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[Majine]

In my continuing saga of trying to put RNG into every single fake Shaman card I make:

Worst case scenario it's a worse Arcanite Reaper or Harrison eats it, best case scenario you have a 4 damage weapon forever.

Or maybe you do a stupid effect like this:

I'm trying to find effects that you could concievably imagine someone at Blizzard would think are great, but are obviously terrible when you think about them in the context of anything the class currently does.

Oh man, I remember when I got that staff in Zul'Gurub in WoW. I was so happy.

 

[BananasWithGuns]

Did some popular streamer start playing face Paladin or something? Been seeing it a ridiculous amount today.

 

[ViviOggi]

Did some popular streamer start playing face Paladin or something? Been seeing it a ridiculous amount today.

Shitty old Shockadin or Hobodin? Savjz started playing the latter a few weeks ago and even brought it to tournaments

 

[BananasWithGuns]

Shitty old Shockadin or Hobodin? Savjz started playing the latter a few weeks ago and even brought it to tournaments

Nah, just Shockadin. Does Shockadin always go face? I don't know I never played it.

 

[JesseZao]

Nah, just Shockadin. Does Shockadin always go face? I don't know I never played it.

I've been playing it off and on. It's best in a slow meta. It will generally go face unless you can make a high value trade.

The deck pretty much died when Naxx came out because of Zombie Chow and the faster meta created by Undertaker.

 

[Danj]

Today's pack:

My first ever non-Naxxramas legendary! Shame it's Nat Pagle but still.

 

[BananasWithGuns]

I've been playing it off and on. It's best in a slow meta. It will generally go face unless you can make a high value trade.

The deck pretty much died when Naxx came out because of Zombie Chow and the faster meta created by Undertaker.

I see. I mean I've seen aggroish Paladin before but the ones I've usually played make trades. Ones I played today were ignoring everything. I was even eating Truesilver to the face.

 

[ViviOggi]

Thaurissan is utter fucking bullshit in Freeze Mage are you actually kidding me right now

Nah, just Shockadin. Does Shockadin always go face? I don't know I never played it.

Shockadin runs all these shitty low cost dump minions, goes face, refills their hand with Divine Favor and includes the op Paladin cards for when they have to clear. The original true stoopid deck. This cancer for example has pretty high ratings and includes a "1 Minute Guide" video, so yeah.

That said I wouldn't be surprised if some of the decks you ran into were Hobodins not drawing their Hobogoblins.

 

[JesseZao]

I see. I mean I've seen aggroish Paladin before but the ones I've usually played make trades. Ones I played today were ignoring everything. I was even eating Truesilver to the face.

Yep. That'd be shockadin.

 

[Rapstah]

I'm posting this again: we're trying to organise an EU tournament. As of right now, 8 players have signed up, counting me. The closer we get to a power of 2 the better, so 16 would be great. If we end up with an odd number of players we'll randomly give some players byes in the first round.

Right now I'm thinking Conquest, best of 3 5, single elimination. You pick three classes at the start of the tournament and have to keep those three classes for all of the tournament, but you may change your decks between rounds (although not between matches while you are playing against someone). One week per round? If anyone minds this format, tell me! I'm open to ideas. If discussion about this tournament overtakes this thread we'll create a new thread exclusively for the tournament. Whenenever the tournament actually starts, there will definitely be a thread.

Sign up using this Google form.

I'll re-post this later today so everyone has a shot at signing up without having to read every post in the thread.

Reminding EU people of this one last time for today before it's the middle of the night for all of us. It's looking like a tournament of 16, but we have room for a couple more people.

 

[Levi]

Today's pack:



My first ever non-Naxxramas legendary! Shame it's Nat Pagle but still.

Hey, 400 dust is a free epic of your choice! There's a lot of good class epics, or you could play it safe and craft a BGH, he's likely going to be very strong with all the dragons folks are going to be putting in their decks.

 

[clav]

Finally a legendary.

Wondering if I should disenchant it for a BGH card.

Should I?

 

[Majine]

EDIT: Wrong.

 

[johnsmith]

Finally a legendary.



Wondering if I should disenchant it for a BGH card.

Should I?

No, Thalnos is a good card. Mandatory in rogue decks, often seen in shaman decks, and occasionally mage.

 

[Rapstah]

Finally a legendary.



Wondering if I should disenchant it for a BGH card.

Should I?

Thalnos is actually run in a lot of stuff. I wouldn't disenchant it.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Finally a legendary.



Wondering if I should disenchant it for a BGH card.

Should I?

No, Thalnos is a keeper.

 

[clav]

No, Thalnos is a good card. Mandatory in rogue decks, often seen in shaman decks, and occasionally mage.

Thalnos is actually run in a lot of stuff. I wouldn't disenchant it.

No, Thalnos is a keeper.

I've been using Stampeding Kodo and Aldor Peacekeeper as my removal.

Guess I'll stick to that then.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

In control paladin, kodo is still a pretty good pick. I haven't used it in a while myself, but I have used it heavily in the past.

Because of kodo, BGH isn't mandatory. Between aldor and usually a 1 of humility, control paladin can handle big threats like a champ. And kodo helps against aggro decks where bgh is usually worthless.

I would recommend keeping thalnos. Pretty solid legendary card to get for your first. I recall crafting him as one of my first crafts.

 

[Mr Cola]

I enjoyed the reddit post about legendary, it simply doesnt take skill to reach it, given the number of aggro players there all it takes is a lack of creativity and persistence with quick decks.

 

[Levi]

I enjoyed the reddit post about legendary, it simply doesnt take skill to reach it, given the number of aggro players there all it takes is a lack of creativity and persistence with quick decks.

Yes, the current ladder system rewards people for playing fast decks and punishes people who like to play slower games. Having a 70% win rate with control warrior, it will take you a lot longer to hit legend than someone with a much lower win rate but a much faster deck.

Unfortunately because they are awarding tournament points for ladder finishes, they can't make any changes to the ladder until after Blizzcon. I hope they seriously consider reworking the ladder.

 

[Minsc]

I enjoyed the reddit post about legendary, it simply doesnt take skill to reach it, given the number of aggro players there all it takes is a lack of creativity and persistence with quick decks.

This was my experience. You're better off running zoolock / face hunter than nearly anything else, save maybe muster paladin. Ramp Druid, Control Warrior, Handlock, whatever else, you're just going to get frustrated. I spent 10 hours in the ranks 3-1 range (losing ground as fast as I'd make it), with assorted control decks, gave up, and then in about 1 hour with zoolock made legendary.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

I enjoyed the reddit post about legendary, it simply doesnt take skill to reach it, given the number of aggro players there all it takes is a lack of creativity and persistence with quick decks.

Are you talking about that athene video? Sure, with enough games under your belt, most people can hit legendary. But saying it doesn't take skill... is simply wrong. Does it mean you're top echelon of players by hitting legend? I personally don't think so. Even if you build your own deck and hit legend, me included, I don't think that makes you a top player.

Plus athene is actually just not even good at face hunter. In his own video about how it takes no skill to hit legend, he misses obvious lethal with face hunter.

Don't think of legend as a "you made it, you've mastered hearthstone". Just think of it as a rather arbitrary milestone to seeing your ranking among other people who have hit the milestone. Being a top player is about consistently hitting top legend ranks and/or performing well in the tournament scene imho.

Read this:https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/32gmt3/athene_should_think_before_he_speaks_comments/

In this video, Athene says that it is easy to play "perfect" in Hearthstone and that it requires little-to-no skill. He diminishes everything that many of the pro's have accomplished in this game. I have been playing this game for over a year now, at what I consider close to the top level, and still find myself making mistakes. He bases his assumptions off of the fact that he got to legend??? I apologize to those who are unable to get to legend themselves, but doing so does not require even a fraction of the top level skill required to excel in this game.

I am currently watching Athene drop to the absolute pits of legend, ranks 500+ as he fails to win with even the easiest of decks to play, face hunter. He makes many mistakes and does not even seem to realize that they were mistakes at all.

 

[clav]

In control paladin, kodo is still a pretty good pick. I haven't used it in a while myself, but I have used it heavily in the past.

Because of kodo, BGH isn't mandatory. Between aldor and usually a 1 of humility, control paladin can handle big threats like a champ. And kodo helps against aggro decks where bgh is usually worthless.

I would recommend keeping thalnos. Pretty solid legendary card to get for your first. I recall crafting him as one of my first crafts.

I wonder if I can take out a 5 mana drake and replace it with this one because of its low mana cost.

The card seems like it has the same three attributes despite low attack/hp: card draw, spells +1, and a minion on a board.

Alternatively, I can try experimenting taking out a 1 mana minion for it for early board clear on turn 5/6 against a mech mage.

 

[Raxus]

This was my experience. You're better off running zoolock / face hunter than nearly anything else, save maybe muster paladin. Ramp Druid, Control Warrior, Handlock, whatever else, you're just going to get frustrated. I spent 10 hours in the ranks 3-1 range (losing ground as fast as I'd make it), with assorted control decks, gave up, and then in about 1 hour with zoolock made legendary.

It certainly doesn't help that control inherently takes longer to play where as Zoo and Face Hunter you usually win by turns 6-7 or you retire.

 

[clav]

Wondering.

Is Acidic Swamp Ooze worth to put in a deck?

I've always added it in hopes later I would get a Harrison Jones to replace it.

 

[Brofist]

Interesting Grim Patron spawns another when hit by a patient assassin.

 

[BananasWithGuns]

Wondering.

Is Acidic Swamp Ooze worth to put in a deck?

I've always added it in hopes later I would get a Harrison Jones to replace it.

If you're facing a lot of classes that are using weapons then yeah, go ahead and slot it in. It's also an okay early drop against weaponless classes. It's not 100% necessary to always have an answer to weapons though if you're not matched up with them much. Just depends on the meta and what's popular.

 

[Levi]

Interesting Grim Patron spawns another when hit by a patient assassin.

It looks like Grim Patron's effect triggers first, then the patient assassin effect is triggered. So Grim Patron survives damage, procs, and then is killed by the effect. These are the sorts of little things that you can only learn by experience, and make sense in retrospect but aren't clearly explained by the game.

 

[KePoW]

Interesting Grim Patron spawns another when hit by a patient assassin.

lol that sux

 

[Professor Lich]

Interesting Grim Patron spawns another when hit by a patient assassin.

Damage doesn't kill him, the lethal effect does!

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Interesting Grim Patron spawns another when hit by a patient assassin.

Yeah, Maexxna is the same.

 

[Levi]

Wondering.

Is Acidic Swamp Ooze worth to put in a deck?

I've always added it in hopes later I would get a Harrison Jones to replace it.

If you're seeing a lot of Rogue, Paladin, and Warrior I would run it. Destroying a freshly equipped Gorehowl is a great feeling.

Just remember that if you destroy a Death's Bite, the 1 damage whirlwind effect still procs, so make sure that if you have any 1 health minions you attack with them first.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

I wonder if I can take out a 5 mana drake and replace it with this one because of its low mana cost.

The card seems like it has the same three attributes despite low attack/hp: card draw, spells +1, and a minion on a board.

Alternatively, I can try experimenting taking out a 1 mana minion for it for early board clear on turn 5/6 against a mech mage.

Hmmm, what role does azure drake fill in your deck? Generally the only spell damage paladin runs is consecration so it isn't usually worth running azure drake. Drake usually works best in classes with cheaper damage spells, like shaman and rogue, and sometimes druid.

Which also means thalnos isn't really good in paladin either, but 3 damage consecration can win some games. Generally when paladin wants some spell synergy, they use wild pyromancer because it acts like +1 spell damage for every spell and acts like a board wipe when equality is cast (equality sets hp to 1, wild pyro kills everything).

Instead of azure drake, paladin usually runs sludge belchers, healbots, and a quartermaster or two. Kodo is also a decent 5 drop for paladin though.

I'm actually right now testing out a 1 of novice engineer and think maybe that is even better than thalnos since I can drop it late game to just thin my deck out a little bit. Although I guess thalnos has the potential to get multiple draws of KT. Novice engineer is really out of the ordinary in any deck, especially paladin, so I don't yet recommend running it.

Wondering.

Is Acidic Swamp Ooze worth to put in a deck?

I've always added it in hopes later I would get a Harrison Jones to replace it.

Ooze works in paladin pretty well. HJ works as well.

 

[KePoW]

If you're seeing a lot of Rogue, Paladin, and Warrior I would run it. Destroying a freshly equipped Gorehowl is a great feeling.

What about against Face Hunter, is it great against them?

 

[Levi]

What about against Face Hunter, is it great against them?

Depends on the situation. If destroying a weapon protects your taunt another turn, awesome. If they are saving an equipped weapon to get another charge when a secret pops, destroying it is a setback for them. However, if they only have one charge, and they buffed a minion by equipping the weapon, destroying it saves you (I think) 3 damage but they've already gotten good value from it. Preventing that small amount of damage will win you some face hunter games, and not make a difference in many others.

I'll ask you, since you are the resident Face Hunter defender here, do you really care if your weapon only gets 1 attack in?

 

[clav]

If you're facing a lot of classes that are using weapons then yeah, go ahead and slot it in. It's also an okay early drop against weaponless classes. It's not 100% necessary to always have an answer to weapons though if you're not matched up with them much. Just depends on the meta and what's popular.

OK. I like it as early aggression against Mages, Priests, and Warlocks.

If you're seeing a lot of Rogue, Paladin, and Warrior I would run it. Destroying a freshly equipped Gorehowl is a great feeling.

Just remember that if you destroy a Death's Bite, the 1 damage whirlwind effect still procs, so make sure that if you have any 1 health minions you attack with them first.

Yeah, since I don't have quartermaster in my deck yet, I'm usually careful against Warriors when to drop the weapon removal card.

Thanks for the reminder.

Hmmm, what role does azure drake fill in your deck? Generally the only spell damage paladin runs is consecration so it isn't usually worth running azure drake. Drake usually works best in classes with cheaper damage spells, like shaman and rogue, and sometimes druid.

Which also means thalnos isn't really good in paladin either, but 3 damage consecration can win some games. Generally when paladin wants some spell synergy, they use wild pyromancer because it acts like +1 spell damage for every spell and acts like a board wipe when equality is cast (equality sets hp to 1, wild pyro kills everything).

Instead of azure drake, paladin usually runs sludge belchers, healbots, and a quartermaster or two. Kodo is also a decent 5 drop for paladin though.

I'm actually right now testing out a 1 of novice engineer and think maybe that is even better than thalnos since I can drop it late game to just thin my deck out a little bit. Although I guess thalnos has the potential to get multiple draws of KT. Novice engineer is really out of the ordinary in any deck, especially paladin, so I don't yet recommend running it.

Ooze works in paladin pretty well. HJ works as well.

I've always had it because I run on a philosophy that the best cards are ones that have battlecrys or deathrattles for F2P players. Basically the card has a spell and a minion or spawn another minion.

A drake puts a 4/4 minion on the board and gives a card in return.

Maybe I can try removing the drake and run a second Kodo or add a pyromancer.

 

[Levi]

Started the day off great, ripped off a 5 win streak to climb to rank 10, even beating zoo with my Paladin when I drew both my consecrates early and I was able to get a Sludge Belcher to stick for three turns, When I Muster/Quartermastered on Turn 8 he conceded.

Then I faced another zoo and drew terribly to break the streak. Played a knife juggler, he played a Nerubian Egg, of course the next two minions I played, the knives had to hit the damn egg.

Haven't seen any hunters today, but did see two zoo warlocks, a mirror match, a legend cardback control warrior (easy game for Pally), a combo druid and a mech mage.

For reference, here's how my midrange Paladin has over the past few weeks:

 

[Little Nemo]

Anyone care if I spectate their game? I got the "Watch and Learn!" quest for the first time last night and need someone to spectate.

 

[KePoW]

Depends on the situation. If destroying a weapon protects your taunt another turn, awesome. If they are saving an equipped weapon to get another charge when a secret pops, destroying it is a setback for them. However, if they only have one charge, and they buffed a minion by equipping the weapon, destroying it saves you (I think) 3 damage but they've already gotten good value from it. Preventing that small amount of damage will win you some face hunter games, and not make a difference in many others.

I'll ask you, since you are the resident Face Hunter defender here, do you really care if your weapon only gets 1 attack in?

Yeah I almost never see Ooze nowdays which is why I was wondering, so I'm not sure

Occasionally I'll get a Harrison played against me, but I'm not sure whether it's a big deal or not. Seems like that's usually later in the game, so it doesn't matter too much. I'll either have won or lost the game already

Even though Harrison is 5-mana, it seems like most opponents don't automatically play it on turn 5

Also since I dropped one Eaglehorn for a Quick Shot, a lot of games I don't have a weapon out on turn 5 anymore

 

[Levi]

Also since I dropped one Eaglehorn for a Quick Shot, a lot of games I don't have a weapon out on turn 5 anymore

Less damage overall, but helps you avoid the only really bad opening draw face hunters get, having all their weapons in their opening hand.

 

[KePoW]

Less damage overall, but helps you avoid the only really bad opening draw face hunters get, having all their weapons in their opening hand.

yeah ever since adding the two Quick Shots (dropping one Abusive one Eaglehorn), I haven't noticed a big difference one way or another

But I barely average two games per day, so I have a very small sample size

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

I've always had it because I run on a philosophy that the best cards are ones that have battlecrys or deathrattles for F2P players. Basically the card has a spell and a minion or spawn another minion.

A drake puts a 4/4 minion on the board and gives a card in return.

Maybe I can try removing the drake and run a second Kodo or add a pyromancer.

It really just depends on what you're trying to do with your deck. What your overall strategy is and what your goal to win is. I don't think azure drake is a bad card for paladin, but in a way just doesn't really fit with the overall strategy. The other question you have to ask is, is the deck just doing something another class just does better?

Maybe rogue is a better fit for you if you like really procative cards. Maybe azure drake is a good fit now for paladin and I am just wrong. Paladin just doesn't have a lot of removal like that to take full advantage of the drake's spell power or card draw. And since it is a 4/4, it'll die to less mana cards and affects so you'll end up losing board easier than if you had a 5 hp minion like sludge belcher or kodo.

Deck building is pretty complex. But keep at it, you'll figure things out as you go along - after tons of experimentation. Also don't be afraid to see what works for other people.

 

[Vanillalite]

I'm running dual ooze in my druid deck and seeing success.

3/2 vs 2/3 is good cause it takes out all of those 1/3 early cards with one attack.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

9 matches with kezan mystic teched into my paladin deck.

7 matches with secret users (4 mage, 3 hunters). All but maybe 1 used secrets, they all run secrets though.

I've drawn kezan mystic once... vs priest. But 0 times against mage or hunter. I'm still 4/7 in those matches but ffs kezan mystic... this isn't the first time I've tried kezan mystic and I still have yet to successfully steal one secret in constructed.

 

[clav]

9 matches with kezan mystic teched into my paladin deck.

7 matches with secret users (4 mage, 3 hunters). All but maybe 1 used secrets, they all run secrets though.

I've drawn kezan mystic once... vs priest. But 0 times against mage or hunter. I'm still 4/7 in those matches but ffs kezan mystic... this isn't the first time I've tried kezan mystic and I still have yet to successfully steal one secret in constructed.

The problem with Kezan Mystic is when there are just way too many secrets late game against Mage.

Played one recently who like had 6 secrets in the deck.

 

[Dahbomb]

Kezan Mystic is such a fucking bitch.

When you play her in your deck you always get her too late or not at all when you need her. Or she comes in your hand against a class that has no secrets.

But when you play a secret, that shit is getting stolen on turn 4 EMPHATICALLY!


The worst is when you finally hit off a Kezan Mystic and they counter with their own Kezan Mystic! The ironic thing is that Mages have started to run Kezan Mystic just to protect their own secrets from being stolen.

 

[Levi]

9 matches with kezan mystic teched into my paladin deck.

7 matches with secret users (4 mage, 3 hunters). All but maybe 1 used secrets, they all run secrets though.

I've drawn kezan mystic once... vs priest. But 0 times against mage or hunter. I'm still 4/7 in those matches but ffs kezan mystic... this isn't the first time I've tried kezan mystic and I still have yet to successfully steal one secret in constructed.

I mulligan for Kezan when going up against Mage or Hunter. It sucks to keep a 4 drop in your opening hand but it has worked out for me. Mage/Hunter seem to always draw Mad Scientist or one of their secrets early enough to make it worth keeping.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

I am mulliganing for it pretty aggressively against mage and hunter. It is also like BGH and aldor are dodging my draw every time someone plays dr. boom today as well.

 

[KePoW]

9 matches with kezan mystic teched into my paladin deck.

7 matches with secret users (4 mage, 3 hunters). All but maybe 1 used secrets, they all run secrets though.

I've drawn kezan mystic once... vs priest. But 0 times against mage or hunter. I'm still 4/7 in those matches but ffs kezan mystic... this isn't the first time I've tried kezan mystic and I still have yet to successfully steal one secret in constructed.

LOL that's seriously funny

 

[Dahbomb]

What are the class cards/challenges we will be getting this week?

Two Dragon themed cards including Dragon Consorts in this wing means that we will be seeing the first actual Dragon Paladin deck this week.