Welp, I built a face hunter deck. Running like 6 secrets, but Hunter secrets are godlike, so it works out pretty well. Really wish I had Eaglehorn Bow. Or Arcane Golem. Or Leeroy. But even without basically any of the go-to “money cards” (I think literally my only rares are the two Knife Jugglers I’m running), the deck is grossly effective. 
And at least it loses fast when it loses.
Posts like this make me sad. Not that I’m implying your deck sucks - I’m glad you’re having fun and getting wins!
What sucks is how apparent it is that new players are getting zoned further and further out. We’re up to three sets and three expansions - the barrier for entry is rising every day, especially when you consider that every expansion has several cards which are lynchpins in all sorts of deck archetypes.
I really wish Blizzard would at least implement some sort of weighting system for older sets, where the older the set the more likely you are to pull cards that you don’t yet have. Yes, even legendaries.
Either that, or just give away classic decks for free when you earn or buy one of the newer ones. Something, anything, to help players catch up. One free classic pack a week via tavern brawls does not cut the mustard.
Beginners seemingly have two choices: get frustrated by getting constantly pounded, or play face hunter and be reviled (and have no strategy or fun).
Ehhh… I dunno about that. Face Hunter is pretty cheap and has basically never not been viable, and it’s not like any of the “lynchpins” for the archetype are particularly pricy or hard to get, nor very new. The bow and the golem were both in the first set, as was Knife Juggler, and everything else in my build is commons, basics, or a single Misdirection that I probably shouldn’t be playing but love anyways (and that could easily be swapped out for a second Bear Trap). 
Unless you’re not interested in buying the solo adventures. In that case, yeah, have fun building pretty much any popular deck archetype… This is definitely not the cheapest or easiest game to get into, but it sure beats Magic on both of those counts. :V
In case anyone’s wondering, here’s my list. Any suggestions for improvements? I don’t have Argent Horserider, I don’t have the bow or arcane golem, and I bizarrely don’t have the stealth Worgens.
I can confirm: this deck takes absolutely no skill to build or pilot.
I cannot confirm, however, that I am not having fun.
I built a Secret Paladin…I couldn’t get my Face Hunter beyond rank 14 before he would start getting spanked more times than he won, so I got out my crafting dust and hustled up a couple of MCs, Competitive Spirit, and SecretKeepers. I subbed in a TrueSilver for the CogHammer you’re supposed to have and id did pretty well but Dragon Priests and (ironically) non-secret Paladins continue to confound me. Also the damn Face and Beast hunters can still give me very close games. I really need to get better at game strategy, because I know some of my games must be winnable and I am just playing them wrong when I get less than ideal draws.
You really need board control, so if you start the game with 2 secrets and a Piloted Shredder, and draw more secrets and Divine Favor, you just get really hosed. Also, 9 times out of 10 when I play a Divine Favor I get another Divine Favor. It’s uncanny.
Oh, Freeze Mage is another one that gets me about 60% of the time. Even if they don’t draw the Alex\Antonidas combo they can effectively freeze you out of dealing lethal for enough turns to plink away at you. Almost makes me want to put some healing in the deck beyond the Truesilver (which can’t heal you if you’re frozen).
I think I wasn’t making the point I wanted to make.
His comments about not having those cards is, to me, indicative of how difficult it is in a very broad sense to build a proper collection, and that gulf gets broader every time they put out new decks and expansions.
As you mentioned, board control is super important. You really need that Coghammer. It’s pretty much the only thing you have that can stall out board clear while you get your house in order.
Freeze mage is just a really weak matchup for SP, since the secrets don’t trigger if you don’t actually get attacked. I’m not sure yet what the best way to play around it is.
I disenchanted a bunch of golden cards that were dupes of cards I already had, and crafted the coghammer. I think I have been using it wrong, though, since it isn’t really helping to slow down the board control much. I have been using it earlier, but realized I need to use it on just the right minion, like a Piloted Shredder ideally or the MC himself. Something I have learned by playing against other SPs.
And my best tactic vs Freeze Mage is:
- Don’t let them draw Alex or Archy.
- Hit them hard and early.
While being attacked is a part of the secrets, most of them will work if the mage just tries to clear the board or take out a few creatures. It’s a tough match up. A good portion of the time you will set up a well-stacked board, drop the MC, and the next turn get Blizzard followed by Flamestrike, basically robbing you of your board.
I don’t disagree, but at the same time I have to compare it to Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh, the other TCGs I played semi-competitively at some point. It’s still way cheaper and easier to get into the game.
Second-ever legendary pull! First was Mimiron’s Head, second… Well, good thing I’m building Facehunter, because I just pulled a LEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOYY JENKINS!
Nice!
PTSDtwitch
He’s already won me two games, and almost managed to swing a third before that guy pulled out a 20-damage charge minion. One particularly nasty match against Warlock started off with 10 damage on turn two thanks to Life Tapping into a Dart Trap, followed by Leeroy on turn 5 to seal the deal. Super gross.
Hopefully this means I can wait on getting those Arcane Golems and Eaglehorn Bows until I pull together 1600 dust. I gotta get me that Dr. Boom.
So I found and put together a priest deck built around the Foereaper, which I happen to have. I’m having an awful lot of trouble with it, though. It seems to rely more on my opponent getting bad draws and being unable to trade consistently.
I really want to play more priest, but I don’t have even a single lightbomb and most priest decks these days seem to run two of them. I can technically afford them, but I just crafted two mysterious strangers and shudder at the thought of dropping another 800 dust.
Actually faced a Reno Fail today. It was a freeze mage, I had noted that they did have duplicates in their deck, but when I got him down to 2 health and triggered the ice block, Reno came out anyway. Didn’t trigger the heal. “Whoops” we both emoted, as I smashed his face in for the win.
If it had triggered though, I don’t think I would have won the endurance game at that point.
I used to run this deck!
It’s not as good now, sadly. I think dragon priest outclasses it in every way, and the foe reaper never did anything even if I did manage to drop him. Still, Gorrilabot might be good in it - I tried to make it work last season, and I’d try again but I’m tryharding this month. =D
EDIT: Oh, and don’t worry about the 2 lightbombs thing. I’m only running one in my control priest, and it’s fine. Dragon priest also doesn’t really need 2. It’s kind of greedy to be honest.
I keep reading about how people go on runs from rank 18 to rank 7, and I think “those lucky bastards!” because I can never get a run of more than 3 or 4 games in before my opening hand will consist of three 4 or 5 mana cards (no coin, of course) and then I draw 2 or 3 more after that. Unless the opponent is as unlucky as I am (never happens) I just get beaten down.
And honestly, whenever I stack the board with minions, my opponents almost always have a flamestrike, blizzard, consecration, holy nova, ligtning storm, etc, but when I face a zoolock or other aggro rush deck, do you think I could pull my consecration out? No!
I watched enough Hearthstone streams to gain some true admiration for the predictive qualities of those guys. Those runs aren’t just a matter of luck, but also of having a deep enough understanding of the meta that they know not just how decks will play but how they’ll play at different ranks.
I have a buddy who is quite good - in fact he just finished a 12-win arena deck last night. I try to spectate him when possible, and that helps too. My understanding of the meta was never great, and now it’s also outdated since I just started playing again.
I totally get that being able to predict what is going to happen based on the meta is helpful, and required if you want to get above rank 11 or 12. But it doesn’t do jack squat when you are just out-topdecked by an opponent.
In other news, I stareted on the new Tavern Brawl, which is fun. I won my first game with a spell deck, but switched to a battlecry deck and promptly got my ass handed to me by 3 murloc decks. So, I added some anti-murloc stuff to my battlecry deck…nothing major, but it did include a hungry crab.
I have since faced 3 spell decks and a deathrattle deck…murlocs nowhere in sight.
Not a huge fan of this brawl, and I already got my win (mage spell deck vs. druid spell deck in a ridiculous grueling fatigue-off where he died of 10 fatigue or something).