#135 - The Angry Chicken: “Title”
• Garrett • Jocelyn • Dills
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Intro: Welcome to The Angry Chicken!
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Nathan “ThatsAdmirable” Zamora is our guest.
Topics of conversation:
News
You can submit stories and vote on the TAC subreddit at TACpodcast.reddit.com.
2016 HCT European Winter Preliminaries
151 players. No big name players qualified.
Top 8 Qualified players
DrHippi • Pokrovac • Nicslay • Diggen • Tars • Cereza • BunnyHoppor • Naiman
Via GosuGamers
“Esuba’s Mikuláš “Pokrovac” Dio made the playoffs of the €25,000 Gamegune in November, losing in the quarter finals to eventual runner-up James “Firebat” Kostesich, while French player Remi “Tars” Roesch of Melty Esports recently qualified for PGL Tavern Tales Spring over G2’s Dima “Rdu” Radu.
Perhaps the best recognized name, however, is that of Ole “Naiman” Batyrbekov. The Kazakhstani player was punished with a ban from the 2015 World Championship for win trading but saw his punishment lifted for the new season. A veteran of the game, Naiman is considered to be in prime position to be the new European champion.”
Links
Blizzard’s Q4 Earnings
Links
Brode Bellows
Links
Patreon Thanks Before Strategies
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Thanks to the patrons we do one extra episode a month where patrons can call in and ask questions live on the show. The next Patron Call-In episode will be at the end of this month.
Strategy
Deck Doctor - RNG Mage
I thought it would be fun to build a mage deck around spells summoning minions and minions summoning spells, and I believe there's potential locked down in there, but I haven't been able to bring it out consistently yet. I'm not sure if I'm playing the deck wrong, really bad at picking cards during the discover phase, or if the deck just isn't viable, but I think the randomness in it gives it lots of room for fun and infinite possibilities. Here's the decklist itself, thanks for taking a look!
Eric
2x Arcane Missiles
2x Mirror Image
2x Clockwork Gnome
2x Mana Wyrm
2x Frostbolt
2x Unstable Portal
2x Jeweled Scarab
2x Forgotten Torch
2x Flamewaker
2x Spellslinger
2x Fireball
2x Polymorph
2x Mechanical Yeti
1x Ethereal Conjurer
1x Nexus Champion Saraad
1x Flamestrike
1x Pyroblast
(I'm free-to-play, and haven't had the luck of opening a pack with Archmage Antonidas, otherwise he'd be in this deck)
Deck Doctor - Javelin Warrior
Dear Malcontent Foul,
Javelin Warrior. Its pretty simple, everything in the deck throws something or has an animation that makes it feel as though it does. I've tested a couple of builds and at 32 games(in both ranked and casual) it has been staying at a 50% win rate. I would like you guys to take a stab at it and offer up your thoughts on what could make it stronger.
I love the show and would like to praise your contribution to the community. You have been absolutely indispensable to this free to play player. Many Thanks.
-Dreadkyrn
Javelin Warrior:
Execute x 2
Elven Archer
Cleave
Slam
Acidic Swamp Ooze
Cruel Taskmaster x 2
Flame Juggler
Huge Toad
Knife Juggler x 2
Youthful Brewmaster
Big Game Hunter
Earthen Ring Farseer
Saboteur
Death's Bite
Arathi Weaponsmith
Axe Flinger x 2
Spellbreaker
Mukla's Champion x 2
Nightblade x 2
Sludge Belcher x 2
Frost Elemental (Replaced with Dr. Boom)
Alexstrasza
North Sea Kraken
SquareSpace Thanks Before Emails
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Crazy Game Stories
You can send your Crazy Game Stories to TACpodcast@gmail.com.
Gareth
Dear Chickens,
So I was just innocently playing Freeze Mage on ladder. Doing my thing: freezing chumps, ice blasting faces, being that guy, when I get matched up against a Rogue.
And as anyone knows - Rogue pretty much sucks at the moment. You've got Oil, but after that pretty much nothing viable. I've got coin and inside my hand are two Doomsayers, a Frostbolt, Fireball, and Alexstraza. I'm feeling confident. I've got this.
Turn #1: He passes, I pass. I'm feeling confident. I've got this.
Turn #2: He plays, Defias Ringleader as a straight up 2/2 with no combo. "Rookie", I thought. I ping the Ringleader for lolz. I'm feeling confident. I've got this.
Turn #3: He plays "Beneath the Grounds". "When has that card ever summoned a Nerubian I thought? Pfft." I'm feeling confident. I've got this.
The turn passes to me. The first card draws... it's a Nerubian for him. "Pah." I think,"But I've got a frostbolt to handle that."
My second card draws... it's another 4/4 Nerubian for him. I'm decidedly less confident now.
The third card draws... and it's another mother-flippin' 4/4 Nerubian for him.
I'm staring down the barrel of a 2/1 Defias Ringleader and 3 4/4 Nerubian's on Turn 3.
I stare in disbelief.
I rope.
I emote, "Well Played". I've not got this. I concede.
Keep up the great work!
Emails
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randomdrake
Hello Angry Fowl;
I just wanted to chime in really quick and offer a bit of insight from the technical side of things that may help to answer a question brought up in the latest episode. You were looking for reasons why Blizzard would close down old adventures and make them no longer accessible.
One very easy explanation, is this:
Just like an overwhelming number of historical cards make it difficult to progress forward with new features or card rules, leaving behind old code and old adventures means that every single new card, rules, or play mode, has to be 100% compatible with these old adventures. That means every card needs to be tested against every boss and situation to be sure nothing crashes, or you end up in situations that somehow break that particular adventure.
By removing old adventures, this frees up:
1) Time for developers on iteration in not having to test all of the new cards against the old adventures.
2) Lets new awesome cards be developed that would've otherwise broken a boss battle in one of those old adventures.
Anyway, just throwing that out there as a possibility.
I just had a daughter and was finally able to get back to TAC and it was a great episode as always.
Keep up the good work!
Cramsey
Hello TAC,
I agree that Standard was needed for the longevity of Hearthstone, but do you also see them using this as an opportunity to fix some of the "game winning" RNG for the competitive scene? Examples would be Unstable Portal, both Dr Boom bots hitting for 4, and even crackle hitting for max damage. I believe RNG is needed in Hearthstone, and is what makes each game fun and unique, but some of these cards seemed to have too much of an impact and swings on a game depending on what was rolled.
Keep up the great show!
Michael from New York
Greetings,
I want to start off by saying that I understand why formats need to exist in a growing card game. That being said, I feel much of the disappointment with Wild had been mistakenly dismissed with "Wild is exactly what we have now. You're not losing anything. Standard does not affect Wild in any way." While I agree that we're not losing cards and Wild is not a "dead format," the tragedy of Wild is the loss of human capital, the competitive and innovative players. Firebat, StrifeCro, Purple, Kolento, Dog, Thijs, etc have no incentive to play Wild (without large prize pool tournaments which seems unlikely) and I think the format will suffer for it. Without those creative and competitive minds engaging in the format every day, I fear Wild ladder will stagnate much more easily than the ladder does now.
One of the main examples of why formats are needed is how little TGT changed the meta upon release because 1. Decks are very refined and 2. The expansion is small injection of cards compared to the full card pool. And this problem only worsens as more sets come out. As I said, I understand why formats are necessary, but I think it’s unfair to dismiss criticisms of Wild as simply “not understanding” the changes. Love the show. Keep up the great work!
Outro
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Personal Stuff
Dill’s where else can everyone find you?
Follow Dills @WillieDills
Check out my stream at twitch.tv/williedillssf
The Instance - The World of Warcraft podcast so you don’t have to
Stormcast - We record Sundays at 8pm PST
Joce where can you be found?
Follow Jocelyn @JocePlays
The Gamers’ Inn
Follow Garrett @GarrettArt
NOMOONart.com for Garrett’s stream designs.
Into the Nexus: The Heroes of the Storm Podcast!
The Angry Nerd: Amove.tv/angrynerd
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