Welcome to the 344^th 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

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Number of Games

Overall	2,233,000
Top 1K Legend	66,000
Legend (Excluding Top 1k)	287,000
Diamond 4 to 1	504,000
Diamond 10 to 5	536,000
Platinum	334,000
Bronze/Silver/Gold	506,000

Class/Archetype Distribution

Class Frequency

Class Frequency Discussion

The introduction of Blackhorn, as well as the various buffs in last week’s Monday patch, have made a significant impact on the format. Broxigar Demon Hunter has seen its cycle variant completely die off, while its Elise variant has taken off.

Control Warrior’s popularity has exploded at all levels of play, with Blackhorn fitting neatly in its 7 mana slot and forcing every other deck in the format to adjust its late game win conditions, or see them cleanly deleted. Dragon Warrior has declined in play, with the Elise variant disappearing, as the archetype seeks to end games faster.

Blood-Ctrl DK is another major utilizer of Blackhorn. There is a relatively even split between BBU and BUU builds, but at top legend, the more defensive BBU build takes over. Herenn DK has switched back to a Stegodon build to try and pressure both Warrior and Blood-Ctrl DK.

The Maestra buff has led to the rise of Maestra Rogue, which has become a primary choice in the class alongside Elise Rogue. Elise Rogue has suffered a massive decline in its popularity at all levels of play. It has resisted a decline in play in recent weeks despite its underwhelming performance, but the arrival of Blackhorn has undoubtedly knocked its play experience, and therefore its appeal.

Mage might be the biggest winner of the patch, thanks to the emergence of Arkwing Mage. This archetype is in the process of skyrocketing in popularity at higher levels of play and trickling down to the rest of ladder. There are two primary variants that utilize the two different tourist cards available to the class: Raylla and Skyla.

Libram Paladin is another archetype that has emerged thanks to the buffs, with a variant utilizing an aura package gaining traction and coming close to Aura Paladin’s play rate numbers.

It has been a relatively uneventful time for Druid. Azshara Druid has not seen significant changes following the patch, declining in play due to increased interest in new possibilities elsewhere.

Discover Hunter’s play rate has completely collapsed, becoming a fringe deck at top legend due to the arrival of Blackhorn. What has been very clear based on seeing the trends this week is that most players refuse to run win conditions that can get deleted by Blackhorn. The psychological impact here is just as strong, if not stronger, than the competitive merit. The remaining Discover Hunters mostly run the Elise build, tweaked to lessen Blackhorn’s impact on its late game.

There has been an increased interest in Warlock following the patch. Experimentations with Wallow, Zoo and Shred Warlock can be observed, but none of these decks have gained serious traction amongst players. Priest and Shaman have not received any encouragement as a result of the patch.

We do need to mention Whizbang, which is evenly spread amongst the classes due to its rotating decks. This card has never been more popular. At some rank brackets, Whizbang’s popularity exceeds 15%. Past Diamond 5, it declines to around 10%. At top legend, it drops to 5% and is in the process of further declining. We will mention its performance levels later.

vS Meta Score

vS Power Rankings Discussion

Demon Hunter (and the Blackhorn effect)

• Broxigar Demon Hunter looks near unstoppable, with a perversely high win rate at all levels of play. A 55% win rate at top legend is not something we often see, which shows that even top legend players are struggling to deal with it. We will note that this high win rate is partly influenced by a greater percentage of bad decks due to the heavy experimentation the patch has induced and the popularity of Whizbang. However, we do not expect to see Broxigar DH’s moved from this dominant position. It is undisputedly the best deck in the game.
• Why is Broxigar DH out of control? Blackhorn has annihilated Discover Hunter’s play rate, which is DH’s strongest counter. In contrast, Broxigar DH has been able to adjust to the presence of Blackhorn and display favored matchups against both Control Warrior and Blood-Ctrl DK. It does not need a Broxigar finisher to beat them. With a small tweak in its card choices, it can even counter them harder.
• Cliff Dive DH is not bad, but why would we play it when Broxigar DH is much more powerful now? Most players do not bother.

Warrior

• Control Warrior’s skyrocketing popularity and usage of Blackhorn has turned it into many players’ greatest enemy. Within a couple of days of the patch, players have quickly abandoned win conditions that were vulnerable to Blackhorn, switching to alternative builds or decks that were more resistant to the card. The product is a format that Control Warrior may have defined the rules for, but does not dominate.
• Dragon Warrior may have dropped in popularity, but the deck has survived and is doing well. The large presence of Broxigar DH and Blood-Ctrl DK simply means it cannot be the top dog.

Death Knight

• Blood-Ctrl DK is superior to Control Warrior because it is more versatile, capable of pressuring when necessary rather than strictly playing passively. It is less reliant on Blackhorn to win. The only thing stopping it from completely taking over is that Broxigar DH is on another level and beats it handedly in the direct matchup. Delete Broxigar DH from the meta and Blood-Ctrl DK becomes the next broken deck. Its matchup spread makes that clear.
• Herenn DK is a solid counter to Blackhorn decks but gets destroyed by Broxigar DH. Strong choice on the climb to legend that falls off at top legend as a result.

Rogue

• Maestra Rogue is not a good deck. Neither is Elise Rogue. The class is popular but is in the weakest position we have seen for a while. Protoss Rogue is a solid choice but interests few players.

Mage

• Arkwing Mage is the real deal, an elite deck at all levels of play. It boasts an excellent matchup spread that includes a decent win rate against Broxigar DH. The Raylla variant is significantly stronger at the moment and may have a chance to improve further through refinement. We will have to see how the deck performs once the field undoubtedly starts to target it more aggressively, as it is primed to become extremely popular, especially at higher levels of play.
• Protoss Mage is not just bad now, it is also yesterday’s news. Mage has a short window of being a serious meta contender while rotation for the class looks bleak. Use it to play Arkwing Mage.

Paladin

• Libram Paladin is competitive, but worse than Aura Paladin at every level of play. Neither deck looks hot at higher levels of play, but you can do well with Paladin on the climb to legend.

Druid

• Azshara Druid might be going a bit stale, but it is one of the only decks that has a strong matchup against Broxigar DH. The issue is that it performs poorly against Arkwing Mage, so its future success is dependent on the balance between these two decks’ popularity.

Hunter

• Discover Hunter is perceived to be gutted by the introduction of Blackhorn, but the deck is capable of adjusting to the card to some extent and perform well in this format. It remains Broxigar DH’s strongest counter, while it goes 50-50 against Arkwing Mage. We expect its win rate to improve over the next week too, so it can reward players who are able to get past the psychological barrier that Blackhorn imposes. Ultimately though, if a deck feels worse to play because of Blackhorn, it will see less play. There is no escaping it.

Warlock, Priest & Shaman

• Unfortunately, based on their small sample sizes, none of the decks that Warlock is experimenting with look any good and we do not expect them to emerge in greater numbers unless they hit a breakthrough in their refinement. No notable changes in the standings of Hagatha Shaman or Protoss Priest either.

Whizbang

• If we placed the average win rate of a Whizbang deck in this table, it would be a high Tier 4 deck at most rank brackets, a significant improvement on its performance before the buffs. What is notable is the high variance between the different Whizbang decks. Whizbang Death Knight, Hunter and Warlock are very powerful and would be considered Tier 1 decks as standalone choices. Death Knight is particularly powerful and a scary opponent for any deck to face. However, the rest of the Whizbang decks range from weak to utterly horrible. The bottom line is that Whizbang is not truly competitive, but it is much better than Toki Mage or Aviana Priest.

Class Analysis & Decklists

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

 

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Broxigar Demon Hunter can adjust to the presence of Blackhorn by cutting Youthful Brewmasters. Illidari Inquisitor replaces some of the late game finishing potential and allows us to drop The Ceaseless Expanse, as it is a weak card we do not need for Elise activation. The featured build is not too popular but outperforms other variants and soundly beats both Control Warrior and Blood-Ctrl Death Knight.

Illidari Studies are the most replaceable cards in the list should the deck need to adjust to other matchups. Infiltrate might be a decent choice against Arkwing Mage, as the deck continues to spike in play, though Divine Brew and Lifesaving Aura could make the pilots more difficult to clear.

• Demon Hunter Class Radar
• Broxigar Demon Hunter
  • Blob Broxigar Demon Hunter
• Cliff-Dive Demon Hunter
  • Elise Cliff Dive Demon Hunter
  • Full Lethality Cliff Dive Demon Hunter

Blackhorn is a no-brainer inclusion in Control Warrior, as it is also the best 7-drop the deck can run. The card was a very strong performer in the first few days of the patch, but as it drove away archetypes and builds that were deleted by it, its performance has understandably declined.

The featured build works best. The Great Dracorex is not needed, and the deck can skip All You Can Eat.

Dragon Warrior has strongly leaned to the non-Elise build to end games quicker. For the first time, Royal Librarian performs reasonably well.

• Warrior Class Radar
• Control Warrior
  • Blackhorn Quest Control Warrior
• Dragon Warrior
  • Vanilla Dragon Warrior

Blackhorn works best in the BBU version of Blood-Ctrl Death Knight. The more proactive BUU variant does not need it.

The Stegodon variant of Herenn Death Knight has made a small comeback amidst the large presence of slower decks. It is okay, but not too impressive.

• Death Knight Class Radar
• Blood-Ctrl Death Knight
  • BUU Blood-Ctrl Death Knight
  • BBU Blood-Ctrl Death Knight
• Herenn Death Knight
  • Stegodon Herenn Death Knight

Elise Rogue has homogenized around one build. It is difficult to tell whether alternative card choices are superior. We did notice that Malorne is not as horrible as it was before. For the first time, we are seeing players downsizing the Imbue package by running one copy of Jagged Edge of Time. Steamcleaner is now the best 5-drop because of the popularity of Warrior and the buff to Eudora, which is now a reasonable card at 4 mana.

Maestra Rogue is not a good deck. The second copy of ‘Oh, Manager!’ is more valuable than the second copy of Raiding Party.

Protoss Rogue has brought back Garona, which we believe is a result of an incentive to accelerate its win condition because of Blackhorn.

• Rogue Class Radar
• Elise Rogue
  • Imbue Elise Rogue
• Maestra Rogue
  • Tess Maestra Rogue
• Cycle Rogue
  • EMG Cycle Rogue
• Protoss Rogue
  • Ysera Protoss Rogue

Arkwing Mage looks very powerful. The Raylla variant is the strongest one and highly recommended. The Skyla variant is not bad but currently looks inferior to Raylla at all levels of play.

Furthermore, the Raylla variant can improve by swapping Flame Geyser for Lifesaving Aura. The card looks exceptional based on its smaller sample and should fit the deck’s game plan like a glove. Xavius is also likely better than Hataaru, as it makes it easier for us to tutor Arkwing Pilot.

• Mage Class Radar
• Arkwing Mage
  • Raylla Arkwing Mage
  • Skyla Arkwing Mage
• Protoss Mage
  • Deios Protoss Mage

Libram Paladin looks functional after the buffs, though inferior to Aura Paladin. The best build runs an Aura package, as it is too important for the class to compete.

• Paladin Class Radar
• Aura Paladin
  • Accelerated Aura Paladin
• Libram Paladin
  • Aura Libram Paladin

No changes in Azshara Druid. It is a good option if you want to have a good matchup against Broxigar Demon Hunter.

• Druid Class Radar
• Azshara Druid
  • Blob Azshara Druid

Discover Hunter can adjust to Blackhorn by strictly running the Elise build and adding a secondary win condition that does not get deleted by Blackhorn. Naralex/Briarspawn Drake seems to be the play, alongside Ysera. We do not recommend running the non-Elise build, as it looks weaker at all levels of play due to Blackhorn.

• Hunter Class Radar
• Discover Hunter
  • Naralex Discover Hunter

Warlock has been experimenting with the buffs, but none of them have led to a seriously competitive deck.

• Warlock Class Radar
• Egg Warlock
  • Thorns Egg Warlock

Intertwined Fate is a greedy option for Protoss Priest to run. The Elise build remains the main path for the archetype.

• Priest Class Radar
• Protoss Priest
  • Elise Protoss Priest

We have seen more Shaman players run two copies of Hex in Hagatha Shaman. We understand why this would happen, as Blob of Tar and Ravenous Felhunter are extremely frustrating to face in the Demon Hunter matchup. The issue is that Hex is very weak in other matchups, so we do not see great justification for it yet.

• Shaman Class Radar
• Hagatha Shaman
  • Wish Hagatha Shaman

Broxigar Demon Hunter is busted. Not because of Broxigar, but because the survivability shell of Blob and Felhunter is extremely powerful. It provides the base from which it can pivot to alternative win conditions that can dodge Blackhorn and turn the tables on Blackhorn users. It has become ridiculously easy to do well with Demon Hunter even at top legend thanks to Blackhorn driving Discover Hunter players away. It is the best deck and it is not close.

But some novelty is also available, as the explosion of Arkwing Mage is imminent. It is difficult to tell just how good the deck can become in a settled environment, but the Raylla variant looks extremely promising and the addition of Lifesaving Aura could improve it further.

Next week, the picture will become clearer on how Hearthstone should finish the year before rotation.

• Broxigar Demon Hunter
• Arkwing Mage

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