Magic: The Combattening - Hearthstone

[Ironwood]

Wife got Legendary Hogger in pretty much her second free pack.  And then proceeded to bend me over the card table and make me squeal.

He doesn't look that powerful on paper, but combined with the Priest healing, I found him to be a real fucking irritant.

[grebo]

http://hearthstone.wikia.com/wiki/Hogger

That guy there?  Yea anything that makes free mobs is a top priority.

[Severian]

I haven't tried versus real people yet -- I take it arena is more random class/deck, whereas the standard 'play' is your custom built decks or a stock deck?

Arena is draft (or "draft"), you choose from one of three random preselected classes, then one of three cards in a series of selection rounds to fill your deck. You play other players (matched to your performance level, each round) with that deck until you lose a total of three matches, ending your run. You always get a deck reward, plus progressively better additional rewards like gold based on number of wins. That usually works out better than buying decks for 100 gold, if you can muster up at least 2-3 wins. Especially if the matches are simultaneously counting towards your daily quest(s).

Play is your constructed deck against a random opponent, matched against you by rank.

If anyone is struggling with deck construction early on, and don't have many cards beyond the basic ones, I would recommend googling "Trump's Basic classname Deck" for a solid build to start with.

[Slayerik]

So, yeah this game is pretty fun/addictive. Slayerik #1699 if anyone wants to roll sometime.

[Paelos]

Finished my first arena. Won 5 times and got 100 gold plus a pack, so not too shabby.

I can see the allure of arena for sure. It's more fun that just buying a pack outright and the downside is minimal.

[trias_e]

Hogger is a decent card

http://hearthstone.wikia.com/wiki/Hogger

That guy there?  Yea anything that makes free mobs is a top priority.

Hogger is decent, but in many games he is just an overpriced silver hand knight.  If you can keep him alive for multiple turns, you were likely winning anyways, so it's kind of a 'win more' card.  And 4 health as a 6 drop is usually pretty easy to deal with, even without board presence.  I will say that Hogger is a very nice top-deck late game though, and if you happen to have a taunt you can play it behind...look out.

The more OP legendaries that make free mobs also both happen to be 6 mana:  Cairne (Double Yeti for 6 mana, WTF), and Sylvanus (5/5 + random mind control on death). 

[Tannhauser]

Hogger's a good card, too bad I don't have him.  I run Imp Master http://hearthstone.wikia.com/wiki/Imp_Master on a couple of my decks.  Just make sure there's a Taunt mob out first.  She's good for the Priest deck because he can keep healing her and she can keep cranking out imps.  But Hogger is clearly better imo.  For six mana you get a 4/4 Hogger and a 2/2 Taunter in one turn.

[Ironwood]

The trouble here is that you never really get to the overwhelming stage.  The limit on creatures on the board is a pain in the arse.  Brought out the Frostwolf chap and he's pretty much limited to being a 10/10, but having two of them before she cleared the board was funny.

[Simond]

Power overwhelming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN0cfdT5_3E

[schild]

What is that? Turn 16?

[Morat20]

FYI, I think I'm Morat20 on Hearthstone. I think.

[Rasix]

I can't seem to break the 4 win plateau in arena.  I get that far and just shit the bed.  All of my losses in my last run had severe misplays.  I was just playing too fast and made some dumb moves.  Used my swipes way too early, but my deck lacked any really good spells otherwise.  One loss I didn't clear a 4 damage minion and instead put out Onyxia because I was close to a win if I did that.  Then they fireballed me twice in a row and I hit zero with the minion attack.    It was a good deck too.  I had a knife juggler and a bunch of abilities that summoned minions.  Pity, I think I could have pulled 8 wins out of that one if I didn't fuck up so often or had a bit more low cost cards.

My win percentage for normal games seems to be hovering 70%+.  Some truly horrendous play.  I had one game where the other person was either high or letting their 6 year old play.  They did nothing but attack me directly and made no effort to clear the board.  It was really weird.

[Ironwood]

Like most games these days, it really lacks for a replay option.

I'd kill to see some of the games you chaps are playing and I think I would provide great hilarity to see mine.  Also, it'd be good to replay the games you've just done because, frankly, you don't believe the BULLSHIT you've just seen.

[Rasix]

You'd think it wouldn't be that hard to implement.  It's cards and they've done this sort of thing with a more complex dataset.  Hell, just a text log of a game would be immensely helpful.

If anything, this sort of experience shows that it's not ALL just getting rng-fucked, and I have a lot of room for improvement. Which makes sense, considering I've never really played a card game like this against people.   I think I probably caused this one Paladin to burst into laughter after my real epic misplay.  Game went down the tubes fast after that one.

[Paelos]

My first arena experience without knowing WTF i was doing, I won 5 games.

I have no idea what my win rate is, but it's higher on certain classes I like (Mage, Warrior, Priest)

EDIT: My last game was very interesting, me as Shaman against a lock with a good deck. I basically turtled him by playing mostly totems and taunts while he got frustrated and used his ability to pull cards. Finally he ran out of cards and I had cleared his board for the win.

[Ironwood]

I keep drawing Schild in Arena.

[schild]

i don't get it

[Lakov_Sanite]

I feel like ranked play should always be best of 3 matches.  If you want a quick game casual is great for that.

[schild]

Correct, mostly.

[Ironwood]

i don't get it

Thus far when I've played Arena, I've been beaten by high pro maniacs with high value nutjob cards.

It was kinda backhanded compliment.

[schild]

i don't get it

Thus far when I've played Arena, I've been beaten by high pro maniacs with high value nutjob cards.

It was kinda backhanded compliment.

Good news, you're only losing to due RNG.

[Ironwood]

That IS good news !!

Oh wait.

[Flood]

I've been playing quite a bit.  I've spent maybe 13 bucks of real money on this, much to my shame.  Like 7 bucks on a pack of cards and the rest on arena games, because I really want to play arena but grinding the gold in regular play is painful and slow.  Also, I suck. 

I've been doing a lot of reading on Trumps site and various forums, looking at the tier ranking sheets that have been posted, trying to improve my play.  It must not be sinking in because 3 wins is all I can muster.  In regular play it seems everyone I face has spent some cash because I'm getting Nat Pagle on round 2, multiple instances of Ragnaros and the ever popular Unleash the Hounds spam.  I see an awful lot of Legendary cards out there.  In arena play I think it's just bad playing on my part.  I've got a fairly good handle on card value and closed deck building (uhhh I like to think) but I can't string together the 7-8 wins you need to "go infinite".  I can't seem to close out games.  Alot of times I'll have someone on the ropes then late in the game they card combo something together and ass me out.

[koro]

If by "regular play" you mean unranked "Casual", then you're going to run into Legendary'd-out decks all the time, since ranks recently got reset and folks with expensive decks will putz around in Casual for dailies and to test out decks, and you'll often be matched up against them.

If you don't care about your rank that much, just go into ranked play and you'll actually get matched up against people with your level of card availability.

[Morat20]

I'm shit with some classes (Hunter, for some reason) -- mostly because I started with Mage and I don't think I'm adjusting my playstyle. I do stupid shit with some classes.

And of course in Arena it's never a class I've tried playing much, so trying to sort out a deck and strategies is just a crap shoot.

[Flood]

If by "regular play" you mean unranked "Casual", then you're going to run into Legendary'd-out decks all the time, since ranks recently got reset and folks with expensive decks will putz around in Casual for dailies and to test out decks, and you'll often be matched up against them.

If you don't care about your rank that much, just go into ranked play and you'll actually get matched up against people with your level of card availability.

Yes Casual.  Good to know, I'll try some ranked games.  Thanks!

[Ironwood]

Fortunately, it's not that bad yet on the EU.  Casual is still casual.

I suspect that will change.

[schild]

Gave this another go because "skill game." First arena run was RNG addled but still won 3 games. 2 Rares, lol. Second arena run, 4 epics, 2 rares? Why do people genuinely like this again?

[Rendakor]

Because people who suck at card games can still win if they pull OP cards?

[Ironwood]

Gave this another go because "skill game." First arena run was RNG addled but still won 3 games. 2 Rares, lol. Second arena run, 4 epics, 2 rares? Why do people genuinely like this again?

I think mostly because it's quite accesible and 'fun'.  Also, because it's not hugely complicated thus easy to pick up.

bazinga.

[Rokal]

Gave this another go because "skill game." First arena run was RNG addled but still won 3 games. 2 Rares, lol. Second arena run, 4 epics, 2 rares? Why do people genuinely like this again?

How is this different from drafting in Magic, really? The pack you open could have a trash rare while everyone around you could open a bomb rare. The other players at your table could over-commit to red/black/green/blue and the third pack at the table could have a ton of awesome white cards for you alone. The format is naturally unfair in any TCG. Magic might be slightly more fair because you can influence the picks of the other people at your table, but your card pool is still extremely luck-based in Magic drafting or Hearthstone arena. It doesn't stop either format from being fun.

[schild]

Gave this another go because "skill game." First arena run was RNG addled but still won 3 games. 2 Rares, lol. Second arena run, 4 epics, 2 rares? Why do people genuinely like this again?

How is this different from drafting in Magic, really? The pack you open could have a trash rare while everyone around you could open a bomb rare. The other players at your table could over-commit to red/black/green/blue and the third pack at the table could have a ton of awesome white cards for you alone. The format is naturally unfair in any TCG. Magic might be slightly more fair because you can influence the picks of the other people at your table, but your card pool is still extremely luck-based in Magic drafting or Hearthstone arena. It doesn't stop either format from being fun.

The second part of your post throws the first part of your post out the window. In Magic, you're on basically even terrain. This system doesn't even make sense. There aren't pods. There isn't a "known" card pool. There isn't any influence. There isn't even a proper tier list of players because it's absurdly random.

This is the Zynga version of CCGs. Cardville.

[Paelos]

I think mostly because it's quite accesible and 'fun'.  Also, because it's not hugely complicated thus easy to pick up.

bazinga.

Right on both counts. I like cards but I don't have the time or inclinations to learn the nuances of Magic. This provides a nice distraction even if it is a coinflip most of the time.

[Ingmar]

Gave this another go because "skill game." First arena run was RNG addled but still won 3 games. 2 Rares, lol. Second arena run, 4 epics, 2 rares? Why do people genuinely like this again?

How is this different from drafting in Magic, really? The pack you open could have a trash rare while everyone around you could open a bomb rare. The other players at your table could over-commit to red/black/green/blue and the third pack at the table could have a ton of awesome white cards for you alone. The format is naturally unfair in any TCG. Magic might be slightly more fair because you can influence the picks of the other people at your table, but your card pool is still extremely luck-based in Magic drafting or Hearthstone arena. It doesn't stop either format from being fun.

HS is way beyond Magic's level of randomness. Every player sees the same number of cards at the same rarities in limited play in most CCGs, including Magic (with the minor exception of occasional mythic rares in the rare slot). Hearthstone doesn't seed rarities in Arena which is baffling. In addition Magic sets are now very carefully designed for Limited play and it's actually quite rare that I've seen a pool that just flat out sucks in recent years. That is far from where Hearthstone is right now.

[schild]

On a side note: Magic draft pools haven't been luck-based since roughly Time Spiral.