Hearthpwn

Having played Handlock a lot lately, I can tell you the biggest mistake I see people playing is using their executes far too soon. Most people execute the first big minion that I drop. That's a big mistake.

Remember that Handlock has 4 giants and Thaurissian. Save one execute for Thaurissian. More than any other class I can get multiple ticks out of him with Handlock because he's often behind massive taunts and my opponents have already used their hard removals. If that happens it's game over for you.  Don't use your executes on Drakes. Don't use your Brawl unless there's a giant or Thaurissian on the field.  

Also if you're playing against Warlock and they coin out a Lifetap on turn 1, it's probably a Handlock and he probably has 0 Twilight Drakes in his hand. Often if I have the coin + a Twilight Drake I'll keep it to coin out the Drake on T3 and hope to draw the second to play on T4. But if I get no Drakes in my mulligan, I'll just play the coin for an early lifetap.

I also run a single Void Terror and a Faceless Manipulator in my handlock so there's a 5th big minion and potentially 5 giants or 2x thaurissan's etc. Can't say it enough - hold on to your executes and brawls!

Quote from TrollShroud3 jump

There are no bad cards, only bad players.

There are plenty of bad cards. From a competitive standpoint the majority of the cards in Hearthstone are bad cards. That's actually how it should be and how it is with pretty much every CCG. Less than 10% of the cards from any given expansion are going to be viable competitively. 

What'd we get out of TGT? Maybe 15 cards which are viable for competitive play? Maybe 20?

Crafting is already in the game. I don't see Blizzard bothering to add an option to 'fuse' cards. You'd still need 8 copies anyway, otherwise people will just be 'fusing' everything and dusting the golds for profit. 

Quote from WingedSoulz jump

How has Chillmaw been working out for you?
I'm wondering if it is worth crafting just to stuff it into this deck. I mainly been running Vol'jin to take out other Dragon Priest with annoying high health dragons (i.e. Ysera, Nefarian, and Chillmaw), but i can definitely see how a extra 3 damage AOE would help.

Other then that the Eydis Darkbane seems like a really solid add. I might replace it for one Shrinkmeister or Dark Cultist. But I'm kinda unsure on the Blackwing Technician, or more specifically how much it is gonna help over a  Dark Cultist.

I wasn't a fan of Chillmaw at first, but now I am. 

If you play it right, it has tremendous value but playing it to get that value feels a bit counter-intuitive. I keep Chillmaw as a dragon activator. I actually barely ever need to play him, but the way to get best value is to only ever play him when your opponent cannot clear and re-establish the board on the same turn. This means he's pretty useless to play on Turn 7 and also fairly useless against aggro unless you've got no other option. 

However if you can drop him when your opponent has just emptied his hand of cards and then trigger his deathrattle to clear the board, the tempo swing is HUGE. Especially since DP has such good card draw that you'll almost always have card advantage if you've played right.

There's always something to flame about, in every game lol. 

People are just idiots. I don't accept friend requests from Random's unless we've literally just had a really good game and both have said 'Well Played' at the end because that indicates to me they're a good sport.  

I struggled to find value in Chillmaw for the first few weeks of using him, but now I see exactly how he should be played:

Chillmaw is best held as a Dragon activator until your opponent has almost no cards. The worst result is dropping Chillmaw only to have your opponent clear him and then build the board on the same turn, which means that he's pointless to play on curve most of the time unless you have no other options. You get no advantage from playing him this way, in fact you lose tempo and probably get yourself killed within in the next few turns.

So I find it's best to hold him until very late in the game when your opponent either can't clear him, or can clear him but has no options to rebuild his board that same turn - this gives you the tempo swing that you need in the late game to win. He actually works much better against mid/control etc than aggro I find. On those games that nearly go to fatigue he's saved me a bunch of times so far by just holding him until the very end game.

Typically I almost never end up actually playing him, however now when I do find occasion the value is usually enough to win me the game.

Dreadscale is good, I've been playing him in a Mid Hunter with some. He actually seems to be better as a late game drop to either clear an aggro board or weaken a fairly solid board before playing other options. Dropping him early game works, but you never get more than one use out of him. I've found he becomes much more viable later in the game especially when your opponent inevitably over-extends with few cards in their hand (in the case of aggro). 

Acidmaw I wouldn't bother with. Got him once out of a drop (think it was Ram Wrangler) and he was okay in that specific situation but only because I didn't actually have to play him.

I tech'd in Mass Dispel about a week ago to deal with Secret Pally. Mixed results, but when it works it works beautifully. 

Also I'm running Chillmaw instead of Voljin and Eydis Darkbane in place of one Dark Cultist. Eydis works quite well if you can avoid dropping her early. If you drop her early she gets taken out every time, but after turn 6 or 7 when you have some other minions on the board you can often get at least two uses out of her power.

Edit: Also only running 1 Shrinkmeister since there's only one Shadow Priest. Blackwing Technician in it's place.

Ysera, no question.

Thanks mate, I appreciate your comprehensive answer. 

I will make the Powershot change because in reality it is just not working the way I hoped it would. I was trying to use it as an early game delay against aggro but half the time I'm not getting full value and the other half I'm not fully killing the three targets. 

I'll have a play with Stranglethorn as well and see how I go with that. 

My only other real question is your personal thoughts on Dreadscale. I'm actually really, really liking him in this deck. He's won me a lot of games against aggro by providing a late board clear or at minimum weakening the board, and when hit with a Houndmaster he attracts hard removal like nothing else. 

He's also awesome to drop just before boom because of the above - attracts everything they can throw at him and then Boom comes out next turn quite often on a clear or mostly clear board.

Just had an excellent game with a tempo/mech mage which I lost, but in which I discovered why Chillmaw is so valuable. 

It's turn nine. Mage has a 7/4 Dr. Boom on the board and 1 card, which he plays. Mana Wyrm. He's on 6 life. I've got nothing on the board and I'm on 10 life, which he quickly reduces to 3 with Boom. I've got Twilight Drake, Velen's Chosen, Wyrmrest Agent and another card in my hand (possibly Dark Cultist). 

My turn, draw and play my nice shiny Chillmaw and heal back to 5. Still got the Drake and everything ready. Instantly knew in that moment why Chillmaw is far better than I gave it credit for.
 
Turn 10, he draws and runs Boom into Chillmaw clearing everything and pings my face for 1 and then ends his turn. I'm pretty happy right here, thinking he's got something useless in his hand. I know he's already played his Fireballs and 1 Frostbolt. On my move I play Wyrmrest Agent, Drake and then hit it with Velen's Chosen to make it a 5/10 - ain't nothing but Pyroblast or Deathwing is getting to this minion next turn*. 

Turn 11 he topdecks Pyroblast and kills me! Haha! All's fair in love and hearthstone and it was an enjoyable game that Chillmaw would have won for me if it weren't for a fairly well timed draw. 

*Thinking back here I left myself exposed to a second Frostbolt, so I should have healed instead of playing Wyrmrest Agent, but I wanted to trigger it with the Drake.

Thanks. Ram Wranglers only in there at the moment for some play testing. Normally I'd probably run something else. 

Elekk just don't give you enough value. Creeper has synergy with Knife Juggler, Scientist speaks for itself and I'd rather the silence from Owl than card draw from Elekk so there's really no where it fits into this particular deck.

Rag or Ysera. Both are great control cards but in CW they benefit from Varian's synergy greatly.

Can't tell you how many matches I've won from a 10 drop Varian into Rag, even from behind.

Geddon will help you if you're having trouble with aggro decks, but to be honest I'm not a big fan and have removed him from my CW setup. If you play right most aggro decks aren't a problem unless they're super fast.

Seems like you don't have Nax or BRM? You've got 4 secrets but no Mad Scientists to draw them out. 

Either add Mad Scientists if you have them or I'd remove both Bear Traps and replace them with something like Hunter's Mark, Unleash the Hounds, Flare, Knife Jugglers etc.

Hello Mr Sauce. I've been playing around with Dreadscale and Powershot in a Mid Range Hunter list, could you give me your opinion of both cards as well as this list? 

So far this season I've been struggling. Usually sit around Rank 9 but this season I've struggled to get below Rank 18. This deck so far has carried me back to Rank 10 without an issue.

I was running Argent Horserider in place of Dreadscale/Powershot which I think is what people are typically running at the moment, but I just didn't feel like I was getting any value out of it other than the odd two for one.