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炉石
The Angry Chicken #41: “Always, Probably, Ok” w/ Ben Brode
In the latest episode of
The Angry Chicken
the trio is joined by Hearthstone's Senior Game Designer
Ben Brode
! They discuss the
Curse of Naxxramas
, eSports, what's coming next, how came to be, and why he likes ! Later the crew also reviews the
Military Quarter
cards and
their effect on the meta
.
If their discussion of the third card set whet your appetite also check out
Garrett's full Military Quarter review
!
Continue Reading for more show details!
炉石
Go Ahead, I Riven-Double-Deathrattle-Dare You!
The Military Quarter has marched in and with it comes another 6 cards. The boss fights in this wing are actually some of the toughest so far and are a lot of fun and challenging. That being said I think this might have be the smallest shift in the meta we have seen from a single wing so far. While some really cool cards were added this week they have not yet broken through and made waves in the meta game. That's not to say that changes didn't happen. They did. This set of cards, however, has some interesting choices and some cards that only apply to specific decks.
We are getting close to having the full set and that is when the meta game will really start to accelerate as all of the new combinations will be available. For now we will discuss each of the cards that were introduced this week and some decks that have been changed to include them. I’ll assign a letter grade to each one as well based on my current evaluations. The value will change as new cards come out and offer new synergy and combo potential. Let’s get started.
The Cards
Of course, a 4/4 for 3 is strong but the downside is only really worth it for aggro decks which are willing to sacrifice card advantage for tempo and damage. That leaves this card in an awkward spot in a meta that has become very tough for aggro. The Shockadin (Aggro Paladin) can make great use of this card, however, as the deathrattle actually helps get more value from , so this card fits very well into that deck. As far as other aggro decks I don't believe this card will replace any of the charge and damage dealing deathrattles and battlecries that already exist often enough times to make a huge dent in the meta.
Constructed: C+
The decks it does work in will make great use of this card but for the most part it will be rare to see in my opinion.
Arena: C
This is a pickable card but there are many common cards that will get picked ahead of it. It's mediocre at best as you will need to get at least 2 for 1 to get a 2 for 2.
The 5-drop slot is getting crowded with , , and now Spectral Knight but that's a good thing. This was once a tough slot to fill after the nerf and now the options abound. Decks that have trouble against Miracle Rogue can make great use of this card as well as classes without their own 5-drops. So far I'm seeing this card in Shaman the most but all midrange decks can make use of this card as it is a on steroids. Plus its 6 health increases the odds of getting a 2 for 1 as the opponent is forced to trade minions into it. The downside of course is that your own buff spells cannot target it so to buff it requires minion battlecries and proximity buffs.
Constructed: B
I don't feel this card belongs in very many decks but the ones it does belong in are vastly improved with its inclusion. It's tough for a lot of classes to deal with and when played onto an empty board can take over a game.
Arena: B+
This will be a great pick in arena since beating Mage and Rogue is such a big deal. This card doesn't die to Fireball and cannot be Sapped or Eviscerated meaning it will stick and get value in almost every situation.
Ah, Deathlord. What do we do with you? This card has a lot of upside but will sometimes lose you the game so be careful. It has been used in a lot of decks to counter those pesky Zoolocks but against other decks it can be hard to get enough value to make up for the awful deathrattle. That said this card does have its uses. In a Priest deck you can heal the huge health pool and get a lot of value by trading and drawing cards as you heal outweighing the drawback with positive value. Sometimes the deathrattle can actually benefit you as the opponent loses out on battlecries. This is fairly rare, however, and the times it pulls a Ragnaros for free makes that a wash. Play this card at your own risk.
Constructed: B-
Very good in one deck and possibly very bad in others. It does counter Zoo fairly well so I predict you will see it in tournament play fairly often.
Arena: C
It is so hard to get value out of a card like this in arena. Sure, it will annoy the opponent while it's out there but the tempo will swing back once a free minion hits the board and so it's kind of like blowing your nitro boost too early. The other guy just catches up and passes you and you lose.
This guy is supposed to make all those deathrattle decks everyone has been dreaming of a reality. Unfortunately, I don't think we're going to see this very often in high level ladder or tournament decks as the end result is just a bunch of gimmicks and cool combos that don't happen enough to win games. This is coming from a guy who has already experienced the Rivendare + Cairne + Reincarnate dream. While that was incredibly fun to do and very satisfying it happened maybe twice over the course of about a dozen games and that is just not consistent enough to climb the ladder. I recommend you try for yourself but until we get the I think this will remain a gimmick that you will get crushed by on occasion. That said, come on, this is just a damn fun card.
Constructed: C+
It can work. It just won't work often enough to make it worth building a deck around.
Arena: C-
There is no way to know that you will draft enough deathrattles to take this so I recommend staying away in arena. In the Legendary slot there will often be a much better option anyway.
I really want cool Demon decks to become all the rage and some have started to pop up. Until that perfect mix of Demons and good neutral cards is found, however, this card will be rare on the ladder.
Realz
did play a cool Demon deck in the latest
VGVN Tournament
with some success. The drawback is that the stats are weak for 4 mana so if there is no Demon in your hand when the Voidcaller dies you basically just played a worse Yeti.
Constructed: B-
The Demon decks will be coming and when they do this will be the MVP. For now there hasn't been enough play time to know its true power but this is a very cool card.
Arena: C-
Unless you have already drafted a bunch of Demons this card will be a pass. The problem is that most of the Demons are already weak in arena so you will be passing on them anyway. I don't see this card being a strong arena pick.
Everyone looked at this card and though of all of the crazy combos and awesome plays that can be done. After playing with it for a while I can confirm that awesomeness can be achieved with this card. The issue is that the awesomeness is inconsistent and requires some setup to pull off but if you can get there just once during a game then you will likely win. An example of this is the Earth Elemental/Cairne + Ancestral Spirit + Reincarnate play. The problem I ran into was that I spent the game fighting for the board and by the time a play like this made sense it felt as though I could have just pushed for damage with other cards instead of waiting for one big turn. That said, I did get the combo off a few times and there was no coming back for the opponent. Don't give up, dear reader. This card will find its way into competitive decks.
Constructed: B
It can shine and shine brightly but it can also lay dormant in your hand. I believe in this card though. The potential is through the roof.
Arena: C-
This card is akin to Ancestral Healing in arena. You will find it difficult to make work without cards around it that are meant to take advantage of what it does well which is exploit deathrattles.
Final Thoughts
I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the Priest is having a bit of a renaissance lately as some of the new cards have really allowed the class to shine in a control heavy meta. The bad news...Miracle Rogue is back and back with a vengeance. It's just too hard to counter this deck even with some of the new Naxx cards like and Spectral Knight. Ultimately it's okay that one deck is just really powerful since the new wings will shake up the meta again but for the time being it can be very frustrating to play against. The best advice to those having a hard time dealing with Miracle Rogue is to save that Loatheb for the turn you think they are about to go off. Sometimes it is tempting to slam it down on turn 5 but then you miss the chance to disrupt the big drawing turn.
This week's Military Quarter did bring some fun new cards and has added to the already rich nature of the current state of the game but this was an incremental shift at most. We should see some interesting changes next week with the addition of and but for now we're inching along as things have stabilized a touch. A lot of creative decks are right around the corner and I'll bet some of you have concocted some already. If you have some decks that have made use of the new cards feel free to link them in the comments section. I will also be streaming the release of the construct quarter at midnight on Tuesday so check out
my Twitch channel
to see me make attempts at the new Heroic bosses.
The construct wing includes one of my favorite bosses ever,
Thaddius
, so I look forward to streaming the fun.
Until then, job’s done!
炉石
The Angry Chicken #40: Plagued
In the latest episode of
The Angry Chicken
the trio discusses the
Plague Quarter
's arrival. They talk about the
Normal
,
Heroic
, and
Class Challenge
modes, the awesomeness of and
his effect on the meta
, and how much they don't like .
If their discussion of the second card set whet your appetite also check out
Garrett's full Plague Quarter review
!
Continue Reading for more show details!
炉石
The Plague is Here…and its Name is Loatheb
The Plague Quarter hit last week with a bit of a whimper as many players could not participate for about 72 hours due to some issues with the purchase process when using gold. Luckily for me I was able to play it the first day as I purchased all of the wings with real money as a package. The boss fights were quite fun in this wing and the Heroic versions did offer a bit of a challenge. Here are links to the decks I used for each Heroic boss if anyone is still having issues:
We’ll discuss each of the cards that were introduced this week and some decks that have been changed to include them. I’ll assign a letter grade to each one as well based on my current evaluations. The value will change as new cards come out and offer new synergy and combo potential. Let’s get started.
Keep reading for a breakdown of each new card and it's place in the current meta.
炉石
The Angry Chicken #39: Arachnophobia
In the latest episode of
The Angry Chicken
the trio has returned to discuss the arrival of
the Curse of Naxxramas
! They talk about the
Normal
,
Heroic
, and
Class Challenge
modes, the
new cards
from the first wing, and the
shifting meta
!
If their discussion of the first card set whet your appetite also check out
Garrett's full Arachnid Quarter review
!
Continue Reading for more show details!
炉石
An Itsy-Bitsy Meta Shift
The heavily anticipated first wing of Naxxramas finally hit last week and with it came 6 new cards to shake up the meta game of Hearthstone. Many people have been complaining that the meta had been stale for some time so Naxx is here just in time. While there are 30 cards coming in the Naxx expansion eventually we only got 6 this week and the cards will be introduced over the next 5 weeks in smaller groups which means the meta will evolve each week by a smaller amount.
Let’s go over each of the cards that were introduced this week and what decks have started to utilize them. We’ll also grade the cards based on what we’ve seen so far. Keep in mind that even though these cards are out now their value will change each week as new cards come out and the meta shifts again. For now we are only worried about how these cards have affected the existing meta game.
Keep reading for a breakdown of each new card and it's place in the current meta.
炉石
Zetalot Priest: For Fun and Prophet
There will always be a class that is at the bottom of the totem pole in Hearthstone and for a while now that class has been Priest. While this means that many people will avoid playing the class entirely it also encourages those players who enjoy a challenge to come up with ways to solve the Priests inherent issues and thrive playing only the “worst” class.
Amaz
is one of these players and has made a name for himself as one of the most popular streamers as well as a Priest specialist. He is known for sniper shots and having fun on stream but also for winning some big tournaments. A bit lesser known but equally as skilled at the ways of the Priest is an EU player named
Zetalot
. He plays a very different deck that features the Priest legendary but with a similar board control style and has found success on the ladder. Since more people know of the Amaz version of Priest let’s take a look at Zetalot’s deck and discuss its play style.
Continue Reading for a full list, card explanations and a video of some gameplay.
炉石
I Will Taunt You a Second Time...and a Third and a Fourth time
Control Paladin has been in a rough spot for a long time and has virtually disappeared from the ladder. The Giants decks that were created by players like
Koyuki
just don’t have enough good match-ups in the current meta to compete but recently
Kolento
used a very slow Paladin deck to reach rank 1 legend and has started a small Pally resurgence.
In this article I will take a look at the deck and discuss the place each card has in it, as well as how to play the deck and why it works. It is not a fast deck by any means and is not one I would recommend for climbing the early ranks of the ladder but once you reach rank 5 a deck like this can be very consistent.
Continue Reading for a full list, card explanations and a video of some gameplay.
炉石
The Angry Chicken #38: Paladin Love
In the latest episode of
The Angry Chicken
while Jocelyn is celebrating her birthday Garrett and Dills discuss Curse of Naxxramas pricing, the HearthStats report, a new Kolento Paladin deck
(article to be up shortly!)
, and more.
Continue Reading for more show details!
炉石
The Angry Chicken #37: Live from Nerdtacular 2014!
The Angry Chicken
crew was just at
Nerdtacular 2014
! There they did a live show while
actually
sitting next to one another and discussed the lack of Naxx updates, sexism in eSports, took many questions from the live audience, and had an appearance by Blizzard Entertainment's own
Russell Brower
!
Although the live show was recorded on video it's uncertain when that will be available, so for now it's an audio-only episode.
Also check out the totally
Pally deck article from Dills this week
!
Continue Reading for more show details!
炉石
This Pally Deck is Bananas
I was playing an older version of the Shockadin deck when I came across a player by the name of Viix. He appeared to be playing the same deck as myself so I prepared for the mirror match up when all of a sudden he dropped on me. I looked at my hand and noticed I had no way to clear Cho with out casting spells and suddenly I realized I was playing a God. I dropped a recruit and passed and then I got hit with a bombshell. , followed by . It was glorious. Viix is love, Viix is life.
In this article I’ll go over the deck I made immediately following my shellacking by this Hearthstone mega-mind and how to play it. I can honestly say it is one of my favorite decks in all of Hearthstone and it always catches people off guard. It also wins handily against Miracle Rogue and Handlock and does decently well against almost everything else, making it a great deck for the ladder. Enjoy!
Continue Reading for a full list, card explanations and a video of some gameplay.
炉石
The Angry Chicken #36: Delayed Announcements
In the latest episode of
The Angry Chicken
the trio discusses the Curse of Naxxramas leak, the recent announcements of announcements, and
maybe
Dills's Control Warrior
- it's 50/50.
Continue Reading for more show details!
炉石
Victory or Death!
Control Warrior has been a staple on the ladder for several seasons now and continues to be strong. Face Warrior, on the other hand, has seen a dramatic decrease in play as it tends to run out of steam to any deck running taunts or a lot of removal although it is still a viable option in tournament play as it matches up well with Miracle Rogue. OTK Warrior was destroyed by Blizzard when and were nerfed which really only leaves Control Warrior although a new Tempo Warrior may be gaining popularity soon.
In this write up I’ll discuss one version of the Control Warrior that I have been running on the ladder and give some options for alternative cards that can be used instead. This deck has many variations and utilizes a bunch of early removal and late game legendaries but the flavor of Control Warrior can be tweaked to fit each player’s style. It is not a cheap deck by any means as it usually runs between 6- 8 legendaries. It is not a fast deck either and many games, especially the mirror match-up, can go to fatigue before a winner is decided. What this deck does do well is provide a consistent win rate at almost any rank on the ladder and absolutely smashes some popular decks like Freeze Mage or Aggro Hunter.
Continue Reading for a full list and card explanations.
炉石
The Angry Chicken #35: Salty Rogue
In the latest episode of
The Angry Chicken
Robert of BlizzPro stands in for Dills to discuss gummy bears, the
latest Curse of Naxxramas card
, and Reynad's Midrange Hunter. Also check out the latest strategy article from Dills where he goes over the
latest Druid deck
.
Continue Reading for more show details!
炉石
Ramp Up and Burst Down: A Guide to the New Druid
The
Druid
class in Hearthstone has been popular in the constructed meta since beta and is still being refined to this day. The StrifeCro Ancient Watcher decks were huge for a while, followed by the Token Druid which was more aggressive and recently the Ramp Druid deck was all the rage after Gaara won Dreamhack with it. Now we are seeing a new sleeker version of the Druid with elements of all three decks. It is quite consistent against the current meta and has a lot of tools to control the board as well as finishers to get that last bit of damage in for the victory.
I’m not sure who created this exact version but I’ve seen
Kolento
play it a bunch on his stream and even get to Legend rank 1 with this exact deck. In this article we will discuss why the cards that make up this deck work well together, the deck's play style and how to mulligan your opening hand.
Continue Reading and learn to play the Burst Ramp Druid!
炉石
The Angry Chicken #34: Hack the Dream
In the latest episode of
The Angry Chicken
the trio discusses the DreamHack Hearthstone tournament, the
latest Curse of Naxxramas card
, and
Mages in arena
.
Continue Reading for more show details!
炉石
Mage is All the Rage
Constructed play has a quickly shifting meta game that favors a different class every week. Arena, on the other hand, has had one top dog class for an extended period of time.
Mage
is a powerhouse in arena even after getting nerfed to the ground in constructed. If you want to be successful in arena you have to learn to beat Mages. Of course, you can also just pick Mage yourself but that’s the easy way out. Let’s take a look at why Mages are so good in arena and what you have to do to beat them. The road to 12 wins will always go through Mages at some point so beating them is a key to success.
What makes Mages so good in arena? Mages have some of the most efficient removal in the game and almost all of the cards that make mage so good are common cards which means they have a high chance to be offered up in arena drafts.
Continue Reading for details on what makes Mages strong in arena, and how to counter them!
炉石
The Angry Chicken #33: Jocelyn Strikes Back
In the latest episode of
The Angry Chicken
Jocelyn returns from
her illness
to rejoin Garrett and Dills discussing the latest Curse of Naxxramas card, the randomness of card text, and
arena strategy
.
Continue Reading for more show details!
炉石
The Subtle Strategies of Drafting for Arena
Arena drafting is not a science. I would say it is closer to an art form. I've seen a lot of articles ranking cards in exact order based on value but during an arena draft these values fluctuate based on the class you are playing and the cards you have already selected. It's good to understand the base value of the cards as a starting point but in this article I will discuss how to adjust these values based on the less obvious factors at play during an arena draft.
If you learn nothing else from this article, learn this; nothing in arena drafting or play is necessarily right or wrong. I have drafted decks that seemed amazing on paper and have then gone 2-3 with them. I have also drafted decks that seemed like absolute garbage, considered retiring and then won 12. I can give you some guidelines and general rules but getting good at arena is also going to take experience and a willingness to adapt during your drafting and gameplay.
In this first article concerning arena strategy I will discuss how I approach drafting decks and some general concepts I have developed. I will get more in-depth and cover things like individual classes and cards in future articles but for now let’s keep it simple and start with the foundation of drafting good decks: A solid understanding of how to adjust your picks based on what your current deck and draft state looks like.
Continue Reading
for the rest of the article!
炉石
The Angry Chicken #32: Many Stats!
In the latest episode of The Angry Chicken Garrett and Dills are joined by Chris from HearthStats to talk stats, the latest Curse of Naxxramas card reveals, and a
new Paladin aggro deck
.
Continue Reading for more show details!
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