Arena in December 2021: Rules and Strategies
here ’ s what you need to know about the current format of the Arena : the old system of “ buckets ”, cards of approximately exchangeable might levels offered against one another are gone, which means the drafting is once again based around poster rarities. This means that many of the picks are square as the power level difference between something like a Runed Orb and a Murloc Tinyfin is reasonably easy to grasp. As such the quality of your draft becomes a spot more about the luck of the draw than it used to be, which is something worth keeping in thinker when gauging the strengths of your opponents .
indeed where do you find your advantages these days in the Arena ? Understanding the differences between the diverse classes ’ might levels in any particular meta and figuring out which cards appear disproportionately much ( or rarely ) as the effect of “ microadjustments ”. possibly macroadjustment would be a more appropriate term as Team 5 regularly nukes cards out of being in the format, making them about completely absent from drafts. A class that might dominate in one bandage might drop to the bottom in the adjacent good because their most powerful cards no long appear in most of the drafts.
The Dual-Class Arena event is hanker gone and the sets available in the format have been adjusted with the free of Fractured in Alterac Valley. Cards from the following sets can be drafted in the Arena right now :
- Fractured in Alterac Valley
- Saviors of Uldum
- Kobolds and Catacombs
- League of Explorers
- Scholomance Academy
- The Boomsday Project
- Core
Deeprun Engineer is still banned, and now so is Abominable Lieutenant. Say adieu to ( some of the ) obscene single-card swings !
Notable Neutral Arena Cards in the Fractured in Alterac Valley 22.0.2 Metagame
Though abominable Lieutenant is gone, there are distillery many new impactful neutral cards to consider ( and gulp, should you get the chance to do therefore ). here ’ s what you should keep an center out for :
Knight-Captain – this poster is a massive mid-game swing and it ’ s quite difficult to counter its effect. A 5-mana 6/6 with a 3-damage Battlecry effect is pretty cruddy, and you should try to hold on to this calling card ampere farseeing as potential to ensure that you get the Honorable Kill when playing it .
Bunker Sergeant – An early AoE that is about constantly live, this circuit board is a potent way to punish value trades and pin down board edges. Try not to keep your minions on one health if potential .
Ram Commander – This is another reason not to do so : ultimately, everyone has pings in this meta, one way or another !
Corporal – A vanilla 2-drop with harebrained, if rare, likely top .
Direwolf Commander – A unmarried 2/2 summoned makes this a premium wag. It ’ south much a worthwhile pick to smooth out your arch .
Piggyback Imp – Scarlet Crusader and Candletaker cry in a corner. adorable early-game stat lodge .
Tower Sergeant – A 4 mana 6/6 if you ’ rhenium playing a fast deck. besides known as “ win the game on twist 4 if you ’ rhenium playing a fast deck ” .
Blood Guard – A 5 mana 4/7 is fair sticky, and since ignoring it risks a board-wide yellowish brown on the next roll of minions, it is a nasty consequence to solve. Note that its consequence besides triggers on death, so you can trade it in beginning and buff the rest of your board !
Troll Centurion – Burly Shovelfist is an excellent Arena card, so it goes without saying that this is besides fine. The occasional Honorable Kill is equitable the red on top .
Fractured in Alterac Valley 22.0.2 Arena Class Tier List
The dominant duo: Demon Hunter and Shaman (55.4% and 54.1%)
There ’ s always something going on with Demon Hunters, right ? The one-mana ping as a Hero Power will always make them formidable, and the mere fact that they have no class cards in the previous sets ( which are of a relatively lower power level ) gives them a stage up on the opposition. Battleworn Vanguard and Flag Runner are excellent early-game tools and Flanking Maneuver is equitable broken. If these cards don ’ thyroxine succeed you the game by themselves, they will help you comfortably get you to the common late-game bombs : Cycle of Hatred and Illidari Inquisitor. Fun gorge !
meanwhile, Shaman ’ mho Freeze package ( already pretty impressive in Standard ) turned out to be quite firm in the Arena as well, catapulting them to # 2 in the standings. Snowfall Guardian, already nerfed by Team 5, is hush harebrained : a massive threat with a tempo golf stroke, it ’ south hard to match on a card-by-card footing by anything else. This, coupled with the utility tools of Frostbite and Windchill, can help you keep any aggression in match. interim, Wildpaw Cavern is just excessively many stats to comfortably deal with, specially when played on arch. It ’ s fabulously unmanageable to push a Shaman actor off the board for beneficial. A eminence of caution : you can still get Abominable Lieutenant from Glaciate .
The other two viable classes: Rogue and Warlock (52.0% and 50.4%)
Rogue is without a doubt the most fun course to play right nowadays, with more Burgle-related shenanigans available than ever, in a phase that doesn ’ t require tanking your succeed percentages along the way .
Reconnaissance is a nice and compromising menu with mana bank properties that is among the best-performing cards in Rogue. Wand Thief and Swashburglar remain bang-up little resource generators. All these cards can help you play an active Double Agent on bend to get on the tempo trail. Both the value approach path and the tempo plan is feasible for the class right now, and fresh drawing can truly help you go a long way with Valeera .
meanwhile, Warlocks are hush decent, if no longer its dominant best from the metas gone by. Just like Bunker Sergeant, Hollow Abomination is a capital direction to clear up narrow boards, and Full-Blown Evil is just stupid in terms of value and flexibility. School Spirits and Hellfire are your usual control panel authorize options. This means you can faithfully make it to the late game, except that you don ’ t have a Shaman ’ s ability to Dark Peddler and Sinister Deal are great ways to dig towards Ysera the Dreamer ( I wish I was joking ) .
The tolerable trio: Priest, Mage and Paladin (48.4%, 47.6% and 47.1%)
Hope you ’ re already bored of discussing classes with positive acquire rates because this is angstrom far as that particular assign of the class grade list goes. That ’ mho right, # 5 on the list is already importantly subaqueous, with each of these four classes relying increasingly more and more on highrolls in the enlist to keep up with the previously mentioned four. It ’ s not impossible to perform well with them, but you ’ ra testing your luck angstrom much as your skill by playing .
Priests can get cruddy control decks if the draft pans out right. ideally, you ’ ve got Psychic Scream and Entomb to combat big boards, Deliverance to deal with little threats, Spirit Guide to stall and re-draw, Draconic Studies to get late-game and the usual Priest things to deal with the lie. Keep killing things and generating resources as a win condition : this is the winning scenario. Everything else leaves you in the mud .
Mages have some very strong cards to call upon but the inconsistency across the menu quality and the strategies they promote make things unmanageable. The lead classes push a tempo-heavy approach, so what are you going to do with your 9- and 10-mana RNG brouhaha cards ? ( Win the game with them if you can get that far, that ’ s what. ) Cards like Shivering Sorceress are nice as a 1 mana 2/2 but much won ’ t even get you the price reduction needed .
An odd solicitation of dominance tools to get you to the boastfully spells is the best you can do with Mage. Amplified Snowflurry is possibly the best card from the new hardening for this Arena meta but it isn ’ metric ton enough to win the game by itself. Tools like Wand Thief and Primordial Studies can help you generate valuable resources while stuff like Firebrand and Flame Ward can deal with some early boards. It ’ randomness just the incompatibility of it all that stops you often along the way .
Paladins have some of the nastiest late-game cards available ( Templar Captain and Brasswing ), but again, it ’ s the way to these bombs that can be a struggle. Alliance Bannerman is good, tied after the nerf, and cards like Hold the Bridge and returning MVP Keeper of Uldaman are excellent. however, Paladin ’ s hard mid-game buffs are largely gone, leaving you vulnerable against the aggression of Demon Hunters and similar classes. You ’ re besides not guaranteed to get those big bombs, unfortunately, making Paladins a lesser choice than they might have seemed based on their fresh cards .
The class with Bloodseeker: Hunter (45.4%)
last, there ’ mho Hunter, stick in an awkward invalidate in terms of winnings pace. The class is in an leftover place : their tools are quite inadequate and it ’ s tough to put up a good competitiveness, except for the modest matter of having the best-ever calling card to have ever graced the Arena. That is, of course, Bloodseeker, a weapon that is dazed to start with and can potentially solo the couple by itself : a one Honorable Kill makes it a Fiery War Axe on steroids for two mana, and anything beyond that makes it monstrous.
Be it an unfair number of value trades or a eminent amount of face price belated down the line, this weapon does everything and it is the unmarried thing that keeps Hunters afloat mighty nowadays. This should inform your drafting scheme : go super-aggressive with the hopes of drafting Bloodseekers, then draft every Bloodseeker you can find. There is no such thing as besides many Bloodseekers. badly. Having one on-line on change by reversal two makes or breaks your game, and it ’ s deserving any screen of redundancy. I had a deck with five of these bad boys and made it to twelve wins. There, I just told you the secret of winning with Hunters in this meta .
Play these to donate your 150 gold to charity: Warrior and Druid (41.6% and 40.3%)
Behold the barren barren where Warrior and Druid ’ s beneficial cards used to be ! There ’ s just nothing to work with, neat near-vanilla cunning stuff from previous sets and small to no heavy-hitters from the newer ones. Please don ’ thymine test until the microadjustments hit. Your deck choice will plainly merely be excessively low. We ’ re looking at a 15 % succeed pace remainder between the highest- and lowest-rated classes. Like it or not, actor skill can ’ t make up for this in the Arena .
