[Archived] S20 Hearthstone Warlock Zoo Deck

[Damien 1,514]

This thread is for comments about our Warlock Zoo Deck.

[Guest Voga]

In 3.2.1. the card swap section you write something i have a question about.

Can you explain to me : "try cutting a defender of argus if you find the need for a board clear" (English is not my mother tongue maybe thats why i dont understand it)

Do you mean that after you used hellfire to do the board clear and killed your nerubian egg to give a taunt to the 4/4 minion you get from the egg? or should i read that differently ? 

 

Thx already and btw great deck ty for sharing it !

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest RoyalSmoker]

I've been using this deck (Naxx Legendary Warlock although super cheap) and don't get me wrong it is my best deck (I'm rank 18), but I lose to all mages at this rank because of the AoE spells. Also for me it's pretty inconsistent and every game is either very hard or I stomp. 

 

I might be playing this deck at 1/8th of its potential but I thought Zoo decks were pretty straight forward/ not super high skill cap. 

[Sottle 221]

In 3.2.1. the card swap section you write something i have a question about.

Can you explain to me : "try cutting a defender of argus if you find the need for a board clear" (English is not my mother tongue maybe thats why i dont understand it)

Do you mean that after you used hellfire to do the board clear and killed your nerubian egg to give a taunt to the 4/4 minion you get from the egg? or should i read that differently ? 

 

Thx already and btw great deck ty for sharing it !

 

Sorry for the confusion. What I mean by that sentence is that if you play a lot of games where Hellfire would be useful to clear the opponent's board, you can substitute it for a Defender of Argus. There's no special relationship between the Hellfire and the Argus.

[Sottle 221]

I've been using this deck (Naxx Legendary Warlock although super cheap) and don't get me wrong it is my best deck (I'm rank 18), but I lose to all mages at this rank because of the AoE spells. Also for me it's pretty inconsistent and every game is either very hard or I stomp. 

 

I might be playing this deck at 1/8th of its potential but I thought Zoo decks were pretty straight forward/ not super high skill cap. 

 

Zoo is definitely on the simple side as far as decks go, but there's still a learning curve. The key to playing against Mage and other AoE spells as mentioned in the guide is holding cards back. Going into their turn 6 Blizzard or Turn 7 Flamestrike, just play enough cards to be comfortably ahead on board, but hold some back in your hand. That way if they spend their whole turn on AoE, you just replay several minions next turn and they're back in the same position.

Deathrattle minions are really good here to. Keeping a 0/2 Egg around instead of popping it is really good anti-Flamestrike tech as it'll just give you a 4/4 if they Flamestrike.

[Guest RoyalSmoker]

Zoo is definitely on the simple side as far as decks go, but there's still a learning curve. The key to playing against Mage and other AoE spells as mentioned in the guide is holding cards back. Going into their turn 6 Blizzard or Turn 7 Flamestrike, just play enough cards to be comfortably ahead on board, but hold some back in your hand. That way if they spend their whole turn on AoE, you just replay several minions next turn and they're back in the same position.

Deathrattle minions are really good here to. Keeping a 0/2 Egg around instead of popping it is really good anti-Flamestrike tech as it'll just give you a 4/4 if they Flamestrike.

Thank you for the tips and the guide. I ended up changing a few things because the Hearthstone World champ firebat was really successful with a zoo deck that was so similar to yours. Basically the only difference is one less dire wolf alpha and dark iron dwarf in order to fit in an ironbeak owl and a Loatheb. These two changes reaaallly help against the likes of aoe chaos, taunts, and major annoyance that could pop up in the early game. I went from rank 18 to 13 in a few days with the help of your guidance and these changes. What do you think about the loatheb and owl switch? 

[Guest RoyalSmoker]

Went from rank 19 to 12 in 3 days switching from your warlock zoo deck to firebat's warlock zoo dekck. The only difference is switch a dire wolf alpha and dark iron dwarf for an ironbeak owl and loatheb.

[Sottle 221]

Firebat's list is really strong. I actually came around to Loatheb a day or two before his big Zoo performances were aired at Blizzcon. His list is really good, however you should be careful when taking people's tournament lists and playing them on ladder. Tournament meta and Ladder meta are two very different things. In tournament you can tech out your decks to be strong against particular things you expect to face, or to cover matchups that your other selected decks don't. On ladder you have to build a deck against the field.

 

My current Zoo list right now is running Owl and Loatheb too, but i have cut the Void Terror and the Power Overwhelming. I still like Double Dwarf and Double Wolf right now. If it continues to run well for me, i'll update the list on the site. 

[Guest RoyalSmoker]

Firebat's list is really strong. I actually came around to Loatheb a day or two before his big Zoo performances were aired at Blizzcon. His list is really good, however you should be careful when taking people's tournament lists and playing them on ladder. Tournament meta and Ladder meta are two very different things. In tournament you can tech out your decks to be strong against particular things you expect to face, or to cover matchups that your other selected decks don't. On ladder you have to build a deck against the field.

 

My current Zoo list right now is running Owl and Loatheb too, but i have cut the Void Terror and the Power Overwhelming. I still like Double Dwarf and Double Wolf right now. If it continues to run well for me, i'll update the list on the site.

Sorry for posting twice I thought my first post was declined or something. I do really like the idea of cutting out void terror and power of overwhelming because they are so situational, and when I do complete the combo I get polymophed or hex'd. However I'm on twitch ready for you to turn on the stream and play some Zoo!

[Sottle 221]

I tend not to stream on Weekends unfortunately, if i do it's usually other games. My usual schedule is 12noon - 5pm GMT weekdays.

Having said that I may be streaming tomorrow.

[Guest Anlam K]

Hello, 

 

I don't have the Naxx cards. 

 

Can you suggest any non-Naxx replacements for those?

[Sottle 221]

Hey. If you don't have access to Naxx, you can look at the previous seasons lists: https://www.icy-veins.com/hearthstone/season-6-mid-budget-warlock-aggro-rush-deck

 

In that deck swap the 2 Argent Commanders for 2 Dark Iron Dwarfs, and Leeroy for a Harvest Golem. Just be aware though that the power of the deck does take a significant drop in its pre-Naxx form.

[Kinobi 0]

You made an update of the dekc (Loathed and the owl) but you didn't update the deck list itself. Just for you to know.

[Guest MadToaster]

could you swap the doomguards with like an arcane golem and leeory ?

disenchanted booth recently cause i didnt like em X.x andis the imp-iosion worth it ? cause in the mech zoo you are not running it

[Sottle 221]

Doomguard is significantly stronger than Arcane Golem and Leeroy, the strength of Doomguard usually lies in clearing a minion and living to tell the tale, not hitting the face.

And yes, Implosion is one of the best cards in the deck.

[Guest Matteo]

Hi, I'd like to know if it was a valid card to insert in place of the two Knife Juggler (unfortunately I haven't this card yet). I have all the other cards. Thank you. 

[Guest Kelben]

Hey Sottle

First of all, thank you for all these guides.

Back to the subject, I have not bought Naxxramas or Blackrock Mountain, and thus I can't have Nerubian egg, Loatheb and Haunted creeper.

Do you have any suggestions about what card I should use instead of those?

 

Thank you in advance

[positiv2 953]

This deck is simply amazing. However, I lose quite often to warriors. Is there any special tactic or is it just an unfavorable match-up?

[Rarst 3]

Anecdotally Warrior is a second worst matchup for Zoo in my own stats. Grim Patron is (arguably) strongest deck at the moment and Control Warrior isn't exactly easy to aggro either.

[positiv2 953]

I added 2 hellfires against patron, but I still dont know what to use against control. Would BGH be enough?

[Rarst 3]

Hellfires hurts your own board and the problem with Grim Patron is that it just keeps coming back, it's not limited to doing the trick once.

 

I saw an interesting Zoo build with Shadowflame, but have yet to try it. The Shadowflame seems to be an unorthodox choice in Zoo, although on the surface it makes sense to me (reasonable mana cost and usually there are creatures to sac).

[positiv2 953]

If the opponent plays patron with warsong, then he siply kills every minion on my board, so hellfire doesnt hurt my minions. But the idea with shadowflame seems nice, I will definitely put 2 of them in my deck. Thank you very much :)

Edit - it works great, 2 shadowflames are often too many, but one shadowflame is often very useful

Edited July 12, 2015 by positiv2

[Guest baranyg8]

replace for loatheb? (I'm farming gold for naxx to get loatheb but until then, how can I replace loatheb?)

[Rarst 3]

Loatheb is one of those legendaries that have absolutely unique function. There is no functional replacement for it.

 

I would say go for more of the Zoo's same (annoying sticky minion) or a tech card that will give you the edge against your specific meta environment.

[Guest Steffen]

I have a question about the change log! If you write the quote below - does it mean that you put Argent Squire and Shattered Sun Cleric in the deck while taking Undertaker and Leper Gnome out of it or vise versa? (English is not my mother tongue so maybe that's the reason why I'm not getting it.)

• 30 Jan. 2015: Changed 2 x Undertaker, 2 x Leper Gnome for 2 x Argent Squire, 2 x Shattered Sun Cleric.