Greetings minions, servants, and soldiers of Hearthstone! My name is Jaron “Demigod” Nolasco and I play for Vicious Syndicate Gaming. It’s been a while since I wrote a piece for you guys so here I go! Now I know that you all love combo decks (RIP Patron) so I wanted to exhume and share another combo deck that I really enjoy and love playing. Allow me to reintroduce OTK Warlock, a deck I like to call TrickLock. There have been many versions out there in the past which have helped paved the way to create this refined version. To be fully transparent with you all I have not reached a crazy legend rank with this deck this season at the writing of this article. I have been testing this deck within my line up for bo5 conquest format. With the data that I have collected, I have seen some really interesting and cool results. This deck is somewhat difficult to play but I recommend it for experienced players looking for something new to try out.
Strategy and Mulligan
The win strategy behind this deck is pretty simple. Control the board, remove threats, and combo to kill your opponent with Arcane Golem, 2x Power Overwhelming, and Faceless Manipulator for 24 burst damage. The journey through your turns until the lethal combo set up is the hard part. There are many decisions you have to make based on what deck you’re playing against. Against aggro matchups, like Secret Paladin and Face Hunter, you want to take a more defensive route and try to mulligan for cards like Abusive Sergeant, Dark Bomb, Imp Gang Boss, Mortal Coil and even Ironbeak Owl. Depending on how the meta shifts some cards might be taken out for Zombie Chows to deal with face decks. Against Midrange/Combo Druid you want to mulligan for cards like Dark Bomb, Imp Gang Boss, and even Twilight Drake or Hellfire. This deck struggles the most versus aggro and combo decks. If you can stabilize during the early turns you definitely have a chance to win those matchups. Against control style decks you can feel a bit more safe and hard mulligan for twilight drakes and even emperor. I think this is where OTK Warlock thrives. The amount of removal we have is ridiculous! Handlocks, Control/Dragon Priest, and Control Warrior will struggle to keep board because we just have every answer to any threat so it makes it really easy to just drop Alexstrasza turn 9 on them and win or even chip them down slowly allowing us to combo them down without even needing Alex.
Basic Matchup Winrate Percentages
- Secret Paladin/ Mid Range – Unfavorable 40/60 / Neutral 50/50
- Control Warrior – Favorable 60/40
- Face Hunter/Mid Range – Unfavorable 40/60 / Neutral 50/50
- Mid Range Shaman – Neutral 50/50
- Combo Druid – Unfavorable 40/60
- Handlock – Favorable 70/30
- Tempo Mage – Neutral 50/50
- Freeze Mage – Unfavorable 40/60
- Control Priest – Favorable 60/40
Card Explanations
Abusive Sergeant – I might be biased when I say this but I really value this card in this deck and it is extremely versatile. He is literally like a fucking Swiss Army Superman . He can be used to fight aggro on turn one, combo with Arcane Golem for even more burst damage, buff enemy minions from 5 to 7 attack to snipe them with BGH, and can be used to buff one of your minions for a bigger Shadowflame combo.
Imp Gang Boss – Mainly used to fight off aggro . This card packs a big punch not only as a 3 mana 2/4 but can provide some insurance to fight for board with it’s spawn of 1/1 imps to pick off tiny annoying paladin dudes and other minions.
Implosion – A form of removal with its 2 – 4 damage with scaling imps it can pick off damaged minions behind taunts and provide up to 4 1/1 imps depending how lucky you are.
Twilight Drake – Strong but delicate . Since we are usually going to be tapping from our early turns this card is easily a solid 4 mana for 4/7 or 4/8 and plays mind games with your opponent making them think you are playing Handlock which is of importance while playing this deck, since you do not want your opponent to know you are playing a combo deck so they do not play around the combo.
Loatheb – Protects your minions and your face from burn or lethal and spells in general. A rather situational card but it’s a solid 5 for 5/5 card and contests with other 5 drops like Sludge Belcher.
Dr.B(alanced)oom – He is a solid threat that your opponent would have to deal with right away also boom bots can clear minions or deal extra damage to face ! FACE
Alexstrasza – A very good card against control type decks, often times bringing them down from 30-15 hp in a turn and setting up lethal with your combo. Alex can also be used defensively as well versus aggro decks for a big burst heal.
Element of Surprise
Right now this is not a common deck to see in ladder or in tournament play. Honestly this is great for us, we don’t want our opponents to expect the combo! Usually tapping turn 2 automatically signals to your opponent that you are Handlock or Demonlock and even more so when you drop a drake on turn four. Depending on the situation, if you have an option to not reveal key cards that would expose your deck and can still be in favorable position in the coming turns I would encourage that line of play. The surprise factor increases the decks ability to win by much more. The days of Grim Patron are over let the new darkness rise! MUAHAHAHAHAHA
Thanks for sharing this different deck with us, giving us something beyond the same old lists! Hopefully, many of you will find it fun and maybe inspire some new ideas of their own! Make sure to stay in touch with Demigod via Twitter and Twitch, be on the lookout for his next stream! Also, if you are free Tuesday evening don’t forget to check out this week’s Tuesday Night Hype!