Our Hearthstone meta tier list ranks the top decks for Descent of Dragons / Galakrond’s Awakening meta. We include the best deck list for each archetype, as well as a short description. You can also find links to popular versions of particular decks and full deck guides listed for each popular archetype (if available).
Looking for the Best Wild Decks? Check out here: Hearthstone’s Best Wild Meta Decks.
If you win 5 games on the Hearthstone ladder, this is the card back you will receive this month:
Hearthstone Meta Tier List for February 2020 (Galakrond’s Awakening, Season 71)
- Update (February 17, 2020): Galakrond’s Awakening update.
- Update (January 13, 2020): Descent of Dragons Post-Second Nerf Update.
- Update (December 29, 2019): Descent of Dragons Post-Nerf Update.
- Update (December 12, 2019): Early Descent of Dragons Update.
- Update (October 12, 2019): Doom in the Tomb Event with new Wild cards.
Meta Tier List Rankings
If you are curious what the absolute best decks are right now, here’s a list of them below. This list of deck rankings is based off of various sources including Vicious Syndicate, HSreplay, as well as our own ladder experience. The provided decks are sample lists and aren’t always the only option when building for that particular archetype (for a full list of decks, click the link below description).
Tier 1 Decks
Galakrond Rogue
Galakrond Rogue was the strongest deck of, and I feel that after all of the card releases and meta shake-ups, it’s still the best deck we have (although the stake got closer than it was before). Popularity of Hunter is somewhat keeping it in check, but even its worst Hunter matchups are like 45/55, meaning that they’re completely beatable. Galakrond Rogue didn’t really get anything special in Galakrond’s Awakening. A few cards were tested (such as Skyvateer or Escaped Manasaber), but ultimately they were cut. Some builds still run Boompistol Bully, but it’s more of a tech choice. The deck is good for the same reasons it was good before – high tempo swing turns. Whether it’s a big Lackey turn, playing Galakrond, the Nightmare and then your free cards, Heistbaron Togwaggle‘s treasure turn, powerful Flik Skyshiv turn or just a simple huge Edwin VanCleef turn, the deck has A LOT of ways to put pressure on the opponent. And it just happens that many of decks in the current meta have no great way to answer those.
Quest Hunter
One of the biggest winners of the recent meta shake-ups and card releases was Quest Hunter. The deck was already solid ever since Descent of Dragons launch – we’ve seen multiple players having success with it. Its biggest advantage is consistency – with all of the new additions, you can finish the Quest quite easily around turn 7-8, and after you do it, you can easily run away with the game since your new Hero Power is incredibly powerful and has great synergy with the rest of your deck. Thanks to that consistency, you have solid matchups against majority of the meta. Only the fastest decks which can kill you quickly, such as Face Hunter, are bad matchups. However, the meta has shifted more towards Tempo/Midrange builds like Embiggen Druid, Galakrond Warrior or Galakrond Rogue, which also pack a punch, but can’t easily rush you down most of the time. Another reason why Quest Hunter is strong right now was the release of Sky Gen'ral Kragg – because it summons two bodies that are, in total, overstatted and it’s ALWAYS active (because you open with Quest on Turn 1 every time). Before the Quest is finished, it lets you catch up (since you start with one card less and no real Turn 1). After the Quest is finished, you can combo it with Hero Power for 4/3 Taunt + 6/2 with Rush, making it even better.
- 1Clear the Way2
- 1Springpaw2
- 1Tracking2
- 1Unseal the Vault1
- 2Hench-Clan Hogsteed2
- 2Licensed Adventurer2
- 2Questing Explorer2
- 3Desert Spear2
- 3Diving Gryphon2
- 3SN1P-SN4P1
- 3Unleash the Hounds2
- 4Sky Gen’ral Kragg1
- 5Faceless Corruptor1
- 5Halazzi, the Lynx1
- 5Leeroy Jenkins1
- 5Zilliax1
- 6Swarm of Locusts2
- 6Veranus1
- 7Boommaster Flark1
- 7Shu’ma1
Treant Token Druid
Token Druid has been one of the most popular Druid archetypes for a while. Ever since Witchwood, however, Blizzard has started adding more and more “Treant” synergies, more ways to summon Treants and so on. Players have tried to make them work every expansion since then (and it’s been a while), but it always turned out that the regular Token version (like the Mech Token version in the last expansion or two) was simply better. Finally, after nearly 2 years, it’s time for Treants to raise. Descent of Dragons has added probably the most powerful Treant synergy we’ve ever seen – Aeroponics. It’s very easy to draw 2 cards for 0-1 mana, which is, obviously, much better than the regular Arcane Intellect‘s 3 mana cost. Another cool card is Goru the Mightree. I like it mostly because it’s useful in nearly ever matchup – against Aggro it’s good to have a 5/10 Taunt sometimes (especially since Silence is not very common now) and against slower builds making your Treants bigger in the long run is better. We also have some new ways to summon Treants (Treenforcements, Shrubadier), which are pretty solid. Galakrond’s Awakening in particular also added Rising Winds, which fits more into a Quest build, but it’s still solid in Token version. It’s a bit like a bigger Fire Fly with an option to draw cards instead of summoning minions. Overall, it’s a strong deck, and probably the best way to play Druid right now. The gameplay is nothing to really talk about, though, because it’s mostly a generic Token Druid stuff – flood the board, buff your minions, finish the game with Savage Roar. The end.
Dragon Hunter
Dragon Hunter is a new spin on aggressive Hunter build. It nearly pushed previous Face Hunter from the meta and while it’s not AS fast as Face version, it has other advantages that makes it worth to run it instead. It’s still very aggressive, still can kill opponents very quickly, but now it also leverages some of the Dragon powers which can come handy in the longer games. As long as you have some Dragons in your hand or on the battlefield, you get much stronger. Scalerider is an SI:7 Agent without Combo requirement, Rotnest Drake is a Deadly Shot (a solid card) attached to a 6/5 body (making it technically only cost 2 mana extra), Corrosive Breath is a premium 2 cost removal that can clear a 3 health minion AND deal 3 damage to the opponent at the same time (very useful in Aggro). And probably most importantly – Stormhammer. The card is insane to the point where you want to keep it in your mulligan nearly every time. You can swing it on Turn 3 and then swing only on the turn when you drop a Dragon, preserving the last durability point. Attacking 4-5 times with a 3/2 weapon is not uncommon, increasing its value way past 3 mana cost. Then, the new Frenzied Felwing was also an amazing addition, because with how easily the deck can dish out damage, you can usually drop it for 0-1 mana around Turn 3-4 (and, in some cases, even as early as Turn 2). Dragon Hunter is the best Aggro deck in the game right now.
Mech Paladin
Mech Paladin first became popular after Rise of the Mech event in Rise of Shadows expansion, when a bunch of cards were buffed and SN1P-SN4P was added to the game. Buff to Glowstone Technician was the main reason for the deck to become a thing – at 6 mana, the handbuff was just too slow, but at 5 mana it was already possible to survive that long before unleashing some really powerful turns. However, forget everything you knew about Mech Paladin before – most of time it used to be a slower build that didn’t really do much for the first few turns just to make a big comeback on T6. This time around, thanks to some of the new cards, it has sped up heavily and is now an Aggro deck. Sky Claw is a bad card in the slower build which was build around Kangor's Endless Army (because the 1/2 and 1/1’s would just dilute the pool of Mechs to revive from), while it’s amazing in Aggro. Similarly, Goboglide Tech works much better in an Aggro/Tempo build, because you can use it on curve much more consistently, and a 3 mana 4/4 with Rush is really good. The recently released Shotbot makes the deck’s early game even more powerful – it’s sticky and you really want your Mechs to stay on the board so you can take advantage of all the synergies. Overall I feel like it’s one of the best decks currently available, but it’s still underplayed compared to some other worse builds. I guess that lots of players still haven’t discovered its potential (or just don’t feel like playing it).
- 1Crystology2
- 1Glow-Tron2
- 1Hot Air Balloon2
- 1Mecharoo2
- 2Galvanizer2
- 2Micro Mummy2
- 2Shotbot2
- 3Goboglide Tech2
- 3SN1P-SN4P1
- 3Sky Claw2
- 4Annoy-o-Module2
- 4Blessing of Kings2
- 4Replicating Menace2
- 4Truesilver Champion2
- 5Leeroy Jenkins1
- 5Wargear1
- 5Zilliax1
Highlander Hunter
Highlander Hunter has went through many different iterations early in the Descent of Dragons meta. We’ve seen more or less aggressive ones, Dragon version, Beast version, Mech version or even “all in one” version. Before Galakrond’s Awakening, Secret version was a “go-to” build, and it made the most sense then. However, with the release of Rotnest Drake in Galakrond’s Awakening, the tide has shifted once again. So Dragons it is. Highlander Hunter is so good, because of its flexibility. You can play Aggro, you can play Midrange and against some decks you can even try to play a Control role. You have a great balance of strong minions, removal spells, solid weapons, as well as aggression (ways to just finish your opponent off). If you hit a good curve, you can have a powerful turn after a powerful turn all the way until the late game (where you finish things off with Brann or Alexstrasza). And, of course, having Zephrys in your deck adds even more to the flexibility I was talking, since it can be anything depending on what you need at the moment. Overall it’s one of the most balanced decks in the meta.
- 1Blazing Battlemage1
- 1Dwarven Sharpshooter1
- 1Springpaw1
- 1Tracking1
- 2Corrosive Breath1
- 2Faerie Dragon1
- 2Freezing Trap1
- 2Phase Stalker1
- 2Snake Trap1
- 2Zephrys the Great1
- 3Animal Companion1
- 3Desert Spear1
- 3Diving Gryphon1
- 3Kill Command1
- 3Primordial Explorer1
- 3SN1P-SN4P1
- 3Stormhammer1
- 3Unleash the Hounds1
- 3Ursatron1
- 4Dragonbane1
- 4Escaped Manasaber1
- 4Evasive Feywing1
- 5Faceless Corruptor1
- 5Leeroy Jenkins1
- 5Rotnest Drake1
- 5Zilliax1
- 6Veranus1
- 7Dinotamer Brann1
- 7Siamat1
- 9Dragonqueen Alexstrasza1
Tier 2 Decks
Embiggen Druid
Embiggen Druid became a sudden hit shortly after Galakrond’s Awakening’s release. Over just a few days, it turned from a completely off-meta build to something everyone was playing. At one point it reached nearly 30% of popularity on the ladder. And all of that because of a single card – Winged Guardian. Or was it? Old Guardian explores the topic in this article, so be sure to check it out. But overall, its popularity has been steadily falling lately, and it’s already at only just a few % in Legend. Players have found optimal ways to play against it, but it’s still a solid build. Its power mostly comes from “cheating out” big minions. The three key cards are Embiggen, Strength in Numbers and Breath of Dreams. The first makes your entire deck more expensive, but also stronger. +2/+2 on a minion is usually well worth 1 extra mana, especially when the minion comes with extra effects such as Elusive, Divine Shield or Rush. Strenght in Numbers is quite easy to finish with all the high cost minions, and summoning one of them for just 1 mana is amazing, even if delayed (especially since it has synergy with Embiggen itself – the minions you pull retain the buff). And finally, Breath of Dreams lets you play your big minions faster and completely negates the downside of Embiggen while not even costing you a card. Once you add a few generic, strong minions, those three cards can carry your entire deck. That’s also why it’s often considered to be a “high roll” deck – if you get all three, then it’s nearly impossible to lose the game. If you don’t get any of them – your entire deck will be very weak.
Galakrond Warrior
Galakrond Warrior is a sort of a mix between Aggro and Midrange, and it’s great at what it does. While not as fast as decks like Dragon hunter, it can still pack a punch thanks to the Invoke cards (remember that Warrior’s Invoke gives him +3 Attack for a turn). On the other hand, it has some really cool combos, can easily deal 1 AoE damage to clear some token boards, and – of course – comes with a burst combo finisher (which is honestly not necessary most of the time, but it’s good to have it). The deck got two new upgrades in Galakrond’s Awakening – both Risky Skipper and Bomb Wrangler have found their way into the strongest builds. However the deck’s ranking has dropped – mostly due to meta changes. While I do believe that it’s one of the best decks in Legend, Embiggen Druid is a bad matchup, and it’s still very popular at lower ranks, making it harder for Warrior players. But given that Embiggen Druid numbers get lower and lower, I would suspect that Galakrond Warrior will only get better in time.
Resurrect Priest
Resurrect Priest is experiencing the second youth this expansion. After initially being one of the most popular builds at lower ranks, Quest version has fallen in popularity recently. However, it was merely a short downtime, as players have found out another build that seems to be working even better. The deck has dropped Quest and went for some basic Galakrond package instead. The main reason was that against Aggro, finishing the Quest wasn’t as important, because you usually could seal the game with resurrecting Taunts over and over again, with almost no time to use an upgraded Hero Power. And in slower matchups, Galakrond, the Unspeakable can actually give you the late game staying power you need – adding extra random minions to your hand is a kind of “infinite” value generator (although it’s not always necessary – sometimes you might use it simply as +5 Armor and Deadly Shot). It’s hard to rank the deck yet, since the concept of dropping Quest in favor of Galakrond is rather new (and hasn’t reached high levels of popularity yet), but it shows solid results against many meta decks, such as Hunter variants, Embiggen Druid and Galakrond Warrior. So if you like this kind of slow, grindy playstyle, it might be a great deck for you.
- 0Forbidden Words1
- 2Penance2
- 3Bad Luck Albatross2
- 3Breath of the Infinite2
- 4Archmage Vargoth1
- 4Grave Rune1
- 4Mass Dispel1
- 4Psychopomp2
- 5Convincing Infiltrator2
- 5Mass Hysteria2
- 5Sandhoof Waterbearer2
- 5Time Rip2
- 5Zilliax1
- 6Khartut Defender2
- 7Galakrond, the Unspeakable1
- 8Catrina Muerte1
- 9Mass Resurrection2
- 9Plague of Death2
- 9Zerek’s Cloning Gallery1
Galakrond Zoo Warlock
Zoo Warlock is the deck nearly as old as the game itself, and this is the same concept put into a different shell. You still want to flood the board with small minions and leverage attack buffs etc. to trade up. You still want to Life Tap a lot to keep yourself in game even after you run out of fuel. You still want to control the board while hitting your opponent in the face at the same time. This time you’re just doing it in a Galakrond build. While Galakrond, the Wretched himself is not the strongest in Zoo (although it was underrated before the launch, as summoning 4 random Demons yields pretty solid results on average), Invoke cards make up for that. Since every time you Invoke you trigger the Hero Power, you are able to easily flood the board with 1/1’s, which then can be sacrificed for the sake of your other synergies (or simply boost them by just being on the board). The gameplay is even more token-oriented than we’ve seen for the last few expansions, which even brought back the good old Knife Juggler (it used to be a common part of the deck back in the day). The deck was nerfed when Fiendish Rites‘ mana cost was upped by 1, but it’s still pretty solid.
Highlander Rogue
Highlander Rogue was fighting for the #1 spot with Galakrond variant a while ago, but it turned out that for the most part Galakrond version is simply better. Highlander Rogue suffers from one thing – consistency. Galakrond can perform more or less the same game plan every single game, while Highlander has to adapt depending on which card it draws. The only reason to play Highlander build are two power spikes – Zephrys the Great and Dragonqueen Alexstrasza. Of course, they’re absolutely amazing and if you draw both of them at the right time, the chances that you win the game are pretty solid. But as it turns out, a better overall consistency of Galakrond build is worth it more. Another downside is that more and more decks have been teching in Bad Luck Albatross lately, and it obviously is the biggest problem for Highlander decks. Not only it decreases the consistency of already inconsistent draws (since you can get a 1/1 instead of an actual card), it temporarily disables Highlander effects. But despite those, it’s still a great deck, especially if you like to play Highlander decks – lots of people find them more interesting because of a bigger variety of cards.
- 0Backstab1
- 0Shadowstep1
- 1Dragon’s Hoard1
- 1Pharaoh Cat1
- 1Praise Galakrond!1
- 2Eviscerate1
- 2Sap1
- 2Skyvateer1
- 2Underbelly Fence1
- 2Zephrys the Great1
- 3EVIL Miscreant1
- 3Edwin VanCleef1
- 3SI:7 Agent1
- 3SN1P-SN4P1
- 3Seal Fate1
- 4Devoted Maniac1
- 4Dragonmaw Poacher1
- 4Escaped Manasaber1
- 4Vendetta1
- 5Boompistol Bully1
- 5Faceless Corruptor1
- 5Leeroy Jenkins1
- 5Shield of Galakrond1
- 5Zilliax1
- 6Flik Skyshiv1
- 6Heistbaron Togwaggle1
- 6Kronx Dragonhoof1
- 7Galakrond, the Nightmare1
- 7Siamat1
- 9Dragonqueen Alexstrasza1
Galakrond Warlock
Galakrond Warlock is an interesting build. It’s kind of like a mix between Handlock and Zoo Warlock. On the one hand, it’s slower than Zoo, draws a lot and runs a lot of heavy hitters. On the other hand, it still generates wide boards and is heavily based on tokens. Fiendish Rites was nerfed from 3 to 4 mana, but to be honest, it hurt Zoo builds more than Galakrond Warlock build simply because Galakrond version has lots of alternatives. When it comes to strategy, your goal is to gain some card advantage first, then start flooding the board with Invoke cards, and finally finish it off with Galakrond himself. Warlock’s Galakrond is a bit like poor man’s Bloodreaver Gul'dan. Summoning 4 random Demons was underrated before the expansion, but it turned out to be quite good. The chances of getting four small Demons are very, very low and you often generate a “have a board clear or lose the game” kind of board (and since lots of the decks in current meta don’t have great board clears, you often just win the game). Since the deck draws a lot (between Warlock’s Hero Power and Veiled Worshipper), most of the builds also run Zephrys the Great and Dragonqueen Alexstrasza, which add extra late game win condition.
- 0Sacrificial Pact2
- 1Mortal Coil2
- 1Plague of Flames2
- 2Nether Breath2
- 2Zephrys the Great1
- 3Bad Luck Albatross2
- 3Dark Skies2
- 3Dragonblight Cultist2
- 3SN1P-SN4P1
- 4Devoted Maniac2
- 4Veiled Worshipper2
- 5Crazed Netherwing2
- 5Shield of Galakrond2
- 5Zilliax1
- 6Kronx Dragonhoof1
- 7Galakrond, the Wretched1
- 7Lord Godfrey1
- 9Alexstrasza1
- 9Dragonqueen Alexstrasza1
Quest Druid
Quest Druid was very popular last expansion, but between not really getting anything particularly powerful and the meta changing in the way it wouldn’t like, it has quickly fallen off in Descent of Dragons. Lately, the deck has seen a slight resurgence mostly thanks to the new card – Rising Winds. It’s absolutely nuts in Quest build, since it’s a 2 mana 3/2 that draws a card… with Twinspell. It makes your mid game turns much better, and lets you find the cards you need at the time because of the cycling aspect. Since you draw through your deck even quicker than before, it makes cards like Ysera, Unleashed or Highlander cards that you sometimes run much, much better. The deck is not very popular at lower ranks, but it’s getting seeing some more action in Legend because of a more friendly meta.
Highlander Mage
Many players have thought that Highlander Mage might make a comeback in Descent of Dragons. It was great early in Saviors of Uldum, then it was nerfed into irrelevance, but it once again got A LOT of tools in the latest expansion. Not only we have a new Highlander Legendary – Dragonqueen Alexstrasza – but Mage in particular benefits from it even more than other builds, because it usually goes for Dragons too. Malygos, Aspect of Magic in particular is very, very strong, but Arcane Breath or Dragoncaster are also solid. Latest addition – The Amazing Reno – has also proven to be quite useful, being able to completely annihilate big boards (but then you have to pray to the RNG gods to not throw a Pyroblast at your face). And the truth is that the new Highlander build is very solid, but the issue is now with its raw power, but with the meta. Unless you tech heavily for the matchup, Hunter decks will eat you alive. They’re very popular on the ladder, and you have a horrible win rate against them. You have basically no healing and no way to protect yourself from their Hero Powers. But at the same time, if you tech heavily against those, you’re going to be much weaker against other popular meta builds. That’s the reason why Highlander Mage is performing really nicely in tournament setting (where you can just ban Hunter), while it underperforms on the ladder.
- 1Arcane Breath1
- 1Ray of Frost1
- 2Book of Specters1
- 2Doomsayer1
- 2Firetree Witchdoctor1
- 2Zephrys the Great1
- 3Arcane Intellect1
- 3Frost Nova1
- 3SN1P-SN4P1
- 3Stargazer Luna1
- 4Arcane Keysmith1
- 4Bone Wraith1
- 4Conjurer’s Calling1
- 4Escaped Manasaber1
- 4Twilight Drake1
- 5Malygos, Aspect of Magic1
- 5Zilliax1
- 6Blizzard1
- 6Dragoncaster1
- 6Reno the Relicologist1
- 7Flamestrike1
- 7Luna’s Pocket Galaxy1
- 7Siamat1
- 8Power of Creation1
- 8Tortollan Pilgrim1
- 9Alexstrasza1
- 9Dragonqueen Alexstrasza1
- 10Kalecgos1
- 10The Amazing Reno1
- 12Mountain Giant1
Combo Priest
There’s really nothing to talk about when it comes to Combo Priest. It’s exactly the same build we’ve seen throughout Saviors of Uldum, where it dominated the meta for a while before getting toned down A BIT (but really a bit – Extra Arms nerf from 3 to 2 didn’t make a massive impact on its strength). While players have tested Hot Air Balloon builds, it turned out that the deck runs enough 1-drops anyway (which are simply better), even with Bwonsamdi, the Dead, so it was quickly cut from most of the lists. In Galakrond’s Awakening players have also attempted to build a Dragon Combo Priest build, but the experiments have failed – the deck didn’t make that much sense. Given that it’s the same deck we’ve seen last expansion while everything else grew immensely in power, it’s no wonder that it’s not as good as it used to be, but it can still hold its ground in lots of matchups.
3 Hunter lists in Top Tiers… Nerfs OTW before rotation?
Hey stonekeep I’d like it if you could make a treant druid guide I just got the deck and I’d like some tips. Thanks
And here I am smiling after warning about Embiggen druid’s power before it became popular and after getting mocked for saying that priest Galakrond is not bad at all 🙂
There are at least 2 more strong decks waiting to be discovered by the community.
Embig druid isn`t that powerful so calm yourself down. You brag about that on every article. And Galakrond priest? Wtf !? It runs 2 Galak cards, you barely can call that Galakrond priest. It`s just the same resurrect priest – the quest
I don’t brag, I stated the obvious. You can’t deny it is true. Embiggen druid is still powerful, especially if it hits 2/3 main cards in the early game. As for Galakrond priest, it is ment Galakrond itself, the card. Not full invoke package needs to be played to make it work and that is exactly what I was saying. So far statictics say this version is performing better than quest version, so my statement so far is correct.
You talk like in Embigg you get every game the holy grail of hands. That`s not the case. If you look on statistics it even dropped. Not talking about the popularity of the deck. So yeah i maintain my statement, it`s not that powerful. And about Galak priest it`s okish, nothing special. So tone down a notch “Nostradamus”.
Perheaps you need to learn some english first and stop being offensive.
Embiggen druid has it’s weaknesses, especially super fast, aggressive decks. No doubt about that. The fact still remains that despite those weaknesses and despite the meta teching against it, it still maintains solid winrate which just proves it’s strength. Is the strongest deck in the meta? No. But you can’t say it is not strong. And the same goes for resurrect priest, which was not even a discussion. Topic was priest Galakrond, not the deck or any archetype itself. Learn to read.
Wow. Learn some english and learn to read. Nice one! I get now with whom i`m talking. Have a “gud” day SIR.
The way you behave and the way you communicate without proper argumentation proves it all. You have been noting but offensive without even aknowledging what the discussion was all about. If you think you can call others names and they will silently stood by, you are wrong. It is obvious to me that you didn’t even read properly. Learn some manners, bye.
Nickus89, ur not exactly bragging but ur coming off as a bit of a know-it-all. Btw, what are the two other strong decks u think haven’t been discovered?
That was far from a point which I tough was obvious with the inclusion of smiley. It should convey cinism, but apparently is not that obvious, so I apologise for a misunderstanding. I am far from knowing it all, but I will not allow being mocked at or being insulted so I will defend myself. I always try to provide an argument for my statements which in my opinion is crucial for any successful debate. Be it either constructive critic or agreement.
As for the decks. One such deck is probably overload shaman. It was even mentioned as strong deck in report by Iksar a few days ago, but is not seen anywhere or recognized by the community. The rest I am not sure about. There are always some decks making appearance later in the expansion so it is quite natural that not everything is yet discovered.
You didn’t come off as a, know it all, but that’s just me; to me it seems like your are just letting others know you where right and that you where teasing the community a little, which the community needs to not explode every time someone points out the obvious. Also for the record I thought Imbiggen Druid was going to be a fail, but after a few games of getting pounded, I realized it was a good. “Opened minds grow faster then closed minds”
What also is actually a strong deck is Highlander shaman
I have a question, are all tier one decks equally strong or is it strongest deck on top then gets weaker as it goes down?
Yes it is
I feel like zoo Warlock should be a tier one deck right now, I win 77.7% of my matches with it.
Whats your rank? Im getting %50-55 WR at rank 5. This deck is going to T3
OH i’m not that far down the ladder i’m only tier 12. you think Zoolock is a Tier 3 deck?
Yes i think it is T3. This meta has much better decks like Embiggen Druid,Highlander Rogue etc.
True, but its still use full enough to get to rank 10 but farther then that.
You can even climb to Legend if you play so good and a lot. But other decks will be easier.
I did try to go farther but I Don’t think Zoolock can make it past rank 9. but I would recommend this deck to get at least to rank 15.
Oo i thought you are talking about Galakrond Zoolock xD.
I’ve been beating up zoolocks with a dragon hunter build and that isn’t even on the tier list lol.
LOL nice!
this article is garbage, I played galakrond rogue, galakrond warrior and highlander hunter and lost with all 3 in a row…..you might want to rethink the name of this site
treant token went 1 and 1
“I played with these decks and did poorly so there must be something wrong with the decks, they suck!”
Yeah. Okay. Let’s go with that.
I didn’t like the rogue deck either, the meta is changing around it i feel. i’m playing a different deck that i uploaded on my profile and i’m winning a ton.
Wow, played two games. You really must know the ins and outs of the deck, retard. I’m currently 32 wins out
It of 41 sample games. You must be bad.
The issue isnt the decks its probably you slider lets be real.
Hey stonekeep, according to you which deck should i craft? Highlander Rogue or Highlander Mage?
Why is Druid and Nozdormu bugged? Its so frustrating Blizzard can’t fixed this.
Every time its drawn as a part of the Ysera crap, you lose your turn and you lose. Its such crap.
Hey stonekeep do you recommend me the Dragon Druid? Is it good way to craft a deck? wanna know somethings about this deck.
Dragon Druid is a very fun deck to play, but its EXTREMELY non-competitive in the current meta. It has a ~45% win rate on HsReplay right now, and generally loses to all of the archetypes mentioned above except Face Hunter.
Honestly, though: you should hold off on crafting anything for another couple weeks. This new expansion will be out then, and it has the potential to drastically change the meta.
Understood. I am looking for a deck that i can play it really long time. Like highlander hunter and zoo warlock but i have these decks. So i wanna make a deck that never gets old. Can you tell me a deck about this? Thx.
By “never gets old”, I assume you mean something that I expect to be successful on ladder for several months (as opposed to a meme-y deck that is entertaining to play but not necessarily competitive). With that assumption: I’d give a good look at either the Galakrond Rogue or Highlander Rogue decks. Both are like your Highlander Hunter: they rely on a bunch of strong cards rather than any specific strategy, so there’s a lot of room adaptability. Both are also extremely rotation-proof.
Runners up would be Face Hunter and Handlock. I don’t think they’re as strong as the latter, but they are pretty good and fairly rotation-proof and you might like them more because both will play a lot different than your other 2 decks, whereas the Rogue decks might seem to your Highlander Hunter.
Thank you so much for your answer. I was thinking about highlander rogue and you replied me. I decided to craft it so thank you.
I’m finding the slower control variant of Galkarond warrior far stronger than the aggro, at least in my meta.
Yeah, both versions are viable, and it mostly depends on the decks you face. According to HSReplay stats, faster version has higher win rate on average (at least at R10-Legend, those are the ranks I’m usually pulling stats for – it still has a big sample size, but it ignores the lower ranks where people play decks least optimally) and that’s why I’ve decided to feature that one.
Updated January 2020* 🙂
Yep, thanks. Didn’t manage to invent a time machine… yet 🙂
In what world is Highlander hunter tier one bruh lmfao?
Where are there constantly decks that aren’t playable in standard on this list? There have been a few after the expansion released, and now Galak Zoo lock is the same. When I make the deck and try to play, it says you can’t play it in standard. Am I missing something?
Disregard. I think I made a mistake.
Any thoughts on Galakrond Leeroy Jenkins Priest reborn deck ?
When this list will be updated?
The deck that can beat quest shaman should top it at tier one and it’s the dragon Galakrond with a discovery cards twist.
Quest shaman isn’t all that strong anymore considering galakrond shaman. It’s too slow. Toxic hunter, tree Druid, pirates, any aggro deck really destroys the deck along with most quest decks with the exception of quest Druid. That’s broke
Why is this list inadequate. Your tier one deck is missing quest. It’s the unbeatable deck. Do you work for blizzard posting this garbage. You calm yourself a legend. More like a copy cat.
Be a real man and respond and not delete this post.
Galakrond shaman isnt unbeatable!!
Even with quest it’s winnable.
I play Malyhandlock on rank5 and got 100% winrate against shaman.
Stonekeep what about quest galakrond shaman?
Which one is better also?
Why is Zephrys in Holy Wrath Paladin? It isn’t a Highlander deck. Am I missing something on this?
You can still use it at the late game. When your deck has no dup.
Well I’ll be… I just assumed it meant no duplicates from the start. Thanks much for the info!
No problemoo
sorry maybe is obvious but I can’t see it, how do u play Luna’s Pocket on turn 5?
oh you could do it before the nerf right? my bad, I don’t play since after boomsday
Coin Dragoncaster
so, these galakronds will be here for 2 years, right? am I the only one who thinks they are so much powerful? KoFT had hero cards but they were acceptable and “beatable” if you play right. once my opponent becomes galakrond, it’s really hard to beat it with non-galakrond tribes such as hunter.
I was rank 20 when uldum starts, and I was 9 when galakronds arrive. now, stuck on bottom of 10, thanks to the milestone. I am not sure if it’s even possible to pass 5 now as a f2p player.
Play wild then, I’m free to play and I’ve never ended a season below rank 5 in wild. Your cards go a lot farther in wild since there are less new impactful cards each expansion. Once you have the core wild cards created for decks you like you will use them for much longer than in standard
It’s annoying also because this meta is gonna last for a long time as this will rely on invoke which is prob this expansion, I’m also really mad because all explorer classes besides mage (which would be shaman) are all my favorite classes
Well in wild it’s hard to play slower decks because you usually die before turn 5 or 6
It’s annoying also because this meta is gonna last for a long time as this will rely on invoke which is prob this expansion, I’m also really mad because all explorer classes besides mage (which would be shaman) are all my favorite classes
What about mech hunter, dragon hunter and murloc shaman???
Heartstone got your back when shamen been S+ tier for 3 metal and seems to be unstoppable.
Heartstone got your back when shamen been S+ tier for 3 metas and seems to be unstoppable.
metas not metal
What is the wisp in the death rattle rogue for
Activates any of the combo cards
Thx
This new Highlander Hunter doesn’t feel like tier 1 tbh – more like solid tier 2. Seem to need a very good curve and my opponent a poor draw to win with it. Still trying to work out when is the best time to trade and when to go face.
48 hours into the expansion, and I’m already sick of Galakrond Shaman. The early winrate stats are just obscene!! I understand that its still early, meta has yet to stabilize, etc etc, but come on. Of the top 5 deck archetypes on HsReplay right now, 3 are Galakrond Shaman. and the other 2 have mid-30s win rates against Galakrond Shaman meaning they’re likely to be forced out soon. And since its value is in rush minions and battlecries and (not counting those disgusting double 5/6 taunts for 5 mana), there’s not really any viable tech strategies or counter play possible. It all makes me want to just sit out until there’s a balance patch.
/rant.
When will this be updated?
Now 🙂
Awesome! thanks!
Can i ask something?
Stonekeep will Evolve nzoth and swashburglar be removed? And when?
Hey, sorry for not replying, I didn’t look at the comments here earlier. Yes, the cards have already rotated out, but we didn’t want to update the meta tier list for 5 days between Wild cards rotation and a new expansion. We just made an early update.
Thanks for replying. Also what about cthun rogue? Is it nice deck now? What do u think
Are you talking about Wild? Because C’Thun is not a card available in Standard, and this is a Standard Tier List.
I’m not really familiar with how Wild meta looks like or which decks are strong there, but I haven’t heard anything about C’Thun Rogue being strong.
I was meaning about wild. Also can you add the invoke mechanics into deck builder? Thanks.
Stonekeep, sir,
I think Secrey Mage and HandBuff Paladin are really nice decks rn. Also tempo mage has rly low win rate.
Hello, what do you think about
Mill rogue
Mogu rogue and
Choose one druid? Which one is funniest and better for ladder.
Stonekeep, i want to make a deck to play it for long time. Can you please tell me a deck that will always be funny and good for ladders? I want to use it for a long time. Please help.
I’m afraid that there is no way to tell what deck will be good in long term. Right now we don’t even know what decks will be good after next expansion launches, let alone next year after Standard rotation.
Some decks like Zoo Warlock, Midrange Hunter, Control Warrior, Tempo Rogue etc. seem to be most consistent – they have been good in many metas in the past, and there’s a solid chance that they will still be viable in the future. However, they way they’re played changes. They do share some key cards (e.g. Tempo Rogue always plays Backstab, Eviscerate, Sap, Edwin etc.), but builds and strategies change from expansion to expansion.
And one more thing – everyone finds different decks fun, so I can’t really give you a “fun” deck – something that’s fun for me might not be fun for you 🙂
Yes i understood. According to you, should i make nzoth warlock or choose one druid?
Pls help, I crafted the wrong deck..
If I would have known about the second shaman, my dude would still have Vessina and a good playable evolve shaman..
This is really frustrating, because at one side you want to have one of the best decks that is also cheap enough.
But at the other hand you may lose many value for crafting it. ????♂️
How long is this evolve deck going around actually?
Could it be a few weeks now or just a couple days?
Also is there a way to prevent getting rekt in this scenario?
(If I knew that, I would’ve kept Vessina and crafting all the Low-Roll cards xD
And also the Sea Giants there would’ve been just 800 dust not 48???????? in legendarys..
But the positive thing is.. in one month it’s still playable for good mostly, if thez don’t nerf mogul with eight mana cost xP )
This is really awfull don’t getting that washed away ????♂️
Facepalm*
4800 Dust*
Thumb down*
Wild cards will be around until the next expansion. That said, I would hold onto crafting too many expensive cards that are played in new decks. For example, investing a lot in N’Zoth deck is not very wise, because N’Zoth will 100% be gone very soon.
But sorry, I don’t really understand what are you asking about besides that. Did you craft a wrong deck or something?
Maybe the Meta is stale… The games themselves are not.
Who could have guessed at the start of the year that Highlander decks and versatility would make such a comeback…
And still one set to go!
Cheers!
Evolve Shaman beats Quest Evolve Shaman by far… In a one on one.
“you can Maly + Innervate + Swipe for 21 face damage ”
Am I missing something? Maly/Swipe will do 9 face damage
>>“you can Maly + Innervate + Swipe for 21 face damage ”
I think he’s assuming you also have 2 moonfires in hand. (4+5) + (1+5) + (1+5) = 9+6+6 = 21. If you’re playing Malygos Druid, most games you are trying to hold Maly in-hand and bide your time until you can OTK your opponent, which is usually some combination of 2 moonfires, 1-2 swipe(s), and sometimes a faceless to duplicate your Maly.
What about tempo warrior, murloc Paladin and mech Hunter???
By the raw numbers, it doesn’t look like tempo warrior and mech hunter are as successful–which surprises me, because my Bomb Hunter is just chewing up most of these greedy N’Zoth decks to the point where I feel guilty playing it. Murloc Paladin is the exception–looks like it should place around Rez Priest and Highlander Paladin in turns of competitiveness. Perhaps an intentional omission given there were already 2–frankly more interesting–Paladin decks listed?
Agree with everything, except for Druid not having answer to N’Zoth. An addition of baleful banker allows you to go infinite with Elise, Kun, Zephrys and an extra card of your choice. So far, I haven’t lost a single game against N’Zoth builds.
Also, midrange N’Zoth warlock shows some promise as well, I would either add it or replace control warrior that seems to be struggling.
A correction note: Kun gives 10 armor, not 7.
Apologizes about the Armor error – fixing it now (I just got the 7/7/7 number stuck in my head :D).
As for the Baleful Banker – right now, Banker decks report lower win rate than regular builds. According to stats we have so far, I don’t believe that adding Banker to your deck is beneficial. You can still get N’Zothed before you can, and it’s not a great card to have in other matchups (especially getting it in your early hand, where you REALLY want stuff to come back after skipping the first 4-5 turns). But of course, we just have stats from the first few days, things can change when we get more. Maybe it’s just that people don’t know how to play the Banker builds correctly yet.
And then, when talking about the answers I meant AoE board wipes like Brawl, Plague of Wrath, Plauge of Death, Equality + Pyro, Twisting Nether etc. I could have made it more clear.
But thanks for your input, I’ve added a mention of Baleful Banker in the deck’s description and I’ll be looking at the deck closely when updating the tier list after meta stabilizes.
I find it really surprising myself that Baleful Banker versions report lower stats (I did see the statistics, so I believe you :)) . I mean, it is just one tech card (two if you add in Emperor Thaurissan as well). Since the only difference to original deck is replacement of either Worthy Expedition or King Phaoris and Cenarius with obove mentioned cards, one could deduce that would only improve specific matchups. Especially since Worthy Expedition isn’t exactly shining. One explanation might be that players are going for infinite Kun no mather what, when in reality, in certain matchups the deck should be played as original quest druid.
As for the answers, isn’t Zephrys just that? Especially if you go infinite. However, my preferred strategy that has been working marvelously when it comes to N’Zoth boards in particular is to counter their board with my own Kun, Elise, Baleful, Hidden Oasis boards (discounted by Emperor) . Since you gain 10 armor, heal for 12 and put a 6/6 taunt on the board every turn, they can’t just kill you.
I can’t say that I have enough experience in the matchup (haven’t played the Baleful version of Quest Druid yet) to judge. Maybe the version is great against N’Zoth builds after all, and better overall, but people just haven’t learned how to play it correctly yet – it happens! I’ll definitely test it out soon – there’s just so much to play now that I didn’t get opportunity to playtest everything yet (given that between the event and Blizzard/Blitzchung drama, there was a lot happening this week).
Early tier lists are tricky to make, because I have to base them on my limited experience and limited stats available. So I often end up placing decks or writing their descriptions based on “gut feeling” more than extensive experience. But I don’t really know a better way to do it 🙂 When I update it ~two weeks later, I usually have enough stats to work with that I’m more confident in the list. I can’t leave it hanging for that long, though.
And yes, Zephrys is an answer! But it’s a hit or miss one, because it might not be active yet at the time your opponent drops N’Zoth. Sometimes you get those perfect games with 2x Nourish, lots of cycle etc. and then Zephrys is active early, but other times it’s not until way past your opponent’s Turn 10.
P.S. Could you link me the build you’ve been playing?
I completely understand. There is so much going on at the moment and it would be surprising if you could playtest everything. I have to admit, there are plenty of decks on this list I haven’t tried myself. After all, the wild cards are out for less than a week and the meta is still developing. There might even be a new deck or two in few weeks when people playtest everything.
As for the list, I just replaced Worthy expeditions with one Baleful and Emperor Thaurissan. The rest is the same.
Erm sorry, but how the hell is combo Priest tier 1? Name me one meta deck that this is favored against. Quest Shaman will wipe the floor with you, control Warrioelr needs EXTREMELY bad luck to lose against you, pretty much any hunter deck breaks no sweat beating you… The deck seems too dependant on drawing the Legendary on curve and on all the games I have played, this has NEVER happened! Maybe it’s my bad luck, but all meta decks I have come across were able to handle my early aggression without breaking a sweat, perhaps the meta has shifted because silences are all over the place and even quest shamans run Hex, at least around rank 10 in the EU ladder. Murloc Paladin seems a lot better for aggro players. Also, for all the hype this deck is getting, it seems that Noone is playing. All priests I come across are quest decks. Sorry, but even plain Ole token Druid is better than this deck. Don’t waste your dust and time.
Stats for Combo Priest, from last 7 days, Rank 10-Legend: https://i.imgur.com/oMFgPF6.png
https://i.imgur.com/HwMobgB.png
Maybe that’s the answer to your question. The deck is more difficult to play than it might seem. And I didn’t build this tier list around Rank 10.
It’s not that it’s difficult to play. I can see how this can win against slow decks, but in the rank 10 range which is full of Highlander Hunters and Quest Shamans, this deck doesn’t stand a chance. I did get a fairly big win streak with it, but it turned into an even bigger loss streak soon after. It all seems to depend on getting Amet on curve and popping off after that, but like I said in my original post, he just gets silenced or Hexed. If you wait in this kind of meta to play a combo round for draw etc, you’ll be dead before you know it. Anyways, that’s my experience. I have seen people play this deck with EXTEMELY good draws and get wins in higher ranks, but around rank 10, it is trash. The data that you provided in your first link confirms it since all the decks that Combo Priest has a below 50% win rate, seem to be the ONLY ones played at this rank. Just a suggestion though, perhaps you should opne this kind of posts with a disclaimer anouncing the rank range that the data comes from (I take it it’s five to Legend?) and that the data – meta in other ranges can be completely different. Maybe it’s an EU thing, but those red decks are the ONLY ones that I see played. Usually I get like two or three Shamans in a row, followed by a control Warrior and then a few hunters, Wash, rinse and repeat ad nauseam. Thanks for the reply and the data. Sorry about the tone, I wasn’t doubting your research. Keep up the good work!
Yes, the deck’s basic game plan is simple, but there are a lot of decisions which can lead to losing or winning the game. Trust me, it’s really more nuanced than it seems a lot of time.
The stats I’ve shown have Quest Shaman as a good matchup (63%). Maybe if you face builds that tech against Combo Priest than it’s a different story, but I’ve never seen a Quest Shaman with Hex (Earth Shocks are also rather uncommon, but I see them from time to time). You’re right that Hunters are Priest’s worst matchup and they are more common in around Rank 10. But besides Hunters, Warriors are the only bad matchup for the deck, and I wouldn’t even call it terrible – ~45/55 matchup is far from unwinnable. Stats indicate that Combo Priest is a Tier 1 deck no matter what rank you play it at, and it includes Ranks around 10. Sorry to hear that your personal experience with the deck wasn’t that great, but you might take a 60% win rate deck and then go on a 10 games losing streak with it. That’s Hearthstone for you.
I usually use stats from R10 to Legend, because I feel like those ranks are good enough to produce meaningful data (unlike R20, let’s say), but they apply to a bigger part of the readers than just R5-Legend or Legend alone. But on top of stats, I base those on my own experience (usually in R4-Legend), as well as reading thoughts of pro players / streamers and talking with some (and they basically play exclusively in Legend). I can note that in the post.
Great write up as always. Personally Iam not convinced of quest druid though. Iwin against it most of the time and I don’t really enjoy piloting it myself. It is decent and popular, but I wouldn’t call it the best right now.
I think it’s a great deck, might not be #1 right now, but it was really hard to tell so early after the nerf patch. I’ll update the list once again ~2 weeks or so from now when the meta is figured out 🙂
Really nice post stonekeep keep it up. One question tho, do you think quest malygos Druid is better than just the normal quest?
Definitely not – regular version is much better than Malygos build! Malygos one is more fun in my opinion, but that’s another story :p
What about highlander zoo since that deck seems to be pretty good at the moment, or is it to new
I didn’t think about it as a different archetype, just a subset of Zoo Warlock. It has the same playstyle, shares basically the same card pool etc. But in general, it reports lower win rates than normal Zoo. We’ll see, I’ll consider making it a separate entity with the next update (if it will be good enough, that is).
This is your personal tier list? It’s a bit different than the statistics show on hearthstone replay.
Yes, and no. I base it the stats, but I also consider my experience (as well as experience of pro players / streamers). HSReplay is not the best source for a tier list. They just average win rates of every single deck from a given archetype, which is definitely not the best way to rate its power.
Don’t get me wrong, I use HSReplay all the time, and for individual deck stats they’re the best. But for entire archetype stats, not so much. Pure stats aren’t always best when they aren’t curated.
I’m not saying that this is perfect, but I think that it should be closer than HSReplay. The closest one would probably be Vicious Syndicate, though, because they have a team of experts on top of stats.
Right on, makes sense! I frequent vicious syndicate as well. I think all sites are really sleeping on Highlander Warrior, I suck at the game and I am doing really well with it with thd limited time input into the game, I made rank 8 last month and I am already rank 10 I have full confidence that if I played every day this month for a couple hours I could make legend this month, for the first time ever lol ;p
I do think that Highlander Warrior has potential, but sadly the sample size for this deck is pretty low and since I’m doing this one on my own, I don’t have enough time to test every deck through and through 🙁 That’s why the best thing I can do is put it into the “Off-meta” category on the main page. Once there’s a bigger sample size and I get some more experience with the deck (playing it or against it) I might include it.
Is combo priest not tier 1? It’s done well enough to get nerfed.
I haven’t come across any big spell mage decks before during ranked, are they really tier 1? Same for bomb warrior, I used to come up against it loads and now I never play against it.
What about quest warlock? I’ve come up against this a few times but rarely ever zoo, it does well against control warrior.
I think that Combo Priest should be tier 1, lots of ladder has the deck and sees lots of play in Hearthstone Grandmasters. Sand Witch mage (Big Spell Mage) is half a meme, but very similar to Highlander mage. Big Spell Mage is basically Highlander Mage, just NOT highlander and features Naga Sand Witch, which makes it theoretically tier 2.
Bomb Warrior is like control warrior, and it’s still viable, just that Control Warrior is so similar yet better that people still prioritise the control variation.
I see the list has been updated since my comment and priest is now tier 1.
I’m not sure if this list is supposed to be in order as control warrior is dropped down to 4th which is what I’m playing atm and I’ve come up against many quest druids and needless to say their quests ended in their death. In one match I did a massive cock up as my finger slipped and I dropped an Omega Devastator (pre turn 10) instead of a Plague Wrath when he had a Cenanarius and 4 others on the board which caused me to take one hell of a beating but I still won. I do want to build a quest druid on my Asia server as I got Untapped Potential and Cenarius but don’t have enough dust to form the rest.
Surprised to see token druid on the list at all as I played this last meta and it served me well but soon as Uldum released my deck became obsolete and I couldn’t win at all.
Murloc paladin is tier 2 on this list but it trashed my warrior deck pretty easy unlike many of the other tier 1s.
Still don’t see any mention of Warlock with quest and Dr Morrigan as I’ve come up against this a few times and it’s beat my warrior.
I think that you’re judging the decks’ strength too much based on the deck you play. Having bad matchup vs Control Warrior doesn’t make the deck bad, having good one against it doesn’t make it good.
And to be honest, your experience is pretty curious. Yes, Quest Druid is a good matchup for Control Warrior, but not a free win. It’s maybe 60/40 at best. Druid can easily win if they put pressure and Warriors don’t draw their AoEs in time. On the other hand, you pain Murloc Paladin as a bad matchup, but it’s very similar to Quest Druid. They both take off in the mid game and you need AoEs to stop them – if you get them, you win, if you don’t – you lose.
I wasn’t sure whether to put it on the list or not, but I actually had some solid experience with the budget version of the deck (I was playtesting it when I built our budget deck guides), so I’ve decided to try a non-budget version (which is not that different, by the way) and I had a solid run with it, it worked especially well vs Hunters.
There’s no mention of Warlock with the Quest, because it’s a terrible deck. Again – you’re looking at the decks as a Control Warrior player, but you need a broader perspective for this kind of tier list. Quest Warlock’s only good meta matchup is Control Warrior. It sucks against the rest of meta, it has no other solid matchup. You could probably build a deck that wins against Control Warrior 80% of time, but loses against most of the other decks and it just wouldn’t be a good deck.
You are right that I am basing my opinion based on my own plays only as I don’t have anything else to compare atm.
It’s like last meta bomb hunter was a tier 1 deck and cheap to build so I made it, I’m a new player and it was my first competitive deck. I was rank 20 and it couldn’t get me past 14. Then I built druid and it got me to 4 until Uldum came out. But at that time we were no mentions of mage in the meta and apparently the big tournament (whatever its called) was 1/3 mage players and was won by mage. I also had a decent collection for a mage deck. Since Uldum I dusted everything to make warrior as its a sure thing and I can rebuild again by winning more.
What is the budget deck you speak of?
I started playing the other 2 servers recently and looking for cheap decks I can build on them so I can climb. On my Asian server I got enough dust to build the full Combo Priest minus the 1 mana fetching legendary. Not to mention a good start towards Quest Druid.
On my America server however my cards have been crap but I got Supreme Archaeology and Dr Morrigan so I hoped it’s a viable alternative but I guess not. Then Archvillain Rafaam popped up on my Asia server which was an annoying divide, needless to say he is dust now.
I don’t want to get into another token druid situation as I crafted Whispering Woods (now dust) and Keeper Stalladris and he has no use anymore, though I managed to keep him from being dusted thus far.
I understand your position – it’s hard to build a variety of meta decks when you’re a relatively new player (unless you spend A LOT of money, of course). I’ve been playing since Closed Beta, I buy pre-order every expansion and I sometimes still wouldn’t have Dust to craft off-meta / fun decks so I mostly focus on the meta stuff (that’s what I need to play for the most part anyway). But playing only a single deck will always skew your perspective of the meta. For example, Quest Paladin has a very good matchup vs Control Warrior, it would probably be #1 if we judged it that way. But if we look at the deck in general, its strengths, weakness, matchups etc. it’s only okay – somewhere in Tier 2.
I mean, here’s the thing about decks like Quest Warlock. They are bad meta decks, hovering around 40-45% win rate (whereas the best meta decks have 50%+), so it’s hard to climb ladder with them, but you sometimes face them, because they’re still fun to play. And if you get good enough, you might even climb to Legend with them – but the amount of effort necessary to do it will be WAY higher than if you would be playing a viable, meta deck. So as long as you open the necessary cards and don’t have to craft them specifically for that deck, I would recommend playing around with it. But if you need to spend thousands of Dust to finish a “bad” deck like that, I don’t think it’s worth it, especially if you’re a new player and try to play somewhat competitively (care about your rank).
Here’s the list of budget decks with guides: https://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/hearthstone-budget-cheap-decks/ The only expensive card they use is SN1P-SN4P, because he was given out for free not that long ago, but there’s also a replacement for him at the bottom of every guide in case you don’t own him. Of course they are not the best given the restrictions (no Epics & Legends), but I believe that it’s possible to climb with them – R5 should be easily achievable with some, Legend would be harder, but also possible after some upgrades.
I take offense to your remark about quest warlock. 😉
I piloted quest mechatun lock to r3 in both wild and standard last season. 🙂
I have only bought a welcome pack on my Europe server thus far so I’m amazed to have any completed decks but I’ve started playing Asia/America last week to give me more variety and let me unlock more packs. I only aim to climb to rank 5 so I can get my golden epic and that’s good enough for me.
In Europe I have the full control warrior, a secret mage deck but some other mage cards for future and a bomb hunter minus Leeroy. Plus I did have the full token druid until it immediately died on Aug 7th and I dusted my wisps.
I only hit rank 25 2 days ago on the others but in Asia I’m already climbing with Priest and have half a token druid deck, but it costs a lot of dust to finish it so it’ll be a while for that one. I expect to reach 5 before the end of the season, the priest deck is really fun and provides some wild matchups.
On America my collection is not so good, it was looking the way of the warlock but as we said already, plus its expensive to build. I do have a Vessina however so I may be able to build Aggro Overload Shaman with it as I’ve seen a recent decklist without any other legendaries.
Unfortunately I wasn’t forward thinking enough when they gave free legendaries out and I only ever logged in in Europe to get my free Archmage and Snip Snap, crafting them now would be like getting kicked in the balls.
I feel like there should be an option to sort the comments shown by newest first or the one with more likes or relevance by implementing some kind of like/vote system cause most times old comments below are the ones where people express their views and thoughts regularly which is not seen by most people surfing through the article and latest comments and thus miss the opportunity to interact with them.
So I got hunter quest as free login gift and opened rogue quest in my total of 15packs so far… is any of them good? i have tried all streamer versions of quest rogue but barely get any wins. I fell from 10-11 to 20 from inactivity and constantly face control warriors, quest druids and few zoolocks. most of them have the full deck (which surprises me that they got t1 full decks and are r20. I managed to get 1600dust and i dont know what legendary i may need, highlander decks are expensive (dont have siamat/zephrys highlander class cards).
Both of the quest is not that good right now and the meta is still looking like more warrior and mage. I would suggest you to wait for sometime till the meta settles down and we get a clear picture of whats top tier.
Why isn’t Plot Twist Quest Warlock in here? It’s a playable deck in ladder.
It really isn’t.
https://i.imgur.com/zX0g8F7.png
Hey stonekeeper do you know a replacement for the floop legendary and cenarius because I don’t use that much druid
I’d probably play 2x Mark of the Loa as a budget option, but the deck will lose a lot of late game punch if you replace both of those. Should still be viable, you might just lose some slower matches because you didn’t have a way to finish out the game.
Oh
Well, I guess people in rank 20-15 don’t have good decks because I have at least a 50% winrate with my quest warlock deck.
Yeah, the win rate I’ve posted was from R10 – Legend. And it got even worse since I’ve posted it – right now it’s at 40.8%. Warlock’s Quest has the worst win rate – 2% lower than the second worst Quest right now (which is, surprisingly, Hack the System with ~43% – I thought that Mage’s will be second worst, but it’s pretty close at ~44% :p).
It might still be playable at lower ranks (like most of decks), but I really can’t put it on a list of best ladder decks.
To be honest, Mecha’thun version of this deck is doing quite well. There is much more than just the cards statistic on the surface. A lot of people are plying suboptimal lists or don’t know how to navigate the deck properly. From non-Mecha’Thun versions, I would say that Kibler’s is the most optimal one or close to, but is far from the easiest deck to play. However, Mecha’thun version seems to be much better and can’t be dismissed just like that.
I never dismiss cards just based on statistics, but in this case – come on – no matter how difficult the deck is, if it’s good, it won’t have a 40% win rate. Decks like Patron Warrior or Miracle Rogue often had win rate lower than their true power (because players who didn’t know how to play them lowered that), but they still registered an average of 50-52% at their peaks.
If we look at the win rate in Legend only, which should include people who know more about the deck on average, it’s still only 43% for Archaeology. Which is better, but still far from great. Mecha’thun also has only 45.5% win rate, and the win rate is actually bumped by Mecha’thun Warrior (which is a significantly better deck than Mecha’thun Warlock). “People playing suboptimal list” is also a bad argument, because same can be said about any other deck. No deck has been optimized yet, and even if some were, a lot of people aren’t actively looking for the best deck every day and just play whatever they played on the first few days.
Sure, a few people had solid runs with Mecha’thun Warlock during the first days of the expansion, but it doesn’t make it a great deck. The only good matchup is Control Warrior, and while popular, it’s still only 10-15% of the meta. Most of the other matchups are bad, with faster decks being the worst offenders. Murloc Paladin, Zoo or any kind of Hunter just destroy it. It is just not doing well and again – I’m not “dismissing it like that”. I always do a lot of research before calling the deck bad, and RIGHT NOW Quest Warlock (Mecha’thun or not) is just bad. Things can still change once the meta stabilizes, but currently those are the facts. And I honestly don’t think that it’s going to change, because compared to other Quests, Warlock’s looks really bad. It’s probably the hardest one to finish, and the pay-off isn’t spectacular unless you high-roll (making the deck even less consistent).
But you are kind of dismissing it. I don’t see Quest Plot Twist Warlock or Quest Warrior in the Off-Meta Decks, yet I see Quest Hunter, which I remind you, is worst then Warlock quest because 20 summoning minions is harder than drawing cards, and after you complete the quest, it hard for you to draw all the cards you spent summoning minions. Plus, drawing a zero mana card is always better than 2+ attack. Also, a lot of Quest Mage is just Cyclone or Conjurer Calling Mage with the quest. Those decks are already good, the quest is just an extra late-game help. Quest Plot Twist Warlock needs some defense cards, like board wipes and taunts, so they can survive to late game, where they shine. These are the things Quest Warlock players would know because they know their matchups. That is something statistics can’t show you. Just give the community some times and learn how to play with the new cards. And please add all the decks on Top Standard Deck, because they are still standard decks and you have an Off-Meta section for a reason.
I’m pretty sure the standard Cyclone Mage is better than any of the new stuff Mage is doing.
Actually, Cyclone Mage is reporting quite weak win rates for now. But the sample size when I was compiling the early tier list wasn’t big enough to even put it on there (I would have to just guess and I don’t want to do that).
I will update it once again after the meta is more stable (probably a ~week from now) and we’ll see then.
Playing one copy of each card in 2019 monkaS. Playing 10 mana to always remove board with zephrys Pepega.
Playing rng box- no consistency LUL.
Aggro loves to see that. Also it’s not even good vs all types of Warrior. Look next week. I predict bomb warriors rise mech hunters, tempo rogues and good new druid witch looses to aggro. Aggro the way to go or just play Conjour Mage to farm warriors. The reality of hearthstone. Also don’t craft anything btw. except druid and new zoolock. Be safe.
Welp, looks like I was completely wrong to rate Reno the Relicologist one star. Thanks for the update Stonekeep, this is great stuff as usual ^^
On a side note, I’m ready to start making Control Warrior nerf predictions. I think the card that is most likely to be nerfed is Brawl (up to 6 mana), because
A. It’s way better than comparable AoE spells like Twisting Nether, and
B. Blizzard loves nerfing cards from the Classic & Basic sets.
I knew that Reno’s effect is strong, but it wasn’t enough to carry the deck. However, Zephrys turned out to be absolutely amazing. It’s on a similar level to the OG Reno – weaker vs Aggro decks, but stronger vs decks against which you don’t need healing that much. And with both of them combined, Highlander Mage turned out to be viable. At least right now, because there’s still a lot that can happen.
Brawl might be a good candidate, but I’d really like them to nerf Dr. Boom too. The problem is that a simple mana cost nerf probably wouldn’t cut it in his case. Even at 10 mana people would still probably run it (just like they run Elysiana just for the Control mirrors). While it would require some playtesting, I was thinking about removing the part about Mechs having Rush (since it’s a BIG part of the card’s power) and adding some minor Battlecry effect instead. E.g. “Summon two 1/1 Boom Bots” to reference the first Dr. Boom.
I think increasing Dr. Boom Mad Genius’ mana cost to 10 specifically would be a very big deal, delaying a Control Warrior from being fully operational by one turn. Control Warrior already has a very awkward turn 9, which can be exploited by playing giant minions that would be prime targets for Omega Devastator’s Battlecry right before Warrior’s turn 9. After that, on turn 10, Warrior can do crazy powerful things: with Dr. Boom already online, you can Omega Assembly, Omega Devastator, Dyn-o-Matic, and rush both minions into any board your opponent might have left over. The story would be very different if turn 10 made you choose between playing Dr. Boom Mad Genius, or playing your Omega Devastator plus something else, but without Rush and delaying the point where the Dr. Boom hero power comes online. Then again, changing its battlecry that gives mechs Rush into something else would also do a lot to bring the card’s power level down to a better place.
Ultimately, nerfing just about any of the cards that Control Warriors put in their decks would reduce the power level of the deck: Eternium Rover, Omega Assembly, Omega Devastator, Dyn-o-Matic, etc. Yet I agree that Dr. Boom Mad Genius is the right one to nerf. It’s kinda crazy that a 7 mana card has the highest mulligan winrate in the deck, higher than great turn 1 plays like Town Crier and Eternium Rover. It’s the most powerful card in the deck by Drawn winrate as well, and if you nerf Warrior’s other tools and keep Dr. Boom Mad Genius as is, then Warrior is gonna fall off a cliff when the April 2020 rotation sends him into Wild. I just think that this card is less likely to be nerfed than Brawl because Blizzard has so far shown to be more trigger-happy with nerfs to Classic & Basic cards ^^
First i totally agree with your wish to nerfes to warrior. But i think it will hit Mage too.
You are right saying that nerfing one Card is not enough. I checked some carddata 1 day ago, on highest winrate cards. well… the like top 15 or top 16 highest winrate cards are the complete controlwarrior deck. Dr. Boom to 8 or 9 mana wouldnt be enough though. They need to nerf more stuff, like Rover or Brawl you mentioned. Social media and streamers are talking a lot about Pocket Galaxy back to 7 mana, and Conjurers Calling to 4 mana. I even heard about HoFing the Mountain Giant. I understand with all of These and agree if they would do that. Some Quests can handle Warrior decent now. But lategame wise its nearly impossible.
Iam playing at rank 1 for some days now, and warrior is really out there. Last 2 days around 15-20% of all decks are CW.
Iam not sure by a gamedesign and Balance perspective whats good here. but Luna is the most broken Card. Discounting so many cards by a lot. Its probably one Card and one or two topdecks, winning you every single game. Really sick… but what to do? Galaxy to 6? Conj to 4? Boom to 7/8? Brawl to 6? Would that all help?
Warrior will stay Tier 1, they have to much good stuff, followed by control stuff for each single manaslot. Thats why the 8-drop taunt mech is so good. filling this spot. also as mech with Boom rush. I just hate warrior. annoying to play against.
Hey Skoopy!
I disagree about nerfing Mage (you can read my reply to SANDRG in this same comment thread as to why). As for card winrates, I’m not surprised that 15 of the top 16 winrate cards are Control Warrior cards, but that doesn’t really tell us much. If Control Warrior is the highest winrate archetype, and it plays a bunch of cards that no other archetypes use, then naturally all of those cards that only see play in Control Warrior will have a very high winrate. You can have a completely unassuming card like Shield Block that most people would agree doesn’t merit a nerf, and it’s gonna have a huge winrate because the card is played in a DECK that is overpowered. A ton of Control Warrior cards having high winrate only really tells us that Control Warrior has a high winrate.
As far as game design and balance: To see how card nerfs affect a deck, you have to think in terms of what the best alternative for the nerfed card is. So, imagine you nerfed Restless Mummy to 5 mana, how does that affect Control Warrior? Well, it would get replaced by Militia Commander, which is a bit worse. The nerf is relevant, but not huge. Compare that to nerfing Warpath to 3 mana. What does Warrior replace Warpath with? There is no good replacement, you either play the more expensive version of Warpath or just remove it from your deck and lose a ton of AoE removal capacity, making you much more vulnerable to decks like Token Druid or Murloc Shaman. Any nerfs to Warrior’s AoE removal spells, or to its key Mechs like Dyn-o-matic and Omega Devastator, would be pretty painful because there are no obvious replacements for those.
When a deck is overpowered, the idea is to nerf it until it’s not overpowered anymore, yet still viable. You could achieve that in a number of ways, such as a devastating nerf to a key card (e.g. nerfing Dr. Boom Mad Genius into the ground, making it utterly unplayable), or multiple smaller nerfs. Regardless of how you do it, the idea is that the deck’s overall power falls until it’s no longer out of line, and once that happens, a bunch of cards that used to be oppressive will cease to be. For instance, Waggle Pick felt pretty oppressive in the opening month of the Rise of Shadows expansion and EVERYONE was running weapon removal against it, but then Blizzard nerfed Rogue cards like Preparation and Raiding Party, and then Waggle Pick no longer felt oppressive, even though it wasn’t directly nerfed. It’s the overall power of the deck that’s the problem, and nerfs to any of the cards the deck uses will help reduce that. Galaxy to 6, Conj to 4, Boom to 8, Brawl to 6: Yes, yes, yes and yes, all of those nerfs would reduce the power level of the decks that use them 🙂
The problem depends on the way these cards are nerfed, they are done in a more linear way . I mean blizz should be more creative in nerfing the cards rather than nerfing it to a unplayable state and suddenly that deck is low tier. When the cards are printed they intend to have some power level and if they are to be nerfed later for that power level why print the card in the first place rather i would like it to have that kind of power without breaking the meta and having a healthy gameplay. I mean rather than increasing the cost or removing a text they should think on what else can be done which will bring the cards power level down but not to a point where its just garbage and it has the intend game plan and power level which was imagined before printing the card.
Rather done just increasing the Pocket Galaxy to 6-7 mana they can increase the minions cost to 3 or do something else, similarly for Dr. Boom rather than increasing the cost ,the text can be changed where rush only applies to Mech with 5 or less attack and for CC as previously done they can increase the 12 mana pool with worst stat minions so there’s a risk in it when you are CC-ing a minion and FROST NOVA freezes both yours and opponents board.
I do think mage is a problem and not the Mountain Gaints itself and moving it to HOF will only decrease the classic set by one more good minion which was never a meta breaking problem before.
Dont feel bad about your call on Reno, i called the obelisk would eventually get nerfed…
This took me a few days to tweak but is doing very well for me!
### Next Level Reno Mage
# Class: Mage
# Format: Standard
# Year of the Dragon
#
# 1x (1) Ray of Frost
# 1x (2) Ancient Mysteries
# 1x (2) Doomsayer
# 1x (2) Frostbolt
# 1x (2) Novice Engineer
# 1x (2) Zephrys the Great
# 1x (3) Arcane Intellect
# 1x (3) Conjurer’s Calling
# 1x (3) Counterspell
# 1x (3) Flame Ward
# 1x (3) Messenger Raven
# 1x (3) Splitting Image
# 1x (3) Vulpera Scoundrel
# 1x (4) Arcane Keysmith
# 1x (4) Fireball
# 1x (4) Polymorph
# 1x (5) Cloud Prince
# 1x (5) Luna’s Pocket Galaxy
# 1x (5) Zilliax
# 1x (6) Blizzard
# 1x (6) Khartut Defender
# 1x (6) Reno the Relicologist
# 1x (7) Archmage Antonidas
# 1x (7) Flamestrike
# 1x (7) Siamat
# 1x (8) Power of Creation
# 1x (8) Tortollan Pilgrim
# 1x (9) Alexstrasza
# 1x (10) Kalecgos
# 1x (10) Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron
#
AAECAf0EHk1xigGcArsCyQOrBMUElgXsB7gIvuwCxvgCoIADtogD55UDg5YDn5sDoJsDip4DoaEDpaEDwqED/KMDi6QDkqQDv6QDhKcD3akD9KsDAAA=
#
# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone
Reno has been a rockstar for me, but the MVP is the Puzzle Box! ????
i think even mage will be hit with a nerf directly or indirectly by them moving giants to hall of fame or nerfing a card
Kibler made the same point about nerfing Mage, but I disagree. Data has to be a crucial consideration when it comes to deciding whether to nerf a deck or not, and the data doesn’t tell me Mage needs a nerf. HSReplay tells me that the most popular Warrior deck archetype, Control Warrior, has a 61.9% winrate with its most popular decklist. The second most popular archetype, Aggro Warrior, has 59.83%. The most popular Mage archetype, Control Mage, has 55.68%, followed (in popularity) by Highlander Mage with 57.12%. For reference, Secret Hunter’s winrate is 59.81%, Mech Hunter’s is 59.38%, Murloc Paladin’s is 58.42%, Quest Paladin’s is 58.02%, Combo Priest’s is 59.39%, Murloc Shaman’s is 59.7%, and Tempo Rogue’s is 57.99%. Warlock and Druid also have archetypes with comparable winrates to Mage’s.
There’s other considerations as to why you might want to nerf a deck- maybe it’s really un-fun to play against, like Quest Rogue, or has very polarized matchups where winning or losing is mostly decided by who you’re paired up against in matchmaking. Polarized matchups are easy to check for, and I can tell you that Mage doesn’t suffer from those, with winrates between 40 and 60% in matchups against other popular archetypes. Do you feel like Mage archetypes are especially un-fun to play against? And if so, why? This could be a legitimate reason to want to nerf Mage, but other than that, Mage looks fine to me at the moment.
Regiskillbin has data for you .
Sorry about the short comment and might feel like it was mean but i was on a train so i couldn’t type a lot .
And back to the topic the winrate only speaks for the deck as a whole and doesn’t talk about any single cards and the effect it has on the game when played on a certain turn which is really well explained by Regiskillbin in his video, which shows how often both LUNAS POCKET GALAXY (we all know how often mage plays pocket galaxy on turn 5 or turn 4 with coin and there’s data to prove the same) and CC is played on curve and how high the winrate spikes when played on curve and he even compares it to the BARNES power spike when played on curve.
And talking about un-fun to play against is more about what cards they draw and how often it can escalate hard like if they can put 8/8 on turn 4 and then CC it to kill u by next turn or else if you are aggro they can just freeze your board till they can do this CC shenanigans side by side or put 1 mana KING PHAORIS by turn 5-6 fill their board while freezing yours .I mean unlike warrior they can steam roll both aggro and control if they draw right and that happens more consistently (as they can generate 2 more CC or RAY OF FROST depending on the situation from MAGIC TRICK) than anything and its more about cheating out big value early in the game when most cant deal with it and most times all these situations leads to frustration and un-fun. Its like u had the game all along but they won it out of nowhere, I mean we all can understand if that happened by a puzzle box but that’s not the case most of the time
Okay, I can definitely believe a big spike in winrate from playing Luna’s Pocket Galaxy on curve, similar to a Year of the Raven aggro deck with a turn 2 Keleseth or a turn 4 Barnes on Big Priest as you mentioned, so that can be pretty frustrating as there’s not a lot of in-game counterplay to that.
At the same time, Mage decks’ winrates seem to be right where you’d want them to be right now, so nerfing Mage would risk leaving the class in a hole and reducing class diversity as Mage players switch to other, more viable decks and classes. Because preserving a diverse metagame is more important than nerfing obnoxious cards when it’s time to do a balance patch, Mage should not be nerfed right now, IMO. That said, if players refine Mage decks further and Mage winrate climbs to the point where they merit a nerf, Luna’s Pocket Galaxy should be the first card they should be looking at.
I don’t know why but i cant reply to you @Taznak so i will write it here . Winrates are not the only things that’s considered when nerfing a particular card as we have seen with the Quest rogue ,even tho the rogue winrate was pretty below, the Quest was nerfed cause experience people had playing against was not fun and its the same when playing against mage most times you just feel like you cant do anything or lost as you see them coining a POCKET GALAXY by turn 4 and playing KING PHAORIS or multiple cards of a greater value for 1 mana by turn 6-7 when you consider how often other classes can deal with a such a huge board early on .
Anyways am not here to argue , as its neither me or you who gonna make all these nerfs or balance changes happen 🙂
My final comment on this topic: Kripparian suggested what I think is a great solution to this problem, which is as follows:
Make it so that if you pay X mana to play a minion, that minion shows a mana cost of X while on the board. So if you have a full hand and play a 3-mana Mountain Giant, and then play Conjurer’s Calling on it, you’d get double 3-drops. Or if you play Luna’s Pocket Galaxy into a 1-mana King Phaoris into Conjurer’s Calling on King Phaoris, you’d get double 1-drops. Same deal for Shaman’s 7-mana rush minion into Mutate, and so on. I’d definitely be on board with that solution.
That doesn’t solve the problem with Luna’s Pocket Galaxy .KIng Phaoris summons minions based on the cost of the spells you hold, CC-ing King Phaoris is not the problem ,problem is when you can summon a full board of 4/5 ,8/8,and so on for just for 1 mana is high value and when done on turn 5-6 is meta breaking same with Tortollan Pilgrim, discover a spell and cast it for 1 mana is huge and when you see like this there’s a huge value bundled into a single card when played on curve which doesn’t need any kind of former settings to activate .
Anyways as i told earlier, its neither me nor you who’s gonna make this nerfs or balance changes happen so it doesn’t matter either way someones gonna be at the top no matter what 🙂
I don’t know what decks are popular to use nowadays but as far as I know, it’s still Murloc Shaman. (Because of the new card) Although in the first day of WCG’s Grand Finals for Hearthstone category, they often use warrior decks or mage decks.
Can you update your book mage with the new version. Dragons are bad
We’ve just updated our Standard Meta Tier List for the Post-Buff Rise of Shadows meta. Since the buffs are only out for 2 days, the best decks can still change. We’ll revise the tier list it once the meta settles.
Weird question! Do you think mechanical whelp necromechanic and nine lives vs leroy, unleash the hounds and explodinator are enough different cards to classify mech and bomb hunter as different archetypes and well as classify them as different tiers all together, cause 90% of the time they are going to function the same (IE both produce bombs, both take advantage of deathrattle, both magnetic etc. ). was just wondering if those few cards warrant enough to tilt the deck to be able to even be classified as different decks when it feels like those are just customizations and meta choices and should have very simuliar results (In same tier). Just wondering if im missing something before I make choices in dust use thanks!
It really depends. The version of Mech Hunter I’ve featured here might not be enough to call it a different archetype – it’s close enough to just consider these changes tech choices etc. BUT, this is the first time I’m seeing such an aggressive version of Mech build. That’s why I’ve still decided to wait and see whether it will become THE version of the deck to play.
Because you see, the most popular versions of Mech Hunter ever since Rise of Shadows’ launch were fundamentally different than Bomb Hunter. Bomb Hunter is an Aggro deck, the Mech Hunter was Midrange or maybe even somewhat of a Combo deck. It wasn’t just a few cards – the only thing they’ve shared in common was the fact that they both played Mechs.
For example, look at this popular pre-buff version of Bomb Hunter (https://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/bomb-hunter-shadows-post-nerf-8-legend-meati/) and Mech Hunter (https://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/mech-hunter-shadows-post-nerf-1-legend-qige/).
The two most important differences are the fact that Mech Hunter runs Nine Lives (so bases a big part of its game plan on that card), as well as Zul’jin. Since it runs Zul’jin, unlike Bomb Hunter which is a minion-focused deck, Mech build runs a bunch of spells too – most notably Unleash the Beast, Unleash the Hounds and Deadly Shot, all of which are reactive cards. Mech Hunter builds sometimes also include other removals (like Marked Shot here, or Secrets), which are not present in Bomb version. Also, since Magnetic is not as important to the deck’s game plan, it can run a lower density of Mech cards, which means that it can play cards like Springpaw or Animal Companion without hurting its game plan that much. In fact, Mech Hunter would not want to play too many Deathrattle Mechs, because it wants to always be able to hit either Oblivitron or Mechanical Whelp with Nine Lives. It already has Spider Bomb (which is also useful from Nine Lives sometimes) and Ursatron – adding more things like Mecharoo or Replicating Menace (or even SN1P-SN4P for that matter) could possibly mess up with this game plan.
On the other hand, since Bomb version has a much more aggressive plan and relies on board tempo to win the game (it has basically NO reactive game plan), you need to play a) more “sticky” minions that you can Magnetize into (e.g. Mecharoo, Upgradeable Framebot, Explodinator). It also runs more Magnetic cards, since it’s your main game plan – for example, you never really see Replicating Menaces or Missile Launchers in Mech build. As a finisher Bomb version usually played Leeroy, Flark, or both, again something that you have never seen in Mech version.
I was always surprised that others were calling both builds Mech Hunter, even though they were fundamentally different. Honestly, it would be like calling both Control Warrior and Bomb Warrior just “Control Warrior”. After all, they share like 2/3 of the deck.
IF the new, more aggressive builds take over I will definitely merge them into one archetype and start calling both Mech Hunter. But this is literally the first time I’m seeing a build like that being successful, because before it looked way different. If the “old” Mech Hunter build sticks, however, they are two completely different archetypes and I will keep separating them.
control shaman is listed twice, but shown is the same, i know there are different types of it, but just want you to know.
(on the main page)
Why isn’t Malygos Shaman listed on any tier list? I have an 80% win rate with that deck in ranked, if played correctly it’s completely insane.
Which deck list do you use?
https://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/malygos-shaman-rise-of-shadows-feno/ but swap both hauting visions for lightning storm and feral spirit
WHere is the combo ?
Where’s the love for Secret Hunter?
Great update, thanks for keeping us up to date with the still-evolving meta!
Just one question: What happened to Miracle Priest? Priest has the lowest winrate on hsreplay, but having zero good meta decks is pretty sad.
Priest isn’t in a great spot right now. Miracle version shows most promise, but it’s still not a great deck. Or rather, it IS great when it works, but it’s not an incredibly consistent one – you get a lot of terrible hands that you just can’t win with. It’s also pretty difficult, so in the lower ranks it’s a low Tier 3 deck at best. It got briefly popular in high Legend, but mostly because of the novelty – players still didn’t knew exactly what it can do and how to face it. Once they’ve started teching for it, it was no longer that good.
But it’s basically the story of Priest every rotation. The class has a pretty weak Classic set, which means that it relies heavily on the expansion cards. We just had a lot of the good expansion cards rotate out, and not enough were added in their place yet. I think that it should get better going into 2nd and 3rd expansion of this year. It happened in Year of the Mammoth (Highlander Priest), Year of the Raven (Resurrect Priest) and it will probably happen again once Priest gets more good tools. Of course, the perfect solution would be to fix their Classic set by buffing it a bit, but right now buffing is against Blizzard’s policy for some reason.
Looking back at Priest’s basic and classic set, it was pretty well suited to a classic value-oriented, control playstyle. Cheap card draw, value generation that didn’t pull you closer to fatigue in Thoughtsteal, and a bunch of cards that wanted to 2-for-1 your opponent, like Shadow Madness and Mind Control (removes an enemy minion & develops one of your own). Even Priest’s Hero Power seemed designed for value, its only advantage over Armor Up being that you could heal your minions to get more and better value trades with them.
The problem is that there’s been a ton of value power creep since then. The very concept of dealing with 2 of your opponents’ cards with just one of your own becomes a little suspect when the game is full of cards like EVIL Miscreant, Omega Assembly, Book of Specters and Crystalsong Portal that refill your hand very cheaply and efficiently. For the most part, I think that this has been a good thing for Hearthstone, as completely running out of steam because you have no cards in hand isn’t a lot of fun- remember Blizzard pushing no-cards topdeck Hunter, with cards like Brave Archer, Quick Shot and Core Rager? We’re a long ways from those days.
Priest’s classic set was strong in value but weak in tempo, and as value has cheapened that tempo weakness becomes all the more painful. By contrast, Rogue’s classic set was weak in value but strong in tempo, and with the value power creep, triggering Rogue cards’ combo mechanic becomes easier than ever, Edwin Van Cleef becomes even stronger, and Rogue gets a tier 1 deck with 21/30 cards from the Basic & Classic sets.
Great analysis and you are totally right. In MTG playing the value-war and getting 2-for-1’s is so important, but in HS there is so much value generation. I recently played a Rogue who very carelessly played all his cards and I had clearly stabilized, with 4 cards in hand and on a sure path to victory. Next turn he topdecks Myra’s Unstable Element and draws enough burn to finish me off. Not saying that MUE is an overpowered card or that this is a typical case scenario (we’ve all lost to lucky topdecks). I’m just saying that it feels completely wrong to get so outvalued by individual cards. It happened with the DK hero cards that pulled value out of thin air. And we still have it today, although not so blatantly, with Discover-like mechanics. And I love Discover, BTW, but not Elysiana/Master’s Call/Omega Assembly types of Discover that packs so much value in just one card.
Hearthstone manipulates with winrates!
I’m physic – mathematic and I’m always count my winrate, how could it be few days almost 72% and on third day I get only almost 15 losses straight and after winrate reached 56-57 I start winning again! How could it be possible without manipulating?))
Have some ideas about this?
They sure do. I can be on rank 15 and go to 11 and be almost to 10 and lose back down to 15 with a 80 percent win rate deck. And every player I face has a 11k or 1100 number after there name. It’s like there own employees are playing and can see every card in our deck during a game. I wouldn’t be surprise at this at all since they lose more players than they gain because this game is going to shit
This game makes me sometimes very nervous! Few my friends stopped to play at all cause of this! Greetings from Ukraine!
Yeah, it’s called being paranoid 🙂
But seriously: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
Hahahahahahahaha! Awesome reply!
Yeah thanks a lot I know I’m insane for real. I tell you just that I’m from Ukrainian ghetto)) it’s war here and lots of things you never heard of) take care
So Dragon Paladin hasn’t made it?
Bummer. Was really looking forward to a good built.
Dragon Paladin turned out to be much weaker than suspected, There just aren’t enough synergies, and we don’t have anything REALLY powerful that would carry the deck. E.g. if Paladin got some Dragon synergy on the level of Drakonid Operative or Duskbreaker, then it would be an incentive to run Dragons. Right now, the best one we have is a 2 mana 2/2 with DS and Taunt – it’s good, but not good enough (especially since 2 health minions aren’t particularly popular in the early game and it often dies without getting good trades).
You’re archetype winrates have Even Warlock in them. And don’t have any Warrior types.
Just saying.
I’ve already said it below:
The stats are provided by metastats.net and it might take them a while to update for the new Rise of Shadows decks. Don’t pay attention to those for now.
You should still look for one! Isn’t having fun and playing a deck you enjoy more important than an winning an extra 1/10 games?
Valid point. I probably will.
It was just a sigh of disappointment.
“Decks you’ll have a hard time assembling in Specialist format”
These decklists are good, but I hope players can also get a workaround when playing in Specialist format tournaments. I haven’t watched a game from WCG 2019 Hearthstone (one of the tournaments that uses the new format) that is why I don’t have an idea how they did it.
Standard Tier List was just updated for the early Rise of Shadows meta! Let us know what you think.
And obviously, comments below this one are outdated.
Token druid appears as the highest tier but the winrates % are calculated against decks from the last year, actually all deck are, that dont make sense or is it an error in the chart?
The stats are provided by metastats.net and it might take them a while to update for the new Rise of Shadows decks. Don’t pay attention to those for now.
Thanks for your time and content mate. Well organized and short and sweet write up is just what we need to get an overall look at the current meta. Always appreciated.
I’m a dad legend legend boi, so my expertise is lacking but this looks quite accurate.
The meta seems balanced, at least theres almost a playble from each class!
ps: cant you creat a new thread in order to get free of the previous comments?? just because it gets to messy.. 😉
I know, but it’s mostly a SEO thing. Even though we have a lot of dedicated viewers, most of our views still come from random google searches, and we already have this post quite high when you look for the HS meta tier list (and a few other things). Making a new post every time would hurt that.
Also, I think that reading old comments to see what people thought of previous metas can be quite fun if anything. I’ll ask devs if there’s some way to e.g. black out outdated comments after update so they would be easily distinguishable.
Thank you for this. I hope you’ll never get tired giving tips about newbies. Btw i’m really hype about WCG for making Hearthstone as their official game titles, i can’t wait for it to start to learn some techniques.
That’s the card decks that i want to see on upcoming Hearthstone tournament at WCG. Crazy meta played by pro players? thats all i ask for
so tired of playing against braindead uncreative unoriginal decks copied directly from this site
Then quit the game and enjoy life
Agreed, if you aren’t having fun take a break!
Im a bit sad to see Mage actually not even on Tier 2-Lists anymore. What happened to Mage? In the early days of Hearthstone it was one of the best Classes and a long time it was even on Tier 2, but now? Mage is totally out of the Meta-Decks and the Nerf to Mana-Wyrm was unnecessary. I pray for a Comeback in the new expansion.
Aggro Odd Mage listed as a Tier 1 deck.
Aggro Mage is back in full force!
Thanks for the Odd Paladin add. The Witch Cauldron and Liam make it tier 1 though. This version tier 2?
And the MechaTuna Warlock deserves a spot I think.
Eh… You seem to have forgotten Tier 1 Odd Paladin. Beats every deck on the list except Resurrect Priest and OTK Paladin.
Odd Paladin isn’t tier 1 anymore cause of the 5 cost Level Up is now 6 cost which ruins the odd Paladin deck.
But that is where the Frostwolfes come in. Liam and a Cauldron aswell but adding them depends on the amount of fun you want..
it’s still tier 1 after the nerfs.
Odd Quest Warrior is tier 1 ? You must be kidding !
No kidding. After the huge nerf patch that severely weakened huge amounts of armor (Druids), infinite lifegain (Kingsbane Rogue), and infinite swarm (Odd Paladin), odd-taunt (quest) warrior has been performing rather well.
Even Odd Dragon Warrior have similar winrates.
Yeah, from the context it seems like he meant to say a deck with no minions
Ay
What about mind blast control priest
Isn’t it great against odd pally, the no.1 deck
Control priest isn’t really a tier 1/2 deck, it doesn’t handle well early pressure, since it has little removal, so it loses to even/odd paladin, even shaman …
well, Wild Pyro and uhhhh
I guess you’re right
At least I have 2 accounts
Ha its back
Think you guys are sleeping on even pally. Its back, baby!
Hey, surprised to not see Shudderwock sham at least in T2. Same for Taunt Drood. To my mind, Even shaman/lock will the best decks in the next few months but shudderwock is still consistent.
Shudderwock probably isn’t on here because the way people use it is practically bug abuse. I’ve had games of ranked disconnect post update even after they shortened animations. Not to mention if you use it you give every one you play against cancer. Can’t wait until it’s removed from standard.
It’s not on here because it doesn’t really belong on here. It’s more of a tier 3 deck.
Well, every single shudderwock shaman that I have faced had perfect RNG
True story bro 😀
There was just a major balance patch and this list got updated 3 weeks ago… I’m sorry but are you guys sleeping or what ? x’D
Do you think the meta resolves over night? It’s been three days since the nerfs, we have to wait until things are settled before making changes.
Ok ok makes sens, I’m sorry haha 😛
Why is the decklists on this page different from in the guides?
The deck lists on this list are just examples, they aren’t always going to match the guides.
Pls send some guide for odd paladin. I think I don’t play IT right.
I am ať rank 15 and I can’t get to 14
Thx
It’s listed in the Odd Paladin area, but here you go: https://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/deck-guide/odd-paladin-deck-list-guide/
lmao
Is odd warrior better with Elise or with Darius (considering I can only afford one of them for the moment)?
Elise for longer matches and Darius against aggro.
In my opinion, Darius is not that good. I Used him since Witchwood release and i’m not that impressed. Never had a HUGE Darius because it’s so easy to kill him after your rush turn.
Ok thanks
Darius adds tempo, which the deck otherwise lacks. He’s vital in matchups against other control decks because he’s one of very few “threats” that have to be dealt with. Just something to keep in mind if you seek a replacement.
elise
Every game is different. One game one card would help better and vice vers. But to make a choice I would go with Elise. Could get huge rng cards from her spell.
I dont use elise nor Darius. Im 71% wr (>40 games). Rank up from 14 -> 11.
Any deck love for priest?
Priest is not meta right now. But I am obsessed with Savjz’s new Big Priest. Look it up if you’re interested!
That deck is not big priest in my opinion. It’s more of a Velen-Malygos otk. It has like 6 minions that cost <5 and not that many big minions
it is actually 5/10 minion that are <5. It was originally created as a big priest by Savjz but other names have been adopted since early September including zerek priest, OTK priest etc.
Combo Priest is actually really good in this meta, although it struggles against aggro. You can look for the mech version.
Uh why is a ‘WAGGLELOCK deck not up there?!
toggwaggle with the-soularium
INSTA destroy 3 cards in your opponents deck! dropa ‘5-5’. AND AND AND force a 5 – mana depletion for your oppenent’s next turn.!!!!
AND BEST OF YET……make your opponent say to himself, “wtf just happened “as cursor-ing abck and forth between the different card infos consumes the next 10 sec of his [email protected]@@@GET OWNED OPPENENT!
“WaggleLock”
“””BOOOOOOOM there goes their Hadronox…..OHHHH DAyum There goes Shittwok! OH MyHEAVINS there Goes his DR SHROOM”””
https://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/recruit-emeriss-hunter-with-keleseth/ ı make thıs deck and ıts work!!
It hurts knowing that cubelock will only keep falling on these lists. It was such a good, fun deck, but I don’t see blizzard adding any significant cards to it before most of it’s core cards get rotated out next year.
The game is infinitely more fun since the fall of cubelock. It was broken af for a while there.
*laughs in highlander priest*
Laughs in Pirate Warrior (Though, I wasn’t here when it was dominant)
*Laughs in Jade Druid*
Why is Malygos Rogue not on the list? That is a tier 1 deck for sure… Who am I kidding, you insta lose to any aggressive deck. It’s nevertheless a very nice deck to try out.
Actually if you get lucky and curve out razorpetal weapon backstab elven into kobold and maly evasion vanish vanish kobold prep vial break weapon both razorpetals you can beat out zoo. But yeah, if a neutral heal for fairly cheap gets released that heals for 6 or 8 or something, it’s going in
I love secret hunter i reccomend this deck its soo good its not that good againts odd pali but like what can i do if i vet bad draw its hell and how can i get more draw bcs subject 9 its not enough
Take out tracking and add two secrets or spells. You lose 4 cards when using two tracking
Add Odd Warrior!
Add new
spietful drudi
Why the ones using netdecks are always the worst people? The fun aspect of this game WILL NEVER BE THE MAIN ONE.
You are free to make your own deck and try your luck. But dont cry for people who like be always 1 click after you! Meta is meta and if you dont follow dont expect your winrate to be under 50%
Did you read what the guy said? Who COPIES decks will never be a click after anyone, bro. And he doesnt expect to be ahead, just the game to be more fun. Those who copy meta decks never have fun, they are just focusing on winning more. You must be that guy that copy various decks (aggro ones I mean) and even disenchant to build such decks… just to hit legend and comment like you are a good player… hahaha. shame on you!
Or maybe, just maybe some people have fun while they are winning. Competing is in some people’s nature. We aren’t judging you for wanting to play wacky, fun decks, so please stop whining if we have fun winning. You can always just concede down to rank 20 if you want to play against bad decks.
“You can always just concede down to rank 20 if you want to play against bad decks.” …
Already done that in effect as I’ve not played enough standard ladder to keep my rank up … yes you get some bad decks at rank 20 (encountered someone who was obviously seeing how far they could get using nothing but basic cards yesterday) – but more often than not you just get net-decks piloted badly.
… and me, lulzing about with a Pogo-Rogue.
I guess you could call me a netdecker but I just want a deck that works and does something I like and not have to spend hours tuning a deck. If there was a Druid deck that was tier 0 I wouldn’t touch to save my life because I hate everything Druid stands for.
You edgelord!
So much hate. Lmao
Same, I used to play druid cos token was top tier but it got really boring so I stopped playing and I hate druid wether I’m playing with or against him it’s a really boring no skill class .
A deck to take a look at is odd warrior. Gets you a lot of really close grindy games! Absolutely stomps the aggro decks on ladder and can go toe to toe with many other control decks. It’s only glaring weakness rn is the mecha thun decks since it is super value oriented.
plz someone kill me this new expansion makes me wanna quite hs
The meta is always super aggressive at the beginning of expansions. It should settle down soon and the better decks will emerge.
I just really hate the control decks; togwaggle druid, any mech’thun, quest priest, big spell mage. I am an aggro player so I’m a bit biased but these matchups just feel unfun. It doesn’t matter if I have an amazing start there will alwayse be answers that I cannot deal with. I’m at rank 3 right now (so I shouldn’t complain that much), but all I see is control and it’s getting really boring.
Did you try bomb hunter it Aggro that has a pretty good chance to beat control
maybe you should quit hearthstone, after all you’re aggro player, right?
that’s mean
that’s funny tho
Are you aware, that not all people keep spending lots of money on this game, to make sure they can play a 10.000 dust deck?
As for me, I am playing Midrangehunter on the Ladder right now, because there is no way for me to craft a fancy Controldeck. And I am sure that most “Aggro- Players” play these kind of Decks for a similar reason.
In Addition to that, Aggrodecks are not hurting the game, nor the meta. Ot is people like you, who are to blame for a toxic community!
I’ve never put money on this game and I have three of those 10000 dust decks…
This is an ultimate bullshit. If you do your quests, taverns etc. You can save up decent dust in no time. Stop saying this game is for P2W . I have most TIER 1 decks crafted and I haven’t spend a single cent. Instead of being crybabies, put some effort into the game and stop babbling arround. Its irritating af.
control? no controll decks left in hearthstone, its all about super-ultra-mega-otk combos! (
Honestly Aggro is more boring.
You just see them go face over and over again.
Unless its Zoo, then its infuriating watching every single Zoo Warlock player you face have turn 2 Keleseth
Or Shudderwock, topdecking healing rain when I’m about to beat it
Agreed, the ladder games are cancer, full of druids, warlocks and rogues, all with just sleeper decks that will kill u at a certain stage
Why? this is one of the best expansions in my opinion and most if not all of 12!! top meta decks are relatively cheap to craft
What do you think about combo priest, especially after the new cards come out?
This might be a noob question, but what is the difference between a “ladder” deck and a “meta” deck? I’ve seen both types when searching for decks, but don’t see the difference between the two?
All meta decks are ladder decks, but not all ladder decks are meta decks.
In other words, you can use all ladder decks to climb, but the meta decks are the few at the top who can climb way easier than the other decks.
For example, Spiteful Priest is still considered a “ladder deck” based on this list (i don’t agree, I don’t think it’s a good ladder deck anymore, but that’s besides the point) while Odd Paladin is a meta deck. You can use both to climb, but since Odd Paladin is a much stronger deck based on the current meta, it’s a meta deck and Spiteful Priest isn’t.
At least that’s how I understand it.
Ohhh ok i see what you mean, yeah I was kinda thinking it was like that but wasn’t sure haha, thanks for the reply yo !
i think ladder decks means decks that is used to climb ladder fast from a low rank and meta decks are the best decks but might be slower to win with like controldecks
No difference. The meta is the ladder, the ladder is the meta. Meta is just the name given to the current ladder state since the last expansion.
is recruit hunter not a decent deck?
I mean recruit warrior :/
Feels fringe. In my opinion, the reason why a deck like Recruit Hunter is thriving better than Recruit Warrior is for two reasons:
1) it’s easier to recruit. Hunters just have better tools to recruit their big charge minions than warrior does. The most popular variation of Recruit Hunter runs the Seeping Oozeling / Silver Hand Vanguard combo which is very powerful. Not to mention using Play Dead to safely trigger deathrattles like Oozeling/Recruit/Cube/Kathrena which are a prime and easily achievable win condition.
In comparison, Warrior’s primary recruit mechanic is Woecleaver. Worst-case scenario your Woecleaver gets destroyed by Harrison/Ooze before you can use all three hits. that’s 8 mana wasted on summoning a minion that probably costs 8 mana (Lich King, Rotface, Grommash, Ysera, Geosculptor are the major cards you wanna recruit with Woecleaver). In addition, Geosculptor/Rotface are prioritized for their random minion summoning effect. While that can easily spiral out of control and win you the game, it’s possible to low-roll bad/useless legendaries and lose the tempo you were trying to gain. The most rng Hunter has to deal with is getting Silver Hand Recruit and Kathrena in hand to make Oozeling useless.
2) Like I mentioned earlier, Geosculptor/Rotface use spammable random legendaries to win you the game and that’s more rng dependent than Recruit Hunter is. Hunter has better minions to recruit, in my opinion. Devilsaurs, though neutral, aren’t run in warrior so Woecleaver pool of recruits isn’t saturated, thrive in Hunter, and King Krush is devastating to recruit. While Grommash can compare to Krush in terms of “cheating out high damage charge minion” Grommash is dependent on whether you can damage him to trigger his enrage effect. Krush has a raw 8, Grommash has a conditional 10.
Overall, Recruit Warrior depends on value generation from your recruited minions (Yip, Rotface, Ysera, Lich King are all devastating value engines if unanswered) and that greedy playstyle falls short when compared to Recruit Hunter’s less-rng dependent deck.
That’s, of course, my opinion, if anyone disagrees or wants to correct me you’re free to do so.
You should put in heal zoo ( warlock ) its very good in the current meta imo 🙂 , you can climb very easily on ladder
No you can’t. Lol. It’s a hot pile of garbage that only wins if you open perfectly. With so much taunt and better aggro on the ladder you just lose. Often. You literally can’t beat druid or shaman assuming they get any heals or board clears at all, and most of the other aggro decks are just better, unless, again, you get the perfect opener.
You’re joking right? Heal zoo is damn good rn. Easiest legend climb in a while
Even then its still not a guarantee win. Had a heal zoo pull of an ideal turn 3 with fungal into two ghouls and I still won with odd pally.
Why do the decks winrate/statistics say the winrate against secret paladin?
Whoops, that needed an update. Thanks for mentioning it!
ODD PALADIN SUCKS. very boring and predictable deck with no removal, sucks in about everything after rank 5
how is shudderwock only tier 3???
and also how is token tier one and taunt tier two, arent those backwards lol
Actually though. SHudderwock shaman in the same tier as mill druid?? Wut?? And the description says that the deck is likely not going to work??? SHudderwock shaman is at least a high tier two, if not a tier one, deck
Shudderwock shaman is a deck that requires a high level of skill to play. Players in lower ranks are less experienced and hence the lower win rate. The win rate is proportional to the rank tier.
how much better is normal quest warrior compared to odd quest warrior? I want to craft the deck but I’m on a budget and odd is cheaper for me
Sorry forget I said that, I have all the even cards
Much better.
Odd quest has significant weakness, you lack warpath & blood razor, both extremely great in clearing mass 1/1 mob.
Warpath allows you to deal 4 dmg to all minion when you’re turn 10 to use your hero power.
more importantly, you have cornered sentry for regular quest warrior. Gives you that bump in chance to defeat taunt druid. Without it, it’s very hard, especially when you only have maximum 2 AOE with odd quest – brawl & reckless.
Odd quest has a lot of AOE……. If you run brawl and reckless flurry, you have 4 are cards as well as shield slam for any large minions. Sure, you lack blood razor and warpath, but in exchange you get a hero power that gives you 4 armor rather than 2 and you have a strong anti ago deck. Not advocating for a tier 1 deck, but certainly is a solid deck even against decks that require high amounts of AOE….
This get is good, but not as good as claimed. I come only to rated rank 17 with it.
Sounds like a personal problem
Please update the Wild section as well. We’re immensely curious to see more of the most giants meta.
Update even paladin, please. It is still with “call to arms” which manacost was raised to 5.
Can you please update this site for the nerfs
Thanks
Just curious why isnt Control Warlock in the list? It shud at least be tier 2 or 1.
Theres alot of good decks missing from this list.
Its a tier 1 deck
I need a hard counter deck for Even Paladin. Its winrate is ridiculous and I don’t want to play it myself. Any suggestions?
burst mind blast
taunt druid
Even Pally is being nerfed xd
It will drop to at least low tier on1
Quest Warrior is an autowin vs Paladins and agros
not many people at all play even paladin , there is one hard counter for ya
I NEED TO LOOK AT DATE OF COMMENT BEFORE I REPLy….. I AM an I D E OT
No one acknowledges the OTK Cube Hunter
35-2 I’m at
It’s unreal and no one knows about it
Dude post the deck recipe I want to see it!!
not sure how to lol, i can tho
main thing is like Spell hunter,
with Kathrena Winterwisp, Charged Devilsaur, Witchwood grizzly and Cube and King Krush as only minions
Is this with Keleseth or not?
hunter secrets are 2 mana dude
In the top right corner in the corner of this website, there is a thing that says “Deck Builder”. All you got to do to post it here is not select the private option, and you good. Please do this, as I’m interested to see the list too.
Just copy your deck then go to the deckbuilder page and paste it in then post the link on a reply?
What rank are you at? Is it the Clockwork Automaton + Cube combo? I’ve seen a list like that but it didn’t look practical at all.
nope. read above comment ^^
Going to rank 17 and playing an off meta deck doesn’t somehow make it incredible
What?OTK Hunter????
Please explain
You have to add Dinosize to the even paladin deck list, its absolutely insane as a finishet if you are playing against a slow deck as cube for example
Can someone send me a guide on how to use CubeLock cause I’m losing a ton with it and I think I’m using it wrong. thx
There’s a guide linked under the listing, but here it is: http://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/cube-warlock-deck-list-guide-standard/
Thanks
Getting past Rank 13 is soo rough is their any advice that makes it easier?
I have CubeLock and Spiteful priest and its still insanely hard.
If you are still below a 50% we rate with those two decks, then I suggest to re-read the strategy posts for each and watch some streams featuring those decks for decision making tips.
Thanks I will.
I run a different varient of a secret aggro mage and it works extremely well against everything but odd paladin and shaman due to board flood and healing rain
Is Odd Rogue not around tier 2? It’s not in this list for some reason.
Is Marsh Drake a good replacement for corridor creeper in odd pali? I dusted mine after the Nerf. Also how important is the glass Knight in even pali?
Marsh Drake is good stuff. And Glass Knight is not mandatory, but it’s a heck of a pressure.
Thanks alot, idk if I can do it though cause I don’t have sea giant, avenging wrath, or the knight
I’ve had better luck with equalities than avenging wrath, equality is better versus cubelock. You can run spellbreaker, and an acidic slime ooze over the sea giants and the glass knight and have a better cube winrate.
Thanks Sam I’ll try it
So much*
Very true, glass Knight is easy to setup a defile clear for, but eat my weapon on turn 5 and cubelock becomes not fun.
Shudderwock shaman…for those who need wins from employed people. That card needs a nerf or to be destroyed. You end up spending after their turns ended sitting waiting for a half hour for the cycle it’s rubbish. Still I know how to destroy them easy now early
Shudderwock shaman is garbage, man. Notice how it is at the very bottom of their tier list? It’s win rate is absolutely horrendous against almost anything. If you want to do well against slower decks, play quest rogue.
Shudderwock deck aren’t that strong.
For you to win, all your important battlecries cards MUST be cast out before throwing Shudderwock, and given a large amount of plays, you would have to wait probably a good 15-20 turns before all of them are out.. and you probably have already lost by now.
They don’t have much cards to stall the game like quest mage.
If you repeatedly lose with the same deck, perhaps you should change deck.. then again, given you wait for the cycle to end, you should have concede if you know it goes no where, instead of waiting for the whole combo early.
Murloc Paladin is back too. I have had incredible success with a new version of this deck.
It’s okay, but compare it to the other two paladin decks in the meta right now.
Lol
Quest rogue 60% of winrate, why is not in the list ?
Added now, was in the process of getting this updated. Thanks for the reminder.
Can you make combo mulligan/combo guide?
I tryd half these decks and still cant get passed rank 17!
Try Spiteful Priest… It’s just broken
LOl dude that’s whet I cant get passed that and odd hunter! lol
well Ill try it when I craft it but ill have to get some dust just used it all on cubelock which isn’t much help against anything except paly!
The thing is that you are a bad player thats it
Nura you need to not say anything if its not nice otherwise you are going to get banned from the sight I’m just saying this so that now you know!
Its def one of the beat decks in the meta rn. Dont decraft it just learn how to play with it. It takes a lot of skill to pilot the deck.
Not trying to be rude but I`m rank 2 with cubelock just now reached my peak with it.I get matchups with legendary cubes so I dont see how it is that you can not surpass rank 17.
I understand Cube is strong but I’m trying to get down to ate least rank 10 to use it because everytime I get in its against a odd hunter or spitefull priest which wreck me!
I don’t care what ppl say about me I’m just saying be careful cause there are ppl who do care and will report you for it!
well I made spiteful priest its so OP lol thanks for advice!
I hope y know that y are funny…First i dont care about reports 2nd is that you cant accept that you are bad if you cant pass beyond rank 17,so i didnt say anything bad myself its just the truth i see from what you said
well today I reached rank 5 for the first time because of the advice I received 🙂
The problem is not that you’re wrong, it’s that you’re a cunt about it. I recently got added as a friend by a player I beat who inflicted 1 damage in total over the whole game only to get lectured how I am lucky and just misplay and whatnot. In a community that has such individuals it doesnt bode well with people when you come onto a page dedicated to learning the game and how to play it only to post „lol m8 u suck at le game l2p bro“. It’s okay to suck at this game. It’s hard to master. It’s never okay to discourage people sharing a hobby.
Thanks everyone for the advice I am know heading into legend with a win streak of 9!
You aren’t very convincing. Spiteful preist currently loses about 70% of the time to the most popular decks in the meta.
I’m using it to get to rank 5 then I’m using Cubelock to get to legend if that makes sence. also it could be luck but Ive enjoyed it at least. 🙂
You are obviously being a troll. Being stuck on rank 17 for ages and suddenly you are going into Legend rank with a winstreak of 9? There aren’t any winstreaks anymore after rank 5 so that is already BS. You claim you dont care if people say you probably just suck but you are in the same message throwing around with ban talk.
This is so obviously fake its not even funny anymore. You will never reach Legend rank like this.
Oh and this is from a player who actually reached Legend and is rank 5-Legend consistently every season.
Aggro meta ResidentSleeper
Zoo FeelsBadMan
nice update on new decks! when will we have guide for them ?
Why are there rogue cards in the spell hunter deck? Lol
I mean the odd face hunter deck lol
Fixed, sorry about that.
New meta is new
Haha seriously, it’s just a rogue aggro deck labeled very incorrectly
When are these going to be updated for witchwood?
after a month or week?
WarKing Asking real questions here
I’ve done a quick update for now, we’ll continue to update it as the meta changes.
Sweet thanks!
I’m pretty sure this list needs a little updating. I’m pretty sure Combo Priest and Control Warlock are Tier 1, because they are definitely over Zoolock and Spell Hunter in the meta right now. Zoolock hasn’t really been a high-tier deck since the nerfs to Patches and Corridor Creeper, so I’d consider even removing it from the list. If anything, Controllock and Combo Priest are certainly not on the same level as Jade Druid and Token Druid. I would personally place Spiteful Priest and Spell Hunter on Tier 2, and Combo Priest and Control Warlock should be about the same level as Big Priest in Tier 1.
Also I would remove the Druid decks from the lists, I haven’t seen many of them at all and if anything they are Tier 3. I don’t think Druid qualifies as “meta” at the moment. The only ones I’ve seen recently in matches are actually Quest Druid lists using Cubes, Devilsaur and Deathwing, and I’m pretty sure that’s more of a fun deck than a competitive one.
I’m not sure but i thought Rogue kingsbane was a thing. Never imagined Tier 1 but maybe Tier 2 or at least to be mentioned on Rogue’s Deck.
That’s what I was looking for too. Just opened a Kingsbane heh
Guide list is made about Kingsbane Mill Rogue, but it’s win percentage clearly tell that it’s a fringe deck.
I actually fought one the other day with my Big Spell Mage and was quite impressive to say the least. Granted it milled my Jaina, but the deck seemed consistent enough to be classsified as a Tier 3 deck.
That’s because you were playing Big Spell Mage. The reason why Kingsbane Rogue isn’t even Tier 3 is, because it has a very small win percentage against all the tier 1 decks except for big priest. Cubelock 45%, Zoo 23%, Murlock Pala 12%, Silver hand pala 15%, Secret mage 19%, Spell Hunter 30%. All stats are from HSreplay.
Is Silver hand Paladin a thing?
I like the deck idea, but to what extent is it a tier 1? I played against several (when playing cubelock, warlock control, murloc paladin and tempo mage) and to me it seemed weak… Any feedback from anyone who has used a list of it?
Yeah it is. While it struggles a lot against warlocks since their removals are just way too efficient against divine shielded small minions and 3/3s, it has a relatively favourable matchup against murloc paladin and tempo mage at least in my experience. The ability to fill the board instantly even in late games just destroys so many midrange (due to having used all of their removals) and aggro decks (due to their relatively weaker ability to swing the board in late games). The Steward + Stand against darkness combo and then Level up + Stegodon / Sunkeeper + Stegodon is just way too strong since it’s hard to have two removals in hand with early game board presence cards such as Call to arms (except defile of course, which basically counters every play that you can possibly make with most dude paladin decks). Thus, it has to be noted that if you are facing a lot of warlocks on ladder, silverhand paladin is most likely not going to perform very well.
Silver hand actually has the best win rates against most decks but the only problem it’s nearly I’mpossible to beat warlock with
I Climbed from rank 15 to rank 4
With Silver hand paladin
😉
Control warlock lower tier than evolve shaman? Say it isn’t so! I don’t put much time into rank farming, but I had no trouble getting to rank 10 using a cube free manipulator free honest control-lock. It requires a decent hand to beat aggro, but it can generally survive to turn 8 and from then on its smooth sailing!
I think ill post the decklist, one of my friends hit rank 5 with it, so it certainly isn’t awful!
Hey, what you said is not right. CONTROL warlock and CUBElock are 2 of totally different archetype. You just mentioned that you used CUBElock deck which is the strong meta deck, while CONTROL lock definitely has no carnivourous cube and no doomguard (instead it uses Rin and gnomeferatu to burn enemy deck and counter mill rogue).
Uh, read his post again mate. He explicitly states that his list is “cube free,” which kinda makes your post moot.
LMAO read again bro
As a Face/Midrange Hunter since the awful and disgusting pre-Gadgetzan(for some archetypes) and Gadgetzan days, the only thing I can say about this meta is that it’s extremely, EXTREMELY unbalanced in some aspects.
As far as gametime for the current meta – you’d be lucky to go past the 5th round which is good to some extent if you wanna save yourself a spot in, but for someone who loves long and strategic plays more than overpowered powerspikes Early game i don’t like this. You can LITERALLY take out your opponent if you get a strong starting hand and control the board(at least for hunters gaining control over the playboard or going directly for a fast takedown is something easily achievable thanks to the agressive cards hunters have), but IF you dare have a lets say 5 crystal, 6 crystal and 8 crystal card and only one 1 or 2 mana crystal card it’s almost a guaranteed loss unless you get lucky and draw cards that you can actually play and hold on till the later round. It’s more quick kill than actual strategy. Bonemare is a tide-turning card giving a massive change in the way the games are going and it’s a) real good b) cheap but when almost every deck is using Bonemare before Blizzard makes a nerf on it it’s a mess to deal with. It’s hard to counter a high health card without spilling you crystals on spells and having none to at least put a low-crystal minion. I really hope the next meta is better, because this is really starting to remind me of the early days of HS where you get pummeled from game-changing cards that are EASILY afforadble.(come on, Bonemare needs a reduction)
May I assume since you’re playing “Face Hunter” that you’re not a fan of “long, strategic plays”? You see, you contradict yourself by complaining about an aggressive-oriented meta filled with value cards like Bonemare and Corridor Creeper while your own personal playstyle is aggressive-oriented tactics that rely on said cards. To complain about it is vanity since you’re not doing anything about it. Play Cube Warlock. Play Highlander Priest. There are good control-style decks out there that will provide you with longer games and strategic plays.
I find this meta quite balanced, honestly. Yes, it’s more or less an aggro-fest, but these decks are a far cry from what we used to have. They’re beatable if you know the game and that’s how they should be! I climbed to rank 5 last season and from the looks of it I’ll be doing the same this season as well with Cube Warlock. My matches almost always go past round 10 because I know how to stall against aggro. As for the “strong starting hand” point, that’s true with every card game. You can’t take the rng out of a card game. In my case, a strong starting hand would be a Mountain Giant on turn 4. The majority of my deck tops above 5 crystals and I assure you, I win most of my games without being lucky becayse I practiced enough and learned how to beat these meta decks.
I don’t think you have the right to complain about the meta being “unbalanced” since you’re making use of these unbalanced aspects.
why are u complaining about aggros when u play hunter???
I recently got past round 20 and went on to win against a Control Warlock with my Spell Hunter. Safe to say Hunters aren’t only an aggro deck if you know what you’re doing.
Face Hunter and Spell Hunter are not the same type of decks. And you did say Face Hunter, so that’s a no point. Face Hunter isn’t just aggro, it’s face. Generally the most auto-piloted genre of gameplay.
The real problem is the “free to play” player’s options. As a “free to play” player, I need a looooot of gold. So I need to win 15 games a day+accomplish quest to have ~100gold per day. So I play aggro (best in the meta currently is token druid so I play this one).
Moreover, aggro decks are the only one affordable. I have 3500 dust, it is not enought to craft any other decks.
So, we don’t have choice.
And it is getting worse : adventures like gadgetzan gave you 5 free legendaries. Ice throne gave you 1 or 2 legendaries (a random zombie hero and on more I think, but I’m am not sure). Then kobold and catacomb gave you nothing but a pack.
I would like to pay but 20 dollars/euros for 30 packs(and it’s a promotion) where average is 1 legendary per 20 packs… Pity timer garantee you a legendary in the 40th pack. So for 20 dollars (the price of a normal cheap video game), you are not even garanteed legendaries. It is totally not worth it ! Only adventures were worth to buy. I don’t understand the current Blizzard policy when they stop selling it…
My point is, you have to farm hearthstone a long time with aggro decks before being able to get a good control deck. So don’t complain about aggro.
I just started playing again for 6~7 weeks and farming begin to be really rewarding (I used around 2000 dust+5euros in the starter packs to get an aggro deck running and now, I have almost 3500 dust in bank)
Where the hell did you get 5 free legendaries from gadtezan?
I got a few packs, no legendaries. Also, kobold gave you both a weapon AND Marin the fox…. more than frozen throne did… and much more than the few packs of gadtezan, which is all you got. A few packs.
Additionally to the 2 legendaries in kobolds, everyone got packs too, with the dungeon run quests immediately given out.
They are honestly doing more now than ever before. Next week theirs going to be a arena-esque tavern brawl that’s supposedly free to enter for your first time, which again, is more than your usual reward of a free pack, guaranteed. Seriously, it gets tiring hearing people complain about how blizzard is always the worst when they are actually doing more now than ever before.
Oh yeah, and I’m free 2 play also. If you get halfway decent at arena, it stops being hard making decent decks.
I’m surprised Cube Warlock is tier 2. I’m no legend player, but I find it pretty easy to beat any of the decks listed on tier 1 provided I don’t get incredibly unlucky. The only match I usually find difficult is Aggro Paladin.
Scratch that, Aggro Paladin is one of my easiest matches. For some reason I often lose to Token Druid.
Which deck are you playing to be going soo good? I’m a noob and need to get out of 18-17 down to 15 (my goal for season).
I’m playing Cubelock, but I’ve scratched a Spellbreaker and Prince Taldaram for a couple of Tar Creepers. Aggro Paladin is extremely easy dude, think about this: they’re very reliant on Call of Arms which is basically a set up for Defile. And by turn 7 they concede.
Control Warlock?
It’s mentioned in the other best decks section of the list.
Could you please update the control lock deck list? I really want to play it but I can’t find any updated versions of the deck
so…only Aggros can play the game actually? the longest game is over on turn 5…
1 bad draw or a bad starting hand and you lose the game, this is what i see in this meta
Yes indeed , last few metas are realy aggro , i realy don’t like that,i realy like to play long games with intersting decks , in this meta it’s almost impossible to play slow dekcs , sad .
As a fellow fan of Control-style decks, let me posit this question: which would you rather have? Every game last 4-10 minutes? Or every game last 3/4 of an hour?
I’m certainly no fan of games that I lose do to a wrong draw. But that’s just how card games work. I’m also not a fan of Hyper-Aggro metas, but at least this is a far cry from the dark days of Gadgetzan.
I agree with Jaych, that’s exactly what I’d like to point out as well. After going through Aggro Shaman and the old Pirate Warrior, Aggro Paladin and Tempo Rogue seem like opponents I don’t mind facing. I get triggered as much as the next guy at a Keleseth + Shadowstep on the second turn, but both decks are by all means manageable and defeatable.
May I suggest trying out Cube Warlock? Although a combo deck, it has a lot of control elements and fairs well against both aggro and your occasional Highlanders. If you copy the sample deck on this article, I’d suggest replacing Taldaram and Spellbreaker with double Tar Creeper. Cube Warlock’s “weakness” is aggressive playstyle and Tar Creepers put a much-needed halt to those tactics.
To earn 100 gold a day, you need to play short games… That is why everyone play aggro. Plus, aggro decks are half the dust price of a control deck.
Aggro decks will never stop dominate hearthstone. Even if their win rate would be 40%, it would be better than a 60% control warlock/priest because you would play four 5minutes game in 20minutes instead of one 20 minutes game.
So complain to Blizzard about this system of reward instead of complaining about the cards. Control decks are great today.
ONiK meta was diverse af saying that it was the worst meta ever is rediculous. Sure aggro was cancer but there has never been a meta without cancer.
More than 50 % Patches.
Great, just great. I really hate the Meta
Better than control meta….20 min long games or even more…And if im right noone liked un goro meta either,or atleast i didnt like it
Many said it’s one of the best expansions second to old gods. Not the arena part tough.
Yes, but I think that is mostly it meant the end of the worst meta ever, ONiK. That said, Un’Goro was A LOT better than this autopilot-deckfest where Keleseth, Scalebane and Bonemare on curve win far more games than actual skill ever would.
oh come on, Kelseth, scalebane and bonemare are strong cards but are fair cards. You prefer the old jade? i play tempo rogue since the water rogue in Gadgetzan, i’m happy that now is a popular deck, i think the meta is balanced. Yeah is frustrating when the double shadowstep kelseth happens but you know what? is also frustrating leave the opponent at 5 and watch it gaining 25 with razakus priest. Is also frustrating have the board freezed for 6 consecutive turns. where is the skill there? where is the skill in the big priest? aggressive decks in this meta are strong, but don’t say that are unskilled decks, you need to know how run tempo and midrange decks, expecially in a meta full of anti aggro cards like dragonfire potion and spreading plague.
The truth is, Playing Razakus priest require lots of strategies to survive the early game, and its a goal to rush control decks down with aggresive/ tempo plays which also requires skill and knowledge of playing around specific counters. Like people keeps scalebane on starting hand if they face against priest, and SI if they’re going second and so on. So why i’m trying to say is that every deck you play has to do with your card choice, and decisions you made in the play.
Well…there were decks that recquired no skill at all. Today’s aggro decks are “fair” in a sense, but let’s go down to memory lane and remember Aggro Shaman and the old Pirate Warrior. I don’t think I need to convince you guys, but those decks were true “autopilots”.
Un’goro was my favorite and I’ve played through them all.
And although an unpopular opinion, I don’t think Exodia Mage recquires much skill either. Someone put it quite well by saying “it’s like solitaire”, you just stall in ridicoulus fashion and if you get to draw the cards you need you win. Your opponent’s life is insignificant and their plays are close to to it too.
Exodia Mage is pretty difficult to play tbh. You really need to manage how much damage you can afford to take and the amount of resources you have. aggro can easily beat it out which is why it’s hardly playable in today’s meta but managed to get tier 3 during K&C’s Control Warlock/Priest meta. even during K&C, Rank <10 it was pretty good since not many knew how to play correctly against and just spammed their hand down on the board but after that it gets difficult to climb with it.
Where is control DK mage?
Can we get this post among featured ones? It is updated but hard to find 🙂
It’s in the main navigation now under decks!
I was wondering about elemental shaman, it saw some play on the release of ungoro, and even more when quest rogue, its main counter got nerfed, and jade spirit became an elemental to further support the jade/elemental , so my question is why is it not seeing any play now? even after the nerfs to aggro i’m surprised no one has tried it.
When are you gonna be able to do the full guide list for aggro tempo rogue? Looking forward to it.
Coming soon, sorry about the delay.
Good job on the post nerf, I would say based on my experience with ranks 10-5 post meta, you are spot on about Evolve Token being top, as that is the one deck–no matter which deck I try: ‘meta’ deck, or something off meta I am testing–that is very consistent to lose to. When I play Jade Druid, to test what exactly–if any–effect the nerf has, again… it is Evolve Token(ETS) Shaman that gives me trouble. I was playing ETS previous to the nerf, but have not since… I am rebuilding to test again… Thank you for the update
Hurry up with the updates alreay.
AGREED!
I just updated it, it’s pretty hard to know the meta like two days after nerfs!
Thats true i am just excited for a new meta deck and see how the tier 1 decks adapt
I have a rather big issue with this metagame, playing the wrong decks obviously (renolock, n’zoth priest, control warrior) but i haven’t had issues with these decks in this metagame so far. I managed to get past rank 10 easily but for the past 2 days i’ve been stuck in rank 13 in constant win for lose gameplay. So all im asking is that if it is still possible to get to rank 5 for an example with renolock or the other decks i play with (can’t afford any metagame decks).
Renolock is MORE than capable! Check out some of the nzoth renolock lists. I’m currently rank 122 legend with renolock and I’ve played it all season.
dude, if u passed rank 10 u cant get back to rank 13 wtf
I think you can not read.
no because OP said managed when he should have said manage. That’s what caused the misunderstanding.
After spending hundreds of dollars and way too much time, I have yet to even reach rank 15. I cant even dream about dreaming about reaching rank 5.
You know, sometimes, you require both money AND skill in order to succeed. So…take that as you will.
I’m rank 15 with a midrange murloc paladin, my only problem is that i don’t have any legendary minions for it(Finja, Tirion etc.) But it still works good. You just need to find whats best for you and learn to use it properly.
I’m ftp reached ranked 8 with jackiechans control lock… Really cheap, I’m sure I Couldve gotten a few more but stoped playing for that month..
In other words, money is not needed, just do research and find a deck you enjoy playing 🙂
The best advice I can give you is to find the archetype that fits you best. I just got in to hearthstone and I’m currently rank 9, which is by no means the best, but I have played a few card games over the years and I almost always start out playing really hard control. People are saying that you can only play aggro in the meta, but that’s not true, agrro just always does really well at the beginning of an expansion because people have to figure out how to handle the onslaught. I’ve been climbing the ladder with a control dragon priest that’s not even on the deck tier list and it has around. 75% win rate. Study the other decks, learn the cards they run, and adjust your strategy to handle that. Good luck, I hope things turn up for you.
I started two month ago and I’m rank five now with a version of face hunter that has only patches, which was my first legendary.
Warlock this expansion is suck,, wish there next will be BETTER. still loved renolock right now
any tip to climb rank 3-4 to legend? im stuck help
Me too. I reached Rank 2 but I stuck between 3-4 usually. Any help to climb to Legend?
you have to find the right deck to counter the meta at the time u are playing. use aggro druid / mid range pally / quest warrior. once you get it right, you will start win streaking.
I have 5 competitives decks
Pirate Warrior
Secret Mage
Jade Druid
Quest Rogue
Mid-range Hunter
I think I have more chances with mage and pirate warrior to reach Legend. Which should I use?
Honestly, as sick as this might make me feel, play Pirate Warrior if you want to hit legend. I know it’s not very fun and you’ll feel like a scumbag for playing and sometimes you’ll go on losing streaks due to the inconsistencies, but the games go by so much faster that even if you have a lower winrate with pirate warrior than a control deck (not by much), and your getting an above 50% win rate, you’ll hit legend faster than any other deck.
If you need to play another deck to keep an interesting in between, then I don’t blame you. However, my number one tip, is don’t switch cards in against specific decks because they feel like you only play those decks. Too often do people switch because they play 3 hunters in a row when playing a slow deck. Just remember that you are playing against an incredibly small portion of the people playing and that the reason why Pros’s play stuff like both crabs and eater of secrets is due to the Conquest style format where it’s beneficial to play hard counters.
what henry says is correct. go with the aggro decks so that games are shorter and you can climb faster.
IMO, pirate warrior is not that strong in this meta anymore. half the deck are 3+ drops and if your starting hand is filled with them, its going to be very frustrating.
best aggro deck right now is aggro token druid followed by aggro/face hunter. with more 1-2 drops in these decks, i feel they are more consistent and have stronger openings compared to pirate warrior.
There was a really good article posted a good half year ago about how to do the climb, might be worth a repost by evident… It was written by a guy just like you guys.
I’m like you guys and get stuck each month at rank 3-5. So frustrating. I feel like i have to donate my life to the game to hit legend now
why did they have to get warlock to a point it just sucks? It is my favorite class, I don’t even play hearthstone anymore at the moment because it’s also the only class I play. I think they shouldn’t have removed power overwhelming
That’s exactly why you should not concentrate in only one class…
I had the same feeling, but i tryed out the New handlock and it kicks ass. 😉
If the only class you play sucks at the moment, and you either only play in Play Mode or play there the majority of time, then I would do one or more of the following until a new set hits and hopefully your hero class gets better cards/decks:
A. Play arena runs if you have the gold or money to spend.
B. Save money and gold by just completing Tavern Brawls, use them to complete one or more quests at a time. Use the gold/ money when the next set hits, assuming from the card spoiler that it’s worth it.
C. Take a break from hearthstone, but keep up with news on free pack promotions, new sets, and changes in the meta so that you can return to it when your class is strong again. In the meantime try a game where you like more than one aspect of it for play i.e. different classes, races, nations, colors (MTG). Maybe another Blizzard game like Diabalo, Starcraft or World of Warcraft. It doesn’t have to be computer game, unless that’s all you can do at the moment. , nations, groups/affiliations, etc.
It’s not fun to be annoyed and frustrated for any length of time playing Hearthstone or doing anything in life. So do safe productive things that make you happy, and limit your exposure to things that don’t make you happy as much as possible, as long as it’s beneficial to you in the long run.
How can you ever make us take this seriously, when there is written Stonekeep and your own decks almost over every deck on this list. No top player is listet here – what a joke to then call it the best decks in standard. It seems like your only mission is to have people play your own shit :O
Otherwise i actually really like this site – but this section doesn’t make any sense.
The deck guides are written by Stonekeep, the decks themselves are created by top players. We pick out the best decks from each archetype, and then Stonekeep (who is a legend player) will play it and write a guide about it. Why would we care if people were playing our decks? lol
It appears that the person isn’t clicking on any of the decks and reading the guide. I can see how it may be confusing where it says the player is Stonekeep, but it’s actually another player’s deck and Stonekeep wrote the guide after playing with the deck.
It may be helpful to include the pro player’s name in the deck name, even if there’s a guide. For example, you have a guide for Midrange Murloc Paladin that use’s Machamp’s deck, which is cited in the guide. However, a person wouldn’t know that by browsing this listing. On the flip side, it seems the pro player that created the deck is mentioned in the title of there isn’t a guide, like Feno’s Control Paladin.
It doesn’t matter to me and I’m not sure if others get confused. I would say if it’s never caused confusion before, don’t mess with it.
Keep up the great work! This is my defacto Hearthstone site and point people to it that are looking for guidance.
Keep the good work. Great site.
Dude, I was thinking the same !
I’ve removed the names from each deck so it should be less confusing now.
Hey Evident
Just saw a trump stream, he played handlock and it’s got a pretty good win rate, I suggest you put it back up
Me too being very succesful with Trumps Handlock mod. Ive beat up Purify Priest, Jade Shaman, Jade Druid and Secret Mage in a row now. Quest Warrior, midrange Hunter and those Mages are hard matchups tho, but youre able to beat them all.
That deck is hard to play.
Isn’t quest rogue at one of the top decks at the moment, if yes should i craft quest as a free to play player or should I wait. Because I crafted exodia mage with quest and spent all my dust and it turned out that you can’t win much at the moment with that deck.
You sound like me hahahah!!! fking rip!
me too!! ahahahahah
I crafted Giante Quest Mage, and it’s better than exodia mage. I got a good win rate with it. I recommend!
I will try it. I went from 15 to 5 with payton freeze mage but now I’m using miracle to climb to legend. Freeze mage doesn’t work so nice from 5 to up
Hey nickel, the number 1 rule is to never spent all your dust right away for a new expansion – the situation you are in right now is the very reason why. (The advice was also posted on this site before the expansion came out) However, it’s been less than a week since the expansion came out – wait for a bit while more, mage may come back. Quest rogue is currently one of the strongest deck in the meta but that’s because it’s new and no one has actually truly made a deck to counter it just yet. I say give it a bit more time.
unless of course you’re playing for fun and want to enjoy the crazy meta that comes upon the release of a new expansion.
Of course! It’s not an obligation to follow the rule, but to prevent any regrets later on it’s generally a good rule to follow.
I did it
Midrange Hunter is the best counter to rogue quest.
nope. pirate warrior is.
Quest Rogue is pretty simple to beat unless they get a really, really good draw – just play totally aggressively and kill them before turn 6; and on the ladder aggro is pretty much the main.
My win rate with Quest Rogue at rank 15 was terrible last night, like 25% – I’d have probably dropped to rank 18 if it wasn’t for the safety buffer at 15 now 😐
… switched to the Bloodlust Jade Shaman I’ve been experimenting with and went up to 80% (that was only 5 games though before I called it a night – so it’s not statistically significant) .
Craft the rogue quest if you think it looks like fun (it is) – but don’t craft it specifically to climb the ladder. Like Miracle or Mill Rogue it’s either amazing or unbearably frustrating in equal measure 😉
I think you just have have bad luck or don’t fully know how to play quest rogue. I’m currently at rank 5 with the quest rogue I made. (from rank 15). You can check out my deck if you want, it’s at the front page or here’s the link http://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/the-cavern-below-quest-rogue/
Let me know how it goes!
Was previously a run of terrible luck … started bad again today, dropped from 13 to 14 then started to turn it around – got to rank 12 before I got bored.
Though the highlight was a Swashburgler pulling a Piranha Launcher from a Hunter… 5/5 Piranhas 😀 Still lost (just) but it was funny as all hell.
As a ftp player how do you reccomend me get this amount of dust? I dont like disenchanting cards because i usually just end up spending dust to craft them later lmao. People have told me to play arena but i usually only end up getting 3 -4 wins if im lucky im just lost hope you can help
All you can do is do your quests daily and change them from 40 gold questd
hey one thing i did was, this was for WotOG because I wanted to paly somewhat casually but didn’t want to buy anything and still remain somewhat competitive, was I dusted a couple classes I didn’t play, weren’t as strong at the time, and wasn’t going to play unless they were so strong i had to.
At the time it was Rouge and Warlock. Now, to be ocmpletely hoenst, it’s been a pain in the ass to gt all the ‘regular/classic’ cards back for Warlock especially, for some reason, but as of now, and I only started playing again when Un’Goro came out (2/3 weeks beforehand maybe? a month max), I am running a quest rogue and have 26/30 (maybe 24) for a ‘classic’ warlock premade deck that the deckbuilder in game makes. I probably have enough to run zoolock too, maybe burn 1000 dust.
For Un’Goro what I did, since it seemed a bit more unclear what might be strong vs weak and I wasn’t sure I wanted to go through that whole process again was I dusted all my golds, the “Hall of Fame’ cards and all the cards from any expansions rotated out of standard. So GvG, TGT, and the other one. I haven’t bout 1 Night In Kharazam but that’s a decent way too is to buy single ‘scenes/wings’ of that for specific cards that can really boost your decks up. Other than that I play arena with a 3-5 win average with every 150 gold rather than buying a pack, I always do a brawl for the free pack and I’ve accumulated a decent amount of cards/packs. And a bit of dust, maybe 2k? Since Un’Goro release.
Burning all the gold, GVG TGT and the other expansion that is no logner in standard, as well as, the balckrock mountain? Or the solo mini expansion I earned myself around 14k I think. Maybe? It was a lot though.
I’ve been waiting for two expansions now for them to fix my paladin deck… I’m about out of patience waiting especially when they should have been able to see the deck isn’t competitive. But they put it out everytime anyway. Thanks the pricey disappointment. Ironic since that the Blizzard team that makes WoW does an outstanding job in my opinion of balancing classes and making new content all the time.
Same here, Paldin is my favourite class 🙁
Pally is actually pretty good, i think. Currently i’m having a lot of success with midrange palladin including curator. Try it out!
I am disappointed by the paladin set this expansion as well, but I also think we may be jumping the boat too quickly – it’s barely been a week since release, let’s give it a bit more time. They hyped me up too much with Galvadon at the end of those cringy videos, was disappointed by the ability (in terms of my own hype), but was even more disappointed by the quest. Would be a lot better if the quest was to Adapt x amount of time to complete to match Galvadon theme. Paladin is my favorite class as well.
I slept with a 2 girls from work, but oddly enough, one was good and the other wasn’t… WTF, nerf work and fix ffs.
No Reno!! Reno blackout ):
At priest section there is a problem; its Blackrock Mountain not Blackwing Mountain. Sorry to be a grammer nazi. Love your work Evident keep up the good work!
No problem, thanks for pointing it out! Should be fixed now. Glad you like the site!
Evident, i feel like i have to thank you for the work u ve done for this site pretty amazing job thnx for all these stuff 🙂
Thanks, I appreciate it!
Any aggro deck out there counters jade golem. Jade golem has no way to clean the board.
When do u update the Top meta deck lists?
Very soon. This month was awkward because of the nerfs, I allowing for some time for the meta to settle before I updated things.
Never Handlock, dang.
I think the link to the druid murloc deck is broken.
Thanks, fixed.
Seems to me anyfin paladin with finja is better option for someone masochist enough to try laddering with paladin
Anyfin rotated out with League of explorers
Why was C’Thun combo Druid removed from the list? It’s one of Druid’s best decks for laddering and should be viable for reaching legend.
I just felt like the Malygos combo deck was better, but you might be right maybe I shouldn’t have removed it.
when are u updating this?? its been sometime now
It’s up-to-date now, I just forgot to add the changes to the log.
Yeah, we’re waiting 🙂 but this list still beats aggro. 15/22 games won from 8.
So you’re saying the original recipe midrange shaman is still better than the updated version (that runs waterspeaker)?
While that standard deck is fine, I’ve been meaning to update it. Sorry about that.
Wow this deck is sick. haven’t lost yet… went straight from 18-13.. still going up. Haven’t even felt behind in a single match yet… even when i had 13 health left against rag fire AND light, it was easy. LOL! WTF.
Which deck are you talking about?
I think midrange shaman still is good enough to be in top 5 decks. Renolock and Dragon priest is hard to deal but that decks arent teribly unfavored. All other aggro decks die in 2 or 3 turn… They dont have any AoE… Harison for Jaraxus and gg
I actually find jaraxxus hero power more than enough even without the weapon, as long as you don’t run out of hp.
Jade Golem rogue should be on here
Why didn’t MrYagut, or Feno make the cut for best rogue decks?
I just added them actually, I updated it a bit too early.