Rogue Hearthstone Deck: K.Q.D

Knives. Quest. Draw.

Knives, Quest, Draw (or K.Q.D for short) is a deck I designed using Miracle rogue as the back bone e.g. Gadgetzan Auctioneer. Thus drawing lots of cards using rogues 0-1 cost cheap cards to keep drawing more cards. There are a few centrepiece combos which I will explain later on, with a rough play guide and complete deck list. At the bottom of this Article you can see the deck in action, although the first game I played was a loss, the 2nd game shows how quickly you can recover with this deck, as long as one of the centrepieces sticks.

Knives: A small but very powerful early game combo is getting a Knife Juggler down who combos well with Elven Archer, Elven Archer will give you 1 targeted shot then your Knife Juggler will throw out 1 random dagger. This combo can be further improved upon by using Shadow Step to bounce your Elven Archer giving her 2 targeted attacks and throwing out 2 knives. Although there is only a single copy of him in the deck, another very valuable combo is using Defias Ringleader to summon 2 creatures, throwing 2 random knives again - you can also Shadow Step him to throw another 2 random knives totalling 4, which is nothing to be sniffed at. The other aspect of knives comes from Fan Of Knives which provides a mild sweep, but when used in conjunction with Preparation will enable you to play 2 cards for 0 and draw 1 card. This will allow you to buff your Questing Adventurer twice! or drawing 3 cards total if a Gadgetzan Auctioneer is in play, all for 0 mana!

Quest: The main damaging combo is Questing Adventurer, he can level up quickly using the rogues access to cheap spells, ideally you’re going to want to play him after your Gadgetzan Auctioneer  however you can play him earlier if you can keep him alive with Conceal. As long as he can survive 1 turn you will often end up with 10/10 under your control or even higher depending on how well you take care of him. He benefits from any card entering the field so using Shadow Step on a creature and re-casting it will count as 2 cards being played and give him +1 +1 for each of these.

Draw: The other centre piece creature in this deck is the Gadgetzan Auctioneer and the main piece in Miracle Rogue, ideally you’re going to want to play him on turn 5 where possible then hide him with Conceal, again fishing for conceal and waiting till turn 6-7 may well be needed to make sure he stays alive. If you manage to keep him alive for 1 turn the next turn your going to be drawing a lot of cards and Ideally looking for the previously mentioned Questing Adventurer getting both of these cards down in play is an exceptionally powerful combo and will snowball very quickly. Another small draw combo is Novice Engineer used in conjunction with Shadow Step allowing you to draw 2 cards for each time she enters the battlefield, If a Gadgetzan Auctioneer is in play this effectively becomes draw 3 cards for 2 mana which is obscene.

A few other notable cards in this deck are Bloodmage Thalanos who provides a bit more draw and spell power to help with all the damaging spells packed. Leeroy Jenkins to help drop opponents when combined with Sinister Strike or Cold Blood you are suddenly able to burst out 9-10 damage which is often enough to finish off a weakened foe. Eviscerate is also noteworthy as removal to help keep your creatures safe but can also double up as a bit more burst damage ideally though you’re going to be looking to use this for removal purposes. 

Single cards, there is currently  a single copy of Sinister Strike and Cold Blood which strikes a better balance of damage and flexibility Cold Blood requiring you to combo and Sinister Strike being useful for setting up a combo or even finishing off an opponent or draw should a Gadgetzan Auctioneer be in play.  There is also a single copy of Sap, I was initially running 2 but found this to clog the hand, sap is great for removing blockers in your attacking creatures way in the late game but a dead draw early on. Again I found 2 copies of Defias Ring Leader to not work as well with my deck late game but they are handy nut draw early game pressure or when combed with 1 of the 2 Knife Jugglers in the deck.

Ideally I’d like to have a copy of Edwin Vancleef in place of my Defias Ringleader but still lacking the dust/luck required to obtain him but if you access to him I highly advise slotting him in over Defias Ringleader.

Hearthpwn Link
Deck List Below: 

• 1x Bloodmage Thalnos
• 1x Leeroy Jenkins
• 2x Preparation 
• 2x Gadgetzan Auctioneer
• 2x Knife Juggler
• 2x Questing Adventurer
• 2x Cold Blood
• 2x Conceal
• 1x Defias Ringleader
• 2x Eviscerate
• 2x Shadowstep
• 2x Elven Archer 
• 2x Fan of Knives
• 2x Shiv 
• 2x Backstab
• 2x Novice Engineer
• 1x Sap  

K.Q.D In Action:

   

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Defying a 21st century business model: why Wii U is not Wii 2.0

 

 

 

Written by @anujitkaur of thewonderwound.blogspot.co.uk

The Wii’s initial success owes so much to the simplicity of the console and the engineering that went into it, that we recognise it as a phenomenal landmark within gaming and technology. However, it is this same success that has created the bar, a bar too high, a bar that all other consoles are measured by.

Despite all the technological advances that surround us, we recognise that we are in a ‘reinvent and tweak’ culture. A tablet is launched, bugs are fixed, tweaks are added, and a new version lands. A smartphone is launched, bugs are fixes, tweaks are added, and a new version lands. An application is launched... And it goes on and on. The model is replicated all around us, and partnered with the ‘wants firsts, needs second’ attitude many adopt, the updated phones, tablets, programmes, and applications, continue to sell.

So, what happened with the Wii U? Let’s not sugar-coat it, it tanked. Yes, it is early days and knowing Nintendo, the brand that bought gaming back to life in the late eighties, a future comeback is anticipated. But, shares have plummeted, stars fell to earth, Ganondorf conquered Hyrule. The Wii was the clear winner of the last generation console war, triumphing over the Xbox 360 and PS3, so reason follows that the Wii U would continue the legacy. But, and one kicks themselves here, Nintendo did such a bang up job the first time round, that this isn’t Wii round two, it is the launch of something completely different. And this is where we take a step back.

Remember that engineering I spoke about a little earlier? It is bloody brilliant. The motion control was excellent, and the software reliable. It hardly fails. The design was clean and tight – a small console, about three DVD covers thick. An easy user interface for casual gamers to explore. First party games, allowing adults who played Nintendo as children to play those same games, those same characters with their own children, shaping future generations of gamers. Simplicity, reliability, nostalgia. Check, check, and check. It seems that Nintendo got it so right the first time round (and Nintendo fan Sheldon Cooper would agree despite believing right and wrong are not subject to gradation), that the launch, fix, tweak, launch 2.0 model becomes redundant. It is considered something new.

The console will recover from a weak launch. There is a nostalgia attached to the Nintendo brand that encourages older gamers to gravitate towards it, and the simplicity accommodates casual gamers, widening the audience demographic. It is a shame that the newer console is standing as a new product against improved consoles – improvements allude to a better experience as it is built upon something that has already launched, but it will do fine. It is not Wii 2.0, it is another product perfected by Nintendo to mark the latest console war.

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Scrolls Vs Hearthstone

We have both played Scrolls since Alpha, and have been playing Hearthstone for a few months. Many people have asked us how the two games differ, and since this cannot be answered simply, we have provided an honest and fair comparison below.

Gameplay

This is where Hearthstone and Scrolls differ greatly. Hearthstone’s gameplay is quick, ruthless and unforgiving. There is much back and forth between players and games can end in a matter of minutes if things go badly, on average games last about 10-15 minutes. The fast pace of the game adds to the excitement as a game can turn around very quickly and different tactics need to be deployed.

Scrolls on the other hand, feels more like a game of chess. There is tactical movement involved, which requires a lot of thinking (and sometimes a lot of mathematical calculation). Then there are 5 idols to destroy, a game of Scrolls with two well matched players can take on average between 20-30 minutes, with my longest game reaching well over an hour.

Thus we may assume that Hearthstone is geared more towards ‘casual’ gamers, although I hate using that term.  We have read people describing Hearthstone as a more ‘dumbed down’ version of magic. However, we never felt that this was really fair given the complexity of some of the cards in the game (such as breaking out awesome Rogue combos). I would also like to make clear that Hearthstone is not ‘easy’ and even seasoned TCG players will enjoy the different aspects of Hearthstone.

When it comes to Scrolls though, no one has ever called it ‘dumbed down’ and in fact has sometimes steered too far into the ‘too complex’ zone.  It can be difficult to understand how some Scrolls work due to the complicated wording, and newly introduced Scrolls sometimes end up being abused in ways not originally intended (no thanks to certain Youtubers :P). However, credit has to be given to Mojang who work hard to quickly fix any known issues (which leads me to my next point..)

Development

One of the reasons why we became so attached to Scrolls was due to the heavy involvement from the development team at Mojang. They were extremely interactive with the community throughout alpha and now beta. This made players really feel like they were shaping a game for the players and not just to make money. The downside however, is the length of time it took to develop the game. The beta release was pushed back continuously, which was frustrating – especially for the Alpha players who couldn’t wait for some ‘fresh blood’. Once the beta release hit, it was a long time before new cards were released on a regular basis. 

This is perhaps where Hearthstone is strongest. With the artwork pretty much copy/pasted, there wasn’t much work for Blizzard to get on with. Therefore a huge collection of cards were already available to players. However, there is one very big BUT here. Hearthstone feels EXTEMELY ‘pay to win’ (We will elaborate on this later).

Cost

As mentioned previously, while Hearthstone is a free game at the moment – it’s actually very ‘pay to win’. The reason for this, is ultimately down to the fact that there is no trading whatsoever. Cards can be unlocked through packs, which are bought from in game gold, or real money. In game gold can be obtained by winning matches against players (not AI) and completing daily quests (such as win 3 games as a Rogue). Cards can also be ‘disenchanted’ to get dust, which can then be used to craft new cards. Unfortunately, cards are disenchanted at 1/4 of what it takes to make a card on an equal level, which is a very steep cost. It all leads down a terribly ugly and expensive cycle. I have come to a point in Hearthstone where I actually cannot progress any further in ranked due to not having as many legendry’s as other players.

To win in-game gold you need to win games, to win games you need good cards. To get good cards you need packs, for packs you need ….gold ! (see where I’m going with this?). Eventually you will get sick of having your ass kicked by players and succumb to the £1.99 charge for 2 packs. But to your horror, you have unlocked zero cards for that fancy Mage deck you’re building and have a load of Priest cards you don’t know what to do with. This would have been easily resolved with trading, but Blizzard have kindly taken that right away from you.

Scrolls is currently priced at around £12.95 and trading is available. You can earn gold from playing against the AI or others players, completing trials and getting achievements. You can also sell your spare cards for gold to other players. Meaning that new scrolls are never too far out of your reach. While Scrolls does have a pay aspect in the form of shards, these limit you to the scrolls available in your store only – and these change every 3 days. So ‘pay to win’ is definitely not an issue here.

Drafting

Drafting is a core concept within TCGs and a fun game mode, but the drafting style of hearthstone is a bit restrictive. You’re locked into picking your class from a choice of 3, which are randomly generated from the pool of 9.  This can be damning at times if you haven’t practiced with all classes, as you need a good understanding of key cards and strategies for every class so you can plan your draft deck accordingly.

Scrolls on the other hand, lets you build any faction deck you wish, should you choose to, being able to plan ahead by seeing what’s in the next few packs you will open. Once your class is selected in Hearthstone, you will then be given neutral cards to choose from and class specific cards with a set amount of rares/legendry’s/epics thrown in, your opponents will have had the same range of rarity in cards as well. Scrolls picks can be a tad punishing as scrolls that are rare for standard games are often not as useful at all in draft, but commons such as ‘Charge Coil’ suddenly become very powerful within the draft format and the variety in decks decreases as there starts to become a very clear ‘pick on sight’ list.

So whilst hearthstone is restrictive in class, it does ensure everyone is on more of an equal playing field, Scrolls gives your more freedom of choice in what deck you wish to play but unfortunately you can end up on an unfair playing field with some commons being very powerful in this format.

Conclusion

Both Hearthstone and Scrolls have their pros and cons, but at the end of the day it all comes down to which game you enjoy playing more. I like the fast pace of Hearthstone, how easy it is to get into and that the premade decks are actually good. But after reaching a point where we have to keep paying money to get any further, my interest in this game has rapidly decreased.

Thinking about it, both myself and Durr haven’t played Scrolls in at least a few months (probably more), but every time we try to come back to it we feel like it’s not as easy to come back to. It also feels more difficult to make your own deck and there often seems to be a big meta which players have to try and fit into. However, there are thankfully a lot of YouTube videos and helpful players willing to help, which is why I’m now considering brushing off the dust and giving Scrolls another go.

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Rust: The Ultimate Survival Test

 

Rust is a true test of survival skills, not just from cold, hunger and the occasional zombie attack. But also from players in a ruthless, unforgiving world. You wake up in rust with only a pair of jeans (or completely naked if you turn the censor off), a rock, a few bandages and a torch. Your aim, to survive, can only be achieved by harvesting food and materials. Eventually, you can manage to build yourself a shelter and fire to cook with (all the time worrying if someone is going to come along and blow it all to smithereens).
 

You can craft basic weapons from wood and stone which is easy to collect, but more advanced weapons require blueprints. Once studied, you will have the ability to craft the weapon as much as you want – provided you have the materials. The other way to get them, is to kill zombies, raid storage boxes, or steal them from other players. There are players in the game who will seek out new players and kill them just for fun. Unfortunately in the current state of the game there is nothing stopping them from doing this and no negative consequences.

This makes it difficult for single players to establish themselves early on if they are on a high populated server. Your only hope is to attempt to survive with a group of friends, or join another group. Although most groups kill on sight, probably from fear of being attacked. The hardest part of Rust is the beginning stage, even finding your friends is a challenge as the map is huge and filled with dangers. Your best part is to use the ‘suicide’ command until you spwan near to a landmark which you can use as a meet-up point.

Once you have formed a mighty fortress, your aim is to protect it with your life. You can craft sleeping bags which allow you to set a spawn point and you can hide away all your loot in storage boxes. Most players will be inside during the night as it is mostly pitch black, this is arguably the safest time to go outside as there will be fewer players. Although be wary of using any light source which will make you can easy target for night time lurkers. Eventually you will encounter other bases on the server, and it may end up in a full blown out war. The main lesson you need to learn from Rust, is don’t get too attached to anything you own and you will be fine.

 

 

If you die in Rust, you will lose all the items you had on you and it will be free loot for anyone standing near your corpse. And if someone is nice enough to blow a hole in your house with C4 (as I have experienced) you can always prepare for this by giving them the ultimate middle finger – dropping all your best loot on the floor so it despwans and they get nothing.

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First Impressions on Hearthstone

Hearthstone is Blizzard’s entry into the rapidly growing and very competitive arena of online trading card games. Over the past 2 years we have seen a massive surge in online TCG's being produced, with games such as Scrolls, Solforge and Might and Magic all entering this lucrative market.While Hearthstone is not strictly a TCG (as there is no trading between players)it is most defiantly a collectable card game and has all the elements of a TCG that fans will enjoy.

So what separates Hearthstone from its competitors? Well for a start, the sheer amount of polish is unreal. It’s the small things, such as the interactive card environments, For example if you click one of the windows of a building, you will repeatedly knock on it until it breaks with a very satisfying smashing noise.

Then there are the very big things, such as your collection being in an interactive binder, with pages you can scroll through as if the binder was in your hands. The game also feels very realistic, for example when you drag a card from your hand to the field of play, it’s very similar to the sound made if you were actually playing in real life, but with the added delight of creatures as they hit the field. You also cast spells and attack with beautiful animations and sounds.

The gameplay is simply fantastic! It’s very simple and easy to grasp the basics, with a great tutorial system that gradually introduces new concepts and abilities. But not everything is included in the tutorial and will be discovered on the battlefield. For instance, the ability to cast ‘secrets’ that will only be activated once a particular condition has been met. Your first encounter with them will most likely involve you running into them head first and being severely punished for it. 

An interesting feature of Hearthstone’s gameplay is that, rather than having land cards or sacrificing cards, you generate 1 mana every turn so there is no fear of being ‘land screwed’ or having to make tough decisions on which card to sacrifice for resources. This is a breath of fresh air in the TCG world, to say the least! While the gameplay is quite simple, this doesn't mean that there isn't depth to be found. In blizzards classic trade mark of games, it's easy to pick up - but harder to master. For those ready to test their mettle, there is the ‘Arena’, a draft environment where you build a deck from a limited card pool.

Currently there are nine classes to choose from, each comes with their own unique spells, creatures and a hero ability. The hero ability is a unique feature to Hearthstone, which grants each hero their own ability that can be used once each turn and costs 2 mana. These abilities range from a fireball that deals 1 damage to a target, to dealing 2 damage to yourself to draw a card. To help flesh out your deck, there are also a wide range of neutral creatures which can be slotted into your deck.

There are many viable strategies in Hearthstone, from aggressive low cost aggro creature decks, to the long game control decks, with everything else in-between. Even some very unique strategies are viable, a personal favourite is the one turn kill.  This is achieved by gently witling down the opponents health until they’re in range of a massive amount of damage in a single turn, through a combination of cards in your hand generated by cheap draw cards.

The decks you build consist of 30 cards with no more than two copies of any card and only a single copy of any of the very powerful legendary cards. The legendary cards come in the form of powerful and popular figures from the World of Warcraft mythos. These include the dragon aspects, warcraft raid bosses and famous heroes and villains. A personal favourite legendary is Leeroy Jeknins who screams his trademark“LEEEROOY MMMMMJENKINS” when he hits the field! Summoning some pesky dragon whelps for your opponent as well - just to complete the full flavour of Leeroy Jenkins.

Hearthstone definitely makes a big splash into the TCG/CCG online market at the moment and may well come out on top, due to it appealing to a wide range of players.Blizzard have created a very addictive, fun game with a lot of heart; currently there is no official release date for hearthstone but with the game in its current state I would hope it's not too much longer.

Watch Hurr an Durr play a game of Hearthstone!

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Outlast Review (Spoiler free) and Gameplay Videos

I’m someone who’s fairly new to the horror genre when it comes to games, and being a huge fan of scary films – I was desperate to find a game that could capture the same experience. Most people would agree that 'Amnesia' is the go-to game for horror, so I was rather sceptical about the potential of Outlast. But every game deserves a chance, and Outlast does not disappoint.

The game opens with the main protagonist, who is a journalist investigating the strange going-ons of an asylum known as Mount Massive (yes I did giggle at the name). Even standing outside the asylum with the thunder in the background, I felt extremely tense and yet eager to see what horror awaited me inside.

Outlast incorporates the fatal-frame notion of using a camera to look through. While you don’t need it to see the ‘monster’, you will need it for its night vision feature. However, the more you use it, the quicker the battery will deplete, potentially leaving you stumbling around in the dark with god-knows-what chasing you. Batteries are fairly easy to find though, perhaps making them more abundant would help to create a greater sense of panic.

Much of the gameplay is focused around completing objectives while staying out of the way of the frenzied inhabitants of the asylum. Along the way you collect confidential documents, which provide a small insight as to why they are set on cutting you into pieces. Although the story itself is not much to write home about, and probably won't be the reason you keep coming back to Outlast.

Perhaps the scariest element of the game is the fact that you can’t actually fight back. Although there are a number of objects which could potentially be brandished as weapons, your character seems to have an innate fear of confrontation and much prefers to hide away in lockers (or under beds, in toilet stalls, etc) instead.

The closest you will get to a battle is flinging the mouse around wildly if someone grabs you, or slamming a door in their face. Wondering around with only your camera to protect you, is a truly terrifying experience (the bits of body parts scattered around don't help much either). Although this is not a new concept in horror games, it is definitely one that works.

Aside from getting dangerously close to horror clichés (crazy people in an asylum doesn’t scream originality) and an overuse of jumpscares, Outlast is definitely a strong contender in the horror genre market. The game itself is fairly short (although that depends on how much time you spend cowering in lockers), but overall it is definitely worth a play through. And if you are as much of a scaredy-cat as I am, you will be in for a frightening experience.

If you want to see more, then you should watch my Let's Play series - videos are below.

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Scrolls Draft Format: Judgement

Out on the test server and hopefully coming to the Beta server towards the end of the month, is the new scrolls draft format Judgement. For those not aware, a draft game is where you will build a deck from a restricted card pool, which is (to a degree) chosen by yourself, from a few options and a smaller deck size. In the Scrolls draft you will be presented with four Scrolls of which you can choose one.  You can see the next groups of Scrolls for you to pick from, so you can attempt to plan ahead.

The challenge of playing draft is trying to make a strong deck from a limited card pool and restricted choices. Often you will find cards that are sub par in the standard constructed format of a TCG, are suddenly very strong in a limited format such as draft. An example of this in scrolls would be Charge Coil, perhaps not the greatest scroll in constructed rank play, but in draft format if you get enough of them down you will dominate the field. Something to be noted is in this format, you can have more than three copies of any scroll in your deck. So if you are lucky enough to get the picks, it's possible to have more than three copies of Charge Coil in a minimum 30 card deck! A scary prospect indeed.

A nice addition to the Scrolls draft UI, is the stats which will help you round out your deck and make sure you have plenty of creatures for the resource (or resources) you wish to play. This feature greatly assists in the drafting process,  as by no means is drafting easy (as Rastien found out in his draft game against Blinky).

Here is a video which demonstrates how Judgment works:

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