Hearthpwn

Hello everyone!

Anomaly here with another deck for you from the upcoming Barrens expansion. Control Warlock has always been one of my favourite archetypes and because of your support, one of my most popular deck guides as well!

This deck is meshing together all the win-conditions that warlock has in Tickatus, Envoy Rustwix, and of course Lord Jaraxxus. I will explain why I have these cards a little later on.

What is the objective of the deck?

This deck just wants to tread water in the early game by using tools like Hysteria and School Spirits to keep the opponents board in control. Since this expansion has really pushed board-centric gameplay, I have really stacked these removals adding cards like Fire Breather to replace the popularCrazed Netherwing and Hellfire makes a return to control warlock following the rotation of Dark Skies (Gonna miss that one!).  

Notably, I have omitted Y'Shaarj, the Defiler from a list containing Tickatus because I believe that it will not be necessary unless the meta consists of a lot of combo or OTK decks. In a control matchup, burning 5 cards is more than sufficient AND mirror matches might end up teching Neeru Fireblade as an extra win-condition with makes Tickatus significantly worse because we dont want to make burning through their deck easier for them!

Now, you might say that as the deck stands, only 3 cards corrupt my Tickatus. I have done this on purpose for two reasons; First that I do not believe Tickatus will be doing a whole lot into most matchups and it is only there as a control win-condition. I can even see myself cutting the card altogether because of Vectus + Envoy Rustwix. This brings me to my second reason, having Envoy Rustwix means that you are almost guaranteed to shuffle 3 cards which will corrupt Tickatus into your deck, taking the total up to 6 cards (barring Akama Prime, which honestly is soooo bad).

Primes you WANT:

• Solarian Prime: Broken card, nuff said.
• Kanrethad Prime: Who says no to more Envoy Rustwix?
• Murgurgle Prime: Opponent better have hard removal or its mrrrrrrdur!
• Kargath Prime: More proactive "healing" for warlock, what's not to like?!

I think after playing with the deck and further refinement, either Vectus or Tickatus will end up getting the boot for even more survivability but I do want to give it a try atleast!

Why have you chosen these cards?

• Spirit Jailer/Armor Vendor: These one drops offer defensive healing in the form of Soul Fragment or armor, very handy against aggressive decks.
• Acidic Swamp Ooze: Looking at the new weapons available to rogue and especially warrior (Outrider's Axe WILL be nerfed!), Ooze makes too much sense for the meta.
• Death's Head Cultist: Finally some NEUTRAL HEALING along with a cheap taunt, everything a warlock wants!
• The early game removal was partially explained earlier, but it should be quite trivial why its there, TO SURVIVE!
• Watch post package: I have included the watch post package excluding the 4 drop (largely irrelevant effect in this kind of deck). These cards are just perfect for warlock because you want your opponent to hit anything BESIDES YOUR FACE, these watch posts cannot be ignored by even aggro decks because it will either destroy their mana flexibility, or continue to summon 2/2 bodies for you and you can fight back for the board. 
• POTENTIAL OPTION: Vectus: Touched on it earlier, this card is just there to form a 3 card deathrattle package with Envoy Rustwix and Kanrethad Ebonlocke, likely too greedy BUT it has seen a lot of success since the darkmoon races mini-set. It is likely that either this card or Tickatus will get cut after testing. 
• Tamsin Roame: This card has been heavily overlooked but it reduces the reliance warlock has on Cascading Disaster. Cascading is a strong card, but the meta has not allowed warlock to sit on the card and wait for it to upgrade. Since Siphon Soul was buffed, the deck now has access to multiple spells to gain value from Tamsin Roame, not to mention that Siphon Soul is like tier 2 cascading with 3 extra mana (playing tamsin) for an extra 6 health. 
• Depending on how the meta settles over the next two weeks, I might end up adding back Cascading disaster, but I will hold off for now!

So, how do I win/close out games?

1. This deck just wants to stall until it can start playing out value cards like Envoy Rustwix which usually will shuffle 2 high-powered cards into your deck. Some matchups playing Vectus will also win you the game based on the value, or the sheer number of cards you shuffle back into your deck. 
2. The stall game plan is perfectly summed up by the 2 packages in the deck: Soul Fragments with Soulciologist Malicia and Watch posts with Kargal Battlescar.
3. Tickatus obviously will have an impact in control mirrors but will be mostly lackluster against aggressive or midrange decks barring specific lucky burns. This card becomes super important if there are OTK decks around.
4. Lord Jaraxxus is our "finisher" in the deck because it is the only source of direct damage through the 3/8 weapon (besides Hellfire) and no class can really deal with 2 mana 6/6's every turn. 

I have my eye on Tamsin Roame because this deck does have quite a few shadow spells and I can generate more removal pretty easily. Maybe she solidifies her place in this deck after refinements but I see her as the 30th card in the deck as of March 29th!

Since I have not been able to play the deck yet, I will provide the rest of the guide (mulligans, what to do vs specific matchups) in the near future, thanks for check out my guide and stay safe!!