Reno Jackson: Getting Rich In A Slower Meta

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It has been 2 weeks since Blizzard released their new Hearthstone expansion: League of Explorers, and the meta within tournaments, as well as the ladder, has morphed into something almost unrecognizable. The key factor in this wild change is the new Legendary from the first wing, Reno Jackson. The card text reads: “Battlecry: If your deck contains no more than 1 of any card, fully heal your hero.” This Legendary almost single-handedly allowed SuperJJ to dominate the recent SeatStory Cup 4 finals, when he went 5-0 against StanCifka. On the ladder side of Hearthstone, the meta has slowed quite a bit due to the massive healing capabilities of Reno, and the unique highlander-style deckbuilding he encourages.

Reno

The premise behind building a deck based around Reno Jackson is that one must include very few duplicate cards, as his battlecry will not activate unless you have only 1 of each card left in your deck when he comes into play. This has lead many players to include just 1, or 2 duplicate cards, and in some cases, no duplicates at all to ensure that the card is always active when you draw it, hence the archetype has been dubbed highlander.

Control style decks, such as Freeze Mage, Control Warrior, and Fatigue Warrior are generally the only archetypes seen on the ladder that don’t have to worry about the 1 card restriction throughout their decks. This is because they have the ability to stall the game as much as they need to before drawing into Reno, by utilizing either armor, board clears, and tons of removal. On the other side of the coin, existing powerful decks such as Handlock, and Midrange Paladin need to adapt to a highlander style of deckbuilding in order to use Reno to the fullest extent. The Warlock, and Paladin variants generally include other heals in addition to Mr. Jackson, and often attempt to simply grind their opponent out of cards, and win when both decks are taking fatigue damage.

The largest impact Reno has had on the ladder, and tournament meta is that he provides slower decks with a direct counter to hyper-aggressive decks that have been fine tuned to contain just enough damage to finish off an opponent with 30, or 40 health. Decks such as Face Hunter, and Aggro Druid must now seek to end the game as soon as possible, as each turn after 6 increases the chances that their opponent will be able to heal for their entire health pool when playing a Reno deck. The aggro decks still have a chance, as Reno is but one of 30 cards in a deck, and does no good if he’s in the bottom 5 cards. However, if he is played as soon as possible, he often forces an instant concede from an aggressive deck, regardless of their hand.

Every so often in Hearthstone, a card comes along that defines the meta-game, both on the ladder and in tournament play. The most recent example of such a card, before Reno, was Emperor Thaurissan from the Blackrock Mountain adventure set. To this day, Emperor enables insane combos to happen, and remains a staple in many archetypes. It remains to be seen if Reno Jackson will have the same lasting effect as Thaurissan, however he’s off to a good start. Until next time Hearthstone fans, keep topdecking, and wrecking!

Dave Eaton

An avid Hearthstone player after the game released. When he isn't writing, he can be found sipping on coffee, enjoying some EDM, and gaming with his girlfriend. Don't let him fool you, she's better than he is.

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