THL Meta Analysis #1 (8/17/24)

Introduction
Hello! Welcome to the THL Meta Analysis brought to you by Sprinkle, Amazingoo, and Chewie. We have analyzed the Week 2 match data from both Pro and Duos (decks brought, lineups, deck win rates) and are summarizing it with some added commentary and observations. This will be an ongoing series of blogs as the meta develops and shifts throughout the season.

Data Charts

Death Knight 
Death Knight was the most popular bring in Pro and Duos with Rainbow Death Knight being the most popular archetype. There is not a set list for Rainbow DK yet, with some lists using the recently buffed Buttons along with Razzle-Dazzler to great effect. Rainbow Death Knight was 19-9 (a WR of 68%), while also being the most brought deck and most banned deck.

Demon Hunter
Demon Hunter was not seen very much this week. Pirate Demon hunter is the current popular choice for Demon Hunter. This deck is able to get a very aggressive start with cards like Patches the Pilot, Sock Puppet Slitherspear, and Treasure Distributor with all the fast pirates it can get out. The deck has an amazing early game start, but can quickly fall off once it gets to the late game. 
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With a VERY small sample size, Pirate Demon Hunter had a 100% winrate going 1-0. The class was not banned at all this week. Demon Hunter seems like it has been mostly solved with what it wants to do with the only ongoing question being whether or not to run the pain package in the deck.

Druid
Druid is another very popular class currently and is split into 2 main archetypes, Dragon/Tempo Druid and Concierge Druid. 

Tempo Druid focuses on ramp with the dragon package, Doomkin, and New Heights allowing them to get up to a maximum of 16 mana. This allows for a huge payoff with Trogg Gemtosser. This ramping allows them to quickly get to huge payoffs with cards such as Eonar, Zilliax, Marin, and more. An uncontested Dorian on 4 can also end games with the right draws. 

Concierge Druid remains a great deck as the nerfs did not hit it too hard. The deck is able to do massive bursts of damage with spell damage from Chia Drake, Magical Dollhouse, and Go with the Flow. It can then output massive loads of damage with Swipes and Seabreeze Chalices. The dragon package also allows them to have a great amount of tempo in the early game. 

Both lists maintained a positive win rate this week with Tempo Druid going 10-8 (55.56%) and Concierge Druid going 7-5 (58.33%). In total Druid was banned 12 times. The class is in a great spot and will likely continue to be brought in future weeks.

Hunter
Not much to say here. Hunter was brought a total of 2 times in both Pro and Duos. The class does not bring much to the table currently and it does not seem like it will unless it sees some buffs. Sorry hunter players, you’ll have to wait.

Mage
Mage has not been looking the best since the patch. The big spell synergies it received simply have not paid off very much. While spell mage may very much still be viable, the main deck we saw brought this week for mage was Elemental Mage. This deck focuses on playing an elemental each turn to cash in on effects from cards such as Lamplighter and Overflow Surger. 

With the recent nerf to lamplighter it is not surprising to see that this decks win rate has significantly tanked going 2-8 (20%)

This deck was banned a total of 0 times. We will have to see if any new mage lists pop up within the coming weeks, but overall the class does not have the most exciting options.

Paladin
Untouched by nerfs, Paladin has been a popular bring for many players. The class is mainly split into two different decks, Aggro Paladin and Handbuff Paladin. Aggro paladin focuses on an aggressive rush to get the opponent to die while handbuff focuses more on its late game with large stats and otk potential. 

Surprisingly, aggro Paladin's win rate remains negative going 12-16 (42.86%) and handbuff also goes slightly negative going 7-8 (46.67%). 

Despite the negative win rate, Paladin is a very popular ban being banned a total of 19 times between aggro and handbuff. It will be interesting to see if this negative win rate encourages people to take a different approach with their bans.

Priest
Priest has two viable decks right now, the popular Zarimi Dragon Priest, and the skill-testing Overheal Priest. 

Zarimi Priest is capable of making extremely big boards, with the help of Gorgonzormu’s Cheese and Thirsty Drifters, and then taking an extra turn with Zarimi. This was tied for the second most popular bring, and the third most banned deck. It went 17-14 (55%). 

Overheal Priest appears to be a powerful deck, albeit harder to play than Zarimi Priest. The deck performed well, at 5-3 (62%).

Rogue
Rogue currently has 2 popular archetypes, Excavate Rogue and Elemental Rogue. Excavate Rogue focuses on quickly getting the Azerite Scorpion and Velarok to get powerful discounted cards. It utilizes cards such as Sonya, Shadowstep, and Breakdance to repeat these powerful effects and find a way to finish off the opponent. 

Elemental Rogue has the same goal as all the other elemental decks. Play an elemental every turn to get to powerful effects such as Lamplighter. However, Rogue has access to bounce effects such as Shadowstep and Breakdance allowing you to replay Lamplighters for huge burst damage. Due to the nerf of Lamplighter, this deck has taken a bit of a backseat recently. 

One deck that has been showing up lately at high legend is Miracle Rogue. While it has not been seen much this season, I believe it has the potential to dominate if put in the right hands. We have likely not seen it much as it requires quick decisions and fast APM from the player. It will be interesting to see if it shows up in the following weeks and how it performs. 

Excavate Rogue fell short of a positive winrate this week going 6-7 (46.15%) and Elemental Rogue went positive with a shorter sample size going 2-1 (66.67%).The class was only banned a total of one time.

Shaman
Shaman has several archetypes that performed to varying degrees; Evolve, Pirate, Highlander, and Rainbow. Evolve and Pirate were the two most popular by far, and each performed well. Pirate Shaman went 10-5 (67%) and Evolve Shaman went 13-9 (59%). The decks both utilize the early game aggression from the Demon Hunter Class with Carefree Cookie. Sigil of Skydiving and Patches the Pilot allow the decks to fight for board efficiently in the early game, and Carefree Cookie makes trading super favorable

Highlander Shaman wasn’t played very much, but had a high winrate, 6-2 (75%). It is capable of beating Rainbow DK and some of the aggro decks in the meta. 

Bonk Shaman looks like bait.

Warlock 
Warlock has two viable decks right now, an Insanity Warlock that is one of the most popular decks in the format, and Pain Warlock. Insanity Warlock is extremely refined at this point, picking up new cards like Tidepool Pupil that give it extra utility in the hands of skilled players. The deck performed okay, 10-11 (48%) mostly losing to aggro or other combos like Concierge Druid. 

Pain Warlock was less played but nonetheless very effective. It went 4-2 (67%).

Warrior
Warrior is in shambles. The popular Warrior deck was Unkilliax Warrior, which fared very poorly in this meta, between Yogg or Reska stealing the Zilliax, other classes being able to get under the deck with aggro, or having other answers, the class looks to be in a bad spot. 
Unkilliax Warrior in particular went 2-8 (20%). The only decks it was able to beat were off meta decks (Excavate Rogue and Elemental Shaman).

Lineups

Sprinkle’s Meta Picks:
Rainbow DK 
Zarimi Priest 
Pirate Shaman
Dragon Druid

Rainbow DK in it’s current form looks like a must-ban deck. At that point we’re just bringing the next best things. Solid combination of archetypes between a Aggro / “Combo” / and “Control” that doesn’t leave you open to getting swept. Dragon Druid could be swapped with a Warlock deck of your choice.

Sprinkle’s Off Meta / Underrated:
HL Shaman
Pain Warlock 
Pirate DH 
Concierge Druid 

I think Highlander Shaman would perform well if more people brought it, specifically as a counter to Rainbow DK. Pain Warlock and Pirate DH also seem to perform but lack the sample size to know for sure. Your opponent doesn’t want to play against Concierge Druid and it’ll eat the ban for sure. ​