The first competitive event of the new Onyxia’s Lair mini-set era started yesterday and continues for another two days. Players had only two days to prepare for Masters Tour Onyxia’s Lair, and the deck submission deadline was mere moments before the first games began. It is a brand new meta and the action is all over the place! You can watch the games on Youtube and even get a couple of free packs from watching: see our viewer guide for full details.
In this article, I will take a closer look at the meta of this Masters Tour. With one day of games played, the wheat has been separated from the chaff, and the winning archetypes are starting to show. Let’s take a look at what people brought and which decks are winning!
Masters Tour Onyxia’s Lair meta
Masters Tour Onyxia’s Lair consists of 364 qualified players. It is a Best-of-5 Conquest format tournament, where each player brings four decks and bans one deck from their opponent.
Class and archetype distribution:
- 220 Shamans (170 Burn, 23 Quest, 23 Bolner OTK, 4 Aggro)
- 217 Druids (75 Ramp, 65 Spell, 45 Beast, 16 Aggro, 13 Anacondra, 3 Quest)
- 201 Demon Hunters (117 Quest Fel, 47 Quest OTK, 20 Fel, 14 Quest, 3 Deathrattle)
- 179 Warlocks (105 OTK, 63 Quest Hand, 11 Quest)
- 154 Priests (64 Shadow, 50 Miracle, 29 Control, 11 Rally)
- 126 Warriors (126 Control)
- 111 Rogues (53 Poison, 46 Quest, 10 Garrote, 2 Thief)
- 107 Hunters (78 Face, 29 Quest)
- 84 Mages (77 Mozaki, 4 Quest, 3 Ping)
- 57 Paladins (38 Libram, 18 Buff, 1 Kazakusan)
Two days of testing in a brand new meta clearly shows in the class and archetype distribution! Every class is represented in good numbers and there is a lot of archetype variety. However, this does not tell much about what is good, as the meta did not have much time to evolve before the tournament.
What Are the Best Decks at Masters Tour Onyxia’s Lair?
There are multiple ways to try to figure out the best decks at the tournament. Because there is still so much variety in archetypes and in decklists themselves, perfect data is hard to come by.
Looking at pure win rates, Ping Mage is at the top! However, there have only been 8 Ping Mage games played and all the players who brought Ping Mage are either already out or struggling. Ping Mage may or may not be good, but data from this tournament will not be relevant evidence either way.
Of the more mainstream decks, Quest Fel Demon Hunter is performing the best by a large margin: 181 games played, 113 wins, 62% win rate. This success does not necessarily translate well into ladder play because the deck’s weakest matchup is Ramp Druid, and the ladder is full of Ramp Druids. When facing other opponents, the deck can be extremely strong.
Behind Quest Fel Demon Hunter, there is a group of five archetypes: Ramp Druid, Anacondra Druid, Quest Rogue, Mozaki Mage, and Bolner OTK Shaman are all within a hair of each other at 57% to 58% win rate.
Finally, there is another group of four archetypes at a 54% to 55% win rate: Quest Hunter, Beast Druid, Quest OTK Demon Hunter, and Quest Shaman.
These ten decks are the top performers in the tournament by win rate on day one.
We can also take another approach at the top performers. After day one, 23 players have a perfect 4-0 record. What decks did they bring?
Here is the class and archetype distribution of the top-23 after day one:
- 16 Druids (7 Ramp, 4 Beast, 3 Spell, 2 Anacondra)
- 14 Demon Hunters (10 Quest Fel, 2 Fel, 1 Quest OTK, 1 Quest)
- 13 Shamans (11 Burn, 2 Quest)
- 12 Warlocks (9 OTK, 3 Quest Hand)
- 8 Rogues (5 Poison, 2 Quest, 1 Garrote)
- 8 Priests (5 Miracle, 2 Shadow, 1 Control)
- 7 Warriors (7 Control)
- 6 Hunters (4 Quest, 2 Face)
- 6 Mages (6 Mozaki)
- 2 Paladins (2 Libram)
All classes are still represented in the top-23 after day one. There are nonetheless some trends that can be seen here:
- Burn Shaman is the most common deck in the top-23, but it is also the most common deck in the tournament overall and is performing slightly above expectations at best
- Quest Fel Demon Hunter is doing well – it is the highest win rate deck after all!
- OTK Warlock is outperforming Quest Hand Warlock
- Poison Rogue is having a good time against all the OTK decks
- Miracle Priest lineups are doing well
- Face Hunters are struggling, while Quest Hunters are doing well
- Mozaki Mages are doing well
- Paladins are struggling
While many new cards have been brought to the tournament, the overall impression is still of a fight between OTK decks and decks that try to go under them at the top. Demon Hunter with Glide remains a premium anti-combo deck. This is quite different from the current ladder meta, where decks like Mozaki Mage and OTK Warlock crumble under the massive number of Druids – as do the Fel Demon Hunters!
Interesting New Decks!
I am not going to show you the same old Burn Shaman lists for the twentieth time. They’re good. You can find them from our deck database easily enough.
What I am more interested in is decks that use some of the new cards. Even better if the decks themselves have been doing well in the tournament. Let’s take a look at some highlights!
Cosine’s Ramp Druid
9,980
I just love Cosine’s entire lineup, it is so refreshing. Here is Cosine’s take on Ramp Druid. You may have noticed that Kazakusan is a popular card in Ramp Druid nowadays, but Cosine will have none of that. Why use Kazakusan when you can use the really interesting new card, Boomkin!
This is a very defensive Ramp Druid build with Wing Commander Mulverick, double Spammy Arcanist, and double Boomkin in its defensive repertoire.
Cosine’s Kazakusan Control Priest
Priest got some of the best new cards in Onyxia’s Lair. This defensive Priest build is a great example of that: Kazakusan, Lightmaw Netherdrake, and Horn of Wrathion are the three best-performing cards in the deck.
There are enough games played with this list on the ladder that we can see it hovering at around 50% with a slow downward trend. The deck might not work out in the long run, but Cosine is doing well with it in the tournament so far, and it makes great use of multiple new cards.
iGXc’s Quest Rogue
All three iG players brought the same Quest Rogue deck, and it has been solid for each of them. Xc went 4-0 in matches on day one and is the most likely one to be seen on stream on day two.
SI:7 Smuggler was exactly the card the deck needed from the mini-set, and this archetype looks strong on the ladder too.
Zany’s Quest Hunter
It is hard to praise Dragonbane Shot too much. The card has opened a whole new life for Quest Hunter, and the deck is now a success both in tournaments and on the ladder. This is Zany’s list that also features another new card in Furious Howl.
Furious Howl has been a popular choice for card draw in this tournament, but ladder stats are far less clear on whether it is a superior option to Multicaster. In fact, Multicaster decks seem to have a small edge on the ladder so far, but the data is still inconclusive. Either way, Quest Hunter is now part of the meta, and Hunter has access to card draw. Glorious times.
Destin’s Anacondra Druid
Anacondra Druid is not that common on the ladder right now, but the deck can challenge Ramp Druid even without using the Kazakh sun.
Destin’s list includes Raid Boss Onyxia for some hilarious Survival of the Fittest plays on the Whelps, and it brings the good ol’ Charge package with Mr. Smite, Germination, and Solar Eclipse for some potential OTK action.
Hunterace’s Kazakusan Demon Hunter
I’m sure you’ve seen enough Kazakusan for a lifetime already, but you probably have not seen it used like this on the ladder.
Hunterace’s Quest Demon Hunter has a different win condition. No Il'gynoth OTK. No Jace Darkweaver. Not even Lion's Frenzy. Nope, Hunterace wants to use the draw and discount power of Quest Demon Hunter to supercharge his Kazakusan and just win with the treasures. In most of his games on day one, he did.
Shyft4’s Drek’Thar Deathrattle Demon Hunter
There are only a couple of Deathrattle Demon Hunter decks at the Masters Tour, and only one that has been successful. Shyft4 brought this highly aggressive take on Deathrattle Demon Hunter that includes Drek'Thar as the summoning tool instead of the slower Death Speaker Blackthorn. So far, that choice has been working out well!
Something Old, Something New
A mini-set is only 35 new cards, so its effect on the meta is limited. From that perspective, Onyxia’s Lair has been surprisingly influential. Sure, much of it comes down to Kazakusan being experimented with in multiple classes, but there are great class cards in the set as well.
The current meta is far from solved and the tournament meta clearly differs from the ladder meta, but the Masters Tour has resulted in some fun new decks to try. The games are still going for two more days, so you also have the opportunity to see some of these decks in action at the hands of competitive players.
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
Cosine’s decks are great. Amazing job. I want to see on YT. 😀