Hearthpwn

Final update: I've peaked at rank #1612. If I had more time to play this month (January 2019), I'm certain I could have gone further. I could try to surpass it next month, but I'm kinda burned out tbh

 

INTRODUCTION

Almost a year ago I managed to climb to legend with a deck of my own, tempolock, which is also the most popular deck I've made so far:

http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1054666-rank-4-to-legend-tempolock

I've decided to bring it back to life, although with a different approach: whereas back then I subbed the discard stuff with an elemental package, I've kept in the discards this time. 

Disclaimer: this deck is not necessarily better than any other deck in the meta. Just as with the list I linked above, I did it as a deckbuilding challenge for myself.

That being said, I find not only viable but also quite entertaining to play and really skill intensive, so I recommend you to give it a try :)

 

CARD CHOICES

Because it's a tempo deck and not an aggro deck, the general idea is that it has to be able to withstand longer games while still maintaining pressure. With this in mind, I took a zoolock shell and tweaked it a bit, the 2 key cards for this gameplan being Soulwarden and Bloodreaver Gul'dan. 

Hooked Reaver may seem like an odd choice as it's typically run in more control oriented builds. However though, I think it's power level is well above other 4 drops'. While most of the time you won't be able to activate in turn 4, a 4 mana 7/7 with taunt will be more than welcome later in the game.

Crystallizer helps it get on board earlier (and is a fantastic 1 drop on its own). 

Zilliax is just good overall.

I've tried Fungalmancer but I wasn't happy with the result, as it made good matchups better but didn't help in bad matchups. Despicable Dreadlord is better in those bad matchups (odd rogue, odd paladin).

I've tried Ornery Tortoise to make the whole Hooked Reaver thing faster, but it wasn't worth it. You'll kill yourself vs aggro and on top of that it's not good in the late game.

Replacements

An interesting 3 drop you could play would be Chittering Tunneler, as it allows you to regulate the amount of damage you take (keep in mind the average is 2.97) and generates extra value. My main problem with it is that it's just a 3/3, but I could see it working.

 

GENERAL GUIDE

Discards

Thanks to Soulwarden, you don't have to worry too much about what you discard, but in some cases, managing what cards you discard can be vital.

The best cards to discard overall are Soulwarden (you can create infinite Soulwardens if you discard one and only two other cards), Soulfire (extra burst), Doomguard (extra burst), Bloodreaver Gul'dan (extra board flood) and taunts (extra protection vs aggro).

Self damage

You need to manage well your HP. Most of the time you will be happy to take damage, as you'll want those Hooked Reavers activated, but be careful against aggro.

Also, be careful with the order in which you play your self-damage cards and Crystallizer.

Class-specific

Overall: you don’t always need to play around AoE because you can easily reload

Because most of the time you won’t know what specific archetype you’ll be up against, I’ve made the mulligan guide to help you in as many cases as possible.

 

STATS

They have all been recorded from rank 5. Took me 4h 5 min to get from rank 5 to legend btw, my best time yet.

 

Version 1.0 is back when I had Shroom Brewers instead of Saronite Chain Gangs

Version 1.1 is just a game in which I tried Fungalmancers instead of Despicable Dreadlords

Version 1.2 is the actual version (the best imo, despite the data)

Some screenshots

Rank 5 to 4 (missing a couple here)

Rank 4 to 3

Rank 3 to 2

Rank 2 to 1

 Rank 1 to legend

Legend #5000 to #1612