I’ve got a love/hate relationship with these Hearthstone adventure modes. Five weeks until all the goodies are unlocked? Ugh! Still, it’s been an interesting last few days with a couple of new cards in the wild leading to the rise of some fun new decks. With week one out of the way, let’s take a look at some of the new developments.
Wing 1 Review
I’ll just come out and say it. I really wasn’t impressed with week one of Blackrock Mountain in terms of the content on offer. It’s not that the fights weren’t interesting; it was that they were too easy. I literally finished the entire wing (non-heroic), class challenges included, over lunch. I didn’t have to think hard about the sorts of decks I’d need to create to beat the bosses, either. It was just all very simple and straightforward.
If Blizzard insists on doing these adventure modes as a form of content and a way to release cards into the game, it should probably go for a bit more challenge. I know, I know, maybe the difficulty will ramp up as the weeks go on, but I do feel that these fights should take a bit more than a lunch hour to complete, even if it is only the first week. And yes, I realize one can do the heroic versions if one really wants a challenge, but I still feel the normal experience should be more than a speedbump to your new cards.
New Deck: Gang Up Mill Rogue
Oh boy. I suspected that Mill Rogue would benefit greatly from the addition of Gang Up, but I never expected the deck to get serious play at all. As it turns out, Gang Up Mill Rogue is a pretty versatile deck if you play it correctly. Against most decks in the game, milling can be pretty effective when using Gang Up to add a bunch of Coldlight Oracles to your deck. Not a huge surprise here. However, what I didn’t expect, was that Mill Rogue could also be effective against aggro decks that are typically anti-mill since they love to empty their hands and giving them cards is usually signing your own death warrant. Gang Up is great for these guys, too. All you need to do is pack Antique Healbots in your deck and you can force aggro decks like Face Hunter to run out of steam trying to kill you as you heal up endlessly. It’s all fairly hilarious stuff to see. Personally, I’m not a fan of playing Mill Rogue, but I’m glad to see something fresh on the ladder.
New Deck: Grim Patron Warrior aka???????? HEY EVERYONE, GET IN HERE!????????
The last time I seriously played Warrior was back in beta when Weapon Warrior was sort of a thing. Unfortunately, most Warrior decks that have found success since then have been control-based and I find Control Warrior to be one of the most obnoxious decks in the game. Even if you win, you both lose. I’ve had games vs. Control Warriors go for 30+ minutes. How do you expect to even ladder in a reasonable amount of time when you’re dragging games out for yourself even if you do end up winning? Ain’t nobody got time for that! That’s why everyone loves face decks (they’re also way cheaper to build). I want to know if I’m going to win or lose in a reasonable amount of time.
Anyway!
Thankfully, this little bastard Grim Patron is adding some spice to the stale Warrior class. I’m actually playing the class again. Basically, Grim Patron can lead to some crazy wombo combos with Warrior that even have potential to OTK (One Turn Kill) your opponent. Grim Patron is a 5 mana 3/3 body that spawns a new Grim Patron for each time it survives damage. Warrior is an excellent class for damaging its own minions to activate effects and the addition of Grim Patron makes for some hilarious tempo swings, if not outright game winning turns.
My favorite combo is to drop a Warsong Commander, a Grim Patron, and use Commanding Shout. This allows me to clear everything on the board while simultaneously filling that same board with Grim Patrons. What other board clear in the game also fills your own board at the same time? This can completely swing a game. Throw in some Whirlwinds, Inner Rages, Frothing Berserkers and a ton of other crazy stuff and you have some crazy damage potential with this deck. As always, this kind of deck depends largely on the luck of the draw. If you don’t get your pieces, it’s not going to work. Thankfully, the Warrior class has some decent means of drawing while also giving itself armor to stall things out a little bit in order to get the pieces it needs. It’s a fun deck to play with a ton of potential.
What’s your take on week 1 of Blackrock Mountain? What are you looking forward to most in the next wing?
