Hearthstone

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Now that I'm rank 5 I'm just having heaps of fun with my BFF Jaraxxus :) I even have a positive record so far! *cough* 3-2 *cough*
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Pyros is not essential, though as I stated she is powerful. Ultimately she's a value minion. You can get away with all sorts of replacements. Thalnos isn't bad, though you don't really need spell damage as much as you'd think. You could also try Cairne, Echo of Medivh, a Babbling Book... whatever your heart desires. That's one of the nice things about Reno decks... they're super customizable so missing a single card won't break them. Hell, you could tech in a Golakka Crawler if you want.


I built the deck with one change (Pyros -> Bloodmage, and then Bloodmage -> Babbling Book) and was climbing really easily. One game I pulled off the duplicate on Kazakus, then had Brann for Kazakus 2 and Kazakus 3. The hardest part about 5 Kazakus potions is finding the hand size for them all.

Also, I was able to outvalue a Jade Druid thanks to Nzoth reviving two Sylvani.

The Malygos list seems, uh... well, I played it and immediately faced a pirate warrior. Seems non-ideal for climbing, but I like it as a high level counterpick deck.
 
I built the deck with one change (Pyros -> Bloodmage, and then Bloodmage -> Babbling Book) and was climbing really easily. One game I pulled off the duplicate on Kazakus, then had Brann for Kazakus 2 and Kazakus 3. The hardest part about 5 Kazakus potions is finding the hand size for them all.

Also, I was able to outvalue a Jade Druid thanks to Nzoth reviving two Sylvani.

The Malygos list seems, uh... well, I played it and immediately faced a pirate warrior. Seems non-ideal for climbing, but I like it as a high level counterpick deck.
Oh god, no. I would never recommend just laddering with the Malygos list. But high level Wild has such a small population that you will run into the same people 4-5 times in a row. It's an extremely targeted list focused on doing one thing really well, and that thing is punishing slower decks.
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
I'm having trouble finding any deck that I love and want to play for extensive periods of time.

I think there's some weird internal tension going on. My favorite cards in the game are ones like Swashburglar and Shaku that are strong while generating random hand-states, but I'm most successful as a player when I just, you know, play the beat down. But I also derive fun from winning. My best performing decks aren't my favorite ones. Like, last season I stalled hard with Miracle Rogue, a deck I quite liked, then got to Legend with Mid Hunter and Token Druid, neither of which really excited me.

Do you guys have decks that you love love love?
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Miracle rogue is certainly a deck that I love love love, but I stalled as well. Any control oriented warlock deck with Jaraxxus is dear to my heart as well :D
 
Do you guys have decks that you love love love?
Wild Freeze and 4-crab Standard Mid Hunter. I really like Renolock, Midrange Anyfin decks (including Secret Palafin) and had a great time with Combo Druid but of course that one was too good to last in Standard. I keep coming back to Freeze, though - the skill ceiling is enormous and even after playing the deck for months I find myself pulling off new and exciting lines every season. First I learned to play around Loatheb where possible, then secret hate, then all the Kobold kills, then I got better at chipping people down to OTK range, then I learned the 'new plan' against Pirate Warrior, and the whole time I got steadily better at the delicate combo machine the deck represents. I understand that some people find playing against Freeze to be boring, so I try not to main the deck too much, but I find it to be a fun and rewarding deck to pilot.

Also, with mid Hunter I get to play absurd value minions. Have you read Savannah Highmane? That thing is bonkers.

Combo Druid was a beautiful combo midrange deck where you needed to be able to pivot from board control to a burst kill at a moment's notice. Mid Hunter has some of the same feeling, especially in Wild, but I always thought that was a useful HS skill in general and those two decks rewarded being good at knowing when to pivot.

I also like having golden cards. I'm a magpie at heart, but it makes the boards less monotonous to look at.

PS: I love mid Hunter so much I recently finished golding out my Wild list a week or two ago, after working towards it for about 5-6 months. It's great to finally be done with the quest.
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Wild Freeze and 4-crab Standard Mid Hunter. I really like Renolock, Midrange Anyfin decks (including Secret Palafin) and had a great time with Combo Druid but of course that one was too good to last in Standard. I keep coming back to Freeze, though - the skill ceiling is enormous and even after playing the deck for months I find myself pulling off new and exciting lines every season. First I learned to play around Loatheb where possible, then secret hate, then all the Kobold kills, then I got better at chipping people down to OTK range, then I learned the 'new plan' against Pirate Warrior, and the whole time I got steadily better at the delicate combo machine the deck represents. I understand that some people find playing against Freeze to be boring, so I try not to main the deck too much, but I find it to be a fun and rewarding deck to pilot.

Also, with mid Hunter I get to play absurd value minions. Have you read Savannah Highmane? That thing is bonkers.

Combo Druid was a beautiful combo midrange deck where you needed to be able to pivot from board control to a burst kill at a moment's notice. Mid Hunter has some of the same feeling, especially in Wild, but I always thought that was a useful HS skill in general and those two decks rewarded being good at knowing when to pivot.

I also like having golden cards. I'm a magpie at heart, but it makes the boards less monotonous to look at.

PS: I love mid Hunter so much I recently finished golding out my Wild list a week or two ago, after working towards it for about 5-6 months. It's great to finally be done with the quest.

What's your current Wild Hunter list Saf? :)
 
I enjoy any well-constructed HS list, but unless I feel I know enough to build them from scratch/tweak existing lists, no HS gives me enough utility to play at the competitive volume. 1v1 MTGO Commander may replace a lot of my HS time... which makes me, sad, because I spent $$ to buy in for the new expansion (and I probably need to spend a few hundred to play MTGO).

I wish HS was singleton. Reno/super potion person are soooo fun, as is randomness.
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
I didn't really play much HS this month, but I did still feel obliged to get to Rank 5 in Wild. Playing against Quest Rogue so much really soured me on Standard, so I became the scourge of Wild: Pirate Warrior. I actually enjoy piloting it, far more than something like Aggro Druid.

Been slowly opening Ungoro pack after pack before I craft my next Legendary.

How'd you Wild dedicated players do this month?
 
I didn't really play much HS this month, but I did still feel obliged to get to Rank 5 in Wild. Playing against Quest Rogue so much really soured me on Standard, so I became the scourge of Wild: Pirate Warrior. I actually enjoy piloting it, far more than something like Aggro Druid.

Been slowly opening Ungoro pack after pack before I craft my next Legendary.

How'd you Wild dedicated players do this month?
Rank 5, I was too busy for the legend grind and didn't want to try for top 64 like a lot of people were. Wild definitely felt bigger than usual, especially at 5-L.

I really like Pirate Warrior from a meta design perspective - the strongest aggro deck in the format is a synergy deck full of two-card combos and that attacks from a couple of angles. No more is face hunter with the best aggro one- and two-drops the best aggro deck, it's something beautifully refined and stronger because of its synergy than anything else - an inspiring message for those of us trying to make aggro "interesting".
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Sequencing is pretty fun with the deck. I do think BR Legacy Sacgro has more interesting decisions, but I don't get golden epics for playing it.
 
I got my first ever 12-win Arena run today! I was playing Mage/Hunter (Steady Shot HP) and had a great curve into Rexxar DK which sealed a lot of games for me. Coin + Archanologist into Hunter Secret was a huge tempo opening for me several times. My one loss was to a Paladin/Warlock deck that had a slightly better early game and finished out with Dinosize on a stealth minion. Shout out to Safra for spotting me online in the final game :)
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
I got Rotface.

tuNSDdW.jpg
 
This seems like as good a time as any to mention that I'm the editor (and Paladin expert) for Vicious Syndicate's Wild Data Reaper reports. We just put out another one of our monthly reports on Hearthstone's only eternal format, Wild. There's a meta overview, featured decklists, and analysis of each class's position in the meta. I think the Wild meta with Kobolds and Catacombs got much faster-paced, and a lot of people have reacted negatively to that, but the playerbase has settled in and now combo decks are a healthy part of the meta. Naga Sea Witch and Call to Arms determine which other decks are playable, but I think there are a lot of fun playable decks in the meta and that the new expansion is going to bring some number of wild-worthy cards.

If you don't play Wild, I'd encourage you to give it a try as some of your collection rotates. I know Pete has also hit high Wild legend, and I really enjoy the changes that have been made to the high-rank ladder experience.
 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
My favorite Wild deck is in the dumpster. Look at those Reno Mage matchups. Any time I queue against Warlock it's just misery.
 
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