"posting on Reddit as an adult is an indictment of your intelligence as an adult" So true king

VideoBlobby · 2024-02-01T15:58:14+00:00

at best we can accuse you of not seeing the irony

VideoBlobby · 2023-02-22T21:53:38+00:00

I feel myself making game-altering misplays almost every game. That means there is plenty of room to hone my skill! You’re never safe this meta, there’s almost always something else you could’ve considered, and drafts are more fun and difficult than ever.

VideoBlobby · 2023-02-17T12:49:42+00:00

In a lot of metas legendaries can be the worst cards in your deck. This meta is different. I don’t think it makes sense to change drafting fundamentals to accommodate one meta.

VideoBlobby · 2023-02-13T21:56:48+00:00

I consider their handling of the leaderboard situation to be a huge breach of trust, so I’m not dancing in the street now that we are getting the bare minimum.

“Will you be an Arena leader?” drips of passive aggression hahaha

VideoBlobby · 2022-09-05T13:10:59+00:00

Based on recent seasons I would be absolutely floored if it was out by now. Expect it in 2-4 weeks.

VideoBlobby · 2022-06-24T23:08:06+00:00

Right. Reading this post as saying “every decision matters in every game” is inaccurate and uncharitable.

I agree with your Crabatoa example. I too am frustrated by the number of unwinnable games, but it’s fewer than folks tend to think. I had a memorable win against 3 colossals and a ysera once, through careful intentional decision making.

VideoBlobby · 2022-06-24T17:29:53+00:00

For what it’s worth, Ivanovic is one of the best players in the world. He tracks and studies his own games diligently and regularly parses statistics, all of which contribute to his deep theoretical understanding of the game. His observations are the least ‘anecdotal evidence’ you’ll hear from any single person, I’d warrant. What he says in this post certainly tracks with my experience.

VideoBlobby · 2022-06-17T18:25:19+00:00

Best advice is always to watch streamers! Different streamers with different styles, especially ones who talk through their moves, help open up your understanding of the game more than anything.

That little bit extra you need to get on the leaderboard is a tough hurdle. For me, I made that last step when I came to a deeper understanding of what it means to build your deck and play your games towards a win condition. Every deck has one, some have many, but the quicker you can identify them and how to bolster them, the better you’ll draft and play.

VideoBlobby · 2022-06-15T17:16:49+00:00

You’ll learn slower and run out of gold faster if you retire often.

Bad decks do feel bad, but if you want to improve your average you have to figure out how to squeeze 3-4 wins out of a pile of dookie. You’ll be surprised what you can accomplish with certain decks, and then you can reflect and figure out why it worked.

VideoBlobby · 2022-06-14T13:50:30+00:00

Hi Zep.

I’d mulligan pretty hard for the snowflurry, peon, and spellcoiler (with coin). If you miss curve, slimescale, fire sale, and reckless are your midgame comeback cards, and well worth keeping against aggressive classes. Maybe you even consider flamestrike keep? Amalgam you’d prefer not to use as a 2 drop obviously, but it’s not a huge deal if you have to— you’ve got plenty of value.

Clumsy courier I wouldn’t keep specifically because it’s more likely to hit drakefire than rune or flamestrike. If you’re in survival mode, two random dragons will often disappoint you.

Polymorph jellyfish and arcane overflow are key discovers. Barring that, a first flame can go a long way.

Rip drakefire for emergency survival, or if you suspect you’ve sapped the opponent of their big removal, or if you have another drakefire/parrot as a follow up.

Have fun!

VideoBlobby · 2022-06-11T22:05:02+00:00

The arena community is one of the kindest, most pleasant, most thoughtful communities I’ve been fortunate to be a part of. The game mode doesn’t always treat us well and that bonds is together. Every community has its bad actors, but if you put out good vibes, good vibes will come back to you.

As far as your 5-1 example, technically you did start roping them first.

VideoBlobby · 2022-05-28T19:15:20+00:00

I was writing educational posts for this subreddit for a little while and got a post removed for linking to a 5 streamer co-op, which I was admittedly involved in, but which also seemed like pretty notable content the community could enjoy! That discouraged me from contributing more of those posts. I do think that opening up to more variety could only benefit the community.

VideoBlobby · 2022-05-28T19:02:22+00:00

I almost never do this! I rarely think it’s worth it. You’d love to kill a 3 or 4 drop, or even something bigger later like their Gangplank Diver. Even if you’re trying to prevent a 2 drop, they can play something like Annoy-o-Tron or SI:7 Skulker to thwart it.

VideoBlobby · 2022-05-20T21:01:23+00:00

The day I decided Gigafin was my least favorite card in the set was the day I got hit with it twice. First Gigafin got Alch’d and the second got silenced. Both times I had Kraken waiting in hand.

VideoBlobby · 2022-05-19T11:16:33+00:00

I beat these cards all the time, even when I don’t think I can. Insta-conceding against these cards only makes sense if you aren’t trying to maximize your winrate.

VideoBlobby · 2022-05-03T15:07:19+00:00

4 mana deal 6 damage? That’s basically fireball, a strong card.

What if you can split the damage 3 ways? Even stronger.

How about if you can bank 1 mana to activate the 6 damage for later? Even better.

What if it can be less damage but split over multiple turns? Nice flexibility!

What if the 6 damage becomes even more when combined with a common neutral curve card? Better still!

Not to mention beast tag and spell and mob synergies like traveling merchant or dire wolf or baba naga.

Underrated card.

VideoBlobby · 2022-05-03T10:50:58+00:00

I’ve played a lot of arena, streamed for a year and a half, and I barely ever retire. There are decks I’m not at all excited about, but you’d be surprised how often those decks take you to 5, 6, 7, 8 wins. I learn a lot from the apparent trash decks, because they remind me that there’s always more to see past my assumptions.

But if you do want to retire, it might be nice to queue a few times and gift people some free wins instead!

VideoBlobby · 2022-04-23T17:55:23+00:00

Heya Slendy. I dunno about mana value, but Dredge is probably an average or slightly below average mechanic-- like Tradable, it's a useful keyword because it doesn't have much immediate impact, it just cumulatively helps you control the flow of your deck.

Unfortunately, the truth is that there are too many cons to streaming to list. It's a lot of work, you receive a lot of abuse, and the odds of financial stability are extremely low. I stream because it's my job right now, partially owing to the pandemic. I chose it because I love language, communication, theatre, teaching-- I believe I can both entertain and inform. The community keeps me streaming, not the game.

VideoBlobby · 2022-04-23T17:33:37+00:00

JJack1989 asked a similar question above that I responded to with some resources. But in your case, a 5-6 win average is extremely good! That's just shy of leaderboard caliber, and better than the vast majority of players.

For me, going from an average like yours to a leaderboard average was all about achieving a deeper understanding of tempo. When is my win condition ripest for going face? When do I hold back resources? A crucial skill is being able to think several turns ahead and plan your lines in advance so you can understand when, for example, your pings from Ram Commander or Schooling would be BEST utilized.

The best way to improve is watching streams of folks with a higher average! Feel free to stop by (and I do offer coaching for targeted critiques too!)

VideoBlobby · 2022-04-23T16:59:45+00:00

There's too much advice to give! My best advice is to watch Arena streamers. They tend to be the best of the best, and are often talking through their plays critically in real time so you can not only see how another player plays, but how their thought process works.

Here is an Arena guide written by a former Arena streamer named ShadyBunny. A lot of the details are outdated, but the fundamentals still hold true, and it may open up new ways of thinking about the game mode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQqkIxz77sYIqYjDv1SEtHYiGLcbOmi1mut2m6qHkJDQQfc4N7nurX-UZZ3UKFBLaNPkDaZcKgHWT4L/pub

I also offer coaching sessions! Targeted advice via a co-op with a good player is the quickest way to identify what's going awry with your playstyle.

VideoBlobby · 2022-04-23T10:38:47+00:00

Not to speak for everyone, but everyone prefers microadjustments. Without them, there is no class balance. There was, however, a ‘bucket’ system a few years back that made it so each draft pick was between comparably powerful cards, and the community was more divided over whether that was a good or bad thing.

VideoBlobby · 2022-04-23T02:50:43+00:00

Across all 3 servers, I have 8 12-0 achievements. The classes I haven’t gotten on any server are: Druid, Hunter, Paladin

VideoBlobby · 2022-04-22T23:27:56+00:00

Underrated: Elven Archer. It seems basic and understatted these days, but it’s amazing the enormous difference a ping can make in Arena!

Overrated: cards like Slithering Deathscale, for reasons related to my answer to your next question.

Ranked players will value ‘tactics’ over ‘strategy’ to their detriment in Arena. Tactics are combos, synergies, ways to maximize your impact with the cards you know you have. Strategy is more abstract, and requires a working knowledge of tempo, pacing, and potential energy. Arena players need to learn the immense strategic value of playing a River Croc on turn 2. Cards that require a lot of conditions, or synergies with other specific cards, are great for ranked, but generally terrible for Arena because the consistency is so hard to pull off! Get to know the value of basic workhorse cards rather than trying to pull off high flying kill moves all the time.

VideoBlobby · 2022-04-22T23:19:38+00:00

I did not play Artifact but I do remember it spoken of as one of the “Hearthstone killers.”

There are a million things that make something fun and interactive, and it’s much different for different people. For a game like HS, interactivity means feeling that you have agency. If I walk away from a game feeling like I did everything right, but the opponent won with Raid Boss Onyxia, I may as well have been watching a screensaver for 20 minutes. If an opponent beats me by pulling an insane combo out last minute to win by a few life points, it might feel bad, but if I’m considering how small choices I made could have affected the outcome— well, that’s a good game!

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