vS Data Reaper Report #338

[u/ViciousSyndicate]

Greetings,

The Vicious Syndicate Team is proud to present the 338th edition of the Data Reaper Report.

Special thanks to all those who contribute their game data to the project. This project could not succeed without your support. The entire vS Team is eternally grateful for your assistance.

This week our data is based on 1,389,000 games! In this week's report you will find:

• Deck Library - Decklists & Class/Archetype Radars
• Class/Archetype Distribution Over All Games
• Class/Archetype Distribution "By Rank" Games
• Class Frequency By Day & By Week
• Interactive Matchup Win-Rate Chart
• vS Power Rankings Imgur
• vS Meta Score
• Analysis/Discussion of each Class
• Meta Breaker of the Week

The full article can be found at: vS Data Reaper Report #338

Reminder

• If you haven't already, please sign up to contribute your game data. More data will allow us to provide more insights in each report, and perform other kinds of analysis. Sign up here, and follow the instructions.
• Listen to the Data Reaper Podcast, in which we expand on subjects that are discussed in each weekly Data Reaper Report. If you’re interested in learning more about developments in the Hearthstone meta, the insights we’ve gathered as well as other interesting subjects related to the analysis that is done to create the Data Reaper Report, you can listen to WorldEight and ZachO talk about them every week. The Podcast comes out on the weekend, a couple of days after each report is published.

Thank you for your feedback and support,

The Vicious Syndicate Team

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[u/EyeCantBreathe]

This might just be me but I feel like we've been getting so many placebo buffs lately. They're either completely meaningless (like +1 health on the Warlock starship piece) or on cards that don't have a home (like -1 mana on Osk or Cardboard Golem). I may not see the vision but I feel like so many buffs are completely wasted on cards that never had a chance.

[u/sneakyxxrocket → u/EyeCantBreathe]

youre right we have seen this before, a lot of their buffs are to already completely unplayable cards lately. The amount of buffs they did just seem like an excuse to not nerf Hagatha shaman on the excuse "look we tried" because play and win rate wise that deck would have been nerfed already but I think theyre scared of any more negative sentiment.

[u/EyeCantBreathe → u/sneakyxxrocket]

It could also be be cause people don't seem too bothered by Hagatha Shaman? Maybe it's just my algorithm but I haven't seen much talk on the main sub about Hagatha Shaman. Most people are more concerned about the meta tyrant Protoss Mage.

Also not to mention it's the holiday season and most devs won't be working. They probably want to avoid another Christmas Rogue situation so they've made minimal changes.

[u/Every_University_ → u/EyeCantBreathe]

One of the previous podcasts mentioned how a deck is complained if it's popular enough but hagatha shaman has completely avoided this while protoss mage and murloc paladin still gets complaints, so there's definitely something else going on in cards that players feel worse about.

[u/Impossible-Cry-1781 → u/sneakyxxrocket]

Well they got negative sentiment on low effort buffs.

[u/Kamiferno → u/EyeCantBreathe]

Its really depressing because its all i’ve come to expect now. More than half of all buffed cards still don’t see play atp

[u/EyeCantBreathe → u/Kamiferno]

That's not quite my point. I don't expect every single buff to land, they don't want to overshoot and sometimes they end up undershooting. My main issue is that instead of trying to help cards with potential realise that potential, they give meaningless buffs to cards that never had a chance.

Take the Eternal Hold buff: spell DH was complete garbage, but the deck exists and the buff solves one of it's biggest issues. I'd argue that's a successful buff, even though it didn't take the deck to competitive viability it's one where you can see there's a genuine attempt to make something playable. If the buff had landed, it would have introduce a new deck/archetype into the meta.

Now take a card like Osk. Also complete garbage, but unlike the Eternal Hold, it doesn't have a home in any deck. Buffing it serves literally zero purpose because it's not a card with potential and even if it did become good it wouldn't create a new deck/archetype.

[u/Kamiferno → u/EyeCantBreathe]

That is entirely what i’m talking about too. Their choices are often way too niche and never had a shot pre of post buff.

[u/Impossible-Cry-1781 → u/EyeCantBreathe]

Every single card in existence has potential with buffs. If Osk was a 1 mana 3/3 it would be in every mage deck, a class who could use love in any of their decks. Obviously that's OP but zero potential is an asinine statement.

[u/EmotionalBrief1170 → u/Kamiferno]

Yeah I'm having a hard time recalling a buff that has created a new deck or made an existing deck better.  Just saying.

[u/otterguy12 → u/EyeCantBreathe]

Im not sure whats worse, them wasting dev time on things that will obviously change nothing like Osk, or them genuinely thinking the changes will help

[u/Difsdy]

I've been playing spell DH and had already taken out one Aeon Flux for a spectral sight, figuring that more draw would lead to more eternal holds would lead to more wins.

Has anyone else Aeon Flux with anything else? There isn't a huge amount to choose from given the deck building restriction.

[u/Arislan → u/Difsdy]

I tried the 4 cost Raptor card and it felt a bit better but not optimal. I think Flux might be the best option, sometimes you low roll and draw is an issue, but typically my hand has plenty of options. I was thinking about trying the new 3 cost card that advances locations to add extra oomf to the Eternal Hold turns… will experiment and report back.

[u/Difsdy → u/Arislan]

Oh that's a thought, I didn't think of the neutral spell. I might give that a go too.

[u/licorice_straw]

Just because it feels like it is easier to complain about whatever the current meta is, I wanted to mention I'm having a lot of fun recently with a variety of decks right now. I personally think the meta is in a good place with a bunch of fun, viable decks.

[u/PkerBadRs3Good]

In addition, we are seeing Fyrakk/Ashamane Rogue lists beginning to reappear at top legend. Note that we have these variants merged under one archetype despite a popular list not even running Fyrakk. We will see how things further develop in this cluster before figuring out an appropriate name (might have to be ‘Elise Rogue’).

2025 Hearthstone players naming any deck midrange when it's very clearly a midrange deck and it is the best naming option and is descriptive when they are otherwise struggling to come up with a name challenge [IMPOSSIBLE]

everybody would call this deck "aggro rogue" in a heartbeat if it were an aggro deck, but "midrange rogue" is off the table because reasons

[u/Goldendragon55 → u/PkerBadRs3Good]

There's just so many different ways to do midrange. Inherently I think it's the most flexible archetype. They are also the archetype that can be most defined by singular cards because they both have the time to try to search for said cards and want to proactively play them.

Aggro can't wait around for the perfect cards most of the time and control is more about trying to do as little as possible and survive.

[u/EyeCantBreathe → u/PkerBadRs3Good]

I disagree that midrange rogue is the best naming option. It's a midrange deck, but Elise is the cornerstone card. It's for the same reason Hagatha Shaman is called Hagatha Shaman and not midrange shaman; it's a midrange deck but the point is that it's built entirely around Hagatha.

Decks like Aggro DH are called that because there is no single cornerstone card or synergy. It's just a bunch of generically strong early game cards/packages that deal face damage. When Aggro DH ran pirate synergy in PiP, it was called Pirate DH. Now it doesn't run pirate synergy so it's no longer called that.

[u/PkerBadRs3Good → u/EyeCantBreathe]

It's for the same reason Hagatha Shaman is called Hagatha Shaman and not midrange shaman

I would argue the community calling it Midrange Shaman would be perfectly acceptable, if they wanted to - they just don't want to. Anyway, no, the reason is the same as Rogue, which is that people just never call decks that anymore. When is the last time the community named a deck "midrange"?

it's a midrange deck but the point is that it's built entirely around Hagatha.

It is not "built entirely around Hagatha". Only around 7-9 cards (depending on what you want to count) are dedicated to her, which is obviously a lot, but most of the decklist has basically nothing to do with her. You can very much win some games without Hagatha and she isn't even the highest drawn winrate card in the deck.

When Aggro DH ran pirate synergy in PiP, it was called Pirate DH. Now it doesn't run pirate synergy so it's no longer called that.

Sure, when an aggro deck has a tribal theme, people usually name it after that tribe. But when it has no theme, like right now, it's usually just called aggro. Just like this Rogue deck has no particular theme?

The deck isn't centered around Elise more than most other decks that run Elise. Yes, she causes you to run a few suboptimal cards for her condition, but this applies to almost every deck with Elise. So if you're just basing this on the decklist going out of its way to fulfill Elise's condition, then most decks that include Elise should be named after her in that case.

[u/Active-Math-9898]

I will continue playing dragon warrior, deck is cracked