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Introduction
Handlock has been in and out of the meta for years, but now it looks a little different. With the nerfs to Molten Giant, this deck has suffered a lot in recent seasons. This deck has added some of the newer deck archetypes of demons with the addition of Bloodreaver Gul'dan . This particular deck has given me a lot of success, no match-up seems completely unwinnable, but some match-ups are a little more difficult. It holds a lot of tech cards to keep control of the match in any situation. The cards are definitely not cheap. So I will include some replacements later for this deck.
The lists main objective is to keep the board clear on the enemies side and get your big win conditions on the board. Bloodreave Gul'dan is more of a sustain card in this deck, it is not about re-summoning your demons even thought it does have it. The hero power gained from it is tremendously good.
Demon Handlock’s Mulligan Strategy & Guide
In general, Demon Handlock’s mulligan is almost a mirror of Handlock’s mulligan. In almost all cases you want to keep Twilight Drake and/or Mountain Giant. These cards are very valuable to getting pressure by turn 4. Most of your early turns are going to be spent Life Tapping, but if you want early defense Void Caller can be kept in the mulligan to keep off low mana minions from hurting your hero to get more safe Life Taps. Earthen Ring Farseer is another good card if you want early defense. It provides a nice 3/3 minion on board while healing your hero. In some cases, keeping Hellfire is a good choice. I usually will only keep it if I have a Twilight Drake and/or Mountain Giant. To keep of early threats I also like to keep Defile. This card is very good at taking down minions early with 1 or 2 health points. Combining Defile with Bloodmage Thalanos gives you 3 damage and a card draw (This will kill Bloodmage Thalanos). Mortal Coil could be kept in some instances like against Hunter or Paladin where you know they will have an early 1 health minion.
Demon Handlock’s Game Plans and Win Conditions
As stated in the introduction, you want to keep your opponents board clear. This can be done with cards like Defile, Hellfire, Shadowflame, Bane of Doom, Despicable Dreadlord, Abyssal Enforcer, and Twisting Nether. Siphon Soul also helps get big threats off the opponents board without sacrificing your big minions. Getting your Twilight Drake and Mountain Giant are really important and give you a lot of momentum. This deck struggles a little against Priest, so getting your Twilight Drake is super important along with Despicable Dreadlord. Demon Handlock also struggles slightly against N'Zoth, The Corruptor decks, which is why I added Twisting Nether. This card also helps against an opponent’s Bloodreaver Gul'dan. This deck has a lot of taunt options to keep your hero safe after Life Tapping a lot. These cards include The Lich King, Faceless Shambler, Bonemare, and Sunfury Protector.
Demon Handlock’s Card Substitution
- The Lich King – This card is very good and is a good staple in most decks, a good replacement could be Ysera, another Bonemare, or even a Primordial Drake. I would highly recommend crafting The Lich King because it is very versatile.
- Bloodreaver Gul'dan – Another really good card for this deck, but Lord Jaraxxus could be a replacement for it.
- Twisting Nether – DOOM! is a good replacement card if you don’t have Twisting Nether. You don’t really need the card draw, but if you don’t have this card, DOOM! is a good replacement.
Other substitutions:
If you don’t have other cards that I haven’t listed here, you can add Dread Infernal, Hellfire, Drain Soul, Shadowflame , or Faceless Manipulator.
Conclusion
I have had much success with this deck (around 79% win rating as of the creation of this post). It doesn’t get destroyed by any decks and competes with some of the top decks. Demon Handlock has a lot of creativity involved in getting the win with the many combinations of cards you can have.
I really appreciate you guys if you are here reading this, it means a lot. If you like this deck please upvote it and leave a comment of what you think of the deck. If you have any recommendations, leave a comment also. Handlock has always been one of my favorite decks and seeing it doing well makes me feel great. I hope you guys enjoyed this post and hope to see many more people playing Demon Handlock.
