Hearthpwn

I've been using, tweaking, and commenting on this deck for a couple days now.  Posting my latest in here in case people are not following.  

This deck is hella fun.  

Had a really good run tonight.  Made some adjustments.

-2 Master Jouster: While minion curve is high, losing a joust can be detrimental.

+2 Sunwalker: Much more consistent, and can't be targeted by priests due to the 4 attack.

 -1 Dr. Boom: I'm in the minority here but I've never been a fan of this card.  The boom bots introduce too much RNG for me.  Personally I like to keep my decks with as little of it as possible.

+ 1 Al'Akir the Windlord: Another taunt and charge.  If you have any of your Rockbiter Weapon all the better as it can be used for a finisher.

-2 Crackle: RNG gods hate me.

+2 Lave Burst: Rather do 5 damage than pray for it.

-2 Armored Warhorse: Often sits dead in my hand.

+ 1 Emperor Thaurissan: Takes the overload, out of overload.

+1 Chromaggus: Only because I don't have Skeleton Knight.

+1 Ancestors Call: This card has been HUGE for me.  Sometimes I can get something big out on turn 4.  Sometimes I'm inoverload deep in the game and I use it to play my only legendary or Sunwalker with the 4 mana I have.  This card has been clutch.  Better played turn 7 if you have a Hex in case something bad comes out from your opponent.  

One of the games I did lose tonight was against a Paladin.  He has a clear board, Rag is on the board on my side.  I have 8 health left.  He has a secret.  Freaking Eye for an Eye.  First time I ever lost a game like that.

In another game against a pally I played Ancestors Call, pulled out Rag, it pulled out Tirion for the pally, I used Hex on Tirion, used a Rockbiter to kill the taunt.  Clear board, 8 to the face. He conceded after that.  It was beautiful.

Had a really good run tonight.  Made some adjustments.

-2 Master Jouster: While minion curve is high, losing a joust can be detrimental.

+2 Sunwalker: Much more consistent, and can't be targeted by priests due to the 4 attack.

 -1 Dr. Boom: I'm in the minority here but I've never been a fan of this card.  The boom bots introduce too much RNG for me.  Personally I like to keep my decks with as little of it as possible.

+ 1 [card]Al'Akir the Windlord[/card]: Another taunt and charge.  If you have any of your Rockbiter Weapon all the better as it can be used for a finisher.

-2 Crackle: RNG gods hate me.

+2 Lave Burst: Rather do 5 damage than pray for it.

-2 Armored Warhorse: Often sits dead in my hand.

+ 1 Emperor Thaurissan: Takes the overload, out of overload.

+1 Chromaggus: Only because I don't have Skeleton Knight.

+1 Ancestors Call: This card has been HUGE for me.  Sometimes I can get something big out on turn 4.  Sometimes I'm in overload deep in the game and I use it to play my only legendary or Sunwalker with the 4 mana I have.  This card has been clutch.  Better played turn 7 if you have a Hex in case something bad comes out from your opponent.  

One of the games I did lose tonight was against a Paladin.  He has a clear board, Rag is on the board on my side.  I have 8 health left.  He has a secret.  Freaking Eye for an Eye.  First time I ever lost a game like that.

In another game against a pally I played Ancestors Call, pulled out Rag, it pulled out Tirion for the pally, I used Hex on Tirion, used a Rockbiter to kill the taunt.  Clear board, 8 to the face. He conceded after that.  It was beautiful.

Only a couple of games and this deck is hella fun.

No Skeleton Knight, so threw in an Auctioneer to fill in the 6 slot.  With all the spells draws me some extra cards.

Elemental Destruction affects ALL minions, so you may want to take that into consideration.

Quote from zamrai jump

I wish meta was like 99% aggro sometimes. When my control decks get overrun by aggro turn 6 every other game I switch to anti-aggro decks. Then I don't face so much aggro anymore but control I am weak against. Trollstone meta.

Stable meta full of aggro also means stable laddering with anti-aggro decks. Sure, you can still lose sometimes but its nowhere near as bad as meta being total mess with heavy control decks and hyper aggro decks, when you can't really optimize your deck against both.

For real. My control pally has been wrecking cancer hunter and eboladin. 

Just wish I had time to play more.  

This is what I'm running ATM.  

Prior to yesterday I rarely played Druid, but seeing your deck inspired me to craft Cenarius and Harrison.  

I'm usually never that high on the ladder and that doesn't matter.   Yesterday though....holy cow was I having fun.  I've had some of my best matches in weeks yesterday.  Two people friend me afterward thrilled at the matchup even though they lost.  One even said "Finally someone who knows how to play Druid".

I'm experimenting with Nourish in place of Azure Drake, but regardless I say kudos to you good sir.  What a fun deck!

7-9-15 UPDATE:  Ranked from 17 to 13 last night.  Didn't lose a single game.  Been seeing several agro Pallys lately and this deck destroys them.  Highlight from last night was Pally dropped quartermaster, then I dropped both mind control techs.  If that wasn't enough later when Tirion came out I ran a boom bot into the shield, Boom into Tirion for the kill, and the Harrison for the card draw.  Insane!

 7-11-15 UPDATE:  Haven't had a lot of time to play over the last 2 days, but in that time have ranked to 10.  Still haven't lost a single game.  Lots of agro pallys.  They cannot keep up with this deck.  Ironically no tempo mages.  Still not sure how this deck does against them.

7-13-15 UPDATE: I started to get a bit of resistance at rank 10.  Still was able to hit enough of a win streak to get to rank 9.  Seeming to have a lot of trouble with the Patron decks.  Might remove Wild Growth and put back in Azure Drake.  Will have to experiment.

My experiences is even when that does happen the combination of taunts and the heals you do have plus the armor you get from hero power is enough to stem the early tempo loss.  

Wow, the mindset of some people in here is frightening.  

First Blizzard doesn't owe you a damn thing and you don't owe Blizzard a damn thing.  

While it's nice that Hearthstone is F2P for those who want to do that the fact in the end is there is a team at Blizzard who earn a paycheck for developing for Hearthstone.  If there were not some people who paid for things in Hearthstone it would go away quickly.  So to have some sort of disdain for those who pay for cards or whatnot is cutting off your nose despite your face.  

P2W???  I think those at the top of the ladder who have to consistently play against face hunters would beg to differ.  It's more like pay to have more options when playing.  

Back to the topic at hand though yes I think the price point for one hero is too much.  That said if there is any sort of long gap between expansions or solo adventures and I have money to burn, then yes I might get one or two.  Not because "OMG I want them soooo badly" but because if I'm enjoying Hearthstone, and playing it a lot, then I don't have any problems contributing to the kitty so that the developers can bring home a paycheck and continue to put investment back into the game.

You need not look any further for evidence that Hearthstone is one broke ass fucking game.

Just had a match.

Me: Mage
Opponent: Priest

Quote from Remhouse »

Quote from akasumi »

I am pretty sure that everyone adapt his deck to stop early aggresion,but yes,i can understand that is no fun to die in less than a minute.

Do you just end your turn when it is beginning... you may have the reason why you are losing in less then one minute then... allowing the opponent to play without yourself playing a card is not a smart move. 

Jokes apart... aggro decks are perfectly fine for the meta. They keeps in check control decks and give them a reason to actually implement some anti-aggro cards in their decks. You don't need to adapt that much your deck for anti-aggro, smart mulliganing is the key to everything against this kind of matchups.

I'm a couple days behind but this right here is the biggest crock of shit I've read in some time.  

"Smart Mulliganing" are you freaking serious?  There are only so many ways to counter an agro deck and if you don't happen to be lucky enough to get the cards that allow you to do that you are screwed regardless if you know how to mulligan or not.

Now excuse me while I clean the vomit out from my mouth which was caused by reading this trash.

Use Doomhammer in place of Al' Akir.  Save your dust for something else.

Love all of your ideas for tweaks.

I hear you on Master Jouster.  It can hurt when you lose the joust.  however, it wins games like a boss for me.  However, it is extremely successful against the decks I need it for: tempo and agro.  If you can ever use emperor to cheapen them and soak up a removal or silence, then drop two of these guys on turn 7 and 8, it has created insurmountable walls.  For later games, Mistcaller (my current build) buffs them to 6/7s.  That are so beast. 

That being said, it makes a lot of sense to run Sunwalkers if you want consistency.   Same mana cost, too.  As I mentioned in the thread on shaman forums, this deck represents an archetype I call "Deep Control," and honestly, it doesn't HAVE to be a joust deck.  What we have is a group of shaman cards and a play style that allows us to compete with almost every deck.  I didn't realize how horrifically annoying and strong that paladin secrets deck is because I played this deck.  Once I played against it with my control warrior and a dragon priest.  Just...wow, what a pain in the rump!  But this deck bent Secret Pallie over...lol!

I can completely see running Al'Akir in this deck, and I may eventually come to that.  The HUGE reason for Boom in this deck though, is for the swing turn at 10 mana.  Sometimes you don't have a Lava Burst, and on turn 10, wiping the board followed by a same-turn Boom is utterly devastating.  Even if the BGH it, they still have those bots to contend with.  It is the 7 mana that is hugely valuable. 

Again, with regard to mana cost, I have been paying attention to Crackle versus Lava Burst.  I think it comes down to playstyle and what is more valuable to you.  The 2 mana cost of Lava Burst is sometimes game saving in early turns.  For example, against a totem golem.  2 mana used on turn 2, then still have 2 mana.  By the time you use a Lava Shock on it turn 3, you have 2 mana turn 4...and they have already dropped a totemic turn 3, then a fraking shredder turn 4 and I am jacked!  Still, this is all theory in my head.  Let me know how they work for you. 

Chromagus could work in this, at least you are striving to make up the card advantage, which is (finally) what I found Skeleton Knight is doing.  I wrote it a few places, but essentially, For ever joust Skeleton Knight wins, you basically gained a free card.  So say you drop him turn 6, and the priest uses SW:D on it.  Awesome, you used a removal.  Then you win the joust...now you can play him on turn 7, too!  And you drew a card.  And you don't have to play a card...if all he can do is drop a minion, you trade Skeleton Knight into it, killing it, it comes back to your hand and you simply play it again on the spot.  And the card you drew stays in hand.  I actually realized this once I milled myself because I dropped him 5 times in a row versus a priest.  I used a LB, crackle, a few things, but the card value was so great that I ended up milling a card.  Love it!

And as for Eye for an Eye...LOL!  That's horrible!

The last example though, is what keeps me loving the idea of AC.

I love the passion surrounding this deck!  I am very open to feedback and a “community building” attempt to make this deck as absolutely effective as possible.  This is so far out of the realm of normalcy within the Hearthstone community that I am having trouble finding anyone even willing to take a second look.  Literally, it is dismissed out of hand and ignored.  So I appreciate you all who play and support it!
These are all great ideas, and since you messaged me, have been playing with the Emperor/Maly combo (more on that later).  Let’s check out these ideas:

 Lava Burst actually makes a lot of sense here.  The damage being 5 static would actually be really huge, because that is how I use it.  Generally, I use it for 3-5 HP minion removal. I pretty much don’t ever count on it hitting for 6, so Lava Burst makes sense.  However, I would be a little concerned about the 3 mana cost.  I can absorb overload pretty well in this deck, but commonly that is because all of the spells are so bloody cheap.  This would squeeze that a little.  I will certainly put a phase of testing in, though, it is worth the time. 

Drakes are certainly a possibility.  There are a ton of factors going on here, though, and everything affects everything else.  For example, I have actually been running the Auctioneer after someone’s idea on that, and have found it pretty awesome…when in conjunction with other changes.  I swear, you change one thing it affects everything else.  The 2 Ancestral Knowledge, for example, makes it so I can actually overdraw.  Bad. Yet at the same time, I can generally have a near full hand for the entirety of the rest of the game after turn 8-10.  That is actually pretty amazing.  Drakes, of course, would necessitate more changes.  The higher curve is good, but I kind of feel at 4/4, they just die so easily without giving a larger impact.  I will keep it in mind if I ever mess around with various card draws.  I am always fearful of taking the deck more midrangey, as I think it would kill it.

I am so sold on Emperor Thorazine in this deck, thank you for bringing it up!  However, I am also totally sold on Sylvanas.  I can’t tell you how often I can drop sylvanas when they have a huge minion plus smaller guys, then Elemental Destruction, killing sylvanas (sometimes need to LB it) to steal their minion.  A board wipe and theft of their 8/8 (now 8/4 or so) can win games.  Period.  Stealing their Ysera is crown jewel though.  But yes, emperor is in.  And I have been pairing him with…Sylvanas is pure control and I need her.

Mistcaller.  This has been a very surprising result for me.  Basically, in the deck above, I removed both Armored Warhorse and a Crackle, and put in what might be a core Trinity:  Emperor T, Mistcaller and  Gadgetzan Auctioneer (again, considering removing an ancestral Knlowledge).  Those three together have great synergy.  Emperor reduces cost, Mistcaller raises stats and Auctioneer lets you get a nice hand for when you do either or both of those.  The stat raise is more effective than I thought, too.   Auctioneer is then a 5/5, and Emperor a 6/6.  They seem to just live longer that way.  Also, the Skeleton Knight becomes an 8/5.  I can’t tell you how much more effective that is!  8 atk kills giants etc, and the 5 HP makes him need something much tougher than a frost bolt plus ping to kill it.  I didn’t find Malygos to quite fit here.  The 9 mana cost is great for joust, but overall, I tend to use my spells to control board and stay alive and don’t have many to use when she finally drops

No one cares.

On a losing streak of 11 with my zoo lock. Stress reliving game.

Ignore all the internet-toughguy posturing and just do the math. A skilled and/or dedicated player can get to rank 5 each season without any particular effort (thanks to winstreak bonuses, mediocre competition, etc.). From there to legend, you need 25 more wins than losses. Mathematically, yes, anybody with a decent deck could get there eventually just by riding a freakish winstreak. Realistically, nobody can put in as many games as that requires.

If you win about 55% of your games, you can get from rank 5 to legend in around 300 games. I think that's already more games than anybody with a job and a social life is going to play (figure ten minutes per game on average, counting the downtime and connection time between games, and that's about 50 hours—close to three and a hour hours a day for two weeks), but it's a pretty good upper bound for us.

If you can maintain a winrate just over 75%, you'll get from rank 5 to legend it in just under 50 games. Unless you're piloting a truly meta-breaking deck (i.e. you were an early adopter of secret paladin), you're probably not going to do much better than that, even if you're a total genius. So that's a good lower bound.

People say, "well, any idiot can grind it out," but there are limits. A 55% winrate is nothing to sneeze at, especially considering that you have to maintain that winrate against the pool of players who are already at legend or between ranks 1-4 (the best 1-2% of active players in the game, more or less). A "mediocre" legend player who needs to grind through 200-300 games to get there is still better than 98% of the players in the game, maybe more. And most people don't have enough time to grind out 300 games even if they are good enough to win 55% of the time. Also worth noting—in a stable meta, no deck is good enough to win much more than that on average.

TL;DR: Anybody who can make legend in under 100 games or so in a stable meta (i.e. this past week doesn't count) is really, really good. And most people (the vast majority) will never make it at all, no matter how hard they try.

Couldn't have said it better. Very informative. Will read again. 10/10.

I'm amazed by the structured and numerous arguments presented in these paragraphs.

 Why people complain about this deck ? Because it won't work in the highier ranks! everybody who has a win-spree it's between rank 15 and 10. Tried this deck 10 times ate rank 4, and it won't work
Eveything who's in the meta right now are ba match ups for this deck, besides the way it control de board isn't effective enough agains aggro and midrange decks. So unle you're lucky, what's something that you can't count on, this deck isn't good against the actual decks that are being played.