Finally got it! It took about 10 tries, I only had one Archivist. Prince was able to hero power in the match I won but I had one Sacrificial Pact in hand so was at least able to have a 50/50 chance.
I used this deck to get to rank 3 in December (stopped trying to rank up after that due to holidays) and variations of this deck (no KnC cards) to get to at least 5 on October and November. I was also around 80% win rate in October and December, took a little longer in November. However, having the deck is just part of it, you need to know how to play it against all the matchups.
Found this thread after losing really bad with an aggro hunter deck, and I just faced Azari with priest. I somehow managed to draw raza, velen, and dk. I even had multiple duplicates in the deck, but his burn allowed be to use raza on turn 9 when I drew him. +6 spell damage allowed me to clear the board a number of times and last long enough into fatigue to gun him down. So that worked, but extremely lucky. I didn't expect my deck to make it past 5 or 6.
I was struggling last week with both aggro druid and aggro taunt druid decks that I used to get to 5 during KFT. After getting the few new cards in the version that has the highest winrate this month on HSReplay, I climbed from 13 to 5 with nearly 80% winrate, most of that yesterday. I highly recommend taking a look at all the highest winrate decks on HSReplay and seeing which ones you can play or afford. I used to only get decks from this site, but seeing winrates averaged across thousands of games has been more useful for me.
Besides spells and minions there are 2 other categories of cards, hero cards and weapons. Malfurion belongs to the category of hero cards so its not a spell
To add to this: you'll notice all 4 card categories have a unique border shape around the card art to identify them (i.e. circle for weapons).
Don't stress too much about going past that. I've been playing for years and I'm plenty happy with 10 each month. The one month I grinded to 5 on New Years Eve 2014 was soooooooooo loooooooong and painful. And then I got a golden Earth Elemental which was #notworth. Anyway congrats on 10 that's a nice milestone.
The time it takes really depends on your deck, your understanding of it, and the current meta. I started this game this past April and hit 4 in October (first time getting to at least 5) with aggro taunt druid. It took me 7.4 hours of game time total for the month to get there, which I wouldn't consider a grind. I wasn't able to get past 7 with the same deck in November, but swapping a few cards for the new meta resulted in me going 17-7 from rank 9 to 5. If you are not ranking up after a few 10's of games, I think you really just need to review your match ups and make changes to your deck. I am not good enough to intuitively know what changes to make, so I just experimented with about 5 (net deck) variations of my deck before finding the right one. I definitely think I got a bit lucky with the version of aggro taunt druid I crafted for October, and it was a bit more frustrating in November until I made the right changes. However, I figured with time I will become better at recognizing what changes need to be made to prevent stalling before reaching rank 5.
It took me 17.5 hours total to hit rank 5 in November, 11.6 going from 10 to 5. However, I also started playing ranked consistently right at the start of the month, which slows things down. In October I mostly played ranked near the end of the month and climbed really fast.
I think I actually have a positive winrate against Rogue when they ShadowstepPrince Keleseth on turn 1 or 2 by using either Aggro Druid or Aggro Taunt druid. Just hit 5 today with Aggro Druid. I have a 77%/83% winrate against Rogue with Aggro/Aggro Taunt Druid, it is definitely my best match-up.
At the end of the season everyone wants to climb to their desired rank and they start tryharding as a result. People are out of time so they bring their best decks to climb as fast as possible.
Also you will get rewards based on the highest rank you achieved, not the one you're at, although the rank you will start at does get influenced by the one you end on now.
thought as much. my zoolock and agro druid are getting creamed by control-locks, tempo rogue and murloc pally. only games i won were against raza priest (weird) and another druid. I even got mashed off a hunter as he managed to utilise the "charge" mechanic" for his beasts.
I may try a mid hunter deck myself and see how I do.
I was also thinking of crafting lich king for my zoo to see if it helps, but tbh I don't see how one card would save me.
So will I loose my bonus start, or is that linked to the chest, please?
I made it to 4 last season with my aggro taunt druid. I got to 7 this season 2 weeks ago then kept bouncing from 7-9. I eventually started trying variations of the deck (including a couple with Snowflipper Penguin, but that ultimately didn't work out), and ended up going with a standard aggro druid deck that took me to 5, going 17-7. The aggro druid seemed to work much better than the standard aggro deck last month, I think because I was facing more control decks and the taunts were able to survive AoE. This month, decks seem to be more aggressive with things like pirates, so adding Golakka Crawler back in helped in the standard aggro.
So here is my update for the current meta: even after switching to this deck, I was still stuck around rank 7-8. I next switched to the standard aggro druid with Vicious Fledgling and Bittertide Hydra and climbed to 5 going 17-7. The aggro taunt druid deck worked out really well for me last month, but no variation seemed to work for me at the end of this month. Of course maybe I just needed to be making different decisions since I'm facing different decks this month.
I made it to rank 4 last month with another variation of aggro taunt druid that had 2x living mana. It got me to 7 earlier this month, but I slowly dropped to 9 today. I started using this deck today, it seems that since it is slightly more aggressive with only 1x living mana and penguins, it gives the deck the extra oomph to win the game with a big buff turn around turn 5. It seems like the meta has shifted since last month just enough that I was only able to get the opponent to < 5 health with the big buff turn with the previous deck, then had no answer to finish. Trying to delay the buff turn by 1 more turn was often responded with a board clear and then no option to win. It also seems like there are too many small board clears right now that even back to back living mana, sometimes buffed, was useless.
How have your match-ups been compared to with the original deck you linked? I used that one to get to rank 5. Also, what rank did you get with this? I have been considering switching Tar Creeper for Stonehill defender to have more potential bodies for Strongshell, any thoughts on that?
Just wanted to give an update on this season. I posted earlier this month, but not sure if OP gets notification for updated post so figured I would make a new one.
I just hit rank 5 using this deck with a record of 48-19 this season (72% winrate). This is the first time I've hit 5, my previous best was 12. Last month I decided to craft Patches the Pirate, 2x Living Mana, 2x Saronite Chain Gang, and 1x Bloodsail Corsair to finish this deck. I fortunately had the dust from a golden The Caverns Below I got before the nerf (my first legendary ever in a pack, which also contained Hemet, Jungle Hunter - very lucky!). My hope with Patches the Pirate was that I could hit 5 enough times before the next rotation to make up the cost with golden epics (and have fun hitting 5 along the way). So far it seems to be paying off!
This deck still seems so much better than the version with Bittertide Hydra (I crafted 2x of these as well last month, and while they did not pay off in this deck they have been useful in other fun decks) and Vicious Fledgling. I am able to survive board clears from several control decks. I did recently loss to a Priest because I was dumb and did not further buff my 2 Saronites on the board to 5/6 with Mark of the Lotus (they were already buffed by Strongshell Scavenger). I was afraid of Shadow Word: Death, but turns out he had Dragonfire Potion. I would have at least kept one minion on the board even if he had 2x Shadow Word: Death.
Druid (4-1): I think the loss was to some weird mixed aggro and jade deck.
Hunter (4-2): This seemed to come down to who could get the best curve.
Mage (5-1): I think the taunt package really helped here, Mage could not easily clear board so I was able to make favorable trades.
Paladin (1-4): Only class I had a losing record against, I think most were Murloc decks.
Shaman (9-4): Evolve Shaman seemed to give me trouble at lower ranks, but maybe I got lucky against them at higher ranks. Savage Roar saved me at least once on a devolved board.
Warlock (7-1): Felt like I could always get favorable trades at the start and burst down chunks of health early to negate their hero power.
Warrior (3-0): Nothing to say here, one win they quit at the start. I guess Warrior is out of the meta?
It is interesting that OP was much more successful against Paladin and I was more successful against Warlock. Perhaps just the meta at different times, but maybe we play slightly differently against each and their it is possible this deck is even better than I thought.
I made it to 12 with this deck last season. This season I've been switching between this deck and a version with Bittertide Hydra and Vicious Fledgling (the more popular deck according to HS Replay) rather than the taunt package. I felt like I was stuck at 16 with that deck (12-10), but was able to quickly break 15 with this deck (11-2). While I can't speak for higher ranks, this at least appears to be the better choice at this rank. The taunts make my board much more sticky and let minions survive for buffs and to make good trades. Although I've played this deck much more and perhaps I am playing the other deck wrong. Even though there are only a few card changes, maybe I need to be playing that one much more aggressive.
Update: Currently 20-5 with this deck this season, climbed to 10 for first time. Recently ended a 14 game win streak. Evolve Shaman has been the only major trouble so far, completely ruins a taunt board. Maybe I am playing against it wrong.
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Finally got it! It took about 10 tries, I only had one Archivist. Prince was able to hero power in the match I won but I had one Sacrificial Pact in hand so was at least able to have a 50/50 chance.
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Yeah, I used this version of aggro taunt druid to reach 5 back in October. Ever since I ended up getting to 5 with a standard aggro druid.
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I used this deck to get to rank 3 in December (stopped trying to rank up after that due to holidays) and variations of this deck (no KnC cards) to get to at least 5 on October and November. I was also around 80% win rate in October and December, took a little longer in November. However, having the deck is just part of it, you need to know how to play it against all the matchups.
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Found this thread after losing really bad with an aggro hunter deck, and I just faced Azari with priest. I somehow managed to draw raza, velen, and dk. I even had multiple duplicates in the deck, but his burn allowed be to use raza on turn 9 when I drew him. +6 spell damage allowed me to clear the board a number of times and last long enough into fatigue to gun him down. So that worked, but extremely lucky. I didn't expect my deck to make it past 5 or 6.
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I was struggling last week with both aggro druid and aggro taunt druid decks that I used to get to 5 during KFT. After getting the few new cards in the version that has the highest winrate this month on HSReplay, I climbed from 13 to 5 with nearly 80% winrate, most of that yesterday. I highly recommend taking a look at all the highest winrate decks on HSReplay and seeing which ones you can play or afford. I used to only get decks from this site, but seeing winrates averaged across thousands of games has been more useful for me.
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Today I ran into a Druid and their name was basically "Aggro Wins". Then they played Jade Druid :(
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So here is my update for the current meta: even after switching to this deck, I was still stuck around rank 7-8. I next switched to the standard aggro druid with Vicious Fledgling and Bittertide Hydra and climbed to 5 going 17-7. The aggro taunt druid deck worked out really well for me last month, but no variation seemed to work for me at the end of this month. Of course maybe I just needed to be making different decisions since I'm facing different decks this month.
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I made it to rank 4 last month with another variation of aggro taunt druid that had 2x living mana. It got me to 7 earlier this month, but I slowly dropped to 9 today. I started using this deck today, it seems that since it is slightly more aggressive with only 1x living mana and penguins, it gives the deck the extra oomph to win the game with a big buff turn around turn 5. It seems like the meta has shifted since last month just enough that I was only able to get the opponent to < 5 health with the big buff turn with the previous deck, then had no answer to finish. Trying to delay the buff turn by 1 more turn was often responded with a board clear and then no option to win. It also seems like there are too many small board clears right now that even back to back living mana, sometimes buffed, was useless.
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How have your match-ups been compared to with the original deck you linked? I used that one to get to rank 5. Also, what rank did you get with this? I have been considering switching Tar Creeper for Stonehill defender to have more potential bodies for Strongshell, any thoughts on that?
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Just wanted to give an update on this season. I posted earlier this month, but not sure if OP gets notification for updated post so figured I would make a new one.
I just hit rank 5 using this deck with a record of 48-19 this season (72% winrate). This is the first time I've hit 5, my previous best was 12. Last month I decided to craft Patches the Pirate, 2x Living Mana, 2x Saronite Chain Gang, and 1x Bloodsail Corsair to finish this deck. I fortunately had the dust from a golden The Caverns Below I got before the nerf (my first legendary ever in a pack, which also contained Hemet, Jungle Hunter - very lucky!). My hope with Patches the Pirate was that I could hit 5 enough times before the next rotation to make up the cost with golden epics (and have fun hitting 5 along the way). So far it seems to be paying off!
This deck still seems so much better than the version with Bittertide Hydra (I crafted 2x of these as well last month, and while they did not pay off in this deck they have been useful in other fun decks) and Vicious Fledgling. I am able to survive board clears from several control decks. I did recently loss to a Priest because I was dumb and did not further buff my 2 Saronites on the board to 5/6 with Mark of the Lotus (they were already buffed by Strongshell Scavenger). I was afraid of Shadow Word: Death, but turns out he had Dragonfire Potion. I would have at least kept one minion on the board even if he had 2x Shadow Word: Death.
Druid (4-1): I think the loss was to some weird mixed aggro and jade deck.
Hunter (4-2): This seemed to come down to who could get the best curve.
Mage (5-1): I think the taunt package really helped here, Mage could not easily clear board so I was able to make favorable trades.
Paladin (1-4): Only class I had a losing record against, I think most were Murloc decks.
Priest (7-3): Similar situation as Mage.
Rogue (8-3): I even beat a rogue at around 6 who was able to Shadow Step Prince Keleseth on turn 1.
Shaman (9-4): Evolve Shaman seemed to give me trouble at lower ranks, but maybe I got lucky against them at higher ranks. Savage Roar saved me at least once on a devolved board.
Warlock (7-1): Felt like I could always get favorable trades at the start and burst down chunks of health early to negate their hero power.
Warrior (3-0): Nothing to say here, one win they quit at the start. I guess Warrior is out of the meta?
It is interesting that OP was much more successful against Paladin and I was more successful against Warlock. Perhaps just the meta at different times, but maybe we play slightly differently against each and their it is possible this deck is even better than I thought.
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I made it to 12 with this deck last season. This season I've been switching between this deck and a version with Bittertide Hydra and Vicious Fledgling (the more popular deck according to HS Replay) rather than the taunt package. I felt like I was stuck at 16 with that deck (12-10), but was able to quickly break 15 with this deck (11-2). While I can't speak for higher ranks, this at least appears to be the better choice at this rank. The taunts make my board much more sticky and let minions survive for buffs and to make good trades. Although I've played this deck much more and perhaps I am playing the other deck wrong. Even though there are only a few card changes, maybe I need to be playing that one much more aggressive.
Update: Currently 20-5 with this deck this season, climbed to 10 for first time. Recently ended a 14 game win streak. Evolve Shaman has been the only major trouble so far, completely ruins a taunt board. Maybe I am playing against it wrong.