Welcome to Budget Deck Breakdown, the series that showcases Hearthstone decks to be played on the cheap. The Wailing Caverns gave us new cards to experiment with, and we're diving in deep on our first deck of the mini-set. This week, we've got a deck that iterates on the classic Zoolock with cards from the Caverns that summon Adventurers to make sure we've always got some 2/2s to throw at our opponent's face. Let's explore the Wailing Caverns with Eggventurer Warlock.
Clear Eyes, Full Sacs, Can't Lose
Our Zoolock, like all Zoolocks before it, wants to swarm the board from the very beginning of the game with tiny minions and continue to swarm onto the board when the opponent inevitably clears it, doing that repeatedly until one (or both) of them is dead. Warlock's current Standard tools include a lot of cheap minions that leave behind bodies when they die and help the deck rebuild following an AoE. The main idea is that one or two small minions is never really that threatening, but an army of them can be.
It's no surprise, then, that Eggs are great for Zoolock beyond the expected amounts of protein and salmonella. They may look unassuming at first but any opponent that cracks them open will suddenly discover a panoply of reasons to want to be somewhere else. Eggs, meanwhile, aren't the only thing that this particular Zoolock deck wants to be cracking open; it's got plenty of other Deathrattle minions whose death we can profit from as well as a couple of spells that do the same.
Adventurer Time!
The new take on this old classic benefits mostly from the new Adventurer cards that were released in Wailing Caverns, specifically Devouring Ectoplasm and Final Gasp. Adventurers, if you didn't know, are 2/2 minions that each have the "effect" of having one or more words printed inside their text box. Some of those words actually matter; for example, "Spell Damage +1" makes Backfire deal 4 damage to us. The Ectoplasm is a cheap minion who leaves behind a decent body when it dies, while Final Gasp is great either at killing our own stuff or punishing our opponent for taking value trades. Meeting Stone is another way to generate Adventurers, and thus is very welcome in this deck.
The Egg part of this deck relies on a pair of sticky minions, both of whom provide twice the daily recommended dose of spiders. Buffs from cards like Wriggling Horror and Wicked Whispers make the first half of the egg threatening enough that our opponent has no choice but to crack it open like a pack of hungry Jawas.
No current build of Zoolock would be complete without the board-filling power of Fiendish Circle and its inherent synergy with Ritual of Doom (plus one other minion). Speaking of one other minion, we also run free minions like Murloc Tinyfin and Desk Imp to buff or kill with Ritual of Doom.
Our deck also likes to take advantage of the cheap disruption effect of Cult Neophyte to keep those nasty AoEs away from our precious little minions. Backfire is cheap card draw, and our best way to find more threats if we run out. We care more about our opponent's Health total than our own, so taking 3 damage to draw 3 cards is perfectly cromulent.
Turn 2 5/5 and Other Bad Ideas
It's likely pretty obvious what this deck is and what this deck does, but we're going to briefly talk about it anyway because it's fun.
The best thing this deck can do involves an early Fiendish Circle and Ritual of Doom to get a 5/5 demon on board as soon as turn two (if you have the Coin and another minion). Lacking that, you can always go wide then buff your board with Wicked Whispers or Wriggling Horror, trusting that your ovoid minions (Nerubian Egg, Boneweb Egg, Devouring Eggtoplasm) can leave behind some bodies if your opponent wipes the board. With a lot of Deathrattle minions and some excellent ways to draw cards or gain extra minions to hand, this deck is not scared at all of removal or AoE.
It fears healing, though. How could you not be?
Card Replacements for the Rich and Famous
Kazakus, Golem Shaper is a pretty fun option to level-up a deck that otherwise stops its curve at 3 mana, allowing you to get extra threats if the Plan A of "play Adventurers and Eggs or whatever" doesn't work out. Teron Gorefiend synergizes exceptionally well with Eggs and Ectoplasms, giving the deck even more ways to survive AoE. Darkglare is good for a lot of things, mainly cheating mana, while Revenant Rascal is another cheap minion who is good at annoying our opponent.
On the budget side of things, there's still plenty of ways to change the deck. Mankrik works nicely as a good, cheap minion and an additional way to get another body on the board that synergizes with our deck's ability to draw a lot of cards (and we certainly won't be saying anything about his dead wife). Another powerful card draw option for this deck is the combination of Nightshade Matron and Hand of Gul'dan, to draw lots of cards while helping to control the board.
Eggventurer Zoolock is an aggressive, swarming deck that uses small minions and sticky bodies to punish opponents who don't have the right answers (a Zoolock). It likes a quick game, but still has the staying power to refill the board through its opponent's attempts to clear it. If you're looking for some fast games with a deck that has more 2/2s than a ballerina's dressing room, take a chance on this one.
What have been your favorite budget decks from the Wailing Caverns? Are you willing to take this deck out for a spin? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Comments
Loving this one, thanks sule!
i play hs since blackrock mountain and i've seen so many zoo decks on so many sites through the years, but i never knew where did the name came from. can someone explain why these decks are "zoo" and not for example "swarm"?
Cmiiw, but i think it comes from Mtg swarm decks that usually revolves around cheap animal minions/units/monsters, hence the name.
I guess the term 'zoo' is more prevalent to be compared to menagerie decks in hearthstone, because I've never seen a demon in a zoo tbh lol.
It shares the same name and concept with magic the gathering where there's just a plethora of unrelated creatures included in the deck, which in magic's case are historically animals of a variety of colors.
In hearthstone's case, the term zoolock came when Reynad created a deck with a curve of minions without any synergy like Argent Squire, Shattered Sun Cleric, Harvest Golem, etc. topped with burn like Soulfire and Doomguard. It was fairly revolutionary back then as early hearthstone was mostly about synergy like murlocs, beasts, and spells whereas zoolock is basically just a group of bs minions that kicks ass.
Thank you kindly for such indepth answer.
I believe it comes from Magic the Gathering, but I am not sure on the exact reason for it's name.