Kingsbane Self-Mill (KaC Theorycraft)

Introduction

Another Theorycraft deck I came up with; this time, my first reaction when first seeing the Legendary Weapon: Kingsbane. I absolutely love the card; it’s probably my favorite in the entire expansion (so far at least). So I felt like making a deck that revolves ENTIRELY around that card. Let’s go 😀

Core Mechanics

Essentially this deck runs the same as Miracle; you want to try to keep the board under control until your Gadgetzan turn in which you play a million spells and win shortly after. This deck, however, has a separate win-con from standard Miracle; instead of either blasting your opponent’s face with spells or finessing a Cold Blood-Leeroy Combo, you’re relying on Kingsbane to deal the damage. How, you may say? Well, let’s get to it! 😀

Also, I’m having trouble determining what kind of deck this is. Control I guess? Not technically combo since win-con is just Kingsbane, and not technically Fatigue because you’re killing them with your weapon and unlikely to reach fatigue… So I’m guessing Control x3

Win Condition

Mill yourself all the way to fatigue. Buff up your Kingsbane (throughout the game; I guess now’s a good a time as any to say “Don’t buff your dagger; buff Kingsbane!”), then break it. Then, from Valeera the Hollow, copy the Kingsbane, and play one, break it with the other (weaving in attacks with the buffed weapon). Now you will always have two Kingsbane: one in deck, one on board. Always attack with the buffed weapon while playing a weapon each turn to keep your head above the fatigue-water. You’ll have a 5/3 lifesteal-envenomed weapon at basically all times, with a 1/3 (or another 5/3 lifesteal-envenomed) in the downtime to keep fatigue from getting to you.

EDIT:  I just had an epiphany; you don’t need to copy Kingsbane if you still have regular Valeera Hero Power dagger. Simply Hero Power in place of your unbuffed Kingsbane, and you’ll get full value out of your weapon attacks while maintaining virtually an infinite-durability weapon while staying above fatigue. Buuut Valeera DK does give so much more value (and Kingsbane copy costs 1 less than dagger Hero Power), so it’s still a great card. My bad x3

EDIT 2: Apparently the weapon’s mechanic of retaining buffs is tied to the WEAPON, not the Deathrattle, i.e. why the card works with Doomerang and to lessen confusion through different-buffed-weapons in your deck. If it were to work with Valeera DK as well, then you could potentially have multiple buffed weapons whisking around in your deck. If that’s the case, I wonder how the interaction will work if you have multiple weapons (maybe one in hand) and you buff one on the board? Weird. But the main point of the edit is to say replace 5/3 for 1/3 weapon from Valeera if the interaction does work as such.

Mulligans

At this point, it should be clear what you’ll be mulligan’ing for; if not, here I am to help!

Against Aggro, find Bloodmage Thalnos with your Damage spells (Shiv, Evis, Fan of Knives, Backstab). Usually in decks that rely on a win-con, you don’t want your win-con in your opening hand; however, with Kingsbane’s mechanic, you can plop it down early game for some Deadly Poison or Envenom Weapon value (or even Leeching Poison for lifesteal), and you’ll still have it late game for your win-con. It should be noted, however, that you do interrupt some draws by breaking Kingsbane, so I wouldn’t recommend just plopping it down every turn unless necessary.

Against Control, card draw is your friend. Finding Gadgetzan is pretty good, but Fal’dorei Strider works great, as you’ll be summoning 16/16 worth of stats for 4-mana PER STRIDER if you can make it all the way to fatigue (doubling your Striders with Valeera, if you want to go there). The deck doesn’t run hard removal for big minions, so be wary and try to make favorable trades through your value-minions and spells.

Card Substitutions

The only card I’d say you ABSOLUTELY CANNOT replace is Kingsbane. Everything else you could probably put in card draw or spells that give card draw for Gadgetzan Auctioneer. Vilespine Slayer would be great, as the deck generally lacks hard-removal, and getting double value with Valeera is game-winning.

Valeera the Hollow, though a major value-tool, CAN be replaced. It isn’t the end of the world, as you’ll still have your win-con with your dagger Hero Power, but she does give SO much more value than you’d have without her.

If you don’t have Gadgetzan Auctioneer, then why you trying to play a Miracle/Self-Mill deck? I guess you could grab more card draw, but you’ll be extremely lacking in trying to achieve your own fatigue. But hey, I ain’t stopping you from trying 😀

Conclusion

Hope you enjoyed my having fun with the deck builder and Theorycrafting! I absolutely love Theorycrafting, and doing it with my favorite card in the expansion is just an honor (Shadowcaster still reigns supreme for favorite all-time). Anyways, go ahead and try it for yourself! The beauty of Hearthstone is the limitless amount of deck-possibilities, so go ahead and swap a few cards out for ones you prefer! 😀

Change log

– 2x Sprint, + 2x Doomerang. After a bit of digging, I found out that Kingsbane retains its buffs after Doomerang’d. So it’s actually a decent bit of removal if you shove your face into a minion and Doomerang another one or the same one. Sprint was probably the most iffy card as it’s bad without Prep, plus you should have enough card draw to get to Gadgetzan anyways, so all is good.

– 1x Blade Flurry, – 1x Southsea Squidface, + 2x Lesser Onyx Spellstone. Yet again, I’ve been enlightened by card interactions; the Spellstone is activated by Deathrattle CARDS, and not just Deathrattle minions. With the weapon being a Deathrattle (as well as already having two Deathrattles in Bloodmage Thalnos and Southsea Squidface), the card could get a LOT of value, especially later game in which you tend to struggle against waves of bigger minions. If the meta sees less wide-board (5+ minions on board consistently) and more of a mid-range or control-oriented playstyle, I reckon cutting the second Blade Flurry in favor of a second Southsea Squidface would work better to complement the Spellstone.