I've recently been playing a lot of ranked and I have achieved rank 4 (woo!) with the help of a rush hunter deck.
Alas, I'm trying to jump off of that bandwagon because i feel it is unjust because of its stupidity in terms of overall skill and budget requirements.
So in hopes of making a good control deck, with 1600 dust at my expense, I'm looking to craft a good meta-crushing deck!
Heres my personal thoughts:
-Baron Geddon being #1 (deal 2 damage to all other characters = board wipe v aggro and strong 7/5 body), I personally lost due to him quite a few times
-Ragnaros (RNG 8 damage to an enemy can make a game)
-King Mukla (Important to have a solid body out at the beginning for a control deck versus aggro, 5/5 outweighs the 2 bananas given to opponent)
-The Black Knight (Great free sludge-belcher destroyer and strong body)
-Harrison Jones (Control warriors and miracle rogues despise, great card draw potential with decent body)
The legendaries I listed I do not own (excluding ragnaros), so in terms of the best legendary to craft in the current meta, which do I chose? (Feel free to post your own opinions if you have a better legendary in mind)
I would consider waiting until next month when GvG breaks the meta, maybe one of the new legendaries will be ridiculous. If you can't wait (and you have Rag), Sylvanas.
Depends what deck you wana make and how many legendaries you already have. Control warrior is probably too expensive. Priest might be more achievable. Sylvanas fits into most control decks nicely anyway so i'd probably say her
I would consider waiting until next month when GvG breaks the meta, maybe one of the new legendaries will be ridiculous. If you can't wait (and you have Rag), Sylvanas.
Sylvanas is certainly a lot faster than the foe-reaper at only 6 mana instead of 8, making it much better against aggro decks. For Foe Reaper to work, you need to spend your entire turn 8 playing a big creature that doesn't have an immediate effect (Foe Reaper does nothing until you attack the next turn). Then your opponent can't have an answer but on your next turn they must still have multiple creatures on board so you can benefit from the Foe Reaper's effect. But all the while, he can't have applied enough pressure to have pushed you into lethal range with his full board yet. Pretty hard to pull off. The reason Ragnaros (and to a lesser extend Kel'Thuzad) are considered worth playing at 8 mana is that they do have an immediate effect. Ragnaros fires its first shot at the end of your turn, Kel'Thuzad resurrects your minions at the end of your turn. Neither one needs to wait until your next turn before it can do something.
That said, if you're going for immediate effect against aggressive decks, Barron Geddon is indeed a good pick. The question is what deck to put it in though. Control Warrior is the obvious place for it, but I'm guessing you don't have enough dust to craft the other legendaries (at least grommash, alexstraza and either cairne or sylvanas). Priest is good control, but since it already has wild pyromancer + spells, auchenai + circle and holy nova to clear, Geddon might be overdoing it. In handlock it might work, but it would probably be better to run a second hellfire. The only deck where I've seen Geddon really shine outside control warrior is control priest that gives up the circle combo (so no auchenai/circle, no injured blademasters) and has no early deathrattle/undertaker minions, but that is certainly not the strongest version of priest around.
Ragnaros is always good to have, but it is usually better in control mirrors than against deathrattle-heavy token-style aggro since it almost always overkills tremendously against tiny creatures and triggers their beneficial deathrattle effects. I've seen most skilled aggro players ignore Ragnaros and just keep going face unless they have something like a hunter's mark handy.
King Mukla is actually an interesting thought. I've never really considered him in control because I always feel like my strategy is not to increase my own tempo against control, but to slow and counter them in the early game and then overwhelm them when they run out of steam. That said, aggro decks are least likely to have mana left over to spend those bananas, so it might work. If you end up going for this card, let us know how it works out!
The Black Knight is a card I've been playing in most of my control decks and it is always a decent card. It is good not just against sludge belcher, but also against houndmaster combo's, handlock's taunted giants/drakes, zoo's defender of argus, against control/ramp druids or for the dream of killing Tyrion or Al'Akir. That said, in my experience it is solid but not as insane as you might expect, since it is only powerful on that one turn where you get a good taunt to crush. In fact, I find myself sometimes playing it on a taunt-free board just because I need the tempo.
Harrison is also decent against hunter's Eaglehorn bow and insane against shaman's doomhammer or handlock's blood fury. I have recently switched in acidic swamp ooze on my priest though, because ooze is better value as a body in match-ups where you can't destroy weapons and harrison is sometimes too slow against hunter's eaglehorn bow.
Interesting non-obvious picks to consider:
Cairne Bloodhoof is always a value card. It is a bit slow for the current aggressive meta, but it is always usable.
Hogger has been seeing play in control decks because it can get out of control if you can keep it alive for just one turn (which requires some preparation). There are only 3 cards being run currently that are a good match for it: soulfire, eviscerate and swipe. Hogger getting hit by a Kill Command or even hard removal like an execute or hex is always good to see and even the 'good' answers at least still leave you with your taunt token.
Bloodmage Thalnos is good if you're playing a spell heavy deck. Something like shaman can really do well with a spell power boost and also needs the cycle because card draw is always tricky.
Lord Jaraxxus (or maybe Alexstraza as a replacement) is almost a requirement in Handlock with very few decks still being able to burst for 15 damage in one turn. Similarly, paladin control wins games with Tyrion unless your opponent immediately has the perfect answer in hand.
Well Met!
I've recently been playing a lot of ranked and I have achieved rank 4 (woo!) with the help of a rush hunter deck.
Alas, I'm trying to jump off of that bandwagon because i feel it is unjust because of its stupidity in terms of overall skill and budget requirements.
So in hopes of making a good control deck, with 1600 dust at my expense, I'm looking to craft a good meta-crushing deck!
Heres my personal thoughts:
-Baron Geddon being #1 (deal 2 damage to all other characters = board wipe v aggro and strong 7/5 body), I personally lost due to him quite a few times
-Ragnaros (RNG 8 damage to an enemy can make a game)
-King Mukla (Important to have a solid body out at the beginning for a control deck versus aggro, 5/5 outweighs the 2 bananas given to opponent)
-The Black Knight (Great free sludge-belcher destroyer and strong body)
-Harrison Jones (Control warriors and miracle rogues despise, great card draw potential with decent body)
The legendaries I listed I do not own (excluding ragnaros), so in terms of the best legendary to craft in the current meta, which do I chose? (Feel free to post your own opinions if you have a better legendary in mind)
I would consider waiting until next month when GvG breaks the meta, maybe one of the new legendaries will be ridiculous. If you can't wait (and you have Rag), Sylvanas.
Depends what deck you wana make and how many legendaries you already have. Control warrior is probably too expensive. Priest might be more achievable. Sylvanas fits into most control decks nicely anyway so i'd probably say her
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/11/17/revealing-a-brand-new-hearthstone-legendary
Soooo, this one or Sylvanas?
Sylvanas is certainly a lot faster than the foe-reaper at only 6 mana instead of 8, making it much better against aggro decks. For Foe Reaper to work, you need to spend your entire turn 8 playing a big creature that doesn't have an immediate effect (Foe Reaper does nothing until you attack the next turn). Then your opponent can't have an answer but on your next turn they must still have multiple creatures on board so you can benefit from the Foe Reaper's effect. But all the while, he can't have applied enough pressure to have pushed you into lethal range with his full board yet. Pretty hard to pull off. The reason Ragnaros (and to a lesser extend Kel'Thuzad) are considered worth playing at 8 mana is that they do have an immediate effect. Ragnaros fires its first shot at the end of your turn, Kel'Thuzad resurrects your minions at the end of your turn. Neither one needs to wait until your next turn before it can do something.
That said, if you're going for immediate effect against aggressive decks, Barron Geddon is indeed a good pick. The question is what deck to put it in though. Control Warrior is the obvious place for it, but I'm guessing you don't have enough dust to craft the other legendaries (at least grommash, alexstraza and either cairne or sylvanas). Priest is good control, but since it already has wild pyromancer + spells, auchenai + circle and holy nova to clear, Geddon might be overdoing it. In handlock it might work, but it would probably be better to run a second hellfire. The only deck where I've seen Geddon really shine outside control warrior is control priest that gives up the circle combo (so no auchenai/circle, no injured blademasters) and has no early deathrattle/undertaker minions, but that is certainly not the strongest version of priest around.
Ragnaros is always good to have, but it is usually better in control mirrors than against deathrattle-heavy token-style aggro since it almost always overkills tremendously against tiny creatures and triggers their beneficial deathrattle effects. I've seen most skilled aggro players ignore Ragnaros and just keep going face unless they have something like a hunter's mark handy.
King Mukla is actually an interesting thought. I've never really considered him in control because I always feel like my strategy is not to increase my own tempo against control, but to slow and counter them in the early game and then overwhelm them when they run out of steam. That said, aggro decks are least likely to have mana left over to spend those bananas, so it might work. If you end up going for this card, let us know how it works out!
The Black Knight is a card I've been playing in most of my control decks and it is always a decent card. It is good not just against sludge belcher, but also against houndmaster combo's, handlock's taunted giants/drakes, zoo's defender of argus, against control/ramp druids or for the dream of killing Tyrion or Al'Akir. That said, in my experience it is solid but not as insane as you might expect, since it is only powerful on that one turn where you get a good taunt to crush. In fact, I find myself sometimes playing it on a taunt-free board just because I need the tempo.
Harrison is also decent against hunter's Eaglehorn bow and insane against shaman's doomhammer or handlock's blood fury. I have recently switched in acidic swamp ooze on my priest though, because ooze is better value as a body in match-ups where you can't destroy weapons and harrison is sometimes too slow against hunter's eaglehorn bow.
Interesting non-obvious picks to consider:
Let us know what you end up going for!