Hearthpwn

Scholomance Academy Meta Decks - Pre-Nerfs Edition

We tried to bring together a list of the best meta decks out there currently. We had already planned this article when the balance changes were announced last night. No worries however since the change to Illucia won't change Priest win rates pretty much at all and the Kael'thas change should just slow down Druid a turn and prevent the utterly ludicrous turns where they drew and played half their deck on a KT turn. Druid should still be quite strong.

On to the decks!

Druid

It's the elephant in the room and Blizzard has already taken a step to balance the worst of it. This Druid list is a variation of the more usual lists, but it looks like it might be a step ahead of the nerfs, with not relying too much on cheating out huge Survival of the Fittest turns, but instead going for a Dragon package that gives more access to ramp and big, dangerous bodies.

Paladin

Paladin had a great start to the expansion, it matched up well against Druid and thrived. But all is not quite as good as it once was. At the Grandmasters this weekend Paladin was not doing well at all and we now also have the Druid nerf, which should further weaken Paladin's position in the Meta, due to it's good match up there. The final thing chipping away at Paladin's position is the continued rise of Aggro decks.

Priest

Love it or hate it, Priest has been steady in Scholomance Academy and the Mindrender Illucia nerf will most likely not phaze it at all. It was one of the most banned classes at Grandmasters and it will likely continue to rise.

Rogue

Gone are the days of infinite Lackeys. Rogue is all about aggro now and going fast, with their superior card draw through Secret Passage a focal point in the strategy.

Mage

Many variations of Mage have been tried since Scholomance Academy release, some with more disappointing results than others (looking at you Mozaki OTK). And the best Mage deck might still not be found, because there's still a lot of refining to do. If the Grandmasters were any indication though, Tempo/Cyclone Mage will be the last Mage deck standing in the end.

Warrior

Warrior's experiments with Big Warrior or Ripper Warrior have been quite successful but it seems that in a competitive setting it might still be Tempo/Pain/Bomb Warrior that wins out. We shall see how the Warrior picture plays out in the coming weeks, but for now we have chosen to feature a Bomb Warrior deck.

Demon Hunter

The deck we feature puts it well in it's description: Last expansion Demon Hunter got more aggro after each nerf and should have probably not been called Tempo DH after a certain point. This deck corrects that oversight while adding an even further slimmed down and aggressive version of Demon Hunter to the Meta.

Hunter, Warlock & Shaman

These classes are not featured this week. Hunter didn't get any cards worth writing home about and it's trusted Highlander archetype basically remained unchanged. Hunter wins some, loses some, but is not really a factor in the grand scheme of things. Warlock might have something with a return to control Galakrond, but with the nerf to Druid, and Paladin faltering it might not push through into an actual worthwhile archetype. Shaman, well... Totem Shaman does okay against Druid? That's a positive! But it gets wrecked by aggro and just is not quite good enough, all things considered.