Hearthpwn

My first time reaching legend. It was a grind, but this deck finally got me there. Overall, I struggled at tiers 4 and 5, did well at tier 3, and then kind of rolled through tiers 2 and 1.

Like any highlander deck, there is a lot variability in play.

Win Conditions: To win, you are generally going to chip away at life until you can begin going face with doom hammer, Inara, Squallhunter, and spells. Rockbiter is great for burst damage with wind fury. In a long game, Alexstrasza will be your win condition and, of course, Reno and Zephrys are going to win you games that would otherwise be out of reach.

General Advice: This is fundamentally a mid range deck. Try to keep a board presence early to mid game and use ice fishing combo to regain board if needed. Use primordial studies and lotus bloom to get tempo advantage by dropping a big minion early. It is almost always good to get an early Squallhunter on the board. Manage overload carefully, and don’t lock yourself out of a Reno or Alexstrasza. Mana saber and lava shock help here. I generally kept Fireheart until I had 6 or more mana to generate the most value unless really pressed. I tended to only go wide against combo decks - in general I wanted 2 to 3 minions on the board + any hero power summoned totems. Finally, I would note that you shouldn’t hesitate to cast totemic reflection on your healing totem or attack totem or to go face with serpent shrine portal on turn two (with coin) or turn one (with lotus bloom) against any slower deck.

Against Aggro (warriors, some rogues, paladins, hunters, demon hunters, some druids): Keep tunnel trog, ice fishing, landslide, zephrys, totem golem, primordial studies, and serpent shrine portal. Generally, look for board presence, good early value trades and opportunistic board clears until you can begin to generate value. Don’t keep lightning bloom as early acceleration tends to backfire. Use Zephrys to get extra board clear. I didn’t keep stats, but I did very well against warriors. I had a harder time against the most aggressive versions of paladins if they could stick far watchposts, crabriders, or weblords. I would say overall this deck can hold its own against aggro and is slightly favored in most matchups. 

Against Control (priest, secret mage, some warriors, and warlock): Keep tunnel trog, zephrys, totem golem, totem reflection, primordial studies, lotus bloom (keep good targets to accelerate into), primordial studies. Against priest keep hex. Play around mass hysteria and board wipes. Try to keep ice fishing combo to counter a big board move (resurrection or Gul’Dan). Generally, these are pretty good matchups.

Against Combo (wizards, druids, rogues): Combo decks can go off early, so in many cases it is a race and you are the aggressive deck in this matchup. Mulligan for an aggressive start and try to get Inara/doom hammer ASAP to get their life down before they combo. Go face and only interact with their board if you have to. I did about even against spell mage and druids, and had a hard time with crystal cavern rogues (they are too fast) and deck rogues. Combo decks are the toughest to beat with this deck.