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.