#260 - The Angry Chicken: “O Captain! Our Captain!”
4-24-18
• Garrett • Jocelyn • Dills
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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.
News
Brode (and Chu) Leaving
This past Friday Ben Brode tweeted out that it was his last day at Blizzard. In his post Brode linked to a Hearthstone forum post expanding on his decision in greater detail. In this post Brode talks about how he’s been at Blizzard for 15 years. 10 of which have been with the Hearthstone team. Brode also showered Team 5 in praise and thanked the community for the passion surrounding Hearthstone.
“I am very fortunate to be able to take a crazy risk right now in my life, and I’m excited to be scrappy and a little scared. I’m going to help start a new company. We’ll probably make games, but we haven’t figured anything else out, yet. I’m looking forward to designing, programming, and actually creating things again. I’m going to miss the on-campus Starbucks, though. Dang.”
Executive Producer Hamilton Chu leaves as well
Hamilton Chu let the world know he was leaving Hearthstone by replying to Brode’s tweet.
What did Chu do? A lot as it turns out. Via Blizzard’s Press Site:
As executive producer for Blizzard Entertainment's Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Hamilton Chu provides the leadership and direction necessary to deliver players a Blizzard-quality gaming experience. In his role, Chu is responsible for strategic planning and business operations, providing management support for the development leadership, and generally tanking issues for the team whenever necessary.
As head of Blizzard’s strategic initiatives group, his other duties include leading business operations for World of Warcraft and managing Blizzard’s creative development department. Before joining Blizzard Entertainment, Chu served as a producer on Halo and Halo 2 for Bungie before going on to sell his soul to the MBA gods.
In his spare time, Chu enjoys reading comics, writing stories, and pwning noobs of all shapes and sizes.
And Chakki is moving in
Chakki tweeted last week the he’s joining Team 5.
Starting next month, I'll be working at Blizzard as a game designer on the Hearthstone final design team.
Hearthstone has been a huge part of my life for the past few years, and I couldn't be more excited to be a part of the team.
Monster Hunt - Releases at 10 AM PDT on April 26
Lead Mission Designer Dave Kosak and Mission Designers Paul Nguyen and Giovanni Scarpati put out a new Hearthside Chat detailing the new spin on Dungeon Runs.
Hotfix 11.0.1 Arena Changes
Via CM Jesse Hill on the forums
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Strategy
Taunt Druid
https://hsreplay.net/decks/LDvteSlx4M2l0ACNjD1pxg/
HSreplay sent us over some $5 off codes. So that’s a free month of premium for new and current subscribers. Will hand them out at the end of the show.
Big thanks to our sponsor HelloFresh.com
This episode of TAC is sponsored by HelloFresh.com. For $30 off your first week of deliveries, visit HelloFresh.com and enter the code TAC30 when you subscribe!
Crazy Game Stories
You can send your Crazy Game Stories to TACpodcast@gmail.com.
SC
Hello Joce and the Chicken Boys!
I was playing my Elemental Mage vs a Shudderwock Shaman a few days after the Witchwood release. The game went pretty much as you'd expect, with me trying to pressure him while I watched the doomsday clock tick down as he built his combo.
I played Archmage Arugal into Book of Specters, resulting in 4 Arcane Artificers coming into my hand. In short order I had North of 50 armor... but it was too late. Shudderwock hit the board, then (some time later) went back into the hand, then hit the board again... You know the story. The game being over I took a few minutes while the animations played out to think over my plays and consider what I could have done better as I slowly watch my health tick down... to 3. And then stop.
And what's this? At the end of all the animations my opponent's rope burns all the way down, ending his turn. I quickly Alexstrasza him in the face and click "End Turn" knowing that my opponent didn't have the patience even for his own deck and had AFK-ed, expecting me to have conceded. The rope burns out again and I bash him once more, securing my victory!
I do feel my opponent earned his loss more than I earned the win, but I thought the victims of many hours of animations would enjoy this story. Keep up the great work and thanks for all you do!
Patreon Thanks Before Emails
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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.
Emails
You can send your emails to TACpodcast@gmail.com.
Eric
Eventide, Odd Fowls.
Do you think it would be fun or interesting if Odd decks could only Discover Odd-cost cards, and the same for Even? It would make the Discover pools different for each deck, which could be good or bad for various Odd/Even deck that might not be seeing play right now.
Zach M.
Hello you collection of cacophonous clucking cockerels cawing concerns about contentious cards!,
As Dills mentioned recently, we're entering the phase of the new expansion where we've settled on a handful of strong decks and are now tweaking them to find the perfect composition of each. This is something I've always struggled with in Hearthstone - the deck building. With that in mind, could you give us your general strategies to deck building? A few questions I always wrestle with:
-How many games do you play with a deck before coming to any conclusions about it?
-What goes into your decisions about what to pull and what to add?
-How do you know when a deck isn't good or when you're just not playing it correctly?
-When do you just abandon a deck all together vs trying to optimize it?
Thanks to all! Great show, keep it up!
Jake
Greetings Cluckers,
What has been the biggest surprise performer for you guys so far this expansion?
Follow up question... what do you think is some of the most promising unexplored territory?
Thanks for all the content, makes my long commute to and from work much better.
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.
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Personal Stuff
Dill’s where else can everyone find you?
Follow Dills @WillieDills
Check out my stream at twitch.tv/williedills
The Instance - The World of Warcraft podcast so you don’t have to
WRESTLING!
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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