Hearthpwn

I'd be okay with any cool skin as long as we get it at all. I'm surprised it's taking Blizzard so long considering how popular the class is.

Things you need to get legend:

• a viable deck or two that you're very comfortable playing
• decent knowledge of the meta/other decks 
• patience
• determination
• some luck (yes, sometimes even at rank 1 you simply can't OUTSKILL the RNG)

Getting legend is really not that hard. I've never used decktracker or whatever and got there four times. It's only somewhat thrilling the first time, however. After that the climb becomes routine.

I am a "legend player". Reached it 4 times now (in the first two weeks of respective season) and climbed above rank 5 plenty of times. I pushed from 16 to 9 on the first two days this season, with zoo, having no problem against other "legend players". Took a break. Climbed up to 6. Now playing N'Zoth Paladin and losing to zoo whenever I don't draw a clear right on time while warriors are easymode for the paladin. Zoo is by far one of the most comfortable decks to climb with right now. I've always used zoo to climb and it doesn't feel weaker in Standard at all.

Last season, for example, my most memorable losses at rank 1 with zoo were to dumb MC Tech RNG on a full board, something I couldn't play around at all for obvious reasons. This season I only lost if the opponent drew perfect answers on curve while my hand was shit/awkward, they were playing a gimmicky deck I couldn't have hoped to mulligan for and "outplay", or, again, dumb RNG (freaking Yogg in casino and a random Geddon in evo shaman come to mind). Adding Hellfire actually helped improve the matchups against patron, the mirror tentacle fiesta and occasional shaman. Never did I feel like zoo wasn't a tier 1 deck or a matchup was "unwinnable" even if zoo was somewhat unfavored. Never. In my experience to improve your winrate now all you have to do is study the meta and tinker with zoo accordingly.

I frankly have no idea what kind of zoo you play and why warriors intimidate you so much. They do have bad matchups. Renolock is still a thing and it bullies patron. Jaraxxus bullies CW. N'Zoth Pala bullies patron and depending on the build does the same to CW. Miracle is favored against CW. Midrange Shaman can do a number on CW. Zoo is favored against CW, etc. So no, there's no "warrior meta" with "no bad matchups" and yes zoo is definitely one of the top tier decks.

Aggro is fast, consistent, rewarding and ~relatively~ cheap all in one. That's it.

I'm still winning against warriors just fine? Also haven't lost against miracle even once, all thanks to Argus, Spellbreaker (nice two two legendary, Valeera) and an overwhelming board that runs rogue out of cards before they can get greedy with Auctioneer. And like I said, paladin without a timely aoe (sometimes multiple AoEs in a row) is easy prey. Control priest was and still is a bad matchup, but it's winnable.  The thing is, those matchups are very far from polarizing, compared to freeze vs CW, where the CW just needs to *yawn* armor up. 

I don't know where on Earth you got the idea that warriors are "the strongest class". It's popular, sure, but warrior can only win against zoo if he gets super lucky with drawing the answers, continuously. Otherwise zoo completely outclasses you. Not just zoo, warlock in general typically destroys warrior. Jaraxxus and Hellfire send their regards. And warlock is a popular class too, on top of its versatility. No wonder the decks are always tier 1-2.

Zoo can also tech stuff against heavy control decks and whatnot. Did you see that Crazed Alchemist at Dreamhack? Crazy utility. You're speaking of control decks "bullying" zoo somehow but yesterday it was exactly the opposite - zoo was just fast enough to deal with control before they could stabilize. That's the thing. Pre standard zoo was a bit more confident in the lategame against control because we had deathrattles and Boom to back us up and there was no C'Thun timer. Now zoo snowballs lightning fast and does not let you get to the lategame and use your win condition, unless you pray to RNGesus dayly to get your multiple AoEs on time. Zoo is a solid, highly threatening and synergetic deck that can still win any matchup. That's why it's tier 1.

Quote from Buckbeard >>

Zoolock is strong but i wouldnt consider it top tier even though its close and its almost autolose against patron/tempo warriors , you dont want to be so handicapped against warriors because warriors are the best class right now along with controladins and midrange shamans.

The only deck zoo auto loses to is the rare crazy control priest build with 6+ board clears and Cabals to rub it in. All kinds of warriors are perfectly beatable, including patron after nerf. Freeze mage is also beatable. Those matchups have been around since forever and a good zoo player will know how to deal with them accordingly.

Interesting thing: I tried teching in Hellfire for the mirror this season and ended up farming numerous patrons instead. Pretty funny, what one card can do.

Meanwhile controladin without the perfect mulligan with pyro+equality or the skill to topdeck consec at the right time is trash against zoo. I would know, I play both decks. You can only heal so much if you don't deal with the board. Midrange shamans with their lighting storms and mediocre card draw are also a joke. I've lost count of how many times a midrange shaman conceded when I summoned a full board of tentacles after their board clear.

Zoo's been consistently top tier since patron got rightfully nerfed. When patron inevitably rotates out and disappears zoo will still be at the top. It's the most flexible archetype now, period, and it'll live on along with the stale classic CW and possibly freeze mage (unless Blizzard cripples it).

I agree that control locks aren't in a good place right now (on ladder, in tournaments Reno is still top tier). But my advice is - don't stay fixated on one archetype. I've been playing mostly warlock since the beginning as well, it's my favorite class, but I've played all kinds of decks. Zoo, Hand, Demon Midrange, Maly, Reno. IMO the beauty of warlock is its ability to adapt to the meta no matter what.

So warlock is always viable and never fucked up. In the end, the moment C'Thun and shaman shenanigans rotate out classic Handlock will most likely come back. Unless numerous aggro decks receive outrageous new tools, which I strongly doubt: hunter is already crippled for example, and all this shaman love will end up biting Blizzard in the ass very soon. 

I've been testing Soggoth the Slitherer in my slower decks and his only real weakness is control paladin so far.

Otherwise most of the time he feels like an even bigger wall than Ancient of War. He's a legit nightmare for warriors, priests, rogues, mages, shamans.

He indeed works the best in ramp druid (innervating him to force a miracle rogue to ~interact~ with this monster by running Leeroy into it is the funniest thing ever, holy shit) but he's also pretty damn good in C'Thun decks and CWar. He could be tier 2.

Not to mention his entrance is epic. What a big guy.

Warlock (zoo, reno, hand), Paladin (midrange and now control), Druid (glorious ramp) and Mage (tempo/casino just for fun).

I was hesitant to craft Gormok for zoo as well, at first. Then I caved in and he won me 15432515315267442655456 games, along with Leeroy. He's worth the dust.

If you want to play CW though, craft the cards you mentioned.

"YOU FACE JARAXXUS, EREDAR LORD OF THE BURNING LEGION!"

Just one card.

I use it with my favorite class (and the one that got me to legend the most times) aka warlock. Also with my paladin decks because it looks really good with Liadrin's portrait.

The meta is the same old RNGstone. It's all about luck.

>play zoo
>decent hand
>opponent is control with perfect on curve answers

>play control pala
>mulligan for stall and clears like a madman
>NEVER DOOMSAYER
>PYRO OR CONSEC + EQUALITY NEVER EVER
>dead to zoo on turn 6

Wow. Extraordinary.

I've been playing zoo for a long time now and this is what I personally think of the issue.

Before the nerf the only time I found insane value in Owl was when I topdecked or tapped into it on turns 8-10+ against: a druid with a beefy taunt, a patron warrior with an Unstable Ghoul + a goddamn Armorsmith behind it, a handlock with a taunted up molten or a particularly annoying secret paladin. For example, when it costed 2 mana I was able to 1) draw it with tap 2) silence Tirion the taunt 3) play Leeroy + PO to burst the opponent down, all on the same turn. Right now tapping into it and using Leeroy + buff is just not possible since Owl costs 3. Also all those scenarios except for the occasional ramp druid are pretty much gone in standard. Moreover, if you're topdecking on turns 10+ you can still use Spellbreaker + Leeroy + buff on the same turn. Owl can be topdecked on turn 9 for the same combo but its stats are simply abysmal for that mana cost.

Spellbreaker is better now, more flexible. He deals with shit like VanCleef, that stupid new warrior taunt and Imp Gang Boss in mirror very nicely. He's good as both tempo gain and a taunt bypass, whereas Owl was pretty poor for tempo most of the time even before the nerf and now it's just terrible (THREE MANA 2/1, no more eggs or scientists to silence either).  So Spellbreaker > Owl IMO.

Yeah, Jaraxxus also spawns golden infernals for two mana. Insane value lmao. The greatest thing is he'll always be (kinda) viable and will never rotate out, so if you feel like playing warlock at all, craft him.

Oh and Twin Emperor does indeed look good but it's not worth it to craft him golden IMO.

You might want to wait and see till the meta calms down before crafting a golden leg from the newest expansion.