So I started a new account last week and decided to make a little guide about this. This is to explain the basics of the game and flatten the learning curve for those just starting out.
To that end I’m gonna give you my deck list and explain what the cards do. Note that it’s not necessary to use that deck or even that class. It’s just what I found to be most effective for the style that I like (and that I describe in this post). It’s a mere suggestion.
Anyway, my deck’s a mage deck that only runs basic cards, so you won’t have to craft any cards. If you don’t have all cards that are in this list, your experience level isn’t high enough and you have to play a couple of games to unlock those cards. That doesn’t take long though.
So here’s the list:
Win condition cards
2x (2) River Crocolisk
2x (2) Acidic Swamp Ooze
2x (4) Chillwind Yeti
2x (4) Sen’jin Shieldmasta
2x (4) Water Elemental
2x (5) Nightblade
2x (6) Boulderfist Ogre
2x (6) Reckless Rocketeer
Tech cards - draw
2x (2) Novice Engineer
2x (3) Arcane Intellect
Tech cards - damage
2x (2) Frostbolt
2x (4) Fireball
2x (4) Polymorph
2x (7) Flamestrike
Tech cards – block
2x (1) Mirror Image
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The game plan pretty much the same against all classes: You keep putting minions on board and kill off your opponent’s minions with yours. If your opponent doesn’t have any more minions, you hit face. This is the overall game plan, which has a few exceptions and variations that I’ll try to describe next.
During your mulligan (the card choosing at the beginning of the game) you try to get as many of your minions (your win condition cards) into your hand. Ideally you have lots of the 4 mana minions because those are the most important ones.
You typically start putting minions on board between turns 2 and 4. The earlier the better. If you have the coin, use it on turn 3 to put a 4 mana minion on board.
When you put a minion on board, it can’t immediately attack. It can typically survive a turn, so you should be able to attack with it next turn. Use it to kill whatever minion your opponent played, then play another minion.
If you have multiple 4 attack minions in your hand and you can play only one of them, look at what health your opponent’s minions have. If he has a 1/4 taunt, it’s better to play a 4-attack yeti. If he has a 2/3, a 3-attack water elemental or senjin is optimal.
Another variation is playing against weapon classes like warrior or hunter. You have two very powerful minions against them: ooze which can kill their weapon and water elemental, which can freeze their hero, so that they can’t attack. If you play against such a weapon class, try getting your water elemental on board as early as possible (and protect him as well as possible), while (if possible) try holding back your ooze for when a weapon is played.
But overall, keep doing the killing/playing minions thing and by around turn 5 – 7 you should have more options. You can keep killing minions that you be dangerous to your overall board state, but you can also ignore 1/1s if that means that you can attack face with your 6/7 ogre.
In general by then you wanna make good trades and get in a couple of attacks on your opponent’s face. A trade is good if you can kill something that costs more resources than you used to kill it.
So killing a 6/2 with a 2/3 is a good trade because the 6/2 typically costs more than a 2/3 and it’s also more dangerous because it can hit your face for 20% of your starting health and it can also kill your bigger minions.
Killing a 2/3 with a 6/2 is a bad trade for the same reasoning.
Ok, but there aren’t only minions in your deck. The other cards, tech cards, are there in case your ideal plan (as described above) doesn’t pan out.
Sometimes your opponent has built a board full of 3/3s and you have only two minions on board. Then flamestrike can solve that problem for you.
Sometimes you just run out of cards. This is where your draw cards (arcane intellect and novice engineer) come in.
There’s also mirror image. It’s there to buy you time and help you regain control of the board if you lost it. Say your opponent has a minion he can attack with and you have none. On 5 mana you can play a 4 mana minion and mirror image, which typically results in your opponent having to kill off your mirror image taunts and thus not being able to deal with your 4 mana minion. Next turn you can use that minion to deal with your opponent’s and play more minions.
Or sometimes your opponent has lots of minions and you have a flamestrike in hand, but only 6 mana. Mirror image taunts then can absorb two attacks and thus lessen the damage you have to take until you can get rid of your opponent’s board.
Sometimes your opponent has put a minion on board that you can’t immediately kill with one of your minions. Then you can use polymorph or fireball to kill it.
Fireball and frost bolt have another function. You can hit your opponent’s face with them to finish him off. I recommend only directing those spells to face if that can kill your opponent. Otherwise you better hold them back in case your opponent puts a big taunt in your way.
As an example if you have a 6/7 ogre on board and your opponent plays a 5/4 taunt, then it’s better to kill the taunt with a fireball and attack face with your ogre than to kill the taunt with your ogre and hit face with your fireball. The difference is the damage that your minion takes.
So that’s it. A little practice and this deck can get you easily through the new player ranks. Once you’ve left those, you get a free deck that is gonna be much better and that’ll help you advance further.
If anyone wants some help via spectating or further input, feel free to add me: wifesteal#21909