jackwraith on topic Hearthstone Players!
Won a few games with my upgraded Call deck. It's pretty cool. I found a couple neutral cards I didn't want/need and put together the dust for two Creepers. (I think I'm down to, like, 20 dust.) I'm probably going to drop them into the deck in place of the Lions. Dropping a 5/5 for free because the game has been proceeding normally is better than waiting for that moment that you actually have a board full of Dudes.

But now I have the Play 50 Shaman cards quest so I'm gonna have to play the totem deck (kicks rock)...: hsreplay.net/replay/CkJG5qbXwS5xX6byLpcCPi

This guy is straight Zoo with seemingly few, if any, K&C cards. But you'd figure a deck empowered to do efficient trades like Zoo would romp over totems, amirite? Opening hand is a curve, albeit without a 1-drop, and I have both AoE removal/inhibition and single-target removal/inhibition. My Primalfins usually get taken out pretty fast, both because they're a constant source of 1/1s for free and because I think most people understand that the way to beat presumed Murloc decks is to scour the earth before they start beefing each other up. Not this one, though. On turn 2, he taps into Keleseth which is great for him. My first Stonehill gives me White Eyes. He would stay in my hand for the rest of the game, unneeded. My first indication that this might not be an experienced player comes on turn 3, when he uses a Souflre (losing only a Bloodsail, thankfully for him) to remove a Stonehill. There have to be a dozen other ways to clear a Stonehill in your average Zoo deck, none of which cost you two cards and your usual finisher/half of your total non-minion burst. The threat from the Stonehill is also, shall we say, not dire.

I do the Maelstrom to clear Keleseth mostly just to get another weenie on the board. Unfortunately, this one is the anti-weenie Tentacle. Sad trombone. The Cap'n comes out as does juicer Patches. He decides to remove the Tentacle. It's not a horrible choice, given that it keeps me from removing the Captain with the frogs and Tentacle in a way that I want. He also doesn't know I have the Rockbiter to take some of the fire out of Patches. Stonehill gives me the Chain Gang, ideal for this deck, and he goes all-in again to get the most out of Patches and get rid of that cursed Stonehill! I wonder if he just forged him and is just reveling in his use? I figure that's a good enough crowd to give some Devolovin' to and get a wisp, two penguins, and Keleseth(!) as a pretty solid result. I remove the Wisp because Murlocs and penguins gotta stick together. But I've removed a 3/3, a 2/4 that makes him want to Doomguard, a 4/1, and a 2/1. What's left is completely stymied by the Chain Gang and the totems just keep hangin' on.

But, y'know what? He says "Fuck it. I don't need no imp!" and Doomguards, tossing both Bonemares that he was one turn away from using. My second indication that he's not very experienced with Warlock came with him playing the Voidwalker before the Doomguard; thus guaranteeing that at least one if not both of the Bonemares would be discarded, rather than aiming for the 50% chance that he might keep both (I know it's not an accurate statistical statement. Piss off.) But, hey, he's got a 2/4 and 5/7 on the board. What are my measly totems gonna do about that?! You know what he's gonna do? He's gonna clear that Chain Gang! All taunts must die! And then my third indication: Given the chance to again reduce me to two 0-attack totems by killing the frog, he decides to hit the Primalfin with a Healing Stream totem on the board; something that he's seen work multiple times by now. Maybe he was just tilting or maybe Murlocs and penguins really do gotta stick together. (I mean, yeah, it's a Murloc totem but it's not like a real Murloc. Would you kiss the Dakota Johnson mannequin or Dakota Johnson? (Um, if she's not inviting it, don't do the latter.))

What am I gonna do about a 5/7? Make it a real frog, of course. I then fill up the board with crap again and that is a gen-yoo-wine unironical casting of Totemic Might! Which pretty much locks him out and leaves a totemic Shieldbearer on the board which I'm sure has this guy fuming by now. (TAUNNNNNNNT!!!!!! /Shatner.) All I'm waiting for is one topdeck... and on my next turn, I get it. With the Councilman on the board, there's no better opportunity to push him toward the edge (again, with the knowledge that he's probably not the most experienced player.) I clear the VW and do 17 with my crap. No more Life Tap for you... except, no, he goes ahead and does it, anyway. Maybe he was looking for Defile? But that leaves lethal (snicker) on the board. Searing Totem, fittingly, gets the kill. This deck is stupid. But it's 26 Shaman cards, which means it should get me the quest relatively soon.
Last edit: 15 Dec 2017 00:07 by Jackwraith.
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15 Dec 2017 09:51 #259148 by jeb
Replied by jeb on topic Hearthstone Players!
No lie, I break out Totem.dec for the Shaman Quest too. Games are quick and I feel like folks get a thrill when Wicked Witchdoctor does her thing. Board goes from empty to full and weird in 1 turn! (I prefer the whole WW, Coin, Ancestral Healing, Totemic Might, Thing From Below, Primal Strength thing, ideally with Evolve or Bloodlust for the next turn as needed.)

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15 Dec 2017 23:05 - 15 Dec 2017 23:10 #259199 by Jackwraith
Replied by Jackwraith on topic Hearthstone Players!
Oh, dude! I was thisclose to doing the Windcaller/Al'Akir thing again... but I didn't have room on the board and couldn't kill any of my trash. And another time I had all 4 on the board and Mighted and had two spaces. I was one turn away from dropping it and then following with another Al'Akir I'd gotten from a Stonehill... And my opponent conceded, Unreal. It took me three more games to finish the quest because one game I was mostly playing Stonehills, whatever came out of Stonehills, and hitting the button. I've lost three of my last four, including one against a Paladin who had me dead to rights but I think he knew we were both doing class quests, because he spent another couple turns just tossing whatever Paladin cards he could play and I did the same with Shaman cards. Unlike mine, his deck was actually OK.

There was a long-assed thread on the Reddits today about the state of Shaman and the misdirected efforts to get both Overload and totems to work. Yours truly had one of the top voted comments on there and I know Mike Donais was on the sub today, since he commented on one of the other threads. So, at least feedback has been seen. Whatevs.
Last edit: 15 Dec 2017 23:10 by Jackwraith.

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17 Dec 2017 17:42 #259232 by jeb
Replied by jeb on topic Hearthstone Players!

Jackwraith wrote: Oh, dude! I was thisclose to doing the Windcaller/Al'Akir thing again... but I didn't have room on the board and couldn't kill any of my trash. And another time I had all 4 on the board and Mighted and had two spaces.

That is a saddest thing about this combo. When you pull it off, you have at least four pieces of trashgarbage, that battlecry guy, and Al-Akir. As an opponent, I am concerned about one of those things, and honestly, not super concerned. Bloodlust is more a concern than Al-Akir. I feel like the ROI is so bad in everything Shaman does outside of Evolving monsters.

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17 Dec 2017 18:10 #259233 by Jackwraith
Replied by Jackwraith on topic Hearthstone Players!
Totally is. I've lost one game out of the last eight with my Call to Arms deck and it was to Evolve Shaman, who kept just ahead of me with little guys and board clears until he could get an Evolve off and I had no way to stop him. So, yeah, Shaman is competitive, if and only if you're playing Evolve.

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17 Dec 2017 23:51 - 17 Dec 2017 23:53 #259241 by MacDirk Diggler
I watched a lot of the Seatstory tourney this weekend as I was home sick. Xixo took it and beat people down with big spell priest. There was a game in finals Neirea made 14 heatlth lyra and had tools in hand to make it huge and otk. But out comes the 8 mana archivist casting mind control on it for the concede. Shaman lost about every game in the tourney. Warlock is considered the toughest deck to beat.

I screwed around with Cubelock. But I think it was a force when it surprised people, I was playing it when it was new. Now I have transitioned to full control warlock with Rin and Nzoth.... corrupting mist!!! I. can beat cubleock pretty easily. You see it coming and make sure you have taunts up. This control lock has so much defense with taunts, removal and heal, Rin puts them on a clock. The only decks that are favorable are decks that can go over the top. Tempo mage I am 40%. Razakus I cannot beat. But big spell priest is the priest flavor du jour.... I can beat that by playing around mind control. So ya, it’s the second coming of the old Justicar you can’t kill me warrior.

Now that I made 5 I am trying Tempo Mage with Aluneth. So many weenie paladins lately though. Every time I cue into one I wish I was on my Warlock. I also have a fantastic Dragon Druid I borrowed from Thijs Seatstory lineup. Run the 9 mana Master Oakensomethong. He pulls 1 2 and 3 attack minion. I have Drakari Enchanter as 1 atk and the dragon summoning end of turn guy has 2 attack. So if I can live until 9 I can play Master and get 5 minions which includes 2 huge dragons. I run primordial drake and the new sleepy dragon so there is solid chance to pull a giant Taunt. There are 5 or so viable Druid builds if you include aggro, jade, the otk one Jeb mentioned, MIracle Druid is hot too, and there is a weird one that goes infinite on the 3/5 Tiger that reshuffles.

Anyhow. With warlock being tier one (in my opinion). Games can go pretty long. I see people roping me because that level of shutdown control pisses people off. I am loving the game now though. There are just so many different decks out there right now. Shit, I could argue Wild is more stale. All the Reno Nzoth decks and hunters with the giants exploit get kinda boring to play against.

What about the dungeon run? I was geeked about it and tried it out of the gate with mage and went right through and cleared it. I thought it was either way too easy or I was just real good. My friend cleared it with Warlock first try. But since then it’s been tough sledding. After 10 or so tries I made it with priest. But getting my ass kicked with rogue and warlock. It sucks when you have an amazing deck and get your ass kicked by some boss like the guy who destroys your deck 3 cards at a time.
Last edit: 17 Dec 2017 23:53 by MacDirk Diggler.
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18 Dec 2017 09:50 #259254 by Jackwraith
Replied by Jackwraith on topic Hearthstone Players!
Agreed on the current environment. Other than Shaman, there are so many playable decks out there that it's kinda crazy. It's a long way from knowing that every Druid will be Jade, every Rogue will be Quest, every Mage will be Freeze, and so on. That said, I've noticed that the rhythm of play is occasionally quite predictable. I was cracking up my girlfriend when I was playing a game against an aggro Druid the other day and kept predicting the cards that would come out of his hand in perfect order for like 5 turns in a row. "How can you know that?" "Because that's what's appropriate here and it's probably what I would do, too." I think that the diverse meta makes the game more interesting, but it feels like the dominance of tempo-based play still makes game somewhat predictable as it was for the last few months, but also emphasizes the skill of the player, i.e. who can do different things with the same tools.

The Recruit mechanic has really brought that to the fore. It seems like an RNG thing, since you have little control over what hits the board. But it's not really, since you can shape your deck to certain parameters. It's like I used to say about Games Workshop games: Yes, there's fistfuls of dice on every turn. But the skill is in shaping the odds to your advantage so that no matter how many dice you roll, the majority of the time the result of your actions will still leave you ahead.

The Dungeon runs are really cool. I've only won with Shaman and Paladin and it took me a few runs of each to get there. But, yeah, Azari suuuucks. There's been 3 or 4 times that I've run into him with a loaded deck and watched every power card I have get blown away on his turn. The two I beat were Vustrasz and Togwaggle.
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18 Dec 2017 13:23 #259264 by jeb
Replied by jeb on topic Hearthstone Players!
I am 2-0 vs Azari, the card eating demon. He doesn't do anything too nuts. Yeah, your deck gets eaten, but you should be juiced by then, so play your juice and win. I beat him with Hunter + buffs and Warlock + Free Demons. I was saved in that Warlock one by a cheap Chromaggus he couldn't get rid of for a couple turns, filling my hand as he ate my deck. I was in Fatigue, but he was dead. The one I can't beat is Xol. His "Steal a Guy" beam is just too much. I can't really think of a strat that could win there outside of Stacked Spell Damage and that's a maybe. Toughest boss by far for my money. I have done Runs at least 30 times, and I saw a Bard for the first time today. I wonder how much stuff is hidden in this mode. It's such a blast.

Zetalot came up with the 10-mana OTK Priest that was all over Reddit yesterday with MrYagut getting LULd out of the game. Keep clearing and healing, clearing and healing until you get two Corrupted Healbots killed and assemble the combo pieces. The pieces are Twilight's Call x2, plus an Auchenai effect and clear. The two Calls make 4 1/1 Corrupted Healbots which deal 32 damage when killed under Auchenai effect. You only have 4 mana to work with after the Calls fire, so the options are:
Auchanai Soulpriest+ Circle of Healing
Wild Pyro + Embrace the Shadow
Embrace the Shadow + Spirit Lash

It's hilarious to see it fire. It would lose to like, armor gain, so I don't think it will dominate the Ladder or anything, but it also shows the power of novelty even in high-level Ladder play.
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18 Dec 2017 17:27 #259282 by Jackwraith
Replied by Jackwraith on topic Hearthstone Players!
Call deck continues to perform, although I ran into one of those essential questions of the game in a recent win over a Jade Druid: When do you play the presumed killshot? Not the card that takes them out, but the minion that presumably will do so, one way or the other. In most Paladin decks, that's often Tirion, as it was for me.
hsreplay.net/replay/spyaVeGGBSXReu6HAxHur8

I topdeck the best turn 1 opener. There's some argument for saving Lost in the Jungle for more knives from the Juggler, but I think that's too precious. Better to get them on the board and trading with golems right away. Turn 3 is an example of how awesome Unidentified Maul is for you doubters. Yes, it could end up just giving things Taunt, but most of the time, it's much better than that. If he leaves a bubble up, I can follow with Rallying Blade. I'm fine with taking the bubble off the Jailor for obvious reasons. I get to do knife tricks on turn 5, anyway. I do set him up for a nice Swipe, but there was no way around that and I have SAD in my hand. Of course, he has the other Swipe in hand, but decides to up the ante and play Baron Geddon(!) I can't think of the last time I saw that card outside a Wild control Warrior deck. Good on him for trying something new (old.) I don't really have a good answer except Equality, which means I'll be taking 7. But there's a chance with Call... and the Juggler gets it done. The revival of that card is complete.

He was determined to load me up by wiping out the Jailors. I'm not quite sure he knew what he was doing there. And my turn 8 is one of those shining moments for this deck. He actually had the gall to give me a "Well Played" before he cast the Plague. Tarim says "Great!" But I screwed up here. since I should have kept the Steward for SAD and just taken out the last one myself. Was playing too fast. I also neglected to get another 3/3 by getting a Dude before Tarim. Ugh. Easy mistakes. He topdecks the dragon. So right here is the question: I had Tirion in my hand. Do I play him and make him deal with the 6/6 and weapon that follows? I stuck with the two-card combo because I was hoping for the Adaptation to enable a board that I could secure and play Tirion on later. But I was pretty sure he had the other Swipe, so if I didn't get health or shield, I was basically giving up the turn except for one 3 attack minion that would survive (if he didn't have Wrath.) Even with my decision to not play the threat, I fucked up the poor Adapt choice I was given, since I should have taken plants to make the Swipe irrelevant, whether he had it or not. Even though he did pull three(!) more cards with Paths and Growth, he conceded because there was no effective way to deal with The Man. Did I let that game go two extra turns that I didn't need to? Dunno. It likely would have been over, regardless, if I hadn't killed the Steward.

I have the Play 10 Elementals quest, so I figured I'd drop into Casual and finish it in one game with my Shaman Not Competitive Because Not Evolve elemental deck:
hsreplay.net/replay/YghbFr8yhLXZvr9oDMFGPX

My draw was almost exclusively from the top half of my deck and it didn't get any better. Thankfully, his start was extremely slow, too. I had little hope of winning this game, since Elementals are still pretty poor and I'd only been able to squeeze one new card into it (the Murmuring; I don't own Grumble.) I mean, seriously, nothing but totems until he finally drops a Minstrel and I Claw it. I still have no idea what he's doing, until he does the Kingsbane/Eddie turn. Even then, my responses are completely reactive for the next two turns with Hex and Lightning. More totems! In my experience with Kingsbane, the answer is simply to not worry about them boosting the weapon. They're going to get the buffs, but until they put Lifesteal on it, they're killing themselves every time they use it, like usual. I do the subpar placement of Flametongue for that reason: I wanted to start the damage rolling before he found that card.

He plays the Doomsayer and I can't deal with it, so I just play into it and get two draws off the Servant. Thankfully, one is another Murmuring. Even more thankfully, I had my pick of legendaries. Given what was in my hand, Grumble was the best pick. Plus, I wanted to try him. Two shots from the Blazecaller take him to 11 and I think he realizes what's happening here. But maybe not, because then he plays Valeera and breaks the stealth(!) He hits face and then decides to taunt me... because he knew it was over since I still had a 6/6 in play? Or because he figured the armor had saved him and he was going off next turn? Grumble does his thing and the Murmuring does its. Grumble might- might -make the deck semi-competitive, but I doubt it.

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18 Dec 2017 22:22 #259300 by Jackwraith
Replied by Jackwraith on topic Hearthstone Players!
Hrm. Trying out J4ckie's N'Zoth Shaman that he took to Seatstory. Ugh. The Overload is hideous and it's reallllyyyy slooooowwwww. But on those games when you do manage to get off a fully upgraded Spellstone on something good, it's amazing. That will happen about 1 in every 4 or 5. In Big Priest, a 7-cost Spellstone is fine because you have the spells to keep yourself alive and they don't inhibit you from playing anything next turn. In Shaman, I think it just costs too much to have a real effect on the game like the Warlock or Hunter stones.
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