Hir’eek Hand-boost Warlock

There are few hand-boosting Warlock decks out there, and that’s probably because there are even fewer cards to boost your hand. With Rastakhan’s Rumble introduced, that has changed enough that a viable deck can be made. The deck shown is a decent hand-boosting deck that, when tested, even beats out Quest Discard, a reliably fast and popular Warlock deck due to its killing power. The amount of boosts granted even just from Arena Fanatic  are enough to command the battlefield with just a couple minions. So let’s get started.

Priority Cards

This is the meat of the deck. Without this card, it becomes much harder to outplay your opponent, though still winnable. This card synergizes extremely well with cards that summon extra minions such as Fiendish Circle and AoE clear effects like Shriek. The best part is that it’s so early in RR’s release that most people will just leave this card alone, letting you rack up the boosts.

While not an entirely necessary card to prioritize, it’s definitely helpful! The boosts given to Jeklik are extremely noticeable and can often turn the game around against Hunter Midrange or Spell Mage. Discard her and you get even more lifesteal taunt minions to boost!

A must-have for most, if not all, Warlock decks due to its 1-cost Life Tap. If you’re unable to start your hand off with Spirit of the Bat, it’s also good for digging through your deck to get it.

I’ll be honest, I have only played this minion once due to either my opponent aggroing me to death before I can play him, him not being in my hand long enough to boost him, or because he’s just not helpful in the current situation. But the times you do use him, you better pray for your opponent to stay indoors! Hir’eek can make a MASSIVE turnaround for the game, out-tempoing Frost Lich Jaina and Deathstalker Rexxar. The best part is that if he gets big enough, your opponent will have a very hard time clearing 8 giant bat gods from Hell. Normally you’d probably want a large taunt minion in play before you play him, but if you have enough hit points, throw him onto the field and cackle as your opponent concedes!

Strategy

The most important card for you to have is Spirit of the Bat. It is your core hand-booster and without it, you won’t be able to boost your minions as large as you might want them. If this is not in your opening hand, try to draw it using the card draws in the deck. Otherwise, pray, and play your best.

Once you have Spirit of the Bat, protect it at all costs. It’s one turn of stealth is normally not enough to keep it alive, especially if the enemy Mage uses Arcane Missiles. For this reason, you always want to plan out your play perfectly so that you get the most value from the Spirit’s effect. A good combo is playing Fiendish Circle on turn 4, to which your opponent will most likely ignore (if they don’t, it gets some damage in.), then on your next turn, play the Spirit and Shriek. Your Spirit not only lives and has Stealth for the turn, but your minions just had 4 boost distributed to them!

From there, it’s a very straightforward strategy; pound your opponent to the ground. They normally will struggle very hard against a 7/7 Doubling Imp or a 10/10 Hooked Reaver with taunt. Overpowering your opponent can happen a lot more often than you’d think.

Deck Weaknesses/Strengths

Frost Lich Jaina: This decktype is tricky. It can play well against most archetypes, but with the right play and the right hand, it’s winnable about 50-50. Your best bet of winning is getting them to use all of their Polymorph spells, summoning a large taunt minion, and then summon a boosted Hir’eek to wipe them out.

Evolve Shaman: Another tricky decktype, but still winnable if your minions get big enough. A bit of the same strategy as playing against Frost Lich; get them to use Hex (which doesn’t necessarily hurt you if you have Spirit of the Bat on the field.) and let loose with your big minions.

Deathrattle Rexxar: Yet another tricky decktype, but the last one on this list and also the easiest. Deathrattle Rexxar can be hit rather easily if you get rid of their Spider Bomb while you still have your smaller minions on the field. If the Deathrattle effect triggers on your larger minions, no big deal; summon a Doubling Imp to get your value back.

Warrior: Not much of a contest. Gaining armor is nothing when your minions get as large as they usually do. However, that doesn’t mean you can be careless; make sure that you do not let them out-aggro you or you die instantly.

Mech Paladin: Though powerful, you can usually get your big minions out before they can Magnetic their Mechs big enough to be any real threats. And if they do Magnetic big threats, you have bigger ones.

Conclusion

That’s the deck! The main goal is to get your minions big enough to overwhelm your opponent. 8/10, it works. Many cards in the deck can also be replaced with new (or worse) ones, so experiment and see what you come up with to take you to Legend!