Benefits from playing Ranked vs Unranked

What are the benefits from playing ranked in Hearthstone?

It seem to only give bragging rights and a fancy medal. have read somewhere that you should get a deck when ranking up, is this the case?

Solution 1:

As of Patch 1.0.0.4944 golden heroes have been implemented as ranked play rewards for 500 wins. Also special card backs have been added. One of those can be unlocked by participating in ranked play from the first official season onwards, reaching at least rank 20, one can be unlocked by achieving legend rank (probably also first official season onwards). (Source) There are three more, but Blizzard hasn't unveiled yet how to get those.

From the patch notes:

•Golden Heroes have been added and now can be unlocked after winning 500 Ranked games with a Hero! Track your progress on the deck selection screen in Ranked Mode.
•New card backs have been added. Collect these by doing awesome things such as participating in each Ranked Season!

Solution 2:

As of the release of TGT, in addition to the Seasonal Cardback, you will also receive golden cards and dust from a rewards chest earned based on your lowest (best) rank achieved during the season.

You will earn a random golden common for rank 20, a golden rare for rank 15, a second golden common at rank 10, the rare is upgraded to a golden epic at rank 5, and should you hit legend, you'll receive a third golden common.

Full information here, I've personally confirmed it's accurate at least once for ranks 4, 7, 9, and 18, but those were all the friends I was around at the time.