Critique My Game

General Discussion
1

CRITIQUE MY GAME
RULES
(Read Before Posting)


1 - This topic is for game critiques. Players will post their games and better players will critique their games.


2 - I will refer as "the player" to the person who posted his/her game to get critiques; and as "the author" to the author of the critique throughout the rules.


3 - Everyone may post their games to get critiques. The games should be recorded with HS Deck Tracker, and players will post the HSReplay link of their games. Players can just copy and paste the link, no need to put it in link format.

( example: can someone critique my this game: https://hsreplay.net/replay/AS52pk44sGyM4sXkZj6Jv6 )

Critique authors will copy the link and paste on their browser to view the game.


4 - Everyone may critique other players' games if they think they could've played it better if the player was them. When posting a critique, you have to quote the post of the game that you're writing a critique about.

( example:
can someone critique my this game: https://hsreplay.net/replay/AS52pk44sGyM4sXkZj6Jv6
You should've played the flame imp in Turn 1. )


5 - You can only post 2 games to be criticized each week. This can change in the future, so keep an eye on the rules.


6 - You can only post games that you've lost.


7 - You can critique as many games as you want, but you can only post one critique about each game.


8 - Leave a like on the critiques that you liked. This way, best critiques will get the most amount of likes, which would come helpful to the player of that game.


9 - The author "might" suggest changes on the deck in their critique, but that's not highly recommended.


10 - This post is not official. Also it's not well-known too, yet. I hope it gets attention in the future and comes helpful to the Hearthstone community.


11 - English isn't my primary language, so I'm sorry for the bad English. If something isn't clear, or if you're thinking something is missing, or if you have suggestions about the rules, make a post about it on this topic. I'll check the post regularly so I will see it.
3 Likes
2

Perfect idea, i like it.

You should have indeed played the flame imp on turn one :stuck_out_tongue:
Other then that you did great , your deck is countered by that deck though and he was lucky on that coin into second spirit lash on turn 3.

How am i doing ?

1 Like
3

Thanks very much for liking the idea! Very nice critique, this is -hopefully- what this topic is going to be filled with.

5

You were onto a loser straight away imo. He top decked 2 Spirit Lash, 2 Mass Hysteria and a Mass Dispel. At first I thought you went too hard too soon, which may still actually be true, but when that Witchwood Grizzly came out and he top decked Eternal Servitude, that was game over right there. Gods were against you there

1 Like
6

Haha, you guys are all about the example :slight_smile:
And yeah, I also think my opponent was very lucky. Wow this topic already got some attention!

7

Not playing Flame Imp turn 1, especially against a Priest, can be game losing. Typically there only playing is going to be Cleric, so playing a 2/1 into that is just bad.

The double spirit lash draw was brutal, can’t do anything about that.

Turn 6 is the first debatable turn after 1. I think I would have played both the 1 drops, healing one of my minions. It’s way less mana efficient, but after the double spirit lash your already way behind and so I’d wana pile the pressure on the board. Plays a little be better around mass hysteria (potentially) and is 1 turn before they can scream.

Turn 8 I’m not sure if tap first, or last was right. With your play you need to hit 1 of the 4 fungle/spellbreakers, otherwise chaingang > soulfire > tap is better or the same, but you might have been far enough behind to justify the tap. That’s one of those nuances where I’d have had to play the match-up a lot with your deck to know which line I think is better.

All in all, turn 1 was a flat out mistake and a few turns to think about but otherwise, it was more of a draw order decides the game, over any decisions you made.

1 Like
8

I disagree that if you did or didn’t play flame imp on turn 1 was a mistake. Under normal circumstances yes, maybe it was, but in this particular game I doubt it would have made much difference. The double draws of spirit lash and mass hysteria was brutal to come up against and I’m not sure any sequence of your opening 3-4 turns would have made any difference. all flame imp would have done would have stalled the double play of spirit lash and it would have just been a bigger clear…that or one mass hysteria would have done what 2 spirit lashes ended up doing. As I say, the draw of that game was against you from the start

A lot of priests are running radiant elemental these days, and sacrificing one into a flame imp to be ressed later is a more than justifiable sacrifice. Only an idiot plays cleric on turn 1 against a zoolock

1 Like
9

…so you’re an idiot if you play Cleric into a Kobold librarian on turn 1? There was me thinking a free trade with card draw, for my deck where if I have the answers I can’t lose the match up was good.

What do you mean normal circumstances? At the point in this game on turn 1, you only know your hand and that the priest mulliganed 3 cards. There are literally 4 options, Flame Imp, Librarian, Lightwarden and pass. How this particular 1 off game pans out is irrelevant. Flame Imp is the right play, the other 3 are wrong. Your advice implies that next time you face a priest, play the Librarian again as it doesn’t matter, which is bad advice.

10

AHHhhh, I see, the Sheercold nest

12

hsreplay_net/replay/yQcB4hGDKzSx69JTVBzVvN (please replace _ with . because i cant post links)
Excuse me, this is not constructed, this is Arena?! Did I play wrong, or did my opponent have a crazy deck and also top-decked everything?

13

Use the “Preformatted text” option (</> button) like this: https://hsreplay.net/replay/yQcB4hGDKzSx69JTVBzVvN

Your biggest mistake was in turn 2. Playing the Loot Hoarder allows your opponent to kill off their Webspinner to buff their Hyena. You should have pinged the Hyena instead.
You might still have lost due to the second Hyena but at least not as fast and you would have had a better chance to come back.

Also, turn 3: I think Coin - Water Elemental would have been a bit better.
Similarly, turn 4 I think Water Elemental was still better than the Yeti. The Yeti died to Soldier of Fortune; the Elemental would stall more damage because of its freezing effect.

Getting two Scavenging Hyenas in an Arena draft is very lucky, but it happens. I only very rarely pick another card over a Hyena (I only would if I’m at the end of the draft and have very little beasts). In other words, if I get offered Hyena twice, I probably have it twice in my deck. :wink:
Obviously the draw of your opponent was also insane: to have a turn 1 beast into turn 2 Hyena into turn 3 second Hyena is extremely rare and extremely lucky. Even with the best possible counterplays, you probably would have lost. Such an insane draw is simply one of those “1 in a 1000” games that just happen. Accept the loss and move on.

2 Likes
14

Yeah Loot hoard on turn 2 is terrible, think I might have been inclined to coin out the ooze to better challenge for the board. They might have wolfridered it but I’d still be in a better position being able to play out the 3/2 on turn 3 having delayed the 2nd hyena.

Then given your line, definitely should have coined water elemental on turn 3, you’re so far behind on board, you need your biggest tempo play to try and stop the bleeding.

Their draw was lucky but you did also play into it. It would only take you having a volcanic potion for you to essentially win on turn 3 with their draw, so it’s not that crazy but given how slow your deck is, I might have been inclined to mulligan the whole lot away at the start going 2nd against hunter to try and find an arcane servant. Typically you don’t want your value cards early, even if their mana cost suggests otherwise.

15 
https://hsreplay.net/replay/8qJMwJNckxoHksNxoHSead

Wait what, double Kazakus in Arena? I don’t think I had a chance here, but I’ll ask you guys. Did I have a chance, and as a seperate question, was my opponent really, really lucky?

16

Turn 3 should have used the flametounge to trade, better mana wise, tempo wise and resource wise (ie you keep the rush in hand). Would have let you kill the Proud Defender for 2 spiders and keep you hex.

Yeah discovering an active Kazakus is pretty crazy, it does however give you power info about their deck, i.e. no duplicates.

Turn 6 I would have played the 2nd spider, over the totem. You deck isn’t built to go long against mage so I would want the guaranteed pressure/resilience to board clears.

Ouch Felguard, can’t do anything about that.

Totem first turn 9, getting spell power might have changed the way you played out that turn.

You were already dead before the 2nd Kazakus.

So all in all I think you could have played it a bit better, but I actually thing this was an unwinnable game. As you deck had no card draw or late game bombs, it relies on you hit your curve every turn and finishing off greedy decks asap. In this case, even if you had done that, the quality of the opponents drawn cards meant you were always going to be in trouble.

17

here if you want to be my oppinion meaningfull, → https://imgur.com/a/OUccjhb

Glancing upon your deck that i see you have a neat pick for strong cards, atleast those are good for arena card picks.
the other thing though is that your whole deck contains way to much 2 drops.
as soon as you dont get the board on your first few turns your chances to regain it are low since your deck is quite vulnarable to already a big taunt.

now for your match, you throw away both your two 2 cost picks, i would have kept the weapon or minion. ( see my reason that you already have many 2 costs )
A mana curve can be great in your opening hand but dont mulligan that much for it.

ok now you already need to use a hex on that proud defender but the better choice was to play flametongue totem and trade both your minions into wich it 6 attack.

turn 6 was good so you could get that needed damage to your opponent.
turn 7 i would have played the spider and another minion so it would be a bad flamestrike turn/blizzard from him. though i dont know how many wins you had but the higher up there the most likely he has board clear.

turn 8 hagatha scheme, no mate that was really bad in there , you needed to fight for the board with your minions go all in or clear in your favor for stats.
match was over at turn 9 , and yeah the mage was lucky to get kazakus 2x so i guess somewhere a long his picks he went for building around it.

18

I was literally typing almost exactly what Ixnay has just posted but he beat me to it so I won’t bother any more :joy::joy::joy:

Aside from that advice I agree that there was little you could have really done to win that game, was just an out and out bad match up for you

19

Going over your match, here is my feedback.

First, I don’t know what options you had in draft. The final deck has lots of cheap cards and very little late game cards, which means you’ll have to play aggressive and win before your opponent gets to take control with their probably bigger cards.
Also, Hagatha’s Scheme is a terrible card in an aggro deck, since it destroys your board too. With aggro, either you have more stuff on board than the opponent or you lose. Again, without knowing what the alternatives were and whether you picked it early or late in the draft it might be bad luck and not a mistake.
Conversely, Frostwolf Warlord is an excellent card for a draft like this. That was a good pick!

In the mulligan, you should have kept all cards. Especially with no 3-drops, Axe into 2-drop (of course depending on board state) can be a good way to ensure early board control. (If you do draw a 3-drop, or if the opponent passes, then turn 2 Axe is bad and you should just play Creeper; having the Axe can still be valuable though effective mana usage becomes more of a challenge).
If you would have had any secrets, tossing Sunreaver Spy in hope of redrawing when you have a secret up can be nice. But you’re a Shaman, so you’ll never have a secret, and a turn 2 2/3 on empty board is better than the Creeper.
(If you had several 1-drops in your draft, then tossing back one or two cards would have been less bad, but now … what were you hoping to get?)

Turn 3: I don’t really dislike your play, but Flametongue Totem and then trade the Creeper into the Wolf would have been more mana efficient. Good chance that the Totem survives, then next turn you can (if needed) play the Hogsteed next to it for an unexpected 4 burst damage, and use the remaining 2 mana for either another Creeper or a hero power (or perhaps you draw another of your 2 drops).

Turn 6 I do not like the Hero Power at 3 remaining mana. Playing Toxic Sewer Ooze (especially vs Mage, a non-weapon class) would have given you much more pressure. With aggro, you need to finish the game fast because you WILL run out of steam before most of your opponents. Only hero power when it’s the best option, don’t hero power instead of play card to preserve cards. That’s a strategy you sometimes use in a control deck.

Turn 7 you passed the turn with 2 mana left and with two 2-drops in hand. You definitely should have played one of them (probably the Spy). Unless you somehow had a hunch that your opponent had picked the AoE option for the Kazakus potion.

After the Kazakus AoE potion landed, you had lost. You were low on cards and your opponent had a full hand. They still had enough health left that even if you had been able to get in some extra chip damage, it would not have been enough. I understand that you continued to play, there is a small chance that their entire hand is trash, but it was a 1 in a 1000 chance by now. You could have done a few things differently (like hero power before using damage spell) but it would not have changed a thing.

To be fair, your opponent had one; the other was discovered. But yeah, still pretty lucky.
Given how early in the game they were able to play it I guess they picked up the copy in their draft early and then took care to not pick any duplicate cards. Which had the lucky side effect that the discovered version was active right away.

If you had played the deck with the full aggression it needs, you would definitely have had a much tighter finish. Granted, turn 7 made no difference because of the Kazakus AoE, but the better plays on mulligan and on turns 3 and 6 would have allowed you to get in more face damage. That would probably also have changed some of your opponent’s choices so it’s hard to say whether or not that would have resulted in a win.

They definitely were very lucky to discover Kazakus with a deck with little or no duplicates. Knowing their hand this was an uphill battle from the start. Not sure if there was any way you could have won. But, as said, it could have been closer.

20

Thank you all for the critiques, they were very helpful!