Hearthpwn

So since I made my original list this deck has been catching fire. itsotter has been playing it a lot on stream, and even made a nice write up on reddit. Savjz also played the deck and loved it as well. I figured I should make a formal write up on the deck.

I guess lets start with why I made the deck. I was a huge advocate of fatigue rogue, and some of you may of seen my list being played by firebat, backspace, and tidesoftime. The problem however was there was so much aggro being played it was hard to make the deck consistent enough for my liking as well as it just got boring after playing it for hundreds of games. Thus I started thinking what is really good and really bad about the deck against aggro. Well the board clears and the repeating of heals is good (in rogue it was blade flurry and shadow stepping minions to heal) However if I was doing this it was really hard to finish off my opponents afterwards. My original thought was add some more ways to deal with minions and more heal minions. However this lead to a bigger problem in consistency because now my deck was filled with minions making it harder to empty my hand when I was trying to combo. This made me want to try more classes out to see if I'd have better results. I saw some people were having varying success with druid, but I wanted to make my own deck because that is what I love to do (I do love getting feedback, but I don't just like copying decks at face value). So I started messing around with different mage builds. I tested this deck for weeks before getting a list that could win more then two games in a row, but the more I tweaked it the more consistent it got. I honestly think this deck could actually be an archetype. I've played it in some in house events with a lot of high level players such as firebat, kitkatz, and backspace. It preformed a lot better then people originally thought it would. If you are looking for an interesting deck that is different from your normal meta this is deff the deck for you!

I guess you're also wondering about what the good and bad match ups are. The best match ups for this deck are aggro decks believe it or not. You have so many heals, taunts and board clears it is really hard for them to kill you. They have to over extend on the board otherwise you just out heal their damage as well as get good trades with your taunts + hero power, and when they do over extend you get a sick board clear with your aoe. It's also really good against mid-range type decks like most of the current paladin lists (it gets a little harder depending how many silences they have, if they have rag, and if they still run equality, but even then the match up is winnable) Shaman is another match up that is really good now since they mostly don't run doom hammer anymore, and you have so much board clear potential they can never get a board presence you are scared of. There are some draws that can be a little annoying to deal with for example if they get to hex and kill the frog when you have duplicate it's not the greatest feeling, but it's also not the worst because you now have cheap taunts that are easy to add into your echo value. Lastly, for the good match ups you have priest. Priest doesn't normally have a lot of burst potential from hand forcing them to play right into your strategy of controlling the board while maintaining a high life total.

The match ups you don't mind playing, but aren't the most favorable would be the paladin deck if they do have equality/owls/rag, control warrior, and handlock (it is a free win if they don't slam jaraxxus or you burn it) However it is a decently hard match up if they play jaraxxus early in the game.

Lastly, the only match up you need to avoid like the plague is druid. It's almost impossible to beat a druid if they know what they are doing. They have a really easy time bursting from hand as well as emptying their hand.

Now lets talk about the cards in the deck, and what they do for you.

Frostbolt - is really important to allow you to freeze their big threats to allow them to be aoe'd the following turn. You also need it to snipe those pesky under takers before they get out of hand. Additionally, you can use it to freeze their hero to protect from a weapon so you can follow up with a taunt or heal to get out of danger.

Doomsayer - this card is super versatile. You can combo it with your freeze effects, and even if they silence it you have echo to get value later. It can also be used just to gain 7 life for 2 mana. As well as buy you an extra turn because they don't want to drop any minions into your doomsayer. 

Explosive Sheep - Who doesn't love explosive sheep. It goes really well with your hero power. Allowing you to have even more options for board clears. You can also just play it into an undertaker preventing them from developing further onto the board before you can deal with it. There is also a lot of cool stuff you can do with it such as duplicating it or getting an additional sheep as well as saving your minions on board with echo. (gives you another flame strike in some cases)

Ironbeak Owl - this is a card I'm still testing, and it was an idea of Savjz. I was originally running two polymorphs because you needed to be able to deal with death rattles as well as big minions. However, if you run owl then you can just run bgh for the bigger minions and just silence the death rattles. It is also good because you are able to answer undertaker with it in addition to your frost bolts. You can also gain more value because it is another cheap minion for your echo.

Duplicate, Echo of Medivh, and Coldlight Oracle these cards serve the same purpose they are your card draw with out making you draw faster then your opponent. This is important because you still need cards to play, but you don't want to fatigue before your opponent.

Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, and Blizzard are your freeze spells obviously, and you need these in order to set up doomsayer, save hp, and set up for really good board clears with your sheep, and flame strikes.

Big Game Hunter, and Polymorph these cards allow you to deal with the minions you otherwise couldn't just aoe down. they are cheap enough to where you should be able to freeze the board afterwards allowing for a huge recovery from an otherwise grim situation.

Deathlord - this is probably the most important card in the deck (yes more important then coldlight oracle) it forces creatures out of their deck which normally would be hard to deal with, but since you are freezing the board a lot anyway it just speeds up their draws as well as takes away battle cry effects that normally would hurt you. It's also just a huge body that loves to be duplicated. Super efficient card for this strategy.

Earthen Ring Farseer - It is a really solid minion against aggro, and can be good for healing your taunts, additionally it's another cheap minion that provides good value after echo of medivh.
 Not much more to say about it other then it just has a solid effect and stats.

Antique Healbot, and Sludge Belcher. These are your power houses. They lead you into the late game, and keep you from dieing if you duplicate either of these bad boys you are in great shape to win that match. Belcher is a lot of stats to eat through and if you have to deal with more then 1 especially when your board is being torn apart by aoe you're not going to be happy. Same goes for Antique Healbot 8 health is a lot when you're trying to burst from your hand. For example I keep clearing the board the logical response would to try and burst me down any way you can (kill command, fireballs alex to face ect) If after you burst I just keep gaining life because of healbots you're going to run out of steam.

Lastly, we have flamestrike this is what you use to finish off the board. Your game plan is to keep freezing the board and pinging minions to set up sick flamestrikes.

 

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Updated with the changes I made during my stream tonight based on the decks I was playing against.