Kael'thas Sinstrider or Kael'thas Sindud

 It been almost a week since I've last posted.  I want to post more frequently and not wait for the perfect post.  So here this is haha.  This post is going to be all about Kael'thas Sinstrider.

 

6 mana, 4/7, with the ability that every third minion you play each turn costs 0.  This ability most benefits high-cost minions giving you the most bang for your buck so this card is only as good as how go those cards are.  Generally, to be a good high-cost minion you've got to do one of two things.  1.  The minion has got to have some immediate effect to the board.  For example, the minion has rush or clears the board so other way.  2.  Provides a defense.  This is straight forward, the minion has taunt and maybe a good deathrattle.  High-cost minions that don't do one of the two things generally can be ignored as your opponent goes for the face for the win.  So, looks take a look to see what the best options we have.   

These are 3 of my favorite high-cost minions due to their strength in clearing or stalling the board with out any set up.  Oh, how many times as mech mage where I'm one turn from ending the game when Gigafin eats all my mechs and I have no answer to make him spit them back up.  Blackwater Behmoth is good because in will provide clear with its colossal buddy goading any enemy to attack it, while healing you up at the same time.  Mo'arg Forefiend does especially well against aggro decks that don't have a silence.  They have to punch through 8 health of minion and do an additional 8 damage to get you back to where you were before you played the fiend.  

I've put a warlock and priest minion in what I feel like are some of the best high-cost minions, but I think that Druid and Warrior have more support for high-cost minions.  Druid because they can ramp up faster, giving the opponent less time to kill them before they get access to those minions.  Warrior because they can build up armor as well as clear the board as needed.  Here are a few good minions for those two classes.

Most of these minions provide good defenses.  The Trenchstalker and Remornia, Living Blade are 2 cards that can strike back.  Remornia bounces back between minion and weapon.  I'm unsure if the health total carries over to be the durability of the weapon and vice versa with would make it much less good but also not completely broken.

I'll be honest, I was kind of surprised that there weren't more high-cost minions that I liked but I feel like the class cards to support building around high-cost minion still remains the same.  Also, there are plenty of high-cost neutral minion to choose from.  So, to bring it back a bit.  We were discussing that Kael'thas Sinstrider is only as good as the minions he is able to bring out, generally high-cost minion will give you the greatest value.  But we have to remember that it is only every third minion's cost that is reduced to zero.  This means we've got to include low or at least lower cost minion to take advantage of Kael'thas's ability.  In general, low-cost minions that generate more minions, draw cards, provide defense, or help ramp up are what we are looking for.  I will not go into detail about what low-cost minion to include.  This will be largely dependent on what your deck needs.

To wrap things up, Kael'thas Sinstrider has the potential to overwhelm your opponents by discounting large minions to flood the board with beefy boys.  The decks that choose to go this way will need to be able to stand alone.  Meaning that if you don't draw your Kael'thas that you still have a deck to stand on.  But I expect the times that you are able to play 16 mana worth of minions on turn 7 or 8 might cause opponent with no answer to concede.  Happy grinding.  

Volatile Skeleton Review: Love from Mage

 

As I've been playing mostly Mage I will start with a neutral card that Blizzard has pushed into a possible Mage deck type.  Mage has been one of my favorite classes to play, having that 1 damage to any target always at my disposal is very appealing to me.

   

Cost:       2

Stats:       2/2

Type:       Common

Ability:    Deathrattle, Damage

At first glance, blue skelie doesn't seem like anything special with combat stats slightly below average but with the support from new mage cards prompts me to make this card to work out.  Below are the direct mage cards that synergize with blue skelie. 

We got two spell cards that can summon additional skelies and a location that does the same.  KelThuzad the Invevitabel resurrects all the volatile skeletons you control that have died this game and explodes the rest that don't fit on the board.  I'm assuming that exploding the skelies just triggers the deathrattle.  So what we have are resources for a control deck type with a KelThuzad delivering a final punch.  Cold Case provides armor to shrug off any damage taken.  Nightcloak Sanctum will congest the enemy board, preventing damage and setting it up for greater board clears.  Deathborne is a light board clear, only doing two damage to each minion.  This is most likely going to need set up to drop the board to kill range for the spell to utilize it to create the most skelies as possible.  Cone of Cold, Blizzard, or even a Volcanomancy on a friendly skelie can stall and provide board damage.

 

https://hearthstone.blizzard.com/deckbuilder?deckcode=SkelieMage

Above is a deck code of control skelie mage type at a dust cost approximately 9520.  This post has gone away from the individual card of Volatile Skeleton and more about how it might work in a mage deck type due to the simplicity of the card.  There is possibility of use in a deathrattle deck, but it seems unlikely.  Navel Mine, which has found use in deathrattle rogue is a better version of blue skelie.  Although I could be wrong as I don't have personal experience playing that deck and the skelies could be a good addition to the decks.  

Jumping back to talking about the mage deck, I feel like Prince Renathal could be an obvious bait, due to lower the probability to draw the skelie cards because of the increase in deck size but on the other hand, adding 10 extra health might be what it takes to survive strong aggro decks.  I almost felt like I made the deck with a frost aspect with a lot of frost spell included and a few minions that utilize the frost aspect to gain more armor.  Lady Naz'jar changes to prodive 8 armor after playing a frost spell.  

I've also included a few cards to help discover or bounce back those skelie generating spells.  Although these are put in for the purpose of generating skelie spells, discover cards have the benefit of discovering answers for the board state, whatever it may be. 

Honestly, I'm not going to keep my hopes too high a viable deck, but it could be fun to play for the memes.  This is one deck that I think I'm going to cobble together and look to make modifications as needed.  Again, the whole ideal of the deck is to outlast the opponent until it can unleash its hoard of skelie to overwhelm its opponent. With four unique cards summoning skelies, it's possible to summon 18 skelies having played all of the summoning skelies, averaging 3 skelies per deathborne.  That's 24 instant damage!  Unlikely but I hoping blizzard makes exploding skelies an achievement for me to work towards.  Feel free to comment any ideas or suggestions to make the deck better.  I'd love to hear feedback.

   

Introduction

 Hi everyone.  Just a little something about myself.  My name is Andrew.  Otherwise known online as tennisplayer or westfriend.  I'm a boomer at the ripe age of 31 years.  I mostly only play a few games these days, them being League of Legends, Hearthstone, and Team Fight Tactics.  I've been playing these games since they have come out or close to it.  My in-game accomplishments are reaching diamond 5 in LOL (Playing pre-rework Aatrox top), diamond 4 in Hearthstone just recently (Playing mech mage, I know, I hate the player I've become) and low platinum in TFT (Current rank gold).  I'm here to share my thoughts and experiences playing these games.  I'm not the best player but I always look to improve and I'm looking to take whoever want to join with me.  I am going to start my discussions by reviewing the coming up hearthstone expansion Murder at Castle Nathria.