I missed out on that brawl due to PAX AUS; seems I didn't miss much.
I too am a pretty big fan of "Who wants to cast a spell? I want to cast a spell", but due to not currently having Flamewaker unlocked I don't think I can play a deck with it.
That said, maybe Babbling Book could be playable in a Freeze Mage deck, in place of Novice Engineer. Drawing from your deck is better than a random spell, but it does cost 1 less mana.
I started playing again several months ago after not playing Hearthstone for a year or so, and before then I pretty much just played arena and tavern brawls and not constructed. I figured the Karazhan cards were a bigger priority for my gold expenditure.
I guess I could have just spent money to unlock the adventures, but I decided I wouldn't do that.
I started playing again several months ago after not playing Hearthstone for a year or so, and before then I pretty much just played arena and tavern brawls and not constructed. I figured the Karazhan cards were a bigger priority for my gold expenditure.
I guess I could have just spent money to unlock the adventures, but I decided I wouldn't do that.
You're in luck. The year is almost over. When the first new expansion is released next year the Blackrock, Grand Tournament, and League of Explorers cards will all be removed from standard. If you just concentrate on Whispers of the Old Gods, classic, and Gadgetzan, you'll be ready for some standard play once an expansion gets released next year.
Wait a minute. Flamewaker is going away. Fuuuuuuuuck! How I play Hearthstone?
Fortunately, apart from legendaries, my collection is in decent shape for Old Gods and Classic cards. I'm assuming by "Gadgetzan" you mean "Karazhan", which I have fully unlocked now.
That said, I still want to get the chance to play some of the meta-defining decks before some of this stuff rotates out, so I still want to unlock a few key cards; notably these: - Imp Gang Boss for modern Zoolock - Flamewaker for Tempo Mage - Tunnel Trogg for Midrange Shaman
I would also love to have competitive Druid, Rogue, and Paladin decks, but not having key legendaries like Malygos, Fandral Staghelm, Edwin VanCleef, Tirion Fordring and Ragnaros, Lightlord means those classes will have to wait.
Fortunately, apart from legendaries, my collection is in decent shape for Old Gods and Classic cards. I'm assuming by "Gadgetzan" you mean "Karazhan", which I have fully unlocked now.
That said, I still want to get the chance to play some of the meta-defining decks before some of this stuff rotates out, so I still want to unlock a few key cards; notably these: - Imp Gang Boss for modern Zoolock - Flamewaker for Tempo Mage - Tunnel Trogg for Midrange Shaman
I would also love to have competitive Druid, Rogue, and Paladin decks, but not having key legendaries like Malygos, Fandral Staghelm, Edwin VanCleef, Tirion Fordring and Ragnaros, Lightlord means those classes will have to wait.
By Gadgetzan I mean Gadgetzan. It's a new expansion coming out before the end of the year. They are revealing new cards from it as we speak. Many have been shown over the past few days.
I have all the cards for all those decks. Except I only got Edwin recently. I also don't have the Rougue poison bug guy. I also don't have Fandral, but he's next on my list for crafting.
Due to the overlap between BlizzCon and PAX AUS I'm still behind on all the BlizzCon news; I guess I have to check some of that stuff out.
I guess by "poison bug guy" you mean Xaril, Poisoned Mind; he's pretty cool but doesn't seem to be essential to Rogue right now (e.g. no one brought him to BlizzCon). Either way, it seems like Rogue is a bit lackluster in the current meta.
I hope you get Fandral soon; Druid has been strong for a while now and it would be a shame if you didn't get to play a proper Druid deck before Raven Idol rotates out.
Due to the overlap between BlizzCon and PAX AUS I'm still behind on all the BlizzCon news; I guess I have to check some of that stuff out.
I guess by "poison bug guy" you mean Xaril, Poisoned Mind; he's pretty cool but doesn't seem to be essential to Rogue right now (e.g. no one brought him to BlizzCon). Either way, it seems like Rogue is a bit lackluster in the current meta.
I hope you get Fandral soon; Druid has been strong for a while now and it would be a shame if you didn't get to play a proper Druid deck before Raven Idol rotates out.
Due to the overlap between BlizzCon and PAX AUS I'm still behind on all the BlizzCon news; I guess I have to check some of that stuff out.
I guess by "poison bug guy" you mean Xaril, Poisoned Mind; he's pretty cool but doesn't seem to be essential to Rogue right now (e.g. no one brought him to BlizzCon). Either way, it seems like Rogue is a bit lackluster in the current meta.
I hope you get Fandral soon; Druid has been strong for a while now and it would be a shame if you didn't get to play a proper Druid deck before Raven Idol rotates out.
Fandral makes Druid ridiculously fun when playing Ramp or Malygos/Spell Decks. Moonglade Portal was really overlooked and you can get incredible value from Raven Idol and Nourish.
Midrange Shaman is absolutely disgusting. Unquestionably the most popular and powerful deck on later. Karazhan just emboldened their power from Spirit Claws, Maelstrom Portal, Thing From Below, and Thunder Bluff Valiant. Flamewreathed was irritating, but it got overthrown just from by the sheer power of filling the board and clearing the board nonstop.
Gadgetzan will be interesting. I'm really happy with the Priest Cards that have come out, but I'm worried about how powerful Paladin could be with all the cards that give +1/+1 to minions in hand. That short window where you can run Kazakus and Reno Jackson will be wonderful.
I've continued to play Hearthstone since my re-entry with Whispers of the Old Gods. I had previously played right up to the week prior to when Curse of Nax hit. For the moment, I'm using gold to get as many classic packs as possible. I quickly got all of the commons and all but 2 or 3 rares from WotOG, but I have huge holes in my Classic collection still, so I can't justify more Whispers packs. I also used gold to plow through League and Blackrock, and dropped $20 at one point on some Grand Tournament just to have some cards in the set, being they'd all be new to me.
I finally got another Classic legendary last night, but it was the dragon who makes players take 15sec turns. Oh well.
I've continued to play Hearthstone since my re-entry with Whispers of the Old Gods. I had previously played right up to the week prior to when Curse of Nax hit. For the moment, I'm using gold to get as many classic packs as possible. I quickly got all of the commons and all but 2 or 3 rares from WotOG, but I have huge holes in my Classic collection still, so I can't justify more Whispers packs. I also used gold to plow through League and Blackrock, and dropped $20 at one point on some Grand Tournament just to have some cards in the set, being they'd all be new to me.
I finally got another Classic legendary last night, but it was the dragon who makes players take 15sec turns. Oh well.
There are many worse legendaries than Nozdormu.
Also, can we talk about the new quests for a second? I like them way more because you get 50 gold instead of 40. Also, you don't have to win. You just have to play. This prevents that situation where sometimes you have to win 5 Warrior games, and you just can't, but you don't want to re-roll the quest.
Also, I got a quest to play a ton of overload cards. I made a Shaman deck that is 100% cards with the word "overload" on them, and I took it into standard casual mode. It won 3 games instantly. You get board control and presence by borrowing mana from future turns. That's literally what overload does. But then there are 4 cards that unlock your overloaded crystals. Lava Shock and the other one. I got into situations where I played these cards and unlocked like 5+ crystals all at once. With a lava shock that is like playing a card that says "2 mana - do two damage, play 2.5 innervates". I doubt I discovered some new competitive deck, but I'm going to be trying this a bit more.
I started playing again after being out for a year or two. I opened 16 packs in a day (2 easy quests for 3 packs each plus 10 for buying the beginners pack) and barely got anything useful. I can't imagine that the slow drip of free packs is enough to get you the cards you need.
My most played class was Mage, so I took my old Mage deck, played a few rounds against AI to remember the rules, then played randos after a few quick deck modifications. I won 10 of 12 games, usually with a least half health and a couple times without taking any damage. I know I was doing a lot worse than that when I stopped playing so I guess my rank got lowered for being out for so long. I can't believe how many obvious miss-plays my opponents make, and how many times they have 8 mana and 7 cards in hand but can't do anything useful.
Since diving back in when Whispers launched, I've stuck with it. Ebbs and flows, yes, but I've logged in daily to check the quests, and as soon as the stars align and I can progress in all 3 at once, I get some matches in. That plus the tavern brawls has been getting me 2-3 packs/week for a long time now. I split the gold between Classic and Whispers, and it's gone a long way to flesh out what was a sorta weak Classic collection, given that I'd played right up until Nax came out. I also used gold to get all three available quests.
So yeah, I'm fresh out of gold. I dropped that $50 for 50 packs. Will see how the pack gods are to me tonight.
DO NOT open any packs yet. There is a bug involving the distribution of cards. You are going to get a lot more of those tri-class cards and not so much of the other cards. Wait until it is fixed to open.
I didn't notice the pre-order packs. and I only saved up... like 1000 gold. Meh, hearthstone grows less interesting in my eyes over time I suppose. Some good stick+puck though.
I opened my 50 packs way early and got mah 17 bonus packs. I guess the math shakes out on re-balancing the tri-class over-distribution, and I get a bunch of dust back for all those extra, plus 17 extra shots at some epics and rares (4 and 1, in those extra 17 packs).
Good on ya. The most success I've had in a month without netdecking is level 16. I've gotten to the point where I will change up 2 or 3 cards in a deck I see, but my own creations are laughable. Still can't figure out how to get a good Jade Golem strategy going with Rogue. What class did you use?
Good on ya. The most success I've had in a month without netdecking is level 16. I've gotten to the point where I will change up 2 or 3 cards in a deck I see, but my own creations are laughable. Still can't figure out how to get a good Jade Golem strategy going with Rogue. What class did you use?
Druid.
The game plan is to use Gadgetzan Auctioneer and Jade Idol. You can never be milled out because you fill your deck with infinity idols. But you also keep drawing, so you can play idols on the board.
Really, you are just trying to survive into the late game. It doesn't matter if your opponent clears the board. You can always refill it right away. If they slip up even one turn, it's over. If it goes to late game, it's over. You lose to super aggro decks that kill you before you can get your snowball moving.
Yup, that was my downfall, four matches in a row. Dead on turn 5/6! I am going to retool the Rogue deck and throw in a few cards that provide early defense, taunt minions and/or all-damage. Was trying to get to late game where I would spring things like spells to shuffle in 3 copies of Jade Golem-generating minions, playing the minion that copies deathrattle effect, etc.
My overall win rate at jade Druid is something like 50%. However, that was before my 8th revision of the deck. At that point I rememberd that the card Feral Rage exists. It allows me to remove mid-strength minions or to gain tons of armor. With Fandral Straghelm I can get BOTH. It helps beat a lot of the decks I was losing to. Extra armor puts me out of range of OTK combos. Removing a couple extra minions with 4-health is all it takes to keep control of the board with my golems a bit more easily.
Here is my list as of right now.
My main weakness seems to be Sylvanas. I rarely have a good play against her. I'm also weak if my opponent gets ahead and makes a huge board. I can't clear a large number of minions all at once if they are out of swipe range.
Yeah that was a rough match. Very similar to what I was seeing.
If these Jade decks are so vulnerable in early turns, maybe I just tweak my successful Face Hunter deck and roll with the to get a feel for the new meta. I've got more dust than I've ever had, since I was crafting a decent amount of classic stuff just to do basic netdecking. There might be a key Gadgetzan card or two that improve the Hunter deck. I've also been thinking hard about crafting Bloodmage Thalnos, since he's just such a nice little piece in so many spell-heavy decks.
How long does it take to get enough resources to build a proper deck? I feel like my cards are so thinly spread between classes and themes that I can't build anything good.
A big part of it is whether it is fun to play with the deck. Are there enough interactions and combos-in-waiting that you have some tension of when to play cards and when to hold back, and in the end, win enough matches so that you don't feel like a punching bag? You can achieve this in many decks that don't contain many epic/legendary cards, meaning you can probably craft whatever commons and rares you need (maybe even an epic or two) by dusting whatever you can. If you don't care about gold shinies, say fuck it and dust all the gold cards you already have two copies of.
How long does it take to get enough resources to build a proper deck? I feel like my cards are so thinly spread between classes and themes that I can't build anything good.
You are correct. Building a truly competitive deck will take significant real money and/or time. It will cost more money than Netrunner, but less money than M:tG. If you want to pay with time, just keep playing your non-competitive decks and don't worry when you lose to pros.
The game is very random. Even when everyone has competitive decks, you lose a lot due to nonsense. The world champion of Hearthstone was determined by super random nonsense. Sure, there is some amount of skill that matters. You have to learn to play the cards properly to maximize their effect. But once you reach the point where you make optimal plays, the rest is luck.
Luck means that sometimes even the worst beginners practice deck can beat the pros with their ridiculous cards. That shit happens sometimes.
Also, every week there is a tavern brawl which is the opposite of competitive. It often doesn't even let you construct a deck, and everyone is playing with pre-determined or random cards. This lets you play with cards you don't own without paying for them.
There is also arena, which isn't free, but very cheap. That allows you to play with cards you don't own, in a fair environment, and success will earn you a greater return on your investment than buying packs directly.
Comments
I started playing again several months ago after not playing Hearthstone for a year or so, and before then I pretty much just played arena and tavern brawls and not constructed. I figured the Karazhan cards were a bigger priority for my gold expenditure.
I guess I could have just spent money to unlock the adventures, but I decided I wouldn't do that.
Wait a minute. Flamewaker is going away. Fuuuuuuuuck! How I play Hearthstone?
That said, I still want to get the chance to play some of the meta-defining decks before some of this stuff rotates out, so I still want to unlock a few key cards; notably these:
- Imp Gang Boss for modern Zoolock
- Flamewaker for Tempo Mage
- Tunnel Trogg for Midrange Shaman
That said, fortunately Midrange Shaman is still playable without Tunnel Trogg if you go a totem-based route like this one:
http://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/omegazeros-totem-shaman-hearthstone-world-championship-blizzcon-2016/
The only card I'm missing for that deck is Bloodmage Thalnos, which is where my next 1600 dust is going; that will also bring my Freeze Mage deck up to par.
I would also love to have competitive Druid, Rogue, and Paladin decks, but not having key legendaries like Malygos, Fandral Staghelm, Edwin VanCleef, Tirion Fordring and Ragnaros, Lightlord means those classes will have to wait.
I have all the cards for all those decks. Except I only got Edwin recently. I also don't have the Rougue poison bug guy. I also don't have Fandral, but he's next on my list for crafting.
Due to the overlap between BlizzCon and PAX AUS I'm still behind on all the BlizzCon news; I guess I have to check some of that stuff out.
I guess by "poison bug guy" you mean Xaril, Poisoned Mind; he's pretty cool but doesn't seem to be essential to Rogue right now (e.g. no one brought him to BlizzCon). Either way, it seems like Rogue is a bit lackluster in the current meta.
I hope you get Fandral soon; Druid has been strong for a while now and it would be a shame if you didn't get to play a proper Druid deck before Raven Idol rotates out.
Midrange Shaman is absolutely disgusting. Unquestionably the most popular and powerful deck on later. Karazhan just emboldened their power from Spirit Claws, Maelstrom Portal, Thing From Below, and Thunder Bluff Valiant. Flamewreathed was irritating, but it got overthrown just from by the sheer power of filling the board and clearing the board nonstop.
Gadgetzan will be interesting. I'm really happy with the Priest Cards that have come out, but I'm worried about how powerful Paladin could be with all the cards that give +1/+1 to minions in hand. That short window where you can run Kazakus and Reno Jackson will be wonderful.
I finally got another Classic legendary last night, but it was the dragon who makes players take 15sec turns. Oh well.
Also, can we talk about the new quests for a second? I like them way more because you get 50 gold instead of 40. Also, you don't have to win. You just have to play. This prevents that situation where sometimes you have to win 5 Warrior games, and you just can't, but you don't want to re-roll the quest.
Also, I got a quest to play a ton of overload cards. I made a Shaman deck that is 100% cards with the word "overload" on them, and I took it into standard casual mode. It won 3 games instantly. You get board control and presence by borrowing mana from future turns. That's literally what overload does. But then there are 4 cards that unlock your overloaded crystals. Lava Shock and the other one. I got into situations where I played these cards and unlocked like 5+ crystals all at once. With a lava shock that is like playing a card that says "2 mana - do two damage, play 2.5 innervates". I doubt I discovered some new competitive deck, but I'm going to be trying this a bit more.
My most played class was Mage, so I took my old Mage deck, played a few rounds against AI to remember the rules, then played randos after a few quick deck modifications. I won 10 of 12 games, usually with a least half health and a couple times without taking any damage. I know I was doing a lot worse than that when I stopped playing so I guess my rank got lowered for being out for so long. I can't believe how many obvious miss-plays my opponents make, and how many times they have 8 mana and 7 cards in hand but can't do anything useful.
So yeah, I'm fresh out of gold. I dropped that $50 for 50 packs. Will see how the pack gods are to me tonight.
Shoulda opened them early.
My jade golems. Let me show you them.
I'm pretty proud this is the first time I've made a successful real deck myself instead of just net-decking.
The game plan is to use Gadgetzan Auctioneer and Jade Idol. You can never be milled out because you fill your deck with infinity idols. But you also keep drawing, so you can play idols on the board.
Really, you are just trying to survive into the late game. It doesn't matter if your opponent clears the board. You can always refill it right away. If they slip up even one turn, it's over. If it goes to late game, it's over. You lose to super aggro decks that kill you before you can get your snowball moving.
https://hsreplay.net/replay/gocHUbxx9efqk2P3JLKywe
ADDITION:
My overall win rate at jade Druid is something like 50%. However, that was before my 8th revision of the deck. At that point I rememberd that the card Feral Rage exists. It allows me to remove mid-strength minions or to gain tons of armor. With Fandral Straghelm I can get BOTH. It helps beat a lot of the decks I was losing to. Extra armor puts me out of range of OTK combos. Removing a couple extra minions with 4-health is all it takes to keep control of the board with my golems a bit more easily.
Here is my list as of right now.
My main weakness seems to be Sylvanas. I rarely have a good play against her. I'm also weak if my opponent gets ahead and makes a huge board. I can't clear a large number of minions all at once if they are out of swipe range.
If these Jade decks are so vulnerable in early turns, maybe I just tweak my successful Face Hunter deck and roll with the to get a feel for the new meta. I've got more dust than I've ever had, since I was crafting a decent amount of classic stuff just to do basic netdecking. There might be a key Gadgetzan card or two that improve the Hunter deck. I've also been thinking hard about crafting Bloodmage Thalnos, since he's just such a nice little piece in so many spell-heavy decks.
The game is very random. Even when everyone has competitive decks, you lose a lot due to nonsense. The world champion of Hearthstone was determined by super random nonsense. Sure, there is some amount of skill that matters. You have to learn to play the cards properly to maximize their effect. But once you reach the point where you make optimal plays, the rest is luck.
Luck means that sometimes even the worst beginners practice deck can beat the pros with their ridiculous cards. That shit happens sometimes.
Also, every week there is a tavern brawl which is the opposite of competitive. It often doesn't even let you construct a deck, and everyone is playing with pre-determined or random cards. This lets you play with cards you don't own without paying for them.
There is also arena, which isn't free, but very cheap. That allows you to play with cards you don't own, in a fair environment, and success will earn you a greater return on your investment than buying packs directly.