The Meta Report #33

Team DKMR: Twitter | Website

Sponsored by: Empeopled | Gunnar | 2P.com | Waypoint Media

It’s that time of the month again (the beginning, naturally), when the ladder gets reset and players of all levels face off against each other at rank 16, the starting point for the Legendaries. There are a couple of slight changes this week, as players continue to acquaint themselves with the cards from the Naxxramus expansion. Read along to find out what those changes were.

Here’s Team DKMR’s weekly Meta ranking. Keep in mind, it’s about which classes and archetypes are played the most, not about which are the strongest. Most of the time, the strongest decks will also be the most frequently played, but that’s not always the case. That’s just part of how the Meta works.

Hunter: Just as Miracle Rogue was the go-to deck for laddering in previous seasons, now Hunter is the deck to play if you want to rise the ranks. Capable of tempo-ing the opponent out with the use of low-cost beasts and Houndmaster, or coming from behind with the Starving Buzzard + Unleash the Hounds combination, Hunter simply has a variety of ways to win against any matchup. The current iterations of Hunter are also slightly more beginner-friendly than Miracle Rogue, since the main avenue for reversing the tide of a game is a simple two-card combo. Look for Hunter to continue to populate all parts of the ladder

Warlock: Though Handlock is very weak to Hunter, Zoo is seeing a lot of play, especially after the reset as players look to climb the ladder quickly. Just like Hunter, Zoo is capable of winning any matchup, if at a slightly lower rate than Hunter. Naxxramus has also allowed for a variety of Zoo decks, meaning you can experiment with the stable Echoing Ooze version or the more explosive Power Overwhelming and Void Terror version. Every once in awhile, you’ll see a Handlock doing its best to climb, as it has a decent matchup against classes other than Hunter. DKMR recommends that you should think twice before going the Handlock route, however.

Warrior: For those capable of making the deck, Control Warrior is many players’ security blanket. Able to shut down face decks while competing against Hunter and other control decks, Warrior is just a solid deck to choose at the moment. Without a good draw, Midrange Hunters and Miracle Rogues can simply run out of damage against an Armorsmith behind an Unstable Ghoul or Sludge Belcher. Currently, Warrior players are experimenting with the amount of greedy cards (ie: Legendaries) they can fit in the deck while still holding off aggressive decks like Zoolock.

Druid: Kolento’s win in VGVN #2 has helped Midrange Druid resurface on the ladder. Competitive against Hunter, Zoo, and Warrior, it’s no surprise to see players netdecking Kolento’s list. Ramp Druid is also a deck that has seen some play, since it shuts down Zoo and can win versus Hunter if it draws into its Wild Growth or Hunter can’t find any Hunter’s Marks. In fact, DKMR’s DTwo had success running Ramp Druid in the DKMR invitational just last week. Though the recent domination of Hunter has let the air out of its sails a bit, never count out Druid.

Priest: Priest is seeing a lot of run on the ladder, due in part to many popular streamers trying out Priest, and also because it almost feels like a new class after having been ignored for so long. Deathrattle-heavy decks that run Undertaker are currently pretty strong, while control-orientated decks are still seen every once in awhile. Priest has yet to score a major tournament victory so it’s an uphill climb to the top 3, but for now Priest is definitely in a much better place than it used to be.

Rogue: Miracle Rogue is still a pretty strong deck, capable of beating many of the top decks in the current Meta. However, there simply aren’t very many Rogues on the ladder these days (well, compared to a month ago). The reason for the Rogue drought could be due to fatigue; perhaps players are sick of seeing the class on ladder and in tournaments and don’t feel like playing it any more. Another reason could be that other decks are always wary of Miracle Rogue, and have added countermeasures such as Sludge Belcher and Harrison Jones to combat Rogue, as well as other classes. Apart from Miracle, there has been a slight uptick in Tempo Rogue, and a decrease in Face Rogue decks.

Shaman: DKMR believes Shaman is one of the stronger classes at the moment, but it still isn’t getting much love on the ladder. Root’s Xixo qualified for VGVN for the second time, using a version of Shaman that is strong versus Hunter and Miracle Rogue, while DKMR’s Faramir recently posted a different Shaman list on iHearthu.com that also works well when faced off with top Meta decks. Many Naxxramus cards, such as Nerubian Egg, Haunted Creeper, Echoing Ooze, and Undertaker, allow Shaman to establish board control earlier than they ever could have prior to the expansion, and that is allowing Shaman to post big victories in recent tournaments. Look for Shaman to move up this list in weeks to come.

Mage: Secret Mage is a very strong archetype against every class other than Hunter. That might not be a problem in tournaments, where Hunter can be banned. On the ladder, though, that spells doom for all the Mage players out there. Right now, most standard Mage decklists revolve around secrets and Deathrattle, making cards like Undertaker, Mad Scientist, and Sludge Belcher very powerful. A very interesting deck that could be netdecked is Tempo Storm’s Hyped’s Fireball-less Freeze Mage. Perhaps the first Mage deck ever to not run Fireballs, it
nonetheless performed well and could maybe see some play if the Hunter craze ever dies down.

Paladin: Paladin is certainly not a weak class, but for some reason it isn’t seen on the ladder very much. Maybe summoning a “dude” every turn isn’t as fun for everyone else as it is for Kripp. Paladin certainly can have issues with consistency; if it doesn’t draw its big taunts or combo cards, it can lose to Zoo or even midrange decks such as Druid and Shaman. Its hero ability is also a drawback versus Hunter, though professionals will tell you that Control Paladin has a good matchup versus Midrange Hunter. Apart from Control Paladin, other archetypes like Aggro Paladin aren’t seeing much run, despite the addition of Avenge in the Naxxramus expansion.

Deck of the Week

Most of us have seen Impact tear up the Sunshine open, defeating Brian Kibler, a well-known professional Magic the Gathering player, in the finals. Since it’s the start of a new season, we figured we’d write about a deck that tends to do a pretty decent job at getting to legend quickly, Zoo. The games are quick, the deck is strong, what more else can you ask for in a deck? Impact’s Zoo that he used in the sunshine open is pretty standard to what you would normally see on the ladder but there are a few minor changes that proved to be strong in the cup. Let’s take a look at the deck!