Budget (Cheap) Warlock Zoo Deck List Guide – Mean Streets of Gadgetzan

Zoo Warlock is one of the most timeless decks of Hearthstone. Popularized way back in the Beta, it was always one of the most consistent and strong decks. While the early Gadgetzan meta doesn’t shape too well for the Zoo, the deck is still the best budget option for Warlock players, as the only alternative is a very expensive RenoLock.

The deck’s game plan is to play multiple small threats early and control the board through efficient trades, boosted by buffs or random pings. Zoo deck is very snowbally – once it gets the board control, it’s really hard to take it back. Minions get buffed, stats are growing, more minions are played, while Warlock Life Taps every turn to not run out of steam. On the other hand, board is everything for the Zoo player – you take it away, a lot of the cards will become worthless.

Zoo is one of the decks I always recommend to the new players, as it teaches them that even when playing an aggressive deck, rushing the face and ignoring the board completely is rarely a good idea.

Budget Warlock Zoo Card Replacements

High Priority Replacements

2x Argent Horserider => 2x Imp Gang Boss – Imp Gang Boss is one of the strongest 3-drops in the game, especially in faster matchups. It’s amazing when you’re dictating the trades and kill off the small minions while spawning the Imps. Horserider is not a bad card, but it’s nowhere near close to the quality of Imp Gang Boss in this deck.
1x Flame Juggler + 1x Crazed Alchemist => 2x Dark Peddler – This is another high priority replacement. Dark Peddler is great 2-drop, because of how flexible it is. You can play it on turn 2, you can play it on turn 3 with whatever you get out of him, it might give you extra burst/removal (Power Overwhelming or Soulfire) when you need it, it might give you Mortal Coil or even Corruption against a big minion you can’t deal with. Great card which you really want to play.

Low priority Replacements

This is a non-Discard version of the deck and most of the players pre-Gadgetzan were convinced that the Discard version of the deck is stronger. However, you get the Malchezaar's Imp from the 4th wing of Karazhan and since that card is really necessary, you need full Karazhan to play the Discard version. If you have it – you should aim at the Discard Warlock list instead.

After those replacements, the deck will become viable even in higher ranks. If you’re looking for an alternative, you should try RenoLock.

Budget Warlock Zoo Mulligan Tips

High Priority (Always Keep)

1-drops: Argent Squire, Flame Imp, Possessed Villager and Voidwalker – Curve is everything when it comes to Zoo, so you always hard mulligan for your 1-drops. Not opening with a 1-drop can already put you behind on the tempo, which is not a good sign. So if you don’t get your 1-drops, you generally mulligan hard for them. Keep other cards only if you have a decent 1-drop.

Low Priority (Situationally Keep)

• Abusive Sergeant – Even though it’s a 1-drop, it’s a 1-drop that’s useless by itself. It’s a high priority keep, but only with other 1-drops – Argent Squire, Possessed Villager and Voidwalker. It doesn’t combo that well with Flame Imp, but it’s still alright (it might help with killing a 4 health minion and in the worst case it’s extra 2 face damage).
• Power Overwhelming – With Possessed Villager, if there will be some high health minions you might have to kill early. For example, I keep this combo against Shaman, where then can drop a 3/4 minion very early into the game.
• Acidic Swamp Ooze – Against the decks that play early weapons.
• Crazed Alchemist – Against Reno decks (I mean, you can’t tell if it’s a Reno deck right away, but you can assume depending on the current meta – e.g. if you face Warlock, it’s probably Reno). It’s a counter to the Doomsayer – one of the scariest cards you can encounter on turn 2.
• Flame Juggler/Knife Juggler/Dire Wolf Alpha – If you have 1-drop already. Dire Wolf is best if you have two 1-drops and you’re starting second.
• Argent Horserider/Darkshire Councilman – With a good curve when going first (1 -> 2 -> 3) or with a 1-drop when going second. Horserider is a keep in faster matchups, while Councilman is a keep in slow matchups.

Budget Warlock Zoo Strategy Tips

• Like I’ve already said, board control is the most important thing when playing Zoo. That’s why you should always be initiating the trades, because then you do it on your terms. You pick the right ones, you utilize buffs to make them better etc. By playing this way, you should win a lot more games than by going face with all the early game minions and letting your opponent do the trades.
• One opportunity to start dealing face damage is after you play Defender of Argus. If you Taunt the right minions and not give your opponent an opportunity to get a value trades this way, you can sneak some face damage.
• Knife Juggler + Forbidden Ritual is a great mid/late game combo. On turn 8 you fill your whole board AND ping random targets 6 times. That’s really insane. Of course, you can do it much earlier – the combo is strong even when spawning 2-3 extra 1/1’s.
• Try to time your Forbidden Ritual after your opponent has used a board clear. This is great way to refill the board with just one card. Without another AoE, it’s very unlikely that your opponent will clear all of them, which means you can take advantage of cards like Abusive, PO, Dire Wolf or Argus next turn.
• Argent Horserider and Doomguard are pretty much the only cards that have immediate impact on the board (which you can control, because jugglers are random) – which makes them really valuable. If you can afford to, try to play slower minions first, because you won’t always have time to do that – while it will almost always be a good time to play those.
• Doomguard is great, but when you draw it, you want to empty your hand as quickly as possible. While it’s not bad to discard a small card, you really don’t want to hit 2 important cards with the discard effect. Doomguard with empty hand is one of the strongest moves in the game – 5 mana 5/7 with Charge and no drawback.
• You can sometimes do quite a lot of damage from your hand. People don’t really play around too much burst from Zoo, because they rarely can afford to. And it’s quite easy to deal ~10 damage from your hand, so try to not miss lethal!
• Try to tap as much as possible, especially in slow matchups. You want to constantly draw in order to not run out of steam. In faster matchups you can decide to not tap if the quality of your hand is high already or you’re at low health total. Remember that if you plan to tap, do it first – the card you draw might change your play.
• Positioning is important. I don’t have space to write a full guide on Zoo positioning here, but in general, plan for the future Dire Wolf Alpha or Defender of Argus when placing your minions. You can find some in-depth Zoo positioning guides online!