Top Standard, Wild & Twist Legend Decks - Festival of Legends (Audiopocalypse) Week 12 - July 2023

By Stonekeep - July 2, 2023

It's been a busy week for sure. Between the announcement of new expansion (TITANS), the release of Patch 26.6, and a new game mode - Twist - I had a lot to cover. That's why today's section on Standard & Wild decks will be brief. I didn't have enough time to add a lot of decks. And honestly, the meta remains pretty stable anyway, there haven't been any major breakthroughs. The only real change is that a new, more aggressive build of Outcast Demon Hunter is becoming increasingly popular. It's a bit too early to tell, but it's viable and might even be one of the strongest Standard meta decks.

My focus this week was mostly on the new Twist mode. And sadly, I have some bad news already. The interest in Twist is already falling at breakneck speed and it's been less than a week since its release. Most of the players already hate it. Or rather, not Twist in general - I think that there are many Twist formats that might be very popular. The issue is specifically New Age. It doesn't feel new or unique enough. It's like a weird mash between Wild & Standard, but mostly showcasing their downsides, not upsides. There are a few decks that COMPLETELY dominate the landscape. Questline Druid, Questline DH and Questline Shaman are completely broken builds and they pushed out most of the other things from the meta. And we aren't talking about Standard's 54% win rate being considered broken. No. The best builds of those decks have over 60% WR and leave almost no room for anything else.

And the worst part? There's still a whole month of this Twist format ahead of us. I'll be honest - I think that some people might play it in the first week of July, but after that, I think it will be completely deserted. It's just not fun in the current state no matter how you slice it. Even if you enjoy that style of "solitaire deck" (like me - yes, I'm a degenerate who enjoys them), the lack of diversity and balance will get you. If they want to salvage the format, we need some drastic changes and we need them fast. I don't know what their approach to Twist balancing is going to look like, but my first move would be to just ban all of the broken Questlines. After that, we can figure out the rest, but those decks really need to go.

I really think that picking New Age as the first Twist format has done way more harm than good. Yes, it had some merits - throwing people in at the deep and starting with some crazy format might not be the best idea. I appreciate that they started with something more simple so it's easier to explain before proceeding to more interesting formats. But it could have been something way different. Remember how fond people's memories of Whispers of the Old Gods or Journey to Un'goro metas are? They could try replicating one of those at their heights, for example. That would be a perfect first format - fun to play and nostalgia bait. Of course, it's too late for that. The sad part is that I feel like the damage is already done. I bet that many players won't get back into Twist because their first impression was horrible. But that's what we're working with now, so the best they can do is try to salvage the current one with a quick balance update and then make sure the next Twist format is something way, way more fun.

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