How did Cubelock slow down the meta?

“This card has a lot of meta potential,” said Firebat in Omnistone introducing the Kobolds & Catacombs set. “The other decks will need to kill you quickly before you can play this card.”

Both Kibler and Zalae agree with that view. Many players at the time did not think so. Hyou were wrong.

While the meta was slowed down instead of being accelerated, we can confirm that change is due to what Carnivorous Cube added to Warlock, increasing Control Warlock’s power when facing control decks another while still using a bunch of anti-aggro cards. Cubelock forces fast decks like Aggro Paladin, Tempo Rogue, Face Hunter, Burn Mage to quickly win before turns 5 and 6. They hope to be able to overcome the difference in strength and avoid clearing cards like Defile or Hellfire.

These aggro decks still work, and Razakus Priest still dominates the meta, but Firebat was right: Carnivorous Cube helped shape the Kobolds & Catacombs meta as we see it, creating Cubelock and making Spellbreaker appear everywhere. Cubelock is a new type of control-combo deck created by the powerful combination of Cube with a few other cards. It has enough tools to take down aggro, beat control value, and sometimes punch Razakus Priest in the face with Charge to win – it is the Cube that plays a very important role in all of those win conditions.

We dare summon you, Doomguard!

Overall, Cubelock’s plan is to draw lots of cards early in the game to build some game-changing combos, not only in health but also in tempo with a combination of Possessed Lackey, Skull of the Man’ari, Doomguard , Voidlord, Canivorous Cube and Dark Pact. Each specific match will require different combos for optimal profit. When encountering aggro without tech silence, Voidlord comes on the field and the match is almost immediately over; A Dark Pact targeting a Possessed Lackey or a Cube helps you heal from your opponent’s burn range, not to mention other clearing and healing cards like Defile, Hellfire, and Mistress of Mixtures.

When playing against deck controls, some versions of Cubelock can threaten 25 damage to the opponent’s face in one turn. The combo is done as follows: Call Doomguard on the table with Possessed Lackey or Skull of the Man’ari, punch face, play Spiritsinger Umbra, feed Canivorous Cube Doomguard, Dark Pact on Cube and punch face with 4 spawned Doomguard. Obviously this is a difficult combo to do because it requires many cards, but this deck has all the tools to draw and heal to perform such a combo. Bloodreaver Gul’dan is also a huge threat when it comes to being able to recall a table full of Doomguard – and that’s done with just one card!

But the aforementioned combo is not the only win condition. Just like Renolock’s combo from before – Leeroy Jenkins, Faceless Manipulator and Power Overwhelming (cost reduced by Emperor Thaurissan) – it’s just a viable option to end the game. Not only that, this combo can cause the opponent to lose direction and play incorrectly. For example, playing Spiritsinger Umbra turn 4 might cause your opponent to use a card with Silence to deal with, and then they have no effective way to stop Possessed Lackey, a much more stable card in value. Zalae’s Cubelock Deck (introduced in this article) uses Prince Taldaram and 2 Dark Pacts to deal significant late game damage. Prince Taldaram’s versatility makes him the optimal choice, at least when quality minions with Deathrattle, Taunt and Divine Shield still appear a lot in the meta.

Watch out for Misplay!

There are many difficulties that arise when playing this deck. And the biggest of these is probably how difficult it is to gauge optimal play when facing another deck control – especially if your hand is full of cards from an incomplete combo. To be successful, players need to carefully consider their chances of drawing key cards when using Life Tap, and also calculate their remaining health. Players also need to take into account non-best options when encountering aggro, such as playing Doomguard from the hand (i.e. will immediately lose two cards). And obviously, when meeting Razakus Priest, having the Mountain Giant on the table early will be extremely important.

And, there is also a small card named Defile. One of Hearthstone’s most effective clearing cards is also one of the most computationally demanding cards. Last month gosu BoarControl shared on Twitter a minion battle on the table, challenging viewers to figure out how to clear the table. Within 75 seconds of a turn, it must be an extremely difficult problem. Congratulations to anyone who can find the answer in just over a short minute. (BoarControl was not found).

The future of Cubelock

Currently the optimized version of this deck is still being tested, but many players are building decks in the direction of Zalae, the version with 2 Mountain Giants, 2 Faceless Manipulator to threaten a large amount of damage to the face before The opponent can play Psychic Scream turn 7 and Shadowreaper turn 8. When meeting this opponent, keep the Giants and Skull of the Man’ari. If the meta is more aggro, consider replacing 2 Giants with 2 Plated Beetles. When it comes to aggro, hold Mistress of Mixtures, Kobold Librarian, Defile, Mortal Coin and Hellfire – you have plenty of options.

In a month, Cubelock has proven to be a powerful and potential deck, even as a completely new deck. When it comes to control, Cubelock is pretty stable – and the deck built by Zalae has made the matchup against Razakus Priest, one of the strongest decks in the Standard, much more profitable. In the future, maybe the deck will change, even big changes, when the optimal way to play it is found. And unless a card or two in Cubelock is nerfed, you should probably practice playing this deck as well as playing against it – because in the next April rotation, Razakus Priest will officially say goodbye to Standard due to the loss of Raza the Chained , and Cubelock only loses Mistress of Mixtures – and Cubelock can rise to tier 1.

Here is Zalae’s Cubelock decklist:

Export to BBCodeExport to CockatriceExport to MarkDownExport to HtmlClone this deckMinion (18)

Ability (10)

Weapon (1)

Playable Hero (1)

Source: HearthPwn