The giants warlock deck I'm running is doing pretty well. I don't get to play in big blocks of time, so I am only rank 11 at the moment, but the win rate is close to 60% and I get a lot of win streaks with this deck over other decks, which aids a lot in the climb. I'm curious about the hand-priest deck...though as has already been stated, it doesn't appear to have the consistent draw engine that giants warlock has.
What is everyone's preferred openings with this deck? I usually go for the Mountain Giant turn 4 but that is too slow against a lot of decks. Any suggestions?
IMO that is a mistake. When you are in higher rankings you cannot take the luxury of waiting 4-5 turns to drop a mountain giant. By the time you do that your opponent may have flooded the board, and your giant is prone to polymorph, hex, or BGH ( I've seen a huge increase lately). try dropping AW turn 2 then taunt/ silence, you can also drop a Farseer, or coin a TD turn 3, if you have molten giants in your hand and some hell fires you may want to bait your opponent on flooding the field and then you can turn 4 hell fire, turn 5-6 doble Molten giant and ancient watcher when your life is low ( don't do this vs a hunter).
and the way i use Mountain giants is latter on in the game usually before dropping the molten giants. i rarely do a turn 4 Mountain giant drop unless i am 100% certain my opponent won't play anything dangerous until then.
Against most things turn 4 mountain is amazing however if you are playing against hunter rush you will want to open with your sunfury protectors and watchers. Order of priority for starting hand against hunter would be sunfury watcher mortal coil imo
I agree with you that waiting til turn 4 is often a mistake but a turn 4 mtn giant on an empty board is great. Even if it gets insta-removed, that's one fewer removal card the opponent will have for the myriad of large creatures in the deck still to come.
You have to try to get your hand according to what you are against. You cannot blindly go for turn 4 mountain giant or twilight drake. If against a hunter or another warlock (or rush), you have to mulligan for ancient watcher plus Sunfury, or at least an earthen ring farseer and also hellfire. If it turns out its another slow warlock deck, then you can try to tap into mountain or twilight drake, but I would never keep those in my hand at the beginning of the game. I think versus everything else mid-ranged or late game, its ok to go for turn 4 Mountain giant.
I was dumb and mulligan'd a mortal coil against a hunter, trying to get ancients or a sunfury, and I think I lost because of it. That is also a good card to have in hand against a suspected rush deck.
I've successfully outraced hunters with a turn one ancient watcher, turn two owl, etc. That doesn't always happen, but if you have the opening hand for it, don't go life tapping every turn. It's not always correct to play with a full grip.
Solid deck though 2x Doomsayer is a bit much. I imagine you probably have it for consistency but more often than not, the 2nd one is dead in the water. I'd replace him with a Sen'jin Shieldmasta or Shadow Bolt - also, there's no reason not to run 2x Soulfire in EVERY warlock deck. My $0.02.
You generally don't see Sacrificial Pact in Warlock, because there's no demons in most of the meta apart from Lord Jaraxxus and your Infernals. Dead card is dead card.
Now if you're screwing with your deck and throwing in demons, then sure, or if you're seeing a lot of Warlock aggro, whatever, sure again. But really, Pact isn't a great card unless you really changed your deck up.
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I am getting destroyed today with handlock. Rank 10 down to 11. Switching back to mid range hunter now. A lot of it has been luck of not getting hellfires when i need them no jarraxus in 4 games etc. Frustrating none the less.
Question: if after mulligan, you end up with Ancient Watcher and Ironbeak Owl in your hand, do you just play them turn 2 and 3 (or 1 and 2 if you have coin) regardless of the matchup? Or if it is Ancient Watcher plus Sunfury Protector? Obviously you go for this against an agro deck, but what if its not agro and you don't have Mountain Giant or Twilight Drake yet? Keep tapping for them, or just play the watcher combo?
Question: if after mulligan, you end up with Ancient Watcher and Ironbeak Owl in your hand, do you just play them turn 2 and 3 (or 1 and 2 if you have coin) regardless of the matchup? Or if it is Ancient Watcher plus Sunfury Protector? Obviously you go for this against an agro deck, but what if its not agro and you don't have Mountain Giant or Twilight Drake yet? Keep tapping for them, or just play the watcher combo?
Of course you would save Owl if you can tell your foe can play something that has more impact than a vanilla Watcher. Flametongue, Frothing, Shieldbearer, Scarlet Crusader etc etc.
If it isn't aggro then what's the point of investing in taunt? Tap is the choice here.
There is really no chance against experienced hunter with handlock deck. I used the variant with Malygos and both Alex and LJ and got ideal starting hand. Turn 2 watcher, turn 4 second watched + sunfury, then mountain giant, he used trap and UtH with hunter's mark, then drake, then I used Molten Giant and ANOTHER taunt with sunfury - and ut was still not enough, I thought I have this game when I sihpon souled his arcane golem, but then - after he killed my last taunt previous turn he used - weapon, hero power and kill command and I was finished (next turn I would win) - so ideal hand, ideal taunts and still not enough..that's a pitty, because last 4 games I owned 2 druids, mage and ZOO lock (all rank 6).
There is really no chance against experienced hunter with handlock deck. I used the variant with Malygos and both Alex and LJ and got ideal starting hand. Turn 2 watcher, turn 4 second watched + sunfury, then mountain giant, he used trap and UtH with hunter's mark, then drake, then I used Molten Giant and ANOTHER taunt with sunfury - and ut was still not enough, I thought I have this game when I sihpon souled his arcane golem, but then - after he killed my last taunt previous turn he used - weapon, hero power and kill command and I was finished (next turn I would win) - so ideal hand, ideal taunts and still not enough..that's a pitty, because last 4 games I owned 2 druids, mage and ZOO lock (all rank 6).
Look like Kill Command is the card to watch for here. Everytime I win it's because my opponent didn't have Kill Command and I had taunts.
u have had more success withpriest??? im surprised because it doesnt have te draw power and the hero power seems to lack chemistry
at this point im down to try anything thoigh. gonna replace 1 swp with alextraza and give it a go
The giants warlock deck I'm running is doing pretty well. I don't get to play in big blocks of time, so I am only rank 11 at the moment, but the win rate is close to 60% and I get a lot of win streaks with this deck over other decks, which aids a lot in the climb. I'm curious about the hand-priest deck...though as has already been stated, it doesn't appear to have the consistent draw engine that giants warlock has.
http://www.twitch.tv/allerahk
Mostly playing Druid/Priest in ranked, and arena when I have the gold.
What is everyone's preferred openings with this deck? I usually go for the Mountain Giant turn 4 but that is too slow against a lot of decks. Any suggestions?
Decks:
OBLIVION! I Ancestral Shaman I Mid-Range Rogue
Current Rank: 15
IMO that is a mistake. When you are in higher rankings you cannot take the luxury of waiting 4-5 turns to drop a mountain giant. By the time you do that your opponent may have flooded the board, and your giant is prone to polymorph, hex, or BGH ( I've seen a huge increase lately). try dropping AW turn 2 then taunt/ silence, you can also drop a Farseer, or coin a TD turn 3, if you have molten giants in your hand and some hell fires you may want to bait your opponent on flooding the field and then you can turn 4 hell fire, turn 5-6 doble Molten giant and ancient watcher when your life is low ( don't do this vs a hunter).
and the way i use Mountain giants is latter on in the game usually before dropping the molten giants. i rarely do a turn 4 Mountain giant drop unless i am 100% certain my opponent won't play anything dangerous until then.
Against most things turn 4 mountain is amazing however if you are playing against hunter rush you will want to open with your sunfury protectors and watchers. Order of priority for starting hand against hunter would be sunfury watcher mortal coil imo
I agree with you that waiting til turn 4 is often a mistake but a turn 4 mtn giant on an empty board is great. Even if it gets insta-removed, that's one fewer removal card the opponent will have for the myriad of large creatures in the deck still to come.
'Go home and be a family man!'
Decks (Current as of 12/28):
Sonic boom! | Iron Juggernaut | Rogue
You have to try to get your hand according to what you are against. You cannot blindly go for turn 4 mountain giant or twilight drake. If against a hunter or another warlock (or rush), you have to mulligan for ancient watcher plus Sunfury, or at least an earthen ring farseer and also hellfire. If it turns out its another slow warlock deck, then you can try to tap into mountain or twilight drake, but I would never keep those in my hand at the beginning of the game. I think versus everything else mid-ranged or late game, its ok to go for turn 4 Mountain giant.
I was dumb and mulligan'd a mortal coil against a hunter, trying to get ancients or a sunfury, and I think I lost because of it. That is also a good card to have in hand against a suspected rush deck.
http://www.twitch.tv/allerahk
Mostly playing Druid/Priest in ranked, and arena when I have the gold.
I've successfully outraced hunters with a turn one ancient watcher, turn two owl, etc. That doesn't always happen, but if you have the opening hand for it, don't go life tapping every turn. It's not always correct to play with a full grip.
Here's my current decklist:
HandLock is too much fun.
Solid deck though 2x Doomsayer is a bit much. I imagine you probably have it for consistency but more often than not, the 2nd one is dead in the water. I'd replace him with a Sen'jin Shieldmasta or Shadow Bolt - also, there's no reason not to run 2x Soulfire in EVERY warlock deck. My $0.02.
'Go home and be a family man!'
Decks (Current as of 12/28):
Sonic boom! | Iron Juggernaut | Rogue
What I am running atm. Trying to figure out what to keep and what to lose. Alex is new as I just pulled it today!
im thinking cairne,rag, blackknight are unnecessary, and that u may need another mortal coil, sylvanas and ironbeak owl.
My thinking is that, against decks that run huge taunts, u can just silence them with ironbeak owl, or rely on a big shadowflame to clear board etc.
I also like sylvanas in these lists. mortal coil might not be necessary but i guess its pretty popular.
Crafted Jaraxxus today to play Handlock and I'm enjoying it, anyone considered Sacrificial Pact for the mirror?
You generally don't see Sacrificial Pact in Warlock, because there's no demons in most of the meta apart from Lord Jaraxxus and your Infernals. Dead card is dead card.
Now if you're screwing with your deck and throwing in demons, then sure, or if you're seeing a lot of Warlock aggro, whatever, sure again. But really, Pact isn't a great card unless you really changed your deck up.
If you see a post that you find objectionable, report it, it helps keep the forum clean. But be aware people are allowed a lot of latitude.
If you find my posts to be rude, objectionable, or whatever, well, I got tired of writing polite TL; DR (Too Long, Didn't Read) posts at crybaby whiners. So now I just make it short and nasty.
If you find that funny, well and good. If you find that sad, that's even better.
I am getting destroyed today with handlock. Rank 10 down to 11. Switching back to mid range hunter now. A lot of it has been luck of not getting hellfires when i need them no jarraxus in 4 games etc. Frustrating none the less.
Pact insta kills someone who has become jaraxxus, no?
I also see a lot of zoo and murlock
It does however you cant put a card in a deck hoping for a mirror match unless handlock is flooding meta which its not at the moment
Question: if after mulligan, you end up with Ancient Watcher and Ironbeak Owl in your hand, do you just play them turn 2 and 3 (or 1 and 2 if you have coin) regardless of the matchup? Or if it is Ancient Watcher plus Sunfury Protector? Obviously you go for this against an agro deck, but what if its not agro and you don't have Mountain Giant or Twilight Drake yet? Keep tapping for them, or just play the watcher combo?
http://www.twitch.tv/allerahk
Mostly playing Druid/Priest in ranked, and arena when I have the gold.
Of course you would save Owl if you can tell your foe can play something that has more impact than a vanilla Watcher. Flametongue, Frothing, Shieldbearer, Scarlet Crusader etc etc.
If it isn't aggro then what's the point of investing in taunt? Tap is the choice here.
There is really no chance against experienced hunter with handlock deck. I used the variant with Malygos and both Alex and LJ and got ideal starting hand. Turn 2 watcher, turn 4 second watched + sunfury, then mountain giant, he used trap and UtH with hunter's mark, then drake, then I used Molten Giant and ANOTHER taunt with sunfury - and ut was still not enough, I thought I have this game when I sihpon souled his arcane golem, but then - after he killed my last taunt previous turn he used - weapon, hero power and kill command and I was finished (next turn I would win) - so ideal hand, ideal taunts and still not enough..that's a pitty, because last 4 games I owned 2 druids, mage and ZOO lock (all rank 6).
Look like Kill Command is the card to watch for here. Everytime I win it's because my opponent didn't have Kill Command and I had taunts.