The year 2013 has been a great year for StarCraft II. Since the launch of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm we have seen over 30 premier tournaments and numerous amount of other competitions being played in the global and local scale. To keep the pace up, ASUS ROG kicks off the year 2014 with another premier StarCraft II tournament in the Nordic, ASUS ROG Winter 2014!
Full Details @ http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=438988
Monday 23 December 2013
Thursday 19 December 2013
HEARTHSTONE GUIDE: AN IN-DEPTH LOOK INTO THE PALADIN
The Paladin is one the most diverse classes in Hearthstone. His cards allow the player to gain advantage through a variety of ways, be it through establishing board presence (hero power), reducing health or attack of opposing minions (Equality, Aldor Peacekeeper), sweeping the board (Consecration), healing himself or others (Lay on Hands), or using divine shield minions (Argent Protector) to trade in the most efficient way possible. He has card draw mechanics which, too, come in a variety of forms – creature buffs (Blessing of Wisdom), damage-dealing spells (Holy Wrath) or cards that let you catch-up to opponent’s hand size (Divine Favor).
Paladin’s hero power is Reinforce. Think of it as a version of the Mage or Druid spell powers in the sense that it deals 1 damage somewhere, but one that can benefit better from Paladin’s tools. Apart from establishing board presence, the 1/1 tokens can serve as targets for Blessing of Kings that turns them into 5/5 bodies or any other buffing spell, weapon or minion there is in Hearthstone. Like Mage’s Fireblast, they’re perfect for popping divine shields and dealing that last piece of damage that kills a minion. Reinforce has amazing synergy with Sword of Justice and also guarantees that you will never run out of minions to put on the field.
Playing and building a Paladin deck might be tricky unless you know the class well. Many of the cards work in synchrony and need to be played in the proper sequence. You’ll need to learn to survive as the first two turns will often be a problem for you: there aren’t any 1-drops in the Paladin collection and the neutral ones he uses are often played later to support minions already on the board.
Where the Paladin flourishes is in the mid and late stages of the game. There are some strong cards for 3 mana like Aldor Peacekeeper, Divine Favor and Sword of Justice but it is T4 that defines the Paladin. Truesilver Champion, Consecration, Blessing of Kings and Hammer of Wrath are real game turners and they’re what makes the Paladin incredible.
Playstyle-wise, there are two types of Paladins. The “miniatures” deck relies on small minions to flood the board, secrets that protect them and minions that buff them. The control, on the other hand, aims for the late game and hosts a number of healing spells and minions, potent board sweepers and end-of-the-curve legendaries to finish the game. The crafting section of this guide is segmented in such a way as to help you build the set-up of your preference.
Budget deckbuilding
As with every class, crafting the control version is expensive. You will need several epics and legendaries to make it work and that’s quite the investment.
Fortunately, whipping some budget miniatures is not that difficult. The deck on the right is entirely composed of free cards (and is what I used when I first started Hearthstone). The deck to the left only has two rares and twelve commons (total cost 680 dust) and is a poor man’s version of a full-bloodied miniatures deck.
The budget deck also features some of the mechanics that the ultimate aggro Paladin uses and will help you learn the class. You will get used to casting Noble Sacrifice in the correct moment, to protect Knife Juggler so you can extract value and to plan your drops leading into the mid-game turns.
Crafting for the Paladin
Did we mention crafting an ultimate Paladin deck is expensive? Well, it is. Get your dust ready – a lot of rares and epics will be needed.
I. The essentials
Sword of Justice is among the best weapons in the game and is a must in both aggro and control Paladins. It turns your recruits into 2/2s. It keeps your 2-health minions out of Demonfire/Holy Nova/Blizzard/Starfall/etc. range. It kills 1-health minions and is great for popping divine shields. No matter how you spin it, this will likely be your first epic craft as a Paladin. Its only drawback is that it needs some time before it really kicks off. It’s a dead card for the first four turns and you don’t want to draw it too early.
Another must-have epic is Avenging Wrath which pings eight times for 6 mana. Although the damage is allocated randomly, Avenging Wrath will more often than not yield the preferred outcome especially if you have established board control before that. The utility of this card is amazing and it can work as a toughness-softener, finisher or board sweeper when paired with Equality. It especially shines against control Mages who don’t have board presence and will take direct 8 damage on T6 but it will also deal with the popular aggro decks who often run low-toughness minions.
There’s a common card for a change but one that you’ll want to craft as soon as possible. Argent Protector’s battlecry will divine shield a minion of your choice which will often generate a 2-for-1 trade. He’s the idea way of protecting Knife Juggler, re-shielding your Argent Commander or, worst case scenario, turn your recruits into Argent Squires. He can’t shield himself, though, so you’ll want to wait for another minion first.
II. Crafting for aggro
With the aggro Paladin you will run a myriad of small creatures and you’ll want to protect them through every way possible. Sword of Justice will help to some extent but it’s slow and sometimes you’ll need to pull a trick out of your sleeve immediately. This is where Noble Sacrifice and Redemption come in.
Aggro players will grow to love Noble Sacrifice immensely. When triggered, the secret spawns a 2/1 defender to block an attacking enemy minion, thus protecting said minion’s original target.
Noble Sacrifice retains its value all throughout the game. In the early turns, it serves as a protection for your Knife Juggler and will trade 1-for-1 with most minions or at least soften them enough so that they can be finished by a recruit. It will soak up the heavy swings from Warrior’s axes or Paladin’s Truesilver Champions and deal 2 damage to the hero as a bonus. In the later stages, it will protect high-value targets (like the Argent Commanders) or soak up some damage, potentially preventing a lethal blow.
Redemption is just as fun to use and, too, has several uses. The most obvious one is playing it preemptively when you expect that a valuable minion will be killed. Option two is to play it, make a one-for-one trade minion-wise and get your stuff back. Option three, though, is where Redemption truly excels. As the card revives the minion with all its abilities, it synergizes perfectly with Argent Squire and Argent Commander. The shieldless Commander/Redemption combo is especially powerful as you can kill a minion by sacrificing the Commander, get it back with divine shield and charge on via Redemption and attack again for another 4 damage somewhere. Be smart and careful when you use this secret, though – you’ll often run one-of in your aggro and you wouldn’t want to waste its potential.
Divine Favor is a powerful way to catch up with the hand size of your opponent. Aggro Paladins tend to empty their hands fast and/or run out of steam past the mid-turns and Divine Favor gets them back in the game. This is a card especially useful against control decks that run a lot of draw techniques (Mages, Priests) but even against aggros you’ll often draw 2 for 3 mana, essentially casting Arcane Intellect.
III. Crafting for mid-range control
Lay on Hands is Paladin’s most powerful healing spell. At 8 mana, it’s a strictly late-game card which returns a quarter of hero’s health back and refills the hand by drawing three cards. This makes LoH especially powerful against late-game oriented decks such as the popular Mage controls, the Priest controls that can be seen in the higher layers of ranked mode and, of course, in Paladin control mirrors.
Magic: The Gathering players will see resemblance between Lay on Hands and Sphinx’s Revelation and will immediately recognize the power of the card. The fact that it draws three cards alongside the healing (usually, cards that just return health are not that highly valued in TCGs and are often disregarded or ran in small quantities as counters to certain meta) makes it a 2-in-1 deal that completely justifies the high mana cost. It’ll often be the saving grace that heals you up just before Pyroblast hits or what delivers you the missing piece in your late-game puzzle (i.e. Tirion/Ragnaros, more heal, board control mechanics, etc.).
Equality is another card you’ll always run in mid/late-game oriented Paladins. It’s an essential piece in powerful board sweepers when paired with Consecration, Avenging Wrath or Wild Pyromancer and is what helps the slower Paladins stay alive till late game. It’s also an effectual way to deal with Druid decks’ high-toughness minions (Ancient of War, Druid of the Claw, Ysera, Ragnaros) or definitively clear a highly populated board with buffed-up minions.
Another thing that makes Equality great is the place of the combos that use it in the mana curve. Coin excluded, Pyromancer/Equality comes on T4, Equality/Consecration can be cast on T6 and Equality/Avenging Wrath on T8. It’s a sequence similar to Mage’s 3-5-7 (CoC, Blizzard, Flamestrike) and will make opponents play with caution as populating the board in one turn will be punished on the next.
Aldor Peacekeeper is another card that retains its value all throughout the game. Reducing an enemy minion to 1 attack will help establish better trades, butcher late-game finishers (1/8 Giants are not as scary as 8/8 giants) and will protect your late-game minions from dying to a heavy swing. In addition, the Peacekeeper is a 3/3 body for 3 that’ll deal with most of the mid-game threats, thus helping the Paladin to stay alive longer and more easily maintain board control.
Tirion Fordring is a card that returned to the meta now with the decline of Priest decks and when players stopped running silence galore. Surviving till 8 mana is very doable with a control Paladin and dropping Tirion on T8 is among the best things you can do. Unless there’s a hard removal or silence waiting, Tirion will protect the legendaries you’ll play next (most often Ragnaros) and upon dying will equip a 5/3 weapon, thus donating a 15 damage over 3 turns. The card is a powerful defender, heavy hitter and finisher in one package so running it should be a no-brainer, unless you fear it'll be silenced.
III. To the neutral pool!
Knife Juggler is a great card overall and one that works wonders in Paladin decks. The class has a lot of ways to keep it alive (Argent Protector, Noble Sacrifice, Redemption, Sword of Justice) as well as an easy way to trigger it constantly through Reinforce. It’s mostly a core for aggro Paladins but some control versions run it too for mid-game pressure.
Leper Gnome, Argent Squire, Abusive Sergeant and Southsea Deckhand are another four good crafts if you want to go full agro. The first two are a pain to deal with and are easy value while the Deckhand and the Sergeant are a charging 2 damage that catches opponents by surprise. You’ll, of course, want a pair of Harvest Golems, Defenders of Argus and Argent Commanders just like every aggro deck out there. Some aggro builds also consider Bloodsail Raiders but I’ve personally found them ineffectual. Granted, they become a 4/4 or 6/3 for 2 but they need a weapon and when there isn’t one in play they’re kind of a dead card (they can still be dropped as a 2/3 for 2 but there are better 2-mana plays that should take priority).
Wild Pyromancer and Ragnaros should be considered for the mid-range control builds. The Pyromancer works well with Equality as we mentioned and Ragnaros is a natural choice for end-of-curve finishers, especially if you’ve already established board control (an easy task with the aforementioned Equality).
Finally, you’ll want Sylvanas because she’s great. It fits every deck currently in fashion and until the meta shifts towards silence-heavy decks you’ll want her in your collection.
Advanced deckbuilding
I. Miniatures
Popularized by Cixah, the miniatures are a standard aggro deck that plays a lot of small, cheap minions in attempt to rush down the opponent before the late game. It makes use of Paladin’s hero ability to maintain board presence and pressure and implements class-specific techniques like Argent Protector, Noble Sacrifice and Redemption to protect high-value drops.
The Sword of Justice and the Knife Juggler are the MVPs of the miniatures aggro (alongside the ubiquitous Truesilver Champion). SoJ will add +1/+1 to every minion that you play, making it a harder to kill or big enough to trade efficiently with opponent’s minions. It works especially well with Noble Sacrifice (the Defender grows to 3/2 and can survive Druid’s and Rogue’s hero powers) and Harvest Golem (giving you a 3/4 that spawns a 3/2). It will also keep the Jugglers out of Holy Nova/Blizzard/Starfall range and will turn the Southsea Deckhand (if you decide to play one) into a charging 3/2 for 1.
The Knife Juggler, on the other hand, often pays off easily in Paladin decks. It can be triggered every turn by Reinforce while hiding behind class-specific defensive mechanisms.
Unlike other aggro classes like Warlocks or Rogues, the miniatures don’t have a strict decklist that everyone should follow. Some versions run the Pirate duos of Southsea Deckhand and Bloodsail Raider to extract even more value out of their weapons. Other add additional 1-drops like Leper Gnome for extra early damage, use Leeroy for finishing 6 damage and even play Ragnaros to end the curve and provide some late-game presence. Hammer of Wrath and Blessing of Kings are interchangeable depending on player preferences, too. The deck on the right is what I currently run on Rank 6.
The miniatures’ big problem is their bad T1 and T2. Unless an Argent Squire is drawn in the opening hand, the deck takes off slowly. Even though a handful of 1-drops are run, they’re dependent on having something on the field already (Abusive
Sergeant needs another minion, Southsea Deckhand needs a weapon). As a result, the miniatures will often have problems against decks that rarely get a bad early start (e.g. Warlocks or aggro Mages) and must rely on a strong mid-game to gain advantages.
II. Control
The Paladin control forgoes aggression to incorporate mass removals, healing and end-game legendaries and/or heavy bodies. Even though it has existed for a long time, the deck gained a lot of popularity only recently as a counter to Mages’ control dominance as many of its cards soak up the Mage burn. It’s also a sort of coming to terms with Paladin’s weak first two turns and taking advantage of the strong mid-game cards the class has.
The diversity of the Paladin class shows even more when building a control deck and it can be designed to suit almost every playstyle. The deck on the right, for example, is a mix between pressure and late-game stability. Elements of the miniatures like Faerie Dragon and Knife Juggler are used to deal some early damage while Argent Commander is used for charging 4 damage and a way to clear the board from unwanted threats. It runs 2x Consecration for board sweep on T4 and 2x Equality/Consecration combos to erase the opponent’s board on T6. Once board control is established, Ragnaros comes in to finish the job. Single copies of Lay on Hands and Guardian of Kings keep the hero alive while providing card draw/board presence at the same time.
Other versions of the Paladin control go into more defensive set-ups. They abandon aggression and run dual Wild Pyromancer for extra board control. They also implement Holy Light and an extra copy of Guardian of Kings to more effectively counter Mages, include Tirion as an additional 8-drop or even run Twilight Drakes to take advantage of their big hand sizes. Sub-versions replace the Argent Commanders with Sunwalkers or even add Ysera (although the latter is somewhat uncommon). Check this build to get the general idea of how an extra-defensive Paladin looks like.
Paladin’s hero power is Reinforce. Think of it as a version of the Mage or Druid spell powers in the sense that it deals 1 damage somewhere, but one that can benefit better from Paladin’s tools. Apart from establishing board presence, the 1/1 tokens can serve as targets for Blessing of Kings that turns them into 5/5 bodies or any other buffing spell, weapon or minion there is in Hearthstone. Like Mage’s Fireblast, they’re perfect for popping divine shields and dealing that last piece of damage that kills a minion. Reinforce has amazing synergy with Sword of Justice and also guarantees that you will never run out of minions to put on the field.
Playing and building a Paladin deck might be tricky unless you know the class well. Many of the cards work in synchrony and need to be played in the proper sequence. You’ll need to learn to survive as the first two turns will often be a problem for you: there aren’t any 1-drops in the Paladin collection and the neutral ones he uses are often played later to support minions already on the board.
Where the Paladin flourishes is in the mid and late stages of the game. There are some strong cards for 3 mana like Aldor Peacekeeper, Divine Favor and Sword of Justice but it is T4 that defines the Paladin. Truesilver Champion, Consecration, Blessing of Kings and Hammer of Wrath are real game turners and they’re what makes the Paladin incredible.
Playstyle-wise, there are two types of Paladins. The “miniatures” deck relies on small minions to flood the board, secrets that protect them and minions that buff them. The control, on the other hand, aims for the late game and hosts a number of healing spells and minions, potent board sweepers and end-of-the-curve legendaries to finish the game. The crafting section of this guide is segmented in such a way as to help you build the set-up of your preference.
Budget deckbuilding
As with every class, crafting the control version is expensive. You will need several epics and legendaries to make it work and that’s quite the investment.
Fortunately, whipping some budget miniatures is not that difficult. The deck on the right is entirely composed of free cards (and is what I used when I first started Hearthstone). The deck to the left only has two rares and twelve commons (total cost 680 dust) and is a poor man’s version of a full-bloodied miniatures deck.
The budget deck also features some of the mechanics that the ultimate aggro Paladin uses and will help you learn the class. You will get used to casting Noble Sacrifice in the correct moment, to protect Knife Juggler so you can extract value and to plan your drops leading into the mid-game turns.
Crafting for the Paladin
Did we mention crafting an ultimate Paladin deck is expensive? Well, it is. Get your dust ready – a lot of rares and epics will be needed.
I. The essentials
Sword of Justice is among the best weapons in the game and is a must in both aggro and control Paladins. It turns your recruits into 2/2s. It keeps your 2-health minions out of Demonfire/Holy Nova/Blizzard/Starfall/etc. range. It kills 1-health minions and is great for popping divine shields. No matter how you spin it, this will likely be your first epic craft as a Paladin. Its only drawback is that it needs some time before it really kicks off. It’s a dead card for the first four turns and you don’t want to draw it too early.
Another must-have epic is Avenging Wrath which pings eight times for 6 mana. Although the damage is allocated randomly, Avenging Wrath will more often than not yield the preferred outcome especially if you have established board control before that. The utility of this card is amazing and it can work as a toughness-softener, finisher or board sweeper when paired with Equality. It especially shines against control Mages who don’t have board presence and will take direct 8 damage on T6 but it will also deal with the popular aggro decks who often run low-toughness minions.
There’s a common card for a change but one that you’ll want to craft as soon as possible. Argent Protector’s battlecry will divine shield a minion of your choice which will often generate a 2-for-1 trade. He’s the idea way of protecting Knife Juggler, re-shielding your Argent Commander or, worst case scenario, turn your recruits into Argent Squires. He can’t shield himself, though, so you’ll want to wait for another minion first.
II. Crafting for aggro
With the aggro Paladin you will run a myriad of small creatures and you’ll want to protect them through every way possible. Sword of Justice will help to some extent but it’s slow and sometimes you’ll need to pull a trick out of your sleeve immediately. This is where Noble Sacrifice and Redemption come in.
Aggro players will grow to love Noble Sacrifice immensely. When triggered, the secret spawns a 2/1 defender to block an attacking enemy minion, thus protecting said minion’s original target.
Noble Sacrifice retains its value all throughout the game. In the early turns, it serves as a protection for your Knife Juggler and will trade 1-for-1 with most minions or at least soften them enough so that they can be finished by a recruit. It will soak up the heavy swings from Warrior’s axes or Paladin’s Truesilver Champions and deal 2 damage to the hero as a bonus. In the later stages, it will protect high-value targets (like the Argent Commanders) or soak up some damage, potentially preventing a lethal blow.
Redemption is just as fun to use and, too, has several uses. The most obvious one is playing it preemptively when you expect that a valuable minion will be killed. Option two is to play it, make a one-for-one trade minion-wise and get your stuff back. Option three, though, is where Redemption truly excels. As the card revives the minion with all its abilities, it synergizes perfectly with Argent Squire and Argent Commander. The shieldless Commander/Redemption combo is especially powerful as you can kill a minion by sacrificing the Commander, get it back with divine shield and charge on via Redemption and attack again for another 4 damage somewhere. Be smart and careful when you use this secret, though – you’ll often run one-of in your aggro and you wouldn’t want to waste its potential.
Divine Favor is a powerful way to catch up with the hand size of your opponent. Aggro Paladins tend to empty their hands fast and/or run out of steam past the mid-turns and Divine Favor gets them back in the game. This is a card especially useful against control decks that run a lot of draw techniques (Mages, Priests) but even against aggros you’ll often draw 2 for 3 mana, essentially casting Arcane Intellect.
III. Crafting for mid-range control
Lay on Hands is Paladin’s most powerful healing spell. At 8 mana, it’s a strictly late-game card which returns a quarter of hero’s health back and refills the hand by drawing three cards. This makes LoH especially powerful against late-game oriented decks such as the popular Mage controls, the Priest controls that can be seen in the higher layers of ranked mode and, of course, in Paladin control mirrors.
Magic: The Gathering players will see resemblance between Lay on Hands and Sphinx’s Revelation and will immediately recognize the power of the card. The fact that it draws three cards alongside the healing (usually, cards that just return health are not that highly valued in TCGs and are often disregarded or ran in small quantities as counters to certain meta) makes it a 2-in-1 deal that completely justifies the high mana cost. It’ll often be the saving grace that heals you up just before Pyroblast hits or what delivers you the missing piece in your late-game puzzle (i.e. Tirion/Ragnaros, more heal, board control mechanics, etc.).
Equality is another card you’ll always run in mid/late-game oriented Paladins. It’s an essential piece in powerful board sweepers when paired with Consecration, Avenging Wrath or Wild Pyromancer and is what helps the slower Paladins stay alive till late game. It’s also an effectual way to deal with Druid decks’ high-toughness minions (Ancient of War, Druid of the Claw, Ysera, Ragnaros) or definitively clear a highly populated board with buffed-up minions.
Another thing that makes Equality great is the place of the combos that use it in the mana curve. Coin excluded, Pyromancer/Equality comes on T4, Equality/Consecration can be cast on T6 and Equality/Avenging Wrath on T8. It’s a sequence similar to Mage’s 3-5-7 (CoC, Blizzard, Flamestrike) and will make opponents play with caution as populating the board in one turn will be punished on the next.
Aldor Peacekeeper is another card that retains its value all throughout the game. Reducing an enemy minion to 1 attack will help establish better trades, butcher late-game finishers (1/8 Giants are not as scary as 8/8 giants) and will protect your late-game minions from dying to a heavy swing. In addition, the Peacekeeper is a 3/3 body for 3 that’ll deal with most of the mid-game threats, thus helping the Paladin to stay alive longer and more easily maintain board control.
Tirion Fordring is a card that returned to the meta now with the decline of Priest decks and when players stopped running silence galore. Surviving till 8 mana is very doable with a control Paladin and dropping Tirion on T8 is among the best things you can do. Unless there’s a hard removal or silence waiting, Tirion will protect the legendaries you’ll play next (most often Ragnaros) and upon dying will equip a 5/3 weapon, thus donating a 15 damage over 3 turns. The card is a powerful defender, heavy hitter and finisher in one package so running it should be a no-brainer, unless you fear it'll be silenced.
III. To the neutral pool!
Knife Juggler is a great card overall and one that works wonders in Paladin decks. The class has a lot of ways to keep it alive (Argent Protector, Noble Sacrifice, Redemption, Sword of Justice) as well as an easy way to trigger it constantly through Reinforce. It’s mostly a core for aggro Paladins but some control versions run it too for mid-game pressure.
Leper Gnome, Argent Squire, Abusive Sergeant and Southsea Deckhand are another four good crafts if you want to go full agro. The first two are a pain to deal with and are easy value while the Deckhand and the Sergeant are a charging 2 damage that catches opponents by surprise. You’ll, of course, want a pair of Harvest Golems, Defenders of Argus and Argent Commanders just like every aggro deck out there. Some aggro builds also consider Bloodsail Raiders but I’ve personally found them ineffectual. Granted, they become a 4/4 or 6/3 for 2 but they need a weapon and when there isn’t one in play they’re kind of a dead card (they can still be dropped as a 2/3 for 2 but there are better 2-mana plays that should take priority).
Wild Pyromancer and Ragnaros should be considered for the mid-range control builds. The Pyromancer works well with Equality as we mentioned and Ragnaros is a natural choice for end-of-curve finishers, especially if you’ve already established board control (an easy task with the aforementioned Equality).
Finally, you’ll want Sylvanas because she’s great. It fits every deck currently in fashion and until the meta shifts towards silence-heavy decks you’ll want her in your collection.
Advanced deckbuilding
I. Miniatures
Popularized by Cixah, the miniatures are a standard aggro deck that plays a lot of small, cheap minions in attempt to rush down the opponent before the late game. It makes use of Paladin’s hero ability to maintain board presence and pressure and implements class-specific techniques like Argent Protector, Noble Sacrifice and Redemption to protect high-value drops.
The Sword of Justice and the Knife Juggler are the MVPs of the miniatures aggro (alongside the ubiquitous Truesilver Champion). SoJ will add +1/+1 to every minion that you play, making it a harder to kill or big enough to trade efficiently with opponent’s minions. It works especially well with Noble Sacrifice (the Defender grows to 3/2 and can survive Druid’s and Rogue’s hero powers) and Harvest Golem (giving you a 3/4 that spawns a 3/2). It will also keep the Jugglers out of Holy Nova/Blizzard/Starfall range and will turn the Southsea Deckhand (if you decide to play one) into a charging 3/2 for 1.
The Knife Juggler, on the other hand, often pays off easily in Paladin decks. It can be triggered every turn by Reinforce while hiding behind class-specific defensive mechanisms.
Unlike other aggro classes like Warlocks or Rogues, the miniatures don’t have a strict decklist that everyone should follow. Some versions run the Pirate duos of Southsea Deckhand and Bloodsail Raider to extract even more value out of their weapons. Other add additional 1-drops like Leper Gnome for extra early damage, use Leeroy for finishing 6 damage and even play Ragnaros to end the curve and provide some late-game presence. Hammer of Wrath and Blessing of Kings are interchangeable depending on player preferences, too. The deck on the right is what I currently run on Rank 6.
The miniatures’ big problem is their bad T1 and T2. Unless an Argent Squire is drawn in the opening hand, the deck takes off slowly. Even though a handful of 1-drops are run, they’re dependent on having something on the field already (Abusive
Sergeant needs another minion, Southsea Deckhand needs a weapon). As a result, the miniatures will often have problems against decks that rarely get a bad early start (e.g. Warlocks or aggro Mages) and must rely on a strong mid-game to gain advantages.
II. Control
The Paladin control forgoes aggression to incorporate mass removals, healing and end-game legendaries and/or heavy bodies. Even though it has existed for a long time, the deck gained a lot of popularity only recently as a counter to Mages’ control dominance as many of its cards soak up the Mage burn. It’s also a sort of coming to terms with Paladin’s weak first two turns and taking advantage of the strong mid-game cards the class has.
The diversity of the Paladin class shows even more when building a control deck and it can be designed to suit almost every playstyle. The deck on the right, for example, is a mix between pressure and late-game stability. Elements of the miniatures like Faerie Dragon and Knife Juggler are used to deal some early damage while Argent Commander is used for charging 4 damage and a way to clear the board from unwanted threats. It runs 2x Consecration for board sweep on T4 and 2x Equality/Consecration combos to erase the opponent’s board on T6. Once board control is established, Ragnaros comes in to finish the job. Single copies of Lay on Hands and Guardian of Kings keep the hero alive while providing card draw/board presence at the same time.
Other versions of the Paladin control go into more defensive set-ups. They abandon aggression and run dual Wild Pyromancer for extra board control. They also implement Holy Light and an extra copy of Guardian of Kings to more effectively counter Mages, include Tirion as an additional 8-drop or even run Twilight Drakes to take advantage of their big hand sizes. Sub-versions replace the Argent Commanders with Sunwalkers or even add Ysera (although the latter is somewhat uncommon). Check this build to get the general idea of how an extra-defensive Paladin looks like.
Saturday 14 December 2013
NiP win Fragbite Masters 2013
After losing the DH Winter final Ninjas in Pyjamas have returned to winning ways, albeit online, by earning the title of Fragbite Masters champions thanks to defeating Clan-Mystik in the grand final 2-0 (16-3 on de_inferno & 16-9 on de_dust2).
After almost one month of play, Fragbite Masters came to its final day of play this Friday. Four teams were left in contention for the biggest share of the 140,000 SEK (~15,500€) prize purse - NiP, über G33KZ, Clan-Mystik and LGB eSports.
The first semi-final saw Ninjas in Pyjamas overrun the former Copenhagen Wolves squad 16-7 on de_inferno and 16-4 on de_nuke, with Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund putting up incredible numbers (54:22 in total).
GeT_RiGhT had an amazing game against über G33KZ in the semi-final
On the other side of the bracket, the two teams that knocked out the Ukrainian powerhouses Astana and Na`Vi in the quarter-finals, LGB and Clan-Mystik respectively, played a very close match that saw the ESWC champions come out on top 2-0 (16-14 on de_inferno & 16-13 on de_mirage).
In the grand final, NiP continued with their amazing form from earlier in the day by destroying Clan-Mystik on de_inferno 16-3, courtesy of Richard "Xizt" Landström's 27 kills.
The second map de_dust2 started in a more even fashion, as the Frenchmen, who played all day with a stand-in Kenny "kennyS" Schrub instead of their star AWPer Hovik "KQLY" Tovmassian, took an early lead.
Clan-Mystik hung on until 6-6, but the Ninjas were relentless and they took over once again, eventually clinching the map 16-9 despite an amazing effort by Dan "apEX" Madesclaire who put up 30 kills.
source:http://www.hltv.org/news/11850-nip-win-fragbite-masters-2013
After almost one month of play, Fragbite Masters came to its final day of play this Friday. Four teams were left in contention for the biggest share of the 140,000 SEK (~15,500€) prize purse - NiP, über G33KZ, Clan-Mystik and LGB eSports.
The first semi-final saw Ninjas in Pyjamas overrun the former Copenhagen Wolves squad 16-7 on de_inferno and 16-4 on de_nuke, with Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund putting up incredible numbers (54:22 in total).
GeT_RiGhT had an amazing game against über G33KZ in the semi-final
On the other side of the bracket, the two teams that knocked out the Ukrainian powerhouses Astana and Na`Vi in the quarter-finals, LGB and Clan-Mystik respectively, played a very close match that saw the ESWC champions come out on top 2-0 (16-14 on de_inferno & 16-13 on de_mirage).
In the grand final, NiP continued with their amazing form from earlier in the day by destroying Clan-Mystik on de_inferno 16-3, courtesy of Richard "Xizt" Landström's 27 kills.
The second map de_dust2 started in a more even fashion, as the Frenchmen, who played all day with a stand-in Kenny "kennyS" Schrub instead of their star AWPer Hovik "KQLY" Tovmassian, took an early lead.
Clan-Mystik hung on until 6-6, but the Ninjas were relentless and they took over once again, eventually clinching the map 16-9 despite an amazing effort by Dan "apEX" Madesclaire who put up 30 kills.
source:http://www.hltv.org/news/11850-nip-win-fragbite-masters-2013
Saturday 7 December 2013
Ranked Matchmaking and MMR coming to Dota 2
In addition to today's small update on the main Dota 2 client, Valve has released a statement on the Dota 2 Blog that details their current progress on the improvement of Matchmaking in Dota 2
http://www.gosugamers.net/dota2/news/26227-ranked-matchmaking-and-mmr-coming-to-dota-2
http://www.gosugamers.net/dota2/news/26227-ranked-matchmaking-and-mmr-coming-to-dota-2
Friday 29 November 2013
CS:GO breaks 67k players
Steamgraph shows that at one point 67,049 gamers were playing CS:GO at the same time, which surpasses the previous record of 54,097, set on November 18th.
As we reach the latter stages of DreamHack Winter and we get closer to the weekend, it is expected that new records will be set.
Earlier in the week, Valve announced a 50 per cent discount on CS:GO until December 3rd in an effort to boost player numbers.
DreamHack Winter's $250,000 CS:GO prize purse is to some extent funded by Valve itself as a portion of proceeds from the Arms Deal go towards funding gaming events.
source: http://www.hltv.org/
As we reach the latter stages of DreamHack Winter and we get closer to the weekend, it is expected that new records will be set.
Earlier in the week, Valve announced a 50 per cent discount on CS:GO until December 3rd in an effort to boost player numbers.
DreamHack Winter's $250,000 CS:GO prize purse is to some extent funded by Valve itself as a portion of proceeds from the Arms Deal go towards funding gaming events.
source: http://www.hltv.org/
Thursday 21 November 2013
Patch 3.14 Notes
So many changes i couldn't possible go through them all, take a look for yourself.
http://oce.leagueoflegends.com/node/8780
http://oce.leagueoflegends.com/node/8780
Sunday 17 November 2013
Riot releases official masteries calculator for Season 4
Riot has released an official mastery calculator. You can get an edge on your opponent by figuring out where to allocate points before the patch is out.
With Riot's new official calculator, you can test out masteries to your heart's content. They've also released more detailed info on a few changes, including the equalization of runes, the removal of summoner-spell specific masteries, and more. In addition, Smite has a new summoner spell icon.
The patch is allegedly set to launch next week and will feature an overhauled jungle, stronger supports and junglers, changes to brushes, and more. AD items will see a price reduction while many gold per 5 items will be introduced, including limitation of wards and new trinkets that will give everyone unique vision-based item slots with activated abilities.
Source: http://preseason.euw.leagueoflegends.com/en/masteries.html#0.0.0.0
Source: http://preseason.euw.leagueoflegends.com/en/masteries.html#0.0.0.0
Saturday 16 November 2013
Saturday 9 November 2013
D3 News!
A supposedly leaked new Reaper of Souls trailer, the first major Diablo III expansion, has been published in several youtube pages, showing off adventure mode, bounties, Nephalem rifts, a new artisan and more. According to rumours, Blizzard had plans to debut the trailer during this weekend's BlizzCon festival but looks like someone jumped the gun abit!
Monday 4 November 2013
Three Lemondogs players join Ninjas in Pyjamas
Following the announcement that Bjergsen would move to North America and join TeamSoloMid, Ninjas in Pyjamas release their new lineup, featuring ZoroZero, Hyrqbot, Nukeduck, Freeze, and Mithy.
Roster announcements seem to be falling into our laps in a domino effect, which makes sense since so many players are swapping teams. With the official announcement earlier that Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg, previous mid laner for Ninjas in Pyjamas, will be joining TeamSoloMid, Ninjas in Pyjamas has also come forward with his replacement as well as several other changes.
At the end of the Summer Split, Ninjas in Pyjamas announced the acquisition of SK Gaming's Hyrqbot in the jungle and Kev1n in the top lane. The roster released today, however, does not include Kev1n. Instead, Morten "Zorozero" Rosenquist will be playing in the top lane for Ninjas in Pyjamas. The former member of Team Lemondogs has brought two of his Summer Split teammates with him. Erlend "Nukeduck" Holm will be replacing Bjergsen in the mid lane, and support player Alfonso "Mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez will replace Martin "Deficio" Lynge, who has become the new manager of Ninjas in Pyjamas.
Ninjas in Pyjamas starting roster:
Morten "Zorozero" Rosenquist - Top
John "hyrqBot" Velly - Jungle
Erlend "Nukeduck" Holm - Mid
Aleš "Freeze" Kněžínek - Marksman
Alfonso "Mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez - Support
Mithy, in particular, is a notable addition, as his reputable "notebook" has been credited with the strategies and tactics that led the Lemondogs to take first in the Season Three Summer Split. With a capable AD carry like Freeze at his disposal, the bottom lane for this new lineup should generate a fair amount of hype.
With so many members of Lemondogs joining Ninjas in Pyjamas, some have questioned the status of Lemondogs in the EU LCS Spring Split for Season Four. Ninjas in Pyjamas failed to secure a spot and must play through relegations to return to the LCS, but the Lemondogs have a spot, having placed first in the Split and second in the summer playoffs. So far, Riot has not provided concrete information, but Joe Miller, caster for the EU LCS, has stated that Lemondogs should keep their spot.
source: http://www.gosugamers.net/
Bjergsen replaces Reginald as TSM's mid laner!
TeamSoloMid reveals that Bjergsen, formerly the mid laner for Ninjas in Pyjamas, will be replacing Reginald in a promotional video that suits their style.
When TSM began unveiling substitute players for their Season Four lineup, many wondered what changes, if any, would come to the main roster. One of the sources of contention was Andy "Reginald" Dinh, whose attention has been split between playing for the team and managing the SoloMid website. With many veteran players like SaintVicious and ocelote already retiring from starting positions, Reginald's up-and-down performance in Season Three had fans suspecting TSM would announce his replacement.
In a joking, TSM style video, Reginald explains to his team that he has contracted a "League Transmitted Disease" and must step down. This leads to Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg offering his services as his replacement.
Bjergsen gained a great deal of notoriety in the European scene during the Season Three Spring Split when he stepped in to play mid for the Copenhagen Wolves and turned their perfect loss streak around with a win against Fnatic, the team in first at the time. His previous team, Ninjas in Pyjamas, saw a lot of roster changes since they failed to escape relegation at the end of the LCS Season Three Summer Split. Europe has been heralded as the region with the largest crop of impressive mid laners in the world, and with League of Legends players from other regions like EDward, BrokenShard, and the entire roster for Quantic Gaming joining North American teams, it seemed like only a matter of time before a European mid laner would find his way across the Atlantic.
The absence of Reginald on the TSM starting roster ends an era, however. As the team's co-founder, Reginald joined the team shortly after its formation, and he has created a very successful brand with SoloMid.net, which he will continue to manage. Fans show up in droves and support TSM at live events, often dominating the crowd, and some might say that Reginald had a hand in making League of Legends eSports successful as a whole. He will continue to be a part of TSM as their coach, replacing his brother, DanDinh, who recently left to coach Cloud9. His departure from the roster leaves TheOddOne and Xpecial as the only members remaining from TSM's lineup at the Season One Championship.
TSM will be playing with their new mid laner, Bjergsen, in the Season Four Spring Split, having secured their spot by taking second in the summer's regional playoffs.
TeamSoloMid starting roster:
Marcus "Dyrus" Hill - Top
Brian "TheOddOne" Wyllie - JungleSøren "Bjergsen" Bjerg - MidJason "WildTurtle" Tran - MarksmanAlex "Xpecial" Chu - Support
Source http://www.gosugamers.net/
Sunday 27 October 2013
HuK Carving it up!
Chris "HuK" Loranger won the penultimate NA qualifier for Red Bull New York and joins Scarlett and Vibe at the offline preliminaries. The fourth and last NA qualifier will be played today, alongside the global one.
After being unsuccessful on his first try and falling 1-3 to ViBe in the finals, the Canadian Protoss took a 3-0 victory over SeleCT in qualifier #3 and joined the 2012 WCS America champion and his compatriot Scarlett - who earned her spot after the disqualification of Apocalypse from qualifier #2 - for the offline portion of the preliminaries. HuK's run through the bracket was effortless and excluding SeleCT there wasn't any other high-profile name to stand in his way.
The fourth NA qualifier will be played today at 10:00 PDT (19:00 CET) alongside the first of the four global qualifiers at 02:00 PDT (11:00 CET).
Sunday 20 October 2013
Four teams forfeit on the first day of Spring Promotional qualifiers
The first day of the Season Four Spring Promotional qualifier was mainly a day of forfeits, but Salade Tomate Oignon, Supa Hot Crew XD, ex-GamingGear, and Curse Academy fought their way into the second round.
Both Europe and North America had the first day of their Season Four Promotional Qualifiers Saturday. A surprising amount of teams withdrew due to inability to gather their members together in time for their scheduled matches. One team in Europe and three teams in North America advanced to the second round because the opposing team was disqualified.
Team Karont3 e-Sports Club failed to show up for their first match and forfeited to RoughNex Academy. In game two, despite very effective zoning throughout the team stage by INightmare's Sejuani, Salade Tomate Oignon's objective pressure granted them the second slot into Round Two. The final two games for the EU seemed to be all about Renekton, as LCS veteran, Fredy122 and world class top laner Nbs made plays that led Supa Hot Crew XD and ex-GamingGear to victory.
North America's day began the same as Europe's when UNiTE gaming failed to show up, and Napkins in Disguise went through to the second round automatically. Curse Academy dominated Sirens A Team in the next game with their double ninjas and on-point Fiddlesticks ults by the newest member, Tatsulow. 1UP gaming moved onto Round Two as well when Lyon Gaming, first place winners of the Latin American Regional Finals, withdrew, stating they would not move to North America should they qualify for the LCS. Unfortunately, the first day only featured one match for North America, as one member of CompLexity Academy also failed to show.
That leaves four matches for both Europe and North America remaining for tomorrow. One can only hope that viewers will be treated to more than fifty percent of them. In the meantime, congratulations and best wishes to the eight advancing teams.
souce: http://www.gosugamers.net/
Sunday 13 October 2013
Tuesday 8 October 2013
Chaox Up For Grabs!
Mere hours after the world finals, Chaox boarded the LoL hype train and announced to the world that he's officially back in the competitive LoL market.
With numerous achievements under his belt, one could even say that it's more of a question of which team will the esteemed Shan "Chaox" Huang pick than the other way around. The time is most definitely ripe as even powerhouses like Curse Gaming hold tryouts for the new season.
Known as the former AD carry of Team Solomid from January 2011 to March 20133, Chaox's list of premier tournament gold medals includes two MLG championships (2012 Anaheim and 2011 Providence), IPL 4, Season 2 NA regional finas and RoG Invitational, among others. Runner-up spots from IEM Seaosn VI Kiev and Cologne and MLG Summer Arena further add to this list.
Infamous for his firing from Team Solomid for unprofessional behavior followed by what now seems to be only a temporary retirement, Chaox is nevertheless still a big name on the scene and is a lucrative signee. With many of the professional teams rumored to go through post-S3WC changes, there's certainly a lot of places where Huang can land.
Full stort athttp://www.gosugamers.net/lol/news/25574-chaox-is-looking-for-a-new-team
With numerous achievements under his belt, one could even say that it's more of a question of which team will the esteemed Shan "Chaox" Huang pick than the other way around. The time is most definitely ripe as even powerhouses like Curse Gaming hold tryouts for the new season.
Known as the former AD carry of Team Solomid from January 2011 to March 20133, Chaox's list of premier tournament gold medals includes two MLG championships (2012 Anaheim and 2011 Providence), IPL 4, Season 2 NA regional finas and RoG Invitational, among others. Runner-up spots from IEM Seaosn VI Kiev and Cologne and MLG Summer Arena further add to this list.
Infamous for his firing from Team Solomid for unprofessional behavior followed by what now seems to be only a temporary retirement, Chaox is nevertheless still a big name on the scene and is a lucrative signee. With many of the professional teams rumored to go through post-S3WC changes, there's certainly a lot of places where Huang can land.
Full stort athttp://www.gosugamers.net/lol/news/25574-chaox-is-looking-for-a-new-team
Monday 7 October 2013
Take Five Blow away Evil Geniuses - Dota2
In esports news.
Take Five took down Evil Geniuses in a five-game thriller to qualify for EMS One offline playoffs later this year. Take Five is the third team to qualify for the playoffs after Fnatic and ONE
Full story at:http://www.gosugamers.net/dota2/news/25564-take-five-qualifies-for-ems-one-after-defeating-eg-in-a-five-game-thriller
Take Five took down Evil Geniuses in a five-game thriller to qualify for EMS One offline playoffs later this year. Take Five is the third team to qualify for the playoffs after Fnatic and ONE
Full story at:http://www.gosugamers.net/dota2/news/25564-take-five-qualifies-for-ems-one-after-defeating-eg-in-a-five-game-thriller
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