Even though Standard battles in Hearthstone have lost much of their popularity in favor of Battlegrounds, there is still an active metagame.
Hearthstone has been struggling in recent years to maintain an active player base. This is mostly due to a lot of competition with Wizards launching MTGA and Marvel Snap, also offering a very quick and easy to get into TCG. Blizzard has explored other game modes, with their variant of an auto-battler called Battlegrounds coming out on top. Battlegrounds fans should also pay attention to this Hearthstone Battlegrounds hero tier list guide. And even though Standard’s success has waned, plenty of players are still invested in this game mode. If you are one of those players, you might be interested in discovering the current metagame. So here are some of the most successful meta decks Hearthstone has to offer currently.
Miracle Rogue
An archetype that has been around for a long time, Miracle Rogue still manages to come out on top in the current meta. Even though it has lost the drawing power that Gadgetzan Auctioneer and Field Contact, both those draw engines were relatively slow. This Miracle Rogue version focuses more on speed, and you still have some drawing power from Edwin, Defias Kingpin. Sinstone Graveyard and Necrolord Draka are excellent cards that work best during your miracle turns. Regarding removal, your cheapest and most efficient option is Serrated Bone Spike alongside your trust Blackwater Cutlass. All in all, this is still a powerful archetype that has very few bad matchups. Essentially you can win any matchup with a good draw.
2x (0) Preparation
1x (0) Shadow of Demise
2x (0) Shadowstep
2x (1) Blackwater Cutlass
2x (1) Concoctor
2x (1) Door of Shadows
2x (1) Ghostly Strike
2x (1) Gone Fishin’
1x (2) Astalor Bloodsworn
2x (2) Ghoulish Alchemist
1x (2) Mailbox Dancer
2x (2) Potion Belt
1x (2) Potionmaster Putricide
2x (2) Serrated Bone Spike
2x (3) Sinstone Graveyard
1x (4) Edwin, Defias Kingpin
1x (5) Necrolord Draka
2x (6) Scribbling Stenographer
Undead Priest
Compared to older Priest decks that leaned more into the control archetype, focusing on resurrecting your fallen units repeatedly until your opponent ran out of gas, Undead Priest is a fast and aggressive deck. While it doesn’t have the strongest early game, you still have some cheap removal in the form of Mind Sear to deal with those early enemy minions. Your general gameplan starts unfolding during the mid-game, where you can make good use of Undying Allies and Animate Dead to bring back some of your Deathrattle minions. As you keep bringing back the dead, this will slowly chip away at your opponent’s health and patience. This is a very annoying deck to play against since it constantly has threats on board that require an immediate answer. A few missed removals from your opponent will quickly end in tears for him.
2x (0) Undying Allies
2x (1) Animate Dead
2x (1) Mind Sear
2x (1) Shadowcloth Needle
2x (1) Voidtouched Attendant
2x (2) Incorporeal Corporal
2x (3) Brittleskin Zombie
2x (3) Haunting Nightmare
2x (3) Shadowed Spirit
2x (4) Bonecaller
2x (4) Grave Digging
1x (4) High Cultist Basaleph
2x (4) Rotting Necromancer
2x (4) Void Shard
1x (5) Darkbishop Benedictus
2x (5) Shadow Word: Undeath
Aggro Mage
The Mage class has seen success over the years with control and aggro decks alike. Control is out the window nowadays, especially since the entire Hearthstone meta is fast and aggressive. This particular deck focuses on freeze effects and summoning skeletons through various cards. Irondeep Trogg can also bring a lot of early-game pressure, especially versus decks that focus on casting many cheap spells. At the top of your curve you have Deathborne, which deals two damage to all minions and also summons a 2/2 skeleton for each minion that dies. If you’re worried about removal, you have some new tools like Arcane Wyrm and Arcsplitter, which can help out.
2x (0) Flurry (Rank 1)
2x (1) Arcane Wyrm
2x (1) Irondeep Trogg
2x (1) Shivering Sorceress
1x (1) Suspicious Alchemist
2x (2) Amplified Snowflurry
1x (2) Astalor Bloodsworn
1x (2) Bloodmage Thalnos
2x (2) Crooked Cook
2x (2) Frozen Touch
2x (2) Prismatic Elemental
2x (3) Arcsplitter
2x (3) Frostweave Dungeoneer
2x (4) Cold Case
1x (4) Commander Sivara
1x (4) Varden Dawngrasp
1x (5) Aegwynn, the Guardian
2x (6) Deathborne
Frost Death Knight
Even though this is a pretty broad archetype, there are a few winning combinations, including this particular deck. Most of these Death Knight decks focus on the Frost rune, using a triple Frost-rune strategy which is backed up by some powerful legendaries. You can try out one Blood or Unholy rune, but losing the power of Lady Deathwhisper, Marrow Manipulator, and Frostwyrm’s Fury might hurt a lot in the late game. Brann Bronzebeard is also an essential card for this deck since you have plenty of Battlecry effects that give you card advantage.
2x (0) Horn of Winter
2x (1) Arms Dealer
2x (1) Bone Breaker
2x (1) Foul Egg
2x (1) Skeletal Sidekick
2x (2) Frost Strike
2x (2) Harbinger of Winter
1x (3) Brann Bronzebeard
2x (3) Chillfallen Baron
2x (3) Nerubian Vizier
2x (4) Construct Quarter
1x (4) Might of Menethil
2x (4) School Teacher
1x (4) Thassarian
2x (6) Marrow Manipulator
1x (6) Overseer Frigidara
2x (7) Frostwyrm’s Fury
Quest Druid
Quest Druid has been around for some time, but this is a completely new spin on the archetype. This particular version focuses on gaining attack with your Hero to finish the quest as fast as possible and get your hands on Guff the Tough. Guff the Tough is a five mana 8/8 Taunt minion with “Battlecry: Give your hero +8 Attack and gain 8 Armor.” This works great with Mark of the Spikeshell, which can double Guff the Tough to gain even more attack and armor for your hero.
2x (0) Aquatic Form
2x (0) Innervate
2x (0) Pounce
2x (1) Lingering Zombie
1x (1) Lost in the Park
2x (1) Rake
1x (2) Astalor Bloodsworn
2x (2) Capture Coldtooth Mine
2x (2) Moonlit Guidance
1x (3) Brann Bronzebeard
1x (3) Feral Rage
2x (3) Pathmaker
2x (4) Park Panther
2x (4) Widowbloom Seedsman
2x (5) Nourish
2x (5) Spammy Arcanist
1x (5) Wildheart Guff
1x (8) Anub’Rekhan
Plenty of other decks are pretty competent in the current meta, but these are clearly some of the top-tier Hearthstone meta decks. If you were to take a Hearthstone meta snapshot, all of these decks would be classified as Tier 1 and Tier 2. For those of you that are also interested in Battlegrounds, we have a list with some of the best Hearthstone Battlegrounds builds that are dominating the metagame.
