The Embers of the World Tree mini-set is here! Unlike the large StarCraft mini-set we had last time, Embers of the World Tree returns to the regular 38-card mini-set size. StarCraft completely transformed the meta, unlike your typical mini-set, but can Embers of the World Tree compete at the same level? With fewer cards and no balance changes accompanying the new mini-set, the odds are stacked against it. Nonetheless, the set has had an impact. Let’s take a look at how big of an impact!
See Plush Plush
There is no doubt about the talk of the town. Imbue Hunter was revitalized by the mini-set. It received some potential improvements on Petal Picker and Bursting Shot, and the real bomb in Tending Dragonkin.
You Imbue your Hero Power. You draw your King Plush (tutor for it if needed). You make it cheap and strong, copy it with the Dragonkin, and win the game. It’s a combo deck with an average game length of 6-7 turns.
The deck is also dirt cheap with one mandatory Legendary card and no Epic cards needed. This is now the deck to beat, and the deck everyone is targeting. Your deck has to have some way to answer Hunter. One way to answer it is as old as Hearthstone itself – pure aggression beats combo decks. Kill Hunter before they can OTK you and you win. If you play a slower deck, however, Dirty Rat is an absolute must-have right now.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-134
- Posted By:
3,300
These Trees Won’t Burn
Oh, things are also going to get more challenging. So, you’re trying to beat up the Hunter. You kind of want to play aggro and kill it before it kills you, but then you run into a tree.
Imbue Druid also got a major boost from the mini-set in the form of Amirdrassil, Charred Chameleon, and Fyrakk the Blazing.
Imbue Druid can beat Imbue Hunter, even if it is close, and it also beats all the aggro decks that would be more natural predators against Hunter. Druid loses to some slower decks, but those, in turn, are obliterated by the Hunters. These two apex predators protect each other from their worst counters and wrestle for control of the meta.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-134
- Player:
- 8,040
Time to Bounce
There is one deck that seems capable against both Imbue Hunter and Imbue Druid. It is a new version of Bounce Rogue that includes Fyrakk the Blazing. To distinguish it from the older lists, it is sometimes also called Fyrakk Rogue. We’ll see which name will stick.
Rogue also got some other potential cards from the mini-set, but after enthusiastic attempts on the first day, both Cindersword and Smoke Bomb have started to vanish into obscurity. There have been some recent attempts to brew with them in an Ashamane list, but we’ve yet to see if it works out.
The Fyrakk list looks like the most promising Rogue deck right now, but some of the older builds still look alright.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-134
- Posted By:
- 9,720
Sideboard
Can Rogue open up space for other contenders in the meta? Rogue has more weaknesses than the Imbue decks, including miserable matchups against Leech Death Knight, Taunt Warrior, and Deckless Warlock. Those decks have their issues and plenty of weaknesses of their own, but they may be able to carve some space for themselves and bring a bit of variety to the ladder.
Slow and Steady, Like a Turtle
Taunt Warrior does have some things going for it. It runs Dirty Rat to catch some dinosaurs, for one. It has also adopted Fyrakk the Blazing as one of its win conditions.
If slow and steady is something you will not compromise on, this is one of the main faces of control on the ladder.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-134
- Player:
- 17,760
Sideboard
The Other Control Hopefuls
The other main control candidate is Leech Death Knight. Triple Blood is as control as it gets, and Leech Death Knight is an excellent choice against both Imbue Hunter and Fyrakk Rogue. You won’t find any new cards here, but the deck’s early performance trajectory indicates that it could be the strongest control deck in the current meta, even ahead of Warrior.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-133
- Posted By:
- 10,320
Sideboard
Deckless Warlock, on the other hand, has made an attempt to add a new card to the deck. Conflagrate does seem thoroughly mediocre, and Warlock is the weakest of the three hopeful control decks in the game right now. I don’t think it will be able to hit a 50% win rate anymore as the competition gets tougher.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-134
- Posted By:
- 10,680
Diving into Cinders
There is one more deck that was buffed by the new mini-set: Cliff Dive Demon Hunter. The addition of Sigil of Cinder has been a boon for the deck. It is a good addition for more survivability and clearing the path for your big threats to push through.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-134
- Posted By:
- 5,160
The Old But Gold
That’s it for competitive decks with new cards from the mini-set. However, many of the old decks are also still viable. Here are the other competitive decks in the current meta, in order of performance, strongest first. These are behind the top three decks (Imbue Hunter, Imbue Druid, and Fyrakk Rogue), with the control decks sprinkled in between.
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-134
- Posted By:
- 9,360
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-134
- Player:
- 7,380
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-134
- Posted By:
- 3,660
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-133
- Posted By:
- 6,360
Sideboard
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-134
- Posted By:
- 8,760
Sideboard
- Format: raptor
- Posted By:
- 5,880
- Format: raptor
- Season: season-134
- Posted By:
- 4,840
And that’s pretty much it when it comes to decks with an above 50% win rate right now. There is no life in Shaman, and whether there are playable Priest decks by the time this article is published is maybe a little questionable too, with Fishing Priest’s win rate on a downward trend.
Is Embers of the World Tree a Good Mini-Set?
Like most old-fashioned mini-sets, Embers of the World Tree was only able to lift up a couple of classes. This time, it gave them a big lift, which has had a major effect on the meta, but in the end, it is still just a couple of decks. Decks that are now also primary nerf candidates, which raises some challenges for Blizzard. If they nerf the current top decks, the mini-set will be meaningless. If they want to keep the mini-set viable, they need to find ways to buff other pieces or keep the current decks strong, even if they want to weaken them a bit.
Right now, the mini-set looks like a good thing to buy. Even if cards from it do not appear in many decks, it includes two strong Legendary cards in Fyrakk the Blazing and Amirdrassil, and those Legendary cards alone justify the purchase.
As for the meta, mini-sets always seem to land a little soft. StarCraft is the lone exception, and it will be interesting to see whether Blizzard will adjust future mini-sets based on the experiences gathered from that one. Anyway, Embers of the World Tree was a return to the old mini-set format, for now.
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
