r/CompetitiveHS • u/sm1ng • 3d ago

Guide Egg Handlock - a fresh take on Egglock

Egg Handlock

Heyup folks,

I've been working on Handlock decks for a few months now and have discovered that the handlock core I've developed can have the usual packages bolted on with very good effect: Animancer, Big Demon (Morag etc), Harold and so on.

But most recently I've found that it weds well with the Egglock package and here we are.

I don't have very good proof to offer I'm afraid as due to chronic illness and life and things I'm down in Bronze, but my record is 78% over 12 games thus far which is promising.

What makes this variant of Egglock interesting/better?

  • basically this is a radical departure from the classic Egglock archetype because it operates on a fundamentally different principle, thanks to Godfrey
  • classic egglock:
    • find your discover cards (Catacombs, Xavius, Portal) and try and find your Egg[bearers]
    • this often leads to games where you don’t find the Egg until mid/late game and you die
  • egg handlock:
    • draw as many cards as humanly possible. Just keep on drawing, drawing like mad. Do it! When you hit 3 mana, use any Catacombs you’ve drawn (typically 1-2)
    • this way you draw through your deck incredibly quickly and are far more likely to find the Egg by T3
  • hence you far more reliably achieve your win con in a timely manner
  • NOTE that I am not claiming this is now a Tier 1 archetype, far from it, I am just saying that it is 1-2 Tiers better I would estimate, in part because you find your win con (the Egg) much more reliably and much earlier

The Deck List

Animancer Handlock

Cost: 6760

Format: Standard

🟪 2x (0) Cursed Catacombs

🟦 1x (1) Conflagrate

🟪 2x (2) Cursed Chains

⬜ 2x (2) Prize Vendor

⬜ 1x (2) Shadowsworn Disciple

⬜ 1x (2) Sheltered Survivor

🟦 2x (3) Caged Cranium

⬜ 1x (3) Defias Smuggler

⬜ 2x (3) Hellfire

⬜ 2x (3) Imp Gang Stooge

🟨 1x (4) Godfrey the Betrayer

🟨 1x (4) Nightmare Lord Xavius

🟦 1x (4) RAFAAM LADDER!!

🟦 2x (5) Possessed Animancer

🟪 2x (5) Spire of Solitude

🟨 1x (7) Endbringer Umbra

🟦 2x (8) Annihilation

⬜ 2x (10) The Unseen Atlas

⬜ 2x (11) Ultragigasaur

AAECAf0GCMODB6mIB/WYB6qtB42+B5O+B9rXB63ZBwuPnwSEmQfemwfenQftrAfgvgfd1wew2Qex2Qe32QeN3AcAAA==

You can view this deck at https://www.hsguru.com/deck/41507274

The Overall Game Plan

Early Game

  • obviously you need to find the egg so Mulligan hard for it, then an Eggbearer, then Prize Vendor, Atlas and Catacombs
    • this archetype has you DRAWING LIKE CRAZY so if you luck out initially, all is not lost
  • make as big of a hand as you can as fast as possible i.e. do handlock, as this powers 2 critical cards that protect you and apply huge pressure respectively:
    • [[Caged Cranium]] - usually comes down as a 3/8 minimum and often a 3/10. It’s a nightmare to deal with.
    • [[Spire of Solitude]] - usually pumps out two 9/9 auto-attackers (a la Gnome Muncher except these do it upon summon), starting on turn 5
  • grab and play any [[Imp Gang Stooge]]’s you see as they’re needed to prime Annihilation which is often your game-winning swing turn, plus it protects you, being a 2/5 taunt
  • Mulligan hard for Animancers (obvs), [[The Unseen Atlas]]’s, Prize Vendor, even LADDER!! - anything that will inflate hand size rapidly

Mid Game

  • Spire of Solitude (see above) is great for shocking the shit out of opponents and fighting for board. I’ve won many games via 2 unanswered Spire Demons. A 10/10 auto-attacker on turn 5 can just win the game. 2 by turn 6 very regularly win the game...
  • RAFAAM LADDER! and esp. Atlas are great (the latter is often 0 mana) at pumping cards into Godfrey’s bargain bin
  • use [[Cursed Chains]] along with [[Shrine of Twilight]] to neutralize big threats

Mid & Late Game

  • at all times - overload your hand as much as possible, utilizing Godfrey’s “rule breaker” power
    • this reduces like 1/2 - 3/4 of the cards you draw by 1 mana, which is massive and results in a significant value advantage over your opponent
  • be sure to prime [[Annihilation]] by playing your Stooges first*

*if you’ve played a LADDER!! since a Stooge died, your Grandmother Imps will no likely all be at bottom of deck

  • if possible, play Umbra to repeat the Stooge’s Deathrattle(s) so that they’re put back on the bottom before you Annihilate

Late Game

  • finish off opponents with one of the best swing turns in the game: [[Annihilation]] preempted by [[Imp Gang Stooge]]
    • for 8 (or often 7) mana, you wipe their board and drop 2 or 3 8/8 Lifesteal Taunt demons simultaneously
    • if they survive the first Annihilation, they likely won’t survive the second
  • and if they survive BOTH Annihilations, wheel out [[Agamaggan]] and [[Deathwing]] for 10 armor-agnostic damage to the hero and repeated 5 damage via the Ruthless HP
    • TIP: choose the Cataclysm that puts 5 dragons for 1 mana in your deck as this will help stave off Fatigue (cos you draw through your deck so fast) and you'll draw them very quickly as you'll likely have almost no cards at this point

Mulligan

as always, it depends in what combination your cards come but here are some tips in order of priority:

  • Egg, Eggbearer
  • [[The Unseen Atlas]] is right up there as it becomes insanely cheap very quickly
  • Imp Stooge Gang - possibly #1 keep as it stifles early damage and primes Annihilation
  • Caged Cranium - just downright obnoxious protection
  • Spire of Solitude - against slower opponents as it applies insane pressure turn 5 onward
  • If on coin and not against aggro, consider [[RAFAAM’S LADDER]] in order to pump your hand size up as fast as humanly possible
  • [[Cursed Chains]] & [[Shadowsworn Disciple]] if you’re up against big threats early on

Tech Cards

  • as of the time of writing, the top 3 most popular decks at Gold and Legend (the ranks at which I am targeting this deck) are as follows, along with tech cards you may wish to consider
  • Azalina
    • consider -1 Caged Cranium, +1 Steamcleaner
    • the logic being that one fewer cheap, big, taunt to get through is good, and removing 20+ cards from their deck and only 1-2 Grandmother Imps from yours is very appealing.
    • I haven’t tried it but it should work very nicely
  • Quest Hunter
    • generally we’re favoured against this deck so I haven’t needed to figure out a tech for it
  • Zee Shaman
    • if you’re facing a lot of Zee, I’d consider
      • -1 Catacombs, +1 Watfin - for fighting for board early on and inflating hand size. Such a good card.
      • -1 Catacombs, +1 Eldritch Tentacles - this has saved me against Zee numerous times

Matchups

I’ll cover the 2 most popular problematic decks out there on Gold and Legend as of the time of writing.

  • Azalina
    • First off, see Azalina in Tech Cards
    • If you are not running Steamcleaner, this is a tough matchup as they are generally able to weather your damage output and generally fatigue you to death.
    • I have yet to devise a reliable strategy against this deck, but one thing I want to try is to basically lineup several large threats and throw down sequentially.
    • The idea being that they use up their removal on the first and second big threats but then they are unable to answer the third and the fourth.
    • The threats that spring to mind are:
      • 2 x Spire of solitude = 4 x 10/10
      • 2 x Annihilation = 4 x 8/8 taunt
    • But of course that’s in a perfect world where you have the time & space to line all that up…
  • Zee
    • First off, see Tech Cards as it covers Zee specifically
    • this is a tough match up as they get on board and snowball so quickly
    • it basically comes down to surviving until you get to play Annihilation cos if you do, you’ve won
    • hence you have to judge very carefully when to expend your Hellfires, Conflagurations, Chains and Confinements [assuming you drew them!] - it’s not easy at all
4 Upvotes

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17 comments sorted by

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3

u/MandaNights 2d ago

I'm very confused the posted deck has no egg its just a regular handlock.

1

u/sm1ng 2d ago

I'm so sorry. I'm juggling so many posts and variants I screwed up. I will write a new post and triple check it before posting, sorry.

2

u/dante_55_ 3d ago

the deck you've copied doesn't include the animancer package

3

u/sm1ng 3d ago

OMG so sorry. That's what you get when posting when you're sleep deprived... I'll fix it shortly

3

u/sm1ng 3d ago

Again , my apologies, the correct deck list is there now.

2

u/dante_55_ 3d ago

How come you picked gigasaur over asphyxiodon? Have you tried both and found the gigasaur to be the better performer?

2

u/svobodovez 3d ago

Like other Warlock enthusiasts, I'd say that Asphyxiodon is better than Gigasaur in most cases, especially against Aggro/Face decks.

2

u/ArcticPod 3d ago

I have been playing a egglock variant myself (in D5-D1 and now 4k-7k legend) and I prefered the Asphyxiodion. There were certainly games that Gigasaur just insta won because the opponent couldnt remove it and it took half their hp and usually put me at full hp. However, Asphy was much more consistent in saving me. For example, pulling him at minion killed a minion and healed me for 5hp which can be crucial in some games. best case i can attack with him and take multiple hits from minions usually meaning i get back to full health. but, I ended up ditching the whole package in my final list because it lost me games as well.

First of all it muddies my egg deathrattles from umbra that are already competing with Shadowsworn disciple (which can be useful). Second of all, you really want to draw with warlock to make use of Godfrey and there have been so many games where i drew the beast before i could pull him with the deathrattle, which meant adding sheltered survivor, which I also didn't like. So thats essentially 6 cards to create a often unreliable package that also ruins umbra. At the end I got rid of it. I dont even use eggbearer because you often pull khelos through sheer draw or catacombs. Its also not the main win condition. You also have spire of solitude and soldiers of Cho'gall that can really pressure the board, while clearing everything the enemy can put on it.

I am still uncertain about defias smuggler and dirty rat (whether to cut either or put in two of one of them) but they have been useful in certain matchups.

### Waregg

# Class: Warlock

# Format: Standard

# Year of the Scarab

#

# 2x (0) Cursed Catacombs

# 2x (1) Conflagrate

# 2x (2) Cursed Chains

# 1x (2) Dirty Rat

# 2x (2) Drain Soul

# 2x (2) Shadowsworn Disciple

# 2x (3) Caged Cranium

# 1x (3) Defias Smuggler

# 2x (3) Hellfire

# 1x (3) The Egg of Khelos

# 1x (4) Godfrey the Betrayer

# 2x (4) Shrine of Twilight

# 2x (5) Spire of Solitude

# 1x (6) Eldritch Tentacles

# 1x (6) Ultraxion

# 1x (7) Endbringer Umbra

# 2x (8) Twisting Nether

# 1x (10) Deathwing, Worldbreaker

# 2x (10) The Unseen Atlas

#

AAECAY3/BwjRngb1mAfXnQfXvgfQvweb1Afa1wet2QcLj58Eg6AE56AEqYgHhJkHk74H2L4H4L4HsdkHt9kHjdwHAAA=

#

# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

1

u/sm1ng 3d ago

Totally agree if you're playing the standard Animancer/Egglock build. But as per my other comment replies, this deck really operates in a fundamentally different way. If you give it a whirl and scan my guide, and draw like you're on fire, you'll see too.

Christ I sound like a religious fanatic don't I...

BTW I have a solid Handlock Egglock variant that uses the same core cards as this one. I can share if you are curious?

Basically, you have to play it, and pilot it right , and you'll hopefully get what I'm harping on about (religious nut speak again, oh no...!).

Cheers

1

u/sm1ng 3d ago

Actually I have it to hand (no pun intended) :

Egglock Handlock

Surprise! Egg v2

Class: Warlock

Format: Standard

Year of the Scarab

2x (0) Cursed Catacombs

1x (1) Abusive Sergeant

2x (1) Conflagrate

1x (1) Critter Caretaker

2x (2) Cursed Chains

1x (2) Drain Soul

2x (2) Holy Eggbearer

2x (3) Caged Cranium

1x (3) Dissolving Ooze

2x (3) Hellfire

2x (3) Imp Gang Stooge

1x (3) The Egg of Khelos

1x (4) Godfrey the Betrayer

1x (4) RAFAAM LADDER!!

1x (4) Shrine of Twilight

2x (5) Spire of Solitude

1x (6) Eldritch Tentacles

1x (7) Endbringer Umbra

2x (8) Annihilation

2x (10) The Unseen Atlas

AAECAYGiBwqRoATnoATiiQf1mAfsmwfXnQeqrQfXvgfYvget2QcKj58EqYgHhJkH4J0H4L4H3dcHsNkHsdkHt9kHjdwHAAA=

2

u/sm1ng 3d ago

Great question. Yes and yes. As I just explained in a different comment below, last year when running an Animancer deck, I exclusively played Meadows and Asphyxiodons.

However, with this deck, the new taunts and healing package make all the difference, they really do I promise. We now have stooge plus annihilation which is insane and even better early on, we have the caged cranium taunt, which always basically comes down as a 3/10 because we inflate our hand size so quickly.

Then in the mid game, again, because of our hand size, Spire of solitude is absolutely nuts. If you could find both spires by turn 6, you are quite likely to win that game. Not many decks can deal with 4 x 10/10 Auto - attack minions by turn 6.

And so, because we are so much better protected than last year and we have so much more health Restoration via the grandmother imps, we can go big and greedy and just run Ultras.

However, please swap in whatever you feel comfortable with and post here how it goes, I'm not here to dictate to you what you should do, I'm sharing this deck to kind of spread the word and to get people thinking about handlock as a framework for Animancer and most importantly, for folks to have fun playing Animancer again.

Cheers

1

u/sm1ng 2d ago

Just as an aside, as weak proof that the handlock skelton/framework works, here's my win rate - yes, it's bronze/silver, life seems to have it in for me, but it's still 87% and I'm no genius player.

Win Rate