Welcome to the 328th 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 | 2,948,000 |
| Top 1K Legend | 61,000 |
| Legend (Excluding Top 1k) | 470,000 |
| Diamond 4 to 1 | 584,000 |
| Diamond 10 to 5 | 649,000 |
| Platinum | 444,000 |
| Bronze/Silver/Gold | 740,000 |
Class/Archetype Distribution
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All Ranks
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D1 to D4
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Legend
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Top 1K Legend
Class Frequency
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Weekly
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Daily
Class Frequency Discussion
The nerf to Playhouse Giants may have caused a sharp decline in Cycle Rogue’s play rate, but the class has pulled out another strategy from the drawer. Fyrakk Rogue, a deck that struggled at the beginning of the expansion, has come back to a watered down format and made an instant impact. At top legend, Fyrakk has instantly become the most popular deck, gaining further traction every day. Players are also experimenting with adjusted Cycle Rogue builds, as well as Starship and Protoss Rogue.
Early in the patch, there was a lot of enthusiasm for Aviana Druid across ladder. This has persisted at lower ranks to some degree, but high level players are quickly abandoning it in favor of Spell-Damage Druid. Spell-Damage Druid now exclusively runs Elise.
Over the last few weeks, there has been a shift in the Death Knight class, with players favoring Blood-Ctrl DK over Starship DK. This has persisted in this patch, with Blood-Ctrl dwarfing Starship’s play rate. The only other notable Death Knight deck is Herenn DK, which is centered on Herenn’s synergy with Wakener of Souls.
Protoss Priest continues to be highly favored by players on the climb to legend, with an increased top legend presence due to the nerf to Cycle Rogue. Wilted Priest is barely noticeable, while other Priest decks have faded away.
Handbuff Hunter has maintained a consistent, yet modest presence on ladder, with most players historically reluctant to spend their Hearthstone time on this deck. Beast Hunter is noticeable at Diamond ranks and below, but is not relevant at higher levels of play.
Demon Hunter has largely settled on two archetypes. Aggro DH has been a proven performer since launch. Starship DH has established an OTK win condition thanks to Dissolving Ooze. However, one more Demon Hunter is beginning to reappear: Cliff Dive Demon Hunter with Colifero, running a similar build to the one we saw towards the end of Emerald Dream.
Control Warrior continues to run the quest, but it has abandoned its Hydration Station build in favor of a Starcraft package. Mech Warrior has seen no internal changes and dropped in popularity over the last few weeks due to a decreased performance level, as well as its unappealing playstyle.
Players have been eager to make Mage work since the expansion’s launch, but the class has failed to produce results. Initial enthusiasm over the buff to The Forbidden Sequence has waned. Spell Mage persists as the class’ most popular option. Other players are attempting to refine a minion version of Quest Mage. A reappearance of Big-Spell Mage has been spotted.
Dorian Warlock has disappeared following the nerf to Cursed Catacombs. Quest Warlock is another quest deck that players have been particularly desperate to find success with, with many iterations identified. Starship and Wheel Warlock see little play.
Quest Paladin remains popular at Platinum and below, but declines at the bottleneck to legend. Aggro Paladin sees a small, but steady amount of play outside legend ranks. Both archetypes disappear at top legend, where Paladin players are more likely to be Drunk.
There is little interest in Shaman at all levels of play. Not a single deck exhibits a respectable play rate.
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All Ranks
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D4 to Legend
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Legend
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Top 1K Legend
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Legend
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D1 to D4
vS Meta Score
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Top 1K Legend
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Legend
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D1 to D4
vS Power Rankings Discussion
Rogue
- Fyrakk Rogue looks increasingly powerful at higher levels of play. The deck is on a trajectory of improvement due to the propagation of a new build that takes the archetype to another level. We anticipate that top legend ladder will be completely taken over by Fyrakk Rogue and the name of the game will be to try and stop it. Good luck, as countering the deck seems to be difficult. Some decks have decent matchups against Fyrakk Rogue, but we cannot identify a ‘hard’ counter.
- Cycle Rogue, based on its small sample at top legend, is not dead either. We estimate the deck remains a Tier 1 performer at top legend, provided the correct adjustment is made in its build, which is cutting Playhouse Giants.
- Our estimates are that Starship Rogue is bad, while Protoss Rogue is clearly outclassed by both Cycle and Fyrakk Rogue, so we doubt it gains serious traction.
Druid
- Spell-Damage Druid is powerful across ladder, even at rank brackets where players are less proficient with the deck. There might be some relaxation in its win rate, but we suspect the deck will remain strong at all levels of play.
- Aviana Druid is clearly an attractive deck to play for a significant section of players, but it does not appear to be competitive.
Death Knight
- Blood-Ctrl Death Knight struggles against Warrior and Priest, so it does not look great on the climb to legend, where these classes are popular. At higher MMR’s, the meta is more appealing to the archetype, which helps it break into a positive win rate. We do not expect this deck to get stronger over time. Its matchup against Fyrakk Rogue may appear slightly favorable, but top legend Fyrakk Rogue players make the matchup harder and closer to 50-50.
- Starship Death Knight has a consistently better matchup spread than Blood-Ctrl across ladder, despite the player base favoring the latter’s playstyle. It performs a bit better against Fyrakk Rogue too and has more room to improve through refinement.
- Herenn Death Knight remains in an experimental phase, with many of its builds looking sub-optimal. There are a couple of directions that show more promise than others, so it might be able to establish a more competitive performance level. However, its weakness to both Spell-Damage Druid and Fyrakk Rogue puts a limit on its potential in the current meta.
Priest
- Much like the first balance patch, Protoss Priest enjoys more hype than it necessarily merits. It is a good deck at low rank brackets, but there are stronger decks to climb to legend with, while its performance at top legend is underwhelming. Protoss Priest loses to both Spell-Damage Druid and Fyrakk Rogue, which is, once again, not a good combination.
- Wilted Priest does not see much play, but we estimate it is a strong deck on the climb to legend. The key is running the correct build, which many players fail to do. We are unsure whether the deck can gain traction at top legend specifically, due to its struggles against Rogue.
Hunter
- Nothing changed with Handbuff Hunter. The deck is clearly strong at every level of play. It stands out more at top legend, where the Protoss Priest population declines. We do not anticipate a decline in its performance. It should remain Tier 1 across ladder.
- Beast Hunter is the best performing deck on the climb to legend. Its performance dips at higher levels of play due to a limited skill ceiling. It remains competitive, though players do not care for it.
- Discover and Quest Hunter are not competitive whatsoever.
Demon Hunter
- Aggro Demon Hunter is strong and could end up eclipsing Beast Hunter at Diamond ranks and below. Unlike Beast Hunter, its performance does not drop off at top legend either. A reliable climber across ladder, though it does have a few difficult matchups.
- Cliff Dive Demon Hunter is back and looks exceptionally strong everywhere outside of top legend, where a limited skill ceiling and a poor Spell-Damage Druid matchup could be playing their part. It has a good matchup against Fyrakk Rogue, so in the event of a nerf to Druid, we would watch out for this deck.
- Starship Demon Hunter’s success is dependent on the amount of defensive control decks in the format. There is a decent amount of them, so Starship DH is not doing too badly, but it is very vulnerable to “scam” turns, which are prevalent too. This is not the deck you want to queue with into Fyrakk Rogue and Handbuff Hunter.
Warrior
- Control Warrior is generally a poor ladder choice, unless you are at top legend, where the number of Protoss Priests is not excessively high. Then, it does reasonably well. It does not mind queuing into Rogue, Druid or Death Knight.
- Mech Warrior is a strong ladder climber with a low skill ceiling. It remains competitive at top legend because it is a strong counter to Spell-Damage Druid and Blood-Ctrl Death Knight.
Mage
- Spell Mage is barely competitive. It is strangely effective against Fyrakk Rogue, so it looks a little better at top legend, where it might be able to get closer to a 50% win rate over the next week.
- Quest Mage (with minions) looks terrible. However, there is one build that shows far more promise than others and might be able to compete at some point in the future. We think it is worth highlighting.
- Big-Spell Mage is the best performing Mage deck and looks surprisingly elite on the climb to legend. We do not think it will be a good deck at higher levels of play, though its matchup spread is impressive if it does not run into too many Death Knights.
Warlock
- Quest Warlock is the hardest deck for us to evaluate. It is a messy archetype, where its best build is still not completely clear to us. Unlike the previous false dawn earlier in the expansion, where we correctly doubted its ability to compete when others had more hope, the situation is now different. Quest Warlock exhibits sustainable, competitive potential and its current performance level is not expected to decline. The hardest matchup is Spell-Damage Druid, but Fyrakk Rogue is a fine opponent to queue into.
- There might be some potential in a Starship Warlock, but it is a bit too early to say that with confidence. Wheel Warlock without a Starship package does not look good.
Paladin
- Quest and Aggro Paladin can find success on ladder, especially at lower levels of play, but both archetypes become completely unplayable at higher MMR’s. Quest Paladin has the biggest drop off in performance at higher levels of play. It loses 8% in win rate in the average matchup between diamond ranks and top legend. If it had an average skill differential, it would be the best deck at top legend with a win rate nearing 55%. Instead, it is Tier 4. Reminds us of Stormwind Quest Warrior.
Shaman
- Nebula Shaman does not see much play, but we can tell you it is a very promising deck based on its low sample size. It looks good across ladder, while possibly rivaling Rogue in its effectiveness at top legend. Most players think Shaman is a dead class. It is far from that. It is a sleeper Meta Breaker.
Class Analysis & Decklists
Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior
A twist has popped up in Fyrakk Rogue, involving running Ysera with Naralex, which works well with Fyrakk. Marin is a terrible card in the archetype and has generally become one of the most overrated Hearthstone cards since it got nerfed. Naralex genuinely looks like one of the best cards in the deck, offering a massive upgrade at the 7-mana slot for the purpose of Elise activation.
The ramp from Ysera also makes Ashamane less repulsive (though it might still be too much). ‘Oh, Manager!’ is mandatory here, looking significantly stronger than Nightmare Fuel or other alternatives due to the deck’s high curve, which benefits from coin generation.
Cycle Rogue remains powerful at top legend without Playhouse Giants. The space from cutting Giants allows us to fit in ‘Oh, Manager!’, Bloodmage Thalnos and Web of Deception. We are not sure about the 30th card. It could be Living Flame, though the incentive to run it is not as strong due to the loss of Playhouse Giants.
There’s some hot new tech running around that we would like to see more data of… Kobold Geomancer! No giants? More burn!
The Elise build has completely taken over Spell-Damage Druid, likely due to the time the archetype is given in the current format. Aggressive decks are not popular, so setting up an Elise copy location for Owlonius becomes more realistic.
Bob is better than Best in Shell, even if it does not work particularly well with Story of Barnabus. You usually do not have time to play more than one copy of Ancient of Yore. It is important to run one copy of Go with the Flow, as it helps us execute Death Knights and Control Warriors more easily.
Aviana Druid is bad. We are better off cutting Nightmare Lord Xavius and finding Aviana every time from Story of Barnabus or Reforestation. The other copies find us the random legendaries post-Aviana, so they are never wasted.
BBU looks like the superior rune alignment in every Death Knight deck that sees serious play these days.
Blood-Ctrl Death Knight benefits from running a relatively proactive, deathrattle build that looks to consistently activate Airlock Breach on turn 6. Foamrender helps us close the game out without the need to dabble in Kil’jaeden tomfoolery.
Starship Death Knight is currently heavy on BBB utilization, but there are not too many decks that merit a passive approach with the Pyro/Poison combo. The BBU build is starting to creep up again and looks better positioned in the current field. Kil’jaeden is only useful if you are encountering an abnormal number of Control Warriors and Starship DH, in which case, a switch of decks might be a better option.
Herenn Death Knight is very unrefined. We think there is some potential for the archetype to improve. We do not like the Bonechill Stegodon builds. As it stands, Travel Security in a BBU build looks better.
Most of Protoss Priest’s build is solved. There are only a couple of slots up for debate. Sasquawk looks like a stronger card than Umbra and can be considered the 30th. Narain is the 29th best card. Some builds run Gravedawn Sunbloom in those slots. Trading value for card draw makes the deck better in faster matchups, but worse in slower ones.
Wilted Priest is competitive, though a poor Rogue matchup means it is hard for it to gain traction amongst its target audience: high MMR players. It looks great against other decks when it is refined. The Shaffar build blows all alternatives out of the water, so the deck has significant scope for improvement.
Refining Beast Hunter is about finding a card that is not as bad as Ancient Raptor. Cower in Fear looks fine in this archetype.
We have no reason to deviate from the Handbuff Hunter build we settled on in the first report. Shaladrassil is not a good card in the deck, but it makes Bellhop better. Spirit Bond and Bursting Shot are not good cards in the deck, and they do not make any other card better.
Not much has changed in Aggro Demon Hunter. Chaos Strike is a bad card in the deck. Players still run it. Brain Masseuse is a good card in the deck. Players do not run it. Sizzling Cinder, Bloodmage Thalnos and Living Flame provide Tuskpiercer targets. Mukla is very good in the current format.
Players have added Rest in Peace to Starship Demon Hunter to revive Ferocious Felbat, or a massive Starship, potentially eating it with Ooze on the same turn. Rest in Peace looks solid. It is possible to run one copy and add back a second Red Card. RIP is a greedy card that is stronger when the format is slower, so it is better at higher levels of play.
Cliff-Dive Demon Hunter with Colifero looks nuts on the climb to legend. Magtheridon is an oppressive target for Colifero and Dangerous Cliffside. It looks better than Ragnaros, though we can envision running both.
Control Warrior has abandoned the Hydration Station win condition and gone back to Starcraft. The featured build is straightforward and hard to deviate from. Sleep Under the Stars is not necessary, as Jim Raynor is an 8-mana card that activates Elise.
Mech Warrior has not changed. A second Quality Assurance remains superior to a second All You Can Eat.
A minion build of Quest Mage may be close to a competitive level. We are featuring the best one, which might be better than Spell Mage.
Big-Spell Mage has popped up and looks like a promising ladder climber. We have not yet touched any of the cards. We are not impressed with King Tide, but nothing stands out as an immediate cut and the deck is still new.
We are not yet sure what the best approach is for Quest Warlock, but the featured build looks like the strongest direction currently. The focus is on fast cycling and burn.
Anachronos looks decent in Quest Paladin. Generally, almost anything that is not a Murloc is a bad card in this deck, including Crusader Aura.
Aggro Paladin seems capable of utilizing Tortollan Storyteller well. Expensive cards, such as Ticking Zilliax or Mother Duck, look weak.
Story of Galvadon is a bad card in Drunk Paladin. We see no reason to change the list we have established in the previous report.
Nebula Shaman is a sleeper strong deck, especially at higher levels of play. Elise can do some funny things with copy location and Al’Akir.
The feeling of staleness this expansion is mostly coming from the fact that the Un’Goro set has not created an ample amount of new strategies to experience. What we are witnessing with every balance patch is the re-emergence of old archetypes that are coming to replace whatever is nerfed. A couple of quest decks have been slowly creeping up with the continuous reduction in power and their own buffs, but this process has been slow. We think one point that is often missed related to the frustration in the absence of new strategies is that the absence of competitive quest decks is not the problem. It is the absence of anything new. We do not think many players would complain if most quest decks were not competitive, if the sets were not built around them so aggressively and there were other things to explore.
The fatal flaw of The Lost City of Un’Goro was the contradiction between not wanting quest decks to be “lethal” (translation: effective) and yet building entire sets that were reliant on them to work. No wonder most classes have looked the exact same as they did during the Emerald Dream. It was as if an expansion did not launch for them.
Having said that, the current format is unsolved and expected to drastically change in the coming days. This will happen regardless of another balance patch that is likely to arrive next week, based on the normal cadence following last week’s Battlegrounds content patch. Fyrakk Rogue is expected to become a serious problem at top legend, but there are several strategies that look promising without much hype surrounding them. Cliff Dive Demon Hunter looks like an extremely powerful choice on the climb to legend. Nebula Shaman has only started to receive serious attention from top legend players in the last 48 hours and looks like a strong deck everywhere on ladder.
We hope you found something to enjoy in this report. The mini-set is not far away. Hopefully, this one is impactful.
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