Hearthpwn

WILD Deck Spotlight: Pain Warlock - Top 150 Legend

As a player who has reached Legend many times, I "always" tried to create a lot of different decks myself rather than copying decks from other sources.

Today I went to my NA account, where I haven't been playing at all, I've only been there a few times just to get some rewards or card backs.

This is the outcome that I ended up with (68-11 score):

Deck guide

Deck code: AAEBAf0GAvoOmxAOwgjcCvHQAvLQAv3QAojSAteJA/2kA8u5A5XNA5vNA5/NA9fOA8HRAwA=

Mulligan

• Your best keep against every single deck is, of course, the one and only - Darkglare.
• There are some other options that you want to keep in general - Flame Imp, Kobold Librarian, Tour Guide and sometimes even a card like Raise Dead is a good keep if you have a one-drop to play on turn 1.
• If you have The Coin in your hand, I like to keep Flesh Giant as well, because you can actually go off with your combo earlier and that 8/8 body can do a lot on turn 3-5, Molten Giants are often slower so you want to topdeck them later in the game.
• If you're playing against any spell-based decks like -> Druids, Mages, Priests, Rogues, Spell Hunters, Big Paladins, Big Shamans, Reno/Mechathun Warlocks and Dead Man's Hand Warriors, I always keep Loatheb.

Synergies

• At first, these are your self-damaging synergies -> Raise Dead, Flame Imp, Kobold Librarian, Pen Flinger, Tour Guide + Life Tap, Cheaty Anklebiter, Vulgar Homunculus, Darkglare and of course Flesh Giant.
• Cards depending on your Hero's health -> Molten Giant, Hooked Reaver.
• Cards for healing -> Lesser Amethyst Spellstone, Cheaty Anklebiter.
• Cards for a small burst from hand -> Pen Flinger, Cheaty Anklebiter.
• Cards for clearing your opponent's board -> Animated Broomstick, Pen Flinger, Cheaty Anklebiter, Lesser Amethyst Spellstone.
• Board dependent card -> Enhance-o Mechano.
• Spell disruption -> Loatheb.

Interesting combos

• The first combo is all about Expired Merchant and his ability to duplicate your best cards like Flesh Giant, Molten Giant, Hooked Reaver, Loatheb or Lesser Amethyst Spellstone (against aggro decks or if you health total is low and you know that there is a way where your opponent could kill you).
  • If you're playing against a Reno deck, Priest, Rogue, Mage or Shaman, you always want to kill your Expired Merchant with cards like Pen Flinger, Cheaty Anklebiter or Animated Broomstick, because you want to prevent your opponent playing cards like Devolving Missiles, Devolve, Plague of Murlocs, Polymorph: Boar or Zephrys the Great into cards like Hex, Cabal Shadow Priest, Shadow Madness, Keeper of the Grove, Sap, Earth Shock or Ironbeak Owl (you probably got the point).
• The most important combo is with Darkglare as he enables the most broken thing in the game - cheating out multiple giants on turn 3-5. You can even play Loatheb after you pull out your giants on the same turn (4 with coin or 5 or more without) and that's almost every single time a concede from your opponent as he can't do anything except playing cards like Reno Jackson, which can save him the game, so be prepared.
• If your board is somehow bigger or your opponent has like 20 HP and you have for example 2 giants on the board, why not try your RNG with Enhance-o Mechano as he can give you the final blow with windfury.
• Animated Broomstick is a huge tempo swing if your opponent is ahead and you have for example 13 health, you can play cards like Flame Imp into double Molten Giant (both for 0 mana) into the Animated Broomstick and that's a deadly combination for your opponent's board.
• You want to use your Raise Dead as soon as possible with Darkglare (turn 2-4), resulting in a huge mana gain and potentially even adding more self-damaging stuff to your hand (Flame Imp, Kobold Librarian, Pen Flinger, Tour Guide, Cheaty Anklebiter, Vulgar Homunculus), the best possible outcome from your early Raise Dead are two Kobold Librarians because they can draw you so many imporant cards while refreshing your mana.
• Watch out for Pen Flinger as you can attack with him first and then play the spell you want, I missed a lot of damage just because I was unaware of this interaction for a while so as my opponents who were playing the same deck.
• Against an aggressive deck, you might use your Cheaty Anklebiter early to get rid of their tempo stuff, there's a lot of 1 health minions which you might kill with this minion.

Win condition

• Your main win condition is cheating out giants early and pushing face, on turn 5 try to always drop down a Loatheb alongside with your giants for a lethal blow.

Editor notes: Please be aware that this is my first guide and I don't know what else I should write, so please, if you have any suggestions, ideas, or questions, feel free to ask me. Enjoy!