Hearthstone

Just beat a warrior (I hate that fucking armor up and rush shit) who had full health and around 10+ armor that wittled me down to 8 health. Ysera + Whatever Priest card makes attack the same as health + faceless manip + that 5/5 dream card buff raped him in two turns. 29 damage boom! Feels goooood man. Fuck yo heroic strike.

 

Okay, constructed is getting unplayable. I faced six warlocks tonight, three had Jaraxxus. And keep in mind this is at the .300ish winning record area. Even though I suck at it, just doing arena from now on.

 

My second Arena run as a mage ended even worse than the first one (1-3). Zero AoE removal cards in the draft did not help.

Started another one as a Warrior. 2-0 so far.

 

So I've Been playing this since closed beta, furthest I've got in arena is 5 wins. Got a golden jaraxxus at one point and it's rage quit material: wittle me down to under 10 hp, maybe 1 hp? Suddenly 2 mana for a 6/6, 15 health plus 3/8 weapon? I can feel the hate on the other side. The infernals plus shadowflame is cruel.

Current meta is bearable, massive influx in hunters in constructed but they still lose to the 'lock.

Edit - if anybody is up for some duels, feel free to add me lejosh #2934.

 

I actually managed to beat two of the Jarraxus warlocks... fortunately I had mage with frost bolt to prevent them from attacking. After a few months when everyone has farmed/bought a shitload of cards the game will be retarded.

 

Yup, frozen minions has led to a lot of losses for me, Jaraxxus or not.

It's cheap on mana and gives mages an indefinite turn because I don't run any charge minions in the 'lock deck. Hellfire and Shadowbolt is the usual answer to whatever is dropped, soulfire can be useful but RNGesus isn't kind to me, I've lost Jaraxxus too many times using those as a last resort.

I'm using Warrior and Rogue too, had the druid set up but too many losses lead me to rogue.

I agree about farming etc.

 

Sacrificial Pact > Jaraxxus.

 

I seem to do a lot better with Druid. Probably because I run with Swipe x 2, Starfall x 2, and a shitload of taunters/taunt buffs. Couple of naturalize cards and I'd be set.

 

Haha, arena draft gave me 3 legendaries. I wasn't even sure that was possible but it is!


Sadly none of the top-tier legendaries, though Onyxia is quite good and combos hilariously with Soul of the Forest (I got a board of one creature and all ents at one point), Deathwing isn't bad but not great, Harrison Jones is just meh. I would've taken 3 yetis over this.

Rest of the arena picks forced a lot of supbar picks on me; ironbeak owl, grizzly, southsea captain, two nourishes. Ended up going 6-3. Pretty average.

 

I would kill for 6-3... kill YOU!

 

Yes, Brother None, calling 6-3 an 'average' is smug bastardry, you smug bastard.

 

It wasn't intended as such, honest! Nor is it strictly true, my most common result in arena all-time is apparently 5-3. But in the last month, 25 arenas, I've won 125 games, for exactly 5 wins average per arena, most common result being 7-3. So 6-3 really is just an ok result. I don't feel bad about any arena that goes over 5 wins but that's definitely my minimum. Did two runs after this druid one, 7-3 with paladin and then an awful 3-3 with a priest.

Regardless, this is pretty funny though:

 

I don't think, that naturalize is good choice in constructed, where one card for three is a deal, that your opponent would usually wish to make himself. As a druid you should have enough big creatures and spells to fight your enemy's big creatures and even legendaries. And if you make 2 for 1 deal against them, it would still be better than naturalize. Keepers of the Grove and Tinkmaster is the cards you rather need, that could be used as silence against tricky minions.
Naturalize could be useful in arena, where you didn't have much options and where chances for your opponent to draw something useful are much lower. Also naturalize could be rather fun to use, when your opponent have 8+ cards or under a threat to be killed by fatigue, but it very situational.

It still better than my 3 legendaries run, that ended with 2-3. Turns out that legendaries alone isn't that good if you didn't have cards to support them or even survive for using them. I also like Harrison. Most of the times he is overpriced on one mana yeti, but since more annoying than weapons on arena is probably only flamestrike, his ability is very welcome against warriors and paladins. It also guaranteed 2 cards draw against rogue in the late game.

 

3-3 is currently my arena dream. One small step at a time...

Yeah, I've watched TotalBicuit's 16/19 legendaries deck videos. They were pretty funny. It seems that legendaries are mostly useful as parts of specifically constructed decks, but they are not meant to be single overpowered cards per se (well, a few of them are).

 

Legendaries are just cards with exaggerated effects. Quite a few of them are awful or hard to use without support, so in arena when you get a "legendary" pick you tend to groan more than go yay!

I do like seeing Tinkmaster Overspark as one of the most popular legendaries (and a more controversial one). It's not immediately obvious but his silence-style removal is actually vastly superior to standard silence in top-level ranked where every deck runs bloodhoof, rag and sylvanas.

Harrison is fine, but not a top-tier legendary, I didn't mind taking him, he's pretty good and I do dislike weapons, though he's not just an overpriced yeti, he's worse than a yeti as a blank. To be honest most legendaries if put straight up against a Chilwind Yeti in arena (if that was possible) would lose, the only exceptions really being Bloodhoof, Rag, Ysera and Sylvanas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWHtaz9MHLU This dream draft and run from Trump is quite likely the best arena draft I've ever seen. Now that's the kind of draft I'd kill for, haha.

It's still bad in arena. As the joke goes, Naturalize's text needs to be changed to "Destroy target creature, your opponent wins the game."

(I love accurate card texts)

 

These alternate card texts are great, especially the last three.

 

That is exaggeration, because I use naturalize in my 10 and 12 wins druids decks. It's drawback with 2 additional and probably sub optimal cards looks much less scary compared to rampaging Ragnaros or Ysera on the clear boqrd. Yes, these two cards could loose you a game, but unchecked Ragnaros and Ysera definitely do that.

It doesn't seems to be very accurated for Timber Wolf, since it used primary for combo with UtH. And it often very nasty.

 

It has its uses but is generally one of the worst cards you can have. But as with any card, as long as you know when to use it you're ok. Note I had it in the 12-2 Druid deck I posted a handful of pages back, because it put it up against two even worse cards. But generally I sat on it until just using it as a finisher on the very last turn, if then. The chances of running into Rag and Ysera in arena are not very high, so I'm certainly not going to pick naturalize JUST IN CASE I RUN INTO THEM.

Haha, lighten up.

 

Look at all dat gold! Gimme ur goooooold.

 

My thoughts on one legendary is that Rogue works pretty well with Leeroy in constructed.

Leeroy + cold blood (x2 if you can) then shadowstep. And obviously any other battlecries or buffs etc.

Fan of knives deals with welps too. In Shaman decks he's hilarious. Flametongue, rockbiter and windfury = end game.

 

Someone linked to decent list a few pages back. Here it is: Arena Cards List.
Not sure if that is all of them, though.

My Warrior run is 5-2 so far. Could be 5-1, but...

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I hate mages.

I'm really enjoying knife juggler / imp master / rampage combo.

EDIT: Warrior run ended 6-3. Started another with a Paladin. 0-2 so far.

 

Fuck all you card pros. Never been able to crack 2 wins on Arena. Wish they'd have a mode where you don't have to pay but there are no prizes. Like practice arena or some shit.

 

root You'll probably need to learn some stuff about the game to compete in the arena - like which class has access to which cards.

I recommend watching a few videos of arena runs. From what I've seen Trump's are the most informative and TotalBiscuit's are the most entertaining (if only because he keeps losing 3 matches in a row immedatiely after winning three matches in a row and declaring that he has made a great deck ).

 

Regarding Arena, besides having knowledge of all the class cards and what their mana cost essentialy is - 7 for flamestrike, work around it to get the player to play that card when your board is weaker - so that you can try and preempt the opponent's move.

Some people find it difficult to gauge what card is better and which isn't but the general rule is that: you want the cost of the card to be the same as the two stats as a baseline, then battlecries etc. afterwards.

Then I'd recommend staying away from taking too many support/AoE cards and go for minions overall for board advantage. Having a 3+ of the same cards is usually detrimental to the deck overall, exceptions being Stormforged Axe/Truesilver/Fiery Axe and legendaries. Then there is the mana curve, look at how many 2s or 3s (etc) you have to decide which card to pick when you're almost finished your deck.

I would also recommend not aiming for a particular deck "archetype" such as rush Murloc because the chances of getting a complete deck are next to nil and you waste a run.

Boils down to the synergy of the deck, spell heavy deck? Mana Addict/Violet Teacher/Gadgetzan are good to pick if a naturally better card appears along side. You get the drift.

Then there's trump's list which is really good for deciding which card to pick.

This is how I generally approach Arena after watching Trump and Kripp play.

 

I just get shit luck with arena draws. My last one as druid had no legendaries, no epics, three crappy/situational rares, and no AoE besides one swipe. Last three booster packs I've gotten have been crap, too. Hell I'd take a Milhouse Manastorm just for the dust.