Hearthpwn

Match 4:

T3: you play the Flame Geysir to deal face damage. If I was the opponent, I would have emoted "thank you", as you just wasted a valuable removal for ridiculously irrelevant 2 face damage, just to take the discount. You definitely shouldn't.

T4: You decide to kill the Doomsayer with Forbidden Flame, which I also consider a poor play. All you save is a 3/1 that can be pinged to finish, and a 0/4 Taunt which isn't really of importance at this point. I would have accepted the boardclear here, accepting the loss in tempo for saving the value of Forbidden Flame. Knowing you have a Nerubian Prophet and two removals in hand, catching up the lost tempo in the next turns will not be overly difficult and worth the saved removal. Might be debateable though, but this is what I think.

T6: Here, I would have played more tempo: Nerubian Prophet and Nesting Roc, to clearly gain board control. You can afford saving the Frostbolt for something more scary than a 3/3 which a 4/4 and 4/7 Taunt on board vs a 2/1 and 3/3. However, your play was okay aswell, I just wanted to point out what I would have done.

Match 5:

T8: You should have dropped Bog Creeper and kill the 3/4 with your Twilight Drake. No need to waste a removal if you can trade that efficiently.

T10: Same again, you should have traded (with MCT) instead of using Forbidden Flame. Save it, if you don't really need it. As a nice side effect, you then would be left with 3 minions, playing around MCT, which you definitely can afford in that spot.

Match 6 - It's not really a jinx if that's the state of arena right now =P.    You played really well, except I think for turn 17.  I would have pinged Owl, played Bruiser, and flamed  Gastropod.  You ended up burning the flame to kill the owl on the next turn, so would have saved you 3 hp at a crucial point in the game (arguably 4 health if he poly'd and pinged your bruiser that next turn).  At the very least you don't die to top-deck frostbolt and gives you a chance to draw some more of your late game cards that can turn the tide (2nd hogrider, 2nd bog creeper, pyroblast)

Match 6 - I think not playing MCT on turn 3 was a mistake. You're not very likely to get MCT off against a Mage, especially one that has already shown you it's not an aggro Mage by her first two turns. It ended up working out alright, since MCT is awkward against Stonehill when you have no two drop on turn 4, and your opponent ended up using a flame geyser on your face instead of on your MCT (which she would have done instead). But generally, sacrificing that tempo for a slim value chance is too greedy. An MCT swing isn't your win condition with your kind of deck. 

I also agree with Drak about turn 17. Tough opponent though either way. 

Wow, you weren't kidding about the meta composition past 5 wins...

Match 7: Mage.

https://hsreplay.net/replay/ApzVBrw5pKNzuSHAQnWmXd

This one started poorly and never got better. After mutual passes on Turn 1, I think I have a chance for an early tempo advantage when I play Pint-Sized Summoner... until it gets Flame Geysered. My only 3 drop is Ironforge Rifleman, which I decide not to waste on an empty board... and Opp. drops Hired Gun. From that point on I'm playing catch-up in a race I can't win. Given Opp.'s elemental synergies, though, I'm not sure I stood much chance anyway. 5-2.

Match 8: Rogue.

https://hsreplay.net/replay/EbqjBBeKGjHXzDGVih6pAe

I'm actually able to curve out rather aggressively with 2 into 3 into 4, playing my MCT for tempo and Arcanosmith for protection... and playing straight into Opp.'s MCT. As we battle back and forth for board control, I'm slowly amassing a tremendous amount of burn in my hand, and on Turn 8, after Opp. takes full control of the board with a 2/4 and a Giant Wasp (still stealthed), I look at my hand and see Sorcerer's Apprentice, Fireball, Pyroblast, and Frostbolt. My only other card is Nerubian Prophet (which is dead on board to the wasp if I play it), so with Opp. at 18 health, my win condition is burn her down and pray she doesn't have any heals. Turn 8 Apprentice + Fireball + Frostbolt + ping takes her to 8; Opp. doesn't heal. Turn 9 I play Twilight Drake and Nerubian Prophet and pray; Opp. doesn't heal. Turn 10 game over. 6-2.

Match 9: Mage.

https://hsreplay.net/replay/VUYJrs7v5HetpUSDUn4Fif

This one started in Opp.'s favor, taking me down to 17 health by Turn 6 before I could start contesting and stabilizing the board. After that the match dragged out, each of us rationing resources and fighting for board control, but finally on Turn 12 I stabilize the board... and fortunately play around Meteor by putting my 2 highest attack minions on opposite ends of my line. Opp. battles valiantly with top-decks (and a Greater Healing Potion from a Chemist), but I finally draw into my Pyro and finish it. 7-2.

Into Tier 3, and my best Mage run to date. My last 4 opponents have gone mage-mage-rogue-mage. I can feel the limit of the deck's potential closing in, but I'm going to stretch it as far as it will go. Onward!

Match 6:

T3: Like Halfmassed already said, you should have played MCT, the tempo is much better than the chance on activating it. I disagree on what Halfmassed saif about how it turned out, as I would have Spellbreaker-silenced the Taunt and hit face. At that point, you have a solid board advantage (4/3 and 3/3 vs 1/4), while he has no way to trade from his board. Silencing the taunt only is okay, since you are facing a mage, which does not have buff spells - it is more about the tempo you gain from the 4/3 body here.

T7: Is Firelands Portal for me, to get rid of the second 4/5, leaving your opponent with no way to get value trades. Your play allowed him to hit your 3/5 with his 4/5 to finish it with a ping, leaving him with a 4/2, that you cannot clear without having something taking another 4 damage from it. As you were somewhat lucky he gave you a sheep, it turned out well, but that was nothing to expect.

T14: I would actually have traded the 4/1 into his 1/2 to prevent the death-ping. Turned out well, as he trades himself.

T17: I agree with the other two comments saying that they would have pinged the owl, but I wouldn't have flamed the snail. You are not that desperate for hero health yet, and forbidden flame could stop a bigger threat next turn from finishing you off. Also I don't think you need the bruiser for board control at this point, as your opponent has significant card advantage and is not that low on health, which means that you have to get value from your cards, not tempo. Therefore: Playing passive, pinging the owl, and that's it.

T18: Nice topdeck, but not worth it to get rid of the Owl at the cost of a Forbidden Flame.

Match 8: Only one thing to say: You went all-in with face damage a turn too early. As it is clear your Apprentice won't survive, Pyroblast won't be playable next turn, which is why I'd rather feed the Nerubian Prophet to his wasp then already throwing out face damage. This is what I would have done in turn 9, to finish it in turn 10.

This also has a psychological component. The way you did it, it was obvious that you have enough reach to finish him, which makes it number one priority for him to heal (which he couldn't, fortunately). Instead playing ineffiecently T8 (Nerubian Prophet into his wasp), and the fact you have few cards, means that a T9 with burst damage to face can be interpreted as desperation, which has a chance to make your opponent think that you hope to topdeck something, and at least they are not completely certain that you have enough reach in hand. This again means there is a (very small) chance that they don't heal, even if they had something. No big deal, but I'd take any small chance to gain an advantage that I can get ;)

Quote from Aeris >>

T3: Like Halfmassed already said, you should have played MCT, the tempo is much better than the chance on activating it. I disagree on what Halfmassed saif about how it turned out, as I would have Spellbreaker-silenced the Taunt and hit face. At that point, you have a solid board advantage (4/3 and 3/3 vs 1/4), while he has no way to trade from his board. Silencing the taunt only is okay, since you are facing a mage, which does not have buff spells - it is more about the tempo you gain from the 4/3 body here.

Quote from Caddage >>

Totally disagree--Opponent had a secret in play, and to that point I had narrowed it down to Ice Block, Mana Bind, Counterspell, or Spellbender. No way am I playing Firelands Portal into that when I have other reasonable plays available.

Match 10: Druid.

https://hsreplay.net/replay/BdgKRRUFQVVvFngA8mWM8Y

Good news: it's not a mage or rogue. Bad news: I curved horribly, HP on Turns 3 and 4, and got out-valued in the late game. 7-3.

Rewards were all gold, so all in all a nice way to close out my mage runs. Final Mage stats:

# of runs: 10

Overall win %: 52.38%  (33-30)

Best run: 7-3 (1 time)

Worst run: 0-3 (1 time)

Average wins: 3.3/run

Best opponent: Hunter (2-0)

Worst opponent: Warrior (0-2)

Most common opponent: Mage (9-4)



I can feel the end of the challenge closing in--that's one class in the books. I've had a recent life change that might (maybe) allow me more time for Hearthstone, so hopefully I can close this thing out soon(ish); at the very least before the next meta shift. Cheers!

Match 10: your opponent had some really good adaptations from the 2 Volcanosaurs. I think you could use your first Bog to stall his first volcanosaur, instead of clearing it out immediately. Using the whole turn and 2 cards to kill one thing is really anti tempo. On your turn 11, if you play the commander to kill his blazecaller instead of the threshadon, you might still have a chance to stabilize with your MCT and Bog Creeper.

Quote from Caddage >>

Quote from Aeris >>

T3: Like Halfmassed already said, you should have played MCT, the tempo is much better than the chance on activating it. I disagree on what Halfmassed saif about how it turned out, as I would have Spellbreaker-silenced the Taunt and hit face. At that point, you have a solid board advantage (4/3 and 3/3 vs 1/4), while he has no way to trade from his board. Silencing the taunt only is okay, since you are facing a mage, which does not have buff spells - it is more about the tempo you gain from the 4/3 body here.

 I debated the tempo MCT for about 45 seconds before not doing it. Agree in hindsight I should have.

Quote from Aeris »

T7: Is Firelands Portal for me, to get rid of the second 4/5, leaving your opponent with no way to get value trades. Your play allowed him to hit your 3/5 with his 4/5 to finish it with a ping, leaving him with a 4/2, that you cannot clear without having something taking another 4 damage from it. As you were somewhat lucky he gave you a sheep, it turned out well, but that was nothing to expect.

Totally disagree--Opponent had a secret in play, and to that point I had narrowed it down to Ice Block, Mana Bind, Counterspell, or Spellbender. No way am I playing Firelands Portal into that when I have other reasonable plays available.

Match 9:

T5:  The Nesting Roc is a better play there against two 3/3s. The 4/7 statline is better suited for the situation. You ended up getting the Roc to taunt, but it would have been more awkward for him to deal with it the turn earlier. You're also fairly likely to be able to get the Hogrider to charge against Mages

T10: Misplay playing the Spellbreaker before the Pint-sized Summoner into an unknown secret

Fresh off closing out my Mage runs, I drop coin for my next run and see Druid, Warrior, and Shaman as my choices, all three of which with 9 runs to date. Checking my win rates with each, I sigh in resignation and begin my final Warrior run...

WARRIOR RUN 10

http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/n6s889

A low curve and little card draw... my hopes for this run are not high. Nothing to do but buck up and get in there. Just going to skim through these...

Match 1: Mage.

https://hsreplay.net/replay/dQdNGePVy2SfhmHezMVfmG

Wait, what just happened... a Warrior beat a Mage? In THIS meta?? WTF??? 1-0.

Match 2: Priest.

https://hsreplay.net/replay/7dn4KWrKiFCD2aApKjYq8C

Yeah, that went about as expected... 1-1.

Match 3: Priest.

https://hsreplay.net/replay/orFF36Z7HGZKN66wwV3eZ4

And again... 1-2.

Match 4: Druid.

https://hsreplay.net/replay/4MS9ST7U6rY9BHzeuuosB3

A Druid! We have a Druid sighting! Kill it! 2-2.

Match 5: Mage.

https://hsreplay.net/replay/SRML6UEGsMYUxMbp27xkkh

Hat tip to @LuisSuarus for spectating/advising through this one, hitting pirate with alchemist was a key play that I didn't see. 3-2.

Match 6: Mage.

https://hsreplay.net/replay/gwkVu46XWeAHGYujWPwUhR

One of those games that just felt hopeless. 3-3.

And with that, the Warrior portion of the challenge is complete (thank goodness in this meta). Final Warrior stats:

# of runs: 10

Overall win %: 50.82% (31-30)

Best run: 6-3 (1 time)

Worst run: 1-3 (1 time)

Average wins: 3.1/run

Best opponent: Hunter (4-1)

Worst opponent: Warlock (1-3)

Most common opponent: Mage (10-7)



Eager to put that run behind me, I fork out for another, and AGAIN I see Druid and Shaman, but this time they're accompanied by Rogue, which has only 8 runs. Rogue... ROGUE!!! Here we go!

ROGUE RUN 9

http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/65zanb

Well now... I went into this draft aiming for a tempo deck, but the further along I got, the more control cards I got. I'm excited for this one!

Match 1: Priest.

https://hsreplay.net/replay/AQdTcgkmieQeunnj7XGURB

Going first, pitching the Giant Mastodon is an easy decision, but I debate with myself over Violet Illusionist and Fan of Knives, finally deciding to keep the Illusionist and pitch the Fan, getting Abomination and Patient Assassin. Turn 1 I pass; Opp. coins out Radiant Elemental (great...). Turn 2 I dagger and pass; Opp. plays Stubborn Gastropod (even better!) and hits face. Turn 3 I play my Assassin, but misplay by not pinging the snail; with no need to heal the poisonous taunt, Opp. drops Vicious Fledgling and hits face. Turn 4 RNG saves me when I top-deck Shadow Strike to kill the Fledgling, then I ping the snail, but I'm late to the party; Opp. plays Thoughtsteal and heals the snail, hitting my face again. Turn 5 I bite the bullet and trade Assassin for Slug-o, then drop Abom; Opp. plays a discounted Thistle Tea and passes. Turn 6 I play Ancient of Blossoms and kill the Radiant with Abom; Opp. plays Kabal Chemist. Turn 7 I kill the Chemist with Blossoms and hit face with Abom, then I debate whether to play Sprint, but instead drop Sated Threshadon; Opp. plays the potion from the Chemist: Dragonfire Potion (of COURSE it was), which leaves me with 3 Primalfins. Turn 8 I play Backroom Bouncer and Tar Creeper and start picking away at Opp.'s face; Opp. drops an unactivated Nesting Roc (from Thistle Tea, no less) and heals face. Turn 9 I hit the Roc with a Primalfin, drop the Illusionist, hit the Roc with face, kill the Roc with Bouncer, play Eggnapper, re-dagger, and keep plinking face; Opp. silences my Creeper with Spellbreaker and drops Priest of the Feast. Turn 10 I trade Eggnapper for Spellbreaker, hit Priest with Creeper and face, then trade Illusionist for Priest, drop Worgen Infiltrator, re-dagger and play Sprint (I know, really should have played Sprint first, but I took too long thinking and had to hurry); Opp. pulls an Arcane Giant from Free From Amber and heals face. Turn 11 I drop Dire Wolf Alpha in the middle of my minions and use Infiltrator, 2 Raptors and a Primalfin to kill the Giant, hit face with the rest, drop Naga Corsair and Mistress of Mixtures and hit face with dagger; Opp. nukes the Corsair with Shadow Word: Death, then plays Friendly Bartender and Eater of Secrets. Turn 12 I play Kobold Geomancer + Fan of Knives, trade Primalfin for Bartender, kill Eater with face, hit face with the rest and equip Obsidian Shard; Opp. plays another funnel-cake Priest, another Thoughtsteal, and Stonehill Defender from the theft. Turn 13 I draw lethal and Opp. concedes as I'm dealing it. 1-0.

Only one match so far, but I don't like going too long without updates. I like how controlling the deck feels, and despite a few misplays, I think I already have the hang of this one. One game is too early to tell, of course, but I just have so much removal. Combine that with a few good tempo cards and this deck has some potential. Now hopefully the "more time to play" I thought I would be getting will actually materialize...

Quote from Caddage »

I don't like going too long without updates.

Now hopefully the "more time to play" I thought I would be getting will actually materialize...

Match 1: Sorry to criticize that much, but you really did a lot of misplays here.

I would have done the same mulligan.

T2: I would have dropped the Assassin here. The dagger does not help at all, and the Assassin is a premium 2-drop. Especially against priest with all those buffs you need to fight for board control as hard as you can. A priest with high health minions snowballs quickly due to their heropower. Also, priest does not really have any considerable means of removing a stealthed 1 health minion. It either would use a premium boardclear (Nova, Dragonfire) or a 2-card combo (Knife Juggler, Pyromancer) which is unlikely. Once played, the Assassin also might slow him down as he might refuse to drop a bigger target.

T3: Now you drop the Assassin off-curve. Instead, why not drop the Violet Teacher? Looks like it would trade with the snail, which is totally okay. Out of all cards you have in hand right now, the Teacher is the least valuable card and thus the best thing to trade with the snail. Like you say, you should have pinged the snail to force him to heal it in an awkward T3.

T5: I really don't get why you would ever drop Abomnation here, and why you trade your Assassin into the snail. There is no way I'd do that trade, the stealth is way too valueable.

You should have dropped Violet Teacher and get a fresh dagger. This again would force him to trade the Snail into your 3 drop, while you still have a stealthed hard removal which is incredibly scary for priests. Again, it is almost guaranteed he won't be able to remove it at least remotely efficient. Abomination does nothing, since he has no 2-or-less health minions. Even Backroom Bouncer would have been better.

T6: Violet Teacher and Eggnapper would have been better. You're playing Rogue against Priest, you want tempo. Also, we haven'thad any 3-attack minions on board, which means we have no idea whether he has a Shadowword Pain, and now that we are ahead, we can afford to play around that. This is just a side note though, most importantly we want to make tempo plays to deal face damage while keeping the board. Yeah, the Abomination somewhat sucks, as a Nova would destroy you (wouldn't be the case if you didn't drop Abomination which kinda hurts you more than him), but I'd definitely take this risk in that spot.

I believe you did the slow play here because you think of your deck as a control deck. Forget about that - Rogue ALWAYS plays tempo, no matter what. This might change during the lategame depending on boardstate and card advantage, but before ~T8-T9, as a Rogue you should always push for - efficient - tempo.

T8: Again: Eggnapper and Violet Illusionist, plus a fresh dagger.

Eggnapper is a (small) insurance against AoEs, and brings 3 Attack, the one health is no drawback against Priest. Tar Creeper only is a 1/5 in this spot as your opponent does not have any minions. Rather drop it when it screws your opponents plans. In this turn, the Bouncer has no advantage over Violet Teacher: It just prevents you from getting free pings for the next turns as it costs 1 mana more. The extra health is totally useless.

T9: I would also have dropped the Infiltrator. An AoE would likely lose you the game in either way (edit: better wording: An extra 2/1 after a nuke wouldn't change a lot) (Sprint would not be enough draw to compete with how many cards he has), and with the Infiltrators 2 extra damage per turn you can close the game potentially earlier. No big deal though, and I wouldn't call this one a misplay.

T10: Like you said, Sprint first. I'd also like to point out that the only reason to kill the Spellbreaker here is that he has two Nesting Rocs from Thistle Tea which we don't want to get activated. We should not try to play control here, like I said before, Sprint isn't enough to regain card advantage.

T11: You should have played Obsidian Shard and then Naga Corsair. Tempo and Value! Also, hit face for 4 damage. The Mistress only hurts you, since you are pushing for lethal.

Quote from Aeris »

Match 1: Sorry to criticize that much, but you really did a lot of misplays here.

Criticize away, I won't get any better if all I get is "at-a-boy" and a participation trophy.

Quote from AbusingKel >>

 

I think I would have played Mirage Caller differently.  My plan would have been to save it for the turn that I'm going to trade the assassin.  Playing it when your opponent's board is empty like that doesn't improve your position because he's not going to be playing 2 large threats in the same turn, in fact it really only succeeds in forcing him to use an early board clear.  In this case, SW:H really was just the perfect answer.  I probably would have played Stonehill Defender on turn 3 and saved mirage caller for a more opportune moment.

Match 7: Priest.

https://hsreplay.net/replay/Y9PGsQVYXAkMeNBcP47Ax6

I wonder how this match would have turned out had I not played into MCT on Turn 4. That seemed to be the turning point. I think I could have pulled it off if not for that. As it was, after having my Undercity Huckster brainwashed, I never had decent board presence, and I also lost the card advantage from the deathrattle. Finally ran out of cards and life. 4-3.

A little disappointed with that run. Rogue still eludes me at times. Rewards were nice, though: 80 gold along with the pack... which had Sunkeeper Tarim in it! Until next time.

OK, this next one is either going to crush... or get crushed. My choices for hero were Thrall, Maiev, and Gul'dan. Rogue had the lowest average wins, but Warlock had only 8 runs. Time to sell my soul again...

WARLOCK RUN 9

http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/n22h08

Holy biscuit balls that's a heavy deck. Picks #7 and #8 really came back to haunt me, so I'm really afraid of getting rushed down. Felfire Potion won't do me any good as a board clear if I'm already too low on health to use it. Nothing to do now but play the matches and see what happens!