Warlock is one of the worst matchups, as shown in the winrate chart.

The current list is not particularly focused on Warlock, it focuses more on dominating the matchups it is good at. It is not hopeless against Warlock either, although it is clearly unfavored.

If you want to improve the Warlock matchup, you can tech in a Spellbreaker or two, but they do not have a lot of use in other matchups.

Thank you! It’s my own build, I played it in EU Legend from 2300 to 500, and it really seemed capable. Usually these guides feature popular and effective lists, but at such an early point in the meta, there are still plenty of competing approaches to the deck and I ended up preferring my own take over the current semi-established builds.

Avenging Wrath is the most unusual card in the list, it really helps farm those competing Baku Odd Paladins. To my knowledge, its use in the archetype was pioneered by the Norwegian pro player Thomerio.

Thanks, I’m glad that you enjoyed it! Even Paladin has been the best deck I’ve played so far – there are still tens to try, of course – and it feels really solid.

There are also plenty of ways to tweak it in the future as the meta evolves, I tried to discuss some of the potential cards in the guide to give you a glimpse into what can be changed if the current list stops working as well.

If you need to specifically tech for the Warlock mirror, yes, but teching that heavily for one class only seems questionable. Perhaps it could also help vs aggro by healing from a Voidwalker, but I’m not sold on that yet.

I tried to build an Even Shaman list for this piece, but I could not find a win condition for it. Murkspark Eel is obviously great, and I tried to fit in Totem Cruncher to make good use of that one-cost Hero Power, but then what?

The deck just has nowhere to go. You’d want to use Grumble and Kalimos, maybe, but without odd-cost cards, you cannot put together a solid Elemental package. There are no Totem synergy cards left in Standard, you cannot do anything with your Hero Power. You can’t even put Bloodlust into the deck and play a token game. Seems like a dead end to me.

“Shudderwock plays the battlecries in a random order, so it depends on whether it plays the Chain Gang before or after the Grumble.”

https://twitter.com/LegendaryFerret/status/983570022898458625

I’m sorry. Cataclysm is your best chance if you want to give it a try, but as I wrote in the article, Cataclysm without Malchezaar’s Imp and Silverware Golem is just so much weaker than it was before – if those tools stayed and everyone else lost things in the rotation, then maybe.. But Quest Warlock loses even more than everyone else.

Is it that strong in Priest? Maybe with Spirit Lash? Priest does not have an obvious way to trigger the effect, unlike Warrior and Mage, for example.

I don’t expect the deck to work as it is, but it’s a starting point for playtesting. Need to find the right mix of survival tools and overload. But yeah, the Giant + Ancestral Spirit + Spellstone combo looks fun.

This is asked a lot. This statement from Peter Whalen is the clearest official word so far:

“Despite the visual timing of the trigger, both Genn and Baku check your starting deck. This makes it much more clear what the rules are and means things like Malchhezaar won’t mess them up. So quests won’t work with Genn.”

https://twitter.com/LegendaryFerret/status/983722198375383040

I see it mostly as a tool for midrange decks: aggro decks want to go face, and control decks usually have board clears in the form of spells. Midrange decks that want to establish board control and use that momentum to win the game benefit from Rush the most both to come back from behind and to protect key threats.

You may even sling 16-damage fireballs in The Witchwood! (I’m not sure if those Hero Power synergy cards make the cut though)

Cards that generate more resources are generally awesome in that kind of game plan. Big Priest, for example, when it is not highrolling the win on four and has to play the long game, really leans on Lich King and Ysera.

There is of course also the charge route with Grom and perhaps Charged Devilsaur, but for the more Control Warrior type of experience card generators are great.

Dragon Priest loses a lot in the rotation. Priest may still need to run Dragon synergies for Duskbreaker, but without Netherspite Historian and Drakonid Operative, the deck is far less oppressive. I have faith in being able to challenge that.

Warlock, on the other hand, well, I’m not sure how to challenge that one. It will probably be the measure when building new decks post-rotation: can this deck take on Warlock, and how?

Togwaggle Warrior kind of works, not sure if it will be good enough after the rotation – but the power level overall goes down a little, which should help it.

Control is in an awkward spot. What is the win condition? The times of Ysera/Grom/Cairne are long gone and N’Zoth is rotating out. Recruit Warrior may be the closest thing to pure control we’re going to see in the near future.

Why not? Classes go in and out of the meta all the time, it is not impossible for Warrior to return – and eventually Blizzard will create good enough cards for it to do that.

I have high hopes for Tempo Warrior thanks to Rush. I realize that I may be in for a disappointment, but it will be fun to try it.

Rush is copied from Shadowverse, and it is not that bad there. It’s not flashy, but it is not useless either.

Have you played a lot of Blizzard games? That’s the way Blizzard works with all of their games, you never get the detailed information from within the game itself or even from the official site.

As for how do we know, well, we test, we ask, and the developers respond. All of the information is in hundreds of Reddit comments and Tweets made by the developers in response to individual questions: I have asked many of them myself and received responses that have then become widely circulated.

For example, here’s one Tweet confirming the Discover mechanic weights (question not asked by me): https://twitter.com/bdbrode/status/666359351980920832

That’s cool!

(although I reserve the right to believe it when I see it)