The Grand Pursuivant

I enjoyed that episode more than the entirety of season two. Bodes well for a strong finish. And this show really deserves one of those.

The pricing of players this year is making it really hard to make a balanced team. I want a core of Kane/Stirling/Salah but it’s impossible to get an acceptable team to go with them. Looks like switching around premium players is going to be even more important this year than it has been before.

Has anyone read any NK Jemisin? I've just finished the Fifth Season and it was absolutely fantastic. Really unique writing style for a fantasy, consistent and logical worldbuilding, interesting characters and a really well realised world. About to start the sequel and would thoroughly recommend for anyone looking for a new read.

Can we leave Ozil as well?

The thread has been anything but active. I'm really enjoying the new expansion though. I've played the game more in the last couple of weeks than I probably have in the last year. Ranked is actually interesting and there are still loads of decks about. The Arena changes are just fantastic and the whole game is just generally much more fun to play than it has been for a long, long time. I also got 5 packs from picking the winner. Randomly clicking on a name for the win!

If you have Togwaggle then don't bother with the Priest deck, it's just a slightly worse miracle deck. Although there are some Rogue lists that run Nomi, because of its insane synergy with Myras and Scheme, so if you do craft it then you will have another deck to try out. A few tips on playing rogue, because it's probably the most difficult class to play in Hearthstone (and also probably the strongest historically, along with Warlock), and that comes down to one simple reason. It is the class that has the most decisions to make with the cards it plays. In a game like HS, the more correct decisions you make, the likelier you are to win the game, but the more decisions you take, the more mistakes you can make. With most classes, your decisions are often limited. If you are playing aggro/tempo, you play minions on curve, you trade, them or you hit face. That's about the extent of the decision making. If you are playing a control deck then you destroy all your opponents minions until you can play big stuff and win. Both of these kinds of decks often play themselves. Rogue is completely different. Because of cards like prep, shadowstep, sap and other value cards, Rogue has the ability to make insane tempo swings both late and early in the game that no other class can really accomplish. Very few rogue games will involve you playing minions on curve. Often you will have gamechanging decisions to make in the first few turns that you don't even know are gamechanging yet. I lost a game against a Hunter recently where I chose to dagger up and hit a 1/1 with my face instead of use coin SI:7 on turn 2. The last turn of the game he had no cards in hand and no minions on board and I was set up for lethal the next turn unless he killed me. He topdecked kill command. The SI was still in my hand and I didn't need it for lethal. That turn 2 decision literally cost me the game. It made sense at the time with the cards I had, as I expected to be able to kill him before he could kill me. Against almost any other class, a turn 2 weapon in to kill a minion would have been absolutely fine. But because it's hunter, I didn't think enough about the value of that 1HP. This is an extreme example, but I think it highlights just how much you need to think about when playing a Rogue deck. To get good at one you need to really analyse what it is you might have done wrong when you lose. Sometimes there was nothing you could have done, but most of the time rogues lose because of something the player did. The versatility Rogue has is its greatest strength though. I was thinking about linking a couple of decks, but honestly, instead of you crafting some netdeck and spending unnecessary dust, I think you making your own deck would probably help more. There are a lot of variants at the moment, but most of the core cards are still in the basic and classic set, and are 80% common and and rare cards, so you almost definitely have them in your collection. Let me know the following: Do you want to play the super-aggresive Wagglepick rogue that is going around, or the Lackey rogue that focuses on doing crazy stuff with Togwaggle, Scheme and Shadowsteps (and also sometimes plays Wagglepick)? Which of the following legendaries do you have? - Bloodmage Thalnos, Leeroy, Edwin, Captain Greenskin, Ziliax, Myras Unstable Element, Chef Nomi

Strangely enough, I don't think there are any particularly must have Legendaries in the new set. The neutrals are all very situational, and only really fit in a few decks. Ziliax is pretty much the only neutral Legendary in rotation at the moment that is played in a lot of decks, but it is also not the kind of card that you build a deck around. It's definitely worth crafting, but expect to have to craft other cards to get a good deck. This is also possibly the most balanced expansion in HS history. It looks like Blizzard learnt a lot from Baku and Genn. There isn't really a deck that's overly oppressive, and whilst there are a couple of decks that are really strong at the moment, I get the feeling that other decks will be better finetuned to either counter them or surpass them later on. The meta doesn't look particularly set in stone at the moment. That said, there are definitely certain decks and archetypes emerging. In terms of Legendaries, this is what you'll need to play certain decks. Druid - Token Druid is a strong deck, and the most popular on ladder at the moment. It's a super aggro deck that just floods the board. It probably overwhelms bad players, but I find that it's not particularly consistent, and it's also very predictable so a mediocre player with an average deck shouldn't have too many problems beating it. Lots of lists run Keeper Stalladris, and whilst the card is strong, I don't think it's essential. The other Druid deck that I think might be sleeper OP, but nobody has made a good version yet, is Heal Druid. You will definitely need Lucentbark for that, but nobody has figured it out properly yet so beast to avoid for now. Mage - Conjuror Mage is probably the second strongest deck right now. It doesn't need Kalecgos, I know because it took me from rank 10 to 4 without it. It definitely needs Khadgar though. It also needs quite a few epic spells and minions, so is very expensive in dust terms even if you don't run Kalecgos. It's also a very skill intensive deck to play, so if you haven't played for a while expect to lose a lot until you figure the deck out. It is amazingly fun to play though. Just look at my post above yours for proof of that! Hunter - Mech Hunter is strong, so Oblivitron is worth a craft if you want to play that. I haven't played the deck though so can't say much more. @RJames has played a lot of it I think so if you are interested he can probably help. Vereesa is just rubbish at the moment. Other than that, Secret Hunter and Mid-Range hunter are still solid decks, and relatively cheap to craft. Paladin - Secret Paladin is bad. Heal Paladin is bad. Both the legendaries are not worth the dust. Poor Paladin. Priest - Silence priest is a thing but it's decidedly average. Both of the Legendaries are strong but there aren't any decks yet that make them worth having. Funnily enough, the best Priest deck at the moment is Chef Nomi priest. It's a miracle deck that plays Gadgetzans, a whole bunch of low cost spells and card draw, and basically draws through the entire deck to get to Chef Nomi as soon as possible. It's maybe the cheapest deck in the meta as it only runs Nomi as its sole legendary. Worth checking out if you are strapped for dust. Rogue - Rogue is probably the most powerful class right now. There are loads of variants as well. They are all fairly expensive, but there is a lot of variety, and a lot of them run classic legendaries you probably have (Leeroy, Edwin etc). They all, however, run Heistbaron Togwaggle. You can do some ridiculous stuff with that card and Togwaggles scheme. I had a game where I played 7 Leeroys for 0 mana for lethal against a warrior. I played a game where I put 12 Ziliax in my deck after playing Myras Unstable Portal against a Hunter and had them autoconcede. Again though, these decks are all incredibly hard to pilot. They will take a while to learn but are so worth it once you understand how they work. Shaman - Murloc Shaman is your classic Murloc deck. If they can't remove your key cards you win, if they can, you lose. You can run Scargill, but it's by no means necessary, and you often get it from Underbelly Angler anyway so why bother? Swampqueen Hagath is good for Control Shaman, but the deck looks super boring to play so I have no idea if it needs it or not. Warlock - Arch-Mage Rafaam is a meme card. You can put it in any deck and it'll do what it says. If you want to turn you deck in to random legendaries then craft it. If you don't care, then don't. The other warlock legendary is trash. I think Warlock is the second weakest class after Paladin. Zoo still works, but I don't think it's very strong when Rogue, Mage and Warrior are all over the ladder. Warrior - The most powerful Legendary in the game at the moment is definitely the Dr. Boom, Mad Genius. It's carrying control and bomb warrior at the moment. With the other DK cards being rotated out it's just absurdly strong. The Hagatha DK is the second most powerful legendary in the game but it pales in comparison to Dr Boom. If you want to play Warrior, definitely get this. If you want to play Bomb Warrior then Blastmaster Boom is good, but also not particularly necessary. Boom Reaver isn't worth it when you can just discover it from omega assembly and Dr. Booms hero power. If you've played a Control Warrior deck before than nothing has changed. You stall out the game forever and overwhelm them with ridiculous value cards. Same as it ever was. Bomb Warrior is very by the numbers. I've played a few games with both of them and they are strong, but they aren't particularly fun. I can link to any of the decks I've mentioned if you're interested. I would thoroughly recommend investing in Rogue or Mage if you can.

If you haven't seen the final match of this years World Championship I would highly recommend watching it. Easily the craziest ending to a world finals there has ever been.

Just your average, run of the mill, bog-standard turn 4 play.

There’s no chance I’m going to catch you in our league, but I’m 2nd in another league by about 40 points, so I’m taking the risk of Duffy captain in my quest for glory. Cheeks are firmly clenched right now.

I loved this. Enjoyed even more reading everyones favourite quotes and realising that the line that made me laugh longest and loudest hasn't been done yet. "I was told you were seperated."

The Filmarillion.

This film is special. Do not watch the trailer. You want to go in to this cold. The trailer doesn't really spoil much, but it spoils enough. Back to what I was saying though. This film is special. I already feel guilty about yarring it and will happily go and see it in the cinema if it is released. Hell, I'll even buy two tickets to make up for it. It's the kind of film that makes me want to come straight on to rllmuk and post about it right after I've finished watching. I don't think that's happened for quite possibly a decade. That's how often I recommend a film guys. About once a decade. Turns out, this is the one. And it's a sci-fi film! Prospect does almost everything right. And the bits it does get right, it just completely fucking nails. From a film making perspective and a story telling one. There are a couple of minor flaws but the rest of it is just so goddamn good that they fall away in to complete irrelevance. It's hard to know where to start with the praise. You can see the love that has been poured in to it. The rest of this isn't really spoilers, I don't talk about the plot, but I'll put it in spoilers anyway. The next bit is real actual spoilers, genuinely don't read it unless you've seen the film. Really, don't read it. Super spoilers. Avoid. You've been warned. tl;dr Watch this film already. And try to pay for it when you can, so that it's a success.

Hah, is he really? Still probably going to keep him unless I get two transfers and don't want to make any other moves.