Welcome to the 330th 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 | 2,648,000 |
| Top 1K Legend | 53,000 |
| Legend (Excluding Top 1k) | 235,000 |
| Diamond 4 to 1 | 429,000 |
| Diamond 10 to 5 | 555,000 |
| Platinum | 476,000 |
| Bronze/Silver/Gold | 900,000 |
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
Blood-Ctrl Death Knight has gone through significant changes that pivoted the archetype towards a more proactive game plan. These developments began before the mini-set launched and ramped up after. The archetype’s success has lifted its play rate to the highest one at nearly every rank bracket. Starship and Herenn DK remain the class’ main alternatives, though they see far less play.
Fyrakk Rogue has slightly declined in response to the enthusiasm over Blood-Ctrl DK, but the deck remains prominent, especially at top legend, where it still edges Blood-Ctrl DK. Cycle Rogue has reappeared in small numbers, following the addition of Crystal Tusk.
Warlock has seen much experimentation with its new cards, but none of them have gained serious traction. Starship Warlock is comprised of several iterations that have different approaches. Quest Warlock is the stable presence throughout ladder.
The play rate profile of Protoss Priest has not changed. Popular outside of legend ranks but takes a dip at higher levels. Some players are trying out all sorts of Control Priest iterations with Aviana. Some Wilted Priests can also be found.
Warrior has not seen many changes. Control Warrior persists with the Terran build, with few builds experimenting with new cards. Mech Warrior has not seen any developments since the first couple of weeks of the expansion.
The mini-set has caused a dip in Demon Hunter’s play rate. The composition of the class has not changed. Starship and Aggro DH are the primary choices, with bits of Cliff Dive. New cards are not even given a second thought.
Mage is another class that got such a terrible set that some players moved away from Mage for the sake of exploring new directions in other classes.
Token Druid decks did not outlast the first few hours of the mini-set, leaving the class with the same options it had before. Aviana Druid is liked by some players at lower rank brackets, while Spell-Damage Druid is given more attention at top legend.
Quest Paladin has received the most prominent new card in the set: Firegill. This has slightly elevated its popularity at launch day, but the deck has quickly dipped back. Not a relevant presence on ladder past the climb to legend. Aggro Paladin sees little play.
Elemental and Quest Shaman have not survived the first couple of days of the patch. Nebula Shaman remains the class’ greatest hope, with many players deviating from the established build.
Hunter’s life is uneventful. It remains Beast Hunter or bust.
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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
Death Knight
- Blood-Ctrl DK has become one of the most powerful decks in the format, with its new build proving to be a resounding success. The deck is extremely difficult to counter now, with only a handful of decks displaying a minor edge in the matchup. This establishes it as a Tier 1 deck at all levels of play. Having said that, it is narrowly unfavored against both Fyrakk Rogue and Quest Warlock, which means its top legend standing could worsen over time.
- Starship DK is now inferior to Blood-Ctrl DK, when it already had an issue attracting players when it was superior to Blood-Ctrl DK. It does have good matchups against two of the top three decks, but its matchup against Fyrakk Rogue appears to be worsening.
- Herenn DK is suffering from refinement issues. The deck is significantly stronger and may have a positive win rate across ladder when it runs the correct Blood build. The Frost build is bad. The archetype’s main issue is the Quest Warlock matchup.
- Handbuff Death Knight is competitive and may look better with a single card/rune tweak to its build.
Rogue
- Fyrakk Rogue is looking good everywhere on ladder, though particularly shines at top legend. The deck is comfortable facing Blood-Ctrl DK and Quest Warlock, though it does slightly lose to the latter. The absence of hard counters is partly why the deck is so appealing to players.
- Cycle Rogue has returned but does not appear to be strong against the current field. It gets countered by both Quest Warlock and Blood-Ctrl DK, which means success with it is limited.
Warlock
- Quest Warlock is consistently one of the best decks on ladder and looks like the strongest deck at top legend. It is slightly favored against both Blood-Ctrl DK and Fyrakk Rogue, which means it has a good time at higher levels of play, where the meta is narrowed down to those three decks. It is curious that it does not rival the other two in popularity. Perhaps it is less appealing to play, or it is underestimated.
- Starship Warlock is weighed down by terrible builds. We are confident that a clean list with no new cards is strong enough to be a Tier 2 contender at top legend, as it is one of the strongest counters to Fyrakk Rogue and performs well against Quest Warlock too. However, the matchup against Blood-Ctrl DK is no longer as easy as it used to be. The Death Knight has become surprisingly intimidating.
Priest
- Protoss Priest is in a similar position to where it was before the mini-set. Good on the climb to legend, though not the best choice. Gets worse at top legend, though things have improved due to the rise of Blood-Ctrl DK over Fyrakk Rogue. It is still not well positioned at higher levels of play.
- Wilted Priest is very strong outside of top legend but is in a strange position. It is not particularly accessible to players at lower MMR’s (as it is harder to play than Protoss Priest, for example). At higher MMR’s, it has a hard time against the “big 3”. This is why its play rate remains so low.
Warrior
- Control Warrior looks poorly positioned across ladder. Mech Warrior looks strong, offering the most effective way to counter Quest Warlock but continues to suffer from the lack of appeal.
Demon Hunter
- Starship Demon Hunter could have propelled to a Tier 1 standing if its matchup with Blood-Ctrl DK did not change. However, this is now a 50-50 affair, which means Starship DH does not beat any of the “big 3”. Instead, it is a decent deck at all levels of play.
- Aggro Demon Hunter is still good, but the rise of Blood-Ctrl DK put a dent on its performance, which is felt more at legend ranks.
- Cliff Dive Demon Hunter is fine, but players do not seem to care. Its poor matchups against the “big 3” means it is unlikely to gain appeal.
Mage
- You are putting yourself at a disadvantage playing any Mage deck. Elemental and Big-Spell Mage feel fine at Platinum and lower Diamond, but the whole class hits a wall past Diamond 5. Spell Mage loses hard to Blood-Ctrl DK, so any semblance of competitive viability has died out.
Druid
- Spell-Damage Druid is a good counter to Quest Warlock, which might be beneficial if more players start running the best performing deck at top legend. The large presence of Rogue is the biggest hinderance. Blood-Ctrl DK can give Druid a harder time now too.
Paladin
- Though Firegill is a good card, Quest Paladin’s place in the format has worsened. The most shocking development is that it now loses to Blood-Ctrl DK. This is the main reason why the deck struggles past Diamond 5.
- Aggro Paladin loses to Blood-Ctrl DK even harder, but it does a lot better against Fyrakk Rogue, so maintains a better position past Diamond 5. This does not seem to matter, as people do not want to queue the deck.
Shaman
- Nebula Shaman has tanked its win rate for two reasons. First, it matches up poorly against the big 3. Second, its most popular build, born from the mini-set, is awful. If players go back to the old list, it will look better.
Hunter
- Beast Hunter has a similar story to Aggro DH. It still performs well at Platinum and lower Diamond ranks, but the increased presence of Blood-Ctrl DK has made things a bit more difficult past Diamond 5. Aggressive decks are no longer the runaway best options for the legend climb, and considering their lack of appeal, it is not surprising to see most players continue to shy away from them.
Day of Rebirth
- This article features two cards from the mini-set in competitive decks. Those cards were identified on day 1 of the patch as the only competitively viable ones. Nothing changed in the following week. There have been some weak mini-sets in the past, but this one takes the cake.
Class Analysis & Decklists
Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior
Blood-Ctrl Death Knight has completely transformed through a build that imitates Fyrakk Rogue by adding the Naralex package. In addition, Reanimated Pterrodax has made it into the deck alongside Stitched Giant, providing another angle for the Death Knight to counterpressure.
The addition of Pterrodax has discouraged some players from running two copies of Corpse Explosion, but we estimate you can still run two copies. Alternatives do not sound worthwhile anyway, as Headless Horseman looks weak. We did not include Horseman because it does not even perform well in the matchups it is perceived to, such as the Death Knight mirror, or against Fyrakk Rogue.
Starship Death Knight seems to go back to a triple Blood angle with Herenn, a reflection of its comfort at playing defensively against the three most popular classes.
Herenn Death Knight has not significantly changed, but players need to let go of the underperforming Frost build. Marin looks trash in the deck, as it does in every Hearthstone deck, so we dropped it for Griftah.
Sanguine Infestation is a very important card in Handbuff Death Knight. It vastly outperforms Dread Raptor, so a BBU build is preferred.
- Death Knight Class Radar
- Blood-Ctrl Death Knight
- Starship Death Knight
- Herenn Death Knight
- Handbuff Death Knight
We remain confident Customs Enforcer is the correct inclusion in Fyrakk Rogue. As it stands, the choice is between ‘Oh, Manager!’ and Nightmare Fuel. It is extremely close between the two, so pick what you like best.
Crystal Tusk has unexpectedly brought back ‘Everything Must Go!’ to Cycle Rogue. We are confident about the best 28 cards in the deck. The last two slots depend on your comfort and experience with the deck. Playhouse Giants are easier to play and do better in faster matchups. Thalnos and ‘Oh, Manager!’ make the Incindius win condition stronger, so they are better in slower matchups, but the increased reliance on Incindius makes executing the deck’s game plan harder. At top legend, we estimate dropping Playhouse Giants is correct.
Kerrigan is proving to be more trouble than she is worth in Quest Warlock, so players are cutting her for Conflagrate, which is just another cheap card.
Starship Warlock’s performance has tanked due to wonky experimentations. We have reasons to believe a clean list with no new cards can perform well at higher levels of play, as it lines up reasonably well against the top three classes.
The rise of Blood-Ctrl Death Knight has moved the Umbra needle in Protoss Priest, to the point it does not look like a liability. It might be correct to run at top legend, but since Protoss Priest is a suboptimal top legend choice, we continue to feature the list that caters to the population of players that queues the deck the most (Platinum/Diamond).
Wilted Priest is a good deck on the climb to legend. Its issue seems to be that it is a relatively harder deck to play yet happens to line up poorly into the top legend field.
We dropped Marin from Control Warrior because the card sucks. Sleep Under the Stars is the 30th card here. The new cards have not made a strong enough impression to justify inclusion in a Terran build. It is very hard to fit anything else in this tight list.
No changes in Demon Hunter, as it received a forgettable mini-set.
No real developments in Mage, as the class arguably got the worst set in a terrible mini-set. Players are not even attempting to run new cards, as they have no idea where they would put them.
Spell-Damage Druid is back to running Go with the Flow, a nod to the slower format with more Blood-Ctrl Death Knights. Aggro Druid has not panned out.
Firegill is a good card in Quest Paladin. Vicious Slitherspear can replace Rockskipper in Aggro Paladin.
Beast Speaker Taka is not worthwhile in Nebula Shaman. The variant exploring this path is weak. We are more curious about the Naralex package in this deck. We provided a possible way to include those three cards in the established Nebula Shaman variant, as they are currently mostly seen in the Taka variant.
Nothing new is going on in Hunter, as expected.
Quest Warlock is the most underrated deck in the game, looking elite across ladder, yet not quite taking over ladder. For this reason, there are no massive efforts to counter Quest Warlock, which keeps it in a comfortable spot.
We do expect top legend players to be more receptive of the deck, as it is the best positioned in the “big 3” meta that has formed with Blood-Ctrl DK and Fyrakk Rogue. We do suspect that this triumvirate will experience some changes over the next week.
A balance patch is also likely to occur next week. Will Team 5 look to nerf the big 3, or will they be concerned with arguably worse play patterns lurking beneath them? Spell-Damage Druid and Cycle Rogue could become drastically stronger if the big 3 are heavily nerfed.
A more pressing question, perhaps, is whether we will get meaningful buffs to some of the underwhelming packages we have received this expansion. We should.
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