Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Top play of the night. Me on Priest vs. Hunter. I've got a sizable board and health advantage, with a (silenced) Cleric, an ooze from a Sludge Belcher, and Kel'Thuzad. My opponent copies my Kel'Thuzad with a Faceless, then plays Unleash the Hounds. Clever, as all the hounds come back. Well, it's still a desperation play, but it's clever nonetheless.

He's on the ropes, but I want to have some fun. I kill the three Hounds with the three minions I have on the board, then play Sylvanas and kill her with Shadow Word: Death. Result, I have two copies of Kel'Thuzad, and they each resummon my Sylvanas. My opponent surrenders.

He didn't play the game very well, but that's not the point. It's the double-KT, double-Sylvanas that deserves a highlight.

Edit: Screencap◊

edited 18th Sep '14 3:27:30 PM by Fighteer

Probably afraid of the inevitable double Mind Blast. Even if it's not exactly likely, I think it makes some sense to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

I dunno, Deathrattle Priest doesn't even play Mindblast. TBH, I would have been more scared of the wombo combo dombo, and I only had two cards in hand.

So I played Baron Rivendare and a Sludge Belcher with a Stalagg already out and passed the turn. My opponent plays Ragnaros (which hits me), passes back. I drop a Kel'thuzad and start doing stupid stuff. It was nice.

How do they know what you have in your deck? They can't assume that you're a copy-paste netdeck or anything. For reference, I meant "inevitable" sarcastically.

I mean, it makes it much less likely, but like I said it's sort of reasonable to assume a worst case scenario and avoid that. If there is a very real chance of dying immediately on the next turn, it should be avoided however possible.

edited 17th Sep '14 9:17:45 PM by Clarste

That feeling when you believe Ragnaros is the very last card in your deck, and you deliberately trigger a Pyromancer + Circle of Healing combo to get to those very last cards, and then have it confirmed, and win with it...

Since he was playing a textbook example of control warrior (down to the epics/legendaries), I would expect him to be up to date on the meta. There are very few non-deathrattle priest decks in the higher rankings these days.

I'm not sure how "up-to-date" you can possibly expect someone to be if they don't know what the new Naxx cards do.

Neither Feugan or Stalagg see a ton of play. It's possible that they've never run into Thaddeus before.

So clearly your deck was already something abnormal from the opponent's perspective...? You're contradicting yourself.

edited 17th Sep '14 9:52:40 PM by Clarste

No.

The priest deck is well known. Running Feugen and Stalagg is a bit less known, but still fairly popular. It's very probable that he has run into my deck archetype before (which is almost entirely identical except for the subbing out of two Harvest Golems for Feugen and Stalagg), just likely not without those two creatures.

It's almost like a deck with only two different cards is basically the same deck.

...and he knows you didn't replace another two cards with Mind Blast how? Maybe your position is reasonable, in that people generally make only minor tweaks instead of major ones, and quite frankly I can't see any reason to put Mind Blast in that kind of priest deck, but you're never sure. Is it statistically a bad move to act based on it? Sure, why not, but that doesn't mean it's always irrational to act based on a fear. I mean, how would he feel if he had used Alex on you and then died next turn from direct spell damage? It'd feel pretty embarrassing/horrible.

Anyway, my point was simply that there is a reason to want to avoid being in any sort of kill range, whether or not it's rational. Anything could happen from his perspective, and while you know exactly what's in your deck, it's impossible for him to know, so blaming him for not knowing is sort of silly. Ultimately a card game is about probabilities, so there is a right answer statistically, but that right answer isn't always right game to game. Sometimes going with your gut pays off, sometimes it doesn't.

edited 17th Sep '14 10:50:08 PM by Clarste

That moment when you squeak by with a win against all odds.

Playing against another control warrior. I have a spider, argent squire and harvest golem on the field. He has a Rag, which just saved his ass from getting killed by a doom guard. In my hand, I have a Leeroy, but with his armor it puts me one off from lethal. I'm at 7 and thanking god for the fact that his Rag shot my Doom Guard instead of my face.

I draw, get nothing good. Life tap, get a soulfire. Thank you, based RNG.

I love it when I get 2x 60g quests that include the same class (Shaman, in this case). I love it more when my next two quests are also 2x 60 quests that include the same class: Hunter. I guess I'll take advantage of that while the class is still viable.

Also, have you guys seen this blog post on battle.net? It breaks down how much of the player base is at least a certain rank. Quite interesting. If you rank 15 or higher, you belong to the top 25% of the player base.

Apparently I'm in the top 5%. Aww yeah

So, will anyone be switching decks with the nerfs tomorrow? I'm considering playing some more Handlock, now that Hunters probably won't be the most common matchup.

I play one deck of every class, this nerf probably means I'll be playing less Hunter and more Warlock (as I only play Handlock for Warlock, never Zoo). Warlock is now my least played class. It doesn't help that it doesn't give cool level up rewards at my current level (Priest and Mage also have this problem), unlike Rogue (Backstab), Druid (Innervate), Shaman (Rockbiter) and to a lesser extent Paladin (I'm two Light's Justices away from Truesilver Champion and I love golden weapons, part of the reason my Warrior is 60.)

I was saving dust to craft Leeroy before the nerf.

... I still am. It's a very good card anyway!

Leeroy will be pretty much irrelevant after the nerf, I certainly wouldn't craft it. I don't think it's auto-DE material when the 2 weeks are over, but there's legendaries you should craft way before you craft the nerfed Leeroy (unlike pre-nerf Leeroy which was the best legendary and the first one you should craft). It's like Prophet Velen or something, nice to have, worth more as a card than as 400 dust but unusable in most decks.

I've seen Hunter decks work without Vulture — they still have great card synergy, but they are going to be much weaker than before. I also have one deck of every class, although Mage is probably my least played. I should get around to making a secret-focused Mage deck soon.

I suspect that, once players get over their outrage at the nerf, Leeroy will continue to fill the role of a midrange Charge minion used to finish off the opponent; after all, it's still strictly better in stats than a Reckless Rocketeer.

edited 22nd Sep '14 5:35:04 AM by Fighteer

It still works in midrange, but kills combo kills (which I am absolutely fine with).

Leeroy does still work for the Shaman combo of Ancestral Spirit + Reincarnate though. *coughnerfancestralspiritcough*

You can't do double AS, though. I've suggested making Reincarnate cost 3 mana but that probably won't happen unless we see Shaman dominating ladder with crazy minion-copying decks.

Old: Leeroy + Ancestral Spirit x2 + Reincarnate = 24 damage, 10 mana, 4 cards.
New: Leeroy + Ancestral Spirit + Reincarnate = 18 damage, 9 mana, 3 cards.

You can gimmick it by adding a Rockbiter Weapon or having an existing Flametongue Totem or Baron Rivendare, of course, but I don't think Blizzard is highly concerned about it.

Anyway, Rogue can still do insane burst with Leeroy, Cold Blood x2, Shadowstep, Leeroy — that's 20 damage. Then double Preparation + Eviscerate = 28 damage.

edited 22nd Sep '14 8:43:44 AM by Fighteer

That requires an almost perfect draw, though. As a Miracle player, I almost never got hands like that.

The problem with Miracle is that it's noninteractive for the opponent. You sit there and wait while they cycle through their cards with their Auctioneer, wondering if you're going to get a chance to do anything before you die. Not fun. At least this lowers the threshold of health you need to reliably avoid being instagibbed.

Most other classes require at least some board presence to pull off their "I kill you and there's nothing you can do about it" combo.

I tried to make a Miracle Priest deck with Auctioneer, Stormwind Knight, and DS/PWS/IF, but it's almost impossible to survive long enough to make it work.

Edit: I just realized that Warlocks could still get Leeroy + Power + Faceless to work with.... a Summoning Portal! Double Faceless, even. 30 damage burst. Nerf Warlocks.

edited 22nd Sep '14 8:53:26 AM by Fighteer

Ew, who plays summoning portal?