Greetings everyone. Since I'm still learning player, and my highest rank I've been in my HS career is 3, I'm wondering, how often do you change your decks, while climbing ladder? Or, do you even change to other decks, or do you play only one specific deck, no matter the results? This question is mostly directed to players that move to legend every month, but I'm happy to hear everyone's way of play.
For me, I love testing different decks. Because of that I have a lot of decks, and I change them quite a lot, especially when I'm starting to lose. When I'm losing I also lose confidence in me, my experience, deck. That creates frustration, and then thinking of trying different archetype. I even created some specific rules, when I'm deciding to change deck to another. For instance, I moved to rank 5 this month with Khagdar Mage, but since I started losing on rank 5, I changed the deck and tried with one of my Token Druids deck. Result's were a lot better, moved to rank 4, but again I started to lose, and after few attemps, and jumping between end of 5, and begining of 4th rank, I changed the deck again, to different one.
How are you playing, when you decide to change deck? Should I stick to one spiecific archetype, or few of them and try to master them? What is he best way to climb the ladder?
All the time - I personally can't stand playing a deck for more than 10+ games (at least in a row). This probably doesn't make me well suited for ladder, but i usually swap most after hitting a floor level, but if I am close to next floor level (6, 11, 16) I will sometimes continue with the same deck if I am in a groove.
Personally, I like to ladder with two different archetypes that counter each other encase I hit a 'pocket meta' at a certain rank. Personally, I wouldn't swap unless you face a lot (5-10) of different people playing a similar deck. You using Khadgar Mage and Token druid is probably a decent lineup, if you could I would try to swap out Token Druid for some build of Rogue just because it is the deck to beat right now.
As for the whole confidence and frustration thingy, tilting is one of the worst things you can do while laddering. If you start to lose a couple of games in a row and feel like you are playing poorly, just take a step away from the game and do something else for a bit.
Another thing I would recommend is just grinding a ton on one single deck so you can understand it's weaknesses. I've been playing a ton of Mech Hunter because not only is it really good (magnetic is real silly), but it also helps me exploit the weakness of said deck when I play against it.
Hope this helps!
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I don't have something witty about this deck, I just like it because Malygos is fun.
In my view, only pros who master multiple decks should switch from one to the other to adapt to the meta. There's always a learning curve and if you change decks you're more likely than not to play the new one badly.
I climb with a different deck every month though. The advantage is that you start the month at rank 4 at a moment when other players use meme decks, the first few games are much more forgiving than say at rank 1 or 2.
I usually play whatever i want at ranks 5-4 (Tier 1-2) and sometimes accidently climbe to higher ranks and evetually legend. This happens more often near the end of an expansion when i know the matchups already.
This month i got legend on may the 6th all the way from rank 7 without any deck-swaps. I only do this when i stumble upon a meta breaker or a deck i really like. This time it was bomb warrior and the 30 Stars took me 98 games (64 wins, 34 losses). This is my fastest grind yet and i‘m sure it‘s due to better deck understanding over time.
To illustrate why learning a deck long term can be very usefull, i got two examples.
1. I played a netdeck without brawls or executes but with two weapon projects and a Harrison. After multiple losses against Edwin or hunters with giant mechs, i swapped a weapons project for a single execute and suddenly started winning those matchups more often. What i‘m trying to say is that it takes time to understand your weaknesses. Little microajustments can make a huge difference in the long run.
2. The warrior mirror is tricky. It generally ends in double Elysiana games and in my opinion the rng involved evens out because 2x10 random cards is a lot! Fortunatly most Warriors are pure control these days and the bombs end up creating a health difference of 20-30hp! This allows you in the endgame to go face and let them do the trading. At some point i started to save my elekks to guarantee double value (ellek+ Goblin+ wrenchcalibur) and maximise the health difference and hence cheat out 2-3 more wins.
To sum it up: This stuff seems obvious (and maybe for some it realy is) but mastering a deck is really what makes the difference. Every win is essentially a 2-Star difference, so win 3 games you were not supposed to win and you basicly climbed a rank.
Sorry for the long post, i hope it helps!
Ps: I didn‘t even mention mulligans! It‘s one of the biggest learning factors and statistics say that a good mulligan can grant you up to +10% better winrates!
I usually switch my decks at rank 15, rank 10 and rank 5. At each of these ranks, I consider a higher skill level. For instance, from rank 20-15 I'll play control shudderwock shaman, from 15-10 control warrior, 10-5 either token druid, ziplock and from 5-1 rogue. You really dont start playing "pro" level decks til 10. At that point, rank 10, in order to beat these decks, one must also use "pro" meta decks.. aka netdecking.
Last season I played rogue pretty much exclusively to legend, and I'd definitely recommend sticking with an archetype that you both enjoy playing and is viable in the meta. Any time ive made a legend run its been with one class with a card or two teched in depending on what im facing most often. This season ive just been messing about with a variety of decks with shitty to mediocre amounts of success before playing rogue again in a week or so.
I’m more likely to swap decks while descending ladder, tbh, but I rarely play more than three games in a row with the same deck. Gets too boring, particularly since half my games are against rogue or warrior. At least I can make the games feel different by switching to Priest or Paladin or Druid or Shaman.
In the past, when I cared more about ranking up, I would pick one deck and stick with it. That feels like the better strategy for ranking up, but it’s way less fun to actually play that way.
So, I actually have almost all slots with decks full. I just love to try different archetypes. Right now I have 2 Warrior decks, 6 Hunter, 2 Priest, 2 Rogue, 3 SHaman, 1 Druid.
Usually I play a Best of 5 system. If I win, I keep playing, if I lose, I change deck. But there is one exception: if I lose with last match (2-3), I still play this deck. Another exception is, when the deck has big winrate, I also skip standard "lose - change deck" rule. So right now the biggest result I had this meta was Token with 54-34. But on rank 5 I just started have huge problems, and lost o lot of matches. Usually this is the moment when iritation tells me to swap.
As I said earlier, I'm still learning. Espacially with good mulligan, and keeping good tempo depending on the deck I play, and the the opponent's one.
I swap decks almost every time I lose a game, or when I feel I am being counter queued a lot by the matchmaking system (hate this shit btw, make a deck/card change based on your ladder experience, being punished for it with a totally different ladder experience after the change). And I swap 1 or 2 cards every time after a game unless I am fully satisfied with my deck, I don't enjoy Hearthstone if I don't experiment a little bit every game.
People told me it would be impossible to climb this way. They were wrong. I get stuck on specific ranks every time I tryhard a single deck. But if I change my deck when I'm losing stars, it's like a fresh experience, not a losing streak anymore, no matter if I lose my next game.
All the time, I have enough disposable income to have all the cards (well almost all anyway) but not enough time to master anything. If I play a deck that should have a high win rate and I can't achieve that it annoys me, even if I only played it for the first time that day. It doesn't stop me keep switching though! I want to get back to rank 5 by the end of the season so I am going to try and stick with token druid and try to master that.
I'm my own worst enemy with switching decks all the time.
I only play one wild deck, dragon combo priest, I loved that deck pre witchwood so I play it all the time and I would say I'm pretty damn good with that deck.
I usually play whatever up to rank 5, then i play some nonsense decks at rank 5 just for fun and the rest from rank 5 further once i want to climb again i stick to 1-2 decks.
If you arent super good it really helps to learn the deck and the plays in the current meta. Even for apparently simple deck...at least thats my experience. Switching decks to often just keeps me at about 50% winrate.
For Most of my Legend climbs I stuck to the same deck as you become more and more familiar with the subtleties that give you those slight edges in matchups. You also can adjust to the current rank meta your facing as far as tech cards and such. After getting better at the game I can switch deck more easily and retain a high winrate.
So playing one deck and really learning it well is probably the easiest and fastest way to get to Legend. Swapping can be done, but this will typically be by people that truly understand the game REALLY well and have already gotten Legend many times.
So my recommendation for "newer" or inexperienced players would be to stick with one deck for the climb and ONLY switch if there is a legitimate meta shift and the deck is truly no longer viable.
Early after a new expansion has been released I'll swap decks quite a bit because it's fun to play with different stuff. Piloting different decks also helps you play better against them. There's little harm in experimenting with different decks early in the month either since your high ranks are really hard to achieve early on. As for swapping, I play everything. But I'd have a better rank if I focused on one deck. I typically play one tier 1 deck at the end of the month just to grab a good rank. Not much of a point in trying to rank up early in the month imo since you can actually make up for it really quickly later on once everyone else has ranked up and you are going up against less skilled opponents.
If I l know the deck is tier 1 than I don't switch. If its a janky tier 2 deck or a meta call deck that isn't working out then I switch to something else (mostly likely a tier 1 deck).
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Greetings everyone. Since I'm still learning player, and my highest rank I've been in my HS career is 3, I'm wondering, how often do you change your decks, while climbing ladder? Or, do you even change to other decks, or do you play only one specific deck, no matter the results? This question is mostly directed to players that move to legend every month, but I'm happy to hear everyone's way of play.
For me, I love testing different decks. Because of that I have a lot of decks, and I change them quite a lot, especially when I'm starting to lose. When I'm losing I also lose confidence in me, my experience, deck. That creates frustration, and then thinking of trying different archetype. I even created some specific rules, when I'm deciding to change deck to another. For instance, I moved to rank 5 this month with Khagdar Mage, but since I started losing on rank 5, I changed the deck and tried with one of my Token Druids deck. Result's were a lot better, moved to rank 4, but again I started to lose, and after few attemps, and jumping between end of 5, and begining of 4th rank, I changed the deck again, to different one.
How are you playing, when you decide to change deck? Should I stick to one spiecific archetype, or few of them and try to master them? What is he best way to climb the ladder?
All the time - I personally can't stand playing a deck for more than 10+ games (at least in a row). This probably doesn't make me well suited for ladder, but i usually swap most after hitting a floor level, but if I am close to next floor level (6, 11, 16) I will sometimes continue with the same deck if I am in a groove.
Personally, I like to ladder with two different archetypes that counter each other encase I hit a 'pocket meta' at a certain rank. Personally, I wouldn't swap unless you face a lot (5-10) of different people playing a similar deck. You using Khadgar Mage and Token druid is probably a decent lineup, if you could I would try to swap out Token Druid for some build of Rogue just because it is the deck to beat right now.
As for the whole confidence and frustration thingy, tilting is one of the worst things you can do while laddering. If you start to lose a couple of games in a row and feel like you are playing poorly, just take a step away from the game and do something else for a bit.
Another thing I would recommend is just grinding a ton on one single deck so you can understand it's weaknesses. I've been playing a ton of Mech Hunter because not only is it really good (magnetic is real silly), but it also helps me exploit the weakness of said deck when I play against it.
Hope this helps!
I don't have something witty about this deck, I just like it because Malygos is fun.
i have the rule of 3
after 3 consecutives losses, change deck.
ive never applied the rule though lol
I never change decks on a climb.
In my view, only pros who master multiple decks should switch from one to the other to adapt to the meta. There's always a learning curve and if you change decks you're more likely than not to play the new one badly.
I climb with a different deck every month though. The advantage is that you start the month at rank 4 at a moment when other players use meme decks, the first few games are much more forgiving than say at rank 1 or 2.
I usually play whatever i want at ranks 5-4 (Tier 1-2) and sometimes accidently climbe to higher ranks and evetually legend. This happens more often near the end of an expansion when i know the matchups already.
This month i got legend on may the 6th all the way from rank 7 without any deck-swaps. I only do this when i stumble upon a meta breaker or a deck i really like. This time it was bomb warrior and the 30 Stars took me 98 games (64 wins, 34 losses). This is my fastest grind yet and i‘m sure it‘s due to better deck understanding over time.
To illustrate why learning a deck long term can be very usefull, i got two examples.
1. I played a netdeck without brawls or executes but with two weapon projects and a Harrison. After multiple losses against Edwin or hunters with giant mechs, i swapped a weapons project for a single execute and suddenly started winning those matchups more often. What i‘m trying to say is that it takes time to understand your weaknesses. Little microajustments can make a huge difference in the long run.
2. The warrior mirror is tricky. It generally ends in double Elysiana games and in my opinion the rng involved evens out because 2x10 random cards is a lot! Fortunatly most Warriors are pure control these days and the bombs end up creating a health difference of 20-30hp! This allows you in the endgame to go face and let them do the trading. At some point i started to save my elekks to guarantee double value (ellek+ Goblin+ wrenchcalibur) and maximise the health difference and hence cheat out 2-3 more wins.
To sum it up: This stuff seems obvious (and maybe for some it realy is) but mastering a deck is really what makes the difference. Every win is essentially a 2-Star difference, so win 3 games you were not supposed to win and you basicly climbed a rank.
Sorry for the long post, i hope it helps!
Ps: I didn‘t even mention mulligans! It‘s one of the biggest learning factors and statistics say that a good mulligan can grant you up to +10% better winrates!
I usually switch my decks at rank 15, rank 10 and rank 5. At each of these ranks, I consider a higher skill level. For instance, from rank 20-15 I'll play control shudderwock shaman, from 15-10 control warrior, 10-5 either token druid, ziplock and from 5-1 rogue. You really dont start playing "pro" level decks til 10. At that point, rank 10, in order to beat these decks, one must also use "pro" meta decks.. aka netdecking.
If I'm facing a lot of similar opponents (e.g., aggro or combo), I'll try to tech against that first.
If teching doesn't help, and I'm still facing a lot of similar decks, I'll go ahead and switch to a deck that counters them.
"Why, you never expected justice from a company, did you? They have neither a soul to lose nor a body to kick." -- Lady Saba Holland
Last season I played rogue pretty much exclusively to legend, and I'd definitely recommend sticking with an archetype that you both enjoy playing and is viable in the meta. Any time ive made a legend run its been with one class with a card or two teched in depending on what im facing most often. This season ive just been messing about with a variety of decks with shitty to mediocre amounts of success before playing rogue again in a week or so.
As yugi yo said: the cards sense your doubt! never change!
JK, I usually spend a whole day with the same deck, only changing it if it seems like everyone is playing your counter.
Keeping up with the same deck allows you to refine your playstyle with it and know how to work around other decks with yours in particular.
But that's not to say you shouldn't trade if you notice it's counter your deck day.
I’m more likely to swap decks while descending ladder, tbh, but I rarely play more than three games in a row with the same deck. Gets too boring, particularly since half my games are against rogue or warrior. At least I can make the games feel different by switching to Priest or Paladin or Druid or Shaman.
In the past, when I cared more about ranking up, I would pick one deck and stick with it. That feels like the better strategy for ranking up, but it’s way less fun to actually play that way.
So, I actually have almost all slots with decks full. I just love to try different archetypes. Right now I have 2 Warrior decks, 6 Hunter, 2 Priest, 2 Rogue, 3 SHaman, 1 Druid.
Usually I play a Best of 5 system. If I win, I keep playing, if I lose, I change deck. But there is one exception: if I lose with last match (2-3), I still play this deck. Another exception is, when the deck has big winrate, I also skip standard "lose - change deck" rule. So right now the biggest result I had this meta was Token with 54-34. But on rank 5 I just started have huge problems, and lost o lot of matches. Usually this is the moment when iritation tells me to swap.
As I said earlier, I'm still learning. Espacially with good mulligan, and keeping good tempo depending on the deck I play, and the the opponent's one.
I swap decks almost every time I lose a game, or when I feel I am being counter queued a lot by the matchmaking system (hate this shit btw, make a deck/card change based on your ladder experience, being punished for it with a totally different ladder experience after the change). And I swap 1 or 2 cards every time after a game unless I am fully satisfied with my deck, I don't enjoy Hearthstone if I don't experiment a little bit every game.
People told me it would be impossible to climb this way. They were wrong. I get stuck on specific ranks every time I tryhard a single deck. But if I change my deck when I'm losing stars, it's like a fresh experience, not a losing streak anymore, no matter if I lose my next game.
In Wild, i recuperate the -4 ranks and/or reach a rank floor with Even Shaman.
From there, i play my homebrew/custom decks (never memes tho, i strive to build decently competitive decks).
I don't have particularly high rank goals, so i don't need to switch more than that.
All the time, I have enough disposable income to have all the cards (well almost all anyway) but not enough time to master anything. If I play a deck that should have a high win rate and I can't achieve that it annoys me, even if I only played it for the first time that day. It doesn't stop me keep switching though! I want to get back to rank 5 by the end of the season so I am going to try and stick with token druid and try to master that.
I'm my own worst enemy with switching decks all the time.
I only play one wild deck, dragon combo priest, I loved that deck pre witchwood so I play it all the time and I would say I'm pretty damn good with that deck.
I usually play whatever up to rank 5, then i play some nonsense decks at rank 5 just for fun and the rest from rank 5 further once i want to climb again i stick to 1-2 decks.
If you arent super good it really helps to learn the deck and the plays in the current meta. Even for apparently simple deck...at least thats my experience. Switching decks to often just keeps me at about 50% winrate.
Almost never. I play one favorite deck 4 to legend. I'll change after a month or so when I get bored of it.
I only swap decks when I'm tilted, so I go and try to counter one of dominant archetypes. Usually to disastrous effect.
Oh, and pocket meta is a myth.
For Most of my Legend climbs I stuck to the same deck as you become more and more familiar with the subtleties that give you those slight edges in matchups. You also can adjust to the current rank meta your facing as far as tech cards and such. After getting better at the game I can switch deck more easily and retain a high winrate.
So playing one deck and really learning it well is probably the easiest and fastest way to get to Legend. Swapping can be done, but this will typically be by people that truly understand the game REALLY well and have already gotten Legend many times.
So my recommendation for "newer" or inexperienced players would be to stick with one deck for the climb and ONLY switch if there is a legitimate meta shift and the deck is truly no longer viable.
Early after a new expansion has been released I'll swap decks quite a bit because it's fun to play with different stuff. Piloting different decks also helps you play better against them. There's little harm in experimenting with different decks early in the month either since your high ranks are really hard to achieve early on. As for swapping, I play everything. But I'd have a better rank if I focused on one deck. I typically play one tier 1 deck at the end of the month just to grab a good rank. Not much of a point in trying to rank up early in the month imo since you can actually make up for it really quickly later on once everyone else has ranked up and you are going up against less skilled opponents.
If I l know the deck is tier 1 than I don't switch. If its a janky tier 2 deck or a meta call deck that isn't working out then I switch to something else (mostly likely a tier 1 deck).