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 (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.

WM/H's long 2015 - Part 01: Zerkova, Denial, and guns. Boostable guns.

   For the first article in this series, I'll try to understandably write down the realisations and thoughts which came from my games at ClogCon in Decembre. These will revolve around Zerkova, control, threat, and why it's a good idea to have a backup plan in case your opponent just ... backs up.
   That, and guns. Lots of guns.

More after the break.

Khador 2015 - Part 18: Conquest v. Behemoth Juxtaposition

In the last article, I did a little preparation for ClogCon by running my two lists through a theoretical gauntlet. I might do that again.

However, in this article I want to compare the Conquest to the Behemoth with regards to my lists - because I've heard a bunch of good arguments  for swapping them around.  And afterwards, I might just do another round of Irish Roulette.

Khador 2015 - Part 17 - WTC Roulette No.1

So, there's a thing you can do with all the WTC lists - Steamroller Roulette. It works this way:
 * Work out a two-list pairing you're going to bring.
 * Pick a team from the WTC lineup (most recent event, generally).
 * Evaluate your match-ups Round by Round as if you were paired against each player during the tournament. Assume D&C as you want, I'll go with 0.

   There are a number of advantages to this theorymachining - the lists were created for a hypothetical meta, which is highly comparable with going to a meta where you've never been before, for example.

   I went with a random number, and got 42 (D'uh!). I choose the leaderboard order of teams, and draw...

Khador 2015, Part 16: eZ, pZ, lemon sqZ

   You probably wouldn't have guessed, but what if I told you that I'm seriously considering (as in: there's no if, and certainly no other option) to pair Lady pZ and Lady eZ together for SR tournaments? If you're regular reader of this blog, listened to me on Murder of Crows, or even watched my videos on Youtube, you're probably not exactly surprised.

   I think that it's very well possible, especially since her two incarnations are so different. Follow me beyond the gap (and down the rabbit hole) to figure out list theory for this specific pair. And also, for lists of Warcasters they can one-shot in a pinch.

Khador 2015, Part 14 - Observations on the Core Countries

   So, after we established last time that Khador is not the most rail-roaded faction with regards to listbuilding (that's Trollbloods), we'll do sth more sophisticated this time around. We'll arbitrarily group the participating countries into three categories, to make it a) easier to choose whom to bet money on, and b) observe the choices made by the more successful teams regarding list pairings, team composition and other drivel.

   Follow me beyond the gap to the shenanigans, and hopefully, interesting graphics.

Khador 2015, Part 12 - Lady eZ and Vengeance

I'm not bored. I just can't summon the energy to do a showdown between Conquest and Victor like I did between Rager and Vanguard. So I'll go down the "easy" road, and talk about Lady Z some more - especially, her in the context of the Vengeance releases.

The theory behind this is that she originally has been developed together with those releases, and later switched places with Butcher3, so there may some surprising synergy there.

Follow this link if you want to read OrsusSmash's view on Butcher3&Reckoning: SticksandDice
Follow me beyond the break to analyse Lady eZ and Grolar/Outriders/IFK/Malakov/TAC!

Khador 2015, Part 11 - Shieldguard Showdown!

With Reckoning came the Rager, an in-faction heavy with Shieldguard. He strode into the army - his army, his own god-given faction - and found his place contested.

By a miserable french llaelese light to boot!

Of course, this could not stand. Follow me beyond the break, where I compare the Rager to the Vanguard in context of the Khadoran army and Hunting Wolves in particular.

FIGHT!

Khador 2015, Part 10 - Lady E-to-the-m*****f***ing-Z

Third day of Lock & Load, third article in the series "Stuff Khadorans get for Christmas". As before, I'll only cover a single type of item per article to keep it clean, and this has thusly resulted in these three:

• Victor revisited
• Berserkers in Arms
• Lady E-to-the-m*****f***ing-Z

So join me as we look at the spoiled Zerkova2, do a little silly comparison to her first self, evaluate that, think about shit she can get done, her theme force as well as other lists and "drop targets" for her.

Khador 2015, Part 09 - Berserkers in Arms

Lock and Load (as well as L&L Outposts) are still going, so I keep going with looking at and overthinking what was spoiled - for my faction. This will eventually end in three articles:

- Victor revisited
- Berserkers in Arms
- Lady E-to-the-m*****f***ing-Z

If you join me beyond the break, we'll talk about disappointments, surprises, and potential of both the Rager and the Mad Dog.

Khador 2015, Part 08 - Victor revisited

Courtesy of L&L, everyone on the social media now has access to all the content of Reckoning (you can read that as kind of a criticism, I guess. 'Tis okay).

Since I'm not insane (quite yet. *cackle*), I will not deal with all of it in one go. Instead, we'll kinda split this up into three parts:

• Viktor Revisited
• Berserkers in Arms
• Lady e-to-the-m*****f****ing-Z

So, join me beyond the break for a comparison of my Viktor predictions with the actual crunch!

Khador 2015, Part 06 - Steam & Steel

Subtitle: Charge of the Lulzlords.

So, digital subscribers to NQ got to spoil a new theme force for Vladimir, the Dark Champion. It's called Steam & Steel, and it's about Man-o-War. If that means you can't hold your excitement any longer, follow me beyond the break. I'll go into the meat of the theme force, it's benefits, general list ideas, and it's problems.

Khador 2015, Part 05 - Strakhov in ADR

So, on the last Murder of Crows (found here), Lee and Niek talked about the second half of the Khadoran ADR roster. Having spoken about Butcher and Zerkova before, this time it was Harkevich's and Strakhov's turn, so, basically, the bottom of the ADR, and the two 'Casters that will most likely remain in the roster for a time.

Ignoring the f***ing disgrace that Harkevich is to the Motherland [that's how I feel, at the time of this writing], and because I also spoke about Harkevich's ADR options before, I have to say that I quite liked their Strakhov list. Follow me beyond the breach if you want to hear my thoughts on the matter.