Reiken777 here, also known under the MG(Managrind) Community as Sukoshi. I'm writing a guide to help more people get into competitive play because hearthstone is a fantastic game and a long lasting competitive community is needed for the longevity of the game. So now lets jump in to the basics.
Deck Building:
1: Choosing your class! There are nine classes to choose from and all offer some form of unique play. Alternatively a lot of the decks can offer an alternate variation on a specific arch-type.
a) Druid: The druid class mainly revolves around mid - late game. They have cards that aid them getting to that "late game" faster by adding mana crystals and drawing cards. The druid class is also very versatile, they are good at adapting to any situation. Competitively IMO they are the jack of all trades class.
Pros: Able to adapt to a wide variety of situations that rise up mid match. Excels when at 6+mana
Cons: Druid utilities are on the expensive side, most of their really good spells are 4+mana, Against a strong aggro to mid range deck your going to be reacting and on the defensive most of the time. Currently I think Druid is just a tad bit too slow for this meta. Granted that does NOT mean they can't win or wont win. As some of the players have proved in past tournaments.
b)Hunter: Now we have Rexxar, IMO hunter is known as the cheap mans deck. 99% of the great hunter cards are cheap to craft and easy to obtain. Hunter revolves around controlling the field with secrets, and beasts. It has the potential to have great burst damage with a chance to OTK(one turn kill) if the opportunity is right.
Pros: Cheap to build a decent deck! Unleash the hound has great potential to OTK your opponent.
Cons: Not reliable, Hunter is a very gimmick based class when it works it works wonders, When it doesn't you lose with 6-7 cards in your hand because you were trying to OTK. The Control hunter is a little underwhelming as there are better classes that can control the field more reliably. Sadly any arch-type that the hunter tries to use is overshadowed by better versions from other classes.
c) Mage: Jaina is a very strong mage and as such mage is a very strong class. Mage revolves around high damaging spells that deal considerable dmg to the enemy hero or AOE's that control the field.
Pros: Moon's Aggro deck, everyone is using this arch-type cause its cheap to build. It's Agressive and has great utility. Mage also offers great dmg potential with pyroblast. Being around 10 life is a scary place to be when vs a mage.
Cons: Moons Aggro deck, everyone is playing it, If you play a mage odds are your playing a version of his deck. People have started figuring out how to beat it, and as such it's starting to decline in effectiveness. Mage has so much potential, Don't leave it up to one person to figure out.
d)Priest: Priest! Everyone loves priest right now, Priest revolves around using your opponents cards against him, either turning his own minions on him or by stealing cards from his deck/hand. Priest also excels in boosting his own minions attributes up thus increasing his own minions survive ability.
Pros: Insane late game. Priest excels in play mode. That's about it.
Cons: competitively priest is not reliable. 2 tips to beating priests in a tournament. Take out all end game monsters, take out that beloved Ysera, Ragnaros, and replace them with minions that aren'tdevastating if mind controlled. Tip number 2 add in 4 attacking minions Argent commanders, Chillwind yetis, Azure drakes, Injured blademasters anyways the list goes on. 4 minions will make a priest player very pissed off. Trust me.
Keep in mind we are starting off with very basic overviews! As the guide progresses we will dwell into more competitive strategies and feature some good community created decks and some bad ones to compare and discuss. I'm hoping to add to this daily. Feedback is welcomed!
Next 5 classes to be continued. Then on to Archtypes and deck construction!
Hello Hearthpwn community!
Sukoshi here after being away for quite sometime! I have started a new job, (yeah i know! Hearthstone > life!) that has taken most of my free time away as I'm either working or working! So where did we last leave off? Ah yes! Class overview. Lets start off with a little demonic sacrifice shall we! (ok... that was lame I know)
DECK BUILDING: PT 2
Class Overview Continued:
e) Warlock: Gul'Dan! Warlock has had a huge surge of players recently with the 3-4 managrind.com tournament wins as a specific deck has been relatively dominant. The class revolves around using mana efficient cards that have other negatives like discarding to apply fast pressure, they also refill there hand via hero ability(Life Tap).
Pros: "Waggro" (warlock aggro) is probably the first deck in hearthstone that forces people in tournaments to build decks that revolve around countering it. It's so fast that given the right hand, the game is over by turn 4. Honestly in hearthstone because of the fact that you can't choose to block a minion EX:(throwing out a 1/1 to stall there 4/4), aggro will always be a huge tournament contender.
Cons: Warlock is currently a one dimensional class, It's amazing when played as an aggro (fast) deck. And crappy when played as anything else. A lot of the warlock class cards have negative side affects to there abilities. For example! Take the card Succubus you will notice 2 mana for a 4/3 is amazing, but the downside? You have to discard a card when it is played. These downsides limit the warlocks diversity because you don't want to use them in a slow/control type deck because hand size is actually very important when trying to control the field. So you can't use more than 1-2 of these "negative affect" type cards. Aggro on the other hand.. Can just dump their hand on to the field and play these cards for free.. (if there is no card to discard, it's a free 2 mana 4/3) then utilize their hero ability Life Tap to draw them more cards.
f) Rogue: Rogue, the poor rogue once super dominant then nerfed to ghost status and only as of just recently is making a comeback. The class revolves around a combo mechanic, playing the combo card after another card in the same turn (comboing) increases or adds new affects to the combo card played. EX Defias Ringleader If this card is played after another card in the same turn, You will summon an additional 2/1. The class also has a lot of cheap spells that help control the field and thus make comboing easy.
Pros: Rogue Aggro - Mid-range has made a comeback lately because of the amount of warlock aggro decks that have been present in the tournament scene. The cheap spells early game really help stop the burst of warlock aggro. The rogue is also a very versatile class. In a best of 3 match, rogue has many cards that are good to substitute in to counter other decks. For example Assassinate vs Druids late game minions.
Cons: Lack of AoE, if a rogue gets overwhelmed they usually have to dump their hand to try and recover. They also need to use a ton of minions that draw cards as they tend to burn their hand fast due to comboing and unlike warlocks they don't have a hero ability that draws them cards.
g) Paladin: Uthers class stands tall and like uther himself does not fear much. Paladin is a very balanced class with a ton of utility. The class revolves around buffing your own minions up and lowering the ATK/DEF of your opponents minions to give you an advantage. Cards like Blessing of Kings and Aldor Peacekeeper help you control the battlefield to your liking. Paladin also has very nice weapons (ex: Truesilver Champion) that they can use to help control the field as well.
Pros: Very balanced, isn't hard countered by any class, they are highly versatile and can also explode dealing tons of damage as well. I placed second during a managrind tournament using a paladin aggro deck. There was also a midrange paladin deck the week before that placed in the top 8. . Paladin has so much utility that it can make any archtype: Aggro, midrange, control work. Paladin is just a safe consistent class.
Cons: Very little removal, Paladins one weakness is their ability to hard remove a minion. If your opponents drop some big creatures with crazy abilities you might be in trouble. Especially minions that don't care about their attack (Ragnaros the Firelord)
h) Shaman: Shaman is the RNG class (random number generator) If you hit your RNG your usually in great shape. iF you don't hit it? it usually costs you the game. It's uses cards like Lightning Storm to control the field, you will also notice Overload:2 on the card text this means that next turn 2 mana is overloaded and can't be used. This also adds another dimension to shaman because you are constantly thinking about the future and trying to plan your turns accordingly. Totemic Call is the shamans hero ability it also is heavy on the RNG because you do not know what totem you will summon.
Pros: Shamans cards are usually very mana efficient because of overload, thus giving access to some low costing powerful AOE's to counter aggro decks. Just always be thinking a turn ahead because of overload. With the access to such early strong AOE's Shaman is the main hard counter to warlock aggro.
Cons: RNG!!! Seriously it matters, you never want a tournament match decided on RNG. 2 damage to all creatures is a BIG difference vs 3. The upside to the RNG is each individual minion will proc the RNG. So you will hit some for 2 and some for 3. Could you hit the 3 health minions for 2 dmg and the 2 health minions for 3? Absolutely! .
i)Warrior: The class revolves around using weapons to control the field while utilizing their hero ability Armor Up! to keep there life out of the red zone. They also utilize minions that get stronger after taking damage or other minions taking damage. Frothing Berserker is a good example, Combined with Warriors weapons you are clearing the field while increasing your own minions stats.
Pros: The warrior has a very stong early - midgame, Early weapons can really set your opponent on the defensive and give you the edge you need. Warrior like the hunter has the ability to OTK. Warrior is also another cheap class, most of the cards you will use as a warrior are relatively cheap to craft.
Cons: With a class so reliant on weapons, you could very well take too much damage early game, due to your hero face checking every minion your opponent plays. Warriors late game is a little lackluster outside of the usual OTK combo warriors use. Warrior also lacks good hard removal outside of weapons. Making late game removal harder than it should be. Currently I think Warrior is the weakest of the 9 classes competitively.
Whew! This concludes the basic class overviews, The next chapter of the guide will be Arch types: Aggro - Mid-range - Control - Combo(OTK)! We will discuss each arch type, its strengths/weaknesses and also review some decks for each Archtype!
Very nice, as I am typing this Hearthstone is busy downloading.
So as someone who has not even logged into Hearthstone yet or for the beginners this seems like a great thread! Eagerly awaiting the next classes and what you have to say about them.
I am unsure as to what I should make my first deck out to be, what to aim for first etc.
Hello Hearthpwn community!
Reiken777 here, also known under the MG(Managrind) Community as Sukoshi. I'm writing a guide to help more people get into competitive play because hearthstone is a fantastic game and a long lasting competitive community is needed for the longevity of the game. So now lets jump in to the basics.
Deck Building:
1: Choosing your class! There are nine classes to choose from and all offer some form of unique play. Alternatively a lot of the decks can offer an alternate variation on a specific arch-type.
a) Druid: The druid class mainly revolves around mid - late game. They have cards that aid them getting to that "late game" faster by adding mana crystals and drawing cards. The druid class is also very versatile, they are good at adapting to any situation. Competitively IMO they are the jack of all trades class.
Pros: Able to adapt to a wide variety of situations that rise up mid match. Excels when at 6+mana
Cons: Druid utilities are on the expensive side, most of their really good spells are 4+mana, Against a strong aggro to mid range deck your going to be reacting and on the defensive most of the time. Currently I think Druid is just a tad bit too slow for this meta. Granted that does NOT mean they can't win or wont win. As some of the players have proved in past tournaments.
b) Hunter: Now we have Rexxar, IMO hunter is known as the cheap mans deck. 99% of the great hunter cards are cheap to craft and easy to obtain. Hunter revolves around controlling the field with secrets, and beasts. It has the potential to have great burst damage with a chance to OTK(one turn kill) if the opportunity is right.
Pros: Cheap to build a decent deck! Unleash the hound has great potential to OTK your opponent.
Cons: Not reliable, Hunter is a very gimmick based class when it works it works wonders, When it doesn't you lose with 6-7 cards in your hand because you were trying to OTK. The Control hunter is a little underwhelming as there are better classes that can control the field more reliably. Sadly any arch-type that the hunter tries to use is overshadowed by better versions from other classes.
c) Mage: Jaina is a very strong mage and as such mage is a very strong class. Mage revolves around high damaging spells that deal considerable dmg to the enemy hero or AOE's that control the field.
Pros: Moon's Aggro deck, everyone is using this arch-type cause its cheap to build. It's Agressive and has great utility. Mage also offers great dmg potential with pyroblast. Being around 10 life is a scary place to be when vs a mage.
Cons: Moons Aggro deck, everyone is playing it, If you play a mage odds are your playing a version of his deck. People have started figuring out how to beat it, and as such it's starting to decline in effectiveness. Mage has so much potential, Don't leave it up to one person to figure out.
d) Priest: Priest! Everyone loves priest right now, Priest revolves around using your opponents cards against him, either turning his own minions on him or by stealing cards from his deck/hand. Priest also excels in boosting his own minions attributes up thus increasing his own minions survive ability.
Pros: Insane late game. Priest excels in play mode. That's about it.
Cons: competitively priest is not reliable. 2 tips to beating priests in a tournament. Take out all end game monsters, take out that beloved Ysera, Ragnaros, and replace them with minions that aren't devastating if mind controlled. Tip number 2 add in 4 attacking minions Argent commanders, Chillwind yetis, Azure drakes, Injured blademasters anyways the list goes on. 4 minions will make a priest player very pissed off. Trust me.
Keep in mind we are starting off with very basic overviews! As the guide progresses we will dwell into more competitive strategies and feature some good community created decks and some bad ones to compare and discuss. I'm hoping to add to this daily. Feedback is welcomed!
Next 5 classes to be continued. Then on to Archtypes and deck construction!
Hello Hearthpwn community!
Sukoshi here after being away for quite sometime! I have started a new job, (yeah i know! Hearthstone > life!) that has taken most of my free time away as I'm either working or working! So where did we last leave off? Ah yes! Class overview. Lets start off with a little demonic sacrifice shall we! (ok... that was lame I know)
DECK BUILDING: PT 2
Class Overview Continued:
e) Warlock: Gul'Dan! Warlock has had a huge surge of players recently with the 3-4 managrind.com tournament wins as a specific deck has been relatively dominant. The class revolves around using mana efficient cards that have other negatives like discarding to apply fast pressure, they also refill there hand via hero ability(Life Tap).
Pros: "Waggro" (warlock aggro) is probably the first deck in hearthstone that forces people in tournaments to build decks that revolve around countering it. It's so fast that given the right hand, the game is over by turn 4. Honestly in hearthstone because of the fact that you can't choose to block a minion EX:(throwing out a 1/1 to stall there 4/4), aggro will always be a huge tournament contender.
Cons: Warlock is currently a one dimensional class, It's amazing when played as an aggro (fast) deck. And crappy when played as anything else. A lot of the warlock class cards have negative side affects to there abilities. For example! Take the card Succubus you will notice 2 mana for a 4/3 is amazing, but the downside? You have to discard a card when it is played. These downsides limit the warlocks diversity because you don't want to use them in a slow/control type deck because hand size is actually very important when trying to control the field. So you can't use more than 1-2 of these "negative affect" type cards. Aggro on the other hand.. Can just dump their hand on to the field and play these cards for free.. (if there is no card to discard, it's a free 2 mana 4/3) then utilize their hero ability Life Tap to draw them more cards.
f) Rogue: Rogue, the poor rogue once super dominant then nerfed to ghost status and only as of just recently is making a comeback. The class revolves around a combo mechanic, playing the combo card after another card in the same turn (comboing) increases or adds new affects to the combo card played. EX Defias Ringleader If this card is played after another card in the same turn, You will summon an additional 2/1. The class also has a lot of cheap spells that help control the field and thus make comboing easy.
Pros: Rogue Aggro - Mid-range has made a comeback lately because of the amount of warlock aggro decks that have been present in the tournament scene. The cheap spells early game really help stop the burst of warlock aggro. The rogue is also a very versatile class. In a best of 3 match, rogue has many cards that are good to substitute in to counter other decks. For example Assassinate vs Druids late game minions.
Cons: Lack of AoE, if a rogue gets overwhelmed they usually have to dump their hand to try and recover. They also need to use a ton of minions that draw cards as they tend to burn their hand fast due to comboing and unlike warlocks they don't have a hero ability that draws them cards.
g) Paladin: Uthers class stands tall and like uther himself does not fear much. Paladin is a very balanced class with a ton of utility. The class revolves around buffing your own minions up and lowering the ATK/DEF of your opponents minions to give you an advantage. Cards like Blessing of Kings and Aldor Peacekeeper help you control the battlefield to your liking. Paladin also has very nice weapons (ex: Truesilver Champion) that they can use to help control the field as well.
Pros: Very balanced, isn't hard countered by any class, they are highly versatile and can also explode dealing tons of damage as well. I placed second during a managrind tournament using a paladin aggro deck. There was also a midrange paladin deck the week before that placed in the top 8. . Paladin has so much utility that it can make any archtype: Aggro, midrange, control work. Paladin is just a safe consistent class.
Cons: Very little removal, Paladins one weakness is their ability to hard remove a minion. If your opponents drop some big creatures with crazy abilities you might be in trouble. Especially minions that don't care about their attack (Ragnaros the Firelord)
h) Shaman: Shaman is the RNG class (random number generator) If you hit your RNG your usually in great shape. iF you don't hit it? it usually costs you the game. It's uses cards like Lightning Storm to control the field, you will also notice Overload:2 on the card text this means that next turn 2 mana is overloaded and can't be used. This also adds another dimension to shaman because you are constantly thinking about the future and trying to plan your turns accordingly. Totemic Call is the shamans hero ability it also is heavy on the RNG because you do not know what totem you will summon.
Pros: Shamans cards are usually very mana efficient because of overload, thus giving access to some low costing powerful AOE's to counter aggro decks. Just always be thinking a turn ahead because of overload. With the access to such early strong AOE's Shaman is the main hard counter to warlock aggro.
Cons: RNG!!! Seriously it matters, you never want a tournament match decided on RNG. 2 damage to all creatures is a BIG difference vs 3. The upside to the RNG is each individual minion will proc the RNG. So you will hit some for 2 and some for 3. Could you hit the 3 health minions for 2 dmg and the 2 health minions for 3? Absolutely! .
i)Warrior: The class revolves around using weapons to control the field while utilizing their hero ability Armor Up! to keep there life out of the red zone. They also utilize minions that get stronger after taking damage or other minions taking damage. Frothing Berserker is a good example, Combined with Warriors weapons you are clearing the field while increasing your own minions stats.
Pros: The warrior has a very stong early - midgame, Early weapons can really set your opponent on the defensive and give you the edge you need. Warrior like the hunter has the ability to OTK. Warrior is also another cheap class, most of the cards you will use as a warrior are relatively cheap to craft.
Cons: With a class so reliant on weapons, you could very well take too much damage early game, due to your hero face checking every minion your opponent plays. Warriors late game is a little lackluster outside of the usual OTK combo warriors use. Warrior also lacks good hard removal outside of weapons. Making late game removal harder than it should be. Currently I think Warrior is the weakest of the 9 classes competitively.
Whew! This concludes the basic class overviews, The next chapter of the guide will be Arch types: Aggro - Mid-range - Control - Combo(OTK)! We will discuss each arch type, its strengths/weaknesses and also review some decks for each Archtype!
Had a good read, can't wait for the other classes. :-)
Very nice, as I am typing this Hearthstone is busy downloading.
So as someone who has not even logged into Hearthstone yet or for the beginners this seems like a great thread! Eagerly awaiting the next classes and what you have to say about them.
I am unsure as to what I should make my first deck out to be, what to aim for first etc.
Mage seems like a decent choice I guess.
That hunter, I'm cheap like that.
Are you going to continue with the guide in this thread?
Arena Tips
Enjoy!
Thank you, since the last time I changed to warrior. Good to see I'm still cheap.
Arena Tips