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NOTE: Upon a new core set and a large number of changes to the game including nerfs and nerf reversions, this deck is out of date.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.

 

Who Dares Summon Me?

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For December 2020, season 81, I have hit LEGEND with this aggressive Warlock deck, tailored for midgame bursts of damage. This faster deck capable of making large aggressive plays while being able to play somewhat for value is very good for climbing. At one point, I had a 9-game win streak! I ended up going 26-14 for a 65% winrate.

My Match-Up Stats:

Demon Hunter: N/A

Druid: 3-5

Hunter: 3-0

Mage: 4-2

Paladin: 2-2

Priest: 8-0

Rogue: 2-0

Shaman: 1-1

Warlock: 3-3

Warrior: 0-1

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Overall Game Plan

Taking the board as early as we can with high-stat minions and Demons is the most effective way to win the game. We want to either snowball out of control wide, or just stop them from being able to kill any of our minions effectively while beating them down. This deck functions as a board-based aggro deck with a good number of overstatted minions with very powerful effects on them for the early-game, as well as some large splashes of power for the midgame. Of course, as the name suggests, we want to manage our discard effects in the most positive way possible in every situation we can.

Mulligans

Flame Imp, Malchezaar's Imp, Voidwalker, Kobold Librarian, and Tiny Knight of Evil are generally all great keeps going first or second. Kanrethad Ebonlocke and Darkglare, however, are more questionable keeps. If we are on The Coin, Kanrethad Ebonlocke is an outstandingly powerful card with our cheapo Demons. Along this line, we can spread super wide on turns 1 or 2 with him and The Coin. Darkglare, in contrast or even synergy with Kanrethad Ebonlocke, is very solid so long as we have Kobold Librarian and/or Flame Imp to go along with it.

Specific Mulligans

I only ever kept Raise Dead if I had Darkglare and at least one other self-damaging minion in my opening hand. Usually, you'd keep a hand like that going second if possible.

Expired Merchant is a very powerful card, not only filtering out hand and making our discard effects better, but also generating value for the midgame. In certain scenarios with our opening hand, you could definitely keep Expired Merchant for a turn 1 or 2 free 3/3 in Silverware Golem or draw with Hand of Gul'dan depending on how our opening hand turned out.

Against Druid you need to always full mulligan for minions that cost (2) or less regardless of what kind of Druid you expect them to be.

Voidwalker was very important against Rogue and Hunter. The early 1/3 Taunt proved very valuable for me, as these two classes sometimes struggle against this type of early minion with such a decent Health total with Taunt to boot.

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Card Substitutions

• If you really wanted to, you could cut Loatheb for a Fist of Jaraxxus.

Tech Cards

• Shriek is the sole tech card I would recommend adding to this deck if you find yourself wanting a small clear. Not only does it help against other aggro decks, but it can also help with our discard synergy.

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The Pain Package

Though our cute little Darkglare was nerfed, they are still powerful enough to cheat mana in this type of deck as well. The affliction we face from Darkglare allows us to push out more stats onto the board and even get cheaper uses off our Life Tap hero power. Darkglare is efficient in allowing us to spam our cheap self-damaging cards. Flame Imp, Kobold Librarian and Raise Dead are cheap and efficient ways to cheat mana with Darkglare involved. With two Darkglare on board, which does happen at times, you can get a TON of value and fast stats on board. This small package is also helped by Kanrethad Ebonlock, who enables more mana-cheating. Some games can be won purely by using this package early.

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Discard Outlets and Risk

The main purpose of this deck is the core amount of discard outlets in the deck. By this, I mean cards that discard cards. These outlets are Soulfire, Expired Merchant, Doomguard, Nightshade Matron, and our lone copy of Wicked Whispers. One of the major keys to winning and succeeding with this deck is understanding the value of taking risks. Some of the discard outlets are guaranteed to hit things depending on cost or hand size. However, sometimes cards of equal cost or too small a hand size can be in the way. This is where the true understanding of the deck's strength comes in. You need to be able to evaluate the situation and take in the risk factor to each discard you have, especially the random ones. Sure, you get rewarded more of the time for targeted discarding, but sometimes even that has issues with draw at times. For the most part, just try to think and be aware of what you can and can't afford to discard if it comes down to it. 

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