First time poster here on Hearthpwn. This is my second stint with Hearthstone - I played a little bit back in 2015 - and I am much more into the game this time around. I've acquired a small, decent collection of Mage cards (my primary hero), and was hoping I could get some advice on:
A) How to build the most competitive deck with what I have available?
B) Where I should look as far as crafting to take that deck even further?
I am sitting on about 1600 Arcane Dust as I have dusted the more valuable cards from some heroes I don't enjoy playing as much. I know this is viewed as a sin by some, but I feel if I do not have at least ONE competitive deck, eventually my interest will wane again. I also have a few gold mage card copies I could dust if needed.
Here's the link to my current deck. This guy got me out of the ranking cellar, but it's starting to lose steam. Overall, I can manage early, but I seem to lack the firing power to finish my opponent if I cannot keep Antonidas out for more than a turn. Sometimes I am overwhelmed early and cannot ever recover enough to truly threaten my opponent.
I've updated my collection with my mage and neutral cards if folks want to take a look to make suggestions. Do I need more taunt minions? More spell damage? Start from scratch?
Really starting to appreciate Hearthstone and would love to take my game to the next level - any advice for this noob would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,
If you aren’t running an Aggro mage then you need Jaina but she’s gonna rotate out of standard in a few months. The cheapest somewhat competitive deck would be a secret Aggro mage.
Jaina is super tempting, but as you mentioned it sounds like she gets the boot in April. Since I'm not trying to spend any $$$, I want to get as much value out of whatever I craft as possible.
I had actually looked more closely at a secret aggro deck on Icy Veins - the most expensive piece in that deck was Aluneth. This card also seems to pop up in many highly rated Mage decks, so maybe that's my best option for crafting a legendary.
You should just craft baku and go the odd tempo mage route, pretty cheap and that route you craft a solid card in Baku the Mooneater which unlocks a solid amount of rather cheap decks for like 2-3 more classes. You definitely don't have the cards to craft a Big spell mage and pretty much every single key card is gonna rotate in 4 months so it's not worth all the time and money you would need to spend to craft that thing.
I'd suggest prioritizing Stargazer Luna, rather than Aluneth, if you plan on crafting a Legendary, as SL won't be rotating in the spring. However, if you suspect that you will continue to bounce back and forth, playing HS for a few months, then not playing it for a few months, the Standard format is a terrible investment for you, and I'd recommend focusing on Wild. The cards you craft will always be playable, and you don't have to worry that a large part of your collection will become unplayable if you take some time off. It's a potential exit-point for some players - every year, they "lose" a bunch of cards from their collection, so they feel that there isn't any point in trying to start playing again after taking an extended break.
FWIW - the two formats are essentially identical. One of the websites which tracks Wild (Vicious Syndicate) recently noted that 18 of the top 20 decks in the format are simply Standard decks with a handful of Wild-only "upgrades." In the long run, you'll also need to collect far fewer cards if you focus on Wild, since fewer cards from each expansion will ultimately "make the cut" as the Wild card pool slowly expands - collecting fewer cards is a big incentive for potential part-time players.
Thanks for the feeback everyone - really quite helpful. The Baku/Jan'alai odd deck is also something I've been looking at - seems to be performing well so far, and if I scrape I think I have enough dust to get there. Having 2dmg hero power sounds really fun combined with some of the newer cheap cards from this expansion.
Some excellent points about Wild vs. Standard - I had almost entirely written off Wild thinking it would be too costly to play, and that the learning curve would be steeper with a wider variety of cards. The comments on how the loss of cards from rotation can imapct the desire to play really resonated. I may try some Wild over the next week to see how I take to it before completing writing off Jaina. She just seems like she would be so damn fun to use.
Stargazer Luna is another card I've been looking at as she pops up across lots of decks. Am I wrong for underestimating her potential to swing a game? Her ability seems a bit handicapped in the sense that if I pull a high cost card after playing her, I may not get much mileage overall. Especially when looking at the more immediate impact some of these other cards can provide. But my newness to the game could be betraying me here.
At any rate, I appreciate everyone's input. Any other insights very much welcome.
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Hello everyone,
If you aren’t running an Aggro mage then you need Jaina but she’s gonna rotate out of standard in a few months. The cheapest somewhat competitive deck would be a secret Aggro mage.
Jaina is super tempting, but as you mentioned it sounds like she gets the boot in April. Since I'm not trying to spend any $$$, I want to get as much value out of whatever I craft as possible.
I had actually looked more closely at a secret aggro deck on Icy Veins - the most expensive piece in that deck was Aluneth. This card also seems to pop up in many highly rated Mage decks, so maybe that's my best option for crafting a legendary.
You should just craft baku and go the odd tempo mage route, pretty cheap and that route you craft a solid card in Baku the Mooneater which unlocks a solid amount of rather cheap decks for like 2-3 more classes. You definitely don't have the cards to craft a Big spell mage and pretty much every single key card is gonna rotate in 4 months so it's not worth all the time and money you would need to spend to craft that thing.
https://beerbrick.com/2018/12/07/rastakhan-legend-yulsics-odd-mage/ That's a top legend list from past week so try to work towards that.
I don't think it was in legend. He just reached legend.
When I first saw nightblade pop out I was so surprised. I thought that I was playing against a random budget deck.
Nothing wrong with dusting cards from classes you dont like. I myself dust all my Paladin and Rouge cards. Allows more dust for decks i want to try.
Here's a deck you might want to try -
I'd suggest prioritizing Stargazer Luna, rather than Aluneth, if you plan on crafting a Legendary, as SL won't be rotating in the spring. However, if you suspect that you will continue to bounce back and forth, playing HS for a few months, then not playing it for a few months, the Standard format is a terrible investment for you, and I'd recommend focusing on Wild. The cards you craft will always be playable, and you don't have to worry that a large part of your collection will become unplayable if you take some time off. It's a potential exit-point for some players - every year, they "lose" a bunch of cards from their collection, so they feel that there isn't any point in trying to start playing again after taking an extended break.
FWIW - the two formats are essentially identical. One of the websites which tracks Wild (Vicious Syndicate) recently noted that 18 of the top 20 decks in the format are simply Standard decks with a handful of Wild-only "upgrades." In the long run, you'll also need to collect far fewer cards if you focus on Wild, since fewer cards from each expansion will ultimately "make the cut" as the Wild card pool slowly expands - collecting fewer cards is a big incentive for potential part-time players.
Good luck in any event.
Thanks for the feeback everyone - really quite helpful. The Baku/Jan'alai odd deck is also something I've been looking at - seems to be performing well so far, and if I scrape I think I have enough dust to get there. Having 2dmg hero power sounds really fun combined with some of the newer cheap cards from this expansion.
Some excellent points about Wild vs. Standard - I had almost entirely written off Wild thinking it would be too costly to play, and that the learning curve would be steeper with a wider variety of cards. The comments on how the loss of cards from rotation can imapct the desire to play really resonated. I may try some Wild over the next week to see how I take to it before completing writing off Jaina. She just seems like she would be so damn fun to use.
Stargazer Luna is another card I've been looking at as she pops up across lots of decks. Am I wrong for underestimating her potential to swing a game? Her ability seems a bit handicapped in the sense that if I pull a high cost card after playing her, I may not get much mileage overall. Especially when looking at the more immediate impact some of these other cards can provide. But my newness to the game could be betraying me here.
At any rate, I appreciate everyone's input. Any other insights very much welcome.