Episodes
Monday Jun 30, 2014
Host Your Own Tournament! - Episode 34
Monday Jun 30, 2014
Monday Jun 30, 2014
Hello!
- Nathan “Slight” Wuertz is on the show this week
- Topic: Hosting community events and tournaments
- Reasons to be happy this week
Community Events
- Tournaments: ESL America, Zotac, GosuCup, Soulfire Sundays
- Viewing Parties
- Player gatherings
- School clubs
- Online gatherings
How To Pick Your Event
- Online vs. Offline
- Competitive vs. Casual
- Tournaments vs. Other
How To Run The Event
- Tournament types
- Player count
- Sideboards
- Other rules
The Happy Hearthstone-approved First Tournament Format!
- Online
- Group stage: Best-of-3 round robin
- Semi-finals and Finals: Best-of-7, single-elimination
- Winner must use the same deck next game, loser can change
- No sideboards or editing of decks during a single head-to-head
- Stream it, and share links to all players’ (delayed) streams
Tools For Tournaments
- Documents/Registration: Google Drive
- Tournament Structures: XFire, Challonge, BinaryBeast
- Communication: Skype, Raidcall, IRC (for large tournaments)
- Contact Nathan with any questions! (Email said in the show)
Community
- Ian Zacharias: How to handle misplays in tournaments?
- iTunes Reviews: Thank you!
Card of the Week
Farewell
- Follow Nathan on Twitter
- Follow Hearthwars, Nathan’s Hearthstone tournament series on Twitter
- Subscribe to Hearthwars’ Twitch page
- Watch this week’s HearthWar’s tournament!
- What you want to see in future episodes
- What hosts you want to visit the show
Saturday Jun 21, 2014
The Arcane Druid Deck - Episode 32
Saturday Jun 21, 2014
Saturday Jun 21, 2014
Hello!
- Mick is on the show this week
- Topic: The Arcane Druid deck
- Reasons to be happy this week
What is a Deck Battle?
Once a month, a guest host brings their favorite deck onto the show to battle the current reigning champion deck for control of the Happy Hearthstone Deck Battle Throne!
If the challenger wins the best-of-3 series, their deck becomes the new Reigning Champion Deck and will fight off future challengers until it loses, or until it’s earned its place in the Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame!
View the Deck Battle Archive + The Happy Hearthstone Hall of Fame
The Deck
- The Arcane Druid: Stay alive. Kill them with massively empowered spells late.
- How it wins: This is a Druid control deck that ramps up nicely into a Spell Power massacre. It takes advantage of an under-utilized Legendary, Malygos, and a number of versatile Druid Spells to really frustrate and confuse your opponent.
Five Key Cards
- Malygos: You can’t really play the deck without him. Sorry.
- Swipe: Once buffed, it destroys everything. Great for board clears and can be used to go to your opponents face.
- Ancient of War: So very versatile, but he’s really there to set up the Malygos Drop. Ironbarks can be used as a substitute.
- Starfire: Once Malygos is out, this becomes a super cheap, straight-to-the-face Pyroblast. Paired with Swipe, you can do 19 damage in one turn and clear the board.
- Wrath: Early game, this is great for helping you keep the board clear.
Full Deck List
You can get more insight into the deck by reading Redbeard’s guide, which goes through every single card with full explanation and advice, but here’s the simple deck list with no commentary (ordered by mana cost), if you’d rather just try it out yourself.
Creatures
- 1x Kobold Geomancer (2)
- 1x Pint Sized Summoner (2)
- 1x Big Game Hunter (3)
- 2x Keeper of the Grove (4)
- 1x Spellbreaker (4)
- 1x Azure Drake (5)
- 1x Faceless Manipulator (5)
- 2x Ancient of War (7)
- 2x Ironbark Protector (8)
- 1x Cenarius (9)
- 1x Malygos (9)
Spells
- 2x Moonfire (0)
- 2x Claw (1)
- 2x Wrath (2)
- 2x Healing Touch (3)
- 1x Mark of Nature (3)
- 1x Bite (4)
- 2x Swipe (4)
- 2x Starfall (5)
- 2x Starfire (6)
Sideboard
If you don’t have all of the ideal cards, here are some quality backups and alterations you can make that keep with the same theme and strengths of the deck.
- Dalaran Mage (replace Kobold Geomancer)
- Ogre Magi (replace Azure Drake, Keeper of the Grove, or Spellbreaker)
- Archmage (replace Faceless Manipulator or Azure Drake)
- Ironbark Protector (replace Cenarius)
- Druid of the Claw (replace Ironbark Protectors or Ancients of War)
- Lord of the Arena (replace Ironbark Protectors or Ancients of War)
- Sunwalker (replace Ironbark Protectors or Ancients of War)
- Naturalize (replace Starfall)
The Defending Champion Deck
Redbeard’s Barbarian Warrior Deck uses weapons and fast-acting minions to put the pressure on early and keep momentum up into the mid-game.
The Barbarian Warrior Deck has reigned supreme for 1 month, and has beaten 1 deck before this episode.
The Duel!
Josh’s perspective
Post-Duel Commentary
- Who won
- Obligatory bragging session
- Challenger Deck: How well did it perform?
- Defending Deck: How well did it perform?
- Best moments in the matches
- The Happy Hearthstone Champion Ceremony(tm)
Community
- Scott Valentine: “Do you hold onto silence effect cards for late-game or play them early? Have you had any creative uses of Silence.”
- iTunes Review: Callum Orr
Card of the Week
Farewell
- Listen to Mick and Josh on Mick’s podcasts: The Starting Zone and Stormcast
- What you want to see in future episodes
- What hosts you want to visit the show
DECK GUIDE:
The moon is a powerful ball of dust, especially when wielded by the right hands/claws. This week, we look at a spell power Druid deck in Hearthstone, designed to use big spells like Swipe and Moonfire to clear the board and secure a safe kill in the late game.
Find out more about this deck and watch it in action in the latest episode of Happy Hearthstone!
Note from Josh: The rest of this article was written by Mick Montgomery. Thanks, Mick!
The Arcane Druid
This is a Spell Power control deck that relies on boosting up the power of your late-game spells to secure the win. A quick example, in case you’re not sold on the concept: Moonfire is a 0-cost card that does 1 damage. With the Spell Power that this deck provides, it usually deals 6 damage for 0 mana! That’s value.
Our primarily plan is simple: control the board as long as we can, then use our beefy taunt cards on turns 7 and 8 to protect your Malygos drop. Then you tee off and nuke the enemy’s face with spells. But this deck is versatile. You have a lot of direct damage spells, and beefy minions. If you don’t draw into Malygos, you still do a lot of damage with the other cards that buff your spell power. The real key is to remove all of your opponent’s cards on the board by turn 7. If you can accomplish that, you’ll be in good shape.
Let’s get into the cards I used in my deck for the mighty showdown with Josh. You can find a completely plain deck list on the podcast episode. Here, I’ll provide additional commentary where I feel it’s helpful or necessary.
Cheap, efficient access to spell power. This is one of three cards that directly buff spell power in this deck, and it’s the easiest one to get on the board early. While getting to the Malygos draw is key to buff the spells massively, minor buffs come in real handy during the early and mid game.
This card can be great to help you get to your beefy cards a bit early. There is a lot of 4 drop cards that could benefit from one less mana cost in the early game. Also, I find the Pint Sized Summoner is a nice victim card. Folks hate that card, and will do everything they can to try to kill it quickly, even if it means playing inefficiently. We’re playing for the late game, so inefficient plays by our enemies are exactly what’ll help us get there.
This helps stabilize the deck against other late-gamers. This comes in handy against other decks that roll out high damage minions. He’s a fine body if played at the earliest moment, and still works great if drawn late.
A staple card for control decks. He can do two damage or silence a minion. Instant value with a decent defensive body behind, that’s available for buffs.
1x Spellbreaker
One of my favorite silence cards. On turn four, he can silence to get some immediate value. If he lasts through the next turn, he’ll also do some nice damage.
1x Azure Drake
This guy is an obvious fit for this deck. He’s one of the best-value cards in the set in general. And with this deck, his buff to Spell Power is even more relevant. I love this card.
This is not necessary to have, but it has such great synergy with the late game cards we’re running in this deck. For example, if the Ancient of War your drop on turn 7 survives, you can use this to get a second for very cheap. Your opponent will not be happy. Oh, and it’s fun to Faceless Manipulator Malygos to get +10 spell power. Yep, I’ve done that.
This is such a strong card on turn 7. You can buff it to 10 damage, if the board is clear, or set up for Malygos by rooting him for the health and taunt effect. I tend to root the Ancient of War more often. Also, he can draw out the CC cards quickly from our opponent’s deck. I’d rather have a polymorph burned on him than Malygos.
Back, when I started this deck, I had no Ancient of Wars, so I used Ironbarks. They rock. Drop one behind your Ancient of War on turn 8 and you’re pretty set for a turn-9 Malygos drop or for Cenarius to buff it to a 10/10. Wahoo!
1x Cenarius
He isn’t necessary to make this deck work, unlike a lot of other Legendaries. In fact he has only been in this deck for a month or so, but he does make a huge difference because he is so versatile. He’s saved my bacon many times.
1x Malygos
The lynchpin of this deck. His Spell Power buff is so massive that once he is on the board, you can wreck your opponent in one turn depending on the spells you have in your hand at the time.
I’ll discuss the spells as a group. The spells are all very versatile. In turns 1 – 8, you can definitely use them to clear the board (first priority) or if you have a clear board, go to the face. Bite and Claw can be used for Control, but if you can go to the face with them, all the better. The only spell not in here for control is Healing Touch. That is for when you find yourself falling behind. Or in a tight one, heal your Hero, and force your opponent to change tactics.
2x Moonfire (0)
2x Claw (1)
2x Wrath (2)
2x Healing Touch (3)
1x Mark of Nature (3)
1x Bite (4)
2x Swipe (4)
2x Starfall (5)
2x Starfire (6)
Possible Additions
There is a lot of room for customization in an aggressive warrior deck, so there are many cards one can use to suit this deck to the current run of opponents or one’s particular collection. Your minion choices offer a lot of flexibility, and there are too many options to list all of them, so I include here only a small selection.
Dalaran Mage (replace Kobold Geomancer)
Ogre Magi (replace Azure Drake, Keeper of the Grove, or Spellbreaker)
Archmage (replace Faceless Manipulator or Azure Drake)
Ironbark Protector (replace Cenarius)
Druid of the Claw (replace Ironbark Protectors or Ancients of War)
Lord of the Arena (replace Ironbark Protectors or Ancients of War)
Sunwalker (replace Ironbark Protectors or Ancients of War)
Naturalize (replace Starfall)
Final Thoughts
I think that most folks ignore Spell Power as a mechanic. This deck is great because folks are not prepared for it, and it is incredibly adaptable. And while you do need the one Legendary (Malygos) to make it work, it’s only one — and that’s a lot less than most of the popular decks!
Monday Jun 16, 2014
How To Build A Good Deck - Episode 33
Monday Jun 16, 2014
Monday Jun 16, 2014
Hello!
- Scott is on the show this week
- Topic: The Arcane Druid deck
- Reasons to be happy this week
Basic Rules of Building a Deck
- Rarity does not equate directly to Power
- Skill is more important than deck
- It’s valuable to play current popular decks
- Decent skills and a slightly decent deck can take you to 15 or higher
- There is a difference between lower-level and higher-level decks
- “The Meta” applies less to lower levels and more to higher levels
Major Deck Types
- Aggro (fast)
- Mid-Range (medium)
- Control (slow)
Aggro Decks
- Attack the enemy player, make them spend their attacks killing your creature
- Wants: Charge, direct damage, creatures
- Ignores: Board control
- What does “reach” mean and how does it affect health totals?
- How valuable is card draw?
- Silence = removal
- Examples: Murloc Warlock, Shockadin
Mid-Range
- Use efficiency and flexibility to win in many different scenarios
- Wants: Card advantage, some early pressure, some late-game pressure
- Ignores: Extremes on either end
- Your creatures can 2-for-1 Aggro creatures
- You must be faster than Control decks
- Removal comes in all forms
- Example: Valuedin, Paladin Survival
Control
- Kill everything your opponent plays to control the board and have more choices when attacking
- Likes: Efficiency, removal, big creatures
- Ignores: Tempo, early aggression
- Card draw is moderately useful. Your cards tend to be expensive, so you often can’t cast them all.
- Removal can take any form. It can be more expensive cards to get more bang from one card, or cheaper removal to help you get to late game.
- Examples: Druid decks, Handlock
The Value Spectrum
- Good Stuff deck: Efficient cards that are strong on their own
- Combo deck: Okay/weak cards that become powerful when used together
Deckbuilding Considerations
- Strategy: How do you want to win, and what types of cards work towards that win condition?
- Synergy: Turn a card’s negative effect into a positive boost for a different card whenever you can
- Mana curve: What’s right for each deck, and how to interpret the mana bars in-game
Deckbuilding Pitfalls to Avoid
- Be realistic: avoid best-case-scenarios and remember the bad times as well
- Quiz: Power Word: Shield or Lightwell or Lightspawn
- When to take multiple copies of a card
- When to only take one copy of a card, even if it’s a good card
- Rule of thumb: If having two of the card in your hand is bad, you should be careful about having two in your deck
Community
- Macross: [A heap of deckbuilding questions]
- iTunes Reviews: Thank you!
Card of the Week
Farewell
- Follow Scott on Twitter, watch him play on Twitch, and look at his decks on Hearthpwn
- What you want to see in future episodes
- What hosts you want to visit the show