The problem is that there aren’t any good minions that are a threat outside of being bran/Zola/Tammy/azshara combo pieces.
Somewhat true, but it comes down to what I said before, the pressure that can be put by minions but also spells or weapons. Basically the same thing, but from different sources.
Honestly, I don't think Warlock has enough tools to consistently beat aggro these days, even if you tried to design your deck with this single purpose in mind. With School Spirits gone, he lacks proper AoE removal before 6 mana, as well as hard removal to deal with big minions or divine shields (Siphon Soul and Twisting Nether are way too slow).
Abyssal Warlock is pretty much dead deck with very little competitive viability above bronze-gold ranks. This is mainly because it's very slow and has no tools to hold on long enough to kill the opponent with curses (it takes too much time). Pretty much every deck needs offensive and defensive to survive, and the rule of thumb is that the more you have one, the less you need the other. In other words, the more pressure you put on your opponent, the less time they have to counterattack and the less you have to defend yourself, which is why some decks can perform quite well without any defense at all, such as Face Hunter or Aggro Demon Hunter. But to rely only on defense, you need to reach Control Warrior level of removal and amor stacking, which is impossible for Warlock. That's why I believe he simply needs more pressure.
Right now, his curve usually looks something like this:
My point is, curses don't do enough until level 3-4 and opponent can just ignore them, pushing for tempo and face damage until it's too late for Warlock to come back. The solution? This:
Turn 1: Cursed Flame. Opponent doesn't even have mana to play it away, so he has to take full damage (1 + 1). He may drop a minion to develop the board or skip.
Turn 2: Cursed Flame again. This time opponent has mana to remove the curse, but that would skip his entire turn 2. Most likely, he would rather take full damage (2 + 2) and play some minion or spell.
Turn 3: Sira'kess Cultist. This time it's 3/4 with battlecry: deal 3 + 3 damage to your opponent! He's already taken 9 damage from you, so he can't just ignore that curse anymore. But then he has only 1 mana left to deal with your 3/4, not to mention pushing any tempo or damage.
Obviously, at this point, Warlock's pressure would stop / slow down for a few turns, but it would be already closer to turn 6 where he has his best control tools such as Entitled Customer, Dreadlich Tamsin or Abyssal Wave.
Don't forget about Warlock, the lord of bad legendaries... If you look back at the previous expansions, you'll notice that Warlock holds probably the most "worst class legendary of the set" titles.
No, not anymore. He pretty much has only Drain Soul and Touch of the Nathrezim (both need minions as targets). Tamsin Roame can squeeze extra 3-6 life but that's about it. Blood Shard Bristleback doesn't work anymore, because Warlock lacks any draw besides his hero power and you can't even get another copy from Raise Dead, like before the rotation. Mo'arg Artificer is also gone from standard.
I don't think it's just a matter of internal testing. You don't really need to be a top legend player or pro streamer to notice that Priest and Warlock are super bad and can't compete with other classes in any reasonable way, or to find out that already strong decks (Ramp Druid and Quest Warrior) got even stronger due to new supporting cards, that other old decks didn't get. It seems like they just don't care.
I respect the effort that this small team puts into the game
Yeah... no, just look at Priest and Warlock in standard.
According to the highly probable Vicious Syndicate hypothesis, Curse Warlock is garbage now, because he was preemptively nerfed during the development process, in the very last moment before the expansion release. And that's because they figured out that playing against this deck is not fun, so they decided to kill it before it becomes a problem. That sounds very reasonable, but Team 5 itself claims to design cards months ahead, so how could they fail to see that earlier having so much time? It's only damn 5 cards! On top of that, why do they keep giving Warlock such cards (designed around disruption, fatigue and so on) when they know exactly that nobody likes it and each time class eventually gets nerfed and becomes unplayable trash?
Is it just incompetence or an intentional, cynical calculation?
I think it's because Team 5 sucks at their job, simple as that. A few years ago they decided that each class must have some kind of "gimmick", unique thing that distincts it from the others. The thing is though, that not every gimmick is actually beneficial to the class. Rogue, Paladin, Druid and Hunter have the good stuff most of the time, mana cheating, burst damage, card draw, buffs, shenanigans and so on. Warlock, Priest and Shaman quite the opposite, bad stats, high mana costs, no win conditions and no tools to compete with the other decks.
Do you remember this stupid "no card draw for Shaman" identity thing? It backfired pretty hard and kept the class in a dumpster for over a year! Team 5 eventually learned the lesson that no card draw means no play these days and gave him enough to make him the best class in the game for a few months. In case of Warlock and Priest, they have yet to learn from their mistakes, because instead of good cards, they keep giving them "special tools"...
How do you win a match in Hearthstone these days? Probably the best way is to use pressure, tempo and inevitability (especially unblockable direct damage), things that Priest and Warlock usually don't have. They lack weapons, strong, well-priced minions and burst spells / battlecries, relying mostly on their stupid "gimmicks" like curses, quests, hero cards and so on. This sounds cool in theory, but in practice it just doesn't work. And that's because Team 5 can't handle anything that isn't a straightforward "hit or burn the face" or "play mana-cheated stuff that the other player cannot even rect to, because cards worth 40 mana on turn 5 is a bit much". Anything more sophisticated is too much for them and their design for Priest and Warlock fails almost every time.
Turns out I was right about Sunken City Warlock and my predictions were pretty accurate. Curses are garbage, OTK Owl / Mine / Shellfish is not even a real deack (it has under 30% win rate right now), Murloc Warlock is underperforming and has nothing to offer compared to other similar decks (it just plays big dudes and tries to hit face, like tempo decks from 2016-2017...), Fel Lock is abandoned, same as Quest Lock and Handlock. Discard Lock is not even a thing and he only has these cards, because they probably wanted to fill his core with the least useful trash they could find.
This is also because building a good deck takes some time (testing different builds over and over) and requires a large collection of cards (crafting something and spending dust just to find out it sucks doesn't seem like a good idea). Most people simply don't bother.
Expensive (dust-wise), very slow, mana heavy and inconsistent (no draw except Hero Power). Any faster aggro, OTK, or combo decks will eat you alive. I'm afraid that attrition decks with no real win condition are a thing of the past. However, it can still be a fun (to some) T5 meme deck I think.
-1
Warlock is so dead that they decided not to buff him at all :D.
0
Somewhat true, but it comes down to what I said before, the pressure that can be put by minions but also spells or weapons. Basically the same thing, but from different sources.
1
Honestly, I don't think Warlock has enough tools to consistently beat aggro these days, even if you tried to design your deck with this single purpose in mind. With School Spirits gone, he lacks proper AoE removal before 6 mana, as well as hard removal to deal with big minions or divine shields (Siphon Soul and Twisting Nether are way too slow).
0
Unfortunately, data says otherwise.
https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/vs-data-reaper-report-232/
3
Abyssal Warlock is pretty much dead deck with very little competitive viability above bronze-gold ranks. This is mainly because it's very slow and has no tools to hold on long enough to kill the opponent with curses (it takes too much time). Pretty much every deck needs offensive and defensive to survive, and the rule of thumb is that the more you have one, the less you need the other. In other words, the more pressure you put on your opponent, the less time they have to counterattack and the less you have to defend yourself, which is why some decks can perform quite well without any defense at all, such as Face Hunter or Aggro Demon Hunter. But to rely only on defense, you need to reach Control Warrior level of removal and amor stacking, which is impossible for Warlock. That's why I believe he simply needs more pressure.
Right now, his curve usually looks something like this:
My point is, curses don't do enough until level 3-4 and opponent can just ignore them, pushing for tempo and face damage until it's too late for Warlock to come back. The solution? This:
It's from fire school so can't be copied by Tamsin Roame, but still works with Multicaster and can be discovered by School Teacher.
Now, imagine the dream curve with this card:
Obviously, at this point, Warlock's pressure would stop / slow down for a few turns, but it would be already closer to turn 6 where he has his best control tools such as Entitled Customer, Dreadlich Tamsin or Abyssal Wave.
What do you think?
3
Don't forget about Warlock, the lord of bad legendaries... If you look back at the previous expansions, you'll notice that Warlock holds probably the most "worst class legendary of the set" titles.
2
Screw this brawl...
0
Baker doesn't work anymore, because Warlock doesn't have draw besides his HP. On top of that, it's a neutral card, so Priest can use it as well.
0
No, not anymore. He pretty much has only Drain Soul and Touch of the Nathrezim (both need minions as targets). Tamsin Roame can squeeze extra 3-6 life but that's about it. Blood Shard Bristleback doesn't work anymore, because Warlock lacks any draw besides his hero power and you can't even get another copy from Raise Dead, like before the rotation. Mo'arg Artificer is also gone from standard.
2
I don't think it's just a matter of internal testing. You don't really need to be a top legend player or pro streamer to notice that Priest and Warlock are super bad and can't compete with other classes in any reasonable way, or to find out that already strong decks (Ramp Druid and Quest Warrior) got even stronger due to new supporting cards, that other old decks didn't get. It seems like they just don't care.
3
Yeah... no, just look at Priest and Warlock in standard.
According to the highly probable Vicious Syndicate hypothesis, Curse Warlock is garbage now, because he was preemptively nerfed during the development process, in the very last moment before the expansion release. And that's because they figured out that playing against this deck is not fun, so they decided to kill it before it becomes a problem. That sounds very reasonable, but Team 5 itself claims to design cards months ahead, so how could they fail to see that earlier having so much time? It's only damn 5 cards! On top of that, why do they keep giving Warlock such cards (designed around disruption, fatigue and so on) when they know exactly that nobody likes it and each time class eventually gets nerfed and becomes unplayable trash?
Is it just incompetence or an intentional, cynical calculation?
1
I think it's because Team 5 sucks at their job, simple as that. A few years ago they decided that each class must have some kind of "gimmick", unique thing that distincts it from the others. The thing is though, that not every gimmick is actually beneficial to the class. Rogue, Paladin, Druid and Hunter have the good stuff most of the time, mana cheating, burst damage, card draw, buffs, shenanigans and so on. Warlock, Priest and Shaman quite the opposite, bad stats, high mana costs, no win conditions and no tools to compete with the other decks.
Do you remember this stupid "no card draw for Shaman" identity thing? It backfired pretty hard and kept the class in a dumpster for over a year! Team 5 eventually learned the lesson that no card draw means no play these days and gave him enough to make him the best class in the game for a few months. In case of Warlock and Priest, they have yet to learn from their mistakes, because instead of good cards, they keep giving them "special tools"...
How do you win a match in Hearthstone these days? Probably the best way is to use pressure, tempo and inevitability (especially unblockable direct damage), things that Priest and Warlock usually don't have. They lack weapons, strong, well-priced minions and burst spells / battlecries, relying mostly on their stupid "gimmicks" like curses, quests, hero cards and so on. This sounds cool in theory, but in practice it just doesn't work. And that's because Team 5 can't handle anything that isn't a straightforward "hit or burn the face" or "play mana-cheated stuff that the other player cannot even rect to, because cards worth 40 mana on turn 5 is a bit much". Anything more sophisticated is too much for them and their design for Priest and Warlock fails almost every time.
0
Turns out I was right about Sunken City Warlock and my predictions were pretty accurate. Curses are garbage, OTK Owl / Mine / Shellfish is not even a real deack (it has under 30% win rate right now), Murloc Warlock is underperforming and has nothing to offer compared to other similar decks (it just plays big dudes and tries to hit face, like tempo decks from 2016-2017...), Fel Lock is abandoned, same as Quest Lock and Handlock. Discard Lock is not even a thing and he only has these cards, because they probably wanted to fill his core with the least useful trash they could find.
Vicious Syndicate even called him a "dead class" in their latest podcast (https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/vs-data-reaper-podcast-episode-85/).
Well done Team 5, well done...
0
This is also because building a good deck takes some time (testing different builds over and over) and requires a large collection of cards (crafting something and spending dust just to find out it sucks doesn't seem like a good idea). Most people simply don't bother.
0
@Anomaly98
Expensive (dust-wise), very slow, mana heavy and inconsistent (no draw except Hero Power). Any faster aggro, OTK, or combo decks will eat you alive. I'm afraid that attrition decks with no real win condition are a thing of the past. However, it can still be a fun (to some) T5 meme deck I think.