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[KFT] Vampire Lock [In depth guide]

  • Last updated Aug 28, 2017 (Frozen Throne)
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Wild

  • 18 Minions
  • 11 Spells
  • Deck Type: Ranked Deck
  • Deck Archetype: Control Warlock
  • Crafting Cost: 9120
  • Dust Needed: Loading Collection
  • Created: 8/21/2017 (Frozen Throne)
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  • Battle Tag:

    N/A

  • Region:

    EU

  • Total Deck Rating

    375

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"FEAR ME!"

With the new Death Kight hero there are new possibilities for Gul'dan. Poor Lord Jaraxxus needs to rest a bit...

Hey! I'm inorbert, Warlock main. After my well received Malylock (link) and Value lock (link) deck here's my new control list what I want to share with you. It will be updating while the meta is evolving, I'll do my best to make it work in every situation.

WARNING! This deck is totally NOT a fast one. Your games are often going to fatigue so if you want fast and easy wins then get the hell outa' here!

Explanation

- Wut!? Fatigue with Life Tap? Are you a madman?
- Nope. Believe me, blood never felt so good...

So let's talk about the concept of the deck in general. You have everything what you need

  • big boys,
  • midrange tools,
  • tons of removals,
  • and the most broken hero powers in the game.

Let's be honest, this is basically a removal heavy control demon Warlock with Gnomeferatus. The "Vampire" tag in the deck's name refers to our strategy: slowly eat your opponent's deck while you drink their blood with Siphon Life. In the following I want to share the reasons behind the cards on the list. 

With Knights of the Frozen Throne Warlock got a really powerful control spell Defile which could destroy every token or aggro deck's dream. It helps you clear the board with some efficient trades and setup. 

We got a new demon as well, Despicable Dreadlord. It can support the deck's midrange vein with Twilight Drakes. Bigger boys like Abyssal Enforcer, The Lich King can deal some serious damage and bait your opponents removals. The 6/6 demons also can clear the board and come back from death with DK Gul'dan.

And here is our Bloodreaver Gul'dan with an N'Zoth-ish effect and a completely broken hero power. Because of its 10 mana cost you need some set up before you spend a whole turn for it. The hero power itself is good enough but thanks to the demons in the deck (especially Voidwalker and Despicable Dreadlord) it has an immediate impact on the board as well. Siphon Life is a bloodthirsty tool, the 3 point heal + damage combo for 2 mana in every turn is a game winning factor in the late game against every deck.

"Wtf, Gnomeferatu!?" It is a very specific tech option... plus a River Crocolisk. (Hahhh, couldn't resist it!) Vast majority of our games will going to fatigue and then this lady's battlecry really makes sense! (And she's sooo cute, awwww!). With the mentioned DK hero power you will have huge advantage in fatigue games, so this lady can help you to speed up the process and burn some necessary cards for you opponent. Fatigue comes 2 turn earlier minus 2 resources = profit!

And that's why you don't need our beloved Mortal Coils. They are nice removal and card draw in one spell but you don't need them especially because of Skulking Geist. This deck doesn't want to burn itself at all. 

Rest of the list isn't spectacular or interesting, those cards can grant health or remove option but Elise the Trailblazer worth mentioning. She gives some late game juice for you even if the pack includes trash cards. The Lich King (aka. doctor 8) is an another card generator. The Death Knight cards could give you insane tempo swings and the 8/8 body with taunt is always a good removal/resource eater.

+1 Evaluate The Lich King

- This guy has a massive taunt body and value generation, so it couldn't be bad, isn't it?
- Well...

The body has an immediate impact on the board, your opponent have to do something with it. It will eat removals, minions or whatever. But if you are rely on the death kight cards from this, then you can be upset. They give value most of the time but not conistently. Let's se them!

Death knight cards:

  • Death Grip: Make your opponents deck more thinner and get a minion. Sound really good, one of the best outcome for this deck!
  • Death Coil: So are we a Druid now? Hmmmm! Very flexible, very cheap, smells like value for me.
  • Obliterate: Destroy a minion for 2 mana is insane. You lose some health but goddamnit, you are a freakin' Warlock man, pain is fun for us!
  • Death and Decay: Consecration with spell damage is on sale. You'll be really happy with this outcome.
  • Anti-Magic Shell: It's a 50/50, you need to have a board. In the late fatigue game this will be irrelevant but if you can play it with board it can win the game for you.
  • Doom Pact: This is basicly a DOOM! for 5 mana. Use this as a single target removal if you can. Sometimes it is worth a much bigger loss. Fair card.
  • Army of the Dead: As its name says it is a DEAD card almost in every matchup because of your spell/removal heavy list and even your minions have important battlecries.
  • Frostmourne: Don't bother yourself to read its text, it says: "Value, value, value!". Best toy to chop-chop your opponents' board with.

So 1/8 horrible, 3/8 OK and 4/8 insane. Seems fair.

Tech choices

If you can't enjoy Gnomeferatu's glorious body, then you can swap them out. Here are some possibilities below.

  • Control/fatigue matchups
    Mountain Giant: against control these guys could help you a lot, your opponent will be out of removal pretty soon because of your big threads.
    Alexstrasza: this card doesn't need any explain.
  • Aggro/token matchups
    The original list performing well against token and aggro deck because it has tons of removals. But Doomsayer or any taunt up minion could help more.
    Fatigue is irrelevant in these games most of the time so Mortal Coil still be your friend. 

Importance of Skulking Geist

Lot of people still can't understand this creature. Skulking Geist is one of the best designed card in the game in my opinion. It can NOT destroy Jade Druid all alone and that's right. The issue with Jade Druid was that it has factually infinite value and this was really problematic for every single control deck. This card solves it in a really elegant way: destroy the "infinite" but stets the "value". Nobody mention that Skulking Geist is a tech card not only for Jade Idol. It is really powerful against many classes (especially Priest). So I think it does what it needs. It just isn't OP but could help you a lot. Especially in a fatigue deck like this because you want to eat your opponent's deck faster than yours. Let's see some examples.

Geist's interaction with all 9 classes 

Matchups

Good: You can win easily most of these matchups
OK: It's a fair matchup. 50-50 in avarage.
Hard: Could be difficult, sometimes need good card draw but still winnable.
Bad: almost impossible, need a huge amount of good luck.
Mulligan: I've tried to write it in sort by priority.

Mulligan: Look aggressively for Skulking Geist. Then keep all AoE removals, Mistress of Mixture, Voidwalker, Twilight Drake.

Jade (Good/OK Matchup)

Stay alive! They can't made infinite value because of Skulking Geist and it is more than enough. You have a lot of removals and always can get the tempo back with your DK. They lack single target removals so all of your big guys will be threat for them. Try to save your minions and do not trade them if you can clean with spells.

Aggro/Token Druid (Good Matchup)

Just like every token deck it is an easy matchup. Defile is MVP. Try to save an AoE for Living Mana and a Siphon Soul for Bittertide Hydra and you'll be fine. Taunt tokens could be tricky but you can solve it with clever Defile or Twisting Nether. DK will bring back taunt so you can place it safely. You can leave them to flood sometimes but always play around Savage Roar!

Mulligan: Always keep Defile, Hellfire, Voidwalker, Mistress of Mixtures.

Midrange/Secret/DK Hunter (Good Matchup)

Haven't seen so much of them, poor Rexxar is probably the weakest class right now. Defile could be tricky when Scavenging Hyena is on the board so be careful! Even their DK can't outvalue this deck.

Mulligan: Mistress of Mixtures, Voidwalker, Gnomeferatu, Hellfire, Shadow Bolt, Twilight Drake.

DK Mage (Good Matchup)

They don't have so much burst, you can win the fatigue game. Just need to kill every lifesteal minion, and poke the fancy bitch with Siphon Life. Alexstrasza isn't enough for them.

Quest Mage (Bad Mathcup)

Haven't lost a single one against this monster but I was lucky every single time when I've faced with it. You have to pray for Gnomeferatu and shitty carddraw for Jaina. If their Antonidas is at the bottom of the deck, then you have the chance to win against their 3-4 Ice Blocks. But most of the time they'll win, it's the truth sorry!

Secret/Tempo Mage (Hard Matchup)

If you can't play around Counterspell then you can easily lose these games. They have serious burst damage and these spells can kill you before you drop the DK. Need good card draw and some luck but it is winnable if you can manage an early DK.

soon...

Mulligan: Look aggressively for Skulking Geist and Twilight Drake. Then removals and Gnomeferatu.

Big/DK/Kazakus Priest (Good/OK Matchup)

Priest is my favourite class to play against with new Gul'dan. It remains me to the old Renolock vs Control Warrior matchups where you have to eat each other's resources and at the end Warlock always wins. :D But now it is little harder because of their "resurrect an Obsidian Statue every turn" strategy. You need to manage your removals well (if it is needed then swap in a 2nd Twisting Nether for Shadow Bolt). At the end, they also will be out of cards and you will win with the DK hero power. Once I've won a fatigue game against an Amara guy. He really belived that 40 hp is enough against Siphon Life... Ohh and Skulking Geist really shines in these matches, believe me! It has 4 attack (haha), 6 hp is out of Dragonfire-zone and it burns 4 cards in avarage.

soon...

Mulligan: Always keep Defile, Hellfire, Voidwalker, Mistress of Mixtures. If you have at least 2 board clears then you can keep Skulking Geist too and even Gnomeferatu for early tempo.

Token Shaman (Good matchup)

One of the easiest matchup. Keep their board clean. You can let them flood the board until Turn 4 but there you have to clean because of the DK and Bloodlust. If they don't have any minion on the board then Shamans are useless. Bonus: Skulking Geist will kill their Evolve and it will make them really sad.

Mulligan: Always looking for Twilight Drake and Voidwalker, and keep Hellfire, Mistress of Mixtures and Gnomeferatu if you have the mentioned cards.

Demonlock/Handlock (Good/OK matchup)

When these games was a mirror then one thing could easily end the game: who can place Bloodreaver Gul'dan first. But with Vampire lock you can win these matches even if they pull the DK earlier. Gnomeferatu and Skulking Geist means that they will 4 turns closer to fatigue (even if they used their Mortal Coils) and it means a lot at the end. ALWAYS try to keep Twisting Nether for their DK battlecry and try to save one copy of Siphon Soul for their The Lich King. You can achieve it easily because of your high variety of removals. Elise the Trailblazer also really shines against Warlocks.

Zoolock (Good matchup)

Just keep the board clean but choose wisely when you have to use your AoE. Sometimes need to wait until they flood the board first. Defile will be your MVP in these matches. Be careful, they can produce serious burst damage with Doomguard, Bonemare or Leeroy Jenkins. Soulfire will be destroyed by Giest.

Mulligan: Defile, Mistress of Mixtures, Hellfire, Voidwalker, Drain Soul, Shadow Bolt

Pirate Warrior (Hard Matchup)

Doesn't need any explain. They're dumb and but fast strong. If you draw your heal, removal and DK in the right time then this is an easy win. If you don't it is an easy lose. And yeah, we have to mulligan against this guy doesn't matter how many type of Warrior will be viable in the future...

Quest Warrior (OK Matchup)

You need to dose your resources slowly because of their Ragna hero power and keep their board as clean as you can in the entire game. Be careful with Alley Armorsmith, these guys are they health resources after they completed the quest. Unfortunately dropping your DK is a key factor in this game. If you can't pull it in the right time, then you can lose easily. With playing demons and Twilight Drakes in the mid game can bait their Brawls and other removals, so when you place Gul'dan then they will be in trouble. Because of Skulking Geist (Shield Slam and maybe I Know a Guy) and your Gnomeferatus they will run out of cards much earlier. Elise always gives you some juice even if the pack is totally garbage. These minions can hide you from their random 8 damage in the late game where they will be out of removals.

Q&A

  • "Is there any card which can replace Bloodreaver Gul'dan?"
    Sorry guys! You can't replace the soul and the sense of the deck. Without the DK this list is just a bunch of cards, nothing else.
  • "Bloodmage Thalnos or Tainted Zealot?"
    I've played both of them in the earlier stage of the decklist. There are some pros and cons in both side. Thalnos is better when you want to be sure about the first cast of Defile will kill something and be able to cast again and again. With Zealot you can deal more damage but the first cast isn't guaranteed. The other point is the card draw. Against aggressive decks you need that draw because you have to search for answers as soon as possible but it could be a dead car in a control matchup when you are close to fatigue. Zealot is much stickier and you can play it in every segment of the game as an Argent Squire body. So it depends on some situations. But if you don't have Bloodmage Thalnos and don't want to craft it then Tainted Zealot is the perfect replacement.
  • "Why don't you run Coldlight Oracle?"
    This is NOT a mill deck. It is just a fatigue deck like the old Control Warrior was, nearly. These murlocs are really counterproductive against aggro and your hand will be almost full most of the time.

 

Sometimes you can catch me up on Twitch playing Hearthstone.
Here's my channel below. Click it!

If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know in the comment section!
Good luck and have fun!