Hearthstone Grandmasters 2021 season 2 is approaching its end: the finals will be played next week, and the last week of the regular season is underway right now. While the first games are played off-stream, you can watch the action from Friday to Sunday. There are also two free packs available for watching if you have not picked them up from the previous weeks yet. The finals next week will then offer two fresh packs also for dedicated viewers.
This week looks particularly interesting: the finalists will be decided and there are also more unique decks brought to the competition this week than during any previous week.
Grandmasters Season 2, Week 7 Meta
Obviously, it’s Grandmasters, so you expect to see a lot of meta decks. There are a lot of meta decks, but there are also lots of off-meta picks! Here’s the full meta breakdown of the 192 decks brought by the 48 Grandmasters:
- 43 Rogues (35 Garrote, 4 Quest, 3 Poison, 1 Kazakus)
- 31 Warlocks (28 Giants Quest, 1 Zoo Quest, 1 OTK Quest, 1 Monsanto)
- 31 Demon Hunters (26 Quest Lifesteal, 4 Fel, 1 Monsanto)
- 20 Hunters (18 Face, 2 Quest)
- 19 Druids (13 Anacondra, 5 Aggro, 1 Miracle)
- 15 Mages (15 Quest)
- 15 Paladins (12 Libram, 3 Secret Libram)
- 11 Warriors (6 Big, 4 Control, 1 Monsanto)
- 4 Shamans (2 Quest, 1 Elemental, 1 Aggro)
- 3 Priests (2 Control, 1 Monsanto)
This is the most diverse meta we have seen in Grandmasters during United in Stormwind! All classes are present and there is quite a lot of archetype variety as well. Monsanto may have single-handedly contributed to the archetype variety, but we’ll take a deeper look at his lineup a bit later in this article.
The Most Interesting Decks From Grandmasters
This is a good week. While the majority of decks are meta decks, of course, there are lots of fun-looking lists being played. Here are my top picks!
Bankyugi’s Control Warrior
12,240- 1Shield Slam2
- 2Bladestorm2
- 2Corsair Cache2
- 2Harbor Scamp1
- 2Minefield2
- 3Bulwark of Azzinoth1
- 3Cargo Guard2
- 3Heavy Plate2
- 4Outrider’s Axe2
- 4Rancor2
- 5Brawl2
- 5Shieldmaiden2
- 9Rattlegore1
There are four Control Warriors in Grandmasters this week (Bankyugi, J4YOU, Leta, and Viper), and I like this list the most. Bankyugi is bringing on the armor with Armor Vendor, Cargo Guard, Heavy Plate, Rancor, and Shieldmaiden. That’s more armor-generation than I believed to be possible to fit into the deck, but somehow Bankyugi has done it.
Harbor Scamp tutoring for Cargo Guard is a nice touch, and the anti-combo teching is in full swing with Shadow Hunter Vol'jin, Mutanus the Devourer, and even Silas Darkmoon (without the OTK combo!) who can also be used to steal some big and annoying minions, if necessary.
DreadEye’s Quest Hunter
Two players are bringing Quest Hunter this week, DreadEye and muzzy. While muzzy goes for some more spice with Lock and Load, I have not found that card particularly useful in Quest Hunter so I prefer DreadEye’s more standard take of the archetype. I think Quest Hunter is still rare enough to recommend a fairly typical version of the archetype. I have played a similar list on the ladder and can recommend this deck also for ladder play. However, if you want something even more unique, be sure to check out muzzy’s version.
DreadEye’s Fel Demon Hunter
There are a couple of ways to build Fel Demon Hunter, and DreadEye’s take stays true to the main ideas of the deck. It’s just pure Fel goodness, including Metamorphosis. You’d probably be better off with Il'gynoth instead of Zai, the Incredible that DreadEye is using, but come on, which one is more fun? Zai, the Incredible for a bonus Jace Darkweaver is clearly the more fun alternative.
Fr0zen’s Libram Paladin
I really like what Fr0zen has done with Libram Paladin. Libram Paladin is good at defending and winning long games – by today’s standards, anyway – but sometimes it lacks threats to hurt OTK decks in time. Two copies of Goody Two-Shields and one copy of Blessing of Authority are included in this deck to increase threat density, and I believe some evolution along these lines can see Libram Paladin become even more successful by posing more of a threat to combo decks.
Killinallday’s Quest Rogue
Quest Rogue is currently the strongest Rogue archetype to bring to the ladder, even though Garrote Rogue has a lot of support from APM aficionados and some people believe that Garrote is stronger when piloted at a high level.
Be that as it may, Quest Rogue brings the joys of good old tempo-based Rogue to United in Stormwind. The spy gizmos include many tools to disrupt your opponent’s play, and you can use your seemingly meager resources to just chip in damage and ultimately win the game. Sure, sometimes there’s a Battleground Battlemaster and some big stats involved, especially after completing the Questline and giving your big reward minion stealth, but the deck’s sheer ability to play a disruptive tempo game is unique in the current meta.
Leta’s Control Priest
You Discover random stuff, destroy or steal your opponent’s minions, and slowly proceed to make them hate their life. What is there not to like? Unless you’re on the receiving end, of course, but that’s not something Leta has to worry about.
This style of Priest has been all the rage last expansion but hasn’t been viable in United in Stormwind. So I’m half-eager, half-terrified to see whether Leta can make it work in Grandmasters.
Leta’s Kazakus Rogue
Sometimes I wonder whether Leta submitted some Forged in the Barrens lists by accident. This Rogue deck has Field Contact, Efficient Octo-bot, Shroud of Concealment… But for some reason, Garrote and Ethereal Augmerchant are missing. There’s no Alexstrasza the Life-Binder at the top end either, though. I suppose it is too slow.
How is this Rogue deck supposed to win games, then? Well, there’s Kazakus, Golem Shaper and Jandice Barov, and there’s two copies of Shadowstep. There are no ladder stats available for this kind of deck, but it is a Stormwindy take of the good old Barrens Rogue. I wonder if it is still viable.
Muzzy’s Quest Zoolock
I thought every Quest Warlock deck was running Goldshire Gnoll and Battleground Battlemaster these days, but muzzy keeps going against the grain and brings the Zoo variant of Quest Warlock to the party. Flame Imp, Spirit Jailer, Bloodbound Imp, the boys are back in town.
On the ladder, this style of Warlock deck dropped to around 48% win rate after the nerfs, but it will be interesting to see if muzzy can make some magic happen with it.
Monsanto’s Entire Lineup!
Monsanto’s lineup has been the talk of the town this week. He has already secured a playoff spot, so many people are of the opinion that this lineup is just memes. Some even question whether Monsanto is intentionally throwing the games this week. Here are Monsanto’s own remarks about the lineup:
All my decks for this gm week lose to my opponent playing a minion but other than that I should totally be fine. Brought a very spicy last minute lineup with 0 testing, let’s see if it pays off (:
— Monstanto_HS (@Monsanto_HS) September 29, 2021
Every deck in Monsanto’s lineup includes two copies of Acidic Swamp Ooze and Rustrot Viper, so he’s very keen on weapon removal. Against what, though? I guess none of the Poison Rogues can beat this lineup. All three Poison Rogues this week are from the Americas region, but unfortunately for Monsanto, none of them are in his group. In fact, there are no good weapon hate targets available for Monsanto this week. Ouch.
Every deck also includes two copies of Ogremancer, so there’s some anti-spell teching there too. Add in some Crossroads Watch Posts, and maybe some spell decks will actually fall.
Let’s take a more detailed look at two of his decks that I consider most likely to be able to win a game:
People have been confused by Monsanto’s Quest Priest. There are no eight-cost cards in the deck, so short of a Discovered Idol of Y'Shaarj or Draconic Studies into an eight-cost Dragon, there is no way to complete the Quest. I’m not sure how many people have actually played Quest Priest though. I have, and so far I have never won a game with the Questline reward. I have also seen people comment that they have won a game or two in more than a hundred with the Purified Shard. The Questline is typically only useful for drawing more cards along the way, and the thing that actually wins games is High Abbess Alura casting Elekk Mount on herself from a Coin or a one-cost spell from Wandmaker.
You may also wonder about the Cheesemonger, but while it is not a mainstream choice, I first saw it in Quest Priest by Deano several weeks ago. While not mind-blowingly impressive, it is a solid card in the archetype.
Banana Vendor and King Mukla can fill the opponent’s hand, and Crossroads Watch Post makes those Bananas really awkward to use.
I’m not saying this is a top-tier deck. It is not. But it can definitely win some games. And it’s pleasantly weird.
The Buff Warrior deck is built with the same basic ideas. There’s tons of weapon removal and disruption: Cult Neophyte, Far Watch Post, Crossroads Watch Post, it’s all there. King Mukla can fill the opponent’s hand and make them burn a card. Ogremancer makes casting spell a risk. Conditioning (Rank 1) and Rokara threaten to turn small minions into major threats.
I would not take this deck to a Legend climb either, but it is not completely hopeless, especially if it hit the matchups it is teched for.
Have Fun!
As always, bringing a deck to a tournament and taking it out for a spin on the ladder are two different things. In a tournament, you can ban a class, and you can also target a specific popular deck and ignore some of the other matchups in a way you cannot do on the ladder unless you are not attempting to climb, but merely want to beat up some popular deck (also a noble pursuit).
Therefore, some of these decks are unlikely to succeed on the ladder. Others may succeed only in a specific meta pocket, which may or may not be where you are. Anyway, some of these may be useful, and more importantly, fun for you to try out as well. Have fun watching Grandmasters this weekend and good luck if you take any of these to the ladder!
Old Guardian
Ville "Old Guardian" Kilkku is a writer and video creator focused on analytic, educational Hearthstone, and building innovative Standard format decks. Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/OldGuardian Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/old_guardian
Uhm Power Word: Fortitude doesn’t work as an 8-cost, it sees itself in the hand and reduces it to 7 when it’s the only spell in your hand. Can also get 8’s from 9-cost dragons off Draconic Studies. @Old Guardian
Fixed, thanks!
I saw Monsanto’s decks on Communitty Decks here. So FreeStyle, so good. xD I hope he can made it to Top 8, just for memes. <3