The current Hearthstone meta is interesting. While the first week of release was dominated almost entirely by Galakrond Shaman, and the second week (post-nerf) saw the decks that had risen to destroy him (Face Hunter and Deathrattle Rogue) fighting him for supremacy, the meta of the last few weeks has settled down pretty well.
While not the most diverse I've seen, it's one of them, with a wide variety of decks that are viable. Each class has at least one deck of level 2 or higher, except Mage, which you don't see often.
But let's quickly define some terms and conditions before we move on to this meta-report.
For clarity, this article assumes that each deck belongs to one of four main deck types: Control, Aggro, Midrange, and Combo.
Control decks aim to win the end of the game, focusing on generating and removing long-term value, often with healing tactics or other blocking methods available. Control decks expect to win well after turn 10.
Aggro decks are aggressive and aim to take the board or deal damage to the opponent early, usually aiming to win on turn 7 at most.
Midrange decks sit in the middle of these two, with enough value generation to get through late game, while still having a decent early game presence. Mid-range decks excel sufficiently in the mid-game, reaching their stride around Turn 4 and gradually getting stronger until around Turn 8. They aim to win around round 10 or a little after, but can go longer.
Combination decks are any deck that aims to win in a single burst using a combination of cards. Usually this is some sort of one-turn destruction effect (like Holy Wrath Paladin, or the Miracle Rogue of old), but sometimes quite oppressively creates states that the opponent cannot deal with it (like Nomi Priest or the old Taunt Druid).
Additionally, I will be referring to bridge levels in this article. Typically these levels are 1 to 4. Level 1 decks are the best, level 4 being the worst of the popular decks. All of the unique and weird decks that very few people actually play (or can't achieve a win rate of around 40%) theoretically fall into a ghost “Tier 5”.
I will be talking exclusively about level 1 and level 2 decks here.
A level 1 deck is best; this is in the highest gain rate range for the current meta. Sometimes this is a “level one” if a game is particularly lopsided (eg, only one game has a 60% win rate and no other).
Level 2 decks are a step lower than that. In short, level 1 decks are the best, but level 2 decks are very good.
Which brings us perfectly to today's topic. When I say the meta is diverse, I mean the number of level 1 and level 2 decks is quite large for the average meta, which is great for the game. And not only is the number of decks big, but their win rate is pretty close. The difference between the win percentage of the current best deck (Pirate Warrior) and the lowest level 2 deck (Embiggen Druid) is only about 4%.
By individual class, Warrior is currently the top performing class, with a pair of powerful Tier 1 decks: Pirate Warrior and Galakrond Warrior (which tend to trade for first place). The former is a hardcore Aggro deck, while the latter approaches a Midrange playstyle.
Warlock comes in second, with a powerful Tier 1 deck (Galakrond Zoolock, the second highest win rate currently) and a respectable Tier 2 offering (Handlock). The first is Aggro hard, and the second is strong control.
Hunter hangs out a bit, carried by two bridges that hover on the border between levels 1 and 2: Secret Highlander Hunter (the level 1 bridge with the lowest payout rate) and Face Hunter (one of the level 2 bridges. highest win rate), plus Highlander Dragon Hunter, a low level 2 deck. The first is clearly Midrange, the second is the most aggressive Aggro deck the game has seen in years, and the third is another Midrange deck. .
Shaman still rides on the strength of Galakrond Shaman alone, a solid level 2 deck and, sadly, the only viable deck Shaman currently has. Other popular decks are low level 3 and low level 4 (Aggro Overload and the Quest variant of Galakrond Shaman). This leaves Galakrond Shaman as their only deck, and a type difficult to pin down; he is closest to a Midrange but borders on control.
Thieves have the most deck diversity on paper, with three fairly powerful level 2 decks ... but if you squint, there are really only two distinct ones: Deathrattle Rogue (in Galakrond and non-Galakrond variants) ) and Highlander Galakrond Rogue. All three are value-based Midrange decks, with the Deathrattle variants having a Combo bite.
Priest is the interesting wild card here. Priest has some of the worst decks in this game right now. Pure Galakrond Priest barely climbs to level 4 (with a 40,01% win rate), and Combo Priest is a low level 3. This artificially lowers Priest's overall win rate below the respect they deserve. Receive: The Tier 1 Quest Resurrect Priest is a power deck (the third most powerful game in the game right now with less than 0,5% behind Zoolock) that offers favorable matches with the most popular decks of each class, with the exception of Warrior and Rogue. This is the toughest of all hardcore control decks, and the only true one in the meta right now.
Druid is currently in a difficult situation, with two level 2 decks: Token Druid and Embiggen Druid. Both are card-based Aggro decks, although Embiggen respects the line between Aggro and Midrange.
Paladin (my favorite class, for reference) was much better before the meta-shift, and had a hard time, with a pair of decent level 2 decents: Mech Paladin and Pure Paladin. This gives it a solid Aggro deck based on a board and a solid Midrange deck to play with.
Finally, we have a poor Mage. Its best deck is Tier 3 (Highlander Mage), a strange high-roll control deck, for lack of a better designation.
This gives us a distribution of viable decks that looks like this:
Decks Aggro: 5
Control boards: 2
Mid-range turntables: 9
Combined Decks: 0
As is evident, the meta is currently dominated by midrange decks. It makes sense if you think about it; Face Hunter, Galazoolock, and Pirate Warrior are aggressive enough to tear apart most other aggro decks, and are actually powerful enough to take out all but the strongest control decks (as can be seen with Handlock; he easily loses to Hunter and has a slight advantage over the others mentioned).
That leaves the only recourse a hybrid strategy that can take down very effective aggro decks ... while not being stopped by the brick wall that is Priest Quest Resurrect (which crushes Face Hunter and is solid against all other Aggro decks except Zoolock and Token Druid, who are slightly favored).
This tells us something beyond the deck designation: decks that are capable of producing wave after wave of minions quickly and efficiently are quite effective in the current meta, which is very much decked out. There are no OTK combo decks above level 3 at this time, and Face Hunter is the only class that reliably deals damage directly from his hand to your face.
Whoever controls the board, controls the game, making Midrange decks with good tempo swings (playing on the curve, spending all their mana and producing maximum value for the res
