1783

When I landed Golden King Krush my insta-reaction was “welp, going to have to think of a deck to put him in now.”

When I landed Golden Tinkmaster my insta-reaction was “Finally! Leroy.”

I actually think Tink is a pretty card - the animation is nice. If only Blizzard hadn’t taken him out behind the dev shed for the old yeller treatment.

1784

Unless you play Mukla on turn 2 with coin or use him in a Hunter deck for the beast synergy, Mukla is in inherently killable and not worth the card for the 2 bananas it gives to the opponent IMHO. Thus highly situational and in Hearthstone that’s bad.

1785

Highmane is worth, worth spending the dust on. For the cost of 100 dust for what should be - stats wise - a class ‘legendary’ card is insane.

1786

Yeah, I’m still disappointed by that. And their reasoning was “Too many decks run him so he must be too good so we must murder him”, and yet by that same logic almost every goddamn deck runs Leeroy. I miss you, Tink! (although when they nerfed him into oblivion i tore him up and turned him into another ubiquitous legendary (ragnaros))

'cept he’s talking about using him in a mill deck, where Mukla works reasonably well. The plan generally is to slip Mukla out on a turn when you’re going to force your opponent to draw cards, so bananas are clogging his hand and he discards his actual cards.

Mukla is also excellent in aggro paladin decks, since padding your opponent’s hand with nanners works great with divine favor.

Highmane is obscene. Cairne is a total of 18 stat points for 6 mana. Highmane is 19 stat points for 6 mana, all 3 pieces are beasts which synergize with just about every other hunter card, and it’s only a rare so you can run two of them in a deck. And it’s not even faux-usefulness like those stupid spiders everyone likes running where you just ignore it because who cares about 1 attack minions. 6/5 into two 2/2s is much more useful, even if you ignore houndmaster/hyena/buzzard/kill command shenanigans.

1787

Hmm speaking of crafting cards , I just got a gold rag which I am going to dust (already have the regular.)

What say ye, Ysera , Alexstrasza or Hogger as the next general legendary I should get?

1788

Alexstrasza is critical to certain deck types but I’d rate Ysera as generically “better”. I’ve had a lot of fun with her.

I think Hogger is too easy to remove in practice, if he was a 4/5 he’d be way, way better.

1789

Depends on the decks you like to play, but Alexstrazsa is the most widely used in the best decks generally. Alex is good in control since you can use your minions to keep board control and then suddenly take your opponent from 30 life to 15, or as emergency oh shit healing (Made somewhat less useful by dumb all from hand damage combos that typically go over 15 life).

Ysera’s also good in control decks, but the problem with her is no immediate impact to the board and takes an entire turn’s worth of mana. She’s more of a win harder legendary, doesn’t as often immediately swing a game in your favor. She’s definitely good though.

Hogger’s just kinda ok. I’ve started playing around with him a bit more in a paladin control deck since he’s annoying enough that your opponent usually wants to use removal or silences on him, which soaks up answers that could’ve been used on your bigger threats. Of the three you’re considering I’d put him at the bottom of the pile. He’s certainly not bad but he tends to have less impact than the other two. Which makes sense since he’s way cheaper to play, but for example a sunwalker (Or even sludge belcher) are acceptable Hogger substitutes, whereas nothing does what Alex or Ysera do (Alex moreso than Ysera, since Kel’thuzad and Ragnaros are both Ysera-ish in their general impact).

1790

I’d probably do leeroy. Lots of different archetypes use him as the lynchpin.

1791

Hmm thanks all. Sounds like Hogger is out. (already got Leeroy, thanks Quaro)

1792

Alexstrazsa is probably you best bet then. Other options mgiht be Bloodmage Thalnos, Malygos (for fun decks), or the class specific ones like Tyrion, Gromish, if you play those.

The first legendary I got was Lorewalker Cho and in a way I think I lucked out. I would never have crafted it, but since I had it, I had a blast making pretty crazy and not always ineffective decks based on it. Nothing like throwing it down the turn before a freezemage was about to start laying down the ice blocks and having the game get nuts.

1793

Tirion is a stone-cold bomb much of the time. I’ve become predominantly Pally, so I’m biased, but I think he’s the most impactful legendary I own, with Leeroy coming in at #2, and probably Cairne at #3.

1794

Forgot about Cairne, yeah, he’s way up there in terms of being generally useful.

1795

Tirion is perhaps my favorite legendary, and I play paladin 50% of the time. Alex is good in basically any late game deck, would be my choice if I didn’t play a lot pally.

1796

I’ve been experimenting with quickish Priest deck with Mind Blasts + poison zombie chows to finish people off with 10 - 20 burst direct damage and wishing so much that I had Alexstrazsa to cover the situations where I don’t get the early damage in and the game dragged on.

1797

Thanks all. I am playing a secret mage right now. Really enjoying it,. I THINK I am gonna go for Ysera over Alexstrazsa just because I keep running out of cards (most of my secrets get played for free). However I am gonna wait one more pack draw before deciding. Right now my slot is being used by Ragnaros who works out ok, I have tried Onyxia & Molten giant already , neither are very good in the deck.

1798

Onyxia is great in a Druid deck. Usually the opponent can’t get rid of the dragon and the whelps at the same time. If your whelps can survive the next turn, savage roar + power of the wild = mostly gg.

1799

So, I’m running what is essentially slantz’s Survivaldin, but I’ve made enough changes that I should probably just build a separate deck list (Edit done, here). But some of my major changes (largely due to lacking cards):
1x Divine Favor: I’ve decided to hold onto this for now, especially for control priest and miracle rogue. At one point, I replaced a blessing of wisdom with this, but now I’m running 2x blessings and also this, and I think that’s working better. Replaces lay on hands, more or less.

2x Youthful Brewmaster- I’m testing these guys out, but I like them so far. They’re a no downside coin/turn 2 drop, but if I draw them later I can refresh Divine shield, or re-cycle Abusive Sergeant for bonus 2 damage. Anti synergy with blessings, but I can usually drop a recruit if I really need a target. Replaced haunted creeper and maybe a harvest golem?

1x Tauren Warrior - thanks to the latest happy hearthstone for this idea. Just testing it, but seems like it combos with redemption well. I don’t have enough low cost taunt (see below), so this helps with that.

2xDefender of Argus - I don’t own any Sunfury Protectors, but these guys are somewhat similar, albeit more expensive. I like that they give surprise +1 damage to my divine shield minions, which let me trade up. Also, the +1 health means that my crusaders aren’t vulnerable to pings even when divine shield goes. I can cycle them with Brewmasters too. If there aren’t any minions on the board, they’re strictly worse than Sunfury, but with Paladin, I can usually guarantee I have a recruit to get at least 1 proc.

2x Sludge Belcher - I like him, and I don’t have any Sunwalkers. It f you squint, they’re kind of inverse Sunwalkers, they just get the shield at the end, instead of the first hit (also, much worse attack). I was running Loatheb instead of one of these, but I don’t think I was getting enough value from him. I lost too many games that I might have held onto if I had and extra 3x taunt from a redemption Belcher.

Frostwolf Warlord, Sea Giant - legendary replacements. I’ll probably test kel thuzad here when I get a chance. I don’t have a Blood Knight, so the sea giant can serve the same purpose, a 8/8 that I can consistently get for 5ish mana, and sometimes as little as 3 mana.

I think I probably need a little more damage output, but I’m not sure where that should come from.

1800

Out of curiousity, how are you liking the deck? Is it successful for you?

How’s this working out for you? My fear is that there’s be too many games where this is just a dead card, especially given that this is essentially a mid-range deck. Sure, it could be super strong against control decks, but it just seems too risky. I’d rather play cards that do something every game.

For what it’s worth, I also just took out Lay on Hands, and replaced it with Kel’Thuzad. But that was less a statement against Lay on Hands (which is great) and more that I wanted to try Kel’Thuzad without taking out Tirion or Cairne. Plus, those two cards combo insanely well with KT.

That’s an interesting choice! How are these working for you? I’m not sure I would run these myself as they’re not really on-strategy, but I guess I’m already breaking strategy a bit by having a Dire Wolf Alpha in the same cost slot.

I didn’t mention this on the podcast, but I had this in an early iteration of the deck. It wasn’t a bad pick at all, but it was rare I got the mileage out of it that I expected. I will say that taunt+redemption is a particularly good combo, especially if you’re protecting other stuff, though I prefer the units that have both taunt and something else (Tirion, Sunwalker, Sludge Belcher) for maximum effect.

Yeah, this is a fine substitution I think. You’re right, this deck is better positioned to have stuff around to buff than most decks. The only reason I went with Sunfury Protectors was cost – 4 is already a very crowded slot for Paladins. (Consecration, Blessing of Kings, Truesilver, etc.)

Yeah, this guy’s amazing, especially in this deck. The redemption and KT synergy is very strong, and he’s a brick wall protecting smaller guys or those with Blessing of Wisdom. I run 2x of these now. I should update my hearthpwn list soon.

KT is extremely strong in this deck. His biggest amplifier is having more minions on the board when he’s summoned, and this deck excels at that. Also, all the the divine shield, taunt, and deathrattle combos well with him. Frostwolf Warlord and Sea Giant are also good replacements that I’ve been experimenting with myself. I’m not sure why, but Sea Giant wasn’t performing as strongly as I’d hoped, but Frostwolf Warlord was. I think it has to do with FW being castable in more situations, even if he’s not as underpriced when I cast him. I’m curious if you have the same experience.

I didn’t hit legendary last month. I feel like the deck needs a bit more evolution before it’s capable. I’d love to collaborate with you and anyone else interested in tuning this thing to get there.

1801

Tempted to put one of these together; I had a lot of fun with the Naxx class challenge. What are the key components to this build? I assume 2x Mad Scientist, 2x Secretkeeper, 2x Ethereal Arcanist, and 2x Kirin Tor are necessary. Counterspell or Spellbender? Not looking to charge up the ladder with this deck, just want to have some fun.

1802

The arcanists aren’t necessary but they’re fun. I lean more toward spellbender myself. Prevents losing your counterspell to the coin, occasionally snaps up a buff (Generally only from druids), and still does the most important part of counterspell which is keeping your minions alive. Mostly. Duplicate’s pretty fun in a secret mage deck too, just make sure you’re only running minions you wouldn’t mind getting duplicated. Which means not running mirror image unless you really want 0/2s with taunt showing up in your hand. Theoretically you could just not play duplicate if you have things you don’t want duped out, but mad scientist can screw that up.

I’d also suggest not taking the secretkeepers, because they don’t get buffed from secrets played by mad scientist deaths and mage secrets are too expensive to dump a bunch out on a normal turn.