Today we feature an article from Yapmatter, who will talk about his experiences climbing the constructed ladder on a limited budget and the decks he uses.
Introduction
With the beginning of a new ranked season starting, a lot of players are looking for ways to climb the constructed ladder. The only problem is, a lot of the most used decks in the current meta contain expensive cards. Constructed ranked play can be intimidating if you’re not prepared, but if you approach it with the right mentality, you’ll be at the top in no time!
A lot of people think, in order to climb the ranked ladder, you need these expensive cards and a handful of legendaries, but hopefully I can debunk that misconception!
Before we get into what I did to climb the ladder in the last season, let’s look at some of the most popular decks at the moment in the current meta!
Aggro Hunter
A lot of people in the last season used an aggro hunter deck. This deck is based on getting as much damage in on the opponent, while using traps to semi-control the opponent. This deck is strong against the very popular handlock and Zoo lock decks. Although this deck was very popular in last season, the surge in control warriors, which counter this deck, may cause this deck to see less play this season.
Zoo Warlock
This deck was slightly less popular than aggro hunter, but popular nonetheless. It consists of fairly inexpensive cards that bring a lot of value individually. This deck may, at first, seem like a rush deck, but after playing it for a fairly large amount of time, I’ve found it to be more of a control deck.
The basis of this deck is to keep your opponents board virtually clear, while hitting the opponent with as much as you can after clearing their board. This deck often wins in anywhere from 5-9 turns, with control warrior games taking a bit longer. The issue with this deck, and the reason why it saw much less play near the end of the season, is that control warrior counters it, and control warrior saw a huge surge in play near the end of the season.
For players with a limited card collection, this deck is perfect for you! It can be made with no legendaries and just a few rares, with the rest being commons or basic cards. This is a perfect deck for relatively new players who don’t want to spend a lot of money (or any at all!)
Control Warrior
The dreaded control warrior…This deck had a huge surge in popularity during the last week or two of the season, although it was always present. Since this deck counters the other popular decks in the meta, the other decks decreased in number. Personally, I’m currently trying out a variation of Amaz’s priest deck to use against the large number of warrior decks out there and it has been working fairly well.
Now that we’ve gone over the most popular decks in the meta, let’s take a look at how I went from a fairly low rank to rank 2 (I ended at rank 3; I had a little losing streak on the last day of the season) last season.
I’ve been playing for less than a month and let’s just say, I have a limited collection of cards. With this limited selection, I’ve worked my way up to rank 2, and hopefully I can help you do the same, whether you’re relatively new to hearthstone, or an experienced player who’s just having a rough time this season.
Hopefully my process and the steps I took to climb the constructed ranked ladder can help players with less of a card selection climb the ladder as well!
The first step I took was to pick a class or two that I enjoyed. Of course it’s fun to win, but it’s more fun to win while playing something you enjoy! At about rank 18, I found myself stuck in a rut. I was playing all sorts of decks with multiple classes, so I never really had a chance to get accustomed to the decks and their matchups. At one point, I decided to stick to one deck – I chose hunter, a fairly common and cheap deck. Within two days, I went from rank 18 to rank 5 while on a huge winning streak!
If you’d like to see where I got a lot of my information for the deck I used, check out Reynad’s Cycle Hunter decklist. I did modify a few cards, but his decklist was really helpful!
I had learned the intricacies of the deck, which cards to mulligan in certain matchups, and which cards to play against which opposing decks. By playing the same deck for a while, I became familiar with what I had to do to win, while enjoying the class I chose.
At rank 5, the bonus star from win streaks disappeared and the climb got much harder. I found that the hunter deck I had been using wasn’t winning as many games as it had been at lower ranks, so I decided to try out other options. I had seen a lot of warlock decks and liked the way they played, so I went to the same source where I had found my hunter deck and built a Warlock “Zoo” deck.
If you’d like to see where I got my information for the “Zoo” deck I used (and am currently still using), check out Reynad’s Zoo decklist. Just like the hunter deck, I modified a few cards here and there to personalize it, but his decklist was very helpful!
At first glance, I was attracted to the deck by its very low budget nature, but after I played it for a while, I grew to enjoy its simplistic approach to a rush deck. I was winning my games before turn 8 consistently! I couldn’t believe a deck that cost so little arcane dust could not only be this effective, but it was very fun as well!
I’m still climbing the ranked ladder and I’m hoping to hit legend this season, but with little time left in the season, it may have to wait until after the season reset.
Hopefully this article gave all the newer players with a limited card collection hope that they can definitely reach the top with the cards they have and have a lot of fun doing it!
If you have any questions or comments, be sure to post them below or add me in game: yapmatter#1361
Best of luck on the ladder,
Yapmatter
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