Welcome to the 247th 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 | 635,000 |
| Top 1K Legend | 24,000 |
| Legend (Excluding Top 1k) | 55,000 |
| Diamond 4 to 1 | 94,000 |
| Diamond 10 to 5 | 120,000 |
| Platinum | 96,000 |
| Bronze/Silver/Gold | 246,000 |
Class/Archetype Distribution
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Class Frequency
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Class Frequency Discussion
Thief Rogue has eclipsed a 25% play rate at top legend, and Rogue is almost at 35%. The deck is nowhere near as popular at other rank brackets. Why do high level players love it so much? We’ll think about the factors contributing to this phenomenon later.
Ramp Druid is popular throughout ladder at similar play rates ranging between 10%-15%. Aggro Druid is most noticeable at Diamond ranks, but never comes close to Ramp Druid.
Imp Warlock is players’ most common obstacle on their climb to legend. The deck has proven to be extremely powerful at all but the highest levels of play, where it’s moderately successful and therefore less popular. This is where Phylactery Warlock becomes more visible and approaches Imp Warlock’s play rate.
Naga and Bless Priest, the two most successful decks at top legend last week, cannot manage a play rate higher than 4%. You barely see them at Diamond 5 and below, where you’re more like to encounter the floundering Big Priest, or Thief/Quest Priests.
Demon Hunter is stable and settled. Relic DH relishes queuing into Thief Rogues and Ramp Druids while hoping to avoid aggressive decks. Aggro DH has quietly been producing strong results.
Mage is almost exclusively Spooky, with 30-card builds taking over. Big-Spell Mage and Secret Mage are small blips on the radar.
Beast Hunter is moderately popular. Enrage Warrior and Control Paladin are smaller components of the format. Players are uninterested in Control Shaman and the class is close to disappearing.
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vS Meta Score
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vS Power Rankings Discussion
Generally, there are no big changes in the power level of decks compared to last week. We’re mostly seeing an overall decline in win rates as bad decks are disappearing and good decks are queueing into each other more often, making the format harder.
Imp Warlock dominates ladder up to legend. Bless and Naga Priest take over and become the sole Tier 1 performers at top legend. This was the case last week, but Thief Rogue is the deck that has caught the hearts of many. There are a few reasons for why Bless/Naga turns players off:
- Naga and Bless have an unappealing playstyle to many players. This has been established for a while. It seems that losing with these decks feels much worse compared to other decks, as it means they’ve lost board and all agency in the game.
- Neither deck is easy to play. They can be quite difficult to pick up and immediately do well with, which makes them more stressful to learn.
- Both decks tend to have polarizing matchups, with Bless Priest being more extreme.
- Both decks are unfavored against Thief Rogue. They’re very successful because they dominate the next most popular classes in Druid, Warlock, and Demon Hunter, but it might be psychologically discouraging to be unfavored against your most common opponent.
Meanwhile, Thief Rogue ticks a lot of boxes for a popular deck:
- Its playstyle represents varied gameplay. It can win in different ways thanks to its flexibility and randomness. Jackpot is a dopamine trigger. Gravedigger adds a sense of control over the opponent.
- Thief Rogue’s matchup spread is extremely balanced. It essentially has no counters, with its worst matchups being 45-55 (Ramp Druid, Relic DH, Phylactery Warlock). It has a chance of winning any game. This kind of deck has consistently proven to be very appealing even when it didn’t display the strongest win rates because of the sense of control and agency in any matchup.
- It rarely gets blown out of a game. Losses often come down to what feels like fine margins, even in cases they really weren’t based on the context of the opponent’s hand.
- While it doesn’t perform as well as Naga/Bless Priest, it’s the next best deck at top legend. It’s certainly strong.
- It’s Rogue. One of the most popular classes in Hearthstone’s history.
Having said that, we only see this phenomenon at top legend. Most of ladder is very diverse, and all of ladder is highly competitive, with every class having at least one good deck at any rank bracket. Shaman, Paladin, and Warrior might feel a little neglected, but they’re doing more than fine.
It’s a pretty good time to play Hearthstone, and the excitement over the next expansion means there’s a lot to look forward to.
There’s not much to say in terms of class developments. It seems that we figured out the strongest decklists last week. Ramp Druid’s vanilla variant has gotten better and more competitive with the Celestial variant, so we added it as an alternative in the Ramp Druid section.
Tomorrow, we will publish a recap article about the next two card packages that are being revealed on November 18th. It will come out at 1pm Pacific Time, or 10pm Central European Time. You don’t want to miss it. One of these cards is CRAZY! Promise.
Class Analysis & Decklists
Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior
Time to lower Thief Rogue’s win rate on ladder and make Naga Priest stronger. It only makes sense.
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Contributors
Here are all the people that participated in bringing you this edition of the vS Data Reaper Report:
