Welcome to the 315th 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 | 637,000 |
| Top 1K Legend | 60,000 |
| Legend (Excluding Top 1k) | 208,000 |
| Diamond 4 to 1 | 77,000 |
| Diamond 10 to 5 | 100,000 |
| Platinum | 71,000 |
| Bronze/Silver/Gold | 121,000 |
Class/Archetype Distribution
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All Ranks
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D1 to D4
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Legend
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Top 1K Legend
Class Frequency
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Weekly
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Daily
Class Frequency Discussion
Shaman is going through significant changes, with the control variant of Terran Shaman spiking at higher levels of play. On the climb to legend, Terran Shaman is still more prominent, but as you reach top legend, Ctrl-Terran Shaman is the more common opponent.
Zerg Death Knight is rising in play across ladder. We believe the main cause is the internal shift in the Shaman class. Zerg DK is more comfortable facing the slower Shaman deck, as it has more time to scale up.
The hype surrounding Protoss Rogue is slightly fading, following its lukewarm performance level. Weapon Rogue, on the other hand, is growing in popularity, especially at top legend. This is likely a response to the rise of Death Knight.
Hunter is another class that is going through an internal change. Discover Hunter is rising in popularity, while Handbuff Hunter is slightly declining. Discover Hunter seems relatively settled in its builds, while Handbuff Hunter continues to explore more options.
Terran Warrior sees conflicting changes in the format. On one hand, the matchup against Ctrl-Terran Shaman should favor the Warrior without infinite Fizzle. On the other hand, the growth in the Death Knight population can’t be good. This is why Warrior hasn’t moved much this week.
Location Warlock has grown a little, but it remains modestly popular compared to other Starcraft decks.
A resilient population remains loyal to Protoss Priest, while aggressive Priest decks see no further traction.
Last week, we suggested that a decline in Druid is expected to occur at higher levels of play. This seems to be the case. Hero-Power and Dungar Druid are shrinking, a product of an increasingly hostile field to both decks.
Protoss Mage remains visible outside of legend ranks, but high MMR players have given up on the deck. Paladin and Demon Hunter remain competitively irrelevant.
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All Ranks
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D4 to Legend
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Legend
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Top 1K Legend
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Legend
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D1 to D4
vS Meta Score
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Top 1K Legend
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Legend
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D1 to D4
vS Power Rankings Discussion
Shaman
- Ctrl-Terran Shaman is back and looks as powerful at top legend as it was before the patch. The only difference is the change in the Terran Warrior matchup, which has become very difficult without access to infinite Snapshots. This is the one matchup we identified where Fizzle was very important, but Fizzle was never particularly important against the rest of the field. A single snapshot is more than enough to beat other decks in the late game without much fuss.
- Ctrl-Terran Shaman does have a big discrepancy in its performance across different levels of play. This is partly build related, as the deck is more refined at top legend, but this is also skill related. Ctrl-Terran Shaman stands out as a deck that is relatively more difficult to navigate compared to the rest of the field, which is generally very low on skill expression. We suspect that the loss of access to an infinite snapshot has made the deck less forgiving to play.
- Terran Shaman remains very strong across ladder, but is easier to counter at higher levels of play. In addition to Terran Warrior, Terran Shaman loses to Location Warlock and gets stomped in the mirror by Ctrl-Terran Shaman. The big disadvantage in the mirror is a major factor in Shaman’s internal shift at top legend.
Death Knight
- Zerg Death Knight has grown stronger, as it benefits from Ctrl-Terran Shaman rising in play at the expense of Terran Shaman. Both matchups are close, but Zerg DK is slightly unfavored against the faster deck, and slightly favored against the slower deck.
Rogue
- Protoss Rogue similarly benefits from recent trends. It does well against Zerg DK. It performs better against Ctrl-Terran Shaman compared to Terran Shaman. Despite its decline in play, it has actually gotten stronger.
- Weapon Rogue looks nuts thanks to the rise in Zerg Death Knight and the decline of Druid. It is the best performing deck at legend ranks. It may never reach a high play rate, which is probably a good thing, but it’s extremely effective.
Hunter
- Handbuff Hunter has gotten slightly worse, which lines up with its decline in play. A breakthrough in its refinement is possible, which could elevate it back to Tier 1, but its poor matchup against both Shaman decks is an issue.
- Discover Hunter exhibits a similar matchup spread to Handbuff Hunter. It will be hoping Ctrl-Terran Shaman does not blow up further.
Warrior
- Terran Warrior counters Ctrl-Terran Shaman harder than Terran Shaman now, which sounds surprising but makes sense, as Shaman’s best chance of winning is overwhelming the Warrior rather than extending the game. However, the prevalence of the Zerg DK matchup makes it impossible for Warrior to display a positive win rate.
Warlock
- The shift to Ctrl-Terran Shaman is not good for Location Warlock, as this matchup is far more challenging compared to Terran Shaman. The good news is that Location Warlock seems to have gained some percentages in the Zerg DK matchup, turning it into a straight 50-50. Location Warlock, alongside Ctrl-Terran Shaman, is relatively more difficult to navigate compared to other decks.
Priest
- Protoss Priest has gotten stronger this week thanks to its recent refinement. It’s no longer a complete joke, though it’s still underpowered. We’ll see if it can improve its win rate further. We don’t expect a win rate that’s better than Tier 3.
Druid
- Dungar Druid seems to be stabilizing around Tier 3 rather than collapsing further. The rise of Death Knight and the decline in Handbuff Hunter is helping offset the pain associated with the changes in the Shaman class. Ctrl-Terran Shaman is much better positioned against Dungar Druid compared to Terran Shaman, as it can genuinely run it out of resources.
- Hero-Power Druid generally suffers against either Shaman deck, even though it prefers running into the slower variant. Its matchup spread against the top meta contenders just isn’t great. If it doesn’t run into Rogue or Death Knight, it doesn’t have a good time.
Mage
- Protoss Mage is the worst deck in the game. Elemental Mage is a playable, but forgotten deck.
Paladin & Demon Hunter
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Class Analysis & Decklists
Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior
Ctrl-Terran Shaman looks very powerful with the build we settled on last week, though we switched ETC for Griftah, which is a better card in most matchups. We’re confident Pop-Up Book is unnecessary. The Warrior matchup has become the hardest matchup. You should be looking to Bob their Zilliax and Shudderblock/Rat to pull their Boomboss, ETC/Kil’jaeden and Fizzle.
No changes in Zerg Death Knight. The Frost build is the best way to go, as Horn of Winter helps us cheat out an Infestor/Growl play earlier.
Spacerock Collector hasn’t gained traction in Protoss Rogue, so we’ve defaulted back to Dark Templars. Backstabs are another option, though we’re not impressed.
A discover package in Handbuff Hunter looks promising. In retrospect, this is probably something that should have been experimented with earlier, considering how powerful Alien Encounters is.
There is no great reason to run Grunter Hunter as its standalone strategy. At this stage, we would only consider Warsong Grunt as part of a tech package in Handbuff Hunter, as we’ve marked in the featured build.
Nothing drastically changed in Terran Warrior. There are some options for flexibility in the deck, but you can’t go wrong with the featured build.
Location Warlock has a harder time facing Ctrl-Terran Shaman, compared to the faster variant, but there’s nothing that Warlock can change in its build to adjust to the matchup. Your best plan is your primary game plan.
A greedier route is possible in Protoss Priest, where we cut Fishing Rod to fit in both Synchronize and Protocol. This does make the deck better in slower matchups like Terran Warrior and Ctrl-Terran Shaman, but it’s obviously worse against faster decks.
Dungar Druid seems to be giving up on fighting for the early game. Artanis is a mediocre card in the deck that has gained popularity to target slower matchups harder.
The main reason Protoss Mage is modestly popular is that it’s fun, but it’s undoubtedly the worst deck in the format with a significant play rate. Elemental Mage is okay, but there is not much interest in it.
Paladin is competitively irrelevant. The Starcraft mini-set pushed out Handbuff Paladin, while Lynessa Paladin has been deleted by the nerf to Ethereal Oracle.
We’re hoping the class receives a fleshed out set in the Emerald Dream that allows it to compete, because no class needs it more.
We’re a bit concerned that Ctrl-Terran Shaman looks so strong. Considering how attractive it is to play, this might lead to an explosion in its popularity at higher MMR’s. Based on metrics, we did not think the Fizzle nerf would significantly impact its power level, so we were a bit surprised to see it completely disappear on the first week of the patch. However, this was a reaction to the synergy between Fizzle and Triangulate being broken and the old build losing its functionality. The deck just needed a simple tweak in its build to instantly recover. Now, it looks primed to take over.
The good news is that it is not unstoppable, with Terran Warrior now looking like an effective counter to its finite resources. Other decks can force it into close matchups too, so it may not run away with the format. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of response we get next week, now that the secret is completely out.
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Contributors
