Hearthpwn

THIS TEXT BELOW IS A BIT DISORGANIZED, SKIP THE FIRST PART FOR THE "GUIDE" I went back and did some editing but this whole body of text needs tweeking. I would not mind doing it at all, but I don't want to just do it for myself, if you know what I mean. This is pretty much stream of consciousness, but I tried to adress some things.

So this is my demonlock. I know this deck probably looks reminiscent of a deck you have seen before, but I tried to use all the experience that I have with warlock and all it's decks (I play only lock on ladder for the most part, though I have experience with the other classes too) and am close to gold warlock. I mixed what I thought would work from handlock and zoo together with demons to make a sort of inbetween that I have tried make work reliably for a long time. I think I pretty much hit the sweetspot but perhaps just a little off. Everyone was skeptical of wrathguard but it really works here. I often get it by turn 2 and it often gets a 2 for one minion deal. It ties well in with many combos as i mentioned before in the late game, and is just a good body if mal ganis is out. it fuels a cheap molten. This card is very valuable in my deck because it is my only 2 drop minion. Since it holds such a positon, it needs to be potent enough. if you really think about it, wrathguard is like a weapon without the immediate attack. it also combos well. it beats letting the opponent hit your face, and gets more value than all other 2 drops available to lock. I was trying something with knife jugglers, creepers, and imp-losion before semi similar to this deck, and it is strong. I still have it, but it is less reliable I feel. These silly combos have no place in a more control/tempo oriented deck. Also, this deck does much better against patron due to fewer tokens. That one matchup alone invalidated my old deck, but with wrathguard and some tweeks my tempo and consistency have much improved so I feel confident laddering at all stages with this deck, even over zoo, which is what i usually use for a quick rank up. If i hit trouble sometimes I switch to handlock or demon handlock.
This deck seems to have a better winrate though (more consistent) as well as winning more strongly against a wider array of decks.
I'm quite proud of this deck. It's my first original creation to do so well on ladder. I know going from 20-6 is nbd, but If I tried harder and gave more time I know I could do better. I could just lie and say whatever I want as far as rank, etc, but im not that kind of person, and  I am very confident in this build. Anyway, this deck got me down to rank 6 easily (though the difficulty has upped now obvi) and I am very confident that it can go further with time and effort that I haven't put in yet. The one problem are those damned hunters... I do well enough against them but they are the bane of the warlock class.

Mulligans are fairly simple. Generally, if it costs more than 3, dump it (unless it's a voidcaller perhaps.... especially if you already have a good demon to call out)

Demonheart on gangbosses and voidwalkers is the bee's knees, and malganis can make a voidwalker into Taz dingo, which is also cool. also, gotta love the power overwhelming+wrathguard+shadowflame/void terror combo.

It is also fun to put power overwhelming on sylvanas and eat her with void terror. Especially when the opponent has one really good minion out.

At any rate, I was hesitant to post this list because the deck is doing nicely and I wanted to keep the meta on lock (this seems to work nicely within it) but the urge to share could no longer wait. I appreciate any feedback, and I may post a more detailed guide if this actually gets enough attention to merit it. Cheers.

Fun fact: this started as a brawl deck (for the 1,3,,7 mana one) and it worked so well that I adapted it to ladder. it used to have siphon in it, but that was losing me games against aggro(though it was nice for tirion) so I subbed in belcher and havent looked back. i have enough burn to not have to worry about siphon soul.

The single molten is kind of like a healbot sub, but not quite, obviously. The idea is to taunt it up (or jar jar or something, though i usually like saving jar) and have it save you a lot of health. obviously this wont help if someone can reach past your taunt, but 2 healbots is just 2 much healing for this deck when it does fine as is, and the molten is always unexpected by the opponent, also giving some much needed heft to the top end of the deck for a small price, I say. When they have exhausted themselves and think the have you on the ropes (they know you're not a handlock so they prob wont stress molten) you can just plop that thing out even without a taunt and win the game. (if the opponent cant finish you off)


This deck has it's bad matchups. Hunter and mechmage (easily doable with the right card, and doable without the right cards, though) are probably the worst, with rogue coming at a close third, but that is true of any warlock deck. If you know warlock, you know that these 3 classes are it's weaknesses. HOWEVER, this deck seems to do much better in even these matchups than zoo or handlock for me. I do well enough against hunters (at least 50/50 depending on the draw) and even better against mages (I have lost to about 1 or 2 of the 8-10 mages I faced, beating 3 in a row, including everything from mech to tempo to frost, but no grinder or echo mage), but have had little rogue experience. This deck faced 1 face rogue and won handily, and beat an oil rogue or 2, but not enough to really judge. Druids can also be a pain, what with the savage roar + force of nature combo, but some well-placed taunts and well-paced board control can take the game easily enough. I say this because there is always the chance of losing, but I usually draw a decent enough hand to keep things going my way, or at least swing things in that direction at the right moment. The matchup is in your favor, at least.

Some of my losses were due to mistakes that I didn realize until too late. Losing is learning.

This deck does decently against aggro decks. Both fortunately and unfortunately the meta has slowed down enough that I don't have too much data on this subject, but face hunters seem to be the worst as usual. They are the bane of warlocks everywhere, but this deck has a chance. Not as good as the hunter, but a chance. The problem is that they have so much early game burst and reach that they can sometimes kill you by the time you can fully deal with them. If the cards come out well enough though, it's entirely winnable. More so than with many other warlock decks, except maybe zoo just because it can be as fast as the face hunter, but it is very close. This deck is more consistent and has better matchups as well as the surprise factor.
Other aggro decks, you have a chance of beating most of the time, as well as midrange hunter, but the matches you lose are the ones where you get rushed down too quickly or somehow manage to lose control in the late game. Neither happen much but it is more likely to be rushed down than to lose any other way it seems, though this deck has plenty of tools for that. Things can happen though; you don't always get what you need. That's just the bad rng factor, though, This deck has been quite consistent otherwise. Summation: you should do fine in the matchup barring some amazing start from the opponent combined with a horrible one for you.

This deck eats priests (dragon or other), secret paladins (other variants are a bit tougher, but doable,)
tempo mages, zoolocks, Warriors of all sorts, alive. I am going to edit, add to, and organize this list, but these are some prominent decks in the meta that I thought I would mention. From early to late game, it is easy to outclass and out value the opponent.

I felt uncomfortable with 2 wrathguards and 1 healbot in the deck at first but this deck can maintain tempo well enough with the valuable minions and many taunts so that you don't need that extra comeback mechanic and can replace it with more important ones. I have to say that the wrathguards are great for the early game tempo and molten fuel, and rarely come back to haunt me. I thought at first that with all the dmg from the opponent as well as self inflicted dmg that I would need more healing, but as it turns out this deck can just maintain itself through value and tempo alone for the most part, not to mention mal ganis and Jar Jar. It's not like handlock where you are so slow that by the time you can react you already need to heal. You can put up a better fight in the early game and therefore need less heal.

Also, there are many ways to make taunt minions that are hard to get through, and the late game with this deck is just great.