#87 - The Angry Chicken: “Title”

• Garrett • Jocelyn • Dills

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• Doghouse Systems.com

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Intro:  Welcome to The Angry Chicken!

Thanks to everyone for continuing to support us on Patreon. Go to Patreon.com/TAC.

Top of Show mentions

Reminder: Florida Fireside Orlando

The Fireside Gathering I’m hosting is this Saturday! Come out to Canvs at the Exchange in downtown Orlando. Details can be found over at MeetUp.com/FloridaFireside. See you there!

We are hosting a 16-player Fireside Gathering Qualifier. We already have 16 players but the waiting list is very small at the moment.

• http://www.meetup.com/FloridaFireside/
• Direct event link: http://www.meetup.com/FloridaFireside/events/222311722/

Bethesda is making an Elder Scrolls card game

I cannot be alone in thinking this trailer looks like a giant HS knock-off.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/14/8779959/the-elder-scrolls-legends-announcement-release-date-2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YXm1YNhcBg

Magic draft at game night again Tue 16th

10th and Folsom at 7pm at Folsom St Foundry

https://www.facebook.com/events/101189706889116/

News

You can submit stories and vote on the TAC subreddit at TACpodcast.reddit.com.

Tavern Brawl

Blizzard announced the purpose of the mythic fourth button on the main menu screen this week, Tavern Brawl!

From Blizzard (edited):

Each week, a different Tavern Brawl will pit you head to head versus another player using exciting and unique rules. One week might feature preset decks, while another week could have you crafting a brand new Tavern Brawl deck following specific guidelines, while others might offer buffs to specific minion types—who knows!

You may have to toughen up before entering the fray—Tavern Brawl is unlocked once a player has a level 20 Hero.

The possibilities for fun inside Tavern Brawl are endless— the only thing you should expect is the unexpected!

Links

• http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/19508176

New heroes announced

Two more heroes were announced this week, adding to Muradin as the alternate warrior hero. Alleria Windrunner (high-elf & eldest sister of Sylvanas) and Medivh were revealed as the Hunter and Mage heroes, respectively. At this point, we know that alternate heroes will not necessarily be alternate faction or gender compared the original hero. As of Sunday night, no additional hints have been posted about future hero announcements.

Links

• Medivh announcement - https://twitter.com/playhearthstone/status/609390711180398592
• Alleria announcement - https://twitter.com/PlayHearthstone/status/609028616932827136

Ben Brode talks Bad Cards

Notable streamer Kripparian posted a video with his opinions on "bad cards" in Hearthstone which lead designer and laugher Ben Brode to post a conversational video with his own opinions in response. The full video is an excellent watch, but we have a summary here:

Quote from Ben Brode

Bad Cards are Good

• It's impossible to not have bad cards. Cards are judged on their power level in relation to other cards.

• Making one better will make another one worse, now that card has become bad.

• Changing cards requires a significant amount of time to tune them properly - the same amount of time new cards take to balance.

• This then ends up setting back the release of new content.
• New card designs fit better into expansions.

• Changing old cards too much can lead to a negative response from players that have come back to the game after a break. They are no longer in a familiar environment with what they have.
• Buffing old cards between expansions could lead to drastic meta changes, like those seen at the start of sets.

• They don't want to get rid of the phase where the meta has settled between set releases - that removes the tinkering phase.

• Cards that may not be powerful are still good for Hearthstone.

• They can appeal to different types of players.
• You can be encouraged to think in different ways.

Specific Cards

• Nozdormu is a good card because it can blow your mind.

• "Anything can happen in this game. What kinds of cards will we see next?"

• River Crocolisk is a good example of a card was bad and then was (temporarily) good with the old Unleash the Hounds.
• Al'Akir the Windlord - Players called it the worst legendary in the game and that it needed buffs.

• The designers had agreed thanks to internal testing. It was going to become a 3/7.
• Internal data found that if it was drawn, people were more likely to win that game than any other card in the game (Alpha).

• Wisp is arguably one of the worst cards in the game but when Hobgoblin came out, people wanted to experiment with it.
• Eye for an Eye is an example of a card which may appear to be good but is bad.

• It's a card which can teach players who are new to card games about more complicated concepts (card advantage, value, board control).

• Magma Rager - Ben likes having "trash-tier" cards in the game because they can be a touchstone for the community.

• It leads to people talking about it, trying to win with it, and creating content around it.

Tavern Brawl

• Tavern Brawl is going to help keep things chaotic for players who really like the way the meta gets shaken up at the start of a new card set.

Our own Jocelyn was mentioned during the discussion of Eye for an Eye.

Links

• http://www.hearthpwn.com/news/923-ben-brode-on-buffing-bad-cards-popular-decks-of
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1ioY1KO79A

DreamHack Summer 2015 Hearthstone Grand Prix

Tiddler Celestial won 3-2 over Dog. This was Dog’s first grand finals in a major event.

Links

• http://wiki.teamliquid.net/hearthstone/DreamHack_2015/Summer

Strategy

Dragonlock

• All over DreamHack Summer HS Grand Prix
• Midrange/Control Deck
• Malygos+any combination of Soulfire, Darkbomb, Hellfire is the deck’s finishing combo.

• Soulfire is really your only same-turn Malygos burn. So keep track of your opponent’s removal, hand size, and be wary if they’ve held on to 1 or more cards for a long time to best gauge when Malygos has the best chance of surviving a turn.

• You can win without Malygos by just keeping board control and slowly bleeding your opponent.

Daisyx’s notable cards/combos

• Azure Drake + Mortal Coil/Imp-losion
• Imp Gang Boss & Defender of Argus
• Play Dragons cautiously in case you draw a Blackwing Corruptor. But also don’t severely cripple playing out a nice curve if you’re not drawing one.
• Thaurissan can discount spells so that you can get more burst from Malygos the turn he is played.
• Abusive Sergeant can buff your opponent’s minions into BGH range.

Links

• TL article from Daisyx: http://www.liquidhearth.com/forum/constructed-strategy/487807-dragonlock-through-hellfire-and-flames

Crazy Game Stories

You can send your Crazy Game Stories to TACpodcast@gmail.com.

Patrick

Hidely-ho Chickrinos!

First, I started listening to the TAC a few weeks ago when I started getting into competitive HS. The podcast is amazing and I've gone back and listened to almost a dozen past episodes and plan to listen to more. You all do an amazing job so thank you for all of the work you put in.

I got my first awesome play that I wanted to share with all of you. I was finishing up a daily in casual mode with Tempo Mage when I cast an Unstable Portal revealing Ysera! This is especially awesome since I've long wanted to craft and play her, but haven't found a competitive deck to do so in (curse you Dragadin for being a barrel of false hope). At any rate, not only did I get to cast Ysera for 6 mana, but the following turn I played Faceless Manipulator copying Ysera. So not only did I get to cast my first Ysera for 6, but my second was cheaper and reminded me that sometimes, winning more is just awesome.

Thank you all for your time and happy ladder climbing as the second half of the season starts!

Emails

You can send your emails to TACpodcast@gmail.com.

MattimusPRIME

My beloved poultry.

I have a super mega ultra noob question, so please pardon my ignorance. Listening to the episode with Karmaah (what a great guest by the way) she kept referring to decks that you can 'tech.' What does 'tech' mean in the context of Hearthstone?

Secondly, when you all were talking about a female player who needs to grit their teeth and keep on truckin' despite all the e-hate I couldn't help but think of Scarlett in SC2. Man... she has dealt with a lot of crap and she just keeps wrecking fools.

I'm a longtime StarCast listener (hence the StarCraft reference) who is thrilled you are doing this wonderful podcast. This podcast makes my morning commute so much more enjoyable. Thanks so much!

Arelris

Hey TAC crew,

Do you guys think that there is a minimum amount of time that an adventure or expansion needs to be available before the world championship, if so how much?

Ben

Hey guys,

Just wanted to email and thank you for getting me to legend for the first time. Last month I realised I climb the more ranks on a Tuesday afternoon listening to TAC then I do the rest of the week. The solution I came up with was re download every episode and only play when I have your beautiful voices in my ear. It worked amazingly I went from rank 19-7 without a single loss!! Even managed to win the final game to hit legend with a milkshake deck, so thanks once again.

Let me leave you with a quick question, do any of you folks roleplay your decks with card backs? I only use naxx with my lock decks, ice crown for freeze Mage, nefarion for dragon decks and cupcake for milkshake

Keep up the great work on the show

Outro

Patreon Thanks

TAC is supported by our epic Patrons. You can become a TAC Patron by going to Patreon.com/tac. Becoming a TAC patron gives you access to the TAC Skype account for the Patron Call-in episodes as well as the aftershow video.

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 Tuesday, January 27th at 9pm Eastern.

• Stefan L
• Max F
• Shawn W
• Ben G
• Stefano

iTunes Thanks

• jjp2293
• Rando227
• PeanutButterSnails
• BobAndDragon
• Lord Blizzard

The Angry Chicken is a production of Amove.tv and the Frogpants Studios. Past live shows and other videos can be found on Youtube.com/starcastshow. Get The Angry Chicken tshirt over on SlashLoot.com.

Follow the show on Twitter @TACpodcast.

Catch the live show Monday nights at 10pm Eastern on Twitch.tv/Amovetv. Mobile live stream provided by Alpha Geek Radio.

Thanks to Brian Griffith, the musician responsible for our intro music. He can be found at briangriffithmusic.com or @briangriffith on twitter.

Personal Stuff

Dill’s where else can everyone find you?

Follow Dills @WillieDills

The Instance - The World of Warcraft podcast so you don’t have to

TortureCast - A podcast by and for fans of the San Francisco Giants

Joce where can you be found?

Follow Jocelyn @GISgamer

The Gamers’ Inn

Follow Garrett @GarrettArt

NOMOONart.com for Garrett’s stream designs.

Into the Nexus: The Heroes of the Storm Podcast!

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