Well I finally did it! I hit Legend! And I did it by accident, kind of!
I've been playing since a few weeks after launch with a few periods of playing very little, or not at all for a few months towards the end of 2014 and into early 2015. I've also played more casually for the life of the game, the first two years I literally played Casual only after earning my end of month rewards chest. And I'm the type who never played card games prior to Hearthstone, so when I first started playing and would drop Arcane Missiles or something on turn 1 and my opponent emoted "Well Played" I didn't realize they were being sarcastic... Anyway, I have learned a lot since then. Here's my Legend story!
I've been home a lot more lately with the state of the world and not working a ton, so while my wife's been busting her ass in the hospital I've been staying home with our son a lot. What do you do when you're home a bunch??? Teach your 8 month old son to play Hearthstone, of course!
Yesterday after he went to bed and my wife was working a night shift I decided it was time to play some Shaman. This is my favorite/most played class, but I have ignored it for several months now as I pushed for the golden portraits in the other heroes. But looking at the Tempo Storm meta report last night I saw an Even Totem Shaman list and was like, "That can't be that good, can it?" It can! In fact, for me it was 22-6 good from D5 to Legend (79%)!
As I got ready to face the final boss this afternoon, my son woke from a nap. I went and grabbed him and sat at my computer with him in my lap. It wasn't until after I clicked "Play" that I noticed something was very wrong. My son had shit his pants! I frantically tried to click "Cancel" so I could take time to change his diaper, but I was too late. I was matched with a Worthy Opponent; a Quest Mage! Now I had to pilot the deck while also being delirious due to the stench of a thousand corpses rising from my son's diaper as he sat on my lap. Sure I could have put him down, but if he started moving around a bunch on the floor, well... do you know what a blow out is?! If not, I envy you! I kept him on my lap to avoid further incident involving the Bog of Eternal Stench (you know, from the movie Labyrinth).
I got ahead on board, trying to maintain control while hitting my opponent, held off attacking into a secret which I was certain was Flame Ward (it was) to ensure my totems would live an extra turn to buff my Draenei Totemcarver, etc. Eventually I got to a turn where I could hit him in the face and bring the Mage to 8 HP while adding some spell damage to the board to power up my Crackle to "6-9 damage". a 50/50 shot! Do I take it???
That's when it hit me... "6-9"... 69! NICE!!! This glorious number was a sign from RNGesus that it would work! I hit for exactly the Mage's remaining 8 HP. I had done it! I had won, earning the Legend card back and Natalie Seline, completing my collection of Classic legendary cards. I also had a muddy mess in my son's diaper to clean up still. Celebrations would have to wait.
I never really intended to push for Legend, I've always just kind of played whatever I felt like bouncing around from meta lists to memes, aggro to combo and all deck types in between. I always figured if I found a good deck I had a lot of fun playing that I went on a great run with I'd get Legend but not stress over it. This Shaman deck seems really good in a meta full of Quest Mage and Discard Lock, and my win record would back up that feeling.
If you are looking for something really strong to make an end of month push in Wild, try Even Totem Shaman! There's nothing more fun than killing your opponent with a giant Idiot Totem!
Thonson
