Welcome to the 316th 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 | 596,000 |
| Top 1K Legend | 53,000 |
| Legend (Excluding Top 1k) | 220,000 |
| Diamond 4 to 1 | 70,000 |
| Diamond 10 to 5 | 88,000 |
| Platinum | 63,000 |
| Bronze/Silver/Gold | 102,000 |
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
Ctrl-Terran Shaman is growing at top legend, at the expense of Terran Shaman. The slower archetype was known to be favored amongst high MMR players, even when it wasn’t the strongest strategy. Considering its strong performance last week, this development is no surprise.
Protoss Rogue is in decline, while Weapon Rogue is on the rise. While Protoss Rogue has proven to be a competitive deck, it’s not a great one, so some players have given up on it. Meanwhile, players were previously resistant to piloting Weapon Rogue, but its performance might have become too strong to ignore.
Interest in Hunter and Death Knight is rising, while Warrior, Priest and Warlock are declining.
Ysera, Emerald Aspect, has spurred some experiments across several classes. Reno Druid, for example, has popped up a bit after the introduction of the card. Terran Warrior is where most of the attention has been, with a new iteration of the archetype centered on Odyn.
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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
While the meta has mostly settled down, there are some shifts in the power level of decks due to subtle changes in the format. The most important change is the rise of Weapon Rogue at higher levels of play, leading to increased interest in Alien Encounters.
Ctrl-Terran Shaman is being targeted more aggressively at higher levels of play by Zerg Death Knight. Interestingly, this matchup has become more difficult for the Shaman over the past week, a result of Death Knight focusing on beating Shaman through the Frost variant, rather than worrying about Weapon Rogue with the Quartzite Crusher variant. For Death Knight, this seems like a worthwhile tradeoff. It’s gotten better.
The increased presence of Death Knight is encouraging Terran Shaman, as this matchup is Shaman favored. So, despite the fact that player preferences lean to Ctrl-Terran Shaman, meta trends lean to Terran Shaman (it’s also better against Weapon Rogue). It is performing better at all levels of play currently, including top legend.
Hunter is the only class that’s still deep in the process of refinement and exploration, with both of its archetypes notably improving through internal means. Handbuff Hunter and Discover Hunter look like elite decks, with the added benefit of a growing Weapon Rogue population ready to be hard countered by Alien Encounters. Weapon Rogue and Hero Power Druid, two decks that rely on punching the opponent in the face, see a decline in their performance as a result of Hunter’s success. Dungar Druid is getting killed by Hunter too.
Terran Warrior doesn’t enjoy the growing Death Knight and Hunter populations, while Protoss Rogue and Location Warlock inevitably decline in their performances when Weapon Rogue rises in play.
Protoss Priest has drastically improved its aggregated performance. The archetype is now fairly “clean” in its build, with underperforming lists disappearing. The deck isn’t amazing, but looks respectable. The top legend field is still very hostile to the deck, even though the decline in the oppressive Protoss Rogue matchup helps.
Class Analysis & Decklists
Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior
Shaman looks settled down in its builds and doesn’t have a lot of room for tweaking. We’re content with both Terran Shaman archetypes.
Zerg Death Knight has been settled for a long time. The Frost build is the best one. Only run Rainbow if you’re seeing an abnormally large number of Weapon Rogues.
Dark Templars have decent value in the current format for Protoss Rogue, so we’re sticking with it.
Handbuff Hunter continues to experiment with the last minion slot. Penguins look very promising! It’s a decent soaker of buffs without interfering with the primary Zergling game plan. The featured build looks great at all levels of play.
Discover Hunter’s build is generally settled. We’ve cut The Ceaseless Expanse for Aggramar, as the latter is more suitable for the deck’s damage-based game plan. Expanse looks like the weakest card in the deck.
The release of the new Ysera has led to experiments across different decks, but the only one that looks competitive currently is the new iteration of Terran Warrior. This build drops the grindy win condition based around Boomboss and Hydration Station for Odyn, making it more lethal in the late game.
Mixologist looks a little better in Hero Power Druid now, so we’ve added it. Not much else is going on in the class. Reno Druid is horrendous.
We’re happy with the Protoss Priest build. The deck is not too bad up until top legend, where things get rougher.
Location Warlock’s build is long established. Some builds don’t run Domino Effect, but the card is good against Shaman.
Last week, a decent number of top legend players saw how good Weapon Rogue was performing and decided to play the deck after all. The rise in the polarizing deck had a visceral psychological effect on the player base, with players immediately looking for the best way to punish the strategy. Hunter is the best way to counter Weapon Rogue, thanks to Alien Encounters.
While Discover Hunter has always ran Alien Encounters, the introduction of the card to Handbuff Hunter is more recent, and very successful. It is now the top performing deck at top legend, and only second best to Terran Shaman elsewhere.
Just before rotation, Snowflipper Penguins make their mark.
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Contributors
