Hearthpwn

 

Hello everyone! Today I'd like to share with you my latest version of the Spectral Pillager OTK. This is mostly to share that it is still possible to play a version of this OTK still, and I promised that I'd bring news of any changes or updates after the deck was nerfed and seemingly dead on arrival after the April 16th hotfix to Sonya to fix the worgen minions, and subsequently created an intended bug and nerf to Sonya interacting with any Aoe cost reduction minion effects.

Enjoy Pillagers & Zombies 2.0!

DISCLAIMER 1: This deck is based off of my previous Spectral Pillager deck found here (Pillagers & Zombies (Pre-Sonya Hotfix Bug)). That deck was already a meme deck, but still was a decent enough of an OTK deck to go toe-to-toe with decks like Spell Hunter, Control Priest, Control Mage, etc), but this version is a complete meme due to the multiple setup turns required to not only get your stream of 0 mana Scorp-o-matics after the Sonya bug, but to also get key cards like Spectral Pillager to 1 mana and still have the mana to do the full OTK combo. This extra setup tanks the win rate of this deck drastically so you should not take this to ladder unless you're trying harding for a memey win at a rank floor.

DISCLAIMER 2: Mechwarper is used in a very interesting way to pull this combo off despite the Sonya bug nerf making it unable to reduce Sonya created Scorp-o-matics to 0 mana. Mechwarper is used to force the correct interaction to occur between your mechs in hand and the Sonyas on the board. This is accomplished by summoning Mechwarper onto the board when your hand is already full of Scorp-o-matic cards resulting in Mechwarper's aoe cost reduction effect seemingly acting like a battlecry effect (only to the mechs currently in your hand, essentially forcing the previous intended interaction to occur between those mechs and Sonya.

I discovered this interaction when messing around against the Innkeeper when trying to somehow figure out a way to attempt to recreate the OTK despite the hotfix bug killing the deck. I'd like to point out that the Mechwarper interaction is not the bug here, but it is Sonya Shadowdancer preventing Mechwarper from reducing the 1/1 Sonya created scorp-o-matics in hand to 0 mana that is the actual bug.

DISCLAIMER 3: Please report the Sonya bug to the Bug Report section to the forums on the official website. Sonya should not be preventing minions on board from reducing related minions (in this case mechs) in hand to 0 mana after those minions have been created as 1 mana copies by Sonya. I have already reported this bug multiple times, and I have seen one or two other people also report it, but we can't get this fixed and return this deck to a slightly less memier version unless the April 16th hotfix bug is fixed. 

Now that that is out of the way on to the guide & deck overview!

What is different in my latest version from the previous one?

• 2 different combos are required to setup cheap Spectral Pillager & Sonya Shadowdancer minions and add them to your hand in order to make your train of 0 mana Scorp-o-matics possible, as well as your double Pillager lethal. This is the main reason why the win rate of this version of the deck is so low, but hey this deck is for fun memes anyway!
• Valeera the Hollow is not used here to generate an extra mech for the combo, but instead Shadowstep is used on your one Mechwarper to play onto the board again and reduce a big hand of Scorp-o-matics to 0 mana.
• Drakkari Enchanter is not used for extra mana reduction. The combo mentioned above does more of the mana reducing, along with Thaurassian hitting all of your main combos with one tick of mana reduction.
• Unfortunately I had to remove the highlander aspect of this version of the deck. Since I had to remove Valeera due to major hand management issues I needed to make up for the lack of stall and survivability by including doubles of things like Sludge Belcher and removal like Eviscerate.
• Spectral Pillager starts off as a 1 mana (0 after mana reduction) piece of your OTK combo instead of 4 mana piece, Shadow Strike is therefore no longer needed to kill your own pillager, and 2 Sonya Shadowdancers are required for your combo in order to quickly fill your hand with Scorp-o-matics before running out of mana to play your pillagers for lethal.

Deck Guide (Aka the setups before the setup of the combo)

Since T5 doesn't like to make memes easy we now have to setup two combos before getting ready to drop Thaurassian and dump our combo. The order of these two pre-setup combos doesn't matter so let's talk about the one below.

In order to make it possible to fill your hand with Scorp-o-matics quickly we're going to need to have 2 Sonyas. You're going to need 10 mana, one of your Shadowcasters, Sonya of course, and a Youthful Brewmaster.

• Play Sonya
• Shadowcaster Sonya for a 1 mana copy
• Bounce your original Sonya to hand for the second Sonya 

Time for the second pre-setup combo we need. This time you will need 11 mana (possible with a saved coin from one of your Tomb Pillagers, your second Shadowcaster, and Spectral Pillager.

• Play Spectral Pillager
• Play The Coin from Tomb Pillager
• Shadowcaster your Spectral Pillager to add a one mana copy to your hand

After all of this convoluted mess of setups we finally get to draw the rest of our combo pieces and Thaurisian.

As for as discounts go you want the following cards discounted:

• 1 mana Sonya Shadowdancer
• 3 mana Sonya Shadowdancer
• Mechwarper
• Both Scorp-o-matics
• 1 mana Spectral Pillager
• You also need to have drawn your Shadowstep at some point as well to bounce your Mechwarper

After getting all of that done the combo is executed as follows:

• Play both Sonyas
• Play Mechwarper
• Play Spectral Pillager to deal 3 to face
• Play Scorp-o-matic #1 to eat Spectral Pillager (adding 2 one mana versions to your hand)
• Play Scorp-o-matic #2 to eat Scorp-o-matic #1 to add 2 1 mana mechs to your hand.
• Continue having your Scorp-o-matics eat each other until your hand can't hold any more of them (YOU NEED TO SAVE AT LEAST 2 MANA FOR YOU TO PLAY BOTH PILLAGERS FOR LETHAL!).
• Shadowstep your Mechwarper and replay it. This will force the correct interaction of the mech reductions for mechs in hand to occur despite the April 16th bug preventing you from otherwise reducing your mechs in hand by one.
• Continue having your Scorp-o-matics eat each other
• Before your rope runs out play Spectral Pillager #1 to do 17+ damage to face
• Play Spectral Pillager #2 to finish off your opponent.

Hand full of Scorp-o-matics then shadowstepping Mechwarper back to hand.

After reducing your Scorp-o-matics to 0 mana spamming them on board will rack up your damage counter for Spectral Pillager.

***Here you can see the bug caused by the April 16th hotfix in action. Despite having Sonya and Mechwarper on board I have both 0 mana and 1 mana mechs in hand. The 0 mana mechs result in Mechwarper forcing the correct interaction to play out (for the mechs currently in hand, the mechs that spawn from Sonya afterward are not affected by the mana cost reduction on board).***

 

Damage dealth by first Spectral Pillager.

Lethal obtained from second Spectral Pillager

Memery accomplished!

 

Thanks for taking your time to read or skim through my guide! :) 

While I personally prefer my earlier version of this deck since I could beat real opponents with it much much more often lol, I am glad that I was able to discover that I could find away around the Sonya bug and allow Mechwarper to partially force the interaction to right itself and play one of my favorite combos again.

You will lose a lot before getting your first win with this version of the deck, but I assume that if you do try to accomplish this goal then you are a patient Hearthstone memer and aren't too bothered by losing with wacky decks.

Enjoy, and be sure to support the effort to fix the aoe cost reduction bugs brought about by the April 16th worgen hotfix! You can report the bug on the official forum's Bug Report section.

 

Updates:

-1x Loot Hoarder
+1x Cursed Castaway

-2x Antique Healbot
+2x Rotten Applebaum

I decided the deck needed more of a board presence prior to getting the combo going. Cursed Castaway provides this while still potentially drawing one of your four combo cards to get closer to your combo pieces. Plus, if it gets rezzed by N'Zoth it can trade favorably with something on the board immediately.

The Rotten Applebaum heals for less initially, but essentially heals you for more due their superior stats and taunt. Plus, they can be brought back by N'Zoth.