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Hearthstone Players!

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28 Mar 2015 22:24 #200086 by Jackwraith
Replied by Jackwraith on topic Hearthstone Players!
So, that awesome Mage Arena deck crashed and burned after 6 wins. I just didn't have enough big creatures to compete. Injured Blademaster followed by Venture Co. followed by Venture Co. followed by Force Tank MAX was just too much for me to deal with and I only had 3 creatures with power greater than 5. I swear that had nothing to do with the Druid deck I drafted right after: Venture Co, Mech-Bear-Cat, Ancient of Lore, 2 Stormwind Champions, and an Ironbark. Only have 1 Swipe and 1 Starfall for removal, but picked up a Keeper, too, so we'll see.

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06 Apr 2015 08:48 - 06 Apr 2015 12:59 #200373 by rocketkiwi
Replied by rocketkiwi on topic Hearthstone Players!
High hopes for this draft:
i.imgur.com/UmHeiyB.jpg

Legendaries were at pick #10, #20, and #30. Fun fact: I passed on a Sneed's at pick #10 to get Hogger (and was kind of bummed about it) but he came up again for pick #30! Troggzor also showed up at 20 and 30. First game I curved out perfectly - I had a Bluegill, Animal Companion, Pilot Shredder in my starting hand, drew a tracking turn 1, which got me a Fen Creeper. Even got to play Hogger on turn 6!

Edit: 2-3. I hate this game.
Last edit: 06 Apr 2015 12:59 by rocketkiwi.

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06 Apr 2015 11:27 #200386 by Jackwraith
Replied by Jackwraith on topic Hearthstone Players!
Ha. I've been playing since the second week of the closed beta and I've never had an Arena deck with more than one legendary in it. I ran into a guy a few weeks ago who dropped Ragnaros, Onyxia, and King Krush on me, though (in successive turns, no less.) Looks solid, especially the midgame. Good luck!

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06 Apr 2015 13:13 #200397 by jeb
Replied by jeb on topic Hearthstone Players!
That's a pretty sweet deck. I hope you 12-0, man. The deck can do it. 4 weapons in a Hunter deck is SICK as hell. Stampeding Kodo will make them cry when you take out the desperation Annoy-o-tron.

I have been having a good time with Razor's Hobo Warrior deck. Warbots! Warbots for victory! The gist is generating value from Warsong Commander (fixed, it now works on minions that came into play other than from the hand) and Hobgoblin. If you have those two out and you play a Warbot? That's a 3/5 with Enrage+1 and Charge. If you have those out and a Frothing Berserker? That's... like game over. I had the dream a couple of days ago. Warsong commander, some other dudes out against their dudes--play Frothing Berserker and last hit with Death's Bite. 9/3 with Charge. They usually concede before his slowass animation finishes. Replaced the Screwjank Clunker with Grim Patron for the time being to see how that plays out. I can't resist the temptation of Warsong/Grim Patron. If you try this out, you need to mulligan AGGRESSIVELY. You need War Axe against most decks and Annoy-o-tron/Cogmaster/Warbot against aggressive decks. It's SUPER CHEAP. 4 Rares, 2 Epics, and a Dr. Boom. 5 rares if you play Clunker.

2@ Execute
2@ Cogmaster
2@ Warbot
2@ Fiery War Axe
2@ Annoy-o-tron
2@ Cruel Taskmaster
2@ Mechwarper
2@ Acolyte of Pain
2@ Frothing Berserker
2@ Hobgoblin
2@ Warsong Commander
2@ Death's Bite
2@ Jeeves
2@ Piloted Shredder
1@ Grim Patron (alt: Screwjank Clunker)
L@ Dr. Boom

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06 Apr 2015 15:02 #200404 by stormseeker75
Replied by stormseeker75 on topic Hearthstone Players!
So how hard is it to get into this game? I would love to play Magic but just don't have the time or money to be competitive. Maybe this is what I'm looking for.
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06 Apr 2015 15:19 #200405 by Not Sure
Replied by Not Sure on topic Hearthstone Players!
If you don't have time or money, you won't be competitive in this either.

It's fun, but at this point the unlockable cards are pretty crappy compared to the expansion cards. You'll have to grind in the arena for a long long time, or pour some money into the game to get up to snuff.

If you love playing draft in the Arena, you can build up a bunch of expansion cards, but you'll still need to craft some essentials from the original set.

It's free, though. Give it a try. But if you don't want to play a crapload of draft you need to be prepared to spend some real dough, or just suck at the game.

I just suck at the game.
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06 Apr 2015 15:23 - 06 Apr 2015 15:25 #200406 by Jackwraith
Replied by Jackwraith on topic Hearthstone Players!
At this point, it takes some money if you want a big card pool. You can win with just the basics, but it takes time and patience. Right now, there's the base set (350 cards), an expansion of 143 (Goblins vs Gnomes), and two adventures that are played against the computer to win new cards into your pool (Naxxramas and Blackrock Mountain; about 30 cards each.) Everything in the game can be purchased with in-game gold, so free-to-play is feasible, but winning gold is done by completing daily quests ("Win 5 games with Hunter or Shaman") and/or winning in Arena (a draft format), so it can be a slow climb. New packs of 5 cards each are 100 gold or $1.99 (with better cash rates if you buy 5, 10, 20, etc.) The best route is probably to try it out and pick a class that appeals and then just focus on that class, since you can scrap cards you don't want for dust to make the cards that you want. Once you get rolling, it's fairly easy to keep gold flowing in but it will take some patience if you don't want to lay down a little money (I'm talking tens of dollars, not hundreds.)
Last edit: 06 Apr 2015 15:25 by Jackwraith.
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06 Apr 2015 16:31 #200408 by rocketkiwi
Replied by rocketkiwi on topic Hearthstone Players!
As a relatively new F2Per, daily quests keep me in enough gold to do Arena and if I had any real will to do so (ie, not play Arena for a while) I could get Naxxramas pretty easily. You WILL run into decks in constructed that have legendary after legendary, or Sludge Belchers, or whatever. You can beat them without paying (I have!), but sometimes you're just going to get outvalued. I run a poor man's mechmage in constructed and it's easy enough for me to crank out enough wins to play Arena regularly.
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06 Apr 2015 18:20 #200410 by Not Sure
Replied by Not Sure on topic Hearthstone Players!
The other rule to start out with in constructed is "play Ranked", even for your daily quests.

In "Casual", you'll find a lot of people who are testing new decks with their fat fat card pool, and unless you have a decent amount of power you'll just get worked.

In Ranked, losing anywhere below Rank 20 makes no difference, and you'll see more real beginners. Real players well get auto-advanced out of your reach pretty fast. You'll run into some slackers (like me) who have decent decks but no ranking drive so we get reset into 23 or so each month, but you'll also find a more equal footing down in the lower ranks. Seems counter-intuitive, but it's true.

I've spent $10 total, on the second half of Naxxramas (I bought the first half with gold). A lot of those cards are common fixtures in constructed decks (like the Sludge Belcher), so it's a good thing to have.

Jackwraith's advice to pick a class is probably a good idea. I've never been able to commit to that, so I have a number of half-decent cheapass decks, and nothing really competitive.
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06 Apr 2015 19:11 #200411 by jeb
Replied by jeb on topic Hearthstone Players!

stormseeker75 wrote: So how hard is it to get into this game? I would love to play Magic but just don't have the time or money to be competitive. Maybe this is what I'm looking for.


Try it out. I am an MtG player turned HS player and the transition is a little jarring. Games are MUCH FASTER. In Magic, the defender controls combat--they choose when and where to block. In HS, the attacker chooses. In MtG, you have to pay "extra" for evasion, to control combat offensively. In HS, you have to pay "extra" for Taunt, an ability that means this minion must be removed before anything else is attacked. So the games move quick.

Mana problems are eliminated, you get 1 extra mana per turn, there are no "colors" and you max out at 10.

Decks are always 30 cards with max 2 of any, except for Legendaries, with max 1 of any. No sideboards.

If there is a "pay-to-win" element, as noted, it's the Adventures. They are $25 each, a little less if you use Amazon bucks. They provide PvE content and are a ton of fun. But they cost real money. You can "buy" them for in-game gold (3500 each, viz. 700 per "wing"), but honestly, it's not worth it. If you enjoy the game as much as I do, you won't mind paying for the Adventures when you feel you want them. I have no regrets. I have never bought packs of cards because...

Arena is equivalent to "Sealed" play in MtG. It's not a draft--your opponents have no idea what's in your deck. Here's where the math comes in.

A pack of cards (5, at least one rare), is 100 gold. Playing Arena is 150 gold and guarantees you 1 pack, plus more prizes based on how many games you win before losing 3. If you can manage to average between 3 and 4 wins, then it "pays off" to play Arena to get the pack, because between the Daily Quests and your winnings, you'll get that 50 differential back and then some. I average about 54 gold per Arena run, so I actually MAKE gold playing Arena for packs. Eventually I accrue enough "extra" to buy a Classic pack (think Core Set vs Expansion) and try to fill out my rares, epics, and legendaries.

If you are well-read on Magic, you know about Johnny, Timmy, and Spike. If you are Spike, it's pay-to-win. You will love it if you are willing to do that. If you are Timmy, it's a tough go in the first few weeks until you get your footing. I think the game best fits Johnny, you can get to a point where you are making a statement pretty early going and don't have to commit to paying out anything unless you want to. ESPECIALLY if you commit to a class and are willing to grind up non-class cards. You can set yourself up very nicely then. I am too fickle for that, so I pilot second/third tier versions of most everything.
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07 Apr 2015 09:27 #200423 by Black Barney
Replied by Black Barney on topic Hearthstone Players!
stormseeker, don't discount the free-to-play Magic Duels: Origins coming out June/July. If you like Magic, you'll probably love this. Very similar model probably to Hearthstone.

I like Hearthstone as well but gave it up.
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07 Apr 2015 13:55 #200455 by jeb
Replied by jeb on topic Hearthstone Players!
I am looking forward to this MtG Duels:Origins thing too. I think Hearthstone was a major wake up call for WotC. The MODO (Magic Online) client is GARBAGE. It started out as garbage and they garbaged more garbage into the garbagey garbage over the years. Go look at anyone playing it on stream. It's embarrassing and WotC should be ashamed. They have ignored the Apple market, the online market, and the handheld market with their premier product. Duels of the Planeswalkers is fun enough to make me want to play actual Magic, but I couldn't because WotC is awful.

I think they saw Blizzard's client and woke the fuck up. It's gorgeous. The sounds are great, the animations on golden cards are awesome, and the monetization has been very successful. Plus it's funny! Like the lighthearted little game it is. Really opens up the flavor-space when you don't have to be all broody. "Join, or DIE! ..Or both." I have to believe Duels: Origins is going to try and compete here.

Went 7-3 last night with Mage in Arena. Picked another and it's even more sick, though maybe not to my playstyle. Last night was Aggro and so easy. Just play dudes and attack. Opponent had to play the value game, but it was tough because my deck was just a crapload of shitty minions and burn. Today's is built for control, so I need to make sure I use up my minions and burn on their cheap stuff and wait for the late game: Force Tank MAX, Ragnaros, Troggzor, Pyroblast.
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07 Apr 2015 14:30 #200461 by Jackwraith
Replied by Jackwraith on topic Hearthstone Players!
How do you guys keep drafting these multi-legendary decks? Who got the cheat code and didn't pass it along? Ragnaros and Pyro should be The Answer in a lot of Arena situations as long as you can semi-control the midgame and don't get run down by a face-aggro deck early on. Troggzor is less viable because there's far less guarantee of the opponent having spells in the late game (which is often the problem with him in constructed, too; without them, you're playing a 6/6 for 7) but he's still a big body.

I haven't touched the game since the first wing opened and I'm kind of hankering to try my reformulated Priest deck, but my GF's kids are out of town, so she's been the focus (gladly) and I"m gaming vicariously through you guys (which might explain why you're drafting so well; they're like dream decks for me! Yeah. That's the ticket....) OTOH, I could add Quick Shot to my never-really-successful Control Hunter deck...

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07 Apr 2015 15:03 #200465 by jeb
Replied by jeb on topic Hearthstone Players!

Jackwraith wrote: How do you guys keep drafting these multi-legendary decks? Who got the cheat code and didn't pass it along? Ragnaros and Pyro should be The Answer in a lot of Arena situations as long as you can semi-control the midgame and don't get run down by a face-aggro deck early on. Troggzor is less viable because there's far less guarantee of the opponent having spells in the late game (which is often the problem with him in constructed, too; without them, you're playing a 6/6 for 7) but he's still a big body.

I haven't touched the game since the first wing opened and I'm kind of hankering to try my reformulated Priest deck, but my GF's kids are out of town, so she's been the focus (gladly) and I"m gaming vicariously through you guys (which might explain why you're drafting so well; they're like dream decks for me! Yeah. That's the ticket....) OTOH, I could add Quick Shot to my never-really-successful Control Hunter deck...

I don't bother posting about the shitty 2-3 Paladin decks I draft in between all of these. I am swearing off Paladin for the time being. I am 20-18 with that class in six runs. Blarg. I like Troggzor a lot in my deck because the build I have should mean they don't have a lot of tough stuff left when he comes down. They were saving Hex and Polymorph and Fireball for my fat stuff and those are crummy against Troggzor. I would not like to see me-play-Troggzor, they-play-Force Tank MAX, though. But I guess that's what my Polymorph is for.

I have been using HearthArena to track my Arena runs, that link is to my current one. It's a nice interface and I like to see where I choose differently from their algorithms. For example, on a choice of Frostbolt, Force Tank MAX, Dragon's Breath, they had Frostbolt 10 pts higher than FTMAX. (I already had Fireball, Frostbolt, and a Pyro for lategame at this pick). I took FTMAX because I make enough misplays that I need a little more lategame than they account for. I skipped another Frostbolt (83 pts) for Gilblin Stalker (67 pts) because I was at pick 15 and had only two 2-drops. I really want five of those and was getting antsy. HearthArena does a good job talking about the picks as you go along, telling you why you some cards more than others and providing some color as to why they move so much from base value. I undervalue Arcane Intellect, for example, but used their guidance to pick it over Dragon's Breath in this draft. It will work nicely with my controllish flavor to recharge my hand for the late-game.

---
Remember that Quickshot is Darkbomb with an upside. You have to NOT BE AFRAID TO PLAY IT AS DARKBOMB. Folks have been hanging on to it for that extra card and screwing themselves. I play a BeastHunter deck and haven't decided what to do about Quickshot. I don't think it has a place yet. What comes out? Hunter's Mark? I need that to let my Hounds kill fatties. I'll have to start keeping track of how often I wish I had Quickshot in hand to evaluate this.

Obviously, the big impact in constructed is Emperor Thaurissan. Everyone is trying to cram him in everywhere. I see most folks thinking Druid Druid Druid, but I don't think that's the best spot. I think Rogue is where he is most exceptional. Rogue getting to cast things cheaply is the key to bursty wins, and unless things have gone poorly, they should have a six or seven card hand on Turn 6 when they play the Emperor. That's a tough situation for the opponent. Rogue gets better once Hungry Dragon comes out, and that guy who Backstabs everyone is pretty sick too. It's going to be a Rogue'y season's end.

I think Grim Patron is going to make the 3/2 2-drops come back to the fore because that guy is a HUGE pain in the ass if you can't get rid of it quickly.

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08 Apr 2015 05:06 #200488 by rocketkiwi
Replied by rocketkiwi on topic Hearthstone Players!
A psychological barrier is broken as I get my first Arena run with over 5 wins!
www.heartharena.com/arena-run/63r547

All three losses were to mages, and the last one I was well ahead and then he dropped Onyxia. I proceeded to not get blizzard, fireball, or polymorph for three turns. Still, it's nice to have an arena run be PURE profit, pack + entry fee and a little more.
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