Festival of Legends has been out for nearly two weeks now! And it’s been a bittersweet experience so far. On the one hand, it feels like the expansion (and the whole rotation) has so much potential. There are many new, fun archetypes and the overall experience of the expansion is quite good… except Death Knight.
The class has only just launched in March of the Lich King (last expansion) and it was heavily buffed to keep up with other classes in the previous, more demanding 6 expansions meta. However, exactly because it’s a new class, it didn’t lose anything in the rotation, so its whole power has stayed in the game AND it also got a few new tools in Festival of Legends. A class tuned for the previous, much stronger meta is now dominating the weaker, 4 expansions meta (overall power level is generally at its lowest right after rotation). Frost DK is now an unquestionable #1 deck in the game, while Blood DK is the most popular one (and still very, very powerful). Together they make up for close to 30% of the meta, but if we look at certain ranks, such as Diamond (where people try hardest to climb), the class reaches even 40% play rate. That’s obviously way too much and it needs to be tuned. Unholy DH, on the other hand, is generally just a weaker version of Frost, that’s why it doesn’t see as much play (only a few % play rate, in line with many other less popular archetypes). But don’t sleep on it, because it’s still a competitive deck and it’s among the best meta options.
I expect a balance patch next week. We already had a small one a few days after launch, but it didn’t really change that much. Of course, they had very limited data back then, and I’m still glad that they tried to adjust the meta ever so slightly, but it’s obvious that we need something. They actually teased the patch on Twitter, suggesting that it would have a lot of buffs. And I think that’s the correct approach – many of the weaker classes like Warrior, Warlock or Mage won’t suddenly become good meta options even if DK is nerfed. Many of them are just too deep in the dumpster, and on top of touching Death Knight, we need to pull those up to the power level of other classes, otherwise we’ll just switch Death Knight for Paladin & Demon Hunter as the uncontested Tier 0 decks. In order to have a healthy meta with all of the classes (or at least most of them) being viable, buffs are crucial. Old Guardian wrote an article with his own buff wishlist/predictions here if you’re interested.
There’s also one thing I need to address. I rarely talk about the Wild format, but right now it’s in a dire need of balance patch too. Twig of the World Tree was always a “problematic” card – pretty bad by itself, but when you combine it with some way to break the weapon early (usually Sphere of Sapience), it’s nuts. Previously the combo wasn’t consistent enough to pose a big problem. However, with the release of Instrument Tech who can tutor both of those weapons, you now can do it in the mid game nearly every game. Now combine that with Wildheart Guff who lets you go past 10 mana and you have a recipe for disaster. Druid has been absolutely dominating Wild ever since Festival of Legends release. And while the deck has some counters, plus many people use really bad/meme builds, it’s clear that something needs to be done. I’m not very high MMR in Wild (somewhere around Diamond) but every second game I’ve been facing Druids with the same, consistent gameplay patterns, and it got very old very quickly. I expect the patch to nerf Twig or ban Instrument Tech in the Wild on top of all the Standard nerfs/buffs.
Below, you will find a full list of the Legend decks from last week, sorted by the highest placement.
If you want to see all of the current top meta decks, go to our Hearthstone Meta Tier List post!
If you’re looking for the best Wild Format decks, check out our Wild Meta Tier List!
Hearthstone Standard Legend Decks of the Week
- 1Righteous Protector2
- 1Sanguine Soldier2
- 1Sinful Sous Chef2
- 2Blood Matriarch Liadrin1
- 2Class Action Lawyer2
- 2For Quel’Thalas!2
- 2Hand of A’dal2
- 2Order in the Court1
- 2Seafloor Savior2
- 3Disco Maul2
- 3Muckborn Servant2
- 4Boogie Down2
- 5The Purator1
- 6Blood Crusader1
- 7Anachronos1
- 7The Countess1
- 9Lightray2
- 10The Garden’s Grace2
Hearthstone Wild Legend Decks of the Week
- 1Biology Project2
- 1Lost in the Park1
- 1Secure the Deck1
- 2Moonlit Guidance2
- 2Rake2
- 3Ferocious Howl1
- 3Moontouched Amulet2
- 4Branching Paths1
- 4Dew Process2
- 4Flobbidinous Floop1
- 4Park Panther2
- 4Poison Seeds1
- 4Spread the Word2
- 4Twig of the World Tree1
- 4Wing Commander Mulverick1
- 5Wildheart Guff1
- 8Anub’Rekhan1
I’m honestly hoping they don’t ban Instrument Tech in wild, because that would just punish other decks doing inoffensive things as well. I know I’m having fun with a Big Demon Warlock in the lower ranks.
I hope so too, but it seems like banning is a common Wild balance approach. At least temporary one until the card rotates out to Wild.
But I think they will just target Twig directly, at least for now. Because weapon tutor might be a bit problematic in the future for other decks too.