The Lost City of Un’Goro is here, and it is time for Quests to return! Or is it?
The first day of Un’Goro has been eventful… and fast. Quests are too slow to live through the aggression for the most part, except for the Paladin Quest that joins the aggression. Loh Druid has been cheating out big things as early as turn four. Priest is an aggro class, and a good one. Warrior returns to playing control, but can even the master of control survive the onslaught? Let’s take a look at the Standard meta after the first day, and the best decks for each class!
Death Knight
So far, the new Death Knight cards have failed to make an impression. There is a version of Menagerie Death Knight that runs Reanimated Pterrordax and Reluctant Wrangler, but it’s just worse than running a Menagerie Death Knight with no new cards apart from the pre-release Blob of Tar. I guess it is technically a Lost City of Un’Goro card?
This is the top-performing Death Knight deck from day 1, looks fully competitive against all the Murlocs and other things you meet:
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-136
- Posted By:
4,740
If you really want to play with new cards, this is the version that does its best to use them. It is not bad, it is just slightly worse than the old one according to Day 1 stats.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-136
- Player:
- 4,020
Demon Hunter
The Demon Hunter Quest is too slow, but some of its support kit can go face and fit in nicely to Aggro Demon Hunter. I found this list on HSguru, and took it out for a spin, and it was quite fun, actually. Demon Hunter overall has not seen a lot of play in Lost City yet, but the class has always had explosiveness, which can come in handy for aggro decks.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-136
- Posted By:
- 5,640
Druid
If you have heard anything about the first day of the new expansion, you have heard of Loh Druid. My experience with the deck was jaw-dropping. Your main goal is to play Loh, the Living Legend. Because Loh lowers the base cost of all of your minions to 5, you can immediately follow it up with 0-cost The Ceaseless Expanse and Playhouse Giant on the same turn. The board is now clear, you are in perfect control, and you are ready to drop things like Zilliax with Taunt and Lifesteal or Carrier dealing up to 16 damage the following turn.
When things go well for the deck with ramp like New Heights and Trail Mix, you just instantly win the game.
Now, life is not always that easy. Despite having multiple cards that can draw minions, sometimes you just cannot find Loh, and you cannot ramp up fast enough either to play your big bombs the old-fashioned way for their actual cost. Then I guess you just die. But the amount of time that Loh+Expanse comes out early and just ends the game on the spot is high enough for the deck to be a major contender.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-136
- Posted By:
- 12,880
Sideboard
Loh Druid has been the Druid deck to play in Lost City; Quest Druid has not been competitive so far.
Hunter
Hunter has struggled in the early days of Lost City. The new cards failed to impress in theorycrafting, failed again in the pre-release Brawl, and are failing now in the full release. The bright spot for Hunter is that Handbuff Hunter remains an OK deck. You can climb the ladder with it.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-136
- Posted By:
- 6,660
Mage
Mage Quest looked promising in theorycrafting, but it is just so hard for any deck to survive the relentless onslaught of Murlocs and various other aggro decks, or even just Carriers from Loh that arrive as fast as an aggro deck.
That said, there is still power in Discovering tons and tons of stuff and getting answers to everything. It is just your early mana that limits your survivability. While I cannot find any Mage decks that would have the stats to prove they work, here is a fresh one from Thijs that is the most promising of the bunch:
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-136
- Player:
- 7,800
Paladin
The one Quest that is clearly playable is the Paladin Quest. Murlocs, Murlocs, and more Murlocs. There are some nuances to building the deck though. In particular, focusing on Murlocs seems to bring the best results. Decks that venture too far into including spells, weapons, and Amalgams are not performing as well as the decks that focus on summoning things that advance your Quest and taking over the game.
This is currently the best-performing Murloc Paladin list:
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-136
- Player:
- 5,520
Priest
I still have this old image of Priest as a slow control class. But the truth is that Priest is currently not only the best deck in the game; it is also the best aggro deck in the game. The Aggro Priest tale continues for yet another expansion with this incredibly explosive build:
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-136
- Posted By:
- 5,880
Rogue
A tale as old as time. New expansion. New Rogue decks full of tricks emerge. Pro players swear that this is the best thing since sliced bread. Here, the tale actually splits down two paths. Down one path, the Rogue deck is strong even for an average player, and it is a key part of the meta. Down the other path, the Rogue deck requires very high skill, and even with that high skill, it is only comparable to other options. It remains played at the top of the ladder, but the average player finds no success with it and abandons it.
The Lost City of Un’Goro edition of this tale is Cycle Rogue. Which path will Cycle Rogue go, I do not know yet, we don’t have statistics on the deck so far. But if you enjoy playing a lot of cards, it is promising.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-136
- Player:
- 4,620
Shaman
I have had a hard time trying to find any Shaman decks. There are no statistics available, but this Aggro Shaman may have the right idea for the current meta.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-136
- Posted By:
- 8,460
Warlock
I cannot find anything worth playing for Warlock. Even people who post Warlock decks do not recommend them. There are no stats on any. Here’s the top pick that was able to reach a 50% win rate in the hands of its creator:
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-136
- Player:
- 6,840
Warrior
The lone control deck still standing, or hopefully at least not fully on its knees, is Quest Warrior. The Warrior Quest is a lot of fun, if you survive long enough, which is very, very difficult. The win rates against Druid and Paladin are bad. The deck can actually put up a fight against Priests and Death Knights, but it cannot dominate any of the current aggro decks. The survivability is just not there. And Shellnado sucks.
One of the low-key strongest cards of the new expansion is Elise the Navigator, because those Locations are quite powerful. It is just hard to survive long enough to use it. Warrior can make good use of Elise, and if any other slower decks emerge, Elise will most likely play a role in them as well.
This is the most promising version of Quest Warrior on the ladder right now, and it is borderline playable if you really want to play a slow deck. You don’t have a lot of options in that space.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-136
- Posted By:
- 19,080
Sideboard
The Best Ladder Decks in The Lost City of Un’Goro
Trying to order the best decks based on what we have seen during the first day looks something like this:
- Menagerie Priest
- Menagerie Death Knight
- Quest Murloc Paladin
- Aggro Demon Hunter (low sample!)
- Loh Druid
- Handbuff Hunter
- Cycle Rogue
- Quest Mage
- Quest Warrior
- Elemental Shaman
- Warlock
It has been a shock start to the expansion with faces being hit left and right. As the dust settles, people can start to look for ways to survive a little longer and get some slower decks out there, or maybe it will remain a race to the face. Either way, it is a new meta, and time for a new Hearthstone journey!
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
