Hearthstone Arena Drafting!

[The Glyphstone]

River Crocolisk seems to be the fan favorite.

#27: Injured Blademaster, Alarm-O-Bot, or Shadowflame.

This is a shoo-in, I believe. 2 3-drops, one of which is bad, against a single-side AoE damage spell?

[Zevox]

Pretty obvious, yep. Shadowflame all the way.

[The Glyphstone]

Good, cause the next round is dreadful.

#28: Thrallmar Farseer, Stonetusk Boar, or Sense Demons.

[GAAD]

Boar. You have WAY too many three drops, we've already established Sense Demons is too slow for this deck, and a 1-mana ping MIGHT be useful. Boar over garbage.

[Fleeing Coward]

Thrallmar Farseer

Better garbage that they have to remove than a garbage 1 drop.

[Anxe]

I'd go Farseer. 3 drops are good in Arena! And you can always use the heal on yourself with Warlock.

[The Glyphstone]

I'd go Farseer. 3 drops are good in Arena! And you can always use the heal on yourself with Warlock.

That's Earthen Ring Farseer. Thrallmar Farseer is the 2/3 Windfury, and my 3-slot is jam packed full right now.


GAAD makes a good case...garbage 1-drop over garbage 3-drop. Even if they spend for hero power to kill it, that's a turn of tempo I gained for my 3-drop onslaught.

#29: Dread Corsair, Abusive Sergeant, or War Golem.

Sergeant fits the aggressive theme and curve, but War Golem is the first serious beef we've gotten all game, and I'll need something fat to break through late-game taunts if I can't burst someone down fast enough. Right now, a Druid drafting a single Ironbark is basically game over.

[GAAD]

Look. This deck is fast enough that y the time playing War Golem is a good idea, you've already lost. Take the Sergeant for greater Face damage.

[The Glyphstone]

YOLO Sergeant it is, then. And drumroll....for our final card....

#30, Epic Round:

TWISTING NETHER: 8 Mana, Destroy All Minions.

...

DEMONHEART: 5 Mana, Deal 5 damage to a minion, or give a friendly Demon +5/+5.

Or...

ANIMA GOLEM. 6 Mana, 9/9. Destroy this minion at the end of each turn if it is your only minion.

[Destro_Yersul]

None of those are super great. Anima Golem could be fun?

[Zevox]

Well, this is pretty clear: Demonheart. You've got a solid number demons for it to buff, it's reasonable removal even in the event that you can't use it for a buff, and it's up against a garbage minion and a spell that is pretty much exactly the opposite of what a deck like this wants.

[Anxe]

Ah. My bad on the Farseer.

Anima Golem works with the minion flood. Demonheart works with the demon thing you already have going. How many demons at this point?

[Fleeing Coward]

Twisting Nether could technically be his Hail Mary after he inevitably losses board control in a long game but I agree that Demonheart's the way to go here.

[The Glyphstone]

Demon count is 1 Flame Imp, 3 Imp Gang Bosses. the Bosses will produce more Imps, as will my single Imp-Losion.

[Anxe]

That's enough for me! Unless you want to enjoy the Anima Golem funnies I'd go Demonheart. Ehn removal spell or amazing buff.

[Gandariel]

Eeeasy Demonheart. I run one in my demonlock deck, and i've had reasonable success with it.

You do have enough demons to pull it off, so go nuts.

[The Glyphstone]

Looks like it's unanimous that our final card is Demonheart.

Final Card list, christened 3Drop.dec.

(1) Power Overwhelming
(1) Soulfire
(1) Abusive Sergeant
(1) Flame Imp
(1) Stonetusk Boar
(2) Darkbomb
(2) Dire Wolf Alpha
(2) Haunted Creeper
(2) Ironbeak Owl
(2) River Crocolisk x2
(2) Youthful Brewmaster
(3) Demonwrath
(3) Shadow Bolt
(3) Coldlight Oracle
(3) Harvest Golem
(3) Imp Gang Boss x3
(3) Questing Adventurer
(3) Shattered Sun Cleric
(4) Hellfire
(4) Imp-Losion
(4) Shadowflame
(5) Demonheart
(5) Darkscale Healer
(5) Spiteful Smith
(6) Frost Elemental
(6) Volcanic Drake x2


0:
1: XXXXX
2: XXXXXXX
3: XXXXXXXXX
4: XXX
5: XXX
6: XXX


Taking bets now on how well we do. Caveat: I'm bad at arena, and bad at the game in general. I've only ever gone 12-0 once in my life, most of my matches end at 4 wins or less. Subcaveat: My ladder deck is Zoolock. Sub-sub-caveat: My highest ladder rank is 15.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

You'll have issues if you can't kill them early, but hey, that looks like a pretty strong deck otherwise. 6 wins

[GAAD]

That described the last deck, which went 4 wins

[The Glyphstone]

yeah, I'm going to have to play this more like a Face Hunter than a Zoo, since I don't have any burst combo or endgame threats. Only time I deliberately make trades will be to enable a cheap Drake.

[Mando Knight]

If you're bad at Arena, then I'll guess 3.

[Draz74]

4 wins sounds about right. But then, I might be biased since that's probably my most common result in Arena in general.

[The Glyphstone]

Round 1 vs. WARRIOR

T1 Flame imp into T2 Crocolisk into T3 Gang Boss, into a trade for T4 Drake. Hit his face constantly, I think I panicked him because he started Armoring Up on T3 instead of dropping from the hand. Curbstomp, only damage I took was self-inflicted.

1-0.




Round 2 vs. PALADIN

No real standout plays, but I had to trade a lot because of how many Taunts and Shields he spat out. Beat me down to 20ish before I stabilized, but then I swarmed him under.

2-0.


Round 3 vs. MAGE

Turn 1 Mana Wyrm into Coin into Mirror Image. It just goes downhill from there.

2-1.

Round 4 vs. PALADIN

Almost get this one, but then he starts busting out every healing card in the game. 2 Truesilvers, 2 Guardians, 3 Farseers...pretty sure I misplayed a few times, but still, it went down to both of us about to hit fatigue before he took it with a Gurubashi Berzerker.

2-2.


Round 5 vs. DRUID

I had no right winning this. Made some bad early misplays and ended up at 15 health before I got a hit in on him...but some how, I stabilized at around 5 health and started beating face while he Shapeshifted me down 1 HP at a time. Double Volcanic Drakes, hardcast back to back, saved me in the end with a Frost Elemental to tie him down for one crucial turn. Ended at 1 HP, as I draw my Darkscale Healer and kill him.

3-2.


ROUND 6 vs. SHAMAN

Another early, fast assault that he couldn't recover from.

4-2.


He opened with Squire, Minibot, and Annoy-o-Tron for a very solid early defense. The match ended up pretty close, but he was able to overpower me with shields and taunts i couldn't draw answers to.

4-3 LOSS, and END.


70 Gold, and a pack (2x Warbot, Recycle, Madder Bomber, Ship's Cannon). Ugh.

GAAD gets to go again, being the first person to guess 4.

[GAAD]

All righty then! Paladin/Mage/Druid

[Jormengand]

Mmm... I'd go mage. Fewer cards that you can draft that are downright bad, and you can probably manage without needing any real synergy between all your things.

[GAAD]

Mage it is!

1: Arcane Nullifier X-21/Alarm-o-Bot/Arcane Golem.

Bleh.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I'd pick Nullifier over an awful Arena pick and a really questionable pick as your #1 card. (Is Arcane Golem really good for anything if you're not already building a specific strategy?)

[Jormengand]

Arcnul for removal-resistant semi-decent taunt and not giving your opponents free wild growths or an easily-killed 0/3.

[GAAD]

ARCANE NULLIFIER X-21 over garbage

2: Ironbeak Owl/Flamecannon/Tinkertown Technician

[MacGiolla]

Flamecannon is nice removal and might combo if we get some decent cards.

Don't know how many mechs we will have to activate tinkertown, although I guess we already have one.