Top Standard & Wild Legend Decks - Showdown in the Badlands + Delve into Deepholm (Week 12) - February 2024

By Stonekeep - February 4, 2024

Let's start with Twist - a new season has just launched and it's a Hearthstone spin on "pauper format". You can only use Common cards from expansions all the way until Descent of Dragons + Galakrond's Awakening (and Core Set + Caverns of Time). So far the format has been heavily dominated by Dragons (especially Dragon Warrior), but we see some other decks popping up here and there. Still, it's looking pretty rough - if you don't run Dragons, better consider adding Dragonslayer to your deck (heck, it's a great tech even if you do run Dragons). It's hard to say whether Blizzard will decide to balance Twist or just leave it be, but if they do decide to change some cards, they can easily land on nerfs that will mostly affect this Twist format without having an impact on other game modes (or they can just ban a few cards instead of nerfing them). Anyway, if you're looking for some decks, Old Guardian compiled some of the most promising builds from the early meta here.

As for the Standard - it's been quite an interesting week when it comes to the meta. A new patch has dropped on Monday, and while I fully expected one this week, it was earlier than expected. But thanks to that, the meta had enough time to develop. I wouldn't say that it's fully settled, but it's getting there.

First of all - Mill Druid is dead. And I mean it, the deck has dropped from Tier 1/2 (depending on your rank) to completely unplayable (it sits well below 40% win rate with limited data). Treant Druids, on the other hand, took the nerfs way better. The deck got much weaker, but it's still viable (Tier 2 viable) all the way up to Diamond. Paladins are still strong, but no longer as dominating. Between nerfs and the meta changes, Excavate Rogues also took a bit hit. And

I'd say that the patch was probably finalized a bit too early, because Sludge Warlock dodged any nerfs. The deck was already boasting impressive Tier 1 performance before the patch and now it's the deck to beat at any rank. Its popularity has also skyrocketed, sitting between 20 and 30% in Diamond and almost 25% in Legend.

While Plague DK is still a good deck, one of the best decks in fact, a new contender has emerged - Rainbow DK. Yes, I'm not joking. Rainbow DK is playable on the ladder and it's actually pretty good. It's a bit too early to give the final judgment, but it looks like it might be . Its success is mostly tied to a decent performance vs Sludge Warlock. All of the small tokens make Sludges way less useful (Mining Casualties in particular is a great counter to Sludges) and Warlock has no easy way to access a big Corpse Bride or a mid-game Stitched Giant (normally a single big minion is susceptible to Sludges, but again, those will usually land on smaller targets instead). Climactic Necrotic Explosion is also a nice finisher - by Turn 10 you can often get it to 10-15 damage (with Lifesteal) and a huge board.

Then we have Warrior. And let me get it straight - Highlander Warrior is a bait. The deck is way more popular than it should be given its win rate. It's not a HORRIBLE deck, to be fair, but it's somewhere on the edge between Tier 2 and Tier 3. Playable, but nothing impressive. However, the regular Control Warrior with Odyn, Prime Designate as its win condition, is way better against most of the meta. Both the XL and regular builds. The main reason why Warrior is doing pretty well right now is its matchup vs Sludge Warlock. It's not a counter deck by any means, but it's close to 50/50, even favoring Warrior a bit (and that's already great when it comes to Sludge Warlock). Highlander Warrior only really has advantage in the "mirror" vs Control, because Control is slow enough that they can rarely stop a big Boomboss turn or infinite Astalors.

Naga DH is also a bit problematic, but unless you are in high Legend, the deck shouldn't bother you so much. It's really common in high Legend as it has a solid matchup vs most of the other popular decks and high Legend players just love combo decks. But for most of the ladder, you aren't going to meet them more than once per a couple dozen games.

As for what we have to look forward to. I would expect another balance update within the next couple of weeks. This time it should be a bigger one with buffs on top of nerfs. Other than that, the next big release will be the first expansion of 2024. Which is sooner than many of you might be expecting. If the March 12 date is correct (based on the expiration of the current Tavern Pass), that's only ~5 weeks away. Which also means that it should get announced relatively soon. Not only that, there's a Standard rotation coming, so we should be hearing about the new Standard year and an update to the Core Set soon. Next week might be quiet, but I expect a lot of news in the mid-late February.

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