Board 8 > Hearthstone Discussion Topic: Death Is Eternal, My Turn Is Not!

(+) Yeah! (+)

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

Jade Druid is great I love summoning a large man that allows me to summon an EVEN LARGER man

Getting harder to eat cereal, is it?
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I miss my morning arena time. oh well. hopefully I can play some later today.

btw yesterday I went to the library and I saw some kid playing hearthstone on one of the big computer screens.
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Arena #19 cont.
{Rogue}

Game 4: Vs Warrior. I went Second. Got a solid 2-3-4 curve at least. He had a Prince Malchezar deck. Huh. Weird. I drew Servant of Kalimos and switched Coin+Servant to my turn 4 play, since I had played Tar Creeper on turn 3. Got a frozen crusher to play on turn 6. He had a lot of high quality cards and used them effectively, backing me into a corner pretty fast. I think I might have been able to come back over an infinite stretch of time but my life total just depleted too quickly. Loss.

Important to note I got out tempo'd in that game and it's really my own fault. I was playing my deck as more of a midrange deck and going for value when it's supposed to be a tempo deck anyway.

Game 5: Vs Druid. I went First. Made some great tempo plays on the first three turns and pulled ahead on the board quickly. Got slowed down on turn 4 by a stegodon. Stupid big taunts. He continues to play giant taunt after giant taunt, really slowing me down. Argh. I did manage to make a pretty good swing/comeback play on turn 7. Was hit by a pretty brutal Swipe on the following turn. At this point I have no choice but to dump my entire hand and hope my topdecks are good enough to carry me. Not likely, though. He plays Medivh shortly after this. I do have Assassinate to get rid of it, but no way to deal with Ateish or anything it might summon. Ironbark Protector on the following turn. More giant taunts! I get rid of THAT too. Then he has Bonemare for his remaining medium sized minion. EVEN MORE GIANT TAUNTS. This game really pisses me off sometimes. I was actually really close to winning which is what makes it super, super frustrating. If he had drawn anything other than like 18 consecutive giant taunts I would have won. Instead, Loss.

Oh how quickly you can go from 3-0 to 3-2!

Game 6: Vs Shaman. I went Second. Coin + Defias Ringleader on turn 1. Always the play I want to have when going second. Once again I out tempo my opponent pretty hard on the first three turns. This time I am not playing against Druid so I might have a better chance to stay in the lead. By about turn 6 or 7 he has fallen so far behind there is no coming back. Win.

Game 7: Vs Priest. I went First. I had no turn 3 play which kinda hurt me, but he had nothing on turn 1 or 2 so it was really still me being slightly ahead in the end. I played Mind Breaker to shut off his hero power, but he had exactly Shadow Word: Horror that turn and completely erased the board state. I play Servant of Kalimos on 5 to discover Grave Shambler. I set up turn 8 lethal. He gets Mindgames off of Tortollan Primalist and summons the biggest taunt from my deck onto the field. Glad I saved Assassinate! Win.
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Heeeeeey, my shiny rare is Golakka Crawler. Can't complain. Also got Ultrasaur and Stand Against Darkness.

got two annoying quests to play a bunch of warrior cards. I might just bite the bullet and make a deck of all warrior cards just to clear this shit out of my quest queue.
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MariaTaylor posted...

got two annoying quests to play a bunch of warrior cards. I might just bite the bullet and make a deck of all warrior cards just to clear this shit out of my quest queue.

Play this weeks tavern brawl.

You can do it in 5 minutes by playing decks of all spells.
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Gotta love how the change to naga sea witch makes jade druid even stronger.

https://hsreplay.net/replay/hABdX9oZNzNDLY894XzyuC


edit: It appears to also have made Big EZ Druid ridiculous, too. I thought that style had basically died off with the expansion.
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went 3-0 in casual with my hodgepodge warrior deck and earned 110 gold total

aw yeah. now back to arena....
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Game 8: Vs Druid. I went First. Very solid 1-2-3 curve. Drew a solid 4 drop. Solid turn 5 play. Got Spreading Plague'd on turn 6. Yikes. Love how the game introduced a card that punishes your opponent for doing well. He pulled some bullshit with Bittertide Hydra but I ended up just hitting it for the extra 3 damage that I needed for lethal. Probably THE single worst card in arena that is rated as highly as it is. Win.

Game 9: vs Rogue. I went Second. Slower start than my last few games. My opponent wasn't rushing me down or anything either, though, so it was pretty fine. Played a good 4 drop on turn 3 (coin) and turn 4 which helped me pull ahead. Finally got my Knife Juggler + Plague Scientist combo to work for the first time! Was pretty satisfying even though at that point I had started to lose the game. We ended up pretty neck and neck by turn 8. At this point it became your standard arena attrition game. All it took was for him to have one off turn for me to take the lead. Win.

Game 10: Vs Druid. I went Second. Got my Coin + Defias Ringleader opener again. Aw yeah. Didn't have a great turn 2 play to follow up, but dagger works fine for rogue on turn 2. And I had a few good turn 3 options. Set up Blazecaller for a good swing turn on turn 7, but I was already ahead at that point. So it was more like a 'win more' turn. Made sure to play around Swipe better this time which helped keep me in the lead. He plays Ultimate Infestation on turn 10. It's not enough to save him. Fuck you, Druid! Win.

Game 11: Vs Paladin. I went Second. He had an Arthas avatar so I knew that he was serious business. I had a great opener with pretty much perfect Knife Juggler RNG. Cannot complain there. I drew Blazecaller early but I didn't have any elementals in hand, so I was sort of just hoping to draw into one for my activator before turn 7. Got wrecked pretty hard by a topdeck Consecration, but I had good enough tempo cards in hand to not totally fall behind. Bonemare on 7 was a much bigger problem. His midgame value was pretty out of control and I did not have much to help me stay even with him. Made the best play possible to play my outs, but it did not come to fruition. Second Consecration for exact lethal. Win.

Final Result: 8-3

Was a pretty good run overall. I have no complaints really.

1 pack, 170 gold, a golden card.

I've just opened my 30th consecutive Knights of the Frozen Throne pack without pulling a Legendary. Feels bad. The pity timer was invented for people with luck as bad as mine.
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Disenchanted all of the golden and extra cards I've picked up in the meantime, except for a golden Shallow Gravedigger. It's a card I like using in arena when it's offered, so having the golden one is actually pretty cool. Anyway I picked up 1410 dust. This is sadly not an exact figure since I know I have disenchanted and enchanted other cards since KoFT came out. But I at least remember now doing it for the last several runs so it's kinda cool to see how much dust you can make just from a handful of good arena runs.
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why did i log in and get a random pack
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The pick a winner thing from last weekend
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oh it was from the choose your country thing
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i didn't refresh the topic before posting the second post whoops

i'm full of whoops right now
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Opened Valeera the Hollow in my choose your champion pack. Alrighty then.

That makes my fourth DK of the nine (Jaina, Uther, and Thrall are the others), and my sixth KFT legendary overall (Bolvar and Lich King).
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Haven't got my 40 dust from the tournament yet.
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Ulti opening more legendaries in the last ten minutes than I have in the last ten months.
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JonThePenguin posted...

Opened Valeera the Hollow in my choose your champion pack. Alrighty then.

That makes my fourth DK of the nine (Jaina, Uther, and Thrall are the others), and my sixth KFT legendary overall (Bolvar and Lich King).

Nice! Really want to experiment more with her and Jaina but Anduin is just too much fun. Gul'dan too.
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Arena #20
I was Offered: Druid/Mage/Shaman
I Picked: Druid


The Draft: Was offered several dumpster tier choices pretty early on in the draft, more or less ruining the quality of my deck. I decided to just focus on curving out since I definitely will not win the quality game. I was also offered Jade Idol like three freaking times but I passed on it each time because I assumed I would not draft any more Jade cards. Haha whoops. Honestly I still think it would be a bad card even if I got three of them, though. It's not something I'd ever want to topdeck. Even a 1 mana 3/3 would not be good late in the arena match. And they rarely ever go to fatigue so reshuffling is always the worst possible play. I did get Ultimate Infestation and The Boogeymonster. Despite trying to focus on making a good curve, arena decided this would be literally impossible for me. I was offered only 6-7 cost cards MULTIPLE times, and offered almost NO three drops the entire time. I ended up with only two 3-cost cards and a ton of heavy cards. Argh.

Guess I should mentally prepare myself to go 0-3 with a garbage deck for my 20th run. Although, to be fair, this is my 20th DOCUMENTED ON BOARD 8 run. Technically that last run was my 20th and I was perfectly happy with that one. So that's something.

Game 1: Vs Rogue. I went first. Unsurprisingly, I did not have much good early plays. Literally have almost no 1 or 3 drops. Arggghhh. The first card he plays is Duskboard though so uh maybe I'm not in too much trouble. Who the hell drafts Duskboar? Then again given some of the insanely bad choices I've been offered this might not be too insane. It's entirely possible this was the best out of his three picks at some point. Anyway I take 8 damage to the face right at the start of the match. I end up playing hero power pass on turn 3 and turn 4. Arrrrggghhhh. I seriously hate this deck. This is my least favorite deck I've drafted so far of all my documented runs. I then pulled Thrall, Deathseer off of Lotus Agents. Well alright then. He floods the board with a bunch of garbage and I have two huge minions in play. I combo Spreading Plague and Power of the Wild. Man it feels absolutely disgusting to completely flip the game by using a card that punishes my opponent for being in a winning position. I take some value trades and then play Thrall Deathseer to evolve and fully heal my minions. Basically highroll all of them so I save my hero power since I don't even want to further evolve any of these. He is not able to outvalue the insanity of Thrall Deathseer and Ultimate Infestation. Once again I feel completely disgusting and almost ashamed of myself. These are some of the things I've complained most about in arena. And I'm this poor guy's 0-0 opponent. Win.

Game 2: Vs Druid. I went Second. Weak opening hand again. No surprise there. I topdecked a 2 drop. Got Malfurion the Pestilent off of Lotus Agents this time. You literally could not make this shit up. I am being handed bullshit RNG victories... Feels bad. I even coined it out on turn 6. Dropped Boogeymonster behind a giant taunt. He actually had some pretty legit dragon synergy which helped him fight pretty hard. When we do get to the lategame though I'm actually happy my deck is over stacked with giant minions. Not even Ultimate Infestation value could dig him out of this hole. Win.

Weeeirrrddd start for what should be a really bad deck, but I've just been blessed by insane RNG.
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Strange things happen at rank 20. Playing against a Jade Druid as an incomplete DK Handlock, he double Innervates out his DK on turn 3 so I'm thinking that I'm already boned, but he doesn't really follow up on it. Plays double UI against me later on during the game for ridiculous card advantage, but he screws up on one of them and burns an Auctioneer.

The strange part is, he played into fatigue and only ever played two Jades. Jade Idol on the very first turn, and Jade Behemoth a couple of turns before he Nourish-fatigued himself to death. Unless he only runs a single copy of Idol and Auctioneer, which as far as I know no version of that deck does, there's no reason he couldn't have gone Super Saiyan Jade on me at that point if not substantially sooner.
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Arena #20 (cont)
{Druid}

Game 3: Vs Paladin. I went First. Bad opening hand. Much better mulligan. I had stronger opening plays than he did, but we still felt pretty even going into the midgame. I got good Blazecaller value on 7. Topdecked my second Blazecaller to play on 8. Elemental synergy is sooo good in arena when it lands. He gets good enough Avenging Wrath RNG to keep him alive another turn. He does not turn the game around in that turn. Win.

Game 4: Vs Rogue. I went Second. I noticed that after the initial few week period of KOFT Arena, almost everyone is exclusively playing tier 1 classes now. Really disappointing since I'm already missing that opponent diversity that existed just a week ago. I tempo out way better than him in the first few turns, but he does have somewhat of a swing turn on 4. He makes some pretty unfavorable trades on turn 5 but unfortunately I'm unable to punish him since I have no good turn 5 play. I lose a bunch of tempo as a result. I play Hemet Jungle Hunter (from Tortollan Forager) on turn 6. This should guarantee some good top decks at least. I'm already holding all seven cost cards. Lol this deck. He gets exactly Mark of The Wild off of Swashburgler in order to give himself a needed taunt. The match ends up going down to the wire. He gets me down to 2 health and secures lethal on board multiple times, but I manage to play around it each time. Eventually I get more long term value and eventually come out ahead. Win.

That was an intense and satisfying game. Despite the RNG elements on both sides it really felt like one where if I had made any misplays at any point it would have cost me the game. Likewise, I feel like, if he had not made those unfavorable trades early on it might have been enough to tip him to victory. Basically the "better player" in this circumstance won in the end despite all RNG interference.

Game 5: Vs Warlock. I went Second. Good opening array of cards. I did whiff on turn 3 but my turn 1, 2, 4, and 5 plays were all strong. Plus he was forced to trade his 3 drop into my 2 drop anyway. He did set up a lot of tiny taunts with a single high attack minion behind them. This was a bit of a problem. Especially when he had good removal spells to keep me from fighting effectively on the board. I got some solid Addled Grizzly + Imp Master value on turn 6. I think I probably did not make the most optimal play on 7 while trading. I could have kept my taunt alive by taking more damage to my face. Funny enough this kind of baited him to waste removal on my weakest taunt while I had 3 bigger ones remaining. Guess I was not punished because he also made his own sub optimal play! He got Obsidian Statue off of Kabal Courier. Fucking hell. As if his removal this game had not already been insane enough. I flooded the board before killing it and he got the worst possible RNG result. I held out long enough to get the insane Ultimate Infestation value needed to make this a close game. I feel a lot less guilty about using this stupid deck when my opponent is equally broken and insane. Unsurprisingly I begin to dominate the game at this point through sheer card and tempo advantage. He does manage to clear/reset the board with an insane Defile. His removal game continues to be strong, making it hard for me to set up lethal. But I feel like I am in the winning position. Another absurd game that comes down to the wire. And right when I'm about to win he full clears with Defile a second time. Sigh. Loss.

Much less satisfying game that time. It's easy to say it's because I lost instead of won but I'm not sure. Seems more like I just enjoyed it less because it did not come down to making good plays. It just came down to him having half of his deck as good removal cards and just constantly kept clearing the board. Card quality won rather than player quality.
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Game 6: Vs Paladin. I went First. Bad opening hand. Even worse mulligan. Bad topdeck. I had no early or even mid game plays. Somehow I don't get completely rolled over and killed by turn 5. He plays Steward of Darkshire on turn 5 and starts dumping 1 health minions onto the board. Lol, really. I don't think he could have designed better synergy if he intentionally crafted this deck in constructed. My elemental synergy comes through for me in the lategame. I'm somehow still alive and this gives me a chance to fight for the board. Grimestreet Protector for more Divine shield shenanigans. He plays Lich King on curve. Well I guess I'm just not winning this game anyway. Too bad. I gave it my best shot. He gets my Tortollan Forager off of Death Grip, then plays his third Hammer of Wrath to clean up my board. Surprisingly I am still keeping this a close fight. I have no idea how. This deck is not even very high quality. But it seems like I always have lots of cards in hand. I guess because of my lack of early game, I tend to build up card advantage? Like every single Paladin I face in arena he has Avenging Wrath and gets good RNG off of it to mostly clear my board. I'm still able to set up lethal the following turn. He has topdeck Spikeridged Steed to block it. Lay on Hands the following turn to prolong the game even further. Topdecks abusive sergeant to kill my taunt with his 1/1 instead of needing to trade in his bigger minion. I slam down Boogeymonster. He has Psych-o-Tron to prolong the game even further. Man this guy just can't not topdeck the perfect answer every turn. He topdecks yet ANOTHER Spikeridged Steed the following turn. But I think at this point he has realized I just have way too many heavy minions, because he gives me a Well Played and concedes without even trying to continue to fight. Well, alright then. Win.

Honestly I would not have conceded in his position. You should always play games out fully even if you're in a bad position. He got 4 insane topdecks in a row. There's no reason why he couldn't get a few more and come back. Even if it was a slim chance. Seems like the only reason he should have conceded was if he knew that I was holding Ultimate Infestation but I don't know how he could know that.

Anyway these were a series of long games so I think I'll take a break now.
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Interesting prompt put forward by the HCT casters:

If you could have two copies of a legendary in a deck, which would be the best legendary?
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Sunkeeper Tarim probably

Oh wait Patches. Or Aya
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Pretty sure two Patches would completely break the game. Every deck would want to run a pirate package and aggro Druid would be unstoppable.
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Paladin already gets to put multiple copies of their legendaries in a deck.
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Game 7: Vs Mage. I went Second. Argh. Bad opening hand. Mulligan into some decent cards. I had a fairly good opening curve and went all in with a +3 attack Ravasaur Runt adaptation. Managed to get Mark of the Wild on it to extract some more value. Got Mukla off of Tortollan Forager. Banana value! He gets a pretty strong Meteor but I have Spreading Plague on the following turn to refill my board. We trade for a few turns but I come out ahead with more overall value. Win.

Game 8: Vs Paladin. I went Second. Bad opening hand. Better mulligan, still not great. He starts with Lost in the Jungle which is a really problematic tempo play for me to deal with on turn 1. I got Prophet Velen off of my Tortollan Forager this time. Heh. 20 damage Ultimate Infestation? We can dream. He draws and plays Prince Keleseth pretty early on. This is going to be near impossible for me to deal with, long term. He gets buffed Saronite Chain Gang value. Argh. There is actually no way to deal with this insanity. Surviving into the lategame helps, since all of my cards are super heavy in this deck. Then he adapts all of his silver hand recruits with poison to effortlessly destroy my biggest taunts. Well, alright then. And plays Vicious Fledgling in the same turn. When his board is already full. And mine is empty. Got some pretty good Primordial Drake value here to punish him for going so wide with so many 1/2 health minions, though. Then he plays Ysera. Yeah. He just had this in his deck. Along with Prince Keleseth. Ysera Awakens as his very first Ysera card to clear my board. Bonemare for lethal. Because this deck really needed Bonemare in order to compete fairly against other decks in arena. Loss.

Game 9: Vs Mage. I went Second. Can I stop going second against top tier classes. Please? Got a solid opening hand this time at least, without even needing to mulligan. He plays babbling book on turn 1. Well at least now I know what I'm dealing with. A true RNGesus deck. The ultimate final boss. This may surprise you but my opponent had efficient removal spells, secrets which gave him lots of value, and good elemental cards. At no point during this game did the two sides of the board look even remotely balanced or fair. Loss.

Final Result: 6-3

1 pack, 60 dust, 75 Gold.
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Got my second KOFT Legendary from this pack, my 31st consecutive pack since last pulling a legendary.

Aannddd it's the worthless Archbishop Benedictus.
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Saw ADWCTA get 12 wins with a Paladin last night. I was sorta tilted from watching his last game. It was against a priest who...pretty much didn't do anything the whole game. He presumably had some expensive and/or useless cards in hand.

So frustrating to see someone just waltz through their final game when I've exclusively faced mages with perfect virtually unstoppable curves whenever I've been at 11 wins. >:(
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Finally was able to summon Galvadon while playing my galvadon deck

he was hexed the turn after
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GANON1025 posted...

Finally was able to summon Galvadon while playing my galvadon deck

he was hexed the turn after

well someone sucks at adapting to circumstances

*rimshot*
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but didn't he have stealth AND a whole lot more?
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I hear he can be pretty good with cannot be targeted by spells or hero powers adapt
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yeah, then you can get devolved on the following turn instead
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dowolf posted...

but didn't he have stealth AND a whole lot more?

XD
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Arena #21
I Was Offered: Druid/Hunter/Paladin
I Picked: Hunter


The Draft: My Synergy Picks were literally Abominable Bowman and N'Zoth. Also this marks the second Hunter draft in a pretty short period of time where I was offered three bad Legendary picks and N'Zoth was the best among them. Managed to fulfill the death rattle synergy pretty well, although I have problems believe a Hunter deck is really going to go deep into the lategame much. We'll see. Aside from that I ended up with a fairly solid midrange deck. My only concern is the complete lack of 1 drops, and the fact that none of my 2 or 3 drops are particularly great. I have a lot of powerful mid-sized cards and a strong lategame. Problem is I feel like I'll be competing against the Paladin, Mage, and Druid's far superior lategame shenanigans. Soooo yeah. Oh, also Warlocks and Priests. And basically every other class except Hunter.

Game 1: Vs Rogue. I went First. This is probably one of my better match ups so I hope I get lucky here. Opening hand not great, not terrible either. I played the early game well and thanks to the curve of my deck I had solid midrange plays all the way through to turn 8. This helped me back the opponent into a corner. Houndmaster lethal on turn 9. This is not one of those games where I would need N'Zoth but I can also see how if it had been prolonged, drawing him would have won me the game instantly. I only hope I can be this lucky in matches where it does actually matter. Win.

Game 2: Vs Druid. I went First. Yes, can I please keep going first? This is much nicer. Solid 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 curve again. Had to deal with him playing Primordial Drake on turn 5 to clear my board. I had Savanah Highmane to play on turn 6. It's like we're really playing constructed. He sets himself up for an insanely devastating Explosive Shot on the following turn and I punish accordingly, taking out 3 minions with one card. Got punished on the following turn by him having Spreading Plague. He then inexplicably uses his hero power to attack my 2/1 instead of 6/1... leaving the 6/1 on the board so it can kill one of his taunts. I just have no words. This game does go into later turns but I haven't played nearly as many, nor any high quality death rattles. Nor is there really any sign of my N'Zoth. Probably waiting at the very bottom of my deck. Unfortunately for me he has the exact opposite luck and draws a ton of heavy, high value greed cards at the opportune time to extract the maximum possible greed from them. Loss.

Game 3: Vs Druid. I went Second. Man Druid really have soooo many annoying cards right now. It's almost guaranteed they will have something to block whichever play I want to make, before I even play it. My murloc synergy becomes insignificant when he effortlessly curves out into high health taunts, taunt boosting minions, and kills my entire board before I can play anything that buffs or adapts anything else. This match is really just the epitome of 'you automatically lose because you went second.' I am able to get some pretty solid tempo from Explosive Shot and try to fight for the board. But, thinking about it, the amount of times I type 'try to fight for the board' and actually win are not very high. So, yeah. In Arena when I've fallen this far behind it usually does not turn around. Literally Spreading Plague into Power of the Wild. God damn. Got his Fatespinner to buff my board full of minions with some clever play. I completely seize the late game advantage off of this play and it ends up being really close at the end, but we eventually hit a turn where he is no longer holding a perfect answer. Win.
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Game 4: Vs Mage. I went Second. Kindly Grandmother and Beastmaster in my opening hand. Let's see if I can live the synergy dream. I actually... sort of.... did. But he played the three mana 4/4 so my 3/3 didn't even effectively trade with it. I did have a 1 damage ping in hand though so it ended up working out in my favor still. Unfortunately for me he had glacial shard, breath of sindragosa to shut down my board state anyway. Just Mage things. Due to bad draw I had absolutely no good turn 5 plays, which ended up putting me even further behind. I held onto Deathspeaker sheerly out of having no good turn to play it. However, this did pay off and I got insane value from it on a much later turn. Over a larger period of time my better plays started to added up and I pulled ahead in the lead without him killing me quickly enough to prevent this from happening. Seeing no better plays, I put my faith in the RNG with a deadly shot and win a 50/50. Ended up playing a lot of my high value (6-7 mana) death rattles which I have been holding since like turn 3. Didn't draw N'Zoth though, but did win the long term value game. Win.

Game 5: Vs Mage. I went First. Turn 1 Mana Wyrm. Fucccckkkkm eeeeeeeee. There is no other play than to throw my Kindly Grandmother in front of it. The minion that causes his hero power to freeze me right on turn 2. Perfect Breath of Sindragosa RNG the following turn. Finally draw N'Zoth for the first time. On turn 5. In a game where I'm already losing badly. Wow thanks, Old Gods! He has Secrets and Medivh's Valet to increase his insane tempo advantage even further. Cobalt Scalebane on curve that continues to snowball out of control. Loss.

Game 6: Vs Rogue. I went First. I'm not sure if Kindly Grandmother is even good here or not. I have no turn 3 play which is a pretty bad sign. I manage to use Freezing Trap to slow down his tempo gain and keep the game under my control until the midrange turns. This is hopefully where I should have the natural advantage. I'm able to get two discounted Deathrattle minions out on the following turn thanks to Corpse Widow. My prediction came true. Between tempo, card quality, and value my board quickly gets way beyond unfair and there is nothing he can do. A natural foil to the previous game which perfectly demonstrates the current state of arena. Win.

Game 7: Vs Rogue. I went Second. He has a 3/1, 2/1 and 2/3 on board on turn 2. It's like I'm really playing against Druid! Meanwhile I'm over here playing Bilefin Tidehunter. Oh, his insurmountable early aggro was not enough? Don't worry, bro. He's also got removal spells to prevent it from even being a fair fight on the board. He sets up TURN 5 LETHAL and then plays Cult Master to reload his hand when I prevent the lethal set up and force him to trade in a few of his giant collection of minions. Loss.

That was quite possibly the most unsatisfying game of Hearthstone I have ever played.

Final Result: 4-3

1 Pack, 75 Gold

Also I drafted Blood Knight and did not face a single Paladin. Just arena things.
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HanOfTheNekos posted...

Interesting prompt put forward by the HCT casters:

If you could have two copies of a legendary in a deck, which would be the best legendary?

Patches. Thinning your deck that hard that early is absurd.

For what it's worth I did manage to play N'Zoth at least one time this run.

It was in the game against Mage, after I had already lost. Figured I'd play it on turn 10 just to see the animation of N'Zoth summoning my 1 deathrattle I played that game before conceding.
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Been watching DisguisedToast streaming tonight. Lost count cause I had to AFK for a few minutes, but I think he got to around 15 druids in a row before he finally faced a different class.
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my opponent in arena just played Piloted Shredder and my head nearly exploded.

then snowchugger, micro machine, hungry dragon, etc.

it took me a minute to realize he just drafted it a really long time ago.
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bng_mmmk posted...

my opponent in arena just played Piloted Shredder and my head nearly exploded.

then snowchugger, micro machine, hungry dragon, etc.

it took me a minute to realize he just drafted it a really long time ago.

whoa, that's awesome
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Arena #22
I Was Offered: Warlock/Hunter/Shaman
I Picked: Hunter

The Draft: A pretty standard draft. I didn't get any legendary or very many high quality cards. My curve started off okay, got kind of messed up in the middle due to bad offerings, and then I was able to "fix" it in the end by picked some mediocre choices for the sake of curving out. This is a very average deck, probably even below average due to the current high variance meta. So I don't think I'll get far with it unless I get lucky. Specifically I think I can only win games if I get lucky match ups (if I go up against any insane deck I have 0 chance of winning), and I still have to have good draw RNG to win my even and favorable match ups due to some hiccups in the curve.

Game 1: Vs Khadgar Mage. I went First. Definitely not the first thing I wanted to see for my 0-0 match! He plays Mana Wyrm on turn 1. Seriously how do they ALWAYS have this. It doesn't even have the recency bonus, nevermind the odds of it being IN THEIR STARTING HAND. I didn't draw a 1 drop or a 3 drop. Bad match up RNG, bad draw RNG. He curves into answers which also synergize and buff his mana wyrm, as well as having an ooze the turn I play my weapon. The early game is absolutely brutal. I'm able to have a Bonemare Swing turn. Dragonfire Potion created by Kabal Courier. Why... why would he even take this when he was so far ahead on the board already??? Polymorph for my lategame taunt. Ghastly Conjourer for Mirror Image when he desperately needed taunts. LITERALLY ICE BLOCK IN ARENA. I somehow actually came back and won this game. WTF. Win.

Game 2: Vs Druid. I went Second. Uh Oh. Got my starting 1 drop this time at least. Missed a turn 3 play. Again. Despite having more 3 drops in this deck than anything else. """Probability""" ! I'm forced to make a turn 3 and turn 4 play that both involve using synergy cards without their activators. At least I'm curving out, but this lack of value is going to kill me long term. He plays a TERRIBLE kodo on turn 5, killing a 1/1. So, I guess, he's not going for value either! That's nice at least. I get Zoobot value on turn 6, Bonemare on 7, and have turn 8 lethal set up (with Nightblade in my hand). He concedes before that happens, though. Win.

Game 3: Vs Warlock. I went Second. Threw back everything but my Eaglehorn Bow. Weapons are too good to not keep, especially when I have the coin. Since he only taps on turn 2 I decide to coin out my Rat Pack instead. It's the lowest value of the three drops in my hand and the others can all have an impact on the board immediately while played. This will allow me to react better to his turn 3 play. It's a Tar Creeper to slow the game down. As a Hunter, I'm definitely not happy with this outcome! I have a huge Zoobot turn on 7. Bonemare comes down on 8 this time. Even playing off tempo this card is just nuts. Win.

Game 4: Vs Rogue. I went First. I actually curve out on my first few turns pretty well, for the first time so far this run! And this is what this deck is supposed to do... I even landed Houndmaster on Rat Pack. Disgustttiinnnggg. Got an Adapt on it the following turn, but was offered 3 bad choices. Guess I deserved a BIT of bad luck to cap off that insane opener. I make some clunky plays in the late game but I'm already so far ahead that even him forcing me to make awkward plays is not enough to change the outcome. Win.
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Game 5: Vs Mage. I went Second. He does NOT have Mana Wyrm on turn 1! I use my weapon to help control the board early on. But I didn't make any great tempo plays in the meantime to seize the board for myself. I do better in the mid game. My Sunwalker gets Polymorph'd for huge tempo loss. Once again I am just left baffled at how often they seem to have these perfect answer cards in arena. I can't imagine the odds of drafting one specific card are very high but almost every mage I face seems to have at least one copy. Big Zoobot turn on 7 again. I have a 2 mana beast and a 2 mana murloc and I've just happened to play things out to get them all onto the board in one big swing turn again. I play Venomstrike Trap at a key moment, but he unfortunately has a really cheap and perfect answer for it. Then Firelands Portal the following turn. And what was a one-sided stomp just two turns ago turns into a really close topdeck war. His life total is a lot lower than mine though, so I just start pressing the button and grinding him down. Unfortunately for me he has giant taunts AND Darkscale Healer. AND CULT APOTHECARY. Argh. Anything less than the perfect draw RNG he had would have cost him the game. Alas, it was not to be. Loss.

Game 6: Vs Paladin. I went Second. Really strong opener, barring him having a card that blocks my line(s) of play. He does not have it. Although he does have Rallying Blade on turn 3! Another one of those staples you see in arena far more commonly than should be statistically probable. Maybe it's because the ones who have it are guaranteed to get to 4+ wins, so when I get to 4+ wins they all seem to have it. I play turns 5 and 6 greedy, trying to extract maximum Zoobot value by spreading my beasts and murlocs out over two turns. Fortunately for me he does NOT have a punish. And, even more, I topdeck Houndmaster instead. I decide to gamble on an Adapt, get Windfury, and slam him in the face twice for 5 damage each time. And since this was all on Rat Pack I end up getting a bunch of rats even after he kills it. Between Zoobot which I'm still holding, Grevious Bite, my Hero Power, all the Rats I have on board, even Bonemare isn't enough to save him. Win.

Game 7: Vs Druid. I went Second. Bad opening hand, slightly better mulligan. He gets the fucking unstoppable 1/5 taunt on turn 3. How in the hell is this card even remotely balanced? What does FIVE DAMAGE on turn 3???? I legitimately cannot figure out what the fuck blizzard is thinking half the time. Especially with Druid this expansion. The only upside is that since I'm not ahead on board he won't be able to play his 5 mana 5/25 spell.... Unluckily for him I have Unleash the Hounds. I like how Hunter's version of the 5 mana 5/25 is just a 3 mana 4/4. Amazingly balanced card design going on here. I punish him further with an explosive shot. Control Hunter! More Darkscale Healer shenanigans. I think this card is not even great in arena unless you're specifically facing Hunter? Which you're unlikely to even do? It's like people are picking this card knowing they'll be facing me or something. I snowball into a 12/8 Savanah Highmane on turn 9. LOL. Win.

Get wrecked Druid players.

Game 8: Vs Mage. I went Second. Alright this is not even a running joke at this point. How do I KEEP going second against top tier classes, consecutively in my arena runs? There has to be some kind of glitch or something at play here. I had a solid opener. He counters with perfect Breath of Sindragosa RNG. The Way of the Mage. He has terrible positioning and I punish him with Explosive Shot. Control Hunter! Unleash the Hounds/Greivous Bite combo on the following turn. Control Hunter! Firelands Portal in response. Ah, drafting high quality removal spells... The Way of the Mage! I crush him in a very satisfying way. Win.

Get wrecked Mage players.
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Game 9: Vs Warlock. I went First. Finally good match up RNG, I get bad draw RNG of course as a result. No solid opening plays this time. Despite having no good turn 1/2 plays, I do have Eaglehorn Bow to help control the board. In true Constructed Arena fashion this handlock has his twilight drake on turn 4. He's playing Mechanical Yeti and Silver Hand Regent. Am I crazy or have these cards rotated out already? I guess turbopuns is not the only person to face weird legacy decks lately. Refreshment Vendor as well. What a strange deck. I'm pretty sure card quality has gone up over time, though, and this puts me in a favorable position. His Madder Bomber has the worst RNG possible. Yessss. Win.

Get wrecked RNG players.

Game 10: Vs Mage. I went First. Hey, at least I'm going first this time! A solid opening curve at last, too. Why is it that something this deck should statistically be doing often is something that I'm only seeing like 30% of the time??? I even get a solid elemental activator for my turn 3/4 play. My midrange plays end up being fairly weak. Although I am ahead on board, this gives him a chance to catch up and make it a fair fight. Definitely not something I want against a Mage who almost certainly has a superior lategame. He starts chaining elementals for a huge tempo swing on turns 6-8. Keeping in mind those are my worst turns this game it ends up completely flipping the board state. I manage to land a key Explosive Shot on 9 to make a comeback. Sooo glad I saved this one instead of wasting it earlier. Floating mana back then felt bad but playing this just to play it would have cost me huge here. Doesn't matter. He had Frost Lich Jaina. It is literally impossible to win against an infinite army of lifesteal elementals. So, uh. Loss.

Can we please remove these bullshit cards from Arena? Like 2 weeks ago?

Game 11: Vs Rogue. I went Second. Tried to seize tempo with a turn 1 coin play, but got punished. Ah well. Putting that aside my opening was still fairly solid. His was about average as well. Basically no clear immediate winner. He tries to get some Murloc synergy but I keep killing them before he can capitalize. I feel like Murloc synergy is the weakest in arena, since it seems pretty hard to pull off. Assassinate on my Sunwalker. Literally every time I have played this card this run it has been IMMEDIATELY answered. And that card basically wins him the game. Loss.

Final Result: 8-3

Okay run. Two hugely unsatisfying final games but what can you do? It's arena. Could be worse. I could be playing Constructed!

1 pack, 150 gold, golden card, 10 dust
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It's Sunday. Weekly reminder that there are zero objective standards by which Hearthstone is considered a skill bassd game. Twice in a row I went second as Priest with the dck VI was rolling with, and twice in a row my opening hand ended up being Yshaarj, Lich King, Ysera, Statue, Coin.

This is not a skill game and never will be. Stop pretending Blizzard is competent.

not sure why you'd subject yourself to playing constructed right now anyway
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Ulti, take your meds.
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