I'm having trouble against OTK decks that draw to fatigue and then use that fatigue to win, in particular Garrote Rogue and Quest Warlock. Like, how do I stop them drawing all their cards and getting their bullshit going? The thing is, I come across them maybe once or twice a week, so I sort of just forget they exist until I have one appear out of nowhere and bamboozle me.
In standard? You kill them before they kill you, there is no other way (technically warrior can survive rogue by stacking up enough armor but good luck with doing it on time).
I'm having trouble against OTK decks that draw to fatigue and then use that fatigue to win, in particular Garrote Rogue and Quest Warlock. Like, how do I stop them drawing all their cards and getting their bullshit going? The thing is, I come across them maybe once or twice a week, so I sort of just forget they exist until I have one appear out of nowhere and bamboozle me.
If you see them twice a week, i would not change any cards in your deck, since it would prob effect your winrate against more popular decks in the meta. If your deck is midrange/controlish, just accept it's prob a loss and move on.
The fact that you let a warlock complete their quest and reach fatigue is probably a big reason why you keep losing against them. I can't even remember the last warlock I faced that completed the quest in standard, let alone used fatigue to kill me.
OTK decks are interesting... they stack their deck with removal and their combo cards and rarely put pressure on their opponent until the combo turn.
So if you find an opponent that you suspect might be OTK, you need to be the aggressor in that game. If you're also not putting on pressure and playing control then you will likely lose. That was the old rock paper scissor analogy. Control beats aggro, OTK beats control, aggro beats OTK...
It's not as black and white as it once was, but the base remains. I think a good deck in this meta is kind of mid range that can still put on pressure in the early/mid game but have some juice to keep going later on.
By pressuring your opponent early and either killing them before they can combo you or forcing them to use combo pieces when they don't want to, you can win those match ups.
But sometimes they just getcha - and that's the nature of the game. Can only take it and move on to the next match.
@Pherosizm makes a good point here, and I just want to expand slighty. There's an old MTG article somewhere called 'Who's the beatdown?' or something like that, which espouses the opinion that in any game (of magic, but it's applicible to other CCGs like HS), one deck should be aggressive and one taking the control road. Doesn't matter that you're playing an aggro deck - if you know that your opponent's deck is faster than yours, you are effectively a (relatively) bad control deck. It's not as clear-cut in HS due to variance, but that's basically what's happening here. It's especially relevant in Arena (where you have significant choices like if you've got enough burst to be able to ignore board or if you should trade, if your opp is likely to have high burst etc.), but still important elsewhere.
It doesn't matter that you're control. You can't win an endgame against Combo - that's combo's entire thing in HS, preying on slow, greedy control that doesn't pressure. Thus you have to be the aggro deck and pressure them. Depending on the deck, you don't always need to kill them. If you can force enough pressure that they have to use combo pieces on survival as opposed to combo, you're further slowing them down, possibly enough to be able to use your lategame wincons.
There's a lot of good info in this thread but I think a key question hasn't been asked yet: What deck are you running? a good general rule of thumb is that all 3 big variants of OTK/Combo (warlock, rogue, mage) achieve their endgame by turn 8 on average. So if your strategy doesn't involve overwhelming them before then, you are probably going to have a bad time.
Assuming it's an OTK deck designed to win through battle damage, one of the options you can start off with is forcing them to go first (OTK decks like going second). This may force them to dispense some of their resources unwillingly which could've gone into their OTK since they would have to be afraid of you OTKing them in turn if they just choose to do nothing and save their resources.Another thing you can do may depend on what deck you're playing, but if you're able to set up a powerful enough board with enough disruption, then you may be able to throw the OTK player off enough to stop him from finishing his massive damage combo.
I'm having trouble against OTK decks that draw to fatigue and then use that fatigue to win, in particular Garrote Rogue and Quest Warlock. Like, how do I stop them drawing all their cards and getting their bullshit going? The thing is, I come across them maybe once or twice a week, so I sort of just forget they exist until I have one appear out of nowhere and bamboozle me.
In standard? You kill them before they kill you, there is no other way (technically warrior can survive rogue by stacking up enough armor but good luck with doing it on time).
If you see them twice a week, i would not change any cards in your deck, since it would prob effect your winrate against more popular decks in the meta. If your deck is midrange/controlish, just accept it's prob a loss and move on.
The fact that you let a warlock complete their quest and reach fatigue is probably a big reason why you keep losing against them. I can't even remember the last warlock I faced that completed the quest in standard, let alone used fatigue to kill me.
Kill them with fire!
... call Hanz, he will help you
OTK decks are interesting... they stack their deck with removal and their combo cards and rarely put pressure on their opponent until the combo turn.
So if you find an opponent that you suspect might be OTK, you need to be the aggressor in that game. If you're also not putting on pressure and playing control then you will likely lose. That was the old rock paper scissor analogy. Control beats aggro, OTK beats control, aggro beats OTK...
It's not as black and white as it once was, but the base remains. I think a good deck in this meta is kind of mid range that can still put on pressure in the early/mid game but have some juice to keep going later on.
By pressuring your opponent early and either killing them before they can combo you or forcing them to use combo pieces when they don't want to, you can win those match ups.
But sometimes they just getcha - and that's the nature of the game. Can only take it and move on to the next match.
@Pherosizm makes a good point here, and I just want to expand slighty. There's an old MTG article somewhere called 'Who's the beatdown?' or something like that, which espouses the opinion that in any game (of magic, but it's applicible to other CCGs like HS), one deck should be aggressive and one taking the control road. Doesn't matter that you're playing an aggro deck - if you know that your opponent's deck is faster than yours, you are effectively a (relatively) bad control deck. It's not as clear-cut in HS due to variance, but that's basically what's happening here. It's especially relevant in Arena (where you have significant choices like if you've got enough burst to be able to ignore board or if you should trade, if your opp is likely to have high burst etc.), but still important elsewhere.
It doesn't matter that you're control. You can't win an endgame against Combo - that's combo's entire thing in HS, preying on slow, greedy control that doesn't pressure. Thus you have to be the aggro deck and pressure them. Depending on the deck, you don't always need to kill them. If you can force enough pressure that they have to use combo pieces on survival as opposed to combo, you're further slowing them down, possibly enough to be able to use your lategame wincons.
Tickatus
There's a lot of good info in this thread but I think a key question hasn't been asked yet: What deck are you running? a good general rule of thumb is that all 3 big variants of OTK/Combo (warlock, rogue, mage) achieve their endgame by turn 8 on average. So if your strategy doesn't involve overwhelming them before then, you are probably going to have a bad time.
Go face, face is the place.
Dead but dreaming
Get lucky.
Mill them a bit.
Mutanus the Devourer
EU 11/2015+ , f2p 03/2021+: DK 63 / DH 205 /Dr 277 / Hu 733 / Ma 6666 / Pa 1072 / Pr 1165 / Ro 1791 / Sh 1303 / Wl 707 / Wr 664
Assuming it's an OTK deck designed to win through battle damage, one of the options you can start off with is forcing them to go first (OTK decks like going second). This may force them to dispense some of their resources unwillingly which could've gone into their OTK since they would have to be afraid of you OTKing them in turn if they just choose to do nothing and save their resources.Another thing you can do may depend on what deck you're playing, but if you're able to set up a powerful enough board with enough disruption, then you may be able to throw the OTK player off enough to stop him from finishing his massive damage combo.
OP is mage.
Mind explaining OP how to do it? He asked for solutions not for a flex
And i don’t even play Paladins