So last season I reached Rank 3, which wasn't too bad, I suppose. Like just about everyone else I had been aiming for Legend, but when you are playing about 5 games a day on average, grinding on ladder becomes a pretty pointless activity. Rank 3 is all right, I guess. It's kind of like at that awkward spot where you are around 4.5k mmr in Dota, where you are kind of good but not exactly 'pro' by any standards. It's a strange bottleneck, one that takes a lot of time and self-reflection to overcome. My excuse, of course, is that I don't have the time!

Now that the excuses are out of the way, here is the Shaman list that I promised to discuss the last time I talked about Hearthstone. Oh, and a Hunter list! Everyone loves Hunters...

Alright, so let's start with Hunter. Hunters are basically everywhere right now on ladder, mostly because it's a fairly cheap deck to play and it's effective for its cost. It also has a pretty good match up versus Zoo, which a lot of people run, although due to the nerfing of Starving Buzzard, the match has tilted somewhat slightly in Zoo's favour. Its match up versus Handlock, like before, is really really good at around 70-30. It's pretty good versus everything except for Control Warrior, but Control Warriors are practically nonexistent on the lower end of the ladder where everyone is just trying to rush to Rank 5.

A lot of people counted Hunter out of the meta when Buzzard got nerfed, but the power of Hunter is still there. What made Hunter scary isn't just Buzzard + UTH. What made it scary was the early game and the board advantage you get through Undertaker, which I think is the card of the format right now. You get free traps off the Mad Scientist and small tokens with Creeper. Then there's Tracking and Loot Hoarder to help with the card draw, not to mention the 3 attack weapon that takes out just about every early game minion in the first four turns. Obviously, this new Hunter doesn't last as well into the late game since it doesn't have the replenishing card draws with Buzzard that instantly refills your hand. But the deck is still really strong.

My list was actually adapted from a few recent midrange lists, although as usual I like putting in a few tweaks that I really like. So first, I like Flare. It's good in the mirror and good against various Giants Mage decks that have become somewhat more popular recently. I also like Tracking because it cycles through your deck, thins out your deck and draws that vital Kill Command you need to kill Handlock. I reduced Savannah Highmane and Houndmaster to one each because you rarely get to play more than one Highmane per game (and it's easy to dig it out with Tracking anyway). And surprisingly enough, there aren't enough targets for Houndmaster. So one is fine for now.

The traps probably deserve the most commentary. 2 x Freezing Trap is mandatory because it's the best trap in the game. But what about the others? Explosive Trap is good against Zoo, which is really common up to Rank 5. The utility of Snake Trap lets you protect a vulnerable field and makes your Kill Command useful more often. The one trap I really want to play is actually Snipe, but it's an awkward card because it can either be amazing or terrible. It's amazing versus Miracle Rogue when you play it on your Turn 5. And it's really good against Azure Drakes. But in this meta, the card is a bit slow, and Hunter is all about tempo.

A lot of Hunters are running Sludge Belchers, but I don't like that card in an aggro deck because it's a very passive card that is only good really good in the mirror. A turn 5 Loatheb can be crushing -- a turn 5 Belcher gives your opponent an extra turn, basically. One Belcher might be fairly good if there are so many Hunters on the ladder you basically play mirror nonstop. But for now, I'll stick with Loatheb -- this deck is really just that tight for space.

Shaman is one of the classes that rely heavily on board presence and hero power. It's a reactive deck that has a lot of cheap removal, and the goal is to use cheap tokens (totems, Harvest Golems, Haunted Creeper) in conjunction with stuff like Flametongue Totem to grind your opponent down. It also has a lot of burst thanks to Doomhammer + Rockbiter and my favourite card in the deck, Al'akir. It demands a totally different playstyle than, let's say, Zoo, which is why I really enjoy playing it.

My list is really really standard. It's adapted from a list by Xixo a while ago, although as usual I like to add my own touch to it. So first, the one Zombie Chow. Games have gotten so fast nowadays that you need something to play on turn one, and Zombie Chow is one of the best turn one cards out there. Undertaker is a possible addition, although I'd mostly likely be only running one. The point of running these early cards is not to swarm your opponent early, but to survive since other decks are very fast right now. Obviously, you can also get degenerate starts with a buffed Undertaker if you have a smooth mana curve. Sometimes, Undertaker gives you free wins.

I really want to run more two Sludge Belchers, but there aren't just any room. It's one of my favourite cards just because it's so sticky and so efficient for its mana cost, and is perfect for the sort of long, grind games that Shaman wants to play. The addition of The Black Knight is a bit more interesting. This card has hit a pretty good taunt in 80% of the games I play, since practically every deck runs Sludge Belcher (except for Zoo). Against Kolento's Druid, TBK is one of the few outs to an Argus'd Spectral Knight. And it's also pretty good versus Priest if you save it for their Argus play. Obviously TBK is one of the first card's I'd swap out if I had to add something in, but it's just a great card right now, especially if you get over Rank 5 and more people are playing control.

That's about all I have to say, really. I'm working on two more midrange/control decks: a Deathrattle Priest and a Secrets Mage with Ysera, both of which are heavily influenced by Brian 'Brian Kibler' Kibler's Priest lists. That guy is just really really good at card games, and I've learned a lot through just watch him play. The Secrets Mage will probably get a separate post in the future once I finalized the list, because the list is pretty original, I think, and is really fun to play. It also has a good matchup versus practically every other control matchup, which I enjoy far more than a Zoo mirror. Not to mention that Mage was actually my first class when first started playing! It's nice going back to the roots...

Please Fireblast me in the face, Jaina-chan! Onegai...

Speaking of card games, I've decided to go back to casual Yu-gi-oh. I go to my locals every Friday for some casual games with a few high school acquaintances and it's been pretty great so far. Honestly though, the whole point of playing card games in real life...is to have an excuse to buy a cute deck box! That's right, I never had the chance to buy a cute anime deck box before...and now I do! So here's my gear for my Friday nights...it looks great, doesn't it? Oh, and Eli is the best Love Live...it's an objective fact!

The other playmat is my friend's Sonico playmat. 

Not long after I took the photo with my phone, a guy playing Magic came over and recognized the Eli playmat. He then showed me the Love Live cellphone game he'd been playing, and he was playing as Honoka. Then he started playing Start Dash on his phone. Good taste.