The answer to that titular question would be a noncomittal one - so... kind of, but maybe not quite just yet? Perhaps we are slowly getting there. A few usual suspects remain in a rather respectable position, a few more or less new takes are trying to establish a greater foothold. The somewhat earlier than expected Monday patch gave us a fair number of relatively minor card nudges, and there was much to consider in its wake.
A couple of days ago HSReplay posted its Regional Power Rankings (spoiler alert: Pirates, SI:7 agents, librams and face hunting reigned supreme), which gave some people another reason to complain that nothing has really changed - but it's also a very early and not necessarily a complete set of data while players are testing their new options. Plus it's the holidays and the end of the calendar year; things are bound to be slower than usual. The meta might develop in other creative directions yet.
We also have full 6 sets in the rotation currently, which always makes it harder to find room for all the new cards to shine. Meanwhile debates on the amount of card draw and mana discounts continue, certain infamous cards find themselves under scrutiny, and good old memes are well alive.
With that in mind, it's worth taking a look at what else is doing well in the upper echelons of Ranked Standard. If there is time for some Hearthstone ladder climbing in your schedules for the final week and season of 2021, perhaps there are new favorites to be found. And if you'd still prefer to rely on the old ones, many of our previous decklists remain relevant in that category.
Fel Demon Hunter
A curious take on the Fel package from Ajani. Still gets to include Kurtrus, Demon-Render and Expendable Performers. And there is also that beefy Magtheridon for board clears if one is ever in dire need.
Ramp Druid
Celestial Alignment may indeed be gone for good, yet a lot of that strong, versatile package remains. No ultimate game plan, but a lot of flexibility at one's disposal.
Calling it a "new Jambre druid" (any 'quirky' Druid list is being linked to Jambre within some circles) and elaborating further on the mulligan and gameplay on Twitter, Levik had a lot of success getting into top 3 Legend.
Nom Nom Druid
I'll take full responsibility for the silly moniker in this case. But to be honest, when do you ever get to pair Mutanus the Devourer with Abominable Lieutenant (which even earned that Arena ban for terrorizing poor minions there)?
BruTo had a fine track record to show here, attributing the decklist to Queekspain.
Deathrattle Hunter
Irondeep Trogg and Doggie Biscuit make for a rather familiar package, but the rest of it... not so much. This is indeed not your good ol' Face Hunter, but yet another attempt to give the Deathrattle theme a proper chance.
HattriK believes he might be onto something here.
Hero Power Mage
Technically it's far more than just counting on Wildfire and friends. Remember that Mankrik guy and his endless wife search? Dawngrasp represents in both forms: Varden Dawngrasp and Magister Dawngrasp. And there is that Rune of the Archmage at the top.
Pizza did very well with this one while having fun, and gave Languagehacker credit for the list.
Buff Paladin
This was one of the earliest success stories in the new meta. If you have a fondness for Paladin but got tired of all the Librams, perhaps there is another path to follow. It worked for Jonesy.
Burgle Rogue
Yes, Maestra of the Masquerade is for real. You might have seen a fair amount of Double Agent appearances lately. Somehow it just seems to work. Resident Rogue expert Jesse Alexander can attest to that.
If you've caught any of the highlights from the recent Thijs' Legends Invitational, you might also know how Gaby made his acquaintance with Maestra of the Masquerade. It was quite... special.
On a side note, if you're running into any issues with the card not always changing your class to another one (does happen to some people trying to play it): while there haven't been any true hotfixes this week, Blizzard did post about a certain workaround in the 22.0 Known Issues thread:
Quote From Blizzard We would also like to share an apparent workaround for people still having issues with Maestra: go into your collection and mark a portrait as “favorite” for each of your classes. Players are reporting that has stopped their issues with Maestra sometimes still appearing as a Rogue.
Quest Rogue
This is not a new one technically, even though Shadowcrafter Scabbs carries a lot of weight if needed. But since many players have been reporting strong results with it - such as Digo claiming rank 1 on Asia - it does deserve a special mention once again.
Questline Shaman
A non-Freeze option for a change (well, not fully anyway), GDFB had a good experience climbing with it in the early days. Provided one doesn't run into too many Mages of Mozaki, Master Duelist variant, or your 'lovely' Handlocks (The Demon Seed is not gone naturally). It can handle the rest of the field pretty handily.
Happy holidays and best of luck with any ladder climbing! Whether you still trust in Pirates and Librams or are one of the adopters of the new stuff, may they all bring you plenty of joy.
Comments
There s nothng changed about the meta
OTK decks are stlle killing all the fun
Garrote rogue nerf was a joke and is still tier S
Mozaki mage s even more toxic was predctible becauee of the 0 nerfs it got
FWIW - the two most-played decks at Worlds last weekend were Quest DH and Garrote Rogue. At the time, both decks were posting sub-40% win-rates on HSReplays, each with play-rates below 1%. It's fair to say that the nerfs didn't make either deck much worse - but those decks weren't nerfed for ladder, they were nerfed for the sake of about two thousand folks in each region that try-hard to finish in top-100 Legend each month. While it has been a meme since the HS open beta that the game has a childishly low skill-cap, it never has - the skill-cap was likely never higher than during the pre-nerf meta-game (top 100 Legends and GMs regularly sported 65%+ win-rates against other top players with the decks, while ordinary folks couldn't beat other ordinary folks even 40% of the time.) Presumably, it's good for the game to have some hard-to-play decks for the A-students to screw around with.
As far as "nothing changing about the meta-game" - the previously most-played deck has been deleted from the game (OWLTK currently has a play-rate of about 1%, and win-rate of about 44%.) Garrote Rogue and Mozaki Mage have a combined play-rate of about 2%. All the OTK decks combined have a play-rate about half that of Quest Warrior, and only one of them (Bolner Shaman) has a win-rate above 50%.
I can’t recall being more bored of this game than now. Done with all the achievements .doin g the daily and leaving. When you don’t care about free packs anymore that really says something
I'm confused as to what advantage Maestra of the Masquerade gives in a deck with hardly any neutral cards to keep up the disguise.
It cheapens Wildpaw Gnoll by at least 1 (usually 2, because the only 1 drop is Swashburglar), and naturally allows you to play Double Agent without any activators. Gnoll alone is major, because its a 4/5 rush for 3 most of the time.
Also, its hilarious, and sometimes you get a disguise like priest and everyone goes full greed only to be punished hard.
Its certainly not a meme now to include maestra in thief rogue.
Control F: "Freeze Shaman"
"No results found"
Sadness.
Poor priest