The L is Silent - 00010

Pete, Jed and Brent have another Hearthstone Arena podcast and Brent hogs the mic yet again. This time, they'll talk about drafting and playing strategies for all nine classes as well as drop some tips about how to play against each class.

What's the best way to counter a Hunter? What makes Paladin so boss? Why does Jed know so much about armor classes? Find out in this week's ep.

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• Some sound effects and music courtesy of  freesfx.co.uk

The L is Silent - 00009

Pete, Jed and Brent finally get back to podcasting, but only because Jed has decided to jump in with both feet to Brent's current obsession: Hearthstone Arena.

How did Jed's first Arena go? What are some limited Hearthstone basics? Where are the best locations to play a game or two of Hearthstone? Find out in this week's ep.

• Subscribe to The L is Silent at http://feeds.feedburner.com/thelissilent-magicanotes
• Some sound effects and music courtesy of  freesfx.co.uk

Turn 3 Kill in Hearthstone's Tavern Brawl

If you haven't stopped by The Inn recently to play Hearthstone, there is a new game mode out that perfectly blends a fresh challenge every week with the fun of casual spell slinging mixed in with a dash of Blizzard zaniness. Tavern Brawl is a 1v1 match that adopts new and unusual rules each week, making for constantly fresh gameplay while the hardcore player base waits for a fresh expansion. And thus far, your first win each week earns you a Classic card pack, which also makes it a great way for newer players to build their collection.

Welcome to my Inn!

The first of the crazy rulesets have allowed us to play as Nefarian and Ragnaros, starting with 60 life and including non-collectible cards in our preconstructed decks that were from the Blackrock Mountain adventure. Since then, we've had fully random decks, a free Mukla-style banana every time a minion dies, a Webspinner challenge, and a free random minion on the board every time you cast a spell. Sometimes you get to pick your entire deck, sometimes just the class, and sometimes you get whatever the game gives you

12-Win Paladin Arena Deck: Goblins vs Gnomes Edition

It's been a while since I reported on a 12-win Arena deck, so when I put together my first full-value run since Goblins vs Gnomes dropped, I figured I should tell my readers all about it.

Oh yeah!

Picture a good Paladin deck. It probably has a pair of Consecrations and at least as many Truesilvers Champion. But this deck had none of either. Weird, right? The last 12-win Paladin run I wrote about was similar. It had a bunch of natural two-for-ones, only one Truesilver Champion and no Consecrations. This time, I got a tremendous tempo deck that provided bountiful two-for-ones, good stats for the mana, and actually not that many tricks.

Hearthstone Ogres, Ranked

Goblins vs Gnomes introduced a handful of minor themes, including spare parts, piloted mechs and ogres. This whole set has been tremendously fun to play, with randomness woven into the gameplay in ways that are only practical in a digital environment. For instance, I've already shown you how fun Recombobulator is. Today, we're talkin' about ogres.

NERDS!

Fantastic Cards from Goblins vs Gnomes - Recombobulator

Part 1 of an undeteremined length series - Recombobulator

"You might feel a little tingle"

I love this card. I love everything about this card.

The name is great. Say it out loud. "Re-com-bob-u-la-tor!"

The art is fantastic. Look at this moustache! (and those eyebrows!)

I bet Stache is so jelly

And... it is a great card to play. I think it is so much better than it looks on the surface. The stats are fine if you need to run it out early just to get a Bloodfen Raptor. But don't do that if you can afford to wait.

If you draft a lot of minions with big battlecry values (and I do), he's amazing. Use the battlecry effect. Attack the next turn, even it it is just the Villain's face, then transform your dude into something new. If you can kill an enemy minion and leave your dude clinging to one or two health, then recombobulate him, it is even better. Check out the example below.

"I am sorry"

In this game, the mage Villain got an early start with Mana Wyrm then some mechs you can see. I played two Aldor Peacekeepers to slow things down, traded one off and killed the 2/3 Wyrm with the other. This left me with a 3/1 body, which got recombobulated into Injured Blademaster, but since he doesn't injure himself with his battlecry, I get the full 4/7 stats!

For another memorable example, I was playing mage and Unstable Portal-ed into a Silver Hand Knight. I get the 4/4 and the 2/2 at a discount, then next turn trade up for the Villain's 4/3 with the Squire and a ping, then kill a 2/4 with the Knight, leaving a 4/2 body remaining. This is where the Recombobulator does his magic, taking the 5-cost Knight and turning him into any number of real sweet bodies. In this case, I get Doomguard, but without the discard two clause! And by virtue of his charge, I get to attack face for five that turn as well. Such Value! (yeah, I won that one)

I think of Recombobulator like as Earthen Ring Farseer that only works on my guys, but can sometimes have much better (and sometimes worse, to be fair) results. Pick him in the Arena. You won't regret it.

I am loving many of the random effects in the new expansion. They are super-fun and if you can manipulate them to your advantage, they can also be super-powerful.

Play Arena for Free with Unreleased Goblins vs Gnomes Cards

To celebrate (hype) the upcoming release of the new Goblins vs Gnomes Hearthstone expansion, Blizzard has generously gifted all players one free Arena run. And there's the bonus: until the expansion goes live on Monday, December 8th, it will be the only place you can play with the new cards. It's basically a prerelease event, but for Hearthstone! Just log in before the 8th to get your free Arena ticket (value: $.199 or 150 in game gold)

HYPE!

If you haven't played Hearthstone for a while, this is a great time to get back in there and see all the new hotness on the house. The community's understanding is that Arena runs won't pay off in GvG packs until Tuesday, so if you want to wait until then to play your free Arena, that is understandable. Or, you could start the run now, play up to two losses or 11 wins, then wait and finish the run after the official launch next week.

Our Blizzard overlords have also changed a couple existing cards, so dust Gadgetzan Auctioneer and Flare now for full value, especially if you don't think you'll play them for a while.

Secret Mage: Super-Fun and Cheap Hearthstone Deck

There is only one week before the confirmed release of the Goblins vs Gnomes expansion on December 8th! In the meantime, while you are saving up all your gold and dust, I have a sweet constucted list that I have been playing on the ladder recently and having an absolute blast with. And best of all, as long as you have completed Naxxramas, it only includes two easily replacable legendary cards and four rares.

It is something I haven't seen others playing on the ladder at all and besides being fun, it is also pretty good and brings a little bit of the randomness we're expecting once the expansion hits. As the name of the deck says, it is a mage deck that revolves around secrets. Here's the list:

Why should Hunter secrets have all the fun?

The idea is to gain tempo or tempo and card advantage by playing Mad Scientist or Kirin Tor Mage early. Playing as a mage, you get the most value out of your Scientists because the secrets are all three mana cards, compared to hunter's two and paladin's one. Since we are running three different secrets, our opponents will be on the back foot and not necessarily be able to play around all the possibilities.

Mad Scientist is the backbone of this deck. When a Scientist dies, you get to draw a free card and then get three free mana and then get to play it immediately. All for the low cost of two mana! That's bordering on absurd and doesn't even count the 2/2 you also had for a time.

Kirin Tor Mage isn't quite as broken, but it is still a free Black Lotus (or 1.5 Innervates) when you play it and a secret on the same turn. All while getting an on-curve 4/3 for 3!

Really!

One typical opening sequence I've had on the draw:

* turn 1 - Mana Wyrm
* turn 2 - Coin + Kirin Tor Mage + Secret. Attack with 3/3 Wyrm. End turn 2 with a 4/3, a 3/3, and Mirror Entity up.

I generally mulligan secrets away unless I have Kirin Tor Mage ready to deploy on turn two. Since we only run six secrets, Mad Scientist could potentially lose value if we no longer have any to fetch from our deck when he dies. Remember, he won't go get a duplicate (small d) secret to one you already have up and he also won't give you any benefit if the only eligible secret left is already in your hand.

Duplicate (big D) has been very strong in this deck. The trick is the timing of when to play it. The best minion to get extras of is Sludge Belcher. I don't think that is a shock to anyone. Water Elemental is another great choice, although since this deck runs 14 spells, I have grown some large Mana Wyrms from time to time. Help anyone who kills Sylvanas on an empty board into a Duplicate, thinking it is a safe time. Watch out against Shaman and Mage players. If you telegraph the Duplicate, they might just give you two Frogs or Sheep, which is not what we want.

Sorcerer's Apprentice is the two drop I am least likey to play early. It can enable some big turns later, saving 2-3 mana the turn you play her in the right circumstance. Both Apprentice and Loot Hoarder are in the deck mostly for curve considerations.

Flamestrike may be a surprise inclusion for some of you. I think most mage decks on the ladder have cut this, which only increases its power for me. Literally no one expects this (outside of Arena) and it can generate insane value.

If you don't have The Black Knight or Sylvanas Windrunner, don't despair. They aren't essential to this build. I'd add in another Polymorph to take care of the large taunt minions and a bigger-stat threat like Chillwind Yeti or Sunwalker.

Of course there were some other cards to try that just missed the cut for me. Secretkeeper and Ethereal Arcanist were too cute and not powerful enough even though they fit the theme. Loatheb could go in just about every deck but doesn't fit in our plan. As for secrets themselves, Ice Block is excellent in a Freeze Mage-style deck where you just need one extra turn to Pyroblast your opponent to death, but this is not that. Spellbender is close to making the cut. Your opponent will never see it coming, but usually it is just equivalent to or worse than Counterspell.

Against Hunter's Mark, Arcane Shot, Blessing of Wisdom, Blessing of Might, Blessing of Kings, Holy Smite, Divine Spirit, Inner Fire, Backstab, Cold Blood, Sap, Earth Shock, Rockbiter Weapon, Hex, Reincarnate, Ancestral Spirit, Soulfire, and Mortal Coil, Spellbender is better than Counterspell. But versus Swipe, Explosive Shot, Cone of Cold, Hammer of Wrath, Holy Wrath, Power Word: Shield, Shadow Madness, Holy Fire, Betrayal, Shiv, Siphon Soul, and Slam it is worse. I think on balance, the second group is more heavily played and there is more downside than there is upside to the first group. That being said, having one in the mix adds to the fun of watching your opponent try to play around your secret correctly. I imagine most figure it's an Ice Block and are really shocked when their spell gets bent.

Give this deck a shot; I guarantee you'll have fun and you should do a fair bit of winning at the same time. And once GvG hits next week, I'll be back with some brand new Arena runs to get you up to speed on all the wackiness of the new cards.

Not so Magical Results

Your hero moved to Saint Louis earlier this year, so this marks his first limited PTQ season in a new geo-political region. It turns out that there is one (1) PTQ within a 4-hour drive, so today was my only shot this season.

Goofy Hearthstone Glitch

Today, I present part two of a very intermittent series:

Not actually a hunter with a mage secret in play, just what happened after I got disconnected from my game and came back after my hunter opponent played his trap. (It was Explosive Trap. It's pretty much always Explosive Trap.)

How to Win Cheaply at Hearthstone: Undertaker Zoolock

How to win cheaply on the Hearthstone ladder: play Warlock Zoo (Zoolock).

This list is a fantastic tempo deck that comes out to a roaring start, replenishes its hand by drawing and usually playing two cards a turn in the midgame, and ending things before the Villain can get stabilized. And best of all, it costs very little dust, with one legendary card and only five rares.

In August, I played a bit more constructed Hearthstone and got up to Level 8 by the end of the month. I won quite a bit in the final week but never got to a point where I was plateauing, which leads me to believe there was still more room to advance if I just kept grinding ladder matches.

This particular list I will feature is an update to the old Zoolock deck from the spring, but with the addition of a deathrattle theme from Naxxramus. I call it Underwarlock, after Undertaker, a huge addition from the Construct Quarter of Naxx. I've added as many relevant cheap deathrattles as possible to maximize the one-drop.

List
2x Soulfire
1x Power Overwhelming
2x Abusive Sergeant
2x Leper Gnome
2x Voidwalker
2x Undertaker
2x Dire Wolf Alpha
2x Haunted Creeper
1x Ironbeak Owl
2x Knife Juggler
2x Loot Hoarder
2x Nerubian Egg
2x Harvest Golem
2x Dark Iron Dwarf
2x Defender of Argus
1x Leeroy Jenkins
1x Doomguard

Strategy
This is not an all-out "face" aggressive deck, but rather a board-control, tempo-oriented deck. Take advantageous trades when you can, trade up using temporary buffs and build a board of one- and two-drops. Play two (or more) cards most turns. Don't worry so much about card advantage as board advantage. Even if your Paladin opponent Consecrations on four mana, many of our dudes leave a minion behind when they die, and we can almost always rebuild to an impressive board just one turn later. Unless you are super low on life and in danger of dying the next turn, spam that hero power when possible. Trust me, it feels great.

Card Thoughts
Knife Juggler: Backbone of the deck. Do not play him without a plan to abuse him. Some of my favorite plans include The Coin + Juggler on turn one if I have two one-drops to follow-up or Haunted Creeper turn two then Juggler, Abusive Sergeant and attack to trade on turn three for three knife throws out of nowhere.

Undertaker: Don't let him sit as a 1/2 unless it is turn one and you have deathrattles coming on line turn two. Otherwise hold him for a devastating extra 2/3 or even 3/4 on turn three or four at the cost of only one mana. Plus, one-mana knife throws are a huge bonus.

Defender of Argus & Dire Wolf Alpha: Be mindful of your minion placement, especially when you have either of these in hand. Keep in mind they don't play particularly well together on the same turn, since they only buff adjacent minions and they plop a summoning sick new dude in between your souped-up, ready-to-fight guys. They also work quite differently, with the wolf great on a board where you will trade off a couple weaker dudes from the center of your board and then immediately cascade his bonus to the next minion in line. Generally, I'll keep my weaker minions (the 2/1s) in the center of the board. Usually the bigger guys don't get as much value from the wolf's attack boost, but they can be great targets for the Defender's taunt-granting.

Loot Hoarder: An atypical choice, but one I have been extremely satisfied with. He is another two-mana, efficient deathrattle trigger for the Undertaker, and while the card draw is less important with Warlock's Life Tap, it is still nice. The one toughness (defense?) is not as much of a liability in Zoo because we have the luxury of tempo on our side. Even if our Villain trades two mana to hero-power kill our two-mana card that replaces itself, that is a net win for us because we probably played one or two other cheap spells that turn, while they may have had trouble doing anything else.

Soulfire: Obviously excellent to finish, but don't be afraid to use it early to establish board dominance. In what the Villian thinks should be a trading situation, Soulfire will let you drop a new minion, keep the one you had, and kill theirs, all for the low, low cost of emptying your hand. Luckily, our hero power will help us recover from this pure tempo play swiftly. If you can cast a minion to leave Soulfire as your last card in hand, cast it, then draw using Life Tap, that is big game.

Singletons
Doomguard: Since we can't play a second copy of Leeroy, this does a good imitation. I never want two in my hand at once and it is not good to have Soulfire + Doomguard both with the prospect of discarding one to the other, so I stick to only one. Playing this with an otherwise empty hand feels like cheating.

Power Overwhelming: Another card-disadvantage, tempo play, again I never really want two at once. I'm not running the Void Terror combo and since I have 4x two-power buffs and 4x one-power buffs for the Nerubian Egg, I don't need to rely on this to make the 4/4 Nerubian. Sometimes this makes my Egg into a four-power attacker with divine shield, but usual I find it acts more like a third Soulfire, dealing the final four points at a cheap cost and ending the game before the drawback matters.

Ironbeak Owl: This is the last slot in the deck for me, and I am sort of interested in squeezing another Owl in somewhere. He doesn't deathrattle and he doesn't have a great body, but it seems like he always makes some positive contribution to the board state. In the best case, he silences a troublesome large taunter. Otherwise, he'll usually remove the value from an opposing Egg or Harvest Golem.

Example Board State

At Rank 9, Villain should be no slouch, but we put a hurt on him by turn 4.

The scene depicted above was not the nut opening to a match, but it is pretty close, and with a slow start, our Villain had no chance.

VT1: pass

T1: The Coin, Knife Juggler

VT2: make a 1/1 soldier

T2: Undertaker, Leper Gnome, knifing soldier and Villain (30-26)

VT3: make a 1/1 soldier

T3: Nerubian Egg, Voidwalker, knifing soldier and Villain (30-17)

VT4: Truesilver Champion, attack Voidwalker (30-18)

T4: Defender of Argus, knifing Villain (30-7)

VT5: concede

Substitutions
If you don't have Leeroy, save up some dust and make him. I'd say he should be your first legendary crafted on account of him fitting into most aggro decks and some combo ones. A second Doomguard or Arcane Golem could do in a pinch. Otherwise, this deck is one of the cheapest you will find, with just five rares and one card from the Construct quarter.

Happy hunting and learn to love card disadvantage. I have!

How much will Curse of Naxxramus cost?

Some Curse of Naxxramas colon A Hearthstone Adventure details have been announced and while there is still no date yet on which it will drop, we do have important pricing information now.

The first wing (of 5) will be completely free if you start adventure mode during the first "month or so". Be sure and do that for maximum value. Then, the remaining 4 wings (which will be released on a weekly basis) will cost 700 in-game gold each, or $5.00 per if you buy more than one with cold hard cash. If you only purchase one at a time, they are $7.00. Do me a favor and don't do that.

As for me, I have been grinding the Arena and an average of 90% of my daily quests, so I am stocked up on gold and will remain a free-to-play player. I just ticked above 5,000 gold saved up, with 2,800 earmarked for Naxx.

At 1,000 wins across all formats, you'll get a 300 gold bonus.

Unless there are plans for another expansion announced soon, I may just spend some of the leftover gold on cracking packs for dust now that I know how much I'll need for Naxx. To keep everyone up to date, I have seven legendaries thus far (five opened, with one duplicate dusted and three crafted). Just 28 more to go and I'll have the full set!

Literally have never touched Prophet Velen and forgot I even owned him.

Give me a Quest!

I had a Questing Adventurer that did some work today in the Arena. Not only did I get him up to 15/5 after killing a couple things, but my Windspeaker gave it double strike (windfury) to one-shot Villain from 27!

Quest Accepted!

Hearthstone Arena Data After 800 and 900 Matches

The last time I checked in with my arena stats,  I had a robust 61.7% win percentage in 700 lifetime matches.

In the two months since, I have racked up another 200 arena games played and ticked my win percentage higher over time.

matches	wins as	win%
800	495	61.88%

matches	wins as	win%
900	558	62.00%

I'll do the subtraction for you. Between 701-800, I won 63 and from 801-900 the same. Sure these are arbitrary endpoints, but there is some brutal consistency there.

There was not too much action on the class-specific data after 100 more matches, so let's skip to present day.

my class	matches	wins as	win%
mage	152	106	69.74%
rogue	116	75	64.66%
paladin	182	115	63.19%
priest	69	42	60.87%
druid	145	88	60.69%
hunter	66	40	60.61%
warrior	65	38	58.46%
shaman	58	31	53.45%
warlock	47	23	48.94%

Mage still rules the day, but I have had some great decks recently, pushing its winrate well above the field. On the flip side, I tried one more Warlock and went 2-3, dropping below 50% lifetime with that class. 

Villain's class	matches	wins against	win%
warrior	82	57	69.51%
priest	62	41	66.13%
shaman	103	67	65.05%
warlock	60	39	65.00%
rogue	68	44	64.71%
paladin	148	90	60.81%
hunter	81	49	60.49%
druid	105	62	59.05%
mage	191	109	57.07%

On Villain's side of the table, I have brought my record against both Mages and Druids up significantly, but lost some of my advantage against Warrior, Priest, and Rogue.

After 115 arena runs, I have five 12-win runs to my name, two Mages, and one each from Rogue, Hunter, and Paladin. A single Rogue run is my only winless attempt, while there have been three Druids, two more Rogues, two Hunters, a Warrior, a Warlock, a Shaman and a Paladin for 11 single-win runs.

Takeaways:

• Rogue is high variance. It has my second-highest winrate, but three stinkers out of 14 runs.
• Priest and Mage have not yet let me down and in fact, my worst runs with Mage have been three wins.
• I overvalue Druid

Twelve win mage deck

I had a great run as a mage recently. Here's the list: 

Great curve, good mass removal, only a few weak spots, namely Ice Lance, Mana Wraith, Tauren Warrior, Archmage and Frost Elemental.

Even those weak cards are pretty decent with the Mage abilitiy and unique class cards.

I lost to Druid and Warrior, while beating 3x Paladin, 3x Druid, 2x Rogue, 2x Mage, Warrior, and Warlock.

Mage with enrage cards (and Gurubashi Berserker) is pretty sweet. It is like an option that is always available to you if you need the extra punch or if you opponent can't deal with the original stats. I also played the 2/3 taunter as a 5/2 taunter for 5 one time, which was pretty sweet against a yeti or whatever other large nonsense was across the table.

Hearthstone Arena Data after 700 matches

After 700 Hearthstone arena matches, I've had my ups and downs, but here are the black and white stats:

matches	wins	win %
700	432	61.71%

Well that isn't too enlightening, so let's break it down by what class I played:

my class	matches	wins as	win %
mage	108	72	66.67%
rogue	75	49	65.33%
hunter	55	35	63.64%
warrior	49	31	63.27%
paladin	140	87	62.14%
druid	125	77	61.60%
priest	55	33	60.00%
shaman	51	27	52.94%
warlock	42	21	50.00%

Some of those are still subject to small sample size fluctuations, but I've done at least six arena runs as each. Clearly, I have a favored triad between Mage, Druid and Paladin. Each of those three I have played at least 12 runs, and while Mage backs up this preference with performance, Paladin and Druid are decidedly average. 

On the other side, I have no more than 9 runs with Rogue, Hunter, Warrior, Priest, Shaman, or Warlock. Don't ask me about how to play Warlock or Shaman, because I clearly don't have the answers. My style is to always clear the board and grind my opponent out of cards, trading life for time. That is almost certainly why I don't like Warlock, where the card quality is low and the pilot can trade life for cards at any time. Why then is my Shaman terrible? I truly don't know.

But this is only one side of the equation, let's also examine my performance from the other side of the table:

villain's class	matches	wins against	win %
warrior	69	50	72.46%
priest	47	32	68.09%
rogue	52	35	67.31%
warlock	46	30	65.22%
shaman	82	52	63.41%
paladin	114	68	59.65%
hunter	69	41	59.42%
mage	143	81	56.64%
druid	78	43	55.13%

This table tells us a few things: 

1. Mage is the most popular class, and seems correctly rumored to be strongest. My Mage win percentage is 67% and I am only 57% against. Shockingly, my overall is 62%.
2. My "grind out an advantage" strategy is weak to mass removal (Mage & Druid), as well as direct damage (Hunter).
3. Priest, Rogue, and Warlock lag behind in usage, for good reason.

Since I have played Magic (specifically limited) for so long, I am accustomed to playing one style and I don't think I adjust well to the added wrinkle of different classes playing different styles. This is my challenge to myself and I'll check back in after a few hundred more matches to let you know how the times are changing.

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?

What's the pick? Hunter - First Pick

I will interrupt Pete's in-depth analysis for a quick, classic "What's the pick?" scenario.

The situation is thus: Hunter, First Pick, Go!

A tough one, for all the right reasons.

This one probably comes down to play style, but by my count, we have the best neutral rare and the two top Hunter rares. What's your pick?

For what it's worth, an individual named Vivafringe published a list of arena picks by class (including rares) and rates Highmane over the Bow.

I'll come back and add my $0.02 in the comments once I hear back from you.

Hearthstone is Gatecrash!

Want to know a secret? Hearthstone is Gatecrash. Gatecrash is Hearthstone.

I came to this conclusion a little while ago, when Brian and Marshall were wrapping up 2013. In Gatecrash limited, the two-drop was king. There were so many great two-drops that if you didn't have a two-drop, it meant you were falling behind with a good chance of never catching up. Because the Boros deck had a sick 3/2 for 2, even mediocre two-drops became must-haves, even in decks that didn't want vanilla bears.

Like this guy in a controlling Orzhov or Dimir deck

In Hearthstone, because the mana available is always increasing, if you fall behind it is very difficult to get back to an even footing, which is why cards like these guys become a lot more desirable:

I'll play either happily

The board-control style I play loves these guys. They let us get to the end game without dying first, so that we can get a chance to outplay our opponents. And on the occasion when the Villain does not have an early drop, these give us the board presence that we need to start whittling away at that life total or hopefully trading up for the villain's next creature.