1803

I like the Surviva-din a lot, although I’m not sure how effective it is. Last month’s iteration got me comfortably into 10-9 ranks (which is farther than I’ve gotten otherwise).

A lot of my changes are direct responses to bad matchups I’ve been having (control priest and miracle rogue, mostly), so I’ve been trying to push it a little more aggro. The danger there being I may just be hitting my skill ceiling. I think there’s just some learning about how to play the deck better (for instance, I think I need to ignore Northshire Clerics when playing against priest in favor of moar facepunch). Divine Favor is a direct result of that, for instance. I may need to become more rigorous, because thanks to vividness bias, I think I’m trying to fix problems without really thinking about how they affect what is working.

I very rarely find myself stranded with divine favor, but I think that my deck is a little more small-cost aggro than yours, which means I’m out of cards more often. I also just personally hate having an empty hand: a) it isn’t fun to not play cards, b) I feel like it lets my opponent act with impunity because he knows I don’t have any tricks up my sleeve, c) I always seem to lose top-decking races, possibly due to lack of Legendaries. If I get 2 cards (equal to arcane intellect), I consider it acceptable, anything else is gravy.

Youthful Brewmaster is probably more fun than good. He has potential to be very very annoying. The combination of Abusive Sergeant, Argent Defender, and Brewmaster has the potential to be hilarious. They’re cheap enough that you can drop the same one multiple times the same turn, or if one’s already on the board, face-punch, then pull back to your hand, then re-play for extra battlecry without losing an attack. 2 might be too many. I liked having one though, because I didn’t have enough turn 1 / 2 drops (Haunted Creeper doesn’t have enough presence on the board, and Harvest Golem, at 3, competes with the Crusaders, who I like more). He’s basically a bloodfen raptor turn 2, and hilarious combo potential after that.

I have trouble with Frostwolf Warlord, because I hate dropping him when I think mayyyybe I’ll get one more +1 out of him next turn, and then I lose my chance, but that’s just a mental block. FW is never bigger than sea giant, but sea giant is occasionally cheaper than FW. I never get much out of either, to be honest. At the end of the day, they’re both basically just hard-removal bait.

I’ll probably keep tweaking it for a while. (I keep meaning to swap Jungle Panther for Shade of Naxxramas. Seems like only upside to me.)

Unrelatedly, I made a Warlock Zoo deck without looking it up online, based purely on looking at the decks I played against, and it seems pretty serviceable. It’s funny how consistent that deck is.

1804

Thanks, good advice. Looks like this build is a slow burner, so it needs something that can serve as a roadblock to fast aggro decks. Will probably try mirror image and see how that works out. Maybe sludge belcher? I love that guy.

1805

I’m trying out a Zoo deck, which I first put together myself, then looked up a version by smarter players than I. The only real change I made from what I’d done myself to what he had in that deck was the removal of Flame Imp…he has Undertakers in the spot I had the Imps. Seems smart from what I can tell so far, as I’ve won two of the three games so far against other Warlocks and both of the ones I beat did have the Imp. Biggest problem thus far has been that I keep getting matched to Warriors…I’ve gone 3-for-5, but a couple of those wins are due to the other guy making mistakes. If I keep seeing them I may have to try another deck for a while.

1806

Ooh, good suggestion. I will try that myself.

Also, while card-draw cards are one solution to running out of cards, another solution is to up your average mana cost so you’re dropping one bigger minion on later turns instead of two smaller ones. Also, it might be a sign that you’re not getting enough mileage from your Blessings of Wisdom. For what it’s worth, I usually put them on what is otherwise my least-attractive attack target, like an argent squire or another 1/1. That is of course a bit board dependent, but it’s turned out to be a very effective tactic that can force them to choose between killing a minion of significance or a worthless guy that draws me cards.

1807

Anybody else getting tired of playing against these boilerplate one dimensional hunters? Ugh so tedious, no variety. Same old tricks every time. More than two minions? Hounds combo. Two or less good minions? Random shot. Beast, beast , beast.

I dont want them nerfed because they are not that good but I sure would like to see Hunters get more than one way to play.

1808

So I think I’ve found the secret to Arenas: Play after 9pm EST or so.

Since Naxx came out, I’ve been bitten by the HS bug again, but my Arena run win counts are all over the place: 4, 7, 10, 12, 4, 1(!), 3, 7, 5, 12

The odd thing is I was facing crazy Ragnaros Mage decks at 1-2, but fairly unimpressive decks at 10-0. Only difference I can tell is the time of day I played. Possibly all the casual players are logging on in the late evening, whereas around midday only hardcore types are around.

Also Priest seems like one the strongest classes in Arena now. They were already solid before, but Dark Cultist is ridiculously good.

1809

Hunters are really good though, at least on the higher levels, and especially with the new Naxx tools they got (Mad Scientist, Webspinner, Haunted Creeper). They’re also the only class with something like flare, which is not only great against other hunters, but also against these new secret Mages. Not that I want them nerfed either, since the meta should have some time to sort itself out first.

I do agree they’re boring to play and play against, though I find other decks have the same issue, like Zoo, Miracle Rogue and even something like a Control Warrior. Then again, I love playing midrange decks, like Shaman, Druid and Priest, so I guess that may taint my taste of those other decks.

1810

The mage secret decks are turning out to be a pretty nice counter to my shaman deathrattle deck. I may need to make some adjustments…if I can figure out what they should be. Not a lot of counters to secrets, outside of playing a hunter. So far they are the one new meta I haven’t been all that effective at coping with. With the tons of taunt I’m running, miracle rogues have become almost embarassingly easy to play against now.

I’m really glad they added the new cards in. It breathed new life in to the game and added some variety to the deck construction. I’m hoping they have a relatively regular cadence of additions, but since this is Blizzard there will likely be large chunks between new cards.

1811

Yeah, it’s actually pretty annoying that there is literally 1 card that counters secrets. (Also, it’s funny, thematically, to me that Rogues don’t have any secrets).

I wouldn’t want every class to have a straight counter to secrets like Flare, but maybe a minion ability that triggers if your opponent owns or reveals a secret rather than just ones that key off your own. I guess they already nerfed secrets a while ago by making them only trigger during your opponent’s turn, but there needs to be something you can do about them. It’s fun and interesting to think “which secret does my opponent have? How do I trigger it with minimal impact?” It’s less fun to know exactly what secret your opponent has in play, and being unable to do anything about it.

1812

I am playing a secret mage. Just a fun deck I threw together but is very enjoyable.

While flare is annoying if I just restrict myself to 1 secret live when playing against a hunter it is not so bad also if I can get counterspell live then that negates flare so I can stack as normal. Hunters & Priests are the hardest match ups. Handlock & Miracle are the easiest.

Turn 1 Mana Worm then turn 2 coin & Kirin Tor plus a secret (duplicate or mirror entity) is the strongest opening I can pull off so be prepared for that if you can. Taking out the manaworm in one card is particularly problematic. Always play a crap minion first if you can to take out the mirror entitity.

Frazer, things Shamans can do that piss me off are silences & hex. Most of my minions of some kind of live effect so if you go heavy on those that remove those then I will struggle. Ethereal Arcanist & Mad Scientist getting silenced is particularly annoying.

In terms of play arc the deck is strong from turn 2 through turn 5 then fades quick and has a hard time in the end game.

Hope that helps!

1813

I am having fun with a similar deck. Mirror Image turns out to be quite handy, and gives you precious stalling time against aggro decks to get to your Blizzard/Flamestrike. It is especially amusing when they trigger your Duplicate secret while taking out your Mirror Image, since it dumps two zero-cost taunts into your hand, which you can play for free the next turn and only slow them down further.

1814

Prolix, heh yeah. The first time that happened I thought -oh thats a shame what a waste of duplicate- now I think like you, “awesome, two free taunts!”.

1815

Well, yeah, but wouldn’t you rather play the original 1-cost spell to get to 0/2 taunts rather than a 3-cost spell? Using Duplicate on a Mirror Image seems like a really bad deal.

1816

It’s not ideal, but it is amusing, which is the whole point of this deck (I think).

1817

double post due to server wackiness

1818

slantz, there are far better uses for sure but its not a bad result. It is particularly useful if you are one turn away from an AOE spell or you just need to hold off some big nasty thing a turn while you use your mana for other stuff. Also some 1 cost minions are worth more than the cost of duplicate to have a bunch of them in your deck. Manaworm I think falls into this category. I think the very best duplicate I have had is Loatheb. You can snuggle in for two more turns of having your opponents spells cost a bunch more :)

Secret mage is extra fun when you get those “ouch, thats GOTTA hurt” moments. My highlights include a Druid whose Force of Nature got counterspelled and just 10 mins ago when a Miracle Rogue who had been saving up for the combo and (doubtless laughing his ass off at my incoming doom ) got his Leeroy vaporized. Ouch.

1819

I had a paladin give up on turn three when I Spellbendered his coined Blessing of Kings. Good times.

1820

Excellent. I love the rage quits.

1821

Of possible interest:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/09/03/hearthstone-help-nine-great-post-naxxramas-decks/

And:

1822

I wouldn’t mind seeing a neutral legendary that was like Harrison Jones-for-secrets. Destroy all enemy secrets and draw a card for each one. With reasonable stats it would probably see play at the moment.