Silence or Bust: How Cubelock Slowed the Hearthstone Meta
“This card could potentially just shape the meta game,” Firebat mused about Carnivorous Cube in the Omnistone Kobolds and Catacombs set review. “Everyone’s deck might just be required to be fast enough to kill you so that you can’t play this.”
At the time I thought his take, echoed by Kibler and Zalae, verged on hyperbolic. I was wrong.
While the meta has slowed rather than sped up, we can attribute that change in pace to what Carnivorous Cube has done to the Warlock class, improving Control Warlock’s match-ups with other control decks while maintaining a suite of anti-aggro cards. Cubelock forces fast decks — Aggro Paladin, Tempo Rogue, Face Hunter, Burn Mage — to race to a finish before turns five and six, hoping to defy odds and dodge a devastating Defile or Hellfire along the way.
These fast decks are still viable, and Razakus Priest still dominates, but Firebat was right: Carnivorous Cube has helped to shape the Kobolds and Catacombs meta as we know it, spawning an archetype and a whole lot of Spellbreakers. Cubelock is the new control-combo hybrid archetype borne out of the Cube’s powerful interactions with a few cards. The deck has tools to stifle aggro, out-value control, and sometimes charge down Razakus Priest — and the Cube plays a large part in all of those win conditions.
We Dare Summon Doomguard
In general, the gameplan is to draw cards early and set up for massive swings in both health and tempo with combinations of Possessed Lackey, Skull of the Man'ari, Doomguard, Voidlord, Carnivorous Cube, and Dark Pact. The specific combination you’re aiming for depends on the match-up. Against an aggro opponent without access to a silence effect, Voidlord ends games; Dark Pact on a Cube or Lackey helps you stall to get there, as does Defile, Hellfire, and Mistress of Mixtures.
Against control decks, some versions of the deck can threaten 25 points of damage in a turn. The combo is as follows: cheat a Doomguard onto the board with Skull of the Man'ari or Possessed Lackey, hit the opponent’s face, play Spiritsinger Umbra, eat the Doomguard with Carnivorous Cube, hit face for 10 more damage, and finally use Dark Pact on the Cube to deal another 10. Sure, it’s a fringe, multi-card combo, but the deck has the tools to draw cards and stall to consistently threaten such a play. Bloodreaver Gul'dan then threatens all that damage over again — this time from one card.
But the combo is not an imperative. As with the old Renolock combo — a discounted Leeroy Jenkins, Faceless Manipulator, and Power Overwhelming — it’s merely an option. More than that, it’s a possibility that sends your opponent into a panic. A tempo Spiritsinger Umbra on turn 4, for example, can be played to bait out a silence effect and clear the way for Possessed Lackey, your much more consistent value card. Zalae’s list, which we’ve featured, uses Prince Taldaram and two Dark Pact to push the same amount of damage in the late-game. The flexibility of Prince Taldaram arguably makes it the better version, at least while valuable Deathrattle, Taunt, and Divine Shield minions roam the meta.
A Misplay, or Three
All that said, there are significant difficulties in playing the archetype. Chief among them: it is very, very difficult to assess optimal lines of play against control decks — especially with a clunky hand of incomplete combo pieces. Successful players will need to carefully consider the odds of drawing key cards while using life tap and monitoring their health. They will need to consider sub-optimal tempo plays against aggro and the odds and opportunity cost of jamming a Doomguard onto the board. And they will, in all likelihood, need to draw Mountain Giant early against Razakus Priest.
Also, there’s a little card called Defile. One of the most efficient removal cards in the game happens to be often one of the most complicated. Last month pro player and streamer BoarControl shared with his Twitter followers a screenshot of a full board of minions, offering that there was indeed a full board clear available. These math puzzles are a lot to contemplate in a 75-second turn, so cheers to anyone who can find the clear so quickly. (He didn't.)
Now and Ahead
Competitive circles haven’t yet settled on one list, but many are gravitating toward Zalae’s, which features two copies of both Mountain Giant and Faceless Manipulator to threaten damage versus Priest before their Psychic Scream and Shadowreaper Anduin turns on 7 and 8. Mulligan hard for the giants in this match-up, along with Skull of the Man'ari. If the meta quickens, you can reinforce Cubelock’s dominant position by trading the giants for two Plated Beetle. Against aggro, mulligan for Mistress of Mixtures, Kobold Librarian, Defile, Mortal Coil, and Hellfire — you have many options.
In a month, Cubelock has proven itself a powerful and rewarding, albeit challenging, new archetype. Against aggressive decks, it dominates. Versus control, it is at least viable — and Zalae’s innovative list has made the match-up with Razakus Priest, far-and-away most powerful and popular standard deck, a winnable one. Going forward, expect decklists to change often, sometimes by a lot, as we all learn how to pilot it optimally. And barring a nerf (or two), I predict you would do well to practice playing both with and against it — because after the first expansion of 2018 goes live, Razakus Priest will lose Raza the Chained to Wild and become unviable, while Cubelock loses only Mistress of Mixtures.
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It's only once you get to legend that tempo rogue and priest dominate as the most consistent decks for this month.
Yeah I think that the issue is the relatively high skill cap of this deck, since some decisions (like destroying the cube on time or anticipating a silence) are hard for players who are not used to their niche meta or the deck itself. Still it is a proven fact that Tempo Rogue doesn't have natural predators and the outcome of the matches are at best decided by luck and skill, not the decks themselves. If I were an Aggro Paladin, I'd definitely tech for Tempo Rogue instead of carrying the Spellbreaker for the Control Warlock, since Tempo Rogue is the worse threat.
I have the full list for Tempo Rogue and Aggro Paladin, but is it worth crafting Cubelock?
Im only missing 1 Mountain Giant and 2 Faceless Manipulators.
Currently at Rank 15 and im on a losing streak.
You can play without them first. If you have prince 3 I would say it’s already good enough. Been playing without giant and facelesses, and I able to get to rank 5 last month
If you have Zola the Gorgon, you can replace one of the Faceless Manipulators. Or craft one. The other Manipulator and one Giant should be replaceable either with Plated Beetle against aggro or with another kind of Giant against Priest (Sea Giant or Arcane Giant come to mind).
Edit: oops, forgot to check Zola's mana cost.. Prince is a keeper for 3-mana slot here.
I came to the comments for an answer to the puzzle and nothing :(
Not sure if that's how the deathrattle interaction is supposed to work, but I posted a solution above where you break the Cube first. You know, playin' it safe lol. Cheers!
cubes arent that strong if you kill the warlock weapon at the time he play it, without weapon you got high chances for win him.
such a cheesy deck, but it is great that warlock founded a home
You mean fondue a home?
It's kinda funny how people are talking about this as if it was a control deck.
I mean, what the difference between THIS and control rogue?
It's the same difference but while Rogue was brutal against control and had some weakness facing aggro, this one is brutal against aggro and weak against control.
Without the DK you have up to 80 Points of health just from HEALING (warlock was considered dead because it had no healing back in Un'Goro) and the most backbreaking taunt ever printed. It's easy to say "You can silence it", but most of the time they cheat out the taunt for free somehow, cube it and then heal themselves killing the cube to get 2 3/9 and 3 1/3 while getting 8 health back at just 6 mana. From that NO aggro deck can ever come back.
This meta is not about control, it's about finding ways to cheat big cards and get a lot of value for low ammounts of mana. It's by far and large the best definition of a "Tempo meta". Whenever someone asks what tempo is to me I can just point out to this expansion as the biggest example of it.
Got off-track. My point was, this is a "Wall" deck. One that says you must either be much faster than this or have so much value and removal you deck will lose to anything else.
It's the same as Jade, it's the same as Tempo rogue. And as those decks needed strong hate/tech cards to keep them in check or nerfs, so will this.
Yep, I agree...aggro still needs to be able to break through sometimes, and Voidlord would be perfectly okay if it weren't a 5 mana card in reality.
No, I'm not, I'm saying voidlord would be fine as a 9 mana card to prevent aggro decks killing you, after stabilizing a bit - warlock has clears, other taunts and heal to do it.
Except that good aggro decks in the past (like, I don't know, pirate warrior?) used to kill you by turn 6, which means if you start with a voidlord in hand and no skull, you're probably dead already.
A great deck that required a high amount of skill is great for the game. Same with patron warrior that was played by so many players, and I killed dozens of those at the time because you have to know how to play it (already have a few cubelock net-deckers notches on my belt as well).