You can win but it really depends on the draw – but hey, it’s Hearthstone, the strongest opponent is luck.

I think you could beat the Stormwind brawl if you managed to do 1000 damage; I got fairly close with 884.

This is really heavily reliant on the luck of the draw … I had a few games which I just could not win; though I thought I’d won first time, didn’t realise the head would spawn and I’d just blown the Savage Roar which would have been helpful 😐 Other games he just seemed to always have the perfect counters in hand – drop Feral Spirit and he’d have Fear and so on…

Last game was an absolute cakewalk as he didn’t draw Fear or an early Shade of Naxxramas so I was able to just stomp him into the dirt (with the Cat costume).

The thing with Paladin is that it’s probably the most Legendary intensive class in the game… not surprising since it has some of the best Legendaries.

If you want to focus on the Blackguards you’ll probably want Wickerflame Burnbristle (especially with Corpsetaker); he’s cheap at 3 mana and even if you pull him late, when you’ve got a Blackguard on the board, you could be getting extra value from the lifesteal.

The DK, Uther of the Ebon Hand, would be a good fit too – since he equips a 5/3 Lifesteal weapon. Even Happy Rag might work quite well though you’ve got Lay on Hands at that slot.

You should probably also focus on one theme – you’re diluting your win conditions by going with a bit of Lifesteal and a bit of Divine Shield focus. With Blackguard synergy I’d drop the Howling Commanders, Bolvar Fireblood, the Blood Knight and Light’s Sorrow.

You’re also *really* top heavy, 1/3 of your deck costs 6 mana or more! That’s why you’re struggling in the early game – Skulking Geist is doing you no real favours. Mistress of Mixtures might be a good call – gives you a good body early on and it gains value when combined with a Blackguard if you draw it late. Tar Creeper is a good, cheap anti-aggro card as well – keep Stonehill Defender though, it gives you a chance to pull Tirion.

I’d go with either Spikeridged Steed or Bonemare, not both – they perform similar roles at similar costs. Bloodworm is expensive for what it is but it does curve nicely into the Steed (if it survives) – so I’d probably keep the worms, add an extra Steed and drop the Bonemares.

So are you hoping for a crap golden epic at the end of the month for the dust?

With a crap legendary from Gadgetzan that would be enough to unlock the first wing of Karazhan. 🙂

Dowp 😐 I might just have to start logging my open rates to see if I *really* have as bad luck as it feels like then or if it’s entirely psychological; i.e. I notice the bazillions of useless 40 dust packs I get but less so the legendaries (especially if they’re “meh” legendaries).

4 Legendaries in 28 packs? … *le sigh* – I’d have got 1 😐

When they changed the opening rules for Legendaries recently, Blizzard gave me 2000 dust because my previous opening rate for Legendaries and Epics (according to the email) was so bad…

Make that push for legendary rank though, so scrubs like me can live vicariously through your newbie deck play 🙂 Would be nice to see proof that it’s possible even without top-tier meta-decks that people have spent a lot of time (or money) on.

” I enjoy BOTH* of the decks…” … FTFY

That’s what wrong with the current meta – easily fixed though, play Wild.

*(oki technically Tempo Rogue makes it 3 decks in the current meta)

Doesn’t look like it’s been fixed yet:

https://us.battle.net/forums/en/hearthstone/topic/20759338569
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv5T_wUrNiY&feature=youtu.be

To my mind the way that should work is a new stack with each activation of Defile… so with a board like Alleycat, Tabbycat and Scavenging Hyaena:

> Defile kills the cats and deals 1 damage to the Hyaena
> Scavenging Hyaena gets +4/+2 (6/3)
> Defile triggers again (new stack) dealing 1 damage to the Hyaena leaving it at 6/2

This video from August looks like it’s bugged as all hell though (don’t know whether it’s been fixed):

https://plays.tv/video/5997a1cc72b90f7bfc/defile-scavenging-hyena-bug-?section=feed

With a Jewelled Macaw (2/1), Scavenging Hyaena (3/2) and Leokk (2/4 giving +1 attack to the others):

> Defile kills the Macaw
> Defile triggers again and kills the Hyaena
> Hyaena gets +2/+1 from the Macaw and myseriously resurrects
> Defile triggers again (as it killed the Hyaena) and kills the Hyaena again
> Hyaena doesn’t get +2/+1 as it was the creature that died
> Defile triggers again from the second Hyaena kill and kills Leokk

If that was a new stack each time it should have left the Hyaena at 5/1 and Leokk at 2/3.

There is an old saying in Magic: “You are always going to win 33 percent of your games, and you are always going to lose 33 percent of your games. It is the other 33 percent that separates the good from the bad.”

——

Magic is less random than Hearthstone though, from Yogg to the random Lich King card(s) you get, to Babbling Book and Cabalist’s Tome … and so on, it’s probably closer to 40/40/20 in HS 😛

However, you can reduce the luck factor of your own draw a bit by having a tonne of card draw in the deck; a fact Miracle Rogues have been relying on since forever. (Wild) Malygos Miracle Rogue is still my favourite archetype but I’m quite enjoying (Standard) Exodia Mage as well now – both decks are hugely reliant on card draw to hit their win condition before they run out of health and get that big ol’ OTK.

The deck list I was using back in January (from my previous comment waaaay down below) still works – not as well as it did but it’s still pretty lulzy to drop Krul the Unshackled and have him pull Mal’ganis x2 and Doomguard x3 at the same time 😀

The Crawler is in there specifically to stall the early game vs Aggro Pirate Warrior, if you’re not running into them you’ll probably not need weapon removal either so I wouldn’t tech in Oozes.

If you’re running into a lot of opponents that go wide on the board, e.g. Evolve Shaman, you could try Tainted Zealot for one Crawler – synergises brilliantly with Defile but is also good with Drain Soul and Shadow Bolt.

Normally Id’ say Spellbreaker or Blastcrystal Potion are possibilities – but they’ll screw up Valanar so avoid them. Demonfire perhaps, reasonably flexible in this deck or Mortal Coil.

… or if you want your opponent to rage quit, Gnomeferatu x2 – it’s probably a better late game draw than the Crawler if you’ve already played the Skulking Geist.

It’s always worst at the start of the month where everyone who was in the mid-ranks have been dropped back down to around rank 22.

I mostly play for lulz so I don’t hit the ladder that often, been playing for nigh-on two years and haven’t yet got a single golden hero yet, so I’m generally kicking about in the lower ranks when I do ladder – and the effect is noticeable. As the month progresses, at lower ranks, the quality of your opponents’ decks declines and the number of mis-plays they make increases, as the better players rank up.

I quite like this brawl, it’s not full of random nonsense and everyone is on a even footing – Zoolock is still strong of course. This is what I’ve been using with some degree of success.

http://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/a-peek-to-the-past-zoolock-brawl/

^ … the Druid bit is supposed to be sarcasm -_-

Hmm – well Un’Goro has some jungle flora on the Expansion I “flyer” – Expansion II (KFT) has blue glowy (icy) magical symbols … while the next expansion has, quite literally, a cut purse.

… so, something Elwynn Forest (Cutpurse territory in WoW) related with more steal-stuff type mechanics, particularly for Rogue – maybe some more Defias Brotherhood related cards (though they’re kaput in WoW now – apparently, not played for a long time).

Possibly more Goldshire, Northshire or Stormwind cards as they’re all around the Elwynn Forest, especially for Paladin and Priest. Perhaps something Tower of Azora (https://wow.gamepedia.com/Tower_of_Azora) related for Mage.

… Druid will no doubt get something like Tree-win, “5 mana, destroy all minions and replace them with 5/5 Treants under your control”

Could Ethereal Peddler work as a replacement for Lilian Voss? Similar value at 5/6 for 5 mana and would reduce the cost of spells drawn by Swashburglar and Hallucination making them more valuable to curve into an early Auctioneer next turn.

You’re quite likely to overload your hand if you put Lyra into this deck… card draw and cheap spells, combined with Lyra, tends to do that if you’re not careful.

Shoe-horning in the Bloodsail Corsair and Patches doesn’t seem like a great fit either, even if it is to thin the deck. Try ditching them for Shadow Visions and Gluttonous Ooze. When you really, really need the Pint-Size Potion -> SW: Horror combo and you’re lacking one of them in your hand – Shadow Visions can save your behind… and in a Highlander deck it allows you to duplicate a spell.

Just my tuppence worth.

Stormwatcher + Inner Fire … aaaah, that takes me back to ye olde days of OTK Flying Machine Priest 🙂