After completing the comprehensive Into the Emerald Dream preview, it’s time for theory crafting! We encourage you to read the card preview as it is likely to shed light on many of our decisions regarding deck building.
Our first Data Reaper Report for Into the Emerald Dream is scheduled for Thursday, April 3rd!
We remind you that you can help us perform our analysis by contributing your Hearthstone game data. This can be done using Firestone, which provides us with all its user data (with an option to opt out). Alternatively, you can contribute data through our Hearthstone Deck Tracker plugin. Installing the plugin is very easy and will only take a couple of minutes of your time. We appreciate and thank all our contributors for keeping this project going. We remind our existing plug-in contributors to check on their plug-in and make sure that it is still active. Sometimes, with big patches, the plug-in deactivates inadvertently.
Remember that while we have extensively worked to produce the featured decks, they are still untested, and nothing can replace the post-launch refinement that is backed up by real-time game experience and data.
If you have a limited collection, we highly recommend that you DO NOT make big crafting investments on any theory-crafted deck. Wait at least a few days to see what strategies end up being strong and fun before making a significant commitment.
8 Hands Blood-Ctrl Death Knight
An expected reduction in late game lethality could open space for Blood-Ctrl Death Knight to thrive, especially with the newly introduced Leech package, which we expect will be very powerful in a defensive minded deck. Infested Breath offers strong early game removal. Sanguine Infestation is a great source of card draw. Hideous Husk is both a strong stabilizer and a pressure card.
Maladaar has great synergy with Shaladrassil, as we can cheat out an expensive card with it (Zilliax, Ysera, 8 Hands, Ursoc) while corrupting the legendary spell. The reason we like Shaladrassil in Blood-Ctrl Death Knight is that it helps us swing back the board after playing 8 Hands, which often leaves us vulnerable. A corrupted Shaladrassil on 9 mana wipes the board with Corrupted Awakening.
Grotesque Runeblade is an experimental choice here, not necessarily what we are convinced will be optimal, but worth testing. In matchups where our opponent has 3-health early game minions, a turn 1 Rite of Atrocity could be a good enough enabler alongside Morbid Swarm. If the weapon does not work out, we can easily replace it with Dreadhound Handler, which serves a similar purpose.
Nythendra is the most enticing target for Wakener of Souls. The featured build aims to blockade our opponent’s ability to hit our face in the late game while pressuring them with resurrected copies of Nythendra. Building around Nythendra as the only deathrattle minion in our deck, so that it always gets resurrected by Wakener, is not easy. Having to go UUB means losing both Chillfallen Baron and Sanguine Infestation as sources of card draw. Ancient of Yore and Falric help make up for this. Mixologists and Griftah offer some generated value too.
Hematurge might be the best Runeblade alternative in this deck.
Starship Death Knight’s advantage over attrition Blood decks is that it has a more proactive win condition that can pressure the opponent. The addition of the Leech package has pushed us to create a BBU build. The additional card draw makes the deck more consistent in growing our starship to 10 attack.
Morbid Swarm, Rite of Atrocity and Orbital Moon is a strong package of 1-mana spells that we can use to activate Guiding Figure far more consistently than we could during The Great Dark Beyond, which should help make up for the loss of Yelling Yodeler.
This deck can switch to a UUB build, but it means losing Sanguine Infestation, Orbital Moon and Corpse Explosion. Assimilated Blight, Soul Searching and Falric would likely be five of the six cards you would slot in to replace them.
Leeches do not just help us stabilize, they can help us kill the opponent, especially when we develop them into an empty board and reduce their maximum life in the same vein of the Azerite Snake. This made us wonder whether we could build a viable aggressive Blood deck.
Leeches are beasts. Hideous Husk, Airlock Breach and Morbid Swarm all develop minions with two tribal tags. This encouraged us to explore a Menagerie build with plenty of double tribe minions. Menagerie Jug becomes our Grave Strength. If it connects on just two minions, it already produces a lot of pressure for its cost.
Monstrous Mosquito is another key addition that makes it easier to slant aggressively with Blood. Develop it alongside Malignant Horror or Hideous Husk for the best results. This is a great way to buff our Leeches.
Demon Hunter’s most promising direction in this expansion is an archetype that can generate an obscene amount of armor that could make Warrior look pale in comparison. This list builds around Arkonite Defense Crystal, Ravenous Felhunter, and Ferocious Felbat.
A single curve of these three minions develops a total of 7 Arkonite Defense Crystals, which are worth 28 armor and 28 health in taunts, while adding the same number to our future starship. These minions can be tutored by Tuskpiercer, which increases the consistency of this curve.
Return Policy and Carnivorous Cubicle further increase the insane armor potential of the deck. On 8 mana, we can Return Policy a Ferocious Felbat and immediately eat a Felhunter with Cubicle. The best thing about Cubicle is that it punishes the opponent for ignoring a turn 5 Felhunter and trying to rush us down.
This deck can win in the late game in two ways. The first is a one-turn-kill through The Ceaseless Expanse and Exodar’s Offensive Formation. We can stack a massive starship with 30+ attack with relative ease. The Ceaseless Expanse guarantees the Exodar’s damage going face, invalidating counterplay through board development.
What happens if we run into the mirror, or another armor stacking deck, and cannot kill the opponent this way? Kil’jaeden becomes the fallback option.
Dreadseed Menagerie Demon Hunter
Dreadseeds are double tribal minions that enter the board on our turn with a banked mana cost, so they can be buffed by Menagerie Jug without counterplay when they awaken. Demon Hunter has access to several minions with ‘rare’ tribal tags (Naga, Quilboar), so it should be able to develop a board with a diverse plethora of tribes, the ideal landing spot for Jug.
Ball Hog and Dreadsoul Corrupter are both deathrattle minions that can be resurrected by Ravenous Felhunter, so a Tuskpiercer package is worth experimenting with. A sticky board makes it easier for Menagerie Jug to land. If Felhunter proves to be too slow, it is easy to replace it with a cheaper card, such as Fire Fly.
Dreadseed Crewmate Demon Hunter
Dreadseeds can fit into Crewmate DH too. Stylistically, both Draenei and Dreadseeds sacrifice initiative at first before swinging back. We tried to build the deck with a more aggressive slant and a lower curve, counting on Dreadseeds to give us more lasting power, while helping Felfused Battery become more dangerous early.
This deck is more of a fun experiment than something we expect to be competitive. Briarspawn Drakes are good Cliff Dive targets that make excellent resurrection targets for Rest in Peace, as they can kill the opponent’s resurrected minion immediately, while dealing face damage. This is why we did not include Omen in this deck, as it competes for resurrection with Drakes.
Remember that we can cast Red Card on minions summoned by Cliff Dive to keep them from shuffling back into our deck. Magtheridon already has that feature built in.
Along with the damage from Drakes, we have damage from Illidari Inquisitor. A turn 8 Inquisitor with an equipped Defiled Spear, followed by a corrupted Shaladrassil, sounds like a plan.
Hamuul gives Imbue Druid the highest ceiling when it comes to Imbuing, as it turns every two spells into a full Imbue. This encourages us to run a build with high spell generation, as spells we generate can trigger Imbue, even if they are not Nature spells. The only restriction is that every spell in our original deck must be a Nature spell.
Tide Pools and Photosynthesis are high priority spell generators. Symbiosis and Horn of Plenty are two spells in one card, so they are worth a full Imbue each. Reforestation is slow, but while card generation in the deck is abundant, card draw is scarce. Drink Server is another option if we are looking for spell generators.
Sing-Along Buddy is very important in the deck as it is the only card that allows us to develop two Plant Golems in one turn. Dreambound Disciple helps us click the hero power more often. Mark of the Wild lets us taunt up a big Golem, which otherwise does not protect us. The Ceaseless Expanse and Malorne offer us late game board swings, which the deck lacks. Our own Ceaseless Expanse will often be the best answer to the opponent’s Ceaseless Expanse.
The main reason why we would consider playing Hydration Station Druid in the upcoming expansion is Shaladrassil. Druid is one of the best enablers of the legendary spell, since it has ramp and Sleep Under the Stars. By casting Sleep Under the Stars and refreshing mana, we can instantly cast a Corrupted Shaladrassil, often with Corrupted Awakening and Corrupted Dream to respond to the opponent’s board. Shaladrassil is also game breaking with Mistah Vistah, if we ever have an opportunity to play these two cards in subsequent turns.
Ancient of Yore might be best in Druid, as we can play it following a turn 3 New Heights and buy time against aggressive decks while digging for resources. In our eyes, the card replaces the rotating Frost Lotus Seedling. More expensive, but no need to wait for it to blossom.
We are curious about Meadowstrider in Hydration Station decks and might have been too hasty writing off the card last week. The copy at the bottom of the deck can be drawn by Tortollan Traveler or pulled with Oaken Summons. If we ever get to the end of the deck, playing a 1 mana Meadowstrider can help us drop Kil’jaeden to the board without punishment, even though Kil’jaeden breaks the shuffling cycle.
Does anyone else remember that Carrier is supposed to be Protoss Druid’s win condition? We remember. The archetype can get cute in the late game thanks to Shaladrassil, with Corrupted Awakening looking like an ideal spell to play on the turn we drop Carrier. Carrier can also corrupt Shaladrassil, as we aim to play it for 8 mana in this deck.
We threw in a small Spell-Damage package in the deck for the sake of survivability (Swipe) and potentially finding another copy of Carrier (Toy Chest). We are not sure if the deck is comfortable going into the super late game, as it has a limited number of threats. Xavius does guarantee that you will find a Carrier or a Void Ray by the time you need it.
A similar Shaladrassil principle can be applied to Spell-Damage Druid with Owlonius. Corrupted Awakening destroys the opponent when backed up by Owlonius too. Xavius is very likely to find us Owlonius, perhaps even discounting it by 2 mana or summoning a 2/2 copy of it, which is a devastating choice that should even beat the armor stacking Demon Hunters with ease.
Our primary combo is stacking spell-damage on the board with locations or mini-Chia Drakes, playing Owl, then casting Sparking Phial to completely discount Sleep Under the Stars, using it to refresh up to 9 mana and then using the rest of the mana to fling every other damage spell we have in hand.
Without Lifebinder’s Gift, this combo is a lot slower and requires us to hit at least 10 mana, which is why Shaladrassil may be required as a survivability tool.
Personally, we do not care to use Hunter’s Imbue hero power to discount and buff all sorts of mediocre beasts. We mostly care about one beast: King Plush. The featured build aims to draw Plush as quickly as possible, buff it to a ridiculous extent with our accelerated hero power and Sing-Along Buddy, then OTK punch the opponent in the face with no counterplay, laughing off any taunts in the way.
We only run six beasts that get drawn by Exotic Houndmaster. Scarab Keychain is a cheap discover card that we can easily get out of our hand. Umbraclaw Imbues. King Plush and Malorne win. We can even see ourselves cutting Malorne, but the card is probably too good at swinging the game if it gets discounted. Having a secondary win condition in faster matchups is useful.
A maximized Imbue hero power buffs King Plush by +16 attack with Sing-Along Buddy. If we are playing against a defensive deck, there is nothing that stops us from clicking the hero power and gaining +8 a turn. Unless their armor gain is faster than that, we will win. Dirty Rat is the only real counterplay here (or killing us).
Discover Hunter loses barely anything in rotation, so it is in a great spot to succeed in the Emerald Dream. It even has a couple of strong additions too. Creature of Madness should become one of the best 2-drops in the game, a strong fit for both aggressive and defensive decks. Xavius is expected to be one of the most played and generically useful cards in the game. Since both are discover cards, they look like automatic inclusions here.
Note that we left The Ceaseless Expanse out of this deck because it did not perform well in the archetype following the nerf to Fizzle. Should the format slow down significantly, it is possible that the ubiquitous legendary becomes a logical inclusion again. We would cut one copy of Evolution Chamber in this scenario.
Starship Hunter is another relatively unchanged deck, but one that needs to adjust its OTK potential in the late game. With the loss of Yelling Yodeler, we now need Exodar and/or the returning Terrorscale Stalkers to execute burst combos with The Ceaseless Expanse.
This deck used to be able to play TCE, launch a starship for 5 mana and then double trigger Biopod’s deathrattle with Yelling Yodeler. Now, we either play two Terrorscale Stalkers for the same effect, or we launch the starship with Exodar and use Offensive Formation along with one Stalker. The Exodar path puts further emphasis on having more Starship pieces in the deck.
The return of Terrorscale Stalkers does make us wonder whether a Token Hunter deck can become a prominent player in the format again. The featured build combines the swarming potential of Zergs and Eggs, to create Zegg Hunter.
Amphibian’s Spirit is a serviceable buff to put on eggs and works extremely well with Zerglings, especially when they are given rush by Spawning Pool and we run them into enemy minions. Spirit can get a lot of immediate value in this situation.
This deck might be the most fun experiment you can find in the class. Here, we attempt to leverage the subtle synergy between Mythical Runebear and Broll Bearmantle. Why do these cards have synergy? Because both can thrive in the same spell heavy shell.
Handbuff Hunter with Zerglings is dead, but we are replacing Zerglings with Mythical Runebear. Runebear might be slower, but it still represents an incredible handbuff payoff, one that works extremely well in the same Warrior Tourist shell that runs Cup o’ Muscle, Reserved Spot and Birdwatching.
Broll also works well in this shell because it requires a lot of cheap spells to turn into a legitimate win condition, while discounting it with Reserved Spot sounds incredible. Cash Cow generates coins to help leverage Broll as well.
The concept is that Runebear wins against faster decks, while Broll beats slower decks. Just remember never to draw that pesky Ranger Gilly.
Our subjective opinion is that Mage has the most evocative Imbue package. It can go in many different directions due to its versatility. It is both a source of board control and a source of off-board damage. It does help that Mage has a couple of Tourists that can spice things up for the class.
The featured Raylla build tries to leverage Wisps as a serious board-based threat, with Busy-Bot looking like an enticing way to buff them. Raylla offers a secondary board-based win condition along with drink spells. Vacation Planning provides extra reload alongside Divination. We believe that it is stronger than Grillmaster due to Busy-Bot and helps us fuel both The Ceaseless Expanse and Aessina.
This deck has the capability to pressure early but still possesses the potential to pivot to the late game with The Ceaseless Expanse helping us set up either Aessina or Sing-Along Buddy/Wisprider/Imbued Hero Power (in this order).
Skyla provides mana acceleration, helping us scam opponents with big pressure plays. It is also an incredible shell if we want to utilize Shaladrassil. The consistency at corrupting the legendary spell should be very high. Skyla discounts Shaladrassil to 0 or 1 mana, which instantly corrupts it. Kalecgos corrupts and discounts it to 0 mana, allowing us to play it on the same turn. If needed, a full cost Tsunami, Malorne or Aessina corrupt it too.
The reason we like Shaladrassil in Imbue Mage is that Corrupted Awakening/Dream can help us funnel more direct hero damage. You can think of it as a smaller Ceaseless Expanse.
This list is less about pressure and more about inevitability, so it is more defensive minded and plays the control game. The thinking is that if we successfully stall the game, we can OTK the opponent through a Ceaseless/Wisprider/Sing-Along Buddy combo anyway.
With a slow game plan, Starsurge can scale to become pseudo hard removal, dealing with any big minion that can soak our damage in the late game. Sleet Skater and Ancient of Yore help us tank up and stall. Unfortunately, we view Ancient of Yore as superior to Merry Moonkin, as the latter takes too long to be useful while Ancient can be played without setup on turn 5.
Another exciting direction involves Mage utilizing Seaside Giants. We think Protoss Mage is an ideal landing spot for a giants package, but this is not because we want to run Warp Gate!
The first reason is that it gives Protoss Mage a proactive, early game plan. If Protoss Mage gains the ability to pressure, then the pressure can, by keeping the opponent busy, help the deck bridge into the late game, where it is strongest due to its source of inevitability. You can think of Location Warlock pivoting to Symphony of Sins and Sargeras when its giants are dealt with.
The second reason is a bit more subtle. There are eight 0-mana spells in Standard which can be randomly cast by Forbidden Shrine. Four of them gain mana: Preparation, Innervate, Horn of Winter and Construct Pylons. Construct Pylons is only useful in a Protoss deck, giving us a 50% chance of a powerful outcome from Forbidden Shrine when we click on it without any mana available. This helps us cast Protoss spells, fueling our Colossus for free and without falling behind.
This mana acceleration can also turn Tide Pools into an incredible discount engine for Seaside Giants. It is even possible to drop a Seaside Giant on turn 3 if we play both Locations on curve and get lucky with random 0 mana spells and discovers. Turn 4 should be a very consistent turn for a Seaside Giant.
Xavius should be very strong in this deck, as we only have 6 other minions and two of them can potentially cost no mana (Void Ray, Seaside Giant). Watch out for a Colossus with a double battlecry. That should be lights out.
Imbue Paladin looks like a well-rounded archetype. It has the most efficient Imbue cards. It can pressure through the board with a seemingly never-ending density of threats in the late game, while possessing significant burst damage that can kill opponents by turns 8-10.
The archetype has multiple impactful dragons, which makes Giftwrapped Whelp a powerful 1-drop. On top of Goldpetal Drake and Dreamwarden, Illusory Greenwing looks like a perfect fit. Greenwing can enable a Dreamwarden blowout, which is difficult to execute through Emerald Portals early in the game. If we do not hero power before Greenwing dies, Dreamwarden is guaranteed to pull an Illusion, representing a 5/6 taunt, a 4/5 taunt and a drawn card for 4 mana. That is insane on turn 4 with the coin or on turn 5.
Discovering dragons in this deck should also be powerful. We looked up the pool and more than half of the options in the discover phase look very good. This is high-quality value generation, which is why we run both Netherspite Historian and Bronze Explorer.
At the top end, Ursine Maul draws our win conditions. The Ceaseless Expanse should rapidly discount due to Emerald Portals. Malorne should always be active by turn 8. Anachronos is a great board reset card if we ever fall behind. Ursol casting Renewing Flames deals 30 lifesteal damage to the opponent across 3 turns, which is an incredible finisher that also makes us near impossible to kill. If we are even or slightly ahead on board when we play Ursol, the opponent should be crippled.
This is a slightly different spin on the archetype, in case Imbue Paladin needs to kill opponents faster. The top end is shaved off so that Ursine Maul always finds Ursol alongside Renewing Flames. This play should happen on turn 8 every time.
The rest of the deck looks to dominate the board harder, with a cheaper curve that should lead to a more consistent early-to-mid game. We count on this pressure to stay ahead so that when Ursol drops on turn 8, it closes out the game because the opponent is on the backfoot with no board to soak up the damage.
Do not be afraid to draw Portals early to snowball the game in your favor, especially with this list.
Can an Aggro Paladin work in this expansion? If snowballing boards is a rewarding strategy, it can. The featured build has an obscene number of board payoffs, to the point we added Wisps to the deck. Between Busy-Bot, Flash Sale, Crusader Aura and Menagerie Jug, a board left alone by the opponent means death. Notice that the entire deck is filled with 1-attack minions that Busy-Bot can buff, as well as tribal minions that can connect with Jug.
One cute synergy exists between Mother Duck and Crusader Aura, which offers serious comeback potential. This is a deck where Toreth should be obnoxious, as it protects our board from value trades and turns Righteous Protectors and Annoy-o-Trons into unkillable little minions.
Handbuff Paladin is experiencing a rough rotation, but this is our attempt to rejuvenate it. One of our secondary goals in this deck is to constantly buff Adaptive Amalgam. Alongside the usual Handbuff cards, we have a small Draenei package and Dreambound Raptor to connect with it. Redscale Dragontamer and the Curator can draw it. There are less silence/wipe effects in the upcoming format, so maybe Amalgam can carry alongside Toreth, which should be particularly powerful in this deck.
Priest has an exciting set that finally leans into late game strategies. There are many different directions that Control Priest can take, depending on what the format requires of it. The featured build maximizes the Imbue package to gain significant mana and resource advantages in the late game.
Since the Imbue hero power represents infinite value, we keep the curve low to the ground to contest aggressive decks, trusting that we will find mass removal and threats when we need them late. Parrot Sanctuary works well with the Imbue package, since we have two Imbue minions that cost 4 mana. A turn 3 Flutterwing Guardian is strong.
One small package that we expect will be popular in Priest decks will be Illusory Greenwing and Scale Replica. When Greenwing dies, Scale Replica can tutor us the Illusions, turning it into a draw engine that also develops 4/5 taunts. Should Tortolla become a popular threat, Priest can add Gravity Lapse to the deck, which works well with Kaldorei Priestess.
Once we reach the late game and significantly upgrade our hero power, we get to generate and play an extra card every turn, for free. With Sing-Along Buddy, we can swing the game even harder. This deck can grind forever.
Priest did not just get attrition tools; it can also kill the opponent surprisingly quickly thanks to Tyrande. The featured build maximizes the potential damage of a post-Tyrande game state. This deck resembles Mind Blast Control Priest from Witchwood.
Moonwell is the strongest swing tool after playing Tyrande. We run Parrot Sanctuary so that we can play Tyrande on turn 6 and Moonwell on turn 7. Moonwell is worth 8 damage to the enemy hero. Furious Fowls deals 12, while developing a board. Void Shard deals 8, while healing us for the same value. That is a lot of burn that is difficult to outlast unless the opponent has strong sustain.
Speaking of Sustain, Greater Healing Potion post-Tyrande heals us to full while drawing 2 cards, which is a legitimate win condition against aggressive decks. An upgraded Wish of the New Moon heals us for 12.
This deck has a lot of card draw, on top of being able to tutor Tyrande, thanks to Birdwatching, so the game plan should be consistent. If the burn plan is not enough, a small Imbue package can still generate a good amount of value to help us close out the game.
Late game lethality in Priest can arrive in a slower, but surprisingly effective form. This deck builds around Aviana, turning her into a Wheel of Death type finisher. The shell is mostly focused on survivability and helping us get to turn 8 or 9 and drop her to the board. Sometimes we get lucky with Xavius and can play Aviana even earlier.
Once the full Moon rises, we finish the game by playing Tyrnade, then casting a doubled Champions of Azeroth and choosing the Alliance. There are five champions that can be generated. One of them is Antonidas. This means we have a 64% chance of finding at least one Antonidas with a doubled Champions of Azeroth.
With Fireballs generated now costing 1 mana, we launch a barrage of them to the face. The first Fireball will be doubled by Tyrande, so you are looking at 42 damage with the 6 remaining mana (Tyrande/Champions/Antonidas/Any spell/Fireballx6).
An alternative win condition swaps Champions of Azeroth (and another card) for Artanis and Shaladrassil. In this case, the finisher requires generating Nightmare from Shaladrassil (which can get corrupted by Aviana, but we do not count on it), then playing Tyrnade, Artanis, doubled Nightmare on first Zealot, attack with first Zealot, Vol’jin to swap stats between the Zealots, then attack with the second Zealot.
If we cannot execute our finisher for whatever reason, the value from our Imbue hero power is strong post-Aviana. We do not need a full Imbue package, as all our cards cost 1 anyway.
Zarimi Priest could become a slower deck this expansion, with a new OTK path that ensures it can perform well in slower matchups. An early curve of dragons can fight for board and keep the opponent busy, but the main danger comes from Naralex.
The requirement of the new combo is 8 mana and 5 dragons played. We play Naralex, then play Ysera, which gives us 3 extra mana to play 3 additional dragons: 2 Briarspawn Drakes (for maximum damage) and Zarimi. This represents a crazy amount of damage, depending on how many enemy minions are in play to get punched by Drakes’ end of turn effect.
For this build, we prefer Tormented Dreadwing to draw us dragons rather than generating them with Selenic Drake. Our dragon count is high, so Fly Off the Shelves is a big help if we have fallen behind due to our greedy curve.
Greenwing Protoss Priest (Bonus 46th deck)
There is no reason why Protoss Priest cannot do well in this expansion, with the format expected to power down. Most of its key cards remain intact. Power Word: Shield and Xavius are a nice consistency boost for the deck, while Illusory Greenwing and Scale Replica help us draw and survive.
This deck could be one of the early frontrunners of the format. Paired with its strong board control tools, Rogue is getting massive early blow out potential through Harbinger of the Blighted and Web of Deception. We can do some crazy turns as early as turn 2 that summon multiple bodies that opponents have no chance of dealing with at this stage of the game.
The addition of Foxy Fraud and Waggle Pick to the Core set, as well as the buff to SI:7 Agent, further enhance Rogue’s early game strength and potential aggression. Waggle Pick/Dread Corsair is an old pairing that was utilized by the dominant Lackey Rogue from Rise of Shadows.
The deck’s card draw is obscene for an Aggro deck. Raiding Party helps us find Waggle Pick and Dread Corsair. Twisted Webweaver can chain draw as we load the board or bounce minions. Dubious Purchase is enabled by Preparation, Foxy Fraud and Spacerock Collector, making it a significantly stronger card.
Protoss Rogue has dodged nerfs. While it does lose Cover Artist, there is a new avenue for it to finish off opponents with Archon. This build is focused on Renferal and bounce effects to lock the opponent out of the game.
Waggle Pick and Web of Deception are not just here to scale up Renferal. We can use them to bounce Zealots summoned by Chronoboost, or Void Rays. This represents a lot of pressure that can kill an opponent without a spectacular late game combo.
If we do need an OTK style finisher, our goal is to bounce Renferal three times, with the final bounce needing to discount it to 1 mana through either Shadowstep or Waggle Pick.
We then play Sonya, Renferal and its copy. This traps 9 cards in the opponent’s hand, essentially making them unable to act besides using the card they draw off the top, their hero power and minions they have in play (they should not have a board because of Templars and Archons).
The Sonya/Renferal combo only costs 5 mana, so we can play Templars on the same turn. A board with one Archon deals 33 damage. A board with two Archons deals 57 damage. Two Archons can be summoned with the help of 1-mana Templars that get copied by Sonya. Artanis, Blink, Xavius, Photon Cannon and Shadowstep/Pick can help us set up a couple of 1-mana Templars.
We can opt for Sandbox Scoundrels, but this route is slower and could be more difficult to execute. The loss of Covert Artist makes us want to try a faster, more flexible build.
Starship Rogue’s value potential post-rotation could punish attrition decks that look to play the removal game and win through card advantage. A small combo package can help it survive better in the early game too. Web of Deception replaces Breakdance.
While Starship Rogue has been a value deck since its inception, it is getting even more value cards, ensuring it never runs out of resources. Shaladrassil gets corrupted by Sandbox Scoundrel. Yes, this is not a drill. The legendary spell gets temporarily discounted to 4 mana, then the game recognizes that we have played a more expensive card at 5 mana. On turn 7, we can play Mini-Scoundrel/Shaladrassil/Corrupted Awakening.
Ashamane is a bit more awkward to use in this deck, as it is more powerful the fewer cards we have in hand, and Starship Rogue does maintain a sizable hand. We do want to test it, so we suggest running Metal Detectors to accelerate it. Otherwise, we would stick with the value pairing of Sonya/Webweavers.
This is where Ashamane could shine as a consistent win condition. The featured build runs three minions that can be tutored by Dig for Treasure: Sandbox Scoundrels and Ashamane.
The rest of the deck is full of spells that can help us survive and we can easily dump from hand. Coin generators are crucial.
Our goal is to play Scoundrel on 5, then Mini-Scoundrel/Coin/Ashamane on turn 6. This fills our hand with discounted cards, many of them can be played for free on the same turn. Shadowstep or Prep/Web of Deception sends our Ashamane back to our hand for another go. We can play Ashamane five times and completely overwhelm our opponent with their own cards.
The other win condition is Shaladrassil, which we have explained earlier is corrupted alone by Sandbox Scoundrel. Coin generators can help us land a Corrupted Awakening as early as turn 6. This deck should be incredibly fun to play for Thief Rogue enjoyers.
The key to a successful Imbue Shaman should be a minion dense build that offers constant evolve targets. Shaman’s card draw is not great either, so we value strong discover cards like Creature of Madness and Birdwatching. The best card draw the deck has access to is Hagatha and Fairy Tale Forest.
Parrot Sanctuary should be mandatory, as it helps smooth out our curve with a heavy 4-mana slot and a deck filled with battlecry minions. Our late game is solid thanks to Shudderblock. We can triple an Imbue card and accelerate our evolve ability. We can triple Malorne, which represents the best value in our deck.
With the loss of Bloodlust, we cannot see Swarm Shaman able to compete without leaning heavily into a Menagerie build that takes advantage of Menagerie Jug and Mug. The class does seem very suitable for this transition.
Shaman has access to solid tribal minions such as Murloc Growfin and Missile Pod. Spirits of the Forest summons double tribal minions, while ‘Once Upon a Time…’ summons a rainbow tribal board that threatens a Jug follow-up by itself, making these two spells ideal Hagatha targets in this archetype.
The painful part is Shaman’s access to card draw, which is particularly lacking in aggressive decks. A small murloc package is added alongside Braingill and The Curator. Our dragon of choice is Illusory Greenwing. We either draw Greenwing, or we draw an Illusion with Curator. We believe Greenwing is stronger than Gorgonzormu. The nerf to 4 mana killed the Cheese Dragon, based on our metrics.
We believe that the best way to take advantage of Ohn’ahra is via Dungar rather than Cliff Dive. With a consistent shell of tutors, we can play Dungar on turn 6, which is just as fast as Cliff Dive. The major difference is that our board is permanent, and we can follow-up with additional waves of threats.
The key is to pull our battlecry minions before the Murmur/Dungar turn with Fairy Tale Forest and Birdwatching. Once Turbulus, Hagatha and Merithra are out of our deck, Dungar can come down on turn 6 with the help of Murmur and Parrot Sanctuary, summoning the following: Forgefiend (Core), Factory Assemblybot (Whizbang), Cash Cow (Perils), Splitting Spacerock (Great Dark Beyond) and Ohn’ahra (Emerald Dream). This is a devastating play that should end games on the spot.
Should our opponent clear the board with mass removal, we have Merithra to resurrect it. If we do not find Dungar on time, we can drop Murmur with a Nebula Slime on turn 6, which does feed Merithra. Cash Cow can help us play Dungar early without Murmur.
Terran Shaman’s slow variant does lose Fizzle, which is a huge blow to its late game, so it will have to reinvent itself. Our focus remains on the Terran package and those are the cards we want to draw the most. We just need to find the most playable fillers out there.
The loss of Cactus Cutter does encourage us to run Hagatha, so our idea is to run Shaladrassil and Nebula alongside Frosty Décor. Shaladrassil is corrupted by Nebula or Raynor, but it can also turn into a Hagatha Slime, which is not too bad. Nebula is a greedy card, but we are often greedy little bastards in this article, and this gives Shaman more threats in the late game to make up for the fact it no longer has two copies of its primary win conditions.
Warlock’s life is good. Location Warlock loses Forge of Wills, Sargeras and Symphony? This set provides the perfect replacement package. The Dark Gift package offers a scaling win condition that is extremely difficult to play around, as a massive charging Wallow with Windury is inevitable. In some matchups, Seaside Giants and Ultralisks are there to keep the opponent busy, as we build up Wallow.
Another very nice addition to the class is Rotheart Dryad, which tutors our win conditions: Seaside Giants, Wallow and The Ceaseless Expanse. This card was meant to be played in this very deck.
Remember the Wallow game plan. We have a maximized package of Dark Gift cards. Find Charge and Divine Shield/Windury Dark Gifts at all costs if we need Wallow to win, even if the minion attached to the Gift is worse. Our second priority is Dark Gifts with attack buffs. 15 attack with both Charge and Windfury turns Wallow into a single card OTK. A full board of taunts cannot stop Wallow in the late game if we save our Ceaseless Expanse.
An alternative take on Wallow skips the Location shell for a more defensive build that ramps through Fractured Power. The 5 mana slot is a very important follow-up to Fractured Power, so Sleep Paralysis is added to help us stabilize. Overgrown Horror is mandatory for Dark Gift decks.
Our late game Rotheart Dryad targets switch from Seaside Giants to Agamaggan and Ysera. The latter forms a strong pairing that corrupts Shaladrassil.
The game plan here is more all-in on Wallow, with a shell focused on survivability to help us get to the winning charger.
The upcoming format does represent promise for a lot of defensive decks. There is a world in which Wallow simply does not deal enough damage. In this case, there is no win condition more punishing for armor stacking attrition decks than Wheel of Death.
In this deck, ramp is so good that we are even willing to run the underwhelming Tranquil Treant. Whatever gets us to 8 mana as quickly as possible is a good thing. On 5 mana, we have both Sleep Paralysis and Ancient of Yore for maximum stalling.
Wheel of Death does get some good enablers in this set. Most notably is Shaladrassil, which gets corrupted by Wheel and gives us two life saving spells in Corrupted Dream and Corrupted Awakening. A corrupted Shaladrassil can also be cast for free along with Agamaggan. On 12 mana, thanks to help from Ysera, we can play Agamaggan/Shaladrassil/Awakening in one turn, which deals a hilarious 12 damage to the enemy hero.
Meadowstrider should be a better anti-fatigue card post-Wheel, compared to Kil’jaeden, as we only care about surviving. If our opponent must punch through multiple 1-mana Meadowstriders, it is game changing. Fae Trickster is a nice tutor in this deck, able to find either removal, or our win conditions in Wheel/Shaladrassil.
Is there another 5 mana card that could be nice to play after a turn 2 Fractured Power? Nemsy! The addition of Mo’arg Forgefiend is a big boost to the class’s late game demonic package, with Crane Game and Felfire Bonfire now looking more consistent. Crane Game also corrupts Shaladrassil, which you might have guessed is our favorite card in this expansion.
Should we manage to kill one of our big demons on our turn, we can play Archdruid of Thorns to gain its deathrattle. We can even do it with Nemsy on turn 6 along with ‘Eat! The! Imp!’. Our tip is a hard mulligan for Nemsy.
The big demon package may not be enough to beat defensive decks with strong removal kits, so we added Wheel of Death as an alternative win condition. We are playing Shaladrassil anyway.
Control Warrior’s ability to shut down all aggression with Chemical Spill/Tortolla looks scary. This combo is expected to be very popular in all Control Warrior builds at the launch of the expansion. We will see just how meta warping it can be, or whether opponents will be able to adjust to it. The biggest drawback of Spill/Tortolla builds is that we need to give up The Ceaseless Expanse.
The prospect of New Heights into Spill/Tortolla is daunting though. Silence the turtle and Carnivorous Cubicle eats it, and the game feels impossible. We must be able to kill a 2/25 taunt with Elusive. This is a nightmare for aggressive decks.
We can build around Tortolla in many ways. The featured build leans on this expansion’s dragon package. Afflicted Devastator and Illusory Greenwing offer cheap but high impact dragon targets for Clutch of Corruption. Cubicle helps Devastator a lot here, as opponents cannot simply ignore it on curve.
This deck’s drawing capabilities are fantastic. All You Can Eat and Quality Assurance are amazing, mega-tutors in this deck. They can find us Tortolla. They can draw Greenwing Illusions. They find Hostile Invaders.
We grew fond of Meadowstrider as we continued to iterate on decks. The new Virus Zilliax is a bit stinky, and we were looking for a second target for Chemical Spill that can get resurrected by Hydration Station. Once the first Meadowstrider dies, Quality Assurance and All You Can Eat become so much better.
The primary win condition of this deck is Ysondre. Copy it with Clutch of Corruption. Eat it with Cube. Sack it with Siphoning Growth. Resurrect it with Succumb to Madness. This deck can generate waves after waves of dragons, grinding the opponent to dust through threats, rather than removal. This approach is promising against other defensive decks that rely on removal to win.
A Terran approach to Control Warrior remains a very realistic proposition. It might be stronger defensively, as it has the better early game, but its late game is worse, as it does not have the same density of threats as the Dragon shell.
A mixed approach between Dragons and Terrans is something we also expect to see. Control Warrior is a hard archetype to refine, especially before a single game is played, so we will see how things play out.
A Mech Warrior approach might be the greediest option and the most defensively vulnerable, but it is also the one with the fastest win condition. Perhaps Spill/Tortolla helps us shore up the defensive frailties of the archetype and gives us space to pound opponents with Boom Wrench and Testing Dummy.
If you are up for a more proactive Warrior deck, Dragons are a tribe that can beat opponents down. Giftwrapped Whelp and Darkrider are excellent 1-drops for a faster Dragon Warrior deck, while Brood Keeper helps us control the board.
While we do have a respectable early game, we still mostly rely on scamming high value dragons with Clutch of Corruption. Afflicted Devastator and Illusory Greenwing are still the best options here. Devastator can help us pop eggs, while Greenwing turns Quality Assurance into a board swing card. Sanguine Depths and Eggbashers are better egg activators in a faster list compared to Siphoning Growth. They also work well with Acolyte of Pain.
Our idea is to add Draconic Delicacy with Chemical Spill, as it is an amazing dragon to hit with Clutch of Corruption. How does the opponent deal with multiple copies of this minion? Remember Moonfang in Hunter? This is a similar, arguably stronger threat.
Special thanks to TexMuhami for helping to proofread our content. Also, thanks to our Patreon and Gold supporters who have provided feedback on these decklists.
The Data Reaper Podcast will return to discuss the early impressions of the Into the Emerald Dream meta! It will be out a few days before the first Data Reaper Report of the expansion.
We’ll see you then.
The Vicious Syndicate Team
nit: Windury -> Windfury
Great resources as always, and particularly exciting to read this time around. Can’t wait to try all of this greed out tonight! Thank you for your work 🙂
Love y’all. Thank you for the hard work!