Darkmoon Races mini-set has been out for a while, we’re pretty deep into the expansion’s lifecycle, and we just had some massive announcements. Not only Basic/Classic card sets are replaced with a yearly Core Set, but we’re also getting a new (or rather old) game format – Classic. If you also add a new expansion AND a new game mode that should be announced (and come out) relatively soon, that’s a huge push and most likely the biggest changes Hearthstone has ever seen (even topping Year of the Phoenix’s new class, progression system etc.) Yep – if they keep it up, the future of Hearthstone is looking really bright. I’m cautiously optimistic – all of those things seem amazing, but we know that Team 5 had a few misses when it comes to big, new updates (early Demon Hunter power level, first version of rewards track).
But we’ll most likely learn more about that on the upcoming BlizzConline (starting next Friday), so for now let’s focus on the current meta. Which actually has seen some changes. Despite not getting any nerfs, the popularity of Ramp Paladin has dropped a bit. It’s still overall the most popular deck, peaking around 14% in high Diamond, but it seems a bit less “oppressive” now that people played against it more and know what to expect. Of course, High Abbess Alura + Tip the Scales high-rolls are still annoying and problematic, but that’s another story.
What’s more important is that we’ve got a new, solid deck – Burn Mage, Spell Damage Mage or however you want to call it. It’s a variation on the classic Tempo Mage formula and actually works surprisingly well. The deck has two innovations compared to the builds we’ve seen recently. The first one is Imprisoned Phoenix – +2 Spell Damage on a minion is HUGE in a deck running multiple damaging spells, to the point that builds even run Arcane Explosion to make it a 3 damage AoE for 2 mana. Yes, the Spell Damage is delayed, but you can drop it, then use next turn to draw cards etc. and then take off when it wakes up. The second innovation is what sets up those take-off turns – Elemental Allies Quest. Between Phoenix being an Elemental and the deck running Violet Spellwing and Confection Cyclone, the Quest is quite easy to finish and drawing 3 cards for just 1 mana is massive. Yes, the draw is delayed (because you need to play Elementals over 2 turns), but it’s usually not a big deal. Ultimately, the deck’s win condition is – like the name suggests – burn damage from cards like Frostbolt, Fireball or Arcane Missiles. The deck can deal a lot of damage from hand – with just a single Cyclone, dropping 2x Fireball + Frostbolt is 21 damage in total. It’s a really interesting build and it’s been gaining a lot of popularity over the past week – we’ll see where it goes soon.
Other than that, we didn’t see any major shifts in the meta, but I wonder how the new Mage build will shape it (because once people optimize it and it turns out that it’s really strong, others will start looking for counters etc.). We’ll see next week!
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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