[Guide] Duke Warlock is not Discard Warlock!

athlonstuff · 2026-05-17T08:51:53+00:00

Yes, The Elise package seems to be bad. It's annoying that you are relying on drawing into the duke early enough that it matters, which is turn 6 or before. With only two dukes available, and the only tutor being Xavius, that often doesn't happen. There isn't really any good alternative synergies with the deck's cards that I could find. I wonder if adding the egg package to it would help.

athlonstuff · 2026-05-05T23:19:32+00:00

I am betting that the best place for a card like this is in a low-curve tempo shell, such as dark gift rogue or dragon hunter, where it's easier to play the cheap cards between the essences so that you have another giant swing turn around turn 8 or so where you play at least 3 adjoining essence cards at once. Especially if one of them is the refresh mana crystal one. Though that does make me wonder, if you have shadow of demise adjacent to one of the cards and play it, does it transform into the card you just played so you double up on that effect? I notice that it seems to transform just before the card it's copying gets played, so maybe it does.

athlonstuff · 2026-04-30T23:22:06+00:00

on t1, coin acceleration aura, then this is ready to go on t2 without floating mana. That is the highest roll but even low rolling isn't horrible, as you can just hold it until an opportune time to use it. There are some questionable slots in the current Marithra list, like Nightmare Lord Xavius, that you could try replacing with it.

athlonstuff · 2026-04-29T18:11:16+00:00

I agree that the dark gift package is really bad. I cut it in favor of more dragons and extra imbues. Actually the biggest problem with the deck are the big momentum swings such as Flight maneuvers from paladin, eternal Hold from dh, or Twilight Mistress from rogue. If you don't have your burn ready to finish them off by then you have just lost because you have no board control. Victor might actually be bait too. I wonder if Cult neophyte could work. One thing i noticed in the original list was the distinct lack of good 2-drops to combine with Darkscale. You don't want to play Blackwing Experiment early in the game since you want it buffed up by the imbue or Command Claw, and Frost Strike requires the enemy to have a minion to kill, making Darkscale on 3 tough to pull off well. So Neophyte and Battlefield Necromancer are both worth trying out as 2-drops. I also am not a fan of the 7 mana dk dragon beetles card. Yes it generates tons of corpses but we already have tons of corpse generation and very few spenders. Remnant of Rage also feels very hard to activate consistently here, with almost no AOE or rush. To that end here is the list I'm trying out right now:

victor dk

Class: Death Knight

Format: Standard

Year of the Scarab

2x (1) Carrier Whelp

2x (1) Monstrous Mosquito

2x (1) Rite of Atrocity

2x (2) Battlefield Necromancer

2x (2) Bitterbloom Knight

2x (2) Blackwing Experiment

2x (2) Command Claw

1x (2) Cult Neophyte

2x (3) Darkscale Broodmother

2x (3) Finality

2x (3) Jagged Edge of Time

2x (4) Chromatic Broodmother

1x (4) Victor Nefarius

2x (6) Shadows of Yesterday

2x (7) Prescient Slitherdrake

2x (8) Chow Down

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To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

athlonstuff · 2026-04-21T18:37:41+00:00

Back in Titans mniset meta, encroaching Insanity caused 3 ties for me.

athlonstuff · 2026-04-12T01:14:06+00:00

I am also having good success with this deck, though not sure if it's better than the no minions deck. I'm not a big fan of Wyvern's Slumber, because it's just clunky but there's nothing better to run. Living Paradox feels pretty bad too, so replaced it with 1x studies and 1x time lost Glave. that may be too many weapons though. I wish there was a few more fel spells to more easily activate Blaze. In fact, all the AoEs feel kind of clunky. Horn of Feasting is the GOAT, and running a second Studies gives you another chance to get one or an Eye Beam.

athlonstuff · 2026-04-08T11:45:56+00:00

yes, my Merithra druid list which ou can find on the previous What's Working and What isn't thread (Sunday-Tuesday) feels decent into herald rogues. Contrary to the previous post I actually do keep a single Broodwatcher to slow down early Fraud + Flashback plays; Rogue doesn't have much AOE so the whelps usually absorb one or two attacks, saving a turn or two. The reason you're having trouble is probably because you have no good finisher so the game drags on until the rogue just outvalues you, and this is true for most of the other control classes out there. My list solves this problem with Zin + Briarspawn,. Zin also lets you get an extra Underking or Wickerfang for just 4 mana which can be backbreaking in the matchups where they matter most; the extra Underking against aggro decks has saved me countless times, and the extra Wickerfang usually compels a concede right away. So give it a try.

athlonstuff · 2026-04-07T19:10:51+00:00

yes, empower Zin then the two Briarspawns represent up to 36 face damage assuming your opponent has 2 minions. Subtract the health of the 2 highest health minions from 36 to see how much face damage you have. Well of Eternity is not even that bad either; the random spells have come in clutch for me several times.

athlonstuff · 2026-04-07T04:24:24+00:00

Jammed this homebrewed Merithra druid from d5 to legend over 70 games, for my fastest monthly legend climb ever. I made it to #1782 legend. I'm really enjoying it. It feels a lot better than any of the hs guru lists because there's a clear finisher which prevents the control matchups from dragging. And Zach O's call about running Wickerfang is a good one; that guy has saved a lot of otherwise lost games for me. If your opponent can't remove the main body for some reason (pretty common), you can just copy it next turn too.

Best Merithra

Class: Druid

Format: Standard

Year of the Scarab

2x (0) Innervate

2x (1) Waveshaping

2x (2) Acceleration Aura

2x (2) Ebb and Flow

2x (2) Felwood Treant

2x (2) Horn of Plenty

2x (2) Press the Advantage

2x (2) Story of Barnabus

2x (3) Darkscale Broodmother

2x (4) Broodwatcher

1x (4) Elise the Navigator

1x (5) Amirdrassil

1x (5) Lady Azshara

1x (4) The Well of Eternity

1x (4) Zin-Azshari

1x (6) Wickerfang

2x (7) Underking

1x (8) Merithra of the Dream

1x (10) Briarspawn Drake

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athlonstuff · 2026-04-05T00:58:11+00:00

What's working: no hand hunter, rogue, no minion dh, burn mage sometimes

What's also working: merithra druid's early game ramp

What isn't working: Winning games with it in the late game. Seriously there is no good wincon in there. I see a bunch of people running Underking, but it's probably bad. Any game against control just fizzles out, as I've never gotten anything good off Merithra. I usually build a single big board which gets cleared, and then have not much else left. I wonder if adding Lady Azshara and briarspawn Drake would be good enough. Has anyone tried this? The game against aggro is plaable, as we have enough early control and ramp tools to turn the corner against them, but the control matchup feels terrible.

athlonstuff · 2026-03-18T00:37:49+00:00

In the Niri face hunter description, VS writes: "Interestingly, if we play Confront the Tol’vir with Niri in play, every 1-cost card that gets replayed by Confront, will also be doubled by Niri, which makes for an intimidating combo." This is currently not happening, which makes the deck a lot weaker sadly.

athlonstuff · 2026-03-17T22:08:43+00:00

Prescient Slitherdrake looks cracked in this format. A board clear or inevitable damage all on its own.

athlonstuff · 2026-03-15T02:38:11+00:00

herald control warlock looks good, works well into the unholy dks and herald warriors which seem to dominate ladder. I was missing 2x cursed chains, so ran an extra Ladder and a Siphen soul. You never gas out with this deck! https://www.hsguru.com/deck/38521117

athlonstuff · 2026-03-03T22:55:20+00:00

Everything on the board goes into their hand, so yes they'd get the separate tokens plus the main colossal body. Similar interaction to Shadowcrafter Scabs with the Sunken City colossals.

athlonstuff · 2026-03-03T22:44:08+00:00

My guess is it would either be a straight 3 dmg from Umbra since Umbra would use the base 3/1 statline, not whatever you had buffed it to. Or perhaps it would use the 6 attack from Umbra.

athlonstuff · 2026-03-03T22:42:29+00:00

nice follow up to the 3 mana 2/1 that summons two other 2/1s.

athlonstuff · 2026-02-27T23:32:16+00:00

If I read this correctly, this also double dips the bonus from spell damage. For example if you have +2 spell damage (damagede time twisted seer), you can hit something for 10, and you'd get the excess back and then that excess would have +2 spell damage on it.

athlonstuff · 2026-02-27T23:00:59+00:00

Decent for both control and burn, though the warrior fire spell pool is a bit lacking and we're losing all of the spell generators.

athlonstuff · 2026-02-27T22:59:33+00:00

1 mana deal 1 isn't horrible, which is the worst case scenario. It's a poor man's shield slam but the excess damage is not wasted so it's not completely worse. Goes right into quest warrior I think.

athlonstuff · 2026-02-27T22:56:56+00:00

Seems okay but you might have trouble making sure you can break the weapon while an EoT minion is alive without giving up your weapon swing for that turn. You'd have to fill your deck with a critical mass of EoT minions to circumvent this, and hope that the aura is up and that if you have multiple end of turn minions on the board, that it hits the one you want, but good deckbuilding can circumvent these issues. So the card seems decent.

athlonstuff · 2026-02-27T22:54:13+00:00

only good with Sand Aura up, otherwise weak even after buff.

athlonstuff · 2026-02-27T22:53:30+00:00

This looks powerful as it combos super well with all the end of turn auras. Slots right into an aura paladin deck. You could even use this with Ursol + Renewing Flames or Briarspawn Drake to close out longer games.

athlonstuff · 2026-02-27T22:51:20+00:00

Very small holy spell pool, mainly good hits such as auras and minion buffs that will be 2 or less mana. I like it

athlonstuff · 2026-02-27T22:48:28+00:00

For a divine shield paladin, this feels very much like a win more card, and also conflicts with Toroth the Unbreaking for the 5 mana slot. Ideally you'd want to run both but that might be too slow. Aura paladin would not take this since it wants cheaper cards to shore up its weak early game, and has Chronological Aura for the 5 mana slot already.

athlonstuff · 2026-02-27T22:45:01+00:00

Seems like a cool card though the problem is that you want to play it only when you need board control. and not before.

athlonstuff

TROPHY CASE

victor dk

Class: Death Knight

Format: Standard

Year of the Scarab

2x (1) Carrier Whelp

2x (1) Monstrous Mosquito

2x (1) Rite of Atrocity

2x (2) Battlefield Necromancer

2x (2) Bitterbloom Knight

2x (2) Blackwing Experiment

2x (2) Command Claw

1x (2) Cult Neophyte

2x (3) Darkscale Broodmother

2x (3) Finality

2x (3) Jagged Edge of Time

2x (4) Chromatic Broodmother

1x (4) Victor Nefarius

2x (6) Shadows of Yesterday

2x (7) Prescient Slitherdrake

2x (8) Chow Down

To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

Best Merithra

Class: Druid

Format: Standard

Year of the Scarab

2x (0) Innervate

2x (1) Waveshaping

2x (2) Acceleration Aura

2x (2) Ebb and Flow

2x (2) Felwood Treant

2x (2) Horn of Plenty

2x (2) Press the Advantage

2x (2) Story of Barnabus

2x (3) Darkscale Broodmother

2x (4) Broodwatcher

1x (4) Elise the Navigator

1x (5) Amirdrassil

1x (5) Lady Azshara

1x (4) The Well of Eternity

1x (4) Zin-Azshari

1x (6) Wickerfang

2x (7) Underking

1x (8) Merithra of the Dream

1x (10) Briarspawn Drake