Casual Doesn't Seem Casual At All

[mimech 24]

I'm an okay player but I get extremely frustrated playing matches on my Free To Play accounts, especially in casual mode.

 

It seems like I'm either playing against completely new players who don't understand the rules, in which case I win easily, or I'm playing against professional seeming freeze mage decks and the like at which I've got no chance of success.

 

It just seems like the algorithm that decides your casual ranking is terribly broken.  Like, what's the point of me playing against Dr. Boom when I don't have Dr. Boom?  It's broken.

 

And I'm not just a shit player.  I do okay in arena and tavern brawl, where the scales are more balanced.

 

Does anyone else feel this imbalance when playing casual?

 

 

[Mursilis 34]

I've always thought of causal as a test bed area for a new deck or concept.  Somewhere that won't affect your rankings (if you care about rankings).  As such you see all sorts in that area, many times decks that don't quite fit in the current meta but are still entertaining decks the owner can't quite get rid of.  So yes sometimes you're going to run into really weird decks that are pretty terrible and you win easily, other times someone is trying out a Secret Paladin deck and you're going to get smoked.  And many other times you'll have an even, back-and-forth fight.  Which is pretty much what ranked is once you get to a level you're comfortable with.

[Valkyr 55]

Lets also not forget those conceding every other match to farm easy gold from newer players.

[PsyBomb 7]

I do agree here, but the thing is that I can't really see too much alternative. Possibly make the game include your rank in its considerations when pairing up there? I know I find it annoying as well when I'm trying a Druid for a quest (R15 F2P, and my main deck is Warlock followed by Shaman) and I get crushed by Handlock or Reno Freeze Mage played by someone with a golden avatar.

[VaraTreledees 138]

I believe Kripp talked about this a month or so ago.  One of the biggest problems with casual is you can complete your quests there, which is what the majority of people, I included, use casual for.  Either that or to test decks we are not comfortable with.  This leads to quite a few "meta" decks being played in casual, and making it not so casual friendly as intended.

[Mursilis 34]

To be fair, in the first week or so of the month the causal area really is more "casual".  Most people are working on getting their initial ranking up, so you get less crazy tough decks on the casual side of things.  But after that it's basically ranked play without the stress of maintaining a ranking.