Infinisteed Warlock Deck List and Guide - Memes and Dreams #20

Hearthstone at its core is a game that people should have fun with, but that can get bogged down in the pursuit of competitive meta strategies. Thus, I humbly present Memes and Dreams, a series on Out of Cards looking to bring some good ol' memey fun into people's Hearthstone experiences. Each week we will do a deep dive on a different 'for fun' deck, discussing the basic ideas of the deck, what makes it tick, and roughly how to pilot it. This week we're going to cover a new take on some classic Zoo Warlock!

Beating a Dread Horse

While most other Warlocks will be pursuing victories with some flavor of The Demon Seed, this deck instead focuses on Tamsin's loyal steed. Ever since the original Dreadsteed card came out, people have had fun fantasizing about the technically infinite value the card provides, seeing as it cannot ever be killed and must be removed through other means. It was so potent in this regard that they actually nerfed the card (it used to summon itself immediately, not end-of-turn) due to its hinderance of design space. It's been a while since the ol' steed has seen itself in Standard, but its time has returned! 

The Meme - Run a simple Zoolock strategy and utilize Dreaded Mount to always have a target for your many minion buffs and hold control of the board.

The Dream - Overrun your opponent with a rampage of Tamsin's Dreadsteed! No number of board clears or trade will save them from your endless stream of Dreadsteeds.

Key Cards

Dreaded Mount is of course the only main staple for the deck. The rest of the deck is built around making use of constantly having minions on the board since Tamsin's Dreadsteed can't ever be really removed except via transformation, silence, or bounce effects. While silences hit especially hard, Devolving Missiles or Revolve isn't always too bad since it might be an immediate increase in stats for you.

Baron Rivendare is the extent of investment made to increase the number of Dreasteeds on the board. So long as the opponent doesn't remove the minion you use Dreaded Mount on, or the Dreadsteed it spawns, Baron will be able to duplicate at least one steed, which can make a huge difference in enabling your board buffs. 

Shady Bartender is the biggest payoff card for the deck since it offers the largest potential buff for your board. The vast majority of minions in the deck are demons along with the plan of filling the board with Dreadsteeds makes good value from Bartender fairly easy to achieve. If the time isn't right or you just need to fish for something else, you can always just trade him away too!

Honorable Mentions

The second, and also tradeable, payoff card for investing in Dreadsteeds, Traveling Merchant finds its way onto the Honorable Mentions list for not being quite as synergistic with the deck, but still very close. It provides a similar purpsoe as Shady Bartender, lost of stats for having a big board. Merchant is fewer stats per-minion, but the ability to make a tall threat that could also be cycled is very handy.

Man'ari Mosher can sometimes run into the issue of needing a demon on the board while you're having a hard time getting a minion to stick. Thankfully, many of the demons in this deck are pretty healthy, and if they fail, the constant Dreadsteed will always be available for the buff. The deck also features many self-damaging effects, so the burst heal is nice.

Budget / Alternate Options

Kanrethad Ebonlocke is the only real "legendary" in the deck since Baron Rivendare comes free with the Core set. Kabal Outfitter works as a decent replacement for Kanrethad by being an all-around good card in Zoolock. Other generic zoo-esque Deathrattle minions such as Devouring Ectoplasm or Possessed Villager are good for trying to keep a target on-bard for Dreaded Mount. If you want to lean more into card draw, them Free Admission is pretty nice since most of the minions are demons and is great as a one-of.

The only Epic card to replace is Dreaded Steed, which is the entire point of the deck. Instead of Steed, you could lean harder into the demon-theme of the deck and speck into cards like Fire Breather to help out on tempo. You could also instead lean heavier into the Deathrattle theme of the deck outside Steed and with cards like Possessed Villager or the other previously mentioned Deadthrattle minions.

As with many modern Zoo decks, the deck changes Hero health very rapidly, making Flesh Giant a natural fit. It works as a powerful tempo swing and I would normally try to squeeze it into the list, but I figure people are pretty tired seeing it so frequently. You could also rework the deck to be more focussed on Warlock's Sacrifice archetype with cards such as Grimoire of Sacrifice or Ritual of Doom since you'll always have a sacrifice target in Dreadsteed. Heck, things like Darkmoon Statue or Raid Leader work decent as AoE buffs too.

The best cards to replace for Nozdormu the Eternal would be Demonic Assault or Kanrethad Ebonlocke. Is one of the slower cards in the deck and while it is very handy, it is still one of the earliest cards to cut. If you like the clutch damage/board it provides or are on a budget, Kanrethad makes a fine replacement. Kanrethad enables some very strong early turns, but isn't entirely needed for the deck to work.

Strengths

This deck excels at maintaining board presence. Many of the minions have above average health for their mana cost and the Dreadsteeds will be able to stick onto the board through almost anything. With its constant presence on the board, the deck also has a suspiring level of burst potential. Buffs such as Wicked Whispers or Shady Bartender can quickly turn a board of small-attack minions into a serious damage threat. 

Weaknesses

While the deck does well with board presence, it shockingly doesn't do too well with board control. Other minion-based decks such as Elemental Shaman have cards with fast damage or removal options such as Gyreworm or Lilypad Lurker. This deck only has Nightshade Matron and Demonic Assault as fast answers and relies on already having things on the board to really shine.

Closing Thoughts

I had a blast playing this deck, bringing back memories of when Zoolock was more about swarming and not rushing a 8/8 on turn 4. Summoning stampedes of Tamsin's Dreadsteed is loads of fun and this deck is flexible enough to be built in a variety of ways. You could further emphasize Demons, or minion-sacrifice, or AoE buffs, there are so many avenues to pursue with this take on the Zoo archetype. I hope the Hearthstone team supports it enough that Warlocks don't have to rely on stinky Flesh Giant for another ~2/3s of a year.

What is your meme deck of choice? Do you try different ones for each expansion or do you try to evolve old ones with new cards? Do you have any meme dream stories? Tell us in the comments below!