Ever feel intimidated?

Hello there!

I’ve been wondering if I am the only one feeling a bit intimidated by factors such as The Coin ((Golden) — all golden deck), LVL50 or 1000W Hero Portrait, the Legend-cardback etc.

Let me know if there’s anything that intimidates you during your adventures in Ranked Play.

Best regards,

iAardvark

Nowadays, if I see someone using that special skin from level 50, I tend to think my opponent must be someone extraordinarily skilled. The coin and golden cards/portraits don't do much to me, since everyone from diamond 5 onwards would probably have it anyway.

Similarly I hope my opponent doesn't soil his pants when he faces me using that lvl 50 Anduin portrait.

If I met a 1000W Priest with a deck full of golden cards and the LVL50 Coin foiled as well, I would shit my pants. Instantly.

I agree. You might be right in calling it “acknowledgement”. There certainly is a headnod when I meet a fellow Rogue sporting 1000W.

I don't, 1000 portraits for me don't mean much, a lot of people just farm this and maybe if I didn't like playing control so much I would have gotten a few by now. You can also farm the lv 50s and getting the Legend portrait it's a matter of time, I got it once the quarantine started since I was playing more and since the Ashes of Outland patch made reaching legend easier (and pretty proud to have gotten there with one of my fav decks of all time, highlander priest, and not a quick aggro deck to farm wins).
At the end of the day you just need to play your cards correctly and kinda know what other cards expected from the opponent.

So just play the way you enjoy and if you encounter this opponents just think of them as a big encounter that will make you feel good if you win and not bad if you lose if you feel they are superior than you.

It is perfectly possible that you could encounter me with [Hearthstone Card (Cap'n Valeera) Not Found], a golden coin and the Legend card back. It is also pretty much guaranteed the intimidation factor would plummet as soon as I play a card (other than the coin of course) and reveal I'm playing some off-meta homebrew that is likely easier to beat than some basic portrait scrub who opens with Spymistress.

I'm a great midrange/value rogue player - possibly one of the best out there - but that makes me about as intimidating as a teddy bear.

The conclusion: there is as much variance in the players who have these cosmetics as there is anywhere else in HS, so there's little point in trying to infer much about them.

As for whether anything intimidates me: not really, but I do get super suspicious when an opponent plays a card I haven't seen played in years. You've gotta respect an Angry Chicken because there's no way the opponent doesn't have a plan that'll end in your demise. 

The level 50 portrait? Really? I consider myself pretty casual, and I got that a while ago. If you don't play enough to finish all your quests, I guess you may feel intimidated by every opponent, all the time.

On the other hand, if you see one of the special coins or lots of golden cards, all it means is that they've spent some money. That's nothing to be intimidated by.

As anchorm4n pointed out, the only thing you should really take note of is the 1000-win portrait. That generally shows they've had a lot of practice and (theoretically, at least) are less prone to misplays. However, it still doesn't mean they are necessarily better than you or that they are even using a good deck at the moment.

Quote From anchorm4n

I wouldn't call it intimidation, but I do acknowledge 1.000 win portraits in some kind of "okay, you're dealing with an expert here, be careful" kind of way. 

I dunno. I had a 1,000 win Demon Hunter nuke his entire board with a Shardshatter Mystic a few months ago, letting me win the game.

1,000 wins is just time spent playing, not time spent playing well.

I would personally call it more of a wow factor than an intimidation, and as much as I appreciate my golden cards, I don't associate a gold collection to any type of skills - at least not HS related - it simply meant you have played and possibly spent quite a lot ; if you play the game long enough, at some point, you will get to those same milestones.

You could also prioritize grinding a single class and owing a single deck, if gold is what you seek.^^

I've been playing since day 1 of open beta. I have 1k+ wins with all 10 classes. I keep all my golden cards. I have the legend card back. Those cosmetics are more indicative of time than skill. If you meet me on ladder, you'll probably win. 

I don't care, I just focus on the game. I'm more upset by classes which are a bad matchup for my deck.

I used to be kind-of intimidated by Legend card backs, or at least impressed... until I hit legend myself. Now it's the opposite effect: I am convinced that players with a legend card back are generally from the weaker quarter of the legend players who use it in the hope to intimidate their opponents.

Time and money spent does not directly equate to that persons skill level

Someone with a 20% win-rate will still get a 1000 win skin after 5000 games if they keep playing the same class

and I used to go on ranked with golden Whizbang the Wonderful and Zayle, Shadow Cloak for the memes, and I wouldn't call myself god tier for having the golden coin, though I do recognize that is a bit different than one spending hundreds to thousands of dollars to own every golden card in a specific deck

Yeah, I don't think you should let the 1000 win portraits or golden cards intimidate you. Anyone playing long/often enough can reach many of those milestones. Certainly it's an indication of experience, but not necessarily skill.

Quote From MurlocAggroB

Quote From anchorm4n

I wouldn't call it intimidation, but I do acknowledge 1.000 win portraits in some kind of "okay, you're dealing with an expert here, be careful" kind of way. 

I dunno. I had a 1,000 win Demon Hunter nuke his entire board with a Shardshatter Mystic a few months ago, letting me win the game.

1,000 wins is just time spent playing, not time spent playing well.

No one is saying 1,000 wins makes you infallible. But, knowing nothing else about two players, which one are you going to bet real money on: the one with 1,000 wins or the one with all golden cards and not even 500 wins?

Intimidated? Nah.

But that opponent with the 1,000 wins portrait and the legendary cardback who is rocking Secret Mage in Casual Wild - that one leaves me irritated.

My mentality is just: “Why would I be intimidated? I’m better than them.

It's honesly them just playing the game more. Don't feel intimidated by this, as your mindset should be simple: I can win any game against anyone. I used to feel a bit intimidated by the legend cardback when I started, and games were rough. But it just means they played more games than you. Playing a lot of games does not equate learning from them, as a lot of people are terrible at self reflection. And all golden decks, well that just means they have nothing better to do with their money than spend it on hearthstone cosmetics.

I am not and never really have been intimidated by such features. When I started playing HS I didn't even recognize those things (like, seriosuly, I started playing during Old Gods, and only learned from this thread about the golden coin) and then I quickly realized that those cosmetics, including legendary card back, simply mean someone has had more time to play the game. I kind of proved it to myself beyond any doubt when I first hit the legend myself. All I did was play more, because I suddenly got a lot of free time - nothing else really changed. 

What I am a little intimidated by is when I play BG and I can see a famous streamer in my lobby. I got high enough MMR to meet them from time to time. I must admit I feel that people are watching me and it causes some weird kind of stress, which affects my decisions.