Hearthpwn

Zoolock:

I hope you all enjoy and I would be more than happy to answer basically any questions you may have, from “What’s your favorite color?” to “What would you take out if I don’t have ___ or ___?”

Guide: This deck revolves around getting out a ton of small minions as fast as you can and draw 2 cards a turn with your hero power when you start to run out of cards. The Magic Carpet is a great way to get even more value out of your little minions and make them like little missiles clear of the enemies important minions and taunts so your other minions can go face. There are also ways to cheese out a lot of early minions, get nice little board pumps, and even get out early Sea Giants for added pressure that can snowball the game. The big issue with this deck is its tendency to use its own health to get cards and value which means that a deck with direct damage that doesn’t need board control or has a Leeroy Jenkins will potentially be able to close out games against you. Also, you have Arch-Villain Rafaam in the deck which gives you late game and a nice little combo with The Soularium because the cards that should be discarded at the end of your turn are replaced and therefore won’t get discarded so it is literally a 1 mana draw 3 cards with no drawbacks if you play Arch-Villain Rafaam the same turn.

Gameplay:

Mulligans: Keep 1 drops, the Scarab Egg and the EVIL Genius, and Sea Giant. Also keep Magic Carpet into aggro, and keep Arch-Villain Rafaam into control to give you a potential late game. (If you want to take out Arch-Villain Rafaam and put in Leeroy Jenkins to give yourself more aggression you can just know you will lose control matchups harder but maybe win against aggro if you can burst them down first).

Matchups (Mulligans and Strategies)

Druid: OH BABY THIS IS WHERE YOU SHINE!!! Your constant pressure and getting a Magic Carpet to stick on the board means you can deal with all of his minions as soon as he puts them out and your ability to card draw will allow you to out gas him. Not only that, but his lack of direct damage is great for you because if you control the board he literally can’t touch you. Keep Magic Carpet into this matchup to deal with constant tokens.

Hunter: This matchup is like 70/30 for you because you have the resources to deal with constant mechs and making sure things don’t get magnetized, but the Hunter has direct damage, Venomizer and Missile Launcher combo, and unleash the hounds which most decks run a copy of as well. Not only that but they have nice weapons, secrets, and small rush minions that deal with your options super well. The way you win this matchup is just controlling the board with your endless amounts of minions and on turns where you think you could get wiped by an Unleash the Hounds play a Voidwalker and try to focus on playing minions with 3hp and pumping up their attack so you don’t get your board wiped. 

Mage: This matchup is similar to the Token Druid (If you haven’t checked that out yet you totally should) but basically you need to flood the board and try to beat the Mage before she can combo off with her giants. This is done by playing everything you can as soon as you can and basically relying on the fact that Mage decks don’t actually run that much removal rn, all they have are freezes which yes can stall the board but still give you a fighting chance. Keep all the 1 drops and play them all and getting out a Sea Giant into this matchup is super important to up the tempo so keep that as well and flood the board with minions so you can play it ASAP.

Paladin: Again similar to Token Druid, you have no way to deal with some big threats unless you want to tech in some silence and you can if you want actually but that is the only way you can win this matchup. The paladin has a LOT of little card draw and high health minions that will make the matchup terrible for you. HOWERVER, with the Magic Carpet, you will be able to rush minions into the big minions and potentially control the board and keep minions from getting too big which makes it BETTER than Token Druid but still have the same problem...

Priest: This class is still around? XD (But also PLEASE keep Flame Imp into this matchup for the Northshire Cleric or it will slowball)

Rogue: Cheap and efficient removal make this matchup suck ESPECIALLY if they Backstab your Flame Imp cause that is the WORST feeling ever. Into this matchup you want to keep your 3hp minions and if you  HAVE lower hp minions play them just prioritize them less because they could get removed super easily by efficient removal. Because the Tempo Rogue deck is not really super popular anymore and rogue play is more combo based and midrange you don’t have to worry about getting rushed down and burst as much so this matchup is terrible just bad. Also, once they use the cheap removal you actually have WAY more fuel due to card draw than the rogue theoretically so you can refill the board and they have more board wipe. Just hope they don’t get too many lackeys and combo off too hard and you will be fine.

Shaman: Finally another solid GOOD matchup for you that isn’t like ok or bad (Mage is kinda good but this one is actually solid). The reason this deck is good is because the pressure you put out on the board will just never let the opponent get enough murlocs on the board to actually buff them up and take over the board. Keeping Flame Imp to once again deal with an early Underbelly Angler and make sure he can’t draw a lot of cards with it, that is actually a pretty high priority thing to clear because if you do you will have a lot more fuel than the other player (which if you haven’t noticed that is where this deck shines XD)

Warlock: Don’t go face, clear the board, keep Sea Giant because that is going to up your tempo a LOT and the opponent will flood the board too which will make it cheap to play early, and don’t lose control of the board.

Warrior: Basically apply a ton of pressure and if they clear the board just try to wait for Arch-Villain Rafaam (which you NEED TO KEEP IN THIS MATCHUP OR ITS OVER) and hope you get good legendaries. The first option rush him down if you get WIPED like 1 time give up and go for the late game play.