vS Data Reaper Report #332

October 2, 2025

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Welcome to the 332nd edition of the Data Reaper Report!

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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 1,948,000
Top 1K Legend 53,000
Legend (Excluding Top 1k) 682,000
Diamond 4 to 1 420,000
Diamond 10 to 5 380,000
Platinum 189,000
Bronze/Silver/Gold 224,000

Class/Archetype Distribution

Class Frequency

Class Frequency Discussion

Standard format is settling down and changes are becoming less frequent as the expansion unwinds, and players begin to look ahead to the new expansion.

The main shift at top legend is that the Warlock population is further growing, with both Quest Warlock and Egg Warlock significantly rising in play. Quest Warlock remains the more dominant archetype for the class, though Egg Warlock is passing Blood-Ctrl DK to become the third most popular deck. This rise in Warlock is paired with a decline in Death Knight, with players mostly losing faith in Starship DK.

Changes on the climb to legend are minimal. Egg Warlock is trickling down and gaining a bit of traction, but otherwise, the field is very similar to the one observed last week.

Matchup Win Rates Header

Power Rankings Header

vS Meta Score

vS Power Rankings Discussion

Warlock

  • Warlock has become the only elite performer at higher levels of play, with both Quest Warlock and Egg Warlock exhibiting Tier 1 win rates. This Warlock dominance has led to the collapse of many decks to non-viable win rates, while Rogue and Death Knight have been pressured into a 50% win rate. The diverse field outside of top legend is preserved, so ladder is far kinder and more forgiving to most players on ladder.
  • Quest Warlock is the most well-rounded deck in the format and extremely difficult to counter. Its biggest counter, Mech Warrior, is unpopular and does not perform well at higher MMR’s. A small population of Spell-Damage Druid is all that stands in the way of Quest Warlock’s complete domination.
  • Egg Warlock shines mostly at top legend thanks to its good matchups against the top 3 classes. It is favored against both Rogue and Death Knight, while Quest Warlock presents an even battle. Counters become more prominent at lower rank brackets, which is why it is not elite on the climb to legend. Protoss Priest is a good example.

Rogue

  • Fyrakk Rogue is clearly good, but the increasing population of Warlock makes it hard for the deck to exhibit a strong top legend win rate. It is slightly unfavored against both Warlock decks, which ultimately matters most, as it mostly either faces Warlock or the mirror matchup. It beats up on everything else, which is why it is Tier 1 at lower rank brackets, where the meta is more diverse.

Death Knight

  • Blood-Ctrl DK is in a similar position to Rogue. Elite in a diverse meta but finds itself mostly unfavored against the “big 3” because of its tough matchup against Egg Warlock. Starship DK is in decline, while Herenn DK is stuck in refinement purgatory.

Demon Hunter

  • Aggro DH remains extremely powerful on the climb to legend, but its slightly increased presence this week, coupled with a decline in Starship DH, has caused its performance to drop off at top legend. We suspect that players have begun to mulligan for Aggro DH rather than Starship DH at high MMR’s, nullifying the surprise advantage the deck may have had.
  • Starship DH is playable throughout most of ladder but has collapsed at top legend due to the disappearance of Starship Death Knight, a matchup it relied on for its success.
  • Cliff-Dive DH has similarly collapsed due to the spike in Quest Warlock, an atrocious matchup for the deck. Peddler DH similarly suffers against Quest Warlock.

Druid

  • We are a bit surprised that Spell-Damage Druid has gotten worse this week. A decline in Death Knight and a rise in Warlock should, on paper, improve its standing. But when looking deeper into it, Death Knight’s decline comes from the fall of Starship DK, a good matchup for Druid. Furthermore, Egg Warlock seems to have improved its performance in the matchup and is now only narrowly unfavored against Druid.

Priest

  • The rise of Egg Warlock at top legend has made Wilted Priest stronger there, as it is extremely dominant in this matchup, which offsets its difficulties against other popular decks. Any increased attempts to play the deck at lower ranks shows how relatively difficult the deck is to pick up.

The Rest

  • Other classes see little changes from last week, as they mostly see play at rank brackets that have not seen much movement.
  • A few aggressive decks remain the top performers, but most players pass on them for more compelling options that are strong enough to find success with.
  • All classes have viable decks at Diamond ranks. Mage and Shaman seem to be the most underpowered classes in the format. The other 9 classes have at least one Tier 2 deck or better.

Deck improvements

  • We have done the usual work this week, going over every archetype and evaluating whether we can improve its build. We have made a small tweak in Aggro Paladin, but nothing else merited a change, so we did not find a need to write commentary for the class sections.
  • The Archdruid of Thorns build of Egg Warlock is the superior one at every level of play, so we have dropped the Elise variant from the report.

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


Quest Warlock can be considered the strongest deck in the format. It performs exceptionally well at every level of play and is relatively hard to counter. If you refuse to play the top performing aggressive decks, it is also the best choice on the climb to legend.

Interestingly, Team 5 has a balance patch window next week, as we had a content patch this week. Both Warlock decks are a product of successful buffs that created new decks from the new set and gave players something fresh.

Therefore, nerfing Warlock at the current timing would feel strange, so we might see another patch that skips nerfs, citing the diverse and inoffensive field that most players on ladder experience. More buffs to things that are clearly not working would not hurt either.

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Contributors

EndofDaysTzachilookitzjoe

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