Considering I’ve packed King Crush 3 times but never Grommash Hellscream … huzzah!

I object to this deck; the eggs are the wrong colour and there’s not a single boar to be seen, not even Huffer, so there’s no Ham!

– and the player isn’t even called Dr Seuss. 🙁

It is tagged as “budget” and comes in at under 1500 dust – since Ice Block is an epic they maybe wanted to leave it out.

Besides, this isn’t really a Freeze Mage deck in the classic sense by the looks of it; you’re not stalling for a big combo with Alex or Atonidus – it’s much more minion-focussed with freezes to lock out the enemy minions while you smack your opponent with yours. Then Fireball/Pyroblast to push to lethal.

I suspect it’ll fare poorly against Quest Warrior – Paladin’s Spikeridged Steed is also going to cause problems, actually I suspect any taunt-heavy deck could scupper this as freezing those minions doesn’t mean you can ignore them for a turn and go face.

I have 2 problems with ranked play.

#1 because it’s more competitive than casual it gets very “meta-focused” and, in Standard, above about rank 12 it begins to get very samey; the same half-dozen decks over and over again. Things get shaken up when a new expansion is released but it generally only takes a couple of weeks for the new meta to become established and it’s back to the grind. I’m sure some people love that and it’s not really a problem with ranked per-se but it’s just not something I enjoy immensely – which is why I play Wild more now, the greater variety.

#2 there’s no real incentive to grind from rank 15 unless you’re prepared to commit to getting at least rank 5. The rewards for rank 6 aren’t so vastly superior to rank 15 for it to be worth it.

On the plus-side though, I do like the little “safety buffers” every 5 ranks now – it makes those losing-streaks at lower levels far less painful. Weirdly, it’s not so bad above rank 10 since you need 5 stars per level up or down so you need a worse losing streak to drop a rank or two… there’s just something disheartening about losing ranks even though, really, in absolute “stars” is makes no difference.

If you just look at the card he’s a bit meh – like Thalnos he’s not got the *Wooooooooh! big shiny legendary monster!* factor. But like Thalnos it’s what he brings to the game for the cost…

In most games (i.e. running a pirate package) he’s a free 1/1 charge creature, with Pirate synergy, that thins your deck by a card – so he’s good in aggro decks (obviously) but also combo decks where you’re thinning your deck to hit the win condition; he’s like extra value from the Swashburglars in Miracle Rogue. Token decks can run a couple cheap pirates as well and Patches adds a free charge body on the board that turn, which could be significant with Bloodlust or Savage Roar.

It annoys me slightly that the card is so ubiquitous – but there is a reason for that.

Which makes it vastly different from many other decks on the ladder how?

The same accusation could be levelled at: Aggro Pirate Warrior, Taunt Quest Warrior, Aggro Token Druid, Quest Rogue, Burn Mage … playing on the ladder isn’t about fun or complex tactics, silly.

I tried the Warrior deck and sucked hard with it (Warrior isn’t my best class admittedly) … I just wasn’t getting enough card draw and got facerolled by Warlock Zoo and cheap combo Rogue decks,

Switched to a basic Warlock Zoo and won straight away.

http://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/cards/nzoth-the-corruptor/
“N’Zoth, the Corruptor does NOT work with cards that were given Deathrattle.”

Unless the card already had Deathrattle (e.g. White Eyes) N’Zoth won’t resurrect it; e.g. N’Zoth won’t resurrect an Earth Elemental you’ve cast Ancestral Spirit on. It *could* resurrect White Eyes 3 times though if you cast both AS on him.

So without the Infested Tauren, the only things N’Zoth will pull back are White Eyes and Bloodmage Thalnos – unless you get an Abomination or additional White Eyes from the Stronehill Defenders.

Either I’ve lost patience in the last year since this brawl came around or it really was this tedious last time and I’d just forgotten about it 😐

Hmmm – I’m not sure I’d call Blizzard generous when you look at their FTP model compared to other digital CCGs out there (except M:TG of course) – or the prices of their packs. It’s either a slow grind to get the best cards from an expansion – by which time the next expansion will be out – or it’ll cost you an absolute packet.

Still, I’m not going to complain about 100 free dust.

Though I think the pity-counter noticed I’m behind on the legendary pack curve last night and gave me a golden Edwin in one pack (from the brawl) and Awaken the Makers in another.

Things enchanted with Ancestral Spirit don’t come back when N’Zoth calls, only creatures with “natural” deathrattles. If your Stonehill Defenders find White Eyes, great, but otherwise…

… and with this deck N’Zoth doesn’t look like a win condition in it’s own right but a way to get another Storm Guardian in your deck and stall your opponent for their turn – which is exactly what the Infested Taurens are for.

I do the same thing in Wild but with Sludge Belchers as they’re just better.

That Miracle Rogue deck is really odd – there’s no card draw, apart from Mimic Pod before the miracle… no Thalnos, no FoK, no Shiv (oki – that’s an iffy card anyway without Thalnos or the Azure Drakes that are no longer in rotation)…

It obviously works if he got to #1 Legend with it but it’s probably as close to a Thoughtsteal Priest deck, in play, as it is to an old-skool Miracle Rogue; far less reliant on the big combo OTK and more on nabbing decent cards from your opponent’s class.

If you’re gonna play wild regularly – Dr. Boom, no question, he can give you game-winning tempo swing on his own whereas Loatheb is more situational.

How is it unfair apart from the fact that we lose a regular Tavern Brawl that week? It basically *is* its own thing – nobody has to take part (I haven’t done)… and unless you’re a pretty dedicated, high-placed, ladder-climber each month you’re probably better off doing 6 normal Arena runs or buying 10 packs with the 1000 gold.

Me, I have a hard time maintaining the dedication required to ladder above about rank 10, in essence I’m a casual Hearthstone player that just happens to play a serious amount of games – I’ve won over 10000 and not got a single golden hero if that tells you how seldom I can actually be bothered with the ladder… and I’ve only ever done 4 arena runs I think.

Heroic Tavern Brawl is *not* for me but I’ve got no problem with Blizzard doing the odd hardcore, high-risk, high-return Brawl for those properly serious Hearthstoners who enjoy it.

Since it’s wild – some variant on Secret Paladin is always an option… I know I hate playing against it but I’m not really a Pally player so I don’t really know if it’s *really* that good or if it’s just a good counter against the decks I tend to use.

Just bear in mind you’ll need a win rate of around 60% to recoup your entry fee so I think the best plan would be to build your deck, test it on the wild ladder and tweak it until you can consistently achieve *at least* that win rate – it’s a pretty big buy-in if you’re not sure.. but the priiiiiiiize! 😉

12 wins would require at least an 86% win rate btw.

I’d dust off the Mech Mage deck I sometimes use on the Wild Ladder if I had 1000 gold … but I don’t so *shrugs*

True – but I’d say getting Edwin in your hand early enough, with enough cheap spells, to be a game winner is probably going to happen at most about 1 game in 4 and without it the match-up definitely favours Quest Rogue or aggro decks; especially that aggro water druid that seems to have been popping up lately.

I’m not saying it’s not going to happen – I just find an 80% win rate of Miracle vs Quest Rogue unlikely unless the Quest Rogues are very unlucky or not playing well.

In which case they’re not playing it right (or they’re getting a lot of bad draws) – Quest Rogue *should* have you (all but) dead by turn 7 with a decent draw; normally I’d say Quest vs Miracle favours Quest.

I could be totally off-whack though; I main Rogue but I’ve been in Wild far more than Standard lately for the Mill Rogue or Malygos Miracle antics.

Since I blew all my dust to craft Sherazin the other day – what are the odds I’m going to pack it when I open these? I’m guessing pretty high 😐

The trick, as Miracle Rogue, is to be prepared to suck up a tonne of damage removing weenies with your dagger and then start to control the board with things like Razorpetal Lasher, Backstab > S:17 Agent, Fan of Knives (optionally with Bloodmage Thalnos for SDI if required) and Tomb Pillager…

… all you’re doing is trying to stay alive until the Thaurissan > Malygos OTK spell drop – if you allow the Paladin to build up any significant board presence, you lose. If I hadn’t had lethal when the Stand against Darkness > Quartermaster drop happened I’d have lost the game, simple as that.

Paladin definitely has the advantage here as he can generally keep applying pressure with just about everything – the Rogue, however, *needs* to draw the right cards for most of the game – which I did in that case, thankfully 😉