Hearthpwn

Been playing almost every day for the past 18 months and I'm finding diminishing returns in my enjoyment of standard.  The climb in ranking has lost all fun appeal and has become nothing more than a grind against the same handful of decks over and over.

Recently, I've found out that I had 8 Arena tickets I've accumulated from expansion purchases and events.  I've never been into arena but I'm finding it to be a breath of fresh air.  The challenge of seeing how far I can make it on a run with a particular deck has become infinitely more fun than 'face hunter, face hunter, pure paladin, mage, mage, face hunter, paladin, mage, face hunter, etc.' 

I think I'm at a point right now where I will just be content getting my 5 ranked wins in the bronze level and then forget about standard for the rest of the month....don't really care about what my bonus star level is at this point.

I am liking the direction of the deck but it is definitely getting shredded against aggro.  I'm wondering if Sphere of Sapience would work in a deck like this where you have no draw and finding a response to aggro is crucial.  I'm going to try and insert that along with removing both Power Infusion in favor of Penance...I just don't feel like the +2/+6 buff does much of anything; it's not enough attack to make a difference and in a world where everyone hits face, the extra health to a minion is irrelevant.

After playing some more, I like the concept of having Sphere in the deck.  It provides you with some extra options and survivability; however, I still don't have a win against an aggro deck.  Everything is so weapon heavy that board clears don't even matter.  I think you have to cut Keymaster Alabaster in favor of a Kobold Stickyfinger or an Ooze.  Keymaster is a fun card but you really have to pick your spots with him and when you're constantly fighting to just stay alive that time never comes.

Edit 2: After playing a bit more I can report that success against aggro decks is still a bit iffy unless you mulligan and draw really well in the early game.  There are still too many games where you are left getting your face beat in because your hand is nothing but expensive cards. 

The deck can perform really well against control which is to be expected with your infinite value generation from Gala.

Against ramp druids....the concede button seems to be the best strategy.  There are too many big minions to deal with not to mention ones which cannot be targeted by spells and a handful of dragons which aren't susceptible to SWD due to having 4 attack.  The deck provides enough value for some early to mid-game defense but once Ysera's portals start rolling in you are screwed.

I generally despise priest but this is a fairly fun deck if you're looking for a break from the standard meta; just don't expect to be too competitive with it.

What are your thoughts on switching out the SW:Pains for two Penance along with removing one of the Power Infusion in favor of something else as carrying two feels a bit too slow

Literally seen this card played once.  It was able to freeze and kill me over two turns.  Once it happened I said, "that was neat": and moved on with my life.

I think something like this would be great to try out in Arena before attempting to roll it out in standard

When the system changed over I was a semi-casual ranked player and I ended every season between 15 - 12...I think that translates to somewhere within gold for the current rankings.

My first month I was granted 7 bonus stars...I think I reached gold 1 or something and the next month I was granted 6 bonus stars.  During that month, I reached somewhere between platinum 10 - 6 (I forget and it doesn't matter) so I was expecting to get bumped back up to 7 or more bonus stars...I was granted 6 once again.

Now I will put in my time to go through my bonus stars and reach gold before I stop caring and play Arena or something completely different.  No time to grind my way up in these 50/50 super aggressive matches.

Quote from Devilseye >>

Quote from Nickfuryusn >>

How many paladins did you see at gms this weekend? 

 

 Most GM's dont bring Paladin cause they know its broken and other will have prepare for it and bring counters. 

what does this even mean?

The bitching about this extremely rare occurrence is getting ridiculous.  I've played as and against Druid more this expansion than any other and this type of high roll play has literally happened once - it was in my favor so that was obviously nice but that experience is not even close to what a typical game is.  About 50% of my matches involved getting smashed by a face hunter by turn 6 or 7 because my mulligan was nothing but a limp dick hand of 7 and 9 cost cards with a moonfire thrown in there.

Quote from Biomass >>

Zephrys didn't offer me a Flare against a Secret Mage with 3 active secrets, and 2 mana available, so I'm still mad at him.

 But what if he did and one of the secrets was Counterspell ;)

I've played as and against the Maly ramp deck this expansion because it's been fun for me and I always see people screaming for nerfs because they played a single match against someone who was able to bust out Ysera by turn 4 or 5; however, I never see them discussing their other matches against that same deck where they were able to absolutely molly-whop the player by turn 6 because their mulligan left them with a limp dick hand of Alex, some overflows and a swipe.

I was thinking about this the other night.  I don't necessarily think they should be removed from the discovery pool but it would be nice to see if their appearance rates could be cut down a bit.  In almost any matchup where I'm playing as or against Mage, it is more common than not to see two or more Astromancer Solarian played. 

Quote from sanchogrande >>

Quote from Shipyx >>

Maybe you weren't annoying enough for your opponents to concede ? cause i do when they steal my best cards to beat me, oh wait they can steal my turn too now...

 The quantity of stealing is crazy. 

2x Cabal priestess

2x Spellburst cabal priestess

2x thoughtsteal

2x mind vision

2x 1-mana steal 

1x Murazond

1x Deathrattle steal guy

1x Discover steal

1x Steal entire hand

I mean, steal doesn't even make sense for Priest from a flavor perspective. It should be a Rogue thing. 

In a related matter, it's now common for Priest and Mage to run 10+ legendaries in a single deck.

 All of that and people STILL cry that the class needs more draw.  Unbelievable.

Shaman is in the toilet?  Buff one of its terrible minions to make it somewhat less terrible and watch that win rate skyrocket!

Quote from Q3PVN9P8 >>

Problem with face hunter is running out of cards and priest heals.  Priest has many heal cards, can easily get 15 to 20 life extra, so you need to do maybe 50 points to win.  Is the deck bad against priest?

 Some decks are just going to lose to other decks and there is nothing you can really do about it; it's that simple.

If you are playing a purely aggro/face deck against a Priest then your game plan is no different than against any other opponent - apply massive amounts of pressure and hopefully eliminate them quickly.  If you are in a priest matchup and the game has reached turn 5 or 6 with no lethal in sight then you might as well save yourself the time and concede.

Seems like it happens with every single one of my ramp cards when I play Druid