Tips for Laddering to Legend
This is a a quick list of tips from my experience in the grind to legend
Stick with one or two decks that you know best
I know this may sound obvious but play the decks you're most comfortable with not just a deck you copied off Reynad or Trump's stream. Let's say that you're in a close game playing face hunter for the first or second time and you decide you want to trade instead of going face and it lost you the game. If you were a face hunter god and just smorc'd them you probably would have won.
Play a faster paced deck
When laddering time is important. Not everyone has time to play 400 or 500 games in a month if they're busy with work or school. My advice is to play a fast paced aggro deck to close out games in a couple minutes in the higher ranks but once you get down to around rank 5 switch to a deck with a high win percentage. When I ladder I like to use face hunter or midrange hunter to 5 then I switch to either combo druid or freeze mage depending on the meta.
Keep up with the meta and current decks that are doing well
Pretty self explanatory, keep up with what are the popular decks that are currently stomping on ladder and either play those decks yourself or build a deck that counters those decks.
Have a friend spectate a game and talk through moves with them
Get on skype or have that friend next to you. The extra set of eyes looking and possible moves or catching small mistakes can be a lifesaver. When I ladder I get on skype and have a friend watch my games and we talk through each move and predict what my opponent will do.
Use a deck tracker like Track-o-bot
Using this helped me analyze what decks I was playing against and what my winrates were against those decks. Track-o-bot is great because it is multiplatform and runs in the background, you just open it in whatever browser you're using to check stats.
Losing is acceptable
Don't get frustrated if you go on huge loss streaks, it may be because of bad RNG or your opponent draws well and you draw terribly it happens to everyone. If you can win more that 50% of your games you'll hit legend eventually. Even the pros would be happy with a winrate of 60-70%.
Getting to legend takes time
It will take about 250-300 games if you have a 55-60% winrate. This is a pretty low amount of games compared to what I've heard other people going through. The hardest part will be going from rank 4-5 to 2. Once you get to rank 2 or 1 it just takes one small winstreak and then you've made it.
Remember cardback is everything!
MAKE SURE TO USE THE RAINBOW CARDBACK. Jk but seriously when you're watching your opponent on their turn look at what card they hover over and make accurate predictions. If it's a mage and turn 7 is coming up and they keep hovering over one card and spamming "Hello", well flamestrike would be a pretty good prediction right?
Minimize distractions
I know it can be boring to sit and wait for your turn but trust me turn off netflix and at least minimize reddit browsing when laddering. This will cut down on your mistakes and will improve your game sense and predictions.
Pray to RNGesus
Before every game changing play that requires a little luck, give RNGesus a little prayer and you'll be rewarded.
Stick with one or two decks that you know best
I know this may sound obvious but play the decks you're most comfortable with not just a deck you copied off Reynad or Trump's stream. Let's say that you're in a close game playing face hunter for the first or second time and you decide you want to trade instead of going face and it lost you the game. If you were a face hunter god and just smorc'd them you probably would have won.
Play a faster paced deck
When laddering time is important. Not everyone has time to play 400 or 500 games in a month if they're busy with work or school. My advice is to play a fast paced aggro deck to close out games in a couple minutes in the higher ranks but once you get down to around rank 5 switch to a deck with a high win percentage. When I ladder I like to use face hunter or midrange hunter to 5 then I switch to either combo druid or freeze mage depending on the meta.
Keep up with the meta and current decks that are doing well
Pretty self explanatory, keep up with what are the popular decks that are currently stomping on ladder and either play those decks yourself or build a deck that counters those decks.
Have a friend spectate a game and talk through moves with them
Get on skype or have that friend next to you. The extra set of eyes looking and possible moves or catching small mistakes can be a lifesaver. When I ladder I get on skype and have a friend watch my games and we talk through each move and predict what my opponent will do.
Use a deck tracker like Track-o-bot
Using this helped me analyze what decks I was playing against and what my winrates were against those decks. Track-o-bot is great because it is multiplatform and runs in the background, you just open it in whatever browser you're using to check stats.
Losing is acceptable
Don't get frustrated if you go on huge loss streaks, it may be because of bad RNG or your opponent draws well and you draw terribly it happens to everyone. If you can win more that 50% of your games you'll hit legend eventually. Even the pros would be happy with a winrate of 60-70%.
Getting to legend takes time
It will take about 250-300 games if you have a 55-60% winrate. This is a pretty low amount of games compared to what I've heard other people going through. The hardest part will be going from rank 4-5 to 2. Once you get to rank 2 or 1 it just takes one small winstreak and then you've made it.
Remember cardback is everything!
MAKE SURE TO USE THE RAINBOW CARDBACK. Jk but seriously when you're watching your opponent on their turn look at what card they hover over and make accurate predictions. If it's a mage and turn 7 is coming up and they keep hovering over one card and spamming "Hello", well flamestrike would be a pretty good prediction right?
Minimize distractions
I know it can be boring to sit and wait for your turn but trust me turn off netflix and at least minimize reddit browsing when laddering. This will cut down on your mistakes and will improve your game sense and predictions.
Pray to RNGesus
Before every game changing play that requires a little luck, give RNGesus a little prayer and you'll be rewarded.