Welcome to the 321st edition of the Data Reaper Report!
Contributing to the Data Reaper project through Hearthstone Deck Tracker or Firestone allows us to perform our analyses and to issue the weekly reports, so we want to wholeheartedly thank our contributors. Without the community’s contributions, there would be no project. Contributing data is very easy, so if you enjoy our content and would like to make sure it remains consistent and free – Sign up!
Quick Links
Class/Archetype Distribution | Class Frequency | Matchup Winrates | vS Power Rankings | vS Meta Score | Class Analysis & Decklists | Meta Breaker of the Week | How to Contribute | Credits
Number of Games
| Overall | 851,000 |
| Top 1K Legend | 95,000 |
| Legend (Excluding Top 1k) | 301,000 |
| Diamond 4 to 1 | 99,000 |
| Diamond 10 to 5 | 130,000 |
| Platinum | 90,000 |
| Bronze/Silver/Gold | 136,000 |
Class/Archetype Distribution
-
All Ranks
-
D1 to D4
-
Legend
-
Top 1K Legend
Class Frequency
-
Weekly
-
Daily
Class Frequency Discussion
Standard is developing into two very different formats. At top legend, only a few classes see significant play, relegating others into a fringe presence. Outside of legend, the format looks more diverse, with no specific deck standing out far above the rest.
Drunk Paladin’s popularity has exploded at legend ranks, peaking at top legend, where it has eclipsed a 25% play rate. The deck has completely taken over the class there, and we see little else. It is a very different story outside of legend, where Drunk Paladin is a popular deck amongst a few. Aggro, Shala, and even Imbue Paladin remain noticeable.
With Rogue established as Paladin’s only known counter, top legend players have gravitated further to the class in an attempt to stop the rising Drunk Paladin. Ashamane Rogue has become the most popular Rogue deck. Pirate Rogue is transforming into a deck resembling Ashamane Rogue. Protoss Rogue has declined. Starship Rogue has faded away, likely due to its poor Paladin matchup.
Cliff Dive Demon Hunter is in decline, an unsurprising development considering Drunk Paladin’s meteoric rise. However, Demon Hunter remains popular at top legend, likely due to its good matchup against Rogue. Aggro Demon Hunter is stagnant, only slightly noticeable at lower rank brackets.
Warlock is mostly relevant at higher levels of play, where both Wheel and Starship Warlock maintain a steady presence, an interesting development considering the class’ struggles last week. There seems to be a preference for non-Starship Wheel Warlock, so we will have to look into a possible reason why Wheel is preferred, despite Starship Warlock looking stronger last week.
Interest in Mage has picked up, including top legend, where a fascination with both Protoss and Spell Mage persists. Imbue Mage, like most Imbue decks, is contained to lower MMR’s.
Blood-Ctrl Death Knight is in decline, while Handbuff Death Knight is rising in play, becoming the most popular Death Knight deck at Diamond ranks. Menagerie Death Knight has been taken over by its Rainbow build. Starship Death Knight’s presence is small across ladder. Death Knight is the last class that sees significant play at top legend.
Zarimi Priest remains the most popular deck at Diamond ranks, but is nearly non-existent at top legend after substantially declining there over the last two weeks.
Imbue Druid’s numbers have been cut by a half across ladder, while completely collapsing at top legend.
Interest in Hunter is in decline, with players moving away from both Zegg and Imbue Hunter, while Handbuff Hunter is struggling to garner attention.
Control and Terran Warrior see some play at lower ranks, but the class becomes irrelevant at higher levels of play.
Besides a small number of Murmur Shamans at top legend, Shaman does not look relevant anywhere.
-
All Ranks
-
D4 to Legend
-
Legend
-
Top 1K Legend
-
Legend
-
D1 to D4
vS Meta Score
-
Top 1K Legend
-
Legend
-
D1 to D4
vS Power Rankings Discussion
Paladin
- Drunk Paladin remains unstoppable across most rank brackets. It is only at top legend where the deck does not completely outclass the competition, for two reasons. The extreme popularity of Rogue at top legend has been effective at preventing the deck from spinning completely out of control. In addition, top legend players have been devising new builds for multiple decks to improve the Drunk Paladin matchup. In several cases, this has been effective too. Drunk Paladin’s matchup spread is still insane, but some of its matchup advantages have been tempered at higher levels of play.
- Aggro Paladin looks strong on the climb to legend, but falls off at higher levels of play due to its struggles against Rogue. Shala Paladin should disappear. There is no reason to play the deck when Drunk Paladin is so much better.
Rogue
- Rogue’s rise in popularity at top legend is not paired with a rise in its win rate, which seems strange on the surface. After all, Drunk Paladin’s play rate has exploded, so why is Rogue not eating good? The reason why both Protoss and Pirate Rogue have collapsed in their performance is that Rogue’s advantage in the Paladin matchup has softened over the last week due to Drunk Paladin’s refinement. Both decks beat Paladin only 54% of the time. Add the fact that these Rogue decks struggle against most non-Paladin decks at top legend and it becomes understandable why they fell off in their performance.
- Starship Rogue is getting worse for a simple reason. It loses to Drunk Paladin.
- Ashamane Rogue is the one Rogue deck that is holding up well because its non-Paladin matchups are better and it performs better against Drunk Paladin compared to Protoss and Pirate. We believe that Ashamane Rogue should take over the class and become the premier choice for Rogue players at higher levels of play. There is little reason to play anything else against the current, narrow field. That could change if classes like Mage or Shaman popped up to counter Warlock, incentivizing Rogue to have a stronger, early game pressure plan.
Demon Hunter
- Cliff Dive Demon Hunter did decline in its performance, but things are not as bad as they might be perceived, because the rise of Rogue has alleviated the losses coming from the increasingly harsh Paladin matchup. Demon Hunter also does well against other popular top legend classes: DK (except Handbuff), Mage and Warlock.
Warlock
- Warlock’s fortunes have drastically turned around again, with both Wheel and Starship Warlock massively spiking in their performance at top legend, setting the stage for a surge in the class’ popularity at higher MMR’s. There are several factors contributing to Warlock’s recent success. Both Starship and Wheel Warlock counter Rogue decks very effectively, so the rise of Rogue is a positive development for the class. The disappearance of Imbue Druid and Zarimi Priest from top legend is important too, as those decks represent counters to Wheel decks. Warlock has also been successful at gaining some percentages in the Drunk Paladin matchup, thanks to refinement, making Paladin’s presence less crippling.
- So, the top legend field is uniquely accommodating to Warlock, but skill is another factor why Warlock is stronger at top legend, as Starship and Wheel are two of the five most skill intensive decks in the format (Starship Rogue, Murmur Shaman, Wheel Warlock, Ashamane Rogue, Starship Warlock).
- There are some important matchup differences between Starship and Wheel. Wheel’s recent refinement has made the Drunk Paladin matchup very close. We might go as far as saying that when both decks are refined, Wheel Warlock goes 50-50 against Paladin at high MMR’s. Starship Warlock is weaker against Paladin, but performs better against Rogue, Demon Hunter and wins the Wheel mirror hard. As it stands, Starship is a bit stronger overall, but we understand why Wheel is more popular, as it feels better against Paladin and the focus has been on beating Paladin this week.
Mage
- Mage’s play rate, especially at higher MMR’s, does not seem to be supported by widespread success. Protoss Mage may become stronger this week, as it hard counters Wheel Warlock, but note that it does not beat Starship Warlock.
- The reason some players seem obsessed with Spell Mage is that it beats Rogue. The problem is that it beats nothing else, so it is useless even at top legend, where Rogue is extremely popular.
Death Knight
- Blood-Ctrl Death Knight is recovering its performance at legend to some degree, due to the rise of Rogue and the decline of some of its harder counters. The Drunk Paladin matchup is 50-50, so Blood-Ctrl does not mind seeing Paladin clean house and getting rid of Priests and Druids. However, a potential rise in Warlock does not bode well, so it is hard for us to see it looking better than Tier 3. Ashamane Rogue also seems to have more success against it compared to other Rogue decks.
- Starship Death Knight’s prospects are better, as it performs better than Blood-Ctrl against Warlock and its best Rogue matchup is against Ashamane. We think the deck is a little underrated considering how unpopular it is when compared to Blood-Ctrl.
- Handbuff Death Knight is extremely powerful across ladder, but hits a wall at top legend due to poor Rogue matchups.
- Menagerie Death Knight is another strong deck when refined, and we think it can improve even further with some tweaks, but it does possess a low skill ceiling that causes it to drop off at higher rank brackets.
Priest
- The disparity in Zarimi Priest across different rank brackets is extreme. This is the second best deck outside of legend ranks, only sitting behind the overpowering Drunk Paladin. At top legend, it is close to unplayable, as it gets destroyed by Rogues and Paladins. The Ashamane Rogue matchup is not as bad as Pirate/Protoss, while a Warlock spike could help too, but as long as it gets farmed by Drunk Paladin, there is a ceiling on how good it can be at high MMR’s.
Druid
- Imbue Druid has a similar story to Zarimi Priest, as it gets utterly destroyed at top legend by the extremely popular Rogue and Paladin classes. However, the deck is also falling off at Diamond ranks, as Drunk Paladin is trickling down across ladder and should become more popular over time.
Hunter
- Handbuff Hunter is a fine deck that forces a 50-50 matchup against Paladin and does not even fall off at top legend, but players are simply not interested due to its binary playstyle. Imbue Hunter sucks. Zegg Hunter is not uniquely powerful and falls off at higher ranks, so it cannot capture the attention it did before it got nerfed.
Shaman
- Murmur Shaman has improved its performance again and now sits at a more competitive win rate at top legend. One cause is a breakthrough in its refinement, with a new build that cuts a few cards that have proven to be liabilities, leading to some of its matchups improving. The narrowed down top legend field could prove to be beneficial to the archetype going forward, as it mostly thrives against Warlock and Demon Hunter and struggles against a diverse field. Its refinement has moved the Ashamane Rogue matchup into a 50-50 affair, so if Rogue further shifts to Ashamane, at the expense of Protoss and Pirate, while Warlock spikes in play, Murmur Shaman could suddenly look a lot better.
Warrior
- The rise of Drunk Paladin has killed all optimism regarding Warrior’s chance of competing at higher rank brackets. Terran Warrior still looks okay at low Diamond and Platinum, but the class looks rough past Diamond 5. Warlock’s success does not bode well either.
Class Analysis & Decklists
Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior
Vacation Planning looks superior to both Robocaller and Grillmaster, so we have slotted it into last week’s Drunk Paladin build.
An alternative variant that cuts the early game 1-drops and focuses on soft tutoring Flickerbot through Libram of Clarity has appeared. It does not look better than the first variant but may have some value in matchups where Resistance Aura has a greater impact or Ursol and Lynessa are more important to find.
The first variant should be stronger and more consistent in the early game, while the second variant is a bit swingier in the late game.
Ashamane Rogue may have figured out its best option at the 3-mana slot, with Bargain Bin Buccaneer looking strong alongside Talgath and Mixologist. The addition of Xavius is meant to improve slower matchups, which might be required in the case of a Warlock uptick.
Pirate Rogue is transitioning into a build that resembles Ashamane Rogue with a Watercannon package. We were initially not impressed with this direction a couple of weeks ago, but recently a new build went further by adding Zilliax, making Shaladrassil more consistent, just like Ashamane Rogue did recently.
Mixologists look great in Starship Rogue alongside Talgath. Xavius has improved its performance over the last week. Nightmare Fuel has gotten worse across all Rogue archetypes.
There are no changes in the Demon Hunter class. The Cliff Dive Demon Hunter build looks settled. Aggro Demon Hunter has stagnated for now, with most players stuck on a Pirate variant that does not work well.
Wheel Warlock has gone on a crusade to improve its matchup against Drunk Paladin, doing so successfully by maximizing stalling and removal. Soul Searching/Deadline helps us deal with Sea Shanty. Bob offers us Frost Nova. In the late game, we can even bounce Bob or Ceaseless with Brewmaster.
Starship Warlock has also been adding Bob to the deck. Bob is good against Paladin.
Protoss Mage is in a comparable situation to Wheel Warlock, where it gets rewarded for maximizing stalling through Bob, Blizzard, and Sleet Skater. Warp Gate can help us drop a Colossus down early to clear Sea Shanty. Other builds add Ysera and Hataaru, which are greedier choices that can replace survivability tools, such as Rising Waves.
The best Spell Mage build runs a Protoss spell package without Tsunami.
Starship Death Knight can lean harder into the removal game by running the Wild Pyro/Poison Breath pairing, as well as Suffocate. This makes it more likely that we can deal with Flickerbot and Sea Shanty.
Last week, we mentioned that the Rainbow variant of Menagerie Death Knight is the strongest one. This remains true. We have added Foamrender and Rainbow Seamstress to the deck, which look very strong, while reducing the size of the weak Frost spell package.
- Death Knight Class Radar
- Blood-Ctrl Death Knight
- Starship Death Knight
- Handbuff Death Knight
- Menagerie Death Knight
Zarimi Priest looks settled. There is little it can do to improve at top legend. The field is incredibly hostile for the deck, regardless of how it is built. Pick the deck up for the climb to legend and it should serve you well.
Imbue Druid can replace Zephrys, Reforestation and Griftah with Tortollan Travelers and Zilliax. Traveler’s primary tutor target is Flutterwing Guardian. There is a minimal difference in the performance of the last three cards in the deck.
Hunter has undergone no significant changes this week. Players have been experimenting with Furious Fowls and Shaladrassil in Handbuff Hunter to activate Bumbling Bellhop as the third minion in the deck, but we are not ready to let go of the established Zilliax build.
Meta developments could set up Murmur Shaman for a more comfortable spot at top legend, with refinement helping the deck as well. Cutting Lock On and Triangulate, as well as dropping Frosty Décor, appear to be positive steps for the deck. Wish is superior to Décor, which we mentioned weeks ago, while Icecrown Brochure is meant to stall Sea Shanty boards. Emerald Bounty is not great, but it is better than Triangulate.
Marin and Malorne are both weak. Zilliax is great with Wish, so you should cut one of them to make space. Marin might be a little better.
The meta is not headed in a direction that appeals to Warrior, so the class looks a bit stuck. We have not found anything promising this week.
Drunk Paladin is still completely uncontested on ladder everywhere except top legend, where the field has collapsed into a handful of classes entirely dedicated to curbing its dominance. This narrow field has led to a complete turnaround in Warlock’s performance. With Warlock no longer hard losing to Paladin thanks to some successful adjustments in its build, things are suddenly looking very good for Gul’dan again. The trifecta has evolved into a quadra, but a spike in Warlock could open up space for other classes to enter the fray.
Drunk Paladin is a free pathway to legend, making us wonder why players at lower ranks have not picked up the deck faster. We are hardly complaining, as it keeps the field diverse and tolerable until the upcoming mini-set.
Preparing our weekly article requires a significant amount of time and effort from many individuals. We would like to wholeheartedly thank our current Patreons, whose generous donations help us fund computing and server costs.
vS Gold is our membership plan aimed to support our efforts towards improving our content and data analysis while receiving some bonuses and extra features.
Tier 3+ Patrons
Special thanks to William H, Charlah R, Gregory F, Amir, Fisherington, Joltc, Alex H, The Big Dawg, Jesse M, Logan A, Josh G, WorldEight, Bruh, Wyatt P, Dooshenbarf, BraveSurRobin, Keith W, Clint D, Hisham M, Michael D, PapaPloKoon, Howie, Lepton, Nick M, Nebman27, Mal Trak, Supakoopatroopa, Tye L, Dennis W, Jeffrey B, and Phadion.
Here are all the people that participated in bringing you this edition of the vS Data Reaper Report:
Contributors
Be the first to comment