Episodes
Saturday Feb 13, 2016
The Best Livestreams and Podcasts - Episode 65
Saturday Feb 13, 2016
Saturday Feb 13, 2016
Hello!
- Rob May is on the show this week
- Topic: Podcasts and Streams!
- Reasons to be happy this week
- News: Normal and Wild Modes (follow-up interview)! Red Bull Team Brawl!
Why We Love Streams
- Over-the-shoulder experience
- Free teaching/coaching
- Smaller streams read chat more often and provide insight into questions live as the game develops or as a deck may be built on stream.
- Deck Doctor: Zalae and Firebat serving community with small tips to help players.
Livestreams for Getting Better at Arena
- Hafu
- Kripparian
- Ratsmah
- GuardsmanBob
- ADWCTA
- Commentated Tournaments like Redbull Team Brawl
Livestreams for Getting Better at Ranked
Why We Love Podcasts
- Rob wrote an article about this!
- Join a community
- Learn in a more directed way
- Make your commutes fun!
- It’s good to listen to more than one
Podcasts for Getting Better at Arena
Podcasts for Getting Better at Ranked
- The Golden Wisp: For players interested in the very highest level of play, in both Ranked and tournaments.
- Velen’s Chosen: For players on a budget that really want to get to be competitive in Ranked.
- HearthCoach: For players who are eagerly trying to fight their way into Legend Ranked.
Podcasts for New Players
- Hearthaholics: For players interested in learning the fundamentals of the game and gaining confidence one step at a time. As a perk, these are timeless episodes that can be used like an audiobook. Their website walks you through the order to listen.
- Legend of the Innkeeper: For new and casual players who want to learn how to get better in a fun and enthusiastic environment. Everything from deckbuilding to beating the PVE Adventure content.
- Happy Hearthstone: This is us! For players who want to find new decks to try, learn the basics of strategy, and hear from new hosts from the community every episode to share different perspectives and expertise.
Podcasts for News and Esports
- The Angry Chicken: For players looking for an extremely polished and well-made show with entertaining hosts that covers all the news in the Hearthstone scene.
- Well Met!: For players who like strategy mixed in with their news. This show covers a lot of topics to make sure you’re keeping up with everything from casual play to pro tournaments.
- Value Town: For players who want to hear from pro players and high-profile streamers directly. They do Q&As regularly, and focus on the higher-level of play.
- Coin Concede: For players who like a broad range of topics, Coin Concede tries to cover everything from PVE to high-level pro play. Great coverage of the esports scene.
- Top Deck Kings: For players who like spontaneity and personality mixed in with their news discussion and meta analysis. They’ve played Hearthstone matches with commentary during the show, and even devoted an entire recent episode about the Super Bowl.
- 1600 Dust: For players who like a lot of strategy mixed in with their news. Their recent campaign for #KnowYourRole2016 is breaking down specific game elements in each episode. Hosts are entertaining and keep it fun.
- Hero Power: For players who like hands-on learning alongside their news. The entertaining hosts host two segments a week, one is audio and focuses on news and deckbuilding. The other is a live play segment, where they play an entire match with a different class, walking you through the thought process and helping you get better at it. Both the audio and video content can be found on their site.
Podcasts for Casual Discussion
All of these shoes have great discussions, focused on being entertaining and building a community instead of the academic analysis and walkthrough strategy guides that other shows sometimes offer. They’re all great, so we recommend you try all of these out and find the personalities and style that work best for you!
- The Unstable Portal
- A Worthy Opponent
- Raid Warning
- Whirlwind
- Walk to Work
- Drawing Dead
- Hearth of the Cards
- Hearthcore
- Death Rattle Crew
- Innervated
Podcasts to Find other Podcasts (Podcast-ception!)
- Realm Maintenance: Rho schedules guests on his show for WoW, Starcraft, Heroes, Hearthstone, Overwatch, and Diablo every week.
Ways to Support Your Favorite Podcasts and Streams
- Leave them 5-star iTunes reviews
- Support them financially (Patreon, Paypal, etc.)
- E-mail the shows for topics, ways to help, or questions
- Listen to the show all the way through
- Follow them on Twitter (#1 social media used by Hearthstone people)
- Talk about and share the show with friends!
Community
- Question: Best way to keep up with the meta on limited time?
- iTunes Reviews
Donations
- None
Card of the Week
Farewell
Monday Nov 09, 2015
BlizzCon is the Best - Episode 60
Monday Nov 09, 2015
Monday Nov 09, 2015
Hello!
- Nik is on the show this week
- Topic: BlizzCon
- Reasons to be happy
- News: EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW
Hearthstone Reveals
- League of Explorers
- New cards
- Hands-on
- Story + characters
Hearthstone Dev Interview
Hearthstone Tournament
- SPOILERS
- What decks they used
- How they played
Hearthstone on the Show Floor
- The Hearthstone tavern
- Battle the devs
- Making friends
BlizzCon Impressions
- Nik’s first BlizzCon
- Josh’s favorite BlizzCon
- Other Blizzard Games
Cards to Discuss
- Murloc Tinyfin
- Summoning Stone
- Raven Idol
- Animated Armor
- Forgotten Torch
- Fierce Monkey
- Entomb
- Gorillabot A-3
Community
- Question: What is the best card you saw from the new set?
- iTunes Review: From the Hearthstone tavern!
Donations
- Mikkel Weider – $2/month
Card of the Week
Farewell
- Contact Nik on Twitter or add him on Battle.net: Shipwrecked#1869.
- What you want to see in future episodes
- What hosts you want to visit the show
Sunday Nov 30, 2014
The Last Standin Paladin Deck - Episode 40
Sunday Nov 30, 2014
Sunday Nov 30, 2014
Hello!
- Scott is on the show this week
- Topic: Hot Paladin-on-Paladin deck battle action!
- Reasons to be happy this week
- News: Gnomes vs. Goblins card reveals
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
Defending Deck: Scott’s Survival Paladin deck wins by spewing cheap hard-to-kill and regenerating minions onto the battlefield. His deck has reigned supreme for 4 months, and has beaten 1 deck before this episode.
Challenger Deck: Josh’s Last Standin Paladin deck is a super-lategame Paladin deck that stalls out with simple spells and minions and then floods the board with fatty minions that overwhelm the opponent.
The Deck
Creatures
- 1x Acidic Swamp Ooze
- 2x Argent Protector
- 2x Earthen Ring Farseer
- 2x Shade of Naxxramas
- 2x Spellbreaker
- 1x Faceless Manipulator
- 1x Feugen
- 2x Sludge Belcher
- 1x Stalagg
- 2x Guardian of Kings
- 1x Stormwind Champion
- 1x Gruul
- 1x Kel’Thuzad
- 1x Alexstrasza
- 1x Sea Giant
Spells
- 1x Blessing of Wisdom
- 2x Equality
- 2x Holy Light
- 2x Consecration
Weapons
Sideboard
I really like this deck because it uses very few high-quality cards that you can’t get from the Naxxramas dungeon. But in case you don’t have some of the ideal cards, here are some easy-to-get backups you can use that keep with the same theme and strengths of the deck. I’ll also add a few upgrades in case you have the more rare cards that I don’t have (but wish I did).
Early Backups
- Boulderfist Ogre (Replace Gruul, Alexstrazsa)
- Frost Elemental (Replace Sea Giant)
- Acidic Swamp Ooze (Replace Sword of Justice)
Future Upgrades
- Aldor Peacekeeper (Replace Acidic Swamp Ooze)
- Lay On Hands (Replace Stormwind Knight)
- Tirion Fordring (Replace Stormwind Knight)
The Duel!
Josh’s Perspective
Scott’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
- Questions from TK
- iTunes Reviews
Card of the Week
Farewell
- Follow Scott on Twitter
- What you want to see in future episodes
- What hosts you want to visit the show
Thursday Nov 13, 2014
Random Raises the Skill Cap - Episode 39
Thursday Nov 13, 2014
Thursday Nov 13, 2014
Hello!
- Adam is on the show this week
- Topic: Why Random Cards Raise the skill cap, not lower it
- Reasons to be happy this week
- News: BlizzCon announcements: Spectator mode, World Championship, new expansion, and more!
Current Perspective on Random Cards
- The new expansion has a lot of random effects in its cards.
- Goblins and gnomes both have strong ties to random or unexpected effects in their engineering, so it fits the theme
- Some forum/reddit posters have gotten very angry about how they believe the random effects reduce the competitiveness of the game. And at first, I kind of agreed.
- Adam shared his perspective with me and explained how random effects are actually increasing the skill cap and competitiveness of Hearthstone.
- It really got me excited about the expansion, and let me view the cards with a totally new, better perspective. I wanted him to share that with all of you as well.
Why Have Random Effects On Cards At All?
- Diversity
- Surprise
- Risk
- High-level strategy revolving around manipulating the odds in your favor
Degrees of Randomness
- How random does the effect have to be?
- Stampeding Kodo vs. Brawl
- How wide of a variance is there in the outcome? Best case vs. Worst case
- If it’s randomly deal 100 damage to your opponent or destroy all of their cards, do you really care that it’s random?
Randomness Raises the Skill Cap
- Random effects can be controlled and manipulated.
- Approach random cards like a con artist. How can you manipulate the context and the environment to make that random card work in your favor.
- This is a more big-picture strategy that involves knowing all the cards in your deck, your chances of drawing each card, and controlling the board at a level beyond simply “I have more minions”.
- Be patient with your random-effect cards to get the most value out of them.
Examples From the New Expansion Cards
- Blingtron 3000, Ogre Warmaul
- Bomb Lobber, Madder Bomber, Goblin Blastmage, Bouncing Blade, Flamecannon
- Gnomish Experimenter, Recombobulator, Unstable Portal
- Piloted Shredder, Piloted Sky Golem, Sneed’s Old Shredder
Community
- Questions from Bert and Matt
- iTunes Reviews
Card of the Week
Farewell
- Follow Adamon Twitter
- What you want to see in future episodes
- What hosts you want to visit the show
Thursday Oct 30, 2014
What are eSports? - Episode 38
Thursday Oct 30, 2014
Thursday Oct 30, 2014
Hello!
- Eleanor is on the show this week
- Topic: Have fun with esports
- Reasons to be happy this week
- News: Blizzcon incoming, Android app coming soon, fun infographic with stats
How do Hearthstone Esports work?
- How many pros?
- How are they making money?
- Tournament formats
- Global history of the scene
Hearthstone World Championships at BlizzCon
- How it works
- Who’s participating?
- What’s the prize?
- Find a stream
- Opening Weekend info
- Blizzard’s official roundup
- Follow on Twitter for updates: @CM_Whirthun, @PlayHearthstone
Why Watch Hearthstone Esports?
- Learn from watching the pros
- Entertainment!
- More Hearthstone
- Tournaments are so fun
- Also try lesser known streamers like Ek0p or Chakki
Pro #1: Strifeco
- Cong Shu, USA, Cloud9
- More info on the show!
- Recent match
- Twitch
Pro #2: Kolento
- Aleksander Malsh, Ukraine, Cloud9
- More info on the show!
- A recent match
- Twitch
Pro #3: RDU
- Dima Radu, 17, Romania, Meet Your Makers
- More info on the show!
- A recent match (Spoiler-free list of videos from that event)
- Twitch
Pro #4: Savjz
- Janne Mikkonen, 26, Finland, Team Liquid
- More info on the show!
- A recent match
- Twitch
Other Players to Watch
Casters
- What shoutcasters do and why they matter
- Artosis
- Gnimsh
- Frodan
- Realz
Hearthstone Esports Community Resources
- /r/hearthstone
- /r/hearthstonevods
- LiquidHearth
- GosuGamer
- Twitch!
- Other Shows: Value Town, Turn2, Angry Chicken
Community
- iTunes Reviews
Card of the Week
Farewell
- Follow Eleanor on Twitter
- What you want to see in future episodes
- What hosts you want to visit the show