Hearthstone Top Decks F2P BTW Challenge: Week 3 Update

Introduction

Week 3 of the Hearthstone Top Decks F2P BTW Challenge is finished! Here, you see my end of week rank, keep up with my current decklist and get a sense of how I spent my time, gold, and arcane dust for the second week of the challenge.

End of Week 3 Rank

Current Deck List

I will continue to update my decklist as I gather new cards during the challenge. You can see my current build below:

Week 3 Summary

Challenge complete! Early in Week 3, I was able to reach the goal set in the F2P BTW Challenge‘s inception. On the back of another chain of victories, I managed to streak my way into Rank 5.

While I had a fair amount of success on my climb, I found that my motivation to grind out more games on the fresh account had diminished. Playing the same deck (especially one as straightforward as Hybrid/Midrange Hunter) began to take its toll. As a result, I spent substantially more time in Tavern Brawls (and on my main account) this week than in the past.

By the weekend, I found it increasingly difficult as the week went on to continue pressing Play Standard button knowing I had only one deck to pilot. When I did play, even dominant wins became less satisfying due to the repetition and predictability of my games.

Backing off a bit on Ranked Play on the weekend helped with my mindset, but made it so that I missed the goal I had set for the week for the first time. With the break, however, I should be ready to make a strong push for Legend with the end of the month fast approaching.

Ranks 10-6

My time in the sub 5 ranks was brief this week, as it only took 8 games to get me beyond that milestone. To that end, there wasn’t much to report on in this early period.

A quick win streak took me from Rank 6, where I finished in Week 2, to Rank 5 with 2 stars, making for a highly efficient entrance into the penultimate rank span.

Tavern Brawl

My wish for a Tavern Brawl that required no deck finally came true! This week’s Tavern Brawl was Shiftcon which, along with a handful of class spells, prefilled players’ decks with several copies of Shifter Zerus.

While this Brawl was one of the RNG Clown Fiestas that I typically don’t enjoy, it did provide me with a nice outlet for completing quests. In the process, I was able to accumulate all of the Basic Cards for two additional classes in Druid and Shaman. The only remaining classes for me are Rogue and Paladin, the latter of which I am two levels away from completing.

It was also nice to have the opportunity to play a class that wasn’t Hunter for a change. Despite the silly randomness of the event, it provided a bit of entertainment for me in the back half of the week. I’m not too proud to admit I missed the game mode (ridiculous as it may have been) when it was no longer available.

Ranks 5-1

Much of my ranked play games were spent in the Ranks 5-1 band. Aside from some early success, my win rate began to drop pretty dramatically here as I found myself running into bad matchups more frequently. Worse yet, I’m no longer able to utilize win streaks as a crutch for my poor win rate.

Moving forward, I’ll need to find a way to increase my win rate if I’m going to rank up beyond this point. Capping out at 53% will take far too much time to finish the grind to Legend in a week’s time.

Week 3 Statistics

Throughout the F2P BTW Challenge, I’ll be collecting detailed statistics related to Win Rates, Pack Openings, Card Crafting, Quests Completed, and Time Played.

Win Rates

Even with a suboptimal list (and class), I was able to maintain a positive win rate in Week 3 at higher ranks. In the 10-6 rank range, I only played a handful of games before making my way past Rank 5. As expected, win rate declined once I reached this point but remains above the 50% mark throughout the week and challenge as a whole.

Week 3

Ranks 10-6

Ranks 5-1

Week 3 Pack Openings

In Week 3, I was able to open a total of 10 card packs with an average Arcane Dust value of 76.5. While this average is slightly below the expected amount, the mean value for all of my packs remains fairly typical.

This week did include a pleasant surprise as I was rewarded with 3 additional Knights of the Frozen Throne packs, thanks to my selection (Purple) doing quite well in the HCT Summer Championship. Even though the cards pulled from these packs weren’t great, every little bit helps for an F2P account.

Due to a decrease in time played this week, I was only able to earn enough gold to purchase 5 packs, all of which were from Mean Streets in Gadgetzan. By the end of Week 3, I was still chasing a Legendary from Mean Streets of Gadgetzan. So far, despite being 5 packs in, I have yet to find one. Depending on the amount of gold accumulated in the upcoming week, I’m all but guaranteed at least one Legendary. This final Legendary card would bump my average pack value and validate the recommendations made in my recent article on How to Decide Which Hearthstone Packs to Buy.

Classic Packs

• Number of Packs: 2
• Average Dust Value: 80
• Legendary: None

Knights of the Frozen Throne Packs

• Number of Packs: 3
• Average Dust Value: 71.67
• Legendary: None

Mean Streets of Gadgetzan

• Number of Packs: 5
• Average Dust Value: 78
• Legendary: None

All Sets

• Number of Packs: 9
• Average Dust Value: 76.5

Card Crafting

By week’s end, I was finally able to create the Bittertide Hydras I had been coveting since the beginning of the challenge. These new Epics haven’t seen much play yet, but have already positively contributed to my success on the ladder. Despite only crafting two cards this week, it actually turned out to be the second highest dust cost during the challenge due to the high cost of crafting Epic cards.

Unfortunately, there most likely won’t be enough time to gather enough gold to collect the uncraftable Kindly Grandmother. This means my Hunter deck is, for the purposes of the challenge, complete. Any additional resources gathered beyond this point will go towards a budget Aggro Druid or Secret Mage deck, since there are several overlapping neutral minions (including the newly acquired Hydras) between both of these lists and my current deck.

Epic

• Bittertide Hydra x 2

Total Arcane Dust Spent: 800

Quests Completed

Week 3 was the first full week in which higher reward quests were consistently available. Aside from a couple 40 gold quests that were unintentionally cleared, most of the quests completed this week churned out at least 50 gold.

The additional payout from these more lucrative quests was noticeable but did not net me any additional card packs as a result.

Daily Quests

• Destroy them All: 40 gold
• Druid or Rogue Victory: 40 gold
• Druid Mastery: 60 gold
• Priest Mastery: 60 gold
• Everyone Get in Here!: 50 gold
• You Shall Not Pass!: 50 gold
• Watch and Learn: 1 Classic Pack

Time Played

As stated early, my motivation to continue jamming more games with Hunter declined pretty drastically this week. Time played, as a result, dropped for the week but I was still able to find some time to climb up the ladder. Stream nights (Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:00 PM Pacific Time) contributed the bulk of my time spent playing on the new account.

• Monday: 1.5 hours
• Tuesday: 3.5 hours
• Wednesday: 0.5 hours
• Thursday: 3.5 hours
• Friday: 0 hours
• Saturday: 0.5 hours
• Sunday: 0.5 hours

Week 3 Total Time Played: 10 hours

Overall Statistics

Win Rate

Pack Openings

• Total Packs Opened: 38
• Average Dust Value: 103.16
• Legendaries Opened: 4

Card Crafting

• Total Dust Spend: 1880

Time Played

• Total Time Played: 36 hours

Week 4 Goals

Rank Goal: Legend

At this point, there’s no other goal that makes sense. I’ve already reach Rank 5, the initial goal of the challenge, so any other sub-Legend finish is largely irrelevant at this point.

I peaked in Week 3 at Rank 4 with 5 stars before dropping a few games. While it will take some time and effort, a Legend finish is certainly within the realm of possibilities. Once more armed with additional powerful cards, I should be able to continue my way up the remaining few ranks before crossing this threshold.

Given the win rate I’ve been sporting throughout the Rank 5+ range, finding the time (and motivation) to make the Legend push will be the biggest challenge of the final week. I think my best chance at reaching Legend will involve putting some effort towards building a better deck than my current Hunter list.

About the Author

A card game veteran, Roffle has been infatuated with Hearthstone since closed beta. These days, he spends most of his time tinkering with decks on ladder or earning gold in Arena (f2p btw). In particular, Roffle has a wealth of experience in competitive Wild Hearthstone, including a top 16 finish in the inaugural Wild Open Tournament and numerous high end of season finishes since the format’s inception. Follow him on Twitter or check out some of his articles on Roffle.net.