Hearthpwn

Quote from Warllyz »

Took out Defender of Argus (does some goofy things when trying to position with Dire Wolf) and 1x Silver Hand Knight for 2x Pit Lords.  They've been nothing but good to me.

Yeah, that happens on rare occasion. It's a loss of 1 potential attack during your attacking turn to be fair, but it's the most offensive tempo you can get while strengthening your grip on the board and protecting your life at the same time. Without Thalnos at the moment, I'm actually running two. I'm also trying out Pit Lords as well, the buffs are amazing but I'm weighing their risk vs reward to even consider running two, needs more exposure to different builds Because 5 health is no small fee in this deck. Two of them, two Flame Imps, a minimum of 3 taps is already 10 damage. Turn 4 isn't bad at all, but I don't find myself lacking plays of 4 mana. I'd invite you to tell me more about your experience.

A questions I would like to propose: How would two power overwhelmings sound instead of one siphon soul? Pros and cons? Worth it?

With more testing, it seems 2 is definitely too many.  Having a Pit Lord on turn 4 is game winning, but after that point it isn't very effective.  I find that if I have played one already, I am at far too much of a deficit of health to play another, and so it becomes a dead card in my hand.  I opted for 1 Pit Lord and replaced the other with Defender of Argus.  Soul Siphon has saved me way too many times vs random legendaries or Sunwalkers or Ironbark Protectors for me to justify removing it.

I'm thinking of replacing the Silver Hand Knight with Hogger, one more mana seems like a decent trade off for a 2/2 with taunt every turn. What do you guys think?

Have you tried twisting nether for kicks? fun card cause I can play low drops after it. Is the deck considered done? Are you going to update it in the future?

Spellpower because 4 damage is somewhat of a dead zone in terms of toughness. Auctioneer. Dalaran, Ogre Magi, Keeper, Demolisher, Brewmaster, Dragonling, DarkIron, Azure, Silverhand. Not too threatening, always manageable. At 5 damage, you get Sen'jin, Sunwalker, Lord of the Arena, Yeti, Fire Elemental, Illidan, Cairne, Black Knight. When you start getting to the 5 damage threshold, that's when the spells really hit home and dropping 5 mana for that will usually seal board control. If it somehow survives, 3 toughness is incredibly common as well to shoot down with Demonfire. Not to mention Soulfire for the win. The card isn't just to be played out, sometimes you would tap over playing him, you keep him for when you need him and the SP will give you value.

There's a slight difference between Thalnos and Kobold sans the card draw, you can use him to bait out pings, force extra card draw when you have intiative to look for plays, but that's really it. I think I'll take your comment to heart and suggest Thalnos as a free replacement for Kobold Geomancer to keep with the more economic theme of the deck without changing anything drastic. I'm actually running a second Defender of Argus after wipe, I decided to put the actual deck on hold and play around with Jaraxxus.

Hell, when I'm trying to mill for the win, placing Thalnos and Mortal Coiling it is a 2 for 2 even with an Imp out, next level stuff.

In a mirror matchup, you either keep board control or lose. Soulfire anything that comes out because the deck is very buff centric, you use board control to establish it even further. When playing this deck against other rush decks (say, Murlocs, another Lock) use Soulfire generously, it'll save you.

Twisting Nether is for Jaraxxus yo, games don't even go long in this one enough to justify any high drops. The animation is straight up beautiful though.

I just got Jaraxxus on a pack and I'm looking for a deck to use him in, that's how I got here. I have most of the cards on the page 1 deck list, but I'm unsure what to swap out to get Jaraxx in.

I actually dropped Thalnos for a Doomguard, I tried it with another Defender of Argus as well. It really worked out quite well either way. As far as the Jaraxxus thing goes I'd probably drop the Thalnos for that as well if I had one, but to be honest I have rarely ever been in a situation where I would want a jaraxxus. Then again that really is the point of this deck, being a low mana rush deck. Usually by the time the end game comes if you've played the deck right you're bordering 20 health and usually that's just from your power.

I really foresee this being a cookie cutter template until the meta changes or a new set of cards is released. The only deck I ever have trouble with is another warlock playing this deck and it just comes down to whoever has the better draw.

How do you deal with Spells Mage Deck? They just keep freezing until turn 7, where they flame strike in to pyros and fireballs. Not even using Jaraxxus gives me enough HP to survive it.

Seems like Mages just blindly counter this deck without even trying or playing creatures.

Quote from Rhodiani »

How do you deal with Spells Mage Deck? They just keep freezing until turn 7, where they flame strike in to pyros and fireballs. Not even using Jaraxxus gives me enough HP to survive it.

Seems like Mages just blindly counter this deck without even trying or playing creatures.

If they waste a turn playing Frost Nova, reinforce your board for the next turn and go for their face. You're overestimating the amount of things they can do a turn. They can either AoE or burn, not necessarily both until later game where you've essentially lost already if you haven't fulfill the damage needed to start to mill your win condition. Many people underestimate how much damage can be added on if you attack with your Blood Imp under safe conditions as well.

Worst case scenario with single aoe cards, you get hit with Arcane Explosion turn 2, cone of cold turn 3, Blizzard turn 5, Flamestrike turn 7. Lets assume we have an equally perfect hand, this leaves you your turn 2 to split minions with Blood Imp to keep Cone of Cold from hitting everything, turn 4 to reinforce your creatures with Argus/Imp, and turn 6 to bring their health down as much as you can to play against them post-Flamestrike. On a side note, first turn Blood Imp is horrible vs mage. Harvest Golems are your friend!

Granted, you most likely be on the back foot if the mage has a decent selection of spellpower and AoE. This is true of any rush/swarm vs a Mage packing heavily board clear. This doesn't automatically equate to an instant loss, you need to remember that the turn a mage tries to clear the board, if any of the minions survive, you'll get to deal that much more damage to them. Spread out your buffs, play with numbers to prevent total board clear. The more minions you have out that are past the safety mark of health for that turn (1~2 for Arcane Explosion, 2 for Blizzard, 4 for Flame Strike), the more damage you can inflict the next turn. Battling Mage is essentially going against a traditional value-for-value style of play to better rely on your ability to put down as much burst as you can and start milling for your win condition (Power Overwhelming, Soulfires, Doomguard).

For example, leading up to the mage's turn 5, I may have, in order, Blood Imp, Razorfen, Board, Dire.
1/1 - 2/4 - 2-2 - 2/2
Blizzard wipes out three. A play to reinforce the board can be as simple as Demonfire on Blood Imp, SunCleric the 2/2 Wolf. If they Blizzard, you'll have only one creature down and can prepare for a sizeable amount of damage on my turn 6. Here is the board state pre and post blizzard:
3/3 - 2/4 - 2/2 - 2/3 - 4/3
3/1 - 3/2 - x/x - 2/1 - 4/1

What do you do if she has an Arcane Blast or something turn 6? Probably lose, if you can't repopulate the board quick enough (say, Argus the Wolf and SSC. If she doesn't, she's gonna eat enough damage to put her into lethal and then you mill for your win condition. Rarely have I seen a two Arcane Explosion, Blizzard, and Flamestrike deck much less than draw multiples of them before turn 7, where I end to pretty much finish the game by then. Two things to remember is that Blood Imp, SSC, or Argus on Silverhand is 5 health, enough to survive Flamestrike and tack on the last bit of damage after. You need to essentially force the AoE and survive it, which leaves you with no leg to stand on if you fail to deal enough damage late game. These are just the situations you subscribe to as out of your control if you play rush/swarm as every deck has its counter, and an AoE heavy Mage is probably as bad as it gets (next to SpellDruid).

Also, among mages more than anything, remember to position your cards correctly. Blood Imp is non-targetable as a stealth, so use that to split minions.

Consider this board state vs a Mage:
Flame Imp - Blood Imp - Flame Imp
Where Cone of Cold only can hit a max of two.

Or maybe this one vs a Rogue:
Flame Imp - Blood Imp - Shattered Sun Cleric
Where Betrayal would have been much worse, but ends up a 1:1

(This makes Organic Chem class go by so much quicker)

Quote from bonfi91 »

Hi, nice deck, i very like it! If i have a Lord Jaraxxus, which card i have to replace? Maybe Doomguard ?

I don't like Jaraxxus too much in this deck, this argument against it was presented a while back in the thread and I'll answer it the same way - you don't have much control to clear the board before Jrax comes out, Hellfire, Aboms, Shadowflame, and you don't have the ability to support Jrax after you play him with Drain Life, Siphon Souls, Shadowflame, Twisting Nethers. I feel the game is already decided before 9 turns in most cases, so Jaraxxus really becomes an overglorified heal and 3 damage. What you -can- do is warp the deck a bit more and make it transition into a late game deck, but that would require more than a few card swaps. The deck really is all or nothing and the win condition is very different from a control-style of play where Jaraxxus shines much more. There's also the threat of discarding him with all your removal.

You can try him out, there's no problem with that, personal experience and fun comes first, there's nothing much like Jaraxxus after all! I would suggest removing one of your win conditions - a Power Overwhelming or Doomguard, whichever comes first. If you want Jaraxxus to win you games, you can remove a bit of the burst that you have and hope you're able to clear with Soulfire and play him.

Quote from cha05 »

this deck is actually really weak, nearly everything beats it. Murlock rush, AOE, any form of late game, mages that burn you, hunters that burn you ... if u get past 8 turns or the opponent has aoe topdecked ur dead, highly recomend people dont waste dust on this like i did.

"I don't know how to play this deck, must it sucks, why am I not winning at all, I just copy and pasted the deck into Hearthstone. Where are my wins!!"

Quote from cha05 »

this deck is actually really weak, nearly everything beats it. Murlock rush, AOE, any form of late game, mages that burn you, hunters that burn you ... if u get past 8 turns or the opponent has aoe topdecked ur dead, highly recomend people dont waste dust on this like i did.

this is the deck that carried me to 3 star masters, just sounds like you don't know how to play

Quote from cha05 »

tell me how you deal with murlocs or what do you do when you loose board controll then? And btw: gratz for reaching masters in beta where you cant even loose rankings.

1. Don't lose it in the first place because murloc decks are easy to control with spells, if you have a bad opening hand on any class vs a murloc you won't survive anyways. This deck is more consistent with buffs that snowball the game easier and murlocs only win hard if you let them keep too many on the board.
2. learn how to think for yourself and put in a hellfire or shadowflame or abomination if you want to hard counter rush decks as a safety measure. No one said this is the only way to build the deck and if you're bad enough to really expect to copy the deck and win you're bad

Harvest Golem is for me, one of the best cards in the deck. Perfect sinergy.

I registered an account for replying this post. This is one of the best deck I have ever seen. I have played it for 30 games in Master 3* in Chinese Ladder and I got a 25-5. The win rate is 83%. What surprised me most is that i got 7-0 when playing against priests, which is the most powerful career currently.

However, I have some difficulties when facing mages (4-3), especially those mages having Cone of Cold (I don't know whether this is the right name in English) and Blizzard. I could do nothing when my minions are freezed and couldn't control the board any more, which really bothers me.

Now talk about the minions. I use an Kobold Geomancer instead of the Bloodmage since I don't have it, and it works well in fact. I think Flame Imp is not so important if you don't get it in the early game so I only take one. And taunt minions sometimes are critical if you couldn't control the board or playing against the careers with weapons so I take two Defender of Argus in my deck, and they really saved me in some games. I think Hogger is a wonderful card for this deck and I couldn't understand why u said that it doesn't fit into the fast-paced and aoe heavy meta.

Sorry for my poor English and I know u can understand what I mean :)

Updated the opening post with an in-depth video on how to play the deck as well as a direct link to Force's version. Hopefully it helps you guys with your match-up questions. If you're having problems with Priest, you can check out the match-up advice section or the final match in the video below. Priest games can take a very strong nose-dive if you bait them to play correctly where no amount of chard advantage will save them from against a stacked board. It's almost as bad as keep murlocs alive, but Warlock cards are much more durable and can keep some board presence by themselves. PM me in game, or PM me on forums, I'm always open to questions.