Hearthpwn

First of all, I've been playing Hearthstone since the early days, focusing purely on Control(-ish) decks. Some of you may know me from various DM-conversations we had, others may not know me at all. In short, I love Hearthstone. Even though a lot has changed, this game remains a beauty to me. As such, I wanted to go ahead and write full and extensive guides for the decks I'm using, because I'm passionate about strategy games in general. I play with a competitive mindset, but I don't play multiple hours a day. I'm not a Pro Player, but I do like to think I know my fair share.

Please note that these decks are not my own creations, but as someone who regularly gets asked about deck strategies, I would like to offer my insights as to how to play certain decks. As such, my write-ups are always my own experiences, and opinions may differ depending on the meta at the time, or the player behind the wheel.

Introduction to Even Warlock

Ever since Witchwood was released, Even and Odd decks have been high up in the meta-game. Staples such as Odd and Even Pally, Even Shaman and Odd Warrior have consistently proven to be viable decks. The general strategy behind these decks is to exploit the cheaper or upgraded Hero Power, and to build your deck around that. After all, you're sacrificing powerful cards for that feature, so your strategy and win condition should be focused on that. Even Warlock, or Evenlock, is no different, and typically wants to build big hands to exploit certain minions that benefit from that hand size.

The 1-mana Hero Power allows you to cycle through your deck quicker, and to find the monsters, Mountain Giant and Twilight Drake, that can bring home the victory. Indirectly, the price you're paying for this strategy is in Health, which contributes to the deck's secondary win condition, Hooked Reaver. If all these threats have been answered by your opponent, there's always your late-game savior, Bloodreaver Gul'dan. In general, the deck aims to consistently put large minions on the board, forcing your opponent to take a defensive stance. It is with the help of various Taunts and effective board clears, you are able to constantly pressure your opponent with huge amounts of damage, until they collapse under the might of Evenlock.

The deck is probably best described as the sequel to Warlock's Handlock decks, and while they're not strictly Control or Midrange decks, it often requires more thought than players give it credit for. That being said, the strategy is simple and effective, never failing to keep Evenlock in the top-tier decks of any past meta.

Building the deck

Core cards

Do NOT attempt to play this deck without these cards. These cards are vital to the deck in such a way that it simply cannot be effective without them.

Genn Greymane, Bloodreaver Gul'dan, Mountain Giant, Twilight Drake and Hooked Reaver.

Important synergy-cards

The following cards are not as important as the core cards, but the deck's performance will still drop significantly if these cards are not present.

Defile, Vulgar Homunculus, Lesser Amethyst Spellstone, Hellfire, Dread Infernal and The Lich King.

Flexible cards

The rest of the cards can be switched out for other threats or like-wise efficient cards. However, I've included some cards that may not be optimal at all, which will be the cards I will focus on for this section.

Crazed Alchemist, Mosh'Ogg Enforcer, Mojomaster Zihi.

Match-ups, Strategies and Mulligans

This section will focus on your best strategies versus other archetypes and your mulligan section. Because the deck likes to harm the player playing it, there are quite some pitfalls if you miscalculate your opponent's deck power. One of the big weaknesses for Evenlock is burst-damage. We tap so much, on default, we quickly find ourselves in low-health regions. Take into account that while we can heal, we first have to damage ourselves some more, to upgrade our Spellstones. This offers decks like Miracle Rogue, Burn Mage and Odd Hunter, plenty of opportunities to smite us down with Charge-minions or burn spells. To play Evenlock efficiently, it is vital to understand your opponent's deck.

Versus Aggro

Mulligan

• Defile
• Doomsayer
• Vulgar Homunculus

Versus Aggro, we need to survive. Depending on how aggro it, we can change strategies on the fly (one more beautiful thing about this deck). If you obtain a Spellstone during your mulligan-phase, do not hesitate to keep Hellfire, should the option be presented to you. While tapping versus Aggro is dangerous, it remains our core strategy, especially if we lack any of the above cards anyways. Just be wary of your health in terms of the burst damage your opponent can inflict.

It isn't till turn 6 to 8 where we can stabilize against Aggro, and at that point, we take over the board. Our various Taunt-minions can not only keep our health safe, but also our big threats. Aggro decks typically lack sufficient removal spells, so once you're able to stabilize, you'll most likely win. If worst comes to worst, you can always use Sunfury Protector to give your Twilight Drakes Taunt. Let's see if Aggro can go through that.

The big downfall to Evenlock in this matchup is not knowing when to stop tapping. When I started playing this deck myself, I buried myself so deep into damage, while my healing was hiding at the bottom of the deck, Hunter's Hero Power just rinsed me. It's also quite common to see Mountain Giant in your mulligan against Aggro, but not throwing it away for other important survival tools is always a risk. Typically, one does not say no to Mountain Giant and Twilight Drake once they're presented, but you don't mulligan for them versus Aggro. You also don't want to be extra greedy, and keep both Twilight Drake and Mountain Giant. No matter how grand your opening, you'll still perish.

Versus Control

Mulligan

• Mountain Giant
• Twilight Drake
• Bloodreaver Gul'dan

Our main goal is to drop Mountain Giant and Twilight Drake as fast as possible, never letting go of applying pressure to our opponent. Yes, Odd Warrior has Shield Slam. Yes, Priest has Shadow Word: Death. But we don't mind. We want to exhaust our opponent's pool of removal, till he/she has no more. And then we win. Control decks typically lack the proper minions to contest the board against our big minions, but if they want to create board presence using various Taunt minions, do not hesitate to just Hellfire them. We want to, nay, NEED to burn them down as fast as we can.

One very important thing to keep in mind is that we will lose in fatigue. Odd Warriors, with good draw, can give us a run for our money, and Rogues can Vanish our board, consequently also making us overdraw. There will be a certain point in the match where you'll think "Okay, I'm not burning him down quick enough, I need to change strats." This is the point where you'll stop tapping, and manage your resources. While our DK, Bloodreaver Gul'dan, can do some work in the fatigue-phase, tapping more than you should will mean defeat. Knowing when and when not to tap is going to be your main focus point, if you wish to start playing this deck.

Versus OTK/Combo

Mulligan

• Mountain Giant
• Twilight Drake
• Mojomaster Zihi

This is where we can shine. We put out threat after threat after threat, while our opponent is hastily looking for his/her combo-pieces. Combo decks offer close to zero pressure on board, which is where we can take over complete control. Add in the newest addition, Mojomaster Zihi, and we can even delay the Combo.

However, there is one big flaw in our deck; our Health. Decks like Malygos Rogue or Maly Druid can benefit hugely from our tapping, and thus need fewer combo pieces to obtain lethal. At the same time, we do want to find our threats. It's a tricky game, but I've worked up the perfect philosophy for myself: if I don't find my threats, I'll be dead anyways. So just tap, and take the hit.

General tips, tricks and overview

The above should give you some insights as how to play versus certain archetypes, but the best thing about Evenlock is the ability to change strategies on the fly. The deck has removal, big threats, late-game value in DK's resurrection of Demons, and it can even try to hinder your opponent's Combo. This deck also contains the surprise factor of Mosh'Ogg Enforcer or Twilight Drake into Crazed Alchemist, for some cool wins, especially facing your mirror.

If you wish to converse with me on certain topics regarding this deck, please do leave a comment. If you're having trouble beating a certain class, or wish to discuss the replacement of a certain card, please do not hesitate to comment either.

Edits

30/12/2018: -1 Mosh'Ogg Enforcer, -1 Crazed Alchemist, -1 Arena Fanatic, +1 Dread Infernal, +1 Shroom Brewer, +1 Siphon Soul.

The meta is unfortunately very aggressive at this point in time, thus I made the above changes. While the combo between Crazed Alchemist and Mosh'Ogg Enforcer is a fun one, it hardly ever happens. I've chosen to add in an additional Dread Infernal for more Bloodreaver Gul'dan value. Shroom Brewer can heal you more, while putting a solid body on the board. Lastly, I've found Siphon Soul to be an extremely good card, removing big threats from the board in, for example, the mirror matches.