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[blueblimp]

So, I'm clearly missing something. But what's the strength of the Golden Monkey thing? It seems like a lot of hoops to jump through, just to transform your deck into all legendary cards. Nothing guarantees youll get _good_ legendary cards, though, right? And you could just put the good legendary cards in your deck to start with?

Like I said, I know I'm the one missing something; I'm just curious what it is.

In a control mirror, you often end the game without an empty hand because some cards become unplayable, such as Shield Block and Acolyte of Pain. Golden Monkey transforms these into something potentially useful. (I'm not saying it's a good card, but that's why people would bother testing it in a deck.)

[Jorbles]

So, I'm clearly missing something. But what's the strength of the Golden Monkey thing? It seems like a lot of hoops to jump through, just to transform your deck into all legendary cards. Nothing guarantees youll get _good_ legendary cards, though, right? And you could just put the good legendary cards in your deck to start with?

Like I said, I know I'm the one missing something; I'm just curious what it is.

In a control mirror, you often end the game without an empty hand because some cards become unplayable, such as Shield Block and Acolyte of Pain. Golden Monkey transforms these into something potentially useful. (I'm not saying it's a good card, but that's why people would bother testing it in a deck.)

This is basically it. You use it to close out a game turning cards you don't want any more into some random big minion. Most legendaries are big so it works that way now anyways, if there were a bunch of small to mid range legendaries to be released it wouldn't really work any longer.

[Awaclus]

Well, in a control mirror, replacing any card that isn't already a big minion with a random big minion is decent to super good. The problem is that in practice it doesn't even work in control mirrors as well as it might look like on paper.

[werothegreat]

Is Cairne Bloodhoof any good in constructed, or should I just scrap him for dust?

[Awaclus]

Is Cairne Bloodhoof any good in constructed, or should I just scrap him for dust?

Yes.

[Kirian]

Is Cairne Bloodhoof any good in constructed, or should I just scrap him for dust?

Yes.

That... wasn't a yes/no question.

[Jorbles]

Is Cairne Bloodhoof any good in constructed, or should I just scrap him for dust?

He used to be, he's not really played much any more, but he's not considered to be as strong as some other 6 drops. Notably Sylvanas is usually considered to be stronger as are some of the class cards in that range (Especially Highmane).

Off the top of my head I know I've seen people be more inclined to run Sylvanas, Highmane, Master Jouster, Piloted Sky Golem, Kodo Rider, Justicar, Reno and Black Knight over Cairne. Some people even prefer Boulderfist Ogre. I think most people who used to run Cairne for the value now run Piloted Sky Golems, you can run two of them and they do 6 damage which lets them trade with bigger minions that Cairne can't trade with. Plus they're a Mech if it matters.

[werothegreat]

Is Cairne Bloodhoof any good in constructed, or should I just scrap him for dust?

He used to be, he's not really played much any more, but he's not considered to be as strong as some other 6 drops. Notably Sylvanas is usually considered to be stronger as are some of the class cards in that range (Especially Highmane).

Off the top of my head I know I've seen people be more inclined to run Sylvanas, Highmane, Master Jouster, Piloted Sky Golem, Kodo Rider, Justicar, Reno and Black Knight over Cairne. Some people even prefer Boulderfist Ogre. I think most people who used to run Cairne for the value now run Piloted Sky Golems, you can run two of them and they do 6 damage which lets them trade with bigger minions that Cairne can't trade with. Plus they're a Mech if it matters.

K.  Into the dust pile he goes.  Pity - all the other Legendaries I've popped so far are quite baller - Ragnaros, Dr. Boom, Onyxia, Hogger.

[werothegreat]

UPDATE: Used Cairne's ashes to craft all the Secrets I need for Paladin.  Just played against two other Uthers and smeared their faces in my GET DOWNS and Avenges.  It was quite satisfying.

[qmech]

I would say Cairne is similar in usefulness to Hogger and slightly more useful than Onyxia.  It's probably not the worst thing to dust if you're more worried about playing good cards now than having a more complete collection later.

[ycz6]

Cairne used to be a staple midgame drop alongside Sylvanas. Vanilla Yetis were still playable in some classes (mostly Druid, I think), so Cairne was just crazy value. It also destroyed Control Priest, since it was almost impossible to remove in one or even two turns, and in control mirrors you'd rather use Mind Control on something like Rag or Ysera. And it traded well with Azure Drake, which was run in a ton of decks at the time.

But then Naxx came out with Sludge Belcher and Loatheb, and now Priests have Shrinkmeister + Cabal and Entomb, and people stopped playing Azure Drake as much. Now Cairne is in less than 1% of decks on Hearthpwn, compared to 2.2% for Piloted Sky Golem and 20% for Sylvanas. It's just too slow to be competitive. I've even taken him out of my mediocre Feign Death Hunter deck

[popsofctown]

you can come out and say that piloted sky golem over cairne is power creep

it's not wrong or jumping out on a limb to say that

[Awaclus]

Well, Cairne is not strictly weaker than Piloted Sky Golem. In the right meta, I could see myself playing Cairne over or in addition to PSG (not to be confused with PSG). The main problem is that in the current meta, I would play neither, but it's not like it's a weak card in general.

[qmech]

Recent successes:

When I started playing Zoo already meant Demon Zoo, so I thought I'd try something more classical.

Power Overwhelming x2
Voidwalker x2
Flame Imp x2
Abusive Sergeant x2
Haunted Creeper x2
Dire Wolf Alpha
Knife Juggler x2
Nerubian Egg x2
Ironbeak Owl x2
Dark Peddler x2
Imp Gang Boss x2
Defender of Argus x2
Dark Iron Dwarf x2
Implosion x2
Loatheb
Doomguard x2

It's pretty strong, and is also cheap for a Warlock deck.  Zoo is aggressive, but isn't a face deck: the idea is to take control of the board and never let it go.  You have PO and Doomguard for some burst to close out games, but don't be afraid to use them to make favourable trades.

If you want something crude but effective, try this variation of Secret Paladin:

Noble Sacrifice x2
Competitive Spirit
Avenge x2
Redemption
Repentance
Haunted Creeper x2
Knife Juggler x2
Shielded Minibot x2
Muster for Battle x2
Coghammer
Aldor Peacekeeper x2
Piloted Shredder x2
Keeper of Uldaman x2
Truesilver
Sludge Belcher x2
Loatheb
Mysterious Challenger x2
Dr Boom
Tirion

You cut out the inconsistent 1-drops to stuff it full of high value minions.  Midrange Druid lost steam for me at rank 3 this season, but this list powered straight through to legend in a few hours.

[Kirian]

So face.  Very hunter.

[Kirian]

I'm just going to have to give in and buy enough dust to craft Sylvanas and Boom, aren't I?  Is there much point to playing constructed without them?

[KingZog3]

I'm just going to have to give in and buy enough dust to craft Sylvanas and Boom, aren't I?  Is there much point to playing constructed without them?

Sylvannas is not essential and not used in most decks. Dr Boom is pretty much essential except in a few decks that are very aggressive or niche. But you dont need to pay money. You just need to play a bit and get rid of the useless cards in your collection. Or get good at arena

[Awaclus]

Or get good at arena

This.

[Kirian]

Or get good at arena

Got any pointers?

[werothegreat]

Or get good at arena

Got any pointers?

Use Heartharena to help draft.  For actually playing, watch streamers like Kripp and Trump to get a feel for when to coin, when to trade, when to not play cards, etc.

[qmech]

I crafted Sylvanas and haven't had too much use out of her, especially right now when the meta is extremely aggressive.  It's harder to defend the position that you won't get a lot of use out of Boom.

The only occasion I can remember Sylvanas mattering was one of my best recent moments playing Hearthstone.  I was playing Stalagg+Feugen Renolock against ... I thought a Priest, but probably another Warlock unless they were very lucky with Thoughtsteal ... who played PO+Shadowflame on one of their guys to clear my guy and a Sylvanas, summmoning two Thaddeus, who both came to rest on my side of the board.  Deathrattle timings people.

[KingZog3]

Or get good at arena

Got any pointers?

Arena is dominated by decks that can play minions on curve. If you lose tempo, it's hard to comeback. So when you draft you want enough low cards to be able to play minions turn 2-4. Board clears are very strong, weapons are strong. Classes to play as are Rogue, Mage, Druid, Paladin and yes, Warrior isn't the worst anymore. It's actually pretty decent.

Each plays differently, but don't make the mistake of drafting amazing value card if you'll never get to play them. It sucks that there's no spectator mode for drafting, but like wero said, using heartharena is a good place to start. It's pretty good at drafting, but you need to sometimes be weary because it overvalues synergy in my opinion. Or at least it used to. Wero is also right that watching streamers helps with playing, if you can guess the play before they make it, or pause the video and see if you played the same. Essentially though you want to make efficient trades without losing tempo. Rogue is one of the ebst classes because she has tons of early removal spells like deadly poison and backstab that are high tempo. They cost very little and do a lot. You use up your cards faster, but many of my games in arena are decided by turns 5-6. You can go 10wins with a deck that only have one 6 drop and nothing bigger if you can play enough stuff that can't be removed.

Also remember that arena can be high variance. Sometimes your best play is to play into flamestrike, because you can not win any other way. If they have it you lose, if they don't you win. In fact, this is something that improved my play a lot. Try to see how you will win this game and how your opponent is trying to win the game. If they are spamming minions and hitting your hero, they are probably going to try to win as fast as possible and you can try to control their minions and heal yourself, but if they are making trades, they are probably playing a control game. You can't tell if a deck is aggro or control by the hero in arena. Remember that you are not trying to draft a constructed deck, you are drafting a tempo deck that plays minions on curve.

And don't play around cards religiously. Sometimes you can only win by taking a risk, especially if you're behind in the game.

[werothegreat]

Also bear in mind that as you win more games, you're going to be playing against decks that have also won lots of games, and it becomes more and more likely that your opponent will have Flamestrike or Lightbomb or Brawl.  Once you get past 3-4 wins, bear in mind that you're going to start facing off with people who are practically playing constructed.

[Awaclus]

Also bear in mind that as you win more games, you're going to be playing against decks that have also won lots of games, and it becomes more and more likely that your opponent will have Flamestrike or Lightbomb or Brawl.

This is not entirely accurate, as Lightbomb and Brawl are epics so there's no point in ever playing around them (you shouldn't even play around rares, really, aside from some edge cases where there's already a good reason to believe your opponent has been setting up that card), and having just a really solid deck that doesn't actually have the card that everyone is playing around can be very successful a lot of the time. But it's generally true that the more you win, the more you want to play around things, especially against decks/players that don't seem as good as you getting matched against them would suggest. It's also worth keeping in mind that the more cards your opponent has drawn, the more likely it is that he'll have a card that exists in his deck — turn 4 Consecrations are somewhat unusual, turn 7 Flamestrikes aren't.

Once you get past 3-4 wins, bear in mind that you're going to start facing off with people who are practically playing constructed.

This is entirely inaccurate. People who are practically playing constructed are so rare that there's hardly even any correlation with how many wins you have. I get to 12 wins semi-regularly and I only ever remember playing against two decks that could have almost passed for a bad constructed deck.

[KingZog3]

Often you're not regularly playing against good decks till around 8-9 wins. I never play around epics or rates unless it would completely lose me the game if hey had that card. Like I often don't play a 4th small minion if I have three huge minions in case MCtech can lose me the game. In fact, often you can get to 7-8 wins with minion only decks that just play goodinikns in curve and you trade well and read what your opponent is doing.