The Hearthstone Grandmasters 2019 Week 3 Meta sees a strange resurgence of Rogues. Even after the nerfs to Raiding Party and Preparation, the list that runs the Pirate package is making a comeback. The short week before the buff patch could cause another wild shift heading into next weeks matches.
Rogues, Warriors and Hunters Galore
The Grandmasters seem to be convinced that even after the nerfs the Raiding Party combo is still strong enough to beat the best decks. 16 of the 48 players brought Tempo Rogue this week, with differing builds of course, but that makes Rogue the most played class for the first time in Grandmasters.
Bomb Warrior is staying strong in the number two spot. Not really being affected by nerfs, it’s just a solid all around deck against nearly every deck that is meta. It’s really only seeing great popularity in the Americas region, as eight of the 12 players bringing it are in the Americas. The deck is still being represented by at least two players across all regions however.
The number three most popular deck is a new one to see 10 representatives in Grandmasters. Not a single person in the Americas region brought it, but six Asia-Pacific players and four European players are bringing Midrange Hunter this week. Midrange Hunter can find ways to be aggressive against Mages that were so popular last week, and can out-value Warriors with Dire Frenzy on Vicious Scalehide.
The Rest of the Pack
We see a dip in class diversity this week after having eight of nine classes last week. Priest once again is not represented, along with Shaman and Warlock. There are only seven deck archetypes in total. The other four are Cyclone Mage, Holy Wrath Paladin, Bomb Hunter and Token Druid.
Cyclone Mage went from being the most popular deck last week to the fourth most popular. Just four people brought the deck this week down from 24 last week. A lot of people thought it was the best deck around. They either have switched over to counter this deck or maybe thought it wasn’t as good. Either way, those looking to counter this deck are unlikely to even play against it.
Holy Wrath Paladin has a fair share of representation at four players this week. A lot of the meta decks right now move too slowly to punish the draw game plan of this deck and allow it to pull off its OTK combo. Warrior is a concern since it has the capability to kill the Paladin or just out-armor the damage that could be dealt.
Just one Grandmaster a piece are bringing both Bomb Hunter and Token Druid. Bomb Hunter can be very aggressive and beat most things except Warrior can control it sometimes. Token Druid has the same problems but is well situated against decks like Midrange Hunter.
Tech Choices
With a larger emphasis on the first few turns considering most meta decks aren’t developing on those turns, Faerie Dragon is seeing play. Mages cannot ping the card, Rogues can’t backstab the card and most decks aren’t playing a two attack minion on turn one or two.
Weapons Project and Harrison Jones got a huge bump in value this week thanks to the return of Rogue and Waggle Pick. Pick does a nice chunk of damage and generates value with a lot of the Rogue minions. Disabling Leeroy combos can help prevent the Rogue from essentially OTK’ing you.
Betrayal and Walk the Plank are very popular sideboard tech choices for Rogues. Betrayal works well against Giant plus Conjurer’s Calling boards and Walk the Plank can kill a turn four Mountain Giant. Given that Mage is very unpopular this week, those lists are unlikely to see play unless that match lines up.
It seems that most players have a sideboard dedicated to Mage, but very few players brought Mage this week. With the popularity of Rogue and their ability to go wide on board with Lackeys, few decks seem equipped to deal with those kinds of boards. Time will tell what happens as the games play out over the weekend.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website.
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