Are You a Hearthstone Master Duelist? Episode 1: Twisted... To Perfection!

Greetings, and welcome to the first episode of a brand new Out of Cards challenge. To be more precise, this series will focus around creative deckbuilding in Duels, Hearthstone's most recent game mode - even though it was released more than half a year ago, it still has lots of space to explore, and our goal is exactly to give Duels the love it deserves.

What is the goal of this competition? Every three weeks (which could slightly vary in the future in order not to overlap with major releases in the game), we will create a new Duels challenge, consisting in building a starting deck with a certain restriction (be it mana cost, keywords, including certain buildaround units and so on). Every player will be invited to join and build a deck with said restriction: we'll even provide some samples ourselves, so that you won't be forced to go to the drawing board yourself (unlike when some Tavern Brawls go live).

Everyone is invited to join and share their results, doesn't matter if you play Casual or Heroic of if you're not already a Master Duelist. We do not discriminate here! Moreover, those who'll be able to provide worthy results will be gifted with a different award every time!

Twisted... To Perfection!

As the article's thumbnail and title might have hinted at you, the first Duels challenge we're hosting consists in building a starting deck including Y'Shaarj, the Defiler and at least 3 Corrupt cards.

Y'Shaarj is an Old God, and received its second card in the Madness at the Darkmoon Faire expansion after Whispers of the Old Gods' Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound. Focused on late game swing turns, this unit has seen play mainly in Carnival Clown Druid, Tickatus Control Warlock, Corrupt Priest an pre-nerf High Abbess Alura Big Paladin. It is definitely one of the most popular new generation Old Gods, even though the buff to N'Zoth, God of the Deep has stripped Y'Shaarj of the #1 spot.

Moreover, if you want to know more about Y'Shaarj and the Old Gods in general, be sure to check out this wonderful guide written by our Goliath!

Challenge's Information and Rewards

This challenge will begin today, August 10th, and will end on August 31st. During this window of time, you'll have to start a Duels run with a starting deck including Y'Shaarj, the Defiler and 3 other Corrupt cards of your choice, either class or neutral cards.

Some examples of Corrupt cards you may want to play with.

Everyone who posts proof of a 7+ wins run in the dedicated submission forum thread will be awarded with a different amount of Gold, an in-site currency you'll be able to earn from different activities and that will be used to purchase cosmetics in our in-site shop. Remember that, in order for your run to count towards the challenge, you'll have to provide an appropriate proof of your feat; otherwise, your result won't count.

Here's a quick breakdown explaining the rewards you'll receive based on your performances:

Whoever obtains the best score will also have the chance of suggesting the next challenge's theme! 

These are the criteria we'll use to determine the winner in case of identical scores:

• A Heroic run will be considered more difficult than a Casual one, therefore Heroic players will have the priority.
  • If you get the best score overall with a 10-wins run in Casual and somebody else gets a 10-wins run in Heroic, the latter will be the winner of the challenge.
• In case of more people getting the same score in the same mode, the winner will be decided by the submission time.
  • The quickest person to a Heroic run with a 12-0 will be the ultimate victor.
  • If more players will get to 12 wins, losses will count as well: a 12-0 will be considered better than a 12-2 or a 12-1.

The winner will be contacted through Direct Messages, where the next challenge's theme will be discussed. In case no one will be able to hit 12 wins before the deadline, the next challenge's theme will be decided by none less than Avalon himself.

If you want to submit your score, follow the instructions in the forum thread.

If you are curious about how the challenge is going, you'll be pleased to know that we've got a dedicated leaderboard for you to check out: be sure to put your name up there!

Suggested Starting Decks

As much as we encourage our participants to put their deckbuilding skills to use, we do not want to cut out those members who may want to give this challenge a try, but do not want to build a 15 deck from scratch. Therefore, here are some funny starting decks you may want to take inspiration from and use them to slice through the competition!

Corrupt Mage

Personally the list I'm the most intrigued about: not because it's broken, but rather because it showcases some cards and sick combos you'd rarely be able to witness in Constructed.

For example, if you draw Carnival Clown as the first minion after Aegwynn, the Guardian dies, you'll get +2 Spell Damage for every clown you summon, and each of them will make your next minion 'inherit' the Spell Damage buff. A good one, for example, is Ras Frostwhisper, which will deal 3 (or more) damage to all enemies right of the bat. So cool.

For this starting deck, we chose Frost Shards over Wyrm Bolt because you don't run many spells for your Mana Wyrms and you have very little early game, so Ice Shards can help you slowing down your opponent, especially with Wand of Dueling for a 1 mana 2 damage ping.

Corrupt Paladin

This starting deck was initially meant to be a huge meme with Carnival clowns and Humble Blessings, but we decided to give the new Handbuff package a go.

This Paladin list's play pattern is actually pretty similar to the one which is wreaking havoc in Standard: you play Prismatic Jewel Kit, then you jam your cheap Divine Shield units and keep resurrecting them with From Golden Light until you're ready to drown with sheer stats.

Catacomb Guard represents a huge comeback tool for this deck, given Mind Tether Priest's difficult matchup in the first few matches and the general presence of aggressive builds. Same goes for Circus Medic, which can work as both recovery and burn based on the situation.

Corrupt Priest

Probably the easiest class to choose for this challenge, especially because of the existence of Dark Inquisitor Xanesh and good (or at the very least playable) Corrupt cards Insight and Auspicious Spirits. Droplet of Insanity is just too flavorful for this challenge to play the usual Shadow Word: Void.

Aside from that, a pretty regular Control Priest shell will Shadow Mend as both healing a card draw tool.

Even though I have no proof to show you, I guaranteed you that I genuinely used this starting decks just for giggles and went twice above 7 wins, so we may be onto something...

Now that you know everything you need, grab your deck: it's time to D-D-D-D-Duels! Good luck to everyone!