We've collected 24 of the best peforming decks from this weekend's 2P EU vs CN qualifiers, from European and Chinese players both. See what's hot in China and what will help you do well on the European ladder.
Europe's decklits
Those familiar with Western Hearthstone should not be surprised by this collection of decks and builds. We see qualifier winner Savjz of Team Curse staying true to his personal preferences and bringing an all-time favorite of his - the tempo Rogue - alongside his own version of Druid Ramp and, of course, a Savannah Highmane Hunter which is all the rage on the current ladder.
For runner-up Lifecoach, the Highmane Hunter was a natural choice, seeing his as one of the pioneers of the build. His Rexxar was made company by a control Warrior, another standard and solid pick for the current metagame. What will come out as unorthodox decision is seeing the German bring a control Paladin, the only one to do so in the round of 16.
3rd/4th place finishers Rdu and Beherit decided to bring almost analogical decklists, going for a Highmane Hunter/Control Warrior/Anti aggro Shamans as their builds of choice.
Savjz's decks (1st place):
Lifecoach's decks (2nd place):
China's decklists
When the first 2P championship was launched in 2013, the Chinese Hearthstone scene was terra incognita. Nobody knew what Asia played, if they were behind or ahead of the meta (or just playing a different one), were revolutions in terms of deckbuilding happening or were they following the standards set up by American and European powerhouses.
In a feature we did back then, we wrote about several mid-range variations of Paladin decks, which would later be developed into one of the most dominant decks in western meta for a while. We saw some of the first iterations of Watcher Druids, a general love for Mad Bomber as counter to the old Blood Imps as well as some blood-crazed Warlock aggros running double Power Overwhelming, Hellfires and both Leeroy and Arcane Golem. Some of these quirks survived the test of time while others didn't.
Now, after a long period of no new insights on the Chinese meta, the western Hearthstone world gets to see what China is playing for the 2P CN vs EU Masters championship. Compared to the previous tournament, the differences between Asia and the West have grown fewer but there are still some oddities that European and North American players will find worth mentioning.
- There are Druids without [card]Harvest Golem[/card]: What is a staple two-of card in all western Druid decks, Harvest Golem is just not that popular in China. Of the three Druid decks in the top 4, only one ran a single Harvest Golem.
- [card]Wild Growth[/card] is omnipresent. Chinese players seem to like that extra mana crystal early on (or the card draw in late game) and prefer running ramp elements to playing defensively with cards like Ancient Watcher.
- [card]Savage Roar[/card] is always run 2x, even in non-token builds.
- Control Warriors like to run [card]Wild Pyromancer[/card] for extra synergy with their [card]Acolyte of Pain[/card] and [card]Armorsmith[/card]. They also prefer to have a stronger mid-game as compared to western players and often run [card]Chillwind Yeti[/card], [card]Azure Drake[/card] and [card]Defender of Argus[/card], while omitting [card]Frothing Berserker[/card].
- Control Warriors also don't run [card]Alexstrasza[/card], otherwise extremely popular in NA and EU builds
- [card]Stampeding Kodo[/card] and [card]Harrison Jones[/card] are widely used as meta counters (to Hunter/Zoo and Warrior/Rogue/Hunter, respectively).
- Zoos like to run a [card]Blood Knight[/card] to eat up friendly and enemy [card]Argent Squire[/card]s.
- Chinese are following EU/NA in the transition from aggro Hunter to more solid, mid-range builds.
And here are the decks of the top 4 players themselves:
| [deck linked]555[/deck] | [deck linked]556[/deck] | [deck linked]557[/deck] |
| [deck linked]552[/deck] | [deck linked]553[/deck] | [deck linked]554[/deck] |
Class distribution for qualifier playoffs
