I dunno, I mean, it’s really, really hard to get specific cards that you want out of packs anyhow, unless you’re buying a whole bunch of them. If you’re looking for a specific card, you’re more likely than not having to craft it in any event, so you might as well be getting cards from the new set in the meantime. Just from a general design perspective, cards from the new set are probably going to be better designed than the old ones and will probably be more relevant to the current metagame anyway. rather than opening yet another Mogushan Guardian or some other trash.
That said, I’m totally dropping at least 40 packs as soon as GVG hits. Maybe 80!
Uh… slow? You mean from Turble’s post on the Faceless?
Slow generally means that a card doesn’t have an immediate effect on the board. One of the slowest cards in the game is the Gurubashi Berzerker, for example. He has to wait for a turn to attack and poses no threat in the meantime (2 damage doesn’t kill much, just run 2 Yetis into him and he’s done), and you have to spend your next turn buffing him up.
You might think that Faceless is fast, because the copy effect is instantaneous, but remember that you have to actually play a minion to copy first. So if you want 2 Ragnaros, you need to first play Rag, and hope that your opponent doesn’t have an answer. That, or you aim to copy your opponent’s stuff, but as mentioned above that’s unreliable.
When the meta was slower (meaning that games often went to turn 10 and beyond, and pure value was more important than how fast you could deal with the other guy), Faceless often got a lot of value, copying Ragnaros, giants, etc. This is why you’ll often see faceless in these types of decks, which can afford to spend several turns putting down big guys and drawing removal, and facelessing whatever is left over.
Think of it this way, if you faceless a 5 mana guy you are just breaking even, with the added disadvantage of having to hope that the 5 mana guy you played last turn to copy survives the turn undamaged. Facelessing an 8 mana guy is much better, but you can only do that on turn 9, and in the meantime faceless is clogging up your hand. That’s slow.
I just played against a priest, as a priest, who had a deck composed entirely of 4 attack units. 2 Dark Iron Dwarves, A spellbreaker, two spectral knights, a dancing blades, a spiteful smith, 2 night blades, 2 yetis, some others I forget. In total, he summoned 11 or 12 4-attack units.
And I had 2 shadow word pains, and two shadow word deaths early on, making up most of my hand the entire game.
It’s as if I played someone whose entire game plan was to troll me, and my draws played exactly to that purpose.
What rank do you guys typically achieve in a season? I’m up to 12 with my priest and I seem to still be on the rise, winning more than 50% of my games, I just need to put the time in. Do you get any sort of bonus for finishing a season at some rank below legendary?
no. it’s either legend or bust. you get a cardback for getting rank 20 and legend. and iirc, with a 50% win rate it takes about a thousand games to get to legend rank. so just play for fun unless you’re prepared to grind all the way.
I usually end at Rank 5 or a little better … almost made it to legend last month when the snake trap hunter deck took everybody by surprise and I went on an incredible win streak only to run out of time a game or two short of Legend.
Each Rank you gain earns you a star toward your rank when the resets happens. Finishing the season around R5 has had me starting the seasons at R17.
I think the general consensus is that when you hit Rank 5 you are half way to Legend. Strong, experienced, thinking players with decent decks might hit Legend in around 180 games. Lots of people choose to play fast aggro decks while climbing – they take a lot more games to hit the top but the games are usually very short, making for a net saving of time.
Well, I got my first legendary from a card pack. Leeroy Jenkins. Not a huge fan of the card, but it does seem like it can be employed as a finisher in a few different types of decks. Any suggestions as to how I should use it, and which decks/classes it belongs in?
It’s not as good a card as it was when it costed 4, but it can be still used in certain decks. It’s certainly still one of the better legendaries, you could do a lot worse.
Due to the battlecry, you’ll only want to use it as a finisher. In the past, Miracle Rogue used to use it with shadowsteps to do up to 26 damage (Leeroy, SS, Leeroy, SS, Leeroy, Cold Blood Cold Blood), but it’s too expensive to use like that now. The Shaman version still works though, Leeroy + Windfury + Flametongue is a whole whack of damage. Kind of like a reverse Al’akir.
Other aggro type decks can use Leeroy as well, like Face hunter etc. Face damage synergises with Face damage, so the most face damage you have in a deck the better it works. Your opponent is counting your skill commands and think that you can’t burst him down from 8? LEEEEERRROOOOOYYYY JEEENNKINNNSSSSSSSSSSSSSsssssss
Yeah, it seems that I got lucky and Leeroy is regarded as very useful. I’ve decided to try to base a new shaman deck around him using undertakes and deathrattle minions to take early control of the board (including nerubian eggs), then use flametongue, bloodlust, and windfury to do some insane burst when the opportunity presents itself. With rockbiter and flametongue totem, nerubians seem well suited for a shaman deck. I don’t have lightning storm or much taunt, so rush decks are doing well against me so far.
I’m not sure if I would play Shaman without lightning storm in this meta, sounds like a recipe for aggravation. If you want to play shaman, I’d just craft it. Yes, it’s probably a waste of 40 dust since you’ll eventually pull one, but that’s better than getting wrecked by aggro.
I thought you had naxx? Sludge benchers are the gold standard in taunts, so you’re good there. Senjins are still good in a pinch too, if you need a cheaper taunt.
If you have naxx, you might want to go full reincarnate shaman, with threeroy Jenkins (Leroy and double reincarnate for 18 damage, plus 6 if flame tongue is on the board) and that also synergies with eggs. Maybe KT, but I guess you won’t have sylvanas or the other good death rattle legendaries. Maybe stalag and feugen? Not super competitive but still fun.
Why is it that people don’t seem to use questing adventurer much? If you can drop just one card before he dies, he ends up being worth the cost (3 mana, 3/3 after playing any other card). The thing that triggers his ability is the most common action in the game. And if you can protect him, it’s not hard to get him powerful in just a turn or two. Yet I don’t hear much about him nor do I see him used much in decks. He’s vulnerable to silence, but then there are a dozen other minions just as vulnerable who get played a lot.
Also, what are your thoughts on using mind vision and thoughtsteal in priest decks?
I’ve only played priest a couple of times when I had to for daily quests. I used Icegirl’s Secret Sauce priest and another netdeck (don’t recall, maybe one by Zetalot), and both recommended NOT playing Thoughtsteal on turn 3 – save it for when you have excess mana and no play.
Word is the new cards are good for priest so maybe I’ll try learning the class.
Questing Adventurer is kind of played, mostly as a replacement for van cleef in miracle rogue, where you tend to play through most of your deck quickly. Sure, a 3:3 for 3 can be described as “worth it”, but keep in mind most 3 drops in the game have an upside on top of your 3/3 body, like the earthen ring farseer, or the si7. In constructed, it’s rare that bar conceal, your opponent doesn’t have an answer to a 3/3. Most 2 drops trade up to a 3/3, and a lot of common removal deals 3 like lightning bolt, spell powered backstab, deadly poison, and so on. And what if you draw him late game? Hes incidental AOE fodder.
That’s why it’s rarely seen outside of miracle rogue, who runs enough cheap spells that QA is likely to grow out of control at least some of the time. The new rushzoo also can run QA due to all the cheap minions they play.
Mind vision is generally garbage. One mans to cycle a card that most likely won’t sybergise with your deck is kinda bad. You at least get some info on what he’s holding, but that’s too fringe to dedicate a deck slot to. At least thoughtsteal gives you card advantage, but with the same problem of the cards not synergising with your deck. Against control decks, thoughtsteal tends to be better since you have a chance of stealing their power legendaries, but against aggro you’ll steal a leper gnome or something, and completely waste your initiative.
One side benefit of thought steal is that it is a spell, and as such triggers pyro.
Hmm, that’s a very cheap pack that I’ll have to try. I unfortunately just used my dust crafting some shaman blues so I can’t even afford the commons yet, but I’ll work towards it.
Is the rating on hearthpwn a good indicator of quality, or is there some other metric I can use to find the best decks? Incidentally I’ve yet to copy anyone’s deck so far - I’ve been enjoying experimenting and crafting my own decks from scratch - but I suppose towards the end of the month I might try using some proven decks to go far.
I’ve found the Hearthpwn ratings to be useful … just be aware that once in a while a joke deck hits the front page.
I set the class and look at the top rated “Hot” decks, then filter out the big cards I don’t have. I sometimes use the New or TopWeek or TopMonth settings, too. Works for me – I now have golden mage, warlock and hunter.
Sometimes decks only work for a short time because they are so strong the other players make deck adjustments to counter it. The Naiman snake trap deck was like that – nobody was playing snake trap so it took people by surprise for a while. Now lots of people expect it to be snake trap or maybe freezing trap, so the explosive trap is taking them by surprise.
I am aware that there are some who disdain netdeckers but I don’t get why.
When all those new cards hit next week it will be a whole different game altogether.
Maybe 80!