Hearthpwn

Ace deck man. Marching up the ladder as we speak. For me the priority in laddering is consistency (rather than speed), and this delivers in spades. I've haven't lost more than like 2-3 games in a row at any point so far. I tossed in an extra owl and dropped the chow, since I have the worst luck of all time getting it in opening hands and on mulligan EVER, and I didn't want two.

Nice work.

Glad you're enjoying the deck. Yes, I agree that consistency is much more important than speed in laddering, hence why I like Handlock because it allows for many different options every turn rather than just slapping down minions and hoping to rush everything down.

People like to say that aggro is easy to play, but in my experience if they make one mistake it can usually cause them to run out of steam quickly and then it just goes downhill for them.

How has only having one Zombie chow affected the aggro matchup? I feel like it would be nice because it's always a dead card later, and vs control, but I also feel like against mech mage or hunter you really need as high of a chance to mulligan into it as possible.

I find having one chow is fine. Even against Hunter/Mage you can fit it into your curve during turn 4-5 and it won't give them massive value since they're usually the aggressor in the early game. It's also great for triggering stuff like mirror entity, freezing trap, if you didn't draw into Kezan Mystic.

Two chows is too much for this deck since you're running control, and generally you should be able to hold the rest of early game with Hellfire, taunts, etc.

Keep in mind that it's fine to just take some damage as long as you're mindful of what burst your opponent potentially has (Kill commands, fireballs, crackles, etc). This way you can potentially play your giants earlier, where they are less likely to have the correct removals.

Hey op I have a question, I love the playstyle of handlock and had the choice to make sylvanas or 4giants so I chose the giants so I could play the deck. I have all the cards except jarraxis(Which I prefer rag over either way) and sylvanas obviously. So if you had to replace sylvannas with the next best option while I save up dust for her, what would you pick if it was nessasary? I only have boom/rag as neutral legendaries btw.

Heya,

Sylvanas is a great card, and is quite hard to replace due to being a huge threat to the opposing board. The next best options would probably be Cairne Bloodhoof or Piloted Sky Golem to get minions to stick to the board. You can probably also consider Sunwalker for the extra taunt and tougher removal.

Alrighty, thankyou. I tried Kel' Thuzad at first just to see how it went and after 5 games found out that was terrible. Then, before your recomendations tried sunwalker, and he's working fine for what I have atm. 

First started the deck and went from rank 9 to 13 .-. now working my way back up to 11 with it. Thanks for the great deck list, I also, dropped - 1 Defender of Argus + 1 BGH , and prefer that too the double argus.

But thanks again for the deck and the description on mulligans!

I'm surprised you were able to do so well with Handlock in this meta which seems to be full of Hunters (both Face and Midrange). Care to share any advice in these matchups? Seems that even if I try playing minions aggressively without tapping I still get bursted down too fast.

Against Hunters, always aim to double taunt when play Sunfury or Argus. They're usually able to deal with at least one taunt with silence or Hunter's Mark, so by having two up you can cause them to slow down their aggression. If this can't be done, mulligan aggressively for Hellfire or Zombie Chow. Be sure to play on curve. For example, if it's turn 2 and you can coil a Webspinner, tap for a card instead and do tap + coil on turn 3 to get the extra card.

It's extremely important to tap for cards. It may seem like a bad thing to put yourself at lower HP, but getting the right cards in your hand is crucial to surviving aggro and once you can play Molten Giants the game can swing around really fast. The important thing is to keep an eye on how many cards the Hunter has, and how many Kill Commands he's played. Anything used on a minion is one less used on your face, and will generally put you in a better position once you have more mana to drop bigger taunts.

For secrets, it depends on the hunter. If he's face hunter, he's most likely running Explosive Trap. Use this to your advantage by trading minions and avoid hitting his face until you can deal with it. If it's midrange, don't attack until you can test for Freezing Trap with either Zombie Chow, Sunfury, or Argus. Of course, if you have Kezan Mystic in your hand, you gain a huge tempo swing which can usually shut them down.

Hope my explanations are helpful. I generally didn't have many issues with Hunters. If you can stabilize halfway through the game, chances are you'll win.

Jaraxxus is not necessary, I simply found him useful if the game draws out longer than needed and both sides have exhausted removals. Ragnaros works great since you can also taunt him up as a 8/8 wall and poses a strong threat on the board. Lifecoach uses Ragnaros in his Handlock deck for this exact reason.

Sylvanas is hard to replace though. Personally I think Sneeds is too slow/costly for this deck but he can work if you are able to play him when you're not threatened. The alternative would probably be Cairne Bloodhoof because he's able to stick to the board.

Heyo,

What decks are you facing at the moment? If it's Hunter, refer above to my reply to SentryGoinUp. Most of those tips can be applied to other aggro decks as well.

In every other case, it shouldn't be possible to lose by turn 5.