Hearthpwn

One thing I've been doing is watching the replay as soon as I finish a match and try to identify what I could've done better. I'm not sure how much it helps, because each match is of course different, and I don't feel like I'll remember how I handled it if a similar situation comes up in the future.

Also, I play my matches with the HSReplay deck tracker overlay, but I don't feel right now that it helps much. Any advice as to how to use it more effectively?

Quote from ZashikiHS >>

 Game 1:

• What's important is not the card you get in this situation, but the stats on the board. A 3/3 is better than a 3/2 while using all of your mana, so you should play it instead of the inefficient Raven.
• Kalecgos can get you a board clear. Remember that the card you discover is also affected by the mana discount.

Game 2:

• A 3 mana 4/3 is fine, you don't need to play it with a secret. Secrets suck for Mage btw., you should not pick them most of the time because they are overbucketed.
• The Banker effect is irrelevant for arena, it does not affect your board or hand so you should treat it as a 2 mana 2/2.
• Why would you need to use Fireball at all in this situation? You could just play Summoner + Apprentice, then wait a turn. Sometimes it's better to build your board and wait to allow for better trades.

Game 3:

• t6 ping the Ooze, then trade into it with the Twilight Summoner.
• t7 Twilight Flamecaller is a good play here alongside Soldier of Fortune.

Arena is primarily a game of tempo, that is developing your ressources from your hand as quickly and as efficiently as possible onto your board. In general, you want to maximize the stats you play every turn with all your mana. The reason why this is so crucial for arena is because with board control you can be the one to dictate the trades, providing you with initiative. In comparison to constructed you have fewer opportunities to flip the board (e.g. with a board clear), so maintaining an edge over your opponent with favorable trades is very important.

Take the time you need to evaluate your possible plays and which combination of cards has the highest amount of net stats. Think about how your board looks like for each possible play. As I've said earlier, the reason why your opponents outvalue you is because you make poor trades and do not use your removals efficiently (like using burn spells on the opp. face when you should instead fight for the board).

• Sure, I could have gotten a Flamestrike or something from the discover. Just saying I think I could've played Frostbolt and have a 4/12 on the board in the perhaps unlikely event the discover didn't offer anything better.
• I'm not sure if I forgot that I played the Twilight Summoner the turn before and could attack with it. But had I not played Banker, I probably would've noticed the Ooze with 1 health and that I had the mana to ping it.

Quote from robert_fanr >>

Let me teach you arena in few words:

Drafting:

1) pick rogue or mage or paladin.

2) pick the cheapest, most aggressive stated minions you find

Playing:

1) search for a good curve.

2) just play like you are playing face hunter on ladder.

This will usually get you to more than 3 wins.

Chears 

 I've just been picking whatever has the highest win rate as per HSReplay from the three classes I'm offered.

Quote from Horkinger >>

tl;dr: Try to look at the cards as a resource and use them in a way that one of your cards will kill at least one of his cards to not fall behind. To get ahead, kill 2 of his cards with one of yours. Sounds simple, but it requires experience when to trade minions of (to avoid getting screwed by AoE) and when to take the favorable trades (your minions survive).

Disclaimer: I am not a great arena player. I got to 12 wins and also ended a run with 0 wins, but I rearely play arena. Nevertheless, I am convinced that the above is true for arena.

Ok, so my minions survive trades and I have a large board. It's a later turn, and my most expensive minion is 4 mana. Is it alright in that case to just play the one card, and maybe hero power, and have maybe 4 unspent mana that turn? Like perhaps it's better not to throw down a bunch of cheap minions that might instantly die to AoE?

Thanks to everyone for the advice given so far. I suppose I'll have to see how well I can apply it and how well it helps in my next arena run.

Quote from C_A_W >>

1st game of Run 2 :

1. Mulliganed away Talonpriest, one of the best cards in Arena, but kept that 4 mana 4/2.

2. Played that 4/2 instead of Proud Defender on turn 4, while opponent had Stormforged Axe equipped. 

3. Turn 5, you played Murloc Tidehunter and evolved it with Witchy Lackey, floating 2 mana. Proud defender was certainly a better play.

4. Turn 6, Holy Nova was better than playing Doppelgangster.

5. Turn 9, you played Undertaker instead of Proud Defender, floating 5 mana. 

There were couple of other questionable plays, but you need to realise that in Arena, tempo matter a lot more than in constructed. You can't be sitting with full hand and making low tempo plays while waiting for some big swing turn like in constructed. 

 I guess I'll try to explain my thought process for some of those moves. Not saying any of them were correct or anything.

1. I can say I kept the 4-drop because I thought the card draw would be very useful. I don't normally replace 3-drops in the mulligan, must not have been thinking there.

2. Wanted the card draw.

4. I wanted to save Holy Nova until I could benefit from the healing.

5. I thought it would be better to play Proud Defender when I could get the attack bonus.

I honestly don't know why I didn't use Shadow Word: Death against the 4/7/7. I must've been thinking something worse might be coming, but then, I don't see anything else in my hand that could've dealt with it effectively.

Quote from ZashikiHS >>

 You're floating a lot of mana for no reason. Try to use all of your available mana whenever possible. You're also not trading or using your removal efficiently and you're going face when you shouldn't. I suggest it's best you watch some arena streamers (Educated Collins, shadybunny, sunglitters, Kripparian etc.) for a while before playing another run to learn about concepts like tempo, when to trade vs when to go face, making good trades etc.

Run 1, Game 1:

• keep Kirin Tor in your Mulligan
• t4 you float 1 mana, why not play Chemist?
• t7 I'd trade here to protect vs Flamestrike. You do not need to race your opponent at this point. Also play Naga Corsair instead of the Chemist for better tempo.
• t10 Why not play Kalecgos?
• t11 Why not play Kalecgos?

Run 1, Game 2:

• Why do you keep Scribe, but mulligan away your 3-Drop?
• t4 Frostbolt+Ping would have been much better, allowing you to coin Scribe next turn
• t7 ??? You are not in the position to go face with the Fireball, you still need to fight for the board at this point
• t8 Faceless Summoner 

Run 1, Game 3:

• t4 Why not Frostbolt + Ping? You use a 4 mana minion to remove a 2-drop with the play you're doing.
• t6 Ping instead of Banker
• t7 Why do you ping if you have Flamecaller?
• t8 Why do you trade here?
• t9 You should not use Burn spells on your opponent's face unless you have a specific game plan in mind for that to work

 When I try to spend my mana, I almost always end up in a situation where I have only one card in my hand while my opponent has like five. That never goes well for me. Especially in later turns if I just have a bunch of cheaper cards in my hand.

Game 1:

• Guess I thought the minion I got might be more helpful than the potion.
• I can only assume I didn't play Kalec because my brain temporarily shut off. I could've immediately used that Frostbolt for free, couldn't I?
• Second time I didn't play Kalecgos I could only have been thinking that drawing an extra card is good. I suppose discovering a card is likely just as good.

Game 2:

• I was probably thinking I could get something better because I didn't have any secrets in my hand, and I thought Scribe was just that good.
• I suppose I was thinking an extra Jeweler would be good, and that I could deal with the minion next turn because it was frozen.
• Should I have used the Fireball against the Ettin? I thought it would be a waste of 6 damage when he only had 3 health.
• I could only have been thinking I needed to get rid of that 5 attack minion now.

Game 3:

• Ping what? My Twilight Summoner?
• I straight up didn't think it through on t7.
• I suppose I just spent 5 mana to not even kill a 4 mana minion. Would ping, then trade Soldier of Fortune next turn have been a good play?
• I think I have a problem with not thinking about what might come later. It might've been too late to win, but I think I would've been in better shape had I saved the Frostbolt for the Lifedrinker.

Anything I skipped over is because I simply wasn't thinking properly. As you might've noticed almost every single game ends with me having an empty hand while my opponent has a bunch of cards. How do I avoid this?

I'm hoping I can get some advice to help get better results in the arena. I'm posting links to replays of my past three arena runs. Don't worry, they don't go long. You may not need to watch them all to get a feel for my most common mistakes, but I'm posting all the games I lost from these past three runs. I went over them myself, and I think I've identified some sub-optimal plays.

I don't have any record of the drafting part, but I've been using the Lightforge tier list. I pick the highest value card for the first fifteen picks, then I try to pick cards that'll round out my deck. That was the advice I found in the Lightforge's FAQ. Though if one card is overwhelming higher value than the other two, I tend to always pick that card. I welcome comments on the final decks though.

Run 1 (Mage 0-3)
https://hsreplay.net/replay/myWh65iJwuabrNpdnKR7LD
https://hsreplay.net/replay/E6KVzkofziqUy7ZRp4ej3H
https://hsreplay.net/replay/NTxgJmbVfT2qnPXhhCeVdc

Run 2 (Priest 0-3)
https://hsreplay.net/replay/3sDqStuAmYd34vPu4RxLr5
https://hsreplay.net/replay/3ezmwSDJcYHncsysWsEsaF
https://hsreplay.net/replay/J4yCZkQmeYydJMT7zUzNL3

Run 3 (Priest 2-3)
https://hsreplay.net/replay/zUtUeUkobV4poZWEnnHEDX
https://hsreplay.net/replay/NL4xnysbkNCKbhd6tcUEPV
https://hsreplay.net/replay/XMALGBVoJicaqMBRF4YSHB