Hearthpwn

Dreadsteed

 

Ah, Dreadsteed. The core and heart of the deck. From the moment this card drops on the field, the entire match changes. You declared, that sooner or later, boardcontrol woll be yours, so your opponent, regardless of decktype will take a highly agressive stance.

 

Abilitys:

 

1.Infinite ping

 

Self-explanatory

 

2.A foot in the door

 

The permanent body makes sure that you’ll have a target for buffs and still boardpresence after a wipe. Dreadsteed, as a minion, can also trigger some secret for ,,free‘‘

 

3.Combopiece

 

In some matchups, you are reliant on multiple steeds to succeed. More in the ..Baron Rivendare‘‘ section below

 

4.Scapegoat

 

This is often overlooked: Having dreadsteeds on the board protects the player from various common rng effects like juggles, missiles, flamewaker and boombots. Nice to have in those special situations.

 

Baron Rivendare

 

A 4 mana 1/7 is really bad. Play Rivendare only as a combopiece to activate eggs, dreadsteeds, another taunt from belcher or if you are in a desparate position facing a bunch of 1 health minions.

 

Together with dreadsteed he offers a solid wincondition. The more dreadsteeds you create, the more powerfull each of them becomes. Your opponent can only play so much stats per turn, and with enough steeds, you can completely shut down any of your enemys attempts to regain boardcontrol.

 

Try to get around 3-5 dreadsteeds on the board. If you summon more, you wont be able to empty your hand and get value from your heropower. In the worst case, you’ll not be able to defend yourself with taunt/heal. Actively kill Rivendare when you think his time has come.

 

Mal’Ganis

 

Amazing synergy with dreadsteed. Fantastic finisher that catches people of guard sometimes if you were able to prduce a large board. In faster matchups he can save you through voidcallers. A large amount of matches will be decided by drawing and playing this guy and making good use of him. The card mustnt be replaced.

 

Dr. Boom

 

Offers a BGH-target for mal’ganis, synergy with Rivendare and antisynergy if you have a full board, but to be honest: He’s just too powerfull to pass. This card has been discussed enough already so i’ll leave it like that.

 

Sylvanas

The deck is very tempofocussed, so a 6 manadrop without immediate impact is something to think about twice before adding it.

But it does something this deck needs and simultaneously something i already want the deck to do: Create value and drain tempo. Fills the void in the 6th slot and gives you the opportunity to curve out. As a small plus, it's alongside the owl a possibility to deal with enemy sylvanas.

 

Voidcaller

Manamanipulation is a strong skill in this game and solves the tempoproblem playing a 1/1 for 4 mana. Immune to demonwrath and baits silences. No downside here.

 

Abusive Sergeant

 

The swiss armyknife of the deck. 2 damage, 2/1 body, activates nerubian eggs and mirror entity, 1-drop, increases range of BGH. Versatility at its finest.

 

Impgangboss

 

Very strong in this meta, Creates more often than not 2+ imps. Additionally, 2 attack is a strong att.value with patron dead and so many tokens around. Synergy with demonwrath and Voidcaller.

 

Nerubian Egg

 

Warlock doesnt have good earlygameminions, so take this to win the earlygame. Turn 2 egg + turn 3 demonwrath /sergeant/PO+ tap ensures boardpresence immediatly. Scales to mid/lategame as aoeprotection and strong synergy with rivendare.

 

Mistress of Pain (Cutted)

 

Techcard and no staple. With so many hunters on vendetta against the riddledins, the amount of healing when comboed with a buffcard is highly appreciated. Also a demon.

 

Sludge Belcher + Healbot

 

Mandatory defense. Belcher because he also helps you maintain boardcontrol. The Healbot is important overall, especially against hunter and mages, but doesnt have that much of an impact on the board. If you arent in control yet, those 8 health will disappear in no time, so i went with 2 Belchers.

 

Owl

 

I wish i’d find a way to run 2. Good at silencing shredders and especially tirion and sylvanas.

 

Knifejuggler (Cutted)

 

Strong boardpresence, but since i cut implosions not as strong as he could be. However, a 3/2 pseudotaunt for 2 mana with upside is quite alright imo.

 

Haunted Creeper (Cutted)

 

In the deck for curvepurposes because one can not afford to pass the first 2 turns. High antisynergy with demonwrath. If the meta slows down, i’d replace it with sylvanas.

 

Big Game Hunter

 

Games will take long to come to an end and the enemy WILL draw into their lategamethreats. With Fell Reaver, Avenged Challenger, Controlwarrior and everyones favourite doctor ain the meta, you should play one.

 

Zombiechow

 

An warlock-earlygameminion that trades well. Fights minibot, sorcerers apprentice and co. I would run two, but i draw so many cards each match that the probability of drawing both is superhigh. One could argue about cutting the mistress for a 2nd one. Not sure if i’ll ultimately do it.

 Demonwrath

 

The MVP of the deck. It would be impossible to do without it. Very manaefficient and avaiable at turn 3 already. Boardwipe at this point of the game is insane, especially against paladin. Noone plays around it yet, much better than hellfire, because it doesnt hit most of your minions and doesnt damage you as well. Also a solution for warlock’s 3 drop problem.

 

Power Overwhelming

 

2nd most important card. In a deck like this, one can consider this as a soulfire with a smaller downside. This is the way you deal with taunts and large threats. Through the nature of the deck it’s usually used for trading, but it provides some reach if needed.

 

Sacrificial Pact

 

Abilities:

 

1.Combopiece

 

With a dreadsteed on the board and a rivendare in hand, you’ll be able to only summon 1 dreadsteed before your opponent can react. Having 3-5 of them is crucial in some matchups, so sacrificial pact becomes a 0 mana: heal 5, summon a dreadsteed in this special situation.

 

2.Emergencyheal

 

Very poor choice of healing and should only be done if you’re afraid of lethal. 

 

3.Demonkiller

 

Improves the matchup agianst warlock (which balances the weakness of demonwrath) and mage. If you have a demon you can kill the summon and sustain 5 health at the same time.

 

Mortal Coil

 

With so many low att.minions on the board, extending their reach by 1 is quite nice and lets you maintain a respectable hand which you need to succeed. Combopiece for another dreadsteed if needed, or simply a 1 mana cylce if a horse is already in place.

Mulligans (priorityorder):

 

Always keep nerubian egg if you have one of the 2 activators for it.

 

Paladin and Druid:

Zombichow, Darkbomb (for juggler and shredder), Demonwrath, Abusive seargant, haunted creeper, Knife juggler, mortal coil, Impgangboss (higher or lower, depends on your lower drops in your hand)

 

Controlwarrior:

 

Dreadsteed, Baron Rivendare, Nerubian egg, Impgangboss, Abusive Sergeant, Haunted creeper, Darkbomb

 

Hunter:

 

Zombiechow, Abusive sergeant, Mistress of pain, Darkbomb, Mortal Coil, Haunted creeper, Owl, Impgangboss, Demonwrath, Antique Healbot.

 

Priest

 

Abusive Sergeant, Darkbomb, Zombiechow, Power Overwhelming, Nerubian egg

 

Warlock

 

Sacrificial pact, Zombiechow, Impgangboss, Abusive Sergeant, Darkbomb, Haunted Creeper, Owl.

I tried Kel'Thuzad but not for long. He's so superslow. By playing this dreadsteeddeck, you try to have the board under your control by turn 8. Ofc you wont succeed every time, but relying on Kel'Thuzad seems so greedy. I am sure you can get crazy value out of him, but you already have a working valuemashine with dreadsteed and heropower. KT seems to be a bit of an overkill.

 

Additionally, the meta is just so unforgiving these days. Maybe i'll run a version with sylvanas and Kel in another meta, but that day isnt in sight yet.

 I didnt playtest twisting nether after it was a dead card in my hand for the third time. I think it wont help me enough to justify that manacost.

 

But lets take a look at it:

 

Against secretpaladin, it wont save me against a challenger on curve and if i can defend that, i'll usually win if he doesnt draw burn in form of truesilver, Nether wouldnt do much in this secenario.

 

Against midrangepaladin it would have some uses. It could stop a big quartermasterpandemonium or a murlocknight. However, a hellfire would come earlier and stop him snowballing in the first place.

 

Against druid, it would be semiviable because you are forced to eliminate every single minion he plays after a certain time, but if he already did enough damage, the nether wont safe your lifepoints.

 

Hunter...

 

The matchups it would improve are warrior and priest:

 

Warrior usually doesnt play with more than 1 or 2 minions at once, so a siphon soul is often just as effective and doesnt damage your own board.

 

Against priest, it would have a great effect, especially against the dragondeck. However, i think including Jaraxxus is the better techchoice here.

 

Against rogue it would be weak and actually quite powerful vs shaman.

 

The card has the best animation in the game but it is overcosted. Sure, if the meta would slow down and controldecks would dominate once again, one should look for additional premiumremoval.

 

But even then i personally think that Siphon soul and especially Jaraxxus would be better choices vs control because he still does something against a bit faster matchups (the heal and weapondamage+ voidcallersummon).

 

I like the card, but i dont recommend using it.

There is a rule of thumb in constructed: Never run subpar cards if you dont have to. I admit, the synergy is there. But dont you think a seagiant would be a much smoother solution? Anyway, i'd rather run a sylvanas (synergy with rivendare, power owerwhelming, fits into the gameplan) because i couldnt use those 9 att. to hit face most of the time anyway.

Demonheart... I have to admit that i've never used it in a dreadsteeddeck before. I regard it as an only mediocre card and in a world in which people throw scientists and musters at each other, mediocre is one thing above all else: Not good enough.

 

I took the time to imagine how demonheart would work out in the current list (if mistress was added for creeper). I'd like to analyze the effects one after another and look at their combined strength at the end:

 

5 damage to a minion

 

Fireball does 6 for 1 mana less. But we do have warlockheropower so its only fair that one has to deal with worse versions of other classcards. At this point i'd like to inform you, that tempostorm cut the truesilver champions from their midrange secretpaladinlist last week. There is an article about this deck on the frontpage of this subreddit right now, which states that the 4 damage from truesilver are more often than not wasted in this meta, even with 2 charges.

 

5 damage doesnt do much atm, it doesnt kill a druid of the claw or sludge belcher, doesnt trade well vs azure drake, worthless vs shredder, cant kill the best target, loatheb in the turn it is summoned. However you look at it, 5 damage for 5 mana is not impressive.

 

+5/+5 for a demon

 

Now, thats more interesting. Through dreadsteedusage, this circumvents the ,, only damages minions'' rule and can be used to apply pressure or reach. If you target an impgangboss, the value will be insane. Mistress of pain synergy is real and would close out the game if you established boardcontrol vs hunter- but not guaranteed because the mistress is, like an armorsmith a high prioritytarget and not likely to see the next turn when she drops on turn 4+.

 

One could also create an awkward situation by throwing this on dreadsteed and hopefully forcing the enemy to waste an action and a card to clear it, creating a 2 for 1 because of the special body.

 

Downsides:

 

1.BGH

 

Blessing of Kings has an advantage i envy quite much: it doesnt put most of paladins minions in BGH range. Regarding the steeddeck, impgangboss and voidcaller shouldnt be targeted, or else the opponent gets the opportunity to gain cardadvantage and more importantly, tempo. So we are stuck with mistress, dreadsteed, and imps created from impgangboss. If the list would run implosions, we' d have to discuss this topic again.

 

2.5 mana card

 

I dont run the 2nd healbot because i dont want my hand to have a high curve. I combat aggro with my own army, not like, say, a controlwarrior who rather builds a wall to fend off the enemys. The later a buffcard comes on curve, the more likely it is that i've already lost boardcontrol because my opponent played a card that came earlier than mine. In case that there is no target, demonheart still offers me 5 damage, but i already mentioned why this isnt acceptable.

 

A less situational card that does a similar job is implosion. If i really searched for another 5 mana spell, it would be bane of doom.

 

3.Reliance on a single body

 

I guess you'll be forced to trade with the buffed minion. With such a high att.value, sometimes that minion will be like the infamous elephant in the glass shop (is it called like that in english? :D), overkilling low health minions left and right. But maybe i am too pessimistic and it actually helps you push for face?

 

Again, i never tested demonheart. Those scenarios are just what i think would happen if i'd run a copy or 2. Maybe i am wrong. Maybe demonheart works incredibly well in another list. But thats my answer.

Voidterror creates a huge threat in the early to midgame that often has to be dealt with. It consumes a minion, a power overwhelmed one in the best case, to increase its strength.

 

Synergies:

 

1.Dreadsteed.

 

With dreadsteed on the board, the voidterror is 4/4 AT WORST. pretty solid for 3 mana.

 

2.Knifejuggler

 

Killing dreadsteeds resummons them, causing the juggler to throw additional knifes. Killing 2 with voidterror is a nice bonus.

 

3.Nerubian egg:

 

Activation+ 2 midgamecreatures on turn 3.

 

4.PO and sergeant:

 

Creating a huge threat that draws removal and exhausts your opponent's hand.

Looks nice. And the time will come when i will run at least 1 again. But lets look at the downsides:

 

1.Comboreliant

 

Voidterror is reliant on devouring a minion, because shadowfiend showed us how trashy a blank 3/3 for 3 can be. Therefore you need something on the board. So it's a bit risky to run them. With Sacrificial pact, Dreadsteed, Rivendare and Mal ganis already in the deck i dont know if this would hurt consistency too much.

 

2.Devouring a non-egg creature

 

You will be forced to kill a creature. While the outcome is usually justified, it takes away 1 action from your turn, 1 minion that, regardless of how small it seems, can kill a leper gnome or remove a divine shield.

 

3.Deckstructure

 

The deck in its current form cant rush down its opponent. Its slower than zoo. So a big body wont save you sometimes when your opponent can bypass it. The list doesnt play a defender of argus, so this could be a problem.

 

4.Silence

 

That's not such a huge problem i think. The whole deck is a silencetarget and the voidterror isnt the best target imo. However, that depends on how much you sacrificed to summon it.

 

Pros and cons are quite even in my eyes. But it's true that void terror is stronger in controlmatchups. And those arent very frequent. That's why i cut them for the time being.

You can add Jaraxxus if you want. Improves the priestmatchups tremendously. I just dont think that jaraxxus is a good card in the meta with all those earlyassassinations and burstcombos around.

Solid choice, i used this too. Ofc there were reasons why i cut them:

2/3

Well, if there was a 3/3 minion for 4 mana with battlecry: deal 3 damage, everyone would play it. The value AND temposwing is insane. But in 1/3 outcomes, you'll get completely boned. Now, you could say, doesnt the implosion for 4 compensate for the implosion for 2?

And the answer is: no

Implosion is often aimed to deal 3 damage and overkills so many minions. Also, an implosion for 3 already provokes an aoe, the difference between 4 and 3 is just smaller than 2 and 3.

As another point: When you board is already filled with minions, implosion loses quite much of its value.

Anyway, Implosion is a fantastic card and if you dont run voidcallers, their place in the deck is justified (additional removal in this deck? i'll take 2!). But keep in mind that in a meta with hounds AND light's justice from muster for battle floating around, implosion is weaker than ever before.

That's a highly situational card. I hope i could explain why i run 1, but 2 would be a real gamble. They are usually only usable when you already have a dreadsteed on the board or if you HAVE to summon mal ganis through a voidcaller. Consistency issues aside, i dont think that the card is that amazing without Baron Rivendare. Sure, it heals for 5 if you can cast it on a steed - but you'll often have to draw a card after playing sac pact, because it didnt affect the board. So it often just heals for 3 and that's too bad considering the times when it's just dead weight.