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 Wild Bloodstinger 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, your 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 dont 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 booster 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 seemlessly 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.