Hello and welcome to the inaugural Standard Meta Report, covering the week of August 11 to August 18, 2019. Every week, we'll cover the current metagame in Standard, featuring both emerging archetypes and ladder mainstays. We'll talk decks and techs and statistics, highlighting the best lists for your climb and analyzing breakout performers that have a chance of becoming competitive. We'll also track refinements in meta pillars and analyze possible improvements.
The Overview: August 11, 2019 - August 18, 2019
Saviors of Uldum has reshaped the meta in profound ways.
We’ve seen a fairly fast tempo meta develop at lower ranks. The pace of play has been set by the mana-cheating prowess of Murloc Paladin, which currently boasts the highest win rate in the game. Alongside Uther and his squishy horde, a bevy of midrange board-based decks have flourished; Quest Rogue, Quest Druid and Quest Shaman jockey for position with modest success between ranks ten and five.
At higher levels of play, control comes to dominate, with both Control Warrior and Control Mage well-represented. Garrosh and Jaina maintain high win rates at Legend, but are kept in check across all ranks by Highlander Hunter. Despite his misfortunes in Rise of Shadows, Anduin is swiftly coming to prominence at the head of an aggressive heal-centric combo deck, which is likely to catch on in lower ranks after showing considerable promise higher on the ladder.
Druid
Druid has reached an interesting stage in its development. The quest list feels pretty standard at this point; it’s a deck Blizzard dictated from on high. I don’t think it’s doing very well, though. Losing out on tempo for four turns is a bad start by any metric, and while there’s considerable heal, fast decks can still run it down with ease. The matchup spread is abysmal when you account for any of the format’s most powerful decks; Quest Druid loses to Freeze Mage, Control Warrior, Highlander Hunter and Murloc Paladin.
But Malygos Druid is the deck of the moment at higher levels of play. Though statistics are scant at this point, the list feels powerful and flexible; it shines when you can't complete your combo. With the Druid quest complete, you're capable of strong tempo plays in the form of Oasis Surger and Anubisath Defender. Nourish provides outstanding card draw. Like many combo decks, Malygos Druid still has trouble fighting off aggro strategies, but Warrior's armor gain is no problem as you exploit the late-game doubling effect of Elise the Enlightened, multiplying Moonfire and Malygos for lethal. With Flobbidinous Floop in hand, the deck is capable of outrageous damage. We'll be interested to see how this deck fares against Mage over a large sample size; dealing with the crazy boards cheated out through Luna's Pocket Galaxy has proved difficult thus far.
Token Druid is sitting near the low end of tier two, but not many people are playing it. The archetype’s best performing (and most played) version features no cards from Saviors of Uldum, which is a shame because this is a cool set. At the moment, the deck is middling against the pack, with positive win rates against other tempo decks and negative win rates against the format’s control lists.
Hunter
Hunter is likely the meta’s most successful class, all things considered. Highlander Hunter is really really good and Secret Hunter isn’t far behind. There’s still Mech Hunter, too, which is hanging around at a winrate just under 55% across all ranks.
The only deck not invited to the party is Quest Hunter, but that's not much of a surprise. Twenty minions is a lot; I'd say I completed the quest by turn nine on average, which is too bad, because this is a great little aggro deck. Halazzi, the Lynx really shines in the beast-oriented list, but there's also a Mech version kicking around that makes excellent use of Necromechanic. Either flavor you choose, Quest Hunter does all right at low ranks, but few players are taking it out on the ladder above rank five. No one’s playing it in Legend.
But here's the good news. Dinotamer Brann feels good. [Hearthstone Card (Zul’jin) Not Found] is still amazing, both as a tempo play and a value generator. Zephrys the Great is still built on pretty good AI. Highlander Hunter’s winrate is solid across the board. Though expensive, it’s a great choice for climbing from rank ten or five and remains a fun way to pull in some wins at Legend (read: police for Control Warrior). It outfoxes Quest Druid and outvalues Dr. Boom, beats up on Combo Priest and trounces Jaina. You’ll have a tough time against Tempo Rogue, but at least you can counter their Zephrys.
Mage
Control Warrior’s continued success is diametrically opposed to the status of Cyclone Mage, our other Rise of Shadows juggernaut. The old formula, which relied on Sorcerer's Apprentice and cheap spells to hoard value and fill the board, has been replaced by an insane Highlander deck with a big spell package featuring King Phaoris and Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron. The list can be slow, even when you snag an early Luna's Pocket Galaxy, but the lethal outs are ridiculous. You won’t believe the board states you can create with this deck; games are unpredictable and mind-bending.
A powerful control archetype reliant on freeze effects has also emerged. Conjurer's Calling remains broken. The list boasts a winrate just under 52% at Legend, with King Phaoris and Naga Sand Witch at flex spots. As an added bonus, Bone Wraith and Khartut Defender, two new Saviors of Uldum reborn minions, slot into the deck nicely as sticky board-based plays you can drop relatively early.
Despite receiving a powerful new package in Saviors of Uldum, Secret Mage has failed to perform. Held back at Legend by a shameful matchup against Control Warrior, the deck isn't particularly successful against the field at lower ranks, either, having negative winrates against most of the tempo decks you'll see on your climb from rank five. The deck is definitely underpowered for the meta. How Secret Mage deals with Mountain Giant is anyone's guess. It doesn't really have a powerful way of killing the opponent; you rely on damage from minions to chip away, but there aren't many minions here. It'll be interesting to see whether we'll get more experimentation within this archetype. Maybe more burn.
Paladin
Murloc Paladin is the flavor of the week for aggro players. It’s performing admirably at lower ranks and hovering near 51% at Legend. Though it costs a lot, the deck’s straightforward and should be a good starting point for beginners looking to climb. Like most successful tempo decks, Murloc Paladin performs well against other board-based strategies but folds to control, which makes it suited to play at lower ranks. It’s also a lot of fun; few things feel better than a Tip the Scales on five, especially when you get a buffed-up Bluegill Warrior to smash face.
Most people playing Paladin are exploiting Prismatic Lens and Tip the Scales, but there’s also experimentation with the new quest, Making Mummies. This deck is a work in progress, but has the power to dominate matchups in the lower ranks. It's outrageous against Control Warrior, joining Highlander Hunter as a check on Garrosh's power.
At its heart, Quest Paladin is still a middle-of-the-road midrange deck. The winrate’s positive, slightly, but poor matchups against Murloc Paladin, Control Mage, Combo Priest and Quest Shaman are holding it back. The requirement to play weak Reborn minions for early-game tempo is a killer. It’s plausible that with an influx of powerful new Reborn minions, the deck’s performance would improve, but since Team 5 didn’t bring Twinspell back for Saviors of Uldum, I wouldn’t hold my breath. Thing is, I kinda like it. It feels good to beat up on Warrior.
Priest
Quest Priest is a disappointing deck with an underwhelming balance of removal and high-impact minions. It can be fun, though; as annoying as it may be when your opponent resurrects Convincing Infiltrator for the fourth time, it’s awful satisfying to do. Thus far, the archetype’s performance is nothing to write home about. Between ranks five and Legend, the deck loses more than it wins, with a particularly terrible matchup against Murloc Paladin. In any event, no one's really playing it anymore, with a representation under 1% between ranks four and one.
Far more popular (and successful) is an Aggro Combo Priest running a robust heal package and exploiting the classic Divine Spirit / Inner Fire combo. Though its usage has exploded at Legend and Rank 1, I would say this deck is underplayed for its winrate at lower levels of play. Only around 3.5% of players at rank 5 have opted for this strategy, but the deck punches above its weight higher on the ladder. At Legend, Combo Priest is the most popular deck, and it’s winning over 55% of its games, thanks in large part to favorable matchups against Control and Highlander Mage.
For players at lower ranks, the deck should perform admirably. Despite a tough time against Control Warrior, it shines against other ladder mainstays, including Quest Shaman and Quest Druid, the first and third most popular decks at five. Combo Priest felt unbelievably strong for me against Quest Rogues and Quest Druids, as I rocketed from rank five to three over the course of ten games. This is one to watch and I’m excited for further refinements. Tip: play it like a combo deck. Draw is everything.
Rogue
It appears that the player base has soured on Rogue, thanks in part to the poor performance of the class’ quest. While great for early and mid-game board control, it turns out that a 2-mana 3/2 weapon doesn’t cut it in the late game, which is when most players seem to be completing the quest.
Thankfully, a wicked new take on the classic tempo build is here to entertain Valeera in this dire time. Rogue is in a state of flux, but one thing players are convinced of is that Hooked Scimitar is strong. Paired with Waggle Pick and Captain Greenskin, Scimitar stands at the center of a weapon-heavy build that goes face as much as possible. This deck started out with a really fun Zephrys the Great / Myra's Unstable Element combo, but since those early days, many players have dropped Zephrys and gone straight tempo. The winrate's positive for now, but Warrior is still a major stumbling block.
If you don’t care about stuff like winning, Highlander Rogue may be your cup of tea. The deck isn’t particularly competitive, but it’s a lot of fun. And you get to use Zephrys. Twice.
Shaman
Quest Shaman is a lot of fun. You can tell by the number of people playing it. In ranks four and five, Quest Shaman is everywhere, the second most popular deck behind Control Warrior. Spirit of the Shark for two is fun. Lackeys are really fun. The debate over control or tempo play styles is also fun. It's not particularly competitive, though. Thrall’s numbers crash as you move up the ladder; the deck’s terrible against Control Mage and even worse against Combo Priest, making it the perfect choice if you want to lose at Legend.
Don’t sleep on Murloc Shaman, though. It's not being played much, but the archetype shines against the field at higher ranks. It’s favored against Control Mage and Combo Priest, and heavily-favored against Quest Druid, making it a fair choice across the ladder. Control Warrior is a sore spot, beating Murloc Shaman about 60% of the time between rank five and Legend, but who doesn't have that problem?
Warlock
Zoo received some powerful new pieces in Saviors of Uldum, including a new lackey generator, Sinister Deal, Dark Pharaoh Tekahn and EVIL Recruiter. Alongside EVIL Genius, these new additions to the lackey package ensure that Zoo can get off to a fast start, but the deck also has a great new mid-game combo in the form of Diseased Vulture and Neferset Thrasher. Now, Zoo can go toe to toe with both Quest Paladin and Quest Druid, while generating sufficient threats to out-tempo Murloc Paladin. That matchup is close, but favors the Warlock, which is all to say that Zoo is still a great choice if you’re facing a lot of tempo decks.
But what, you ask, of Plot Twist Warlock? The experiment continues! The deck’s definitely been given a boost through the addition of Supreme Archaeology, but if winning is your aim, look elsewhere. Quest Warlock is the bottom of the barrel. Literally. You will be steamrolled.
But the archetype’s performance is definitely being hurt by a number of sub-optimal builds on the ladder. Some of these lists seem absolutely terrible, but the sample sizes are still very low. It’s heartening that the list for which we have the largest dataset also performs the best; it favors removal (in the form of Impbalming and Hellfire) and uses Bone Wraith as its early to mid-game taunt of choice. But I’m missing the point. You don’t play Plot Twist Warlock to win; you play it for fun.
Warrior
Nothing escapes the dour eye of the Mad Genius. As in metas past, Control Warrior is the name of the game if you want to rank up. The deck sports a win rate over 55% across all ranks, leveling out just under 53% at Legend. It's also the most popular deck in the game (though Mage is more played as a class). The more things change, the more they stay the same. You’ll see Garrosh everywhere on the ladder - and don’t worry, he has a Warpath in hand.
There's hope, though. An intriguing new form of Enrage Warrior is showing promising preliminary results across all ranks. Restless Mummy is an extremely powerful card, allowing you to play control against tempo decks. Bloodsworn Mercenary enables explosive burst lethals by abusing Leeroy Jenkins. The deck is fun, fast and shows no signs of slowing down. Duplicating a damaged Zilliax is pretty sick. Though the sample sizes are still small, we're cautiously optimistic about this one.
Most other tempo Warrior variants have failed to take hold. Quest Warrior isn't good and no one's really playing it. That makes sense, because if you want to repeatedly smash your opponent’s face in with a bladed weapon, you should be playing Rogue. Though dominant towards the latter end of Rise of Shadows, Bomb Warrior has largely been abandoned by the player-base. If you want to play Warrior, you play Control, especially with the addition of the powerful new Taunt package.
So that's the week that was. All in all, it's a diverse meta with lots of exciting choices for the climb. Let us know in the comments what you think. What's your favorite deck to climb with right now? What hasn't been working out for you? Have you spotted a metabreaker on the horizon yet?
Comments
where is the wild meta report or is that noy important
A few things about this meta feel...well to speak frankly idiotic.
To start, the Aggro Priest variant:
It utilizes practically all the cards a Quest priest variant would want. To not run quest in this version of the deck seems to speak to the "lemming problem". (i.e. A popular streamer/pro player showcases a deck, despite it being flawed or perhaps unrefined the "masses" start to play it even though it practically makes no sense.)
I get it, Lightwarden makes the deck aggro oriented, and you want to play lightwarden on 1 so you can buff it/heal and get out of control fast. I get it. However, when the deck loses, it loses hard....except if it had the quest it wouldn't lose hard. All the deck has to do is swap 1 minion out for the quest, and you will get MUCH more value.
IMO the deck doesn't need Leeroy Jenkins, between Lightwardens, Inner Fire combos, and possibly including the quest, the deck wouldn't need Leeroy in the first place. And even if you DID run leeroy, You'd want to run it with the quest so you could 8 mana combo for 9 damage.
Everything about this deck, and the people proliferating it's popularity makes ZERO sense. I implore you. If you're running aggro priest, just run the quest with it. Swap out one card that you don't have, or feel like you don't need as much (cough cough 1x Inner fire is enough to combo with...cough cough) And enjoy a much more robust deck. It would be similar to running a ton of battlecry minions in shaman, and not running the quest because you want to play a turn 1 minion. It's dumb NOT to include the quest in those instances.
Quest Shaman:
I've found weaponized wasp to be highly inconsistent, and often when you play Shudderwock you're playing it on an empty board so you won't be triggering the wasps battlecry effect with the Wock himself. Running 2x Questing Explorer and 2x Novice Engineer feels redundant. Both are only used to create hand size early on pre-quest completion. After quest completion you often don't find yourself running out of resources.
Evil Totem is great if it goes off and survives for more than 1 round, but often it's 2 mana for 1 lackey which is horrible. I know it makes wasp more consistent to use, but again...I feel like running Youthful Brewmasters or Bog Sloshers and just bouncing your existing lackey generators would be actually better, and in the case of the 2 latter; they progress the quest forward immediately, where Evil Totem does not.
Mogu Fleshshaper isn't horrible, but I find that if you're gonna run that card, you probably want to run mutute. Yes, it's technically card disadvantage, and sometimes you won't be able to combo them, but the times it high rolls and gives you an 8 drop on turn 3-4, it will pay for itself.
Personally I'm actually running a different decklist with Quest Shaman utilizing Siamat to buff up Shudderwock, and giggling inventors to stall. It's proved fun, if not somewhat inconsistent. I guess I'm on the "control" side of Quest Shaman, and there's no right answer, but the deck provided above feels very unrefined.
Aggro Warrior:
Haven't actually seen this that much. But it's a one trick pony. Either it goes off cause you have no answer, or it stalls out. Any decent midrange/control deck is able to fend it off fairly easily, even with quest completion. Only other aggro decks will have a hard time from what I've seen.
You're super wrong on the quest in priest. Combo priest wins or loses games way before the effect is relevant. You would rather have a CHANCE at a cleric on one than ever have that quest in your opening hand. Calling it a streamer thing is silly, these things have been tested over thousands of games and statistics show you don't run the quest in combo priest. Combo priest is one of the highest winrate decks in the meta, if the quest made it better people would be aware.
I do think Leeroy is not a good card in combo priest but this deck runs the 3 mana 3/3 so there is some synergy i've never personally tested and I could see it being a finisher for the games where you don't get a huge combo off and you need to close the game. It's basically Leeroy + shadowstep except it's a 3/3 that has synergy with your other cards.
I disagree with a lot of your opinions on quest shaman but that deck is not refined and I think you can build it a lot of ways so no way is really right or wrong. But I think the wasp and totem are good.
Quest in opening hand doesn't preclude a cleric. You're using a a false dilemma in order to make some sort of "you either have quest in opening hand and no cleric, or you mulligan it away for an increased chance at cleric". I AM calling it a streamer thing, because a streamer did popularize it. At it's core, the non-quest aggro priest variant is a few things:
1) Hyper aggro. It hopes to achieve early big hits with lightwarden snowballing very fast.
2) Utilizes the oldest, possibly boring archetype of priest. DS/IF combo. (on the topic of that, I wouldn't back on that combo surviving either. They already mentioned they are closely monitoring Divine Spirit's efficacy, which in practical terms is the death-knell of that card being Hall of Famed)
3) Unable to adapt to an evolving game due to a polarized win-condition. (unlike the variants that use topsy-turvy or the 2/14 taunt minion which can be both defensive or offensive)
Lastly, I have to make a point of a lack of critical thinking on your part. Yes, if you are up against a paladin or hunter, you probably want to mulligan away the quest if it were run in the deck. This would help you create a solid opening hand. BUT, running the quest doesn't mean you can't mulligan it away.
Plenty of people would mulligan the quest away in matchups during Ungoro, if the quest being utilized was unfavorable, or they needed immediate tempo. But imagine this scenario: You mulligan the quest away in appropriate scenarios to improve your win condition, and you keep it in other matchups to improve those control matchup win conditions. There's nothing saying you CANNOT mulligan the quest away if you need that immediate tempo. The simple fact these decks don't think about that is what is mind boggling.
But hey, you do you. I can't force people to think independently, critically, or outside the box. So keep on CTRL-C+CTRL-V'ing.
It's not a false dilemma. If you run the quest you are statistically less likely to have a cleric along with other early game cards, and there isn't a single matchup you don't want cleric or the other early game cards. Combo priest wins by snowballing the early game, having a dead card for the first chunk of the game doesn't help you get early board and snowball, it does the opposite. Of course you can mulligan the quest, but what is the point of having the quest if it is better to mulligan it in literally every matchup, because it's just not good in the deck and does not fit your gameplan. Having to mulligan it also still weakens your mulligan because that could have been a good card. What are these matchups where a 3/3 buff is going to help a deck with no comeback mechanics, because you haven't mentioned them yet. Even if these mythical matchups exist, it wouldn't be enough to justify weakening your opening mulligan and potential draws.
Calling it a streamer thing is ridiculous and is showing some serious weird bias you have going on. You think pros going to korea for masters and people winning open cups with priest are just playing what they play because "lol a streamer played it". Combo priest isn't the highest winrate deck in the meta because a streamer played it, and it isn't better with the quest. This stuff has been tested. For the record, completely standard combo priest has 49% winrate with the quest in it on HSreplay which is a whopping 10% lower than the most played list. It's almost like having a terrible card in your hand every game is bad. The quest has the third lowest drawn rate in the deck.
You're the one not thinking critically here, sometimes things stay outside the box for a reason.
What do you remove from the standard Combo Priest list to fit the Quest? I'd love to try your version out.
The Problem here with the quest is not just that it's a minion less that you can play, it's a card less that you have in your mulligan hand. And if you mulligan it away, it's a dead draw and way harder to finish.
Priest often has problems to draw anyway (if you don't get any kind of draw combo of), so having one less card from the start really sucks.
Old quest hunter had a similar problem. You could play a minion on 1, quest and another minion on two, but then you are already out of cards, with (back than) no magical "draw three cards" card available to you ever.
Those aggro decks don't have any comeback mechanic, so you really want to get the board from the start and don't want to lose it, and that's where the quest is a roadblock. You either want more tempo or more draw in hand, not something that doesn't do anything for the next 5 turns.
You either want more tempo or more draw in hand, not something that doesn't do anything for the next 5 turns.
1 Turn. It doesn't do anything for 1 turn. Not 5. The mana loss is 1, the turn loss is 1. After that it's a passive effect on the game, that upon completion drastically improves the ability for a priest's minions to stick to the board.
I'm not negating that in some matchups the skipped 1st turn isn't desirable, but there's also nothing that said you can't mulligan the quest away.
You very clearly mentioned that exact dilemma in your post. "it's harder to complete if you mulligan". Yes, so in aggro matchups where you cannot under any circumstance have a tempo loss, you mulligan the quest away. In control matchups (i.e. control warrior) hold onto it.
You, like the other poster, are acting like including a quest in your deck means you HAVE to play it EVERY turn 1 for EVERY matchup. As if some proverbial gun is to your head. It's not, but the fact that the deck runs EVERY card a quest priest would likely include in his deck, makes it asinine to not include as a possible alternative win-condition. Which, frankly speaking: a 1 mana alternate win-condition is pretty damn good in the grand scheme of things.
But like I said above, I can't force you, or anyone else to think critically, independently, or dynamically.
It's sadly not just one turn. It's all the following turns that you have one card less and it does nothing. It has no passive effect on the game until it is completed. Like I said, it's not only the one mana, it's the one card that's missing in your hand that could do something.
The problem is that even in control match ups, you lose the board if you keep the quest. Especially against warriors.
I actually wrote what not keeping it does later in the game. It gives you a dead draw in a class, that doesn't draw a lot. It's great if you have turn 4 and draw the quest against an aggro deck.
In my lunch break I jumped on the bike in the gym and played 18 games with the quest in the deck: It is not an alternate win condition, it's ballast.
In most situation it's useless, since you don't finish it before you either kill them or get killed. I finished the quest twice, both times my board was frozen and I got hit in the face with giants, since the deck has no board clears or anything that helps you to get the board back once you lose it.
You want to win by turn 6 or 7. That's also roughly the time you finish the quest. If you don't win until then, there are only slim chances that you will actually win. That means you will get nearly no value from it, and every time a Leeroy would do the trick too.
I don't know if you actually tried to play with AND without the quest, because it so quickly get's very obvious: even though the quest has the same needs for healing as the aggro deck, they are not synergistic.
Really, care to show your replay history? I'm sure your the type of person who keeps statistics with deck tracker, since you so very "kindly" gave stars/minute statistics below in a different post.
The reason I question the validity of your claim is that in order to take a typical corporate lunch break (~ 1 hour) and play 18 matches, your matches would have to last on average 3.33 minutes per match. That is assuming the game immediately loaded into each game.
The typical hearthstone match takes 20 seconds to search for a new opponent and I'll generously say 40 seconds for both players to load in and complete the mulligan. So we'll say a 1 minute "time tax" per match. Sound fair?
So according to your statistic, that would be 18 minutes of buffer time for purely just LOADING and mulligan phase. That leaves us 42 minutes to play 18 games. So in actuality your matches would have to be 2.33 minutes long each to make 18 matches.
Considering that even the old school odd paladin and even hunter decks generally struggled to get their matches UNDER 5 minutes consistently, I have a hard time believing that you've revolutionized the meta with your specific play of aggro/priest by running matches with under 2.33 minutes.
Next time you want to bullshit someone and "pretend" like you're attempting to be unbiased, but in actuality you are biased (and lying through your teeth with falsified claims of statistics to boot) at least come up with some realistic "statistics" that are at least plausible.
I'm a person that tries to deal with managable variables, so to me, including a variable (the quest in this instance) that improves your winrate better in some matchups, seems like an acceptable compromise to me. As I have said THREE times now. If the matchup looks to be aggro, you mulligan the quest away, if the matchup looks to be control, you hold onto it.
The ability for aggro priest to win with quest in hand is still fairly high.
Statistics for drawing either Lightwarden or Cleric in your opening hand BEFORE mulligan:
Going first: 23.9%. Going 2nd: 32%
(for reference, the statistical difference if you didn't run the quest would be 39% going 2nd, and 32% going first).
If your complaint is that Mulligan it away means you have a harder time completing it, I don't understand what you're getting at: because quest priest will generally win before they draw even 10 cards from the deck.
But let's assume you did mulligan 2 cards away going first, and 3 cards going 2nd (while keeping quest)
Your chances of getting a lightwarden/cleric in your mulligan while going first would be : 24.6%
Your chances of getting a lightwarden/cleric in your mulligan while going 2nd would be: 32.8%
As for this trite debate. I'm done. You can believe what you want. But there's a reason control warrior has a higher winrate than aggro priest. Because it is far more adaptable to decks. It can handle aggro decks, combo decks, and control decks relatively fine. It doesn't mean it will win them all, but the reason it does well is it has a reasonable ability to combat them all. Aggro priest, when it gets the RNG, it can knock down any deck. But the problem is that, like you said: it wants to close the match out before turn 6 if possible. When it goes past that turn, it's winrate declines. Hard.
I think this is the correct analysis. Quest is too big of a tempo loss for a deck that needs to maintain board control.
Reading that part "As in metas past, Control Warrior is the name of the game if you want to rank up." I thought:
Is there a calculation how much longer a match in average is allowed to take per % win-rate, so it's actually faster to level up?
Some random example numbers, so it's more clear what I mean: Aggro hunter has a 53% win rate but matches take on average 5 minutes, control warrior has a win rate of 56% but matches take on average 15 minutes. Which deck is faster to ladder with?
EDIT: Some real numbers:
Murloc Paladin:
https://hsreplay.net/decks/4ID03jW3LiHwKIiOwUdGbc/#tab=overview
Average match length: 6.3 minutes
Win rate: 58%
Control Warrior:
https://hsreplay.net/decks/2FUUSC94SpSHPRTuUhCW7/#tab=overview
Average match length: 14.5 minutes
Win rate: 60.9%
EDIT 2:
found a calculation: https://us.battle.net/forums/en/hearthstone/topic/20770947172#post-6
6.3 / 2 * (0.58 - 0.5) = 39.375 minutes per star for Murloc Paladin
14.5 / 2 * (0.609 - 0.5) = 66.5 minutes per star for Control Warrior
Very interesting read this article! I like how you take into account the meta at different tiers in the ladder and your predictions for the meta.
What’s the data and the database your report relys on? Would be cool to know sample size etc.
Anyway it’s a great orientation for new players and another option to keep in mind for enhanced ones.
Thanks!!
All statistics are from HSReplay, accurate as of 9:51 EST yesterday. Sample sizes vary, of course, but most winrates are global for a specific tier (e.g. ranks 5 - Legend).
Thank you Targus 👍🏻
Very nice article - good read and very informative!
The only thing i'm confused about is that you mention something about Spirit of the Shark on two in the Shaman Section ... did i misread something or is that a mistake ?
It's in context to the effect from Spirit of the Shark, referring to the quest reward.
Ok thanks, did not think about that!
Is there any chance we'll see a meta report for Wild also, maybe monthly (since there the meta shift more slowly)?