By NPH Pasca and WickedGood

Hearthstone Masters Qualifiers #19-36 were held last week, after the nerfs to Shaman that made the metagame much more diverse. Every class except Druid is now perfectly playable.

Data summary from Off Curve:

Tier List:

Click on the players names to find out their lists and copy deck codes from Yaytears. The names in bold are Qualifier winners who generously sent us an explanation of the strategy behind their lineup. Scroll past the tier list to read them.

Meta Definig Lineups:

Highlander Rogue, Galakrond Shaman, Galakrond Warrior (VirtuozZ)

Highlander Mage, Galakrond Shaman, Galakrond Warrior (Maverick / Utopia)

Galakrond Rogue, Galakrond Shaman, Galakrond Warrior (Keppada / Athanas)

Holy Wrath Paladin, Galakrond Shaman, Control Warrior (woziny)

Holy Wrath Paladin, Highlander Rogue, Galakrond Warrior (TIZS / 撒旦降臨)

Proven lineups:

Face Hunter, Token Shaman, Pirate Warrior (Cursed / oyatsu / 무에서유창조 / Fujitora)

Highlander Rogue, Galakrond Shaman, Control Warrior (CptBoatsNHoe)

Deathrattle Rogue, Galakrond Shaman, Galakrond Warrior (Frenetic / Guntofire / Kasai)

Holy Wrath Paladin, Highlander Rogue, Galakrond Shaman (Faeli / ColaPopcorn / ONLYST4r / En1gma / SetoKaiba)

Midrange Hunter, Wrbrigner Rogue, Galakrond Shaman (andrew19)

Deathrattle Rogue, Galakrond Shaman, Pirate Warrior (Silvors)

Holy Wrath Paladin, Galakrond Shaman, Galakrond Warrior (iNS4NE / Zuhex)

Pretty Good Lineups:

Holy Wrath Paladin, Warbrigner Rogue, Hand Warlock (orneto)

Quest Druid, Galakrond Shaman, Control Warrior (哈利)

Combo Priest, Tempo Rogue, Pirate Warrior (iNS4NE)

Deathrattle Rogue, Galakrond Zoo Warlock, Pirate Warrior (xobbort91)

Highlander Rogue, Galakrond Quest Shaman, Galakrond Warrior (Dmoney)

Quest Priest, Galakrond Shaman, Galakrond Warrior (Tara / Firox)

Quest Druid, Galakrond Shaman, Galakrond Warrior (Kuonet / Ghost)

Face Hunter, Combo Priest, Pirate Warrior (BabyBear / ElRoyJenkins)

Token Shaman, Galakrond Zoo Warlock, Pirate Warrior (샹하이)

Holy Wrath Paladin, Galakrond Rogue, Galakrond Warrior (Memory)

Highlander Mage, Highlander Rogue, Galakrond Shaman (白王)

Holy Wrath Paladin, Highlander Rogue, Bomb Warrior (Faeli)

Interesting Lineups:

Highlander Hunter, Warbringner Rogue, Galakrond Warrior (IanMGS)

Face Hunter, Deathrattle Rogue, Pirate Warrior (DenBut / J4YOU)

Face Hunter, Galakrond Zoo Warlock, Pirate Warrior (Fernando)

Holy Wrath Paladin, Combo Priest, Galakrond Shaman (StormFever / Yocto94)

Face Hunter, Galakrond Shaman, Pirate Warrior (BojowyRopuch / Violet)

Face Hunter, Holy Wrath Paladin, Warbrigner Rogue (Ryuga)

Midrange Hunter, Deathrattle Rogue, Token Shaman (ДикийЗверь)

Quest Hunter, Highlander Rogue, Galakrond Shaman (RumHam)

Highlander Rogue, Galakrond Quest Shaman, Galakrond Hand Warlock (Emanuelo)

Highlandrer Hunter, Deathrattle Rogue, Galakrond Shaman (C8763)

Quest Druid, Deathrattle Priest, Highlander Warrior (あれっくす)

Holy Wrath Paladin, Galakrond Zoo Warlock, Galakrond Warrior (Haffax)

Comments from the winners:

Maverick on Highlander Mage, Galakrond Shaman, Galakrond Warrior:

“I felt like the Warrior was an overall really strong deck in the current state of the meta. Generating armor beats most aggro decks right now. And considering the lack of Taunts in a lot of decks, being able to push with Galakrond Hero Power and finish with 1 or 2 huge Charge minion is really efficient. The deck took a lot of bans and my opponent in the final was playing it as well, pretty sure it’s not a coincidence.

I knew shaman still had great potential. I took inspiration from RayC’s deck he posted after the nerfs and adapted it with the build I felt the most confortable with before the nerfs (Spirit of the Frog mainly).

As for the Highlander Mage, I’m pretty sure it’s a decent deck but not the best choice against what we face the most in open cups. Still went well for me because the deck has a decent power level but if I have to be honest, I have to say my draws with it were far above average and any good deck would’ve done a good job.”

Utopia on Highlander Mage, Galakrond Shaman, Galakrond Warrior:

“I just brought three strong decks. My lineup looks weak to aggro lineup, but I think aggro isn’t strong enough. Also Ooze in two decks makes my lineup more resistant to aggro.”

woziny on Holy Wrath Paladin, Galakrond Shaman, Control Warrior:

(translation by Zflow)

“I tried to target aggro decks like Face Hunter and Pirate Warrior and nailed it. I banned Rogue decks because my lineup is not good against Necrium Apothecary and Flick Skyship. The key deck in the lineup is the Control Warrior, which was banned seven times out of eight games. I often lost to Shaman in fatigue battles in scrim, so I chose Archivist Elysiana to draw cards at ease and prepare Control deck matchups. Shaman deck is a mixture of Galakrond and Control. Hagatha’s Scheme helped me a lot against board centric decks. Barista Lynchen was for Control deck matchups which was unfortunately unuseful because there was no chance to encounter Control decks. I’m satisfied with this lineup, and I think it’s a all-rounder Finally, I hope there would be some nerf concerning Necrium Apothecary and Dragon’s Pack.”

CptBoatsNHoe on Highlander Rogue, Galakrond Shaman, Control Warrior:

“I was choosing my lineup right after the Shaman nerf, so I expected a lot of aggro decks (it is always like that after any change in meta). My first choice was a Control Warrior. I did lots of testing on high legend with different versions and decided for the old Taunt Warrior. New cards just didn’t seem to add anything valuable and the taunt version offers an edge vs. the one with Acolytes and Harrison since there is more board pressure and less card draw (drawing is unwanted in mirror matches). My second deck was a deck that I created specifically for this qualification. It is a Control Shaman with the addition of Archivist Elysiana (in order to beat Control Warriors). It was still able to beat aggro and was also winning in long control matchups. It is a hard deck to master but very rewarding if played properly. My last deck was a Highlander Rogue, which I still feel is the best way to build rouge right now. It has many ways to pop off (unlike for example highlander hunter with just 2 main ways). You can get early Zephrys, coin out Necrium Apothecary, go crazy with Edwin or get Togwaggle on curve. In most matches, my warrior got banned because the majority of lineups were aggro oriented. Since I was consistenly able to beat both aggro and control, I was pretty much banning only combo decks, such as Shirvallah Paladin or Malygos Druid.”

andrew19 on Midrange Hunter, Wrbrigner Rogue, Galakrond Shaman:

“The tournament would be the first after the Shaman nerfs. Because Face Hunter had become quite popular in ladder I expected that many people would bring this deck to the tournament. Since rogue didn’t get any nerf I also expected to see many Deathrattle Rogues. The hunter deck is an off-meta deck that I created (Mid Range with lots of rush minions) that does well against Face Hunter, Pirate Warrior and Zoo Warlock (that I also expected some people to bring). The game plan is to clear their threats, get a lot of healing through the scalehides and I’ll outvalue my opponent. The shaman deck is more of a decoy. While it has its draw engine tied to Spirit of the Frog, this means that Shudderwock’s battlecry is going to be a lot weaker. The Plague of Murlocs and the Hex are there to scare off Deathrattle rogues, so they would ban this deck. My ban would be my opponent’s control deck (if they had one). The version of the Deathrattle rogue deck is pretty much an one-trick-pony. Draw the Necrium Apothecary and you win, the double Fan of Knives is there to help deal with aggro and cycle through the deck at the same time to get the Apothecary. No Saps in the deck as there is no point in using sap to return a tiny minion back to my opponent’s hand. The decks aren’t polished though. I got lucky to win in the finals against a control lineup that on second thought would have been a lot better to be used in this tournament meta.”

orneto on Holy Wrath Paladin, Warbrigner Rogue, Hand Warlock:

“Well, my strategy was targeting aggro decks, i know, Handlock and Deathrattle Rogue in comp targeting aggro? Yeah, with all my decks I was confident that if I reached around turn 6, i could take the the win, and it worked well!!! I always banned Rogue because of Flik breaking the Holy Wrath + Shirvallah combo or Priest when Rogue didn’t show up! I’m really happy that I’m qualified, I’ve been away from the game for 6 months and just returned last week, I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to travel to Indonesia cause I’m from Brazil and it’s a very expensive travel, but I’m gonna try my best!!!”

Faeli on Holy Wrath Paladin, Highlander Rogue, Bomb Warrior:

“The way I built this lineup was not a very “scientific” one as I am used to. I chose the Highlander Rogue and Shirvallah just because I really like those decks and the day before I saw the Bomb Warrior on Odemian’s Twitter and figured it fits very well. My bad was pretty flexible, but I never wanted to ban Paladin or Shaman, mostly ended banning Rogue or decks like Ress Priest. Other decks I was using pretty often were other Warriors and Shamans. There is definitely space for improvement in my Rogue list, the Bomb Warrior probably as well and Shirvallah is just teched to fight Face Hunters (which I didnt even really meet in this cup, but did in other). Performance-wise the Rogue was godlike, Warrior was often banned and Shirvallah was very much on edge, but this time always made it.

P.S. Albatross is probably just wrong, but Asia loves Highlander decks :)))”

Fernando on Face Hunter, Galakrond Zoo Warlock, Pirate Warrior:

“My lineup was targetting Deathrattle Rogue (I encountered only 1) and no bannning Shaman, i banned mostly Pirate/Galakrond Warrior which is the best on aggro matchups on hsreplay stats.”

Ryuga on Face Hunter, Holy Wrath Paladin, Warbrigner Rogue:

“My strategy was to get favorable matchups against Galakrond Shaman and OTK Paladin which were very used decks. The big flaw of my lineup is that it faces a lot of difficulties against aggressive decks, and I couldn’t help but ban Warrior either. I was very lucky to face a lot of Paladins and Shamans, so I had some ease getting the win.”