Drafting

Hi everyone,

This guide will be covering Drafting.

The most important points while selecting cards and constructing your decks are -

-Good value for mana Cards
-Mana Curve
-Card draw
-Synergy

All these points go hand in hand for arena. Some are important ( e.g. Mana Curve) some are less important (e.g. Synergy)

I will discuss all of them one by one.

1.Good value for mana Cards :

This basically involves selecting of cards that will give you the most effect on board for the mana you are investing. For this all the cards in the game have been classified in to different sections for their value by many streamers (e.g. Trump). I for one would suggest to use arenavalue.com for beginners.

Arenavalue.com allows you to select the three cards that you are offered and it shows you an associated value with it. More the value better the card. It also takes into consideration already selected cards to affect the value of those cards.

Following is my way of deciphering value for a card. 

Vanilla Test :

Firstly do the 'Vanilla Test' . Vanilla test involves adding the health and attack for a minion and then dividing it by two. The result should be equal or greater than the mana required to play the card. If the card passes the vanilla test it should offer decent value for the body it brings to the board.

E.g - Chillwind Yeti

Addition of Health and attack gives us 9. Divided by two is 4.5 . Which is more than the 4 mana required to play it. Thus it is a good card.

Pro tip : Yeti is a beast of a card. You will be picking it 90 percent of the times if offered

Stat Distribution : 

Once card passes the Vanilla test its stat distribution needs to be looked at. 

Eg. Magma Rager

Magma rager passes the Vanilla test. But its stat distribution is terrible. Three out of 9 heroes can finish it off with its hero power. Or even a 1 attack minion can take it out thus making it really terrible.

Pro tip : Magma Rager is shit. If you picked Magma rager either you had really bad other choices or you need to get yourself checked . :P

On the other hand low attack is also not advised

E.g. Mogu' shan Warden

This minion will not help hurt anyone. And can be taken out by two minions easily without affecting them much.

Health or Attack ? :

While looking at stats it always a question as to what is more important. Health or Attack. A rather noobish mistake that all newcomers do is to give preference to attack more than health. The reason is that people normally mistake for the game's main goal to be bringing the heroes health to zero whereas in reality that's the side goal. The main goal is to make the most of your cards.(Quoting Trump :P) In that case a more health is always preferred rather than attack. Because with more health the minion tends to stick around to take down another one which is not the case with high attack because it will hit once and then would be dead.

Eg. Once again Yeti and Ancient Brewmaster

Both of them have same stats but in opposite brackets. And they both cost the same. Yeti can take down a 4 health minion with 4 attack and still stay alive, which would not be the case with Brewmaster.

Pro tip : 5-health is really good in hearthstone, since there arent many cards that can clear 5 health minions. That's why yeti and Sen'jin are regarded as good cards. And also dont forget Sludge Belcher ;) .

The only case when attack is important is when you select two drops.

Two drops with more attack than health are always preferred. Because at the start of the game you are looking at trading minions rather than saving them. And also a 3-2 trades up against a 3 health minions and higher attack is preferred if you get the card in late game.

If Vanilla test fails? :

Generally if the vanilla test fails the card would be bad. But sometimes it would be worth looking at what the card offers. The Battlecry, Deathrattle or ability could be of some value to compensate for the lack of good stats 

E.g. Piloted Shredder and Kezan Mystic

Following cards fail the vanilla test but offer some good backups to support that loss of stats.

Piloted shredder summons a 2-cost minion which on a general scale is enough to think of a 2-2 stats minion. On another side Kezan Mystic's battlecry would be effective against only secret based heroes ( Mage, Paladin, Hunter)  so against others its just a 4-3  minion. But if it hits a secret it could possibly spoil opponents plans and gain you an upper hand.

2.Mana Curve

Mana Curve is a really important factor while drafting a deck. Following are a few mana curve examples -

When i play arena my aim is to check what is the trend and implement an applicable mana curve.

For e.g. after 10 or 15 cards into drafting if I have more low cost minions I would go for an aggro deck and include more low cost minions if I have a good card draw. If i don't have good card draw I will try to balance off with high cost cards to avoid running out of cards.

If I am into 15 cards and I find I have mostly big cards I will try to get as many small cards so as to not run out of cards when the game starts or worst not have any playable cards at all.

Also each turn should have good cards at those respective mana cost. Especially from turn two to turn six . 

Reason is gaining board control in arena is utmost important. And if you lose a turn if you don't have any cards to play then you could very well be losing board control and the match too. 

Pro tip : The person who dictates who hits whom will always have a higher chance of winning unless faced by something drastic. ( I am looking at you, Flamestrike) . Thus making board control important and minions at their appropriate turns more important.

Important tips on number of Cards :

In an ideal arena i would like to have atleast 4 and at the most 7, 2 drops. This would enable me in not losing out on early game. And i would like to have atleast 7 and at the most 9 , 5-mana and greater cost cards. This would enable i dont run out of cards and put out big minions to help finish of my game for the win.

3.Card Draw

In card games having cards in your hand is of utmost importance. (Duh!) . More number of cards allow more options to play and greater chances of winning. 

Following are the ways of getting cards- 

-Cantrips

-Spells

-Deathrattles

-Card draw engines

Cantrips :

Cantrips are cards which on play replace themselves(Spells that give cards also fall into this place but we will look at them separately). 

E.g.

Azure drake(The best Cantrip) , Gnomish inventor. 

These cards place a body on the board and give you a card. Though some stats are lost to make up for the card draw.

Spells :

Spells allow you to gain cards at the cost of doing something else or nothing at all.

Arcane Intellect and Sprint just get you cards. Whereas Mass dispel and Flare get you cards and dos something too.

Deathrattles :

E.g. loot hoarder and dancing swords(gives it to your opponent though)

Card draw engines :

e.g. Cult Master and Gadgetzan auctioneer

So you have a host of cards for card draw. But ultimately it is important to make sure your deck has card draw. The reason being at some point in game you will run out cards and that's when this card draw will help you gain advantage over your opponents and in turn help you control the board.

My personal suggestion is to keep a scope of having a 4-5 card draws in the deck, This normally is enough to take you till the end and also does not affect your deck drastically.

4.Synergy

This is easier said than done. And something that should be taken up once you have a good hang of the game. This could possibly help you build stronger decks. Synergy should never be tried to be created forcefully and should be taken up if offered.

E.g.

Mech Synergy

People are well aware of the famous mech mage where mechwarpers costs mechs 1 mana less. If you have two Mechwarpers you would be able to put a host of mechs on the boards. But thats not how it will work in arena.

Let see what are the chances of this working out -

First of all of the 90 cards offered to you ,you will need to get two Mechwarpers 

Secondly you will need a whole lot of Mechs for the synergy to work which has little assurance

In play you will need to get the mech warpers first and then the mechs

Also you will need to have a chance to play all of them

With so many if's and buts's involved chances of you able to play out the synergy is close to zero

Pro Tip : Never ever attempt ranked play combos in arena. You will fail miserably

So how do you get synergy if there  is really small chance to get it ? The answer is you don't.

Synergies are great, exciting and look awesome when you execute them. But you will rarely get a chance to do so. Trying to do one will mostly result in wasting you arena on crap cards and eventually losing badly.

Thus synergies should always be taken up if and when offered. That too if it supports your deck and are positive.

e.g.

For the same above scenario how do i try to take up synergy? Lets say you have just started drafting. If you are offered mechwarper, you will pick it up if the other options are bad or if you want to draft a 2 drop. I will not select mechwarper in hopes of picking up crap mechs later. I will only pickup mechs if they are good enough and thus hope that they come in my hand during play to utilize their synergy.

If I am offered mechwarper late in drafting I will pick it up if I don't have enough 2-drops , the other choices are bad and if I already have some mechs. Thus again enabling the synergy. 

In short these small synergies will  help you play better and gain an upper hand if executed. 

But dont try to force them. Just let them happen. :)

So keep all these points in your head and I hope you guys would be able to build better decks.

Thanks and Cheers. :D