Hobo Zoo

I ran into this the other day and was intrigued by the 2 Hobo Zoo decks listed at the top. A week passed, when I found myself with a Warlock or Priest Dominance quest, alongside an Only the Mighty already at 8/20. Perfect.

So much more than I would have guessed. 5/0 record. First doesn't really count, I can't even remember the class, the concede was before the mulligan finished. Probably a mobile user without time to play?

But 5 straight games ended in concessions. Druid, Paladin, Priest, Rogue. The first card I thought of when I saw the description of Reliquary Seeker was Imp-plosion, which was critical to the first 3 of those 4.

The Druid was holding his own, and twice had Swiped my board after I had played a Knife Juggler and some tokens to pick at his. But then came the turn where I got to play 2 (!!) 7/7 Seekers, filling a board that already contained a fairly healthy Sea Giant.

The Paladin played 4 Legendaries and quit. Thalnos, Eydis, coined Blingtron, Harrison. Only 1 7/7 Seeker this time.

Against the Priest I greedily held a Tinyfin until turn 4, when I got to play Hobgoblin, Argent Squire, Coin, another Squire, Tinyfin. He immediately killed my Hobgoblin with a Blackwing Corruptor battlecry, but I Imp-plosioned the Corruptor, got 3 Imps, played Seeker, and killed the Corruptor without killing my 3/3 Squire.

The Rogue quit early, to 4 Imps and a damaged Haunted Creeper.

What is this totally OP deck I was playing with? I picked the Zalae version, and made the 3 changes for cards I lacked:

2nd Hobgoblin -> Dire Wolf Alpha
Gormok -> Power Overwhelming
2nd Sea Giant -> Dr. Boom

I figured the Dire Wolf was a reasonable trade; while it's buff is nowhere near the hobgoblin's to played, 1-attack minions, it does double the lethality of tokens, can buff any minion next to it even the ones from Imp-plosion or Gang Boss, and costs less mana, so I chose it over Raid Leader. Power Overwhelming is not in any way a direct sub for Gormok, but was, I thought, a strong and available pick from the other deck. And Boom is Boom.

For the last fight, I ended up changing the Dire Wolf Alpha for Brann Bronzebeard. I imagined the +4 buffs from Abusive Sergeants, the 9/9 (or 11/11!) Reliquary Seekers, the double-discovering Peddlers, the super-buffing Defenders, and the 5-minion Boom, but I didn't draw or play it in the one match. The final list I used:

Power Overwhelming
2x Reliquary Seeker
2x Voidwalker
2x Dark Peddler
2x Imp Gang Boss
2x Imp-plosion
2x Murloc Tinyfin
Wisp
2x Abusive Sergeant
2x Argent Squire
2x Echoing Ooze
2x Haunted Creeper
2x Knife Juggler
Brann Bronzebeard
Hobgoblin
2x Defender of Argus
Dr. Boom
Sea Giant

If I had a second Hobgoblin, I might swap it in for a Defender of Argus, though that cuts one of the Battlecry cards, hmm. I am not sure how Boom holds up to a second Sea Giant, either, yet. Cutting 2 of the Battlecry cards might make the inclusion of Brann pointless, needs more testing.

The Time to Play

is late. I can rack up a 5/2 record with this:

Innervate
2x Living Roots
2x Wild Growth
2x Wrath
Darnassus Aspirant
2x Swipe
Keeper of the Grove
Ancient of Lore
2x Ironbark Protector
2x Volcanic Lumberer
2x Piloted Shredder
2x Antique Healbot
2x Naga Sea Witch
Emperor Thaurissan
Sylvanas Windrunner
Dr. Boom
Ravenholdt Assassin
Kel'Thuzad
Nefarian
North Sea Kraken
Sea Giant

This run started after 9pm Central time and took ~2 hrs, not exclusively playing of course.

The above is not a good deck. It was inspired by this, which is probably not a good deck, either. However I lack 9 of the cards, so I can't say I am able to give it a fair try.

I am not sure how far to go with my analysis of why, because of the small sample size. Against Shaman, the above deck went 4/1. I lost to a Mage and beat a Warrior otherwise.

Reno Reno Reno

The first wing of the League of Explorers seems to have had a disproportionately large effect on the meta, considering it is just 10 cards. 12, I guess, if I count the torch and hat. Jeweled Scarab plays a critical role in the resurgence of Midrange Shaman, admittedly alongside Tunnel Trogg from the second wing. But moreso, Reno Jackson has become THE control deck build-around, inspiring the term Highlander deck, with people taking a stab at reconfiguring all control archetypes into something Reno-friendly, with varying degrees of success.

I decided to try to turn Duplicate Control Mage into a Reno deck, and did so without researching other people's attempts to do so first. Since then I looked up a few, and all are similar to mine and each other, of course. Still, I am pretty happy with what I came up with:

Flamecannon
Frostbolt
Unstable Portal
Arcane Intellect
2x Duplicate
Forgotten Torch
Ice Barrier
Fireball
Echo of Medivh
Polymorph
Water Elemental
Ethereal Conjuror
Flame Lance
Blizzard
Archmage Antonidas
Flamestrike
Zombie Chow
Acidic Swamp Ooze
Explosive Sheep
Mad Scientist
Big Game Hunter
Piloted Shredder
Twilight Drake
Antique Healbot
Sludge Belcher
Emperor Thaurissan
Reno Jackson
Sunwalker
Sylvanas Windrunner

Vs Brian Kibler's (here), I chose to stay with duplicate Duplicates, instead of Mad Scientist. My reasoning is that with a Mad Scientist, I have a very good chance of pulling one copy of Duplicate pretty early, and Duplicate is the purpose of Duplicate Control Mage, which he may not have been going for specifically. His deck runs no Antonidas, and 2 BGH targets to my 0 as well. Maybe I should call mine midrange.

Sadly, I don't have the above cards. Happily, I made 5 subs and played anyway, and had the incredible fortune of getting a Warrior then a Priest as opponents, so 100% winrate so far. Subs:

Flame Lance -> Dragon's Breath
Echo of Medivh -> Spellslinger
Blizzard -> Cone of Cold
Ethereal Conjuror -> Bomb Lobber
Big Game Hunter -> Mind Control Tech

Dragon's Breath and Cone of Cold are both vaguely similar, clearly not as good, but cheaper in mana (or probably so), to what they replace. I will probably invest the little dust a Flame Lance costs soon. Bomb Lobber is very temporary; I could probably write an entire post about how poorly I have rolled quests in the last 10 days since I was able to purchase the Temple of Orsis only 2 days after it came out. The TL;DR is that I will buy the 2nd wing tomorrow, get the Conjuror. Mind Control Tech is NOT similar to BGH except for mana cost, but I was able to use its battlecry in both of the games I played with this deck, it isn't a bad sub. Actually, given the likelihood of a slow start with this deck, MCT is probably a strong choice against a lot of decks. Finally, Spellslinger might be in an official low budget version of this deck, inasmuch as low budget versions of control decks even stand a chance. Of course it in no way replaces Echo of Medivh; maybe I will have that card some day, but for now, Spellslinger is at least a solid minion whose battlecry offers a lot of synergy with the rest of the deck.

UPDATE:

I crafted a Flame Lance, and acquired an Ethereal Conjuror. Both are extremely solid contributors. On a minion without a significant deathrattle, Flame Lance is 1 mana less than Polymorph + Hero Power. Ethereal Conjuror is probably the best Discover mechanic minion, because no other class is better suited to gain a spell, with choices.

That said, I am actually pretty happy with the 3 other subs. MCT is of course very different than BGH, but given the poor early game of this deck, I have often stolen a decent minion. Cone of Cold isn't that bad either; it can come out pretty early against aggro compared to Blizzard. OTOH, on turn 7 against a 4+ minion board, when my deck is just starting to pay off, MCT + Cone of Cold is a big tempo gain. Finally, Spellslinger is a better Spider Tank, usually.

So Control. Much Win.

I went back to this deck, for fun. Aka Casual amusement. I am still using a Cone of Cold instead of the Blizzard I don't have, and an Acidic Swamp Ooze instead of BGH. Where I had used a Flamewaker rather than an Illuminator, however, and the 2nd Explosive Sheep, I am now running Gadgetzan Auctioneer and Forgotten Torch. I know, I know, hardly a direct replacement. But the Sheep requires damaging my own minions, if I have any, and I so loved the Auctioneer in my Tempo Mage, I figured it was worth a shot. Also, the torch has the potential upside of being played on the same turn as Antonidas.

I have only played 5 games with the deck today (they run so long!) and won 3 of 5. Predictable losses to a Hunter and a Tempo Mage, wins against a Drood and 2 Control Warriors. The last fight, though!

During the long course of the second fight with a control warrior, I felt like I was barely holding on at multiple points. At one point he had Boom and Justicar both on the board to my nothing, and I got down to 17 health. I duplicated one of my 2 Healbots and managed to top it back off, and take care of those guys. The battle stretched on and on in pure control after that, neither hero taking any damage but Garrosh got to 28/48 at his peak. Worse, he had a single Coldlight Oracle and I was milled out of one tiny little minion, an Acidic Swamp Ooze. Doh! 

By then I had duplicated Antonidas, and was on my last one. Because of an Acolyte of his and my Forgotten Torch, I had 3 cards left to draw to his 1. This was when I started cycling Fireballs into Garrosh. It turns out he had 1 weapon left, a Fiery War Axe, and it was helpful, though probably not critical. He hit Antonidas with the first charge, but held back for several turns, and all he did was Armor Up! For 4! But my last card was Thaurissan, which was the real end of the game. When I had Thaurissan and Antonidas played and he had no answer, I could play 3 Fireballs instead of 2 each turn. In the end I did well over 100 damage to Garrosh. A few turns after fatigue, he played his last card, Reno, AND went to face with the 2nd Axe charge, which buffed me a net 5 for my last secret. Reno has no more health than a Fireball, however, and 3 Fireballs per turn, well ...

Windfury Djinni

Though I haven't tested it thoroughly enough yet, I have an original deck to post, with which I have had an extremely amusing 4 games, with 3 wins so far. Today I found myself thinking about One Turn Kill decks. I've seen Priest and Warrior OTK decklists before, and I started wondering if there was a viable way to do the same with Shaman.

Of course, Shaman has 4 basic cards granting the Windfury effect to a minion, Windfury and Windspeaker. There are also minions which have or can obtain (Raging Worgen) this effect, but none of these are terribly compelling. What seems far more useful is a largish minion with decent health and attack both, to which I could grant Windfury on its first turn where it isn't exhausted. I can totally see a case for using a minion with Charge in this place, but I didn't end up doing so, although Argent Horserider and Arcane Golem both came to mind.

On further thought, the new Djinni of Zephyrs came to mind, and I realized I didn't even exactly need to accomplish a OTK, if:

•  I had a decent sized minion on the board at the start of my turn
•  I could play Djinni of Zephyrs and Windfury this turn

Rockbiter Weapon is icing on the cake in the above scenario, doing 6 more damage on the turn that should end with 2 solid Windfury minions in play, and a turn's worth of damage done from one of them already

Using the obvious formula of throwing in some AOE, some draw, some removal, and some silence, then shaking vigorously, what I have is:

2x Earth Shock
2x Rockbiter Weapon
2x Flametongue Totem
1x Stormforged Axe
2x Windfury
2x Hex
2x Lightning Storm
1x Mana Tide Token
2x Fireguard Destroyer
1x Windspeaker
2x Fire Elemental
1x Zombie Chow
2x Haunted Creeper
1x Defender of Argus
1x Piloted Shredder
2x Azure Drake
2x Djinni of Zephyrs
1x Loatheb
1x Dr. Boom

Earthshakingly original, I know. Most of the above spells and minions were chosen from experience with similar Shaman and other class decks, undoubtedly. Effective, though, in my so far unscientifically short test.

I put in the Stormforged Axe specifically to counter the 0/1 taunt minion left by Hex, knowing that it would also provide great early removal. In the 4 drop spot, I had a hard time deciding. I ended up convincing myself that the Windspeaker was only half as situational as Defender of Argus and including one, and that Fireguard Destroyer was usually more potent, and almost always more survivable a target for Windfury, despite the Overload drawback, and using 2, to 1 Shredder. I also envisioned Loatheb being useful but I haven't played him yet. Otoh, Boom with Windfury hurts.

The fights? The first was a lesson from a Tempo Mage. I love playing that archetype, and I anticipated defeat when, with my hand full of expensive minions, buffs, and removal, I played Fire Elemental into my opponent's Mirror Image, then I quit. After that, however, I got 2 Control Priests, beating both, one from 13 health with the last charge of my axe, 2 strikes from a 4/1 Windfury Djinni, and a Fire Elemental battlecry, and lastly a Rogue. The Rogue drew Healing Wave and Al'Akir from Burgle, and I still won handily. So fun. I'll let you know how it holds up.

Update: Heh, I forgot to mention that I came up with the above list and then didn't use it. Instead, I subbed in one Ironbeak Owl rather than crafting a second Earth Shock. So far, not a critical downgrade.

Update 2: All fights are in Casual mode so far. I did one more before I go to bed, got a Paladin. Loatheb really paid off, especially when he and Dr. Boom both got Argus'd and Windfuried.

Sun Raider Phaerix Normal Mode

I used the Icy Veins basic Mage deck (here), with minimal but extremely helpful subs.

2x Bloodfen Raptor -> Acidic Swamp Ooze
1x River Crocolisk -> Amani Berserker
1x River Crocolisk -> Mechwarper
2x Chillwind Yeti -> Mechanical Yeti
1x Stormwind Champion -> Kel'thuzad

It was an easy fight, and may have been easy enough with the basic deck. However, I destroyed 1 charge of an Arcanite Reaper with an Ooze, I was able to optimize my mana usage on a turn because I played Mechwarper with Mechanical Yeti, and the big, BIG win was Kel'thuzad. I had the Rod, traded all my minions into all of his, and played Kel'thuzad on turn 8. Phaerix impotently Flamestrike'd, but it was over. After the Flamestrike we both had Rods, so I killed his and had 2 in order to kill him.

Sold!

I had a good first run with a Duplicate Control Mage as I mentioned in my earlier post, 'A Good Deck'. My luck did not hold. I didn't play the deck much after that post, and when my next Mage Victory quest appeared this week, I really wanted the 10 extra gold since I want to buy the first wing of The League of Explorers. But after 7 losses to 1 victory with this setup, I was ready to bite the bullet and craft the class cards I mentioned lacking previously. After crafting 2 each of Mana Wyrm, Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Spellslinger, I had 90% of the cards I needed for this Tempo Mage deck: Icy Veins Tempo Mage .

Still missing? The 2 epics and one rare, Polymorph Boar. There are super obvious replacements for Arcane Blast (starts with Arcane) and Polymorph: Boar (starts with Polymorph). What, though, is a reasonable replacement for the Grand Crusader?

Grand Crusader is an unusual enough card and inclusion that it merits a note about it in the guide to the deck on Icy Veins. I wasn't about to spend the dust, so I filtered my collection by the keywords 'add' and then 'draw' and I found a card I had only very recently acquired, from one of the last Arena runs I did before realizing I needed to hoard a little cash for an adventure: Gadgetzan Auctioneer.

It seemed like a very reasonable choice, in all regards but one: Grand Crusader provides a strong tempo play on turn 6, consistently. Gadgetzan Auctioneer does so only in the cases where you have a Sorcerer's Apprentice on the board and an Arcane Missles in hand, or you went second and hoarded your Coin, because you missed your Mana Wyrm early combo. Both of those happen from time to time. But what I have found is that I am often in a pretty good place around turn 6 or 7 already, with so many strong starts, and I can often play an Auctioneer on turn 7 or 8 with one spell, or even 9 or 10 with 2, and gain a huge advantage thereby. In the time I have run the deck, at least 50 matches in 3 days, I have used the Auctioneer more than twice as often as I have played Antonidas, in fact, although the dream is both. If you have both on the board and a cheap spell to play, you (almost surely) win.

Now I am off to experiment with Icy Veins Secretless Tempo Mage . Spoiler, I don't have Rhonin, we'll see how this goes ...

Ramp Druid

I have reached a point in my Hearthstone play where even though I have remained steadfastly F2P, I have a pretty decent stable of cards such that the name of my blog is now only mostly true, not 100% so. Starting the game when the Android client came out, similarly timed to the beginning of BrM, I have finished both the available adventures, opened maybe a dozen TGT packs, and predictably moreso from the earlier sets. In addition to the adventure ones, I have 3 legendaries, Sylvanas, Antonidas, and Boom, which are a pretty great 3 to have gotten from packs. I dusted Millhouse and my 2nd Sylvanas.

My current Ramp Druid is, as usual, as close as I can get to a deck I find on Icy Veins, in this case, this one . Another HS milestone is my new-found impatience with trying sub around commons and neutral rares I lack, so I finally bit the bullet and crafted 2 Druids of the Claw, a minion worth the 40 dust if any ever was. Then I turned around and used Claw for Living Roots. I am still trying to work around class-specific rares if possible, so I find myself with the following:

2x Innervate
1x Claw
2x Wild Growth
2x Wrath
1x Darnassus Aspirant
1x Power of the Wild
2x Druid of the Flame
2x Swipe
1x Keeper of the Grove
2x Druid of the Claw
1x Ancient of Lore
1x Volcanic Lumberer
1x Mind Control Tech
2x Sen'jin Shieldmasta
1x Spellbreaker
1x Azure Drake
2x Sludge Belcher
1x Emperor Thaurissan
1x Sunwalker
1x Sylvanas Windrunner
1x Stormwind Champion
1x Kel'Thuzad

The subs and their merits:

Living Roots -> Claw:
Both can do 2 damage for 1 mana. The similarity ends there. Claw used early might be killing a minion that does no more damage than the armor granted, but late, Living Roots can ping the last 2 health off something big but damaged without using life, or summon 2 tokens at any time.

2nd Darnassus Aspirant -> Power of the Wild:
With 2x Innervate, 2x Wild Growth, the other Aspirant, and Thaurissan, I don't terribly miss the mana crystal that the 2nd Aspirant can add, and remove. The 3/2 Panther is generally more useful, as is the 1/1 global buff, I have often applied it to make a trade that leaves a minion of mine clinging to life, instead of dead.

1st Ancient of War -> Volcanic Lumberer:
Obviously both are big taunts. I lack the Ancients, and the Lumberer could end up cheaper than an Ironbark Protector, depending on the turn. Kel'Thuzad could make it a lot cheaper.

Big Game Hunter -> Mind Control Tech:
In the relatively short time I have used this deck, I don't think I have run into a case where I could have used BGH. OTOH, I have also never managed to steal a minion with MCT, either.

2nd Keeper of the Grove -> Spellbreaker:
Obviously, some flexibility is lost, but the Spellbreaker trades up higher or does more face damage when its turn comes, if it does.

2nd Ancient of Lore -> Azure Drake:
I rarely find the Drake's spell power to be critical, this sub is mainly to provide half the draw at a quarter of the crafting cost, on a minion I can use elsewhere. No healing option either, but can play 2 turns earlier.

2nd Ancient of War -> Sunwalker:
Even more than the Lumberer, well, they both taunt. Sometimes my opponent lacks a cheap way to remove the Divine Shield.

Cenarius -> Stormwind Champion:
Like the Drake, the Champion can come out 2 turns earlier, and provide half the benefit of one of the options Cenarius provides.

There are some significant tradeoffs here, but I find the subs to make as much sense as my changes to the Dragon Priest I have mentioned previously do. I do not, however, find as much success with this deck as I do with that one. It seems strange to me that an outdated and bastardized Dragon Priest should be more viable than what I think is a less compromised Ramp Druid, which makes me wonder how strong Ramp Druid is is the current meta. Since I am only trying both decks at low ranks and casual, and with my subs, I may never know, as the meta will change again before I have a more complete collection.

Dragonesque Update

Two weeks later, I am still using the same Dragon Priest decklist with great results. By using, I mean farming gold in casual, where I have a pretty high success rate with this deck. Also, I did use it at the beginning of the season when I was still at level 20-19, but have only played ranked with either my Hybrid Hunter or Midrange Hunter from 19 up.

This is a little odd to me, the idea that I would have crafted a deck with any level of competitive utility. I did start with something that used to work at some point in the meta, and I am living in the future where I can sub in TGT cards. The count of which is exactly 1, my single Holy Champion, which I must admit is an awesome card with about as much synergy as is possible for a class card to have. Many times my Holy Champion has reached double digit damage, and a few of those times I have been able to hit something after that.

Still, I swapped out 10 of the cards, a pretty vast change. I 100% guarantee that I could start with the best deck in the meta, whatever that is at any point in time, and straight up murder it with 10 swaps. Examples provided upon request. Here, however, I made some changes that have totally worked out. Even though I have the 2x Zombie Chows, using 2x Twilight Whelps has been far better here because it provides more dragons for the Blackwing Techs and Corruptors and occasionally each other to trigger from, and I don't use (or have) the Auchenai Soulpriests which occasionally make the Zombie Chow deathrattle good. A 1-drop 2/3 is just way too effective in Priest early on to save. Without the Auchenai, the second Holy Nova is obvious, and is it even realistic to play around Shadow Madness, if anyone even thinks about it? The second Shadow Word: Death can, in a pinch, make a 2 card Mind Control out of Sylvanas, but I often find a compelling need to use both on my opponents minions if I draw them. Hungry Dragon is no Vol'jin, but I so often find myself with a minion in play on turn 6 or 7, where I can play Hungry Dragon, add a Northshire Cleric if necessary, clear the 1 drop and heal. Finally, the synergy between Injured Blademaster and Light of the Naaru is pretty spectacular. The combo can always summon a Lightwarden, and on turn 4 puts the Blademaster out of range of almost any reasonable play on the next turn, except Execute and Fireball. If you also have a Circle, you may be able to knock off some opponents minions, summon a Lightwarden, and buff it to a high attack all on turn 4.

If it was not clear, in my previous post I was saying I had much better luck with this deck than I did with the Dragon Druid deck I described in a post titled 3 Victories!, not the later post describing a gimmicky deck based on Poison Seeds and Volcanic minions. Since then, I have made a far more usable Ramp Druid build. Post on that coming soon.

Dragonesque Priest

A couple weeks ago I mentioned here (3 Victories) building a deck with the BrM dragons I finished acquiring recently. Last week, I ended up building a Dragon Priest deck that, while it lacks some of the hot new TGT dragons, has still proved a more consistent deck than the Druid one at the casual level. This one is based on the pre-TGT Dragon Priest from Icy Veins (here), here's the approximation I made with the cards I have:

Circle of Healing
Light of the Naaru
2x Power Word: Shield
2x Northshire Cleric
2x Twilight Whelp
Shadow Word: Pain
2x Velen's Chosen
2x Shadow Word: Death
Holy Champion
Shadow Madness
2x Holy Nova
Wild Pyromancer
2x Blackwing Technician
Injured Blademaster
2x Dragonkin Sorcerer
Hungry Dragon
2x Blackwing Corruptor
Sylvanas Windrunner
2x Volcanic Drake
Chromaggus

Hobgoblin Paladin Zoo

With a Spell Master 2/3rds done, I was continuing to try out the following deck I made after getting a Hobgoblin in the past week:

Blessing of Might
2x Shielded Minibot
Sword of Justice
2x Truesilver Champion
2x Blessing of Kings
2x Consecration
Abusive Sergeant
2x Argent Squire
2x Echoing Ooze
2x Haunted Creeper
Ironbeak Owl
2x Knife Juggler
Lance Carrier
Master Swordsmith
Micro Machine
Novice Engineer
Acolyte of Pain
Hobgoblin
2x Silverback Patriarch
2x Stoneskin Gargoyle

The damage output of this deck is obviously terrible if the Hobgoblin and the Sword of Justice never hit, and they never hit. I played probably 5 games, and won 0. Then I was at 38/40 on the quest I am trying to put off.

Therefore, I traded the 5 spells for a Murloc Tidecaller, a Raid Leader, a Silverhand Regent, and 2x Murloc Knights. And promptly won 4 games in a row, all casual of course. In one, I inspired a Murloc Knight out of my Murloc Knight, and inspired a 3rd out of one of them on the next turn. My opponent, another Paladin, had an 11 damage Frostwolf Warlord on the board. I had to sacrifice a minion to make room for the Raid Leader but ended the turn with a 2/4 Silverback Patriarch guarding 6 other minions and easy lethal.

In about 10 games, I drew the Hobgoblin late twice, and he hasn't seen combat yet.

With One Hand

RNJesus taketh away, and with the other giveth. Quote totally not butchered ;)

I started an arena run today, thinking I had made a pretty good deck. The class was Paladin, the curve was perfect, the synergies were there in theory. My mulligans were iffy, and my draws throughout the 3 short games it took me rack up a 0 win run were TERRIBLE. And then, I got a GvG pack, from which I got my second Unstable Portal, second Goblin Auto-Barber, and GOLDEN MOTHERFUCKING DR. BOOM.

I built the Legendary Hunter Midrange TGT deck (here), made one sub (Misdirection for Bear Trap) and won several casual games. It was a good day.

A Good Deck

In my first post, on 10/9/15, I mentioned getting a good card enabling me to make a good deck. From a pack earned in from a Watch and Learn quest, I got Archmage Antonidas, which is the 3nd legendary I have gotten from a pack (and one of the 2 others was Millhouse Manastorm, already dusted). I have the ones granted by BrM and Naxx, and don't get me wrong, Loatheb and Thaurissan are great. While a useful neutral legendary would have been nice, Antonidas is the keystone of the first Mage deck I have been able to put together that I enjoy playing.

I haven't had a lot of luck with the class previously, and maybe its because I haven't gotten some useful cards from packs and been unwilling to craft them. I have no Mana Wyrms, no Sorcerer's Apprentices, and no Goblin Blastmages. 1 or more of those 3 appear in a lot of viable Mage decks. The one I can now play, which I have enjoyed immensely so far at the casual level, is this one: Duplicate Control . I use 2 subs, an Acidic Swamp Ooze for a BGH (I don't have the latter, and I have been able to play the former for its battlecry a few times, while hitting no BGH targets.), and for the Illuminator I run a Flamewaker. I used a Kirin Tor Mage for a bit instead, but honestly neither has really done me much good yet.

The last time I got a Mage Victory quest I ended up throwing it away, but I just finished one with only 1 loss to 3 wins tonight. I like the deck.

Oozing Aggro

I enjoy playing Paladin, and I find the flexibility of the class impressive. I usually play a midrange build, I got a couple Murloc Knights in my first few TGT packs, those guys are awesome. Aggro Paladin is also fun, and needing to finish a Paladin or Warrior Dominance quest, I decided to revisit it.

I had an earlier Aggro build which worked ok, which was the best I could do based on some fairly old decks, primarily this one but with some choices based on this other one.

My latest creation is based on this and this. Those 2 decks are pretty close, really, and not too far from the Season 11 deck.

One card I don't have, that all 4 of these decks have, is 2x Divine Favor. It is an incredible boost, I have had it played against me many a time, and instead I am relying on the free from finishing BrM Solemn Vigil. Other than being "free", Solemn Vigil does have the advantage of drawing 2 cards even when your opponent has less than 2 more than you do, and it can be played for less than the 3 mana cost of Divine Favor if you use it after a good Consecration or some trades.

The 2 newer ones also run 2 copies of Muster for Battle, another hole in my collection. As I am playing a lot of casual and only in the lowest ranked tiers, I have found that adding the 1 Sword of Justice I got from a pack has been a great addition, however.

The deck:

Blessing of Might
2x Shielded Minibot
Sword of Justice
2x Truesilver Champion
2x Blessing of Kings
2x Consecration
2x Solemn Vigil
2x Abusive Sergeant
2x Argent Squire
2x Leper Gnome
Southsea Deckhand
2x Echoing Ooze
2x Ironbeak Owl
2x Knife Juggler
Silver Hand Regent
Wolfrider
Arcane Golem
Jungle Panther
Defender of Argus

The synergy between Sword of Justice and Echoing Ooze is incredible. For 5 mana, you get a River Crocolisk and a Spider Tank, with 3 more charges left on the Sword. If you coin the Sword you get those on turn 3. Without, turn 4 gives you those 2 and mana for a buffed 2 drop. Or by adding a Blessing of Kings, for 9 mana, you get a Boulderfist Ogre and something shaped like a Volcanic Lumberer, and that can be turn 6.

Can't Spel

Last night's quest I was avoiding: Spell Master. How'd that go? Could've been better. In casual, the following deck won me the first game I played with it, but got worse as the evening wore on. Winrate is probably 40%, by now. I did win the 9 games I needed to get my arena run without breaking through the quest.

Wisp
Bloodsail Corsair
2x Leper Gnome
Southsea Deckhand
2x Bloodsail Raider
2x Defias Ringleader
Goblin Auto-barber
2x Novice Engineer
One-eyed Cheat
Undercity Valiant
Youthful Brewmaster
2x Perdition's Blade
2x Shade of Naxxramas
SI: 7 Agent
Dark Iron Dwarf
Dread Corsair
2x Gnomish Inventor
Piloted Shredder
Assassin's Blade
Azure Drake
2x Dark Iron Skulker
Loatheb

I think I need to sub in an Antique Healbot, probably for an Inventor or Drake (no need for Spell Damage). I mentioned those 2 because I never ran short of cards with the 5 draw effects plus the Youthful Brewmaster.

There are some great synergies: I could often use my One-Eyed Cheat to face twice or more since there are 5 other pirates. With Goblin Auto-barber, Perdition's Blade, and Assassin's Blade, Bloodsail Raider was almost always a 4/3 or better. Southsea Deckhand can always charge. The flexibility of the Perdition's Blade battlecry is really nice, too. If what I needed was 1 or 3 damage, it could be played first, activating the combo on one of the 4 combo battlecry minions in the deck.

I bet if I just subbed in a few spells ... it would suck less.

Volcanic Seeds

I just had a great (for me, anyway!) match against a Freeze Mage, and I am pretty sure that my opponent had no idea what to expect at any point, including when they had 1 health left, I had a sheep, and I conceded on my turn so as not to complete my 3 Victories! daily quest. I was worried they were going to Fireblast themselves before I could click concede, but they killed my Murloc Scout instead.

Since I am comfortable chalking this up in the "win" category, my winrate with the following deck is "100%" (over a sample size of 1 match, which I actually conceded):

2x Innervate
Power of the Wild
2x Wrath
2x Haunted Creeper
Murloc Tidehunter
2x Nerubian Egg
2x Novice Engineer
2x Savage Roar
2x Harvest Golem
2x Poison Seeds
2x Swipe
Starfall
2x Sludge Belcher
Emperor Thaurissan
Sylvanas Windrunner
2x Volcanic Drake
Kel'Thuzad
2x Volcanic Lumberer

I ended up keeping a damaged Thaurissan and Sylvanas on the board, who were frozen, and my opponent had a minion, when I played Poison Seeds, Volcanic Drake, then Kel'Thuzad. My opponent gave me a turn before they played the Flamestrike, but I had enough to grind them dow by then, I think the minion they Polymorphed was a damaged Slime from a Sludge Belcher, thus not changing its health or damage.

Update:

Ah, crap. I played 2 more games, losing one to a Paladin, then I was a turn from lethal against a Shaman, should have conceded, my opponent did instead, breaking through my 3 Victories! 

3 Victories!

Is what I got when I re-rolled a Rogue or Warrior Victory this morning. Sigh. The eternal dilemma: Do I play only the classes I don't have 40 gold quests for all day, then re-roll late in the day and get a Dominance quest, for a class I am marginal on but still want the 60 gold?

My choice today made me decide to make a new deck. I enjoy Druid but lack Force of Nature, so its Ramp instead of Fast Druid for me. I was sure that my attempts to cobble something together would result in plenty of losses, so it was a surprise both good and bad when I ended up winning 2 games out of 5.

What did I make? I decided the Dragon Ramp deck from Icy Veins looked like a reasonable start (here). I love Icy Veins' Hearthstone coverage, I used the guides from it to beat nearly all the BrM and Naxx bosses. That was quite recently, so I have just started to play around with all the dragons I just acquired.

My deck:

2x Innervate
2x Wild Growth
2x Wrath
2x Swipe
Keeper of the Grove
Ancient of Lore
2x Ironbark Protector
Zombie Chow
2x Blackwing Technician
Gnomish Inventor
2x Hungry Dragon
2x Sen'jin Shieldmasta
Azure Drake
2x Blackwing Corruptor
2x Fen Creeper
2x Sludge Belcher
Emperor Thaurissan
Chromaggus
Nefarian

I was pretty much trying to approximate the other deck, but a few of the changes I made have some arguable upside, even if they are primarily expedient.

Only 1 Keeper of the Grove, Ancient of Lore, and Azure Drake, because that's all I have. Gnomish Inventor is identically shaped to the Keeper once it hits the board, and provides a draw that I miss by not having a 2nd Ancient of Lore or Azure Drake. 2x Hungry Dragon is, of course, big and cheap. It provides additional Dragon Synergy, and the 1-drop it summons can often be killed with the Druid hero power.

I need those Dragons because I decided to use my 2x Blackwing Technicians in the 3-drop spot. Sottle's guide has 2 Big Game Hunters there, with the note that Shade of Naxx, Mind Control Tech, Druid of the Flame, or Spider Tank are reasonable subs. Of these I have the Shades, the Druids, and one Tank. I went with the Technician since they are so strong initially, able to offer the most early stability, IF the holding works out.

Ironbark Protectors replace Ancients of War. The former, in addition to being basic cards I have instead of epics I don't want to craft:

 - do more damage if they live a turn
 - are much stronger if the best your opponent can do is silence them
 - tease out removal, particularly BGH, befory you play Nefarian

The last difference is 2x Fen Creepers for 2x Druid of the Claw. Obviously the Fen Creepers are weaker than the Taunt mode of the Druids, and lack the flexibility to be a 4 damage charge. I nonetheless think the Creepers are decent minions, probably especially in Druid where they can often be played on the same turn other classes would play Shieldmasta. I have 2 Sunwalkers, and I'll probably try them in this slot eventually, but there are so many 5-attack minions which:

 - can trade or even survive killing a Shieldmasta
 - can kill a Belcher leaving only the tiny Slime which so many things can survive clearing
 - can trade with a Sunwalker after a token, hero power, or cheap spell removes the divine shield

but leave behind a damaged Fen Creeper. Even silenced, the Fen Creeper has the 6 health left with which kill more small minions. They ended up working pretty well.

No videos here, sorry. I lost the first match with the new deck to a Shaman, I think because I made 2 errors on subsequent turns, tipping control to my opponent. One of the other losses was to a Control Warrior, in which I was doing ok but I didn't draw enough mana acceleration and the game lasted too long to survive the appearance of Alexstraza and Ragnaros. That reminds me of a fact about/weakness of this deck: going second feels like it really improves your chance to draw a Dragon if you have a Blackwing Tech, or the Tech if you have a Dragon. Finally, in the last match against a Mage, when my opponent polymorphed my Fen Creeper, I had a good feeling about winning the fight which proved true.

Warclock Card Dealer

Still digging on this week's brawl. I don't play a lot of Warlock normally. Surely I could put together some kind of usable Zoo, but didn't really have a great time the last time I tried. I definitely don't have the cards for Handlock, and don't want to spend all of my dust on giants, and then still not have an ideal build. But with Optimotron in use, I just won the first 3 in a row brawls I played with the following deck:

2x Sacrificial Pact
Blood Imp
2x Flame Imp
2x Voidwalker
2x Darkbomb
2x Mistress of Pain
2x Succubus
2x Demonwrath
2x Felguard
2x Imp Gang Boss
2x Voidcaller
2x Floating Watcher
Siphon Soul
2x Dread Infernal
2x Stormwind Champion
Chromaggus
Nefarian

As usual I made a first try and then changed some things, in this case even though I had won the first match. I added the last 4 minions, taking out the Void Terror, 2x Imp-losions, and a Shadowflame. The 4 expensive minions are the only non-demons, but have 3-4x the health than Demonwrath does damage. Also, now turn 4 will draw me a Voidcaller consistently, and turn 3 is a bit more likely to draw me an Imp Gang Boss, which is really the only 3-drop I want to play on curve in this deck. Therefore, keeping/mulliganing for an Imp Gang Boss is a high priority, but not killer. Best starting hand would probably have an Imp Gang Boss and a Mistress of Pain. A couple 1 drops also works great, since you could play 2 of them on turn 2 if you don't want to play a drawn Darkbomb or Succubus there, or one could be played with hero power on turn 3.

The Voidcaller is there to keep the pressure up, I don't have any Doomguard to be drawn by it. I am ok if it summons even several of my cheaper demons, Succubus and Felguard particularly, or if it just creates mana advantage by summoning a Floating Watcher. Of course, sometimes the Dread Infernal battlecry is advantageous, as it was the time I had 2 Floating Watchers (one played by the death of my Voidcaller), and then I got to play my Dread Infernal. My opponent, a Paladin, had a board of 2 Voodoo Doctors and a Silver Hand Recruit at the time, and he promptly conceded.

Strategy is very straightforward:

1. Play a 1-drop
2. Play Mistress, 1 or 2 1-drops, or even draw, depending on how much pressure you're under. If turn 2 Darkbomb makes sense, so be it.
3. Hopefully you can play the Gang Boss.
4. Voidcaller. If you got a Felguard on 3 or a Succubus on 2, either is a perfectly satisfactory result of the deathrattle.
5. Probably Floating Watcher. If your board is already shaping up, do it, and you'll probably get a Dread Infernal the next turn to buff it. On the other hand, if you are behind here but have a Demonwrath and at least some minions on the board, that might be more helpful.
6. Either Dread Infernal or your hero power can buff the Watcher. If the 1 damage to all other characters won't disadvantage you more than your opponent, its a strong play. If not, there are probably several things you could draw and play for your remaining 4 mana.
7. Hopefully, you are now dropping Stormwind Champion into an already strong board, because between Voidcaller, Gang Boss, and your hero power, a strong board is likely by now.

Next day update:

I played this a lot today to try to finish a Total Domination, and had a much harder time than I did yesterday. I eventually won 4 games out of 12 or so, and switched to play mode for the last 3.

Opti-Patron Warrior

I woke up today and rolled a Rogue or Warrior Dominance quest, while I still had an unstarted Druid or Rogue Victory, presenting me with a conundrum. Of course I wanted to finish it with Warrior, and leave the other quest for rerolling, since I am trying to optimize for cash per quest. A dedicated f2player, I haven't acquired the cards to play Control Warrior adequately, however. No Rag, Alex, Ysera, or Grommash in my collection. I don't even have Dr. Boom. There are, of course, much cheaper Grim Patron builds, but I am still at the point of not having enough dust for a single legendary, so I am careful about crafting anything, and don't have all the pieces.

Still, my first thought was to make a deck with Grim Patrons, and play more of the current Clockwork Card Dealer brawl. The first iteration contained 2 Warsong Commanders as the only 3-mana cards, 2 Death's Bites, and lots of 6+ drops. I didn't really think it through and it failed miserably. The next version kept my 1, 2, and 5 mana slots the same and changed everything else:

2x Whirlwind
2x Fiery War Axe
2x Deathlord
2x Gnomeregan Infantry
2x Ironfur Grizzly
2x Silverback Patriarch
2x Chillwind Yeti
Dread Corsair
2x Hungry Dragon
2x Mechanical Yeti
2x Mogu'shan Warden
2x Sen'jin Shieldmasta
2x Grim Patron
Sea Reaver
2x Stormwind Champion
Chromaggus
North Sea Kraken

This was the first time I used the Sea Reaver. Strategy here is pretty static:

1. Keep Whirlwind
2. Play, perhaps use already Fiery War Axe. Use this as best you can over this and the next turns so that at the end of turn 4 you have 2 minions on board, and they have none.
3. Play a 3-drop taunt
4. Play a 4-drop minion. These are all taunts or high stats. Taunts are preferable. If you have or get the Corsair, you can probably play it and a 3-drop, if your mulligan worked that way.
5. Drop Grim Patron. In the best case scenario, you have 2 taunt minions on the board when this happens, but 1 taunt can be enough. Don't trade your taunt minions unnecessarily, let your opponent do that.
6. Sea Reaver is drawn, dealing 1 damage to your minions. You may have done everything right up until now, and had a Patron behind 2 taunts, and then a Priest or Shaman may have Pained or Hexed him away (both happened to me, I still won both fights). If your Patron was alive, use your saved Whirlwind, now you have 4. If he was not, play the Reaver. Reaver behind 2 taunts is great and about to get greater.
7. Play the Stormwind Champion you just drew. Your Patrons can now take even more damage and live. Or your Reaver and a surviving taunt or 2 will perk right up.

After this, just do what needs doing. I managed to play Chromaggus and the Kraken against that Priest, he had stolen a Deathlord before I played the Stormwind Champion, he made himself a Chromaggus with his Faceless Manipulator, and he Mind Controlled my Kraken away. It was not enough. Killing my stolen Deathlord played a second Stormwind Champion for me, and one of them was now strong enough to kill a damaged Chromaggus and live. I had some taunts and yetis to finish him off with.

Keep Gnomeregan, Corsair, other 3-drops, Whirlwind, or Axe if you get them, in roughly that priority. Gnomeregan and War Axe mean you will probably face an empty board on turn 4, nice. Corsair and a 3-drop can both be played on turn 4 if you still have an axe charge. You DON'T want to have Sea Reaver in your opening hand, so you might keep some 4 or more drops that you won't play soon, since drawing and playing on curve can work perfectly in this deck.

I did lose the first 3 fights with this deck, all to faster starts. After that, I won 5 of 6 fights, against something I forget, Warrior, Priest, Shaman, and Warrior. I am really loving the Optimotron.

Un-Meek Optimotron Deck

Playing around quests I don't want to complete is a thing I do a lot. I try not to do more 40 gold quests than I have to.

This week's Tavern Brawl is Clockwork Card Dealer. I like it a lot, so much so that I think this is the brawl in which I have clocked the most wins (14 (impressive, I know)) and it's only Friday night. It definitely encourages playing some constructed decks which would NOT be so reliable and therefore viable, otherwise.

My winrate overall is probably under 50%, but that's because I am lumping together 2 closely related Paladin decks. The better one, with which I am pretty sure I have broken 50% is this:

Zombie Chow
Argent Lance
Murloc Tidehunter
2x Shielded Minibot
2x Blackwing Technician
Ironfur Grizzly
Ogre Brute
Blessing of Kings
2x Consecration
2x Dragonkin Sorcerer
2x Gnomish Inventor
Hammer of Wrath
2x Hungry Dragon
2x Murloc Knight
2x Truesilver Champion
Twilight Drake
2x Dragon Consort
Emperor Thaurissan
Rend Blackhand
Chromaggus
Nefarian

Yes, that is only one possible card drawn at turns 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, and 15 4-mana cards. Mulligan for a dragon, and if you have one keep it and mulligan for a 2-mana card.

Some of the time, I have managed to play those on curve, perfectly. Once, at least. It was fun when I drew 2 Nefarians and my opponent conceded. Sometimes I had in hand initially or drew the Tidehunter, played the Minibot or hero powered instead, and got synergy with Murloc Knight, but clearly dragon synergy, and cheapening (consort + thaurissan) is the theme of the deck.

Rend has proven remarkably useful in this brawl. Of course that means only relatively rarely, but I have managed to kill a handful of legendaries, and even occasionally survived until the next turn with him on the board.

Because I try to hoard my daily quests and get the most value from them, The Meek Shall Inherit is one I try not to complete. Therefore, after playing 24 meek minions, I swapped out 4 cards:

Zombie Chow -> Noble Sacrifice
Murloc Tidehunter -> Noble Sacrifice
Shielded Minibot -> Seal of Light
Shielded Minibot -> Seal of Light

I think this is the first time I have played any of these 4 against human opponents, and probably first ever for Seal of Light. It worked better than I hoped, and overall I won less than half with this deck, but not too much less. Noble Sacrifice and Seal of Light are not synergetic, however. After using Noble Sacrifice, you have probably taken no damage on turn 2, in which case hero powering and saving the Seal to use as a heal later is quite ok, since like Truesilver Champion, Seal heals first.

Sadly, the next day I traded the nearly completed Inherit for Beat Down, which I ended up finishing. I rolled Watch and Learn! that morning, and discarded Inherit immediately. From the pack, I got a card which enabled me to make a good deck which was too tempting not to play with, busting through Beat Down, but that'll be another post.