Hearthpwn

Update 3: NEW LIST HERE: https://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1167114-cozykittens-boomsday-budget-zoo , and I'll be updating that guide from now on. I'll keep this guide here for posterity's sake, a lot of the info here is still good. The new guide will be continually updated as I refine the list. Thanks for all the support! P.S. This list is still functional if you want to hold off on crafting new cards.

Update 2: Hey guys, with the Boomsday Project just around the corner, I'll be updating the list once again, so be on the look out for the new list! Thanks for all the views and comments.

Updated! Now with extra examples of set ups and mulligan guide. 

Proof: https://imgur.com/a/hJoEd5b 

 I streamed my climb on Asia server starting at Rank 25 and climbed to Legend with this budget zoo list!

Thoughts on Keleseth

 

The budget version is on average more consistent but less powerful (lower variance but weaker highrolls). Vulgar Homunculus for the most part makes up for the lack of Keleseth, in a lot of situations, Flame Imp on 1 into Vulgar on 2 (and maybe Fungal + Ghoul on 3) is the stone cold nuts and you get it much more frequently compared to Keleseth. Vulgar alone also gives you so much more game vs Odd Rogue.

 

Climbing with Budget Zoo

 

That said, I would NOT count on Budget Zoo to climb Legend ladder. If you simply want to reach Rank 5 however, it should be plenty sufficient. The climb from Rank 5 to Legend is going to be much harder. In my journey, most of my matchups were either even-ish (lots of Zoo mirrors, Druids, Shudderwock) or just unfavorable (Big Spell Mage, Quest Warrior, Odd Rogue, Even Lock), so in all honesty, I probably wouldn’t try to play this deck to Legend if all you’re facing are those decks (I ran into MAYBE 3 or 4 Paladins Rank 5 onwards). If you like a good challenge, go for it – with tight play, this deck can overcome a surprising amount of obstacles (like Keleseth on 2 in mirrors).

 

List

 

https://imgur.com/a/71OlbIc

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General Mulligan:

Against control-ish decks, we go for Flame Imp and Homunculus curve into Ghouls where possible (basically we want our most aggressive cards early). Keep Librarians against classes that have a harder time dealing with it or if we're going first against ping classes. Keep Ghoul + activator combos against the harder matchups to highroll to victory. Against Rogue, we want Taunts and Soulfire for tempo swings. Against Paladin, 2+ health minions and Dreadlord. Against mirror, we want early drops and Homunculus (notably Voidwalker gets farmed by opposing Flame Imps, but Wolf on 2 going first lets us trade) Soulfire is keepable as well since it's tempo.

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Some Stats from the Climb:

30ish hours

July 14- 24 9 days

169 Wins (NOT GAMES, est. ~220-250 games total)

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Card Choices:

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Spellbreaker: This card feels so much more effective as a 2x since often times your opponents will play into the 2nd, it also frees up room for you to tempo out the first one or just get relatively marginal value for the first one while still have drawing outs for the second. Most of the time T4 Breaker lets you push extra damage that leads to potential lethals by T5 or 6. Our 4 drop slot is the weakest slot in the deck so this helps round out the 4 drops too, not that bad as a tempo play against random taunts.

Doomguard: Nice to have as a 1 of which gives additional burst which this deck needs since we cut Life Drinkers. I prefer 1 of since the discard can be awkward if you’re running 2x

Shroom over Lifedrinker: a choice that I stand by, Shroom has been consistently good while providing a sizeable mid-range body in the mid-game, the reach is largely irrelevant because of the extra board presence we get from the larger body. The 4 health heal has been consistently good, both against aggro to act as a Deathspeaker of sorts or against Control to allow us to heal out of AoE range.

Earthen Ring Farseer: helps us curve out with Happy Ghouls more often and acts as a mini-Shroom Brewer. I cut Fireflys over this since we already have an abundance of 1 drops and Fire Flys usually didn’t contribute much besides being discard fodder and there were games where having one less activator for Happy Ghoul really hurt so I added this in.

Vulgar Homunculus: actually just the nuts. This on 2 in most situations makes up for the lack of Keleseth. It gives you so much more game vs other aggro decks and is the reason why you can compete with Keleseth on 2 in mirrors. This also can single handedly win you the game vs Odd Rogue if they can’t efficiently deal with it via Deadly Poison or SI/ Deckhand because you often get to heal it and gain so much tempo and time to just go face that even when they eventually win board, you’re already threatening lethal.

Reckless Rocketeer: the Legend himself. The real OG Leeroy, and the hero that the people need and deserve. This card is actually solid, Leeroy isn’t strictly better because you have a much better time using Rocketeer as hard removal than Leeroy and you can sometimes just play this on an empty board and just get there. It’s good to fly.

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Matchups: (focusing on most common ones/ harder ones)

Druid:

Taunt, Big, and Maly matchups all play pretty similarly. We want to mull for aggressive starts via Flame Imp into Ghouls for max pressure before Plague. When have the chance to trade off 2/1s into Oaken creatures we do so to play around Plague. On 4 we play around Swipe as much as possible. Going into T5 we try to set up a board for Fungalmancer (2 + minions on board ideally 3/3s). On their 6 we usually tap for cards or set up a board state where we can deal with Plague as cleanly as possible (3/3s that can get Fungal'd). Doomguard on curve can win games if they don’t have Naturalize. Against Taunt and Big, we set up board states that beat Drake on 8 (3+ health minions), ideally with lethal pressure if we have Spellbreaker in hand. We probably lose to Oakheart on 9 so we just pray and Tap into Soulfire Soulfire for lethal, OR we can beat it with Spellbreakers in hand + Soulfires and a big enough board going into that turn. In general, these matchups aren’t too bad if they don’t draw like a god, it generally is pretty 50-50 as long as you play around their cards properly.

Warrior:

Quest Warrior is a rough one. Your wins will usually be pretty grind-y so you have to properly space out your threats. Early we want Imp for max pressure and maybe draw out an early Shield Slam or Slam (it’s good if they don’t get to draw, also one less Execute enabler). Homunculus is also good since it’s a high health minion that they are forced to tank with their Blood Razors. Our 3 drops are very good at applying early pressure while surviving most early removal options. Set up resilient board states into their T4 Razor (3+ health minions), and we play around T5 Brawl ideally with a Fungalmancer. Going into the mid-late game, we always have to be cognizant of how much Warpath can do, this means we trade away our damaged high attack minions into their Taunts and preserve the health of our other mid-ranged minions (say a Fungal’d 3/3). We generally don’t take value trades because of AoE punishes, and we try to trade away our shitters due to AoE and Drywhisker. We trade away damaged minions while healing big minions to full to play around Executes. Tap frequently to have the reload when they AoE our boards. Sometimes we hold a Happy Ghoul to not overextend into AoE and have better reload. Fungal Enchanter can be huge as it often times provides 6-12 points of healing, sometimes we can set up nice Lightwarden plays with it too (when we have a board of 3/3s that get Blood Razored to 2 health). Always keep track of which AoE’s and removals they’ve already used – if you play smart, you can outlast them. We also try to deny card draw as much as possible, this means clearing Acolytes with 3 damage or Spellbreaker them.

Mage:

Big Spell Mage plays pretty similarly to Quest Warrior, we go full aggro in the early turns then slow down in the mid-game to not over extend into AoE, then fast in the late game to block Jaina turns. If they curve out on you with their tempo plays you will have a very hard time. Homunculus does a good job of protecting your minions from Ravens so that you can just go face. We try to highroll early with Ghouls to threaten lethals by T5 or 6 if they don’t have AoE. Going into T4 the only thing you worry about is Polymorph. On 5 them having Dragon’s Fury is usually the make or break part of the game. With that in mind, we ideally set up strong boards with Fungalmancer to have a chance of surviving the Fury (Fungal on 3/3s so they can low roll Polymorph for Dragon's Fury). Going into T6 we play around Meteor and Blizzard as much as possible. On 7, we play around Flamestrike or Artificer + Blizzard. On the note of Artificer, we MUST answer it ASAP, Soulfire it or Spellbreaker it if you must. The cadence of the match in the mid game usually goes like they AoE, we heal/ reload, AoE, heal/reload, etc... and if we spaced our threats out properly, we usually have outs going into T8 or 9 when they usually want to drop Lich King and Jaina. When it comes to their AoE turns, we try to play around the maximum number of AoE’s possible, it’s not always possible to play around EVERYTHING so we pick 2 of 3 to play around. It is worth noting that Fungalmancer automatically helps you play around Meteor which is super nice (weak minion in the middle, strong on the sides). Also worth noting: Spellbreaker can be used on our frozen minions to push extra damage. When it comes to reloading after AoE, if you have Fungal in hand, it can be effective to simply play your weaker minions forcing them to decide between AoE a small/weak board vs getting Fungalmancer punished.

Rogue

Odd Rogue is a huge pain in the posterior. Their weapon alone basically farms us on top of the fact that they have strong tempo cards like SI and Vilespine. We generally mull for our Taunts, Homunculus is MVP in this matchup, Soulfire is huge as well (one of the few ways we get a swing turn and the best way to answer Hench on 3). If we have the chance to try to highroll with Ghoul, do so as that is the other way we get a swing turn. Voidwalker can be extremely good especially if we are going first (if on coin they have 1 drop into weapon to clear unfortunately). We try to heal our Taunts to give us time to develop our other minions without getting farmed. This matchup is all about board control, if we can value trade, we generally trade. We heal our minions where profitable. Going into T5 we try to deny them Fungal while setting up our own. Going wide is better than dropping Dreadlord since they have Vilespine for punish. If you’ve drawn your Taunts and they’ve done their job, we usually get to a point in the mid game where we go full face and lose board in order to set up lethals from hand via Soulfires and Chargers. This is a pretty rough matchup so don’t beat yourself up over losing frequently to them.

Paladin

Odd Paladin is one of the few actually good matchups since we have strong taunts to eat their small minions and Dreadlord to lock them out of the game. I won’t comment too much here, but we basically want 2+ health minions in our mull + Dreadlord is auto keep. If they Stonehill, playing around Tarim is a MUST. Protect your Dreadlord at all costs, watch out for Vinecleaver and Level Up, you should be good.

Hunter

Egg / Deathrattle / Spell should for the most part be solid matchups for us. We pressure early so that by the time they get rolling we are already threatening lethal. It is usually not worth it to kill Eggs, just go face. Spellbreaker is clutch vs Eggs, Cubes, and Grizzly’s. On 4 they frequently have Flanking Strike so be ready for that. Always play around Deathstalker on 6. Against Spell Hunter, we want early pressure but if they start playing secrets we sometimes wait to develop our board before swinging in. Particularly effective is if we get to wait to Fungalmancer before swinging into their Wandering Monsters and Explosive traps. Swinging with Fungal and Ghouls are best if you suspect Freezing.

Shaman

The Wock!! This matchup can be pretty hard, especially if they draw all their AoE. Early on, we try to apply max pressure while keeping in mind being able to deal with Acolyte and Mana Tide. Where it’s worth it, we play around MC tech, otherwise we set up (3+ health minions with 16+ health on board) a board resilient to Storm / Volcano. If we’ve dealt a fair amount of face damage, it is sometimes worth it to ignore Mana Tides and develop a board that threatens lethal while having 16+ health across all minions. We often tap in the mid-game to have the resources to reload after they AoE while simultaneously not overextending our board. If they curve out with Chain Gangs we often just have to play into AoE otherwise we never get there. Ideally we play around Hagatha on 8, but occasionally we all-in as we might not be able to beat a Hagatha. General rule of thumb: if you can’t beat something, just go all-in and don’t play around it. Lightwarden is stronger in the mid-game where you can use it as a pseudo counter to Healing Rain, forcing them to first remove it before making it rain.

Priest

Usually Combo Control. Eh. Lightwardens are sick. Flame Imps eat Clerics. Watch out for Dusk on 4, Scream on 7, Drake on 8. Don’t overextend, pace your threats, tap frequently, apply early pressure.

WARLOCK

Let’s cover Even Lock first:

Flame Imp once again is King. We usually coin out a second one drop if we have Demonfire on 2 to answer their Doomsayer. It is usually worth preserving our board if we can Soulfire a Doomsayer to kill it. Their Homunculus eats our Flame Imps so we Soulfire them if possible, Imp represents more damage over 2 or more turns if it lives. We set up boards to play around Defiles where possible (that means not having 1/2/3 health minions on board at the same time). We ignore Giants and go face most of the time. Spellbreaker is sick since it has so many good targets, usually its good vs Drake if we can clear it with a 2/1 and help preserve our board, it’s obviously clutch against Reaver and Lich King, it is also good against taunted up Giants – use them wisely. Very frequently we have to play into Hellfire otherwise we never have enough pressure to win, when they don’t have it, we Fungal to get our minions out of Hellfire range.

Last, but not least… we see ourselves in the mirror.

This one is the most interesting of our matchups and where skillful play and can overcome Keleseth odds. Anecdotally, I believe I am either 50/50 or slightly positive when my opponent draws and plays Keleseth and has it impact the game in a meaningful way. The matchup is HARD, but not impossible. The gist of it is: we just go face, face, face early in the game and punish them for having a low tempo T2 play. Flame Imp into Homunculus is our most solid bet to beat their Keleseth on curve. We usually don’t bother value trading because we will eventually lose that game, they will simply out value us so we race their value with damage. That said, there will be a few critical turns where you MUST trade, mostly to play around their Fungalmancer or a Soulfire on one of our Taunts letting them get through and make trades. The point where we start crying is when they draw their buffed Chain Gangs as that’s their strongest single Keleseth minion which lets them get back on the board. At some point in the game, we will usually lose board from going face so much, but in doing so we set up lethal outs with Soulfires and chargers (or Fungalmancers on the few minions that survive trades). We try to go as wide as possible so that even after value trades we have some damage surviving on board. Soulfires are incredibly important in this matchup since it’s one of the few tools we have to swing a board state or efficiently preserve our own. Dreadlord is another card that we must simultaneously play around while setting up our own good Dreadlord turns, if we lose board, we can sometimes get it back by inducing value trades then following up with Dreadlord. Spellbreaker is surprisingly good when you get to silence a Keleseth buffed minion and getting value trade out of it. Brewer (and other heals) is also strong in that we get to heal our Dreadlord and trade into theirs without losing ours. It’s also good for snowballing our board state and playing around opposing Dreadlords. Since most lists run Lifedrinkers, that’s a card we play around lest we get bursted down, so at some point in the game we must stop tapping for resources. In a fair fight, (i.e. no Keleseth for them), we have the advantage since Homunculus lines up so well into their minions. Chain Gang also really sucks into our 3/3s but we have to beware of Dreadlord the following turn. Usually whoever gets their first Fungal down wins, otherwise it’s whoever high rolls with Ghoul harder.

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Thanks for reading once again! If you’re interested in watching VoDs of my gameplay, you can find them here: https://www.twitch.tv/cozykittenHS/videos/all 

I streamed my entire climb from deck creation to Legend, every second of it.

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Drop a follow if you’d like! I stream pretty much every day around 3-5PM Pacific till 8-10PM.

Questions, comments, concerns addressed in the comments! Will be actively checking.