I had an idea when I woke up: Why not take a screen shot of every turn from a game, and go through almost as a play by play? Wouldn't it be educational? Fun? I believe so! I asked a few people who were online if they were participate, and luckily TheRempel agreed to volunteer. (Didn't quite want to break this out on ladder, since it involved taking a screen shot every turn) I asked him to pick something midrangey, since I didn't want a game to last too long or be too short. (Ie. face hunter) I chose my only ~true midrange deck: Shaman. (Actually, my Shaman is def more control than the midrange builds, but whatever, it's what I like to play) Here is my list, so people are aware of what cards I'm playing: (Only one cut off is Al Akir)



To my bemusement, Remp chose Warrior. Ugh, I shouldn't have been surprised he'd fool me and just pick his best/favorite class. What a dickhead!

Well, away we go. Let's start with the mulligan phase:



Against some classes, I'd keep the storm. Warrior is not one of them. Boom is too slow to keep ever, so that's an auto pitch. What about Rockbiter and BGH? these are my first real choices!

I chose to keep the BGH. Control warrior has a million targets, and not being able to deal with a big target on turn 7 ends the game for me. Unless I knew I was fighting against Handlock, these are the only two matches I opt to keep the BGH. Maybe this was optimistic.

I chose to discard the Rockbiter. Rockbiter is excellent early removal, but warrior just doesn't have targets. It doesn't clear an armorsmith, and I'd rather have early plays than a way to remove something like an acolyte. This is one of the few classes I'd pitch the rockbiter.

Turn 1

(Remp passed his turn)



I drew Loatheb, Neptulon, and my other Rockbiter. Not ideal. But luckily, I top deck into Spiders, which is basically exactly what I want in the early game.

My only decision here is whether I coin out the spiders or not. It's actually an option; I get to chip away at his armor, and if he drops an armor smith, I'm able to rockbiter the spiders and clear it very efficiently. I decided against it though, as my curve is messy and the coin can smooth things out.

Turn 2

(Remp equipped an axe and passed)



No decisions here. I drew into a hex, which could be useful. I played the spiders. Going to merge this with turn 3, as there should be zero commentary here.

Turn 3

(Remp whacked the spiders with the axe and then used whirlwind. Then he hero powered)



Well then, didn't expect my board to be wiped like that. Technically that's fine with me; forced Remp to use a charge of his axe AND he used an additional card. He did get to sneak a hero power in there, so I suppose to spiders did their job. I drew into chow.

No decisions here: I held the BGH for a reason, and since I have a play (chow + hero ability), that's what I opted to do. Note I placed the chow to the left of the totem. Even though I don't have a flametongue in hand, I want to prepare for the future by totem dancing, if it comes to that.

I'm fully expecting the Chow to eat the other charge of the weapon, which will take away Remp's 2nd charge and the armor. The lifegain is completely irrelevant. I was crossing my fingers for taunt, (as a Shaman, if you consistently roll taunt vs warrior, you are not going to lose) but it was not to be.

Turn 4

Remp killed the chow, as expected, and equipped the Death's Bite. Sadly we don't have Harrison, or this would be a massive massive win expectancy boost. We're even on life, and although I'm "up" on cards in hand, one is the coin and he has the DB equipped. So Id say at this point we're fairly drawn. I have plenty of answers for his threats, and in Neptulon, I have a threat of my own.



Well, good to save the coin I guess! My options here are: Drop a BGH, use Rockbiter? (lol, not an option), totem/pass, coin->Loatheb, or coin->Healbot.

I chose to coin the Loatheb. Given he hadn't used a charge on the DB, it will be an awkward clear for him. It also is capable of eating up a sludge belcher if played. The best answer is basically whack + taskmaster.

I'm not against playing the Healbot as just a 3/3, since it's too optimistic to just wait until post-Strazza. But it dies to the Death's Bite, so I think my only real plays are coin loatheb or totem passing.

The searing totem is total garbage, obviously. It did 1pt of damage to Remp, but it will get eaten by the whirlwind.

Turn 5

(Remp attacked face and armored up, floating 3 mana)

I drew Fire Elemental.



Well, it's pretty obvious with the setup that Remp can attack Loatheb and clear my searing totem next turn. It's annoying, I haven't been able to build my board at all! My options here are either: Play the healbot (would gain 4 health) or Totem/Pass.

If I play the Totem... 1 in 3 is great for me. The taunt completely messes up Remp's plan. But... If it's the other 2, (Heal/Spells) they do nothing for me.

The effective heal doesn't really matter, IF I'm going to get Alexed at some point. But if I play a 3/3, I may force Remp to use removal (ie. an execute) that I want him to use so that Neptulon is free to get played on 7.

I played my 5 drop. I'm totally fine with it getting hit and Loatheb getting executed. I have a 5-6-7 curve set up. So let's go for it!

Turn 6

(Remp attacked the Healbot, then used Shield Block/armor up and Shield Slammed the Loatheb. My board is barren, he has 5 cards in hand, I have 6 cards (I drew the 2nd spiders) and we're ~even on life.

At this point I'd say we're still pretty drawn. I would like to turn the corner at some point.



I can either break curve by going Spiders/totem, or waste the fire elemental battlecry by plopping it down. I don't really have any other play. Honestly, if I had a flametongue, I would be tempted to get board prescence even though that floats mana. But I don't, so let's just try to eat up the armor. Unfortunately an armor up/2nd shield slam does the job on my Elemental, or death's bite/taskmaster.

Turn 7

(Remp played a Gnomish Inventor, armored up, and used the 2nd shield slam to clear my Fire Elemental)



That's really annoying. He had the 2nd shield slam, AND he played an inventor. Hmm, that doesn't smell right. I'm pretty obviously against the OTK warrior now; Remp played a little joke.

Well, that's a shame. Firstoff, it makes my mulligan look horrible. Secondoff, it means I'm on a strict clock/need a taunt(s). My decisions I think were correct, since 95%+ of warriors are control warrior, so you can't gameplan to this archetype.

I drew into my 2nd chow. I have 7 mana, if I play Neptulon it fills my hand to 9 cards. The overload is a real pain in the ass. I could even hex the inventor - this seems insane. but the OTK warrior doesn't run minions that are bigger. So... Hex/and spiders/chow, or spiders/totem along with Hex, or no Hex and spiders/chow/totem. All are options. Also, can feel free to just play the BGH as a 3 drop now since there will absolutely not be a target.

I just played Neptulon. I need a threat, and although filling my board up is appealing, it just doesn't do much.

Turn 8

Remp played Acolyte x2 and his 3rd weapon (!). He hit me in the face with the weapon and Inventor.



Wow, this is the crucial turn. Finally the game just got interesting. I drew into hex (useless), and I got Billy the Murloc, Old Murk Eye, and Warleader x2. Pretty decent Murloc draw. He has 3 cards.

My Thoughts:
-Let's give him Worgen, Inner Rage, and Charge. Those would be his perfect 3 cards. That's 3, 4, 6, 8, 16 damage. He has 7 on board. So I'm not dead next turn.

However, he has a lot of draw on board. As noted, the clock is ticking, and it's ticking fast. I also only have 5 mana this turn. I'm not going to list all the possible plays, since there are a lot of them.

-I need to go face with the 7 damage. If I had a Belcher or other taunts, where I could control the board and lock down a win, I'd be very tempted to do so. But I don't. I need to put some pressure on Remp. He *also* didn't have a way to remove Neptulon last turn. He's at 28 effective, so Neptulon puts him at 21. Depending on my other plays, I can at least give him a ~2 turn clock or so.

-At this point I can't really play Chow. The lifegain for him is very real, and it just doesn't do anything except give him multiple draws. I also can't double hex his Acolytes to shut off draw; it's a straight value loss, but I have such a massive card advantage the game for me has nothing to do with making value plays, it's all about shutting off his OTK combos.

-I ended up playing Old Murk Eye and Billy the Murloc. I did 7 face damage and cleared 1 Acolyte, just cycling it for Remp.

This was a half-hedge for me; now that I have more time, I kinda wish I rockbited 1 and Hexed the other. But maybe that's too defensive. I played both Murlocs, I should note, so that if Remp pushes face (to set me to lethal range) I can drop double Warleader next turn for a ton of burst. This is WILDLY optimistic, but it's also possible, and I feel the burn of the clock.

Turn 9

An all-too-common occurrence: My board is completely barren. He ran the Acolyte into Billy, the Inventor into Neptulon, executed it, and used his weapon charge on Old Murk Eye. He equipped his last weapon, and armored up. I drew my shredder. That would've been really nice on turn 4.



I don't really remember exactly what I did. I think I played a shredder, creepers, the chow, and a totem. I was hoping to get a taunt, (I obviously didn't) and it should be noted that I put the creepers on the far left, if I am able to actually get a flametongue that could be relevant. I ignored his board because I had to.

Turn 10



I drew Al Akir. I need a taunt. Let's set up the win next turn if possible. Al Akir and totem, let's push face.

~~~

Well, that sucked:

Good game Rempel.

Great thread idea imo Bobbo, and a pretty interesting game. I'm not even at the level where considering opposing deck types is a thing, so it's pretty interesting to read about

To be fair, the only reason I picked this list is because Bobbo specified that it needed not to be a slow control deck or a fast aggro deck. This is the only thing approaching a midrange deck I had!

I got super lucky on the last turn i that I topped deck my second inner-rage, without which I would not have had lethal that turn because I would have been forced to use combo cards to clear Al-Akir.

I like the thread idea too, Binkles

Comments on any turn would be appreciated.

This thread will make having the HS forum completely worth it just in itself. Awesome idea and I'll be following it.

Good thread but not such an interesting game looked like u need to get a shredder out to have a shot + chows, mcs, storm are wasted cards in this matchup, only thing I feel is a mistake is throwing the rockbiter and keeping the bgh, bgh is dead for a long time and u have 2 hexes to draw to to deal with anything big.

Not sure about the early whirlwind from rempel looked like it payed off, will have to think about the game,

another thought maybe wait for flametongue to get the spiders down the 1/1s are pretty useless in this matchup without the totem > u can keep hero powering and see wat he does.

Some comments.

Mulligan:
You consider Boom as too slow and than keep BGH which is basically the same except, one is active and other reactive card. (i would dump both)

rockbitter: well i would keep the rockbitter if i dont have earthshock (which u dont run) in starting hand. One way warrior can get ahead is with his early acolyte plays so i think u need to have a removal ready and from your list there are only 3 early removal options - 2 rockbitters and powermace.

Turn 7:
Given u read your opponent is an OTK warr, i think BGH+Chow+ spiders is much better play, even if i still think its control warrior chow+spiders+totem is better. Multiple units on board and no overload is just better imo.

Yeah the mulligan was a disaster.

Disagree about rockbiter, it's better served later game to gang up on a big thing or combo as a finisher (against warrior)

I think in the future what I'd do is just post a screen shot beginning my turn and in spoilers what I did, so people can respond what they'd do, rather than walk through my reasoning in the post

I would rather 33% to get a Taunt totem than drop heal bot especially with BGH already in hand (still assuming Control). BGH/Healbot is a pretty sick counter play to alex, I don't think it is too optimistic to hold healbot in that mathcup. If he doesn't have a cruel any totem is something that will have to be dealt with anyway if it isn't taunt. If you don't get the taunt and he doesn't clear it will just be another totem out there so that Taunt will get rolled easier later in the game.

Also if you drop healbot he can just attack healbot, execute Loatheb and still drop a belcher.

I'm not happy about either play, but that happens.

I agree with pitching Rockbiter in opener, you really want those early sticky minions that eat up more than one charge of a weapon and can trade up with FT. If you do end up with it though obviously use one to kill a 1/3 Acolyte if there is no other way to limit it to just one draw.

I keep all early minions and ES against warrior.

would've definitely hexed and used rockbiter to get rid off the 2 acolytes on turn 8 and then played the 2/1 murloc and attacked face.

Thanks for the thread. As a novice, these types of decision by decision scenarios are really helpful instead of just one tough spot in the middle of a match.