Thanks! Whenever I'm convinced there just cannot be that many, something else seems to come out. Although the amount of top DH decks that were using just this one identical list, truly staggering.
These are completely normal stats, as far as what I've been seeing for the last few months. Especially Lurk. It's always been around 51 or 52% at best.
Lulu/Fizz is a version of Yordles in Arms. It's had a similar winrate to that for a long time as well.
I've told you for a long time that spiders is not actually very good, and it's not. Pirates is doing better, but also not that great (and has a very low playrate).
In short, nothing surprising here for me.
Maybe the difference is that you stopped looking at the Mobalytics stats page, which has always been a very inaccurate picture of the actual meta?
This is an interesting one - since Wildfire got “buffed” to 1 mana, it got nerfed for Even Mage so going pure hero power doesn’t work anymore as a win condition. Instead, it uses a different win condition. Not going to spoil it exactly but it’s really fun if you like value and uses the old card Echo of Medivh to great effect.
This one uses Kazakusan. It also uses Luminous Geode and Lightsteed to great effect, so if you want a deck that uses those rarely seen cards vote for this. It’s a deck that can win quickly with snowballing the early board (Crabrider anyone) and also win the lategame with value.
It’s a lot of pirates, Blademaster Okani, bounce effects, Pirate Admiral Hooktusk, and Crabatoa. It’s definitely less competitive than Pirate Rogue but if you want to see a take on Even Rogue vote for this one.
Even Warlock the competitive deck is very strong but honestly kind of boring - it’s mostly stats. I tried to make it a bit more varied and fun to play by including Recombobulators and the ability to play Gigafin with Seadevil Stinger.
Lvl 72. Been juggling with BG and Arena. looking forward to new BG patch
For the first time im actually been afk farming xp in merc and gave me 2 extra lvls over the week. just doing some runs on phone and when afk at home doing breaks. Normally it wont be bothered doing this and im not a big fan of it but since blizzard decide that giving 25% less xp in BG and arena compared to standard is the way to go and trying to force you into a gamemode that you dont like then i find afk farming merc totally ok. so getting that extra xp is nice.
I love the Demon hunter cards. Fits really well. Mah'jin and Arena Invader are particular favorites.
Spirit of the Bat would be much better in your version. Warlock was my favorite of Rastakhan's Rumble. Hir'eek, the Bat was my legendary of the set and I tried so hard to make it work.
Also own a Golden Gurubashi Offering I've never played and refuse to disenchant it! I'll find a use for it someday. Much like Caravan's from Barrens, having to sit on the card until your next turn to get anything from it is real punishing. They keep printing cards like that too weak in stats or effect. Love to see some buffs to some of these types of cards, just a health or two like you did can make all the difference.
It doesn't always exist. If your deck can outheal and board clear an Aggro DH, then suddenly half your cards are worthless against Control Warrior. Likewise, if your deck has a lategame win condition against Warrior, then you won't draw your survivability against DH as consistently. Hearthstone doesn't have a sideboard system, so you can't really fine-tune your deck for specific matchups. The best you can do is play to your deck's primary strengths.
Thanks for your comments, these are all valid points. I just want to explain my thought process behind a couple of them:
1) I went with the most popular Dragon Paladin list over any best-performing deck solely due to sample size. Because I was trying to share decks that have "good matchups" against certain meta decks, I didn't want to feature a deck that had less than 100 games in that matchup and claim that it was "favored." I hope I will get better at being able to pick out the decks that have good win rates in certain matchups; it's a learning curve, and I'm working on it. Thanks for your detailed breakdown of the deck's chances against Questline Hunter.
2) Yes, the lack of Shaman is glaring. This is partly because I was trying my hardest to feature more decks that people may not have seen or thought of playing (although there are some decks here that people have likely seen before: AM Mage, Handbuff Paladin, for example). It was also hard to find non-Burn Shaman lists that had enough games to feel comfortable featuring them--I don't recall seeing a Mutanus list that had a big enough sample size for me to feel comfortable with. Again, learning curve--I'll work to get better.
3) QL Priest over Boar Priest in this article is simple: Aesan featured Boar Priest in his very good breakdown of the best current meta decks. We overlap in some places, but not in this case.
Thank you! Surrender to Madness was a bit tricky to balance; my main point of reference here was Embiggen. Concidering it also lead to 3/3 as well as 5/5 Patches even on turn 1 and the overall cost of 2 Max Mana, finally looking at where is Embiggen in Wild meta currently, I can see it being strong and swingy, but not as consistent and meta-defining as you might think. I'd personally love to see it in the Bwonsamdi 1-Cost minion archetype, some sort of a midrange deck with crazy combo at the end
Really neat ideas! I do think the buff to Surrender to Madness is way too much though: T1 coin + madness, T2 Pirate + 6/6 patches doesn't sound fun to play against.
Dragon pally is not unfavored vs quest hunter by virtue of 2x Holy Maki Roll alone. In fact, if you dump cards like Mr. Smite (your win con is Kazakusan) for Amber Watcher, you're even more favored against it.
The list featured here is currently the most popular dragon pally in hsreplay. But by no means the better deck. I think the best list plays midrange, going for kazakusan as fast as possible. No smite, no bannerman, no righteous defense.
Quest priest is something I've been seeing a lot as of late, but I have absolutely no idea why. Its win rate is shown to be good, but after facing quite a number of it last week I think its not really worth the bother at all. Its not even necessarily good against the two decks that its supposed to be beating; control warrior and naga dhunter.
If there's any priest deck that deserves any mention at all its boar priest. A deck, played well, that can do exceptionally against all the current top meta decks. Hard loses to anacondra druid and warlock, but these decks are hardly ever seen so its a good tradeoff.
I think an argument can be made for a few shaman list here. There's currently two builds; the usual burn shaman with Bioluminescence and the very funny mutanus shaman. Both hard loses to quest hunter, but otherwise decent against nearly everything else, which is to say, not embarrassingly bad as the current state of warlock is.
After some more play testing, Pirate Rogue is too agressive to handle, but against Mech Mage and Pirate Warrior there is enough time to stabilize and play the combo to finish the game afterwards.
Running into an early curve Skulking Geist is an immediate autoloss by the way.
A Few Weeks Deep Into Year of the Hydra - Best Standard Hearthstone Decks for Sunken City Meta Voyages
Thanks! Whenever I'm convinced there just cannot be that many, something else seems to come out. Although the amount of top DH decks that were using just this one identical list, truly staggering.
A Few Weeks Deep Into Year of the Hydra - Best Standard Hearthstone Decks for Sunken City Meta Voyages
This weekend I learned (by playing questline hunter) that warlock's curses progress the quest.
D'awwww, thanks!
Winrates Are Plummeting - Whats The Cause?
These are completely normal stats, as far as what I've been seeing for the last few months. Especially Lurk. It's always been around 51 or 52% at best.
Lulu/Fizz is a version of Yordles in Arms. It's had a similar winrate to that for a long time as well.
I've told you for a long time that spiders is not actually very good, and it's not. Pirates is doing better, but also not that great (and has a very low playrate).
In short, nothing surprising here for me.
Maybe the difference is that you stopped looking at the Mobalytics stats page, which has always been a very inaccurate picture of the actual meta?
Even Druid - Wild Hearthstone Full Deck & Guide on the Wildest of Tuesdays
Also thanks everyone who commented on the compendium! I really appreciate the support for the compendium and this series.
Even Druid - Wild Hearthstone Full Deck & Guide on the Wildest of Tuesdays
Mage
This is an interesting one - since Wildfire got “buffed” to 1 mana, it got nerfed for Even Mage so going pure hero power doesn’t work anymore as a win condition. Instead, it uses a different win condition. Not going to spoil it exactly but it’s really fun if you like value and uses the old card Echo of Medivh to great effect.
Even Druid - Wild Hearthstone Full Deck & Guide on the Wildest of Tuesdays
Shaman
The new Amalgam of the Deep and Anchored Totem combine to reinvigorate the archetype in a Totem direction.
A very snowbally deck, so vote for this if that’s the sort of gameplay you enjoy.
Even Druid - Wild Hearthstone Full Deck & Guide on the Wildest of Tuesdays
Priest
This one uses Kazakusan. It also uses Luminous Geode and Lightsteed to great effect, so if you want a deck that uses those rarely seen cards vote for this. It’s a deck that can win quickly with snowballing the early board (Crabrider anyone) and also win the lategame with value.
Even Druid - Wild Hearthstone Full Deck & Guide on the Wildest of Tuesdays
Rogue
It’s a lot of pirates, Blademaster Okani, bounce effects, Pirate Admiral Hooktusk, and Crabatoa. It’s definitely less competitive than Pirate Rogue but if you want to see a take on Even Rogue vote for this one.
Even Druid - Wild Hearthstone Full Deck & Guide on the Wildest of Tuesdays
Warlock
Even Warlock the competitive deck is very strong but honestly kind of boring - it’s mostly stats. I tried to make it a bit more varied and fun to play by including Recombobulators and the ability to play Gigafin with Seadevil Stinger.
Even Druid - Wild Hearthstone Full Deck & Guide on the Wildest of Tuesdays
What Even deck do people want to see next? They’ll come out in the order of the winners of this poll (just based on votes).
Rewards Track: Current progress 5.0
Lvl 72. Been juggling with BG and Arena. looking forward to new BG patch
For the first time im actually been afk farming xp in merc and gave me 2 extra lvls over the week. just doing some runs on phone and when afk at home doing breaks. Normally it wont be bothered doing this and im not a big fan of it but since blizzard decide that giving 25% less xp in BG and arena compared to standard is the way to go and trying to force you into a gamemode that you dont like then i find afk farming merc totally ok. so getting that extra xp is nice.
KingKuba's Custom Remastered Rastakhan's Rumble Set - Hearthstone Fan Community Spotlight
I love the Demon hunter cards. Fits really well. Mah'jin and Arena Invader are particular favorites.
Spirit of the Bat would be much better in your version. Warlock was my favorite of Rastakhan's Rumble. Hir'eek, the Bat was my legendary of the set and I tried so hard to make it work.
Also own a Golden Gurubashi Offering I've never played and refuse to disenchant it! I'll find a use for it someday. Much like Caravan's from Barrens, having to sit on the card until your next turn to get anything from it is real punishing. They keep printing cards like that too weak in stats or effect. Love to see some buffs to some of these types of cards, just a health or two like you did can make all the difference.
That Sinking Feeling - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Good luck to our future finalists! I'm assuming it won't be me lel
14 Top Standard Decks to Counter Hearthstone's Most Successful Meta Creations
It doesn't always exist. If your deck can outheal and board clear an Aggro DH, then suddenly half your cards are worthless against Control Warrior. Likewise, if your deck has a lategame win condition against Warrior, then you won't draw your survivability against DH as consistently. Hearthstone doesn't have a sideboard system, so you can't really fine-tune your deck for specific matchups. The best you can do is play to your deck's primary strengths.
KingKuba's Custom Remastered Rastakhan's Rumble Set - Hearthstone Fan Community Spotlight
Very cool thoughts.. I tried to make Surrender to Madness work for several weeks when this expansion dropped
KingKuba's Custom Remastered Rastakhan's Rumble Set - Hearthstone Fan Community Spotlight
Very cool remaster!
14 Top Standard Decks to Counter Hearthstone's Most Successful Meta Creations
Thanks for your comments, these are all valid points. I just want to explain my thought process behind a couple of them:
1) I went with the most popular Dragon Paladin list over any best-performing deck solely due to sample size. Because I was trying to share decks that have "good matchups" against certain meta decks, I didn't want to feature a deck that had less than 100 games in that matchup and claim that it was "favored." I hope I will get better at being able to pick out the decks that have good win rates in certain matchups; it's a learning curve, and I'm working on it. Thanks for your detailed breakdown of the deck's chances against Questline Hunter.
2) Yes, the lack of Shaman is glaring. This is partly because I was trying my hardest to feature more decks that people may not have seen or thought of playing (although there are some decks here that people have likely seen before: AM Mage, Handbuff Paladin, for example). It was also hard to find non-Burn Shaman lists that had enough games to feel comfortable featuring them--I don't recall seeing a Mutanus list that had a big enough sample size for me to feel comfortable with. Again, learning curve--I'll work to get better.
3) QL Priest over Boar Priest in this article is simple: Aesan featured Boar Priest in his very good breakdown of the best current meta decks. We overlap in some places, but not in this case.
Thanks for your comments!
KingKuba's Custom Remastered Rastakhan's Rumble Set - Hearthstone Fan Community Spotlight
Thank you! Surrender to Madness was a bit tricky to balance; my main point of reference here was Embiggen. Concidering it also lead to 3/3 as well as 5/5 Patches even on turn 1 and the overall cost of 2 Max Mana, finally looking at where is Embiggen in Wild meta currently, I can see it being strong and swingy, but not as consistent and meta-defining as you might think. I'd personally love to see it in the Bwonsamdi 1-Cost minion archetype, some sort of a midrange deck with crazy combo at the end
KingKuba's Custom Remastered Rastakhan's Rumble Set - Hearthstone Fan Community Spotlight
Really neat ideas! I do think the buff to Surrender to Madness is way too much though: T1 coin + madness, T2 Pirate + 6/6 patches doesn't sound fun to play against.
KingKuba's Custom Remastered Rastakhan's Rumble Set - Hearthstone Fan Community Spotlight
So, what do you think guys? :D
14 Top Standard Decks to Counter Hearthstone's Most Successful Meta Creations
Playing a given deck to counter another deck seems silly to me.
Wouldn't it be better to play a deck that gives you a fighting chance against all comers?
Ultimate Control
It's pretty obvious to me that this is a tech list.
Really only good into the play scenarios I outlined above.
As soon as people start playing decks with non-linear styles darkness falls apart.
But yeah pantheon, Viktor, aggro, just a lot of the easy lists.
14 Top Standard Decks to Counter Hearthstone's Most Successful Meta Creations
Just a few comments.
Dragon pally is not unfavored vs quest hunter by virtue of 2x Holy Maki Roll alone. In fact, if you dump cards like Mr. Smite (your win con is Kazakusan) for Amber Watcher, you're even more favored against it.
The list featured here is currently the most popular dragon pally in hsreplay. But by no means the better deck. I think the best list plays midrange, going for kazakusan as fast as possible. No smite, no bannerman, no righteous defense.
Quest priest is something I've been seeing a lot as of late, but I have absolutely no idea why. Its win rate is shown to be good, but after facing quite a number of it last week I think its not really worth the bother at all. Its not even necessarily good against the two decks that its supposed to be beating; control warrior and naga dhunter.
If there's any priest deck that deserves any mention at all its boar priest. A deck, played well, that can do exceptionally against all the current top meta decks. Hard loses to anacondra druid and warlock, but these decks are hardly ever seen so its a good tradeoff.
I think an argument can be made for a few shaman list here. There's currently two builds; the usual burn shaman with Bioluminescence and the very funny mutanus shaman. Both hard loses to quest hunter, but otherwise decent against nearly everything else, which is to say, not embarrassingly bad as the current state of warlock is.
Linecracker Mecha'thun Druid
After some more play testing, Pirate Rogue is too agressive to handle, but against Mech Mage and Pirate Warrior there is enough time to stabilize and play the combo to finish the game afterwards.
Running into an early curve Skulking Geist is an immediate autoloss by the way.
EDIT: Just highrolled a Pirate Rogue with Oaken Summons into Archmage Vargoth who recasted Oaken Summons into Injured Marauder, lol 😂
A Few Weeks Deep Into Year of the Hydra - Best Standard Hearthstone Decks for Sunken City Meta Voyages
Aesan, you did gods work bundling all these decks together! Very nice read.