Hearthpwn

Yeah, CC is beyond ridiculous and frustrating to play against in arena. Let any 5+ drop stick and it's basically game over. This should get the Mind Control Tech treatment.

Quote from GoddamnitDontShootMe >>

 When I try to spend my mana, I almost always end up in a situation where I have only one card in my hand while my opponent has like five. That never goes well for me. Especially in later turns if I just have a bunch of cheaper cards in my hand.

Game 1:

• Guess I thought the minion I got might be more helpful than the potion.
• I can only assume I didn't play Kalec because my brain temporarily shut off. I could've immediately used that Frostbolt for free, couldn't I?
• Second time I didn't play Kalecgos I could only have been thinking that drawing an extra card is good. I suppose discovering a card is likely just as good.

Game 2:

• I was probably thinking I could get something better because I didn't have any secrets in my hand, and I thought Scribe was just that good.
• I suppose I was thinking an extra Jeweler would be good, and that I could deal with the minion next turn because it was frozen.
• Should I have used the Fireball against the Ettin? I thought it would be a waste of 6 damage when he only had 3 health.
• I could only have been thinking I needed to get rid of that 5 attack minion now.

Game 3:

• Ping what? My Twilight Summoner?
• I straight up didn't think it through on t7.
• I suppose I just spent 5 mana to not even kill a 4 mana minion. Would ping, then trade Soldier of Fortune next turn have been a good play?
• I think I have a problem with not thinking about what might come later. It might've been too late to win, but I think I would've been in better shape had I saved the Frostbolt for the Lifedrinker.

Anything I skipped over is because I simply wasn't thinking properly. As you might've noticed almost every single game ends with me having an empty hand while my opponent has a bunch of cards. How do I avoid this?

 Game 1:

• What's important is not the card you get in this situation, but the stats on the board. A 3/3 is better than a 3/2 while using all of your mana, so you should play it instead of the inefficient Raven.
• Kalecgos can get you a board clear. Remember that the card you discover is also affected by the mana discount.

Game 2:

• A 3 mana 4/3 is fine, you don't need to play it with a secret. Secrets suck for Mage btw., you should not pick them most of the time because they are overbucketed.
• The Banker effect is irrelevant for arena, it does not affect your board or hand so you should treat it as a 2 mana 2/2.
• Why would you need to use Fireball at all in this situation? You could just play Summoner + Apprentice, then wait a turn. Sometimes it's better to build your board and wait to allow for better trades.

Game 3:

• t6 ping the Ooze, then trade into it with the Twilight Summoner.
• t7 Twilight Flamecaller is a good play here alongside Soldier of Fortune.

Arena is primarily a game of tempo, that is developing your ressources from your hand as quickly and as efficiently as possible onto your board. In general, you want to maximize the stats you play every turn with all your mana. The reason why this is so crucial for arena is because with board control you can be the one to dictate the trades, providing you with initiative. In comparison to constructed you have fewer opportunities to flip the board (e.g. with a board clear), so maintaining an edge over your opponent with favorable trades is very important.

Take the time you need to evaluate your possible plays and which combination of cards has the highest amount of net stats. Think about how your board looks like for each possible play. As I've said earlier, the reason why your opponents outvalue you is because you make poor trades and do not use your removals efficiently (like using burn spells on the opp. face when you should instead fight for the board).

 You're floating a lot of mana for no reason. Try to use all of your available mana whenever possible. You're also not trading or using your removal efficiently and you're going face when you shouldn't. I suggest it's best you watch some arena streamers (Educated Collins, shadybunny, sunglitters, Kripparian etc.) for a while before playing another run to learn about concepts like tempo, when to trade vs when to go face, making good trades etc.

Run 1, Game 1:

• keep Kirin Tor in your Mulligan
• t4 you float 1 mana, why not play Chemist?
• t7 I'd trade here to protect vs Flamestrike. You do not need to race your opponent at this point. Also play Naga Corsair instead of the Chemist for better tempo.
• t10 Why not play Kalecgos?
• t11 Why not play Kalecgos?

Run 1, Game 2:

• Why do you keep Scribe, but mulligan away your 3-Drop?
• t4 Frostbolt+Ping would have been much better, allowing you to coin Scribe next turn
• t7 ??? You are not in the position to go face with the Fireball, you still need to fight for the board at this point
• t8 Faceless Summoner 

Run 1, Game 3:

• t4 Why not Frostbolt + Ping? You use a 4 mana minion to remove a 2-drop with the play you're doing.
• t6 Ping instead of Banker
• t7 Why do you ping if you have Flamecaller?
• t8 Why do you trade here?
• t9 You should not use Burn spells on your opponent's face unless you have a specific game plan in mind for that to work

Tempostorm (Tachii) has a great guide/report for this arena meta: 

If you need more specific help, I suggest you post some replays of your games with Hearthstone Deck Tracker and/or your drafts with Heartharena/Overwolf.

Hunter is strong, but I wouldn't say oppressive. I'd rather face a Hunter than a Mage who just autowins on the board with Conjurer's Calling. The only consistent way to cope with this BS is to draft a highly aggressive Rogue/Hunter/Druid and to kill them before they get their unbeatable combo off.

I've given up on drafts that resemble anything like control in this meta. Too many swingy cards/combos late game that make it difficult to really outvalue your opponent.

Rogue, Hunter and Warlock, it heavily depends on your playstyle though. Faced a lot of Rogues who drafted way too top-heavy. You won't outvalue Priests or Warlocks, so you need to kill them quickly...when drafted correctly Rogue is still pretty broken imo even without lackeys (11.6 avg after 7 Rogue runs this month). Hunter also does a good job of countering Warlocks and I often give up the board in the transition to late game in order to push face damage. Priest is pretty decent as well, but more dependent on card quality. Mage kinda sucks atm imo and often relies on Conjurer's Calling to win.

Had five consecutive 12-win runs in a row beating my old record (three 12s in a row). Got a really nice streak for this month now!

12, 8, 8, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12

Sorry for bragging :P

I'm doing fine in this meta with a heavy tempo/aggro approach (9.6 with Hunter, 8.8 with Rogue, 7.2 overall since the Rogue adjustment). Like nabybro wrote, Hunter is exceptionally strong right now especially for countering Warlocks. Drafted some valuedecks as well but they don't do well consistently in my experience due to comparatively low comeback possibilities in this arena meta. Once you lose the board, it's usually game over and this feels particularly soul-crushing for the loser in some games where you feel absolutely helpless playing from behind, especially when going 2nd.

Some advice: Don't keep your low statted card generators in your mulligan guys (I've seen this in a lot of games) or you'll just get run over. Don't draft high drops unless they immediately impact the board and even then, they are not great. I've found Burly Shovelfist to be too slow for most of my drafts.

Quote from Tamika_Olivia >>

If anything, this topic kinda proves that many people who play video games do not understand the existence of non-zero sum games. The amount of people who see others gaining something, at no cost to them, as a loss is depressing. Not because Hearthstone matters overmuch, but because you know they carry that zero sum attitude to other concepts.

Not very surprising, as shown e.g. in the ultimatum game. This seems to be more about 'fairness' rather than logic, but personally I agree with you. I also spent a lot of money and time in HS and wouldn't mind at all if they handed out the classic set for free to all players.

Quote from user-16377173 >>

Quote from sigtrent >>

 

 Handlock does work like that, u put a threat on board every turn. As i said, all pros will agree that it isnt a control deck and u will for sure lose alot more with it if u threat it like that. The name handlock is from an old deck that started back when there wasnt any expansions, the deck was a proactive deck that pushed alot of damage on the midgame, if u put alot of control cards in it, it will become a control deck, but it will no longer be able to carry the name handlock.

 Handlock is a control deck, it just plays more proactively against other conventional control decks like Control Warrior. Doomsayer, Shadowflame, Hellfire, Siphon Soul, Omega Agent, Lord Godfrey etc. are control cards. Or which lists are you referring to? I don't know where your claim "all pros will agree that it isn't a control deck" comes from, but I'm interested to hear the names of these pros.

Quote from AWildmann >>

I'll give the deck a try. I always liked the handlock playstyle, though I felt like the "usual" deck lists suffered a bit against the currenta meta, mainly Bomb Warrior, since you already spend life to draw and then get hit by 5. Quite punishing.

 When they get Dr Boom, Mad Genius out on t7 it's a tough matchup for sure, otherwise you can pressure them early enough with Mountain Giants (currently Warriors usually mulligan against zoo anyway). Hope you have as much success with the deck as I did.

Quote from nizouuuu >>

Are there any decent controllish Warlock lists yet? It was the first thing I tried to homebreed when the new exp came, but without any real success. The different handlock variations I've tried don't really seem to get anywhere either. The lack of a powerful finisher is a real problem. Sure there's Rafaam, but he's so random, while Jaraxxus is very vulnerable against aggressive decks.

 It's only R5, but I had great success with a Dragon Handlock build (79% WR from R15). You can use Omega Agent & Barista Lynchen as a finisher, but I don't think it's really necessary with aggro being prevalent atm.

I mostly enjoy the drafting, more than playing out the games actually and the introduction of the bucket system did make it quite interesting. Deckbuilding is more impactful than gameplay for arena, like having the right amount of removal, AoE, card draw, 3-drops etc. in your deck. If your deck is comparatively weak you need to adopt a riskier playstyle as you will likely not be able to outvalue opponents at higher wins. And even if you don't do well, by analyzing your draft properly you can learn a lot for your future runs. For me, that is the most fun part of arena, using that experience and game knowledge to construct the best deck possible against the current meta with the cards that are offered to me.

Honestly the gameplay part usually isn't all that complex or special, play on curve and around highly picked cards and you'll do fine.

Quote from InfiniteSadness >>

 

p.s. I got my 50 pre-order packs, and right now it feels like big mistake, also overpriced as hell.

 You can still cancel your preorder by contacting Blizzard support.

You have like 5-6 spells in an arena Mage deck on average and most of those tend to be high in mana cost (Blast Wave, Flamestrike, Blizzard e.g.). Shimmering Tempest can be dropped on curve, this cannot and the situations where you can combine this card with more than one spell should be very rare unless you're saving the coin. Shimmering Tempest imo is much better than this as it is not a conditional card and we know that conditional cards do not perform that well in arena for the most part. Mana Cyclone I'd guess is more around average power level.

"Granted you can't play this on 2 mana like you can Tempest but that's literally the only downside."

That's a very significant downside for arena...