About half a year ago I noticed that was often angry or annoyed after jamming a couple of games of Hearthstone. After thinking about for a while I concluded that is was not because of meta or the deck I was playing, since it happened to me even in brawls and when I switched to a different deck. Since then I started to organize my play sessions in the following way: Set a number of games I want to win (usually 1-3} and play until I hit it.

Obviously, it is not a perfect system since you often have limited time to play HS (on train etc.) and sometimes you just want to win a brawl, finish a quest, reach a certain rank and the more you lose the longer it takes.

But in general, I found out that trying to win a set number of games I usually ended after resolving a huge Tess, getting good RNG or simply playing a clean and even game against my opponent. My play session even lasted less time since I just stopped after reaching the set number. Later I even started to listen to music while playing and found out that even the losses were enjoyable since they meant I could play another game.

Anyone else does something similar to combat tilting or has a specific way in which they organize they play sessions?

In case of "playing patterns" if I can call them so... I use few of them for a while now.

1. Doing daily quests.  My goal - complete quests ASAP. To do that I reroll quest(s) until I get EASIEST ones and try to line them up in "synergy". F.e. "Play 6 mechs, Win 1 Hunter game, Play 20 Hunter cards" - easy, I just play Mech Hunter.

Also, EASIEST quests = the ones that don't expect you to win (or win 1 game). I don't reroll only 100 gold one and the ones with Pack reward.

Easy quests mean I can play them while doing other IRL stuff - because I don't need to pay attention and win at all...

2. Ending a play session in a good mood. Whenever I play for a longer amount of time - I try to end up a session on a good, satisfying game and/or on a win streak. For example - just won a long game while having 1 HP and I have only about 10 minutes possible play time left? Let's end session there, nothing can be better than that game :)

3. Personal preference - just playing the deck I really like whenever I feel like it. For example, in April I combined both grinding and playing a fun deck. I played BIG-Bad Shaman (Muckmorpher Shaman) and went from 19 rank to 9. Switched to Mech-Bomb Hunter and got to Rank 5... and then BIG-Bad Shaman from 5 to 4. I would try to push it to Legend, if only I had enough time... Never got bored of it, never felt bad, even when losing :)

1. Goal every season is rank 5. (Which is extremely easy to reach)

2. Quit while I'm ahead (If I win a few games just stop)

3. Open a card pack with the gold I earned to have a sense of accomplishment if I loose too many games and then quit.

If you follow these three steps I don't think you will ever get frustrated. Rank 5 meta is the best meta anyway. Meme legend numbers are really bad. As other posters said, "it's only game why you have to be mad"

Now playing magic arena and getting shit on by Esper decks gets me mad...

Quote From anchorm4n

Really cool idea, I did something similar last season. Got to rank 4 around half of the month and decided to try reaching legend for the first time. Instead of grinding for hours (and surely losing my temper and my concentration), I set myself the goal to win 2 more games than I lost every day for the rest of the month. So some days, I played only two games, later I had to play for two hours to make that progress of plus 2 wins from where I started that day. But in the end, it worked out: I reached legend and did so without tilting once and in a way shorter time than I expected.

So having made that experience and considering yours, that seems a really great way to play :) Because, in the end it's still a game and I dont want to walk away from it angry.

I'm going to steal that idea. I like the sound of playing to win two more games than you lose.

Do you manage it often? I can imagine myself logging in, losing three games in a row and then knowing I need to win five just to follow the self-imposed rule

I hardly close a day with a loss, even less so with a loss streak.

I'd rather lose more until i win one, than closing the game while already tilted.

That would sound like a declaration of defeat to me, which is unacceptable to my ego.

Instead, winning one last time, even just in Casual, is the minimum sign of hope i need before calling it a day.

I have never had a problem with tilting. I am not saying that I never tilted, anyone who tells you that is probably lying, but it was never a problem. I don't like to grind, so my play sessions don't really last that long, and that does help against tilting. I also like to listen to music, or reading on hearthpwn/Out of Cards, or both, and that also helps to fight against tilt because your focusing less on how bad your doing in the game.