The Arena can be a scary place: 30 choices, random opponents, big Legendary cards! Last month we helped you pick the best cards for Warlock, Mage, Priest, and Druid!
Now, we walk you through the best cards to pick in Arena for Hunter, Warrior, and Rogue!
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The Links
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Hello!
- Derrick and Dan are on the show this week
- Topic: The best cards for Rogue, Hunter, and Warrior in Arena
- Reasons to be happy this week
This Week’s Patch
- The nerfed cards
- Dan cries out in agony
How Arena Works
- Quick recap: picking a hero and cards
- Goal for this week: help you make the best card choices while playing Arena
- Includes neutral minions as well
The Best Hunter Cards for Arena
Basic strategy: Aggressive. You can’t always rely on a pure beast deck, so you need to go for cards that work well with non-beasts too. Focus on strong removal and aggression, and grab beast synergy where you can.
Animal Companion
There are 3 different options of what animal could pop up here, and all of them are great! This is your best turn-3 move possible, in almost any situation.
Ironbeak Owl
Beast synergy and silence, which is just huge in this meta. You need at least one of these in just about any deck out there but you should be almost guaranteed to get one with Hunter.
Explosive Trap
Inevitable deaths. You will almost always get value out of this. One of the best feelings is seeing four or more of their minions die from the 2 damage to all of them. It also hits the opponent for 2. That may seem low, but every point counts!
Snipe
Most solid Arena Hunter decks will likely include a fair amount of Secrets, but I like to focus on the ones that deal damage, like Explosive Trap and Snipe.
Multi-Shot
It’s almost a toss up between this and Explosive Shot–both are very powerful. But I usually prefer Multi-Shot because of the low cost. Use it when you can avoid the randomness, such as when they only have two minions on the board.
Honorable Mention: Kill Command
The Best Rogue Cards for Arena
Basic strategy: Control, with card draw. Cripple your opponent and get the most value per card with the Combo mechanic. You’ll need card draw to refill your hand, though, so watch out for Sprint when drafting your deck. It can replenish your hand when you run out of steam.
Assassin’s Blade
Weapons are extremely valuable for the Rogue, letting you punch face or remove minion threats. And the extra durability lets this one pair extremely well with Deadly Poison. That’s 20 damage for 2 cards and 6 mana!
Betrayal
This card makes people wish they were more careful when they placed their minions! It’s not hard to make this a 2-for-1 and it can swing the board state. All for 2 mana.
Assassinate
One of the best removal spells in the game. You have to use this carefully, and towards the end of the game (unless they build a big early threat). This card fixes problems.
Vanish
This is a great trick when you’re behind, and if you’re already ahead, you don’t mind holding onto it. It plays really well with Troops that have Combo or Battlecry effects.
Honorable Mention: Cold Blood and Shiv
The Best Warrior Cards for Arena
Basic strategy: Remove threats with your weapon attacks, and rely on Charge minions to break through the enemy hero and tear them down before they can react. Punch their face on your turn, and force them to trade minions on their turn.
Fiery War Axe
This is your early game insurance. With it, you can shut down any early-game aggression they try to get going. Warriors also don’t have a lot of great things to throw down on the first couple turns, so this is a great fit.
Gorehowl
This is the holy grail of the Warrior arsenal. You can dish out a total of 28 damage to enemy minions, with the option to shift modes and smash the enemy’s face when you’re ready to end the game. You’ll almost always get 3-4 minions killed with this.
Korkron Elite
Fast, strong, and a decent health pool. These sorts of Charge minions should make up the bulk of your army. When you use him, punch straight for the hero’s face if you can. Your goal is to punch face on your turn, and force them to spend their combat turn trading with you.
Warsong Commander
In an ideal Arena world for this deck, all of your minions would have Charge. But in a real Arena session, that’s just not going to happen. You’re going to have big threats that are slow. You want to either grab this Commander or the Charge spell itself to ensure that they’re able to keep with the strategy. You can’t go halfway on a blitzkrieg strategy. You need to be all-in, and this card helps ensure every minion in your deck is on board with the program.
Argent Commander
This might be the best minion you could ask for in this deck. He comes out, swinging for 4 damage. His Divine Shield helps him break down Taunt-minion walls — which give this deck a lot of problems, since it disrupts its big plan. And if there’s no Taunt minions up on the other side, Divine Shield means that the opponent will likely have to trade 2 troops to it, or at least a hero power and a spell to take care of it. That’s exactly what you want them spending their turn doing.
Community
- Question from Derrick: Which Legendary and Epic should I draft first?
- iTunes Review: Boston Nate x2!
Card of the Week
Song by Anna
Farewell
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