So after a few days of the expansion I have a pretty good idea what is and what is not strong. We’ve got some solid metrics and I suspect when the VS Syndicate podcast comes out this weekend they’ll have more or less the same take on things
– The strongest deck in the meta right now is currently triple blood DK. The post-rotation late game inevitability is extremely weak and there are no good combo decks in the meta right now so triple blood farms literally everything. It’s bridging into tier S territory. Expect some form of nerfs in a few weeks.
–Aggro undead DK with eggs looks extremely strong too, but is currently not fast enough to overtake a paladin board, and gets hard countered by triple blood (this is going to become a theme by the way).
–Frost DK is the same as always. It’s situated to become a top tier deck once nerfs hit in a few weeks. It only added a couple new cards but its burn game plan is as potent as ever.
–Paladin is the uncontested king of board based strategies. Nothing is capable of matching into paladin’s overwhelming stat presence. The divine shields and buff synergies are too much for any other class to bully pure paladin off board through minion trades. Its total dominance over the board chokes out any and every other strategy for classes wanting to develop minions. This deck will get hit with nerfs in a few weeks.
–Outcast demon hunter is oppressive and probably gets nerfed in a few weeks. You can’t leave ANY minions on board, otherwise you just get hit with a mega-bloodlust on a stick. But like all other decks… it just loses to triple blood. If it can’t have a board it cant finish a game with pure burst from hand, so hard control strategies can counter it. Still, for any other deck its pretty damn oppressive. It’s a tad overtuned right now.
–Big warlock is actually quite bad. It dies to the aggressive decks before it gets minions down and also doesn’t beat hard attrition strategies because they can deal with the jailer malganis combo and they can handle big demon summons pretty well too. However it is very polarizing and it is extremely effective at just shutting down any midrangey board based strategy. You can’t play curvestone into this…you get wrekt. It’s not likely to get hit with nerfes, but it is likely to become a common staple for form complaints.
-Control priest is actually quite strong as well. Much like triple blood it feasts on a board heavy meta with minimal from hand burst. Love everlasting + Sister Svalna with a robust thief package makes it quite obnoxious. The most impactful cards of the set for priest are by FAR and away love everlasting and harmonic pop. That board clear is nuts… You will see a LOT of that card in the coming 2 years. And I do mean a LOT. It fits in both aggressive and slow strategies because it isn’t a pure symmetric board clear — it always leaves a body behind for the priest.
Undead priest is also reasonable, but not nearly as good as it was before rotation hit. As predicted, losing voidtouched attendant hurt a ton. Still… it’s competitive enough. Overheal is a joke right now and needs far more support to become good. The shell is way too weak until we see better overheal cards and payoff synergies.
-Tony warrior is a meme. Menagerie warrior could be good if things slowed down. Bedrocknroll is actually a very strong enabler. If you follow it up with lorethemar theorin on 7 then a 34/34 trenchatalker just ends it. It’s currently too slow to handle paladin and big threats don’t work well into triple bloods removal and 70 max HP pool.
-Lightshow mage is too slow for the current meta, but may become extremely powerful if things slow down. It can’t handle an environment with paladin and demon hunter as strong as they are, but it’s statistics don’t represent its true strength. It could become very…very…very good post patch. It has phylactary warlock levels of damage as a finisher.
-Druid is another class that could become a lot stronger post patch. Currently its a bit too slow for paladin and demon hunter and loses to triple blood (theres a theme here isn’t there?). But it has potential to be really good after those 3 classes get hit.
-Face hunter is actually very strong. Its one of the few decks keeping up with the pack at a reasonable pace. Big beast is probably a meme. Its slow and looks pretty bad.
-Overload Shaman is sitting at tier 3. It’s got potential and isn’t nearly as bad as people expected. Turns out summoning a board full of 7 rags all at once is pretty powerful. Who would have guessed? But it does have one very massive achilles heel. The deck can’t summon a board full of rags unless it discounts criminal lineup to zero mana, and to do that it needs to power up and break Jazz bass. Weapon tech hard counters this strategy. A single rustrot viper can ruin its entire game plan.
-Rogue is a hot mess. Miracle has failed to be impactful. it’s too hard to determine whether or not it will be good post rotation. Right now it sees very little play.
TL’DR version
Triple Blood, Paladin, and Demon Hunter are so far ahead of the pack they are choking out the rest of the meta. Expect balance patches in 2 weeks for these 3 classes. The following meta has the potential to diversify a lot. There are a lot of strategies that could come to light once they get some breathing room.