Into the Emerald Dream has been one of the most eventful expansion launches in the history of Hearthstone. We are now almost three weeks into the new expansion, and the meta is still changing every day. The balance patch last week turned out to be a complete relaunch of the expansion: the meta is still going through major changes, and new decks pop up on a daily basis.
In this article, I’ll take a look at what has happened over the past week, and what are the best decks to play on the Standard ladder right now. The meta is still not stable, and there will be more to come!
Cliff Dive Demon Hunter
Any story about the meta after the balance patch has to start with Cliff Dive Demon Hunter. The deck was first spotted on the ladder on Sunday, April 6, and it has shot up in popularity like a rocket since. It is currently the most popular deck in Legend and one of the most popular decks on the ladder overall.
Refinement of the archetype has continued for the past week, and this fairly new list is currently the best-performing version on the ladder:
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-133
- Posted By:
6,960
Cliff Dive is at the very core of the deck. If you manage to pull an Illidari Inquisitor with it, you can get rid of something on the board and also hit face. If you pull Magtheridon, Unreleased, it will stay Dormant on the board and not return back to the deck at the end of the turn (which is exactly what you want).
The big Demons are complemented by a small Deathrattle package of Tuskpiercer, Ball Hog, Ravenous Felhunter, and Return Policy. This potential mass of Ball Hogs can already win games even without the big boys. There’s also a version using one or two Briarspawn Drakes for extra burn damage, but the jury is still out on whether it’s better or not.
Cliff Dive Demon Hunter comes at you like a train, but it has some weaknesses, too. Most notably, big Taunt minions, especially in multiple copies or Elusive so that they cannot be bypassed with Red Card.
Big Taunts to the Rescue: Handbuff Hunter, Handbuff Death Knight, and Terran Taunt Warrior
As Cliff Dive Hunter emerged, there was already one meta deck capable of beating it. Well, every deck has weaknesses, and if you have only one, you are in a pretty good spot. Either way, Handbuff Hunter has enjoyed Cliff Dive Demon Hunter’s appearance, because a pair of huge Mythical Runebears are happy to trade some blows with big Demons.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-133
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- 5,460
If Handbuff Hunter works, then what about other Handbuff decks? On Tuesday, just a couple of days after Cliff Dive Demon Hunter made its initial appearance, a new version of Handbuff Death Knight arrived at the ladder. Handbuff Death Knight has been a hilarious deck to play ever since Whizbang’s Workshop, but it has generally not been competitive enough. In this meta, it has one prime target, Cliff Dive Demon Hunter, and it appears able to hold its own against the decks. Going even with the rest and beating the most popular deck is enough for Handbuff Death Knight to have made a real comeback.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-133
- Player:
- 4,260
Cliff Dive Demon Hunter’s appearance has also brought a welcome moment of respite for Warrior. Warrior has not had a great time in Emerald Dream, but it has been somewhat playable the whole time. The good Demon Hunter matchup seems to ensure that Warrior remains playable for the foreseeable future.
- Format: raptor
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- 14,280
Sideboard
Personally, I’m a huge fan of Tortolla, and you can cut one Yamato Cannon to include the big turtle. Sadly, you will also cut one percentage point from your win rate if you do. Adding more fun sometimes hurts a little, but you’ll still be able to stay above the magic 50%.
Imbue Druid: The Most Popular Deck on the Ladder
Cliff Dive Demon Hunter is rapidly rising and has already taken the #1 spot in Legend, but across the entire ladder, Imbue Druid remains the most popular deck. The Imbue Druid list has been refined further during the expansion, and it reached this form on Sunday, April 6, the same day Cliff Dive Demon Hunter made its first appearance.
Imbue Druid is a solid deck with limited weaknesses. In its current form, it has some answers to most threats, and it can summon an army of big green men if left alone.
- Format: raptor
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Counters to Druid: Menagerie and the Many Faces of Rogue
The two main ways to counter Imbue Druid are Menagerie decks and Rogue decks.
Menagerie Death Knight was split between BBU and FFU variants one week ago. Both can still be found on the ladder, but the BBU variant has gained an edge over FFU. There is also a Rainbow Menagerie variant that was first seen last Saturday and has become more popular this week.
The BBU list has not changed over the past week and it still looks like this:
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-133
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- 4,020
It is now neck and neck in performance with its new Rainbow Menagerie competitor:
- Format: raptor
- Posted By:
- 4,800
Menagerie Paladin has attempted to find improvements, most notably with the Ursol and Shaladrassil package where Ursol can both corrupt and cast Shaladrassil. The early results are mixed, and it looks like the old version with a lower top end remains the better deck.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-133
- Player:
- 7,740
Sideboard
Menagerie Paladin is the class’s best answer to Druid, but there is another Paladin deck that looks stronger overall. We’ll take a look at that soon, but let’s examine the Rogue decks that counter Druid first.
Rogue has exploded into a fireworks of archetypes. Protoss Rogue has been the most popular one, but there are also Pirate Rogues, Cycle Rogues, Bounce Rogues, Starship Rogues, and Ashamane Rogues on the ladder. Obviously, not all of these will survive, that’s just such a huge number of archetypes. Three of the archetypes look good for now.
Protoss Rogue has not changed over the past week, and it is still a pretty good deck, but the direction of the meta is very concerning for it. It is the top counter to Imbue Druid, and that is keeping it relevant for now, but if the Druid numbers go down, Protoss Rogue is nowhere near as strong against the other meta contenders.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-133
- Posted By:
- 5,880
Pirate Rogue is Rogue’s fast aggro deck. It looks OK, although not particularly strong against Druid, and its matchup against Cliff Dive Demon Hunter is concerning. It is great against Paladins and Zarimi Priests, and it should be able to survive in the meta. This is the one Rogue deck that does not counter Druid though.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-133
- Player:
- 5,400
Finally, there is Ashamane Rogue. Ashamane Rogue has seen a lot of refinement over the past few days, and this list is only a couple of days old. You win some matchups with Harbinger of the Blighted, and some slower matchups with Ashamane. The deck is great against Druid, Paladin, and Priest, although it may struggle against Demon Hunter and Leech Death Knight.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-133
- Posted By:
- 10,200
Sideboard
Shaladrassil Paladin Sings a Sea Shanty
Yet another new development this week is the continued refinement of Shaladrassil Paladin. The old version still remain playable, but there is a new style on the ladder now, one that incorporates Divine Brew, Holy Glowsticks, and Sea Shanty into the mix. This is currently the strongest Paladin deck on the ladder:
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-133
- Player:
- 7,500
Old Favorites: Leech Death Knight and Zarimi Priest
Leech Death Knight and Zarimi Priest remain popular decks on the ladder. Both decks are still capable of climbing the ladder up to Legend with an above-50% win rate, but their future trajectory looks quite different.
Leech Death Knight changed into the full Blood build early after the balance patch, and there have been no further developments since. It is one of the slowest decks on the ladder, if that is a playstyle you enjoy. Perhaps that explains why it remains so popular because its performance does not warrant its playrate.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-133
- Posted By:
- 10,320
Sideboard
Zarimi Priest has seen some minor refinement, and its main win condition remains strong. How good it will be in the future depends on the meta: the deck has found ways to counter Imbue Druid, and it is phenomenal against Wheel Warlock, but it also has major weaknesses against Menagerie and some of the other more aggressive decks on the ladder. It has had some success against Cliff Dive Demon Hunter, but the most recent versions of Demon Hunter are starting to pose a major challenge and I doubt whether Zarimi Priest can keep up with it.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-133
- Posted By:
- 13,120
Wheel Warlock Returns?
With Location Warlock being mediocre at best in the current meta, Warlock players have started looking for a savior from Wheel of DEATH!!! again. I thought we went through this Starship into Wheel and Kil'jaeden phase already last year, but it’s a nice rerun. The initial results were somewhat promising, but the deck struggles to stay above 50%, so things do not look too good for Warlock players.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-133
- Posted By:
- 11,640
Any Mage or Shaman decks?
For Mage, Protoss Mage remains barely playable.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-133
- Posted By:
- 6,120
Shaman is completely dead. Gaby did reach #1 Legend with Nebula Shaman recently, but don’t expect to be able to climb even to Diamond with it. Top Legend is about playing against players you know and choosing a deck that is a perfect fit in a very narrow meta. Bringing decks from there to the general ladder often fails.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-133
- Player:
- 18,660
- 1Lock On1
- 2Triangulate1
- 3Fairy Tale Forest2
- 3Far Sight1
- 3Hex2
- 3Lightning Storm2
- 3Turbulus1
- 4Baking Soda Volcano2
- 4Hagatha the Fabled1
- 6Shudderblock1
- 7Murmur1
- 9Nebula2
The Overall Picture
These are the most popular decks on the ladder right now:
- Imbue Druid (14%)
- Zarimi Priest (11%)
- Cliff Dive Demon Hunter (11%)
- Leech Death Knight (6%)
- Shaladrassil Paladin (5%)
The top 5 decks form around half of the meta. The rest is a wide variety of different things. There is still a lot going on in the meta.
Performance numbers give a somewhat different picture:
- Cliff Dive Demon Hunter
- Zarimi Priest
- Handbuff Hunter
- Protoss Rogue
- Imbue Druid
- Menagerie Death Knight
- Handbuff Death Knight
- Shaladrassil Paladin
- Menagerie Paladin
- Ashamane Rogue
I expect the Emerald Dream meta to keep evolving. There are still decks that are played a lot even though they no longer offer superior performance. As players move to newer archetypes, the competitive environment will change, and the meta will keep changing. There are many archetypes on the ladder that first appeared last weekend or even this week, and more can still be found.
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
