Welcome to the 354th 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 | 2,041,000 |
| Top 1K Legend | 60,000 |
| Legend (Excluding Top 1k) | 613,000 |
| Diamond 4 to 1 | 475,000 |
| Diamond 10 to 5 | 406,000 |
| Platinum | 197,000 |
| Bronze/Silver/Gold | 290,000 |
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 balance changes have dramatically changed the format, but one thing they did not do was diversify it. Void Demon Hunter has emerged as a new meta tyrant spanning all levels of play, reaching particularly absurd numbers past Diamond 5. The one positive note is that its popularity is gradually declining following its initial explosion.
While Two Rogue has initially fallen off after the nerf to Vanessa, it is coming back with a vengeance. At top legend, it is on a trajectory to eclipse Void DH in popularity. New builds cut Vanessa and go all-in on Jade Guardians and the revised Lotus Troublemaker.
Face Hunter has slightly declined following the second nerf to Confront the Tol’vir. It maintains its two variants.
Mug Shaman’s play rate has collapsed, though the deck has not disappeared from the format. Zee Shaman is re-emerging, experimenting with a few different builds.
Warlock is showing signs of life. Herald Warlock is seeing play at all rank brackets, with two different builds: Moragg and big demons, or Spire of Solitude. Interest in Rafaam Warlock has also gone up.
The buff to Azalina has increased interest in Thief Priest, which has become a primary choice for Priest players alongside Atiesh Control. Soothsayer Priest has declined.
Quest Mage remains the only choice for Mage players at higher levels of play.
Aggro Paladin with Warden Maiev as a Beatrix 2-drop has gained some traction and presents an alternative to Pure Palaidn.
Warrior has fallen off even harder than Shaman. Dragon Warrior has instantly become a fringe deck after the nerf to Warptooth. Egg Warrior sees little play.
Chef Druid has declined further. There is a little bit of renewed interest in Merithra Druid at top legend.
Death Knight looks dead in this database, but we will note there has been a spike of interest in Egg Death Knight over the last 24-48 hours that cannot be reflected in these graphs.
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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
Demon Hunter
- Void Demon Hunter is broken. The deck’s win rate is alarming considering how high its play rate is, leading the rest of the field to relentlessly target it with tech cards. Its decline in win rate at top legend is mostly because players refuse to play anything besides a handful number of decks that do not completely roll over to it. It is in the process of declining in its popularity at high MMR, but this process is paired with a rise in its win rate as targeting Rogue increases in priority.
Rogue
- Two Rogue has completely recovered from the nerf to Vanessa. The decline of the Mug Shaman matchup has offset its own internal drop in power. It is another difficult deck to counter when looking at its matchup spread. However, we do not think it will improve much in its win rate compared to where it currently is, since the field will become more hostile to it over time.
Hunter
- Much like Two Rogue, Face Hunter benefitted from some of its tougher matchups disappearing, which reduced the severity of its own nerf. When the entire competitive field gets nerfed, it is natural that a single nerf amongst them may carry less weight. Hunter’s slightly unfavored matchup against Void DH makes its current popularity relative to DH and Rogue understandable.
Shaman
- Zee Shaman is completely slept on and has significant scope for improvement, making it a potential meta breaker. Refinement is in the process of eliminating any disadvantage in the Void DH matchup, so its decent performance against Hunter and Rogue establishes it as the best performing deck against the three meta pillars. It is not an easy deck to counter either, with its strongest counter looking like Mug Shaman.
- Mug Shaman is still a good deck, though the rise of Void DH does put a ceiling on its performance and attractiveness. Should Zee Shaman spike in play, it may find a bigger role in the format.
Warlock
- There is one build of Herald Warlock that might be okay, but the class’ hype bubble is bursting to some degree. The balance changes have undoubtedly helped the class, but not to an extent it can be considered one of the cool kids. Stay away from Moragg and Rafaam if you want to win.
Priest
- On the surface, Priest looks even worse than what it looked like before the patch, as Soothsayer Priest has disappeared (likely scared of Cursed Chains) while Thief Priest remains garbage. There is one Thief Priest build that looks a bit more respectable, but it is still Tier 4 at best.
Mage
- The rise of Rustrot Viper, meant to target Void DH, means more misery for Quest Mages who are hit with collateral damage. Cannot recommend based on both its performance and that experience.
Paladin
- Pure Paladin is struggling due to the difficult Void DH matchup. Aggro Paladin looks like a mediocre aggressive deck, so it has little chance of gaining significant traction. This is not a good time for the class.
Warrior
- Dragon Warrior has crumbled. For an aggressive deck, a 47% win rate means inexistence. It needed Warptooth to be powerful to keep up with the field. Now, it has little chance.
- Egg Warrior, on the other hand, looks a lot better. It was not as reliant on an early Warptooth as it does not need to win board early, and its matchups against the three top classes are solid. We think the initial emergence of Warlock early in the patch, with Cursed Chains representing a debilitating counter to Egg of Khelos decks, has scared players away. But with Warlock looking so weak, there is merit to revisit the legendary egg.
Druid
- Chef Druid looks bad. Merithra Druid, based on its small sample size, might be competitive by running no new cards and two Rustrot Vipers.
Death Knight
- Initial experimentation with Sawbones flopped, but Egg Death Knight is beginning to gain traction with new builds that show some promise at top legend. For the same reason Egg Warrior is well positioned against DH/Rogue/Hunter, Death Knight might be able to perform well too. One to keep an eye out for.
Class Analysis & Decklists
Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior
Void Demon Hunter is so overwhelmingly popular that its most relevant matchup, by far, is the mirror. Therefore, the best build hard techs for the mirror matchup, which includes Glacial Shards and Rustrot Vipers to target Stardust Scythe. Cult Neophyte is another decent card in an environment dominated by DH and Rogue.
Felhunter is slow and unnecessary. Demon Hunter has no problem dominating the late game against defensive decks without it. Builds without Felhunter perform better at all levels of play.
The nerf to Vanessa and its subsequent removal from Two Rogue builds has meant that cards that strictly supported her, such as Backstab and Agent of the Old Ones, were dropped as well.
The deck has become entirely focused on fueling Jade Guardians and Lotus Troublemaker with a longer list of 2-cost cards. There are 20 of them in the featured build. The search for more playable 2-drops has led Rogue to Escape Artist. Viper helps perform better against Demon Hunter. Even two copies are not out of the question here, though the card is weak in the mirror matchup.
Herald Rogue is barely seeing play. The featured build adjusts to the loss of Vanessa.
The slower Face Hunter build now appears to be slightly better than the faster one. Both lists are about making small adjustments.
The faster list wants to run Earthen Roar to deal with the threats that Demon Hunter may summon with Void Souls. The Agamaggan build can add Viper. Tortolla is a decent 3rd option from King of the Underbelly.
Mug Shaman has not seen any changes following the nerf to Blazing Invocation, which has become a weaker card with a significantly lower priority as a mulligan target.
Zee Shaman is a sleeper strong deck, and we have curated two approaches that mostly differ in their primary 5-drop. We have noticed that Envoy of the End does not perform well in lists that run Slagclaw, so they may require separation.
The Slagclaw build is familiar to the one we saw before Slagclaw was banned, with a small dragon package supporting it. The Envoy build is equally effective in the current format, as it has more space to run some strong tech cards. It is hard to say which approach will prove to be better once the archetype is refined.
With Warlock, there are two clear paths that lead to a terrible win rate: Rafaam and big demons. Rafaam Warlock remains competitively unplayable. The only remotely competitive Herald Warlock build avoids running a bigger package of demons.
Caged Cranium is mandatory, one of the best cards in the deck. The anti-DH tech cards slot in for now.
We have done our best to identify the strongest possible build of Thief Priest. It is the strongest Priest deck in the format, which is notable, but not enough to make it competitive.
Quest Mage is not having a good time because of the increasing prevalence of Rustrot Viper and it cannot adjust its build in any way to improve this issue.
The Beatrix variant of Pure Paladin is now the strongest option for the archetype. The key is to play Violet Treasuregill regardless of its conflict with Scarlet Recruiter or Reinforcement Aura.
Aggro Paladin has emerged as an alternative competitive deck for the class, with its gimmick being 10 copies of Warden Maiev and a long list of 1-drops that are strong when paired with her.
No changes to Warrior decks. Warptooth is weaker but remains a staple for the class.
Merithra Druid is starting to pop up a bit and does not look bad when it runs two Vipers. No changes in the struggling Chef Druid.
Unholy Death Knight is likely a mediocre aggressive deck, while there is some promise shown by Egg Death Knight at higher levels of play, which utilizes Sawbones. It is early days so we have not had a proper chance to evaluate its cards with great confidence, but the featured build should be close to the final product.
While Void DH and Two Rogue are setting the tone for the format currently, there are some underplayed gems that are worth highlighting. Zee Shaman is a deck that is clearly waiting to break out once it is given a chance from a larger section of the player base.
Its best builds are still not optimal, so its current performance is extremely promising in this context. We are featuring two novel decklists that optimize the two best side packages in the archetype, packages that do not work well with each other. Slagclaw is a powerful card in the deck, but it requires support, while the Envoy alternative has space to run some useful tech cards against DH and Rogue.
We anticipate another balance patch next week. We wonder if Void Demon Hunter will be the only deck nerfed, or whether we will see another broader hit on every strong deck in the format. Is there an approach that increases the number of viable decks in the format and discontinues the Whack-a-Mole game? Or are we paying the price for the previous year of design, leaving us barren with options…
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Contributors
