New (ish) player here. Havent played much since around launch. Been playing standard for about a month and no matter what I do I cannot make it out of Gold 5 and below brachet. The second I hit gold 5 Every game is something my account and the cards I have is no where near prepared to deal with. Usually the same ones. A mage that is somehow able to cast things at random and almost for free for what seems like an ulimited number of times. A paladin that has a bunch of ( If your deck has no Neutral Cards or some BS) and then…The rogue…Gawd man this dude… Its so hard to even explain…they do like 20 things a turn. Take your minions and spells while summoning random deathrattles that they don’t even have in thier deck. I fought a druid this morning who had 20 FRIGGIN MANA!!! I mean come on guys. How did it get this bad??? I got to the warrior and I thought I thank GAWD a BREAK from it all…He killed me on round 5 with some crazt Pirate setup…its like…WTF do I even do? I cannot afford to drop large amounts of money on cards and I dont understand why i keep getting matched up against people I really have no chance of beating. Is there some matchmaking balancing option Im missing or something?
I can only imagine your frustration, because you are playing during one of the most challenging periods for a new player due to your card collection having very minimal resources for deck construction options in its early stages of development, and there is a giant learning curve when it comes to gaining the knowledge and skills needed to pilot any deck against the diversity of classes and decks that the ladder will throw at you.
I can tell you that you that you are probably doing better than average for a new player if you have hit Gold Rank 5 so soon.
I used to maintain an extensive, well-detailed guide in the new players section to help new players to maximize their early collections and to help provide them with ideas for building some of the best possible competitive budget deck options that a new account can field, but a long while back, they altered these forums and that information is gone now.
If you are looking for some advice from others, be sure to mention what class and kind of deck you are playing. Perhaps, include what classes seem to have the most cards or strongest cards in your collection.
While I am currently no expert in Standard these days, since I abandoned playing the mode awhile back, I do look to see what is happening from time to time in the format.
Recent changes will likely launch DK decks into the top of tier 1. Since DK is such a new class, the devs have been intentionally pushing DKs it into the top tier, and I expect DKs to stay there for a good while.
If you have gotten any good Frost DK cards already, then saving up to 2000 gold to buy the DK Path of Arthas mini-set might be a fun goal to achieve, since some of these cards will be DK staples for awhile.
Frost DK is the cheapest and best DK option for a new player to work towards, if they want to play a DK deck. Fortunately, Frost DK does not require any cards from the MotLK mini-set. Blood DK and Unholy DK are not realistic short term goals, since the decks are so expensive to make.
Some useful Path of Arthas cards:
For Frost DK:
Frostwyrm’s Fury x2
Marrow Manipulator x2
Horn of Winter x2
AAECAfHhBASY1ATipAXLpQXMpQUNlrcE9eMEguQEk+QEh/YEtvcEtIAFk4EFkpMFoJkFopkFrqEFnqoFAA==
Deck cost ~4000 dust
For Unholy DK:
Nerubian Swarmguard x2
Plaguestrike x2
Although these ^ unholy cards are easy to craft.
AAECAfHhBAT47ASk7wS88ATNpQUNlrcEssEE8OMEkeQEkuQEhfYEsvcEkpMFoJkFopkFrqEFhaoFnqoFAA==
Deck cost is pricey at ~6300 dust
For Blood DK:
Blood Boil x2
Asphyxiate X2
Although these ^ unholy cards are easy to craft.
AAECAfHhBAblsASywQSY1AS42QSJ5gTipAUMlrcEieQElOQEj+0Eh/YEsvcEs/cEtvoEq4AFoJkFopkFnqoFAA==
Deck cost is expensive at ~8400 dust
That would be Deathrattle Rogue, which may not be the best Rogue deck in the new meta:
AAECAaIHBPXoA9i2BL/OBMygBQ2q6wPT8wOh9AO9gAT3nwT8pQS3swT03QT13QTL7QT37QShkwXBoQUA
TempoStorm seems to think that Miracle Rogue is a better choice:
Miracle Rogue - Standard Meta Snapshot - Feb. 21, 2023
Class: Rogue
Format: Standard
Year of the Phoenix
2x (0) Preparation
1x (0) Shadow of Demise
2x (0) Shadowstep
2x (1) Blackwater Cutlass
2x (1) Concoctor
2x (1) Door of Shadows
2x (1) Ghostly Strike
2x (1) Gone Fishin’
1x (2) Astalor Bloodsworn
2x (2) Ghoulish Alchemist
1x (2) Mailbox Dancer
2x (2) Potion Belt
1x (2) Potionmaster Putricide
2x (2) Serrated Bone Spike
2x (3) Sinstone Graveyard
1x (4) Edwin, Defias Kingpin
1x (5) Necrolord Draka
2x (6) Scribbling Stenographer
AAECAaIHBsygBeKkBc75A+igBe2ABPbdBAz3nwT2nwS9gATgoAX03QTBoQW3swTdoAXfoAX13QTBgwX87QQA
To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone
I do not know what you are playing, but it has been quite some time since I thought about Standard from a new players’s perspective, and I don’t see any sites that are maintaining updated ideas for budget decks for new players. Decks on the ladders right now range in cost from 4k dust to over 20k dust. A budget deck usually ranges between 1.5k to 3k dust.
A new player trying to build the best budget deck option right now, who did want to work towards making a Frost DK deck, might try building a water-downed version of Aggro Mage (I don’t know ) by substituting cards they don’t own from a deck list like this one:
AAECAf0EBIvnA5egBKneBOKkBQ3U6gPS7AOfkgShkgThpATa0ATb3gT67ASCkwWEkwXFkwWqmAWrmAUA
Thanks for taking to time to respond at he moment im currenlty trying out my own version of (From The Other Side) and (murloc) Shaman
Some Rinky Dink Version of Spell Mage and Mech Mage and Mech Pally. These decks are so much fun but…and I was winning a good bit with them until I got to this point. Now all I fight every single match are the decks I listed above and man…Its like im not even playing when I got up against them. Anything I do is overshadowed by some crazy power play that I cant even fathom.
NP, YW
I was once a huge advocate for improving the new player experience, because I realized that there would be huge exoduses of players over time, and attracting influxes of new players along with maintaining proper game balance to hang on to existing players for along as possible, was going to be essential for maintaining Hearthstone’s popularity.
Talking to new players was one of the things that helped to sustain my interest in Standard, and responding to your post triggered me to tryout a couple of Aggro Mage games.
I lost both games with Aggro Mage at Bronze Rank 10. The first game was against a Pure Paladin player, which I got them down to two life, but I made a single mistake, causing me to miss a coin flip chance for a win. The second loss was against Ramp Druid, which is probably a very bad match up for Aggro Mage.
Right now, even at the lowest ranks, most players are probably playing a complete deck list for an established deck in the meta.
Pure Paladin and Ramp Druid may not be tier 1 decks, but they should beat any budget deck that a new player would be able to make. Standard currently suffers from so much terrible balance and powercreep issues (i.e. Bran + Astalor, etc.) that it’s really a bad time for new player to try to compete on the ladder. I would expect most new players to just quit Hearthstone—or at least constructed—within the first few months trying the game, out of pure frustration.
Anyways, having sampled a couple of games of Standard, I think my recommendation towards building a good Frost DK deck is the best advice I can offer. Getting access to a solid tier 1 or tier 2 should be quite helpful, and Frost DK is one of the cheapest decks to build from those tiers. Good luck to you.
oh man Astalor…“Falls over” The match I just got out of this druid played him 5 times…ugh!!! That should be a minion that everyone got for free as much as it is played
It’s not uncommon for the devs to create one or more overpowered “chase” legendary cards for a set that are neutral, which are designed to promote pack sales. This is the worst kind of powercreep, because it’s intentional and the devs never really want to nerf such broken cards to bring them into proper alignment with the current “power curve” of the other cards in the format, since giving refunds of dust defeats the goal of getting players to buy packs to obtain the card or cards that can be disenchanted for dust to craft the card. This kind of powercreep escalates the rate and degree of future powercreep and it creates major design constraints for future cards. Plus, such powercreep often creates bad balance issues that undermines the possibilities for fair counter-play during a match. I think the devs rationalize the existence of such broken neutral cards by thinking that since everyone will just include the card(s) in their decks—that that somehow makes the broken card balanced.
While I agree, I gotta say, Astalor is one of the best neutral powerhouse ever.
He is playable in pretty much any deck you build, so in that regard he is sorta balanced.
The problem is not Astalor, bur some cheesy replay mechanics plus brann
This is why the card is broken.
Astalor is a problem on its own, and cheesy combos, which allows Astalor to be played multiple times just greatly exasperates the problem.
If Astalor was nerfed to where it had a power level at the the upper limits of Standard’s power curve, it would still be a very useful card, which would be fun to play, because it does have some great design elements.
Astalor as it was, and as it is now, is still one of the best examples of poor balance and bad powercreep, and it represents why Standard feels so bad to play these days. Cards like Astalor, as it is, are harmful to the future of Hearthstone’s constructed formats.
Taht’s the patented activision matchmaking in the works right there.
Bro, just quit. This game isn’t meant for F2P players. You need to play this game 5 hours a day, every day for 1.5 years before you are even slightly caught up. After that you need to maintain 5 hours a day every day if you want to stay caught up. So if you like doing other things, just uninstall this game if you are F2P.
I did the math in one of my previous posts if you want to see it.
So over the last 2 days I have been playing a version of Shaman evolve. It seems to be doing pretty well. I made it to gold 2 so far. Every time I hit a promotion match i get absolutally wrecked LOLOL. If i could hit platinum being in the lane im in, I would consider that an acomplishment.
Well, Evolve Shaman looks to have some fun elements to the deck, if you enjoy the RNG of the transformations.
I suppose a budget version of Evolve Shaman could be OK if you have access to Goldshire Gnoll.
Legend quality deck lists of Evolve Shaman have a deck cost of around 9k dust or more:
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AAECAaoIBuDlA6eNBMORBOm2BLbZBMKlBQzW9QPG+QOZsATgtQSF1AS12QSs7QT7kQXUlQX4oAWGoQWqoQUA
I am about 500 gold away from purchasing the MotLK mini-set, and once I have, I may test out Frost DK, just out of curiosity.
This is a common problem with Hearthstone these days. You can make many important strategic decisions that allow you out play your opponent, maintain control of the board, which allows you to push damage to their face for many turns, only to have all your efforts undone by your opponent playing a single broken card on turn 9 or 10, which took no skill to play, but that one poorly balanced card will give them a victory, because any chance of coming up with some appropriate counter-play or answer is unlikely.
I am not currently playing Standard, but some cards that cause this issue right now in Arena are:
Lord Marrowgar
The Scourge
Astalor
Rune of the Archmage
Raid Boss Onyxia
Even some overly-powerful turn 7 cards that are not quickly answered will steal away any otherwise well played game from a player, such as:
Frost Queen Sindragosa
The Leviathan
Glugg the Gulper
This is why balance and powercreep issues are such a big issue for Hearthstone right now. Do players want to play a strategy game and win through skill or do they simply want to pull the lever on a slot machine and win or lose by luck?
By the way, on another forum thread, players were discussing how common it was to encounter bot opponents at lower ranks. Have you experienced much of that yet?
Players learn fast that there are few new players left in the game.
You either pony up some money to kickstart your collection or you quit. The game is free to try, not free to field a competitive deck.
Decks are built around very strong synergy and they have win conditions they are actively trying to play towards. The old game of chip damage and stand alone cards are gone.
friends, this game is a colossal global gaming scam and i’m sure it will all come out sooner or later, i urge any devs who are no longer working for blizzard today to tell the truth about the fake rng, fake matchmaking, blizzard bots, and teamed slot system of psychologists who study how to cheat players from all points of view
There’s a bunch of dissatisfied players who just come to the forums to vent and troll. They’re going to tell you all about how Blizzard is simultaneously filled with lazy morons, and have genius level schemes to milk you dry of money. Be careful who you believe.
If you want to understand the meta dynamics, your best option is to spend 10-15 minutes reading the weekly Vicious Syndicate reports. They will illuminate how things work in Hearthstone.
The situation is pretty terrible right now. But not for the reasons you think. Thief Rogue and Ramp Druid are absolute garbage. They’re very flashy but don’t win against the best decks. I am not trying to put you down, I was losing to plenty of garbage before I got the correct collection of cards to put together a good deck. And then I had to learn to play well.
Like VS’s analysis from yesterday:
“vS Power Rankings Discussion
It’s not looking good for the format. A balance patch is needed very soon. The format is on the brink of collapse as more players find out that there’s only one deck worth playing. If nothing is done by next week, the tables and graphs in the next report are going to look much, much worse.
Death Knight
- Frost-Aggro Death Knight is unbelievably broken. The numbers are insane here, with its win rate above 60% at Diamond 5 and below. The top legend field looks incapable of answering it too. The deck has no bad matchups and is near-impossible to counter. Its domination of the board is completely choking out any other deck that relies on establishing initiative. Its damage and reach make even the most defensively robust deck struggle to outlast it. We do see some potential in Quest Priest and Blood-Ctrl DK developing a slightly favored matchup against Frost-Aggro (we’re talking 55-45 as a ‘best case scenario’), but it’s not guaranteed as this busted deck has a way to adjust to these matchups as well.
- Both Frost-Burn and Unholy-Aggro are decent decks, but Frost-Aggro is so much better that they’re essentially obsolete.“
well I made It to platinum with that random Evolve deck I told you about that I was using. Now I havent won a legitimate game since I got there. I am only seeing the same 10 decks give or take with a few variations in them and thats it. Im pretty sure I have gone as far as I can go without spending moiney and I simply cannot afford it right now so…Im gonna try a fewe more things but The consistent losing all the time just is not fun at all. This IS supposed to be fun right? I tried making a few decks that I just simply enjoy win or lose but that does not work either. after about 10 to 15 matches that starts to get unsettling as well. I think I have to back away from this. Thank you so much for all your advice and help. It sucks I couldnt turn it into something.
No problem, thanks for giving me an update on your progress. Take care.
Btw, reaching platinum as a new player in such a short amount time was a significant accomplishment.