Cubelock Deck List Guide – Boomsday – August 2018

Our Cubelock deck guide for The Boomsday Project expansion will teach you how to play this popular archetype. This Cubelock guide includes Mulligans, Gameplay Strategy, Card Substitutions, and Combos/Synergies!

Introduction to Cubelock

Cube Warlock is a slow Warlock archetype first introduced in Kobolds & Catacombs. To be fair, the deck is very hard to classify – it has lots of Control elements (high cost cards, many removals), but very often you want to play it proactively. The deck also has some combos that you want to perform, and you could say that Carnivorous Cube combos bring it closer to a Combo build. In the end, the deck is somewhat of a mix between different archetypes, such as Midrange, Control and Combo, and that’s exactly what makes it so powerful.

Cube Warlock can adjust its play style depending on the matchup it faces. With lots of removal (especially AoE), healing and Voidlords, it stands a chance against most of the aggressive builds. And thanks to the Mountain Giants and Doomguards, it can put enough pressure on a slower deck.

Because the Standard rotation didn’t affect it much, Cubelock remained as one of the strongest decks in the early Year of the Raven meta. The only new card that’s an auto-include is Lord Godfrey, a very powerful late game AoE (much better than Twisting Nether against Aggro builds), but given that the deck kept most of its power, it has once again wrapped the entire meta around it… until the nerf patch happened.

Recent balance changes have hit this deck most. Between increasing the mana cost of Possessed Lackey (from 5 to 6) and reducing the healing from Dark Pact (from 8 to 4), the deck lost a lot of momentum. Does it mean that it’s no longer viable? No, not at all! Even though it lost a lot of its power, at the same time other players stopped teching against it heavily, so in the end, the deck is still good. While it doesn’t appear to be very popular, it’s a solid Tier 2 deck, especially in the higher ranks.

Check out our Wild format Cubelock Deck Guide!

Update – The Boomsday Project

We’ve listed a popular version of Cubelock below, we’ll be updating the guide soon!

Deck List

Deck Import

Cubelock Mulligan Strategy & Guide

Against Aggro you want to have early board-clears and life-gain cards, and against Control you want essential combo pieces.

VS Everything

  • Kobold Librarian – Cheap minions that draw cards have always been good, but this is one of the better ones. It activates Lesser Amethyst Spellstone, cycles through your deck, and provides you with a much needed 1-health minion for Defile that you don’t hate to put into your deck.
  • Skull of the Man'ari – Pulling big Demons from your hand is your best way to win in the mid game. The slight downside is that you might not draw any of your big Demons by Turn 5 (although it doesn’t happen often).

VS Fast Decks

Higher Priority (Keep every time)

  • Defile – One of the strongest board-clearing tools in all of Hearthstone, Defile is amazing at getting you through the early game. Defile handily clears small minions, and is one of the only ways to do so while also removing Deathrattle-produced tokens.
  • Doomsayer – The reason you play Doomsayer is that the card is amazing vs Aggro. When played on Turn 2, it usually pops and destroys the whole board. Not only you can clear some early game minions this way, but you also force your opponent to skip board development on his turn.
  • Stonehill Defender – It’s not an amazing card, but it’s your only Turn 3 play, and it’s better to drop a 1/4 Taunt than just tap most of the time, especially vs Odd Paladin, where it can actually trade into some of the 1/1’s.

Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

  • Lesser Amethyst Spellstone – This card is pretty bad at first, but even after just a single upgrade, it gets amazing. That’s why you keep it with Kobold Librarian, so you can guarantee a 5 damage + healing on the curve.
  • Hellfire – While it might seem like a desperate keep, your ability to clear the board in the mid game is often what wins you the matches vs Aggro decks. Keep it against decks that like to flood the board a lot, such as Odd Paladin.

VS Slow Decks

Higher Priority (Keep every time)

  • Mountain Giant – Against slow decks you can afford to spend your first few turns Life Tapping, which sets you up to play Mountain Giant on turn 4. Mountain Giants that early can often win you games, but it also soaks up opponents removal, making your later threats harder to respond to.
  • Possessed Lackey – After the nerf, Lackey is too slow to keep vs Aggro, but it’s still good vs slower decks. After all, you want to pull out those Demons from your deck somehow.

Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

  • Doomsayer – Keep when going second and the rest of your hand is okay. Even though it’s more of an anti-Aggro card, sometimes you can keep it vs slower decks too, in order to answer their early game plays and stall their board development. DO NOT keep it if you’re going first, because you will need Taps on Turn 2 and 3 to play Giant. Going second, you can Tap on Turn 2 and drop Doomsayer on Turn 3, setting up a Turn 4 Giant really well.
  • Carnivorous Cube – This deck is built to take full advantage of the Cube, and if you keep it in your opening hand you don’t have to find it. You probably want to have at least a Mountain Giant or Skull of the Man'ari before you keep a Cube though.

Cubelock Win Rates

Winrate stats are currently unavailable for this deck at the moment!

Cubelock Play Strategy

With this deck you’re trying to set up powerful plays with Carnivorous Cube, either to make an unbreachable wall or an OTK combo.

Vs Aggro

Games against Aggro aren’t different than usual. Most important thing is to constantly clear the board and survive. In case of Cube Warlock, the key moment is usually surviving until you clear the board and drop Voidlord your opponent can’t answer (e.g. he has no Silence). It can sometimes happen as soon as turn 6-7, although the biggest swing with Cube Warlock happens on Turn 10 – thanks to the Bloodreaver Gul'dan. But, how can you survive that long when your opponent is constantly trying to push damage? 

Most important part is AoE damage. Your deck runs two AoE damage spells – Defile and Hellfire + a slightly different form of board clear, Doomsayer. All of those are really strong in different cases. Hellfire is just your generic 3 AoE damage – it’s enough to clear most of the early game minions your opponent will play. Defile is better when it comes to those tricky boards – if you can line up the health totals of minions, you can even clear 4-5 health minions, as well as everything up to that point. Doomsayer is easiest to counter, but also strongest in the early game, as your opponent will have to skip a turn if he can’t clear it. It’s also a good “proactive” stall tool – after you clear a board, you can drop Doomsayer to force your opponent to skip a turn. Very useful during later turns, when you have something you want to play next without being interrupted. Sometimes you can also drop two Doomsayers on a single turn – it increases the chance of them blowing up quite heavily. Yes, you use two cards instead of one, but it might be worth it if you need to stop your opponent from getting huge board.

On top of those, this build uses Lord Godfrey. Even though 7 mana cost seems quite expensive, it’s very useful, especially against those board flooding Paladins or Zoo Warlocks. Not only it should be able to clear the board quite easily (it’s almost impossible to play around it AND putting multiple minions on the board at the same time), but it also leaves a 4/4 body that you can get another trade with next turn.

One of the most important skill is picking the right AoE for the right situation. Generally, in the early game, try to rely mostly on the Doomsayer. Later in the game, it really depends on the deck you play against. If your opponent doesn’t really play 1 health minions, then you should take Defile value whenever you can. If he does – then you can be a little more greedy with it and wait for a good opportunity. Don’t use your AoE too lightly – Aggro decks usually have multiple ways to refill the board, so if you AoE down two small minions, you might not have a way to deal with e.g. Call to Arms or board flood from Zoo.  

But, even with lots of AoE, your opponent will still deal damage – it’s just something you can’t help. For that reason, in order to keep yourself alive, you run quite a lot of healing. Sadly, the Dark Pact nerf reduced the total healing of your deck by 8, which is massive in Aggro matchups. Still, between 2x Dark Pact and 2x Lesser Amethyst Spellstone, you can heal for quite nice amount, not to mention that Bloodreaver Gul'dan is usually a game over for your opponent, not only because you resummon Demons, but also because you heal for 3 more per turn.

Preserving your life total is important, but don’t mistake not taking damage at all with preserving health. Kobold Librarian is still one of the best cards vs Aggro, even if you take 2 damage. If it trades into your opponent’s 2/1 (for example), then you indeed took 2 damage, but you saved probably 4 or 6 in the long run. Life Taps are similar – even though taking damage and doing nothing is terrible against Aggro, tapping brings you closer to your big Demons (and ways to summon them), as well as AoE and healing cards. You should still Hero Power in the early game, and in the mid/late game if you have free mana and still lots of health. Safe health really depends on the matchup and situation – e.g. aggressive Paladins don’t have a lot of ways to deal damage without board, but Tempo Mage can kill you from 20+ health over 2 turns, with no minions at all. 

Voidlord is a key card when it comes to surviving. But one is often not enough – not only it can get Silenced, but opponents sometimes have ways to get through it (e.g. Sunkeeper Tarim). That’s why cards like Faceless Manipulator and Carnivorous CubeDark Pact are so great – you can extra copies of it, so now even if your opponent Silences or deals with one, he still has another to go through.

If you get to Turn 10, a big Bloodreaver Gul'dan is usually GG, assuming that you can revive at least one Voidlord (+probably a bunch of Voidwalkers and possibly some Doomguards). If you have Gul’dan in your hand already and you’re just a few turns off, try to not make any risky plays. Just clear the board constantly and heal up as much as you can. Turn 10 swing is going to win you the game almost every time, so there’s no reason to risk it. If your opponent somehow answered your board (e.g. Even Paladin running Equality combos – not really an Aggro deck, but you get what I mean), then try to Hero Power every turn and continue with your previous game plan of clearing the board. Now with a better Hero Power, there is no way that a faster deck will outvalue you.

Vs Control

When playing vs slower decks, just surviving is not enough. Cube Warlock is not a high value deck. You don’t run multiple tools that generate extra resources, or ways to win a slow, fatigue-oriented game. In the long run, lots of decks are going to destroy every threat in your deck (e.g. Control Warrior), destroy your deck (Rin, the First Disciple or just kill you through some combo (e.g. Mind Blast Control Priest can deal lots of damage from the hand after setting you up to 15 with Alexstrasza). Of course, it all depends on the match, but you usually have to just kill them before you run out of resources. 

First and one of the most important cards in those matchpus is Mountain Giant. I’d say that around 1/4 of the games with Cube Warlock are won around Turn 6-7 thanks to the Giants. Dropping a Giant on Turn 4 is really big when your opponent can’t answer it right away, mostly because you can do so many things later while still putting pressure. Your opponent has to play defensively, while you can push. Most of the time, unless there is some high priority target on the board, you just push face damage. 8 per turn is a lot and can’t be underestimated, especially against Warlocks (which should already be around 20-24 health from the taps and Librarians). After dropping the Giant, you have a few things to do. You can play another Giant, copy the one you have with Faceless Manipulator, play Skull of the Man'ari. On Turn 6 you can either drop Possessed Lackey (good thing is that if you have something on the board already, your opponent might be too busy to worry about silencing it). You can also eat your Giant with Cube and Dark Pact it. The last play is especially powerful if you need to attack something and lose health in process. For example, your opponent drops a 5/5 minions. Hitting it, then dropping Cube and killing it results not only in healing your Giant up, but also getting an extra one. However, if you play a matchup in which putting pressure is important, you’d want to do that even on a full health Giant just to get an extra 8/8.

However, that aggressive push won’t always work. Your opponent might have an answer, or put a Taunt wall. If that’s the case, take the game a bit slower, especially with a very reactive hand. There is no harm in just clearing the board and waiting until Turn 10 swing or Cube combos to close out the game.  

Talking about Cube combos – in slow matchups, it’s usually better to copy Doomguards than Voidlords. While Voidlords provide a huge wall, not only they aren’t aggressive enough, but Voidwalkers also dillute the Bloodreaver Gul'dan spawn pool. It’s a big issue a lot of players don’t think about – reviving 3-4 Doomguards is usually game-winning, while reviving 6 Voidwalkers and Voidlord is… not bad, but underwhelming. So it’s generally better to save the Cube combos for Doomguards. The best way to set those up is Skull of the Man'ari. Once it summons Doomguard, you go face (or bump it into something, you can even get the first one down to 1 health as long as it doesn’t die), then Cube + Dark Pact it, and then get another 10 damage. That’s already up to 15 damage, with two 5/7’s on the board your opponent has to clear. Then, if you go into your Gul’dan turn, you will most likely re-summon more Doomguards, often closing out the game as soon as Turn 10.

Since the deck runs no Siphon Soul or Twisting Nether, your reactive game vs slow decks is much weaker. You can still kill a single minion with Voodoo DollMortal CoilDark Pact, but once your opponent puts two or more big threats, you might have a very hard time. That’s the problem you solve by simply putting pressure all the time. If you have minions on the board and your opponent is pretty low, he has to remove them / Taunt up / heal up all the time, leaving no room to develop. However, this strategy takes a huge toll on your value. If you constantly push, your opponent usually gets the better trades, removes your minions efficiently etc. and you often end up getting outvalued. It doesn’t matter as long as you can kill your opponent first, though.

Talking about the Hero Power, once you transform into DK, that Hero Power is often one of your main win conditions. Simply using it on your opponent every turn can put a lot of pressure on their health – like a better Hunter’s Hero Power. It’s best when you face a Warlock who hasn’t transformed yet. Generally, try to use it every single turn – in the best case scenario you “suck” their Hero, while deal with the board with removals like Hellfire, Spellstone etc. However, if you have a board yourself and clearing something will protect your board, it’s often worth to clear with the Hero Power too. It all depends on the context, how much burst you have, how much health your opponent’s at, board states etc.

Alternatively, since the deck runs 2x Stonehill Defender, there is also a chance that you will discover Rin, the First Disciple. She gives you an alternative win condition, especially against decks that can outvalue you. Against decks that can just kill you, like Mind Blast Priest or Quest Warrior I’d mostly ignore her and go for the pressure – you need to win fast. But she’s an amazing win condition for example against a Quest Priest or against a regular Control Warrior.

Card Interactions

  • Faceless Manipulator and Prince Taldaram (this build doesn’t run it, but he’s a viable option) summon the targets of Carnivorous Cube when they die if they copied it. If they copy a DoomguardBloodreaver Gul'dan is that much more likely to summon additional Doomguards when played. Also keep in mind that while targeting Carnivorous Cube is their intended purpose, they can also target opposing minions such as The Lich King.
  • If you think your opponent has Explosive Runes, you can use it against them by playing Possessed Lackey or Carnivorous Cube into it. You’ll still take four damage when you play Lackey, but the Cube absorbs all of it.
  • Carnivorous Cube is a great way to punish your opponent for playing Doomsayer.
  • Skull of the Man'ari and Doomsayer have an interesting interaction a lot of people don’t think about. Start of turn effects are resolved in the order they were played in. So if you play Doomsayer first and THEN Skull, even if you have a Demon in your hand, Doomsayer will proc first and only then your skull will summon a Demon. However, the other way around is more common. If you have Skull already equipped and a Demon in your hand, it would often be foolish to play Doomsayer, as that Demon will immediately die.
  • Another interesting Skull of Man’ari interaction is that it pulls out a Demon BEFORE you draw a card. So, as long as you have a Demon in your hand and you don’t suspect that your opponent will destroy the weapon, it is possible to finish turn with 10 cards in your hand and not overdraw. Whether it’s worth it or not really depends on the situation, but sometimes you really don’t want to play any card and it’s better to take a slight risk of him destroying the weapon than to let’s say play Hellfire vs no minions.

Cubelock Card Substitutions

Although Despicable Dreadlord and Vulgar Homunculus are excellent cards that otherwise have good synergy with the deck, you can’t include them because they derail your consistency with Possessed Lackey, Skull of the Man'ari and most importantly Bloodreaver Gul'dan. You really want Gul’dan to summon as many Doomguards as possible to end the game. 

Skull of the Man'ariCarnivorous CubeVoidlord and Bloodreaver Gul'dan are absolutely irreplaceable. Other cards, however, including DoomsayerSpiritsinger Umbra or Mountain Giant can indeed be replaced. Here are some of the cards you can consider using instead:

  • Siphon Soul and Twisting Nether – These cards are often run in Cube-based Warlock decks, and there’s nothing wrong with them. They are absent from this list to make room for Faceless Manipulator and Mountain Giant, so if you don’t have or don’t want to run that package these are good choices to replace them with.
  • Prince Taldaram – While it’s not really a “budget” replacement, if you have Prince, but you don’t have Voodoo Doll, you can drop all of the 3-drops and run Prince Taldaram instead.
  • Faceless Manipulator – Again, if you’re missing one of your Epics/Legendaries, you can try out a Faceless manipulator. It’s a flexible card that fits into Cube Warlock really well – you can put more pressure by copying a Giant or Doomguard vs Control decks, or you can put another huge Taunt by copying Voidlord vs Aggro.
  • Bloodmage Thalnos or Tainted Zealot or Kobold Geomancer – Spell Damage combos well with Defile, so slower Warlock often include it. Defile is a strong enough card on its own, so it’s not necessary to run any Spell Damage, but if you’re looking for spots to fill this is a good place to look. Each of the cards above have their individual strengths. Thalnos draws a card when he dies, Zealot adds Spell Damage to an additional Defile tick, and Geomancer is guaranteed to be in your collection!
  • Acidic Swamp Ooze – Weapon destruction isn’t a bad tech in the current meta. It works best against Tempo Mage (Aluneth) and in the mirror matchups (Skull of the Man'ari), but destroying a Vinecleaver or even Unidentified Maul versus Odd Paladin will also hurt him a lot. And most importantly – it’s a cheap way to fill some of the gaps in the deck.

P.S. If you don’t have Skull or Cubes, but want to play a similar deck, you can always try out the Demon Control Warlock. However, keep in mind that it still requires a different set of Epics to run.

Card Omissions

Cube Warlock is one of those decks in which you’d like to play more than 30 cards, but you have only 30 card slots. Some of the cards are missing simply because they HAD to be cut. It doesn’t mean that they are necessarily bad, and different lists might still run them, but you just had to remove something.

The most notable exclusions is probably Rin, the First Disciple. The Cube-less lists based around Voidlord are very passive, waiting for their opponents to run out of threats. For these decks, Rin is way more helpful than for this build. Rin dramatically accelerates the plan of running your opponent out of threats by removing their deck entirely. The strategy is effective in a lot of the Control matchups, but doesn’t go well in pair with the more aggressive strategy of this list. The turns Control Warlock decks would be spending to cast Rin seals are the turns this deck spends comboing Carnivorous Cube to end the game.

You might be skeptical about playing the slow Warlock deck without any copies of Siphon Soul or Twisting Nether, but they don’t fit this deck perfectly. These cards are very defensive, and great for outlasting your opponents threats, but this is a deck that wants to be proactive during the turns those cards would be necessary. You can still add one copy of each if you want, and it will make your value game much better. However, if you want to slow down and drop some combo consistency, you might as well just play the Demon Control Warlock instead.

Stonekeep

A Hearthstone player and writer from Poland, Stonekeep has been in a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone since Closed Beta. Over that time, he has achieved many high Legend climbs and infinite Arena runs. He's the current admin of Hearthstone Top Decks.

Check out Stonekeep on Twitter!

Leave a Reply

286 Comments

Discuss This Deck
  1. Mmaamm
    March 3, 2018 at 7:47 pm

    So as nzoth is rotating in april what can I replace him with?

    • Mmaamm
      March 3, 2018 at 8:04 pm

      also is there anyway i can fit oakheart into this deck if i dont have taldaram?

    • Josse
      March 13, 2018 at 4:32 am

      Wait for new cards to get printed in mid-April, in the current card pool there’s surely no replacement for a card like N’Zoth…

  2. Spyder9899
    March 3, 2018 at 12:39 am

    Any good tips for the mirror matchup?

  3. Ghost
    February 27, 2018 at 9:51 am

    I’m sorry but I just can’t seem to grasp why Prince Taldaram is so important… I do not own him and am trying to justify crafting him. I feel like if I craft him then I’m going all-in on this deck and only want to if it’s 100% essential. Could someone give some game-breaking examples of his use in-game?

    Also, specifically against “Revive/Y’Sharaj” priest, this deck suffers, especially without N’zoth because you get outlasted and out-controlled. Happens every time… I personally feel like Rin would be amazing in this situation. I’m not crafting N’Zoth since he’s rotating. Does anyone have any advice for this matchup and others like it where you can potentially get outlasted/controlled to where you have no demons left?

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      February 28, 2018 at 4:39 am

      Prince Taldaram is good, because of its flexibility. You can copy a Taunt if you need one (Voidlord in particular is amazing, but copying your opponent’s Righteous Protector ain’t that bad), you can get a 3/3 Charge with Doomguard in case you need to kill something right away or deal more damage, you can copy Mistress of Mixtures for more healing, but the best use is to copy the Cube once you’ve eaten something big. For example, if you Cube the Doomguard, and then copy it, you have a 3 mana 3/3 which Deathrattles into two freakin’ Doomguards.

      Of course, the card is not absolutely necessary, you can run the deck without it. But it is a really good card in this deck.

      About that matchup, I think you’re talking about Big Priest, right? In that case, with this deck you should try to win through the aggression, not outlast them (because you won’t be able to). The best way to kill them is through an early Mountain Giant (assuming they can’t answer it) or multiple Doomguards. Cube is great, as you can duplicate your big threat. Turn 10 Bloodreaver Gul’dan is also a great way to finish off the game, especially if you’ve managed to get a few Doomguards onto the board before that – charging 3 or 4 of them at your opponent is usually a good way to close the game.

      It’s not a good matchup and the deck will often start reviving stuff as early as Turn 4-5, meaning that some of the games simply can’t be won. On the other hand, sometimes they draw really poorly and don’t do anything for the first 6-7 turns, and those games are auto-wins.

      But yes, N’Zoth would make that matchup better, because if your initial aggression failed, you could always have another big board refill that they absolutely have to answer.

    • RandomBoi
      March 4, 2018 at 12:45 pm

      But the skull defeats the whole purpose of Azari, doesn’t it?

      • Coolbreeze
        March 13, 2018 at 11:47 am

        That’s one of the decisions you have to make when playing Controlock. If you use the skull, you’ll almost never get to use Azari’s battlecry, except for the rare moments when you have your second Voidlord in hand. The dream vs control is to Possessed Lackey both Voidlords, and ultimately never needing to use the skull.

  4. thesnowball
    February 25, 2018 at 10:44 am

    What do you think about removing 1 mortal coil and putting harrison in there for the matchups that run weapon like dude paladin with vinecleaver or secret mage with aluneth or even the mirror with the skull (seems like an autowin if you harrison the skull in the mirror)

    • DestinyXXX
      February 25, 2018 at 11:31 pm

      You can’t play Harrison because you risk to overdraw every time. You can play it in control n’zoth mage and in control jade shaman because they don’t have powerful draws. One of the the ooze works fine, but 1x Spellbreaker is probably better.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      February 26, 2018 at 9:35 am

      Harrison is a really bad card in slow Warlock decks. Not only it’s pretty expensive, but those draws are often bad – by drawing 3 cards you risk milling yourself.

      Weapon destruction is definitely a viable tech in the deck, but if anything, you want to go for the good old Acidic Swamp Ooze and not Harrison.

      • DestinyXXX
        February 27, 2018 at 10:13 pm

        The “gluttonous” one (the ungoro’s epic) is better. 3 armor against paladin and hunter DOES matter. The “acidic” one is off-curve with the 3 mana weapons…

        • Stonekeep - Site Admin
          February 28, 2018 at 4:34 am

          Yes, it is, BUT you can’t play it in the same list as Taldaram 🙂

          • DestinyXXX
            February 28, 2018 at 6:43 am

            You’re right, I forgot… :O

          • DestinyXXX
            March 4, 2018 at 5:34 am

            Maybe the better one is the “new” KnC 5-mana ooze. You destroy Skull and Aluneth on curve while dropping a decent 5/5 body (which takes just 1 dmg from explosive runes).

    • Henrik
      March 2, 2018 at 4:12 am

      Actually I wouldn’t recommend putting Harrison into a warlock deck.
      It has never seen play so far for a very good reason: In some cases you would draw 2 to (in this case) even 3 cards and your hand usually is full all the time so in most cases you would just self-mill yourself.
      However, just as stonekeep wrote Ooze is a fine card but I personally don’t think it is that important.
      Indeed against warlock it would be crucial but vs. pally it doesn’t matter that much and mage is winnable without it so I prefer different cards.
      If the meta gets even more weapon oriented though it should be a fine choice.

      • Henrik
        March 2, 2018 at 4:13 am

        Sorry – didn’t see the reply before. I’m new commenting here lol

  5. DestinyXXX
    February 23, 2018 at 5:56 pm

    This list is awful, you absolutely need N’Zoth as a second board refill, both against control and aggro (against aggro when you don’t have Gul’dan, N’zoth does the same work). 1x Sanguine Reveler works well, just like a third dark pact (when you are > 20 health it is better actually). 2x Faceless Manipulator has shown to be too much (you already have Taldaram, which is better because it costs just 3 mana). The following IMO should be the standard decklist.

    ### cubelock
    # Class: Warlock
    # Format: Standard
    # Year of the Mammoth
    #
    # 2x (1) Dark Pact
    # 2x (1) Kobold Librarian
    # 2x (1) Mistress of Mixtures
    # 1x (1) Sanguine Reveler
    # 2x (2) Defile
    # 2x (2) Doomsayer
    # 1x (3) Prince Taldaram
    # 2x (4) Hellfire
    # 2x (4) Lesser Amethyst Spellstone
    # 2x (5) Carnivorous Cube
    # 2x (5) Doomguard
    # 1x (5) Faceless Manipulator
    # 2x (5) Possessed Lackey
    # 1x (5) Skull of the Man’ari
    # 2x (9) Voidlord
    # 1x (10) Bloodreaver Gul’dan
    # 1x (10) N’Zoth, the Corruptor
    # 2x (12) Mountain Giant
    #
    AAECAf0GBpME4KwCl9MCieICneIC2+kCDIoB9wS2B+EH3sQC58sC8tAC+NACiNICi+EC/OUC6OcCAA==
    #
    # To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

    Let’s discuss about 2x Doomsayer vs 2x Mortal Coil vs 1x of both… I have seen for example that with 2x Mortal Coil you lose the mirror because of fatigue disadvantage.

    • Elzein
      February 25, 2018 at 9:25 pm

      Sanguine Reveler looks interesting, will definitely try it!

      I really like running a Spellbreaker, it’s a very flexible card. Finds itself useful in more situations than a seccond Doomsayer.

      I don’t like mortal coil in this deck at all. Feels like a dead draw most of the times, and the truth is that the meta is so intense right now that you just can’t afford to lifetap a lot in the game. So drawing it at a tense late game without a crucial defile to set up sucks.

      I don’t have N’Zoth and obviously won’t craft it right now… that must be the case for a lot of people. So I’m trying Twisting Neather instead.

      • DestinyXXX
        February 25, 2018 at 11:42 pm

        I’m playing this list right now. Against secret mage and murloc paladin I was losing aniways, so I just cut the 2x Doomsayer to play 2x Faceless, 1x Spellbreaker and 1x Reveler to win the mirror and to have extra power against other control decks (when you have the coin and you can do T4 skull or lackey, faceless manipulator is actually stronger than carnivourous cube and you need it in the mirror).

        ### cubelock
        # Class: Warlock
        # Format: Standard
        # Year of the Mammoth
        #
        # 2x (1) Dark Pact
        # 2x (1) Kobold Librarian
        # 2x (1) Mistress of Mixtures
        # 1x (1) Sanguine Reveler
        # 2x (2) Defile
        # 1x (3) Prince Taldaram
        # 2x (4) Hellfire
        # 2x (4) Lesser Amethyst Spellstone
        # 1x (4) Spellbreaker
        # 2x (5) Carnivorous Cube
        # 2x (5) Doomguard
        # 2x (5) Faceless Manipulator
        # 2x (5) Possessed Lackey
        # 1x (5) Skull of the Man’ari
        # 2x (9) Voidlord
        # 1x (10) Bloodreaver Gul’dan
        # 1x (10) N’Zoth, the Corruptor
        # 2x (12) Mountain Giant
        #
        AAECAf0GBvIF4KwCl9MCieICneIC2+kCDJME9wS2B+EH3sQC58sC8tAC+NACiNICi+EC/OUC6OcCAA==
        #
        # To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

        • Ghost
          February 27, 2018 at 7:11 pm

          Sanguine Reveler is definitely awesome in this deck, however, I was also looking at Ravenous Pterrordax. I know its 3 more mana, but its a much more powerful card that also destroys a friendly minion. The only real downside is the mana cost of course, as it cant be played early game (turn 6) with a cube.

          • DestinyXXX
            February 27, 2018 at 10:20 pm

            You can play reveler in place of umbra because at 10 mana the effect is the same

            Umbra + Cube + Pact = 4 more doomguards

            Cube + Taldaram + Pact + Reveler = 4 more doomguards

            You would have been right if “charge” and “taunt” would have been “adaptable” into

          • Elzein
            March 1, 2018 at 8:58 pm

            Taunt is adaptable thou.. but Sanguine Reveler is much better than Ravenous Pterrordax, since you can have a super aggressive/defensive play on turn six if you equipped Skull of the Man’ari on turn 5.

  6. Najim
    February 22, 2018 at 8:46 pm

    I replaced the Prince with Zola the gorgon. What do you think about that?

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      February 23, 2018 at 3:53 am

      Replaced as in you don’t have Prince or you wanted something else instead?

      Zola is not a great replacement, she doesn’t find that much of a use in this deck, because she’s pretty slow. I’d rather run something like Tar Creeper to make the Aggro matchups better.

  7. Penoyer79
    February 21, 2018 at 10:46 pm

    i chuckle seeing Prince Talderan in this deck… I remember how bad everyone thought those cards would be. Opening them on launch day was like a pack meme. All over them have since popped up in tier 1 decks.

  8. yeetmaster
    February 18, 2018 at 7:52 am

    Which substitution do you recommend the most instead of Prince, I have everything else

    • tom
      February 18, 2018 at 5:35 pm

      Another spellbreaker, umbra, siphon soul, twisted nether, shadowflame, n´zoth

  9. Vallidus
    February 17, 2018 at 9:54 am

    Having a rough time against big/spiteful priest decks. Any tips or card subs?

    • Elzein
      February 23, 2018 at 8:17 am

      I find those matches very hard too. Having a Twisting Nether helps in both cases. Don’t try to win the game quickly, usually won’t work. Just trade minions constantly and take the game to fatigue.

  10. GR3N
    February 16, 2018 at 1:53 pm

    im having trouble getting to mid/late game with this deck it always seems like i go up against a secret mage/innerfire priest and end up not having enough clear to stop them from buffing and 1 hitting me or trying to play my Lackey and the secret turns it into a 1-1 sheep and i cant stop the mage from throwing spells in my face it seems like this deck gets counter played really easy? any cards to help with this?

  11. GR3N
    February 15, 2018 at 9:27 am

    would it be ok to run Twisting nether instead of the giants and Rin instead of Taldaram?

    • Martian
      February 15, 2018 at 9:45 am

      That’s typically better in the cube-less control variant, but you could try it.

  12. Shacksta
    February 13, 2018 at 7:53 am

    Is this THE best deck list ? I think that Trump’s deck is a bit better, the one with Oakheart, Stonehill Defender and Tar Creeper.

    • Martian
      February 13, 2018 at 10:44 am

      That sounds like Demonlock, which is a more Voidlord-centric deck. Runs a lot of similar cards but functions very differently.

      • Shacksta
        February 14, 2018 at 10:54 am

        I guess you’re right, the main point in that deck si to get your voidlords in any situation : skull, oakheart, lackey. And then just add N’zoth instead of the second mountain giant and make your opponent ragequit.

  13. Godric
    February 12, 2018 at 6:55 am

    I am really tired playing vs this deck. what’s the best counter? spitful priest is an easy win sometimes. Combo priest is good, but harder to play and can go south.

    • Martian
      February 12, 2018 at 12:02 pm

      You could play an aggro deck with Spellbreakers to get through the Voidlords.

  14. GR3N
    February 11, 2018 at 10:52 pm

    Skull of the Man’ari > Bloodreaver Gul’dan? plz halp

    • MrMeme
      February 12, 2018 at 12:15 am

      Bloodreaver Guldan is played in all control warlock decks, Skull only in cubelock. I’d say craft Guldan but don’t play cubelock without Skull since you’ll probably have to play the doomguards from hand making you discard 2 cards.

  15. Kalinouski
    February 11, 2018 at 4:10 pm

    I dont have taldaram but i am facing alot of Jade Druids! Is Skulking Geist a good idea for the meta? I really need it

    • Martian
      February 12, 2018 at 3:26 am

      That would be more for Demon-lock, Cube-lock can just Doomguard them to death.

  16. Belton
    February 11, 2018 at 3:30 pm

    What are good substitutions if you don’t have blood reaver guldan or skull or the manari?

    • MrMeme
      February 12, 2018 at 12:13 am

      Those cards can’t be replaced, they’re essential and it says at the top of Card Substitussions

      • Martian
        February 12, 2018 at 3:25 am

        I hear Spiteful Priest and OTK Paladin are doing all right.

  17. Spyder9899
    February 10, 2018 at 8:22 pm

    Should I feel dirty playing this deck? :p

    I’m so close to golden Guldan. I’ve gotten about 400 wins with zoo and only needed a couple peices to craft this deck, so I did.
    But I’ve gotten a few rage quits before I thought the game was decided….

    • Martian
      February 11, 2018 at 11:04 am

      Don’t feel dirty, this deck isn’t brainless. It’s very strong, but you have to be decent to win with it 🙂 GL on your golden hero!

  18. Goshoo
    February 10, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    Hi guys! So, i came here to see if the deck i that good as nany people say and i can say that it’s true – many people said it to me and many people say it here. Last week i just opened a golden Grumble, worldshaker (or something like that :D). I dont really play shaman but i really like it just for the collection. Now im trying to make my choice – to dust my grumble for 2 voidlords and cubes or to keep it and collect dust from something else.

    • Martian
      February 10, 2018 at 5:27 pm

      Grumble is pretty mediocre… right now. If you’re limited on dust then disenchanting it for Voidlords makes a lot of sense, but if you really like it it’s the kind of card that may see play eventually.

  19. Captram77
    February 10, 2018 at 5:33 am

    How can this be top deck, its getting destroyed…..by 2 priest decks, secret mage, hunters can beat it, control warlock, kingsbane rogue……..

    Saying this is deck is TOP dog is like leading the lambs to the slaughter. JUST Saying …
    I played this deck alot pre and post nerf.

  20. Spyder9899
    February 9, 2018 at 6:16 pm

    What are some thoughts about running just one mountain giant. I only have one, plus it lets me put both Umbra and spellbreaker.

    • Martian
      February 9, 2018 at 11:17 pm

      Mountain Giant is optimal but you could easily play the deck without it, I say go for it.

  21. pepesarjv
    February 9, 2018 at 11:35 am

    what do u think is it better to put umbra instead of the prince

  22. Elzein
    February 8, 2018 at 1:55 pm

    There are so many Cube Locks on ladder that mirror battle is a main concern. I’ve been using Rin on my deck and it works wonders. A lot of players get nervous with the perspective of losing their deck and start pushing life tap at all turns and making poor trades as soon as you start playing the seals, which is actually good for you. The only drawback is that the first two seals are terrible, so you need a good opportunity to play them in a single turn.

    • Daniel
      February 9, 2018 at 5:11 am

      What did you replaced to use rin ?

      • Elzein
        February 9, 2018 at 7:23 am

        Prince Taldaran, which I don’t have. You can use Rin in the place of a Faceless Manipulator too.

    • Kyle K. Kotley
      March 13, 2018 at 8:26 pm

      You forgot to mention that Rin is a dead card when you have Skull equipped.

      • Elzein
        March 14, 2018 at 7:46 am

        It all depends on you opponent. If you face aggro/murloc paladin, secret mage, pirate warrior, hunter, etc. go for the skull. Otherwise, if you are up against cube/control warlock, big priest, jade druid or any slow deck, play Lackey on turn 5 and Rin on 6. Leave the skull. It’s a high bargain having two legendaries in your deck that don’t work well together, but versatility has a price.

  23. Jonathan Hobbs
    February 8, 2018 at 9:03 am

    I made cubelock after this nerfs, I started at rank 20 since I didn’t play much after I hit legend 2 seasons ago, and since I’ve been grinding cubelock I have 40ish games in and I’m already rank 8. This deck is very good and rewards you for being a skilled player. I didn’t notice when I copied the list that I put in 2 Dirty Rats instead of Prince and Spellbreaker, but Dirty Rat has been great, I don’t know if that would be the correct replacement or the right cards to cut, but I recommend trying them out in the deck.

  24. RaiderSpike
    February 7, 2018 at 3:52 pm

    worst possible deck. Wins against nothing. Losing with it over and over and over again. How is this a good deck?

    • Ivan
      February 7, 2018 at 5:31 pm

      You dont know how to play it, thats the problem

    • MrMeme
      February 8, 2018 at 1:27 am

      I have 74 % winrate over 50 games, just learn the deck it’s rlly gud and fun

      • plyzd
        February 9, 2018 at 1:52 pm

        Same here. 1-40 with this deck.

  25. Lemontree
    February 6, 2018 at 7:57 pm

    I found stone hill defender in place of prince to be highly successful against aggro decks. It’s a great way to save hp and even stall a turn or two!

    • Martian
      February 7, 2018 at 11:21 am

      Yeah that’s not bad, especially if you don’t have Prince.

  26. Godho
    February 5, 2018 at 5:17 am

    Do u guys think that lich king will a ok addition to the deck

    • ZergVolution
      February 6, 2018 at 5:06 am

      no

    • Martian
      February 7, 2018 at 11:22 am

      As a sub for something you’re missing? Sure. I can’t imagine he’s optimal but you could probably throw him in there somewhere.

  27. MrMeme
    February 3, 2018 at 4:13 am

    Only missing prince taldaram so i replaced him with shadowflame because it combos great with giants, I’m open for better sugestions

  28. Gloshu
    February 1, 2018 at 4:18 am

    What can i do if i dont have the giants?

  29. Bailbond
    January 29, 2018 at 5:51 pm

    This deck is not that strong when all your recruit cards are stacked in the last few of your cards. Happens more often than you might think.

  30. WildRage
    January 24, 2018 at 3:27 am

    I feel like defending this deck, since it has earned itself an “overpowered” sort of reputation. I’m sure Warlock players will find what I have to say familiar, but I’ll write it anyway. This deck is by no means overpowered and to start of, let me just explain my view on what an overpowered deck is:

    An overpowered deck would be a deck that either can and does win opposing decks by a simple combination of thoughtless plays & top decks (example: Gadgetzan’s Pirate Warrior), a deck that can both answer any opposing play and advance its own tempo (example: Aggro Shaman) or a deck that simply is too fast for you to compete against (example: Gadgetzan’s Pirate Warrior).

    Now, obviously Cube Warlock doesn’t fall in the first category. To humour anyone that disagrees with this point, Cube Warlock recquires both skill & thinking to make “value plays” as well as long-term planning (example: your end-game, the Gul’Dan turn, might change depending on your opponent. Your usual plan is to fill the board with Doomguards, but that plan changes if your opponent’s a very aggressive deck and you weren’t able to slow them down. Another example would be the choice between keeping your Carnivorous Cubes for your Doomguards or to use them on your Mountain Giants).

    Cube Warlock also arguably can’t fall in the third category either, it’s a combo deck. Drawing into your combo cards, even with Life Tap, recquires a lot of turns. Another point is the fact that most of the cards in Cube Warlock’s deck recipes are above 5-mana.

    Taking these into accounts, people can only argue that Cube Warlock falls in the middle category and to those people I propose a few examples that mind you are not rng-influenced or improbable but rather actual plays from meta decks that are often done normally throughout regular matches and definately prove Warlock can’t really answer all plays. Full disclosure, my point is not that Cube Warlock’s the victim here. It’s that he’s beatable.

    Aggro Token Druid: This deck’s main strength against Cube Warlock is the fact it doesn’t allow him to set up a good Defile. You’ll need to either play your own Kobold Librarian or have a Mortal Coil and even then, they can easily dodge your Defile through Buffing- a tactic that Druid is especially good at. If you waste your clears too early to stop a buffed board, there are two more threats you won’t be able to deal with: Living Mana and Bittertide Hydra. There’s not really a good way to deal with Hydra, Warlock’s strongest removal generally is a buffed-up Amethyst Spellstone, unless you’re running a recipe where you included Siphon Souls. For Living Mana, if you had to waste your clears in the early turns (which you probably did because that’s what they’re there for), your only hope is to top deck Hellfire or (if you run it) Twisting Nether. Both Twisting Nether and Siphon Souls aren’t a regular inclusion, by the way.

    Highlander Priest (and Priests in general): There’s not much to say here, matches between these two are a combo race. If Anduin draws his combo, there’s not much a Warlock can do. If a Warlock’s quick enough and dodges their clears, there’s not much an Anduin can do either. It’s equal footing from where I see it. As for Priests in general, Mind Control does really mess with Voidlords and your Gul’Dan turn since you’re looking to survive behind these guys against Spiteful Priest. Anduins have started included Potion of Madness in their decks, which is a killer for your Possessed Luckey (one of the most essential combo pieces).

    Secret Mage: These guys can and usually do prove a problem against Warlock due to their many many burn effects like Fireball, Explosive Runes etc. These cards limit Gul’dan’s ability to Life Tap, which is essential for both drawing into your combo (your only win-condition) and for your Mountain Giant turn. The fact that it’s burn damage Mages focus on also means your Voidlords won’t be able to protect you, so the only way to survive (which is the tactic Cube Warlocks employ against faster decks, which Secret Mage definately is) is to hopefully draw most of his heals, have enough removals to clear the Mage’s board and regain control of the field before Mage draws Alu’Neth.

    I won’t continue providing examples, but most decks do have regular examples of plays Warlocks can’t answer to. Let’s just mention the fact Cube Warlocks are gravely susceptable to Spellbreakers. And that’s what makes Cube Warlock beatable. Granted it’s a powerful deck, but it’s by no means overpowered. It’s on equal footing with most Tier 1 decks and can definately be beaten by Tier 2 decks. The factors that do play on whether you’ll beat a Cube Warlock are the factors that usually have a say on how you’ll beat any other deck:

    1) RNG
    2) Your own Skills & knowledge of the meta decks

    • WildRage
      January 24, 2018 at 3:48 am

      To close the matter, like any decks Cube Warlocks have specific weaknesses that all decks can exploit.

      1) If you’re too fast for Cube Warlocks to deal with you on the early turns they won’t survive.
      2) If you mess with their Possessed Lackey, Carnivorous Cubes and Voidlords with silence like Spellbreaker, they’ll lose their win-condition.

      People usually argue that Warlock’s unfair advantage over Aggro decks is how easy it is to cheat out Voidlords before turn 9 and to those people I have this to say: it’s not an unfair advantage, it’s they only reason Cube Warlocks can beat Aggro Decks. If this tactic didn’t exist they wouldn’t win against Aggro decks plain & simple. To say it’s unfair to utilize this tactic is to say it’s unfair for Warlocks to win against Aggro decks, it’s vanity.

      Control/ Combo players don’t argue that much against Cube Warlocks, but I’ll try to cover this point as well. The main reason Warlocks beat other slow decks is how, in similar fashion to the previous point, how easy it is to cheat out Doomguards without suffering the discard effect. The main strenght of the deck against slow decks is the fact you can trade your Doomguards and you’ll still have an OTK turn with your Gul’Dan. And to those people I adress the point I raised on my Highlander Priest section: it’s a combo race. If Gul’dan draws his combo, he wins. If his opponent draws his combo Gul’dan loses.

      Cube Warlock’s main strenght is just how flexible and strong it is against any deck. But the fact remains that to beat any deck, you need to be flexible and strong too. You need to be able to read your opponent’s tactics and answer them and even then, if your opponent does that better you lose.

  31. Shane
    January 20, 2018 at 7:45 am

    Has probably been asked, but I have dust for one more Legendary. Thoughts on Prince Taldaram vs Spiritsinger Umbra? Leaning to the Prince, but open to suggestions.

    • Martian
      January 20, 2018 at 5:36 pm

      Thoughts on Umbra are pretty polarizing. It’s great if you can set up a 25 damage turn but outside of that it’s bad. Taldaram is a staple, I recommend going that way.

  32. BroomNinja
    January 17, 2018 at 8:08 pm

    Thoughts on using one of the minions that swap attack and health of minions in this deck? A 7/5 Charge or a 9/3 Taunt seems solid for surprise burst.

  33. Cody
    January 8, 2018 at 2:33 am

    Hey! Love the deck. I’m just missing faceless, noth, prince. But I’m doing well quite well

    I have omitted some of the board clearing spells to allow Rin, and two others that add an additional copy of void or doom.

    Zola the Gorgon, makes a copy into your hand
    And corpse raiser, give a resummon rattle.

    Let me know what you think!

    • Martian
      January 8, 2018 at 7:14 pm

      Gorgan is interesting, if it werent for Prince Id probably try that. Your card choices look fun, good luck on the ladder!

    • kvmevl
      January 21, 2018 at 11:52 am

      Rin can be so risky for this deck when Azari can land on board from weapon.

  34. Godrazil
    January 7, 2018 at 8:15 pm

    Hey im missing the legendary weapon, is it still playable without it?

    • Martian
      January 7, 2018 at 9:56 pm

      Definitely playable, but strictly worse.

    • MrMeme
      February 5, 2018 at 4:42 am

      without weapon get rid of doomgards

    • Nillernig Geraferater
      March 13, 2018 at 8:28 pm

      If you don’t have the weapon, Doomguards are dead cards in hand. This deck is completely unplayable because the “Cube” part of the deck involves Doomguards and Carnivorous Cube. However, if you have Rin, you can play a similar version of this deck. Control Warlock

  35. Benjamin
    January 7, 2018 at 7:56 pm

    What would a good replacement for Prince be? Would it just be a simple switch out or would you add more three drops with him gone?

    • Martian
      January 7, 2018 at 9:56 pm

      Id go for tar creepers probably. As long as youre adding one you could find space for another.

      • Cptmeatballz
        January 19, 2018 at 4:49 pm

        Good replacement. I’ve used Siphon soul and I must say, it’s pretty bad. When I end up using it, it doesn’t win me the game…

  36. Flokinchen
    January 6, 2018 at 8:51 pm

    Hey,
    I just wanted to tell you, that there’s a small mistake in the guide (I think).

    Substitutions:
    “You could also consider Unwilling Sacrifice, but at only one less mana it’s really hard to justify running a worse Deadly Shot.”

    They both cost 3 Mana so that’s no argument isn’t it?

    Thanks for the guide it really helped me to improve my winrate with the deck!

    • Martian
      January 7, 2018 at 1:05 am

      It’s worse because it has a secondary cost for the same benefit (having to destroy your own minion). Glad you liked it!

    • Matt
      January 7, 2018 at 4:28 am

      1 mana less than shadowflame. That’s the shadowflame section.

  37. Cptmeatballz
    January 5, 2018 at 8:13 pm

    Hi Martian, I have build yet 99% of your deck, only exception is Siphon instead of Taladram (don’t have it). I need to be convince. How much more powerful is Taladram versus siphon. currently have 60% WR.

    • Martian
      January 6, 2018 at 1:29 am

      Id say its significantly better. It does a lot of handy things like adding Doomguards to your Guldan pool and copying Cubes. Its also helpful in the mirror and occasionally good against aggro (copy Patches or Righteous Protector). That being said, it isn’t mandatory, and that it even found one deck its good in is a miracle, so crafting it may not be worth it unless you LOVE the deck. Not including it lets you run Tar Creeper and/or Stonehill Defender, which the deck probably otherwise wants.

      • Cptmeatballz
        January 6, 2018 at 5:33 pm

        Thank you very much. Appreciated. Love the deck, love the playstyle. The only thing that refrain me from crafting it is I don<t know how much Taladram is good in other decks. I mean I knew the skull and Guldan would stick all the way till it rotates out. This one, I don't know, I don't remember seeing it in any other deck. Still 'm kinda noobish, haven't played between Naxx and KoFT.

        • Martian
          January 7, 2018 at 1:02 am

          You’re welcome! It was good in Mally druid until Innervate got nerfed. It probably won’t see much play in other decks, but unless Warlock gets a GLORIOUS 3-cost card I bet it will be in this one until the deck is obsolete.

  38. Cptmeatballz
    January 3, 2018 at 9:04 pm

    I’m missing 2 faceless and one Mountain. Will craft as soon as possible.

    How exactly does the facelss works on the cube, gets the exact same deathrattle ? (summons 2 doomguards for example).

    Also, should I get both Mountain Giant before crafting my first faceless?

    • Martian
      January 3, 2018 at 9:19 pm

      Yeah Faceless copies it exactly. I don’t think it matters, they’re both great for the deck in their own ways. Second Mountain would give you more consistency in the matchups where it matters, and if you get tired of this deck Mountain Giant is more likely to be relevant in future metagames.

  39. DanTheMan
    January 1, 2018 at 2:21 pm

    I’m going nut’s on with running in to Raza Priest. Getting a Giant on board by 4 is not that hard… making a copy on five is also easy enough… but, many times it’s just not enough… I can have the biggest minions going face and still somehow these clowns manage to Always get Raza on 5, DK on 8 and OTK Velen combo a few turns later.

    Would umbra actually help in these matchups?
    Looking at this it does look like the umbra version does do much better in priest matchups. http://metastats.net/archetypedecks/Handlock/

    By the way I think ‘corpse-raiser’ can be a decent replacement in the deck for someone who’s not ready to craft a second faceless or Taldaram.

    Thanx in advance.

  40. Cptmeatballz
    December 28, 2017 at 8:53 pm

    Any ways you see if I don’t own the Guldan?

    • Martian
      December 28, 2017 at 8:57 pm

      Guldan is pretty essential. You COULD try running it without Guldan, maybe run Jaraxxus instead if you have it, but the deck would be significantly worse. Guldan is great, it’s gonna be great for a long time, so if you have the dust its a very safe craft.

      • Cptmeatballz
        December 28, 2017 at 8:59 pm

        I have the dust, but only for one legendary and I dont own the weapon either. Though I’m considering dusting all my Naxx legend. I stopped playing from end of Naxx to Knight of the frozen throne… so really low of dust and stuff.

        • Martian
          December 28, 2017 at 9:57 pm

          You can dust maexxna without regret lol. Id play without weapon before Id play without guldan

        • Chris
          December 29, 2017 at 7:26 am

          Honestly if you don’t plan on playing wild I would say dust the out of standard cards. I don’t regret it for a second. If you aren’t using the cards why just let them sit around when you can get mileage out of new cards? That is just my opinion. I am also one of the wallet players who has a golden Guldan though and completely understand the free to play mentality. 😀

      • DanTheMan
        December 29, 2017 at 8:08 am

        Jaraxxus is dust… it would be suicide running him in this deck.

        • Martian
          December 29, 2017 at 10:17 am

          Dont dust Jaraxxus, Guldan will rotate eventually and then he’ll be playable again.

          • DanTheMan
            December 30, 2017 at 5:35 am

            for the longest time I tried to win a game with him… Problem is he has 15, health… Most decks like ‘Clown Priest’ eat that in one turn… I dusted mine, no regrets… It’s hard to imagine a world without Guldan btw.

        • Pikasalt
          January 1, 2018 at 10:44 am

          Yes, now its suicide. But if the meta control decks don’t run burn ( like wild ungoro), its just op. Then it is an instant win.

    • WildRage
      January 14, 2018 at 1:44 pm

      Regretfully, Gul’dan is essential. This deck is defined by card interactions with Carnivorous Cube, as the author says, but your end-game is Gul’dan.

      You see, Gul’Dan allows you to trade resources (like your army of Doomguard clones) efficiently, stopping your opponent from furthering his gameplan. Why? Because even if you trade all your Doomguards, or your Faceless Manipulator Doomguards and all your Carnivorous Cube-generated Doomguards to keep yourself from dieing, Gul’Dan will still provide you in the end with an OTK by bringing everyone back.

      If you don’t have Gul’Dan, I find it a bit pointless to try running this deck. :/ It will reduce your winrate by too much. I’d suggest either craft him (which is safe to do, he is a must in Warlock decks and will stay in Standard for a while) or just try running a different deck instead.

      • Cptmeatballz
        January 14, 2018 at 3:16 pm

        Exact. I crafted it since. I have 58% WR over 70 games. Not bad. Fun deck to play.

  41. Abakxi
    December 27, 2017 at 2:15 pm

    Any replacements for taldaram?

    • DanTheMan
      December 27, 2017 at 7:56 pm

      Taldaram is very strong in this deck… its another faceless for 3 mana.
      I love his performance since he’s so cheap. making it easy to copy a cube after it eaten a demon.

      this version here has no taldaram and no giants, but a good wr.

      AAECAf0GBO0FzAiX0wLb6QIN9wTbBrYHxAjexALnywLy0AL40AKI0gKL4QL85QLq5gLo5wIA

    • Martian
      December 28, 2017 at 8:59 pm

      Chittering Tunneler is an ok option if you don’t have him. He’s great but I wouldn’t say he’s essential. Tunnelers help activate spellstone which is nice, but they’re epics. If you don’t have them already that dust is probably better spent towards your Taldaram. You could also run stonehill defender, he can grab Voidlords and Rins.

  42. DWC
    December 27, 2017 at 1:16 pm

    I am very confused by this deck. Either it is horrible against aggro or I am just extremely unlucky. I’m 1-7 versus aggro.
    I can almost never get a faceless giant out until turn 7-8 and have used Faceless manipulator 2 times in 15 games. I am 5-10 overall.
    Have a really hard time against dragon priest. Without the Soul Siphon, have almost nothing to deal with high cost minions.

    • dwhy
      December 28, 2017 at 6:06 am

      you may want to look into other variations of this deck. the current one im running absolutely destroys paladin

    • DWC
      March 13, 2018 at 8:33 pm

      It is op against aggro. Only a few matchups are unfavored and the only real counter to the deck is Combo Priest. The deck is easy to play. You just have to mulligan correctly.

  43. shamanking
    December 25, 2017 at 7:19 pm

    I just hit rank 3 with this deck. I run N’zoth instead of prince though. Really fun but aggro can be hard to deal with. Turns 3/4/5 can be really slow as well.

  44. DanTheMan
    December 23, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    so im still crafting my epics for this… How do people feel this version performs?
    better than umbra nzoth etc?
    I like the look of this one
    looks more consistent and maybe aggro than other versions …

    would really appreciate some feedback since im still missing five epics…
    and on hsreplay the giants version has a lower wr.

    • Martian
      December 24, 2017 at 12:40 am

      What epics are you missing?

      • DanTheMan
        December 24, 2017 at 4:45 am

        atm a cube and a voidlord that im about to craft, then for this version another faceless and the giants…
        but my question is, how this version stands against umbra/no giants etc.
        some people think umbra will fade…

        • Martian
          December 24, 2017 at 11:25 am

          Faceless and Mountain Giant are part of the classic set, and have been playable on and off throughout Hearthstone, so they’re pretty safe cards to craft. If you don’t like them in this deck, you’re almost guaranteed to get use out of them sometime. That being said, the core of this deck is strong enough on its own. You could run a giantless version for a while to see if you even like the playstyle, and consider faceless/giants later when you’re more confident you want them. Do you own umbra? Are you deciding between it and the giants?

          • DanTheMan
            December 24, 2017 at 6:32 pm

            Im playing around with the deck already and I really like the cards… so yeah crafting the taunt another cube to begin with and the giants probably after that… Nah, I dont have Umbra and I’m not in a hurry to craft it unless it shows that it will stay around in the deck. For now I’m trying to make some more aggro oriented versions of the deck… I have also been experimenting with adding Ebon Dragonsmith for cheaper weapon and Corpse raiser to play on Cube.

            My concern for the giants version is mainly why it has a lower wr than the non giant version on HSReplay.
            But I been thinking that its a skill deck and maybe that’s why.

          • DanTheMan
            December 24, 2017 at 7:49 pm

            Just now I’m having fun with this list. 🙂

            ### CUBE NEMSY

            # 2x (1) Dark Pact
            # 2x (1) Kobold Librarian
            # 2x (1) Mistress of Mixtures
            # 2x (1) Mortal Coil
            # 1x (1) Patches the Pirate
            # 2x (1) Southsea Deckhand
            # 2x (2) Defile
            # 1x (3) Prince Taldaram
            # 1x (4) Ebon Dragonsmith
            # 2x (4) Hellfire
            # 2x (4) Lesser Amethyst Spellstone
            # 1x (5) Carnivorous Cube
            # 2x (5) Doomguard
            # 1x (5) Faceless Manipulator
            # 2x (5) Possessed Lackey
            # 1x (5) Skull of the Man’ari
            # 1x (6) Siphon Soul
            # 1x (7) Corridor Creeper
            # 1x (9) Voidlord
            # 1x (10) Bloodreaver Gul’dan
            #
            AAECAcn1AgqTBMwIkbwCl9MCydMC+9MCi+ECneIC6OcC2+kCCvcE1AW2B8QI3sQC58sC8tAC+NACiNIC/OUCAA==
            #

          • DanTheMan
            December 25, 2017 at 5:51 pm

            Crafted another cube and Am playing this list for now…
            Hope it’s ok I post it here, since I’d like to hear what u think.

            # 2x (1) Dark Pact
            # 2x (1) Kobold Librarian
            # 2x (1) Mistress of Mixtures
            # 2x (1) Mortal Coil
            # 2x (1) Wax Elemental
            # 2x (2) Defile
            # 1x (2) Plated Beetle
            # 1x (3) Prince Taldaram
            # 1x (4) Ebon Dragonsmith
            # 2x (4) Hellfire
            # 2x (4) Lesser Amethyst Spellstone
            # 1x (4) Spellbreaker
            # 2x (5) Carnivorous Cube
            # 2x (5) Doomguard
            # 1x (5) Faceless Manipulator
            # 2x (5) Possessed Lackey
            # 1x (5) Skull of the Man’ari
            # 1x (9) Voidlord
            # 1x (10) Bloodreaver Gul’dan
            #
            AAECAcn1AgiTBPIFl9MCydMCneIC6uYC6OcC2+kCC/cEtgfECN7EAufLAvLQAvjQAojSAsfTAovhAvzlAgA=

            Im thinking maybe Crafting Another Faceless before the giants perhaps?
            I struggle sometimes in the early game against Hard aggro…
            So I aded some early defence.
            It feels like One voidlord might be enough, since I don’t really want voidlords in my end game anyways right?

            Thanx in advance.
            peace

          • Martian
            December 26, 2017 at 11:27 pm

            How have the dragonsmiths been working out? Id be surprised if they were worth it. Im always tempted to cut a Voidlord, but theyre super good against aggro. If you’re having trouble with aggro, you might consider spell damage minions instead of wax elemental. I think Faceless is more staple than Mountain giant, but Im pretty sure Mountain Giant is optimal.

          • DanTheMan
            December 27, 2017 at 3:30 pm

            I ended up going deep in to my collection, and dusting a pile of stuff that will rotate soon anyways… So now I finally have your deck as a whole, Yay! Time to give it a proper spin. 😀

            Nah, I only ever had one Dragonsmith, so for it to end up in hand with the weapon was kind of not happening much, when it did once or twice u did feel good about playing weapon for 3, but not sure it is worth it… I will try it with two sometime if I get one from a pack… Then u can play them both and play the weapon for one mana.

            I still have a the concerns about umbra… Since I do see her in allot of winning lists…
            Like here for example, http://metastats.net/archetypedecks/Handlock/

            Also this is a bit of a concern,
            https://hsreplay.net/decks/#playerClasses=WARLOCK&archetypes=197&sortBy=winrate
            It’s so weird how different sites run so different meta reports.

            If u look on Tempostorm and such they run the giants list with Umbra though.
            Thanx again.

            Peace. 🙂

          • Martian
            December 28, 2017 at 8:55 pm

            Those programs take from a selection of games played by people using their trackers, so results vary by population and skill of the player. For example, Umbra is usually not a good on curve play, but can be great if you combo it with a Cube same turn. A player who recognizes that will have more success with that list than a player who doesn’t. If the player who doesn’t represents a large amount of the data, then the numbers imply that the deck is worse than it is because a large portion of the player base is using it wrong. That’s just an example, the stats are a good tool, but they aren’t infallible. Good luck with the deck!

      • DanTheMan
        December 28, 2017 at 9:04 pm

        Thnx. Dude.
        Still struggling sometimes with early aggro, but I do Love the deck.
        And I love that it makes me think.

        Just having this happen once in a while makes it all worth it. 😀

        https://image.prntscr.com/image/t8p_8cW1SAehtJdVl1AHUw.png

  45. Blitz
    December 22, 2017 at 2:02 pm

    So the prince and faceless can copy the enemies cubes if they havnt popped! Super sneaky! I just used a faceless and prince to copy a priests valen and hero powered for 12, great addition to the deck

    • Blitz
      December 26, 2017 at 9:16 pm

      Another gangster move: Big priest drops a singleton O. Statue. You copy it with Prince T, then cube it, which triggers your own death rattle killing the enemy statue, which kills the cube, giving you two statues for 8 mana.

  46. Esphona
    December 20, 2017 at 3:38 am

    Keep in mind that you can’t cube the cube. It won’t work

    • Swatchblade
      December 20, 2017 at 11:21 am

      I mean you can you just dont copy its deathrattle, but you will be summoning to new cubes upon death

  47. zongeedongee
    December 19, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    summoning voidlords pollutes your guldan turn with voidwalkers and reduces the likelihood you resummon doomguards from it

  48. Lordfolken52
    December 19, 2017 at 5:20 pm

    sub 40% winrates against priest? SeemsGood

    • Martian
      December 19, 2017 at 10:08 pm

      I think that might have something to do with players getting used to the deck, I didn’t feel all that oppressed by Priest. You do have to worry a lot more about blowing up your own minions, but the deck is built to accommodate that. If that turns out to be an issue in the long run I bet Rin will find her way into the list.

      • woocko
        December 20, 2017 at 3:18 pm

        rin + manari = pretty shitty
        a free 10/10 is not bad but not worth going throu 6 rituals and not as good as destroying opponents deck

  49. Nuntius
    December 19, 2017 at 5:08 pm

    Angelos, it means that when you play against control decks that rely on big minions, you don’t want your Voidlords to be pulled from the deck, let’s say from Kabal Lackey on turn 6 because you need these minions later in order to block your opponent’s big damage after turn 10.

  50. Angelos
    December 19, 2017 at 12:03 pm

    Thank you so much for this article. I am trying to get back into hearthstone. Why do you say “against slower decks you really don’t want your Voidlords to ever enter the battlefield”?

    • PaconBancake
      December 19, 2017 at 8:53 pm

      they dont help you close out the game

    • Martian
      December 19, 2017 at 10:03 pm

      In games against other late-game decks you really want Guldan to summon a bunch of Doomguards for a bunch of burst damage. Each Voidlord you play adds 4 non-Doomguard minions to the pool of cards Guldan randomly pulls from, making your burst less significant.