The Deadmines mini-set has been out for more than a week now, and things have started to settle down a little bit. The current existing archetypes have incorporated some of the new cards, while the recent Passive Treasures revamp resurrected some old archetypes or gave other options to those which are already part of the meta.
While there are still things to be discovered, today's Duels meta seems to be quite varied and we are quite happy about it. With that said, let's not forget about playing the game. As usual, here 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!
Some decks in this article were collected from Firestone. You can find out more about Firestone and install the app here!
In case you missed them, we published other collections of 12-win Duels starting decks to take inspiration from!
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 @OutOfCardsHS or @Avalon_OOC or through an in-site ping in Private Message.
Kwareon's 12 Wins Outlander Demon Hunter
Gameplay-wise, Mind Tether stands for Priest as Outlander stands for Demon Hunter. Even though the latter is not a Passive Hero Power anymore and you have to carefully play into your Outcast spots, a good hand mixed with discount effects can help you going places.
Fireshaper is probably the best possible tier 1 Passive you can hope for (Wither the Weak being the other one), while you have other very good option for the tier 2 Passives in Khadgar's Scrying Orb and [Hearthstone Card (Ooops, all spells!) Not Found].
Passive Treasures Chosen
First pool - Fireshaper
Second pool - Emerald Goggles
Jigsawxfalling's 12 Wins Token Demon Hunter
As we repeated multiple times, in the past, Duels Token Demon Hunter is one of those builds which are not prevalent by any means, but that sometimes manage to surface here and there and take the spotlight: be it because of favourable matchups, be it because of really good buckets and Passives.
In particular, both Potion of Sparking and Greedy Gains are incredibly efficient tools in your deck, making Illidari Strike's Initiates 3/3s with a little cleave damage on top of them, and just for 2 mana: not bad at all.
Token Demon Hunter hasn't received any new support in ages, but it appears that it can still pack quite a punch!
On a side note, this is the first time we've found evidence of a player picking Black Soulstone as Active Treasure: have you ever found and picked it? What are your thoughts on it?
Passive Treasures Chosen
First pool - Potion of Sparking
Second pool - Greedy Gains
Gregoriusil's 12 Wins Questline Diablo
People on Reddit have been asking for a The Demon Seed Diablo list, and as usual we deliver. This starting deck comes from Gregoriusil, who is the creator of another list you'll see below. In particular, what really jumps to the eye is the inclusion of Fool's Bane: while this weapon has been known for ages to be incredibly bad, this deck is exactly what it needed to raise its reputation.
In fact, while it helps you progressing you Questline just like any other weapon, after you play Blightborn Tamsin Fool's Bane becomes a substantial insta-win card, as you can ram your face into opposing minions multiple times in the same turn for massive recoil damage to redirect to your opponent.
The rest of the list is mainly composted of good cheap cards that allow you to stay in the game and to exploit Primal Power as much as possible.
Passive Treasures Chosen
First pool - All Together Now
Second pool - Legendary Loot
AgentCroque's 12 Wins Questline Druid
Here's another off-meta archetype that, with the right Passive Treasures and a piloting player good at slinging cards, can lead you to remarkable results. That's exactly the case of AgentCroque and Lost in the Park Questline Druid, which also wrote a very useful guide about what you should expect from this starting deck.
Quote From AgentCroque The run starts of pretty predictably: use spells to gain Attack, hit the enemy face and try to copy Guff the Tough with Mark of the Spikeshell to close out games. Once your deck gets bigger, the focus shifts away from Lost in the Park, since your Attack gain density should go down.
Your Questline then becomes a hyper efficient 1 mana spell that gains you 10 armor and draws a card over the course of the game. You use your spells to control the board, or to deal damage to the enemy, if they are not the board-building type to whittle the opponent down.
The new Deadmines cards, Moonlit Guidance and Jerry Rig Carpenter, were both incredible: if you don't own the mini-set they are worth a craft.
Passives were Fireshaper and Spreading Saplings: the former is top tier in this archetype, while the latter is very good too, but there are alternatives like Khadgar's Scrying Orb.
Passive Treasures Chosen
First pool - Fireshaper
Second pool - Spreading Saplings
Fliboce's 12 Wins Frost Hero Power Mage
Looking for a Mage deck featuring the freshly (of should I say frosty?) buffed Freeze Solid? Well, look no longer: our Mage expert Fliboce is back with yet another Mozaki, Master Duelist 12-win run.
Long story short, Freeze Solid seems to be rather strong, especially in combination with strong Battlecries like Mordresh Fire Eye. Games tend to last not that long with synergy like this!
The were also able to assemble Quel'Delar, which however is currently affected by a bug that doesn't let you draw it, so its powerlevel and consistency are momentarily decreased by quite a bit.
Passive Treasures Chosen
First pool - Freeze Solid
Second pool - Battle Totem
Avalon's 12 Wins Divine Shield Paladin
It's been a while since the last time I touched Paladin in Duels, so I decided to give the Divine Shield archetype a try, especially since I wanted to try out the new version Grommash's Armguards. I wasn't able to pick the Passive Treasure I was looking for, but I cannot really complain about the final result.
Righteous Reserves mixed with Avenging Armaments and loads of cheap Divine Shield units and From Golden Light created such a strong synergy that most of my opponents weren't able to withstand at all. In fact, out of the 12 games I won a good chunk of them ended before turn 4 due to the other players conceding.
To be completely fair, Call to Arms should've definitely been in the starting deck, but I do not own it and I started the run just for fun, so I didn't bother crafting.
I also picked Bag of Coins, which allowed me to cheese out nutty plays that I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise, like a turn 1 Royal Greatsword going second or a turn 3 Highlord Fordragon to start buffing up my hand.
I decided to include Mr. Smite because of the synergy with Royal Greatsword and the fact that From Golden Light can revive it as basically a 2 mana Leeroy Jenkins: it actually did some work for me, and I will probably pick it in my next run as well.
Passive Treasures Chosen
First pool - Righteous Reserves
Second pool - Avenging Armaments
Gregoriusil's 12 Wins Elemental Shaman
Following Dsorrow's 12 Wins Elemental Shaman from last week's meta report, here's the starting list that Gregoriusil came up with. This deck has a more solid early game, with three 1-drops in Glacial Shard, Kindling Elemental and Wailing Vapor to help you taking the control of the board as soon as turn 1.
Another interesting inclusion is Deadmines' Brilliant Macaw: Elemental Shaman is filled with standalone good Battlecries, and being able to replicate some of them (Primal Dungeoneer, Granite Forgeborn, Instructor Fireheart) gives you a lot of options that you can choose depending on what the game is asking from you.
The Passive Treasures deserve a note on their own: while everyone already knows how impactful (even post-nerf) Rally the Troops is, Conduit of the Storms is what jumps to the eye. Getting a +2 attack at the begin of each turn you're Overloaded makes up for quite the damage resource, as you can easily combine it with Ferocious Flurry for remarkable burst. Legendary Loot is also pretty damn good here.
Passive Treasures Chosen
First pool - Conduit of the Storms
Second pool - Rally the Troops
Kchorrin's 12 Wins Soul Warlock
Soul Warlock disappeared back when the Battlecry meta was heavily nerfed, but now that both All Together Now and Rally the Troops are somehow back, Archwitch Willow has a reliable weapon in her arsenal.
The list does not present any unusual inclusion other than Circus Medic, which grants you flexibility based on your matchup: sometimes being able to decide whether you need the healing or a surprise burst - it can save you from some uncomfortable positions!
Based on the player's words, it appears that Mask of Mimicry did quite the job in the run, allowing Kchorrin to burn an opponent's whole deck through multiple Corrupted Tickatus and to achieve the beauty you see below.
So many ships...
Passive Treasures Chosen
First pool - All Together Now
Second pool - Rally the Troops
Do you like Duels? What are you playing right now? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
I hate two things in duels at the moment.
Quests: I'm playing duels mostly to escape the stupid quest meta and they are prevelant here as well. I wish they never printed new quests and hoping that they never do in the future.
Not being able to choose whom I want to play: Currently all I want is to play Diablo and I have to concede so many times to get offered diablo and then I encounter ridiculous Mind Tether priests(this is borderline 3rd thing) that can murder me in 4 turns so my runs end before even reaching 4 wins anyway.
Hello there.
While I agree with you on the Quest issue, I think we have to take in consideration that they're part of the last expansion, and therefore they're literally the shiniest toys you can play with. I am not saying that they'll disappear after the next exp, but rather that the increase of the card pool and the deckbuilding options available are very likely to dilute them a bit.
For the second point, I don't really have an opinion: while there are classes (Warrior, Paladin, possibly Shaman) that I prefer to others (Rogue, Priest, Druid), I always try to be able to have at least a playable character in the four that are offered to me. I am aware the you're not talking about playability and you just want to have fun with the new hero, but as long as 4 is the max number of classes we get to choose from, the chances won't be that high.
The problem is I only have two favorites Rogue and Priest :D and I got them offered very rarely so It frustrates me. Now Diablo is in the mix because It's new and I still get so many scenarios to get offered DH, Shaman, Mage, Warrior offered to me all the time.
I’ve loved playing big Diablo decks, and they have been more successful than I was expecting. Got a 11 win run with Totem of the Dead shenanigans, so many rattlegores…
Big Diablo seems to have risen in power after undergoing some refinement. I've seen people running Sphere of Sapience in order to keep the big units in their deck, which seems to be the right call.
Sphere of Sapience is definetly a really strong addition for the deck, I also run double studies and Voidcaller + a couple big demons so that I’m not just using removal for the first five turns of the game.
May I see the list you're currently using? Seems like you came up with some original ideas!
Hero Power: Doom Charge
Treasure: Fire Stomp
Athletic Studies, Demonic Studies, Sphere of Sapience, Drain Soul, Man the Cannons, Demonic Assault, Hysteria, Voidcaller, Cowardly Grunt, Possessed Lackey, Silver Vanguard, Mo'arg Forgefiend, Plagued Protodrake, Rattlegore, Voidlord.
This is the list I used recently, maybe a little minion heavy but it worked fine. I want to try Provoke in the deck but haven't yet.