Hello!
- Scott is on the show this week
- Topic: The Arcane Druid deck
- Reasons to be happy this week
Basic Rules of Building a Deck
- Rarity does not equate directly to Power
- Skill is more important than deck
- It’s valuable to play current popular decks
- Decent skills and a slightly decent deck can take you to 15 or higher
- There is a difference between lower-level and higher-level decks
- “The Meta” applies less to lower levels and more to higher levels
Major Deck Types
- Aggro (fast)
- Mid-Range (medium)
- Control (slow)
Aggro Decks
- Attack the enemy player, make them spend their attacks killing your creature
- Wants: Charge, direct damage, creatures
- Ignores: Board control
- What does “reach” mean and how does it affect health totals?
- How valuable is card draw?
- Silence = removal
- Examples: Murloc Warlock, Shockadin
Mid-Range
- Use efficiency and flexibility to win in many different scenarios
- Wants: Card advantage, some early pressure, some late-game pressure
- Ignores: Extremes on either end
- Your creatures can 2-for-1 Aggro creatures
- You must be faster than Control decks
- Removal comes in all forms
- Example: Valuedin, Paladin Survival
Control
- Kill everything your opponent plays to control the board and have more choices when attacking
- Likes: Efficiency, removal, big creatures
- Ignores: Tempo, early aggression
- Card draw is moderately useful. Your cards tend to be expensive, so you often can’t cast them all.
- Removal can take any form. It can be more expensive cards to get more bang from one card, or cheaper removal to help you get to late game.
- Examples: Druid decks, Handlock
The Value Spectrum
- Good Stuff deck: Efficient cards that are strong on their own
- Combo deck: Okay/weak cards that become powerful when used together
Deckbuilding Considerations
- Strategy: How do you want to win, and what types of cards work towards that win condition?
- Synergy: Turn a card’s negative effect into a positive boost for a different card whenever you can
- Mana curve: What’s right for each deck, and how to interpret the mana bars in-game
Deckbuilding Pitfalls to Avoid
- Be realistic: avoid best-case-scenarios and remember the bad times as well
- Quiz: Power Word: Shield or Lightwell or Lightspawn
- When to take multiple copies of a card
- When to only take one copy of a card, even if it’s a good card
- Rule of thumb: If having two of the card in your hand is bad, you should be careful about having two in your deck
Community
- Macross: [A heap of deckbuilding questions]
- iTunes Reviews: Thank you!
Card of the Week
Farewell
- Follow Scott on Twitter, watch him play on Twitch, and look at his decks on Hearthpwn
- What you want to see in future episodes
- What hosts you want to visit the show