vS Data Reaper Report #16

A weekly Hearthstone Meta Report based on data from over 63,000 games.

Data Reaper Report - Hunter

Hunter has been a class on the rise for the past few weeks with solid new cards coming out from the ONiK adventure wings each week. This week, another Hunter secret, Cat Trick, was released and a lot of players have been experimenting with it in their Secret Hunter decks.

NickChipper hit top 50 EU legend this past week with a Face Hunter deck that utilizes a Cloaked Huntress package for fast tempo plays to fit the deck’s fast and aggressive play style. With a slew of low cost minions and secrets, the deck displays a relatively consistent early game.

Lifecoach took a slower, more defensive mid-range approach with the Secret Hunter archetype to compete at legend ranks. His deck features Cat Trick, which can potentially be a strong play later in the game, especially when your opponent uses AOE removals to clear the board. The deck also features Ragnaros and Highmane to synergize with Barnes, and an interesting tech choice in the Avian Watcher. Avian Watcher synergizes with the multitude of secrets in the deck and provides a strong taunt on turn 5 similar to Sludge Belcher, to stall the game enough for the bigger threats later in the curve (Highmane, Ragnaros, Call of the Wild).

In general though, the more vanilla flavored Hybrid and Mid-Range Hunters seem to be doing better than the Secret builds. SomiTequila recently peaked at #2 legend on EU with a Mid-Range Hunter build that features Scavenging Hyena. Scavenging Hyena has a similar role to Frothing Berserker in Dragon/Tempo Warrior decks, where it’s an early threat/priority target that requires immediate attention before it gets too big. Another thing to consider is that with Hyena and Tundra Rhino, the amount of good targets for Barnes increases.

Overall, Barnes seems to have the greatest and simplest synergy with the Hunter class due to the amount of deathrattle and static effect minions it can include in its builds. As a result, Barnes has firmly established itself as a staple card in every one of Hunter’s archetypes.

Data Reaper Report - Shaman

Maelstrom Portal is making its way into most Aggro and Mid-Range Shaman lists, proving its worth as a great tech against aggressive decks, generating a great amount of tempo in the early game. The spell does something that the Shaman class could never do, which is properly pick off tokens and other 1 health minions without a drawback. Before Portal, only Lightning Storm was able clear tokens, and it does so very inefficiently, with a crippling effect on the Shaman’s curve with its two overload.

The standard Aggro Shaman list runs one Portal. HotMeowth recently placed top 8 in the Americas Summer Preliminary with the build, and Ekop won the Insomnia Truesilver Championship with the same list the following week.

Mid-Range Shaman is slowly getting better every week. There are two main takes on it: One is similar to the Mid-Range Shaman of the WoToG Meta, with just the addition of Maelstrom Portal and possibly Barnes, VLPS’ build being a good example. The other take is more focused on Totem synergy utilizing Wicked Witchdoctor, Primal Fusion and Totemic might. Loyan’s build, which we featured last week, and StrifeCro’s build are examples that are currently quite common in the Metagame.

Another archetype that has been popping up lately is Evolve Shaman, which has a drastically different shell from Mid-Range Shaman. This archetype is focused on flooding the board with bodies that have a high baseline mana cost, such as Pantry Spider and Arcanosmith, and then Evolving them. It’s a surprisingly strong deck and quite fun to play.

Data Reaper Report - Druid

Druid continues to get even more powerful with the newest Karazhan wing. The class has been extremely popular on ladder this week and has even risen to be the most played class at the legend ranks. This is partially due to the release of Menagerie Warden which has taken Beast Druid to newfound levels of popularity.

Various players have had different takes on the deck either opting to go aggressive or go mid-range. An example of an aggressive build would be Kranich’s version which he used to hit rank 6 legend on Asia. Interestingly, this list cuts one Mark of Y’Shaarj and opts to play Fandral instead due to the “choose one” synergy. The mid-range take on Beast Druid also saw some success with JustSaiyan reaching top 25 legend on NA with his build. This list has a lot of similarities to Token Druid but removes some of the more defensive cards for Beast synergy. Both these lists have yet to be refined and it will take some time before the most optimal build of Beast Druid is found. It will be interesting to see if Beast Druid sticks around on ladder after the initial hype.

Yogg (Token) Druid continues to see a lot of play. At the Insomnia Truesilver Championship this past weekend, Ekop utilized Token Druid in his lineup to win the event.

One of the best new variants of Yogg Druid that have emerged in the past couple of weeks is Malygos Druid. Many players have been having success with fr0zen’s build which he has taken to top 10 legend multiple times. The deck shares a similar shell with Token Druid but uses Malygos as a finisher with cheap spells, being Moonfire and Living Roots. Moonfire has synergy in the deck even without the Malygos as it can be used for strong tempo plays with Violet Teacher or Bloodmage Thalnos. Another take on Malygos Druid is the inclusion of Gadgetzan Auctioneer and the removal of the Token package, which can be seen in Xixo’s build, a deck he used to reach the finals of the Insomnia Truesilver Championship. The faster cycle that the Auctioneer enables synergizes very well with Arcane Giants and Malygos, at the cost of the early to mid-game board presence that Violet Teacher can provide.

Druid is in a great place at the moment with a variety of powerful archetypes. In the last wing of Karazhan, Druid gets even more help with the release of Moonglade Portal. Many players tend to undervalue heal when they evaluate cards and we believe this card might find a spot in some Druid decks. In addition, even if the card doesn’t get included in a Druid decklist, it still helps the class because it can come off Raven Idol to help Druid stabilize in the late game.

Data Reaper Report - Warrior

Warriorstone is over for now, folks. Although several new combo variants have sprung up due to the release of Arcane Giant, Warriors across the board have taken a hit in popularity. Fool’s Bane, at first glance, has been underwhelming in control variants, generally inferior to Brawl and Gorehowl. While this week’s release may help slower Dragon Warrior variants, Book Wyrm and Netherspite Historian are likely not enough to make it a powerhouse. Ironforge Portal, too, looks quite weak in any current Warrior shell.

However, Warrior is still very a strong class and most classes would love to have its “problems”. Several slower N’Zoth Warrior variants, such as Navioot’s list, have been successful for multiple players at high legend. The debate is still out on whether Barnes should take the 4-slot over Elise, as there are several pros and cons to each.  Barnes can potentially win the game on turn four if it finds Cairne or Sylvanas on an established board, but can also whiff by pulling Ravaging Ghoul or other vanilla cards.  Elise doesn’t have the same immediate swings Barnes can pull off, but it does dramatically increase your win rate as the game progresses in slower matchups.

Dragon Warrior is still a very strong deck and many players have been incorporating The Curator into their lists. The card synergizes very well with the archetype since it’s easy to fit Fierce Monkeys into the Dragon Warrior’s curve without reducing its efficiency. Sjow hit #1 legend on Americas with such a build.

C’Thun Warrior seems to be shifting from being a control deck into being a combo deck, with the faster cycle version based around Wild Pyro/Commanding Shout becoming more and more popular. It’s a favorite amongst many high level players, one of them being Ekop, who had it in his Insomnia Truesilver Championship tournament winning lineup.

Meanwhile, Worgen OTK players have been experimenting with Runic Egg.  Being the cheapest neutral cycle in the game is great for early turns, and the fact that it can activate for Battle Rage, unlike most other cycle cards, is a huge plus. Kolento has replaced the often-clunky Loot Hoarders with Runic Eggs to a good degree of success; while Thijs’ has also experimented with a very similar build.

Data Reaper Report - Mage

These are good times for the Mage class, as it enjoys new tools at its disposal. Many players are experimenting with incorporating Babbling Book into their builds of Tempo Mage. There is quite a debate on the merit of the card in the archetype. Babbling Book’s strength lies in its ability to provide a decent early game play for Tempo Mage when they can’t find their Mana Wyrm. It is also a minion that stays somewhat relevant when heading into the late game.

Rooftrellen recently managed to hit rank 1 legend, utilizing his previous build of Tempo Mage with the new addition of Babbling Book. His build is relatively slow and packs quite a lot of late game value, with two Cabalist’s Tomes, Emperor and Antonidas. Other players are utilizing a slightly quicker variant with Firelands Portals and Water Elementals replacing these cards.

Meanwhile, Freeze Mage remains unchanged from the Karazhan adventure so far, but is still being played by those highly skilled at the deck. Laughing recently took the deck to rank 5 legend with the standard Freeze Mage build, proving that in the hands of the very best players, the deck is still able to excel.

Finally, the adventure did encourage players to experiment with Reno Mage once again. There are quite a few versions running around. One is focused on survival and Elise, such as Kibler’s list. There are also deathrattle-focused Reno Mages with Rhonin and N’Zoth, and other builds incorporating the Curator. We’ll have to wait for this archetype to stabilize and see whether an optimal build that can be competitive, emerges.

Data Reaper Report - Priest

In Priest, we have a tale of two ladders. The legend ladder and the non-legend ladder tell a completely different story when it comes to the love for the class. It appears that everyone outside of the legend rank is relishing the opportunity to play with Priest for the first time in months. Players almost seem to be having a nostalgic feeling to playing the class. At legend ranks, however, we’re beginning to observe an end to the quickest honeymoon phase in the history of Hearthstone as Priest is rock-bottom in play once again. This is likely due to legend players not wanting to tank ranks experimenting with an untrusted class late in the season, but it might also provide some indication to the power level of the class. It’ll be interesting to see whether the September season ignites another rise in Priest with legend players not having to worry about their placement early in the month.

As for what Priest players are playing, it remains pretty similar to what we saw last week. Purify wasn’t the game-breaking card Priest needed, but they did receive an extremely strong Tempo card in Onyx Bishop.
Priest has also a nice history with Dragon cards, and it’s was still statistically the best Priest archetype according to our past metrics, so expect to see a possibly stronger variant of that archetype to rise after the last wing is released with the introduction of Netherspite Historian and Book Wyrm.

Data Reaper Report - Warlock

How the mighty have fallen. Warlock is now 7th in ladder frequency, barely above Paladin and Rogue. The Kharazan release schedule may be to blame; Warlock has probably been the least compelling class to test out for new archetypes, and it doesn’t receive its strongest tool until Week 4, which might be a great fit for Zoo (Malchezaar’s Imp), and so it falls behind other decks in novelty. Ek0p managed to take first place at the Insomnia Truesilver Championship with a standard Zoo list this past weekend, though, which is strong evidence that the deck hasn’t declined too badly. Meanwhile, Renolock has had little success as of late as it struggles to keep up with the fast paced nature of the Metagame.

Data Reaper Report - Paladin

Paladin maintains a presence in tournament lineups, especially in a last hero standing format where it can target specific strong matchups. Two Paladin decks were seen in the top 8 of Insomnia this past week with Xixo bringing Anyfin Paladin and Fire bringing N’Zoth Paladin. On ladder, players are experimenting by adding the Curator to these archetypes, which has potentially great synergy with the class due to its ability to utilize Beasts and Murlocs more effectively than other classes, though it remains to be seen whether the card will stick in these decks.

With last week’s release of Nightbane Templar, players are also experimenting with the Dragon Paladin archetype. Some lists are slower and more control oriented, some are more aggressive in a similar vein to Dragon Warrior, and some of those aggressive lists utilize the triple tribal synergy with The Curator, Zooboots and Menagerie Magicians. It’s still early days and we’re waiting to see how Dragon Paladin stabilizes, particularly with the addition of Netherspite Historian and Book Wyrm, two minions that promote slower Dragon decks.

Data Reaper Report - Rogue

Rogue is a class that can be quite a challenge to successfully ladder with, though it continues to be valued more at the highest levels of play. One of the biggest obstacles to the class is the lack of a comeback mechanic. Rogue has no way to effectively gain life (Far Seer is a bit of a trap card) and no consistent AOE board clear, so it is very susceptible to unrestrained aggression. With the lack of these critical tools, Miracle Rogue is seeing a change of focus into being faster and more combo-centric. The most popular Miracle Rogue build currently in tournaments is the Questing Adventurer Miracle Rogue deck.

One of the general rules in card games when playing combo decks vs. aggro decks is to try and speed up your combo instead of trying to slow down the aggro deck’s clock. By not having cards in your deck for specific aggro matchups, you can streamline to process of “combo-ing out’ and killing your opponent as fast as possible before he kills you. Questing Adventurer provides a fast way to spiral a game out of control, and aggressive decks tend to lack tools necessary to deal with big threats. Barnes is also a good addition to the build, providing another way to blow out a game early on with a multitude of strong static effect targets.

Rogue also saw some innovation this week with Dwarfsanwich hitting top 100 on ladder this past week with his Tempo Deathrattle Rogue. This deck is a lot like the Tempo Rogue decks of old, being more minion-centric and using the cheap removal to deal with opposing minions efficiently while applying constant pressure on your opponent’s life total with your own minions.

Data Reaper Report - Meta Breaker




Aggro Shaman feels unfair right now, and the presence of Hunter on ladder makes it even more difficult to counter the archetype. Can Moonglade Portal help Druid stabilize against these classes? Can Zoo step up its power level with Malchezaar’s Imp? Can Warrior return to beat up on Tunnel Troggs? Will the very promising Mid-Range Shaman and Tempo Mage continue to exhibit intriguing improvements in their performance? Until the next episode, the Data Reaper signs off.

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Contributors

Here are all the people that participated in bringing you this edition of the vS Data Reaper Report:

wwloschandyShoopheavyjhotmeowthgallondemigodcheesee10HC015TzachiFenomlookitzjoeEndofDaysNaramoSentenza

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