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[blueblimp]

The most ridiculous opener I have yet seen in arena:

T1: Argent Squire
T2: Argent Squire, Innervate, Blood Knight (becomes 9/9)

I had an Assasinate in my hand, but couldn't survive until turn 5. (I used my coin on a scrub.)

[theory]

So... crafting a constructed deck... where do I go from here?  I have about 500 dust lying around doing not much, and a half-dozen epics lying around (including 2 BGH, a Faceless, Shadowform, Lay on Hands)... not enough to construct a truly "good" deck yet but perhaps enough to construct an interesting one.  Should I craft an epic, saying a second Faceless or Shadowform?  Or craft some extra rares, a second Defender, a second Azure Drake, a second Shadow Madness?

Is it crazy that I'm leaning toward playing a Shadow Priest?  Is that completely outside the scope of the meta?

I wouldn't craft something unless you have a particular deck in mind to play.  Assuming you are still regularly playing Arena, you will randomly find a lot of cards you want anyway.

[markusin]

It seems there is more to this game than just having good cards. I have a 9 game win streak with my simple hunter deck in play mode, 3 of those games being in Ranked mode (well okay, I was playing other rank 25's, but still). I've basically realized the importance of having card advantage.

I find Arena is tricky if you don't know what to expect from your class. I picked druid last time and couldn't win a single game. At least I still got a pack and 40 gold. More than anything else, Arena is a time investment.

[Twistedarcher]

So... crafting a constructed deck... where do I go from here?  I have about 500 dust lying around doing not much, and a half-dozen epics lying around (including 2 BGH, a Faceless, Shadowform, Lay on Hands)... not enough to construct a truly "good" deck yet but perhaps enough to construct an interesting one.  Should I craft an epic, saying a second Faceless or Shadowform?  Or craft some extra rares, a second Defender, a second Azure Drake, a second Shadow Madness?

Is it crazy that I'm leaning toward playing a Shadow Priest?  Is that completely outside the scope of the meta?

I'd just go with what you have, and save your dust for when you're missing only 2-3 cards for a deck. Like theory says, you'll open a lot of the cards eventually if you keep playing -- creating a card and then opening it next pack is a pretty bad feeling.

[Twistedarcher]

It seems there is more to this game than just having good cards. I have a 9 game win streak with my simple hunter deck in play mode, 3 of those games being in Ranked mode (well okay, I was playing other rank 25's, but still). I've basically realized the importance of having card advantage.

I find Arena is tricky if you don't know what to expect from your class. I picked druid last time and couldn't win a single game. At least I still got a pack and 40 gold. More than anything else, Arena is a time investment.

I think it's important to know your deck's win conditions. What needs to go right for your deck to win? Do you need to have complete control early on, or do you just need to hang on until you can start playing your bigger cards? Knowing what you could possibly draw, and what outs you have, can really impact the way you play a game.

[Davio]

My play style is a good mix of aggression and ignorance. 

[theory]

I think that if you aren't averaging > 7 wins per Arena, even taking into account all of the terrible Arena drafts and bad beats and etc., then you have a lot to improve on in your play.  I average ~5 wins and I can definitely notice areas of play where I can improve.

[markusin]

I think that if you aren't averaging > 7 wins per Arena, even taking into account all of the terrible Arena drafts and bad beats and etc., then you have a lot to improve on in your play.  I average ~5 wins and I can definitely notice areas of play where I can improve.

For sure. I know that Druid style play is an enigma to me, and I've never even tried it in practice mode. I did better with the Priest at 3 wins, but obviously a better understanding of the class would help in becoming more consistent.

[theory]

What was the problem?  Did your opponent end up with a huge board of little dudes that you couldn't clear?  Did he have massive dudes that none of your guys could deal with?  Both?

My play improved when I started using my health more as a resource.  Taking 10 damage to your face doesn't change anything except if it sends you to 0 health.  Going from 30 health to 20 affects nothing.  On the other hand, losing 10 health worth of minions on the board costs you a ton of damage.  This most affects weapons classes, but is a factor to consider for Druid as well.

[Grujah]

What was the problem?  Did your opponent end up with a huge board of little dudes that you couldn't clear?  Did he have massive dudes that none of your guys could deal with?  Both?

My play improved when I started using my health more as a resource.  Taking 10 damage to your face doesn't change anything except if it sends you to 0 health.  Going from 30 health to 20 affects nothing.  On the other hand, losing 10 health worth of minions on the board costs you a ton of damage.  This most affects weapons classes, but is a factor to consider for Druid as well.

Actually, it does affect/change a lot of things. The closer you are to 0, the more conservative you have to play, especially as this game has a lot of "hidden", from the hand, damage burst. A same play might be good at X life, but bad at Y life, etc. But the point still stands, life is a resource and should be used as such.

[KingZog3]

I think that if you aren't averaging > 7 wins per Arena, even taking into account all of the terrible Arena drafts and bad beats and etc., then you have a lot to improve on in your play.  I average ~5 wins and I can definitely notice areas of play where I can improve.

For sure. I know that Druid style play is an enigma to me, and I've never even tried it in practice mode. I did better with the Priest at 3 wins, but obviously a better understanding of the class would help in becoming more consistent.

I also didn't understand Druid at all and hated it. I'm still terrible in constructed, but in arena most of his class cards are just all around good. They don't require special conditions or anything. They just work. And on top of this they usually have a second option for extra utility. Of course Mage is just the best in arena, but Druid is now my class with the most arena wins for sure.

[HiveMindEmulator]

So... crafting a constructed deck... where do I go from here?  I have about 500 dust lying around doing not much, and a half-dozen epics lying around (including 2 BGH, a Faceless, Shadowform, Lay on Hands)... not enough to construct a truly "good" deck yet but perhaps enough to construct an interesting one.  Should I craft an epic, saying a second Faceless or Shadowform?  Or craft some extra rares, a second Defender, a second Azure Drake, a second Shadow Madness?

Is it crazy that I'm leaning toward playing a Shadow Priest?  Is that completely outside the scope of the meta?

I'd just go with what you have, and save your dust for when you're missing only 2-3 cards for a deck. Like theory says, you'll open a lot of the cards eventually if you keep playing -- creating a card and then opening it next pack is a pretty bad feeling.

Crafting is tricky. What does it mean to be 2-3 cards from a deck? If you're playing at low ranks, you don't need to match the decklists of the legend rank decks people post since the meta is going to be different. At high ranks, it seems Priest needs Auchenai Soulpriest + Circle of Healing, as it's the best way to deal with concealed Auctioneer. But if you don't see any Miracle Rogues, you can get your board clearing from some combination of Novas, Pyromancer, and Shadow Madness. Similarly, Holy Fire is a necessity for a high level Priest deck, but if you just run Argent Commanders instead, the deck is still playable at some level. But that's something you have to figure out -- or take a guess and just go for it. There are a few cards you should be more willing to craft because they can be used in a lot of decks and are not that easy to replace:
Azure Drake, Argent Commander, Sunfury Protector, Earthen Ring Farseer, Argent Squire, Wild Pyromancer, Knife Juggler, Leeroy (if you're going for a legendary)
If you need to fill in a deck with free stuff, your best friends are:
Sen'jin, Yeti, Ooze, Boulderfist Ogre, Gnomish Inventor, Bluegill/Wolfrider (as pseudo-removal), Cleric, Raptor, Grizzly

[markusin]

What was the problem?  Did your opponent end up with a huge board of little dudes that you couldn't clear?  Did he have massive dudes that none of your guys could deal with?  Both?

My play improved when I started using my health more as a resource.  Taking 10 damage to your face doesn't change anything except if it sends you to 0 health.  Going from 30 health to 20 affects nothing.  On the other hand, losing 10 health worth of minions on the board costs you a ton of damage.  This most affects weapons classes, but is a factor to consider for Druid as well.

I'm pretty sure the problem was that my deck had no coherency. It felt like I just had a bunch of cards that are decent on their own but didn't work well together to reach a specific goal or game state. Basically, I could lose to anything.

At least with the priest, I knew I was going for a more combat medic style play, with some strong minions supported by healers and minion destroying spells.

I also don't remember what happened in any of the games. I do know that lack of cards was the big issue with my initial hunter constructed deck. Addressing that weakness let me have total board control at around turn 8 with some cards to spare in case a mage purges my board with fire so I can still finish the mage off.

[Titandrake]

If you need to fill in a deck with free stuff, your best friends are:
Sen'jin, Yeti, Ooze, Boulderfist Ogre, Gnomish Inventor, Bluegill/Wolfrider (as pseudo-removal), Cleric, Raptor, Grizzly

I don't really like Gnomish Inventor. I know that it's a free 2/4 card-wise, but the tempo loss from not dropping a Yeti or Sen'jin hurts too much for me. If you're playing a more controlling deck, then it could be okay, but I feel like free/cheap control decks aren't nearly as good as budget tempo or midrange.

I personally like Stormwind Champion a lot out of the free cards, assuming you're playing a semi-aggressive deck that can count on having something out by turn 7.

[nkirbit]

What if we did a weird tournament, like a commons only tournament or something?  That would put everyone on pretty level ground.

[HiveMindEmulator]

I think that if you aren't averaging > 7 wins per Arena, even taking into account all of the terrible Arena drafts and bad beats and etc., then you have a lot to improve on in your play.  I average ~5 wins and I can definitely notice areas of play where I can improve.

For sure. I know that Druid style play is an enigma to me, and I've never even tried it in practice mode. I did better with the Priest at 3 wins, but obviously a better understanding of the class would help in becoming more consistent.

The biggest difference between Druid and other classes is that on average, each class has one strong class-specific common at 5+ mana (Paladin and Hunter have none, Rogue and Priest two), while Druid has THREE -- Druid of the Claw, Ironbark Protector, and Starfire. You have to let this affect your draft. If you see an early Silver Hand Knight vs Raptor, you usually take the Silver Hand with Paladin, but with Druid, you might prefer to get the Raptor now, to prevent a situation where late in the draft you have to take a Croc over a Ironbark because you lack early game. You just have so many good options at 5+ that you'll have plenty of opportunity to take more later. It's easy to make the mistake of taking too many good expensive cards and then losing from having no early game.

The other card ranking adjustment is to value charge a little bit more than you would otherwise. Either you're going to grab early board control with Innervate and finish with Roar, for which charge is useful as reach, or you're planning on holding out for late game to win with your big taunts, in which the charge minions can be used as relatively inefficient removal just to get safely to late game.

In terms of play, there are a couple ways to go, as I just described. If you get enough early board control, you can start going face sooner and win fast. If you drafted a higher curve, just try to trade as much as possible and plan on winning late game with the card efficiency of your expensive cards. This really depends on what the actual composition of your deck looks like, and how your actual draws work out. In general, I think the defensive way to play is more stable if you have multiple Ironbarks, while playing more aggressive works better with multiple Innervates and Roars.

[HiveMindEmulator]

If you need to fill in a deck with free stuff, your best friends are:
Sen'jin, Yeti, Ooze, Boulderfist Ogre, Gnomish Inventor, Bluegill/Wolfrider (as pseudo-removal), Cleric, Raptor, Grizzly

I don't really like Gnomish Inventor. I know that it's a free 2/4 card-wise, but the tempo loss from not dropping a Yeti or Sen'jin hurts too much for me. If you're playing a more controlling deck, then it could be okay, but I feel like free/cheap control decks aren't nearly as good as budget tempo or midrange.

I personally like Stormwind Champion a lot out of the free cards, assuming you're playing a semi-aggressive deck that can count on having something out by turn 7.

Sen'jin and Yeti are definitely better for tempo, and I'm drafting them higher in arena 100% of the time. But in your constructed deck, you probably have some specific card or combo you need to draw to, so you need some way to make your deck thinner. Inventor is the only reasonable neutral free card that does this. Loot Hoarder is better if you have it.

While Ogre is the best big minion, Champ is also good, and so is Warlord, given that you have minions out.

[Davio]

Davio #2149 on Europe, you can add me for beginner games.

[markusin]

Davio #2149 on Europe, you can add me for beginner games.

Sure. Just don't be confused when you receive an add request from one Archvile#1802. That's me.

Edit: oh wait, I'm not on the European server.

[KingZog3]

Davio #2149 on Europe, you can add me for beginner games.

Sure. Just don't be confused when you receive an add request from one Archvile#1802. That's me.

Edit: oh wait, I'm not on the European server.

You can still play your friends. I actually don't know why, but I'm on the euro server even though I'm in Canada.

[markusin]

Davio #2149 on Europe, you can add me for beginner games.

Sure. Just don't be confused when you receive an add request from one Archvile#1802. That's me.

Edit: oh wait, I'm not on the European server.

You can still play your friends. I actually don't know why, but I'm on the euro server even though I'm in Canada.

I remember something to that effect being mentioned in the thread, but I was too lazy to look it up.

I'm pretty sure I'm in the NA server though.

[ashersky]

Again...casual game, just trying to do my quest...

Priest drops Leeroy...then Geddon...then Rag.  I was controlling and winning just fine, but man, can't beat that with a lame Warrior quest deck.

[Kirian]

Again...casual game, just trying to do my quest...

Priest drops Leeroy...then Geddon...then Rag.  I was controlling and winning just fine, but man, can't beat that with a lame Warrior quest deck.

Yeah, I've been noticing this more and more in the casual queue.  Like... seriously, all I want to do is grab my 60 gold for the quest, why am I getting hit with multiple Legendaries??

[Grujah]

I dont understand the "plz no legends in casual" cry


I just encountered Lorewalker Cho in a Zoo list.
It actually seems.. good there.

[ashersky]

I dont understand the "plz no legends in casual" cry

It's because I don't have any legendaries, of course!

(King Krush doesn't count.)