Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

Trying to figure out how to climb Hearthstone ladder faster without turning every session into a full-time job? Here’s a handful of real tips that’ll help you play quicker, tilt less, and actually enjoy the grind.

Play Aggro Decks

Aggro decks are your best friend if you’re chasing efficiency in your Hearthstone Ranked climb. They’re built to finish games quickly — win or lose.

Faster games mean you’ll naturally play more matches per hour, which means you’re also rolling the dice more often in your favor. Look, even if your win rate hovers around 50%, getting through 12 matches in an hour beats playing out four dull control games.

Moreover, most aggro decks practically pilot themselves for the first few turns. In some matchups, you simply curve out, go face, and respond only if something really gets in your way. It’s usually: “Is it green? Oki, then I click it.”

That doesn’t mean aggro is mindless. The best aggro players still think ahead; they just focus their thinking where it matters, not on unnecessary micro-decisions every turn. Less overthinking means fewer slowdowns.

Auto-Pilot is (Sometimes) Okay

Most early-game decisions are way simpler than we pretend they are, especially with the above-mentioned aggro decks. Again, that doesn’t mean you should stop thinking altogether. It just means you can lean into pattern recognition when the situation allows.

I like to think of it like driving the same route to work every day — you still pay attention, but in a different way. And you won’t blame yourself for turning the radio up a little bit. You still get from your “Point A” to “Point B,” but potentially faster, and it’s way, way more fun. If your goal is to figure out how to climb Hearthstone ladder faster, this kind of calculated autopilot might be a must, especially in the early Legend climbs. 

Insta-Concede If You’re Losing

Sometimes the best play is just hitting that Concede button. No, seriously.

If you’re clearly behind — say, your opponent just dropped a full board while you’re top-decking a one-drop, and they’re roping every turn like it’s the Hearthstone Esports season finals and their name is Lifecoach… like, is this worth another ten minutes of my life? Because chances are, it’s not.

Not feeling convinced? Okay, let’s break it down then.

A single 10-minute loss where you had less than a 10% chance to win just cost you the opportunity to play two or three aggro games, where at least one of them could’ve been a win. In raw efficiency terms, you just donated time to a nearly unwinnable game while throwing away potential stars elsewhere.

If you can accurately assess when a game is a lost cause, there’s no shame in cutting your losses and moving on if you actually want to go through all these ranks faster. It’s simply reallocating time toward better odds.

Of course, context matters. If you’re pushing hard for your first Legend, every match counts, and conceding might feel like wasting a chance at a miracle comeback. However, if you just want to get past Diamond to start the “real” climb… is it really worth it?

Use a Deck Tracking Software

If you’re serious about efficiency in general, one of the smartest things you can do is let a tracker do the background work. It won’t play for you, but it might stop you from wasting brainpower on stuff that can already be automated, such as:

• Tracking game length per deck. Some decks win hard, sure, but only after 20 turns and a full rope each round. Pretty much every tracker these days tells you how long your average match actually takes.
• Mulligan choices. Most trackers will show you your kept vs. thrown win rates. If you’re losing games because you keep tossing that one expensive card, well, now you’ll know.
• “Created by” card tracking. You’ll see exactly which cards in your opponent’s hand were randomly generated  (and by which card exactly!).
• Lethal math. Yes, I am serious; see image below. This won’t play the game for you, but it will keep you from burning 30 seconds triple-checking your count. 29 for sure btw.

Of course, if you really care about squeezing value out of every match (like farming Gold through the Rewards Track) then picking up the Tavern Pass might be worth it too. Not for speed, but for rewards-per-minute; just keep in mind that the Pass doesn’t play the game for you either.

Anyway, if you’re in the mood for a different kind of card game fix while your Hearthstone client updates, you should absolutely check out Jason’s breakdown of what’s coming next in the world of roguelike deckbuilders: Monster Train 2: What We Know So Far