Looking at the Next Season

So the February season of Hearthstone is about to draw to a close. Since school is about to start soon for me, chances are I'll be playing a lot less Hearthstone in the months to come, and with that, a lot less Hearthstone-related content. In this post, I'd like to share some of my overall thoughts on this and the upcoming seasons, and a few decklists I might use to ladder next season. 

Overall thoughts

GvG started off as a showdown between aggro decks (Midrange Hunter, Xixo Zoo) and decks designed to counter aggro (Control Warrior, Handlock). After the Undertaker nerf, midrange decks began to take over the scene, largely because people started discovering the value of GvG cards like Piloted Shredder and Muster for Battle, and how well they fit in a midrange deck. Midrange Pally and Combo Druid became the decks to beat in the February season, while Zoo was largely replaced by Mechmage. Rogue, widely regarded as the worst class when GvG first came out, received a new boost in the form of the Oil Rogue deck, which propelled the class to tier one status.

So right we're in a rather unique position in the history of the game: virtually every class (barring, perhaps, Priest) has become playable. Warlock's popularity has gone up again, thanks to the new Demonlock deck which won ESL. The same player also piloted a Midrange Shaman deck, making it significantly more visible on ladder alongside the Aggro Mech variant. Now, because there's so much variance on ladder, the meta has become more and more volatile. The 'meta', at the moment, consists of a complex paper-scissor-rock situation between various tier one decks, that all seem to struggle to regain the dominant position Hunter was at 2 weeks ago.

Overall, I'm actually very pleased with how the game is right now. The speed at which the meta changes right now forces the player to really think on their feet. Tech cards like BGH, Harrison, Healbot and The Black Knight goes in and out of decks very, very quickly. Because of how decks are generally converging towards midrange, classes have in general become a lot more versatile, able to switch from aggro to control within one to two turns.

As much as the meta changes, though, it is still rather predictable. The decks people play on the higher parts of ladder are largely netdecks from the most popular streamers. Take the SenX Midrange Hunter deck, for example. The deck was virtually non-existent on ladder, even a week after it was first posted by the guy himself. Trump decides to stream it - he piloted it to top 10 NA, and a day after nearly a third of the ladder consists of the exact list. The ability of popular streamers to influence the meta is pretty incredible.

Decklists 

Combo Druid

Druid has always been designed as an extremely consistent and versatile class. Right now, it's the most popular deck on ladder, and for a good reasons too. It has heal, silence, card draw, broken starts with Wild Growth, and potential for some insane burst. It's easily the most well-rounded and consistent deck in the game.

Spectral Knight used to be a staple for Combo Druid, but it's popularity has declined somewhat ever since cards like Piloted Shredder came out. It's still a very good card versus Rogue, which is why I decided to put in one copy. Good tech-cards for this deck (besides the usual BGH, Harrison etc) include Mind Control Tech and Zombie Chow. Kezan Mystic, I feel, is a card that varies from exceptional to awful. So unless the meta is 50% Hunters/Mages, it's a pretty inconsistent card.

Control Warrior

The problem about Warrior right now is that its removals are no longer as efficient as they need to be. Warrior always had problem dealing with Deathrattle minions, but cards like Piloted Shredder made things really hard for Warrior. Control Warrior lists have become more pro-active as a result, seeking to fight for board early rather than relying on cards like Brawl to regain board control. Piloted Shredders, Bomb Lobbers, Sen'jin and Spellbreaker are all decent cards for this purpose.

The choice of Legendaries have also experienced a big change. Because of how sticky minions have become, Ragnaros is not as good as it used to be. Alex and Geddon are both vulnerable to BGH, which has gotten a lot more popular ever since Dr. Boom became an auto-include. The old Alex/Grommash combo have also become increasingly hard to pull off. So players like Sjow have sought to play Control Warrior lists with only 1 BGH target (the Dr. Boom), with some success.

At the moment, I prefer more midrange warrior lists that are able to grind well into the late game. Cards like Piloted Shredder takes care of the midgame, while Ysera takes care of the late. I would also run Sneeds in this deck (possibly replacing one of the Shredders), but I don't have that card unfortunately. Another good card to include is Spellbreaker, which is generally superior to Owl since it doesn't die to the Whirlwind effect of Death's Bite. Control Warrior lists are some of the most interesting to compile, so my list is by no means definitive or anything like that.

Zoo

So perhaps you are wondering why I'm talking about Zoo, even though there's no Zoo list.

It's simple: there are no good Zoo lists around.

Out of all the decks hit by the Undertaker nerf, Zoo arguably got hit the hardest. Because Zoo needs to lay down pressure from turn one, having a good Undertaker start wasn't just the icing on the cake (as it was for Midrange Hunter): it was mandatory for winning the game. With Undertaker gone, cards like Leper Gnome and Clockwork Gnome got significantly worse. So Zoo is kind of in a weird spot right now: it doesn't have enough good 1 drops to play.

Argent Squire is okay, but not amazing. Zombie Chow is alright, but is literally only good when played on turn one. Cogmaster is great, but it requires a mech engine. And Mech Zoo, being simply an inferior version of Mech Mage, isn't worth playing.

What really knocked Zoo out of the meta is that other decks have acquired the tools to compete with the board early. Aggro Hunter still thrives because it has sufficient reach to end the game, even if it loses board control. But after the Soulfire nerf, Zoo's reach has become very limited. Once Zoo loses board, it becomes nearly impossible to regain the board, barring some crazy Implosion RNG.

Perhaps it's time to ditch the whole concept and move on to something more midrange. Silentstorm's Demonlock, I think, is a step in the right direction. It plays almost like Zoo, but is far more versatile, with heal, AoE, and a solid late-game. If Blizzard's new expansion brings in more quality 1-2 drops, I can see Zoo making a comeback. Bur right now, Zoo is barely tier 3.

So I've been messing around with Photoshop again. Chinese New Year's might have come and passed, but I still wanted to send out a few cards. So after a few hours of work, here they are. They are probably going to be sent out in the next few days. I think they look fine. The only weird thing is that 謹賀新年 is a Japanese expression, which seems mildly inappropriate. I also can't think of anything to write inside. But yea, here they are.

Outer Cover

Inside

Legend Write-up

So for the past week and a half, I've been grinding the Hearthstone ladder. It had been a pretty rewarding, frustrating and exhausting process. In this post, I'll share some of my laddering experiences, deck-lists, and a few things I learnt along the way.

Rank 3 was my highest rank before. In my past experiences, the metagames between Rank 20-6 and 5-1 are very different. Rank 20-6 is filled with aggro, while Rank 5-1 is very midrange/control oriented. There are two reasons for this, I think. The first is that it's easy to stack accumulated stars with aggro decks. A deck like Face Hunter might be somewhat inconsistent, and suffers in a control meta, but it's a fast deck, and if you get lucky, you can stack stars real fast. Second, consistency beats speed once you're above Rank 5. That's why Druid is such a popular deck now, because it's so consistent. If you can guarantee yourself a 60% winrate, all you need to do is grind.

I predicted earlier that Hunter, despite the Undertaker nerf, would remain relevant in the metagame. The popularity of Hunter took a dip after the nerf - the most popular decks in the meta were Oil Rogue (aka Miracle with Sprint instead of Gadgetzan), Mech Mage (the new Zoo), Pally and Druid (combo is much more popular than Ramp). Face Hunter had even to good matchups with all three, thus it became the go-to Hunter deck when the season first started.

In the climb from 19-6, I used Face Hunter exclusively. Then my plan was to switch to Midrange once I hit above Rank 5. Both turned out to be very solid decisions. It took me around 3-4 days, with about an hour and a half per day, to hit Rank 5. Then I switched to Midrange Hunter. Not only is it a very solid deck versus control, I also personally find Midrange much more enjoyable to play. And just a week ago, Midrange Hunter was virtually non-existent on ladder. So there's the surprise factor as well.

Anyway, here are the deck-lists.

Face Hunter (Rank 18-5)

• Standard list. I don't have Leeroy, but even if I did, I probably wouldn't play it because it is practically a dead card unless you have lethal. I like having a smooth mana curve when playing this deck.
• It is correct to play Abusive Sergeant turn one if you have no other play.
• Owl and Tracking are both situational cards, which is why only one copy of each is good. I like running only 1 Eaglehorn Bow because having too many weapons clogs your hand, and it's very hard to consistently get additional charges on the Bow.
• In the mirror, it is sometimes correct to Kill Command a 3/1 to prevent lethal. Keep note of how many Wolfriders/Golem/other sources of face damage your opponent has used. Usually, the mirror is extremely close, so take time and do basic maths instead of mindlessly going face.

SenX Midrange Hunter (Rank 5-3)

• SenX hit no.1 on Europe with the deck. Notable is his additional of Abusive Sergeant, a tech-card meant to beat Mech Mage. Abusive allows the Webspinner/Creeper to trade into the Mechwarper, leaving a useful 2/1 body.
• Houndmaster is good, but only if people forget to play around it. Houndmaster has the surprise factor when Midrange Hunter briefly disappeared, but now it's hard to get value off it.

Midrange Hunter (Rank 3-Legend)

• My own list, although only afterwards did I realize its tech-cards are eerily similar to that of Naiman's.
• Argus serves as a more consistent version of Houndmaster. Very good versus Rogues, Mechmage and Face Hunter, match-ups where life is a critical resource.
• All Midrange decks should, ideally, have a cycle/draw engine. Mad Scientist/Webspinner are pseudo draws/cycles, but the Cult Master adds real consistency to this deck. A Midrange Hunter that plays high quality minions is already powerful. Add draw power on top of that, and things get insane.
• I like Snake Traps because Midrange Hunter is all about board control. It can be dead occasionally, but it's very powerful against Mech Mage and has good synergy with Cult Master.

Some things I learnt playing the deck:

• Against Mech Mage, clear their board as much as possible to prevent a turn 4 Blastmage. 
• Against Control Warrior, it's correct to keep Highmane if you are on the Coin.
• If on Coin, try not to keep Webspinner. It's better to play two 2-drops in a row with Coin.
• Unless you can get immediate value with Knife Juggler (e.g. with Unleash the Hounds/Dr. Boom), try not to play it too early.
• Prioritize board control, especially in the early game. If you have to decide between Webspinner or Hero Power, play the Webspinner.
• Animal Companion is good, but inconsistent. If you can play other minions, try to play them first so Animal Companion won't screw you over if you get the wrong one.
• Against Rogue, try to Hero Power every turn.
• The general plan of the decks is to play high-quality, sticky minions on a smooth curve, finding tempo with your Secrets, and rush down your opponent when you have enough board control. 
• Don't be stingy with Kill Commands. If it's a clean kill on a Sen'jin or Sludge Belcher, it's totally fine to use it as removal.

Perhaps even more important than the deck/gameplay is the mindset. When I got stuck between Rank 2-3 for a while, things got pretty frustrating and tilt-ish. This grind to legend really tested my patience. Getting emotions under control is super important when grinding ladder. Hearthstone is a game with quite a bit of variance, so persistence is much more important than complaining about topdecks and whatnot. On my final climb to Legend, I learnt (from StrifeCro, actually) to keep myself calm, and think a good deal before every move, planning everything else in advance. And of course, concentrate as much as possible.

There's a few more days left till ladder season ends. I'm going to do other things for the next few days, and I'll try get into the Top 100 when the season is about to finish.

Yukikaze

Originally a sci-fi novel, Yukikaze is a five episode long OVA that takes on a rather clichéd anime tradition - the story of a mentally troubled pilot, and the machine he has to pilot in order to save the world. Except this time, the machine is a fighter jet, and not a giant robot. Centring on the life of a fighter pilot (who, out of all things, is called Rei), Yukikaze's story focuses on a war between human fighter jets from the FAF airforce, and a breed of aliens called the JAM who came and invaded Earth through an inter-dimensional portal from Antarctica.

That's probably the simplest synopsis I can provide for a backstory as complicated as Yukikaze's. A lot had to be explained.  As a novel adaptation, it perhaps assumed that its viewers are familiar with the story to begin with. But for those who haven't read the novel, like myself, Yukikaze takes a bit of effort to get into. Yukikaze does a rather poor job of introducing the viewer to its world considering how complicated its backstory is. Unless you pay close attention to every word (or Google, which was my tactic), watching Yukikaze might well be a very alienating experience. 

Shows that follow the same sort of tradition Yukikaze is on tend to spend a lot more time talking about the pilots than the machines they fly. Shows like RahXephon and more famously, Evangelion, are much more interested in making us sympathize with Ayato and Shinji than to merely entertain us with giant robots. Like those two shows, Yukikaze isn't really about the action - it's about the life and psychology of a socially withdrawn pilot. But it takes a lot of effort, and a long time, for a viewer to truly sympathize with a character like that. Had Yukikaze been twelve episodes long, Rei could've very well been another Ayato, another Shinji, another character who goes beyond his social anxiety. Unfortunately, that never happened.

So much, then, for character development. Or a followable story, for that matter. But Yukikaze is still worth watching for its animation. Fortunately, for what it lacks in characters and backstory, Yukikaze makes up its flaws with its superb animation. For just about every aspect of Yukikaze is superbly animated. The fight scenes are always a treat to watch, while the more idle scenes of watching Yukikaze gliding through the skies felt very soothing. For a show that, supposedly, is about the relationship between the man and the machine, Yukikaze's redeeming points lies solely with the machine.

Yukikaze is an ambitious attempt to give us some insights on the daily lives of ordinary pilots. And tell a good story. And entertain us with explosions. Unfortunately, it only succeeded at doing one of these things. Perhaps Yukikaze could've been a classic had it been a TV series, or a movie. But there's only so much you can do within the space of five episodes.

No, not that Yukikaze!

Katanagatari

Shows set in medieval Japan tend to fall into one of two categories. Shows that fall in the first categories, like Samurai Champloo (or better yet, Gintama), don't really take their subject matter all that seriously. These shows are, more often than or not, excuses for their creators to make fun of the present-day, to break the fourth wall, and do all sorts of silly things. Shows that fall in the second category, like Shigurui and Sword of the Stranger, are more like your typical swashbuckler films, filled with blood, violence and at times, misogyny. 

Katanagatari, then, should be seen as an attempt to fuse those two categories. To make something that's entertaining, but not necessarily slapstick. To make something that errs on the serious side, without descending into mindless violence. 

And for the most part, Katanagatari made it work.

Like its Monogatari predecessors, Katanagatari is also a LN adaptation. But unlike his previous works, Katanagaari is Nisio Isin's attempt to create something a bit more serious, a bit more dramatic, while keeping all the puns and wordplays that Nisio is famous for. A road trip around Japan, looking for a dozen lost swords sounds rather like a collage of the shows I mentioned already. Add a bit of romance here and there, and you get Katanagatari.

What makes Kanatagatari original, then, has little to do with its genre. If one is to find the road trip of a man and a woman actually interesting to watch, there has to be something special about the man and the woman. And Togame and Shichika are very special indeed. As the episodes went on, their personalities began to fully blossom. Togame, like a classic tsundere, became more and more dere and less tsun. Shichika turned from an unemotional tool into someone with a conscience (with a few existential crises in between). Pledging his love for Togame at the very beginning, Shichika became a genuine lover only after all the arguing, and the jealousy, and the drama. 

What makes Katanagatari particularly interesting, is that it actually does a very good job introducing its secondary characters. From Nanami's cold-blooded nonchalance to Hitei-hime's smugness, every character in Katanagatari has a redeeming feature that sometimes makes it hard to distinguish the protagonists from the bad guys. But Katanagatari is also exceptional in that its characters are distinctive not just in how they act, but via the way they talk. Pengin's stutters, Togame's 'Cheerios' and Konayuki's lolita voice have all become the essential traits of the characters they represent.

Despite this, Katanagatari's dialogue actually leaves a lot left to be desired. At times, Katanagatari's characters talk for the sake of talking - and it doesn't always work. At its best, its long dialogues provides insight and drama, such Togame's death scene. At its worst, they can be a pain to sit through, like episode two's mind-numbing trip through the desert. Perhaps it has to do with Kanatagatari's length - its fifty-minute-long episodes requires at least some fillers. But the excessive talking can be a real turn-off at times.

Comedy and drama and romance don't always come together naturally. But in the case of Katanagatari, those things somehow came together and created a highly watch-able package. Combine that with a distinctive art style and an excellent soundtrack, Katanagatari is a show that's definitely worth watching and re-watching. It's an interesting, original spin on a classic genre, and we would almost certainly remember it for many years to come.

So today, I took a few hours off to practice on the piano. It's been a while since that last happened. Maybe it's because there's a grand piano downstairs at my house just sitting there, and that to let it sit there and collect dust felt like a terrible waste. Or maybe because my hands just kind of itched. But I played anyway, and it had been very relaxing. Piano feels like one of the few things right now that makes me feel genuinely relaxed nowadays.

A few years back, I practised just about everyday. At least three hours per day, usually four, sometimes five. I was 15 when I passed my Grade 8 examinations (which is the highest you can get here in Oceania) and back then I was ambitious enough to have entered competitions. I had a few teachers. I was more technically competent than any of them. But after coming fourth in both competitions I entered within the space of one month, all the steam ran out. The last teacher I had wanted to train me into a professional. I didn't want to be a professional. 

So it's not really surprising that right now, I'm quite rusty. Maybe it's because my technique wasn't particularly good to begin with. Maybe it's because I get tired easily. But it makes me sad that my fingers don't work on the keys like they used to. When the music does turn out fine, though, it really sounds quite beautiful. So I think I'm going to play tomorrow as well.

The pieces I'm currently working on are all the ones I've played before. So basically I'm trying to repair things to how they used to be. There's the Piano Sonata No. 13, by Mozart, which like every Mozart Sonata is deceptively 'simple' but very hard to play properly. I really like that piece, actually it's a personal favourite. Then there's two pieces by Chopin, Etude No. 12 (Ocean) and Scherzo No. 2. The Etude is there to improve my arpeggios, which has always been my weak point. And the Scherzo is a very thematic piece that's designed to lead your fingers in a ten minute obstacle course. Like every Chopin piece, getting the notes right is never enough. The hard part is playing the piece with emotion and at the same time be technically competent. 

When everything is done, maybe I should do recordings of them. I don't think I'm good enough, though. I read somewhere that you need to practice at least 3 hours a day for 5 days per week, if you want to make any progress. And at 21, I'm definitely not learning as fast as I would've when I was a teenager. It's times like this when I regret giving up music so early. Because music, it turns out, is worth a lot more than a lot of other things I got into afterwards.

So this is Pollini's interpretation of the Chopin Etude, which I rather like because it's a sensible interpretation, not too stylized, not too over-the-top.

What's particularly impressive is that despite the pedals, he keeps his arpeggios very clean, ensuring that the important accents at the beginning of each bar actually pops out. 

That's very important, because when I play this piece I tend to muddy it up too much.

As I've promised yesterday (well, actually, the day before), I'm going to present a little write-up on the free-to-play status of Hearthstone, and how this game has become a lot more challenging for newer players to get a hold on. I'll also post some decklists I'll be using for the upcoming season.

Hearthstone, and its Free-to-Play Status

Back when I first started playing Hearthstone sometime last April, the game was very different to what it looks like now. First, neither Naxx nor the GvG expansions existed back then. Second, the rise of Zoo as a top-tier competitive deck in March gave many players a genuinely cheap and competitive deck to ladder with (for better or worse). Back then, it was genuinely possible to succeed in the game as a free-to-play player. With enough patience, even a basic Mage deck with a few Rares and single Epic could grind its way to Legend.

The release of the Naxx expansion, however, fundamentally changed how the game works. It is now impossible to succeed in the game without Naxx cards. Cards like Undertaker, Haunted Creeper, Loatheb, Sludge Belcher and Zombie Chow have become the most powerful and often-used cards in the game. Without Naxx cards, your basic Mage deck with River Crocolisks would probably not get past Rank 15. Naxx has become the 3500 gold obstacle that every new player has to get across, if they want their decks to be remotely successful on ladder.

Well, that was only an assumption. To 'prove' my assumption somewhat, I decided created a F2P new account on EU. Knowing how important the Naxx cards were, I decided to focus all of my energy on getting these cards as soon as possible. This was my plan:

1. Unlock all the classes, get gold.
2. Defeat all Expert AIs, get gold.
3. Grind the quests daily, get gold.
4. Unlock the Naxx wings.

After a few days of grinding, I generated 600 gold from quests alone, around 100 arcane dust, some extra rewards from a mediocre 6-3 Arena run, and 2 Classic card packs. This was barely enough to unlock the first Naxx wing, which cost me 700 gold. Keep in mind that I've been playing this game for over 9 months now, and already have a background in TCGs. Despite that, the amount of grinding I had to do was abysmal. 

Since I refrained from doing Arena runs, my only source of gold, outside of the 'hidden quests', were the daily quests. 40 gold quests were the norm. Neither ladder nor casual queued me against equal-skill players, either. Even though I was in Rank 21, I had play against Taunt Druid and Midrange Hunter, complete with Legendaries. In casual mode, I played against Control Warrior and Control Priest, again, complete with all the Legendaries. Now imagine you are a new player with a neat little winstreak. You get queued against a Control Warrior who just Black Knight'd your Sen'jin. How would that feel?

At this rate, it will take me at least one or two months to unlock all the Naxx wings. But I've been playing this game for a while, and I know how enjoyable it can be once you learn the basics, have a n actual card-pool to work with, and start building good decks. Now consider this: a completely new player goes through the same experience as I did. Would he be as persistent? I don't think so.

But the extent to which Hearthstone is unaccommodating to newer players, I think, goes far beyond what I've just described. For one, newer players might just spend all their initial gold on packs, a terrible investment. They might not know that the hidden quests actually exist. They might not know how good (and necessary) the Naxx cards actually are. And having queued against people who farm Golden Portraits at Rank 20, they will be discouraged, and be led into thinking that buying packs to get Legendaries is the only way to succeed at the game.

To be sure, being good at Arena is a very good way of generating income. But the fact is, Arena is hard for new players to get into. Even if you do have a background in TCGs, Arena requires you to have a good knowledge of all the cards. It requires you to know basic interactions, and to have an overall plan. It's much harder to succeed in Arena than to netdeck Zoo and ladder with it. For newer players, the 150 gold price tag on an Arena entry probably just isn't worth it.

Blizzard's reward system, I believe, is completely outdated for its free-to-play model. Unless you are a good Arena player (and not many new players actually are), or are willing to spend money on packs, this game will be agonizing for a F2P player. There's just too little gold to go around. 

Perhaps this is what Blizzard actually wanted: if you want to succeed without the arduous grind, buy packs. And Hearthstone's immense popularity goes to show that perhaps, people are mostly wiling to spend a bit of money on a F2P game. Fair enough. But with more expansions coming our way, this game will have more and more power creeps, newer cards that players need to have in their decks. And with that, I feel that Hearthstone will become increasingly hard for newer players to get into - unless you want to spend money, and perhaps, a lot of it.

Decklists for February 2015

Oil Rogue

The first list is pretty much a direct net-deck, although I took out the Coldlight Oracles for Violet Teachers since I prefer board control. Some lists also run 1 Gadgetzan Auctioneer, which I've yet to try out. I think it needs two Oil because the card is practically a win-condition.

Mechmage

Haven't play-tested it yet. This list is more mid-range than aggro due to a whooping four Legendaries, which might lead to consistency issues. Kolento's list runs 2 Mad Scientists and 2 Mirror Entities, which looks very good and a bit more consistent than my list. Antonidas, I think, will be very good. Not sure about the Toshley, although I actually rather like him, and I just want to find a deck for him.

Midrange Hunter

I think Hunter will remain very relevant in the seasons to come. What made Hunter strong wasn't just the Undertaker - it was a combination of Mad Scientist, Freezing Trap, Kill Command and Savannah Highmane, all of which are extremely good cards on their own. Put them in the same package, and you get an insanely strong deck. Besides the weaker early game, this list is as strong as it was pre-Undertaker nerf. This deck is mostly tech'd against Control match ups.