Hearthpwn

This is the deck i used to climb to first time legend in Wild. Here are some thoughts on the climb. I'm happy to answer questions in comments if there is interest as I spent a lot of time  improving with this deck the last two seasons.

The deck is pretty typical Big Priest List I changed it a lot during the climb but this is how it looked when i crossed the finish line. I went on an insane win streak (14W, 1L) with it from rank 3 to legend after bouncing around for ages at ranks 5 and 4 and  3.

After playing this deck for a long time at slightly above 50% win rate, I learned how to win without high rolling; there is surprising consistency in this deck if you can draw out games. Getting Barnes out on turn 3 or 4 is great and is almost auto-win, but it only happens 15-20% of the time. There are lots of ways to win the game on the spot, especially on lower ranks where you see less counterplay, but to climb you have to win without high rolls.

vs Reno (Priest or warlock): You don't even need Barnes. You almost always get Shadow Essence or Barnes by turn 6. And you will almost certainly have something to play by turn 8. You win the matchup by playing around Shadowreaper Anduin and baiting out Entomb, SW: Death, Lightbomb, Dragonfire Potion, Kazakus and Shadow Visions. I won games in fatigue more than once on the climb. Seems like a lot, but  you have tons of value in this deck. You probably lose if your opponent gets both Raza and Anduin on curve, but in practice this is rare. Plus, you can severely hamper Raza by playing Excavated Evil on turn 5! This little trick is awesome. I straight up won 2 games in fatigue because Voidform hero power cost 2 mana. You eventually outvalue Priest by generating cards with Ysera and The Lich King. If you're playing against priest and he plays a Deathlord on turn 2 or 3, start licking your chops because you just won the game. This is exactly how I beat my final boss.

vs Aggro (Druid, Paladin, Warrior, Shaman): You don't need Barnes. Just survive until turn 8. There is so much removal at every mana cost in this deck that it can handle all but the very fastest draws.

Played probably over 120 games this season with this deck but many were on mobile unfortunately. I think my play really improved at the end AND I got lucky too i'm sure. 

Summary of Rank 3 to Legend stats. I  got my crazy win streak over the course of the day on Saturday. I usually play on mobile but since it was Saturday I got the stats for most of the last bit.

 This is the play when I knew I was going to become legend:

 Stats from Rank 10-L  below (probably more representative of the climb, but it is missing a ton of games from mobile). I would say that warrior is not nearly as bad as it looks. the matchup is is probably more like even. You cannot beat the pirate warrior god draw, but you have so much removal that you can survive to turn 8. After turn 8, aggro cannot win vs this deck. No way.

Mage matchup was terrible for me. Can't win against mage. I only saw one mage in my final climb and lost. I think the tempo rogue matchup might be pretty bad too but didn't see many. There is also an oil rogue list that crushed me from out of nowhere.

Thoughts on win rate with a volatile deck:

I estimate my true win rate to be around 55% with this deck. It is definitely MORE volatile than your typical deck which is why it isn't tier 1. I went on more than one 5+ game losing streaks. But, over a LOT of games, i think it has a good win rate, especially if you can find the pocket meta where it thrives ( see my win-rates above). This deck can win against ANY deck and it has very few truly terrible matchups. But, it can sometimes lose in terrible blowout fashion.

> 20% of games, you can win the game with highroll without even trying (Barnes on turn 3 or 4, Shadow Essence / Resurrect 3 Ragnaros or Y'Shaarj, etc...)

> 15% of games, you just lose to a ridiculous aggro draw that buffs out of range and you get run over before you can can draw your board clears - interestingly i didn't see much aggro until rank 5.

> 15% of games, you get outvalued by control or Raza + Anduin - there are some REALLY GREEDY control decks around rank 10. Giant Naga (Hunter, Druid, Warlock) decks fall into this category. Sometimes you just get beat by nasty draw. There is a small percentage of time that you draw no resurrect and have a starting hand full of big minions. But, this only happened to me once from rank 5. 

> 50% of games, you have to fight for a win. This usually happens by getting good value out of your board clears and removal up to turn 6. Present your threats on turn 6-8. By turn 8 you want to be presenting big threats every turn. If you make it this far, there are few if any decks that can out-value you.

Basically, the difference between this deck and others is that 50% of the games may be draw dependent so there are more winning streaks and losing streaks. But, 50% of games, skill still matters so you can climb, if you're playing optimally, but it might feel streakier.