Hearthstone Arena Drafting!

[GAAD]

Deadly poison

24: Stonetusk Boar, Puddlestomper, Oasis Snapjaw

[Zevox]

Puddlestomper. While it's getting us heavy on overall number of 2-mana cards, we can actually still use the 2-mana minion with a good body for the same reason we took Amani Berserker two picks ago. And our 4-slot is in good shape with two Shredders, Hungry Dragon, Dark Iron Dwarf, and an Ambusher.

[GAAD]

Puddlestomper it is.

25: Gilblin Stalker, another Deadly Poison, Assassin's Blade

Part of me REALLY wants to take the weapon here. Should we?

[CantigThimble]

Assassins blade seems like the easiest pick in the world with all this oil and poison lying around.

[Mando Knight]

I dunno, one blade is good, but Gilblin is a top-level 2-drop, and can hide until you can combo it with Oil if needed. Don't remember exactly how many 2-drops you have, yet, but at #25 if you're lacking 2-drops I'd go for curve.

[GAAD]

We have EIGHT two drops, four of which we are happy to play in 2.

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah, I think that Blade is the way to go here.

[GAAD]

Blades are for stabbing.

26: Booty Bay Bodyguard, Backstab, Vanish

[The Glyphstone]

Bodyguard is bleh. Vanish is garbage. Backstab is 0-mana removal and a Combo enabler. Easy easy.

[Zevox]

Backstab, easy.

Last pick, honestly, I would've leaned towards the Deadly Poison. More cards that make Blade Flurry good are always good to have, as are more cards that enable combos easily, and Poison is just a top-quality Rogue card in general. The Assassin's Blade could be good too, though - definitely a better pick than the Gilblin at this stage.

[Destro_Yersul]

Well, in some sense Assassin's Blade does enable blade flurry, it's just not the best value unless you get a couple swings out of the blade first.

And yeah, Backstab here.

[GAAD]

Granted! I stab Xihirli.

27: Stormwind Knight, Acidic Swamp Ooze, Goblin Auto Barber

[The Glyphstone]

One of the two 2-drops, for certain. Having an Ooze in reserve to smash a weapon when it pops can be a hilarious tempo shift, but the odds of an enemy having a weapon for you to smash are small. So I think the Barber is the better of the two options there.

[CantigThimble]

Barber is great, barber and assassin's of flurry is even better. Easy.

Out of curiosity: You are going second, your opponent passed turn one, you have barber and a 3 drop, do you coin dagger? This is arena.

[GAAD]

Let's get some haircuts.

@CantigThimble: I believe Trump was in that situation once; he did coin out the dagger (and kept it of course).

28: Cold Blood, another Amani Beserker, Sprint

[The Glyphstone]

Do we have a Sprint yet? If not, grab it - I think we passed up the first one. Another 2-drop isn't needed and Cold Blood isn't very good either.

[Gandariel]

Yes, you coin hero power. It is stupid, but it does work like that. (Unless you have Combos to activate or something)

Also, earlier Deadly Poison was easily the pick.

And I would have taken Ooze over second Barber. (But that was kinda close)

And "4 two-drops that we're happy to play on 2 "is LOW,
about the current pick, it depends. Do we really only have four actual 2-drops? Then easy AmanI. Sprint is good but not amazing. (It works best when your deck is aggressive-but-not-quite-so-rushy)

[Zevox]

Barber v Ooze is close. Barber's effect is less situational than Ooze's, but also often less potent, and often raises its effective mana cost by 2. We could argue for Barber on the basis of Blade Flurry, but we do already have a decent number of activators for that.

I think either one is good, really, and I suppose I'll just leave it there and let everyone else actually decide the pick.

Out of curiosity: You are going second, your opponent passed turn one, you have barber and a 3 drop, do you coin dagger? This is arena.

I've done that before. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. I think intelligent opponents realize that's the most likely reason to coin dagger on turn 1 and play around it if they can - but they also can't always do so, since it may be that the only 2-drop in their hand is a 3/2.

It's a slight risk, but probably worth trying when the opportunity presents itself.

[Zevox]

And "4 two-drops that we're happy to play on 2 "is LOW,
about the current pick, it depends. Do we really only have four actual 2-drops? Then easy AmanI. Sprint is good but not amazing. (It works best when your deck is aggressive)

For 2-mana cards, we have:

Goblin Auto-Barber
Amani Berserker
Puddlestomper
Loot Hoarder
Mad Bomber

Crazed Alchemist (Not generally happy to play on 2.)
Defias Ringleader (Either gets played on 1 with coin, 2 with Backstab and a good target for it, 3 with Poison, or later with none of those.)

Eviscerate
Blade Flurry

I'd say that's good. Take Sprint.

[GAAD]

Gotta go fast!

29: Frost Elemental, Ironforge Rifleman, Stonesplinter Trogg

[CantigThimble]

Is go frost elly, I've found I quite like it in arena. Of corse it doesn't beat boulderfist or anything but it's solid. I think it beats sub-par 2 and 3 drops here.

[The Glyphstone]

Frosty Lemental,
is a decent 6-drop card
with a 5/5 body and a Battlecry
It's still better than two bad picks

[GAAD]

Frosty Lemental
Was the pick we chose today
So he waved hello
Saying "Freeze, YOLO;
You'll be back again someday."

30, Final Pick: Southsea Captain, Junkbot, Doomsayer

Wha- *man* do I have the worst luck with Epics.

[The Glyphstone]

Uh.......Doomsayer.

Nah. Southsea Captain is at least a 3/3 for 3. Better than a 1/5 for 5 or Doomsayer. Take the Captain and cry.

[Landis963]

30, Final Pick: Southsea Captain, Junkbot, Doomsayer

Wha- *man* do I have the worst luck with Epics.

Oi. A board wipe, an enabler without the setup, and Junkbot. I guess take the Doomsayer? I have no idea what junkbot does.

[GAAD]

To reiterate, in this deck, we have a 3 mana 3/3, a 5 mana 1/5, and a 2 mana 0/7 delayed conditional board clear to choose from.

[Landis963]

To reiterate, in this deck, we have a 3 mana 3/3, a 5 mana 1/5, and a 2 mana 0/7 delayed conditional board clear to choose from.

To reiterate:

I guess go with the 3/3? I really have no idea, other than that all of these are awful.

[Zevox]

Frosty Lemental,
is a decent 6-drop card
with a 5/5 body and a Battlecry
It's still better than two bad picks

Bad picks? The Rifelman is, yeah, but the Trog is perfectly fine. Not exceptional, but a 2/3 for 2 with a potential upside is never bad.

Frost Elemental was the pick though, since we could use late-game more than another 2 at this point.

Current pick: geeze, why are you guys acting like the Captain is bad? It's a 3/3 for 3. That's perfectly fine: mediocre, not bad. Easily a better pick than the other two in this set.

[CantigThimble]

I will wager 5 wins.

[The Glyphstone]

4 wins here.