What rank can a normal player climb to?

Honestly the highest rank I’ve ever achieved in Hearthstone was Rank 12. And you know what? That’s perfectly fine with me. I admire people who can reach higher ranks, or even earn that precious Legend card back, but I never aspired to be like them. I’ve always played Hearthstone casually, just for fun, and to be honest, I’ve never taken rank climbing seriously. Until today. With the start of a new year, and a brand new Standard mode, I thought it would be interesting to see how high I, as a casual player, can climb. I realize that the meta is quite chaotic right now and the new season is still in its first week, obviously this is not the ideal time to climb, but it is a fun experience, so let’s watch the stream Where does life push us?

Plan

Starts at rank 20, with 0 stars. Hit 10 matches a day, for about 1 week. Try to win and see the results!

Find the right deck

It took me about 3 days to find myself a suitable deck. Three days! That is almost half the time I spend on this experience. And you know what happened to me in those three days? An endless series of consecutive wins and losses and ended up not climbing at all. It took three days, and I’m still standing still. Next time, I will learn from experience and choose a deck that is right for me.

Decks tried

Toki & Arugal Elemental Mage (Brian Kibler)

Ability (6)

Playable Hero (first)

??

The first deck I tested was based on it. I opened both Archmage Arugal and Toki, Time-Tinker on the first day of the expansion, so I wanted to give this deck a try. But only played a few matches before I switched to another deck. I will definitely play it again later because it is quite an interesting deck.

Tess Greymane Rogue

Minions (18)

Ability (twelfth)

??

Then I tried playing Tess Greymane, also a card I opened, with a hastily built deck. It’s not surprising that I didn’t win a lot. However, since then I’ve met a few Rogue players who use the same strategy as me, let’s call it Copy Rogue, and they have a very good mix of cards in their deck. If you’re interested in experimenting, here’s one of the decks I’ve come across:

Quest Warrior/Odd Quest Warrior

Last year, I built a Quest Warrior deck that I really enjoyed and played a lot. So for the next test, I used the Standard version of it… and when I realized that Baku the Mooneater could be of great help, I decided to make an odd version. There are good points, but not much. I’ve encountered many other versions of this deck while playing, so obviously I’m not the only player thinking about this. In fact, I’ve seen more warrior quests since the release of this expansion. In the end, I didn’t get anywhere with Quest Warrior and stopped to continue to find the deck that suits me best.

Mage Quest, but not THAT Mage Quest

My penultimate test in deck search was the standard version of an old Quest Mage deck I built. It’s just a deck that accidentally has a Quest card in it! It’s not the old Quest Mage deck, I swear (when I built it, I felt like it was missing a Secret…).

Lady Priest

Minions (20)

Ability (ten)

??

I eventually settled on a Priest deck using Lady in White. I like to fight Priest – this was probably the class that I hit the most last year. It really made an impression on me, but it certainly has its weak points. However, because I see the possibility of winning in it, and I have also heard that it is necessary to stick to a deck, this is the deck that I choose. The deck below has the same idea as mine (and now that I look at it, I think I need to give Wyrmguard a try in my deck)

Lessons learned: Pick a deck and stick with it. This was quite difficult for me to do (although I was advised that sticking to one deck is key to success) but I did it in the end – once I found the right deck, of course.

Beware of pressure when climbing rank

In the process of climbing the rank, if you are a normal player like me, it is very easy to encounter consecutive losses. Remember to reduce the number of rollbacks, when you keep having failures you will start to feel confused and just want to quickly break that chain of failures. Hold back, buddy! Sometimes the best thing to do is take a step back, take a break, and resume the climb another time. You’ll play better when you’re not under pressure, believe me (I had to memorize this lesson the hard way). Really, ignoring failures will help you a lot!

Lessons learned: A cool head will bring more benefits than a hot temper. When you are facing consecutive defeats, and are feeling grumpy in every match, taking a break will be a great idea.

Know who your opponent is

In all the matches, I only encountered two druid decks. While these are very limited single-player experiences, they are clearly too few compared to the time before the new year. The class I have to encounter the most is Hunter, usually the Baku Face Hunter and Spell Hunter decks. Some interesting facts from those encounters:

• Currently there are many Aggro decks in ladder. The aforementioned Hunter decks along with lots of Aggro Paladins.
• Shudderwocks are everywhere. I played 13 games against Shaman (thankfully that’s reduced now). Guess how many matches are not Shudderwocks decks? ONE. I have never felt so happy to see a Murloc deck.
• Druid and Warrior are the two classes I least see, in that order, with Mage and Rogue tied for third place.
• I see a lot of decks, of different classes, using both Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane.

When the meta is not really stable and the expansion has just been released, this is not the best time to judge how people will climb the ranks. I see a lot of experimental decks because people are still trying out new cards, so it’s not easy to say what strategy they are using. However, guessing is not a method worth considering. While I can’t name every deck I’ve come across, I can categorize most of them. Here are a few notable faces:
Priest is a little more difficult to identify. I have seen a lot of different versions, from Combo Inner Fire to Control Mind Blast. However, the deck above is probably the most popular version.

Lessons learned: You will encounter a lot of similar decks as you climb the ranks and will most likely turn pale as soon as you see a certain class, even if you don’t even know what deck your opponent uses (Rogue or Paladin , especially if you play deck control, you will sigh “again punched in the face, again with cancer”…)

Some fun moments

• When The Lich King gave me the Death Grip and the Death Grip pulled Shudderwock out of the opponent’s deck, it meant that the entire deck was useless, even in the first (but unfortunately not the last) confrontation with Shudderwock. Shaman.
• When Chameleos turns into Sulfuras right after the opponent completes the quest.
• Immediately after commenting on Rogue’s absence (I didn’t see him for 2 days and only 2 days) I immediately met one… and 3 more decks in a row! I should have known about Murphy’s law in advance: if something bad can happen, it will.
• I came across a Hunter deck that used a card I’ve never seen before, Toxmonger, with extreme effects. It is quite similar to, if not exactly, this deck from Disguised Toast:

Ability (9)

Playable Hero (first)

??

After finishing my first week of climbing testing, I only reached rank 18 (sad). I played 10 games a day on all days except the last day, averaging about 13 games a day. It feels like a lot, and I’m not sure if the average player has enough time to invest in that many matches, so maybe a little tweaking is needed in the upcoming test.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that this is harder than I thought it would be. I often change decks when I’m in a bad mood, crafting more for fun than for the value of the cards. So obviously this is a big change for me. I also feel like I need to learn quite a bit. When is the time to give up on a losing deck? And how does choosing a better deck help you win your next match? Those will be the things I need to focus on as I move on.

How about you? Hey casual players, have you ever tried climbing ranks? Did you succeed or fail miserably? What is the secret that helps you the most? Is 10 matches a day too much, too little or just enough?
As for professional climbers, what is most important when starting a new season? What advice would you give to casual players? Let us know!

Source: HearthPwn