Early Black Empire decks, and what the bans took
The first Reign of the Black Empire decks to post records: N’Zoth, C’Thun and Zoo Warlock, and a Quest Priest built on Reach Equilibrium. Then four bans landed. Which decks lost what.
N’Zoth Warlock
C’Thun Warlock
Banned
Banned
BannedThree days in, the first Reign of the Black Empire decks have records behind them. A day after launch, four bans also took pieces out of several. This is what the early lists from streamers and pros looked like, and what each one lost.
These are early impressions. The records below are from the first three days, as collected by Out of Games from pro and streamer lists. They're small samples, from players who are good at whatever they queue.
Warlock: three Old God decks and a Zoo
- N'Zoth Warlock went 6–0 on Day 2, built around N'Zoth, Dream's End, Godfather Kazakus, Ritual of Summoning and two copies of Divergence.
- C'Thun Warlock posted 5–1, 22–5 and 4–1 records across three lists, built on C'Thun, Eye of the Empire, Ritual of C'Thun, Spawn of C'Thun, Annihilation and The Unseen Atlas. One of the three also ran Divergence and Bat Mask.
- Piglock went 6–1 on Day 1 with Agamaggan, C'Thun, M.O.T.H.E.R. and Kith'ix, and ran both Divergence and Bat Mask.
- Zoolock went 6–1 on Day 3 with Zakajz the Corruptor, Blasphemy, Vaultkeeper and Mawman Cultist.
- Harold Warlock went 4–1 on Day 1 around Deathwing, Worldbreaker, Ultraxion, Kith'ix and Shrine of Twilight.
Priest: one quest, everywhere
Quest Priest was the Priest deck of launch week. Every Quest Priest list in the roundup ran Reach Equilibrium, with records of 8–2, 6–2, 11–5, 4–2 (twice) and 5–3. Their spells include Elder Word: Flay, Holy Embrace, Ritual of Life, Power Word: Shield and Entropic Rift. Only two of the six lists ran N'Zoth. A Thief Priest list also went 4–2 on Day 3.
What the bans took
On October 21, Blizzard temporarily banned Bat Mask, Divergence and Reach Equilibrium in Standard, and Reincarnate in Wild. It said "a few play patterns have proven more powerful than intended."
Set against the lists above:
- Quest Priest loses its quest. The deck was built on Reach Equilibrium, so it has to be rebuilt from scratch, not patched with a swap.
- N'Zoth Warlock loses Divergence. That's two copies of one card out of an otherwise intact deck.
- Piglock and the one C'Thun list with them lose both Bat Mask and Divergence.
- Zoolock and Harold Warlock ran none of the banned cards. They're untouched.
- The other C'Thun Warlock lists didn't run Bat Mask or Divergence either, so the C'Thun plan itself survives.
Blizzard hasn't said how long the bans will last, or whether changes to the cards will follow.
Track your rebuild
If you're rebuilding around a ban, save the new list as its own deck and log your games against it in the Tracker. That keeps the old list's record and the new one's apart. After a few dozen games, Analytics will show whether the rebuild is working.
