There's nothing wrong with designing cards primarily for arena. The only real way to make each of the 132 new cards constructed viable would be to obsolete large swaths of the previous sets' cards.
I don't recommend playing 26 different cards in a 30-card deck. A pile of good (and some not so good) cards might do well enough in arena but it's not going to win you many games in constructed.
Alexstrasza works best in a deck where you can either use her as a buffer of extra life after establishing board control or use her on your opponent to set up a kill the next turn. Turn 9 Alexstrasza turn 10 2x mind blast holy fire, for example, will kill any opponent who doesn't heal, armor up, or kill you first. On the board control end of things, priests do well with auchenai soulpriest + circle of healing or wild pyromancer + holy nova, power word: shield, or cheap spells and a bit of healing.
The only card this deck has that can deal damage to an opponent is a single drain life. It cannot, realistically, hope to win a single game.
In a more realistic sense, with a bit of skill and luck and a lot of persistence it is possible to reach legend rank with a relatively bad deck. If you roll a die enough times eventually you'll roll twenty sixes in a row. It will be far more difficult and time consuming if you're playing a deck with an average 40% win rate than one with an average 60% win rate, though.
Is this just.. An attempt at having the worst deck possible, or what?
Yes. That is exactly what it is. It wasn't an entirely successful attempt, but pretty close.
The only card this deck has that can deal damage to an opponent is a single drain life. It cannot, realistically, hope to win a single game.
In a more realistic sense, with a bit of skill and luck and a lot of persistence it is possible to reach legend rank with a relatively bad deck. If you roll a die enough times eventually you'll roll twenty sixes in a row. It will be far more difficult and time consuming if you're playing a deck with an average 40% win rate than one with an average 60% win rate, though.
I suppose Sense Demons can also draw you Worthless Imps after your Blood Imps are gone. Regardless, the best player in the world would be hard pressed to win with this deck against a complete newcomer.
The only card this deck has that can deal damage to an opponent is a single drain life. It cannot, realistically, hope to win a single game.
In a more realistic sense, with a bit of skill and luck and a lot of persistence it is possible to reach legend rank with a relatively bad deck. If you roll a die enough times eventually you'll roll twenty sixes in a row. It will be far more difficult and time consuming if you're playing a deck with an average 40% win rate than one with an average 60% win rate, though.
I'd have to say Fiery War Axe. There are plenty of cards out there with more raw power, but the axe will let you completely dominate the early game, while it still remains very relevant in the late game. There are very few minions with cost 3 or less that won't die to the axe in one swing.
I've never actually seen her steal anything. When she comes out, typically one of three things happen:
- She gets silenced and is then just a 5/5 for 5 (which is fine but not exciting)
- The opponent sends all his minions into her, killing her and leaving nothing for her to steal (which is not bad if you get two or more minions out of it)
- The opponent ignores her and attacks something else (typically in a situation where the minions Sylvanas can attack aren't big enough to kill her)
Frothing Berserker may be worth a second thought. I had previously considered and rejected it, but maybe it would work as a cheaper alternative to Gurubashi Berserker. I do find that occasionally my hand gets gummed up with stuff that costs 4+, and replacing a 5 with a 3 would help with that.
I've been playing this deck in the beta with a good deal of success, winning the majority of my games in 3-star masters. Its main focus is controlling the tempo of the game through the use of weapons and minions with charge or battlecry effects. The deck is quite cheap to build, playing four rares and no epics or legendaries.
All the minions with charge: Charging minions will often let you gain a two for one on your opponent by killing a minion and then trading with another minion or a removal spell. They also let you push through damage against control decks by attacking immediately. The extra points of power and health on Arcane Golem are more than enough to offset its drawback, when compared to Wolfrider. I play every possible minion with built-in charge and more than one health except for Reckless Rocketeer and a few legendaries. Grom Hellscream and maybe Leeroy Jenkins would not be bad choices for this deck, but I don't have the dust for them and have found the deck to work well enough without them.
Cruel Taskmaster: Kills or finishes off enemy minions, activates Execute, triggers Gurubashi Berserker or Acolyte of Pain, or lets one of your other minions trade with something larger than it normally could. This should almost never be played on turn 2.
Slam: Removes little guys and lets you trade with or execute bigger guys without costing an extra card. Triggers Gurubashi Berserker in theory, although I've never actually had the occasion to do this.
Novice Engineer: Pretty much filler. It gets you a body on the board in the early game if you don't need to play a Fiery War Axe. Replaces itself, kills one-health minions and activates Execute.
Heroic Strike: More often used as a finisher than removal, but in a pinch it can be used to swing at minions. Four damage for two mana will often let you push through enough damage to finish off an opponent earlier than expected.
Warsong Commander: Most of my minions have charge already, and a 3-mana 2/3 without charge is not what this deck wants. If it gave itself charge I'd probably play it.
Cleave: Too inconsistent. It's a good answer to Blood Imp, but the inability to play it with one target, the randomness, and the relatively low damage it deals are together enough to cut it from the deck.
Inner Rage and Elven Archer: I experimented with these in earlier versions of the deck, but too often found that they didn't have enough impact and were costing me cards.
Amani Berserker and Raging Worgen: While these minions might sometimes be great in a deck like this, without charge or battlecry they're just asking your opponent to trade with them or stomp on them with something larger.
Acidic Swamp Ooze: A metagame card that I've considered, perhaps over Novice Engineer, but I'm leaning towards the 1/2 that always gets me a card rather than the 3/2 that sometimes does.
Strategy:
This deck is pretty flexible. It can play an aggressive game or a control game depending on the situation. Against aggressive decks it needs to play control and against combo decks it needs to play aggro. Against control decks it really depends on the opponent.
When playing the aggressive game:
Play your guys with charge and send them at your opponent's face. Attack enemy minions only when they're an immediate threat or when you can kill minions that could otherwise stop more damage than you are spending to kill them. Against Unleash the Hounds combo, using Armor Up! is better than playing Novice Engineer if you have in hand more attackers or weapons you can play next turn to make efficient use of your mana. Against rogue combo, playing Novice Engineer is better -- Edwin Van Cleef will usually take two swings to kill you even if you don't armor up. Do take the opportunity to kill Questing Adventurer when you can, though.
When playing the control game:
Kill your opponent's minions before attacking your opponent, preferably in such a way that your attacker survives to trade with another. If you can get to 8 mana without getting too low on health, you're probably winning. Do watch for opportunities to switch to aggro, though -- if you have the cards in hand to kill your opponent in two turns (or better yet, one turn) without putting yourself at too much risk, then go for it.
Other specific matchups:
Mage control: This one's usually pretty easy. Having so many ways for your cards to deal damage the turn you play them means you can play aggressively while Jaina will be spending her cards to clean up your minions after they've already hit her.
Priest control: This tends to be the deck's worst matchup, particularly if your opponent is playing Acidic Swamp Ooze. Creatures with 5 or more toughness are difficult for the deck to kill, but Anduin's ability to heal his minions means you need to kill them when you can or they'll just cost you more cards in the long run. Play around Shadow Word: Death when possible -- Gurubashi Berserker is often better off attacking Anduin for two and letting one of your smaller minions trade, given the choice.
A turn 10 five-card combo is by no means overpowered, particularly when you need to leave a key piece of the combo vulnerable for a turn before you can pull it off. Keep in mind that your opponent doesn't need to actually kill Ysera -- just dealing a few points of damage to her will greatly reduce the power she'll gain from divine spirit and inner fire.
If you're drawing enough cards to reliably get the cards you need by turn 10, then you necessarily will be doing relatively little to prevent your opponent from killing you first. A half-decent aggro deck will have you dead by turn 6 or 7 easily if you don't put up any resistance.
Angelcrest, combining minions into a large Void Terror isn't really an end in and of itself. You still wind up with the same total power and health as the uncombined minions. Granted, the single minion with high stats is often a bit more dangerous than three minions with those same total stats, but it also means you can't spread out your attack to kill multiple minions in one turn and your single big minion is more vulnerable to spells like Deadly Shot.
What this deck does and does well is take advantage of a couple synergies to get more mileage out of Void Terror than simply combining the stats of two or three minions: It uses Void Terror as a way to work around Ancient Watcher's drawback and take advantage of its very high stats for its cost; and it uses Void Terror to lock in the buff from Power Overwhelming.
18
I lost it on the part about faceless manipulator.
2
Individual legendary cards don't have much impact on Arena. Warrior needs good commons and rares, not legendaries, in order to be viable in Arena.
0
There's nothing wrong with designing cards primarily for arena. The only real way to make each of the 132 new cards constructed viable would be to obsolete large swaths of the previous sets' cards.
0
You earn the privilege of spending dust to craft golden versions of the cards you got in that wing.
EDIT: Wait, that's old info. The new reward is: nothing, until you beat heroic on all five wings; then you get a card back.
0
I don't recommend playing 26 different cards in a 30-card deck. A pile of good (and some not so good) cards might do well enough in arena but it's not going to win you many games in constructed.
Alexstrasza works best in a deck where you can either use her as a buffer of extra life after establishing board control or use her on your opponent to set up a kill the next turn. Turn 9 Alexstrasza turn 10 2x mind blast holy fire, for example, will kill any opponent who doesn't heal, armor up, or kill you first. On the board control end of things, priests do well with auchenai soulpriest + circle of healing or wild pyromancer + holy nova, power word: shield, or cheap spells and a bit of healing.
0
Yes. That is exactly what it is. It wasn't an entirely successful attempt, but pretty close.
0
I suppose Sense Demons can also draw you Worthless Imps after your Blood Imps are gone. Regardless, the best player in the world would be hard pressed to win with this deck against a complete newcomer.
0
I present you:
The only card this deck has that can deal damage to an opponent is a single drain life. It cannot, realistically, hope to win a single game.
In a more realistic sense, with a bit of skill and luck and a lot of persistence it is possible to reach legend rank with a relatively bad deck. If you roll a die enough times eventually you'll roll twenty sixes in a row. It will be far more difficult and time consuming if you're playing a deck with an average 40% win rate than one with an average 60% win rate, though.
0
I'd have to say Fiery War Axe. There are plenty of cards out there with more raw power, but the axe will let you completely dominate the early game, while it still remains very relevant in the late game. There are very few minions with cost 3 or less that won't die to the axe in one swing.
0
A good idea in principle, but the 7-minion limit wouldn't handle it well.
0
I've never actually seen her steal anything. When she comes out, typically one of three things happen:
- She gets silenced and is then just a 5/5 for 5 (which is fine but not exciting)
- The opponent sends all his minions into her, killing her and leaving nothing for her to steal (which is not bad if you get two or more minions out of it)
- The opponent ignores her and attacks something else (typically in a situation where the minions Sylvanas can attack aren't big enough to kill her)
0
Frothing Berserker may be worth a second thought. I had previously considered and rejected it, but maybe it would work as a cheaper alternative to Gurubashi Berserker. I do find that occasionally my hand gets gummed up with stuff that costs 4+, and replacing a 5 with a 3 would help with that.
0
The deck:
I've been playing this deck in the beta with a good deal of success, winning the majority of my games in 3-star masters. Its main focus is controlling the tempo of the game through the use of weapons and minions with charge or battlecry effects. The deck is quite cheap to build, playing four rares and no epics or legendaries.
Discussion:
Specific card choices:
Whirlwind: Kills opposing Blood Imps and weenies, activates Execute, and triggers Gurubashi Berserker and Acolyte of Pain.
All the minions with charge: Charging minions will often let you gain a two for one on your opponent by killing a minion and then trading with another minion or a removal spell. They also let you push through damage against control decks by attacking immediately. The extra points of power and health on Arcane Golem are more than enough to offset its drawback, when compared to Wolfrider. I play every possible minion with built-in charge and more than one health except for Reckless Rocketeer and a few legendaries. Grom Hellscream and maybe Leeroy Jenkins would not be bad choices for this deck, but I don't have the dust for them and have found the deck to work well enough without them.
Cruel Taskmaster: Kills or finishes off enemy minions, activates Execute, triggers Gurubashi Berserker or Acolyte of Pain, or lets one of your other minions trade with something larger than it normally could. This should almost never be played on turn 2.
Slam: Removes little guys and lets you trade with or execute bigger guys without costing an extra card. Triggers Gurubashi Berserker in theory, although I've never actually had the occasion to do this.
Novice Engineer: Pretty much filler. It gets you a body on the board in the early game if you don't need to play a Fiery War Axe. Replaces itself, kills one-health minions and activates Execute.
Heroic Strike: More often used as a finisher than removal, but in a pinch it can be used to swing at minions. Four damage for two mana will often let you push through enough damage to finish off an opponent earlier than expected.
Gurubashi Berserker: I'm on the fence about this card. Sometimes it wins games almost singlehandedly, but other times it just doesn't do anything. Possible cut for Stormpike Commando, Leeroy Jenkins, Grom Hellscream, or Mortal Strike.
Cards I'm not playing:
Mortal Strike: Could be good, but I haven't tried it yet. Maybe over Gurubashi Berserker.
Warsong Commander: Most of my minions have charge already, and a 3-mana 2/3 without charge is not what this deck wants. If it gave itself charge I'd probably play it.
Cleave: Too inconsistent. It's a good answer to Blood Imp, but the inability to play it with one target, the randomness, and the relatively low damage it deals are together enough to cut it from the deck.
Inner Rage and Elven Archer: I experimented with these in earlier versions of the deck, but too often found that they didn't have enough impact and were costing me cards.
Amani Berserker and Raging Worgen: While these minions might sometimes be great in a deck like this, without charge or battlecry they're just asking your opponent to trade with them or stomp on them with something larger.
Acidic Swamp Ooze: A metagame card that I've considered, perhaps over Novice Engineer, but I'm leaning towards the 1/2 that always gets me a card rather than the 3/2 that sometimes does.
Strategy:
This deck is pretty flexible. It can play an aggressive game or a control game depending on the situation. Against aggressive decks it needs to play control and against combo decks it needs to play aggro. Against control decks it really depends on the opponent.
When playing the aggressive game:
Play your guys with charge and send them at your opponent's face. Attack enemy minions only when they're an immediate threat or when you can kill minions that could otherwise stop more damage than you are spending to kill them. Against Unleash the Hounds combo, using Armor Up! is better than playing Novice Engineer if you have in hand more attackers or weapons you can play next turn to make efficient use of your mana. Against rogue combo, playing Novice Engineer is better -- Edwin Van Cleef will usually take two swings to kill you even if you don't armor up. Do take the opportunity to kill Questing Adventurer when you can, though.
When playing the control game:
Kill your opponent's minions before attacking your opponent, preferably in such a way that your attacker survives to trade with another. If you can get to 8 mana without getting too low on health, you're probably winning. Do watch for opportunities to switch to aggro, though -- if you have the cards in hand to kill your opponent in two turns (or better yet, one turn) without putting yourself at too much risk, then go for it.
Other specific matchups:
Mage control: This one's usually pretty easy. Having so many ways for your cards to deal damage the turn you play them means you can play aggressively while Jaina will be spending her cards to clean up your minions after they've already hit her.
Priest control: This tends to be the deck's worst matchup, particularly if your opponent is playing Acidic Swamp Ooze. Creatures with 5 or more toughness are difficult for the deck to kill, but Anduin's ability to heal his minions means you need to kill them when you can or they'll just cost you more cards in the long run. Play around Shadow Word: Death when possible -- Gurubashi Berserker is often better off attacking Anduin for two and letting one of your smaller minions trade, given the choice.
0
A turn 10 five-card combo is by no means overpowered, particularly when you need to leave a key piece of the combo vulnerable for a turn before you can pull it off. Keep in mind that your opponent doesn't need to actually kill Ysera -- just dealing a few points of damage to her will greatly reduce the power she'll gain from divine spirit and inner fire.
If you're drawing enough cards to reliably get the cards you need by turn 10, then you necessarily will be doing relatively little to prevent your opponent from killing you first. A half-decent aggro deck will have you dead by turn 6 or 7 easily if you don't put up any resistance.
0
Angelcrest, combining minions into a large Void Terror isn't really an end in and of itself. You still wind up with the same total power and health as the uncombined minions. Granted, the single minion with high stats is often a bit more dangerous than three minions with those same total stats, but it also means you can't spread out your attack to kill multiple minions in one turn and your single big minion is more vulnerable to spells like Deadly Shot.
What this deck does and does well is take advantage of a couple synergies to get more mileage out of Void Terror than simply combining the stats of two or three minions: It uses Void Terror as a way to work around Ancient Watcher's drawback and take advantage of its very high stats for its cost; and it uses Void Terror to lock in the buff from Power Overwhelming.