Judging by the fact that its arguably one of the best cards in the handlock vs miracle rogue match-up, and miracle rogues plague the ladder... I really don't see it going away anytime soon.
First of all, I feel your pain - earth shock and keeper of the grove are the bane of my existence.
That said, you gotta move past it. Yes, your drakes will get owned alot from silence, but you are forgetting all the other games where it performs. What helped me was to change my mindset about the whole thing. TBH, in ~90% of my games, if the shaman doesn't earth shock or the druid doesn't keeper of the grove my drake on turn 4, they end up losing the game. Drake is almost like a gatekeeper in these matchups - "Did you mulligan for silence? Yes, okay we move on. No, okay you lose." Another thing is to keep in mind that everytime your drakes get silenced, your taunted giants are not getting silenced when you're sitting behind them at 10 hp.
You can always switch them out if you feel like they don't work in your meta. I certainly have done so in my "omfg i just faced 4 shamans in a row" rage sessions. However, as soon as you do, you'll face a bunch of rogues/zoo/etc and immediately regret your decision.... But if you decide to do it anyway, a more defensive substitute would be taz dingo and a more offensive substitute would be yeti. I've done both, but can tell you that I always went back to drakes.
As someone who recently traded out his drakes in favor of yetis, I have to say I agree with TyC here. You really need to look at all the match ups it changes. While the yeti most certainly fares better against shaman, it removes one of our best counters for not only miracles, but zoo as well. A 4/5 isn't actually that bad for a zoo to wipe out, since he will likely replace the one or two minions he used on the same turn. On the other hand, there is simply no clean way for zoo to deal with a taunted up 4/8-10. Particularly against zoo lock, where more often than not they end up burning some of their strongest finishers to get rid of my drakes (i.e. soul fire or doomguard).
Also a friendly reminder that if you run faceless, copying a 4/10 with taunt isn't always a bad idea. ;)
Nah, drakes are wonderful. I love playing one turn 4, having it silenced and see multiple cards used to get rid of it, to drop it again turn 5 lol. Then watcher + defender next turn is usually game over for miracle or zoo. Shamans are getting annoying, but with zoo also being rampant right now, they aren't sure which deck they are playing against. If they guess zoo, and don't take an earth shock for mulligan, you are gonna win with a drake but not with a yeti. And TyC made a great point. Don't get mad if drakes get silenced as it saves your taunts from being silenced.
Edit: I look at drakes as CC bait for my giants. If I have a giant and a drake on turn 4 and can play both, I usually play drake to see if they do have a cc or silence. Then drop giant next turn and laugh at their wasted hex/poly/silence.
I get the feeling Handlock as a whole is really badly positioned right now. Just bad luck on my part?
Nah. Handlock performed the best for me out of all the decks this season. That's on EU. I hear the meta is a bit different on the NA servers... But from what I hear a lot of Miracle Rogue is being played there, so Handlock should be even better.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I am Richard, Chief Warlock of the Brothers of Darkness, Lord of the Thirteen Hells, Master of the Bones, Emperor of the Black, Lord of the Undead, and The Mayor of a little village up the coast."
So many decks are running both the black knight and a big game hunter. Faceless manipulator crops up a fair bit as well. People really have it in for you...
Is it just me or does Twilight Drake not belong in Handlock any more?
Overspecialize, and you breed in weakness.
Judging by the fact that its arguably one of the best cards in the handlock vs miracle rogue match-up, and miracle rogues plague the ladder... I really don't see it going away anytime soon.
First of all, I feel your pain - earth shock and keeper of the grove are the bane of my existence.
That said, you gotta move past it. Yes, your drakes will get owned alot from silence, but you are forgetting all the other games where it performs. What helped me was to change my mindset about the whole thing. TBH, in ~90% of my games, if the shaman doesn't earth shock or the druid doesn't keeper of the grove my drake on turn 4, they end up losing the game. Drake is almost like a gatekeeper in these matchups - "Did you mulligan for silence? Yes, okay we move on. No, okay you lose." Another thing is to keep in mind that everytime your drakes get silenced, your taunted giants are not getting silenced when you're sitting behind them at 10 hp.
You can always switch them out if you feel like they don't work in your meta. I certainly have done so in my "omfg i just faced 4 shamans in a row" rage sessions. However, as soon as you do, you'll face a bunch of rogues/zoo/etc and immediately regret your decision.... But if you decide to do it anyway, a more defensive substitute would be taz dingo and a more offensive substitute would be yeti. I've done both, but can tell you that I always went back to drakes.
As someone who recently traded out his drakes in favor of yetis, I have to say I agree with TyC here. You really need to look at all the match ups it changes. While the yeti most certainly fares better against shaman, it removes one of our best counters for not only miracles, but zoo as well. A 4/5 isn't actually that bad for a zoo to wipe out, since he will likely replace the one or two minions he used on the same turn. On the other hand, there is simply no clean way for zoo to deal with a taunted up 4/8-10. Particularly against zoo lock, where more often than not they end up burning some of their strongest finishers to get rid of my drakes (i.e. soul fire or doomguard).
Also a friendly reminder that if you run faceless, copying a 4/10 with taunt isn't always a bad idea. ;)
Nah, drakes are wonderful. I love playing one turn 4, having it silenced and see multiple cards used to get rid of it, to drop it again turn 5 lol. Then watcher + defender next turn is usually game over for miracle or zoo. Shamans are getting annoying, but with zoo also being rampant right now, they aren't sure which deck they are playing against. If they guess zoo, and don't take an earth shock for mulligan, you are gonna win with a drake but not with a yeti. And TyC made a great point. Don't get mad if drakes get silenced as it saves your taunts from being silenced.
Edit: I look at drakes as CC bait for my giants. If I have a giant and a drake on turn 4 and can play both, I usually play drake to see if they do have a cc or silence. Then drop giant next turn and laugh at their wasted hex/poly/silence.
I get the feeling Handlock as a whole is really badly positioned right now. Just bad luck on my part?
The only games I am winning at the moment are vs. Zoo, which I am hardly seeing
Nah. Handlock performed the best for me out of all the decks this season. That's on EU.
I hear the meta is a bit different on the NA servers... But from what I hear a lot of Miracle Rogue is being played there, so Handlock should be even better.
"I am Richard, Chief Warlock of the Brothers of Darkness, Lord of the Thirteen Hells, Master of the Bones, Emperor of the Black, Lord of the Undead, and The Mayor of a little village up the coast."
So many decks are running both the black knight and a big game hunter. Faceless manipulator crops up a fair bit as well. People really have it in for you...
Kinda seems that way. Just went 7-0 this morning with my own little version of zoolock. Up to level 5.
Overspecialize, and you breed in weakness.