Hi.

I’m lvl99metapod and this is my first time submitting a deck. I’m a long time fan of the site (please keep up the amazing work).

This is my overview on the up and coming Voidlock warlock archetype that is beginning to take traction in this new expansion. The example deck I’ve posted here is just a crazy listing (albeit fun) and isn’t necessarily the best or most effective why to use this type of control warlock deck (Rin, for example is more of a novelty but has value in some match-ups – and personally I just like eating decks) … (decks, i said decks.)

Anyway I’m going to go over some of the core cards and the reasons why i think they work well for this type of  warlock deck:

Voidlord

The namesake of the deck and for good reason – The entire deck is literally built for this card. 3/9 taunt, Deathrattle Demon that spawns three 1/3 demons is insane value and is a worthy reason to build a deck around. These rather large bodies are pain to deal with and leave bodies that stick to the board, forcing your opponent to either attack them, damaging their board, and/or spend resources on removal. Silencing them can prove a problem especially in situations where you are relying on that taunt to survive another turn. Another downside is obviously the 9 mana cost, however there are ALOT of ways to get these on the board; due to their particular stat-line, tribe and Deathrattle status you can get these guys out time and time again bringing even more value to the board and offset that high cost.

Possessed Lackey

The First (in terms of preference) express line to Voidtown is the Possessed Lackey. Yes it’s a 2/2 body on a 5 mana card that just looks like some sort of expansion filler. But, no, you can see what kind of value this thing has as soon as it snuffs it, that’s right, the 3/9 dirt that that is Voidlord. As you were clever enough to only put Voidlord in your deck you will be laughing hysterically come turn 6. You can coin this with something like dark pact turn 5 for a nice combo, it’s low health helps it get triggered quite easily with hellfire or defile (it can help set up defile combos). Again, with most deathrattles, silence is a pain and will leave you stranded with a 2/2 and a priest spamming ‘wow’. But hey, that’s why you’re packing two right? And of course you can take the other, express option…

Skull of the Man’ari

…and that comes in the form of the warlock legendary weapon. This throws out a free Voidlord as soon as it’s in your hand. Note though that the summoning happens before your draw, and also that the turn you summon the demon cannot attack. Aside from this you are getting a free summon, worth 9 mana, potentially at TURN 5 (with coin on turn 4) four turns early, that’s insane value son! It’s worth noting that should a priest have a tantrum and shuffle your voids away (Psychic Scream) you will of course summon any void walkers should they get drawn.

ALSO – VERY IMPORANT – if you run RIN and complete the ritual, This weapon will summon Azari WITHOUT the battlecry effect. For this reason most people will chose not to run both, however there are fun options* you can consider *cough cough Medivh cough cough.

Bloodreaver Gul’Dan

So you’ve sucessfully cheated out some early summons of Voidlord and your opponent has managed to deal with them, they clearly have no respect for Voidtown and what it has to offer, so what do you do? Well i tell you what you do, you take that guy straight back to Voidtown. They need to really appreciate just how great a 3/9 deathrattle summon three 1/3s is. This also (most of the time) will spawn some Voidwalkers to join party. This is yet another load of taunt bodies your opponent has to deal with before they can get to your precious health. It’s worth noting that in some matchups the bodies can be useful for health sources from dark pact. They are also useful for building up defile rolls, you can also ping ones which are low with mortal coil for card draw – should you need it.

For me Dk Gul’dan’s here power is one of the best over a long match-up, which the Voidtown lets you gain increasing value from. I will usually aim this at face unless there is something critical that requires attention and is a good way to chip your opponent down.

Sometimes it’s worth keeping this at mulligan if you suspect a control match up, as it will give maximum value to play this before N’Zoth.

N’Zoth

If your opponent still has any life left in them with all the trips through void country we are about to give them a final visit. Playing this will summon every Voidlord generated in game – that’s two in deck, two from gul’dan and possibly one from barns. FIVE. Potentially five. Most of the time expect two, possibly three. This will also summon Possessed lackey, so if there are any Voidlords left in your deck they will be pulled when they die. It will also summon Rin, if you included her. Note that any minions that were silenced will still be summoned by N’zoth. Usually it’s best to play N’Zoth after Guldan as any additional resummons from DK Guldan are added, but not every game plays out ideally.

Barnes

Ahhh
good old Barnsy. For all your early game pull antics looks not further.
Anyone familiar with big priest and the like will know what kind of
value this can create. Most of the things you pull will have some
effect, so say a lil’ prayer to RNGesus and lets see what pops out: You
could get 1/1 candlerat – bad luck, or the jackpot Voidlord. Note that a
1/1 Possessed lackey is another way back to Voidtown. You can obviously
tweak what minions you carry to alter the outcome. There are versions
of course that don’t run him, but he takes you close to Voidtown
or to Voidtown proper via lackey 30% of time, subject to how many other
minions you have in the deck.

Rin

Possibly contentious, not as necessary as the cards above but no less interesting and fun. Rin comes with one of the more showy win conditions. After completing the seal rituals by playing five Seals, 5 mana spells each spawning 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5, 6/6 demon respectively, you get Azari. A 10 mana 10/10 that just eat’s your opponent’s deck. Nom nom nom. You lose value, but the pay off, THE PAYOFF is huge. If you fear it getting silenced/poly and need to activate early (don’t need taunt) dark pact her.

Things to note are that demons spawned will count towards ones which gul’dan brings back, which can be bad (remember Voidlord is key). Another thing to note with all these bodies you have, you cannot perform a stage of the seal should you not have space on the board.

It also, as stated above, has horrible synergy with Skull of Man’ari, in fact you wouldn’t really run both. Skull is by far better for Voidlords and it’s for this reason i would recommend only adding Rin for a fun factor alongside Medivh. But you can cut both of these to put more healing, tech, removal, bodies into the deck.

Another thing worth mentioning is the pressure factor, once you start playing seals players (particularly lower down the ladder) start over committing giving you a good opportunity to play removal. Clever players won’t do this, until you start playing Bloodbloom seals. Suprise nom noms!

Master Oakheart

Oakheart, I’ve not personally used this but oh boy can I see it’s effective. 5/5 body that can pull tarcreeper, possessed lackey and void lord on a battle cry, INSANE value. One thing worth considering is too much pull, too much pull, I would tell you psychic scream is a thing. He pulls any 1,2,3 so you need to weigh up the attack values of the minions you put in, for instance you might get tarcreeper, mistress and Barnes if he was in this list, it’s still value but it’s not Voidtown value. And If it’s not Voidtown value, just go home lad. There is some anti Barnes synergy there both ways so bear that in mind.

Healing

You will need to heal with this deck, you will have to draw often with your hero power to make sure you are well stocked to deal with the opponents threats. The Lesser Amethyst Spellstone works great for both, it has synergy with K-librarian and hellfire, you might also consider adding Homunculus as another trigger.

Dark Pact can be a useful cheap heal that can also trigger deathrattles earlier. Watch as it is prone to Skulking Geist, play earlier if you suspect they are packing one, or if you are.

Mistress of Mixtures can be a great tool early, 2/2 body, that lets you hero power twice for free.

Drain Soul  can also work as a cheap offensive heal option and helps give some answers in the early game.

Bloodreaver Gul'dan also has plenty heal over time.

Card draw

I love this little candle-rat, triggers spellstone and draws, awesome. Mortal coil another great card, sometimes sacrificing the draw to combo with defile for a board clear can be worth it.

More draw is great for this deck as it enables more answers and helps cheat out early voidlords.

Hero power – don’t forget you have one of if not the best power, with all the extra healing you can afford most times to draw.

Also consider Bloodmage Thalnos . Just note that he will be resurrected with N’Zoth, this could prevent that one extra Voidlord spawning. But he is nice with a Barnes pull for the draw at least.

Removal

Tainted Zealot and Defile, one of my favourite combos to pull off. Aoe, 2 dmg, plus 2 dmg, plus 1dmg, 5 DMG! aoe clear for 4 mana. Plus it’s chains again and again if you kill. Just make sure the first 2 dmg kills something otherwise expect an incoming ‘wow’ from your opponent.  With defile on its own you will be surprised how often it will chain like crazy with the boards you make in Voidtown.

Bloodmage Thalnos  can work but does 2dmg, guarantees 1 more, and any extra if you kill plus draw a card – it’s not as strong aoe but card draw may be what u want.

You have single target Siphon Soul , expensive but effective on high priority targets, plus you get a nice little heal. Twisting Nether works the same but is all the board, no healing. Most of the time it is worth taking two to deal with the boards that build up on the opponent’s side from your infuriating Voidlords.

Hellfire   – can work nicely as an early anti aggro tool, but don’t rely on it as many classes have sticky minions and will ramp them past 4 health. It’s great for triggering your spellstone which will also go in hand for big target removal.

A lot of decks can make quite large threatening boards quickly and as we lack offensive bodies you rely on the opponent over committing to dealing with your void army and wiping their board. Making the most efficient use of removal will be key to winning most matches.

You might also consider Shadow Bolt , three mana for 4 dmg.

Blast Crystal can be added for additional high priority single target remove, as you rely on ways of cheating voidlords you can afford at times to delay mana progression.

Techs

Dirty Rat – good for pulls against certain decks – Nothing is more satisfying than pulling Raza off Kazakus priest, or a Archmage from Exodia mage. It’s also useful, sometimes, to burn a card from their hand late game before playing twisting nether.

Medivh, the Guardian – As hinted at above the Atiesh is useful for removing your skull of Man’ari should you go down the old crazy Rin ritual train.. choo choo. Make sure you play this before the final ritual. He of course has some nice synergy with your big spells and 8 mana Twisting nether hits the sweet-spot.

Skulking Geist – if you start running into a lot of jade druid, it might also help against evolve shaman. Most other ladder decks can run a one cost spell in some variants, but it’s questionable how useful this will be as it’s very slow. Be careful if you run Dark pact as it will remove them.

Weapon removal – you can tech in for this if you find it a problem, I honestly don’t.

Other options

The lich King  – Great card, great value generator with spells and some of those spells, oooooh, can be pulled with Barnsy early too.

I found this deck to be quite effective against a fair few match ups, it can lose easily to aggro if you get a bad draw. You need to play carefully against Exodia and Raza and pull when you think the time is right. I feel you can alter the cards enough depending on your match-ups, e.g. more removal, healing, or more big minions to steadily climb the ladder with this deck archetype. Be aware, matches are slow with this deck, but quite often enough if you survive to put up one/two Voidlords against aggro they will surrender with frustration – and it makes it all worth it.

Thank you for reading, if you have any feedback, advice, improvements or suggestions please comment below. But be nice – this is my first guide.

After doing some research i’ve notice there are some efficient deck load-outs for this such as

Wabeka’s Legend N’Zoth Warlock ft. Amethyst Spellstone, Possessed Lackey

But play around with it, have fun, some of the crazy match ups you can have with these control decks are epic. With all the stall, healing and blood magic who knows where this archetype will end up. What are you waiting for, get your buns to Voidtown!