[S48] 13 to Legend in 3 days - Fungal Zoolock
- Last updated Apr 11, 2018 (Patches Nerf)
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Wild
- 24 Minions
- 6 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Zoolock
- Crafting Cost: 1400
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 3/28/2018 (Patches Nerf)
- TampaTT
- Registered User
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- 3
- 13
- 40
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Battle Tag:
Tampa
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
185
UPDATE: anyone looking for another off-meta deck capable of reaching legend, check out the Double Pyroblast Freeze Mage deck I used to get Legend this season [S49]!
Thanks for all the upvotes everyone.
I used this list to climb from Rank 13 to rank 2 LEGEND in a few hours on 03/28-30 (was playing Wild the rest of the month because of how stale the meta is). Proof here. The deck is somewhat standard for Zoolock but with a heavy focus around Demon synergy.
Notable additions:
- Blood Imp: doesn't apply a lot (any) pressure but helps making your board less susceptible to board clear and your minions stick.
- Demonfire: since the deck runs a lot of 1-drops, this is an excellent turn 2 play to buff your guys and take favorable trades. The opponent usually doesn't expect that. Can also help you get back on the board or remove your opponent's minions like Knife Juggler, Mistress of Mixtures while going face or preserving your minion's life.
- Bloodfury Potion: similar to Demonfire, synergizes well with your 1-2 drops (e.g. Blood Imp) and helps you take favorable trades. Works exceptionally well against priest if you're able to buff Voidwalker to create a 4-attack taunt that trades well with most of their early minions.
- Fungalmancer: could be seen as a win-more card but it surprises the opponent more often than not and synergizes well with the deck since we run so many 1 drops.
- Crystalweaver: since almost half of the deck are demons (14/30 cards), this usually gets to buff 1-2 minions at least which already makes it a 4 mana 6/5 or 7/6. Value.
Besides these cards, the rest of the deck is fairly standard Zoolock. I'm also running two Spellbreaker to help bypass Voidlord and Obsidian Statue for that final lethal push.
Notable omissions:
- Prince Keleseth: Vulgar Homunculus is such a great turn 2 play that synergizes with the rest of the deck that I don't think it's worth switching it for the (admittedly great) upside of the +1/+1 buffs. If you want to include this card, you might as well probably switch at least 4-6 other Demon synergy cards in the deck.
- Bloodreaver Gul'dan: if you make it to turn 10, you probably already lost the game. Moreover, you will more often than not be discarding it from your Doomguard and Soulfire.
Mulligan:
Always keep Flame Imp as it trades favorably against Northshire Cleric and Mana Wyrm. Most of the time I tend to keep other 1-drops except Blood Imp to make sure I have a curve. If already have a 1-drop, it's ok to keep Vulgar Homunculus and Demonfire.
Against Paladin I always keep Despicable Dreadlord even though it tops our mana card since it's your main win condition against their wide board.
Hope this helps some people climb some ranks in the last few days of the season!
This deck got me to legend while the game was off and I was beating off to porn.
I reached legend in one hour without even installing the game!!! :O
But 1 or 2 card changes is sooo deep!
Nice deck. With those buff cards you can quickly build a lead by turn 3.
I tried a very similar deck with Bloodreaver instead of a Blood Imp and
2x Spellbreaker2x Saronite Chain Gang (didn't see at first that it had Spellbreakers as well) instead of 2x Darkshire Councilman.The result was... I had one long winstreak from 16 up to 11 (no pun intended), and there it just stopped. My winrate dropped under 50% and after several hours I was back down to 12 with one or two stars left. Got so frustrated that I gave up on trying ladder again.
The main problem I had was that unfavorable matchups came up too frequently, and even in the favorable ones, I oftentimes had no luck with getting a good opening hand, which is critical for this deck to work. Of course, most of my opponents had a designer hand nearly every game. One very fun encounter: A secret mage played a Doomsayer on turn 2, and followed it up with Mana Wyrm and Sorcerer's Apprentice and from there on, his deck was predictable as a calendar. Haven't seen it before or since, but in that one game, it of course decided everything.
As for the matchups in general:
Silver Hand Paladin was actually one of the best, though also the rarest matchup for me. A well timed Despicable Dreadlord ususally wins the game by itself. Murloc Paladin is a good deal worse, since the Murlocs have more health and get out of control faster. Of course, if your opponent plays two Call to Arms back to back, there is little you can do to recover or stay ahead.
Dragon Combo Priest was also relatively easy most of the time. When you play around Duskbreaker in the first three turns by holding back some minions or buffing one above 3 health, and keep their few minions in check, you can usually stay ahead and win over time. Spiteful Priest, however, was much worse. Just not knowing when it's Spiteful Priest makes it a lot harder, and when they highroll on the Spiteful Summoner turn 6 as ordered, you pretty much lose on the spot. Playing around Duskbreaker forces you to play a bit slower, and then you are too far behind past turn 6. Another reason I lost these matches was that every single Free From Amber resulted in an Obsidian Statue. In one such case, both my Spellbreakers were in the last 7 cards of my deck.
I also met 2 Big Priests. Both opened the game with "Well Played" and summoned Barnes into either Statue or Y'Shaarj on Turn 4. Secret Hunter, which I have seen quite often, oftentimes was just the same. Barnes Turn 4; what a fun game. When they don't highroll like a cheater, the matchup is still rather unfavorable, since you can't play around every secret at the same time and are weak to most of them. Playing a Flame Imp on the first turn is ok for Wandering Monster, terrible for Explosive Trap, and even worse for Freezing Trap. Sometimes you need to use a buffing spell to keep the pressure high, and then have to hope it's not Cat Trick. Similar situations occur throughout the entire game. Have fun guessing and losing when guessed wrong. Of course, the Spellstone is always around on Turn 5, where you tend to fall behind so drastically that there is no way of recovering.
A similar matchup, though I would say it's about 50/50, is Secret Mage. Play around Explosive Runes when it's Counterspell, play around Counterspell when it's Explosive Runes. Either guess right on your first turn after a secret was played, or walk right into. Either way, going first with a 1-drop makes a huge difference. A bad hand is mostly fatal. The matchup is certainly winnable, but it is hard to play it strategically. The most scary cards in their deck are Aluneth, since you damage yourself with your minions and hero power so much that they just need to draw into their burn spells, and Primordial Glyph since almost every time I have seen this card, it turned the game in their favor. There are over 30 mage spells in Standard, but they always get one of the three good board clears.
And finally, and this was what broke my back more than anything, there was waaaay too much Control/Cubelock. While not unwinnable, the chances are very slim and when 1 out of 3 opponents plays that deck, there is no way of really making progress. Playing around Defile is somewhat possible, playing around Hellfire as well isn't. And then there is still the Spellstone, some also have teched Spellbreaker in. The best bet is to buff the hell out of an early minion and hope they cannot handle it. Worked for me a few times, but when there is a turn 6 Voidlord and massive healing and no Silence in sight, the game is over.
I will try this version Darkshire Councilman, but I kinda doubt it really goes much smoother. The deck is really strong, and I don't even doubt you can rank up with it quite well. As I said, it worked like a charm for me for quite a bit, but in the end, I couldn't even make it to 10. Now, I might very possibly not be the best player around, I also could have been more patient, and maybe I should play the deck a bit more aggressively (I tend to hold back Doomguards, for example), but I would still say that some luck is required to do well with it.
Bro...
Leave the Graduate Student Thesis of a 'guide' for the deck creator, okay?
People reply to decks and say how they were doing with it. I did just that, only more elaborate, because I think that's more likely to be beneficial to all. Other players get a better idea of how the deck performs, or I get responses that help me play the deck better. I like to put some effort into my comments because I want to contribute.
That's how I roll, "bro".
got legend 10mins after reading this wooooooooooord.....
Unfavoured against pretty much every Meta deck except Quest Rogue and Mage. There was a time Zoolock was amazing to climb with but Priest,Cubelock and Paladin crush u no matter what.
1) this deck might be fun to play, as you have to concentrate on first few turns, how to take over the board, with zoolocks, if you lose the board, you are dead...
2) This deck at hsreplay has 55.1% winrate, my old favorite zoolock with keleseth and glacial shard is shown as 58.5% but it's not fun to play any more really (and I think this one in practice can be better as you have more chance against dude paladin)
3) hsreplay shows that blood imp is one of the weaker cards in this deck, https://hsreplay.net/decks/q2p481cjWfqsLvqswtvoLc/ although not terrible with 50% win rate... I think one blood imp can be switched with Guldan if you have it.
4) this deck is very cheap, 1400 dust and you probably have all cards for it, so that's the reason this gets my upvote... it's relatively fun deck and cheap
+I've tried man, I've tried. Having stats like 15:16 at rank 5. I do not make any progress :(
Sorry to hear it hasn't worked out for you man! The deck definitely has some tough matchups like Secret Mage and Dude Paladin.
I wouldn't go as far as calling it a high-skill cap, but there's definitely some nuance to when you go wide on the board vs focus on buffing specific minions, when you go face vs value trade that will impact your winrate quite heavily. It took me a few games to learn how to properly navigate each matchup.
Great deck, mate, thanks. Did 2 warlock quests with this deck 5-1. Insane presure, great synergy.
Awesome! Good luck climbing the last few hours of the season.
Another terrible RNG deck that loses to everything that Control Lock beats and beats everything Control Lock doesn't. 8 games at rank 9, went 3-5, there's absolutely no difference between this and every other version of Warlock. You either kill yourself against aggro by taking 5+ total damage from imps and taps, or you sit there with double doomguard after mulligan in your opening hand against Dudeadin, or you try to go wide because all you have is blood imps and homungulus against a Combo Dragon Priest you have no chance to kill unless you take the 10% risk of blowing the game out. Then you run into random jank like Jade Druid with double Mark of the Lotus making 5 3/7 taunts with zero counterplay that Control Lock has a chance to beat but this deck doesn't.
I'd say cut the Crystalweavers and the blood imps and add in Loatheb, 2 Voidcallers, and a power overwhelming. You're really going to struggle playing zoo in wild though. Most of your opponents are going to be some kind of cubelock or aggro paladin and zoo is terrible against both those decks.
Hey Mate, thanks for the comment. Not sure how this deck fares in Wild but I'm assuming it's not as good as in Standard due to more high-value taunts (e.g. Sludgebelcher) and healings (e.g. Reno Jackson) being present.
Power Overwhelming and Loatheb sounds like good options to test out.
That insane early pressure :) !
Thanks for creating the video Khristophesaurus! Hope you had fun with the deck :)