The Year of the Hydra has brought along seismic changes to the world of Hearthstone, with a larger-than-before Core set, the return of the original League of Explorers cards to Standard, and a super-powerful new expansion in Voyage to the Sunken City. Murder at Castle Nathria and Maw and Disorder further upped the ante, and there seems to be a clear winner amidst all the new releases.
Read on to find out which classes are the ones you should consider first if you’d like to maximize your win percentages on the Standard Constructed ladder.
Hunter
Hunters have been dominating the metagame since the launch of the Maw and Disorder mini-set. Beast Hunter has already emerged as a powerful deck after the latest round of nerfs before the mini-set went live, but now it has reached new, stratospheric heights. The additions of Afterlife Attendant, Shadehound, and Sylvanas, the Accused made the deck even stronger than it previously was, and it’s no wonder that Hunters are crushing the ladder with a 57-percent global win rate. The deck really can do it all, from powerful early plays with the Wildseed cards to cheating out big bombs with Pet Collector and Harpoon Gun. There’s also Sire Denathrius as an ever-present curve-topper, of course.
Deck code: AAECAR8KyvsDw4AE25EE4Z8E2qME57kE6dAEvuMEl+8EpO8ED+rpA/T2A+KfBNijBOGkBOWkBMCsBIPIBLjjBMHjBMzkBNDkBNLkBMDtBKLvBAA=
Warlock
Warlocks are all-in on the Imp synergies introduced in Murder in Castle Nathria and the bit of added support from Maw and Disorder. Just like over the course of the previous expansions, you have two viable pathways for the deck: either go for broke with the Imp stuff and play for the board with huge minion buffs or introduce the Abyssal Curse package to have a bit of extra burn. Neither will save you against Hunters but they will set you up well against the rest of the field—especially the latter.
Deck code: AAECAf0GBvLtA7CRBOa9BJjUBJvkBIfqBAzX7QOD+wPFgASEoATmoAT+tATcvQTivQT/2QSA2gSB2gSr6gQA
Shaman
Shaman is the only other class with a positive win rate at time of writing (that’s right, Hunters are that dominant). You can either try to make the mega-nerfed Control Shaman work or you can also go all-in on Murlocs. The former features some new goodies in the form of Muck Pools and Glugg the Gulper, making it the infinitely more interesting option.
Deck code: AAECAaoIDKjuA6bvA4b6A6SBBMORBMeyBOm2BOnQBJjUBLjZBODtBJfvBA7G+QPTgASVkgTblATVsgTgtQSWtwSywQTFzgTGzgS12QS22QT03AS88AQA
