Ho there, friends! I hope your laddering has been both fruitful and fun! We are now about 4 weeks and 2 nerfs into the Whizbang's Workshop meta, and Ranked Standard is in a great place (IMHO). There don't seem to be any overly oppressive power outliers, and matches are delightfully varied. Today I'd like to share with you three decks I've been really enjoying, as well as having some decent success with.
Time for Chaos!
First up is Tendril Shaman. Chaotic Tendril has never been better, due to the fact that there are only two spells in the ten mana slot, both of which are strong and have no drawback: Sunset Volley and Table Flip. Plus, you can now generate more Tendrils than ever thanks to Joymancer Jepetto.
I started with the Deck Recipe, then made just a few modifications based on what I was experiencing. My winrate with this deck is only just over 50%, but it's always fun!
The core strategy of this deck is just to play tons of Tendrils. You have two in the deck, plus you can generate eight more with Infested Watcher and Eye of Chaos. That gets you up to the ten mana spells. You can easily triple your Tendril-casting with Shudderblock, as well as make even more Tendrils with Yogg-Saron, Unleashed and Joymancer Jepetto. By the time you are casting 10-mana spells, you are consistently clearing the board and throwing a bunch of face damage. Fun!
Zilliax Deluxe 3000 in this deck has the Lifesteal package and summons a copy of itself, which is another great target for Shudderblock. You also have tons more healing available through Altered Chord and Baking Soda Volcano.
The rest of the deck provides card draw, removal and board presence.
Like any deck based around Yogg and/or Tendrils, there is a lot of random stuff that happens, sometimes good, sometimes bad. I've had a Tendril cast Wheel of DEATH!!! a couple times now. Surprisingly, it isn't automatically game-losing!
They'll Never See It Coming
Next up we have Stealth Mech Rogue. Ever since the infusion of Mechs in the Titans expansion, there has been some really big snowball potential through cards like Invent-o-matic and all the 1/1 Sparkbots you can generate. This gets even stronger if you can conceal a Mech with Stealth using either a lucky Sparkbot or SP-3Y3-D3R. Now, with the arrival of Whizbang's Workshop, you can bring in Zilliax Deluxe 3000 with the Stealth/Reborn package, plus the module that doubles its attack at the start of each turn. With a little luck, you can build a massive hidden mech for a lethal swing.
My current winrate with this deck is only 57%, but that's based on only 7 games. I've also lost to it a couple times, and I feel it has real potential.
Most of this deck is centered around the strategy detailed above: summon mechs, hide them, then make them bigger and kill your opponent. We have Sap to get cheaty Taunts out of the way, and Flint Firearm for other answers if needed. And of course, Leeroy Jenkins for a little extra burst.
Don't sleep on Mimiron, the Mastermind! This is a great card that can generate all kinds of cool stuff with the support this deck provides. Just don't forget that this deck's Zilliax build has Elusive, so you won't be able to target it with Mimiron's Cloakfield or Mimiron's Switch.
Mo' Plagues, Mo' Problems
And finally, we have good old Plague Death Knight. This is the deck I've had the most success with recently, with a 73% winrate across 26 games. Surprisingly, this deck does not use any cards from Whizbang's Workshop. It was a deck that performed well before the rotation and did not lose any key pieces. Plus (and most importantly), Steamcleaner is gone, so opponents have no real way to counter your Plagues. I've been both surprised and pleased to see Warlock decks based around Wheel of DEATH!!! actually doing well, and that's really the only thing right now that can get rid of Plagues. However, you can still beat them by shuffling more Plagues in right after they play Wheel of DEATH!!!.
In addition to the Plagues package, this deck also makes great use of the Excavate package. Excavating treasures continues to be a powerful strategy for many decks. I happen to think Death Knight has maybe the best Legendary treasure with The Azerite Rat, since it will almost always get you a buffed Reska, the Pit Boss, Chained Guardian or even Burrow Buster.
Death Growl continues to be one of my favorite cards. Distressed Kvaldir is your best target, but it's not bad to use it on Thassarian or Reska, the Pit Boss.
Not all Plague decks use Frozen Over, but I love it. It's nice, cheap draw for you, and helps to move your opponent toward those Plagues.
No Death Knight deck would be complete without The Primus. The dude is just a monster, and can do so many great things to support a variety of playstyles and situations. Against other Death Knights, just be sure you're not the first one to play The Primus, or yours will surely get eaten by Runes of Blood. You want to be the one doing that!
That's a wrap for today's Standard Decks Spotlight. What have YOU been playing this cycle? I'm always looking for new deck ideas, so get in the comments and let me know!
Comments
Thanks for the suggestions, Pezman! I just hit Diamond playing achievement decks, and that's probably as far as they will take me.
Wow, making it to Diamond playing achievement decks is impressive! I usually just play garbage decks in Wild that are built just to get the achivement, which is ... not so fun.
Token Beast Hunter is good and fun.
I've had some fun with Aggro Dragon Priest. It has kinda bad draw so it's not very consistent, but it has great blowout potential. Timewinder Zarimi is functionally Bloodlust: you build a board, and when it sticks, you drop Zarimi for double attacks. Ticking-Pylon Zilliax is a great buffer when you go wide, and you can use Power Chord: Synchronize and Celestial Projectionist to double him up for even more buffs. You can use the same tricks to flood the board with discounted or free Thirsty Drifters-- I've dropped four in a single turn! Pip the Potent offers dream value.
Dragon Priest sounds fun! I love the concept of Zarimi and think crafting him would be worthwhile. I think you're onto something with those Thirsty Drifters!
Update: completed a run to Legend with Aggro Dragon Priest. Fun deck! Drove a handlock player into a "friend-trash talk-unfriend" fit, which I always take as a compliment. The deck is a bit tricky, but it has an almost Rogue-like quality where you win a game and then cackle because it feels like you got away with something.
My favorite win was against a handlock/Wheel opponent who crushed my early plays, but I stole his Symphony of Sins with Benevolent Banker, used it to burn much of his deck, and copied his Sargeras with Power Chord: Synchronize to close it out. Much cackling ensued.