vS Data Reaper Report #211

A weekly Hearthstone Meta Report based on data from 65,000 games.

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Welcome to the 211th edition of the Data Reaper Report!

Contributing to the Data Reaper project through Hearthstone Deck Tracker or Firestone allows us to perform our analyses and to issue the weekly reports, so we want to wholeheartedly thank our contributors. Without the community’s contributions, there would be no project. Contributing data is very easy, so if you enjoy our content and would like to make sure it remains consistent and free – Sign up!


Quick Links

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 65,000
Top 1K Legend 5,000
Legend (Excluding Top 1k) 8,000
Diamond 4 to 1 10,000
Diamond 10 to 5 12,000
Platinum 10,000
Bronze/Silver/Gold 20,000

Class/Archetype Distribution

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Class Frequency

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This one will be short…

  • Numerous factors have caused ladder to stagnate in developments.
    • There’s lower game activity due to the launch of Mercenaries, which should partially recover next week, but obviously turned people’s attention away from ladder.
    • The upcoming Master’s Tour is encouraging high level players to keep innovations close to their chest. We might see some of those spill over to ladder once lineups are submitted.
    • An MMR bug has discouraged legend players from queuing up.
    • The delay in the launch of the mini-set might be causing some fatigue.
  • When we’ve looked at the data, we’ve found no new things to report in terms of deck refinement. The builds we recommend are the same they were last week. So, we’ll skip the class section writeups and try to be concise in the discussion, to avoid repeating ourselves.

Class Frequency Discussion

Contact Rogue’s population seems to have hit saturation under 15% at top legend. Its play rate outside of legend, where it doesn’t win many games, is under 4%.

Quest Mage is continuing its decline at legend, but the deck remains extremely popular everywhere on ladder except at the very top.

Small dip in Taunt Druid’s numbers, correlating with its recent relaxation in win rate. Anacondra Druid is stable.

When Taunt Druid declines, Face Hunter goes up and Quest Hunter does down, a response to their respective performances against the deck. Face Hunter is very popular at higher levels of play.

Not much movement in Demon Hunter. Lifesteal DH exists to counter Rogue.

There’s more interest picking up in Warrior, especially the Quest archetypes.

Handlock is rising in play as Mage goes down. The deck has become quite popular at top legend, but wherever Quest Mage remains extremely prevalent, Warlock’s presence is light.

Elemental Shaman is picking up further traction. The Doom variant is more popular at top legend. The Whack variant is more popular elsewhere.

Libram Paladin stands in place. The Vanilla build remains more popular, though the Secret build has become relatively more noticeable throughout ladder. This mostly has to do with the popularity of Mage, again.

Matchup Win Rates Header

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Power Rankings Header

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vS Meta Score

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vS Power Rankings Discussion

  • Rogue
    • Contact Rogue seems to be under control at higher levels. While the deck is obviously very strong, it’s not unbeatable, and there’s a big focus on countering it. Just look at the high play rate of Lifesteal DH despite its mediocre overall results on ladder.
    • Quest Rogue has solidified as a Tier 2 deck at all levels of play. Poison Rogue is estimated to be Tier 2 at legend and Tier 3 outside of it.
  • Mage
    • Quest Mage seems to be getting worse every week. It’s now displaying a negative win rate throughout ladder, and it looks particularly bad at top legend. There is no competitive reason to play so much of it on ladder.
  • Druid
    • Meta trends are now favoring Taunt Druid again. The rise of Face Hunter is a notable upside, and Mage’s decline is another. The deck simply has a very strong matchup spread and it’s hard to keep it down.
    • Anacondra remains very situational. Mostly used as a hard answer to quest decks, and a softer one to Rogue. Very vulnerable to the top tier aggressive decks.
  • Hunter
    • More Warlocks and less Taunt Druids is always good news for Face Hunter, and not so good news for Quest Hunter. It seems that the meta is a bit cyclical in its nature and this is the week where aggressive decks are peaking.
  • Demon Hunter
    • Bit of a down week for DH. Lifesteal DH is stuck being very niche. Fel DH isn’t actually gaining much from Face Hunter rising in play if Taunt Druid declines, and then worsening matchups against Warlock and Rogue are causing issues. You know what you get with Deathrattle DH.
  • Warrior
    • Warrior might be a bit underrated at this point. Aggro-Quest Warrior is perfectly competitive. Control-Quest Warrior is legitimately strong at top legend. Big Warrior is decent throughout ladder despite the presence of an oppressive matchup in Quest Mage. Control Warrior is in a similar position to Control-Quest, based on our estimate.
  • Warlock
    • Lots of Mages? Handlock is okay. Not a lot of Mages? Handlock becomes very good. That’s the gist of things when it comes to the deck’s performance. What prevents Handlock from being a consistent Tier 1 deck at higher levels of play is its Face Hunter matchup. But other than Mage and Hunter, there aren’t any reliable answers to it.
  • Shaman
    • Another week in which we’re liking the look of Elemental Shaman. The Whack variant is the stronger performer through most of ladder, but the Doom variant impresses us most at top legend. It performs quite well against Rogue, Demon Hunter and Hunter.
  • Paladin
    • Libram Paladin looks very good and both of its variants serve their purpose, which we’ve discussed last week. The Secret variant is mostly superior on ladder, but the choice between the two is a little more complicated at higher levels of play due to the greater balance in the meta.

Class Analysis & Decklists

Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior

 


Data Reaper Report - Rogue

Data Reaper Report - Druid

Data Reaper Report - Hunter

Data Reaper Report - Warrior

Data Reaper Report - Warlock

Data Reaper Report - Shaman

Data Reaper Report - Paladin

Data Reaper Report - Mage

Data Reaper Report - Priest


It feels like most players are waiting for the mini-set at this point. The meta is slowing down and the pieces are becoming more settled. We’re still expecting a few wrinkles once pros reveal their hands this weekend at the Master’s Tour, but we don’t expect drastic changes or discoveries.

Our podcast this weekend is going to be a special discussion about Meta Dynamics and how to apply it to your gameplay decisions, so if you’ve liked episode 45 of the podcast, you can look forward to the continuation!

For now, play some Mercenaries. Or Taunt Druid. That deck’s pretty good.

Taunt Druid


Preparing our weekly article requires a significant amount of time and effort from many individuals. We would like to wholeheartedly thank our current Patreons, whose generous donations help us fund computing and server costs.

vS Gold is our membership plan aimed to support our efforts towards improving our content and data analysis while receiving some bonuses and extra features.

Tier 3+ Patrons

Special thanks to Leo GAaron B, Jed M, Drew M, Alan J, Zolstar, Sean H, Steve F, Andrew N, NObdy, Alonso P, James Y, Je-ho, Ziqiao Y, Stephen H, William H, 1RiceBowl1, Alex S, PeejTreon, Josh G, Matthew H, Bruno B, Amir, Matthew P, nmbrthry, amenbrotep, Karhu, Fisherington, Christopher N, Eric F, Eric L, BraveLittleStove, Lime, Fireproofflame, Kaushal, David, Joshua B, Jeff C, Pi, Reharl, Turd F, Scott L, Jeff P, Mark P, Keith C, The Big Dawg, Michael N, Stephen K, nburst, Guisofa, Alex S, Jess M, Dan R, Peter, Lepton, and Bob L for supporting us this month.

Contributors

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

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