Stache loves the Flesheating Ghoul

One of the things Hearthstone really got right is the interaction with the cards. You get to see your opponent shuffling around, and trying things out on the board. And sometimes it's like this:

lol

How to win more than 62% of the time

So I'd been super busy with work and hadn't gotten much time to play Hearthstone. In no small part thanks to Fermilab's firewall. According to our spread sheet I hadn't run the arena in two weeks, and hadn't run solo in a full month. Overall this was just my third arena run in the last month.

Anyways I dialed up a mage and went 6-3. I started strong with 3-0. Then I lost to a dude with 2x Fire Elemental. Won a game. Then lost to a Druid who Innervated out a Chillwind Yeti on turn 2, gross. I didn't draw an answer for that. The last game was a loss to a Warlock. To be honest I'm not sure what happened there. But I can tell you this. The good cards in my deck were: chillwind yeti, boulderfist ogre, blizzard, fireball, and polymorph. And I saw none of them.

So I sit here to blog and wonder. How do I win the games where I don't see my good cards? Do I mulligan differently? Do I try to stretch out the game in hopes of drawing them? I'm not quite sure. On the most recent episode of Limited Resources Obi-Wong talked about how he wins when he doesn't get good cards by having a plan. I guess I need to do that.

There certainly have been times in Magic cards or Hearthstone where I have been playing better than average and in those times I do feel myself seeing more options and foreseeing the future. I guess I have to figure out how to do that more often.

New Link!

Guys I just added a new link to a website I found out about at a recent PTQ. It's called mtg stocks. It somehow collects data on transactions of magic cards then produces a google finance style graph of the price. Check it out, I highly recommend it.

What's the Pick

We've got a lovely trio for you today! Let's go!

 Fromt he Paladin collection we have three great cards.  we're about halfway through the draft.

It seems like every other post I read about MTG recently has been about crack-gate. So I figure we should chime in. If you are not familiar you can check out some coverage of the story over here: uproxx coverage of crack-gate.

There was a lot of anger directed at the production of the montage and in particular Brian Kibler

yes that brian kibler

wrote a blog post that explained the "fat-shaming" aspect of the crime. The fact that he entitled his blog post "Cracks int he Community" (lol, well done) notwithstanding. I never made the connection between ass cracks and weight. I always thought it was a plumber thing. Or maybe a hygiene thing.

Recently uproxx posted am image of sign on the storefront of tournament center.




And that's what I'm saying. Seriously we should not have to say, "cover up your ass crack". Perhaps everyone needs to rewatch Basic Intergluteal Numismatics

Hearthstone: the Gathering

Someone translated all existing Hearthstone cards into MTG frames and rules templates.

Most of these are pretty sweet mashups, although I admit there are also some that are a stretch.

Cone of Cold was my favorite so far.

How Many Truesilver Champions is Too Many?

Is it five?

Yup!

Five was probably too many. This deck went 4-3. 

The first couple were closer picks but the last two were just two terribad cards against the awesome weapon. Might as well jump in with both feet at that point, amirite?

Hearthstone Arena Walkthrough: Shaman - game 5

Welcome back, in case you're new here's what's going on. I did a draft as a Shaman and recorded everything! Here are the links to get yourself caught up:

Draft - http://magicanotes.blogspot.com/2014/02/hearthstone-arena-walkthrough-12-ways.html
Game 1 - http://magicanotes.blogspot.com/2014/02/hearthstone-arena-walkthrough-shaman.html
Game 2 - http://magicanotes.blogspot.com/2014/02/hearthstone-arena-walkthrough-shaman_28.html
Game 3 - http://magicanotes.blogspot.com/2014/03/hearthstone-arena-walkthrough-shaman.html
Game 4 - http://magicanotes.blogspot.com/2014/03/hearthstone-arena-walkthrough-shaman_7.html

 We're up against a druid this time. We don't need the third ooze to fight weapons and a third 2 drop is a bit much. The molten giant is certainly not where we want to be early.

Hearthstone Arena Walkthrough: Shaman - game 4

welcome back. time for game 4. side note: i think the best way to capture a game is to take two screen shots on your own turn, one at the start and the other at the end. then you shoot every card the opponent plays.

 Mirror match time. Well I got now two drop so I keep a 3 and hope for the best. Looking back on this mulligan I'm not sure if it was right. You can really shoot yourself in the foot with overload, but the coin helps.

 not much action in that draw. pass.

he drops a totem, i draw a totem.

 bam, mirror match for real

 he also whiffs on turn 3, sweet.

 I draw a 3 drop and elect to play my Wolves, with a coin ready for next turn.

 Ahhh he was holding it all for a twilight drake.

 I draw another flametongue totem. But with my taunters I decide I'm on the beat down.

1

 He swings in with his drake and drops a couple dorks! sweet. no card value for my opponent.

 Hmmm tasty tasty bloodlust. I could get in for 17 this turn. probably too soon.

 Powered up lightning storm time, how can I not. I know there are a lot of options, but that's gotta be the way to go.

 Especially when you hit it all! Game Over. At this point it doesn't matter what he does.

 Ooooooooo I'm shaking in my boots. That's a good card.

 I'll just drop more dudes.

 Ooooo another good card.

 But that's all she wrote.

Do you see it?

W 3-1

Hearthstone Arena Walkthrough: Shaman - game 3

 We're up against a druid so there isn't any upside from the ooze. The rest of the guys I like and I think we should be able to make a good start.

 We draw a giant and and ooze

  and drop and ooze for turn 2
.

 mad bomber from the villain

 we draw a spell breaker so we decide to drop an ooze and trade. we could choose to bolt his dude and get in for 3

 he drops his coin and

 uses his keeper of the grove to wipe my board

 I don't have any amazing options on 4. Totem + Totem, meh. Spellbreaker is a waste. That's about it. So I roll with totem and hit a spell power guy. Which makes the lightning bolt able to kill his dude. I dislike wasting mana but I think it's the best play.

 uh-oh, he's prepping for something big

 this turn all he can do is drop a murloc, i'm worried about what comes next.

OOOOOHHHHH, Fire Elemental, that will come in handy next turn. But what about this turn? We're not under pressure and can't afford most of the stuff in our hand. I elected to drop a totem and then play the Flametounge totem in the middle.

 He trades away for my taunter. And then spends 3 mana on claw + ability so he can takeout my 0/3.

 No targets for my Fire Elemental and I want to spend all the mana so we might as well Cash in the rocketeer. That Hex is pretty sweet. Between that and the Elemental and the Giant I'm feeling good.

 A legit response from him. Two cards and a bonus dude. He wound up getting the haste guy and takes out my 5/2

 And we draw a rockbiter weapon. I want to crush his board, but I also want to play that Giant. Hmmmmm

 Looks like I decided to play elemental and rockbiter to take out his 3/5.

 He comes back with a Priestess which AntiGrav gives a whopping rating of "Usually Bad"

 And there it is, my favorite dude. Double Strike Time. But in Hearthstone Double strike is even better!

 At the moment however we need to develop the board, awesomeness must wait. Drop the Giant and trade with the Priestess.

 Groan, what a buzzkill.

 And innervate .. uh oh

And then he blows it - just straight game loss right here. Do not pass go, do not collect 200 gold coins. He drops a buff on the 8/8. That's a 3 for 1 sitting there.

What a disaster for him. I've got Hex and Spellbreaker, card advantage city.SOAPBOX: don't buff your dudes when they have summoning sickness. You are just asking to be blown out. It's like playing an aura (bestow shut up). In this case here I would have used something on the protector even if it wasn't buffed. Here he's now dropped 3 creatures on the board and gotten nothing to show for it. Gross END SOAPBOX.

 I decided to turn in my Hex and drop the wolfrider. Thus wiping his board and leaving him at 1 card. Pseudo card advantage scoreboard: Pete 4.5 to 1. Gross.

 Ooff another Protector. And he druids up an takes out my 3/1, whatever will I do

 Time to play out my whole hand.

 I produce two taunters and can bring him down to 10. Sweet!

 He responds by bringing himself back up to 19, but he can't handle my taunters.

So I windfury him to death with the Sea Giant.