The Meta Report #5

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[DKMR]Ihmo here from team Don’t Kick My Robot to bring you this week’s Meta Report. One week…that’s all it takes for everything to change. Groves are no longer being kept, ancients can no longer afford to just watch! The army of aggro decks are storming their keep, yelling together: RwlRwlRwl! Nothing was modified, the game is still the same as it was just one short month ago, but the meta doesn’t care as it continues to evolve week after week. Just when you think all is lost, a beacon of light shines off in the distance…Don’t Kick My Robot is here.

Team DKMR’s brings you the weekly meta report each week to help you navigate the ladder. 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 part of how the meta works!

Warlock is seeing slightly more play than Druid! Guess those hippies got tired of playing turn 1 Yetis! Due to their variety of archetypes, Warlock doesn’t need to worry about dropping below the top 3 classes, their rank is safe. You can either go handlock (which is once again quite popular), Warlock aggro or Murlock, which actually is the most popular aggro deck nowadays. Their variety can really make it hard for the opponent to properly mulligan, since you won’t know what he/she’s playing against. Just remember: If you play a Warlock, always mulligan as if he was playing aggro, unless you’re absolutely sure he’s not.

Druid may have fallen this week and lost their first spot, but we still think they’re the strongest class all around. They’re just too good at everything (except dealing with huge minions), plus we believe some Druid cards are too strong and should be reworked. Innervate, for example, should refund mana crystals instead of giving new ones, thus preventing the Druid from getting an absurd tempo advantage at the start of the game, with an innervated Chillwind Yeti or even King Mukla. As of now, Druid tokens is slowly becoming more popular, although being pretty far from its standard cousins: Watcher Druid and Strifecro Druid.

Warrior is the new contestant against Druid and looking to continue making their move up the rankings. It makes sense, considering the insane amount of threats that a Warrior Control can handle AND play at the same time. There are also a lot of control variants out there, either with more midgame play through cards like Twilight Drake and Frothing Berserker, or just pure lategame with a lot of legendaries and Faceless Manipulator. Some variants run Brawl, some run Wild Pyromancer, some run Gadgetzan Auctioneer…there are a LOT of options. Make sure to be careful when playing warrior, you always have to consider Warrior Aggro, which is still around even though it lost a bit of flavor.

Shaman used to be one of the favorite classes, but right now it just seems that most Shamans are taking the day off. We still think it’s one of the strongest classes, they’re just not being played as they were two weeks ago. They’re still good against Warrior and Warlock control though, so it’s definitely a good time to get back into “Shamanism”, only this time you’ll need a little something extra for the early game, because Feral Spirits alone won’t save you against the aggro decks out there. That said, maybe we’ll see them back in the top again in the next weeks.

Rogue is in a good position, and is seeing even more play than before. That’s justifiable, since they’re much stronger against aggro and midrange. The value that a single Backstab or SI:7 Agent can bring in some scenarios is insane. Miracle Rogue is still around as well, goldfishing every game, especially against control decks, which usually have no option but to try and race it. Kinda hard, considering that most of your minions will start at the 4 mana spot. And if you can’t stop the Leeroy Jenkins combo, you’re dead.

Hunter lost a bit of flavor since last week, but they’re still as strong as ever. Not much can be said yet about its new midrange beast variant, but hyper aggressive Hunter is still biting everyone in the face. It’s near impossible to avoid taking ten damage by turn three or four, this can make the game incredibly difficult if you don’t have a safe way to stabilize. Just remember to avoid playing more than three minions against a Hunter, or he’ll Unleash the Hounds on your face.

Priest is showing up a lot more, better late than never. While it’s still considered one of the weakest classes overall, they’re in a pretty good spot against control decks, and if you have the right combo against aggro, you’ll win pretty much every time. Crazed Alchemist will always be your best friend, regardless of your matchup, due to its amazing synergy with cards like Cabal Shadow Priest, Twilight Drake and Power Word: Shield.

Mage is still at an ambiguous spot. Despite some efforts, Aggro Mage isn’t really a thing anymore, but you’ll still see the eventual Control Mage with a lot of freeze spells, even though almost one third of the whole decklist has been nerfed in previous patches. We still believe secrets are the way to go now, as spells like Mirror Entity or Counterspell can really help you keep pressure on the board in situations where your opponent would’ve normally overcome it. And against Aggro, you’ll always have Arcane Missiles, Mirror Image, Ice Barrier… We believe Mages will show up a lot more in the next weeks.

Paladin is still strong, but not really seeing a lot of play right now. It might show up again in the next weeks, once people start to adapt their Paladin Control decks. They’re actually quite good against a few aggro and midrange decks out there, so we wouldn’t count them out so easily. We’d say you still have a lot of reasons to put your faith in the light, only maybe with a different strategy and/or game plan, who knows what they will come up with next?

Deck of the Week: Control Warrior

Everyone knows how strong this archetype is and now we can add another feat of strenght to its list: Alchemixt, from team DKMR; he just won NESL #2 with it! It’s a really solid deck and can take advantage of nearly every possible trade through its value removals. You can’t help but feel like a boss when you can kill Ragnaros with a one mana cost spell, with no drawbacks at all.