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Legend Proof:

Winrate proof:

Opponent Class Distribution:

How to Play / Mulligan Guide

This C'thun archetype focuses mainly on early-game stabilization against aggro but is capable of outlasting slower decks, too.  I will say, it's not the easiest deck to pilot and is very reliant on knowing your matchups and correctly anticipating what your opponent is playing. It struggles against "Big" archetypes 

I decided to pilot this deck from Diamond 5 to Legend due to its favourable matchup against Secret Mage and Pirate Rogue. I'll start by explaining each of these matchups in detail. Let me know if you'd like to see the other common matchups explained, such as Questline Druid and Even Shaman. 

Pirate Rogue

Mulligans: Rake, Biology Project, Oaken Summons and good ol' Swipe, Kobold Stickyfinger

The Pirate Rogue matchup is all about outlasting them. The deck is capable of gaining a LOT of armour, so countering early pirate threats with Rake. Then,  Oaken Summons  as soon as possible, hitting either Injured Marauder or  Archmage Vargoth. Hitting Vargoth gives you 12 armour and a 5/10 taunt as early as turn 2 with the help of  Biology Project. This tends to slow down most aggro decks a lot! 

Then, it's just a matter of balancing board clear and armour gain. Knowing which spell to use a  Solar Eclipse on is very important, and is largely learned through playing the deck. If you're getting low on health, use Solar with  Branching Paths for 24 armour. If the board is getting big and they have a lot of those 2/5 pirates (Cutlass Courier), use Solar with  Heart of C'Thun. Learning to use your C'Thun card effectively is a big part of piloting this deck.

HSReplay link to Pirate Rogue Matchup: 

(note, this one is a bit shorter than most. many rogues will go to fatigue, especially bots)

Secret Mage

Mulligans: Rake, Biology Project, Oaken Summons, Lunar Eclipse and Aquatic Form.

Secret Mage is heavily reliant on their secrets to gain tempo. The mulligans are roughly the same for this matchup as the Pirate one, except that you may want to keep Aquatic Form  to bait out an early-game counterspell. 

What's critical about this matchup is that we should realistically be casting one creature in a given match, and this creature is  C'Thun, the Shattered . This means that the Secret Mage - who will almost always run two copies of Objection! and  Explosive Runes - effectively has 4 dead cards in their deck. Keep very careful track of the Mage's reach potential (the  Medivh's Valet and the 6-damage 4/4) as well as their remaining "free creature" supply ( Kabal Crystal Runner  and Contract Conjurer) - which can be handled with a combination of Lunars, Swipes, Rakes and C'Thun cards. 

To close out the game, it is a good idea to actually hold on to your Kobold Stickyfingers so that with 15+ mana (thanks Guff!) you can bait out the Objection! and cast C'Thun in the same turn.

HSReplay Link to a Secret Mage matchup

 

Kingsbane Rogue (bonus)

As an aside, the Kingsbane Rogue matchup is almost trivial, since this deck has a LOT of draw power so you almost always get Kobold Stickyfinger. The one piece of advice I will give is:  do not cast Fungal Fortunes until you've drawn Stickyfinger.

Bad Matchups EDIT: 14/07/2023

While I think this deck is very effective for laddering - especially in high diamond where there are many aggro decks with people wanting to make the Legend push - it has a few bad matchups, too. I'm still 56-23 with this deck at the time of writing; however, if you are encountering some of the following archetypes it might be a good idea to switch to a different deck as some are nearly "auto losses."

Big Priest: why do people still play this deck? beats me. you're gonna have a tough time beating them for sure. try to run Poison Seeds to mess with their resurrection pool, but it is tough.

Questline Demon Hunter / Tony Demon Hunter: as someone who has just returned to Hearthstone recently, I can definitely say that I hate Tony. Since we're playing a slower archetype that likes to get towards the fatigue range, Tony archetypes tend to screw you over badly. Try maybe a 1x Mutanus, the Devourer to gobble up Tony, but it's not easy. I have won very few of these.

Curselock / Agony Tony Lock: The equally annoying Agony warlock variants are a bad matchup in this version of the list. Swap Kobold Stickyfingers for Skulking Geist 

Reno Variants (specifically, Steamcleaner and Theotar, the Mad Duke. While playing in Legend, I have found quite a few Highlander variants running one or either of these. If you notice your opponent is playing with Renathal and is Priest/Warlock/Mage, just assume they have a Steamcleaner or a Theotar somewhere. Try to draw as many cards as possible! If you out-pace them you can be fine, just play your C'Thun cards as soon as you draw them.

Good/Great Matchups

As I mentioned earlier, this deck absolutely wrecks the majority of Aggro variants (rogue, priest, dk, etc.) and Secret Mages. It is an excellent tech if you find the meta is dense with these archetypes (which I noticed around D5 and is why I switched to this deck).

For context, while the deck is 6-8 against Priest (due to the bad Big Priest matchup) and 4-5 against Warlock (due to a generally bad matchup), it is 17-3 against Mage and 18-4 against rogue, as well as 9-1 against Druid.