The Witchwood Deck Highlights: Week 1

With the Year of the Raven finally here and the meta slowly settling in, we have a few new decks breaking into the meta but Tier 1 decks from the previous meta are still as effective. Cube Warlock shows no signs of slowing down and Aggro Paladin seems to be doing better than ever thanks to Baku the Mooneater allowing the class to flood the board with ‘The Silver Hand’ generating two 1/1s each turn.

Here are some of the more successful decks from the current meta that you could consider using to climb ranks quickly.

Odd Paladin

Odd Paladin has been very successful in the current meta. While Even Paladin decks are still floating around in every rank, the Even archetype for Paladin is not aggressive enough to compete against decks like Cubelock. Odd Paladin has the ability to flood the board over and over again quite consistently with cheap minions, spells and of course the upgraded hero power ‘The Silver Hand’.

Cards like level-up and unidentified-maul have become far more consistent in offering value to the player because of the upgraded hero power. In the past, the Paladin hero power felt underwhelming when the Paladin player in the later turns of the game against ping classes. Druid, Mage or Rogue decks could simply ping off the 1/1 Recruit. But when you have two 1/1s coming out each turn, dealing with a Paladin board can be very annoying.

There are no new cards in the deck aside Baku the Mooneater. However, Corridor Creeper makes a return to the meta despite the significant nerf the card received in the past. With multiple tokens flooding the board, getting a low-cost Corridor Creeper is not hard at all. The deck is incredibly powerful against most experimental decks that people are trying out and it is quite cheap to craft as well.

Cube Warlock

The king of the meta has not been dethroned yet this rotation. Cube Warlock is arguably the best deck around. With board clears, burst healing and powerful draw available to Warlock, it is unlikely the deck is going to become weak anytime soon unless balance changes come around. Or, if we wait until the next expansion for cards that can hard counter the archetype.

Despite N’zoth leaving Standard, the deck is doing quite well and the addition of cards like Lord Godfrey and Rotten Applebaum are helping the archetype survive against decks that like to flood the board. Most lists that ran two copies of Doomguard in the past few months have gone back to running two copies of the Demon to generate the maximum possible burst damage.

Despite the highly refined deck type, there are plenty of cards that can be swapped out for other cards depending on what your matchups are. Gnomeferatu can be a solid pick over Plated Beetle if you are facing plenty of mirror matchups. rin-the-last-disciple can also be added to the deck if you’re facing too many slow decks. The deck is extremely consistent and can beat aggro decks quite consistently too if you get your taunts out fast enough.

Quest Warrior

Mitsuhide’s Quest Warrior is one of the better decks I’ve had luck with against Paladins. The deck does fairly well against aggressive decks floating around and Odd Paladins in particular. The addition of Phantom Militia allows you to complete the quest efficiently and allows you to have more room in your deck for other removal spells and draw cards. The large number of AOE effects and taunts prevent Paladins from getting massive Level Up! turns too easily.

Sulfuras is a solid win condition and can pressure any deck in the lategame very effectively, forcing them to play as many minions as possible to about being hit in the face for 8 damage a turn. The deck is unlikely to win you too many games against Warlock though, so do not queue it if you’re facing hordes of Cube Warlocks.

Deck Codes

Ryvius’ Legend Odd Paladin:

AAECAZ8FAp74ApXOAg6DxwL70wK15gLR4QLW5QKbwgKiAqcF48sCuMcCl8EC i+UCRvUFAA==

Blitz’s Legend Cube Warlock:

AAECAf0GBpfTApz4AswI2+kCxfMCkwQM6OcC/OUC9wSL4QKI0gK2B5vCAurm AooB58sC8tAC+NACAA==

Mitsuhide’s Legend Quest Warrior

AAECAQcGnvgC0AKixwLN7wLK5wLTwwIM8vECS8rDApvCArrsAqrsApED5e8C +wz8BJ3wAqIEAA==

Conclusion

We will be back with more decks from The Witchwood, so stay tuned for our deck guides once the lists are heavily refined. The PVE content is also scheduled to appear next week and it will be fun to play with the four unique heroes against the bosses and explore the lore of the set.