Hearthpwn

And *that* is the problem with Dr Boom.  He's just too versatile.  He is used in every deck.  I've even seen him in hunter agro decks as a failsafe.

Malygos is really only useful if he survives and you can actually use him.  Toshley is immediately useful (at worst you gain 1 spare part), faster, and has synergy with Archmage Antonidas and Gazlowe.

I too have a golden Toshley.  First golden legendary I ever pulled.  I want to de it for the good doctor, but just can't do it.

My vote is Toshley.

Sludge Belcher doesn't need to be nerfed.  It's a great card, sure, but people don't *have* to play around it like they do Undertaker.  If you played a hunter, you needed to hope you could draw something that could remove it before it's health got out of control.  Boom might need a slight nerf.  When every deck under the moon runs a card and forces another card into the meta (BGH), it's probably a bit too good.

I kind of agree it should be 3 health, but then it's pretty much equivalent to a class card.  And class cards are supposed to have a slight budget boost over neutrals.

It should be compared with War Golem.  It's like one of the first instances of a "Strictly Better" relationship between cards.  There is no reason to run Golem over Boom.  

It should *probably* be an 8 mana card with a floor of 2 damage on the bots deathrattle... 

That's a great deck right there, i'm not surprised you went 12 with it.  Every minion is quality and you have a ton of removal.

Every card pack has at least 1 rare, so you don't really want to craft any rares unless you really need it to make the deck work.  For example, the only 2 rares I have crafted were 2x Knife Juggler for my hunter deck.  The epics and legendaries are expensive to create, so try to conserve dust when you can.

As to what you should buy, that is a tough one.  I didn't play for much of last year, so I am missing a TON of classic epics and legendaries.  I play mostly arena with constructed only when I need to clear quests or if I just want to grind 20-50 gold.  So I get GvG packs from arena.  I bought 10 packs with gold and now that I have most of the commons, I'm back to buying the classic packs since I'm missing so many of them.  I think the legendaries from the classic packs are better anyway. 

As for the pack thing, it's probably just perception.  If you open 1 pack you "always" get 4 commons and a rare, because that's the most common pack.  If you get a legendary or an epic, it's soon forgotten.  The odds are the same, it's just spread out over a long time instead of getting a bunch in 1 go.  So that being said, I still prefer to save up 10 packs and open them in 1 go.  I know the odds are the same, but instead of being disappointed 8 times and happy 2, I'm generally pretty happy after that since I probably got an epic (or 2) or a legendary. 

edit:

I just realized that Tirion is from the classic set, not the GvG set.  So ignore that... I just wish I could remember which 2 legendaries I *have* pulled from GvG packs...

Got my first ever 12 win a few days ago and figured I would upload the screenshot.

MVPs were the 3 truesilvers and the sword of justice.  I almost always had a weapon, and getting the bonus from SoJ was huge.  Maexxna was not super useful.  I think I only cleared something deadly once.  Did get good value off of the mech warper.  It accelerated a shredder or two.

Cards that got cutoff:

Sea Giant, Sunwalker, 2x Guardian of Kings.  Sea Giant was a beastie in a few games.

Not a bad run.  I'm mostly satisfied when I can get 5 wins out of any deck.  

Pally's typically have dynamite turn 4s.  When I draft them, I usually have mostly 4 mana plays, but I looked at your draft and you really weren't offered any.

I'm definitely not a great player, so take what I'm about to say with a pinch of salt.

Things I may have played differently:

#17, I probably would have taken light's justice.  There are countless times when 1 more damage saves your board.

#18, Juggler might have been the right pick, but I do like Imp Master a lot as well.  Cobra is too difficult to use properly (imo) and usually gets cleared off before you can use it on a good target.  Either that or you already have the board and it becomes a "win more" card".

#24, I probably would have taken swamp ooze.  at worst a 3/2 body, at best, blow up a truesilver or a firey win axe.  

#27, Chow is (imo) the best 1 drop in arena.  But you have no card draw. So BoW is probably the right pick.  Do note that you can play BoW on an enemy's minion.  So if they have something you know you can't clear for a couple of turns, throw it on his minion.

You really had some turrible options there.  And not a truesilver in the whole lot.  I'd be happy with 5 wins on that.

About your question about Warrior, Warrior is (from what I have seen) heavily reliant on weapons.  They have to trade their health to obtain board control.  Without weapons, their hero power is just an annoyance since shield slam is an epic.  If you are going to play warrior, pick up as many fiery win axes as you can.

Quote from Marthian »

 

I disagree with that harsh judgment you give yourself here. ;)

You made the correct play: maintaining the board is always top priority in Arena and will lead to victory. Keeping cards in hand is actually very greedy in Arena and will cost you the game.

I think the rule NOT to play around Legendary and Epic cards in Arena pays of more than keeping cards in hand for the odd change that the opponent drops a Legendary card on the field. Sometime ago I had the same kind of situation: I played BGH without a target so I had a lethal board for the next turn. Then my opponent topdecked Deathwing. But I will make the same play next time regardless, because it will be a game winning move 99/100 times to just play the BGH and have a lethal board. 

I completely agree that you made the right play because you were threatening lethal.  He *had* to answer or lose the game.  In my game, I was not threatening lethal, and there could have been a few cards that could have ruined my day from the common/rare set (sludge belcher immediately comes to mind).  I also agree that you can't play around legendaries/epics.  That wasn't really what I was saying with my critique of myself.  I really feel like I wasted my silence and there was just no real reason.  I had the board and playing it just put me in a "win more" situation.  I usually record my matches so I can go back over them and look for my misplays, but didn't this time.  Maybe if I had the actual game, I could look back on it objectively and think it wasn't a misplay, but how I remember it (and I was pretty salty, so that might be skewed slightly) it was a misplay, lol.

I like the idea on the first one, but I'm having trouble figuring out if it is overpowered or not.  A lot of shaman overloads are 2 overload, so it's pretty much a 4/6 for 6.  But only kind of for 6, because the spell you played before essentially counted that mana as well.  So maybe it would feel more like a 4/6 for 5 or something... I like it, I just don't know how to process it.

Undertaker - If you have at least 2 minions with deathrattle in your hand, opponent concedes.

I'm going to post one on both sides.  This is with my arena deck (which i stopped playing at 7-1 because raid time was just around the corner, it might be good enough to win 2 or 3 more, but probably not the dream, we'll find out tonight).

First the one I laid.  This pally deck was pretty good, I had already gone 5-0.  Mirror match.  I got the coin and a card.  I kept a mechwarper and a minibot and tossed the others.  Pulled another mechwarper and a 4 drop (don't remember which one).  Turn 1, he passes, i draw spider tank.  I coin out warper.  Turn 2, he plays Mad Scientist, I play mechwarper for 1, a free minibot, and a spider tank for 1.  Clear his scientist with my warper.  So my board is 2/1, 2/3, 2/2 divine, and 3/4.  He draws, concedes.

I don't know if that is really a bad beat for the other guy, but that was INSANE RNGesus work there.  Sure, I would have been playing the rest of the game with my topdeck, but the shock and awe seemed to work.

My beat was entirely my fault.  I had the game well in hand and broke 2 of my rules.

I don't remember the exact cards I had out there, but it was 3v3 on board before I played.  One of his cards was a micro machine.  I could clear 2 without loosing any board, but the micro machine would have killed my 3/2 i wanted to crash into it.  So I got greedy and played my silence to maintain my board.  Next turn, he top decks Tirion.  I was low on cards and didn't have an answer for the ashbringer.  He build his board while ashbringering anything I could play.  

Moral of the story: don't silence non priority targets and don't play more cards than you need to to stay ahead.  I didn't have lethal the next turn if he couldn't answer, so I don't know what I was thinking.  I should have lost my 3/2 and still have been ahead on board.

If you want to get better, it might be worth recording your arena and then looking back at the matches afterwards.  You can almost pinpoint the decision that lost the game for you (not when you lose, but the decision you made that sealed your doom).  A lot of times for me, it has to do with either overextending or not going face soon enough.  

A friend of mine and I built a pally deck last night in arena.  Went 5-1 before we called it a night.  0 concecrates. 0 equalities.  We ended up getting lots of sticky minions (creeper, minibot, harvest golem), 1 muster, 1 quartermaster and some other cards that play nicely with that.  So you don't need to have consecration to go, you just have to be careful with your decisions and trade favorably for yourself.

BTW, sword of justice + muster is pretty sweet.  SoJ procs before it is replaced with the 1/4. 

For the record, our loss came to a mage.  We played around a flamestrike, had to push after since we were running low on cards and he followed it up before lethal turn with another flamestrike.  Which sucked.  A lot.