Hearthpwn

Fair point but CoC is an even bigger heal if it freezes more than 8 damage and it synergizes with Doomsayer.

I always found Ice Barrier to be clunky in the hand and anti-synergy with your card draw. Give it a try! I'm really happy to see it gone and Standard isn't even here yet.

I've been experimenting with options. When you drop mad sci, you can also drop ice barrier. This gives 4 slots which is quite a lot.

My list puts in x2 Cone of Cold and x2 Forgotten Torch for Mad Scientist and Ice Barrier.

It has such insane burn and you can always control the board with your spells and stall for ages until you reach your win conditions.

Yep the Classic legendaries will be core now because they never leave the Standard format.

I think Sylvanas, Ragnaros and possibly Cairne are going to see a lot more play again. The ones that are strong now will also be strong in Standard (Alex, Ysera, Antonidas, Grom).

I know this board is full of legend players but today I got to Rank 5 for the first time! 

I've been playing Hearthstone for 4 months, and it took me 759 wins to hit the top %2 of all players.

For you pros out there, how many wins did you earn before hitting legend rank?!

Hearthstone Strategy

Tempo vs Value

Many articles have been written about Value™ and Tempo™. But most other articles have side stepped the definition of these concepts and tried to replace it with hypothetical situations or anecdotes. So how do we define value? And how do we define tempo?

Value: A definition

Value most simply refers to your ability to put down cards onto the board and how much power those cards create to affect the board state. This can usually be translated into a number. For example in Hearthstone, an opponent with 10 mana available and 4 cards will have at approximately 40 face value available to play. The player can only make an educated guess as to the opponent’s value in hand, but much can be deducted by knowing the matchup and the approximate decklist of the opponent.

The player knows their own hand value much better than their opponent’s. If a Hunter has a starting hand of Webspinner, Mad Scientist, Eaglehorn Bow then the hand value breaks down as follows:

Webspinner= 1 Body + 1 (Webspinner) to 8 (King Krush) Deathrattle Value

Mad Scientist = 2 Body + 2 Deathrattle Value

Eaglehorn Bow = 3 Weapon + 0, 1 or more Proc charges

As you can see, due to the RNG factor there will still be unknown information about your own hand value. Another example of uncertain value would be a situational card (aka tech card) such as Kezan Mystic or Ironbeak Owl. Even the Body value can be uncertain, such as the case of Twilight Drake.

Within the game of Hearthstone, players compete for value in the deck, the hand, and on the board. Value can be thought of as the supply chain of the player.

If the board state is even, it is more important to consider how much value can be put down per turn, rather than simply the total value in the hand or deck. A late game Control Warrior will be able to put down more value over the opponent who has a hand full of 4 drops and 5 drops. A player who is winning the value game will simply be able to put down more powerful cards each turn until they win the game. 

Tempo: A definition

Tempo refers to your ability to trade card-for-card with your opponent and come out with a positive board state (aka trading well). Since each player has the same number of cards in the deck, the tempo on turn 1 is even. Tempo is tricky to define because it actually happens in 3 places: the board, the hand, and the deck.

Board tempo means that you have a more powerful board state than your opponent (aka winning the board).

Hand tempo means that you have a card advantage over your opponent.

Deck tempo isn't really important in most games, but the player with Deck tempo is the person who is furthest from fatigue or in other words will win if the decks run out of cards. This is a critical win condition for some Control decks and also the Mill deck.

A player who is winning the tempo game is aggressively creating a positive board state and wins the game by pushing for lethal at a greater rate than the opponent can stop it. Winning by tempo can mean that you and your opponent have relatively full hands and many cards remaining in the deck, however it can also come down to the last card in the hand and simply having the last bit of damage to win. 

Summary

Value™ and Tempo™ are valuable concepts in Hearthstone and many other collectible card games. Value can be thought of as the “supply” of board power and it is important to keep in mind how big your value hose is. Tempo can be thought of as the “demand” or usage of board power and the subsequent improvement to your board state. Understanding how to create both value and tempo advantages will increase your win rates and keep you climbing the ladder!

 This could be a big mistake to play early and get a bunch of 8+ mana cards in your hand!

I keep 1 faceless manipulator in my dragon priest in order to do a similar thing (answer a big card from the opponent). Entomb is better in some situations but worse in others. Gonna try swapping Entomb in for the faceless.

Use it on the coldlight oracle to get extra draw so you can get through to the map

I personally don't keep it. The card is more valuable in the late game to take out a high HP minion (like with shieldmaiden + shield slam combo)

I crafted x2 doomsayer and x1 iceblock 3 days ago for freeze mage....

It is BY FAR the most fun to play deck I have ever played. Win or lose, almost every single game is close until the last two turns. When you need both iceblocks and still manage to pull off your combo against a massive board it feels SO GOOD because you know how frustrated the opponent must be :P

I crafted 1 iceblock and 2 doomsayer for this deck last night. I'm 2-0 and both wins involved pyroblast in the last 2 turns. The best case is to get 2 iceblock so that you can pyroblast and then fireball + fireball to finish

how do you feel about azure drake for thalnos?

same card draw and spell dmg, but with a stronger minion

This is pretty much my deck:

The faerie dragon is my budget replacement for twilight whelp, which I haven't bothered to complete the challenge yet :P And azure drake is sub for second twilight guardian which I dont have.

 My strategy so far has been to get the early agent or deathlord down and buff + heal it through multiple drops. So I found SW:P extremely helpful even on turn 4 or 5 (SW:P + heal, shield, naaru, velens, etc). 

The curve seems very inconsistent (so many 1 copy) but when you have so many buff and heal you can upgrade your minions to fit the curve. And since they have such high HPs they are immune to so much removal.

I'm currently running 2 SW:P in my Dragon Priest deck and love it. There is almost always a value target in the first 4-5 turns. If I get two in my hand post-mulligan it also usually works out.

Mage: Flamewaker, cheap spell midget, water ele

Warrior: acolyte (for zero draw), belcher

Paladin: minibot, knife juggler

Warlock: imp gang boss

Druid: aspirant

I'm facing a lot of fast/aggro decks this week and a SW:P in the starting hand can cripple their tempo by taking out a key drop. Often in the best possible way (i.e. zero draw acolyte). So why is it not popular?