Stormwind Duels Meta Update #2 - Best 12-Win Hearthstone Duels Decks For October Week 4

Greetings,

During the last few days, the Hearthstone community has been busy at savoring Mercenaries, Team 5's latest game mode. While most of the pre-release complaints have been swept away by some good old gameplay, there's still a lot to discover and say about Hearthstone's latest game mode.

Moreover, a Duels content update is going to be announced on November 2nd, which will bring Diablo as a playable Duels hero, the first one being dual-class: in fact, you'll be able to build starting decks with both Warrior and Warlock cards!

As you might've understood, there's quite a lot going on, but let's not forget about playing the game. 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!

Moreover, on a final side-note, sorry for not pushing out much Duels content recently: the release of Mercenaries, as well as other obligations, made me drift away from content creation for a bit. You know, sometimes life gives you lemons, but you don't necessarily want to have some lemonade!

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.
• Starting October Right With the Best 12-Win Hearthstone Duels Meta Decks to Play
• Stormwind Duels Meta Update #1 - Best 12-Win Hearthstone Duels Decks For October Week 1

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. October's theme is 'Deathly Hallows', and requires you to build a starting deck featuring at least 7 Deathrattle cards.

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!

Fliboce's 12 Wins Taunt Druid

Invigorating Bloom is definitely the least popular Druid Hero Power, but this doesn't mean that you won't be able to get anything good out of it. Fliboce, for example, was able to discount their expensive cards all the way to the 12 wins.

What's even more interesting is the combination between said Hero Power and Endurance Training, which can lead to some rather amusing scenarios, allowing you to drop big hitters like Awakened Ancient, Carnival Clown and such way before than intended. This is definitely the recipe you need to win games in Duels.

Quote From Fliboce

I'm not sold on the Corrupt package: I never got to play Y'Shaarj, the Defiler or Carnival Clown.

Best in Shell is a meme.

Mark of the Spikeshell and Greybough were definitely useful though.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Crystal Gem

Second pool - Endurance Training

Armogleden's 12 Wins Token Druid

Armogleden was able to emulate AgentCroque's success with the archetype and get 12 wins with it. While this decks aims to either Spreading Saplings or Greedy Gains as tier 2 Passive, Cannibalism is certainly something you shouldn't sniff at, as you have a lot of action involving minions dying and being summoned every turn.

If you click on the deck's dedicated page, you'll also find some tips about alternative Passives you may want to pick, as well as advices on the gameplay and Active Treasures!

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Fireshaper

Second pool - Cannibalism

Dsorrow's 12 Wins Fire Mage

Frost Mage is a deck that started popping up right after Patch 21.3, and it was just about time before someone would've able to replicate with Fire Mage. The archetype, which received a massive upgrade in United in Stormwind, boasts two synergistic Passive Treasures, one of them being Firekeeper's Idol.

Said Passive can be seen as a lighter version of Spreading Saplings, contributes towards building you a board while you're busy casting Fire spells to clear your opponent's threats with the likes of First Flame, Combustion and Ignite.

Moreover, Firekeeper's Idol has an amusing synergy with Meek Mastery, which makes every Flame Elemental a 2/3 and every Frost Shards' Ice Shard a whopping 1 mana 2/3 that also Freezes. Not bad at all!

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Firekeeper's Idol

Second pool - Meek Mastery

OhNoesHS' 12 Wins Elemental Fire Mage

OhNoesHS stepped up Dsorrow's game and implemented an Elemental package into the Fire game plan. However, even if the paths may differ, the result was still the same: 12 wins!

This run featured the second of the Flame Waves, which allows you to incinerate (quite literally) your opponents without leaving them a chance to build a board and knock you out. Here is some deckbuilding advice from the player who piloted the deck all the way to the end of the run.

Quote From OhNoesHS

Pyros definitely needs to be cut and I need to find room for Hot Streak, Lesser Ruby Spellstone, and Sanctum Chandler. I probably can cut Fire Plume Phoenix and Blazecaller, but I also like them for the early matches.

I also thought about adding Grand Finale in the original decklist because there are so many Elementals, but the meta is so fast and you don't have enough health in the early matches. So Blazecaller is there as extra face damage instead of Grand Finale.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Mysterious Tome

Second pool - Flame Waves

Firestone - 12 Wins Secret Divine Shield Paladin

Turalyon, the Tenured doesn't have access to any Secret-related Hero Power or Signature Treasures, but we're glad to see that someone started experimenting with the Secret package in Duels. This list implements said package into the Divine Shield/Big Paladin archetype.

This player made the risky move to completely cut the early game (no more Righteous Protector or Annoy-o-Tron) for a handful of Secrets with Sword of the Fallen on top of it. The first minion we meet in our curve is Alliance Bannerman, which has anti-synergy with Royal Greatsword but still provides some draw and a nice handbuff.

The late game is well built, with lots of impactful Divine Shield units ready to be Recruited summoned from the deck thanks to Royal Greatsword or to be simply played on curve.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Dragonblood

Second pool - Disks of Legend

Drederick's 12 Wins Dragon Priest

Remember karasawa1600's 12 Wins Dragon Priest from the last meta report? Drederick took it and included Nozdormu the Eternal in place of Cult Neophyte for the memes, but they were able to still get to 12 wins. 

Based on the Reddit post they promoted their result with, they also had a Nozdormu mirror against another Dragon Priest (at 10-0), which resulted in an entire game with both players slinging cards with a 15 seconds turn timer!

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Dragon Affinity

Second pool - Battle Totem

Speaking of Dragon Priest, Drederick wasn't the only one eager to try karasawa's list: in fact, I gave it a shot as well, and I also got 12 wins out of it! Sure, I am a coward and therefore I didn't include Nozdormu the Eternal in it, but I still managed to get a good run with it.

If you want to know more about the deck, be sure to check the list's dedicated page for the usual in-depth guide, with mulligan tips, playstyle tips, Active & Passive Treasures' analysis and more!

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Dragon Affinity

Second pool - Battle Totem

Ultrarotom's 12 Wins Miracle Priest

It appears that the Patch 21.3 did slow down Miracle Priest, but not enough to completely shut the archetype down. In fact, as you may have experienced by yourself, it is still one of the most hated strategies out there, and it shows all its power in the first few matches, where the health total is pretty low and Embrace the Shadow can kill you as soon as turn 3.

As usual, ultrarotom dropped a few tips for those willing to have a couple runs with this deck, so you should definitely listen to their advices!

Quote From ultrarotom

Got Fireshaper + Orb of Revelation,which is a ridiculous combo.

Fireshaper is the best first passive for this deck. Divine Illumination does it, but Fireshaper is just busted, especially when I got 2x Bag of Coins and a ton of draw/card generation. You can nearly OTK folks with it.

Orb of Revelation is good with all that Discover, but Khadgar's Scrying Orb is usually better. I like the inclusion of Radiant Elemental because you can cycle/generate a TON and barely spend mana, plus your stuff won't go below 0 with Orb of Revelation and Radiant solves that issue for you.

Don't feel discouraged if your second passive isn't optimal if you pull Fireshaper: chances are you'll manage at least to get your gold back. This deck was toned down by a lot with the Voidtouched Attendant ban and [Hearthstone Card (Ooops, all spells!) Not Found] to Ultra Rare, but it's still really strong: go use it if you want wins.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Fireshaper

Second pool - Orb of Revelation

Firestone - 12 Wins Pirate Warrior

Let's close this meta report with a pre-patch top dog: Pirate Warrior. The Battlecry nerfs hit this deck really hard, but didn't leave it without any solutions. In fact, while they cannot count anymore to All Together Now's early mana cheat and Rally the Troops' card draw (at least not as often as before), Battle Totem is still there, and so are other rather useful tier 1 Passives.

In particular, Rocket Backpacks seems like one of the best replacements for ATN, since it allows you to control the board even more, especially in combination with Bruising, and prepares the board for a double Cap'n Rokara's The Juggernaut to close out the game. Pirate Warrior isn't as dead as many players hoped.

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Rocket Backpacks

Second pool - Battle Totem

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