Welcome to the 341st 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 | 2,216,000 |
| Top 1K Legend | 70,000 |
| Legend (Excluding Top 1k) | 482,000 |
| Diamond 4 to 1 | 521,000 |
| Diamond 10 to 5 | 498,000 |
| Platinum | 269,000 |
| Bronze/Silver/Gold | 376.000 |
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
As anticipated, the new Imbue package for Rogue has proven to be extremely attractive to players, finding its way into the established Elise Rogue archetype. The class has become widely popular at all levels of play, ending its relative exclusivity for top legend players. This is no surprise considering that Rogue decks with thievery elements are historically popular amongst casual players. While a small percentage of Elise Rogue without the new cards exists, the large majority of builds incorporate the Imbue package to some degree.
Blood-Ctrl Death Knight has also enjoyed a rise in popularity thanks to the introduction of Remnant of Rage. The Imbue package for this class, however, has barely seen any play. A novel Frost Death Knight deck with Remnant has also emerged in small numbers but has not gained too much traction. Herenn Death Knight is unchanged, mostly running the Forgefiend build.
Dragon Warrior has spiked in play following the introduction of Prescient Slitherdrake, especially at Diamond ranks. Non-Elise builds have made a comeback, now making up the larger percentage of the archetype. Control Warrior looks unchanged.
A new Broxigar Demon Hunter archetype has emerged, thanks to new card draw tools in Press the Advantage and Remnant of Rage. The variant that first emerged was a lean build with mostly cheap cards, focused on cycling as quickly as possible towards a Broxigar/Brewmaster finisher. A second variant is beginning to creep up that utilizes the Blob of Tar/Ravenous Felhunter/Return Policy package, making it similar in structure to a Cliff Dive Demon Hunter without Cliff Dive.
Druid started slow, but Azshara Druid has gained more momentum in recent days, especially at higher levels of play. New builds incorporate Acceleration Aura and Press the Advantage.
Acceleration Aura has made a massive impact on Aura Paladin, putting the class on the map even at top legend. The archetype is utilizing Violet Treasuregill to pull out Acceleration Aura on turn 2, setting up its powerful and abundant 4-mana plays more consistently.
The mini-set has largely impacted the six classes we have mentioned. The other five classes have seen very little utilization of new cards.
Hagatha Shaman has dramatically declined in play, going from a dominant presence to a modest one, as players moved to experiment with new stuff. Discover Hunter has also declined in play, as its two variants are unchanged. This does not necessarily mean these decks have gotten weaker. We will have to see whether standing pat has also negatively impacted these two decks’ performances, or whether they have simply become less fashionable.
Beyond their stagnant Protoss decks, Mage and Priest are showing little else. Egg Warlock has slightly popped up at top legend, while the rest of the class is asleep.
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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
- Elise Rogue is not performing well with the Imbue package. As it stands, this package has destroyed the archetype’s competitive standing, but it is possible that a correct Imbue incorporation can fix its win rate. In this case, less is more. The reason why Elise Rogue is performing poorly is that it has been chopped too aggressively and force fed thief synergy cards, when a minimal Imbue package should work better, without cutting key components that made the deck successful in the first place. Whether the players will ever listen to this advice is another story, as they likely need other high profile streamers and content creators to lead them to better builds. Going full Imbue is high on dopamine and hard to move away from.
- Protoss Rogue is best positioned in the current meta, but remains unattractive. Cycle and Starship do not perform well against the emerging field.
Death Knight
- Blood-Ctrl Death Knight looks powerful, but we cannot say this is mostly Remnant of Rage’s doing. The card can be considered core to the archetype, but is not one of its top performers. The reason Blood-Ctrl DK is strong is that it performs well against the two other hyped decks coming out of the mini-set: Elise Rogue and Dragon Warrior. It was a well rounded deck that received a moderate boost in power and is well positioned against the emerging field. Note that it does have some effective counters.
- Frost Death Knight looks competitive but falls off at higher levels of play. Herenn Death Knight performs extremely well on the climb to legend but falls off a cliff at higher MMR’s, in contrast to Blood-Ctrl which remains strong throughout.
Warrior
- Dragon Warrior is clearly strong, with an improved matchup spread post-miniset, but is not a dominant deck that should cause any concern. The Blood-Ctrl DK matchup firmly keeps it in check, while Demon Hunter also has the tools (Blob/Felhunter) to frustrate it. We do think there are some tweaks it needs to do in its builds. Prescient Slitherdrake is good, but Dimensional Weaponsmith is terrible. As it stands, the Elise variant is on par with the Eliseless variant, in terms of overall performance.
- Control Warrior arguably got stronger after the mini-set compared to Dragon Warrior, at least when it comes to lower MMR brackets. Control Warrior is now a Tier 2 performer at Diamond ranks, when it usually sat in the dumpster there. The change is caused by its strong matchups against multiple classes that rose in play following the mini-set. It performs well against Death Knight, Rogue, Demon Hunter and Paladin.
Demon Hunter
- With Hagatha Shaman falling off, Cliff Dive Demon Hunter has become the undisputed strongest performer on ladder outside of top legend, while remaining an elite performer at top legend. Its win rate at lower MMR brackets is particularly absurd. This is a function of its superb matchups into Dragon Warrior, Blood-Ctrl DK and Elise Rogue. However, we do not consider this deck to be unstoppable, as it has plenty of underappreciated counters. We expect to see some relaxation in its win rate, though its low play rate means there is little incentive to target it aggressively. This deck represents the legend grind on easy mode.
- Broxigar Demon Hunter already looks quite good, but its performance could rise to another level by fully embracing the Blobxigar path. The second variant that appeared in this archetype looks superior and could become the strongest deck at top legend. This is a developing Meta Breaker that could significantly alter the landscape. There are effective ways to counter Broxigar, so we will have to see whether players take up those options if the deck blows up at higher MMR’s over the next week.
Druid
- Azshara Druid looks revitalized, with an emerging role that could establish it as a pillar of the format. It is an overwhelmingly dominant counter to both Demon Hunter decks as well as Control Warrior. Its new build is not polarizing either. The deck’s unfavored matchups are still winnable.
Paladin
- Aura Paladin is now an elite choice for the climb to legend, only eclipsed by the absurdly powerful Cliff Dive Demon Hunter, while maintaining a good win rate at top legend. It appears that Acceleration Aura has made it more difficult for opponents to punish Paladin’s predictable curve. Its matchup spread is very balanced. A lot of 50-50’s against the most popular decks.
Hunter
- Discover Hunter might be less fashionable, but it remains a good deck at higher levels of play. The Dragon Warrior matchup has become more difficult, hurting its standing at Diamond ranks, as it does not have a good answer to a turn 4 Slitherdrake. But Discover Hunter performs fine against the rest of the field and enjoys the Demon Hunter matchups.
Shaman
- Hagatha Shaman is another story. While it remains a strong performer at lower MMR brackets, it has relatively weakened. Shaman steadily declines past Diamond 5 until hitting Tier 3 at top legend. This process was already seen before the mini-set due to the rise of Elise Rogue, but Elise Rogue’s presence has magnified across all levels of play now. Shaman is facing better competition, as evidenced by the now unfavored matchup against Aura Paladin and its increased struggles into Blood-Ctrl DK.
Warlock
- Egg Warlock is the sleeper deck of the current format. It performs at an elite level at all levels of play, including the #1 slot at top legend (though this is a volatile position). It is the hardest counter to Blood-Ctrl DK, while performing well against Broxigar DH, Control Warrior, Paladin and Druid. The decline of Discover Hunter has helped it a lot. Despite its low play rate, driven by the absence of novelties, Warlock is a competitive class.
Priest
- Protoss Priest looks okay, though much of its success is driven by its strong matchup against bad Elise Rogue builds. We suspect its win rate will decline in a more settled environment.
Mage
- It is a similar story for Protoss Mage, which currently exploits bad Elise Rogues to keep its head above water. It is likely that Mage will settle down as the worst class in the game once the meta develops further.
Class Analysis & Decklists
Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior
Currently, the best Elise Rogue build is one that does not run any of the Imbue cards. For that to change, Imbue Elise Rogue should minimize the Imbue package and maintain as much as possible from the Vanilla Elise Rogue build. One example is not cutting Creature of Madness, which is an important stabilizer for Rogue’s early game. Bitterbloom Knight is the best Imbue card, by far, but then we either pick Eventuality or Jagged Edge of Time. The extra Imbue carries diminishing returns, as the additional discount potential is often not materialized. Using Shadowstep on Bitterbloom Knight is a common play for the deck anyway.
Snatch and Grab is superior to the horrible Malorne at the 8 mana slot. Treasure Hunter Eudora sucks at the 5 mana slot, but so does every 5 mana card available to Rogue, so it is kept.
Protoss Rogue has dropped Garona and gotten better as a result, unsurprisingly.
One thing we noticed about Blood-Ctrl Death Knight is that Corpse Explosion has become significantly stronger due to its synergy with Remnant of Rage. We advocate running two copies of Corpse Explosion once again. Kerrigan surprisingly looks like a serviceable card in the deck, possibly due to Remnant of Rage, when we initially expected to drop her. The most replaceable cards in the featured build are Xavius and Griftah. Never cut Blob of Tar.
Frost Death Knight is fine, though hits a wall at some point on ladder. This is not a burn deck, but a sticky corpse deck. There are experiments with Unholy Death Knight utilizing the same concept, but the samples are extremely low so we might have to wait another week before we properly evaluate it.
Both builds of Dragon Warrior have some roadblock in their refinement.
The Eliseless build needs to drop Dimensional Weaponsmith, as it performs worse than any other 3-drop that sees play in the archetype. Eternal Toil shows promise based on a low sample and works well with Grommash Hellscream as well as Stonecarver. We are open minded for anything when it comes to the last two slots.
The popular choice for the Elise build is to cut Naralex, as the 7 mana slot is now filled by Slitherdrake for Elise activation. This makes Fyrakk worse, so we wonder if there is a better solution that has not been explored.
No changes to Control Warrior. The current format is relatively slow, so Murozond looks correct.
While we are featuring two builds of Broxigar Demon Hunter, we currently recommend the Blob variant. It provides stability in faster matchups like Dragon Warrior and still possesses the OTK potential in slow matchups. This might be the best 30 cards you can play at top legend. The initial cycling variant does have advantages in some matchups, such as Discover Hunter and the mirror, so we are not writing it off.
Cliff Dive Demon Hunter is grossly overpowered on the climb to legend. The Elise/Blob build farms Dragon Warriors.
Azshara Druid‘s new iteration looks clean, though it is possible that the deck can still fit Blob of Tar and Tortollan Traveler in future iterations, considering how valuable Blob is in the current meta. Press the Advantage is a great performer in the deck, but note that Acceleration Aura is not a mulligan priority. Elise and Amirdrassil are the cards you are desperate to find in the opening hand. If you have one of them, New Heights and Acceleration Aura become more reasonable mulligan keeps.
There are two possible win conditions to copy here: Owlonius and Star Grazer.
Nothing has changed for either Discover Hunter variant and the deck can still find a lot of success at higher levels of play.
Acceleration Aura is a game changer for Aura Paladin. We are relatively confident about 26 cards in the featured build. We have been impressed in recent days by Cardboard Golem and Crafter’s Aura, which provide more sustained pressure in the late game that helps the deck maintain a strong performance level at higher levels of play. Tankgineer and Carnivorous Cubicle are the most notable alternatives, but require each other in close proximity to work optimally.
Egg Warlock is a sleeper deck. There is nothing new or fancy about it. If you want Blood-Ctrl DK to suffer, this is the way. You will find that the deck performs well against a wider variety of opponents than what you may expect.
It is not a huge shock, but Mage still sucks. Unless you are obsessed with Protoss Mage, there is not much to do here.
Hagatha Shaman has dropped off as other decks have strengthened. We have not noticed any novel card choices that improve its standing in the new format.
As it turns out, Voodoo Totem was not what Priest needed.
Protoss Priest wants to run Elise for Dragon Warrior and all the greedy late game for the Death Knight and Rogue matchups.
While many players are fumbling around with terribly built Rogue decks, some are farming ladder with the ferocious effectiveness of Demon Hunter. Cliff Dive Demon Hunter is absolutely curb stomping the competition on the climb to legend. Broxigar Demon Hunter, should it maintain its pace of improvement, is a new contender for the title of best deck in the game.
And if you want to win while feeling like a hipster, Egg Warlock can do some serious work.
The meta is wide open and far from solved. Blob of Tar has never been stronger, so our general advice is to find ways to shove it in every deck that can accommodate it with reasonable logic. We would not be surprised if that lead to the next breakthrough in the format.
Blob is love. Blob is life.
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Contributors
I just randomly played elemental mage. I literally had a win streak from low gold to platinum 2. I finally lost to a hunter deck that played 4 insidious shuffles.
I was consistently beating hunter and paladin. There were a lot of Murdock paladin quests.