Check out other parts here:
- Part 1: 50/1000 wins
- Part 2: 131/1000 wins
- Part 3: 203/1000 wins
- Part 4: 276/1000 wins
- Part 5: 324/1000 wins
- Part 6: 402/1000 wins
All Quiet on the Constructed Front
We’re slowly trundling toward the tail end of the Hearthstone year, and it’s fair to say that I’m just as ready for the new stuff as everyone else is. There are some interesting novelties to mess around with in Standard and Wild alike, but we’ve reached the point where I’m just adding random cards to the decks I enjoy to see what sticks. The Year of the Wolf promises to bring a breath of fresh air with it, and the new Core rotation and the upcoming set both seem pretty interesting based on what we’ve seen so far.
As for what’s currently in the game, there’s only limited innovation that I can report on – partly because of my own gameplay choices, but also because of how late we are into the metagame. As was expected, Aggro Frost DK was punched with the nerf bat, and though a variant of the deck is still around, it is no longer so overwhelming to play against. Here’s a build to consider if you want to stay in the cold:
- Format: hydra
- Season: season-108
- Player:
8,280
If you really, really want to make use of Frost Queen Sindragosa, we’ve also got you covered:
- Format: hydra
- Season: season-108
- Player:
- 10,320
And here’s a slightly slower-than-usual aggro build for the Unholy rune, which gave me an idea to experiment with in a very different realm:
- Format: hydra
- Season: season-108
- Player:
- 8,940
As I mentioned many times in the previous entries in this series, I really enjoy the playstyle and consistency of Even Unholy DK in Wild. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s a great deck, but the consistent Corpse- and Infuse-enabler turn one play and the board-centric gameplay style make it my current favorite. I started the season by nabbing Sipsophila’s build, and I must confess I never figured out what the heck was the point of Dirty Rats.
- Format: wild
- Season: season-108
- Posted By:
- 17,400
- 2Acidic Swamp Ooze1
- 2Amalgam of the Deep1
- 2Astalor Bloodsworn1
- 2Bone Flinger1
- 2Cult Neophyte1
- 2Dirty Rat1
- 2Knife Juggler1
- 2Priest of the Deceased1
- 2Sketchy Stranger1
- 2Vrykul Necrolyte1
- 2Zephrys the Great1
- 4Blademaster Okani1
- 4Murlocula1
- 4School Teacher1
- 6Cornelius Roame1
- 6Genn Greymane1
- 6Reno Jackson1
- 6Skulking Geist1
- 6Sylvanas, the Accused1
- 6Theotar, the Mad Duke1
Eventually, I decided to go my own way and have some fun. It was time to revisit my old love-hate relationship with Knife Juggler, and I thought I’d mess around with our shiny new legendary, E.T.C., Band Manager. Even though the card is supposed to follow deckbuilding restrictions, it did allow me the opportunity to add odd-cost cards to the deck.
It sounded better on paper than how it worked out in practice. My thought was to add Blightfang against fellow board-centric decks, Brann Bronzebeard for the games that went longer than planned, and Plagued Grain for surprise early finishers with Grave Strength.
Turns out, these marginal benefits are just not worth the cost of a vanilla 4/4 body in a tempo deck. So I eventually gave up on the experiment and took a leaf from Cantelope’s book, adding two copies of Amalgam of the Deep to the deck. The Discover effect, as you would expect, is woefully inconsistent, but it does occasionally help you chain together plays with an otherwise clunky hand early on. It’s not great, but it’s good enough to get you to Legend. Here’s what I eventually finished with:
- Format: wild
- Posted By:
- 8,340
I’m sure there are much better builds out there, but it was a lot of fun to climb with this one.
There’s very little to report from the auxiliary game modes, for they are very scarce on updates at this time. Arena is still a Mage-infested mess with some high-tempo challengers trying to keep them down, leaving Death Knights in the doldrums in terms of overall win rate. Of course, there’s always Duels, but the bugged Paladin Hero Power, From Golden Light makes the format unplayable. It’s been weeks at this point.
The Year of the Wolf – What’s on the Horizon?
Of course, the biggest story in the Hearthstone universe is the upcoming Core set rotation and the arrival of the Festival of Legends expansion. The set is 10/10 from a flavor perspective but it remains to be seen how things will shake out balance-wise. Schematically, Death Knights should benefit from the rotation, having comparatively fewer cards than the rest of the field, but everything depends on the specific cards – and their presence will come at the cost of lowering the currently ultra-high consistency of the class Discover effects.
Death Knights won’t be impacted by class card changes with the new core set, and apart from losing Brann Bronzebeard (and Reno Jackson, for those ultra-greedy players out there), the current archetypes are not going to be significantly impacted by the neutrals moving out, either. The presence of Hench-Clan Thug and Dread Corsair may very well herald the arrival of potential new aggro decks, but it’s too soon to evaluate this.
So how about the currently revealed Death Knight cards? There’s a lot to like here. Photographer Fizzle is exactly the sort of card that I hope will work with Control decks that will go on to enable some degenerate combo instead, but cheap weapon tutoring in the form of Instrument Tech also has some potential.
As for the class cards, I love the fact that we’re getting rainbow support with Climactic Necrotic Explosion, and I also love that it’s excluded from Discover options. I already know I’m going to hate Cage Head (and Death Growl), and Screaming Banshee may keep Blood decks alive, literally and figuratively. Mosh Pit seems like bucketloads of fun – especially because the effect is not limited to Undead minions, so watch out. Zilliax with Reborn, anyone? Am I being too sadistic here?
All in all, it’s looking good so far! I’ve had my fill of fun but I’m eagerly (and naively) awaiting a time of lower power levels. What I’m trying to say here is that the new year can’t come soon enough. In the meantime, you will find me messing around on the Wild Legend Ladder with progressively sillier decks. I still need to try out the Even Reno build…
Yellorambo
Luci Kelemen is an avid strategy gamer and writer who has been following Hearthstone ever since its inception. His content has previously appeared on HearthstonePlayers and Tempo/Storm's site.
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just cracked legend with a DK deck including E.T.C.
mostly used him for loatheb.
secret tech living dragonbreath against freeze shamans and freeze mages never happened
eater of secrets/ashen elemental would have been useful against ice block at times
the real mvps were astalor and sylvanas
honorable mention: battlefield necromancer
Since you have so much DK experiance, I wonder what your most frequent choices were for the battlecries of School Teacher and Necrotic Mortician?
For me, I think it’s Plague Strike, Blightwidow (only NM) and if I have a wide board of anemic Minions I also sometimes like anti-magic shell
Super matchup-dependent. I usually hold both back as late as possible until I have a good idea what I’m looking for (or if I’m desperate for removal). Asphyxiate for 1 mana is also a heck of a card, and The Scourge can be helpful as well if the game is going long.
thanks for your reply!
that’s bad news for E.T.C.:
on the one hand, there are already Necrotic Mortician and School Teacher for flexibility to adapt to a wide range of possible matchups, so E.T.C. is not really necessary.
on the other hand, there are so many possible matchups that three additional cards from E.T.C. cannot cover them all.