Hearthstone Standard Meta Tier List – Delve Into Deepholm – Patch 28.4

Learn more about the Hearthstone Showdown in the Badlands Expansion's Mini-Set Delve into Deepholm (Patch 28.4) Standard metagame with our tailored Meta Tier List. Here, you'll find every deck for each class, tested and refined, to help you reach the Legend rank!

Hearthstone Standard Meta Overview

The Mini-Set didn't bring a lot of new archetypes, rather support to several doing well already, which looks like it widened the gap between the top and the bottom classes. Paladin and Druid in particular, have looked absolutely insane early after the mini-set, using the mining package for Uther, while Malfurion is happily abusing Pendant of Earth and Shattered Reflection in various archetypes.

However, if these two heroes already were dominant before the mini-set, and only got stronger with the new cards, Warlock and Warrior look significantly better now. For Gul'dan, we could explain this through getting two new direct damage tools in the mini-set, Trogg Gemtosser and Chaos Creation. With these additions, the deck can play much more aggressively, knowing it can close the match even if the board is lost, a much more difficult task to accomplish before the Mini-Set.

As for Garrosh, it is the only class using a new archetype, Highlander Warrior, pushed by the new Brann, expected to be a powerhouse when revealed, and living up to the hype so far. The deck looks like a control build, but becomes a very midrange-y kind of deck once it triggers every battle cry twice for the rest of the game.

So far, these four really are the dominant ones if we look at Hearthstone from a general standpoint, but combo-oriented archetypes are able to compete when checking the top of the Legend ranks specifically. Then, even if ranked in Tier 2, Mining Rogue and Aggro Naga Demon Hunter seem to have the most potential to join Tier 1 in the near future. As for Plague Death Knight, the deck isn't including any new card, and often feels outpaced by its opponent whenever it can get a great start into a match. Then, even if the deck still holds a decent place in the metagame, the archetype might be on the downfall as we speak.

In the tier below, Hunter and Shaman are also suffering from the new tools they got not making much of an impact. While we could expect this for Hunter, which saw the Arcane build overtake the Highlander deck, Thrall received several promising cards, but doesn't seem able to incorporate them well into its signature archetype. As it stands, the Highlander Shaman deck looks fairly similar to what it was before the mini-set came out, except various other decks have progressed, and are now faster off the gate, or able to pressure almost indefinitely thanks to cards like Topior or Brann providing an insane amount of value. If Thrall was to find a list able to compete, I have no doubt Highlander Shaman could reach the tier above, but the list able to do that is still up in the air as we speak.

In the last group, Mage and Priest simply look like the mini-set had no impact on them, with both classes struggling to make an impact as a result. Mage was decent as long as Shaman was around to provide a good match-up. In this different metagame, Jaina doesn't really have that opponent it can counter, and it immediately shows on its overall performance. As for Anduin, Naga Priest was solid into Druid before the mini-set and might still be, but that is about the only upside currently for Priest. Then, the class logically went back to its aggressive archetype in Undead Priest. Note that Automaton Priest wasn't so far behind, even if both archetype were below the 50% win rate threshold at all ranks.

Best Hearthstone Deck for Every Class - Delve into Deepholm - Patch 28.4

Impactful, Second Best Decks - Delve into Deepholm - Patch 28.4

Disclaimer and Tier Explanations

There are a variety of ways to be informed about the Hearthstone metagame, a logical trait of a 10 years old game. In order to craft this tier list, den, a veteran coach and competitor on Hearthstone, has combined the data available on the popular deck trackers, the opinion of top ranked players about the dominant decks, and its own expertise plus tested of the archetypes on this list.

This list should represent the Diamond and Legend ranks pretty well, with the very top of the ladder being excluded. Indeed, once you reach the top of the Legend rank, the game changes and focuses much more on combo and explosive patterns, which require a lot of time to master completely. Then, you will typically see different decks perform at those ranks, or archetypes be built to specifically match the environment of these ranks.

As for the ranks before Diamond, those tend to be more about game fundamentals rather than precise archetypes. One should be able to reach Diamond with any deck on the rankings, as long as they understand the basics of crafting a game plan, seizing initiative, and building momentum to pressure the opponent.

The lists aren't set in stone, particularly the reactive decks, which need to be tailored to your most popular opponent. Often, a proactive deck will focus on its own strengths, leading to a decklist which isn't very flexible once we found the right balance. On the other end, a reactive deck is designed to answer other decks, or trends of the metagame, meaning they have to be adapted to your own environment.

Conclusion

For any question about the rankings, or a deck in particular, feel free to reach out on Twitter. I mostly share Marvel Snap decks lately, but I still love and play Hearthstone daily, I promise.

Good game everyone!