Taking a Deeper Look into Zoolock - One of Hearthstone's Oldest Archetypes
Many decks have enjoyed lasting success on ladder, but none have earned a perennial position on tier lists quite like Zoolock. From meta to meta, expansion to expansion, Zoolock maintains what seems like omnipresence in the company of more fleeting archetypes. A cheap set of core cards--Flame Imp, Darkshire Councilman, Bonemare--and an accessible strategy even makes it a highly recommended deck for beginners. But after developing an understanding of Zoolock’s combinatorics, experienced players often pilot some form of the deck to Legend.
This low skill floor and high skill ceiling has made Zoolock one of the most popular and consistent decks throughout Hearthstone history. Typically, deck archetypes develop slowly over time with the process beginning when one player starts experimenting with a set of synergistic cards. Thereafter another player emulates a similar build, dropping weaknesses, bolstering strengths, and tailoring the list to combat popular meta decks. In the context of Hearthstone, this is what Trump likes to call “science.” We can trace the creation of Zoolock, however, to just one player: Reynad.
In the earliest days of Hearthstone, back in 2014, Reynad decided to cram a number of low-cost aggressive cards inside the Warlock package, which can keep a stream of cards flowing into and back out of the hand with its Life Tap hero power. Reynad dubbed his creation “Zoo,” borrowing a term from Magic that describes a creature-heavy deck. Right there on his Twitch stream, Reynad created Zoolock--though in Korea, I’m sure to his delight, players simply call it “the Reynad deck.”
Basics Get Complicated
Zoolock decks are full of low-cost minions capable of trading efficiently on their own, like Flame Imp, or in tandem with buff effects--think Voidwalker on turn 1 and Dire Wolf Alpha on turn 2. The remainder of the deck usually consists of a mix of so-called “sticky” minions with high health or deathrattles (who else misses Nerubian Egg?), and Charge minions that create flexibility in the late-game (Doomguard, of course). Other mainstays include Soulfire and Mortal Coil, for cheap removal and card draw; Patches the Pirate, which reduces the number of cards in your deck by one and either snowballs a board or helps trade; and Darkshire Councilman, capable of both efficient trades and large amounts of face damage. The common theme here is efficiency: cards that do the most work relative to their mana cost see play.
The Warlock hero Power Life Tap makes Zoolock possible, allowing players to manage card draw at their own pace. This benefits players twofold: it removes the need for slow card draw engines like Acolyte of Pain, opening up deck-slots and minimizing the possibility for inopportune top-decks. An aggressive Paladin list, in contrast, often relies on a timely Divine Favor draw to stay competitive in the late-game. It’s not a coincidence, then, that many consider Life Tap the best of the hero powers, or that Zoolock has been the most consistently successful aggressive deck in Hearthstone.
Being overpowered starts with the Hero Power, and emotes.
Many conflate aggro decks and Zoolock, much to the chagrin of its maker. But with a steady flow of cards and an aggressive start, the strategy is instead to make efficient trades on board, play around area-of-effect cards, and steadily chip away at the opponent’s hero.
By the mid-to-late stages of the game, though, players will often have to choose a line of play: push for lethal damage, or continue snowballing their tempo into a slow, steady victory. This is where new players falter and experienced players flourish. Pushing for lethal appeals to anyone after five turns of methodical board dominance, and new players often choose that route, playing into a devastating Blizzard or Dragonfire Potion or Flamestrike. Another line, however, would be to make trades with smaller minions and develop a Doomguard onto the board, which counters the threat of most AoE. Card advantage complicates things further: if a Zoolock player, even with a huge board, hasn’t been able to use Life Tap consistently and finds themselves at a 5-to-1 card disadvantage, they aren’t going to win the value game for long, making the rush route more viable.
In a word, it’s complicated. In a few more: knowledge about popular opposing decks will inform a good Zoolock player’s minion placement (look out for Meteor!), trading decisions, and overarching strategy. And careful consideration of all these things to maximize odds will no doubt increase their win rate.
State of the Zoo: Newcomers, Mulligans, Matchups
Since the release of Knights of the Frozen Throne, many Zoo decks have eschewed two-drops like Golakka Crawler and Dire Wolf Alpha for a package structured around the powerful deck-buffing effect of Prince Keleseth. Played early, the prince’s effect can feel downright unfair: for instance, developing a 4/4 Southsea Captain and 3/3 Patches onto the board on turn three. If you are lucky enough to summon Prince Keleseth early, previously difficult matchups against Highlander Priest and Tempo Rogue become much more manageable, too. Otherwise, with Golakka Crawler unplayable in a Keleseth build, Zoolock has struggled to maintain board control against Tempo Rogue’s ragtag band of pirates. But the consensus so far seems to be that the upside of Keleseth outweighs this specific situational weakness.
Don't even let your opponent stand a chance, most of the time!
To my personal delight, the Warlock Death Knight Bloodreaver Gul'dan has found a home in many Zoolock builds, adding a formidable late-game dimension and win condition. Priest’s omnipresence on ladder has made this less of a tech card and more of a necessity. Its Old Gods-esque swing ability makes it the only top deck you want in the late game, whereas in the early stages of some games, you may not even care if it gets discarded. It’s an odd sort of flexibility, but it works.
Despicable Dreadlord and Bonemare are easy inclusions from the new set, too, with the former packing an AoE effect and the latter giving Zoo the flexibility to continue value trading, push lethal, or simply protect the their board. I was skeptical of Acherus Veteran at the start, but the one-drop has grown on me. It contests boards better than Abusive Sergeant, whose extra attack buff often proves unnecessary in the early game. Saronite Chain Gang rounds out the newbies. Buffed by Keleseth, these guys are a massive presence, and even without a buff, they protect smaller minions. Players who don’t own Prince Keleseth might opt for the Zoolock veteran Defender of Argus in their list instead.
I have been tinkering with Baize’s Zoolock list from the HCT Summer Championship, swapping a Bonemare for a Mortal Coil as I encountered more and more Tempo Rogues. Against both Rogue and Priest, it is often correct to mulligan a hand full of even one-drops to dig for Prince Keleseth, as his effect is what will help you contest the board against Rogues and rush down greedy Priests. Worst case scenario, you draw into your late game and/or Patches, but with 15+ one-drops in the deck, the odds of that are slim enough. Against every other deck, mulligan for your all-star early game: Flame Imp, Voidwalker, pirates to pull Patches, and of course, Prince Keleseth.
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On the Up and Up (Usually)
Each expansion makes drastic changes to the metagame. At the same time, Zoolock often recedes into the background, as it did after the release of Blackrock Mountain. Like some sort of Warlock sorcery, it crept its way to the top of tier lists everywhere toward the end of Blackrock, and it seems ready for a repeat. As Reynad and Firebat have said, Zoolock only performs better as a meta settles. This is because Zoolock’s strengths are inherent, bolstered by a collection of minions that rarely get nerfed or banished to the Hall of Fame. The same cannot be said of many other decks, which often feed off of powerful new cards and synergies (looking at you, Highlander Priest). In the waning months of this meta, players can now expect ladder matchups with a mere handful of decks. Luckily for students of the game, they can leverage their understanding of these decks into a successful ladder climb with Zoolock, Hearthstone’s most resilient deck archetype.
I also run double sea giant and double glacial shard. it's not very standard, but I find popping out 2 SG's for 1 mana completely messes any plans the opponent has, protecting them with taunts and then it's smorc time. The Glacial Shards can freeze a threat and allow you to ignore it for a turn, very useful.
I was starting to go off Darkshire, but after getting into the swing of the meta, they are back in my current deck.
Also sometimes I run argus and keleseth, in fact I always run keleseth. Sometimes I cut Gul'dan though, I mean it's nice to have him as an option, but a lot of the time he is never used.
I might upload my new version tonight.. was trying to keep it under wraps for a bit though to avoid any counters.
put this apple on your head!
I've played since closed beta and zoo was most certainly not invented by reynad. He just put the 0/4 taunt in it. The first deck I ever netdecked was zoo and I went undefeated all the way to 3 star grandmaster under the old ladder. Before reynad played his version, basically every card in the deck was nerfed. Flame imp did 2 damage to the owner. Shattered sun cleric and defender of argus were 3/3. Sylvanas was 5 mana. Soulfire was 0 mana. There was that imp with stealth now. I forgot how they changed him. If you give a "history"of the deck, you should start at the beginning
what? zoo without reynoodle? skip.
Delete zoolock. This archetype is not better than face hunter, and we all know what face hunter players were...
Warlocks in general had a hard time in Un'goro..im so glad to see them in play again:) my favorite class for sure and they have the coolest cards in the game
Ruck Feynad for creating zoo ...
Zuck Foo
Now this is an article. Good history of the game and deck, as well as good tips for the new players. Zoolock has always been that little secret deck that slips in under the radar. It's always been a go-to for me when my other decks just aren't performing well; Zoolock is always there in my back pocket to punish the unsuspecting.
Make netdecking great aga- wait, it was not unpopular...
I really enjoyed this article, it really touches my heart since zoolock was the first deck I have ever been in love with and every new expansion I try to make one and test it out, then I see what's the community varient of zoolock, it is fun to see people's creativity on old archetype that are still viable to play with. Speaking of viable old archetype, I would like another one of these article in the near future about other old archetype that was major in the years of hearthstone, like Miracle Rouge, Handlock, Control Warrior, Face Hunter (even tho it is slightly dead deck), Midrange Hunter and many (only those I remember on top of my head).
MAKE ZOOLOCK GREAT AGAIN!
And for this expansion there are some very interesting interactions with the recruit mechanic, I predict a very strong Zoo during the next year.
I prefer calling it vomit-your-handlock
Thanks for posting an article that is not from youknowwho!
I fail to see how this has relevance with anything.
Great article! Thanks for bringing us articles like this.
And just FYI: The term ‘Zoo’ actually did originate from Magic: the Gathering like this article states. The term is super old (from long before the year 2000) back when a Red-White-Green deck became super popular and had only animals as creature (Apes, Cats, Elephants) and was thus named Zoo. Since then the color-combo has been given the name Naya for the Shard from Alara.