Hearthpwn

This deck is solid and pretty simple to play on ladder. I am a busy college student and I have reached rank 313 legend in November 2015, beating Neobility (a top Chinese player who has reached #1 legend multiple times) and Fibonacci (nicknamed the Warrior god, also has reached #1 legend multiple times) along the way. There are multiple tech choices in this deck that vary from deck to deck. Many replacements are viable, but I have learned this specific list and will be presenting the guide for my specific list. Let me explain my inclusions and exclusions:

Voidwalker 2x, Flame Imp 2x, Power Overwhelming 2x, Abusive Sergeant 2x, Haunted Creeper 2x, Knife Juggler 2x, Nerubian Egg 2x, Imp Gang Boss 2x, Imp-plosion 2x, Defender of Argus 2x, Voidcaller 2x, Doomguard 2x

These cards are all basically mainstays of any midrange demon zoo deck (that are rare or common). There is not much of an explanation needed for the inclusion of these cards, because they are all so important to the idea of the deck. I have heard of cutting one Power Overwhelming or a Flame Imp but overall you do not want to change these cards much.

Included:

Dark Peddler 1x: I have included this into my deck after League of Explorers was released and loved it, the only reason I don’t have two in the deck is because I don’t know what I would cut for it. Playing it on turn two and either getting an activator for your egg, a mortal coil to finish off a minion, or a cheap minion to play with knife juggler on turn 3 is so strong. Getting a soulfire late game for damage is also a nice bonus.

Ironbeak Owl 1x: At least one of these are necessary but I have seen a lot of lists with two but I noticed that I rarely desired a second silence effect, that problem is usually solved by clever trading. Use this sparingly, the only time you really want to use it early is against another nerubian egg, a mad scientist, a priest buff, or a twilight drake.

Loatheb: I have seen a lot of lists with this removed but I have found that Loatheb is such a sticky minion, also it will get value from literally every match up. Use it wisely as it can lock up a game for you, or keep your minions from getting wiped by AoE.

Dr. Boom: Arguably the best legendary in the game. Honestly is a mainstay in this deck, it’s just so strong, it’s seriously overpowered. Even if it gets BGH’d, you know your sea giant or Mal’Ganis will stick because of it.

Mal’Ganis: This legendary minion is also very important to the deck. It buffs your other minions and keeps your hero immune. Often this is one of the only ways you can beat a face hunter besides Defender of Argus. It also is a great comeback mechanism as a last hope, if your opponent has no answer for it, you win.

Sea Giant: This is perhaps the most controversial card to add in the deck, but I included it during the November season and it was brilliant for me. It often isn’t dead in my hand, and it isn’t hard to reduce the cost to make it playable between turns 5 and 7 for pretty cheap. Also it is such a great counter to Secret Paladins, also helps if you can get it off cheap against hunter, it will win you the game in 2 or 3 turns.

Notable Exclusions:

Zombie Chow: Is definitely a playable card in this deck, at one point I used it instead of flame imp because of all the agro I faced. I still like flame imp a tad better overall.

Dire Wolf Alpha: Is another solid card for this deck. I favored a few more heavy minions instead of this card, so I just have a different playstyle than this card pushes. If you choose to put one in your deck be sure to position your minions effectively so that they get buffed properly by the card.

Void Terror: I used this card before I got Sea Giant, I had one copy but I have seen decklists with two. I often found this card was dead in my hand, and too slow to activate an egg with. Can be buffed to Sea Giant level with a combo of Power Overwhelming but once again that is very situational and very weak to silence.

Kel’Thuzad: I’ve never really used it in this deck but I think it would be too situational and slow, I personally rather minions that have an effect when you play them. Could still possibly fit in the deck.

Bane of Doom: I’ve never used this card honestly because I have never crafted it, but it seems also too situational and expensive for its use. Yes five mana kill a minion and summon Mal’Ganis is great, but how often does that actually happen? I’d rather use four mana and use imp-plosion over this card honestly.

Big Game Hunter: I played for a while with this card in my deck, and it almost always gets used. The problem is that too many times I would have this in my opening hand and I can’t use it until turn 7 or so. Every other card except Dr. Boom can be used before this gets value, and often Power Overwhelming allows you to kill a target of BGH anyway.

Hellfire/Shadowflame: AoE is an interesting idea in this deck, I played with hellfire for a while. But overall these are not necessary as I found that the games I needed hellfire in I already lost because I was behind on board control. Imp-plosion was a better comeback mechanism than hellfire was for me.

Argent Squire, Dark Iron Dwarf, Harvest Golem, Lance Carrier, Shattered Sun Cleric: All of these cards are good budget cards for zoo, but not for the high tier deck that demon zoo is. Use these until you get the other cards necessary for the deck.

Card Uses: This section will discuss what the uses of the mainstays of the deck are.

Voidwalker: This card seems weak but honestly it helps so much against agro. Against face hunter and agro druid this card can prevent damage for a couple of turns. Since it is a turn one play, getting buffed by abusive sergeant to trade up happens a lot.

Flame Imp: This card is similar to zombie chow, but on the more aggressive side of the spectrum. Which also means that it dies to every basic one drop in the game. That being said, playing it on turn one allows you to trade with the troublesome zombie chow, not to mention almost every single two drop in the game. Is important as well to remove the one drops with three health (e.g northshire cleric and mana wyrm).

Power Overwhelming: Is such a useful card in this deck, it has many different uses. It serves as a great egg activator, it helps your small minions trade into big minions which is amazing value, and it provides burst damage that your opponent will not see coming. Having one or two of these in hand with a doomguard provides either 9 or 14 damage which is a great way to finish the game. Also if you play with a void terror this card is great to buff its stats since the void terror eats a minion that will die anyway.

Abusive Sergeant: Is another very useful card, early and late game. It also is a great tempo egg activator and allows your early cheap minions to trade into more powerful minions to control the board. It is sometimes correct to play it on turn one if it is your only one drop in hand and the opponent doesn’t have a hero power that can deal with it. If you wait and they coin out a knife juggler you are in trouble for the rest of the game. Also can provide some late game burst to win the game. If you run a BGH this card can make BGH kill and 5 or 6 attack minion.

Haunted Creeper: This card is great against agro, also is able to be buffed by abusive sergeant. I have found this card very useful against paladin as it deals with the difficult shielded minibot pretty well. Power Overwhelming is good on this too because of the two one, one minions it spawns afterwards.

Knife Juggler: This minion is a very powerful minion and its knives can often determine a win or a loss in the opening turns. Sometimes you don’t want to play it if you have another two drop instead. It combos insanely well with imp-plosion, but overall this card is very powerful in the deck.

Nerubian Egg: This card is very important to the deck as well. You must recognize though that in some situations it is too slow and if you play it over another two drop without an activator on turn two you may lose the game right there. You want to play it when you have an abusive sergeant or power overwhelming (activators) in hand, so you can trade into a minion and kill it, and summon a 4, 4 minion at the same time. It stinks when it gets silenced, but you can still use it to trade even when it seems dead on the board (also helps out with your sea giant). Finally this is a great defender of argus target because it forces your opponent to create a nerubian for you from it.

Imp Gang Boss: This card is also very important to the deck because of the value you get from it. It really only loses out to a piloted shredder or death’s bite, but it trades really well with other minions while creating minions for you as well. This is also why defender of argus is often a great target for it as you get more health on it (potentially another minion). This card is very strong against paladin, but really weak against hunter (because of unleash the hounds).

Imp-plosion: This card can be amazing or very frustrating for you, depending on the RNG of it. That’s why it’s better to use it when you don’t absolutely need to kill a minion with 3 or 4 health. Is very frustrating when it rolls a 2 on a piloted shredder, but sometimes that is a risk worth taking. This card single handedly can win a game against the mirror zoo and combos really well with knife juggler. It literally kills a minion and spawns minions for you to start trading with. Also is very dangerous to use against hunter because of unleash the hounds.

Defender of Argus: An all-around fantastic card for the deck as well, the only time you really don’t want to play it is when there is no target for it to taunt. That being said it is important to use this card at the right times, since these are your only forms of taunt and you have no life gain potential (excluding Mal’Ganis). This card can be used to protect your hero late game, buff minions to trade into other, or even provide late game burst for two more damage. You often want to taunt minions to create favorable trades, and to protect your more high value minions like knife juggler. Sometimes a taunted sea giant makes your opponent trade in his entire board.

Voidcaller: This card has the potential to win the game on turn five basically, its stats aren’t awful for a four drop and the ability to drop an early Mal’Ganis or doomguard is insane. You often want to make sure that it drops a high value target by playing your cheaper ones before you trade the voidcaller in. This is also a great target for defender of argus as it forces your opponents to summon a minion for you. Don’t be afraid to play it without a demon in hand, and your opponent will often be afraid to kill it. Sometimes you don’t want a Mal’Ganis to pop out so make sure you time its death to control the outcome. Void terror also combos great with this card if you run it in your deck.

Doomguard: Finally, this card is another all-star of the deck. A 5 mana 5, 7 minion with charge is amazing, especially if you can avoid the drawback. You often want to play your hand out so this card can be the last card played, disregarding the discard effect. Voidcalllers are another way to make this card overpowered. One thing I am working on improving is knowing when to risk the discard effect and playing it from hand, I am often skeptical to do so which can cost me the game. This card also can beat druid on its own since they have very few answers to a minion with this kind of stats.

Strategy:

Before I go into the strategy of the deck, I want to say that it is not an automatic way to get to legend. I can’t stand when I see people criticize decks or guides because it doesn’t work for them, this deck is proven to work. If you are unable to win with this deck or any other viable deck it is for a few reasons. Firstly the person who gave you the decklist is better at playing the deck. It is not the deck’s fault you can’t win with it, you need to play with it for a while to get used to it. Also overall you need to immerse yourself in the game. Watch twitch streams or youtube videos to understand what happens in the game, and what other decks tend to do. It took me 6 full months of full immersion into the game to get legend. You need to learn the game and know what to expect so you can play around it and get the advantage. Also if you are stuck in the range of rank 5 to 1 and can’t reach legend, it is probably because of small mistakes you make to lose those games. It’s hard to understand but games are often won and lost on the smallest of margins of decisions, a decision can seem uninfluential, but can actually cause you to lose the game early. Think about your plays more, what you are trying to do, and what your opponent will do next. I also know that even though I have had success with this deck I make a lot of mistakes and am not playing it optimally. This deck can easily get you to top 100 legend when playing it perfectly.

The great thing about this deck is that it is often very consistent with its openings, and has late game cards to win you the game. Your strategy will differ in each matchup, which I will explain soon but overall this deck wins by controlling the board. You want to create high value trades and have more minions on the board at all times. You lose control of the board, you lose the game. There is often a time where you should smell blood and start going very aggressive with your moves, often depending on the situation and the hand you have. Knowing when to trade and when to push face is a difficult but important skill to master.

Mulligan Guide and Matchup Explanations:

Druid: Flame Imp, voidwalker, poweroverwhelming, dark peddler, knife juggler, haunted creeper, egg with activator, abusive sergeant, voidcaller with doomguard

This is a favorable matchup against either midrange or aggro druid, your openings often win you the game. You really want a flame imp to deal with their darnasus aspirant, and voidwalkers are very important against aggro druid, especially with an abusive sergeant in hand. Getting an early doomguard out will also win you the game against midrange druid. Always play around swipe as forgetting to do so is one of the few way you lose the game, keep a power overwhelming in case they innervate a strong minion out early.

Mage: Flame imp, voidwalker, egg with activator, dark peddler, knife juggler (against freeze mage, or if you have a one drop), haunted creeper, ironbeak owl

Tempo mage is a very favorable matchup, it’s hard to lose unless you get a bad opening hand. Flame imp deal with their mana wyrm, but knife juggler often dies to tempo mage right away so a better option is often needed. Freeze mage is a very difficult matchup, you really just need to hope they get a bad hand. Be careful not to swarm the board too much as a full board is really bad for you against freeze mage. Loatheb is really important in both matchups, as is ironbeak owl to silence an early mad scientist.

Paladin: Voidwalker, flame imp (if going first), egg with activator, dark peddler, knife juggler (with coin), haunted creeper, imp gang boss (with coin)

Secret paladin is actually a really favorable matchup, get a lot of minions on board, because often consecration is not as much of a worry against secret pally. Imp gang boss and haunted creeper are great minions because of how well they deal with knife jugglers, shielded minibots, and muster for battle. Midrange paladin is a much harder matchup, you must play around consecration against them. Getting your board wiped hurts too much in this matchup. Also tirion sucks so use an owl to silence tirion. Against midrange you win with burst from doomguard, against secret pally you win with superior board control, and often a sea giant wins you the game too.

Shaman: flame imp, voidwalker, egg with activator, dark peddler, power overwhelming, knife juggler, haunted creeper

Aggro shaman is a very favorable matchup. They have no board clears so go crazy with the minions. You just want to make sure you can clear their tunnel trogg and totem golem (often with abusive sergeant or power overwhelming). Also doomhammer kills you, so using your taunts to protect against it late game will ensure your victory, always be prepared for 15 points of burst damage from the shaman at any given time due to their spells. I am not too sure about the match up with midrange shaman, but you always want to keep their board clear (in case of bloodlust) and be very careful of losing to a lightning storm or two early. Bait out an early hex to protect your stronger minions as well.

Hunter: flame imp (if going first), voidwalker, egg with activator (if midrange hunter), dark peddler, haunted creeper, knife juggler, abusive sergeant, power overwhelming, defender of argus, ironbeak owl

Face hunter is the worst matchup possible, if you see a lot of these happening, just don’t play this deck until the meta changes. Your only chance to win this matchup is defender of argus, and sometimes mal’ganis. Sometimes a sea giant can speed up the game for you to win. Unleash the hounds destroys you in this matchup (with knife juggler on turn 5 is devastating) and explosive trap is very difficult to overcome. Be careful of imp gang boss and imp-plosion due to unleash.

Midrange hunter is a bit better of a matchup, just be wary of the traps and clear the board early. Once again unleash the hounds is a way to lose this one, but egg and power overwhelming is a huge counter to their animal companion. Hunter’s mark is their only hard removal so your big minions often can stick in these matchups, which is why Mal’Ganis is so strong. Keep an ironbeak owl to silence their mad scientists as well.

Warrior: flame imp, voidwalker (not as great in this matchup), dark peddler, nerubian egg, knife juggler, haunted creeper

This is actually a really good matchup, you need to be aggressive early though. Flame imps without a fiery war axe will win the game for you. The only real way you lose is if you overcommit to a brawl. The best way to play against that is deathrattle minions and just not overcommitting too much. You are in a great spot when the warrior plays hard removal on your early minions. Don’t let them draw a lot of cards. And if you do bait out a brawl, know your dr. boom is a lot safer afterwards. You usually win by finishing them off with burst from doomguard.

Warlock: flame imp, voidwalker, dark peddler, nerubian egg, knife juggler, abusive sergeant, haunted creeper, imp-plosion (with coin against zoo), ironbeak owl

Handlock (and reno-lock) is not a good matchup. You need to be aggressive early but damage them enough so that they can’t play molten giants with taunts late. Be careful of their AoE and keep an owl to silence a twilight drake for a great trade. Against the mirror, zoo, you win by board control. I have played a lot against the mirror and won most of those games, usually by playing slower and controlling the board. The more aggressive deck usually loses (unless your hand tells you otherwise). Imp-plosion is really important to swing the game back, and sea giant can do the same because it often gets really cheap. Silence their nerubian egg or voidcaller, and you want your egg to activate early for that board control.

Priest: flame imp, voidwalker (not really good in this matchup), nerubian egg with activator, abusive sergeant, haunted creeper (with a buff like abusive sergeant or power overwhelming), dark peddler, knife juggler

This is a bad matchup for the deck as well. You want flame imp or knife juggler to kill an early northshire cleric. Nerubian egg and power overwhelming is great because of its 4 attack, its hard for the priest to deal with it. The problem with the priest matchup is their great early answers and board clears, your minions all have low health more or less. Against dragon priest keep their board clear with your minions so that their AoE is less effective. Ysera is so hard to deal with too. Be very careful of cabal shadow priest on turn 6 and later as well.

Rogue: flame imp, voidwalker, egg plus activator, abusive sergeant, haunted creeper, knife juggler, dark peddler

Oil rogue is a difficult matchup, they have a lot of answers to our early game so it’s hard to develop board control. Sap sucks if you have a good demon pop out of your voidcaller and their board clears are really strong. Hope you get the coin and keep their minions off the board! Kill them before they can buff up a weapon really high, because they can remove taunts so easily. The new unearthed raptor rogue is a great matchup for us. They try and take control of the board, but what deck does it better than demon zoo? The only way to lose is if they are super aggressive and you get a really bad draw. It often doesn’t run board clears right now, so don’t worry about blade flurries as much.

 

Thank you all for reading this guide and have fun with this deck! If you liked it leave some comments, if you have any questions just let me know in the comments and I will do my best to answer them for you. If the deck doesn’t work out at first, keep playing! It is better to master one deck than jump from deck to deck hoping for an easy one, because none of the decks are easy. Just play a lot and know what to expect, that’s the best way to win in this game.