The image above was edited from something I made on NightCafe

The Leaderboard: Grinding, but for what?

Greeting folks and welcome to another GU post. I don't have any snazzy videos this time, just some thought on getting to the top of the ladder and being 1st-10th over and over and over again over the course of the last few months (with a few examples posted below for context, I wasn't really thinking to "capture moments at the top of the leaderboard" since it honestly has been mostly just grinding). So I actually achieved my goal I set for myself when I first made a GU related post here on HIVE, I put aetherchest at the top of the ladder in mythic. It felt good meeting my goal, but there was ONE thought squirming around in the back of my head.

This thought was that mythic and the competitive ladder in general isn't ACTUALLY that competitive. Now some of you might be thinking "But hold on Rexxie, it isn't easy to get to mythic why would you say such a thing?" and the reason I say this is simple. The game isn't set on a level playing field, it just isn't. If you folks aren't aware I play "heads up" meaning I have to guess what my opponent is running each match, but that doesn't mean I am not aware that ALMOST EVERY ONE OF MY OPPONENT'S is seeing my list in real time and adapting their playstyle to it. Incoming players do not have this knowledge and are preyed upon because they design their decks assuming not everyone knows EVERY card in them at the start of the match. Most of what you have to do to be competitive at this game is make a deck that pairs into aggro war or play aggro war, that's all there is to it pretty much. Over 45 percent of the overall playerbase will be playing aggro war on average during most of the week so if you make a deck that slams into that and pairs "ok" into other gods/decks you will assuredly get to mythic. Staying in mythic is essentially very similar as mythic itself is at least a third aggro war (GU decks separates Viking War, Zoo War, and Aggro War as separate archtypes despite being the same shit that uses the same best in slot cards, but when combined together it is highly likely that 45 percent is a "cautious" estimate of how many people actually play aggro war). To me as a card player who has played a lot of games at this point this environment doesn't strike me as very competitive, and is quite frankly very repetitive. It is this reason why I have changed my goals going forward in GU to reach #1 in Weekend Ranked, as that tends to be a much harder milestone to hit on average and is something I can put on my Twitch profile more discernably than "Gets to the top of the ladder all the time, like for real". I've found topping the leaderboard tends to just be a time commitment during the week, not actually the most difficult. Even when I'm playing headsup with aetherchest into atlant mirrors.

Weekend Ranked: Gotta put Aetherchest on Top

Aetherchest at the top of weekend ranked, I want it I need it and I must have it. I have a feeling I'll make it happen too, call me crazy. I have various decks that utilize it well with a lot of synergy across essentially every god (yup, I'm that whacko) and will adhere to my atlant maxi until the end of GU at this point. I might toss in some other archtypes I find fun along the way for the content/YT but as far as my daily enjoyment and play is concerned it's definitely going to be atlants all the way.

Thanks for stopping by everyone for this brief post about my thoughts on maintaining leaderboard, the competitive spirit of the game, and my goals going forward. You all rock and the continued support is eternally appreciated, I'll see you all out there in Eucos. Don't forget to say hello or sheep me.