Welcome to the 329th 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 | 2,288,000 |
| Top 1K Legend | 55,000 |
| Legend (Excluding Top 1k) | 756,000 |
| Diamond 4 to 1 | 485,000 |
| Diamond 10 to 5 | 449,000 |
| Platinum | 252,000 |
| Bronze/Silver/Gold | 291,000 |
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
An untouched Fyrakk Rogue is running rampant at top legend, hitting a 30% play rate. Funnily, this play rate represents a decline over the last week, as the archetype was peaking closer to 40% when the balance patch initially hit. The deck is still popular at Diamond and Platinum ranks, though not to this extreme extent. Cycle Rogue has disappeared.
Quest Warlock has spiked in play following the decline of Spell-Damage Druid, one of its biggest counters before the patch. It is now the second most popular deck at top legend, only behind Fyrakk Rogue, nearing a 20% play rate. Its most popular variant has finally settled and is trickling down to the rest of ladder. Starship Warlock is slightly raising its head at top legend too.
Blood-Ctrl Death Knight remains the most popular archetype of its class, but Herenn Death Knight has been gaining some traction, while Starship Death Knight nears Blood-Ctrl’s play rate at higher levels of play.
The Protoss Priest pattern has not changed. One of the most prominent decks on the climb to legend, it drastically declines at top legend, which has a big impact on the performance of decks at higher levels of play.
Spell Mage is Mage’s most trusted strategy. Interestingly, the deck’s play rate is stable and persists at top legend, likely due to the deck’s even matchups against both Fyrakk Rogue and Quest Warlock.
Warrior has a relatively stable presence on ladder. Control Warrior sees modest play across all rank brackets. Mech Warrior is noticeable outside of top legend but is not liked by high level players.
Demon Hunter remains split into three archetypes. Aggro DH has a small and steady presence throughout ladder. Starship DH is relatively liked more at Diamond and Legend ranks but drops off at top legend. Cliff-Dive DH is a fringe choice that disappears at top legend.
Spell-Damage Druid has experienced a sharp decline in its play rate due to the nerf to Amirdrassil. Some players at top legend continue to play it. Outside of legend, most Druids are of the Aviana kind.
Paladin is the most popular class at Platinum and below, mostly comprised of Quest Paladin. Its presence remains sizeable but declines as you reach upper Diamond. At legend, there is a drastic decline in Paladin’s play rate. At top legend, it is a unicorn.
Handbuff Hunter has mostly disappeared, leaving Beast Hunter as the sole, serious representative of the class. Much like Paladin, Hunter is frowned upon by high level players.
There is not much interest in Shaman, though Nebula Shaman does have a small and dedicated player base who believes in the power of Hex in the current format.
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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 is clearly a powerful deck that is very hard to target. However, its heightened popularity has drawn a massive target on its back at top legend. The large presence of Warlock, a slightly unfavored matchup, paired with the popularity of the mirror, is having an impact. Add the increased effort by top legend players to avoid playing decks that don’t at least break even with Rogue, and you can understand why its win rate has relaxed. The deck performs better at Diamond and Platinum ranks, where it is not as popular, and players are not laser focused on targeting it.
Warlock
- Quest Warlock has become elite. Its own refinement, as well as the decline of Spell-Damage Druid, have played a big part in its meteoric rise. Its favored matchup against Fyrakk Rogue is extremely important to its success. However, with its increasing popularity, also comes an increased effort to target it.
- A deck’s performance at top legend is largely determined by its matchups against Fyrakk Rogue and Quest Warlock, while the format on the climb to legend is far more diversified.
- Starship Warlock has crept up at top legend for a good reason. It is favored against both Fyrakk Rogue and Quest Warlock, as well as non-Herenn Death Knights, which establishes it as a meta breaking, Tier 1 performer.
- Outside of this specific field though, Starship Warlock is unplayable (!), as some of its worst counters are far more popular at lower rank brackets: Protoss Priest, Quest Paladin and Starship Demon Hunter.
Death Knight
- There is no place on ladder where Blood-Ctrl Death Knight is particularly great. At lower rank brackets, it suffers from the overbearing Protoss Priest/Quest Paladin populations. At the higher end of ladder, Rogue and Warlock represent unfavored matchups.
- Starship Death Knight is better positioned, especially at top legend, as it performs better against Fyrakk Rogue and Quest Warlock. It does lose to other Starship decks.
- Herenn Death Knight is not looking too bad either and can further improve through refinement, though its Rogue and Starship DK matchups are a bit difficult.
Priest
- At no point on ladder can Protoss Priest be considered one of the best decks in the game. It is clearly attractive to play and does a decent job of climbing ladder. It is weak at higher levels of play because it loses to both Fyrakk Rogue and Quest Warlock.
Mage
- Spell Mage is not particularly strong, though it holds up okay at higher levels because it goes 50-50 against Fyrakk Rogue and Quest Warlock. It gets farmed too hard by control decks to be a great choice.
- Quest Mage has gone down a rabbit hole of a build that tanked its aggregated win rate. However, we are confident that its optimal build is better than Spell Mage.
- Protoss Mage is another deck that is better than it currently looks because there is a small breakthrough in its build. It might be Tier 3 when optimized.
- Elemental and Big-Spell Mage are fine choices for the climb to legend, though they are unattractive to the player base.
Warrior
- Control Warrior remains playable at top legend due to the more favorable field that does not have much Protoss Priest and Quest Paladin, which are oppressive matchups. However, top legend Fyrakk Rogue players appear to perform better against Control Warrior, turning this matchup red and keeping it in Tier 3.
- Mech Warrior is hilariously strong at top legend because it goes 50-50 with Fyrakk Rogue and hard counters Warlock. The deck is also very strong on the climb to legend. A high percentage of players clearly does not want to touch this deck, no matter how good it is.
Demon Hunter
- Aggro Demon Hunter is strong across ladder. Its performance holds up decently at top legend because it is slightly favored against both Fyrakk Rogue and Quest Warlock. It is a bit surprising its win rate drops to Tier 2, but its performance against defensive control decks is poor. These decks are more prevalent at higher levels of play.
- Starship Demon Hunter is very good against defensive control decks but cannot handle Fyrakk Rogue and Quest Warlock well.
- Cliff Dive Demon Hunter is another deck that can be considered unattractive. It is one of the best choices on the climb to legend, but very few players touch it. Its losing Quest Warlock matchup hinders it at higher levels of play, but it is decent against Rogue.
Druid
- Spell-Damage Druid has survived. Its performance has dipped throughout most of ladder, indicating that less experienced players are having a harder time winning with the deck when Amirdrassil on 4 is no longer available. However, Amirdrassil at 5 mana is still Druid’s best performing card! The deck performs well against Quest Warlock and hard counters Starship Warlock, which may spike in play over the next few days. Our estimates are that Druid will be flirting with a Tier 1 win rate at top legend.
- Aviana Druid is trash.
Paladin
- Quest Paladin is strong outside of legend ranks, mediocre at legend, and unplayable at top legend. Without a doubt, one of the simplest decks in the history of the game. It might require less decision making than Stormwind Quest Warrior.
- Aggro Paladin is in a similar boat, though not to the same, extreme extent.
Hunter
- Beast Hunter is one of the best decks to climb to legend with, but a combination of a low skill ceiling and an increased presence of defensive control decks makes it non-viable at top legend.
Shaman
- Nebula Shaman is respectable across ladder. The matchups against Fyrakk Rogue and Quest Warlock are unfavored, which makes it impossible to display a positive win rate at top legend, but the deck is surviving thanks to strong matchups into Starship decks and other slow strategies.
Class Analysis & Decklists
Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior
Customs Enforcer looks like a strong tech card for the Fyrakk Rogue mirror, to the point it is recommended to play at top legend, or wherever the mirror is common. If you are not encountering many mirrors, the best option is to run Nightmare Fuel. Cult Neophyte looks weak.
The Snowflurry variant of Quest Warlock is the best one. Kerrigan is the 30th card in the deck, performing better than Zephrys.
In Starship Warlock, we think some of the freeze cards are overrated. Bob is not needed to activate Elise and looks underwhelming. Slippery Slope is significantly worse than Glacial Shard. Cursed Catacombs and Conflagrate are strong and deserve two copy treatments.
Note that the card choices are fully geared to combat top legend. There is no point in playing this deck anywhere else.
We suspect the player base is currently building Blood-Ctrl Death Knight wrong. The popularity of the class, as well as Control Warrior, means that Kil’jaeden is the strongest late game win condition for the archetype. We are not impressed with Marin or The Headless Horseman. These filler late game cards do not move the needle in late game matchups as much as Kil’jaeden. Running both Chillfallen Baron and Ancient of Yore helps us reach the KJ wincon faster.
Kil’jaeden has become a consensus pick in Starship Death Knight. The BBU build remains superior to BBB.
For Herenn Death Knight, getting to fatigue is not the goal. The deck looks to end games faster, which makes Foamrender perform better. We are not sure about The Headless Horseman, but it is better than Marin. That 30th slot is up for grabs.
Umbra is a little better in Protoss Priest post-patch, but it remains inferior to Sasquawk and Narain. As we have said before, Sunbloom is a choice to improve faster matchups at the cost of slower ones.
Protoss Mage has been experimenting with Elise by running Wisp as an activator. The deck might be better off running a 7-drop, as we are not sure about Wisp, but we can say that Elise performs well enough to be worth activating with one “substandard” card.
Business as usual for Warrior. Sleep Under the Stars is unnecessary in Control Warrior.
There is nothing groundbreaking in Demon Hunter, with most of its archetypes looking similar in their builds to pre-patch.
Amirdrassil remains Druid’s best card, even after the nerf, though it is no longer an outlier performer by a ridiculous margin. Spell-Damage Druid has been cutting Go with the Flow for two copies of Ancient of Yore. Besides that, nothing has changed in how to build the archetype.
Quest Paladin has abandoned Anachronos for more card draw through Prize Vendor. This is a clear adjustment intended to dominate slower matchups.
Pet Parrot looks solid in Beast Hunter, with Scarab Keychain making way. Players have been experimenting with Trusty Fishing Rod, but the deck already runs too many weapons.
We are happy with the settled Nebula Shaman list. Besides top legend, where the population of Fyrakk Rogue and Quest Warlock makes things increasingly difficult, Nebula Shaman is a good ladder deck.
For the first time, a quest deck from The Lost City of Un’Goro has become a top tier deck. Quest Warlock has benefited from constant nerfs to surrounding strategies, as well as its own buff. It is strong across ladder, with its good matchup against Fyrakk Rogue creating a dual tyrant dynamic at higher levels of play, one that the field has focused on when picking a strategy.
This has created strange opportunities for other decks to shine. There is great reluctance to play Mech Warrior, but it is clearly powerful in the current format. Starship Warlock can exploit the pocket top legend meta with great success, dodging painful counters that are more prominent at lower MMR brackets.
The Day of Rebirth mini set is coming next week. On Sunday, August 31st, a Comprehensive Preview of the set will be released. Check it out if you are interested in our thoughts about the new cards coming on September 2nd.
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Contributors
I find it odd that for yet another week there is no mention of Quest Warrior, which is much more widely played than Terran Warrior.
Oh well looking under the decklists it is Quest rather than the Hydration Station list…
So why is it not just named Quest Warrior like the other Quest decks?