The best maps for the arena for the magician. Magic: The Gathering Arena Review. The return of the one and only CCI. Saviors of Uldum key neutral cards for the arena meta

Once again, the release of a new expansion brings us a new arena meta. For successful game and the choice of cards in the arena, you will need not only playing skills, but also an understanding of how the developers operate with the chances of offering you certain cards for the draft.

Following the release of the Saviors of Uldum expansion, the following packs have become available in the arena:

• Basic set
• Classic set
• Saviors of Uldum
• "Rastakhan's games"
• "Expedition to Un'Goro"
• "Kobolds and Catacombs"
• League of Explorers

The return to the Expedition to Un'Goro arena means that the most powerful cards ever released for this format will be back in business and have a significant impact on the meta. It is still too early to draw definitive conclusions about the Saviors of Uldum cards, which first appeared in this format, because they have not yet accumulated enough statistics to compare with other sets.

What is the essence and importance of the arena card blocks?

As of March 2018, Arena Draft card selections are no longer based on Gem rarity. Now all cards are divided into blocks, where there are cards of approximately the same power, regardless of the rarity of their gem. The developers are responsible for the uniform distribution of cards in blocks, who take into account the statistics and composition of the current sets for the current pool of arena cards. Cards from the best and worst blocks have additional penalties on their chances of being drafted. All other class-based micro-changes are done on top of this block system.

However, very importantly, these blocks are sometimes modified based on player behavior in the card selection process, and the movement of cards through these groups is usually based on how often they are drafted rather than based on winrate. Dean Ayala, that this system of dividing cards into blocks offers players interesting selections of cards, and not standing nearby cards of the same strength. But even that can't explain some of the odd card selections in the draft. For example, Candle Horn is in a block that is one level worse than the Crimson Crusader block. This resembles a similar situation where the Sunreaver Spy was more worst card for all classes than River Crocolisk. All class-based micro-changes are reset with every rotation of the arena sets, which leads to such oddities at the very beginning of the season.

The problem with this system is that glaring errors occur when evaluating the strength of the cards, which leads to the appearance of a domino effect in the meteorological arena. If Team 5 underestimates a card, then it will be offered in the draft on a par with cards of obviously worse power. Knowledgeable players will choose it automatically if they want to achieve better results, which will lead to the emergence of many identical decks in the arena.

It follows from this that class cards combined in the "wrong" blocks will lead to the emergence of certain archetypes. You will always choose the card that is better than the proposed alternatives. If this map matches the control strategy, then at the end we will try to adhere to the control archetype for a particular class.

Weaknesses and strengths new system are actively discussed by the hardcore community of players in the arena. But we, ordinary people, do not need to know these subtleties. We just need to decide on the list of cards whose strength was initially underestimated, and they fell into weaker blocks. They, first of all, should be taken into account in the draft and it should be assumed that similar cards will be chosen by the opponent in accordance with his class.

The developers' policy in this direction was inconsistent. If earlier the developers published the composition of blocks for public access, now they have decided not to disclose these lists. But we know that the joint efforts of the community will quickly lead to the collection of the necessary information, which will be little different from the official one. In any case, the most dubious and egregious data will be quickly calculated and eliminated.

To draft effectively, it is important to know how the bid ratios of the various cards are weighted. Recently, cards with a lower rarity are being offered more often. This began to resemble the old system, where cards were drawn based solely on the rarity of their gems. The latest datamining (the study of game resources) shows that no additional bonuses are given for the Saviors of Uldum cards at the moment, at least for cards of common rarity. Recall that previously, for the cards of the last set in Hearthstone, for a certain period from the time of its start, they were given increased coefficients of their drop in the draft.

Saviors of Uldum key neutral cards for the arena meta

Overall, the high power level of Saviors of Uldum cards from an arena perspective means that the gameplay will be more dynamic and less dependent on the early game pace compared to the Rise of Mechanisms meta. This also means that you will often find it difficult to play around a variety of potential threats. As a rule, these types of metas force you to take more risks, especially when you don't have a tool to turn the situation on the board at hand. However, most of the cards listed below can get you out of the race early if you don't prepare for them. The real problem is that you often won't be able to prepare for them, even if you try. Also, keep in mind that rebirth is triggered after deathrattle effects. This rather illogical game element can significantly affect the exchange strategy.

Bandaged Golem- Without exaggeration, we can assume that the entire meta arena revolves around this one map: although it is not used in rating mode, it is a monstrous pile of resources that are very difficult to completely eliminate. You will need a total of 7 damage in 3 steps only after it appears on the board. The situation will worsen if he survives and begins to summon additional scarabs. Arena veterans will surely remember how good the Obsidian Crusher was for a warrior. Now all classes have a similar tool. On top of that, he got into a block with weak cards, which gives him a penalty on the chance of being drafted. The fact that the Bandaged Golem is still ubiquitous in high level victories testifies to his incredible strength, which will make it inevitable for him to move to a higher block, where he will have a better chance of appearing on the draft with an accompanying increase in games with his participation.

Vulpera cheat- This seemingly modest card compares favorably with the Inventor Dwarf and is already an acceptable draft option. Excavating a spell is often stronger than drawing an extra card from the deck. Her high level of strength is already evidenced by the fact that she found a place in the decks of highlander mages.

Ritualist of Neferset- He gives a monstrous reward for establishing leadership on the board. He turns killing creatures into a benefit in the form of a free spell. If you do not take the initiative to capture the board, then your opponent may hurt you with this card.

Quicksand Elemental- He is a less insane tool for a profitable exchange, but will be a good help for him in the battle of creatures, which is the bread and butter of the arena.

History buff- He's already good for his vanilla stats for the early game. Its effect also allows you to cast strengthened creatures ahead of the mana curve. All this makes the choice of this card for playing in the arena obvious.

Location of classes in the Saviors of Uldum arena meta

Robber(55.8% win rate according to HSReplay) - Lack of micro-tweaks always helps a rogue a lot. His great hero power will also effectively fight reincarnated creatures. His strong set of evergreen cards will inevitably raise him high as well. Even the Plaguebringer will give the class an effective removal tool. The absence of the Scoundrel EVIL will not prevent the robber from doing his favorite things.

Hunter(52.9% win rate according to HSReplay) - He finished in a clean runner-up thanks to excellent cards from Saviors of Uldum. Efficient removal tools such as Desert Lance and Locust allow you to effectively distribute damage without excess. Ramhaken Trapper provides a consistent card advantage for all class builds.

Warlock(50.9% win rate according to HSReplay) - This win rate seems to be understated given the Zoo-friendly Kara Fire removal. Don't be fooled by the text of the card: you are looking at the Twisting Nether, which costs (1) mana and is placed in a block with a low load chance.

Magician(50.5% win rate according to HSReplay) - Mage is a class that depends on the random factor of Yogg-Saron's Puzzle. The effectiveness of the Artillery Mage will depend on the secrets to be found in the draft. If you have secrets, it can be compared to several Consecration draws and become an excellent claim to win. But winning requires drafting mediocre Secrets cards, which makes a large win-win range when playing this archetype.

Paladin(49.2% win rate according to HSReplay) - Paladin currently offers few opportunities to innovate in the draft or in gameplay... His simple plan in terms of tempo and buffs is based on cards that fall short of the levels of the first two classes. But with his simple style play this class remains viable for arena play.

Priest(46.0% win rate according to HSReplay) - One of four classes that is at a lower level than expected. The priest has difficulty anchored to the board. It is also difficult for him to resist the creatures with rebirth and the incredibly aggressive tactics of many hunters and robbers.

Warrior(44.3% win rate according to HSReplay) - Rejoice at the fact that the warrior is no longer the worst class to play in the arena. It still has a shadow of the past imprinted on it, but it now has more control tools, including AOE and map generation, that allow it to compete. Please note that the conditions for weapon drafting have now been improved, and they are located in more favorable selections. Electropics alone is already good in itself.

Druid(43.5% win rate according to HSReplay) - His lordship has fallen low. For a long time, the druids remained at least viable. Their strategy was based on the ubiquitous tokens, which are now seriously affected by the availability of a huge number of neutral AOE tools. The Druid has dropped his good card total with the introduction of weak removal, making him an undesirable draft class. As good as Oasis Surge is, it cannot pull druids alone on it.

Shaman(42.7% win rate according to HSReplay) - Currently the shaman does not have any significant tools to organize a consistent aggressive strategy. If you are not a fan of this class, then you should avoid it.

An extraordinary attempt to transfer "Magic" to a digital format, has a single goal: to make the "father of all CCIs" available to everyone.

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Now every new CCI after the release inevitably remains in the shadow of a mastodon from Blizzard — Hearthstone... No matter what new mechanics they proposed, no matter how they tried to bribe with a beautiful wrapper, not a single project managed to reach the same quality bar. But the company Wizards of the Coast- in fact, the founders of the genre - still decided to try. Their Magic: The Gathering arena , an extraordinary attempt to digitalize Magic, has a single goal: to make the “father of all CCIs” available to everyone.

And, oddly enough, the developers have been successful.

Great equalizer

Arena is played exactly like the tabletop version of the game. If you have seen any other CCG with at least one eye, then you already have an approximate idea of ​​how everything looks. Two players try to defeat each other by playing cards: creatures, items, spells, magical artifacts, and the like. The mechanics of MTG are quite difficult for beginners (for example, there is not one type of mana, but as many as five), but fear not: when you first start, the game will definitely guide you through the tutorial, presented in the form of a small adventure. The training will help beginners to understand the basic mechanics, and professionals to get used to innovations.

The Wizards of the Coast project cleverly simplifies some of the annoying aspects of physical MTG and allows you to focus on strategy rather than adhering to all the little rules. The move is conveniently divided into phases, and the game will always tell you when and what you can play. Only experienced people who knew the synergies of more than a thousand cards by heart could deal with building decks in the desktop version, but the digital version itself sorts and organizes the cards according to different parameters.

Due to the fact that you no longer have to wade through a ton of incomprehensible data, even beginners will be able to quickly collect something of their own - the benefit of guides on the Internet is a breakthrough. In the end, collecting cards in Arena is much easier: they do not deteriorate over time, which means you do not need to separately spend money on protectors. This, of course, is not at all the same (someone will probably miss tactile sensations), but virtual cards are much cheaper than real ones. And with the economy, everything is in order here: the game rewards for success so generously that you don't even need to constantly complete daily tasks to replenish the deck.

The interface and menus are intuitive, the graphics are pleasing to the eye, but the arenas are rendered without unnecessary beauties, so they do not draw too much attention to themselves. But the rich illustrations on the cards themselves, for which MTG has always been famous, were transferred to numbers directly from the physical sources. The actions of creatures are accompanied by spectacular animations, whether it be goblins soaring into the air, a tornado sweeping cards from the table, or the revived spirits of the forest. Beauty, and more!

This is a classic, you need to know it

There are several game modes in Arena: a regular duel and a draft, where players take turns choosing one card from the available boosters, making a deck of forty pieces. Also, the format of the sealed deck was transferred to the digital - that is, the sealed. This format allows you to get acquainted with new cards and play the tournament by building a deck of six available boosters. It's a pity, of course, that there is no frivolous mode like the Hearthstone brawl, but what can you do ...

If you have never played the desktop version and decided to try Arena after some Hearthstone, there are some nuances to get used to. For example, mana does not come by itself, but is obtained from lands played from your hand - this is a special type of cards. Only one can be played per round. And each card, be it a creature or a spell, requires a certain amount of mana of the corresponding color. Forests give green, swamps give black, islands give blue, mountains give red, and so on.

Also, the interruptions of the enemy's move were transferred from the desktop version. For example, in someone else's round, you can spend the remaining mana on instant spells that, say, empower your fighters or cancel the opponent's buffs. The advantage of the system is that players retain partial control of the table regardless of who is currently playing.

Let's say you are being attacked by a monster with one attack, but you decide not to block (yes, here, unlike Hearthstone, you can choose who gets damaged) in order to save your creatures for the next round. The opponent then gives the attacking creature a powerful boost, but you have an ace up your sleeve - a spell that allows you to reflect damage back to the attacker. So you will protect yourself, and you will throw a weird little pod on your opponent!

You will have to figure out many of these subtleties on your own, through trial and error. Therefore, I advise you not to rush into PvP on the move, but start with training battles. Impatient newcomers or former Hearthstone players, of course, fill the table with everyone from the very first minutes. And then, left with an empty hand, they wonder why the enemy's unkilled creatures at the end of the round replenish their health and hit back.

So take your time, it's better to deal with first starter decks and understand how everything works. Poor map management is a major source of problems in a live duel. Few lands? You will sit with powerful creatures in your hand and languish over gold, because there is no mana. Many lands? They will litter the deck, and the opposite situation will develop: a lot of mana, but there is nothing to spend it on. Balancing the two extremes and understanding creature synergy is the essence of MTG.

And with each new rival, this essence will be revealed deeper and deeper. Arena is not just a card strategy, but a real battle of magicians. Both players definitely have surprises in store for each other, and the most harmless creature with the help of several spells can turn into the most dangerous monster. You can never predict what will happen next turn. Even if you are lucky and good cards come into your hand, it still does not guarantee victory. This is what Arena fascinates: here everything is decided not by luck, as in most CCGs, but by a correctly played strategy and the ability to adapt to the situation.

It is not yet clear what fate awaits the game and whether it will be able to squeeze Hearthstone, but the esports league is already being launched, and the constantly arriving new players leave the project with positive feedback.

For newbies, this is a great way to get familiar with the rules of the game, which are actually no more difficult than last year's. Artifact... Perhaps thanks to Arena, young gamers will have a desire to try out the game in desktop version- or, what the hell is not kidding, even take part in real tournaments. If you love CCGs, but somehow haven't played MTG yet, then ... Why are you still here ?!

Hearthstone- a unique computer collectible card game, inspired by the universe Warcraft, developed by Blizzard, and the distribution format is f2p. There are 9 unique classes in the game, with their own class ability, a huge number of different cards from which different decks are made. When playing in freestyle or rating mode, you use your own set of cards that you have, while playing in the Arena, which is another game mode, you collect cards from randomly given to you, which brings some kind of balance when playing this mode. Experienced players do not experience problems when collecting cards in their deck in the arena, but beginners collect various maps that are very weak and irrelevant in the arena, so today I will teach you how to build your deck in the arena.

So, how to collect cards in the arena:
1) We choose the hero we need, it is best to choose exactly the class that does not need the absolute synergy of its units, for example, the hunter will be a bad class in the arena, and the paladin or mage is not bad enough.
2) After choosing a hero, we have to collect 30 cards in our deck. The main principle is to choose a card that is stronger than the other two in terms of its characteristics and features. The rating will help us in this. game cards in the arena. There are many sites with a rating, but we will consider the most convenient one.
So how does it work. For example, we play as a druid and we get cards: Mark of the Wild, Wild Roar and Elven Archer.

3) We go to the site and select our class, that is, the druid.

4) Next, alphabetically, we drive in the 3 cards that fell to us, it will turn out like this:

5) Now, using LMB, select the card that has the most points, in our case it is the Sign of the Wild.

6) It falls into our deck, now we can repeat the process further. The peculiarity of the service is that it will evaluate the second and the following cards not only by characteristics but also by synergy, which it will inform you about and highlight the card in green.

7) After you have assembled your deck, you can evaluate it by looking at its characteristics below. Basically, with the help of this service we have put together a good deck with good rating, decent synergy and race independence, which is pretty good for the arena.

8) That's basically all, using this method you can easily assemble good deck to the arena and make 12 victories to get the coveted prizes and legendaries. I wish you all the best in conquering this card game!

hearthstonetopdecks created amazingly detailed guide on playing in the Arena for beginners. I just couldn't help but translate it. Caution, 14 A4 pages 🙂

This guide is designed to help beginners understand how the Arena works in Hearthstone. The main goal of this guide is to teach you how to play endless arenas. So you can get a source of infinite gold in Hearthstone and combine it with a very interesting gameplay... The guide is divided into several parts and will take you from a basic understanding of the arena to various game subtleties that only professional players... By studying the information in this article, you can become an Arena Legend.

Introductory part
While playing in the arena, I see that a lot of newbies simply enter this mode without any idea of ​​what actually needs to be done here, they have no chances to be crushed by players with experience, as a result of which beginners feel frustrated and get a very unpleasant experience of playing in the mode. they have no motivation to appear here anymore.
Hearthstone is only considered beginner friendly. Of course, there were some changes in order to improve the situation, but with each new addition the game becomes more complicated and incomprehensible for those who start playing it.
Hearthstone has a reputation for being "pay-to-win" games, and to some extent this is true. This seems to be true in the event that you want to collect a large collection of cards for competitive play... It is extremely difficult to do this as a beginner. I myself have been in the shoes of a “free” player and am familiar with this problem firsthand. Everything changed when I discovered the magic of the Arena.

The importance of the arena for newbies
With the release of each new addition, the importance of the arena grows more and more, as on this moment it is the main way to make a lot of gold in no time. Instead of spending gold on boosters (you should almost never do this, the only exception is if you only need cards from a specific expansion and have little arena experience), you need to invest your gold in the Arena and profit from it. Even if you play badly and only achieve 3 wins on average, 150 gold still pays off. You get a set of cards (100 gold), 20-25 gold, and you also get either additional card, or an additional 20-25 gold or dust. By the way, as a rule, the value of dust exceeds the value of gold. Well, of course, our goal is to make sure that we don't stop at 3 wins. We need profit, a lot of profit!

The amount of gold received depending on the number of victories

Source: ArenaMastery

How to make it so that you can start taking a stable profit from the arena? You need to reach an average mark of 7. From that moment on, the pure gold received for the Arena will allow you to start the next one. If you play better than 7 wins, that will be your net, very high profit.

Average amount of gold depending on the number of wins.

Source: ArenaMastery

I will be honest with you, it is not so easy to achieve a stable seven wins in every trip to the arena. According to a reddit post, only 9% of players can reach this mark. I think this may demotivate you a little. The average player in the arena achieves 3 wins. However, there is no need to despair. When you are not achieving the desired result, you just need to focus on improving your own skills as a player. It will be useful. If you are able to identify your own mistakes, you will add from trip to trip.
Also, everything you learn in the arena will definitely help you in the ranked game. Especially your skill of correct exchanges grows.

Part 1: Arena Classes

As you know, in Hearthstone 9 different classes, each of them has unique abilities and traits, it is very important to understand all the strengths and weaknesses of your class. This will help you choose the right cards in the arena to maximize your potential and minimize weaknesses. To help you understand which class is better to choose, just below you can find a tylist for all classes.
To maximize the chance of winning, we need to try to pick a class from Tier 1 whenever possible. The point is that these classes have the strongest arena toolsets. I am not saying that it is absolutely impossible to win 12 victories with a Warrior, however, it will be much more difficult, since the nature of this class, at the moment, is practically not designed for this mode.

• Tier 1: Mage, Rogue, Paladin
• Tier 2: Hunter, Warlock, Priest
• Tier 3: Shaman, Druid, Warrior

In order for you to better understand these classes, I will tell you below about the strengths and weaknesses of each. This will help you understand what to expect when choosing or playing against all classes from Tier 1 and Tier 2.

Magician

Strengths

• Universal hero power
• Can adapt to any situation
• Excellent class cards
• Mass removal can win the match on their own

Weak sides

• Few class creatures
• May be in a situation where the hand consists of defensive and situational cards

Adapting to the situation
Games don't always go according to your plan, the main goal of a match is victory, not survival. So, sometimes you need to make risky decisions to win, especially if the game is not in your favor. Ask yourself this question more often:

• "What can my opponent do in the worst case for me to get back into the game?"

Even if you think such situations are unlikely, it is very important to prepare for them. For example, you are playing a mirror match with another Paladin, and you have two other medium creatures on the table. You are in a leading position in this match and ignore the possibility that the opponent has. You summon a fourth creature, your opponent casts and takes yours. This is just one example.
However, if you find that your opponents' creatures are generally more valuable than yours and you are losing turn to turn, it probably makes sense to change your game plans and go for an aggressive match. You can start attacking your opponent's face much more often and try to play only those cards that have the highest tempo. In this case, ask yourself another question. For example:

• "What risks can I take in order to get back into the game?"
  Sometimes you need to stop playing around your opponent's removal and play all the cards you have. Of course, if your opponent has a suitable removal, you will lose, however, this is arena mode, not rating mode. So, the opponent may not have any removal at all as such. In some situations, you will not lose absolutely anything. You would still lose, even if you didn’t commit aggression.

Part 4. Lessons from failure

Sooner or later everything comes to an end, including the trip to the Arena. Few of us have ever won 12 victories. If you've done this before, I congratulate you. If you have never succeeded in this, then nothing terrible has happened. The most important part is the experience you have gained. First and foremost, you must evaluate your choices when drafting. Did you have any cards in your deck that seemed useful to you, but never came in handy? Maybe you got too many early creatures into the deck and completely forgot about the late game? What if you chose other cards? How would that make a difference in your situation?
Then you need to rate your play. There are two types of errors:

• Technical
• Errors when making decisions.

Technical errors in Hearthstone have practically no effect on the game, this applies more to games of a different genre, like Dota or League of Legends, where correct clicks, APM and other such things are important. However, they also exist in Hearthstone. For example, if you did not correctly compose the sequence of actions. Let's say you have 2 paladin recruits, there is between them, and your opponent has a creature with 6 units. health. You can make a mistake and start attacking from left to right, inflicting 2 damage from the first paladin recruit. damage, then 2 pts. damage with help and, after his death, the strengthening of the right paladin recruit will disappear and he will only deal 1 damage. damage. Or, for example, you are playing against a Shaman and you have two creatures, one of them is wounded. You decide to attack with a wounded creature, it survives, your healing totem restores 1 health to it. health. However, if you attacked an opponent's creature with your creature at full health, the totem would restore 1 unit each. health to both creatures.
Mistakes in decision making are something that is very difficult to notice during the game, but very often understanding them helps you to improve your level of play very cool. If you are analyzing past matches, you should ask questions:

• Did I play as optimally as possible?
• Did I have a chance of winning?
• Were there any risks I took on myself that I shouldn't have done?
• Have I made any mistakes?
• Should I be more patient with massive removals?
• Should I have played more aggressively?

Also, when you watch streams of other players in the arena, read guides or study map ratings, keep in mind that among them there may be conflicts of opinion on any issue. The only opinion you should take into account is your own opinion, which is based on your personal experience.