Whirling Zap-o-matic is a really good two drop and I was short of proper two drops at that point (I still was at the end of the draft). At worst it's a Bloodfen Raptor but with the upside that it can generally hit face before trading with their two or three drop or, in rare cases, take out two of their early drops. Rockbiter Weapon is great to have, but I felt that my need for a quality two drop was greater.
I'm inclined to agree with you on Reincarnate, but I was willing to pass up on the other two cards on offer for the slight chance of a fun (for me, definitely not for my opponent) combo.
I think the choice of Whirling Zap-o-matic over Rockbiter Weapon is a valid one. Shamans have access to lots of early game removal options) as proved by your numerous lighting spells / weapons, whick makes the spell easily replaceable, whereas Whirling Zap-o-matic is very threatening - it's a kill on sight target, and it puts tremendous pressure at a low cost. Sure, it trades with everything under the sun, but so do most two-drops.
Other than the much discussed Reincarnate, I'd have picked (P29) Ogre Brute over Silver Hand Knight (oooh blasphemy!) as the knight has disappointed me lately, and the brute eats three-drops and lives. And it would have given you a smoother curve. Also, I'd have picked (P16) Windfury Harpy over Nerub'ar Weblord. Sure, it screws your opponent once every 10 games, but otherwise it just sits there and dies to everything without even trading. I could see a 1 power minion as playable in classes that ping, not in shaman. Sure, the harpy is awful stats for its cost, but it requires an immediate answer - it's an excellent followup to a desperate board clear from your opponent. For the same reasons (1 power minions are worth close to nothing in Arena) I don't like Gnomeregan Infantry, but it's not like you had something else worth something in that pick (P7).
Anyways, HearthArena disagrees with me on these accounts, so there's that. Hope you do well - you have plenty early removal, and some very powerful plays (Powermace clear into Zap-o-matic clear a second target / Kel'Thuzad anything)!
When you already have aPowermace, you take Whirling Zap-o-matic or another powerful mech like Piloted Shredder every chance you get. Powermace + zap-o-matic will win you a game. Turn 1: Nothing. Turn 2: Zap o matic, enemy plays their own 2/3 or 3/2. Turn 3: Powermace, kill the 2/3 or 3/2, zap o matic to the face. Turn 4, Kill whatever they drop (or go face if you can't), buff the zap o matic to 5/4 windfury, go face. You've now done a minimum of 16 damage to the enemy's face at the end of turn 4, and you've likely kept their board clean. It's an amazing and devastating combo. Hopefully you can also drop a yeti on turn 4 to continue cleaning up whatever you opponent is putting out. Keep the zap train rolling!
I've got a bit of time to play a few matches before I have to make dinner and watch the election results pouring in, so:
Match 1: Warlock. I got off to a great start with a Whirling Zap-o-matic and a Crackle to take out his first three drops and drew into my mid game cards nicely. I kept board control and wore him down.
Match 2: A paladin. The fight for board control was fairly closely matched, mainly due to the insane amount of secrets in his hand. On turn seven he made the mistake of going for face, leaving me with three minions on the board, including a Piloted Shredder. Turn 8 arrives and Kel'Thuzad! I clear his minions, thanks in part to a very lucky Flametongue Totem from the shredder and all my minions rise from the grave at the end of the turn. He swiftly concedes.
Time for a dinner break. I may resume later this evening.
Match 3: Mage. I slowly managed to win board control, but was down to 3 health by turn ten. The mage had one card in hand and an Antique Healbot on the board with one health. I had a Whirling Zap-o-matic, a Boulderfist Ogre and a Mad Bomber on the board. The mage was on 30 health. Turn ten - Kel'Thuzad > Reincarnate > kill healbot and throw everything else at the mage's face. I was hoping madly that the mage didn't have a Frostbolt or Fireball in hand or draw into one. He didn't. Sadly he conceded before I could use the Faceless Manipulator that I had in my hand to make a third Kel'Thuzad.
Match 4: A warrior with too many weapons. I eventually pulled off a double Kel'Thuzad, but by that time my health was too low and I didn't have enough on board to clear his minions, plus he has an Arcanite Reaper equipped and a Kor'kron Elite in his hand. Two health and a taunt totem just didn't cut it.
Match 5: Shaman. A tough battle for board control that was fairly evenly balanced when he pulled out Flametongue Totem and Bloodlust for surprise lethal.
Match 6: A thoroughly stupid match against a priest. He had a Dragonkin Sorcerer and every priest buff spell under the sun, so it quickly became a very silly minion. I just couldn't keep board control and sadly KT didn't bother to show up. A frustrating end to a frustratingly bad arena run.
Straight back down to business and back to my most played arena class. I think there are lots of things to like about the draft - 3 x Truesilver Champion can't be bad and a couple of Argent Protectors are a welcome addition, but I have virtually no four drops and only one source of card draw (in fairness I think I was only offered one).
I'm feeling a little disheartened by my performance with relatively decent decks in the last few runs, so I'm going to leave it until tomorrow evening to play this. In the mean time, advice, feedback and so forth would be lovely.
I'm going to make a conscious effort to take more time over my turns with this deck, as I'm sure I make a few mistakes and sub-optimal plays due to not taking the time to consider things fully.
I've got enough time to play a game or two after a Hearthstone-free weekend.
Match 1: A rather cautious priest. He got off to a good start with Northshire Cleric and Lightwarden while I had nothing but 2/2s in my starting hand. It got worse when he played Lightspawn and Inner Fire. I somehow managed not to draw a single Truesilver Champion throughout the match, but drew a few of my decent cards and, inspired by the recent thread on the subject, decided to go for the face (after dealing with the dangerously meaty Lightspawn. The priest ended up being forced to make several poor trades and I bashed him down, A very satisfying match, considering that I had given it up as more or less lost by turn two.
Match 2: A paladin who got off to a bit of a poor start and I got my Truesilver Champions. It was over by turn seven.
That's enough for tonight. Hopefully I can continue this tomorrow.
I'm back to try to make some progress with this run.
Match 3: Druid. Sadly he had an answer to everything and some well timed big taunts. I kept clearing his board and he kept filling it up again. A frustrating match that I kept on thinking I was gaining contol of, only to have my hopes dashed.
Match 4: Warlock. He had an early set back when his Deathlord summoned my Stormwind Champion on turn four. It was pretty straightforward from then on.
Match 5: A druid who had good cards, but got/played them at the wrong time. I got two Swipes to the face on turns four and five and then he used his Faceless Manipulator on the 4/4 from my Silver Hand Knight on turn six while I was wielding a Truesilver Champion. An innervated full cost Volcanic Lumberer wasn't enough to save him from lethal on turn seven.
Match 8: A real nail-biter against a mage. I didn't draw many quality minions, but ended up with nothing on the board, a truesilver equipped and another in my hand, him on 2 health and me on 20, with 15 damage on his side of the board. I thought I had him, barring a taunt, but sadly he top-decked a Fireball.
Match 9: A paladin with far better luck with his early cards. An early Muster for Battle was surprisingly damaging and a well-timed Bomb Lobber stalled any hopes of a comeback. It didn't look hopeful from an early stage and didn't get any better. A slightly downbeat end to a decent run.
For a lot of the matches the deck seemed really good, but I was pretty lucky with my eary hands at times. With a little more luck it could have gone further, I think.
I thought I'd draft my next arena before going to bed. The choice was between Druid, Shaman and Hunter and, since I had two 60 gold Shaman quests, I thought I'd give thrall another go.
I'm not overly impressed by the draft and can't see this going too far, but I'd value your thoughts.
Match 1: An epic struggle against a mage that I was surprised to win. Three Water Elementals (following a Duplicate, a top-deck Flamestrike to clear my board and a Foe Reaper 4000 shoud have seen me off, but I somehow managed to fight back and win.
Match 2: Another mage, another long match that ended in victory. I was fortunate to have the right cards on hand to deal with his big threats, including Baron Geddon.
Match 3: A warrior. This seems to be my bogey class - the only one that i have a less than 50% win rate against. A single Arathi Weaponsmith was my undoing, the 2/2 weapon swinging the board and his minions were always just a little to healthy for me to trade effectively. I died on turn 8 because I couldn't keep any sort of board presence up.
Match 4: Paladin. Aother long match that ended up with the pally top-decking. He got off to a good start and put a lot of pressure on, but ran out of steam and I grond him down. He had a lot of secrets, which were a bit irritating, but not overly effective. Hex got some decent value against an Avenge-buffed, re-shielded Shielded Minibot and probably saved the game for me.
Match 5: Another Paladin. The quality of his deck was just far too high - multiple Piloted Shredder, multiple Truesilver Champion, Guardian of Kings to keep him healed up, all sorts. I dragged the match on for quite a long time, hanging on by the skin of my teeth, but the result wasn't really in doubt.
Match 6: A priest with the super annoying start of Northshire Cleric > The Coin > Power Word: Shield. He ended up conceding rather surprisingly on turn seven. I had a decent amount of board presence, but I hadn't even damaged him by that point.
Match 7: A warrior with three Fiery War Axe and a Death's Bite in his first few cards. How do you actually compete against that? Apparently with some lucky draws and taking advantage of all the face damage he took swinging with his weapons. He cleared my board when he was on one health and two armour. I was top-decking and what should pop up? Fire Elemental! I'd imagine he wasn't a happy chap.
Match 8: A druid with a really good deck - multiple Druid of the Claw, yetis, both mechanical and normal, Swipe etc. I dragged it on for as long as I could, but was never really in with a shout.
I wasn't very impressed with my draft and before I started I thought that I'd be very happy if I made it to three wins. In the end the deck worked surprisingly well and I managed to win a couple of matches that I thought were hopeless.
I had the choice between rogue, druid or shaman, so I deceided, rather rashly, to go with the class I haven't played since returning to Hearthstone.
With little first hand experience of playing rogue I was fairly reliant on Hearth Arena to point me in the right direction when drafting. The mana curve looks pretty odd and the average value isn't great, but there's some decent stuff in there, including Sneed's Old Shredder
I don't expect to do terribly well, but it's all good experience.
It's getting a bit lonely in here with just me posting, but I'd appreciatee some feedback on the draft; there were a few choices that were really tough and some where I was surprised by Hearth Arena's suggestion.
I'm a barely adequate Arena player myself, but I like the idea of this thread a lot and will try to participate now that I know about it : )Your first pick was fortuitous in one way (Legendaries!) but a tough one. I like Sneed best too, though, especially as an early pick.
Pick4: Sprint [/card]is hard to pass up. I think I'd have gone for that one over [card]Mechwarper (and I love picking a lot of low-cost minions in Arena too). Sprint is one of the real differentiating cards for Rogue IMO. It can win games; Mechwarpernot so much. At least you got one in one of your late picks. In Arena, where you rarely go through all your cards, Sprint doesn't have the same downside it might have in regular play.
Pick9: This one is just dismal : ( I think you made the best of a bad one, but that sort of spread is what really irks me about Arena. I always seem to end up with a few cards in the deck that I never want to see yet are always in my opening hand.
Pick15: I don't know why the Blade is rated so low. This should be a useful card in this deck.
Pick17 and 22: Conversely, I don't know why Zombie Chow is rated so high.
Pick29: The only one where you went against recommendation. I might have kept the Assassinate. I know you already had one, but it's a great card, and I don't think there are enough spells in the deck to merit a buff minion (unless it was an Azure Drake perhaps). 3 Backstabs is the reason, I'm guessing. I can sort of see that. That's a hard call. Assassinate is a removal card. Backstabis a damage card. But they cost nothing and you have 3 in the deck. It should be interesting to see how that plays for you, actually. 3 buffed Backstabs could help remove major cards late game, but you'd need more draw power in the deck to have a good chance of getting all that in your hand at once. Very hard call here.
Overall, I think your picks are really good, honestly. My comments are super-picky, and you had some hard choices early. I think the deck will be interesting to play, as you have a lot of removal and not as many minions as I would generally want myself, and, as you noted, the curve is weird looking. If you can get through the first 4 or so turns without taking a lot of face damage, you've got great stuff in the higher drops. Your higher cost minions are really better quality than your lower cost ones. Your spells should help to keep the board clear as long as you're aggressive about using them and/or using the hero power to finish removing minions as needed.
I'm not a master at rogues or the arena either but it looks to me like you did a pretty good job on the draft given the choices you had. It's probably not going to be an aggro deck but it seems like it will be important to use the backstabs get early control of the board by killing off your opponents 2 drop and possibly using it to help your minions trade up. Looks like you've got a decent but not overwhelming late game. You've got 2 assassinates but those aren't exactly cheap and no late game taunts so you may have trouble in the late game against decks with lots of big taunts like a druid.
Assassin's Blade is rated somehat high, but still I'd say it's not a terribly good card in arena. Turn 5 onwards, 3 damage can't deal with the minions usually played (although sometimes you face the all-two-drops deck, and it remains good), and unless you cast it real late, it's a big tempo hit (it costs a lot for the impact it has). This leaves it as a pretty efficient face damage card (12 damage for 5 crystals, even more combined with many Rogue cards) which does win games, but not against any deck, thus the midrange rating. It was a good call, but without Oils to setup stupid hard to race damage, I would have gone with Frost Elemental. (Which means you made the right call, I think).
Zombie Chow is brutal in Arena, one of the best cards in the neutral pool. Even more so than in ranked play, Arena is about board control. The Chow draws out early removal at very little tempo cost, or trades up - and sometimes threatens 2-for-1, forcing the opponent into suboptimal plays. In everything but the most aggro Hunter decks I would take a Chow over any common not named Piloted Shredder or yetis.
On other picks, I actually think Mechwarper wins more games than Sprint - in a race you can't afford to skip your turn to draw four, and if you can afford it, you're already in control, so you don't need it. Sprint is a win-more card - it seals games you could have won without it, but doesn't save you from losing. It's a good recovery card following being Flamestriked, though, so it retains good value. I would actually have picked Micro Machine over it on pick 26.
I agree that pick 9 was an awful choice. Shadowstep was however the MVP of my latest rogue run, but it heavily depends on good battlecries and charge minions, which this deck has a few of, so I think the card should work. Picks 13 and 24 were also horrible (Blackwing Corruptor without dragons is okay-ish, but not very good), but the right call was made in both cases, I think.
I absolutely hate Fan of Knives and would never have imagined it was rated higher than freaking Boulderfist Ogre, king of the vanilla minions (pick 8). I would have taken the ogre without hesitation.
Pick 3 I'd have picked Ship's Cannon. Acolyte of Pain usually only replaces itself and saves you 3-4 life, not worth a card in my opinion. I'd rather have access to a quality two-drop, and 2/3s are very good in the era of Shielded Minibots.
Zombie Chow is brutal in Arena, one of the best cards in the neutral pool. Even more so than in ranked play, Arena is about board control. The Chow draws out early removal at very little tempo cost, or trades up - and sometimes threatens 2-for-1, forcing the opponent into suboptimal plays. In everything but the most aggro Hunter decks I would take a Chow over any common not named Piloted Shredder or yetis.
Thank you for explaining the rationale behind why this card gets rated so highly. I think your point that Arena is about board control is telling in a lot of ways, and I certainly tend to agree with that. But with two in the deck, you're healing the other hero 10 points if both come into play. This has been why I (erroneously, it would seem) avoid this card. Do you just not put them on the board if you draw them late in the game? Or do you feel as though the 2/3 body makes up for the 5 heal at any point in the game?
Ship's Cannon was picked over Acolyte of Pain on pick 3--that's a tough call at that stage, with an expectation that there will be more 2-drops coming. You always benefit from card draw, and another engine for that may not show up at all. But I see your point about the value of a good 2 drop, especially in Arena. How I loathe Shielded Minibot.
Thank you all for the feedback. The pick of Fan of Knives over Boulderfist Ogre was certainly one that I agonised over. I've been conditioned to pick Boulderfist over most things, but as a rogue novice I decided to put my trust in HA at this point. I can certainly see the value of a (weak) AoE combined with card draw, particularly if I can buff it with one of the spell power minions.
I may get a chance to play this evening and, if I do, I'll report back on my progress.
Good luck with your Druid draft, biffpow, it looks pretty decent to me.
@ biffpow, concerning Chows ; If you have one out in the early game it usually can trade before the enemy hero is damaged, thus negating the 5 health. However, it does happen that you don't want to put them out in the late game, in some scenarios. However, unless I threaten lethal in one or two turns, I usually play them out. You have to get a feel at who's beatdown / who's control in the game - if you're the beatdown deck, you have to think about the life gain, but if you plan on controlling the game, it's not that important. (For reference, I'm referring to the MTG thory explained here : http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/fundamentals/3692_Whos_The_Beatdown.html)
You're right about the tough call concerning Ship's Cannon or Acolyte of Pain. I feel both are good picks (and as you say, especially at that point in the draft). I just have a preference for the cannon ;)
Match 1: Close fought battle against a mage that I was on the verge of winning when he top-decked a fireball to give him lethal. My various spells came in pretty handy when it came to keeping his board clear, but Sneed's Old Shredder was a disappointment, dropping Lorewalker Cho.
Match 2: Another mage. Once again my spells were key in keeping his minions off the board and I got off to a good start. My Acolyte of Pain got full three card value against a slew of one attack minions and I finished it off with a Blade Flurry on my Tinker's Sharpsword Oil buffed Assassin's Blade to hit him behind his Mirror Images.
Match 3: A priest. I got off to a perfect aggro start and once agin got a couple of early Backstabs to help keep his side of the board clear. My Ironbeak Owl got huge value from his Questing Adventurer buffed with Velen's Chosen and again via Circle of Healing. I killed him on turn seven.
Match 4: Paladin. Another amazing start - my opening hand consisted of The Coin, 2 x Backstab and 2 x Zombie Chow. I did the double chow start and he was only able to use his hero power on turns 2 and 3. It was over very quickly.
Match 5: Hunter. Got off to a decent start and almost had him, but didn't draw into my decent mid game minions and ran out of steam. Double Animal Companion and a Houndmaster buffed Silverback Patriarch saw me off.
Match 6: Warlock. This time I got a load of mid and late game stuff in my opening hand and got off to a very poor start. By the time I could drop stuff like my War Golem and Sneed's Old Shredder My opponent had too much board presence and I couldn't kill his minions before they killed me.
A really disappointing end to a pretty poor run. The deck was insanely good when I was lucky with the opening hand, but the weird curve, particularly the lack of good three drops could be a big problem. My legendary was a big disappointment - I dropped it three times - once it dropped Cho, once it was immediately sheeped and the final time it was to late to be of any use to me.
This run has, at least, shown me the potential of rogue, so I might be more inclined to play it in future.
Rewards:
Decent amount of gold for three wins, but my third "one rare, four common" pack in a row.
Two bad picks without question:
1)Whirling Zap-o-matic is just terrible compared to Rockbiter. In arena its windfury is often irrelevant and it's just a 3-2 mech.
2)Reincarnate hardly works in a deck built around it, picking it just for Kel'Thuzad is too greedy. Basically 10 mana 2 card combo or dead card.
Other than that, there are some questionable picks like Forked Lightning over Earth Shock but I don't see any objectively bad picks.
Whirling Zap-o-matic is a really good two drop and I was short of proper two drops at that point (I still was at the end of the draft). At worst it's a Bloodfen Raptor but with the upside that it can generally hit face before trading with their two or three drop or, in rare cases, take out two of their early drops. Rockbiter Weapon is great to have, but I felt that my need for a quality two drop was greater.
I'm inclined to agree with you on Reincarnate, but I was willing to pass up on the other two cards on offer for the slight chance of a fun (for me, definitely not for my opponent) combo.
I think the choice of Whirling Zap-o-matic over Rockbiter Weapon is a valid one. Shamans have access to lots of early game removal options) as proved by your numerous lighting spells / weapons, whick makes the spell easily replaceable, whereas Whirling Zap-o-matic is very threatening - it's a kill on sight target, and it puts tremendous pressure at a low cost. Sure, it trades with everything under the sun, but so do most two-drops.
Other than the much discussed Reincarnate, I'd have picked (P29) Ogre Brute over Silver Hand Knight (oooh blasphemy!) as the knight has disappointed me lately, and the brute eats three-drops and lives. And it would have given you a smoother curve. Also, I'd have picked (P16) Windfury Harpy over Nerub'ar Weblord. Sure, it screws your opponent once every 10 games, but otherwise it just sits there and dies to everything without even trading. I could see a 1 power minion as playable in classes that ping, not in shaman. Sure, the harpy is awful stats for its cost, but it requires an immediate answer - it's an excellent followup to a desperate board clear from your opponent. For the same reasons (1 power minions are worth close to nothing in Arena) I don't like Gnomeregan Infantry, but it's not like you had something else worth something in that pick (P7).
Anyways, HearthArena disagrees with me on these accounts, so there's that. Hope you do well - you have plenty early removal, and some very powerful plays (Powermace clear into Zap-o-matic clear a second target / Kel'Thuzad anything)!
When you already have aPowermace, you take Whirling Zap-o-matic or another powerful mech like Piloted Shredder every chance you get. Powermace + zap-o-matic will win you a game. Turn 1: Nothing. Turn 2: Zap o matic, enemy plays their own 2/3 or 3/2. Turn 3: Powermace, kill the 2/3 or 3/2, zap o matic to the face. Turn 4, Kill whatever they drop (or go face if you can't), buff the zap o matic to 5/4 windfury, go face. You've now done a minimum of 16 damage to the enemy's face at the end of turn 4, and you've likely kept their board clean. It's an amazing and devastating combo. Hopefully you can also drop a yeti on turn 4 to continue cleaning up whatever you opponent is putting out. Keep the zap train rolling!
I've got a bit of time to play a few matches before I have to make dinner and watch the election results pouring in, so:
Match 1: Warlock. I got off to a great start with a Whirling Zap-o-matic and a Crackle to take out his first three drops and drew into my mid game cards nicely. I kept board control and wore him down.
Match 2: A paladin. The fight for board control was fairly closely matched, mainly due to the insane amount of secrets in his hand. On turn seven he made the mistake of going for face, leaving me with three minions on the board, including a Piloted Shredder. Turn 8 arrives and Kel'Thuzad! I clear his minions, thanks in part to a very lucky Flametongue Totem from the shredder and all my minions rise from the grave at the end of the turn. He swiftly concedes.
Time for a dinner break. I may resume later this evening.
Match 3: Mage. I slowly managed to win board control, but was down to 3 health by turn ten. The mage had one card in hand and an Antique Healbot on the board with one health. I had a Whirling Zap-o-matic, a Boulderfist Ogre and a Mad Bomber on the board. The mage was on 30 health. Turn ten - Kel'Thuzad > Reincarnate > kill healbot and throw everything else at the mage's face. I was hoping madly that the mage didn't have a Frostbolt or Fireball in hand or draw into one. He didn't. Sadly he conceded before I could use the Faceless Manipulator that I had in my hand to make a third Kel'Thuzad.
Match 4: A warrior with too many weapons. I eventually pulled off a double Kel'Thuzad, but by that time my health was too low and I didn't have enough on board to clear his minions, plus he has an Arcanite Reaper equipped and a Kor'kron Elite in his hand. Two health and a taunt totem just didn't cut it.
Match 5: Shaman. A tough battle for board control that was fairly evenly balanced when he pulled out Flametongue Totem and Bloodlust for surprise lethal.
Match 6: A thoroughly stupid match against a priest. He had a Dragonkin Sorcerer and every priest buff spell under the sun, so it quickly became a very silly minion. I just couldn't keep board control and sadly KT didn't bother to show up. A frustrating end to a frustratingly bad arena run.
Rewards:
Pretty meh.
Arena 7 - Paladin
http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/oq4742
Straight back down to business and back to my most played arena class. I think there are lots of things to like about the draft - 3 x Truesilver Champion can't be bad and a couple of Argent Protectors are a welcome addition, but I have virtually no four drops and only one source of card draw (in fairness I think I was only offered one).
I'm feeling a little disheartened by my performance with relatively decent decks in the last few runs, so I'm going to leave it until tomorrow evening to play this. In the mean time, advice, feedback and so forth would be lovely.
Thanks for the feedback and encouragement. I'm not a big fan of Dancing Swords but Light's Justice feels very underwhelming, when I already had a few Truesilver Champions. Of course, as it turns out, I got the chance to pick up a Light's Justice later on and would probably rather have the Dancing Swords over a second Antique Healbot.
I'm going to make a conscious effort to take more time over my turns with this deck, as I'm sure I make a few mistakes and sub-optimal plays due to not taking the time to consider things fully.
I've got enough time to play a game or two after a Hearthstone-free weekend.
Match 1: A rather cautious priest. He got off to a good start with Northshire Cleric and Lightwarden while I had nothing but 2/2s in my starting hand. It got worse when he played Lightspawn and Inner Fire. I somehow managed not to draw a single Truesilver Champion throughout the match, but drew a few of my decent cards and, inspired by the recent thread on the subject, decided to go for the face (after dealing with the dangerously meaty Lightspawn. The priest ended up being forced to make several poor trades and I bashed him down, A very satisfying match, considering that I had given it up as more or less lost by turn two.
Match 2: A paladin who got off to a bit of a poor start and I got my Truesilver Champions. It was over by turn seven.
That's enough for tonight. Hopefully I can continue this tomorrow.
I'm back to try to make some progress with this run.
Match 3: Druid. Sadly he had an answer to everything and some well timed big taunts. I kept clearing his board and he kept filling it up again. A frustrating match that I kept on thinking I was gaining contol of, only to have my hopes dashed.
Match 4: Warlock. He had an early set back when his Deathlord summoned my Stormwind Champion on turn four. It was pretty straightforward from then on.
Match 5: A druid who had good cards, but got/played them at the wrong time. I got two Swipes to the face on turns four and five and then he used his Faceless Manipulator on the 4/4 from my Silver Hand Knight on turn six while I was wielding a Truesilver Champion. An innervated full cost Volcanic Lumberer wasn't enough to save him from lethal on turn seven.
Match 6: A fairly lucky win against a mage, despite stupidly running my Archmage into Vaporize while I had a Silver Hand Recruit on the board. I got a bit lucky with the top decks to give me surprise lethal by playing Blessing of Kings onto Questing Adventurer.
Match 7: A priest. I got off to a strong start with Shielded Minibot, coined Truesilver Champion, Bloodsail Raider, Argent Protector and he never really recovered. He conceded on turn seven.
Match 8: A real nail-biter against a mage. I didn't draw many quality minions, but ended up with nothing on the board, a truesilver equipped and another in my hand, him on 2 health and me on 20, with 15 damage on his side of the board. I thought I had him, barring a taunt, but sadly he top-decked a Fireball.
Match 9: A paladin with far better luck with his early cards. An early Muster for Battle was surprisingly damaging and a well-timed Bomb Lobber stalled any hopes of a comeback. It didn't look hopeful from an early stage and didn't get any better. A slightly downbeat end to a decent run.
For a lot of the matches the deck seemed really good, but I was pretty lucky with my eary hands at times. With a little more luck it could have gone further, I think.
Rewards:
Not particularly impressive.
Arena 8: Shaman
http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/52qc3o
I thought I'd draft my next arena before going to bed. The choice was between Druid, Shaman and Hunter and, since I had two 60 gold Shaman quests, I thought I'd give thrall another go.
I'm not overly impressed by the draft and can't see this going too far, but I'd value your thoughts.
Match 1: An epic struggle against a mage that I was surprised to win. Three Water Elementals (following a Duplicate, a top-deck Flamestrike to clear my board and a Foe Reaper 4000 shoud have seen me off, but I somehow managed to fight back and win.
Match 2: Another mage, another long match that ended in victory. I was fortunate to have the right cards on hand to deal with his big threats, including Baron Geddon.
Match 3: A warrior. This seems to be my bogey class - the only one that i have a less than 50% win rate against. A single Arathi Weaponsmith was my undoing, the 2/2 weapon swinging the board and his minions were always just a little to healthy for me to trade effectively. I died on turn 8 because I couldn't keep any sort of board presence up.
Match 4: Paladin. Aother long match that ended up with the pally top-decking. He got off to a good start and put a lot of pressure on, but ran out of steam and I grond him down. He had a lot of secrets, which were a bit irritating, but not overly effective. Hex got some decent value against an Avenge-buffed, re-shielded Shielded Minibot and probably saved the game for me.
Match 5: Another Paladin. The quality of his deck was just far too high - multiple Piloted Shredder, multiple Truesilver Champion, Guardian of Kings to keep him healed up, all sorts. I dragged the match on for quite a long time, hanging on by the skin of my teeth, but the result wasn't really in doubt.
Match 6: A priest with the super annoying start of Northshire Cleric > The Coin > Power Word: Shield. He ended up conceding rather surprisingly on turn seven. I had a decent amount of board presence, but I hadn't even damaged him by that point.
Match 7: A warrior with three Fiery War Axe and a Death's Bite in his first few cards. How do you actually compete against that? Apparently with some lucky draws and taking advantage of all the face damage he took swinging with his weapons. He cleared my board when he was on one health and two armour. I was top-decking and what should pop up? Fire Elemental! I'd imagine he wasn't a happy chap.
Match 8: A druid with a really good deck - multiple Druid of the Claw, yetis, both mechanical and normal, Swipe etc. I dragged it on for as long as I could, but was never really in with a shout.
I wasn't very impressed with my draft and before I started I thought that I'd be very happy if I made it to three wins. In the end the deck worked surprisingly well and I managed to win a couple of matches that I thought were hopeless.
Rewards:
Not bad, but the pack was rubbish.
Arena 9 - Rogue
http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/348en6
I had the choice between rogue, druid or shaman, so I deceided, rather rashly, to go with the class I haven't played since returning to Hearthstone.
With little first hand experience of playing rogue I was fairly reliant on Hearth Arena to point me in the right direction when drafting. The mana curve looks pretty odd and the average value isn't great, but there's some decent stuff in there, including Sneed's Old Shredder
I don't expect to do terribly well, but it's all good experience.
It's getting a bit lonely in here with just me posting, but I'd appreciatee some feedback on the draft; there were a few choices that were really tough and some where I was surprised by Hearth Arena's suggestion.
I'm a barely adequate Arena player myself, but I like the idea of this thread a lot and will try to participate now that I know about it : )Your first pick was fortuitous in one way (Legendaries!) but a tough one. I like Sneed best too, though, especially as an early pick.
Pick4: Sprint [/card]is hard to pass up. I think I'd have gone for that one over [card]Mechwarper (and I love picking a lot of low-cost minions in Arena too). Sprint is one of the real differentiating cards for Rogue IMO. It can win games; Mechwarpernot so much. At least you got one in one of your late picks. In Arena, where you rarely go through all your cards, Sprint doesn't have the same downside it might have in regular play.
Pick9: This one is just dismal : ( I think you made the best of a bad one, but that sort of spread is what really irks me about Arena. I always seem to end up with a few cards in the deck that I never want to see yet are always in my opening hand.
Pick15: I don't know why the Blade is rated so low. This should be a useful card in this deck.
Pick17 and 22: Conversely, I don't know why Zombie Chow is rated so high.
Pick29: The only one where you went against recommendation. I might have kept the Assassinate. I know you already had one, but it's a great card, and I don't think there are enough spells in the deck to merit a buff minion (unless it was an Azure Drake perhaps). 3 Backstabs is the reason, I'm guessing. I can sort of see that. That's a hard call. Assassinate is a removal card. Backstabis a damage card. But they cost nothing and you have 3 in the deck. It should be interesting to see how that plays for you, actually. 3 buffed Backstabs could help remove major cards late game, but you'd need more draw power in the deck to have a good chance of getting all that in your hand at once. Very hard call here.
Overall, I think your picks are really good, honestly. My comments are super-picky, and you had some hard choices early. I think the deck will be interesting to play, as you have a lot of removal and not as many minions as I would generally want myself, and, as you noted, the curve is weird looking. If you can get through the first 4 or so turns without taking a lot of face damage, you've got great stuff in the higher drops. Your higher cost minions are really better quality than your lower cost ones. Your spells should help to keep the board clear as long as you're aggressive about using them and/or using the hero power to finish removing minions as needed.
My current run is here: http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/24lp2r if you're curious : )
I'm not a master at rogues or the arena either but it looks to me like you did a pretty good job on the draft given the choices you had. It's probably not going to be an aggro deck but it seems like it will be important to use the backstabs get early control of the board by killing off your opponents 2 drop and possibly using it to help your minions trade up. Looks like you've got a decent but not overwhelming late game. You've got 2 assassinates but those aren't exactly cheap and no late game taunts so you may have trouble in the late game against decks with lots of big taunts like a druid.
Assassin's Blade is rated somehat high, but still I'd say it's not a terribly good card in arena. Turn 5 onwards, 3 damage can't deal with the minions usually played (although sometimes you face the all-two-drops deck, and it remains good), and unless you cast it real late, it's a big tempo hit (it costs a lot for the impact it has). This leaves it as a pretty efficient face damage card (12 damage for 5 crystals, even more combined with many Rogue cards) which does win games, but not against any deck, thus the midrange rating. It was a good call, but without Oils to setup stupid hard to race damage, I would have gone with Frost Elemental. (Which means you made the right call, I think).
Zombie Chow is brutal in Arena, one of the best cards in the neutral pool. Even more so than in ranked play, Arena is about board control. The Chow draws out early removal at very little tempo cost, or trades up - and sometimes threatens 2-for-1, forcing the opponent into suboptimal plays. In everything but the most aggro Hunter decks I would take a Chow over any common not named Piloted Shredder or yetis.
On other picks, I actually think Mechwarper wins more games than Sprint - in a race you can't afford to skip your turn to draw four, and if you can afford it, you're already in control, so you don't need it. Sprint is a win-more card - it seals games you could have won without it, but doesn't save you from losing. It's a good recovery card following being Flamestriked, though, so it retains good value. I would actually have picked Micro Machine over it on pick 26.
I agree that pick 9 was an awful choice. Shadowstep was however the MVP of my latest rogue run, but it heavily depends on good battlecries and charge minions, which this deck has a few of, so I think the card should work. Picks 13 and 24 were also horrible (Blackwing Corruptor without dragons is okay-ish, but not very good), but the right call was made in both cases, I think.
I absolutely hate Fan of Knives and would never have imagined it was rated higher than freaking Boulderfist Ogre, king of the vanilla minions (pick 8). I would have taken the ogre without hesitation.
Pick 3 I'd have picked Ship's Cannon. Acolyte of Pain usually only replaces itself and saves you 3-4 life, not worth a card in my opinion. I'd rather have access to a quality two-drop, and 2/3s are very good in the era of Shielded Minibots.
Thank you for explaining the rationale behind why this card gets rated so highly. I think your point that Arena is about board control is telling in a lot of ways, and I certainly tend to agree with that. But with two in the deck, you're healing the other hero 10 points if both come into play. This has been why I (erroneously, it would seem) avoid this card. Do you just not put them on the board if you draw them late in the game? Or do you feel as though the 2/3 body makes up for the 5 heal at any point in the game?
Ship's Cannon was picked over Acolyte of Pain on pick 3--that's a tough call at that stage, with an expectation that there will be more 2-drops coming. You always benefit from card draw, and another engine for that may not show up at all. But I see your point about the value of a good 2 drop, especially in Arena. How I loathe Shielded Minibot.
Thank you all for the feedback. The pick of Fan of Knives over Boulderfist Ogre was certainly one that I agonised over. I've been conditioned to pick Boulderfist over most things, but as a rogue novice I decided to put my trust in HA at this point. I can certainly see the value of a (weak) AoE combined with card draw, particularly if I can buff it with one of the spell power minions.
I may get a chance to play this evening and, if I do, I'll report back on my progress.
Good luck with your Druid draft, biffpow, it looks pretty decent to me.
@ biffpow, concerning Chows ; If you have one out in the early game it usually can trade before the enemy hero is damaged, thus negating the 5 health. However, it does happen that you don't want to put them out in the late game, in some scenarios. However, unless I threaten lethal in one or two turns, I usually play them out. You have to get a feel at who's beatdown / who's control in the game - if you're the beatdown deck, you have to think about the life gain, but if you plan on controlling the game, it's not that important. (For reference, I'm referring to the MTG thory explained here : http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/fundamentals/3692_Whos_The_Beatdown.html)
You're right about the tough call concerning Ship's Cannon or Acolyte of Pain. I feel both are good picks (and as you say, especially at that point in the draft). I just have a preference for the cannon ;)
Match 1: Close fought battle against a mage that I was on the verge of winning when he top-decked a fireball to give him lethal. My various spells came in pretty handy when it came to keeping his board clear, but Sneed's Old Shredder was a disappointment, dropping Lorewalker Cho.
Match 2: Another mage. Once again my spells were key in keeping his minions off the board and I got off to a good start. My Acolyte of Pain got full three card value against a slew of one attack minions and I finished it off with a Blade Flurry on my Tinker's Sharpsword Oil buffed Assassin's Blade to hit him behind his Mirror Images.
Match 3: A priest. I got off to a perfect aggro start and once agin got a couple of early Backstabs to help keep his side of the board clear. My Ironbeak Owl got huge value from his Questing Adventurer buffed with Velen's Chosen and again via Circle of Healing. I killed him on turn seven.
Match 4: Paladin. Another amazing start - my opening hand consisted of The Coin, 2 x Backstab and 2 x Zombie Chow. I did the double chow start and he was only able to use his hero power on turns 2 and 3. It was over very quickly.
Match 5: Hunter. Got off to a decent start and almost had him, but didn't draw into my decent mid game minions and ran out of steam. Double Animal Companion and a Houndmaster buffed Silverback Patriarch saw me off.
Match 6: Warlock. This time I got a load of mid and late game stuff in my opening hand and got off to a very poor start. By the time I could drop stuff like my War Golem and Sneed's Old Shredder My opponent had too much board presence and I couldn't kill his minions before they killed me.
A really disappointing end to a pretty poor run. The deck was insanely good when I was lucky with the opening hand, but the weird curve, particularly the lack of good three drops could be a big problem. My legendary was a big disappointment - I dropped it three times - once it dropped Cho, once it was immediately sheeped and the final time it was to late to be of any use to me.
This run has, at least, shown me the potential of rogue, so I might be more inclined to play it in future.
Rewards:
Decent amount of gold for three wins, but my third "one rare, four common" pack in a row.