(Semi) Auto-Fill Rogue vs The Lich King! - RNGBS

In an effort to see all of The Lich King's class-specific openers (and stream funnies), I made an auto-fill rogue deck. It went much better than expected!

I ended up keeping about 1/3 of the autocomplete deck, adding in C'thun cards and some heals. The biggest addition was Kel'Thuzad and some tricky taunts, but the deck is far from perfect. Still, not bad for something that began as completely random!

Here's the decklist - make sure to read some of the comments, as there are some great ways to further improve the deck!

Well Mekt! Spotlight & Gameplay

A friend of mine suggested I do a spotlight video of my pally mech deck, so here it is!

Owning GvG On a Budget!

Kripparian posted a new video today showing cheap and effective decks using the new Goblins vs Gnomes cards. People can complain that the decks are face/rush/zoo cancer, but these are excellent options for new or budget players.

Additionally, these decks are new in that over half the cards come from the GvG set. I've been checking out other popular streamers/youtubers, and the majority of them are playing the same old decks with 2-5 new cards swapped in. It's a "safe" option, but it's also rather boring.

I think Kripp put it nicely when he said players can either build cheap aggro out of the new cards or netdeck an expensive old control list. Both are pretty valid options right now making it a good time to be playing!

Well Mekt! Climbing the Ladder

So, that deck I posted yesterday is doing exceptionally well on ladder. Mechwarper is indeed ridiculous and I'd be surprised if a nerf doesn't come soon (reduced-cost mechs are OP).

I finally got to go against handlock today and admittedly got extremely lucky but was able to overcome double taunted giants (twice) and Jaraxxus. Likewise, control priest was a long game but I survived double Holy Nova, a (Thoughtstolen) Consecrate and other Anduin antics because Jeeves lets you replace your board.

I saw a good deal of deathrattle hunter and Classic/Naxx-era zoolock today as well, beating them too (though most of them were very close games). There's no doubt about it, mechs are the new cancer of Hearthstone... deal with it.

Well Mekt! (Paladin)

The new cards from Goblins vs Gnomes has made for an interesting meta on ladder so far. There's supposedly a resurgence in both handlock and control warrior, though I've run into far more priests, mages and rogues. I've barely seen hunter and it seems like shaman is dead again. Paladin has a number of great new cards now and actually seems playable (Muster For Battle and Quartermaster are both cool).

I wasn't fortunate enough to get most of the good pally cards though, so I started tinkering with the new mechs (see what I did there). After seeing all the low-cost mechs and the Mechwarper it was obvious that a swarm deck was worth a try.

My first choice for a mech-centric deck was warlock for card draw and burst damage. That might still be viable, but the class mech costs 4 and hard removal is expensive. Additionally, Jeeves can often cover card draw making the warlock's hero power a bit less useful.

Paladin seemed like a strong choice with Truesilver Champion for mid-range removal and Equality to answer game stoppers like Mal'Ganis. The hero power is often more relevant too for trading with Equality and getting extra juggles, so here's the current deck. I've recently swapped out Spider Tanks for Aldor Peacekeepers. They often make for great tempo plays early on and can help slow down huge threats later. Initially the deck included Abusive Sergeant, but I pitched them for Consecrate (mainly to combo Equality, but useful on its own too).

In any case, my success with this deck has been pretty good and it's ridiculously easy to play. On ladder, I've out-valued zoolock, outpaced rogue, and often rushed through secrets mage with little trouble. Facing control, it often depends on how good of an Equality you can get, but that's the way it goes.

Mulligan strategies are easy: ditch anything that costs 3+, though Harvest Golem can sometimes be kept. Play Mechwarper early if you think the opponent doesn't have an answer, otherwise Knife Juggler or Micro Machine is a threat on board that needs removed immediately (and will likely allow for Mechwarper to go unchallenged next turn).

I think Mechwarper's going to get nerfed soon because it's just dumb how good it is, especially since most mechs are already relatively well-costed (and there's tons of cheap ones). Overall, this deck feels about as cancerous as Face Hunter back when Buzzard and Hounds cost 2 mana each. I almost feel bad for playing it, but since it seems like shaman got the short end of the totem this expansion I guess it's back to cancer rush... until I get bored and finally make a mage deck (don't hold your breath though).

[EDIT: Name changed to "Well Mekt!" from "Stupid Robots"]

K.T. Best Buds (or Kel'Thrallzad)

Like the majority of Hearthstone players (Hearthstoners?), I've spent the last few months enjoying the craziness that is deathrattle-based decks thanks to Curse of Naxxramas. Warlock can run it's own Zoo variant (or hybrid) and even priest has some good builds, but I find shaman to be the most fun.

Shaman has a great selection of removal (that isn't as reliant on combos like Auchenai + Circle) as well as minion buffs and minor card draw. Thrall's biggest weakness of course is a lack of self-heals, so it pays to play control to avoid getting too weak.

As you can imagine, the deck is chock-full of deathrattle minions. I've opted to go a little less aggressive in the early game by not including 1-drop deathrattles. The early game for this deck is mostly about keeping the opponent from overwhelming you while you build towards CrazyTown.

Undertakers aren't necessarily must-haves in the opening hand here, but are great if you have a strong followup on turns 2 and 3 (say Creeper and Harvest Golem). Another option is to use your hero power often in the early game and save up for a big Undertaker turn later. Of course this tactic is only advised if the opponent is playing a slow early game - board control almost always takes precedence.

You'll notice that the majority of class staples are missing from this deck. This was done to maximize the gimmick and see how shaman performs using other cards. Frankly it's a bit unoriginal to swap out 5-6 cards and call it a "new" shaman deck (though I'm also well-aware that deathrattle decks aren't original either). In any case, the deck performs reasonably well despite the absence of supposed "auto-include" class cards.

There's also no standalone 4-drops here, but I often find you'll be spending those turns clearing the opponent's board or shoring up your own with smaller minions and totem support.

The late game is an-all star cast of legendary deathrattles and K.T. their best buddy. If you don't have Cairne or Sylvanas, you can opt for other useful legends (Black Knight and Loatheb immediately come to mind) or large, value minions like Boulderfist or Sunwalker (which is wonderfully frustrating to your opponent alongside Kel'Thuzad).

Reincarnate allows you to make some ridiculous plays, especially if you can get Baron Rivendare to stick around. Take a look at this recent board against a Handlock (who prior had Twilight Drake, giants and a Watcher all with Argus/Sunfury buffs).

Warlocks are a decent matchup in general - mulligan as if you're fighting Zoo and if it's Handlock just save the removal to help bring down their upcoming giants. You can usually afford to play slower against Handlock and out-value them in the end. Priests can be a problem if they're running heavy on theft-based cards (Cabal, MC, Shadow Madness, etc.) alongside already efficient removal like SWD.

I don't clearly recall games versus Control Warrior, though I'd imagine Brawl being hit or miss depending on what you have on board. Miracle Rogue has the ability to cause trouble as well with board clear and Saps, though it's somewhat dependant on what they draw into.

I'm anxious to dive into Goblins vs Gnomes, but for now I'm relatively content with the absurdity of deathrattle.

Deathrattle & Faceroll Warlock

I've neglected Hearthstone ladder for so long. Between recording the Curse of Naxxramas series, learning other games and scrambling to get a new PC after the old warhorse finally died, I haven't had much time otherwise. Things seemed to have settled down a bit though, and this week I had the time to see what constructed looks like.

I heard about the resurgence of hunter now that Mad Scientist is out, and even played it a bit in casual to see how it handles. It's pretty gross, but it also meant the meta would be shifting to beat it. I played priest for a couple of days, running Zombie Chow for early removal then pulling the "Auchenai surprise", but priest just doesn't feel consistent enough to me. It's still very reliant on getting the right cards at the right time to even make it work, and if you like that playstyle Miracle Rogue just seems better at combo.

I've really been wanting to see how Undertaker handles, and settled on a deathrattle-loaded warlock deck for several reasons. I wanted to pack the deck with small deathrattlers to maximize the Undertaker, and the hero power compliments that nicely (we're all familiar with zoo I'm sure). I also wanted some early protection and Voidwalker fits the bill. With a nearly empty hand after the first couple turns, Soulfire is amazing spot removal. Additionally, Void Terror and Power Overwhelming are just nuts in a deathrattle deck.

The difference between this deck and zoo though is fairly large. Zoo struggles significantly more to bounce back when AoE removal hits the table. With so many deathrattles, opponents have to play their board clear very carefully and in most cases will find it hard to get the perfect time to do so. Zoo can also run out of gas against good control decks, while this build has a more solid lategame.

It also feels surprisingly strong in the meta right now too. With all the taunts (especially Unstable Ghoul), hunters will have a hard time getting a good Unleash the Hounds off. Additionally, decks designed to beat hunter aren't doing too hot against this either. I typically win against druids and control warriors (which brings a smile to my face). Things get a little more dicey against priest, as they have a lot of tools to wreck you with... though thankfully Mass Dispel hasn't been teched against me yet.

The last few days have been pretty good though. I went up seven ranks or so with a couple hours of play, so I'm happy. Best of all the deck is incredibly fun and often pretty trollish. If you get Undertaker and some small deathrattles in the starting hand, you can usually play very aggressively. Otherwise, Voidwalker and some of the other early minions make the deck appear to be more like typical zoo, which can be great for confusing opponents.

I run only one Void Terror - I think two is overdoing it because you'll not always have the right place to play it. There are times even one can feel like a dead card, but it's definitely strong enough to run a single. Kel'Thuzad and Baron Rivendare are also really greedy choices, but K.T. can turn a close late-game to a sure win. I've made no changes to the deck yet since I built it (and honestly it didn't feel that hard to put together), so we'll see how revisions go. I don't have Cairne, otherwise he'd be in here too.

Aggrologist - Warrior Deck

I had this silly deck idea last month based off of "minions taking damage" effects. I originally called it "Popcorn", due to the thought of Leper Gnomes sitting behind an Abomination waiting for it to explode, causing a chain reaction.

This last week, we saw an answer to Warlock Zoo and Aggro Hunter in the form of Contrologist Warrior by Shoctologist. It's an effective deck, but with all the epics and legendaries, it's also pretty expensive to build.

That in mind, I present the Aggrologist. It's a slightly more budget-friendly deck that can also clean up against the aggro-heavy meta. If you notice, this deck plays a lot of similar cards to Contrologist, and at first that was a happy accident on my part.

When I realized that Contrologist was a thing, I actually added several cards to further mimic it. The idea is to let your opponent think you're playing Contrologist, when in fact you're more equipped for rush/burst.

In my tests so far (which admittedly have been Casual Play and a few matches at Rank 17 as I start laddering again), this deck does well against Zoo, Hunter, and even Miracle Rogue. It has a pretty poor matchup versus priests, mainly due to Cabal Shadowpriest and Auchenai Soulpriest (as well as priest's hero power).

So, let's go over the cards and see how they fit!

Execute and Shield Slam are spot removal to take care of big threats/taunts. Try to use them sparingly (especially against late-game focused decks), but do what you have to in a pinch.

Whirlwind is an "enabler", allowing you to Execute something large, destroy a horde of hounds, or proc any number of your minion's abilities. It's best used when you can do several of these things at once.

The lone Abusive Sergeant is there because I have only one Shield Slam and wanted something cheap. Cleave may work well here too.

Leper Gnomes are early damage to whittle down life totals or trade up with. They're a solid choice in most aggressive decks and were part of the basis for this deck

There should be no question as to the inclusion of Fiery War Axe. It removes Grizzlies, Void Walkers, and other obstacles. Heroic Strike performs a similar role, but has the added bonus of surprise additional damage.

Slam is an enabler mainly for setting up Execute (and drawing a card), though it can be used for your minion procs or a straight up 2-damage to kill an opposing minion. You'll notice several sources of card draw in this deck, so drawing from Slam isn't necessarily a requirement.

Amani Berserker, Armorsmith, Acolyte of Pain, and Frothing Berserker are your proc minions. They all like it when things take damage, sometimes even themselves. Take advantage of that.

Cruel Taskmaster serves as both enabler and a small minion, fitting the deck perfectly. Shield Block is card draw and armor rolled into one sweet deal that empowers your Shield Slam and gives you some additional "health" to make up for your weapon attacks into minions.

The last four cards are indeed expensive to craft, but I feel they are vital to the deck's success. This deck isn't cheap, but it's still cheaper than Contrologist.

Leeroy Jenkins is pretty absurd, borderline broken, and great as a finisher. Brawl is likewise really powerful and can clear a board like nobody's business. Black Knight kills taunts dead, and functions as a third far costlier Execute (or an overpriced yeti, depending on your matchup). Gorehowl is a recent addition to the deck, which is used for cleaning up opposing minions while yours run rampant, or providing burst damage to finish the game.

If you actually read the Contrologist writeup, you'll notice that Aggrologist could very well be defined as a "worse version of the other" and I'm not going to dispute that. If you have the dust to craft what's required to play Contrologist then by all means enjoy it. If not, Aggrologist still does well against the aggro meta for the cost... assuming you don't want to play zoo/hunter yourself, that is.

[UPDATE] At the moment, I'm not really happy with this deck. It's fine against aggro, but it really falls short to heavy control decks. I'll be doing more tweaks and tests at some point, but the meta is shifting again (hunters are evolving) and I've neglected ladder enough this month already.

Going Full Huntard

(aka If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.)

I've been stuck around Rank 11 the last few days with my Meta Shammy deck, primarily due to the increase in aggressive, low-cost hunters. I've even swapped in Far Seers for health and Feral Spirits for taunt, but it  felt like a lost cause. I figured the best way to see what I was doing wrong was to see what my opponents were doing right, and began investigating.

I found a streamer named GaaraBestShaman that ranked from 25 to legendary with hunter playing a deck he called "KFC RUSH". The highest cost card in the deck is Leeroy Jenkins, and the mana curve is more of a spike. Take a look for yourself - after a a couple of slight modifications I've named this "Full Huntard".

With a deck like this, you might assume you always go for face and ignore the opponent's minions... but that's not always the case.

When you can trade up without it being 2-for-1 you probably want to, especially if it's for something like a Knife Juggler. You'll find yourself trading against warlock zoo sometimes, and that's alright if you have another Unleash waiting in your deck.

While Buzzard/Unleash is there, you're typically not trying to max out the number of hounds created and deck yourself (unless of course it means lethal to the opponent). More often you'll Unleash for 3-4, hopefully with a Timber Wolf to allow for trading up.

Hunter's Mark is primarily used to kill big taunts, but may sometimes be needed against other threats you can't deal with easily (Fire Elemental, Ogre, Ragnaros, etc.). Arcane Shot is mostly used to remove pesky minions (Knife Juggler, Flame Imp, Arcane Golem), but can be the damage needed to finish your opponent.

Argent Squire, Leper Gnome, and Loot Hoarder are cheap, efficient minions to do damage in the early game. You can safely play these right away against anyone but rogues, druids, and mages (though Argent Squire is still an ok early drop even then). Stonetusk Boar is a deceptively good card in this deck due to beast synergy and charge.

Two each of Explosive and Freezing Traps serve as board clear, stalling, and giving your Eaglehorn Bow extra charges. Freezing Trap is great if the opponent has one minion on board and doesn't run charge - you can safely play minions without fear of attack (unless they use spells or weapons).

Kill Command, Eaglehorn Bow, and Arcane Golem have a wide variety of uses. While going for face with them all the time is the dream, it's likely you'll need to use them sometimes against 3+ health taunts. Leeroy is hopefully a finisher alongside Unleash the Hounds, and should be saved for the victory if possible.

As for weaknesses, this deck has a tough matchup against heavily-armored warriors and heal-spam priests. You almost need to save Kill Commands for face damage just to mitigate the health/armor gain, but these decks also run large minions that you'll have to deal with.

Defender of Argus can sometimes make your Explosive Trap useless, and Feral Spirit can slow you down when played at the right time. Against other hunters, it's most likely a race to see who gets their Eaglehorn Bow first.

Gaara says this deck isn't easy to play, and that's true if you happen to be a complete moron that can't hit big purple buttons at the right time. Otherwise, only a minor amount of skill is required - pretty much what you'd expect from any decent deck. I've gained three ranks since going Full Huntard, and I admit it's not that hard to do.

That said, I'm relatively sure hunter nerfs are coming soon - whether it's to Unleash the Hounds (again), Explosive Trap, or something else I'm not certain. Something about it sure feels broken, though it does allow players with a modest budget to compete against decks running way more legendaries, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Meta Shaman Control Deck

This shaman deck is loosely based off a deck run by Puffin a few weeks back at the high/legendary ranks. I've modified it to deal with the weapon-heavy metagame, and I'm happy with the results.

First off, let me praise one of the best removal cards in the game: Earth Shock. Why? Here's a list of troublesome things you can easily kill with no repercussions:

• Argent Squire
• Bloodmage Thalnos
• Leper Gnome
• Loot Hoarder
• Scarlet Crusader
• Twilight Drake

If you have one spell damage, add to that the following:

• Argent Commander
• Edwin VanCleef
• Questing Adventurer

Not to mention all the other things that could use a good silencing! This is by far an amazing card that can really help to thwart your opponent's plans.

Acidic Swamp Ooze is pretty important in this meta - Eaglehorn Bow, Truesilver Champion, Fiery War Axe, and even Jaraxxus' weapon are very commonly seen. Hold ooze against weapon classes unless you're certain they're not running them.

The midgame is where things really get going with this deck. Yetis, Argus, Sen'jins and Harvest Golems allow you to make good trades and wreck when combined with Flametongue Totems. That said, you're most likely going to be playing board control until you can pull off a finisher with Ragnaros or Bloodlust.

If you don't have the legendaries, you can replace them with Argent Commanders, Earth Elementals, or any other reasonably big and scary minions.

Huntard Budget Burst Deck

I decided to test the effectiveness of Starving Buzzard by building what at first looks like a really dumb deck.

As you can tell, it relies on the Starving Buzzard + Unleash the Hounds combo, which at first sounds like a horrible idea. The fact of the matter is that many decks rely on some kind of silly combo to be efficient, so why not give this a spin? Turns out it fairs pretty well.

The trick here is to hold back the big play until about turn 6 or so, allowing you to cast Buzzard + Hounds + a wolf and/or boar as needed. By this point you should be able to draw at least 3 cards from the combo and start cleaning the opponent's board with some beasts left over.

There will be times where you already have a decent hand and do not want to draw, in which case the Scavenging Hyena can be made instantly huge from the hounds instead. You do have to be careful sometimes with buzzard in play - I've decked myself once already (though was able to win that turn).

Freezing Trap, Animal Companion, Emperor Cobra and Kill Command can be used for early removal or tempo if necessary, though it's often better to hold back the last two for bigger removal or burst damage.

I've been beating Paladin Giant Control and both Murloc and Giant Warlocks without issue, which is great considering the control decks are typically chock full of epics and legendaries (which this deck has none of).

Warrior rushdown tends to be a difficult matchup, due to most of their minions having 3+ health and battlecries that you don't want them to replay due to Freezing Trap.

Because of Buzzard and Hyena, Snake Trap is an obvious addition if you have it/can craft it. Savannah Highmane and Stampeding Kodo aren't necessities, and may actually be slowing the deck down when you could just run more cheap beasts. I may test that at some point...

Tradewell - Hunter Control Deck

I've had recent success with this hunter deck I built. It focuses on board control and using minions that normally trade favorably or provide buffs (thus the deck name).

It's by no means a dream deck - I'd probably remove the Loot Hoarders for Thalnos and Pagle if I had them, and Ragnaros would be a nice addition as well. Still, it handles nicely against most decks. Swap cards as you have/desire of course.

Warrior and rogue rushdown decks can sometimes outpace it, but often that's a case of opening hand RNG. This deck does quite well against the druid-heavy meta, being able to thwart the token deck pretty handily as well as the big taunts. Explosive Trap can single-handedly stop Force of Nature + Savage Roar as a finisher, assuming you're keeping their board mostly clear otherwise.

Against weenie aggro (which is currently also popular), Explosive Trap, Sen'jin Shieldmasta or Unleash The Hounds usually allow you to maintain early and midgame, where you'll start dropping larger threats like Venture Co. Mercenary. Deadly Shot is to be used against the late-game threats like giants and ironbarks, so use them sparingly!

I am purposely running the single Starving Buzzard, as it's really only phenomenal with Unleash The Hounds and the occasional Highmane deathrattle. That said, it might just be better running two instead of a Dire Wolf Alpha. I guess I just don't rate the Buzzard very highly. If you're in need of silence, owls probably fit somewhat better (buzzard synergy) unless it's so late in the game you can afford Spellbreaker.

[EDIT] Last night I crafted Ragnaros and added it to this deck, swapping out the single Argent Squire. She was really just filler anyway that fit the concept of 2-for-1 minions.

Basic Priest Mayhem

While browsing for Hearthstone deck ideas, I found this priest deck that uses all basic cards and plays fairly well in ranked games. The creator (Mayhem Gaming on YouTube) says it even stands up in Masters, and shows a number of games on how to go about using the cards effectively in following videos.

I put the deck together and ran it a while last night, and it went better than I expected. I'm 3-star Diamond, and was having a blast beating people packing all-star rares like Argent Commander or popular legendaries like Sylvanas Windrunner..

The deck is very much control-based, with eight single-target removal spells (Shadow Word: Death/Pain, Holy Smite, Mind Control) and two Holy Nova. That's a third of the deck dedicated to removal. The remainder has a few minion health boosts and is packed with workhorse basic minions like Chillwind Yeti and Gurubashi Berserker and card drawing utility minions in Novice Engineer and Northshire Cleric.

It's important to keep your larger minions healed up, as your win condition is likely an ogre or angry Gurubashi to the face. It's debatable as to the effectiveness of Shadow Word: Death, as it can sometimes be a dead card. Many players have realized that 4-attack minions are the hardest for priests to deal with and capitalize by running as many of them as they can. That said, players also often run Shattered Sun Cleric, Dark Iron Dwarf, and Defender of Argus (all of which booth the stats of other minions), putting their 4-attack minions into Shadow Word: Death territory.

Being control, the deck is also rather slow and can be overwhelmed very quickly by aggro rush. If a warlock or rogue ends up with the Coin, you're probably in for a troublesome start that you may not recover from. Also, you will curse Faerie Dragon's existence because your only means to remove it is via combat or Holy Nova.

In an upcoming patch, Mind Control is going from eight to ten mana, making it a truly late-game spell that won't allow you to cast anything else that turn. This will be a significant problem for this deck, and I'm uncertain the deck will be very viable after that. Mind Control is a bomb however, and can be a huge menace in Arena play, thus the cost increase. If you want to try this all-basic deck, I suggest doing so ASAP.