Introduction
It feels weird writing about Hearthstone when everyone just can’t stop talking about Druid overdominance.
Today I come with some alternative cool lists for you to try before jumping into the Druid bandwagon just like everyone one of your friends has already done.
Every list posted in this article were featured in the top 20 Legend in the past few days!
The Metagame
Before we start talking about the decks I wanted to have a brief discussion about what is going on in the metagame right now.
Basically, the decks are evolving in a much slower pace than they have ever since classic, I honestly did not expect to see such a slow evolve when it comes to deck building.
While I have a few theories about this, the most accepted to be true is the one that says the big names, those that make the deck lists we always copy, aren’t worrying too much about anything other than Druid, but honestly I believe there is something else going on here.
First things first, it took players too long to figure out they didn’t need to add the-lich-king to every single one of their decks, maybe the memes are finally catching up to reality but people just insist on doing things like adding The Lich King to their Tempo Mage, Midrange Paladin, Face Hunter and even Pirate Warrior decks more often than my brain can accept. We discussed this one article ago, that people would do something like this, I just didn’t expect it to take so long for people to realize how unsmart that was.
With that said, the decks are evolving and real good cards are being finally looked upon: cards like bonemare are starting to show up in decks more often than before and I expect such things to keep on going.
Keleseth Discard Zoo
And the real decks start to show up in the metagame.
When howlfiend was revealed people gave it the shits, saying how unplayable the card was simply because it was supposed to discard your entire hand upon played, but we knew better, didn’t we?
When we called the card a sleeper it was obvious that it was done so because something like this possible of happening, and boy it did! Top 2 Legend Zoolock!
Another card that powered up aggressive decks quite a bit was price-keleseth, for all the reasons we have previously discussed in the previous articles the card is simply a master engine for Aggressive decks. Another huge pump to the Price Keleseth power was acherus-veteran, that is both a super powerful 1-drop as well as Neutral, so these guys are basically best buddies and you’re likely to see them holding hands until the very day of their rotation.
While I don’t think this is the final version we’ll see of Zoo, it is indeed a good starting build to climb the ladder with!
Conjurer Tempo Mage
Another card that was completely looked down during the reviews but that we called out as one of the expansion’s sleeper was ghastly-conjurer.
The card itself is nothing flashy, but it does so much for a single card, while being straight on the spots that were weak on Tempo Mage previously to its addition, the card kind of fits perfectly into Tempo Mage while making it a much better positioned deck in the metagame than people are giving it credit for.
In between coins and one-mana spells, archmage-antonidas becomes once again a powerhouse that is bound to instantly close games that were supposed to get grindy within the next few turns.
Another important thing to note is how the secrets should always target the metagame, in this meta’s case the counterspell and mana-bind are my favorite choices, because of how powerful the spells being played currently are.
I consider swapping the spellbender for a second Mana Bind, but honestly Paladin is still a powerful enough threat to leave that as just a consideration.
Corpsetaker Midrange Paladin
Bonemare is such a strong curve card. And what deck wants to win by curving out perfectly more than Midrange Paladin?
While the overall deck based didn’t change a lot with Knights of the Frozen Throne, it did gained quite a few new tools and changed some others to fit it better.
Despite looking so well rounded-up, however, I don’t think this is even close to the optimal final version of Midrange Paladin that we’ll be seeing in the next weeks. This mostly happens because I still think there is room for cards like the-curator to be worked on freely, same goes for adding other possible aggressive cards like cobalt-scalebane and the room for innovation is just there, and whenever there is room for innovation we usually see better stuff showing up later. I also miss primordial-drake quite a lot.
With all that said, Midrange Paladin is still a very powerful and consistent deck that can be played on the ladder without the fear of losing to Jade Druid.
Scourgelord Tempo Warrior
I really really want to play this deck, it fits perfectly into the strategy I have enjoyed playing the most lately.
The early game of Tempo Warrior is basically the same of the Control Warrior we all know and love, but differently from all the previous Control Warrior decks this one aims to win the game with simple-but-effective threats that are likely to give your opponent quite the headache to deal with.
What I like the most about this deck is that it aims on making multiple plays in a turn, always having room to deal with different states while maintaining pressure. The fact Bonemare can turn seemingless minions like armorsmith and acolyte-of-pain into powerful and scary threats is just another reason for me to want to play this deck.
With all that said, I don’t think this deck is playable without scourgelord-garrosh, not only because of the sheer amount of pressure it alleviates, but also because the constant Whirlwind effects on the board are super welcome in this deck and mostly wanted in order for a late-game race mechanic.
Conclusion
Druid is not the only option to beat the Ladder, and every single one of the decks posted today reached very high ranks on the Ladder, at least enough to prove how powerful they are.
A protip for those expecting a Control meta in case the Druid nerf comes: Don’t.
What do you guys think of the deck lists posted in this article? Have you personally tested any? Do you want to play any of the lists posted here?
Let me know everything in the comments!
As always, love you guys, we’ll see each other again next article!
Nuba
