Welcome to the 352nd edition of the Data Reaper Report! This is the last report for Cataclysm.
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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 | 1,407,000 |
| Top 1K Legend | 46,000 |
| Legend (Excluding Top 1k) | 222,000 |
| Diamond 4 to 1 | 319,000 |
| Diamond 10 to 5 | 336,000 |
| Platinum | 197,000 |
| Bronze/Silver/Gold | 287,000 |
Class/Archetype Distribution
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All Ranks
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D1 to D4
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Legend
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Top 1K Legend
Class Frequency
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Weekly
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Daily
Class Frequency Discussion
The nerf to Confront the Tol’vir has caused a drastic decline in Hunter’s population, affecting both Face and Companion Hunter. Companion Hunter remains a relatively popular deck, but its top legend presence is fading, which makes us wonder whether it is still competitive. Much like before the patch, Face Hunter is top legend skewed, though on a smaller scale.
The vacuum left by Companion Hunter’s decline was filled by Herald Rogue, on an extreme scale. Herald Rogue has cannibalized much of the play rate loss of the decks that were hit by balance changes, leading to its complete takeover at top legend, where it is trending towards a 45% play rate. Remember that Herald Rogue was a very popular deck before the emergence of Companion Hunter, so what we are seeing here is many players going back to the (only) deck they were enjoying previously. The release of Vanessa the Ringleader may have also had an impact.
The additional buff to Leyline Mage has reignited interest in the deck, but once again, enthusiasm is waning at higher levels of play, which is the first place where players give up on an underperforming deck. Quest and Burn Mage is receiving more respect, with the latter experimenting with the newly released Tunneling Geomancer.
Token Druid has drastically declined following the nerf to Hatchery Helper, becoming a non-factor in the field. Merithra Druid has also declined at higher levels of play, with players possibly discouraged by its Rogue matchup.
Paladin has significantly grown in presence. A new build of Aura Paladin is gaining traction… by dropping the Aura/Gelbin package. We decided to rename the archetype “End-Turn Paladin” as a result, noting the remaining major package in its build. Dude Paladin has also attracted more interest, though as always, top legend players tend to ignore these Paladin decks for their low skill ceilings.
There is greater interest in Dragon Warrior, possibly due to its good Rogue matchup.
Not much is going on with Herald Shaman, which is around where it was seated before the balance changes.
Spell Demon Hunter has been dealt a deadly blow, nearly completely disappearing from the landscape and taking the rest of the class with it.
There are slight upticks in the play rates of Control Priest and Herald Death Knight, as players give these decks another shot with other strategies getting nerfed. Interest in Warlock remains low.
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All Ranks
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D4 to Legend
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Legend
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Top 1K Legend
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Legend
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D1 to D4
vS Meta Score
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Top 1K Legend
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Legend
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D1 to D4
vS Power Rankings Discussion
Rogue
- Herald Rogue has gotten significantly stronger thanks to the decline of Hunter, the disappearance of Demon Hunter (which has encouraged Rogue to cut Garona), as well as its own internal power boost. Vanessa the Ringleader is proving to be one of the best cards in the deck. These effects combined have turned the deck from a popular but underwhelming performer into one of the strongest decks at top legend. Indeed, the top legend field will now revolve entirely around Rogue and countering it will become the field’s top priority.
Hunter
- Companion Hunter’s competitive viability is now borderline, sinking to the depths of Tier 3 and even Tier 4 at top legend. We do expect that a significant portion of players will continue to play the deck, especially at low MMR’s, regardless of how it performs. We can see this with Control Priest, for example.
- Face Hunter has definitely weakened, but it is still a strong deck because it maintains a good matchup against Herald Rogue. At top legend, beating Herald Rogue is the highest priority, which means Face Hunter remains a Tier 1 performer. It’s fine elsewhere too, though there are stronger options where Rogue is not absurdly popular.
Mage
- Leyline Mage is getting closer to a competitive win rate and may feel acceptable at lower rank brackets, but where the competitive pressure is higher (upper diamond and top legend), it falls flat. When looking at its matchup spread, we understand why. It now dominates bad decks but rolls over to good ones, especially aggressive decks. When you really think about it, it is not actually close to being “competitive”. It mostly benefits from players running Control Priest and Herald Death Knight, matchups that provide it with infinite time to scale. Its one saving grace is that the Herald Rogue matchup is 50-50, as the Rogue is adequately slow.
- Quest and Burn Mage look okay. Burn Mage seems to possess some scope for improvement thanks to Geomancer and has a good Herald Rogue matchup, which means its standing has significantly improved post-patch.
Druid
- Merithra Druid may not enjoy running into Herald Rogue, but its improved matchups against the weakened Hunter, the rising Mage class, as well as Dragon Warrior, provides some compensation and keeps its performance at a decently competitive range.
- Token Druid has been significantly weakened to the point it is drastically outclassed by other aggressive decks, therefore losing all interest from the player base.
Paladin
- End-Turn Paladin looks incredibly powerful outside of top legend. The new build that drops the Aura package has taken it to another level. When combined with the weakening of other aggressive decks, it seems to be Paladin’s turn to become the premier aggressive class.
- Dude Paladin looks strong as well, firmly placed at one of the top spots across most of ladder, though always below the seemingly busted End-Turn Paladin.
Warrior
- This patch was very good for Dragon Warrior, as it has a strong matchup against Herald Rogue. The deck looks elite at all levels of play and the only deck that is positioned to counter it with any reliability is Merithra Druid.
- Egg Warrior may have a low play rate but its performance suggests it is perfectly competitive. Avoid running the Un’Goro quest for the best results.
Shaman
- Much like Paladin, Herald Shaman looks strong through most of ladder and nosedives at top legend. In Shaman’s case, it is because the Rogue matchup becomes progressively worse at higher levels of play, on top of being far more common. The three primary decks that target Rogue (Dragon Warrior, Burn Mage, Face Hunter) also happen to perform well against Shaman. The “play Rogue or counter Rogue” concept creates a very hostile field for Shaman.
Demon Hunter
- Spell Demon Hunter may have disappeared, but its low sample suggests the deck is still competitive, hovering around the 50% win rate. Whether that is enough to bring the deck back to relevance is another story, as we do not get the sense it gathered an eager audience that some of the weaker decks in the format possess.
Priest, Death Knight and Warlock
- These classes are still not competitively viable. Priest has proven throughout this expansion, as well as Death Knight in parts, that they have a willing audience that was desperate to make them work. They just did not work, contributing to the strategic scarcity that is partly responsible for the massive play rates exhibited by Hunter and Rogue in the last few months in the more competitive ranks.
Class Analysis & Decklists
Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior
Vanessa is an incredible addition to Herald Rogue and has encouraged the archetype to utilize cards that pair well with her, such as Backstab and Glacial Shard. The Mistress variant continues to outperform the Imbue variant by a significant margin. Considering the rise of the mirror matchup and the disappearance of Demon Hunter, Nightmare Fuel becomes strong again. The fall of Spell DH also means there is little justification to play Garona, while the decline of Hunter means Spymistress has dropped in priority.
Tunneling Geomancer looks like a solid card in Burn Mage. Most spell damage enablers in this archetype perform similarly, but Geomancer is a bit less punishing to draw early, as we can prepare it if we have 2 mana to spend at any point. Geomancer is also good in Leyline Mage.
Companion Hunter is significantly weaker now. Sands of Time is very weak against Rogue, so we would rather play Earthen Roar, which can also help us deal with Vanessa at times. Crazed Alchemist has gotten a bit stronger relatively to Animal Companion, as there is plenty of time to develop a Tortolla against Rogue and it is hard to deal with.
Face Hunter sees no changes. It lost some percentages against Rogue, but the matchup remains favored. Confront the Tol’vir is still one of the best cards in the class.
Vanessa is a solid card in Merithra Druid, though not as powerful as she is in Rogue. We are increasingly curious about swapping out Horn of Plenty and Press the Advantage for Lifebloom and Heartroot Stones. One copy of Lifebloom, at the very least, looks correct.
A new, Aura-less End-Turn Paladin build looks like the strongest list of 30 cards in the game to climb to legend with. We are suspicious of Battle Vicar’s merit in the deck, so there might still be room for some improvement.
Dragon Warrior wants to snowball harder on Rogue, so we have updated our build to run Petal Peddler again.
No changes in Herald Shaman. Hex continues to outperform Lightning Storm.
Spell Demon Hunter still looks competitive viable on a low sample size, but we do not expect it to make a recovery in its play rate.
End-Turn Paladin looks extremely powerful on the climb to legend, while Herald Rogue has completely taken over the format at top legend.
We will see you again for our usual expansion content in the next few weeks.
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