Zoolock

Info

Zoolock or Zoo Lock is a type of warlock The  Warlock is one of the nine classes in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, represented by Gul dan. Heroes edit | edit source] Contents 1 Heroes 2 Background 3 Hero Power 3.1 Replacement Hero Powers 4 Strategy zoo deck A zoo deck is a deck focused around a large amount of low and medium cost minions. Zoo decks generally aim to flood the board with minions, overwhelming the opponent and achieving victory through board , using a large number of cheap minions and buffs to overwhelm the opponent and trade A trade is the loss of one or more cards in exchange for the elimination of one or more enemy cards. Most often, trading refers to minions dying in combat, but the term may be efficiently against their minions. By far the most popular zoo deck, Zoolock is often referred to simply as "Zoo".

Zoolock is one of the most affordable and accessible decks, with a relatively low crafting Crafting mode, in Standard format mode The crafting system is an element of Hearthstone that allows players to directly create new cards. It can be accessed through the My Collection screen. Crafting consumes Arcane Dust cost and simple core strategy, and is often recommended for new players. Despite its accessible strategy, mastering Zoolock is far more difficult, and the deck is often a successful high-tier deck, as well as a more or less perennial deck type in the wider meta "The metagame is the mix of different decks that players bring onto the ladder, that you can expect to see. If you know what decks players are bringing, your deck can be especially good against .

With One Night in Karazhan  "Your host, the great magus Medivh, invites you back to party down - with me!"  "Come inside... Meet your friends at the door. We ve got a feast like you ve never seen before. Shake your stuff , many Zoolock decks have converted to Discardlock You wanna discard some cards? I wanna discard some cards! Discardlock, also known as Discolock or Discard Lock, is a warlock deck combining the low-cost minion strategy of Zoolock with strong discard effect synergy through , with a new focus on discard effect Discard effects are effects which cause the player to discard cards from their hand. Discarded cards are removed from the game, without activating Deathrattles. Discard effects are most commonly found on warlock cards. Discard effects synergies, although some still use the name "Zoolock". For details, see Discardlock You wanna discard some cards? I wanna discard some cards! Discardlock, also known as Discolock or Discard Lock, is a warlock deck combining the low-cost minion strategy of Zoolock with strong discard effect synergy through .

Deck type

Zoolock`s key strategies are to flood the board; control the board Board control is an unofficial term usually referring to a player s ability to keep the opponent from building up minions on the battlefield, or "board". Control decks are named after this strategy, aiming to control ; and trade A trade is the loss of one or more cards in exchange for the elimination of one or more enemy cards. Most often, trading refers to minions dying in combat, but the term may be efficiently. Optional deck variants such as Sea Giant Sea Giant Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Epic Cost: 10 Attack: 8 Health: 8 Abilities: Modify cost Tags: Battlefield-related, In-hand effect, Ongoing effect Costs (1) less for each other minion on the battlefield.See? Giant.See this reward the number of friendly minions in play, while others such as Dire Wolf Alpha Dire Wolf Alpha Set: Classic Type: Minion Subtype: Beast Rarity: Common Cost: 2 Attack: 2 Health: 2 Tags: Ongoing effect, Positional effect Adjacent minions have +1 Attack.We are pretty excited about the upcoming releaseAnnounce of and Abusive Sergeant Abusive Sergeant Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Common Cost: 1 Attack: 1 Health: 1 Abilities: Battlecry Battlecry: Give a minion +2 Attack this turn.ADD ME TO YOUR DECK, MAGGOT!See this card on Hearthpwn data page] simply require minions that are ready to attack, and summoning-related cards like Knife Juggler Knife Juggler Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Rare Cost: 2 Attack: 2 Health: 2 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Random, Summoning-related, Triggered effect After you summon a minion, deal 1 damage to a random enemy.Ambitious Knife and Darkshire Councilman Darkshire Councilman Set: Whispers of the Old Gods Type: Minion Class: Warlock Rarity: Common Cost: 3 Attack: 1 Health: 5 Tags: Summoning-related, Triggered effect After you summon a minion, gain +1 Attack.Democracy in action!See this reward frequently summoning minions, regardless of their size.

With its low cost minions, Zoolock aims to quickly fill the board in the first few turns with cheap but threatening minions. Once the opponent starts playing minions, Zoolock focuses heavily on trading, very rarely going face See more: Hero The face is a slang term for a player s hero as the target for damaging attacks and effects, as opposed to minions. "Going face" or "attacking the face" refer to focusing one s until lethal Lethal is a term used in Hearthstone to refer to damage sufficient to defeat the enemy hero, and win the game. "Having lethal" is used as a measure of imminent and unavoidable success, similar to is within reach. Zoolock has excellent trading ability, due to buffs like Power Overwhelming Power Overwhelming Set: Hall of Fame Type: Spell Class: Warlock Rarity: Common Cost: 1 Abilities: Destroy Tags: Triggered effect Give a friendly minion +4/+4 until end of turn. Then, it dies. Horribly.We cannot even describe , Abusive Sergeant and Defender of Argus Defender of Argus Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Rare Cost: 4 Attack: 2 Health: 3 Abilities: Battlecry Tags: Positional effect, Taunt-granting Battlecry: Give adjacent minions +1/+1 and Taunt.You wouldn’t think that Argus would need this . These effects allow the Zoolock to clear the opponent`s board efficiently, consuming the opponent`s tempo Tempo is an unofficial term that describes which way the "momentum" of a match is going, as well as a label for decks which aim to keep tempo on their side. It is one of while conserving and building their own.

With even a few damage each turn over the early game, the Zoolock is able to quickly near lethal, at which point their strategy switches dramatically: abandoning trading, they employ all minion damage, Attack buffs and spells to damaging and defeating the enemy hero. Given the deck`s dependence on preferential trading, this is usually only wise if the Zoolock has lethal that turn, or possibly the next, since if they fail to achieve lethal as a result of a reckless rush for the face, they will likely go on to lose the game.

With its reliance on board presence, the main weakness of Zoolock is to area of effect Area of effect (AoE) is the term for an effect which affects all characters of the specified type. Common targets for AoEs include all enemy minions, all minions, and all characters. AoE is defined in (AoE) removal Removal is the term used to refer to the elimination of minions from the battlefield. Hard removal describes cards and effects that can neutralize minions regardless of most defenses, such as high Health or Divine such as Flamestrike Flamestrike Set: Basic Type: Spell Class: Mage Cost: 7 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Area of effect Deal 4 damage to all enemy minions.When the ground is on fire, you should not stop, drop, and roll.See , Lightning Storm Lightning Storm Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Shaman Rarity: Rare Cost: 3 Abilities: Deal damage, Overload Tags: Area of effect, Random Deal 2-3 damage to all enemy minions. Overload: (2)An umbrella won t be effective, I m and Consecrate. In order to counter these effects, Zoolock often includes " sticky Sticky is a term used to refer to minions which are hard to remove from the battlefield, in general due to Deathrattles which summon other minions. Strategy edit | edit source] Sticky minions can be " minions such as Imp Gang Boss Imp Gang Boss Set: Blackrock Mountain Type: Minion Subtype: Demon Class: Warlock Rarity: Common Cost: 3 Attack: 2 Health: 4 Abilities: Summon Tags: Damage-related, Triggered effect Whenever this minion takes damage, summon a 1/1 Imp.His and Possessed Villager Possessed Villager Set: Whispers of the Old Gods Type: Minion Class: Warlock Rarity: Common Cost: 1 Attack: 1 Health: 1 Abilities: Deathrattle, Summon Deathrattle: Summon a 1/1 Shadowbeast.It s like a pinata! A lame disgusting horrific , making it harder for the opponent to clear the board. Be that as it may, the threat of AoE removal remains strong, and Zoolocks must always consider whether to flood the board with as many minion as possible, or to hold back so as to force the opponent to waste their removal in a sub-optimal play. Ideally, Zoolocks play around removal through trading, sticky minions and holding back a number of cards with which to rapidly repopulate their board, something made easier by the low cost of their minions.

In addition to the overwhelmingly low-cost majority of their decks, Zoolocks often also include a small number of big minions, as finishers, optional win conditions A win condition is a specific means or strategy by which a deck can achieve victory. Decks may have one or more win conditions, and a win condition may be a specific aim of the or specific combo pieces. Common choices include Sea Giant Sea Giant Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Epic Cost: 10 Attack: 8 Health: 8 Abilities: Modify cost Tags: Battlefield-related, In-hand effect, Ongoing effect Costs (1) less for each other minion on the battlefield.See? Giant.See this (or for new players the Basic Frostwolf Warlord Frostwolf Warlord Set: Basic Type: Minion Cost: 5 Attack: 4 Health: 4 Abilities: Battlecry Battlecry: Gain +1/+1 for each other friendly minion on the battlefield.The Frostwolves are locked in combat with the Stormpike Expedition over ), Gormok the Impaler Gormok the Impaler Set: The Grand Tournament Type: Minion Rarity: Legendary Cost: 4 Attack: 4 Health: 4 Abilities: Battlecry, Deal damage Tags: Battlefield-related Battlecry: If you have at least 4 other minions, deal 4 damage.Gormok and Leeroy Jenkins Leeroy Jenkins Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Legendary Cost: 5 Attack: 6 Health: 2 Abilities: Battlecry, Charge, Summon Tags: Dragon-generating Charge. Battlecry: Summon two 1/1 Whelps for your opponent.At least he has Angry Chicken.See this , but all of these are optional and tend to come and go depending on the current meta "The metagame is the mix of different decks that players bring onto the ladder, that you can expect to see. If you know what decks players are bringing, your deck can be especially good against and deck fashions. Doomguard Doomguard Set: Classic Type: Minion Subtype: Demon Class: Warlock Rarity: Rare Cost: 5 Attack: 5 Health: 7 Abilities: Battlecry, Charge, Discard Tags: Random Charge. Battlecry: Discard two random cards.Summoning a doomguard is risky. Someone is is arguably the only perennial Zoolock finisher, with the Zoolock either using it as a burst of damage to end the game, or else emptying the hand before playing it to negate its drawback.

The early game is critical for Zoolock. Luckily, the low cost cards predominant in the deck ensure that the Zoolock will almost always have cards they are able to play that turn. In addition, Zoolocks make liberal use of Life Tap Life Tap Type: Hero Power Class: Warlock Cost: 2 Abilities: Deal damage, Draw cards Hero PowerDraw a card and take 2 damage.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] Life Tap is the warlock s basic Hero to keep a good range of options in hand, allowing them to maintain their tempo into the later turns when their cheaper cards can be played several in a turn. Zoolocks should always mulligan The mulligan stage The mulligan or card selection stage occurs at the very start of each match. Each player is shown their randomly selected starting hand, and given the option to redraw as many of hard for cheap cards, with the number of viable cards allowing Zoolocks to be fairly picky in their choices.

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Common cards

The range of cards included in Zoolock decks varies strongly over time, but some common inclusions are listed below. For Discardlock variants, see Discardlock You wanna discard some cards? I wanna discard some cards! Discardlock, also known as Discolock or Discard Lock, is a warlock deck combining the low-cost minion strategy of Zoolock with strong discard effect synergy through .

Key cards

While not included in every deck, the following cards are seen the most frequently.

Optional cards

Basic alternatives

These cards are seen less often in advanced play, but can serve as cheap or easily obtained substitutes for newer players.

Wild format

ℂ₂⃂This section contains information exclusive to Wild format Wild format or Wild is one of Hearthstone s two game formats, the other being Standard format. Wild format appears in game modes in which players are allowed to play decks without the deck restrictions of .

Core cards

• Abusive Sergeant
• Power Overwhelming
• Voidwalker
• Dark Peddler
• Haunted Creeper
• Echoing Ooze
• Knife Juggler
• Imp Gang Boss
• Imp-losion
• Defender of Argus
• Sea Giant

Commonly used cards

• Murloc Tinyfin - the slight advantage of this card over Wisp is that sometimes Dark Peddler will give a Murloc friendly card
• Reliquary Seeker
• Dire Wolf Alpha
• Ironbeak Owl
• Big Game Hunter
• Hobgoblin
• Loatheb
• Dr. Boom

Flavour additions or rarer cards

• Elven Archer - can be argued that 1 damage after first few 2-3 turns is neglible and 1/1 unit is of little used
• Argent Squire
• Flame Imp - this card might be an issue against offensive decks that can actually deal to you 30 damage faster than Zoolock deck
• Nerubian Egg - if you don`t have available any other card that would enable a Deathrattle effect, you`re stuck with this card
• Gormok the Impaler
• Kezan Mystic - as this card usage is situational and sometimes you`d rather keep it as contingency, at times you can get stuck with 2 cards on hand: this and Big Game Hunter. Also as there are only three classes with Secrets, addition of this card is heavily meta dependent.
• Doomguard
• Mal`Ganis

Example decks