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The Meta Just Flipped Upside Down After the First Embers of the World Tree Balance Patch

By: Old Guardian - - Updated:

King Plush is gone. Imbue Hunter is gone. Shaladrassil Paladin is gone. Blizzard went nuclear on King Plush and deleted the entire deck from the game. With one of the main support pieces of the meta – albeit a meta many players said was one of the worst ones in recent memory – disappeared, everything is different. Now, the big question is whether we return to the pre-mini-set meta, or whether there is still something new left.

Fyrakk the Blazing and Amirdrassil are still going strong, so the two Legendary reasons to buy the mini-set are still here. This also means that there is no going back to what the game was before the mini-set, and we can explore some new territory. Pre-mini-set decks are stronger now than they were against Plush, but there are also newer things around. Let’s take a look at what the meta looks like, less than two days after the patch.

Something New

Fyrakk Rogue’s evolution continues, and the most promising current variant is Pirate Rogue. This is also one of the decks that can still corrupt Shaladrassil thanks to Fyrakk the Blazing, but it looks like Shaladrassil might not have what it takes to be in this one either. The mana cost increase hurt the card badly, as your corruption options are now so limited and so slow.

Fyrakk Pirate Rogue – #20 Legend (Unknown) – Into the Emerald Dream

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Blizzard buffed some of the Dark Gift cards in the balance patch. While Dark Gifts have been reasonably good, they have been a sideshow throughout Emerald Dream. Now, it just might be the time for Dark Gifts to shine.

While there is not much data available yet, buffing up your Wallow, the Wretched to Charge and Windfury face might be viable for the first time. Warlock has been struggling to find answers to the meta, and this is the most promising one they have had for some time:

Wallow Warlock

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Blizzard also buffed the Imbue Priest Hero Power. It now always gives you playable cards. While this has not managed to turn Imbue Priest into a viable archetype, it has caused some changes to the more aggressive Priest decks. When you start to run low on threats, you can always generate immediately playable tools. I’m not sure this was what Blizzard was after, but that’s how it works.

Sadly it also made the class even more oppressive than it already was in Arena – we hope that the situation will get better after the delayed revamp finally releases, but that’s a topic for another article.

Menagerie Imbue Priest – #35 Legend (Unknown) – Into the Emerald Dream

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Cliff Dive was nerfed, so people are trying to find alternatives for Demon Hunter. The early candidate has been the return of a form of Pain Demon Hunter. However, it looks like Cliff Dive Demon Hunter may still be better than an attempt like this. The deck looked good yesterday, but the early figures from today show a considerable decline.

Pain Demon Hunter

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Those are the brand-new decks that have risen in play after the balance patch. Not a bad number this early when people are still thinking about how the buffs in the patch and the changes in the meta can help various archetypes.

The Stunning Rise of Imbue Paladin

The most popular deck on the ladder at the moment is Imbue Paladin. The deck looks really strong with various Death Knight decks as its main challengers. The combo between Ursol and Shaladrassil is gone, but the Paladin Imbue Hero Power was buffed to cost only one mana, so you can more than make up for it with dreamy Dragons.

Ursol is not gone either because it still has Renewing Flames, which is a remarkable spell to have as a three-turn aura.

Imbue Paladin

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Death Has Many Faces

No other class can currently compete with the variety Death Knight offers. There are four different Death Knight archetypes in the meta!

Menagerie Death Knight shines like never before. It is one of the three best decks in the game right now, with slow control decks as its only weakness. It is one of the best decks on the entire expansion: the archetype has not fallen below a 52% win rate at any point during Emerald Dream, so even when it has not been one of the absolute best decks, it has always been viable.

Rainbow Menagerie Death Knight – #321 Legend (Lugozzi) – Into the Emerald Dream

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Speaking of counters to Menagerie Death Knight, its worst nightmare comes from the same class. BBB Starship Death Knight is a slow control deck whose fortunes turned around completely when King Plush left the meta. This is now the second-best Death Knight deck. The deck reached #1 Legend already a month ago, and now it is back.

Blood Starship Death Knight – #1 Legend (슈퍼곰) – Into the Emerald Dream

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Another Death Knight deck revived by the balance patch is Handbuff Death Knight. In a story similar to the other Death Knight decks, Handbuff Death Knight has been fairly good for the majority of the expansion, then it could not compete with King Plush and was abandoned, and now it is stronger than it has ever been. And that’s only enough to be the third-best deck in its class.

Blood/Unholy Handbuff Death Knight – #49 Legend (Homi) – Into the Emerald Dream

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Finally, there is the Leech Death Knight. The BBU variant has been the strongest of its kind now, but it can be hard to find reasons to play it. It is above the magic 50% line, so if the class was bad, you could go for it, but it is clearly behind the other three viable Death Knight archetypes, so you just have to love the leeches to choose this one. It is still an option, so I’ll give you the code here.

Blood/Unholy Leech Death Knight

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Playing with Some Mini-Set Cards

Many of the meta decks do not use any of the mini-set cards. However, the deck that makes the most use of them is also in a good position in the meta. That deck is Imbue Druid.

Imbue Druid

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Imbue Druid has far more mini-set cards than any other deck, including both of the fancy Legendary cards Amirdrassil and Fyrakk the Blazing. It is also one of the very few decks that can still make good use of the nerfed Shaladrassil.

Another deck that has at least a hint of the mini-set is Space Warlock. This version is practically a newcomer, and OK, it does not rely on the mini-set for anything important, but maybe you have not had a chance to play with it yet. The sample size is really low, so performance is not guaranteed, but it is one of the few hopes Warlock has for success. I’d put my money on Wallow Warlock as the top option, but you can try this if you like control decks.

Space Warlock

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Surviving the Nerfs

Hunter and Demon Hunter are trying to figure out what their life is like after the nerfs.

For Hunter, this means the return of Buff Hunter with Mythical Runebears. Because big bears are fun. But mostly, because you cannot Plush people anymore.

Buff Hunter

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For Demon Hunter, figuring out whether the nerfed Cliff Dive is still worth it is a work in progress. So far, it looks like it might still work, as demonstrated by this fairly new version of the archetype.

Cliff Dive Demon Hunter

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The Meta and Oldies But Goldies

We have Imbue Paladin, Imbue Druid, various Death Knight decks, and Pirate Rogue as the main early competitors for the top spots. Then there are some relatively unknown quantities like Fishing Priest, Wallow Warlock, Buff Hunter, and Demon Hunters, that may still become something.

Behind those, there are several decks that have been around for the majority of Emerald Dream, and are all currently able to breach the 50% win rate line. If your favorite class is not otherwise represented, perhaps you can find it here. I don’t think any of these will be top tier, but they have shown resilience during the first days after the balance patch.

I have to admit that Protoss Mage does puzzle me. It is very popular even though it does not have a superb win rate. This is the best-performing list I can find, and maybe it is just that much better than the average Protoss Mage list that it actually is top tier.

Protoss Mage – #1 Legend (LFyueying) – Into the Emerald Dream

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Across all decks, Raylla Imbue Mage has a better performance than Protoss Mage, but that might not be a fair comparison because the Raylla Mage is largely this one list, and there are dozens of Protoss Mage variants. Imbuing some Wisps is still a semi-viable plan to take to the ladder, anyway.

Raylla Imbue Mage

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Shaman has been struggling a lot during Emerald Dream. There is some hope that Asteroid Shaman could mount a comeback, but there is not much data about the deck yet. No other Shaman deck even comes close to the playable territory as of now.

Asteroid Shaman

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Warrior control decks keep hovering at the edge of viability. Terran Warrior seems to have a small edge over the Taunt variant at the moment, and both are playable, even if clearly not in the competition for the absolute top.

Terran Warrior

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Taunt Warrior

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Zerg Egg Hunter remains a viable deck on the ladder like it has been since March. A good run from a reliable aggressive deck.

Zerg Egg Hunter – Early #1 Legend (暮想) – Into the Emerald Dream

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Menagerie Paladin is another reliable workhorse that keeps performing at a good level.

Menagerie Paladin – #245 Legend (nanamal9) – Into the Emerald Dream

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Playhouse Giants have also been spotted on the ladder again as Rogue tries to find the best recipes for the new meta.

Cycle Rogue

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And that’s it for the meta for now. You can tell it is early because I was able to find 21 viable archetypes. Some of them are likely to be eliminated in the coming days, but overall, the balance patch has been a breath of fresh air for Hearthstone, and there are a lot more options you can play now than what you could just two days ago.

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

Check out Old Guardian on Twitter or on their Website!

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