Welcome to the 346th 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 | 2,206,000 |
| Top 1K Legend | 54,000 |
| Legend (Excluding Top 1k) | 73,000 |
| Diamond 4 to 1 | 406,000 |
| Diamond 10 to 5 | 506,000 |
| Platinum | 371,000 |
| Bronze/Silver/Gold | 796,000 |
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
The biggest story of the first balance patch of Cataclysm is the explosion of Herald Rogue. This deck has taken over ladder at all levels of play, peaking at top legend with a 30% play rate.
Spell Demon Hunter has also spiked in play, boosted by the disappearance of its most popular counter, Imbue Druid. If the first week of the expansion was characterized by the popularity of Imbue Druid and Herald Shaman, Herald Rogue and Spell DH form the new dominant pairing.
Most classes have one deck that sees any meaningful play. Warrior is the exception, with Dragon Warrior looking modestly popular across ladder, but with experiments in Quest and Egg Warrior also observed. Gladiator Warrior, which has dropped Ysondre in the lead-up to the patch, has disappeared following the nerf to its cornerstone card.
Imbue Druid has suffered a complete collapse, with some traces of it in the process of disappearing. Token Druid has also been deleted. What has risen in their place is Merithra Druid, which looked weak in the first week of Cataclysm but has gone through some development.
Face Hunter looks unchanged, slightly rising in play. The class has not seen much development since the early days and looks relatively unaffected by the balance patch.
Herald Shaman remains a popular deck at lower MMRs, but the deck has gone through a drastic decline in its play rate across ladder. At legend ranks, its presence is dwarfed by Rogue and Demon Hunter.
Mage has gone through a significant change. Burn Mage has faded away, while Quest Mage has taken over the class.
Aura Paladin has risen in play, though its presence is still relatively small compared to more prominent decks.
Control Priest and Herald Death Knight give the impression of viability. They are surprisingly popular at Diamond 5 and below, but their declining play rates at more competitive ranks suggest their performance levels are still questionable.
Warlock is not a popular class anywhere on ladder. Attempts to make Egg Warlock work are seen, alongside a visible Rafaam Warlock at Platinum and below.
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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
- Herald Rogue appears to be a strong deck, though it does not appear to be a performance outlier. As it continues to rise in play, it is getting more targeted. As it stands, it is trending towards a 50% win rate at all levels of play, with a very balanced matchup spread that goes 50-50 with most competitive strategies.
- Its popularity is likely a product of its attractiveness. It is a spiritual successor to Thief Rogue, a late-game-oriented Rogue deck that generates random value and pivots its win condition based on what it found “in the box”. Considering the scarcity of available strategies in the format, with no more than 10 decks displaying some ‘competitive potential’, it is not surprising to see it become so popular.
Demon Hunter
- Spell Demon Hunter looks like the most powerful ladder performer, with a more dominant matchup spread that displays just a couple of effective counters. The disappearance of Imbue Druid is the biggest factor leading to Demon Hunter’s increased effectiveness. We do not expect the deck to take over high end ladder in the same way as Imbue Druid, because Herald Rogue is an extremely popular deck that forces it into a 50-50 matchup. In contrast, Herald Shaman had a losing matchup against Imbue Druid.
- Herald Demon Hunter is not terrible, but it is not a great deck, and it is hard to see it gaining any traction when Spell Demon Hunter and other Herald decks are much better.
Warrior
- Dragon Warrior looks strong, a possibly underrated deck on ladder. It has a strong matchup against Herald Rogue but loses to Spell DH. The player base’s preference for Rogue, which stops Spell DH from taking over ladder, means that Dragon Warrior counters the most popular deck in the game, leading to its Tier 1 standing.
- Egg Warrior is the hardest counter to Spell DH, completely dominating this matchup. However, unlike Dragon Warrior, the rest of its matchup spread is erratic and polarizing. It has difficult matchups against some of the “lesser” decks in the format, but their presence is still relevant, such as Herald Shaman and Quest Mage. It is also slightly unfavored against Herald Rogue.
- Quest Warrior is complete trash and all experiments with it have led to a dead end.
Druid
- Merithra Druid does not perform particularly well, but most of its builds are suboptimal, excluding one of the best cards in the deck: Wickerfang. We estimate that Merithra Druid with Wickerfang is a Tier 2 deck. The archetype performs well against Spell DH. If it can improve the Herald Rogue matchup, it will become increasingly relevant.
Hunter
- Face Hunter is the strongest counter to Herald Rogue. Therefore, it should remain competitive in this format. Its poor matchups against Warrior and Demon Hunter are what prevents it from rising further in standing. It generally struggles against any deck with access to life gain.
Shaman
- Herald Shaman looks fine, though significantly weakened in most rank brackets compared to its pre-patch standing. It tends to stomp on bad, or fringe decks, which suggests it may not perform as well in a settled format. At top legend, this is more apparent. Herald Rogue is superior against a field with a larger percentage of meta contenders. However, a possible rise in Merithra Druid and/or Egg Warrior could end up flipping the trend.
Mage
- Quest Mage is a decent deck in late game matchups, performing well against Herald decks, for example. Its performance is expected to improve through refinement. Its primary weakness is aggression. It struggles against Face Hunter and Dragon Warrior, which do not give it time to complete the quest.
Paladin
- Aura Paladin is genuinely strong and even looks decent at top legend. It only loses to Spell DH and Face Hunter. Its issue, as Paladin decks tend to run into, is its attractiveness. Players do not care much for it and are unlikely to change their minds unless the deck becomes dominant.
Death Knight, Priest, Warlock
- These classes are simply not competitive. The inflated play rates of Herald Death Knight and Control Priest are a false mirage, driven by their defensive/control playstyle. We are keeping an open mind to further developments, but we have not identified any promising build in those classes yet, one that could change their competitive prospects on ladder.
Class Analysis & Decklists
Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior
Herald Rogue has two potentially working variants.
The non-Imbue build is the best performing one and relatively established. Spymistress is likely a bit better than Glacial Shard or Sands of Time. One Envoy of the End activates Elise without the need for Shaladrassil.
The Imbue build performs worse, though it might be because it is less refined. The best way to include the Imbue package is to cut Naralex/Mistress, as well as Elise.
Spell Demon Hunter may also possess two working variants in theory, though they have not developed enough to be distinct.
The standard build needs to cut either Lasting Legacy, Solitude or Hive Map. Before the patch, Lasting Legacy was clearly the worst card. Post-patch, Solitude’s performance has worsened, as it is a weak card in the Herald Rogue matchup. Therefore, there is merit to running Lasting Legacy instead. We can also keep both while cutting Hive Map, which is another relatively weak performer. Ultimately, the difference between those three cards is small.
Nespirah is a popular inclusion in Spell Demon Hunter, but it is a weak performer unless it is properly supported with enough Fel spells, which most builds do not do. Therefore, we suggest running two copies of Hive Map and Eye Beam, while cutting both Lasting Legacy and Solitude to make space.
Herald Demon Hunter is not too bad, though it is a significantly worse deck and has not gained much traction as a result.
The Herald build of Dragon Warrior has taken over the archetype, though it is not necessarily better. There is an option to cut Erupting Volcano and Torch for Petal Peddler and Eternal Toil. This makes the deck simpler to play, though a Torch list has a higher ceiling. Eternal Toil is a weak card, so perhaps a different card alongside Peddler would make this alternative more appealing.
No changes to the non-Herald build, though its play rate is low.
Nablya is a good card in Egg Warrior. The deck is more relevant in the aftermath of Gladiator Warrior’s disappearance and Egg Warrior’s strong matchup against Spell Demon Hunter.
Merithra Druid builds possess a massive deckbuilding blunder, which is the exclusion of Wickerfang. It might make logical sense, as Wickerfang has no synergy with the deck, but the card is too strong of a standalone threat to ever cut from a Druid deck. Even in Merithra Druid, it is the best performing card alongside Felwood Treant. It might be worth a 3% win rate increase by itself.
The last card in the deck is currently a decision between Endangered Dodo and Twilight Timereaver. Dodo is a better performer in most ladder brackets, but becomes dramatically worse at higher levels of play, to the point Timereaver is better. Better players know how to play around Dodo and deny the Druid from activating its battlecry.
Therefore, we recommend running Timereaver (or another card) at top legend and Dodo for the rest of ladder. We will see whether players’ behavior changes: Will top legend players stop playing around Dodo as it gets cut, making it a better card against them? Will Diamond/Platinum players start playing around Dodo better? We will follow this with great interest, as cards usually do not exhibit such a discrepancy in their performance at different levels of play.
We have not found a reason to deviate from our pre-patch Face Hunter build. Glacial Shard is overrated. Platysaur is underrated.
The balance changes have not affected the optimal build for Herald Shaman. Lightning Storm is a popular card but does not perform particularly well, as board flooding decks are not common. We would stick with Hex, as it has a higher impact in slower matchups, especially Egg Warrior. The differences here are small.
Quest Mage has gone through some improvement in its performance thanks to a cleaner list and balance changes hitting elsewhere. The archetype now looks more competitive in the format, though it is not close to the leading pack at any level of play. Burn Mage has faded away.
Aura Paladin looks like a solid choice, though continues struggling to attract interest. Twilight Egg is a recently added card that performs well in the archetype, so we dropped the greedier Taelan and Ancient of Yore for it.
While Herald Rogue is likely to be talked about more, Spell Demon Hunter is the most dominant deck on ladder and the biggest winner of the patch. We have no concerns it is anywhere near Imbue Druid’s level. There are ways to stop it. A significant spike in Egg Warrior, or more realistically, the emergence of an optimized Merithra Druid utilizing Wickerfang. We will have to see where Druid lands once it realizes its colossal legendary is non-negotiable.
Until then, at every level of play, Spell Demon Hunter is a stronger choice than anything else on ladder. We would like to see more data on an improved Nespirah build, as it has not been properly refined.
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