Scholomance Academy is here! And with it comes one of the largest, freshest gusts of wind we've seen mid-year in a long time. With new, interesting tools for every single class, this stands to be one of the most impactful expansions for Hearthstone. Though the first day of a new release is always a varied environment, we've already begun to see some impactful decks begin to show us what's ahead for this meta. We've highlighted some decks from streamers below that caught our eye and would be great places to start as you get acquainted with your classes.
Many Spell Damage lists have been circulating in the first day of this new meta, and Apxvoid's list seems to be a really solid start. It wants to push incremental damage in the early game with seemingly unimportant minions and then push the midgame cheap burn spells like Brain Freeze and Frostbolt or a massive play from Mozaki and/or Ras Frostwhisper. The list plays a lot of new cards and seems to be a really solid tempo style play pattern for players interested in blasting their opponents down.
Enrage Warrior has been one of the kings of the Ashes of Outland meta, and on day 1, it's only fair to shore up the list with some strong cards and prove that it's still good. Troublemaker and Reaper's Scythe seem to be big winners out of the gates for a lot of Warrior decks. And Shield of Honor's placement as a cheaper version of Rampage makes it a no-brainer. This list from Lemy is a great one to take to the ladder if you'd like some new flavor in an old favorite.
Turns out a 5/5 that deals 5 damage to your opponent on turn 1 is a pretty good start. Orange has pioneered an Aggro Shaman (practically Face Shaman) that takes mostly takes advantage of the new Lightning Bloom tool given to Shaman and Druid in this expansion. Being able to cheat out mana is almost always worth trying, and this as a 0-mana spell can fit into practically any shell of the 2 classes. If your place is typically categorized as "face," you'll feel right at home here.
Speaking of cheating mana, Guardian Animals has been an aggressive frontrunner for best card of the set. When played in this package featuring Lightning Bloom, Kael'thas, and Survival of the Fittest, you can devastate your opponent into practically impossible situations to stand up against. Day 1 of brand new metas usually surface a deck that seems overpowered, but don't fret yet. Play the aggressive decks above or below if this one's giving you too many headaches.
And finally, the other boogeyman of this set could be a 1-mana spell that Rogue has called Secret Passage. This single card allows Rogue to utilize cards within their deck to gain tempo and retain any resources they have in the hand for their next turn. Keep your foot firmly planted on the gas with ARAI's list.
Our Scholomance Academy updates to all Standard features on HSReplay.net are coming August 7th along with a first look at what the data shows to be frontrunners of the meta. Stay tuned to keep up-to-date with all the latest developments!
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