12-Win Duels Decks to Play Before Next Weeks Balance Patch

Greetings everyone and welcome to the final Duels meta report before next Tuesday's balance patch.

Although Patch 21.3 will be centered around Battlegrounds and Constructed changes, Hearthstone Developer Ates 'Tabayrak' Bayrak stated on Twitter that it will also bring some Duels news: in fact, both Miracle Mind Tether Priest and the very strong and highly consistent Battlecry synergy (probably All Together Now and/or Rally the Troops) will be tuned down in some way.

While we talked about these exact changes over a month ago, we're happy to see that Duels will see some of its outliers to be dampened a bit. This game mode is supposed to host crazy combos and powerful synergies, but when they become too consistent and too oppressive... there lies a problem that must be addressed, and we're very glad the devs agree with us.

Quote From Tabayrak

This patch there are some nerfs to dampen the power of Priest… and Battlecry. Small nerfs but I feel they will shake up a thing or two.

Now for the actual gameplay, we selected a handful of 12-wins starting decks for you to have fun with in these last days before the patch goes live. Hoping that they'll bring you a lot of fun as well as success, we wish you a wonderful weekend!

In case you missed them, we published other collections of 12-win Duels starting decks to take inspiration from!

• August 2021's End of the Month 12-Win Hearthstone Duels Decks
• 12-Win Hearthstone Duels Decks to Hit the Ground Running in a Post-Meek Mastery Meta
• Awesome 12-Win Hearthstone Duels Decks to Cruise Into the End of September

If you've had 12 win luck in Duels since the recent balance changes, be sure to add your starting decks to our site via the deckbuilder and share them in the comments below!

Moreover, if you manage to find even more 12-wins decks (maybe even your own!) and you'd like us to showcase them, please contact us on Twitter at @OutOfCardsHS or @Avalon_OOC or through an in-site ping in Private Message.

Master Duelist

On a last note, we're currently hosting the second episode of a Duels deck building challenge called 'Master Duelist'. This series asks you each time to start a Duels run with a starting deck that respects a certain condition. September's theme is 'From Zero To Hero', and requires you to build a starting deck featuring at least one card from each cost (from 0 to 10 mana).

We already received many submissions, and our competitors have come up with some brilliant ideas to meet the set condition, but we feel like there is a lot more room to explore. In case you want to learn more about the challenge, be sure to check out the challenge's main page as well as the submission thread!

Revaz142's 12 Wins Clown Druid

Speaking of 'Master Duelist', here's what one of our competitors came up with! Revaz was able to hit the maximum score of 12 wins using an iteration of Clown Druid. While we can't say the starting deck is optimized at all, this goes to show that you can have fun and hit some pretty remarkable results at the same time.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Mending Pools

Second pool - Endurance Training

Hearth Vader's 12 Wins Quest Spell Druid

Thanks to Duels-exclusive synergy, Lost in the Park has been able to find more space than in the Constructed format. Nature's Gifts, in particular, is such a great tool, since it allows great flexibility between progressing your Questline and giving you a nice boost for from-hand burst damage.

Hearth Vader was able to pick Stargazing, a tier 2 Ultra Rare Passive Treasure (which means it has a whopping 1% chance to be offered), which enhanced even more his reach!

Check out the video below for a well-done deck introductions as well as some spicy gameplay!

P.S.: spell-related Passives like Fireshaper and Robe of the Apprentice/Robe of the Magi are fine too!

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Rhonin's Scrying Orb

Second pool - Stargazing

Ail's 12 Wins Discover Hunter

The previous Duels meta report features Ail getting 12 wins with Discover Mage, and now they were able to get the same impressive result with Discover Hunter, which is even more impressive if you consider that Professor Slate is not in a good spot right now!

The drill is the exact same: play cards on curve, go wide and keep buffing your entire board thanks to Staking A Claim. You may have noticed that Entrapped Sorceress and Primalfin Lookout are in the deck without any kind of Quest/Murloc synergy, but that's okay: the Discover keyword is what makes them worth - in the end, the Discover effect doesn't have to trigger in order to get Staking A Claim's board buff.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Staking A Claim

Second pool - Rally the Troops

Evilgnomey's 12 Wins Dude Paladin

Here's another fresh 12-wins Master Duelist starting deck, this time featuring some manly Dude Silver Hand Recruit Paladin.

This user did not included Rise to the Occasion in their starting deck (consider that Men at Arms is a 4 mana Lightborn Cariel that comes without the Quest), but opted for a more tempo-oriented build, with lots of Dude synergy and the usual Alexstrasza the Life-Binder on top.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Rhonin's Scrying Orb

Second pool - Greedy Gains

Ail's 12 Wins Discover Priest

The same exact reasoning of Discover Hunter is valid for this starting deck: make sure you get Staking A Claim and take control of the board until your opponent's Health total hits 0.

One notable aspect is that Ail used fricking Call of Madness as Hero Power, in a class with Shadow Mend. While we see why they did it, we're still impressed by the rather singular choice.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Staking A Claim

Second pool - Greedy Gains

AgentCroque's 12 Wins Dragon Priest

Dragons are one of the most under-represented tribes in Duels, with just Priest (and rarely Paladin) being able to use them with success. Sure, they have some rather strong Passive Treasures like Dragon Affinity Dragonbone Ritual (as well as the not-so-good-but-still Dragon Blood), there are simply too few of them in order to build a solid run.

With this being said, Croque was able to exploit some of their raw power as well as Herald of the Scaled Ones's juicy resource generation to hit an Heroic 12er!

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Dragon Blood

Second pool - Meek Mastery

Avalon's 12 Wins Questline Priest 

Another Master Duelist 12er, this time showcasing a rather under-represented archetype: Questline Priest!

While a lot of merit goes to Meek Mastery, it is very strong even if now it's a tier 2 Passive Treasure, the deck's healing tools felt incredibly useful against a very aggressive meta that aims to burn you down as fast as possible.

For more information about the deck, as well as mulligan and playstyle tips, Active and Passive Treasures analysis and other considerations, make sure to check out the in-depth guide I wrote myself!

Passive Treasure Chosen

Fist pool - Crystal Gem

Second pool - Meek Mastery

Avalon's 12 Wins C'thun Warrior

Let's salute this Battlecry meta with one of most "feels 2016" decks out there: C'Thun Warrior. Strong Battlecries, favorable trades and lots of damage output now meet a build around unit, just like the old days. While you don't have to consider your C'Thun as an opponent-killer but more as a tempo tool, the deck provides lot of flexibility and survivability, which are a necessity in the current Duels.

Again, for more information about the deck, as well as mulligan and playstyle tips, Active and Passive Treasures analysis and other considerations, make sure to check out the in-depth guide I wrote myself!

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - All Together Now

Second pool - Rally the Troops

Do you like Duels? What are you playing right now? Let us know in the comments below!