69% Winrate Control Warlock to Legend!
- Last updated Jun 18, 2018 (Spiteful Nerf)
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Wild
- 19 Minions
- 9 Spells
- 1 Weapon
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Control Warlock
- Crafting Cost: 13540
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 6/14/2018 (Spiteful Nerf)
- Toumouniek
- Registered User
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- 3
- 21
- 33
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Battle Tag:
Toumouniek#21666
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Region:
EU
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Total Deck Rating
54
Hello fellow Players, this is Toumouniek and I'm here to share my decklist, a 69% winrate Control Warlock, from Rank 4 to Legend.
If you hate the aggro decks just as much as I do, where Silver Hand Recruit Paladins, Huffer and Hench-Clan Thug haunt you, then this deck is made for you.
I'm not a hardcore #1 Legend player, but I do reach Legend every season.
This deck I built of my own creation (of course it has all the most important Control Warlock components) , has given me legend for the second time. 69% winrate on 70 games is not something that common and as Control Warlocks have nearly disappeared from ladder, maybe this will help those that wish to play it again (since the nerfs).
Many of you are only interested by the stats so I'll give them right away :
Mulligan :
Priest : Kobold Librarian, Hellfire, Gnomeferatu, Stonehill Defender, Skulking Geist, Rin, the First Disciple
Warlock : Kobold Librarian, Gnomeferatu, Stonehill Defender, Lesser Amethyst Spellstone, Skull of the Man'ari
Mage : Kobold Librarian, Gnomeferatu, Stonehill Defender, Bloodreaver Gul'dan, Rin, the First Disciple
Shaman : Kobold Librarian, Gnomeferatu, Stonehill Defender, Defile, Skull of the Man'ari
Druid : Skulking Geist, Kobold Librarian, Gnomeferatu, Stonehill Defender, Rin, the First Disciple
Rogue : Kobold Librarian, Plated Beetle, Stonehill Defender, Lesser Amethyst Spellstone, Defile
Paladin : Kobold Librarian, Plated Beetle, Stonehill Defender, Lesser Amethyst Spellstone, Defile, Hellfire
Hunter : Kobold Librarian, Plated Beetle, Stonehill Defender, Lesser Amethyst Spellstone, Hellfire
Warrior : Kobold Librarian, Gnomeferatu, Stonehill Defender, Bloodreaver Gul'dan, Rin, the First Disciple
General Strategy:
With this deck, you will barely ever kill your opponent. He will, in 90% of cases, concede or die from fatigue >:) . What I love the most about this deck is how adaptive the playstyle is depending on your opponent. That makes each game unique and makes for a way more interesting and refreshing Hearthstone experience. As you have seen in the mulligans part, I value a lot Gnomeferatu, that is because not only does it burn a card early on, but also because it gives you information on what your opponent is playing, helping you decide if you should tap the following turns. For example, Druids could be playing Big Druid, Hadronox Druid, Token Druid, Togglewaggle Druid, Malygos Druid etc, but they all play Wild Growth, and Oaken Summons, so burning a card will greatly help you know what he's playing.
Many people I've spoken to about my deck always seem to disregard Glinda Crowskin because I do not include the Summoning Portal and Meat Wagon combo, but I cannot emphasize on how good Glinda Crowskin has been performing in my games. It is such a strong threat, that control decks will use a hard control spell such as Polymorph, Hex, or even Psychic Scream for her alone. And if ever they can't deal with it, Gnomeferatu Zola the Gorgon or Stonehill Defender will just go out of control. And against control decks, just doing Glinda Crowskin into double Gnomeferatu is super good too because fatigue is important with this deck.
Also, I need to talk about Zola the Gorgon, which is a super important card in the deck. It can do wonders against control AND aggro. There are many case scenarios where Zola the Gorgon will do different things. If you have Skull of the Man'ari equipped, and you get a Voidlord on the board, you'll often use Zola the Gorgon on the Voidlord to get a free one next turn, which is crazy value. When you don't have Skull of the Man'ari equipped, Zola the Gorgon will often be used for a Lord Godfrey + Zola the Gorgon turn, which basically gives you an extra strong board clear. Also, Zola the Gorgon on a Gnomeferatu against control isn't a bad idea, getting that extra fatigue in counts a lot.
Another thing that might confuse many of you is the fact of having both Skull of the Man'ari and Rin, the First Disciple in the same deck, because it will prevent Azari, the Devourer 's battlecry to trigger. When the matchup is really slow, not equipping Skull of the Man'ari to get Azari, the Devourer off can be a very good idea, but in most cases just equip Skull of the Man'ari, worst case scenario you'll get a free 10/10!
Matchups :
Since the meta is so diverse, I’ll try to cover most of the popular archetypes and give some short advice in those matchups.
Even Warlock :
This matchup is very dependant of whether he plays a Giant early on or not. If he does, try your hardest to kill it with a charged Lesser Amethyst Spellstone or the game will be hard, another solution to giant is The Coin Skull of the Man'ari and get early Voidlords. If he doesnt get an early Giant, the matchup is fairly good in your favor, just need your Twisting Nether and Lord Godfrey and hope your Bloodreaver Gul'dan isn't bottom 5.
Burn Mage :
Hellfire is awesome as they only play 3-Health minions. Try to get as much heal as you can, don't tap too much. Plated Beetle are great as they nullify Explosive Runes. Don't hesitate to Zola the Gorgon a Shroom Brewer or a Plated Beetle.
Control Mage :
Very easy matchup if you play it right. As you'll win by fatigue, don't use up too many ressources. Always try to get as many cards used up from the opponent before clearing the board. For example, if they have 2 Water Elemental on board, play a Stonehill Defender, and bait them into using spells to get extra Water Elemental so your Twisting Nether will get more value. Don't tap too much to be sure to win fatigue. Zola the Gorgon on Lord Godfrey is very strong in this matchup. Always keep a Twisting Nether or Lord Godfrey for their Dragoncaller Alanna. Once in Bloodreaver Gul'dan try not playing minions and just clear board with hero power (even if it takes 2 turns). They will die out sooner as your hero power is way stronger.
Mind Blast Priest :
Play fairly aggressive early, you can tap quite a lot, just take into account their maximum burst. It's useless to stay at 30 HP because that will just give maximum value to their Alexstrasza. So avoid using heals until after they use Alexstrasza. Its a good matchup.
Inner Fire Priest :
Mulligan to get Skulking Geist, it will nearly always win you the game.
Miracle Rogue :
Very hard matchup because they use a lot of 4-health minions, and that is hard to clear. If you get Kobold Librarian into Lesser Amethyst Spellstone combo, that will help sooo much. Always keep in mind they run Sap so slamming a 9 mana Voidlord is often weaker than clearing board.
Odd Rogue :
Same advice as miracle Rogue except the power level of Voidlord is way higher because they can't run Sap.
Shudderwock Shaman :
Horrible to play against. You have two options : Either you get Skull of the Man'ari early on and stack up a huge board and hit them and hope they don't get double Healing Rain, which is kind of difficult, but you don't really have a choice. And second option is using Gnomeferatu (and maybe combo with Glinda Crowskin) and hope to burn their combo cards.
Even Shaman :
Hellfire and Defile will win you the game. You outvalue them, unless they get a ton of Hex off Hagatha the Witch.
Hadronox Druid :
I've tried many times out valuing them with Lord Godfrey and Twisting Nether but they always have one Hadronox too many. So your best option to get them, is getting Skulking Geist fairly early. This tech card will help greatly in the matchup.
Token Druid :
Easy matchup, never lost. Hellfire, Defile, Despicable Dreadlord and Lord Godfrey are all godlike cards against token druids. Just keep in mind that they run Spreading Plague so don't overcommit on board and you'll be fine. Tap every turn in this matchup whenever you can to fetch those clears.
Big Druid :
Similar matchup to control Mage but way more aggressive early on. Try to put taunts to delay their turns and make them play too much value, so that your Twisting Nether or Lord Godfrey will remove half of their Big minions.
Togglewaggle Druid :
Get that Skulking Geist or stay under 5 cards in hand (which is hard) and run them over.
Quest Warrior :
Hard matchup, Rin, the First Disciple can carry, and Skull of the Man'ari with some demons too. Two options which are opposite, decide which one you want. Bloodreaver Gul'dan is also important in this matchup.
Big Recruit Hunter :
Skulking Geist on turn 6 is actually godly as you prevent their Play Dead combos with Seeping Oozeling. Hellfire are important for their early boards, Skull of the Man'ari into Voidlord will also win you the game.
Odd Paladin :
Try to only play minions to get more value out of an early Defile which is clearly a Key card in the matchup. If they started with The Coin, clear their board turn 3 so they can't The Coin Level Up!, and if they used The Coin or didnt start with it, clear board on turn 4. Also, Despicable Dreadlord is godlike in this matchup, even more if hiding behind a taunt.
Card Replacement Discussion :
I know the deck is quite expensive, but every single legendary is very strong in the deck. Glinda Crowskin is so good, that maybe the weaker legendary is Rin, the First Disciple but even her puts the opponent on a clock, and makes them spit out all their cards and value, trying to outrun you, and that just falls into your game plan of outvaluing all of the them. So if you want to include one of your cards, I'd suggest replacing Rin, the First Disciple even if I don't recommend that.
I've thought about The Lich King before, but I think it is clearly overkill on the value point, and I often get one off Stonehill Defender, but why not, your choice.
Tech Card choice :
My final tech card choice was Skulking Geist as you can see. But for many games I had switched between others, testing out Gluttonous Ooze, Ironbeak Owl, Faceless Manipulator and even Baleful Banker. But the card that definitely gave me the best results was Skulking Geist.
But feel free to test other cards in it's place, and please comment your tech card of choice and how good it is performing! :)
Thanks for reading, don't hesitate to comment for tips or how good you're performing with the deck. It's my little creation and I'm so proud of it :D
(PS : The deck might take quite some practice to get the control feeling if you're new to control warlock, I've been playing control Warlock for a year now, so the experience helped a lot.)
Cool deck. I don't like running the weapon though. It's too much cost for not enough reward. I'd recommend cutting it for an ooze or some other sort of weapon removal. Also, curious how you run Rin without Dark Pact? Seems like it will get Polymorph or Hex, or Silenced etc.
Other than that though, I think it looks great. Am testing my own version of it right now. And great job on the guide too! :)
The weapon actually does wonders, really not to underestimate. And yes Rin is often polymorphed/hexed (silenced Rin can be brought back with Zola), but they don't have enough hard removals for Glinda, Rin, both Voidlords so they'll have to make choices. Also, I have had more games with double Rin (from Stonehill) than only one. Also silences, have almost completely disappeared in control decks, and getting Rin off against aggro is kinda useless. And polymorph only being played in control mage isnt a big deal, its the easiest matchup I think. So only real problem is Shaman. Maybe Rin is a card to change, but just forcing a hard removal on it is kinda worth, Ill think about it ^^
Thanks for the feedback :) What did you replace the weapon with? Im interested ^^
Did you include the lackeys? If you are how are you performing with them? I've had very poor success with lackeys (I tried them a little just after the nerfs)
now i tried play without Glinda, i think is no key card, but if WR will 50% or less i add it
Sure, as you feel. Its a great card but isnt key :) What did you replace it with? ^^
Hahaha nice! Glad you like it :D
Will try this out asap. need to make some dust first though.
Cool! Yeah the deck is expensive :/
I have most of the stuff already. just need the gnomes and the new legendaries.
was it you who made the gnome deck last season as well? I knew I should have crafted those guys over some of the stuff.
maybe I can dust some of my wild cards and get this built... I need a new control deck.
No, this is the first deck I've made myself. Yeah I wanted to show a collection of screenshots of games that were simply won on turn 2 by discarding THE most important card for my opponent. It feels so good to do that. Those gnomes are so fun to play ^^
I just dusted my cards that rotated out and made around 4600 dust so I can craft the gnomes and the 2 legendaries now.
I just need to learn a bit more about the deck and how it plays first... time to study the guide. ha ha.
Any replacements for Zola? You said you got rid of Lich King, could he replace her? Or maybe a tech card?
Ummm, I mean Zola is a very useful and adaptive card. So yeah maybe something like Lich King, or Faceless ^^. If you have good results with another card, don't hesitate to tell me so I can suggest more cards to players that lack some cards in the deck :)
Great deck! Unfortunately, at least in my experience, too many shudderwocks on the ladder for it to be playable right now. :(
Oh yeah I get you, shudderwocks are horrible :/
Played 15!! games with this today > 0 wins.. (at rank 4, dropped to 5 with 0 stars ofc)
monkaS, I mean you mustn't be very familiar with control. Going 0-15 has no excuse buddy, sorry :/
Just sharing my experience with the deck bud. It might not be as good as some might think, so take care if you need to craft or don't play a lot of warlock. :)
(Oh and the "no excuse" comment doesnt really fit here, the deck just didnt work at all at that moment)
I guess so, but going 0-15 seems weird. I mean if I were trying a deck, I would have already stopped playing it long time before even going 0-10. Thats why Im having a hard time believing but ok. But yes you're right, if some have hardly any experience in control warlock they should think twice before crafting the deck :/
I should've explained that better, and for the record I'm not saying its a bad deck! I was at rank 5 and 0 stars so I thought I'd continue cuz I really like the playstyle of the deck. It didnt work out (yet) so I stopped at my limit hehe.
Oh ok I see. Well good luck next time dude ^^