After the fifth deck change, I closed my eyes and took a breath. It was a much-needed mental break. I was in the middle of a rut. And it wasn’t just the one time, but over and over again. I hit the dreaded wall.
It’s the moment where nothing seems to work and everything, the luck factor and the opponent’s decks, are all against you. Call it what you will — quicksand, the plateau, or just a stop sign — but it’s devastating. Especially so if you’re striving to hit that coveted Legend rank for the rank mode.
While my progress to Legend began slowly in August (I was rank 10 for the majority of the month), I reminded myself that it was only a minor winning streak that was necessary to boost my prospects. In the end, I was stuck at rank two. I needed to overcome the slopes faster and push through the losing streaks that occur often during a season.
My best results came from Druid and Midrange Hunter. I used both the Ramp and Combo Druid variety for maximum results. Ramp is an old deck archetype that builds up resources and stockpiles stronger cards to eventually overwhelm your opponent. The trick to winning a slow deck in an aggressive landscape is the understanding of cutting bait. Instead of saving a card for value (like a Mind Control Tech, a card that will take a random opponent minion if their board has four or more creatures), you use it for tempo or aggressively to erase your opponent’s momentum.
Tempo is the most important facet in Hearthstone. It’s the use of creatures or spells to control the board and the overall pace of the match. It’s more than just placing a minion to absorb damage; it’s taking the turn away from your opponent to dictate their actions because of your previous turn. It’s absolutely crucial to nail it down.
With the release of the The Grand Tournament (TGT) expansion, all classes received boosts to starting and maintaining tempo. With cards like the Druid’s Darnassus Aspirant (a card that gifts the player a mana crystal but removes it upon death) and the Hunter’s King’s Elekk (reveals a minion in its deck, and if the player with King’s Elekk is higher, it goes into the hand), the combinations to create different tempo plays were possible.
Overall, expansion or not, perseverance is the theme for every season’s grind. It’s about patience and maintaining tempo in every match, win or lose.
With TGT, a strong mix of aggressive and midrange decks flooded the ladder. The beginning of the expansion’s life brought along Totem Shaman decks that emphasized fast boards and hero power. Paladins received a boost as well, with three common varieties: Secret Paladin with the card Mysterious Challenger as its core engine, Midrange Paladins with Murloc Knights as the board creator (it previously only had the card, Muster for Battle, which summons 3 Silver Hand Recruits for an instant board), and the Aggressive Paladin. In other words, if your classes did poorly against Paladin, it was a rough go. I countered it by playing a mixture of my own Midrange Paladin and Hunter decks.
My first taste of the expansion was up-and-down. I ended up playing around 80 games with a win percentage that bordered around 50 percent. The majority of my losses came from my Midrange Shaman deck that ran both totem synergy and late-game cards like The Mistcaller and Al’Akir the Windlord. I saw the most success with Control Warrior, Midrange Hunter, and Midrange Paladin. Because midrange decks provided enough answers to handle an aggressive board and create plenty of pressure for control decks to deal with, all the classes I used were fairly successful. And of course, with Control Warrior, it’s a deck and class that’s been great since Hearthstone’s inception.
It took a few games to understand that every new expansion would cater to aggressive players as new cards typically favor the fast pace. Speed is an easy concept. It means ending a match quickly with as few difficult decisions necessary. It’s no wonder how my Midrange Shaman deck ran into so many issues when TGT launched. The concept behind the list came from a Hearthstone pro player, Team Hearthlytics Justin “JAB” Black.
Above: JAB’s Midrange Shaman
It centers around board control and trades to maintain tempo in your favor. For an aggressive ladder, it’s hit-or-miss, and for me, it was very miss. To remedy my falling ranks and stars, I changed the class but kept the midrange theme. Shaman, statistically, suffers from a lack of card draw, and its hero power (summoning totems) is lacking. For other midrange classes, like Hunter and Paladin, you always apply pressure with your class cards. It was an easy switch despite my love for Shaman.
My climb to Legend ended at rank two for the month of August, but I quickly learned just what kind of decks are necessary to make the grind easier.
For those that want to climb, midrange decks are the safest choices. A Midrange Paladin, Hunter, or Druid deck may boost your chances to climb the ladder. And a Control Deck or two in the form of warrior or mage may cement your status.
As far as the changes brought from TGT? The best decks are still intact, and TGT only added to its flavor. The aforementioned Darnassus Aspirant provides another low-mana creature for Druid to push damage, but it also adds to the ramp appeal of the class. With Murloc Knight, its board-creating effect could spiral out of control and add another win condition to the potent Paladin class. Many of the TGT cards create better decks to the popular tournament and ladder decks — Tempo Mage, Midrange Hunter, and Midrange Paladin. Perhaps the biggest improvement to the Hearthstone ladder and tournament landscape is the emergence of legitimate dragon decks. The inclusion of several class dragon cards and the important neutral dragons, Twilight Guardian and Chillmaw, made several decks viable: Dragon Priest, Dragon Warrior, Dragon Warlock, and even Dragon Druid. It’s too soon to say (even with the popularity of Dragon Priest), but TGT definitely brought a new deck type into the fold.
However, Patron Warrior, Handlock, Control Warrior, and Midrange Druid could realistically add no TGT cards and still be incredibly strong. The expansion is not game-breaking or changing, but it does its job well in expanding the pool of opportunities and decks in Hearthstone.
Currently, I’m running and preparing for tournament season with a Demon Handlock, Midrange Paladin, Combo Druid, Lock & Load Midrange Hunter, and Patron Warrior.
The grind is on.