Pauper Twist in February

Multiplayer Discussion
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I have not seen much talk about the current Twist season, but it’s what I been playing the most for the last few days.

Of the 10 possible classes (DK & DH are excluded from this season), I have seen all of them played, but as you go up the Ladder, you face mostly Warrior, Druid, Paladin, Priest, and Rogue.

I have used Warrior, Priest, and Paladin decks, with my current preference being Warrior.

According to HSReplay, the best class continues to waffle back and forth between Druid and Warrior.

Druid is mostly relying on aggro Token Druid decks, but I did take a loss to a rare big Druid deck, which utilized beast synergies.

Most Warrior decks are making use of a dragon package, but because of Token Druid, some warriors decks have gone more midrange with an inclusion of pirates or buff minions like Bonemare and Funglemancer.

Dragon Priest and Dragon Paladin are represented as well. Wasteland Priest (with Skelemancer, Bonemare, and Grave Rune) can also be encountered.

Rogue is mostly using Jade Rogue with the spell damage of Street Trickster to clear wide boards with fan of knives or to get value out of cheap damage spells. Dragon Rogue exists as well.

I experimented with a lot with different Priest builds, but I currently prefer a Dragon Warrior deck, which includes 2x Tar Creeper to help deal with Token Druid.

A pauper season means that Twist decks are easily accessible to all my F2P collections. I easily hit D5 in a single day of playing on one account, while some of my other collections are just starting to hit platinum.

Unless you get overrun by Token Druid, games tend to feel interactive, with some matches going to fatigue.

Some screenshots of typical matches:

https://imgur.com/a/TwVjng7

https://imgur.com/a/szF2U74

https://imgur.com/a/8oc6SMN

https://imgur.com/a/J0mGvi3

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For example: Is it even possible to save Twist - #47 by SparkyElf-2852 (the particular post linked because of references to some external reviews, mostly covering the subject, not due to narcissism; the whole topic, though, is noteworthy and qualifies, in my view, so I dunno whether I’d want to start a new one).

Sure about that? They say it’s more of a ‘Tempo’ warrior, probably aimed at slower decks — even more value-oriented Dragon Warrior, perhaps?

Most of those I’ve encountered are more about the Grave Rune (no idea what a ‘Wasteland Priest’ is supposed to mean — maybe it was a thing when I wasn’t playing the game at all) with either the 8-mana package (including cheating it out) or the Damaged Stegotron.

Played a bit of Dragon Priest myself, though — the class has some decent answers to annoying Druids in particular.

It’s usually not a big challenge, especially with bonus stars. Above that (about D4-D3), though, it’s been particularly bad with the rigging this season so far (I mean, compared to other card games, it’s been notoriuosly rigged since some point, but recently, the ‘kayfabe’ pretense has seemed particularly thin), so I dunno — don’t play Standard, but I’d assume that’s just the way the game (traditional HS in general, that is) is nowadays, especially considering the resurgence of topics about it (or perhaps they have been there all the time? I don’t visit forums that much anymore).

Good luck getting the most clownish card of the season (the 3 mana 4-3; also a prime example of bad game design, namely so-called ‘hate cards’) against something like a spam Druid. :grinning: I suppose that’s what they call karma.

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I constantly tinker with my deck-lists based on what decks I am encountering the most. It’s easy to swap out one or both Dragonslayer for something more useful against non-dragon decks, like Token Druid, Jade Rogue, and some Midrange Warrior decks.

The following screenshots show that there has been a lot of fluctuation for the best performing Twist class/decks this week.

https://imgur.com/a/VNlhZnC

I missed taking a shot of a time when Warrior was #1 this week.

When more Token Druid is being played, more players start switching to Priest, which results in Priest becoming the best class for bit.

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OMG your avatar!! Knife Juggler!!

The nostalgia is killing me

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What are the queue timers like
?

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Queue times for Twist can vary a lot, but I play on all servers. I can sometimes be trying to play on the Asia server when few players are awake and playing, and I will have to switch servers to get matches.

During the last three days queue times have been very good. I just played two Twist matches and my queue times were 3-4 seconds.

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Today, Warrior is back to being #1 again:

https://imgur.com/a/NzyvkjR

I don’t remember a meta where the top three classes alternated a couple of times a day for being the best class.

For warrior, if you include enough cards to combat Token Druid’s early game, then you hurt your chances against greedier decks.

https://imgur.com/a/P6gKuyk

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Yeah, I get it all. Sadly, it’s still the same shobby game design: ‘rock-paper-scissors’, ‘hate cards’ and ‘meta cycles’ — as old as the game itself, only with particulars relevant to the current format.

Once again, people have tried this for as long as the game has existed, so it’s not new. What might be new now is all those advances in AI, making the alleged rigged matchmaking technically possible, so there might be, at least in theory, a risk of being ‘counter-picked’ by the algorithm all the time if the system deems you too smart and not deserving. :grinning:

Sometimes a matter of seconds, sometimes a few minutes — that’s on EU server, different times of the day, from D5 upward in ranks.

You’ve gotta remember that the player base for this format is probably much smaller than anything else — (relative) random errors might be just too big, thus what you observe here.

Like what, by the way? AoEs like Ravaging Ghouls, Dragonmaw Scorchers and Warpaths don’t really clear some annoying boards that well (haven’t tried that weapon, though), so is it all about the taunt package?

Priest, on the other hand, has some excellent tools against it, but is worse against some more proactive decks.

Yep, indeed, as I said above (in the linked post), too — although the list I was playing, when I still did with the Dragon Warrior, wasn’t very optimised… I didn’t use the taunt package, for example, which seems to perform well.

By the way, that’s why, among other reasons, I’ve been playing Paladin or Priest since a certain point instead — don’t like such stupid dilemmas. :grinning:

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Alright, with the climbing done — and I even finally got golden Uther while at it :grinning: — a couple of things.

First, the winning deck lists — they could still be useful for somebody. These are for the classes I used, more or less liked and wanted to play for various reasons: for example, dragons — I wanted to play with them, besides, didn’t use these heroes much back in Classic; finally, these archetypes were, in my view, least obnoxious or even fun.

Dragon paladin 
### Dragon paladin
# Class: Paladin
# Format: Twist
#
# 2x (1) Sand Breath
# 2x (2) Grimestreet Outfitter
# 2x (2) Netherspite Historian
# 2x (3) Bronze Explorer
# 2x (3) Consecration
# 2x (3) Keeper of Uldaman
# 2x (3) Scalerider
# 2x (4) Future Emissary
# 2x (4) Truesilver Champion
# 2x (5) Amber Watcher
# 2x (5) Big Ol' Whelp
# 2x (5) Blackwing Corruptor
# 2x (6) Evasive Wyrm
# 2x (7) Bonemare
# 2x (8) Twin Tyrant
# 
AAEEAZzhAwAP6RLJFoK1AqbOArCtA52uA+ewA4WxA4exA5yfBJ2fBJCkBZGkBbSeBp6iBgAA
# 
# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

This is my take on this rather well-known deck. Nothing too special, notice the lack of cards that are too specific — this version is an all-round Dragon Paladin that just does its things.

Dragon priest 
### Dragon priest
# Class: Priest
# Format: Twist
#
# 2x (1) Potion of Madness
# 2x (1) Shard of the Naaru
# 2x (2) Netherspite Historian
# 2x (2) Shadow Word: Death
# 2x (2) Spirit Lash
# 2x (3) Holy Nova
# 2x (3) Street Trickster
# 2x (3) Velen's Chosen
# 2x (4) Future Emissary
# 2x (5) Big Ol' Whelp
# 2x (5) Blackwing Corruptor
# 2x (6) Aeon Reaver
# 2x (6) Entomb
# 2x (6) Evasive Wyrm
# 2x (8) Twin Tyrant
# 
AAEEAZ/HAgAPjw/pEscXgrUClboCtbsC8M8CsK0D57ADhbEDmbYDhJ8EwZ8EuJ4GnqIGAAA=
# 
# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

This is more of a control deck with the Dragon core (exactly as I wanted it) — no gimmicky attempts at combo-wombos and such. It can counter aggro decks, those pesky trash-spam Druids in particular, outlast and out-value slower and greedier decks, even killing them by fatigue, but can be weak against some high-tempo or bursty proactive decks.

Second, a bit of retrospection and reflection on what this was all about. After all, this might have been the best Twist season of them all so far: I had no interest in the ‘new age’, but it was reportably horrible, and the old one was all but ruined by those disgusting new cards (yes, Jade Telegram and the rest of the package, Warlock location…), although the XL season was fun — I say this is something the original HS sorely missed in its early days, either Renathal or the XL deck mechanic. As for Un’Goro… That expansion was the reason I finally abandoned HS for years back in the day, btw. As for this iteration… Not only has it been rather accessible, but also different decks and classes (more than half of them, i.e. 5 out of 9, quite common) have been playable: you could play with dragons, you could go without them at all, you could play some classes (notably, Warrior, Priest or even Rogue) in completely different ways, so there have been plenty of viable approaches to choose from, as opposed to ‘the scarab lord’ or some such rubbish.

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I tried Ravaging Ghouls and Dragonmaw Scorchers early on, but I didn’t really like them.

To help deal with Druid I was using:

1x (1) N’Zoth’s First Mate

2x (3) Tar Creeper

Along a with the common Dragon Warrior package of:

2x (1) Slam

2x (2) Bash

2x (2) Frightened Flunky

2x (2) Netherspite Historian

2x (2) Warpath

1x (3) Acolyte of Pain

2x (3) EVIL Quartermaster

1x (4) Future Emissary

2x (4) Sword Eater

Getting a big 5 or 6 cost taunt (like Tar Lord) from an early Frightened Flunky can sometimes stave off a token hoard.

An early Nerub’ar Weblord, which makes battlecry cards cost two more can be a real problem for Warrior, and so I have experimented with (1) I Know a Guy to get a buffed non-battlecry taunt that can be played early enough to make a difference.

A turn 1 Sky Raider, which can generate another Sword Eater can sometimes be helpful, but it’s not very consistent, and Dragon Warrior lacks buff minions like Funglemancer or Bonemare to help get more value out Sky Raider or other small minions that manage to be ignored on the board.

More Dragon Warrior vs. Token Druid screenshots:

https://imgur.com/a/eJog3Z9

https://imgur.com/a/c5d5hB8

Midrange Warrior may be better placed to deal with Token Druid and Dragon Warrior, but I have been fixated on trying to find a Dragon Warrior build capable dominating Token Druid and Midrange Warrior. I am about to tinker with a build that omits the Tar Creepers and plays less battlecry cards, which includes 2x Restless Mummy.

Yesterday, Hunter and Shaman were so marginalized that they completely dropped off HSReplay’s class rankings list, but both classes are back on it now, with Warrior holding the #1 spot with a 57.8 % win rate.

https://imgur.com/a/F0fkzWO

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Ugh, for the love of cod, 'preformatted text', please.

Just one? I see no reason to not use two.

And is the contender for the title of ‘most clownish card in this season’.

At least 4-3 for 3 mana is not completely worthless, and this… Well, I’ve already written what I think of such players — those who play horrible cards just to troll someone, instead of playing the game.

That, by the way, looks like one of the stronger cards in the taunt package due to the stat buff — surprisingly enough.

If I were to play Warrior again, I’d definitely look into it.

You could add some, especially the latter, but it’s definitely greedy and expensive — and is more of a counter to the MetaTwin Tyrant than early aggro.

Why fixate on those opponents that are apparently supposed to counter this archetype?

Fewer, you meant to say? :grinning:

Played that early on. Ironically, this card is more popular in tempo Warrior, as opposed to Dragon Warrior, and doesn’t seem to clear tokens and such that effectively.

It just seems there aren’t that many active players at all.