Beating Meta & Hitting Legend - 5 Top Standard Hearthstone Decks April 2018

The Witchwood has been around for almost a week, and the meta is starting to shape up. While players everywhere will complain about the long animation times for the Shudderwock Shaman deck, it doesn’t actually have a particularly good winrate and can be easily beaten by aggressive decks. But what decks are defining the meta right now? We’ve taken a look at some of the highly rated decks with proven impressive winrates from pro players and the community.

Baku Odd Paladin (Multiple)

The Witchwood introduced the concept of odd or even decks to the game with Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane respectively, and one class that has undeniably benefited from both archetypes is Paladin. But which is stronger? Both have their benefits, but the strongest seems to be Odd Paladin, with the inclusion of cards like Level Up, Vinecleaver and Fungalmancer, it’s an aggressive deck that often closes out games by turn six or seven.

There’s been a lot of variants circulating, with some including cards like Stormwind Champion and Raid Leader like we’ve opted for above, while some use more one cost minions like Dire Mole and Glacial Shard, along with Boisterous Bard and Sword of Justice for a more mid-range style of play. All Odd Paladin variants have the same goal though; make optimal trades, and only start going face when you have minions left over from trading for board control.

You can read a full guide here on HearthstoneTopDecks including which cards to mulligan for, how to change up your playstyle when against aggro or control, and which cards to replace if you don’t have a full collection. If you’ve got everything you need, copy the code below to import the deck straight into your Hearthstone client.

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Cubelock (Zalae)

The final set for 2017 was Kobolds & Catacombs, and it brought Warlock from trash tier and raised it up, higher than anyone could ever have foreseen, thanks to two cards; Carnivorous Cube and Voidlord. It’s not an easy deck to pilot by any means, but when someone is skilled at it, it’s a deck that becomes almost impossible to beat if the Warlock doesn’t get unlucky with their draws. Many were hoping the deck would be laid to rest with the release of The Witchwood, but that hasn’t been the case whatsoever.

Again, there’s a few variants on this list but our favourite is by far the one used by pro player Paul ‘Zalae’ Nemeth. The deck focuses on stalling your opponent through the use of Possessed Lackey and Dark Pact, which will always pull either a Voidlord or a Doomguard, along with restoring eight health to your hero. Skull of the Man’ari will pull them from your hand if you’re unlucky enough to draw them before Possessed Lackey can pull them from your deck, while Carnivorous Cube is essential for later in the game when you want to attack with your Doomguard, destroy it with Carnivorous Cube, then Dark Pact the Cube to summon another two with charge to push your opponents face. The rest of the cards in the deck focus on removal, protecting your face, and cycling through your cards to find the combo pieces. Rin, the First Disciple is a common feature in this deck, but tends to be ran without Skull of the Man’ari as the weapon will pull Azari the Devourer from your hand without triggering its battlecry.

You can see an in-depth guide, along with some variants on the list, at IcyVeins, or copy the code below to use the deck in-game.

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Odd Face Hunter (Stonekeep)

Face Hunter is back, baby. While it didn’t see much play when Justicar Trueheart was around due to having to wait until turn six at the earliest to upgrade your hero power, being able to deal three damage to your opponent from the start of the game is a game changer. It utilises all the cards that know there’s only one place to go, and that’s to the face. Importantly, it’s also a fantastic counter to Cubelock.

This deck has one rule; hit your opponent straight in the face. There’s a lot of one drops like Argent Squire, Dire Mole and Fire Fly that tend to stick to the board, and they force your opponent to trade into them. Ironbeak Owl is great for ignoring those pesky Voidlords, Stonehill Defenders and buffed Silver Hand Recruits from Level Up, while Tracking is most useful around turns five and six when you’re searching for the last card or two to deal lethal damage.

You’re unlikely to ever play Baku the Mooneater, as he’s just a vanilla 7/8 for nine mana; he’s included solely for the buff to the hero power. Candleshot is great for trading smaller minions if you absolutely have to, but you’ll often be better off just smacking your opponent in the face with it. Wolfrider and Leeroy Jenkins are the ultimate face cards too and can be fantastic when your opponent thinks they’ve stabilised with just a few hit points left, then you ruin their day.

We like Stonekeep’s list a lot on HearthstoneTopDecks, so you can find a more in-depth guide here, and copy the deck code below to import it directly into Hearthstone.

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Spiteful Druid (Iksar)

Druid didn’t get many great cards in The Witchwood, but professional player Iksar has come up with a fantastic list that utilises just one spell; Ultimate Infestation, and everyone’s favourite 4/4, Spiteful Summoner. When the year of the mammoth ended and the three sets from 2016 rotated to wild only, a lot of the understatted 10-cost minions like N’Zoth the Corruptor and Yogg-Saron, Hope’s End went with it. That meant the pool of 10 drops Spiteful Summoner has to pull from is a lot more refined, with only six cards available; Emeriss, Tyrantus, Sea Giant, Mountain Giant, Deathwing, and Ultrasaur.

It’s a standard mid-range deck that opts to run no two-cost cards in favour of Prince Keleseth, which buffs the weaker cards with low health like Greedy Sprite and Glacial Shard to two hit points, while stalling the game with Tar Creeper and Saronite Chain Gang. Mindbreaker is a useful tech choice right now given the prominence of decks utilising Baku and Genn, and against Odd Face Hunter mentioned above, it means your opponent almost absolutely has to trade minions to unlock their hero power again.

Leeroy features in this list to capitalise on pushing face, but if you’re facing more aggressive decks and struggle to survive through the mid-game, Spreading Plague can be a decent substitution. It means Spiteful Summoner is weakened, but a random six-cost minion is still fairly powerful alongside a 4/4. There’s no guide for this deck, but you can copy the deck code below to use it in-game.

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Aggro Mage (Trump)

Mage is a class that has always been amongst the top performers, but with Ice Block having rotated and Freeze Mage seemingly disappearing, many thought that could change. The Witchwood Mage cards were keen on creating a Minion Mage archetype but while it hasn’t seen too much success so far, Aggro Mage has re-entered the fray after a good while out of the limelight.

Trump’s list is a fairly standard Mage deck, but it takes advantage of the new value generator minion, Vex Crow. You’ll be casting a lot of spells, and as a result, having Vex Crow down on the board can result in some very snowball-y turns where you go from having no minions to four or five, along with dealing some serious face damage or clearing their board with your low cost spells. Aluneth cycles through your deck in exchange for one turn of not doing much, while Archmage Antonidas has a place to generate those fireballs for extended face punching.

It’s not the best deck against Odd Paladin or Cubelock which are the most dominant lists right now, but it can deal with the other classes very well. Like the Spiteful Druid, there’s no guide for this deck, but it’s fairly self explanatory; deal with your opponents minions as effectively as possible, and save as much burst as possible for one high damage turn. You can copy the deck code below if you’ve got all the necessary cards.

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The Witchwood meta is undoubtedly still growing and evolving, but for now, these decks seem to be very powerful and as long as you learn how to pilot them, should see you climb the ladder at a steady rate. In other Hearthstone news, we sat down with the composer for the game to talk about what it’s like to create music for a competitive card game played by millions of people around the world.

(Deck list images made by us using HearthstoneTopDecks.com deck builder.)