Alterac Duels Meta Update #3 - Best 12-Win Hearthstone Duels Decks for January Week 4

Welcome to the 2nd Out Of Cards Duels meta report of 2022.

Things are pretty lively in the tavern: the recent introduction of Vanndar Stormpike and Drek'Thar, as well as the large balance patch that landed on the game just a few days ago shook up the meta from its roots, with very few certainties and much room for experimentation. In fact, the one you are reading now is probably one of the largest Duels Meta Report we've ever published, as it features a total of 14 (!) different lists you can take inspiration from.

On top of this, we suspect that the Alterac mini-set (about which we published an interesting prediction article) isn't that far away, so things shouldn't have the chance to get stale anytime soon.

However, if you're wondering what you could try out, we've got your back. Below you'll find a handful of 12-win decks achieved with multiple classes, which may give you the inspiration you need to get one yourself. Have fun!

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 since the recent balance changes, 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.

Chrome575's 12 Wins Pirate Drek'Thar (Warrior)

Let's start off with Drek'Thar. One of the few successful combinations the playerbase has been experimenting with since the launch of patch 22.2 is Drek'Thar-Warrior, and namely Pirate Drek'Thar.

While Raid the Docks was recently nerfed and now requires one more Pirates to be played in order to obtain Cap'n Rokara, this new playable Hero gives you some advantages that the old Bruising (RIP) Warrior version couldn't.

First of all, War Commands: if you build your starting deck so that it runs a larger number of Neutral Pirates, you'll be able to draw and play a Pirate each turn for just 2 mana, therefore with a potential "mana cheat" of 1 mana in case you draw Southsea Captain, Ratchet Privateer or Golakka Glutton.

However, we are yet to show you the cherry on the cake. Totally off the charts is the synergy between the aforementioned War Commands and Bronze Signet: the Neutral minion you draw with your Hero Power will always get duplicated by Signet, meaning that it will take you very little to complete your Questline, while also making up for its recent nerf.

On a final note, while Valorous Display has anti-synergy with The Juggernaut, having a 6 mana Twisting Nether with a Weapon Discovery attached to it is not something bad at all!

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Crystal Gem

Second pool - Bronze Signet

EvilGnomey's 12 Wins Pirate Drek'Thar (Warrior)

Another take on the archetype is the one adopted by EvilGnomey, who picked Warmaster's Frenzy for more damage output. While this time you don't have the War Commands-Bronze Signet value generation/mana cheat, your gameplay will be a lot more similar to how Raid the Docks used to behave in Duels until recently.

Not only Warmaster's Frenzy helps you against other board initiative decks like Harvest Time! Druid and whatnot, but you can also use it to Honorably Kill your own units (N'Zoth's First Mate, Bloodsail Deckhand, Southsea Deckhand).

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Rocket Backpacks

Second pool - Rally the Troops

AgentCroque's 12 Wins Questline Drek'Thar (Shaman)

Another powerful application of Drek'Thar appears to be with decks that have a focus on spells: Harness the Elements is a really powerful incentive to play that way, and AgentCroque decided to put it to a test with Command the Elements.

As you might remember, one of the big problems of Questline Shaman (in both Duels and Standard) was running out of cards way too quickly, and therefore not being able to exploit Stormcaller Bru'kan's huge payoff. However, Harness the Elements fixes that issue by itself, allowing you to not run out of gas as quickly as before.

Moreover, the list you see below seems to act as a catalyst for Nature-related Passive Treasures, which can grant you fire naturepower (Natural Force) and board presence (Spreading Saplings).

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Natural Force

Second pool - Spreading Saplings

The exact same result was achieved by Persia, who also gave us some interesting insight.

Quote From Persia

This deck is potentially busted if you hit Natural Force. As many said, Drek'Thar's Hero Power Harness the Elements provides what Overload Shaman most needed: card draw.

I also believe this deck might have a decent matchup against Hero Power Mage [editor's note: one of the best decks in the format]!

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Natural Force

Second pool - Spreading Saplings

Persia's 12 Wins Frost Hero Power Mage

Hero Power Mage seems to be a clear front-runner of the post-patch meta: not only it didn't lose any fundamental pieces, but all its main rivals got watered down by the recent balance changes and now, with tier 2 Passives being more synergistic, we expect the archetype to perform in high tier 1 territory.

The list you see below comes from Persia, who has used it since Alterac Day 1 and has accumulated 12er after 12er with it. Good old reliable, we might say.

As a proof of the archetype's strength, HotokeTaro and Jack Harris achieved the exact same result with not-so-different starting decks.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Crystal Gem

Second pool - Battle Totem

Jack Harris' 12 Wins Miracle Buff Priest

Miracle Mind Tether Priest got hit pretty hard and on multiple fronts during the recent balance patch:

• Fireshaper, the strongest tier 1 Passive Treasure this deck could possibly hope for, got completely removed.
• Shadow Word: Void, overtuned at 3 mana, got nerfed at 4.
• Embrace the Shadow, which was known for generating fast and frustrating kills combined with the likes of Flash Heal, got banned.
• Mantle of Ignition isn't draftable by Priest anymore.

Therefore, the only way for this archetype to not fizzle away from the Duels game mode is to find its strength somewhere else, and that' exactly what Jack Harris tried to do. Even before patch 22.2 went live, people started to experiment with a "buff" package, including Irondeep Trogg, Bless, Gift of Luminance and Power Word: Fortitude, which seems to be the way to go as of now.

The addition of Guardian Light appears very helpful for the archetype: while you want to win mainly through Mind Tether pings, being able to provide some board presence to fight against your opponent will definitely pay off down the road.

P.S.: on a final note, the Ancient Guardian you summon is not the Ancient Guardian you get from Libram of Hope - it's just a plain body, with no Taunt or Divine Shield!

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Divine Illumination

Second pool - Guardian Light

SteffiVGC's 12 Wins Elemental Shaman

Elemental Shaman is one of those Duels archetypes that is far from its all-time power level peak, but can still snatch a couple remarkable results here and there. Despite Payload Totem Specialist's nerf (from 3 to 4 mana), good matchups and synergistic Passives can still bring you to 12 wins.

While we can say that the archetype has been pretty much already figured out, SteffiVGC included a couple interesting choices: while the Freeze package (Sleetbreaker, Snowfall Guardian) is not uncommon, Windfury represents a rather unusual card choice for your starting deck, but given all the stats you usually have on your board, it can provide you some surprise lethals from time to time.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - All Together Now

Second pool - Rally the Troops

Fliboce's 12 Wins Freeze Shaman

As you might notice while scrolling through this meta report, the early patch 22.2's meta is quite board-centric: many decks want to win by coming down on the board and choking the opponents out with sheer stats. While there can still be some power outlier, this is much an easier scenario to counter rather than dying from hand without being able to do nothing.

For this reason, Freeze Shaman seems to have all it takes to thrive and shut down a few front runners. To be more precise, Fliboce opened their Duels deckbuilder, filtered cards by "Alterac Valley" and then included almost (RIP Glaciate) every Shaman card they could find.

Jokes apart, being able to obtain Frost synergy more efficiently due to the recent improvement of the tier 2 Passive Treasures' determination system allows decks like this one (strong gameplay but very dependent on hitting certain Passives) to gain more consistency and have success in a more friendly environment.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - All Together Now

Second pool - Glacial Downpour

Chrome575's 12 Wins Big Vanndar (Demon Hunter)

Vanndar Stormpike's turn now. Battle Tactics is one of the clear winners of these first few days of the patch, with many people enjoying the (really powerful) possibilities it has opened up. We're talking about a restricted (only Neutral minions) but also way more impactful (discounts for more and further) Invigorating Bloom, which allows you to drop big hitters way ahead of time.

In this meta report, you'll see a total of 4 takes on Big Vanndar, all of them with a common core of cards but also divergent packages, which will allow you to see each player's deckbuilding takes and, why not, pick the one you prefer.

The first list comes from chrome575: while the player did not pick any Demon Hunter cards despite having picked the respective Signature Treasure, it's obvious that Rending Ambush was deemed too good of a Gather Your Party to not being included in the starting deck.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Rocket Backpacks

Second pool - Disks of Legend

Fliboce's 12 Wins Big Vanndar

Fliboce, on the other hand, decided to go full Neutral. Regarding For the Alliance!, one of Vanndar's Signature Treasure, here's some feedback directly from the player.

Quote From Fliboce

Any Signature Treasure would be a bad draw compared to the legendaries in this deck, which is why this one's best, since it doesn't stay in the deck to waste a draw. It also makes all buckets neutral minions, which is all you want for the Hero Power.

The only time I put the spells in my deck was against Magnetic Mines Bomb Warrior, when it was clear I was winning on board already. Diluting the deck was good to stay alive, but on turn 1 it should never be played.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Ring of Phaseshifting

Second pool - Disks of Legend

SteffiVGC's 12 Wins Big Vanndar

SteffiVGC followed Fliboce's reasoning, and picked For the Alliance! as Signature Treasure in order to reduce the bucket pool and therefore to increase the change of getting big minion buckets.

While the inclusion of Kazakus, Golem Shaper is quite spicy, what really brought us to showcase this list is the amusing Menagerie package with N'Zoth, God of the Deep on top of it: in the end, you already want to run Mr. Smite, Goliath, Sneed's Masterpiece, Alexstrasza the Life-Binder and Lokholar the Ice Lord, so you may as well go all in.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Crystal Gem

Second pool - Bronze Signet

HotokeTaro's 12 Wins Big Vanndar

The last Big Vanndar list features a set of cards you rarely see in Duels: Bright-Eyed Scout, Lion's Guard and The Curator are not very common, but they make sort of sense in a build like this, which heavily encourages running various Neutral minions.

If you seem hesitant, just try Bright-Eyed Scout on 4 into Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound (maybe with Disks of Legend) on 5, then you may come back and say HotokeTaro had a point.

Passive Treasure Chosen

First pool - Crystal Gem

Second pool - Disks of Legend

Holl Burs' 12 Wins Divine Shield Vanndar

Although Shadowcasting 101 lived as a tier 1 Passive just for a couple days, we still felt like showcasing this run and archetype, hoping that it will find a way to survive the aforementioned hotfix.

Subsequent (and inevitable) Divine Shield units that benefit from Avenging Armaments's buff can generate quite the board pressure, especially since they're so difficult to handle. We are so glad Shadowcasting 101 is not a tier 1 Passive anymore.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Shadowcasting 101 (no longer available)

Second pool - Avenging Armaments

Firestone - 12 Wins Soul Warlock

And we close with another Duels staple: Soul Fragment Warlock. While there's no new relevant addition to the archetype outside of Dreadlich Tamsin, this build represents a solid (although lackluster, at this point) tool that can still give you decent results.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Crystal Gem

Second pool - Rally the Troops

Do you like Duels? What are you playing right now? Let us know in the comments below!