Rise of Shadows is out for over a week now, and we have a quite clear meta formed. It’s easy to pin-point the best performing decks, and we no longer have such variety as we had during the first few days (but that’s only natural). Of course, it’s safe to say that only a part of the potentially viable decks were tested and discovered so far. Some of the currently popular decks will fall off, while others will take their place.
Check out our Latest Rise of Shadows Decks for Every Class!
Below, I’ll list the decks that I think are strongest in the meta so far. Just like every new expansion, remember that the early meta is chaotic (even a week after release) and it might look different later down the road. Decks are chosen based on my ladder experience, watching the steamers & pros, talking with other high ranked players and early statistics from sites like HSReplay.net or Vicious Syndicate.
Since the meta is more stable than it was earlier, I can somewhat assess the strength of each of those decks. That’s why I’m dividing them among three categories.
Check out Standout Rise of Shadows Decks From (Up to) Day 3!
These decks are only example lists – meta is still changing and more optimized builds might be out soon!
Great Decks
Great decks are the top picks in current meta. At the moment I’m writing this, they all have some high win rate builds with a decent sample size (at least a few thousand games), and they were used by pros to climb to high Legend positions (usually multiple times). They are the decks I would classify as Tier 1 right now.
6,640
I’ll start with an image. Those are HSReplay stats of the decks from the last 3 days, at Ranks 10-Legend, sorted by win rate. No, I did not pick Warlock class only here – EVERY deck is included. And yet the entire first page (and a part of the second one) is 100% Zoo.
I think that a lot of people don’t realize just how strong Zoo is. I see the deck being dismissed as “okay, but nothing special” often, but it’s really not true. Zoo is definitely a Tier 1 deck in the current meta. While it has bad matchup vs Warriors (which aren’t as popular as they were earlier) and slightly bad matchup vs Tempo Rogue, it works well against the most popular deck on the ladder right now (Token Druid). It also has positive matchup vs other quite popular builds like Conjurer Mage or Mech Hunter. Given that Tempo Rogue matchup is roughly 45/55 (so bad, but not terrible), Warrior is basically the only common class on the ladder Zoo loses to.
And the funny thing is that the lists haven’t really changed since Day 1. Magic Carpet turned out to be MVP – at 6 health it’s difficult to kill quite early in the game, and it adds A LOT of mid game tempo to the deck that’s literally made of 1-drops. Also, Arch-Villain Rafaam is a surprisingly good late game card. Not only the initial body is solid (although expensive), but random Legends are often the only way to win late game matches vs Warriors. I’m still not 100% convinced that he belongs into the deck, but since every deck plays him so far and it works… yeah.
Druid was the least promising class going into the rotation. It lost most of its powerful, auto-include cards AND it was nerfed multiple times over the past few years (most notably recently when Wild Growth and Nourish were hit). So I have to say that it was a huge surprise for me when I’ve seen a Druid deck that not only performs well, but is now one of the strongest builds on the ladder.
The strongest thing about Token Druid is that it’s so hard to counter. Even if you tech in many AoEs, the sheer amount of board floods Druid has access to is just crazy. Take this build for example. Between Dreamway Guardians, Landscaping, Microtech Controller, Wispering Woods, Force of Nature and The Forest's Aid, the deck can easily flood the board not two or three times, but maybe even ten times if the game goes long enough. Now if we add buffs that make it harder to remove, Soul of the Forest, and Archmage Vargoth which can duplicate any buff/summon spell… Even though I love to play Token Druid, I can easily feel the frustration of my opponents on the other end. And the best (for Druid, that is) thing about the deck is that thanks to Savage Roar (and other buffs too, to a lesser extent), even a mid-sized board can easily threaten lethal. Opponent left 4x 1/1 on the board in the late game? Blessing of the Ancients x2 + Savage Roar = 22 damage out of nowhere.
Lots of the decks have started teching in for the matchup, and it actually shows. Win rates of Token Druid have fallen down a bit at higher ranks. E.g. Warriors are using Baron Geddon more commonly, Tempo Rogues are opting to play Fan of Knives (some of the highest win rate builds even run two copies) etc. It’s not like the deck is weak now or anything – it always happens to the most popular meta decks. The fact that other best decks are teching against Token Druid just shows how good this deck is.
There haven’t been that much innovation when it comes to Tempo Rogue, even though we DO have a lot of different builds. While a solid ~25 or so cards core has been defined, there are two biggest points on which pros don’t seem to agree. First is Hench-Clan Thug and second is which mid/late game Legendaries you want to run. And trust me, both of them are difficult to resolve.
Hench-Clan Thug has been a part of the Rogue’s identity ever since the card was released in The Witchwood. Given that Valeera can access weapon on Turn 2 every single game, and she usually does just that, Hench-Clan Thug is most commonly a 3 mana 4/4 with a potential to grow further. There’s no doubt that it’s an amazing card in Rogue, but… The biggest issue players have with it right now are Waggle Picks. Picks are an important part of the deck, and between regular draws and Raiding Party, you get them pretty much every single game. And the problem is that they don’t have a great synergy with Thug. Other minions you run usually can be bounced back without really losing anything (because you can replay them for free/very cheap), and lots of times you even gain something. Bouncing EVIL Miscreant means that you get two more Lackeys for 1 mana, SI:7 lets you deal 2 more damage to anything, not to mention bouncing Leeroy Jenkins which is your main burst win condition. Even Edwin VanCleef can be worth bouncing unless it’s really huge (if it’s a 4/4 or 6/6 you can probably make him even bigger once he’s at 1 mana, and it might even heal him up). But Hench-Clan thug is notably a card that you don’t want to bounce. The longer it stays on the board, the bigger it grows, but when it gets back to your hand, it resets back to 3/3. Notably, when your weapon gets destroyed when Thug is the only minion on the board – that kind of tempo set-back is massive. On the one hand, it’s an amazing card, but on the other, it has anti-synergy with Pick. When looking at the highest win rate builds, it’s like 50/50 when it comes to including it.
Another part of the deck that warrants lots of discussion is the mid/late game Legendary package. There are LOTS of potential options. Captain Greenskin, Leeroy Jenkins, Myra's Unstable Element, Zilliax, Heistbaron Togwaggle, Chef Nomi. All of them have seen play in different Rogue builds, but obviously not all at once. Leeroy is basically an auto-include, so we can ignore that for a moment. Greenskin & Myra’s are nearly staples, but nearly is not 100%. There are some builds which don’t play one or the other. Then, Togwaggle was a staple at first, then it became less and less popular. While it does have a potential to win some games, Tempo Rogue has started playing more aggressively and cut it because of that. And finally, Zilliax and Nomi, which are probably the least common, but also seen from time to time. Zilliax in particular gives a solid T5 defensive play, and Nomi is insane after Myra’s, but weak earlier. What makes it more complicated is that each of those Legendaries work better in different matchups and different lists, so at this point it’s really hard to say which one will remain there in the end (Greenskin + Leeroy + Myra’s is my best educated guess, but Heistbaron also has lots of potential).
Like I’ve mentioned above, Tempo Rogue has became more aggressive lately, and in some matchups (like vs Control Warrior) it’s played basically like a face deck – your plan is to maximize damage you deal to your opponent and try to rush him down. I have noticed that many players, especially at lower ranks, are not playing it correctly by being too slow, being afraid to use Myra’s early etc. But when played correctly, Tempo Rogue is easily one of the best decks in the meta (I’d put Token Druid, Tempo Rogue & Zoo Warlock as the current top 3 if anyone asked me).
And now onto the Control Warrior. I’ve decided to feature one of the latest decks, which does run Baron Geddon as a tech vs Token Druids. If you face lots of them, I think that’s a great idea. If they don’t happen to have Swipe, it might be very hard for them to answer it from hand, and it just wins the game if it sticks. Even if they remove it, it’s still great – you cleared one of their board floods AND they had to spend their turn removing it. So it’s a win-win.
As for the other cards, the deck’s core remains pretty much the same. You still play lots of removals, you still play Dr. Boom, Mad Genius for extra value, and you still run Archivist Elysiana to counter control mirrors. This build runs Baleful Banker too, and I’m still on the fence about those cards (Banker or Brewmaster). They do indeed help in mirrors – if you have it and your opponent doesn’t, your likelihood of winning grows considerably. But on the other hand, they are kind of useless in other matchups. 2 mana 2/2 is weak, and shuffling one of your minions vs Aggro or Midrange doesn’t matter that much – lots of the games won’t go long enough to draw and use it again even if you shuffle something solid (and in those matchups, you solid minions rarely stick). But then again, it’s not like they’re decreasing the win rate in other matchups by THAT much and they can single-handedly win mirrors, so it’s another difficult decision.
The only other difference between this build and the ones I’ve featured earlier is -1 Militia Commander + Darius Crowley. They both serve a similar purpose and they can be both drawn by Town Crier. I’m not sure which one I prefer – Crowley can snowball, but Militia Commander drops earlier (and CW is notorious for not having a great Turn 4) and starts as a 5/5, so it can hit more targets. But since both versions end up with similar win rates, I guess that it doesn’t make any significant difference.
One last deck I’ve decided to put into the first category – great decks – is a deck that lots of you probably haven’t expected. Bomb Hunter. Yes, that’s right, Bomb Hunter, not Bomb Warrior. If you look at HSReplay Tier list, Mech Hunter is quite high up there, despite Deathrattle version performing… only okay. It’s not a bad deck, but it probably wouldn’t be that high. So why is it there? Well, that’s because HSReplay don’t differentiate between Deathrattle Mech Hunter and Bomb Hunter yet, which is a huge mistake in my opinion – the builds are completely different even though they both run Mechs. Bomb Hunter does not rely on the late game shenanigans with Nine Lives, Oblivitron, Mechanical Whelp or Zul'jin. It has a much more straightforward and aggressive game plan – it wants to curve out with Mechs, then start Magnetizing onto them and punching face. Given that Silence is not very popular in the meta, Magnetize cards can be really crazy. Especially with Goblin Bombs which are usually just lying there on the board, because your opponent doesn’t really want to destroy them.
Now, let’s say that you have a 0/2 Bomb on the board going into Turn 5. You Magnetize Wargear onto it. Tempo-wise, that’s like playing Doomguard – you get a 5/7 that you can attack with immediately. And when it dies, opponent takes 2 more damage. Given the sheer amount of small minions you can Magnetize into and the number of Magnetic minions you run, if you curved out nicely, you’re looking at a high tempo turn after a high tempo turn. Between Spider Bomb and Venomizer (which you can also Magnetize into something small in order ot use immediately), you aren’t that afraid of big minions either.
The biggest issue with Magnetic strategy is that every single Rogue deck runs 2x Sap, and those do hurt a lot. Since you get the original minion back, which was usually something like a Mecharoo or a Bomb, not only it buys Rogue a lot of tempo, but also value (since you can’t just reply your big minion, it’s now gone). But to be honest, the matchup is still not that bad unless you go all in on a single minion (which you shouldn’t do) – Rogues don’t take this kind of aggression too well. And the deck absolutely destroys Control Warriors. I won’t really throw more stats around since like I’ve said all of the win rate stats from HSReplay are shared between slower and clunkier Deathrattle version and Bomb version, it’s hard to really get much out of them.
While it might be just a fad, while the deck might soon disappear from the meta, I have to say that so far I’m impressed with how it performs.
Good Decks
Good decks are just like the name suggests – good, solid, viable, but not quite as powerful as the great decks listed above. When looking at the best builds, they have a slightly lower win rate than the great decks, but it should still be possible to climb ladder with them without a problem. They are the decks I would classify as Tier 2 right now.
When talking about great decks, there were some lists that people are underestimating and dismissing as less powerful than they really are. But there’s also other side to this problem – we have some decks that are overrated by the general community. The deck I hear most complaints about is still Bomb Warrior. The deck I’m reading that is overpowered (maybe not so much on reddit, but on other social media and in comments) is… Bomb Warrior. Which is clearly not true anymore. While it was indeed one of the strongest decks during the first few days, it’s been falling off ever since. Looking at the win rates, they are consistently 2-3% lower than in Control Warrior, and Control Warrior isn’t even the #1 deck right now. Whether meta has adapted, or people have just found out how to play against the deck, Bomb Warrior is no longer as spectacular as it was. I haven’t even seen any high Legend climbs with Bomb Warrior in the last few days. The deck is still okay, but it’s nothing spectacular. Looking at the matchup and such, there isn’t much of a reason to play it over Control Warrior. Well, other than simply wanting to Bomb the opponent, which I have to admit – is pretty fun.
I guess that it might find its niche. There might be some metas in which the pressure from bombs would turn relevant. And don’t get me wrong – it still IS relevant even now, but you do need to sacrifice quite a lot of utility in order to fit the bomb package. And while Blastmaster Boom is absolutely phenomenal, it’s just a single card.
So, in the end, I think that this trend will continue. While Bomb Warrior is still the more popular of the two, Control Warrior is catching up as people are slowly realizing that maybe Bomb Warrior is not as overpowered, because Kripp said that it’s the best deck on Day 1.
This deck is actually quite brilliant, and I couldn’t really believe it. When I first saw it, I genuinely thought that it’s a one time thing, a meme deck that got to a bit higher Legend rank. But then when compiling our meta tier list, I looked at the win rates, and they were comparable to other Tier 2 decks. But back to the brilliant part. What was brilliant is combining Secret and Mech packages. You see – Secret Paladin has a phenomenal early game, but it falls off really, REALLY quickly – it has no way to close out the games. And then Mech Paladin has a really good mid game, especially with Kangor's Endless Army, but it’s too weak in the early game. So why not simply combine both and create something which is good both in the early AND mid game? And that’s what this deck is, exactly.
And the thing I found really surprising is how consistent it is despite not making sense when you first look at it. It has an amazing matchup vs Warrior and it does okay vs Token Druid and Zoo too (roughly 50/50). Sadly, it falls off against Rogue, and it’s pretty weak against other semi-popular decks like Conjurer Mage, Murloc Shaman or Bomb Hunter (roughly 40/60). Of course, it’s not the end of the world, since those aren’t exactly dominating the meta. If you face mostly Warriors, then you can just play Mech Paladin and pretty much get to Legend with your eyes shut. That’s the deck’s main strength right now. They aren’t best at dealing with Magnetic stuff, you can set up some amazing late game Redemptions (with Mechanical Whelp or Tirion Fordring – that’s spicy), and if they waste their Brawls and you drop Kangor's Endless Army… that’s basically game over. Kangor’s is a powerhouse in this deck. Since you run literally no small mechs, the weakest thing you can revive is 2/4 with Taunt and Divine Shield (Annoy-o-Module. So even assuming an absolutely worst case scenario, you still get 2x 4-drop and a 5-drop for 7 mana. Not bad, not bad at all. But realistically, the value will be much higher once you start Magnetizing. Just don’t overdo it, or try to set up Redemption on some Mechs, because this deck isn’t THAT Mech-heavy, I sometimes found it a bit difficult for enough of them to die and I ended up reviving only two (but they were Magnetized, so it was still huge).
Overall, it’s a cool deck and a really solid showing that Midrange style Paladin is still capable in Year of the Dragon.
Talking about cool decks – Conjurer Mage. I have called it Summon Dragon Mage last time around, but we’ve decided to go with Conjurer, since Conjurer's Calling is a key card in the deck (and I’m quite sure that Vicious Syndicate will also go with that name). And for me personally, it’s been one of the coolest decks from the new expansion. Maybe I’m getting old and casual, but sacrificing consistency for the sake of T4 Mountain Giant into T5 Khadgar + Conjurer's Calling combo you pull off once every 15 or 20 games is something I love.
Of course, the deck is not only about the hard to pull out 3 cards combo that require you to get Book of Specters on T2 or T3 on top of that. It’s full of amazing swings. Just an early Giant alone can wreak havoc, which has been proven by slow Warlock decks time and time again. Conjurer’s Calling alone works amazingly well on many minions (damaged minions, high cost minions, minions with weak bodies but strong Battlecries), and when you combine it with Khadgar, it becomes ridiculous. Same goes for Power of Creation – the card alone is pretty cool already, since it’s difficult to answer 1 for 1. You get two minions, and your opponent often has to use two removals. And even Kalecgos can carry the game if it sticks – casting those Powers and Calls for 0 mana is nice.
Now, like I’ve mentioned at the start, in order to achieve that, the deck has to sacrifice quite a bit of consistency. It’s a very minion-based deck by nature – both Book of Specters and Conjurer’s Calling would work much worse in a spell-heavy deck (the first would probably be unplayable). Which means that, sadly, you can’t play your removal spells. No Polymorph to answer those big minions. No Blizzard or Flamestrike against boards full of Treants. You DO have a chance to get those from Firetree Witchdoctor, but that’s – again – not very consistent. There are some Neutral removal options and this build runs lots of them – Mind Control Tech, Voodoo Doll, Dragonmaw Scorcher or Mossy Horror. But, again, each of those has its downsides and they will never replace a full-blown AoE. That’s why the deck doesn’t have a good matchup vs board flood decks like Token Druid, Zoo or Murloc Shaman. But it does work well vs slower decks, which don’t put that much pressure (so AoE is not needed) but can’t handle all of the big plays.
And onto the Murloc Shaman. Honestly, not much has changed since the first few days. Decks lists are still very similar, Murlocs are still very snowbally, but vulnerable to early tempo or multiple board clears. Murloc Shaman feels a bit like Even Shaman last expansion. It’s solid, but not good enough to be Tier 1, and stays out there, on the edge of the meta – popular enough to have it in mind when playing the ladder, not popular enough to think too much about it when teching or deck building in general.
When it comes to this specific deck, it’s quite Standard. The only difference is that the author decided to run more hand refills. On top of the usual 2x Underbelly Angler, the deck runs 2x Cult Master, 1x Murloc Tastyfin AND Hagatha the Witch. Which means that even if your early boards get removed, you still have a quite solid chance to not fall behind completely by drawing enough steam to keep up until Hagatha, and once Hagatha drops you get an extra card for every minion you drop (which is a lot). I’m not exactly sure if it isn’t a bit TOO much, especially the two copies of Cult Master. The thing is, the card only works when a) you have boar and b) you want to trade it away, which makes it quite clunky in lots of situations. On the other hand, it can let you run away with a game against other Aggro/Midrange decks. If the board state is quite even, you drop it and then draw 3-4 cards, it gives you so many more options (plus you don’t have to worry about running out of cards quickly). And I’m STILL not a fan of Hagatha in Murloc decks, but at this point I’ve accepted it as a necessary evil (especially with all the Token Druids running around).
Throughout most of the Rastakhan’s Rumble, Midrange Hunter was a force to reckon with. Solid curve, great synergies, snowball potential, amazing refill and – of course – infinite value. Saying that it’s no longer as good as it was won’t be a big surprise, but at the same time, saying that Master's Call is still carrying it won’t be one either. The deck has lost a lot, but got some solid cards back. Shimmerfly, Hench-Clan Hogsteed and Unleash the Beast aren’t as good as Dire Mole, Crackling Razormaw and Flanking Strike, but they’re okay.
The biggest difference between Rastakhan’s Rumble Midrange Hunter and Rise of Shadows Midrange Hunter is definitely in how you want to pilot the deck. In Rastakhan’s, you could take control matchups slowly, because you knew that you had Deathstalker Rexxar to back you up in the late game. In Rise of Shadows, you can’t do it. Yes, you do have Zul'jin (at least lists that run it, because not every does), but it’s not nearly the same. Zul’jin gives you one powerful turn (and probably some extra cards in your hand), not a way to Discover 15 different big minions over the course of the entire long match. To be fair, Unleash the Beast works very well with Zul’jin (thanks to Rush you aren’t losing tempo if your opponent has board), but the resulting board still (most likely) dies to AoE.
There’s not much else to say about Midrange Hunter. My guess is that it will stay somewhere in Tier 2 throughout the expansion unless we get some major balance patch that shifts the power. The deck can be powerful again, but it needs a few more cards (so maybe next expansion).
- 1Secret Plan2
- 1Tracking2
- 2Fireworks Tech2
- 3Animal Companion2
- 3Deadly Shot1
- 3Nine Lives2
- 3Spider Bomb2
- 3Ursatron2
- 4Houndmaster Shaw1
- 4Marked Shot2
- 5Baited Arrow2
- 6Oblivitron1
- 6Unleash the Beast2
- 10Zul’jin1
Deathrattle Mech Hunter (often simply known as “Mech Hunter” showed quite a lot of potential initially. Thanks to Nine Lives and Oblivitron, it has access to some really cute combos in the late game. And yes – once you do get to the late game, it’s really strong. Summoning 3 mana 7/7’s while adding Mechanical Whelp to your hand, triggering Spider Bombs with Fireworks Tech to answer their big stuff, then dropping Zul'jin to flood the board AND get even more value (or summon even more stuff depending on what Nine Lives hits) + maybe Deadly Shot something. The deck has a quite solid late game plan, but it’s just too weak in the early/mid game to work. It gets absolutely destroyed by decks like Zoo Warlock, and without a proper AoE, Token Druid also wrecks it. You COULD technically tech in Explosive Traps, but they aren’t best, since it’s your opponent who controls their timing + Token Druid can easily play around them with buffs.
I feel like this archetype still has potential, but it might need a few more support cards. Especially some more good early game, because right now it has no actual 1-drop and no 2-drop. Ursatron is great on T3, but it’s too slow when you’ve skipped the first two turns basically. You CAN try adding small minions, like Mecharoo or Springpaw, but the first one doesn’t work very well with Nine Lives (and while normally it’s Discover, with more Deathrattle minions YOU CAN get into the situation in which you don’t get the one you want + it’s random when Zul'jin casts it) and the second one doesn’t have any actual synergy in this deck. Or maybe it will completely disappear from the meta and just be replaced with Bomb Hunter, which, on the other hand, is performing very well.
Decks That Almost Made It
And here’s the last category. Since this post already got way too long (sorry everyone), I’ll keep this one short. Basically, those are the decks that were almost good enough to get onto the main list, but just didn’t feel powerful enough. I would classify them as very low Tier 2 or high Tier 3 – which means that they still can be used to climb on the ladder, and sometimes might surprise you positively, but overall are weaker than the ones above.
- 5Zilliax1
- 7Exotic Mountseller1
- 9Ysera1
- 10Big Bad Archmage2
I like all kinds of Big decks. My inner Timmy squeaks every time I cheat out a big minion early. I know that those decks aren’t always healthy for the game, but this time around, I don’t think that they’re good enough to be a problem. Out of the “Big” decks of this expansion, Big Shaman seems to have most potential. Between Eureka! and Muckmorpher, there are some ways to cheat the big minions out on the field. Kibler was playing this deck yesterday, I played a few games with it today, went 2-3, but still had more fun than with most of the meta decks! And by the way, Walking Fountain is slow Shaman’s MVP this expansion, the card has some serious potential, it just needs a better shell to be put into.
Resurrect Priest looked very promising on the first day or two, but it quickly fell off. To be honest, the biggest issue is lack of Psychic Scream. Mass Resurrection comes down on Turn 9, which is just too late. You might be able to clear the mid game board with Mass Hysteria, but if you could set up a Scream just before you revive your stuff, it would be much better (or even better – Turn 7 Scream, turn 8 Catrina Muerte and then Turn 9 Mass Res). By the way, when it comes to deck list itself – lots of people find Northshire Cleric weird and I wanted to agree, but when looking at the stats, it’s the higher win rate builds actually run it. My guess is that without SOMETHING to drop in the early game, too many decks just run over you. Even if Cleric is just a 1/3, maybe it will focus some attention, maybe you will draw a card, maybe it will stop opponent from dropping a small minion you could run into and draw, maybe you will buff it and it will survive longer etc. Priest’s early game got much, much weaker again after the rotation, and it shows.
Talking about Priest – now that’s an interesting deck. To be fair, it’s not entirely new, since Miracle Priest with Grave Horror became semi-popular in Rastakhan’s Rumble, but it seems that players have found a new addition to the deck – Chef Nomi, which adds an extra win condition. Of course, Grave Horrors + Seance to get even more is still great, and it can still win you some games if you tempo them out in the mid game, but now you can also win by simply drawing your entire deck. If your opponent doesn’t have a big AoE to drop, Chef Nomi just seals the game. Notably, Lazul's Scheme adds a new 0 mana cost spell to the deck, which is quite important in a list built around Gadgetzan Auctioneer. If you get it off the top the effect will be minimal, but since it costs 0 and cycles itself, it’s still great. You can also use it with Wild Pyromancer + Acolyte of Pain quite easily. I actually really like the deck, and I’ve seen a few players getting to higher Legend spots with it.
I’ve initially named it Heal Druid, but I don’t think that’s fair – it dropped other Heal synergies and left only Lucentbark, that’s why Lucentbark Druid sounded better. But why would you drop Crystal Stag, for example? Well, the answer is actually quite simple – for Witchwood Grizzly to be your only Beast. You see, reviving Lucentbark in the late game over and over again is a great strategy vs slow decks, but it’s actually too slow vs Aggro decks. But if you play Predatory Instincts on Turn 4 and then drop a 3/24 Witchwood Grizzly (which will probably lose some health, but a 3/20 is still amazing), now that’s a big problem for an Aggro deck. Rogues can still Sap it, but Silence in general is not very popular tech right now. And once it dies, you can now revive it with Witching Hour to get a 3 mana 3/12 Taunt. Which even if doesn’t win you the game should be enough to get you to the late game, when you drop Lucentbark and start copying it. And that’s basically it. It seems to be working much better than a regular Heal Druid. Dog actually had a good run with it, climbing to #56 Legend basically on a single big win streak. But that’s Dog, he can take any deck and hit high Legend with it. Stats indicate that even though it has a significantly higher win rate than Heal Druid, it’s still not a very good deck.
- 1Execute2
- 1Omega Assembly2
- 1Shield Slam2
- 1Slam2
- 2Dragon Roar2
- 2Shield Block2
- 2Warpath2
- 2Weapons Project2
- 5Brawl2
- 7Dr. Boom, Mad Genius1
- 8Grommash Hellscream1
- 9The Boomship1
- 10Dimensional Ripper2
- 10The Boom Reaver1
Another Big deck on this list – this time from Fibonacci. Big Warrior was also quite popular on the first day of the expansion, but it quickly disappeared in favor of Bomb & Control versions. I think that if not for the fact that the deck just lost the Recruit package (goodbye Woecleaver), it might have actually be working really well. Because Rise of Shadows was an amazing expansion for this archetype – it got three amazing cards. Starting with Dimensional Ripper – if you play only big minions in your deck, then getting 2 copies of one of them is very good. Then, The Boom Reaver – this one is even better than Ripper, because not only you get two (usually) big minions, but also it has Rush. And if you’ve already played Dr. Boom, Mad Genius, both of them have Rush, since Boom Reaver is a Mech. And finally, a cherry on the top – Archmage Vargoth. He’s responsible for some of the most powerful turns I’ve ever seen. If you play Dimensional Ripper and get Vargoth… each of them will cast an extra copy of it at the end of the turn. Which means that just for a single card, you end up with SIX minions from your deck. Just like with Chef Nomi, if your opponent has no AoE, he’s basically dead. Cool, right?
- 4Archmage Vargoth1
- 5Zilliax1
- 7Amani War Bear2
- 8Batterhead2
- 9Alexstrasza1
- 9Oondasta1
- 9Ysera1
- 12Mountain Giant2
An interesting deck created by one of the folks at CompetitiveHS subreddit – shoutout to /u/strudel_hs. It’s clearly not a high tier deck, but the fact that it works is already enough to put it on this list. The basic idea is to play cheap spells + expensive minions, then cheat those minions out either with Duel! or with Prismatic Lens. It’s a fun deck and it definitely feels powerful when it works, but it doesn’t seem to be consistent enough to become a more popular meta deck in the current state.
So what’s the consensus on Heistbaron Togwaggle?
Is Tempo Rogue performing better with him or without him?
Truth be told, I have noticed myself just holding onto him in many games. And in some games it felt that I’d win regardless and he was just overkill. But there have been games where I would have lost the match had I not played him.
Also, are people starting to cut out Hench-Clan Thug from their deck?
For all of the talk of lower power levels after the rotation, the meta seems really fast! Fewer AOE spells and fewer versatile taunts (like Stonehill Defender and Tar Creeper) means that decks that put out a lot of minions fast are hard to deal with, so it’s harder for a slow deck to get to its key turns.
History tells us that aggro decks get figured out the fastest, and thus tend to dominate in the first few weeks of an expansion. I fully expect the meta to slow down as slower decks get figured out and refined.
Thanks for the update, Stonekeep. I just opened both the Boom Reaver and The Boomship from the free packs, so it looks like it’s time to have some fun with BIG Warrior. I am only missing Gromish… how essential is he? Can I replace him with Ysera? Or is his charge just super important? I know he is classic, so it can be worth it, but I am just stingy with my dust, and I also know he isn’t really even in the “good to craft” category in your crafting guide. Thanks!
Yeah, Grom is not a good craft right now. Big Warrior is the only deck he sees play in and, as you can see, it’s not the best deck on the ladder.
You can definitely replace him with Ysera. Grom is a more tempo option, while Ysera gives you lots of value vs Control. Summoning two Yseras with RIpper can really overwhelm a Control Warrior, but they’re a bit too slow vs Aggro.
Excellent, thanks for the thoughts, Stonekeep! Means a lot.