I really like the discard archetype that warlock has. I had the quest and zavas, but i DE them after in ungoro they were a failure (yeah, i learned never to DE fun cards). Now with jeklik, the deck really seems viable. With infinite imps and taunts with lifesteal, i'm serously considering recrafting them.
I know the deck will not be viable for rank. Maybe i'll get to rank 10, but i know i won't get legend with it. That's not the point. I hope i'll have at least 50% winrate in casual/low ranks.
I also play wild mostly, so discard will be more powerful there (with golems and imps and fists). I can make 3 legendaries (2 of wich will be the quest and jeklik, the other maybe zavas, or maybe 4 epics). None of the other legendaries impress me (besides hakar, but ill get more succes with discard than with him). I usualy play priest, and both of his legendaries suck.
So, with nothing else really appealing to me, should i craft the discard package?
Op, I've opened Jeklik on day one and really glad that I did. It may not be the top-tier deck, but I haven't had this much fun tinkering with decks since I opened Emeriss. First, I must admit that I never saw the appeal of discardlock, I tried a few builds in the past and always hated it. It was never the cards you wanted to get discarded that got discarded and there was too much RNG to do any sort of planning. Even now, my first few iterations of this deck sucked, but as I kept refining it I came up with something competitive, something that feels powerful.
The deck is entirely built around High Priestess Jeklik, I always try to hard-mulligan for her. If you get her in opening hand, you're almost guaranteed to outvalue the opponent (even if you don't play her, because she takes the discard hit for your Doomguards that opponent has to overextend to remove. If you don't get her quickly enough, however, you probably won't do well. She's like Keleseth, but even more polar.
Now, as far as other variants/things you mention, here is the conclusion I came to after testing:
Hand-buffing seems to work well and feels like the strongest variant to me (see bottom of the post for the deck).
Don't bother with discard synergies in wild, they're not that good. The imps do more harm than good, putting you into fatigue, silverware golem is not worth it as he doesn't provide enough tempo, and overall this deck feels weaker compared to other more powerful wild decks. But it does well in standard.
The quest is not that good, even now. I've been beating quest-discard warlocks with my deck, they feel too slow. The quest seems to have 2 problems with it: it forces you to over-discard (you really don't want to discard as aggressively as the quest encourages you to), and once you do complete it, it wastes 3 board spots for 2 3/2 minions, which don't help much after turn 8 or so.
Skull of the Man'ari is not that good. Initially I thought I'd put it in along with a Voidlord or two since I was already carrying Doomguards and DK Gul'dan. It seemed like a good idea, I get strong demons played for free before the turn starts and discard all other crap to buff my Jeklik further. What ended up happening is I lost ability to use one of my most consistent discard cards (Doomguard) to start the Jeklik chain, while having my hand full of inconsistent discard effects and cards I didn't want to lose. It basically made my hand unplayable.
A single good discard outweighs 2-3 bad ones. Therefore, cards that discard 1 random minion (i.e. Succubus) are actually worse than those that discard 2 (Doomguard). In fact, the main problem with effect seems to be RNG, which is why I tried to maximize control over what gets discarded (i.e. Soularium).
Similar to above bullet, consistency is key, therefore discarding more is often better than less. Discarding entire hand (with Jeklik in it, even if you lose other good cards) is better than just discarding 1 random card you wanted to keep. Cards like Cataclysm and Deathwing have been great in this deck.
What this deck is still missing to become competitive is ability to get Jeklik in hand quickly enough. If there was a card like Countess Ashmore that pulls a lifesteal card from the deck, but cheaper, I'd put it into this deck without thinking twice about it.
From what I've seen so far it looks very promising. Jeklik is just absolutely nuts, especially if you also run a bit of Handbuff (just SOul Infusion would be enough).
We have finally reached the critical mass of discard where finishing the quest is now actually possible at a reasonable pace, which means you can pressure combo and control decks. Aggro is probably a bit tougher, but come on, we are Warlock, we should manage, especially with all those taunts..
I once almost lost against a Quest deck as Kingsbane Rogue and basically only won because I got perfect curve all the way through. If I didn't have all my saps and vanish i owuldn't have been able to go past the taunt walls and kill them...and it was fairly close as well.
I'm just waiting for my last pity timer to reset then I'M crafting Jeklik and get to work. Maybe it's not gonna be a tier 1 deck, but it's the most playable it's ever been, and that's saying a lot.
The Hearthstone Pack Gods have given me EVERY warlock discard legendary and I was actually glad to see that trend continue last week. Actually won two recent games using the KOFT Blood Queen card.
Discolock is a fun alternative, especially if you have the quest, Now it's actually able to win, but not consistently.
It's a gamble to play every time. Also, no one has made the perfect deck for it, so it's got room for your own experimentation to what you commonly face.
I really like the discard archetype that warlock has. I had the quest and zavas, but i DE them after in ungoro they were a failure (yeah, i learned never to DE fun cards). Now with jeklik, the deck really seems viable. With infinite imps and taunts with lifesteal, i'm serously considering recrafting them.
I know the deck will not be viable for rank. Maybe i'll get to rank 10, but i know i won't get legend with it. That's not the point. I hope i'll have at least 50% winrate in casual/low ranks.
I also play wild mostly, so discard will be more powerful there (with golems and imps and fists). I can make 3 legendaries (2 of wich will be the quest and jeklik, the other maybe zavas, or maybe 4 epics). None of the other legendaries impress me (besides hakar, but ill get more succes with discard than with him). I usualy play priest, and both of his legendaries suck.
So, with nothing else really appealing to me, should i craft the discard package?
Yes, discard warlock is playable. I don't think it is top tier, but it is definitely good enough to rank up with.
I am having fun win this deck. It's a bit weird though, but I usually have a full hand of buffed High Priestess Jeklik by the game's end:
https://outof.cards
Op, I've opened Jeklik on day one and really glad that I did. It may not be the top-tier deck, but I haven't had this much fun tinkering with decks since I opened Emeriss. First, I must admit that I never saw the appeal of discardlock, I tried a few builds in the past and always hated it. It was never the cards you wanted to get discarded that got discarded and there was too much RNG to do any sort of planning. Even now, my first few iterations of this deck sucked, but as I kept refining it I came up with something competitive, something that feels powerful.
Here is an example of how my current deck plays: https://hsreplay.net/replay/gSfDuwuSt2v2H3Yj5rvDfW
The deck is entirely built around High Priestess Jeklik, I always try to hard-mulligan for her. If you get her in opening hand, you're almost guaranteed to outvalue the opponent (even if you don't play her, because she takes the discard hit for your Doomguards that opponent has to overextend to remove. If you don't get her quickly enough, however, you probably won't do well. She's like Keleseth, but even more polar.
Now, as far as other variants/things you mention, here is the conclusion I came to after testing:
From what I've seen so far it looks very promising. Jeklik is just absolutely nuts, especially if you also run a bit of Handbuff (just SOul Infusion would be enough).
We have finally reached the critical mass of discard where finishing the quest is now actually possible at a reasonable pace, which means you can pressure combo and control decks. Aggro is probably a bit tougher, but come on, we are Warlock, we should manage, especially with all those taunts..
I once almost lost against a Quest deck as Kingsbane Rogue and basically only won because I got perfect curve all the way through. If I didn't have all my saps and vanish i owuldn't have been able to go past the taunt walls and kill them...and it was fairly close as well.
I'm just waiting for my last pity timer to reset then I'M crafting Jeklik and get to work. Maybe it's not gonna be a tier 1 deck, but it's the most playable it's ever been, and that's saying a lot.
I tried having fun once. It was awful.
You can also buff her :D
Leper Gnome
The Hearthstone Pack Gods have given me EVERY warlock discard legendary and I was actually glad to see that trend continue last week. Actually won two recent games using the KOFT Blood Queen card.
Discolock is a fun alternative, especially if you have the quest, Now it's actually able to win, but not consistently.
It's a gamble to play every time. Also, no one has made the perfect deck for it, so it's got room for your own experimentation to what you commonly face.
I played this just for fun the other day and won with a 14/6 Blood Queen and board full of Jekliks