Master Duelist 1.2: From Zero To Hero - Submission Thread

Greetings everyone, and welcome to the submission thread of second episode of Master Duelist!

General Information

This challenge will begin today, September 10th, and will end on September 30th. During this window of time, you'll have to start a Duels run with a starting deck containing at least 1 card from each mana cost, from 0 to 10 mana. Moreover, in order to make things a little easier, Signature Treasures will count as well!

Everyone who'll post proof of a 7+ wins run in this article's comment section will be awarded with a different amount of gold, an in-site currency you'll be able to earn from different activities and that will be used to purchase cosmetics in our in-site shop.

Submission Rules

In order for your run to count towards the challenge, you'll have to provide an appropriate proof of your feat; otherwise, your result won't count. To be precise, you will have to reply to this forum thread including:

• a picture of how your run ended;
• a picture of your starting deck;
• a picture(s) of your final deck.
• any other information you want: even though it's not necessary, it may help other players or generate a discussion!
  • you can submit as many runs as you want: we'll always pick the best one. Don't be afraid to show what you experimented with: let's start a discussion here!

Remember that we have to make sure you actually played following the rules, so please help us in doing so - disqualifying players feels bad, and we'd want to avoid it if possible!

Challenge Rewards

Here's a quick breakdown explaining the rewards you'll receive based on your performances:

The winner will be contacted through Direct Messages, where the next challenge's theme will be discussed. In case no one will be able to hit 12 wins before the deadline, the next challenge's theme will be decided by none less than Avalon himself.

Time Criteria

Those which follow are the time criteria we'll use to determine the winner in case of identical scores:

• An Heroic run will be considered more difficult than a Casual one, therefore Heroic players will have the priority.
  • If you get the best score overall with a 10-wins run in Casual and somebody else gets a 10-wins run in Heroic, the latter will be the winner of the challenge.
• In case of more people getting the same score, the winner will be decided by the submission time.
  • If more players will get to 12 wins, losses will count as well: a 12-0 will be considered better than a 12-2 or a 12-1. 
  • You could get the highest score on the first day as well as on the last day of the challenge, but if someone submits the same score before you do, then they'll be the winner.

Closing Information

If you want to learn more about this challenge, make sure to visit our guide page, where you'll be able to find a couple of starting decks provided by ourselves in order for you to take inspiration for your runs.

Moreover, don't forged to share your own creations with the community by adding them to our deck database via our deckbuilder.

Congrats Link and thanks for joining the challenge!

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Righteous Reserves

Second pool - Party Replacement

I went 11-3 with Soul Warlock in Heroic Duels.  I'm not trying to promote my Twitter, I'm just too dumb to figure out how to insert an image. 

https://twitter.com/OhNoesHS/status/1436507029514956800

Thank you for the challenge <3

12-2 in Casual Duels with Soul Warlock. Images show starting deck, deck contents immediately before final game, and the death of my final boss, since casual won't let you review your deck after the run is over.

Tried the Questline Priest featured in the article and I was able to hit 12 wins with it. First try, which is even more impressive.

Quite happy about this result, as I didn't know a home-brew starting deck would've brought me there. Meek Mastery did help a lot, even though it's been moved in the second Passive pool - broken treasure.

The only loss was against a very early Mind Tether Priest (fuck. that. deck.), but from that point I was able to beat every sort of broken combination: the healing potential I had was just too much for everyone.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Crystal Gem

Second pool - Meek Mastery

Hey, thanks to you for joining us! <3

No worries about that: it's okay as long as we can tell you achieved the result you claim, so Twitter is okay.

In case you're interested, Imgur is what I use to upload photos: it's pretty simple and works fine.

Btw, congrats for the big result!

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - All Shall Serve

Second pool - Rally the Troops

Gongratulations for the early 12 wins! Definitely impressive if I can say so.

I am quite surprised to see Joras Thuldoom over Demonizer as Signature Treasure: may I ask you why you picked it and how it performed throughout the run? I guess the Soul Fragment synergy played a big role, but I've never brought myself to experiment with it.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - All Together Now

Second pool - Rally the Troops

I knew that because Flesh Giant would be my ten drop, I would be looking to pick up some cards from the "Pain" buckets to reduce the cost more quickly. So I chose Joras Thuldoom with the thought that he would give me the potential to easily rebuild a board when needed. In reality, he was a complete dud, I literally never played him the entire run.

Went 12-2 with Big Druid.

2 loses was against tether priest (fireshaper+oops all spells) and quest mage (fireshaper+khadgar's orb) 

1st screen from pc, last screens from mobile.

This challenge has been a lot of fun to attempt in Heroic. I went 7 in Heroic with this Mind Tether, SW:V Priest.

I got Scrying Orb and Party Replacement for treasures. Party Replacement was clutch for the board based spells. This deck mostly lost to decks that pop off early and often, basically Pirate Warrior. I forgot the initial client screen shot, but I have a screenshot from HSReplay and a link to the first game. Pics below and at ZtH Priest 7 Wins. I'll try to remember to get correct Screenshots in the future. 

End Result:

Not an improvement from my previous post, but worth putting up here for discussion.

I went 7 in Heroic with the suggested Paladin Deck, but swapping out 9 and 10 drops as I didn't have them. I got Crystal Gem and Disks of Legend for Treasures. This is the first time I've ever been able to find Disks of Legend in this style of deck and it was a ton of fun. Forbidden Healing is actually incredibly useful against aggro and both of them saved numerous games.  Skipping entire turns to heal doesn't feel as bad if you have the treasure weapon equipped to develop. I could see this fitting in non-challenge decks as well. Images below and at ZtH Paladin 7 Win

Quote From revaz142

Went 12-2 with Big Druid.

2 loses was against tether priest (fireshaper+oops all spells) and quest mage (fireshaper+khadgar's orb) 

1st screen from pc, last screens from mobile.

I am afraid but - as it is - your submission is not valid: we can't see the pictures!

Could you please look into it so that I can take your run into account?

Quote From sorryqt

This challenge has been a lot of fun to attempt in Heroic. I went 7 in Heroic with this Mind Tether, SW:V Priest.

I got Scrying Orb and Party Replacement for treasures. Party Replacement was clutch for the board based spells. This deck mostly lost to decks that pop off early and often, basically Pirate Warrior. I forgot the initial client screen shot, but I have a screenshot from HSReplay and a link to the first game. Pics below and at ZtH Priest 7 Wins. I'll try to remember to get correct Screenshots in the future. 

End Result:

Show Spoiler

End Deck:

Starting Deck (Grabbed from HS Replay: Game One)

Congrats for the results, but with this one and with Paladin! Will post your deck and update the leaderboard in a bit.

For the Paladin run: yeah, Disks of Legend is fun there too - you just have to include as many Legendary minions as reasonably possible for the system to understand what you're doing lol.

I appreciate you sharing another run, despite the identical results: posting multiple attempts isn't definitely against the rules, and (as you said) it encourages discussion - well played!

Quote From Avalon

For the Paladin run: yeah, Disks of Legend is fun there too - you just have to include as many Legendary minions as reasonably possible for the system to understand what you're doing lol.

Yeah, it might have just been bad RNG as I've had plenty of runs with enough Legendaries and simply never been offered it. Though, I have been seeing some strange things with Treasure offerings lately that make me think deck-analysis-based Treasures may be turned off or broken. A couple weeks ago my 3 offerings were 2 Deathrattle-based Treasures and 1 Taunt based Treasure for a Warlock deck that contained exactly 0 of both minon types. Maybe they've fixed something since then.

Quote From Avalon

I appreciate you sharing another run, despite the identical results: posting multiple attempts isn't definitely against the rules, and (as you said) it encourages discussion - well played!

Awesome! I plan to continue trying this challenge as it is some of the most fun I've had in Hearthstone for a while. It's like Duels on hard mode. Hopefully I can push it even higher. Thanks for putting this together!

Hi All,

I really love this Avalon, really adds another fun purpose to the game and makes me enjoy duels more.

That being said I've reached 12-2 on Casual with C'thun Warrior. I've made little changes to the deck advised in the challenge post.

Didn't run Tealan, Twilight Elder and Kresh as they were not battlecry minions and I was aiming for All Together Now - Rally the Troops combo. Instead added Scorpid, and Lord Barov. My 6 drop was my Scrapmetal Demolitionist (Which granted me most of my wins and I lost my second match on Warrior Mirror to the Demolitionist bombs). My last three opponents were Warriors with almost identical treasures/hero powers. Two of them ran Quest one didn't. C'thun wasn't the game winner most of the time but slight board clear plus a 12/12 threat on board at the late game proved very useful on some longer matches.

My screenshots and the deck is as following

First pool - All Together Now

Second pool - Rally the Troops

Quote From sorryqt

Awesome! I plan to continue trying this challenge as it is some of the most fun I've had in Hearthstone for a while. It's like Duels on hard mode. Hopefully I can push it even higher. Thanks for putting this together!

Well, this is pretty sweet to read: thanks <3

So far, this season has been a lot more successful than the previous one, and we have received a ton of positive feedback: you can believe me when I say we're not going to drop Master Duelist any time soon!

Quote From Calenmir

Hi All,

I really love this Avalon, really adds another fun purpose to the game and makes me enjoy duels more.

That being said I've reached 12-2 on Casual with C'thun Warrior. I've made little changes to the deck advised in the challenge post.

Didn't run Tealan, Twilight Elder and Kresh as they were not battlecry minions and I was aiming for All Together Now - Rally the Troops combo. Instead added Scorpid, and Lord Barov. My 6 drop was my Scrapmetal Demolitionist (Which granted me most of my wins and I lost my second match on Warrior Mirror to the Demolitionist bombs). My last three opponents were Warriors with almost identical treasures/hero powers. Two of them ran Quest one didn't. C'thun wasn't the game winner most of the time but slight board clear plus a 12/12 threat on board at the late game proved very useful on some longer matches.

My screenshots and the deck is as following

First pool - All Together Now

Second pool - Rally the Troops

Show Spoiler

C'thun Warrior - Master Duelist 1.2: From Zero To Hero

A C'Thun Warrior Deck created by Calenmir. Last updated 3 years, 3 months ago

0

• 1x Provoke
• 1x Athletic Studies
• 1x Beckoner of Evil
• 1x Cult Neophyte
• 1x Disciple of C'Thun
• 1x Lord Barov
• 1x Mankrik
• 1x Venomous Scorpid
• 1x C'Thun's Chosen
• 1x Loatheb
• 1x Ancient Shieldbearer
• 1x Twin Emperor Vek'lor
• 1x C'Thun
• 1x Doomcaller
• 1x Alexstrasza the Life-Binder

Hey there, good to see you again!

Congratulations for the 12er! I tried some C'thun Warrior myself, but I failed to get some particularly remarkable runs: I think your changes are very reasonable and needed for the deck to perform better. I'll have a run with your list later today, and I'll let you know how it turns out.

I agree with you that C'Thun should not be treated as a finisher, but more as a tempo-ish play to take control of the board and set up lethal. Moreover, you also have Doomcaller, so you should definitely have no worries about 'wasting' your C'Thun.

On the other hand, I feel like Doomcaller might be a win-more card, especially since you don't really need it in the early matches: I tried Grommash Hellscream for it, but I'm still trying to understand if it's the right call.

On a side note, I particularly appreciated the fact that you already created and labeled your starting deck: you saved me some time. Thanks!

Quote From Avalon

I am afraid but - as it is - your submission is not valid: we can't see the pictures!

Could you please look into it so that I can take your run into account?

Sorry about that, can u see them now?

Yep: everything's showing right now - thanks for fixing it and congratulations for the 12er!

We've got another Twitter submission, and it's a spicy one!

Roost442 was able to get a 12-0 with Soul Demon Hunter!

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - All Together Now

Second pool - Rally the Troops

On the day the article was published, I jumped right in and built a modified version of my favorite Duels build, Token Demon Hunter.

I believe I'm 4-0 but haven't gone back to it since that day. :( 

My mission tonight is to get back to the game, finish the run, get the screenshots uploaded, and submit an actual entry! Wish me luck. 

got 10 Wins in Heroic with corrupt soul Warlock!

Starting treasure: Demonizer

Hero Power: Soulcial Studies

Pool 1: All together now

Pool 2: Battle totem

Proof:

I tried that button, does it not work with images from my hard drive or am I doing it wrong? If thats the case guess ill have to upload later. Thanks for the warm welcome :)

I decided to give Casual a try and got a 12-1 with this C'Thun Frenzy Warrior.

I went with the full frenzy and armor battlecry package to stave off aggressive decks. The Whirling + Saurfang combo also gives a play against SW:V while often also gaining armor. It's a fun package that fit well. I scored the elusive ATN RtT treasure combo which certainly helped. The only loss was to a Band of Bees Murloc Shaman that was unwinnable. Screenshots below, and I also threw in a fun screenshot from the final boss.

Deck Page: ZtH C'Thun Frenzy Warrior 

Start Deck

Final Boss. Look at me, I'm the Secret Paladin Now!!!

Final Result, I caught the screenshot right before the popup that blocks the result.

Ending Deck

Quote From sorryqt

I decided to give Casual a try and got a 12-1 with this C'Thun Frenzy Warrior.

I went with the full frenzy and armor battlecry package to stave off aggressive decks. The Whirling + Saurfang combo also gives a play against SW:V while often also gaining armor. It's a fun package that fit well. I scored the elusive ATN RtT treasure combo which certainly helped. The only loss was to a Band of Bees Murloc Shaman that was unwinnable. Screenshots below, and I also threw in a fun screenshot from the final boss.

Deck Page: ZtH C'Thun Frenzy Warrior 

Show Spoiler

Start Deck

Final Boss. Look at me, I'm the Secret Paladin Now!!!

Final Result, I caught the screenshot right before the popup that blocks the result.

Ending Deck

Congrats!

Yeah, the Casual end-of-the-run pop up is sooooo annoying!

Quote From AgentCroque

I tried that button, does it not work with images from my hard drive or am I doing it wrong? If thats the case guess ill have to upload later. Thanks for the warm welcome :)

They need to be hosted somewhere on the internet, they can't be linked from the local harddrive. Imgur is the easiest to upload to, then make sure you copy the url to the actual image (ending in .png usually) and paste it in for the source.

Thanks! I fixed my original post, proof and everything is up.

got 12-2 at heroic with quest priest (0 quests completed though)

i forgot to take the starting screenshot, i had these cards:

0: Desperate Prayer

1: Seek Guidance

2: Cult Neophyte, Deeprun Engineer, Pandaren Importer

3: Devout Dungeoneer, Entrapped Sorceress, Mankrik, SW:Void

4: Xyrella

5: Loatheb

6: Lightshower Elemental

7: Mutanus

8: Mo'arg Forgefiend

9: N'Zoth, God of the Deep

10: Goldshire Gnoll

My first ever 12 wins in duels after a number of 11 win runs. Went 12-1 on casual with this Silver Hand Paladin list, got lucky with treasures and buckets but I guess that's what it takes to get to 12 wins.

Quote From revaz142

got 12-2 at heroic with quest priest (0 quests completed though)

i forgot to take the starting screenshot, i had these cards:

0: Desperate Prayer

1: Seek Guidance

2: Cult Neophyte, Deeprun Engineer, Pandaren Importer

3: Devout Dungeoneer, Entrapped Sorceress, Mankrik, SW:Void

4: Xyrella

5: Loatheb

6: Lightshower Elemental

7: Mutanus

8: Mo'arg Forgefiend

9: N'Zoth, God of the Deep

10: Goldshire Gnoll

The starting screenshot is most important for proof that the rules in deck building were followed.

Also seems like my result hasn't been added to the leaderboard yet and it's been about 4 days since I posted it now.

Totally agree, i already have 1 valid 12-2 submission so i'm not gonna argue.

Just wanted to share:)

Did a heroic run with Paladin and got to 12 - 2 

Inspiration was Avalons Bis Paladin. Swapped Highlord Fordragon for Argent Commander.

also did a 7 - 3 run, not sure if I should post that too

Show Spoiler

https://imgur.com/a/sFTC2BY

https://imgur.com/gallery/lNnxeuW

https://imgur.com/gallery/izKWnI3

I dont know how to share these as images Q.Q

also, how do I prove that it is heroic? 

ty for your reply :)

im trying to use the function insert/edit image but it doenst seem to work :c

Edit: nvm. now I understand what you mean. i had to manually copy the link when it had .png at the end

also now I feel smarter and stupid at the same time ^^'

Managed a 12-1 run in Casual, despite one of the worst starter decks I've ever made. Frustratingly, the only loss came at 11-0, and I ended up playing the exact same opponent a second time and winning by the tiniest margin. 

A result of starting to build one deck, then switching to another idea, before finishing with a third, leaving Saurfang orphaned, and the recruit package unreliable. Also, don't try recruit warrior in Duels. Just don't.

Treasures were Pillage the Fallen and Scepter of Summoning. Pillage was a pleasant surprise,  I definitely underrated the value that can come from constantly having a 3/4/5 mana weapon up. Scepter was just horribly broken, partially for allowing coining out Oakheart on 4, which then pulled another 18 mana worth of minions into play.

If I tried it again, I'd drop the whole recruit package, and find something better for the six slot. The high rolls helped, but pulling anything under a 5 drop from them was just horrible. 

Starting Decklist, Final Decklist, final blow on the final boss, and 12 win pop-up in the spoiler.

Greetings everyone and thanks for your patience.

As Link already pointed out (thanks!), the last week was quite busy for me, and the free time I had was taken by the recent balance patch, so I wasn't able to pay much attention to this thread. However, I am now back, and I will see what happened in my absence.

Revaz142 - Unfortunately, your Questline Priest submission is not valid. I can see that you could've really built your deck in order to respect the restrictions, but the initial screen rule should not be broken. I try to be as flexible as possible, accepting HSReplay replays and such (even though I shouldn't and, to be correct, I won't from October), but if I were to let this slide then everyone would do the same. Again, I am sorry, because not recognizing someone's efforts feels pretty shitty, but I have little to no decision room here...

Evilgnomey - Congratulations for the Dude Paladin 12er! The submission is valid and will be uploaded in the leaderboard.

Aventurin - Hey there, welcome and congratulations for your feat! I am glad that my pre-made deck was useful for you. Your submission is valid as will be uploaded soon.

shaveyou - Wow, you hit 12-0 with that deck? Incredible! I am very glad to give up the lead to someone as creative as you. GG

Starting decklist in pictures. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the 8 mana slot... until I saw Violet Wurm! I played on my phone and the only thing I have is the final match on HSReplay which doesn't even show the win/loss totals. Oops. You can see the final decklist in the replay. It was not great.

No worries, in it for the fun, not the site gold. I'll try to create this deck in heroic if I get a chance. I think it could do well... I just got terrible choices in treasures (aside from Cannibalism) and bundles throughout. Think I went 4 or 5 wins, it was pretty poor. 

Quote From Avalon

shaveyou - Wow, you hit 12-0 with that deck? Incredible! I am very glad to give up the lead to someone as creative as you. GG

Thanks for the congrats, but I'll point out it was 12 - 1. Sadly lost a game at 11 wins.

Thank you for taking the time for this even though you are very busy. Good luck with the Exam results ☺️

Oh btw I have a burning question: Does C'Thun, the Shattered count as 10-cost card or as 4 5-Cost cards?

Wanted to try a deck with him

Cards' cost have to be considered before the game starts. Therefore, C'Thun, the Shattered is a 10-cost card: it doesn't really matter what its effect does, just like Goldshire Gnoll.

Quote From Avalon

---

Revaz142 - Unfortunately, your Questline Priest submission is not valid. I can see that you could've really built your deck in order to respect the restrictions, but the initial screen rule should not be broken. I try to be as flexible as possible, accepting HSReplay replays and such (even though I shouldn't and, to be correct, I won't from October), but if I were to let this slide then everyone would do the same. Again, I am sorry, because not recognizing someone's efforts feels pretty shitty, but I have little to no decision room here...

No worries, i know and agree that it's not a valid entry reward-wise. But i already have one valid 12-2 with big druid, so it's okay :)

Just wanted to share. :)