The Hearthstone Core Set 2022 brought back the main cast of League of Explorers, including Reno Jackson! Back when it was originally released in 2015, Reno was a game-changer. You usually want to build decks for consistency in card games, and that means including as many copies of an individual card in your deck as possible, and Reno wants you to do the exact opposite and play no duplicates whatsoever.
Reno introduced the concept of Highlander decks to Hearthstone. The name comes from the 1986 movie Highlander and its tagline “There can be only one” although in Hearthstone the decks are often called Reno decks.
Reno has not been the only payoff card for playing Highlander decks. Cards like Zephrys the Great and Kazakus have provided even bigger payoffs for running no duplicates in your deck. However, Reno is currently the only Highlander payoff card in the Standard format.
Is Reno enough? All alone and at the beginning of a new Standard year, Reno has some mountains to move. Highlander decks are typically at their strongest late in a Standard year when the card pool is as large as possible. The second-best options you have to use in these decks are closer in power to the top options when there is a big pool of cards to choose from.
Let’s take a look at the current top Reno decks and how they are doing in the early days of Voyage to the Sunken City!
Reno Paladin
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The best-performing Reno deck so far has been Reno Paladin, and this list by Savjz is one of the top performers at around a 46% win rate. Yeah, that’s a bit of a bummer. Reno decks are not exactly flourishing in this expansion yet.
I experimented with multiple styles of Reno decks, and this control approach seems more fruitful than a midrange approach so far. It is difficult to curve out with enough power to win a midrange fight, and while it can also be difficult to find just the right control tools to survive, that task does appear to be more manageable. Cards like Doomsayer and Wild Pyromancer combined with Equality or even Holy Maki Roll can buy you time to get your big cards going.
Paladin still has the phenomenal Lightforged Cariel, and a Reno Paladin can run a number of big threats to take the fight to the opponent later in the game: The Leviathan, Queen Azshara, and Ambassador Faelin pack a lot of punch into the deck, as long as it lives to use them.
Between Reno Jackson and Lightforged Cariel, Paladin has the most sturdy survivability package. Some versions of the deck also make use of Brasswing for some more potential healing and Mr. Smite for some burst damage, especially when combined with Cariel’s Hero Power.
The biggest problem for Reno Paladin is that a regular Control Paladin seems to do everything Reno Paladin does, and more consistently. They still have Lightforged Cariel, and even though they lack Reno Jackson, they have two copies of all the main removal tools and can just end the game with Mr. Smite with some Cariel buffs and a pair of The Garden's Graces.
There is still plenty of fine-tuning to be done with Reno Paladin, and I believe the archetype can be viable already in Sunken City.
Reno Mage
Mage is another class where Reno has potential. There are two types of Reno Mage decks around, ones built around Nagas and ones built around big spells. The Naga ones are rocking win rates in the 30s, so it is quite clear which direction is more fruitful for future improvement.
The above list is my own take on the Big Spell style of Reno Mage. Mage has a good ability to stall the game with Blizzard, Varden Dawngrasp, Amplified Snowflurry, and Grey Sage Parrot. With Mass Polymorph and Smothering Starfish, Mage has multiple answers to buffs and Deathrattles.
In the late game, Balinda Stonehearth can provide some huge swing turns with discounted spells and there are plenty of shenanigans that can be pulled off with Zola the Gorgon, Brann Bronzebeard, and Amalgam of the Deep. Note that there are not that many Naga minions in the game, so Discovering some of those can be quite valuable.
Reno Mage can succumb to OTK decks and just to direct damage. Facing a Quest Hunter is a nightmare unless you find Reno, as that damage just keeps coming. In many of the other matchups, the deck has a lot of tricks that it can pull. Mage having one of the best spell pools for Discovers is also an asset that sets Reno Mage apart from its peers.
Reno Hunter
- 0Devouring Swarm1
- 1Barbed Nets1
- 1Candleshot1
- 1Tracking1
- 2Bloodseeker1
- 2Doggie Biscuit1
- 2Quick Shot1
- 2Selective Breeder1
- 3Animal Companion1
- 3Harpoon Gun1
- 3Revive Pet1
- 4Azsharan Saber1
- 4Houndmaster Shaw1
- 4Stormpike Battle Ram1
- 4Twinbow Terrorcoil1
- 5Barak Kodobane1
- 5Imported Tarantula1
- 5Pet Collector1
- 5The Rat King1
- 6Beaststalker Tavish1
- 7Hydralodon1
- 7Mountain Bear1
- 9King Krush1
- 9Wing Commander Ichman1
Ah, the Control Hunter dream. It has been attempted many times, and it has never really been good enough. Yet, Reno Hunter is currently among the top-three Reno decks in the game!
Here’s something fun I want to show you about Reno Hunter. See the list above? Now, take a look at the list below:
- 1Sir Finley, Sea Guide1
- 2Doomsayer1
- 2Encumbered Pack Mule1
- 2Tuskarrrr Trawler1
- 2Wild Pyromancer1
- 3Rustrot Viper1
- 3Smothering Starfish1
- 3Venomous Scorpid1
- 3Vulpera Scoundrel1
- 3Zola the Gorgon1
- 4Blademaster Okani1
- 4Lifedrinker1
- 4School Teacher1
- 5Taelan Fordring1
- 6Reno Jackson1
- 7Mr. Smite1
- 9Alexstrasza the Life-Binder1
These two Reno Hunter decks have only 14 cards in common. More than half of the deck is different! That is a huge difference for two decks of the same class that share roughly the same overall pace. RBL’s deck is heavily built around Beast synergies while BorntoDie’s deck has more control tools and good, generic minions. I do not have enough data to compare the two properly, as only RBL’s deck has enough games to provide good statistics.
Reno decks are often criticized for being trivial to build, as you just put together 30 good cards and call it a day, but that is not quite all there is to it. The key thing is to have a plan. Then you pick out cards that fulfill all the roles you need to carry out that plan. Sure, you cannot have two copies of Doomsayer, so if that is a part of your plan, you need to find another card to also perform a similar function. Ideally, you retain the same mana curve as a regular deck, but with the current small card pool, that is not always possible. That also drives Reno decks towards a control plan, as a control deck is less picky about its mana curve than a midrange deck. Yet, even with this current pool of cards, you can come up with multiple styles of Reno decks!
Other Reno decks
So far, Reno decks in other classes are far from playable. The most popular ones are Reno Rogue and Reno Quest Priest, and they are both firmly in 30s when it comes to win rate percentage, and that is downright awful.
This is the most popular current Reno Rogue deck:
- 0Shadowstep1
- 1Filletfighter1
- 1Gone Fishin’1
- 1Swashburglar1
- 2Reconnaissance1
- 2Tooth of Nefarian1
- 2Vanessa VanCleef1
- 3Cutlass Courier1
- 3Double Agent1
- 3Swordfish1
- 4Edwin, Defias Kingpin1
- 4Hench-Clan Burglar1
- 5Azsharan Vessel1
- 5Bootstrap Sunkeneer1
- 6Crabatoa1
- 6Wildpaw Gnoll1
- 7Pirate Admiral Hooktusk1
- 7Tess Greymane1
- 8Shadowcrafter Scabbs1
In some ways, the deck has a lot going for it. There’s Pirates, there’s Shadowcrafter Scabbs, there’s Tess Greymane and Pirate Admiral Hooktusk. As a downside, all of that value is painfully slow by today’s standards, and it is more likely that you just lose the game than that you get to use it all.
This is the most popular Reno Questline Priest deck:
- 1Gift of the Naaru1
- 1Seek Guidance1
- 1Shard of the Naaru1
- 2Condemn (Rank 1)1
- 2Thrive in the Shadows1
- 4Drakonid Operative1
- 4Lightmaw Netherdrake1
- 4Shadow Word: Ruin1
- 4Xyrella1
- 5Spirit Guide1
- 5Switcheroo1
- 6Lightbomb1
- 6Lightshower Elemental1
- 6Undying Disciple1
- 7Blackwater Behemoth1
- 8Murozond the Infinite1
- 8Whirlpool1
This is an archetype that I thought might have potential in Sunken City. Reno Jackson can be a great card for buying some more time, and time is the only thing Quest Priest needs. The Priest Questline, after all, is an inevitability. If Priest completes the Questline and plays the ten-mana Shard, the game is over. No ifs or buts.
However, Questline Priest suffers from an acute lack of good two-drops, even more so in its Highlander version. The sudden nerf to Pandaren Importer that turned it into a three-mana card was devastating for Priest, as it was one of the few unconditional two-drops used in the deck and the Discover often helped to find the next pieces needed to advance the Questline.
The loss of Soul Mirror in the rotation was already difficult to handle, as Priest is not exactly swimming on great seven-mana cards either, and now the Questline is just too difficult to complete for the deck to be good.
It should be noted that non-Reno Questline Priests are not doing any better! It’s just tough times for Seek Guidance no matter what deck you put it in. However, the Questline will be around for another two expansions, so there is plenty of time for the mana curve issues to be solved and for all opponents to be properly purified later this year.
Conclusions
There are currently no Reno decks that have an above-50% win rate over a large sample size. That’s a fact.
However, there are some Reno decks that are in mid-40s, and they are not fully refined yet. Of course, neither are their opponents.
Reno decks have actually had better results this early in the Standard year than I expected. They usually shine late in the year when the card pool is larger. Now that we have a mini-set with each expansion, the Standard card pool will be bigger than before by the end of the year, and that means more opportunities for Reno decks. It is also possible that the addition of Reno Jackson to the Core set implies further Highlander support later this year. This could make Highlander decks a dominant force later on.
Reno decks are also flexible when it comes to adding tech cards. It is usually easy for them to add a tech card or two, even more so than it is for regular decks. As the meta stabilizes and teching becomes more of an option, Reno decks will have an advantage in adding those crucial ace cards to the mix.
Overall, some Reno decks are already playable for fun, so you can jump right in if you like. There is also room to keep refining them and maybe making them good for climbing already during Voyage to the Sunken City. Later this year, they may even become true meta contenders.
Old Guardian
Ville "Old Guardian" Kilkku is a writer and video creator focused on analytic, educational Hearthstone, and building innovative Standard format decks. Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/OldGuardian Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/old_guardian
Where is RenoGigachad Warlock?
I hope there’s a new highlander payoff card coming maybe this summer, Reno is just an introduction.
Don’t forget about the Dragonqueen!