New Ranked Season is upon us! And with Forged in the Barrens expansion merely a few days old, the Standard meta continues its dynamic development. You can already find a lot of viable archetypes for each class on the site, and we've been constantly monitoring for some more updated decks that either took a high Legend finish towards the end of March, or have already managed to become early Legend contenders as of the start of this month.
If you're eager to find some inspiration for your ladder journeys in the coming days, perhaps something below might appeal to your tastes and align with your current card collection. As always, we advise you don't commit too heavily to crafting all the cards you don't own at the moment - the present meta landscape might shift again after the weekend!
Deathrattle Demon Hunter
Jambre has slightly altered his initial list while fighting for the top spots at the end of the season - you will notice Warglaives of Azzinoth did not make the cut after all, with Far Watch Post stepping in to buy more time early on. It seems that was just about enough to grab the qualification for the upcoming Masters Tour. Nicely done!
If you were like me, worrying that Death Speaker Blackthorn you pulled from the packs might be completely useless for now, perhaps it's a sign to reconsider.
Burn Shaman
Pacemanpiff tweeted their early ladder success with this list, as credited to no other than one of Hearthstone's World Champions, Hunterace. The small totem package is interesting, even as Bru'kan and Novice Zapper tend to make the real difference. Some Nature spells can go face with an extra oomph thanks to that sweet spell damage boost.
Deck of Lunacy Spell Mage
There is a new villain in Hearthstone, a faceless menace transforming your spells into higher cost ones. This week, everyone is banding together to complain about the power of Deck of Lunacy. Crane has had a good track record with his take on it, along with many others (some faithful still choose to stick with C'Thun, the Shattered).
Why is it resurfacing now? Turns out there are a lot of strong spells in the current Standard pool, which is why Apexis Blast and Font of Power have found a new life along with the whole Spell Mage archetype. You may laugh in disbelief until Nagrand Slam stomps all over your face several turns early. Then again, maybe it will go back to being a notable meme if there is not enough consistency to be found at the end of the day.
Pen Flinger Aggro Hunter
Americas Grandmaster Rami94 was inspired by a similar list from data whiz D0nkey, and they have both achieved very respectable Legend ranks while hitting people in the face across a variety of means. And we really mean variety. Pen Flinger in Hunter? It's a thing now! If you thought you could catch a well-deserved respite from being called a loser, I'm afraid we've got some bad news to report.
Secret Paladin
BabyBear did not waste time making it to Legend early with this variation on Paladin secrets. No Cannonmaster Smythe, but there is Crabrider! Which means it definitely earns our stamp of approval.
Token Druid
Apollion and several other people sealed their top ladder finishes with reliable takes on the deck we are all familiar with by now. Gibberling power holds up. Seeing as Fungal Fortunes and Glowfly Swarm remain with us, it's not a great surprise. You might notice Guff Runetotem started being cut, though. Some players also like to slot in a copy or two of Guidance.
Fancy anything showcased here so far? Are there certain deck archetypes and classes you are hoping to see more of? Or maybe you have got your own ideas and success stories to tell with decks that might do even better? Our smooth deckbuilder is here to help!
Comments
Crabrider is my personal nr. 1 nerf prediction as well. Second place goes to Lord J. Control Warlock just got way too consistent with that infinite late game package and at least 2x Tickatus. My guess is Crabrider goes 1/3 so it can be removed by Flame Imp and friends, while Lord J. looses 4 points of weapon durability. Not sure if the latter is enough, but it's a start.
The durability matters very little. The weapon rarely ever swings for that many turns anyways. Or gets destroyed immediately if someone happens to have an ooze. At that point in the game, the damage per swing is more relevant. Reducing durability on his Blood Fury weapon would literally do nothing.
There are only 3 real choices on nerfing Jaraxxus.
Possibly 1 or 2 of these at the same time.
I'm also not a fan of crabrider. I think it's too strong considering how insane murlocs tend to scale. Remove the windfury and I think he's fine.
Lastly I don't think Lunacy is that insane. It's no different than Prince Keleseth decks that played him on curve back in the day. And it's an RNG swing. There are some great spells. But there are also some serious brick spells (Survival of the fittest for a deck that doesn't run any minions, Guardian Animals, etc) Without spells like Box of Yogg Saron, or other good 8/10 costs, the deck can whiff on some of it's high cost cards. This provides an inherent "risk vs reward" but based on RNG (did you get good RNG or not).
And if people are complaining that a lunacy mage cast 3 Nagrand Slams in one game, then they have to realize that somewhere out there, another lunacy mage just got 3 Survival of the Fittest cards, that will do nothing but clog their hand).
As I said on reddit: If we can survive for 4 months and 3 rounds of nerfs for aggro and soul-demon hunter dominating the meta, we can survive for more than a week calling for nerfs on a meme RNG deck.
I think Jaraxxus might honestly just get a hit to the hero power (and maybe the weapon alongside it, but that one's not really the problem).
MAybe they'll also hit Tickatus, but I struggle to think of a way that would nerf the card in such a way that it isn't an automatic win against control decks
I was thinking that Tickatus might eventually get Secret Passage treatment, at the very least reduce the amount of burned cards to 3 or 4. So the fatigue game plan is less debilitating. They could also make it much harder to corrupt by increasing the mana cost to 8, as an alternative.