This weekend, the last of the preliminary tournaments will begin, staring with the European region. A total of 240 players will attend the Tavern Hero and Summer Preliminaries between August 13-14 and tackle a double elimination bracket designed to pick the eight to spar at the Summer Championship next month.
For the world of competitive Hearthstone, this is a big moment. Not only does it mark some of the most exciting series of matches the game has to offer, but this will be the last tournament to feature no Karazhan cards. The Old Gods metagame is bidding farewell to its last days.
As usual, Blizzard has been kind enough to provide us with all the decklists to be played this weekend and in GosuGamers tradition we’ve put them all to pretty numbers and graphs to illustrate what the metagame is today and identify new and repeating trends.
Clear cut favorites
If there’s every been a gigantic gap between the top and bottom classes of Hearthstone, it’s now. Warrior, Shaman, Warlock and Druid have come out as the big winners of the Old Gods meta, forming a distinct top four. The drop between Druid’s 68 per cent and his immediate successor Hunter at mere 22 per cent is brutal. This sends a clear message – there is a power quartet in shape and everyone else is to play the role of the niche, or pocket, or cheese deck.
This trend has been growing for a while and could be observed during the Spring preliminaries and championships too. Warrior, Warlock and Shaman have been polished and perfected and are the go-to choices for many competitors. The raw power of Warrior, combined with the unparalleled diversity of builds within the class, has even pushed it to 95 per cent, meaning only eleven players out of all 240 haven’t included Garrosh in their line-up. If previous tournaments are any indication, they are also likely to face elimination somewhere along the bracket, having consciously chosen to leave Hearthstone’s current strongest class at home.
Archetype breakdown and the “Fantastic Four”
Don’t worry, it’s not about those awful movies. The Fantastic Four of current-day Hearthstone are the four most represented decks, shaping the dream Conquest line-up. Today, it consists of Zoo Lock, Aggro Shaman, Yogg Druid and Dragon Warrior, in descending order.
This is a bright proof of one thing – we’re in an aggro meta and there’s no escaping it. Put together, the numbers fantastic four are higher than all other archetypes combined, not to mention a lot of the non-fantastic builds observed include Token Druid, Secrets Paladin, Midrange Hunter and Face Warrior, which are also on the aggressive side of the spectrum. Those players who’ve chosen to include a control deck in their line-up better have it teched to withstand these massive oppressive boards.
These big gaps in numbers might seem worrying at first but they are perfectly normal at this stage of the game. Hearthstone has gone four months without new content, during which time it’s had dozens of tournaments in all possible formats. Supported by data and experience, the most consistent decks flow to the top. When you combine a format like “Conquest” – where line-ups are defined by their weak links – and the high stakes of the HCT Preliminaries, observing such drastic differences is the most normal thing when analyzing the state of the meta.
Why you should be excited about the Summer Preliminaries
The aggro metagame has never been community’s favorite whose displeasure has been memed down to “4 mana 7/7” and “fun and interactive” posts. Even though aggression will be the theme of the weekend, there’s a lot to be hyped about coming into the Europe Summer Preliminaries, including:
- The most diversity Warrior has ever had in its life. Being the most used class is no shocker, and it’s not just because Dragon Warrior is so strong. Garrosh has found a total of eight ways to play the game in this tournament, including not only the regular Dragon, Control and C’Thun builds, but also Worgen Combos, Patrons and even N’Zoth Controls.
- There’s a lot of Crusher/Concede Shaman in the tournament. Thanks to Tars and his DreamHack Valencia run, the ultra-defensive Thrall builds are back in fashion, creating a huge wall of 7/8s to spit in aggro’s face.
- Priest is not dead. Even though the class is yet to unlock its two new cards from Karazhan, a few brave souls have chosen to put their faith in the light. There are a couple of whacky control builds, including this one here, and if we’re lucky we might even see them on stream.
- There’s a Dragon Hunter in the tournament. Yes, we have the list. No, you can’t have it “right now”, come back tomorrow when we’ll have the most quirky decks of the tournament published for you.
- Sottle will have to sit through dozens and dozens of Yogg-Saron triggers.
OK, great. Now where can I watch this?
Easy.
Official stream
Taven Hero bracket
Summer Preliminaries bracket (TBD)
