True story: the highest rank I’ve ever gotten to in Hearthstone before is Rank 12. And you know what? That’s always been okay with me. I admire the people who can reach the higher ranks, and even get that elusive Legend card back, but I’d never aspired to be them. I’ve always played Hearthstone casually, just for fun, and outside of that one errant season I’ve never really climbed the ladder. Until now. With the start of the brand new year, and a brand new Standard mode, I thought it would be fun to see how high I, as casual player, can climb. I recognize that with the meta still in flux and the season being halfway over already, it’s probably not the *ideal* time for a ladder climb, but this is an experiment for fun, so let’s see where it takes us!
The Plan:
Start at Rank 20, with 0 stars. Play 10 games a day, for about a week. Try to win. See what happens!
Finding the Right Fit
It took me three full days to settle on a deck. Three days! That’s almost half my total time for this first test. You know what happened during those three days? I bounced back and forth between winning and losing and gained no ground. Three days in, and I was still right where I started. Next time, I’ll learn from my mistake and pick my deck out in advance.
Decks I tried:
Kibler's Toki & Arugal Elemental Mage
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Minion (23)
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Ability (6) | Playable Hero (1) |
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The very first deck I tried was based off this. I opened both Archmage Arugal (I can't be the only one who keeps accidentally calling him arugula right?) and Toki, Time-Tinker on the first day of the expansion so I wanted to try this deck out. But I only played a few games before switching. I will definitely pick this deck up again later as it was fun to play.
Tess Greymane Rogue
Next I tried a hurriedly built, ill thought out deck to try out Tess Greymane, who I also opened. Unsurprisingly, I did not have much success. However, since then I’ve encountered several Rogues playing something similar that I’ve just been calling Copy Rogue and they did a much better job of putting a deck together. If you're interested in giving it a try, here's one that looks like what I've been seeing:
Minion (18)
Ability (12)
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Quest Warrior/Odd Quest Warrior
Last year, I built a quest warrior deck that I really liked and played a lot. So for my next attempt, I used a standardized version of my old deck...and then when I realized that Baku the Mooneater would probably help a lot, made an odd only version. It saw some success but not a ton. I did encounter others versions of this idea while playing, so clearly I wasn’t the only one who thought this. In fact, I saw a lot more quest warrior then I did before this expansion released. Ultimately though, I tossed it aside in my continuing quest for the one deck to rule them all.
Quest Mage, but Not THAT Quest Mage
My penultimate attempt at finding the right deck was a standardized version of an old quest mage deck I'd built. It’s just a deck that happens to have the quest in it! It’s not THAT quest mage deck, I promise.
Lady Priest
I eventually settled on a priest deck that runs Lady in White. I like playing Priest — probably the class I played most last year. It finally got me some traction, but it definitely has its weaknesses. Since I'd seen it could win, and I had heard it's best to stick with one deck, this was the one I stuck with. The deck below has the same general idea (and now that I look at it, I think I need to try Wyrmguard in mine) :
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Minion (20)
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Ability (10)
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Lesson Learned: Pick a deck and stick to your guns. This was a hard one for me (despite the advice I’ve seen out there that sticking to the same deck is key) but I did it — once I found the right one, of course.
Beware the Tilt
In a ladder climb, if you are casual player like me, you are likely to go on a losing streak. Be mindful of diminishing returns, when you go on a losing streak you can start to feel frustrated and you just want to keep going to try and break the bad streak. Resist the urge, friends! At some point it just makes sense to step back, take a break, and come back to the climb later. You’ll play better when you are less frustrated, trust me (I had to learn this lesson the hard way). I mean it, ignore this at your own risk!
Lesson Learned: Cooler heads prevail. When you start going on a losing streak, and are feeling salty every game (c’est moi), it’s probably a good idea to take a break.
Knowing What You're Up Against
In all my matches, I only played against two druid decks. I know this is only one player's limited experience within the game, but still, definitely lower than we were seeing before the new year. The class I most often encountered by far was Hunter, often times with Baku Face Hunter decks and Spell Hunter decks. Some other fun facts from my encounters:
- There are a lot of aggro decks on the ladder right now. The aforementioned Hunter decks but also a lot of aggro paladin.
- Shudderwocks all over the place. I played 13 games against Shamans. Guess how many weren't Shudderwock decks? ONE. Never in my life have I been so happy to see a Murloc deck.
- Druid and Warrior were the two least played classes I saw, in that order, with Mage and Rogue tying for third place.
- I saw a lot of decks, and different classes, playing both Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane.
This week, with the meta still being in flux and the expansion just being released, isn’t the best indicator of how most ladder climbs will go. I saw a lot of experimental decks as people were trying out their new cards, so it wasn’t always easy to pin down what they were going for. That being said, it wasn’t all a guessing game. The majority of decks I came up against I was able to quickly place into clear categories, if not outright ID the exact deck they were using. Below are some of the most common (or something very similar) decks I encountered:
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Minion (19)
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Ability (7)
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Weapon (4)
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Minion (17)
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Ability (8)
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Weapon (5)
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Minion (26)
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Ability (4)
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Priests were a little harder to pin down. I saw a lot of variety in the decks that were being played. However, the one above is my best guess at the Priest deck I saw the most often.
Lesson Learned: You will see a lot of the same decks on the ladder and you will probably come to dread seeing a particular class at the start of the match, regardless of the fact that you don’t know which deck they are running yet (looking at you, Shaman). Which brings me to…
The Shudderwock in the Room
By now, you all have surely heard about (or formed your own opinions about) Shudderwock. I will reserve judgement for now, as I suspect that could be the scope of an entire other article, but this deck did give me a spot of trouble.
I wasn’t seeing Shudderwock decks very often, one or two a day at most. Until day six came along. All of a sudden every other deck was one and it sent me on a losing streak that quickly spiraled out of control.
I know aggro decks can beat Shuddy pretty easily, but I’d also learned that the best way to climb the ladder was to stick to one deck, so I wasn't sure what to do. I beat them occasionally and until then, wasn’t seeing the deck very often so I didn’t think I should switch. My deck is slow, so it’s weak to the Shuddy combo. It definitely started to make me feel like I had to play an aggro deck in order to continue advancing, but since the week was almost up, I stuck it out. Luckily, the last day didn't have a single Shudderwock deck, but it may be something for me to consider moving forward.
Some Fun Moments
- When The Lich King gave me Death Grip and Death Grip pulled Shudderwock out of my opponent’s deck, rendering their Shuddy deck useless, in my very first (but unfortunately, not last) game against a Shudderwock Shaman.
- When Chameleos transformed into Sulfuras the turn after my opponent Warrior completed their quest.
- Immediately after making a comment about the distinct lack of Rogues (I hadn’t played one in two days and only two total so far) I played one…and then three more in a row! Speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear. Isn’t that how the saying goes?
- I played against a Hunter deck that used a card I hadn’t seen before, Toxmonger, to incredible effect. It was similar to, if not exactly, like this Disguised Toast deck:
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Minion (20)
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Ability (9)
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Playable Hero (1) |
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At the end of my first week trying to climb the ladder, I only reached Rank 18 (insert sad face emoji and crowd booing here). I ended up playing more than 10 games on all days except the last day, with an average of about 13 games a day. It felt like a lot, and I’m not sure if the average casual player has enough time to invest in that many games, so that may be something to adjust in the experiment going forward.
The biggest lesson I learned is that this is harder than I expected. I’m used to switching decks when the mood strikes, and crafting cards for fun more often than for their competitive value. So this has definitely been a big adjustment for me. I also feel like I have a lot to learn. At what point do you give up on a deck that has been losing? And how do you choose a better deck so that you have success on the next attempt? These are all things I’ll be working on as I continue.
What about you guys? For my fellow casual players, have you ever tried to climb the ladder before? Did you find success or fail miserably? What tips helped you the most? Is 10 games a day way too many, not enough, or right on point?
And for my seasoned ladder climbing readers, what’s the number one thing you keep in mind when starting a new season? What advice would you give a casual player? Let us know in the comments below and don’t forget to check back at the end of the month to see how I did at the season’s end!
Wait so you can build burgle rogue (with 4 legendaries), but just too stingy to not build an actual good deck?
You probably have baku, just take out the meme stuff from the rogue deck and build baku rogue, then get to rank 5 in 2 hours.
Advice: stop being so annoying with refusing to play meta decks.
Not everyone wants to play the meta decks. I have enough dust to craft any of the top three decks and play them yet I refuse to do so and stick with homebrews. The fact that you find this annoying is quite comical because I find people who refuse to attempt any sort of innovation to be annoying.
Great story and a good emphasis on enjoying the game. Doesn't all have to be all about getting legend (I never have).
Would have been good to see your tracker stats (I assume you use one).
My favourite moment was playing spiteful priest against Hadro Druid. M/C'd his cubed Hadro, used Zola to get a second cube then cubed this cube to get 2 hadros, then killed one against his Lich King. Went down to a few life but managed to bring it back for the (unlikely) win.
Ladder!Two words to describe HS ladder-vomit,disgusting!Particularly after rank5.
Thank you for sharing jlmack13 :) Stories like yours r definitely interesting and important, so ppl can see what is happening in different parts of the game. And yes, you werent exactly efficient in your process, but that is the point! You didnt know how to be and many players r the same. Ppl often say "just netdeck, gg ez", but that is definitely not a recipe for success on its own.
Good luck to you and have fun playin! ;-)
My tip for the more casual players is just to make sure the deck you are playing isn't putting you on tilt when you are climbing. Lose a bunch of games in a row? Switch decks, or take a break. When you play tilted you play worse.
I would like to contribute with my monthly story. I play approximately 10-20 hours a month and I consistently hit rank 2 at least...The thing is, I know I can reach legend whenever I want, I'm F2P though I have almost all good cards. I don't play very often, that is my problem. School and work just do not allow me to play more :(
ahahahah,this BS made my day!!!
Hearthstone and I have a love hate relationship. I am so bad at this game that i wish it never existed (only after loosing 20 games in a row :P) but aside from the self pity, I can definitely relate to the article in the sense that I am definitely a casual player with no desire to compete or grind to legend, and that's fine with me. Love the article but cannot understand how any players stick to one deck for an entire season. Doesn't it get boring after a while? Hope you reach legend dude! :D
Rank 15 is my target each season, thank you blizzard for implementing the different floor tiers!
You could of saved yourself some time and just become a cube lock wanker and walked your way to legend.
sadly this doesn't work. many decks now tech in cards to help in the cubelock matchup, or they play decks that just counter it. Definitely tough to play in the higher ranks when there is a lot of Quest Rogue and Spiteful Druid
This is the best article I have read from this site in Years. The responses from HP comment-ers are even better. Thank you!
My 2-cents: Rank 25-15 should not be 5 stars/rank. Make it a tad simpler and the fun meta will show it's face all thru the ranks.
Tip for casual players: always keep in mind what your opponent can do. Ask yourself “If I play this, what’s the worst case scenario?” “What does the deck my opponent is playing want to do next turn?” I found that my games got a lot easier when I started considering my opponent’s plan. Good luck, future climbers!
Rather a tip for new players than casual players. Casual means you just play for whatever is needed (e.g. get the 100 golds from 3-win-bonus + quest and don‘t play it anymore, or you just finish your quest and done etc. A casual player can also be an experienced player).
casual also kinda means you're not in it to complete every daily
Great post! Reaching legend never was my goal (I mean, would be great if I made it, but I'm more casual then competitive, I like more the fun decks then the serious decks). The only goal I try is to reach at least rank 5 every month so I can guarantee my golden cards from the chest (including a golden epic). ATM I'm rank 4 (because I play a lot per day, mainly weekend). I think I never passed rank 4 (can't remember tbh), so I was trying to get rank 3 today, but everytime I get 5 stars, I start to lose and the moment of frustration arises as was said >_<
Nice post. What are your thoughts on Zoolock and Handlock? I got up to rank 10 this month using a Keleseth zoo deck in standard.
I think both are extremely powerful decks. I climbed almost entirely with Zoolock and Rush Warrior this season, maintaining a 60-65% win rate with zoo up to rank 5-3. Handlock is also very good but i haven't played it so I can't say; I will say it does beat zoolock a lot though so it's pretty strong.
If you're willing to take the time and learn a zoo lock deck, it can be extremely powerful, beating the aggro matchups that plague the meta and stealing some games from slower decks that you technically should lose to.