Dean Ayala has shared quite a bit of historical Hearthstone data with the community this afternoon, giving us a look at Hearthstone's various past metas 1-2 months after an expansion release.
Quote From Dean Ayala A History of Meta Snapshots:
Been doing some research on how diversity/balance affect player population over time and had some fun reminiscing over past metas.
All data represents 1-2 months post-launch of relevant set. Generally, the meta that lasted the longest during that expansion.
We've got all the pie charts he provided in his tweets down below. We've organized them from newest to oldest expansions with the class breakdown first followed by the archetypes.
Fractured in Alterac Valley
United in Stormwind
Forged in the Barrens
Madness at the Darkmoon Faire
Scholomance Academy
Ashes of Outland
Descent of Dragons
Saviors of Uldum
Rise of Shadows
Rastakhan's Rumble
The Boomsday Project
The Witchwood
Kobolds & Catacombs
Knights of the Frozen Throne
Journey to Un'Goro
Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
One Night in Karazhan
Whispers of the Old Gods
Comments
It's interesting seeing the most "polarized" metas and the most balanced metas, and how that doesn't necessarily track to the most enjoyable metas.
Like this one is the 3rd-highest meta share of all time with rogue (behind KoTFT Druid and Decent of Dragons Rogue), but I personally find that it's more enjoyable than Barrens, which was much more balanced by class. I guess I always intuitively thought more balanced = more fun. Neat data.
Poor Galakrond Shaman & Odd Paladin
Rise of Shadows, Khadgar-Dragon Mage. Was it really a thing? I don't remember such deck at all. I mean, I remember Khadgar + Conjurer's Calling or Power of Creation, but what about dragons? I guess Kalecgos alone isn't enough to call it Dragon deck.
Also I could swear that Control warrior was much more prevalent during Boomsday with Baku and Doctor Doom.
Conjurer Mage also used the neutral RR dragons and Scaleworm.
Right before the second The Caverns Below nerf, and only because Quest Rogue weakend the other lategame strategies, so Odd Warrior was okay with it's great aggro matchups.
Now this is some true nostalgia!
BRM: Everyone! Get in here!
TGT: Who am I? None of your business
GvG: Dr. 7
*GvG: HiHiHi HueHue He-hehe!
Nxx: Bring out your Dead.
Vnl: I got the best deals everywhere!
Good ol' days of WotOG and Karazhan-era HAHAHA PRIEST!
Saviors of Uldum was my favorite spoiler video (that song was REALLY good).
And the fact that it was probably the most even representation of all classes ... I think that was probably the peak of best balance for HS.
Amazing amount of work and kudos for him!
But as a Wild-only player…. gotta keep waiting for that one
At least I finally have stats to prove my theory: Hunter generally never carves a huge slice out of the meta barring a few exceptions, and generally never dies barring a few exceptions. It always seems to stay solidly a tier 2 deck no matter the meta, which I'm conflicted about because at this point it's apparent that Team5 has no problem allowing other classes to be top dogs or underdogs.
That's a pretty vague claim, and if you look again, I think you'll find it holds true for most classes. They all have ups and downs, and I think Team 5 very intentionally tries to keep any class from being unplayable or oppressive too often.
I never said the classes didn't have ups and downs. I said hunter always seems to carve out a solid tier 2 deck every expansion. (which I noticed you conveniently left out of your quoted text) Which bothers me because I get tired of hunter being the "go-to" class for people looking to rank up with an easy and cheap deck. I think that's a fundamental problem with either the class design or a larger issue with the game design as a whole if with every expansion the go-to ranking deck is "smorc hunter".
Aggro decks tend to be cheap in all card games. Aggro will always be viable. Hunter will always be the default aggro class due to its hero power. None of this is news. I guess I just don't understand the excitement about seeing it represented in "data."
Because I was glad to see my "feelings" were actually correct with corroborating data? Sorry, I fail to see why I need your validation/excitement in order to make a statement about something.
I didn't say you needed my excitement. I said I didn't understand your excitement.
You are free to make all the statements you want, just as I am free to wonder why.
I remember Gadgetzan when Hunter was so bad compared to eveything else that the entiree class became virtually unplayable.
Hunter was the most played class during Rastakhan's Rumble, probably due to Master's Call and the new spell only archetype that was introduced.
Technically the no minion Spell Hunter archetype was introduced a year prior in Kobolds & Catacombs with Rhok'delar, To My Side!, Lesser Emerald Spellstone, and Flanking Strike being key cards to support the archetype. But then Rastakhan's Rumble added Zul'jin and Baited Arrow. Baited gave the deck a little removal that could also provide a tempo swing with the Overkill effect. It also providing an extra bit of reach since it can go face. And Zul'jin was great after playing a fully ramped Spellstone and several secrets that he would then replay, he could also replay removal like Crushing Walls. And the deck still ran Deathstalker Rexxar to generate infinite value with the Zombeasts. In short, I think it was always kind of missing that final piece until the RR additions.
Hunter has a very strong classic set, and is generally considered to be the go-to class for those without much resources. So unsurprisingly its played quite a good deal because just about every tier except for legend would do decently with it.
Even if hunter is viable in every meta, is there necessarily anything wrong with it? Out of the last two years, only one face hunter deck can truly be counted as cancerous, and even then it's solidly beaten by the omnipresence of Zilliax anyway
It was a different time. When Ben was in charge, nerfs were very rarely made, and Hunter had a really really good classic set so it could manage through a bad expac. You can see once it lost it, it dropped immediately. I do not think it is indicative of anything negative about the current Team 5.
Edit: Also worth noting, the strongest deck isn't always the most popular one. This playerbase tends to favor simpler more straight forward decks.