Hearthpwn

Hello! This is my 3rd deck that I have piloted to Legend. This is the fastest I have ever reached Legend, and I had a staggering 69% (kek) win rate from Rank 5 - Legend. Once I figure out how to post my HSreplay stats I'll do so.

This deck thrives in the current meta because very few people are playing midrange tempo decks. This deck destroys combo decks, is favorable vs aggro, and outlasts most control decks.

MATCHUPS

IN GENERAL: Hand size management is a large part of playing this deck. You will constantly be sitting at 8-10 cards, and you need to recognize that a lot of your cards generate cards. Sometimes I find myself playing a Breath of the Infinite or Wild Pyromancer just so I can keep myself from milling a card.

If you are against a class that can run aggro or combo, mulligan for aggro. If you pick aggro and your opponent is running combo, you can still bring it back. If you mulligan for combo and you picked wrong, GG. Control should be obvious.

USUALLY GOOD MULLIGAN CHOICES are Cleric of Scales, Palm Reading, Draconic Studies, Renew, Breath of the Infinite

 

Demon Hunter: You will likely run into either Aggro DH with lots of 1-2 drops, or some Il'gynoth Combo variant. Mulligan for aggro, keeping Breath of the Infinite, Renew, Wild Pyromancer, Cleric of Scales, Palm Reading, Apotheosis, Draconic Studies in that order. You might be tempted to keep Fairground Fool, but you likely won't have time to get a corrupted version out. Be efficient with heals, and time your Breath of the Infinite so that you can wipe as much of the board as possible before they play their Wriggling Horror and get their minions out of range. If you are able to pull Wild Pyromancer and Apotheosis, you should wait until at least turn 6 to do a massive board clear/heal combo. I've pulled many games back from being at <5 health because I was patient with this combo.

If after your mulligan you notice your opponent is just hero powering or playing Wandmaker, Spirit Jailer or something like that, then you know it's combo. All you have to do is keep your health up, and wait until you pull Mindreaver Illucia. Play her when you have 8+ mana and watch your opponent concede. It's sometimes a good idea to play minions and bait removal, because that gives you an idea of how close they are to combo by seeing how many cards they are spending.

Warrior: This should be super simple. You will likely be facing Rush OTK Warrior. Mulligan for Mindrender Illucia, Cleric of Scales, Draconic Studies, Palm Reading, Fairground Fool, Cobalt Spellkin. Wait until you pull Mindreaver Illucia, play her sometime after turn 10, and spend their combo pieces. GG. Their armor gain shouldn't be a concern for you, as you will eventually win the board and be ahead on fatigue. You will also want to make sure you save a Plague of Death or randomly generated Silence/Mind Control for Rattlegore.

In the rare instance you play against Bomb Warrior or some other variant, you'll want to keep your health high. If you draw bombs consistently, you should be able to outpace the damage with healing. If you avoid the bombs for a long time, and you happen to have 4+ in your deck and and 12-14 cards left in your deck, you might want to max out your hand size so you can burn the bombs as they come up. Galakrond is super helpful for letting you play a minion while refilling your hand back up to 10 cards.

Rogue: This is maybe the hardest matchup. You want to disrupt their tempo as much as possible. For mulligan, I would keep Cleric of Scales, Palm Reading, Draconic Studies, Thoughtsteal, Renew, Cobalt Spellkin, Fairground Fool, Wild Pyromancer. Try your best to clear small minion drops efficiently. Health management is difficult in this matchup, so do whatever you can to keep your health above 18. Thoughtsteal will usually nab you some useful early game cards, which is why I would keep it in a mulligan.

Hunter: For mulligan, keep Apotheosis, Wild Pyromancer, Breath of the Infinite, Cleric of Scales, Renew, Draconic Studies, Fairground Fool. This deck has a hard time dealing with the numerous 3-health minions that show up, so your best bet is to do a big Apotheosis/Pyro combo to clear the board and bring your health back up. Otherwise, try to stick a corrupted Fairground Fool, and play Cobalt Spellkin for 1-cost heals. Try to stick an innocuous-looking minion on the board to heal up with Apotheosis. After Turn 7 you always have to be aware of Dinotamer Brann, as well as after a Lorekeeper Polkelt play.

Shaman: You will likely be facing Evolve Shaman. If so, mulligan hard for Breath of the Infinite, Palm Reading, Cleric of Scales, Draconic Studies, Renew, Fairground Fool, Plague of Death. Yes, you want probably 1 Plague of Death in conjunction with Palm Reading. You will need multiple board clears, and if you can get access to them earlier, then you're gravy. Make sure you keep the board clear before turn 5. You have to make them work for their big evolve turns. If you feel you have enough heal or board control in your hand, you can bait them into making another swing of their weapon before clearing board. You want to deplete their weapon swings in order to take back control of the board and win.

Mindrender Illucia will help you in the mid/late game to take away more weapon uses if you can afford to do so. This came up very rarely, but it is an option.

Mage: Keep the board clear, keep your health high. That's about it. Secrets make this annoying, so do your best to keep a 1-cost spell around to bait Counterspell before you go for a big removal.

Druid: This seems like a hard matchup, but it's pretty simple. You want to mulligan for Thoughtsteal, Palm Reading, Fairground Fool, Renew. Use your Thoughtsteal early to get mana ramp cards and keep up with their mana cheating. If you are lucky, you will get a Survival of the Fittest, which helps you to manage the board easier. You have 3 board clears in the deck, and you need these in order to win. You will likely want more board clears from your discover cards, as you will need to clear a minimum of 4 waves of clowns. Once their threat waves are gone, you win.

Warlock: HARD MULLIGAN FOR Mindrender Illucia. This is all that matters in this matchup. The goal is to play Mindrender Illucia on Turn 9, then play their non-corrupted Tickatus to mill 5 cards from their own deck, as well as remove it from their corrupted pool. If they have used Felosophy already, it's not that big of a deal. They will be accelerating their deck to make up the difference.

Paladin: Super easy. Mulligan for Breath of the Infinite, Renew, Fairground Fool, Cleric of Scales, Shadow Word: Death, Soul Mirror. Paladin can't usually make a big play until turn 5 or 6, which gives you more than enough time to accrue enough resources to counter them. Save your Plague of Death (or generated silences) to get rid of Libram buffs. Use Mindrender Illucia to spend their Pen Flingers. EZ.

Priest: Usually it'll be Resurrect Priest that you run into. Mulligan for Palm Reading, Draconic Studies, Fairground Fool, Onyx Magescribe. The key to winning this is to try and not be the first one to act, unless you are playing 4-attack minions to contest the board early. Only use your Plague of Death in an emergency.

Card Choices and how to play them with this deck

Mindrender Illucia - This card is non-negotiable. It wins you games. It is that simple, you play this in the right circumstance and you win. The annoying part about including this card in your deck is that you will not play it in many of your games. It is also a very hard card to play correctly outside of combo breaking. It can help you in control or aggro games, but you reaaaallly have to have a good sense of the meta and what is in your opponents hand, IN ADDITION to what is in your hand and what you are giving your opponent to play.

Thoughtsteal - There are several reasons this card is in the deck.
1) It increases your card economy. Two (usually good) cards for one? Great deal.
2) It gives you something to play on turn 2
3) It wins you games against Druid.
4) It (sometimes) wins you games against C'thun decks. Save a Thoughtsteal for when they have completed C'thun, and hopefully they have more than 1 card left in their deck.
5) It lets you scout unknown decks. Usually you know what you're up against, but this will give you confirmation.
6) It gives you information on what your opponent HASN'T drawn yet.

Palm Reading - The ability to discover a spell in any context is valuable, and the discount on all spells in hand is the cherry on top. In games where you are getting pressured, it's great to play this while you have Soul Mirror or Plague of Death in hand, just to make sure you have removal when you need it. Play this generally whenever you can.

Renew - Try to be efficient while healing with this. Even on turn 3 or 4 if I haven't taken more than 4 damage and I have this in hand, I won't play it. Try to play it when you have an idea of what sort of spell you want to look for, or when it costs 0 mana and you have another Palm Reading in your hand to get the discount on the new spell. 

Fairground Fool - 3 mana 4/7 taunt? YES PLEASE. This card is so good. You should only be playing this while it is corrupted, but there will always be exceptional circumstances. This is a great target for any generated Embalming Ritual, Grave Rune, Psyche Split or Apotheosis.

Breath of the Infinite - Pretty straightforward... cheap AoE damage. Usually the dragon-in-hand effect won't matter, but be aware of it.

Aeon Reaver - A decent removal card, and it counts as a dragon! One is fine to have in the deck. I can see this being replaced with something else potentially.

Galakrond, the Unspeakable - This is a hard to play card. It helps you greatly in control matchups by giving you an endless supply of minions to play. It also acts as a pinch removal, as well as a pinch heal for 5 armor. It also enables Kronx to do some other things for you. 

Cobalt Spellkin, Onyx Magescribe - Decent bodies and spell generation. You can usually get away with playing Cobalt Spellkin on turn 6 if you are looking for a heal. Incredibly useful card in Priest. Onyx is kinda similar, but you have to be a lot more aware of how it'll fill up your hand.

Cleric of Scales - The ability to tutor a spell from your deck is so valuable. Well worth making a dragon package around. Additionally, the 1/1 could be an Apotheosis target in a pinch. Usually not recommended though.

 

WHY DID I NOT INCLUDE THESE???!!?

Shadow Word: Pain - You should be able to heal any small damage that comes your way. It would be nice to have this for the Hunter matchup, but I think that the deck has enough tools already to not need to slot this in. If you really need a SW:P, discover it.

Blood of G'huun - Honestly it's because I don't have it lol. This could maybe find a spot in the deck. Lemme know what you think

Murozond the Infinite - It's a great card, but we don't need an expensive dragon that may or may not be played hanging out in the deck. Take this from Draconic Studies if you think it'll be valuable in a matchup, but not worth losing any of the other cards.

Fate Weaver, other invoke cards - Invoking as Priest is a meme. This card is also a meme.