There is a similarity between Hearthstone Arena runs and poker:
The quality of the poker hands every player gets, and the quality of the Arena draft picks every player gets will become equal ON AVERAGE over a long period of time. The best players can avoid tilting when things don't go their way, and squeeze out decent Arena runs even when the deck contains a few severely suboptimal cards. Getting bad Arena picks happens to everyone at some point. The best players still find some synergies and/or squeeze a decent mana curve out of it to avoid getting 0-3. The more you play, the more you realize that a single run is hardly significant. Only the long term average is really significant as a measure of play skill and improvement, because that is affected less by chance and more by skill.
Exactly, you just have to be patient and wait for the right cards to come. And if you get a bad beat, you have to keep calm and carry on ;)
I hardly arena at all. In my 10 weeks of playing hearthstone, I've accumulated over 1300 normal wins but under 100 area wins, yet I was able to get 11 wins just now off a draft that consisted of 0 epics, 0 legends, and only a few rares. Card rarity has little to do with success in arena.
I keep track of my arena runs and my average is now close to 6 wins per run now. I've learned the hard way though. I had arenas with awful decks and complained about my luck, but when I really learned something was when I got excelent dreamy picks and got only 4-5 wins and realized how important the mana curve and the balance between spells and minions is.
1) faceless. Pretty much Faceless and BGH are the best epics (other than some class ones). Its not situational, because if you faceless any 5+ drop, it was at least worth its cost. sea giant is ok, but its some what of a win more/lose less card (either its cheap because you are way behind or way ahead)
7) I think its very close for all 3, but i like dragonling and ironbeak both better here. would probably go dragonling.
11) I wouldve gone silvermoon patriarch here. Going a smaller deck, any kind of crappy taunt can delay their big minions by another turn and let you win.
13) This is the one pick that id consider a big mistake. This is a clear acolyte of pain. You have no draw and you have drawn almost half your deck, how can you pass up on a draw here (unless its worthless novice engineer)?
18) Id go protector here. I pretty much suggest picking strong 2 drops nearly every time unless you are being offered a considerably better card at another mana bracket.
20) sunfury.
21) Id go zerker or raid leader over hunter. if you drew as i suggested up to this point, youd have a lot of low drops, so raid leader is reasonably good. Zerker is a card that can snowball you out of control if you are ahead, so since you will be pumping the board up, it will give you a card that is hard to deal with and protects you against AoE.
23) ugh, i dont like blessing of wisdom, but i guess you have so little draw you have to pick it over the raider that i would be picking 95% of the time here.
29) not sure what your curve would be at this point if you drew the considerably lower mana cards i suggested, but id guess stormwind would be better (but SSC was the best choice for your draft)
Thanks a bunch for taking the time to analyze my draft list. <3
1) I was a bit torn between the two, but ended up going with Sea Giant because it works fairly well with Reinforce and it felt like a safer pick.
13) I wanted to grab Acolyte for that very reason, but decided to pick Worgen instead because its impact/presence on the field is much higher and I was severely lacking 3 drops.
18) I decided to go with Boulderfist because I already had two Protectors and six 2 drops total, compared to only one 6 drop.
20) I really wanted to take Sunfury, but I chose Equality instead because it's almost like a pseduo-Consecration and I was completely lacking AoE. (I didn't end up getting a Consecration either </3)
Jeeze, I'm currently 3:0 with this deck after beating a Shaman, Druid, and Paladin.
I'm actually really happy I took Equality because it's been immensely helpful so far. It's really great because I have plenty of cheap minions (Loot Hoarder, Reinforce, Ooze, SSC, etc), who aren't really affected by it anyway, that can kill the first big enemy minion(s). Once that's done, I have enough time to establish board control and end up overwhelming the other player with all of my big minions.
EDIT: I'm really not looking forward to fighting a Mage...
Your draft was good overall. People will always have some different views, but I dont think you made any big mistakes. I would have picked that 3rd argent protector, the acolyte of pain(even though worgen is really good), and that pirate(instead of blessing of wisdom).
My worst arena decks ever have always been those with legendaries. I average 3-6 wins with a legendary in the deck and 7-8 with normal decks. Very rarely is a legendary actually beneficial because they are so situational. Ragnaros or Cairne are probably the two legendaries I would actually enjoy drafting in a normal deck.
Each time I lost it was against a fucking Mage, what a surprise. I'm pretty much done with Arena until Mages are nerfed, it's stupid that one class is essentially a free win.
- I always try to make efficient trades and maintain board control/card advantage.
Then it seems your problem is experience. I'm guessing you have only played HS for a few weeks, while the Arena Pros have been playing for 6-7 months. The funny thing about arena is when I think my deck will be terrible, those are the decks that get me 7+ wins. Remember too that everyone you are playing against had to draft too, and their deck could be worse than yours. Also, thinking legendaries and epics win you games is a bad mindset. Legendaries and epics are good when they have cards to complement them, they don't win you games by themselves.
first time i got to 12 wins was with a hunter deck no epics or legendary 3 rares(2 savanna and 1 kodo). if the cards complement themselves you won't need legendaries or epics. sometimes though i agree the draft is really a joke but all in all it's not that hard to be consistent.
That draft gave me an erection, kidding but its really good. There are a few spots I might have gone slightly different but I can see why you made the choices you did. 7 or more even, its a really nice draft for Shaman
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Exactly, you just have to be patient and wait for the right cards to come. And if you get a bad beat, you have to keep calm and carry on ;)
Poker 101 :D
I hardly arena at all. In my 10 weeks of playing hearthstone, I've accumulated over 1300 normal wins but under 100 area wins, yet I was able to get 11 wins just now off a draft that consisted of 0 epics, 0 legends, and only a few rares. Card rarity has little to do with success in arena.
I keep track of my arena runs and my average is now close to 6 wins per run now. I've learned the hard way though. I had arenas with awful decks and complained about my luck, but when I really learned something was when I got excelent dreamy picks and got only 4-5 wins and realized how important the mana curve and the balance between spells and minions is.
Here's my latest Arena draft:
http://www.arenavalue.com/s/wgYeBD
EDIT: I already know the deck lacks 3 drops and spells and has too many 4/5 drops.
Ok, here are what id consider wrong picks:
1) faceless. Pretty much Faceless and BGH are the best epics (other than some class ones). Its not situational, because if you faceless any 5+ drop, it was at least worth its cost. sea giant is ok, but its some what of a win more/lose less card (either its cheap because you are way behind or way ahead)
7) I think its very close for all 3, but i like dragonling and ironbeak both better here. would probably go dragonling.
11) I wouldve gone silvermoon patriarch here. Going a smaller deck, any kind of crappy taunt can delay their big minions by another turn and let you win.
13) This is the one pick that id consider a big mistake. This is a clear acolyte of pain. You have no draw and you have drawn almost half your deck, how can you pass up on a draw here (unless its worthless novice engineer)?
18) Id go protector here. I pretty much suggest picking strong 2 drops nearly every time unless you are being offered a considerably better card at another mana bracket.
20) sunfury.
21) Id go zerker or raid leader over hunter. if you drew as i suggested up to this point, youd have a lot of low drops, so raid leader is reasonably good. Zerker is a card that can snowball you out of control if you are ahead, so since you will be pumping the board up, it will give you a card that is hard to deal with and protects you against AoE.
23) ugh, i dont like blessing of wisdom, but i guess you have so little draw you have to pick it over the raider that i would be picking 95% of the time here.
29) not sure what your curve would be at this point if you drew the considerably lower mana cards i suggested, but id guess stormwind would be better (but SSC was the best choice for your draft)
Thanks a bunch for taking the time to analyze my draft list. <3
1) I was a bit torn between the two, but ended up going with Sea Giant because it works fairly well with Reinforce and it felt like a safer pick.
13) I wanted to grab Acolyte for that very reason, but decided to pick Worgen instead because its impact/presence on the field is much higher and I was severely lacking 3 drops.
18) I decided to go with Boulderfist because I already had two Protectors and six 2 drops total, compared to only one 6 drop.
20) I really wanted to take Sunfury, but I chose Equality instead because it's almost like a pseduo-Consecration and I was completely lacking AoE. (I didn't end up getting a Consecration either </3)
Jeeze, I'm currently 3:0 with this deck after beating a Shaman, Druid, and Paladin.
I'm actually really happy I took Equality because it's been immensely helpful so far. It's really great because I have plenty of cheap minions (Loot Hoarder, Reinforce, Ooze, SSC, etc), who aren't really affected by it anyway, that can kill the first big enemy minion(s). Once that's done, I have enough time to establish board control and end up overwhelming the other player with all of my big minions.
EDIT: I'm really not looking forward to fighting a Mage...
Your draft was good overall. People will always have some different views, but I dont think you made any big mistakes. I would have picked that 3rd argent protector, the acolyte of pain(even though worgen is really good), and that pirate(instead of blessing of wisdom).
My worst arena decks ever have always been those with legendaries. I average 3-6 wins with a legendary in the deck and 7-8 with normal decks. Very rarely is a legendary actually beneficial because they are so situational. Ragnaros or Cairne are probably the two legendaries I would actually enjoy drafting in a normal deck.
I was 5:0 but lost my next 3 games in a row to...
- Paladin
- Warlock (embarrassing)
- Mage (what a surprise)
Here's another Arena draft.
http://www.arenavalue.com/s/elQFdF
I love how I was 5:0 before losing twice in a row to two Mages...
Tell me I'm trying to blame being bad on others all you want, but Mage is freakishly broken in Arena.
Wow... I ended with 6:3, just short 1 win.
Each time I lost it was against a fucking Mage, what a surprise. I'm pretty much done with Arena until Mages are nerfed, it's stupid that one class is essentially a free win.
Mages are not so overpowered really.
http://heartstonestatsanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/
Then it seems your problem is experience. I'm guessing you have only played HS for a few weeks, while the Arena Pros have been playing for 6-7 months. The funny thing about arena is when I think my deck will be terrible, those are the decks that get me 7+ wins. Remember too that everyone you are playing against had to draft too, and their deck could be worse than yours. Also, thinking legendaries and epics win you games is a bad mindset. Legendaries and epics are good when they have cards to complement them, they don't win you games by themselves.
first time i got to 12 wins was with a hunter deck no epics or legendary 3 rares(2 savanna and 1 kodo). if the cards complement themselves you won't need legendaries or epics. sometimes though i agree the draft is really a joke but all in all it's not that hard to be consistent.
Thanks for the feedback everyone, I really appreciate it. <3
Just always remember, one for two. Your one card trades for two of theirs, or card that summons other card is always good.
Always go for general combos rather than specific (miracle rogue type),
e.g. if you have cult master, you might want to pick silver hand knight over another one body minion.
If you have a lot of weapon, make sure to get some healing and taunts.
If you play control and outlast your opponent, early survival is the most important, so make sure you have decent low cost removals and taunts.
I find the best curve is heavy on 3/4 and 7+, keep 1,2,5,6 at 2-3 each.
Here's another draft, this time for Shaman.
http://www.arenavalue.com/s/QirGKq
That draft gave me an erection, kidding but its really good. There are a few spots I might have gone slightly different but I can see why you made the choices you did. 7 or more even, its a really nice draft for Shaman