I feel your frustration, I share it as well. Unfortunately, we can't stop people from playing what they want to play, we just need to try to find the right decks to beat these meta decks. One advantage experimenters have is that we can adapt to the meta and try to play a deck that counters the decks we're facing. Can we do it fast enough? Probably not, we're facing a meta that's developed over millions of test games, and we don't have enough processing power to figure out how to design our own deck to beat it fast enough. Still, we can have fun.
More cards like curious glimmeroot would be appreciated though. I always feel a sense of accomplishment when an opposing priest guesses wrong, that happens probably more than half the time when I play my Aluneth/Medivh/Rummaging Kobold/Deck of wonders/Togwaggle deck. The deck is terrible, but its definitely the most fun I've had in hearthstone in a while. There's nothing quite like beating down a control warlock with dead mans hand, upgrading your aluneth, discounting your hand with leyline manipulator, drawing six cards from your opponents deck with togwaggle, then winning with a couple of late game fireballs.
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I got to legend first time ever (started playing at Un Goro) the past season with Cubelock. I tried dufferent versions and I cut the Doomguards all together! Against Aggro I win +80% of the time knowing I will always hit Voidlord with Posessed Lackey. And after proccing the Lord I usually have one of the pieces to copy the original one -> win at that point.
I do struggle against Raza priest, but the Mountain Giants have turned the tide a couple of times.
As a gamer I want to maximize my chances, and I cannot frigging stand tossing the coin on which deamon I'm proccing with the Lackey so I went with the Void-factory theme and achieved my goal so I'm happy :)
And pushing full boards TWICE during the game with Guldan and Nzoth is not particularly tiny amount of dmg on the long run. Ditch the Doomguards ;)
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Let me put it this way. By default Hearthstone is not a very tactical game - it is a strategy game. Not long ago I didn't know the difference between those two myself, so let me elaborate. Tactical game needs you to constantly react to things and make the right CHOICE every time you are the player acting. In a strategy game you have laid out your plans before the game and you then see how things evolve. In Hearthstone you start the game with so so so tiny hand that when you see your 1 drop in hand you play it. No choice there. Turn two you play your two drop, no choice there... So you see where I'm getting at? This is a deckbuilding game where your deck is your strategy and the best deck in the current meta gets you the most wins. That said I will now call you control-lovers the ones who are stupid! (At this point I will say I love controlly playstyle to death and think it's the only way to get excitement out of my games). Why I call you stupid? You know the meta, you know what gets you up the ranks and yet you hit your face against the wall repeatedly and question "why so hurt my face"?
Sure clever trades and decisions are needed from time to time in HS, and I actually feel that a good aggro player needs to play around clears a thousand times more than a control player. Say I have two 0 costed Corridor Creepers in my hand by turn 5 against priest. Do I play them now? Sure "an idiot" wouldn't hesitate and put them boys out guns blazing, but a single Dragonfire Potion there might seal the game for your opponent in that instant. Or try playing as aggro against warlock knowing he's running Defile! You can't just slam stuff onto the board randomly! In this respect I'd even say it's easier to make decisions as the control player. You're doing stuff reactively so you see what's going on and after that you pull the trigger.
I have had a good glass of wine so I'm not sure I tyoed this all as I ment to but hope you get the message! Now back to building my Kathrena Deck.... :P
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I'm sort of a new player to Hearthstone, entering the game only at Un'Goro. I'd like to take a moment and discuss the game itself. Not the state of the game so much. For a better insight on my gaming habits, I come from Fantasy Flight Games LCGs (and to be precise mainly Conquest, which has already been cancelled).
At first I really loved the game and learning all that new stuff seemed like this game had some depth to it. But I've come to realize this is not a great competetive game. "Boohoo crybaby go away then". Yes, you're right in saying that but I want to have a discussion on WHY so many threads like this constantly pops up and "nerf this", "the game is broken" etc.
This game is absolutely gorgeus with a technical team ala Blizzard, and the playerbase is so vast I can always find a game in seconds. Game time is short, and everything seems solid and interesting on the surface. So we (competetive players) trick ourselves in wanting this game to be more. It has all the promise to be something huge! But it falls short. I've understood that the goal of the designers is having a close to 50% winrate with as many decks as possible. That is strike number one for me. I absolutely love a game where good players win +80% of the time. And when they lose, they can track a misplay during the game, not just a bad dice roll.
Hearthstone shows it's age in having a linear mana system and one card a turn drawing system, in addition having only one win condition (fatigue is clearly not supported enough, and imo it shouldn't because it's quite unfun). This leads to super draw dependant games where the one who gets a better start has such a huge upperhand that the outcome feels decided during the first two rounds. When aggro is also supported so much with the laddering system as is, it leads to a flooded aggro-ladder where luck of the draw is the main way to win. For me that is not enjoyable.
I still play daily, cause I'm addicted (lol) and I strive to come up with an original deck to rule them all! And I do enjoy the game to a degree for sure, but I hate that it's not what it could be :'(
So why don't I move on to another game? That's the question! I have no idea what that game is. I installed Gwent on my Xbox and I find that one much deeper than Hearthstone, but it's not yet available to mobile devices so there's that. I find Hearthstone to be such a Juggernaut in the industry that it takes away from the competition and there is less room for smaller games to rise against this behemoth. And that yet again makes me sad that this already so well established game is not what I want it to be!
Why I find these salt threads interesting, is the fact that we can actually learn from these. We can identify the problems and start innovating new systems. I am a board game enthusiast and a published board game designer (one children's game, but still!) so I take every notion into account and brew ideas that a good and enjoyable game needs. I have actually started prototyping a new competetive card game system already and while I think I don't have a great chance in ever getting through to the wide audience, I've still tried and put my ideas forward! :)
Game on!
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I'll try to type it out of memory, but basically all aoe dmg spells plus enough c'thun boosters to get him to 14-18 stats when entering the stage of three-in-a-row.
Single removal spells: 2x Frost Bolt, 2x Fire Ball
AoE: 2x Volcanic Potion, 2x Blizzard, 2x Meteor, 2x Flamestrike
Misc. spells: 2x Simulacrum, 2x Primordial Glyph, 2x Arcane Intellect, 1x Ice Block, 1x Ice Barrier
C'Thun boosters: 2x Beckoner of Evil, 2x Disciple of C'thun, 2x C'thun's Chosen
Misc. units: 2x Doomsayer, 1x Bloodmage Thalnos
AND 1x C'thun :P
I think I remembered them all.. ? My first draft and not too many games under my belt, but the deck really controls the opponent well! The thimg is I geel like I don't need a huge C'thun here because three of them in a row will usually do the thing anyways. And as I said earlier, this decknis definately not tier 1, but with tweaking I think there's a solid strategy in there for sure.
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Haha, great to see other people discovering C'thun again! Although I made a C'thun Mage with a huge Simulacrum strategy! I run like 8 minions besides the C-man himself, so it's easy to find a window to double simulacrum him in a given turn. Then with an Ice Block up, it's just 3 C'thuns im a row for the keel :)
(In all honesty it's not tier 1, but when it comes together it's just beautiful :)