by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

So, you’ve graduated from being an Angry Chicken and fancy yourself an up and coming Hearthstone expert. Excellent! However, moving from Rank 10 to Legendary status or 7 arena win runs to “The Dream” of 12-0 requires much more than the ability to pick the right cards and show up. This column will focus on bringing you some of the nittier and grittier tactics required to outsmart your opponent and make them grant you with a “Well Played” while truly meaning it.

Location, location, location. Often noted as one of the most important facets when determining the future life you plan to enjoy, the same can be said for the enjoyment of your life in Hearthstone. Nothing feels worse than spending a 9 mana turn to flood your board with minions only to see them downed in one fell swoop due to a situational card you could have very well dodged if you thought to anticipate it. Let’s go over a few scenarios that can take the momentum out of your game in an instant.

Playing Against Rogues

“For there to be betrayal, there would have to have been trust first.” – quote from The Hunger Games

Perhaps the most “salt in the wound” natured of the three cards we will look at today, Betrayal particularly stings as it uses one of your own minion’s might against its friends. Rogues possess the capability of out-right removal via Assassinate, but that will be reserved for your larger 8/8 creatures or big taunts. Where you may run into trouble against Betrayal is if you place that beefy 8/8 minion in between two lightweight drops. If you end your turn with lethal damage to the opponent coming on the next turn via your minions, the Rogue would be silly not to play Betrayal and have your Core Hound deal 9 damage to the two flanking minions. Misplacement happens most often when we’re excited about putting out our biggest threats or when we stop concentrating because we believe we have a game in the bag. Betrayal in particular is a card that you need to be constantly considering due to its low mana cost – it can appear during any phase of the game. Below is an example of a board that gives the Rogue far less value for their Betrayal than the above mentioned ideal scenario:

In this example, the best Betrayal would only kill the Shatter Sun Cleric and targeting the Cleric herself kills nothing!

Playing Against Hunters

“After the explosion, I spent the rest of the day putting the pieces together.” – Ray Bradbury

These featured cards can be further thought of as a type of “controlled area-of-effect (AOE).” If you have completely filled your board (maximum of 7 minions), these cards will potentially be able to interplay with any grouping of three. As you develop your board, remaining vigilant about the consequences grows increasingly complex. You won’t always be able to nullify the damage down to its least potent outcome, but simply being aware of what could happen to your board in a worst case scenario goes a long way to controlling future turns and determining which cards you play and which you reserve for later. Hunters in particular also have outright removal in the form of the RNG driven Deadly Shot. With the target of the card unable to be selected, the trade off comes in the card only commanding a cost of 3 mana, allowing for early game removal of potentially dangerous targets, especially against Druids who can get out larger minions earlier than most classes. Explosive Shot is potentially far more deadly (heh) and becomes available at a time in the middle of the game when your board is likely to have three or more minions out, helping to achieve the full value of the explosion. The key here is to play your larger health minions at the fringes of your board; Hunters seeking value will want to use the card on the meatiest target, but if there is only one adjacent minion (bonus if that adjacent minion’s health is above 3), then they may consider overkilling a minion in the middle of your board just to make sure the ancillary two damage to either side is fully realized.

Playing Against Mages

“It’s lonely and cold on the top… lonely and cold.” – Judy Garland

Mages…could have a Board Control special all of their own. I will certainly touch on some of their other tactics in future features, but for now, let’s analyze the effects of one of their control spells, Cone of Cold. Similar to Explosive Shot, this card’s new cost of 4 mana (previously 3 before a change in the latest patch) relegates it to coming out as a complete tempo killer in the midgame. As one of the main strategies against Mages these days is to rush them down/overwhelm them before they can use their direct damage spells to your face, Cone of Cold (and similarly Frost Nova, just without the damage) serves as a direct counter to this playstyle, preventing your minions from engaging in their non-stop onslaught. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce one of my favorite 2 mana minions: Faerie Dragon. Having this little guy in the middle of your trio of minions will frustrate any Mage looking to obtain full control of your board. In this array, the Mage will only be able to get two of your minions frozen, leaving whichever one they can’t deal with open to be buffed by you for continued damage come the next turn.The potential damage of the spell, combined with the Mage’s Hero Power and other inexpensive AOE, is something to be cognizant of, but more often than not, the utility here is the freeze. Below is ideal board positioning for devaluing Cone of Cold as I noted above with Faerie Dragon. This can also be achieved by having a stealth minion serving as the anchor for your group of three.

Cone of Cold value? Nope. Faerie Dragon card text too strong!

Summary

In general, it’s much easier to think of board positioning in terms of your own offensive or defensive plays. For instance, you will always take the time to consider where you put cards like Dire Wolf Alpha or Defender of Argus in order to maximize their value, but you actually gain just as much value, if not more, from being able to anticipate what your opponent’s class is capable of and playing around their situational cards, even if they don’t possess them currently or at all. Something as simple as playing a card two positions over can be the difference between gaining a huge advantage on the board or giving your opponent free reign to control your minions and, as a result, the game.