Playing without a full deck (14) - Mammoth announcements

Blizzard recently announced a number of things related to the upcoming Year of the Mammoth (AKA the time after Reno).

In this article I want to take a look... er... I wanna put down my thoughts. On it. I'll be dealing with the following points in particular:

1) Lost Secrets of Un'Goro
2) Hall of Fame
3) The end of Adventures
4) Login-Rewards
5) Maiev Shadowsong

See you after the break!

The state of Research...

...or: What if it's the WTC and I couldn't care less?

Seriously, I can't be bothered this year. Faithful readers of this blog might have already wondered why there's absolutely no coverage of the WTC (like there was last year), or of Warmachine at any rate.
The answer is: Since ClogCon '15, I only touched my models to put them into cases, and those cases into my basement. Between work and two children (the younger of which requiring way more attention than his sibling) there's just not enough time to break out the models, play, and produce content. Also, there was Mk3 rocking the general boat.
They're not gone, though, and once time permits, games will be had, and you will know about it!

On Hearthstone: I've promised an ONiK review, and that'll come, but it was delayed since... I wanted to clear it in heroic mode, and now that that's done, it's coming. I'll start typing today. The post series will, however, be "rebranded" as they say, into "Playing without a full deck", but only the name, not the numbers. This has two reasons: 1) I think that, now that I did my first adventure in heroic, I have a good inkling of what I'm doing in general and 2) that name is easy to translate into German with both versions being as idiomatic as possible. Yes, select posts of the series will be translated, and linked to the Hearthstone Deutschland FB page.

Until next time,
farewell.

Falling up the Stairs (12) - One Night in Karazhan

... or Kazachstan, according to Gaara. Best slip of the tongue ever!

So yeah, I'm doing a review of the cards spoiled for the new adventure "One Night in Karazhan" (ONiK) releasing for Hearthstone today (the 12th, at least in EU). "Review" meaning that I spout my human-sciences, semi-ambitious-casual-on-a-glorified-typewriter opinion onto the internet for you all to read.

If you're looking for a cutting edge gamer review/opinion - you might be wrong here but you're welcome anyways! In all other instances, you're right here, and welcome.

I will go through the list of playable cards (as in: has a mana cost and come into your collection) in the order they appear on Hearthpwn, so by clicking the link you can see the actual card pictures. As used in other places on this blog, I'll use a star-based rating system that is a scale of 0-4.

Also, I'd like you all to tell me the card you're looking forward to the most in the comments!
Spoilers: I like it. I also use the word Niché. Often. And et aliter means "and others".

Let's go, shall we?

Falling up the Stairs (11) - Trying my luck with Warrior Decks... yet again.

I suppose that's true with everybody - there are some some classes you just can't play well in Hearthstone. Whether it's lack of cards or just not having the mindset necessary.

For me, Warrior is one. I can easily get behind the concept of full-on aggro of a Zoo Hunter or Warlock, or the control powers of Magician or Warlock, or the powerful minions of Shaman and Druid. I have issues with making Paladin and Priest work. And don't ask me about Rogue, I can't play that except in premade-deck Tavern Brawls. I mean, I can play it, but I can't really win reliably.

Warrior, even though omitted in the above list, has been particular frustrating. It always felt like it should work, it's not like there was an obvious misbalance in the decks I made... but it just wouldn't work to any satsifiable degree.

It doesn't help when the arguably strongest Warrior Deck at the time is also fittingly labelled "Wallet Warrior". Recently, through an article over at Mana Crystals, I came across a Warrior Deck that gave me another one of those "You know... I kinda have the cards for that..." moments. Read all about it after the break!

Falling up the Stairs (10) - Empirical Research regarding the Lolz of Yogg-Saron (Update!)

THE LOLZ of Yogg Saron!
or: Keeping track of whether my Servant of Yogg Saron does meaningful shit.

At the time of this writing, my Servant of Yogg-Saron cast this for me:

Falling up the stairs (09) - Adventure Resumee: League of Explorers

As I told you last friday, I plowed through the League of Explorers, finally. So today I'll talk you about LoE in the same way I did talk about BRM (in order to create a comparability. It'll come to fruition with the next adventure).

To reiterate, these are my four points:
 > Optics
 > Plot
 > Bosses
 > Cards

See you after the break!

Falling up the stairs (08) - Adventure Resumee: Blackrock Spire

As of this monday, I managed to garner the last 700 gold which would get me the final wing of League of Explorers and, within very few hours of doing so, allow me to finish the last adventure currently available.

And I think that makes for a perfect time for rehashing the particular experiences, an endeavour I want to go about by looking at the following points:
 > Optics
 > Plot
 > Bosses
 > Cards

And I will start with the older of the two adventures I experienced: Blackrock Spi...err...Mountain!
See you after the break!

Falling up the Stairs (07) - Day of the Tentacle

For this post, I want to present a "fun" deck. It's not necessarily good - it may be, though, with some tweaking, I guess.  Maybe. ;-)
It basically came into its own with the "Forbidden Ritual" card and the Tentacle of "N'Zoth"

It's for the Warlock. I call it "Day of the Tentacle".
Yes, I'm that 80's.

Falling up the Stairs (06) - Waiting for C'thun & Lulz of Yogg Saron

As promised in the last posting, I want to talk the deck that - surprisingly, I gotta say - took me to 14(**). I'm still kinda proud of that achievement, even though it certainly was a matter of getting the right games/matchups at the right time.

It's a Magician deck featuring our Lord and Saviour C'Thun! See you after the break!

Falling up the stairs (05) - WotoG deck changes

In this second post on the "Whispers of the old Gods" set, I want to go into which deck changes this has inspired (for me, at least), how I think they fare in comparison to their earlier forms, and how I would evolve them (if the opportunity presents itself).

But before all that, let's have a small break, shall we?

Falling up the stairs (04) - WotoG initial thoughts

   At the time of this writing, we've had "Whispers of the old Gods" (WotoG) and Standard Play for four/five days, I've had my 13 free packs and reached Rank 14 (More on that in a later article) - and am about to dust the free golden cards b/c my computer may run HS, but all special/golden (i.e. shiny) graphics are just black spots.
   I also think that the idea of golden cards, or at least collecting those especially, is a silly waste of time and energy. And no, I had no particular fondness or desire for foil cards in M:tG, either.

   In this significantly longer article, I want to talk about WotoG, my thoughts on things related to the set, the set and the cards I got out of it. But before all that - we're gonna have a break.

Falling up the stairs (03) - Shaking things up

   As I communicated in former posts, I did the first wing of "League of Explorers". And one of those cards was/is the "Rumbling Elemental", a Shaman card. He's obviously big on the elements, but this Elemental was really different - has no "active" ability of it's own, but one that reacts to other cards by flinging two damage whenever a card with a battlecry is played.

   I've been pondering a deck build around it for some time. Quick interjection: That's a ridiculous idea, by the way, building around two cards out of thirty. I then went ahead and did it - a basic suite of Shaman spells, the Elemental, and then as many Battlecry cards as I could grab.

Short warning: As per the most recent BattleNet update, I can't access the BN anymore, and thusly can't play Hearthstone, which is very sad, as, even though my Graphics card wasn't "supported", the game ran fine enough for me. This enrages me! I'm working on a solution, but that'll take a while.

List after the break.

Falling up the stairs (02) - Somebody's hurtin'

   Continuing on in this opening series of posts about my currently favoured Hearthstone decks, we are arrive at the one I've had ... considerable success (it got me from Rank 20 to 19 in a streak, that's kinda saying something!)*.

   It's a Warrior deck that, like the Pain & Response one, builds off of profiting from your own minions being damaged. Turns out, Garrosh is better at this than Jaina. And it's more fun, too. List after the break. Oh, and I don't play Hearthstone in English, so please forgive me when I... retranslate the names wrong. I'm learning.

Falling up the Stairs (01) - Djinni Paladin, Budget Style

I promised a look at the decks I'm currently liking the most, so here we go. Gotta start somewhere.

Just to remind you, I'm playing Hearthstone for two-and-a-half months, and without spending money on it. So a lot of decks are, for the foreseeable future, quite budget in a bunch of card choices, out of necessity.

This deck I'm going to talk about is based on the same idea as the deck presented here. And while I know it's definitely inferior to the deck presented there - let's just say that I managed to defeat Baron Geddon (heroic) with it. Not the most impressive feat, but my first heroic victory anyway, and on the first run with the deck. ;-)

Less bragging and more talk after the break.

Falling up the stairs - my Hearthstone misadventures (00)

I blame Fishc0p (that's a German Youtuber - you can find his channel here)!

I got into Hearthstone mid-February. Why? Because it's free. And I used to be seriously addicted to Magic: the Gathering, so...

However, whereas I spent an atrocious amount of money on M:tG, I'm decided not to throw a single cent Blizzard's way. This obviously "handicaps" my progress - but as far as I figure, that'll only be the case until I am caught up with the adventures (I did the first episode of "League of Explorers" and am 3/5 into "Blackrock Spire"). Once that is done, I'll be free to spend my gold on the arena. I will go into a little more detail about my recommendations for new players in a later post, though.

For this one... I guess I'll just introduce you to the deck that has "carried" me so far. Up to rank 19, at least, and that's the highest I got to this day. But I'll give you that, and some thoughts on it, after the break.

Boss Monster - Initial Review

  SPIEL 2014 did happen, and as of this writing, nobody was killed in an ISIS attack and neither got himself Ebola nor passed it out unto others (Suck it, Battlefoam!). During the fair, a number of impulse (or dopamine driven) purchases were done.

   One of those got me "Boss Monster" and "Boss Monster: Tools of Hero Kind" from Brotherwise Games LLC. I had first seen this game played on Bleeped Up Productions, and since I'm an 80's kid, I was fully aware during the time of the C64, Atari, early Macintosh (I had a IIfx with a 21" (non-flat!) screen), NES, Gameboy, and Super NES - which is the main source of graphic inspiration for this game (numerous references in the game reach out to more current games).

   So, along this line of thinking - Press (A) to continue, or (B) to cancel!

Seizing Command 09 - Sanctifier is over 9000

With the advent of Removed from Play: Decked Out, a particular Protectorate Deck idea I already had was brought to fruition. Back when we first started playing, I hardly ever won, yet still could boast "...but my Occupying Forces Pile is higher than yours!" That meant nothing, though.

With Invasion of Sul, PoM gets access to the Sanctifier. It's already a good piece in the tabletop, but in High Command it's downright great. For all that don't know it: It's power increases for every three cards in your Occupying Forces Pile - and thinning your deck by moving cards there kinda is PoM's shtick in WM:HC.

I will tell you all about my "Sanctifier is over 9000" deck after a short break.

Seizing Command 08 - Cygnar v. Protectorate Game Report

So, since the first report's format worked quite well, here's another one for you!

This time, I got to play Arides (who chose Cygnar) and I went with Protectorate (I know I complained about not being able to play Khador, but I somehow feel the need to play PoM in HC - even though it feels like playing Hard Mode).

Casters selected were: Siege Brisbane, Cpt. Haley, Constance Blaize for Arides, and High Reclaimer, Servath Reznik, and Vindictus for me.

Blow by blow report after the break, but just before we go there: If you have any comments, leave them!

Seizing Command 07 - Cygnar v. Khador game report

It took some time, but I finally managed to play another full-length game against Fiona, and we both used the Kickstarter Variant Decks I had cooked up in this article series. She took command of Khador, which she'll likely always do until Faith&Fortune releases (then she can play Highborn with Gorten), and I took Cygnar.

After the break follows a blow-by-blow report - it's a pending format at this time. I decided not to go into full detail unless absolutely necessary. Purchases, Deployments, and Rush are given as PUR, DEP and RSH. I'll try and give a VP tally at opportune moments. Remember that in the KS variant, you can rush & deploy cards during the first two rounds, as well as swap unused cards in for your basic resources. Comments are appreciated.

Seizing Command 05: Kickstarter thoughts - Protectorate

Welcome to this latest (and probably last) HC article on the kickstarter variant! I'll be covering the Protectorate of Menoth now, which, in theory, with their low purchase costs, should gain a certain amount of formidability in this format. I guess we'll see how true that statement is.

The Protectorate is the only faction to currently sport not one, but two cards which are barred from being swapped in courtesy of granting a victory point: the Flameguard Cleanser Phalanx and the Deliverer Sunburst Detachment (Seriously, it would've been kinda sick otherwise).

With those out of the way, what's left?