Hi, I'm a free-to-play Hearthstone player trying to improve my gameplay. I've been playing for approximately two months or so.
I'm really, really, REALLY bad. Going 0-10 in a night in Ranked isn't uncommon for me and I've never been higher than Rank 16. I think I fit the "Johnny" card player archetype very well - I like deck construction, doing silly things, but I don't think hard enough about how these decks actually work to truly be successful.
In Arena, I've played a number of times (10+) and my best run is 2 wins. Even after I started watching videos and trying out deck lists (ADWCTA) and reading articles, I've played three times since and haven't managed to change my record.
I wanted to start this thread to keep track of my Arena progress.
My first draft was Warlock-Druid-Warrior. I've been playing Warlock most lately in the Banana Brawl, so I went warlock and drafted this: http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/60zls8
Any comments or feedback on the draft? I'd also like to try to keep a record of what happens during the games so others might be able to give some insight into my actual game play, since at 2-3 it's both my decks and play that need improvement.
Thanks for your time everyone. Nice to meet you all.
1. Warlock vs. Paladin: LOSS. Lost after 11 rounds. The Paladin had minions and in late game, I wasn't able to keep up. He had dealt more damage to face and had cleared out my mid-range minions. I was too hesitant about playing Doomguard because of the discard effect, and I think I lost because I played Power Overwhelming to clear out a Volcanic Drake that was buffed with Blessing of Might, but then it was revived with a Secret and I had to trade my Stranglethorn Tiger to clear it. By this point, I didn't have enough life or board presence to carry through. I lost when he had 17 life left.
2. Warlock vs. Warrior: WIN. He didn't appear to have a very strong hand, but he had a lot of taunt characters. I essentially managed to maintain board control and kept up good draw with Cult Master. I don't think I was optimal with my trades, but in the end it managed to work out. I initially threatened Lethal, but he put out an Annoy-o-Tron. I was able to clear it when I topdecked Soulfire and used an Argent Squire, then played Power Overwhelming for lethal. During this game, I was hesitant about laying down too many minions, but in this case if I hadn't laid down more than three minions I would have possibly lost. A lesson here is to learn how to extend well without being too threatened by AOE or other types of attacks. In Arena, these kinds of cards seem to be much less frequent.
3. Warlock vs. Mage: LOSE. The mage got an early Snowchugga out and I really didn't have a response for it, so it kept dealing face damage. A lot of my 3/2 minions died since the mage had more stuff out. I had a lot of Soulfires, but I really hesitated on whether I needed to use them. Eventually I managed to get it gone, but then the mage played Sludge Belcher and the Mirror secret alongside. I agonized over it and decided to play spells to get rid of it, which of course duplicated it. At the end of the game, the mage had simply dealt too much damage and had 4 minions to my 2, even though I had managed to clear the board a few times. I didn't have a response to a late-game Annoy-o-Tron and I also didn't think about trying to extend my life with a Power Overwhelming + Succubus of Pain until too late, though it probably wouldn't have made a difference. For some reason, I was not drawing any of my midrange minions until too late, though I think there were opportunities to coin out a 4-mana on Turn 3 that I didn't take. Hmm.
4. Warlock vs. Shaman: WIN. The shaman did not seem to have a good draw. He micro-machined early, but I had a taunt in the form of an Unstable Ghoul that he eventually killed himself on. There was a shaky part in the middle of the game where he played a Stormwind Champion that buffed all of his totems, but instead of dealing with it directly, I silenced it and cleared the other minions. At this point, he traded it for a Volcanic Drake (instead of a 5/1 injured tiger) and I think that mistake ended up winning me the game, since that Tiger went on to kill a few more minions and going face a few times. In the late game, he played another large minion but by then it was too late, and I was able to finish him off.
A few things I would recommend to take your Arena play to the next level. First is improving your draft, second would be improving your play.
For #1,
1) Check out Trump's videos on Arena value. He has a series called iDraft in which he scores picks, and then he regularly posts videos of drafts and then his Arena runs (touching on the second way to improve
2) Feel free to do a forum draft review (like you did), where you post what you picked and what you were offered. Hearth Arena is great, but its scores are not the end all for drafts (more on that later)
3) Find forum members to use as draft coaches to go through drafts with you live
#2 is much harder. I have to say that the best thing I've done is test myself with Trumps drafts and pause the video and compare my moves to his. A coach is good as well
as for your draft,
1- i like dragon egg much more than dummy. Warlock has lots of activations for it, and worst case it usually no worse than dummy. 2- good 3 - i tend to devalue silence in arena, i probably would have taken the squire 4- good 5- good 6- good 7- I would have gone voidwalker here. I like having more variety in cards if forced to decide 8- good 9- I probably would have taken War Golem here since I suggested taking two 1s earlier 10- good 11- good 12- good 13- good 14- I would have gone spiteful here. Kobold is an awful two drop and you still have time to find better early drops. Again, my earlier 1s let you pass him up easier 15- good 16- good 17- Shadowflame is big here, one AOE is really good. 18- I think Cult Master is a little overrated here, especially w/ your Hero Power. A decent 2 drop like Annoyer makes more sense to me 19- Tiger x3 would be fine, but again you fell into a trap to take suboptimal to get an early game. Don't be afraid to take clearly better cards rather than fitting bad cards into a curve. 20- could go either him or lobber. 21- good 22- I think if you were to have picked more 1 drops earlier again, you could get the superior SSC. Raptor isn't bad. 23- good 24- good 25- good (would have been great to not have two of them, huh?) 26- Silverhand is really strong, I would have taken him. Voidwalker you were forced into due to your early game, I'm guessing. 27- good 28- good 29- Hellfire would have been my pick here for AOE presuming you didn't take shadowflame. If you did, then I like shadowbolt 30- ugh good.
Hi Shewski, I'll reconsider my card choices next time. You have some good suggestions there about how to plan for a deck as the draft goes. I mostly went with HearthArena picks, as you've seen, with some exceptions, so hearing some "counter" advice about considerations is very helpful.
I did my fifth match today vs. Shaman: I drew as an opening hand a Kobold Geomancer and a Mortal Coil, and I used them early to clear out his Micro Machine and a Bloodfen Raptor behind taunts. After doing that, he wasn't ever really able to regain tempo and was forced to make a few trades that weren't in his favor (I had an almost full board of minions, he played a Sea Giant, so I played mine in response, which threatened lethal so I knew he was going to trade 1 for 1 for mine, but be unable to respond to the rest of the board). I had a few options for lethal in the end, but was 1 damage off so I played it safe and played a Stranglethorn Tiger. He wasn't able to get rid of all of my minions and conceded. This is a WIN and this means that I've actually won arena three times - a new personal best.
Yeah 3-2 in an Arena really isn't that impressive unless it's the first time you've ever made it that far!
I, too, was experiencing difficulties in Arena - for me, my average win rate was 5-3. So I'm going to suggest to you what I personally did to improve my game. First, I took a week to re-evaluate my understanding of fundamental game play in both constructed play, and the arena. To do this, I watched streamers on twitch who were extremely vocal about the decisions they were making. For the streamers that weren't live, I watched some of their past videos. This will help build a baseline of things to look for as you both draft a deck, and look for efficient plays and trades in the arena.
I, like you, turned to these forums and asked for help improving. I went to hearth arena and let it help craft a deck. My first deck I followed what it said to the T. Despite lucking out with a 12-2 run, this is not the correct approach - which was both pointed out to me and discovered as I played the deck itself. There were choices I could have made which would have improved upon the decks over all characteristics. The next deck I crafted (today) I went 12-2 with a rogue - simply by taking the last couple weeks worth of streams I've been following, ideas/help from this community as well as some assistance from sites like hearth arena and arena value.
If you find yourself struggling in constructed game play (I find a 0-10 losing streak outside of the norm, thus pointing to a deeper problem then bad luck) - I would start there. Play a deck that relies heavily on your ability to make efficient trades - I know it seems rudimentary and dumb - but it's those efficient trades that often dictate your success in the arena. Until you fix that, it's my opinion that it's not really worth throwing gold at arena runs. But that's just based on a diagnosis that you might not be thinking about your plays correctly - from personal experience, this was my problem - and once I corrected it my overall game has been exponentially better.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Unless you do something beyond what you’ve already mastered, you will never grow."
ok so i am going to try to make this post as newbie friendly as possible,as you seem to be kind of new to arena and HS in general.don't worry,we've all been there before.
first of all i'd like to point out that there's a massive gap between each class in arena,much more so than in constructed.mage and paladin are the absolute 2 best classes in arena,and warrior is by far the worst one.that's not to say you can't reach 12 wins with all classes(if you have a lucky draft and are really experienced) but you are much more likely to do so with say,a mage that doesn't get any flamestrikes or fireballs,than a warrior who doesn't get any weapons.in arena,most of the cards you draft are basic cards,meaning whichever class has the best basics(mage) will always have an edge.until you are more experienced playing arena,i recommend trying to draft mage or pally as much as possible.
the fundamental thing to keep in mind in the arena is that life totals are nearly irrelevant.taking control of the board and doing efficient trades is a lot more important than doing damage to your opponent 90% of the time.the only times you can think about throwing this strategy out of the window is when a)you have a massive card disadvantage compared to your opponents hand,and you have little to no card draw in your deck,so you need to end the game quickly or b)your deck has a very low curve of minions,meaning the longer the game goes the less likely you are to win(you should generally still go for board control early with these decks though,same as you do in constructed).
the player who most likely wins games in arena is the one who gets the most out of his deck.and this means you should learn to make the most out of every single card.consequently, cards such as chillwind yeti or boulderfist ogre tend to be the best cards in the arena,as they can easily trade themselves for 2 or 3 minions of the same cost.if you keep making favourable trades like these,eventually your opponent runs out of resources(ie gets stuck in topdeck mode with only one card in hand) and you can finish him off slowly with repetitive minion damage.
now,as for card drafting,you will start getting a feel for which cards work and which don't after playing arena more,but you shouldn't be afraid to use arena card tier lists(you can find pretty good ones on heartharena or icy-veins.com) until you have grown more confident picking them yourself.keep in mind though,that these lists aren't always accurate,as the best card to pick also depends on the deck you have so far(for example,while grimscale oracle is usually one of the worst cards in arena,if nearly half your deck already consisted of murlocs,the card would become a slightly better pick).these things can only be learned through sheer experience.
Match 6: vs. Warrior. I think I made some early game mistakes trying to gain board control in Turn 3, which ultimately didn't help me. Later, I had problems removing the warrior's taunt minions and I was falling behind too rapidly. My mistake is that I was trading my cards too aggressively for control. I lost this one, for a result of 3-3 in the end.
New Arena run. Record so far is 3-3. I picked Rogue, which happens to be my favorite class in the game, even though I've lately not been able to make rogue work for me on ladder.
It doesn't seem like a particularly strong draft to me, but I've been watching a few draft videos lately and hope that I can make this one work. I deviated a little more from HearthArena recommendations to try to pick stronger cards with more value, though I think I made a few mistakes (like Sap over Sprint). This feels very much like a midrange deck, with some decent offerings in the late-game, so the key is to make good-value trades with the opponent and keep up tempo until I can get some good taunts and hard-hitters out. The removal cards I have for tempo include the two saps, Eviscerate, Backstab, and Betrayal, as well as opportunities with Abusive/Dark Iron/weapon to do some extra removal of large threats if needed.
Match 1: vs. Druid. I started first. In the end, I made a huge mistake - he had Recombulated an Archmage Antonidas and I didn't have enough for lethal. I knew he had a fireball in his hand and 3 damage on the board. I sapped his mage, but then I attacked face with minions instead of clearing out his other minion, so he had exactly lethal. That was a bad play on my part especially since I had 3 minions out. I was running out of cards at the end but it was still a very bad play. Ugh. LOSS.
Match 2: vs. Mage. I started second. Things were going okay, but then at the end the mage was putting down minions that were stronger than mine. The turning point was when he put down a Sludge Belcher and I didn't consider my moves well, and he ended up trading an injured 3/4 Spider Tank for my Volcanic Corruptor, then fireballing it. I should have instead put down a Mechwarper. I also had a Shiv in my hand as my last card, but I didn't use it first (there was nothing it could have killed) but it ended up drawing an Abusive Sergeant which could have helped kill a Volcanic Drake if I hadn't already attacked with my minions. I guess one lesson here is to learn when to put down minions and learn when to hold them, as it's very possible to put something down only to have it die the next turn. Unfortunately, there's a tradeoff here too because in the past I've hesitated to put something down precisely because I knew it could be traded easily. I'm guessing that I'm not thinking enough steps ahead, and the trades I make end up being inefficient. Right now I think I play too much for board control rather than for value. Anyway, that's another LOSS.
Match 3: vs. Shaman. He was pretty bad-mannered as well. He started first. He got a Fireguard Destroyer that got a +3 attack buff, and then followed it up two turns later with an Earth Elemental. They went face and I didn't have the ability to remove them, I sacrificed a lot of minions (traded two Haunted Spiders and something else) to get rid of the Fireguard, but when the Earth Elemental fell I didn't have a good response set up. Maybe if I thought about it more I would have found a way out, but in the end he equipped a weapon, did Rockbiter, and killed me at Turn 7. LOSS. I'm honestly not sure what I should have done in the situation. The opponent seemed quite lucky and had a good hand, but I wonder if I should have done risky plays.
So that's it: This was a 0-3 Arena run. I thought I was thinking of items like trades and value, and I thought I was doing okay with my drafts, but there's obviously something in my gameplay that I'm not doing well. I'm thinking about value, trades, and potential actions to maximize my use of my mana but I still lose. What gives? Am I not doing enough predictive thinking? Am I not experienced enough to anticipate the opponent's moves?
The pack was pretty disappointing, all duplicates of stuff that I had, and I don't have that many cards.
I'm sure most of this has been said, but here is what helped me out. Went from an average of 2-3 wins to 6 wins.
Watch arena coaching on youtube. I like ratsmah the best. He's informative, let's you pick first then explains why or why not it's the right play.
Use heartharena.com for drafting until you're comfortable with your own choices. I agree with maybe 95% of their picks, helps a lot.
Use a deck addon. I use Hearthstone Deck Tracker but I'm sure there's many other good ones. It really helps to see what is left in your deck, and the % of pulling cards to risk certain plays. They also track your stats.
Mulligan hard for a starting curve play. This matters much more in arena over constructed.
I took a bit of a break from Arena since I recently bought BRM expansion and started playing through that in addition to doing a few more Ranked before the end of the season. I've started playing more Warlock recently and getting the "aggro" game on as well. I crafted my first cards with my dust!
There's nothing too extravagant in this deck. It's a purely midrange deck with a few good spells (Frostbolt, Fireball, Polymorph) and a good set of low-cost minions. If I can play on curve and make good trades there's no reason I can't do at least 2 wins, but ideally over 3 will be great.
Match 1: vs. Paladin (I started first). Okay, that game kind of sucked. He coined out a Micro Machine and then Divine Shielded it next turn, which was a really strong start for him. I played a Mechwarper, he killed it first turn. I then played a Puddlestomer, he went face, I killed the Micro Machine but from there he played Ogre Brutes and continued at a good tempo. By the time I started getting tempo back, I was too low health to be able to respond. One mistake with that game was that I mulliganed the Flamecannon early on, which really could have saved my bacon. I was thinking that I should try to get another low-cost minion. NOPE I should keep the cheap removal cards! I don't think that he had a single 1-life minion that entire game except for the Silver Hand Recruits. That is a LOSS. I swear, one day I'll win my first arena game.
I started my second match before I saw the replies. Here's my rundown:
Match 2: vs. Druid (I started first). I had a decent opening hand, with a Mechwarper and Puddlestomper. He clawed the Puddlestomper early before it could do any damage, but couldn't deal with Mechwarper for a while and was basically just buying time until Turn 4, when he coined out Cairne Bloodhoof. (I kind of wished I had played my Duplicate right before, but oh well). I instead had a Lil' Exorcist out (3/4 taunt) and a lot of other minions. From here, things got a little shaky. I started running really low on draw and he was catching up damage-wise with his superior minions, and it was too difficult for me to do effective value trades. I think the turning point was on Turn 7, I played Archmage Antonidas, but then Turn 7 he responded by Swiping away the Lil'Exorcist, killing Antonidas with his Cairne, spawning Baine, and playing some other minions. At that point I lost most of my tempo and couldn't respond to that. I believe that I wanted to save Duplicate for after Archmage went down so I could get a Fireball out of it, but it didn't happen that way, and I wonder if I should have kept conservative instead and played Duplicate earlier, and just used Antonidas as a 5/7 minion instead. The deck doesn't have a lot of spells. Summary: After the Turn 7 Swipe, I couldn't recover tempo and lost. LOSS.
As for tracking tools, I started without tracking tools as well and doing drafts based on intuition instead of tracking tools. The best I've gone was 2-3, meaning that working without the tools wasn't helping me. When I do Ranked play, I'm now less terrible than I used to be, but Arena still throws me into a loop and I seem to have a lot of problems recovering when I lose tempo. In Ranked, I am often able to recover tempo later in the game (depending on the deck). While "experience" is a good teacher as well, everyone who posts here wants to find ways to help short circuit that. If "experience" helps win Arenas, then one would think that experience, self-reflection, win-tracking, and seeking advice will work even faster than experience alone.
Match 3: vs. Rogue (I hadcoin): I had a starting hand that ended up being decent: Puddlestomper, Annoy-o-Tron, Flamecannon, Frostbolt. He started with nothing, he played Amani Berserker, I played Mechwarper, then he removed it with Deadly Poison and added the Master Swordsmith. I frostbolted the Amani Berserker to make sure it wouldn't get any more dangerous, then went face. Though he did some good moves in the middle of the game with some well-placed taunts, that Bomb-lobbing Goblin minion, and Leeroy Jenkins, his trades weren't that good (trading Leeroy for a Stormwind Champion; assassinating a Lightwell that dropped in from Piloted Shredder) and I eventually got the most of him. WIN.
When I'm able to get a good draw and control the board, I seem to be able to keep it until something catastrophic happens. One thing I need to do better is to memorize when all of the removal cards can be used (ex: Assassinate at 5, Hex at 3, Polymorph at 4) and to think about what'll happen if he removes that minion. When it's gone, what do I do? What can I play? For example I had a Rockjaw Trogg out with 2 health left and a Senjin with 1 life. I decided that instead of sheeping his Sunfury Protector (2 mana, 2/3) I would leave it alone. Unfortunately, next turn he dagger the Senjin, assassinated Lightwell then ran his Sunfury into the Rockjaw. Fortunately I had a follow-up with Stranglethorn Tiger that won me the game, but if I had done a removal with Polymorph it might have complicated his game much more.
I'm back at it after some F2P Tavern Brawl fun. Continuing this road:
Match 4 vs. Rogue (I had coin): I started off with low tempo, which wasn't surprising, since this was a mid-range deck. I started ramping up at the middle with taunt minions, but I did make a mistake playing Goblin Blastmage without having a Mech out (should have played Piloted Shredder first). I had a big decision to make about playing Twilight Drake with a huge hand, or Sludge Belcher: turns out Sludge was a great choice since it had to trade with all of his little 1/1 minions. One thing that's evident in this game is that I had a gigantic card advantage and was able to respond to a lot of his threats and use mana well. There was one momentary scare where he concealed his minions, and then I played a Stormwind Champion, but I wondered if I should have instead played my taunt minion in case he had a spell for lethal. Still - it didn't matter in the end because he only had 3 damage on the board, a 1 weapon, and one card (which could have done at most 4 damage if it was a Cold Blood). Then again, he could have top-decked Deadly Poison + Blade Flurry or something to do 3 + 3, so a taunt would have been insurance. In the end though, I won this one. WIN.
Match 5 vs. Mage (I go first): The opponent was a golden mage and got a pretty early lead on me with Harvest Golems and then his minions simply piled up. I didn't have a good hand to start, and he had a lot of spells. I didn't have a good 2 or 3 play, which hurt me a lot. I kind of wish I had any idea if there was a way to recover this game or if I was kind of doomed from the start, because it sure felt like I was cornered from the beginning and had no plays. LOSS.
In the end it's another 2-3 run.
Golden epic junkbot? It doesn't seem like it's worth anything. I'm glad to finally get a Micro Machine, though.
All right, I'm back with a new Arena run. I got Hunter, Druid, and Mage as my choices. As I'm most familiar with Mage, I went with mage (again). This will be my second mage game. Here's my draft: http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/76p9me As you can see, it's a pretty regular-style midrange deck. I was aiming for curve here, which influenced my choices as I went through.
Match 1 vs. Rogue (I go first). He coined out a Knife Juggler first turn and therefore dictated the tempo for the first four rounds. However, as I was playing on curve I was able to trade and get equal by turn 5. However, we pretty much traded one-for-one for most of the game, and my minions were clearly outclassing his by the end of the game. One of the odd decisions that he made was that I had a Stranglethorn Tiger with 1 health left, and a Fireguard Destroyer from a shredder, and he Vanished them. Next turn, I put them back down, so I had a full-health, stealth tiger and my Fireguard Destroyer got +2 attack to be 5/6. He took care of the 5/6 with a few cards but couldn't deal with the tiger. That's a WIN.
Match 2 vs. Priest (I go first). Started off with a pretty good hand and played on curve (Zombie Chow -> Snowchugger -> Shattered Sun Cleric). I managed to maintain board presence for most of the game. This game was reasonably straightforward, but there were some questions in the middle of the game about when I should play my Stormwind Champion (vs. Piloted Sky Golem) and I opted to play the Stormwind Champion late rather than early. Good move, since just as my opponent was starting to put down some big minions I had an almost-full board, placed my Stormwind Champion, and did 18 damage in a turn for a WIN. I am thinking that playing for curve (as well as value) is so far paying off for me. Or maybe the game's starting to sink in for me after a few weeks of serious thinking about my play.
Match 3 vs. Paladin (I get coin). This started out with a bad mulligan without any 1 or 2 drops. I think I made a suboptimal play at the beginning when I cleared the board (instead I could have left one of my minions alive). The opponent got a lot of tempo with a Blessing of Kings on Shielded Minibot is OP. Then Consecration and Raid Leader to buff his three minions while wiping all of mine? Ugh. 8 turns and dead. LOSE.
Match 4 (vs. Mage, I go first): I actually had 2-drops this time. The game progressed pretty much as you'd expect in an arena: good value trades. The game lasted a while until we were both top decking, but my minions were simply more valuable and I maintained tempo for the entire game. A few choice plays were: keeping Polymorph in my hand instead of blowing it too early (it was used on Force Tank MAXX eventually), keeping Dragon's Breath to clear out an Azure Drake, and going face strategically, anticipating that the opponent was going to trade into my minions anyway. WIN. I'm happy, so far I'm 3-2, which is tied with my best arena run so far and may be an indication that I'm starting to "get" Arena!
Something else you can do...start an account on the Asia and Europe servers. You get your free arena pass, and an easy 200+ gold or so for the quick quests. More arena practice will make you better.
Also use the daily quests to maximize your gold (especially on the other servers if only used for arena runs)...only do the 60/100 gold quests. When you get a 40 gold, save it. Save it until you have 3 quests. After you've done any 60/100 gold quests and you log is full with 40's, reset one with the "X" in the corner. Try to reset one that is more universal, like kill 40 minions. You can reset once a day, but this will increase your chances of re-rolling a 60/100 gold quest if those other 40 gold ones are out of mix.
Something I'm not clear about, aren't your cards independent on the other regions? I can see the benefit of simply having more access to Hearthstone but the drawback of separate card collections might annoy me a little.
Here's continuing my most recent run:
Match 5 (vs. Warlock, I get coin): I hate Leper gnomes! When it went out, I was tempted to Coin-Hero power. In retrospect, I really should have, because it would have allowed me to maintain tempo. Instead, I let it slide a turn and he played on a better curve, but also took advantage of Sea Giant and Volcanic Drakes to really do some damage. I think the lesson here is that if I think Leper Gnomes are dangerous... then they probably are. The Turn-1 made me hesitate on playing Swamp Ooze because of the bad trade. I did eventually equalize as the game went on but it wasn't enough against the big minions he got out. I had Sheep ready for Sea Giant, but really couldn't deal with his spells that eliminated my minions that I left with 1 life lying around. LOSS.
Match 6 (vs. Mage, I get coin): I realized that Arena curves are so important. I didn't have play on curve and it really hurt me, especially because I coined out a 2 minion on turn 1 when I should have just played on Turn 2. It was too bad, I was pretty close since I got the mage down to 14 with a Pyroblast in my hand. I got greedy with a Gurubashi Berserker that was buffed to 11 damage and attacked with it into a secret, which happened to be Vaporize. The opponent went for about three turns without substantial minion presence, but it wasn't enough for me to overcome the life deficit. I'm sad, I didn't break my old record. LOSS.
Results: A pack and 60 gold. Didn't get too much in my pack, but I did snag another Imp-plosion and my first ever Velen's Chosen.
If you're this bad at arena it's because you're bad at the game in general and you need to stop playing and start watching good streamers like kripp, strifecro, trump, amaz etc.
Watch the games and PAUSE each turn trying to guess what they're going to do. Then you'll finally begin to learn what you're doing wrong. Just passively watching games doesn't seem to work for some people.
Lost the first game vs. a warlock (I had first turn). He got way ahead of me early on with a stealth blood imp and Voidwalker, to the point where I was playing catch-up as the minions got stronger. He played two Floating Watchers that he got buffed up, and I ran out of cards.
Won the second game vs. a priest (coin). That was a straightforward game where he simply didn't have the ability to remove my minions, and I had a lot of direct damage in my hand to remove his. He played Shadowform early on in the game but it wasn't enough for him to both play minions and use the hero power in the same turn. I did one misplay in the game (used a Fireball when I should have used a Flamecannon) but at least that didn't cost me in the end.
Won the third game vs. a priest (went first). Another straightforward game. I led with Argent Squire and Mana Wyrm and disposed of every minion he played with spells and kept pressure up. There was a moment when he did Unleash the Hounds, hit my guys so they each had 2 health, and then played a Secret. Oh, what could that have been? I did not attack into it, and instead recalled my Goblin Blastmage with Youthful Brewmaster. He played some minions next turn and killed some of my guys, but I again disposed of them, triggered the Explosive Trap with my remaining minion, and then played a Mechwarper and Blastmage for extra damage to the face. Overall, that win felt good.
Won the fourth game vs. a Paladin (went first). This game was a bit more challenging than the others. The Paladin had a good curve and generally had minions on the board. I played a Shade of Naxxramas early on, but kept it latent for much of the game. However, when it started getting pretty strong, I drew a couple of Faceless Manipulators, which I used to clone more shades. Unfortunately, he still had a pretty strong minion army of Shielded Minibots and a Stranglethorn Tiger. On his last turn, he played a Earthen Farseer which brought his health up to 21, far out of the range of the 16 damage I had on the board, and threatening his 12 damage on my 4 HP. But then I top decked Pyroblast. RNG gods were looking out for me.
This is a great read for anyone who's starting out in Hearthstone generally, especially seeing as it provides a lot of helpful feedback from the community. I wonder if there's like a Hearthstone 'newish players' group of some kind? To help each other out with learning the ropes.
I think you should try to have someone spectate/coach you. There is something that we are not seeing, and I think in person it might be easier to see. Having someone to talk over the draft would be good as well.
Feel free to add me, id be happy to observe if im online.
Match 5: vs. Mage (I went first). For some reason, my opponent didn't play anything for the first three or four turns, so I just had at it until he tried playing a Gnomish Inventor and an Explosive Sheep->Ping "combo". That really didn't do all that much for him, since by that time I had a Stranglethorn Tiger and Faceless Manipulator in my hand. He must've had a really bad draw or something. WIN. Match 5 recording
I recorded that game (though I don't think it's very interesting) using a demo version of Screenflick. I've uploaded it here but it wasn't a good example of a challenging, interesting game.
Match 6 vs. Hunter (I went first). This was actually a very interesting game, since he managed to make some good plays that I had to counter. He played two Unleash the Hounds in the course of the game, as well as Mind Control Tech to steal one of my minions. The smartest thing I did in the game was to use Stranglethorn Tiger to kill an opposing minion, then "rescuing" it with my Youthful Brewmaster. I played the tiger next turn, then two turns in a row I drew Faceless Manipulators to clone the tiger (twice!) and take the game. WIN. Match 6 recording
I'm now at 5-1, making this the best arena run I've had yet, despite the fact that I don't feel that the deck is particularly strong. I've managed to get good mulligans so far (been aggressively going for minions on curve). So far, this seems to have been the biggest difference in my good arena runs vs. my bad ones. If I don't get a decent starting curve, then it's really hard to keep up. At the same time, I also underestimated the importance of big, late-game minions when I started playing before journalling my games. I used to play a lot of aggro decks but would run out of steam in late games drawing 3-mana minions when the opponent's putting down 6/7 ogres.
Match 7 vs Rogue (I go second): This was a tense game but not a particularly difficult game, now that I think back on it. I realized early that my win condition easily could have been to Fireball-Pyroblast the opponent to death, so I figured that living to Round 10 was going to be my goal. I think the biggest decision I made in that game was to not play a minion into the Patient Assassin that he left on the board, but to also not waste my mana. I used my own taunts to slow him down enough for the 10-damage. WIN. Match 7 recordingAs mentioned before, I'm now at 6-1, meaning that this continues to be my best-ever run.
Match 8 vs. Paladin (I go first): Tirion Fordring. So I Faceless Manipulator cloned it. Then he Faceless Manipulator clones my Faceless Manipulator clone. I'm not salty. Not at all. Someone watch that and tell me if I made mistakes so I can fix them later. LOSS. Match 8 recording
Hi, I'm a free-to-play Hearthstone player trying to improve my gameplay. I've been playing for approximately two months or so.
I'm really, really, REALLY bad. Going 0-10 in a night in Ranked isn't uncommon for me and I've never been higher than Rank 16. I think I fit the "Johnny" card player archetype very well - I like deck construction, doing silly things, but I don't think hard enough about how these decks actually work to truly be successful.
In Arena, I've played a number of times (10+) and my best run is 2 wins. Even after I started watching videos and trying out deck lists (ADWCTA) and reading articles, I've played three times since and haven't managed to change my record.
I wanted to start this thread to keep track of my Arena progress.
My first draft was Warlock-Druid-Warrior. I've been playing Warlock most lately in the Banana Brawl, so I went warlock and drafted this: http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/60zls8
Any comments or feedback on the draft? I'd also like to try to keep a record of what happens during the games so others might be able to give some insight into my actual game play, since at 2-3 it's both my decks and play that need improvement.
Thanks for your time everyone. Nice to meet you all.
1. Warlock vs. Paladin: LOSS. Lost after 11 rounds. The Paladin had minions and in late game, I wasn't able to keep up. He had dealt more damage to face and had cleared out my mid-range minions. I was too hesitant about playing Doomguard because of the discard effect, and I think I lost because I played Power Overwhelming to clear out a Volcanic Drake that was buffed with Blessing of Might, but then it was revived with a Secret and I had to trade my Stranglethorn Tiger to clear it. By this point, I didn't have enough life or board presence to carry through. I lost when he had 17 life left.
2. Warlock vs. Warrior: WIN. He didn't appear to have a very strong hand, but he had a lot of taunt characters. I essentially managed to maintain board control and kept up good draw with Cult Master. I don't think I was optimal with my trades, but in the end it managed to work out. I initially threatened Lethal, but he put out an Annoy-o-Tron. I was able to clear it when I topdecked Soulfire and used an Argent Squire, then played Power Overwhelming for lethal. During this game, I was hesitant about laying down too many minions, but in this case if I hadn't laid down more than three minions I would have possibly lost. A lesson here is to learn how to extend well without being too threatened by AOE or other types of attacks. In Arena, these kinds of cards seem to be much less frequent.
3. Warlock vs. Mage: LOSE. The mage got an early Snowchugga out and I really didn't have a response for it, so it kept dealing face damage. A lot of my 3/2 minions died since the mage had more stuff out. I had a lot of Soulfires, but I really hesitated on whether I needed to use them. Eventually I managed to get it gone, but then the mage played Sludge Belcher and the Mirror secret alongside. I agonized over it and decided to play spells to get rid of it, which of course duplicated it. At the end of the game, the mage had simply dealt too much damage and had 4 minions to my 2, even though I had managed to clear the board a few times. I didn't have a response to a late-game Annoy-o-Tron and I also didn't think about trying to extend my life with a Power Overwhelming + Succubus of Pain until too late, though it probably wouldn't have made a difference. For some reason, I was not drawing any of my midrange minions until too late, though I think there were opportunities to coin out a 4-mana on Turn 3 that I didn't take. Hmm.
4. Warlock vs. Shaman: WIN. The shaman did not seem to have a good draw. He micro-machined early, but I had a taunt in the form of an Unstable Ghoul that he eventually killed himself on. There was a shaky part in the middle of the game where he played a Stormwind Champion that buffed all of his totems, but instead of dealing with it directly, I silenced it and cleared the other minions. At this point, he traded it for a Volcanic Drake (instead of a 5/1 injured tiger) and I think that mistake ended up winning me the game, since that Tiger went on to kill a few more minions and going face a few times. In the late game, he played another large minion but by then it was too late, and I was able to finish him off.
Hi there!
A few things I would recommend to take your Arena play to the next level. First is improving your draft, second would be improving your play.
For #1,
1) Check out Trump's videos on Arena value. He has a series called iDraft in which he scores picks, and then he regularly posts videos of drafts and then his Arena runs (touching on the second way to improve
2) Feel free to do a forum draft review (like you did), where you post what you picked and what you were offered. Hearth Arena is great, but its scores are not the end all for drafts (more on that later)
3) Find forum members to use as draft coaches to go through drafts with you live
#2 is much harder. I have to say that the best thing I've done is test myself with Trumps drafts and pause the video and compare my moves to his. A coach is good as well
as for your draft,
1- i like dragon egg much more than dummy. Warlock has lots of activations for it, and worst case it usually no worse than dummy.
2- good
3 - i tend to devalue silence in arena, i probably would have taken the squire
4- good
5- good
6- good
7- I would have gone voidwalker here. I like having more variety in cards if forced to decide
8- good
9- I probably would have taken War Golem here since I suggested taking two 1s earlier
10- good
11- good
12- good
13- good
14- I would have gone spiteful here. Kobold is an awful two drop and you still have time to find better early drops. Again, my earlier 1s let you pass him up easier
15- good
16- good
17- Shadowflame is big here, one AOE is really good.
18- I think Cult Master is a little overrated here, especially w/ your Hero Power. A decent 2 drop like Annoyer makes more sense to me
19- Tiger x3 would be fine, but again you fell into a trap to take suboptimal to get an early game. Don't be afraid to take clearly better cards rather than fitting bad cards into a curve.
20- could go either him or lobber.
21- good
22- I think if you were to have picked more 1 drops earlier again, you could get the superior SSC. Raptor isn't bad.
23- good
24- good
25- good (would have been great to not have two of them, huh?)
26- Silverhand is really strong, I would have taken him. Voidwalker you were forced into due to your early game, I'm guessing.
27- good
28- good
29- Hellfire would have been my pick here for AOE presuming you didn't take shadowflame. If you did, then I like shadowbolt
30- ugh good.
Play Star Wars: The Customizable Card Game - www.starwarsccg.org
Hi Shewski, I'll reconsider my card choices next time. You have some good suggestions there about how to plan for a deck as the draft goes. I mostly went with HearthArena picks, as you've seen, with some exceptions, so hearing some "counter" advice about considerations is very helpful.
I did my fifth match today vs. Shaman: I drew as an opening hand a Kobold Geomancer and a Mortal Coil, and I used them early to clear out his Micro Machine and a Bloodfen Raptor behind taunts. After doing that, he wasn't ever really able to regain tempo and was forced to make a few trades that weren't in his favor (I had an almost full board of minions, he played a Sea Giant, so I played mine in response, which threatened lethal so I knew he was going to trade 1 for 1 for mine, but be unable to respond to the rest of the board). I had a few options for lethal in the end, but was 1 damage off so I played it safe and played a Stranglethorn Tiger. He wasn't able to get rid of all of my minions and conceded. This is a WIN and this means that I've actually won arena three times - a new personal best.
Yeah 3-2 in an Arena really isn't that impressive unless it's the first time you've ever made it that far!
I, too, was experiencing difficulties in Arena - for me, my average win rate was 5-3. So I'm going to suggest to you what I personally did to improve my game. First, I took a week to re-evaluate my understanding of fundamental game play in both constructed play, and the arena. To do this, I watched streamers on twitch who were extremely vocal about the decisions they were making. For the streamers that weren't live, I watched some of their past videos. This will help build a baseline of things to look for as you both draft a deck, and look for efficient plays and trades in the arena.
I, like you, turned to these forums and asked for help improving. I went to hearth arena and let it help craft a deck. My first deck I followed what it said to the T. Despite lucking out with a 12-2 run, this is not the correct approach - which was both pointed out to me and discovered as I played the deck itself. There were choices I could have made which would have improved upon the decks over all characteristics. The next deck I crafted (today) I went 12-2 with a rogue - simply by taking the last couple weeks worth of streams I've been following, ideas/help from this community as well as some assistance from sites like hearth arena and arena value.
If you find yourself struggling in constructed game play (I find a 0-10 losing streak outside of the norm, thus pointing to a deeper problem then bad luck) - I would start there. Play a deck that relies heavily on your ability to make efficient trades - I know it seems rudimentary and dumb - but it's those efficient trades that often dictate your success in the arena. Until you fix that, it's my opinion that it's not really worth throwing gold at arena runs. But that's just based on a diagnosis that you might not be thinking about your plays correctly - from personal experience, this was my problem - and once I corrected it my overall game has been exponentially better.
"Unless you do something beyond what you’ve already mastered, you will never grow."
ok so i am going to try to make this post as newbie friendly as possible,as you seem to be kind of new to arena and HS in general.don't worry,we've all been there before.
first of all i'd like to point out that there's a massive gap between each class in arena,much more so than in constructed.mage and paladin are the absolute 2 best classes in arena,and warrior is by far the worst one.that's not to say you can't reach 12 wins with all classes(if you have a lucky draft and are really experienced) but you are much more likely to do so with say,a mage that doesn't get any flamestrikes or fireballs,than a warrior who doesn't get any weapons.in arena,most of the cards you draft are basic cards,meaning whichever class has the best basics(mage) will always have an edge.until you are more experienced playing arena,i recommend trying to draft mage or pally as much as possible.
the fundamental thing to keep in mind in the arena is that life totals are nearly irrelevant.taking control of the board and doing efficient trades is a lot more important than doing damage to your opponent 90% of the time.the only times you can think about throwing this strategy out of the window is when a)you have a massive card disadvantage compared to your opponents hand,and you have little to no card draw in your deck,so you need to end the game quickly or b)your deck has a very low curve of minions,meaning the longer the game goes the less likely you are to win(you should generally still go for board control early with these decks though,same as you do in constructed).
the player who most likely wins games in arena is the one who gets the most out of his deck.and this means you should learn to make the most out of every single card.consequently, cards such as chillwind yeti or boulderfist ogre tend to be the best cards in the arena,as they can easily trade themselves for 2 or 3 minions of the same cost.if you keep making favourable trades like these,eventually your opponent runs out of resources(ie gets stuck in topdeck mode with only one card in hand) and you can finish him off slowly with repetitive minion damage.
now,as for card drafting,you will start getting a feel for which cards work and which don't after playing arena more,but you shouldn't be afraid to use arena card tier lists(you can find pretty good ones on heartharena or icy-veins.com) until you have grown more confident picking them yourself.keep in mind though,that these lists aren't always accurate,as the best card to pick also depends on the deck you have so far(for example,while grimscale oracle is usually one of the worst cards in arena,if nearly half your deck already consisted of murlocs,the card would become a slightly better pick).these things can only be learned through sheer experience.
anyway,good luck and hope you get 12 wins soon :)
Match 6: vs. Warrior. I think I made some early game mistakes trying to gain board control in Turn 3, which ultimately didn't help me. Later, I had problems removing the warrior's taunt minions and I was falling behind too rapidly. My mistake is that I was trading my cards too aggressively for control. I lost this one, for a result of 3-3 in the end.
New Arena run. Record so far is 3-3. I picked Rogue, which happens to be my favorite class in the game, even though I've lately not been able to make rogue work for me on ladder.
Here's the draft: http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/745cw1
It doesn't seem like a particularly strong draft to me, but I've been watching a few draft videos lately and hope that I can make this one work. I deviated a little more from HearthArena recommendations to try to pick stronger cards with more value, though I think I made a few mistakes (like Sap over Sprint). This feels very much like a midrange deck, with some decent offerings in the late-game, so the key is to make good-value trades with the opponent and keep up tempo until I can get some good taunts and hard-hitters out. The removal cards I have for tempo include the two saps, Eviscerate, Backstab, and Betrayal, as well as opportunities with Abusive/Dark Iron/weapon to do some extra removal of large threats if needed.
Match 1: vs. Druid. I started first. In the end, I made a huge mistake - he had Recombulated an Archmage Antonidas and I didn't have enough for lethal. I knew he had a fireball in his hand and 3 damage on the board. I sapped his mage, but then I attacked face with minions instead of clearing out his other minion, so he had exactly lethal. That was a bad play on my part especially since I had 3 minions out. I was running out of cards at the end but it was still a very bad play. Ugh. LOSS.
Match 2: vs. Mage. I started second. Things were going okay, but then at the end the mage was putting down minions that were stronger than mine. The turning point was when he put down a Sludge Belcher and I didn't consider my moves well, and he ended up trading an injured 3/4 Spider Tank for my Volcanic Corruptor, then fireballing it. I should have instead put down a Mechwarper. I also had a Shiv in my hand as my last card, but I didn't use it first (there was nothing it could have killed) but it ended up drawing an Abusive Sergeant which could have helped kill a Volcanic Drake if I hadn't already attacked with my minions. I guess one lesson here is to learn when to put down minions and learn when to hold them, as it's very possible to put something down only to have it die the next turn. Unfortunately, there's a tradeoff here too because in the past I've hesitated to put something down precisely because I knew it could be traded easily. I'm guessing that I'm not thinking enough steps ahead, and the trades I make end up being inefficient. Right now I think I play too much for board control rather than for value. Anyway, that's another LOSS.
Match 3: vs. Shaman. He was pretty bad-mannered as well. He started first. He got a Fireguard Destroyer that got a +3 attack buff, and then followed it up two turns later with an Earth Elemental. They went face and I didn't have the ability to remove them, I sacrificed a lot of minions (traded two Haunted Spiders and something else) to get rid of the Fireguard, but when the Earth Elemental fell I didn't have a good response set up. Maybe if I thought about it more I would have found a way out, but in the end he equipped a weapon, did Rockbiter, and killed me at Turn 7. LOSS. I'm honestly not sure what I should have done in the situation. The opponent seemed quite lucky and had a good hand, but I wonder if I should have done risky plays.
So that's it: This was a 0-3 Arena run. I thought I was thinking of items like trades and value, and I thought I was doing okay with my drafts, but there's obviously something in my gameplay that I'm not doing well. I'm thinking about value, trades, and potential actions to maximize my use of my mana but I still lose. What gives? Am I not doing enough predictive thinking? Am I not experienced enough to anticipate the opponent's moves?
The pack was pretty disappointing, all duplicates of stuff that I had, and I don't have that many cards.
I'm sure most of this has been said, but here is what helped me out. Went from an average of 2-3 wins to 6 wins.
Watch arena coaching on youtube. I like ratsmah the best. He's informative, let's you pick first then explains why or why not it's the right play.
Use heartharena.com for drafting until you're comfortable with your own choices. I agree with maybe 95% of their picks, helps a lot.
Use a deck addon. I use Hearthstone Deck Tracker but I'm sure there's many other good ones. It really helps to see what is left in your deck, and the % of pulling cards to risk certain plays. They also track your stats.
Mulligan hard for a starting curve play. This matters much more in arena over constructed.
I took a bit of a break from Arena since I recently bought BRM expansion and started playing through that in addition to doing a few more Ranked before the end of the season. I've started playing more Warlock recently and getting the "aggro" game on as well. I crafted my first cards with my dust!
Anyway, I started a new run. Draft here: http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/x14659
There's nothing too extravagant in this deck. It's a purely midrange deck with a few good spells (Frostbolt, Fireball, Polymorph) and a good set of low-cost minions. If I can play on curve and make good trades there's no reason I can't do at least 2 wins, but ideally over 3 will be great.
Match 1: vs. Paladin (I started first). Okay, that game kind of sucked. He coined out a Micro Machine and then Divine Shielded it next turn, which was a really strong start for him. I played a Mechwarper, he killed it first turn. I then played a Puddlestomer, he went face, I killed the Micro Machine but from there he played Ogre Brutes and continued at a good tempo. By the time I started getting tempo back, I was too low health to be able to respond. One mistake with that game was that I mulliganed the Flamecannon early on, which really could have saved my bacon. I was thinking that I should try to get another low-cost minion. NOPE I should keep the cheap removal cards! I don't think that he had a single 1-life minion that entire game except for the Silver Hand Recruits. That is a LOSS. I swear, one day I'll win my first arena game.
I started my second match before I saw the replies. Here's my rundown:
Match 2: vs. Druid (I started first). I had a decent opening hand, with a Mechwarper and Puddlestomper. He clawed the Puddlestomper early before it could do any damage, but couldn't deal with Mechwarper for a while and was basically just buying time until Turn 4, when he coined out Cairne Bloodhoof. (I kind of wished I had played my Duplicate right before, but oh well). I instead had a Lil' Exorcist out (3/4 taunt) and a lot of other minions. From here, things got a little shaky. I started running really low on draw and he was catching up damage-wise with his superior minions, and it was too difficult for me to do effective value trades. I think the turning point was on Turn 7, I played Archmage Antonidas, but then Turn 7 he responded by Swiping away the Lil'Exorcist, killing Antonidas with his Cairne, spawning Baine, and playing some other minions. At that point I lost most of my tempo and couldn't respond to that. I believe that I wanted to save Duplicate for after Archmage went down so I could get a Fireball out of it, but it didn't happen that way, and I wonder if I should have kept conservative instead and played Duplicate earlier, and just used Antonidas as a 5/7 minion instead. The deck doesn't have a lot of spells. Summary: After the Turn 7 Swipe, I couldn't recover tempo and lost. LOSS.
As for tracking tools, I started without tracking tools as well and doing drafts based on intuition instead of tracking tools. The best I've gone was 2-3, meaning that working without the tools wasn't helping me. When I do Ranked play, I'm now less terrible than I used to be, but Arena still throws me into a loop and I seem to have a lot of problems recovering when I lose tempo. In Ranked, I am often able to recover tempo later in the game (depending on the deck). While "experience" is a good teacher as well, everyone who posts here wants to find ways to help short circuit that. If "experience" helps win Arenas, then one would think that experience, self-reflection, win-tracking, and seeking advice will work even faster than experience alone.
Match 3: vs. Rogue (I had coin): I had a starting hand that ended up being decent: Puddlestomper, Annoy-o-Tron, Flamecannon, Frostbolt. He started with nothing, he played Amani Berserker, I played Mechwarper, then he removed it with Deadly Poison and added the Master Swordsmith. I frostbolted the Amani Berserker to make sure it wouldn't get any more dangerous, then went face. Though he did some good moves in the middle of the game with some well-placed taunts, that Bomb-lobbing Goblin minion, and Leeroy Jenkins, his trades weren't that good (trading Leeroy for a Stormwind Champion; assassinating a Lightwell that dropped in from Piloted Shredder) and I eventually got the most of him. WIN.
When I'm able to get a good draw and control the board, I seem to be able to keep it until something catastrophic happens. One thing I need to do better is to memorize when all of the removal cards can be used (ex: Assassinate at 5, Hex at 3, Polymorph at 4) and to think about what'll happen if he removes that minion. When it's gone, what do I do? What can I play? For example I had a Rockjaw Trogg out with 2 health left and a Senjin with 1 life. I decided that instead of sheeping his Sunfury Protector (2 mana, 2/3) I would leave it alone. Unfortunately, next turn he dagger the Senjin, assassinated Lightwell then ran his Sunfury into the Rockjaw. Fortunately I had a follow-up with Stranglethorn Tiger that won me the game, but if I had done a removal with Polymorph it might have complicated his game much more.
I'm back at it after some F2P Tavern Brawl fun. Continuing this road:
Match 4 vs. Rogue (I had coin): I started off with low tempo, which wasn't surprising, since this was a mid-range deck. I started ramping up at the middle with taunt minions, but I did make a mistake playing Goblin Blastmage without having a Mech out (should have played Piloted Shredder first). I had a big decision to make about playing Twilight Drake with a huge hand, or Sludge Belcher: turns out Sludge was a great choice since it had to trade with all of his little 1/1 minions. One thing that's evident in this game is that I had a gigantic card advantage and was able to respond to a lot of his threats and use mana well. There was one momentary scare where he concealed his minions, and then I played a Stormwind Champion, but I wondered if I should have instead played my taunt minion in case he had a spell for lethal. Still - it didn't matter in the end because he only had 3 damage on the board, a 1 weapon, and one card (which could have done at most 4 damage if it was a Cold Blood). Then again, he could have top-decked Deadly Poison + Blade Flurry or something to do 3 + 3, so a taunt would have been insurance. In the end though, I won this one. WIN.
Match 5 vs. Mage (I go first): The opponent was a golden mage and got a pretty early lead on me with Harvest Golems and then his minions simply piled up. I didn't have a good hand to start, and he had a lot of spells. I didn't have a good 2 or 3 play, which hurt me a lot. I kind of wish I had any idea if there was a way to recover this game or if I was kind of doomed from the start, because it sure felt like I was cornered from the beginning and had no plays. LOSS.
In the end it's another 2-3 run.
Golden epic junkbot? It doesn't seem like it's worth anything. I'm glad to finally get a Micro Machine, though.
All right, I'm back with a new Arena run. I got Hunter, Druid, and Mage as my choices. As I'm most familiar with Mage, I went with mage (again). This will be my second mage game. Here's my draft: http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/76p9me As you can see, it's a pretty regular-style midrange deck. I was aiming for curve here, which influenced my choices as I went through.
Match 1 vs. Rogue (I go first). He coined out a Knife Juggler first turn and therefore dictated the tempo for the first four rounds. However, as I was playing on curve I was able to trade and get equal by turn 5. However, we pretty much traded one-for-one for most of the game, and my minions were clearly outclassing his by the end of the game. One of the odd decisions that he made was that I had a Stranglethorn Tiger with 1 health left, and a Fireguard Destroyer from a shredder, and he Vanished them. Next turn, I put them back down, so I had a full-health, stealth tiger and my Fireguard Destroyer got +2 attack to be 5/6. He took care of the 5/6 with a few cards but couldn't deal with the tiger. That's a WIN.
Match 2 vs. Priest (I go first). Started off with a pretty good hand and played on curve (Zombie Chow -> Snowchugger -> Shattered Sun Cleric). I managed to maintain board presence for most of the game. This game was reasonably straightforward, but there were some questions in the middle of the game about when I should play my Stormwind Champion (vs. Piloted Sky Golem) and I opted to play the Stormwind Champion late rather than early. Good move, since just as my opponent was starting to put down some big minions I had an almost-full board, placed my Stormwind Champion, and did 18 damage in a turn for a WIN. I am thinking that playing for curve (as well as value) is so far paying off for me. Or maybe the game's starting to sink in for me after a few weeks of serious thinking about my play.
Match 3 vs. Paladin (I get coin). This started out with a bad mulligan without any 1 or 2 drops. I think I made a suboptimal play at the beginning when I cleared the board (instead I could have left one of my minions alive). The opponent got a lot of tempo with a Blessing of Kings on Shielded Minibot is OP. Then Consecration and Raid Leader to buff his three minions while wiping all of mine? Ugh. 8 turns and dead. LOSE.
Match 4 (vs. Mage, I go first): I actually had 2-drops this time. The game progressed pretty much as you'd expect in an arena: good value trades. The game lasted a while until we were both top decking, but my minions were simply more valuable and I maintained tempo for the entire game. A few choice plays were: keeping Polymorph in my hand instead of blowing it too early (it was used on Force Tank MAXX eventually), keeping Dragon's Breath to clear out an Azure Drake, and going face strategically, anticipating that the opponent was going to trade into my minions anyway. WIN. I'm happy, so far I'm 3-2, which is tied with my best arena run so far and may be an indication that I'm starting to "get" Arena!
Something else you can do...start an account on the Asia and Europe servers. You get your free arena pass, and an easy 200+ gold or so for the quick quests. More arena practice will make you better.
Also use the daily quests to maximize your gold (especially on the other servers if only used for arena runs)...only do the 60/100 gold quests. When you get a 40 gold, save it. Save it until you have 3 quests. After you've done any 60/100 gold quests and you log is full with 40's, reset one with the "X" in the corner. Try to reset one that is more universal, like kill 40 minions. You can reset once a day, but this will increase your chances of re-rolling a 60/100 gold quest if those other 40 gold ones are out of mix.
Hopefully that made sense.
Something I'm not clear about, aren't your cards independent on the other regions? I can see the benefit of simply having more access to Hearthstone but the drawback of separate card collections might annoy me a little.
Here's continuing my most recent run:
Match 5 (vs. Warlock, I get coin): I hate Leper gnomes! When it went out, I was tempted to Coin-Hero power. In retrospect, I really should have, because it would have allowed me to maintain tempo. Instead, I let it slide a turn and he played on a better curve, but also took advantage of Sea Giant and Volcanic Drakes to really do some damage. I think the lesson here is that if I think Leper Gnomes are dangerous... then they probably are. The Turn-1 made me hesitate on playing Swamp Ooze because of the bad trade. I did eventually equalize as the game went on but it wasn't enough against the big minions he got out. I had Sheep ready for Sea Giant, but really couldn't deal with his spells that eliminated my minions that I left with 1 life lying around. LOSS.
Match 6 (vs. Mage, I get coin): I realized that Arena curves are so important. I didn't have play on curve and it really hurt me, especially because I coined out a 2 minion on turn 1 when I should have just played on Turn 2. It was too bad, I was pretty close since I got the mage down to 14 with a Pyroblast in my hand. I got greedy with a Gurubashi Berserker that was buffed to 11 damage and attacked with it into a secret, which happened to be Vaporize. The opponent went for about three turns without substantial minion presence, but it wasn't enough for me to overcome the life deficit. I'm sad, I didn't break my old record. LOSS.
Results: A pack and 60 gold. Didn't get too much in my pack, but I did snag another Imp-plosion and my first ever Velen's Chosen.
If you're this bad at arena it's because you're bad at the game in general and you need to stop playing and start watching good streamers like kripp, strifecro, trump, amaz etc.
Watch the games and PAUSE each turn trying to guess what they're going to do. Then you'll finally begin to learn what you're doing wrong.
Just passively watching games doesn't seem to work for some people.
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice - Sneak Review! http://www.thepoxbox.com/challenges.php?id=batmanvsuperman
So, still maxed out at 3-3?
Keep the thread going, it will warn others against playing arena, showing how unprofitable it is.
"Put your face in the light!" - Tirion Fordring
Yep, still 3-3.
Latest draft: http://www.heartharena.com/arena-run/m62jg6
Lost the first game vs. a warlock (I had first turn). He got way ahead of me early on with a stealth blood imp and Voidwalker, to the point where I was playing catch-up as the minions got stronger. He played two Floating Watchers that he got buffed up, and I ran out of cards.
Won the second game vs. a priest (coin). That was a straightforward game where he simply didn't have the ability to remove my minions, and I had a lot of direct damage in my hand to remove his. He played Shadowform early on in the game but it wasn't enough for him to both play minions and use the hero power in the same turn. I did one misplay in the game (used a Fireball when I should have used a Flamecannon) but at least that didn't cost me in the end.
Won the third game vs. a priest (went first). Another straightforward game. I led with Argent Squire and Mana Wyrm and disposed of every minion he played with spells and kept pressure up. There was a moment when he did Unleash the Hounds, hit my guys so they each had 2 health, and then played a Secret. Oh, what could that have been? I did not attack into it, and instead recalled my Goblin Blastmage with Youthful Brewmaster. He played some minions next turn and killed some of my guys, but I again disposed of them, triggered the Explosive Trap with my remaining minion, and then played a Mechwarper and Blastmage for extra damage to the face. Overall, that win felt good.
Won the fourth game vs. a Paladin (went first). This game was a bit more challenging than the others. The Paladin had a good curve and generally had minions on the board. I played a Shade of Naxxramas early on, but kept it latent for much of the game. However, when it started getting pretty strong, I drew a couple of Faceless Manipulators, which I used to clone more shades. Unfortunately, he still had a pretty strong minion army of Shielded Minibots and a Stranglethorn Tiger. On his last turn, he played a Earthen Farseer which brought his health up to 21, far out of the range of the 16 damage I had on the board, and threatening his 12 damage on my 4 HP. But then I top decked Pyroblast. RNG gods were looking out for me.
This is a great read for anyone who's starting out in Hearthstone generally, especially seeing as it provides a lot of helpful feedback from the community. I wonder if there's like a Hearthstone 'newish players' group of some kind? To help each other out with learning the ropes.
please consider voting for my custom class in the fan creations competition :]
• TRIALS IN AUCHINDOUN - A Custom Hearthstone Adventure (4th Wing!) • New and Interesting Hearthstone Mechanics (by me!) •
I think you should try to have someone spectate/coach you. There is something that we are not seeing, and I think in person it might be easier to see. Having someone to talk over the draft would be good as well.
Feel free to add me, id be happy to observe if im online.
Play Star Wars: The Customizable Card Game - www.starwarsccg.org
Match 5: vs. Mage (I went first). For some reason, my opponent didn't play anything for the first three or four turns, so I just had at it until he tried playing a Gnomish Inventor and an Explosive Sheep->Ping "combo". That really didn't do all that much for him, since by that time I had a Stranglethorn Tiger and Faceless Manipulator in my hand. He must've had a really bad draw or something. WIN. Match 5 recording
I recorded that game (though I don't think it's very interesting) using a demo version of Screenflick. I've uploaded it here but it wasn't a good example of a challenging, interesting game.
Match 6 vs. Hunter (I went first). This was actually a very interesting game, since he managed to make some good plays that I had to counter. He played two Unleash the Hounds in the course of the game, as well as Mind Control Tech to steal one of my minions. The smartest thing I did in the game was to use Stranglethorn Tiger to kill an opposing minion, then "rescuing" it with my Youthful Brewmaster. I played the tiger next turn, then two turns in a row I drew Faceless Manipulators to clone the tiger (twice!) and take the game. WIN. Match 6 recording
I'm now at 5-1, making this the best arena run I've had yet, despite the fact that I don't feel that the deck is particularly strong. I've managed to get good mulligans so far (been aggressively going for minions on curve). So far, this seems to have been the biggest difference in my good arena runs vs. my bad ones. If I don't get a decent starting curve, then it's really hard to keep up. At the same time, I also underestimated the importance of big, late-game minions when I started playing before journalling my games. I used to play a lot of aggro decks but would run out of steam in late games drawing 3-mana minions when the opponent's putting down 6/7 ogres.
Match 7 vs Rogue (I go second): This was a tense game but not a particularly difficult game, now that I think back on it. I realized early that my win condition easily could have been to Fireball-Pyroblast the opponent to death, so I figured that living to Round 10 was going to be my goal. I think the biggest decision I made in that game was to not play a minion into the Patient Assassin that he left on the board, but to also not waste my mana. I used my own taunts to slow him down enough for the 10-damage. WIN. Match 7 recording As mentioned before, I'm now at 6-1, meaning that this continues to be my best-ever run.
Match 8 vs. Paladin (I go first): Tirion Fordring. So I Faceless Manipulator cloned it. Then he Faceless Manipulator clones my Faceless Manipulator clone. I'm not salty. Not at all. Someone watch that and tell me if I made mistakes so I can fix them later. LOSS. Match 8 recording