Hearthpwn

Quote from Bee >>

Quote from ababyduck >>

I feel like you're not understanding my point.  They are uncertain because there is a cap after which it is impossible to know what the best play is.  That cap is pretty easy to reach, again in my opinion, which you are free to disagree with.  If you know the deck you're up against (which is probably a good 90-95% of matchups unless you're new), you know they could have counters x y and z to your possible plays.  Just because you do the best play assuming (hoping) they don't have Z and they end up having it, that's not a misplay.  You can never play around literally everything, and the only way you can know for certain what they have is when fatigue starts playing a role.

It also doesn't particularly matter if you make minor misplays here and there.  If you watch these streamers you will see that sometimes their opponents make absolutely braindead plays the whole game and still win.  Maybe they won't stay in high legend or get there consistently, but they do get there.

Anyway, I stick by my point that if you want to improve as a player, you are better off trying to improve your focus/discipline first, then start thinking about skill once you have that mastered.  Skill is meaningless if you're too drunk/mad to think.

 

I'm arguing that it's extremely hard to accurately play around X card vs Y card. It can be very difficult to make the perfect play based on the odds of your opponent having a specific card. Playing around a card that your opponent very likely does not have in his hand could be a misplay or could be a safe play that increases your changes of winning, so which one is it ? See what I mean, making the best decision based off the odds is difficult.

 Agree with this honestly. And also the most difficult decisions imo are those situations when you have to decide not play around Brawl for example because you cannot beat that card anyway, so you just ignore it and hope for the best. I find that most of the players (even legend players) don't do this right sometimes. A game of Hearthstone can have so many slightly different lines of play that can make a difference between winning and losing the game. Then of course sometimes people just play badly and win anyway because sometimes you just need to drag minions to the face :P

Is it? Rogue often shines at the start of rotation because it has insane classic and basic cards (prep, eviscerate, fan, cold blood, backstab, si7, Edwin) but it will cool off a bit in the next few weeks. I do agree Rogue is super tier 1 atm with Warrior close 2nd but I don't think they're as overpowered as for example Razakus Priest was or old cubelock.

If you really don't like playing against Warrior, there are many counters available now. Mech Hunter is pretty competitive and can win even against boom on 7. Mech paladin also beats warrior easily (but it's a bad deck against others). Then Rogue can beat any opponent honestly when they draw Myra's. Warrior also dies to extreme aggro sometimes and especially token druid which can soul of the forest you out of the game...

About rotating Preparation: you might have a point and I'm sure it is going to be done one day or another because it's such a strong card that it is always going to show up in most rogue decks and enables insane tempo plays but honestly right now it might be too big of a hit for Rogue. On the other hand nerfing Myra's (or rotating it) would be better because it would mean you can beat rogue if you run Valeera out of stuff (which now it's impossible).

After all these years I'm still very salty about oppos killing me with Leeroy for exact lethal dmg with me having lethal set up on board lol

Like many on the thread already stated, I think it's more about win percentage than rank. First time I hit legend it took me weeks of playing several hours a day (couple of years ago). Since then I've been hitting legend quite consistently and noticed that every month it was so much easier and faster than the month before. For me a good player is who can squeeze wins in games where most of the other players would lose and in doing so has f.e. 65% WR instead of 55% in certain MUs.

If I would have to pick a rank I'd say passing through rank 4-3 makes you a good player, legend makes you better player but finishing in top legend is so much more difficult than that. People in top 200 are usually a lot more challenging to win against than average legend player.

And to people saying it's just a matter of grinding, it really isn't... Try and play control warrior mirror matches in standard right now. I can easily win through resource management and picking the right time for tempo plays in lower ranks but it gets so much harder the higher you climb on ladder.

I agree that cubelock is a strong deck in wild in general but I think it gets crushed in this meta filled with Big Priest. I strongly advice Darkest Hour Warlock. The legendaries it plays are staples in wild and it is imo the strongest deck right now by far (good against aggro and can destroy any deck with the right draw). Be sure to play 2x Nerubian Unraveler to get the Priests out there ;)

I'm shocked to say this as a long time mtg player but I really prefer HS. The laddering experience just feels way better: there are lots of decks viable (at least in standard) as of now and it feels like every game can swing consistently based on the route you take. MTGA ranked on the other hand is not as fresh (the game now has only a few decks you can reach mythic with: mono R, white weenie, drakes, Golgari and Jeskai Control.

What I enjoy most about MTGA is drafting and it feels like the game economy is so much better and more rewarding than HS. I think having such a strong competitor will only make both games better :)

I'd stick to Hybrid Hunter (without Dire Frenzy plz), Odd Paladin and Control Priest for the legend climb choosing which one to play depending on the meta you find in your region and in the rank you're in.

Hit legend yesterday mostly with Odd Pally (and some Hybrid Hunter). It's incredible how strong the Odd paladin deck is in this meta and yet in my climb from 4 to legend didn't face any mirror. Had almost 80% WR with paladin this season!

Seems like everybody's playing hunter out there... So it's good times for Uther and his friends Genn and Baku ;)

Yesterday I went from rank 3 to legend with Odd Pally sth like 20-9. Meta now is mostly Even Shaman with other common decks being Odd Rogue, Odd Pally, Warlocks (Reno and Cube) and Big Priest. Haven't seen any other class really :P

With 10 mana: Aviana + Kun (refresh mana crystals) then you have to play at least Medivh + Star Aligner for 7 dmg. The full combo is Medivh + Brann Bronzebeard + Star Aligner + Star Aligner + Brewmaster (bounce Aligner and play it again) then when you have a full board you can kill brewmaster with Spellstone and play another Brewmaster + Aligner for a grand total of 56 dmg.

Edit: of course you can avoid the brewmaster part and do 28 dmg to every enemy or play just 1 brewmaster and do 42

Quote from teknician >>

I really think the problem is Aviana + Kun in the first place. The interaction between these cards introduced and made possible every single Druid combo deck. It's kind of boring that Druids generally don't have/play other combo enablers.

That said, Psychmelon makes it extremely consistent and Star Aligner makes it easier to achieve than a Malygos combo.

 This. Isn't it the same to be destroyed by Star Aligner or by Togg + Azalina? I get that it feels frustrating to be on the other side of those kind of combos but I don't think it's uncounterable by any means. I played this deck last day of the season and I actually lost quite a bit to Warlocks: if they burn Aviana or Kun it's really difficult to find a win, if they rat one of those and then kill it, it's pretty over as well.

I think sometimes people are playing wrong against Star Aligner. People with Jade Druid tried to race instead of just armoring up with Branching Paths... The games I found most of the difficulties were against Warrior: they armor up to a billion and you have to go for something like play Medivh and hope Atiesh brings good stuff with Plagues and Nourish. Oh, and the deck can really be smashed by aggro (considering of course you don't have the nuts). Secret Mage destroyed me a couple of times with well timed Explosive Runes, so I could just try to combo or die to burn but Aviana is really bad against that secret :P One of the ways you can actually win is just knowing which cards you cannot play around: for instance, as Paladin you can never beat plague so just max pressure and hope I guess.  :P

So... the deck is tier 1 (probably a bit better than other tier 1 decks actually) but is by no means uncounterable. 

Everything you said about Taunt Druid is very true, but I'd say knowing how to play the deck increases its strength by a lot in the very unfavorable match-ups. For example a couple of seasons ago if you played well you could easily beat warrior even after they played Corned Sentry (that gives you 1 out of 4 to resummon Hadronox with Witching Hour). I mean, the only fun part of this deck is trying to win the 10% games (for example against Shudderwock or Big Spell Mage) where you can maybe find some alternative lines of play. In most of the games is just ramp to 9, play Oakheart, win.

Maly Druid is just more fun overall and more powerful also and it feels very rewarding at times so I went with this deck as well :P

Personally I wouldn't bring Secret Hunter (I agree it can be fast against control but it lacks consistency imo). Egg Hunter seems a better deck for your lineup.

So I think now the standard lineup possibilities are the following:

- Bring control: sth like Odd Warrior, some kind of druid and probably Evenlock or some control Priest

- Bring anti-control: I would go with Quest Rogue, Shudderwock Shaman and Togg Druid or maybe swap one of those with Egg Hunter

- Bring Aggro: Zoo + Odd Rogue + probably Token Druid

Having said that, I really like to bring two strong ban-worthy decks in a lineup so right now I would go for something like Quest Rogue + Token Druid + another deck you like that can be Cubelock or Hunter or whatever.

Banning Druid with your lineup seems good to me. But what do you do if the oppo brings like Odd Warrior + Druid + Evenlock? Because they will ban your hunter and you'll end up with some bad matchups anyway. That's why I like bringing Token Druid in this format: it seems to be the deck that has less polarizing match-ups leaving you the possibility to beat whatever. So if you're sure to bring anti-control I think you've got to play Druid 100% + maybe Rogue (odd or quest, up to you) and Egg Hunter/Shudderwock

Thanks a lot guys for all the advice! I haven't used that Giggling + Brewmaster infinite loop a lot and I will for sure try it out more often.

Also is there any way to beat secret mage with this deck? Their secrets are just too much for really anything you can do

I really like Voidling! The idea to skip your draw in warlock looks an interesting design since you're getting a big minion on board but you have to lose 2 mana and 2 life to life tap if you need some more fuel.

All the other cards are also really interesting! Good job and good luck for your project!