This week in Hearthstone esports, we have a Masters Tour tournament. These are large tournaments with hundreds of players, 399 in this case, so there is more variety in the lineups than there is in Grandmasters. There are lots of meta decks, of course, but also plenty of surprising choices. Many of those surprise decks turn out to be bad, but there are often some diamonds among them as well.
We posted the full details on where to watch the games and how to get some free packs while doing so earlier, and in this article, I will take a look at what is being played at Masters Tour Silvermoon, and what are the most interesting, and hopefully at least somewhat viable decks. This article is based on the results of the first day, so we have some idea of which lineups have had some early success.
Masters Tour Silvermoon Deck Archetypes
There are 399 players at Masters Tour Silvermoon, and everyone brought four decks. This is what the overall class and archetype distribution looks like:
- 355 Warlocks (222 Quest Giants, 131 Quest Stealer, 2 Quest Zoo)
- 263 Demon Hunters (127 Fel, 81 Quest Brute, 38 Quest OTK, 17 Deathrattle)
- 221 Shamans (194 Quest, 19 Aggro, 8 Elemental)
- 169 Druids (84 Celestial, 49 Anacondra, 32 Aggro Taunt, 2 Owl, 1 Quest, 1 Gibberling)
- 162 Priests (139 Shadow, 23 Control)
- 146 Rogues (63 Garrote, 63 Poison, 10 Kazakus, 6 Aggro, 4 Quest)
- 127 Mages (127 Quest)
- 89 Hunters (86 Face, 3 Quest)
- 35 Warriors (15 Rush, 15 Control, 3 Handbuff, 2 Quest)
- 29 Paladins (15 Secret, 8 Handbuff, 6 Libram)
There is more variety than usual, and all classes are represented. After the first day, there are also decks from all classes in lineups that went 4-0.
The Most Interesting Decks
For the most interesting decks, I’m looking for off-meta decks, decks with interesting tech cards, and new upcoming archetypes that may become meta but are not that popular yet. I’m also trying to prioritize decks that have won some games because anyone could bring an interesting deck that just falls flat.
INER’s Handbuff Warrior
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Warrior has not been doing well in United in Stormwind, so any Warrior decks in successful lineups immediately catch my attention. Furthermore, this is a somewhat unique take on Warrior. It resembles a Rush Warrior, but it includes only the very best Rush minions: Rokara, Blademaster Samuro, and Overlord Runthak.
The deck has many ways to buff minions, both in hand and on the board with Rokara, Overlord Runthak, Conditioning (Rank 1), Stage Dive, and Crossroads Watch Post all contributing to making your minions bigger. Robes of Protection makes your board more difficult to target, and the deck also includes Far Watch Post and Cult Neophyte, so the deck is well-prepared to take on uninteractive Quest decks.
Wcysai’s Control Priest
Control Priest has largely disappeared from the ladder, but some variants have still found success in tournaments. Obviously, there are differences between ladder play and tournament play with class bans and deck targeting strategies, but Wcysai’s take on Control Priest looks particularly interesting.
This is not a greedy list, the mana curve is kept low with only Elekk Mount and Mutanus the Devourer at seven mana – there is no Soul Mirror in the deck!
Some of the best-performing ladder Control Priest decks are similarly low-curved – and rocking around 48% win rates – but this version takes things a step further than the common builds. Perhaps there is something here that might find success on the ladder as well.
Tincho’s Control Warrior
Control decks have generally been too slow to succeed in United in Stormwind; it is as if they need more active win conditions. Tincho answers the call with a combination of Troublemaker and Rattlegore for pressure and Shadow Hunter Vol'jin and Mutanus the Devourer for combo disruption.
This deck has been Tincho’s star performer in the first rounds of the Masters Tour!
Empanizado’s Owl Druid
Owl Druid, sometimes also called Jambre Druid after the player who invented the archetype, is a curious deck. It does not have many ways to swarm the board, and there’s no C'thun, the Shattered as a finisher either.
Nonetheless, somehow it just wins games with a combination of ramp, Umbral Owl, Solar Eclipse, Arbor Up, and Cenarion Ward. If the deck survives long enough to slam Malygos the Spellweaver on the board, a and Cenarion Ward combo is almost guaranteed to follow.
Furthermore, this is a deck that includes an actual Old God. In United in Stormwind! If you can ramp, you just might have enough time to play Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate, should things look grim.
SuperFake’s Libram Paladin
Libram Paladin has all but disappeared from the ladder, but there are a few believers who brought the archetype to Masters Tour Silvermoon. SuperFake’s list has been the best-performing one on the first day: it is a hybrid between the old Libram Paladin and the newer Handbuff Paladin that includes Prismatic Jewel Kit and Alliance Bannerman in addition to the Libram package.
Between the hard removal offered by Lord Barov and the healing potential of Catacomb Guard and Libram of Hope, this deck is the definition of midrange and has tools to survive a variety of situations.
HKroms’s Moonfang Face Hunter
Face Hunter has performed extremely well at the Masters Tour, and while the archetype is fairly stable, there is still some room for innovation as well. For example, if your opponents will not play any minions, what can Trampling Rhino do in a game? Nothing! So, why not cut it and add Moonfang instead!
HKroms has teched this Face Hunter deck for a minionless meta, with a full focus on dealing damage to the opponent and disrupting their plans with Cult Neophyte. Piercing Shot can still stay, as it can also target your own minions.
Orange’s Kazakus Garrote Rogue
Garrote Rogue looks stunning when it works: the entire deck is drawn within moments and Ethereal Augmerchants enhance the Bleeds from Garrote to deal more damage. Boom, the game is over. However, ladder experience has shown that the deck fails to flow more often than it succeeds.
For Masters Tour Silvermoon, several players have enhanced their Garrote Rogue decks with Kazakus, Golem Shaper and Shroud of Concealment, giving the deck an alternative win condition in the form of powerful Golems. The existing Kazakus versions of the deck are already the best-performing ones on the ladder, and these new versions are waiting for their open-world test.
On the first day of the Masters Tour, multiple players found success with decks similar to this Orange’s list.
INER’s Shadow Priest
Is everything better if there are Crossroads Watch Posts in it? INER seems to think so. Instead of the currently popular Disciplinarian Gandling or Kazakus, Golem Shaper approaches to Shadow Priest, INER has chosen to go with Crossroads Watch Post.
Clearly, this is part of a lineup that targets Quest decks, but depending on your ladder meta, perhaps such tech choices can prove useful to you as well.
JtFOW’s Aggro Taunt Druid
Aggro Taunt Druid has become a force on the ladder recently, and some players have brought it to the Masters Tour as well.
JtFOW’s version of the archetype is particularly interesting: it is almost a budget deck as there are only four Epic cards and no Legendary cards in it! The deck includes multiple interesting card choices, such as Enchanted Raven and Kodo Mount that see hardly any play on the ladder.
Determining the value of these additions would require a lot more data, but the deck has performed well for JtFOW on the first day, and Aggro Taunt Druid is still being refined, so these may be interesting additions to consider.
Have fun!
I hope that these highlights from the Masters Tour help you to find something new and exciting to play on the ladder as well!
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
Thank you for reviewing all these interesting lists.
Since I play a similar variant myself, I am most interested in the Handbuff Warrior list. I am curious about the inclusion of Crossroads Watchposts, might give that a shot myself. I am pretty confident you want to replace Cornelius with a Battlemaster though. If you have a buffed board it is a great finisher and drawing cards around turn 6 strikes me as too slow, most likely you have lost the game at this point. Ogremancers and Moonfang might be too slow for ladder as well. Personally I really like two Shields of Honor and a Taskmaster instead.
Viper and Studies you could argue about. In my experience you really prefer the rush minions pulled from Stage Dive and Studies can be rather akward together with conditioning, so I am not sure you want Studies in the list.
Alright thats just some ideas I wanted to share, on ladder there is still a decent amount of aggro decks, so I would consider some of the changes I mentioned.
Tested a bit, Crossroads Watchposts feel pretty strong so far.
Went with this list:
https://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/tempo-handbuff-warrior-further-refinement-testing/
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Stage Hands could be replaced with Ogremancers/Moonfang of course, but I feel that is not needed in the current metagame. If meta would slow down a bit and more control heavy decks pop up, I’d definitely make changes, but currently meta is too aggressive.