Hearthpwn

Well.....good news is I didn't dust any cards to build a deck - figured I had no idea of the real value of any cards nor what I was doing.  I've only disenchanted gold cards because I'd prefer to have more cards that have synergy with what I'm playing at the time than fancy schmancy crap!

I definitely got into arena too quickly.  My reasoning was it wouldn't take too many wins to get "even" and there was potential to get ahead (pack cost being effectively less than 100) - plus the experience from playing and learning seemed to outweigh buying packs outright.  Hasn't quite turned out that way, though I recently learnt about HearthArena and have learnt more about synergies and board dynamics - it hasn't quite gone as planned.  End of the day though after 16 arena sessions I'm only the equivalent of 15 dust behind had I bought all the decks and crafted the individual cards so it's working out well all things considered!

I didn't jump into ranked mode too fast, I did everything suggested first.  But I'm still beating my head against the wall at the ass end of rank 20!

Closest I've gotten to "crafting the hot new card" was building my daydream Odd Paladin deck with a lucky Prince Liam and 20 one-drops in anticipation of saving up enough dust for Baku.  I since realised the folly in that and any time I see Baku now I groan.

I've only been crafting cheap generic cards that synergise with my play style - and not a lot of them either.  My favourite card combo atm is Stonehill Defender & Ancient Brewmaster :D

I just got Rhok'delar and am looking forward to trying to build a no-minion deck (I bet I don't have enough cards)
I've had King Krush for a while
Have had Prince Liam for a few weeks and LOVE him - though I'm pretty sure I have no idea how to build a deck around him (as mentioned, stacked with 1 drops and crossed fingers)
Just got Blood-Queen Lana'thel and have played about a dozen games.  Not enough to get a grasp on the card, but so far I'm struggling to justify all the discards for a chance to get a bit more offense - and half the time inadvertently discarding her when she's drawn early!
Captain Greenskin just doesn't seem to have the value to be a legendary to me, prob cuz I don't understand how to best utilise it
Dollmaster Dorian has just been a big waste of space for me - he gets killed before he can summon much of anything!  I'm assuming he's best utilised with deathrattle decks but I can't get him to stick around long enough!
Azalina Soulthief had some play in my Warrior deck - but I grew to hate aggro pretty quickly!!
Just got Marin the Fox as a reward for buying two sale bundles - have only used it rarely in arena
Ysera was in every deck I built at first, but haven't played it in the last few weeks.  I found I could only get 1-2 cards out before she was killed - and by the time I could play her I was behind anyway

Haven't thought of dusting any of them, but definitely think a good number of them aren't really worth the dust they're printed on! (because I haven't learnt how to utilise them)

I'm pleased to say the only thing I hadn't done/thought of in the next paragraph was trading my "play a friend".  I've only got one friend (who introduced me) and I've been waiting for his slack ass to come get his free 80 gold.  Screw him, I'll go find someone to trade with!

Forgot to have fun a LONG time ago when I got a win rate of about 30%!  Hell I'm on an 8 game losing streak while I try and learn these new cards.

I'm always concentrating on a game, and taking my time to check all possible combinations.  I'm starting to learn to read what my opponent will do.  Some of the time I'll run out of time to make all my moves!

I think I'll start playing budget decks where possible so I can build confidence and learn more.  The most interesting thing about the game is learning to build a deck with good synergies from the cards I have.  It was going well for a little bit, then it went very bad.

I didn't even know the board did stuff til about 3 days ago when I watched a Kripparian video! I look at my cards too much to worry about the clicky board! :D

OMG I HATE SPREADING PLAGUE.  It's such a bloody cookie cutter deck too, you know exactly what the next 4-5 turns are going to play out like when you see turn 1.  Always keep a "Fan of Knives" on you!  As for the Rogue (and you spelt it rouge btw) Vanish - it appears that "destroyed" cards are actually "killed" because their bloody deathrattles trigger.  I think that's unfair if you ask me.  You strategise to make as much damage as possible with that card, you shouldn't have your opponent playing deathrattles on cards that technically weren't killed on the board.

I need to be more mindful of placement.  I have been putting taunts on the right, and higher offense on the left.  I'm going to struggle remembering different placement strategies for different opponents.  I'll need to make a cheat sheet.  PS - fn HATE defile.  Most hated card ever!

And lastly, I installed Innkeeper last night and really can't see what it can bring that HSreplay can't.  I've also got HearthArena which has been a great help.  What am I missing with innkeeper?  I tried finding something that would tell me the ideal hand to build with my current cards, but I haven't been able to find anything.  Closest I've come is HSreplay decks sorted on least dust cost to create.

Thanks for a great article!  It was good to know I'm mostly on the right track, and the few things I've learnt have been valuable!

Quote from IDBY >>

To save a lot of typing please read the post linked in my signature. The section on jumping into ranked mode addresses this , but the rest may prove helpful.

Thanks for the replies everyone.  I just can't seem to build myself a deck that can win in ladder.  I've gotten probably 15+ packs from arena, bought the introductory pack deal, and then just bought two Everybody! Get In Here! packs and I just keep getting run over.  Sometimes I'll be leading all the way to about turn 12 then the opponent will just play a ridiculous (to me) combo and it's game over.  Other times I can't slow down an aggro deck and it's all over quick.

I hate the idea of meta decks - I mean where's the imagination if you're just going to copy what everyone else is playing?  But I guess that in itself means I'm giving myself a handicap.

I'm new to HS - so I may be misinterpreting this.....

I just played someone in ladder at rank TWENTY who had a Quest Mage deck with Open the Waygate, The Lich King, and Frost Lich Jaina.

I'm rank 20 because I'm new and don't have a lot of cards.  This dude has three legendaries, and from what I've learnt two of them extremely strong - and if you ask me a quest that's unwinnable against if he activates it.

My question is - why is a dude with these cards in rank 20?  Are they just really really shit?  Cuz I reckon if I had those cards I'd be a hell of a lot higher than rank 20!

Keep in mind that in hearthstone a legendary are generally designed to be very powerful in the right situation, but if they're just thrown in a random deck they're usually no stronger than a basic or rare card.   I wouldn't dust any of them until you have an idea what kind of decks you want to make and what legendaries are good for.  For example from the ones you listed, Captain Greenskin isn't anything amazing, until you put him in a Kingsbane Rogue deck.  Then he becomes an MVP.

Quote from aerymach11 >>

Perhaps they've been playing for years and have quite a collection, but don't play beyond doing their daily quests.

 ^ This.  

I've been playing since beta but pretty much just dailies due to lack of time and I like to make my own decks that I don't have too much time refining.  Until recently, I would regularly start a lot of my month at or below rank 20 since the most I would go up to is rank 15.  Even with the new changes, I still end up around rank 18 or so.  This month I quickly went back to 15 but only because my favorite deck just happened to also be one of the strongest decks this time in Even Shaman.  

Ranked.. doesn't really do that good a job separating casual long time players from newbies sadly.  

MEANwhiLE:

I hate the idea of meta decks - I mean where's the imagination if you're just going to copy what everyone else is playing?  But I guess that in itself means I'm giving myself a handicap.

 Imagine trying to learn how to build a computer when you have never done it before.  Now imagine doing so without looking at anyone building a computer, or practicing with one that already has instructions, or asking someone for help.  Just you, some random parts, many of which don't even GO to the computer you want to make, and an empty room.

Yeah, that's how 'handicaped' you are by avoiding meta decks completely.

Meta decks have been built by people who have spent years practicing the craft and thousands of hours (I'm NOT exaggerating) tweaking and analyzing the deck, all with the help of friends who do the same thing and professional players who have spent tens of thousands of hours playing with such decks.  That's WHY they work so #$)#*( well.

Some people dislike designing decks, so they are content to let the masters make the decks and to just play what works.  They enjoy the game their way.  Nothing wrong with that.  

You don't have to follow them. You sound like you like designing your own stuff.  But you **DO** need to realize you're a novice facing the artwork of masters.  You need SOMETHING to go off of.  

It's trickier than during my day but I know well practiced people still make 'budget' decks.  Also if you can make a meta deck without dusting half your collection (please don't do that!) then do so JUST to see how it feels like.  You really won't have a true idea of when you made a good deck until you feel what a 'good deck' feels like and why it works.  Then once you have that idea you can get an idea of what's missing from your deck.

From there go look up guides or just find these folks who make and play these meta decks and see how they think, what they worry about, and what they consider good ideas.  The goal isn't to COPY them. It's to learn in a few hours/months what they spent half a decade trying to figure out.  Get to the point where you can see WHY the decks look the way they do and WHY they are meta decks.  

Then as you are understanding that you'll find that the decks you make (yes feel free to make decks while doing all this) will get better.  Furthermore, assuming you're F2P, you'll start having a better idea of what cards you'll want to craft, because picking the right cards to craft for the decks you want to design is KEY since there's not much room in your gold/dust supplies to craft the wrong cards.  

Lastly, as you do this decide whether you want to aim to make competitive decks or fun decks.  Decks that do both can exist but it's good to have a focus as this will determine your goals.  If the former, you'll want to focus more on mastering meta decks and put your creativity towards after nerfs/expansions to join the race to the Meta that the pros do.  Design the decks that others will eventually make (I'm sure SOMEONE made Even Shaman long before it got popular).  If the latter, don't worry about the meta or what other players do and focus on making decks you wnat to find interesting. STILL learn from the pros so that you know HOW to make them: there's a difference between an interesting Lady in White deck and a stupid one, even if both aren't exactly top tier.

Ranked.. doesn't really do that good a job separating casual long time players from newbies sadly. 

This is a good point, but it is the same in any competetive game. The difference is that the long-time players will have an advantage over noobies in CCGs.

But... it goes both ways! Once you have have a grip on the game and a decent deck it feels great to grind through those same casuals on your way up!

Those three cards very rarely see play in the same deck so he probably was just throwing together what he had instead of having a huge collection. In Un’Goro, everyone got a free quest and in Frozen Throne, everyone got a free death knight so it’s possible he didn’t even craft those.

That being said, having a big collection doesn’t mean you play a ton. He could have been taking a break and came back  (hence why his legendaries were from a few xpacs ago) or maybe he’s a wild player who wanted to try out some standard. I exclusively played wild last expansion and thus ended up with a low standard rank despite having the collection to play whatever I want.

With respect to netdecks, you’ll never get away from those. That being said, homebrews are definitely viable. I’ve made my own decks and climbed to rank 5 several seasons doing so. As long as your decks have a unified theme (Thief Rogue, Reno Mage, Heal/Buff Priest) you can make it work. If your idea of a homebrew is just a mashup of random cards you like, though, you’ll have a hard time.

To save a lot of typing please read the post linked in my signature. The section on jumping into ranked mode addresses this , but the rest may prove helpful.

Perhaps they've been playing for years and have quite a collection, but don't play beyond doing their daily quests.

This game almost feels like I'm required to have my own personal lawyer in order to protect my account and best interests. The fact that they are reverting the changes so quickly, which were supposed to be bug fixes, shows that they were indeed stealth nerfs and they should have a class action dustsuit filed against them for their blatant lies and total disregard for adhering to their own policies.  

Nowadays Shudderwock is one of the worst player experiences from the game, but hey let's make his battlecry effect longer