The majority of highlander hunter cards are set. There's really only about 5 cards that you can swap around.
I'm a big advocate of viciousSyndicate and their meta reports. They recommend using below list as it is best suited for the current, more aggressive, meta:
I find them incredibly vulnerable to my typical Wild decks, because I appear to prefer decks that happen to include techs against Buffs (Devolve, Freezing Trap, Spellbreaker), but looking at those charts, the decks seems to be the new Meta Enemy. So I wanted to ask, how can this deck be so apparently consistent, given all the efficient techs that Wild can include against it, starting from the neutral and evergreen Spellbreaker himself?
Also, this deck uses no new cards from SoU, but I don't remember seeing many of them pre-SoU. What happened here? Secret Mage can't account for this alone.
It's popular because, much like mech hunter, it snowballs really early and really hard. It's great for picking up quick wins, which is best for climbing, too. Additionally, it's also pretty cheap.
The reason it hasn't seen any traction before is because wild is extremely slow to develop. It takes far longer in wild for a deck to catch on (unless it's extremely obvious it will be busted from day one, i.e. secret mage). I know it's climbing up on multiple tier lists, hence why it's probably gaining a lot more traction.
Since the majority of tech slots are currently being spent on secret hate, mech paladin doesn't have to worry about that either.
I think I'll be sitting this one out as well. Been a while since I've skipped additional content, but a third rehash of dungeon run just won't cut it for me.
Can we get a 'close' button on the mobile report feature though? If I accidentally click it the only way for me to close that screen is by pressing the return button on my phone, which sends me out of the thread.
So not only are you basing a deck's capabilities on a single game. You were also playing against an aggro deck that runs a quest for some reason.
Maybe that's why you don't get it.
Well, I just faced several aggro warriors NOT running quest today, and they actually did worse against wall priest than said quest guy. Will give some credit to one warrior starting off turn 2 with a 5/6 minion going into my face and later building a 12/4 Frothing Berzerker (but hey, thanks for putting up a 4-damage mech next to it for Mass Hysteria).
At least against Control Warrior, it's going to be who can outlast the other, rather than see how far aggro goes to quitting time if they can't get a win by turn 8.
Congrats, you just figured out the gameplan of aggressive decks. How does that help determine their power level again?
The move is good. UNLESS you have Crystal Merchant in hand as well and no good play for turn 5 (usually the turn where you complete the Quest). In that case it might be better to play the merchant on turn two plus coin so that you also get a much needed draw.
Yes, this is the importance of disaggregating data by rank. At Legend, Quest Druid indeed handles both Highlander Hunter (53.9% winrate) and Control Warrior (54.8% winrate). Stomps may be hyperbolic, but the general thrust of our assertion is correct. You’re right, though, that we should have been clearer in explaining which ranks we’re talking about. Highlander Hunter loses to Quest Shaman at Legend, but wins against the deck between five and one. So both statements are true, depending on which ranks you’re looking at. Sorry for the confusion, iWatchUSleep.
Thanks for the explanation! And no need to apologize.
Agreed, mentioning at what ranks the winrates apply would probably avoid a lot of the confusion.
Interesting that Quest druid's matchups improve so drastically the higher up the ladder you go. I guess it's not an easy deck to pilot.
Quest druid, for instance, is claimed to 'stomp highlander hunter and control warrior'. Yet the link above shows that quest druid's winrate against highlander hunter is only 48% and its winrate against control warrior is even worse: 42.5%. I understand that winrates differ per level, but does quest druid's winrate increase that vastly once you reach legend, that a 42.5% matchup turns into a stomp?
Of course those are only the free statistics. I don't have access to premium, which I assume you do, but it still seems unlikely to me that the winrates differ this much at higher levels.
Maybe I'm interpreting some things wrong, but if someone could elaborate a little on what I posted above that'd be much appreciated.
I had that exact same game once, my opponent had that combo and I had a bunch of jades. he ended up winning because he didn't kill my jades so they never got above 12/12 or so. they would have been at about 28/28 if he had killed them.
I was taking 3 damage at a time, he was taking like 50, he sill won though. that deck is near impossible for slower decks.
Yeah it's super busted. Feels like Linecracker shouldn't get the overkill effect, since he's not the one attacking.
Combo druid isn't a strong archetype at all. Not only is this a combo that doesn't even win you the game on the spot (unlike cards such as Mecha'thun) it also loses to a single Skulking Geist. No card of this combo needs adjustment.
Don't get the aggro warrior is best warrior stuff; I played Wall Priest and the warrior quit, and I hadn't even dropped a single resurrect, Psychopomp or plague card. Just taunt after taunt, an all-but-one Mass Hysteria clear and a copied Reckless Mummy I seanced in a pinch. (Edit: I also recall it being a quest aggro warrior, maybe he burned his best stuff too early while I had over 20 health).
So not only are you basing a deck's capabilities on a single game. You were also playing against an aggro deck that runs a quest for some reason.
Aggro rogue and warrior are probably the best decks for climbing right now. Both only really lose to slow warrior decks, and while those are apparently still somewhat popular, I've only faced a single one this whole weekend.
I would have to disagree. Aggro rogue is doing a lot worse than was expected post nerf. That's due to the fact that its best match up was Mage, which is basically non-existent.
Aggro warrior is better, but not much. Both are low to mid T2
How so? In my previous post I did seem to miss that aggro rogue is pretty unfavored against quest druid, despite my experience with the matchup. So you might be right that it's tier 2.
As you said secret mage is the deck to beat in wild currently. Which is why I'm wondering why you don't run any deck that can consistently beat it. From what I've seen and read it seems like both even shaman and odd rogue are 50/50 against it at best, if not unfavored. And renolock is just a matter of having reno on turn 6.
I'd advise to run a deck that can consistently beat secret mage, as nearly everyone will most likely be bringing it to the tournament. Jade druid and odd warrior seem to be the hardest counters. With the latter also having a decent matchup against the reno decks, especially if you go for a greedy build.
Aggro rogue and warrior are probably the best decks for climbing right now. Both only really lose to slow warrior decks, and while those are apparently still somewhat popular, I've only faced a single one this whole weekend.
The current most popular decks, according to hsreplay, seem to be murloc paladin, quest shaman, highlander hunter and quest druid. Aggro warrior is favored against all of those.
Highlander mage has fallen off drastically. Both because two of its cards got nerfed and because the meta changed quite a bit.
Edit: I might be wrong on aggro rogue. It's not favored against quest druid or paladin so it's probably tier 2.
thanks, I have enough dust to craft an epic, I used to have rat trap but then dusted it like an idiot, I will probably end up crafting it.
I still think it is worth it to add in a misdirection simply because there are not too many secrets in the deck now, I will probably end up cutting a Desert Spear for it.
Fair enough. Might I ask why you're not running Explosive Trap? With less control warriors and more aggro decks it's probably one of the better secrets to help you win fast matchups.
the list already runs snake trap! I would use rat trap but I don't have it.
I will add SN1P-SN4P and see how it goes!
Oh you're completely right, apologies. I overlooked it somehow. Rat Trap is arguably the best hunter secret in standard though. I would strongly consider crafting it if you can afford it.
You'd be surprised how often people don't or forget to play around it, even at higher levels. And a 6/6 that can immediately attack on your turn is just insane. That damage helps a LOT in securing wins in games where you would usually fall short.
Militia Commander
A 5 health warrior minion.
It's mostly casuals/people who have no idea how the game works.
People who think quest shaman is ridiculously strong because their homebrewed budget quest warrior can't beat it and stuff.
The majority of highlander hunter cards are set. There's really only about 5 cards that you can swap around.
I'm a big advocate of viciousSyndicate and their meta reports. They recommend using below list as it is best suited for the current, more aggressive, meta:
https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/deck-library/hunter-decks/highlander-hunter/subject-9-highlander-hunter-2/
It's popular because, much like mech hunter, it snowballs really early and really hard. It's great for picking up quick wins, which is best for climbing, too. Additionally, it's also pretty cheap.
The reason it hasn't seen any traction before is because wild is extremely slow to develop. It takes far longer in wild for a deck to catch on (unless it's extremely obvious it will be busted from day one, i.e. secret mage). I know it's climbing up on multiple tier lists, hence why it's probably gaining a lot more traction.
Since the majority of tech slots are currently being spent on secret hate, mech paladin doesn't have to worry about that either.
I think I'll be sitting this one out as well. Been a while since I've skipped additional content, but a third rehash of dungeon run just won't cut it for me.
Great stuff as always.
Can we get a 'close' button on the mobile report feature though? If I accidentally click it the only way for me to close that screen is by pressing the return button on my phone, which sends me out of the thread.
Secret mage
Odd rogue
Odd paladin
Even shaman
Seeing how you're new to wild, these should be the easiest to climb with at lower ranks.
I liked the flavor but after completing it I felt kinda empty as you don't get a thing for doing so.
Congrats, you just figured out the gameplan of aggressive decks. How does that help determine their power level again?
The move is good. UNLESS you have Crystal Merchant in hand as well and no good play for turn 5 (usually the turn where you complete the Quest). In that case it might be better to play the merchant on turn two plus coin so that you also get a much needed draw.
Thanks for the explanation! And no need to apologize.
Agreed, mentioning at what ranks the winrates apply would probably avoid a lot of the confusion.
Interesting that Quest druid's matchups improve so drastically the higher up the ladder you go. I guess it's not an easy deck to pilot.
Whilst I definitely appreciate all the forms of content and reports on this site, this week's meta report has me quite puzzled.
In the hunter section, it is mentioned that highlander hunter "consistently loses to Quest shaman".
Yet in the shaman section, the following is mentioned: " it’s pretty bad against the format’s most popular archetypes, including Highlander Hunter,"
Also the matchups described in the report don't always match up with hsreplay's own meta data: https://hsreplay.net/meta/#tab=archetypes
Quest druid, for instance, is claimed to 'stomp highlander hunter and control warrior'. Yet the link above shows that quest druid's winrate against highlander hunter is only 48% and its winrate against control warrior is even worse: 42.5%. I understand that winrates differ per level, but does quest druid's winrate increase that vastly once you reach legend, that a 42.5% matchup turns into a stomp?
Of course those are only the free statistics. I don't have access to premium, which I assume you do, but it still seems unlikely to me that the winrates differ this much at higher levels.
Maybe I'm interpreting some things wrong, but if someone could elaborate a little on what I posted above that'd be much appreciated.
Combo druid isn't a strong archetype at all. Not only is this a combo that doesn't even win you the game on the spot (unlike cards such as Mecha'thun) it also loses to a single Skulking Geist. No card of this combo needs adjustment.
So not only are you basing a deck's capabilities on a single game. You were also playing against an aggro deck that runs a quest for some reason.
Maybe that's why you don't get it.
How so? In my previous post I did seem to miss that aggro rogue is pretty unfavored against quest druid, despite my experience with the matchup. So you might be right that it's tier 2.
But look at aggro warrior's current matchup spread: https://hsreplay.net/archetypes/308/aggro-warrior#tab=matchups
Could you tell me what aspect doesn't make it tier 1?
As you said secret mage is the deck to beat in wild currently. Which is why I'm wondering why you don't run any deck that can consistently beat it. From what I've seen and read it seems like both even shaman and odd rogue are 50/50 against it at best, if not unfavored. And renolock is just a matter of having reno on turn 6.
I'd advise to run a deck that can consistently beat secret mage, as nearly everyone will most likely be bringing it to the tournament. Jade druid and odd warrior seem to be the hardest counters. With the latter also having a decent matchup against the reno decks, especially if you go for a greedy build.
Aggro rogue and warrior are probably the best decks for climbing right now. Both only really lose to slow warrior decks, and while those are apparently still somewhat popular, I've only faced a single one this whole weekend.
The current most popular decks, according to hsreplay, seem to be murloc paladin, quest shaman, highlander hunter and quest druid. Aggro warrior is favored against all of those.
Highlander mage has fallen off drastically. Both because two of its cards got nerfed and because the meta changed quite a bit.
Edit: I might be wrong on aggro rogue. It's not favored against quest druid or paladin so it's probably tier 2.
Fair enough. Might I ask why you're not running Explosive Trap? With less control warriors and more aggro decks it's probably one of the better secrets to help you win fast matchups.
Oh you're completely right, apologies. I overlooked it somehow. Rat Trap is arguably the best hunter secret in standard though. I would strongly consider crafting it if you can afford it.
You'd be surprised how often people don't or forget to play around it, even at higher levels. And a 6/6 that can immediately attack on your turn is just insane. That damage helps a LOT in securing wins in games where you would usually fall short.
There is an issue with this achievement, still. It's not on your end.
The team is aware of it and are working on it. I don't think there's an ETA yet, though.