It bothers me a bit that nothing has been done about this deck at all, even considering it’s domination before The Witchwood rolled around. The deck has made like Bane and bent the whole meta around it’s leg. To start, many of the comments are saying things like “oh it’s not a broken deck, it loses to aggro”, which equates to me as you flip a coin and either play aggro or control, with midrange being thrown off to the side, for the most part, and even in Control v. Control, Cubelock wins unless it’s an OTK like Shudderwock. In the Aggro v. Cubelock scenario, the deck has to lose by turn six, otherwise the Possessed Lackey into Voidlord plus eight health has basically won you the game. Even in aggro, Cubelock has made taking Spellbreaker or Owl in every deck regardless of circumstance a necessity. Back when I played the game, silence was a tech choice, but now Cubelock has the meta so twisted that it’s a guaranteed two-off.
My second problem with the deck is it’s minions. Of course, Blizzard never could have foreseen that all of these cards would interact in this way, and for that, credit goes to the players. The fact remains, however, that these interactions are well… bullshit. The thing I relate it to is the card text for the Dark Magician Yugioh card- “The ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense.” That’s Cubelock: the ultimate deck in terms of attack and defense. Due to the crazy flexibility of Carnivorous Cube, a warlock can either bust out 36 Total health or 15 burst damage depending on what Lackey cheats out, and in either situation, you’re screwed unless you’ve got a silence. The spells are also a huge problem. Of course you’ve got your Defile, but that isn’t really overpowered, nice anti-aggro tool, most of the problem comes from the healing. As if warlock didn’t already have the upper hand on aggro and most other control decks, only two copies of Dark Pact and Amethyst Spellstone end the game with the warlock at 30 health more often than not.
FInally we get into some proposed nerfs, some I’ve heard or seen, as well as a few of my own. Of course, I’m no Blizzard developer. I have no idea what the nerfing process is like, or how much thought is put into changing a card. I’m simply a semi-casual player looking for a better experience by bringing a deck off the throne it’s on, and getting it on a power level around equal to the rest. The goal would be to change the deck to bring its power level down, but not pull a Warsong Commander and make the deck unplayable. The first example of this unplayable nerfing that I’ve heard is “Give Doomguard Rush”. Now, while this works theory, stopping Cubelock’s ridiculous 15-20 Damage burst, it ruins Doomguard’s entire identity. Changing Doomguard would also have a serious ripple effect on Demonlock and Zoo, and create more problems than is necessary, so it’s most likely best to leave the classic cards out of this. Another nerf that completely destroys Cubelock, though, is much more thought out with more reasoning is, “Change Carnivorous Cube to say ‘Battlecry : Destroy a friendly minion with power 4 or Less’”. Now yes, this ruins Cubelock as a deck, which I honestly don’t mind, but keeps it so that it can still be played with, either in warlock or other classes, and still allows Cubing Voidlord. The deck becomes more defensive, loses the burst, and would have somewhat visible counterplay. My nerfs target what I believe to be the two most obnoxious cards in the deck, Voidlord and Dark Pact. Dark Pact is fairly simple, make it cost Two or Three mana. Easy, Execute style nerf, that doesn’t cripple the deck or the combo. Even execute is still being used in control warriors. For Voidlord, I direct attention to the Grizzled Guardian, a Druid 8 Mana 3/5 that recruits two 4-or lower cost minions upon death. Now 4-or lower minion season will basically always be better than Voidcallers, so the mana cost makes some sense, but I still believe that 9 mana for what is essentially a 6/18, not even accounting for any Cubes or Bloodreavers, is norm enough. I think that making the Voidlord 10 Mana might be a little overkill, so the only other place to hit is its stats. Personally, I think that anything from a 3/8 to a 1/9 would make the card astronomically easier to deal with, while still being the wall that it’s made to be.
If you managed to find this and read the whole thing, thanks! I’m happy to know what this community thinks about the deck. Hopefully we can keep it constructive, though. No need to tell me I’m bad and the only reason I lose to Cubelock is cause I play garbage quest Hunter. I already know that. These were just my thoughts on how to inch the deck’s power level down.
It bothers me a bit that nothing has been done about this deck at all, even considering it’s domination before The Witchwood rolled around. The deck has made like Bane and bent the whole meta around it’s leg. To start, many of the comments are saying things like “oh it’s not a broken deck, it loses to aggro”, which equates to me as you flip a coin and either play aggro or control, with midrange being thrown off to the side, for the most part, and even in Control v. Control, Cubelock wins unless it’s an OTK like Shudderwock. In the Aggro v. Cubelock scenario, the deck has to lose by turn six, otherwise the Possessed Lackey into Voidlord plus eight health has basically won you the game. Even in aggro, Cubelock has made taking Spellbreaker or Owl in every deck regardless of circumstance a necessity. Back when I played the game, silence was a tech choice, but now Cubelock has the meta so twisted that it’s a guaranteed two-off.
My second problem with the deck is it’s minions. Of course, Blizzard never could have foreseen that all of these cards would interact in this way, and for that, credit goes to the players. The fact remains, however, that these interactions are well… bullshit. The thing I relate it to is the card text for the Dark Magician Yugioh card- “The ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense.” That’s Cubelock: the ultimate deck in terms of attack and defense. Due to the crazy flexibility of Carnivorous Cube, a warlock can either bust out 36 Total health or 15 burst damage depending on what Lackey cheats out, and in either situation, you’re screwed unless you’ve got a silence. The spells are also a huge problem. Of course you’ve got your Defile, but that isn’t really overpowered, nice anti-aggro tool, most of the problem comes from the healing. As if warlock didn’t already have the upper hand on aggro and most other control decks, only two copies of Dark Pact and Amethyst Spellstone end the game with the warlock at 30 health more often than not.
FInally we get into some proposed nerfs, some I’ve heard or seen, as well as a few of my own. Of course, I’m no Blizzard developer. I have no idea what the nerfing process is like, or how much thought is put into changing a card. I’m simply a semi-casual player looking for a better experience by bringing a deck off the throne it’s on, and getting it on a power level around equal to the rest. The goal would be to change the deck to bring its power level down, but not pull a Warsong Commander and make the deck unplayable. The first example of this unplayable nerfing that I’ve heard is “Give Doomguard Rush”. Now, while this works theory, stopping Cubelock’s ridiculous 15-20 Damage burst, it ruins Doomguard’s entire identity. Changing Doomguard would also have a serious ripple effect on Demonlock and Zoo, and create more problems than is necessary, so it’s most likely best to leave the classic cards out of this. Another nerf that completely destroys Cubelock, though, is much more thought out with more reasoning is, “Change Carnivorous Cube to say ‘Battlecry : Destroy a friendly minion with power 4 or Less’”. Now yes, this ruins Cubelock as a deck, which I honestly don’t mind, but keeps it so that it can still be played with, either in warlock or other classes, and still allows Cubing Voidlord. The deck becomes more defensive, loses the burst, and would have somewhat visible counterplay. My nerfs target what I believe to be the two most obnoxious cards in the deck, Voidlord and Dark Pact. Dark Pact is fairly simple, make it cost Two or Three mana. Easy, Execute style nerf, that doesn’t cripple the deck or the combo. Even execute is still being used in control warriors. For Voidlord, I direct attention to the Grizzled Guardian, a Druid 8 Mana 3/5 that recruits two 4-or lower cost minions upon death. Now 4-or lower minion season will basically always be better than Voidcallers, so the mana cost makes some sense, but I still believe that 9 mana for what is essentially a 6/18, not even accounting for any Cubes or Bloodreavers, is norm enough. I think that making the Voidlord 10 Mana might be a little overkill, so the only other place to hit is its stats. Personally, I think that anything from a 3/8 to a 1/9 would make the card astronomically easier to deal with, while still being the wall that it’s made to be.
If you managed to find this and read the whole thing, thanks! I’m happy to know what this community thinks about the deck. Hopefully we can keep it constructive, though. No need to tell me I’m bad and the only reason I lose to Cubelock is cause I play garbage quest Hunter. I already know that. These were just my thoughts on how to inch the deck’s power level down.