Thought it would be fun to share a draft with you guys, so wrote down all the cards I picked and what they were up against... little did I know that this would be the one I pick. This was a very bad draft and a very bad deck that will most likely go 2 wins tops, but I wonder if there's any lessons I can learn from the draft.
Also, I'm not the biggest Paladin fan, so am not sure of the ins-and-outs of making a Pally arena deck.
1: Azure Drake over Crazed Alchemist and Angry Chicken 2: Harvest Golem over Murloc Raider and Gnomish Inventor, (You get so many 4's already...) 3: Gnomish Inventor over Redemption and War Golem 4: Harvest Golem over Argent Squire and Hand of Protection 5: Blessing of Wisdom over Blessing of Kings and Razorfen Hunter (Actually like Wisdom a surprising amount) 6: Blessing of Kings over Lord of the Arena and Eye for an Eye. 7: Fairie Dragon over Stormpike Commando and Frost Elemental 8: Noble Sacrifice over Lord of the Arena and Light's Justice 9: Dark Iron Dwarf over Kobold Geomancer and LIght's Justice 10: Molten Giant over Mountain Giant and Hungry Crab 11: Amani Berserker over River Crocolisk and Humility 12: Acidic Swamp Ooze over Acolyte of Pain and Argent Protector 13: Ironforge Rifleman over Young Dragonhawk and Leper Gnome 14: Oasis Snapjaw over Dragonling Mechanic and Southsea Deckhand 15: Guardian of Kings over Repentance and Reckless Rocketeer 16: Concentration over Grimscale Oracle and Holy Light 17: Acidic Swamp Ooze over Booty Bay Bodyguard and Holy Light 18: Cult Master over Guardian of Kings and Young Dragonhawk 19: Senjin Shieldmasta over Blessing of Kings and Silvermoon Guardian 20: WIld Pyromancer over Injured Blademaster and Abomination 21: Silver Hand Knight over Blessing of Kings and Blessing of Wisdom 22: Dark Iron Dwarf over Razorfen Hunter and Voodoo Doctor 23: Crazed Alchemist over Young Priestess and Alarm O'Bot (I was dreaming of 7-attack Snapjaws as a way to win haha) 24: Blessing of Might over Dread Corsair and Magma Rager 25: Ironforge Rifleman over Argent Squire and Murloc Raider (Can't stand 2 Riflemen, lol) 26: Raging Worgen over Dark Iron Dwarf and Core Hound (Was checked out, figured the 3 was better than the 3rd Dwarf) 27: Stormpike Commando over Windfury Harpy and Eye for an Eye 28: Bluegill Warrior over Nightblade and Humility 29: Blessing of Wisdom over Silver Hand Knight and Holy Light (figured drawing into my few good cards was more important) 30: Aldor Peacekeeper over Twilight Drake and Ancient Watcher.
I'll probably list out a good draft some other time, but for now I'd love to just discuss an arena draft, so here's a pile of feces to lay your eyes on!
Not fast enough to pressure early game, no 2 for 1 value plays, and no late game big guys (molten without any weapons, removal or taunt givers is going to be a dead card) .
There are a few picks I'd have done differently, but it wouldn't have made the deck any better.
I've seen much, much worse drafts than this. And most (arguably all) of the picks you made were correct. The problem is an extremely weak late game, no Truesilvers, and a couple of unlucky draws (mostly the 2 Ironforge Riflemans and the Molten). Your best bet is probably zerging, drawing with your Blessings of Wisdom and Cult Master and using the 2 Dark Iron Dwarfs on your Harvest Golems or other cheap minions to trade up.
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"I am Richard, Chief Warlock of the Brothers of Darkness, Lord of the Thirteen Hells, Master of the Bones, Emperor of the Black, Lord of the Undead, and The Mayor of a little village up the coast."
5. I would have taken blessing of kings. Gets you a 2 for 1.
8. Avoid the paladin secrets like the plague. Noble sacrifice is too low impact in arena and can be played around easily, giving you a card disadvantage. Lord of the Arena is the best choice albeit an average one.
12. This one is close. Ooze is a good minion but the right pick may have been argent protector; it's just such a good card as it often gets you a 2 for 1.
14. Another close one. I think I would pick dragonling mechanic over the turtle because dragonling mechanic can deal 4 damage together.
18. Cult Master or Guardian of Kings is fine here. Cult Master tends to work well with the Paladin hero ability but GoK is more solid than the cult master.
25. I might have picked the squire.
26. I wasn't counting the number of 4 or 3 mana cards you have but dark iron dwarf is almost always the better pick. If you picked the worgen cause you had few 3 drops and way too many 4 drops, then maybe it's acceptable.
29. Would have picked the silverhand knight. Very good minion and minions are what win you arena games. BoW is usually just a cycling card.
Thanks, man. This was the kind of analysis I was asking for. :) The last guy was right as well that this just isn't salvagable anyway.
5: I always read Blessing of Wisdom as "Give a minion Taunt, draw 1 card". It'll cycle but cause your opponent to either kill the minion or be afraid of attacking with a big creature. With Blessing of Kings, unless you are using a Silver Hand Recruit (and those things never seem to survive) it's almost always a 2-for-2 as you are losing your minion + the Blessing while getting a free kill and getting gunned down by another minion. So it's surprisingly close, imo.
12 was a big mistake on my part, early in Arena drafts I just look for solid 2-drops such as the Ooze... but I passed on the Gnomish earlier (for a better card in Harvest Golem) knowing the 4-drops would come. Well random 3/2 2-drops would come, too, so there's not much of a reason to take the Ooze over the better card in Protector.
By 26 and 29 I had checked out, and was going against conventional wisdom for anything to give me an edge somewhere... mana curve, card draw, etc. But one lesson to take from you is "bad minions > bad spells/secrets". Thanks.
Anyway, this deck went 2-3, which was as good as I could expect from this. Here's a quick Druid if anyone is bored enough to want to check it out, lol. http://www.arenavalue.com/s/6PIyc5
Drafted a winner yesterday. 2 knife jugglers, 2 argent protectors, 2 truesilver, 1 consecrate, 1 equality, 1 avenging wrath. The rest was good too, had 1 or max 2 average picks but rest all decent to excellent. Went super aggro and went 12-2. 12 win game lasted 6 turns, starting hand knife juggler argent protectorx2, scarlet crusader and coin, 1st draw knife juggler and 2nd draw was blessing of kings, won on turn 6 doing 17 damage.
Got 1 pack and 500 gold total (most ever). Argent protector is possibly best 2 in game!!!!! just straight up wins games
Anyway, this deck went 2-3, which was as good as I could expect from this. Here's a quick Druid if anyone is bored enough to want to check it out, lol. http://www.arenavalue.com/s/6PIyc5
That druid deck is crazy. Only comment is I would have gone Imp master over Defender at #26 or 27 given that you already had *4* Power of the Wild.
To echo what Pilleri said about inconsistency with Paladin, look at the class cards at Common. There are probably close to 9 unplayables out of the 16. Only one of the 5 class rares is unconditionally playable. No class has a higher chance of the dreaded 30 neutral minion pile than does Paladin.
The reason Paladin gets top results notwithstanding is because the playable commons are Consecration, Truesilver, Argent Protector, Blessing of Kings and Hammer of Wrath. Not only are those tempo-swinging, nearly automatic 2 for 1 cards, they're concentrated at the 4-drop slot, which has been regarded as the make-or-break mana cost for midrange arena.
Putting both points together, you will either do really well or really badly as Paladin. I consider myself on "infinite" as an Arena player, but this weekend I had a 2-win Paladin pile with Aldor Peacekeeper and an ill-advised GoK as the only two class cards in the whole deck. A run of about 3-wins happens close to half the time I roll Paladin. It's probably the only class where it's correct to force draft a certain kind of pile as if you know you're going to get those multi Consecrate, multi Truesilver runs. If you do get them in cards 20-30, you're good. If you don't, you were screwed either way because you were going to end up rolling with 30 neutral minions no matter what and you'd better have 2's and 3's to just not die.
Personally, my results with other classes are good enough that I find myself not picking Paladin. I would rather have an average'ish 6-7 win run with Priest or Warrior, with the potential for 10+ wins, than a coinflip for a pile that's doomed to 4 or less wins no matter what I do with it. The potential of picking up the easy-mode midrange Paladin is not that tempting anymore.
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Thought it would be fun to share a draft with you guys, so wrote down all the cards I picked and what they were up against... little did I know that this would be the one I pick. This was a very bad draft and a very bad deck that will most likely go 2 wins tops, but I wonder if there's any lessons I can learn from the draft.
Also, I'm not the biggest Paladin fan, so am not sure of the ins-and-outs of making a Pally arena deck.
1: Azure Drake over Crazed Alchemist and Angry Chicken
2: Harvest Golem over Murloc Raider and Gnomish Inventor, (You get so many 4's already...)
3: Gnomish Inventor over Redemption and War Golem
4: Harvest Golem over Argent Squire and Hand of Protection
5: Blessing of Wisdom over Blessing of Kings and Razorfen Hunter (Actually like Wisdom a surprising amount)
6: Blessing of Kings over Lord of the Arena and Eye for an Eye.
7: Fairie Dragon over Stormpike Commando and Frost Elemental
8: Noble Sacrifice over Lord of the Arena and Light's Justice
9: Dark Iron Dwarf over Kobold Geomancer and LIght's Justice
10: Molten Giant over Mountain Giant and Hungry Crab
11: Amani Berserker over River Crocolisk and Humility
12: Acidic Swamp Ooze over Acolyte of Pain and Argent Protector
13: Ironforge Rifleman over Young Dragonhawk and Leper Gnome
14: Oasis Snapjaw over Dragonling Mechanic and Southsea Deckhand
15: Guardian of Kings over Repentance and Reckless Rocketeer
16: Concentration over Grimscale Oracle and Holy Light
17: Acidic Swamp Ooze over Booty Bay Bodyguard and Holy Light
18: Cult Master over Guardian of Kings and Young Dragonhawk
19: Senjin Shieldmasta over Blessing of Kings and Silvermoon Guardian
20: WIld Pyromancer over Injured Blademaster and Abomination
21: Silver Hand Knight over Blessing of Kings and Blessing of Wisdom
22: Dark Iron Dwarf over Razorfen Hunter and Voodoo Doctor
23: Crazed Alchemist over Young Priestess and Alarm O'Bot (I was dreaming of 7-attack Snapjaws as a way to win haha)
24: Blessing of Might over Dread Corsair and Magma Rager
25: Ironforge Rifleman over Argent Squire and Murloc Raider (Can't stand 2 Riflemen, lol)
26: Raging Worgen over Dark Iron Dwarf and Core Hound (Was checked out, figured the 3 was better than the 3rd Dwarf)
27: Stormpike Commando over Windfury Harpy and Eye for an Eye
28: Bluegill Warrior over Nightblade and Humility
29: Blessing of Wisdom over Silver Hand Knight and Holy Light (figured drawing into my few good cards was more important)
30: Aldor Peacekeeper over Twilight Drake and Ancient Watcher.
I'll probably list out a good draft some other time, but for now I'd love to just discuss an arena draft, so here's a pile of feces to lay your eyes on!
Yep, bad draft.
Not fast enough to pressure early game, no 2 for 1 value plays, and no late game big guys (molten without any weapons, removal or taunt givers is going to be a dead card) .
There are a few picks I'd have done differently, but it wouldn't have made the deck any better.
I've seen much, much worse drafts than this. And most (arguably all) of the picks you made were correct. The problem is an extremely weak late game, no Truesilvers, and a couple of unlucky draws (mostly the 2 Ironforge Riflemans and the Molten). Your best bet is probably zerging, drawing with your Blessings of Wisdom and Cult Master and using the 2 Dark Iron Dwarfs on your Harvest Golems or other cheap minions to trade up.
"I am Richard, Chief Warlock of the Brothers of Darkness, Lord of the Thirteen Hells, Master of the Bones, Emperor of the Black, Lord of the Undead, and The Mayor of a little village up the coast."
5. I would have taken blessing of kings. Gets you a 2 for 1.
8. Avoid the paladin secrets like the plague. Noble sacrifice is too low impact in arena and can be played around easily, giving you a card disadvantage. Lord of the Arena is the best choice albeit an average one.
12. This one is close. Ooze is a good minion but the right pick may have been argent protector; it's just such a good card as it often gets you a 2 for 1.
14. Another close one. I think I would pick dragonling mechanic over the turtle because dragonling mechanic can deal 4 damage together.
18. Cult Master or Guardian of Kings is fine here. Cult Master tends to work well with the Paladin hero ability but GoK is more solid than the cult master.
25. I might have picked the squire.
26. I wasn't counting the number of 4 or 3 mana cards you have but dark iron dwarf is almost always the better pick. If you picked the worgen cause you had few 3 drops and way too many 4 drops, then maybe it's acceptable.
29. Would have picked the silverhand knight. Very good minion and minions are what win you arena games. BoW is usually just a cycling card.
Thanks, man. This was the kind of analysis I was asking for. :) The last guy was right as well that this just isn't salvagable anyway.
5: I always read Blessing of Wisdom as "Give a minion Taunt, draw 1 card". It'll cycle but cause your opponent to either kill the minion or be afraid of attacking with a big creature. With Blessing of Kings, unless you are using a Silver Hand Recruit (and those things never seem to survive) it's almost always a 2-for-2 as you are losing your minion + the Blessing while getting a free kill and getting gunned down by another minion. So it's surprisingly close, imo.
12 was a big mistake on my part, early in Arena drafts I just look for solid 2-drops such as the Ooze... but I passed on the Gnomish earlier (for a better card in Harvest Golem) knowing the 4-drops would come. Well random 3/2 2-drops would come, too, so there's not much of a reason to take the Ooze over the better card in Protector.
By 26 and 29 I had checked out, and was going against conventional wisdom for anything to give me an edge somewhere... mana curve, card draw, etc. But one lesson to take from you is "bad minions > bad spells/secrets". Thanks.
Anyway, this deck went 2-3, which was as good as I could expect from this. Here's a quick Druid if anyone is bored enough to want to check it out, lol. http://www.arenavalue.com/s/6PIyc5
Drafted a winner yesterday. 2 knife jugglers, 2 argent protectors, 2 truesilver, 1 consecrate, 1 equality, 1 avenging wrath. The rest was good too, had 1 or max 2 average picks but rest all decent to excellent. Went super aggro and went 12-2. 12 win game lasted 6 turns, starting hand knife juggler argent protectorx2, scarlet crusader and coin, 1st draw knife juggler and 2nd draw was blessing of kings, won on turn 6 doing 17 damage.
Got 1 pack and 500 gold total (most ever). Argent protector is possibly best 2 in game!!!!! just straight up wins games
That druid deck is crazy. Only comment is I would have gone Imp master over Defender at #26 or 27 given that you already had *4* Power of the Wild.
Yeah thats pretty crazy, Id prolly pickd the tazdingo over the dire wolf and then the druid of claw over the tazdingo but super consistent lol...
To echo what Pilleri said about inconsistency with Paladin, look at the class cards at Common. There are probably close to 9 unplayables out of the 16. Only one of the 5 class rares is unconditionally playable. No class has a higher chance of the dreaded 30 neutral minion pile than does Paladin.
The reason Paladin gets top results notwithstanding is because the playable commons are Consecration, Truesilver, Argent Protector, Blessing of Kings and Hammer of Wrath. Not only are those tempo-swinging, nearly automatic 2 for 1 cards, they're concentrated at the 4-drop slot, which has been regarded as the make-or-break mana cost for midrange arena.
Putting both points together, you will either do really well or really badly as Paladin. I consider myself on "infinite" as an Arena player, but this weekend I had a 2-win Paladin pile with Aldor Peacekeeper and an ill-advised GoK as the only two class cards in the whole deck. A run of about 3-wins happens close to half the time I roll Paladin. It's probably the only class where it's correct to force draft a certain kind of pile as if you know you're going to get those multi Consecrate, multi Truesilver runs. If you do get them in cards 20-30, you're good. If you don't, you were screwed either way because you were going to end up rolling with 30 neutral minions no matter what and you'd better have 2's and 3's to just not die.
Personally, my results with other classes are good enough that I find myself not picking Paladin. I would rather have an average'ish 6-7 win run with Priest or Warrior, with the potential for 10+ wins, than a coinflip for a pile that's doomed to 4 or less wins no matter what I do with it. The potential of picking up the easy-mode midrange Paladin is not that tempting anymore.