Handlock

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A warlock always has something up their sleeve...

Handlock or Hand Lock is a type of warlock The  Warlock is one of the nine classes in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, represented by Gul dan. Heroes edit | edit source] Contents 1 Heroes 2 Background 3 Hero Power 3.1 Replacement Hero Powers 4 Strategy control deck A control deck, also known as a late game deck, is a deck that attempts to attain victory in the late game, through a combination of early game removal and Taunts, and powerful cards in that commonly has a high number of cards in the hand A typical hand. The green highlighted cards can be played, while the yellow highlighted card has a special effect enabled by the current state of the game. The hand is where each player keeps the , thus earning the name Handlock. Handlock uses synergy with high hand size and low Health to produce sudden and devastating board plays, while keeping itself narrowly out of reach of defeat. Handlocks rely on Taunts The shield-like Taunt visual effect Taunt is a minion ability which forces the opposing player to direct any melee attacks toward enemy targets with this ability. Minions with Taunt (commonly referred to as Taunts) serve , limited removal Removal is the term used to refer to the elimination of minions from the battlefield. Hard removal describes cards and effects that can neutralize minions regardless of most defenses, such as high Health or Divine and good healing Healing is the restoration of Health to a damaged character. Healing a character will increase their Health by the stated amount, up to but not beyond their current maximum Health. Healing effects or Restore Health in order to stay alive long enough to play out a flurry of powerful minions, with which they then tend to very quickly overwhelm the opponent.

With a dangerous relationship with Health, and a range of possible strategies to employ at any moment, Handlock is widely considered one of the most complex decks in Hearthstone.

Deck type

Handlocks focus on hand size and a low Health total to summon powerful minions such as Molten Giants Molten Giant Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Epic Cost: 25 Attack: 8 Health: 8 Abilities: Modify cost Tags: Health-related, In-hand effect, Ongoing effect Costs (1) less for each damage your hero has taken.He gets terrible , Mountain Giants and high-Health Twilight Drakes Twilight Drake Set: Classic Type: Minion Subtype: Dragon Rarity: Rare Cost: 4 Attack: 4 Health: 1 Abilities: Battlecry Tags: Hand-related Battlecry: Gain +1 Health for each card in your hand.Twilight drakes feed on Mystical Energy. . Life Tap Life Tap Type: Hero Power Class: Warlock Cost: 2 Abilities: Deal damage, Draw cards Hero PowerDraw a card and take 2 damage.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] Life Tap is the warlock s basic Hero is used very frequently, in order to enable both hand size and Health-related effects. Sunfury Protector Sunfury Protector Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Rare Cost: 2 Attack: 2 Health: 3 Abilities: Battlecry Tags: Positional effect, Taunt-granting Battlecry: Give adjacent minions Taunt.She carries a shield, but only so she can give it and Defender of Argus Defender of Argus Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Rare Cost: 4 Attack: 2 Health: 3 Abilities: Battlecry Tags: Positional effect, Taunt-granting Battlecry: Give adjacent minions +1/+1 and Taunt.You wouldn’t think that Argus would need this are used to grant Taunt to these high-Health minions, allowing the warlock to protect itself against attacks once its Health gets low.

Handlocks flirt with death by maintaining a deliberately low Health total. This allows them to play 2 Molten Giants in one turn, alongside a cheap Taunt-granting minion such as Sunfury Protector, quickly turning the game around. This play is usually the main win condition A win condition is a specific means or strategy by which a deck can achieve victory. Decks may have one or more win conditions, and a win condition may be a specific aim of the of the Handlock, with the opponent having already exhausted most of their resources to get that far.

Be that as it may, arriving at this moment requires good planning, as well as some luck. The Handlock must first obtain the right cards, ready to play them when their Health reaches a sufficiently low level. More critically, while low Health is a requisite for the Molten Giant play, the Handlock must usually work fairly hard to stay alive during the mid-game, during which time it generally focuses purely on controlling the board.

Handlocks achieve board control through AoE Area of effect (AoE) is the term for an effect which affects all characters of the specified type. Common targets for AoEs include all enemy minions, all minions, and all characters. AoE is defined in removal and survivable, high-Health minions, often with Taunt. High Attack minions are also used, but these primarily come later as the Handlock approaches domination of the board. Shadowflame Shadowflame Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Warlock Rarity: Rare Cost: 4 Abilities: Deal damage, Destroy Tags: Area of effect, Attack-related Destroy a friendly minion and deal its Attack damage to all enemy minions.Start with a is a common Handlock board clear, especially useful when cast on high-Attack minions such as Giants or Twilight Drakes. Shadowflame is often used on turn 4-7 to clear the opponent`s early board, in combination with a Twilight Drake or Ancient Watcher Ancient Watcher Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Rare Cost: 2 Attack: 4 Health: 5 Can t attack.Why do its eyes seem to follow you as you walk by?See this card on Hearthpwn data page] Ancient Watcher . Alternatively, Sunfury Protector Sunfury Protector Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Rare Cost: 2 Attack: 2 Health: 3 Abilities: Battlecry Tags: Positional effect, Taunt-granting Battlecry: Give adjacent minions Taunt.She carries a shield, but only so she can give it or sometimes Defender of Argus Defender of Argus Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Rare Cost: 4 Attack: 2 Health: 3 Abilities: Battlecry Tags: Positional effect, Taunt-granting Battlecry: Give adjacent minions +1/+1 and Taunt.You wouldn’t think that Argus would need this can be used on minions like Ancient Watcher or an early Mountain Giant Mountain Giant Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Epic Cost: 12 Attack: 8 Health: 8 Abilities: Modify cost Tags: Hand-related, In-hand effect, Ongoing effect Costs (1) less for each other card in your hand.His mother said to soak attacks.

Ultimately, Handlocks aim to reduce their Health to around 10-15, making Molten Giants Molten Giant Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Epic Cost: 25 Attack: 8 Health: 8 Abilities: Modify cost Tags: Health-related, In-hand effect, Ongoing effect Costs (1) less for each damage your hero has taken.He gets terrible cheap or free to play, while staying just out of reach of enemy burst potential. Be that as it may, this depends to some degree on the opponent`s deck type, with some presenting too large a threat of burst to allow the Health to dip this low. With the right luck, a Handlock can draw the cards they need to play early on, and put them into play before the opponent has the chance to build a board to oppose the assault. Ironically, the main aggressive play of the Handlock is itself enabled by the attacks of the opponent, and the Handlock`s ability to put its bigger pieces into play depends on the speed at which its Health is reduced, although they tend to contribute substantially to this themselves through liberal use of Life Tap Life Tap Type: Hero Power Class: Warlock Cost: 2 Abilities: Deal damage, Draw cards Hero PowerDraw a card and take 2 damage.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] Life Tap is the warlock s basic Hero .

Once the Handlock has made use of their low Health, healing such as Earthen Ring Farseer Earthen Ring Farseer Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Common Cost: 3 Attack: 3 Health: 3 Abilities: Battlecry, Restore Health Battlecry: Restore 3 Health.He can see really far, and he doesn t use a telescope like those and Antique Healbot Antique Healbot Set: Goblins vs Gnomes Type: Minion Subtype: Mech Rarity: Common Cost: 5 Attack: 3 Health: 3 Abilities: Battlecry, Restore Health Battlecry: Restore 8 Health to your hero.They don t make em like they used are often used to restore them to safer levels. There is often a delicate balance in predicting the burst capabilities of the opponent, and how low to take the Health before making the best possible play and then swiftly healing. Be that as it may, since the Handlock often takes some time to find the desired cards, such healing is often used simply to prevent themselves from dying in the early to mid-game.

Lord Jaraxxus Lord Jaraxxus Set: Classic Type: Minion Subtype: Demon Class: Warlock Rarity: Legendary Cost: 9 Attack: 3 Health: 15 Abilities: Battlecry, Equip, Replace Hero Power Tags: Hero Power-related, Weapon-generating Battlecry: Destroy your hero and replace it is an optional Handlock card, best played after effecting a full board clear. Jaraxxus` weapon Blood Fury Blood Fury Set: Classic Type: Weapon Class: Warlock Rarity: Common Cost: 3 Attack: 3 Durability: 8 See this card on Hearthpwn data page] Blood Fury is an uncollectible weapon generated by the legendary warlock minion provides a good source of immediate damage, while INFERNO! INFERNO! Set: Classic Type: Hero Power Class: Warlock Cost: 2 Abilities: Summon Hero PowerSummon a 6/6 Infernal.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] INFERNO! is a replacement Hero Power, granted by Lord Jaraxxus Battlecry. For provides a win condition if the Handlock is not quickly defeated.

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Counters

Handlocks can be recognised early on by their tendency to use Life Tap each turn during the early game. While a Zoolock aims to open with a flurry of small synergistic minions, Handlocks aim to draw cards and build their hand size as quickly as possible, and are quite happy to take damage in the process, as this unlocks their Molten Giants and makes their healing cards worth playing. For this reason many deck types intentionally avoid dealing damage to the Handlock during certain stages of game, in order to prevent them from playing multiple Molten Giants in one turn, and thus presenting a problematic barrier to minion and weapon attack.

Defeating a Handlock usually happens by one of two means: either the Handlock is defeated very quickly, before they are able to lay down Taunts, or draw Molten Giants, healing or removal; or the opponent steadily dismantles their play by methodically countering their key cards. Once a Handlock`s Giants have been removed, the majority of its power is spent, and defeating it becomes a far more achievable goal.

A third approach to defeating a Handlock involves burst damage. With enough damage in hand a player can directly destroy a Handlock mid-game, due to the Handlock`s tendency to hover at middling Health; a hunter with 2 x Kill Command Kill Command Set: Basic Type: Spell Class: Hunter Cost: 3 Abilities: Deal damage Tags: Beast-related Deal 3 damage. If you have a Beast, deal 5 damage instead."Kill!", he commanded.See this card on Hearthpwn data page] and a Beast in hand, or a mage with a combination of direct damage spells, can burst Burst damage or burst potential refers to a player s ability to deal a large amount of damage in one or two turns, allowing a player to finish off a previously damaged opponent, or deal an the warlock down in a single turn, overcoming the wall of Taunts that may be facing them. Given the Handlock`s tendency to self-harm using Life Tap, it is sometimes possible to defeat Handlocks mid-game in this way without having dealt any damage to them prior to this point.

Silences For the card of the same name, see Silence (card). Silence is an ability which removes all current card text, enchantments, and abilities from the targeted minion. It does not remove damage or minion type. like Ironbeak Owl Ironbeak Owl Set: Classic Type: Minion Subtype: Beast Rarity: Common Cost: 3 Attack: 2 Health: 1 Abilities: Battlecry, Silence Battlecry: Silence a minion.Their wings are silent but their screech is... whatever the opposite of silent , Earth Shock Earth Shock Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Shaman Rarity: Common Cost: 1 Abilities: Deal damage, Silence Silence a minion, then deal 1 damage to it.Earth Shock? Shouldn t it be "Azeroth Shock"?See this card on Hearthpwn and Mass Dispel Mass Dispel Set: Classic Type: Spell Class: Priest Rarity: Rare Cost: 4 Abilities: Draw cards, Silence Tags: Area of effect Silence all enemy minions. Draw a card.It dispels buffs, powers, hopes, and dreams.See this card are excellent counters to the Handlock`s wall of Taunts, providing extra damage to reach lethal, since the Handlock will often rely on their Taunts to prevent damage from a board of minions, rather than attempting to remove them directly. The Handlock`s Taunts can also be traded for or removed individually, but the key Handlock gambit is that once in play the opponent will not be able to remove them all before the opponent either runs out of resources, or is overrun.

The result of aggressive play against Handlocks is significantly affected by card draw, although many of the staple plays are fairly reliable responses. For instance, an aggro deck may burst the Handlock down to 10 Health in the first few turns, only to have the Handlock play two Molten Giants and a Sunfury Protector, then heal themselves with an Earthen Ring Farseer Earthen Ring Farseer Set: Classic Type: Minion Rarity: Common Cost: 3 Attack: 3 Health: 3 Abilities: Battlecry, Restore Health Battlecry: Restore 3 Health.He can see really far, and he doesn t use a telescope like those , followed by an Antique Healbot Antique Healbot Set: Goblins vs Gnomes Type: Minion Subtype: Mech Rarity: Common Cost: 5 Attack: 3 Health: 3 Abilities: Battlecry, Restore Health Battlecry: Restore 8 Health to your hero.They don t make em like they used on the next turn, quickly going on to defeat the aggressor; while in another match this play could easily lead to a turn 5 victory. In other cases, a slower deck might tentatively reduce the Handlock`s Health in order to avoid enabling its larger minions, only to discover that their hesitance has given the Handlock just the time it needed to locate its key cards.

Whichever approach is taken, care should be taken to reserve burst to reach beyond the Handlock`s healing and Taunt capabilities, since damaging the Handlock prematurely simply increases its range of options. Often it is best to reserve damaging spells until after physical attacks are thwarted, since Handlock has no direct means of preventing defeat by such means.

Key cards

While deck compositions vary strongly over time, below are listed some key cards prominently seen in Handlock decks.

General Strategy

Handlocks have typically two win conditions, to overwhelm opponent by playing Molten Giants and Mountain Giants for reduced prices or outlast and outvalue them in a long game on the back of cards such as Lord Jaraxxus and Shadowflame.

Handlocks often Life Tap for the first few turns and then aim to play a powerful turn four card, preferably either Twilight Drake or Mountain Giant. Especially against more aggressive decks sometimes it might still be necessary to play cards like Darkbomb or Zombie Chow before turn four. After turn four players should aim for board control and solidifying their position with the help by Taunting Giants and other big minions.

Due to the Warlock Hero Power in matches against other control decks Handlock player may often out of cards first. In these longer games Handlock player should stay moderately aggressive as Life Tap doesn`t provide any value for Fatigue phase of the game.

History

Earliest versions of the deck used to kill opponents from high lifetotals with combos such as Leeroy Jenkins, Power Overwhelming and Faceless Manipulator assisted with Soulfires that where still zero manacost.

Naxxramas

From the first single player Adventure Handlock mostly picked up Sludge Belchers, Loatheb and Zombie Chows. After balance patch 1.2.0.6485 in September 2014 players started to phase out of Leeroy combos as its manacost was adjusted to 6.

Goblins vs Gnomes

Goblins vs Gnomes expansion did introduce the variant of Handlock not seen before, the Demonlock. Particularly SilentStorm did showcase some innovative deckbuilding and plays in his victory of ESL Hearthstone Legendary Series Season 1. Playing cards such as Mistress of Pain or Demonheart he essentially transformed Handlock from heavy control to more midrange oriented deck.

Darkbomb became a staple of Handlocks replacing more expensive and limited Shadow Bolts and unreliable Soulfires.

Blackrock Mountain

Blackrock Mountain introduced a set of new cards focused on Dragon theme. With the help of Blackwing Corruptors and especially Emperor Thaurissan new Malygos-powered Malylock was born. On the other hand Imp Gang Boss made for a solid addition to the Demon package of the more traditional Handlock archetype which had now settled to co-exist alongside Giant-led handlock builds.

Emperor Thaurissan becomes essentially an auto-include in any type of Handlock deck.

The Grand Tournament

Thanks to Twilight Guardian Malygos based Dragonlocks re-emerge. However the new paladin deck relying on secrets and the Mysterious Challenger creates a metagame where Handlocks struggle in the face of strong aggressive midrange decks.

League of Explorers

Emergence of Reno Jackson based control Warlock decks has made Handlock a very rare sight.

Sample Decks

StrifeCro Handlock from SeatStory Cup in early 2014.

Lifecoach`s Handlock from StarLadder StarSeries Season 1.