Hearthstone
Demons? Demons!
- Demonlock
- Wild
- Casual
While Stealer of Souls isn't as broken in Standard as it is in Wild, it's still pretty good. However, without immunity getting too greedy can prove fatal. This deck runs relatively cheap cards and cards that provide discounts, so you can get plenty of value without your life dropping too low.
I've had a lot of fun with this deck and so far the win rate is fine as well, although I haven't played it beyond Silver yet. It is also a quick way to complete the "Ugh, It's MY Life, Mom" achievement (Spend 100 Health on Warlock cards).
Game Plan
Versus aggro, use removal and cheap minions in the early turns to not take too much damage, then summon a giant board in the mid-game to crush them.
Against slower decks, spread out your threats to exhaust your opponent's removal options. If you think the game will go very long, try to get multiple copies of Envoy Rustwix using Demonic Studies, Felosophy, Raise Dead and Kanrethad Prime.
In the long run, Soul Fragments can heal you quite lot, but as you might draw them too soon or too late, there is Man'ari Mosher as a more predictable healing option. Ideally you use them on a Void Drinker that sticks or with Nightshade Matron, but don't wait too long: healing for 4 or 6 now is better than dying with the Mosher still in your hand. Cloning a Mosher with a non-outcast Felosophy can be entirely reasonable in any matchup where your life total gets pressured.
Mulligan
Spirit Jailer and Demonic Studies are always decent keeps.
Against aggro, keep Soul Shear, Midway Maniac, Kanrethad Ebonlocke, Man'ari Mosher and possibly Fire Breather. If you already found some minions, Felosophy can be a keep as well, especially if you can get it into outcast position. Raise Dead is also useful to recycle your 1/2-drops. Void Drinker can be a keep if you're on the coin and found Spirit Jailer and/or Soul Shear already.
Void Drinker can be good against mid-range decks, if you can activate it and duplicate it using Felosophy or Raise Dead, since one is often not enough.
Against slower decks, it's worth keeping Stealer of Souls plus some card draw, or just card draw if you're not offered Stealer.
Synergies
All minions except Kanrethad Ebonlocke and some of the shuffled primes are demons. So it should be easy to get value out of Free Admission and Man'ari Mosher. Also your own boards will be mostly immune to Fire Breather. Be careful though that some opponents also play demons; I accidentally left an Illidari Inquisitor alive earlier tonight.
The discount of Kanrethad Ebonlocke also works for demons that cost life to play.
This deck is actually a rework of a demonlock deck I built earlier, which landed in the all-too-common "it's not bad, but it's just too fair" category. The addition of Stealer of Souls gives it the occasional burst of brokenness that modern Hearthstone requires. However, there are also games where Stealer of Souls plays a very limited role; there is no need to go all-in on that single card.
The hardest part is probably how much you want to draw and how much you want to play when Stealer of Souls is active. I haven't really figured that out myself yet. It does depend on the opponent of course: if your opponent needs minion or weapon damage to go face, you can go low on life to play a taunt, but if your opponent has burn spells or AoE removal, it's better to play your minions at a slower rate.
Replacements
In general, be careful with adding cards above 5 mana or non-demon minions, since you'll create anti-synergies that way. It might still be worth it if the card is good enough; I had Soulciologist Malicia in the deck at some point, for example.
Void Drinker could be replaced by Circus Amalgam.
Drain Soul is good for board control and healing; I couldn't find a place for it, but if you have a slot to fill, it's a good pick.
C'Thun, the Shattered might be interesting to try, since you can draw through the deck pretty quickly. I don't know how often you'll have the 10 mana/life to play C'thun itself though before the game ends.
Vote On This Deck!
Enjoy this deck guide? Help others find it and show your support to the author by giving it an upvote!
2- 00
- 01
- 02
- 03
- 04
- 05
- 06
- 07+
- 0 Raise Dead x 2
- 1 Demonic Studies x 2
- 1 Felosophy x 2
- 1 Spirit Jailer x 2
- 2 Kanrethad Ebonlocke x 1
- 2 Midway Maniac x 2
- 2 Soul Shear x 2
- 3 Backfire x 2
- 3 Free Admission x 2
- 3 Man'ari Mosher x 2
- 4 Fire Breather x 2
- 4 Nightshade Matron x 2
- 4 Stealer of Souls x 2
- 5 Envoy Rustwix x 1
- 5 Void Drinker x 2
- 6 Hand of Gul'dan x 2
More Demonlock Decks
More Decks From Zelgadis
Leave a Comment
You must be signed in to leave a comment. Sign in here.
Comments
Nice deck. I didn't really find Felosophy useful and I was facing hunters often so I replaced it with Drain Soul instead. I really wish I could slot in Flesh Giants somewhere, but nothing else seems cuttable.
Fire Breather is probably one of the less consistent cards: it is good against Rogue and Paladin, but less so against decks that don't play many minions. Depending on the meta, you might be able to cut it.
Midway Maniac is not much of a threat, especially without Felosophy. In a low-aggro meta you could cut Maniac, but against Hunter a high-health taunt is pretty useful.
I'm not sure how useful Flesh Giant would be in this deck: against aggro you want interact with the board on turn 2 instead of tapping, which means it will be hard to get the Giant discounted early enough for it to matter. Against slower decks the Giant eventually becomes free, which is great for a reload after a board clear, but with Stealer of Souls + draw on turn 6/7 you probably already have enough reload capability.
I do like Flesh Giant as a card, but it's already difficult to get it to work when you build the deck around it, let alone if you try to slot it into a deck that it only partially fits into.
You could go for a larger Soul Fragments package, using Luckysoul Hoarder, Bloodmage Thalnos, Mortal Coil and Tour Guide for card draw, School Spirits for AoE and add Tamsin Roame and Lord Jaraxxus as well, while cutting Matron + Hand and most of the demon synergies. It would be a different deck by then, but maybe one in which Flesh Giants would fit better, as there would be more control tools and more frequent healing (many small heals from Soul Fragments vs a few big heals from Man'ari Mosher). I might actually try that out later.
So in the end I settled with the following changes:
-2 Raise Dead
-1 Felosophy
+2 Drain Soul
+1 Tamsin Roame
and it's been performing much better for me. I also tried Neeru Fireblade but he just ended up sitting in my hand.
Fire Breather is actually very good and much better than School Spirits would ever be, even if you don't need the board clear it removes enemy minions with leftover 2hp after trading, doesn't damage your own minions and develops a solid body. I also think Midway Maniac is good in any matchup since it protects your other minions from being traded due to its high health.
I have had games where I just didn't have enough life left to do crazy things, so Drain Soul makes sense. And for early board control of course.
I've also been playing the Frost Giant version, but the demon version feels more consistent. Tamsin was a bit clumsy in the Giants version: I often spent my whole turn clearing minions, while Hysteria could do that for less mana, so I'm not sure she's worth risking a low roll on Free Admission. Of course Hysteria doesn't heal, but if you can play it earlier it might save you from taking face damage instead.
I made a first version of the Flesh Giants deck.