vS Data Reaper Report #327

July 24, 2025

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Welcome to the 327th edition of the Data Reaper Report! This is the first report for The Lost City of Un’Goro.

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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 2,398,000
Top 1K Legend 47,000
Legend (Excluding Top 1k) 742,000
Diamond 4 to 1 490,000
Diamond 10 to 5 493,000
Platinum 289,000
Bronze/Silver/Gold 337,000

Class/Archetype Distribution

Class Frequency

Reminder: The graphs in the report are screenshots. You can see all the data, hover over graphs for more information, and select additional bracket filters, in the original tableau files on the website. Clicking on the screenshots in the report, or navigating through the website toolbar, gets you there.

Class Frequency Discussion

The Lost City of Un’Goro started off with a whimper, one that was even more pitiful than the mechanics initially introduced in The Great Dark Beyond and Into the Emerald Dream. Most quest decks were exceptionally weak, to the point they were weaker than a random Whizbang deck. Even Quest Paladin, which dominated day 1 of the expansion by beating other quest decks, looked increasingly weaker as things optimized around it. The format was ultimately dominated by old decks running a few new cards.

The balance patch proceeded to nerf every single competitive class in the format, apart from Warrior and Hunter. Buffs were made to quests, to get them out of the 20-30% win rate holes they were in. The result appears to be a format with nerfed decks, other old decks, as well as decks that we forgot existed.

Dorian Warlock, a defensive Warlock archetype that is centered on a big blowout turn with Dorian/Cursed Catacombs and Agamaggan, has taken over the top legend ladder. This deck existed before the patch but never gained serious traction, as it proved to be terrible. Following the massive balance changes that targeted nearly every competitive deck in the format, space was opened for it to explode. Quest Warlock was the quest archetype that got the biggest buffs in the patch, leading players to believe it had the best chance of becoming competitive. However, Quest Warlock is currently going through a significant decline that is seeing its numbers shrink at all levels of play, suggesting that players might be losing faith after the initial hype.

Control Warrior has adopted its quest as an addition to its Hydration Station build, as attempts to fully commit to the quest were unsuccessful. Mech Warrior, an archetype that has existed in theory since Whizbang and never been competitively viable, has surged in play post-patch and become a serious meta contender for the first time.

Cycle Rogue was a competitive deck that seemed restrained before the patch. Following the patch, it slowly got traction in the first couple of days before exploding at top legend. The deck saw some of its toughest matchups disappear, while players felt that the “nerf” to Everburning Phoenix was not actually a nerf. Currently, it is on its way to rival Dorian Warlock’s top legend popularity.

Protoss Priest was the post-patch first day sensation, taking over Diamond ranks and becoming the deck to beat. However, the deck has been slowly declining since, while its top legend presence has been shrinking more rapidly. Menagerie Priest was extremely powerful at expansion launch but the nerf to Menagerie Jug made it nearly disappear from the landscape. Wilted Priest was one of three new decks at the expansion launch and became a fringe deck after the nerf to Wilted Shadow.

Hunter’s play rate was very low at the expansion’s launch, but following the patch, it started to pick up more serious traction. Beast Hunter showed some promise before the patch but attracted no interest. The nerfs to Priest and Demon Hunter drove players to seek an alternative aggressive deck. Handbuff Hunter is an old deck that is beginning to pick up more play thanks to its favored Dorian Warlock matchup. Some experiments in Discover Hunter persist.

Druid blew up at expansion’s launch with the Loh scam deck, which got deleted in the balance patch. Spell-Damage Druid was left to pick up the pieces, adjusting its build to the loss of Loh. Other players have moved back to playing Aviana Druid.

Starship Death Knight was the second most dominant deck at launch week. Following multiple nerfs, it has drastically fallen in play. However, the archetype shows signs of recovery, picking up traction again and adjusting its build. Menagerie DK is also trying to adjust its build following the Jug nerf but is not picking up traction. Blood-Ctrl DK is experimenting with all sorts of stuff, most of it bad.

Quest Paladin was the day 1 sensation of Un’Goro. Its win rate was extremely high on the first day of the expansion, but once players stopped playing other quest decks, Quest Paladin turned out to be surprisingly mediocre. By the time of the patch, it was unplayable at top legend and weak at Diamond ranks. The balance patch nerfed it, but it also nerfed some of its biggest counters, so Quest Paladin is currently popular outside of legend ranks. At top legend, it does not exist. Instead, players are trying to bring back Drunk and Lynessa Paladin.

Aggro Demon Hunter looked like the best deck in the format in the first week of the expansion. The nerfs have caused a collapse in its play rate, resulting in a fringe current presence. Interest in Starship Demon Hunter, meanwhile, is slightly picking up.

Spell Mage running the quest was the Mage class’s greatest hope, which meant things were not looking good. Following the patch, there are further attempts to make Spell Mage work, Elemental Mage has reappeared, while other players have defaulted back to Protoss Mage.

Murmur Shaman was the only relevant Shaman deck on the first week of the expansion.  The deck became increasingly powerful at top legend, to the point it was the 3rd or 4th best performer at that rank bracket. Murmur was deleted, leaving Quest Shaman as the most visible deck on ladder.

Matchup Win Rates Header

Power Rankings Header

vS Meta Score

vS Power Rankings Discussion

Warlock

  • Dorian Warlock is a powerful deck that performs at a Tier 1 level when it faces a format that is not specifically hostile to it, as we can see throughout most rank brackets. At top legend, its presence is so overbearingly high that the entire field of high-level players is trying to counter it. Even so, countering Dorian Warlock is difficult, as we can only identify four competitive decks that are favored against it, one of them narrowly so.
  • Quest Warlock was the greatest hope of quest decks post-patch. While the archetype is closer to a competitive level compared to other quest decks, it is still significantly weaker than competitive Hearthstone decks. We do not expect it to survive an optimized format, unless a new breakthrough in its refinement occurs.
  • Wheel Warlock is beginning to gain some traction at top legend. Based on its small sample size, we see a lot of promise for the archetype. We estimate it is, at least, a Tier 2 performer, but it could be Tier 1. As it stands, it performs better than Dorian Warlock at higher MMR’s.

Warrior

  • Control Warrior is one of the only decks that can reliably beat Dorian Warlock, which means its top legend performance is significantly better than what it is elsewhere on ladder. It also helps that Protoss Priest, an oppressive counter, is disappearing from this rank bracket. However, difficult Mech Warrior and Cycle Rogue matchups make it unlikely to get any better.
  • Mech Warrior is now a serious meta contender and a Tier 1 performer across ladder. It is the hardest counter to Dorian Warlock, which keeps it performing well at top legend despite its low skill ceiling. We anticipate a decline in its win rate at higher levels of play due to the ongoing surge of Cycle Rogue, which represents a miserable matchup.
  • Mech Warrior is a very good case study for evaluating how much the power level has dropped over the past 16 months in Standard. At no point was Mech Warrior a seriously competitive deck until now. It was terrible before rotation. It remained weak during the Emerald Dream. It was weak after the addition of Endbringer Umbra, a month before the launch of Un’Goro. It was weak after the launch of Un’Goro. Now, it is a Tier 1 performer. Food for thought.

Rogue

  • The balance patch unironically buffed Cycle Rogue. The nerf to Everburning Phoenix made the card perform better, not worse. Many of its counters dropped in play. It is now the best performing deck at top legend, despite a narrowly unfavored matchup against Dorian Warlock, as well as the most skill intensive deck in the format. We do think it can be targeted if it becomes extremely popular, but it requires players to drift some attention away from beating Dorian. Warrior decks, for example, beat Dorian with good consistency, but represent free matchups for Cycle Rogue.
  • Protoss Rogue is a decent deck that is significantly easier to play than Cycle Rogue and performs better at lower ranks. At higher levels of play though, it is vastly outclassed by Cycle Rogue, so it will struggle to gain traction.
  • Quest Rogue is trash. The worst quest deck, and the worst deck in the game. Before the patch, its win rate was sitting at 18-19%.

Priest

  • On day 1 of the patch, Protoss Priest was the best deck in the game across ladder. Things drastically changed since. Many decks have proven to be superior choices on the climb to legend, while at top legend, the format has become increasingly hostile to the deck. It gets soundly beaten by both Dorian Warlock and Cycle Rogue. It should remain serviceable at Diamond ranks and below, but its win rate is rapidly sinking at higher levels of play, to the point it will hit Tier 4 based on current trends.
  • Wilted Priest is trying to hold on, but poor matchups against Dorian Warlock and Cycle Rogue may doom its chances of survival at higher levels of play. Much like Protoss Priest, it should remain serviceable at Diamond and below, though it is not the easiest deck to play.
  • We suspect that Menagerie Priest’s win rate is dragged down by a significant percentage of its remaining players not being human. Its tracker side win rate, which is its win rate when piloted by the player with the deck tracker, is abnormally higher than its win rate when opponents play the deck (hint: bots usually do not use deck trackers). Therefore, Menagerie Priest should still be strong and competitively viable at Diamond ranks and below. But it is weaker than other aggressive decks now, which makes it hard for it to gain any traction.
  • Quest Priest is trash.

Hunter

  • Beast Hunter was already strong before the patch. It was just inferior to Menagerie Priest and Aggro Demon Hunter. The balance changes helped it leapfrog the competition and become the strongest aggressive deck and the best performer at Diamond ranks and below. The larger presence of Dorian Warlock, a terrible matchup, means Beast Hunter is not as effective at top legend, even though its Cycle Rogue matchup is good.
  • Handbuff Hunter is shaping up to be a meta breaking deck, as it is a strong counter to Dorian Warlock, while being difficult to counter. Only Death Knight seems to possess the consistent means of dealing with its massive blow out turns. This makes the deck extremely powerful at every level of play, to the point it is hard to ignore, even though we are aware it is not an attractive deck for most players.
  • Discover Hunter is weak, but might be better if it opts for a specific build we highlight in this report.
  • Quest Hunter is trash.

Druid

  • Spell-Damage Druid looked strong early on, but it might be on the brink of total collapse. Handbuff Hunter and Cycle Rogue represent two of its worst matchups, while it also has a terrible time dealing with Mech Warrior. It may not survive next week. Its Dorian Warlock matchup is fine, but it needs Death Knight to make a big comeback and curb early blow outs.
  • Quest Druid is trash.

Death Knight

  • Starship Death Knight might have become the most underrated and underplayed deck in the format, and we anticipate its comeback over the next week with an adjustment to its build. Death Knight is the only class that seems capable of consistently beating Handbuff Hunter. Starship DK is also the only deck in the game that is favored against both Dorian Warlock and Cycle Rogue. If it were a new deck, we might have been more excited about the potential emergence of this meta breaker, but yeah… it is Starship DK. Good luck, everyone.
  • Menagerie DK’s win rate tanked, but not necessarily because of the nerf to Menagerie Jug or some bot population. Some players are experimenting with Blood Menagerie builds. It is not working at all. Meanwhile, Frost builds felt the Jug nerf a lot harder. Rainbow is now the best direction for the archetype but only represents a smaller percentage of Menagerie DK builds, one that puts it a similar power level to human piloted Menagerie Priest.
  • Blood-Ctrl Death Knight is extremely messy and unrefined. An optimized build could be Tier 3 or even Tier 2, though it is still worse than Starship DK.
  • Quest Death Knight is trash.

Paladin

  • As funny as it sounds, Quest Paladin is better now than it was just before the patch came out, as it benefitted more from the decline of its counters than the nerfs hurt it. It was able to maintain a positive win rate at upper Diamond, when it could not do that before the patch.
  • While Cycle Rogue is the most skill intensive deck in the format, improving by 6% in the average matchup between diamond and top legend, Quest Paladin has the most negative value. It loses 8% in the average matchup at higher levels of play. It is strong at low MMR’s (Bronze through Gold), yet it is thoroughly unplayable at top legend. We would describe it as a significantly weaker version of Stormwind’s Quest Warrior.
  • There are two Paladin decks that perform much better than Quest Paladin. Aggro Paladin, a very basic deck, is running rampant on the climb to legend with a win rate nearing Beast Hunter’s. Things get tougher at top legend because AOE destroys the deck, and AOE becomes more common there (Dorian Warlock).
  • Drunk Paladin is gaining some traction at top legend. Much like Wheel Warlock, we estimate a Tier 2 performance level as a worst-case scenario, but it could be Tier 1. It is likely to be powerful at all levels of play.

Demon Hunter

  • Aggro Demon Hunter is still strong. The patch did not hurt it too much and it has room to improve through refinement. It mostly loses to highly defensive decks, as it did before. We are not sure it gains traction again, but it remains a powerful option.
  • Starship Demon Hunter is back and looks solid throughout ladder. The deck thrives in matchups against other defensive decks and struggles against Handbuff Hunter and Cycle Rogue. If Starship DK spikes at top legend to answer Rogue and Hunter, then Starship DH will become stronger there.
  • Quest Demon Hunter is trash.

Mage

  • Spell Mage running the quest is trash. Quest Mage is trash. Protoss Mage is trash outside of low MMR brackets where it becomes somewhat playable. Elemental Mage is only strong at very low MMR’s (Bronze through Gold). The bottom line is that Mage is possibly the worst class in the game.

Shaman

  • Nebula Shaman, which is Murmur Shaman without Murmur, might be a competitive Hearthstone deck. Hex is a valuable card in the current meta, especially at top legend. Tier 3, or possibly Tier 2, is our modest estimate here.
  • Quest Shaman is trash.

Class Analysis & Decklists

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

 

Data Reaper Report - Warlock

Dorian Warlock is a defensive Warlock deck that runs a big blowout combo with Dorian and Cursed Catacombs, which can find Agamaggan for a back breaking combo that can come down as early as turn 5. The minion package is curated to increase the blowout consistency of the Dorian combo and provide strong follow up to a cheated out Agamaggan.

Quest Warlock got the most significant buffs out of any quest deck and is close to being competitive, though it is not as strong as it was initially perceived to be after the patch. There are two possible approaches.

A Clumsy Steward build is performing best across most of ladder, with both Corpsicle and Horizon’s Edge offering burn that is complementary to the Underfel Rift’s infinite threat generation.

A Full Cycle build running Tidepool Pupil has been more complicated to refine and shows similar promise at top legend. We are not convinced by Incindius in this deck. We are impressed by Platysaur.

Wheel Warlock is showing promise at higher levels of play. We are not convinced by the Dirty Rats (what are we trying to pull in the current meta?), but the featured build otherwise looks relatively clean.

Data Reaper Report - Warrior

Warrior’s quest has not found a deck completely built around it. Rather, the quest has ended up as a secondary win condition for the established Hydration Control Warrior. The only other new card is Elise.

Mech Warrior has exploded this patch, finally becoming competitively strong after over 16 months of wilderness. This is not a defensive minded deck that runs removal. Its purpose is to pressure the opponent and dish out damage through Testing Dummy’s deathrattle. It can execute a couple of scam turns through either Chemical Spill/Tortolla (into Crazed Alchemist), or Part Scrapper/Testing Dummy. Two Quality Assurances and one All You Can Eat looks like the correct choice.

Data Reaper Report - Rogue

Cycle Rogue has become more powerful at top legend following the patch. Some of its counters were weakened, while the nerf it has received has ended up looking like a buff to Everburning Phoenix.

The optimal build is up to some debate. Living Flame is very strong in the early game. Bloodmage Thalnos becomes decent whenever the deck adds Incindius. The introduction of Platysaur has made Web of Deception significantly stronger in the deck. To fit all these cards, we need to cut ‘Oh, Manager!’, even though we recognize the spell does help Incindius a little.

Protoss Rogue looks fine with Elise, but we doubt it gains much traction considering the current level of performance coming from Cycle Rogue.

Data Reaper Report - Priest

Resuscitate has proven to be an extremely powerful card in Priest, utilized by several strategies. It is particularly strong in Protoss Priest, where its resurrection targets are perfect for the deck’s game plan. Xavius and Artanis look stronger than Sunbloom in this deck.

Menagerie Priest got nerfed after its initial domination of ladder. It remains playable but is no longer one of the top two aggressive decks on ladder.

Wilted Priest also got quickly nerfed, though its OTK still has a lot of reach thanks to the massive Bandage generation we possess through resurrected Careless Caretakers. Critter Caretaker is better than Tar Slime as a secondary 1-drop next to Catch of the Day. Repackage is a meta dependent card that can be correct to run as two copies over a Sleepy Resident in some matchups. It got better after the patch due to the rise of “scam decks”.

Data Reaper Report - Hunter

Beast Hunter is close to being refined but can benefit from some tweaks. Ball of Spiders does not look great with Fetch. Ancient Raptor is a filler 2-drop you should not be keeping in the mulligan.

Handbuff Hunter has 29 cards figured out, but the 30th card seems very weak. Bursting Shot is bad while Spirit Bond is not much better. We suggest Shaladrassil just to make sure Bellhop is active more often, as we do not keep big spells in the mulligan.

Discover Hunter should abandon starships and focus on Niri and 1-mana spells.

Data Reaper Report - Druid

Spell-Damage Druid has survived the loss of Loh thanks to the nerfs to aggressive decks that used to counter it. It has two approaches that perform similarly both in overall win rate and matchup spread. One build runs Elise, with the goal of copying Owlonius using the Elise location. Story of Barnabus looks like a great card in this deck. A second build runs Ethereal Oracle with Oaken Summons and Incindius.

Aviana Druid has been a trash deck since its introduction in the Emerald Dream. Currently, it looks like the strongest it has ever been. It is still a bad deck, but the format’s power level has dropped to a point where more players might think it is actually good now.

The nerf to Brittlebone Buccaneer as well as changes in the format has pushed Starship Death Knight into a more defensive direction. The archetype’s best build is now triple Blood with Vampiric Blood and the Pyro/Poison combo. This helps the deck deal with opposing blow out turns more consistently, such as Cycle Rogue’s Playhouse Giants.

Blood-Ctrl Death Knight is worse than Starship, but with some refinement, it should be competitive. We are featuring a prototype build from the messy data we have on the archetype.

Menagerie Death Knight remains competitive but needs to run a Rainbow build rather than Frost, as the extra board stickiness is required to leverage the nerfed Menagerie Jug better. It is possible that Frost Death Knight can match Rainbow Menagerie’s performance, but it may need to drop its Menagerie identity.

Data Reaper Report - Paladin

The balance changes have not affected Quest Paladin’s best card choices. Underlight Angling Rod is the weakest card in the list, but other options are worse. Violet Treasuregill is fine with Hand of A’dal and Submerged Map.

A better Paladin deck on ladder is Aggro Paladin. This deck floods the board with a bunch of cheap minions and wins through Busy-Bot, Crusader Aura or Flash Sale. Nothing fancy, just a chill deck with arena minions successfully navigating an ‘extremely powerful’ Standard format.

We also have indications that Drunk Paladin is still strong, running the same build from its time at Emerald Dream.

Aggro Demon Hunter remains powerful. Nerfed Brain Masseuse is still better than Chaos Strike. Running two copies of Living Flame just for the sake of finding Hot Coals is overkill. Zephrys is a decent card in the deck. We are not impressed with the nerfed Ball Hog. We wonder if Blob of Tar is worth trying instead.

Starship Demon Hunter has found an OTK combo that is not reliant on The Exodar to execute. It involves eating our massive starship with Dissolving Ooze and then buffing Kayn with the Bones. We recommend it.

Data Reaper Report - Mage

Spell Mage has managed to carry The Forbidden Sequence to results that are not completely embarrassing, but the deck is not good enough to seriously compete.

Protoss Mage has not even added Elise, running its old build from the Emerald Dream.

Elemental Mage is an extremely cheap deck that is friendly to new players and performs well at low MMR brackets.

Data Reaper Report - Shaman

Murmur Shaman without Murmur. That is the best Shaman can do in the current format, with Nebula Shaman. Elise provides some additional late game. Hex is a good card right now.



Scam or be scammed is the name of the game. Cycle Rogue and Handbuff Hunter are capable of producing massive stats early, which is key to their success in the current format. As the field is doing its best to try and contain the monster that is Dorian Warlock, which has its own ultimate scam turn, it is struggling to stop Rogue and Hunter.

One deck could rise to combat all scam decks. It may not be the hero we want, but it is possibly the villain we need.

You could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to Starship Death Knight.

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