5 year veteran player here coming back from a two month break.
Missed the release of the latest expansion but did pre order before leaving.
Curious to know what are some of the hot decks that's running the meta currently? Still doing my own research but wanted fellow players input on this topic as well!
Probably the most unexpected development is the genuinely powerful Ramp Paladin. It's got two main win conditions. High Abbess Alura plus coin or First Day of School gets you a 4 mana board full of murlocs. One of those murlocs will be Redscale Dragontamer which deathrattles into drawing you Nozdormu the Timeless, the second win condition. Noz gives both players ten mana crystals, but since your deck is filled with very large creatures, you'll probably be in a better place to take advantage.
You have a lot of choices as to which expensive creatures to use, but I think the best versions use Carnival Clown so that you can top off the deck with both N'zoth and Y'shaarj. Most people will be dead long before then if the Noz plan hit in a timely fashion, but the old gods add a huge late game in case someone actually manages to keep up with removal.
It looked like a meme, but it most definitely is not. Paladin is also still seeing a lot of success with the "pure" paladin and "Libroom" paladin, both of which use librams, one of which uses pen flingers as a good synergy with free Librams of Wisdom.
Rogue and Demon Hunter both have aggro versions that plan to do a large percentage of their damage thru weapon swings. The rogue is probably the slightly more powerful version due to things like Steeldancer and Cutting Class. Demon Hunter has an OTK deck which is probably the best combo deck in standard, but is very prone to getting run over before it can put together a win. Rogue has mostly moved away from the secret package to the combo package with Whirlkick Master (I think it's called) as a value engine.
Hunter is still very good. Highlander is a little more fun, but the highest win percentage is the face hunter with Toxic Reinforcements (at least it was last time I checked). Druid has a good token deck, but opinions vary as to whether the treant version or the Gibberling version is best. Either way, the new "spawn two treants and give your minions +2/+1" card is carrying it.
Highlander Mage is enjoying niche success, but most of the mages are either meming with Mozaki OTK (terrible win rate, but can beat control decks occasionally) or playing Secret Mage. I'm not a huge fan of Secret Mage.
Some diehard Priest players are trying to make either Big Priest with Blood of G'huun and rez mechanics or Galakrond Priest work, but Priest is definitely the weakest class right now (see my discussion of shaman).
Warlock has Zoo . . . as always. Zoo is fairly fierce if you are trying to outrun control decks, but I think other aggro decks, particularly the weapon-based aggro decks, have a tendency to kill Zoo after it obligingly lowers its own health quite a bit. Warlock also has Tickatus, which comes in a variety of control packages. I have done a lot of arguing on forums about Tickatus, and thus have played well over 200 games trying to figure out the best version. I have not been able to get over 50% win rate in high legend with any of them, but according to my numbers, the best version is the non-Galakrond soul shard focused deck with Khartut Defenders.
Warrior is, IMHO, the strongest class right now. It is certainly the most diverse, as there are 5-7 viable decks depending on how you count different decks vs different versions of a deck. Bomb Warrior is still very strong. The ETC combo can be found in both Control Warrior and Enrage Warrior, but Control Warrior can also use the Silas / Ashtongue OTK or simply out value an opponent, often using C'thun as a finisher. Enrage Warrior can also just kill the old fashioned way rather than use ETC. All of the above may or may not use Rattlegore, sometimes copied with Mercenary. Finally, a little lower down the tier list, Big Warrior with Commencement and Dimensional Ripper is still a reasonable choice. Oh wait, there's still more . . . recently a good ole' Pirate Warrior has appeared using Skybarge and the Darkmoone 5/5 rush dragon (Tent Thrasher?) as an excuse to run Ringmaster Whatley. I have enjoyed a lot of success with that pirate warrior.
I saved Shaman for last. According to most tier lists, Evolve Shaman has plummeted into obscurity due to the nerf on Knuckles. Personally, I don't think it's THAT bad, but the highest rated shaman deck is often aggro Shaman with Stormstrike, Doomhammer, and Bloodlust as kills. Occasionally, totem shaman with Grand Totem Ey'sor shows up, which I find very fun, but not very consistent.
What you WON'T see on tier lists is my control Shaman deck which has taken me to #130 legend this month. I will try to make a final push to break 100 tomorrow before the reset. I have a full list in a comment on AIMsparrow's control shaman deck, it's featured right now if you click shaman decks on the main page. But I find that deck up to the task of taking on everything with a reasonable amount of success. Ramp Paladin beats it when everything goes to plan, but that's true of just about every deck. Tickatus Lock gives it a lot of problems, but Tick Lock dies to everything aggro, so I don't find it much up that high in Legend.
Hope that's everything.
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Wow! Such great detail you put into this reply and very much appreciated. I think I will heed your advice and run with Ramp Paladin for a bit while learning the game again. Just two months being away I come back and its like I have been gone for a whole year! So much has been added in such a short time frame. I am excited to be back and cheers to for making my life easier.
I am sure others will find it as useful as I did! Thanks again!
The best feature of this deck is the anti-mirror match tech, namely, Lord Barov.
There are a couple of different ways other people play this. For one thing, a lot of people play First Day at School, but if you play it, you introduce the possibility that Alura casts it instead of Tip the Scales. By making Tip the only spell in deck, you guarantee it coming off her, though if you go first, the only way to trigger the spellburst is with a wandmaker. It's a tradeoff, though I will point out that if you are not getting the coin and you don't have a wandmaker in hand, as painful as it is, you want to mulligan Alura.
Another thing folks do is play Carousel Gryphon and/or Pearltusk (whatever the corruptible elephant is called) in order to charge up the N'zoth and Y'shaarj. I think it's difficult to fit those in without nerfing the murloc package. Another way to go is remove the Armor Vendors and sacrifice early game to go all out on ramp-or-lose. But I think that's a negative impact on win rates over time.
For the record, Darkmoon Rabbit is there to help corrupt clown, not for N'zoth's sake (although we'll take a beast Rez). It is occasionally necessary to play an Old God with very little benefit simply to corrupt a clown. If it must be done, don't lose sleep over it. If you are tempted to make any changes, I would say the first two adds are Strongmen. They are easy to corrupt and charge up the Y'shaarj. I could see pulling an Angling Rod and . . . I'm not sure what else. The question is, do you really need more stuff that wins harder after the Noz, or do you need more things to cover the possibility that you can't get him in a timely manner.
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Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Ramp paladin aka cheese pally. It wins if u get allura to go off on turn 4 or 5. Highroll deck but it can survive until later turns with its rush murlocs.
Yesterday played against 3 of them with my mozaki otk mage. First 2 were on coin and they pulled the allura tip the scales on 4. The 3rd wasnt on coin but had AGAIN allura. I did win cause mozaki can otk on turn 7 and they didnt get a spell to do their highroll turn.
Toxic deck that takes no skill. Powerful asf will get nerfed unless they just wait for tip the scales to rotate
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5 year veteran player here coming back from a two month break.
Missed the release of the latest expansion but did pre order before leaving.
Curious to know what are some of the hot decks that's running the meta currently? Still doing my own research but wanted fellow players input on this topic as well!
Probably the most unexpected development is the genuinely powerful Ramp Paladin. It's got two main win conditions. High Abbess Alura plus coin or First Day of School gets you a 4 mana board full of murlocs. One of those murlocs will be Redscale Dragontamer which deathrattles into drawing you Nozdormu the Timeless, the second win condition. Noz gives both players ten mana crystals, but since your deck is filled with very large creatures, you'll probably be in a better place to take advantage.
You have a lot of choices as to which expensive creatures to use, but I think the best versions use Carnival Clown so that you can top off the deck with both N'zoth and Y'shaarj. Most people will be dead long before then if the Noz plan hit in a timely fashion, but the old gods add a huge late game in case someone actually manages to keep up with removal.
It looked like a meme, but it most definitely is not. Paladin is also still seeing a lot of success with the "pure" paladin and "Libroom" paladin, both of which use librams, one of which uses pen flingers as a good synergy with free Librams of Wisdom.
Rogue and Demon Hunter both have aggro versions that plan to do a large percentage of their damage thru weapon swings. The rogue is probably the slightly more powerful version due to things like Steeldancer and Cutting Class. Demon Hunter has an OTK deck which is probably the best combo deck in standard, but is very prone to getting run over before it can put together a win. Rogue has mostly moved away from the secret package to the combo package with Whirlkick Master (I think it's called) as a value engine.
Hunter is still very good. Highlander is a little more fun, but the highest win percentage is the face hunter with Toxic Reinforcements (at least it was last time I checked). Druid has a good token deck, but opinions vary as to whether the treant version or the Gibberling version is best. Either way, the new "spawn two treants and give your minions +2/+1" card is carrying it.
Highlander Mage is enjoying niche success, but most of the mages are either meming with Mozaki OTK (terrible win rate, but can beat control decks occasionally) or playing Secret Mage. I'm not a huge fan of Secret Mage.
Some diehard Priest players are trying to make either Big Priest with Blood of G'huun and rez mechanics or Galakrond Priest work, but Priest is definitely the weakest class right now (see my discussion of shaman).
Warlock has Zoo . . . as always. Zoo is fairly fierce if you are trying to outrun control decks, but I think other aggro decks, particularly the weapon-based aggro decks, have a tendency to kill Zoo after it obligingly lowers its own health quite a bit. Warlock also has Tickatus, which comes in a variety of control packages. I have done a lot of arguing on forums about Tickatus, and thus have played well over 200 games trying to figure out the best version. I have not been able to get over 50% win rate in high legend with any of them, but according to my numbers, the best version is the non-Galakrond soul shard focused deck with Khartut Defenders.
Warrior is, IMHO, the strongest class right now. It is certainly the most diverse, as there are 5-7 viable decks depending on how you count different decks vs different versions of a deck. Bomb Warrior is still very strong. The ETC combo can be found in both Control Warrior and Enrage Warrior, but Control Warrior can also use the Silas / Ashtongue OTK or simply out value an opponent, often using C'thun as a finisher. Enrage Warrior can also just kill the old fashioned way rather than use ETC. All of the above may or may not use Rattlegore, sometimes copied with Mercenary. Finally, a little lower down the tier list, Big Warrior with Commencement and Dimensional Ripper is still a reasonable choice. Oh wait, there's still more . . . recently a good ole' Pirate Warrior has appeared using Skybarge and the Darkmoone 5/5 rush dragon (Tent Thrasher?) as an excuse to run Ringmaster Whatley. I have enjoyed a lot of success with that pirate warrior.
I saved Shaman for last. According to most tier lists, Evolve Shaman has plummeted into obscurity due to the nerf on Knuckles. Personally, I don't think it's THAT bad, but the highest rated shaman deck is often aggro Shaman with Stormstrike, Doomhammer, and Bloodlust as kills. Occasionally, totem shaman with Grand Totem Ey'sor shows up, which I find very fun, but not very consistent.
What you WON'T see on tier lists is my control Shaman deck which has taken me to #130 legend this month. I will try to make a final push to break 100 tomorrow before the reset. I have a full list in a comment on AIMsparrow's control shaman deck, it's featured right now if you click shaman decks on the main page. But I find that deck up to the task of taking on everything with a reasonable amount of success. Ramp Paladin beats it when everything goes to plan, but that's true of just about every deck. Tickatus Lock gives it a lot of problems, but Tick Lock dies to everything aggro, so I don't find it much up that high in Legend.
Hope that's everything.
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Wow! Such great detail you put into this reply and very much appreciated. I think I will heed your advice and run with Ramp Paladin for a bit while learning the game again. Just two months being away I come back and its like I have been gone for a whole year! So much has been added in such a short time frame. I am excited to be back and cheers to for making my life easier.
I am sure others will find it as useful as I did! Thanks again!
I'm a very big believer in this list as the best
1 Animated Broomstick
2 Armor Vendor
2 Crab Rider
1 Murgle Murgurgle
2 Redscale Dragontamer
2 Wandmaker
1 Lord Barov
2 Murloc Warleader
2 Underlight Angling Rod
2 Circus Amalgam
2 Fishy Flyer
1 High Abbess Alura
1 Nozdormu the Timeless
2 Tip the Scales
2 Carnival Clown
1 Darkmoon Rabbit
1 N'zoth
2 Scrapyard Colossus
1 Y'shaarj
The best feature of this deck is the anti-mirror match tech, namely, Lord Barov.
There are a couple of different ways other people play this. For one thing, a lot of people play First Day at School, but if you play it, you introduce the possibility that Alura casts it instead of Tip the Scales. By making Tip the only spell in deck, you guarantee it coming off her, though if you go first, the only way to trigger the spellburst is with a wandmaker. It's a tradeoff, though I will point out that if you are not getting the coin and you don't have a wandmaker in hand, as painful as it is, you want to mulligan Alura.
Another thing folks do is play Carousel Gryphon and/or Pearltusk (whatever the corruptible elephant is called) in order to charge up the N'zoth and Y'shaarj. I think it's difficult to fit those in without nerfing the murloc package. Another way to go is remove the Armor Vendors and sacrifice early game to go all out on ramp-or-lose. But I think that's a negative impact on win rates over time.
For the record, Darkmoon Rabbit is there to help corrupt clown, not for N'zoth's sake (although we'll take a beast Rez). It is occasionally necessary to play an Old God with very little benefit simply to corrupt a clown. If it must be done, don't lose sleep over it. If you are tempted to make any changes, I would say the first two adds are Strongmen. They are easy to corrupt and charge up the Y'shaarj. I could see pulling an Angling Rod and . . . I'm not sure what else. The question is, do you really need more stuff that wins harder after the Noz, or do you need more things to cover the possibility that you can't get him in a timely manner.
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Delete this trash game :)
Ramp paladin aka cheese pally. It wins if u get allura to go off on turn 4 or 5. Highroll deck but it can survive until later turns with its rush murlocs.
Yesterday played against 3 of them with my mozaki otk mage. First 2 were on coin and they pulled the allura tip the scales on 4. The 3rd wasnt on coin but had AGAIN allura. I did win cause mozaki can otk on turn 7 and they didnt get a spell to do their highroll turn.
Toxic deck that takes no skill. Powerful asf will get nerfed unless they just wait for tip the scales to rotate