TheDukeOfTBC's Official HS Blog!

Welcome to what is going to be my official Hearthstone blog. I am a player who focuses on playing the game completely "Free to Play." The difference between the way I will be playing and others, is that I won't be using just one deck. If you focus every resource into one deck of course you can make a good deck, but only playing one deck is not fun. So I am going to help show you that you can make many decks that do well and won't cost you an arm and a leg. I have been playing Magic the Gathering for almost two decades and deck building has always been my passion. Playing decks that people don't see coming and plays against the meta can bring far more success than playing a net deck.

I love having a back and forth with people and will ALWAYS answer any questions people have with me. If you want to check out videos of me playing some of my decks please head to my Youtube channel thedukeoftbc.

"The Daily Grind"

I love that this is a card game that is free to play. The thing is, this is also a video game. I have never been a fan of micro transactions. I would much rather pay 40$ and have everything a game has to offer. That being said, the ability to grind out to gain my collection for free is a nice option. My only complaint is the abysmal rate that you can get gold. Getting the maximum 100 gold a day from wins takes a TREMENDOUS amount of time. I don't see how it would hurt them much to make it so every three wins grants 20 gold and keep the cap at 100 gold. I think it is more than fair.

I am not a fan of mindless rush down decks that require little to no interaction. For the sake of my sanity and time, as well as yours, I would recommend a strong aggro deck to get the most buck for your time. I am currently running what may be considered a "to the face" hunter build to grind out my gold. The deck does require some smart trading vs other heavy creature decks. In the end. buzzard + UTH combo puts you too far ahead of other aggro decks. I have played around 25-30 matches today in casuals just to grind gold and I have lost 3 times. Here is the list!

1x Hunters mark (0)
2x Tracking (1)
2x Abusive Sergeant (1)
2x Argent Squire (1)
2x Leper Gnome (1)
2x Timber Wolf (1)
2x Unleash The Hounds (2)
2x Bluegill Warrior (2)
2x Dire Wolf Alpha (2)
2x Ironbeak Owl (2)
2x Starving Buzzard (2)
2x Eaglehorn Bow (3)
2x Animal Companion (3)
2x Kill Command (3)
1 Arcane Golem (3)
2x Wolfrider (3)

As you can see the deck has a VERY small mana curve. I do not own Leeroy Jenkins, but of course he could be added to the deck over Arcane Golem very easily. Leeroy also helps with even more UTH synergy. If you somehow don't own ANY of the cards in this deck, it costs 780 dust to make it from nothing. Hope you enjoy and you WILL get some rage friend requests. I honestly apologize because I know this deck is frustrating to lose to on turn 5-7. Enjoy!

"More Bang For Your Dust"

As a free to play player, one of the hardest things to do is to manage your arcane dust. I love playing a variety of decks and do not want to just have to focus all my resources into one deck to succeed. At this time I have a control warrior deck, priest deck, mage deck, warlock deck, paladin deck, rogue deck, and shaman deck that I am happy with. Could they all use some improvements? Of course they could, but they are able to win the majority of their matches. Even my other decks I don't play except for quests do very well. The best way to do this is to focus on strong neutral minions with great versatility. One card that goes in almost every single deck I make without fail is Azure Drake. There were even 2 copies in my control warrior build that got me to rank 5 last season and most people think the drake has no place in control warrior lists. Here is a list of some very strong minions that many decks can benefit from, this of course is just short list and I can and will go more in depth on other minions as I use them in decks.

Epics:

Faceless Manipulator - An amazing card that lets you have a copy of the most powerful minion on the board for 5 mana. Also combos incredibly with ANY removal.
Big Game Hunter - Amazing removal WITH a nice 4/2 body. Gets rid of those pesky giants and rag. Combos amazingly with faceless

Rares:

Azure Drake - ALWAYS nets an extra card, strong body, AND + spell power. This card puts the team on his back!
Gadgetzan Auctioneer - Even if you deck isn't ultra spell heavy this card can still net AMAZING profits. I currently have it shining brightly in my rogue, priest, and shaman builds.
Wild Pyromancer - Incredibly strong vs aggro decks. Currently kicking but in my priest build

Uncommons:

Acolyte of Pain - This card can be a hyper card drawing engine in many decks. Shines in mage because your hero power becomes draw a card, which is desperately needed in mage decks. Of course is a strong card in warrior where full board aoe is constantly going off.
Harvest Golem - Strong in both aggro and holding off aggro. 2/3 on turn 3 is a little weak, but having a 2/1 after it dies is very nice for maintaining board presence.
Amani Berserker - Strong turn 2 play that can turn into a HUGE threat. Shines in warrior and mage where it is very easy to activate its enrage and kill a much larger creature. (I call him the yeti killer.)
Ironbeak Owl - It is a low cost silence which is needed vs many minions
Dark Iron Dwarf - Very strong turn 4 play that makes it possible for one of your 2 or 3 drops to trade for a 4 or even 5 drop.

I hope this helps you on spending your dust very wisely. I will be doing a separate post on what neutral legends I like. May the RNG gods favor you!