Strategy, Tips, and Advice Potluck - Episode 45

Hello!

• Scott is on the show this week
• Topic: Strategy Potluck!
• Reasons to be happy this week
• News: Blackrock Mountain Adventure coming this Thursday, card reveals

What is the Strategy Potluck?

It’s a new format for the show that we’re trying out! The basic idea is to bring up several smaller talking points, opinions, and tips in a single episode so that we can cover a lot of the smaller ideas that can’t fill a whole episode.

The big goal, though, is to let you contribute your own ideas and get credit for them on the show! Submit your ideas in the comments below, or via email, and we’ll include them on the next strategy potluck and talk about what we think!

1: Don’t Overextend When You’re Ahead

• Josh had to learn this recently when playing control decks
• Don’t be afraid to leave mana open if you already have board control
• You’re just setting them up for a higher-value AOE spell
• You might already have card and board advantage — don’t throw both away
• Exception to this: aggro, mid-range decks sometimes need to risk it

2: Understand and Control Variance

• Variance is NOT randomness, though randomness contributes to high variance
• Variance is essentially how variable a deck’s quality is from game to game
• Example: Miracle Rogue is a high variance deck, because it either wins big or loses big
• When do you want high vs low variance?
• What causes high and low variance?
• High variance = lots of random cards and conditional combos
• Low variance = vanilla creatures or abilities without conditions

3: Bring a Card That Can Heal Minions

• This could just be my playstyle
• Being able to heal a minion is still very unexpected
• Element of surprise is super valuable
• Lets you make great trades, or keep punching face for another turn
• Examples: Earthen Ring Farseer, Darkscale Healer, Ancestral Healing

4: Odds of drawing cards/combos

Chances of having drawn a copy of any given card after you have drawn 15 cards:

• 1 card – 50%
• 2 cards – 76%

Chances of having drawn a specific two-card combo after you have drawn 15 cards:

• At least one of each – 57%
• If one of them is Legendary – 37%
• If both are Legendary – 24%

Other related tips

• Aggro wants to draw fewer cards, so combos are harder to rely on
• Control wants to draw as many cards as possible, so combos happen in more games
• Hypergeometric calculator

5: Demon Warlock is super fun

• You should try it if you haven’t already!
• Void Terror + Deathrattle Minions + Power Overwhelming
• Mistress of Pain + Demonfire/Demonheart <3 <3
• Voidcaller + Doomguard/Dread Infernal

6: Quick Terms

• RNG: Random Number Generator, alludes to randomness in the game.
• Punch Face: Using your cards and minions to hurt your opponent directly.
• Boar Control: Using your cards and minions to kill your opponent’s minions before you start hurting your opponent directly.
• Lethal: When a player has the ability to deterministically deal enough damage to kill the other player.
• BM: Bad Manners.
• Top-Deck: Drawing from your deck, often used when your hand is empty. “I top-decked that Consecration” or “I’m in top-deck mode”.
• Mulligan: Trade in cards at the beginning of the game.
• AOE: Area of Effect.
• Trading: Choosing to sacrifice one of your minions for one of theirs.
• Ping: Deal a single targeted point of damage.

Community

• No questions!
• No iTunes Reviews!

Card of the Week

Farewell

• Follow Scott on Twitch, Twitter, and Hearthpwn
• What you want to see in future episodes
• What hosts you want to visit the show