vS Data Reaper Report #335

November 27, 2025

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Welcome to the 335th edition of the Data Reaper Report!

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Class/Archetype Distribution | Class Frequency | Matchup Winrates | vS Power Rankings | vS Meta Score | Class Analysis & Decklists | Meta Breaker of the Week | How to Contribute | Credits

Number of Games

Overall 2,668,000
Top 1K Legend 66,000
Legend (Excluding Top 1k) 911,000
Diamond 4 to 1 663,000
Diamond 10 to 5 475,000
Platinum 242,000
Bronze/Silver/Gold 311,000

Class/Archetype Distribution

Class Frequency

Class Frequency Discussion

Discover Hunter’s rise at top legend this week was not as steep as expected, as it was trending to break through a 30% play rate. It seems that the top legend field has taken drastic measures to try and counter the deck, following last week’s report, and those efforts may have impacted some players’ desire to queue it. Elsewhere on ladder, the deck is not gaining further traction, as it is not as powerful. Some players are trying out different Face Hunter builds, including Face/Discover hybrids.

Hagatha Shaman has risen across ladder, becoming the most popular deck at every rank bracket besides top legend, reflecting an acknowledgment from the player base regarding its tremendous performance levels.

As high MMR players became desperate to counter Discover Hunter at all costs, they flocked to the only established counter that was present at the time, accepting its other matchup flaws: Control Warrior. In contrast, Dragon Warrior has gone through a dramatic decline in its play rate across ladder, outclassed by the superior and similarly styled Hagatha Shaman.

In our last report, we floated a possible counter to Discover Hunter, based on a low sample size: Protoss Rogue. Top legend players have now picked up on the idea and tried to create a new build that could beat Hunter without losing to Shaman. Cycle Rogue has taken a back seat for the Starcraft deck.

Enthusiasm for Mage has waned at high MMR’s, with increasing acceptance that both Protoss and Arcane Mage are trash decks at these levels. Elsewhere on ladder though, Protoss Mage is rising in play. There is clearly great infatuation with this deck amongst players. The fact it is the second most popular deck at upper Diamond, the competitive bottleneck to legend, is eye opening.

Death Knight is declining but not stagnating. Experiments are rampant in Herenn DK surrounding Bonechill Stegodon, while a new build of Blood-Ctrl DK is gaining traction. A “Tech Death Knight” has also popped up, which is basically a triple Blood rune Control DK with Steamcleaner to target Warriors. We decided to separate it from normal Blood-Ctrl DK to evaluate them more accurately, as it was possible to do.

Aggro and Peddler DH have declined in play while Cliff Dive DH has risen in play. Players have been cooking novel lists of Cliff Dive DH after seeing its promising results last week.

Spell-Damage Druid is attempting a comeback. Druid is generally struggling to attract attention, trying to find a competitive list across multiple archetypes.

Aura Paladin is picking up increased interest on the climb to legend thanks to a new build running Tankgineer and Carnivorous Cubicle that popped up this week.

Priest has been quiet and stagnant, mostly seeing play based on its old ideas.

There are some attempts to revive Warlock, but the class has been mostly forgotten.

Matchup Win Rates Header

Power Rankings Header

vS Meta Score

vS Power Rankings Discussion

Hunter

  • Though the deck is still extremely popular and influential, Discover Hunter has been restrained at top legend. Players have been aggressively targeting the deck with both their deck and card choices, stopping the deck from spinning completely out of control. In addition to Control Warrior, a new counter emerged in Protoss Rogue. If this did not happen, we would have been trapped in an extremely narrow format. Now, there is ‘some’ breathing room for other decks to come into play. Elsewhere on ladder, the deck has not been an issue.
  • Face Hunter is okay, but not that good. The hybrid builds are not worth running.

Shaman

  • Top legend players can successfully target a deck when it starts taking over a field, but other players are not often capable of doing the same thing. Hagatha Shaman looks unstoppable almost everywhere on ladder. The only thing that stops Shaman from completely dominating the top legend field is Discover Hunter, which becomes an unfavored matchup. The only other deck that can pose a small issue for Shaman is Cliff Dive DH. There are no real counters to the deck on the climb to legend.

Warrior

  • Control Warrior has benefitted from the rise of Discover Hunter and some improvements to its own build, which is mostly cutting Murozond and Dirty Rat (Dirty Rat is objectively and consistently one of the biggest bait cards of all time). We have noticed the Shaman matchup improving too as a result. Control Warrior still has a checkered matchup spread. It can get easily countered if it becomes more popular, but its role in stopping Discover Hunter from obliterating the field is important. The deck is weak in a field not dominated by Hunters.
  • Dragon Warrior’s standing has also improved thanks to a reduced play rate of some of its offensive card choices. It does seem a bit hard to justify considering Shaman does everything better, but the deck is still strong when built well. There is a new and interesting variant worth exploring further too.

Rogue

  • From a quiet whisper last week, Protoss Rogue has landed as a Meta Breaking deck at higher levels of play. Why is Protoss Rogue so strong at top legend? Because it beats both Discover Hunter and Control Warrior, making it the “next level” choice to stay one step ahead of the format. The big breakthrough is that new builds of Protoss Rogue do not lose to Shaman. It does have some other counters, but an increase in the deck’s popularity might create a cyclical format at higher MMR’s. The deck is fine at lower rank brackets too, though it does not look as strong due to a combination of player skill, more difficult matchup spread and less refined builds.
  • Cycle Rogue, as expected, got worse this week due to the decline of Mage. It does counter Protoss Rogue, but its matchup spread makes it difficult for it to perform much better.
  • Another deck to keep in mind is Starship Rogue. Based on its low sample size, it is a strong counter to attrition decks such as Control Warrior and Blood-Ctrl DK.

Mage

  • Protoss Mage has a positive win rate at Diamond 5 and below, while becoming significantly weaker at upper rank brackets. Even at lower rank brackets, there are many stronger decks out there. It is popular because it is an attractive deck to a significant section of players.
  • Arcane Mage has an impressive skill trajectory that matches Cycle Rogue, but it is still too weak even at top legend.
  • Elemental Mage is a decent budget choice for beginners but is not strong when the ladder climb gets serious.

Death Knight

  • Blood-Ctrl DK has gone through a breakthrough in its refinement that has given it a significant jump in power at higher levels of play. Its matchups against key meta contenders have improved, which now puts Death Knight in a very strong position. Before this breakthrough, it was in danger of stagnating and declining. We believe the deck will get stronger at lower ranks once players drop the old builds and adopt the new direction. Leave the inertia behind.
  • Herenn DK is experiencing some refinement struggles. The Bonechill Stegodon builds do not look better than the established Bwonsamdi ones. Even at peak potential though, this deck is worse than Blood-Ctrl DK.
  • Tech DK does not even reliably beat Control Warrior. We expect this deck to disappear.

Demon Hunter

  • Aggro DH remains strong. It just loses to Death Knight and Shaman, so it is worse than Hagatha Shaman as a ladder choice across all levels of play. We know that aggressive decks need to be extremely powerful to see a lot of play. Otherwise, they are less attractive than late-game-oriented strategies.
  • Peddler DH has improved its Shaman matchup thanks to some adjustments, but success with it is limited to some extent due to its unfavored Discover Hunter matchup and struggles against aggressive decks.
  • Control Warrior also happens to be Cliff Dive DH’s strongest counter, so its rise in play has caused a decline in this deck’s win rate. However, Cliff Dive DH seems to have further scope for improvement through refinement that is larger than most other decks. Its current build composition is far from optimal, as its low play rate causes this refinement process to be slow.

Druid

  • Spell-Damage Druid’s comeback attempt does not seem too bad. The deck has a major issue against Shaman but feels fine against other decks.
  • Hydration Druid might not feel bad at lower rank brackets, where it has a tolerable win rate, but the deck falls off a cliff at higher rank bracket.
  • There might be a new Krona Druid deck brewing, which we will mention in the Druid section. We are not sure how good it is, or whether it should be considered a “Krona” deck, but it is better than previous attempts to bring the archetype to competitive play.

Paladin

  • The new iteration of Aura Paladin is drastically stronger than its old iteration, causing a massive win rate spike for the deck across all levels of play. Aura Paladin is now a legitimately strong choice for the ladder climb, though we suspect it falls off hard at higher levels of play because it cannot contest the Hunter/Shaman pairing, especially if the Shaman runs Hex.

Priest

  • Protoss Priest resembles Protoss Mage. It seems fine at Diamond 5 and below but falls off as you climb further. Zarimi Priest is not good. The class is generally in a tough spot.

Warlock

  • Shred Warlock is a weak aggressive deck, which means it does not stand a chance of attracting players. Egg Warlock might be the best Warlock deck when it is built well. There is a new card addition to the archetype that might help push it forward.

Class Analysis & Decklists

Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior

 

Data Reaper Report - Hunter

Attempts to target Discover Hunter are coming from slower decks, so Hunter’s response should be to greed up. Players have started to run Shaladrassil as an 8 mana card for Elise activation. It is better than Devilsaur Mask but still not great. Wisp is stronger than both as an enabler but does not offer late game value.

We have some preliminary data on Meadowstrider, and the results are promising. We would like to see it explored further as it might be the strongest option. It offers a late game infinite value chain that can checkmate some opponents that look to deplete the Hunter of resources.

Since Control Warrior has risen in play to counter Discover Hunter, the Elise-less variant looks worse. We are featuring the build, but it is only superior to Elise in matchups that require the Hunter to play much faster.

Face Hunter has seen a different variant rise in play, one that drops Niri for Devious Coyote and a more aggressive early game. This variant is superior in matchups that encourage the Hunter to play faster but is more vulnerable to decks that try to outlast it.

Quest Hunter might be okay with a build that seeks to discover and copy Agamaggan and then play it with Kerrigan and Shaladrassil to burst down the opponent.

Data Reaper Report - Shaman

We are confident about 29 cards in Hagatha Shaman, as we have settled on those last week. Double Static Shock and double Wish Upon a Star. Primordial Overseer does not seem important and can be replaced by Hex, which can be game changing in some matchups (Dragon Warrior, Aura Paladin).

Data Reaper Report - Warrior

We have some new findings on Lo’Gosh Dragon Warrior. Whelp of the Infinite is the best 3-drop in the deck. Chrono-Lord Epoch is showing great promise on a small sample, so we would like to see more of it. Alternatives such as Portal Vanguard, King Mukla and Grom are decent enough but not that strong.

An alternative variant has emerged with Keeper of the Flame and a lower curve. Whelp of the Bronze makes sense here as it offers a handbuff payoff. The Dark Gift package is easier to fit as we cut the more expensive cards in the archetype, and it helps us keep our hand full for Keeper.

With Control Warrior, the message is simple: Do not run Dirty Rat. Murozond is unnecessary.

Data Reaper Report - Rogue

Cycle Rogue can run Playhouse Giants instead of Thalnos/’Oh, Manager!’ but the card is matchup dependent. When facing a deck with strong removal, it should be better to persist with Thalnos and its increased damage potential through Asteroids and Eruptions. In matchups where the opponent does not have a clean answer to giants, they can be effective.

Aggro Rogue is generally weak and not recommended. Giving up on Raiding Party seems like the right call now.

Protoss Rogue benefits from Kingslayer’s tutoring ability. Chrono Boost is weak, so players have thrown in Dorian at the 5 mana slot for Elise activation. It can occasionally do something gross when we have Kingslayers equipped or a Blink.

Starship Rogue might be a viable counter to attrition decks. The archetype does not see much play yet, so the featured build is another prototype.

Data Reaper Report - Mage

A second week of data has firmly convinced us of how Protoss Mage should be built. Tide Pools is a popular card but looks consistently weak and unnecessary. Khadgar is good. Rising Waves is the 30th and least important card.

Arcane Mage is a weak deck. It can skip on Storage Scuffle and run two Pocket Dimensions to maximize high roll potential.

Elemental Mage is serviceable at low ranks. There is nothing groundbreaking about the build.

New iterations of Blood-Ctrl DK cut Stitched Giants and the dragon package for Blob of Tar and Husk. As we have seen before the patch, Husk looks good and just needed to get a chance to break the inertia surrounding card choices in an established archetype. Blob of Tar is very strong in the current meta. The only thing we would make sure to do is run three big corpse spenders. More than that can lead to their diminishing performance (Foamrender, Corpse Explosion, Husk).

Herenn DK is seeing a lot of experimentation with Bonechill Stegodon and an early game dragon package, but the featured build with Bwonsamdi and Travel Security still looks better.

Peddler DH can cut Ancient of Yore and still run two copies of Perennial Serpent. Fyrakk is not needed in the deck as we gain Elise activation from Broxigar. Some have replaced it with Kerrigan, but we are not impressed. Two copies of Illidari Studies might be the best option. We are wary of running two copies of Ferocious Felbat.

Cliff Dive DH looks significantly stronger with Elise. You do not even care about making Colifero or Cliff Dive worse. Elise is worth. Briarspawn Drake helps us activate her while serving as a useful win condition.

Data Reaper Report - Druid

Spell Damage Druid is recovering from the nerf to Sparkling Phial by going back to Ethereal Oracle. This is the most promising direction for the archetype and superior to Krona approaches or established tourist builds.

Hydration Druid might feel competitive at lower ranks, but it is a weak deck. The featured build is the best one. Yes, Elise and Oaken Summons are both there. No, we do not care.

There are some new experiments in Krona Druid. The featured build is not too reliant on Krona. Its win condition is based on utilizing Zin-Azshari, which is the most important card, to copy Briarspawn Drake and burst the opponent down.

Data Reaper Report - Paladin

Aura Paladin has found a breakthrough in its refinement that significantly improved its performance. Turns out the Tankgineer/Cubicle combo works well in the deck. An alternative turn 5 follow up to Tankgineer is Spikeridged Steed, while Toreth offers an alternative Cubicle target. The rest of the list, as always, accommodates Elise’s inclusion.

Data Reaper Report - Priest

There is nothing going on in Priest. The class is completely stagnant, and no Aviana Priest build looks remotely playable.

Data Reaper Report - Warlock

There is a little bit of hope that Egg Warlock with Entropic Continuity could be competitive and a bit better than Shred Warlock.


Hagatha Shaman is expected to remain the most dominant deck across most portions of ladder. There is nothing that can realistically stop it and it is, by far, the best choice on the climb to legend. Other choices exist, including the new Aura Paladin, but there is nothing available that seems capable of breaking the Shaman meta that most players experience.

However, the top legend field may diversify thanks to the introduction of Protoss Rogue, offering another answer to Discover Hunter while beating Control Warrior.

We will have to see whether Protoss Rogue gains further traction and whether it can maintain its performance level at a higher play rate. But if it does, then a cyclical format may emerge with multiple decks keeping each other in check. They are old decks with few new cards, so the feeling of novelty from a new expansion may not be there, but the play experience may improve.

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5 Comments

  1. How can you discover Agamaggan with the pig quest hunter list exactly? Shokk discovers an 8 cost beast, but Agamaggan is 10. All the other discovers are from your own deck or 2-cost (scarab keychain). What am I missing?

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