Hunting for the Old Gods

Hello Hunters,

Got some Legendaries you want to play with before they rotate out?  Me too and I've been enjoying the Control Highlander life for awhile now in Casual so I figured I'd share this monstrosity.

Basic Gameplan

We survive the early game with spells while trying to draw down our deck and then finish with one of the Old Gods, as is tradition.

N'Zoth, God of the Deep is the most frequent winner as the King Krush generated by Dinotamer Brann is the only Beast in the deck so it's guaranteed to get re-summoned.  Darkmoon Tonk is our only Mech so he'll come back too and then you'll either get Zephrys the Great or Siamat for your Elemental rezz and either Dragonqueen Alexstrasza or one of the cards it generates as your Dragon rezz.

There are 19 potential spells in the deck which means in the late game you can drop Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate to turn the tides and that's always Wharf it, except when it's not.  Spell breakdown is 13 from original cards + 2 generated by Mystery Winner and Marked Shot + 4 from C'Thun, the Shattered.

You'll rarely get to play C'Thun, but he's there as a super late game finisher and if your Jepetto Joybuzz targets are gone (Tonk, Brann, Alexstrasza, N'zoth, and Yogg) you can save it for if and when you finish building C'Thun to draw the big boy out and play him that turn.

Mulligan

Dwarven Sharpshooter, Mystery Winner, and Zephrys the Great are almost always kept.

Against Aggro I'll also look for:

• Any of our Secrets
• Bola Shot

And against Control I'll look for those top 3 plus:

• Deck thinning minions:  Bloodmage Thalnos, Loot Hoarder, Novice Engineer, Inconspicuous Rider
• Professor Slate

There are also situational keeps like Flare when facing Mage, Harrison Jones against Rogue, Rapid Fire against (Token) Druid, and Corrosive Breath against classes with a 3-health opener like Paladin and Warlock.

Gameplay Tips

• Keeping your cheap minions on the Mulligan is never a bad strat as it helps your Jepetto Joybuzz pulls later.
      
• For your sanity, remember that if Jepetto pulls some bad cards you're that mucher closer to drawing a game changer next turn.
      
• When in doubt, play your Yogg a turn too early rather than a turn too late (that extra value isn't worth the chance that the game ends and you never got to worship at his glorious alter).
       
• Be careful with the spell you choose from Marked Shot as you can easily summon a beast and mess up your King Krush rezz from N'Zoth later.
      
• Don't be afraid to skip over a C'Thun piece when playing Tracking as it's very rare that you'll play all 4 in a match anyway.  Think of them more as great Control tools that feed Yogg and then once in a blue moon turn into your win condition if you get into a fatigue match.
       
• In Control matches, hold on to Arcane Shot and Rapid Fire as long as you can as there are a couple Dragons that increase spell damage that you may get from Dragonqueen Alexstrasza and when combined with Bloodmage Thalnos they can sometimes get you to lethal.  They're also great for combo'n with Professor Slate to clear boards in Control games alongside Bola Shot, Corrosive Breath, and Marked Shot.
      
• Remember that damage dealt by your secrets will also gain poisonous when Professor Slate's on the board.  So when you play him you can try to protect him with things like Snipe or Explosive Trap either from hand or generated by Mystery Winner or Rinling's Rifle.

Card Substitutions

• I really wanted to make King Krush the only Beast in this deck, but you could probably increase your winrate by including cards like Animal Companion, Unleash the Hounds, Petting Zoo, Diving Gryphon, Zixor, Apex Predator, and Scavenger's Ingenuity.
      
• Could replace Darkmoon Tonk with something that has immediate board impact when resummoned by N'Zoth like Claw Machine or something more useful in the early game like Dragonbane.  However, I love Tonk and getting him from Joybuzz has been a real treat as you can kill it yourself with one of your spells if need be.  
       
• Continuing the last point, there are some games where the 8 dmg from ressurecting Krush doesn't finish your opponent and they have threats on board that could finish you.  In these matches it'd be nice to summon something defensive so you could consider replacing Darkmoon Tonk with a taunt minion like Circus Amalgam or Safeguard.  Or replace Siamat with Scrapyard Colossus and Dragonqueen Alexstrasza with Evasive Drakonid.  Personally, I'd replace Tonk as Siamat and Alex have many other use conditions whereas Tonk just punishes Control decks like Warlock that run tons of removal.
     
• Harrison Jones is an obvious cut as there's much better weapon removal out there, but I wanted to run him before he rotates as I have a golden copy I'll likely break down for dust some desperate night.
      
• Sphere of Sapience would probably also be an improvement and I'd probably swap out Loot Hoarder for it.

Happy Hunting!