Following the Comprehensive Preview, it is time for theorycrafting. We recommend reading our preview to understand our deckbuilding choices in this article.
Our first Data Reaper Report for Escape from Violet Hold is scheduled for Thursday, July 16th!
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Time to escape.
The most notable addition for Herald Death Knight specifically, as well as Blood-Ctrl Death Knight in general, is Blood Doctor Thal’ena. This legendary provides an incremental advantage over time, both in controlling the board via trades, as well pushing damage to finish opponents off.
Emergency Surgery is a solid piece worth testing. It provides removal, sustain and corpse generation. Drink Blood represents serviceable early-game removal that refreshes our hero powers, which makes the spell potentially very powerful in the late game, after playing Deathwing. It provides a path for us to burst our opponent down with a significant amount of damage. Early-game cards that scale well are always valuable.
Current Herald Death Knight builds either run Wild Pyromancer with Poison Breath, or Staff of the Endbringer with Command Claw. We have gone for the more popular choice these days, but both are fine.
Unholy Death Knight has a few cards worth testing. Warden Maiev should be a powerful card in any board-flooding deck that runs multiple cheap minions. Bone Flurry is an extremely promising addition for proactive Death Knight decks that can easily trigger it by constantly having minions in play. It is an excellent source of damage and board control.
A more curious addition that we are less sure about is Tower of Ghouls. The minion is slow, but it is extremely hard to deal with and sets up threatening a turn 5 Talanji’s Last Stand. It should thrive in matchups where board tensions are high but might not be threatening enough against passive decks that can ignore it.
Our attempts to build around The Living Plague have pulled us towards an Imbue Death Knight deck. The hero power works well at buffing the legendary to shuffle more plagues to the opponent’s deck when it attacks. We can also buff The Living Plague’s attack with Thal’ena’s hero power and Blood Tap.
If that is not enough, resurrecting The Living Plague with Memoriam Manifest is possible. It is possible that over the course of a long game against a slower deck, we summon three copies of The Living Plague and shuffle around 50 plagues. An alternative route is to follow up The Living Plague with a hugely buffed Blackwing Experiment for some direct damage.
Void Souls are an attractive win condition due to their scaling nature and powerful summoned demons in the late game. We are encouraged to generate as many of them as possible, as quickly as possible, so the most obvious idea to generate more than 10 is to run Ravenous Felhunter and Ferocious Felbat to resurrect a horde of Vicious Voidscales.
A package of Prepare minions is a good fit for this deck, making Jailbird a reasonable inclusion. Both Tras’tath and Vanessa can be discounted and played alongside a chain of Void Souls. Smuggler can give rush to demons summoned by Void Soul, leading to a powerful board swing. It can also be used to give Felhunter or Felbat rush, popping their deathrattles immediately.
The Void Soul package can be fit into the remains of Spell Demon Hunter, which has recently dropped The Eternal Hold as well as other no-minion payoffs for a Kayn win condition with Lasting Legacy and Broxigar. We think Void Souls would fit in well here, as they offer a board-based threat and stability for a deck that is normally not able to summon a lot of minions.
We do not have to worry about running Vicious Voidscale here, as we only need to trigger Lasting Legacy once we get close to the end of our deck and find Broxigar. In most matchups, Void Souls will be our primary win condition. If all their summoned threats are dealt with by a defensive-minded opponent, then we can fall back to the Broxigar win condition.
Ravenous Archmage Demon Hunter
Captured Archmage offers a late-game win condition to classes that can repeatedly copy or resurrect it. Naturally, Ravenous Felhunter and Ferocious Felbat can summon a ton of them, which puts a clock on the opponent’s ability to outlast their deathrattles.
This deck is weaker than Void Demon Hunter early in the game, as Archmages take time to start making an impact on the board. Defias Smuggler does not have the same level of comeback potential as it does with Void Souls. Tras’tath and Vanessa do not work well without Void Souls either, so a Prepare package with Jailbird is not possible. Instead, we opted in for a dormant package with Perennial Serpent.
While we do expect this deck to be weaker than Void Demon Hunter, the late-game damage potential is very high and should become unbearable for defensive decks that rely on removal and sustain to win. It is also… just funny.
Our attempt to revive Aggro Demon Hunter with Irida Sinseeker. What we tried to do is avoid card draw and focus on generation and discover, as card draw is a liability post-Irida. We also made sure the list is abundant with cheap minions that can be buffed by Maiev. There is no way to tutor or draw Irida more consistently, so she becomes a mulligan priority in this deck.
Chef Neth’rek is an extremely game-warping rulebreaker. Its potential is incredible as it allows us to gain a massive mana advantage after 5 turns, but its condition denies us from running a top-end curve that can easily take advantage of it.
The solution is to run cheap value generators or threats that scale extremely well. Azshara’s Triumph finally has a purpose in Druid. Kaldorei Cultivator and Contingency are a natural fit. Mossbinding is probably the most devastating turn 6 play the deck can make in slower matchups. Commissary Crook is a similar card, while Defias Smuggler can help turn our big bodies into removal when it is needed.
The other important aspect of the deck are minion tutors and draw. This build is stacked with these effects to make sure we do not brick turns once we mana spike. The risk is that we get rolled over by aggressive decks in the early game, but the hope is that our cheap curve can field some resistance against them. Do not hesitate to play Mossbinding or Spiteful Chef early to fight for board when you know the game is won once you hit 10 mana.
If aggression proves to be too difficult to deal with, we can shed a little bit of draw and tutoring power for a couple of anti-aggro 1-drops in Spiderling and Critter Caretaker. Our issue with this approach is that we do not want to draw these minions by turn 6, so there is a risk we will get punished in slower matchups and not take advantage of our mana spike.
The hero attack package in Druid does not fit an aggressive shell too well, nor does it have the late-game power to handle slower matchups by itself. So, our idea is to slap Merithra as late-game insurance.
While building the deck, we realized that most of the important cards for the archetype are even-cost. The only important odd-cost cards cost 1 mana, which means we can easily get them out of our hand if necessary. This had led us to a build that should activate Genn consistently. An upgraded hero power is a perfect fit for a deck that wants to perform hero attacks every turn.
Token Druid gets two important additions to its build. Spiderling should be a great 1-drop in any proactive Druid deck, while Maiev is an excellent fit for a board-flooding playstyle. Even though minion density in this build is not that high, Maiev represents a threat that opponents can never ignore and she can get buffed by Hatchery Helper.
Each copy of Arcane Tripwire is worth 15 damage if the Hunter draws through its deck. This is not an impossible dream for current Face Hunter, which churns through cards quickly with Tame Pet/Tracking and Confront the Tol’vir. The addition of Smuggled Shovel should help. Underbelly Network is another possible addition, though it might be too slow for the archetype.
One devastating line of play is to equip Shovel on turn 1 or 2 and save the second swing for Arcane Tripwire on turn 3, which instantly deals 10 damage to the opponent’s board and face.
We think the Tripwire/Shovel pairing greatly increases Face Hunter’s reach in matchups it normally struggles with, which are decks with lots of life gain. It becomes much more difficult to outlast Face Hunter when they have 30 extra damage lying around. Opponents will have to counterpressure if they want that damage to not get funnelled to their dome.
Companion Hunter is receiving a few cards that should make a big difference to its game plan. Defias Smuggler can turn some of our summoned beasts into removal, which can help the archetype swing the board back more consistently. Underbelly Network provides a steady source of card draw that should be particularly powerful in slower Hunter decks.
King of the Underbelly is the major addition for late-game-oriented Hunter decks. The primary discover target in this deck is Ursol, as it can turn Call of the Wild into an aura effect lasting several turns, a back-breaking play against slower decks. The Great Dracorex is a strong alternative for faster matchups, where we might need a board clear. Ravenous Pterrordax is the emergency option, for when we need immediate life gain.
In Quest Hunter, King of the Underbelly can provide us with another copy of Agamaggan. Guard Dog becomes the best option for the deck when it comes to 3-attack beasts, while Underbelly Network offers premium card draw to an archetype that previously did not have much of it.
The most thought-provoking new idea for the class is an OTK deck built around Arcane Tripwire and Rat Catcher. The game-ending combo is to play both copies of Arcane Tripwire, Rat-Catcher and then draw (Smuggled Shovel swing, Tracking/Tame Pet or killing the Rat-Catcher). This deals 50 split damage to the opponent.
For us to execute this combo, we need to either reach the end of our deck or play Blackhorn to delete most of it. Our combo pieces specifically cost 3 mana, so Blackhorn accelerates the process of finding them. The only thing we need to be mindful of is whether we drew our two copies of Confront the Tol’vir before executing the combo.
A turn 3 Tol’vir Carver can even allow us to play Blackhorn on turn 5, which might be a devastating play in slower matchups. Alternatively, we use Carver to discount Arcane Tripwire or Rat-Catcher.
Contraband Wands could be a major glue card for Burn Mage, helping it either clear an enemy board or burn the opponent down in combination with spell damage. This list runs Story of the Waygate to discount Arcane Missiles in the late game for when we want to execute a massive combo turn in slower matchups.
Contraband Wands also makes it far easier for us to discount Spellweaver’s Brilliance, as three Arcane Missiles discount it to 1 mana by themselves. Play Archmage Kalec after Contraband Wands for even more damage. This single card drastically increases Mage’s reach.
Code Violet stands out as a build-around card in the Mage set thanks to its blow-out potential in the mid-game. The game plan for this deck is to prepare it on turn 4 and then cast it on turn 5 alongside three 1-mana spells. Contraband Wands is the easiest activator for Code Violet, but the build runs more 1-mana spells and cheap spell generation that provides redundancy.
Alternatively, we prepare Code Violet on turn 5 and then play it on turn 6 alongside Khadgar for an even bigger blow-out in which we summon 4 random 8-drops.
This deck’s propensity to summon large threats for cheap makes it a great fit for Defias Smuggler, which turns those big stats into instant removal. The deck naturally wants to Prepare, so we have expanded this package to include more Prepare cards alongside Jailbird. Tricksy Improviser requires the same kind of resources we have already invested in Code Violet.
Jailhouse Manastorm has massive potential but is difficult to build around, as any deck that builds around Manastorm struggles to function if it does not draw Manastorm on time. Manastorm also encourages us to run a greedy build with expensive spells, but this further increases the inconsistency and vulnerability of the archetype.
Our solution is to run a minion-light, cheaper build. We run Manastorm alongside two other minions and Xavius, which means we can discover Manastorm every time we play Xavius, guaranteed. Rather than leveraging Manastorm with expensive spells, we run a leaner build that trusts that an infinite flow of smaller minions should do enough to beat slower decks.
Speaking of infinite, we run Timelooper Toki to make sure we never run out of spells in the late game after playing Manastorm. The other high-quality minion we can find with Xavius is Archmage Kalec.
The Skeleton Key is a solid discover option for Quest Mage that helps keep things ticking along. Note that refreshing the discover options does not trigger the quest again. That would have been nuts. The Skeleton Key is always worth one quest tick.
The other card we would test in this deck is Defias Smuggler, which can help us stabilize post-Quest completion.
Pure Paladin could be making a comeback with new payoffs. Vigilant Sentry is an amazing stabilizer against aggressive decks and an all-around cracked card. Scarlet Bruiser is a solid 2-drop that provides high-quality value.
This list does not go too crazy. Aura Paladin is not dependent on neutrals, so it is a natural shell for the Pure archetype and should not play out differently than what we are already accustomed to.
Beatrix kicks things up a notch and gives Pure Paladin a drastically different spin. Scarlet Bruiser now becomes a primary win condition for the deck, with 10 copies that can be pulled by both Reinforcement Aura and Scarlet Recruiter. The sacrifice made to run this package is to cut Violet Treasuregill.
The generated, discounted value from Bruiser will provide Paladin with incremental advantages that can eventually overwhelm opponents when paired with the pressure created by Gelbin and the Aura Paladin shell.
The other interesting 2-drop to pair with Beatrix is Captured Archmage. This makes the deck weaker in the early-to-mid game, as Archmage does not do anything special at this stage and we give up Vigilant Sentry.
However, once we reach the later stages, those deathrattles start becoming painful for the opponent and can set up Umbra to cast 5 random Fireballs for 30 damage. We can even run Deios and Ysera to set up an unavoidable OTK, but we think this route is unnecessarily greedy considering the deck applies plenty of pressure through the Aura Paladin shell.
As with all board-flooding decks, Dude Paladin will happily run Maeiv in this build. The other card worth experimenting with is Truth Seeker. The weapon might be too slow, but it provides a massive, immediate buff to our board that represents a legitimate win condition against defensive-minded decks. Emboldening Blade is so weak that it is possible that Truth Seeker is an upgrade.
Holy Bola is a new source of card draw that is a strong fit with Aggro Paladin, as we can build the deck with an extremely low curve that should activate Holy Bola’s additional draw effect most of the time.
Maiev should be particularly nuts in this deck as we run a horde of 1-drops to pair with her. Use her on turn 5 alongside three 1-drops and watch the opponent squirm as they have no way of preventing the Paladin from connecting Flight Maneuvers or Nozdormu.
Soothsayer is a strong stabilizer for Priest that can be prepared on turn 2 and played on turn 4. If we follow that up with Undeath Sentence, we heal ourselves for 12 while developing two random 6-drops and a 6/6 taunt by turn 5, with mana to spare. That is a line of play that should be back-breaking for aggressive decks. Conveniently, Calia Menethil resurrects Soothsayer too.
Whenever we see a big Prepare card, we want to expand the package to include more of them alongside Jailbird. Priest has Hold Them Off, which can be powerful alongside Jailbird to summon an 8/9 taunt with lifesteal.
Later in the game, possibilities open for crazier plays. We can buff Soothsayer or Jailbird with both Hold Them Off and Schism on the same turn. These big taunts either overwhelm opponents or buy us time to win through the Imbue card advantage route.
Alternatively, we can build around The Egg of Khelos. It is almost impossible to play around Hold Them Off/Schism in this deck once we place The Egg of Khelos down.
Undeath Sentence summons additional copies of The Egg of Khelos while Defias Smuggler can help us pop them. Vanessa is added to help Jailbird, since we cannot run Soothsayer.
Holy Embrace is a great card for nearly all Priest decks, but it is particularly powerful in Atiesh Control Priest, as it scales incredibly hard in the late game to deal a crazy amount of damage with Ruby Sanctum, Cleansing Cleric and Atiesh.
Survivability is a major issue for Control Priest, so we have added the Soothsayer/Undeath Sentence pairing to the build. It provides a stabilizing line against aggressive decks that should be valuable. Soothsayer’s deathrattle can get buffed by Cleansing Cleric too.
The best way to build Azalina Thief Priest will likely maximize card draw and removal. The deck’s win condition will be the opponent’s win condition, as we are likely to copy their most valuable assets. There is no point trying to build our own win condition when half our deck will have no synergy with what we are trying to do.
We present two options. Either run Enthralled Shade to leverage the copied cards harder or add the Soothsayer/Undeath Sentence survivability pairing.
Lotus Bookie and Blackpaw’s Whip are powerful additions for nearly every Rogue deck, so they should make Herald Rogue significantly stronger, especially in the early game.
A coin from Bookie can be the difference between cheating out Naralex/Mistress on time or not. Blackpaw’s Whips is a massive boost to Rogue’s chance of winning on the coin, as it represents an early-game weapon on turn 2 that clears two minions while drawing a card. Even when going first, a turn 1 Agent of the Old Ones can set up a turn 2 Whip.
Building around Troublemaker and Jade Guardians is not a difficult concept. We fill the deck with as many proactive 2-cost cards and spend our mana efficiently every turn. If we play our cards right, Jade Guardians become a droppable threat as early as turn 6. This should help us turn the corner in faster matchups and present the first serious question to slower opponents. Troublemaker scales its damage to the point it can obliterate slower decks in a prolonged match. If drawn early, it can swing the game against faster decks too.
Card draw is relatively scarce, so Prize Vendor is not a farfetched inclusion. The Imbue cards make sense as they give us more resources and a hero power that we can weave in odd-cost turns. Troublemaker is possibly a strong mulligan keep in some matchups, while Jade Guardians can be drawn later in the game.
This deck has already started to pop up in Standard over the last week, so it is worth mentioning in this article. The game plan is to tutor Vanessa and Morchie with The Kingslayers. If Vanessa does not win the game, Morchie does with Chrono Daggers and spell damage through Geomancer. Morchie with one discounted Geomancer and one copy of Chrono Daggers is worth 18 damage. Morchie with two Geomancers and two Chrono Daggers is worth 48 damage.
We do not have much faith in Aya, but the featured deck concept should at least be fun. This deck runs a similar shell to Chrono Rogue but with a different end goal. Our tutor targets alongside Vanessa are Hooktail and Aya.
We can use Garona’s Last Stand to destroy the chest summoned by Hooktail, then play Aya to upgrade our full hand of coins. We then use these coins to fuel Vanessa and Defias Wannabe to blow out our opponent.
Mug Shaman possesses great potential to outpace opponents with a steady mana advantage. The basic thing it needs is minion-generation tools so that it can take advantage of its hero power every turn. Low Security Wing, Blazing Invocation and Mountain Map take care of this need. It is also important to run cheap spells so that we can activate the three transforming spells in our deck: Molten Gold, Frostshatter, and Stormfury.
This build runs token generators to make it easier for us to discount Muradin’s Last Stand and have access to more than one source of card draw. The challenge will be to pressure defensive decks, as they can more easily handle us playing one threat at a time and this deck does not have any kind of late-game win condition.
The solution could be to play Instant Multiverse. We do not need to play Stormfury against slow decks with any urgency, so it is okay to overload on turn 6. Ceremonial Clash is another card that builds a board for us and can be played on turn 7 after Multiverse.
Zee Shaman’s hero power is geared to take advantage of powerful battlecry minions. A Herald Shaman shell makes sense as it has some of the best late-game-oriented battlecries. However, dropping spells from the deck comes at a significant cost. We lose Ritual of Power, Muradin, High King (because of Avatar Form), important card draw and reactive tools.
Card draw compensation comes with Holy Eggbearer and Getaway Hogdriver, the latter we may want to double in some matchups. We run a proactive build with Gallagio Goon and Wailing Vapor to get ahead on the board. Fire Fly will be important to fuel these 1-drops as well as helping us properly time the 5th battlecry.
The Naralex package with Ysera and Fyrakk gives us more impactful late game-battlecries. Al’Akir and Ultraxion are the two most notable battlecry minions we want to double in slower matchups.
A Zee Aggro Shaman is feasible. Even though doubling the battlecry here is not as explosive, a doubled Hijacked Securitybot is a clear-cut finisher for a board-flooding deck. Getaway Hogdriver is also a better fit for an aggressive deck.
Thanks to Gallagio Goon alongside Wailing Vapor, Shaman’s early-game aggression has great potential. Goon/Apprentice is a crazy turn 1 play and we can stack a lot of 1-drops for Maiev and quick hero power activations.
As for a worthwhile battlecry to double, how about Cult Neophyte for a more Loatheb-y experience? Lock out the opponent’s options to deal with our board and then land Securitybot.
Since Gallagio Goon is conveniently an Elemental, an aggressive tribal deck looks clean. It has plenty of ways to flood the board with small elemental minions that we can buff.
Instead of a double battlecry, we gain Fire Breath as an additional buff to our board. Note that Flight of the Firehawk has a high chance of finding us Securitybot. This happens to be the cheapest deck in the article to build. No legendary or epic cards.
Warlock’s late game might be dependent on some late-game combos to work. One of them is Captured Archmage/Bat Mask, which sets up a later Deios/Umbra 120 damage OTK. The rest of the deck is focused on drawing cards with Godfrey and survival. Shadow Rounds and Caged Cranium should be solid for every defensive-minded Warlock deck.
We can use Demonic Confinement to put an Ancient of Yore back to sleep, as emergency removal, or to preserve one of our minions for a later turn (Archmage or Deios).
If Warlock seeks to pressure its opponent, it will have to rely on Spire of Solitude and Zuramat’s Prison to get the job done. Welcome Home allows us to accelerate the development of these locations, so we believe the neutral spell will be mandatory. Impfernal is the best target for Zuramat’s Prison.
In case our threats are dealt with by slower decks, this deck features a different combo, which is an option for the previous, more defensive list too. We put Earthen Drake to sleep and then Bat Mask it when it awakens for 28 damage. We can even combo it with Deios for 48 damage with the help of Ysera or Zuramat.
If we cannot tutor Moragg consistently, perhaps the answer is to have another recruit effect on turn 5 that can take advantage of Shrine of Twilight and Defias Smuggler. Animancer makes a lot of sense to run alongside Moragg.
The featured build runs Ultragigasaur as the Animancer target instead of Asphyxiodon, as the latter is both a beast and demon, so it can be pulled by Moragg and interfere with our desired demon pulls. We would like to curate Moragg targets to Mo’arg Forgefiend, Imp Gang Stooge and Grandmother Imp.
Once we start off the Moragg chain and perhaps shuffle some more Grandmother Imps to the bottom of the deck with Archdruid of Thorns and Umbra, Annihilation should end the game against any opponent that does not possess mass removal, assuming they survived the Ultragigasaur. The Crazed Alchemist is there for the turn 6 gigakill.
Have we mentioned already how good we think Defias Smuggler is? Turns out that Egg Warlock should also greatly appreciate the card, especially when it makes Animancer so much stronger as a turn 5 play.
Bonus 46th deck: Godfrey Rafaam Warlock
We cannot leave out Rafaam, can we? The featured build adds the new survivability options that Warlock has been given in this set, with the goal of launching Rafaam Warlock to a 40%-win rate. Good luck to everyone.
Warptooth is one of the most powerful cards in the set and its early-game blow-out potential is scary in a proactive Warrior deck that can trigger its activation early. Up steps Dragon Warrior with Hogger, for the sole purpose of copying Warptooth and summoning two 3/3’s with charge.
The rest of the build is adjusted to make sure Warptooth activation does not take long.
What if we gave Herald Warrior another chance with double the legendary count thanks to Hogger? This Dragon Warrior build is far more late-game oriented, using Warptooth as a swing card rather than one meant for pressure. If we survive early, we are happy.
After all, with two copies of Ultraxion, Ragnaros and Deathwing, the late-game power is clear. This approach might be too greedy, but it is worth testing how much we can push Hogger builds. A Control Herald build without dragons is possible, but we know from past data that the Dragon shell is far more competitive with this package.
We will see if Hogger changes things.
The emergence of Enrage Warrior is very possible since it is the archetype that can summon Warptooth the fastest and snowball off it the hardest. This build attempts to flood the board and then buff minions with whirlwind effects paired with either Ball and Chain or Rioter.
Notice that we do not spend more than 3 mana on any card in this deck, so this build is as aggressive as an Aggro Paladin. But with Time-Twisted Seer, it can utilize buffed AOE to clear opposing aggression too.
One copied legendary might be all that Egg Warrior needs to become a far more intimidating deck against other late-game strategies. Two copies of Umbra means one more massive Egg board is on the cards, which can strain removal kits beyond the abilities of the most defensive decks in the format.
Control Warrior archetypes have been given a big survivability boost with Crowd Control. In a deck with Hogger and Scramble for Gear, its activation uptime should be high.
Quest Warrior can add a late-game Naralex package and enjoy a consistent turn 8 power spike. Two copies of Commander Geddon, which is meant to dig into our deck for quest rewards, is another impactful Hogger factor to consider in this archetype.
Special thanks to WorldEight for helping throughout the theorycrafting process. Also special thanks to IWUS for helping to proofread our content. Finally, thanks to our Patreon and Gold supporters who have provided feedback on these decklists.
See you later,
The Vicious Syndicate Team
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