The Doc Is In #4: 31 January Thoughts

I haven't gotten much time lately to get into my Hearthing due to my full-time schedule at both my job and my school (the schoolwork being much more taxing on my time).  However, I did finally get around winning enough brownie points (read: dust) doing Arenas to get Cairn Bloodhoof.

As such, I've left the All-In Huntard deck behind.  I'm done with it.

I built druid right away after acquiring Cairn and, even though I could still use some more legendaries to make the deck work somewhat more fluidly, it feels infinitely better than the facerolling I had to do with Hunter.  It actually feels like my decisions matter and I have an impact on the game's outcome.  I immediately started winning again and, outside of the druid mirror match (where having those legendaries is actually incredibly relevant, as the game always reaches the late-game where they dominate), I feel like most matchups are favorable or at least not unfavorable.

Well, except for the couple of times I've been Leeroy/Shadowstepped.  Still get frustrated to get gotten from 20 points to 0 in one turn from an empty board.

I did build a Warlock aggro deck too, though I'm not sure how much I like it or dislike it, as I've only gotten in 3 games with it.  It's similar to last season's in that it plays a bunch of 1-drops (and isn't mindlessly just trying to deal as much damage as possible like the Hunter deck) but now that I have Leeroy Jenkins, I feel that I can probably do somewhat better with the deck.  It went 2-1 in the three games I played, beating a Rogue and splitting a pair of games with the same guy playing a control Hunter deck (basically, I assumed he was playing the FOTM Hunter deck in game 1 and kept my hand/played cards accordingly at first.  Won the 2nd game when I knew what the deal was).

Here's the list, if you're interested.

2 Leper Gnome
2 Young Priestess
2 Abusive Sergeant
2 Flame Imp
2 Youthful Brewmaster
1 Bloodmage Thalanos
1 Loot Hoarder
2 Knife Juggler
2 Harvest Golem
2 Shattered Sun Cleric
2 Defender of Argus
1 Dark Iron Dwarf
1 Leeroy Jenkins
2 Argent Commander
2 Demonfire
2 Soulfire
2 Mortal Coil

As I haven't gotten too many games in, I'm not sure about the Demonfires.  I might replace one with a Black Knight; Power Overwhelming is another consideration, especially with cards like Harvest Golem, Loot Hoarder, Bloodmage Thalanos, and Leper Gnome that don't mind dying as much as they normally would.  Also, the whole "play Leeroy, give him Power Overwhelming, attack for 10.  Or, Play Leeroy, give him some power, attack, bounce back to my hand with Youthful Brewmaster, replay for 16 damage.  It's not quite shadowstep, but Brewmaster does give some late-game burst potential (in addition to allowing us to reset our own Defenders of Argus, Shattered Sun Cleric, or Abusive Sergeant for unexpected points of damage).

I like this deck much more than the Hunter deck simply because it fits with how I want to play the game: incrementally building a board state that overwhelms the opponent (versus: "Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot... ok now big burst of damage that depends on the lack of a taunt minion...").  This deck doesn't roll over to taunt minions or life gain nearly as much as the Hunter deck; not even close, actually.  This deck can use its early advantage to push through multiple taunt minions and the lifegain isn't as relevant when you still have a healthy amount of sustained pressure to simply turn that Healing Touch into a mini speedbump on your way to dancing your war dance all over their face.

The best part?  The Warlock ability to draw cards fits perfectly here, as you normally don't care about your life total; your opponent's resources have to be dedicated to stopping your onslaught.  The difference is, you've taken away their ability to liberally use their life total as a resource while you are free to continue drawing twice as many cards per turn and still pressuring their life total (since your cards cost so little, it's very easy to use your ability and play both cards you've drawn that turn starting around turn 5 or 6, just as they think they're going to be able to stabilize).

This may seem obvious to higher ranking Warlocks from last season, but if you haven't played the deck (and you have played Hunter), keep in mind that even though both say "Aggro" in the deck title that they're vastly different.  One aims to get the life total from 30 to 0 as quickly as possible through the use of Steady Shot and burn spells (ie, Arcane Shot, Kill Command, and Charge creatures) while the other wants to build a board state that overwhelms even the heartiest opponent.

That's it for now...
Shoc

The Doc is In #3: 27 January Thoughts

We almost got back up to Rank 5 last night.  Almost...

I finally was able to turn my improving Arena game into a Leeroy Jenkins for this All-in Hunter deck (my Arena day consisted of a mediocre 3-3 Warrior deck that resulted in a Gold Deathwing then a 12-0 Mage deck that got me a regular Deathwing before finishing with a 5-2 Rogue deck that I need to finish tonight), and I started to climb again in the Arena Ranked ladder.

With 5 stars in Rank six (and a four game win streak), I ran into a druid then a priest who drew all four of their "taunt rares" (Defender of Argus, Sunfury Protector).  I decided to give it a night at that point, pleased that I got Rank 6 back while disappointed I could push through to 5.

I will say this; if you're playing Leeroy and you're against a druid, hold ol' Leeroy until it's lethal.  Even if you're worried they'll play a taunt minion.  The problem is that they're starting to play Savage Roar, and they get as big of a swing out of your card as you did, and based on how Hunter vs. Druid plays out, you're probably just going to be dead on the spot.

Take my advice; hold your Leeroy until the game is over.  I died from over 20 with my druid opponent at 1.  This was my loss right before getting back into rank 5 and it was frustrating on multiple levels, not least of which was the fact that if I'd just waited to play Leeroy until the following turn, choosing to activate my Hunter power instead (and waiting), I wouldn't have lost that turn and very likely would have won the game.

Some random thoughts.

- I don't know if Bloodmage Thalanos is worth the slot in the deck.  I'm never happy to have it, and the number of times where the additional spellpower was relevant are incredibly few and very far between.  There's a decent chance I may remove it.

- I know that the deck is all-charge, all-the-time, but is there an argument to be made for Harvest Golem as a sort of resilient source of damage?  We have cards that want us to have minions in play in Abusive Sergeant, and when we have that and no minions (or, due to mana constraints, playing a charge minion and Abusive Sergeant isn't a timely enough plan of action), it ends up being a Murloc Raider in the late game; not what you want to be doing.  Also, anything that deals one damage kills anything in the deck, meaning Swipe targeting our face is such a backbreaking play.  I may try this route, but I'm not sure how that would look.

- I need to get the cards for any other deck.  I'm sick of losing to druids.

Shoc

The Doc Is In #2: 24 January Thoughts

I hate playing this Hunter deck.

I hate it so much.

I have to play this Hunter deck though... it's the only one that I can reasonably play given my current collection.  If I were a single man, I'd have gotten every single legendary by this point, but unfortunately, as a father of four, I don't have the spare funds.  I've gotten to level 6 (currently 7) with a limited collection, so I know at some point, I'll break through, but as of now, I have to play this godforsaken deck.

People at higher ranks are finally catching on and playing accordingly.  The "deck of the night" was a Druid deck that basically decided to give the biggest shaft to Hunters ever.

Abominations
Sunwalkers
Taz'Dingos
Ancients of War
Druids of the Claw

I'm that the Druid player somehow fit in even more Taunts, but that's about all I saw before the game ended.  (Even still, I was drawing live going into the last turn... couldn't get there.  Just goes to show how ridiculously powerful the deck can be).

I hate the randomness of the deck though.  The mirror match is a complete crapshoot right now, as no matter how you play or what your strategy is, it can easily be the worst line to take against your opponent's particular draw.

For instance, you can play out your charge minions to try to put sustained pressure on your opponent (instead of relying on burn spells) only to have your opponent play out a Unleash the Hounds (plus either a Starving Buzzard or Timber Wolf) plus an Explosive Trap to make your line of play seem ridiculous.

Then, the next game, you can "learn your lesson" and try to play conservatively, getting in as much damage as possible while holding the drawn charge minions for a "Custer's Last Stand" type of charge, only to have your opponent play out their minions to get sustained damage in.  Your lack of either an Unleash the Hounds or Explosive Trap leaves you one turn short of victory yet again.

Then, the next time you play the mirror match, you decide to hold onto an Unleash the Hounds in your opening hand and play out the game.  Your opponent never has more than one minion on the board and happens to have both of their Kill Commands, effectively having a Pyroblast for six mana and again, leaving you one turn behind.

It's a frustrating matchup that you see often, and when combined with the number of people who are now packing more and more hate for the Hunter deck, I really want to move to something else.  Sadly, as soon as I do, I know that I'm going to run into 10 straight Hunters who own my face.  It all feels a bit too much variance based, which I hate, as it doesn't matter how much I "learn" about certain matchups when it truly comes down to the luck of the draw.

I've been playing Magic: the Gathering for years and have learned that luck usually is a terrible excuse for poor play (and have learned to explore my mistakes to learn and improve); I've been trying to look back on games that I've lost and looking at why I've lost.  I've been able to come up with reasons for a few games, but there are others where there isn't a thing I could have done differently.  There are quite a few of them, actually...

I guess what I'm saying is: I can't wait to play anything else.  I hear Shaman's fun.  Maybe even Warrior with Armorsmith, as not many people know how to play against that.

Or I can just keep running Arenas.  (I finally went "infinite", actually making more gold that I invest... took me a while, as learning the difference in Tempo between Magic and Hearthstone takes a bit of time.)

Tomorrow's SCG Baltimore, a Magic Standard $5k tournament.  Then I get to look at houses with the fiance on Sunday.  Perhaps I'll play a bit over the weekend during "downtime", but this is it for a couple of days.

The Doc Is In #1: All-In Huntard

Yeah, it feels dirty... but I can finally beat those damn midrange Druid decks.

2 Arcane Shot
2 Explosive Trap
1 Misdirection
2 Unleash the Hounds
2 Eaglehorn Bow
2 Kill Command

2 Abusive Sergeant
1 Argent Squire
2 Leper Gnome
2 Timber Wolf
1 Bloodmage Thalanos
2 Bluegill Warrior
2 Ironbeak Owl
1 Starving Buzzard
2 Arcane Golem
2 Wolfrider

When I get the motivation to finally go get Leeroy Jenkins, it'll probably replace the Starving Buzzard, as I don't think this deck wants to be drawing cards with its Unleashes... it just wants to win with them.

*Edit* Also, there's a near 100% chance that the Argent Squire should be a Worgen Infiltrator.