I played a late arena run tonight and got to 8 wins with a fairly unimpressive Paladin draft. My mana curve was awful…took a couple of big guys up front over mediocre 2- and 3-drops, then saw downright horrible low-cost card choices the rest of the way. Had some good upper-end cards, obviously, but my early game was non-existent. And yet after an initial loss, I managed 6 wins in a row, then a couple more before the third loss. I’ll have to try playing later more often!
I wonder if arena is easier/harder at the beginning of the month, when people might be charging up the ladder instead of playing arena.
JFrazer
1825
First thing in the morning (~6:00 am Eastern) seems like a good time for easy-ish arena wins for me. I’ve gotten in to a habit of waking up, getting ready for work, then playing an arena match or two on the couch before heading to the office. I’m not keeping close track or anything, but my win rate for those early morning games is much better than my win rate in the early evening.
I’m playing with what I felt is a crappy paladin deck, but it’s doing surprisingly well in the arena. In 2 of my 5 games so far, I’ve managed to get a Kel’Thuzard/Redemption combo on the board. Likely wouldn’t happen in a regular game, but with arena games tending to drag on I’ve been lucky enough to pull it off twice.
jeffreyb
1826
" 4, 7, 10, 12, 4, 1(!), 3, 7, 5, 12" is like 70% winrate, which seems super good to me, trump does 75% or so i believe.
I feel it’s all a bit random, you can have super good decks not go far at all, super bad ones do reasonable.
Player wise the level is really good except when you lose the first one.
It’s when you get to 6-0 or so you start running into the OP decks.
Would it not be easier to rank up later in the month?
Do we know how the matchmaking works for casual mode? Does it use my same rank as for the ladder, but just not count the wins / losses, or is there a different ranking pool?
prolix
1828
Off-topic, but I just got Harrison Jones in a deck yesterday. Really tempted to dust him. Talk me out of it!
Mr.GRIM
1829
I dusted mine during beta. Would I do it now…? Probably yep. But the amount of control warriors and hunters makes it a tougher choice. How does the 5 mana slot look in your most played decks? Maybe take it for a spin and see how it performs in the current meta?
Brakara
1830
I run him in my shaman deck to counter hunters and control warriors.
Here’s a list someone made of legendaries you should dust:
Trelane
1831
I think my average is 5-6 wins, while Trump is around 8, so not all that impressive. The last run was my first 12-0 dream though, with a priest deck that seemed only slightly above average. Started a new Priest run which is 3-0 so far - and to think I always hated that class :)
Quaro
1832
He fits in some tournament decks (where you make a set of decks that work together). I’d think he’s playable right now in ladder because hunter is so common. I wouldn’t dust him unless you want to make a specific deck and are missing a card.
prolix
1833
I’ll probably hold off and try him out. It looks like one of those cards that usually doesn’t do much, but when it does it feels like The Best Thing Ever, which falsely colors your opinion of how good it is. Probably decent enough against rogues and paladins; but I don’t see many warriors or shamans these days, and hunters don’t usually stock up on weapons.
Brakara
1834
Hunters with bow, mad scientist and a bunch of secrets have like infinite shots. And although hunters are more than 50% of my opponents these days, there’s still a good amount of warriors and even paladins out there (also saw the stream of one of the top players playing Paladin in Legend on the ladder earlier today).
But if you’re not seeing any weapons being used against you, then of course don’t use Harrison.
Here is the latest rev of my secret mage. I have got to rank 14 with it, which is good for me, particularly for a deck thats main purpose is to be amusing.
Any advice on improvements welcome.
garin
1836
I don’t get the purpose if the Abominations, I’d swap those for Sludge Belchers (which combo obnoxiously with Duplicate).
Garin, The Abominations are there as anti hunter/zoo cards. But Sludge is a good idea, particularly with that combo. I will give it a shot swapping em out and see how it goes. Thanks!
I have to say I’m getting a LOT of use out of Deathlords as a Priest. Being able to heal them, by the time they get beaten down I’ve established a solid advantage. And they’re insane to Inner Fire. 8/8 for 2 cards, 4 mana? Absolutely insane.
(And it can really, really screw over Miracle Rogues when it brings in stuff they need to combo)
Kadath
1839
Can you post the whole deck Starlight?
Made it up to rank 9 thus far playing this deck, against a huge number of other warlocks and hunters. Half my games have been those two classes, and the deck has a 70% win rate against those. I did make a couple of changes since I put up the earlier post: -1 Nerubian Egg, -1 Leper Gnome, +1 Power Overwhelming, +1 Ironbeak Owl. The addition of the silence from the Owl and +4 from the Power are to combat situations with a moderately big taunt minion on the other side, which crops up pretty often against Warlocks since everyone runs Defender of Argus, and even Hunters since a lot of them are running Houndmaster…not to mention any Druids or Priests that crop up. I didn’t mind removing the Egg since it’s been dead a couple of times when I didn’t draw something to pump it, and of course you don’t want to see it pop up at the end of the game when you need immediate damage to finish someone. I debated whether to keep the Gnome and ditch an Undertaker instead, since I’m already a little low on deathrattle guys to pump it, but decided to keep it because it draws enemy removal better than anything else short of Knife Juggler.
Played two Arena runs today that could not have been more different. The first one was Priest, and I was offered a legendary and two epics, which sounds good…except the six epics in the two choices were Doomsayer (twice), Mountain Giant, Shadowform (twice), and Southsea Captain. Took the Doomsayer over the Shadowform the first time, which in retrospect was a mistake, but who would have guessed I’d get it again? Took Shadowform the second time. Also saw none of the priest tricks except for Holy Nova: no Inner Fire, Power Word Shield, Divine Spirit, Shadow Word (either). Needless to say this went poorly. I was pleasantly surprised to go 3-3.
Then I tried Druid, and got ridiculous card offers. Three epics, and almost all my commons were good. Including four (!) Swipes and two Druid of the Claw.
Deck List
Plus an Argent Squire that was cut off the screenshot.
8 wins on this one. Two of the losses were to Rogues that killed me before turn 7 with crazy-fast damage, and one was to a Warlock who killed off a Sea Giant-Ancient of War-Yeti board with Twisting Nether then axed the second Ancient of War with a Big Game Hunter. (From this I learned never to choose the +5 attack option, even if I thought I had it adequately protected with other minions.) Not the greatest mana curve, which is what hurt me against the rogues, but it was good fun to play.
Some very nice cards in there, you can never have enough swipes :)
Priest 12-0 for me and priest is now my best class together with mage
Really crazy deck, one with all the answers, lots of love for auchenai soulpriest
http://www.arenavalue.com/s/LQ0iZE#1
