Hearthstone CroKnows: Deck Building 101 

step one: add dr. boom

i'm here to build a duck.

my power comes from my poisoned blade

The editing man. So good.

Thanks for that informative video cro and crew :-) Also nice editing :-) And who else did see that justicar kreygasmheart at 3:15? :-DD

more croknows, seriously

if i can offer a little criticism, i think your video was targeted at players who already knew a decent amount about hearthstone. By the 4:00 mark, you had talked so much about specific cards and cases that I, as a new player, was completely lost. the concepts you were trying to convey were good, but your examples were overly specific in a way that made it hard to follow for me.

hey strifecro! i just wanted to say that last season i managed to hit legend for the very first time and your videos contributed to this achievment a great freaking deal! i really enjoy your content since it is both delightful as well as educational! keep up the good work man! :D

Thank you so much, StrifeCro! I've never built a deck myself. I don't have enough faith in myself. But I'm halfway through this, and you've completely changed my mind. You're the best!

Can you talk about mana curve in decks? whats the optimal curve in constructed and in arena?

Props 'Cro, I think it's great that you're up for posting this sort of "Tutoring" video.

And here I am, trying to make my gimmick decks work. Pirate rouge and secret mage will work guys, I swear!

I DEMAND DECKBUILDING 102. I have no idea what it would emphasize on, but this is interesting as hell to listen to. Great video as always Strifebro.

Funfact: Cro is one of the most popular german musician :D

TY for this! I hope u do more vids like this! :)

Very interesting stuff, but I take a different approach with my deckbuilding. For me, I start with a class and a strategy. For example, I might say that I'm making an aggro warrior or a tempo rogue. That choice then determines what my baseline curve needs to be to consistently have drops on the turns I need. An aggro deck, for example, needs about 6 1-drops, 6 2-drops, and 4 3-drops to consistently hit its early game curve. (I'm defining a "drop" as a card that I would be happy to play on-curve on an empty board). To craft the deck, I then go for the most powerful minions that I can get for the strategy at each mana cost. Leper gnome is a powerful 1-drop for an aggressive strategy, for example, and zombie chow is a powerful 1-drop for a more midrange style. Synergy comes in as a way to increase the power of my drops above the normal curve by taking advantage of combos. For an aggro warrior, I might choose to put in the weapon synergy pirates, because they will occasionally give me better turns than I could normally have at that mana cost. Bloodsail Raider by itself is not the best 2-drop, but it is really good when coupled with a fiery war axe. Of course, this doesn't apply to every deck archetype. I find this approach works best when making aggro, tempo, and midrange style decks. You might have to take a different approach when making control, ramp, and combo decks.

First PogChamp

That Justicar-Kreygasm @ 3:20

more of this please! really helpful maybe also do deck reviews and your top 5 or 10 favorite (not best) decks to use.

Power + consistency.... says the guy that brought that terrible mage deck to starseries =(

midrange paladin has been good for awhile now. probably my best deck

Nice video of good quality as always keep up the good stuff you and you're editor :)

this is really cool of you. but using terms that are not familiar to all hearthstone players can be somewhat confusing. after seeing and play the game for a couple months now, I know what you are talking about and this did help. I do not know how helpful this will be to the new player or the inexperienced deck builder. Awesome video though :)

Duck- Deckbuilding, loved it :D

The face on Justicar Trueheart 3:15 :D

I just find it funny that he calls out Deathwing as unnecessary, having just recently lost a match to one. Good vid Strife.

This is all either very abstract or very obvious, and I'm not sure what it actually contributes. It doesn't describe what is involved in actual deckbuilding, just talks about some concepts about what some good decks have or don't have.

Elise is the tallest :PogChamp:

Thanks - that was interesting. I've been making some abominable monstrosities. Mechmage with Gelbin, Foe Reaper, Sneed's, Boom, Archmage AND duplicates for my mechwarpers. I'm an idiot, clearly.

I get it, I should have commented a year ago. But I'm honestly peeved about the fact that this video is titled "Deck Building 101." In every other 101 video I've seen, the content of the video consists of doing whatever it is you're trying to teach. Sketching 101 videos consist of sketching, cooking videos of cooking, etc. There isn't a frame in this video where Cro actually builds a deck. So why call it "Deck Building 101?" On top of that; it felt to me like he was trying to explain such a vague series of concepts. "Quartermaster decreases your consistency", but after watching this video I couldn't tell you WHY that's true despite that being a direct quote from the video. To me, it is nothing but a disservice to your viewers to make a guide that doesn't even take the time it needs to clarify its concepts for people. Assume you're teaching total idiots, or you'll fail to teach anyone a good majority of the time. This is just my critique, and in no way serves to discredit StrifeCro. But I feel someone had to point out how alienating and vague this whole video is for the vast majority of people who would need a "Deck Building 101" video.

+StrifeCro TLDR: An idea for an upcoming croknows video! Another related topic with Consistency is Mana Curve. I used to play MTG and i was very logical with numbers when making a deck. The 60 card deck was divided in 20 lands and 40 cards. The 4 copies of a card usually means i want to play it every single game, and even having more than one is a good thing. With 3 copies, i just want the card to be played once in each game or having just one on the board at the same time. WIth 2 copies just the situational tech cards. That formula on numbers and average mana curve made me a better deck builder. When i started to play Hearthstone i was very confused on "how many 1-3 minions a deck can have" and "how long the mana curve should be" to make an optimal deck. I know deck archetypes and situational cards comes into play here and a balance has to be made, but took me a while to figure it out. It's not often clear. I would like you to tell us about your point of view of that, and if you feel it's worth, making a Croknows video about your opinion on the Mana Curve balance. I would love to see your insight.

Ty StrifeCro for making this video. Haven't watched it yet but I really need to become a better deck builder so I would love more videos like this. ty :)

Strife, I think this was an awesome video. However,I feel this is was less about "deck building" and more about the assessing meta. Your assessment of the meta is very solid and so opposed to "deck building", you should keep releasing thoughts and ideas surrounding the meta. Just bare in mind that 101 means the basic and understanding the potency of cards in the meta is not really something a basic player will grasp quickly. Although this type of presentation would be equally valuable to the Hearthstone community as a whole. Thanks for the video and keep up the great work Strife.

good job. i really enjoy your opinion about do not add too much power card in deck. i love lot of legendary at my control war or playing deathwing at dragon something. now ii know it wasnt best idea. i suggest you title of episode 2nd; tech cards. All of decks should use some techcards. General rules are simple, use kezan if you play mostly vs secret, harrison vs daggers, crab vs murlocks etc. But i quite sure, that you have got dffrent view of tech cards as pro player. i hope you will emphasises class tech card too.shaman bloodlust or warlock twisting nether. thank you for new series, great job.

yeah, just saying. I'm not new to hearthstone and in no way new to tcgs, but you can't call this a 101 when most of the time you just mention a card by name and expect everyone to know what it does. I have no idea what you're talking about since I don't know most of my cards by name (I have problems remembering names in general). either explain the effects and usage of the combo or don't mention it (in a 101).

Great video, keep doing them! I think you have a lot of deck building videos you can do. By subject, aggro decks, control decks, combo decks, or with a single deck, waht are the strenghts or weakness. One video I would like to see is a video about tech cards...

Thanks! make more videos like this please. You already explain tons of info during your matches and I think more videos like deck building 101 would be great. The again

The fact that there's an inherent tension between power and consistency is something that's obvious in hindsight, but honestly hadn't occurred to me before watching this. I knew intuitively (and through experiment) that throwing every huge late game threat into a deck isn't going to work, and that running a deck made entirely of low cost creatures might guarantee that you take an early lead, but will run out of steam without more powerful cards to support it. I just hadn't taken the mental step to generalize that effect to all decks. Looking forward to more of this kind of thing in the future.

Strifecro Recently I have been working on a really cool control/naga sea witch priest and I was wondering if there is a away I can send it to you and get your advice on any improvements. The deck seems to be okay (but I'm only at a low rank at the moment) and has some really cool combos and it would mean a lot if you could help me improve it. I know it's never going to be a meta deck but I really think it has potential. Thank you.

Awesome video, man. You're probably the most knowledgeable person out there when it comes to Hearthstone. I was looking for a resource like this since I started playing in June. Keep it up, I hope this type of content becomes a staple of your channel.

RIP Deathwing sama

Good job, StrifeCro! I love that kind of content. It would be great if you work on some theory/strategy content some time. Keep up the fine work, man! ;)

The interface is not intuitive. I can't figure out how to make a deck like literally. When i try to swap cards it doesn't seem to work . I cant find any tutorials dealing with the interface. All i want to do is swap cards etc... Any help would be appreciated.

Nice video Strifecro, thanks for that. I was never very good at deck building, but working through and getting there slowly xD

Where is the second subscribe button!! Every day I wake up with a smile on my dile because I know there will be a new strifecro video and hearthstone is waiting for me.

Deckbuilding: watch Strifecro's latest video, copy, play

You might need your own "skip the kripp", unfortunately "blow the Cro" doesn't quite hit the mark.

Win more is really just another term for pulling off great BM SMOrc ROAR

I just hating building decks from a large collection (main reason I haven't built a magic deck for a while)

I have basically every card for a good handlock but Dr.Boom and the giants, rip me every getting a very high rank

VERY good video, man! Can you do another one where you explain in detail what a control deck needs to beat aggro decks consistently? I HATE aggro, but I just can't seem to come up with a control deck that reliably kills these annoying and unfun aggro decks close to every time. I found the part where you mentioned the KT Taunt druid interesting. You would think that a deck filled to the brim with taunt minions would do well against aggressive playstyles, but the opposite is the case. It seems like only aggro can counter aggro. Why?

great vid :) i love the way you think in terms of card choices, your lists always seem to be my "go to" lists when I want to netdeck lol

Hey Strife, can you do a video on MalyLock? It seems alot better with Peddler and Brann.

Heh have stupid Aviana, managed to do a turn 10 aviana/belcher/sylvanas/ancient play ;p

+StrifeCro is someone new making your thumbnails because I really like the old ones better ):

I thought this video was going to be a video on deck building for beginners with no experience. that would be a good video to make.

the amount of professional insight + soothing voice of my panda + the smooth editing is making this such an awesome vid :D

really nice work! good editing, nice video/picture additionl and good work on the topic by strifecro

the title alone made me very happy, so many random decks working atm we need a wise man to guide us in this adventure:)

this is great! more of it please ;D oh yeah, and i really do appreciate the little things, like the justicar edit ^^

would like a second video focusing on tempo, playing on curve, and building around it.

StrifeCro you are an awesome streamer and HS player, thanks for the effort you put into what you do.

Duck deck, new meta! Kappa :D Thnx to editor for laughs

omg thanks for the guide.... CRO-FIST!!!

I am now more confused than I was before watching.

StrifeCro StrifeCro he's our man so let's support him while we can!

I enjoy these kind of videos. Great job strifecro.

Is kel'thuzad reincarnate /ancestral spirit viable?

make more Cro Knows! like Bo knows baseball and Bo knows football!!!

Im excited for this series since im a newbie at hearthstone and i look up to you. The editing on this vid was really good and it was a good video in general. Good job man! Keep it up!

Smells like an awesome series. keep up the good work bro :D

step 1: buy naxx step2: play a lot step 3: play even more step4: copy decks from the internet step5: repeat step 2, 3 and 4

really was hoping for a duck building episode

great vid man! I look forward to the next one. :)

Nice Starladder Discover mage, Deckbuilding Kappa

The way that you defined synergy is closer to the definition of a supporting combo. A combo pertains of two cards that make a significant impact in the in the game. That can be something game winning like force of nature and savage roar, or something that supports your deck, like muster for battle and quarter master. Synergy is a different concept that adds to both the power level of your deck and to its consistency. Your deck's synergy can come from a theme such as having a murloc/mech/dragon deck, in which the more of these cards you include, the more likely you are to get their particular gimmicks off. But in can also be harder to see. For example: a flamewaker mage deck is so powerful and consistent because it has a lot of synergy between cheap minions that make your spells better and cheap spells that make your minions better. Mirror image and arcane missiles are objectively terrible spells, and they never saw serious play before flamewaker came out because flamewaker pushes their power levels to new heights. But similarly flamewaker wouldn't be nearly as scary without the existence of these cheap 1 mana spells. When you add more cards like sorcerers apprentice into the mix, the deck only gets stronger. Another deck that exemplifies synergy is a control priest deck. It has so many spells and healing options, and it has minions like auchenai soul priest or Northshire cleric. By themselves, cards like light of the naaru and circle of healing would be terrible, but the fact that you can combo them with the creatures listed above, and even others like injured blade master and wild pyromancer makes having all of these cards more viable. But what pushes the deck from being a combo deck to a synergy based deck is the fact that you don't just need auchenai and circle of healing. Circle of healing works with a long list of other cards in the deck, as do auchenai soul priest or wild pyromancer. The fact that you can pick two random cards out of a control priest deck or a flamewaker deck, and they have a very high probability of working together makes is what defines the decks as synergy based. Since you can match almost any two cards together, that makes it very consistent, and the synergy does also Raise the power level because if you look at each card alone, it probably wouldn't be good enough to go into a deck by itself (circle of healing/arcane missilesm).

moonfire malygos is obviously a viable deck

Love this concept! Feed us more of these! :D

3:17 what happend to jesticar's face?!

This isn't helping me @all. I'm new to this game and i'm just confused.

thank you very very much for this post!

Such a likeable, humble, down-to-earth and sweet talking person might seriously convince me to play secret paladin - I actually caught myself seriously thinking about it for a few moments in the beginning of the video. Which is impossible since I absolutely hate it & consider it by far the most unbalanced, ridiculous and unfair deck in HS at the moment. And I'm not one of the "if you can't fight them, join them" crew.

Thanks for the vid helped a lot :)

Justicar Kreygasmheart boys!

Strife co is my favvvvv :D lol

Phantom lords face on trueheart??

nice 4:00 isaac reference, is strifecrow a fan?

Is he wearing his nighties in this video?

Please more of this videos! :)

Nice video. I Learned a lot

arigatou strifecro sensei :D

Love the new series! Cool idea.

3:18 who spotted the face on the card?

Don't Do what Donny Don'ts Deck Does,

Great video! I like ducks

Are you wearing your PJs?

Justicar Kreyheart 4Head

Great video, love the editing

This helped a lot thanks!!!!

Introduction to duck building