Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Yeah, I definitely don't want to overplay it and lose the appeal, so I'm not playing too much of it either.

Arena is fun though. But then, I like drafting in Magic in as well...

Double post because I'm needy.

Does anyone else stack up quests like I do and hope for overlaps before knocking them off?

Yes, stacking up quests makes them complete quite a bit faster. My problem is that I have to level up the classes that some of the quests are for before jumping into Play mode. I just got through building a Shaman deck, and even managed a couple of wins with it. It's a little problematic in that I don't really have a lot of draw options, so I'm reliant on totem spam to supplement my hand. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Either I have a field full of highly buffed minions against my opponent's empty field or I'm helpless before my opponent's onslaught of minions.

I got crushed the other day by a Valeera player stacking 2x Deadly Poison on a 3/3 weapon and slicing me into ribbons. She used her minions to pop all my Taunt minions while she attacked me directly. It was horrible.

edited 11th Nov '13 8:19:58 AM by Fighteer

I actually leveled up most of my classes while in ranked play mode. It can be frustrating to not have all your basic tools, but the wins are even more satisfying.

Yeah, that's what I'm doing too. Mage is the only one I'm playing outside of quests and arena though (needs more Goldens!).

I hear ya! Playing anything other than my Mage or Shaman is fairly painful (mostly because I have no idea what direction I want to take those decks so they end up being poor facsimiles of my Mage or Shaman deck).

I'm starting to like my Paladin deck better than my Mage deck. So much healing and minion buffage!

As a start, think of a gimmick, then build your deck around it.

Not many cards for some gimmicks yet! Soon, soon...

Got the beta key for this a week ago, but only downloaded it last night. Playing my mage deck for now, I've just completed my fifth "play" match and completed the quest for 3 play matches.

The matches went...

vs Warlock - Lost with the Lock still having 19 health. Didn't do too well, and decided to make my own deck rather than use the default.

vs Priest - Nearly won! I had Anduin down to 4 HP, with 3 powerful minions on my side and 19 HP of my own. Next turn, mind control, lots of healing, 2 holy novas and shadow word: death over the next few turns, complete turn around. Felt so shitty after that. Still think the new deck is a huge improvement.

vs Shaman - Won this one, despite starting out with a hand of all 5-7 monsters (even after exchanging) I gained momentum pretty quickly and didn't have much trouble.

vs Priest - Completely dominated. Made me feel a bit better about my earlier Priest loss. Priests still have some really powerful spells though, so I didn't stop worrying about a possible turnabout until the end.

vs Hunter - Got stomped :/ Rexxar's beasts all had really good effects, and most of the battle I was unsure of what to do.

I got stomped by a Hunter deck last night, where he held off on Unleash the Hounds until very late in the game. He dropped a buzzard first, and then two dragonhawks and an Alpha, then hit Unleash and plowed right through my Images and Shieldmasta to kill me.

To top it off, he was on 10 and I had a Fireball and a Frostbolt in hand so I would have won next turn too. Awesome game.

Heh, I had a match with a Rogue last night that they very nearly turned around for them. They managed to take out my good minions, swarm the field with their own that I couldn't figure out how to get past with my own minions, but... they had 7 life left, and I had enough mana for Fireball AND Fireblast so on my next turn I decided to skip the bullshit and just KO with those.

A substantial number of my games end with double Fireball to the face.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Oh, fuck me. Priest decks synergise with Gurubashi Berserker far too well. Lesser heals every turn, Divine Shield, Power Word: Shield, etc. Another complete turnaround.

Put one in your mage deck. Zap it with your fireblast every turn. It'll rock someone's world. Raging Worgen too.

Whoa. Didn't even think of that, will do!

Finally got into the beta, so I've been playing this over the past couple days.

As someone who played a LOT of Magic before getting this: they did a dang good job. I approve. Also, the inner Black planeswalker in me enjoys my warlock deck far too much. The downsides are not nearly bad enough to balance the power of some of their spells.

For example, Soulfire. Really? One discard for 4 damage and 0 mana? I've abused that card so much...

Edit: Also, I knew it! When I first saw Soulfire, I thought to myself "That looks an awful lot like a Magic illustration..."

Turns out the illustrator was Raymond Swanland, aka one of the most respected artists employed by Wizards. Blizzard, you have good taste.

edited 16th Nov '13 10:24:07 PM by Funden

Swanland is a freelancer/contractor, like most artists these days!

Love his style too! This edition's Codex: Dark Angels and Codex: Space Marines are my favourite covers, and all his Magic and World Of Warcraft TCG art is awesome too.

I understand that he's a freelancer. I was more pointing out that he's no stranger to card illustrations, and I'm glad that Blizzard recognizes that.

Indeed. I think I first noticed his work with Blizzard when he did some World Of Warcraft card art◊ and I thought, "Why is Banefire◊ in World Of Warcraft?"

He's super awesome. Came so close to getting my Codex signed by him too...

Aww =/

Yeah, he's definitely one of my favorite artists. I love the contrast in his style: lots of darkness juxtaposed with bursts of light. They look so awesome.

Yeah, and when he does jagged edges, he does JAGGED EDGES, you know?

There's something real savage about a lot of the pieces he does (not the Codex covers, but Alexstrasza and Deathwing◊, for example).

That... is really cool. Reminds me of Caldera Hellion and Predator Dragon.

He really likes fire...

Edit: I never realized that he illustrated my Wurmcoil Engine, as well. Another spikey, glowy creature for you.

edited 17th Nov '13 7:46:16 PM by Funden

Yup! So, so spiky! Amusingly, he did both versions of Wurmcoil and the Wurmcoil tokens. It's pretty awesome.

And Nightblade. Mmmm Nightblade. With her smexy, smexy Bonescythe battlegear...

It's too bad she keeps getting cut for cards that fit the vision of my decks better (she's always in there when I start a new deck though!).

So, onto an actual topic: I love Arena. I love any sort of draft style mechanic, and Hearthstone's is very well done.

Unless you get 3 crappy heroes. Then it sucks.

Also, Truesilver Champion is the best card ever. Hits like a truck and heals you to boot? I've won so many games with that card.

Agreed, I also thoroughly enjoy Arena. Especially with 'from nowhere' wins, like:

• Opponent is on 12 health, and he gives me my turn after he attacks and puts me down to 3. I have no cards in hand, and an Enraged Worgen on the table with no damage (all his minions can kill the Worgen if I attack them). I considered conceding at the end of his turn, but figure what the hell, why not draw my card. I draw a Wrath. I ping my Worgen for 1 and draw my card. Dark Iron Dwarf. I play it and it's "Well-played!" from there.
• Opponent (rogue) is on 18 and has a couple high-Attack things on the board, I have a Lord of the Arena out and I'm stalling for a blowout turn since I have Force of Nature and Stampeding Roar in hand (which will happen next turn, as I still have the Coin). To my awesome fortune, my opponent decides not to trade both his minions for my Lord, and instead uses one creature and himself, ending his turn on 12. He hits the "Well-played!" when my Roar goes off on my treants.
• An opponent conceded when his Avenging Wrath hit my Gurubashi Berserker as much as possible without killing it.