An in-depth look at Zoolock

There have been many decks that have maintained their success for a long time in the ladder, but no deck can match Zoolock’s position on the rankings. Through the meta, then through different expansions, while the “competitors” are constantly being changed to catch up with the trend, Zoolock still maintains its position and is present at all times. A cheap set of the key cards Flame Imp, Darkshire Councilman, Bonemare and an accessible strategy make it suitable even for new players. But after developing easy-to-understand gameplay for Zoolock, experienced players often improve on it, creating versions that can help them to Legend.

Thanks to this variety, Zoolock is one of the most popular and stable decks in Hearthstone history. The archetype evolves slowly over time, starting with a player starting to experiment with a set of synergy cards. Then another player emulates that deck, removing weak cards and adding strong cards, tweaking them to compete with other decks in the meta. This is what Trump calls “science” within Hearthstone. However, we can learn the birth of Zoolock through a single player: Reynad.

Back in 2014, in the early days of Hearthstone, Reynad decided to create a Warlock deck of low cost aggro cards that could apply constant pressure and draw with Hero Power Life Tap. Reynad named his deck “Zoo”, after the name of the magic card that describes a deck with many monsters. Right on his Twitch channel, Reynad created Zoolock, but in Korea, people often simply call it “Deck Reynad”, which he must have loved.

When the basics get complicated

Zoolock decks use a lot of low cost minions that can be traded very effectively, for example Flame Imp, or duos that can support each other very well, imagine turn 1 Voidwalker and turn 2 Dire Wolf Alpha. The remaining cards usually have a lot of health or deathrattle (who remembers the Nerubian Egg?), and Charge minions are used flexibly depending on the situation at the end of the game (Doomguard, of course). Besides, Soulfire, cheap but strong (if anyone doesn’t know, Soulfire text was the same as now and only 0 mana); Mortal Coil, both killing monsters and drawing cards; Patches the Pirate, which reduces 1 card in the deck while occupying the table or trading; and Darkshire Councilman, both able to trade effectively and punch face extremely well. The key issue here is efficiency: Zoolock has the most useful cards relative to its cost.

Warlock’s Hero Power, Life Tap, allows Zoolock to draw cards at the player’s desired tempo. This not only helps reduce slow draw cards like Acolyte of Pain, but it also opens up more slots for potential cards and reduces the chance that the top deck isn’t unwanted cards. In contrast, an aggro Paladin deck often relies on Divine Favor playing at the right time to continue to put pressure on the late game and if it can’t be picked up, it is very difficult to keep the rhythm against strong clearing control decks. It is no coincidence that many people rate Life Tap as the most powerful Hero Power in Hearthstone, which makes Zoolock the most stable aggro deck in the history of this game.

Many players consider Zoolock to be an aggro deck, but Reynad does not think so. With early game capture and subsequent high-quality minions that are played continuously throughout the turns, Zoolock’s strategy is to continuously trade profitable monsters, avoid clearing tables, and steadily drain the remaining health. of the opponent.

In the mid to late game, players will have to choose between two different playstyles: punching in the face to finish off the opponent or continuing to push the tempo to arrive at a slow but sure victory. This is the time when the difference between new players and experienced players is clearly revealed. The end-game face-to-fight is a delight to many people after five turns of complete control of the board, and new players often choose that route, and it’s not uncommon to be overturned and lost to Blizzard, Dragonfire Potion or Flamestrike. . Another way to play is to continue trading monsters with small minions and drop Doomguard, the minion can survive most clearing cards. The correlation between the number of cards between the two players complicates matters further: if a Zoolock player, even at a large table, is not using Life Tap effectively and is in a 1-vs-5 situation. The opponent’s 6 cards, usually won’t be won by value in the long run, and so face punching becomes a more effective way of playing.

To encapsulate Zoolock in one word, the most logical is “complex”. In more detail: understanding common opponents will help Zoolock players position monsters more accurately to avoid potential clearings, to trade monsters properly, and to accurately decide their strategy. A careful consideration of all the above factors will obviously increase the odds of winning significantly.

Current Zoolock: New additions, mulligans and power correlations with other meta decks

Since the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion, many Zoolock decks have cut 2-mana cards like Golakka Crawler or Dire Wolf Alpha to build decks based on Prince Keleseth’s ability to increase the stats of monsters in the deck. If played early, the effect of the second prince is really impressive: play Southsea Captain 4/4 and call Patches the Pirate 3/3 on turn 3. If you are lucky to get Keleseth early, difficult opponents like Highlander Priest or Tempo Rogue will become easier to neutralize. However, if Keleseth can’t be picked, Zoolock is weak compared to Rogue’s Pirates because of the lack of Golakka Crawler. However, Keleseth still proves to be superior to using several slots in the deck as situational solutions.

A few players have had success with Warlock’s Death Knight, Bloodreaver Gul’dan, creating an extra late-game threat that is also a good win condition for Zoolock. Priest’s dominance in the meta has made this card no longer a tech card but a must-have card. Death Knight has the ability to flip the bets like the Old Gods making it the only card you want to top your deck at the end of the game, while in the early stages you don’t even care if it gets knocked out by Doomguard or Soulfire. out of your hand. A rather rare case of a card’s versatility, but it still proves effective when played in Zoolock.

Despicable Dreadlord and Bonemare easily find a place in Zoolock, as the Demon helps to create a bit of table clearance and the skeleton horse helps trade monsters for value, accelerate lethality or protect the table. Acherus Veteran doesn’t really make sense when first considered for a position in the deck, but this 1-mana minion works pretty well in Zoolock. It has better stats than Abusive Sergeant (who remembers Abusive 2/1?), but the 2 attack buff at the beginning of the game is not much better than 1 attack, not to mention the effect of Acherus Veteran is permanent. Abusive Sergeant is only for one turn. Saronite Chain Gang is also quite an interesting choice. If buffed by Prince Keleseth, it will become extremely op, otherwise it will also protect other minions. Without Prince Keleseth, Defender of Argus could be the logical choice for the Saronite Chain Gang’s location.

Below is the version of Zoolock used by Baize in the HCT Summer Championship. When facing a Rogue or Priest, keep all 1 mana minions (except Patches the Pirate) and look for Keleseth, as his effect will help you win a table when you meet Rogue and burn all of the Priest’s health. The worst case scenario is that you draw all the Late cards and Patches, but with more than 15 1-mana cards in the deck, that possibility is quite low. When meeting all other decks, keep Flame Imp, Voidwalker, a Pirate to call Patches and of course Prince Keleseth.

Always growing

Each expansion brings huge changes in the meta. In the early days of expansions, Zoolock was often not present in the strongest decks like it was after Blackrock Mountain came out. Like the magic of Warlock itself, it slowly climbed back up to the top of the meta as the Blackrock meta stabilized. As Reynad and Firebat noted, the more stable the meta, the stronger Zoolock becomes. The reason is that Zoolock’s power is inherited, made up of minions that are rarely nerfed or transferred to the Hall of Fame. The same thing does not appear in most other decks, they often have to use new cards to create more stable versions (typically Highlander Priest). In the near future, there will probably be quite a few meta decks and matches in Rank will become more predictable. Fortunately for players, they can leverage their understanding of those decks to successfully rank up with Zoolock, the most stable deck in Hearthstone.