The Meta Report #34

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Hunter…Hunter…Hunter!!! We are seeing it in Tournaments, dominating and it is the most played class on the ladder…sadface. The meta has stabilized and the ladder is starting to showcase a couple new classes. If you are not in love with Hunter, check out what is doing well this week!

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: Another week, another dominating week for Hunter. Midrange Hunter is still tearing up the ladder with what it seems to be 90% of all players playing the deck. After 3-4 weeks of completely dominating the ladder you would think that a counter deck would have been found that can battle against this powerhouse but that does not seem to be the case. It seems like all decks that have been doing well against Hunter keeps falling out of the meta after a week or two. Midrange Hunter is just in such a good place in the meta right now that it doesn’t really matter what you put in the deck it will still have about a 50% win rate against all other decks which is incredibly scary.

Priest: Deathrattle Priest, this seems like the new craze that everyone is talking about. How good is this deck really though? It’s very hard to say, the deck was originally supposed to be very good against Hunter but it does not seem to be quite consistent enough at punishing the Midrange Hunter players to climb up to the top spot. However the amount of pressure the new Priest deck can provide in the early and midgame is strong enough to power through against any deck out there which does make this a very good ladder deck.

Warlock: Even though we are ranking Warlock as the number three it seems like it might only be around 5% of players actually playing Warlock on the ladder at the moment. With the rise of Priest, Zoolock has run into some trouble as there are not many decks that can handle Zoolock as well as Priest can. Cards like Holy Nova and the Auchenai Soulpriest + Circle of Healing combo combat Zoolock extremely well which is one of the reasons for the decks downfall. It seems like Zoo and Handlock are both struggling at the moment but there are still a few brave souls trying to ladder up with the always strong Warlock class.

Warrior: After a couple of weeks of Warrior dominance Garrosh has been knocked down a few pegs. Nothing has really changed in the Warrior decks that are seen in the ladder, it just seems like most people are changing to Priest instead. Warrior is in a weird place in the meta at the moment. It still does extremely well against heavy Aggro decks but no one is really playing that anymore, it also does very well against heavy Control decks, but again no one is really playing that. What Warrior struggles against is more “Midrangeish” decks which completely dominate the meta right now which is why Warrior is seeing a downfall.

Druid: Kolento’s Token/Midrange Druid has definitely been one of the strongest Hunter counters for the last couple of weeks however not that many people seem to play it on the ladder. Druid is not the most exciting class and it is a class that has always been one of the most played so there is no new excitement factor like there is with Priest. Although the deck is still very strong it has fallen out of favor more and more recently. Ramp Druid still struggles very hard against Hunter which makes it almost unplayable on the ladder unfortunately. Druid is always going to be a strong class but again it’s in kind of a weird place in the meta where it might counter Hunter but it that enough right now when so many decks are very good?

Rogue: It seems like Rogue is falling further and further down the ranks in this article every week. With the rise of so many different decks Miracle Rogue has gotten too many counters and too many decks that with the addition of cards like Loatheb and Haunted Creeper actually can hold its own against it now which seemed impossible before. Don’t get us wrong, Miracle Rogue is still extremely strong and it has almost a 50% winrate against all decks that are being played right now. However Miracle is still very reliant on drawing Gagetzan Auctioneer and its almost an auto loose without it and if you don’t have a high enough win rate against many decks it might not be worth playing it, at least on the ladder.

Shaman: Nothing has really changed for Shaman. It is still one of the most consistent decks out there if you put it up against any random deck out there but it still struggles against Unleash the Hounds. Shaman is one of two classes that has a perfect answer to Savanah Highmane which arguably is Hunters strongest card but the general game play of Shaman automatically plays into Hunters way of winning the game. By flooding the board Shaman players always have to pray that the enemy hunter has not draw the Buzzard + Unleash combo which rarely is the case. This makes many players stay away from playing Shaman and tend to play something that can battle Hunter better.

Mage: It seems like a year ago that Freeze Mage was one of the strongest decks in the meta and for all of the Mage lovers out there it probably feels even longer. To be frank Mage is in a poor spot in the meta right now even though Secret Mage is one of the strongest decks it gets completely run over by Hunter. It seems so infuriating that when a whole deck gets destroyed just because of one card but unfortunately that is the case. I guess we just have to wait for Hunter to die down so that the reign of mage can be once more.

Paladin: It seems strange to place Paladin last when we know that Tauntadin or the Control Paladin deck that is which is the most prevalent Paladin deck and is so strong. With the amount of good cards that Paladins are able to put into their decks it seems almost sad to see how few people play the class. Many people do however value Paladin very highly in a tournament setting which Paladin lovers can take some comfort in. We think the meta will have to shift quite severely before Paladin will rise to the top again and it probably won’t happen anytime soon.

Deck of the Week

Shaman We really like Shaman right now in the meta. It is great against most of the strong decks and can even go head to head with Hunter, although is a very tough matchup. Many Europeans have been favoring this deck, especially the Germans. Check out this weeks Deck of the Week and let us know what you think about it!