vS Data Reaper Report #339

December 25, 2025

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Welcome to the 339th 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 2,046,000
Top 1K Legend 50,000
Legend (Excluding Top 1k) 558,000
Diamond 4 to 1 507,000
Diamond 10 to 5 448,000
Platinum 202,000
Bronze/Silver/Gold 281,000

Class/Archetype Distribution

Class Frequency

Class Frequency Discussion

This week gave us an interesting case study on how players’ deck choices are influenced at different levels of play. On the climb to legend from upper Diamond, no notable deck saw a significant shift in its play rate. This is also true for most of ladder. Hearthstone players have gone on holiday, quite literally. Content consumption generally slows down in this period, which means there is less movement in the meta.

However, as with most cases, top legend is an exception, as its population of players behaves drastically differently. At this rank bracket, most changes in deck popularities were likely driven by the Hearthstone World Championship rather than ladder meta trends. Top legend players are far more likely to have watched the tournament and decided to take some of the decks to ladder themselves. While the environments are different, making specific decks better or worse in another format, the impression is still influential.

Discover Hunter, Blood-Ctrl DK, Control Warrior, Hagatha Shaman and Cycle Rogue were the most popular decks in the tournament, by far. All of them have increased in play at top legend this week. Most decks that were not prominent in the tournament either declined, or maintained a similar play rate to last week.

There are a couple of ladder driven trends that we can still spot, such as the emergence of Elise Rogue, as well as changes in Cliff Dive DH. We will discuss them.

Matchup Win Rates Header

Power Rankings Header

vS Meta Score

vS Power Rankings Discussion

Rogue

  • A format in which Discover Hunter, Blood-Ctrl DK, Hagatha Shaman and Control Warrior are more popular is not a good one for Cycle Rogue. While it is the most difficult deck to play out of these five, it cannot have too much success queuing into the meta pillars. It is somewhat reliant on meeting other, less prominent opponents. Protoss Rogue makes more sense on ladder.
  • Elise Rogue does not look great, but we suspect some of it is caused by players running the wrong build.

Hunter

  • Discover Hunter was the most impressive deck in the tournament, which is not a surprise considering it performs well against the other four popular decks that were brought to the tournament. If all five decks increase in play, then Discover Hunter gets better.

Death Knight

  • In contrast, Blood-Ctrl DK does not favor these trends, as it only beats Cycle Rogue and would prefer to face a more diverse field. The deck is still obviously strong, but it did take a small hit.

Warrior

  • Control Warrior, much like Discover Hunter, is comfortable in the tournament environment. It performed well in Worlds, and it performs better on ladder when it meets more Hunters, Rogues and Death Knights. This deck is weaker on ladder because it gets hard countered by less prominent decks, such as Starship Rogue and Protoss Mage.
  • Dragon Warrior, with its Elise variant, continues to look like one of the most underrated decks in the game.

Shaman

  • Hagatha Shaman prefers a more diverse field, much like Blood-Ctrl DK, so has taken a small hit in its performance. What is more interesting is that for the first time, it has been usurped by another deck outside of top legend, no longer looking like the undisputed best ladder performer.

Demon Hunter

  • Cliff Dive DH has spiked in its performance at all levels of play and is now the best performing deck at every rank bracket. We are particularly shocked by its top legend performance, which has its own little story. An old build of the archetype was revived to target Rogue to greater effectiveness. The correct build for other ladder brackets remains Elise/Felhunter, but this old Cliff Dive concept is now superior at higher MMR’s.

Druid

  • As we suspected last week, Azshara Druid is collapsing in its performance. It is possible that players have figured out how to play against the deck better, while its finalized iteration does not have the same flexibility as its earlier concepts.

Mage

  • Toki Mage has a 6% play rate at Diamond 5-10 and 5% at legend. That is incredibly high for a deck THIS bad. Major attraction.

Warlock, Paladin, Priest

  • Not much going on here.

Class Analysis & Decklists

Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior

 

Data Reaper Report - Rogue

Ysera is being added to Protoss Rogue and appears to help the archetype’s flexibility in the late game.

The Naralex direction currently looks superior to Ashamane in Elise Rogue, despite the fact Ashamane is far more popular. We also do not like the inclusion of Garona in this archetype.

Data Reaper Report - Hunter

Both variants of Discover Hunter appear to be settled.

Ysera is looking more mandatory in Blood-Ctrl Death Knight. Marin/Ceaseless vs Naralex/Fyrakk are essentially equal. Griftah is overrated.

Data Reaper Report - Warrior

Some players have swapped out Fyrakk for Briarspawn Drake in Dragon Warrior, but it does not appear to be an upgrade.

Data Reaper Report - Shaman

If you have not cut Living Flame from Hagatha Shaman, it is never too late.

At top legend, an old Cliff Dive Demon Hunter concept was revived to hard counter Rogue. This build is reliant on a high population of Rogues to make up for its worse matchups elsewhere, so we continue to recommend the Elise/Felhunter build for most of ladder. It is the full lethality build that utilizes Cliff Dive as a nuke with Briarspawn Drake and Illidari Inquisitor, without any other minions besides Fae Trickster, which is tutored by Tuskpiercer and tutors Cliff Dive.

We have not seen any reason to change the Spell Demon Hunter build from last week. There does not seem to be a magical solution to help it perform better against some of the strongest classes.

Data Reaper Report - Druid

Azshara Druid is declining in its performance. The Busy Peon build remains the best performer, and we have not identified an alternative route that can stop the decline.

Data Reaper Report - Mage

Players love Toki Mage but the deck remains horrendous. There is no point in refining a 40% win rate deck. The people can keep running Dirty Rat and Steamcleaner.

Data Reaper Report - Warlock

Beyond the slight reappearance of a low sample of Egg Warlock, driven by the world championship, there is not much else going on. No indication that Egg Warlock is particularly good on ladder.

Data Reaper Report - Paladin

We got nothing.

Data Reaper Report - Priest

Some players are under the impression that Zarimi Priest is good. This is what queueing into Toki Mage does to the human mind.



Cliff Dive Demon Hunter is not favored by players. After all, its play rate is lower than Toki Mage! But the ones willing to play the deck are producing great results. The archetype has a niche option to hard counter Rogue through the old concept of Cliff Dive being utilized as a nuke rather than a swing turn for a more grindy deck.

That is it from us for the year. Merry Christmas and we will see you again in 2026.

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Contributors

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