vS Data Reaper Report #333

October 16, 2025

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Welcome to the 333rd edition of the Data Reaper Report! This is the last report for The Lost City of Un’Goro.

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Quick Links

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 2,611,000
Top 1K Legend 58,000
Legend (Excluding Top 1k) 518,000
Diamond 4 to 1 763,000
Diamond 10 to 5 402,000
Platinum 328,000
Bronze/Silver/Gold 542,000

Class/Archetype Distribution

Class Frequency

Class Frequency Discussion

The meta has gone through a few changes over the last couple of weeks. We will focus on what has changed rather than repeat what has stayed the same in this report, so it is a short read.

At top legend, Starship Death Knight has gained a lot of traction through a new build with Herenn and Wakener of Souls. Note that we distinguish this build from non-Starship Herenn Death Knight. Warlock and Rogue have slightly declined at higher levels of play, giving Death Knight a larger share of the field. A response to Starship Death Knight can be seen by a small uptick in Spell-Damage Druid.

New iterations of Starship and Herenn Death Knight have become more noticeable outside of legend ranks. Quest Paladin has drastically declined on the climb to legend. Quest Warlock’s stronger performance at Diamond ranks has siphoned players away from Egg Warlock. Other classes have not made significant movements worth noting.

Matchup Win Rates Header

Power Rankings Header

vS Meta Score

vS Power Rankings Discussion

Warlock

  • Warlock remains the only elite top legend class. Egg Warlock did get a bit stronger due to the rise in Starship Death Knight, while Quest Warlock got a bit weaker as it is very slightly unfavored into the same deck.
  • Ultimately, Egg and Quest Warlock are two of the only fresh decks from the new expansion and their dominance is limited to top legend. For most players, the game is reasonably diverse and balanced, with multiple decks that can be considered attractive to the player base.
  • Team 5 made the call to avoid nerfing Warlock in two balance windows, as nerfing the class would have likely brought back old decks, that were not as attractive to play, to the forefront of the format. This decision banks on the next expansion to introduce new strategies that can compete on a level playing field with Warlock, Rogue and Death Knight.

Death Knight

  • Death Knight has been the main driver for change in the last couple of weeks. Starship Death Knight’s new iteration is drastically superior to older builds, which you can see based on its improvement across many rank brackets. However, it is still not an amazing deck in the current meta.
  • It may have a small edge against Blood-Ctrl DK and Quest Warlock, but its poor matchups against Rogue, Egg Warlock and Druid are an issue at higher MMR. On the climb to legend, the meta is too diverse, with more natural counters to the deck, which makes things even more difficult.
  • Herenn Death Knight is another deck that has been on a trajectory of improvement through refinement, with this report’s featured build looking particularly good. This deck is better than it looks on the aggregated win rate. We are confident it is stronger than Starship DK, though the top legend meta does not favor it.
  • The two new Death Knight decklists of Starship and Herenn DK are the only two updated decklists in the report. As we do with every report, we go through every archetype and have not found other developments that can be considered upgrades on existing builds.

Other Classes

  • Aggressive decks are good but have limited play rates due to the psychological barrier of a popular Death Knight class. For example, Aggro DH’s matchup against Blood-Ctrl DK is so miserable that its advantages against Fyrakk Rogue and Egg Warlock are brushed aside.
  • The reluctance to play aggressive decks means that Warlock, Rogue and Death Knight remain the strongest options for players at all levels of play. But players at lower MMR find Rogue hard to play while other decks exhibit decent enough win rates to grab attention of players (such as Protoss Priest).

Random Musings

  • Ultimately, most players have always been willing to sacrifice some win rate to play a more fun and interesting deck. If a deck is not alarmingly weak, its attractiveness will largely determine its popularity.
  • Top legend players are pickier. They want a deck that is compelling to play but also wins. Occasionally, they will perceive a deck to be stronger than it is, but this mirage does not last long.
  • Decks that are less interesting to play require a stronger win rate to become popular, but these are usually decks you may not even want to be strong as they likely have boring play patterns (Mech Warrior). Even when strong, if they are old decks, then players may not care about them no matter what (Beast Hunter).

Class Analysis & Decklists

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

 

Data Reaper Report - Warlock

Data Reaper Report - Rogue

Data Reaper Report - Druid

Data Reaper Report - Priest

Data Reaper Report - Mage

Data Reaper Report - Warrior

Data Reaper Report - Shaman

Data Reaper Report - Paladin

Data Reaper Report - Hunter


Gul’dan is having a good time. Balance changes to the current format would require nerfing Warlock, but the class represents two of the only decks that can be considered new from this expansion. Therefore, Gul’dan has gained immunity. Until the next expansion, he is untouchable, considered a lesser evil to the old and tired strategies he is keeping under him.

And who knows, perhaps a month from now, he will be joined by a supreme archaeologist…

On Monday, we will be revealing the final batch of the Warlock set. Tune in on this very website to find out how the class may seek to shred time itself to achieve victory at all costs.

Our usual expansion hype content will be coming after. See you there.

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vS Gold is our membership plan aimed to support our efforts towards improving our content and data analysis while receiving some bonuses and extra features.

Tier 3+ Patrons

Special thanks to William H, Charlah R, Gregory F, Amir, Joltc,  The Big Dawg, Jesse M, Logan A, Josh G, WorldEight, Bruh, Wyatt P, Dooshenbarf, BraveSurRobin, Clint D, Hisham M, Michael D, PapaPloKoon, Nick M, Nebman27, Tye L, Dennis W, Jeffrey B, Whomprat, Phadion, and Paul L for supporting us this month.

Here are all the people that participated in bringing you this edition of the vS Data Reaper Report:

Contributors

EndofDaysTzachilookitzjoe

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