Decks You Can Try Before Year of the Dragon Standard Rotation - Part 1 (Regular Decks)
By Stonekeep -
Standard rotation is a big deal. While every expansion introduces interesting cards, new mechanics, builds and so on, it's the Standard rotation that actually takes away the strategies and builds on top of adding new ones. It's the reason why new cards can be impactful without power creeping them, and it's always the most interesting period in Hearthstone meta. Usually, players can't just pick one of the top tier decks from previous expansion and expect it to work - with a lot of the cards gone, everyone has to experiment.
On the other hand, Standard rotation is pretty sad, especially for the fans of a specific deck that will no longer be playable. The decks you've used to facing on the ladder or the ones you've enjoyed playing yourself might no longer be viable. And this final month (or so) is often the last time you can play them in the current form. While you can still enjoy some of them in the Wild, that format has a completely different meta with different strategies - not every viable Standard strategy will be playable in Wild, or at least not without changing it significantly.
In this article, I'll list a bunch of decks that will either be completely unplayable (because they lose some key cards, such as a vital combo piece) or will be weakened heavily and possibly played in a completely different form. I will not list decks that are just losing a few cards, but have a solid chance of still doing fine.
I've decided to split this article into two parts. Since Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane were Hall of Famed and also won't be playable during Year of the Dragon, we've got a lot more archetypes rotating out than we usually do. In the first part, I will focus on regular (as in without Odd or Even restrictions) decks, while the second part will feature only decks built around the two Witchwood Legendaries.
Check out the second part, where I showcase Odd & Even decks!
Without further ado, let's start with the list!
Keep in mind that those are only example deck lists, usually used by pro players to hit high Legend - there might be multiple versions of some of those decks!
Deathrattle Hunter
Format: standardSeason: Season 59Player: Kalas
12,520
Hunter Cards (18)
Spell Hunter
Format: standardSeason: Season 60Player: Kat6,740
Hunter Cards (30)
Resurrect (Clone) Priest
Format: standardSeason: Season 6011,100
Priest Cards (28)
Control Priest
Format: standardSeason: Season 59Player: Monsanto8,120
Priest Cards (19)
Wall Priest
Format: standardSeason: Season 597,680
Priest Cards (21)
Big Spell Mage
Format: standardSeason: Season 5911,560
Elemental Shaman
Format: standardSeason: Season 598,280
Shaman Cards (16)
Heal Zoo Warlock
Format: standardSeason: Season 605,960
Cube Warlock
Format: standardSeason: Season 59Player: Pizza11,640
Warlock Cards (18)
Mecha’thun Warlock
Format: standardSeason: Season 609,320
Warlock Cards (12)
Mecha’thun Druid
Format: standardSeason: Season 58Player: Meati3,480
Togwaggle Druid
Format: standardSeason: Season 5911,740
6 Comments
Nonagon4
Quick correction: Lifedrinker is from the Witchwood and isn’t rotating yet.
Stonekeep
Thanks, fixed! Sometimes it's hard to remember :)
TheMessenJah
Excelent post!
And by the way ... i'm really glad mechatun and Togwaggle combos get unplayable. I like HS to be a minion trading based game. Playing and winning a game just cycling cards is not fun.... at least for me.
Nonagon4
I agree with you. I've played both Togwaggle and Mecha'thun Druid back in Boomsday and I had fun doing it but those decks aren't really fun to play against because combo disruption is really hard when many decks don't have the means to hard tech against combos. Infinite OTK like DK Uther and Mecha'thun are pretty unhealthy mechanics for this reason, I think, even though they can be pretty fun to play (and watch the animation).
Thanatos
Im really sad about this rotation. I have full deathrattle and spell hunter, control priest, odd pally and rogue, almost completed odd warrior... besides that, all the DKs that I won't be using anymore... I started playing serious HS in the last two years, took a while to build those decks...
I don't play wild, but there's no other way, gotta go wild next year...
Stonekeep
It's always sad to see your cards go, but it's for the best. Without rotations, either they would need to increase the power level of new cards all the time to make them relevant, or meta would stay roughly the same after a while.
And Wild is more fun than you might think, for some reason a lot of new players are scared of that format, and that's wrong! Yes, it's more expensive to get into if you don't own any cards, but if you've been playing the game for 2 years, building a deck or two shouldn't be that hard. And your decks stay relevant for longer there. E.g. I've been playing a Reno Warlock deck for the last 2 years in Wild, and while it has changed a bit, it wasn't much. After building a few decks I could easily maintain them without spending any money on the game.
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