I just recently got into the beta, it’s my first card game though. I doubt I have the cards to play any of you guys yet lol.
Playing Mage first of course, not sure if I’m sticking with her or not, but what should my deck eventually look like? I don’t even have Pyroblast yet, been getting a lot of mileage out of creep control like Frost Nova and Flamestrike though.
Frost Nova kind of blows dick, IMO. The only time that it’s okay is when you have enough damage on the board to win the next turn, but only if your opponent doesn’t trade with your guys. Even then, most decks just don’t have the room to play it, and would rather play either Cone of Cold or Blizzard, or in rare cases Ice Lance.
Lol sick pack pimp. My best was getting 2 packs for 9 and getting Alextrassa and then Yesera in the next.
You need your 4 digit number code too, in order to add people
Depends on what sort of mage you really want to play, the current popular deck is like this
2x mana worm
2x Novice engineer
2x Loot Hoarder
2x Arcane Intellect
2x cone of cold
2x frost bolt
2x ice lance
2x fireball
2x pyroblast
2x Frost Nova
2x Blizzard
2x Ice Block
2x Ice Barrier
2x Polymorph
1x Alextria
1x Archmage Antonidas
Basically, you stall out the game until turn 7/8, dealing damage directly to the hero when you can and freezing their minions every turn (cone of cold, blizzard, frost nova)
there are variations on this, some run Molten Giant (8/8 for 20 mana, costs 1 less for each damage you’ve taken) and Mountain Giant (8/8 costs 1 less for each card in your hand) instead of some of the control cards (ice lance and polymorph), and aim to hold as many cards in your hand as you can and then drop the giants to end the game. Alextrasza sets a heros health to 15, so they can set your health to 15 then pyroblast/fireball you to death easy.
the mage has lots of tweaks, but its current strength is keeping you frozen for 4-5 turns straight, and then just unleashing a fury of spells and kill you very fast.
Budget decks won’t have pyroblast, or the legendaries, so they tend to have to use the common cards like Flamestrike and Polymorph while ending the game with some big creatures. But what really makes mage powerful are the epics and legendaries.
theres a good overview here http://hearthstone.blizzpro.com/2013/12/10/frost-mage-deck-list-and-analysis/
I dunno, it’s 2 mana that lets you get a free turn basically. You can delay trading for an entire turn, use it to ping creatures for 2 damage instead of 1, buff up your mana worms, etc. Frost Nova is awesome. blizzard, if you play its pretty much your whole turn. Frost Nova lets you play other cards along with it (frost nova -> Arcane Intellect, for example). It has its place. I feel like Cone of cold is better early game, Frost Nova is mid game, and of course Blizzard is late game.
I like frost nova. Like Pimp Willy said its a time warp (free turn).
Also, some advice when drafting in Arena:
Take as many copies of the “best card” as you physically can.
The two times that I’ve won 9-games with Mage I drafted absurd amounts of Ice barriers (3), board freeze carda (2 Frost Nova + 2 Blizzard), and board wipes (3 flamestrike).
In arena, its all about value, so long as you can get cards that 2 for 1 or better, you’re golden.
Also, in frost nova vs blizzard, the important part is the freeze, not the damage, it’s why Frost Nova is superior IMO. If I could build 4 frost novas instead of 2 novas 2 blizzards I would.
I don’t have a lot of the cards you listed there, can they be gotten for free? I really can’t afford to sink money into a card game. =(
Follow up question, who’s the most effective free to play character? Since the Mage relies heavily on these legendary cards…
I’ve sunk a total of $10 into this game. Just do daily quests and arena. You don’t need to spend a dime. Just play and you’ll get your cards.
Priest I think. Most of their good cards are common or basic. You can play strong off the bat.
Hmm, I guess that you all have a point with freeze effects. I’m doing pretty well in my current arena with some janky mage deck. I didn’t get offered any Shattered Sun Clerics or Dark Iron Dwarves, but I did get 2 frostbolts, 2 fireballs, 2 flamestrikes, and a frost nova. Even though I like most of the other cards, the surprise frost nova lets a relatively even board get out of control in your favor.
Warlock is pretty strong with the common cards too
I used to say that Hunter was the best with basic cards, but post-UtH nerf, I would probably say either Priest or Warlock. Warlock’s hero ability lets you get away with playing slightly weaker cards than usual.
Rogue is pretty cheap. You can play it just fine without the legendary cards which I think just leaves 3 rares. SI agent, Azure Drake, and Defender of Argus.
I think I randomly got Defender of Argus in one of the packs lol. I’m playing Priest and losing to normal level AI Mage, just not clicking with me I guess. He seems super cheap, and then I lose. Lot I still don’t understand, given that I’ve never played a card game before.
Lol Mind Control nerf. Good Job Blizzard nerfing a meh cards and making it unplayable.
Yeah I was doing good with almost-stock priest cards, but after a couple days playing post-supernerf I’ve completely abandoned priest. Feels like I can’t do anything at all most matches.
A lot of it is the lack of cards and how rare-to-win is the only strat beyond “try to 2 for 1 them and keep your mana curve rolling”
Then there’s the flip side where I play against noobs who just got into the beta (like me) but never played magic so they get stomped in like 15 turns.
I’ve yet to have a close game…
I feel bad when I run into the obvious new guys, when you see them do something like turn 1 coin into Ironbeak Owl, when I have nothing on the board, and I’m playing Mage.
I think there’s a couple of things that MTG players general card game stuff that people new to Hearthstone may not be up to snuff about. I never thought Mind Control was great because it costs 8 mana to MC one thing. The problem with MC (and those effects in general) is that what you’ll get when you play its random. So the quality of the MC is always dependent on the quality of the creature you’ll steal. I think the card was good at the beginning when an enormous amount of people who didn’t know their head from their ass about card games played it. But the more it gets used the more you understand that “oh wait, I’m not gonna play this stupid large creature right into it on turn 16 because he’ll probably take it.”
Unfortunately video game shit tier mentality doesn’t really translate well to card games. Because of that Priest are going to take a hit on a card that, in all honesty, should probably cost 7, not 10. Either way, this game has some really bad system issues that make it stupid random. Drafting is a bloody mess and 3 card hands, only 2 of each makes it a really daffy game in general. Still fun but no way people should take drop a mint on this thing.
The only thing that they should have done with Mind Control is changed the rarity from basic to rare, so you didn’t run across shittons of them in arena. Arena is typically a slower environment, so MC feels more powerful there. Also, I would kill to have some sort of interrupt effect for classes other than Mage.
MC is still a good deal, it lets you close out games. It forces a 2 for 1, at minimum, that will always be in your favor. They play Rag/Ysera/Giants? steal it. They kill it? Better their guy then yours. Thats 2 cards from them for 1 of yours.
It is so powerful, it is the main reason people won’t play anything stronger than argent commander in the current meta (well, the previous one that is, before mages got so powerful).
Priest has shadow word pain and death, so anything not at 4 attack is easy for a priest to deal with. Priest has the 1/3 priestess that lets you draw when a minion is healed, which lets you easily draw early game. Any 1 drop they have is just a free draw for you, as you attack into it and heal. 2 drops are trickier, since they can be 3/2, but that card alone combined with the shadow words make priest really flexible.
then you can get into the tricks that work well at low level, like the 0/5 who always has attack equal to its health, then you play the double health card and suddenly you’ve got a 10/10 on like turn 3. Not to mention the heal is good at getting more value for your cards, run higher health creatures and keep them healed. Priestess + circle of healing = massive draw. the rank 10 and higher priest decks can DRAW their entire deck by like turn 4 off of basically common cards, I’ve seen screen shots of it.
Priest is about tempo and control, and I personally like to use something like Ysera to finish up the game.
Priest can’t just survive to turn 8 and easy mode to win, though, so it’s going to take a bit of a change in their mentality and decks. You can’t just rely on mind control anymore, you need your own big threats out around turn 8. But I think they’re fine power wise.