Explain why Wheel Lock is OP

I don’t play the deck but have genuine questions:

  1. Is the wheel the only win condition it requires to win?
  2. Does it have a high rate of getting its win condition in hand?
  3. Is that win condition more than one card or combo?

It’s really not. It’s weak vs DH and early aggression.

It’s weak vs plagues.

It’s only good matchups are vs slow decks like odyn warrior.

  1. Yes it casts wheel then lasts 5 turns and wins.

  2. It draws well with hero power and sometimes geode. It also uses fracking making it more likely to draw.

  3. Wheel is the win condition, but it runs many strong removals and taunts that activate with an empty deck. For example Reno and the 15/15 taunt with lifesteal

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No. I haven’t seen a wheel being played for the last 50-60 games against it.

When I lose it’s usually because he overtook the board with his big stats and removal.

Even when it comes to the wheel, and he gets fanottem for free, it’s a combo wheel+fanottem, not just the Wheel winning.

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I’ve lost more to the Fanottem and one or two 15/15 Rush Giants on turn 6 or 7 than anything else.

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Nothing is OP except DH.

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Nope, I win with big minions more times than I win with Wheel. I’d probably say I win 60% with big minions and the other 40% is the Wheel.

This doesn’t matter much because Warlock has ways to draw pretty fast and it controls the game the entire time. Just because you get Wheel in hand by 8 does not mean you should play it. You need 2-3 other cards in hand as well.

Technically, yes. You can’t play Wheel if you don’t have Symphony or Fanottem or Reno or Sargeras for the most part. You can do without some of those, but you have to have at least 2 imo to make it.

This isn’t the case. I think this is one of the misconceptions of the deck. Wheel has a 60% win rate vs Plague DK. Furthermore, if you play it right as Wheel you will easily defeat Plague. I’ve never lost to Plague DK as Wheel Warlock. Make sure you have Symphony and you’re almost always golden.

It’s actually 4 opponent turns, so it’s faster than you think.

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The Wheel is just one of them. More often than not, the fat minions they start summoning at turn 4 can win the game long before the Wheel is even used. I don’t see how straight plague DK beats Wheel Warlock, as it doesn’t have many ways to deal with such large minions unless they discover them or get a decent draw. Warlock will just keep clearing your stuff or putting down threats you have to deal with, while holding on to their key cards for the Wheel turn.

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I found out a day or two ago that the countdown effect of Wheel is a regular End of Turn effect that can be doubled by Drakkari Enchanter (which is Wild only atm)
Epic · Minion · Knights of the Frozen Throne · Your end of turn effects trigger twice.

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I don’t think that’s technically accurate. But it’s close enough so I’ll allow it.

What a terrible answer. No, Wheel is more of a backup wincon, mostly it’s a Fanottem enabler.

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This humble servant cherishes master’s amicability;)

so thats why some warlock were waaaay past turn 8 to play wheel
they had to wait for fanotem because going by where wheel was in his hand it looked like it had it for at least 4 or 5 turns

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The wheel deck by how it plays to the board can win by just dropping some obscenely large minions on turn 4 and winning the game. You remove them and they just resummon them. The Wheel is there for the long decks or any decks that give them the opening for the 4 turns to win. Which BTW is insanely easy to do if you are holding Reno with the Wheel in hand.

This deck will be the dominator if they hit DH too hard.

I know little to nothing about this mu I was basing my answer on Reddit and they seem to think helya is run only to counter wheel lock.

I don’t think their wrong it’s just they are talking about the rainbow plague abomination of a deck where the plague is the tech. When I say it’s weak to plagues I’m referring to helya being a soft counter if played after wheel, and this of course is the rainbow DK.

I’ve never lost to the big 15 point minion because it’s something you can see coming from the beginning of the game, so if you can’t play around it that’s a you problem.

I can see how that would be a terrible answer if you keep dieing to the 15/15, but I have yet to die to this thing once. Guess we just play on different levels.

I’ve never died to anything larger than 9 pt minions and it totally depends on the mu and when the lock draws the forges. The big taunt minion and jailor are a gimmick.

That’s not what beats you in the deck. The “big” minion is a turn 4 Dark Alley Pact with a Forge in play. 2 9/9 minions and if you remove them they just play End Game for 2 and put them right back out. The 15/15 can win you games but it’s not often.

The dream is to follow up that play with the Symphony and hit the board buff if they haven’t removed them.

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Yup I wrote that in the last paragraph above.

You missed the part where they are playing End Game to return them to the board. That’s where players lose because on turn 4 you MIGHT have the ability to remove them both but a third is HIGHLY doubtful and it will finish the game.

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I honestly haven’t run into any locks running endgame. Every one of them runs the doomkins.

It’s a new tech. The players playing it in top 200 have been starting to play with it because of the mirror and players are realizing that it’s just a good way to either keep the board or push face for the win. There’s basically no reason not to play it.

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Yea I saw schyla discussing that and I’ll repeat what I said there, it makes sense to me as a solid replacement to doomkins that have near zero value in the DH mu. I think you give up consistency vs slower decks with tonnes of removal or freeze like control warrior or mage, but those decks are getting pushed out of the meta anyways.

I still have Doomkin in my version. I have 1 in deck and 1 in ETC.