Unlabelled Hearthstone - Esports SuperStars: Powered by Progressive

12/30/2017 01:05:00 am
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Hearthstone - Esports SuperStars: Powered by Progressive

Esports SuperStars: Powered by Progressive

Posted: 28 Dec 2017 11:40 AM PST

Esports Arena is hosting the second Esports SuperStars, and this time it is powered by Progressive!

The event will be running on December 28th and 29th between the hours of 12pm and 8pm PST.

Esports SuperStars is a $30,000 16 man two day invitational featuring some of the best players from all over the world!

Players: Astrogation, Fr0zen, Zalae, Chakki, Amnesiac, Muzzy, WtyBill, HotMeowth, Reynad, Odemian, Navioot, Ant, JustSaiyan, RDU, Purple, and Pavel.

Casters: Frodan, ThatsAdmirable, Nostam, and YoitsFlo.

For more event information check out: https://smash.gg/tournament/hearthstone-esports-superstars/details

Watch the stream here: https://www.twitch.tv/esportsarena

submitted by /u/ShamonaHe
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Legendary Weapons should have on-play music

Posted: 29 Dec 2017 03:24 AM PST

One of the reasons legendary weapons feel a lot less dramatic than most other legendaries is their lack of on-play music. At least some, like Aluneth and Skull, have voice lines, but for others it's about as dramatic as playing any other card. Some sort of on-play music would be awesome.

submitted by /u/aliaswhatshisface
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It's my grandpa's Birthday today, he loves Hearthstone so we got him a custom card.

Posted: 28 Dec 2017 02:40 PM PST

Let's talk about micro adjustments in arena, and how hunter got nerfed overnight

Posted: 29 Dec 2017 05:27 AM PST

TL;DR: As a result of Team5's micro-adjustments in arena, Hunter got heavily nerfed in arena after its dominating performance in the first two weeks of the new expansion. While the changes are good for balance, it'd be better if they were/will be announced through official channels. It doesn't feel good if even the experienced players are left unaware or confused.

I'm an editor from Chinese HS site YingDi. We received an article last night from a member of Chinese arena community "the Meow Clan", which is about some of the issues they observed in the new arena meta. There is one thing in the article worth noting in particular, which is also why the author wanted me to translate and share it on the subreddit: the micro-adjustments in arena are taking place, and they are HUGE.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Meow Clan: it's an arena commmunity where almost all the Chinese arena pros hang out. Some of their members have also managed to hit NA/EU/Asia leaderboards, including a hilariously dominating performance in August. The author of the original article MeowAlee is one of them; he hit 31st on November's leaderboard in China.

And just in case anyone hasn't heard about micro-adjustments in arena, it's been mentioned multiple times by the devs in interviews and patch notes. Basically, the devs are monitoring how cards perform in arena and making changes to the offering rate of individual cards, in order to balance the classes within arena (while not affecting constructed).

Now to be fair, it's not the first time those adjustments are observed (e.g. I remember Adwcta&Merps also talked in their last pobcast about how eviserate's offering rate decreased by 40% going into the new expansion). To give you another example, here's how the same card bonemare appears to have different offering rate in different classes, both pre/post the new expansion (data recorded on Nov.7th and Dec.25th from HSReplay), which is pretty significant.

Though the idea of micro-adjustments may not sound new (to invested players), this time things are a little bit different -- it seems that some adjustments were made just a few days ago, and it made hunter drop drastically from s-tier to mid- tier. It also indicates that micro-adjustments are made not through patches but through hotfixes.

Though we don't have all the data, 3rd party sites and trackers do offer some indications. According to HSReplay and Hezi (a Chinese decktracker), Hunter's winrate in arena used to be as high as 56-58% going into this expansion (because of all the good arena cards they get, while mages and rogues don't), but HSReplay also showed that on Dec.26th (Beijing time), its winrate within 48 hours has dropped to 51% (before MeowAlee posted his article), the same number (almost) was also provided by Hezi on Dec.25th.

Meanwhile, we also saw an interesting change in how the cards were picked. Aside from class winrate and popularity, Hezi also shows the top3 most picked cards of each class. This pair of screenshots showed that on the second week, hunters' most picked cards were flanking strike, spellstone and wandering monster, but last week they changed to forlorn stalker, spellstone and infested wolf.

Note that forlorn stalker and infested wolf are from Old Gods, so they should be offered at a lower rate than the new cards from Kobold; and neither of them are considered that good in arena. The fact that they were picked more than flanking strike and wandering monster really made people wonder what happened, which came down to the conclusion/assumption that the latter two cards were nerfed, by lowering their offering rate.

As much as this post may come out as an accusation to the devs, I (both me and the author) need to clarify that doing adjustments -- micro or not so micro -- is definitely a step in the right direction, showing that arena mode is getting more attention from the devs. And if hunter is so powerful right now, of course we would like to see it nerfed. But if only we get to hear these adjustments from the devs in advance, say in a blue post, it would be much better.

Take this hunter case as an example. if we haven't discover it by ourselves, the experienced players may keep picking hunter with the mindset that it's the best class -- and when they keep failing to pick up cards like flanking strike, it'll probably take them a long time to realize that it's not them being unlucky. This even affects newer players as they are more likely to just follow the trend.

And it shouldn't be that hard. Team5 has already listed out a lot of hidden rules of arena, including all the banned cards and the general offering rate based on different card types, which, again, is a good sign.

We also believe that Team5 are willing to listen to the community, which is why we didn't only talk about it in the Chinese community. China has some of the most skillful and passionate arena players in the world, but due to all the barriers it kinda feels like we rarely join the conversations, so we hope this time our feedback can get across.

submitted by /u/Bennidge
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I feel terrible for winning in the raven idol brawl because it means my opponent has to play another game

Posted: 29 Dec 2017 08:08 AM PST

I'm sorry THEBIGDWARF.

When I entered the brawl I had no intention of harming any other human being, I just wanted my pack. Things escalated and here we are. I have a lot of regrets in my life but this definitely comes out on top.

I hope your next opponent isn't as heartless as I.

submitted by /u/BobJone00
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A friend of mine passed away in 2014 from an epileptic seizure. He was a huge WoW player, but barely played Hearthstone. He gave me this from his goody bag at blizzcon, 2 months before he passed away. It's one of my most cherished possessions because of the memories it carries.

Posted: 28 Dec 2017 09:11 PM PST

So I saw someone ask "Where is Gilneas?" and I responded with this.

Posted: 29 Dec 2017 04:20 AM PST

Budget Hearthstone Decks For All 9 Classes (Kobolds & Catacombs Update)

Posted: 29 Dec 2017 07:17 AM PST

Hello /r/hearthstone!

We at Hearthhead really care about the new players experience. We understand that starting a game like Hearthstone can be incredibly difficult. Not only you have a lot of information to process, no experience with deck building, but your starting collection is incredibly small. While we can't fix the last problem, we'll try to help you with the deck choice.

And so, all of our budget decks were updated with the Kobolds & Catacombs card, to fit into the current meta much more. Some of them changed significantly, others haven't changed at all - sadly, Kobolds & Catacombs was a pretty expensive expansion. Not in the terms of Legendaries, but in terms of Epics - it has added multiple staples like Corridor Creeper, Call to Arms, Spiteful Summoner, Voidlord, Carnivorous Cube etc. that are simply outside of the range of some budget players. Patches the Pirate has also became more popular than it ever was, and it's an amazing craft, but the problem is that it rotates out in just about 3 months from now, meaning that it might be hard to justify getting it as a budget player.

Still, we've tried our best to provide the most powerful options for each class WITHOUT using any Epic, Legendary or adventure cards. It should put the Dust cost of those decks in range of 1,000-2,000. The cost also goes down if you own some of those cards already (which should be the case even for the new players), so the real cost of those decks is often below 500 Dust. Those decks should be a great choice for new players - in the worst case scenario, they can build a full deck for a cost of a single Legendary card (and in the best case scenario, for a cost of an Epic card, or even cheaper). Most of the decks are capable of getting you to Rank 10 if you play them well, with some of the stronger ones hitting the limit at Rank 5. After you do some upgrades, you might even be able to get some of them to Legend after you master them.

Each Budget deck comes with a full guide, detailing things like:

  • Strategy & Tips - Some of those decks are pretty difficult to play, so understanding what you should do in a specific situation, what combos and synergies are in the deck etc. can help you in your first games.
  • Mulligan - You want to understand which cards should be kept in the opening hand and which should be thrown away. It's very important and proper mulligan can increase your win rate significantly.
  • Card Upgrades / Tech Options - There are obviously some less than ideal cards, so we offer a few upgrades for the ones you'll want to replace. We also discuss some tech options available.

For the best viewing experience, you can check out a full compilation of the decks on our site.

Budget Jade Druid (1880 Dust)

Kobolds & Catacombs didn't add much to the deck. The only new card it runs is Lesser Jasper Spellstone. It's another early game removal and cheap spell to combo with Auctioneer. Since high tempo, aggressive decks are very popular on the ladder right now, even the first part of the removal isn't that bad - and in the slower matchups you can keep it in your hand for a while to have a very efficient 6 damage for 1 mana removal later in the game.

Budget Midrange Hunter (1200 Dust)

Even though Kobolds & Catacombs have introduced some new, interesting choices for the Hunter, the deck isn't in the best spot right now. While it still definitely works in the lower ranks, higher ranks are infested by decks that simply counter it.

As for the new additions, there are three. Starting with the only new Neutral option - Dire Mole. This card doesn't seem particularly strong, and you're right, it isn't. But Hunters absolutely need to stay on the curve, with 1-drop being very important, especially if you have a Crackling Razormaw follow-up. With let's say a +3 Attack Adapt, you can turn it into a 4/3, which is insanely powerful. The 1/3 stat-line can contest a lot of the early game minions (1/1's and 2/1's), while the Beast tag makes it a good Houndmaster target (3/5 with Taunt) or even Kill Command activator. Small, but versatile cards like that usually have bigger impact on the games than big, flashy Legendaries.

The second card is Candleshot. It's a new weapon, and a miniature version of Gladiator's Longbow. While 1/3 weapon might not seem great, Hunter has no other real way to ping, and since contesting the early board is important, this weapon found its place in the meta. For example, if your opponen value trades your Dire Mole with a 3/1 minion, and you play a 2-drop, you basically get 2-for-1'd. With this weapon, you could easily finish the 1 health minion off and still have two more pings. The fact that you take no damage while swinging is also important, because the weapon is most useful against Aggro, and taking extra 5+ damage from the early weapon hits is not something to take lightly. It's a bit like having three Mage Hero Powers condensed into one, 1 mana card. The only difference is that it can't bypass Taunt minions.

And the last new card is Flanking Strike. Hunter was in a dire need of a good, impactful 4 mana card. Houndmaster is amazing, but it's often not a 4-drop - if you have no Beast to buff, then it's just a 4/3 body. This card is very good, as it gives you a 3/3 Beast, so some solid board presence, while also dealign 3 damage, so most likely removing a minion. 3 health is a very popular early game health number - a lot of the 2-drops are 2/3, and 3-drops like Southsea Captain or Curious Glimmerroot are very popular. The only downside of this card is that it can't go face, but frankly, it would be way too powerful then.

But in the end, if you want to play Hunter, the better option would be to run an aggressive deck like Face Hunter. But the problem is that, counterintuitively, Aggro Hunter is a much more expensive deck. Patches the Pirate is an absolute must have, while cards like Southsea Captain, Bittertide Hydra, Corridor Creeper or Leeroy Jenkins are also great to have. It puts the cost of average Aggro Hunter deck at about 6k dust, which is far beyond our budget for this series.

Budget Tempo Mage (1320 Dust)

Tempo/Secret Mage has gained some interesting cards this expansion and is a pretty popular meta deck right now. That said, two of the three new cards included into the lists are Epic (Corridor Creeper) and Legendary (Aluneth), meaning that they sadly can't get into this build.

So, in the end, the only K&C cards added to the list is Explosive Runes. But maybe I shouldn't say "only", as it's an incredibly powerful Secret, which allows the deck to dominate some of the matchups. Your opponent is forced to either play a small minion and take a lot of damage, or play a bigger minion and get it removed (or at least severely damaged). And since more often than not you're casting it for free, the tempo gain is massive.

Another change I've made is adding Cobalt Scalebane instead of Ghastly Conjurer. I made the KFT deck list before the power of Scalebane in Midrange/Tempo decks was discovered, but right now it's one of the best (cheap) choices in such a deck.

Budget Handbuff Paladin (2000 Dust)

Kobolds & Catacombs was a very good expansion for the Paladin, one card in particular has turned aggressive list into a nearly unstoppable power - Call to Arms. Recruiting three minions not only refills the board, synergizes with cards like Knife Juggler or Sunkeeper Tarim, but also makes your future draws better, as it pulls out the 1-drops and 2-drops from your deck (so you can draw 3+ mana cards more consistently).

However, the card is Epic. And to be fair, I would probably break the "no Epics" rule in this case and build a deck around it, if not for the fact that those decks would still be very expensive. There are just multiple Epics and Legendaries that are absolutely necessary - e.g. Vilefin Inquisitor, Murloc Warleader and Gentle Megasaur (Murloc version), Patches the Pirate and Corridor Creeper (regular version) and Sunkeeper Tarim (both versions). While you could theoretically play without those, the decks' power would significantly go down.

As for this budget Handbuff Paladin deck, it's not great, but it's playable. If you like to play Paladin, but you don't have much dust to work with, you can absolutely try to build it. The deck didn't get that much this expansion - Drygulch Jailor was the only addition. While the 1/1 body isn't very good, it Deathrattles into three 1/1 Recruits, and those combo very well with the handbuffs. One of the biggest issues when it comes to handbuffs was the lack of targets. Handbuffs are really bad if you have only 1 or 2 minions left to buff. Drygulch provides extra three targets, and that alone, while not perfect, might be good enough to drop let's say Smuggler's Run. Given the 1 mana cost of Silver Hand Recruits, buffing them to let's say 3/3 can create some massive tempo swings - you can flood the board with 1 mana 3/3's.

However, the card alone is not really enough to make the deck competitive.

Budget Combo Dragon Priest (1500 Dust)

Our previous budget Priest deck was Silence Priest, but we've decided to get rid of it for two reasons. First, this build is just stronger, and second, that deck wasn't "truly" budget, as it required some Karazhan (adventure) cards to work and not everyone owns it.

This expansion we've decided to go with Combo Dragon Priest, which is a pretty popular Constructed deck right now. Priest decks built around combo were always quite solid in the slower matchups, but the introduction of Duskbreaker made them much easier. While it's the only Kobolds & Catacombs card in the list, it's very important and makes your life easier, especially as a budge player with no access to Dragonfire Potion.

The deck's play style revolves around two things – powerful Dragons and Divine Spirit + Inner Fire combo. While it's missing a few key cards compared to the full version, it's already pretty strong, and if you make it, you're really just a few Epics away from having a working meta deck multiple pros have success with recently.

Budget Tempo Rogue (1640 Dust)

Tempo Rogue is still a very powerful deck, and while its budget verison suffers from the lack of some cards, it's still quite powerful and definitely capable of getting into higher ranks.

In Kobolds & Catacombs, I've decided to modify the deck quite significantly. Thanks to the new card, Cavern Shinyfinder, I've figured out that building your deck around more weapon synergy with Shadowblade might be good idea. Shinyfinder -> Shadowblade curve is generally great, and if you can follow that up with Runeforge Haunter, it will be even more powerful. You will often find yourself with a buffed Shadowblade you can swing 3 or 4 times instead of the usual two. It might either be used to control the boad, while you damage your opponent with minions, or to put pressure itself - even Shadowblade + Deadly Poison alone is 10 damage over two turns, and that's a lot.

This version is a bit less about "individually powerful" cards and more about synergies. However, the single card powerhouses like Cobalt Scalebane or Bonemare are also present, because they're great budget options for almost any deck.

Second new Kobolds & Catacombs addition is Elven Minstrel. The card is quite powerful, as it's relatively easy to combo given how many cheap cards you run, and it lets you refill your hand in the mid/late game. With Elven Minstrel or two, you might take it to the late game without running out of steam. Many tempo vs tempo matchups, assuming that both decks are going quite equally, are decided by who runs out of cards first, and Elven Minstrel means that your opponent will do that more often than you (which is great).

Budget Evolve/Jade Shaman (2120 Dust)

This expansion wasn't good for Shaman. The only viable Shaman deck - this one - didn't get almost any new tools, with Corridor Creeper being the only amazing addition. Unstable Evolution is also a solid new card, but nothing game-changing. And since both of them are Epics, it means that they can't get into the budget list. Shaman is currently the worst class and least popular class in the game, with only Evolve Shaman being it's only deck even worth talking about, and it's a low Tier 3 deck at best right now.

The only change I could make in this list is removing Stonehill Defender in favor of Bonemare, but neither of those cards is new. This change doesn't really need to be explained - I've undervalued Bonemare in the budget version of this deck in KFT simply because it doesn't have a good Evolve synergy (I mean, the Bonemare itself has, but Evolve often also affects the minion you buff). So while the meta went forward, this deck seems to lag behind. Next expansion will need to be really good for Shaman for the class to even be relevant.

Budget Zoo Warlock (1480 Dust)

The latest expansion was great for Warlock, both for the faster and slower decks. In this case, Zoo Warlock has got two very good cards - Kobold Librarian and Vulgar Homunculus. And the best thing about that is that both of them are Common.

Kobold Librarian is just a card you can't justify not using. The deck is cycle-heavy, you want to get rid of your hand quickly and flood the board, but at the same time you don't want to run out of cards too quickly. This card is great at accomplishing both - it's a "free" (card-wise) body on the board that you can drop as soon as Turn 1. Since you're using Hero Power a lot when playing Zoo, this card is a bit like a cheaper version with a 2/1 body attached. It's just really, really good.

Vulgar Homunculus, while not as powerful as Kobold Librarian, also finds its place in this deck. A non-conditional 2/4 Taunt for 2 mana, and a Demon on top of that, is just great. You can use it against Aggro to save some of your life and force them to trade, you can use it to protect other minions, and since it's a Demon you can buff it with cards like Bloodfury Potion and Crystalweaver.

And since we've added another good Demon to the list, the two cards above (Bloodfury Potion and Crystalweaver) made it to this list. While they would be even better with Malchezaar's Imp, six cheap Demons (and four more 5 mana ones) are good enough to make this work. Even hitting a single Demon with Crystalweaver is good enough, and you will often be able to hit 2 or 3 of them on curve.

Budget Pirate Warrior (1360 Dust)

Pirate Warrior has got exactly... zero budget cards this expansion. Or, let me rephrase it, Pirate Warrior has got zero really good cards this expansion, let alone cards that budget deck can play. Which means that, sadly, the list won't change in the slightest.

Most of the Constructed Pirate Warrior lists (which are still pretty rare) run an interesting combo - Spiteful Summoner + Lesser Mithril Spellstone and no other spells at all. Which means that playing Summoner on Turn 6 results in a 4/4 + a random 7-drop, which is a huge tempo play. After the initial aggression, it's very likely that your opponent is nearly out of removals already, which might make it hard to remove. Mithril Spellstone also isn't that bad in a deck like that, given that you equip a lot of weapons (minions that give you a weapon, like N'Zoth's First Mate do count) and having 3x 5/5 as a finisher can also win you the game.

However, even though Spellstone is Rare, Spiteful Summoner is Epic, so it doesn't quality for our budget deck. Which, in the end, means that the budget deck didn't change at all.

That's all folks, thanks for reading. While it's really hard to build a viable deck on the tight budget, it's definitely possible. Some of those decks aren't even that bad, and they should be a great option for either players that have recently started playing Hearthstone, or players that want to try out a class they haven't been playing yet.

If you want to be up to date with my articles, you can follow me on the Twitter @StonekeepHS. You can also follow @Hearthhead for the latest news, articles and deck guides!

submitted by /u/stonekeep
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So I tried the spiteful priest today

Posted: 28 Dec 2017 11:12 PM PST

Accepted a friend request expecting rage. Wasn't disappointed.

Posted: 29 Dec 2017 06:27 AM PST

I queued my random Evolve Shaman in the Legend pool and ended up against Rogue. I was just trying to finish a quest and bored more than anything so I wasn't expecting much.

He plays Keleseth with Shadowstep turn two. Southsea Captain w/ 3/3 (edit: it was a 4/4- sorry) Patches turn three. Fire Fly, Deckhand, hero power turn four. Scalebane turn 5. A great start.

I turn five Volcano and decimate his board (starts as 2/2 Keleseth, 6/3 Captain, 3/4 Fire Fly, 7/7 Scalebane, leaving a 6/1 captain), then drop two Corridor Creepers. A big swing for sure.

I end up winning with action like two Stonehill Defenders, Fen Creeper, Thing from Below, and Bog Creeper. Friend request incoming. This was the conversation:

https://image.ibb.co/cLLb2G/srsly.png

Stay salty, my friends.

submitted by /u/vsully360
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Thijs pulls off Antonidas as Shaman

Posted: 29 Dec 2017 04:23 AM PST

An Interesting Way to Beat Xol the Unscathed

Posted: 29 Dec 2017 08:11 AM PST

Thickest Yogg ever.

Posted: 28 Dec 2017 05:57 PM PST

Damn you Giant Rat

Posted: 28 Dec 2017 11:33 PM PST

Scamaz shows off his skill

Posted: 29 Dec 2017 07:55 AM PST

Cheating tempo is a race to the bottom

Posted: 28 Dec 2017 07:23 PM PST

The approach of having cards that require you to build a deck a certain way in exchange for being able to cheat out tempo is fun, but it's fraught with danger for the future of the game. Corridor Creeper for 3 or less, patches type pull cards and Spiteful Summoner type cards that have a requirement but have a massive benefit for doing so will replace so many 'normal' cards because the game ending potential is just so high. Take for instance spiteful vs cairne in the large dragon priest deck. To be able to play a random 8 or 10 mana card at 6 plus a free 4/4 as compared to cairne is just outrageous. What if the card read 6 mana, play a random 8 or 10 cost minion.... obviously has the spell drawback requirement but the tempo potential is just so high. Maybe a poorly articulated point but as they continue to make cards that break traditional tempo for mana cost rules, it has the potential to exclude most of the cards that don't do the same.

submitted by /u/Rustaceanstation
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Literally a budget Frodan

Posted: 28 Dec 2017 09:03 PM PST

FUNNEL CAKES!!!

Posted: 28 Dec 2017 10:05 PM PST

It is known that chaos generates chaos.

Posted: 28 Dec 2017 02:39 PM PST

Flip a Coin (completely random Mage deck)

Posted: 28 Dec 2017 09:23 AM PST

If Build-a-Beast wasn't just beasts and included all minions 5-mana and below

Posted: 29 Dec 2017 08:26 AM PST

What combinations would be the most fun or most powerful?

Which ones would be the least fun or most useless?

submitted by /u/MCPanda6969
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A holiday miracle. Ive been playing since GVG and have never made legend. Im so happy.

Posted: 28 Dec 2017 04:31 PM PST

Which cards do you think will go to the Hall of Fame this year?

Posted: 29 Dec 2017 07:20 AM PST

I think it's quite obvious the Hall of Fame is something that is going to happen each year, unless blizzard revamps their evergreen set. So which cards do you think won't make it to Standard next year?

Personally, because of the level of play this cards have seen since I started playing, my money is on this 5 cards:

Ice Block Leroy Jenkins Gadgetzan Auctioneer Doomguard Shadowstep

I also remember back in Un'goro a dev mentioned Alextrasza, but the card hasn't been that problematic IMO

submitted by /u/ElCharmann
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