Hearthstone

I was thinking about switching to shaman since I just ran into 4 fucking handlocks in a row and lost 3. Still hardly seeing any miracle, but I'm on my way back into double digits at this point.

Probly because shaman can constantly rush, and eliminate anything stealthed if they have enough multipliers up.
Can also anticipate when leeroy is going to be played by putting down Dagger throwers to RNG that card if the rogue plays him alone.

I just took a handlock to rank 3, and I was barely trying. Was just doing my weekly road to golden lock.

Drlife, can you list the new Mage deck I would like to see it. I haven't run into any mages on the ladder since the reset.

It's the totems really that give Shaman the advantage. Healing totems wreck your multi-turn damage calculations. Taunt totems wreck your ability to get at his face. If you don't have spell power on the board the shaman is maintaining board control without giving up card advantage. Shamans just have a lot of natural answers to your play as a miracle rogue. It's unlikely that you'll even have him down to 18 health when it's time to run Leeroy.

I'm seeing nothing but oceans of handlock.

I'm also getting raped by druids with stampeding kodo. like everyone and their brother is running that shit now. why would you run something that is so shitty in most of your matchups?

Gavinrad_sl said:

I'm also getting raped by druids with stampeding kodo. like everyone and their brother is running that shit now. why would you run something that is so shitty in most of your matchups?

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Zoo?

Against a lot of decks it's going to go at least 2 for 1 and you can't ask for much more than that.

When so much of the meta is handlock and miracle rogue, it seems like a fucking terrible card to me.

Gavinrad_sl said:

I was thinking about switching to shaman since I just ran into 4 fucking handlocks in a row and lost 3. Still hardly seeing any miracle, but I'm on my way back into double digits at this point.

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Yeah, I posted the other day, after playing mostly mid-range druid last season I've been playing mid-range shaman and it just seems so much more consistent against all matchups, its only slightly worse against zoo, but way better against everything else. Sucks to hear there is a lot of it on ladder now, I haven't been able to play the last couple of days.

Besides zoo, kodos are also very strong against shaman(argent squire, unbuffed unbound elemental, flametongue, manatide, any totem, feral spirits), so if there has been a lot of shaman that could explain why you're seeing more kodo. Even against handlock you have doa and sunfury protector, against miracle rogue you probably won't be able to use its battlecry so its a pretty bad card, but at 3/5 it'll take thalnos/eviscerate or multiple spells to remove and if they don't remove it can at least kill the earthen rings or si agents.

I got a lot of miles out of Stampeding Kodo back in my pauper days. It's no Black Knight but the 2 for 1 aspect of it can certainly help turn a tide in your favor. It is total shit against handlocks and ramp druids though of course but against pally aggro, zoo, and shaman? I wouldn't call it terrible.

Priests...

I love Wild Pyromancer + Bananas combo so please continue hyping Mukla.

Warlocks Murloc deck fun

Column_sl said:

Drlife, can you list the new Mage deck I would like to see it. I haven't run into any mages on the ladder since the reset.

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2x Ice Lance
2x Mirror Image
1x Thalnos
2x Novice Engineer
2x Frostbolt
2x Doomsayer
2x Frost Nova
2x Ice Block
2x Ice Barrier
2x Acolyte of Pain
2x Arcane Intellect
2x Fireball
2x Azure Drake
2x Blizzard
1x Alexstrasza
2x Pyroblast

Basically draw and stall till turn 9 when you drop Alex and then finish them in the next 1-2 turns with spells. Ice Block/Ice Barrier/Mirror Image/Doomsayer/Frost Nova/Blizzard and situationally Ice Lance for stall and extra turns, there is no need for Flamestrike imo (some versions run it). Nine draw cards, even if you don't get Alex by turn 9 you can still win with just massive spell combos, since you have 46pts of spell damage without accounting for Thalnos and drakes. The previous versions had a lot of fat in them (Mana Wyrms, Apprentices etc.) which didn't make much sense in this type of deck. This one is really consistent and very good against aggro, miracle rogues, handlocks, shamans. Main issues should be against healing/armoring classes, like control warriors and druids with a lot of heal, but you still have a good chance against them, especially if they don't know what's going on. Hunters with Flare may also pose a problem, haven't played one yet, should be ugly. Anyway, i just started playing this yesterday, every game was a breeze and i don't see how it can't make legendary.

Just my honest opinion that is not a good ladder deck. You are weak to over half the classes. Paladin, Priest, Hunter, Mages, Warriors, And druids.

And you can still get beat by rogues, shamans, and Locks.

A good ladder deck is one that minimizes losses. That is not a new deck, it is one that has been run when Mages were much more powerful.
Thank you for the list tho.

Column_sl said:

Just my honest opinion that is not a good ladder deck. You are weak to over half the classes. Paladin, Priest, Hunter, Mages, Warriors, And druids.

And you can still get beat by rogues, shamans, and Locks.

A good ladder deck is one that minimizes losses. That is not a new deck, it is one that has been run when Mages were much more powerful.
Thank you for the list tho.

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There is a someone who made it to #8 seed in NA with this last season.

itsotter - freeze mage with firebat [#100 legend] - Twitch

Most of the matchups seem favourable to me and it's key that it does well against the popular meta builds.

Problem is the anti rogue lock decks you lose to.

In fact, Paladins is almost an auto loss. There is allot of Paladins right now, and well anti meta hunters.
You would have to grind pretty hardcore imo to get legendary on that mage deck alone.

This deck is an exact duplicate of when pyroblast was a much cheaper card, and mages ruled the land for a season.
In fact they ran it in the first Blizz Hearthstone tourney.

That's almost card for card my original casual mage decklist. I say casual because the deck was terrible even for casual, it was just fun to play. But full on frost mage really is a terrible deck.

Pyroblast is so often a dead card at 10 mana, I don't know how or why you would want to run 2 of them. It almost always has to be used as a finisher so if you run any, you don't need more than one. All new freeze mages I've seen run 0 pyroblasts and usually 2 coldlight oracles.

In other news, with my hatred of miracle rogue, Al'Akir is quickly becoming one of my favorite cards, he is so good in the mid-range meta, and he is so versatile. He can be used as a finisher with great burst potential, or can easily trade 2/3 for 1, or can just apply serious pressure. Against miracle rogue there is almost never a bad time to play him and if he gets sapped, he already did his damage, and he can just do it again next turn, his taunt and charge ability has already won me several games off of miracle rogue in the short amount of time I've been playing shaman. And he is such a boss he even has a cool summon entry/soundboard, "Wiiiind at my command!" "Like swatting insects."

I've been running into a lot of "fake" miracle rogue decks...They are basically rogue rush decks, but they sucker punch a little based on your assumption they are miracle decks. They lack real card-drawing power...So they are ultimately limited.

I don't know about "fake" miracle rogue, but aggro rogue is growing popular as it counters miracle rogue. I ran into it once last night and was able to win by destroying 3 charges of an assassin's blade with harrison jones.