What did you expect would happen. This is the board based meta people have been clammoring for for ages now. Zacho has said in his podcast that people don’t really want a board based meta, and that board based meta doesn’t mean what most people seem to think it does. We took away a majority of the removal, which means the games are revolving around which classes can throw down the biggest piles of stats the fastest. Turns out not every class can play stats at the same speed, so there are major winners and losers. I’ve been playing at high legend all week and I can summarize the meta in a nutshell. It’s actually a 6 class meta, but the diversity is very narrow. We have three archetypes, each with two classes represented
Aggro Incarnate - Hunter and Rogue I personally think Hunter is the strongest of all the classes. It has no less than 4 decks that are running amok. Handbuff hunter can drop 20/18 stats by turn 3 or 4, and with no removal in the format it ends the game then and there. Zerg Egg hunter’s nerfs were very light, and while it lost a couple percentages it was sitting at a 60% win rate going into the patch. A couple percentages less is still Tier 1.Imbue hunter still throws 20 damage king plushes at you turn 6 or 7 then bounces it and does it again. And in the midst of it there’s a few “good stuff” hunter builds that just slap down all the aggro cards and beat you senseless.
Rogue is doing the same thing as hunter, slamming down wide boards while also clearing your minions, but it’s finishing games with templars into archons. And yes, Sonya is back again to generate 1 cost copies of templars. Rogue can drop templar cost to 1 through discounts at which point she can just load the board with Archons. But I’m sure Sonya is fine. She’s never done anything like this before. Right?
Fast Combo- Paladin (AKA Yellow Priest) and Priest (AKA White Paladin)
Both classes do the same thing. Throw down stats and draw hard, then combo around turn 8 or 9 with a massive burst finisher. Between the two Paladin is actually the faster deck. It generates coins and runs Lynessa and Ursol, so it can combo as early as turn 5 or 6, and when that Urol starts dropping shaladrassil spells in his hand, you know they’re all getting doubled.
Honorable Mention – Death Knight and Druid These classes both exist, but to a much lesser degree. Death knight actually has two decks, and the more successful deck is NOT the slow control 25 turn mirror match version. Death knight has a deck that’s basically pseudo-hunter, building a menagerie deck that’s aggressive and throws down stats fast and hits face. Druid gets props for being the fastest imbue deck and can close games out with Malorne and fast board golems often enough to not be completely dead.
Mage, Warrior, Shaman, warlock, and Demon hunter no longer exist. They’ve been removed from the format. They have no competitive decks. But I reiterate, this is what people wanted. A meta with very little removal. One where throwing down minions wins games. Well, you have it now. This is exactly what happens when removal can’t match stats thrown down. The bigger pile of stats that comes down the fastest wins.