The Festival of Legends is off to a lightning start. Death Knight lost hardly anything in the rotation and has been strong as expected, but there are also new challengers on the field. Outcast Demon Hunter was all the rage on day one, and it remains a strong deck, but not nearly as impervious as it may have first appeared. Frost Death Knight continued on like it was 2022, and continues to hold a strong position. Paladin is the third big winner of the rotation and the new expansion. These three classes – Death Knight, Demon Hunter, and Paladin – have been the early winners in the new meta.
Blizzard responded with a record-fast balance patch that hit all three classes mere three days after the expansion launch. Construct Quarter, Vengeful Walloper, and Lightray were hit with minor nerfs in an attempt to open up space for other classes. The success of the balance patch has been limited, but some more competition has been seen on the ladder since.
However, the patch completely missed one deck from the top-three classes. The meta tyrant of week one. The inevitable, the unquenchable, Blood Death Knight.
Meet the New Meta Tyrant: Blood Death Knight
On the final steps of the road to Legend, Blood Death Knight currently holds 30% of the field. This is not unprecedented, as there are often strong outliers in an early Hearthstone meta. The most surprising thing about the current outlier is that it is a control deck.
However, in some ways, this is the natural evolution of the meta. Outcast Demon Hunter was the first hyper-popular deck in this expansion. A relentlessly aggressive deck that punishes you hard for (1) not dealing with their board at any stage of the game, (2) not having an answer to a 4-Health Lady S'theno early in the game, or (3) being low enough to be squashed with a Lady S'theno combo in the late game. Blood Death Knight can answer all of those problems presented by Outcast Demon Hunter.
The other contributor to Blood Death Knight’s new-found success is Festival of Legends. Arcanite Ripper is a great addition to the deck and Screaming Banshee is also strong. The deck has more survivability now than it had during March of the Lich King, and with the unparalleled disruption from Patchwerk, it has the tools to challenge any other late-game strategies.
The nerf to Construct Quarter hardly touched the deck. Construct Quarter was already one of the weakest cards in the deck, and therefore many players have just ignored the nerf altogether. Most likely the card will be phased out of the deck completely, but that may have been the proper course even without the nerf. Here is one example of what the deck may look like without Construct Quarter:
- Format: wolf
- Season: season-109
- Player:
16,600
The E.T.C.’s Band in this deck consists of Coroner, Theotar, the Mad Duke, and Rivendare, Warrider. However, the entire Band may be unnecessary, there is still some more fine-tuning left to be done for the deck.
The Top Challengers: Frost Death Knight and Pure Paladin
Frost Death Knight started the expansion with a completely unchanged list from March of the Lich King. No new cards are needed for the archetype. This obviously gives it a bit of a head start, as the deck is already well-refined. However, the Construct Quarter nerf has seen the card fall to the weakest card in the deck and it is unlikely for it to stay as part of the list.
The next step for the archetype is to start considering and adding some of the best new cards, like in this list:
- Format: wolf
- Season: season-109
- Posted By:
- 6,600
Roda’s list makes use of Rowdy Fan and Hardcore Cultist. Neither is an absolute top card in the list, but both are comfortably middle-of-the-pack and as such seem to be minor improvements to the archetype overall.
Unlike Death Knight, Pure Paladin is just going to ignore the Lightray nerf altogether. Yeah, it is a little slower now. No, there is no way it is bad enough to be cut from the list. In fact, the nerf has hardly affected Paladin’s performance.
- Format: wolf
- Season: season-109
- Player:
- 7,920
With the rotation and the new expansion, The Purator has finally found its role in the deck and has become a key piece. Together with Jitterbug, it forms the core card draw engine of the deck. This approach has overtaken Order in the Court and consequently displaced Blood Crusader from the deck as you no longer draw into both the Crusader and The Countess on subsequent turns.
The Third-Best Death Knight Deck, Which Means the Fourth-Best Deck Overall
Death Knight is just so insanely competitive. Unholy Death Knight is a thing as well, and once again, the list that cuts Construct Quarter is the one you want to play right now.
- Format: wolf
- Season: season-109
- Player:
- 9,600
Battlefield Necromancer is the best card in the deck. I did wonder about the buff the card got during March of the Lich King, as it made the card insanely powerful. If only the deck had more viable one-drops back then. Now, with the addition of Tour Guide, we are starting to see the true power of the Necromancer.
It is also notable how strong Rowdy Fan is. Sure, it is never the top-performing card in a deck, but it goes into a wide variety of aggressive decks and always ends up being good. Just a wonderful, solid Neutral card that was added to the game in Festival of Legends.
Outcast Demon Hunter May Be Down, But It Is Not Out
Outcast Demon Hunter is the one aggressive deck where it looks like running Rowdy Fan and Pozzik, Audio Engineer is actually wrong. You want to have cheap cards that you cycle through rapidly, and playing a four-mana minion or waiting to combine your Lady S'theno with another three-mana minion is actually just too slow.
- Format: wolf
- Season: season-109
- Posted By:
- 8,400
As Outcast Demon Hunter, you will draw through your deck rapidly. Whenever anything on your board sticks, it is immediately a huge threat because of Halveria Darkraven and cheap Rush minions that give bigger buffs than Grave Strength or Bloodlust. You have Vengeful Walloper, the modern-day equivalent of Corridor Creeper, except that it is only available to Demon Hunter. If the game goes longer, you have Lady S'theno with a handful of cheap spells to push damage. If your opponent is slow to develop, you can even risk an early Lady S'theno on the board, and should she stay, the game is all but won. That’s a lot of win conditions.
The rise of Blood Death Knight is largely a response to Outcast Demon Hunter. You can push through so many things, but Blood has more than enough defenses to run you dry. However, should you meet almost anything else on the ladder, woe unto them.
I Heard You Want to Beat Blood Death Knight?
You may have run across a few Blood Death Knights on the ladder. Maybe they have even frustrated you to the point where you want to find a counter deck. You are in luck, as Blood Death Knight counters are rising in general, because, well, there are so many Blood Death Knights on the ladder right now.
The two best options you have to beat them are Undead Priest and Relic Demon Hunter.
Undead Priest is largely the same deck it was back in March of the Lich King. Sure, it lose a couple of cards, but nothing an Idol's Adoration could not replace.
- Format: wolf
- Season: season-109
- Posted By:
- 6,360
There are no other new cards in the deck. Plain and simple, but effective against Blood Death Knight and pretty good on the ladder overall.
The slightly more exciting and effective option is Relic Demon Hunter.
- Format: wolf
- Season: season-109
- Posted By:
- 14,040
Relic Demon Hunter is the deck of choice if you believe you can outplay your opponents. It has one of the steadiest matchup spreads on the ladder right now, mostly ranging from 46-54 to 54-46. These are numbers where skill can matter a lot. Your bad matchups are still close affairs that you can turn in your favor, but likewise, your good matchups still require work.
This specific list is the best one to bring against Blood Death Knight, and it is pretty good on the ladder overall. It trades the more conservative, defensive tools like Immolation Aura for two more threats in the form of Kayn Sunfury and Xhilag of the Abyss. This is exactly what you want against Blood Death Knight: endless threats. Bonus points for Photographer Fizzle that can be used to bypass some nasty Patchwerk turns and provide even more ammunition for Lady S'theno.
Do You Believe in Miracles? (Or at Least Astalor)
Rogue has had a difficult time finding their way in Festival of Legends. Now, the vast numbers of Blood Death Knights have finally pointed rogue in the right direction: Astalor spam.
- Format: wolf
- Season: season-109
- Player:
- 11,880
This Miracle Rogue deck has Sinstone Graveyard in it that can be used as a win condition, and it has Concoctions and Crabatoa, also nice cards that can provide a lot of tempo and sometimes win games. But the real win condition is Astalor Bloodsworn. Astalor and more copies of Astalor can break through almost any defense, and make the deck slightly favored against Blood Death Knight.
As a nod to the aggressive decks in the meta, the deck also runs two copies of Fan of Knives, instrumental in ensuring that Outcast Demon Hunters cannot build a board of small minions against you.
Bubbling Under
There is more to Festival of Legends than just Death Knights. There are several archetypes that look promising and may yet get their big break. The reason these decks are not at the very top is that they have weaknesses against Death Knight. Other than that, they are quite good, and they are some of the first in line waiting for possible Death Knight nerfs.
First off, there is Totem Shaman. Yes, Shaman is back to Totem plays thanks to Grand Totem Eys'or in the Core set. The deck is still a bit too reliant on drawing The Stonewright, but Ey’sor and Rotgill give it some possible plays for the games where Stonewright just refuses to appear.
- Format: wolf
- Season: season-109
- Player:
- 9,760
Second, there is Face Hunter. Yes, Face Hunter is back in Festival of Legends. With the new three-in-one spells for Hunter (Bunch of Bananas and Barrel of Monkeys), Ancient Krakenbane is finally a strong card. Not only that but Queen Azshara has become a win condition for Face Hunter! Xal’atath is a wonderful way to make your spells deal face damage. I don’t think there has been a deck where that is your main choice from the Queen, but now, after one year in the game, there is finally this new way to make the Queen shine.
- Format: hydra
- Season: season-109
- Player:
- 9,600
Festival of Legends provided ample support for Big Beast Hunter, but the archetype looks a little too slow to succeed in the current meta. A package of Big Beasts at the end of a more aggressive Hunter deck does work though! Just pressure with your Wildseeds and early minions and look for ways to end the game with a double Faithful Companions with Twinbow Terrorcoil. Lunaloveee showcased this concept already in the theorycrafting livestreams, and it has been further refined on live servers by cutting some more of the top end.
- Format: hydra
- Season: season-109
- Player:
- 19,000
Mage has a wide selection of burn tools at its disposal in Festival of Legends. The combo variant that attempts to blast you with Pyroblasts has generally failed, and even Lightshow looks too slow. However, a Burn Mage with Frozen Touch, Flame Geyser, Arcane Wyrm, and Arcsplitter shows more promise. Fast and deadly.
- Format: wolf
- Season: season-109
- Posted By:
- 9,480
Unlike the decks above, Tony Druid does not shy away from Blood Death Knight. This refined version is actually quite comfortable against Blood. That said, it has a plethora of other issues that may or may not be solvable. Pure Paladin, for example, is a nightmarish opponent for Druid. Yet, the combo Tony Druid brings for the end game is one of the most powerful in the game. You either The Jailer your own deck away and then Tony, King of Piracy to switch decks, or you switch decks first and then destroy the opponent’s deck. In that case, even if they destroy your board, they will go into fatigue. Sometimes you don’t even need the Tony, a simple The Jailer will do.
- Format: wolf
- Season: season-109
- Posted By:
- 10,440
What Next?
Overall, Death Knight, Demon Hunter, and Paladin have been a bit too strong compared to everything else on the first week of Festival of Legends. Blizzard already reacted with a small nerf but it has been largely inefficient. It knocked Outcast Demon Hunter down a notch but had very little effect on Death Knight and Paladin. Death Knights just ditched Construct Quarter and Paladin ignored the nerf to Lightray.
There are several decks that can have potential either through refinement or through nerfs to the top archetypes. There is still a lot of Hearthstone to be played in Festival of Legends!
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
How can it be?
I was playing Tony druid and a Warlock distroyed everything with the “cost 8 destroy al minions” but mine were inmune, this is the normal situation?
Immune is a funny keyword that means exactly: the minions cannot be damaged (by numerical damage) and cannot be targeted, like a faerie dragon. Anything else goes. Immune things from Jailer can definitely die but depends on very specific cards. I don’t think a poisonous can attack into one either because of the targeting rule. So unless I’m forgetting something, it needs targetless removal spells to remove, so should actually be pretty rare. Like the relic would try to hit it, but then the numerical immunity kicks in.
Two things:
1. It’s pretty funny how outcast DH has exactly 1 spare card slot. it’s 29 cards, and then Rowdy Fan or Eye Beam or maybe Snakebite. I’d maybe drop a Rush the Stage, but I don’t know what to replace it with.
2. Face Hunter is not the first deck to go for Xal’atath off of Queen Azhara. I took Xal’atath nearly every time playing Quest Hunter last year, unless I needed a miracle from Tidestone (which did happen once! Chaos Leech and Lightning Storm kept me alive). 10 damage for 2 mana was just too good to pass up, especially when Horn kept giving me Ozumats against control decks.
I’ve been absolutely farming blood DH with secret rogue today. Turn one Putricide is hilarious against them. Hanar completely locks them out and you just build board after board. A lot of fun as well. It does struggle against agro though. Just hard mull for the poison stuff and you have a chance.
I havent seen any secret rogue decklists, and your deck sounds like a ton of fun. Any chance you could share it?