Hearthstone

[mgoetze]

The other day I crafted my 3rd legendary after Archmage Antonidas and Ysera. But instead of crafting Ragnaros or Silvanas like I probably should, I went for... Justicar Trueheart. Of course, I went 8-12 with my control priest. :( Outcontrolled the control decks and did OK staving off aggro, but ran into a couple of druids which seems like an automatic loss and had some close games against miracle rogue that didn't go my way.

 

So, I went back to Raging Worgen and... I've been destroying people. Currently 9-1 with this deck:

 

2 Inner Rage

2 Execute

2 Armorsmith

2 Battle Rage

2 Fiery War Axe

1 Rampage

2 Slam

2 Loot Hoarder

2 Charge

2 Shield Block

2 Acolyte of Pain

2 Raging Worgen

2 Ravaging Ghoul

2 Gnomish Inventor

1 Brawl

1 Faceless Manipulator

Emperor Thaurissan

[mgoetze]

Opponent has 26 health and Twin Emperors on the board? No problem, I play Raging Worgen, Inner Rage, Charge, Rampage, Faceless Manipulator, use one copy to kill off Twin Emperors, second Inner Rage on the other and hit face! This deck is really fun. (Did lose one against Patron Warrior unfortunately, so 11-2 now.)

[Antrax]

It's less funny but you can run less copies of combo (1 charge, 1 worgen) and throw in Grim Patron, so you get an alternative win condition against aggro.

 

I finally made it to rank 5, but man was this season hard. I think my skill deteriorated and now that the meta completely changed, my auto-pilot is just bad. I found myself often surprised by swing turns. Kinda nice, but time-consuming.

 

I'm currently super impressed with tempo warrior, the deck just has it all. It demolishes the good match-ups and requires skill of the bad ones, while still being able to steal wins. The main problem is it relies on multiple legendaries that I don't have and that aren't good: Malkorok, Varian and Cairne (which I may craft because it's also used in some N'Zoth decks, but it's just so boring I prefer to spend my dust on cooler stuff). I created a budget version (Rafaam, The Black Knight and the 7/7 scarab guy because why the hell not) and been doing okay, but it's mostly because the core of the deck is so strong it carries me despite these bad choices.

[mgoetze]

It's less funny but you can run less copies of combo (1 charge, 1 worgen) and throw in Grim Patron, so you get an alternative win condition against aggro.

I dunno if that helps. Against Aggro Shaman you're dead by the time you can get Patrons up anyway. Zoo is actually the deck where you want double Charge and double Worgen because they will Flame Imp / Lifetap themselves down into range of a partial combo.

 

Also, to make Patron work well, you'd want to replace the Ravaging Ghouls with Whirlwinds (which is a consideration anyway for early combos with Armorsmith / Acolyte) but the Ravaging Ghoul actually works better against aggro than Whirlwind would (Obviously Death's Bite is superior to both but...)

[Antrax]

Sounds like you're playing too greedily with your patrons. You're not supposed to "go off" with 4-6 patrons when playing against aggro. IT's nice, but if your T5 is hero power, better to play Patron + Inner Rage and let them trade into them.

[ahydra]

News just in: reno decks work a whole lot better if you remember to put the reno in. :ph34r:

 

ahydra

[Cyberyeti]

News just in: reno decks work a whole lot better if you remember to put the reno in. :ph34r:

 

ahydra

 

And less well when your opponent uses beneath the grounds.

[Fluffy]

I tried a reno deck and lost every match, I had Reno in it. Doesn't mena much, as I lose all the time I make my own deck.

[Cyberyeti]

I tried a reno deck and lost every match, I had Reno in it. Doesn't mena much, as I lose all the time I make my own deck.

 

I've had a fair amount of success with homebrew reno decks pre the standard/wild split.

 

This week's tavern brawl, shaman is silly good. Dust devil, zap-o-matic (combined with rockbiter) and the 4 point 7/7 with stealth are just too good.

[mgoetze]

My new strategy for turn 9:

 

Brann Bronzebeard

Innervate

Innverate

C'Thun

[Cyberyeti]

My new strategy for turn 9:

 

Brann Bronzebeard

Innervate

Innverate

C'Thun

 

I like:

 

8 Brann/Shadowcaster

9 Thaurissian

10 Mini-Brann (assuming they disposed of the other one)/C'thun/shadowstep

11 C'thun/gang up

 

I have played a 14/14 C'Thun on 3 straight turns without Brann with a routine like this

[Antrax]

This week's tavern brawl, shaman is silly good. Dust devil, zap-o-matic (combined with rockbiter) and the 4 point 7/7 with stealth are just too good.

Ramp: 2 Innervate, Wild Growth, Raven Idol (always pick spell), Alarm-o-bot. 1 Nourish (usually used for cards)

Survivability: 2 Doomsayer, 2 Feral Rage (3 mana +8 armor), Living Roots (get groots only if holding lumberer), Wrath, Swipe. 1 Starfall.

Fatties: 2 Sunwalker, Volcanic Lumberer, Ironbark protector. 1 Ragnaros, Deathwing, Deathwing 2.0, Chillmaw

5-0 vs. Shaman so far.

[Cyberyeti]

Ramp: 2 Innervate, Wild Growth, Raven Idol (always pick spell), Alarm-o-bot. 1 Nourish (usually used for cards)

Survivability: 2 Doomsayer, 2 Feral Rage (3 mana +8 armor), Living Roots (get groots only if holding lumberer), Wrath, Swipe. 1 Starfall.

Fatties: 2 Sunwalker, Volcanic Lumberer, Ironbark protector. 1 Ragnaros, Deathwing, Deathwing 2.0, Chillmaw

5-0 vs. Shaman so far.

 

Need a good draw, I'm regularly winning at turn 5.

[Antrax]

A good draw is either doomsayer or 2 ramp cards or alarm o bot. Not that far-fetched, considering you have ~50% to have alarm-o-bot in your opening hand if you hard-mull for it (which I do).

[Cyberyeti]

A good draw is either doomsayer or 2 ramp cards or alarm o bot. Not that far-fetched, considering you have ~50% to have alarm-o-bot in your opening hand if you hard-mull for it (which I do).

 

Lightning storm is 50:50 to remove the alarm-o-bot, certain if I get a bad draw and get lucky with the totem. Also even if the AoB functions, hex will deal with the fatty.

 

Only person to try this sort of deck on me, AoB'd his other AoB, so I killed that and lightning stormed the other, so I didn't really see it in action.

 

Doomsayer is not a huge deal, as it often only kills one of my critters, dust devils and Zap-o are only budgeted to attack for one turn.

[Antrax]

Doomsayer isn't about removing board, it's about killing momentum. I don't know if you've played a lot of standard but it's currently run in most non-aggro decks. The idea is if you play it T2 after they play a 1-drop, they skip their turn 2 and then you get on board and have initiative.

 

One of the problems of this deck is when you don't get alarm-o-bot, all your taunts arrive a turn late. But if they come after doomsayer, that's no problem, since I'll get to attack before you get to attack.

[Cyberyeti]

Doomsayer isn't about removing board, it's about killing momentum. I don't know if you've played a lot of standard but it's currently run in most non-aggro decks. The idea is if you play it T2 after they play a 1-drop, they skip their turn 2 and then you get on board and have initiative.

 

One of the problems of this deck is when you don't get alarm-o-bot, all your taunts arrive a turn late. But if they come after doomsayer, that's no problem, since I'll get to attack before you get to attack.

 

Or they just play a jewelled scarab or similar and don't worry about losing the 1/1.

 

If I started seeing a lot of doomsayers in standard, I'd probably add crazed alchemists to my deck.

[Antrax]

There are, and people do. At least Zoo now techs an alchemist (and control decks already run 1-2 stampeding kodo)

[Fluffy]

Mmmm is 4 swipes too many swipes for arena?

[Antrax]

A long time ago there was a discussion about what arena deck would go 12 wins if it had 30 copies of one card. The conclusion was that swipe was the one.

[mgoetze]

What's with these Tavern Brawl decks full of terrible neutral cards? Especially for this one, they should have put a higher bias towards class cards in there.

[Cyberyeti]

What's with these Tavern Brawl decks full of terrible neutral cards? Especially for this one, they should have put a higher bias towards class cards in there.

 

This brawl has been taking the piss on the RNG. Well ahead, 10 mana stage at which point my oppo draws 9 cards in a row that cost 5 or more, I draw one that cost more than 2.

 

3 games I never drew a card mulligan or later that cost less than 6 and was dead before I played anything I drew in some of those.

[phoenix214]

I think i had this brawl 7:0 before my first loss

[Fluffy]

Got anomalus and shfter zerus, but don't see them playing much.

[Antrax]

Shifter Zerus is kind of fun, it was the first legendary I opened of the set (the second was Nat, the Darkfisher :().

You can cram it in control decks and it creates some funny moments eventually. Not a good card by any stretch.