Hearthstone's newest mini-set Throne of the Tides is barely a week old, but enough of the meta has settled around the new cards; therefore, we think it's a good time to declare some early winners and losers. It's still pretty early and things could change in a matter of days, but the way it looks now we can definitely have some opinions about who won, who lost, and who looks lost.
Winner: Bugs
The biggest "winner" of the mini-set's launch were... bugs! For almost a day after Throne of the Tides launched, they were the only thing that anyone could talk about. Burn Shaman had a brief renaissance thanks to Bioluminescence doubling the amount of Spell Damage it granted minions, while Snapdragon didn't confine its buff to minions and let players give their Hero cards an extra Attack or two.
Bru'kan has been working out (credit).
It also made social media more interesting as people got to dust off their favorite "small indie company" memes or say "spaghetti code" without really knowing what it meant. We even got a brief Twitter tussle between Zeddy and people who read Blizzard's EULA. All in all, it was a pretty great time but we're glad that it's over now.
Winner: Control Warrior
Once the bugs were squashed and the real meta could take shape, it quickly became apparent that the new king of the hill was Control Warrior, mostly thanks to new Armor-gaining powerhouses Igneous Lavagorger and Tidal Revenant. The amount of Armor gain that Warrior has access to now makes them exceptionally hard to kill, especially since every new card that gains them Armor only serves to make Shield Shatter even more potent.
Kazakusan gets to share in this victory, as his version of Control Warrior picks up extra points for being the best Control Warrior deck for beating Control Warrior.
Loser: Captain Galvangar
Speaking of Control Warrior, Captain Galvangar is no longer the preferred buildaround for the archetype. It turns out that Charge Warrior is incredibly bad against other Control Warrior decks that, thanks to the new cards, can gain even more Armor and put themselves out of range of a Galvangar combo lethal. Tidal Revenant is just such a powerhouse that Warrior has no problem cutting the Faceless Manipulator combo for more survivability like Alexstrasza the Life-Binder and relying on Nellie, the Great Thresher to find them a 1-Mana Mr. Smite.
Is Charge Warrior still a good deck? Yes, but it's no longer the best Warrior deck, and that makes it a loser in our books.
Winner: Holy Paladin
Lightray and, to a lesser extent, Myrmidon have increased the power of a deck that was already doing fairly well thanks to Lightforged Cariel and Holy Maki Roll. Well, the deck's even stronger now with more threats and ways to draw cards and joins Control Warrior at the top of the pile of "Decks that are incredibly hard to kill."
Loser: Decks that Don't Run Viper
Lightforged Cariel, more often than not, will just win the game by herself if you can't deal with The Immovable Object. If you're not running Rustrot Viper in your deck, you'd better hope you're either a Control Warrior or a masochist.
Winner: Fel Demon Hunter
Jace Darkweaver took a brief vacation during the Drek'Thar era of Demon Hunter's lifespan, but he's back as the class' finisher of choice thanks to the absolutely deadly card draw of Fossil Fanatic. Fel DH doesn't even need to run Jace, as some decks have cut the card to rely on the late-game of Kurtrus, Demon-Render and Caria Felsoul instead, but the deck is good however it's built, as long as it gets an early Fanatic on board to get the card draw going.
Loser: People Who Can't Pronounce "Xhilag"
As mentioned, one of Fel Demon Hunter's finishers of choice is Caria Felsoul, and specifically her ability to turn into Xhilag of the Abyss. This spells the end of an era for players who don't know what to make of an "xh" at the beginning of a word, as they can no longer use the card's lack of prevalence to hide their ignorance.
Quote From Celestalon Xhilag definitely holds the crown for most difficult to pronounce name from Sunken City. Everyone overthinks it.
It's just zill-ag. That's it.
Winner: Balance Patch 23.2.2
Balance Patch 23.2.2 shook up the meta with its buffs and nerfs, and the power increase (and decrease) of certain cards is being felt anew with the release of Throne of the Tides. First of all, Wildpaw Gnoll continues to be a hugely swingy play for Rogue decks that have incorporated some new cards but mostly remained the same to take advantage of the Gnoll's free tempo. And, as previously mentioned, the buff to Shagoogalog has exponentially increased its playrate.
But it's not just the buffs that have had an impact on the meta: it's the nerfs. Specifically, we want to talk about the changes to Multi-Strike, which is still a powerful card and has become once again a huge deal thanks to its synergy with Fossil Fanatic. Who knows how insane that combo would have been if Multi-Strike were still a 1-Cost spell. Thanks, Balance Patch 23.2.2!
Winner: Tribal Decks
Voyage to the Sunken City was already a huge boon for tribal decks, as it brought to the meta *deep breath* Mech Paladin, Mech Mage, Naga Mage, Naga Priest, Naga Demon Hunter, Murloc Warlock and Pirate Rogue, which was to be expected from the set that gave us Amalgam of the Deep. Throne of the Tides continued that trend by shoring up some of the previously mentioned tribal decks, reinvigorating Murloc Shaman and (Kazakusan) Dragon Warrior, and giving us the entirely new Elemental Control Warrior with Igneous Lavagorger and Tidal Revenant.
Loser: Warlock
Murloc Warlock was pretty proud of being the only fish game in town, but then Throne of the Tides gave us Clownfish and the archetype found that it was now the powercrept instead of the powercreeper. If that wasn't bad enough, Curse Warlock took a tumble down the tierlist with the rise of Holy Paladin and the absurd amount of Armor gain of Control Warrior. Commander Ulthok, meanwhile, appears to be DOA and Immolate can often backfire on Warlocks who aren't equipped to deal with an opponent incentivized to dump their hand. If you can name the third card that Warlock got in the mini-set, you're doing better than most.
Loser: Shaman
The rise of Murloc Shaman might lead many readers to wonder how that makes the class a loser, but let us explain. No, it's too much. Let us sum up: Clownfish is a very good card, but the rest of the deck relies too heavily on its power and will flounder without a good draw. It's also a dead cod against Control Warrior's Armor gain and removal and Holy Paladin's Lightforged Cariel.
The class is also a loser due to the departure of its best mini-set card: bugged Bioluminescence. Murloc players need to draw some very specific cards to have a chance, and Burn players wish they could turn back the clock to last Wednesday afternoon. No matter how you slice it, it's not a great time to be a Shaman main.
Winner: Highrolls
With the possible exception of Holy Paladin, the top decks of the current meta boost their winrates with a menagerie of highroll-y plays. Rogues, we've already mentioned it, are very reliant on early Wildpaw Gnolls but that's not the only boom-or-bust in the class. Thief Rogue has taken to running Swiftscale Trickster to cheat out spells from Jackpot! (Front Lines is probably the best Rogue card in Standard right now) and Naval Mine Rogue is very good when it gets an early Shattershambler and Snowfall Graveyard, and less good otherwise.
Control Warrior is also an archetype that can lean on the occasional 1 Mana Mr. Smite from Nellie, the Great Thresher and won't say no to huge discounts From the Depths. Meanwhile, Fel Demon Hunter runs Caria Felsoul solely to cheat out an extra Zheegllgzug, not to mention they're always better with an early Fossil Fanatic. Throw Clownfish on top of an already overflowing pile of evidence and it becomes pretty clear that it is a good day to highroll.
Winner/Loser: Rogue
Rogue got both Shattershambler and Jackpot! added to their arsenal, flummoxing everyone who thought that Inkveil Ambusher would be the class' most impactful card. So, while the class is a winner with its new toys, it's also a loser because it has an absolutely terrible matchup against Control Warrior and Holy Paladin - which, we don't know if you know this, are both pretty good right now. So the class got better on paper, but the meta surrounding it got a lot more hostile. If you can dodge those pesky Warriors and Paladins, you can probably have a good climb with Rogue.
Do you agree with our read on the early meta? Have your own winners and losers that we overlooked? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Comments
I like how the article strongly recommends to auto include Rustrot Viper or else "you're a masochist", yet only one of the six lists featured here does include an actual Rustrot.
I'm having lots of fun with Zheegllgzug, Nice to play some new archetypes, although I fear the Control Warrior thing may get a bit tiresome. Also, kudos for also bringing up how much the buff of Shagoogalog has revitalized Demon Hunter!
This is perhaps the first and only time I feel the miniset wrecked a better meta. But I still like it more than the quest meta. Let's hope the next expansion doesn't screw it all up like they always seem to do.
In any case currently Tidal Revenant is doing wonders less because of its own merits but because of warrior's suprising mana cheating. To be honest, if it comes out at 8 its really not that great. The problem is when it comes out on 5 and suddenly all your work just went up the air and you're facing a 5/8 on the opposite side. Funny thing is that I still think the kazakusan build is the better ladder deck.
Fossil Fanatic is a winner because everyone except for rogue is playing greed to fight off control warrior. Its actually amazing how many cards this one thing can draw simply because your opponent cant remove it on 2. Also, perhaps buffing Xhilag that drastically isn't team5's best decision of the year. Just turned Caria literally into patches
Shaman still respectable in my opinion. Giving mutanus a 2 mana discount is about as insane as it gets in shaman, and Ive been enjoying it.
I haven't played much Standard since the mini-set came out, but I'm not surprised that Jackpot! + Swiftscale Trickster are doing better than most people expected. What does surprise me is reading "Front Lines is probably the best Rogue card in Standard right now". Even at 4 mana I'm struggling to see how it ends up beneficial in rogue - the class with the smallest minions on average. Doesn't it just get you killed the next turn?
It was slightly tongue-in-cheek, but in the featured decklist it can be a 4 Mana "Summon Smite, Edwin, 2 Gnolls, and Crabatoa to eat whatever your opponent gets" which can be a huge board swing in the right matchups.
*To be honest, I thought that I'd said it was the best Rogue card from the mini-set, because obviously the best Rogue card in Standard right now is Drakefire Amulet.