Knights of the Frozen Throne has been out for nearly a week now. Hearthstone’s ladder is full of new decks and cool cards, as players try and change the meta.
However, it looks like the more things change the more they stay the same.
While Kazakus Priest, Control Warlock, and Hunter may seem fun to play, the highest winrates still belong to the same decks that were dominant before the new cards were added last week.
According to live update data from Vicious Syndicate, Murloc Paladin and Pirate Warrior and still the two most successful decks in the Standard metagame.
Over a 10,000 game sample in the last 24 hours, the five most common decks at every rank are Pirates, Murlocs, Token Druid, Jade Druid, and Token Shaman. Paladin, Warrior and the three variants of Druid also enjoy the five highest winrates on ladder.
Druid’s diversity is something of an improvement in the meta however. Jade Druid and Aggro Token Druid are still strong, with a midrange variant of the Token build also doing well.
The professional meta doesn’t look all that different from ladder either. Sebastian “Xixo” Bentert and Frederik “Hoej” Nielsen posted their decklists for an upcoming Gold Series event, with Jade Druid and Murloc Paladin featuring in their lineups. The pair will also be playing a new version of Miracle Rogue—The Lich King is the only new card.
Some versions of the Rogue list also include the new Hero card, but the core of the deck is very similar to pre-expansion lists.
The only deck in this lineup that completely breaks the mould is Kazakus Priest. With Reno Jackson out of the format those single-card decks disappeared from the meta. But now the new Priest Hero card has a powerful hero power that can be repeated multiple times a turn. Raza the Unchained, which makes your hero power cost zero if your deck has no duplicates, is an incredible card to pair with that. That synergy alone has been enough to make Kazakus Priest so popular.
Normally after an expansion, the meta is completely turned on its head before returning to normal. This time things are totally different, but it’s still early. Players could still find the silver bullet to break the meta wide open.
