Tick Tech
- Last updated Sep 26, 2021 (Demon Seed Ban)
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Wild
- 15 Minions
- 14 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Corrupted Warlock
- Crafting Cost: 17220
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 4/3/2021 (Forged in the Barrens)
- PowerOfCheez
- Registered User
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- 14
- 57
- 97
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Battle Tag:
PowerOfCheez#1873
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
224
Bottom Line Up Front, or TLDR, is this deck good or just 'fun' ? (revised for Tick Tech on 4/26):
Tick Tech is competitive. Control Warlock decks rarely do well against aggro, but the shell this based on is competitive across all classes, with exception of Warlock itself, and my changes attempt to resolve that.
The question I asked that led to this build was "How can I improve the competitiveness of a Tickatus Control deck across all classes?" The goal is to be even or better odds vs. all classes, not necessarily the best overall win rate. However, achieving this (or even just vs 8-9 of the 10 classes) would make for a far more even and likely enjoyable piloting experience.
This build has a nearly full heal/removal package (missing only Armor Vendors). It also features singletons of several tech cards, which together, give tools to deal with almost anything an opponent can throw at you, except secrets, which require the usual tactics to test and play around.
Will update this periodically as the meta continues to shift and players of the list continue to improve their experience and win rates with it. Would love to hear player's good war stories in the comments!
Prefer Wild? Check this out:
Guide and article here.
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Minion (24)
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Ability (5)
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Playable Hero (1) |
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Behold the PowerOfCheez! This is my latest take on Tickatus Control. Tickatus builds that keep you in the game early give you a chance in most matchups (dominating Priest). Tickatus is one of the few reliable cards against other control decks, especially those which rely too heavily on C'Thun, the Shattered.
This list has the usual win conditions (Tickatus, Y'Shaarj, the Defiler, Envoy Rustwix, and minions in general). Games against control decks often go to fatigue.
Tech choices and play tips:
This is a card many Tickatus Control lists leave out. I found the mirrors (and to a lesser degree, games vs. other class' control builds) really need it to win in the late game.
In matchups against Warlock and Priest, it is really important not to play this too early. The three Primes you get into your deck against Warlock will become either bricks that slow you getting to other key cards or become food for the enemy Tickatus, which is only good situationally.
Against Priest, you can play him early, but have to kill him the turn played, or they can Soul Mirror it and you lose the edge it provides, and worse, they can then rez him back to out-edge you. A frequent play of mine is to play him then Hysteria an opponent's minion to clear the board, load my deck, and often, use two remaining mana for Lord Jaraxxus' hero power.
Ironbeak Owl is in this list in place of the second Acidic Swamp Ooze, so, if you do not like it, that would be the card to sub in for it. The owl gives you a key tool against enchantments (Paladin, Priest and sometimes Warrior and Hunter), Taunts, Deathrattles (like opponent's Taelan Fordrings used in several classes to protect a win con from Tickatus), and end of turn effects, etc.
Helps against the several classes which run weapons... Hunter, Demon Hunter, Paladin, Rogue, Warrior and Warlock all run them. I have seen Mage and Priest running Sphere of Sapience occasionally, also. Have even had occasion to use this against a Priest who got a copy of my Lord Jaraxxus.
Shadow Hunter Vol'jin is tech similar to the Ironbeak Owl, but with the added twist of being able to bounce your own cards situationally, when your hand is right. Can enable a third Tickatus play via bouncing him, or a second Y'Shaarj, the Defiler. Edge cases, but still valuable.
More commonly, its important use is for its Dirty Rat effect, which can force important cards out of your opponent's hand before they get to play them for their Battlecry. This can be crucial, as their hand is the only place safe from Tickatus, and this list has tons of removal and life gain to let you take it out soon after.
Soul Shear and Drain Soul
This builds run both. Soul Shear can net you one additional life over the course of a game (if you don't burn a Soul Fragment than Drain Soul. The price is that the gain is later, and random; that is actually a good thing if you are at full life when you cast it, as you store the gain for when you aren't (hopefully).
Soul Fragments also dilute your deck against an enemy Tickatus, so you usually want to prioritize playing them in the mirror, especially as they approach the ability to play any card that costs 7+.
Note, in some matchups, and when I have a well curved hand with Spirit Jailer and/or either/both of these two removal cards, I often elect to use The Coin to hero power on turn one. It is important to get to the win cons, and because we do not want Soul Fragments or Lifesteal to be wasted, taking two damage and drawing on turn one can be a good move with this list, as long as you can remove an enemy drop on turn 2 (and, if you do not have to, even better to draw again).
Mulligan Guide (in development)
In general, you really want the affordable stuff first, and, in non-aggro matchups, Tickatus (best if you have some other early plays with it, but a keep against the mirror always, as may be Lord Jaraxxus). Taelon Fordring can be a good keep if you have 2-3 other early plays.
Will try to get some matchup specific stuff in here if stats become available.
Baseline Matchup Stats (from usual Control Warlock shell)
Here is a free external link to the HSReplay matchup percentages for an established list that much of the card shell comes from (a high win rate Standard Control Warlock build).
The link in this spoiler (to the deck the shell comes from) should provide more useful baseline data to analyze likely win rates (approximately) against specific deck archetypes. To get archetype specific matchup %s for Tick Tech will require many more games before we get that variety of info.
Would love to field any questions, hear your suggestions or comments. Until next time, (in a James Earl Jones voiceover) "Aaaah, the PowerOfCheez!"
Appendix Spoilers (Deeper Dive stuff, not needed to play):
How do I approach deck building and guide creation?
I always start a new deck with a question and try to answer it. 1.0/2.0 asked and attempted to answer "How do I build and play to most consistently maximize accelerating a Corrupt Tickatus into play?" While those were failures at being competitive, they taught me which cards were really best to achieve improvement toward that goal, and which were too marginal.
It is not always the success of the deck you build (to start) that is as important as what is learned by how you answer whatever question(s) you ask, and how the process informs your future play and build refinements, to improve both. 1.0/2.0 were great examples of taking what is learned from failure to move toward success.
This process has been evident in writing here. Given several positive comments about the quality of the guide (if not the 1.0 and 2.0 decks, lol), I felt like the early effort was rewarded enough to continue the work. I hope the rewards are enhanced now that I have applied the best of what was learned from 1.0 and 2.0 failures and successes to a refined 3.0 build.
This approach drives my building, play choices, and guide writing, not always what will get me to Legend fastest. Experienced players already know most (and more) of this stuff, but illustrating this creative deck building process may help newer or more casual players with how they think when playing other lists or building their own.
I am experienced (over 10,000 wins on the North American server alone, more on the other two), and the 1.0 and 2.0 decks taught me several things, especially about an odd interaction I describe in the guide (which I still have some questions about). 3.0 attempts to harvest just the essential core parts of ramping Tickatus out and slowing the opponent, while reclaiming much of the sustainment of the more standard Control Warlock build.
This is the evolution of how/why I put effort into a guide for a what started as a 'fun' experimental deck, but continued working with it to see if it can become competitive. I thank you if you do read it (or re-read it with the extensive changes), maybe play with the latest version and comment with this context (and thoughts about the post-nerf meta that may impact a 4.0) in mind.
Until then, if you read the guide, hope to see you in the comments!
List Development History:
After a brief experiment with Southsea Scoundrel, reverting to a teched version of the more established proven list. Tech cards in this build give you some answers against almost every threat. Aggro will still be our worst enemy, but the deck does have removal and life gain enough to bring the odds to a little better than even, something a lot of Ticklock decks can not say.
Adding a recent summary of the stats with (3.0) Claws of Tickatus here now that I am trying out 4.0 to try something new. The stats at 2300 games follow:
In 3.0 (Claws of Tickatus) I targeted a 54% overall win rate. As various meta shifts occurred and people learned the deck, it did rise to a 54.95 win rate (4/19) but fell back to 51.42% on 4/20 and has a lifetime 50.5% win rate at 2300 games. It murdered Priest (83.2%) as Control Warlock tends to. Great against Warrior (68.1%). It did very well in the near mirrors against Warlock (58.9%, or 56.4% vs the most played build) as its tech would be expected to give it an advantage there. It broke even against No Minion Mage (51.6%) though was only 47.8% vs. Mage overall. It was sub-par against Paladin (44%), Rogue (43.3%), Shaman (41.8%) and Demon Hunter (40.4%). Hunter (29.7%, as low as 19% vs. some builds) absolutely destroyed Claws of Tickatus.
The rest of the below was written before Southsea Scoundrel Tickatus (4.0) was posted.
List History: Posted the alpha version of this deck at mid-Gold near the end of a fun run with it from Bronze 10 to Gold 2 over two days. Never dreamed it would make front page at that stage, while the deck was still in its experimental genesis stages (Thank you, mates!). Once it was getting tons of views, added full transparency up front (as stated many times in comments and once near the end of the guide), 1.0/2.0 was NOT a competitive deck in the current meta above Gold. The intent was to continue work to refine it and update this along the way.
I finally saw some stats (renewed my stat tracker), and 1.0 was only about 42% win rate (33 vs. Lunacy mage) in @550 games. Made a few changes, and 2.0 gained a point or two, but still abysmal. So I had posted that, until the nerf, play 2.0 only in Bronze thru mid-Gold, in casual or at rank floors after Gold 5 and that I would re-evaluate after the nerfs and keep refining the deck.
I decided not to waste this space on Hearthpwn for that long and to improve this from 'fun' to competitive before the nerf. I did the stat research and after looking at the data (which I had NOT, initially), made extensive changes for 3.0. This list reverts very closely to the standard Control Warlock shell that features Soulciologist Malicia and her support, with only minimal and targeted changes (four cards required to accelerate playing Corrupt Tickatus and two to slow the opponent).
Gone are the wide range of experimental cards which proved marginal or worse at fulfilling the intent of the experiments (see next spoiler). The greed has been greatly reduced, the goal, focused in on. This deck plays much better.
Most recently, Watch Post Tickatus was renamed Claws of Tickatus, shifting the emphasis to the Claw Machines, and in anticipation that the big nerf of Far Watch Post will cause it to need replaced. Personally, I think a better nerf would have been to have it only increase the cost of spells drawn by 1, instead of all draws by 1, as lowering its health to 3 just completely thwarts any cumulative effect by making it so easy to kill. Restricting it to spells would have weakened it a LOT against most aggro, but left it as a good tech card against spell heavy decks.
Thanks, OldKnox, hope you have some fun with it!
It worked well for me from Bronze to upper Gold ranks, but eventually I did hit a wall there, where I could still get wins, but not streaks. I am playing it now mostly at 5 and 10 steps until the nerfs come out next week. They just announced 6 cards will be nerfed in the home page article today which should level the field to where this deck goes from being fun to competitive at the higher tiers, too.
Look forward to hearing how it works for you, which matchups seemed good (we know which are bad, lol) and if you had any customizations that worked well for you.
Hey POC, thanks for your work! Do you think a similar but with-soulshard-cards-control-Warlock beats this deck?
You're welcome! It is basically a mirror match, with the differences in deck design involving trade-offs. So, whichever player is able to capitalize on the strengths of those tradeoffs first gets the edge.
In this build, you can get Tickatus in play earlier, so, if you manage that, you are favored. In theirs, they have a few more answers for minions and damage in the long game, so, if they avoid deck disruption (either by getting theirs first or by increasing their deck size with Soul Fragments that you hit with Tickatus instead of cards), they are favored,
If they are playing a version without 2 Wandmakers and 2 Venomous Scorpids (often true, to work in the extra Soul Fragment generators, and extra corrupt minions), an edge you have there is access to potentially more Demonic Studies, Felosophy, and Altar of Fire. The first two enhance both the Envoy Rustwix win con and the Tickatus win con and Altar of Fire enhances your Tickatus win con when timed well.
If they are not playing Shadow Hunter Vol'jin, which many of those list types do not, then you also have an edge to limiting their deck disruption win con and enhancing yours.
So I am back currently, won 12 and lost about 15 in higher plat. Mostly got destroyed by Lunacy mages. Went about 60-40 with other warlocks, but that was because I had luck with Tickatus. Libram paladin encounters went surprisingly well tho, won most of them. Man I really love the deck, but I think it is a bit too slow for the current meta. One change I would recommend is Silas instead of Alexstraza. I will play it more these days and come with another feedback, maybe try some other changes aswell. Keep posting decks!
Cool! Thanks for the update! Yeah, I added right at the very top of the deck guide that this is not competitive at higher ranks and too slow until at least post nerf. Also explained the reason why I posted the list and am putting the work into it, which is not at all any misconception that the deck is competitive right now. Take a look at that and let me know what you think. Trying to make it obvious that there is no value added by saying its not competitive, lol, and it bothered me that people might waste dust crafting stuff thinking that is why its here.
I have thought about Silas... if you try him, let me know some war stories about how well he works!
Wow Dude, just WOW!
This is the best guide about a Hearthstone-Deck i've ever seen. To be honest, i dont really like this deck but that's my problem. You got definitly a Thumb Up because of the GREAT work Man. Cheers!
Thank you, so much, DT! I try to frequently refine the guide, so it means a lot to hear the work is appreciated.
If I get to the front page and any of the streamers make a video, I will likely add it, as that is one way I could improve it. Don't have a clue how to screencast or I would make one myself.
Once they finally nerf Deck of Lunacy, I will work on adding some matchup spoilers, which would improve it, too. If they ever get around to that (they sure are dragging their feet, eh?), I may renew my deck tracking sub and spend some time getting stats.
Of course, if they nerf Far Watch Post too hard, it may be the end of the Watch Post part of the list, lol.
Man, fantastic guide!
Thank you, I really appreciate that!
If you (or others reading this) hit the Lunacy Mage wall and get tired of the challenge of winning with this against it (I enjoy that challenge, like a good puzzle), there are easier, more efficient decks against it (at least until it is nerfed and the meta expands again).
I would recommend Narrows "83% Deathrattle DH". Even with the latest improvements, Watch Post Tickatus has a rough go to beat Lunacy Mage; it basically depends on Deck of Lunacy being near the bottom of their deck, or them not getting most of the many crazy cards they usually get.
I say this because, once Deck of Lunacy is nerfed, if you have switched away from this to something more effective, please come back and give this a try again. In a broader meta, I have faith that the Watch Post Tickatus list can be a climber.
I like play this deck on gold work. I think i have 55-60% wr. But i made change
-1 Wandmaker +1 Crossroads Watch Post
-1 Circus Medic +1 Crossroads Watch Post
work against spell deck's and have good synergy with Kargal Battlescar
Try this version)
and i thk need 1 copy of Twisting Nether but don't know how :) I think this card have good wincondition..
Hey, Romulas, thank you! I did not even see this card, Crossroads Watch Post! Turns out, I did not get any in the set, and must have missed it in the card lists and in crafting. DOH! OK, yeah, actually I will be trying this out tonight, slotting it in completely for Mor'shan Watch Post while I try it out. I like the Wandmaker and Circus Medics a little too much for the moment.
I edited your tip (and how I am trying them) into the spoiler on Watch Posts!
I played for several hours with the Crossroads Watch Posts and did not really have enough luck with them, so, re-revised the article to remove the suggestion (though of course it is still here in the comments for those that want to experiment with them), and tried another direction. Your mileage may vary.
yes. I think it's just additional 6 healsh becouse opponent need to kill it and he use resources, it give us time went later game. In my games this tower more useful than the others.. good luck! :)
Mulligan Guide added at the end of the article.
Ok so like a priest with deathrattles summon 2 etc? That makes sense. I could see it being good for getting a second Y'saarj as well if you can pull it off.. I don't currently have Kargal, do you think its worth running the deck without him? Currently have another Cascading disaster but Im feeling like taking out the watchposts might be better. Just not sure for what.
If you don't have Kargal, and don't like the Watch Posts, you can add in more cards that create Soul Fragments for the posts and put Soulciologist Malicia in for Kargal, which is a package switch back toward what most Tickatus decks run.
You can add in the second Cascading Disaster, too, for one of the Watch Posts if you like, The deck does need a minion like Kargal or Soulciologist, in my opinion. If you do not have one of those, then maybe Twisting Nether, as superdonk suggested. Again, a shift back toward the more standard build. Nothing wrong with that, I was just trying to put my own twist on the deck when I moved away from those cards.
Ah ok, thanks for the reply. It may just be better to play my new wild deck honestly!
Hey, someone just let me know about the card Crossroads Watch Post, which I did not have and somehow missed when looking through my empty slots to craft. It may be worth a try, too, although I am just now giving it a shot and cant say yet for sure.
I take it Voljin is for the enemy minions?
Shadow Hunter Vol'jin is mainly used like a Sap. It is basically Standard's current Dirty Rat. Good if you are up against someone likely to have a Battlecry effect you prefer to nullify, like Warlock with Tickatus or any corrupt deck with Y'Shaarj, the Defiler or that nutty clown card.
I find myself mostly using it like a one-turn Silence, to get a Taunt or a big creature I can not otherwise deal with out of the way. It really is like Silence if timed right against Paladin or Priest, as they wont get their enchantments back. One of the few cards you can sort of Silence with for Warlock, except of course Ironbeak Owl and maybe Tinkmaster Overspark, which is an old favorite of mine, but with its own risks.
Of course, depending on what is in your hand, unlike Dirty Rat, it can be used on your own stuff situationally, especially on Y'Shaarj, the Defiler. to either get him back in hand or, if your hand is right, to cheat him out early. Likewise he can cheat a Claw Machine out in a pinch, though I would say it is a fringe use with your own stuff, for sure.
I added the above to the card choice list and listed the win cons earlier in the guide, also.