Best Post-Nerf Hearthstone Decks for Balance Patch 10.2 – A Week Later

Murloc Paladin is still one of the best decks in the meta. Corridor Creeper nerfs weren’t enough to kill it and it’s most likely the #1 Aggro deck in the current meta (and as we all know, Aggro decks are pretty good for climbing the ladder).

When it comes to the deck lists, there are some variations. The one I’ve featured is by Meati – he got it to high Legend by playing DOUBLE Spellbreaker, which is obviously a hate towards Cube/Control Warlocks. One of the best way for them to win the game is by getting a mid game Voidlord after clearing your board. This way even if you refill, the Taunt is there to stop you from hitting face and you give Warlock time to stabilize. But not with Spellbreaker. Silencing Possessed Lackey turns their huge swing turn into a huge tempo loss turn, as they’ve just played a 5 mana 2/2 instead of summoning the Void Daddy.

However, 2x Spellbreaker might not be the best choice if you don’t face that many Warlocks. For example, Lost in the Jungle, Blessing of Kings or Leeroy Jenkins are other cards you might see in the list. All in all, the decks are quite consistent and the tech cards depend on the meta you face.

Yep, no big news here. Cube Warlock is still good. The only thing that’s still not certain is which deck is really better – Cube or Control. While you definitely see more Cube versions on the ladder, Control is also quite popular. Not to mention that some kind of hybrids pop out here and there – and this deck from Machamp could actually be called one. It’s a Cube, but with Rin, the First Disciple, Twisting Nether and N'Zoth, The Corruptor.

Ladder is full of Warlocks, for better or for worse. While it might not be the #1 archetype, because people play counters and tech against it, it still stays strong.

The decks themselves are also quite diverse. Even though they all share the same core, some tech choices make a really big difference. For example, a Doomsayer is not uncommon, but it can still catch you off-guard. You never know if they will have Spellbreaker or not. Same goes for the Twisting Nether tech in Cube I was talking about – now it’s harder, because you don’t know what to expect. Rin, the First Disciple or no Rin is also a big deal, when you play a Control deck yourself you need to think whether it’s worth silencing Lackey/Voidlord or maybe save it for Rin that might never come. Or well, even Mountain Giant – some lists run them while others don’t. Sjow even runs a Devilsaur Egg version right now, which is pretty cool.

And here is an example Control list. I personally prefer Cube, but a lot of folks have asked for a Control list last time, so this time I’m putting both. I’ve said most of the things about Control/Cube Warlocks above, so there’s no need to repeat everything.

Zoo, while not as popular as different Control Warlock versions, is also staying strong in the current meta. One of the main advantages of the aggressive Warlock lists is the fact that everyone expects you to play Cube/Control. People often mulligan and/or play first turn (thanks to Kobold Librarian) as if you were playing a slower version, which might actually cost them a game. “Mirrors” are also difficult. Vs Control or Cube, you would never keep cards like Defile or Hellfire, but you might want to do it against Zoo. And so, throwing away a Defile might lose you the game once you realize that opponent won’t tap for the first 3-4 turns.

It seems that after the Patches nerf, Demon version is now more popular than Prince Keleseth version. After all, buffed Patches charging out of the deck was one of the main reasons to win the early game tempo after Keleseth. While the Demon version is still quite light on the 2-drops, Vulgar Homunculus is carrying a lot of games. Buffs like Demonfire and Bloodfury Potion work really well too, mostly because they can put you out of the AoE range. With so many slow Warlocks and Priests on the ladder, Defile, Hellfire and Duskbreaker are really problematic for Aggro, so getting some minions out of range is a great way to not lose against them.

SilverName also decided to run a slower version with The Lich King and Bloodreaver Gul'dan. He also teched in heavily against Control/Cube Warlock (Spellbreaker) and Murloc Paladin (Hungry Crab). And well, it worked! But you might want to adjust the techs to the meta you face.

This is probably the most popular Priest archetype on the ladder right now. The Dragon core is quite powerful with both tempo and value cards, while the Spiteful Summoner swing turns make it really solid against slower decks. If you summon a 12/12 (which happens) and they have no answer, well, you just win. And even if they answer it – you usually have refills for days. Drakonid Operative is a big body that also gives you an extra card, Free From Amber is another big minion, then if your opponent drops something big in the late game, Mind Control (or even better, Grand Archivist into Mind Control) swings the board once again.

And against Aggro, Duskbreaker is an unquestioned MVP. I win most of my games with Duskbreaker on the curve. The only problem is that if you don’t have it, well, you’ll have a pretty hard time, since you have no other AoEs at all.

This specific list teched in Skulking Geist, against Combo Dragon Priest (but removing Dark Pact also might matter). To be fair, it’s not a tech I would make in such a deck, but you might still run it if you want.

Big Priest, while less popular than the Spiteful version, is also quite relevant in the meta. Like some of you probably know already, I’m not a big fan of the high-roll decks, but you can’t deny that this deck is REALLY powerful when you draw the right cards. Barnes on the curve alone makes your win rate jump by 30% or so.

In the long run, the deck has so many threats that there is simply no other deck in the meta with enough answers. At the same time, if you don’t draw right, other decks might just rush you down before you can do anything. Your big threats are useless if you can’t get them out onto the board, because you’re under a constant pressure. But if you stabilize and start chaining out a big minion after big minion, then you’re nearly unstoppable.

And the last Priest decks in this section is Combo Dragon Priest. It’s probably the most difficult one to play too, that’s why it doesn’t have a very high win rate at the lower ranks.

Divine Spirit + Inner Fire combo is as old as Hearthstone itself, but it really started getting traction back in the Journey to Un’Goro. Which means that some kind of Combo Priest was with us during the whole Year of the Mammoth. The deck got even better as the Dragon shell got better. It was always solid against slower decks, but Aggro were a big problem. Duskbreaker fixed that a bit – the deck still loses against Aggro, but not as much as it used to be.

The best thing about this deck is that your opponent has to be constantly playing around the combo. Even leaving a single 3 health minion on the board might result in death. And you’re just sitting there, playing more and more minions, hoping that something will stick. Once it does, boom, 20 damage out of nowhere.

But the best part about it is that you don’t even need to have a minion on the board to win. You can use your opponent’s ones to do that. For example, Twilight Acolyte + Potion of Madness on Voidlord is one of the easiest way to win against Warlock. With 9 starting health, a single Divine Spirit (and Inner Fire) is often just enough to kill them.

The deck is fun, it’s pretty strong, and it’s challenging. I really recommend it to people who like the combo-oriented play style.

Secret Mage is also quite common on the ladder. Maybe not as common as it was during the first few days after the nerfs, but it’s still a good deck.

The list I’m featuring here is very interesting. Apxvoid uses one less focused on the burn and with more minions instead. Not only he runs Saronite Chain Gang and Ghastly Conjurer, which are already some interesting choices, but he also plays double Fungalmancer – and it works.

Fungalmancer is a curious choice that I’ve already seen in some other decks after the nerfs.  It’s a bit like Blessing of Kings spread among two bodies with an extra 2/2. There are two main reasons to play it. First is that the buffs are instant. If the minions can attack, the extra stats have “charge”. Second one is playing around AoE. The meta is just full of different AoE clears. Against Priest, you stan stack a big board and then a random Duskbreaker can destroy nearly everything. But with Fungalmancer, you can put all your 2-3 health minions (which is the majority of your minions) our of the range. Same goes for Warlock’s Hellfire and just playing around Defile.

If you’re looking for a more standard list, however, Rdu’s early version is still quite relevant. You can probably ditch the Potion of Polymorph tech if you aren’t facing too many Warlocks, and from what I’ve seen, Pyroblast is also often cut for something else. But I’d say that you should give the Fungalmancer version a try first, as it’s quite interesting.

As far as I know, the Control Dragon Priest was first popularized by Zetalot (here’s his deck list), but I don’t believe that he hit any higher ranks with it after getting to Legend. That’s why I’ve decided to feature a slightly different, but more accomplished chunchunner’s version.

It’s still hard to say whether the list is good. For one, I’m really surprised with seeing not one, but TWO copies of Mind Control in an actual, ladder deck without Spiteful Summoner and Grand Archivist. It means that you run those to play them from the hand. But I guess that it makes some sense – there are a lot of  great targets to steal in the current meta. Control/Cube Warlocks have Voidlords, Spiteful decks have random big minions, Big Priest almost exclusively runs minions worth stealing etc. It’s a pretty coo deck, which reminds me more of the old-school Control lists. I’ve already seen people asking what’s the deck’s win condition… Because that’s the thing – it runs no combo, no huge swing card that will win you the game, it might seem that it doesn’t have a way to win the game. But people forget about the good, old outvaluing your opponent. Which is definitely not that hard with up to four Mind Controls (Shadow Visions).

The deck was created by Zhandaly, but popularized by Muzzy – hence two names in the title.

Really interesting list, I knew that Dude Paladin was a thing in Wild, but I haven’t really seen it in the Standard ever since the oldschool Midrange Paladin days with Quartermaster. I liked the deck a lot and it’s the closest one we have to it right now (although it’s still more on the aggressive side, not even playing Tirion Fordring).

I believe that the deck list was created by TicTac. Really cool if you’re into a Control Mage, but you don’t like the full “Big Spells” route.

I’ve seen a few people having success with Spell Hunter, but I’m still not sure what to make of it. Is it actually good in the current meta? I still wouldn’t call it one of the best decks, but it’s definitely more viable than it was before the nerfs. Definitely need to keep an eye on it.

It was an off-meta deck for a brief time before the nerfs, and it’s still an off-meta deck right now. It’s the only list in this compilation which still runs Prince Keleseth, so that’s something. Druid isn’t really popular on the ladder (I’ve played a few hours yesterday and didn’t face a single Druid), but this deck is actually quite powerful. And, once again, unexpected factor.

I applaud anyone who tries to make Evolve Shaman work in the current meta. So far I’ve seen two people having success with the deck post-nerfs – Finadan and Tyler. Their lists differ a bit, but the core is obviously the same. This is the only deck where Corridor Creeper is still relevant. I’ve actually got completely destroyed the other day by Shaman dropping 2x Creeper for 1 mana each on Turn 3 and evolved both into 8-drops. So yes, it might still work.

Remember that if you’ve already disenchanted your Creeper, but you still want to try it out, you can just craft it again and then disenchant for the full value in a few days (you should be able to do it until 20th).

Interesting thing to try out if you’re into Aggro Druid. If you aren’t a new player, you should probably remember that a Murloc package with Finja, the Flying Star was very common in some decks at the end of Gadgetzan and beginning of Un’Goro. Sintolol took it one step further, because the old package was just 4 Murlocs + Finja, this time it’s 6 Murlocs + Finja + Gentle Megasaur (which, as we all know from Murloc Paladin, can snowball the games really hard). Not likely to domiante the meta or anything, but cool if you want to play something slightly unique.

A lot of people thought that Kingsbane/Mill Rogue will actually be very powerful in the current meta, but it still mostly stays off-meta. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you can’t climb with it. It’s a pretty difficult deck to play perfectly, as you need to work with your resources really well, know when you can give your opponent more cards, how much you can let your opponent develop before you need to Vanish etc. However, it’s a really fun deck, even if you suck at it. Trust me, my first few games with the deck were loses, but I was still having a lot of fun in most of them.

Some decks will likely never die. Miracle Rogue is one of them. As long as Gadgetzan Auctioneer is in Standard and Rogue has access to cheap spells, it will always be a somehow viable strategy. Right now the deck is definitely off-meta, but some of the most dedicated player are taking it to the high Legend ranks. Given that the deck is pretty difficult to master, others might have hard time replicating the same results, but if you have enough time and resolve, you can try learning it. Unless Blizzard decides to Hall of Fame the Auctioneer, it will probably pay off in the future.

Exodia Paladin is probably more powerful than expected. In the last few days, I’ve faced the deck as much as during the rest of the expansion. It’s pretty cool to play and actually not that bad. Once again, the best thing is that your opponent will ALWAYS mulligan against Aggro/Murloc Paladin and not against this, so that’s already a win. Then, slow matchups with this deck are really interesting. Opponents are doing everything they can do kill you as quickly as possible and not give you extra coins from Burgly Bully. It’s a very interesting dynamic and makes the deck quite fun to play.