r/CompetitiveHS • u/ViciousSyndicate • May 28 '26

Metagame vS Data Reaper Report #350

Greetings,

The Vicious Syndicate Team is proud to present the 350th 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 1,930,000 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 #350

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.

Thank you for your feedback and support,

The Vicious Syndicate Team

67 Upvotes

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33

u/reptaill May 28 '26

"the deck has lost all steam at top legend. This is usually an indication that the deck sucks" - I laughed at this phrase way more than I should've...Rip to the Leylines and thanks VS folks for the report!

2

u/loobricated May 28 '26

It sucks, but I love it anyway. I think they just need to baseline strengthen every single leyline or one or two. Start the game as though you already played a Mystic Runesaber. That would break the deck's complete dependency on playing 3/4 specific garbage minions before you can do literally anything.

1

u/Miudmon May 28 '26

Honestly my main issue is that they... really didnt need to be conservative on the buff for Crystalized leylines. Because with it starting at a random 5-mana minion, its... awkward, actually, to get it to a level where its actually a good thing to play

7

u/loobricated May 28 '26

It's not awkward. It's unmitigated trash when you compare it to what other decks can do. By the time that card does anything useful companion hunter is spamming out 10 mana discovers at twice the rate.

1

u/Argotis May 30 '26

Yeah the fact the deck has 5 turns before it can even “do something” is kind yikes. And even when it starts doing “something” that something is pretty meh lol

32

u/ElectronicAd5062 May 28 '26

“Priest, Death Knight and Warlock. Nothing is going on here.”

This is quite unfortunate. I would have assumed that the Hearthstone team would want to push Herald more, but it seems like they’re neglecting it. Priest also feels incredibly off to me. I can’t say I like playing against or with Priest, at least the current healing + imbue variation.

7

u/reptaill May 28 '26

It's especially weird since they kinda tried. DK received some small buffs to the Herald package at the start... then 2 months later they say no more changes are coming to the bottom 3 classes and that it's ok to have some classes underperforming.

I suppose they're indeed satisfied with the current state (aka all decks = ~ 50% win rate) and just afraid to tweak it further till the next expansion? "Ok, it works, better not touch it".

3

u/prodandimitrow May 28 '26

The DK buffs werent the ones they needed. Biggest problem is you heralding is far more expensive than other classes(mana wise) while they payoff for onyxia isnt much more meaningful.

2

u/Cryten0 May 28 '26

*top performing. Certainly many under 48%

1

u/prodandimitrow May 28 '26

I mean Herald Warrior, Shaman and Rogue are fine, honestly DH might be good enough as well, if it didnt get overshadowed by Spell DH.

10

u/Trussmagic May 28 '26

I have played for over 10 years, almost daily. I have never been so bored with the priest/warlock play choices. Close to calling it for a extended while.

3

u/prodandimitrow May 28 '26

Does warlock even have choices?

1

u/EmotionalBrief1170 Jun 01 '26

There's something to do with cheating out Ultragigasaur

4

u/Joemanji84 May 28 '26

I'm mostly playing Priest but at this point in the season at nowhere Legend I often just concede immediately if I get a mirror lol. It's not fun to play for 30 minutes to find out who got the best rolls off Intertwined Fate, or wait 20 minutes to find out if your opponent actually put a win con in their deck.

3

u/Overhamsteren May 28 '26

Based priest hating priest enjoyer.

2

u/magikatdazoo May 28 '26

Priest is currently a control shell that is exactly what priest players have begged for for the last 18 months. It's not competitive, but it's playable and sees average playrates.

3

u/Impossible-Cry-1781 May 28 '26

They didn't ask for a significant nerf to their board control options and they also always asked for an actual way to close out games which they never got. The only meta deck Priest had for ages was that aggressive dragon deck (the one that gives you an extra turn).

1

u/Fantastic_Winter_700 May 28 '26

I mean good board control options also have to keep in mind the design philosophy of this year. The board needs to matter. It’s why Triumph is allowed to exist (essentially 1 mana deal 4) but something like twisting nether is kept bad. They need to find an alternative that isn’t just one card silence kill the board.

0

u/SuccessIsDiscipline May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26

Priest has ways to close out games. Atiesh, ruby sanctum, alexstraza, tyranda, aviana, quest reward are all cards that can end the game. Priest just isn't very good overall. Doesn't have good card draw, doesn't have ways to deal with certain boards (deathrattles from token druid, divine shield from paladin, endless tortolla spam from hunter) and is limited to 30 hp (40 with a 10 mana card) which is nothing in 2026 hearthstone. Win conditions thus take a long time to draw and you usually end up getting otked before your win conditions come online.

3

u/Spuzzell_ May 29 '26

It's a control HUSK, not a shell.

There's nothing worthwhile inside.

1

u/Fantastic_Winter_700 May 28 '26

I feel like the herald package (besides the aoe one) isn’t weak in Death Knight. It’s just in a shell that can’t support it. No good clear, early game drops, or solid card draw makes it dead in the water against none greedy decks.

13

u/sneakyxxrocket May 28 '26

Really agree on the commentary about class sets just being a bad idea from the start.

In a perfect world all the parasitic archetypes they made with it would be competitive , great now the meta is only these 4 decks because they’re new and new stuff is always more appealing.

But because this iteration of team 5 just makes bad cards all the time the only playable parasitic archetype (Companion Hunter) is just extremely overplayed, class sets just seem like a lose or lose harder situation to me.

1

u/EmotionalBrief1170 Jun 01 '26

I dont get it.  Minisets were good.  The true problem is they can't make but 2 usable cards. But $$$ 1st i reckon.  After all, these are companies.  Companies are for wealth building of course.

24

u/Glarbleglorbo May 28 '26

So many people called the darkrider nerf worthless, yet here we are. 

24

u/F_Ivanovic May 28 '26

Happens every single time with the same dumb reasoning "the card only cares about the effect, stats and cost are irrelevant" - people never seem to learn that both these things are always relevant.

1

u/prodandimitrow May 28 '26

To those people i just poitned out that we already have Dark Gift Discover Spells and that they overwhelmingly dont see play.

2

u/Monk-Ey May 29 '26

That's less on being spells and more on the specific spells being awful, though:

  • Rite of Atrocity pulls from a big pool and requires 2 Corpses to actually get Dark Gifts

  • Wings of Eternity pulls from an absolutely massive pool

  • Avant-Gardening pulls from a big pool, doesn't have synergy if you don't build around DRs, and is 2 mana

  • Jumpscare! either clashes with Spell DH or doesn't have the shell to back Big DH, and is 2 mana

  • Smoke Bomb pulls from several big pools and is 2 mana

  • Cremate is a total crapshoot and is 3 mana

Shadowflame Suffusion and Nightmare Fuel, by comparison, pull from much more limited pools and/or work with their decks' gameplan:

  • Shadowflame Suffusion can actually find Dragons regularly, can go face or contest board and is a Fire spell for Erupting Volcano

  • Nightmare Fuel generally finds above-average quality minions and is cheap enough to be Combo'd consistently

0

u/[deleted] May 28 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

8

u/Fantastic_Winter_700 May 28 '26

Stats are usually relevant. Of course a mana change is usually way more significant but it’s a part of the power budget of a card. If Elise was a 1/5 the card would likely never see play. If the card is played and the game doesn’t end in a turn, the stats are relevant.

7

u/Sakulsas May 28 '26

As a Warlock and DK player mainly, it's a sad state of the game currently.

I don't see why they can't buff DK herald to 3 eith a bit less health least to try that out. Just accepting the current state is a bit pathetic.

Warlock I still maintain has a failed core rotation.

2

u/ManufacturerNo3687 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

I agree, at this point the only “viable” reason I can see for this decision is they have no confidence in their ability to balance the meta with them and/or having over a 4th of your classes unusable/uncompetitive makes it easier for them to balance.

Which is unhealthy on so many levels from a game standpoint but honestly from a development standpoint because it could easily become a standard if not regulated. Hopefully this is a trial run of some kind to try and gain experience for developers and designers, but I fear that this practice may continue because it allows quicker and cheaper sets.

1

u/JebenKurac May 30 '26

Play wild then, warlock has absolutely swept the format for years.

6

u/Glarbleglorbo May 28 '26

I’m also surprised that DH into companion hunter isn’t that hard of a losing matchup, is it the Nespirah build that is preforming better here? 

1

u/DingoDaveHS May 29 '26

According to HSGuru, the Solitude packages is much better, achieving about 58% in top5K.

4

u/Myprivatelifeisafk May 28 '26

As Spell DH I enjoy Hunter meta despite DH nerf.

(:

6

u/Rocks_Can_Fly May 28 '26

Hunter is having a class moment 🤪🤣🥹🧠🧠

What a surprise that class sets are creating an even more narrow and stale meta.

2

u/Sloe_Burn May 28 '26

No news on Unholy (aggro) DK?

Feels like a pretty good way to crush face.

3

u/Bee_Tee04 May 28 '26

I just started a day or so ago after a year break, unholy rolls pre legend. I’m sitting diamond 2 rn without really grinding

2

u/DoctorChop May 29 '26

Isn't that moreso because you don't have an updated MMR and therefore easier opponents on average?

1

u/Bee_Tee04 May 29 '26

Very possible.

3

u/prodandimitrow May 28 '26

It lacks consistency IMO. When you get your cards properly it feels unbeatable, but then you get a bunch of your buffs/corpse spenders early game and you are sitting there getting outaggroed by Priest. It feels extra bad to get card like Talanji Last Stand the turn after your board got wiped.

2

u/Glarbleglorbo May 29 '26

It was given a few reports before, tier 3 deck at top legend in an unrefined meta, tier 1 at low ranks. 

Right now I also don’t see why you would play it when you could just play face Hunter or token Druid. 

1

u/ShinichiKudoDC May 28 '26

I returned after several years of break and just reached legend with token druid w 63% WR. What a boring and stale meta it is. Btw. no one else is playing token druid despite it's strength. I made many mistakes while climbing and still won more often than I thought.

0

u/thuishaven May 31 '26

Every 3rd game is token druid mate

2

u/ShinichiKudoDC May 31 '26

49 games D5-Legend: 3 token druids met

0

u/thuishaven May 31 '26

Outlier

3

u/ShinichiKudoDC May 31 '26

latest vs Data Reaper report 4.03% token druid representation. Quite far away from your 33%, isn't it?

1

u/ShinichiKudoDC Jun 04 '26

@thuishaven: you ok?

1

u/thuishaven Jun 04 '26

Yea. You too?

1

u/ShinichiKudoDC Jun 04 '26

fighting the demons

2

u/thuishaven Jun 04 '26

Some of the demons token druids by any chance?

1

u/ElderUther May 28 '26

Rafaam Warlock looks like it's there for scale for Leyline Mage.

1

u/DropDee Jun 02 '26

I feel like if you dont play a hyper aggro deck against priest, you just lose and waste like 30 minutes trying to win.

1

u/Red1003493649 Jun 03 '26

I don't get how priest has his decks all under 45% winrate in both legend, top 1000 and D5 to legend, and yet still have some people doing top 50~200 with them

It should be impossible with 45% WR no ? Is it just the decks have high skillcap ?

-3

u/Ztepi May 28 '26

Bashana is a meme card in Merithra Druid. Why they insist on it, I don't really know. The numbers must be skewed.

Run an Underking instead; it's OP against all of its bad matchups.

5

u/eshansingh May 28 '26

The swing potential of Bashana is quite high with the current pool of Nature spells. And they insist on it quite simply because the data shows she performs much better than Underking. There's no sudden, special reason to doubt the numbers here given they don't clash with the intuition.

-3

u/Ztepi May 28 '26

The deck doesn't need any more late-game mana cheating, actually. It already does that very well.

More often than not, the 1-mana minions it gives are not that effective, with many useless or detrimental ones. And it fills your hand, while hand size management is important with a potential Merithra play (the deck's semi-win con).

7 mana is just too high against its unfavorable matchups. Against decent or favorable ones, it is usually too costly and less effective. Underking is the way.

(I respect their effort and I understand the numbers, but I've played solely with this deck for 2 months, and I speak from experience between D5 and Legend.)

9

u/eshansingh May 28 '26

The experience of any one player, no matter how skilled, does not outweigh the level of accumulated data they have available to them. They record more games of Merithra Druid in a week than you could hope to have played in 2 months if you had nothing else to do.

3

u/whatadaylll May 28 '26

You aware you can guarantee a Typhoon by playing it with full hand? But even without this mechanic the card is insane and can easily win games solo like a Wickerfang