Best Standard Decks: The Voyage to the Sunken City Tier List

Last updated on Apr 16, 2022 at 10:01 by Kat 3 comments

Welcome to our Tier List for Hearthstone. On this page, you will find our Standard decks, ranked from Best (S Tier) to Worst (C Tier), as well as detailed commentary for all the decks, to explain their strengths and weaknesses.

1.

Tier List for Classic Decks

2.

S Tier

2.1.

Questline Pirate Warrior

Questline Warrior was a menace on the ladder for a large past of the past year and continues to do so with the release of Voyage to the Sunken City. With many powerful new Pirates added, the deck is stronger than ever before, granting it a place in S tier.

Questline Warrior is a twist on Aggro Pirate Warrior decks. It uses a constant stream of Pirates to pressure opponents with the added bonus of the Cap'n Rokara and The Juggernaut rewards from the Raid the Docks Questline as an inevitable win condition to close out longer games.

2.2.

Naga Ramp Druid

The addition of the Naga Giant to the game was a natural fit for Ramp Druids, providing a natural way to swing back onto the board after playing a large number of spells while the new spell, Miracle Growth, offers the deck a way to gain a board presence while refilling its hand. These new additions paired with the newly unnerfed Nourish to replace Overgrowth allow the deck to be stronger than ever and perhaps the most feared deck at high Legend ranks, granting it a strong S-tier rank.

Naga Ramp Druid is a variant of the many "Guff" Druid iterations that aims to gain excessive amounts of Mana Crystals and subsequently uses the Mana to dominate opponents. This variant in particular utilises Naga Giants to swing back onto the board after spending large amounts of Mana ramping up.

3.

A Tier

3.1.

Mech Mage

Mech Mage has returned to the game for the first time since the Goblins vs Gnomes expansion. The new iteration of the deck is stronger than ever thanks to the addition of powerful new cards from the latest expansion like Mecha-Shark, Seafloor Gateway, and Gaia, the Techtonic to name a few, allowing the deck to pull off a range of different strategies to win the game. The deck narrowly missed out on being S tier only due to the dominance of the current S-tier decks.

Mech Mage is a Midrange deck that, as the name suggests, uses a range of Mech minions to flood the board. The synergy between the minions allow the deck to develop strong boards, have large burst damage from hand, and be able to generate almost limitless resources resulting in a well-rounded deck.

3.2.

Naga Fel Demon Hunter

The addition of the Naga tribe naturally synergises with the Fel Demon Hunter deck, allowing the deck to rise through the tier list with the latest expansion. The deck is incredibly strong with no particularly bad matchups, however it is not as flexible as some of the other decks it competes with decks like Mech Mage and Naga Ramp Druid, preventing it from reacing S tier.

Naga Fel Demon Hunter uses a mix of Nagas and their natural synergy with spells to be a high-tempo deck capable of aggressively dominating the board while also having access to significant amounts of direct damage. The deck's spells are almost entirely Fel Spells, allowing the use of Jace Darkweaver as a powerful finisher.

3.3.

Pirate Rogue

With the addition of the strongest neutral Pirates the game has ever seen, Pirate Rogue is the second Pirate archetype to greatly benefit from the latest expansion. While the deck may not quite be as strong as Pirate Warrior variants, due to not having as strong of a Pirate infrastructure going into the expansion, Pirate Rogue has access to many of its own unique and powerful Pirate cards like Swordfish, Cutlass Courier and Azsharan Vessel to earn itself a spot in A tier.

Pirate Rogue is an aggressive deck that uses a mix of Weapons and Pirates to populate and dominate the early-game board before using the resultant tempo mixed with some direct damage to finish off opponents.

4.

B Tier

4.1.

Questline Hunter

Questline Hunter is another deck that has benefited from the release of the Naga Tribe, offering strong synergies with the spells naturally played by the deck. However, the deck is still greatly limited by the time taken to complete the Questline, limiting the strength of the deck and preventing it from rising above B tier.

Questline Hunter is a spell deck that utilises the Defend the Dwarven District Questline. By continually making use of damage spells, the Questline eventually unlocks Tavish, Master Marksman to add a free Hero Power to every spell played, allowing the deck to swiftly burn down opponents after the Questline's completion.

4.2.

Mech Paladin

The Mech Paladin archetype was reborn with the release of Voyage to the Sunken City expansion, gaining a range of powerful class-specific and neutral minions. While the archetype is excellent at developing powerful boards, it lacks versatility compared to Mech Mage, making it more vulnerable to removal as well as struggling to retake control of the board, resulting in a B-tier rating.

Mech Paladin is a board-heavy deck that uses Mech synergies to constantly develop a board of strong minions. The archetype makes full use of handbuffs and Divine Shields to create wave after wave of powerful minions that are very difficult to remove, overwhelming almost any opponent with access to hard removal.

4.3.

Shellfish Mill Priest

Shellfish Mill Priest is a niche deck with a new take on defeating opponents with fatigue damage. The deck card be particularly effective but is incredibly difficult to execute. However, the deck has a lot of potential as players learn and improve with it, with a huge benefit of having a very favoured matchup against the abundant Druid decks on ladder.

Shellfish Mill Priest is a combo deck that takes full advantage of Selfish Shellfish by generating multiple copies of the card throughout the game before utilising Xyrella, the Devout to repeat all of the Deathrattles and force opponents into drawing excessive amounts of cards.

4.4.

Naga Mage

Naga Mage is an excellent deck on paper, having great synergies between its minions and spells and feel very natural. The deck is also capable of pulling off incredible turns with the use of Spitelash Siren. Despite this, the deck often lacks a clear win condition and generally relies on winning by the sheer amount of Mana it has access to, resulting in the deck only making it to B tier.

The Naga Mage archetype features the perfect balance between minions and spells, constantly alternating between the two to activate synergies that can be used to deal damage, populate the board, and generate cards. The deck's true strength lies with the Spitelash Siren cards, allowing proving access to almost limitless Mana for turns full of massive damage and strong board development that will defeat any opponent without an immediate response.

4.5.

Burn Shaman

Burn Shaman is an explosive deck capable of dealing massive amounts of damage to opponents with the recent addition of Bioluminescence. However, the deck is incredibly difficult to play correctly and can have inconsistent results due to the nature of Bioluminescence plays. While the deck is still solid, it feels like it is missing a strong card or two to make it beyond B tier.

Burn Shaman uses core Midrange Freeze Shaman cards to fight for board control and slow down opponents as it aims to draw through its deck. Should opponents fail to keep the deck under control, it can make use of Bioluminescence on its board for large amounts of spell damage and pair them with cheap damage spells like Scalding Geyser and Lightning Bolt.

5.

C Tier

5.1.

Murloc Warlock

Murloc Warlock gained a range of new tools to revive the archetype in the Voyage to the Sunken City expansion. With new handbuff cards like Chum Bucket, the archetype has the option of playing longer games using big Murlocs as well as more traditionally flooding the board with cheap minions. However, the deck still heavily relies on winning through board control with minimal comeback mechanics, making this Murloc deck weaker than rival Mech decks, keeping the deck in C tier.

Murloc Warlock is an aggressive tribal deck that makes use of Murloc's tribal synergies to generate strong boards that can snowball out of control with each and every Murloc played. Through the use of handbuff mechanics, modern Murloc Warlock can play longer games than more traditional builts, but it still benefits most from using its early board presences to rush down opponents.

5.2.

Switcheroo Priest

Switcheroo Priest is a gimmicky deck that can offer a fun experience stealing wins, but offers minimal strategy beyond its initial combo. While the deck's initial combo is strong, it is vulnerable to failing if the wrong cards are drawn or if opponents are able to remove the initial minion played. Despite the deck having a chance to beat anything, it has a very low floor and is not capable of making it beyond C tier in its current state.

Switcheroo Priest is a unique deck that aims to utilise the Switcheroo card in a deck containing 1 cheap minion and 1 minion with huge stats, fully committing to winning via a single powerful minion played very early. The deck is capable of stealing wins often and against any deck, but can struggle greatly if its combo fails.

6.

Changelog

  • 16 Apr. 2022: Shellfish Priest added to the tier list.
  • 15 Apr. 2022: Tier list has been updated for the Voyage to the Sunken City expansion.
  • 11 Dec. 2021: Tier list has been updated for the Fracured in Alterac Valley expansion.
  • 06 Nov. 2011: Tier list has been updated for The Deadmines miniset.
  • 06 Aug. 2021: Tier list has been updated for the United in Stormwind expansion.
  • 17 May 2021: Tier list has been updated for the 20.2.2 balance patch.
  • 14 Apr. 2021: Tier list has been updated for the 20.0.2 balance patch.
  • 06 Apr. 2021: Token Druid added to the tier list. Ratings for Secret Paladin and Celestial Druid adjusted.
  • 03 Apr. 2021: Aggro Demon Hunter, Deathrattle Demon Hunter, and Spell Priest added to the tier list.
  • 02 Apr. 2021: Guide added.
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