Greetings everyone, and welcome to the second Out Of Cards meta report since Patch 21.3 went live.
The new Duels meta is yet to be completely defined, and while some top decks are rapidly emerging from the cauldron, people are not stopping to experiment new things, which is a sign that there's genuine interest in the mode and in the new meta. Nerfing the Battlecry synergy was really a good move!
As usual, here below you'll find a handful of 12-win decks achieved with multiple classes, which may give you the inspiration you need to get one yourself. Have fun!
Disclaimer: some decks in this article were collected from Firestone. You can find out more about Firestone and install the app here!
In case you missed them, we published other collections of 12-win Duels starting decks to take inspiration from!
- The New Duels Meta Post-Balance Changes - Best 12-Win Duels Starting Decks for 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!
Madara's 12 Wins Questline Druid
Let's start with some Lost in the Park Druid. While it's not the first time ever we've seen this archetype, it is for sure one of those strategies that benefitted from Patch 21.3's quite long list of changes. Sure, [Hearthstone Card (ooops, all spells!) Not Found] is now more difficult to find, but you have very few burst spells and Khadgar's Scrying Orb is a valid (and way more common) substitute.
All in all, this starting decks does not feature any high-cost cards like Nourish or Cenarion Ward, because the early games take too little to end and spending a lot of mana on a single and not-immediately-game-winning card may not be the best choice. For the first few matches, just worry about going face and running down your opponents: you'll have time to pick more expensive stuff as your run goes on.
P.S. For the sake of transparency, the original list included Wandmaker in place of Claw, but the player themselves stated that it was a mistake.
Passive Treasures Chosen
First pool - Fireshaper
Second pool - Legendary Loot
AgentCroque's 12 Wins Token Druid
Token Druid, but the Constructed way: very few (but relevant) minions and lots of spells that generate units and buffs. This way, you'll be able to get the Greedy Gains' +2/+2 upside without suffering the consequent mana cost increase of your units. Pretty smart!
Remember that with this archetype, you usually win through big swing turns rather than a slow grinding game plan, so don't despair if your opponent manages to slow you down a bit as you'll have many chances to bring home the match.
As for the Passives, I spoke with Croque themselves and they told me that Spreading Saplings is a more than valid alternative to Greedy Gains.
Finally, here's a little tip directly from Croque that you should be aware of when starting your run with this list.
Quote From AgentCroque I honestly think Nerubian Egg and Vibrant Squirrel should be Wisp and Desk Imp after what learning off of this run.
Passive Treasures Chosen
First pool - Rhonin's Scrying Orb
Second pool - Greedy Gains
OhNoesHS' 12 Wins Discover Deathrattle Hunter
This one is the first of the few starting decks we've noticed to be built with the sole purpose of hitting that sweet sweet Discovery synergy from Staking A Claim for extra large boards and little mana investment.
OnNoes tried to do so while not going all in: in fact, they still included a little Deathrattle package to fall back to in case of unfavorable Passives, and we dare to say that this choice paid off: the player was not able to find Staking A Claim or Meek Mastery, but still managed to get to 12 wins: a great display of skill. Well played!
Passive Treasures Chosen
First pool - Sticky Fingers
Second pool - Emerald Goggles
12 Wins Discover Mage (Firestone)
OhNoes did it with Hunter, and this starting deck does it with Mage: your goal is still finding Staking A Claim and abusing it.
Mozaki, Master Duelist actually has a lot of Discover cards at disposal: apart from the usual Neutral package, the class has at disposal Primordial Studies, Wand Thief, Primordial Glyph, Ring Toss and Keywarden Ivory.
Another thing you should be wary about is that Mage has a lot of burst at disposal, so with all this card generation you'll be very likely to find that damage you're missing to kill your opponent. You may lose the control of the board, but from-hand burst is almost always inevitable, so this is an upside you should take in consideration.
Passive Treasures Chosen
First pool - Staking A Claim
Second pool - Meek Mastery
Fliboce's 12 Wins Frost Ping Mage
In our last Duels Meta Report we highlighted LessThanThree hitting 12 wins with a Frost-oriented Hero Power Mage featuring Arctic Armor, but the players themselves suggested that Leyline Manipulator should've been included in order to discount the Ice Shard generated by Frost Shards. That's exactly what Fliboce did, not only they included the aforementioned Elemental in place of Alexstrasza the Life-Binder, but they were also able to find Meek Mastery for even more synergy.
Sure, one two swallows don't make a summer, but we could be onto something...
Passive Treasures Chosen
First pool - Arctic Armor
Second pool - Meek Mastery
Karasawa1600's 12 Wins Dragon Priest
Miracle Mind Tether Priest apart, Mindrender Illucia does seem to have another viable Duels archetype. Dragons typically have strong effects and relevant bodies, but they are the tribe that needs the most time to actually hit the board and make an impact: too much to ask in a meta where cheap units were able to create a steady flow of damage and value. However, things are different right now, and so are Dragon Priest's chances to see competitive play.
However, the most notable element of this starting deck is Lady Prestor: it appears that you can achieve great results and follow the memes at the same time!
Passive Treasures Chosen
First pool - Dragon Affinity
Second pool - Battle Totem
12 Wins Soul Warlock (Firestone)
It appears that the Battlecry nerfs didn't affect Soul Warlock too much, as this version was able to get to the end of the run with a pretty much traditional build, being Battleground Battlemaster being the only relevant new entry for extra burst damage and some surprise lethals.
The current Duels meta isn't infested by weapon decks, but this player still chose to run Rustrot Viper: why? That's mainly for two reasons:
- Soulcial Studies shuffles heal in your deck, but at the cost of not having access to Life Tap or, eventually, Dark Arts - therefore, Tradeable cards represent a good way to cycle through your deck for little mana cost.
- Rustrot Viper represents the only Tradeable card (apart from Royal Librarian) that can give you some form of relevant upside: consuming a couple hits from a Quel'Delar is not bad at all!
Passive Treasures Chosen
First pool - Crystal Gem
Second pool - Disks of Legend
Persia's 12 Wins Discover Warrior
Robes of Protection and Loatheb: the Mind Tether Priest hate is real!
This iteration of Staking A Claim decks runs quite a peculiar set of cards:
- Peasant - a 1-drop that helps you building a board from turn 1.
- Lord Barov - if you lose the board, there are very few ways to gain it back, and this unit does it for just 3 mana.
- Manafeeder Panthara - Bruising costs 0 mana and you usually want to use it as many times as you can: getting a card draw on top of it is actually not bad.
Passive Treasures Chosen
First pool - Staking A Claim
Second pool - Meek Mastery
Do you like Duels? What are you playing right now? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
The Frost Ping Mage deck is a lot of fun, even more so with double-Battlecries for my two copies of Mordresh Fire Eye. Your hand fills up fast with those Ice Shards, though, especially if you use Reckless Apprentice.
Tried the Deathrattle Hunter in this list and I was lucky enough to get offered Staking A Claim and Meek Mastery. I got Grimmer Patron and Gentlemen's top Hat as treasures. Being able to drop Grimmer Patron as 4/4 on turn 1 with coin win me two or three games Itself. Ended up with a 12-2 run.
Grimmer Patron looks like a perfect Active Treasure for that list. Congrats for the result!
That Discover warrior is super odd. The Netherspite Historian and Primalfin Lookout only benefit from the passive treasure, so if you don't find the treasure or any dragons/murlocs during your run, they're useless
Edit: I didn't read the cards, so regardless, if you don't have a dragon in hand or a murloc on board, the discover won't trigger at all anyway. I'd prob find better discover cards to replace those 2. Actually 3 coz Entrapped Sorceress wouldn't proc either
The point is that Staking A Claim is so good that you don't really care if your Discover effect triggers, as long as your cards have it.
You can pretty much switch the Discover keyword with "Battlecry: give all your minions +1/+1. Sometimes Discover a card."
There aren't many Discovery cards in the Duels pool, so we cannot really be too picky in that regard!
No weapon rogue? Piloted a face rogue to 10 wins (so far) with garbage passives like crystal gem and the one that gives you a legendary weapon at the start of the turn. Brutal, but fun because every match looks hopeless until your opponent dies.
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.
I would certainly post it if I do. But its highly unlikely. I whiffed on the passives, and all it takes is just one taunt to put me literally on drawing my bag of stuffing to even have a chance to win.
I believe in you! Good luck with your run, and make sure to tag me whenever you get there.