The holidays are almost over and the cold realization starts to settle in: you've completely neglected this season's ladder climb. Luckily we have a late present for you in the form of seven tried-and-tested ladder decks, thanks to HSReplay's stats. Take one for a spin and make things right by ending the year on a high note.
Disclaimer: All stats presented were correct at the time of writing.
Pirate Warrior
It's almost like a throwback to the simpler times when Mean Streets of Gadgetzan was the last expansion of the year and Pirates were rampant. The deck has favorable matchups almost everywhere with Shamans and Control-style Warriors being the biggest hurdles in current meta.
Resurrect Quest Priest
Another "new" deck that seems very similar to some previous metas. The deck can be very frustrating to play against (and therefore fun to play with), but it has several counters to keep it in check, Valeera being the biggest gatekeeper.
Secret Highlander Hunter
Despite the popularity of the newly-resurrected Face Hunter, the Highlander variant is still, all-in-all, a more solid option for ranking. However, some of the most popular decks are its biggest counters (Pirate Warrior, Galakrond Shaman and the already-mentioned Face Hunter) so you should keep an eye on the possible meta shifts which could make the deck a lot less viable.
Mech Paladin
Mech Paladin has quietly risen as the overall best Paladin deck in the current meta. The sample sizes are a lot smaller than with the other spotlighted decks though so it's hard to say whether the deck is here to stay. Its success has been heavily based on the highly favorable Face Hunter matchup and the simultaneous decline of Galakrond Shaman, one of its weakest matchups.
Galakrond Zoolock
It would seem like the Galakrond Zoo is no fluke, it's here to stay, despite it being voted as the clearly weakest Galakrond in our community compendium. It wouldn't hurt if you're able to dodge Shamans, Warriors, and Face Hunters, though.
Treant Druid
Is it really happening? Did the deck finally become a reality? Blizzard may finally have pushed out enough support for Treant Druid to be a thing (at least in this meta). The deck does lose to most other aggro decks as well as Shamans though, so be warned.
Highlander Galakrond Rogue
If you had told me that Highlander (Deathrattle) Galakrond Rogue would be the best option for Valeera in this expansion beforehand, I would've told you to check your medication. But here we are. Just dodge all aggressive decks and you will have little troubles in the current meta.
And since you may be wondering: Galakrond Shaman is still the best that the class has to offer, although it's far from the beast it used to be. Those seemingly small nerfs turned out to have an impact after all.
And for Mages, I'm sorry. It's the only class in HSReplay's Meta list that doesn't have a single archetype over the 50% winrate limit. Highlander is your best bet though.
Comments
For the pirate list, I suggest dropping faceless corrupter, 1x live wire lance, and 1x hoard plunderer, and adding 2x southsea captain and Darius crowley.
I think Face HUnter is the most polarizing deck we've had in a long time.
Either it completely demolishes you because you have no healing or it just gets outhealed without a chance.
It's not really anything new or surprising. That's how almost all aggro decks work, honestly. There is absolutely nothing special about the newest version of face hunter, an archetype that has almost never been absent from the meta for longer than an expansion. Hasn't usually been quite this good, but it's been at least a niche presence forever.
I am far from convinced. Let's talk again next weekend, after the new season starts and all the people who were dominating ladder pre-patch have incentive to try again. My theory is that this archetype just needs a little refinement to survive this new meta's newfound love of aggro, and then we're off to races again. Let's face it: between heals, AoEs, and Hex, Shaman has a TON of tech options at their disposal that they've barely begun to scratch.
Shamans always had alot of tech cards at their disposal, but as most tech cards tend to do, it drops your consistency.
One of the reasons why Galakrond shaman (no quest) was as good as it is was because it played virtually no tech cards but was able to overrun almost all decks on curve.
Add in removal, AoEs, and heals and thats some cards drawn that does nothing for some matches. With Shaman's draw being as shit as it is, that's why the highest win rate deck for Shaman has no Hex in it.
I do have to say that nerfing Mogu Flesh-shaper to 9 mana makes it harder to get it on the board, but it also drastically improves the Mutate options. The 9-slot has only 1-2 duds in it in standard, and those are a 5/5 and a 6/6. Everything else is better than that, including many 8/8, a 9/9 rush, and King Krush. Sooo yeah. "Nerfed" ... but the combo with Mutate is now waaaay more consistent than the 7-slot was.
Just to be clear; Mutate transform the minion into another minion 1 cost higher.
So mogu + mutate = 10 cost minion. No rush, no charge, and definitely no divine shield, taunt, charge
And no, from my own experience mogu not coming out in turn 3-4 into grommash is a massive nerf indeed. In fact, I rarely get to see it out costing 0 so yeah the nerf definitely works.
That Highlander Rogue got me to Legend this season. Very fun yet incredibly consistent, even though it condenses so many different packages (Highlander, Galakrond, Lackey, Burgle, Deathrattle and OG Tempo).
I highly recommend it if you have most of the cards.
Are two invoke cards really enough to run the Galakrond package?
Like the guy below me said, you don't really need a fully upgraded Galakrond to win the game: in the end, it's not your only win condition.
Moreover, there are not just 2 Invoke cards, but 3, which makes the difference if you consider what I wrote above: drawing 1 card is good, drawing 2 cards is great, but since you want to close the games around turn 11 you can't really pretend to wait for all the right cards to come up from your deck. Sometimes I even played Galakrond in its base form just because I had a turn 7 with no pression at all.
Finally, in the mid-late game Lackey are generally much better than a 1/2 dagger and they have synergy with Heistbaron Togwaggle too, which means more 0 cost cards drawn or all the memes you want.
I think most highlander G rogue runs 4 invoke cards, including the 2 neutral ones. You can also play Spirit of the Shark for double invokes. But from my own experience, you rarely need Galakrond at max for it to make an impact. Most of the time drawing two cards from Galakrond is good enough, if the match isn't already over by then.
And I second by Highly Highlighting Highlander decks as competitively viable options.
Thanks for the decks. Finally we have several viable classes... for those who have lots of dust, though.
One downside of Highlander decks is that they've generally been really expensive.
Moreover, Year of the Dragon's decks haven't been really cheap for most of the part (except stuff like RoS Mech and Midrange Hunter, DoD Face Hunter and literally a couple more).
Go Face with Hunter. Like 1500 dust
Have to agree for the most part. Playing Toxic Reinforcements on 1 really swings most mid range matches in your favor.
The deck only suffers to priests and warrior, and only because they can match hunter's hero power. Rogues and warlock have to draw like insane hands to beat this.
And its really cheap to play, both deck cost and how cheesy it is sometimes.