Antrax

The general idea is to ask yourself: - Can I deal with the minion my opponent is likely to play? (so, against Druid expect Mire Keeper, against mage Water Elemental, etc) - How many draws do I need in this match-up? - How good is my hand already? Some match-ups you're fine with cycling acolytes just to spend the mana, others you'll want to only play it only when it guarantees 2 draws. For instance, against N'Zoth paladin I would coin Acolyte on 2 but never play it on 3 due to Truesilver.

I built something like that, it's fun now that ladder isn't 30% C'Thun Warrior. As for your question, it depends on a lot. First of all, you need to consider what you'd like to do with your mana the next turn. If you have something like slam or bash that you may want to combine with an axe hit if you opponent plays a minion with more than 3 health (Totem Golem, Flamewaker, Tomb Pillager, innervate Druid of the Claw) then equipping first is correct. If you'd like to shield block next turn for cycle or drop acolyte, again equipping first is better. It also depends on the class you're against and whether you're on the coin or not. Basically, the less aggressive you expect the match-up to be, the more you should lean toward hero powering. That being said, those match-ups are few and far between, so you should default to equipping. The cases against equipping are random ooze from Renolock and deception (make the opponent play a naked acolyte of pain or injured blademaster), but the value of deception diminishes greatly against solid opponents who watch your mulligan. Also don't hitch T2, i.e. think about when you'd prefer to hero power than equip during your T1 and then T2 insta-hero power if the conditions are met.

Generally speaking, trying to draft synergy in Arena is doomed to fail. The exception is within a particular set due to the higher offer rate (it's 25% more likely to be offered a card from the latest expansion). Like, when GvG came out all arena decks were mech decks.

It's awful in Arena and since Priest was already the weakest arena class, they announced they'll never offer it as a stop-gap measure until arena is balanced (there are hints they're going to tweak card offer rates based on something other than the rarity)

I don't know about that, but I can tell you if you pick priest you'll never get offered Purify :)

Auchenai Reno hits you for 30 regardless of your current life total.

It's not so bad to run duplicates in a reno deck, especially if you draw a lot. There are Reno Freeze variants that run as many as 8 duplicates.

There's a Reno Shadowform deck floating around. Kibler played it on stream after losing to it, and I've actually encountered it twice on ladder myself (which, considering how rare priest is, is relatively often :P)

You do.

Oh, now I do. Rampage antonidas, worgen, charge, inner rage, faceless. You have two worgens that hit for 16 each. Vaporize means you hit for 19 and can finish with axe this turn and the next. Ice block means they drop to 3, next turn you finish with axe. Nothing else seems relevant.

I found a weird bug. If you play anonymously vs. 3 robots, bid so your partner becomes dummy, then undo (going back to the auction) and bid so that the opponent's declare, your partner's hand remains visible.

I don't see how you beat counterspell or spellbender. Does your solution account for them?

I don't bug you guys with everything I write, but this got picked up by PCGamer so I'm somewhat proud: http://www.pcgamer.com/how-to-handle-tilt-and-other-mental-obstacles-in-hearthstone/ Also I'm in love with OTK warrior but am ***** at playing it. Working my ass off and still only 55% WR.

I really like the fact it now shows all four hands after a deal - is it possible to configure the client to not start the next deal until I click on it? (talking about playing with 3 GIBs)

I'm pretty sure you can break 50% even playing priest. What's your goal anyway? Are you going for rank 5 every month?