This is a guide for all of you who think Nefarian needs to be nerfed. I currently have 21 wins and 9 of them are with Ragnaros.
In order to maintain a high win-rate as both characters, you have to know what your hero's win condition is. Ragnaros' win condition comes from the obvious elimination of his weapon to get the (more over powered than Nefarian's) hero power. Nefarian has to rush down Ragnaros' life to below 25 by turn 6 (when the weapon breaks). If Ragnaros still has this health total and the board is not significantly in favor of Nefarian, he will win.
Many people are making the mistake of overlooking Rags first hero power. They think it completely sucks and there no point in ever hitting that button. I say the exact opposite. Magma Rager is the single most important creature Rag has access to. Many of the threats that Nefarian can play have 7 life. This fits perfectly in Rags general game play. One hit from Magma Rager and one hit from his weapon and you've killed a minion and one step closer to closing out the game with 8 damage a turn.
"But if I have another creature that I can play shouldn't I play that instead." What creature in Rags deck has more value than a 2 cost Magma Rager against a deck whose weakest minion has 3 attack (2 if you include whelps from multiple cards [still not including Onyxias whelps though]). I see many people playing the 6/6 Taunt over hero powering and I just laugh. Think about it this way... you use MR to assist in killing the opponents 7 health minion. It takes a turn for him to be able to attack. Now the 6/6 does the same thing, but it's immediate. So if you aren't being pressured to immediately deal with a threat, why waste a card in hand when you can use a free minion that can respawn.
Now that that's out of the way we can get into the start of the game.
Your first couple of cards in hand are by far the mot important. As long as you can survive to the late game you will win. I personally try to mulligan for Lucifron, Moira Bronzebeard, Core Hounds, Living Bomb, and Son of the Flame. These cards will help aid you in stopping you're opponent dead in their tracks, which is a problem for them since they have to move fast in order to beat the clock. Lucifron is a nice turn 4 play as typically you won't have anything alive on the board cause it will have been traded off. Moira is good because she has a benefit when traded away. Core Hounds are nice counters to Blackwing Corruptors that are played to deal with your MR. SotF, a half cost 2x valued Fire Elemental, yes please. And Living Bomb is a saving grace against all of Nefarians cards.
Turn 1 Going first: Nothing special, if you have Flame Imp play it and hit the face with your weapon. If you don't hit the face with weapon anyway
Turn 1 Coin: Coin out a Magma Rager ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Turn 2: Magma Rager and trade off your previous one if you have it. Kill an enemy minion with your weapon if you can, if not hit face.
Turn 3: Moira/ Core Hound/ Magma Rager/ Son of the Flame, depending on how much health the opponent creatures have. Typically if they have more than 6 health go with Magma Rager if you don't have SotF, else go with Core Hound. Moira is a nice play too, but if the opponent is putting on early pressure with Atramedes or Magmatron go with MR.
Turn 4: Lucifron, as long as they have 2 strong minions or 3+ minions in general. Don't waste this power house on cheap stuff, but if you're being overrun, you might not have a choice.
I save Living Bomb until the perfect moment. Typically it's the turn I draw a good removal like Son of the Flame and there 3+ minions, or I'm about to break Rags weapon. The reason being that both of these options are single target removal, so removing a group and preventing them from playing anymore low cost cards that will out tempo you is amazing.
I hope you like this guide and find it helpful. I'm going to stop there so that I don't give away all my secrets, but I also don't have to listen to people complain anymore :P . If you have any suggestions of things that I missed or questions about the guide leave a comment and I will try to get back as quickly as possible.
If you manage to set up for a tempo swing by turn 4 or 5. with Lucifron / Living Bomb into flood empty board with Molten Giant / Magma Rager / 2-/3-mana minions, you are most likely gonna win. Even if you are down to 20 health at this point, your opponent has to get very lucky with their spells in order to finish you off and Nefarian is very bad at winning the board back.
If you manage to set up for a tempo swing by turn 4 or 5. with Lucifron / Living Bomb into flood empty board with Molten Giant / Magma Rager / 2-/3-mana minions, you are most likely gonna win. Even if you are down to 20 health at this point, your opponent has to get very lucky with their spells in order to finish you off and Nefarian is very bad at winning the board back.
No, because nefarian has shadowflame. All you have to do with nefarian to win against even the best rag player is to keep 7/7s, play those, then just stomp face and save shadowflame.
If you lose control as nefarian, just hero power, control rag's board and then go for a shadowflame play into a board flood. Rag = dead.
How people lose as Nefarian is they play 3/5s and 5/5s early into rag's 6/6 taunt, then they just get bad spells off hero power. Yah that's basically how you lose with Nefarian. As rag, usually living bomb will be too slow and if you don't have at least one molten giant to back it up after you lose like 40 life setting it up, you lose.
I'm up to 11 wins in brawl I think and the games are getting closer but Nefarian is still the clear winner whether I play with or against him.
If you play Chromatic Drake + Shadowflame, you can't do anything else that turn, which gives initiative back to Ragnaros. There's always some crazy Vaelstrasz-plays, but you need all the right cards first. Beside that, Nefarian has no means to quickly manipulate the board state - you need either the right spells or a turn to setup. Ragnaros on the other hand has plenty of tools to immediatly react to threats. So once Ragnaros has board initiative, he is heavily favored.
This is a guide for all of you who think Nefarian needs to be nerfed. I currently have 21 wins and 9 of them are with Ragnaros.
In order to maintain a high win-rate as both characters, you have to know what your hero's win condition is. Ragnaros' win condition comes from the obvious elimination of his weapon to get the (more over powered than Nefarian's) hero power. Nefarian has to rush down Ragnaros' life to below 25 by turn 6 (when the weapon breaks). If Ragnaros still has this health total and the board is not significantly in favor of Nefarian, he will win.
Many people are making the mistake of overlooking Rags first hero power. They think it completely sucks and there no point in ever hitting that button. I say the exact opposite. Magma Rager is the single most important creature Rag has access to. Many of the threats that Nefarian can play have 7 life. This fits perfectly in Rags general game play. One hit from Magma Rager and one hit from his weapon and you've killed a minion and one step closer to closing out the game with 8 damage a turn.
"But if I have another creature that I can play shouldn't I play that instead." What creature in Rags deck has more value than a 2 cost Magma Rager against a deck whose weakest minion has 3 attack (2 if you include whelps from multiple cards [still not including Onyxias whelps though]). I see many people playing the 6/6 Taunt over hero powering and I just laugh. Think about it this way... you use MR to assist in killing the opponents 7 health minion. It takes a turn for him to be able to attack. Now the 6/6 does the same thing, but it's immediate. So if you aren't being pressured to immediately deal with a threat, why waste a card in hand when you can use a free minion that can respawn.
Now that that's out of the way we can get into the start of the game.
Your first couple of cards in hand are by far the mot important. As long as you can survive to the late game you will win. I personally try to mulligan for Lucifron, Moira Bronzebeard, Core Hounds, Living Bomb, and Son of the Flame. These cards will help aid you in stopping you're opponent dead in their tracks, which is a problem for them since they have to move fast in order to beat the clock. Lucifron is a nice turn 4 play as typically you won't have anything alive on the board cause it will have been traded off. Moira is good because she has a benefit when traded away. Core Hounds are nice counters to Blackwing Corruptors that are played to deal with your MR. SotF, a half cost 2x valued Fire Elemental, yes please. And Living Bomb is a saving grace against all of Nefarians cards.
Turn 1 Going first: Nothing special, if you have Flame Imp play it and hit the face with your weapon. If you don't hit the face with weapon anyway
Turn 1 Coin: Coin out a Magma Rager ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Turn 2: Magma Rager and trade off your previous one if you have it. Kill an enemy minion with your weapon if you can, if not hit face.
Turn 3: Moira/ Core Hound/ Magma Rager/ Son of the Flame, depending on how much health the opponent creatures have. Typically if they have more than 6 health go with Magma Rager if you don't have SotF, else go with Core Hound. Moira is a nice play too, but if the opponent is putting on early pressure with Atramedes or Magmatron go with MR.
Turn 4: Lucifron, as long as they have 2 strong minions or 3+ minions in general. Don't waste this power house on cheap stuff, but if you're being overrun, you might not have a choice.
I save Living Bomb until the perfect moment. Typically it's the turn I draw a good removal like Son of the Flame and there 3+ minions, or I'm about to break Rags weapon. The reason being that both of these options are single target removal, so removing a group and preventing them from playing anymore low cost cards that will out tempo you is amazing.
I hope you like this guide and find it helpful. I'm going to stop there so that I don't give away all my secrets, but I also don't have to listen to people complain anymore :P . If you have any suggestions of things that I missed or questions about the guide leave a comment and I will try to get back as quickly as possible.
It's not a sure loss with Rag, but it's much harder. The balance is off, no doubt about it.
Son of the Flame is the most important card for rag.
I mulligan everything in my hand that's not a son of the flame or lucifron.
I would guess Son of the Flame is by far the card most correlated with winning as Rag
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To win as Rag, get super lucky.
If you manage to set up for a tempo swing by turn 4 or 5. with Lucifron / Living Bomb into flood empty board with Molten Giant / Magma Rager / 2-/3-mana minions, you are most likely gonna win. Even if you are down to 20 health at this point, your opponent has to get very lucky with their spells in order to finish you off and Nefarian is very bad at winning the board back.
No, because nefarian has shadowflame.
All you have to do with nefarian to win against even the best rag player is to keep 7/7s, play those, then just stomp face and save shadowflame.
If you lose control as nefarian, just hero power, control rag's board and then go for a shadowflame play into a board flood. Rag = dead.
How people lose as Nefarian is they play 3/5s and 5/5s early into rag's 6/6 taunt, then they just get bad spells off hero power. Yah that's basically how you lose with Nefarian.
As rag, usually living bomb will be too slow and if you don't have at least one molten giant to back it up after you lose like 40 life setting it up, you lose.
I'm up to 11 wins in brawl I think and the games are getting closer but Nefarian is still the clear winner whether I play with or against him.
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If you play Chromatic Drake + Shadowflame, you can't do anything else that turn, which gives initiative back to Ragnaros. There's always some crazy Vaelstrasz-plays, but you need all the right cards first. Beside that, Nefarian has no means to quickly manipulate the board state - you need either the right spells or a turn to setup. Ragnaros on the other hand has plenty of tools to immediatly react to threats. So once Ragnaros has board initiative, he is heavily favored.
1 turn, 29 health, winning as rag not hard just not free.