There are always a ton of ideas here at Hearthstone Players on what kind of content that is valuable to our readers. Content that not only provides value but hard to find anywhere else on the web. Content that be consistently produced on a weekly basis so that you, our readers, will keep coming back to the site. So far, the ideas that have panned out and well received are:
- The Mastering ‘X’ Deck Guide series (Wednesdays)
- Hearthstone Quiz (check the link for the 1st post) – a little new and still being tested (Tuesdays)
- Hearthstone Content/Meta Round Up! – we noticed that a lot of our readers don’t have the time to keep a finger on Hearthstone’s pulse every day, so this is our weekly round up of all Hearthstone related news we find valuable to share it with those that want a quick summary (Saturdays)
- Meta Check (#1 can be viewed here) – HSP’s way of letting you guys know what the meta is like. Instead of assigning hard numbers and rankings to the decks, we share what we (Team HSP) are experiencing on the ladder, what we’re playing and what we recommend. If you want to know at a glance of what the top decks are, you can also check out our Monthly Meta Decks section. (Fridays)
This new series – Cold Hard Data – will take up the Thursday slot and here is a preview of what it will contain. Because the effort is quite high for this series, we want to share what we have so far and to get feed back from you guys – if this is something you guys find useful, if it has potential, or if it down right sucks.
Cold Hard Data will collect data from top players and will focus on the mulligans and the matchups of the games they play. Mulligan is a huge part of the game and games can be decided right at the mulligan phase. A lot of articles and discussions has been made – you can check out the links below for your own reading and references. Our Mastering ‘X’ Deck series have an entire section dedicated to each deck on matchups and mulligans.
Matchups and mulligans go hand-in-hand and how you change up your strategy depend on the opponents’ deck and class.
We have collected data on the games played by Sjow (Twitch). Sjow plays a ton of Patron Warrior and has hit Top Legend numerous times with it, so we’ll share his Patron Warrior stats in this preview.
Matchups
For each Cold Hard Data report we’ll share the matchups and the percentages of each meta deck. We don’t just look at the class they’re facing, but the meta deck/archtype as well (knowing only the class is pointless – just the Warlock class alone accounts for 4-5 different arch types!).
- 89% winrate against Druids
- 87% winrate against Midrange
- 100% winrate against Ramp
- 60% winrate against Hunters
- 100% winrate against Paladin, both Aggro and Midrange
- 71 winrate against Midrange Warlock
- 64% winrate against Patron Warriors
- 51% winrate against Control Warriors
We didn’t show the stats for some of the meta decks beccause there weren’t enough games of it.
Mulligans Vs Warrior
In this portion, we’ll examine how the mulligan against the Warrior class is handled. We don’t focus on the meta deck of the opponent in this section because there are currently 2 equally viable Warrior deck at the moment – the Control Warrior and the Patron Warrior.
Always Keep
- Acolyte of Pain
- Emperor Thaurissan
- Grim Patron
- Gnomish Inventor
- deaths-bite
- Harrison Jones
- Fiery War Axe
As we get more data, we’ll be able to observe the priority of the list above as well.
Keep X if Have Y
- Keep Inner Rage if have Grim Patron
Interesting Facts
- Of all the games collected so far, the Warrior class accounts for almost 30% of the decks Sjow has faced.
- Of the Warriors he faced, roughly 15% more Control Warriors than Patron Warrior.
- Won 100% of the games where the final starting hand included Emperor Thaurissan against Control Warrior.
Moving Forward
Sjow isn’t the only player we’re collecting data from. We’re also gathering data from StrifeCro, Lifecoach, Dog…etc. If there’s a streamer that you’d like us to collect stats on, leave a comment below and we’ll take a look. Before anyone freaks out, all the data is available in the videos on their channels, we’re simply categorizing and analyzing them, doing the heavy lifting and sharing it here.
And going forward, we won’t highlight or focus on the player – we’ll be focusing on the meta deck. All the data collected are focused on the Legend rank ladder.
Do note as this series continues (please do let us know if you enjoy it, so we know to keep it up), we’ll have more data and the numbers/data will become more meaningful.
So please leave us a comment below on what you think of this preview of the series, give it a ‘like’ if you enjoyed it. We’ll return next week with a more meatier report!
References
- What is Mulligan in Hearthstone?
- Top Mistakes of Mulligans (MTG focused)
- Legend Tips: The Science of Optimizing Mulligans
- HearthMaths: The Numbers Behind Mulligans
- Do Opponent Mulligans Tell You Anything?
- From Install to Legend: The Mulligan Phase
