(January 6th, 2014, 19:27)Merovech Wrote: Thanks, guys. I'm still playing mid-range/control Shaman:
If anyone has any questions or suggestions, feel free to ask. Specifically, I keep wondering if there might be a better or cheaper card I can use instead of one or both of the Spellbreakers.
I assume you still need to get Sylvanas & Thalnos? Because everyone and their mother seems to play these in Shaman decks.
Like Sir Bruce said, I would question the Sunfury protector.
I also think Wild Pyromancer, Novice Engineer or Nat Pagle might be stronger than Acidic Ooze for ranked play. The additional option of the Pyromancer's early game AOE is especially great against many agressive decks while the weapon removal of the Ooze is simply useless against many popular classes right now.
In general, I wonder if you don't have problems because of card economy? There is hardly any option of drawing cards or cycle through your deck quickly.
(January 7th, 2014, 16:22)sunrise089 Wrote: Off topic: Is there a posted receive rate for common, rare, epic, and legendary cards?
Every pack is guaranteed to have at least one rare minimum. After that people have estimated each other card has a 1/5 chance of Rare, 1/25 chance of Epic, and 1/100 chance of Legendary. So you get an Epic every 5 packs and a legendary every 20 packs (on average).
Relatedly I got a golden Beast today which gave me enough dust to put Leeroy into my Rogue deck.
Bruce helped me out at a key juncture, and via that and arena luck I feel this is by far my best deck. I'm a little nervous of having not too many cheap minions and having zero cheap spells aside from my hero power, but if I can make it to the late game I really like my chances.
My two toughest decisions were taking a 2nd Yeti over a 2nd Ooze (Bruce chimed in on that one) and then taking a Mana Wyrm over an Ancient Brewmaster. The latter pick felt suboptimal in a vacuum but I thought I might be able to extract some value if I get the card later and can play it alongside one of my expensive spells.
@Sunrise: Looks great. I like mana wyrm a lot, btw, even though you only have a few cheap spells. A 1/3 for 3 is not bad, especially since you can ping as a mage if you want to do so. You have a lot of 4 drops, even discounting the Fireballs, so I definitely think that it was the right choice.
(January 7th, 2014, 12:44)Gustaran Wrote:
(January 6th, 2014, 19:27)Merovech Wrote: Thanks, guys. I'm still playing mid-range/control Shaman:
If anyone has any questions or suggestions, feel free to ask. Specifically, I keep wondering if there might be a better or cheaper card I can use instead of one or both of the Spellbreakers.
I assume you still need to get Sylvanas & Thalnos? Because everyone and their mother seems to play these in Shaman decks.
Like Sir Bruce said, I would question the Sunfury protector.
I also think Wild Pyromancer, Novice Engineer or Nat Pagle might be stronger than Acidic Ooze for ranked play. The additional option of the Pyromancer's early game AOE is especially great against many agressive decks while the weapon removal of the Ooze is simply useless against many popular classes right now.
In general, I wonder if you don't have problems because of card economy? There is hardly any option of drawing cards or cycle through your deck quickly.
I have no legendaries except Ysera and (golden) Deathwing. I actually rarely have trouble with card eceonomy, since my cards are all very efficient. A novice engineer, for example, is great in certain situations, but normally I clear it so quickly and with so little loss because of my "stronger" 2 and 3 drops (especially feral spirit, in this scenario) that the novice engineer is barely more than a two mana cycler for the opponent. I do occasionally fall behind in cards and wish that I had some draw, but it does not occur incredibly often, and I still win quite a few games where I have 2-3 or even more less cards in hand than my opponent.
On a related note, I actually have a germ of an idea for a Shaman aggro-murloc deck using mana tide totems, Nat Pagle, feral wolves, etc. but I don't have the cards and I'm not sure that it would actually be viable.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Sunrise: looks solid but your lack of 3s is worrisome.
I'm not nearly as high on Mana Wyrm as Merovech. It dies super easily unless you can protect it (which is why Wyrm->Coin->Mirror Images is a common play). Just like Northshire Cleric I think leading with Wyrm on Turn 1 is almost always a huge mistake unless you have a plan to keep card advantage. Otherwise you're just throwing a card away. If you don't have an immediate plan it's much better to wait to combo it on a later turn. Since you don't have any spells that cost less than 4 mana I don't see it working very well in that deck.
![[Image: mage%20deck%201.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3729922/mage%20deck%201.jpg)
