Welcome to the 358th 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 | 1,527,000 |
| Top 1K Legend | 47,000 |
| Legend (Excluding Top 1k) | 227,000 |
| Diamond 4 to 1 | 385,000 |
| Diamond 10 to 5 | 327,000 |
| Platinum | 219,000 |
| Bronze/Silver/Gold | 322,000 |
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
There has been a significant rise in Dragon Warrior at all levels of play, a product of its dominant ladder performance. Pirate Warrior has been relegated to a smaller presence, despite performing well.
A small decline in Attack Druid is observed, but the deck remains highly favored by players, especially at top legend.
Quest Priest has slightly declined, while interest in Thief Priest has picked up. Control Priest refuses to go away, despite its inferior performance.
Herald Rogue continues its gradual decline for another week, burdened by its poor performance.
Warlock is relatively unchanged. Rafaam Warlock is very popular, but falls off at top legend. You are left to encounter Herald Warlock, which has a stable presence across ladder.
Raza Demon Hunter and Egg Death Knight have not grown at top legend following their appearances at the World Championship. Egg Death Knight did go through internal changes in its builds.
A small decline in Zee Shaman is seen with slightly more interest in Mug Shaman.
Mage, Paladin and Hunter are stagnant.
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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
Warrior
- Dragon Warrior has improved internally through its best build taking over, while meeting a slightly more hostile field at top legend. The deck is utterly dominant on ladder and we suspect its play rate would have been far higher if it were an “attractive” deck instead.
- Pirate Warrior did not have the same scope for improvement and the format has not moved in a direction that would favor it over its sister archetype. It is still very powerful, but seems to be overshadowed by the similar and yet more dominant deck.
Druid
- Attack Druid is a strong deck but does tend to punish the weaker decks more (Rafaam Warlock), which leads to a stronger win rate on the climb to legend compared to the top legend field. It is a more attractive deck than Dragon Warrior, so it does not need to dominate to see play, much like many Ramp Druid archetypes of the past.
Priest
- Thief Priest is surprisingly strong at top legend due to the rise of Warrior and the absence of Rafaam Warlock from this rank bracket. Rafaam Warlock is an oppressive matchup that makes climbing with Thief Priest difficult, but since Rafaam goes away at higher MMR’s, the field becomes significantly more favorable. The disparity in Thief Priest’s performance has nothing to do with its skill ceiling, as it sits on the format average. It is entirely field related.
- A good way to showcase this is looking at Quest Priest’s performance, which does not rise at top legend compared to other rank brackets. The reason is that Quest Priest gets destroyed by Herald Warlock too, which remains popular at top legend. For Quest Priest, its misery against Warlock is down to Cursed Chains, while Thief Priest’s issue with Rafaam is its inevitability. The Herald Warlock matchup is much closer for Thief.
Rogue
- Herald Rogue’s worst matchup is Warrior. It can handle other matchups well enough, but the rise of Warrior is a major obstacle to its success. If Warrior was nerfed hard today, then Herald Rogue would likely take over the format again with a balanced matchup spread and an attractive playstyle.
- Ayaya Rogue has improved its performance, looking like a far superior choice at top legend. This deck displays the highest skill ceiling in the format (higher than Raza DH). The Dragon Warrior matchup is not as bad when piloted well, it beats Herald Rogue and performs well into Egg Death Knight and Raza Demon Hunter. It loses to bad decks such as Control Priest and Rafaam Warlock, which is another reason for the big performance disparity at different rank brackets.
Warlock
- Herald Warlock cannot have much success because the Warrior matchup is too oppressive. The potential shift from Quest Priest to Thief Priest may also make things more difficult for it.
- Rafaam Warlock’s play rate fits its win rate. It is not too bad at Diamond ranks and below, but is simply non-viable beyond that because it struggles against better players and stronger decks.
- Though Warlock is nowhere near powerful, it is undoubtedly influential at suppressing Dragon Warrior counters and enabling its dominance to some extent. Cursed Chains is a card that actively scares players away from experimenting with deathrattle decks.
Demon Hunter
- Raza Demon Hunter has hit a wall. We expected it to climb to Tier 3 at top legend, but progress has stalled. The improved performance in specific matchups does not seem to be there. It has one good thing going for it, which is a dominant matchup against Thief Priest. If Thief Priest rises in play, it will have more free wins.
- Void Demon Hunter is another deck that might become very powerful if Warrior is nerfed, as the rest of its matchup spread looks relatively clean.
Death Knight
- Egg Death Knight has gone through a dramatic spike in its performance. Last week, we talked about this archetype being potentially underdeveloped due to its low profile. We were not convinced it was a worse deck than Quest Priest because most players were building it wrong and we did not have the data to properly refine it. Its appearance in the World Championship contributed to players running a newer version that is drastically outperforming previous builds and the deck now looks stronger than Quest Priest. It is tied with Thief Priest as the strongest counter to Dragon Warrior and it performs well against Druid too. Much like all deathrattle decks, it wants to avoid Warlock.
Shaman
- Shaman has three decks that sit in a competitive range of win rates but none of them are gaining traction due to specific flaws. Zee Shaman is likely scared off by its Dragon Warrior matchup. There are better counters to Dragon Warrior than Mug Shaman and the deck struggles into slower matchups. Herald Shaman is not particularly good when the field gets more competitive.
Mage
- Burn Mage has dramatically declined and it needs to change its build to stay above water because the Warrior matchup is too suffocating. Leyline Mage’s play rate is fueled by cope fumes. This is not a real deck.
Paladin & Hunter
- When these classes are down, they are usually completely out.
Class Analysis & Decklists
Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior
Dragon Warrior remains the best deck in the game and its strongest build is unchanged.
We are happy with the two Attack Druid lists and there is no indication an adjustment is required.
Thief Priest looks genuinely powerful at top legend. We reiterate that playing only one copy of Haunt in Quest Priest looks very wrong.
The Stealth build of Herald Rogue has become the archetype’s best option since the rise of Warrior.
Annihilation is important for both Herald and Rafaam Warlock.
We have not seen more data on Hellraiser in Void Demon Hunter, so we are opting for the best performing cards we have data on: Watfin and Press the Advantage.
Egg Death Knight has finally attracted more interest thanks to its performance at the World Championship. The trend is to run Staff of the Endbringer over the Pyro combo and free up slots for Portal Vanguard. We do suspect the deck is still better off running two copies of both Holy Eggbearer and Defias Smuggler.
Burn Mage is reverting to its older build, while adding Tricksy Improviser.
While Dragon Warrior is a dominant deck, some developments are slightly changing the field and giving players a few more options to respond to it. Egg Death Knight is a great counter to Dragon Warrior, though it does have its own flaws (Cursed Chains). We would not assume that it is about to take over, but it is an option to play if you want to beat Warriors consistently.
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Contributors
