My thought about the current format

I got all the ways to rank 150 legend in NA server, then stand still at that place. It isn't that I'm coward, but I figure that it's pointless to grind to top rank at the moment. The favor in legend ladder is either miracle or anti miracle. If you play decks that don't fall into either one of these two categories, you may have to make sure your deck functions well enough to keep up with the etablished decks. I have been watching Realz's stream for days, there's no doubt that his skill is good and he rarely makes misplay, but by the end of each stream session, he would stay around rank 60-200 anyway, because of heavy RNG/bad draws he occasionally had.

My main is handlock as always, of course it's techy enough to earn the surprise factor in my favor, but I don't feel 100% confident when I ladder with it. The deck is still vulnerable to counters.

So yeah, until next season, I will just turtle and try various things to smoothen my handlock. No try hard, no top 16 grind.

How to beat shaman as handlock?

I'm going to quote my post from hearthpwn forum to this blog, since I believe it's easier to maintain control of it. Threads may get bumped up and down, after all. The original post could be found here: http://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/class-discussion/warlock/12882-how-to-fight-shaman-with-handlock#c9

- Save Hellfire for Feral, or any kind of board with Flametongue.

- Save Shadowflame for any board that include Feral and/or Azure Drake.

- Save Siphon for Fire Elys.

- Play Alex/Jaraxxus after they unleash reach spells on you, like Bolts, Donghammer+Rockbiter, or Lava Burst. Generally at this stage you might die anyway so the better play should be play a very huge board protected by taunts, then next turn Alex/Jaraxxus.

- In early turns, if they want to turtle with Squires and tokens to set up free bodies for Flametongue, don't hesitate to throw out some random 2 or 3 drops to force Shaman to clear it, whether it's Owl, Earthen, BGH, Sunfury, Argus etc. If they Bolt/Rockbiter it, it's still perfectly fine because they now have less reach spells and their curve is getting fk up byoverload.

- Ideal handlock hand with Giants and Drakes should just ignore tiny shaman minions and go for face, tap when you have taunts to set up cheap Moltens. When they run out of Flametongues, Hexes or cards in hand, you win outright. Jaraxxus is a backup plan if they decide to try hard and Lightning Storm your 2 moltens and suicide their potatoes into yours.

- If your hand isn't ideal, then buy time with Hellfire/Flame, any kind of janky taunts like Watcher, Senjin etc, and trade with Azure thanks to Coil or Soulfire.

- Calculate their lethal damage every turn. I personally don't factor in gimmicky cards like Bloodlust or Leeroy Windfury, but I do count 2x Lava Burst, or Donghammer+2x Rockbiter.

- Just concede if you lose to any kind of shaman that run BGH or TBK. You can't afford to play around them...

 - Tbh I believe Drakes are an integral part of Handlock. Having at least 2 more health than Yeti definitely improves your winrate vs Warrior and Priest and Miracle by a lot. It also bypasses most single reach spells of Freeze (Giant) mage, so they have to rely on ping+Blizzard+Flamestrike, or Doomsayer to do clear Drake. You can take out everything except Drakes, and 4 giants.

From rank 150 legend Handlock ~~

Random ideas

Am I the only one who believe autism and nerd people are the best candidates to lead humanity?

Apparently not,

Guide to mid range decks

Gonna write something like this to new players. I believe this will open up new possibilities for new players, so then they can see that Hearthstone has other ways to reach success (or satisfaction) other than playing zoo herp derp and wonder why the game is so boring.

Legend

Yeah I got legend today

Solely with Handlock, I made a chance by playing Doomsayer and Sunwalker though. I think they are pretty good at dealing with early game rushers (pretty much every class does this), while Sunwalker can temporary stops the incoming faceroll of midrange decks, or at least absorb some burn damages/silences from control decks.

The trip to legend was like, I was at Rank 1 Innkeeper 2 stars, then I meet Massan playing Shaman. I try my best to put pressure on him, instead of going defensive (I think this route is better, if you are the defender, you might risk losing to every Earthshock/Hex). The game comes to a point where I run out of big minions and him run out of Hexes, but ultimately Alex and the last Molten seal the deal. Then I lose to Bebe playing Freeze mage (no giant version). It sucks because I eat 2 Blizzards and 2 Freeze wave(?) (the spell that costs 3 mana). He eventually stalls to turn 10 thanks to 2 Ice Blocks and Pyroblast me though. Then come my next opponent, TidesofTime playing Druid token. I think in my head there comes my loss streak, but he plays Druid, I might stand a chance. I got Doomsayer in starting hand, but no Mountain/Drake. I keep the Doomsayer anyway, and it paid off as it kills the minion from Power of the Wild, and I eventually keep my board under control thanks to back to back Sunwalkers. Alex comes in but I have to heal myself. It's alright as 8/8 is good enough to control the board. I win shortly afterward because he runs out of steam.

I keep going back and forth at my last 2 stars to reach legend, but I do remember well that my last opponent is a Paladin control. I know Equality is a card, so I try my best to put good minions on board, but not enough to guarantee an auto win Equality. The game gets to a point where we both are exhausted of resource, but I game him from 30 to 0 through summoning Alex, battlecry, Power Overwelming on my Earthen Ring, double Soulfires for game (4 cards combo... not happen often but it's nice to know when all giants died, and Leeroy is busy lurking somewhere).

That's it.

Feel free to add me as friend if you want to study Handlock together with me :)

Dzn#1664

Handlock vs ControlWarrior

Tbh, this matchup is pretty bad for Handlock because: your deck has very strong minions (Drakes, Giants), but they are limited in number. I can say, you have to draw at least 2 between 2 Drakes and 2 Mountains to to be able to control the board, but that way isn't optimal because Shield Slam and Execute exist. 2 Molten are out of the picture here, because you are in Gromash's range if you risk your life too low to be able to summon Molten.

And then today? It was just a troll game in casual mode, but I was able to play something fancy like this to end the game, while he was at 26 HP:

Leeroy + PO + PO (6mana, 14 dmg)

Coin

Faceless (5mana, 14dmg)

GG O_0

I was keeping coin because I want to do a strong play like summoning Mountain + Siphon Soul something big. But it turned out to be better than expected. Yeah, why should I bother try Mountain+Siphon? Because, the turn you play Siphon is generally a weak turn, you kill something (in my case, I killed an Ysera), but you develop nothing on board, so your opponent can again play something big on board next turn, and you have to catch up with him again. Playing Mountain/Molten along with Siphon will dismiss that poor outcome.

Another way to win vs ControlWarrior is to play a Cairne. Just one is enough to draw out almost all of his removals. But atm ControlWarrior isnt as popular as Miracle Rogue, so Cairne just doesn't make the cut.

Sense Demons, illidan and friends?

First, I would like you guys to take a look at this deck: 

http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/54115-sense-demons-handlock-w-analysis-mulligan-guide (credit to SirFunchalot_Hearthpwn)

Basically, it's a deck that has the skeleton of standard handlock, but instead of playing optional burst (Leeroy + Faceless), he plays Sense Demons and Illidan. Well people may say Illidan is pretty bad (or rather, not fit) in this meta, but Sense Demons is something worth taking attention. I was from an Yugioh background, so I value searcher quite high. In general, searchers make your deck:

- easier to get to your needed pieces of combo/key cards.

- more linear (bad thing, because you are now more vulnerable to anti meta cards).

We may suppose that if the card you need to get from Sense Demons is strong enough, we would run it anyway. Jaraxxus is the case here. Very annoying, but sadly in this meta it doesn't fare well because almost all top tier decks have a way to make a huge burst at turn 9-10.

Another card to take attention is Void Terror. This thing actually gives benefit from comboing with Curse of Narasmaxx's cards.

Lesson learned: Don't disenchant your golden Sense Demons :)