Welcome to the 360th edition of the Data Reaper Report! This is the first report for Reign of the Black Empire, following the early bans.
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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 | 2,607,000 |
| Top 1K Legend | 56,000 |
| Legend (Excluding Top 1k) | 639000 |
| Diamond 4 to 1 | 546,000 |
| Diamond 10 to 5 | 479,000 |
| Platinum | 325,000 |
| Bronze/Silver/Gold | 562,000 |
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
Reminder: The graphs in the report are screenshots. You can see all the data, hover over graphs for more information, and select additional bracket filters, in the original tableau files on the website. Clicking on the screenshots in the report, or navigating through the website toolbar, gets you there.
Class Frequency Discussion
On the first day of the expansion, Warlock decks were mostly centered on an OTK combo involving Mother, C’Thun and Bat Mask. Once the bans were applied, the class went in a drastically different direction, one that caused it to explode across ladder in a more dramatic fashion. Zoo Warlock has made its return to Hearthstone, backed up by the C’Thun and Ritual packages. The deck is taking over ladder, especially at top legend, where it nears a 30% play rate. Slow C’Thun Warlock builds are the primary alternative seen in the class, while the more fringe Rafaam Warlock has similarly incorporated these new packages to its existing shell.
Death Knight initially started slow, struggling to make an impact with Blood Death Knight. But the later emergence of Handbuff Death Knight changed things. The deck is gaining significant traction and becomes more popular the higher you climb, nearing a 20% top legend play rate, only second to Zoo.
Demon Hunter has largely experimented with C’Thun. The archetype got more attention following the bans, becoming quite popular with a relatively settled build, but has been on a gradual decline after the third day.
At expansion launch, Quest Priest blew up and was in the process of taking over ladder, with a combination of a high win rate and a high play rate. Following the bans, Priest was forced to experiment in different directions. Thief Priest gained more traction, but another story has been the emergence of Egg Priest. Both these decks are growing in popularity in recent days.
Zee Shaman has embraced the C’Thun package, while surprisingly dropping most Herald cards in the process. Mug Shaman has added a few new cards, but has attracted less interest. Decks not utilizing Mug’Zee have not emerged.
Enthusiasm for Ayaya Rogue utilizing Yogg-Saron was initially high, but dropped off following the bans. In contrast to its usual behavior, it is becoming less popular at top legend than it is at Diamond ranks and below. The other direction that attracted some interest in the class is Mill Rogue.
Control Warrior builds of all kinds seem to have completely flopped, leaving the class with its older Dragon and Pirate shells. However, players are quickly losing interest in these decks the higher you climb.
Consistently low interest is observed in Paladin. It has mostly attempted to refine Pure Paladin and experimented with a Holy Paladin deck centered on Amitut.
The Mage hype died down quickly after launch. Experiments with Summoner and Leyline Mage have not gained traction, while Burn and Quest Mage have quickly disappeared.
Interest in Druid is very low, with players experimenting with various Ramp builds and Ammunae.
Hunter looked like a dead class after one day and never recovered.
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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
Warlock
- Zoo Warlock looks outrageously strong, displaying a dominant win rate across ladder. 58% win rate at upper Diamond. 61% at lower Diamond and Platinum. Over 53% win rate at top legend despite a high play rate and the entire field attempting to counter it. It is undisputedly the strongest deck on ladder. Out of the competitive decks, it has one soft counter and one harder counter, but its dominant matchups against the rest of the field mean it is unlikely to be significantly curbed through natural means.
- C’Thun Warlock looks good, but its poor matchup against Zoo means that it is having a tougher time at top legend, where the aggressive Warlock deck is rampant.
- Rafaam Warlock is shockingly strong, even stronger than C’Thun Warlock. It is estimated to hold up at higher rank brackets despite its dwindling play rate. It does not struggle against Zoo to the same extent C’Thun Warlock does. We will have to see whether its historically lower skill ceiling will emerge as a factor, or whether something has changed.
Death Knight
- Handbuff Death Knight is an elite performer and likely a Tier 1 deck when refined. It has three distinct approaches and one of them is clearly the strongest as it does not get mowed down by Zoo.
- Blood Death Knights of all kinds are completely unplayable.
Demon Hunter
- C’Thun Demon Hunter started the expansion well. Its win rate on the first couple of days was higher than 55%. However, its performance has been on a steep decline since then. The emergence of Zoo Warlock, Handbuff Death Knight and Egg Priest have been major contributors. These are all difficult matchups, especially Egg Priest. C’Thun DH is already a weak deck at top legend, so if these trends trickle down, the field will become more hostile to it elsewhere.
Priest
- Thief Priest is the strongest counter to Zoo Warlock in the format and the one clear answer to its dominance. This role is pushing it to become more powerful and prominent in the last couple of days. We also strongly suspect it can be refined further.
- Egg Priest looks strong as well, though it might be peaking. The format is more than capable of targeting it effectively, should it decide to. Based on the last couple of days, we do not expect it to become stronger than it currently is. There are some adjustments it should make it in its build.
Shaman
- Zee Shaman is a soft Zoo Warlock counter that has a strong overall matchup spread and seems to be underplayed. It is the second strongest deck by a distance at most rank brackets, only dipping to third at top legend. Priest decks are its only counter.
- Mug Shaman is great against Priest, but struggles against all Warlock decks, which makes it significantly weaker overall.
Rogue
- Ayaya Rogue’s win rate against Zoo Warlock is around 22-26%, making it completely unplayable across ladder. Its standing was better before the bans, as it can do well in a wide variety of other matchups, but it is impossible to compete when the most dominant deck in the format eats you for free.
- Mill Rogue is a bit of a joke deck. It gets stomped by Zoo Warlock, but it gets stomped by many other decks. Miles away from a serious level of performance.
Warrior
- Pirate and Dragon Warrior are completely outclassed by newer strategies. Interestingly, Dragon Warrior counters Zoo Warlock, but is too weak against other competitive decks to merit a serious consideration. While we can tell the new expansion was impactful based on the emergence of many new strategies, the performance of the previously dominant Warrior archetypes is a great indication of it as well.
- Control Warrior builds look completely hopeless.
Paladin
- Paladin is dumpster level. Holy Paladin might not be terrible with the right build, but not at the level required. Pure Paladin has fallen off hard.
Druid
- Druid looks terrible, but we did discover one variant of Ramp Druid that is genuinely strong and competitive. We estimate C’Thun Druid is a Tier 2 deck, based on its low sample size. You know where to find the build.
Mage
- Mage has flopped, unable to overcome its defensive frailties. Zoo Warlock obliterates it. The class needs to be more resilient to stand a chance. It does have the late game potential, but it is simply too easy to punch in the head.
Hunter
- Hunter is the worst class in the game. All Hunter decks display win rates in the 30’s.
Class Analysis & Decklists
Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior
Zoo Warlock has been refined relatively quickly. Though the rituals are an extremely powerful package, Kith’ix is one of the weaker cards in the deck, as it is a bit slow for it. We still opted for Kith’ix and Xavius over the alternative Vaultkeepers, as they are slightly better.
C’Thun Warlock lost the incentive to accommodate Cursed Chains and Herald cards once Quest Priest was banned. Disciple and Chains are still a commonly utilized pair, but we prioritized Hellfire and Golem to perform better against Zoo, a difficult matchup.
Rafaam Warlock is performing surprisingly well, thanks to the power of the Ritual and C’Thun packages. The featured list is a small tweak to existing builds.
Handbuff Death Knight performs best when it leverages Unstable Prototype with Command Claw. This pairing, alongside Fleshshape, are the buff cards worth building around. Blood Tap is weak. The N’Zoth builds are unnecessarily slow, including a build that runs Egg of Khelos.
C’Thun Demon Hunter is all about finding Tentacle Lash on turn 5. Grim Harvest and Sigil of the Seas are other mulligan priorities. Frontline Ironborn performs well when supported by Sigil of Hatching, but Sigil of Haching is a very weak card in the deck. The featured build, which omits the pair, is slightly better (~1%).
For Egg Priest, we have a few important findings. Gravedawn Sunbloom performs poorly, as it is difficult to activate in this deck with a low Holy spell count. ‘Hold Them Off!’ is powerful and merits two copies. One copy of Servant of Zuramat is mandatory, with the second copy depending on how much of the mirror matchup you encounter. Dissolving Ooze is better than Defias Smuggler. Kaldorei Priestess and Xavius are borderline.
For Thief Priest, both C’Thun and Medivh are unnecessary. They might have more merit in a different format. If we want to maximize the performance against Zoo Warlock, we want to run a lean, defensive curve. The higher you climb, the better this direction is.
Zee Shaman ended up cutting most Herald cards to fit in the C’Thun package and other new cards. The featured build looks clean.
Mug Shaman should probably still run Tiny Pal, even alongside the powerful Eyemaul. Watch Over is one of the best cards in the deck. C’Thun abilities are just that strong.
The current meta is very fast and Ayaya Rogue gets obliterated by Zoo Warlock. Backstab will help you better than Deja Vu, though you should probably drop the deck if you see many Warlocks.
Control Warrior has completely flopped. As such, we are left to feature the outclassed Dragon and Pirate Warrior. There is nothing else to do here.
The only remotely competitive Paladin deck is built around Amitut and a curated package of minions, including Yogg-Saron. The Pure route is also possible, but until the format is addressed externally, there is little chance of further development in this class.
C’Thun Druid is genuinely strong and is likely the biggest secret we can reveal in this report. Unfortunately, if the C’Thun package gets nerfed (high chance) then this deck will suffer from collateral damage. No other direction is remotely playable. Only C’Thun saves the Ramp Druid archetype.
The new expansion has made a big impact, completely transforming the format from what was previously established. However, there is a big power disparity between classes, leading to an unbalanced field. We expect to see a major balance patch next week with a high number of buffs and nerfs, in an attempt to close the gap between them.
In the meantime, Zoo Warlock looks out of control. It is remarkably dominant on the climb to legend and is proving to be difficult to counter at top legend too. The Ritual and C’Thun packages are massive additions to all Warlock decks, regardless of their style.
We will be interested to see the upcoming changes, as they will be very important in shaping the narrative for the rest of the expansion.
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