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This will be the megathread where Tavern Brawl strategy and discussion for this week's brawl should take place. Only discussion related to optimally playing the Tavern Brawl should take place on here. Tavern Brawl constructed decks can be discussed in here.
Since I am a bot and don't know what the brawl is, could someone help me out and post a top-level comment with a description?
Special thanks to everyone who has posted midrange lock lists since the update. They sped up my testing considerably!
This deck feels not quite there (like many Warlock decks) so wanted to share it to get some feedback. I have managed to climb ~1500 to about 3000 legend today. But that's also from facing stuff like Demon Hunter (great matchup) and Azalina priest (bad deck or good matchup?)
What the deck is doing.
As the name implies, it is trying to scam out big minions without having to properly pay for them. It does this by:
Animancer + ultragigasaur package (cheating out a 14/28)
Annihilation + Imp gang stooge (board wipe + two 8/8s)
Death wing (playing out 1 cost legendaries)
Honorable mention to Zuramat's (too slow to really be scamming).
Alongside this, it generates decent bodies via the herald mechanic.
Elements of the Deck
The scam packages seem set in stone (although I would hear out an argument of replacing the herald package and thus Deathwing... But we don't have any other good packages? Dragon package with shreds of time is almost good). Zuramat's Prison has been excellent in testing and combos really well with annihilation.
Godfrey + Unseen Atlas... A lot of the time it can be awkward to play Atlas, but at the same time a 'draw 3' for 0-3 mana is just really, really good.
The 1 drops seem like the best fodder I can find for the herald cards. One could argue that we don't need to feed the heralds until they're actually big enough to be worth it, but it's also handy to have things on hand to stop them from eating imporant things. Glacial shard especially is an MVP for the one drops, often getting to delay their important stuff while our heralds feed or we set up for annihilation.
Removal - conflagrate and cursed chains both seem pretty great at times. Especially for removing taunts for Ultragiga to get through. And there's soooo many deathrattles in the meta that chains is good in many matchups.
So... What can we do to fix it or boost it a bit?
It feels like every single slot is there for a reason. I'm not sure the deck could get greedier (like adding Cho'gall, or even worse Moragg... Wow bad news if you look bad next to even Cho'gall)
The deck usually loses if it gets run over before it can do something like resolve annihilation. If that goes off we're usually winning. So maybe we can trim something to make the deck run even smoother? Ultraxion + deathwing could be cut if we really wanted to...? But Warlock just sucks at early game cards. Could replace them with Cranium? But that seems bad as the deck often isn't at a full hand. Same goes for the hand location (and we are way too stacked at cost 5 anyway).
Really open to suggestions here!
Gameplay
And since I'm sure this deck will be new to many of you, here's some tips!
Many matchups just end if you resolve an animancer and live long enough to swing the ultragigasaur (well, mainly Demon Hunter but also anyone else that doesn't draw an answer). So play to this as your plan A in most cases. Turn 3 stooge Turn 4 Shrine into turn 5 Animancer is probably the best midgame you can have with the deck.
The 1 drops I often don't drop turn 1 as I want to save them for impactful plays, but if against something that is liable to get early board power it is worth running them out (or twilight egg gets run out turn 1 regardless).
Catacombs - you're generally looking for Animancer for turn 5, or looking to complete a combo (annihilation when you need to, stooge if you haven't found it yet, herald + chains, etc).
Conflagrate is most commonly used as removal. This deck has a lot of value and you don't need to worry about being out-valued. The tempo gain of removing something with 5 health is huge.
Imp Gang Stooge and Annihilation - often you want to play to alternate these so annihilation only summons two 8/8s. This is the case if you think they might be good at clearing a big board and you want to force them to do that twice. If you don't think they can handle three 8/8s, go ahead and run out both stooges before your first annihilate and just close the game after the first one.
Discuss what you are playing, what you’re having success with(or failures with), and any new/cool ideas you’ve been experimenting with, etc. The point is to share what you’ve been playing, and how it’s going, good or bad - there are no other rules or requirements.
Some ideas on what to post/share:
What you’ve been playing and its successes (or struggles). Stats are not required. There is no minimum rank required, though sharing what rank you’ve been playing at is preferred.
Deck adjustments you made or are planning to make in reaction to the meta or as new innovation. E.g. “I saw 30% of deck X, so I made Y changes to help deal with deck X.” (change)
Showing off a deck you achieved legend with this season and wanting to share it without having to write a guide
(Crosspost from the main sub in hopes of more discussion)
Once I understood how Hearthstone’s ranked system actually works, the monthly climb lost most of its meaning for me.
As a reminder: since the rework, matchmaking throughout the entire ranked ladder is based on your hidden MMR, including after your bonus stars run out. Your bronze, silver, gold, platinum, or diamond rank is therefore not the skill bracket used to find your opponents. Players at very different visible ranks can potentially face each other because the game considers their hidden ratings to be similar.
Visible rank is not literally worthless. It determines seasonal rewards and influences your progression during the next month. But it feels less like a competitive rating and more like a seasonal progression track placed on top of the actual ranked system. Every month, your visible rank returns to Bronze 10 and you repeat the climb using bonus stars. Meanwhile, the hidden rating that actually determines the difficulty of your matches remains invisible. Even reaching legend does not show your actual MMR. The legend number is just your relative position among other legend players, calculated using that hidden rating.
Meaning: The game shows me one ranking, matches me using another, and asks me to repeat the visible progression every month before I can see where I approximately stand competitively. For me, that is so extremely frustrating to a point at that I almost lost all motivation to climb anymore.
What could be done better? Make visible rank track MMR, with meaningful promotion and demotion between actual skill divisions. Or maybe, an even simpler solution that wouldn't even require all that much dev work: Keep the monthly reward track, but display a separate skill rating that is visible throughout the entire season.
Hearthstone technically already has leagues, but they do not function like the skill divisions found in most competitive games. They mostly show how far you have progressed through that month’s climb.
Maybe the current system motivates people who enjoy earning stars and collecting the monthly rewards. For me, learning that my visible rank was largely disconnected from matchmaking had the opposite effect. It made climbing feel like an obligation, a forced, monthly grind rather than evidence that I was improving.
Would seeing your actual rating make ranked more motivating, or is this something that most people just don't really care about?
Discuss what you are playing, what you’re having success with(or failures with), and any new/cool ideas you’ve been experimenting with, etc. The point is to share what you’ve been playing, and how it’s going, good or bad - there are no other rules or requirements.
Lotus Troublemaker - Card text changed to "Deal 1 damage to a random enemy. Shoot 1 time! (While in hand or deck play cards for 2 Mana to shoot more!)"
Blazing Invocation - no longer gives a 1 mana discount
Warptooth - now requires 4 friendly characters to take damage to summon
Vanessa the Ringleader - now a 7 mana 4/3
Wild Nerfs:
Swiftscale Trickster - now a 6 mana 4/4
The Soularium - now 2 mana
Elwynn Boar - now requires 10 boars to die for Sword of A Thousand Truths
Godfrey the Betrayer - now banned in Wild
Buffs:
The Living Plague - now a 6 mana 8/8
Blood Doctor Thal'ena - now 4 mana
Sawbones - now 5 mana 5/3
Emergency Surgery - now summons four 3/1 Undead with Lifesteal
Tras'tath Soul Parasite - base stats raised to 3/3
Irida Sinseeker - now a 7/7
Vicious Voidscale - Battlecry and Deathrattle now give a Void Soul
Stardust Scythe - weapon durability raised to 3
Sewer Swimmer - now a 4 mana 4/3
Azalina Soulsever - now raises your starting health to 40
Karov the Broken - now has Taunt
Enthralled Shade - now a 2 mana 3/2
Moragg - now 9 mana
Annihilation - now 8 mana
Imp Gang Stooge - card text now reads "Deathrattle: Put two 8/8 Demons with Taunt and Lifesteal on the bottom of your deck"
Long story short, I'm like 4-30 between yesterday and today, super hard stuck in Platinum, trying to use Mug Shaman but a mix of unfamiliarity, poor skill, and inarguably low rolls has got me stuck in this very low MMR bracket where 90% of my games are against Priest. I should be favored with most decks I play, but up to now I basically never faced Priest, and I'm struggling to find my way through when they hit everything on curve and I don't.
I feel like Tripwire Hunter is probably my least random generation reliant deck, but it's not doing too hot when they get Soothesayer/Schism/Undeath Sentence on time. Any suggestions for dealing with this, as well as getting out of this frustrated headspace?
Last weekend took place Summer Playoffs 2026, our last large official tournament for a while. 204 players competed for 12 slots at Summer Masters Tour in the fresh meta of Escape from Violet Hold expansion. Did they succumb to the ladder meta or tried to break it? Enjoy the read!
Summer Playoffs was the first major tournament after Escape from the Violet Hold release, so the competitors had to adapt this raw meta of the first couple of weeks of the new expansion. But this time ladder meta spoiled to us what four decks players might tend to bringing: Mug Shaman, Two-Bit Rogue, Face Hunter and Dragon Warrior making in total about 79% of top-100 ladder meta ended up being exactly 79% of this Playoffs meta and the “basic” lineup including only these four decks was used by 96 of 204 players. And across the twelve winners’ lineups there were 12 Mug Shamans, 11 Two-Bit Rogues, 9 Dragon Warriors and 7 Face Hunters. As you might expect there were a lot of mirror matches between lineups with only those four decks (103 out of 411 matches to be precise). And the curious thing about these mirrors was that usually it is obvious what deck players are supposed to ban in mirror matches. But not this time. On one hand Mug Shaman is favorable against all other three decks, on the other Dragon Warrior has incredibly good matchup vs Face Hunter. So, Mug Shaman ended up being banned in 60% cases while Dragon Warrior – in 36% cases. And if you wonder what strategy worked better, I got you covered: in 43 matches where one player banned Dragon Warrior and the other – Mug Shaman, the one who banned Dragon Warrior won 26 and lost 17. So, banning Dragon Warrior turned out to be slightly better strategy.
As you can see, the meta very much warped around these four decks and so will my report. Luckily we got another four decks that were popular enough to be included in it, so it won’t be too short😊.
Small disclaimer: I didn’t separate Face Hunter into versions with and without King of the Underbelly, because eventually they’re just 2 cards different without any major changes in matchups.
A quick reminder what Adjusted Winrate is – in the Conquest format deck’s ban basically means that players agree that one of opponent’s decks will win a game here and decide to save themselves some time. My model takes into account these “missing” wins when analyzing decks’ performance at the tournament. Pure winrate is just simple wins/games. Now to the deck analysis.
And starting with our meta tyrant Mug Shaman. It was used in 200 of 204 lineups. Crazy numbers for such large tournament. Justifiably so, because the only matchup it lost with >1 game played was 1-4 to Lo’Gosh Warrior. But it was close: 56-55 vs Two-Bit Rogue and 56-54 vs Face Hunter. These two were the only ones who could really compete and this is one of the reasons why they are that popular in the current meta. Other matchups went much smoother for Mug Shaman: 54-37 vs Dragon Warrior, 30-23 vs Quest Mage plus occasional 10-7 vs Quest Priest, 9-3 vs Egg Warrior and cherry on top 11-0 vs Control Priest. 55% Pure Winrate, nothing too astronomical but it was backed up by 56% Banrate. We’ve talked about how it was usually banned in mirror matches, but it was even bigger threat for lineups trying to beat the meta with Egg decks and Quest Priest (nerf Hex). As a result, 1st place by Adjusted Winrate, big surprise to no one
Next, we have Two-Bit Rogue. That one was brought by 78% of players. Good results into Quest Priest (32-19 score) and Quest Mage (26-16) compensate for losing to Warriors – 57-71 vs Dragon Warrior and 12-19 vs Egg Warrior. Plus, alongside even matchup vs Mug Shaman new Rogue does better against Face Hunter than its predecessor. – 97-91 score in the most played matchup of the tournament. So, 51% Pure Winrate is a decent result, but with only 7% Banrate (with almost half of these bans coming from lineup with Control Priest in them) Two-Bit Rogue’s 4th place by Adjusted Winrate puts it much closer to 5th than to 3rd place
Dragon Warrior’s popularity at these Playoffs suffered from having other playable archetypes from its class, unlike Shaman and Rogue. Otherwise, its 72% Pickrate could’ve been higher. Dragon Warrior did not fall for coinflip agreement the other three main decks had with each other and had much more polarized matchups: 71-57 vs Two-Bit Rogue and demolishing 71-29 vs Face Hunter on one end and 37-54 vs Mug Shaman on the other. Plus bonus 14-8 vs Merithra Druid and 8-5 vs Quest Mage. And that with Mug Shaman being the only unfavorable matchup for the deck resulted at 56% Pure Winrate. From Banrate perspective I’ve mentioned how the deck has got its share of bans in mirror matches, plus there was one deck whose inclusion in the basic lineup forced players to ban Dragon Warrior – Quest Mage. So with 34% Banrate Dragon Warrior can’t compete with Mug Shaman but takes a solid 2nd place by Adjusted Winrate
And the last member of basic lineup – Face Hunter. This one was brought by 67% of the players. Its popularity being the lowest of all four decks is backed by it being the worst in the direct clash vs them, mainly 29-71 score vs Dragon Warrior. Face Hunter gained back some wins from 17-11 vs Merithra Druid and 10-3 vs Control Priest, but it wasn’t enough to make up for such beating. Only 48% Pure Winrate and, even worse, only 3% Banrate with most of the bans coming from lineup with Quest Mage in them. All that led to only 6th place by Adjusted Winrate
Now we witness the significant drop in popularity: while Face Hunter had 67% Pickrate our next deck, Egg Warrior only had 21%. So, now we talk not about the main decks but instead about the ones that were chosen to substitute one or two decks in the main lineup. Because while there were “only” 96 basic lineups, 154 of 204 lineups have used 3 of the 4 good decks and 191 have used at least 2 of them. So, we don’t talk about completely different strategies rather than just target choices instead of what players saw as weak links in the main lineup. And back to our most popular such choice, Egg Warrior. I can’t say that Egg Warrior performed better than Dragon Warrior it was replacing. It did well vs Two-Bit Rogue with 19-12 score, but it didn’t win matchups vs Dragon Warrior (14-13 score) and Quest Priest (5-8) as its pilots might have hoped but besides going 3-9 vs Mug Shaman it didn’t really lose any matchup, so still 52% Pure Winrate, plus it was the main ban target from basic lineups resulting in 34% Banrate, same as Dragon Warrior’s, which let Egg Warrior take it usual place on podium by Adjusted Winrate, this time 3rd place
Another remnant of the old meta, Quest Mage. It was used in about every 6th lineup, mostly instead of Face Hunter or Two-Bit Rogue alongside other 3 good decks. Unfortunately, its negative matchups into all 4 good decks on ladder have transferred here with Quest Mage going <45% Winrate into all of them. The only positive matchup was 7-1 vs Quest Priest (your obedient servant being responsible for that 1 Priest’s win😉). With 45% Pure Winrate the only thing that kept Quest Mage afloat was >50% Banrate from lineups with Egg Warrior and Quest Priest resulting in 16% Banrate, 4th overall in the entire tournament and it even let Quest Mage overtake Face Hunter and take 5th place by Adjusted Winrate
From here only downwards. Quest Priest was used in 15% lineups, mostly instead of Face Hunter, for its good matchup vs Dragon Warrior. And while that proved to be partially true with Quest Priest going even 21-21 vs Dragon Warrior the deck didn’t win a single matchup (besides sudden 8-5 vs Egg Warrior) while losing 19-32 to Two-Bit Rogue and 7-10 to Mug Shaman. 44% Pure Winrate and only 6% Banrate resulted in 7th place by Adjusted Winrate
And the last deck for today, another old friend Merithra Druid. So old that Che0nsu, who got top-4 in APAC Playoffs with Merithra Druid in his lineup, used the list with 0 cards from the latest expansion. Overall though the deck did very poorly, mostly due to having <40% Winrate into every of 4 good decks. Tragic 40% Pure Winrate, 6% Banrate and the last 8th place by Adjusted Winrate.
But hey, all the decks above found their way in at least one winning lineup. Maybe not so bad. No other deck has been brought by more than 8 players. At least we got all 11 classes present thanks to 1 Broxigar DH bring, cool…
This is an open thread for any discussion pertaining to Competitive Hearthstone.
This is a thread for discussions that don’t qualify for a stand-alone post on the subreddit. This thread is sorted by new by default.
You can ask for deck reviews, competitive budget replacements, how to mulligan in specific matchups, etc. Anything goes, as long as it’s related to playing Hearthstone competitively.
Has your question been asked before? Check our FAQ to see if we've got you covered.
Or if you're looking for an educational hearthstone read, check out our Timeless Resources
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I have come up with a list featuring the classic Herald Package and Khelos Egg with an ooze. The gameplan is to hold and sustain while building big minions due to Herald and the egg, and finish up the game by having two minions on board, attacking with one that has 10-12ish damage, oozing it and putting its damage to the second minion to (hopefully) finish up the game.
The deck is incredibly consistent and got me up to legend (although I faced several chef druids in the process which are an autowin basically due to cursed chains and the 3-4 free turns at the beginning) with around a 60% winrate. The egg helps by soaking up damage from face hunter and the monkey (if you have the 20/20 on board). Strongest matchups are chef druid, shaman, paladin and mage. Rogue is even, Warrior is very dependent on the dark gifts and if they are played at the start, and (ironically) face hunter is the worst (if you do manage to draw and play the egg it's anyone's game).
Priest/Warlock/DK/Druid/(Manahouse) Mage: It is safe to assume that you'll be playing a late-focused game so mulligan for your locations, atlas and egg. Vs Priest specifically, if the rest of your mulligan supports it, keep Cursed Chains for their Soothsayer.
Demon Hunter: The new Void Soul lists haven't been refined enough yet so I am not exactly sure myself, but in general I try to keep Caged Cranium and Imp Gang Stooge (in that order) and then Hellfire if nothing else comes my way.
Hunter: Literally keep (and play) anything you have on curve. The matchup is extremely unfavored so not a lot to offer there I am afraid.
Paladin, Rogue, (Zee) Shaman, Warrior: Something in between. Hellfires are a good stabilization after the first two turns if they go really wide and Shadow Rounds can kill 1-2 minions giving you enough of a breathing room for later.
Mug Shaman: Disciple + Cursed Chains. You can afford to play a bit greedier because their biggest threat at the start will be a "tall" minion that you can steal.
Discuss what you are playing, what you’re having success with(or failures with), and any new/cool ideas you’ve been experimenting with, etc. The point is to share what you’ve been playing, and how it’s going, good or bad - there are no other rules or requirements.
Some ideas on what to post/share:
What you’ve been playing and its successes (or struggles). Stats are not required. There is no minimum rank required, though sharing what rank you’ve been playing at is preferred.
Deck adjustments you made or are planning to make in reaction to the meta or as new innovation. E.g. “I saw 30% of deck X, so I made Y changes to help deal with deck X.” (change)
Showing off a deck you achieved legend with this season and wanting to share it without having to write a guide
Made this for kicks and it ended up doing pretty decently. I don't play aggro much so a better pilot could probably get this to legend with some slight modifications.
This is an open thread for any discussion pertaining to Competitive Hearthstone.
This is a thread for discussions that don’t qualify for a stand-alone post on the subreddit. This thread is sorted by new by default.
You can ask for deck reviews, competitive budget replacements, how to mulligan in specific matchups, etc. Anything goes, as long as it’s related to playing Hearthstone competitively.
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Furthermore, after playing it, i realise Manastorm can quickly run away with games because the opponent is unable to keep up with the minion generation, even with cheap minions.
I had the idea of making a Jailhouse Leyline deck, thinking the Leylines themselves generate quite a bit of value, and when combined with manastorm might be quite strong, however I’m a terrible deck builder, so i was wondering if anybody could help?
Here is what i have so far (untested)
The general idea i'm trying to go for, is to help guarantee Jailhouse (either by tutor or draw), and then stall out the game while generating value.
Discuss what you are playing, what you’re having success with(or failures with), and any new/cool ideas you’ve been experimenting with, etc. The point is to share what you’ve been playing, and how it’s going, good or bad - there are no other rules or requirements.
Some ideas on what to post/share:
What you’ve been playing and its successes (or struggles). Stats are not required. There is no minimum rank required, though sharing what rank you’ve been playing at is preferred.
Deck adjustments you made or are planning to make in reaction to the meta or as new innovation. E.g. “I saw 30% of deck X, so I made Y changes to help deal with deck X.” (change)
Showing off a deck you achieved legend with this season and wanting to share it without having to write a guide
I’ve been looking for something a bit different in the meta and got some inspiration from Prepare Priest. I was trying to look at another class that had some good Prepare cards that were a bit more tempo oriented and stumbled upon Mage. Code Violet and Tricksy Improviser seemed like solid options so I’ve been tinkering and came up with this list that has gone 12-3 in high diamond (5 to 2). Probably hit legend soon, but wanted to share because the deck feels extremely good right now.
A few key points:
-I think Mage decks are better when they don’t try to go all in on Jailhouse Manastorm. I have him here, but he hasn’t been a factor in a lot of games. Sometimes the tempo from Tricksy Improviser and chip damage just wins. Code Violet has also been insane when prepped alongside Jailbird then played around 5-6.
-Tricksy Improviser is an insane card. Can easily be prepped on 1 most times and play shortly after. So much tempo.
-Black Market Auctioneer should probably be Vanessa tbh
-I feel like Mage decks are a bit underexplored right now. They should be trying to play for tempo and damage rather than trying to to all in one one exact specific strategy. Aka - just play the good cards (and I feel like the Prep cards are very good)
-Toki should probably also be something else but she can win the long games.
This is an open thread for any discussion pertaining to Competitive Hearthstone.
This is a thread for discussions that don’t qualify for a stand-alone post on the subreddit. This thread is sorted by new by default.
You can ask for deck reviews, competitive budget replacements, how to mulligan in specific matchups, etc. Anything goes, as long as it’s related to playing Hearthstone competitively.
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The Vicious Syndicate Team is proud to present the 353rd edition of the Data Reaper Report. This is the first report for Violet Hold.
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 2,813,000 games! In this week's report you will find:
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.
With everything else going on in the meta I’m seeing a specific archetype which is very slept on at the moment, that being Shuffle Rogue. I wasn’t playing when the last set of quests came out so I don’t know if it was ever any good, but right now I will say that it’s better than ever. I just went on a 20-2 run in 4K legend with the following list, which I will break down strategy-wise:
Like I said, I’m not aware of how Quest Rogue used to work or if it worked at all, but in this iteration the quest can be completed quicker than ever. This is thanks to newer cards like Nab and Sheltered Survivor which really flesh out the shuffle package to the point where you can complete your quest by turn 5/6 on average (turn 4 if you high roll). The deck operates in two phases, the first of which involves shuffling anything and everything at all costs. That includes Nabbing a 1-drop if needed, shuffling a valuable card with Crystal Tusk, playing your entire hand, etc. - you must transform into Master Dusk at all costs. This is because your upgraded hero power is not only blatantly overpowered but also essential to winning a game (if you somehow brick and haven’t transformed by turn 8, you may as well concede).
Upon transformation, you will notice two key details - 1. Hand management is an issue and 2. Board space management is just as bad if not worse. Your board will be filled to the brim with stealth ninjas along with Illusions, and your goal should then be to press your hero power button as often as possible in order to overwhelm the opponent. It will become apparent immediately that your board and hand are now almost always full, so it’s essential to plan around overdrawing and burning minions that summon from your deck. However, I consider this a good problem to have because not only can you easily reload your board if you get wiped, but you also have the option to unload your hand as it’s going to be replenished along with your board anyway. I have endless screenshots of board states where my side was stuffed to the gills while the opponent was simply unable to keep up.
Going deeper into the strategy, one might be able to spot that this deck list includes 15 2-cost cards. This is due to the fact that the shuffle package alone is almost entirely composed of 2 drops and 2-mana spells, which justifies the inclusion of Jade Guardians as a late game bomb. That being said, one must ensure to play at least six 2-cost cards as early as possible to discount one pair of your Guardians to (2), thereby enabling the other pair down to (0). I tried many different packages to complement the deck (Sinestra, Imbue etc.) and found the 2-cost strategy to be the most successful.
Lastly, I will break down my two losses. One was to a Face Hunter, which I will say the jury is still out on whether it’s the superior strategy since they were the only hunter I faced. I will say Face Hunter is easier to pilot, that’s for sure. My second loss was to an aggressive Death Knight that high-rolled, making me draw the conclusion that the deck is susceptible to aggro in general. However, if you can make it to turn 6 with the quest completed you should be alright in my opinion.
And before anyone mentions it, that’s right, the monkey is not included in the list. I personally didn’t find it necessary to win and it’s pretty awful when drawn late. However, the deck might be excellent with it if piloted correctly - I can’t confirm or deny.
With everything else going on in the meta I’m seeing a specific archetype which is very slept on at the moment, that being Shuffle Rogue. I wasn’t playing when the last set of quests came out so I don’t know if it was ever any good, but right now I will say that it’s better than ever. I just went on a 20-2 run in 4K legend with the following list, which I will break down strategy-wise:
Like I said, I’m not aware of how Quest Rogue used to work or if it worked at all, but in this iteration the quest can be completed quicker than ever. This is thanks to newer cards like Nab and Sheltered Survivor which really flesh out the shuffle package to the point where you can complete your quest by turn 5/6 on average (turn 4 if you high roll). The deck operates in two phases, the first of which involves shuffling anything and everything at all costs. That includes Nabbing a 1-drop if needed, shuffling a valuable card with Crystal Tusk, playing your entire hand, etc. - you must transform into Master Dusk at all costs. This is because your upgraded hero power is not only blatantly overpowered but also essential to winning a game (if you somehow brick and haven’t transformed by turn 8, you may as well concede).
Upon transformation, you will notice two key details - 1. Hand management is an issue and 2. Board space management is just as bad if not worse. Your board will be filled to the brim with stealth ninjas along with Illusions, and your goal should then be to press your hero power button as often as possible in order to overwhelm the opponent. It will become apparent immediately that your board and hand are now almost always full, so it’s essential to plan around overdrawing and burning minions that summon from your deck. However, I consider this a good problem to have because not only can you easily reload your board if you get wiped, but you also have the option to unload your hand as it’s going to be replenished along with your board anyway. I have endless screenshots of board states where my side was stuffed to the gills while the opponent was simply unable to keep up.
Going deeper into the strategy, one might be able to spot that this deck list includes 15 2-cost cards. This is due to the fact that the shuffle package alone is almost entirely composed of 2 drops and 2-mana spells, which justifies the inclusion of Jade Guardians as a late game bomb. That being said, one must ensure to play at least six 2-cost cards as early as possible to discount one pair of your Guardians to (2), thereby enabling the other pair down to (0). I tried many different packages to complement the deck (Sinestra, Imbue etc.) and found the 2-cost strategy to be the most successful.
Lastly, I will break down my two losses. One was to a Face Hunter, which I will say the jury is still out on whether it’s the superior strategy since they were the only hunter I faced. I will say Face Hunter is easier to pilot, that’s for sure. My second loss was to an aggressive Death Knight that high-rolled, making me draw the conclusion that the deck is susceptible to aggro in general. However, if you can make it to turn 6 with the quest completed you should be alright in my opinion.
And before anyone mentions it, that’s right, the monkey is not included in the list. I personally didn’t find it necessary to win and it’s pretty awful when drawn late. However, the deck might be excellent with it if piloted correctly - I can’t confirm or deny.
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