Lurker > Forceful_Dragon

Some footage from Russia of a tiny drone explosion that was supposedly an assassination attempt on Putin? Based on the size of the popping drive I have a hard time believing it could have reliably taken someone out in such a large building. They would have needed to have had a precise location of true target as well as probably an open window.

Feels more like Russia giving themselves an excuse to retaliate in kind.

But of course I'm open to adjusting my opinion if we find out anything definitive about this event.

But even aside from the specifics it sounds like it was a particularly devastating strike that Russia has even acknowledged that it occurred, yes?

What do we think about the Ukraine strike on a Russian occupied barracks?

Ukraine claims they killed hundreds, Russia claims the death total was 63.

Must be nice to draw a game winning legendary after drafting it. I had a warlock deck with Jaraxxus not that long ago and it was like my 2nd or 3rd card pulled so I drafted the REST of the deck for early/mid tempo so I could survive long enough to draw into it. Went like 1-3 because it never turned up.

I really hate the mage mirror.

not because I play it badly, but because it feels like their random spells are always better than my random spells and to such a significant margin that it can feel unwinnable.

Just lost two in a row and in the second one my opponent played the random 20 mana worth of spells three times and TWO of them were in dubious positions that could easily have backfired. Nope, all 3 did nearly perfect things.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/3/5/AAXBdhAAEBIz.jpg

Didn't take too many extra games, feels good :)

MrSmartGuy posted...

My win-streak was finally snuffed out at 15. Thought that the nerf to Renathal would lead to more people running aggro, so I stuck with my Blood Death Knight deck now that it has more good matchups, but I ran into a greedy as hell Shaman deck that I just couldn't deal with. RIP

I ran into a weird shaman deck too. It wasn't quite pure control and it had some odd techs like the 7/7 who doubles the stats of minions in deck. Didn't get far enough to find out much more before I flooded the board with 5/6 taunts

hovered at D10-D9 for a handful of games and then went on a bit of a streak.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/3/3/AAXBdhAAEA5J.jpg

Just need to win 12 more times than I lose from here I think?

Played constructed for the first time in awhile the past couple days (since the nerfs). Hit Diamond fairly easily using Big Spell Mage. We'll see how much spare time I have over the holidays but Legendary might be in the cards this month.

A bunch of DK cards got buffed, that class is about to be even more of a dominant menace in Arena. The only balance is

"DK and Paladin cards that generate more cards will appear less frequently" (in arena).

This doesn't affect me because the game rarely offered me any of these anyways. My opponents would have FOUR copies of the 1 mana paladin card that creates a 5/5 and discovers a dragon, and I'd get offered 1 copy across 7 drafts...

But now Malignant Horror and Corpse Bride are going to be more of a knockout blow than they already were.

MrSmartGuy posted...

I haven't, no. But I also haven't come across a Jace DH that isn't running the scythe that turns him into a spell, either.

I've seen a bunch of people running the quest version that uses multiple copies of Tradeable minions to cycle more regularly. The Spell damage tradeable works well into the combo turns too.

Just ran into an arena deck that had FIVE legendary cards in it. Not discovered, IN the deck:
https://hsreplay.net/replay/Y2pS5ZpcDAm24aKf9HBYGN

Managed to scrape out a win, but it was such a grind.

Do you ever tech soul seeker for interruption as well? I've seen some people have good luck with that also, especially into combo DH to steal Jace.

Nice! What deck(s) are you using?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/1/4/AAXBdhAAD-vW.jpg

Good start with this Arena DK deck so far! Saurfang is straight up demoralizing when he comes down on 5. I did have 1 game where I had to stop paying the 5 hp to keep replaying him, but by that point he'd been played 3 or 4 times and had done his job to win the board. Also getting the early blood weapon into Corpse Bride can sometimes just be 12/12 of stats coming down on turn 5. Really happy with the way the draft came together. There are also 2 buffs that can realistically land onto Malignant Horror, but between Neophyte and 2x Bridge and then eventually late game 2x Commander (if needed) I can have some difficulty banking enough corpses to make Malignant go infinite.

oof, that feels pretty significant on sire, but I don't know what else they could have done to it.

And I don't know that it changes too much on shockspitter, that's still a bunch of damage over the top with brann.

I have a 6 weapon Blood DK deck in arena at the moment that I think is pretty promising. It has 3x Soulbreaker and 3x Corrupted Ashbringer.

As far as ways to spend corpses I only have 1x Corpse bride and 1x Malignant Horror. I'd have preferred more corpse spenders or some way to reliably buff the Horror before playing it, but I got locked into 2x Blood early and I kept passing on 1xFrost and 1xUnholy cards to try and keep the possibility alive that I'd be offered something like a Soulstealer.

I think if I lock into 2x Frost or 2x Unholy then I wouldn't mind taking 1x Blood to round it out since there are 3 removals to find, but when it's the other way around I don't know what I'd be crazy about from the other runes to lock in the draft.

But it certainly is an interesting element to an arena draft to consider when you pull DK.

Getting that card from The Scourge is the worst feeling sometimes. I can't imagine a world where I'd draft or play that card myself.

NEVERMIND

3-3 WITH THE GOD DECK

fml

I've put 14 runs into arena so far and thanks to some decidedly mediocre drafts and/or RNG I've been averaging about 95 gold per pack. Slightly better than simply buying them outright, but far from what I'm hoping. But that all changes now! Just drafted this absolute monster:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/1/5/AAXBdhAAD94r.jpg

4 legendaries, most notably was Jaraxxus. I wasn't offered a lot of good early game but I just started to take bad early game cards after pulling him to just increase the chance of reaching turn 9. The other 3 legendaries aren't quite as good, but there are still some relevant deathrattles that I might be able to land on Devourer of Souls, and I have the option to use the farmer to put 3 copies of either Arfus or Bonemare back into my deck. I just can't get blown off the board early and this deck should more or less be a lock.

Granted I had a run end early when I ran into a paladin that had two Ragnaros Lightlord's in his deck that managed to sustain him when I took him to 1 hp (multiple times). They weren't discovered either, just part of the original deck build. And that was at like 2-2 and cut a promising run short. But this one is gonna be different, now I have the absurd deck!

So... 12 wins? Or will I fall to the gauntlet of DKs at 6+ wins?

Speaking of which, which runes seem best for DKs in Arena? I think I've had the best luck with Frost because it has so much card draw, but Unholy has Common cards like army of the dead that can flip the board quickly.

Yeah triple blood feels like it has nice conditions to survive early pressure with life steal + board clear and then build towards big Sire and Astalor turns.

Welp, just a heads up Hearthstone Deck Tracker does NOT track secrets in Arena properly right now.

was against a paladin and according to the deck tracker the ONLY possible untested secret he could have was "if your opponent has 3 minions and plays another, destroy it"

So I have 3 minions on board and I play a 1/1 to trigger it and get it out of the way.

INSTEAD it triggers "when your opponent plays 3 cards in a turn draw 2 cards".

Which refilled his completely empty hand and flipped the board next turn when he could play THREE things instead of ONE.

Camden posted...

The prologue was visually buggy for me, I started on the second location and the treasure box opened up after the third fight, but I was able to complete it.

Oh, was that order not intended? I also started on what appeared to be the second location.

Anyways the only thing I paid for was the season battle pass. used coins for the arthas set and now I'm gonna play arena for awhile until I mass a large number of packs. Gonna keep track of what my gold per pack works out to over time.

That has not been my experience at all lol

skullbone posted...

Sorry I meant stat caps like tier 1 minions cap out at 30/30 or something.

This is a conversation with Ulti so you're probably only seeing half of it lol.

Ah yeah. I usually don't log out to see missing posts.

And yeah I don't think I would like that either, but scaling in BGs is much different than it used to be. It amazes me when I get a VERY early lightfang and get completely outscaled.

What do you mean 'adding caps'?

Minions already have a finite number of copies that are shared by everyone.

Had two horrific low roll games in a row, finished 10-3. RIP

Prizes
And I'm familiar with the concepts, I just haven't had a deck this good in awhile so I don't want to waste what should be an easy 12.

Sitting on a 10-1 Duels deck (murloc Finley with OP passives)

Very nervous to queue for the last few games.

What on earth would Ukraine have to be firing at to hit Poland? At least Lviv is relatively near Poland so it's conceivable that an attack aimed at Lviv could have overshot.

Or does Russia maintain that Ukraine fired a bunch of missiles at their OWN infrastructure?

Eventually the policy of "deny no matter what" has to start being met with severe repercussions, yes?

From yesterday's update:
"Arena: Fixed a bug where the Basic set was missing from the draft pool."

LOL

That sounds awesome. Take me back to value town please.

I play battlegrounds mostly.

And sometimes mercenary.

And when I want gold I finish quests by playing the fastest decks possible to get those reps in.

Aggro druid is VERY fast.

I started again recently.

150 free packs

masterplum posted...

I think that is the question right? I think California was hoping it could sway companies into making the better fuel for the environment for everyone and so far that hasnt succeeded. If Californians want to keep paying more for this then that is their prerogative, but you dont want to incite a backlash that torpedos all environmental reform

California gas is not a new thing. Apparently it's been a thing since the 90s and the price disparity with the rest of the country was never so significant before.

Well that's fairly effective and the price jump isn't usually that significant when refineries are meeting supply. Sounds like it should just be a national standard. Though at this point electricalization will make it a moot point before something like that would be implemented.

It's just been crazy this year watching prices climb after labor day in spite of all the reasons for them to not.

Ugh, i guess that makes sense. I guess my next question is how effective the California blend is compared to the national requirements at reducing emissions.

Can anytime explain why California having something like 55~60 cents of tax per gallon of gasoline results in us paying nearly 3 full dollars more than the national average?

I've been looking for answers and can't find any. It just feels like we're being screwed so everyone will say "it's all Newsom's fault, get rid of him!", but legitimately where is the remaining cost coming from?

Still nice that the SM is going to force them to actually take a position rather than imply and wink at them.

https://youtu.be/bMAoOGnw9qQ

It's Quiet Uptown from Hamilton

It has always made me emotional on behalf of Alexander and Elizabeth just as someone who regularly feels empathy... But it hits different after you were supposed to be a parent, but then you lost a Phillip of your own.

If you are contagious I hope you do the responsible thing and stay in your room

Was that SFF or LFF?

But all the new justice's said roe was "precedent". Clearly that only changed after Biden was elected.

Redacted search warrant affidavit coming tomorrow.

I'm sure it will be rendered largely uninformative by the necessary redactions, but hopefully enough can be kept in to convey the clear justification.

I like the complicated way i remember yours.

Chris was month times two
Mine was next and it month divided by two
And then yours was the sum of both

And ermines is usually the last day of the shortest month but there was no good math for it.

Congrats on catching up to my level once more.

I have to go with Train to Busan, but I did really enjoy Bullet Train.

Not sure why it's being panned

LordoftheMorons posted...

Definitely true, though I think that this type of protectionism is objectively pretty bad and I wish it wasnt in the bill. Still a good bill overall, though.

I mean the EV credit was already a thing and it was pretty nicely optimized. I think the best change it the ability to apply the credit at the point of sale rather than having to wait a year which is probably the single best change for making EVs more accessible.

But if you're specifically referring to the sourcing of battery parts I can kinda agree but I also see the macro benefit of making a point to flesh out our own supply chain for batteries that we want to be ubiquitous.

The strings on the EV credit ate being adjusted such that the batteries must be sourced in America.

Because it's a Biden plan the conservative media is scathing about it despite that restriction not going into effect until 2024 (enough time to adjust how battery materials are sourced).

But if this was a Trump proposal they would be fellating him for putting American jobs first.

Of course a Trump "electric vehicle" credit would either be nom existent or somehow still favor oil companies...

So crazy that I'm seeing it come up so much as a big deal when it should clearly align with their normal US Jobs talking points.

KamikazePotato posted...

Whether or not red sox is an act is irrelevant. The 'lol he's just trolling' angle doesn't fly anymore after a bunch of the 'trolls' on 4chan etc turned out to be expressing their true opinions the whole time. If someone acts the way red sox does, you're free to call them a piece of shit and treat them like that's who they really are.

Right, and the other thing we learned is that you don't want to just "let the trolls be, because nobody is listening to them anyways".

People DO listen and it's imperative to provide a counter-argument from time to time.

Scenario 1) Only 2 choices, 1 from each party.

A = 51%
B = 49%

Scenario 2) A 3rd person enters the race, NOT ranked choice. They are similar to A, but have enough difference that 15% of the people would LIKE to vote for them. 12% of them decide to just vote for person A, but 3% of them vote for C anyways.

B = 49%
A = 48%
C = 3%

Scenario 3) Same as 2, except it uses ranked choice. So all 15% vote for C, but their selection is C > A > B.

A = 36% (51%)
B = 49%
C = 15%

But now as a country we are able to acknowledge that Choice C resonated with 15% of the voters rather than just the 3% who "wasted" their vote in Scenario 2. Now the votes aren't a waste because they actually represent your preferred voice.