I've just faced against 3 in a row. This is getting ridiculous, because they're always close and long games. Nothing against the deck personally. It's just annoying to play against a bunch of them in a row. Also clarifying, this isn't a salt thread (I won one of the games), but rather I was curious if anyone else is experiencing this.
Always been strong, and one of the better counters to grim patron. BGH seems a little bit less common these days, and handlock has always been able to take the hit on one giant - they only have to start worrying when TBK comes back into favor, and that requires a druid resurgence.
The main reason I play handlock is when I played MTG my favored deck was blue/black control. Handlock feels like that kind of deck to me. I'm not a great agro player, my favorite agro deck to play is midrange zoo which is not too agro at all, but much more so than handlock. I like being able to take my time to develop my board and strategy. Also, warlock was my class when I played WoW.
Right now everyone is playing hunter, mage or warrior netdecks. Handlock counters at least one of those.
People will always netdeck, and so long as there is a strong mage deck, people will play it because it's the option you start with. Same problem as the popularity of Terrans in Starcraft 2.
Because Mages don't run 2 copies of Polymorph anymore, they have a hard time dealing with 8/8 Giants. Therefore, Handlock will always be viable.
To understand why Handlock, one of the most consistently storng decks in HS history, became popular again, you have to understand why it disappeared from the Meta in the first place.
The reason was the utter dominance of Mechmage on ladder and Handlock's inability to deal with the early pressure or survive the fireball burst once they stabilized with moltens. So the period between the time when Mechmage really took off and the launch of BRM was basically Handlock free with a few exceptions.
Ever since BRM was released, Mech Mage has found quite a lot of adversaries that control the board even better in the early turns like Zoolock thanks to the Imp Gang Boss and the Flamewaker Tempo Mage.
The strong decline of Mech Mage however opened up the way for what was always a tier1 deck in Handlock. The popularity of the Grim Patron Warrior, a deck that has an unfavourable match-up against Handlock, is another reason.
Patron warriors popular - handlocks doing well against them most of the time. Thats you answer.
This, pretty much. Thinking on dusting my own HL off, sick of those Patron warrior gimmick players ruling the roost. I'm not great with HL, but I'm willing to learn.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I've just faced against 3 in a row. This is getting ridiculous, because they're always close and long games. Nothing against the deck personally. It's just annoying to play against a bunch of them in a row. Also clarifying, this isn't a salt thread (I won one of the games), but rather I was curious if anyone else is experiencing this.
Last moth handlock was all over the place in high legend, especially it was played a lot under a bunch of streamers.
Also many people reported seeing more CW and less hunter in the lower ranks so it does fit right in there.
No real mystery
Always been strong, and one of the better counters to grim patron. BGH seems a little bit less common these days, and handlock has always been able to take the hit on one giant - they only have to start worrying when TBK comes back into favor, and that requires a druid resurgence.
Right now everyone is playing hunter, mage or warrior netdecks. Handlock counters at least one of those.
Not sure if hyped yet.
The main reason I play handlock is when I played MTG my favored deck was blue/black control. Handlock feels like that kind of deck to me. I'm not a great agro player, my favorite agro deck to play is midrange zoo which is not too agro at all, but much more so than handlock. I like being able to take my time to develop my board and strategy. Also, warlock was my class when I played WoW.
People will always netdeck, and so long as there is a strong mage deck, people will play it because it's the option you start with. Same problem as the popularity of Terrans in Starcraft 2.
Because Mages don't run 2 copies of Polymorph anymore, they have a hard time dealing with 8/8 Giants. Therefore, Handlock will always be viable.
Rawr I'm a dinosaur
To understand why Handlock, one of the most consistently storng decks in HS history, became popular again, you have to understand why it disappeared from the Meta in the first place.
The reason was the utter dominance of Mechmage on ladder and Handlock's inability to deal with the early pressure or survive the fireball burst once they stabilized with moltens. So the period between the time when Mechmage really took off and the launch of BRM was basically Handlock free with a few exceptions.
Ever since BRM was released, Mech Mage has found quite a lot of adversaries that control the board even better in the early turns like Zoolock thanks to the Imp Gang Boss and the Flamewaker Tempo Mage.
The strong decline of Mech Mage however opened up the way for what was always a tier1 deck in Handlock. The popularity of the Grim Patron Warrior, a deck that has an unfavourable match-up against Handlock, is another reason.
Patron warriors popular - handlocks doing well against them most of the time. Thats you answer.
This, pretty much. Thinking on dusting my own HL off, sick of those Patron warrior gimmick players ruling the roost. I'm not great with HL, but I'm willing to learn.