JARAXXUS IS…sorry.

Friends, the Legend dream is dead. I thought I’d be up front about that. I was hoping to update you all saying how proud I was of my new ranks, and how I am close to achieving my goals. Alas, this is not the case, for a number of reasons. I was simply not winning a high enough percentage of games. My aunt arrives tomorrow for a 9-day stay, during which my 6-hour HearthStone marathons will seem a little rude. Finally, I’ve been experimenting with a new deck, and it hasn’t been winning many games. However, it has won over my heart.

For the majority of my HearthStone experience, I have been a player who has played mainly decks that aim to end the game quickly by attacking my opponent before attempting to control the board. With the newest deck that I have been trying, I have pushed my skills further than I think they ever have. In the process, I have also fulfilled an unrelated HearthStone dream of mine. This dream revolves around owning a particular card. Which card is this?

LORD JARAXXUS. Since I first started playing HearthStone, Lord Jaraxxus has been a card that I have wanted to craft, but could never truly justify it. Decks that used Jaraxxus have always included other expensive-to-craft cards that I didn’t have. This meant that, up until recently, I did not have the card pool to use Jaraxxus in an effective way. Until recently. Over time, I have picked up these other cards, unwittingly paving the way for the Eredar Lord of the Burning Legion to burst his way into my collection.

But why have I wanted this card so badly? It’s just a card, right? Not really. He may be a powerful card (hence his expensive-to-craft nature), but he is far from the best card in the game. He fills a particular role, allowing slower decks to continually pile on the pressure as the game goes on.

Also, he just happens to be the most awesome card in the game to me. No contest. Take a look, through this cool video:

Whilst mine may not be golden (as the one in the video is), the responses are still as epic. Up until now, I’ve been fairly stingy with my crafting. Jaraxxus was as much a craft for usefulness as the sheer joy of finally obtaining something you have wanted for a long time.

And he’s won me some games. He’s also lost me some games. Unfortunately for my Legend run, he’s lost more than he’s won. And yet, every time I play the card, I smile. I couldn’t care less. I have been losing without even being salty about it. I may not be closer to Legend, but I’m improving as a player and having fun whilst doing it with the help of my demonic buddy. Maybe I’ll get Legend next month. Maybe Jaraxxus will help me get there. Whether he does or not, I look forward to spawning a host of Infernals and laughing maniacally.

 

 

 

The Grind

This month, I have made a decision to do something that I’ve wanted to do for many a month. The particular endeavour in question requires patience, concentration, and, more than pretty much anything else, time. What is this task that will require the entire month of April to complete? Is it some momentous, life-altering paper that will shake the foundations of society itself? Have I begun to knit? No, my goal is even more geeky and niche than those – I have decided to make a run for Legendary rank in Hearthstone.

For those who don’t know, Hearthstone is Blizzard’s free-to-play online card game. The cards are very colourful, bright, and feature many pleasing sounds and flashing lights to reel in the kids. However, beneath this pleasant exterior lies a card game with significant depth, variance o play styles, and competition.

The game has a number of play modes to suit all tastes. There is a casual, once-a-week Tavern Brawl, where the game rules get mixed up and everyone has a jolly good time. There is the Arena, where you pay in gold to draft a unique deck from a slew of three-card choices. Finally, there is Play mode, where you construct decks using cards from your collection (which is grown by earning or buying card packs) and pit your deck against real-world players. Whilst there is a friendly option, the core of Play mode is the Ranked ladder. It is in this ladder that my grind lies.

In Ranked mode itself, there are 20 ranks, above which lies the elusive Legend rank. Every time you win a match, you gain a star and move up a little towards the next rank. Every time you lose, you lose a star and slip closer to where you started. Up until rank 5, you can go on a winning streak after three successive victories, and earn double stars for each win until you lose a game. This allows you to be able to go through the lower ranks more quickly.

At rank 5, the winning streaks stop. This means that the grind is slower. The players here are all trying to reach Legend. Rank 5 is accordingly considered the half-way point for the grind to legend. The better winrate that your deck has, the fewer games you will have to play to get to Legend. Here is a handy table from Tempostorm to demonstrate. This is the amount of games that you will have to play in order to reach Legend from Rank 5, depending on the win rate of your particular deck.

 

Considering each game takes approximately 8 minutes to play, that adds up to a lot of time spent for an achievement and an in-game card back.

I haven’t even reached rank 5 yet – at time of writing, I sit hovering around rank 10. I have ground my way up, but I still have a long climb ahead. I believe I can make it. I just need to play as much as I can, and I will eventually get there. Whilst I may not be the most skilled, I know that I am good enough to duke it out with the other aspiring Legend players.

All in all, I have many hours sitting in front of my computer ahead of me, trying to outwit a never-ending horde of faceless opponents standing in my way of glory. I hope that I will have enough time to get there. I have been streaming most of my grinding over at twitch.tv/pizzadogcasting. So, if you feel like hanging out in the digital world, watching me get frustrated and happy and frustrated some more, I’d love for you to join me in my pursuit of digital prestige. Now I have to go and get a few more stars before bedtime.