Being addicted to Hearthstone isn’t easy. Spending all my hard-earned money on packs, just to be able to afford a bare bones version of a deck that a streamer happens to be destroying the ladder with does a lot to your soul. I feel that the journey is leading me down a dark path, one that I am not sure I’ll ever be able to come back from.
Before Journey To Un’Goro, I only played Hunter. Huffer and Abusive Sergeant taught me the joys of always attacking my opponent’s face, while Savannah Highmane and Houndmaster taught me that sometimes control is the proper answer. I climbed all the way to rank 15 with my Beasts, slaying any Bluegill Warrior or Defender Of Argus dumb enough to cross my path. When the new expansion came out I had high hopes for Rexxar, but my hopes were immediately bashed once the meta started to form.
Crystal Core Rogues, with their bouncy cards and impossibly overpowered 5/5 minions, made playing my Hunter impossible. I even broke down and spent the last of my dust to craft the Hunter Quest, The Marsh Queen, which I was convinced would lead my Alley Cats to victory. After getting my orcs face bashed in by Valera over a dozen time, I realized that this mission was impossible. If I wanted to win, I was going to have to adapt my play style.
I had to choose between buying 50 Un’Goro packs and crafting my ultimate deck, or eating that week. Who needs food when you have 37 Stubborn Gastropods to chew on? The veil between reality and Hearthstone started to fade, I was willing to sacrifice it all to earn stars on the ranked ladder. After disenchanting 126 duplicate commons, I had just enough gold to make a pact with the devil. The Cavern Below and Patches were now in my possession and I was ready to win some games.
Minutes turn into hours as I queue up over and over. I play Glacial Shard followed by Gadgetzan Ferryman followed by a Fire Fly ad infinitum. I don’t even need to open my eyes anymore, the combo flows out of my hand into the computer screen. Velara and I are one and as I approach rank 10 and become a Hearthstone pro.
I hear a noise in the distance, is my bathroom talking to me? Walking over to the mirror, I see a shadowy figure staring back at me.
“Who are you?” I asked, but there’s no answer. I say it again and there’s still nothing. I scream at the top of my lungs and I finally hear a chuckle.
“Who am I? None of your business!” The Mysterious Challenger, a card so powerful it had to be nerfed and then banned just to keep peace in Hearthstone was staring back in my own reflection. The knight was there to take me back to his realm, where all meta deck players go.
Screaming and pleading to the man: “I’m just a filthy casual, I never even used Grim Patron!” Nothing was good enough and now I sit in the realm of the netdecker, stuck playing the same Miracle Rogue combo loop for all of eternity.
