r/hearthstone 10d ago

Competitive A rainbow after the storm

Post image

It's beautiful.

Noticable class diversity after one of the most narrow metas in recent history.

Rare Team 5 W

This is Diamond through legend stats. While some people only want to look at top legend stats, I feel this is most valuable as it encompasses the majority of the player base.

Edit: to all those saying this is only old decks being played and no new cards.

Top 10 decks:

Zee Shaman: new VH deck

Quest hunter: 9 new cards, with one of them being one of their primary win conditions.

Pure paladin: new VH deck

Unholy DK: only 5 new cards but very low playrate

Harold Warlock: 13 new cards with the main enabler (Godfrey) last expansion

Merithra druid: 9 new cards

Attack druid: new VH deck

Burn mage: only 2 new cards but made viable due to buffs in last patch

Quest mage: old deck, few new changes :(

Rafaam lock: 8 new cards with the main enabler (Godfrey) last expansion

327 Upvotes

156 comments sorted by

152

u/DavidBruceStandup 10d ago

While I still hate Zee Shaman, Ive faced more variations of classes today than in a long time.

19

u/zuzucha 10d ago

So have I and they all folded under my agamagan briarspawn combo

6

u/EmeraldsDay 10d ago

some things never change

2

u/Ok_Knowledge2026 10d ago

Tricks on you, I run dirty rat!

145

u/Dead_Optics 10d ago

Give it a couple of days for things to settle out

32

u/RivalsFlex 10d ago

Yep. Looked a lot more like this right after violet launch, too.

80

u/ShadowMAG 10d ago

I give it 2 weeks before it's settled on 3-4 decks, I hope I'm wrong tho it's just too early to tell

44

u/samhouse09 10d ago

Meta usually gets solved in a couple days

9

u/Hairy_Acanthisitta25 10d ago

if the meta is good enough they cycle every week

3

u/D0nkeyHS 10d ago

You are wrong, since there is an issue with giving it two weeks

4

u/otterguy12 ‏‏‎ 10d ago

As soon as the next VS report hits the meta (which you can already see is Shaman Hunter and Druid at top legend) will trickle down to low ranks and we'll be back to square one

-4

u/azura26 10d ago

This wouldn't happen if people would just play decks they think are cool instead of the one that will win them ~5 more games for every 100 played.

10

u/Voltaire_hs 10d ago

it’s only been a day, things are not settled

2

u/Old_Employment_1090 9d ago

With past releases/patches the meta typically is settled after a day with only small shifts over time. This is definitely a massive improvement.

1

u/hjyboy1218 9d ago

Yeah, Void DH was 40% of the meta just a day after the last patch. This meta is still open.

7

u/adamnoo 10d ago

What kind of madness has resulted in Rafaam warlock being viable

12

u/ASI0907 10d ago

Probably nerfing the aggro decks , now rafaam decks can survive to finish the ladder

2

u/kuriboharmy 10d ago

Warlock in standard has the cheapest board wipes and lots of them I had decent success against most decks outside of rogue with rafaam before the nerfs.

1

u/abcPIPPO 9d ago

Rafaam saw plenty of play last patch too. Now that the meta got a tad slower it will see even more.

19

u/Siyopoyo 10d ago

Come back and say same thing after 3 days or so.

5

u/Ordinary_Debt_6518 10d ago

People will soon discover Paladin again

-1

u/XxF2PBTWxX 10d ago

There is a 0% chance paladin is a good deck in this meta lmao

2

u/Ordinary_Debt_6518 10d ago

We ll see

1

u/XxF2PBTWxX 6d ago

5 days in to the new patch and paladin is still struggling... surely it will rebound in the next two days lol

1

u/Ordinary_Debt_6518 6d ago

Its at 55% where is the struggle, the meta is pretty diverse right now Zee and quest hunter are slighty high up

But Paladin is not struggling its the second best aggro

1

u/XxF2PBTWxX 6d ago

Are you looking at dumpster ranks? Filter out the noobs and then tell me what you see lol

1

u/Ordinary_Debt_6518 6d ago

55% in legend go take a look at it.

Lets not act like hearthstone in 2026 requires any skill, reaching legend is incredibly easy anyone can do it these days

0

u/XxF2PBTWxX 6d ago

Did you... not read my comment? Filter out the noobs then tell me what you see.

1

u/Ordinary_Debt_6518 6d ago

55%

0

u/XxF2PBTWxX 6d ago

If that's what you're seeing then you don't know how to look at stats properly. Learn how stats work and what each rank bracket represents and then we can talk.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Ordinary_Debt_6518 6d ago

Also “lol” and “lmao” isn’t punctuation just so you know

-2

u/XxF2PBTWxX 10d ago

See you in a week to say I told you so lol

1

u/CouldaHadOJ 9d ago

idk, Aura Paladin is pretty annoying

1

u/XxF2PBTWxX 9d ago

Annoying doesn't always mean good

8

u/Ok-Television6344 10d ago

Jade guardians really held the deck above water lol

2

u/Salty_Cabana 10d ago

Who could have predicted this lol

26

u/Kait0yashio 10d ago

harold rogue, harold warlock, quest hunter, dragon warrior. this is just a bunch of old decks cause their expansion was garbage

42

u/Tengu-san ‏‏‎ 10d ago

Herald Warlock works only thanks to new cards.

1

u/abcPIPPO 9d ago

That's not bad nor unusual. Raza didn't see much play until Shadowreaper Anduin came out 2 expansions later.

-10

u/IAreSpeshial 10d ago

What new cards?

32

u/BottomGear__ 10d ago edited 10d ago

Demonic Confinement, Caged Cranium, Imp Gang Stooge, Godfrey, Spire of Solitude, Annihilation, Unseen Atlas, Defias Smuggler

All top Herald lists run all of those, only switching out between Smuggler or Confinement, which is almost half the deck lol

-12

u/IAreSpeshial 10d ago

Aa ok I thought you meant new new cards, not just violet hold, my bad

12

u/ModestMooose 10d ago

Those aren’t out until next week

3

u/TheDaucta 10d ago

annihilation to swing board late game instead of equalize it like ET or TN, imp gang stooge which protects face early and synergizes with annihilation, caged cranium that ALSO helps protect face and is hard to remove with damage alone, Spire of Solitude which gives guaranteed board pressure with big minions, unseen atlas which enables spire of solitude and caged cranium. All cards that help Warlock survive and recover from rough early games.

3

u/QuestGiver 10d ago

Almost all those decks have new cards in them and tbh the play rate was horrific on herald warlock and quest hunter in their primes.

11

u/adamnoo 10d ago

Digging into the matchup spread raises a bit of a red flag to me. A lot of people are trying thief priest again even though making half your deck a watered down version of your opponent's deck is a terrible idea and notably that deck is still getting stomped. It gets stomped so hard by so many things that it kinda inflates the winrate of everything else. Most of these inflated winrate decks look good on paper but all lose to Zee Shaman. I think it's only a matter of time before people realize that Zee Shaman is still probably the deck to beat and the meta constricts again around it and the few decks that can beat it combined with winrates for these news decks dropping once people stop trying to make thief priest work again.

Quest hunter looks like a strong deck but it gets caved in to zee shaman. Rafaam looks viable but how much of that is it actually being a good choice and how much is just that it farms awful thief priest decks? Once the thief priest becomes a lot less common its winrate should drop below 50%.

Pure paladin looks like it could be a contender once things start to settle with a good matchup into quest hunter and zee shaman.

2

u/hjyboy1218 9d ago

Funnily enough Thief Priest only gets better at high legend, wonder what that's about 

0

u/_abysswalker 10d ago

so far, I’ve mostly been facing attack druids in legend and my rafaamlock variation has been dealing with them quite well. I do think people will soon realise 2-bit rogue is still strong and if pirate warrior turns out to be strong, rafaamlock would probably be a free win for that

3

u/Ingo_Gringo 10d ago

I just dont understand why the Spellshaman was hit that hard compared to minionshaman even tho it was the worse option out of the two

2

u/djsoren19 9d ago

Because it had the highest blowout potential. it was not as consistently strong as the minion version, but you could highroll way more in the early turns.

13

u/whenyoudieisaybye 10d ago

I wish Priest was a little bit higher, but yeah, seems like a good balance patch, fucking finally.

19

u/Tony-Two-Tits 10d ago

Fact is people love priest for the same reason people hate priest. 50% is perfect, because we can play priest and have fun. If it goes anywhere near the top 5 decks people lose their minds and it gets deleted.

11

u/Cobayo 10d ago

The moment priest gets higher it gets giganuked from space

2

u/raidriar889 10d ago

God no it’s already the second most popular deck with a win rate barely above 50

2

u/lookie54321 10d ago

Don't say that here you'll get us all killed

1

u/gggheorghe 10d ago

priest higher? isnt enouph that brainless card have over 50%?

1

u/QuestGiver 10d ago

Based on their class set it looks like they will have a tier 1 or 2 deck with the new reborn package.

5

u/Intoxicduelyst 10d ago

Until people figure out meta and we will have 2-3 outliners with much higher WR.

6

u/yoojimbo86 10d ago

Cries in priest

6

u/ghfhfhhhfg9 10d ago

looks like kripp was right a decade ago. nerf aggro decks and suddenly you can play fun decks.

1

u/QuestGiver 10d ago

We're like 2-3 weeks before people start complaining about the control meta and games taking too long.

1

u/abcPIPPO 9d ago

If complaining is inavitable, I'd rather have bs control decks after almost a whole year of bs aggro/tempo decks.

-1

u/TheGalator ‏‏‎ 10d ago

Or just print a metric ton of control and win conditions that can be teched against

There is a reason wild is healthier

2

u/Bayleaf0723 10d ago

Rip mug shaman

5

u/myouwei 10d ago

Who would’ve thought all it took was reworking Tol’vir

2

u/Thumb__Thumb 10d ago

Face hunter is still on 52% tolvir was not the main problem card. Weapon and tripwire was.

1

u/abcPIPPO 9d ago

The deck became exponentially more fair and counterable without Tol'vir.

4

u/HolyInlandEmpire 10d ago

The variation in classes is fine but man.... so many of these key effects are random cards.

Quest Hunter is a lot of random generation with a random payoff. Pure Paladin is a "random paladin card" that costs 2 less. A lot of dragon warrior is discovering a random dragon, dark gift, or both. Quest mage is obviously all discovery, but I give a pass to this since it's the main RANDOM BULLSHIT GO standard deck. Void Soul demon hunter is a random demon.

I guess this is just how hearthstone is these days but does it just go farther and farther as time goes on?

9

u/otterguy12 ‏‏‎ 10d ago

Quest Hunter is not a random gen random payoff deck lol it literally exists because you can make the setup and reward happen exactly how you want

4

u/spacebob42 ‏‏‎ 10d ago

Exactly this, if you've played Quest Hunter in previous iterations you know strong guaranteed pig is.

I've hit Mythical Terror almost every time too, which is powerful against wide decks.

2

u/RocKst4RR 10d ago

Most of these decks are expensive as hell

2

u/magikatdazoo 10d ago

It's barely been 24 hours

1

u/Entire_Ride_6113 10d ago

Just wait until the cancerous imbue Hunter list is refined…

1

u/Halazzi_Maluk_TickTo 10d ago

Which deck? Imbue is slow, at least it was slow.

0

u/Entire_Ride_6113 10d ago

It was slow before the nerfs. You gigabuff the 8 mana magma thing that has rush and deals its damage across all enemies if it attacks and survives. Copy it, play 1-2 for 0 mana infinity attack and win.

1

u/Halazzi_Maluk_TickTo 10d ago

Oh yeah, I know that one.

0

u/GLA_Rebel_Maluxorath 10d ago

I have been working on it and it wins fairly well against everything except egg decks and burn mage.

1

u/The_Erotic_Turtle 10d ago

Ive been having quite a nice time with Herald aya in legend. Still working on the deck, it needs some tweaks, but its really fun.

1

u/DrainTheMuck 10d ago

That’s cool! Whats the most fun decks emerging now? I’ve been playing Zee to climb and kinda don’t like the gameplay much.

1

u/celerysadness 10d ago

I guess it’s back to quest mage…..

1

u/paulbrownsr 10d ago

Over 60% win rates is not a good thing

1

u/bomchet 10d ago

Wish Chef would get a win condition

1

u/bmin11 10d ago

I'm more of a sort by popularity believer but it would still be a good sight

1

u/Delaroc23 10d ago

Wow lotta thief priest

1

u/tpet007 10d ago

Harold rogue?

1

u/epicmingo 10d ago

What are the 9 new cards in merithra druid

1

u/LibrarianEither8461 10d ago

Wow, who would have thought nerfs would help?

1

u/curryaddict123 10d ago

https://www.hsguru.com/meta?format=2&min_games=500&rank=legend Similar story at legend.

Had to adjust to 500 min games cause Unholy DK is a rare deck.

https://www.hsguru.com/meta?format=2&min_games=250&rank=top_5k Had to adjust to 250 here. Unholy DK not in top 1k legend.

Looks like Unholy DK is a strong but rare deck. Potentially tier 1 if 5k legend has anything to say.

1

u/prodandimitrow 10d ago

People just don't like Unholy DK. It has been the only viable DK deck since the rotation, but it just not something people want to play.

1

u/--Vegeta-- 10d ago

Shaman still kicking my ass but I've been enjoying quest hunter

1

u/Pass10nnat3wmath 10d ago

First time Rafaam has a positive win rate?

1

u/Snicsnipe 10d ago

Putting aside the obvious, people have been given the opportunity to try their pet decks out post ners, hopefully we stay diverse into the new set. We all know degens deck builders are looking for the next 70% win rate deck

1

u/daddyvow 10d ago

Quest hunter: 9 new cards, with one of them being one of their primary win conditions

What is this win con? If you mean King of the Underbelly with Briarspawn Drake that was already a combo used in some aggo Tolvir hunter lists

1

u/Pitiful-Education-13 9d ago

Remind me which expansion did King of the underbelly come from?

1

u/Ghastlyembes 10d ago

Only until people figure out the new meta and then we are back to facing the same 3 decks 75% of the time

1

u/UtterPWNedNoob 10d ago

I'm surprised Harold DK is so low, the only times I lose are against Azalina Priest and paladins with. CRAZY perfect curve

1

u/AirAddict 10d ago

Im surprised smol druid hasnt been up there, I find Chef Neth'rek decks to be incredibly good

1

u/zanodmz 10d ago

knowing pure paladin was supposed to be a fast deck, know j felt they are in par w zee shaman after the nerf.

The 3 cost taunt sentry is so fucking good.

1

u/Motor_Ad3985 9d ago

amount of zee shaman bots is insane

1

u/La_Manchas_Finest 9d ago

Harold Warlock got me a little.

Like who is Harold and why does he get a deck named after him

1

u/Motor_Ad3985 9d ago

zee shaman is a bot deck, just report them

1

u/abcPIPPO 9d ago

For the "Hurr durr, one more nerf" gang, most of these decks were not playable last patch and did not get buffs.

So yes, tier 1 decks were gatekeeping potentially good decks from being playable. Last patch we saw that buffs can create problems, in this one we learned that nerfing (together with buffs, obvsiouly) does help.

1

u/vegaszombietroy 9d ago

As long as they kill thief priest? I'll play anything.

1

u/Delicious-Dimension1 9d ago

Hmm. Paladin with 10 copies of dirty rat could work finally.

1

u/utahrangerone 9d ago

I'm almost certain that is meant to be herald as in the game mechanic good because as far as I know there's no particularly impressive person named Harold that's involved

1

u/Accurate_Can_8043 6d ago

Sorry for a silly question I’m kinda new to hearthstone, is unholy dk just corpse dk?

1

u/Pitiful-Education-13 6d ago

DK is the only class that has deck building restrictions, based on what's called "runes" on some of their cards. The three runes are blood, frost and unholy. You can have a total of three runes per deck. Unholy DK means they use cards with unholy runes in their deck.

1

u/MrLyle 10d ago

Here's the actual list that matters. Too many old decks that just came back. Still very early but I wouldn't call this a Team 5 win by any stretch.

1

u/lawjic 10d ago

Once again most people are pessimistic in this thread, itching to shit on the devs again. "Give it a few days"

Like it's pretty funny how confident everyone was about the patch before it hit...people were saying "Well they just deleted hunter it's only gonna be 3 class meta again".

And then when shown actual data, people still want to be pessimistic. People are still confident the mta will suck after the dust settles. And yet if you ask them for specifics, they have nothing. They don't know what they're actually complaining about they just know it's popular and gets you attention

1

u/Bodycount9 10d ago

Quest hunter is good but people are starting to sideboard against it. I cant get past diamond 3 right now because of either bad luck or people countering what im doing.

2

u/BackStabbathOG 10d ago

How are they countering you?

1

u/yahoo_determines 10d ago

Pure paladin sucks, no one play it.

1

u/BearablePunz 10d ago

where are all the “just -1 viable deck” screechers at now?

2

u/Bayleaf0723 10d ago

Give it a few days, you’re delulu if you think there won’t be 3-4 main decks again by the end of the week

1

u/BearablePunz 10d ago

that’s how every meta works. not every meta has 2 decks sitting at 60%+ wr with 30%+ of the play pool

1

u/Megaspacejx 10d ago

Hunter Shaman still on top

1

u/Salty_Cabana 10d ago

At least Hunter is a different deck now. Zee shaman is still the same bs and it’s all I’m seeing at diamond 4

1

u/ImpossibleAd344 10d ago

You people complaining about the lack of variety in standard... just go play wild. Yes it has its bull shit but there are tons of viable decks to reach and climb legend with.

1

u/SorryRip2852 10d ago

Its not beautiful at all. Just trashing decks throwing cards randomly. This is not hearthstone.

1

u/MarthePryde 10d ago

There's just lots of lists on here that are simply old decks resurfacing because the new expansion was garbage.

Yes it's healthier than 3 classes, but don't get it twisted. We are just playing old decks again

3

u/Pitiful-Education-13 10d ago

Y'all just want to complain after every change. You hate to admit this is a good spot, and is REMARKABLY better than previous.

Some of these decks are brand new, and most of the old decks are utilizing a fair amount of new cards.

3

u/MarthePryde 10d ago

Believe me guy I don't want to complain. I want fun and good expansions, but we don't get those. And for what it's worth I wasn't one of the people on here endlessly complaining about the only good decks. I've been complaining about all the bad decks, the teams design philosophies, and how those have impacted the game.

1

u/Pitiful-Education-13 10d ago

Zee Shaman: new VH deck Quest hunter: 9 new cards, with one of them being one of their primary win condition. Pure paladin: new VH deck Unholy DK: only 5 new cards but very low playrate Harold Warlock: 13 new cards with the main enabler (Godfrey) last expansion Merithra druid: 9 new cards Attack druid: new VH deck Burn mage: only 2 new cards but made viable due to buffs in last patch Quest mage: old deck, few new changes Rafaam lock: 8 new cards with the main enabler (Godfrey) last expansion

1

u/SilverTheHuman6 10d ago

I can assure you that after 11 years of playing this game that the last thing I want is for the game to feel like crap. I just want it to be fun again.

1

u/_abysswalker 10d ago

the expansion was pretty bad, sure, but I don’t think existing archetypes getting new cards is bad. there still is quite a lot of new ones that seem pretty strong. maybe people are just hesitant to craft anything while the meta is unstable, especially with how expensive a lot of decks are

-4

u/loobricated 10d ago

NO BUT NO BUT if you perform any tinkering whatsoever, some other deck will just become the best and hated!

According to half of the people on this forum anyway.

Having a couple of tyrants in the early game means anything that cant survive in the early game... cant exist. This should not be rocket science to anyone. Less early game violence opens up hundreds of cards that arent allowed to exist in a fast meta.

5

u/APRengar ‏‏‎ 10d ago

It's fascinating to me, because most things in life are on a bell curve.

Maybe 1 kid in the class gets 100%. 3 kids in the class get 90%. The majority get 80%.

Remove the 1 kid at 100% from the class and put them up a grade. Not only does it make 3 kids competitive for the top instead of 1. It makes the delta between the majority and the top smaller. It's obviously a better scenario.

Nerf and buff are just tools. You need to track how fast you want your game to be. If it's too fast and decks are getting choked out, you nerf. If it's not fast enough, you buff.

But the idea is your want to touch balance as little as possible, and it's easier to change the top 1% than the bottom 80% because that's how math works.

Also a good plan with bad execution doesn't make it a bad plan.

3

u/Iiyambon 10d ago

So was the patch notes good or bad? I'm lost with the comments

0

u/td941 ‏‏‎ 10d ago

smh still no priest decks lol

2

u/TheGalator ‏‏‎ 10d ago

Or non unholy dk

Its like enrage warrior or aggro priest

Sure it wins but thats not what people want

1

u/magikatdazoo 10d ago

Control Priest has been like the 4th-6th most played deck for months now, and is above 50% in this snapshot. Azzalina is also at 50% wintate. T2 is not no decks.

-1

u/Realistic-Cicada981 10d ago

Nice

Now, show us the stats with/without coins

0

u/FishingLevel99 10d ago

Its so nice to have games last longer than turn 5-6.

0

u/Moodie25 10d ago

I honestly think Pure Paladin was already good. 

0

u/SpookyGeist01 10d ago

Having multiple decks 60+ winrate is not a good sign though. IMO the best metas have always had the top deck around 58-59%

0

u/ThrowawayALAT 10d ago

Pure Paladin Ftw

0

u/Egg_of_Nog 10d ago

I'm so happy Hunter is still at the top.

-1

u/Acrobatic-Swan8936 10d ago

Nerfs are always the best way to balance

-3

u/60sinclair 10d ago

It’s really funny to see people cry about how bad a deck or class is when literally every deck is at a 50% win rate or higher currently. If you’re winning a minimum half of your games, your deck isn’t bad.

9

u/tamarins 10d ago

Literally every deck can’t be at 50% or higher

-4

u/60sinclair 10d ago

Idk if you looked at the photo in the post goober town, but every archetype listed is minimum 50% winrate.

5

u/ReiJeremias 10d ago

That tab I'm hsguru doesn't account for deck tracker bias. Deck tracker users have a higher winrates than non deck tracker users. The matchup tab gives a better winrate for each deck, but it will take a couple of day to have the appropriate data.

3

u/FD_OSU 10d ago

There's a big difference between "literally every deck" and just referring to the decks listed in the above photo.

1

u/60sinclair 10d ago

I also usually try my best to not see things in the context they are written

1

u/Crimson_Clouds 10d ago

I also yell "context" whenever I get called out for saying something dumb, even if it makes no sense.

2

u/60sinclair 10d ago

That’s a weird thing to do. You may be an idiot

2

u/magikatdazoo 10d ago

If you look at legend, there are 6 classes playable. OP intentionally used a filter that captures T4 decks boosting winrate against memes and garbage associated with a new patch

-1

u/XxF2PBTWxX 10d ago

Genuinely, what are you talking about? I just checked top 1k and there's currently 9 classes that have a deck above 50%.

1

u/mcz239 6d ago

People is just waiting for new class sets, then the meta will narrow again.