[Top 10] Best Hearthstone Decks That Wreck Hard!

Updated:

15 May 2021

These are the best decks in the game right now.

The recent meta shake-up has lead to a considerable amount of tier readjustment. Paladin still reigns supreme, but you’ll be surprised by some of the decks that have risen to fill the void Deck of Lunacy left behind. Find a seat, if you can, and check out the decks that are dominating the meta.

10. Midrange Demon Hunter

“Aaah, my hands!”

The new and improved Demon Hunter packs a solid punch and a host of ways to make it land where it hurts: the face. Between burst damage, sustain through lifesteal, and big screw-you minions, this deck does everything the class excels at. If you’ve played Demon Hunter before, then you’re familiar with this deck.

What's great about MidrangeDemon Hunter

It’s quick, it’s easy to pilot, and it rests on the old reliables of the Demon Hunter class, meaning that it has good chances of remaining in the meta for a long time to come (or until Illidari Inquisitor gets hit with the ban hammer).
The amount of damage you can dish out from hand is often enough to surprise an unwary opponent. You thought you were outside lethal range? No one’s outside lethal range.
Illidari Inquisitor. We’ll come back to him later in this article.

How Midrange Demon Hunter Works

The Demon Hunter package has seen little variance since the class was first released. Attack fast; win fast. Your low-cost minions die quickly, but if you play your cards right they’ll fulfill their task before that.
Chip away at your opponent’s health. It’ll often be more beneficial to ignore your opponent’s minions and focus on setting up an early lethal.
Save your burst damage until the time is right, and remember that Illidari Inquisitor can hit the ground, get rid of Taunts, and still go face after your hero attacks. Time your big finale accordingly.

Cards

2 x Battlefiend

2 x Fury (Rank 1)

2 x Illidari Studies

2 x Chaos Strike

2 x Felfire Deadeye

2 x Manafeeder Panthara

2 x Wandmaker

2 x Aldrachi Warblades

2 x Eye Beam

2 x Relentless Pursuit

1 x Mankirk

1 x Kazakus Golemshaper

2 x Warglaives of Azzinoth

2 x Bladed Lady

2 x Skull of Gul’dan

2 x Illidari Inquisitor

9. Murloc Shaman

Seconds earlier: “Something smells fishy about this.”

Murloc decks are as predictable as the tides: viable one expansion, gone the next. The Barrens brought our fishy friends back, and they work much the same as always they always did. If you’re a fan of good, honest aggro, this might be the deck for you.

What’s great about Murloc Shaman:

Great early game presence, and capable of turning the game around even in later stages.
Easy to learn and master. Your Murloc minions work best in tandem, and the combos are simple and effective.
Quick deck means quick games - the match is often won and lost on how well the early game goes.

How Murloc Shaman works

Go wide: your minions are small, cheap, and meant to floor the board and overcome your opponent before they can get their defenses up.
Coldlight Seer and Nofin Can Stop Us mean both survival and, in the latter case, huge bursts of damage. Save them until you’re ready to make a big splash.
Firemancer Flurgl is both offensive and defensive, able to blow your opponent’s board away and dig at their health at the same time. With a few Murlocs in hand, a single turn can be enough to get back on top of a losing game.

Cards:

2 x Lightning Bloom

2 x Murloc Tinyfin

2x Murloc Tidecaller

2 x Spawnpool Forager

1 x Cagematch Custodian

2 x Crabrider

1 x Firemancer Flurgl

2 x Murloc Tidehunter

2 x Lushwater Mercenary

2 x Lushwater Scout

2 x Southcoast Chieftain

2 x Coldlight Seer

2 x Nofin Can Stop Us

2 x Whack-a-Gnoll Hammer

2 x Voracious Reader

2 x Felvin Navigator

8. Control Warlock

Happy. Thriving. In control.

It should come as absolutely no surprise to see Control Warlock on this list. Between Soul Fragments, board wipes, and unignorable threats, the king of late game reigns supreme in the later turns. All there is left to do is make sure there’s a late game to get to.

What’s great about Control Warlock

The amount of late game tools Control Warlock can swing around makes Priest players cry.
At the end of a long, game you’ll have wiped the board so many times it’ll be cleaner than when you found it.
As the purest control deck in this list, it’s fine-tuned to players who enjoy carefully considering their moves and responding to the game as it develops instead of just deploying their threats one after the other.

How Control Warlock works

The early game is when this deck struggles the most, and your one-drops are key to ensuring a smooth transition into the midgame. Armor Vendor is the current manifestation of ye olde Zombie Chow, healing your opponent in exchange for a and a body on the board, and Spirit Jailer gets the Soul Fragment Ball rolling.
Use your removal liberally. With the amount of buffing currently available to the most powerful decks in the ladder, the only good opposing minion is a dead opposing minion.
Board wipes. So many board wipes. Leave that board spic ‘n span until your opponent runs out of steam. That’s when you bring out the big guns.
Tamsin Roame can recycle your removal for later use. At the same time, don’t expect to get more than one turn of use out of her.
In the late game, you’ll be spoiled for choice. Y’shaarj can bring your corrupted cards back for a final hurrah, and Envoy Rustwix will drop a few Prime surprises in your deck. To top it off, the new and improved Lord Jaraxxus is a never-ending value machine on top of providing you with a possibly life-saving 5 armor.

Cards

2 x Armor Vendor

2 x Spirit Jailer

2 x Soul Shear

2 x Drain Soul

1 x Free Admission

2 x School Spirits

2 x Luckysoul Hoarder

1 x Tamsin Roame

2 x Cascading Disaster

2 x Hysteria

1 x Envoy Rustwix

1 x Taelan Fordring

2 x Strongman

2 x Ogremancer

1 x Tickatus

1 x Soulciologist Malicia

2 x Twisting Nether

1 x Lord Jaraxxus

1 x Y'Shaarj, the Defiler

7. Deathrattle Demon Hunter

But he seems so nice

Climbing steadily in popularity since Forged in the Barrens dropped, Deathrattle Demon Hunter may have found its spot in the sun after the recent nerfs. The deck is quick, intuitive, and deploys sticky threats under a new and improved Demon Hunter chassis.

What's great about Deathrattle Demon Hunter

Your minions summon more minions upon death, which forces your opponent to spend twice the removal.
Deathspeaker Blackthorn provides the extra kick to finish the fight right as you were running out of steam.
Illidari Inquisitor boops your opponent’s nose to the tune of 8 damage per swing.

How Deathrattle Demon Hunter Works

This deck lives for tempo. You put on the pressure early and don’t let go until your opponent is a sorry, smoking crater. Far Watch Post and Razorfen Beastmaster are always good to mulligan for.
Like with every Deathrattle deck in the history of Deathrattle decks, you want to cheat out your best minions as fast as possible. Set up your guard posts to slow down your opponent, then drop Razorfen Beastmaster to get your threats out quick.
Draw, and draw, and draw some more while you put on the hurt. The objective is to get in range of lethal before you run out of cards.
Illidan Inquisitor will often end the game right there and then. It can and will go face as soon as it hits the ground and all you have to do is attack first with your hero (doing even more damage!)

Cards

2 x Illidari Studies

2 x Trueaim Crescent

2 x Far Watch Post

2 x Tuskpiercer

2 x Fogsail Freebooter

2 x Razorboar

2 x Death's Head Cultist

2 x Mor'shan Watch Post

2 x Razorfen Beastmaster

2 x Darkspear Berserker

2 x Vengeful Spirit

2 x Renowned Performer

1 x Taelan Fordring

1 x Skull of Gul'dan

1 x Death Speaker Blackthorn

1 x Kargal Battlescar

2 x Illidari Inquisitor

6. Clown Druid

Fuzzball here is only the second most terrifying thing about this deck.

Ramp Druid lives! The latest iteration has painted a big red smile on its face and came out riding a unicycle, but the deck remains as panic-inducing as it always was. Perhaps more, on account of the smile. Send in the clowns.

What’s great about Clown Druid

It employs the usual ramp shenanigans, but with a garish twist: at the end of the game, you flood the board with 8/8 Taunts, leaving your opponent to sigh and resign.
The beast package is very solid composes most of the midgame options other than ramping.
It has clowns in it.

How Clown Druid Works

Like most of the decks on this list, Clown Druid is a return to an old, familiar theme, and it works in much the same way as other ramp decks.
The name of the early game is survival. Play your Growths, but don’t overextend past your capacity to recover. Ideally, you’ll be able to start chucking powerful minions around before your opponent has had time to get a solid footing.
Guardian Animals and Strongman should be used as defensive assets primarily. Leave swinging for face until after you have the board under firm control. Moonfang, Druid of the Plains, and Taelan Fordring are sticky nightmares for your opponent to deal with. When the time is right, play Survival of the Fittest.
The late game is when all your patience pays off. Your Carnival Clowns should be thoroughly corrupted by now, and a single one hitting the board should mean game over. If not, there’s always the second.

Cards

2 x Innervate

2 x Lightning Bloom

2 x Animated Broomstick

2 x Guess the Weight

2 x Wild Growth

2 x Overgrowth

2 x Twilight Runner

1 x Taelan Fordring

2 x Lake Thresher

1 x Moonfang

2 x Druid of the Plains

2 x Strongman

2 x Guardian Animals

2 x Primordial Protector

2 x Carnival Clown

2 x Survival of the Fittest

5. Token Druid

Ever get mauled to death by squirrels? This might be your chance!

Interestingly, this deck could just as easily be called Spell Druid and not much would change. The most recent version of the Token Druid staple relies on minion-summoning spells to take control of the board from turn one. All it takes is a wide enough board and a couple of buffs before it’s lights out for your opponent.

What’s great about Token Druid

The reliance on spells over minions (with the exception of Gibberling) allows the deck to make use of the ridiculous card draw of Fungal Fortunes with almost no drawbacks.
Tokens are hard for your opponent to get rid of and easy for you to replace. Soul of the Forest can make an entire board stick around even after a wipe.
The deck shrugs off the loss of Savage Roar with minimum fuss. Arbor Up does a good job acting as a finisher.

How Token Druid works

Take control of the board early. Gibberling is a great card to mulligan for, and with The Coin and an Innervate that single card can get overwhelming very quickly.
Knowing when to go face and when to fight for board control is an essential skill to master. This deck relies on being able to end the game with massive amounts of damage, but you still need to get your opponent down to a manageable level of health.
It pays to have an awareness of what kinds of AoE your opponent may deploy at any given time. Holding a card for an extra turn can be the difference between an irrecoverable board wipe and stabilizing quickly.

Cards

2 x Lightning Bloom

2 x Innervate

2 x Gibberling

2 x Nature Studies

2 x Adorable Infestation

2 x Thorngrowth Sentries

2 x Power of the Wild

2 x Lunar Eclipse

2 x Solar Eclipse

2 x Guess the Weight

2 x Fungal Fortunes

2 x Pride's Fury

2 x Soul of the Forest

2 x Glowfly Swarm

2 x Arbor Up

4. Rush Warrior

You’re in my lane.

When the Rush keyword was first introduced as replacement to Charge, Rush Warrior became the earliest attempt at weaponizing it. The first few decks never saw much success, but then they ran home to get their big brother, and here it is: the best Warrior to ever Rush. Ladies and gentlemen, rev up your engines.

What’s great about Rush Warrior

This deck aggregates all the Rush synergies that had been accumulating from earlier expansions. The new Mercenary Rokara bundles it all together and gives the deck the oomph it needs to shine.
While Rush is the main mechanic at play, there’s an underlying buffing theme that cannot be ignored. Crabrider and Blademaster Samuro benefit greatly from the extra power, and can often turn the game around by themselves.
You don’t need to pick between building a board and managing your opponent’s; your minions do both (and get stronger while they’re at it!).

How Rush Warrior works

The clue is in the name. Turn the pressure up turn after turn, leaving minions on the board to power up your biggest threats. If Parade Leader or Playmaker manage to stick, things can get veeeery dicey for your opponent.
Since your best minions are for the most part cheap, not much changes between the early and the middle game. Hopefully, by now your board will have stabilized and your synergies are starting to get overwhelming. Buff your minions and draw with Outrider’s Axe.
Rokara can buff Crabrider twice in the same turn, and the Playmaker + Overlord Runthak combo will have your opponent dreading the next turns. If, against your best efforts, your opponent manages to build a board of their own, a buffed up Blademaster Samuro can quickly take care of that.
Over all this time, you’ve hopefully been using what breathing room you fought for each turn to whittle down your opponent’s health. In the late game, you’re simply looking to finish what you started, using E.T.C., God of Metal and Alexstrasza the Life-Binder as final bursts of damage.

Cards

2 x Athletic Studies

2 x Stage Dive

2 x Parade Leader

2 x Crabrider

1 x E.T.C., God of Metal

2 x Bumper Car

2 x Conditioning (Rank 1)

1 x Corsair Cache

2 x Venomous Scorpid

1 x Rokara

1 x Warmaul Challenger

2 x Playmaker

2 x Outrider's Axe

1 x Blademaster Samuro

2 x Sword Eater

1 x Ringmaster Whatley

1 x Overlord Runthak

2 x Troublemaker

1 x Alexstrasza the Life-Binder

3. Secret Libram Paladin

As in: let’s hope he doesn’t topdeck it.

And so we reach tier 1 decks, starting with the class that dominated Standard even before Deck of Lunacy got nerfed. This powerful Paladin package is defined for its use of Librams, but the Secret synergies are clearly too powerful for the class to ignore.

What’s great about Secret Libram Paladin

A great early game that deftly transitions into powerful middle game plays. And if your bruised and battered opponent manages to drag himself into the late game, well, yours isn’t too shabby either.
Your Secrets are a great value engine, featuring draw, bodies on the board, buffs, and even spell disruption, and your Librams are straight up unfair.
As a midrange deck, it’s adaptable and mercurial. You’re never just buffing minions and swinging for face, but responding to your opponent’s plays and challenging their hold on the board.

How Secret Libram Paladin works

A couple of powerful early turns can finish the game before it has a chance to start. It may not look it, but Sword of the Fallen is probably the best card in your deck, doing chip damage, setting up Secrets, and making sure you only draw valuable tempo cards in the later game. The recent nerfs just brought the card down from overpowered to extremely powerful.
While contesting the board and getting Secrets in play, you’ll also bring the cost of your Librams down. Libram of Wisdom is the gift that keeps on giving, and if you can discount it down to 0 it’s also a free return for Pen Flinger. Libram of Justice can set up board wipes, and a smart player will use Kazakus, Golem shaper to respond to an unfavourable board state.
Libram of Hope is a frustrating card for your opponent to deal with. Ideally, it puts you outside the reach of lethal and places an unignorable body on the board, and often it does both at a steep discount. Lady Liadrin brings your powerful buff spells back, ensuring you always have a bit of steam left.

Cards

2 x First Day of School

2 x Pen Flinger

1 x Oh My Yogg!

2 x Galloping Savior

2 x Knight of Anointment

2 x Avenge

2 x Aldor Attendant

2 x Libram of Wisdom

2 x Sword of the Fallen

2 x Hand of A'dal

2 x Northwatch Commander

1 x Kazakus, Golem Shaper

2 x Aldor Truthseeker

1 x Taelan Fordring

2 x Libram of Justice

1 x Lady Liadrin

2 x Libram of Hope

2. Face Hunter

Just face it: this is what skill looks like.

Face Hunter was born when an illuminated player realized that the goal of Hearthstone isn’t to control the opponent’s board (or even respond to their threats), but to bring that 30 health down to 0. Based on this epiphany, they looked around and noticed that the Hunter’s Hero Power does two damage per turn, every turn. With that and a few beasts, the holy credo was born: I go face.

What’s great about Face Hunter

It doesn’t really matter what your opponent is doing. If they brought their face along, guess what: you’re going there.
While earlier versions focused on deploying threats (in a facewards direction) and conceding if the game ever got to turn 7, this one has a little more staying power with Trampling Rhino. The game isn’t done until your buffed-up rhinoceros are done.
For a face deck, it has a surprising amount of control. Kolkar Pack Runner alone makes midrange decks sit down and pay attention.

How Face Hunter works

Not to overstate the point, but it generally goes face. There’s even a song to help you memorize the game plan.
Kolkar Pack Hunter is your best early minion, and if you have a couple of spells lying around it becomes tempo incarnate. Use the hyenas to control the board and the surprisingly durable body to go face.
Few beasts means you get the ones you’re angling for every single time you play Warsong Wrangler. Aim for the rhinos for an explosive late game.
Mankrik provides the 3-cost spell for Barak Kodobane to fish out of the deck. Keep that in mind while mulliganing, because Barak is considerably less effective without his pal.
Face plays Taunt? Still go face. Trampling Rhino and Piercing Shot guarantee that you won’t be distracted by your opponent’s attempts at participating in the game.

Cards

2 x Wound Prey

2 x Intrepid Initiate

2 x Tracking

2 x Arcane Shot

2 x Wolpertinger

2 x Demon Companion

2 x Adorable Infestation

2 x Kolkar Pack Runner

2 x Quick Shot

2 x Headhunter's Hatchet

1 x Rinling's Rifle

2 x Piercing Shot

1 x Knife Vendor

1 x Mankrirk

2 x Warsong Wrangler

2 x Trampling Rhino

1 x Barak Kodobane

1. Secret Paladin

For such a stand-up guy he’s got a suspicious amount of secrets.

And here we are. Standing tall over a host of powerful decks, including its own Libram-using baby brother, Secret Paladin is the unquestionable king of the meta. Aggressive, consistent, and relentless, this is the deck to master or to counter if you’re planning on climbing the ranks quickly this season.

What’s great about Secret Paladin

What the first iteration of Secret Paladin had in Mysterious Challenger, this one has with Sword of the Fallen. Getting all your Secrets off your deck and onto the board early means you’ll never whiff a turn 5 by drawing an Avenge instead of Cannonmaster Smythe.
The absence of Librams makes this deck more consistent in the early to mid game, if weaker in the later stages (which it seldom sees).
Voracious Reader ensures you’ll never run out of cards. Protect her and she’ll protect you.

How Secret Paladin works

Your early game plays, with Sword of the Fallen, First Day of School, and Intrepid Initiate, are quick and intuitive. Mulligan hard for Sword of the Fallen, as that will get the ball rolling faster than any other card.
At the cusp of the midgame, your synergies begin to pay off. You play Crossroads Gossiper and your opponent tries to blast it away with a spell, only for Oh My Yogg! To stop that. Nervous and sweating, they attempt to trade. Suddenly your Noble Sacrifice activates and dies, which in turn activates Avenge. Opponent is left manaless, and you with a 12/11 body. Good job, opponent.
Secrets keep your opponent guessing. If they activate them, you win. If they don’t, Cannonmaster Smythe will make mincemeat out of their board and face.
Kazakus Golemshaper can whisk a win from the jaws of defeat, and rewards those who can read the board and plan ahead.

Cards

2 x First Day of School

2 x Intrepid Initiate

2 x Noble Sacrifice

2 x Conviction (Rank 1)

2 x Avenge

2 x Righteous Protector

2 x Oh My Yogg!

2 x Sunreaver Spy

2 x Sword of the Fallen

2 x Hand of A'dal

2 x Crossroads Gossiper

2 x Voracious Reader

2 x Northwatch Commander

2 x Goody Two-Shields

1 x Kazakus, Golem Shaper

1 x Cannonmaster Smythe

You may also be interested in:

Email us about this article

Gil Sousa

I like to make worlds and live in them, and I would move to the Forbidden Realms permanently if given the option. Cursed by old witch to never roll above a 13.

Gamer Since:

2004

Favorite Genre:

RPG

Currently Playing:

Hollow Knight

Top 3 Favorite Games:

Pillars of Eternity, The Walking Dead, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

More Top Stories