New Standard year announcement is behind us – Year of the Raptor was revealed a few days ago. We learned about Core Set 2025 rotation and got to peek at the upcoming patch roadmap. For example, we now know that the big Arena revamp teased last year is coming in Patch 32.2 (so around late April/early May).
But that’s just the beginning. The next expansion (Into the Emerald Dream) will be announced next week. While we already know its name and general theme, the expansion’s reveal will – as always – showcase the new mechanics and kick off the reveal season. It should make the next few weeks exciting. Patch 31.6 also means that all players are getting a free Legendary card to celebrate the set’s announcement. In the past, the quality of those has varied heavily (just to give two recent examples – in Patch 28.6 we got Colifero the Artist and in Patch 29.6 Marin the Manager).
Patch 31.6 should also be a big shake-up in Battlegrounds and a new Arena season, but that’s outside of the scope of this post (which focuses on Constructed).
As for the current meta, well, there are some small shifts, but the overall composition of the meta remains similar. Zerg DK, Terran Shaman and Terran Warrior are still the three most popular decks. Together they consistently make up around 40-50% of the meta.
More interesting shifts happen with slightly less popular decks. For example, Protoss Priest and Protoss Rogue – after lots of experimentation – are finally pretty viable. The right builds are probably Tier 2. You might not realize that just looking at the stats, because they are lumped together with bad builds, but those decks have potential. It turns out that you don’t want to play Protoss as “slow, Control deck” but rather as an Aggro/Tempo deck and just use the respective Protoss packages as finishers. I mean, it makes sense, Zealots are one of the strongest part of the Protoss package and they have Charge. Turns out face damage is king. On the other hand, Protoss Mage, a deck that looked most promising at first, is not doing that well because it’s just a slower build by nature (you need time to ramp up Colossus damage and Protoss spells don’t work well with Aggro playstyle).
Another strong deck that needed a good build to work is Zerg Hunter. Early builds were kinda all over the place, players didn’t exactly know what to do with Zergs in Hunter. But then they realized that Handbuff might be the way to go. Zerglings are amazing at taking handbuffs, because they double them when summoned. You can often get down two 10/8’s (for example) on Turn 4 and if your opponent can’t answer them, you win. Even if they can, you can just buff another Zergling and get even more threats. And if you need burst damage, just use Patchwork Pals, leave Huffer in your hand, and buff it instead – then Charge your opponent in the face.
And finally, we’ve got decks like Zerg Warlock, Hero Power Druid, Weapon Rogue and Dungar Druid which didn’t really change in any way recently but all are still viable. They actually do shift between Tier 1 and Tier 2 depending on the exact meta composition, and they all stay within a few % play rate (Hero Power Druid is the most popular and even reaches 10% at some ranks, but is closer to 7% overall).
As you can see, StarCraft is still dominating the meta completely. You can count viable decks that don’t use new cards on one hand. It wasn’t just a fluke – the mini-set turned out to be more impactful than many full expansions. This kind of situation has both its upsides and downsides. The biggest upside is probably the fact that it shifted the meta and any viable piece of content is good because players got enough value for their purchase. The downsides include power creep (StarCraft packages are very strong and they might become even stronger in the 4 expansion meta after rotation), meta being less diverse (the number of viable decks went down after the expansion, not up), and… well, if you don’t like StarCraft decks, you’re basically out of luck, because that’s 90% of the meta. It will be a tough balancing act going forward. I quite like StarCraft decks to be honest, but I don’t want them to still dominate the meta when the new expansion drops, I’d rather be playing new stuff.
Of course, it’s too early to say anything, we’ll see how things go, and as usual I’m trying to be optimistic. And if it turns out to be bad, I’ll definitely let you know
Below is 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!
Hearthstone Standard Legend Decks of the Week
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- 1Cup o’ Muscle2
- 1Zergling2
- 2Birdwatching2
- 2Spawning Pool2
- 3Punch Card1
- 3Reserved Spot2
- 4Char2
- 4Food Fight1
- 5Warsong Grunt1
- 1Deafen2
- 1Glacial Shard1
- 2Photon Cannon2
- 2Quick Pick2
- 3Swarthy Swordshiner2
- 3Void Ray2
- 4Cover Artist1
- 5Chrono Boost2
- 8Artanis1
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- 1Deafen2
- 1Miracle Salesman2
- 2Photon Cannon2
- 2Quick Pick2
- 3Swarthy Swordshiner2
- 3Void Ray2
- 5Chrono Boost2
- 8Artanis1
Hearthstone Wild Legend Decks of the Week
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- 2Heat Wave1
- 2Volcanomancy1
- 3Flame Ward1
- 3Frost Nova1
- 3Ice Block1
- 3Nightcloak Sanctum1
- 3Objection!1
- 3Solid Alibi1
- 3Watercolor Artist1
- 4Varden Dawngrasp1
- 5Mes’Adune the Fractured1
- 5Sleet Skater1
- 6Blizzard1
- 6Grey Sage Parrot1
- 6Portalmancer Skyla1
- 6Puzzlemaster Khadgar1
- 7Magister Dawngrasp1
- 9Grand Magister Rommath1
- 10The Galactic Projection Orb1
- 1Devolving Missiles1
- 1Sir Finley, Sea Guide1
- 2Dirty Rat1
- 2Far Watch Post1
- 2Mad Scientist1
- 2Zephrys the Great1
- 3Brann Bronzebeard1
- 3Coldlight Oracle1
- 3Knickknack Shack1
- 3Metal Detector1
- 3Prince Renathal1
- 3Reverberations1
- 3Robocaller1
- 4Blademaster Okani1
- 4E.T.C., Band Manager1
- 4Potion of Illusion1
- 5Boompistol Bully1
- 5Star Power1
- 6Bob the Bartender1
- 6Reno Jackson1
- 6Theotar, the Mad Duke1
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- 0Serpentbloom1
- 1Scourge Tamer1
- 1Sneaky Snakes1
- 2Bargain Bin1
- 2Doggie Biscuit1
- 2Observer of Myths1
- 2Patchwork Pals1
- 2Selective Breeder1
- 2Spirit Poacher1
- 2ZOMBEEEES!!!1
- 3Acidmaw1
- 3Dreadscale1
- 3Exarch Naielle1
- 3Hydralisk1
- 3Ramming Mount1
- 3Wild Spirits1
- 4R.C. Rampage1
- 4Theldurin the Lost1
- 5Ara’lon1
- 6Beaststalker Tavish1
- 6Hope of Quel’Thalas1
- 1Costumed Singer1
- 1Miracle Salesman1
- 2Cult Neophyte1
- 2Dirty Rat1
- 2Far Watch Post1
- 2Spawning Pool1
- 2Zephrys the Great1
- 3Mixologist1
- 3Nydus Worm1
- 3Prince Renathal1
- 3Razorscale1
- 3Smothering Starfish1
- 4Blademaster Okani1
- 4E.T.C., Band Manager1
- 4Gorgonzormu1
- 4Lorekeeper Polkelt1
- 5Loatheb1
- 6Mojomaster Zihi1
- 8Kerrigan, Queen of Blades1
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- 0Serpentbloom2
- 1Sneaky Snakes2
- 1Tracking2
- 2Observer of Myths2
- 2Patchwork Pals2
- 2Selective Breeder2
- 2Spirit Poacher2
- 2Titanforged Traps2
- 3Acidmaw1
- 3Dreadscale1
- 3Exarch Naielle1
- 3Wild Spirits2
- 4R.C. Rampage2
- 5Alien Encounters2
- 5Tundra Rhino1
- 6Beaststalker Tavish1
- 6Hope of Quel’Thalas1
- 6Trial of the Jormungars2
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- 1Sir Finley, Sea Guide1
- 2Astalor Bloodsworn1
- 2Trail Mix1
- 2Zephrys the Great1
- 3Brann Bronzebeard1
- 3Trogg Gemtosser1
- 3Zola the Gorgon1
- 4E.T.C., Band Manager1
- 4Griftah, Trusted Vendor1
- 5Spammy Arcanist1
- 6Bob the Bartender1
- 6Gnomelia, S.A.F.E. Pilot1
- 6Reno Jackson1
- 6Theotar, the Mad Duke1
- 7Marin the Manager1
- 7Mutanus the Devourer1
- 8Jepetto Joybuzz1
- 8Reno, Lone Ranger1
- 9Yogg-Saron, Unleashed1