Top Hearthstone Decks for the End of Season Ladder Climb - Castle Nathria’s Buffs and Nerfs Meta

The recent Hearthstone balance patch that nerfed some strategies while buffing a pick of underperforming classes (and also Rogue) has certainly changed the meta, adding new options to the top-tier while making other strategies borderline untenable for climbing. We've gathered a number of Standard decks from HSReplay, Vicious Syndicate, and pro players to find out what has been working the best throughout the ladder as of late.

All win rate statistics come courtesy of HSReplay.

Bonus Picks - Grandmasters: Last Call

Hearthstone's Grandmasters: Last Call held its Playoffs this weekend and, thanks to the new buffs and the five deck Conquest format, we saw a lot of different ideas brought by the players. Grandmasters is obviously a different format than playing on the ladder, but oftentimes the choices these players make can reflect or influence the meta. For instance, several players brought Priest decks (likely to prey on Rogue), and some players also brought specific Demon Hunter, Hunter, and Shaman decks due to their matchups against other popular decks. Warrior and Paladin were not picked for any player's lineup.

Top Hearthstone Standard Decks Post-Balance Changes

There is always a lot to talk about here, especially now that we've had more than a week to play with the balance changes. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like many of the buffs might have found their desired targets, regardless of how optimistic we might've been initially when compiling those early improved decklists. 

Demon Hunter

Demon Hunter received a variety of buffs that led to an immediate uptick in play for the class across a variety of play styles. However, as the days have gone on it's become clear that none of its buffed archetypes - Relic, Fel, or Deathrattle - can hit a win rate above 50% higher up the ladder. Aggro Demon Hunter might be the best placed in the current meta due to the power of aggression in combatting popular decks like Ramp Druid and Edwin Rogue, but it's certainly not the greatest deck of its type out there.

At Grandmasters, levik brought an aggressive Demon Hunter list that picked up wins against his competitors' (you guessed it) Ramp Druid and Edwin Rogue lists. Meanwhile, xBlyzes brought a Deathrattle Demon Hunter that also played with the buffed Relics.

Aggro

Relic/Deathrattle

Druid

Druid has become a big winner following the recent patch, as even with the nerf to Celestial Alignment, the loss of Control Shaman's best way to flip the board on Ramp Druid means that deck is doing better than ever.

Are you interested in a little class-on-class hatred? If so, it's probably a good time to play Aggro Druid, as aggression is the only reliable answer for beating Ramp Druid, and Aggro Druid is probably the best deck for the job. As an added bonus, the currently most popular list is entirely budget-friendly as we've finally convinced Malfurion that he doesn't need to run Epics like Composting and Oracle of Elune to win games.

On the Grandmasters side, every player brought a Druid deck, most of them Ramp. We've chosen to highlight Bunnyhoppor's Giants Ramp Druid.

Ramp

Aggro

Hunter 

Hunter has been certainly affected by the patch, losing ground in both popularity and win rate. All three of Hunter's favorite decks - Questline, Face, and Beast - show up at Legend and hover around a 50% win rate, but as you climb higher those numbers drop and Beast Hunter disappears entirely. The class is still fairly reliable at lower ranks, however.

At Grandmasters, both Habugabu and SuperFake brought a Questline Hunter that performed relatively well, compared to all the other Hunter decks that nobody else even gave a chance. 

Face

Quest

Big Beast

Mage 

Spooky Mage (which is the correct name for the archetype, and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise) has seen a rise in popularity, as has Big Spell Mage. This is mostly thanks to the class's great matchups against the decks that counter the current meta favorites Ramp Druid and Edwin Rogue. Depending on the level of competition, Mage can boast a break-even win rate against Edwin Rogue, but looks absolutely lost in Ramp Druid matchups.

Mage was a popular pick among Grandmasters, with the field fairly evenly split between Big Spell and Spooky builds.

Spooky/Skeleton/Ping

Big Spell

Paladin 

Paladin received a heavy helping of buffs to underperforming Pure and Silver Hand archetypes, buffs that were heavily needed for the class.

But both decks, and the class as a whole, remain terrible. At Legend ranks, both Pure Paladin and Silver Hand decks have been known to appear (with sub-50% win rates), but the entire class evaporates into the aether if you climb any higher. Suffice it to say that if you queue into a Paladin portrait, you're more likely facing a Rogue.

[Insert Good Decklist Here]

Priest 

Without receiving any buffs to its own cards, Priest still came out a winner from the recent patch thanks to the rise of Edwin Rogue. High-level players quickly discovered that Quest Priest farms Edwin Rogue (with a head-to-head win rate nearing 75%), and doesn't do too poorly against other favorites like Aggro Druid. The deck's main weakness remains Ramp Druid, which tends to obliterate it.

While School Teacher builds of Naga Priest are still popular, there's a new buff Priest in town: Boon Bless Priest. It's a high skillcap deck that, like Quest Priest, has a good matchup against Edwin Rogue while being slightly more appealing in a Ramp Druid game.

At Grandmasters, Priest had a field day with a variety of archetypes brought. levik brought a full-tilt Boon Priest, while ZloyGruzin opted for a more Naga-focused build. Quest Priest was the most popular pick, and even Boar Priest (not a good ladder choice) was brought by Furyhunter.

Naga

Quest

Bless/Boon

Boar

Rogue

Rogue - we don't know if you've heard yet - got the most impactful buff of any class and is currently one of the more popular picks at every point of the ladder. The cost decrease for Edwin, Defias Kingpin led to the creation of low-curve decks that are all in on getting as many stats on the board as quickly as possible to overwhelm their opponent.

Mine Rogue is less popular, but still seen from time to time.

Just about every Grandmaster brought Rogue, and every single one of those decks was Edwin Rogue.

Miracle/Edwin

Mine

Shaman

Control Shaman doesn't seem to exist anymore. Let's get that out of the way.

In fact, the only real threat Shaman has in the current meta is Evolve Shaman - mainly thanks to the fact that it has a good matchup against Priest. Evolve Shaman wasn't the most popular pick among Grandmasters, but we did get to see BunnyHoppor's take on the deck.

Evolve

Warlock

Implock took a hit, but remains Warlock's best class for climbing - which is more of a put-down of Warlock's other options than praise for Imps. The straight Zoo build, with Imp King Rafaam as finisher, is still the class's most reliable way to get wins on ladder, although that hasn't stopped some players from experimenting with Curse/Imp decks. The problem is that Curse Warlock has a truly abyssmal (STET) win rate against Ramp Druid, and can't make up for that lack in other areas.

Grandmasters weren't scared of bringing Warlock to the fight. Most players opted for a Curse hybrid, like the one levik brought, but there were a couple of Zoo decks and Furyhunter even brought a Minelock.

Imp/Zoo

Imp/Curse

Mine

Warrior

Warrior is not having a good time. Both Enrage and Control Warrior are seeing experimentation but, like Paladin, cannot crack a 50% winrate at higher ranks. If you do decide to play Warrior, Vicious Syndicate has crafted an Enrage Warrior list they boast as being "Not Absolutely Terrible." If that's not a ringing endorsement, we don't know what is.

Control Warrior can say it's found a niche as a decent counter to Aggro Druid.

Grandmasters players have no trust in the class, as not a single Warrior deck was brought to Playoffs.

Enrage

Control

What has or hasn't been working for you in Castle Nathria after the patch? Do you think the game needs another set of balance changes to correct the meta?