Standard Meta Report #19 - Top Hearthstone Decks January 12, 2020 - January 19, 2020

Welcome to another edition of the Standard Meta Report, this time covering the week between January 12 and 19, 2020. As always, the report is based on an analysis of statistics from HSReplay, along with personal game experience at high ranks. 

The Overview

Galakrond Shaman has disappeared, leaving a power vacuum Valeera is only too happy to occupy. Today, Tempo Galakrond Rogue reigns supreme across the ladder, earning top marks in popularity and strength between ranks five and Legend. Valeera’s particularly good at exploiting unoptimized lists, turning her opponent’s weaknesses into surprise victories. 

Token Druid again made strides at lower ranks, but fell off at Legend in the face of underwhelming performance against Galakrond Rogue. Quest Druid hit a wall, unable to compete against the meta’s strongest decks, including Galakrond Warrior and Control Galakrond Warlock. Meanwhile, a refined variant of Embiggen Druid has shown promise against both Valeera and Garrosh, but requires more data to properly evaluate.

Thanks to excellent matchups against Rogue and Warlock, Quest Hunter is the stud no one saw coming, pumping out a Tier 1 performance over the past week at higher ranks. After a significant spike in popularity at the beginning of the week, Secret Highlander Hunter is beginning to cool off, but continues to push out strong results at lower ranks. Despite lackluster performance, Face Hunter saw a meager renaissance in the lower meta. 

At higher ranks, a refined build of Highlander Mage has found surprising success against Rogue, but remains vulnerable to Hunter at lower ranks. 

Paladin is the deadest class in the game. While Mech Paladin saw a slight rise in popularity this week, the archetype remains historically unpopular. Flik Skyshiv has single-handedly killed off Holy Wrath Paladin. 

Anduin isn’t happy to see Valeera rise in power. Quest Resurrect Priest has struggled against Galakrond Rogue, though we’ve got ideas on how to improve the matchup. Several new Highlander Galakrond Priest builds have sparked some new interest in the archetype, but so far, they look pretty bad. 

Despite outstanding results, Control Galakrond Warlock has taken a step back in popularity. Almost no one is playing the best variant of Handlock, while Galakrond Zoo Warlock has seen a bump in play at Legend.

Garrosh continues to suffer significant losses in popularity across all ranks. Galakrond Warrior has entered decline, as has Pirate Warrior, though both archetypes remain powerful options at lower ranks. 

Druid

Token Druid continued to climb in popularity at lower ranks this week, reaching a representation around 6.5% between ranks five and one. At the same time, the archetype has been driven out of Legend almost entirely, given considerable pressure from Rogue and Warlock; both Galakrond Rogue and Control Galakrond Warlock have proven tough matchups, though much of the trouble can be explained by the wealth of sub-optimal lists on the ladder. 

We believe Token Druid’s winrate can be further improved by adopting the featured build, a list featuring the powerful combo of SN1P-SN4P and Zilliax, which was introduced by Vicious Syndicate:

Could the tide be turning for Embiggen Druid? It certainly seems so, but it all comes down to our featured build, which cuts down on Dragons to feature eminently-buffable minions like Vicious Scalehide and Oasis Surger. We highlighted this list two weeks ago, but if you want to play Embiggen, this is still the best way to do it:

Embiggen Druid’s playrate is extremely low, but our featured build has held up over the last two weeks, continuing to post a strong winrate against Galakrond Warrior, and now, securing substantial success in preliminary results in the all-important Galakrond Rogue matchup. 

For once, Embiggen Druid isn’t Malfurion’s worst-performing archetype. That dubious honor goes to Quest Druid, an archetype that, after a dramatic increase in popularity last week, has found itself mired in an unfavorable meta. Thanks to poor matchups against Galakrond Warrior, Control Galakrond Warlock and Highlander Galakrond Rogue, Quest Druid’s winrate is stuck in the negative, with little hope for future improvement. The loss of Galakrond Shaman, a deck against which Quest Druid excelled, doesn’t help. 

At least our featured build has been able to scrape out a positive winrate against Galakrond Rogue, winning 54.6% of games against the archetype over a sample of 2,500 between ranks five and Legend:

Hunter

Quest Hunter may well be the best-kept secret in the game. 

While the archetype’s playrate is extremely low (topping out at a measly 1.13% at Legend), Quest Hunter has risen to become one of the highest-performing decks by winrate in the upper meta, earning second place at Legend and taking the top spot at rank one. 

It’s not hard to see why. Quest Hunter is one of the only decks in the format that reliably wins against both Galakrond Rogue and Highlander Galakrond Rogue, the two most popular archetypes in the game. Add to these accolades a strong matchup against Control Galakrond Warlock, and an even stronger one against Galakrond Warrior, and Quest Hunter appears to be one of the best-positioned archetypes in the meta. 

Quest Hunter is an especially excellent deck to try once you’ve reached rank 2 or 3; absolutely no one is playing around the Leeroy Jenkins / Unleash the Hounds combo. At lower ranks, your performance may be held back by the continued prominence of Face Hunter (against which Quest Hunter is truly pitiful) and Quest Resurrect Priest. 

While Quest Hunter’s performance at higher ranks is undeniable, Secret Highlander Hunter remains a bit player on the scene, accounting for about 5% of the meta between ranks five and one (on the order of Handlock, Highlander Mage and Quest Resurrect Priest). 

It would be a mistake to sleep on this archetype, given Rexxar’s strong matchups against Valeera (matchups that, as it happens, become far more competitive at Legend due to superior Rogue play), but poor winrates against Token Druid, Quest Resurrect Priest and Face Hunter (together accounting for about 17% of the lower meta) are likely to frustrate your climb. All in all, Quest Hunter, which is noticeably better against Galakrond Rogue, Highlander Galakrond Rogue and Galakrond Warrior (to say nothing of winning matchups against Token Druid and a far more competitive one against Quest Resurrect Priest), appears to be the stronger choice for today’s meta. 

At lower ranks, Face Hunter has made a slight comeback this week, increasing in playrate despite further declines in performance (a dropoff at least partially explained by the increased prominence of Token Druid and Quest Resurrect Priest in the lower meta). 

An opposing trend can be seen at Legend, where the archetype has entered a full-throated decline. In the game’s highest ranks, both Galakrond Rogue and Highlander Galakrond Rogue have displayed sufficient strength to consistently beat Face Hunter. Factor in the pitiful matchup against Galakrond Warrior, the third most popular deck between ranks four and Legend, and it’s no wonder higher-level players have been scared away from Rexxar’s fastest aggro archetype. 

Mage

With the utter implosion of Cyclone Mage, Highlander Mage remains Jaina’s sole viable option on the ladder. As always, the archetype is stronger than you think, in no small part thanks to excellent matchups against Galakrond Warrior and Control Galakrond Warlock, two of the upper meta’s most popular decks. 

For Highlander Mage, the latest balance patch was actually a mixed blessing; while Mage lost a strong matchup with the abrupt disappearance of Galakrond Shaman, the power vacuum has been filled by Galakrond Rogue, a deck against which Mage can win, and win consistently. 

Highlander Mage is a diverse field of decks, some of which rise above the rest. That’s especially true in the matchup against Valeera. In the aggregate, Highlander Mage seems to suffer from the glut of Rogue archetypes at the top of the ladder, posting negative overall winrates against both Galakrond Rogue and Highlander Galakrond Rogue. This result is a mirage created by the litany of sub-optimal Highlander Mage lists making the rounds. 

In reality, Highlander Mage is much better against Rogue than we’ve been led to believe. The first step? Take out your tech cards. With nerfs to both Necrium Apothecary and Ancharrr, there’s no longer a good incentive to play anti-weapon tech like Acidic Swamp Ooze. Nor is there much use for Spellbreaker, since Apothecary has disappeared from the meta. Without these superfluous additions, we can sub in stronger mid-game tempo plays like Siamat and [Hearthstone Card (Big Ol’ Whelp) Not Found]. 

Our featured build is currently climbing in popularity at Legend. In preliminary results, the list has performed admirably, securing a winrate of 56.8% over 1,200 games. Against Rogue, our build has excelled, posting a 52.8% winrate against Galakrond Rogue thus far. 

Outside of Legend, Highlander Mage’s matchup spread is a mixed affair. Strong against the ascendant Token Druid and Quest Resurrect Priest, Jaina has shown a considerable weakness to Hunter, including a pitiful 28.6% winrate against Face Hunter.  

Paladin

Paladin blows and basically no one is playing it. 

That’s not entirely true, but it’s so close to true that we might as well say so. In fact, Mech Paladin actually saw a considerable bump in play over the past week, which isn’t saying much because the archetype remains unpopular. That’s not terribly surprising; the standard build performs poorly against all three of the meta’s most popular decks (Galakrond Rogue, Highlander Galakrond Rogue and Galakrond Warrior). 

There do, however, seem to be ways of improving the deck’s winrate, at least at lower ranks where the prominence of aggro archetypes forces us to race our opponent. Our featured build, which includes Hot Air Balloon (strong magnetic targets are always a plus) and Blessing of Wisdom, has performed well in preliminary results, earning a winrate of 56.2% over 3,700 games between five and Legend. Benefits of our build include improved matchups against Control Galakrond Warlock, Face Hunter and Token Druid. 

Rogue’s success is truly Uther’s misery. The omnipresence of Flik Skyshiv (which, right now, is played in some 20% of decks on the ladder) has rendered Holy Wrath Paladin inert. It doesn’t help that the archetype sucks against everything in the meta outside of Galakrond Shaman, which is no longer meta. Small wonder the archetype has fallen to a playrate of 0.67% (from a peak of 5.4% one month ago) from ranks five to Legend. 

Thanks to woeful results against every popular deck in the format, Pure Paladin has disappeared entirely, bottoming out at a representation of 0.41% between ranks five and Legend. Hopefully (at least for Pally mains), the archetype receives further support in Galakrond’s Awakening, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. 

Priest

Quest Resurrect Priest is starting to feel the burn, literally. While Highlander Galakrond Rogue (a terrible matchup for Anduin) is in decline at the highest ranks, Valeera’s new toy isn’t much better. Tempo Galakrond Rogue has proven a true nightmare for Quest Resurrect Priest; over 9,800 games between five and Legend, Valeera’s secured a winrate north of 58% against Quest Resurrect Priest. Again, there are ways to improve this all-important matchup; Valeera thrives on unoptimized lists. If you want to beat Rogue, lose the frills; Seance and [Hearthstone Card (Mosh’Ogg Enforcer) Not Found] are clear under-performers. 

Our featured build improves the odds, breaking even against Tempo Galakrond Rogue (and improving the Malygos Rogue matchup), while maintaining a serious advantage against other meta stalwarts, including Galakrond Warrior and Control Galakrond Warlock. 

A new Highlander take on Galakrond Priest has renewed interest (but not by much) in the archetype. So far, the deck looks terrible against everything outside of Face Hunter, but the statistics are still severely limited. We’re featuring a list from hamoorftw (posted to r/CompetitiveHS on January 17, 2020) because it packs the most early game tempo. Whether it’s any better than the alternatives is anyone’s guess.

Despite a recent spike in play at Legend, Aggro Combo Priest remains a ghost on the fringes of the meta, having fallen to a playrate of 0.63% between ranks five and Legend. It’s certainly not a bad deck, but Descent of Dragons offers more powerful options. 

Rogue

In the wake of Thrall’s fall from grace, Valeera has risen to the top of the heap. 

Driven by a powerful new tempo build featuring Lifedrinker and ample burn, Galakrond Rogue is now the most popular deck in the game, both at Legend and lower ranks. Vulnerable only to three soft counters in Control Galakrond Warlock, Quest Hunter and Murloc Paladin, the archetype boasts an exceptional matchup spread against the field, including strong winrates against meta mainstays Galakrond Warrior and Highlander Galakrond Rogue. It’s safe to say that, as it stands, Tempo Galakrond Rogue is the strongest deck in the game. 

Wherever you look, Galakrond Rogue reigns supreme as the format’s most popular option, accounting for anywhere between 18% and 9.47% representation between ranks one and five. The archetype’s performance over the past week has been truly impressive; Galakrond Rogue’s three best builds all boast winrates above 57% between ranks five and Legend. 

Our featured build, universally referred to as Tempo Galakrond Rogue, controls the early game with Valeera’s strong tempo tools, then exploits a torrent of 0-cost cards from Heistbaron Togwaggle and Galakrond, the Nightmare to search for lethal outs: 

Roguestone is for real at Legend: over the past seven days, Galakrond Rogue has commanded 21.49% of the Legend format, followed by Highlander Galakrond Rogue (an archetype in notable decline) at 11.36%. Including Malygos Rogue, the fourth most popular deck at Legend, Valeera controls nearly 40% of the Legend meta. The archetype’s popularity has likewise soared at lower ranks, and we expect further increases for Galakrond Rogue over the coming week (notwithstanding any major meta shakeups introduced by Galakrond’s Awakening). 

Galakrond Rogue’s rise to power is contrasted by the steep declines experienced over the past week by Highlander Galakrond Rogue, once the most popular deck in the meta. The archetype remains exceptionally strong (in part because Necrium Apothecary wasn’t hard to replace), but, with competent play, Tempo Galakrond Rogue is stronger (and, perhaps more importantly, wins the matchup against its Highlander cousin). 

Little surprise, then, that Highlander Galakrond Rogue has dropped off considerably at Legend, falling to a representation of 9.47% in part due to pressure from pure Galakrond Rogue lists. We expect players in the lower meta to switch over in the coming week, as Galakrond Rogue’s higher relative power level becomes apparent. 

Meanwhile, Deathrattle Rogue has disappeared from the meta altogether. Malygos Rogue, too, seems to be on the way out, suffering a precipitous fall in popularity over the last week. That’s especially true at lower ranks, where the archetype’s significant weakness to Hunter become more pronounced (and balances out the deck’s strength against Quest Resurrect Priest). 

Shaman

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Galakrond Shaman now feels like a relic of the past, as the archetype’s playrate between five and Legend continues to fall. Today, Thrall commands only 1.14% of the upper meta, and he’s even less popular at Legend. 

We probably don’t have to tell you that the deck is doing poorly; that should be apparent from the playrate. While Thrall still has good matchups, especially against Priest, the bright spots have really dried up. Rogue and Warlock, in particular, are a pain in the frogs. 

No proper successor to the powerful Galakrond Shaman builds of old has yet emerged. In an ironic twist, most players have finally switched over to the GalaFrog variant of the archetype (about two weeks too late, we’d say), while removing Spirit of the Frog. Without a powerful draw engine, we don’t see how this deck works (spoiler alert: it doesn’t). 

Aggro Overload Shaman saw a slight increase in play between ranks five and one this week, but not enough that you’d notice it. Even considering its recent bump in popularity, the archetype only commands about 1% of the meta between five and Legend. 

Most players have now opted for a Doomhammer finisher over the old token / Bloodlust strategy. Squallhunter has fallen out of favor, but we still think it deserves a spot; Lava Burst remains a powerful finisher in its own right. Electra Stormsurge, on the other hand, doesn’t make the cut. Blazing Battlemage is an interesting addition to increase early game consistency, but ranks as the worst-performing card in the list; Sludge Slurper looks to be the better choice. 

Warlock

After what seemed to be a breakout week, Warlock is again falling in popularity, despite continued success from the class’ now-premier deck, Control Galakrond Warlock. Handlock remains a minor player on the scene, but struggles against Valeera, while Galakrond Zoo Warlock, once Gul’dan’s darling, has fallen on hard times. 

Despite a healthy matchup spread, Control Galakrond Warlock continues to drop in playrate, falling from a peak representation of 8.64% to 4.62% between ranks five and Legend over the past two weeks. That’s true even though the archetype is outstanding (60% winrate) against Rogue, the most popular class in the game. Galakrond Warrior remains a stumbling block, but Garrosh’s playrate has entered a decline, leaving a relatively open playing field for Gul’dan. 

Don’t be deterred by Face Hunter’s persistence between ranks one and two; Control Galakrond Warrior is still an excellent choice for the climb to Legend. Today, we're featuring BoarControl's latest list, which swaps out two board clears (Lord Godfrey, Twisting Nether) for Cheaty Anklebiter, a card that should be familiar to Mecha'Thun Warlock players. 

After weeks of decline, Galakrond Zoo Warlock’s playrate has begun to rebound at Legend, but we don’t think the most popular list is cutting it against Galakrond Rogue. To improve this all-important matchup, our featured build swaps out the underperforming Faceless Corruptor for Devoted Maniac, on the theory that more tokens are more better (as is a consistently-Invoked Galakrond). 

Our build carries the added benefit of increasing the winrate against Galakrond Warrior (important at all ranks), along with Treant Druid and Secret Highlander Hunter, which should improve your matchup spread in the lower meta, too. 

Handlock remains one of the most varied archetypes in the game, but Trashlock, the variant featuring Elven Archer and EVIL Genius, is pulling away in terms of performance. While traditional, Dragon-centric builds continue to perform admirably against Rogue, Trashlock takes the archetype’s success rate to a new level; over a sample of 1,100 games between five and Legend, Trashlock has won 54.3% against Galakrond Rogue, a full 2 percentage points higher than any Dragon build has yet achieved. 

Trashlock also happens to excel where Dragon variants falter, namely against Control Galakrond Warlock and Face Hunter. Too bad the deck isn’t gaining traction. While no variant of Handlock can be considered popular, Trashlock is the least popular. Given the list’s recent performance, that shouldn’t be the case. 

Warrior

The playerbase is losing confidence in Garrosh. 

While Galakrond Warrior remains the third most popular deck in the format, the archetype is definitely losing steam, suffering significant losses in playrate over the past week. But don’t let that scare you away from the archetype; Galakrond Warrior, and more specifically, the archetype’s tempo variant, is still extremely strong in capable hands. 

From a peak representation of 15.71%, the archetype has fallen to a playrate of 6.32% between ranks five and one. The trend is mirrored at Legend, where Galakrond Warrior now commands only 6.91% of the format. Much the same can be said for Pirate Warrior, a deck that has fallen from a playrate high near 5% to a low of 1.25% between ranks five and one. 

Yet Galakrond Warrior is still a good choice at lower ranks; between ranks five and one, Garrosh enjoys excellent matchups against Galakrond Rogue, Highlander Galakrond Rogue, Secret Highlander Hunter and Highlander Mage. With an optimized build, capable players should be able to expect a winrate near 55%, certainly sufficient for climbing. 

The only problem? Galakrond Warrior becomes far worse after you’ve hit Legend. The most important matchups flip to negative at Legend, where Garrosh loses consistently to Valeera and Jaina. That’s a major problem, because Legend is where Rogue and Mage are most prominent.  

There is good news, however, and you can thank the Old Gods for it. For the first time, Tempo Galakrond Warrior has come to outnumber its control-minded cousin between ranks five and one. This is as it should be; the tempo variant is far better, boasting improved winrates against Galakrond Rogue and Secret Highlander Hunter. In contrast, the control variant’s winrate has plummeted over the past week. Meanwhile, the variant centered around Scion of Ruin has cratered in popularity in response to extremely inconsistent performance.  

Alongside a steady decline in popularity, Pirate Warrior experienced volatile winrates over the past week, falling into the middle of a crowded Tier 2. As expected, Ancharrr remains the strongest card in the deck, but the weapon’s nerf has certainly hurt the archetype, weakening matchups against Control Galakrond Warlock and Galakrond Warrior.

This week’s featured build has shown considerable strength against Rogue, earning a 55.5% winrate against Galakrond Rogue over 610 games between five and Legend. Our list also appears to excel in tempo matchups, finding success against Secret Highlander Hunter,  and Token Druid. 

Finally, recent experimentation has led to the development of several new Highlander Control Warrior builds. While it’s too early to evaluate these decks on their power level, we’re featuring the build with which Titan_HS reached Legend this season, a sensible list heavy on Dragon synergies:

Thrall is gone. Valeera has taken his place. But with 35 new cards on the way in Galakrond's Awakening, the meta may look very different in a few days. Having fun playing Rogue? Sick of seeing one class dominate the meta? Let us know in the comments!