Welcome to the 322nd 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 | 665,000 |
| Top 1K Legend | 88,000 |
| Legend (Excluding Top 1k) | 252,000 |
| Diamond 4 to 1 | 73,000 |
| Diamond 10 to 5 | 91,000 |
| Platinum | 64,000 |
| Bronze/Silver/Gold | 97,000 |
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
The meta has stabilized to the point we are seeing fewer changes to the format across ladder.
Drunk Paladin has not moved an inch. It seems that players at lower rank brackets still prefer the simplicity of Zarimi Priest.
Ashamane Rogue is taking over the class at top legend, which is what we expected to happen considering it is the best performing Rogue deck with the best matchup against Drunk Paladin.
Warlock numbers did creep up a bit, but not to a huge extent.
Players have finally taken a liking to Starship Death Knight. The deck has risen in play across ladder, taking over the class at top legend.
Protoss Mage has slightly risen in play, while Spell Mage is fading.
Small declines are observed in Druid and Demon Hunter.
There is little movement in Hunter, Warrior or Shaman.
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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
Paladin
- Drunk Paladin remains dominant across ladder and only looks a bit more restrained at top legend, where its main counter class (Rogue) is extremely popular. The format at higher levels of play has narrowed down but reached a relative equilibrium where a few classes balance each other out.
- Aggro Paladin looks strong but it is hard to justify playing when Drunk Paladin is better.
Rogue
- Ashamane Rogue started to run Cult Neophytes at top legend, which has gained it a few percentages against Drunk Paladin. The Clarity variant is piloted by most high MMR Paladin players, so the Neophyte addition makes sense. This has pushed the matchup into being clearly Rogue favored again, canceling out the rise in Warlock and keeping Ashamane Rogue with a similar win rate to last week.
- Pirate Rogue has become a very similar deck to Ashamane Rogue, so it makes sense its matchup spread and overall win rate will be similar. It does better against Death Knight and Warlock, but it is worse against Paladin, which counts for a lot.
- We do not see a great reason to play Protoss Rogue currently. The deck is okay, but clearly inferior to Ashamane. Starship Rogue has collapsed.
Demon Hunter
- Cliff Dive Demon Hunter has slightly declined due to the format cleaning up and nearing full refinement, while its optimal build is already well established. It remains a strong deck thanks to its good matchups against Warlock and Rogue, making up for the rough Paladin matchup. The Death Knight transition to Starship does make things a little more difficult too, as this matchup is far more challenging than Blood-Ctrl.
Warlock
- Things have soured quickly for Wheel Warlock again. It seems the deck struggles after it gets a bit of hype, as players are willing to go into extreme measures to beat it. We believe the transition of Death Knight from Blood-Ctrl into Starship is largely influenced by Warlock’s recent success. We also think it is the main reason why Protoss Mage sees any meaningful play at top legend. It stomps Wheel. Wheel Warlock may have successfully turned the Drunk Paladin matchup even with its build adjustments, but these same adjustments tanked its performance against Demon Hunter.
- It is a similar story for Starship Warlock. The deck is harder to target but its weak Paladin matchup does place a ceiling on its power.
Death Knight
- Starship Death Knight is significantly stronger than Blood-Ctrl at top legend because it handles Rogue, Warlock and Demon Hunter much better.
- Menagerie and Handbuff are impressive through most of ladder. Menagerie’s good matchup into Paladin keeps its performance respectable at top legend, while Handbuff is one of the better ladder climbers out there.
Mage
- Protoss Mage is effective against very slow decks, but it does not do enough against the rest. It is popular because of its comforting late game and it gives players an option to punish highly passive strategies.
- Spell and Imbue Mage suck. It seems players did get the memo about Spell Mage, as we see the deck disappearing.
Priest
- Zarimi Priest’s massive disparity in performance between rank brackets is only widening. Between upper diamond and top legend, Zarimi Priest declines in its win rate by 8%. It goes from the second best deck in the game, to utterly unplayable. About 6% of the fall is attributed to the change in the field; the dominance of Paladin and Rogue at top legend, both of which counter Priest. The other 2% is skill related, as Zarimi Priest does decline in some matchups against better players.
Druid
- Similar story with Imbue Druid (gets rolled by Paladin/Rogue at top legend), but the deck is not even great at lower rank brackets.
Hunter
- Handbuff Hunter is hurting from the Ashamane/Warlock rise. Unless you are climbing with Zegg Hunter at lower rank brackets, the class looks highly questionable.
Shaman
- Murmur Shaman’s momentum was killed by Ashamane Rogue adding Cult Neophytes. This matchup has gone red again, through collateral damage, pushing Shaman back to the unplayable zone of win rates. Beating Warlock and Demon Hunter is not enough when you lose to the top two classes.
Warrior
- Within the garbage Control Warrior archetype, we found a Mech variant that looks respectable. We do not think it is any good at higher levels of play, but it might feel okay on the climb to legend.
Class Analysis & Decklists
Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior
The Libram of Clarity variant of Drunk Paladin should cut Lifesaving Aura for Vacation Planning, as it is very difficult to use Sunscreen when the deck runs few minions.
Ashamane Rogue has started to run Cult Neophytes to sharpen up the Drunk Paladin matchup.
Protoss Rogue is adding Twin/Perfect Zilliax to have another Shaladrassil corruptor, copying what other Rogue decks have already been doing.
For Starship Rogue, Bob is stronger than Ceaseless Expanse against Drunk Paladin, but we cannot recommend the deck.
No changes in Demon Hunter. Cliff Dive Demon Hunter looks as refined as it gets.
Warlock looks relatively settled. We are surprised at how good Brewmaster proved to be in Wheel Warlock, so we have added a second copy of the card. Stalling a Paladin with Bob bounces is a legitimate play.
Orbital Moon and Scarab Keychain are likely the best cards for the last couple of slots in Blood-Ctrl Death Knight.
Starship Death Knight is the first competitive deck this expansion that has embraced Gnomelia. It makes sense, considering the deck was willing to run Suffocate to deal with Sea Shanty. Turns out that Gnomelia is a little better than Suffocate, so we have replaced one copy with it. We can even run two Suffocates with Gnomelia, while cutting an Infested Breath.
- Death Knight Class Radar
- Blood-Ctrl Death Knight
- Starship Death Knight
- Handbuff Death Knight
- Menagerie Death Knight
It pays off to be greedy in this format, so Hataaru and Ysera are edging Rising Waves in Protoss Mage. Rising Waves do not do much against Paladin, especially when Paladins cut most minions from the deck. The game plan in this matchup is to constantly freeze their board until it is wiped by a Colossus.
Players never gave a real chance to Dreamweaver in Imbue Mage, preferring Mixologists instead.
Zarimi Priest has long been solved, though you will still face many players running Thrive in the Shadows, which is a terrible card but “feels” good because of the small package of spells in the deck.
It turns out that Imbue Druid might have been too hasty dropping the Tourist package early in the expansion. A recent iteration brings back Tide Pools and Marooned Archmage to the deck. If these are the only cards being added, replacing the “weak” slots in Imbue Druid we have discussed last week, then it is a net positive for the deck. The only tough decision is whether to keep Wrath or Trail Mix in the list. Trail Mix might be slightly better.
Hunter has been abandoned by most players, though we suspect the class will garner great interest once the mini-set launches.
Murmur Shaman is weak even at top legend, and there is nothing else going on.
A Mech Control Warrior build has popped up this week and looks like the strongest Warrior deck we have seen this expansion, though admittedly that does not say much. This variant seems competitive at Diamond ranks and below, though we suspect it stops being competitive at top legend. The featured build looks clean. Slam is a popular card we are not impressed with, so we dropped it.
The format should not change too much until the mini-set. The two different fields have been established. Outside of legend ranks, there is a diverse field held up by a reluctance to play the dominant Drunk Paladin, leading us to experience a wide variety of opponents. It looks good for most Hearthstone players.
At top legend, the jig is up. Drunk Paladin is the top dog. Only Rogue can restrain it. The rest of the field has narrowed down to Paladin, the class that counters Paladin (Rogue), classes that counter Rogue (Death Knight, Warlock, Demon Hunter) and then a class that counters a couple of the Rogue counters (Mage). Five other classes are dead.
We are taking a break from reports until after the mini-set, but we will be back next week for a Comprehensive Preview of the upcoming set, so don’t be a stranger.
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Contributors
Tried the mech warrior deck and it’s dogwater
Do you guys play test these at all?
It has 2 death rattle mechs in the whole deck that cost 6
Then 2 spells that require a friendly mech on the board, and inventor boom who can resummon exactly 3 cards in the deck
This is F tier – and it makes me question vs articles
yes, there have been similar decks several times in past metas and they’ve always focused on abusing testing dummy (which is tutorable), are you stupid
It’s absolute garbage and half your games are just sitting with dead cards
That maybe worked in 2016 but that doesn’t work in today’s power scale
I got to legend pretty easily with a different version of it last month cutting the 3 mana mech spells for Zilliax, Xavius and brawl. Deck fell off in legend though as mentioned here.