vS Data Reaper Report #309

December 12, 2024

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Welcome to the 309th 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 788,000
Top 1K Legend 56,000
Legend (Excluding Top 1k) 213,000
Diamond 4 to 1 87,000
Diamond 10 to 5 128,000
Platinum 95,000
Bronze/Silver/Gold 209,000

Class/Archetype Distribution

Class Frequency

Class Frequency Discussion

The infatuation with Rogue at top legend is dissipating. Cycle Rogue’s play rate has been cut by nearly 50% over the past week, relegating it to the 3rd most popular deck at higher MMR’s. This correlates with the archetype’s diminishing performance level, with the Dungar Druid matchup proving to be very difficult. Starship Rogue has also declined across ladder, though maintains a dedicated audience.

The player base is simply not too interested in Swarm Shaman, as we were already noticing last week. The deck has finally hit a 10% play rate at the high diamond bracket, while declining at top legend and failing to reach a 15% play rate there. Undoubtedly, if the deck had a more attractive playstyle, it would choke out the format with play rates exceeding 25-30%. Big Shaman has not gained much traction. Asteroid Shaman maintains a loyal audience at lower MMR brackets.

The biggest story of the week, with the greatest impact on the format, is the rise of Dungar Druid. The archetype’s numbers have risen across ladder, doubling at top legend over the last week. It is establishing itself as the most popular deck at legend ranks.

Discover Hunter’s play rate has plateaued. Grunter Hunter is seeing a bit more interest.

Rainbow Death Knight is gaining more traction, following its success last week. Other archetypes in the class remain fringe.

Attack Demon Hunter is now a prominent strategy at legend ranks, drastically eclipsing the stagnant Pirate DH.

On a similar trajectory to Rainbow DK, Control Warrior has risen in play. The archetype has so many different builds and approaches that it’s hard to keep track of all of them. Warrior has many silver bullet cards that target different decks. It’s impossible to fit them all into one list, which is why the archetype’s build variety is so high.

Priest is seeing increased interest at top legend, though we’re not sure there is any merit to further explore Control Priest. Reno Priest might be worth a look. Zarimi Priest remains in Swarm Shaman’s shadow.

Paladin is seeing a small internal shift, with players finally giving Lynessa Paladin another chance, while Libram and Handbuff Paladin slightly decline.

Mage and Warlock are very stagnant. Elemental Mage remains a prominent deck at lower rank brackets. Warlock is not prominent anywhere.

Matchup Win Rates Header

Power Rankings Header

vS Meta Score

vS Power Rankings Discussion

Shaman

  • Swarm Shaman is clearly unstoppable. It now sits alone at the top of the format, the only Tier 1 deck at top legend, outperforming all competition by a significant margin. Its dominance across ladder has not lessened. It has some counters, but they are suppressed by the presence of Dungar Druid, which acts as its enabler and bodyguard.
  • Big Shaman has quickly collapsed. Dungar Druid, Attack DH and Control Warrior have all risen in play and represent difficult matchups for the deck. Big Shaman shines when the Swarm Shaman/Cycle Rogue duo dictates the format, but that no longer seems to be the case.
  • Asteroid Shaman remains a decent deck outside of legend ranks, but falls off at higher levels of play.

Rogue

  • Cycle Rogue is clearly being restrained by the increased presence of Dungar Druid. The rise of Attack DH, which has become a relevant contender this week, makes things increasingly uncomfortable.
  • Starship Rogue does enjoy facing Attack DH and Control Warrior, but still has some unplayable matchups that keep it at a fringe power level. Only becomes reasonable at top legend.
  • Weapon Rogue also has a good matchup into Attack DH and Control Warrior, which cancels out the rise in Dungar Druids it doesn’t enjoy facing.

Druid

  • With its increased popularity, efforts to target Dungar Druid are rising. It might be Swarm Shaman’s protector, but it is much more vulnerable in its own matchup spread. Attack DH is becoming increasingly popular largely because it destroys Dungar Druid and Cycle Rogue. This differentiates Rogue and Druid from Shaman, the latter being unshakeable in the face of countering efforts.

Hunter

  • Grunter Hunter may have gone through a breakthrough in its refinement this week at top legend, curating its build to a state of efficiency we haven’t seen before. It has potential to preserve close matchups against both Swarm Shaman and Dungar Druid, which is not an easy feat. Attack DH’s emergence may have prevented it from a bigger spike in its performance, as this matchup is very difficult.
  • Discover Hunter remains one of the better decks at higher levels of play not named Swarm Shaman. The biggest upside of Discover Hunter is that its matchup spread is very balanced. Most matchups feel winnable.
  • There’s an uptick in the performance of Starship Hunter, though the deck remains on the fringes of the format. We can see this deck becoming more prominent with an additional balance patch.

Death Knight

  • The rise of Dungar Druid is clearly a painful trend for Rainbow DK players, but some of this is offset by the decline of Cycle Rogue and rise of Attack DH. Rainbow DK is mostly successful thanks to its ability to counter Swarm Shaman and other aggressive decks.
  • Frost and Reno DK are not terrible decks, but they’re hard to justify. Rainbow does Reno’s job better, while Frost DK is an underwhelming aggressive deck compared to Shaman, Priest and the emerging Demon Hunter deck.

Demon Hunter

  • Attack DH is able to target both Cycle Rogue and Dungar Druid with great effectiveness. Pirate DH does similarly, but Attack DH seems to handle Swarm Shaman relatively better. It generally seems to perform better in aggressive mirrors and doesn’t fall off as much at higher levels of play. It still get countered by defensive decks. Life gain gives it a lot of problems.

Warrior

  • Control Warrior simply cannot truly thrive when Dungar Druid is this popular. Things would have looked worse for the archetype if Attack DH didn’t offset some of this increased hostility. Funnily, this deck would have looked much better if players weren’t in love with Starship Rogue.

Priest

  • Zarimi Priest is basically Swarm Shaman’s deputy. It utilizes a similar playstyle while not performing at the same level, so it’s overshadowed. However, it does handle control matchups noticeably better than Shaman. It isn’t scared of Rainbow DK or Control Warrior. This week, the rise of Dungar Druid was cancelled out by the rise of Attack DH, the latter proving to be difficult to handle.
  • Reno Priest might be a bit of a sleeper. The archetype has consistently looked terrible in the aggregate over the last few weeks because its best build has never taken over. It seems that Reno Priest players are blissfully ignorant of the direction they should take. However, at higher levels of play, there is an increased awareness of what works. Suddenly, Reno Priest sneaks into Tier 3 and might be even better. It is a hard counter to Dungar Druid (!) and seems to beat grindy value decks such as Starship Rogue and Discover Hunter.

Paladin

  • Lynessa Paladin is probably the most underrated deck in the format. It’s been in the refinement doghouse for a few weeks, with players refusing to move away from terrible OTK-focused builds that run garbage cards like Doomsayer. However, a recent shift into the better (*cough* vS) lists is proving fruitful. Lynessa Paladin is currently on a win rate spike path that could establish it as the second best performing deck at top legend. It could become a Tier 1 deck across ladder. With the exception of the Shaman matchup, it looks relatively comfortable facing any other opponent.
  • The player base’s refusal to play more Swarm Shaman is saving the competitive viability of decks like Libram and Handbuff Paladin. In contrast, Paladin does well into Rogue.

Mage

  • Elemental Mage is perfectly fine. Its Rogue and Shaman matchups are why players at higher levels seem disinterested, on top of being a predictable tribal deck that lost a lot of its off board damage capabilities.

Warlock

  • Warlock continues to suck. Wheel Warlock has gotten even worse this week, because it dies to Dungar Druid and Attack DH. Mind you, it dies to pretty much everything that doesn’t sit and let you spin the wheel.

Class Analysis & Decklists

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

 

Data Reaper Report - Rogue

The format calls for Cycle Rogue to be even greedier, running both Cover Artist and Speaker Stomper. Other Rogue decks do not exhibit the same level of flexibility when it comes to their card choices. We still like Oracle in Starship Rogue, due to Swarm Shaman’s dominance.

Data Reaper Report - Shaman

Swarm Shaman can improve its performance in slower matchups by cutting Spirit Claws for a second copy of Horn of the Windlord and Weapons Attendant. This is well worth it, as it is already dominant in faster matchups. Attendant was a card that has already impressed in Pirate Shaman before this expansion. It looks powerful these days too.

Data Reaper Report - Druid

Dungar Druid is seeing some experimentations with its final few slots. Kil’jaeden/Ceaseless is the strongest pairing when it comes to late game matchups, but some players are trying out Drum Circle with Embrace of Nature. Forbidden Fruit is another card that’s seeing increased play. It works decently in tandem with Star Grazer. All these options seem viable.

Data Reaper Report - Hunter

We think 28 cards in Grunter Hunter have been figured out. Food Fight is the best enabler for Warsong Grunt. It’s a question of whether we value Catch of the Day’s ability to further help our Grunt, or Sneaky Snakes’ early game board control.

One of the most noticeable trends resulting from the spike in Dungar Druid’s popularity is the improved performance of Power/Haywire Zilliax in aggressive decks. Frost Death Knight definitely wants to run the card now, which has gone from one of the worst performers in the deck, to one of the very best, over the course of a few weeks.

We’ve added Power/Haywire Zilliax and Gorgonzormu to Attack Demon Hunter. The Dungar Druid matchup asks for it.

Data Reaper Report - Warrior

Though we haven’t seen a reason to change our Control Warrior builds, we will note that the archetype has very high build diversity and there are many card choices that can target specific matchups and have some room for justification. For example, Alloy Advisor is a popular alternative to Arkonite Defense Crystal to strengthen faster matchups while sacrificing late game. Aftershocks is another popular anti-Shaman tech, though it’s nearly useless against slower decks for obvious reasons.

Data Reaper Report - Priest

Reno Priest is the strongest Reno deck in the format, when refined. An iteration of the Elise build has improved the deck further. Splitting Spacerock and Stone Drake are great Elise targets. Repackage can effectively answer Dungar. The featured build might be as good as Tier 2 in some rank brackets.

Data Reaper Report - Paladin

Paladin hasn’t seen much development. Handbuff Paladin can hard target Rogue with some tech cards at top legend, similarly to what it’s done in the past to Sonya Rogue, but hard targeting Rogue significantly hurts other matchups. Razorscale is generally bad.

We recommend the no Pepsi build for Lynessa Paladin, as Pipsi is a weak card against Dungar Druid. Coca Cola is better in this case. This is not an ad. Lay off the sugary soda and drink sparkling water. It’s better for you.

Data Reaper Report - Mage

Mage is the class that’s seeing the least amount of development. There is basically nothing going on. We’re hoping interest in the class is revived in the next balance patch, because Elemental Mage can only take you so far.

Data Reaper Report - Warlock

We added Power/Haywire Zilliax to Pain Warlock. Wheel Warlock might be better off cutting Kil’jaeden for Symphony of Sins.



Balance changes are likely coming next week. This is probably your last chance to abuse Swarm Shaman for easy wins. We will note that Lynessa Paladin might quietly be the second best deck in the game. The aggregated stats are not showing it yet, but if people completely give up on silly OTK builds, the stats eventually will.

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