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Sottle's Weekly Meta Analysis - Week of 22/03/2015 - 29/03/2015

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Sottle's Weekly Meta Analysis - Week of 22/03/2015 - 29/03/2015

 

Hey guys, long time no see! After a somewhat lengthy hiatus, i'm back with more analysis to help you understand and conquer the tricky concept that is the meta of Hearthstone.


 

Common Decks & Cards


So first things first, let's talk about Rogue. Rogue is almost certainly the top class in the meta right now due to the power of Oil Rogue. This is a deck that has very few counters in the game, due to the massive efficiency of the Rogue's cards, and the overwhelming Tempo they can gain through cards like Preparation and Backstab. Matchups that were previously considered unfavourable for the deck such as Face Hunter and Control Warrior are now perfectly manageable for the Rogue, as they have learned to play more aggressively against the Hunters, and have teched in stickier cards like Piloted Shredder and Dr. Boom to create more pressure against the Warrior. These developments have left Rogue as the number 1 deck in the format, and the one to aim at.

The other strong development recently has been Midrange Paladin. This deck has emerged as another huge contender on ladder due to its flexibility and consistency. Paladin is a deck that can afford to carry tech cards like Harrison Jones, Kezan Mystic, and Mind Control Tech to react to the meta on an almost daily basis due to the consistency of the rest of the deck. The only drawback to Paladin, is that even with the optimal build against Rogue, including extra cards like Harrison Jones and Loatheb to increase your odds, you are still highly unfavoured in that matchup.

The third powerful contender in this final week of the season is Control Warrior. Control Warrior, despite the changes mentioned in the Rogue section, is still favoured in the Rogue matchup, and being favoured against the best deck in the format is enough to cement you a place in the meta. As has been mentioned in previous articles, Control Warrior tends to make a comeback towards the end of each season due to its consistency, when it comes to crunch time, and the ranks really start to matter, people tend to fall back on this archetype as a reliable climbing tool.

Amongst these three powerful decks, there is also a smattering of both Face and Midrange Hunter, alongside Mech Mage, and various iterations of Handlock, both with and without additional Demon cards. The problem with these decks, and what is keeping them out of top contention however, is that they all suffer heavily against one of the above mentioned strong decks.
 
In terms of tech cards, the most common inclusions currently are Loatheb and Harrison Jones. Harrison Jones hits against all three of the mentioned powerful classes, and should be considered a must-include in your deck. Loatheb is also common, just because of its incredible power against Rogue. A well timed Loatheb can easily be the difference between victory and defeat against Rogue, since it often locks them out of doing anything on their turn, and lets you push a lot of damage with an established board. Aside from this Big Game Hunter is as ever-present as always, but other cards like Mind Control Tech are far less common due to the decreased amount of board flood decks in the meta.
 


Class Power Rankings

 
We're going to try something a little different with the class rankings this week. Instead of writing descriptions of the classes, which are already covered reasonably well in the main body, I will simply list the common archetypes, and their strengths and weakness against other common decks.
 

1. Rogue


250px-Valeera_Sanguinar-f.png?version=1f


Common Decks: Oil Rogue
Strong Against: Midrange Paladin, Midrange Hunter, Zoo, Mech Mage, Midrange Shaman, Priest
Weak Against: Control Warrior, Freeze Mage
 

2. Warrior


250px-Garrosh_Hellscream-f.png?version=a


Common Decks: Control Warrior, Midrange Warrior
Strong Against: Oil Rogue, Mech Mage, Zoo, Freeze Mage, Face Hunter, Priest
Weak Against: Fast Druid, Midrange Paladin, Midrange Hunter
 

3. Paladin

250px-Uther_Lightbringer-f.png?version=a


Common Decks: Midrange Paladin
Strong Against: Fast Druid, Control Warrior, Demonlock
Weak Against: Oil Rogue, Zoo
 

4. Druid


250px-Malfurion_Stormrage-f.png?version=


Common Decks: Fast Druid, Hybrid Druid
Strong Against: Control Warrior, Handlock, Demonlock
Weak Against: Midrange Paladin, Zoo, Mech Mage, Midrange Hunter
 

5. Hunter


250px-Rexxar-f.png?version=3f80009401aa5


Common Decks: Face Hunter, Midrange Hunter
Face Hunter Strong Against: Zoo, Midrange Hunter, Demonlock, Handlock, 
Face Hunter Weak Against: Control Warrior, Grinder Priest, Control Priest, Control Paladin
Midrange Hunter Strong Against: Control Warrior, Control Priest, Fast Druid, Handlock
Midrange Hunter Weak Against: Face Hunter, Oil Rogue
 


6. Warlock


250px-Guldan-f.png?version=4bc860759dd1a


Common Decks: Demonlock, Handlock
Demonlock Strong Against: Control Warrior, Zoo, Mech Mage
Demonlock Weak Against: Fast Druid, Face Hunter, Midrange Paladin
Handlock Strong Against: Priest, Control Warrior, Zoo
Handlock Weak Against: Face Hunter, Midrange Hunter, Fast Druid, Control Paladin
 

7. Mage


250px-Jaina_Proudmoore-f.png?version=8f6


Common Decks: Mech Mage
Strong Against: Fast Druid
Weak Against: Grinder Priest
 

8. Priest


250px-Anduin_Wrynn-f.png?version=dcf2a67


Common Decks: Grinder Priest
Strong Against: Face Hunter, Mech Mage, Zoo
Weak Against: Handlock, Demonlock, Control Warrior
 

9. Shaman


250px-Thrall-f.png?version=55cd557d01b07



Common Decks: Midrange Shaman
Strong Against: Control Warrior, Fast Druid
Weak Against: Oil Rogue, Midrange Paladin, Priest, Face Hunter
 
That's all for now! Hopefully you like the slight format tweak, and i'll be back to producing this as a regular series in the future. Until next time!
 
 



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