Murloc decks are like cheeses: each has its own unique flavor. Just as you might prefer Morbier over Camembert, you may find that certain versions of murloc builds suit you more than others. Some murloc decks are well-rounded if not a little bland (not unlike Cheddar), while others are as gutsy and pungent as even the boldest Roqueforts. All of them have the same ingredients, but subtle variations in the process make for a myriad of truly distinct final products.
Enough vague cheese-chatter. Let's get down to the creamy core of the matter.
Here is the evolving journey the murloc deck I am currently using has undertaken since I first began using it.
I borrowed without permission stole the deck from top 100 European player Konfu. His murloc deck looks like this:
At first glance, it seems pretty standard. The Black Knight might seem like an oddball, but I'm guessing Konfu wanted to fit his non-crafted legendary to take out the taunt walls upwards of the fifth turn of play. An acceptable budget replacement might look like Doom Guard. The discard cost might seem high, but I've found that in those later turns Doom Guard is one of the last cards in my hand. Besides, most of the times I've used it was on the final punch.
Here's where the flavor didn't agree with me: Void Terror. If you're a player of Konfu's caliber and have the depth of vision to master using Void Terror—go for it. In the right hands, I'm sure Void Terror is sublime. However, my hands are not the right hands. Every time I tried to get fancy with Power Overwhelming followed by Void Terror combos, I would do it without keeping track of my opponent's hexes and knockout spells. This meant I lost the game since I had funneled my spread attack into one—now dead—Void Terror.
At around rank 13, I had to tweak my cheese. I swapped out Void Terror for Spellbreaker—a change which I borrowed without permission stole from this deck:
Spellbreaker offers taunt removal which frees up that Black Knight in Konfu's version.
At around the sixth turn and past that, I was running into a lot of card droughts. Save some exceptions, my mana wasn't going to life tap in the early game. That may very well be a playstyle error on my part, but I decided to do the mature and sensible thing: I blamed the cards and tweaked the deck.
I switched out one soulfire for a mortal coil and added a Loot Hoarder, both emphasizing a focus on card drawing outside of life tap. For me, I'm all early game detail. My whole setup can rely on something as small as the extra health point a priestess puts on my void walker at the end of turn one (assuming that I have the mana coin, of course), thus enabling it to survive a hit from a minion+hero attack during the second turn—or whatever.
My cheese is sneaky and deceptive. Knowing what AOE each class has and its mana cost lets me more accurately predict when it will come (like those predictable fourth/fifth turn consecrations). In turn, that information allows me to gauge how much of my attack force I put on the board. I always keep a second group ready to be summoned right after the AOE hits. If a hunter has a secret and he all of a sudden stopped trying to keep up with the rush, I'm not attacking until I summon Coldlight Seer and get my murlocs above two health. Baiting AOE's and pretending to be going all-out when I actually have fresh sets ready-to-go has worked for me so far. If your deck wreaks of rush, your opponent will be able to detect you from the get go—much like we can detect if an especially smelly cheese is in the vicinity.
So to answer your question (lol), I think murloc decks are a great option for powering through the ranks. They're fast, intense, and very customizable. Whatever your dust-budget, murloc decks can leave your opponents feeling cheesed. At around rank 10 and higher, I have found it very challenging to beat an on-their-game hunter with my current murloc build. A more skilled player may have no issues with hunters whatsoever, however, my experience has been that hunters can stop a rush cold. Exploding traps, hounds, and buzzard draw make it harder to get momentum going. Maybe I should try funneling my spread attack into one minion to counter the hounds, but how would I go about doing that? (OMGVOIDTERROROMGOMGOMG)
From my perspective, the Murloc decks are popular in part because they're rather "budget" in terms of dust/draws. You have two legendaries, one of which is automatically provided, and only one epic x2. As a deck to use in order to learn the meta and hold your own, it's hard to argue for some of those legendary-packed lists that are way tougher to put together and require more understanding and knowledge to make smart down-swaps if you don't have all the right expensive cards.
Murloc was the first deck that I, as someone who started with the open beta, ran to try to complete since it was very in reach and still rather competitive. The reality is that as the FotW and meta changes, you need that huge stock of cards to keep up with it at all in an on-the-ball fashion.
The two lists Cheese suggests above are still feeling competitive as much as a rush deck can feel competitive. The issue with Rush, as Cheese noted, is that when it works it works well but when it gets disrupted and your tempo drops, it's a quick fall to the bottom where you're reaching for that "concede" button. Don't expect to faceroll everything, but for a deck that can keep up with the top-tier it's rather simple and easy to put together and get playing. Rush is fragile, but when it clicks you'll feel great. The trick is doing everything you can (duh) to make it work which is often quite difficult and frustrating.
Murloc still strong. Very useful for climbing the ladder (hello February!) and even competitive at legendary ranks (a number of legendary streamers have a murloc deck they switch to sometimes).
have sufficient dust to create a murloc deck, but not sure if they are still op to reach higher ranks, and which vercion do you recommend?
You could make it to grind to a decent ranking in a quicker fashion, but I'm not sure how it will do in the higher rankings.
Murloc decks are like cheeses: each has its own unique flavor. Just as you might prefer Morbier over Camembert, you may find that certain versions of murloc builds suit you more than others. Some murloc decks are well-rounded if not a little bland (not unlike Cheddar), while others are as gutsy and pungent as even the boldest Roqueforts. All of them have the same ingredients, but subtle variations in the process make for a myriad of truly distinct final products.
Enough vague cheese-chatter. Let's get down to the creamy core of the matter.
Here is the evolving journey the murloc deck I am currently using has undertaken since I first began using it.
I borrowed without permission stole the deck from top 100 European player Konfu. His murloc deck looks like this:
At first glance, it seems pretty standard. The Black Knight might seem like an oddball, but I'm guessing Konfu wanted to fit his non-crafted legendary to take out the taunt walls upwards of the fifth turn of play. An acceptable budget replacement might look like Doom Guard. The discard cost might seem high, but I've found that in those later turns Doom Guard is one of the last cards in my hand. Besides, most of the times I've used it was on the final punch.
Here's where the flavor didn't agree with me: Void Terror. If you're a player of Konfu's caliber and have the depth of vision to master using Void Terror—go for it. In the right hands, I'm sure Void Terror is sublime. However, my hands are not the right hands. Every time I tried to get fancy with Power Overwhelming followed by Void Terror combos, I would do it without keeping track of my opponent's hexes and knockout spells. This meant I lost the game since I had funneled my spread attack into one—now dead—Void Terror.
At around rank 13, I had to tweak my cheese. I swapped out Void Terror for Spellbreaker—a change which I borrowed without permission stole from this deck:
Spellbreaker offers taunt removal which frees up that Black Knight in Konfu's version.
At around the sixth turn and past that, I was running into a lot of card droughts. Save some exceptions, my mana wasn't going to life tap in the early game. That may very well be a playstyle error on my part, but I decided to do the mature and sensible thing: I blamed the cards and tweaked the deck.
I switched out one soulfire for a mortal coil and added a Loot Hoarder, both emphasizing a focus on card drawing outside of life tap. For me, I'm all early game detail. My whole setup can rely on something as small as the extra health point a priestess puts on my void walker at the end of turn one (assuming that I have the mana coin, of course), thus enabling it to survive a hit from a minion+hero attack during the second turn—or whatever.
My cheese is sneaky and deceptive. Knowing what AOE each class has and its mana cost lets me more accurately predict when it will come (like those predictable fourth/fifth turn consecrations). In turn, that information allows me to gauge how much of my attack force I put on the board. I always keep a second group ready to be summoned right after the AOE hits. If a hunter has a secret and he all of a sudden stopped trying to keep up with the rush, I'm not attacking until I summon Coldlight Seer and get my murlocs above two health. Baiting AOE's and pretending to be going all-out when I actually have fresh sets ready-to-go has worked for me so far. If your deck wreaks of rush, your opponent will be able to detect you from the get go—much like we can detect if an especially smelly cheese is in the vicinity.
So to answer your question (lol), I think murloc decks are a great option for powering through the ranks. They're fast, intense, and very customizable. Whatever your dust-budget, murloc decks can leave your opponents feeling cheesed. At around rank 10 and higher, I have found it very challenging to beat an on-their-game hunter with my current murloc build. A more skilled player may have no issues with hunters whatsoever, however, my experience has been that hunters can stop a rush cold. Exploding traps, hounds, and buzzard draw make it harder to get momentum going. Maybe I should try funneling my spread attack into one minion to counter the hounds, but how would I go about doing that? (OMGVOIDTERROROMGOMGOMG)
From my perspective, the Murloc decks are popular in part because they're rather "budget" in terms of dust/draws. You have two legendaries, one of which is automatically provided, and only one epic x2. As a deck to use in order to learn the meta and hold your own, it's hard to argue for some of those legendary-packed lists that are way tougher to put together and require more understanding and knowledge to make smart down-swaps if you don't have all the right expensive cards.
Murloc was the first deck that I, as someone who started with the open beta, ran to try to complete since it was very in reach and still rather competitive. The reality is that as the FotW and meta changes, you need that huge stock of cards to keep up with it at all in an on-the-ball fashion.
The two lists Cheese suggests above are still feeling competitive as much as a rush deck can feel competitive. The issue with Rush, as Cheese noted, is that when it works it works well but when it gets disrupted and your tempo drops, it's a quick fall to the bottom where you're reaching for that "concede" button. Don't expect to faceroll everything, but for a deck that can keep up with the top-tier it's rather simple and easy to put together and get playing. Rush is fragile, but when it clicks you'll feel great. The trick is doing everything you can (duh) to make it work which is often quite difficult and frustrating.
WARNING: Opinions change with the meta!
Watch me play! Laugh at my mistakes!
Murloc still strong. Very useful for climbing the ladder (hello February!) and even competitive at legendary ranks (a number of legendary streamers have a murloc deck they switch to sometimes).