Alright, I know you're all tired of hearing about Apprentice Rank MMR stuff

General Discussion
1

But this is getting a little ridiculous. Despite losing the last 19 out of 28 games since facing Gold 3 players (not in a row, mind you, but that’s still well below 50%), the game keeps increasing the rank of my opponents, and now I’m facing Platinum Rank 9 decks.

In Apprentice Rank.

I thought the ranks were overhauled recently to help ease in returning and new players?

How come it keeps upping the difficulty when I’m getting trounced by token druid and spell mage?

Like, am I supposed to just hope that my opponents afk or concede out of pity?
At least three of my wins within those last 28 games weren’t earned, and I’m AT BEST an average player.

Never hit legend on the other accounts that I eventually gave up on when I discovered the 300+ buckerinos I chucked at the game were rewarded with the likes of millhouse and onyxia. Not exactly what you’d call in any way value for a large amount of cash, thrice over.
I’ve watched hs, sure, but apart from dabbling in bgs my expertise is non-existant.

Why then, pray tell, does Blizzard seem convinced that I’m some sort of Hearthstone God incarnate?

Didn’t they just make a big hooha about changing things with the core set and other things to finally make the game approachable instead of a dirty, expensive secret that’s too embarassing to share your interest of?
What gives? I threw together a haphazard hunter deck because I got rinlins rifle, so now I must be Kiblers secret lovechild who’s inherited his powers and will torch the entire ladder unless I am put in my place?

This is anything but welcoming.
At least I know which rank my opponents are thanks to decktracker but it doesn’t make things any more fun when I am unable to actually compete due to the sheer difference in card power as a ‘new’ player.

And please, if you read this far and want to suggest anything, by all that’s good in the world, DO NOT suggest I buy packs. I have spent more than enough on this game and would like some returns, and the fact that magic has done it before doesnt make it ok, it just means it’s also garbage.

Thoughts?

2

This topic has had many conversations of late as the matchmaking in Hearthstone is rather Odd (that’s my opinion).

I really don’t know why they have leagues/ranks like platinum/diamond etc. We can be matched with any player at any rank.

Personally I think if they keep the current system they should do away with bronze, gold, diamond etc. We are either legend or non legend. When players see they are matched against players a lot of ranks higher, it is demoralising. It’s happened to me quite a few times, I’m in diamond rank and I’m playing legend players. I then think we’ll if I’m playing against a legend player, why am I not legend rank. I do know the reason but I can’t help thinking like that.

Your rank doesn’t matter, it’s your MMR which finds your opponent, which we can’t see.

I have often wondered what would happen if when I get to a new rank, I concede 100 games, will it make my climb to the next rank easier? In theory it should as my MMR will be greatly decreased.

Ultimately it’s the system we all have to play in so it is what it is. You are playing against players of your skill level and not rank level so there is not much you can do. Hunter is a good deck, keep plugging away.

3

I suppose maybe the idea is to motivate players through hardship, which isn’t a bad idea at all, but the sudden difficulty spike can immediately turn players away if they get the impression that the game is designed in such a way as to incentivize paying for improvement you could otherwise only reach through a sluggish grind (which is fine, but not before I’ve even left apprentice rank in order to get the first main goal, namely the free, non-useless, non-whizbang deck that will get you a foothold to stand on).

I leaves a really nasty aftertaste as I feel I’m not so much competing against other players as much as fighting Blizzard’s monetization scheme.

I’ve worked in enough places to learn, I feel, that you don’t want your customers feeling like they got conned because that tends to spread, and you may well lose their support, which, well, you need. I mean, I would’ve been more than happy to spend money on hs had I not had such an atrocious experience every time I did, and that can’t be the aim surely?

I’m no stranger to pretty overwhelming odds. I mean, I play Monster Hunter for gods sake, since its psp days, and that was the definition of frustrating.

Regardless of what Blizzard’s intentions are, it comes across as misleading at best and straight up being lied to regarding the actual “free-ness” of HS when an MMR system is in place that mirrors the Battlefront 2 con (where you were matched with players who had better equipment and would likely destroy you, leading you to buy loot boxes in frustratiion).

Is that the look Blizzard wants? One of psychological manipulation for profit?

To finance what exactly?
Warcraft 3?
Employees recently relieved of their jobs?
HotS?
The cards they have to print every expansion?

I really don’t get what the long term plan is.

4

Is your decktracker from hsreplay? Can you post a link?

I’m guessing that you didn’t play those games today but in the last week? It’s possible that you just got caught by people with lower mmr than they should have climbing on the final days of the month. I for instance only played meme/achievement decks until the 27th and was at the bottom of silver but then played a semi-serious deck for a couple of hours and got myself up to platinum 10 to get the extra packs.

Still a bit weird as you should only face apprentice league players in theory but maybe it’s got a queue-time work around and so you were matched a few times against low mmr ranked players.

One thing I will say is that rank definitely doesn’t equate to skill and you can easily get a (emphasis on ‘a’) legend quality deck for free, which is why everyone has one at a very low level. Not worth wasting your resources on it now with the big changes on the horizon but power level will be free, diversity+power will still unfortunately cost you.

5

Sure thing, though I seem to have gotten over the hump after the last edit I made to the deck, and suffering through those losses gave me a good sense of what those decks that beat me do well.
Priest is still an auto-concede, that felt like a schoolyard bully had hung me on a flagpole, sheesh.
Also this was all within one night (the Gold 2 - Platinum 9 losing streak)

Anyway here’s what I’m running:

Hittyman

Class: Hunter

Format: Standard

Year of the Phoenix

2x (1) Dwarven Sharpshooter

2x (1) Tracking

1x (1) Wolpertinger

1x (2) Bola Shot

1x (2) Felfire Deadeye

1x (2) Freezing Trap

1x (2) Open the Cages

1x (2) Pressure Plate

1x (2) Scavenger’s Ingenuity

1x (2) Snake Trap

2x (3) Animal Companion

2x (3) Darkmoon Dirigible

1x (3) Darkmoon Statue

1x (3) Desert Spear

1x (3) Eaglehorn Bow

2x (3) Inconspicuous Rider

2x (3) Kill Command

1x (3) Petting Zoo

1x (4) Circus Amalgam

2x (4) Houndmaster

1x (4) Rinling’s Rifle

1x (5) Teacher’s Pet

1x (5) Trampling Rhino

Forum won’t let me post the link :confused:

The change I made was probably what had me win the last 10 games, namely changing the shimmerfly for a stronger 1 drop, dwarven sharpshooter.

Essentially the deck has similarities to highlander without the power spikes that zephrys, bran and ali afford, but with more consistency as a result.
Darkmoon Dirigable and Statue are just sticky removal/priority minions with upside and can probably be the first to be switched out for something stronger, but apart from the one dwarven sharpshooter I didn’t craft anything so my options were limited.
Otherwise I gotta say I’m kinda proud of how well things synergise here, and knowing why I included certain cards obviously makes it easier to pilot for me.

6

You can post a link by surrounding it with ` (the button to the left of 1 above tab).

Yeah so it was probably end of month mmr shenanigans and now we’re on the first you’re back to facing opponents that you should be.

I can imagine the non-optimal hunter vs optimized Priest is gona be very tough, but I wouldn’t auto concede. Just play a hyper aggressive line/mulligan (secret on 2 > petting zoo gives you a great chance, even if it’s low odds of getting it’s better than conceding).

There are some changes I would make:

Out:
Felfire Deadeye - hero power costing 1 less without synergy is rarely gona matter.
Darkmoon statue - the curve of you’re deck is too low to consistently play this corrupted and playing a 0 mana attack minion on turn 3 isn’t good enough.

In:
Hard to say exactly without playing the deck my basic answer is:
2x River Crocolisk - you’ve got beast synergies, so might as well lean into them.

Other considerations:
Timber wolf - better version of the statue most of the time if you have a board and costs 1 mana (obviously only effects beasts but that’s what most your minions are).
Ooze if weapon decks are a problem.
Wolfrider - goes face.
Shimmerfly - better option that the 2 I suggested removing, but your analysis of dwarven sharpshooter being way better is correct :slightly_smiling_face:

You’re right to identify Darkmoon Dirigable but without crafting stuff a 3 mana 3/2 divine shield is just good enough, even if it isn’t corrupted.

It wouldn’t take much to much this deck really competitive (just some commons and rares) but like I said before not at all worth crafting anything now, what with the changes coming soon.

7

Interesting make up but with any deck its the make up of the deck. The question is are you going to fast pace to kill the other player or control the board. The deck you built seems to want to do both which is admirable.

The secret could be mixed up a bit with explosive trap added to replace Bola shot.
Scavengers Ingenuity is one of the best cards for Hunter as it targets certain beasts within your deck, refine that a bit by just having 2Trampling Rhino and maybe 1 scrap shot for the buff with 2 Wolpertinger or 2 phase stalker if you have them. Also some Dragon 2 drops which can not be targeted if your struggling vs priest.

I would post dragon/mech/beast combo or the beast buff variant, the pure face hunter avoids Taunts just damage over the top and so on. The Hunter arch type has many aspects. The 1 below is a mix and match and does ok but costs a bit the upgraded version that is with Legendary bow etc.

Some advice to all people running Trampling Rhino look at the card and see its strength. It does direct damage to other player if the card you hit has very low health, remember whats on the board and what damage those minions do vs a taunt. If you have a 10/10 in hand facing 8/8 Taunt and you minions are 2/3 or lower on board run them into the Taunt to lower health play the Rhino and kill the other player if they have low health. That extra time thinking you may of missed lethal many times.

Face Hunter

Class: Hunter

Format: Standard

Year of the Phoenix

2x (1) Adorable Infestation

2x (1) Dwarven Sharpshooter

2x (1) Mystery Winner

2x (1) Toxic Reinforcements

2x (1) Tracking

2x (2) Explosive Trap

1x (2) Freezing Trap

2x (2) Kobold Sandtrooper

1x (2) Pack Tactics

2x (2) Phase Stalker

2x (2) Scavenger’s Ingenuity

1x (3) Eaglehorn Bow

2x (3) Kill Command

1x (3) Teron Gorefiend

2x (3) Ursatron

1x (4) Dragonbane

1x (4) Scrap Shot

2x (5) Trampling Rhino

AAECAR8GhwT+DIewA6S5A9S6A/m6AwyoAskElwi2nAPzpwP7rwP8rwOFsAP/ugO50gPy4QOG4gMA

To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

8

I wouldn’t recommend crafting cards that they won’t be able to use next month.

9

Thanks so much for the suggestions, and apologies for the late reply.

I’ll try to explain my thinking in card choices, maybe that will make its shortcomings more apparant.

As Bladesong correctly surmised, the game plan consists of controlling the board early to early midgame in order to push damage to face, weaving in hero powers where possible/necessary to push the clock.

The secret package allows for some early tempo swings, board control, and importantly gains some effectiveness by simply requiring more thought to play against, especially as it isn’t so prevelant pre-legend.

Dwarven is my best bet for controllling early board until I hit Rider, the deck’s patches. Tutoring out a 2 mana spell with a 2/2 body for three mana is a tempo swing, and thinning the deck to reach exactly the impactful cards is important, hence also the two trackings. Mana consideration means I can weave tracking in often, too, so my draws become more powerful.

The beasts are self-explanatory, and hitting wolpertinger or rhino with scavengers is strong either as tempo (three mana for 6/6) or tempo/reach (every added attack to rhino is more burst). Rhino almost exclusively functions as extra burn, I don’t expect it to do much except kill a minion, do a little damage, and then attract attention away from the burn I have in hand or other minions that can get me there.
The two taunts are fine, too, especially as taunts force my opponent to interact with the secrets, while potentially guarding other minions who can go face.

The weapons allow for board control, especially when paired with houndmaster, or, just as importantly, direct damage when charged with secrets (hence the one copy of eaglehorn, one does the job). Rinlings rifle corrupts the 3 costs, and regains board while powering secret synergies, and usually goes face for 4, more if I grab explosive.

I like the idea of it being flexible enough to combat early boards that depend on snowballing while having an innate clock due to reach and the hero power. Each matchup can be played a little different, and last about 10ish turns before either I am overwhelmed or hit lethal.

Replacing bola shot for explosive trap seems like a fair trade, I was worried explosive shot wouldn’t do much as it can be played around and is reactive, but the synergy with petting zoo may push it over the top, and it fills much of the same purpose while giving me some more reach.

I dropped felfire deadeye for dancing cobra (the high health and possibility for taunted poison means opponents might waste resources on it, and it survives to be buffed) and wriggling horror to help with reach, though its dependence on board presence worries me.

I’ve disenchanted thrall dethseer to craft another petting zoo, which replaces one dirigible. He’s (un)dead, and I don’t see myself bamboozling players with evolve shaman in wild ever.

Maybe an unleash would also be good? I would probably throw in a token buffer like timber wolf over dancing cobra then to give the deck more teeth, but it might cost me the board. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be drawing cobra from scavengers, which would be very good.

Obviously most of this deck is rotating, so I’m reticent to invest much into it with hunter’s future being so unclear (and from what I can gather, probably depending entire on new sets and mini sets, all of which make the game even more expensive, something I never thought would be possible).

As a final aside, I feel that a card such as river crock with just okish vanilla stats and no board impact just isn’t good enough nowadays, which is why I avoid putting them in. I try to only include cards that do several things, or further another synergy in some small but meaningful way, even at the cost of some stats.
But maybe a mini yeti is good enough, I might be underestimating him just cause he’s so plain.

Again, thanks for the insight people, I really enjoy the planning aspect at least as much as actually playing the game, and its good to hear experienced thoughts.

Much love.

10

If it wasn’t a beast, it wouldn’t be. It was just better than the 2 minions I pointed out, plenty of better options if you craft them, but most of your deck is gona have to be reworked in a few weeks so don’t suggest crafting even commons to be honest.

It’s best to spend the next 3 weeks (estimate) learning the game and then use the resources and all the cards you’ll be given to make a new deck.