Murlock

The Voyage to the Sunken City expansion has just launched, and to celebrate this milestone we're doing an event called Wild Week. Over the next 10 days, there will be one guide a day, one for each class, using as many new cards as possible. Today, we're going to be looking at Murlock in Voyage to the Sunken City.

Murloc Warlock, or Murlock, has gotten 6 new Warlock cards that support the archetype, in addition to new neutral murlocs. This has catapulted the archetype from total meme into at least a decent off meta deck. Compared to Murloc Shaman, the murloc support Warlock got is slower and promotes a more Midrange playstyle along with bigger costlier murlocs and handbuffs. Warlock's hero power allows Murlock to have a high hand size and benefit from these handbuffs more easily than other classes. If you like other murloc decks, handbuff decks, or just want to play with the new murloc Warlock cards, give this deck a try!

Past decks in Wild Week can be found here.

If you want to suggest a specific deck archetype to be covered for a particular class, you can comment it to this article and it may be covered during Wild Week or after.

Now, let's get into a guide on playing the deck. It's going to go through major overarching strategies to keep in mind, how to mulligan, gameplay tips on key synergies, and card choices.

Strategies

Even though this is a Midrange deck, you do have a lot of 1 and 2 drops to get pressure going early. If you can get a board, you can start using handbuffs and dredging and potentially putting a lot of stats into play to win. Handbuffs are Mana Cheat are the two main ways this deck can gain an advantage on the board.

Handbuffs - Chum Bucket is a key card that can provide your murlocs with a lot of stats. Sunken Scavenger from Azsharan Scavenger is another handbuff which you can get from your multiple Dredge cards and Sir Finley, Sea Guide. Finally, you have Voidgill as yet another option.

Mana Cheat - Seadevil Stinger and Bloodscent Vilefin allow you to play murloc for no mana cost. Even though you are losing health, if this lets you win the board battle it's worth it and you can prevent damage from the board by doing so.

Board Control - You have Rush minions, Lushwater Scout to give any murloc Rush, and Gigafin as ways to comeback on the board even if you lost it.

As a Tempo Midrange deck, there's no specific win condition other than winning board control due to sheer tempo and stat value. You have both Handbuffs and Mana Cheat to help you do so.

Mulligans

• If you have a Seadevil Stinger and Gigafin, keep both unless against combo that doesn't play minions.
• Keep a Murmy, Lushwater Scout, Sir Finley, Sea Guide, and Voidgill.
• Keep The Soularium if you have Sir Finley, Sea Guide.
• Keep both Rock Bottoms.
• Keep a Chum Bucket if you have a Rock Bottom.
• Keep a Crabrider and a Toxfin if you have Crabrider if against Aggro.
• Keep an Amalgam of the Deep if you have a Murmy or Rock Bottom.

As you can see, the deck has a lot of 1 and 2 drops which are all great to keep with some situational 2-card combos to keep as well. Because almost any 1 or 2 drop will be good, this deck's early game is very consistent.

Gameplay

The key to playing this deck well is to use your handbuffs at the right time.

Below are gameplay tips regarding many of the synergies in this deck and how to use them effectively.

Getting Sunken Minions

How do you get your Sunken Scavengers? First you have to generate them with Azsharan Scavengers. Then, you have a variety of ways to get them.

First of all, you can use Sir Finley, Sea Guide to potentially get 2 Sunken Scavengers at once into your hand.

You can also use Rock Bottom and Bloodscent Vilefin. The thing about Rock Bottom is it's usually a great turn 1 play, so don't skip your turn 1 just to save it for this purpose (although you can save it if you have a Murmy). Bloodscent Vilefin is usually the one you want for this as it curves perfectly as a turn 4 play after a turn 3 Azsharan Scavenger.

Sunken Scavenger is not only a handbuff but also a board buff.

Sir Finley Use

Sir Finley, Sea Guide is useful for more than just getting Sunken Scavengers.

He can also be used as a re-mulligan if at any point your hand is unplayable or low on useful synergies - you can play him just to get a potentially better hand.

He can be played on turn 1 just for the stats if your hand isn't overly great - he has 1/3 stats for 1 mana and will probably survive a turn.

He has a great combo with The Soularium where you can draw 3 cards then swap your hand with the bottom of your deck, thereby increasing your hand size by 3 for 1 mana without having to discard those cards.

Don't be afraid to use The Soularium even before you have high mana - as a Midrange deck and not a Combo deck, even if you have to discard one or two minions it's not a big deal - it would only have mattered if you got to fatigue. There's no specific combo piece you auto lose on if you discard, so do try to use it as late as you can if you have other cards that are good to play but don't be scared to use it early if you have no good plays even if you'll end up discarding 2 of the cards.

Mana Cheat Combos

The first way to mana cheat is to Dredge a murloc from your deck with Bloodscent Vilefin and play it for no mana the following turn, or the same turn if you draw a card.

The second way is to use Seadevil Stinger, but keep in mind this only lasts for one turn while Vilefin's murloc can be kept in hand with the no mana effect for as long as you want it.

The best target for these effects is Gigafin, and him coming down for free either on turn 4 or in the midgame can seal a win against most board based decks. Even if they remove him with a spell, he will have prevented the enemy board from attacking for a turn and provided 11/11 stats to deal with. When you see an opportunity to swing the board do so, don't wait too long. For example against a Pirate Warrior getting that 11/11 stats on turn 4 even if they don't have a huge board yet will allow you to swing board control and win in the next couple turns just due to the sheer stats alone.

Another great target is Gorloc Ravager, which will allow you to get a 4/3 into play and draw 3 murlocs.

In general, you should just try to get the highest cost murloc as possible, so even something like Old Murk-Eye, Murloc Warleader, or Azsharan Scavenger can be a good tempo boost to get into play for no mana.

Handbuffing

Voidgill and Sunken Scavenger are generally good and can be played at any time.

Chum Bucket is not as trivial to play at the right time. Against an Aggro, Midrange, or Combo deck, even a 2/2 or 3/3 handbuff can be quite good. For example, it can be a good followup to a turn 1 Rock Bottom as a 3/3 handbuff to even 3 minions represents 9/9 worth of stats for 2 mana that can allow you to gain board control early and start pushing face damage.

Against slower decks, you do want to try and maximize the value of Chum Bucket by both drawing many cards and playing a wide board before you play it. In these cases, you can get up to an 8/8 buff on 10 minions for 80/80 in total stats. This is the ideal scenario, but even a fraction of that will be great to really make your murlocs able to win the board and each of them to be a large threat.

Most of your minions don't seem to benefit extra from handbuffs, but remember you can give any murloc Rush with Lushwater Scout so actually all murlocs will potentially be extra good with them.

Some minions that benefit extra even without Lushwater Scout are Crabrider which has Rush and Winfury, Old Murk-Eye which has Charge, and Gigafin which will be harder to remove with spells.

Overall, just try to think of whether you will be able to win the board early without a small handbuff from Chum Bucket. Against many aggro decks, you need to use the handbuff early or you will lose. Against slower decks, it's fine to wait for a better moment to use it.

As a handbuff deck, you need to use your hero power sometimes even when you still have 2 cost minions in hand to keep your hand size high. Don't do this if you're losing on the board and really need the tempo, but definitely consider tapping on turn 2 or playing a 1 cost and tapping turn 3 to keep your hand size high against slower decks.

Card Choices

This section is going to go through the main packages of cards in the deck. Each package has cards that help the deck with a specific goal. When playing the deck, it's useful to know what purposes each card serves and what other cards in the deck have synergy with it or help achieve the same purpose. This section might also be useful if you're interested in the reasoning for why each card was included in the deck.

Handbuffs

These cards buff minions in your hand.

Board Buffs

These minions can buff minions summoned or already in play on the board.

Mana Cheat

These minions allow you to cheat mana.

Dredge Package

These cards allow you to get the Sunken Scavenger from Azsharan Scavenger.

Card Draw and Generation

These cards allow you to keep your hand size high which is important for the efficacy of your handbuffs.

Powerful Murlocs

These are generally useful murlocs, Murmy is a good one drop, Crabrider is great for board control and has bonus gains from handbuffs, Old Murk-Eye has burst potential especially with handbuffs, and Gigafin can win you the game against Aggro or Midrange.

Murlock is a Midrange style murloc deck, and Warlock has once again joined Shaman and Paladin in the top 3 for best murloc deck. If you have a question or comment, or are wondering about a card substitution, post below.

What are your favorite wild decks? Which off meta decks have you been playing? Share them via our deckbuilder and let us know in the comments below!