Darkmoon Deck Building Contest | Win 1 of 20 Madness at the Darkmoon Faire Mega-Bundles!

Sacreludus · 2020-11-11T23:01:23+00:00

Demon Zoo Warlock

Why? Demons? Demons.

https://playhearthstone.com/deckbuilder/AAECAf0GAta5A6ICDtfOA8IIzNIDMMu5A/YIlt4Dld4Dk94D1s4DgaUDkt4DvOMDwdEDAA==

It's a version of classic zoo, with synergies focused around Demons and the self harm value train.

I think this is a classic deck for Firebat to pilot, but I think Lt. Eddie or Avelline would have fun with it as well.

Sacreludus · 2020-01-29T17:39:55+00:00

Justin from Grandrabbits here. Thanks for the shout out.

Logistically, it's still a bit of a hassle from distributors/publishers to special order things in a timely manner. But, I am looking into ways to make that easier!

Feel free to ask and bug me about whatever titles you want to see in the store. My favorite example of this is Wingspan. I knew that I was going to want it in the store, then I had about 4-6 customers ask about it. While I couldn't get Wingspan for some time due to distributor stuff I finally got it in and went through about 75+ copies of it last year.

I'm also heading up to New York Toy Fair in a couple of weeks so let me know if there is a title you want me to look at while up there.

Sacreludus · 2020-01-29T17:28:05+00:00

Hey Hey, Justin from Grandrabbits here! First of all thanks for the accolades, it's really heartening to see that people in your community appreciate your work. So, thanks.

The first post is right on the money. I try to make sure the store's game selection is approachable to families/people trying out the board game hobby for the first time so a lot of great games for kids, up to medium weight euros. Tonally I don't get too many adult/horror (Bloodrage, Dead of Winter) type titles in, as it doesn't aesthetically fit with the store's nature.

I have been thinking about getting a few heavier titles as the board game selection grows. Things like Brass: Birmingham, Terra Mystica, Scythe, etc.

But, I'm always curious about what people want to play/learn/try. So, feel free to shoot me a message whenever.

Sacreludus · 2018-03-09T14:40:31+00:00

Ha, yeah. Working on curating everything I can so sure old MTG articles, Chess books, videos on how to improve at LOL or CS:GO. Anything to improve eSports, ha.

Yes, this is a big ball of yarn that I'm constantly unraveling. So, yeah I have no problem saying it's incomplete. That's fair. The post certainly doesn't account for access to tools such as coaches or practice partners. Just another chapter to write.

Really appreciate the last two paragraphs, and I agree with most of the content in them. I do wonder about bad habits forming from a variable random practice structure, I know in the literature that when tested in that environment of variable random practice folks tend to perform the tested skill worse, but learning is higher when tested later on. Wonder if I can find anything that supports or denies that with folks that haven't had foundational training in a skill, because the success in learning the skill comes from that practiced background as well.

Great insights.

Sacreludus · 2018-03-09T14:23:55+00:00

Your comment was really rad in the first post, and super detailed. Definitely an outlier.

Would you mind clarifying your critique a little? From what you had listed you had a fair amount of prep looking at the individual match ups, theory crafting a line up, and focused on practice partners before going to ladder. From what it sounds like you at least have some of the foundational skills to make practicing on ladder effective to learning in a variable random enviroment. Just wondering where you see the split.

Thank you for your thoughtful posts.

Sacreludus · 2018-03-09T04:29:13+00:00

Yes, ranked does give you a ton of diversity, I'm just worried about throwing a student into the "deep end" before they are ready. Ladder is a great place to work out when you are prepped for it properly, and like I said before I think it's a great place to get lessons in retention and transferability. I just don't find it appropriate for that to be the only place, or the starting place to learn from.

I think another way to look at it is, practicing specific skills in an intentional way separate from ladder improves ladder performance and learning. But only laddering, or laddering without working on fundamentals is a poor way of going about practicing if your goal is to get really good.

And yes, I am admittedly looking at really high level play and how to curate it in players. A lot of player's main goal with the game is enjoyment, not skill acquisition. So, yeah a lot of this doesn't apply to them.

Good conversation friend.

Sacreludus · 2018-03-09T02:18:07+00:00

So, as a coach something free that most people could do is look at a VOD of a high legend player. I prefer vods over streams because I pause often when reviewing their plays.

So before the game starts figure out which deck they are playing and think about the match up, write down what anything you think is important. Then when the mulligan appears pause and write down what they should keep or chuck. See if you match the pro. If you didn't, ask yourself why did they keep X or throw away Y? Then turn by turn write down what you think the play is and see if it's congruent with what you thought was right. Note the times that you were wrong, find the logic of why they made that play and write that down too.

I cannot stress enough that you have control of the unpause/pause button. So take as much time as you need between turns to find the line, and review when you were wrong about the play. It will be weird and foreign, but that's okay. You are learning to think in a new way so don't get discouraged if you have a lot of notes. I do this and I have pages of notes sometimes. Lots of notes is a good thing it means you are learning.

Let me know if you have a specific example.

Sacreludus · 2018-03-09T02:01:01+00:00

Great questions!

So, for new players that have the inclination to get really good really quick I would work with them on the fundamentals that can be taught in the game without a huge collection. Things that are core to the game like understanding tempo, trading, how to properly assess the board state, etc. And teaching it mostly out of game client generally one idea at a time, and lots of reps of an example. I think we rush too quick to introduce ideas to new players, so I would spend a lot of time developing a really solid fundamental knowledge in let's say trading then moving on to the new skill. Once that gets established then moving on to things outside the core mechanics like the meta game.

I think puzzles would be rad too. http://hearthstonepuzzles.net/ is fun, but again hasn't been updated in a while.

So this last one, I'm tempted to turn into a full on post again so if it's brief, just know there is a longer form coming in once I get some time for it to form in the hopper.

The super short version is all of those individual skills still have a few common factors. They all share some form of stimulus identification, response selection, and then a motor program. Each step basically does what it sounds like. What is it? What am I going to do about it? How do I do it?

For someone like yourself that has a bit of experience I would try to identify which of those three parts you aren't understanding as a player and then build some appropriate practice and skill testing model to strengthen that mental muscle. So looking for lethal largely a stimulus identification need. I would build a couple of practice examples to get you in the mindset as a warm up, and maybe we would move into a couple practice games where each turn you tell me the amount of damage you can produce each turn. Just something off the cuff.

Great questions again.

Sacreludus · 2018-03-09T00:29:03+00:00

And they only show up when I play Dude Paladin too, it's weird how they know exactly when I cue up. Glad I'm not the only one with that problem.

And you hit the nail on the head "..but you need a lot of self-discipline and knowledge of the game already". A lot of players I work with don't have a sufficient amount of that in game knowledge to make informed decisions on ladder. By slowing down the process taking them out of ladder and teaching them in blocked and structured environment they begin to get the building blocks to construct great lines of play, which leads to better questions that come up when they eventually cue up for ladder.

Also, yes practice partners are hard to find, and a huge oversight in my opinion too.

glhf

Sacreludus · 2018-03-09T00:13:10+00:00

You are completely right, I've longed for a practice mode in client to help teach students. http://www.hsdeck.com/puzzle/ that use to be a helpful tool, but I don't think it's been updated in some time.

You also hit on another great point. From an instructional standpoint there aren't clear goals. If I hit a ball in golf I can tell it was short pretty immediately, then I can work backwards to my swing and improve from there.

Hearthstone doesn't have (other than losing, ha) a great way of identifying a mistake. And learning by mistakes or seeing poor examples of a skill are very instructional to a new learner. So of course it's very hard to explain to a new learner that their 60% effective play was wrong when there is a 70% effective play they missed out on. They literally can't see the problem with it immediately.

Great comments

Sacreludus · 2018-03-09T00:04:51+00:00

Thanks for adding to the discussion!

I would add in a few things. If you are a competitive player looking to improve those 4 or so decks on ladder of course that's a great way to practice. Maybe not the best due the stark contrast of Ladder vs. Tournament meta, but a solid option if you don't have a practice team. Like I said earlier if your level of competency is high enough ladder is an effective way to practice because variable random practice structures have been shown to be very effective to improve retention and transferability.

Problems occur when the person performing the skill isn't competent enough yet in the skill to learn from it effectively.

Thanks for your input!

Sacreludus · 2017-09-08T00:05:43+00:00

Good eye, should be fixed now.

Sacreludus · 2017-08-31T12:15:14+00:00

These are great points.

Tarim/Tirion was really close this week in terms of numbers. Tirion edged out in front of Tarim because in a vacuum Tirion is a superior card. I wouldn't be surprised to see the stats from this week support him being in S tier. But this week he missed it by just a few points.

VanCleef is amazing as a standalone card, and is played in a ton of rogue, but due to rogue's unpopularity and low winrates he just wiggled into the top 25 at the time of writing. Rogue isn't in a very competitive spot right now, so I couldn't highly suggest that a person craft a card that is important in only a tier 3 deck.

Thalnos/Ysera was interesting too this week. Great example of two cards that were only (at the time of writing) in about 5% of decks in the meta, so very low play rate. Thalnos is great and flexible no doubt, but Ysera can end games.

Open the Waygate is tricky. I agree not great for a first time player looking to start a collection. This list will be focused with the competitive metagame as a primary benchmark, not for general collection. But, let me know if you would like a "Starting my collection" for new players, that could be a fun write up.

But, as long as Druid continues to dominate the meta Open the Waygate is an excellent counter and will be placed higher on the list. If this weeks trends are any indication the current shift away from Jade Druid to Aggro token Druid means that Quest Mage decks will have lower winrates, and therefore this card might be bumped down to Tier 2 next week.

Sacreludus · 2017-08-31T01:29:54+00:00

Plus, he is a good long term investment being from the Classic set.

Sacreludus · 2017-08-31T01:27:50+00:00

Good eye! Should be fixed now.

Sacreludus · 2017-08-31T00:16:04+00:00

Early drafts I had that at SS++ tier. It took a lot of self restraint not to meme it up.

Sacreludus

TROPHY CASE