Hearthpwn

Intro

It's no meta-breaker, but it is fun, potent, and can win games. It's got both an early game rush, a mid-game push, and a late game sustain thanks to the cool synergies found among the cards. Like many of my decks, I'm always looking for a sweet spot between fun to play and competitive.

Video

The esteemed Kiwi-Bacon has graced me with a play video! And he gets two nice games out of it, one featuring the decks beat-down (much like any muloc deck can do) and the second, the decks long game control potential which is hard to imagine when you just look at the list, but really can provide near infinite value in the late game.

The game plan

Early game, advance your quest and put pressure on with Murlocs. If you can get initiative in the damage game, go for face with the murlocs and force your opponent to trade.  If you are on the back foot, fight hard for board control by trading aggressively. This is especially true against paladin. 

Once you are close to getting your quest done, ignore card economy and put as much pressure of whatever kind you can, either on your opponent's life total or on the board.  Primafin is stage 2 and the emptier your hand by the time you play him, the better off you are. If you don't really need him, then hold him until he's the only strong play available to you.

If your game is going into the late game stage, Hagatha is your big value move. She's going to turn all those squishy little murlocs into card advantage. In a control game, you may want to play her before Primafin. In a more aggressive match, save her for a board clear or for when you start to run out of gas. Late game, you simply want to out value your opponent.

Cards of Note

Ghost Light Angler This card is a real lynchpin in the deck. You don't want to use it wastefully because it can make for huge value plays at the right time. Dropping it as a 2/2 on 2 is a desperation move. So what does it do? 
A- It advances your quest, the more you echo it, the more it helps
b- It floods the board, a dangerous thing when you can suddenly add +3 force and Windfurry to all of them on the next turn.
C- With Hagggatha, it loads your hand up with spells providing pretty insane card value.
You need to try and be aware which of these are going to be most important in a given game. 

Hagatha the Witch Hagatha gives this deck its potential to go for a win against a control deck or, to give you a big advantage if a game against another aggressive deck goes to attrition. It's also a way to re-set the board if you are getting behind and give you a bit of armor to heal up. It's also a good play if you don't have another play that puts pressure on your opponent. Once she is out, you never know exactly what's going to happen. some shaman spells are crap, others are fantastic. 

The murloc regulars No real shocker with the array of Murlocs here. Most of them are geared towards an aggressive opening while advancing your quest. They give good value, and always represent a pretty potent threat on the board. Don't think of any of them as precious but for the Ghosts, and they are precious as an in-hand resource, once you play em, they are fodder. You don't much care if they die, there will be more. 

Lightning Storm and Hex I see these as pretty essential control cards to keep a check on your opponent. Lightning Storm against agro efforts, and Hex against big minion attacks. Until Haggatha comes out, these are fairly precious resources, use them when you need to use them, not just because you can. 

Primalfin Totem This card can either be a pretty lame Murloc or a strong way to advance your quest and confound your opponent. Depending on the meta, you may want to have an actual Murloc in here instead of the totem. It tends to play well with Flametongue Totem.

Spirit Echo Honestly, there are probably better cards to play. It tends to be a win-more kind of card in this deck. But I do build for fun and slapping this down on Primafin is terrifying for many opponents. It's also pretty amazing if you can get it down on one or more Ghost Light Angler The value goes for days! Sadly, it can be a dead card when you are getting your butt stomped.

Healing Rain Because I really wanted to see the late game side of this deck in action, I'm playing Healing Rain to give me time to do that against aggressive decks. It's also nice against the burn mages and combo decks. Having two can hurt your momentum in games when you don't much need to heal. I also tend to use this deck for Murloc quests, so the longer you play, the more Murlocs you get out. Anyhow, it's not essential to the deck, but I think you want at least some healing here to make it to your big plays.

Shudderwock Why the hell not? Most of the murloc battle-cries are pretty handy and are strictly beneficial for you. Of course, the main reason it is here is so you can get a second fill of murlocs by it copying the battle-cry from Megafin. Ya, its a semi-dead card otherwise, but chances are good you will get your quest done before you play Shudderwock so it works fairly well. Whether that will actually be needed in a game, that's a bit less likely. It can also give you some great results by echoing Megasour's battle cry so if you have played one or two, and have a board of Murlocs out, go for it!

BTW: Remember that Haggatha's 3 damage to board is a battlecry, so if you drop Shudderwock after her, It's going to hit your board. That isn't always a problem, but keep aware of it.

Match-Ups

I have not played enough games with it to give you a lot of detail. But here are my experiences.

Best Matchups: Druid, Priest, and Warrior.  The endless stream of murlocs tends to overwhelm their ability to deal with them. It takes a while, but eventually, they just can't clear the board and you win. Mid game will decide it things as that is when these decks peak.

Better than expected: Warlock. Cube can still combo you pretty hard, but control warlock, despite all its removal options, can actually struggle against the endless murloc hordes. I've beat every warlock I've played so far.

Challenging: Paladin. I've won the two games I played against even paladin, but they were nail-biters, and in both cases, the paladin got greedy and went face instead of clearing my board, that resulted in a knock out blow from Megasaur. Freeze Mage is also probably pretty tough as the merlocks are very vulnerable to getting turned into elementals.

Ouch!: Spell Mage is a beating. Between the ability to just stab you in the face and the early strength on board, the two games I played I got wrecked.

Mulligans

Not my area of expertise. You want as many murlocs in your opening hand as possible, preferably cheap ones. Ideally a nice curve of 1,2,3, though you will pretty much always play your quest on turn 1.  Clearly, if you have a strong notion what your opponent's strengths are, the two counter cards (lightning storm and hex) can be keepers so that you have an answer for their power plays.