[LEGEND] Demon Warlock
- Last updated Dec 30, 2016 (Gadgetzan)
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Wild
- 22 Minions
- 8 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Demonlock
- Crafting Cost: 2200
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 12/27/2016 (Gadgetzan)
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Total Deck Rating
203
Hey, i made a reddit post a couple of days ago after i reached Legend with this deck: https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/5kepk8/got_legend_with_self_brewd_demon_warlock_deck/
And since a lot of you guys asked for it, i decided to make a quick guide about it with strategy and mulligan options and matchups. So...let's get started:
Strategy and Mulligan:
The goal is to set up an early lead with 1 drop demons and try to combo them with your buff cards or discard mechanics (with malchezar's imp and tiny knight of evil) and get a snowball going by outpacing and out tempoing your opponent with bigger and bigger demons.
As for mulligan, there are a lot of different options here but you almost always want to get early board presence with the amount of 1 drop demons you have. Keep as much of them as you can early on to ensure that at least one of your demons stick by turn 2 or 3 so you can buff them with demonfire or bloodfury potion. You should consider keeping any discardble card you can find as well (Golems and/or Fist of Jarraxus) because you'll eventually discard them and get a lead that way.
Matchups:
Shaman - look for soulfire to counter totem golem or 1 drop demon + bloofury potion if you have the coin. it totally screws them up because most likely they'r going to totem up the following turn leaving you with an opening to snowball from there. Always be aware of lightning storm and malestorm portal (Crystalweaver is key in this)
Warrior - keep soulfire and any discardble cards you can get your hands on. several 1 drops early is a good way to get them to trade instead of them mindlessly smorc you. A buffed voidwalker wins you the game almost automatically (keeping demonfire for the buccaneer isn't a bad idea either)
Druid - curve out and you should be fine. Innervate is your worst enemy. Try to apply a lot of pressure early so that they have to spend all their mana on removal and don't develop the board.
Card Choice:
Pitlord: The million dollar question, "why the fuck would you pic Pitlord over anything else?" Well, being a warlock fan-boy, i've experimented a lot and did a lot of testing with every single warlock card to see what could make the cut. Pitlord caught me by surprise, as it did many of you, but the more i thought about it, the more it made sense. The reason behind it was because of the whole concept of demons: you put big minions ahead of their curve but with some kind of trade-off, either by discarding or taking a chunk out of your life total. I think that's the logic behind the hearthstone dev team and why they made demons the way they are. Pitlord is a fantastic minion (stat wise) for only 4 mana. The trade off being that you pay 5 health to play it. But it's totally worth it. The deck revolves around playing early minions, like flame imp, void walker, malchezar's imp, succubus (at some extent), imp gang boss and then buffing them up with demonfire and bloodfury potion. Meaning, you get a lead early and you snowball the game after that so that your opponent can't react to anything you do while you push your way to victory. Pitlord comes as a tempo play against your opponent. On turn 3/4 they are preparing to deal with your board but then you drop this huge-ass demon on the board. Take a mage for example...on turn 4, they either frostbold-ping-trade against your board, or they have to deal with your Pitlord and fireball it, leaving your board intact to get buffed the next turn (or you play a doomguard and they have to fireball+ping/polymorph, wich they already used on your Pitlord and don't have the mana to do so)
Replacements:
Darkshire Counsilman
Felguard
Demonwrath
Note: Updating the guide whenever i have a spare time! Thanks for all the replies :)
Very cool idea! I recently became a fan of pit Lord too and wow is he underestimated! I've been running a more aggro centered demonlock with a lot of success- moved up 3 ranks so far in 2 days. A couple questions tho: why did you choose to run a combination of demon and discard Vs just 1 full deck of either? What do you think of Wrathguard as a 2 drop to keep the tempo? And have you tried using violet illusionist since there's a lot of sacrificing your own health or is it too slow of a card in your opinion (even tho it's still above curve 3 drop)?
Wow. This deck is a doozy! I'd been messing around homebrewing a demon deck but nothing was really working out too well even though it looked a lot like this one. I think the problem was i didn't trust fist of jaraxxus but holy crap is that card good in this deck! Getting those huge doomguard turns w/double fist of jaraxxus or while summoning a golem is so fun. I love crystalweaver as a card so it's exciting to find a place for it! likewise with tiny knight of EEEEvil! I love this deck because it feels like i'm playing a combo deck while playing on tempo cuz of all the discard plays and demon buffs. thanks for sharing!
edit: I've climbed from rank 10 to 7 with this! It's really a fresh and fun deck
I replaced 2 Pit Lord with 2 Blast Crystal
Soo i want to try this deck but I don't have imp gang boss and pit lord any ideas how i could replace them ?
read the replacements
I have a question about the deck. So I realized that the deck has a combination of Discardlock and Demonlock. Can you please explain to me as to why there are cards with discard battlecries in a demonlock deck? thx :)
This deck looks good but... do you have any ideas about subs for the TGT cards?
I'm a huge fan of this deck and like how fast it plays, it helped me recover to rank 7 after messing around with evolve shaman without Thalnos dropped me to 10. Only change to the list is Genzo the Shark instead of the 2nd Pit Lord (I may try Yeti or Senjin also). So far Genzo is great removal bait, oftentimes theyll nuke him instead of my demons, and if he doesn't die, you get free cards after Doomguard.
I've played probably 30+ games yesterday and today, but still I feel like there's 2 matchups that are insanely hard to win.
The first one is any deck that runs Jade Claws or Spirits Claws + Thalnos in Shaman (which is like every shaman deck....), I lose like 2 out of 3 games and can ONLY win if I get the draw imp + spiritfire in hand t1 or t2 AND follow up with good buffs. Otherwise you just lose the board to totems, spirit wolves, and the thunder aoe spell.
On the otherhand there's Auctioneer Rogue running Patches + Burgle Pirate. This is by far the most frustrating deck for me to play against, I have like a 25% win rate, pretty much only when they have bad draws and miss both removal so that I can KO before T6 do I win. This deck I don't really know if there's any right way to play against it and typically just go all in aggro to maximize my board prescence and discard value. If anyone has any tips, I'm all ears.
On the other hand Dragon Priest is incredibly favorable for us (like 75%). Only time I lose is when they manage to T1 a 2/3 tiny dragon and buff its defense, then get an on curve Twilight Dragon taunt. I'd say >50% of the games where they manage to Reno, you'll still win simply due to how fast this deck recovers on an empty board (you gotta reserve just enough for lethal and save stuff in hand due to dragonfire potion).
Reno Warlock is prolly slight favored for us too, mainly because half the time they think we're also Renolock for t1 & t2 and lose 4 life without board prescence. Really wish we had a vertical nuke for the 4/X drake though, i usually have to burn 1 minion + removal to stay ahead or drop my buffed minion down to 1 health attacking it.
Dragon Warrior and Pirate Warrior seem fair. It all boils down to whether they get Fire War axe or an insane burst hand. I've thought about swapping in Acidic Slime, but don't know what to sub to keep the demon ratio high. So far dirty dishes is probably the most underwhelming card for me mainly because I can't buff it. The old-school control warrior swept the floor with me, mainly because they backed Brawl on T4/T5.
Also, no clue what's up with hunter or paladin decks in ranked right now, I see like 1 every 10 games right now....
Reset and now at Rank 15, still having tons of issues with Rogues. My issue is that even when you draw a good hand, you still have a 50% chance of losing due to you just losing bored if the discards don't hit the right targets. Another thing with rogue that drives me crazy is thalnos + preparation + knives. At least with Shaman I know by T4 whether I might win or not, Rogue I often will lose board at T7 right before KO.
After 2 more days of play, I feel like this deck is unfortunately becoming a known quantity.
I feel like I win virtually all Druid and Priest matchups unless they have a nut draw or I have a bad hand, while the Rogue and Shaman matchups have gotten worse for me.
I find the inclusion of Pit Lord a bit questionable. Wow it is powerfully statted, 5 self-damage seems huge especially when you are behind.
nice deck !! as I love wild mode Im planning to give it a try with Mal'Ganis
Thanks a lot!
Deck is very good. It's like playing a Warlock version of Pirate/War but better.
Trade early to gain board control then all face to end. Dont go all face you need to trade EARLY. Try and get your demons buffed up my turn 4 or 5 and its GG most times. I have a 70% to 75% win rate on this deck. If played right this decks a monster!! Hardest match-ups for me have been Face Pirate/War decks and some Priest decks. Other then that its a fun deck to play and it can compete with all tier 1 decks right now.
I did take out -1 Pit Lord and +1 Shadowflame. For me I could never play 2 Pitlords(not enough health by that time) and having a board clear has won me a few games against other rush decks.
AWESOME!!
almost in tears, I have been playing hearthstone for a year and I only invested in hunter so far. Reason is I always believe in specialization. Told myself I will become a top player @ hunter. I have all the cards & golden with hunter and nothing with others. Made legend once with before COW nerf.
I was having serious troubles with hunter, couldn't reach rank10 with any deck. In my frustration, I came here to check a cheap deck, came across this, and I never ever played with warlock before absolute 0 experience. After buying the missing pieces and playing 2 hours I am now rank 9, 12-1 streak. just wanted to share my experience :)
thanks for the story, why would people down-vote this? this guy shared a heartfelt story, pointing out the fact that warlock decks are amazingly efficient.
I'm very impressed by this deck. Super fun and takes opponent's by surprise! Don't have pit lords so substituted for apothecaries. Haven't lost yet :) Good job
I had been playing a similar deck before seeing this one and but this is a clearly better one. One adjustment i made was to replace one pit lord with one unlicensed apothecary. Although it ostensibly has the same drawback as multiple pit lords, I find that opponents either keep it on board for too long or it diverts spells from doomguards. Nice job on the deck.
Can we see more videos of this deck please? I would very much like to see it in action :-)