tailsfromvienna's Comments
Blizzard Disclosed Official Drop Rates For Golden Cards From Packs
I did the math for everyone who likes percentages:
golden leg: 0,11% (0,2/181)
golden epic: 0,28% (0,2/71)
golden rare: 1,33% (0,2/15)
golden comm: 1,54% (0,5/13)
normal leg: 1,00% (0,2/20)
normal epic: 4,00% (0,2/5)
normal comm: 70,00% (3,5/5)
normal rare: 21,74% (100,00% – all of the above)
total leg: 1,11%
total epic: 4,28%
total rare: 23,07%
total comm: 71,54%
golden ratio leg: 9,95%
golden ratio epic: 6,58%
golden ratio rare: 5,78%
golden ratio common: 2,15%
my personal history of soon 10000 cards opened has a significantly higher rate of leg and epic, probably because of the pity counters at the beginning of each expansion (first 10 packs) and generally (after max 40 packs).
However, I also purchased bundles with standard packs and wild packs, and for those there is no pity counter-
Tavern Brawl - The Fury of Kael'Thas - Deck Lists!
it’s basically all mages and druids, with the occasional paladin “to the frontline”-decks thrown in.
(to the frontline is conveniently countered by mass polymorph)
i only played mage, so all my advice ist for that class. i do think that druid is slightly superior in this tavern brawl, because it’s cheap spells are better suited and it has better ways to create a threatening board, but in the end i won more games against druid that i lost.
i used Ablattel’s deck list below as a starting point, but soon it was clear that you want to play only spells, no creatures. Thalnos, Malygos, Primordial Protector and even Multicaster had to go, but if I had to play a creature, it would be the latter.
Long stoys short, I cut the creatures and Wildfires to add Sorcerer’s Gambit, 2 Syphon Mana, Ignite, Solid Alibi and second copies of Refreshing Spring Water and Flamestrike.
Basically, you can just type “spell” in the query field of deck editor and throw something together.
To actually win at a good rate, you have to choose your starting hand well and be lucky with your Runes otA.
cheap spells:
Sorcerer’s Gambit: I used it because it was always a cheap spell in my opening hand. sometimes gives you a relevant extra spell. i never got to play dawngrasp though.
First Flame: gives you 2 spells played for 2 mana total. downside: cannot be cast without creatures to target, and you do not have many creatures of your own. if you have a slow start against mage, you might not want to play “build a snowman”, because that gives your opponent a target for thair first flames.
Hot Streak and Flurry are super cheap, but have itself only very little effect on the game. Flurry has the additional downside of needing _enemy_ creatures to even can be cast. However, Shooting Star, Snap Freeze, Wildfire, Gifts of Azshara, and Volcanomancy are all inferior options because they cost more and do not offer a relevant effect either.
2 mana shots: Runed orb is by far the best, because it gives you an extra spell. Siphon Mana, Ignite, and Frozen Touch are more or less exchangable – i play 2 siphon and 1 ignite, but that’s a matter of taste.
card drawing:
full packs of Arcane Intellect, Arcane Brilliance and Refreshing Spring Water allowed me to cut Multicaster. sometimes the correct play is to use one of these as your third (discounted) spell to get the chain going. Arcane Brilliance produces copies, so it helps you not to run out of win conditions
big spells (defensive):
Mass polymorph can shrink any board no matter how big, but Druids can retaliate by global buffs if you leave too many sheep on the board. One should be enough in your deck, as you can create extra copies with Arcane Brilliance.
Flamestrike does not destroy most dragons from opposing Drakefire Amultes by itself, but together with the cheap enabling damage spells you can take them down. also comes in handy against Druid boards from Scale of Onyxia
Rune of the Archmage:
Nowadays Rune otA mostly destroys and freezes the board, so do not play it if your opponent has no creatures. You also will get a lot of useless Secrets (Objection, Explosive Runes), fizzling Seafloor Gateways and maybe some extra cards. Sometimes you get lucky and produce some skeletons, and Drakefire Amulet ist of course the Jackpot.
big spells (win conditions):
Pyroblast: useless in the early game, but can close games quickly later when played in multiples.
Build a Snowman: gives you a (relatively) cheap spell, an additional card, and ultimately a big creature to close out the game.
a little bit of everything, and on top of it it gives you a target for your First Flame if you really need one.
Drakefire Amulet:
most mage duels boil down to the question, who can better stick their dragons on the board. there are some terrible dragons (basically everything cheaper than nozdormu) and battlecries do not trigger, but you will always have a decent dragon (at least 4/12 or 8/8) to choose. obviously some are better than others.
1. Haleh, Matron Protectorate: so much fun with all the cheap spells
2. Deathwing: biggest dragon, fast clock
3. Kalecgos: so much fun with all the expensive spells (Pyroblast-Hot Streak-Pyroblast anyone?)
4. Onyxia the Broodmother (core set): also a very fast clock with all the whelps
emergency options:
1. Raid Boss Onyxia: no whelps, no immune, but still a 8/8 dragon with rush
2. Sleeping Dragon: if you are low on life
3. Primordial Dragon: if you are low on life and nothing better is offered
plain 8/8:
Nozdormu, Kazakusan, Alexstraza
plain 4/12:
Malygos, Ysera
Tavern Brawl - A Temporus Shift
it’s been only 12 weeks since we last had this brawl.
nothing has changed, i even used the same deck again
(make sure you have enough board space for your massacre turn)
Shop Update: Constructed Skin Bundles & Pack Bundles
apparently both bundles are 4000 runestones for 2 legendaries and 50 packs, at least on my account. the math above still holds true for the standard bundle (bob’s bargain), but the wild bundle (tavern special) is now significantly worse and therefore definitely a no-buy.
Top Standard & Wild Legend Decks - Murder at Castle Nathria (+Maw and Disorder) Week 9 - October 2022
Secret Mage got two new staples in Objection and Contract Conjurer, so there are more Secret Mages than ever in wild after the mini set went online
Shop Update: Constructed Skin Bundles & Pack Bundles
Since most players have already completed their common+rare collections in standard, the 75 packs of the Bob’s Bargain bundle will mostly just yield dust. If you assume 17,5 packs for opening a legend, it results in 4 additional legends opened and about 6000 leftover dust that allows you to craft roughly 4 additional legends of your choice for a total of 7 random legends and 4 custom legends.
If you value a random legend at 4,00 and a custom legend at 8,00 then you get exactly
(7×4) + (4×8) = 28 + 32 = 60,00
your money’s worth.
Do the math!
The Tavern Special gives you 15 additional packs that accounts for almost one additional legend drawn and extra dust for well half a legend, but most legends in wild are effectively unplayable so it is probably only interesting for those who want to complete their wild collection.
Tavern Brawl - Clockwork Card Dealer - Standard
Guaranteed T4 Vanndar sure looks like great fun.
Possibly the only way to use that card in a meaningful way.
The idea of Mal’Ganis+The Jailer Turns 6+7 makes me smile
(lock can still be broken with Whirlpool etc.)
Tavern Brawl - Clockwork Card Dealer - Standard
I had success (i.e. 5-0) with Aggro self-discard Demon Hunter, as featured in the top standard decks section. The clou is to guarantee a 4th turn Sightless Magistrate (cut Blademaster Okani which is the only other 4 drop) while wasting your hand during turns 1-3 with Bibliomite and Dispose of Evidence. I do not own Kurtrus, but Jace Darkweaver sealed the deal whenever the game ever went to turn 8.
Hearthstone Castle Nathria Secret "???" Achievement Guide - How To Get Deviate Delight Card Back - Full Puzzle Solution
Thank you for this guide!
With this, MS Excel, and a little bit of luck I didi it on my 1st try (at 1 life)
keep up the good work 🙂
Shop Update: Two New Hero Skin Bundles + Two Wild Bundles
I don’t like runestones either, but at the moment it’s just one additional step in between, because you can buy exactly the amount of runestones you need (i.e. I never have any runestones on my account except for the few seconds between buying the runestones with money and buying the bundle with the newly acquired runestones.
Of course there is a greater scheme behind all that, and who knows what blizzard is cooking up behind the stages? only time will tell …
(Live Now!) Patch 24.0 Notes - Castle Nathria Expansion, Battlegrounds & Duels Update, Mercenaries Event, Arena Rotation, New Game Features
Hello H0lysatan,
Could you please explain a little bit, as I am not 100% sure if I understand the benefits of all these moves.
-arena: I know that all unfinished arena runs will be (kind of) refunded, so having an x-2 run ongoing gives me the prizes for an x-run and a free arena submission, correct? So if I am standing 6-2 with an above-par deck, I should probably try to get the precious 7th win, but if I am at 1-2, I should stop and cash in the free arena ticket?
– not visiting the reward track after updating: I understand that completing the daily and weekly quests is more valuable after the refresh, because 50 gold/level after level 100 is poor, but does visiting the reward track make any difference?
– murloc holmes craft+quest: I get that you can craft murloc holmes and full-dust-refund it for some days, but is there any benefit besides completing an achievement faster?
Tavern Brawl - A Temporus Shift
i used mech mage, because the double turns allow me two mechashark massacres in a row, but i doubt that thats the best way to abuse that play mode
Tavern Brawl - All-Star Squad
1.) Pogo is by far the superior strategy. It usually wins turn 4 and is very hard to counter.
If the Tavern brawl ever returns, I would advocate to ban Pogo Hunter from it
2.) The Pogo counters are mainly silence effects (Earth Shock, Smothering Starfish, Magehunter, Showstopper, Consume Magic). They still only work sometimes against pogo and lose to almost everything else.
3.) The bunker strategies (Ice Block, Time Out, Shadow Cloak, Doomsayer, Frost Nova) suffer from the fact, that you a) only have 22 of these cards and b) only have your hero power and random class cards to close out the game. You usually lose when you run out of defensive cards, especially against Warrior, Priest and maybe Druid which can defend against your hero power, or if you do not have a damaging hero power yourself. Shadow Cloak also falls prey to the Hunter Hero Power, Forst Nova loses to certain silence strategies targeted against Pogo.
Varden Dawngrasp is probably the best strategy in this group because it also has a win condition but it loses to Flik Skyshiv (as does Doomsayer)
4.) snowball strategies other than Pogo work very well, but lose against Pogo. Jade Idols, Wailing Vapor and Glow-Tron both can kill turn 5 and have quite resilent health stats. Murloc Tidecaller, Grimescale Oracle and Timber Wolf can theoretically also win fast, but the minions are too fragile in practice. Except for Jade Idol these strategies can also struggle against the silence strategies targeted at Pogo.
Mechwarper tends to start quickly but run out of steam before it can close the game with its 2/3s.
I personally like Firemancer Flurgl, because it can win on turn 5 (as Demon Hunter), controls the board well, has reach, and has some resilence to silence strategies too if you collect 3 or 4 Flurgls in hand to unload them on turn 6 or 8.
5.) Flik Skyshiv has a lot of “ifs” attached: you have to survive until turn 5 (on the draw) or 6 (on the play), only good against minion strategies, and if you are too low after flik hits, you might die to spells or hero power activations of your opponent. Still a lot of fun.
6.) weapon and spell based strategies (Mind Blast, Curse of Agonies, Upgrade, Elwynn Boar) circumvent the anti-minion strategies (Doomsayer, Frost Nova, Varden Dawngrasp, Flik Skyshiv), but usually fail against Pogo and maybe some other snowball strategies too. Priest, Warrior and Druid can steal a turn from Mind Blast by a single hero power activation
7.) Patches seems to be a case of its own: it can rebuild the board for 1 mana and can kill turn 5 (Hunter, Mage, Druid, Demon Hunter), but also loses to Pogo and struggles against taunt minions.
8.) Last but not least there are a lot of discover-type strategies that are too slow to compete against snowball strategies but win in rock/paper/scissors-fashion against some strategies that try to beat snowball (like silence). Examples are Nature’s Studies, Babbling Book, Reconnaissance, Sky Raider, Palm Reading, Wand Thief, Runed Orb, Dragon’s Hoard, Blazing Invocation, Asharan Scroll.
9.) Priest “card steal” decks (Psychic Conjurer) are usually ineffective at doing what the opponent tries to do, because they only get a few of the key cards for which they have to waste mana on 1/1 creatures.
Tavern Brawl - Battle of Tol Barad
one card that i did not read much about but worked quite well for me is Dune Sculptor.
apart from that most spellburst minions look good, and a low curve is advised, as your hand will overflow from the many cards you generate
Murder at Castle Nathria - New Hearthstone Expansion - Cards, Reveals, Release Date, New Mechanics, and More!
While infuse promotes the use of minions and combat, I hope it won’t be too easy to just play creatures and kill them immediately (thinking of Risky Skipper and Wild Pyromancer) and this making them solitaire cards again.
As for the locations: They cannot be destroyed or otherwise deactivated by the opponent, so I fear they will make the game less interactive. But we will see.
Shop Update: New Constructed Skins & Packs Bundle, Battlegrounds Board & Returning Bundle
We used to get :
2 legendaries + 20 packs of the last edition for 20,00,
or 2 legendaries + 25 wild packs for 20,00
now we get:
2 legendaries + 60 packs of the last edition for 50,00.
I think the new bundle is a much worse deal
Hearthstone Balance Update Is Coming Tomorrow (Thursday, June 16)
probably because of neptulon
(Live Now) Hearthstone Patch 24.4.3 Notes - Massive Balance Update For Constructed, Battlegrounds and Mercenaries
I completely agree!
I love it when my golden cards get nerfed. So much dust!!
opening the possibility to play the same bounty over and over again for benefit just destroys the game mode.