Here we are with another collection of spicy Duels lists for every class!
Just like last time, ZelKnow recently posted 虎牙丶夜帆's (the best Duels player in China) deck recommendations for all the 10 classes in Hearthstone's Duels! Each list also shows which Hero Power and which Treasure you should choose, as well as a personal opinion about their power level. Some decks are pretty much the same, others have some minor changes and there are even a couple of new additions.
Jump in the fight and master the unexpected!
Aggro Demon Hunter (Power score: 4,5/5)
This deck has no new additions since the last time - it's just good as it is.
Spell Druid (Power score: 4,3/5)
While the core remains the same, this build features more protective tools to withstand the aggression from the other contenders: Feral Rage and Wrath take the place of Speaker Gidra and Innervate for a bit more cycle and resilience.
Deathrattle Hunter (Power score: 4,8/5)
Another archetype that is at the top of the meta and the features just a minor change: Petting Zoo is replaced by Haunted Creeper for more flexibility in the early game trades and to expand the chances to have a Deathrattle to abuse as fast as possible with Death Games.
Elemental Mage (Power score: 4/5)
A brand new deck that didn't make the cut in the last article: this list features a small Elemental package made of Confection Cyclone, Water Elemental (very good against class whose win condition is beating you down with their face) and Grand Finale (the big top end win condition), but carries also Ring Toss for some nice defensive tools and other very solid cards like Jandice Barov and Ras Frostwhisper.
Dude Paladin (3,5/5)
Just some minor changes: Rallying Blade replaces Truesilver Champion for more Divine Shield synergy and High Abbess Alura is included in place of Blessing of Authority in order to thin the deck, have a chance to cast Men at Arms and get to the important cards like Lothraxion the Redeemed faster.
Control Priest (Power score: 4/5)
One of the classes with the least changes: Holy Nova takes The Nameless One's place, but everything else remains the same.
Weapon Rogue (Power score: 4/5)
Infiltrator Lilian got her [Hearthstone Card (Connection) Not Found] Hero Power nerfed, but Roguish Maneuvers is still good enough to seal games. This episode's list features a slightly more aggressive build: Swindle and Wandmaker leave space for Tour Guide (immediate hero power on 1) and Cloak of Shadows.
Totem Shaman (Power score: 4/5)
Another deck whose 15 initial cards are just too good to be changed. Just press the Hero Power and carve out wins.
Discard Warlock (Power score: 5/5)
Warlock is still one of the best classes when it comes to Duels - Dark Arts and Killmox are surrounded by amazingly high synergy and and consistency. Differently from last time, today's list features a build more oriented to control the board rather then cycle through the deck: Warlocks are popular and, despite C'Thun, the Shattered being a win condition you want to assemble as fast as possible, fatigue is a real concern. Therefore, we abandon Free Admission and Fire Breather (not very useful in a mirror) for School Spirits and Shadowlight Scholar.
Menagerie Warrior (Power score: 4,3/5)
The deck's most relevant change regards the treasure: now Auto-Armaments seems to have gained the edge over Brewster, the Brutal - because of this, there is less reason to run Ringmaster Whatley and Claw Machine as card draw engines in favor of more tools to stabilize like Rattlegore and Shield Block.
Do you like Duels? What are you playing over there right now? Let us know in the comments!
Comments
They really need to relook into this 20 health bs at the start of duels, since it inherently gives face decks a near insurmountable advantage (unless you're warlock of course). Dhunters being able to chip damage on your face constantly throughout the battle simply by playing cards doesn't help, and if there needs to be any changes made at all, consider that being number 1 on that list.
Also, is it just me or are duels mode inherently taking much longer time to match me up with an equal player? Last time I tried (4 wins 0 loss) took me somewhere around 5 minutes to get a match. Pretty sure me playing at casuals isn't the issue here.
It's an advantage in the first game or two, but after that, aggro will never beat a control deck, period. And there are plenty of people playing control.
Except that there aren't "plenty of people" even playing Duels, which is why the queue times are getting longer every day.
I love the format but completely agree that it suffers from a serious balance problem. The synergy between HP & Treasure is just too high for DH & Lock so the other classes really suffer, especially in the early stages of each run. Facing DH is nearly an auto-loss in the first 2 matches for most classes. I'm still playing more duels than any other format.
This will help me a lot with the classes that I am definitely NOT very good at playing. Thanks for the write up on it
Don't even mention it :)
Do!
I like Duels, but that mode still needs a lot of work imo. DH and Warlock HPs are too powerful, while other are almost useless, some Treasures need to be put into other buckets, etc.
Maybe it'll get better when the mini-expansion comes out.
It's like Arena. I try it out once a season, get the shit kicked out of me and never play it again.
I will say it's nice they have a casual mode to at least practice and get better. If I wanted. Which I don't. Appreciate the starter decks immensely. There's not much content out there for Duels at the moment.
I feel this on very spiritual level.
I definitely agree with you: in my opinion, some interactions are so powerful that the mode just loses depth.
I think it's not a matter of card pool, but rather of balancing overall: feeling like you're in a dungeon run with treasures and crazy synergies is cool and all, but at the end of the day you should prevent some blatantly broken stuff like Outlander or Dark Arts
Loved duels but I'll waite to jump in on the next update.
From my experience I think it should be noted that deathrattle hunter’s power level is 4.8 only under the conditions that you get a deathrattle passive, as opposed to how demon hunter can consistently reach at least 8 wins even with bad passives. Last thing I’d note is that paladin is probably better off running a less greedy menagerie build and hoping to get rush or dragon affinity passives early, dude synergies have just proven to be too slow
Would you share your list with us please?
I'd love to! The deck has worked for me at 8.9k mmr in casual but I wouldn't recommend paladin in general for heroic as it can be very dependent on the first passive. [