The Meta Report #26

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This week the meta has stabilized. We are seeing a lot of the same classes showing up in the same spots. So how do you read this report? There are a two ways to look at this report:

1. The top 4 classes are played the most, so if you want to counter them you will increase your chances in winning and moving faster through the ladder.
2. “if you can’t beat em, join em!” this allows you to take advantage of the more popular decks and will allow for higher win %. We recently coached a player from rank 15 to 3 by using one of our Druid decks. Good luck this week and we will see you on the ladder!

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.

Warlock is coming in at the top of the list this week! Generally speaking, at the higher ranks (rank 5-25) most of the time they seem to be Zoo and at the higher ranks (L-5) you will see handlock. Due to Warlock having such a powerful hero power, it makes it one of the strongest decks in game. With the popularity of Miracle Rogues at the higher ranks, Handlock is a pretty solid choice because it’s one of the few counters that Miracle Rogue has. Zoo is a strong all around class, and with Druid being so aggressive lately it even does well against it. Zoo usually falls shorts when playing against taunt heavy decks.

A very powerful and reliable deck for climbing ladder at all ranks. There are few decks that can be considered a counter for druid. The new-age druid deck with double Force of Nature and Savage Roar does decent against both Miracle Rogue and Handlock as well as going nearly 50/50 with Shaman decks. As we mentioned it does fall short against Zoo though. Dog, a popular twitch streamer, uses a more taunt heavy Druid with only 1 of each Force of Nature and Savage Roar, which does do better against Zoo, however, it struggles more against the decks the more aggressive deck does decent against.

We all hate playing against Miracle Rogue, but it will continue to be a heavily played class until the cards get nerfed. With the incredible draw power with gadgetzan and it’s spells being so powerful and cheap, it’s often hard to keep up with. Concealed Gadgetzan Auctioneer is a play that most classes struggle to deal with and will often draw the Rogue 5 or more cards. Backspace Rogue, the more aggressive approach to Rogue, is a direct counter to the Miracle Rogue but it does fall short against decks that run a decent amount of heal and taunts such as Druid and Warrior.

To our surprise, Mage is coming in at number 4 in the Meta Report this week! Mostly Freeze Mage going around, it does well against Zoo, Miracle Rogue, and all Warlock decks. Unfortunately being able to counter so many popular decks does come with a downside though, the games take incredibly long. I don’t recommend this deck to climb to legend due to the fact that it takes so long to do so. There is also a small amount of Aggro Mage going around. We think this deck is a bit inconsistent, but if you draw the cards in the correct order it is an extremely powerful deck.

A powerful deck with a lot of cheap removals. Shaman decks vary from one to another, only a few card differences usually. Some play Doomhammer, some don’t, some play Wild Pyromancer, some don’t. This deck does well against Handlock and is decent against Zoo, depending on if the Shaman draws a lot of it’s cheap removals and Lightning Storms. It also does good against Druid, but as we mentioned earlier, it’s pretty close to 50/50 against the more Aggro Druid.

For most people, Paladin is a hard deck to play against because in the past you never really seen much of it. There are some pretty important cards you have to look out for, atleast when playing against the Control Paladin. Equality; always keep track on how many they have left in the deck, don’t spam the board too much until both of them are gone. Guardian of the Kings; with so much burst damage going around in decks, often you set up for lethal the previous turns. When playing a deck like druid, putting everything into a turn to get the opponent down to 14 hp can be foiled by the opponent healing. Take this matchup very slow and don’t rush it. There is also a small amounts of Aggro Paladin going around. Ditch your hand as fast as possible to play around Divine Favor; if they draw too many from this card, it can easily be game over. This matchup is not a value game, it’s a race.

To our surprise, Hunter has been getting the least amount of play compared to any other class as of late. Ever since the Unleash the Hounds Nerf, players have been staying away from this deck. We agree that the nerf did make the class significantly weaker, but it is still a very strong class. It is also a hit or miss class though; playing Aggro Hunter, you often run out of cards quickly, and if you don’t draw the Starving Buzzard/Unleash the Hounds combo, you will usually fall short on damage.

Warrior is not very strong at the moment. It loses to almost all of the popular classes on the ladder. It loses to Miracle Rogue, Druid, and Zoo. One of the few upsides of this deck, however, is if you que into an Aggro Mage deck that doesn’t play giants, your win rate is nearly 100% and it’s extremely satisfying. It’s been a while since we’ve seen many Aggro Warrior decks on the ladder.

Arguably the weakest deck in the game. The class cards are very “comboish” and if you don’t draw the cards in the correct order, you will often fall short. Priest has such a hard time dealing with 4 health minions, which are among the most popular creatures in the game (Chillwind Yeti, Druid of the Claw, Azure Drake, and Twilight Drake). We suggest staying away from this class unless you’re not serious about laddering.

Deck of the Week:

This week we are looking at Backspace’s Rogue. He made a very fast rogue deck that counters most of the decks that are popular both on the ladder and in tournaments. The deck was used to obtain rank #2 last season on the NA ladder. This is a really fun deck and you should all try it out! You can track your stats on Hearthstats.net and let us know how it goes! Just remember when you play this deck, it is mainly about hitting the face after the first few turns and rarely should you think about killing a minion. Feel free to leave your questions and comments here.

It is known as “Backspace Rogue” due to it being popularized by the high legend player ‘backspace’, it is an aggressive take on rogue which tries to burn the opponent’s life out. While also using the leeroy shadowstep combo, backspace rogue shares almost nothing else in common with miracle rogue. Rather than play a war of attrition or tempo like standard rogue decks, backspace rogue is all about the face damage; it’s all in, all the time.