The Meta Report #23

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The Meta continues to stabilize as we make our way into the last week of the season. Druid and Mage continue to see an uptick in popularity while Warlock retains an important place in the meta. Read this week’s report to see what has changed and see where your favorite class ranks up on the Meta Report!

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 times, 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.

Druid continues to see a boost from Dreamhack. Various builds of Druid Midrange packing Argent Commander and multiple copies of Force of Nature and/or Savage Roar run rampant on the ladder. Druid Tokens remains absent, but ladder players should remain ever wary of the Druid’s fourteen damage combo.

 

Warlock is neck and neck with Druid on the ladder with both Zoo and Handlock remaining powerful choices. Handlock has historically had a favorable match-up against Druid Midrange, however, the addition of extra copies of Force of Nature and Savage Roar makes the match-up much more perilous for the Warlock player. Zoo is still the go-to budget deck for ladder grinding, but it suffers against the popular Druid Midrange.

With a poor Handlock match-up and a barely favorable Druid match-up, Miracle Rogue has slipped in popularity. Aggressive Rogue decks also remain on the fringe of ladder play. Some builds of Miracle Rogue have adopted Sinister Strike and Southsea Deckhand for additional burst potential.

 

Mage has become a legitimate contender with Freeze Mage seeing a rise in popularity and Mage Aggro remaining a reasonable pick. Freeze Mage sports both favorable Handlock and Miracle Rogue match-ups, making it an excellent pick against two of the meta’s most powerful decks.

 

Shaman continues to see moderate play due to its reasonable match-ups against Miracle Rogue and Druid and strong match-up against Handlock. Unfortunately for Thrall, there are generally better decks to pick to combat the meta’s current top contenders.

 

Most players have let go of the stigma surrounding Hunter and the Unleash the Hounds nerf, but it still sees less play than many of the other classes. Particularly with Druid on the rise, it may be awhile before we see Hunter coming back into popularity.

 

Warrior has seen a significant dip in play with little innovation across modern builds. Arcanite Reaper has seen adoption by some players as both a means to trade for Gadgetzan Auctioneers or Chillwind Yetis and a source of additional burst damage. If Mage continues to rise in popularity, expect Warrior to see a large resurgence.

 

Paladin continues to ride the coattails of its strong Handlock match-up and the realization by many that while Paladin has some weaker cards, it still has the tools to consistently score victories. Paladin Midrange has surpassed Paladin Aggro in popularity, but both see reasonable ladder play.

Priest is the only class without particular ladder play merits. The class has no real aggressive options and the other control decks generally get the job done better and faster. While Priest is definitely one of the game’s most interesting classes, it is decidedly the weakest on the ladder. Time will tell if Dark Cultist can change that.

Deck of the Week:

People generally look at this class and not think of it as competitive deck, but ErA came up with a list that does pretty well. [DKMR]Hosty, played this on the ladder quite a bit this season and got to top 50 legend with it. The deck we’re going to be going over is Mid-Range Paladin. Looking at the decklist, you can tell there are a ton of 1 ofs; this gives you the choice between choosing between several different options per turn which makes it very versatile and able to deal with a variety of threats.