The March of the Lich King Does Not Stop - 8 Duels Starting Decks You Don't Want to Miss

It's been almost two weeks since March of the Lich King, Hearthstone's latest expansion, went live. While these days' lights are focused on the currently ongoing World Championship, the Duels meta continues to unfold: with new strategies being tried, people are getting an even better idea of what the new set brought to the game mode.

However, there is a very high chance that next week we'll receive some balance changes aimed at addressing certain problematic interactions taking place in Constructed (Standard for sure, maybe even Wild?), so we wouldn't write off the possibility of getting some Duels-specific nerfs and buffs in that occasion.

With all of this being said, in this article we're going to cover some of these novelties, in the hope that you'll be able to find something you like, have a run or two, and possibly hit a good score.

In case you missed them, we have published other collections of 12-win Duels starting decks to take inspiration from!

• The Lich King Has Marched Into (Hearthstone) Duels - Best Early Starting Decks, Including the Two New Death Knight Heroes

Disclaimer: Some decks in this article were collected from Firestone. You can find out more about Firestone and install the app here!

If you've had 12 win luck in Duels, be sure to add your starting decks to our site via the deckbuilder and share them in the comments below! Moreover, if you manage to find even more 12-wins decks (maybe even your own!) and you'd like us to showcase them, please contact us on Twitter at @Avalon_OOC or through an in-site ping in Private Message.

Ran - 12 Wins Big Druid

Have you ever heard of Elixir of Vigor being successful? Us neither, but this list is something else for sure. Although it's a bit frail to aggression, this Big Druid starting deck uses Invigorating Bloom to discount its expensive cards, only for them to be chained one after the other.

Moreover, this list features Sesselie of the Fae Court, a very sweet card that is yet to make an actual impact in Standard and/or Wild.

Passive Treasures Chosen

• First pool - Rocket Backpacks
• Second pool - Elixir of Vigor

Firestone - 12 Wins Divine Shield Finley

Divine Shield synergy is as strong as usual, but it also lines up decently against Death Knight: therefore, you should definitely try out some Avenging Armaments shenanigans. This build features Call to Arms, which is still a very strong play on curve, and can also pull the new Sanguine Soldier.

Although Finley is a dual-class hero, the starting deck you see below features only Paladin and Neutral cards: Power Up! is just that good, even with the Overload drawback.

Passive Treasures Chosen

• First pool - Righteous Reserves
• Second pool - Avenging Armaments

Avalon - 12 Wins Mech Finley

With a total of zero new cards, Mech Finley strikes again! Mechs have the advantage of being released "in bulk" and not throughout multiple expansions, so you can build your starting deck with a high focus on Goblins v Gnomes and Voyage to the Sunken City and still get high quality buckets for your run.

Passive Treasures Chosen

• First pool - Optimized Polarity
• Second pool - Avenging Armaments

Firestone - 12 Wins Burn Reno

A mix of March of the Lich King and Forged in the Barrens cards gave birth to an interesting Reno build. Unlike the usual Reno's Magical Torch decks that want to cycle the Signature Treasure as fast as possible, the starting deck you see below features a multitude of flexible cards (like the new Shadow of Demise) and sources of burst (keep an eye open on the Arcane Bolt package) which can easily adapt to your opponents' gameplay.

Passive Treasures Chosen

• First pool - Small Backpacks
• Second pool - All Together Now

Fliboce - 12 Wins Frost Sai

Clearly one of the best strategies in the format: we'd be very surprised (and a bit upset) to see Frost Sai getting out of the next round of changes totally unscathed - for example, Glaciaxe would still be excellent with 4 attacks on the first weapon and 4 charges on the second one. However, nothing of this really matters right now: just pick Sai and win games.

Passive Treasures Chosen

• First pool - Bitter Cold
• Second pool - Emerald Goggles

Syubun1486 - 12 Wins Blood Sai

Although Frost Sai has shown to be a very powerful starting deck, let's not forget about its Blood relative! Syubun combined some strong Blood cards (like Vampiric Blood and Patchwerk) with a small Murder in Castle Nathria package, supported by two really fitting Passive Treasures in From the Swamp and Brittle Bones for extra damage output and extra corpses, as well as some nice Sire Denathrius Infuse shenanigans.

Passive Treasures Chosen

• First pool - From the Swamp
• Second pool - Brittle Bones

Firestone - 12 Wins Frost Token Sai

A twist on Frost Sai: more on the meme side if we're being honest, but still respectable. With some proper deckbuilding, Lichborne Might becomes the equivalent of a Power Overwhelming you can cast each turn, allowing you to trigger Deathrattles at the same time.

Glaciaxe is very good here as well, because... well, because it's broken.

Passive Treasures Chosen

• First pool - Rocket Backpacks
• Second pool - Special Delivery

Firestone - 12 Wins Deathrattle Vanndar (Priest)

Finally we have Deathrattle Vanndar. While it's nothing new under the light of the sun, we still wanted to feature this starting deck because of the Undead package featuring the new Shatterskin Gargoyle and Bonecaller.

All in all, a twist on an already established archetype, which we hope you'll enjoy!

Passive Treasures Chosen

• First pool - Rocket Backpacks
• Second pool - Mummy Magic

Have you been enjoying Duels with the new expansion so far? How about the current improved Buckets System? Let us know what are you playing right now or planning to run with!