How to win five Hearthstone matches to earn the unique monthly card back

Each month, Hearthstone offers players a custom card back for winning five ranked games. This is a time limited reward, and only a select few have ever been offered again. It can create a strong sense of FOMO among players, and frustrating if you’re a new player or have a smaller card collection.

But fear not, my friends, I am here to bring you good tidings of great joy. For unto you, I have the decks. The decks you need to help you get your wins. You’ll be able get your your shiny card back just after the ball drops by playing aggro decks, even if you don’t have a great card collection.

What’s an aggro deck in Hearthstone?

Before we get into the lists, its important to understand the different deck types in Hearthstone. There are three main types of decks: Aggro, Midrange, and Control. Control decks are focused on the late game. They feature big, expensive, and powerful cards plus the means to delay the game long enough to use them. Aggro decks try to end the game quickly through small minions and aggressive play. Midrange decks try to strike a balance between the power of a Control deck and the speed of an Aggro deck.

We’re going to focus on Aggro decks. If you’re familiar with the game of American football, think of them like a zero blitz. It’s all or nothing play. You send everything you got and it doesn’t matter what awesome play the other team has drawn up. If you can get to the quarterback, the down is over. It’s the same in Hearthstone: it doesn’t matter what awesome cards your opponent has if you can kill him before he ever gets a chance to play them. With these aggro decks, you want to close out the game as quickly as possible: every turn the game lasts, the lower your chance of winning.

Aggro decks tend to less expensive and easier to build. Some will say that they are easier to play. I would say more straightforward. Every kind of deck requires making the right turn to turn decisions to play it well.

Should you play Wild or Standard?

My recommendation would be to play Standard. Wild has a far larger assortment of cards, which can put players with smaller collections at a serious disadvantage. Control and midrange decks in Wild have all the tools ever created to stall the game and frustrate the aggro decks I recommend you use. While Standard cards rotate, it’s only once a year, and (at least right now) Aggro decks are quite strong.

So without further ado, let’s dive into the specific decks I recommend you to try. One of these decks should get you to five wins.

Easy aggro decks to get your five wins

Face Demon Hunter

Deck code: AAECAea5AwAP/acD+a4Di7oD4LwD174D3r4D98gD8skD3MwDgtADxtEDi9UDzd

Demon Hunter is a great class for a casual or FTP player. It has some of the best Common and Basic cards in the game, so you’ve good starting set. Look for Battlefiend, Intrepid Initiate, and Blazing Battlemage in your opening hand. Chose wisely when to use your Dreadlord’s Bite, which can be a game-winner in an aggro versus aggro match. Voracious Reader & Acrobatics are key to refilling your hand.

Your big weakness is getting your board cleared as you get into turns 4, 5, and 6, but this deck gives you access to two great counterplay cards in Mana Burn and Cult Neophyte. But you need to know your opponent’s class and what options they might have available to on those turns in order to counter them. Turn 4 provides Druids with access to Swipe and Paladins with access to Consecration, which is a great time to use your Mana Burn and Cult Neophyte.

If you have a little dust, you can make this even stronger by adding the Epic card Stiltstepper. If you find you like this style of deck and want to go all in, save up your dust and craft the Legendary card Kayn Sunfury.

This is the strongest Aggro deck on this list. Your opponent is not prepared.

Gibberling Token Druid

Deck code: AAECAZICAA/+AfcD5gXDlAPOlAPKnAP9pwP/rQP5rgPczAP5zAPG0QO50gPw1APK4wMA

This is a fairly standard Token Druid, an archetype that’s been around since the earliest days of Hearthstone. The general strategy is to flood the board with small minions, buff them, and then burst your opponent down with Savage Roar. Every single turn you have Savage Roar in your hand, you need to calculate whether you have lethal — that’s enough damage, after you buff your minions with Savage Roar, to kill your opponent. Keep in mind that Savage Roar also gives you 2 attack and you can add one more if you have enough mana to use your Hero Power. You want to have a Gibberling in your opening hand and a spell or two to get it going. Blazing Battlemage is another card you want to be on the lookout for in that opening hand.

This is the weakest of the four decks. Demon Hunter can go minion for minion with your early game, and has far better tools at their disposal including a Hero Power that costs half as much as yours. But if you need to finish a Play as a Druid quest, this is a decent option.

Face Hunter

Deck code: AAECAR8CyQSkuQMOqAK1A4cE/gz7rwP8rwOiuQP/ugPczAObzQOizgOC0APG0QO50gMA

This is an all-in Face Hunter without any extra synergies. As a bonus, this list doesn’t need a single card from the latest expansion, Madness at the Darkmoon Faire, so you can play it even if you haven’t picked up a single pack. Look for Tour Guide and Phase Stalker in your opening hand. Make sure you have plenty of low cost cards because ou want to hit to ground running from turn 1 and never let up.

Aggro Stealth Rogue

Deck code: AAECAaIHAs0D3QgOtAHtAogH4gePlwP/pQO5uAO6uAPPuQOk0QOK1APf3QPn3QPK4wMA

Stealth Rogue works by always having the imitative. Outside of a few untargeted spells like Arcane Missiles or general AOE, there’s no way for your opponent to remove your minions from the board until after you attack. You dictate the pace of play and the trades. But this being an aggro deck, you want to forgo trades as often as possible and smash that face.

There’s one Epic card in this list: Greyheart Sage. It’s not critical and if you need to replace it, look for something with card draw like a Novice Engineer, or our good friend Voracious Reader. Like Gibberling Druid, this isn’t the strongest Aggro deck available, but it has the most staying power and resource generation.

To the victor goes the card back!

Whatever deck you play, you need to set expectations. Hearthstone is designed to give you a 50% win rate, so you’ll need to play about 10 games or so to get your five wins. There are going to be games where you’ll get run over by an opponent who simply has better cards and/or is more experienced. But you don’t lose rank at Bronze, and even if you did, your rank is doesn’t matter for getting the five wins. Maybe next time you’ll be the windshield instead of bug.

I don’t find aggressive decks to be the most fun or interesting style to play in Hearthstone, but it’s not uncommon for a competitive game like Hearthstone to ask you to choose between what you find fun and what is effective. It might take you a couple of games to get the mindset down, but you could find yourself climbing higher than you ever have.

You might even discover that there’s little point to those big, expensive cards when aggro is as effective as it is.

Is there a better way to earn time-limited rewards?

I’m not a huge fan of time-limited rewards tied to wins like the monthly card back. I don’t like it in Hearthstone, nor am I a big fan of when it’s used for the seasonal skins in Overwatch. These types of rewards pressure players to try modes or game types they might not particularly enjoy. They ask players to put winning over fun. While I acknowledge that awards based simply on playing can also lead to degenerative behaviors, I would encourage the developers to find alternative ways to offer these rewards in addition to straight up wins.

Still, with a little effort, you can get enough wins to grab that card back, even if you aren’t a serious ranked player.