Top Standard, Wild & Twist Legend Decks – Showdown in the Badlands (Week 2) – November 2023

Showdown in the Badlands expansion has been out for nearly 2 weeks now. Just like always, the early meta turned out to be far from final and we had tons of experimentation since then. Some of the decks that looked really strong on Day 1 turned out to be mediocre or even bad, while others had unexpected success.

When it comes to the strongest deck in the game right now, at lower ranks (up to Diamond) it’s quite simple – Paladin. No matter whether you play Pure or “Impure” version, Buff build or Showdown build, the deck just shreds. It’s very simple to play AND powerful at the same time, so it’s a perfect candidate for a Tier 0 deck. In fact, at lower ranks, it reaches up to 70% win rate (and no, this is not a mistake). Even in Diamond it sits around 58% WR, which is insane.

However, things get a bit more complicated when we talk about Legend, especially top Legend. Paladin is still a strong deck there, don’t get me wrong, but it’s no longer a dominant build. This title is much harder to award. There are three clearly strongest decks – Enrage Warrior, Reno Shaman and Naga Demon Hunter, with Aggro Paladin and Rainbow Mage close behind them.

Enrage Warrior is basically the same deck as last expansion. It’s not a surprise that it’s powerful – it was already one of the best (if not THE best) decks last expansion after Battleworn Faceless dropped in the mini-set. However, the weird part is that it often runs no new cards. Some builds added Miracle Salesman and Gold Panner, but they aren’t required at all. The reason why it’s so good is that a) it was already great and b) it just works well against other popular meta decks (mainly against Aggro Paladin).

Then we have Reno Shaman, popularized by wiRer. The deck looked like one of the weakest Reno builds on Day 1, but right now it’s clearly the strongest. The only difference is that instead of building it like a Control build, wiRer optimized it more towards Midrange, putting constant pressure on the opponent. And that clearly works. wiRer already climbed to #1 Legend with it, other players took the same build to high Legend too. It’s still being optimized too. For example, the recent builds teched in Cold Storage to copy Doctor Holli'dae as an answer to more people running Rustrot Viper to clear the weapon (of course, that’s not the only use for Cold Storage, but Viper is the main counter to the deck so having a way to play around it is really nice).

And finally, Naga Demon Hunter. It was clear that the deck would be problematic ever since the theorycrafting streams. Blindeye Sharpshooter is simply busted, and I don’t think that the card should exist in its current form. The deck is clearly not unbeatable, but if it draws perfectly, it can OTK as early as turn 4 (or even Turn 3 if Sharpshooter sticks on the b0ard). However, nuts draws are not the most annoying thing about it – Sharpshooter having 5 health was clearly not well thought out. If at any time in the game you can’t clear that minion, you’re most likely dead next turn. But the problem is that after the combo turn, Demon Hunter usually has a few other 2-3 health minions too that need to be cleared. So you often have to pick between clearing the board and leaving Sharpshooter to kill you next turn, or clearing Sharpshooter and leaving the rest of minions to kill you next turn. As you can probably hear, I’m not a big fan of the deck. I just don’t think that it’s healthy for the game and I just hate facing it, I feel like the game is completely out of my control and up to the draw RNG.

However, if I were you, I wouldn’t get used to the current meta. I’m nearly sure that a balance update is coming next week. If I had to make a guess, I’d say that either on Tuesday or Thursday as those are the usual patch days. I will, of course, post about it as soon as I hear anything.

Below is 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!

Hearthstone Standard Legend Decks of the Week