https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/vs-data-reaper-report-303/
Top 5 in T1KL by performance:
- Rainbow Shaman
- Overheal Priest
- Frost DK
- Big Shaman
- Handbuff Paladin
Top 5 in D4-1 by performance:
- Big Shaman
- Rainbow Shaman
- Evolve Shaman
- Zarimi Priest
- Handbuff Paladin
Most popular in T1KL:
- Insanity Warlock
- Reno Druid
- Pain Warlock
- Frost DK
- Reno Warrior
Most popular in D4-1:
- Reno Warrior
- Reno Druid
- Frost DK
- Insanity Warlock
- Handbuff Paladin
Overheal Priest is an elite deck at higher levels of play. With the collapse of Sonya Rogue, it’s now the most skill intensive deck in the format
What they did to Sonya Rogue is a crime against fun at high ranks.
Big Shaman is a powerhouse and a game changer for this format. Its swing potential, thanks to Walking Mountain, is backbreaking in faster matchups. It’s the strongest counter we’ve seen to Frost DK (67-33). Its only slight weakness seems to be Reno decks, or very defensive minded decks packed with removal that don’t easily lose to Cliff Dive. Considering it’s the best performing deck across most of ladder, while remaining Tier 1 at top legend, it’s hard to argue against its meta breaking status.
Rainbow Shaman continues to be slept on, but its versatility is invaluable in a diverse format. Its two variants are both highly successful. The Hagatha build is straightforward and powerful. The Conductivity variant has seen more development, with great potential in slower matchups thanks to its combo-centric inevitability. We are curious why this archetype doesn’t get more traction. Its matchup spread is very strong and no changes in the field seem to shake it off the top of the win rate charts.
Shaman, Priest and Paladin are top 3 classes. Discuss.
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The BSM list hurt my eyes, not gonna lie.
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Kind of depends on who’s fun you care about…
The rogue? Or everyone else watching them cycle the same cards over and over until you die with no way to really interact with it.
They really should have just murdered Sonya to a once per turn effect and buffed other stuff in rogue so they can be good without broken interactions with looping 1 costs.
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Yeah, it’s like they purposefully chose the worst version imaginable and were like
“Well, looks like big spell mage is bad!”
Although I’m also sure they don’t have much/any data on how to build it properly (not with surfolopod and under the sea)
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Well…
I personaly against balance anything at isn’t utterly broken if it is high legend ranks only.
It usually just punishes people who did in fact dedicate themselves to learn something and there is no issue to have a little more principle regarding competition at high ranks at the expense of feelings.
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It kind of was though. The Sonya loops started on like… Turn 4…
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Not really.
They could start turn 4 with is really different. They could have pushed sonya 1 or 2 mana and called it a day.
All that would really do is either kill the deck a different way or put it dormant until they found a new solitaire build with her.
Blizz is never going to leave a Sonya deck competitive because of the play experience she creates for the opponent.
Just like they kept nerfing nature shaman until it stopped being more than a meme deck.
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And this is part of the problem with blizzard.
One thing is the experience for the masses. Other thing is the experience for the few people who really try to get to the top of the game.
They should be a separate thing and only touching the top with philosofy made for the bottom when it starts bleeding into the bottom.
It was moving downward
The “high skill” part of the deck was memorizing a card order so you no longer had to think about it.
I’d rather the skill part of the game actually be about how your cards are used, not how to fit 30 of them in a strict turn timer.
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“Mage has 4 different decks to choose from. Yet none of these decks are particularly good.”
I have nothing to add.
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This is how VS described Sonya Rogue in #301.
Sonya Rogue is a historically unique deck that we have not encountered in years. This is a deck that completely blows up all internal skill metrics in our possession. To give you an idea of how skill-intensive it is, if we apply its diamond matchups to the top legend field, its win rate would be ~39.5%. Instead, its win rate is ~51.5%. It gains a ~12% win rate in the average matchup at higher levels of play, which is completely absurd and nearly unprecedented. Unless you’re at the upper echelon of ladder, you should have no clue how to play it well. It is Tier 4 at legend. It is worse than Lynessa Paladin at lower Diamond ranks. This is the reincarnation of Garrote Rogue. There is no other example of a deck with a skill differential this high.
That is not a description of a design problem. That is a description of design perfection. I understand that you have an irrational hatred of OTK decks but a deck that is Tier 4 or lower at D-1 and Tier 1 in the right hands is the deck archetype equivalent of Jesus. It shouldn’t be crucified, but it probably will because people suck and only because people suck.
If it’s so easy, why didn’t you? You’re just coping.
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I don’t think anyone but rogue mains in top legend with the deck would describe it as such.
Well, for one, I primarily play on mobile, which is extremely unfriendly to those APM style decks.
For two, those style decks are equally off putting for me to play than as are to play against, so I had no desire to memorize it (especially considering I assumed it would be nerfed due to the speed and solitaire experience, so I viewed it as a worthless skill to acquire).
I’ve been too busy refining big spell mage.
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You CAN’T memorize it. That’s the first thing you should have gotten out of your head after reading what VS had to say about it.
Like I said, you’re coping. You don’t want to acknowledge that Sonya Rogue was one of the top three skill decks of all of Hearthstone’s history. Garrote Rogue and Patron Warrior being the other two.
No, you can. You have to in order to not run out of time while executing the combos. Hearthstone doesn’t give you enough time to figure out your hand and board space as you go through the motions. It HAS to be practiced and put to muscle memory.
That’s what made it the highest skill deck ever, nothing else.
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Except Sonya is the only good and fun thing in an otherwise dead class and isn’t actually broken. Pupil was the only problem. It broke combo druid, insanity lock, sonya rogue and would break things again and again. Why is rogue always at the epicenter of complaints even when it’s quite literally the worst performing class right now outside the highest echelons of play. I seriously don’t understand this frustration. It’s like whatever rogue does some people will hate it no matter what it is.
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Except she is also keeping rogue from being good because she is the best rogue card, and all Sonya does is create game experiences that will be obliterated if they ever become top tier.
That’s not a card you want to survive.
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We must destroy the mentality that OTK “experiences” must be “obliterated” if they become good. It is toxic gaming culture.
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People have been saying this about shadowstep since forever. Sonya is a perfectly fine card that has been carrying most decks precisely because it is good and everything else in the class sucks. It hasn’t been a problem except that one time a 1-cost combo wet dream neutral minion was printed. Without that bug in the matrix Sonya went back to being a strong, yet perfectly fine card.
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No… In a game without interaction during the opponent turn, they remove pretty much all of the player agency in the game, which in turn, makes it less fun to play.
Yugioh manages to survive with all of them because your deck is allowed to mess with the combos directly mid play. The game would be fully dead if you just had to watch it all happen every game.
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