Hearthpwn

No doubt trogg at worst its a a 2/3 which is standard and it has the bonus effect.

Thanks everyone! I picked up the Trogg. Here's what's up next:

OPTIONS FOR PICK #8: Unstable Ghoul vs Goldshire Footman vs Blackwing Corruptor. None of these sound really great. The Ghoul and Corruptor can be good with the proper constructed support, so I have to think these are the two choices to consider. Am I undervaluing the Footman in arena?

Footman is just a trash. Yeah, corruptor is risky here, but risk/reward is very high. And ghoul just doesn't fit the agro style and in some situations could be even worse, that corruptor w/o synergy. So I'd take the risk.

Blackwing Corruptor. Even in worst case scenarios, he requires a card to deal with, trading one-for-one, whereas the other two do not. Unstable Ghoul can even backfire (opponent playing Acolyte of Pain, or you having to play around the deathrattle, for example).

You don't actually need that many dragons to turn him into a game changer - say, three or four, and he becomes much more interesting. Faerie Dragon and Azure Drake are two very high picks which happen to be dragons, so just keep the synergy in mind afterwards ;)

Ghoul.  again, 2 drops for SSC are good and with the AOE deathrattle you get some extra mileage out of your hero power.

W/o dragons, and with no guarantee of getting any, Corruptor is a 5/4 for 5.  A card that is decent with those stats is Tallstrider...which also costs 1 less.  

Footman can never be undervalued enough.

Quote from vasil94 »

I'd pick Footman just because everyone is bullying that guy.

-_-...wut?

Unstable Ghoul sharing a tier with Goldshire Footman Magma Rager Shieldbearer and other imba cards. 

Why? Cause Opponent may play Acolyte of Pain Amani Berserker Raging Worgen Grim Patron Gurubashi Berserker Imp Gang Boss or some other cards like this, putting you into disadvantage. And it's just a slow card for arena, especially for the deck with Fel Reaver

Also even if the opponent has 2/3 on board playing ghoul is useless(unless you wanna spend you next turn finishing it with ping which is extremely slow).

This was a really tough pick. I finally decided to go for the Blackwing Corruptor. There's definitely benefits and detractors to both. For me personally, I went with the card that I'm just more comfortable with. The Unstable Ghoul could be great or it could backfire on me. I know some of you will disagree, but hopefully this next pick will give some interesting food for thought as one of my options is a dragon.

OPTIONS FOR PICK #9: War Golem vs Frostbolt vs Faerie Dragon. As I see it, this is an "arena bomb" vs a staple Mage removal spell vs a solid 2-drop that could bring some synergy to my Blackwing Corruptor. What to do, what to do?!

Now that made me thinking quite a lot. Faerie Dragon is not real synergy with Corruptor. Even if it will be the only dragon we got, it's too hard to keep this in hand.

But still Faerie is very solid minion that randomly could become much better in your deck.  But Frostbolt is just a god tier card.

Well, choose dragon if you sure that greed will not ruin your game. Frostbolt overwise. 

Frostbolt is the pick I'd say, it's versatile enough to stop most 2, 3 & some 4 drops....

You can always use another two drop, but I wouldn't pick the dragon here.

Although the dragon's nice, it's hard to pass on a Frostbolt. Data from the 12-wins decks has shown that it is almost as common as Flamestrike in successful mage decks - that says something about its power and flexibility.

My vote goes to Frostbolt simply because it is useful in all situations as compared to the War Golem or the Faerie Dragon. 

Frostbolt for sure.  The synergy of the Dragon does not make it better than that.  It can pick off a 4 health minion w/ hero power on demand.  Don't follow up a sub par pick with another one just to make the former better.

Quote from Dakaran »

OPTIONS FOR PICK #9: War Golem vs Frostbolt vs Faerie Dragon. As I see it, this is an "arena bomb" vs a staple Mage removal spell vs a solid 2-drop that could bring some synergy to my Blackwing Corruptor. What to do, what to do?!

 

I would take Frostbolt.. Faerie Dragon is ok but I think its still early in the draft to pick up 2 drops later. And I think freeze mechanic is very helpful ... stall the weapon classes, or freeze a big minion on other side at late game for the extra turn to get u lethal. 

Also the corrputor synergy would need you to "hold" the dragon.. which means it wont be a legit 2 drop either. 

But I am not very good in arena so I might be totally wrong :P Subscribing to thread to learn few things myself! 

Sounds like a pretty obvious pick then with everyone voting for Frostbolt. It certainly is a versatile card.

OPTIONS FOR PICK #10: Coldlight Oracle vs Mana Addict vs Mana Wraith. Gut reaction is the Oracle. Mana Adict sounds like it could be potentially good, but with arena generally skewing towards minion heavy decks, would I really expect to get much mileage out of it? As for the Wraith, it just sounds like a terrible pick? Am I wrong there?

Wow... I don't really like any of these cards. Coldlight isn't great because it will give your opponent cards as well, which is something that you want to avoid. Mana Addict is the pick I think, between that card and your hero ability, you can drop 2-health minions. The wraith will also hurt you in the long run, because your minions increase in cost as well.

I don't really like any of those options but I'm not sure any are exactly horrible either.

I wouldn't want to play the coldlight oracle on curve as a 2/2 for 3 isn't good and the draw could backfire but it can work as a late game draw mechanic. If you've hit top decking you do still get the opportunity to play the cards drawn first and could have up to 7 mana left. Plenty for a Fireball/Frostbolt combo to finish your opponent or Fireball/Mirror entity to clear your opponents big minion and get a copy of what ever your opponent plays, etc.

Mana Wraith is going is going to affect both of you but if you play it on curve it just means your opponent is even more likely to trade into it to get it off the board. It will probably act almost like having Taunt and it will trade evenly with the common 3/2 2 drops.

Mana Addict doesn't have any side effects but if you play it as a two drop when going second your opponent will probably just run their 3/2 2 drop into it and it will survive. Then you'll have to ping with your hero power wasting most of your third turn to finish it off. On the other hand if it survives you can play a spell on turn three and have it be a 3/3 to swing into a 4/3 3 drop and kill it or for 3 damage to the face. I think the Mana Addict actually has the highest potential for you to lose tempo of any of the three cards.

Wraith is the best of the bunch, and that's not saying much.  

Oracle is an expensive 2/2, and its battlecry makes your Fel Reaver worse both by giving your opponents more cards to rush it down and eating up your deck faster.

Mana Addict only trades favorably with 2/1s, which are not super common in arena.  Far more likely you will run into 3/2s, which will clear this guy and still stay alive.  This of it this way.  You spend 4 to hit a 3/2 with him and hero power.  Thats anti value.

Wraith will at least trade with a 3/2, and and on the up side might end up screwing up your opponent's curve.  He also as a pseudo taunt in his game text since its annoying to everyone, so your opponent will likely clear him first if at all possible.  

I'd go with Mana Wraith, who at least has an okay body for its cost, although I think it's fairly similar in value to Mana Addict - sometimes it will be worth a card, others it will be worth close to nothing. Coldlight Oracle I would never play - its effect being symmetrical means it's worth nothing (crystal-wise) and it would have had bad stats for a two-drop - which is, of course, horrible on a three-drop. Sure, if you play it very late, you get to be the first to play your newfound toys, but on curve, it's putting yourself at huge risk.

They're all pretty bad, but I'd go with Mana Wraith.

The interesting part here is that I think its effect may help in a tempo deck. The opponent sees the effect first, so they're the first to suffer.

That's the opposite of the Coldlight, where, unless you play it very late, they'll be able to use the extra cards first.

Also, it's a more reasonable body for 2 than for 3.