Magic: The Combattening - Hearthstone

[Paelos]

I prefer a 5 card draw game to most other kinds of poker at this point.

[Rendakor]

It's shitty fake poker which is inexplicably popular of late.  The players are dealt two cards, no discarding, what you get is what you get.  Then the dealer puts down four cards and whoever makes the best hand out of what they have and what goes on the table wins.  Both players had a fantastic hand (as texas hold-em goes), both threw in all their money, then realized that the other guy had the other two aces, which pretty much screwed them both out of a possible 3 or 4 of a kind and left them with weaker hands than they thought they had.    Then guy number one lucked out and wound up with a flush.  The end.

The dealer plays 5 cards, not 4, but otherwise yes.

[Teleku]

It's shitty fake poker which is inexplicably popular of late.  The players are dealt two cards, no discarding, what you get is what you get.  Then the dealer puts down four cards and whoever makes the best hand out of what they have and what goes on the table wins.  Both players had a fantastic hand (as texas hold-em goes), both threw in all their money, then realized that the other guy had the other two aces, which pretty much screwed them both out of a possible 3 or 4 of a kind and left them with weaker hands than they thought they had.    Then guy number one lucked out and wound up with a flush.  The end.

....Isn't that basically like playing a game of War, but with money?

[Rendakor]

Basically, yea. The whole game is about betting, bluffing, folding, etc. There is no effort involved in making good hands, it's 100% luck unlike say 5-card draw or even Blackjack.

[Merusk]

If I follow you then it's a lower-level of math and a higher level of social engineering. You're not worried about the next 2-3 hands and what % of card draws might happen on the next pull, only what chance a draw had on the first play.

It's "This hand had this % to happen" and then trying to make your opponent believe that lady luck favored you the most.  I can see the attraction.

[Kitsune]

The dealer plays 5 cards, not 4, but otherwise yes.

Oop, five, yeah.  Regardless, I'm not a fan.  The fact that the player has no control over their hand irks the hell out of me.  And this comes from someone who actually likes three-card poker at the Vegas tables.

[MrHat]

I don't mind the added difficulty of having silly boss attacks with 99 hp.  I think that's a fun puzzle to play on my iPad.

What I think is stupid is the AI using Faceless Manipulator to turn into a Spore.

[Margalis]

I thought I knew the rules to Poker. I had no fucking idea what was going on in that video other than wanting to punch everyone at the table bar the dealer.

The only really consistent rules of poker are the hand rankings. (Full house beats flush, flush beats straight, etc) How you form hands depends a lot.

My favorite kind of poker is 7 card stud hi/lo.

[eldaec]

If I follow you then it's a lower-level of math and a higher level of social engineering. You're not worried about the next 2-3 hands and what % of card draws might happen on the next pull, only what chance a draw had on the first play.

It's "This hand had this % to happen" and then trying to make your opponent believe that lady luck favored you the most.  I can see the attraction.

In practice I don't think 5 card is a higher level of maths, simply because the odds of most good hands are so much lower, and because you have less information about what opponents could have.

But I'm terrible at poker and for me all poker is really just about patience, because you have wait so damn long for something to happen, and forcing something interesting to happen usually means you lose immediately.

[Paelos]

Texas Hold'em is basically all math, with a small amount reads and calculated risks. There are hands you should always play, hands you should never play, and then a few hands in between you can play if the entry is low. That's basically the whole game.

Other forms of poker are much more about reading your opponent because the math isn't in front of you. That's why I like them more.

[Malakili]

Hold'em is popular mainly because ESPN figured out a way to film it in an interesting way for television. 

[Ironwood]

Also Shana Hiatt.

[Merusk]

Texas Hold'em is basically all math, with a small amount reads and calculated risks. There are hands you should always play, hands you should never play, and then a few hands in between you can play if the entry is low. That's basically the whole game.

Other forms of poker are much more about reading your opponent because the math isn't in front of you. That's why I like them more.

Yeah Hold'em is exactly what I had in mind, particularly since that's all the tournaments I've seen ads for the last 10+ years have been.

[Rokal]

I would post about the new wing of Naxx but the purchase screen has been broken/stalled on my account and thousands of others for 3 days now.

[lamaros]

I thought I knew the rules to Poker. I had no fucking idea what was going on in that video other than wanting to punch everyone at the table bar the dealer.

The only really consistent rules of poker are the hand rankings. (Full house beats flush, flush beats straight, etc) How you form hands depends a lot.

My favorite kind of poker is 7 card stud hi/lo.

We always used to play Manila, where the ranks are actually different.

[Setanta]

I would post about the new wing of Naxx but the purchase screen has been broken/stalled on my account and thousands of others for 3 days now.

Not much to write home about it - I completed the bosses and challenges in just over an hour. The hunter challenge was all about the RNG except that his deck always dropped a Death Charger on turn 1. The mage was more fun as you had to think it through a little more.

I can't be bothered with the heroics - no reward

[Ginaz]

I would post about the new wing of Naxx but the purchase screen has been broken/stalled on my account and thousands of others for 3 days now.

Not much to write home about it - I completed the bosses and challenges in just over an hour. The hunter challenge was all about the RNG except that his deck always dropped a Death Charger on turn 1. The mage was more fun as you had to think it through a little more.

I can't be bothered with the heroics - no reward

It was a bit of a let down.  I hadn't played for months and used a random Hunter deck I cobbled together without really knowing if it was good or not and proceeded to easily one shot all the bosses except for the first one.  First boss went down second time around.

[Rendakor]

Why is anyone surprised that the PVE content isn't challenging? Creating good AI for CCGs is hard.

[Job601]

The bosses on heroic are legitimately tough, in this wing more so than the first one.  I needed fifteen or twenty tries to beat Noth even after netdecking.  The other two were much easier.  Priest is very good in this wing, which is funny because they're so under-powered in constructed right now.  The AI's amusingly terrible, of course, but the heroic bosses are really well-tuned to be difficult but not impossible.

[SurfD]

Sometimes you have to wonder if they even bother to test some of their stuff internally at all.

New cards from beating Thaddeus are Stalagg (7/4 for 5 mana) and Feugen (4/7 for 5 mana), with deathrattles that if the other one has died during the match, summon 11/11 Thaddeus.   Interesting quirk:  If you play both and they die to an aoe at the same time, they BOTH read and actvate eachothers DeathRattle (as the Deathrattle check resolves after they are both considerd to have died).   Resulting in generating two 11/11 Thaddeus.  For even more fun, Have a Baron Rivendare on the field.  You have now traded 2 5 mana creatures for FOUR 11/11 monstrosities......

Which is even more fun as a warlock, because with spells like Hellfire and Shadowbolt you can kill them yourself to set the trade up if you want. (far as i know, Warlock is one of the only classes with an AOE ability that hits friendly minions as well as enemy)

[naum]

Which is even more fun as a warlock, because with spells like Hellfire and Shadowbolt you can kill them yourself to set the trade up if you want. (far as i know, Warlock is one of the only classes with an AOE ability that hits friendly minions as well as enemy)

Priest, with Circle of Healing and Auchenai Soulpriest on the board.

Paladin, with Equality and Wild Pyromancer on the board.

I think one of the pros that spoke out about how Warlock might need nerfed, as new cards with better value are added, makes Warlock even stronger (all variants of zoo, handlock, etc.).

[SurfD]

Paladin would work for 2x thaddeus.  Wouldnt work for 4 unless you also put a Divine Protection on Rivendare so the 1damage tick from Wild Pyro wouldnt kill him also.  Warlock can pull off the quad spawn easiest i think, as they need the least amount of setup.

Too bad Betrayal only works on enemy minions, would be an interesting way for Rogues to self pop the combo as well if it did.

[Setanta]

Fucking paladin challenge. 30 attempts at it and the RNG gods have screwed me over every time.

[Ironwood]

Despite a lot of internet moaning, I managed that one 3rd time.  You just spew out everything as quick as you can.  It's not easy and, frankly, it's an utter bullshit deck they give you, but it's not as hard as all that if the luck smiles down.

[naum]

[luckton]

Expansion announced: Goblins vs Gnomes

http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/16515629/goblins-vs-gnomes%E2%84%A2-explosive-new-cards-to-debut-this-december-11-7-2014

Not gonna lie..will definitely play this more when they ever get the Android version out. At least tablet edition is gonna be out before year's end.

[Setanta]

It's great on the iPad, as soon as it comes out for Android I'll ditch the Crapple

[Ironwood]

Works like a charm on the Surface too.

Obviously.

[naum]

MtG champion Stanislav Cifka says Hearthstone is more exciting and complex and less RNG than Magic

“From my point of view, Hearthstone is more complex than Magic. You have more choices. Let’s say you’re playing Handlock and you can cast five different spells and at the same time attack five different creatures, it makes it more difficult. In Magic, the deckbuilding is more complex because you have more cards to choose from but playing HS is more difficult, or at least for me. Maybe I’m not that experienced yet.”

…

“In MtG, you lose every fifth or tenth game by getting mana screwed or mana flooded (having too few lands to cast your spells or having too many lands and not enough spells to cast). It doesn’t happen in Hearthstone, that’s why the game is so good.“

…

“Hearthstone is more exciting for the viewers than Magic. In Magic, you can get into a situation where both players play lands three turns in a row and nothing happens. In Hearthstone, every turn something happens – a card is played or hero power is activated. Even control match-ups are more dynamic, you don’t get the “land, go” for ten turns in a row and that’s more interesting for the audience.”

[Paelos]

Welp, here we go again.

[Ginaz]

Waiting for a wild Schild to appear.

[schild]

I dont know what you all know about Cifka, but it makes absolutely perfect sense for him to say that. He played one of the most oppressive, least RNG addled decks in Magic. Eggs. Dude was basically the emobidment of sloth in ccg form.

That said, he's wrong. But not because he is an idiot. He's quite smart, but the randomness found in each game is wildly different. Dude clearly doesn't like decision trees though, which is weird since hes a chess player.

[lamaros]

The thought of your upcoming holiday must be calming you.

[schild]

Its not. Italy, while Im there, is home to one of the most impressive magic tournaments ever.

[Ingmar]

He's probably right about the audience thing, at least for an audience of laypersons, but I don't really buy the rest.