Welcome to the 345th edition of the Data Reaper Report! This is the first report for Cataclysm.
Contributing to the Data Reaper project through Hearthstone Deck Tracker or Firestone allows us to perform our analyses and to issue the weekly reports, so we want to wholeheartedly thank our contributors. Without the community’s contributions, there would be no project. Contributing data is very easy, so if you enjoy our content and would like to make sure it remains consistent and free – Sign up!
Quick Links
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 | 3,658,000 |
| Top 1K Legend | 98,000 |
| Legend (Excluding Top 1k) | 847,000 |
| Diamond 4 to 1 | 725,000 |
| Diamond 10 to 5 | 766,000 |
| Platinum | 514,000 |
| Bronze/Silver/Gold | 708,000 |
Class/Archetype Distribution
-
All Ranks
-
D1 to D4
-
Legend
-
Top 1K Legend
Class Frequency
-
Weekly
-
Daily
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
Imbue Druid is taking over the format, becoming increasingly popular at higher levels of play to an extreme degree. If we went by the last three days, it has already gone past a 40% play rate at top legend. There are no signs of the deck slowing down either. Token Druid is visible, though you should always assume your Druid opponent is Imbue.
Herald Shaman is the most popular Herald deck and is gaining significant traction at Diamond ranks, which may lead to a play rate exceeding 25%. This momentum is not as strong at top legend, where Imbue Druid’s grip on the format looks unshakeable.
Dragon Warrior is the most popular archetype in its class, with some builds running a Herald package. A slow Herald deck has not materialized, while experiments with Egg and Ysondre Warrior have gained some traction.
Hunter is represented by Face Hunter, with builds centered on Confront the Tol’vir, as featured in our theorycrafting article. Interestingly, the deck is more popular at higher levels of play, contrary to the archetype’s historical tendencies. Dragon Hunter has flopped.
Spell Demon Hunter’s play rate patterns resemble Face Hunter. The Herald archetype is fading away.
Herald Rogue is moderately popular across ladder. Some players experiment with Imbue Rogue.
Burn and Quest Mage both display a fringe ladder presence.
Herald Death Knight was a very popular archetype at launch, but it has been gradually losing steam since. Unholy Death Knight sees a little bit of play.
Control Priest and Egg Warlock are the main representatives of their respective classes, and much like Herald Death Knight, are gradually declining across ladder while nearly disappearing from top legend.
There is little interest in Paladin. Aura Paladin is the main deck for the class, utilizing some End of Turn package with Inspiring Maul and Sandfury Aura.
-
All Ranks
-
D4 to Legend
-
Legend
-
Top 1K Legend
-
Legend
-
D1 to D4
vS Meta Score
-
Top 1K Legend
-
Legend
-
D1 to D4
vS Power Rankings Discussion
Druid
- Imbue Druid is one of the most dominant decks we have ever seen. No deck can reliably beat it, with its worst matchup looking close to 50-50. It is completely unstoppable and the power gap to the rest of the field is even more extreme at top legend. Competitively, there is no reason to play any other deck at high MMR’s. Based on the last few days, Imbue Druid remains the only Tier 1 deck at top legend, Ysondre Warrior is Tier 2 sitting slightly above a 50% win rate, while the rest of the field sinks to Tier 3 or worse. Elsewhere on ladder, you can do well with other decks, but Imbue Druid is still the best choice, by some distance.
- Token Druid is strong, but one thing worth noting is that its matchup against Imbue Druid flips at top legend. A small edge turns into a slightly unfavorable matchup.
Shaman
- Herald Shaman is establishing itself as the second-best deck at most ladder brackets. Considering it is the only “good” Herald deck, it is not surprising to see it quickly gaining popularity. However, its weaker matchups against Druid, Hunter and Demon Hunter mean it struggles at higher levels of play. It is a punching bag amongst the very elite decks.
Warrior
- Dragon Warrior looks fine, until it faces an extreme number of Imbue Druids and fades.
- Ysondre Warrior is the strongest Imbue Druid counter, winning against the green monster 52% of the time. Obviously, this is not enough to provide any natural correction to the format. This is the only deck that somewhat survives under the oppressive weight of Imbue Druid.
- Egg Warrior is a strong counter to Hunter and Demon Hunter, while performing okay against Druid, but it has a horrible Shaman matchup because of Hex. There was some enthusiasm for it in tournaments due to those good matchups, but following Ysondre Warrior’s emergence, Egg looks like an inferior choice in most situations.
Hunter
- Face Hunter is one of the stronger decks in the game. Imbue Druid can use a single card to shift the matchup in its favor though, while Spell Demon Hunter also counters it. Its main asset is a good Shaman matchup.
Demon Hunter
- Spell Demon Hunter has arguably the second strongest matchup spread in the game. It loses to Imbue Druid, which means life is tougher for it at higher levels of play, but an Imbue Druid nerf could elevate it to become the best deck in the format. The only other way to counter it seems to be playing Egg of Khelos decks.
- Herald Demon Hunter has a horrible time with Imbue Druid, so until that deck gets nerfed, there is nothing to discuss.
Rogue
- Herald Rogue does not appear to be any good, anywhere on ladder. It loses to good decks. It is not too far away though, so a balance patch could elevate it to a better position.
Mage
- Burn Mage is not the worst, but it struggles against the better decks, especially Spell Demon Hunter and Dragon Warrior, which are horrific matchups. Quest Mage is not competitive.
Death Knight
- Herald Death Knight looks horrendous. It struggles against most of the stronger decks and has poor matchups against other Herald decks, even the weaker ones. This does not bode well for it going forward.
- Unholy Death Knight looks okay, though its performance nosedives at higher levels of play due to poor Hunter/DH matchups. The main issue is that players do not seem to care much about it.
Priest
- Priest looks cooked. There has been some success with Control Priest in tournaments because it counters Egg Warrior, but that is obviously not a relevant factor on ladder. The story on ladder is that it gets obliterated by Druid, Shaman and Demon Hunter. That is a recipe for a dumpster win rate.
Warlock
- Warlock also looks unplayable. Egg Warlock is a worse egg deck compared to Egg Warrior. No reason to touch it or any other archetype players have been testing in this class.
Paladin
- Aura Paladin is mediocre and falls off at top legend, which means it is not going to see much play. The story of Paladin not being played unless it is absolutely elite, continues.
Class Analysis & Decklists
Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior
Imbue Druid generally wants to be aggressive and proactive to perform better in the mirror, so the featured build reflects improved mirror performance. We can swap out Petal Picker for Photosynthesis if we are concerned with Hunters.
Token Druid wants to run Twilight Egg with both Mark of the Wild and Forest’s Gift. The deck is a strong ladder performer that has a close matchup with Imbue Druid.
Both Twilight Egg and Witch’s Apprentice are good cards for Herald Shaman. Hex is also very important. Healing Rain is mostly good against Hunters, but their numbers are not high. Elise is not a top performer in the deck, but Shaman naturally meets her condition, so she can be thrown in without effort.
Two approaches for Dragon Warrior look strong and we will wait to see what emerges as the superior option in future reports, as this is not yet clear. One runs the Herald package, while the other runs a bigger Fire spell package alongside Stadium Announcer.
Ysondre Warrior looks competitive, boasting the strongest win rate against Imbue Druid, with a narrow advantage.
Egg Warrior initially emerged as a promising strategy, but it is hard countered by Hex, does not beat Imbue Druid and looks generally inferior to Ysondre Warrior.
Replacing Brutish Endmaw with Platysaur is the only adjustment needed for our theorycrafted Face Hunter build. Glacial Shard is another option. Niri is not very strong, but Genn is significantly worse. Cannot recommend.
Horn of Feasting looks very strong in Spell Demon Hunter. We were initially flirting with Nespirah, but the legendary requires a bigger Fel spell package that is hard to fit following the emergence of Horn. Lasting Legacy looks cuttable.
Herald Rogue does not look like a good deck. The featured build looks as good as it gets. Fast Forward is not great, but neither is Cultist Map. That was the main debate for the last slots of the deck.
Volcanos is a good card in Burn Mage. An Elemental package with Bookkeeper looks good. Additional burn in the form of Fireball or Frostbolt is an option but does not seem necessary.
Unholy Death Knight is the only good deck in the class. Twilight Egg alongside two copies of Command Claw is the adjustment made on our theorycrafting list.
An Aura Paladin with some End of Turn synergies seems to work okay. Taelan replaces Ursine Maul as the Gelbin tutor.
Warlock is dead. Egg Warlock looks nowhere near competitive, as it stands. Warrior does it better.
There is not a single Priest deck that looks remotely competitive on ladder. Even the most optimized Control Priest deck gets demolished by Shaman, while losing to both Druid and Demon Hunter. It is a rough time for the class.
We have one more week to experience total Imbue Druid domination. It is, unquestionably, one of the most dominant decks in the game’s history. Not many decks reach a 40% play rate at top legend yet persist with 54-55% win rates. It is completely out of control.
This is likely the result of the massive power vacuum created by rotation. The power level has dropped so hard that it is easy for one deck to slip under the radar and completely dominate a watered-down format. This is also why we think another tyrant could emerge from the next patch, if Team 5 are not careful.
We might need to learn this lesson again, but a weakened format does not mean the game becomes easier to balance.
Preparing our weekly article requires a significant amount of time and effort from many individuals. We would like to wholeheartedly thank our current Patreons, whose generous donations help us fund computing and server costs.
vS Gold is our membership plan aimed to support our efforts towards improving our content and data analysis while receiving some bonuses and extra features.
Tier 3+ Patrons
Special thanks to William H, Charlah R, Amir, Joltc, The Big Dawg, Jesse M, Logan A, Josh G, WorldEight, Wyatt P, Dooshenbarf, BraveSurRobin, Clint D, Michael D, PapaPloKoon, Nick M, Dennis W, Jeffrey B, Whomprat, R, Luis B, Seth D, The Drs. Link, Darterrius, lepton, Travis F, Timothy M, and Kaushal A for supporting us this month.
Here are all the people that participated in bringing you this edition of the vS Data Reaper Report:
Contributors
Holy moly 50% of my games are Druids. Nice diversity Blizzard. At that point I just stopped playing and joined patch waiting room. Ty.
Heyoo. Just wondering if you have any insights on the dominance of imbue druid in comparison to some of the most dominant decks in this games history (Day 1 Demon hunter as an example). The first sentence of this report truly baffled me. Imbue druid seems popular and powerful yet how severe the numbers are sent me down a rabbit hole of checking older articles you’ve done. I’m assuming we don’t have access to the numbers of post classic OG tyrants like Undertaker hunter. As an old head I’m genuinely curious.
I truly appreciate all the work this team does. Even during periods of not actively playing Hearthstone; I’ve always found not only strength but solace in numbers and the content on this site. Thank your for everything throughout the years. Stay safe; I wish you all the best of luck and may you have a wonderful day!
Most decks with this kind of power were nerfed/hotfixed within days, like Galakrond Shaman and Ashes DH, so they never made it into a report so you could evaluate their numbers.
Don’t think Imbue Druid is relatively more powerful than those, it’s just the only deck that was allowed to sit like this for two weeks.
The matchup winrates table is bugged for me – there’s no column for imbue druid, which can be easily seen because the diagonal of black squares has a break in it.
Known weird bug. Fixed in color blind option in the matchup page on the website.
Hi there, thanks for the new report.
There is an issue with the detailed reports. When clicking on the screenshot the link points to report #344.
We are aware and will fix this later today.