Hearthpwn

I've been playing since about the second month post release (I think it was the Black Temple card back, and was around the time of the Hearthsteed promotion in WoW), and gotta say, the metagame - wild at least - is just so freaking horrible right now. At least at low levels (I basically just do my 5 wins a month, or weekly wins if I haven't completed a battlepass yet).

3 opponents en route to doing my 3 quests (made the foolish mistake of thinking dragon priest might be able to do *anything* with the game in its current state - funny to think that even about 2 or so years ago it could do something in wild):

1. Quest hunter. Basically did the bare minimum it needed to against my board and just tried to machine gun to the quest. After that, cheap draw and pseudo-draw like tracking makes a quest that basically gives Raza + Shadowreaper in a single package a good deal.

2. Flamewaker mage. Just hope your opponent isn't very aggressive and draw until you can go off. Doesn't matter if you make the occasional misplay (Runed Orb to face instead of a 2/2 minion, in a game where opponent very nearly died).

3. Raza + Shadowreaper + 28 random cards. Basically the first deck all over again. So annoying that literally all my opponent did was play Raza, Shadowreaper, and a bunch of largely underwhelming card geneartion cards. You too can win games when you play the two cards that formed the backbone of a top tier deck, plus 28 other random cards! :-P

It's just so uninteractive, and for the most part it seems that if you aren't abusing something powerful from Hearthstone's history, you don't have much of a hope - even in freaking bronze and silver (though it doesn't help that Blizz decided to make actual rank meaningless).

Ugh, everyone in wild seems to be playing really cute shit that crumbles if one not-unlikely thing happens. It's happened multiple times since expansion day, but the last two back to back:

1. Mage with cheap spells/draw whose deck really doesn't do anything unless they get Drek'thar on 4 mana - which they did (Drek'thar gets double Sorc Apprentice).
2. Priest doing a version of Potion of Madness/Divine Spirit/Inner Fire combo that can't output enough damage, at least from all the cards shown, unless you yourself put out a minion with at least 6 or so health - so never mind aggro decks having stuff that's too small to be useful.

Seems like the mantra of the day is "try a gimmicky combo and hope that it lines up for you".

God Battlegrounds is so unbelievably frustrating. Such an RNG clownfiesta. Only need to top 4 one game for the weekly quest.

* Get a great start, going undefeated for 8 rounds (would've outright won those 8 round if not for a 0.8% tie)
* Be on dragons and get to tier 5 before anyone else, including the other dragon player
* Get completely card dead and end up bombing out in fifth.

Not even a case of just missing Kalec. on like  the 3-4 6 drop rolls I went for.  Got 2 Tarecs with no promo drakes, no Razorgores, nothing to actually endgame a dragon build with. I know the game mode has always been a clownfiesta with a very, very slight amount of skill involved, but Jesus it's annoying when you just roll poorly.

On the one hand, I think the idea of making us choose a faction (and thus a legendary) for prerelease is cool.

On the other hand, unless it's a very short amount of time before we can get the experience track and get the other, it's a pretty BS decision. There's no clear cut choice here without testing and data - Drek'Thar is going to be quite good in aggro decks getting you up to 10 mana worth of minions across 3 bodies, whereas Vanndar could be an amazing card in control and combo decks.

Not only that, but I am veeery much a Horde player, but Vanndar is a much better fit for my Hearthstone and card game playstyle.

Also, Cariel's Immoval Object looks pretty bullshit. Half damage on a weapon that doesn't lose durability? If paladin gets enough control or midrange tools to be a tier 2+ deck she's going to make it a nightmare, and you never want to have to consider tech cards like weapon removal just for one card.

Whelp, guess I'm picking Drek'Thar. Loktar ogar and all that crap.

Ugh, seriously considering insta-conceding every battlegrounds match with demons. A lot of games are basically "who can get 1-3 Doomsayers first then roll well with them".

Leapfrogger is annoying as hell too, being one of the core cards of a potential winning build yet available at turn 2, but Doomsayer feels way more oppressive. At worst, it's usually a better Naga chick (the one that used to give 1 gold on deathrattle) - as it's 1 gold that's also a minion if need be. At best, it's multiple gold or multiple useful minions as a tier 3 unit.

They're going to nerf it eventually, but I wish they'd hurry up with it. Honestly, I enjoyed BGs way more before the patch, where if you chose to go hard into midrange you often struggled to win, as winning comps usually relied on tier 5 cards as a core. Now a few of the better builds start at tier 2/3/4, allowing for players to sit on tier 3 or 4 for ages and just trying to outroll the other people doing the same.

Edit: alright, new strategy for games with demons: go to 3 as normal, spend up to 2 turns trying to get a Doomsayer. If you get it, great; if not, condede, unless you have the makings of one of the other builds that has a chance to win (beasts, dragons primarily). Also, I think what annoys me most about this game mode is the timer being so rigid (and no 'skip animations' option outside of DIY methods). Certain pirate builds would basically be guaranteed a win without a timer - but the timer means you have to get lucky enough to get the right cards in your turns, despite basically infinite money.

Edit 2: man, fuck this lucksack game mode. At least pre-patch there was some skill involved in knowing how to go for a winning build yet maintaining survival. Now the decision tree has been pruned significantly; basically every good build starts from getting a good/god roll in the mid game. Don't roll well? Sucks to be you! Just lost my final round to a Ysera. 2 goldens from a currently meh tribe for me (Quillboar), versus 5 goldens from one of the strongest current tribes for them (Dragons). Not a fun experience.

Edit 3: OMFG; fucking baddies staying on 1 when they shouldn't and getting matched up with you is beyond annoying. Why the F would Tess stay on tier 1 for turn 2, and why the F would YOGG stay on tier 1 on turn 3? Absolutely baffling.

Dayum, they really pushed midrange this battlegrounds patch. The number of people going hard into tier 3/4 builds that likely won't win lategame (unless everyone going for a lategame build has such a pattern of opponents that they die before stabilising) is ridiculous.

It's partially my fault for going for builds that can actually win the match rather than settling for top 4, but I've never understood why people who aren't actually viably going to push for the top of ranked (and the e-peen that might come with being at the top of Battlegrounds MMR, if that exists) would be so gung-ho on doing builds to increase MMR instead of builds to win the game.

Edit: it still also bugs me when people stay on tier 1 when they shouldn't. It's arguably also very likely that there are outright wrong times to stay on tier 2 instead of levelling at 7, but there are so few decision points between turn 1 and 2 that for many heroes, it's correct in 99.99% of cases to level on turn 2. Of course, that's not all of them - some have curves or flow that benefits staying on tier 1 for an extra turn or two, but for most it's minion turn 1, level turn 2, and anything else is wrong.

Edit 2: following on from that, in this game I just had a Curator stay on tier 1 for turn 2, and a Ysera stay on tier 1 for turn 3. God people are bad at this mode sometimes.

Ugh, I hate how they do Battlegrounds (and seemingly a lot of Hearthstone) these days. Release content that has overpowered aspects, let people get frustrated when they lose to said overpowered aspects, then eventually nerf them. Some stupidly, obviously OP cards in this latest update. How anyone could have thought Impatient Doomsayer was balanced is beyond me.

Edit: and damn, fuck tribal heroes. Awesome when the stars align; terrible otherwise. I finally had my first Patches game in a while - and I love Patches... except when you get no natural pirates in the first ~5 turns, and play all the top opponents. Finally start to get some semblance of a build together, and finally play a lower play, only for that player to have spiked on the previous turn (playing pirates and tripling into Eliza). Yeah, not a fun match that one.

Man, Battlegrounds players that play to top 4 are so annoying. What's the benefit? Higher MMR? Whoopdy fucking do. XD You can tell what these builds are, and you can tell they have very little chance of winning unless they get a ridiculously lucky pivot, but if you're unlucky to face them repeatedly while actually going for a winning build you'll lose too much health before you can get there (while someone else going for a winning build will get there less-scathed).

Like, if being high MMR mattered for anything, like there were invitational tournaments for it, I could understand it. But as Battlegrounds currently stands it seems pretty meaningless.

Man, people are huge twats sometimes. Design a paladin deck to suicide as fast as possible so I can quickly get quest completion - and two players in a row intentional pass without attacking. It's like, dude, you're not getting a real game either way - the least you could do is take this free win I'm giving you and get it quickly.

But no, people would rather be trolling grunts than take a free win.

Fortunately I have a second account. Pretty sure switching accounts and booting up the second is slower than just doing it on one if the opponent cooperates, but I guess doing it my self eliminates the issue of running into uncooperative twats.

I abso-fucking-lutely loathe it when players have shitty decks... except for some card/synergy/combo that was either previously, or still is, really competitive and strong.

Just played against a shaman with what was mostly an absolutely trash deck, but Bogspine Knuckles + Desert Hare (and similar) is pretty good even in a deck filled with otherwise trash cards (Guidance, Perpetual Flame, Lushwater Mercenary without murloc theme, Menacing Nimbus without elemental theme, etc).

Just reminds me of all those highlander priest players that have really shitty decks, but then lean on Shadowreaper + Raza to machine gun you down.

Man, these historic locks playing questline is so annoying. Just had 2 back to back. The thing is that the deck is too easy to build - even bad players can do it (see example 2). Requires virtually no thought beyond "let me see what self-damage cards I have in my collection".

First one actually had a seemingly good deck - though what's annoying in that case is how much their particular deck hinged on drawing Darkglare to get a really stupid turn 4.

Second one was actually a pretty bad version IMO - but it turns out if you just include enough self damage cards (easy to do in wild) and use them with reckless abandon (ie. Spirit Bomb on a 1/1), getting out a super early Flesh Giant is just too strong against many decks.

Don't forget it also gives up a card. That's very important. You're not just substituting your turn 1 with something else; you're consuming a card that would otherwise be something else.

God awful. The only potential use would be in a combo deck where you could reliably put the required combo pieces for discount back in the deck before playing Kurtrus.

In wild there's the slim, slim possibility of being able to use it in some fatigue-control style deck (such as using Archivist and a couple effects to replay her), but as far as I'm aware demon hunter still doesn't nearly have a good enough control suite to attempt a high tier competitive control deck in wild. Not to mention if you're spending all your mana drawing cards, you're not spending mana controlling the board, so yeah...

So at worst it's a better neutral Ancient of Wisdom if your opponent destroys it straight away; otherwise it's along the lines of 6 mana 4/5 draw 6+ (unless of course you kill it on your next turn - which you may have to if you're drawing too much).

Probably best as a top end of pretty aggressive decks, given how many card you'll potentially have to play each turn to stop wastage. Honestly reminds me a lot of Aluneth; anyone that's played that card knows how quickly your hand can become overfilled if you play it in the wrong deck and/or draw the wrong cards with it.

Edit: can be good/great in any other deck too, but you're going to want to play something to either transform it or destroy it yourself, hopefully for a benefit.

1 mana 2/1s that demand an immediate answer are pretty good, just saying.