5:29 pm, August 2, 2013
2,115
Scrolls Discussion Test server diary - iScrE4m's perspective
Hello, I've been blogging for quite a while now, but I'd love to paste all my test server related blog entries here, if that's okay with you 
This is my post from yesterday evening:
Test server diary, day 1ish
First of all, its day 2, but not really, day 1 wasnt full, so this is day 1. OK? Good. Thanks.
Now, onto my findings and understandings Everything got a lot more complicated with adding all the new cards today, that was 8 member to the family of hell lotta scrolls that I needed to parse anyway. Well, they are interesting, and I need to play them more. I need to play all of it a lot more. I wanted to watch The International (dota tournament), but I guess itll be in just a small window or something.
Lets adress some stuff though, so its not all boring for you.
Energy
So I was excited about metal wonders and solemn giants. And they are GREAT. I think Im starting to understand how to play to make all of it work. Or how to build deck to make it better. So the way you play metal wonders is you do what energy excels at you establish board control and just shine at mid game, once you are satisfied with your board position, you place the beautiful wonder down. It actually has two effects, not only it damages opponents idols, but it also makes your opponent not play spells, because he knows he cannot waste them just like that. What does that do? That means order player will not just kabonk and pother for fun to cycle to his speeds and mangonels and imps. Especially if you manage to get two of them out. Without that, lategame order has problems. Of course you kind of need to draw the wonder. Oh and playing around mangonel is still needed, I gave Blinky two beatiful gamebraking mangonel hits in two different games, because I obviously never learn. However in other games a bit later, I managed to beat order decks I found impossible to beat before. It still requires kind of good hand, but it will get waaaaaay better once more scrolls are added. And they will add them. Energy is still not #1 on ladder, but we are going in very good direction. What makes up for it, energy is #1 fun to play. Ill go more into details with other matchups in next few days.
Storm Runner
So this is the fresh blood. It is our mangonel. It is the thing. Buuut, hes very conditional. The only really good way to play him is with bombard and desperation (or blast strike) on the same turn. Unless you are looking to do 1 damage to everything. Thats 8 resources. Thats quite a lot, if you dont get there, hes pretty much a dead draw. Also he can be played around easily than mangonels. If you wanna place him and attack with him 1 or 2 turns later, enemy will make adjustments so it doesnt hurt him so much, he isnt all that great if hes not a surprise. What I think I will suggest, after a few more games though, is 2 cost. Having the combo at 7 cost is a huge difference. There is a way to play him with order splashes for cheaper, but Ill go more in depth on it tommorow, for now Ill just say, I dont think its a good idea to play him that way.
Lumbering Muckhead
I think that he is the one that everyone is saying what the hell how is he 3 cost since beginning, because of stats, so I will not surprise anybody by saying that I will probably suggest to make him 4 cost after few more games too. But, not based on the stats, its more because of what how strong cheap decks this produces. First more fun one is, 4G3D rat deck. With Muckhead and Rot eater amongst other things. With rat king, you a lot of rats. They die easily. That makes your rot eater powerful and muckhead attack very often. You would be quite surprised how powerful that deck is, because if you dont **** the rats, they will slowly eat you apart. That aside, lets talk what it allows decay to do. Decay can comfortably pause saccing at 3-4 resources and develop other stuff. This one is quite hard to pass one, which probably means I need to think it more through and test a bit more. There are decks that blew my mind (BrTarolgs tempo deck). We will see.
Podcast
Tommorow evening, there will be a podcast, discussing things through and through with more people than just myself. It will be heavily about test server. I think it will be great show.
Scrolls Invitational
Blogpost about this is coming soon, lot of **** happened and I might have some bad news for you. We will see, but dont worry, I did not loose the money in lottery. I promise.
This is my post from yesterday evening:Test server diary, day 1ish
First of all, its day 2, but not really, day 1 wasnt full, so this is day 1. OK? Good. Thanks.
Now, onto my findings and understandings Everything got a lot more complicated with adding all the new cards today, that was 8 member to the family of hell lotta scrolls that I needed to parse anyway. Well, they are interesting, and I need to play them more. I need to play all of it a lot more. I wanted to watch The International (dota tournament), but I guess itll be in just a small window or something.
Lets adress some stuff though, so its not all boring for you.
Energy
So I was excited about metal wonders and solemn giants. And they are GREAT. I think Im starting to understand how to play to make all of it work. Or how to build deck to make it better. So the way you play metal wonders is you do what energy excels at you establish board control and just shine at mid game, once you are satisfied with your board position, you place the beautiful wonder down. It actually has two effects, not only it damages opponents idols, but it also makes your opponent not play spells, because he knows he cannot waste them just like that. What does that do? That means order player will not just kabonk and pother for fun to cycle to his speeds and mangonels and imps. Especially if you manage to get two of them out. Without that, lategame order has problems. Of course you kind of need to draw the wonder. Oh and playing around mangonel is still needed, I gave Blinky two beatiful gamebraking mangonel hits in two different games, because I obviously never learn. However in other games a bit later, I managed to beat order decks I found impossible to beat before. It still requires kind of good hand, but it will get waaaaaay better once more scrolls are added. And they will add them. Energy is still not #1 on ladder, but we are going in very good direction. What makes up for it, energy is #1 fun to play. Ill go more into details with other matchups in next few days.
Storm Runner
So this is the fresh blood. It is our mangonel. It is the thing. Buuut, hes very conditional. The only really good way to play him is with bombard and desperation (or blast strike) on the same turn. Unless you are looking to do 1 damage to everything. Thats 8 resources. Thats quite a lot, if you dont get there, hes pretty much a dead draw. Also he can be played around easily than mangonels. If you wanna place him and attack with him 1 or 2 turns later, enemy will make adjustments so it doesnt hurt him so much, he isnt all that great if hes not a surprise. What I think I will suggest, after a few more games though, is 2 cost. Having the combo at 7 cost is a huge difference. There is a way to play him with order splashes for cheaper, but Ill go more in depth on it tommorow, for now Ill just say, I dont think its a good idea to play him that way.
Lumbering Muckhead
I think that he is the one that everyone is saying what the hell how is he 3 cost since beginning, because of stats, so I will not surprise anybody by saying that I will probably suggest to make him 4 cost after few more games too. But, not based on the stats, its more because of what how strong cheap decks this produces. First more fun one is, 4G3D rat deck. With Muckhead and Rot eater amongst other things. With rat king, you a lot of rats. They die easily. That makes your rot eater powerful and muckhead attack very often. You would be quite surprised how powerful that deck is, because if you dont **** the rats, they will slowly eat you apart. That aside, lets talk what it allows decay to do. Decay can comfortably pause saccing at 3-4 resources and develop other stuff. This one is quite hard to pass one, which probably means I need to think it more through and test a bit more. There are decks that blew my mind (BrTarolgs tempo deck). We will see.
Podcast
Tommorow evening, there will be a podcast, discussing things through and through with more people than just myself. It will be heavily about test server. I think it will be great show.
Scrolls Invitational
Blogpost about this is coming soon, lot of **** happened and I might have some bad news for you. We will see, but dont worry, I did not loose the money in lottery. I promise.
Statistics: Posted by iScrE4m Today, 10:18
