Hearthpwn

NOTE: Upon a new core set and a large number of changes to the game including nerfs and nerf reversions, this deck is out of date. It reflects a prior time period for the Wild Format.

 

A Little Agony Goes a Long Way

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This is a very experimental deck I based off NoHandsGamer's standard Pain Warlock. This deck is turning out to be extremely strong, as I had a 65% win-rate to Legend with a record of 26-14 (This means I hit DOUBLE LEGEND THIS MONTH). In season 77, August 2020, I climbed with this to Legend rank! This is an aggro deck similar to Zoo(lock) that focuses on damaging your own hero.

My Match-up Stats:

Demon Hunter: 1-0

Druid: 3-3

Hunter: 1-0

Mage: 5-1

Paladin: 3-2

Priest: 2-1

Shaman: 2-2

Rogue: 8-1

Warlock: 1-3

Warrior: 0-1

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Overall Game Plan

This deck functions in a rather different way. While sacrificing your hero's Health to save minions is typical in aggro decks, Warlock doesn't really have access to weapons to allow us to do so. Self-damage comes into play immensely here. We really want to start taking damage as soon as possible, which allows us to cheapen our bigger minions and put bigger minions into play. At some point, we'd really love to 'storm' off with Darkglare. With the ability to do what all Wild Decks must do, mana-cheat, we can flood the board as early as turn 3 or turn 4. This deck wants to grab the board fast, and keep it as best as possible, with regard for taking favorable trades and dealing chip damage over time unless we are miles ahead. We want to accelerate our own Health loss to push out a buffed Hooked Reaver, Flesh Giant, and Molten Giant. Along with this, we can abuse Raise Dead to generate more value to keep flooding the board in the early stages of the game. It really is a flexible tool that helps the deck work, as it gives us value, deals damage to our hero, and cheapens a few minions we have.

Mulligans

Flame Imp, Voidwalker, Spirit Jailer and Kobold Librarian are all very good keeps for the early game. Vulgar Homunculus is also a keep almost always the time. If your hand is a little lacking initially, keeping an Emerald Reaver and the Crystallizer is somewhat ok, but your hands should be good enough to mulligan these away most of the time. Tour Guide is usually ok to keep as a one-of, and Kanrethad Ebonlocke is usually better to keep if you have The Coin. 

Specific Mulligans

I found that keeping Raise Dead against Rogue, Shaman, and Druid makes the game a lot easier to keep pace with. This gives us so much more early game tempo and value that we can really dominate the board with our extra copies of our cheap minions.

Vulgar Homunculus and Voidwalker are VERY CRUCIAL against Rogue and Demon Hunter. The Taunt and extra early-game Health make them great for trading and keeping us out of harm's way (that is, not our own harm).

If you have a Darkglare and a Tour Guide, you can bank the Tour Guide Battlecry effect to combo off with self-damage effects. Usually, tossing the Darkglare is fine if you need more early plays. If, however, you have The Coin and Darkglare along with some self-damage, you can easily shove out a large number of stats in the early game. Piecing together these combos with our 1-drops and Raise Dead makes Darkglare a strong keep.

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 Card Substitutions

• Wrathguard is possibly the weakest card in the deck. It's really just a pile of stats, and the self-damage aspect rarely seems to come into play, since your opponent is given the opportunity to hurt it first. If you want, swapping it out for Soul Shear or Gnomeferatu can be very good depending on what you're running into. Alternatively, Soulfire can help give you that burst this deck finds itself lacking a lot of the time.
• Emerald Reaver is another card you can change potentially. One can be swapped for a second copy of Crystallizer. The other can be changed out for Fiendish Servant, as it's the same stat line, but more threatening than just a plain bug. I must note, however, that damage done to the armor Crystallizer gives you does NOT reduce the cost of Flesh Giant.

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Death and Decay

From experience, Loatheb and The Soularium work wonders in this deck. The Soularium allows for reckless plays where we fetch some larger minions and spit them onto the board. If we ever find ourselves ahead against a class with a lot of spells/removal, such as Priest or Mage, Loatheb can lock our opponent out of the tools they desperately need to stop us from killing them. Think of Loatheb as the protection for our minions to win the game a lot of the time. These two cards are must-haves in this decklist!

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