+41
Favorite this Deck

Heroic Maloriak (Multiple Wins)

  • Last updated Dec 9, 2016 (Gadgetzan)
  • Edit
  • |

Wild

  • 15 Minions
  • 15 Spells
  • Deck Type: PvE Adventure
  • Deck Archetype: Reno Mage
  • Boss: Maloriak
  • Crafting Cost: 2240
  • Dust Needed: Loading Collection
  • Created: 12/9/2016 (Gadgetzan)
View Similar Decks View in Deck Builder

  • Battle Tag:

    N/A

  • Region:

    N/A

  • Total Deck Rating

    41

Link:
BBCode:
Export to

I have played this deck over 100 times against Maloriak and won with it 12 times. Over 50% of losses are done because he casts Release the Aberrations! before turn 4.

Main reasons for inconsistency/loss with this deck is either not drawing Animated Armor quickly enough, or the AI deciding to kill it. Still, I have found it the most consistent deck I have tried.

If you draw Animated Armor and don't get Release the Aberrations!, I win around 40% of matches. This boss is RNG as hell. If someone has a deck they've played more than 100 times and has a higher win percentage, please direct me to their list so I can try it out.

I tried countless decks on this site of Mage, Warlock, Warrior and Priest to beat this boss the first time and it probably took well over 60-70 attempts to get my first kill. So personally, I'm finding 12 kills in 100 attempts a much better state of affairs.

This is by far the hardest Heroic boss of any of the currently released expansions I have ever faced, so bare with it and RNG will be on your side eventually.

Strategy:

  1. Hard Mulligan for Animated Armor. I don't reset if I don't have it in my opening hand, but if you prefer to just reset heavy than draw things out, do so here.
  2. If he plays Release the Aberrations! and you don't have Animated Armor up, concede. If you've played this boss as much as me, it's a judgement call if you can still win, but your win percent has tanked. If it's before Turn 4, it's essentially 0%.
  3. Use Frostbolt on his early minions or throw down Annoy-o-Tron to soak up early damage.
  4. If he kills your Animated Armor, it's not over. I've won despite never drawing it but your odds are now tiny. If your hand isn't full of things like Frost Nova, another Animated Armor and Blizzard at that stage, then you probably want to just reset.
  5. Try and save Blizzard/Flamestrike for when you can get huge value, prefer using Frost Nova to stall a turn if you can.
  6. If it's turn 3 and you have Arcane Intellect and no Animated Armor in hand, then you basically always play it and take the face damage since you're likely to reset anyway.
  7. His first secret is usually Duplicate, but it can be Counterspell. Do not kill minions if you don't know what secret he has up, if you must, kill a Crazed Alchemist. 
  8. You generally want to Faceless Manipulator on a large Drakonid Crusher or a Flesheating Ghoul so that you can start pushing face damage. I also use these on Sludge Belcher a lot.
  9. If he has 4+ minions and you have Mind Control Tech and you can play it without dying, it's almost always the right choice.
  10. Ironbeak Owl is for Sludge Belcher or an early out of control Mana Wyrm. Ultimately, this is a match of survival, don't hold onto tech too long just hoping for better value.

Deck Building Guide:

The core cards to making this deck work are:

The more situational cards that you can kind of play with if you don't have them or don't like how they feel:

Tweaks from my original list (below) include:

Brann Bronzebeard is great, but the times he is useful is just not very often. 

Sylvanas Windrunner tends to be too slow and low impact in my testing.

Bloodmage Thalnos is totally worth putting in if you have him. A strictly better Cult Sorcerer with card draw. I cut him to test this deck in a more budget fashion.

Eater of Secrets is generally just a worse Kezan Mystic, and opportunities where you need Cult Apothecary, and you don't just die anyway are rare. I'd put two Eater of Secrets in if you don't have Kezan Mystic, but it really is a weaker card.

The Counterspell protects you from an Imp-losion, or him putting down his own Counterspell/Duplicate.

Duplicate on Annoy-o-Tron allows you to do a lot of stalling in the early game, also having one up on Turn 3 before an Animated Armor on turn 4 just gives you more options to play Animated Armor again if the AI decides to attack it.

Cult Sorcerer has one purpose, to be combined with Blizzard to get 3 damage board clears. It's very situational and one of the most flexible slots for teching.

Other tech I've considered:

My original (and most play-tested) list is: