Hearthpwn

On turn 2, in standard? How?

Well, Wild was created for a reason. Most of all, Team 5 wanted more design space, without having to bother with cards from previous expansions (you know, broken synergies, uninteractive OTK combos, etc.). Another, and perhaps even more important, reason is that Blizzard didn't want to say "Hey guys, remember all those cards you bought with real money? Funny story, you don't have them anymore...". That's why they needed a mode where your cards still exist... but don't matter to the game's balance. With that in mind, what would be the point if Team 5 still had to worry about the Wild cards during standard balancing?

Quote from BlastBowman90 >>

I think the reason for the low percentage isn't because DK is a flop, but the same top decks from the last expansion have been basically untouched. Those decks are at the same power level as before so people have no reason not to play them, which keeps them at the top of the tier list and pushes all the other decks down.

In other words, DK is just too weak. There is no such thing as an objectively strong or objectively weak deck, power level always depends on the strength of the other decks in the meta. If DK can't keep up with them, it must be underpowered, simple as that.

Quote from HeilKise >>

Not ironically i dont belive any of the new cards deserves a nerf.

And how about Shockspitter aka 32 face damage from hand on turn 7?

To my surprise, I found DK to be quite mediocre in standard. Control Triple Blood XL seems to be the best archetype so far, but it's quite inconsistent and unreliable, especially in terms of a win condition. If you don't get Sire Denathrius or Alexandros Mograine early enough (or they get destroyed / stolen), it's very hard to close the game, because the deck lacks reach.

And there's one thing I really hate already - OTK everywhere! OTK Quest Mage, OTK Hunter, OTK Druid and so on. Losing 40 HP+ in one turn, from hand, feels awful.

Have you seen any Warlocks, Paladins, Shamans or Priests? I haven't met any so far, up to a diamond (EU server).

And since you don't gain anything from thinning out your deck at this point (because The Demon Seed is long gone), it's just inferior vanilla Arcane Intellect (outside of discard deck).

Warlock doesn't look very impressive in this expansion so far...

Most likely nowhere as usual...

I'm continuously getting whacked for 10-15 damage on turn 6-7, because there's always at least 1 high-roller who kicks everyone around, and on turn 10 usually only 3-4 people are left... This feels just awful.

Warlock is so dead that they decided not to buff him at all :D.

Quote from RendInFriend >>

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.

Quote from Bengalaas >>

you can forego the hand disruption to beat aggro

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).

Quote from Skyi101 >>

Like the suggestion. The deck isn't weak and there's a few variants of it that handle agro or control ish decks better.

It's a harder deck to piloted than most people think that doesn't make it bad. 

I disagree it's DOA and needs support in the current meta. I'm playing high diamond atm and see it regularly.

Unfortunately, data says otherwise.

https://www.vicioussyndicate.com/vs-data-reaper-report-232/

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:

• Turn 1: Mistress of Mixtures or nothing.
• Turn 2: Life Tap or Drain Soul.
• Turn 3: Sira'kess Cultist which is basically Spider Tank, since 1 + 1 damage is laughable.
• Turn 4: Dragged Below if you are lucky enough.
• and so on.

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:

• 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.

What do you think?

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.