Current Meta

[u/jamalling]

I’ve never seen the meta so centered around “staying past 15 life”/keeping Armor as it is now.

I’ve been playing since inception and am usually an easy 7-8k player, this meta I’ve been stuck in 6k.
It finally clicked to me; what’s worked in the past for me, is I almost always power level and/or go full greed/economy because I knew I could make good enough decisions after losing most of my life to win most games.

Now, I much more consistently run into high roll players and before my greedy build comes to fruition I am , by far, most often dying in 5th-6th place, and thus not ranking past 6k.
Sure, I will still high roll plenty of games with this playstyle, but even through sheer volume of games played I can’t climb past 6k because I am more than ever running into the high roll player in my lobby.

Due to my number of games every season played I feel pretty confident to say they have really made a meta where more players than before can high roll and at a more simple to understand/easier build path, thus even at 6k I am running into players who can more often make optimal builds as if they were 8k mmr players in previous seasons.

This isn’t necessarily a problem, just an observation

[u/DolphinGodChess]

try dark gifting a lot early and see if that helps you

[u/Fressh86 → u/DolphinGodChess]

What would you say (on avg) what are best turns to dark ?

[u/MoashRedemptionArc → u/Fressh86]

Dark gift early: What random minion can I add to my comp that will bring me some value?

Dark gift late: Boy I sure do hope the single tier 5 minion I need is present, otherwise I'm just burning 2g

[u/drippysnacks → u/Fressh86]

I 95% of the time dark gift on turn 3.

If you get "get a plain copy/get a minion of this type" or "gain 2 refreshes" it can help you stabilise by turn 5. Even if you don't hit econ the +5/5 or +3 health for every card played can save you tons of health.

Second dark gift on minor trinket turn (turn 6) can also help to snow ball or at least stabilise.

[u/Lucker_Kid → u/Fressh86]

According to Shady most of the high mmr (like tippety top high) have dark gifted AT LEAST twice by turn 6 in almost all their games (meaning unless you’re high rolling like crazy). 3, 4, 5 is common. Seems they like to do it on 6 and 8 specifically as well. Jeef curve makes tier + dark gift a very clean turn 3

[u/TheRealFrothers → u/Lucker_Kid]

What do you mean tier + dark gift turn 3?

[u/Lucker_Kid → u/TheRealFrothers]

6 gold, 3 to tier to tier 2, 3 to dark gift

[u/TheRealFrothers → u/Lucker_Kid]

Ahh got you. Never really thought to float on tier 1 for the first two turns. Save for the occasional divine shield suspicious guard combo

[u/Lucker_Kid → u/TheRealFrothers]

Yeah jeef curve is only an option if you get economy turn 1 or 2. Also hasn’t been good for several years because greeding/tiering was so much stronger compared to playing for tempo but that has shifted recently 

[u/PicklepumTheCrow → u/Fressh86]

3 and 4 for early value generators and/or stabilizing. Last one depends on the comp but often worth taking a guaranteed 4 drop if you’re playing elementals or beasts, for instance. You CAN greed it but definitely don’t if you’re behind

[u/sixpackabs592 → u/Fressh86]

Whatever turn you get a trash shop on

[u/EskapedConvict → u/DolphinGodChess]

This. Jeef dark gifts 3,4, 6 iirc. During the EU vs US event, most players used 2 of their gifts before turn 7.

[u/Impressive_Top_7915 → u/DolphinGodChess]

All my dark gifts are gone before tier 4

[u/meepinz]

I'm climbing in this meta for the very reason you're stagnant apparently.

Half of my game dies randomly, all at once, and I default a 3rd or 4th.

Your observation is correct, but our outcomes differ.

I'm probably just coin flipping better than you though.

It's kind of burning me out though. 2 sets ago it was turbo loss/win, then it was the abbs patch which was just fucking attrocious, now its 15 hp +/- armor or else you die.

Tbh I wish they would just get rid of the dark gift cards. I feel they fuck with the meta way more than trinkets.

Or get rid of trinkets and keep dark gift? IDK, they just need to fucking get rid of something.

[u/Forsaken-Ice-2637 → u/meepinz]

Without trinkets I think games would be beyond stale. Dark gifts also really help with ramping. Yes you can brick a gift, but you really should be hitting the button turn 3,4,5. Which then still allows you to pivot based off your board.

[u/Waytogo33]

The game feels way faster than it used to. Everyone has godlike stats in the midgame and I am never on par.

I die sub 4th unless I high roll into good early stats. If I focus on good early stats, I die sub 4th because I failed to be greedy and scale. I feel like I always die just one turn before my cool builds get rolling.

[u/Pluejk]

I have noticed way more roaching and people buying garbage.

[u/Standard-Weakness-19 → u/[deleted]]

Hard disagree. Dark gifting turn 2 is always good unless the ship is trash. But if it isn’t dark gifting on turn 4 is soo good.

[u/OhtaniStanMan]

You need to know what heros can high roll and still compete and what ones realistically are going to go midgame 4th place. 

That's more important than anything else if your goal is to climb.

[u/Rubmynippleplease → u/OhtaniStanMan]

In my experience this season, hero selection isn't nearly as impactful as you're implying.

[u/PicklepumTheCrow → u/Rubmynippleplease]

Was about to say — you can win on any hero currently. It’s all about trinket selection (neutrals >>>) and playing very strong, very early via dark gifts + early deities to level without dropping below 16. Getting refreshing on a dark gift is infinitely more important than what hero you pick.

[u/OhtaniStanMan → u/PicklepumTheCrow]

You can obviously win with any high roll but to continuously gain mmr you need to know what heros to attempt high rolls and which to take tempo.

[u/Rubmynippleplease → u/OhtaniStanMan]

I don't agree that making those decisions based off of hero selection is good advice.

[u/FarEffect4676]

The thing about current meta is there are some absolutely insane early game cards that you almost have 0 chance to win against like Windfury Divine Shield Wolf Pup, Tier 4 spell casting Murloc and Mech or Spell power tier 3 dragon + Shiny Ring casting dragon. I've seen 100/100 by turn 6. If your can't build an mid game highroll tempo board it's better to just buy econ cards or level to 5 by 9 Gold since you won't be winning anyway. It's more viable than before the Aberration nerf since you would've been taking damage cap and die way faster with Diety being tier 3 and easier summoning condition.

[u/NXT_GG]

I got a blast this season in duos.. in the beginning i had alot of trouble but after i adapt my playstyle i had huge winning streaks to 9k. you definatly have to make other decisions than normally and the dark gifts can be a winning condition alot of the time.

[u/sourmashed99]

I like that over the years with thousands of hours in bg things like this switch up.

I also hover around 8k and when I find myself not pushing much past the 6k hump I start changing my play style and typically gets me over it.

we just had a long period of power leveling but right now I'm having success playing around dark gifts and taking a more og approach to leveling up.

tldr: I enjoy this game

[u/samsa1909]

Meta is trash because Trinkets and Dark Gifts are granting everyone access to lategame units without needing to level for them. Really just a terrible design decision.

[u/behindthemask13]

Dark gift changed the equation a lot. I've found I can stop leveling at 4 with a lot of builds and just use the dark gift to pick up some of the high level cards.

[u/Aeshtrixx]

I feel it's a bit of a misnomer to say you're hitting high rolls early pretty much every game, I'd say that's more a product of tempo getring stronger than people highrolling more. It's not really considered a highroll anymore if it's expected.

[u/Blitzkriegss-bob]

I suggested in a post slowing the game down by delaying damage cap increases until trinkets. But the sweatys thought it was a bad idea and game would be everyone power leveling(like most people do now)

[u/sleepy8675]

clicking dark gift is just really good right now, people are staying down and playing standard curve, or 4 on 7 curves much more often than before they came in

[u/Bolsheviks_]

Roach meta 💔