During my search for halfway viable Wild decks that make use of the shiny new Fractured in Alterac Valley cards I've come across this little gem hidden in the Born to be Wild Discord server (a place I can highly recommend for any Wild player looking for inspiration). Mecha'thun Warlock has gained two new toys with the latest expansion, both of them making quite an impact: Tamsin's Phylactery serves as a backup win condition and makes Mecha'thun immune to Rats and the odd Scarlet Webweaver while Dreadlich Tamsin is nothing short of the new jack-of-all-trades in Warlock, mainly serving as a draw engine in this deck.
Last week's nerf to Runed Mithril Rod took a bit of the steam out of this deck, but I can still see it in Tier 2 with quite an interesting matchup spread.
Now, let's get into a guide on playing the deck. I'll honor Swizard's legacy by following the established structure of this series, going through major overarching strategies to keep in mind, how to mulligan, gameplay tips on key synergies and card choices.
Strategies
No surprises here: stall, draw your deck, combo.
Early Game - You'll aim to build some semblance of a board presence with Kobold Librarians, Armor Vendors, Tour Guides and Mistress of Mixtures, but that's only a means to achieve our most important goal during this phase of the game: making sure you don't get snowballed early. The aforementioned minions help you set up Defile turns, kill off smaller threats with Touch of the Nathrezim or wipe the board with Plague of Flames. Sometimes it can be useful to Dirty Rat early, we'll cover that in the Matchups and Mulligans section.
Mid Game - Getting out Runed Mithril Rod without committing suicide is your priority here, if possible followed up by Dreadlich Tamsin. You'll want to draw like crazy and stay alive during this phase.
Late Game - Ideally, you'll have gotten Mecha'thun and Cataclysm discounted for a 10 mana combo once your deck is empty. Your backup plan is cheating the big boy out via Shadow Hunter Vol'jin and then kill it with Cataclysm or Plague of Flames if you manage to empty your hand. Finally there's your backup backup plan: get out Mecha'thun, see to it that it dies somehow and then execute your game winning combo with the help of Tamsin's Phylactery (which will only provide the Deathrattles of Mistress of Mixtures and Mecha'thun).
This new iteration of Mecha'thun Warlock has a good chance of winning against most meta decks barring the most aggressive lists like Shadow Priest and Shudderwock Shamans that manage to get a Loatheb chain going.
Matchups and Mulligans
I've tested this deck in dumpster legend on EU and it baffles me how many Questline players still struggle to grasp that it's a bad idea to keep your reward in hand for a turn after completion. Then again, Odd QL Hunter produces such a damage output that they don't even need the help of Tavish, Master Marksman.
That said, you're all in all slightly unfavored against Odd QL Hunter. Be careful with your Hero Power and use your life gaining cards wisely. Dirty Rat is your best friend in this matchup, not only as a tech card against your opponent's win condition, but also to protect your Runed Mithril Rod against the frequently run Rustrot Viper. Other than that, keep Mistress of Mixtures, Touch of the Nathrezim and Raise Dead. Remember that you can heal for a ton by filling your board with small minions, giving them Mistress of Mixtures' Deathrattle via Tamsin's Phylactery and proceeding to kill them all with Defile or Plague of Flames.
Against QL Pirate Warrior the odds are more even. Stalling the game against board centered decks is a specialty of Gul'dan after all, so get out those 1 drops and make Garrosh's life miserable by Dirty Rating his Battlecry minions and ideally Cap'n Rokara. Dreadlich Tamsin is so good in this matchup that I've found it useful to keep her in the mulligan if you have an otherwise acceptable starting hand. Keep a Drain Soul for their Ship's Cannons, Defias Cannoneers and Southsea Captains. Set up Defile boards and don't hesitate to go Cataclysm if all else fails (as long as you don't have Mecha'thun or Tamsin's Phylactery in hand).
The new Freeze Shaman archetype is rather difficult for you due to Loatheb shenanigans if your opponent deduces your game plan fast enough. It is possible to play around this by reducing the cost of your cards a few times and / or using Shadow Hunter Vol'jin to get out Mecha'thun, but it will be a tough fight. You can also try to rat out vital pieces of your opponent's game plan, but that gets complicated quite a bit by the sheer number of minions they run.
Ignite Mage is an insta loss.
Handbuff Paladin is doable if you manage your removal wisely. Rat out their stuff before it gets buffed up too much.
Martian Bu's C'Thun Druid gained some popularity during the last few weeks and was a candidate for a guide as well until I found out that it already exists here. You're very favored in this matchup since you draw faster and don't care about their armor gain.
Shadow Priest is very unfavored, especially if you run into Swizard's burst version.
Gameplay
Draw, clear, heal, repeat - you know the drill. The original Mecha'thun tactics still stand, but now you've got a backup plan and the ultimate draw engine at your disposal.
Synergies
Your 1 drops and cheap removal spells serve as Defile set-up.
Touch of the Nathrezim on Mistress of Mixtures heals you for 7.
A full board of cheap minions can be used for a board clear and a (almost) full heal if you give them Mistress of Mixtures Deathrattle with Tamsin's Phylactery and then Plague of Flames them all.
Make sure you don't play The Soularium if you haven't drawn Mecha'thun yet (unless you're sure you can get it online at once).
Card Choices
This section is going to go through the main packages of cards in the deck. Each package has cards that help the deck with a specific goal. When playing the deck, it's useful to know what purposes each card serves and what other cards in the deck have synergy with it or help achieve the same purpose. This section might also be useful if you're interested in the reasoning for why each card was included in the deck.
Draw
I've crafted Dreadlich Tamsin especially for this deck and I don't regret it one bit. I believe this hero card will be a staple in many Warlock decks to come, no matter the seeming anti synergy with Bloodreaver Gul'dan.
Survival and Disruption
Combo and Support
Mecha'thun Warlock isn't a very new idea but it provides a great opportunity to try out Dreadlich Tamsin and Tamsin's Phylactery. Both of these cards boosted the deck's consistency and its win rate by some degree which makes it a cool alternative for everybody who doesn't want to chime in with the seemingly never-ending numbers of Questline decks.
If you have a question or comment, or are wondering about a card substitution, post below. I'd also love to hear from other Wild players that would like to help keeping the Wildest of Wednesdays series alive! Flux will soon let us know how we'll proceed with the series.
![All The Great Dark Beyond Card Reveals for October 23 - Day 13 [Finished]](the-great-dark-beyond-day-13.webp)
Comments
Oh by the way in the first paragraph, I think you mean Wild Bloodstinger, not Scarlet Webweaver
Whoops, thanks for the pointer!
I second the comments above, please keep this series going! I love reading the deck analysis and game plans and feel like it helps me be a better player. There’s still plenty of Wild players out there trying to be creative and try out ridiculous things
I hate mecha'thun warlock, but very informational article though. Now I know how to annoy their playstyle >:)
Are you sure Mithril Rod is still playable in this format? 5 mana do nothing
I wouldn't say the deck as it is is tier 1, but it's definitely working. If you think you can't afford playing the rod just do the alternative combo with Vol'jin or Phylactery. Usually you'll find a moment to sneak it out though, like on a Plague of Flames turn later in the game. There's also an argument to be made that QL Hunter and QL Pirate Warrior play 5 mana do nothings on a regular basis ;-)
There were versions of Mecha’Thun Lock with Hemet that won pretty consistently at T7-8. I wonder why they suddenly disappeared..
Could be talking about the Dollmaster Dorian + Plot Twist, Bloodbloom + Cataclysm combo. I think the Bloom nerf killed that.
At launch of Barrens a list similar to this one that ran Hemet could win by turn 8 if you had the Coin and got lucky draws. Same idea: 0 mana minion, Shadow Hunter to swap with the only other minion in your hand, Mecha’thun, and then Cataclysm. 9 mana total for the combo turn. Just had to make sure you didn’t play Hemet until after you draw a 0 mana minion.
https://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/mechathun-warlock-118-legend-合纵连横-wild-s83/
For the record, thanks. Might be viable still, who knows. Only much linear, with no plans B and C and loses hard to Rat
PLEASE you all, just keep this series alive. Until the end of days. Thanks :-).
Thank you for your encouragement! I'm doing my best for the time being even if I can't live up to Swizard's standards in creativity. Right now I'm searching the web each week for something interesting that isn't a complete meme to begin with and features a class that hasn't been on the series so far. Maybe someone more apt at deckbuilding might pick up the torch in a more interesting way, we'll see what the future holds.
When the expansion launched and the OwlTK became a thing I used that package for some Maly Lock hijinks. I thought while playing my Malygos list, “This package could easily be used for some Mecha’thun BS!” I never tried it but obviously many others had the same thought as the Mecha’thun Warlocks started popping up quickly while the Owl was suddenly nowhere to found in Wild.