asclepeus-blog

[asclepeus-blog]

Arena Tips

Hello :) Today I will be discussing Arena. In Arena, as opposed to in Constructed, a deck is created only using a certain subset of cards. In this sense, arena can be viewed as a more “fair” format than constructed. The skill of picking the right cards determines the power level of one deck; in constructed the power level is determined by what cards are included out of the player’s pool. Of course, actual gameplay is a huge factor - making the correct trades, attack the opposing hero at the right time, holding onto spells, etc.

In reality, Arena is still based on luck to some extent. The chance-based Legendary and Epic cards can make a deck absurdly powerful. There is also no limit to the amount of a single card that can be put in a deck, allowing for multiple instances of powerful effects, whereas in constructed only 2 are allowed. This all makes Arena a dynamic and fun format with the potential to be a large source of gold/dust.

Minion Evaluation:

Due to the nature of arena and the amount of neutral cards opened, most of an arena deck consists of minions. The base expected value of a minion, often called the “vanilla” test is as follows: 2 * mana cost +1 = attack + health. That means a 2 mana minion should be a 2/3, a 3/2. A 3 mana minion should be a 4/3, 3/4, 2/5, or 5/2, and so on. It is generally a good idea to avoid 1 hp or 1 atk minions. The 1 atk minions will often not have enough impact and the 1 hp minions will die to the hero power of 3/9 classes (4 if u include paladin). For this reason, most 1 mana minions are avoided.

The keywords also allow for lower statted minions to be strong, such as divine shield, taunt, poisonous, and lifesteal. For most of these keywords, I would expect a -1/-1 change for each keyword for the card to remain good. E.G. a 4 mana 3/3 with divine shield, a 5 mana 4/4 with lifesteal. Poisonous minions will likely have more of a decreased statline than a vanilla creature while still remaining powerful.

Floor/Ceiling:

An important part of card evaluation is thinking of the worst case scenario, often referred to as the "floor" of a card. An example is the new card, WIcked Skeleton

This card’s ‘floor’ is horrendous. If no other minions died the turn it is played, it is a 4 mana 1/1 - unplayable. Even a 1 mana 1/1 is not good enough. However the ‘ceiling’ or the highest possible value of a card, is immense. Assuming 14 minions are killed it becomes a 15/15.

The critical thing to think about it is how likely these scenarios are. The ceiling is virtually impossible, while the floor is actually a bit possible, though still unlikely. The most likely scenario is somewhere in between. A somewhat likely scenario is to trade in 1 or 2 minions, if played on turn 4. That puts the card at a reasonable rate for a somewhat likely scenario. Does this make this card good? Likely not as it is still inconsistent and the floor is still a possibility. You cannot guarantee that you’ll have minions in play and favorable trades.

Stone Sentinel is another good example of floor vs ceiling. A 7 mana 4/4 if no Elemental was played is terrible while a 7 mana 4/4 that summons 2 taunt 2/3s is clearly powerful. This card is much more binary than the previous. Did the Battlecry trigger or not? Again the question is what is more likely and in a regular arena deck, not playing an elemental previously is much more likely.

2 for 1:

Certain cards allow for effects that deal with multiple cards or deal with a card and put a minion in play. Examples include AoE spells (Flamestrike, Dragonfire Potion, Twisting Nether) and minions with powerful battlecry minions like Vilespine slayer, Dark Iron Dwarf, Arathi Weaponsmith, and Fatespinner. These cards make a deck powerful enough to consistently win and not just rely on playing a minion every single turn. Card draw effects can also fall into this category, the prime example being Arcane Intellect. These type of effects allow for you to maintain more resources (cards/minions in play) than the opponent.

State of the Game:

An important thing to consider when choosing a card is how it works based on the state of the game. Does it do anything if you are behind? At parody (equal or empty board states)? Ahead? Be careful to avoid “win more” cards - cards that are only effective if you are ahead, but do nothing if you are behind. Examples include Mark of the Lotus, Bloodlust, Infect, and Mana Tide Totem. These all require you to have a board to have an effect and in the case of Mana Tide Totem, to effectively use it. It is, however, important to have cards that maintain one’s lead when they are ahead, such as well statted minions.

Cards that are good when the game is at parody are one’s that effect the board in a meaningful way, attempting to swing the advantage in the player’s favor. You do not want to remain in parody for long. Other good cards during parody are minions that demand removal or demand multiple minions trading into it.

The very best cards are one’s that are powerful when behind. Cards such as Flamestrike, Twisting Nether, Equality, Consecration, Brawl, Primordial Drake, and Nesting Scarabs are all able to return the momentum in the player’s favor. It is important to save these cards until it is necessary to use or to help maintain a decent board advantage. It is also important to play around cards like this by not overplaying into AoE effects. Avoid playing too many low health minions against the appropriate classes, and trade into minions to avoid one-sided AoE effects.

Every deck is Midrange:

Though it is true that sometimes a deck will turn out to be particularly aggressive or controlling, it’s important to make each of your Arena decks, Midrange decks. Respect the mana curve and avoid having too many cards at a high or low mana costs. It’s okay to have your mana curve peak in the middle as long as your have sufficient early game plays; generally 6 1 to 2-mana minions or removal spells/weapons.

To that end, it is critical to have the removal necessary to deal with your opponents threats. Don’t avoid cards such as Hunter’s Mark and Toxic Arrow simply because your hunter deck seems to have a low curve. You will still need those effects. They are unique and necessary. Conversely, it is important to have powerful minions in the late game that demand said removal spells. You don’t want to be left with no cards in hand and no large minions in deck.

I hope you enjoyed and thank you :)

[asclepeus-blog]

Basics 1: Archetypes

Hello, I’ll be taking archetypes in a broad sense. What is an archetype in the context of Hearthstone? An archetype a general idea of a deck; what it does, how it wins, the types of cards it plays. Not going into too much detail here.

Basic Archetypes:

1. Aggro: 

A shortened form of the word “aggressive”, these types of decks have intention of winning the game quickly, through the use of efficient early game minions/combos, burn (direct damage to the hero such as fireball), and simply low mana cost cards. These factors combined mean the opponent is generally forced to be reactive and may not have the early game tools to stay alive. Examples include: Zoo Warlock, Murloc Paladin, Evolve Shaman, Eternal Servitude Priest, Token Druid, Pirate Warrior, etc. The general consensus is that aggro decks are more common in higher ranks and it is often not viable to run a deck that has no answer to a quick aggro start. Often these decks are dealt with by the use of area of effect spells (spells that damage multiple minions).

2. Control

In some ways, the polar opposite of Aggro, this archetype focusing on winning slowly through powerful spells and minions, effective card draw, and having answers/removal to the opponents problems. As well as healing. Oftentimes these effects are very mana expensive, leaving control decks with general weak early game. However this is dealt with by including powerful spells such as lightning storm, dragonfire potion, and equality, as well as effective taunt minions, to deal with multiple early game minions. Their win conditions often lie in their powerful minions with Ysera, The Lich KIng, Free from Amber, and Rotgut as examples. The critical part of this archetype is weighing how many answers are needed against how many big threats during deck construction. Balancing this ensures that you have the tools to deal with what your opponent will do, or “control” the board. These decks typically do not do great against aggro unless early AoE is drawn.. Examples: Control Warrior, Control Priest, Control Warlock/Handlock, Control Paladin, Control Mage/Freeze Mage

3. Midrange

Midrange may be considered an amalgamation of both Aggro and Control; having the speed it needs to win quickly if it must and powerful answers/threats. Therefore, it is often thought of as having the most consistent match ups; even if it does not boast the highest win rates against certain archetypes. It is meant to have a fighting chance against any deck. They often contain powerful 4-6 cost minions, removal/answers that it needs (e.g. polymorph/hex), and reasonably costed high end minions. It tends to avoid having too many/any 9 or 10 cost minions. This deck is often concerned with maintaining an effective board without going “too wide” (playing too many minions). Examples include: Midrange Shaman, Midrange Druid, Enrage/Midrange Warrior, Dragon Priest, Elemental Mage, Midrange Hunter, Midrange Paladin

4. Combo

The final deck archetype I’ll be discussing is combo. These decks generally focus on one powerful set of cards that produce a nearly game winning effect and will do everything in their power to survive long enough, and draw enough, to do that. Therefore they are known to contain those combo pieces, removal, early taunt minions, and healing as well as a large amount of card draw. This is certainly the least common archetype as there are simply not that many powerful combos this early in the game’s life cycle. Additionally, there is often overlap between this archetype and Control as they both run very high amounts of answers. Generally the best way to win against these decks is to kill them early before they draw their combo, something that is difficult for Control decks. Examples include; Most quest decks (they do very little until the quest is complete), Mill Rogue, Miracle Rogue, Eternal Servitude Priest, Burn/Freeze Mage, Resurrect Shaman, Leeroy Handlock, Malygos Druid, Avianna Druid

I’ll note that it’s not good to think of this like rock paper scissors; “aggro beats combo, combo beats control”. Each deck has a fighting chance.

Thank you for your time

[asclepeus-blog]

2 Weeks into KotFT: Impressions

Knights of the Frozen Throne was released August 10, 2017 and the skeleton structures of specific archetypes are beginning to grow. Let’s discuss them! But first, I’d like to talk about initial impressions upon card reveals.

Reveal Impression:

I noticed a large amount of mana-expensive, high value new cards. Namely, the Lich King, all the heroes, Rotgut, Abominable Bowman, Bone Drake, Eternal Servitude, Stitched Tracker, Hadronox, Obsidian Statue, Sindragosa, Snowfury Giant, Bolvar Fireblood etc, aswell as multiple control spells/tools such as; Dead Man’s Hand, Blood Razor, Toxic Arrow, Skulking Geist, Shadowblade, Fatespinner, Dark Conviction, Defile, Embrace Darkness, Devour Mind, Ultimate Infestation, Spreading Plague etc. The mere power level of these cards led me to believe Control/Midrange decks featuring these cards would be common.

There a few aggro cards included as well, but none that shine quite as brightly as the control cards. They include; Acheus Veteran, Brrrloc, Bearshark, Shadow Ascendant, Prince Keleseth,Righteous Protector, Phantom Freebooter, Sanguin Reveler, etc.

First Two Weeks Synopsis:

I’d like to get into individual decks and archetypes and how they changed with the release in a later post. For now, a summary.

Control seems to be the a very prevalent archetype and for good reason, though it is a fallacy to assume a deck isn’t aggro because of it. You should still keep anti aggro cards against paladin, warlock, hunter, druid, shaman, and warrior as the old aggro decks are still played with very minor changes in my opinion (most noteworthy one would be the shaman hero). If you do not keep these cards and it is aggro, it’s usually a guaranteed loss. Conversely if it’s control and you have anti aggro cards in hand you still have a very good chance. The opponent is also likely to keep anti aggro cards. 

Control Warrior, Control Priest, Control Druid, Control Paladin, Control Rouge, Control Warlock, Control Hunter, and Control Mage are all very common - all featuring their new hero card. Specifically Priest, Druid, Warlock, and Paladin are the most common in my experience. If they get their hero off early enough, these are often uphill battles. Mindbreaker is a tech card that may stem the bleeding once they use their hero card though i have yet to try it and it does not seem that good. I’ll note that I have had success with Control/Midrange Shaman and it seems to have gotten even better with Avalanche and voodoo hexxer. However, I have seen literally none on ranked besides the deck I am playing since KotFT came out.

In order to combat what seems to be a control heavy meta, the natural conclusion is aggro. And it seems relatively effective. I have had good success with warloack aggro, but all the aggro decks are reasonably effective. However, you do really need to win quickly as the control decks’ late game is excellent against aggro with high health taunt minions and healing. Another meta combative method is to play a Control deck that simply has more threats than the opponent. The problem here is that makes u significantly weaker against the aggro decks and I’d like to reiterate that they are still around in abundance despite their power level not really growing in KotFT, in my opinion.

As a final note, The Black Knight kills The Lich King and basically all control decks are running said knight. I would recommend it to a Control/Midrange player that needs help against him or spikeridged steed that also as fair matchups against mage and rogue aswell as aggro - where The Black Knight’s Battlecry has no effect. Weapon Removal is also reasonbale. The paladin and warrior heroes both equip very powerful weapons as well as Frostmourne from the Lich KIng. However, Medivh has really dropped out of play and that was one of the reasons weapon removal was so necessary. Thank you for spending your time reading this :)

[asclepeus-blog]

Introduction

Hello and welcome. My name is Ben and I’ve been playing games my whole life. For the immediate future, this blog will be about Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. As a point of reference, I began playing in the closed beta and had been playing Magic: The Gathering for at least 5 years prior to the game’s announcement. I primarily played draft and casually in mtg, not much constructed. So, I’ve racked up over 2,000 ranked wins in Hearthstone and I’m pretty well versed in Standard Ranked as well as Arena. I play mid range and control decks, but I've dabbled in the various aggro decks available. I’ll be primarily writing strategy here. Check it out :) I may dip into other games later on, but I’ll be focusing on HS at the moment.