The latest nerf patch was definitely a pleasant surprise. Especially the Giggling Inventor nerf has opened a lot of new possibilities. The card was a backbone of some builds, making them much weaker as a result, shifting the balance of power. Not only that, but there’s no longer a reason to run so many anti-Giggling techs, opening even more card slots in most of the decks on the ladder.
I was meant to do the Day 1 compilation like I usually do, but since the patch was a few hours late (compared to the usual time they land at), players still didn’t have enough time to experiment and so I had to delay it a bit. I feel like now is a good time to finally write one, since players have already started adapting to the new meta and trying out new builds.
Keep in mind that (as always) players are still experimenting, the meta is still evolving, and the decks listed here might not end up being competitively viable in the end.
But without further ado, let’s proceed with the list!
Standout Post-Nerf Boomsday Decks
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The first deck I want to feature is the one I’ve been playing a bit even before the nerf patch – Even Paladin. While it wasn’t amazing before, it has already shown some signs of potential. Obviously, it couldn’t play Giggling Inventor, so the nerf only affected it positively. Even though it not longer can run the infamous Call to Arms, it can still make some really powerful plays. Recent Even Paladin buffs were leaning towards buff focus, with a bunch of minions that take a nice advantage of them.
The deck runs two main buffs – Blessing of Kings and Spikeridged Steed. Good, old Kings is a great offensive buff on top of making your trades better and minion more resilient, while Steed puts a huge wall in front of the opponent, making the minion difficult to clear through minion combat. Both are good cards by themselves, but they get even better if you play them on certain minions. There’s also Val'anyr, the only relevant Paladin handbuff left in Standard. It’s random, but most of the time it will land on a minion you want to buff (because by the time you swing with it for the second time, you will mostly have those in your hand). Notably, it’s best when it drops on Saronite Chain Gang, because it copies the buff.
Without question, the best buff target in the deck for regular buffs is Corpsetaker. The minion can have Taunt, Divine Shield, Lifesteal AND Windfury. The final two aren’t always included, as they are tied to singletons – Crystalsmith Kangor and Windfury Harpy. However, they are present often enough to be relevant. Sometimes the game is won on Turn 4 just because you’ve coined out Corpsetaker on 3, it lived, and you buffed it with Kings. 7/7 with all of those keywords simply wreaks havoc. The minions that give Corpsetaker their keywords are also generally good buff targets. For example, putting Steed on Windfury Harpy is also a very powerful play, buffing a Taunt or Kangor can save your life too.
But the deck isn’t all about Corpsetaker and buffs. Cheaper Hero Power means that it’s pretty easy to flood the board with 1/1’s, since it’s so easy to squeeze it into your turn (you will press it on every odd turn, basically, and of course in the late game too). With double Equality, combined with Wild Pyromancer, Consecration or Avenging Wrath, the deck should have an easy time removing big boards too, not to mention the tempo swings provided by Sunkeeper Tarim.
Of course, buffs have one huge weakness – Silence. But I have to say that Silence hasn’t been THAT common lately. Right now, around 25% of the decks on the ladder run some form of Silence, because the demand for it isn’t as high as it was before (for example, when Cube Warlock was dominating the meta). That’s not very little, but also not enough to counter the deck completely. If you count the times your opponent doesn’t draw Silence, or he blows it on unbuffed Corpsetaker, it’s not that big of a deal. So far the deck is working really well in the meta, but we’ll have to give it some more time to really show its potential (or lack of thereof).
IIRC, Songai has hit #2 Legend with the same list.
There’s no doubt that the nerf patch had a positive impact on Paladin class. Even though it hasn’t been in the worst spot before the nerfs, both its play rate and win rate has been on a decline since the beginning of expansion. It might have been caused by the fact that techs that were directed at Giggling Inventor usually worked well against Paladin in general too. And now, the class is raising up again.
Odd Paladin will be easier to cover, since it didn’t really change. While SOME builds were running Giggling Inventor, it wasn’t a very popular choice in the deck anyway as of late. Decks like this one were being played before the nerf patch too, since most of the lists are similar. There are basically no crazy choices Odd Paladin can make. The most interesting one would probably whether to run Prince Liam or not. I have to say that I was very skeptical about this Legendary at first, but when I’ve played around with it, it worked better than I’ve expected. Random Legendaries aren’t good, that’s true, but I’d still rather topdeck a random Legendary than one of my 1-drops in the late game anyway. I’ve won some games with cards like Onyxia or Hemet, Jungle Hunter which I’ve randomly got from Liam. The good thing about the card is that opponents rarely expect you to go tall instead of wide, so they might not be prepared. Warrior will often blow his Shield Slam on a Raid Leader, Warlocks will definitely Spellstone the Corridor Creeper etc. So if you manage to get and drop something bigger, they might suddenly not have an answer for that (just like dropping Baku can be a surprisingly strong play at the times).
All in all, stats indicate that Odd Paladin is better than the Even version, but since Odd is basically optimized already and Even is a newer deck, it might still change after a while.
Another Odd deck? That’s right, another Odd deck, and it’s Odd Rogue. A build that was slightly affected by the nerfs, but not massively. While lots of the builds DID run Giggling Inventor, the card was definitely not an irreplaceable staple. Cobalt Scalebane is still a good 5-drop. Even though it doesn’t protect your other minions, it can snowball the board. Another card that was replaced is Blood Knight. The anti-Giggling tech most popular in Odd Rogue worked wonders at the times. Normally, Giggling Inventor was pretty awkward to get through for Rogue (and other aggressive decks too) – it required AT LEAST 4 punches to get through the shields and Taunts, and sometimes even more. Blood Knight fixed that – not only you’ve reduced the number of hits necessary to get through to 2, but you’ve also got a 9/9 for your trouble. To be honest, the card wasn’t very hard to replace – players have just gone back to some of the other 3-drops that the deck has used in the past, mostly Void Ripper and Blink Fox.
Since Blood Knight is gone, the deck has also cut Argent Squire in favor of Crystallizer. The latter is like two more copies of Dire Mole – slightly weaker all things considered (you can’t play them once you are at 5 or less health), but not much. Argent Squire is still a good 1-drop, but the fact that you ran Blood Knight made it even better. You could often trade the Divine Shield for +3/+3 buff, which is well worth it in this case. I know that some players didn’t like to use it to pop their own shields, but you could look at it like that: Argent Squire, when combined with Blood Knight, was a 1 mana 1/1 minion which gave another minion a +3/+3. Wouldn’t you play that? Of course you would play that! But given that Divine Shields are no longer as popular with Giggling gone, Blood Knight is not a correct tech choice and so some of the builds have been cutting Squire for Crystallizer too. To be fair, I think that Squire is still a good pick, since her Divine Shield has a nice Cold Blood and Fungalmancer synergy, but it’s really up to you at this point.
As for this build, I’m not sure whether I agree with Edwin VanCleef. While absolutely amazing when on the Coin, it feels a bit clunky when you’re going first. A card that I’m personally liking a lot in Odd Rogue is Captain Greenskin, especially now that Giggling is gone and the deck would use a more proactive 5-drop. I feel like the card is underplayed.
As you can see, Odd Rogue didn’t change that much – it had to fill the gap left by Giggling Inventor and Blood Knight, but neither of those were difficult. The deck works very well in the current meta, and it might even be the best aggressive option.
Even Shaman is a very interesting case, something I never really understood. Ever since The Witchwood, the deck is consistently ranking rather highly on the tier lists. It’s not Tier 1, but it’s good – usually around T2. And yet pretty much no one plays it. Maybe “no one” is an overstatement, but ~2% play rate on average is not very high. Tempo Mage, for example, had a worse win rates across the board most of the time, and yet it was 3-4 times as popular. Can someone explain this phenomenon to me? We’ve seen it once before already, with Murloc Paladin. There was a long period of time in which Murloc Paladin was one of the best decks on the ladder and yet it was played by like 3% of the players.
Well, it shouldn’t be surprising that a deck that was already doing quite well before the patch is also doing well after it when none of its cards were nerfed. Even more – anti-Giggling techs worked very well against Even Shaman too, so having less of those is great. The reason for which I like Even Shaman is flexibility. Even though the deck looks rather straightforward, it can adapt to the game and win some matches you would never think its going to. You might be going all-in from the very first turns and trying to rush opponent down, you might be going for a more classic Midrange approach, you can even go for the value war if you get an early Hagatha the Witch. Of course, you won’t outvalue something like Odd Warrior or a Hunter with Deathstalker Rexxar, but you will get A LOT of extra resources over time, letting you stay in the game for much longer. The deck also has a surprising amount of burn damage from the hand. Even though individual sources don’t deal that much, if you get opponent down to 15 or so, you might finish him even if your opponent clears everything you play right away. Murkspark Eels are 2 each, same goes for Fire Plume Phoenixes, Fire Elementals are 3, Argent Commander is 4, Al'Akir the Windlord is 6. Cards like Earthen Might, Flametongue Totem or Dire Wolf Alpha can also add some extra damage, not to mention the random cards you get from The Lich King or Hagatha. Sometimes your opponent will think that he already stabilized, and still lose after 3-4 turns of you constantly pumping out damage.
This build still runs Mossy Horror, which might seem really weird. Giggling Inventor is gone and the card works well AGAINST your deck – you will often clear a bunch of your own minions too. But the truth is that the card is not that bad. One of the main problems of Even Shaman is that you have no way to clear the board if you fall behind. If a Paladin or Zoo Warlock gets ahead in tempo, then you most likely lose the game unless you manage to stall until Hagatha the Witch. Mossy gives you another board clear. It’s also an answer to Spreading Plague, another card that is still pretty popular. All of that said, I don’t necessarily agree with Mossy in the deck, I think that a list without it would be better. I’d probably just run a second Primalfin Totem or another 2-drop like Knife Juggler instead (because the deck seems a bit low on 2 mana plays, given that some of them can’t always be dropped on T2 – like Flametongue Totem or Earthen Might).
Yeah… that’s another Baku/Genn decks on the list, but I promise that it’s the last one. It just appears that Even and Odd builds are a big portion of the best decks in the game right now.
Even Warlock is basically the same story as the Even decks above. The deck was already okay/good before the nerf patch, Giggling Inventor nerfs didn’t affect it in any way (obviously), so it is still good or even better than it was before the patch. This deck, which is kind of a spiritual successor of Handlock, has been quite popular ever since it was first created in The Witchwood.
The deck didn’t change much when compared to the pre-nerf version – cutting Mossy Horror is probably the only major change. But even that is not necessary, I’ve seen some players successfully running the Mossy Horror version too. The version listed here is probably the most “basic” one, then you can add or remove techs from it however you want. Besides Mossy Horror (which, again, is still an okay card), I’ve seen Sacrificial Pact, Stubborn Gastropod, Demonic Project and The Black Knight. It’s hard to say which techs will work best at this point – you should just adapt to the meta you’re seeing. E.g. if you don’t face many Druids (I’ve faced 50%+ of Druids on the first day or two and now they’ve nearly disappeared for me), you can cut Mossy for something else.
Another case of good deck staying good, I think that Deathrattle Hunter will against be one of the best decks after the nerf patch. Giggling Inventor was cut from the deck anyway, the card was good at first, but when players have started running so many counters, it was pointless. It’s also one of the decks which can still use Mossy Horror quite successfully, since it can be used to pop your own Devilsaur Eggs. Most of the builds still run it, but this one plays Defender of Argus instead. In a way, it’s also a way to trigger you Eggs, and a nice anti-Aggro card if you’re getting rushed down despite having some minions on the board. On the other hand, Mossy can be a nice removal in some matchups too. To be fair, I actually prefer Mossy, and it’s one of the only builds in which I still run it as a staple.
The deck is basically optimized, what is left are some small card choices that won’t make a massive difference in the end. For example, Savannah Highmane vs Charged Devilsaur is a rather common choice. On the one hand, Highmane is a better card to draw. On the other hand, Charged Devilsaur is most of the time a better one to get from Kathrena, as not only it gives you more immediate tempo, but also a potential way to burst the opponent down (since it can attack face when it’s summoned, as opposed to played from the hand).
The playstyle also didn’t change. You either try to outtempo your opponent with big plays, like triggering Egg multiple times, using Carnivorous Cube to copy some big minion (like Witchwood Grizzly vs Aggro) and getting huge swings with Kathrena Winterwisp, or you play Deathstalker Rexxar and aim at a longer game, using your Hero Power to generate as much value as possible to run your opponent out of resources and slowly but surely win the game. That kind of flexibility makes Deathrattle Hunter one of the strongest decks in the meta.
You know what happened after The Witchwood nerf patch, which didn’t affect Shudderwock Shaman in any way, but nerfed a bunch of other decks? Shudderwock Shaman became a Tier 1 deck. Will the same thing happen right now? In a way, it’s already happening. When looking at the pro players climbs, Shudderwock Shaman is one of the most commonly used decks.
However, since the standard version of Shudderwock didn’t change at all – and I mean AT ALL, it still runs exactly the same cards, I’ve decided to feature a more innovative one instead. I’ve stumbled upon it recently, and it looks quite fun. It’s a Shudderwock Shaman, but with Corpsetakers. The build runs two “activators” – Zilliax and Al'Akir the Windlord. If any of them is still in the deck, the card will get Divine Shield and Taunt, so that’s pretty good already. If Zilliax is still in the deck, it will also get Lifesteal, and if Al’akir is there, it will get Windfury. Lifesteal is more important of the two, but especially getting a full package can be devastating for the opponent, especially when combined with Prince Keleseth buff. It’s a nice Taunt / way to heal up vs Aggro (especially if he can’t kill it and you will use the Windfury to heal twice), and a solid threat vs slower decks (remember that Shudderwock sometimes wins the games with pressure, not combo – it’s not VERY common, but it happens).
However, another interesting thing that Corpsetaker add is the Shudderwock synergy. Shudderwock gets Corpsetaker’s Battlecry, which means that if one of the two activators is still in your deck at the time you drop Shudderwock, it can get a bunch of buffs. Even if both of them are out, but you still have a single Saronite Chain Gang in there, you will at least get a Taunt. And why is this important? For a few reasons, actually. First of all, against Aggro, you often aren’t going for the combo finisher, but rather for a tempo Shudderwock. It’s either a desperate play when you’re losing and you need to get some random effect like freezes to stall, or when you’ve already stabilized, you want to kill the opponent and you need a bigger body on the board. In either of those scenarios, giving your Shudderwock (or Shudderwocks, depending on the order of Battlecries) Divine Shield, Taunt and Lifesteal (for example) is insane. It can turn a game that you would lose next turn to an easy win.
Even against slower decks, where you’re going for the full combo, your opponent will try to kill you before you kill them. There are situations in which you just can’t play Shudderwock, simply because you stare at a lethal on the board. In some of those scenarios, your Shudderwock having Taunt (and possibly other keywords) can go a long way – it will be harder for your opponent to get through, and so you might be able to drop it without clearing the board first.
According to the stats I have at hand (from HSReplay.net), Corpsetaker version is slightly stronger than non-Corpsetaker one, but at the same time, it has a much lower sample size, which makes the data a bit more sketchy. That said, it looks like both versions are working pretty fine in this meta – if you know how to play them well, of course (because believe it or not, but Shudderwock Shaman is not as straightforward as it might seem).
- 2Book of Specters2
- 2Frostbolt2
- 3Stargazer Luna1
- 4Fireball2
- 6Aluneth1
Tempo Mage doesn’t seem to be viable anymore. Well, maybe you can still climb to Rank 5, maybe even hit Legend if you get really lucky, but it will be an uphill battle. It wasn’t the best deck on the ladder already (~Tier 3) and nerfing one of the best cards in the deck, and the only relevant 1-drop, basically killed it competitively for now.
But Mage players still have another option – a deck that did play Mana Wyrm, but with a lower amount of spells and other 1-drops, it wasn’t a necessary card. And so, if you want to play aggressive Mage deck, Murloc version is probably your best option.
To be fair, I don’t think that it’s going to dominate the meta in any way. It’s a solid deck, it’s a nice way to climb the ladder, it can get Turn 4-5 wins from nuts draws sometimes, but the deck’s game plan relies heavily on snowballing. If you get slow start, or opponent has a way to clear the first few Murlocs you drop, you might just run out of steam and have no way to close out the game. Talking about running out of steam, the deck has insane tempo, but almost no value. You run out of cards so fast. In the mid game, if you don’t get your Book of Specters or Aluneth, you’re completely out of plays, and most of your topdecks aren’t amazing. But if you get a nice start or Aluneth that your opponent can’t answer, you should win a lot of games.
Overall, Murloc Mage is probably slightly weaker than the pre-nerf Tempo Mage, but not by much. Both decks have quite a similar game plan too, it’s just that one is more minion-based, while the other one is burn-based. So if you liked Tempo Mage, you should definitely try this one out.
great art, i totally agree with and hopefully player will inventing something more outstanding before we have new expanse, ty
The argument that I’ve heard for even shaman’s low playrate is that the deck is expensive. Personally, I think that it is not terribly intuitive to play correctly, and that it’s moderately dependent on a good mulligan and draw order. Mulligans are significantly different depending on the matchup, and as with all decks in the current rotation there are windows in the meta where even shaman is nonviable, albeit for a skilled player I would say the rock-paper-scissors effect is less pronounced than nearly any other meta deck.
Jupp. 5 Legendaries and 5 Epics (some of them very specific in use) make the deck expensive.
A deck that i’ve been seeing a lot in the ladder is Mech Egg Paladin. Unlike most paladin decks, it’s a control deck and its quite solid. I’m usually playing even shaman and out of 4 matches against it, i only won once (thanks to Hagatha mainly). I dont know how good it is against other decks, but i think its a pretty decent deck.
Great List as ALWAYS. Thank you!