Descent of Dragons Post-Second Nerf Meta Decks – Best Hearthstone Pro & Streamer Deck Lists For All Classes

Update: The nerf patch was just released! We’ll start adding new, post-nerf decks here soon!

Click here to jump straight to the deck lists!

Blizzard has reacted really quickly this expansion. We’re just a month after Descent of Dragons’ release, and in the past we wouldn’t even see the first nerf patch (which usually dropped 1.5-2 months after release). Two balance updates in a month is definitely a new approach. While the first patch definitely DID help to balance the meta, because Galakrond Shaman was no longer absolutely dominating, once the dust has settled, it turned out that the deck was still too strong. And not only it – Galakrond decks in general made up for more than 50% of the meta, which was definitely too much for Blizzard taste. The current patch should bring their win rates down, alongside Deathrattle Rogue’s. While the latter was not AS powerful as some have predicted, it was one of the most disliked decks because of its high-roll nature. Getting Necrium Apothecary on curve resulted in insane win rate, and not getting it means a pretty bad time. Decks like that aren’t very fun to face. Besides those, there’s a small nerf to Pirate Warrior (Ancharrr is by far the strongest card in the list, and it should still be good, just not as broken as it was previously) and Dragonqueen Alexstrasza (a change that I really like, because the card will still be strong, but it will no longer be able to absolutely high-roll into another copy of itself). My only worry with the patch is that Galakrond Shaman might be overnerfed – I think that one of those nerfs would be enough, both of them might have been too much. But we’ll see how everything works out in the end!

We’ll try to focus on the new & updated decks, but if a certain deck remains unchanged and it’s still viable, it will still find a place on this list. Here’s a quick summary of the cards that are getting nerfed:

Warlock

• Fiendish Rites – Now costs 4 (up from 3).

Warrior

• Scion of Ruin – Now costs 4 (up from 3).
• Ancharrr – Now has 2 durability (down from 3).

Shaman

• Dragon's Pack – If you’ve invoked twice, it gives Wolves +2/+2 (down from +3/+3) – Wolves will be 4/5 Taunts now.
• Invocation of Frost – Now costs 2 mana (up from 1).

Rogue

• Necrium Apothecary – Now costs 5 mana (up from 4).

Neutral

• Dragonqueen Alexstrasza – Her Battlecry can no longer generate another copy of herself.

Should I Disenchant Nerfed Cards?

This is a very common question, and the answer is always simple – YES, you should disenchant them! All of them, for that matter. Just dust every nerfed cards the moment update is live (unless you plan to play the nerfed version right away). Why? Because you will never lose out anything that way. Nerfed cards are always disenchanted for their full crafting cost (so 40 for Commons, 100 for Rares, 400 for Epics and 1,600 for Legendaries). Anyone telling you to “save” a certain card is wrong, because it’s always better to have a dust equivalent of a card instead of a card. If you have 1.6k Dust – you can use it to craft any Legendary you want, but also let’s say 4 Epics that you need. It’s much more flexible. And if you have a given Legendary – that’s it, you’re stuck with it no matter what. The only way Dust is not better is if you blow it all on useless cards, but you wouldn’t do it, right?

Let’s say that a certain Legendary was nerfed. You disenchant it and get 1,600 Arcane Dust. But as it turns out, the Legendary starts to be viable again a few months from now. You can craft it again for 1,600 Arcane Dust (which you gained previously for dusting it). Which means that in the grand scheme of things, you didn’t gain or lose anything.  But for those few months, you will have extra Dust you can spend on something else you might need in the meantime. You can, for example, craft another viable meta Legendary (like Zephrys the Great or Kronx Dragonhoof) and use it in multiple builds. However, if the Legendary turns out to never see play (which often happens with nerfed cards), you’ve just gained a lot of extra Dust. An extra boon of getting rid of a Legendary card right away is that if you crack open packs from that expansion during the “full disenchant” period (which usually lasts ~2 weeks), you can get it again and then disenchant it for full crafting cost second time = profit!

Now a different scenario – someone told you to save X Legendary, because it should see play in the future (something which no one really knows). In case it does see play in a few months, you still have it, so there was no gain or loss in terms of Dust (but the Dust was “frozen” for that time, whereas in the example above, you could use it for something else in the meantime). But now, if the Legendary does NOT see play, you’re stuck with a bad Legendary that you can either ignore or disenchant for 400 Dust. No matter which way you go, it’s a huge dust loss. You might not care if you pre-order every set and have most of the cards you need anyway, but it’s a big difference for F2P / budget players.

Descent of Dragons Post-Second Nerf Deck Lists

We’ll be featuring a bunch of Post-Second Nerf decks from pros & streamers. Keep in mind that the early meta can be volatile, not as much as when the expansion releases, but still. A certain deck working quite well right after the nerfs (when players haven’t figured out what’s best yet) doesn’t necessarily mean that it will stay as a part of the meta. So I would not recommend doing any extensive card crafting for the first few days. Just wait it out and see which decks end up sticking.

Druid

Hunter

Mage

Paladin

Priest

Rogue

Shaman

No new decks yet!

Warlock

Warrior