Hearthpwn

Just putting this out there - If you're playing against me (Gingercat) and I seem to be taking ridiculously long to take my turn, it's probably because family matters have required me to immediately go AFK for a minute, and sometimes the "End Turn" button just doesn't work on the first, second or even third click, and I don't have time to sit there clicking it until it flips (that nappy won't change itself!).

That said, if I'm going to be AFK more than twice during a match I'll usually just emote "Sorry" and concede the match so I'm not wasting my opponent's time. Especially bad during an Arena run; I'm still losing more matches than I'm winning as a general rule, so I'd prefer not to concede and will do my best to come back to the keyboard in time to play my turn. It's not deliberate trolling; I try to live and play a "Do Unto Others" style of actions.

Quote from Reznor »

Yeah this game is much more RNG that MTG..but I am fine with that..its what they wanted..its alot of WOO and ARGHHH!

In arena..I may or may not have made a bad choice. I was at 8. He had an 8/2 Mountain Giant and a 1/1 and no other cards in his hand. I had a Harvest Golem [/card]2/3 that hasn't attacked. I have 2 mana left and my only card is [card]Mad Bomber thinking I may get lucky and gain board control I play it. 3 direct hits to my Harvest Golem and it turns into a 2/1 which of course I can't attack with. So of 5 possible targets..it hits my golem 3 times. he draws and plays a Light's Justice and swings with the 8/2 and I lose.

A card I think should not have RNG is the Stampeding Kodo. I mean the Cabal Shadow Priestlet's you choose. I am fine with Tinkmaster and Sylvanas as is.

Heh - "Ah dammit, Mad Bomber!!"

If you had a Harvest Golem that hadn't attacked, why not nuke his 8/2 with it (not a bad trade, considering the situation) so he only has a weenie on the board, then hope for Bomber to nuke it off too, leaving the field clear or in your control? The Bomber would have a reasonable chance of killing your 2/1 off as well, but meh if it does - You already killed an 8-attack creature with it's predecessor, and you'd have the Bomber on the field that his 1/1 wouldn't be able to kill without buff. Not a bad position, and *certainly* better than leaving an 8-damage on the field when you are at 8HP.

I do agree that it was horrendously bad luck that the Bomber clobbered your Golem though. The Bomber giveth, and the Bomber taketh away...

Quote from Cagey75 »

It has nothing to do with what style you or your opponent are playing. I get the difference. If I'm beaten by aggro rush downs, well, i wasn't prepared, and maybe I need adjust my deck. What I'm experiencing, is more, bad opponents, who can't seem to handle any of your plays - and you have them almost finished off, when suddenly they start drawing miracle after miracle and you get nothing but duds, all those cards you needed at the start. And they come back to win, undeservedly. Just my experience, and I've seen others say similar around. Not sure if this is what OP means exactly? 

Must say, I too am seeing this a fair bit. It seems that if there is a fairly large HP difference, they will suddenly start topdecking everything they need to make a sudden comeback for the win, meanwhile I'll be drawing the most unhelpful cards in the deck for the situation at hand, as if "situation-appropriate" cards have increased draw priority for those on the losing side.

This *could* reflect a change in the metagame though, where the decks we're running into are designed (consciously or not) for a late-game comeback, because they always seem to be Taunt-heavy or use cards that are (normally) situationally terrible.

Hmmmm...

Won my first two games, woo! Was on a roll!

...Then got stomped the next three running.

Drat :)

I had a good deck too; for the games that I lost, I'm not entirely sure I could have changed anything - I didn't pull any low-cost cards at all (all 4+) until several turns in, meanwhile my opponents have the ever-hated Ysera allowing them to pull out Nightmares and nasty Emerald Drakes. That, and the Priest that turned his Hero Power from 2 healing into 2 unblockable damage, *ouch*. Aren't the Shadow Word cards enough? :P

Anyways, currently 1W / 1L on my current run. Here's hoping for something better than 2/3 again!

Quote from MrPuzzle »

Quote from Gingercat »

Lastly: Similar to above, but possibly skip Blessed Champion entirely on the next turn:

1. Remove Taunt, if any were summoned, using Stormwind Knight (if taunt is super-tough, Blessed Champion on Stormwind Knight first)

2. Alexstrasza -> Jaina's face (leaves her with 1 HP)

3. Stonetusk Boar -> Jaina's face (killed by a 1/1 Charge minion: Priceless)

How about Polymorph? Ice block? frost nova? blizzard? Deathwing? She can stop you :)

Anyway, it's a just puzzle, the goal is to kill her on one turn.

Ah, so true. If those happened I would just laugh and hit the "Well Played" emote :) I evidently need to work on my lateral strategies more!

Lastly: Similar to above, but possibly skip Blessed Champion entirely on the next turn:

1. Remove Taunt, if any were summoned, using Stormwind Knight (if taunt is super-tough, Blessed Champion on Stormwind Knight first)

2. Alexstrasza -> Jaina's face (leaves her with 1 HP)

3. Stonetusk Boar -> Jaina's face (killed by a 1/1 Charge minion: Priceless)

Alternatively:

1. Crazed Alchemist -> Battlecry on Doomsayer (hilarious; minion becomes 7/0 and dies)

2. Stormwind Knight

3. Blessing of Kings -> Stormwind Knight

4. Stormwind Knight -> Punch Jaina in the head for 6 as an Arrogance Tax

5. We've now got 8/8 and 6/9 on the field; good luck killing or blocking both of those! Blessed Champion on either will destroy her next turn.

1. Stormwind Knight (4 cost, 6 remaining)

2. Crazed Alchemist (2 cost, 4 remaining) -> Use Battlecry on Stormwind Knight (now 5 ATK, 2 HP)

3. Blessing of Kings (4 cost, 0 remaining) -> Stormwind Knight (now 9 ATK, 6 HP)

4. Stormwind Knight -> Kill Doomsayer using Charge

5. We've now got 9/6 and 8/8 minions. If she knocks out one on her next turn, use Blessed Champion on the other and kill her anyway. Either way she's toast; there isn't AoE to kill both a 6-health and an 8-health in one go.

Quote from daan831 »

1 little thing I only found out recently is that if a character is frozen, it can be silenced to remove the freeze.

Indeed. Keep in mind though that while the Freeze is for a single turn, Silence is forever (or until the minion is Brewmaster'd back into your hand) and cancels any existing card text and one-off buffs.

Another hint: Silence *can't* remove the benefit currently being granted by other minions with auras, such as the Stormwind Knight ("Other minions have +1 / +1"), unless you Silence the minion who is the one providing the buff.

Example: You have a Boar which is normally +1 / +1, and a Stormwind Knight on the field too, whose card text buffs the Boar up to +2 / +2. Silencing the Boar will change nothing; it'll still be 2/2. If you Silence the Stormwind Knight though, the Boar will immediately drop back to 1/1 since the aura effect is now cancelled.

Aura-based buffs in general can be *amazing* if you've got a lot of minions on the field - With every minion gaining the benefit, suddenly all those low-cost 1/1 minions become 2/2, or even 3/3 - They're hitting for, and can take, double or triple damage. That starts to HURT.

I too had a really hard time getting started; even now, the "Practise" AI curbstomps me most games against it because it simply seems to have a counter to everything I bring out, and most "Casual" games I play the same thing happens.

Usually it *seems* to me to be that I just get utterly horrid draw (nothing usable until at least turn 5 or 6, anyone? :D) but this is quite likely more a comment on my poorly-constructed Shaman deck: Not enough low-cost starting minions (I don't have many available to me that I really like) for the payoff of some mid-game combos and late-game stomping; this relies on my opponent not flooding the field with low-cost, buffable stuff. When it works, it works well; when it fails... It's embarassing. My mana curve is maxed on 4-cost, for instance, while I have no 0's, two 1's, three 2's, etc, and I haven't even unlocked all the Basic cards for the Shaman yet due to mostly getting stomped and not getting the EXP to get to Level 10!

You might be in a similar situation to me - you may just need to play some more, watch a heap of YouTube streams, and if you're having a bad run, quit for the night and have another stab the next day with a clear head and a desire for vengeance. I've been watching TotalBiscuit's "Lord of the Arena" series, and a lot of my current combos (which, with a better-constructed deck, I feel could be AMAZING) have come from watching that series and thinking "Well in that situation, I would have...", then getting similar situations in my games, testing my theory, and stomping around like a +10 / +10 Puss In Spiked Boots.

Oh, and maybe not rely *too* much on "Tier lists" and the constructed decks of others - Half the fun is experimenting and coming up with something that your opponents don't expect / can't react to easily.

TL;DR: Don't let the losses get to you (there will always be losses!); with experience and experiment come many stomps on your enemies' faces.

Quote from zeek81 »

Quote from EYEamK1ra »

Why would you ask something so simple to do and not try it yourself? Is it hard to get a brewmaster or something?

Maybe he doesn't want to potentially botch an arena match on an experiment.  Maybe he doesn't have brewmasters in constructed yet.  Maybe he thought a message board discussing a game was a good place to discuss the game.  It's a topic that generated discussion.  So, it seems valid to me.

Those and more - I was also wondering if trying to "return" something that is not normally a card would crash the game or otherwise have unintended results - I'd really rather not screw over my opponent like that if I can avoid it by asking if anyone has done it before me! :)

This thread is a deliberate attempt to avoid potential griefing, even if accidental ;)

Nice work! And wouldn't Leeroy work nicely if you follow him up with some low-level AoE to nuke the Whelps, or even hide him behind a beefy Taunt?

I'm wondering what would happen if I tried to Brewmaster a minion that my opponent has either Hexed or Polymorphed.

Would I get the corresponding "card" in my hand (and a hearty laugh from my enemy at the waste of a BM), would the Hexed / Poly'd minion simply not be a "valid" target for the BM anymore, or would the minion return to its previous form on return?

Ah, nice. Thanks for the quick reply, Bromo! :)

I think I'll give it a spin soon then, could be interesting...

Since even the "Practise" AI is stomping me flat most of the time after I apparently unlocked "expert" AI opponents, and I usually get stomped in the "Play" mode too because I'm up against constructed decks that have amazing rares & Legendaries that I don't (looking at *you*, Ysera, with your Dream-card draws!!), I haven't yet dared to step foot in the Arena.

Here's the reason: I don't know whether I'll be limited to the cards that I currently have available, which for most of the classes I haven't even been able to unlock their basics yet due to getting stomped flat nearly every match I try; this makes EXP gain painfully slow.

So here's my question: In an Arena run, are the cards available to you during the draft picked from all possible cards for that class, or are they matched solely against what you currently have in your personal library?