It's been a while. It's New Year's Day in New Zealand (the clock went past midnight about two hours ago), and this will be my first post in 2016, it seems. I have been really lazy for the past two months or so, since school had been extraordinarily busy for me. I'm in the middle of a break right now, so I guess I can get some writing going on and talk about card games and video games and cute girls.
2014 was an incredibly important year for Hearthstone. Both Naxxramas and Goblin vs. Gnomes were released in that year, and cards like Loatheb, Sludge Belcher, Dr. Boom and Piloted Shredder permanently changed the meta. In contrast, I feel that 2015 was a lot quieter. Blackrock Mountain only had a rather small impact on the meta (beyond Emperor Thaurissan and Grim Patron), and the true potential for League of Explorers is yet to be seen. With that said, cards like Sir Finley and Reno Jackson have added a lot of deck-building potential to the game, and the new Discovery mechanic is a very appropriate and 'fair' use of RNG.
Of course, the actual meta game changed a lot. Hunter is now, for the most part, a tier 2 or even a tier 3 class. And just earlier this year, the meta game had been a toss-up between Patron Warrior, Secrets Paladin and Midrange Druid, with Patron Warrior usually coming up on top. Now that Warsong Commander has been nerfed to the status of Undertaker and Starving Buzzard, Secrets Paladin is now officially the most popular, if not the strongest deck in Hearthstone. It has no bad match-ups, it's hard to make mistakes with it which makes it perfect for laddering, and it is very mana efficient.
The reality is, I think, that Blizzard has consciously played an active role in pushing Paladin to tier one status. With every expansion, Paladin has received relevant cards, from Shielded Minibot and Muster for Battle, to Mysterious Challenger and Keeper of Uldaman. In contrast, Hunter has received almost none, beyond Quickshot. It seems to me that Blizzard is experimenting with an alternative way of nerfing or buffing certain classes - give the weaker classes stronger cards and give the stronger classes irrelevant/gimmicky cards. If this theory is correct, then it's pretty apparent that Blizzard has done a pretty good job.
I have been working on my free-to-play account on Europe for a significant chunk of the year. My goal was to produce at least two meta decks (aka decks that would carry a competent player to Legend) without spending any gold, within six months. I achieved the goal two weeks ago. I completed a full Hybrid Hunter and Zoo deck (with Dr. Boom), while my Midrange Druid and Secret Paladin decks were about 80% finished. That's almost four decks in total! So it is, in fact, possible to play this game competitively, and for free. In retrospect, it really boiled down to three things: you need to be good at arena (I average about 6-7 wins per run, and last week I managed to hit two 12 wins), you need to play a lot, and you need to be careful about managing your gold.
The reason why a lot of new players have trouble getting into this game, I think, isn't really because Blizzard isn't giving out enough gold or packs. For one, I already think that Tavern Brawl is more than adequate for providing a steady stream of gold and packs. The real gap is the knowledge gap. Most new players just don't have the basic card game knowledge (knowing how to trade, etc) to play this game, not to mention that arena drafting is inherently very complex. The reason why I was able to successfully create a free-to-play account had a lot more to do with my experience in this game, and not because I managed to get lucky and unpacked a Legendary, etc. Perhaps a new tutorial might help?
Anyway, I'll definitely be playing more Hearthstone in January. To round off this post, I'd like to share two decklists that I'll be using on my free-to-play account, starting with my favourite class, Hunter. I really think that Hybrid Hunter is the go-to Hunter archetype right now. Face Hunter is pretty bad right now (except against Secrets Paladin) and Midrange Hunter is far too slow. Hybrid Hunter seems to be the most appropriate archetype right now, because in Hunter, you need both board control and the burst and Hybrid Hunter provides that.
The tech cards in this list are Argent Squire and the two copies of Glaivezooka. To fight off cards like Darnassus Aspirant and Shielded Minibot, turn one Webspinner just isn't cutting it anymore. In contrast, cards like Argent Squire allows me to trade efficiently (particularly with the Glaivezooka buff) into cards like Knife Juggler. No Eaglehorn Bow in this list - you almost never get Secret value off it, and Glaivezooka usually ends up doing the same amount of damage for one less mana.
The next list is Midrange Druid. I'm not much of a Druid player, but I've played against that class so many times that I know the deck very well. As long as the Force of Nature/Savage Roar combo exists, Midrange Druid will never go out of fashion. Midrange Druid is basically a deck capable of taking up just about any matchups, has heal, card draw, burst and tempo in the form of Innervate and Wild Growth. A really good all around deck designed for laddering.
The hard part about building Midrange Druid is choosing what goes in the 5-mana slot. I personally prefer Sludge Belcher. I certainly can see myself playing two Azure Drakes, however, since cycling is very important in any midrange decks, and the spell power helps with removing threats (the one weakness of Midrange Druid is its lack of efficient removals). Beyond that, I really think that other tech cards (Sylvanas etc) are all worthy of inclusion, but with a deck as versatile as Midrange Druid, it's probably best to leave the core as it is.
