Balance update was released last Tuesday and – to surprise of no one – it didn’t really change the meta. After all, the changes were quite cosmetic, neither nerfs or buffs mattered that much. However, it doesn’t mean that the balance update failed – the thing is that the meta was already balanced prior to the patch, which is the reason why Team 5 didn’t decide to make any more drastic changes. The only issue is that even though the meta is balanced, it’s already pretty stable – we more or less know what the best decks are, and even if the power levels shift a bit, they’re doing so slowly. It’s not a problem per se, but if meta remains in the same state for too long, lots of player start to find it boring.
When it comes to current trends, I would say that Tempo Mage is getting more and more popular. It’s not a very easy deck to play, there’s a lot of decision making, so it took some time for players to learn the matchups etc. well. But once they did, it turns out to be one of the better decks to run on the ladder right now – following the competitive footsteps, where the deck was showing its power for the last couple of weeks. Higher Legend players have also been testing new builds of the combo-oriented Illusion / Turtle Mage. The deck has a lot of potential, but it’s also quite easy to counter with the right deck, that’s why I don’t think that it will dominate the meta. On the other hand, as long as it doesn’t become too popular and there’s no reason to specifically counter it, it can get the job done as long as you know how to pilot it.
I’m honestly quite a big fan of the current meta – there are multiple viable builds and play styles, and while lots of players seem to hate decks full of “generated” cards, I think that they’re adding an interesting twist so the matches don’t feel the same every time. Of course, I’m sure that many of you have a different experience or opinion about it, but I’m honestly not sure what would need to happen for it to change a lot at this point. We would need a real nerf patch that upsets the balance or at least players finding out a new build that works well against the currently played decks.
We don’t have THAT many new decks this week mostly because of the Masters Tour Online: Montreal happening as I’m writing this. Hundreds of pro players were preparing their lineups and then played in the tournament over this weekend, so they didn’t share as many ladder decks / climbs as they usually do. That said, we’ll share the lineups from Top 8 players soon, so if that’s something you find interesting, stay tuned!
Below, you will find a full list of the Legend decks from last week, sorted by the highest placement.
If you want to see all of the current top meta decks, go to our Hearthstone Meta Tier List post!
If you’re looking for the best Wild Format decks, check out our Wild Meta Tier List!
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