Just recently I've been playing Warlock just to get the Play 50 Warlock quest completed. As I don't own many warlocks cards, the only one I do have are 2 Possesed Lackeys and 2 Voidlords and then I filled the rest of the deck with crappy cards. I believe the issue with Possesed Lackey is that it's a minion with a super strong Deathrattle effect (Stronger than Voidcaller because it draws from your deck) and very low hp which is not a disadvantage given you want him to die ASAP. I believe it would be way better if the Lackey became a 0/5, or heck a 0/2 minion so it requires more cards to get him killed. What are your thoughts about that?.
I'd prefer if Lackey was a Voidcaller 2.0 and summoned from hand with better stats. I hate the deck summoning mechanism as you can't influence what it pulls and when it pulls, limiting deck building to only 2 Voidlords (and Doomguard for Cubelock). If it was from hand, you could play way more and cheaper demons.
Changing Lackey's stats is pointless. You mostly combo it with Dark Pact anyway.
You Dark Pact it most of the time, how come its health matters?
Why it is hard to kill a 0/2, which is pretty much the same thing with 2/2?
0/5 would be fine maybe, as it doesnt die to Hellfire and Defile easily, but again, Dark Pact is the primary way to do it.
Make it 7 mana, then we are cool. Card itself is not strong. What is so strong is being able to play a huge 9-drop on turn 6 or even 5. If you want to slow it down (which I think you do), increasing its mana cost would be for the best.
You Dark Pact it most of the time, how come its health matters?
Why it is hard to kill a 0/2, which is pretty much the same thing with 2/2?
0/5 would be fine maybe, as it doesnt die to Hellfire and Defile easily, but again, Dark Pact is the primary way to do it.
Make it 7 mana, then we are cool. Card itself is not strong. What is so strong is being able to play a huge 9-drop on turn 6 or even 5. If you want to slow it down (which I think you do), increasing its mana cost would be for the best.
7 mana for a 2/2. Are you serious? Why not play Silver Vanguard instead, since that will guarantee you a Lich King and doesn't limit you to play NO OTHER DEMONS. Voidlord is a defensive card and is only run because you can't compete against aggro decks with 0 mana 5/5s, endless swarms, face damage and buffed minions. It poses absolutely no threat by itself. If aggro dies off, Lackey could vanish from decks by itself. I see a future where you play Skull of the Man'ari with a lot more demons without Lackey. Coming rotation and without N'Zoth, Voidlord will have a much less stalling power overall with only Guldan being able to bring it back and control warlock could be replaced by mid-range and cut Voidlord entirely.
Amm I want to say, that you don't always get to combo dark pact with the lackey, so a 0-attack minion is a bit harder to kill, because you can't bump it into the enemy ones.
Back to the topic: I also don't like the design of the lackey and I would be more than happy, if blizz comes up with a change fast.
Warlock has always been my main class and recently I gave cubelock a try: 1) I wanted to test it, 2) I grew tired of highlander. And I despise that deck a lot - I hate how this cheating mechanic degenerated warlock as a class. How you get a massive advantage early on, just because you played a fragile 5-drop. I think he also limits future design space, because if the devs were to introduce new strong (and expensive) demons, then this guy will continue to pop up and to enable insane synergies.
Voidcaller is a fair card to me - 1) demon synergy, 2) strong effect 2.1) but not that opressive, because you are forced to have the good demons in your hand, 2.2) you don't thin out your deck, 2.3) controlable, 3) fair stats. This is how a wild card should look like. Possesed lackey just shows how stupid the recruit mechanic really is. Y'shaarj is a 10 mana card, you lose your whole turn playing him (let's forget big priest for a moment), it's pretty understandable, that he should summon minions for you; the tempo you gain that late in the game is a fair one. But cheating out something big early on is not healthy imho and the devs proved it to us by nerfing Innervate.
Dunno how the lackey should change - with the mana cost, stats or effect (recruiting demons < X mana), but the devs should take him more into consideration.
Inb4 Now a personal rant: Me versus aggro decks. They have good openings, I aggressively throw out my AoEs, I don't really respect my resources, nor do try to use them optimally, I just stall. And I hate the feeling, when I win because of cheesy plays. I find a lackey, I make some greedy plays and at the end I don't get punished for them. Very often I just ended the games by cubing voidlords. My decisions didn't really matter, all I had to do was to find a way to survive until those turns, then gg. And this wasn't the feeling, when I played my old control version, nor when I played warlock decks before. There is a huge gap between the possibilities in what I could do back then and now, those decks didn't allow me to play aimlessly and to disrespect my health total (except maybe Reno), I had the feeling, that I had to think my turns in advance and to take risky decisions, when I was forced to. Now if I face a priest - I rush for the doomguards, if I face something more aggressively - AoEs, lackey, gg.
You Dark Pact it most of the time, how come its health matters?
Why it is hard to kill a 0/2, which is pretty much the same thing with 2/2?
0/5 would be fine maybe, as it doesnt die to Hellfire and Defile easily, but again, Dark Pact is the primary way to do it.
Make it 7 mana, then we are cool. Card itself is not strong. What is so strong is being able to play a huge 9-drop on turn 6 or even 5. If you want to slow it down (which I think you do), increasing its mana cost would be for the best.
7 mana for a 2/2. Are you serious? Why not play Silver Vanguard instead, since that will guarantee you a Lich King and doesn't limit you to play NO OTHER DEMONS. Voidlord is a defensive card and is only run because you can't compete against aggro decks with 0 mana 5/5s, endless swarms, face damage and buffed minions. It poses absolutely no threat by itself. If aggro dies off, Lackey could vanish from decks by itself. I see a future where you play Skull of the Man'ari with a lot more demons without Lackey. Coming rotation and without N'Zoth, Voidlord will have a much less stalling power overall with only Guldan being able to bring it back and control warlock could be replaced by mid-range and cut Voidlord entirely.
Coming rotation and without N'Zoth, Voidlord will have a much less stalling power overall with only Guldan being able to bring it back and control warlock could be replaced by mid-range and cut Voidlord entirely
I have already started experimenting with Hadronox and a second Dark Pact. The drawback is, you aren't guaranteed your Voidlord's back since it will randomly pull minions until the board is full ... but in the other hand, it's another big heal. Unless something better comes up, I think this will be the obvious replacement for N'Zoth after rotation, assuming the deck stays in play.
A druid legendary will replace N'Zoth in control warlock? :D Master Oakheart could be a replacement, but I think you will play something else instead. Personally and for my deck, Medivh rotating hurts me the most.
Coming rotation and without N'Zoth, Voidlord will have a much less stalling power overall with only Guldan being able to bring it back and control warlock could be replaced by mid-range and cut Voidlord entirely
I have already started experimenting with Hadronox and a second Dark Pact. The drawback is, you aren't guaranteed your Voidlord's back since it will randomly pull minions until the board is full ... but in the other hand, it's another big heal. Unless something better comes up, I think this will be the obvious replacement for N'Zoth after rotation, assuming the deck stays in play.
A druid legendary will replace N'Zoth in control warlock? :D Master Oakheart could be a replacement, but I think you will play something else instead. Personally and for my deck, Medivh rotating hurts me the most.
One of these things is not like the other. One of these things just doesn't belong. Can you tell me which thing is not like the other, before I finish my song?
Pardon me, but I believe Cube is Dark Pacted most of the time.
Only in cubelock and only if they aren't pressured on the board. Control doesn't play cube and cubelock is only played because of Raza pretty much. I feel control warlock is the superior deck overall. Tho, that can change again depending on how the meta shapes up. If you have quest mage / rogues running rampant, you need the burst to close games.
Really good post m8, i don't play warlock that much to be honest but i face many, and really i can't understand when i read from ppl saying that the lackey and the way it shaped the current "control" lock it's ok. That card is bad in terms of the impact it has. New lock archetypes (cube mainly) are just that bad...it really doesn't matter if you have played a match decently against them...probably you will die, and that's all. Efficient way to put threats on board, efficient way to heal up, efficient way to blow up enemy threats and efficient way to bring things back.
Coming rotation and without N'Zoth, Voidlord will have a much less stalling power overall with only Guldan being able to bring it back and control warlock could be replaced by mid-range and cut Voidlord entirely
I have already started experimenting with Hadronox and a second Dark Pact. The drawback is, you aren't guaranteed your Voidlord's back since it will randomly pull minions until the board is full ... but in the other hand, it's another big heal. Unless something better comes up, I think this will be the obvious replacement for N'Zoth after rotation, assuming the deck stays in play.
A druid legendary will replace N'Zoth in control warlock? :D Master Oakheart could be a replacement, but I think you will play something else instead. Personally and for my deck, Medivh rotating hurts me the most.
One of these things is not like the other. One of these things just doesn't belong. Can you tell me which thing is not like the other, before I finish my song?
Oops! Brain fart .... wasn't thinking of it being a Druid card
So, yeah ... after rotation, not having that second wall of taunts is going to be a thing ... quite often, N'Zoth is what gets you over the finish line.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I wanna glide down, over Mulholland I wanna write her, name in the sky I wanna free fall, out into nothin' Gonna leave this, world for awhile
I believe it would still be better than a 2x8 hp boost. If you take Dark Pact to your deck and the card you mentioned, it would cost 2 more card spots. I think it would be more fair. Not fair, but a better situation.
Just recently I've been playing Warlock just to get the Play 50 Warlock quest completed. As I don't own many warlocks cards, the only one I do have are 2 Possesed Lackeys and 2 Voidlords and then I filled the rest of the deck with crappy cards. I believe the issue with Possesed Lackey is that it's a minion with a super strong Deathrattle effect (Stronger than Voidcaller because it draws from your deck) and very low hp which is not a disadvantage given you want him to die ASAP. I believe it would be way better if the Lackey became a 0/5, or heck a 0/2 minion so it requires more cards to get him killed. What are your thoughts about that?.
Put your faith in the Value!
wow a 2/2 it's almost like it was designed to get itself killed.
I'd prefer if Lackey was a Voidcaller 2.0 and summoned from hand with better stats. I hate the deck summoning mechanism as you can't influence what it pulls and when it pulls, limiting deck building to only 2 Voidlords (and Doomguard for Cubelock). If it was from hand, you could play way more and cheaper demons.
Changing Lackey's stats is pointless. You mostly combo it with Dark Pact anyway.
You Dark Pact it most of the time, how come its health matters?
Why it is hard to kill a 0/2, which is pretty much the same thing with 2/2?
0/5 would be fine maybe, as it doesnt die to Hellfire and Defile easily, but again, Dark Pact is the primary way to do it.
Make it 7 mana, then we are cool. Card itself is not strong. What is so strong is being able to play a huge 9-drop on turn 6 or even 5. If you want to slow it down (which I think you do), increasing its mana cost would be for the best.
It is neither a strong card, an uninteresting card of a design space limiting card.
Great design overall. It is even considered a skill-based card and rewards great deck building.
Amm I want to say, that you don't always get to combo dark pact with the lackey, so a 0-attack minion is a bit harder to kill, because you can't bump it into the enemy ones.
Back to the topic: I also don't like the design of the lackey and I would be more than happy, if blizz comes up with a change fast.
Warlock has always been my main class and recently I gave cubelock a try: 1) I wanted to test it, 2) I grew tired of highlander. And I despise that deck a lot - I hate how this cheating mechanic degenerated warlock as a class. How you get a massive advantage early on, just because you played a fragile 5-drop. I think he also limits future design space, because if the devs were to introduce new strong (and expensive) demons, then this guy will continue to pop up and to enable insane synergies.
Voidcaller is a fair card to me - 1) demon synergy, 2) strong effect 2.1) but not that opressive, because you are forced to have the good demons in your hand, 2.2) you don't thin out your deck, 2.3) controlable, 3) fair stats. This is how a wild card should look like. Possesed lackey just shows how stupid the recruit mechanic really is. Y'shaarj is a 10 mana card, you lose your whole turn playing him (let's forget big priest for a moment), it's pretty understandable, that he should summon minions for you; the tempo you gain that late in the game is a fair one. But cheating out something big early on is not healthy imho and the devs proved it to us by nerfing Innervate.
Dunno how the lackey should change - with the mana cost, stats or effect (recruiting demons < X mana), but the devs should take him more into consideration.
Inb4 Now a personal rant: Me versus aggro decks. They have good openings, I aggressively throw out my AoEs, I don't really respect my resources, nor do try to use them optimally, I just stall. And I hate the feeling, when I win because of cheesy plays. I find a lackey, I make some greedy plays and at the end I don't get punished for them. Very often I just ended the games by cubing voidlords. My decisions didn't really matter, all I had to do was to find a way to survive until those turns, then gg. And this wasn't the feeling, when I played my old control version, nor when I played warlock decks before. There is a huge gap between the possibilities in what I could do back then and now, those decks didn't allow me to play aimlessly and to disrespect my health total (except maybe Reno), I had the feeling, that I had to think my turns in advance and to take risky decisions, when I was forced to. Now if I face a priest - I rush for the doomguards, if I face something more aggressively - AoEs, lackey, gg.
I wanna glide down, over Mulholland
I wanna write her, name in the sky
I wanna free fall, out into nothin'
Gonna leave this, world for awhile
(V) (;,,;) (V)
Pardon me, but I believe Cube is Dark Pacted most of the time.
Put your faith in the Value!
IMO the best change would be a "Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers" effect on it, which solves the Dark Pact problem.
Moreover if you can manage your board well, you would be in a better position. (1 attack taunt, aoe freeze, silence by minion, etc, etc...)
Really good post m8, i don't play warlock that much to be honest but i face many, and really i can't understand when i read from ppl saying that the lackey and the way it shaped the current "control" lock it's ok. That card is bad in terms of the impact it has. New lock archetypes (cube mainly) are just that bad...it really doesn't matter if you have played a match decently against them...probably you will die, and that's all. Efficient way to put threats on board, efficient way to heal up, efficient way to blow up enemy threats and efficient way to bring things back.
I think devs have push it too far for lock.
So, yeah ... after rotation, not having that second wall of taunts is going to be a thing ... quite often, N'Zoth is what gets you over the finish line.
I wanna glide down, over Mulholland
I wanna write her, name in the sky
I wanna free fall, out into nothin'
Gonna leave this, world for awhile
There is no issue with the card. First aggro decks can have you dead by turn 6.
Secondly if your demons are drawn early, it's a bad card, because of bad stats. Only aggro decks complain.