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Quote from Ehronatha >>

You forgot Shadowflame.  I think that card is the real reason for Warlock's high win rate.  It is the best board clear in Arena.  

Nope, rarely pick it. I don't know why, but it just doesn't cut it in my must-haves. I'll take it IF I have a high number of good value, high-attack minions I'm willing to spare, and given bad alternative options, but I force trades, and go face early. It's front-foot gameplay and works for me. Certainly not Unwilling Sacrifice. People don't play around it, but it's very rare for the board to present itself in a way that has you in the ascendancy, a sacrificeable minion, and just their huge mofo on the board. If that happens, I know I'm in a win-more position anyway, and probably have another answer. If they have a weak minion alongside, let's say, a 4/12 taunt, there's just no way I'm taking the risk. At 9-11 wins, that's a potential game thrower. Siphon Soul + trades, any day of the week.

The best board clear in arena is, without a doubt in my mind, Defile. I also drafted Lord Godfrey TWICE last week, my oh my, thanks lad, 2 easy 12-win runs right there. What a crazy legendary to have in arena format.

Quote from Draco_Cracona >>

Quote from Skyryser >>

Quote from Ehronatha >>

You forgot Shadowflame.  I think that card is the real reason for Warlock's high win rate.  It is the best board clear in Arena.  

Nope, rarely pick it. I don't know why, but it just doesn't cut it in my must-haves. I'll take it IF I have a high number of good value, high-attack minions I'm willing to spare, and given bad alternative options, but I force trades, and go face early. It's front-foot gameplay and works for me. Certainly not Unwilling Sacrifice. People don't play around it, but it's very rare for the board to present itself in a way that has you in the ascendancy, a sacrificeable minion, and just their huge mofo on the board. If that happens, I know I'm in a win-more position anyway, and probably have another answer. If they have a weak minion alongside, let's say, a 4/12 taunt, there's just no way I'm taking the risk. At 9-11 wins, that's a potential game thrower. Siphon Soul + trades, any day of the week.

The best board clear in arena is, without a doubt in my mind, Defile. I also drafted Lord Godfrey TWICE last week, my oh my, thanks lad, 2 easy 12-win runs right there. What a crazy legendary to have in arena format.

Never had a Godfrey in Arena. Been blown out by one, though! I don't usually find unwilling great, but this run? It's saved my backside from stabilizing opponents. Siphon would have done the same job, though, certainly, but if you're keeping board control, it's a solid tool for stopping a Sleepy, obsidian, or LK from stonewalling you (and is, obviously, against worse stuff in buckets) Obviously, didn't have the same overall impact on the run as the early stuff, but it was enough tempo to push the deck over into lethal territory.

As for Flame, it probably depends on the draft. Fits absolutely perfect in a zoo-style build, like this last run. So many  cases of Hoarding/flame for a boardclear and punch face - and it nearly got me back into that last game, at 11-2, though came too late. One-sided, variable damage boardclears are really strong (two-card flamestrike! Then the opp just dropped two things, and I didn't roll well on Volc) in a tempo-y, Zoo-y deck. With a better pilot, that would have been a solid 12, I think.

 Aaaaah! Bro I just responded to you in the other thread you have. Grats on 11, that's a great result. Glad for you. Honestly, don't draft Volc, it's not a great arena card anymore if you have better options. It's a lot of mana for very RNG-reliant impact, you're sometimes better off with a decent 2-3 drop instead to ensure a good early curve.

Watch every replay of your games on this run that you can. The good runs (especially above 9 wins) are a mine of info, take a half hour, take notes if you have to, but it'll be worth it. There's gold abound, matey!

Definitely need AOE. Don't draft too heavy, but make sure you have some heavy cards. I think for Warlock i'd prefer stats and effects over value or card generation, so having a well statted taunt is better then playing an understatted minion that draws you a card. While the class can play good control, I think drafting for it is too inconsistent. Usually I take almost every AOE offered (re-evaluate at 4 aoe spells i'd say). Minions that have AOE effects work the best like Dread Infernal and Dreadlord obviously, however having a variety of removal is also good. Hellfire, Shadowflame and of course Defile, are all excellent.  

Nether is really good as well, but it's a bit more deck dependent. 

Minion-wise - taunts, and heals are great. Even if your whole curve was taunts I don't think you can go too wrong. Don't overtap especially at the cost of tempo, so play your cards first, then tap if you can help it.  

Warlock is probably the hardest class to draft right now. I still haven't found the most consistent way to draft - and it seems to shift every once in a while. Most other classes are rather straight forward - draft for good 3s, 4s, and 5s. But Warlock you have to balance your removals which they could give you too much, or you end up ignoring for curve minions. It's also theorized by top players that Warlock is easy to get to the 4-5 win threshold, but after that it's much harder to average high wins with it. For me I've seen good Warlock decks and people with good averages, so there must be a formula, it's just a very hard one to find. I recently gone 12-1 with this deck and basically cruised my way to 12.

The twisting nether was basically useless but you can see here the balance between small removals, early game minions, late game minions, removal minions or spells, and AoEs.

I feel like arena is in a terrible state, but im hopefull they will fix it in the new hearthstone year.

These are my last 3x 12 win Warlocks. I've had some good decks flounder and bad decks over perform. These are just the lucky ones to make it to 12 recently.  Hope it helps 

Quote from Boozor >>

 

 

 

These are my last 3x 12 win Warlocks. I've had some good decks flounder and bad decks over perform. These are just the lucky ones to make it to 12 recently.  Hope it helps 

 Wow dude, your 12-win drafts are nowhere near the level of my last 3, that's really impressive. My last 2 each had 2 legendaries, both with Lord Godfrey, and always stuff like GI and Fungalmancer aplenty and a super solid curve. The middle one with the LK looks cool, but I guess the others scored sort of late 60's early 70's on Heartharena? Mine were honestly in the mid 70's, just ridiculously OP. For me, the class draws consistently above 70, like 90% of the time.

But 12 wins with that deck on the left, hats off man. As uncle Darth would say, most impressive.

Ok I've drafted this rogue deck, which at first only seemed good in some places, but it is absolutely brutal. I lost just the second game because I came up against an OP deck with a Sword of Justice, insane curve, AND misplayed 3 times, badly, but it's crushed everything so far to 7-1 in like 35 mins. Here's the decklist attached.

Doesn't seem like much, at first glance, but it is absolutely insane. I've literally never hit seven wins (and I really, really should've won that game against the pally, 4 health off, those misplays were absolutely shocking and totally rookie mistakes) with such ease in so little time. Rogue is another crazy one in this meta, you can create board states with poisonous/+attack the next turn that can bring on some really quick takedowns.

EDIT: I even had someone concede with 16 health at turn 5 @ 5-1. Never seen that in my entire HS career XD

66.9 / 71.3 / 71.4   

Honestly, most of my drafts are about 66-70 scores.  

My last 4 Rogue 12 win drafts for comparison. The top right 2 drafts were 12-0 as well.   

That 4th deck... insane you made it to 12 with 1 1-drop and 1 2-drop, but the rest of the deck is peng. Nice work.

Made it to 12-1 with the deck I posted on the previous page, I think it may just be the best deck I've ever drafted. Did not feel under pressure at any point whatsoever, played like an absolute dream. I think maybe 1 lock deck during the Taverns of Time event came close to being that OP, but I reckon the whole run took like 1h20. I don't even feel like re-drafting after that!

Quote from Skyryser >>

That 4th deck... insane you made it to 12 with 1 1-drop and 1 2-drop, but the rest of the deck is peng. Nice work.

Made it to 12-1 with the deck I posted on the previous page, I think it may just be the best deck I've ever drafted. Did not feel under pressure at any point whatsoever, played like an absolute dream. I think maybe 1 lock deck during the Taverns of Time event came close to being that OP, but I reckon the whole run took like 1h20. I don't even feel like re-drafting after that!

Rogue doesnt need 2-drops, she has plenty of very good 3-drops, which is what you need as rogue, so his early wasnt lacking at all. And all the other turns look like power turns as well with that draft, not that surprising. If it was any other class, then yeah, that would go very differently.

Quote from MacauChau >>

i really like the current state of the meta and dual class arena is a blast again and it has drawn so many weak players to my favorite format again :)

would like to hear a little less "mushroon powerrrrr" during my games though

Iv got to know on wood, but i dont see that card as much anymore. Hope i didnt F myself just now :D

Another meta report in the books, onward to the next expansion ! https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-game-modes/the-arena/227116-arena-rastakhans-rumble-meta-class-analysis