Hearthstone
Top Decks

Top Standard & Wild Legend Decks – Murder at Castle Nathria Week 3 – August 2022

By: Stonekeep - - Updated:

We’re already after the first balance update in Castle Nathria and it’s been one of the biggest balance updates ever in terms of how many cards got changed. Sadly, it wasn’t also the biggest in terms of its impact. The biggest winner of the patch is Rogue, who wasn’t even the worst class before the patch. Right now Tempo variants of builds with Sinstone Graveyard and Necrolord Draka are some of the most popular builds on the ladder (especially in Legend, they don’t have nearly the same presence at lower ranks). Of course, after the initial wave of “what the hell, how could Blizzard buff it”, people have realized that they are not that hard to counter and unless they get really good draws, you can even beat them with most of the “regular” decks (you don’t need a specialized Questline Priest built to deal with it – although those do have an amazing win rate in Rogue matchup).

The problem is, however, that the other three buffed classes didn’t see the same results. Demon Hunter, Warrior and Paladin are still in the dumpster. Well, you could maybe find some Tier 3-4 decks for those classes that are SORT OF playable, but going from 38% win rate to 45% win rate, while a massive success, is still not good enough. As for the nerfs, they also didn’t change much – the biggest loser is clearly Shaman, where Snowfall Guardian shenanigans were one of the main win conditions of the entire class. Sure, Snowfall Guardian might still be playable, but it’s mostly just for stalling – you no longer end up with a massive minion that you can reasonably kill your opponent with. Guardians are 5/5’s and Macaws are 3/3’s – not 12/12’s and 10/10’s for example. For the most of the ladder, Shaman has dropped from Tier 1 to Tier 2 because of that, but the class itself is still playable. But things look a bit different in high Legend, where the nerf nearly killed it off. It looks like the current meta is really unfavorable for Guardian-less Shaman decks.

I think it proves why nerfs are generally a better balance tool than buffs. Even 1-2 nerfs of top classes can have a massive impact on the meta, while you can buff 20+ cards of bottom classes and see almost no results. Buffs are still important to fine-tune things, but they should either hit the top classes harder (then they would get down closer to the level of bottom classes) or, I don’t know, release a bunch more buffs.

So in the end, we had a massive balance patch that resulted in Rogue trading places with Shaman. What will happen next? Hard to say, to be honest. The next big patch should be out late in August or early in September. It will most likely focus on Battlegrounds (X.2 patches always do), but it’s possible to also sneak some Constructed changes. So that’s when I expect something to happen. However, it might be the case that by the time the meta fully settles and Blizzard gets enough meaningful data, the contents of 24.2 will already be locked. If that happens, they might release a smaller patch a week or so after. What will the patch change? If I had to guess, I’d say that we’ll get a similar patch – a few more nerfs coupled with 10+ buffs for the bottom classes that might finally bring them back into action. Just like always, I’ll keep you updated.

Below, you will find a full list of the Legend decks from last week, sorted by the highest placement.

If you want to see all of the current top meta decks, go to our Hearthstone Meta Tier List post!

If you’re looking for the best Wild Format decks, check out our Wild Meta Tier List!

Hearthstone Standard Legend Decks of the Week

XL Skeleton Mage – #1 Legend (Nails) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

XL Denathrius Shaman – #6 Legend (Meati) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

Elwynn Boar Priest – #6 Legend (maxiebon1234) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

Tempo Graveyard Rogue – #17 Legend (lunaloveee) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

Tempo Graveyard Rogue – #24 Legend (ChaboDennis) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

XL Questline Priest – #25 Legend (Theo) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

XL Skeleton Mage – #31 Legend (L3bjorge) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

Enrage Warrior – #35 Legend (Aquaman575) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

XL Relic Demon Hunter – #50 Legend (Burr0) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

XL Topior Token Druid – #74 Legend (Nohandsgamer) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

Naga Priest – #80 Legend (러블리즈화이팅) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

Aggro Token Druid – #189 Legend (WuLing) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

Enrage Warrior – #195 Legend (SuperiorDavid) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

Combo Priest – #200 Legend (Dreivo) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

XL Denathrius Shaman – #222 Legend (Norwis) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

Aggro Fel Demon Hunter – #237 Legend (ARAI) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

Tempo Graveyard Rogue – #239 Legend (Fribz) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

XL Infuse Beast Hunter – #240 Legend (Sidisi) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

Deathrattle Rogue – #271 Legend (Stinzy) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

Deathrattle Rogue – #316 Legend (CoDyPhin) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

Tempo Graveyard Rogue – #451 Legend (Clark) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

XL Questline Priest – #479 Legend (katakuchi) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

Dude Paladin – #494 Legend (Tars) – Castle Nathria

Deck Import

Hearthstone Wild Legend Decks of the Week

XL Curse Warlock – #1 Legend (西索) – Wild S101

Deck Import

Even Totem Shaman – #1 Legend (Reive) – Wild S101

Deck Import

Quest Mage – #1 Legend (YangQue) – Wild S101

Deck Import

XL Reno Hunter – #3 Legend (白白丨可爱猪小猪) – Wild S101

Deck Import

XL Reno Priest – #9 Legend (nhlnjfan1) – Wild S101

Deck Import

Enrage Warrior – #14 Legend (RenoJackson) – Wild S101

Deck Import

XL Shadow Reno Priest – #21 Leged (hansensun) – Wild S101

Deck Import

Enrage Warrior – #25 Legend (syouyu) – Wild S101

Deck Import

Even Warlock – #37 Legend (DocDelight) – Wild S101

Deck Import

XL Reno Mage – #37 Legend (EnDjinn) – Wild S101

Deck Import

Odd Paladin – #50 Legend (Maxadona) – Wild S101

Deck Import

Edwin Rogue – #57 Legend (繁星) – Wild S101

Deck Import

XL Relic Demon Hunter – #93 Legend (JambaJooze) – Wild S101

Deck Import

Edwin Rogue – #120 Legend (Haeil) – Wild S101

Deck Import

Odd Paladin – #176 Legend (LeBruce) – Wild S101

Deck Import

Stonekeep

A Hearthstone player and writer from Poland, Stonekeep has been in a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone since Closed Beta. Over that time, he has achieved many high Legend climbs and infinite Arena runs. He's the current admin of Hearthstone Top Decks.

Check out Stonekeep on Twitter!

Leave a Reply