Hearthpwn

Introduction:

Handlock has been one of the most consistent decks in Hearthstone with minor tweaks when the meta changes.  I am no means perfect at this game but if you want to catch some of my action you can follow my stream at http://twitch.tv/flatlinesc2

What's Unique:

Let's start off with the obvious one.  I run Power Overwhelming in this deck.  There's just so many scenarios/combos where this card becomes an absolute game changer.  You can buff an Ancient Watcher and Shadowflame and do an 8 damage AoE with just 7 mana.  It's also an additional 4 damage that can help reach lethal.

Another difference would be that I don't run Sludge Belcher in my deck.  It's a good card but there are just better cards that you can have in your deck in today's meta.  It can be sticky/annoying to deal with but I feel like it doesn't help develop board presence; it just has the potential to slow your opponent down.

Mulligan:

Remember the meta changes frequently so I may not have this up-to-date when it occurs.

• Warrior -  Just throw everything except Mountain Giant and Twilight Drake.
• Shaman - You ideally want a Mountain Giant and Darkbomb in your hand.  Darkbomb will be used to take out Flametongue Totem or any minion you see dangerous.
• Rogue - You want to fish for Twilight Drake and Mountain Giant.
• Paladin - Twilight Drake and Mountain Giant are what you want.  These two minions are just too good to pass up for turn 4 plays.
• Hunter - You want to have Sunfury Protector, Darkbomb, Ironbeak Owl, Ancient Watcher and Molten Giant.  All of those cards are pretty good to keep in your hand.
• Druid - The only removal they will have for Giants will be Big Game Hunter unless you face the Mill deck then you will see Naturalize being used to take out big creatures.   You want Twilight Drake and Mountain Giant in your starting hand.
• Warlock - Zoo and handlock are quite popular so it's hard to pinpoint which one you are facing at  the beginning of the game so I would mulligan as if we are facing Zoo but keep a card that you would want against Handlock (mainly Mountain Giant if you go first, Big Game Hunter if you go second).  For Zoo, you want Ironbeak Owl, Darkbomb, and Ancient Watcher.  For handlock, you want Mountain Giant, Big Game Hunter, and Twilight Drake.
• Mage - I would go the safe route and just go with Ironbeak Owl, Mountain Giant, Twilight Drake, and Ancient Watcher.
• Priest - Twilight Drake is extremely strong against Priest right now so go for them and Mountain Giant but you would rather play Twilight Drake over Mountain Giant in this matchup.

Against Classes:

Priests - Dragon Priest has become a frontrunner for the Priest class.  This deck is typically going to start the early game off with decent taunt minions to try to survive towards the later stage of the game. With the addition of Lightbomb, you have to be really careful on how much you commit on the board, so don't overextend by throwing as many giants as you can on board unless you know they aren't running that card.  Twilight Drake is actually stronger than Mountain Giant in this matchup as Priest has a hard time dealing with that minion.  If you are able to get to Lord Jaraxxus safely, it's a near guaranteed victory for you. This matchup is heavily favored for the Handlock player.

Warrior - You have to figure out if they are playing Control or Patron Warrior and you can tell as early as turn 2.  At the moment, Patron Warrior is the more popular decklist out of the two but with Justicar Trueheart and Varian Wrynn, Control Warrior is starting to find it's way back into the meta. For Control Warrior, it comes down to if you can force him to use their removals, Shield Slam and Execute, on other minions than your giants.  Ways to force them in uncomfortable position is playing Twilight Drake before Mountain Giant on Turn 4.  For Patron Warrior, try to keep Hellfire or Shadowflame in your hand as much as possible so you can remove the Patron-filled board. This matchup is slightly favored for the Handlock player.

Warlock - This matchup is really hard to pinpoint since there are three popular styles of Warlock and they require two different ways of playing.  If you want to play it safe, I usually would mulligan as if I was facing zoo since most of the Warlock decks you face on ladder will be zoo than handlock but keep a Mountain Giant or Big Game Hunter in your starting hand just in case it is handlock you face.  When facing handlock you have to be aware of Shadowflame, and his health (don't want him to get cheap/free Molten Giant).  When it hits late game, usually the person that plays Lord Jaraxxus first wins just because they are a turn ahead in using their hero power. For zoo, you want to be able to taunt up double Giants in the late game to make it extremely hard for them to hit you in the face. 

Mage - This matchup is harder than facing Hunter in my opinion.  There are just so many different Mage decks out there in the meta at the moment. The main decklists are Mech Mage, Freeze Mage, Tempo Mage, and Control Mage.  The sooner you can tell the better for you as you can adjust your style of play (tapping or trying to put up bodies on the board).  For mech mage, you want to get rid of Mechwarper as soon as possible and be aware of Goblin Blastmage. For freeze mage, you want to save your Ironbeak Owl for [/card]Doomsayer[/card] and try to activate their secrets as soon as possible. For Tempo Mage, try to put heavy health unit on board like Twilight Drake and the Giants to help soak in the damage from them. For control mage, just play like you would against any other control deck by trying to force them to use removal spells on other cards than your giants.  This matchup depends on which deck you are facing.

Druid - This matchup favors you especially if you can get a Mountain Giant out by turn 4.  Druid doesn't really have an answer to Giants except having a Big Game Hunter in their deck.  Beyond that, they either have to ignore it or spend a couple cards to remove it.

Hunter - This matchup is very hard to beat and nearly impossible if they are holding double Kill Command in their hand.  I would try to get a silenced Ancient Watcher on board as soon as possible (before turn 4).  If you are going to use hellfire, it should be near the beginning of the game because afterwards, you should be borderline dead where hellfire is extremely risky to play.  The game changing move would be getting free Molten Giants on board and taunting them up to then heal with an Antique Healbot.  If you can't pull that off, you will have a hard time with this matchup. This matchup favors Hunter.

Shaman - This matchup can be pretty difficult to manage.  Earth Shock is a great counter to Twilight Drake so keep Twilight Drake in your hand until you have seen both Earth Shock cards eliminated or if one of them was just played.  Hex is another strong card to deal with your Giants and to top this off, Shaman is known to carry some heavy burst damage.  This is another challenging matchup since its potential burst damage is pretty insane.  Just play as if you are playing against Zoo essentially.

Paladin - Big Game Hunter, Aldor Peacekeeper, and Equality/Consecrate are the ways Paladin uses to remove Giants and one of them doesn't really removes them (just puts their attack down to 1).  Because of this, you can send your giants out as soon as possible generally.  Just be careful on overflowing your board past turn 6 because of the Equality/Consecrate combo.  Muster for Battle then Quartermaster is a lot of damage but Hellfire can remove all of 3/3s.  Other than Control Paladin/Midrange Paladin, Secret Paladin is basically taking over the ladder at the moment. I don't have too much knowledge on how to play against Secret Paladin but to just be aware of the secrets that will probably be using and try to play around it.  This matchup is slightly favored for Paladin.

Rogue - This matchup favors you as well.  Rogue has a really hard time dealing with Giants and Twilight Drake.  The only way they can deal with it is burning Sap and their Eviscerate.  If they have to burn those cards early on in the game (before turn 6), you should have an easy road ahead of you.

Replacements:

Lord Jaraxxus - If you don't have this card, you can replace with either Alexstransza or Ragnaros the Firelord.  Ragnaros the Firelord is better against aggro decks.

Power Overwhelming - If you are not comfortable with this card, that's totally fine.  You can replace it with either Loatheb or Emperor Thaurissan.  I would prefer Loatheb first though.