Hearthpwn

Also this deck is designed to climb the ladder, not deal with all the random shit being tested in casual.  

Hrmmm, that's true, hadn't quite added that up in my head.  It's still slightly possible through the use of things like innervate and emperor thaurissan, or just managing to play one of those minions and be in a position to keep them alive for a turn.  Garrison commander would be the more likely candidate since, while it is weak, druid has taunts and it doesn't scream kill me like Saraad does.

I've had an epiphany, this card could work with some of the new inspire mechanic synergy cards, if you have say Nexus Champion Saraad and the epic minion that allows you to use your hero power twice, you could have those and maybe Maiden of the Lake down, activate astral communion, use hero power into a couple new spells to play immediately from your hand.

Number of wins means pretty much nothing, if you play enough you'll obtain wins, it's just that simple, it only reflect your time investment at a glance.  I agree breaking through Rank 5 is usually a determining factor of potential but I'd say any rank even that isn't worth noting.  What's really important is your performance from month to month.  Are you improving, is your average rank getting higher, and once you hit a notably high point, was that just a fluke or can you do it next month, or the next three months through all the meta changes.  

I'd say a HS player becomes truly good when achieving a high rank or breaking into legend stops being an accomplishment and starts being a regular investment of your time.  Do you look at the season as a chance to finally reach higher heights, or are you determining how long it'll probably take you to get back up to where you were and then following through to that point.  

Of course this is only completely true for those with the skill, patience, and time to grind up like that each month.

For me Hearthstone was just a natural fit, from Yugioh to Pokemon to Duel Masters to Chaotic to even more obscure anime based card games like Yu Yu Hakusho and Zatch Bell, I've always loved trading card games.  Ironically I've never extensively played or explored MTG, too much investment required.  

But when a friend of mine introduced me to hearthstone, I just knew I'd love it.  Not being a Magic player hurt me at first but I got tips from my friend who was, and watched every HS youtuber I could find.  Personally I didn't mind investing money pretty quickly into the game so I could have some cool cards to play with.  

I understand that's not for everyone though so I'm glad we now have more means of obtaining packs and stuff, like tavern brawl.  Arena I mainly found useful for showing me which of the cards I did and didn't have could be useful through real experience.  

But overall I'd say it's best to just keep grinding the ladder and keeping up to date on the meta.  Meta is so important to Hearthstone that more than just loving or liking the game itself you need to be able to get interested in the community surrounding it.  

Dude, tried clicking the "sign ups" link, didn't take me anywhere except a dead end.