With TGT, Dragon decks became a big thing. Dragon Priest dominated the scene for a while, and the synergies that the dragons provided made the deck wildly popular and successful. Dragon Warlock was always a second class deck to Dragon Priest, but now with The League of Explorers, there are several cards which have buffed this archetype, making it even stronger than before.
Decklist
This decklist is based around strong synergistic cards which make a large impact on the battlefield as they enter. Cards such as Blackwing Corrupter and Azure Drake provide tempo swings in your favor, while cards like Dark Peddler and Imp Gang Boss give strong early game. Twilight Guardian and Antique Healbot provide strong survivability. Malygos is an interesting card in the deck. Many times you will play it and either only use one spell, or not use any at all. However, it provides a win condition against certain decks that wouldn’t otherwise be there. Brann provides a large tempo swing himself, pairing him with another battlecry card to double it causes a large board presence, and forces your opponent to remove him immediately. My favorite pairings are Blackwing Corrupter for 6 damage (to a single target) or Antique Healbot for a 16 health swing in a single turn. He can even be paired with Dr. Boom for four boom bots if you are ahead. Dark Peddlers are the only other new cards, and they are far more potent than anyone expected. Because of the large weighting on class cards, you will be given at least one Warlock card option nearly every time you play it, and the Warlock one drops are extremely powerful, Power Overwhelming, Soulfire, Mortal Coil, and even Voidwalker are all very powerful cards to add to your deck, and the versatility is a huge bonus as well.
Playstyle
This deck runs very much like a Handlock deck would run, making use of card advantage and big tempo swings to hold the game in their favor. The biggest difference between is that this deck is more tempo-based. Early cards like Dark Peddler and Imp Gang Boss can control the board early, leading into cards like Twilight Drake and Twilight Guardian to stop the enemy in his tracks. Against many decks, you can simply build upon this tempo and curve into Blackwing Corrupter and other late cards to simply keep holding the board and chipping away. Against aggressive decks, this deck runs a couple of board clears, as well as the taunts, and follows up with Antique Healbots to slow the Aggro decks enough to establish a board to contest them. Against midrange decks you simply play for tempo and answer each of your opponent’s threats as they arise. Control is the hardest matchup. Here you have to play around Malygos. Malygos is extremely powerful against control, because with a single tick from Emperor on the right hand, you can follow up with Malygos, Darkbomb, Darkbomb, Soulfire for a massive total of 25 damage. This is more than most control decks can handle, especially if they thought they were safe and didn’t play around it.
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Matchups
Secret Paladin
This matchup can be very easy or very difficult depending on a couple of factors. First, in this matchup you want a very strong early game. Darkbombs, Dark Peddler, Imp Gang Boss. Two of the strongest cards in this matchup are Hellfire and Big Game Hunter, and since there are only one copy of each, I keep them in my opening hand against Paladin. If you are able to clear your opponent’s board and then simply use your Big Game Hunter to kill his Mysterious Challenger, the matchup is easy and you can simply roll over him after this. If the Paladin establishes board control and you are unable to wrestle it back, you’ll have a difficult time, especially if they follow up with a turn 6 Mysterious Challenger.
Midrange Paladin
This is the hardest matchup, because you need to play for board control, but they have just as many answers as you and just as much healing. Save Big Game Hunter for their Dr. Boom, and save your Owl for their Tirion. If you are able to answer those two, especially Tirion, you have the best chance. If his Tirion is able to get off, you basically have to win with Malygos as soon as possible. Be very wary of a large Quartermaster play.
Hunter
This matchup is fairly easy, but does require some luck on draws. As long as you draw some of your early game, this deck can actually contest the board very early, and then follow it up with a big Healbot and simply stop the Hunter’s damage is a winning play by itself. Keep Twilight Guardian in this matchup, it’s a huge play on turn four. Be wary of a large Unleash the Hounds, play Implosion only if you can handle a lot of hounds in response.
Freeze Mage
This matchup is easy. Save Brann and Healbot together to be a 16 point health swing after they Alexstrazsa. Don’t tap too much, don’t let yourself fall below 22ish before they Alex you, so that you aren’t forced to heal before they have used any damage. Be ready to answer Antonidas as soon as he is played, he is their one win condition.
Tempo Mage
Difficult matchup if you can’t get ahold of the board. Keep early cards and play aggressively. Hold Hellfire if you see it, you will need to clear the board early. Don’t rely on taunts, the Mage has two Fireballs and two Frostbolts aimed directly at your face.
Priest
This is a very difficult matchup as well. They have a lot of board clear that stops us in our tracks. The easiest way to win this is through a large Malygos play. Don’t ever overextend onto the board before the Priest has played Lightbomb, because it will end the game alone if it manages to clear your whole board.
Control Warrior
This matchup is tricky, but not unfavorable. The way to play this matchup is very tempo based, but hold your removal for Malygos if possible. Nearly all of my Warrior games have ended on the last couple cards of the deck, with me pulling off a huge Malygos play and either killing the Warrior or leaving him with a couple points left. Remember your range with double Darkbomb + Soulfire is 25 damage.
Rogue
Simply control the board and keep your healing ready. Don’t let them establish a board to use oil on and they will be very hard pressed to win. Feel free to use removal on minions, their board is their strongest advantage. Don’t play into a large Bladefury though. Using Emperor to draw out damage is a good strategy, you won’t need Malygos in this matchup if you play it right.
