Random Raises the Skill Cap - Episode 39

Hello!

• Adam is on the show this week
• Topic: Why Random Cards Raise the skill cap, not lower it
• Reasons to be happy this week
• News: BlizzCon announcements: Spectator mode, World Championship, new expansion, and more!

Current Perspective on Random Cards

• The new expansion has a lot of random effects in its cards.
• Goblins and gnomes both have strong ties to random or unexpected effects in their engineering, so it fits the theme
• Some forum/reddit posters have gotten very angry about how they believe the random effects reduce the competitiveness of the game. And at first, I kind of agreed.
• Adam shared his perspective with me and explained how random effects are actually increasing the skill cap and competitiveness of Hearthstone.
• It really got me excited about the expansion, and let me view the cards with a totally new, better perspective. I wanted him to share that with all of you as well.

Why Have Random Effects On Cards At All?

• Diversity
• Surprise
• Risk
• High-level strategy revolving around manipulating the odds in your favor

Degrees of Randomness

• How random does the effect have to be?
• Stampeding Kodo vs. Brawl
• How wide of a variance is there in the outcome? Best case vs. Worst case
• If it’s randomly deal 100 damage to your opponent or destroy all of their cards, do you really care that it’s random?

Randomness Raises the Skill Cap

• Random effects can be controlled and manipulated.
• Approach random cards like a con artist. How can you manipulate the context and the environment to make that random card work in your favor.
• This is a more big-picture strategy that involves knowing all the cards in your deck, your chances of drawing each card, and controlling the board at a level beyond simply “I have more minions”.
• Be patient with your random-effect cards to get the most value out of them.

Examples From the New Expansion Cards

See the full set here!

• Blingtron 3000, Ogre Warmaul
• Bomb Lobber, Madder Bomber, Goblin Blastmage, Bouncing Blade, Flamecannon
• Gnomish Experimenter, Recombobulator, Unstable Portal
• Piloted Shredder, Piloted Sky Golem, Sneed’s Old Shredder

Community

• Questions from Bert and Matt
• iTunes Reviews

Card of the Week

Farewell

• Follow Adamon Twitter
• What you want to see in future episodes
• What hosts you want to visit the show