I spoke about this earlier in an unrelated thread, and decided that it needed it’s own thread.
It seems to me that no matter what class, and no matter what deck style is
top tier in this game that it is always the deck with the best curve that dominates.
I have seen years of complaints about “curvestone”, but I believe that
the entire game is exactly that, and the only thing that changes is which class has the best curve.
Whichever has the easiest curve to deliver cards to the board will almost invariably be the strongest deck.
So… Rebuttal, counterpoint?
It depends on how strong control tools are. When control tools have been really great, you’ve had almost no curve out decks, and aggro has struggled.
But in the general sense that aggro is always a pretty safe bet, yeah, that’s a feature of HS.
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Of course a smooth game beats a hiccupy one. What’s strange about that?
There are definitely opposite examples. For instance, priest and warlock can sometimes hero power until turn 4 and then swing the game with a well-timed hysteria. Control decks in general rely on curve a lot less than others. They’re not looking to drop threats every turn so don’t need as perfect a draw.
The whole Priest class right now proves it isnt so, they can pretty much sit back and hero power the first 5 turns and still turn games in their favor.
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But doesn’t that rely on exact draw to beat curve?
Seems like good curve would win in most instances over mulliganing or digging for a specific card play?
It kinda depends on the tools Available, but yes. Slamming down ever bigger threats and removing for free in general ends the game before your weaknesses become relevant.
But It really depends in the threats:
See face hunter vs Spell Damage Mage
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Depends on the cards, really.
Not once you reach a critical mass of control tools. Take priest:
- Hero power for turns 1-3. You’ve taken 6 less damage. Better yet, toss in a renew and/or palm reading.
- You’ve also got Wandmaker and Draconic Studies to help keep you from just hero powering.
- Turn 4, assuming you went first, you’ve drawn 7 cards out of 30. You 30 include 2x Hysteria, 2x Renew, and 2x Palm Reading. Getting either of the latter means even more of a chance to pull the hysteria.
Also, hysteria isn’t the only out at that point. If they’ve gone tall you can discover a shadow word death.
If they went wide a holy nova or condemn will do just as well. At turn 6 or 7 you completely rebound with Samuro + Apotheosis (if you didn’t already wipe the board with Renew and Xyrella.
If they avoided overextending in either direction then your hero power plan can continue unabated while you slowly gather resources.,
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Tempo is what wins.
Curving is a very common way as absent special text and synergies, curving out is how you build the most tempo.
And what you curve out matters. Minions have the most long lasting tempo since they can continue to fight as long as they live. On the other end are spells, which only last for the one turn (exceptions being something like incanter’s or wildfire that confer a permanent bonus). Weapons fall in between both.
This btw explains why minion decks/classes seem to do better over the metas. This isn’t a bias towards minion classes or against spell classes. It’s just the nature of how minions vs spells (vs weapons) work. It’s like… the stats show that people who have higher education tend to make more money. That’s not a bias against uneducated people. There are certainly successful people who didn’t go far in their official education. That’s just the nature of getting an education vs not getting one.
And just like there are rich people who dropped out of school, there can be times when spell based decks work. It just takes specific conditions and metas, like someone mentioning priests.
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Having the right cards at the right time definitely helps to win games. Nothing different from poker. You get good cards in hand, you stand a higher chance to win. If you get poor draws, you still can win with skill, but it’s harder.
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That’s not always true.
We have seen many examples of non curving decks be extremely strong, if not the outright best deck:
- Guardian Animals Druid
- Galakrond Rogue
- Enrage Warrior
- Control Priest
- Malygos Druid
- Cube Warlock
- Cube Hunter
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Marcoscongas stop that. Reading that list is triggering my PTSD .
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To be fair at this point of time you can always empty your mana and still have plenty of cards. Health has become the deciding factor, I or my opponent can almost always spend all his mana and have cards left.
I agree that there have been decks that defy the norm, but
aren’t those decks generally outliers/anomalies?
Do you agree that curve decks have been the most prevalent in terms of
wins and power?
Highlander Mage
Dr Boom Control Warrior
Enrage Warrior
Arguably right now with Token Druid (anyone who thinks this is a curve deck needs to have a long think about their life)
Those are some exceptions since I started playing
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I agree, but the issue is should they not be?
You liked tempo when it was a Mage thing.
Yup, Priest right now is insane in the right hands, and I’m tired of pretending its not
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I don’t dislike tempo. I was pointing out that practically every deck that wins is a curve deck.
So when players complain about “curvestone” they really are
complaining about the majority of the game. Or, at least it seems that way.
Curve decks seem like the mainstay of this game.
You never tire of trying to make it look as though everyone who posts has an ulterior motive, do you?
For all of your constructive comments there is an equal number of insinuations and assumptions.
I asked you if it was a bad thing…you can read that how you like. Maybe I just want to hear your opinion.
I don’t think its a stretch to say you’re biased towards Mage. Its not an insult, we all have our preferences
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I do prefer mage. But making a statement like this
bypasses asking me how I feel, and suggests that I only posted to complain that other decks now have curve while mage does not.
That was not my intention.
I enjoy curve. It’s what I do best.
I just happen to think that curve decks are really the heart of this game, and so when players complain that the game is Curvestone then they are really complaining about the entire product.
I don’t believe you can have a game like this without curve.
Do you agree?