Day 1 LEGEND Plague DK
- Last updated Aug 4, 2023 (TITANS)
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Wild
- 21 Minions
- 7 Spells
- 2 Weapons
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Plague DK
- Crafting Cost: 12780
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 8/2/2023 (TITANS)
- GamerPanda
- Registered User
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- 9
- 44
- 39
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Battle Tag:
GamerPanda#11334
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
763
Day 1 LEGEND
Plague Death Knight
GamerPanda here- been so hyped to play and work on optimizing this deck this expansion. I played around all day 1 with different cards, quickly learning that deathrattle is not the way right now, finally landing on this list. It took me a little over 40 games to reach Top 100 Legend (since I reached it so quickly).
UPDATE 8/4: Expanded the guide as promised with updated deck tracker details, card breakdowns, mulligan, and updated replays.
While I like the deck, at least in legend, I got my ass handed to me today (8-17). It's hard for me to say exactly why, I suppose I run out of answers/value before they die to plagues. Shaman just OTKs you faster than Mage and I'm losing to a lot of old decks (Relics, Pure Paladin (actually saw one), Hound Hunter)
I've been thinking about putting School Teacher in for more value but don't know really what to change. Faced several mirrors today and lost- they were playing Watcher of the Sun, Ignis, the Eternal Flame, Magatha, Bane of Music, and Prison of Yogg-Saron.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHT From KDK
Legend Proof & Matchups
Druid and Rogue are pretty abysmal, but everything else feels more winnable. I started hard running Smothering Starfish as a counter to the insane buffs I was seeing vs. Mech Rogue and Treant Druid. Of course I never saw another Druid again after I added it, but it has helped vs. Rogues. I suspect Mech Rogue and Token Druid are nerf targets.
Mage is very popular right now, I'm seeing it a lot and this deck is a good counter since they draw so much and muddies their Volume Up. 0 Paladins in 66 games...
Steamcleaner from Control Priest is a hard counter, so you may need to hold back on some Plagues in this matchup if they show they have E.T.C.
Plague Package
The plague package is simple- once Helya goes down all the plagues they draw go back into their deck until they reach critical mass. Getting them in without Helya is still a good idea to cheapen the Chained Guardian. It's a lot of damage if it lives- throwing 2 down at once can exhaust your opponent's removal or else they take a lot of damage.
Tomb Traitor is just a plague-based AOE tool. Losing one plague won't kill us and helps vs. more wide-board decks.
Draw
We're only running 2 weapons, so 1 copy of Runeforging, with or without a corpse, draws us our important weapon and we'd rather natural draw other things. If you already drew both weapons, for instance, and maybe have some expensive Chained Guardians/a general bad hand, Finley is there to rescue you and give you other options, diving for a Helya that is sitting at the bottom of your deck, perhaps.
Frozen Over was thought to be a Plague card, and it is because it forces your opponent to draw into potentially a lot of plagues, but unless its going to kill them, it's just giving them more resources and we want to limit that, which is why I went for Defrost. It's not hard to have 2 corpses for the 2nd draw.
Chillfallen Baron is a reliable draw 2 over time with a body. Strong against anything non-aggro.
Removal/Utility/Big Plays
Plague Strike has been a valuable targeted removal especially early game. Cultist and Tomb Traitor give us AOE options or sometimes you just use Cultist for the 2 damage. Thassarian is a sticky, damage-dealing minion. It's not game winning, but is a good mid-game minion. Hollow Hound helps with survivability, really strong if you can discover Harmonic Metal off Vizier. Vizier is amazing and usually active- go for Turn 7 The Scourge if you're offered it, it is very hard to deal with especially if you highroll. You can find something useful every time you play it.
Astalor is still a win condition all-star. Sylvanas can be easily infused, especially with our hero power and Unholy Plague. Feels amazing to steal a giant minion or Titan for yourself- have definitely had some auto-concedes after playing her.
The Primus is another big play- generally you should go for Blood Runes first to beef him up and heal yourself (heals you over 30 health), that way if he is taken with Reverberations they can't use him to kill your Titan. Sometimes if you just want more bodies though, Unholy Runes is a good choice. We don't run a lot of spells, so if you go for Frost Runes it's probably a pray to discover an AOE moment like 5-damage Remorseless Winter for 1 mana or just straight up face damage.
Our tech card against buff decks, fat taunts, freezes, and titans.
General Strategy & Mulligan
You win the war of attrition- stay alive and keep shuffling plagues in, and they will eventually wear the opponent down. Helya is obviously important to continuously re-shuffle plagues back into their deck. This is our main win con- view the deck as a control variant without insane value- we need our plagues to do the dirty work and close things out.
ALWAYS KEEP: Staff of the Primus, Runeforging, Distressed Kvaldir, Helya
Vs. CONTROL: Chillfallen Baron, Nerubian Vizier (also generally good keeps if it's non-aggro)
Vs. AGGRO: Plague Strike, Down with the Ship, possibly Tomb Traitor and/or Hardcore Cultist
Keep Smothering Starfish as needed, especially vs. Rogue, Druid, and Big Lock
Replays (Updated 8/4)
Vs. Hound Hunter
Vs. Sif Burn Mage
Vs. Sif Burn Mage #2
Vs. Streamer Savjz (Another Burn Mage)
Vs. Big Warlock
Vs. Mech Rogue
Vs. Overload Shaman
Vs. Automaton Priest
Vs. Control Priest
Vs. Big Demon Hunter
I hope you try my list out and have success with it, too! Matchup Breakdowns at +50
A real piece of crap your deck... I just add and add plagues to my opponent's deck and nothing. They don't draw them (at least not in time) and againts brainless decks as Sif mage or Odin warr, it's just useless. This is a just for fun deck, nothing else.
Crap deck for brainless idiots
So you lost against it. Poor boy.
Just Like Sif mage or Odin warr, what a stupid decks they are.
Would Algalon the Observer be bad for this deck?
I think it's a trap. I haven't seen it work well yet.
Currently 11/0 with it, played vs a mirror that even ran School Teacher that you're curious about slotting, It didn't work out well for him as he just lost tempo, I guess it works out vs aggro but not a tempo/slower deck
I was very skeptical, I distrusted because of some negative comments, and I distrusted that the author had 40 semi-consecutive wins with this deck until he reached legend in one day. But now I know it can be true...
I must admit that this deck is just pure magic. 19 games won, only 2 lost. That is the rate I had (when I started to count it). It is simply incredible, I've climbed to rank
5platinum10 diamond in just one day.This is the best aggro deck out there for ranked wild mode, in the meaning of the most efficient (more much wins than losses) and productive deck (relatively fast wins) for fast climbing.
I recommend ignoring the negative comments in this thread and also ignoring any card replacement suggestions. Try the deck out for yourself, but try it exactly as it is (if you can't craft the deck, don't criticize it), try it out over several consecutive games, and then decide if it's true or not what I said.
Note that I've been playing Hearthstone daily for many years (I started like one-half or two years after the beta has been released), and I've tried almost all aggro (and control) archetypes that existed and that were exploited in the meta (those decks we see that are used by normal players and bot players), nothing can be compared to the win rate of this deck, currently.
...but I must also say that my experience with Death Knight is practically nil since I've only played it a few times, my general experience as a daily Hearthstone player goes with me, and my experience entering into battle against Death Knight, but I don't have any depth on the use and strategies of the Death Knight, so think about it, if someone like me has that win rate on ladder, what could have a really Death Knight-experienced player? (well, probably what the author says: 40 semi-consecutive games won to get day 1 legend)
Wow man that is high praise, perhaps too much so tbh because I got absolutely rolled in legend yesterday compared to my Day 1 success. Yes it's true I got to Legend on Day 1, I'm a long time player who had a x11 bonus. I wouldn't call the deck an aggro deck by any means, it's more of a control-ish deck. If you're looking for bonkers winrate, you could always scam wins right now with Mech Rogue and Big Lock.
But I'm glad you're having success, and yes I'm sure it is better in Wild with other cards.
Just a suggestion but what if you put in Augmented Elekk? I don't what you would replace it with, and what about Renathal? I know you want to get all the plagues out quickly, but would he help a little more with some extra health and have extra cards? I'm not good at building decks but I think Elekk would be really good in here. Of course, for wild though not standard. I play wild most of the time.
Plague dk is absolute shit to play. Don't fall for the hype. There are too many counters and no real removal for full board. You 100% lose against paladin, mech rouge, trent druid and mage.
I have seen 0 paladins on ladder, druid is not a super common match, but it is basically a loss as is mech rogue but I suspect a nerf will happen there.
Mage has been really favored for me, not sure why you're saying that they draw themselves to death a lot of the time.
Sorry it's not working for you no deck is perfect let people have fun
Before mage draw enough plagues to death, they already nuke you with sif. It takes too long especially if you fight someone who has 40 cards in the deck.
idk mate in my experience mech rogue is garbage deck free win basically
My data indicate otherwise with a 77% wr against mage. Haven't seen any that play an xl list either...
It's definitely overperforming rn. Any minion left alive snowballs into a giant windfury copied mess and it's a menace rn hopefully to be neutered soon.
I noticed you only had 32 total wins with DK. Was this done on a new account?
If yes, did your opponent's seem like low MMR players or did they make plays like high legend players/did you face any known players during your climb?
Just having a hard time believing Plague DH is very good and wondering if this was a day 1 climb on a new account where the game has not had enough time to match you against the strong(est) MMR players.
Hopefully I am wrong but I would be more impressed if this is an existing account that played other classes or if you can maintain a top 250 rank through the month.
No it's not a new account I've been playing on this account for many years just mostly Rogue. I only got into DK this month bc I took a year off until last month. I've been legend and high legend many times since 2018.
I did have a x11 multiplier though and that speeds up the climb significantly.
I'll looking to get my golden dk so I have a lot of games to play still!
how should a nee account get to 55 legend?
How hard do you mulligan for helya? Also is it a good idea to ease down a little bit with plagues if you haven't gotten Helya yet, or just go all in regardless?