vS Data Reaper Report #307

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Welcome to the 307th 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 843,000
Top 1K Legend 79,000
Legend (Excluding Top 1k) 414,000
Diamond 4 to 1 83,000
Diamond 10 to 5 101,000
Platinum 69,000
Bronze/Silver/Gold 97,000

Class/Archetype Distribution

Class Frequency

Class Frequency Discussion

The buffs to Starship Rogue have sparked renewed interest in the deck across ladder, turning it into one of the most popular decks in the game. Cycle Rogue has dropped Robocaller and EMG, reverting to an Ethereal Oracle build that’s gaining serious traction at top legend. Pressure Rogue has made some initial noise but hasn’t gone past a fringe play rate. Weapon Rogue is seeing more play, becoming noticeable at legend. Shaffar Rogue can be found in small numbers. Quasar Rogue may be gone, but the class is more diverse and popular than it was before, approaching a 30% play rate at top legend.

The buffs to Libram Paladin have firmly put the deck on the map. It is the most popular deck across ladder. Handbuff Paladin has maintained a modest play rate, while Pipsi Paladin has drastically declined and is attempting to reinvent itself. Due to some variants cutting the Pipsi package, we’ve renamed the archetype “Lynessa Paladin” again.

The initial hit to Shaman due to the nerf to Wave of Nostalgia and Malted Magma has been completely reversed. Evolve Shaman has started cutting Wave, so we’ve renamed the archetype “Swarm Shaman”. This deck doesn’t have something that stands out and truly defines it, just relying on a bunch of good cards to flood the board. It’s in the process of gaining serious traction across ladder. Asteroid Shaman is currently significantly more popular at Diamond ranks and below, though the play rate gap between the two is trending towards closure and a potentially transformative switcheroo. Spell-Damage Shaman has disappeared.

Dungar Druid is now the most popular Druid deck across ladder following the collapse of Spell-Damage Druid following the Seabreeze Chalice nerf. Station Druid and Reno Druid see modest play. Interest in Starship Druid remains very low.

The Death Knight class has collapsed following the nerfs to Threads of Despair and Reno. Slow Death Knight decks have fallen off, while the more aggressive Frost DK has also taken a hit. Rainbow and Starship DK are attempting to adjust. Reno and Blood-Ctrl DK are nearly gone.

The Hunter class is fractured into many decks that exhibit low play rates. Interest in Starship Hunter has not picked up. Discover Hunter has been undergoing recent renovations. Egg Hunter has stagnated. Secret and Token Hunter see little play. Grunter Hunter is a new ABJ-centered OTK deck utilizing Warsong Grunt and the Warrior Tourist handbuff package. You will probably have to go read what Warsong Grunt does.

Zarimi Priest sees modest play, not showing signs of a decline following the nerf to Funnel Cake, but not rising either. Pain Priest is the secondary aggressive deck in the class. Overheal Priest is gone. Reno Priest exists.

Big-Spell Mage is gone. While the nerfs to Sea Shill and Conniving Conman impacted Pipsi Paladin, they’ve eliminated the Mage archetype. Elemental Mage has stuck around and remains popular at lower MMR brackets.

The Warrior class is in tatters. Odyn Warrior appears destroyed by the nerf to Sleep Under the Stars, sucked into an amalgamated Control Warrior archetype that is attempting what is the equivalent of throwing stuff at the wall and hoping something sticks. Reno Warrior is a rotting strategy. Mech Warrior sees little play.

Interest in Demon Hunter is low. Pirate Demon Hunter is around. Some players are trying out the buffed Crewmate archetype. An Attack DH deck is just starting to pop up a little, which is an aggressive deck that relies on hero attacks and Sock Puppet Slitherspear.

Wheel Warlock sees modest play. Pain Warlock is beginning to show up a little. Starship Warlock has not moved.

Matchup Win Rates Header

Power Rankings Header

vS Meta Score

vS Power Rankings Discussion

Large balance patches, with many deck breaking nerfs, have rarely led to a balanced format. Unfortunately, this one is no different. Unless transformative discovery occurs that keeps it in check, Swarm Shaman will establish itself as a format tyrant that will dominate the field to an alarming extent and eliminate decks from a competitive standing. At top legend, Cycle Rogue is establishing itself as another major threat.

Rogue

  • Cycle Rogue is in the process of shaking off the nerf to Robocaller and tuning its new build. It is one of the only decks in the game that currently displays a positive win rate against Swarm Shaman. Its daily win growth suggests that a Tier 1 performance level at top legend is imminent. Unless the deck encounters some extreme response, which is certainly possible, we estimate it will be the second-best performing deck at top legend next week, while boasting a play rate higher than 15%, perhaps even 20%.
  • Cycle Rogue is one of the most skill intensive decks in the format, so we do not expect its presence will trickle down to the rest of ladder.
  • Starship Rogue has drastically improved thanks to the buffs, but it’s still not a great deck. It does seem to have a relatively higher skill ceiling than the average deck, making it look better at high MMR’s. This deck reminds us of Excavate Rogue, which was, for a period, garbage throughout most of ladder, yet squeaked through a more competitive win rate at top legend. Do note, however, that Starship Rogue’s win rate is currently declining at top legend due to increasing meta hostility. It loses to Swarm Shaman and other Rogue decks.
  • Weapon Rogue started this patch very well, looking like the best deck in the game at some point. However, its win rate is currently in the process of collapsing, especially at higher levels of play. The reason is that it gets destroyed by aggressive decks, many of them trending up in popularity and power. The Swarm Shaman matchup is particularly suffocating.
  • Shaffar Rogue doesn’t see much play but looks solid. Its Swarm Shaman matchup is decent thanks to its removal toolkit, so it might have more staying power than Weapon Rogue. It does get outclassed by Cycle Rogue, so we’re not sure it has a real audience.
  • Pressure Rogue is not strong, nor is it skill intensive to the point it becomes good at top legend. In fact, Cycle Rogue exhibits a higher skill ceiling. We don’t see growth in its performance over time, nor does it have much room for improvement through refinement.

Paladin

  • Libram Paladin has gotten a lot of hype and clearly players have been eager to play it. Its win rate looks competitive, thanks to some adjustments to its build that occurred in the early days of the patch. However, it’s still not a good deck against top meta contenders, which means it gets progressively worse as you climb ladder and face more of the strong decks. Across ladder, its win rate is in decline. At top legend, it might even fall into Tier 4 territory. The Swarm Shaman matchup is horrendous.
  • Handbuff Paladin is another deck that started well but is in the process of declining. It should remain competitive at most ladder brackets, but its Swarm Shaman matchup will become an increasingly painful reality. Its ability to target Cycle Rogue might keep it relevant at top legend, but it’s losing too much ground in other matchups. Based on current trends, it could get booted out of a positive win rate by next week at high MMR’s.
  • Lynessa Paladin has fallen off hard, but we see a path to its recovery. Its most popular build has a lot of room for improvement. Two specific build paths suggest a return to a positive win rate, perhaps even a Tier 1 win rate at some ranks, is possible. It all depends on whether its good Rogue matchups can outweigh the Shaman problem.

Shaman

  • Swarm Shaman looks insanely broken. We can’t overstate how alarming it is that this deck displays a 56% win rate at top legend. There is no sign of a significant decline in its win rate either, while its popular builds are not even optimal yet. Cycle Rogue seems like the main answer to “handle” it, but not much else in the format can deal with a potentially overbearing presence of this archetype.
  • Ultimately, the cause for Swarm Shaman’s explosion is the nerfs to Threads of Despair and Sleep Under the Stars, which have crippled Death Knight and Warrior, the two classes that were best equipped to deal with board flooding decks. It is no coincidence that other board flooding decks, besides Swarm Shaman, are also having a lot of success. The current meta is gearing up to be very aggressive as a result. We don’t think this was the intention of the patch, but when so many nerfs are made, the outcome will often be hard to predict.
  • Asteroid Shaman is decent at low MMR’s but falls off hard as you climb ladder and face better decks. It loses to Rogue. It loses to Swarm Shaman. It loses to Paladin. It just doesn’t line up very well against the developing field.

Druid

  • Dungar Druid has never looked stronger, but the deck can be very polarizing and matchup dependent. Its strong Rogue matchups are very relevant going forward, but it tends to get obliterated by aggressive decks, including Swarm Shaman. Its standing is therefore hard to predict, as it is very sensitive to changes in the field’s composition. How much will aggressive decks rise in play compared to defensive decks that try to counter them over the next week? That will determine how successful Dungar Druid can be.
  • Station Druid is basically an inferior variant of Dungar Druid. It does have a good matchup against Dungar Druid, but there’s not much else going for it, so it’s not surprising that it’s been made somewhat redundant.
  • Reno Druid is bad. Not a shock considering the nerf to its cornerstone card.

Death Knight

  • The fall of slower Death Knight decks was a big reason why we might be headed to an imbalanced format. Sometimes, good cards should be allowed to exist. Threads of Despair was a strong check on board flooding, which now looks out of control.
  • Rainbow Death Knight is attempting to work its way into a comeback, with a large scope of improvement through refinement that might give us some hope it can turn into a more reliable Shaman counter in the face of Reno Death Knight’s decline. However, we’re not sure it can become genuinely strong and attractive in the face of other problematic matchups.
  • Frost Death Knight still looks okay, but noticeably weaker. Its win rate is in decline, so it might lose all relevance at higher levels of play.
  • Starship Death Knight is further away from being competitive compared to where it was before, since the Threads nerf gutted its ability to fend off aggression and stabilize.

Hunter

  • Out of the large number of Hunter decks, Discover Hunter might be the most promising one, one that might be able to establish itself as a top performer at all levels of play. It’s the only Hunter deck that shows no signs of falling off at top legend.
  • Egg Hunter has obviously been negatively affected by the nerf to Mystery Egg, but another issue bothering it is the rise of Swarm Shaman. Grunter Hunter appears to be replacing its role in the format, but the deck might be too easy to play around to be relevant at higher rank brackets. Its win rate is in the process of severely declining.
  • Starship Hunter is still bad and doesn’t appear to be any closer to a competitive standing.
  • Secret Hunter is strong on the climb but is in the process of falling off hard, as it gets obliterated by Swarm Shaman. We don’t anticipate it will have much of a presence at legend ranks going forward.
  • Token Hunter’s play rate is too low to include in the table, but it’s likely the best performing Hunter deck outside of top legend. An old aggressive deck with no new cards may struggle to gain traction though.

Priest

  • Zarimi Priest looks very strong. Arguably, the balance changes have been a buff for the deck, as the nerf to removal was more impactful than its loss of Funnel Cake. The main reason this deck doesn’t see more play is that Swarm Shaman is even more busted and hard counters it in the direct matchup. It also loses to Cycle Rogue, so we suspect there will be a decline in its performance over time. Its strong early performance is the result of Libram Paladin and Starship Rogue being so popular. If those decks decline in play, Zarimi Priest will lose some of its free wins.
  • Pain Priest is a worse version of Zarimi Priest. Not much reason to play it over Zarimi. Reno Priest looks horrendous, but there’s one build direction that looks significantly better than others. Perhaps there’s a high Tier 4/low Tier 3 angle at play.

Mage

  • Elemental Mage is another strong starter that is expected to decline in its performance over the next week, as it gets countered by both Swarm Shaman and Cycle Rogue. In the next report, we suspect that you will witness a “mass collapse” in the performances of decks, especially at higher levels of play, with Shaman and Rogue setting up a new world order.

Warrior

  • Control Warrior is a mess. On paper, it has the tools to counter Swarm Shaman and Cycle Rogue, which is why the archetype is still picking up some level interest at top legend. However, it simply cannot handle some of the other matchups in the format. If the format becomes increasingly narrow at top legend, or it manages to find a versatile build that can do more than one thing in the late game, it may have a part to play.

Demon Hunter

  • Pirate Demon Hunter is a board flooding aggressive deck, so it’s having a lot of success in this format. However, it gets destroyed by Swarm Shaman, so it cannot challenge its #1 standing whatsoever.
  • Crewmate Demon Hunter has drastically improved, though not enough to make it a real meta contender. However, we suspect its refinement is still in its diapers, and a breakthrough could be found that puts it a respectable position.

Warlock

  • Wheel Warlock looks a little better. Its Swarm Shaman matchup is decent thanks to its strong removal toolkit. Rogue and Paladin represent its biggest problems. We don’t expect it to be a great deck in this format, but it might be a little more tolerable to play. Except at top legend, where Cycle Rogue will not allow you any leeway.
  • Pain Warlock might be okay, based on its low sample size, though it’s inferior to most of the aggressive decks we’re familiar with in the format.

Class Analysis & Decklists

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

 


Data Reaper Report - Rogue

Starship Rogue looks drastically closer to a competitive level. Griftah is essential to the deck. The buffed Dimensional Core, as well as Barrel Roll, are not good enough. Kaja’mite Creation is a filler 30th card, but you should be mulling for your starship piece generators and Velarok more than anything else.

Weapon Rogue plays the list we’re familiar with from before this expansion.

Cycle Rogue has adjusted to nerf to ‘Everything Must Go’, which broke its interaction with Robocaller. The successful alternative has proven to be Ethereal Oracle, unsurprisingly. This deck is now a bit more defensive in the early game, looking to remove boards with Oracle/Tar Slick/Backstab/Fan of Knives, bouncing Oracle with Shadowstep and retriggering it. This deck draws cards very rapidly, so a couple of single copy utility cards can work, such as Glacial Shard and Speaker Stomper.

Pressure Rogue has already attracted attention due to its burst damage capabilities, but its room to grow through refinement is very limited. The featured build looks like the established way to go, give or take a single card.

Mech Rogue looks like a promising ladder climber based on its low sample size. Dubious Purchase is very important to the deck. Usually played as a single copy, we recommend running two and dropping Stick Up for it.

Shaffar Rogue doesn’t see much play but looks competitive. Southsea Deckhand is essential to the deck in the current format. It’s preferable to Amalgam. Lucky Comet is a strong card in the deck.

Data Reaper Report - Paladin

Libram Paladin’s best direction involves dropping Interstellar Wayfarer and Yrel, while relying on Ethereal Oracle instead to improve the deck’s consistency. Lynessa is core to the deck due to her synergy with the Libram package. Sanc’Azel is a strong target for Libram of Divinity buffs. Living Horizon is easily discounted since we tend to have a full hand with all our card draw. Prismatic Beam seems essential in the current format, especially with Shaman and other aggressive decks looking so strong. Leeroy Jenkins is not needed but can be slotted in if slow decks with strong removal become more prominent (the decline of Death Knight and Warrior is an opposite trend).

Handbuff Paladin has benefitted from the balance changes. The core 28 cards remain familiar, but we’ve gone for Customs Enforcer in the final two slots instead of Air Guitarists or some other tech. Enforcer has been utilized in this deck in the past but has never been as strong as it is now. It’s still good against Rogue decks, but it’s also very powerful in other matchups, most notably Libram Paladin.

Lynessa Paladin can adjust to the nerfs to Sea Shill and Conniving Conman in two different ways. The first is taking the Pipsi build and simply replacing nerfed cards with the next best available option. Mixologist was already a card we’ve liked before but couldn’t find space for. A second copy of Prismatic Beam feels mandatory in the current format, as we’ve mentioned earlier. Adding Griftah and Gorgonzormu gets us to 30. Lumia has become significantly worse due to the disappearance of Spell-Damage Druid. Jitterbug and The Ceaseless Expanse are not good in this deck.

The second approach is to drop the Pipsi package and run a lower curve. Gorgonzormu performs so well in this variant that it convinced us it should go into the Pipsi variant.

As it stands, the Pipsi variant is superior, but we’ll give it another week of refinement and the meta stabilizing to determine which direction to settle on.

Showdown Paladin is likely strong in the current meta, but we’re not sure how many players care.

Data Reaper Report - Shaman

Swarm Shaman has easily adjusted to the nerf to Wave of Nostalgia. Players are adding a pirate package to get more out of Bloodlust in their Thrall’s Gift, which is now the primary win condition of the deck.

The nerf to Malted Magma does mean the card is very weak in a deck that has no synergy with it beyond Ethereal Oracle, so players are running Spirit Claws instead. Spirit Claws is a cheap activator of Dangerous Cliffside and makes Oracle a little stronger in the absence of Magma.

Asteroid Shaman got hit harder by the Malted Magma nerf, but it must keep running the spell, as it’s essential for board clearing so that our asteroids go face. The Ceaseless Expanse looked like a great card in the deck last week but has worsened with aggressive decks rising in play. Shudderblock has also lost some power due to the decline of Death Knight and Warrior. Miracle Salesman is becoming fashionable again to deal with faster matchups.

Data Reaper Report - Druid

Dungar Druid has been cutting the Oaken Summons package to great success. The benefit of this move is that Dungar always pulls the biggest threats. Thunderbringer is devastating for the opponent to deal with, especially when some counters to it were weakened in the patch (Reska/Reno). Kil’jaeden and The Ceaseless Expanse are fine cards in the deck, even though they don’t have the greatest synergy with Dungar. Kil’jaden is a fallback win condition, while we don’t mind summoning a 15/15 alongside our Thunderbringer and Zilliax.

The buff to Exodar has given a little boost to Station Druid, but the deck is clearly inferior to Dungar Druid. Summer Flowerchild has gotten worse, possibly due to the nerf to Sleep Under the Stars. The trend is to run Arkonite Revelation as a source of card draw.

Reno Druid is obviously weak. We can’t recommend it.

Frost Death Knight still wants to run Malted Magma, as board clears are increasingly important with aggressive decks starting to run rampant. It also helps “direct” Marrow Manipulator damage face. Leeroy Jenkins has fallen off, so players are replacing it with a Power/Haywire Zilliax, which can do a lot of work in matchups like Dungar Druid.

With Reno Death Knight severely nerfed, Rainbow Death Knight may prove to be the superior approach for a late-game-oriented Death Knight deck. This archetype has some serious refinement to do, as it’s littered with poor card choices (Hematurge, Acolyte of Death, Marin). The featured build is a strong step in the right direction. We’d like to see how it performs and then tweak it further next week, if necessary.

Unfortunately, the nerf to Threads of Despair has pushed Starship Death Knight further away from competitive viability.

Data Reaper Report - Hunter

Hunter has a lot of decks with low play rates but some promise.

Starship Hunter still wants nothing to do with Dimensional Core. The Exodar buff is nice. The discover package is mandatory. Tidepool Pupil looks strong.

Discover Hunter looks very promising, with a build cooked up by D0nkey. Again, Tidepool Pupil is proving to be a core card for the discover package in the class. This deck aims to rapidly discount both Alien Encounters and Mantle Shaper, leading to big board swings.

Grunter Hunter is an alternative ABJ deck to Egg Hunter. The deck doesn’t have much of a board presence and strictly looks to OTK opponents by buffing a Warsong Grunt to a huge size and then nuking the opponent’s face through overkilling their board. Our impression from the archetype’s card metrics is that we want a very curated pool of minions, just Grunt and Naille as desirable tutor targets for Birdwatching. The rest of the deck is composed of defensive spells and handbuff effects.

Both Secret and Token Hunter look like strong ladder climbers, but there is very little interest in them. They’re old, aggressive decks.

Data Reaper Report - Priest

Zarimi Priest looks cracked, brushing off the Funnel Cake nerf with ease. Two replacement candidates have been Hidden Gem and Shadow Ascendant. After evaluating their performance, we’ve decided to include both cards, drop Power Word: Synchronize and add back Magatha into a deck with half its previous spell count.

Pain Priest is okay but doesn’t compare to Zarimi Priest’s performance level. We’ve replaced Funnel Cake here with Gold Panner.

In a bit of a twist, Reno Priest looks more promising this patch, despite the nerf to Reno. The reason is that Elise got stronger. A specific build that is dense with spells and leans heavily into Elise with a unique minion package might be a borderline Tier 3 deck. Any other Reno Priest variant looks completely unplayable, but this one is not so bad.

Data Reaper Report - Mage

Lamplighter is not a terrible card after the nerf, but we’ve determined it’s not good enough to go into Elemental Mage anymore, with Azerite Giant looking slightly superior. The deck loses late game reach, which means Saruun becomes more important in slower matchups, even though they’ve dropped in popularity.

Data Reaper Report - Warrior

Warrior is generally a complete mess, showcasing Control Warrior builds with various approaches. Some persist with Odyn. Some center on Hydration Station with Arkonite Defense Crystal. Some are fatigue focused, with Boomboss, The Ceaseless Expanse and Fizzle.

We believe none are optimal, as we suspect that all these win conditions should be merged into one versatile deck. This could end up being a case of too many cooks in the kitchen, but the worst-case scenario would help us figure out the superior approach for the class going forward.

Mech Warrior might be ‘okay’, but the nerf to Sleep Under the Stars was harsh on it. We dropped it for Hostile Invader, which may become mandatory in the current format.

Turns out that Pirate Demon Hunter doesn’t want to run the Starship package. After all, why would it want Warp Drive when Ethereal Oracle is better, especially when you can add Hot Coals to the mix? Oracle is easy to activate in this deck and is simply cracked with Patches the Pilot. What’s good for Swarm Shaman is good for Pirate DH.

Crewmate Demon Hunter has potential to be competitive thanks to the buffs it has received. Dirdra is now a respectable card and Voronei Recruiter is a superb 2-drop. However, players have not yet cracked the code for this deck, which is Ethereal Oracle and Hot Coals. We believe the featured build could lead to a breakthrough in the refinement of this archetype.

Attack Demon Hunter is a very recent development that we did not have much time to work on, but based on its low sample, it’s very promising, albeit inferior to Pirate Demon Hunter.

Data Reaper Report - Warlock

We tweaked Wheel Warlock by dropping Geode for Health Drink. This is a little bit better against aggressive decks, while making Loken a little stronger.

All indications are that Pain Warlock is back to a decent performance level, though it’s not an elite deck at the level of Swarm Shaman or Zarimi Priest. Most players have switched Zilliax to Power/Haywire modules due to the loss of Party Fiend, but this Zilliax looks weaker than current Ticking/Pylon Zilliax, which isn’t great either. It’s possible that Zilliax gets completely dropped from the deck in the future.


Swarm Shaman is broken. The format is desperate for new discoveries that can keep it in check. Otherwise, this deck might take over and annihilate many strategies from competitive viability. If you’re looking for an easy late legend climb, look no further than this one. The featured build performs even better than the average Swarm Shaman deck on ladder, which means it absolutely stomps.

Cycle Rogue is the deck to watch out for at top legend, as it handles Shaman well and generally looks well-rounded, save for a few counters. We expect it to become very popular at high MMR’s. Unless it gets targeted effectively, it will become the second-best deck in the format.


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