by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

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Building a Deck: Keys to Success

While we see a new, innovative deck every now and then, there are several decks that have persisted through every shift in the meta. What makes these decks so successful? [DKMR]Varranis of team Don’t Kick My Robot is here today to walk you through a few reasons why these decks have seen success so that you can apply the same concepts to your deck building and game play.

If we had to identify three attributes that make a deck successful, they would be threat density, removal quality, and consistency. I will be discussing these concepts in terms of how they are utilized in Warrior Control, Druid Midrange, and Warlock Aggro. While there are other very popular and successful decks out there, we feel these three have consistently been powerful over the relevant portion of Hearthstone’s life and encapsulate a significant portion of the meta. Let’s delve into threats and removal first.

Threats

Every deck needs a way to win the game. Some decks rely on singular, large threats or a specific combination of two or three cards to win. Other decks achieve victory via the accumulation of small packets of damage. No matter how you’re winning, a quality deck can easily point to the card or cards that win them the game.

Midrange and control decks often only run a couple very large threats that can win the game on their own. For example, the Warrior Control deck usually wins with Grommash Hellscream, Ragnaros the Firelord, or Ysera. While some builds will utilize Frothing Berserker as a peripheral win condition, he’s more often a bridge enabling the Legendaries to close out the game. Druid often packs the one-two punch of Force of Nature and Savage Roar to close out its games quickly. If you were to ask a seasoned Warrior or Druid player how they win the majority of their games, they’d probably tell you Grommash Hellscream and Force of Nature.

Envisioning the means by which you’ll win is a key part of deck construction and game play. If you can’t pinpoint specific cards you expect your deck to win with, you probably need to take a few steps back and reconsider your brew. Similarly, while playing, you need to consider your best route to victory. Sometimes that path takes a few turns and you adapt your winning strategy. Adapting your game plan to the current board state is the sign of a strong player.

Successful decks such as Warrior Control and Druid Midrange run a very strong end game with powerful threats. An aggressive deck like Warlock Aggro, however, relies on threat density. Threat density refers to the number of threats a deck runs. Nearly all of the Warlock Aggro deck is comprised of threats. While some of its threats are clearly more powerful than others, Warlock Aggro generally wins with a steady stream of threats.

Removal

Removal is the glue that holds decks together. A deck without efficient removal will have a much harder time effectively deploying its threats. One of the more interesting aspects of Hearthstone is that you can essentially use your minions as removal spells. This is partly why a card like Argent Squire sees so much play. A 1/1 is pretty poor on its own. But a 1/1 that can trade for two of your opponent’s 2/1s is pretty dang good.

One of the key strengths of Warrior is its exceptional removal suite. Slam is the sort of efficient removal spell every class wishes it had. It serves as cheap, early removal for Flame Imps and Wolfriders against the aggressive decks and a means of card draw against slower decks. On top of that, it enables Execute and can even be used on your own Acolyte of Pain for additional card draw. Fiery War Axe is yet another exceptional removal spell, allowing the Warrior to destroy two reasonable early minions. With Execute, Whirlwind, Inner Rage, Shield Slam, and Cleave on top of this, there are very few turns when a Warrior player will be unable to remove a strong minion. While it’s generally not a good idea to overload your deck with removal, having access to all these cards allows the Warrior to quickly adapt to specific meta games. It’s also worth noting how versatile Warrior’s removal spells are. While Whirlwind bills itself as a means to clear many small minions, it also empowers Frothing Berserkers and Armorsmiths. Similarly, Inner Rage doesn’t always have to be aimed at a Leper Gnome; often it’s best served next to Grommash Hellscream.

Quality removal also allows the Warrior Control deck to play the long game. The Warrior player navigates the early turns by using his removal spells to eliminate the opponent’s threats before landing a giant Grommash Hellscream. Conversely, Druid Midrange relies more heavily on its minions for removal. Keeper of the Grove and Druid of the Claw are exceptional minions for their cost, frequently enabling two for ones or allowing the Druid player to escape difficult situations. Most versions of Druid midrange build upon this core of efficient minions by utilizing the best neutral minions at each cost. Harvest Golem, Chillwind Yeti, and Azure Drake are already well costed and powerful. Innervate allows the Druid player to use these popular minions even more effectively as removal spells. Coming down a full two turns early means a minion like Chillwind Yeti can trade even more effectively since he’s up against two and three drops instead of four drops. While Chillwind Yeti often trades for two minions, an Innervated Yeti can easily trade for as many as three minions.

Minions are very versatile removal since they can also be used to win the game. One of the strengths of Druid Midrange is that it can play these strong minions more efficiently than other classes and rely on them for both removal and damage. This strategy also happens to play well with Savage Roar, which gets stronger the more minions you have on the board. One downfall of this strategy is that Druid can have trouble with particularly large minions since the class does not have access to a powerful catch-all like Execute or Hex. None of this is to say that Druid’s removal spells are weak. In addition to being able to use minions effectively as removal, Druid has access to Wrath and Swipe, two of the game’s strongest removal spells. Much like Warrior’s removal, Wrath and Swipe are both incredibly versatile. Wrath doubles as card draw while Swipe can be a giant swat to an opponent’s face for lethal on occasion.

Warlock Aggro is very much a minions as removal deck. Cards like Knife Juggler, Dire Wolf Alpha, Shattered Sun Cleric, and Abusive Sergeant allow the Warlock player to trade their cheap minions for much more powerful minions. Several iterations of Warlock Aggro have even been referred to as “board control” decks. The Warlock Aggro deck is most often not a “to the face” deck, but a deck which strategically uses its minions to trade up and gain the positional advantage. Efficient removal such as Soulfire and Mortal Coil aid this cause. Soulfire is one of the biggest tempo plays in the game, allowing the Warlock to play a minion on curve and remove a reasonably large minion in the same turn. The fact that Soulfire can go to the face if needed really puts the card over the top. Mortal Coil is another way in which Warlock’s minions can trade up while maintaining card advantage.

Consistency

Consistency most frequently refers to card draw, or in some cases, card selection. Most successful Hearthstone decks rely on card draw with Tracking being one of the few examples of card selection. In the history of card games, consistency has been one of the most defining characteristics of a deck’s success. Drawing cards digs you deeper into your deck, giving you access to more options with which to combat the various threats your opponent will present to you. Some scenarios require a specific card or combination of cards to successfully navigate. Drawing cards helps you get that specific answer. By seeing more of your deck, you reduce the random variables inherent in a card game and increase your chance of winning.

Warrior relies heavily on Acolyte of Pain for consistency. And it’s no wonder! Warrior can frequently squeeze all three cards out of Acolyte of Pain while using it as an effective removal spell. Slam and Shield Block also allow the Warrior to dig through their deck while providing relevant effects.

Ancient of Lore and Wrath are Druid’s primary source of card draw. Ancient of Lore allows the Druid player to deploy a large threat and restock their hand. Ancient of Lore’s ability to heal gives it added versatility, entrenching it as a staple in nearly all builds of Druid. Azure Drake is also frequently played in Druid for added card draw.

Warlock’s Life Tap Hero Power is one of the best in the game for the consistency and card advantage it provides. It is the primary reason Warlock is such a strong shell for an aggressive deck. Decks also gain consistency by playing redundant cards. This is most often seen in aggressive decks, which want to present threats more than answer them. While Harvest Golem, Scarlet Crusader, and Shattered Sun Cleric are all different cards, they’re essentially the same in Warlock Aggro. They’re just solid three drops. Warlock Aggro isn’t as concerned with playing a particular combination of cards as it is with just playing a decent card on each turn of the game. By playing a large number of effective cards at each mana cost, the Warlock deck is more consistent, and more likely to play a threat each and every turn.

Conclusion

Next time you build a deck, take a moment to consider how your deck plans to win the game, how your deck can deal with your opponent’s threats, and how consistent your deck is. We bet it will help you make a stronger deck and get farther on the ladder! Till next week!

[DKMR]Varranis streams every Sunday from 10 AM – 4 PM EST at http://www.twitch.tv/varranis. You can find all of DKMR’s streamers on their website with times and the days they stream!

Written by [DKMR]Varranis
Discussions about this topic brought to you by Team [DKMR]

Decks to watch out for

The meta has been pretty standard as of late. Warrior Control seems to be particularly popular at the moment, likely as a response to players’ tendencies to play aggressive decks like Hunter and Warlock early in the season. It’s worth noting that, Ancient of War does not seem like an unreasonable inclusion in Druid Midrange at the moment as few players have committed to playing The Black Knight this season.