So cool that everyone here chose different Tier 2 hero so far :D Love the diversity :)
On topic, yesterday, after another week, I´ve hit lvl 100 and picked Uther Lawbringer - I like the book detail, even tho it might be the most hated portrait by now. Next one will be Felheart Gul'dan, cause he looks so badass, but I have many cool Warlock portraits (like N'Zoth my fav), so I don´t need it right away.
First one doesn't seem like bug to me. The shuffled cards loses all of the buffs, echantments, cost decreases unless they are specified on the card like Dire Frenzy or Kingsbane.
So if you say that Efficient Octo-bot's cost decrease stays after the cards shuffled, then Efficient Octo-bot is the card that doesn't work as intended.
As far as I was aware, Secret Passage doesn't shuffle your hand back into your deck, rather sets them off to the side, temporarily removed from the game. (You can see this when playing it with 4 other cards, if they shuffle back then your deck size should remain the same, however, it always decreases by 4 since you're drawing 4 new cards and not returning your hand to the deck)
Now there's nothing stopping the spaghetti rules from having a "cards removed from the game lose their buffs" clause as well, but that doesn't explain why Efficient Octo-bot still works in this case
As you suspected, the typical method is by learning the current meta and making an educated guess based on the most popular Tier 1 and Tier 2 archetypes for a given class.
This applies even moreso to the Ladder as the higher you climb the more likely you are to run into exact copies of the top lists you see on sites like HSReplay. Combo is no different in this regard except that it isn't popular for many classes at the moment (though not too long ago I'd mulligan for a combo battle whenever I'd face Demon Hunter expecting an Il'gynoth OTK deck).
Personally, I keep in mind the "pocket meta" of where I'm at in terms of Ladder Rank/Casual MMR, but I'll also mulligan for cards based on what match-up I fear more (or what archetype(s) I'm "weaker" against in the parlance of this article). For example, let's say I'm playing a slower deck against Druid and Ramp Druids are popular at the moment. In this scenario I'll often still keep a wide-board removal option during the mulligan in the off-chance they're running Token Druid just because I can quickly lose against that match-up otherwise. Not claiming this is the optimal strategy from an expected win-rate POV, just my own preference for the mulligan.
Very cool idea! I didn't pay much attention to the Quilboar tag coming to constructed so I appreciate you highlighting it here. I don't have Plaguemaw atm, but if unpack him I'll defintely give this list a go. I also liked the changes to the article's format; keep up the great work!
This is my fault, I deserve all the blame. We need to update the images in the database for the Quilboar cards. I wrongly assumed our script that dumps changed card ids on patches would have included them since they got new tags. RIP
I never said anything, since I wasn't going to play the deck anyway, but I always wondered how you would know if the opponent's deck was aggro, control or combo at the mulligan phase. I know some classes are aggro centric and others are control centric, but I'm not sure about combo.
quillboar tribe has been made official like a week or so ago. i guess u have been off of the game or websites related in the meantime. they even introduced the tribe in Battlegrounds making them the n1 tribe there.
Quilboars are a labeled tribe. None of the cards shown here show it (BloodMefist probably used the wrong card ID and didn't notice). But the cards in the game have the quilboar tag.
Is this confirmed? That Nzoth can bring back 'quilboar' minions despite this not being a labeled tribe . Does that mean treants can be brought back too?
This is a really cool deck idea! I'm not a huge fan of Nourish, since it's just always been a bit bad since being nerfed to 5 mana,. I feel like Living Seed (Rank 1) might be good, since in its base form it curves immediately into Circus Amalgam or Thickhide Kodo. Also seems like you could build a really cool Wild version of this deck with both N'zoths (and Hadronox!).
Didn't watch much this weekend, because Specialist is the most boring format ever conceived, but it's nice to see Blitzchung's and Rami's off-meta deck choices being rewarded with a lot of points. Also big props to Rdu for once again showing the world that he's more than just a malding battlegrounds player.
In terms of point standings, APAC is the big surprise here, with Glory and Surrender both not being in top 4. Also, Tyler should honestly be ashamed of himself for the absolute lack of effort he's putting into his preparation and performance. I understand that he prefers being a battlegrounds player now, but if he's no longer interested in Constructed he should've done a Justsaiyan and retired instead of occupying a spot belonging to a more deserving player just for the easy paycheck. In EU, it'svery surprising to see Warma in top 4 after his abysmal showing last season, he's really growing into his role as a GM. I hope that Frenetic manages to get himself out of relegation range, mainly because else he would automatically get promoted back into GM. It's already unfair enough how hard it is to get into GM as a European player without there basically being one less promotion slot. In America's I really hope Monsanto manages to make play-offs.
Anyway, the coming two weeks should be very interesting. LHS is the most skill-testing format, which will be a great change from the worst format we've had for the last two weeks. I expect the veteran players who already have a lot of experience in the format, like Thijs, to do relatively well. Hopefully the balance changes will also shake things up a bit, although I feel bad for the GMs that they get very little preparation time with it again.
Hey Kansas, thanks for the idea. I don't have it in deck, since I'm running minion-heavy version, mainly to be able to use Book of Specters as a draw engine and Starscryer to tutor Wildfire or Book early. Don't even run Fireball for that reason. I could try Potion later in a different version, sounds fun! :)
Edit: also, thanks for the reminder that Solarian exists, I forgot about him since the nerf. He should be good since the draw power is high
Won against Odd Warrior today with Even Mage. It felt like an impossible feat with a deck that mostly relies on HP to burn, but I didn't want to give up.
After all standard armor and aoe bullshit (and a lot of button pressing from both of us), he pretty much exhausted most of removal, except for Reckless Flurry and his equipped 1/2 Supercollider. I fatigued, and then played my Maiev Shadowsong + Coldarra Drake combo, along with 0-mana Frost Giant. Giant got 1 hit, he couldn't clear with Collider because of Dormant minion, so he was forced to flurry next turn, losing 17 armor. Then he armored up as best as he could, but ended up on 29 effective life, when my dragon woke up :)
Second interaction makes sense considering that cards drawn by soularium won't be discarded if you shuffle them into deck using plot twist. And Evocation discards "at the end of the turn",while secret passage swaps them back "next turn" (So you won't discard spels since you are not holding them at evocation's discard trigger).
It's not that simple. I had the same dilemma after the mini set. Because I saved opened 70+ packs at the mini set, I had no need to buy it with gold or card. Then I was wondering if it was worth spending 2000 gold on it for the dust, but I ended up saving it for the new expansion, and I never regretted it.
Think about it this way: would you rather spend gold on a dust worth of a legendary and 2 epics, or would you rather open 20 packs in the upcoming expansion, with not only a chence to open a legendary and at least 2 epics, but also lower your pity timer. It may still be worth buying with your card if it is not a financial burden, but for the love of love, hold on to your gold because it's the most valuable resource we have.
Won against Odd Warrior today with Even Mage. It felt like an impossible feat with a deck that mostly relies on HP to burn, but I didn't want to give up.
After all standard armor and aoe bullshit (and a lot of button pressing from both of us), he pretty much exhausted most of removal, except for Reckless Flurry and his equipped 1/2 Supercollider. I fatigued, and then played my Maiev Shadowsong + Coldarra Drake combo, along with 0-mana Frost Giant. Giant got 1 hit, he couldn't clear with Collider because of Dormant minion, so he was forced to flurry next turn, losing 17 armor. Then he armored up as best as he could, but ended up on 29 effective life, when my dragon woke up :)
Rewards Track: Current progress 2.0
So cool that everyone here chose different Tier 2 hero so far :D Love the diversity :)
On topic, yesterday, after another week, I´ve hit lvl 100 and picked Uther Lawbringer - I like the book detail, even tho it might be the most hated portrait by now. Next one will be Felheart Gul'dan, cause he looks so badass, but I have many cool Warlock portraits (like N'Zoth my fav), so I don´t need it right away.
Secret Passage issues
As far as I was aware, Secret Passage doesn't shuffle your hand back into your deck, rather sets them off to the side, temporarily removed from the game. (You can see this when playing it with 4 other cards, if they shuffle back then your deck size should remain the same, however, it always decreases by 4 since you're drawing 4 new cards and not returning your hand to the deck)
Now there's nothing stopping the spaghetti rules from having a "cards removed from the game lose their buffs" clause as well, but that doesn't explain why Efficient Octo-bot still works in this case
Menagerie Taunt Druid Deck List and Guide - Memes and Dreams #17
As you suspected, the typical method is by learning the current meta and making an educated guess based on the most popular Tier 1 and Tier 2 archetypes for a given class.
This applies even moreso to the Ladder as the higher you climb the more likely you are to run into exact copies of the top lists you see on sites like HSReplay. Combo is no different in this regard except that it isn't popular for many classes at the moment (though not too long ago I'd mulligan for a combo battle whenever I'd face Demon Hunter expecting an Il'gynoth OTK deck).
Personally, I keep in mind the "pocket meta" of where I'm at in terms of Ladder Rank/Casual MMR, but I'll also mulligan for cards based on what match-up I fear more (or what archetype(s) I'm "weaker" against in the parlance of this article). For example, let's say I'm playing a slower deck against Druid and Ramp Druids are popular at the moment. In this scenario I'll often still keep a wide-board removal option during the mulligan in the off-chance they're running Token Druid just because I can quickly lose against that match-up otherwise. Not claiming this is the optimal strategy from an expected win-rate POV, just my own preference for the mulligan.
Menagerie Taunt Druid Deck List and Guide - Memes and Dreams #17
Very cool idea! I didn't pay much attention to the Quilboar tag coming to constructed so I appreciate you highlighting it here. I don't have Plaguemaw atm, but if unpack him I'll defintely give this list a go. I also liked the changes to the article's format; keep up the great work!
Runeterra's New Targon Cards Have a Hidden Story, "Adventures with Chip"
I don't play Runeterra and know virtually nothing about it but I love Chip.
Menagerie Taunt Druid Deck List and Guide - Memes and Dreams #17
This is my fault, I deserve all the blame. We need to update the images in the database for the Quilboar cards. I wrongly assumed our script that dumps changed card ids on patches would have included them since they got new tags. RIP
Runeterra's New Targon Cards Have a Hidden Story, "Adventures with Chip"
So chip is a tourist guide? Great.
There something similar with Vladimir followers. Their flavor text in one cryptic conversation :
Crimson Curator:
"Beloved companions!"
Crimson Disciple:
"Edvin! There you are, handsome. I was just thinking of you!"
Crimson Curator:
"Were you? Well I received an invitation."
Crimson Aristocrat:
"Ah, you too? To the Reveler's B--"
Crimson Curator:
"--Reveler's Ball! Yes!"
Crimson Disciple:
"Each of us can go, now…"
Crimson Curator:
"Then we must! I shall present my family."
Crimson Aristocrat:
"How am I to tolerate mine?"
Crimson Disciple:
"Escort me. I'll make it fun."
Crimson Aristocrat:
"Respectfully, my dear, my father would disown me. ...perhaps we should wear matching dresses."
Crimson Disciple:
"Or nothing at all?"
Crimson Curator:
"Starters before dessert, my dear. And you, Kye? Will you attend?"
Crimson Awakener:
"Even if I said 'no', you'd drag me along. So... sure."
Now here the fun part. If you take the first letter of their sentences, you will find a hidden message.
Quest Trading - Play A Friend!
Completel
Menagerie Taunt Druid Deck List and Guide - Memes and Dreams #17
I never said anything, since I wasn't going to play the deck anyway, but I always wondered how you would know if the opponent's deck was aggro, control or combo at the mulligan phase. I know some classes are aggro centric and others are control centric, but I'm not sure about combo.
Menagerie Taunt Druid Deck List and Guide - Memes and Dreams #17
quillboar tribe has been made official like a week or so ago. i guess u have been off of the game or websites related in the meantime. they even introduced the tribe in Battlegrounds making them the n1 tribe there.
Menagerie Taunt Druid Deck List and Guide - Memes and Dreams #17
Quilboars are a labeled tribe. None of the cards shown here show it (BloodMefist probably used the wrong card ID and didn't notice). But the cards in the game have the quilboar tag.
Menagerie Taunt Druid Deck List and Guide - Memes and Dreams #17
Is this confirmed? That Nzoth can bring back 'quilboar' minions despite this not being a labeled tribe . Does that mean treants can be brought back too?
Menagerie Taunt Druid Deck List and Guide - Memes and Dreams #17
This is a really cool deck idea! I'm not a huge fan of Nourish, since it's just always been a bit bad since being nerfed to 5 mana,. I feel like Living Seed (Rank 1) might be good, since in its base form it curves immediately into Circus Amalgam or Thickhide Kodo. Also seems like you could build a really cool Wild version of this deck with both N'zoths (and Hadronox!).
Battlegrounds Brawl Returns Next Week With Free Hearthstone Card Packs via Twitch Drops - $100k Prize Pool on May 12
They didn't even say this lmao. Grow up
Hearthstone Grandmasters 2021 Season 1 - Week 4 Results, Decklists, and More! (Spoiler Free)
Didn't watch much this weekend, because Specialist is the most boring format ever conceived, but it's nice to see Blitzchung's and Rami's off-meta deck choices being rewarded with a lot of points. Also big props to Rdu for once again showing the world that he's more than just a malding battlegrounds player.
In terms of point standings, APAC is the big surprise here, with Glory and Surrender both not being in top 4. Also, Tyler should honestly be ashamed of himself for the absolute lack of effort he's putting into his preparation and performance. I understand that he prefers being a battlegrounds player now, but if he's no longer interested in Constructed he should've done a Justsaiyan and retired instead of occupying a spot belonging to a more deserving player just for the easy paycheck. In EU, it'svery surprising to see Warma in top 4 after his abysmal showing last season, he's really growing into his role as a GM. I hope that Frenetic manages to get himself out of relegation range, mainly because else he would automatically get promoted back into GM. It's already unfair enough how hard it is to get into GM as a European player without there basically being one less promotion slot. In America's I really hope Monsanto manages to make play-offs.
Anyway, the coming two weeks should be very interesting. LHS is the most skill-testing format, which will be a great change from the worst format we've had for the last two weeks. I expect the veteran players who already have a lot of experience in the format, like Thijs, to do relatively well. Hopefully the balance changes will also shake things up a bit, although I feel bad for the GMs that they get very little preparation time with it again.
The Pepper Thread - Share Some Good Vibes!
Hey Kansas, thanks for the idea. I don't have it in deck, since I'm running minion-heavy version, mainly to be able to use Book of Specters as a draw engine and Starscryer to tutor Wildfire or Book early. Don't even run Fireball for that reason. I could try Potion later in a different version, sounds fun! :)
Edit: also, thanks for the reminder that Solarian exists, I forgot about him since the nerf. He should be good since the draw power is high
Hearthstone Grandmasters 2021 Season 1 - Week 4 Results, Decklists, and More! (Spoiler Free)
Perfectly balanced, like all things should be.
Hearthstone Grandmasters 2021 Season 1 - Week 4 Results, Decklists, and More! (Spoiler Free)
It's only fair. Mage is the only class that can't win by playing Crabrider on 2, so they have Incanter's Flow instead :^)
Custom Class: The Detective
The Irregular Summoning is broken with cards like Devilsaur Egg, Summoning Stone, Validated Doomsayer, etc. With good mulligan and Coin you can have a 20+ mana board at first turn.
Hearthstone Grandmasters 2021 Season 1 - Week 4 Results, Decklists, and More! (Spoiler Free)
What is everyone talking about, there is no problem with mage </sarcasm>
The Pepper Thread - Share Some Good Vibes!
Does your even mage have Potion of Illusion? In terms of combo potential it is a lot better than Maiev since you can use it on Coldarra Drake to kill your opponent and only have to wait 1 turn instead of 2. It also works well with Astromancer Solarian, Reckless Apprentice, and if your lucky even Mordresh Fire Eye.
Self-report
I've added an "Other" category to reports for anything that isn't listed. Sinti had brought this up yesterday and now its in =)
Secret Passage issues
Second interaction makes sense considering that cards drawn by soularium won't be discarded if you shuffle them into deck using plot twist. And Evocation discards "at the end of the turn",while secret passage swaps them back "next turn" (So you won't discard spels since you are not holding them at evocation's discard trigger).
Is Hearthstone's Darkmoon Faire Races Mini-Set Worth Buying? Last Chance to Buy!
It's not that simple. I had the same dilemma after the mini set. Because I saved opened 70+ packs at the mini set, I had no need to buy it with gold or card. Then I was wondering if it was worth spending 2000 gold on it for the dust, but I ended up saving it for the new expansion, and I never regretted it.
Think about it this way: would you rather spend gold on a dust worth of a legendary and 2 epics, or would you rather open 20 packs in the upcoming expansion, with not only a chence to open a legendary and at least 2 epics, but also lower your pity timer. It may still be worth buying with your card if it is not a financial burden, but for the love of love, hold on to your gold because it's the most valuable resource we have.
The Pepper Thread - Share Some Good Vibes!
Won against Odd Warrior today with Even Mage. It felt like an impossible feat with a deck that mostly relies on HP to burn, but I didn't want to give up.
After all standard armor and aoe bullshit (and a lot of button pressing from both of us), he pretty much exhausted most of removal, except for Reckless Flurry and his equipped 1/2 Supercollider. I fatigued, and then played my Maiev Shadowsong + Coldarra Drake combo, along with 0-mana Frost Giant. Giant got 1 hit, he couldn't clear with Collider because of Dormant minion, so he was forced to flurry next turn, losing 17 armor. Then he armored up as best as he could, but ended up on 29 effective life, when my dragon woke up :)