So I was rustling up a bit of last-minute gold at the end of the season. Mech Paladin vs....I'm assuming it was Face Hunter (Leper Gnome and Sandtrooper). Yeah, I know, we're both scum, we ruin the game, etc. etc. I don't care. :P That's not the question.
Anyway, so, a race-for-face breaks out. I end up winning it, a few HP ahead of them all the way. The thing is....I remember articles like 'Who's the beatdown' and ensuring you know what your role is, so you make the correct decisions. One player is controlling and wins if they can hold off the attack, the other is the beatdown and has to go for it. Who the beatdown is depends on a bunch of factors, and it can change with the flow of the game, as different situations come up.
In this case....we -both- made the decision to go for face. It's not exactly shocking. That's what Face hunter does, if it tries to do something else, it will lose. The other player obviously knows this, it was a single figure rank game. We ain't geniuses, but I'd like to think they know their deck at least in passing. :D Granted I'd only had the mech deck maybe an hour or two at this point, but I've faced enough of that face hunter before ranking up to also know, if they get too far ahead, you simply lose. If you -can- bring their health down and make them fear death, you have to do it - that mech deck doesn't have heal outside of Zilliax, so they WILL get you eventually, even if you clear everything.
That would make us.....-both- the beatdown? I don't recall that ever being a thing. Ok, it was an old Magic article, it's nearly 2 decades later and I don't even play Magic, but I don't recall it being possible for us -both- to be the beatdown at once. At most, we can alternate the role. Then again, unless I'm mistaken (very likely) - we were both right to go face in this case - or were we? Was one of us in the wrong role and supposed to be playing defensive? Nah....I recall some years back hunter mirrors also had this kind of rep.
Alternatively, maybe the beatdown doesn't apply to Hearthstone in quite this way because....bunch of contextual TCG reasons I don't understand, because, I only play Hearthstone and even then, not that well. :P Idk. Well, that's why this part-time aggro scumbag is asking. Yeah, I could just wail on face all the time and not think about it, and maybe I'm overthinking a 'dumb aggro deck', but.....this is a theory question and I don't have the answer. In fact, I don't have anyone in mind I can ask, other than here where someone might shed some light on it. Idk. It just....irks me I can't answer this. What else about 'braindead aggro decks' do I not even know? :D
aggro matchups are really and i have no experience with the mech paladin deck but i played a bit of face hunter, i believe in this matchup the hunter is the one pressed for time he needs to close the game early because the threat of you landing a zilliax in a big mech is higher the more it goes on, so in your words he would be the beatdown since he want to win before your bigger plays go online. you can also see it this way he cant really defend himself so he needs to beat you first
....dang. Didn't think of that. Still, Zilliax is one card in 30, I'm not mulliganing for it directly, so the odds of me getting it before I'm dead ain't great, but....yeah. It makes him the beatdown.
Second question. Bearing in mind I can't expect to get Zilliax in time, surely I still need to attack -anyway- if I have any kind of chance of winning the race?
In aggro mirrors I always consider the person ahead on board as the beat down. In some mirrors like token druid where the best play is to trade for board control then for most of the match neither of you is the beat down.
Hmm. I thought about control games for the opposite case, but the beatdown there is just the one whose win condition is likely to get taken away first (usually by fatigue or being forced to play their finishing combo or whatever).
Maybe I should just stop taking 20-year old article as gospel. :P ( - and play the deck more than an hour or two before I decide a problem is unsolvable)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So I was rustling up a bit of last-minute gold at the end of the season. Mech Paladin vs....I'm assuming it was Face Hunter (Leper Gnome and Sandtrooper). Yeah, I know, we're both scum, we ruin the game, etc. etc. I don't care. :P That's not the question.
Anyway, so, a race-for-face breaks out. I end up winning it, a few HP ahead of them all the way. The thing is....I remember articles like 'Who's the beatdown' and ensuring you know what your role is, so you make the correct decisions. One player is controlling and wins if they can hold off the attack, the other is the beatdown and has to go for it. Who the beatdown is depends on a bunch of factors, and it can change with the flow of the game, as different situations come up.
In this case....we -both- made the decision to go for face. It's not exactly shocking. That's what Face hunter does, if it tries to do something else, it will lose. The other player obviously knows this, it was a single figure rank game. We ain't geniuses, but I'd like to think they know their deck at least in passing. :D Granted I'd only had the mech deck maybe an hour or two at this point, but I've faced enough of that face hunter before ranking up to also know, if they get too far ahead, you simply lose. If you -can- bring their health down and make them fear death, you have to do it - that mech deck doesn't have heal outside of Zilliax, so they WILL get you eventually, even if you clear everything.
That would make us.....-both- the beatdown? I don't recall that ever being a thing. Ok, it was an old Magic article, it's nearly 2 decades later and I don't even play Magic, but I don't recall it being possible for us -both- to be the beatdown at once. At most, we can alternate the role. Then again, unless I'm mistaken (very likely) - we were both right to go face in this case - or were we? Was one of us in the wrong role and supposed to be playing defensive? Nah....I recall some years back hunter mirrors also had this kind of rep.
Alternatively, maybe the beatdown doesn't apply to Hearthstone in quite this way because....bunch of contextual TCG reasons I don't understand, because, I only play Hearthstone and even then, not that well. :P Idk. Well, that's why this part-time aggro scumbag is asking. Yeah, I could just wail on face all the time and not think about it, and maybe I'm overthinking a 'dumb aggro deck', but.....this is a theory question and I don't have the answer. In fact, I don't have anyone in mind I can ask, other than here where someone might shed some light on it. Idk. It just....irks me I can't answer this. What else about 'braindead aggro decks' do I not even know? :D
aggro matchups are really and i have no experience with the mech paladin deck but i played a bit of face hunter, i believe in this matchup the hunter is the one pressed for time he needs to close the game early because the threat of you landing a zilliax in a big mech is higher the more it goes on, so in your words he would be the beatdown since he want to win before your bigger plays go online. you can also see it this way he cant really defend himself so he needs to beat you first
....dang. Didn't think of that.
Still, Zilliax is one card in 30, I'm not mulliganing for it directly, so the odds of me getting it before I'm dead ain't great, but....yeah. It makes him the beatdown.
Second question. Bearing in mind I can't expect to get Zilliax in time, surely I still need to attack -anyway- if I have any kind of chance of winning the race?
In aggro mirrors I always consider the person ahead on board as the beat down. In some mirrors like token druid where the best play is to trade for board control then for most of the match neither of you is the beat down.
<ignore the double post>
Hmm. I thought about control games for the opposite case, but the beatdown there is just the one whose win condition is likely to get taken away first (usually by fatigue or being forced to play their finishing combo or whatever).
Maybe I should just stop taking 20-year old article as gospel. :P ( - and play the deck more than an hour or two before I decide a problem is unsolvable)