Hearthhead's Midweek Meta Review #4 - Put Me In The Zoo

Hearthstone Criado 25/3/2016 em 10:36 por Hearthhead

Why Do You Care About A Meta Report?

Relative frequency at a given rank range is fairly easy to identify. If any player plays 100 games, even though it’s not inherently statistically significant, it’s easy to discover what classes or archetypes are most popular. Moreover…

Where the meta is in its cycle is useful information to have. The relative prevalence of aggro, midrange, or control tells you a lot about what is - and will be - on the rise, versus on the decline.

Presuming that your goal is to improve your rank in constructed, meta reports help you make efficient use of your time - the only variable in Hearthstone that you have 100% control over. Knowing what decks have emerged or are popular, even if the meta can’t be 100% tracked or nailed down at a statistically significant level, can help you do more with whatever time you do have to play competitively.

the number of gamesMidweek Meta Review #4 - Put Me In The Zoo
Written by Kevin Hovdestad
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Five top meta decks, including explanations and guides.

At least one anti-meta suggestion.

Class ‘power rankings’, showing which classes are leading or lagging in the meta

Hearthhead guide to the new expansionMidrange Meta

Frequency of appearance.

Ease of play.

Prevalence of (meaningful) counters.

Consistency in winning a variety of matchups.

Aggro decks have not proven consistent in top level play. Even refined versions of these decks have fallen short and been pushed out by midrange decks that play for the board and put out increasing threats per turn, rather than relying on burn.

Winning on the board remains the most successful strategy in the game, due to the strong prevalence of sticky minions and efficient ways to trade up with them. The upcoming removal of a lot of Deathrattle minions in Standard is among the only ways this is likely to change.

Decks that play truly pure control style - like some Warrior and Priest archetypes - are some of the only control styles that can survive the growing board presence threats from popular midrange decks. Unfortunately, the raw burst potential in things like Midrange Druid or the combo-driven Reno Warlock decks suppresses all but the most optimized Warrior decks, since even being at or near full health on a near-empty board often isn’t enough with how powerful these combos are.

A special thanks to Team Archon's Orange and New Order Esports' Astrogation for their input this week!

Rankings

Make sure to check out the actual deck pages for information on overall strategy, mulligans, and tech choices!

1.

In consultation with pro players and community members, the unanimous feedback we heard this week was there’s a new kid in town - Zoo Warlock is the most prevalent, most successful deck out there right now. As Elise Control Warrior has severely diminished the presence of Freeze Mage on ladder, Zoo has no seriously poor matchups, and handily defeats the still-popular Druids that are still being run frequently at many different levels of ranked play.

2.

Midrange Druid remains unchanged week to week, despite being unseated as the top deck. While Druid is still among the safest picks overall, without the Freeze Mages to enjoy easy victories over, the ever-present threat of combo doesn’t always come into play. Zoo Warlocks and Secret Paladins simply build boards that the Druid can’t remove too fast, and even the ‘new’ Control Warrior style often gets out of reach of Druid players (making the match slightly less favourable for the Druid). as a tech choice is a very strong option in the current meta.

3.

Everyone’s favourite Mystifying Contender remains high on the list of decks to beat, simply because so few things can do so reliably. Freeze Mage being on the way out has made playing Paladin an even more natural choice, since it tends to beat Midrange Druid on the balance, and splits fairly evenly with most every other deck out there other than Freeze (suffering slightly at the hands of Aggro Shaman, if they get an explosive start).

4.

New this week, Elise Control Warrior is a style that has been iterated upon after Eversiction brought a highly successful early variant of it to ONOG Open #2. The original list was modified from a Frost Giant OTK Warrior, and Eversiction cut it down to almost purely removal and added to give the game a late-game solution against Control decks. The refined version shown here focuses on strong taunts and removal to stall until aggro/midrange decks run out of threats, or until Elise can turn unused removal into threats against Control.

5.

I know, we’re as surprised as you are! The ‘combo’ variant on Reno Warlock was highly recommended by several people as a top-tier ladder deck this week, and it has been performing very well in the highest levels of ranked play lately. This version of Renolock gives up the Control-defeating package for the / / combo, which has helped close out a lot of the more typical midrange games on the ladder lately.

Anti-Meta Decks

Try these decks out if you're looking for something a little different that should still win you games and may even get better as the meta continue to evolve.

We continue to recommend Aggro Druid as an off-meta pick for beating Midrange decks like Druid and Paladin. Those decks simply lack the removal to win the race against the aggressively statted minions present in Aggro Druid. Aggro Druid also has better matchups (albeit still unfavourable ones) against Tempo Mage or Zoo than Midrange Druid does.

New this week, we’re including an Aggro Shaman decklist from Team Archon’s Orange. Orange tweaked this list by introducing to give the deck a slightly better curve into the Midrange meta. The deck has no overwhelmingly strong matchups (it does do fairly well against Secret Paladin), but also has no instant losses. The addition of the Shredder makes for a good chance to extend into the mid-game and contest the board better than traditional Aggro Shaman; this list eschews the s and s of the original list to play the Shredders and more efficient draw in the form of .

General Class RankingsFavourable:

Warlock

Druid

Paladin

Neutral:

Warrior

Shaman

Mage

Unfavourable:

Priest

Rogue

Hunter

So ends Midweek Meta Review #4! We’re counting down the days until Old Gods and Standard, and we’re excited to bring you more coverage of all the awesome new things that will emerge in an all-new meta when they arrive. Stay tuned!

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