Hearthpwn

Greetings Friend! I'm Spirit, and I've been building decks since I had the World of Warcraft trading cards. I love making things that work together and things that other people haven't done. This deck is a little different, it is a Zoo deck, which isn't completely unique, but has a touch of my flavor in it. When I first saw Anima Golem, I was in love. It fit into the Zoo deck that already existed, and so did so many new cards! Enhance-o Mechano was one of the other cards that fit in perfectly as well. Both cards are like Kel'Thuzad, in that you need to have a board already when you play them to get the cards value. I hope you enjoy what I discuss and I would love to hear from all of you! Please, comment! If you like the deck or what I have to say than by all means leave me an upvote. The next best thing you can do is tell your friends! Enjoy the discussion on Anima Golem and Enhance-o Mechano, the mulligan strategy, and the list of other options! 

**Update (12/13/2014)! The deck was recently featured by Fluxflashor in a news post! http://www.hearthpwn.com/news/727-deck-spotlights-enhance-o-anima-zoo-rest-in-spare pretty awesome! I definitely noticed a spike in upvotes after that, so I wanted to thank Fluxflashor for featuring me! Also, the deck has reached 10,000 views! WOW! An awesome achievement! Thank you guys so much for your support and your feedback. It has been much appreciated. When the deck reaches 20,000 views I might make a video on it! How's that sound? You think you guys can share the deck and get it to 20,000 views? Thank you guys for all your support through viewing, upvoting, and commenting. Thank you all! 

Lets Talk! 

Enhance-o Mechano can keep your board alive with the divine shield, can put a taunt on those useless Ancient Watchers that your Piloted Shredder drops, and can finish your opponent with a board full of windfurry. It gets a worthwhile amount of value when it hits 3 or more minions. Typically when you only have 1 or 2 minions on the board and you want to play Enhance-o Mechano, its because there is a specific effect you want on one minion. You only have a 33% chance to get that desired effect on that minion and you're playing a 4 mana 3/2 (compared to the 1 mana 3/2 that is Flame Imp). That is anti-value and not worth it. I originally planned on running only one Enhance-o Mechano but once I started playing with it I fell in love. It works very well with the rest of the deck as you will likely have a good board position against most other decks. 

Anima Golem is what some would call a, win-more card. This means that you're already in a position where you will likely win, therefore, playing the card wouldn't really effect your chances of winning. I would have to disagree there. Anima Golem is a HUGE card that demands your opponent to change there play next turn. Now, they have to kill EVERYTHING on your board or take 9 damage. Zoo has an issue of not being able to deal with a large threat your opponent throws down. Say they play... Ironbark Protector, Foe Reaper 4000, Molten Giant, etc. What are you going to do against something big when you don't have lethal? Anima Golem kills all three of those examples and lives through it. Another nice bonus, Anima Golem plus Enhance-o Mechano can be pretty spooky. I have had amazing results from Anima Golem and with the overall sticky-ness of the deck (Harvest Golem, Haunted Creeper, Piloted Shredder) it is really difficult for your opponent to clear everything. 

Replacements for Anima Golem: Not everyone has the money or the gold to spend on Hearthstone, I understand that. Maybe you haven't unpacked Anima Golem yet and you want to save that dust you've collected for a shiny new legendary. What then could you throw in instead of Anima Golem? The best replacements in my opinion are (starting from the best): Loatheb, Fel Reaver, Sea Giant. There are other options that work well too, and you can experiment! Feel free to tell me in the comments if you tried something different from me! I love to hear suggestions!

Mulligan Strategy: 

This is a zoo deck, the mulligan strategy is pretty much the same. The only difference now, Soulfire costs 1 instead of 0. This does change the strategy a bit as before, you used to keep Soulfire if you had a 1 drop. Now, I don't think it is good enough to keep in your starting hand. I can't think of a starting hand that is so perfect you would want to keep Soulfire. 

Cards you want to keep: Clockwork Gnome, Flame Imp, and Undertaker. You can keep Abusive Sergeant, but I usually toss it back as using its battlecry as "deal 2 damage" is better than having a 2/1 on turn 1. You can keep: Haunted Creeper (if you have an Undertaker in hand already), Mechwarper (if you have a one drop already, if you have one or more Clockwork Gnomes, or if you're going second and have Spider Tank in hand as turn 1 coin Mechwarper into turn 2 Spider Tank is very strong), Knife Juggler (if you have a 1 drop, slightly less good if that 1 drop is undertaker as a deathrattle card would be better than Knife Juggler in most cases), and Acidic Swamp Ooze (if you have a 1 drop and you're against Warrior or if you want to Paladin). 

Other Cards and Their Viability In This Deck: 

**Note: Acidic Swamp Ooze is a meta call card right now. I've been facing a lot of Hunters and Warriors and both run weapons that I just want to see gone. Ironbeak Owl or Big Game Hunter are other meta calls that could replace it. If you're facing a more mixed meta, or a spell heavy one Loatheb is an excellent card as well. Most people have told me they swapped Acidic Swamp Ooze out which is fine by me. 

Annoy-o-Tron - this card is good, but this deck isn't hungry for mechs and the stats just don't justify the card. I prefer Haunted Creeper as it has synergy with Undertaker and Anima Golem and Annoy-o-Tron only has synergy with Mechwarper. It also has some synergy with Abusive Sergeant, Dire Wolf Alpha, and the windfurry buff from Enhance-o Mechano as the divine shield aspect of it is nice. Though, you have to have in in play for a turn, have the divine shield be up still, and have a good target for the synergy to be worthwhile. Also, two of Enhance-o Mechano's buffs are null on this card. 

Darkbomb - Zoo is a control deck, even though some people (who don't know what they're doing!) play it like an aggro deck. It can work as an aggro deck but it's less good than controlling the board. Darkbomb is a great removal spell! Why not put it in? Well, for 2 mana you could play Darkbomb and kill whatever they played. Or, you could play any of the two mana minions which would likely trade for it anyway. The minions are better though as they can be buffed by Dire Wolf Alpha, Enhance-o Mechano, or Abusive Sergeant, or can be another thing they have to remove to kill your Anima Golem. A minion is way better than a Dark Bomb about 92% of the time. Just throwin a number out there. 

Micro Machine - again, this deck isn't hungry for mechs. This card is good, but it is slower and typically does less than Knife Juggler or Dire Wolf Alpha. Worth considering but not good enough in my opinion. 

Cogmaster and Tinkertown Technician - the deck doesn't run enough mechs for either of these cards to get full value. If you want to run these, play a mech deck! 

Mechanical Yeti - Piloted Shredder outclasses this card too much. They both have great synergy with all the same cards, the only difference is that Piloted Shredder is stickier.

Imp-losion - certainly a fun card, but it only really works well when Knife Juggler is out on the board. Yes, it does have synergy with Dire Wolf Alpha and sort of Enhance-o Mechano but it is less consistent than Piloted Shredder I think. It just doesn't do enough for 4 mana. 

Jeeves - Zoo never needed card draw. It has the glorious Life Tap! 

Nerubian Egg - used to be run in the old Zoo and was one of the strongest cards in Zoo from Naxxramas. This was because Zoo used to run cards like, Power Overwhelming, Dark Iron Dwarf, and Defender of Argus. Most of these cards just got outclassed by the new GvG cards and would be great replacements for GvG cards if you're short on gold (or cash). It works very well in this deck, but it would likely replace a mech and that would reduce the power of Mechwarper which would reduce the power of others and it would be a chain reaction resulting in a lot of the cards being weaker than before. I definitely think it fits in another form of Zoo or maybe in an Anima Golem deck that is reliant on Anima Golem and a sticky board. 

Blood Knight - is a card that you don't see very often in this meta right now. I do think there are enough Divine Shield cards out there (Shielded Minibot, Annoy-o-Tron, etc.) that you could run this instead of perhaps a Spider Tank as it has a lot bigger upside. This would be better if you ran Argent Squire as well, but there are so many newer better cards to run over it like Clockwork Gnome. Its more of a meta pick if there are a ton more Divine Shields on the ladder. 

Recombobulator - a fun card, but often counter productive. If your deathrattles went off before it was transformed, then this card would definitely have a spot in the deck. Aaaand a spot on everyone's "must be nerfed" list.

Fel Reaver - amazing stats for the cost, pretty huge draw-back. Though, the drawback isn't quite as bad in this deck. My original opinion on this card was that it would be bad, but having seen it lately it works really well. Fel Reaver-Finicky Cloak Field is a really good combo that secures 8 damage in. Another thing to add, this would be a great replacement for Anima Golem if you prefer it. Definitely a consideration, but I don't think running it AND Anima Golem is a great idea. It brings the curve up to more of a midrange deck level and you might run into bad hands. 

Piloted Sky Golem - is an amazing card, but it is too late-game for this deck. Maybe in a midrange version this card would fit, but not in this version. Getting it in your starting hand would be an absolute disaster. 

Sea Giant - is a card that works very well with the Zoo playstyle. Flood the board, control it, steamroll. Sea Giant works very similarly to Anima Golem in that it is best played when your board is full. The nice part of Sea Giant is that you can play it when your opponents board is full as well, where Anima Golem suffers. 

Clockwork Giant - too unreliable. You can't guarantee that your opponent wont be an aggressive deck that throws its hand away. I'd sooner run Fel Reaver.

Blingtron 3000 - you know, this could be fun. I said fun, not viable! 

Loatheb - is actually a hard considered card. He could very easily be subbed in for Anima Golem or Enhance-o Mechano if you're missing one. He'd even be a good replacement for one Doomguard if you're sick and tired of discarding your hand. Just one Doomguard is good enough really. I'll have to try out Loatheb myself to see just how good he is. I can already see the having a full board and playing Loatheb and next turn playing Enhance-o Mechano for an insane finisher. Definitely a card worth considering. 

Gazlow - I only suggest Gazlow because I just unpacked a golden one! He works well with Soulfire and Spare Parts but this deck doesn't have enough 1 mana spells or the Spare Parts to support him. Again, maybe in a midrange-mech deck! 

Troggzor the Earthinator - he is a fun card, but it is again, too late game and unreliable. you can't guarantee your opponent will cast a spell (even if you might have a mighty fine board and they're a Mage who hasn't played any Flamestrikes yet). In a more midrange deck this might work, but there are other options that would work just as well. 

Sneed's Old Shredder - far far far too late game for this deck. Chances are you've either won or lost by turn 6 anyway, so this card wouldn't matter. 

If you have any more suggestions on cards that could be in the deck or not, please let me know! Show your support with an upvote or a favorite! And please, COMMENT! Nothing is better as a deckbuilder than receiving feedback!