Hearthpwn

 Little introduction of myself and why I made this guide:

My name is Olf and im a German Hearthstone Player who always was too lazy. Too lazy to register at Hearthpwn. Too lazy to grind to legend. Too lazy to check for lethals. And so on. Btw I have like 3k Playmode wins if anyone cares.
So far, I only have Mage golden. Which really annoyed me since I play Hearthstone since Season 2 (didnt got Betakey and forgot about the game for a few months). So my next closest Class to 500 wins is Warlock. I played tons of Zoo (easy and FAST grind) and for a few months around GvG I played alot of Handlock which is relevant for the deck I made and I explain here. So Whispers hit EU and after a few hundred packs I TRIED to get my last 100 wins on warlock. My Problem: after the first 24h EVERYONE (at least everyone i played against) was running like 6-8 cards that HARD countered the Zoo deck i was playing. Caused by this i really tilted and tried like tons of decks. More Zoo variations, Reno Warlocks, C'Thun warlocks, C'Theno Warlocks (youheard right) and so on and so on. At some point I had a list that had a few Handlock components  which were the ONLY thing in the deck that seem to work. And that was what inspired me to this very succesful Meta-rekking Handlock deck.
I wont talk about WHY and HOW I came to this and that specific card. I will just give a few words on what the cards do in this list.

If you're having trouble with not winning as much as I promised, you might just keep the deck in your collection. It will have more consistant results as the meta stabilizes. Especially in the lower ranks its complete wild west.
So in a midrange ~ control heavy meta (which may exist in near future) you will have stable and good results. <3

I will update this guide and make guides for other decks (that also deal with whatever counters this deck) as soon as I reached golden Gul'Dan. Stay tuned. <3

Feel free to add me to keep track of my low rank adventures or if you want some discussion while playing.        Olf#2832 (EU) :)

Gameplan and Card Explanations:


I won't make a full (for every class) mulligan guide, or a guide for every match up here. Just the general gameplan (learning a deck is a very skilltraining thing).

First of all, this is a Handlock so don't dump your hand like a retard. (Try to Life Tap on turn 2 and 3 (don't coin tap on turn one!!!).

Mulligan for Twilight Drake or Mountain Giant. You will only need one or maybe two of those cards in early. Midnight Drake is not one of the early threats, since its to easy to remove and the whole joke of handlock is having huge minions quite early that are either safe from removal and help you getting the board control OR force ur opponent to spent a whole turn or at least more then one card to remove it. Midnight Drake synergizes with the core mechanic of having alot of cards. So u can at a later stage pump out a quite cheap minion which deals with giant minons or deals tons of damage (especially with Brann Bronzebeard). Trust me this dude is NUTS as your fifth huge-hand card.

You have a few cards that you can easily play before turn 4 since they don't shrink your hand:
Dark Peddler and Jeweled Scarab. Those guys curve perfectly into turn 4 and generate a card so have the same amount of cards in your hand after u played them AND through their discover mechanic they help you adjusting your hand to the match up.

Now your removal tools:
AOE: Shadowflame is all you need with the rest of the deck. And Power Overwhelming with peddlers, scarabs or sunfury protectors makes this even stronger.  Doomsayer won't be great in every matchup, but if u match aggro decks this just is nuts (even if it doesn't clear it generates u time and tempo)
Single-Target: In this Meta you need Point and Click removal. You won't kill a C'Thun with trades. Big Game Hunter got nerfed. Okay, okay. But 5 Mana to clear C'Thun or other highcost minions is still a good deal. Siphon Soul does the same but heals you (at least a bit) and it's more versatile than BGH. Also 2 BGHs are to clunky when your opponent has no 7 Attack minions. Shadow Bolt is brilliant with the rotation. Decent price to help your small minions to make great trades and also the 4 damage are perfect in all the midrange match ups or when ur Shadowflame needs just a bit of support. And btw its perfect Twilight Elder answer on turn 3 even if ur opponent coined it.

The next 'odd' cards I will talk about may upset alot of people but I wouldn't make this review if it wouldnt be successful so far.
Cyclopian Horror against aggro its NUTS. With Brann Bronzebeard it gets beyond crazy. If yougu dont match against aggro you dont care about the exact health. You only need to stop a big Minion and need a more or less cheap taunt. Also with 4-5 healt minimum it will be out of range of most AOEs.
Cult Apothecary is more or less the same. Nice against aggor (with Shadowflame even more) and in control match ups 4-8 health are usually enough for one or two turns.
Midnight Drake as explained before: Works fine with the core mechanic of having 6-10 cards. Works with Brann Bronzebeard in a super threatening way. and just dont mistake this card as an early option. (sometimes it happens that u play this midgame but u got the point.)
Mind Control Tech no matter what matchup stealing one minion of ur opponents board will be decent for 3 mana.

Now just a few words on the legendaries and a few other cards:
Sunfury Protector has always been part of Handlock. Also it sets up a token for Power Overwhelming trade combos.
Acidic Swamp Ooze Will get shamans and warriors (and sometimes pallys) off guard and will generate tons of tempo if u destroy a mid to large sized weapon. And the stats are okay if u dont match against weapon classes.
Sylvanas Windrunner  great legendary. some times acts as Mind Control with a Power Overwhelming.
Emperor Thaurissan you have alot of cards in your hand. so use the Code TEMPO to get ur 10% of.
Lord Jaraxxus YOU FACE JARAXXUS. I won't explain the use of Jaraxxus here. Okay, if u used up some heal already feel free to Jaraxxus as soon as u drop below 15. But gets better the more u heal.
Brann Bronzebeard This deck has 12 minions that benefit from Brann. So you are guaranteed to have a play ready when you draw him. Just mentioning a few strong synergies here: Cyclopian Horror, Twilight Drake, Mind Control Tech (will happen very rarely) or Dark Peddler (likely that you have a few left over mana crystals after you healed with Brann+Earthen Ring Farseer)


I guess i mentioned all neccessary things. I won't give you any winrates or smth like that. As said before: I had so much success that I moved my lazy ass to make this guide (which got quite detailed). But keep in mind that every deck can lose! Especially while you learn to play it. (aaaand zoo seems to be a hard counter. So don't get too mad while loosing against it)

In addition to the guide I recommend you to read through a few comments. I tried to give detailed answers to things you might ask too. :)

Leave comments below if you have ideas on card changes. So far I am answering everyone <3
I dare you to touch the Midnight Drake. :P

Have a nice day folks. Feel free to add me if u have any questions. (EU)

CHANGES:
-2x Forbidden Ritual -> +2x Sunfury Protector
Still gives a Token for Power Overwhelming and trades, but now also stops face race. At first it was not in the list cuz I didnt want to have Black Knight targets, but I'd rather lose one minion than getting outfaced too early.
And Sunfury proofed itself in the past years in Handlock.

-1x Jeweled Scarab -> +1x Earthen Ring Farseer
Noticed a lack of heal earlier but had not figured out how to fix it.

Every now and then I face the problem of only having cards in my hand that are situational. So there might be some changes giving deck one or two more stand-alone plays in the future. I feel like one of the Sunfury Protectors is a dead card so I will bring a replacement soon.

Just an 'outdated' card reasoning part:
Forbidden Ritual: Can force AOEs. Perfect use for left over mana (mid to lategame). Sets up trades and Power Overwhelming combos.