Fade 2 Karma Meta Report#3

Introduction

Fade2Karma is a new professional eSports Hearthstone team that was formed recently. It consists of top players like Cipher, Hawkeye and Dethelor. (Gosugamers announcement here, F2K’s Twitter and LiquidHearth‘s announcement here.)

The F2K Meta Report focuses on the class/deck representation in the European Legend Ladder on a biweekly basis. Hundreds of ladder games played by our players allow us to determine which are the most popular decks on ladder and which decks have fallen out of favor by most.

To view sample decklists, scroll down!

The Ranking

Popular (Green) Average (Yellow) Out of Meta (Red)

Sample Deck Lists

• Control Warrior
• Midrange Hunter, Face Hunter
• Zoolock
• Secret Paladin, Midrange Paladin
• Tempo Mage
• Combo Druid
• Dragon Priest

Analysis

1. Paladin: The Introduction of Mysterious Challenger makes Paladin Secrets viable. In fact the power level of the card is comparable to Dr. Boom’s. As a result a new powerful Paladin archetype could spawn. There are currently 2 builds on ladder: one with Divine Favor and a more midrangey one. As it turns out Paladin is a class that is well suited for the inspire mechanic. With the addition of Murloc Knight and Justicar Trueheart on the one hand, and Tuskarr Jouster on the other hand, Midrange Paladin became stronger against both control decks and aggro decks. The strength of Secret Paladin and Midrange Paladin makes Paladin by far the most popular class on ladder this week.

2. Druid: Combo Druid became stronger with the addition of Darnassus Aspirant, because it allows the deck to ramp more consistently into its 4 drops. Because of that people run 6 4-drops instead of 4 nowadays. Savage Combatant is the new additional 4 drop of choice for most people (sometimes Chillwind Yeti instead). Living Roots quickly became a new staple as well, as it allows Druid to contest the board early on, while not being a dead card in late game.

3. Hunter: Hunter still sits in third. Overall both aggro and midrange builds didn’t change much.

People tried Ram Wrangler, Bear Trap, King’s Elekk in Midrange Hunter and Brave Archer in Face Hunter without too much success. This doesn’t change the fact that Hunter is well equipped against the 2 most popular classes: Freezing Traps, a strong early curve and Savannah Highmanes are hard for Druid to deal with. Unleash the Hounds and Explosive Traps do well against all kind of Paladins. Furthermore Hunter is the only class that has a tech card that hard counters Secret Paladin’s turn 6: Flare.

4. Mage: Tempo Mage is once again at the top of the Mage archetypes. Effigy seems to be the new 2 off secret, mainly because Druid isn’t vulnerable to Mirror Entity anymore with Darnassus Aspirant. Arcane Missiles, Flamewakers and Flamestrike deal well with Paladin, and the strong single target removal spells allow Mage to easily generate Tempo against Druid. Because the Meta is so fast, many people consider the much hyped Rhonin as too slow for the deck right now. This being said, Tempo Mage is a deck that can easily adapt to any kind of meta and therefore won’t fall out of favor easily. Freeze Mage saw a bunch of play this week because it does pretty well against Paladin and other minion focused decks but was being kept in check by Warriors. Mech Mage still being a strong deck wasn’t too popular, mainly because it didn’t gain anything from TGT.

5. Warrior: This week Control Warrior was the most popular archetype this week. Brawl, Revenge and Baron Geddon help the Paladin Matchup. Justicar Trueheart helps Warriors to stabilize against Aggro. The Druid matchup became better for Warrior as well, because they now have a target to axe in early game with Darnassus Aspirant. Varian Wrynn helps them to close out games against Druid, they couldn’t before. Patron Warrior wasn’t as popular as last time, mainly because the deck didn’t change since TGT and people want to play with new cards. This doesn’t change the fact that it is still one of strongest decks in the game. People experimented a bit with Dragon Warrior (with TGT the deck has enough cards to separate it from the Control Warrior archetype) but haven’t found a stable build yet.

6. Warlock: Zoo didn’t change much besides the addition of Wrathguard in some decks. It still is the most popular Warlock archetype as Handlock is weak to Paladin and Druid. Dragon Warlock might be a thing soon but people haven’t experimented too much with it for now.

7. Priest: TGT finally made Dragon Priest viable. Wyrmrest Agent is the Anti Aggro 2-drop Priest needed. 4 toughness on turn 2 is very hard to deal with for most classes, which allows Priest to snowball the tempo lead into the midgame. Once Priest has Tempo advantage it is very hard for any kind of minion based deck to come back, since Lesser Heal and buffs help Priest win most minion fights. The strength of Dragon Priest made Deathlord Priest obsolete. We still see Circle Priests here and there because they can easily deal with Paladins, thanks to Wild Pyromancers, Holy Novas and Circle combos.

8. Shaman: In the first week of TGT people played a lot of Midrange Shaman. Totem Golem, Tuskarr Totemic and Thunder Bluff Valiant are all very strong cards, that give the deck a lot of power. Unfortunately for Shaman, Paladin quickly rose to the most popular class on ladder. As a result, a week later, Shaman barely sees any play due to it’s weakness to Paladin. Mech Shaman didn’t see any play this week, mainly because the deck didn’t gain anything from TGT.

9. Rogue: Rogue is in a sad state right now. On the one side the class didn’t get anything in TGT (Pirate Rogue is still a dream) and on the other side Oil Rogue isn’t good in the current meta.