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.