[PC] Hearthstone - open beta card game from blizzard

[drksage]

- Loving the new cards that buff Rogue weapons.
- I havent received or created the new 2/3 mech that buffs my wep +1, but the Oil (which buffs my wep to +3 and combos to buff the Attack of a random friendly minion by 3) sure helps finishing people off.
- Assassin's Blade + Oil + minion + blade flury is pretty fun :
- The Windfury mech + cold blood is fun too; havent tried the new 3 mana taunt/charge card, but it isnt a mech :
- Annoy-A-Tron is pretty annoying and that mage 2/3 mech is too (freeze is stupid)

Currently winning by going to the edge (last 10 won games Ive been below 8 health); going need to try and fix that with some taunt monsters and maybe some bulky ones (but then my combos will be even harder to do -.-)

 

[GohanSSJ]

I really love all the new Paladin cards. Like I've said, Paladin was dead in Naxx, Aggro was absolutely poop, simply because other aggro decks had major advantages, either through more synergy with Undertaker (Hunter) or other powerful 1 drops (Mage, Warlock), and with cards like Sludge it just completely killed it. Control Paladin was decent enough, but obviously very expensive, still it was just weaker in most cases than Warrior, where Warrior mulligans for Fiery War Axe against aggro, Paladins could fight back the earliest at 4 with Wild Pyromancer/Equality combo, or if the board was all low health minions, Consecrate. After that you could stabilize in some cases, but the damage was too much in most cases. Warrior just had way more answers, whereas they are similar in strength in lategame.

So that has changed bigtime. There are now so many good early game cards that you could actually go for full aggro again, with Undertaker + Clockwork Gnome + Leper Gnome you got your turn 1, after that there are enough choices.
But even if you don't go that route, you can just go Annoy a Tron, Shielded Minibot, Coghammer etc against aggro, stabilizing a bit and fight back Muster for Battle (later Quartermaster), and if the meta shifts to deathrattles again, well just play a Scarlet Purifier.
So you can go a lot of ways to either go full aggro, beat aggro and go mid range, or just go control with those early defensive drops. In the end you got 3 different kind of builds that are all very strong.

And for those lacking a lot of the legendaries, that's ok, aggro is cheap and mid should be ok, 1 very strong Paladin was shown with only 3 legendaries, Loatheb, Tirion and Dr. Boom (Strifecro's Kinguin Paladin), so for a mid range that's really affordable. Aggro could be made without legendaries for sure.

Personally I'm gonna make a aggro and control one, just busy building it right now, but not sure if I should replace certain cards:

Equality x2
Annoy-o-Tron x2
Ironbeak Owl x1
Shielded Minibot x2
Coghammer x2
Muster for Battle x2
Aldor Peacekeeper x2
Big Game Hunter x1
Truesilver Champion x2
Consecration x2
Enhance-o Mechano x1
Loatheb x1
Quartermaster x2
Sludge Belcher x2
Cairne Bloodhoof x1
The Black Knight x1
Dr. Boom x1
Guardian of Kings x1
Lay on Hands x1
Tirion Fordring x1

I lack some cards, but I can craft them, but I want to use Harrison Jones in this deck as well (got it as well), so I'm considering dropping a Quartermaster. Frankly there is a good chance I will used 1 Muster early on to fight against aggro, possibly in combo with Equality, so combo probably won't happen until turn 8 or 10. Harrison Jones with all the weapons right now is just really good.
I considered cutting other cards, but the lower mana cards are simply needed to fight off aggro, whereas the later cards are just so good, none of them are easy to deal with. And frankly once I go late, I prefer cards like Sludge, Cairne, Black Knight and Guardian over the aggro card Quartermaster.

 

[GohanSSJ]

Holy crap just had the most exciting game ever. My heart is still racing how crazy that was.

Playing my Paladin control vs a Warrior control, his early game was quite strong, at turn 10 I ended up with 1/3 weapon in hand (Muster), a 1/1 on board against Iron Juggernaut (that places a 10 damage mine somewhere in your deck) and a armor smith on the board. Now I drew the mine straight away and dropped to 1, with the warrior at 25+. I had in my hand Tirion, Lay on Hands and 2 non relevant cards. I did the math and basically only had those 2 cards to keep me alive, however since Tirion can be countered to easily, I went for Lay on Hands, hoping to draw 1 of my 2 equalities... and I did. Killed the armor smith with weapon and Iron Juggernaut with dude.
He tried his best after that to take me down, and finally drew his Grommash, but he had no damage, so he went for 4, second equality + dude took that out, Guardian of Kings, Black Knight and others were able to keep me alive, even through 2 Brawls, giving me the win in the end, which actually quite funny, I had 5 dudes + Quartermaster on board, he used the Bouncing Blade, but it obviously only killed one, leaving him out to dry.

PS I ended up replacing the Quartermaster with Harrison, not sure how good he really is, Black Knight has given me value in every game, Harrison has definitely not, I guess the 1 mana less makes him ok though, even when the enemy has no weapon, because even though 5/4 is poop, you still need to deal with it.

Currently at 9 wins 3 losses and rank 10. I will try to get Legendary this month, playing this deck feels really good, which is something that I haven't felt for a while, the only deck I enjoyed somewhat was Mage aggro, which had like a 70% winratio over 35 games, but playing more then 3-4 games became boring, because it's just so straight forward, aka boring.


Update: Rank 9, 17 wins 7 losses for a winratio of 71%
Winrate against the following classes:
Mage 50% (4)
Warlock 86% (7) 6 of them handlock btw
Hunter 0% (2)
Warrior 100% (1)
Shaman 67% (3)
Druid (0)
Priest 75% (4)
Paladin 100% (3)
Rogue (0)

While I can deal with some aggro, it's still a very hard match up. Still considering I don't encounter that much aggro atm, which is kind of surprising, since zoo and huntard are still cancer. Once I go late game, it's usually too hard for my enemies to fight back. I guess I just got too many answers for most decks. I mean while handlock does require a lot of thinking, the simple fact is that there is so many answers in Paladin, you just need to be patient, build the board and make sure you have enough to deal with 2 giants and taunts when you put him down low enough.

PS the winratio is consistent, in my last 10 games I won 7 and lost 3.

 

[Negata]

So it's been released on Android now (though not in our region just yet but very soon). So I'm considering buying a tablet just for Hearthstone but it doesn't feel right so give me some other reasons to justify buying a tablet! Also wondering if I should go for one of the lower-end tablets or if I'll find other uses later and then regret I didn't buy a better one.

(A christmas present to myself!?)

 

[GohanSSJ]

Well personally I wouldn't buy a Android tablet, but that's me.

There are quite a few Windows 8 tablets for very lower prices, like 105 euro incl shipping. This would be a full Windows 8 tablet with a Intel Atom (Bay Trail) processor, 2GB memory, 32GB space, slots for microSD, micro HDMI, micro USB and basically everything you need.
A friend of mine has one and I installed Hearthstone on it to try, it works flawlessly on medium settings.

The one he got is:

You must be registered to see links

There are also larger ones, like 10 inch models with nearly thesame dimensions and same resolution as the latest iPads.

 

[Negata]

For a multipurpose tablet, the platform really isn't negotiable for me, if I get a tablet it's an Android. If I happen to do mobile development it's for Android first so the tablet could be nice for that. There's absolutely no chance I'll be interested in Windows development, so...

Then again, if I get something usable for as little as 100 euros I might just get a tablet *only* for playing so that's where Windows does have its edge, and I could buy another one whenever I come up with a genuine need for something else. You only made this more difficult for me!

 

[GohanSSJ]

The larger tablets can actually be found with dualboot, look for the Teclast x98. They will still be using a Intel processor of course.
Also Windows can run Android apps through Bluestacks. This is not some crappy emulating, but I'm talking playing Asphalt 8 without any problems on my Surface Pro.

Otherwise I'm sure there are some cheap Android tablets out there that are fast enough for Hearthstone.

 

[Negata]

I'm stunned right now.. what happened here? Why did my Soulpriest die?

I'm stunned right now.. what happened here? Why did my Soulpriest die?

Awwfff.. yeah I get it now, I didn't realize the spell actually made 5 damage instead of the 4 due to me having Velen's Chosen on the Lightwarden. Well, that was stupid. Totally forgot about the +1 spellpower on it, and in fact if you'd asked me I wouldn't even have been sure if it applies like that.



I've always liked Priest decks for their fun-to-play aspect but with GvG the number of ways to play them just doubled. Lots of fun! Not sure what'd constitute a solid strong deck though.

 

[GohanSSJ]

Well I can't tell the best way to play priest, but here are some new combo's with these 2 cards, Shrinkmeister (-2 attack) and Recombobulator (change minion into a random minion of the same cost)
Shrinkmeister and Shadow Word: Pain - 4 mana
Shrinkmeister and Cabal Shadow Priest - 8 mana
Shrinkmeister and Shadow Madness - 6 mana
And the coolest one:
Shrinkmeister, Shadow Madness and Recombobulator. Why? Because Recombobulator makes it a new minion, so you steal a minion for 1 turn, you can of course attack with it if it survives, and than use Recombobulator, the new minion will be yours, y

You must be registered to see links

 

[drksage]

Got me a gold rogue now! Still rank 14 though... Its really hard to control the field when your aoe takes a good amount of setup. Need to try removing some mechs to get un some silencers and taunters, but the problem is that my damage will be a lot lower

 

[GohanSSJ]

I can't play Rogue properly. Rogue requires shitloads of experience, most classes are fairly straight forward, of course you always need to understand of what the other person (possibly) has, but for Rogue it's also a lot about know when to play your damage, wait too long to use your damage and you're dead, use it too early and you run out of answers. Rogue mana curve means fairly little in that regard.

With my control Paladin I of course need to think a lot about my plays, but it's never about how much damage I will have, but always what will be the hardest for them to deal with and what I'm willing to give them, basically baiting them a lot.

At least that's how it feels to me, I know lots of people can't play Paladin/Control for poop.

That said though, if you are stuck at rank 14, it's really not working out, you should get past that pretty quick. I feel that it gets hard below rank 10, people have all the cards, though I guess that's also what makes it a bit easier since I know what to expect.

Currently rank 8 myself, after I just encountered a horrible Warrior, just look at what he gave me.

Other picture is my deck, I switched Loatheb for Sylvana's, though I might cut Loatheb for Cairne, but I'm not sure, Loatheb feels pretty crap right, it's mostly because I can't really combo it with anything. In aggro it feels great, since you get a big board going, drop it at 5+ to stop things like equality + consencrate, holy nova, flamestrike etc etc, but I'm really not bothered about spells now, the cards that I don't want to see get removed with spells, are cards like sylvana's, tirion etc, but I can't combo them.

I want a second coghammer instead of seal of light, seal of light is not a dead card as it can deal with aggro or heal a bit while doing some extra damage, but generally coghammer is just stronger, aggro will probably leave my dudes up since they can only do 1 damage, making it a good option at turn 2 before I play coghammer, but it always works fantastic with shielded minibot. It's also still really good lategame with just about any card.

 

[Negata]

Well I can't tell the best way to play priest, but here are some new combo's with these 2 cards, Shrinkmeister (-2 attack) and Recombobulator (change minion into a random minion of the same cost)
Shrinkmeister and Shadow Word: Pain - 4 mana
Shrinkmeister and Cabal Shadow Priest - 8 mana
Shrinkmeister and Shadow Madness - 6 mana
And the coolest one:
Shrinkmeister, Shadow Madness and Recombobulator. Why? Because Recombobulator makes it a new minion, so you steal a minion for 1 turn, you can of course attack with it if it survives, and than use Recombobulator, the new minion will be yours, y

You must be registered to see links

Yeah I totally get the possible combos, it's what I referred to as fun. But adding the proper filler and avoiding making it a total gimmick deck is the problem. But then again that part IS the game, so...

 

[rz88]

it's pretty good

 

[Negata]

Had a nice rewarding game as Druid against a Mage. Taught him not to reveal his cards...
On turn 8 he suddenly starts going for the face even though have a 7/7 and a 3/4 on the board, dropping my HP to 10. I made the obvious conclusion he has a pyroblast in his hand so every turn from now on I made it a priority to keep my 10HP and 1 armor above it. On turn 11, having failed to reduce me from the 10+1, he shot the damn Pyroblast to his own face. I swear I jizzed in my pants just a little bit.

 

[drksage]

Druids are a pain because of their control. Faced one today with 2 druid of the claw, 1 sunwalker, 1 faceless (on the druid of the claw), and 2 ancient of war. As a rogue, you cant possibly output that much damage to remove all 6 taunt monsters.

 

[drksage]

Its fun getting destroyed by Harrison (when I have an Assassins Blade). A lot of people are running gim now and its kinda a pain, since I started just using assassins blade. Need to try and include more removal in my deck w/o removing some early game control

 

[GohanSSJ]

Yeah there are a lot of weapons in the games, a lot of Hunters have 3, Paladin's 5 to 6 (Truesilver, Muster, Tirion and sometimes a Coghammer), Warrior 4-5, Shaman 2 (Powermace) and Rogues are value city.

I really don't think Assassin's Blade is good, due to the meta Harrison is popular, and people rarely use it on regular dagger, so if you show them AB, you will loose it. Better to just use 2x Poison.

My current version of Paladin is attached.

 

[drksage]

It helps me alot qhen I need 3-5 dmg done to some one. A 10 dmg clear board turn is also nice (AB+DPOISON+BFLURRY). I still wnt blizzard to make a nice turn 2 weapon for Rogues, but I doubt they will because of their hero power. They also need to make some combo cards that dontrely on a lot of things (like the 2 mana class card which gives another minion)

 

[GohanSSJ]

Obviously it helps, but that doesn't make it a good card to play.

I removed Dr. Boom because it was my only BGH target, and since everyone and their mom is running BGH, it was essentially a 2x 1/1 deathrattle for 7. If you think further more that most people don't play BGH until they play a 7+ attack minion, you make it a dead card.

So just because something is a good card, doesn't mean you should keep it in this meta, this meta has Harisson in so many decks. The only way it can work, is if you bait it out with a 1 charge poisoned dagger, but it's tricky and not worth it imo.

In the end, you need to play (well not need, but if you want to advance...) to win, I removed Dr. Boom because I want to win, I replaced it with Kel'Thuzad, which is good with so many sticky minions, and as a 8 health minion, he's really quite hard to remove. So while I really like Dr. Boom, Kel'Thuzad is just the better choice.

 

[drksage]

My deck right now. Hope it will be good in higher ranks

Iev already had some sweet combos
- Anub'ar deathrattle my Argus/Drake
- Sap away to smash their face with Anub'ars, Gally, and Drakes
- Ysera board control is very nice late game
- Preparation is very handy when you want to use a free Evis/Fan of Knives (not to mention a turn 4 Sprint or 2 mana Assassinate)
- +14 Heal really helps me out; negates alot of the face damage I have to do