April Arena Challenge Final Update (#4)

As mentioned at the end of March, I decided to take on an Arena challenge where you play 10 arena runs and try to achieve a certain number of wins (an overly optimistic 65 total, in my case). Let's check in on how this challenge is progressing.

After the first seven runs (Hunter, Paladin, Mage, Warlock, Shaman, Priest, Druid), we stand at 24 wins total.

For run #8, the choice was already one in which I had played all three decks before! So Warrior and Rogue will have to wait as I select between Druid, Hunter, and Warlock. While I would've been happier with a Mage or Paladin repeat, I will do a second Druid run in a row as I feel that my previous 3-3 run was not up to snuff for that class. Here's the deck:

Results for Run 8 (Druid)
L vs. Warrior (0-1)
W vs. Hunter (1-1)
W vs. Rogue (2-1)
W vs. Mage (3-1)
L vs. Mage (3-2)
L vs. Shaman (3-3)

Final Total after 8 Arena Runs - 27 wins

And go figure, a 3-3 run deserves another, apparently. Despite getting on a nice three-game winning streak early in this run, the deck just did not have what it took to do better than the other decks I have drafted in this challenge. On the down side, the nerfs hit during this run and that made Force of Nature not so good...but on the bright side, the new set Whispers dropped as well which means new cards to play with and hopefully better results!


For round 9, Rogue came up against Priest and Druid (yet again), so I finally needed to pick Valeera. Although the mechwarpers from the previous run disappeared, my assortment of two and three mana cards was much deeper. Would that finally be the ticket to a good run in this challenge? Here's the deck:

Results for Run 9 (Rogue)
W vs. Shaman (1-0)
W vs. Paladin (2-0)
L vs. Shaman (2-1)
L vs. Hunter (2-2)
W vs. Mage (3-2)
W vs. Paladin (4-2)
W vs. Rogue (5-2)
W vs. Rogue (6-2)
W vs. Mage (7-2)
W vs. Rogue (8-2)
L vs. Mage (8-3)

Final Total after 9 Arena Runs - 35 wins

Finally, an Arena run with some serious legs to it! Clearly people are adjusting to the new cards, which certainly helps, but this deck did some solid work with all the 2-drops. Corrupted Healbot was interesting, as the card was not as good as Zombie Chow but it still made for some interesting games and decisions out of opponents. It will be interesting to see where that particular card shakes out in the arena format. Also, apparently I just own opponents playing Rogue...don't know why but it just seems to happen.


For the final round 10, the choice did not contain Warrior, so I dodged that bullet for this challenge. However, Shaman was the pick over Priest and Rogue despite my recent success with Rogue because Shaman looks like one of the classes that will benefit most from having a heavy emphasis on WOG cards. I got a second pick Flamewreathed Faceless, which is awesome, but no more came down the pike to make the deck potentially ridiculous.

Results for Run 10 (Shaman)
L vs. Paladin (0-1)
W vs. Rogue (1-1)
W vs. Hunter (2-1)
L vs. Shaman (2-2)
L vs. Rogue (2-3)

Final Total after 10 Arena Runs - 37 wins

It figures that the end of the League of Explorers meta in Arena finishes with a true thud, as my failures to play the tempo game in this challenge led to a lot of mediocre results. Of course, May came and the first run ended up being a Paladin run at 12-2, which would've been helpful in trying to reach 65 wins! Oh well. Sometime we will revisit this challenge and hopefully with better luck than April.

Thanks for reading, and until next time, enjoy the new WOG metagame in Arena. Big creatures and end game matters once again, which appears to have helped my personal Arena game. More on this later, especially if I keep winning double digits after stopping the challenge.