Unlabelled Hearthstone - Newbie Tuesdays Weekly Discussion

6/27/2018 12:12:00 am
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Hearthstone - Newbie Tuesdays Weekly Discussion

Newbie Tuesdays Weekly Discussion

Posted: 25 Jun 2018 08:24 PM PDT

Hello, r/hearthstone! It looks like AutoModerator missed this post, so we're here slightly late:

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This is part of a series of weekly threads aimed at both new and old players from the community. It is designed so that everybody may ask any and all questions regarding the game's mechanics, decks, strategies and more.

Please keep it clean and try to add more than just a one or two word response. As the goal of this post is to increase the community's knowledge, the thought process matters as much as the answer! There is also a Theorycrafting Thursday weekly post, for those who wish to discuss some of the more intricate aspects of the game.

Sticky Threads and Guides - Great resources for new players!

I am not a bot, but feel free to message modmail to give feedback on this thread anyway!

submitted by /u/deviouskat89
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Arena lul

Posted: 26 Jun 2018 05:28 AM PDT

When the AI even thinks Duskfallen Aviana is bad

Posted: 25 Jun 2018 11:57 PM PDT

Was hoping for an epic fight for my first golden hero, my opponent insta-conceded.

Posted: 25 Jun 2018 04:43 PM PDT

Small Indie Company vs One Togwaggly Boi

Posted: 26 Jun 2018 07:27 AM PDT

My second hero portrait drawing - Anduin Wrynn. Done with pen and marker.

Posted: 26 Jun 2018 06:02 AM PDT

[Dane] The Most Wild Game Of Hearthstone You'll See

Posted: 26 Jun 2018 02:27 AM PDT

Had no one to share this with but I finally beat The League of Explorers on Heroic!

Posted: 25 Jun 2018 01:39 PM PDT

Rdu gets his entire turn skipped from old Nozdormu animation bug (High Legend <100 rank)

Posted: 26 Jun 2018 08:44 AM PDT

What's the pick? Wilifedrinkérper or Āvalañchét?

Posted: 25 Jun 2018 03:58 PM PDT

This is going to take a while...

Posted: 25 Jun 2018 03:48 PM PDT

I've been refining my "end of turn priest" deck over the past few months, and after a couple hundred games, replacing cards proven to be less than ideal, I think I may have reached final form.

Posted: 26 Jun 2018 05:23 AM PDT

With this current load out, I'm sitting at 33 wins/21 losses

Link to my previous post with my older, less effective load out

Link to an even older version of this deck, my first incarnation

end of turn priest 4.5

Class: Priest

Format: Standard

Year of the Raven

2x (1) Northshire Cleric

2x (1) Power Word: Shield

2x (2) Master Swordsmith

2x (2) Shadow Ascendant

2x (2) Shadow Visions

1x (2) Shadow Word: Pain

2x (3) Drakkari Enchanter

1x (3) Shadow Word: Death

1x (3) Unidentified Elixir

2x (4) Eternal Servitude

1x (4) Mass Dispel

2x (4) Tortollan Shellraiser

2x (5) Cobalt Scalebane

2x (5) Green Jelly

2x (5) Holy Nova

1x (6) Hogger

1x (8) The Lich King

1x (9) Master Oakheart

1x (9) Ysera

AAECAa0GCIAFognTCtYK1wrCzgK/5QLx6gIL3wLlBMkG8gzRwQLcwQLKywLOzALlzALd0wL94QIA

To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

DECK USAGE NOTES:

If you can get a shadow ascendant and a drakkari enchanter out by turn 3, you will be hard to stop. If that isn't immediately possible, I like to focus on card draw for the first few turns. With a single Northshire Cleric it isn't hard to get 2 or 3 draws within the first couple turns. This will also ensure options in the later game.

My ideal starting hand would be a Northshire Cleric, Shadow ascendant, drakkari enchanter, and a Shellraiser. The Shellraisers, btw, will often end up being absolutely vital to protecting your buffing minions until you can get a green jelly or hogger on the board. With an enchanter, double taunt minions every turn is rather tricky to circumvent much of the time.

Master Oakheart was my most recent addition, adding an amazing insta-army for late game. I added the green jellys as otherwise the deck didn't have any 3 attack minions to maximize Oakhearts effect. If you get lucky, you will pull a green jelly, a drakkari enchanter and a shadow ascendant and almost guarantee a win.

I also just recently added the shadow visions into the deck as I was having trouble finding the right balance of removal spells and this allowed me to just take 1 of a few spells and duplicate them as necessary.

And the eternal servitudes are there to ensure you can drop 3 lich Kings in a row if necessary. Or yseras or hoggers. Then you can shadow vision a couple more eternal servitudes and keep the death knight/dream cards coming for as long as you need them. I can't tell you how many games I've won with that card that does 5 damage to everyone except ysera. Sometimes with 3 or 4 in a row

EDIT: I'd like to give credit to /u/zyice for the addition of master Oakheart as I doubt it would have occurred to me to add him into the melee

submitted by /u/no_downside
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My journey to reaching #1 on the Arena leaderboard

Posted: 25 Jun 2018 09:07 PM PDT

Been meaning to write this when I reached #1 in May with a 9.07 average, but was playing Taverns of Time and figuring out the new meta. Then a recent microadjustment fiasco happened and the rebucketing of cards kind of "ruined" my attempt by the end (ended with a 8.53 in ToT).

Anywho, now that I've got the time, here's my experience with the leaderboards and eventually reaching #1! PS: It's a ridiculously long post with no tl;dr.

When the leaderboard first released, my average was around 6.5 wins in the previous few months (the year before I was averaging around 6 wins). I was pretty close to infinite, and never really saw the need to improve further since I never ran out of gold. On a side note, for anyone who really wants to improve in Arena to reach infinite, ShadyBunny's guide really is a good guide to get you started. Just be aware drafting strategies is mostly meta-dependent, but Shady outlines solid principles that apply no matter what the meta is.

Anyway, the leaderboard was a motivation to improve. There were no practical rewards, but knowing a game you played for years and seeing some kind of public acknowledgement (even if really it's just among the Arena community and my Facebook updates lol) is a good thing.

After 2 months since the leaderboard came out, I'd make it 3 times in a row, then my record on the leaderboard steadily improved (and declined when it was near the end of the meta as my interest waned in an old meta.)

I think as the leaderboard came out, I also became more involved in the "Arena community". I joined r/ArenaHS last year, and I joined Hearthstone Discord channels. I became a "Lord of the Arena" in the AskHearthstone channel around the time I hit the leaderboard.

Overall, the community helped me improve for two reasons:

  1. It keeps you updated on the current meta. Because you can't play that much yourself, sharing experiences is an effective way to understand the meta which improves how you draft and what cards to play around. The Lightforge podcast and Shady's meta analyses were immensely helpful, because they are current meta resources that otherwise is impossible to obtain unless you play a shitton of arena yourself.

  2. The community is a give and take. Answering questions others have help you improve as well because if you're able to explain a concept to someone else, then you form a concrete understanding of that concept. #Learning101. Also allowed me to find co-op partners. I regularly play with u/ChaoticVice777 and he covers things I missed.

Last year, the highest leaderboard position I held was #34, I was briefly #5 in the first month of KFT but dipped down to #34 since I did all my runs outside of the Frost Festival (which on average increased a player's win rate by 0.6~.) At that point I realized tempo meta is my jam. Playing proactively is what I like to do, and I'd perform way worse in slow/control metas (absolutely despised the Priest meta in KNC lol).

Fastforward to Witchwood, and tempo has returned once again. It returned for a variety of reasons, but I can summarize it as a result of the bucketing system as Paladin's win rate skyrocketed. Playing control was not as consistent when Paladin's top bucket was overloaded with threats and Silver Sword was tyrannizing slower decks that played off the board. I was already pretty good in the first month of Witchwood – a solid 7.5 win rate and was #19 on the leaderboard.

At this point, as a leaderboard regular, my only goal was to keep making the leaderboard (obviously I also had to enjoy the meta or else I wouldn't bother with it). I was involved with even more community resources. I usually don't watch streamers since I remember visiting Kripparian's channel which had a rapid Twitch chat that was impossible to converse. I don't really know how I started watching streamers, but I do remember starting to watch dreads and I think he's the most responsive Arena streamer. He'd answer your questions pretty quickly and was pretty involved with Twitch chat. Other good resources were ShadyBunny vods (I say vods since I'm in NA and can't accommodate the EU schedule), since his drafting technique is probably the most educational and with the bucketing system, drafting is super important to get the basics down.

After reaching #1, I think there are only a few differences between being a regular leaderboarder and making it to the top:

  • Praise RNGesus. 0-3 is possible for anybody at any time so you have to just be lucky the stars don't align for the most unlucky runs to hit your 30 run streak. High roll streaks also happen – I remember I had a 12-0 Hunter deck near the end of my 30 which honestly wasn't that good of a deck. Hitting the top 2-3 classes more often than others also just flat out increases your win rate.

  • Being comfortable with the top classes and 2-3 alternatives if you don't get offered the top 3. Other than luck, you have to make sure you're consistent. This means you have to know how to win with the tier 2 classes. I remember last year, I would be good with the top 2 classes, and be absolutely shit with other classes and those runs are the ones that dips your average. The only way to do this is to experiment with these classes deliberately when you're not doing the leaderboard. For most of us, we don't have that time commitment to do this. Ideally, you watch streamers first to get an idea of what archetypes are good, then you play some runs to test that out. You don't have to watch every run, but watch how they draft at least since drafting matters a lot. To even know what is considered tier 2, HSreplay is your go to source for that kinda thing.

For me, at end of April, I deliberately played Druid/Warlock rather than Rogue/Paladin to get a feel of them, I was still not 100% comfortable with them, but at least when I had to pick them, it didn't destroy my average. These were my stats for #1 in May in case anyone wants stats.

  • Last but not least, I'd say knowing your mental state is also key. When RNG tilts me in the past, I play worse, I draft worse. And what makes it even worse is that you're not aware of it. I start to feel entitled at low wins, that I'm entitled to beat this guy but that's never a good thing to have. For my 30 runs, I was confident in my ability and if I ever got tilted, I took a break immediately. Conversely, if I was on a win streak, I'd embrace the streak since I was able to make more confident plays and my mind was on the ball. I questioned my plays and drafting thoroughly, I was focused, and I was always open to improvement. I looked at my old runs that went well constantly so I'd understand how to draft a 7+ win deck consistently. I remember my low 7s leaderboard attempts, and typically I'd find a low win streak, which, obviously has to do with poor RNG, but I was likely tilted as well.

And that's basically it. I think I was also partially motivated to see how high I can reach if I actually did a super tryhard month since I saw ShadyBunny tracking stats for that month and seeing how Kripp was also doing super well that month. I don't know, when you see other people try hard, there's an incentive to try hard yourself to see where it goes.

That's about it (x2). Thanks for reading this bloody essay I wrote on a children's card game! Open to any questions, too.

submitted by /u/Tachiiderp
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We Need More Adventures

Posted: 26 Jun 2018 08:07 AM PDT

Anyone else missing grinding against the tough bosses in each wing of an adventure using some custom made deck you hoped would work. In the end you would get great rewards that were fun cards to play with like reno jackson and many others. Now, there have been two straight expansions with just boss fights that yield nothing but a card back. I admit at sometimes they were fun when they first came out, but I feel as if the next expansion needs another adventure and not some string of bosses to fight.

submitted by /u/Supasaucey
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[Translated] China's #10 Wild Meta Report

Posted: 26 Jun 2018 09:16 AM PDT

Original Source

Original Authors: Sora, Sasuke, Yao Dao, Zhongyuan Bing, Yan Ye, Butterfly, hourglass, Slein, Smile, pencil, and Tianyi

Translations/Formatting: /u/cgmcnama, /u/Ratix0, /u/Xarcus96,

Tier List

Tier 1（91~100）

The most powerful deck in the Wild Mode environment. These cards are the strongest and directly impact the meta. The top ranked deck will exist as 100 points in the scoring criteria.

Tier 2（71~90）

These decks appear in large numbers in the lower ranks but are not as strong as Tier 1. It is difficult to climb using these decks.

Tier 3（51~70）

T2 and T3 have some gaps in strength, but they are still strong over time. Although there are some difficulties, the T3 deck is still a viable choice. The lowest ranked deck will be used as a score of 51 points.

Overview

Sora is not sure can the nerfs in patch 11.1 be defined as a never seen before big success. The nerfs to Naga Sea Witch，Dark Pact，Possessed Lackey， Spiteful Summoner, The Caverns Below and Call to Arms are very impactful for the wild ladder. These nerfs impact both the Wild and Standard mode, where there are no more decks that is dominating the meta. Overall, the decrease in Wild constructed power levels is not only from the nerfs in patch 11.1 alone, but is an accumulation of various nerfs over time. Before the Witchwood, there is a notable decrease in variety for Wild constructed decks. The ironic thing is, although there are more cards in Wild currently there is a decrease in variety of decks in Wild. As the power levels of Wild constructed are decreased through nerfs, Blizzard hopes that the release of the Witchwood with a relatively lower set power level will create more new decks. As Blizzard pushes new archetypes, there was an increase of new decks in Wild such as Odd Rogue, Odd Paladin, Even Shaman, Even Warlock. Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane can perform better in Wild with a bigger card pool compared to Standard. However, as the lines of Wild and Standard begin to blur, is this really what the community wants?

In addition, decks such as Reno decks and other old under performing decks are making a return in Wild ladder. These decks are looking to make a comeback into the meta thanks to the reduced Wild constructed power levels. This could be one of the biggest success in patch 11.1. Sora is not sure if Team 5 have taken this into consideration when planning the nerfs but by reducing the power levels of Wild constructed it is fulfilling Blizzard's promise that Wild mode is a mode where "players can play their favorite decks without restrictions" and reignite their passion for their decks. The new Wild constructed is doing well in attracting the community who are more attached to their cards from older sets. Maybe this is the way how Hearthstone is redefining its evergreen Wild mode.

However, at the moment Wild constructed is not completely perfect. In an unresolved meta, aggro and tempo decks are dominating. As the meta stabilizes after patch 11.1, the ladder is dominated by three aggro decks. Odd Rogue, Even Shaman and Odd Paladin which are countering each other and it is hard to decide which is the better deck. However, if anyone is interested, please refer to the decks popularity diagram at the end of this article. Referring to data taken from HSReplay, the popularity of Even Shaman is reaching a scary rate of around 20% of the ladder. As Sora had mentioned, these popular decks from the first phase of refinement are not strong enough to dominate the meta. The nerfs to Naga Giantslock and Cubelock caused great changes to the Wild constructed meta, but the counter strategies have still not completely surfaced. In the near future there might be decks that surface to challenge the decks currently dominating the meta (Odd Rogue, Even Shaman and Odd Paladin). If that is the case, there is be a 11th volume of this meta report in this current patch 11.1.

Other than Odd Rogue, Even Shaman and Odd Paladin, some of the old wild aggressive decks are having good performance in ladder. Pirate warrior which did not have any new cards in the decklist in recent expansions is re-surging back into play in this unstable meta, making its way into the top of tier 2. Compared to odd and even decks, the nerfs affected Egg Paladin which is a more traditional aggressive deck. Call to Arms did not have other good 4 cost cards competing in this slot, and the nerfs increasing the cost to 5 mana makes it compete with Fungalmancer, making it awkward. The rise in popularity in aggro and tempo decks is making things hard for Mages, including Control Mages that are good against aggro and Secret Mage which has a large player base, due to difficulties in getting advantage in trading against the former decks. Aggro Mage's position in the meta is similar to pre-nerf in Witchwood expansion, being weaker in the meta game compared to pre-Witchwood. In comparison, Secret Mage which shoots Frostbolts to the face is more suited to the metagame. Despite pressure from Mage's class minions, they can hardly get value trades resulting in Kabal Crystal Runner having very low chance of going face. Under these conditions, using Frost Nova and Ice Block to delay a couple of turns and going face with Frostbolt might be a better choice.

Resurrect Priest which dodged the nerfs is an excellent choice as a midrange deck. The abundance of AOE and flexible tech cards makes Resurrect Priest a good choice in Wild. Although control counter Quest Rogue is nerfed in Standard, Wild Kingsbane Rogue is untouched. Although the Standard meta was towards a more controllish slow meta, this is not the case for Wild mode. Most of the control decks in Wild chose to be more aggressive making them more similar to midrange decks instead of control decks. Compared to pure control, a combination of midrange and control is more suitable for the Wild meta. A very good example is the wide variety of Reno decks in Wild. As for now, many Reno decks chose to forgo super greedy late game cards. Traditional Reno decks look to weather the early aggression and win by slowly accumulating advantage (in mid, late game). More radical Reno decks look to make use of the high quality demons which was used in Cubelock together with Krul the Unschackled. A less popular build is the Combo Renolock (Leeroy Jenkins, Power Overwhelming, Faceless Manipulator) which is weaker towards aggressive decks. After a spike in popularity, Even Warlock is stabilizing into a smaller popularity (compared to Renolock). However, Even Warlock is still a strong deck to play on the ladder. After the nerfs, there are many builds for Cubelock but there is no major breakthrough builds yet. How the mighty have fallen. Jade Druid is a typical Druid midrange deck which does pretty well against aggro and positions itself in Tier 1. There are two builds for Jade Druid, one with Oaken Summons recruit build and the other with Jade Spirit build. There is no clear winner between these two builds and both are equally represented in the meta.

Compared to other archetypes, control is looking to be the worst. Fatigue and OTK decks are not strong, most of the control decks in the meta are looking specifically to target aggro. Using Warlock which was mentioned earlier as an example, even the decks built looking to target aggro does not really have that much of an advantageous match up against aggro. Raza Priest seems to be the best pure control deck in the meta, with Control Dragon Priest and Dead Man's Hand Fatigue Warrior slightly worse in comparison. There is still a minority of Reno decks playing a late game strategy in the control archetype but is not as competitive as the other Warlock decks and is unable to break into Tier 1.

Togwaggle Druid is the most popular combo deck. After being refined, this once meme deck has proven itself in wild ladder. On the other hand, there are some trends of dying off in Malygos Druid. It's power level has dropped out of tier 1, even though there are no nerfs to this deck in the recent patch. There are not much advantages to an OTK combo decks in this meta. Many druid deck share the same control package, resulting in the line between combo and control Druid decks to be unclear. Another point to mention, with the decrease in power levels, we have started to recognize Treachery Warlock as a viable deck.

From the very beginning, Wild is very reliant on the Standard format. Starting from Whispers of the Old Gods expansion, Wild absorbs the very best decks from the Standard meta. The situation of Wild meta being very similar to Standard meta but with more overpowered cards is not only unchanged from the beginning but is becoming worse and worse. Sora (the author) once thought that the Witchwood expansion will not change the wild meta too much, However, Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane shattered the author's expectations. The impact of these two cards surprised the author greatly. Maybe after a few rounds of nerfs, Wild is no longer the Wild mode that we know. Even a deck like Spell Hunter which is basically copied from Standard meta without changes is a middle of the pack deck in the Wild metagame. A person's fate is not only depending on one's hard work but also needs to take into consideration the process of history.

~Sora

Decklists

Deck list is for reference only, meta report's strength is not entirely based off the referenced decklist. Some of the deck list may not be recorded in the wild meta report; some of the wild meta report decks may not have a decklist.

Druid

Togwaggle Druid

"The aim of this deck is to survive and swap decks. Aviana + Kun The Forgotten King + King Togwaggle is the win condition combo, subsequently relying on fatiguing the opponent for victory. Azalina Soulthief not only duplicates the ransom, but also provides information on your opponent's hand. After playing Azalina Soulthief, in some sense you are screening your opponent. However when using {King Togwaggle, Azalina Soulthief} and {Other Cards}, the order of usage depends on the situation. Against aggressive decks, focus on surviving the early game and the chances of your opponent killing you later on is low. Against slower OTK decks, using the combo to take away their core cards, in that way there is nothing for them to play."

Jade Druid (Version 2)

"After the nerfs, the first major impact in Wild was the reduction in popularity in aggressive Paladins, while recent wild meta shifts has shifted towards Odd Rogue (aggro face), Even Shaman (high value aggro). As a result, many Jade Druids gave up on the recruit package (Oaken Summons) instead opting for Brann Bronzebeard, Jade Spirit and Fandral Staghelm." "Although there are no Giants archetype currently, the author chose to include 2x Poison Seeds. Poison Seeds often act as a board control solution (against Big Priest). Even Shaman's Devolve directly counters our Spreading Plague, so I only used single copy of Spreading Plague instead chose to replace the other copy with Starfall. 9 mana Poison Seeds + Starfall is equivalent to Twisting Nether."

Malygos Druid

"Malygos Druid has been a staple in the ladder, having good results in every expansion, but suffered a decrease in its overall power in the meta after Witchwood has been released. Even Shaman, Odd Rogue, Pirate Warrior type minion based aggro decks gives Malygos Druid a lot of pressure. Oaken Summons + Ironwood Golem which is used to stabilize in the early game, and Spreading Plague used to stabilize in the mid game are all less effective against especially minions that has silence abilities tagged on (Ironbeak Owl, Spellbreaker) as well as Shaman's Devolve. As a result, we made adjustments to Malygos Druid's early and mid game, adding Lesser Jasper Spellstone to improve board control, Jade Blossom to supplement ramp, and we removed Ultimate Infestation and instead replaced it with Witchwood Piper and Barnes. One of the reason for doing so is to draw the key cards more reliably, another reason is to improve OTK activation mechanisms (Barnes pulling Aviana can immediately activate combo, or Barnes pulling Malygos combined with Faceless Manipulator to activate combo). After the tweaks, Malygos Druid's performance on ladder is pretty reasonable, but still struggle in the meta (due to Dirty Rat, Loatheb, etc), so the refinement of this deck has yet to be completed and fellow players needs to continue to work on improving this deck."

~Sasuke

"Malygos Druid has been a deck that is around for a long time, featuring good draw capabilities, with good surviving capabilities, and is often seen on ladder. However, you may sometimes not draw the last key card or have the card destroyed. The featured decklist avoids this problem, by using Barnes and Witchwood Piper, the decklist hastened the speed of cycling through the deck and getting the key cards much more quickly resulting in a faster OTK. Against aggro decks, look for Spreading Plague and Swipe, try your best to survive the early game, let them give up in the late game and you will be OK. Against slower decks, ramp in the early game, then cycle in the late game to look for your combo. You can keep Barnes during mulligan together together with Kun, The Forgotten King, so you can pull Aviana or Malygos with Barnes and activate your OTK combo earlier."

~Yao Dao

Hunter

Spell Hunter

A deck from Legend Rank 1 IMTBatman's Spell Hunter. Spell Hunter is a deck which is very popular in Standard, and everyone should be familiar with the overall idea of this deck so I would not elaborate further here. Wild version of Spell Hunter uses Barnes and Y'Shaarj and also Quick Shot and Bear Trap which counters aggressive decks better, and can do quite well against the mainstream Wild aggro decks (Mage, Shaman, Rogue). If you are encountering many Warlocks or Priest, consider keeping Cat Trick and Animal Companion in mulligan to pressure as fast as possible.

~Zhongyuan Bing

Mage

Burn Mage

Following the nerfs to Naga Sea Witch, Possessed Lackey and Dark Pact, Naga Giantslock is generally gone from the ladder and the amount of Cubelock has also decreased greatly. This means Secret Mage lost two favourable matchups and is bad news to Secret Mage. Secret Mage has a high damage output where if you draw the perfect curve, it can beat any deck. Hence, it is still seen on the Wild ladder. For mulligan, try to look for or keep Aluneth, Mana Wyrm, Arcanologist, and Mad Scientist. The general gameplan of Secret Mage is to chip minion damage in early game and burn face with spells in mid and late game. The current ladder is mainly consisting of Odd Rogue, Even Shaman, Odd Paladin which does not play healing cards but can flood the board very quickly. When playing against these decks, if there is enough spell damage and with Ice Block already played, try to burn face as much as possible and avoid using spells to clear the board.

~Yan Ye

Freeze Mage

Very happy to see Freeze Mage in the meta again. There are many Even Shaman, coupled with Odd Paladin and Odd Rogue rising in popularity on the ladder. Freeze Mage does well against these matchups and the nerf to unfavoured matchup of Cubelock makes Freeze Mage a good deck to ladder with. In terms of deckbuilding Evolved Kobold is included due to its flexibility which can be used counter both aggressive decks and also OTK the slower decks like Big Priest. Compared to traditional builds, newer Freeze Mage choose to swap a second Forgotten Torch for a copy of Polymorph which is good against decks such as Big Priest, Even Shaman and Mal'Ganis in Renolock.

~butterfly

[Sora: During the first few reports, Freeze Mage is still low Tier 2...Is this too cruel?]

Paladin

Odd Paladin (Version 2)

Odd Paladin was already theorycrafted when the spoiler reveals for Witchwood were out. Due to deckbuilding constraints, this deck cannot play Equality and Consecration. As Aggro Paladins of the past targets Naga Giantslock with board clears, Odd Paladin with a weak board refill is caught in the crossfire and is unable to perform well. In addition, Odd Paladin is not as favored against other aggressive decks which makes it less competitive at higher ranks of the ladder. After patch 11.1, the nerfs to decks dominating the meta slowed the meta due to the lost of Naga Giantslock. As control decks are less targeted, their builds become more greedy which in turn makes control decks worse against aggressive decks. Kingsbane Rogue which targets late game strategies is also unable to handle the early aggression of Odd Paladin which makes Odd Paladin a good matchup against most decks in the meta.

Odd Paladin went through many builds and variations and came up with two main types, one focusing on filling the board and the other focusing on buffing the board. The former build looks to play cheap minions and hero power from early game and AOE buff minions in middle game to win. The latter build looks to buff the recruits from the hero power into taller recruits. Currently, there is no clear choice between the two builds with strengths and weakness from both sides. As there is no generally agreed upon build, it is fine to tweak accordingly to meta and personal preference.

~hourglass

[Sora: You (沙漏) are different from us!]

Priest

Resurrect Priest

Compared to traditional builds of Resurrect Priest, the current build is tweaked to be more favoured for the meta and is able to survive the wildness of the Wild metagame. The current build swaps 1 Psychic Scream for 1 Dragonfire Potion as the meta in Wild is leaning more towards aggressive midrange. Psychic Scream is also not as good in Warlock matchups. Shadow Word: Death and Lightbomb are included to counter the Shaman matchup.

With Barnes in opening hand, Resurrect Priest can play against any deck, but against different classes you should pay attention to the cards you play throughout the game. When playing against aggressive decks, do not be too greedy with Greater Healing Potion. It is a mistake to keep controlling the board without paying attention to your own health. At low health, it is easy to be hit by spell damage or Leeroy Jenkins. When playing against control decks, keep Lesser Diamond Spellstone in opening hand. After the opponent have exhausted their AOE, a Lesser Diamond Spellstone can usually seal the win for you. One thing to note is when playing against Even Shaman, even if your board have been Devolve it is still fine to play the Spellstone. A board of big minions unanswered can still cause troubles for the Even Shaman. When playing against Odd Rogue, try to keep the board clear especially before 5 mana or ensure your health is sufficiently high. If the opponent plays Loatheb on turn 5 it can cause a lot of trouble to you. Resurrect Priest is very unfavoured against Kingsbane Rogue. Kingsbane Rogue does not have many minions so try to resurrect minions like Ragnaros the Firelord to push lethal.

~Slein

Mindblast Priest

This version of Control Priest is build by a collaboration of me and a player with 10,000 Priest games experience. It mainly targets the current metagame. In Wild, Even Shaman, Odd Paladin and Odd Rogue are very popular so many people are using slow control decks to counter them. This Priest build specifically targets Even Shaman. No matter going first or second, mulligan for Duskbreaker, Shadow Word: Death and Psychic Scream and play attention to utilising mana efficiently. Ideally try to heal yourself every turn. At 4 mana you can destroy Flamewreathed Faceless and Draenei Totemcarver, at 6 mana you can play Lightbomb and at 7 mana you can Psychic Scream. In Odd Rogue matchup, pay attention to own health and control the board, look for Lightbomb and Duskbreaker to control the board and this matchup is still favourable. Against Odd Paladin, look for Duskbreaker to clear the Silver Hand Recruits and deny 5 mana Quartermaster or Level Up!. After that it is just about playing Psychic Scream and Lightbomb to win the game.

Against slow decks, Kingsbane Rogue is our nemesis. Try to go for early game and chip damage or look for Malygos from Netherspite Historian, discount Malygos and Mindblast for 10 mana 20 spell damage. For other slow decks, Alexstrasza opponent's face and chip damage with Anduin DK hero power and Mindblast.

~smile

[Sora: The Control Dragon Priest in the meta report is not based on this featured deck]

Rogue

Odd Rogue (Version 2)

Odd Rogue is a Tier 1 deck in this patch and its power does not need to be explained. Against other Wild aggro decks especially Even Shaman, Odd Rogue is still favourable. The important cards of Odd Rogue is at 1 and 3 mana to control the tempo of the game. As long as you control the early game, it is able to snowball out of control through hero power dagger and/or combo cards. This is due to Odd Rogue's hard to remove minions. (Divine shield, Southsea Captain's pirate buff, snowball nature of Hench-Clan Thug) However, if you are unable to take the early game board, you can still fight back in middle game through Dariron Skuller and Vilespine Slayer, Dr. Boom give another option to contest the late game board very well. Tempo is crucial to Odd Rogue's win, with good use of combo cards it can help you tremendously. In unlikely situations, Swashburglar can even steal you a win. (Of course the main win condition is not this). When in advantageous position, play safely and always count lethal while playing around AOE most of the time. (This requires a lot of in game experience). When in disadvantageous position, go as aggressively as possible. As long as the opponent has no lethal, attack face and break through taunts with Ironbeak Owl while maximising damage as much as possible.

Kingsbane Rogue

Wild Kingsbane Rogue targets slow decks due to Kingsbane having Leeching Poison coupled with Coldlight Oracle's milling power. If Kingsbane is in opening hand and buffed together with Leeching Poison early in the game it is still playable for the Rogue. The deck plays Witchwood Piper as a new addition to consistently draw Cavern Shinyfinder hence avoiding the awkward situation of having a hand full of buffs but no Kingsbane. Double Saps is great against Resurrect Priest, Even Shaman's Faceless Manipulator and Draenei Totemcarver.

Shaman

Even Shaman (Version 2) (Version 3) (Version 4)

Even Shaman is always highly regarded, the power level of the cards in this deck is indeed very high but not as broken as pre nerf Pirate Warrior which dominated the meta. Priest is Even Shaman's biggest weakness as the quality of answers and AOEs available to Priest to counter Shaman are all very good. From early game Shadow Word: Pain to answer Totem Golem and Shadow Word: Death to answer Faceless Manipulator, middle game is choked full of Priest AOEs in Resurrect Priest. Even Kazakus and Duskbreaker in Raza Priest is annoying to deal with for Even Shaman. My highest record with Even Shaman is ranked 19 Legend, but it feels very unfavoured against Priest. Even Shaman and Renolock is almost equal but if you draw well it is still easy to get a win. Always pay attention to totems health to play around Defile. In Wild, Even Shaman is not really worried about Renolock decks but the originally favoured Aggro Mage now generally plays 2 Frost Nova to freeze the board. Always pay attention to amount of minions on board to avoid the awkward situation of unable to play anything after a Frost Nova.

Even Shaman against Rogue is a even matchup. First of all, 2 cost cards are very important in this matchup, Totem Golem, Maelstrom Portal and Murkspark Eel are all very important cards. Board control is very important in this matchup, try not to leave any minions for the Odd Rogue if possible. 5 mana Dark Iron Skulker is an important comeback card for Rogue. Having a big minion destroyed by Vilespine Slayer is not the end of the game for the Shaman. As long as Kingsbane Rogue have a decent draw it is very difficult to play against them. Similar to Aggro Freeze Mage, pay attention not to leave too many low impact minions on board. As Even Shaman fills the board, Kingsbane Rogue might choose to remove only the big minions and ignore the smaller minions.

1 Maelstrom Portal is good enough to secure a win against Paladin. Avoid being greedy against Paladin and remove their recruits. Odd Paladin have weak late game, as long as you keep the board clean, you can win in the end. Toggwagle Druid is a difficult match for Even Shaman. Avoid having too many big minions on board at a time to play around Poison Seeds. Devolve is an important card in this matchup and can answer Spreading Plague nicely. For Even Shaman mirror match, it mainly comes down to Sea Giant and Thing from Below coming down on the board in time. Although there is a recent popular Whirling Zap-o-matic build, it is not that powerful especially in a mirror match. It's application is too limited. I personally recommend playing Windfury in the 2 mana slot and Primalfin Totem. Primalfin Totem is excellent in mirror matches and against Odd Rogue. Windfury makes use of unanswered big minions and Flametongue Totem. In the 4 mana slot, I recommend swapping 1 Draenei Totemcarver or 1 Piloted Shredder for 1 Eater of Secrets or 1 Cult Master.

~pencil

[Sora: I can write 3 similar scripts with the time I used to correct this 1 script]

Warlock

Reno Warlock

There is stiff competition in the beginning of the month, under the pressure of Even Shaman and Odd Rogue, Renolock is making a comeback into the meta. Good board clears and able to specifically tailor the deck to counter particular decks make Renolock a good choice on the ladder. There are a few builds for Renolock:

  1. Target aggressive decks: Playing taunts such as Sludge Belcher. Defile and Demonwrath are great middle game AOEs. Good come back cards.
  2. Target control or OTK combo decks: Gnomeferatu and Dirty Rat to disrupt opponent game plans. OTK with Emperor Thaurissan discount followed by Leeroy Jenkins+Power Overwhelming+Faceless Manipulator. Mountain Giants to give early game pressure

Renolock is favoured as the cards are very flexible and is able to build accordingly to whatever meta you are facing. The deck presented above is curved more towards middle game and is suitable to counter decks such as Even Shaman, Odd Paladin which rely on flooding the board with tokens to be aggressive and OTK decks that need to draw combo pieces. If playing against Resurrect Priest, Cubelock or Renolocks with more late game cards, this deck will be unfavoured. Renolock requires a certain amount of overall game sense, I suggest anyone interested in playing Renolock practice and adjust the cards according to the meta before actually playing it on the ladder.

~Sasuke

Even Warlock

What I am presenting here is Even Warlock which is only played by the minority. Based on personal feeling, the power of this deck is between Tier 1 to Tier 2. The strength of this deck is it is strong against aggressive decks such as Odd Rogue, Odd Paladin and Even Shaman etc. These are the three outstanding decks in Wild and my deck is advantageous against them with a win rate of at least 60% and above.

I will now explain more about the deck. When playing against Odd Rogue, we know that they do not have Sap. In early game, tank some damage and keep health at around 15 while having some board presence. Mulligan for Mountain Giant，Defile，Twilight Drake，Sunfury Protector etc. These are cards to defeat Odd Rogue. When going second with Mountain Giant in hand, tap first two turns to ensure we can coin Mountain Giant on turn 3. (Author: I am just joking here, of course we do not need to coin Mountain Giant as it already cost 3 here)

If Odd Rogue is having a threatening board here, you can consider playing AOE to clear. Otherwise play Twilight Drake and follow up with a taunt. Now you might ask, what should we taunt? Basically at turn 4 or 5, our health will be around 10 or even lower. However, we do not need to panic as Odd Rogue do not have Sap, they can only rely on Silence or Vilespine Slayer to break through the taunts before playing Leeroy Jenkins with Coldblood for lethal. Basically, before that is completed, we should already have smashed face with Giants for lethal already. In addition, we have 4 mana 7/7 Hooked Reaver taunt when racing face damage against Odd Rogue.

Next, talking about Odd Paladin which is played similarly as if against Odd Rogue. The game plan is to put up the taunts and win the game. Pay extra attention to the Paladin recruits at 4 mana, try to minimise the amount of Silver Hand Recruits to play around turn 5 Quartermaster or Level Up!. Overall, this is still a favoured matchup if you play your AOEs smartly. Put up the taunts as Odd Paladin do not have Sunkeeper Tarim which is a 6 mana card in their deck.

Following up would be Even Shaman. Even Shaman have direct spell damage so we cannot go too low on health while we control the board. Other than that the play style is similar to playing against Odd Rogue and Odd Paladin. Playing taunts and AOEs are our key to victory. (Newcomers to this deck may like to play minions at 2 mana which is a mistake as the 2 mana minion actually helps discount our Mountain Giant. Unless absolutely necessary, do not play minions on 2 mana).

Lastly I will talk about our unfavoured matchups. Late game control decks are unfavoured for us. Big Priest is very unfavoured while Renolock and Kingsbane are slightly unfavoured. When playing against slower decks, our win condition is Mountain Giant on turn 4 if going first or Mountain Giant on turn 3 if going second and SMOrc.

~smile

Cube Warlock (Version 2)

After the nerfs, Cubelock is already not as popular. Due to the indirect nerfs to Doomguard, I only choose to include 1 (T/L note: Yes, only 1. See decklist attached 末日守卫). With Voidcaller in this deck, only including 1 is quite a good choice. In my opinion, Cubelock is still very strong. A deck's strength is measured by looking at the stats of the minions and how much the deck can draw through itself. Stats for Cubelock minions are quite good by themselves and Warlock with Life Tap allows us to draw whenever we want, good AOE cards to control the board. Therefore I think this deck is still suitable for the current meta. In the current meta where aggro is popular, the strength of this deck is quite easily seen. Against aggro, mulligan AOEs, Doomguard, Voidcaller, and Voidlord. Against slower OTK decks, chip damage slowly before bursting the final kill before the opposing OTK comes online.

~Yao Dao

[Sora: Nerfs to … Doomguard … that makes sense too]

Warrior

Pirate Warrior (Version 2)

Ever since the nerf to Call to Arms, Pirate Warrior is making a comeback. The Pirate Warrior builds are identical as per before as there are not cards from new sets worth including. As Cubelocks decrease in popularity, 1 Spellbreaker is sufficient. For this month, I made it to Rank 1 Legend 7 times this month using Pirate Warrior and feel like this deck is in a much better place for this meta.

The inclusion of Fel Reaver is debatable. Compared to other middle game choices, I chose this card mainly because 5 mana 8/8 Fel Reaver can produce a middle game threat which dodges most AOE, make favourable trades and/or go for face damage. Compared to Bittertide Hydra, Fel Reaver burns the deck of the aggressive deck where most of the cards usually ends up not being used anyway. As a aggressive deck we do not aim to go into late game, cards in your deck can be considered as cards which are not yours so it does not really matter even if it is burned.

Without Fiery War Axe, N'zoth's First Mate is even more important than previously. In a aggro mirror, the first 2 mana plays will affect the whole game. Pirate warrior is not particularly favoured against other mainstream aggro decks on the ladder, no matter is it Even Shaman, Odd Rogue or Even Paladin. Playing against Even Shaman and Odd Paladin are slightly unfavoured. Minions in Even Shaman are of better quality compared to Pirate Warrior in addition to a better hero power. Thing from Below, Flametongue Totem are cards that can make life difficult for Pirate Warrior. Small Time Recruits in Odd Paladin needs to be answered as well but the most annoying minion is Righteous Protector. Playing against Od Rogue is mainly depending on the 1 drops, if you are able to play 1 drop minions it is still winnable. Late game decks in Wild like Renolock, Resurrect Priest and all types of Druids (Aggro Druid is non existent). Playing against these classes, keep Loatheb in mulligan. When playing against Warlock, keep minions at high health, preferably play minions with more than 3 health first. One small detail when playing against Priest is to put your 3 mana Frothing Berserker at 4 attack to dodge removals. Against Druids, play around Spreading Plague, trade away 1/1 pirates if necessary.

Pirate warrior is not a deck that blindly attacks face, maintain your board as much as possible and only when it is not feasible to do that anymore we aggressively go for face damage. Always keeps this in mind.

~Tianyi

Dead Man's Hand Warrior (Version 2)

The new expansion did not bring anything new to the DMH Control Warrior. Infinite cycling is also a mental battle, using 2 Dead Man's Hand to cycle infinitely to outlast the opponents 30 cards and eventually win through fatigue. This deck requires very in depth understanding of the whole game plan, right from the start you need to plan which are the cards to shuffle and which are the cards to play without shuffling. To put it simply, when playing against aggressive decks (Odd Paladin, Even Shaman, Pirate Warrior), mulligan and keep Blood Razor, Sleep with the Fishes, play Acolyte of Pain only if you can ensure the card draw, do not play Coldlight Oracle if possible as this will give your opponent more card draw to find lethal. When playing against aggro, play until they have exhausted their resources in their hand. Against control decks, (Reno decks) draw cards and cycle through your deck as fast as possible but always ensure you do not mill your own Dead Man's Hand. Pay attention to the cards that needs to be played and do not want to be shuffled into your deck at the end. For example, holding a Brawl or Execute until the very end and finding it impossible to get rid of from your hand. This deck wins 90% of the time because it takes around 30 minutes to win a game while it only takes 3 minutes to lose the game. (Cries).

~Yan Ye

[Sora: Can anyone tell me why Rush Warrior gets 74 marks in the meta report?]

Rush Warrior
Odd Quest Warrior

Quest Warrior has a high win rate in Standard, but there are not many favourable matchups in Wild. I tried an Odd Quest Warrior which allows Warrior to stack armor early in the game. This deck is more on the fun side rather than the competitive side (I just love to stack 4 armour every turn), but playing against popular ladder decks such as Even Shaman and Odd Rogue is still quite favourable. Because of the odd cost deck building restriction, this deck cuts Blood Razor and Warpath which are both very strong AOE cards. In comparison, Reckless Flurry and Brawl cost more mana and is strong against Shaman and Rogue but weak against Paladin with small dudes. This deck is very flexible and can be tweaked according to personal preference. If you like, you can swap Bash and Harrison Jones with Gorehowl or King's Defender (a better Fiery War Axe).

~Zhongyuan Bing

Patron Warrior
submitted by /u/cgmcnama
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32 Top-100 Legend decks June 19-26

Posted: 26 Jun 2018 08:14 AM PDT

Druid

Legend 1 Malygos Druid played by Monsanto

Legend 4 Token Druid played by Jengo

Legend 6 Taunt Druid played by Fujitora

Legend 9 Token Druid played by MM78

Hunter

Legend 24 Odd Hunter played by Furyhunter

Legend 35 Recruit Hunter played by Ginky

Legend 59 Spell Hunter played by chunchunner

Mage

Legend 7 Murloc Mage played by XisBau5e

Legend 9 Control Mage played by Disdai

Legend 25 Freeze Mage played by Monsanto

Legend 95 Control Mage played by Justine

Paladin

Legend 15 Odd Paladin played by Che0nsu

Legend 28 Odd Paladin played by CptnKitty

Legend 92 Even Paladin played by Meati

Priest

Legend 17 Mindblast Priest played by MM78

Legend 24 Inner Fire Priest played by MM78

Legend 50 Resurrect Priest played by Fenom

Legend 85 Quest Priest played by Zyrios

Rogue

Legend 1 Odd Rogue played by RaFaEl

Legend 16 Miracle Rogue played by Freohr

Legend 23 Odd Rogue played by Uberer

Legend 25 Quest Rogue played by SilverName

Legend 80 Kingsbane Rogue played by glibgizzard

Shaman

Legend 13 Shudderwock Shaman played by ego

Legend 24 Shudderwock Shaman played by Meati

Legend 36 Even Shaman played by b787

Warlock

Legend 4 Cube Warlock played by Jengo

Legend 7 Even Warlock played by Calamity

Legend 25 Even Warlock played by Myth555

Legend 34 Cube Warlock played by Gaby59

Warrior

Legend 7 Control / Big Warrior played by Fibonacci

Legend 49 Quest Warrior played by Rakjo

submitted by /u/mwwarden
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This is going to hurt.

Posted: 26 Jun 2018 08:39 AM PDT

If you're getting random disconnects or kicked out of spectator mode every now and then, try disabling "streaming" from the Blizzard client.

Posted: 26 Jun 2018 06:42 AM PDT

I've been getting disconnected from my games for the past couple of couple of weeks. Add to that the random times the game kicked me out of spectator mode and you get the whole picture. Initially I thought it was my isp/router/cable that was giving me crap, but after many tests everything seemed fine. Then I found out randomly last week about this streaming option in the client. Disabled it and haven't had a single problem since. You can disable it from Settings -> Streaming -> uncheck "Enable streaming". Hope that helps someone else too :)

submitted by /u/igai_
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When you play arena and forget its not constructed

Posted: 26 Jun 2018 04:28 AM PDT

After 3 years, countless tries, and getting rank 1 5 stars 4 times (today alone), I finally did it! Nobody to share it with, but I’m super excited and had to share it.

Posted: 25 Jun 2018 04:04 PM PDT

2018 HCT Summer Championship Analysis: Americas- Shudderwock Shaman is one of the America's Decks, Wow

Posted: 26 Jun 2018 09:48 AM PDT

Face Collector reminding me that I'm nothing but trash.

Posted: 25 Jun 2018 07:50 PM PDT

Late (0) Innervate Nerf Discussion

Posted: 26 Jun 2018 09:10 AM PDT

Regarding Blizzard's decision to nerf (0) Innervate awhile back, there's an idea I've been considering for sometime.

(0) Innervate could instead be changed to a "Choose One" like other Druid cards. Something like:

1) Gain 1 mana crystal this turn only (current effect)

OR

2) Refresh 2 Mana crystals

This would keep the flavor of Druid with the "Choose One" and maintain the ability to cheat out bigger things (albeit far less severely than before) without crippling the card to the extent it is now.

Neither choice is as powerful as pre-nerf (0) Innervate, but this would solve the turn 1 Fledgling problem and bring the original power level down elegantly I think.

This is the kind of thing that deeply bothers me about the Hearthstone team's approach to nerfs -- they have so many avenues like this to adjust and balance cards incrementally without nuking them from orbit but they often don't take them which is very aggravating because one loses card after card they enjoyed playing when Blizzard effectively deletes them from the game.

submitted by /u/TheOldEskimo
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