Hearthpwn

 

CHANGELOG:

 

08/22/2016: +2 Tiny Knight of Evil - Defender of Argus -Sea Giant; added gameplay video at the bottom

 

09/01/2016: +2 Malchezaar's Imp +2 Flame Imp +2 Argent Horserider -2 Voidwalker - Knife Juggler - Forbidden Ritual - Dire Wolf Alpha - Darkshire Councilman

work in progress. will update the guide soon again!

I -) Who Am I?

 

Hello friends!

My name is Johnny Stone and i'm a professional Hearthstone player and streamer for flowesports.

I love experimenting with new decks and i want to share my newest creation with you: „The Fister“

 First of all: thanks for reading this guide and if it is helpful to you, dont forget to upvote it!

If you want to see more of me, i'm streaming daily  on Twitch.

I also post frequently on Twitter and Facebook as well as creating videos for Youtube!

Finally you can find many more guides at my teams website: flowesports.com

II -) Basics

 

While the idea of an aggressive Warlock deck („Zoo“) that relies on having a lot of cheap minions and using Life Tap heropower to refill the hand is not new, the release of ONIK presented us with a lot more options.

I've been experimenting almost exclusively with the discarding archetype for the last 2 days and i want to show you guys what i believe to be the best list and explain my choices.

 

III -) Replacements/Choices

 

I wouldn't recommend replacing any of the core discarding cards (Doomguard, Soulfire, Darkshire Librarian, Silverware Golem, Fist of Jaraxxus), if you are missing any of those you are better of playing a normal zoo list. If you don't have some of the other cards, replacing within the same mana slot should be fine (Harvest Golem for Imp Gang Boss etc)

Sea Giant is not as strong in this list as in regular zoo and could be replaced by Dark Iron Dwarf, 2^nd Defender of Argus or 2^nd Darkshire Councilman if you don't face alot of mirrors and Token Druids.

You have some flexibility with the 2-drops and feel free to change cards around to your liking (2^nd Dire Wolf Alpha or Knife Juggler over Dark Peddler for example)

Once the 4^th wing of the Karazhan adventure is released i think Malchezaar's Imp is a solid option and should probably replace the Void Walkers.

 

IV -) why no … ?

 

Succubus: you have a lot of cards forcing discards already and this is simply weaker then the other 2-drop: Darkshire Librarian

Tiny Knight of Evil: while strong in theory a 2 health minion will rarely survive on the board long enough to benefit from the effect, could be ok as a 1-off though.

2^nd Forbidden Ritual: very hard to use effectively with the discarding theme as it requires you to spend your whole mana on it. 1 copy is still good to have as a comeback mechanic if you loose the board early on.

2^nd Knife Juggler/Dire Wolf Alpha/Darkshire Councilman: all these cards benefit greatly from Forbidden Ritual so it makes sense to cut them down a bit to make room for the discarding theme.

Why Fist of Jaraxxus: while testing i quickly found that just 2x Silverware Golem is not enough as good discards so this is the only choice. Besides: as the namegiver of the deck this is a must play! ;)

 

V -) Playstyle:

 

Your playstyle is very similar to a normal zoo list: take control of the board early on and try to never loose it. Make use of your cheap buffs to trade favorably while getting in face damage and overwhelm your opponent with the Life Tap heropower providing you with the card draw to keep the flood of minions going.

The discard mechanic adds another component to your strategy though as you should try to empty your hand quickly and setup a favorable situation, for example: Soulfire on your opponents minion while having Silverware Golem in your hand, or the dream: playing Doomguard on turn5 while having 2x Fist of Jaraxxus as possible discards in your hand, also known as „double fisting“ ;)

Usually it is still worth playing discarding cards even if the outcome is not guaranteed to be favorable. You will encounter a lot of situations where you need to go for a game deciding 50/50, for example: going for a Darkshire Librarian on turn 4 while holding Doomguard and Silverware Golem in your hand, which makes the deck a bit inconsistent, sometimes frustrating but in my opinion also fun to play!

 

VI -) Mulligan:

 

Generally you are looking for a good early curve. I usually never keep Darkshire Librarian as it is very rarely a card you want to play on turn 2, discarding situations will be more beneficial on later turns. Silverware Golem on the other hand is a card i almost always keep as it is very easy to draw an activation for it and the tempo gain of getting a 3/3 on the board for free is insanly strong especially in the early game!

Without the coin you should hard mulligan for the sticky 1-drops (Argent Squire, Possessed Villager) against most classes, as early board control is key to victory. With the coin it might be wise to keep situationally good cards, for example: Soulfire against a Shaman or Imp Gang Boss against a Paladin because you will have a high chance at drawing turn 1 and turn 2 plays anyway and the coin lets you smothen things up (1-drop into 3-drop or coin 2-drop into 2-drop, depeding on what you draw).

While Voidwalker or Abusive Sergeant are usually weaker then your other 1-drops it is still correct to play them on turn 1 over doing nothing as emptying your hand quickly is a good way of forcing favorable discards and the early game is crucial in most matchups!

 

VII -) Matchups:

 

Since i can't cover all matchups here i will just give some general tips.

 

Vs aggro (facehunter, pirate warrior, face shaman, …):

early board control should be the priority and from there just trade favorably. Running only 1 Defender of Argus is a slight problem but usually you can get in a position where you can threathen to outrace your opponent and force him to use damage spells on your minions and/or trade with his creatures into yours. Avoid situations where you are stuck trading with your opponents minions over and over while taking damage every turn as they will almost always result in a defeat!

 

Vs tempo (zoo, dragon warrior, mage, …):

again early board control is extremly important. Because you should usually not be in danger of dying making use of Life Tap and out-tempoing most classes in the midgame is my preferred way of playing these matchups. A well timed Doomguard ideally with some additional discard value can also decide the game in your favor very quickly. In general these should be among the easiest games!

 

Vs control (warrior, priest, …):

Control decks are the bane of zoo in general. With all the board clears and heals available they have the answers and will usually outvalue us in a long game. There are 2 viable strategies to try to sneak in a victory though, the rush and the grind. Choosing the gameplan depends on your opening hand an your opponents exact deck.

The rush: You dump your hand extremly quickly, hope they didn't draw their AoE removal spells or board clears and try to finish the game around turn 6 or 7 often with Doomguard and Power Overwhelming.

The grind: This would work alot better with a Leeroy Jenkins version of Zoo because you can do your burst from hand and don't require a minion on board, but sometimes your early game gets shut down so hard that you dont have any other options (for example: control warrior drawing Fiery Waraxe into Unstable Ghoul). The strategy is to Life Tap as much as possible while remaining board control but not overextending into clears like Brawl and then finishing the game with a huge burst combo of multiple Power Overwhelming's, Soulfire's (ideally discarding Fist of Jaraxxus). This is hard to set up and requires some discarding luck but might be your only way of winning, good luck!