It’s been three or four days since the new season kicked off in the Arena, and I wonder if all of you players have already achieved 12 wins?
I have to admit that this season’s update seems to be a bit rushed, with only two versions replaced: the Dueling Desolation in Standard Mode has been replaced by Titan Gods, while the Den of Time in Wild Mode has been replaced by Dragon’s Descent. Such changes have resulted in the win rates of each profession remaining almost unchanged from the previous version, with Mages, Death Knights (DKs), Shamans, and Hunters still occupying the top of the win rate charts; while the other seven professions all have win rates of less than 48%, and choosing these professions seems to imply being at a disadvantage.
As the saying goes, “Chop wood with the grain, Hearthstone with Ali,” and in this installment we’re going to focus on analyzing the mages that have topped the new version and the hunters that have seen a slight increase in their win rates.
As for DK and Shaman, since the differences from the last version are minimal, you can just refer to Ali’s strategy from last month: DK’s strongest strategy is still the 2 green and 1 red single card Apocalyptic Assimilation, with the death hiss copying the security guard’s setup remains unchanged, and Ice Rune’s dredge system, which was already weak, is now even more negligible; while Shaman is still relying on overmodeled single cards such as Nebula to support it, and also has Decay Missile and Unified Shaman is still dependent on supermodels like Nebula for support, and also has Decay Bomb and Uniform Dress to deal with the difficult Undead followers in the environment, so we can just skip these two professions.
First, let’s talk about mages. There are two main reasons why mages have climbed from third place last season to first place this season:
1、Most crucially, the change to Silver Bottle Sea Rhyme at the end of last season, which made it only deal damage to followers.
This change is seen as a nerf in the ladder, but it is a huge strengthening in the arena, directly transforming it from B-Box Fighter to Firemark Fire Demon. The importance of this can’t be overstated, the stability of the early game solving is dramatically increased, and when combined with Fire Demon or the various mana attachments found in this version of Mana Study, it can easily clean up any field. The most important thing is that the drink only consumes 1 cost and has 3 cups, the early random use of 1-2 will not feel wasted, many times 2 costs directly hit two cups to solve the opposite side of the 23 is also acceptable, to maintain their own blood is the most important thing.
2、Secondly, the cards that are retiring from the environment have little impact on Mage, while the newly added tempo cards are critical.
Similar to DK, the most crucial cards for Mage to retreat from the environment are the bunch of treasure digging, but those are loved by greedy players and gold numbers, the real players are all focused on tempo like Ali. Mage these versions of the biggest problem is poor tempo, empty resources but can not be effectively utilized. This version has been supplemented with two stronger tempo cards, Void Scripture and Inquisitive Creation, as well as the elemental tempo combos of Running Archivist and Corrupted Scraps, so the ability to counter fast attacks has increased dramatically. The late game was already unbeatable, and now that the early game has been supplemented as well, reaching the top is naturally not a concern.
So, how should we play mages in this version?
Ali believes that the most important thing is still to control the early rhythm, do not let the field lead to too much blood loss – mage this version of the basic not lack of resources, the most afraid of being pushed back by the fast attack. The first fire demon and drink is very critical, this is an important means of defense against fast attack, for example, Ali’s 12-win deck chose 4 fire demon, halfway through the abandonment of the blue dragon explorer and reverberation reverb: the quality of the former is not worth mentioning, and can even be said to be the current version of the traps, loss of tempo is too much; and reverberation reverb is also very easy to be found, even if the fight against the DK is not the key, so just need to be firmly stabilized! The former is sufficient.
If it’s a civil war, many times creatures are hard to stand and both sides have strong spell removal, we should try to use spell removal to protect some small creature output. However, if this is not possible, then we need to rely on Tsunami, Rune of Molten Fire after Forge, or even Lightshow in conjunction with a mana strong follower to deal straight damage. By the way, Rune of Molten Fire is a card you don’t want to keep in your starting hand, and a 2-cost Forged Rune of Molten Fire is basically half the game: you’ll lose money playing 3-cost attachments, and you’ll lose money keeping it for late-game tempo, so it’s best to think of it as a straight-wound card.
When you understand not to be greedy and are willing to protect every drop of blood with an overabundance of untaps, you’ve mastered this version of Mage.
Next, let’s talk about hunters:
Instead of saying that hunters have gotten stronger, it’s better to say that hunters are better suited to the current environment, especially when most mages are still greedily pursuing resources, and hunters rely on cards like Mythic Observer and Tremendous Earth Awakening to have already rushed mages’ faces to pieces. Last version of the top DK has a lot of reply and wall, such as airlock broken, skeleton hound, etc., and the mage can only rely on neutral sun watcher and protection crystal back to blood stacking armor, against the hunter still seems to be a bit of a struggle.
It’s mostly because all the Titan Gods cards are so good for fast attacks, such as Twisted Frostwing Dragon eating banana buffs for greater gain as well. Titan Forge Trap only has two Mysteries this version, Luring Trickster and Hidden Depths, which are useful no matter how you hang them, and can also be used with Ranger Scout or for cost reduction for contacting Alien creatures. Overall, Hunter’s cards themselves are now faster than last version, and the environment is now more popular for playing Fast Attack, so it’s safe to say that it’s eating a certain amount of version dividends. If there is a balance patch change ahead of the profession, then Hunter is likely to top even if it gets nerfed.
As of right now, we just need to go crazy targeting mages for face, mages are weak at field creation, as long as we keep the bloodline down to keep mages busy with untapping, and slowly shoot arrows behind them to win. Research and study also do not want to think about looking for late cards, like the old horse, python cards such as arrangement, can 2 cost on time on the line.
The above is the new version of Ali’s experience in the mage and hunter to share, the specific card selection instruction will continue to bring you in the next issue. We will see you in the next issue!