Match 2: Shaman. Essentially a free win. He coined out his hero power on the first turn, then used it agin on turn two. I had a nice curve and, but for the fact that his first two totems were both taunts, it would have been over even sooner.
Match 3: Paladin. This onewent right to the wire. I feared the worst when he coined out a minibot, but he ran out of steam quite quickly. Sadly I didn't really draw the best cards so it was far closer than it should have been. I ended up getting sneaky lethal with Hellfire after taking him down to one health with my minions.
Match 4: Another paladin. More straightforward than the last match, with a heavily buffed Floating Watcher sealing the win.
Match 5: Yet another pally. Everything was going nicely and I had a beefy Floating Watcher yet again, which unfortunately got Faceless Manipulatored. I buffed mine further and beat in his face, so he was forced to Blessing of Kings his copy to take mine out. By that point enough damage had been done that he couldn't pull the game back.
Match 6: Warlock. Despite my wonky mana curve I have, so far, managed to get off to a decent start most matches, and this was no different, I had board control pretty much from the start and it felt like a comfortable win.
Match 7: Mage. A close match. There were times when a flamestrike would have wrecked me, but so would have playing around it. My luck held and I managed to race him down.
Match 8: Priest. I'm not a fan of playing priests, with all their endless buffing and healing, but I managed to keep control of things for most of the match. Things were just starting to look shaky, when some nifty trading / Floating Watcher / Hellfire work left him with a clear board and me with a 6/3. I was incredibly lucky to get a finicky cloakfield of his mech yeti, to stealth my watcher, giving me lethal next turn. He had an Argent Commander, so would have cleared my minion and left me in a very sticky situation without the stealth.
Match 9: Mage. Oh so close. I was very lucky after leaving him with lethal, only for his Ogre Brute to attack the wrong target. I would have had him the turn after with my Floating Watcher but he had Blizzard to freeze it. Then I got him down to one point with Nat Pagle (from a shredder) buffed with Power Overwhelming and Dark Iron Dwarf. I lifetapped, hopping for Darkbomb, but no luck. Oh well.
Macth 10: Druid. I didn't fancy my chances if it got to the point where he could start dropping great big taunts, so went full on aggro. It was a little hairy, but I ended up killing him on turn seven with a Darkbomb and a Hellfire.
Macth 11: Paladin. It was nerve wracking, but I got the right cards at the right times and, once again, a Floating Watcher was instrumental in getting me the win. The ability to buff it once on the turn you play it and again the following turn, before you attack, is so valuable.
Match 12: Mage. My luck seriously ran out. I had nothing to play on the first two turns and the whole match was just struggling to keep my head above water. On the final turn I was at 3 health and he had a 1 health Venture Company Mercenary on board. I turned to my last hope to live for one more round, a deranged looking goblin with a great big sack on his back. "Remember, throw the bombs towards the big goblin in the armour" I said. Sure enough, the mighty foe was vanquished. Over-joyed, my twitchy green minion turned around to receive my praise. Sadly he forgot to stop throwing bombs. Suicide by Madder Bomber. A fine way to end a really enjoyable run.
I'm really happy with this. I didn't go into the run with high hopes, given the slightly strange curve, but the deck really did have a lot of answers and Floating Watcher was definitely the MVP, with honourable mentions to Imp Gang Boss and Power Overwhelming. I beat my best previous run by two wins.
I thought I'd draft my next run before going to bed. Given the choice of Shaman, Hunter or Warlock I decided to try some Lock goodness again. It doesn't seem like a bad deck and I can see me getting some surprise lethals, since it has a lot of reach, but it feels slightly worse than my last draft.
I'll probably play this tomorrow night or Wednesday, but I'd love some feedback in the meantime.
Well, it's taken me a while to get round to playing this, Let's see how it goes.
Match 1: Mage. I couldn't play anything until turn 3 and he just had all the answers. I felt that I gave a reasonable account of myself, but I was always on the back foot.
Match 2: Rogue. The most abysmal start ever. Nothing to play until turn 3, again, and when I did have stuff to play it was Stonetusk Boar, Blood Imp, Mogu'shan Warden and Lord of the Arena - the worst cards in my desk and just plain embarassing to play them one after the other. Needless to say I didn't stand a chance.
Match 3: Rogue. I actually had some two drops so got off to a fair start. It ended up being a fairly straightforward win.
Match 4: Warrior. I got off to an okay start, but things quickly went wrong. I honestly feel that there was nothing could do, as he simply had better cards and repeateedly traded far more efficiently than could, keeping my board clear. Deathlord followed by Argent Commander to kill the only minion that had a chance of dealing with its 8 health was probably the biggest set-back.
A terrible run with a deck that wasn't great, but should have done better. Disheartening because I really didn't have a chance in any of the matches I lost.
After that debacle, I decided to try the queen of the arena: mage. I then proceeded to draft what might be the worst deck I've ever had. Wish me luck. It should, at least, be over quickly.
No individual write ups of each match this time, since I wasn't expecting much, but I ended up going 3-3, which was better than I thought I'd do.
Unstable Portal was almost uniformly terrible, giving me mainly poor one drops, although it did save one match when it gave me Tirion Fordring. I suffered from having very low quality cards a lot of the time, particularly against a druid with double Druid of the Claw, and I seriously lacked card draw, considering how fast my deck was.
Your point about card draw is a good one. I just had what I thought to be the best Mage draft ever - multiple Fireball, Flamestrike, Polymorph, etc.... pretty much a dream deck. Except I found myself blowing out early and praying for a top deck. I went 6-3 but, in better hands, it probably would have went much further. And if I had an Arcane Intellect or two, things might have been vastly different.
One thing you should be happy about is your rewards. I believe you have 2 legendaries in 14 runs now? I have done many more runs than that over the last year, and I cant remember the last time I have pulled a legendary.
I appreciate you keeping up with this thread. It's fun to follow along with the ups and downs all of us experience in the arena.
Your point about card draw is a good one. I just had what I thought to be the best Mage draft ever - multiple Fireball, Flamestrike, Polymorph, etc.... pretty much a dream deck. Except I found myself blowing out early and praying for a top deck. I went 6-3 but, in better hands, it probably would have went much further. And if I had an Arcane Intellect or two, things might have been vastly different.
One thing you should be happy about is your rewards. I believe you have 2 legendaries in 14 runs now? I have done many more runs than that over the last year, and I cant remember the last time I have pulled a legendary.
I appreciate you keeping up with this thread. It's fun to follow along with the ups and downs all of us experience in the arena.
Thanks very much. I appreciate the encouragement. Hopefully my next run will go better...
I actually drafted this immediately after my mage run, but didn't get round to adding it to this thread until now. There's some really nice stuff in this draft - three Fireguard Destroyer and three Hex, for example, but no card draw at all. The only card draw I was even offered was a Grimscale Oracle and I really didn't fancy taking that.
I may manage to play this, this evening, but it might have to wait until Monday. As always, any feedback is welcome.
Match 1: Warlock. I really can't complain about my cards: I got a lot of decent cards when I needed them and even had Zombie Chow and Whirling Zap-o-matic in my starting hand. Sadly I was up against a player with a crazy good deck. What should have been a cler win ended up being a close-fought loss. Two 4 attack rolls on the two Fireguard Destroyers I played wasn't helpful, but given that both were immediately removed with spells, it didn't really affect the outcome. Some card draw would have been nice.
Match 2: Priest. Another decent starting hand, another opponent with a crazy deck. Prophet Velen, at least 3 Holy Novas, Temple Enforcer etc. I ran out of steam quite quickly and was just staving off the inevitable for most of the match.
Math 3: Hunter. Once again I had an okay start and this time my opponent didn't have much luck with his cards. A couple of annoying secrets, but nothing too troublesome. A win at last.
I'm sorry for your first two losses. The deck looks really nice.
I personally prefer Nerubian Egg over Arcan Nullifier in Pick #1. As Shaman you usually have some classcards like Rockbiter, Flametongue Totem, Ancestral Healing, etc. to activate it. Even if you don't get any of them it is still a good AoE protection.
I'm sorry for your first two losses. The deck looks really nice.
I personally prefer Nerubian Egg over Arcan Nullifier in Pick #1. As Shaman you usually have some classcards like Rockbiter, Flametongue Totem, Ancestral Healing, etc. to activate it. Even if you don't get any of them it is still a good AoE protection.
Thanks, it really does feel like it should do better than it has so far - the four drops are great and it has osme other really nice stuff.
Match 4: Druid. This ended up being fairly straightforward, if long. He had two Poison Seeds, which were annoying, but not overly effective and I was aided by some great Crackle rolls (unbuffed six on one and a +1 buffed six on another, which took out a Druid of the Claw rather nicely).
Match 5: Paladin. Another slow but steady victory. My card quality was high enough to keep board control throughout, despite his superior card draw giving him more options. I feel like the players I'm facing at the moment are less expert than I usually face. Perhaps the benefit of playing a little earlier in the evening.
Match 6: A shaman with a dream start versus me playing my first minion on turn three. I managed to drag it out for a surprisingly long time, but never regained any sort of control. It was only my multiple taunts that got me to about turn 12 or 13.
A disappointing performance from a decent deck, but being light on early game and card draw probably did the damage.
So, after the disappointing shaman run, what better way to return to the arena than with the acknowledged worst class? The draft seems bearable, but is relatively lacking in weapns and doesn't have too many great cards. We'll see how it goes.
Match 1: Rogue. Even after a full mulligan, my opening hand was nothing but four drops. I wasn't hopeful, but fortunately he didn't punsih me too much for my slow start and I gradually won back control. Heavy use of his weapon brought him a little low and I was able to finish him off.
Match 2: A mage that ignored both my Frothing Berserker and my Questing Adventurer as they got pumped up to gigantic proportions. The Frothing hit him for 21 damage on one turn before he woke up to it, but by that point I had a heavy board presence and he had 3 health. As always, a Flamestrike would have wrecked me, but thankfully he didn't seem to have one.
Match 3: A poor start and I was punished for it. Another case of behind from the beginning and never really getting my head above water.
Match 5: Rogue. I got off to a fair, if not amazing start. The key moments were probably when his Ogre Brute decided to go for my face, instead of his chosen target and then got returned to his hand by his Anub'ar Ambusher's deathrattle. Once again a Frothing Berserker behind a strong taunt, this time my Sludge Belcher sealed the deal.
I'm done for this evening. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish this off in a couple of days time.
Nice start! Especially, like you said, with the rap that Warrior gets in arena. I don't have a lot of experience with that class in arena, so I'll be living vicariously through you. For the most part, your picks seemed pretty clear. You've got a great card curve, and a good mixture of taunt/card draw/removal, etc. I do find it interesting that Grim Patron gets such a bad arena score while it tears up the constructed meta, but that just shows how dependent it is on combos. Good luck the rest of the way! (BTW, I sent you a friend request, but I see you are in EU while I play in NA, so maybe it doesn't connect).
Nice start! Especially, like you said, with the rap that Warrior gets in arena. I don't have a lot of experience with that class in arena, so I'll be living vicariously through you. For the most part, your picks seemed pretty clear. You've got a great card curve, and a good mixture of taunt/card draw/removal, etc. I do find it interesting that Grim Patron gets such a bad arena score while it tears up the constructed meta, but that just shows how dependent it is on combos. Good luck the rest of the way! (BTW, I sent you a friend request, but I see you are in EU while I play in NA, so maybe it doesn't connect).
Thanks. The Frothing Berserkers have definitely been instrumental so far and I also think that people just aren't really used to playing against warriors in arena, so don't really know what to expect. I didn't get any friend request, presumably because of the EU/NA thing.
Match 6: Paladin. I got off to a good start and got him down to six health, before he managed to clear my beefy Frothing Berserker with a Madder Bomber, which also took him down to 3 health, I was top-decking by this point and he had the bomber and a Kezan Mystic on board, although I was still pretty much on full health. My next card was Death's Bite, so I smashed his face.
Match 7: Priest. Frothing Berserker + taunt wall = love (and death to my enemies).
Match 8: Rogue. A funny sort of a match. i got off to a terribly slow start, but managed to drag things back under control. My frothing didn't play such a key role this time, but my multiple taunts hlped to keep my hero safe while I hit his face. In the end he had a lot of cards, thanks to Sprint, but an empty board and low health. I had no cards, but four minions on board, including my Sunwalker which he suicided in to with his dagger.
Match 9: Mage. I was pretty worried about this match-up, since a mage at 7 wins is unlikely to be without a Flamestrike or two and my Frothings are awfully vulnerable to that sort of thing. In fact, I didn't even draw either of my Frothing Berserkers, but my divine shield minions came along at the right time and allowed me to weather the single Flamestrike that was chucked my way. I managed to finish the match by turn 9.
Match 10: Another mage. A dreadful start and any hope of getting back into the game was snuffed out by a Flamestrike, two Flamecannons and a Fireball.
Match 11: Paladin. I got off to an okay start, but kept on drawing into low cost minions and he totally out-valued me. Two Truesilver Champions didn't help my cause and it was just a frustratingly hopeless fight.
I'm sad I didn't at least match my best run, but a combination of strong mage and pally decks at the higher win levels, together with me simply not getting lucky with the cards I drew made things a bit difficult.
I haven't done very well with mage inthe past, but I thought I'd give it another go. The other choices were Rogue and Priest. Please note that the second Arcane Intellect pick was actually an Arcane Explosion - I got a bit confused and only noticed my mistake after clicking on the card.
Pick 9 was even worse than that - it was an arcane explosion. I somehow misread the card and put it into HA as Arcane Intellect, then picked it without realising my error. I would definitely have picked the croc over a second arcane explosion.
I thought that picking a mad scientist so early in the draft would give me a decent chance of picking up a secret later, but it turned out that the only half-way decent secret that I was offered was in the same set of picks as the scientist.
I finally have the chance to knock out a couple of games.
Macth 1: Rogue. A very standard game that there's not really very much to say about. We whittled down each other's health and, in the end, his health went down faster than mine. I managed to drop Gruul on my last turn, but he was killed, behind a taunt, by my opponent's buffed Ogre Ninja. Despite that little bit of luck he conceded straight after.
Match 2: Druid. One of those druid decks that you just hate to play against. Two Druid of the Claw and an Ironbark Protector ground away my cards and I just didn't have an answers.
Match 3: Mage. A long and drawn out affair. My Flamestrike sat in my hand for most of the game and I never had a decent opportunity to use it. In the end I ground him down.
Match 4: Mage. Played this last night and can't really remember much of what happened. I won, but it was a fairly close match, I think.
Match 5: Mage again. I had an okay start, but his was far better and he got some lovely RNG, like his Goblin Blastmage hitting my Sen'jin Shieldmasta all four times, allowing him to clear my board. A thoroughly irritating match.
Match 6: Hunter. He got off to an almost constructed quality start and I feared the worst, but having cleared his board and plonked down a taunt, he seemed to run out of decent cards. It ended up being a fairly easy win.
Match 7: Priest. He had some nice cards, including two Azure Drakes and two Shrinkmeisters, but I won through, finishing off with Gruul and my Fireball.
Match 8: Yet another mage and this one had every single answer he could ever want. Multiple Fireballs, Frostbolt, Flamestrike, Polymorph, all exactly when he needed them. One of those depressing games when you think you're just about getting a foothold, only to see your opponent play exactly the cards he needs to smack you back down,
A slightly disappointing run, but it could have been worse. I continue my unimpressive performances with mage, though.
I thought I'd give warrior another go, after my relative success last time. Sadly I then drafted the fairly awful deck, above. At least I have a few weapons and shouldn't be short of early drops, but the overall quality is rubbish and I have very little mid or late game. I can't see this going too far, but I'd welcome any feedback.
Match 1: Paladin. I got a good starting hand with Fiery War Axe, Mechwarper and Cruel Taskmaster and managed to keep his board clear while whittling down his health. Battle Rage came just at the right time, when I was running out of steam a bit and could use it to draw three cards and I managed to get an activated Drakonid Crusher on the board to finish him off.
Match 2: Hunter. Another good starting hand with plenty of low mana drops (not surprising given my deck). My Faceless Manipulator got great value by copying his Cult Master, which I then destroyed, and allowed me to draw three or four cards over the next few turns. A Bloodsail Raider buffed to 8/3 thanks to Gorehowl helped to seal the victory.
Match 4: Warrior. So close. I had him down to 6 health with Gorehowl sitting in my hand. Next turn he clears my two minions, popping his Nerubian Egg in the mean time, then drops Shieldmaiden, putting hm out of lethal range. A Drakonid Crusher the following turn made things very hopeless indeed.
Match 5: Priest. A nice match. I ran out of cards quite quickly, but he was on low health by that point, He pulled out Vol'jin and swapped health with his Mogu'shan Warden, I top-decked Gorehowl and killed the Warchief. He conceded.
Match 6: Shaman. This guy had the most mental deck I've seen in a long time. Nerubian Egg into Rockbiter Weapon, Frostwolf Warlord x 2 (both times with a packed board), three Fire Elementals, Hogger and, of course, Flametongue Totem. He insisted on emoting "thank you" after most of my moves, which seemed a bit tool-ish, but I tried to add him after my inevitable defeat to compliment him on the crazy deck and ask him to let me know how far he got. Sadly he didn't accept.
Match 7: Hunter. Another fan of BM, who I had to squelch after multiple "I'm sorry" emotes every time he killed one of my minions. He had a better deck and better draws and I never really stood a chance.
I would have liked at least five wins, but four doesn't seem too terrible for this deck, particularly since one of the losses was against a monster draft.
Rewards:
Pretty decent rewards and an okay pack, since I got three crads that I didn't already have two of.
Time to give this deck a whirl.
Match 1: Rogue. I thought I'd got off to a good start with Worgen Infiltrator > The Coin > Flame Imp on turn one, but Backstab > Defias Ringleader said no. He really just out valued me from there on and I was dead by turn 8.
Match 2: Shaman. Essentially a free win. He coined out his hero power on the first turn, then used it agin on turn two. I had a nice curve and, but for the fact that his first two totems were both taunts, it would have been over even sooner.
Match 3: Paladin. This onewent right to the wire. I feared the worst when he coined out a minibot, but he ran out of steam quite quickly. Sadly I didn't really draw the best cards so it was far closer than it should have been. I ended up getting sneaky lethal with Hellfire after taking him down to one health with my minions.
Match 4: Another paladin. More straightforward than the last match, with a heavily buffed Floating Watcher sealing the win.
Match 5: Yet another pally. Everything was going nicely and I had a beefy Floating Watcher yet again, which unfortunately got Faceless Manipulatored. I buffed mine further and beat in his face, so he was forced to Blessing of Kings his copy to take mine out. By that point enough damage had been done that he couldn't pull the game back.
Match 6: Warlock. Despite my wonky mana curve I have, so far, managed to get off to a decent start most matches, and this was no different, I had board control pretty much from the start and it felt like a comfortable win.
Match 7: Mage. A close match. There were times when a flamestrike would have wrecked me, but so would have playing around it. My luck held and I managed to race him down.
Match 8: Priest. I'm not a fan of playing priests, with all their endless buffing and healing, but I managed to keep control of things for most of the match. Things were just starting to look shaky, when some nifty trading / Floating Watcher / Hellfire work left him with a clear board and me with a 6/3. I was incredibly lucky to get a finicky cloakfield of his mech yeti, to stealth my watcher, giving me lethal next turn. He had an Argent Commander, so would have cleared my minion and left me in a very sticky situation without the stealth.
Match 9: Mage. Oh so close. I was very lucky after leaving him with lethal, only for his Ogre Brute to attack the wrong target. I would have had him the turn after with my Floating Watcher but he had Blizzard to freeze it. Then I got him down to one point with Nat Pagle (from a shredder) buffed with Power Overwhelming and Dark Iron Dwarf. I lifetapped, hopping for Darkbomb, but no luck. Oh well.
Macth 10: Druid. I didn't fancy my chances if it got to the point where he could start dropping great big taunts, so went full on aggro. It was a little hairy, but I ended up killing him on turn seven with a Darkbomb and a Hellfire.
Macth 11: Paladin. It was nerve wracking, but I got the right cards at the right times and, once again, a Floating Watcher was instrumental in getting me the win. The ability to buff it once on the turn you play it and again the following turn, before you attack, is so valuable.
Match 12: Mage. My luck seriously ran out. I had nothing to play on the first two turns and the whole match was just struggling to keep my head above water. On the final turn I was at 3 health and he had a 1 health Venture Company Mercenary on board. I turned to my last hope to live for one more round, a deranged looking goblin with a great big sack on his back. "Remember, throw the bombs towards the big goblin in the armour" I said. Sure enough, the mighty foe was vanquished. Over-joyed, my twitchy green minion turned around to receive my praise. Sadly he forgot to stop throwing bombs. Suicide by Madder Bomber. A fine way to end a really enjoyable run.
I'm really happy with this. I didn't go into the run with high hopes, given the slightly strange curve, but the deck really did have a lot of answers and Floating Watcher was definitely the MVP, with honourable mentions to Imp Gang Boss and Power Overwhelming. I beat my best previous run by two wins.
Rewards:
Reasonable, although the pack was mainly dust.
Arena 13 - Warlock
http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/lt8ufv
I thought I'd draft my next run before going to bed. Given the choice of Shaman, Hunter or Warlock I decided to try some Lock goodness again. It doesn't seem like a bad deck and I can see me getting some surprise lethals, since it has a lot of reach, but it feels slightly worse than my last draft.
I'll probably play this tomorrow night or Wednesday, but I'd love some feedback in the meantime.
Well, it's taken me a while to get round to playing this, Let's see how it goes.
Match 1: Mage. I couldn't play anything until turn 3 and he just had all the answers. I felt that I gave a reasonable account of myself, but I was always on the back foot.
Match 2: Rogue. The most abysmal start ever. Nothing to play until turn 3, again, and when I did have stuff to play it was Stonetusk Boar, Blood Imp, Mogu'shan Warden and Lord of the Arena - the worst cards in my desk and just plain embarassing to play them one after the other. Needless to say I didn't stand a chance.
Match 3: Rogue. I actually had some two drops so got off to a fair start. It ended up being a fairly straightforward win.
Match 4: Warrior. I got off to an okay start, but things quickly went wrong. I honestly feel that there was nothing could do, as he simply had better cards and repeateedly traded far more efficiently than could, keeping my board clear. Deathlord followed by Argent Commander to kill the only minion that had a chance of dealing with its 8 health was probably the biggest set-back.
A terrible run with a deck that wasn't great, but should have done better. Disheartening because I really didn't have a chance in any of the matches I lost.
Rewards:
Fittingly terrible, but a decent pack.
Mirror Entity. For the exact reason you say :)
Arena 14 - Mage
http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/3512vd
After that debacle, I decided to try the queen of the arena: mage. I then proceeded to draft what might be the worst deck I've ever had. Wish me luck. It should, at least, be over quickly.
No individual write ups of each match this time, since I wasn't expecting much, but I ended up going 3-3, which was better than I thought I'd do.
Unstable Portal was almost uniformly terrible, giving me mainly poor one drops, although it did save one match when it gave me Tirion Fordring. I suffered from having very low quality cards a lot of the time, particularly against a druid with double Druid of the Claw, and I seriously lacked card draw, considering how fast my deck was.
Rewards:
Meh!
Your point about card draw is a good one. I just had what I thought to be the best Mage draft ever - multiple Fireball, Flamestrike, Polymorph, etc.... pretty much a dream deck. Except I found myself blowing out early and praying for a top deck. I went 6-3 but, in better hands, it probably would have went much further. And if I had an Arcane Intellect or two, things might have been vastly different.
One thing you should be happy about is your rewards. I believe you have 2 legendaries in 14 runs now? I have done many more runs than that over the last year, and I cant remember the last time I have pulled a legendary.
I appreciate you keeping up with this thread. It's fun to follow along with the ups and downs all of us experience in the arena.
Thanks very much. I appreciate the encouragement. Hopefully my next run will go better...
Arena 15 - Shaman
http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/owr7j0
I actually drafted this immediately after my mage run, but didn't get round to adding it to this thread until now. There's some really nice stuff in this draft - three Fireguard Destroyer and three Hex, for example, but no card draw at all. The only card draw I was even offered was a Grimscale Oracle and I really didn't fancy taking that.
I may manage to play this, this evening, but it might have to wait until Monday. As always, any feedback is welcome.
Match 1: Warlock. I really can't complain about my cards: I got a lot of decent cards when I needed them and even had Zombie Chow and Whirling Zap-o-matic in my starting hand. Sadly I was up against a player with a crazy good deck. What should have been a cler win ended up being a close-fought loss. Two 4 attack rolls on the two Fireguard Destroyers I played wasn't helpful, but given that both were immediately removed with spells, it didn't really affect the outcome. Some card draw would have been nice.
Match 2: Priest. Another decent starting hand, another opponent with a crazy deck. Prophet Velen, at least 3 Holy Novas, Temple Enforcer etc. I ran out of steam quite quickly and was just staving off the inevitable for most of the match.
Math 3: Hunter. Once again I had an okay start and this time my opponent didn't have much luck with his cards. A couple of annoying secrets, but nothing too troublesome. A win at last.
I'm sorry for your first two losses. The deck looks really nice.
I personally prefer Nerubian Egg over Arcan Nullifier in Pick #1. As Shaman you usually have some classcards like Rockbiter, Flametongue Totem, Ancestral Healing, etc. to activate it. Even if you don't get any of them it is still a good AoE protection.
Thanks, it really does feel like it should do better than it has so far - the four drops are great and it has osme other really nice stuff.
Match 4: Druid. This ended up being fairly straightforward, if long. He had two Poison Seeds, which were annoying, but not overly effective and I was aided by some great Crackle rolls (unbuffed six on one and a +1 buffed six on another, which took out a Druid of the Claw rather nicely).
Match 5: Paladin. Another slow but steady victory. My card quality was high enough to keep board control throughout, despite his superior card draw giving him more options. I feel like the players I'm facing at the moment are less expert than I usually face. Perhaps the benefit of playing a little earlier in the evening.
Match 6: A shaman with a dream start versus me playing my first minion on turn three. I managed to drag it out for a surprisingly long time, but never regained any sort of control. It was only my multiple taunts that got me to about turn 12 or 13.
A disappointing performance from a decent deck, but being light on early game and card draw probably did the damage.
Rewards:
Pretty standard, but a very dull pack.
Arena 16 - Warrior
http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/2d7uzm
So, after the disappointing shaman run, what better way to return to the arena than with the acknowledged worst class? The draft seems bearable, but is relatively lacking in weapns and doesn't have too many great cards. We'll see how it goes.
Match 1: Rogue. Even after a full mulligan, my opening hand was nothing but four drops. I wasn't hopeful, but fortunately he didn't punsih me too much for my slow start and I gradually won back control. Heavy use of his weapon brought him a little low and I was able to finish him off.
Match 2: A mage that ignored both my Frothing Berserker and my Questing Adventurer as they got pumped up to gigantic proportions. The Frothing hit him for 21 damage on one turn before he woke up to it, but by that point I had a heavy board presence and he had 3 health. As always, a Flamestrike would have wrecked me, but thankfully he didn't seem to have one.
Match 3: A poor start and I was punished for it. Another case of behind from the beginning and never really getting my head above water.
Match 4: Paladin. A Frothing Berserker behind a Sunwalker was the killer card in this match. My Elven Archer earned her keep by both popping the bubble on his Shielded Minibot and activating my execute the following turn when he buffed it with Blessing of Kings. I doubted HA when it told me to pick her over Whirlwind and Axe Flinger but the girl did good.
Match 5: Rogue. I got off to a fair, if not amazing start. The key moments were probably when his Ogre Brute decided to go for my face, instead of his chosen target and then got returned to his hand by his Anub'ar Ambusher's deathrattle. Once again a Frothing Berserker behind a strong taunt, this time my Sludge Belcher sealed the deal.
I'm done for this evening. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish this off in a couple of days time.
Nice start! Especially, like you said, with the rap that Warrior gets in arena. I don't have a lot of experience with that class in arena, so I'll be living vicariously through you. For the most part, your picks seemed pretty clear. You've got a great card curve, and a good mixture of taunt/card draw/removal, etc. I do find it interesting that Grim Patron gets such a bad arena score while it tears up the constructed meta, but that just shows how dependent it is on combos. Good luck the rest of the way! (BTW, I sent you a friend request, but I see you are in EU while I play in NA, so maybe it doesn't connect).
Thanks. The Frothing Berserkers have definitely been instrumental so far and I also think that people just aren't really used to playing against warriors in arena, so don't really know what to expect.
I didn't get any friend request, presumably because of the EU/NA thing.
Match 6: Paladin. I got off to a good start and got him down to six health, before he managed to clear my beefy Frothing Berserker with a Madder Bomber, which also took him down to 3 health, I was top-decking by this point and he had the bomber and a Kezan Mystic on board, although I was still pretty much on full health. My next card was Death's Bite, so I smashed his face.
Match 7: Priest. Frothing Berserker + taunt wall = love (and death to my enemies).
Match 8: Rogue. A funny sort of a match. i got off to a terribly slow start, but managed to drag things back under control. My frothing didn't play such a key role this time, but my multiple taunts hlped to keep my hero safe while I hit his face. In the end he had a lot of cards, thanks to Sprint, but an empty board and low health. I had no cards, but four minions on board, including my Sunwalker which he suicided in to with his dagger.
Match 9: Mage. I was pretty worried about this match-up, since a mage at 7 wins is unlikely to be without a Flamestrike or two and my Frothings are awfully vulnerable to that sort of thing. In fact, I didn't even draw either of my Frothing Berserkers, but my divine shield minions came along at the right time and allowed me to weather the single Flamestrike that was chucked my way. I managed to finish the match by turn 9.
Match 10: Another mage. A dreadful start and any hope of getting back into the game was snuffed out by a Flamestrike, two Flamecannons and a Fireball.
Match 11: Paladin. I got off to an okay start, but kept on drawing into low cost minions and he totally out-valued me. Two Truesilver Champions didn't help my cause and it was just a frustratingly hopeless fight.
I'm sad I didn't at least match my best run, but a combination of strong mage and pally decks at the higher win levels, together with me simply not getting lucky with the cards I drew made things a bit difficult.
Rewards:
Dreadful rewards and a pretty awful pack.
Arena 17 - Mage
http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/s9c8bo
I haven't done very well with mage inthe past, but I thought I'd give it another go. The other choices were Rogue and Priest. Please note that the second Arcane Intellect pick was actually an Arcane Explosion - I got a bit confused and only noticed my mistake after clicking on the card.
Pick 9 was even worse than that - it was an arcane explosion. I somehow misread the card and put it into HA as Arcane Intellect, then picked it without realising my error. I would definitely have picked the croc over a second arcane explosion.
I thought that picking a mad scientist so early in the draft would give me a decent chance of picking up a secret later, but it turned out that the only half-way decent secret that I was offered was in the same set of picks as the scientist.
I finally have the chance to knock out a couple of games.
Macth 1: Rogue. A very standard game that there's not really very much to say about. We whittled down each other's health and, in the end, his health went down faster than mine. I managed to drop Gruul on my last turn, but he was killed, behind a taunt, by my opponent's buffed Ogre Ninja. Despite that little bit of luck he conceded straight after.
Match 2: Druid. One of those druid decks that you just hate to play against. Two Druid of the Claw and an Ironbark Protector ground away my cards and I just didn't have an answers.
Match 3: Mage. A long and drawn out affair. My Flamestrike sat in my hand for most of the game and I never had a decent opportunity to use it. In the end I ground him down.
Lets get this finished.
Match 4: Mage. Played this last night and can't really remember much of what happened. I won, but it was a fairly close match, I think.
Match 5: Mage again. I had an okay start, but his was far better and he got some lovely RNG, like his Goblin Blastmage hitting my Sen'jin Shieldmasta all four times, allowing him to clear my board. A thoroughly irritating match.
Match 6: Hunter. He got off to an almost constructed quality start and I feared the worst, but having cleared his board and plonked down a taunt, he seemed to run out of decent cards. It ended up being a fairly easy win.
Match 7: Priest. He had some nice cards, including two Azure Drakes and two Shrinkmeisters, but I won through, finishing off with Gruul and my Fireball.
Match 8: Yet another mage and this one had every single answer he could ever want. Multiple Fireballs, Frostbolt, Flamestrike, Polymorph, all exactly when he needed them. One of those depressing games when you think you're just about getting a foothold, only to see your opponent play exactly the cards he needs to smack you back down,
A slightly disappointing run, but it could have been worse. I continue my unimpressive performances with mage, though.
Rewards:
Pretty poor, really.
Arena 18 - Warrior
http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/emd347
I thought I'd give warrior another go, after my relative success last time. Sadly I then drafted the fairly awful deck, above. At least I have a few weapons and shouldn't be short of early drops, but the overall quality is rubbish and I have very little mid or late game. I can't see this going too far, but I'd welcome any feedback.
That looks like a nice warrior deck, pretty aggressive and gotta loveGorehowl
Match 1: Paladin. I got a good starting hand with Fiery War Axe, Mechwarper and Cruel Taskmaster and managed to keep his board clear while whittling down his health. Battle Rage came just at the right time, when I was running out of steam a bit and could use it to draw three cards and I managed to get an activated Drakonid Crusher on the board to finish him off.
Match 2: Hunter. Another good starting hand with plenty of low mana drops (not surprising given my deck). My Faceless Manipulator got great value by copying his Cult Master, which I then destroyed, and allowed me to draw three or four cards over the next few turns. A Bloodsail Raider buffed to 8/3 thanks to Gorehowl helped to seal the victory.
Match 3: Warlock. A lovely start of The Coin > Mechwarper followed by Clockwork Gnome and Fiery War Axe to kill his River Crocolisk on turn two. I was lucky to have the cards I needed to hand at the right times and he ended up suiciding by Flame Imp on turn seven.
Match 4: Warrior. So close. I had him down to 6 health with Gorehowl sitting in my hand. Next turn he clears my two minions, popping his Nerubian Egg in the mean time, then drops Shieldmaiden, putting hm out of lethal range. A Drakonid Crusher the following turn made things very hopeless indeed.
Match 5: Priest. A nice match. I ran out of cards quite quickly, but he was on low health by that point, He pulled out Vol'jin and swapped health with his Mogu'shan Warden, I top-decked Gorehowl and killed the Warchief. He conceded.
Match 6: Shaman. This guy had the most mental deck I've seen in a long time. Nerubian Egg into Rockbiter Weapon, Frostwolf Warlord x 2 (both times with a packed board), three Fire Elementals, Hogger and, of course, Flametongue Totem. He insisted on emoting "thank you" after most of my moves, which seemed a bit tool-ish, but I tried to add him after my inevitable defeat to compliment him on the crazy deck and ask him to let me know how far he got. Sadly he didn't accept.
Match 7: Hunter. Another fan of BM, who I had to squelch after multiple "I'm sorry" emotes every time he killed one of my minions. He had a better deck and better draws and I never really stood a chance.
I would have liked at least five wins, but four doesn't seem too terrible for this deck, particularly since one of the losses was against a monster draft.
Rewards:
Pretty decent rewards and an okay pack, since I got three crads that I didn't already have two of.