by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Team DKMR: Twitter | Website | Forums
Sponsored by: Hearthstats – Gunnar – 2P

[DKMR]Brad here to bring you the deck of the week. The deck we showcase this week is the one that I mainly used to get legendary this season. This week we’re going to go over handlock which has been becoming more and more popular ever since the nerf of unleash the hounds. Hunter is one of the biggest, if not, the biggest counter to handlock out there. Now that the hunter has become less popular due to the nerf, handlock has become more powerful on the ladder. The deck relies on being passive for the first few turns followed up by bombs on turn 4 and after which is usually hard for the opponent to keep up on. Although there are a few semi-counter still going around on the ladder, such as shaman, handlock can still be a contender in that matchup. Now we will go over the cards in the deck and why they’re in there.

The Deck

2x Soulfire – A very versitile card. It can be used to clear a minion or for a finisher. 4 damage for 0 mana is a crazy amount of value, but most of you know of it’s downside which is discarding a random card from your hand. Despite this huge downside it’s not much of a problem for warlock because they’re hero power allows you to draw 2 cards a turn, not to mention that this is a huge tempo card.

2x Mortal Coil – Helps with the aggro matchups. When used to finish a minion with 1 health or 2 health with the help of bloodmage thalnos, it’s essentially the mage hero power for 1 mana instead of 2. Cycling in this deck is important, you want to draw those bombs and put out constant threats, this card helps do that.

1x Power Overwhelming – Most of you are familiar with the 10 mana leeroy jenkins, power overwhelming, faceless manipulator combo for 20 damage. This is one of the main reasons this card is in the deck. This card can also help with boosting a minion for a stronger shadowflame or trading up with something like a sunfury or earthen ring farseer.

2x Ancient Watcher – 4/5 for 2 mana is a huge backside on a creature for 2 mana. Clearly it has a big downside that it can’t attack, but if you silence it with an ironbeak owl, it essentially turns into a 2 mana chillwind yeti. Also, with 4 taunt givers in the deck, sunfury protector and defender of argus, this becomes one of their more important targets to give taunt to. This card can also be used in correlation with shadowflame to become a 6 mana flamestrike to deal 4 damage to all enemy minions.

1x Bloodmage Thalnos– With this version of handlock being so reliant on spell damage type cards such as mortal coil and shadow bolt, this card fits great. Helps soulfires and shadowbolt kill chillwind yetis. Helps mortal coil finish off 2 health minions. You can also play this card on turn 6 with combination of shadowflame to be a 2 damage AOE. It can also just be a cycle card to help get through your deck quicker.

1x Ironbeak Owl – You can silence an ancient watcher with this card so it can be able to attack. This deck, you often have so many cards in your hand that you can afford playing cards like ironbeak owl. If you opponent plays a sylvanas and you have giants on the board, the only way you can really take care of it without stealing one of your important creatures is to silence it with ironbeak owl.

2x Sunfury Protector – Pretty self explanatory, gives your minions taunt. Taunting an ancient watcher is extremely powerful. Against aggro decks that get you down to 10 hitpoints or less, you can play 2 molten giants and taunt them to pretty much end the game on the spot. Extremely important card in the deck, taunting big creatures essentually adds their combined amount of hp to your life.

1x Shadow Bolt – A lot of people arn’t a fan of this card, but we like it. Gives you another turn 3 play if you’re going second with the coin because you can’t tap then without discarding on your next turn without playing a card. It’s just a solid removal, and like I mentioned earlier it can kill a yeti with the help of bloodmage or mortal coil.

2x Earthen Ring Farseer – With all of the lifetapping your doing and lack of early game, heals are important in this deck. You can either heal your own health or a minion with them. Gives you a turn 3 play going second as we mentioned. Overall just a solid card.

2x Hellfire – With this deck being so reliant on large creatures and lacking an early game, this is an extremely strong AOE for this deck, you rarely have many minions on the field. This card helps especially in the zoo and shaman matchups and can also be powerful in the other matchups aswell. Keep in mind that this card also does damage to both heros so it can also be used to help finish off your opponent. For 8 mana, you can leeroy, hellfire, soulfire for 13 burst damage. Always keep in mind with a finisher like that to use soulfire after you play your other cards to finish your opponent so you don’t run the risk of discarding the other cards.

1x Shadowflame – A powerful AOE. Can deal with stealthed gadgetzan auctioneers that miracle rogues put out. As mentioned before, can be a 6 mana flamestrike when combined with ancient watcher. This card can get you out of some sticky spots. If your opponent gets your hp down low enough, you can play molten giant and shadowflame it to clear their entire board for only 4 mana.

2x Defender of Argus – Same reason as sunfury protector as to why it’s in the deck. The only difference is that it cost 2 more mana and it gives the adjacent minions +1/+1 as well.

1x Leeroy Jenkins – 20 damage finishing combo with power overwhelming and faceless manipulator. You can also use this with shadowflame to become a 8 mana 6 damage AOE to all opponent minions. Just all around a good card, synergizes well with the deck, and a strong finisher.

2x Twilight Drake – This deck relies on having a lot of cards in your hand. Generally when played on turn 4 it is a 4/9 or a 4/10 depending on if you went first or not or can be coined on turn 3 for a 4/8. Can be earthshocked against a shaman, so that is something to look out for. When silenced, it becomes a 4/1 but the times this card gets maximum value is worth the downsides of it.

2x Faceless Manipulator – Combos with the leeroy, power overwhelming finisher. Often, when you play either a twilight drake or mountain giant on turn 4, it stays alive and this can just be another copy of that card. With so many bombs in this deck, I like playing 2 of this card.

2x Siphon Soul – Hard removal with healing. Not much more can be said about the card. Sure 6 mana is a lot for a hard removal, but it works well in this deck. If you have a giant on the field and then they play a big minion, if you siphon soul it the game usually just avalanches from there for a victory.

2x Mountain Giant – One of the stronger turn 4 plays in the game. This will usually be one of the first threats you play when playing this deck. Can’t ask for much more than an 8/8 on turn 4. If you get this minion out and they’re unable to take care of it, combined with a turn 5 faceless, some games can finish on turn 6. One of the must-have bombs of the deck.

2x Molten Giant – With 4 taunt givers and having such a slow start, this card can single handedly win you games against aggro decks such as zoo. Sometimes you can get out turn 4 or 5 double taunted 8/8 or 9/9 molten giants if they don’t strategically play around them. These cards can also be a condender in the control matchups lategame. Even with all of the burst going around in decks lately, it’s hard to completely play around these cards and atleast 1 of them are bound to come out eventually.

Mulligans

Generally you’re looking for your turn 4 bombs, your twilight drakes and your mountain giants. If you know you’re playing against an Aggro deck such as hunter or zoo, keep the molten giants as well. Decks that you know flood the board, such as shaman or zoo, keep a hellfire. A lot of classes have frequently used 4 health minions. Warrior has frothing berserker, shaman has unbound elemental. Against these classes, you want to keep a soulfire or shadowbolt.

The Coin

Going second changes your play style slightly when using this deck. If you don’t have any of your twilight drakes or mountain giants, generally you want to coin to hero power to look for a threat that you can play on turn 4. Turn 3 is when the plays get different between going first or going second. If you’re going first you just tap on turn 2 and 3 and that makes your mountain giants cost 4 on turn 4. If you’re going second, you will need to play a card on turn 2 or turn 3 without overdrawing on turn 4. Usually this consists of playing an earthen ring farseer on turn 3 instead of tapping.

The Game Plan

This deck relies on having a big hand, hence the name “Handlock”. It’s all about getting out huge creatures early in the game. Generally speaking, you want to tap every turn you have excess mana unless you have all of the cards you need to finish the game or your life total is getting too low. For example, if you’re on turn 9 against a druid and you have the option to tap down to 14 for an extra card when you have no taunts or stay at 16 without tapping, you generally just want to not tap because force of nature savage roar combo will kill you. You need to be aware with what the different classes can burst. Another example is warrior on turn 10 generally can deal up to 12 additional damage with grommash and cruel taskmaster.

 Alternate Card Choices

1x Acidic Swamp Ooze – Some players that play handlock like this card in the deck. Personally we feel it is uneeded.

1x Arcane Golem – If you don’t have Leeroy or don’t have the dust to craft him, this can be a safe alternate. You can arcane golem, power overwhelming, faceless 1 turn earlier, granted it does 4 less damage, but 16 burst damage is usually plenty to finish the job.

1x Alexstraza – I used to play this card in my handlock but lately I’ve been feeling it was quite a bit underwhelming. Often when the game gets to turn 9, the opponent is already down to 15 or less hp.

[DKMR]Brad streams weekdays http://www.twitch.tv/bradhs. You can find all of DKMR’s streamers on their website with the days that they stream!

Written by [DKMR]Brad

Discussions about this topic brought to you by Team [DKMR]