Arena Picks with Rongar – Part 2
by JR Cook - 10 years ago show comments
This is a continuation of a multi-part series. You can read part 1 here before finding out about the next set of cards I picked for my Arena deck.
As I am tentatively stepping into the Arena, I wanted to chronicle and share with you my process of selecting cards for my deck. Yesterday, I chose the hunter as my Arena hero along with the first set of cards. Today, I’ll be picking cards 11-20. I am hoping that sharing this process of going through Arena drafting will be of value to fans of Hearthstone who are not yet playing the closed beta, and also give others to opportunity to discuss and debate the right- or wrongness of my choices. At the end of this week, we’ll give this deck a test-drive.
Here are the results of my next ten picks.
Round 11: Deadly Shot, Dalaran Mage, Youthful Brewmaster
My goal for today is some low mana cost minions. Only the Youthful Brewmaster fits that bill, but I am not crazy about its battlecry, and the Dalaran Mage is not as useful for a hunter deck. I will settle for Deadly Shot, hoping that the RNG will be kind when I really, really need it.
Round 12: Magma Rager, War Golem, Faerie Dragon
I needed more low cost minions, and I am getting one of the best: Faerie Dragon it is. War Golem could be helpful if I was desperate for a high cost “big guy”, but Ragnaros fills that hole nicely already.
Round 13: Timber Wolf, River Crocolisk, Ogre Magi
Timber Wolf is a must-have for any hunter deck, but so far my beast cards haven’t been coming in large numbers and I don’t know what future picks will hold. By itself, the Timber Wolf is just too weak, and the Ogre Magi with the spellpower bonus isn’t ideal. River Crocolisk isn’t terribly exciting, but I could do worse with 2 Mana.
Round 14: Elven Archer, Nightblade, Unleash the Hounds
Oh boy. At this point, I’ve chosen all of 2 beast cards for my hunter deck. That may not have been the best of strategies, but I like the idea of picking the best available card, and beast type minions weren’t always best. I like Nightblade, but I am fairly well stocked with 5 Mana cards. It may be time to roll the dice on Unleash the Hounds and hope for more beast minions to come.
Round 15: Alarm-o-bot, Pint-Sized Summoner, Angry Chicken
Well, here is my first beast choice right off the bat one round later. While the Angry Chicken just makes me laugh, I cannot justify the pick. The Pint-Sized Summoner is nice for 2 Mana, and the chance of getting some bigger minions on the board one turn sooner is too tempting.
Round 16: Ogre Magi, Arcane Shot, Stormpike Commando
Tough choice here. I do really like the Stormpike Commando, and its battlecry of +2 damage is essentially equal to Arcane Shot. The difference is having to wait four more rounds, and I may need the +2 damage for early board control. Somewhat reluctantly, I pick Arcane Shot.
Round 17: Tracking, Arcane Shot, Multi-Shot
Well, if I had know that, I might have gone with the Stormpike Commando in turn 16. I’d like to have a minion draw, but let’s go with Multi-Shot, and hope that the RNG treats us kindly.
Round 18: Deadly Shot, Animal Companion, Hunter’s Mark
Hunter’s Mark is essentially the hunter’s equivalent of Polymorph or Hex, and a must-have to take out a super bad minion.
Round 19: Shattered Sun Cleric, Deadly Shot, Explosive Trap
We already have a Deadly Shot in our arsenal. Explosive Trap is fun, and I am very tempted to take it. At the end of the day though, I believe very strongly that minions win the game, and the Shattered Sun Cleric is a fantastic minion.
Round 20: Lightwarden, Arcane Golem, Argent Commander
I don’t have healing abilities, so the Lightwarden has considerably less value for my hero. I personally just dislike the Arcane Golem and its weird battlecry. The Argent Commander is too great to pass up, and considering that he isn’t competing with any beast picks this round, a very easy choice.
Recap: The Argent Commander is a great addition to Ragnaros for late game cards. I am also pleased that we were able to balance out the mana curve a bit, bringing more low-cost cards and spells into the deck. The lack of beast cards is somewhat of a concern, as I am not yet getting much of that synergy that hunter decks usually provide. For the next 10 card picks, beast cards and cards leading to additional card draws are an absolute priority. Later this week, I will share my next set of cards.
What are your thoughts? Where would you go from here with your selection priorities?
I’m not the best player — far from it! — but I there were a few picks I didn’t like.
“Round 14: Elven Archer, Nightblade, Unleash the Hounds
Oh boy. At this point, I’ve chosen all of 2 beast cards for my hunter deck. That may not have been the best of strategies, but I like the idea of picking the best available card, and beast type minions weren’t always best. I like Nightblade, but I am fairly well stocked with 5 Mana cards. It may be time to roll the dice on Unleash the Hounds and hope for more beast minions to come.”
I think this was too risky. Unless a large portion of your creatures are beasts there are lots of times UtH will be close to a dead card in your hand. 2 mana to give maybe one creature +1/+0 and charge? Not worth it. At this point in your draft you have Animal Companion (33% of the time it has charge anyway!) and two other creatures. Since they’re low on your curve you’ll probably be mulling your hand looking for them anyway so there’s a pretty good chance you won’t have the mana to play both the minion and UtH. I know Elven Archer doesn’t sound so hot either, but I think it’s the pick. It’s a surprise 1 damage which can be great for popping Divine Shield bubbles and in a Hunter deck where it’s hard to gain card advantage I think that can be pretty important.
“Round 18: Deadly Shot, Animal Companion, Hunter’s Mark
Hunter’s Mark is essentially the hunter’s equivalent of Polymorph or Hex, and a must-have to take out a super bad minion.”
The problem here is you still have to 2-for-1 yourself to remove that creature. If it’s big enough to warrant a Hunter’s Mark, it’ll probably have lot of attack. You’ll have to spend another card from your hand (Arcane shot) or ram a creature into it to finish it off. (The exception to this, though, is explosive shot). Since you already have arcane shot AND multi-shot, I feel picking up a second deadly shot would not be a bad choice. It can even hit stealthed minions.
Of course, we can agree to disagree here and I don’t think it’s an extremely terrible choice. I just think if you wanted removal you should’ve taken Deadly Shot. Maybe Animal Companion would’ve been fine too. At this point in the draft you only have two other 3-drops (although you do pick up a Shattered Sun Cleric after this)
That’s my analysis so far. Of course, after all this, I’m sure you’ll go ahead and go 9-0 just to prove me wrong!
Hi Bamboo – I love this. I never gave the Elven Archer a second look, but you are absolutely right: the +1 free shot is a nice minion killer early on, or (in a perfect world) just what the doctor ordered when paired with Hunter’s Mark.
I was wrestling a lot with UtH at that point in the draft. It seemed silly to build a hunter deck without beast minions, but that’s almost where this was headed. In hindsight, that may have been the better approach: forget beasts, just pick the best cards.
I also appreciate the 9:0 confidence in me, but that most likely won’t happen. 🙂 That said, tomorrow I will share my final ten picks, and Friday we’ll do a recap of how the Arena run turns out. Smart money is on 0:3.
Wow this draft continues to be an interesting one! Since I had picked 7 minions/3 Spells from the first 10, I’d be going into this 10 fairly open to best cards, preferring Beasts where possible.
11. Youthful Brewmaster. Solid power, and its ability can be awesome for bouncing a Silenced minion. 3/2 minions with an ability rank really highly to me in Hunter pressure decks. Not a fan of Deadly Shot, at all.
12. Faerie Dragon. Another rock solid 3/2 for 2. Clear pick in this pack IMO.
13. Timber Wolf. Beast #3. Can’t really go wrong with the Crocolisk, but + Attack on existing minions is something an opponent can’t plan for, and in Arena that usually leads to beneficial creature trades.
Note* Very heavy on 2 cost cards at this point (6 out of 13) … really looking to beef up the 1’s, 3’s and 4’s to balance out the curve.
14. Elven Archer. I actually weeded UtH out of my Hunter-Beast deck, and one of my 3 Beasts already has Charge and gives it to other Beasts. Elven Archer works really well with Hunter decks, in making Multi-Shot, Explosive Shot, and Snipe that much better. Here’s hoping for a couple of Multi-Shot later on …
15. Pint-Sized Summoner. Basically the only playable card of the 3, and even so just barely. If we got to draft 32 cards and cut 2, this would most likely get cut. Especially as the 7th 2 cost card out of 15 so far … no more 2’s !!!
16. Stormpike Commando. Arcane Shot is really playable, but the Commando is a top tier pick regardless of deck.
17. Multi Shot. Tracking is really solid, but at this point MS is exactly what was needed. Feeling good about overall kill thus far, with hopefully 1-2 more kill cards to come before reaching 30 cards.
18. Animal Companion. Beast #4. Hunter’s Mark is NOT a Poly/Hex. Not only is the Mage power in perfect synergy with Poly, Hunter decks don’t have repeatable 1 damage options. IE you’re going to have to 2 for 1.
19. Shattered Sun Cleric. Back to back 3-cost makes my curve tingle :p … Not to mention the Cleric is one of the best all purpose creatures in the game. Easy pick here.
20. Argent Commander. Delicious. A great target for Brewmaster late game.
5 same picks as yours, 5 different ones. I’m maintaining a Beast theme without really stretching for Beast cards, unless you feel Timber Wolves is a big stretch. I like the synergy with Tundra Rhino from the first 10, and potentially Charge Boar from the 3 drop Animal Companion.
I’m not a big fan of the Hunter’s Mark, UtH, and Arcane Shot picks, but can see why you did them.
Here is my curve after 20 cards:
1- 1
2- 8
3- 3
4- 3
5- 3
6- 2
7+ – 0
So yeah, leaning towards more healthy 3’s and 4’s, but not shying away from some heavy cost minions/spells. Wish list would include:
Weapon- Eaglehorn Bow (rare)/ Gladiator’s Longbow (epic). Unlikely but they would complete the kill quota.
Creatures-Hunter- Scavenging Hyena/Starving Buzzard/Houndmaster. While I’m not itching for more 2 cost creatures, these two would be worthwhile to tie things together. Houndmaster will almost always find a juicy target.
Creatures-Neutral- Any efficient 3’s and 4’s would do, like Ironfur Grizzly (Beast!), Scavenging Ghoul, Harvest Golem, Chillwind Yeti, Defender of Argus, Gnomish Inventor, etc. Also 1 imposing high cost minion would find a good home.
Spells- Weapon notwithstanding, some kill is still needed, and 2 of Explosive Shot/Multi Shot/Kill Command would fit nicely.
Thank you, I really appreciate the feedback. Lots to consider when I do my next build. I am eager to try it out (granted, this is probably where my play skill – or lack thereof – will come to bite me).
Thanks for the positive reply! I mean to be constructive and looking forward to a bit of back and forth based on your experiences! Hopefully the last 10 are some beastly Arena cards 🙂