Voyage to the Sunken City, the first expansion of the Year of the Hydra (2022), was released yesterday. Like every first expansion of the year, it has changed the Standard landscape significantly. Not only we’ve got 135 new expansion cards, but also a massive rotation. All of the 2020 expansions (Ashes of Outland, Scholomance Academy and Darkmoon Faire) are out. On top of that, 57 Core Set cards have rotated out, with 72 cards from older sets taking their place. That’s a grand total of nearly 500 cards leaving Standard and 207 new ones coming in. So it’s only natural that all of those changes have shuffled the meta (at least the early one). Just after Day 1, we’ve already seen a bunch of new, interesting builds. But are they any good? Did we already see any huge surprises, or maybe the new Tier 1 decks are yet to be discovered?
Check out our Voyage to the Sunken City early meta decks for every class!
I’ve spent most of the first 24h of expansion watching pro player streams and social media, adding their decks to the site (as well as playing some matches with the most promising builds myself), so I have a quite good idea of what’s commonly played, which decks get solid results and which builds have a chance to become a part of the meta. Below, I’ll list some of the lists that caught my attention. Just like every new expansion, remember that the early meta is very chaotic and it might look completely different in a few days. Decks are chosen based on my ladder experience, watching the steamers & pros, talking with other high ranked players and early statistics from sites like HSReplay.net.
These decks are only example lists – meta is adjusting very quickly and more optimized builds might be out at the time you’re reading it! The order of decks below is not indicative of their strength.
Questline Warrior
6,300
The first entry on this list might be a bit anti-climactic, but I think that Questline Warrior is the strongest deck in Voyage to the Sunken City. It wasn’t affected that much by the rotation since most of the Pirates were from Year of the Gryphon anyway, and given the expansion’s maritime theme, we have a bunch of new, strong Pirates to fix whatever holes it had. It’s basically a stronger version of an already good Fractured in Alterac Valley deck, in a meta with what should be an overall lower power level. When you combine those two things, you get this.
Early stats indicate that the deck has over 60% win rate in Diamond-Legend. Yep, you read that right – over 60%. Of course, I believe that this number would fall down after the meta settles. The deck is basically already optimized (since it’s just an old deck with a few new cards) and it plays against a lot builds that are already being tested and might not even work out that well. Aggressive decks are also good as punishing early experiments. But even ignoring all of that, I think that it will go on a chopping block quite soon.
Out of the new additions, I found two to be particularly good. Pufferfist gives the deck more damage, but also a kind of a board clear – it’s great against decks with tons of small minions, but it can also be used to e.g. ping all Divine Shields vs Paladin. And Amalgam of the Deep lets you complete the Questline more quickly since it’s a Pirate itself and it discovers another one – a bit like Harbor Scamp (the only downside is that you need another Pirate on the board, but that’s not a problem). Other than that, it’s basically the old Pirate Warrior we all know.
Control Warrior
- 0Provoke1
- 1Execute1
- 1Shield Slam2
- 1Slam2
- 2Bash2
- 2Forged in Flame1
- 2Frozen Buckler2
- 2Man the Cannons2
- 2Shield Block2
- 3Heavy Plate2
- 4Onyxian Drake2
- 4Outrider’s Axe2
- 4Rancor2
- 5Brawl2
- 7Rokara, the Valorous1
- 10Shield Shatter2
Warrior looks like a big winner of the expansion so far. Another deck that’s very similar to Fractured in Alterac Valley version is Control Warrior. It doesn’t run many new cards, it just replaced the ones that rotated out with some new stuff. I’ve seen an alternate version running some Naga synergies, but its overall gameplay is still similar.
The reason why Control Warrior works pretty well right now is because the meta is very board-centric. We have tons of decks putting a threat after threat on the board, and that’s exactly what Control Warrior works well against. Your opponent floods the board – you AoE it. They flood it again – you AoE it again. Given that your AoEs are generally more efficient, you usually end up winning in the end. And then you have Kazakusan as your late game win con in matchups where you actually need one. Yep, the same old Control Warrior.
Whether the deck will stay in the meta depends on, well, the meta itself. If it keeps being board-based, then sure, I think that it’s going to be a good deck. If it shifts around and becomes more, let’s say combo-based, then I think that Control Warrior will be gone. We’ll see.
Mech Mage
Another massive hit of the early meta – Mech Mage. People didn’t believe that it’s going to be good, and right now it’s probably the second most powerful deck after Questline Warrior (of course, early stats and all, so things might still change). What’s so great about Mech Mage is that it’s not your straightforward “get on the board, kill the enemy before they clear your minions, lose if they do” kind of deck. It’s actually a bit more complex. Of course – you can and should play for the tempo in many matchups, but the deck also has an alternate, combo win condition thanks to Mecha-Shark. Between the mana discounts, all the Dredging and Mech discovers, it’s quite easy to find 2 copies, maybe even 3. And when you do, you can deal A LOT of damage from your hand.
Let’s say that it’s 2 copies – if you have enough mana to flood the whole board, and you probably have, that’s 33 damage from hand. If you end up with three copies of Mecha-shark – that’s 45 damage. In other words, if your opponent has no minions on the board, they’re most likely dead. Even if they do, it’s a full board clear + a lot of face damage + you create a massive board on your side.
And the best part is that it it gets cleared, it’s not the end of the world. The deck has SO MUCH refill that it’s hard to imagine. Trench Surveyor, Amalgam of the Deep, Azsharan Sweeper, Gorillabot A-3, Deeprun Engineer and – of course – Seafloor Gateway. I’ve played it against a Control Warrior who basically cleared my board every single turn starting in mid game, and I still won in the end. They ran out of removals in their deck and I still had a lot of steam. That’s why the deck is so powerful – even if you can’t or don’t have enough time to prepare the Mecha-Shark OTK, you can just throw stuff on the board every turn. And it just works.
Mech Paladin
Mech Paladin is actually quite similar to Mech Mage. On the downside, it doesn’t have Mecha-Shark for those massive board clears and OTK turns. On the upside, its boards are actually quite more sticky thanks to all the Handbuffs and Divine Shields + it has Lightforged Cariel, which helps a lot in some matchups.
Unlike Mech Mage, you need to go for more tempo-oriented gameplay. If you wait too long and try to “set things up”, it might be a bit hard to get back on the board. However, where it shines is snowballing. With 17 Mechs in your deck, Radar Detector draws 2-4 cards for just 2 mana, follow that up with Alliance Bannerman, some triggers of Prismatic Jewel Kit and you have a full hand of buffed minions to work with.
The card that shines in Mech Paladin is definitely Bubblebot. Dropping it on a board with a few Mechs, especially Security Automaton, is often GG. Your opponent will have such a hard time getting rid of all the Divine Shields and if you happen to have Jewel Kit equipped, it’s almost a guaranteed +3/+3 handbuff.
I think Mech Mage is a bit more powerful overall, but if you prefer Paladin class, it’s still a really solid choice.
Pirate Rogue
Blizzard is known to drip some Pirate synergies in Rogue, but this time they went all in and it worked out, it worked out really well. The deck has basically everything you need.
In the early game, you can put enough pressure on the opponent. Thanks to Swordfish, which is nearly always a 4/3 weapon, you can deal a lot of damage even if you can’t stick any minions. In more tempo-oriented matchups, you can also use it as a removal.
In the mid game, you have some ways to refill your hand (Cutlass Courier, Amalgam of the Deep and you can keep dishing out damage and set up strong plays, like Azsharan Vessel + Gone Fishin' – the combo summons FOUR 3/3 Pirates with Stealth. If your opponent has no AoE, tough luck, that’s 12 damage.
And then in the late game – if your opponent actually survived that long – you have two win conditions. The first one is burn damage. Between your weapons, Stealth Pirates, Wicked Stab (Rank 2) (or maybe even Rank 3 at that point), you can get your opponent really low. Then all you need is Mr. Smite combined with cheap Pirates like Filletfighter to finish them off.
And if you play in a matchup where just damage is not enough, like against Control Warrior and Ramp Druid that might be able to outarmor / outtaunt you, have an alternative win condition – Pirate Admiral Hooktusk. The card is very flexible and lets you do a lot of cool plays. For example, stealing 5 cards from your opponent’s deck after they play Kazakusan, stealing Ivus, the Forest Lord vs Ramp Druid, stealing cards from your opponent’s hand when they’re already running low or might be keeping some combo win condition… And the best part is that you can then Shadowstep her and do the same thing again next turn if necessary.
The deck is very well-rounded and so far it looks like it has no terrible matchups. It doesn’t auto-win very often, but nothing hard counters it. And those decks are actually amazing ladder climbers since you can keep a consistent 50%+ win rate.
Ramp Druid
And finally, Ramp Druid. You might see Kazakusan and think “oh no, it’s the same deck we had last expansion” – but no, that’s not really correct. I’ve played it a bunch already (the deck shown above is actually the same one I hit top 300 Legend with) and it’s nothing like that. Kazakusan Druid was more of a one-trick pony, it often wanted to drop Kaz as soon as it could. This one is different and Kazakusan is a late game alternative win con. In most of the matchups I didn’t even need to play it.
The goal here is to ramp up and then either keep dropping big threats every turn (against slower decks) or clearing the board (vs faster decks). In terms of board clears, it has quite a lot of direct damage and also a lot of Rush minions (Dozing Kelpkeeper, Ivus, the Forest Lord, Flipper Friends, Scale of Onyxia). And in terms of threats, Miracle Growth draws cards and summons a big Taunt minion, while Naga Giant will cost 0 mana starting in mid-late game. Which actually makes Oracle of Elune a quite interesting addition, because you can easily drop a 2/4 + 2x 8/8 and if your opponent can’t clear them, that’s game over.
However, probably the biggest reason why the deck is pretty viable is… Earthen Scales. Combine it with Naga Giant or Miracle Growth and you’re usually gaining 8-10 Armor for just 1 mana. That’s what keeps you alive against Aggro and lets you make crazy comebacks from very low health. Another new Core Set addition, Fandral Staghelm, also lets you snowball some games quite nicely, and – of course – Wildheart Guff is an MVP and having it in your opening hand can just win you the game.
And yes, there’s Kazakusan – but you usually have to draw most of your deck before playing him. He acts as an alternate win condition in matchups where 8/8’s and big Taunts aren’t enough. But I’ll be honest – he feels much fairer when you actually play him in the late, late game and not just drop on curve when your opponent is still at 5 mana.
