Hearthpwn

I've been playing Mecha'thun Renolock for a while now, and I change it up here and there based on the meta and what I'm running into. The biggest problem decks right now are: Big Priest, Mill Rogue, and Aggro Hunter. Token Druid and Murloc Shaman are also problems, but they seem to be less prominent in my experience. I will teach you how to play the deck, how to play against each class, and then explain every card in the deck and other possible cards to put in. I'm not going to mention this optional cards as "replacements" in every case because some cards are so good they can't be replaced. I know this deck is expensive so I will try to tell you how important each legendary and epic is at crafting.

This deck is a combo deck. Playing Mecha'thun + Bloodbloom + Cataclysm with no cards in your deck (and no deathrattle minions that summon minions on your side of the board) will result in an insta-win, even ignoring immunity to damage such as Ice Block. To prepare for this we have 2 important tasks: draw every card in the deck, and reduce the cost of Mecha'thun and Bloodbloom by 1 each with Emperor Thaurissan (or Mecha'thun and Cataclysm 2 each). Bloodbloom is "optional" if you have already reduced Mecha'thun and Cataclysm by 2 each or can use Zola on Thaurissan (to guarantee the chance to later).

The deck has a lot of tools for crowd control and healing to prepare itself to last a long game of drawing your entire deck. Please note that there isn't much card draw and this is on purpose; your hand will often be full anyway, and you can't risk overdrawing if you haven't drawn all your combo pieces. Furthermore, most games won't even matter how quickly you draw the deck -- we'll get into that later. It only really matters against other combo decks and heavy late-game tempo decks; we'll get into that later in the sections on Priest and Mage.

Next I will go over how to beat each class. Keep in mind there's dozens of decks for each class in wild and each individual person can come up with their own ideas. What works in one game won't always work in another. Always use your better judgement based on how your opponent plays and the knowledge you have of the current game. With that said, let's get to it.

Rogue is one of the hardest classes. This is because they are often mill decks, and even if not, Kingsbane decks are nothing to scoff at. They can even be aggro, so from the beginning of the game you don't even know what to do. But the 3 things to keep in mind are: prepare for aggro, be aggro yourself, and draw like you just don't care. Mulligan for Mistress of Mixtures, Mortal Coil, Ooze, Darkbomb, Defile, Shadowbolt, Hellfire, Kazakus, Shadowflame, Reno, and Mountain Giant. If you have Mountain Giant in your starting hand, you may even keep Zola if she's there as well. You want to go as aggro as possible if she's NOT aggro herself because that's your best bet at winning -- NOT your combo. Kill her minions quickly if she's aggro, play aggressively, and for God's sake, kill the Coldlight Oracle if she's dumb enough to let you. If it IS a mill deck, you STILL want to draw as much as you can because at the end of the day, it's still a combo deck you're against, and one that draws FAST so you need to beat her. Also, if you don't have aggressive options in hand, you need to draw them to try to win that way, preferably, first. You'll get milled whether you try to prevent it or not. You want to deplete your own deck before she does, ideally, and try to keep the ball in YOUR court. If it's a Kingsbane Rogue, try to use Zola and/or Lynchen on Ooze, but don't mulligan for them if you have Ooze because it's less important than beating aggro.

Hunter is probably THE hardest class. It will almost certainly be aggro. If it's a secret hunter, consider yourself lucky, but prepare for the worst. Mulligan for Gravelsnout Knight, Mistress of Mixtures, Mortal Coil, Ooze, Darkbomb, Defile, Plated Beetle, Shadowbolt, Hellfire, Kazakus, Shadowflame, and Reno. If Defile is in your starting hand, you may want to keep Thalnos. The trick against Hunter is to mitigate damage as much as you can, but try to save your AOEs for when he floods the board. Play any and all minions whenever, and don't worry about wasting a battlecry. You need everything on the board for board presence. If you're against a secret hunter, simply never go face. It'll really tick them off lol.

Priest is an interesting matchup too. If it's Big Priest, you probably lose if they draw Barnes by turn 4 and win if they don't. If it's not Big Priest, you probably win. But you need to prepare for the turn 4 Barnes play and so you want to mulligan for Gravelsnout Knight, Tinkmaster Overspark, Kazakus, and -- if any of those are in your starting hand -- Lychen and Zola. You want to try your hardest to flood his graveyard with random 1-drops and sheep, POLYMORPH EVERYTHING you can (not Barnes, hehe). Go for the Kazakus potion that does 5 damage (to Barnes) and polymorphs a random minion if you can. Get 2 if you can. In the mid game you need to draw as much as you can as you start running out of tools to deal with him and you need to get your combo underway. This is made much easier by messing with his graveyard than it is by drawing more. Trust me. Beware, however, that there is a deck operates like Big Priest but that uses a Velen combo and if you don't polymorph ALL of them there's a good chance you'll lose to the combo. If you see Velen, and not many other Big minions, try your best to draw your whole deck and worry less about polymorphing the non-Velen minions. There's other combo decks to lookout for but they are rare and you SHOULD be able to out-draw them. There's also Dragon Priest but, again, rare (and not that good).

Mage is generally not much of a threat, but you should prepare for the early aggressive tempo mage. Exodia Mage is your biggest threat but there's not much you can do agaisnt it and it won't really matter how you mulligan; just draw and draw hard, and hope to get lucky. Also, go aggressive. Treat it very similar to Mill Rogue (and, yes, you'll likely be milled). So against mage, mulligan for Mulligan for Mistress of Mixtures, Mortal Coil, Darkbomb, Defile, Shadowbolt, Hellfire, Kazakus, Shadowflame, Reno, and Mountain Giant. Mage and Rogue should be treated very similarly; prepare for aggro, but fear the mill and go aggro against it back. Like the Rogue, Mages don't take very well to aggressive plays so get the Mountain Giant out there and use Zola on him if you can. Exodia Mage and Quest Mage often lack big-target removals like Polymorph and Fireball as they rely on AOE's. Also, make sure to focus heals on your minions and not yourself if it is indeed Exodia/Quest. Another common mage deck is control/elemental, but it's super easy to beat so don't worry about anything. Just make sure you save removal for their late-game minions, and draw as much as you can to beat them in a timely manner.

Warlocks have a few variants: Zoo/Heal, "Big Demon", Deathrattle/Demon, Quest/Portal, and Mecha'thun. Big Demon is kinda rare and pretty bad, worse than Big Priest, they have to get really lucky to do good so try not to fear them. Deathrattle/Demon and Quest/Portal are both more of a control deck and, like control mage, not hard to beat. In a mirror match, you want to just draw as much as possible and apply pressure where you can to try and stop them from doing the same. Keep in mind a deck with more draw than yours will most likely have less removal and heals, so take advantage of that. You will likely the aggressor here. But because we need to prepare for zoo, mulligan for Gravelsnout Knight, Plated Beetle, Mulligan for Mistress of Mixtures, Mortal Coil, Darkbomb, Defile, Shadowbolt, Hellfire, Kazakus, Shadowflame, Reno, and Mountain Giant. 

Shaman is usually murloc or another aggro variant like jade/evolve, but can also be Shudderwock. Mulligan for Gravelsnout Knight, Plated Beetle, Ooze,  Mistress of Mixtures, Mortal Coil, Darkbomb, Defile, Shadowbolt, Hellfire, Kazakus, Shadowflame, and Reno. We don't want Mountain Giant here, as there's no point going aggro. If we're against Shudderwock, we need to make sure we draw as quickly as possible and stay at high health even if there doesn't "appear" to be threats.

Druid is really only difficult if it's Token; Jade is a joke, and pretty much all other decks are gone now after the Aviana nerf. Jade Druid is possible THE single easiest deck to play against. Funny how that happens...Ahem...So let's prepare for Token. You'll want to Mulligan for Mistress of Mixtures, Mortal Coil, Darkbomb, Defile, Shadowbolt, Hellfire, Kazakus, Shadowflame, Reno, and Lord Godfrey. It may seem silly to mulligan for a 7-drop, but it's the only thing you can do to beat the Treant deathrattle card.

Warrior is not a huge threat. The scariest Warrior deck is the bomb deck, but nobody appears to be playing it in Wild. Treat them much the same way you would a Rogue; prepare for aggro, but if you see it isn't then draw draw draw. You want to draw your deck before they put too many mines in it; there's no way around it otherwise. You want to mulligan for Mistress of Mixtures, Mortal Coil, Ooze, Darkbomb, Defile, Shadowbolt, Hellfire, Kazakus, Shadowflame, and Reno. But if it's NOT aggro, try not to use Reno without Zola or Lynchen because you'll probably need him a couple times to get through the bombs.

Paladin is the least important class to talk about. Odd Paladin isn't all that scary and also not too common, and hardly even played. Secret Paladin is laughable. There's also Murloc Paladin, but why go Paladin when you can go Shaman? If you see a Paladin, just prepare for aggro deck. Mulligan for Mistress of Mixtures, Mortal Coil, Ooze, Darkbomb, Defile, Shadowbolt, Hellfire, Kazakus, Shadowflame, and Reno.

Now that we've discussed the classes, let me discuss each individual card and its role in the deck and why I include it:

Gravelsnout Knight is simply a tech against Big Priest. We dilute their by putting in something useless. The card rarely backfires and we usually end up with something better than them.

Misstress of Mixtures is a very cheap heal. Since we don't normally care about our opponent's health pool, we don't even need to worry about the downside.

Mortal Coil is one of our few card draws. It's also used as removal and sometimes even to get Defile to work.

Acidic Swamp Ooze is a tech card against weapon-based decks, particularly Aggro Hunter, Aggro Rogue, and Kingsbane Rogue.

Bloodbloom is part of the combo. Bloodbloom is cheap and allows us to use the more-expensive Cataclysm without using our mana. As it's part of the combo, this epic is obviously MANDATORY to craft. The combo is possible without it, but requires wasting Zola and is more complicated than it's worth.

Bloodmage Thalnos is another card draw, also often used to help out Defile or other spells. He's probably the least important legendary and if you don't have him, you could replace with Loot Hoarder or just something else.

Darkbomb = cheap removal.

Defile is one of the best AOEs in the game, especially for Warlock. Don't know how we could do without it. 

Plated Beetle is one of our "heal" cards, more or less. Also nice to have a decent 2-drop to play.

Earthen Ring Farseer is another heal. Also nice to have a 3-drop.

Shadowbolt = again, cheap removal.

Tinkmaster Overspark is simply a tech, mostly against Big Priest. One of the least important cards in the deck and could be replaced with something else.

Zola the Gorgon is an amazing, amazing legendary, and can't really be replaced. She is SO flexible, allowing you to use some of your best cards a second time. Can be used in so many situations; just whatever you need to get the job done at the moment. Honestly one of the reasons I decided to NOT do an even deck.

Blastcrystal Potion = removal.

Cataclysm is another combo piece, and ABSOLUTELY MANDATORY to craft. Cataclysm is what makes Warlock the best Mecha'thun deck as it discards your entire hand.

Hellfire = AOE yay.

Kazakus ....Ok, a lot needs to be said about this card. Kazakus is one of the 2 cards forcing us into such a strict deck-building requirement, so as such, you know he's going to be good. He's extremely flexible and can craft you a potion you need for virtually any situation, and even at varying mana costs! Against Big Priest and other control you want to polymorph; against aggro you just want to AOE. And sometimes you might need that extra card draw. Or bring a minion back from the dead. Whatever you need, Kazakus got your back. Try your hardest to get more than 1 of his potions in any given game because it's worth it.

Shadowflame = AOE woot woot.

Shroom Brewer = more heals.

Twilight Drake is a card that doesn't really "fit in" the deck, but he's good and solid nonetheless. Twilight Drake has been a staple of Handlock ever since it first formed, and it still is today (in my opinion). While you could technically take it out if you want to, I like having the option for a 4-drop as we don't really have enough, and it's hard or a lot of decks to deal with. You'll often see hard removal used just to get rid of it.

Antique Healbot = good solid heals. A card so good the devs said they'd never print another neutral heal that good (and it's not even as good as Reno). Expect to see it in every Handlock deck for all of eternity.

Barista Lynchen - A second Zola? Yes, please. Could be replaced if you really want, but I wouldn't.

Emperor Thaurissan - Part of the combo. The deck absolutely does not work without him. He makes Mecha'thun and Bloodbloom cheaper so they can be played on the same turn. Good luck getting Mecha'thun to live a turn otherwise! xD

Reno Jackson - The card so good it got its name in the title even though it isn't part of the win condition. It also forced a heavy restriction on the rest of the deck (Kazakus just takes along, right?). With a heal this strong, it lets you get dangerously low on health without needing to worry about it. Great card. Hated by many. You'll often see people concede when you play it.

Siphon Soul = More removal, yay

Lord Godfrey is the other reason I didn't want an even deck. He's just that good. This is Defile on steroids. A great AOE that can easily clear boards. And sticky aggro decks (like Token Druid) will hate you for it!

Jepetto Joybuzz is one of the legendaries that could be replaced. But, I like him. Draw 2 cards and often get a good perk from them. Yeah it sometimes backfires, but rarely. Most cards we only care about the battlecry for so we can make some interesting combos when the right cards are drawn this way.

Twisting Nether - Our last removal AOE to mention. Not replaceable...

Mecha'thun is obviously part of the combo and we absolutely need him. Mecha'thun instantly wins you the game if he dies and you have no minions on board or cards in hand. Yay!

Mountain Giant is the most replacable epic, but really, I wouldn't replace him because he's there for you to try to win games aggressively when you probably won't win by the combo way. He's also a pretty cheap threat for the enemy to deal with...and a Handlock staple. ;)

Now that we've talked about the cards we use, let's talk about some alternatives in case you don't have the ones above or maybe run into different decks than what I do.

Dark Pact & Sylvanas the Windrunner - These cards should be used a combo as they are best used together. 7 mana heal 4, get rid of enemy minion without triggering deathrattle, and gain said minion on your side? Not bad, but I just feel there's better.

Kobold Librarian - A solid choice if you're missing something else. I don't use it because I feel I have too much card draw, but it's all up to your personal preference.

Lesser Amethyst Spellstone - Our deck has plenty of removal, and we don't really have enough tools to trigger this anyway. I don't feel it's good in this deck.

Demonbolt & Voodoo Doll - Again -- I feel we have enough removal. But if you feel you want something more, neither of these are a bad choice.

DOOM! - If you feel Twisting Nether isn't enough, you could try this, but usually causes you to overdraw and likely mill something you might need. It's really only safe to use if your whole combo is in hand, and that's rare...(Also, I don't recommend using The Soularium.)

Glacial Shroud is a good replacement to Gravelsnout Knight if you don't like him.

Dirty Rat is good to use to counter certain decks, but I think it's too unreliable and backfires too often to be worth using.

Doomsayer - A very common favorite. If you like it, then go for it. I just don't care for it, is the only reason I don't use it.

Wild Pyromancer & Glutonous Ooze - Either one could be a replacement for Tinkmaster Overspark as a solid 3-drop. Both are solid in their own right.

Brann Bronzebeard - A legendary that barely doesn't make the cut, but if you don't have Zola or Lychen he could be a potential replacement for one of them.

Coldlight Oracle & The Curator - I'd probably only use these 2 together if you decide to use either one. If you think you need more card draw it's not a bad way to go and technically you could try to mill something from your opponent. Just....try not to mill yourself, ok?

Refreshment Vendor, Zilliax, & Rotten Applebaum are all OK to add if you're missing some heals or something.

And that's it! If anyone has any thoughts, questions, comments, concerns, or just like to share their own Mecha'thun deck, feel free to comment below! =D Thanks for reading my guide!