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Hearthstone | Posted by | 6 years, 9 months ago
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[Game] Deck Doctor Challenge!

"The question in each and every thing, 'Do you want this again and innumerable times again?'..."
- Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, 1882

Hi everyone,

The "specter of infinite monotony" threatens many of life's pleasures and sadly Hearthstone is no exception.  So why not spice up your HS experience with a new deck to master/improve every week on your journey to legend?!

The game is simple, each week someone (likely me) will post the deck picked by Firebat for his YouTube show Deck Doctor.  Your job will be to take Firebat's place!

  1. Copy the original list and take it for a test drive on ladder.
    • Leave comments on your reactions to the deck here!
  2. Make changes to the list and try, try, try again.
    • Only constraint is to preserve the soul of the original deck.
    • Although Firebat limits his changes to Standard, feel free to take your build in a Wild direction :)
  3. Upload your favorite version of your list here and tell us about your experience!

If there's interest, we could even hold a weekly competition to see who can climb the highest in both Standard and Wild with screenshots/replays uploaded and a leaderboard and all that jazz.

We could also expand the game so that people submit their own decks to be doctored by the OOC community!  (slowly morphing the thread into the deckbuilding challenge of old...and then my plan will be complete, muahahah ;D )

 

OK, enough of this small talk; doctor, you're needed in the OR, Stat!

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  • "The question in each and every thing, 'Do you want this again and innumerable times again?'..."
    - Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, 1882

    Hi everyone,

    The "specter of infinite monotony" threatens many of life's pleasures and sadly Hearthstone is no exception.  So why not spice up your HS experience with a new deck to master/improve every week on your journey to legend?!

    The game is simple, each week someone (likely me) will post the deck picked by Firebat for his YouTube show Deck Doctor.  Your job will be to take Firebat's place!

    1. Copy the original list and take it for a test drive on ladder.
      • Leave comments on your reactions to the deck here!
    2. Make changes to the list and try, try, try again.
      • Only constraint is to preserve the soul of the original deck.
      • Although Firebat limits his changes to Standard, feel free to take your build in a Wild direction :)
    3. Upload your favorite version of your list here and tell us about your experience!

    If there's interest, we could even hold a weekly competition to see who can climb the highest in both Standard and Wild with screenshots/replays uploaded and a leaderboard and all that jazz.

    We could also expand the game so that people submit their own decks to be doctored by the OOC community!  (slowly morphing the thread into the deckbuilding challenge of old...and then my plan will be complete, muahahah ;D )

     

    OK, enough of this small talk; doctor, you're needed in the OR, Stat!

  • Challenge #1

    We'll start things off with last week's episode featuring Slysssa's "Fun Shaman."  This is a Shudderwock Shaman that leverages Spirit of the Frog and a bunch of battlecries to control the board while you chip away and shuffle bombs into your opponent's deck.

    [Deck Doctor] Slysssa Fun Shaman

    Wild · Shudderwock Shaman · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 9 months ago

    13,960 Dust 864 0 Copy Deck Code

    Once we have a spoilers feature I'll include the alterations Firebat made in his final version, but to avoid bias I'll hold off for now.

  • Update 1:  Ended last night on a win streak at 12 and 1 star and have kept it going so far (10 and 1 star atm).  This is definitely not the strongest version of Control Shaman, but it's a ton of fun if you like generating value and adapting your gameplan around that value each match.  (P.S. Please excuse the n00b win total, haha...I told ya I don't play a lot of ladder didn't I ;D )

    DD Challenge 1(sorry, can't figure out how to embed a pic from imgur here...links above)

    Here's the list I tested out this evening.:

    Deck Doctor Challenge #1

    Wild · Shudderwock Shaman · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 9 months ago

    14,500 Dust 964 0 Copy Deck Code

    Changes and rationale:

    +1 Zap! - synergy with Thunderhead; draws Earth Shock when played with the frog


    +2 Doomsayer - anti-aggro; benefits from the ability to roll a taunt totem on Turn 4; synergizes with low tempo plays such as EVIL Cable Rat on T4 and Swampqueen Hagatha on T9; at the very least can generate some value if you draw it late and have played the Hagatha DK


    +2 EVIL Cable Rat - lackey generation and lackey battlecries are really fun with Shudderwock; the transforming lackey works great with Giggling Inventor or Shudderwock; the 1/1s generate spells after you play the Hagatha DK; and the 1/1s also feed Witch's Cauldron and serve as targets for spells like blood lust and the storm bringer


    +1 SN1P-SN4P - synergizes with Zilliax and Giggling Inventor; the 1/1s can feed your cauldron; playing the 2/3s as separate bodies generates great value after you play the Hagatha DK


    +1 Witch's Cauldron - I simply love playing with this card and there are a lot of tokens to generate value in this deck.  The other benefit of only running 1 Spirit of the Frog is that you can run fewer spells and still reap value which means you can run fewer/better spells.


    +1 Thunderhead - great stat line; synergizes with Zap!, Sludge Slurper, and Witch's Cauldron; plenty of potential to draw more overload spells through witch's cauldron, haunting visions, the spell generating lackey, and hagatha DK

    -1 Totemic Smash - liked Zap! better
    -1 Ancestral Spirit - liked getting valuefrom witch's cauldron
    -2 Lightning Storm - replaced with doomsayers because I wanted more 2-drops, minions in general are more valuable in Hagatha DK decks in case you draw them late; cutting a spell creates more consistency from the Frog in the 3-cost spot; and I've just never liked overloading for that much on T3 
    -1 Zentimo - don't own, tried replacing with Vargoth initially, ended up with SN1P-SN4P because he's OP
    -1 BGH - thunderhead replaced him to deal with wide boards (have 2 Hexes and the Earth Shock for big boys)
    -1 Unseen Saboteur - tried out Hecklebot with some success, but ended up cutting for an early-game minion in the form of cable rat
    -1 Walking Fountain - great card but didn't feel the need for 2 without ancestral spirit; cut for another cable rat

     

    I haven't played any ladder this month (and don't play much ranked in general), but I had a lot of fun going from 15 - 12 tonight.  The deck felt strong/had a high win rate, but it was a super small sample and I faced mainly control match-ups.

  • IMO, this would work a lot better on decks that Firebat didn't select.  I feel like that even if I didn't look at the video, I would make a lot of the same changes as he did on my own because they are just good changes.  It's hard to come up with stuff that's both good but not done already

    Maybe look at the submission tweet and pick something you like from there instead? 

  • Hey NightCrawler; nice to see you over here and thanks for the feedback!

    I had concerns that people wouldn't find it fun if they typically watch the video as soon as it's posted each week, but I wasn't sure how many people this would apply to.  However, you raise a different concern about not enjoying it even if you tested out your changes before watching the video which I hadn't thought about before.

    My guess is that our different reactions come from a difference in deckbuilding skill. For example, I'm not a great deckbuilder/player, so I actually view it as a positive that there's an "answer key" each week in the sense that I can watch Firebat's reasoning after making my changes and then update my beliefs about how to build that type of deck accordingly.  However, I can see how more experienced folks may find this boring as they'll probably land on the "correct" answer through trial-and-error testing anyway.  The other nice thing about not picking Firebat's selection is that nobody can make an appeal to authority and claim that their build is better (sans statistics) simply because it's closer to Firebat's (which could encourage more debate/voting on the best builds).

    The only counterpoints I can think of are that we're not limited to Standard like Firebat (though most of us will constrain ourselves to that format anyway so this isn't a strong argument) and even within Standard you sometimes see disagreement in the YT comments about Firebat's choices (that he didn't appreciate/recognize certain synergies and therefore cut "bad cards" too quickly, ended up changing the soul of the deck, etc.).  I guess a related counterpoint would be that the best build for Firebat to pilot may not necessarily be the best build for everyone else to pilot depending on your knowledge of the game/meta, comfort piloting the archetype, etc. (kind of like the argument the omni folks make that Cyclone Mage is the best deck when piloted by the best players, but often not the best choice for those of us in the lower ranks if we're not going to really study how to navigate it and gain a lot of XP).

    This was a long way of saying that I think you raise a good point! So how about a comprise where there are 2 weekly competitions - 1 based on the deck Firebat edits and 1 based on another submission? We could also expand the alternate deck to one submitted on Twitter OR 1 posted in the forums on OOC (if someone's looking for help on their deck). If anyone's interested in picking out the alternate selection each week just say the word! (I'll fill in on the weeks where nobody offers up a deck...let's see how long it takes to detect my Control Hunter bias ;P )

  • In the spirit of Nightcrawler's suggestion, here's a likely Non-Firebat Selection (NFS) from the most recent twitter post:

    Challenge #2 (NFS)

    This week's NFS pick is Kass's Mountseller Paladin!  

    The deck aims to highroll matches through Prismatic Lens and a limited minion pool.  My guess is you mulligan for the minions under 7-cost + Prismatic Lens and play only the secrets you need to control the board/activate your minions.  Playing Exotic Mountseller for 1 on Turn 5 followed by four 1-cost spells sounds like a lot of fun :)

    So this week's challenge is to build a deck that utilizes the synergy between Prismatic Lens + cheap spells + big minions (i.e. I'm claiming this is the soul of the deck).  You don't have to stick with Mountseller or the Secret package, but you are encouraged to play at least 1 game with the original deck, as is the Firebat tradition.

    Now get out there and build, build, build!

    [Deck Doctor] Kass's Mountseller Paladin

    Wild · Secret Paladin · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 8 months ago

    5,240 Dust 1,056 0 Copy Deck Code

  • Initial game: 

    • Very weak earlygame
    • Kept lens and highrolled into a mountseller
    • Got brawled
    • Topdecked secrets :(

    Initial changes:

    • Deck is has quite a few small minions (and not even vital ones) which leads me to believe prismatic lens might not be the main focus of the deck.  On the other hand "mountseller paladin" isn't a defining enough theme to build around by itself, so I'm just going to go with the lens theme.  Filling the board with a mountseller isn't very good anyway; those boards are answered by the same things that answer a mage's giant board, and those are popular right now.  Removed mountseller.  Removed Sea Giants because the deck doesn't go wide
    • Far too many secrets in the deck.  Some of them have negative synergy with one another.  Removed a bunch of them.  Added Repentance because mage.  Removed Sunreaver Spy because those don't even see play in normal secret paladin.  Also messes with the lens.  Bellringer dudes stay because they're decent and draw cards
    • Added Shrink Ray and cons to help us not die
    • Added Duel! as an experiment... we're playing big minions anyway.  May as well double dip the same build-around restrictions.  Hopefully I don't run into many mages lol
    • Added Gilnean Royal Guards, Mechano-Egg, Mechanical Whelp, Zilliax, Kangor's Endless Army and Shirvallah, the Tiger as the "big" stuff.  There's so few good big things in standard these days.  I wish I could put a Y'sharrj
    • This deck has little early development options and is extremely inconsistent in the early game.  Blessing of might and ring the bells goes in decks that have board consistently.  Since making the early game consistent is impossible with the lens synergy, I've removed the buffs.  Put blessing of might back because of synergy with Zilliax, royal guards and eggs

    Result

    • This is something that can output constant, sticky, threatening boards in the lategame but I'm still having a lot of issues surviving to that point.  Paladin spells really suck as control tools without small minions like wild pyromancer in the mix.  Paladin isn't warrior or priest, whose spells are good enough to keep you alive without the help of minions ... nor is it hunter or druid, who can summon minions through spells
    • Duel! is pretty cool, but it turns out it's not so good because literally everyone is better at cleaning up a single big thing than you.  Robosaur highrolls are getting cleaned up without much consequence but I'm stuck dealing with anything that doesn't die to a duel
    • I've added too many big spells to get the lens highroll off consistently.  Having no answer to giants in the current meta sounds like a bad idea though.  I don't know how to slim down the spells without making the deck worse against such things and aggro

    Moving forward

    • removing duels enable us to play things that would suck to get from lens, but won't lose us the game if dueled
    • -duel!; +wild pyromancers, +equality
    • Could revamp the big things package with cards like big bad archmage and ysera instead of mechs or oondasta and bears
    • Unfortunately, I don't have equalities.  RIP
    • Quote From NightCrawler

      Initial game: 

      • Very weak earlygame
      • Kept lens and highrolled into a mountseller
      • Got brawled
      • Topdecked secrets :(

      My initial game:

      • Went 1st, kept lens, got lens, mountseller, lens in opening hand :(
      • Don't own Tirion Fordring and replaced it with Jepetto Joybuzz
      • Got Jepetto from Lens and got a 1/1 mountseller for 1
      • Played mountseller and a bunch of cheap spells for a full board....mage counters with khadgar + giant + CC...a slightly better wide board, GG

      Initial changes:

      • Deck is has quite a few small minions (and not even vital ones) which leads me to believe prismatic lens might not be the main focus of the deck.  On the other hand "mountseller paladin" isn't a defining enough theme to build around by itself, so I'm just going to go with the lens theme.  Filling the board with a mountseller isn't very good anyway; those boards are answered by the same things that answer a mage's giant board, and those are popular right now.  Removed mountseller. 

      I thought your mountseller observation here was just excellent and it was something I hadn't considered when selecting the deck.  Really great deckbuilding insight that I'm going to try to be more mindful of when building and selecting decks!  :)

      • Removed Sea Giants because the deck doesn't go wide

      Agreed, I didn't find this card strong enough (to warrant the deck restrictions) even with a Prismatic Lens discount

      • Far too many secrets in the deck.  Some of them have negative synergy with one another.  Removed a bunch of them.  Added Repentance because mage.  Removed Sunreaver Spy because those don't even see play in normal secret paladin.  Also messes with the lens.  Bellringer dudes stay because they're decent and draw cards

      I was also surprised at some of the secret inclusions as well as the exclusions.  I liked the idea of including an early minion that had secret synergy, but I wanted a way to draw them early and ended up with Secretkeeper + Crystology in my final version.  I'd never played with the Bellringer dude before and agree that the card felt pretty decent/strong.

      • Added Shrink Ray and cons to help us not die
      • Added Duel! as an experiment... we're playing big minions anyway.  May as well double dip the same build-around restrictions.  Hopefully I don't run into many mages lol

      I really like Shrink Ray but I ended up going the OTK route and had to keep the spells small in my build.  Love that you tried making Duel! work and  that highlights one of things I loved about the old deckbuilding challenges on HP.

      • Added Gilnean Royal Guards, Mechano-Egg, Mechanical Whelp, Zilliax, Kangor's Endless Army and Shirvallah, the Tiger as the "big" stuff.  There's so few good big things in standard these days.  I wish I could put a Y'sharrj
      • This deck has little early development options and is extremely inconsistent in the early game.  Blessing of might and ring the bells goes in decks that have board consistently.  Since making the early game consistent is impossible with the lens synergy, I've removed the buffs.  Put blessing of might back because of synergy with Zilliax, royal guards and eggs

      I don't have Kangor's or Shirvallah, but all of those inclusions make a lot of sense.

      Result

      • This is something that can output constant, sticky, threatening boards in the lategame but I'm still having a lot of issues surviving to that point.  Paladin spells really suck as control tools without small minions like wild pyromancer in the mix.  Paladin isn't warrior or priest, whose spells are good enough to keep you alive without the help of minions ... nor is it hunter or druid, who can summon minions through spells
      • Duel! is pretty cool, but it turns out it's not so good because literally everyone is better at cleaning up a single big thing than you.  Robosaur highrolls are getting cleaned up without much consequence but I'm stuck dealing with anything that doesn't die to a duel
      • I've added too many big spells to get the lens highroll off consistently.  Having no answer to giants in the current meta sounds like a bad idea though.  I don't know how to slim down the spells without making the deck worse against such things and aggro

      Think you hit the nail on the head regarding the problems with this type of deck strategy and what makes cards like Duel! (or say Hecklebot) effective.  I also agree that Giants are a big problem and I ended up including Humility to stall until I could draw my combo pieces, but I don't think it'd be great in a non-OTK deck.

      Moving forward

      • removing duels enable us to play things that would suck to get from lens, but won't lose us the game if dueled
      • -duel!; +wild pyromancers, +equality
      • Could revamp the big things package with cards like big bad archmage and ysera instead of mechs or oondasta and bears
      • Unfortunately, I don't have equalities.  RIP

      Big Bad Archmage is one of those cards I've been tempted to craft in the past for just such an occassion :D  Really great job with your analysis!

      Hey NightCrawler, sorry for the lengthy delay.  I was away on holiday for a good bit and fell behind on all things HS.  But I'm getting in some games this weekend and will be updating this thread a few times (including the two new challenges).  I've written responses to the Prismatic Mountseller deck above and will upload the deck I settled on next.

  • Oh man, that was a great post and I'll write a proper response once I do a little more testing tonight (went down a Prismatic Mecha'thun hole last night which was fun but not too promising).

    However, I saw that the next episode of DD was posted so I wanted to get the weekly Firebat-Selected (FS) deck uploaded while it's fresh!

    Challenge #3 - Hybrid Hunter (FS) - 

    Apparently Firebat got some grief for making a "meta" deck last week by picking Control Shaman, so this week he hopes to appease the meme gods with a Control Hunter operation :D  The deck was submitted by Bored Certified who sought to create a mech/beast hybrid that generates a lot of "created by" value. 

    As a result, this week's FS challenge is to create a Hybrid Hunter! You're encouraged to explore mech/beast synergies at first, but if you think murlocs, dragons, or some other hybrid would be stronger then go for it!

    [DD] Bored Certified's Control Hunter

    Wild · Unknown Hunter · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 8 months ago

    9,900 Dust 710 0 Copy Deck Code

    At first glance this deck appears to follow the reasonable strategy of combining small packages of strong cards from different existing archetypes.  There's a small beast pacakge to contest early boards, a mech package for the midgame which enables card draw, healing, and board clears, and then a strong spell package for the late game in the form of nine lives, dire frenzy, unleash the beast, and Zul'jin.  You also have a Bloodmage Thalnos + Arcane Shot combo for some unexpected finishing damage...and there's a Countess Ashmore for its synergy with both the mech and beast packages.

  • I don't know about that.  Regular beast hunter is more or less a control deck already, able to fatigue out warriors with dire frenzy (in that matchup, warrior is the aggressor, trying to kill you with bombs)

    Unlike beast hunter, this can't run call of the wild, which is a key card.  Having your hero card in a timely manner is key in any control deck and efficient draw helps with that.  It also fetches your scalehides for your dire frenzys (or dire frenzied scalehides).  We're sacrificing call for ... half a missile launcher package and some mediocre healing?  Why not just have scalehide more consistently and heal through those?  Why not clear through buffed lynx and rhinos?  They are not so bad

    All things considered, I suspect this deck might be worse at controling as hunter than beast hunter

    In any case, I don't have Zul'jin, so I can't test it out, but if I were to make changes without turning it into beast hunter... 

    • Thalnos isn't convenient with marked shot and while arcane shot + Thalnos is nice vs rogue, it has little targets outside of rogue, and arcane shot without Thalnos doesn't line up well in the current meta (mages aren't tempoing out their key cards against a hunter).  The 1 mana deal 1 twinspell is a consideration, but like I said dealing 2 isn't good in the meta.  Wing blast is also a consideration, but we're not good a killing 1 thing to activate 
    • Missile launcher + venomizer should be 2 ofs (either that or 0 ofs because consistency).  We're sacrificing a lot for them, so we better make use of them
    • Nine lives looks very mediocre because we're not running deathrattles worth 3 mana.  Maybe cut 9 lives, or replace deadly shots and hunter's mark with spider bombs?
    • Dump applebaum because it's weak and we already have healing
    • Add houndmaster shaw because he's OP
    • Animal companion and secret plan are good cards with the hero that I'd love to run, but can't find space for

    This is all assuming missile launcher + venomizer combo isn't too slow (it's 8 mana!).  The strength of the combo in mech hunter comes from the fact that you can set it up preemptively by magnetizing half the combo on a sticky mech or discounting them with galvinizer

    If the above is the case, maybe this mech/beast hybrid concept is better as a faster tempo deck rather than a control/value deck

    Edit: watching the video now and holy shit, I knew controlock was bad but I didn't know it was that bad!

    • Quote From NightCrawler

      I don't know about that.  Regular beast hunter is more or less a control deck already, able to fatigue out warriors with dire frenzy (in that matchup, warrior is the aggressor, trying to kill you with bombs)

      Unlike beast hunter, this can't run call of the wild, which is a key card.  Having your hero card in a timely manner is key in any control deck and efficient draw helps with that.  It also fetches your scalehides for your dire frenzys (or dire frenzied scalehides).  We're sacrificing call for ... half a missile launcher package and some mediocre healing?  Why not just have scalehide more consistently and heal through those?  Why not clear through buffed lynx and rhinos?  They are not so bad

      All things considered, I suspect this deck might be worse at controling as hunter than beast hunter

      I've tried to make many a Control Hunter work and my experience is reflective of your fears.  There are a lot of possible builds, but you almost always throw up your hands and admit that standard midrange Hunter is just better/more consistent.  Master's Call is a lot of value to give up along with things like Animal Companion, Timber Wolf, Tundra Rhino, and Kill Command.  So you want some powerful cards to justify moving away from all beasts and the problem with hybrid decks is that they are usually forced into a tradeoff between playing only the strongest from different packages and increasing the consistency of their deck through weaker but more flexible cards.  Overall, I think I like Kharan's Chaos Control build from a couple seasons ago a little better.

      In any case, I don't have Zul'jin, so I can't test it out, but if I were to make changes without turning it into beast hunter... 

      • Thalnos isn't convenient with marked shot and while arcane shot + Thalnos is nice vs rogue, it has little targets outside of rogue, and arcane shot without Thalnos doesn't line up well in the current meta (mages aren't tempoing out their key cards against a hunter).  The 1 mana deal 1 twinspell is a consideration, but like I said dealing 2 isn't good in the meta.  Wing blast is also a consideration, but we're not good a killing 1 thing to activate 

      Agree that Thalnos feels a bit out of place.  I really don't want to have to rely on it for card draw via Nine Lives and there's no space to add the twin spell + Wild Pyromancer for more synergies.  Think I'd replace it with 1x Timber Wolf and 2x Headhunter's Hatchet.

      • Missile launcher + venomizer should be 2 ofs (either that or 0 ofs because consistency).  We're sacrificing a lot for them, so we better make use of them
      • Nine lives looks very mediocre because we're not running deathrattles worth 3 mana.  Maybe cut 9 lives, or replace deadly shots and hunter's mark with spider bombs?
      • Dump applebaum because it's weak and we already have healing

      I just played a game with the deck and found that Nine Lives was actually the highlight.  In particular, Nine Lives + SN1P-SN4P won me the game.  However, it also feels like Nine Lives + Ursatron is meant to be your method for drawing out the 1-of Missle Launcher + Venomizer combo which makes things awkward.  This wouldn't be so bad if we could rely on Zul'jin to fill in the gaps, but we currently run too many deathrattles to rely on what Zul'jin will choose.  If we cut Thalnos and Applebaum that leaves Shimmerfly, Ursatron, and SN1P SN4P in the DR pool which isn't too bad (I'm a little afraid to cut Shimmerfly based on our early game options, especially if we include Headhunter's Hatchet).  

      • Add houndmaster shaw because he's OP
      • Animal companion and secret plan are good cards with the hero that I'd love to run, but can't find space for

      Honestly, Houndmaster Shaw is often the card that makes me hesitate on building around Master's Call so if we're not going that route I'd love to include him.  Also really like animal companion when running Zul'jin to increase your chances of a Dire Frenzy target.

      This is all assuming missile launcher + venomizer combo isn't too slow (it's 8 mana!).  The strength of the combo in mech hunter comes from the fact that you can set it up preemptively by magnetizing half the combo on a sticky mech or discounting them with galvinizer

      If the above is the case, maybe this mech/beast hybrid concept is better as a faster tempo deck rather than a control/value deck

      Agree that you often want to run Galvanizer to pull off the Missle Launcher combo and I feel like that card is a must in a Hybrid Hunter because we can discount Nightmare Amalgams who can also be buffed by Dire Frenzy and magnetized with Zilliax or SN1P SN4P.  Would really want to get Amalgam in this deck.

      Edit: watching the video now and holy shit, I knew controlock was bad but I didn't know it was that bad!

      Haha, I was definitely struck by this comment as well!  I was thinking of trying to find the Control Warlock submission he attempted to make that our NFS challenge for the week, but it looks like he gave it go in the new video based on popular demand!

      Just had a chance to test out this deck and included some reactions above

  • Here's the OTK Pally I ended up liking the most from Challenge #2:

    Deck Doctor Challenge #2 - OTK Pally

    Wild · OTK Paladin · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 8 months ago

    7,720 Dust 729 0 Copy Deck Code

    • I replaced Tirion in the original deck with Jepetto Joybuzz because I don't have Tirion and thought the Jepetto discount would help pull off the Mountseller combo.  This combo didn't feel quite strong enough to justify the deck building restriction but Jepetto felt great.
       
    • My initial reactions were to build around Jepetto + Alexstrasza or Jepetto + Mecha'thun.  Started with Mecha'thun and found some success using a card draw engine centered around Crystology and discounted Gadgetzan Auctioneers and then a stall engine of 2x Time Out!. 
       
    • The Mecha'thun strategy started to fall apart once I realized that I was completely dependent on Jepetto discounting Mecha'thun so I needed to run a Baleful Banker in case I drew the big guy too early, but then also 2x Galvanizer so I could play them on the same turn.  The other problem occured when Prismatic Lens would pull Jepetto because a spell would then cost 8 and you couldn't play it on the same turn that you played Time Out! which you usually had to do at the end of the game to empty your hand of useless spells. 
        
    • I took some of the things that worked from the Mecha'thun deck (Crystology, Secretkeeper, Jepetto, etc.) and included them in an Alexstrasza build with the classic Leeroy + Faceless package.  Here's the brief the description of the deck I included in the write-up:

    My best performing Prismatic Lens deck was this Leeroy Jenkins OTK centered arounding discounting Leeroy via Lens and then discounting Faceless Manipulator via Lens and/or Jepetto Joybuzz.  You then buff Leeroy with Blessing of Might before copying with Faceless.  Alternatively, you can draw Alexstrasza from Lens or Jepetto to reduce the amount of Leeroy damage you need.

    Early game involves searching hard for Crystology so you can play Secretkeeper + secrets early to control the board.  Crystology can also draw Novice Engineer which keeps your deck churning and you can use the 1-of Call to Adventure to fish for these cards as well so that your Prismatic Lens and Jepetto hit the big boys.

    Although this deck is built around a Leeroy finisher, sometimes you'll have to shift to a TTK strategy instead of an OTK; for example, by saving a charge from Truesilver Champion or playing Time Out! + Truesilver Champion to set up for lethal the following turn.  The real fun part of this deck comes in thinking up creative lethals depending on what gets discounted each game.  For example, in this game I drew both Faceless Manipulators via Prismatic Lens so I used Call to Adventure to draw a guaranteed Leeroy and then played a 5-cost buffed Leeroy (8/4) + a 1-cost Blessing of Might (11/4) + two 1-cost Manipulators for a true OTK.  However, in this game I drew Leeroy and Gadgetzan early so I used Jepetto to drawn both Faceless and then saved a weapon charge to reach lethal.

  • Challenge #4 - Control Warlock (FS) -

    Although Firebat thought he could casually mention losing with Control Warlock for 3 hours and get away with it, even he was no match for the Internet and its sick joy in watching a Former Champ get beat down by systemic imbalances among the classes ;D

    As a result, this week's Firebat Selected challenge is to create a Control Warlock!  We'll be using Vee Gon's submission as the starting deck so you're encouraged to give Dragon Controlock a shot first before building in other directions.

    [DD] Vee Gon's Dragon Controlock

    Wild · Control Warlock · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 8 months ago

    9,120 Dust 664 0 Copy Deck Code

    The deck has some early anti-aggro tools in the way of Voidcaller, Shadow Bolt, and Hellfire, but what it'd really like to do is play as a Handlock early to cheat out Mountain Giant and/or buff Twilight Drake.

    One of the things that really appeals to me with this deck is the inclusion of Faceless Rager and all the high health dragons.  However, my main concern on initial inspection is whether we have enough dragons to consistently activate Firetree Witchdoctor and Wyrmguard.  I think I may finally craft Brightwing for this challenge :D

  • Challenge #5 - Magic Recycling Priest (NFS) - 

    This week's non-Firebat selection is 13thology's Recycle Priest! 

    I actually considered this deck for the 1st NFS challenge so I was happy to see it again amongst the submissions.  The basic idea is to leverage the synergy between Spirit of the Dead and Magic Carpet which will be our constraint/challenge for this week.  I was also intrigued by the inclusion of Flesheating Ghoul and Snapjaw Shellfighter, but they aren't part of the core soul of the deck.

    [DD] 13thology's Death Factory Priest

    Wild · Clone Priest · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 8 months ago

    6,160 Dust 855 0 Copy Deck Code

  • In regards to the paladin, good job thinking of putting Joybuzz in the deck.  I didn't put much effort into the non-duel version because I couldn't build/test it in my collection Joybuzz is definitely a card, in both the original and your OTK version.  Personally I think the OTK strays a little too far from the original concept but hey, you still made a cool deck that works which is more relevant because the OG concept might not be even possible.  I have to disagree with the humilities though; when mages play an early giant, they threaten conjurer's calling on the following turn and humility doesn't help with that problem unless you already have a board.  Otherwise, it seems like a good deck

    Regarding 9 lives in the hunter deck, I was surprised how not terrible it was in the video as well after I posted my thoughts on it.  Before this, I've only seen the card played in the aggro mech hunter (where it's low tempo/low value in a face deck) and in the oblivitron mech hunter (where it's low tempo/high value in a deck that's already very high value and struggles not to fall behind on board).  It hasn't occurred to me to use it on sn1p-sn4p as a low tempo/high value play in a deck that's decent at keeping up on board but often lacks value (sn1p-sn4p also hasn't been printed when I last evaluated the card lol).  I still think it's not that good though; even on ursatron it's 6 mana 3/3 draw 2, whereas a beast hunter can 3 mana draw 3 and have 3 mana left over to develop more than just 3/3 of stats.  It also doesn't require drawing, playing and having a choice deathrattle minion die

    Checking out the new decks now.  I already watched the warlock episode, so I'm not going to do it (it feels like cheating!).  I think the final deck could use some omega agents though, especially with Barista

    • Quote From NightCrawler

      In regards to the paladin, good job thinking of putting Joybuzz in the deck.  I didn't put much effort into the non-duel version because I couldn't build/test it in my collection Joybuzz is definitely a card, in both the original and your OTK version.  Personally I think the OTK strays a little too far from the original concept but hey, you still made a cool deck that works which is more relevant because the OG concept might not be even possible.  I have to disagree with the humilities though; when mages play an early giant, they threaten conjurer's calling on the following turn and humility doesn't help with that problem unless you already have a board.  Otherwise, it seems like a good deck

      I think that's a fair point about the OTK vs. the OG concept.  I ended up there because it felt like you needed a really strong payoff to justify such harsh restrictions in terms spells and minions, but I think Kass would say it's not really the surgery results he had in mind.  As for the Humilities, they found their way into the deck when I was looking for more 1-cost spells to make Lens discounts more consistent.  I tried some of the mediocre secrets and that spell that draws a card when a minion attacks, but found better results with Humily as it could buy me a turn to finish searching for combo pieces.  It was really helpful against magnetized mechs and I set up a couple lethals by copying a mech that had been Zilliaxed with a 5-cost Faceless (in games with poor draw luck I'd use Faceless early) and then dropping a Humility on their minion to wipe the floor with my big mech/clear out taunts for the Leeroy next turn.  Though you're absolutely right that it's not really helpful against an early Giant + CC and you'd like to mulligan for Repentance instead.

      Regarding 9 lives in the hunter deck, I was surprised how not terrible it was in the video as well after I posted my thoughts on it.  Before this, I've only seen the card played in the aggro mech hunter (where it's low tempo/low value in a face deck) and in the oblivitron mech hunter (where it's low tempo/high value in a deck that's already very high value and struggles not to fall behind on board).  It hasn't occurred to me to use it on sn1p-sn4p as a low tempo/high value play in a deck that's decent at keeping up on board but often lacks value (sn1p-sn4p also hasn't been printed when I last evaluated the card lol).  I still think it's not that good though; even on ursatron it's 6 mana 3/3 draw 2, whereas a beast hunter can 3 mana draw 3 and have 3 mana left over to develop more than just 3/3 of stats.  It also doesn't require drawing, playing and having a choice deathrattle minion die

      You hit the nail on the head with the Nine Lives summary and it has often felt like a win-more card when I've played it (especially if you're trying to pull off necromechanic memes ;D ).  However, I do think there's a niche fit for it as a late-game value-generator when you have a limited DR pool with strong, flexible options like in Kharan's deck (he had 1-of bloodmage thalnos, spider bomb, rotten applebaum, and mechanical whelp which I thought would be terribly inconsistent but actually played pretty well when you factored in Zul'jin recasting).

      Checking out the new decks now.  I already watched the warlock episode, so I'm not going to do it (it feels like cheating!).  I think the final deck could use some omega agents though, especially with Barista

      Haha, sounds good!  I think that in just a couple weeks I've been convinced that it's better to doctor other decks, but I'll keep posting the Firebat ones because they're fun to discuss and sometimes I'm inspired to take my own crack at the archetype :)

       

  • Initial game:

    • queued into mech hunter
    • started off surprisingly well with rat into carpet + rush lackey to clear some stuff (I almost went with rush an acolyte instead but it was too slow)
    • mass dispel did work against magnetized stuff
    • not enough mana to actually combo cool stuff with carpet, especially when we don't have many 1 drops before shuffles as well
    • still died because we priest lol

    Initial thoughts:

    • Priest sucks, but thankfully priest removal doesn't suck as much as the rest of priest : - nova, + hysteria, + forbidden words, - mass dispel, 2x pyromancer
    • We're also missing a lot of other priest cards that don't suck : +2 northshire cleric, +2 PWS, +2 EVIL conscriptor (why are we running rat but not this??)
    • Cult master, shellfighter, ghoul are nice when we combo off, but comboing off requires 1 drops already shuffled then draw and also a carpet, which is 3 mana.  That's too ambitious
    • Divine spirit combo is a good finisher, but we don't actually have many high HP/low attack things to use it on
    • deck looks a lot like post-vanish nerf pogo rogue shuffling 1 drops with carpets.  We can learn a lot from this other deck.  Like pogo rogue, this deck has few natural 1 drops but puts them into the deck to be drawn.  Drawing is important, so let us draw cards : + Jepetto ... maybe more later
    • +2 divine hymn -2 rabble bouncer because hymn is really good with pyro cleric and we need to make space somehow
    • We seem to be a bit light on spells to support grave horrors but let's deal with that later
    • Need a finisher to kill the opponent at some point, but let's worry about that when we can get the cycle combo working

    First results:

    • Beat some burn shaman with hymns and horrors.  Seems like horrors are fine enough with this few spells, however there doesn't seem to be enough spells to support pyromancers
    • "1 mana" horrors shuffled with the spirit don't work with carpet :( :( :(
    • Apparently a combo is kill your dead ringer with spirit on board, draw it and with carpet play 7 of these.  IMO this is rarely going to happen and conspirators aren't worth cutting for this.  I had spirit, carpet, ringer on the board, killed one ringer and the deathrattle doesn't even pull the copy that was shuffled in LMAO.  There were no other deathrattles.  Looks cool on paper but when it literally doesn't work in practice, we better just remove the entire thing
    • Deck still seems kinda bad.  We can win vs faster decks by outvaluing and doing priest things but our finisher still sucks and the combo never works (and it doesn't kill).  Carpet does nothing until spirit is drawn and used.  Only one thing to do when your combo is inconsistent: add more draw!
    • No priest draws faster than nomi priest and as for killing people, let's try Alex and 2x lifedrinker.  Need to test this out later when I have more time though
    • Quote From NightCrawler

      Initial game:

      • queued into mech hunter
      • started off surprisingly well with rat into carpet + rush lackey to clear some stuff (I almost went with rush an acolyte instead but it was too slow)
      • mass dispel did work against magnetized stuff
      • not enough mana to actually combo cool stuff with carpet, especially when we don't have many 1 drops before shuffles as well
      • still died because we priest lol

      Initial Game:

      • Didn't have Snapjaw Shellfighter or Bwonsamdi, the Dead and replaced them with Mass Hysteria and Northshire Cleric respectively  
      • Queued into a big paladin running our prismatic lens package!  (oh to be at Rank 10, haha)
      • Started off with Northshire Cleric into Extra Arms which felt great and definitely made me want to get the other cleric in the deck
      • I had a terrible time drawing cards (hence more clerics!) and both Spirit of the Deads were in the bottom third of my deck...I died the turn after I played my first one :(

      Initial thoughts:

      • Priest sucks, but thankfully priest removal doesn't suck as much as the rest of priest : - nova, + hysteria, + forbidden words, - mass dispel, 2x pyromancer
      • We're also missing a lot of other priest cards that don't suck : +2 northshire cleric, +2 PWS, +2 EVIL conscriptor (why are we running rat but not this??)
      • Cult master, shellfighter, ghoul are nice when we combo off, but comboing off requires 1 drops already shuffled then draw and also a carpet, which is 3 mana.  That's too ambitious
      • Divine spirit combo is a good finisher, but we don't actually have many high HP/low attack things to use it on
      • deck looks a lot like post-vanish nerf pogo rogue shuffling 1 drops with carpets.  We can learn a lot from this other deck.  Like pogo rogue, this deck has few natural 1 drops but puts them into the deck to be drawn.  Drawing is important, so let us draw cards : + Jepetto ... maybe more later
      • +2 divine hymn -2 rabble bouncer because hymn is really good with pyro cleric and we need to make space somehow
      • We seem to be a bit light on spells to support grave horrors but let's deal with that later
      • Need a finisher to kill the opponent at some point, but let's worry about that when we can get the cycle combo working

      Initial thoughts:

      • In the 1st Matrix there's that scene where Neo and Trinity are preparing to save Morpheus and Tank asks Neo what he needs and he says, "Guns....lots of guns" in classic Keanu style.  Well I feel like I need draw...lots (and lots) of draw!  I mean, I was worried about draw before the game because I don't have Bwonsamdi, but it wouldn't have even mattered because I never got to the spirt card!
      • I don't play a lot of Priest so I enjoyed running the Divine Spirit + Inner Fire combo and wanted to keep it as a win condition.  I thought there were a couple fun targets such as Rabble Bouncer, Snapjaw Shellfighter, and Omega Defender but wasn't sold on them.
      • I was looking forward to the Dead Ringer cycle combo, but from what you said it sounds like you'd need:  1) To play both naturally and have them die while Spirit of the Dead is on the board; and 2) Draw and play one 1/1 copy with carpet and spirit of the dead in play while the other 1/1 is in your deck.  And after all that you just have infinite 2/1s with rush...
      • I cut the Grave Horrors because I didn't think there were enough spell activators so it was nice to hear that you actually found this not to be a big issue.  However, the fact that a Grave Horror reduced to "1-cost" doesn't synergize with Carpet is really dissappointing.  I know it's not unusual for Blizzard to be inconsistent, but I'm 99% sure that I've had other discounted cards count towards "1-cost" restrictions in the past (e.g. I'm almost positive that a 1-cost Corridor Creeper counted as progression towards the Hunter quest).
      • I also cut ghoul and cult master for the same reason you gave - I wanted cards that'd be valuable before I could pull off spirit of the dead shenanigans.
      • 1st cuts: 
        2x Dead Ringer
        2x EVIL Cable Rat
        1x Flesheating Ghoul
        2x Cult Master
        1x Omega Defender
        1x Holy Nova
        1x Snapjaw Shellfighter (don't own)
        1x Zilliax
        1x Bwonsamdi, the Dead (don't own)
        2x Grave Horror
      • 1st additions: 
        2x Northshire Cleric
        2x Power Word: Shield
        2x Doomsayer
        2x EVIL Conscripter
        2x Wild Pyromancer
        1x Acolyte of Pain
        2x Convincing Infiltrator
        1x Mass Hysteria   

      The gameplan was to mulligan for Northshire Cleric and then either hit + heal to draw on Turn 2 or play PWS, Extra Arms, or EVIL Conscripter (or Wild Pyromancer if you really need tempo).  If we don't hit Cleric on 1 we can drop Conscripter or Doomsayer on 2.  I'm guessing Doomsayer isn't that strong atm because you don't see it outside of Mage and their freeze combo, but I'm a big fan of the card and think it's actually not too bad here.  You have the standard early counter to a board that could snowball (e.g. Scavenging Hyena), but you can also use it to delay an early giant vs. Mage and survive wide boards when combo'd with Rabble Bouncer.  In addition, unlike some classes, we can still make use of Doomsayer if it's silenced by playing the likes of Extra Arms and Inner Fire.  We survive the mid-game through Wild Pyromancer + Acolyte of Pain, Mass Hysteria, and Convincing Infiltrator while weaving in a Spirit of the Dead if we can shuffle something like Convincing Infiltrator back into our deck.  Late game is something with spirit of the dead and magic carpet...

      First results:

      • Beat some burn shaman with hymns and horrors.  Seems like horrors are fine enough with this few spells, however there doesn't seem to be enough spells to support pyromancers
      • "1 mana" horrors shuffled with the spirit don't work with carpet :( :( :(
      • Apparently a combo is kill your dead ringer with spirit on board, draw it and with carpet play 7 of these.  IMO this is rarely going to happen and conspirators aren't worth cutting for this.  I had spirit, carpet, ringer on the board, killed one ringer and the deathrattle doesn't even pull the copy that was shuffled in LMAO.  There were no other deathrattles.  Looks cool on paper but when it literally doesn't work in practice, we better just remove the entire thing
      • Deck still seems kinda bad.  We can win vs faster decks by outvaluing and doing priest things but our finisher still sucks and the combo never works (and it doesn't kill).  Carpet does nothing until spirit is drawn and used.  Only one thing to do when your combo is inconsistent: add more draw!
      • No priest draws faster than nomi priest and as for killing people, let's try Alex and 2x lifedrinker.  Need to test this out later when I have more time though

      First results:

      • Queued against Murloc Shaman
      • Played Northshire Cleric T1 which got immediately silenced so I tempo'd out a Wild Pyromancer and followed up with Acolyte of Pain before healing and buffing the latter two with PWS and Extra Arms.
      • Even though my Spirit of the Deads were again buried in the bottom 10 cards, I was able to get to them faster while maintaining control of the board this time.  In the end I just whittled him down with chip damage behind some taunts to get the win.

      This build definitely drew a lot better and I had stronger plays in the early and mid-game.  However, there's no finisher once you get to the spirit + carpet recycling phase and instead I used these cards simply to control the board and allow me to go face with my 5-attack Wild Pyromancer and 5-attack Acolyte of Pain.  I really like your idea of adding Jepetto and will search through the other battlecry and deathrattle minions to see if we can add something impactful (e.g. recycling Elysiana or SN1P-SN4P sounds pretty fun).  I also like your inclusion of Divine Hymn and will have to see if I can make room for that.

       

  • IMO, the grave horrors are really good and you shouldn't cut them.  Mostly because you can slam them down while half-discounted and get them shuffled with the spirit

    Anyway, I tested out the combo heavy version a bit and the finisher still doesn't really come together.  Maybe I didn't think it through because cycling enough life drinkers doesn't seem possible.  The deck is still fine vs fast decks via normal priest things but the whole wombo combo is so convoluted that it never happens.  Either I have a low draw deck that never has the combo or I have a high draw deck where I end up with just combo pieces and wonder how I'm supposed to kill the opponent with them (because unlike the less draw version, I have less tempo chipped and less good midrange stuff to shuffle).  Just priest things, I guess - all control tools and no finisher

    The whole spirit into carpet thing will probably never work because you can only shuffle so many things with 2 spirits.  You're priest, after all, so you don't get a board that you can set up for spirit with preemptively.  Without enough things shuffled, those carpets aren't doing much.  Pogo rogue doesn't have this problem because the bunnies are always 1 mana with no prerequisites.  So... that's it for me; I give up on this one :P

    If you really want to screw around putting things on carpets that have no right to be on carpets, play pogo rogue or some kind of wild rogue with Sonya - she makes things 1 mana too, but puts them directly in your hand

  • I ended up playing around with a deathrattle package of Reckless Experimenter + SN1P-SN4P, Mechanical Whelp, and Voodoo Doll but never landed on something that got to that perfect mix of draw and an actual finisher :(

    Thankfully, it looks like Firebat posted a new video!

    Challenge #6 - OTK Mage (FS) -

    This week's FS challenge is to build an OTK Mage!  We'll be using Nick's submission, a Ragnaros OTK, as the starting point:

    [DD] Nick's Ragnaros OTK

    Wild · Control Mage · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 8 months ago

    6,920 Dust 1,434 0 Copy Deck Code

    The deck has a pretty specific gameplan - discount Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk and Faceless Manipulator with Jepetto Joybuzz and then drop Khadgar + Faceless into Jan'alai for 4x Ragnaros!  However, Nick admits in his tweet that it could be improved by Pocket Galaxy if he had it, so let's see what we can do with our collections!  (I don't have khadgar, jan'alai, or pocket galaxy so I'll probably pass on this one)

  • Challenge #7 - TBD Druid (NFS) - 

    This week's NFS challenge will be to make some type of off-meta Druid deck!

    NightCrawler, my memory from the HearthPwn days was that you're a Druid fan so I wanted to get your feedback on which deck we should work on.  Three caught my eye from the latest Deck Doctor Tweet.

    The screenshot for the Heal Dragon didn't show all the cards so I just uploaded it here for easier viewing:

    [DD] Rogershrubbr's Heal Dragon

    Wild · Unknown Druid · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 8 months ago

    15,100 Dust 720 0 Copy Deck Code

    Let me know if any of these look like fun challenges!

  • Don't mind me.  Druid may as well be a different class these days with the ramp aspect nerfed into oblivion.  Though if it were up to me, I'd choose the dragon hand druid just because token druid and heal druid have been explored.  Dragon druid has a bit of a special place in my heart too

    As for the mage, well ... it's just horrible isn't it? :D  I guess the author was traumatized by giant mage to main deck vape and snap freeze

    I already watched the video but I think I can take the deck in another direction.  I remember when the buffs hit I tried something similar, though it had Tony and freeze mage things in addition to the loa instead of the 2x khadgar dream.  A lot less ambitious but I still ended up scraping it because bomb warrior was super hot back then.  It seems to work a lot better now, though maybe it's because I'm maindecking giants instead of pyroblasts and fireballs.  Actually, all the undoctored list needed was to replace some crappy spells with the giants package and luna's but I guess if Firebat did that, it's kind of cheating

    ### Freeze mage lul
    # Class: Mage
    # Format: Standard
    # Year of the Dragon
    #
    # 2x (1) Daring Fire-Eater
    # 2x (1) Ray of Frost
    # 2x (2) Doomsayer
    # 1x (2) Khadgar
    # 2x (3) Arcane Intellect
    # 2x (3) Conjurer's Calling
    # 2x (3) Frost Nova
    # 2x (3) Pyromaniac
    # 1x (3) Stargazer Luna
    # 2x (4) Arcane Keysmith
    # 1x (5) Barista Lynchen
    # 1x (5) Luna's Pocket Galaxy
    # 1x (5) Zilliax
    # 2x (6) Blizzard
    # 1x (7) Archmage Antonidas
    # 1x (7) Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk
    # 1x (8) Jepetto Joybuzz
    # 1x (9) Alexstrasza
    # 1x (10) Kalecgos
    # 2x (12) Mountain Giant
    #
    AAECAY0WCsUEuAju9gLG+AKggAOohwO9mQOWmgPanQOKngMKigHJA6sEywThB77sAqSHA82JA4OWA5+bAwA=

  • Hand dragon druid initial test (btw is there a way to copy deck codes from twitter??) : 

    • Had to replace a nourish with Thalnos.  One of my accounts is missing Ysera, roasters and brightwing for the deck while the other one misses only nourish
    • Lost to a vendetta-build tempo rogue despite him having a slow start and me having a good one
    • I have mixed feelings about roaster.  On one hand it kind of deals with Druid's lack of hard removal issue but 7 damage isn't even that good and a 4HP 7 drop is pretty pitiful.  Omega Destroyer is the guy she tells Crowd roaster not to worry about
    • This doesn't really generate enough cards for the hand druid flavor.  Hand size was medium overall... actually my opponent had more cards the entire game lol
    • Dragons in the year of the dragon are astoundingly low tempo
    • We only have 7s and 9s for psychmelon lol.  I guess drawing 4 is really good in a hand deck but boy do the 8s and 10s suck hard right now
    • Howl is a great card for stalling towards something but we don't have something to work towards right now, so it's basically 3 mana lose tempo
    • Dumping roasters and scorchers as a test.  Psychmelon is kind of a dragon so the dragon count can be less than the conventional dragon deck ... hopefully
    • Stalladris is good at filling up a hand.  If only we had some more choose one cards

    NVM, let's do the hand token druid instead.  I'm having too many collection issues with the above list.  It's a bit reminiscent of the god tier druid era slower token druids, which is different enough from modern lists to be interesting

    • First game drew some giants and board buffs but no board.  Sat around doing pretty much nothing.  We should probably up the early minion count
    • Gave it a few tries and basically the same thing happens.  We just never have board

    Changes

    • Mulch muchers are cool but we don't actually have enough trees to run them.  Added 2nd drake and guardian in their place 
    • Removed howl for the same reasons as the previous deck
    • Removed apples because they suck
    • Added dreamway guardians because they don't suck.  Added lifeweaver because we heal now and they add stuff to the hand
    • Made room for a psychmelon/heal package because I removed a lot of hand fill mechanics (Lore, lore, lucentbark, cenarius, sea giant, sea giant)

    Nah, let's not.  Haven't won a game yet even after going off and the number of random Gift of the Wilds the game was giving me was just a reminder of how bad the class is now.  My casual MMR is so far into the dumpster right now that the results won't be useful anymore due to the opponents not playing real decks.  Some of the combos were kind of fun and I'm not really tilted but this doesn't seem to be going anywhere fast.  Believe me, I've tried to make slower druids work even marginally since the rotation but they haven't so far

  • Work has been rough and
    I've fallen behind,
    but the Deck Doctor challenge
    must still shine!

    Sorry for the delay dear friends (i.e. NightCrawler, haha) but we have new episodes to talk about!

    First off, I was digging the Mage deck you posted and it made me wish we had a mode where the full collection was available so you could test out cards to see if you wanted to craft them (although, in my case, I'm 4 legendaries off and can't make the deck yet regardless).  You could put whatever restrictions you wanted on it and I'd probably still be interested; e.g., you only play against shitty bots, you can't earn any xp/gold/quest progress, you can only play ____ per day/week/rotation (X games, X class(es), X sets, X cards, etc.).  Anyway, that deck looked fun and I liked your point about certain archeypes which struggled early on actually being somewhat competitive in the current meta.

    I was also sorry to hear about your trials and tribulations with the Druid decks :\  It's crazy that they literally nerfed the class into the ground, but there at least looks to be plenty of (meme) potential from some of the SoU cards :D   Although I saw your warnings, I had to experience the frustration for myself and went down a Beast Druid path after seeing the Predatory Instincts + Witchwood Grizzly + Witching Hour combo in the Heal Dragon deck (also fit my limited collection, haha).

    I got as far as the version below before becoming frustrated and never copied it over here.  Mage was almost impossible and I wanted Naturalize back so badly both for Giant punishment and to mill those greedy bastards :P  I thought the deck might be viable if you included a Gonk, the Raptor package or maybe went with more beasts overall to play on curve and spell buff, but I didn't have time to explore more.

    DD Challenge #7 - Big Beast Druid

    Wild · Beast Druid · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 8 months ago

    5,300 Dust 883 0 Copy Deck Code

    Here's the rationale I posted on the deck page:

    This deck prefers control matches so you can mulligan hard for Predatory Instincts in the hopes of dropping it on Turn 4 followed by a buffed Witchwood Grizzly on T5 or, ideally, Stampeding Roar into a buffed Ironhide Direhorn on T6.  You can then drop Witching Hour if they kill off your buffed beast and starting on T8 you can combo this with Faceless Manipulator in the hopes of hitting a buffed or high health beast with Crazed Alchemist for some finishing damage.

    In aggro match-ups you mulligan primarily for Doomsayer and Wild Pyromancer, but may also keep things like Wrath and Keeper Stalladris.

    Survivability and card draw is achieved via Pyromancer + Acolyte of Pain against aggro and Ferocious Howl against control.

    Crystal Power acts as a cheap Pyromancer activator against aggro and a way to heal your buffed beasts against control (will typically save Stalladris to combo with Crystal Power against control for more healing).

    Moonfire has similar synergy with Pyromancer and can be used to take down a giant if you're able to pull Ironhide Direhorn with Stampeding Roar.

  • I haven't had a chance to watch the last couple weeks so I'll update with thoughts later, but here are the latest Firebat challenges!

    Challenge #8 - Rezz Priest (FS) - 

    Author describes the deck as, "Big priest like deck in standard, using cloning gallery and death rattles to have big swing turns using mass resurrect."

    [DD] kraiklockheart's Rezz Priest

    Wild · Clone Priest · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 8 months ago

    8,400 Dust 922 0 Copy Deck Code

    Challenge #9 - Deathrattle Rogue (FS) - 

    Author describes the deck as, "Mechrium Rogue. Necrium package + skaterbots to feed big deathrattles, and a ton of draw and removal to get you there."

    [DD] glmstr's Mechrium Rogue

    Wild · Deathrattle Rogue · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 8 months ago

    8,380 Dust 588 0 Copy Deck Code

  • Challenge #10 - Dragon Hunter (NFS) -

    This week's NFS challenge will be based on danny's Dragon Control Hunter! 

    Dragon Hunter is one of my favorite archetypes and I always respect a man trying to include an Emeriss finish (especially after Bright-Eyed Scout rotated).  I also like that he's trying to use Carrion Drake :D

    [DD] danny's Dragon Hunter

    Wild · Dragon Hunter · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 8 months ago

    10,200 Dust 1,031 0 Copy Deck Code

  • I knew of the druid beast package before.  It's in most of the "successful" non-token druids out there right now, which is why I was avoiding it when building stuff myself.  It's been tried and proven itself to be around T4 so I was thinking perhaps there is something better.  Maybe it's my own fault for limiting myself so much

    As for the 3 new decks, I can't really try them out myself because I'm missing a whole load of legendaries or epics

    That hunter list looks super well built already and I don't think it needs much help

    • It has the right techs against mage and a good finisher that isn't too insane to pull off
    • It could use a Zilliax, maybe a sn1p-sn4p though
    • You could also experiment with a lynx/wingblast package especially with carrion drakes already in the deck
    • Maybe sub the twilight drakes with other dragons because hunter doesn't use them super well.  I'm thinking a 2nd amalgam for sure because it's a mech (for magnitize and plays around dynomatic) and a beast (you're discovering a lot of spells and hunter spells synergize with beasts)

  • I liked your thoughts on the Dragon Hunter deck and had a similar impression about it looking strong.  It was pretty fun to play and Faerie Dragon (+ Twilight Drake) stood out as feeling better than I expected (though Wyrmguard felt as bad as I expected, haha). 

    Unfortunately, I ran into a lot of Bomb Warriors and found the combo to be harder to pull off than I'd thought.  There was only 1 Tracking, which made sense given that it could constrain your Zul'jin timing, and none of the combo pieces could be tutored otherwise (Emeriss, Leeroy, Faceless/Alex).

    I ended up going down the Jepetto path, as is tradition, but wanted to try something other than an OP minion pool + spells + Zul'jin build.  I ended up going full battlecry package + Lynchen for the value game (and to have a chance at an extra silence against Mech Hunter/Pally).  The deck turned out to be pretty terrible against anything other than Warrior, and it wasn't even that good against Warrior, haha ;D 

    DD Challenge #10 - Battlecry Dragon Hunter

    Wild · Dragon Hunter · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 8 months ago

    17,660 Dust 747 0 Copy Deck Code

  • It's also time for our first challenge of SoU!

    Challenge #11 - Octosari Druid (FS) -

    Firebat selected Felzak's Token Octosari Druid for this week and I think I finally have my reason to craft the "Octodad" :)  (I feel like Octosari should be the build around concept this week because Token Druid's been around awhile and there might be a fun Octo'thun deck or something like that out there too)

    Felzak describes the deck as early token stuff to stay alive and then an Octosari into Wispering Woods + Soul of the Forest (into Savage Roar) lethal.

    [DD] Felzak's Token Octosari Druid

    Wild · Token Druid · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 7 months ago

    9,640 Dust 797 0 Copy Deck Code

    I'm not a Druid master by any means (didn't even know Beast Druid was the most popular non-Token build!), but Crystal Power seems weak and only having 4 spells costing 5+ with 2x Anubisath Defender & 2x Garden Gnome seems iffy too.  I also feel like I never see Force of Nature played.  However, I have no idea what I want to include...maybe some of the new cards like Serpent Egg and Infested Goblin?  We'll see!

  • Challenge #12 - A Questing Highlander Shaman (NFS) -

    This week's NFS challenge is to build a Highlander Quest Shaman starting with MegaACE's submission! 

    He describes the decks as, "Fun zephyrs shaman deck, you draw zephyrs with sandbinder, double its battlecry, bounce zephyrs back to your hand with barista lychen, bog slosher, shuffle more into your deck with banker, play infinte zephyrs with double battlecry!"

    [DD] MegaACE's Highlander Quest Shaman

    Wild · Highlander Shaman · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 7 months ago

    12,060 Dust 654 0 Copy Deck Code

    I picked this deck because it looked like a lot of fun, but there were a ton of submissions this week so we could easily do a few challenges if folks are NightCrawler's interested. 

    The obvious appeal is getting to play [Hearthstone Card (Zephyrs) Not Found] a bunch with Youthful Brewmaster, Bog Slosher, and Barista Lynchen (and then even more once you complete the quest or play Shudderwock).  There's also a lot of Elemental synergy and a couple ways to randomly get more Sandbinders if you go Zephyrs + Baleful Banker early. 

    A couple cards feel forced for the battlecry synergy (e.g. Earthen Ring Farseer instead of say Zilliax), but I'm looking forward to trying this greedy bastard out!  :D

    • Quote From RangDipkin

      I'm not a Druid master by any means (didn't even know Beast Druid was the most popular non-Token build!), but Crystal Power seems weak and only having 4 spells costing 5+ with 2x Anubisath Defender & 2x Garden Gnome seems iffy too.  I also feel like I never see Force of Nature played.  However, I have no idea what I want to include...maybe some of the new cards like Serpent Egg and Infested Goblin?  We'll see!

      Beast based druids were the most successful non-token druids, yes but they were still so bad that you won't be seeing them on ladder unless you're facing a true memer.  Most people probably wouldn't know of them

      As for this DD submission, I first thought a beast package could be something to look into.  That oondasta looks rather sad if you don't pull it first from stampeding roar or if octosari is already played for whatever reason.  But the chance of getting Octosari off of witching hour would be really, really bad so I scrapped the idea.  Maybe cut oondasta and use predatory instincts instead of melon?  A 8/16 rush is only slightly worse than a 7/7 rush and an 8/8 non-rush and a lot better than just an 8/8 rush (and a useless oondasta taking up hand space when your octosari dies)

      As you noted, the big spell package looks completely out of place and has serious anti synergy with drawing 8 cards.  You want to slim down the curve a lot so you can actually make use of your 8 cards.  Typical token druid cards like blessing of the ancients, argent squire, sn1p-sn4p, and other tokeny mechs are fine.  There weren't many good new token druid cards printed in SoU except for Temple Berserker

      -2 melon, -2 anubi defender, -2 garden gnome, -2 FoN, -1 crystal power, -1 stampeding roar, +2 temple berserker, +1 sn1p-sn4p, +2 predatory instinct, +2 blessing of the ancients, +2 microtech controller, +1 vargoth (maybe?)

      Now the deck just looks like regular token druid with a weird top end, which I guess some might call boring but it sounds like what the author was trying to do anyway.  In any case, I think it's the real deal.  Ever since octosari was revealed, I thought it would probably be good in some kind of low curve aggro deck.  But paladin already has scales and rogue has Myra's.  I haven't thought of putting it in druid until now, but I think it's a good fit.  Too bad I don't actually have the card to see it myself lol

      Quote From RangDipkin

      This week's NFS challenge is to build a Highlander Quest Shaman starting with MegaACE's submission! 

      He describes the decks as, "Fun zephyrs shaman deck, you draw zephyrs with sandbinder, double its battlecry, bounce zephyrs back to your hand with barista lychen, bog slosher, shuffle more into your deck with banker, play infinte zephyrs with double battlecry!"

      I picked this deck because it looked like a lot of fun, but there were a ton of submissions this week so we could easily do a few challenges if folks are NightCrawler's interested. 

      The obvious appeal is getting to play Zephyrs a bunch with Youthful Brewmaster, Bog Slosher, and Barista Lynchen (and then even more once you complete the quest or play Shudderwock).  There's also a lot of Elemental synergy and a couple ways to randomly get more Sandbinders if you go Zephyrs + Baleful Banker early. 

      A couple cards feel forced for the battlecry synergy (e.g. Earthen Ring Farseer instead of say Zilliax), but I'm looking forward to trying this greedy bastard out!  :D

      I actually saw this one ladder one day.  I'll have to test without brightwing because I don't have it, but that's fine because it's one of the first things I'd cut here anyway.  Zephyrs alone is tons of value; brightwing would just be overdraw with sudderwock

      Nevermind, I'm apparently also missing a bunch of epics and giggling inventor.  Normally I'd just replace them with good cards but Sandbinder looks core for tutoring zephy in this instance and I'm not keen on crafting it.  I'd probably dump some of the weaker battlecries (fire ele, farseer, piper, maybe twilight drake).  Wasp should also probably go because you have running 1/2 the amount of lackeys a normal deck that runs it does, so it won't be active often.  I'd add MCT, walking fountain, zilly, mogu fleshshaper (you still have mutate and witchy lackeys), scheme, siamat (he's an elemental).  Maybe body wrapper for the memes?  idk the pool of cards looks so much smaller when you're only using 1 ofs.  I think you want lots of draw to get to your combo stuff but there aren't many good options without duplicates for consistancy

  • I think you have to put in a [Hearthstone Card (Ziliax) Not Found], it's just too good not to include.

  • Finally have a little time off so let's catch-up on all things Deck Doctor!

    I was missing too many pieces from the Octosari Druid, but I tested out the Questlander Shammy and it was indeed a lot of fun.  I found it to be more challenging than expected as you frequently run into hand size issues late in the game once you're doubling up on Zephrys wishes.  I didn't have the most success with it (went from R15 to R13 and got stuck there), but that was almost certainly due to my misplays.  I will say that bouncing Zephrys more than once (especially with Shudderwock in waiting) was usually overkill so I think the better strategy is to double up on cards and just play the standard Quest deck.  The changes I settled on were very similar to the ones Nightcrawler suggested upon first viewing the deck, haha.  Ended up with:

    -1 Mutate (tried out the Mogu Fleshaper inclusion but it felt too inconsistent) 
    -1 Baleful Banker
    -1 Earthen Might
    -1 Brightwing (pains me how bad this card feels to play because I really wanted to like it)
    -1 Farseer
    -1 Weaponized Wasp
    -1 Witchwood Piper
    -1 Swampqueen Hagatha (another one that I really wanted to like because I unpacked a golden copy, but it always feels underwhelming given the tempo loss)

    +1 Blazing Invocation
    +1 Far Sight
    +1 Lightning Storm (probably the weakest inclusion)
    +1 MCT (felt fantastic with the double battlecry)
    +1 Chief Inspector (was facing a lot of Secret Hunters at the time)
    +1 Seaforium Bomber (liked the potential for Highlander disruption after Quest completion/with the extra bomb from Shudderwock, but I didn't get to play it too often so I'm not sure if it was a good inclusion)
    +1 Zilliax
    +1 Walking Fountain

    It's a few weeks old, but I ended up stealing some ideas from this episode of Omni/Stone which I thought was pretty entertaining overall:

    And I doubt you need this, but I found Firebat's breakdown of Warrior (pre-nerf) pretty cool too:

  • I missed last week's Deck Doctor, but here's the Rezz Priest Firebat chose:

    If you want to try it out the deck codes are:

    Original: AAECAa0GBK8E1gqggAOYmwMN+wGhAuUE0wrXCoL3ApeHA+aIA5mbA6ylA6+lA7alA5mpAwA=

    Doctored: AAECAa0GCKUJ7QXTpQPXCralA9YKrwSggAML0gqspQP3DPIM5QTl9wLSpQP2B/sMgvcCr6UDAA==

  • Challenge #13 - Quest Warrior (FS) - 

    And this week's Firebat selection is TheNiddo's Quest Warrior which he described as, "Bombs punish decks digging for answers/provide you with another win con. Quest gives you more gas against controlly decks. Mulligan quest when needed."

    [DD] Niddo's Quest Warrior

    Wild · Weapon Warrior · by RangDipkin · 6 years, 7 months ago

    15,200 Dust 896 0 Copy Deck Code

    Playing a lot of weapons doesn't sound like the most fun, but if I have the quest (unsure) I'll definitely give this a shot for the memes.  One thing I'll probably try is to remove some of the actual weapons in favor of Upgrade!, Weapons Project, and Harrison Jones.  In this build I may go with a standard Control Warrior and resolve myself to always mulligan the Quest unless I draw perfectly.  Not sure really, this is pretty unknown terrority for me so I'll probably make some bad decisions like trying a pirate build as well ;D