Welcome to the 337th 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 | 2,548,000 |
| Top 1K Legend | 54,000 |
| Legend (Excluding Top 1k) | 171,000 |
| Diamond 4 to 1 | 505,000 |
| Diamond 10 to 5 | 594,000 |
| Platinum | 423,000 |
| Bronze/Silver/Gold | 801,000 |
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
We will make this a relatively short report, as a balance patch is coming soon and not too many things have happened this week. However, there are a couple of important developments that are worth highlighting above the rest, so we will give them the attention they deserve.
At top legend, there has been a decline in Rogue (mostly Protoss but also Cycle) and Hunter, the two most popular classes, as well as Control Warrior. Hagatha Shaman, Blood-Ctrl Death Knight and Cliff Dive Demon Hunter have all significantly risen in play. We also see increased interest in Azshara Druid, with new builds popping up on a nearly daily basis. The field has generally diversified.
On the climb to legend, there is a decline in Mage (besides some infatuation with Toki Mage), Paladin, Priest and other decks that can be considered fringe or weak. Hagatha Shaman, Discover Hunter, Blood-Ctrl DK and Azshara Druid have risen in play. The field is generally trending towards stronger and more respected performers. Obviously, this makes the Azshara Druid spike very interesting.
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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
Once again, we will focus on the highlights of the week.
The Meta Breaker: Azshara Druid!
- Azshara Druid looks significantly stronger at all levels of play, a product of a hectic refinement phase in which we found a newer, better list every time we thought some optimal build was already found. Remember that this archetype was known as Hydration Druid and used to strictly play Hydration Station, winning through a grindy, taunt-based game plan and sitting mostly at Tier 4. The breakthrough in this archetype is that players realized they should be leveraging Zin-Azshari, the location from the fabled Lady Azshara, to copy a win condition in a more lethal, game ending fashion. New win conditions involve Owlonius, turning it into a pseudo Spell-Damage Druid, or Dread Deserter, Briarspawn Drake and even Star Grazer. The point is to utilize Zin-Azshari with cards that let us click on it more than once per turn (Scrapbooking Student, ‘Welcome Home!’), which enables an OTK. More than two copies of Owlonius means the opponent is dead to Swipe/Living Roots without the need of further Spell Damage support. Repeatedly copying and doubling the stats of Dread Deserter or Briarspawn Drake can also deal an enormous amount of damage that is nearly impossible to play around.
- It is possible that this archetype’s win rate is a bit inflated, as it is mostly piloted by highly engaged players. This is what we call source bias, a bias driven by the origin of the deck and by which communities/circles it is being played. This dissipates as more players become familiar with the deck over time. However, it is clear that the deck is very competitive when refined, especially when we cannot consider it to be fully refined just yet.
Top legend trends
- The diversification of the format at top legend is helping Hagatha Shaman and Blood-Ctrl DK, which are decks with well rounded matchup spreads. They are now Tier 1 performers alongside Protoss Rogue (which continues to perform well despite being perceived differently). Their increased presence and success makes life more difficult for aggressive decks, which are not favored by top legend players anyway. Dragon and Control Warrior have worsened, as they perform better at higher levels of play in a more narrow, Hunter-centric format. However, Dragon Warrior is already in the process of climbing back up in its win rate, which should be reflected in the next report.
- Discover Hunter has slightly moved towards greedier Elise builds again, aligning with the rise of Death Knight and decline of Rogue. Elise builds just happen to perform better against Warrior too.
Climb to legend trends
- The climb to legend is becoming more difficult as weak decks decline and the field becomes more ruthless and competitive. We can see the deflation in win rates across nearly all decks. The main exceptions are Azshara Druid and Blood-Ctrl DK. Azshara Druid’s refinement causes its win rate to metaphorically swim against the river’s current. Blood-Ctrl DK has similarly enjoyed productive adjustments in its builds and an increasingly favorable field. Do note, however, that Azshara Druid is a strong counter to Blood-Ctrl DK.
More slop?
- While the decline of Dragon Warrior is evident for this week’s database, a new build may completely turn things around and propel it back to the top of the format. This could be a meta breaking development and we will give you one guess on which card is involved here before you jump to the Warrior section.
The balance patch
- It is clear that Priest, Mage and Warlock are the classes most desperate for buffs. Paladin looks fine at most ranks and simply suffers from having a limited skill ceiling at top legend.
Class Analysis & Decklists
Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior
The Elise variant in Discover Hunter started to run Ysera to make Shaladrassil a more acceptable inclusion in the deck. The Eliseless variant is running more burn (Precise Shot) to close games out quickly.
We have completely cut Birdwatching from Quest Hunter. It is undoubtedly weak.
Cycle Rogue looks refined while neither Starship Rogue nor Protoss Rogue have made any significant changes to their card choices. Opu is a weak card in Starship Rogue, but Bob is even weaker. We do wonder about Gnomelia.
Hagatha Shaman’s build looks clean. Some players cut Hex for Nebula to greed up for late game matchups, but it does not seem necessary.
A new Elise variant for Dragon Warrior looks like the strongest direction for the archetype, by far. Why, of course it is…
The featured build looks NUTS. Dragon Warrior’s win rate could climb by 2% if everyone played this variant today.
Recent trends are bringing Stitched Giants back to Blood-Ctrl Death Knight. Giants are not great against Hunter and Shaman but are strong in the mirror and other matchups, so they benefit from a more diverse environment.
Azshara Druid seems to be reinventing itself every week. New builds seem to have taken the archetype to another level. We are featuring two different builds but note that some lists have a combination of these approaches. We decided to maximize one primary win condition in each list.
The Deserter build looks to copy Dread Deserter with Zin-Azshari. We can copy Deserter multiple times through either Welcome Home or Scrapbooking Student, enabling an OTK turn with massive Deserters. Star Grazer and Briarspawn Drake offer alternative copy targets that activate Elise.
The Owlonius build looks to copy Owlonius and OTK the opponent with Swipe and Living Roots. It is completely normal to summon three copies of Owlonius in one turn, which usually means the opponent is cooked. Krona offers some discount potential to make the OTK easier. Briarspawn Drake is the alternative win condition.
Some builds run both Deserter and Owlonius, though it is hard to maximize both win conditions in one list, as Owlonius wants Krona, Contingency, and Living Roots, but Dread Deserter prefers more location amplifiers. We will see how the archetype further develops.
Toki Mage got some hype this week, but the deck is complete garbage. There is no reason to play it if you are interested in winning. Hilariously, Toki is one of the worst cards in the deck. It is basically Protoss Mage without the Protoss.
As Hagatha Shaman grows in popularity across all levels of play, we remind you that Cliff-Dive DH is the best Shaman counter. The Elise build is particularly effective in this matchup.
Aura Paladin lost its appeal relatively quickly after an initial hype phase. It is a good deck on the climb to legend but hits a wall at higher levels of play since its game plan is extremely telegraphed and does not have much room for flexibility.
Priest probably has the easiest set to buff in the Timeways expansion without any concern of adverse play patterns, so let’s get to it.
Rafaam Warlock has a worse win rate than Whizbang. If this deck had a 47% win rate, it would represent a fat design win. It is astounding it sees any amount of play with its current performance.
While Azshara Druid is not a deck that will drastically change the format, it offers a competitive option for a class that was mostly stuck on Aviana/Hydration memes. The archetype is still in the process of figuring out its best build, so its current performance looks promising. Watch out for Elise Dragon Warrior too, as this variant could be particularly scary.
Add the upcoming balance patch and we might be able to enjoy some additional novelties over the next week. Or some more slop.
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Contributors
The Elise build of Dragon Warrior is missing a 10th card with a unique cost.
Zilliax