(Budget) Zoolock Deck, Guide, and Video
- Last updated Jun 13, 2016 (Old Gods)
- Edit
- |
Wild
- 25 Minions
- 5 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Zoolock
- Crafting Cost: 1380
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 6/9/2016 (Old Gods)
- wingsofwaxiii
- Deck Architect
-
- 16
- 23
- 60
-
Battle Tag:
WingsOfWax
-
Region:
US
-
Total Deck Rating
7351
Hey there everyone and welcome!
Don't forget to +1 if you enjoyed the guide/decklist. A lot of time and effort went into these and it's a free and easy way to say thank you.
A Little About Me
I am a 17x Legend Player with 2x Top 100 finishes who goes by the battletag WingsOfWax or WingsOfWaxIII on other social media (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Twitch, and YouTube). I have over 15+ Years of Magic: The Gathering Experience, but as of the release of Hearthstone: Beta been converted to this new and exciting card game.
Over the past year, I have been creating videos, articles, and casting live streams to help educate newer players about Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. As of right now, I am mostly known in the Hearthpwn.com community for creating a Naxxramas + 2,000 Dust Budget Guide 11 Deck series as well as putting Burst Rogue back into fruition.
These days I am working full time, go to school, and still create Hearthstone content whenever I find my schedule allows it. I love educating all types of players whether new or veterans about becoming a better strategy card gamer. I am creating this guide (and others) to help educate and grow the Hearthstone Community even further.
Introduction to my YouTube Channel:
Warning: This is an aggro deck. It has inconsistencies similar to any other Aggressive strategy and is not exactly straight forward to play. There is a lot (not all) of SMOrc'ing (Face is the Place) to be done, but you will have to plan out your turns according to how your hand is sculpted for optimal plays that leave you in the driver seat. Playing out this deck takes time and practice to fully master and play well, but it can be done and eventually could take you to the Legend status you desire.
Some perks of playing this deck are:
-An aggressive strategy, which all newer players should partake in.
-Quick Games, win or lose in a fast manner.
-Helps the player learn to properly manage their resources, especially versus Sweepers (board clears).
-Has a solid late game plan by using the Warlock's Hero Power to refill your hand.
Card Choices:
2x Forbidden Ritual - Is extremely helpful to refill the board after a board clear. Synergizes with Knife Juggler, Darkshire Councilman, Dire Wolf Alpha, and Cult Master for extra value. Try to use the Ritual to get at least 3 or more minions for best results.
1x Mortal Coil - Helps your early minions trade up for larger minions. Often I've comboed Crazed Alchemist with Mortal Coil to kill a Tunnel Trogg or Armorsmith. Is not a necessary card, but at the cost of 1 mana it can help quite a bit and draw you into more threats.
2x Power Overwhelming - Used to clear a medium to large opposing minion or to give you extra damage to close out the game. Best used on a Possessed Villager or a 1/1 to negate potential loss of value.
2x Abusive Sergeant - Not an ideal turn 1 play, but it synergizes with your other 1 mana minions for value. Try to save Abusive Sergeants for value in trading up with a larger minion. If you are up against a class that does not have a Hero Power that answers Abusive, you can play it turn 1 (only if you have no other 1-drops).
1x Elven Archer - Is basically the same as Mortal Coil, but creates a 1/1 body instead of drawing a card. Helps trigger Darkshire Councilman's ability. Can be swapped out for another Mortal Coil or just about anything else if you do not want to play Elven Archer.
2x Flame Imp - An undercosted minion that gets in for early damage or makes valuable tempo/value trades. The 3 health lost is almost irrelevant early in the game, but be careful because taking 3 damage late in a game versus aggro decks can be exactly what they need to lethal you. Use your best judgement late in the game.
2x Possessed Villager - A sticky 1 mana minion who helps synergize with buffs available in this deck. Helps trigger Knife Jugglers and Darkshire Councilmans.
2x Voidwalker - One of the better turn 1 plays that protects more valuable minions such as Knife Jugglers, Flame Imps, Dire Wolf Alphas, Darkshire Councilmans, and Cult Master. Works well in combination with Abusive Sergeant to clear a Tunnel Trogg versus Shamans.
1x Acidic Swamp Ooze - Majority of the current meta involves weapons, so adding in an Ooze seemed like a solid choice. I'm unsure if 2 copies is the right choice, but for now the single copy has come in handy. This is meta dependant and can be swapped out for other cards you see benefiting this deck.
1x Crazed Alchemist - A meta call that clears Doomsayers and Totems. Also has the option to inside-out a Darkshire Councilman for lethal on occasion. Keep in mind you can also Crazed to inside-out a Voidwalker to trade up.
2x Dark Peddler - A solid value minion that gives you choices no matter what point in the game. Need a 1-drop minion to help fill the board? Late in the game and need to find more burn spells?
2x Dire Wolf Alpha - In combination with 2 other minions is 4 power for 2-mana. Lets you trade up your weaker minions for bigger ones. Dire Wolf is the reason you need to figure out placement of your minions on the board to get the most value. Rule of thumb: Valuable minions on the Left, weaker minions on the Right.
2x Knife Juggler - Zoo is the only deck right now that can abuse and protect Knife Juggler. Typically if you have another 2-mana minion in your hand you want to cast it before Juggler. Knife Juggler gets better later in the game when you can use Forbidden Ritual or attack with an Imp Gang Boss.
2x Darkshire Councilman - In most matchups, you want to cast Darkshire later in the game and not on turn 3. Since being a 1/5 makes him vulnerable, you need to setup a turn to get him above 1 attack before safely playing him. Typically you want to clear the board of opposing minions before getting a Councilman on board. If you time Darkshire right, he can be a major win condition mid to late game.
2x Imp Gang Boss - In most matchups, Imp Gang Boss is your ideal turn 3 play (or coin turn 2). Imp is a sticky minion that has synergies with a lot of your deck. In most games, I play Imp Gang Boss on turn 3 then Darkshire Councilman and a 1-drop on turn 4 to potentially get value from Imp Gang Boss and buff Darkshire in the process.
2x Defender of Argus - Since we have a lot of sticky minions in this list, you can reliably get 2 minions available for Defender to get full value. If you have a Doomguard in hand, try to get Defender on the table as soon as possible so you do not run into the issue of drawing the second Doomguard. Try to use Defender to save weaker minions from potential board clears.
2x Doomguard - The Battlecry from Doomguard is almost nullified in this deck because your ideal game empties your hand before you kill your opponent. Can be used to kill your opponent in one swing or a few since a 5/7 is relatively difficult to deal with. Against Control and Midrange decks, you are aiming for face damage but versus Aggro decks you may want to consider trading with minions.
Possible Upgrades/Downgrades:
Upgrades -
-1 Mortal Coil or Elven Archer
+1 Gormok the Impaler
-1 Doomguard
+1 Leeroy Jenkins
-1 Mortal Coil or Elven Archer
+1 Sea Giant
-1 Acidic Swamp Ooze
+1 Sea Giant
Downgrades -
-2 Imp Gang Boss
+2 Argent Horserider
-2 Dark Peddler
+2 Flame Juggler
Honorable Mentions:
Soulfire - When it comes to adding cards that force you to discard, you can reliably only have so many before they start having a huge negative impact on your games. In just about any game I'd rather have Doomguard for the potential of dealing more than just 5 damage where as Soulfire is a one time use. In a more value oriented version of Zoolock, Soulfire does not make the cut.
Demonwrath or Hellfire or Shadowflame - Since this deck is trying to be aggressive, there is no real reason to deviate from the plan with a board clear. When I build my decks, I try to make them as consistent as possible, which neither of these board clears fit the theme of the deck.
Argent Squire - Is a solid turn 1 play, but there just is not enough room for a pair of Squires. Tormented Villager has taken the slot of Squire because the Deathrattle synergizes with the deck more than the Divine Shield. I have also run into some poor situations where I'll have to Power Overwhelming my turn 1 play and doing so gets you almost no extra value from Squire.
Basic Mulligan/Opening Hand Guide:
Understanding the Mulligan Guide - The number represents how many of that card I'm willing to keep in my opening hand. If there is no number, that means there is only one copy of the card and I'm willing to keep it in my opening hand. The number with the coin means how many copies I'm willing to keep with coin in my hand.
How to play the deck and Tips:
Typically you want your opening hand to have a curve of a 1-drop and a 2-drop (or 2x 1-drops). This allows you to keep up the tempo early in the game and attempt to develop a board presence.
You are looking to make profitable trades against Aggro decks while being mostly a Face deck against Control. Always make trades when they benefit you (unless you can kill your opponent or setup to kill).
Crazed Alchemist + Mortal Coil = death to Armorsmith and Tunnel Trogg.
Crazed Alchemist is an offensive and defensive card, so play him wisely to get value.
Try to save Knife Juggler when possible for later in the game to combo with Forbidden Ritual.
Keep a Shamans board cleared at all times. It's their one weakness. Be sure to play around Lightning Storm when possible.
Video Content:
Ranks 9 to 7
Ranks 7 to 4
Find more decks by clicking the link below!
WingsOfWax's Standard (Kraken) - Budget Series - Guides, Decks, & Videos
http://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/general-deck-building/152758-guides-standard-kraken-budget-series-competitive
If you are looking for a deck that maximizes your time and is competitive, this is the right deck for you. The deck is also Budget Friendly and can be altered slightly depending on what your collection looks like.
I will do my best to answer each question in the comments about swapping cards, but ultimately use your best judgement when deciding what you can substitute and what you cannot.
Here's to hoping this deck/guide is in some way beneficial to your Grinding Experience! The deck has performed extremely well for me and won games I thought were not possible to do so.
If your looking for a deck to get you out of the lower Ranks, this one will surely do the trick when piloted reasonably well.
Interested in learning more? Feel free to stop by my Twitch Stream and subscribe to my YouTube, in which I'll either be playing Ranked mode with a variety of decks.
Follow On Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/wingsofwaxiii
Subscribe To YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/wingsofwaxiii
Follow On Twitter : https://twitter.com/WingsOfWaxIII
Follow On Tumblr: http://wingsofwaxiii.tumblr.com
Don't forget to +1 if you enjoyed the read/video/decklist.
Thank you for checking out this deck and I hope it serves you well.
Good luck and grind on,
-Wings
Well, this deck is much better than the previous Zooloc deck I tried (not from this author). So thanks to you :)
Sorry about the 2nd comment i thought my first one didnt post.
Hi wax this deck is amazing I have been using this and your budget priest and I love them both but just a quick question about this deck I got karazan recently does moroes have anyplace in this deck? If so who should I replace it with thanks for the help.
2 days later it's still good. I plugged Moroes into the Elven Archer slot. Great value with Knife Juggler and Darkshire Councilman!
Really enjoy this list over some others I've seen. The commentary in the videos was extremely helpful as well since I'm a somewhat new Zoo player. I alternate between this deck and Midrange Shaman on Ladder depending on how many Warriors i'm running into. So far so good :)
What about swapping out one Forbidden Ritual for Onyxia ? Can it be more viable for late game?
I don't think so, Onyxia is restricted to be played on turn 9+ (or 8 if you didn't find use for the coin so far) while forbidden ritual can be played from turn 1 (not recomended though). With the 9 mana that Onyxia costs you can do the following move (which saved my a** 3 times already) 2 Knife juggler + Forbidden Ritual. With 3 cards and 9 mana you end up dealing 10 damage randomly splitted across enemies.
Now imagine you played Darkshire Councilman on turn 4 or 5 and it survived, on turn the next turn you can't play onyxia, but you can infest the board with tentacles to give him a total of 7 attack, you have a 7/5 and 6 1/1 halfway through the game.
My point is, if you play Onyxia, she's the only card you play that turn, while forbidden ritual can be used on many situations, with many variations on result, and has many chances of combo...heck, you can simply fill the board with 1/1s as a desperate move.
Patron Warior, Combo Druid and Secret pally needed some skill to play and Face Hunter could be countered by taunts,clears and heals, this CANCER is something else. Throwing 2 x 20 heals at my face and with Lightlord and still losing to it.
CTRL paly, CTRL warrior, CTRL priest all my decks got destroyed by it.
"play face shaman"
Aggro Sux, no ty I'll just wait for next expansion, this deck ruined HS for me.
I usually beat Zoolock pretty handily with virtually any Priest variant, the most devastating being Dragon Priest.
Soulfire, Sea Giant, Dark Iron Dwarf, anything that either pushes for damage or is a reasonable threat for about 4-6 mana.
Just like any other aggro deck this is only good versus other aggressive decks. As soon you match up against a midrange deck or control deck, you are in the hand of RNG, and to be honest that is never a good idea to make a competitive deck around RNG. As soon you run out of minions and the opponent establish a board you are never going to win that is simple. I can fathom how you can get that many likes for something based around, get the mulligen and hope your opponent don't. People must have a tons better RNG than i Do.
I am usually rank 5 player, because i dont have the time to play.
Just came to say how rekt this deck is. The game usually ends by turn 6-7 with me popping tentacles to Sea Giant.
I also play 2 coils instead of Archer.
Also, I noticed that if you alchemist after sergeant the buff stays?
Oh and alchemist -> councilman is pretty funny too. Got it to do 6 then 10 to a priest on turn 3-4 hahaha
Hi. I've been playing Zoo decks for a long time, and recently I've been getting into Renolock and I've been loving it.
This variation of zoo feels very good to play. I switched out a Doomguard for a Leeroy Jenkins and an Elven Archer for a Sea Giant.
Do you think I there's space in there to add one more Mortal Coil? I just happen to really like the card, and with one less archer it feels like an extra coil would fit very well for the extra reach. The card is amazing to trade up and get some card advantage in the process.
What is better to sub out for I have 1 Sea Giant? Mortal Coil Elven Archer or Acidic Swamp Ooze? Also is Harrison Jones better than Acidic Swamp Ooze in this deck? I've opened the card recently and have never really played with it.
In this deck, Acidic Swamp Ooze fits better. We really don't need all that much card draw with our hero power, and against weapon less opponents it's just a 5 mana 5-4, while ooze will always be a decent two drop.
It's just that Harrison is too expensive for not much improvement.
For Sea Giant I took out an Elven Archer. No particular reason, just that I really want an ooze on the deck, and I just happen to really, really love mortal coil. The card just feels so good to play.
Option without adventures (this deck was previously on the site , just can't find) :
Hey there Raidan,
Some of the choices you made are for sure questionable. Flame Imp is the best 1-drop any aggro deck has to offer. It starts at 3 attack to trade up with any 2-drop or deny being killed by a hero power easily. The 3 life is irrelevant early in the game, because you've used Flame Imp as a distraction from your life total (your opponent would rather kill Imp to nulify further attacks).
Leper Gnome is weak and fragile. Sure, he deals 2 damage upon death, but this deck is more based around value and trading up, then eventually setting up lethal.
Abusive Sergeant is one of those cards that helps you get value or trade a small minion for a larger one. Abusive gives you a chance to clear a taunt or early problem minion that is losing you the game otherwise.
Raid Leader and Direwolf Alpha are almost the same card but Dire costing a mana less is much better for the deck. It allows you to do something else in the same turn to either gain more board advantage or life tap. Setting up minions for placement is really the only downfall of Dire, but with a little practice you should be thinking about it with every minion you play to get the most potential value.
Crazed being cut is not a big deal. It is a "tech" or "meta" slot, which means it can be altered depending on what you are most playing against.
1. In the hands of a newbie, you could easily get to rank 10 and possibly even 5 with a little practice.
2. The average player should be able to easily get rank 5 or even Legend with the deck. It's a powerful deck and not terribly difficult to learn.
3. I covered your subs above.
4. The only choice i believe ruined the curve is Raid Leader. Other than that, the power of the deck has been diluted, so you may want to just play the suggested list with 1 or 2 changes for the best results. Watch people play the deck to understand how to pilot it well. You only get better at something by watching others who already have success.
Hope this helps. Good luck and grind on,
-Wings
How good of an addition is Gormok to this deck? He feels kinda situational. I should probably craft Leeroy first right?
Check out the "Upgrades/Downgrades" section of the guide. ^^