Another fresh day in Stormwind, we trust the city has been to your liking so far. Since it's only the beginning of the tour, there is still a lot of wealth to discover. Who knows what else might await us (just stay away from that suspicious cheese merchant).
Yesterday we took a closer look at a fair number of early Legend decks that have been gaining some traction, with the aim of representation for every class; today it's more of a sizeable addendum to cover a few different archetypes and directions, as they seem to be quite worthwhile (there is always more to find). No drastic changes, the points made before stand. If you need any further context, we recommend checking the other deck spotlight first.
If you've heard the word "solitaire" being used a whole lot to describe this early Hearthstone meta and have been getting a little tired of it, know that you are not alone. Firm decisive statements aside, it's worth keeping in mind the things we don't yet know with not nearly enough solid data out there. And you may even find people enjoying themselves! Hopefully that's been your experience as well.
Let's see what else is there to consider:
Furyhunter's Lifesteal Quest Demon Hunter
Lifesteal Demon Hunter without Skull of Gul'dan, did you think we would ever see this day? But it's becoming more and more of a common sight, also due to some Chinese influence. Furyhunter was testing this one on stream, and it's worth noting there are several directions you could go with the deck.
Some go heavier on the Tuskpiercer plus Persistent Peddler synergy, others still love the cool style of Glide.
Viper's Aggro Druid
Viper was quite satisfied with this non-Questline direction, being more aggressive with small minions. And it's been working out for other people as well.
Capable of taking over the board as quickly as it might run out of cards (unless you land a strong Composting turn). Kodo Mount is earning its keep. Given all the experiences we've had with the Token Druid, everyone should know what to do with the buffs.
Hattrik's Face Hunter
Defend the Dwarven District got all the early spotlight (from us as well), but a handful of players decided to stick to the proven ways of the good ol' Face Hunter. Such as HattriK, tracking down vulnerable Mages and Warlocks as they dabbled with chasing their Questline completion. At least he was not proud of it.
Yep, only Aimed Shot comes from this new expansion. Strong as it is.
Elefanti's Burn Mage
Sorcerer's Gambit is all the rage, but how about a more old-fashioned deck with no Questline and at least a few minions to play with? That's what Elefanti was trying to do, with some results to show for it. But before you become too hopeful, it is fair to note it might not be a superior version.
Ignite and other Fire spells can definitely benefit from the added spell damage.
LurkerGER's Handbuff Shield Paladin
Slightly fewer divine shields than the other version we were highlighting (alas, poor Annoy-o-Tron), LurkerGER has been climbing to the top with this list, even reporting an impressive 21 win streak. Whoa.
Once you get a hold of the board with the buffed and sturdy minions, you can pack quite a punch.
AuRon's Control Priest
If you were hoping the familiar Control Priest is hopelessly stuck at the bottom of the power rankings, AuRon is here to disappoint after claiming the top spot on EU with this list. But as they also note, maybe it is just "giga bait".
Only a few new additions here (the Questline is still believed to be way too slow in the current meta), so it would take but a few Stormwind packs to catch up.
D0nkey's Garrote Rogue
The data collector D0nkey has been steadily climbing and iterating with this non-SI:7 list (it started out with a larger Secret package).
Courtesy of Garrote with a bunch of very familiar cards and a dash of spell damage (yes, it does stack with Bleeds). It is a potent mix of Rogue-ish deadliness.
NoHandsGamer's Quest Warlock
NoHands has been playing a ton of The Demon Seed Warlock, trying out various iterations and offering in-depth explanations about the deck. The following list is from the most recent stream. It's a different take than some of the Stealer of Souls builds we saw (as it doesn't have one).
Flesh Giants became a consideration, while Soul Rend, Cornelius Roame, and Entitled Customer were put aside. Clearly there are lots of angles to explore here, depending on how the meta shapes up.
Dmoney's Questline Warrior
Let's not neglect our pirates! Dmoney may not be a huge fan of this early meta, but he did share an early favorite deck. While noting that Kresh, Lord of Turtling and Overlord Saurfang may need to be cut at least for now, if it's becoming difficult to race other decks. So keep that in mind if you wish to give it a try.
Cult Neophyte to slow down certain spell-heavy decks, and we might consider Mutanus the Devourer an honorary overgrown pirate.
With all the other lists we were showcasing, this makes for a more extensive overview of the early United in Stormwind meta. I still wouldn't say fully complete, seeing how many variations of these archetypes currently exist.
There are even Zoo Warlocks trying their chances (with or without The Demon Seed; you can still find Deathrattle Demon Hunters, Rush Warriors or Lady Anacondra Druids (although all these are very similar to their Forged in the Barrens variants). Not many great results for Shaman's Command the Elements or Bolner Hammerbeak, but maybe we will get there yet if our Elemental Overlords deem it so.
We will just have to see what's going on over the weekend. How about your own early experiences and further predictions - anything here worth their salt, do you believe there are even better decklists to challenge the ladder with?
Comments
Or just play arena. With witchwood coming in and deramping the power and ashes of outland being gone it's a bit better. Just whole you wait for nerfs. But you never know...
That's pretty much what I always tend to do at the start of an expansion. No doubt it's a better use of gold than just buying the packs, but there are always time constraints to consider. Still, some fun times to be had in Arena; although I don't know about that [Hearthstone Card (Battlegrounds Battlemaster) Not Found]...
I forgot to use my aren-uh... tavern tickets last expansion, so this is good news to me.
What's the point. Priest has been successfully deleted from the game (win rate at 39.8% at the time of writing) and any minion based decks are useless against Quest Mage and Warlock which run rampant at the low levels of standard. I even battled to finish my "Win 5 games in ranked" quest coz archetypes like shadow priest, big warriors and elwynn boar memes just get rekt. Worst experience I've had in a new meta. But it's fine, there is D3 and POE to play to till blizzard fix this sh!t
#ZeddyRantOver
Curiously, Priest still has been doing pretty well in the tournaments as part of many winning lineups (with a lot of older cards), and lower ladder ranks always tend to tank its win rate. I imagine a lot of that might be down to Illucia more than anything else.
I mean, if you unironically play boar memes you can't expect not to get absolutely shat on.
Also, minion based decks still work against Warlock and Shadow Priest can catch people off guard with Illucia (which should be an autoinclude these days).
I'm not saying that the meta isn't kind of awful and a lot of the new decks need to be curbed heavily, but it's not entirely unplayable (except against Mage, fuck those guys). Just complete achievements while you wait for the whole thing to blow over.
No Garrote Rogue is ridiculous they get their combo turn 6 and just win. Who would of thought 4 mana deal 16 is broken....
I thought so too, but after playing the deck myself (because of the achievement) I realised it's actually wildly inconsistent and can brick really hard to the point of unplayability.
But all of that is irrelevant because it's only viable because of a bug which lets the Bleeds be affected by Spell Damage, which they shouldn't (at least based on every other Cast when drawn damage card)
'tis not a bug. I'm sorry to disappoint if you haven't yet seen this particular exchange, but: https://twitter.com/wiRerHS/status/1422732413478780929
For what it's worth I still saw a lot of pros agreeing with your initial assessment and calling the Garrote deck overrated regardless.
consistently inconsistent once again, but at least the deck is still legitimately awful unless you're playing against some ultra slow control deck with no pressure (and Priest can instantly shut it down with Illucia)
Agree, we have to temporarily sit this awful early meta out and hope that Team5 will swing with the nerf hammer hard and soon™. Until that happens, I will be completing XP achievements at rank floors and farm Questline Mages with my Questline Druid.
So satisfying 😇
EDIT: I am actually more annoyed by all the frequent UI bugs and random disconnects that were introduced by the latest patch.
I was in serial disconnect/re-connect land too for the first 2 days. Very frustrating, but it seems like performance has improved a bit in the last 24 hours. Here's hoping.
I am farming achievements at the Diamond 5 floor. Painful to lose so much, but the at least I am getting XP for now.
Games and decklists are revolved around mage. So its unsurprising that handbuff pally has a near auto win against everything except for mage. I would recommend to those interested in pally to ditch the heavy cards like Cornelius Roame and Varian, King of Stormwind. Games just never get that far. You're much better off with Mutanus and a very early board.
Also, viper just updated his decklist. Removing Kodo Mount for Voracious Reader. Having played aggro druid myself, I can confirm that that is the correct change because if druid isn't having a full board by turn 4 chances are good you've already lost. And the hand is mostly empty past turn 4 anyway.
This is the most combo focused (and the fastest combo) meta we've ever had in my memory. So unsurprisingly midrange and control aren't going to be good, which is a shame because that's usually where we see more diversity and interaction in the meta. Its all hyper aggro or combo now.