Kobolds & Catacombs: Early Days Report

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As we’ve mentioned in our last Data Reaper report, the first full report of the K&C expansion will release two weeks after launch, on the 21st of December. This is an optimal time frame in which we can gather enough reliable data to provide solid conclusions on the state of the meta. The early days of an expansion are usually very volatile. Most archetypes are not refined, so it would be foolish to write them off if they’re slightly underperforming at the moment.

In this article, we will discuss the early success stories and provide you with some of the best performing lists within the top performing archetypes.

The best performing class in the game: Paladin

Very few people thought that Paladin was positioned to dominate the field, and we weren’t among them. Yes, Call to Arms looked like one of the best cards in the set, but other cards given to the class did not look nearly as strong. It turns out that Call to Arms is so powerful that it has elevated aggressive Paladin decks to the very top of the win rate charts.

Both Aggro Paladin and Murloc Paladin are currently boasting extremely high win rates, as these archetypes were refined relatively quickly (Note that Murloc Paladin has two interesting approaches that are strong). We don’t think Paladin will maintain these win rates, but the class seems well positioned to become a strong player in the K&C meta.

Guntofire’s Aggro Paladin

Ender’s Murloc Paladin

Spiteful Murloc Paladin

 

The most prevalent class in the game: Priest

Many people thought that Priest was positioned to dominate the field. They weren’t wrong. Priest has three different archetypes that currently look, or have the potential to be, very strong. Big Priest is currently boasting a top 3 win rate in the game and looks absolutely terrifying. Diamond Spellstone was a huge addition to the archetype, making it even harder to outlast the Priest’s threat generation.

Razakus Priest is the most popular archetype in the game at higher levels of play by a fairly large margin, and boasts one of the strongest win rates recorded even though it currently carries many different build approaches. We will discuss them more thoroughly next week, but the standard cycle variant continues to perform consistently well and is a safe bet. This archetype will likely continue to shape the meta around its existence.

Dragon Priest is the worst performing Priest archetype of the three, statistically, but that’s a bit misleading. There are many different approaches to the deck with a high variance of success. Translation: Some Dragon Priest build are very weak, and they push the archetype’s recorded performance down. Satellite’s Spiteful Summoner list is incredibly strong and has potential to carry the archetype’s win rate to elite status once it takes over. It should.

Standard Big Priest

Controlboy’s Razakus Priest

Satellite’s Dragon Priest

 

Other strong performers in the meta

After some experimentation, Tempo Rogue was able to fend off the influx of new cards and remain one of the best performing decks in the game without many changes to its build. Icer’s build cuts Cairne/Lich King for Elven Mistrel, which provides longevity through card draw rather than threats, and of course, Corridor Creeper slots in as well.

Icer’s Tempo Rogue

Pirate Warrior has received a boost through the surprising package of Spiteful Summoner and Mithril Spellstone, giving it a very strong mid-game to follow up its early game pressure. Spiteful Summoner has turned out to be one of the strongest cards in the set and a worthy build around for many of the beatdown shells in the current meta.

Karomizu’s Pirate Warrior

There has been a lot of hype over Emerald Spellstone and secret-based Hunter decks, which has led to the emergence of non-minion Spell Hunters as well as Cloaked Huntress builds. However, the best performing Hunter archetype at the moment doesn’t run secrets at all. By taking advantage of Dire Mole as well as Candleshot in order to accommodate a pirate package and a stronger early game, these Midrange/Hybrid Hunters hit hard and fast. Hunter is notorious for dropping off in its win rate as the meta becomes refined, and it has certainly fallen off quite a bit from the first day, so we’ll have to wait and see where it lands. There is definitely still a lot to experiment with in the class.

Dark’s Hybrid Hunter

Aluneth could very well be the strongest legendary weapon, and supports aggressive Mage decks incredibly well. Secret Mage has benefitted greatly from its addition, and has also received a boost from Explosive Runes, which perfectly complements its playstyle. This archetype, much like before, thrives in slower matchups that give it time to develop its board and draw its damage spells, but struggles against decks that aggressively flood the board.

Zlsjs’ Secret Mage

Stay tuned for the full report next week, that’s all for now!

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20 Comments

  1. I dont think Hunter has a chance to stay in the meta. The only unfair card they got was the spellstone but secrets are kinda bad unless you can fetch them with cards like mad scientist or arcanologist. Priest and warlock are looking strong and i also think aggro Paladin will be decent

  2. Highlander sucks big balls. I can’t win a single game with it against everything, I don’t know why I lose against it everytime, but it’s the most highrolling deck that ever existed.

    • If you don’t get the combo pieces of razakus early the deck becomes a hard to pilot control/combo deck. It’s the best deck in the game if you know how to play it well.

    • Your inability to pilot a deck does not make that deck weak. Similarly, just because it can highroll doesn’t make it a highroll deck.

  3. I wonder if Val’anyr will still be in aggro paladin list once the meta speeds up, it seems a bit slow for an aggro deck. Since you’re often in topdeck mode.

    • It sure is slow as heck in Wild. Seen many agressive Paladins get stumped when they play it to try and get a little more value.

    • Cubelock was not popular when they wrote this, IMO, it’s the latest fashion. Still, it’s pretty powerful, and I guess it will rewrite the meta, because it’s super good against all those aggro decks. Wait for the next report, it will be Cubelock, his friends and enemies…

  4. EXACTLY what I was gonna say. So damned annoying, I never face it when playing big priest, I always face it when playing decks it destroys. Seems to be almost 40% of my matches at rank 7.

    • It weakens Razakus, which is the most refined deck in the meta. It provides an alternative win condition that the deck doesn’t need because the deck’s win condition is already so strong.

    • Might be a good addition to Wild Razakus/Reno. Fending off early game is important, and you can’t be dependant on drawing Reno to survive. Then again, please don’t come play that in Wild, it has enough priests there as is and I’m kinda sick of it.

      • Are you kidding me? Wild Reno Priest is the most refined deck in the game, it plays Anduin and one turn later always has a win, dragon soul doesn’t fit at all, it’s a combo deck that is v consistent without an alternative win con that consumes half of its deck.

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