Hearthpwn

Background:Edit: 28/8/14
Three weeks ago I cobbled together a mid-range warlock (and posted it on LiquidHearth) that leveraged the power of the Voidcaller. The original deck, and explanation, can be found on that site. Originally, I went extremely Demon-heavy and included Sense Demons, Sacrifical Pact, Voidwalkers, a Pit Lord, 2x Dread Infernal, Molten Giants, and even played around with Illidan. I managed to use that version of the deck up to rank 4 before I started running into issues and had to start tweaking it.

Some of the first tweaks were to start removing some of the demon clutter and add in Ragnaros as a finisher along with Loatheb and Spectral Knights as 5-drops. I also removed the Molten Giants at this time as they just didn't seem to be working out with the style. A few other minor considerations (like replacing Ragnaros with Jaraxxus) allowed me to grind up to rank 2 until I got stuck again.

Around the same time, Realz debuted a remarkably similar deck during the VGVN tournament (a link to which was shared by Solmyr [url=http://imgur.com/a/Yb5Mr#3][Link Here][/url]). After studying his deck and my own I decided to switch things around and add in Ancient Watchers, Nerubian Eggs, Defender of Argus, and put the Moltens Giants back in the deck now that I was running all 4 Taunt-givers. In addition, I started running Black Knight instead of Loatheb as a tech choice as there are so many good taunt targets in the current meta: (vs Hunter = Houndmaster, vs most Mid-range & Control decks = Belcher, vs Priest = Deathlord, vs Druid = Belcher/DotC/AoW, vs Handlock = Sunwalker/any Taunted Giant or Drake).

The resulting deck allowed me to win consistently enough (~67%) to grind to legend...yes, even against Hunters.

General Strategy:
In almost every matchup you need to mulligan for early board presence. Key cards here are: Flame Imp, Sunfury Protector, Nerubian Egg, Harvest Golem, and Ancient Watcher (primarily if you already have Sunfury in hand). When you have coin you can may be able to look for Voidcaller as well. Against aggro/zoo it can be in your best interest to try and find a Shadowflame / Hellfire if you already have a Flame Imp or Sunfury in your opening hand as well.

Your primary concern in most games will be to maintain board presence and make favorable trades (or force your opponent to make the trade) until the mid-game where you can really start to turn on the pressure. With the exception of Sunfury Protector, all of the drops 3 or less are undervalued such that you should be able to trade 2 for 1 with each of them which should put you in a favorable position. Another benefit of the deck is that when you play a turn 1 Flame Imp your opponent will immediately consider you to be a zoo and possibly misplay -- this creates great opportunity to exploit. Even if you don't manage to get a Flame Imp for turn 1, a turn 2 Nerubian Egg, and turn 3 Harvest Golem (or turn 2 coined Golem), can have the same effect. Use this to your advantage as an over committal by your opponent can turn into an Shadowflame -> Harvest Golem board clear or Voidcaller -> Doomguard tempo swing in your favor.

Into the mid-game you'll be playing to pressure your opponent with a taunted Voidcaller, utilize Black Knight to gain advantage, and even play a Dread Infernal for the 1-damage sweep if necessary. Thanks to the very balanced Warlock Hero Power you should never find yourself card starved. Make sure to balance your turns so that you can leverage the card draw (ie, sometimes a good turn 5 is Hero Power + Harvest Golem). Unless you find yourself in an absolute emergency, Siphon Soul should be saved for the highest priority target against whatever deck you're playing (Savannah Highmane, Ragnaros, Giants, Grom...etc.). Assuming you made favorable early and mid-game trades your opponent will likely have to burn whatever removal he has on the demons your Voidcaller summoned out for free. As a result, and into the late-game you should be able to drop the Molten Giants with impunity and as a strong finisher. The only consideration here is that against aggro / beatdown you might find your health lower earlier and drop Molten Giants as the opportunity presents itself. Always be cognizant of decks that might run Black Knight and avoid taunting up your giants / big guys in those match ups (unless you're forced to to save your life). Finally, you have Jaraxxus at your disposal to heal up and/or provide the last bit of late game pressure necessary to close the game out.

Key Combos & Synergies:
1) Ancient Watcher + Ironbeak Owl: If you find yourself in a situation where your opening hand contains both of these cards (especially when you have coin) you should consider this combo for: turn 1 Coin+Ancient Watcher, turn 2 Ironbeak Owl. This shouldn't be an automatic decision, however, as in some match-ups it's more important to hold on to your Owl. If you're in a match-up where you feel that Innervating out a turn 1 Yeti feels like a good decision then go for it. In the later stages of the game this play can become less desirable.

2) Nerubian Egg / Voidcaller + Sunfury Protector / Defender of Argus: Forcing your opponent to trade into a turn 2 (or coin turn 1) Egg or turn 4 (or coin turn 3) Voidcaller puts you in a very advantageous position. Use this combo you create a strong board and continue to pressure your opponent.

3) Ancient Watcher / Voidcaller / Harvest Golem / Nerubian Egg + Power Overwhelming / Shadowflame: These 4 cards will be your primary Shadowflame targets. Depending on the board state you may or may not need to include Power Overwhelming to perform a board clear (unless you're targeting Nerubian Egg in which case you have no choice). Using any of these targets to clear a powerful board should put you in a very favorable position -- especially if you targeted Egg or Voidcaller and summoned a Doomguard / Dread Infernal.

4) Sylvanas + Power Overwhelming / Shadowflame: Dropping Sylvanas + Power Overwhelming on Turn 7+ can provide an incredible tempo swing in your favor in situations where you were otherwise behind. This is especially strong against Control Warrior and decks that drop a single powerful minion per turn. Against other decks you'll have to weigh the risk of capturing the wrong minion and make sure you can deal with the other minions if the Random Mind Control misses. Speaking of RNG, one way to minimize the randomness is to instead drop Sylvanas + Shadowflame for a 5 damage sweep + Mind Control. Suffice it to say, a turn 10 +1 Flamestrike + Mind Control can often be game ending in your favor.

5) Ancient Watcher / Molten Giant + Sunfury Protector / Defender of Argus: I'm including this synergy separate from synergy #2 as the rationale behind the play is different. Whereas before you wanted to force your opponent to trade into your minions so that you can pressure them with the summoned Nerubian and/or Doomguard / Dread Infernal, taunting an Ancient Watcher or Molten Giant is purely defensive in nature and will be done to protect your life total. The early game taunted Watcher will force your opponent into making plays they would otherwise want to avoid and the late game taunted Watcher and/or Molten Giant will protect you from game ending combos or make it impossible for your opponent to win. Again, make sure to recognize where you might be at risk from Black Knight and play accordingly (ie, vs Druid, and some Control Warrior).

6) Nerubian Egg x 2 + Hellfire: Typically, you'll want your opponent to crack your Eggs open for you but if you're up against a zoo or being overrun then you might want to think ahead to turn 4 and drop an Egg (or 2) and then Hellfire on turn 4. This will allow you to clear an otherwise unbeatable board and have 1-2 4/4s out for turn 5. This isn't a situation that you want to find yourself in but it is possible to come back.

7) Molten Giant + Shadowflame: I'm including this as a panic-button of sorts. If you find yourself with a terrible draw against an aggro deck then it's possible that you might need to pull this trigger. Dropping a 0 or 1 mana Molten will allow you to 8 damage sweep as early as turn 4 and try and claw back from a bad spot. It's also possible that you'll end up needing to do this in a later game state against a Control deck like Handlock so keep that in mind as well.

8) Jaraxxus Hero Power + Shadowflame: Finally, I'm adding this in as it's something you should keep in mind as a 6 mana, 6 damage board sweep is a powerful follow-up to the turn you drop Jaraxxus. If you need to do this it will likely be the last chance you have to stabilize in a game and can give you the edge you need to win from an otherwise disadvantageous position.

Cards that Didn't Make the Cut:
Flame Imp / Voidwalker: These are easily two of the top tier 1-drops in the game but there's currently no room or real necessity for them in this deck.

Soulfire 1x: Much like Realz version of the deck I moved to only using 1 copy of Soulfire. The reasoning behind this is that the discard from Soulfire in a mid-range deck is really painful. Similarly, you really want to avoid playing Doomguard from your hand unless drastic measures have to be taken. One copy of Soulfire is enough to serve as necessary removal or extra finishing damage if it calls for it. Ideally, you'd rather be able to force poor trades from your opponent than use removal and potentially discard something important.

Loatheb: He's a great card stand-alone and has a great effect. Unfortunately, I just felt overall that Black Knight is better in the current meta for this deck. It could happen that I end up working him back into the deck but right now there just doesn't seem to be a need.

Sludge Belcher: Sludge Belcher is certainly a great card and does wonders for slowing down the game. The problem with including him into this deck is that it starts building the deck up to be just a worse version of Handlock. The same goes for other notable 5+ drops that would otherwise be solid (ie, Sunwalker...etc.).

Conclusion:

The mid-range Warlock is something that no one expects to face and continues to catch my opponents off-guard. The primary positive attribute of the deck ability to transition from what seems like a Zoo deck early-game into a quasi-Handlock deck mid-game gives you the flexibility to deal with a variety of decks, from Hunter to Shaman and everything in between. Overall you should be able to win against any deck archetype but can still run into trouble vs aggro / zoo decks if you don't draw into your early-game minions or board clears. Conversely, if you can draw into Flame Imp, Ancient Watcher, Sunfury Protector, and/or Shadowflame / Hellfire then you should have a fairly good time against these decks.

Feel free to post any feedback / questions.

Cheers.