By ecoutepasca and WickedGood

Brace yourselves, nerfs are coming!

The balance changes to EVIL Miscreant, Raiding Party, Preparation and Archivist Elysiana will happen on Wednesday, during the open cups that will run nonetheless.

We have elected to publish this metagame report on Hearthstone Masters Qualifiers Seoul #31-60 regardless, because most of the specialist format decks that we planned to feature are unaffected by the nerfs anyway.

We will soon publish another article with our thoughts on how the specialist meta will shift post-nerf.

This week, Bomb Warrior was on its way to surpass FaceTempo Rogue in popularity. This lines up with the power of the deck, but could also have been influenced by the debut of the Grandmasters league.

Mage has completed the transition from Dragon Conjurer to Cyclone Miracle.

Hunter and Shaman are the most diverse classes, seeing experimentation with three different archetypes each, but the latter has yet to find success.

Last week, Mech Paladin was very promising despite seeing fringe play. The class repeats this patern this week, but with the Holy Wrath OTK.

Token Druid is still strong as long as sideboards are not teched against it, which means that there’s a balance between its strength and its popularity.

Warlock and Priest are dead.

The live dashboard with all the data that powers this report (and more) can be found at http://offcurve.com/specialist-meta.

Tier List:

Tier 1:

Bomb Warrior

FaceTempo Rogue

Tier 2:

Miracle Mage

Control Warrior

Tier 3:

Bomb Hunter

Token Druid

BurgleTempo Rogue

Midrange Hunter

Holy Wrath Paladin

Secret Hunter

Tier 4:

Miracle Rogue

Conjurer Mage

Deathrattle Hunter

Big Shaman

Featured decks:

Cairne Bloodhoof is too strong vs Warrior. Should add Elysiana to primary deck to improve it vs Warrior. tansoku

I’m using Azalina, because it’s better than Elysiana against other primary deck. Primary deck is mostly for Rogue and other than that there’s Token Druid and OTK Paladin. Secondary is only for the mirror match, so I added Elysiana + a Banker to make sure I can stand a chance vs other Warriors. Tertiary deck is mostly for Hunter and Mage, I will also use it against Nomi Priest and Zoo Warlock. BGH is making my matchup vs Mage super favoured with at least 70-80%, because it’s really good to deal with early Giants. I havent built this lineup, S/O to Meati! mick

The lineup was based around a new ladder deck I had been testing. I wanted a primary deck that could do reasonably well vs both Rogues and Warriors to get an early lead in the series. The 1x Shark can give you some insane swing turns and is the reason I included double Cable Rat, which also makes Toggwaggle extremely consistent. The strategy generally went primary for the mirror, secondary for Warriors, and tertiary for Mages/Hunters. If I could go back and make changes to the lineup I would definitely keep Sharks in my secondary and tertiary decks since it is very strong vs Warriors and Mages. muffins

Primary for Rogue, secondary for Warrior, tertiary for Mage mirrors and Mech Hunter. Rabble Bouncer is overrated. Most importantly, pray for coin and AI. cassia

I chose Control Warrior from the beginning because i think it’s one of the most solid decks right now. Probably not the strongest but you can win against all anyways. I decided to build my line up in this way. Primary is almost good against all especially for aggressive match up (Rogue for example) because you have the chance to control the game with lots of tempo plays. It’s not so strange that you are in the scenario in which Warrior pushes lots of damage and takes the lead of the game. Secondary is for control matchup (mirror to be honest). It’s not for sure the final build but Hecklebot and Saboteur can help a lot in mirror because of cutting out of some value cards (Elysiana in the best scenario or Omega Assembly before turn 10). According to tertiary deck i was in doubt about teching it against Mage or Hunter but i decided to do it against the first one. BGH and 2x Collider are nuts even if there are weapons removal. I saw that Supercollider unfortunately is strong only in this matchup so there is no presence of it in the other two lists.

Overall i can say that control can win against everything in my opinion. I don’t wanna say that control is also over Bomb version but I have good vibes in this sense. yocto

This deck is very strong vs Warrior which is well represented. The secondary version is even better vs Warrior and also vs Dragon Mage. The teritary gives us a chance vs Rogue. Cyclone Mage looks like it would be a tough one. scarface

Unfortunately, nerfs have just been announced, and I’m already working on a whole new aproach to Vendetta Rogue.

On the mulligan I’m looking for Miscreant, Backstab and Blink Fox. No matter the matchup. Versus aggro, Backstab Blink Fox and Vendetta. Vendetta is a real tempo swinger in agressive matchups. In the sideboards, Sap and Walk the Plank deal with Mage, Toggwagle and Scheme with Warrior.

The game plan is always to play for tempo. You want to dictate the pace so that your opponent has to react every turn. Chip dammage matters because Leeroy-Shadowstep can happen anytime.

Thegame plan vs Warrior is to upgrade the Scheme and play it on Togwaggle or Pogo-Hopper. Scheme is better than Nomi vs Bomb Warrior because you dilute the Bombs. mratchoum

Secondary is for Warrior only. Tertiary is for Mage only. Card selection continues to change as we do a lot of matchups. kevin

Secondary vs Mage, Hunter and Mech Paladin. Tertiary vs Warrior but it’s clearly not optimized. The goal is not necessarily to go aggressive, but rather to generate value with the Sharks and the Heistbaron. un33d