All journeys start with a single step
With the start of the first official season and welcoming in Hearthstone’s official release, I have decided to try and climb the ranks and attempt to obtain the elusive legendary Hearthstone rank. The following article covers the trials and tribulations, deck changes and personal challenges I have endured thus far. Currently, I have managed to claw my way to rank 12 and plan to continue climbing the rest of the season. Hopefully my experience will help others on their way to the higher ranks and (with any luck) to the golden place of legendary status.
The first deck I used to climb to rank 14 was a tempo Rogue deck. After various changes and tweaks the final variation that got me to here is listed below. The utility offered by shadow step proved to be very handy either for bursting through extra damage with Leeroy Jenkins, or simply bouncing a Defender of Argus for some more taunters and increased attack/health. The other handy little trick I found myself often relying on, was dropping a Novice Engineer to draw, then bouncing it back to my hand to have a reliable 0 drop to aid in the triggering of combo cards. This deck may well have the potential to climb higher than I have obtained with it, but I have been struggling to deal with the vast amount of control Warriors I ran into around at the rank 15-16 mark, so I switched things up.
The problem is control Warriors, Hand Lock and even Paladin control, these decks give Tempo rogue some real problems. With Hand Lock you have to try and play a fast and aggressive game, as you're only answers to their giants are Sap and Big Game Hunter. Although Big Game Hunter can be Shadow Stepped to hit twice in a tight spot.
Tips and Tricks Tempo Rogue
This deck requires a lot of planning ahead, whether to hold back in order to trigger a combo, or to try and get some board presence. A common problem I encountered was the decision whether or not to drop Defias Ringleader on turn 2 if I couldn't trigger him with the coin. This again comes down to your opponent, if they are running aggro, sometimes you’ve got to bite the bullet and drop him anyway. However, if your opponent is playing the slow control game, it can be beneficial to wait and have two creatures instead of one. This can is a difficult decision to make, but you will begin to get a feel for it when playing this deck enough. It's also important to note that in times of need, don't desperately be looking to always combo. While the combos are nice, board presence or removal can be more viable than waiting on a trigger.Hitting A Plateau
It was at this point at rank 15 I hit a rather hard losing streak, with my tempo Rogue pushing me back down to rank 16. After pretty much chaining wins to get to this rank it was more than a little bit disheartening to suddenly be beaten back down. It got to the point where I was becoming worried to even play again for fear of losing more rating and plummeting further, but after reading up a bit on other peoples experiences on Reddit and various guides around the hearthstone community, I decided to grit my teeth and try again.I continued to lose, but kept a positive attitude making small notes on difficult decisions and misplays I had made. After making some adjustments to my play style and slowing down my plays, I was able to climb again to rank 14. Unfortunately loosing is part of learning, even if you lose a game make sure you try to take something from it. Think about it constructively, as it's easy to blame bad luck, money cards, cheap tactics, etc - while these may well have been a factor, there is something to be taken from every game. So even if you lose, you're still getting match experience.
On my journey to Rank 14 once more the amount of control Warriors continued to pour in, with this current meta I decided to look into what was strong against a control Warrior. This is when I stumbled upon the controversial and often despised ‘Zoo Lock’. I had found after a little research, not only was this an exceptionally strong deck, but one that could be built on a small budget not requiring vast amounts of legendary's. So after looking at a few examples that other people had constructed, I decided to piece together a version of it below.
Whilst I'm still not completely happy with the deck, I managed to climb comfortably from rank 14 to rank 12 where I'm currently sat. During these games I came across a fair amount of Ramp Druid, ‘Hand Lock’ and other control decks. The aggro decks I faced ranged from Face Hunter to Murlocs (and even the odd mirror match). So with a bit of deck tweaking, I found a single copy of Mind Control Tech and a single copy of Big Game Hunter to often be handy when facing off against the current meta.
Tips and Tricks Zoolock
A common problem with this deck is that you will often end up with Soulfire and Doomgaurd in your hand, two cards which both force you to sacrifice. More often than not, it's rare that Soulfire will be better value than a Doomgaurd, as he provides a lot of health and is a step up of 1 damage compared to a Soulfire. Either way, this deck can require some serious risk taking - but with potentially big pay off's.Playing around the discards and dropping your creatures carefully isn't easy, and will take some practice to get right. While the deck can definitely be played as a face rush deck, this will only get you so far before you need to play more tactically. Overextending your reach and dumping your hand into a sweeper like Flamestrike will quickly spell your doom. Likewise, in a mirror match up you have to decide what it is you're going to trade and what will hit your opponent as you need to keep pressure on your opponent, as well as attempt to keep board dominance.
It will also pay off to try and keep track of how many sources of burst you have left in your deck and the total amount of cards left, this can help you gauge when to attempt to put pressure on and reduce the opponents health to a point where your deck can produce the burst needed to win. The only problem is drawing into two sources of burst that require discard, it's always a gamble but sometimes it's better to just dump your Soulfire into the enemy instead of waiting and drawing into another discard burst card, as it will lead to in efficient use of your cards.
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