I think you should play arena but don't blow your entire set of gold on it. You need classic cards as well.

The amazon deal is back--I think I bought 150+ packs for 80 dollars last year but obviously it's a lot of money for a game but right now it's the cheapest you are going to get packs for.

Link for the Amazon deal?

http://www.amazon.com/b?node=10558189011

I'm not an arena player but from what I've seen read, arena is 100% about value. You need to focus on picking high value cards.

You can't rely on combos and synergy. They are more a bonus than anything you should try to build a deck around. Minion value goes up, your deck is mostly gonna be minions, with some weapons/removal to compliment them. So you want minions that more frequently go 2-1, that sorta thing.

You have to have a good curve too of course, you want a lot of early/mid game creatures and a few strong late game creatures. If you focus too much on bigger creatures you'll too often get crushed early. That means sometimes picking a weaker card that fits your curve better.

Just use heartharena for your arena picks so you don't have to worry about "did I do well in the draft or not?"

I've been grinding dailies casually over the last few months, acquiring gold and doing tavern brawls for packs. Mostly just saving up unopened packs and using quest gold to finish all of normal Naxx and the class challenges. Unless I'm wrong, heroic mode doesn't give me any extra cards so I've got everything I can from Naxx and I'll move onto Blackrock next.

Now as well, I figure I want to start incorporating Naxx cards and cards from packs into my decks but I think I'm bad at understanding card value and what it takes to build a workable deck. It's easy to go icy veins and copy someones premade deck but I'd rather learn to understand the game better than that.

Suggestions on where to start next?

Easy answer is to play more to figure out card value


Generally, you also need to match cards to the style. Trying to play control/midrange? Try to get good value minions who "stick" to the board, either with good health (like a 3 mana 3/4) or with death rattles (shredders)

Playing aggro? Don't worry as much about AOE removal and pack low cost minions in the deck and spells to add burst


General rule is that cards that add up to more than 2x the mana cost are a minimum start (barring extra card effects of course) with an edge to a 3/4 rather than a 4/3.

Just play more and you will begin to understand how to build decks that work together

I guess I need to become more clear on what some of these glossary terms mean: midrange, etc.

Lost 3 games in a row to Expert Hunter w/ level 2-4 Mage...

Feel like I must just be playing terribly but also feel like I can't handle the volume/size of his creatures.

The innkeeper is a bitch

Haha, moved onto other classes. Don't think any game has been very close. Just got Frost Elemental or w/e it is so hopefully that'll help with the Hunter. Idk, maybe I just got ****ty draws those game.

Midrange is a style of play, where the idea is to overwhelm opponent in the middle turns (4-8)

Face is an aggro style where attacking the opponent directly is used

Etc

da fuq, stealth doesn't protect against consecration?

Stealth stops your minion from being targeted I.e you can't aim an attack/spell directly at your opponents stealthed minion . Everything else still goes.

That was a surprise.

Enjoying Druid but feel like I'm likely misplaying Wild Growth. Should I be forgoing 2-drops to Wild Growth instead? If I have on-curve dudes I typically end up holding Wild Growth until pretty late, when it's no longer useful.

It depends, against faster decks you want to get something on the board and not get too far behind. You also have to plan what you are gonna do with the extra mana, if you only have a 3 drop then getting to 4 mana on turn 3 isn't that important.

It ultimately depends how your deck is constructed. In competitive Druid, you almost always want to cast it on t2 because Druid has terrible 3 drops and excellent 4+ drops.

I'm basically playing slightly-modified basic Druid lol.

What 2 drops do you even have as Druid? I only run Darnassus. I play that over Wild Growth most of the time. If you're running like Druid of the Saber, Power of the Wild, Flame Juggler type things I'd play those before Wild Growth (which probably doesn't belong in that kind of deck).

Recently got every class to 10, decided to build something to make playing more fun while I grind gold for arena. Crafted some stuff for mech rogue, figured I could use the mechs in mech mage as well. How does this list look for a f2p deck?

Backstab x 2
Deadly Poison
Cogmaster x2
Eviscerate x2
Sap
Annoy-o-tron x2
Mechwarper x2
Demolisher
Iron Sensei x2
SI:7 Agent x2
Spider Tank
Tinkertown Technician x2
Mech Yeti x2
Piloted Shredder x2
Assassin's Blade x2
Assassinate x2
Sprint x2

Running into trouble if I get a slow draw or if they can handle my early game. I suppose that is the nature of the deck but any low-dust-cost/free changes I can make to balance it out?

I think two assassinates are too slow for an aggro deck, I'd put in a second sap for one at least

That makes sense. Is 2x Assassin's Blade ok?

Wondering if I should craft the 5/5 Battlecry: +1/+1 to Mechs dude.

I'm no rogue expert, it's my least played class, I don't know about assassins blade. I'd craft piloted sky golems over the 5/5s as a big drop in a mech deck

Coldlight oracle is probably better than Sprint if you're going super aggro. I might be wrong.