Wild Cube Warlock (Cubelock) Deck List Guide – Kobolds

Our Wild Cubelock deck list guide for the Kobolds and Catacombs expansion, will teach you the ins-and-outs of this newly popular deck! This Cube warlock guide includes Card Choices, Mulligans, Gameplay Strategy, and Card Substitutions!

Introduction to Wild Cubelock

Cube Warlock is a powerful control/combo deck from Kobolds and Catacombs. Its namesake, Carnivorous Cube, allows you to replicate powerful cards like Doomguard for significant burst damage and board presence.

Check out the Standard format version of our Cube Warlock Deck Guide!

Wild Cube Warlock Card Choices & Omissions

This is the bread and butter list for for Wild Cube-lock. The list has some flexibility, but this is a well rounded and reliable version.

For those of you familiar with the Standard list, you’re probably wondering where Skull of the Man'ari is. Rightly so, it’s the highest winrate card… in the Standard version. Standard doesn’t have access to Voidcaller, who functions similarly but for less mana while also putting a body on the board immediately. One mana less might not seem like that much, but in Wild the aggressive decks are faster, and Voidcaller comes down a whole turn sooner. While they are a bit redundant, Skull and Voidcaller aren’t mutually exclusive, so you could fit the weapon in somewhere if you really want to.

Speaking of Voidcaller’s impact on the list, you may have noticed N'Zoth, The Corruptor makes it into the Wild version. When you play N’zoth in Standard, you’re going to get some combination of Voidlord, Possessed Lackey, Carnivorous Cube and Mistress of Mixtures. The Standard version runs 4 Demons, so odds are by the time you play N’zoth they’ve been summoned or drawn, leaving your Lackeys as disappointing 2/2s (much like your Mistress). Voidlord is a nice pull from N’zoth, but if you haven’t already played Bloodreaver Gul'dan each Voidlord and Voidwalker that dies reduces his burst potential.  In Wild, the deck runs 7 Demons so your Lackeys are more likely to have a target after N’zoth. Two of those Demons are Voidcallers, which can also be resummoned from N’zoth, helping you get the last of your expensive Demons out of your hand. This does still pollute your Gul’dan pool, but the difference in Wild is that most of your deathrattles will activate this late in the game, where in the Standard version all you’ve done is summoned a flavorless pile of stats.

All that aside, what might be the best part about running N’zoth in Wild is his best buddy Sylvanas Windrunner. Almost any deck running N’zoth should also play Sylvanas, but this deck has some extra synergy with her. Spending a removal spell on your own Sylvanas to guarantee a good target for her deathrattle is a strategy that’s been around since classic Hearthstone, but this deck has the best one: Dark Pact. After an Emperor Thaurissan trigger, you can play both of those and Carnivorous Cube all in the same turn, stealing a minion and potentially adding 3 Sylvanas to your N’zoth pool.

Spiritsinger Umbra is absent from the list because you only get to use 30 cards. She does have better synergy with the Wild version, thanks to the inclusion of Voidcaller and Sylvanas. If you have Umbra it’s not bad to include her, but cards like Emperor Thaurissan and Loatheb tend to be stronger inclusions.

Wild Cube Warlock Mulligan Strategy & Guide

Against aggressive decks you want card that help you survive the early turns, and against slow decks you want the cards that get your combos going the fastest. In Wild, many classes have both an aggressive and a slow variant, so if you aren’t confident that you’re up against a slow deck you should always mulligan for aggro.

VS Everything

Higher Priority (Keep every time)

• Kobold Librarian – This is your only turn 1 minion. It gives you some board presence and now that Patches the Pirate lost Charge you might actually get a good trade with it. It’s also good to keep early because it activates Lesser Amethyst Spellstone.
• Voidcaller – The fastest way to cheat out a big minion in the deck. In most cases Voidcaller is both a safe and optimal keep, but against aggro there may be an argument for sending it back if you don’t have any removal. If you know which deck you’re up against, you can also keep the demon you’d want Voidcaller to target.

Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

• Possessed Lackey – Thanks to Voidcaller, Lackey isn’t the fastest way to accelerate big Demons in Wild, so it’s not the auto keep that it is in Standard. It’s still a very strong turn 5 play, but against aggro you can’t keep it if you don’t have removal. Keep against control every time.

VS Fast Decks

Higher Priority (Keep every time)

• Defile and Hellfire – Warlock has what is probably the best early board clearing tools in these two cards, and you definitely want to have them early against aggro. Against aggro you start to control the game around turn 5, and these cards help you get there reliably.
• Darkbomb – This card hits three health minions like Mana Wyrm and Ship's Cannon, and removing them immediately significantly improves your odds of winning.

Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

• Lesser Amethyst Spellstone – Spellstone is a great way to both buff your health and remove a big minion. Going second I would always keep this, but if you’re going first and don’t have activators for it then it’s probably too slow.

VS Slow Decks

Higher Priority (Keep every time)

• Possessed Lackey and Voidcaller – If you know you’re up against a control deck then your early board clear tools aren’t very useful. Mulligan for your combo pieces because you’re going to spend the first few turns Life Tapping.

Lower Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

• Carnivorous Cube and Dark Pact – If you already have Lackey or Voidcaller you can keep these cards. Against control you typically want to destroy your own deathrattle minions, as your opponent can silence, copy, or steal them, and Cube is a strong combo piece that you want to play as soon as you can after summoning Doomguard or Mal'Ganis.

Wild Cube Warlock Play Strategy

In the early turns, depending on the matchup, Cube Warlock either uses its hero power (Life Tap) to draw into its combos, or removes enemy threats with its many board clearing tools. As early as turn 4 (or 3 with coin), Cube Warlock wants to play cards like Voidcaller or Possessed Lackey to summon large Demons from the hand or deck. With one of these large minions on the board, Carnivorous Cube can be utilized alongside Dark Pact to either generate intense burst damage or an almost unbreachable wall of Taunts. If this isn’t enough to close out the game, Cube Warlock can resummon all of its most powerful threats with Bloodreaver Gul'dan and N'Zoth, The Corruptor.

VS Aggro Decks

Of the slower decks, controlling Warlock decks like this one have some of the best odds vs aggro thanks to Defile and Hellfire. If you make it to turn 5+ with a decent health pool the game looks good for you, as the potential speed of aggro decks in Wild encourages them to run small low-cost minions, which become very manageable at this point in the game. Don’t be afraid to use Dark Pact just for the 8 life, these matches are more about surviving than value.

Against Burn/Secret Mage, you can play your Voidcaller or Possessed Lackey into a secret that you think is likely to be Explosive Runes, which can punish them for playing the card. A lot of players have caught on to this and started adding Potion of Polymorph to play around this, so it’s become somewhat of a gamble. You should still go for it though, as Potion of Polymorph is really only good against this deck, so it’s always going to be less likely than Explosive Runes.

VS Control Decks

Against other control decks you want to out-value or burst them down. Raza Priest was the biggest threat to this deck, and since it’s been nerfed you don’t have to worry as much about losing 30 life in one turn. Exodia Mage and Malygos Druid can still do it, although with the Raza Nerf they lost their best matchup, so you might not see them as much. Vs these decks Doomguard combos are especially important, as you won’t be able to out-value them.

Big Priest is probably going to come down to who draws better. Barnes on 4 can be game over if they pulled Ragnaros the Firelord or Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound, but if they don’t your combos start sooner than they can Shadow Essence. If they start slow, you can Dark Pact your Sylvanas Windrunner to steal their first minion. They can’t Resurrect a minion if nothing they’ve played has died.

Think carefully before you destroy Ragnaros, even and especially if he was summoned from Barnes. Your opponent can’t trade him off, and Ragnaros is the decks burst damage. A 1/1 randomly dealing 8 damage to your board is actually pretty manageable, but if you kill it they can summon a bunch of them, and you have no answer for that.

The control matchup you’re most likely to encounter is the mirror. Don’t play Carnivorous Cube unless you’re also going to kill it in the same turn. Your opponent can copy it with Prince Taldaram or steal it with Sylvanas/Dark Pact. If your opponent leaves a Cube up, try to punish them with one or both of these methods. If your opponent is playing the Giants version, you probably lose. Don’t attack face with your Kobold Librarian, if they aren’t at 25 or less life they can’t play Molten Giant with Naga Sea Witch on 5 (or 4 with coin). Even then though, you’ve bought yourself maybe one turn, not enough to get past the Giants. Your best hope here is that they don’t have Naga on 5.

Card Combos

• Carnivorous Cube + Dark Pact + Doomguard – With a Doomguard already on board (via Lackey or Voidcaller), you can consume it with Carnivorous Cube and then destroy the Cube immediately with Dark Pact before your opponent can respond. This enables 15 burst damage as early as turn 6 (or 5 with coin). Adding Skull of the Man'ari to the deck makes this combo easier, and adding Spiritsinger Umbra adds more potential damage.
• Dark Pact + Sylvanas Windrunner – Easy way to steal a big threat from your opponent.
• Emperor Thaurissan + Prince Taldaram – This enables you to use your hero power the same turn you would play N’zoth or Gul’dan. Thaurissan without Prince is enough to enable Sylvanas + Carnivorous Cube + Dark Pact, or Voidcaller/Lackey + Dark Pact (hitting Doomguard or Mal’Ganis) + Carnivorous Cube + second Dark Pact, and still allows for a hero power that turn.
• Prince Taldaram + Carnivorous Cube + Dark Pact – If your opponent has a juicy target like Ragnaros the Firelord or Sylvanas, you can punish them for it pretty thoroughly this way.

Wild Cube Warlock Card Substitutions

The version in this guide is probably the safest option, but I’ve been enjoying a more burst oriented list. It runs two Power Overwhelming, Skull of the Man'ari and Faceless Manipulator to combo with Doomguard. For those of you who weren’t playing at the time, Leeroy Jenkins, Power Overwhelming and Faceless Manipulator was once a very common combo, generating 20 burst damage from hand (with 4-cost Leeroy or an Emperor Thaurissan trigger). If Skull or Voidcaller hits Doomguard, then you can follow it up with Power Overwhelming and Faceless for 18-26 damage (26 with two PO). This leaves you with 3 or 4 mana (or more with Emperor Thaurissan) to deal even more damage with Darkbombs, Hellfire and Bloodreaver Gul'dan‘s hero power. Power Overwhelming also adds additional ways to activate your deathrattles before your opponent can ruin them. This version of the deck is potentially worse against aggro, and removes some of the value cards like N'Zoth, The Corruptor. One of the best reasons to play the deck this way was the presence of Raza Priest, so with the nerfs this type of deck loses it’s best matchup. If you want to be less predictable or just feel like switching it up it’s a fun version to try. Even if you don’t want to alter the deck to this degree, finding room for a Power Overwhelming or two is not a bad idea.

If you run into this deck a lot there’s also a Giants version of the deck that eats this one alive. You could argue that it’s a different deck entirely, but they often still run a Cube/Demon package. By removing almost all the value cards and running a more basic removal and combo package you can fit in the Naga Sea Witch crew. This typically consists of two copies of Mountain Giant, Molten Giant, Clockwork Giant and Sea Giant. The reason the Giant version beats the regular version is because the regular version doesn’t have an answer for an enormous board of 3-5 giants on turn 5.

A less deck changing way to get an edge in the mirror is to add Sacrificial Pact. You can destroy opposing Doomguard and Mal'Ganis with it before your opponent can Cube them, and in other matchups  you can use it to blow up your own Voidcaller (this is also the fastest way to activate it’s effect).

Almost half this deck is made up of Epics and Legendaries, so it’s probably not an option for free-to-play players. Most of the high-cost cards are essential, so its hard to give replacements apart from the suggestions above. If you can’t afford all the Legendaries in this deck, the demon package also works for a Zoo list, which you could play until you collect the dust for this one. The essential expensive cards in this deck are Carnivorous Cube, Bloodreaver Gul'dan and Voidlord. N'Zoth, The Corruptor, Mal'Ganis and Loatheb are not essential but the deck is strictly worse without them. If you have these, but are missing some less essential expensive cards, here are some options to sub in while you try out the deck:

• Stonehill Defender – This card is much better in Control Warlock lists with a Rin, the First Disciple strategy, but it helps against aggro if you don’t want to craft Prince Taldaram. I would suggest Imp Gang Boss, what was once the best 3-drop in Warlock, but it single-handedly ruins your Bloodreaver Gul'dan pool.
• Shadow Bolt – Another 3-cost replacement for Taldaram. This gives you another early removal option.
• Power Overwhelming – I talked about it above, you can replace just about any non-essential card with it.
• Sense Demons with Skull of the Man'ari – If you’ve played the Standard version you probably have Skull, and adding Sense Demons accelerates your Skull value. Drawing two for 3 mana is usually pretty good, and this deck has enough Demons that you can pretty reliably get full value out of one copy.
• Dark Peddler – Gives you a cheap 2-health minion for Defile and the battlecry offers some nice value. It could get you Dark Pact or PO.
• Siphon Soul or Twisting Nether – Against aggro these cards probably won’t be very relevant, if you’ve survived long enough to use them then you’ve most likely got better things to do, especially with the nerfs to Corridor Creeper and Bonemare. Against control it can be nice to have a Siphon for your opponent’s Thaurissan or a Nether after an opponent’s N’zoth. Neither is optimal but either would make a fine temporary substitute.